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Turning the world upside down

Acts 17: 5 — 9

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 13 Feb, 2005

WE NOW know something about the concept of mission. Let’s move on to how to be effective in turning the world upside down as we attempt to confront it with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  In Ephesus, the enemies of the gospel accused the Christians of causing confusion throughout the world. In the Authorised Version translation, it says that the Chrisitians had turned the world upside down.

  We must become people who turn the world upside down.

  But how do we do it? Today the world often just says that Christians are confused, and leaves it at that. We need to change our ways!

  The first century Christians had several things going for them. They had a mission, they had a message, and they had a method.

MISSION

  Jesus repeats over and over what the Christian’s mission is. Different writers reported the aspects which most excited them personally. As we read different accounts we build a clearer picture of the breadth of Jesus’s commission to us.

Our responsibility

Matthew (Matt 26:19,20)

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

  Matthew brings out Jesus’ call on our responsibility. He emphasises the need to go to all people groups (ta ethne). He is socially focused.

The Holy Spirit’s empowerment

Luke (Acts 1:8)

^{AC 1:7} He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

  Luke focuses on the work of the Holy Spirit. He declares the Spirit as the empowerment we need to keep expanding into new territories. He is geographically focused.

  We need both — a commitment to the work and the power to do it.

  When I was so ill with pneumonia several years ago, I certainly wanted to continue my work. I even composed sermons in my head as I lay in bed. But I had no power to do it. It took enough effort to walk across the hallway from the bedroom to the bathroom and back.

  We must see the range of people to be reached — but let’s avoid getting bogged down with one group and failing to see that the next town also needs the gospel.

MESSAGE

Acts 3:11 – 26

^{AC 3:11} While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. ¹² When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.

  Here’s part 1 of their message:

• Jesus is the explanation for what has just happened

• God has glorified Jesus in this event. The first Christians often also includes the fact that Jesus is the one foretold by the prophets and that he revealed God’s power in him by doing good and performing miracles, but, in this sermon, those facts are added later.

You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. ¹⁴ You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.

  They always went on to sheet home responsibility for Jesus’ death. Every single one of us is guilty. Here’s the point:

• You who hear this rejected him and handed him over to be crucified

¹⁵ You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. ¹⁶ By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.

  They always continued by telling people,

• God has raised him from the dead. They often added that God has exalted him to his right hand, where he continues to work his mighty deeds.

^{AC 3:17} “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. ¹⁸ But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. ¹⁹ Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, ²⁰ and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

  They concluded their message by declaring the hope of salvation:

• Those who repent and turn back to God through Jesus find salvation and share in the Holy Spirit’s empowerment.

²¹ He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. ²² For Moses said, `The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. ²³ Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’

^{AC 3:24} “Indeed, all the prophets from Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days. ²⁵ And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, `Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

  Like most preachers, Peter wanted to repeat his point a couple of times to make sure everyone got it.

  A simple message, simple outline, easily transportable.

  Bruce mentioned to me last Monday that he sometimes preaches a sermon on The Three Fools. The outline is

1. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”

2. The rich man who built barns for his crops, but neglected God, was told, “You fool! Tonight your soul will be required of you.”

3. Paul called himself a “fool for Christ.”

4. What kind of fool are you?

  If you plan to be in mission in any way, you should have an outline of the gospel somewhere in your bag of tricks, so that you can give an answer if you have to.

METHOD

Finding an occasion

  I have seen people preaching down in Marrickville, and often not getting much of a hearing. Although the apostles did much the same at times, it was more usual for them to seek an occasion, to look for a hook to hang their preaching on.

  If open air preachers were better at finding that hook, and didn’t just stand there and talk, I’m sure that more people would listen.

Their own experiences

Acts 2

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

^{AC 2:5} Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶ When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. ⁷ Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” ¹² Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

  We can’t repeat Pentecost at will, but we can use what happens to us to declare Christ to others.

  Some examples:

• A church group sets up at a new location and this gives it an opportunity to state it’s message through a local newspaper article.

• In a disaster, the ability of Christians to keep trusting God may cause people to ask, “How do you manage?”

  I had a school friend whose father was an alcoholic, partly crippled as the result of too many motorbike accidents. My friend’s mother was a devout Seventh Day Adventist. People often asked her how she coped with all the difficulties of her life, and she always pointed to her faith and declared her trust in Christ. She had a big impact on her neigbourhood.

A public act of healing

Acts 3

He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. ⁹ When all the people saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

^{AC 3:11} While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. ¹² When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you?

  Whether it is a healing or something else, we can use it as an occasion for presenting the gospel. When Christians are out there doing good, it opens a talking point.

  At school, there was a dangerous part of the playground. The school was on top of a hill, so all the ground sloped. At the side of the main building there was a patch of clay that was always slippery when it rained. Kids complained, but nothing got done.

  Then our Inter School Christian Fellowship group got together and approached the Headmaster for ashes to spread there.

  That got action. The ashes arrived, and we spent a couple of hours one afternoon, shovelling ashes.

  It was amazing the opportunities that opened. Other kids saw we cared about them, and they wanted to know why we did it.

An invitation to speak at an event

Acts 13: 13 – 16

^{AC 13:13} From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down. ¹⁵ After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the synagogue rulers sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.”

^{AC 13:16} Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said: “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me!

  The early Christians mostly didn’t do their missionary preaching in church. That was a later development, when the church began to be respectable. But if they found a group meeting to worship God, they joined them and, if invited, preached Christ.

CONCLUSION

  We are called to be in mission. Jesus directs us to do it, and he provides all the power we need through the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.

  To be effective in mission, we need to know what our message is, though. Later, we will look more closely at the message of Christianity and perhaps do a workshop on how to proclaim Christ.

  But we need a method as well — in fact, we need several methods, so that we can be flexible and adapt to different circumstances. The message we are commanded to deliver must be delivered by the most effective method available in each situation we meet.

  But I want to add something:

  We all know that Jesus is the one predicted by the prophets. We all know he is the one who was to come out of Bethlehem, who was to suffer, but also to rule.

  We know that he went about doing good and performing miracles in the very same power that God himself has.

  We know he died and was raised again.

  But I wonder how many of us truly understand that it was we who sent him to the cross? There have been so many times in our own lives when we have sided with the Jews who didn’t want Jesus to be their ruler, and with the Romans who found him too difficult to manage? I wonder how many of us realise that our sin sent him to the cross?

  Just as much as he did then, Jesus continues calling us to repent and receive his forgiveness and cleansing, so that we can be amont the redeemed of God, and join our Lord in his mission to change the world.

  Do you need to come to him today?

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2005. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)