“Turning The World Upside Down”
When I started blogging earlier this year, I said that I would only do it if I was going to be consistent with it. I started out that way, but it has gone by the wayside over the last few months. I have been so busy that I have just not had time. God has been blessing and doing a lot of great things, and I am just trying to keep up with it. One of the things I am working on right now is getting prepared to go to Honduras next week. Keith Rickard and I are going down for a week, and we would really appreciate your prayers. I am preaching six times at Communion Baptist Church next weekend for their Missions Conference and anniversary celebration, and I am really honored and excited to have that opportunity. They gather all of their church plants together for this. We are also ordaining three of our church planters as pastors, working on February’s trip, and visiting the church plants (Keith will be preaching there). This is one of the messages for the conference, and I thought I would share it with you as well.
In Acts 17:6 the opponents of Christianity accused the early Christians of turning the world upside down. In reality, they were setting this sinful world right side up when they did this. The United States needs to be turned upside down. Only the Church of Jesus Christ operating in the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel can have that kind of impact on this sinsickened world. What will it look like for us to turn the world upside down? How can we accomplish this?
What does it look like for the church to turn the world upside down?
1. Lots of people will become followers of Jesus. Three thousand people got saved in Jerusalem in Acts 2. Thousands more get saved in chapter 4. Chapter 6 says “the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem.” In chapter 8, multitudes got saved in Samaria, and the Ethiopian eunuch got saved in the desert. Saul, whose name became Paul, met Jesus in chapter 9. Cornelius and a group of Gentiles became Christians in Acts 10. In chapter 11, “a great number believed and turned to the Lord” in Antioch. I could keep going, but I think that you get the picture. Changed lives are the point of it all. As individual lives are changed; families, communities, and even cities are changed.
2. Cities Are Changed. Examples of this are Samaria in Acts 8 and Ephesus in Acts 19.
3. People are healed (3:1-10, 8:7, 9:32-43). God does not always heal people physically, but sometimes He does, and the church is to pray for healing (James 5:13-18). God is a miracleworking God who does supernatural things.
4. Churches are planted. We see this in Acts 11 when the disciples were scattered by persecution. As they went, they shared Jesus with people. Many people were saved at Antioch so the church in Jerusalem dispatched Barnabas, who also took Paul, and they taught the people for a year. They developed into a church because Acts 11:26 and 13:1 call them a “church. Then, the leaders of this new church, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, sent Paul and Barnabas out on the 1st Misisonary Journey where they proclaimed the gospel, discipled the converts, established leaders, and ultimately, planted churches in cities including Lystra, Iconium, Antioch (14:21-23), Galatia (16:6), Philippi (16:9-15), Thessalonica (17:1-4), Corinth (18:1-11), and Ephesus (19:1-10).
How can the church be used by God to turn the world upside down?
1. Have a genuine encounter with the risen Lord Jesus (1:1-3). This is how they went from cowards to world-changers.
2. Be filled with the Holy Spirit (1:8, 4:31). It can only happen in God’s power and not in ours.
3. Pray in faith and with passion (4:23-31). God works through the prayers of His people. He wants us to depend on His power instead of our own. Prayer puts us in touch with heaven’s resources.
4. They talked about Jesus wherever they went. Just look at the example in number one above. They preached to large crowds and talked to people one on one.
5. Courageous obedience that involves the surrender of our lives (see chapters 4, 5, 7, and 16, among other examples). They were willing to die for Jesus. Many, such as Stephen, did die for Him. They had courage and were obedient, even when it cost them greatly. We cannot change the world without paying a price.
Are you willing to do what it takes to be used by God in turning the world upside down or are you just going to sit around and complain about everything that is wrong in the world?
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