People Who Turn The World Upside Down Series

Introduction

Years ago, I saw an advertisement for the “perfect” pastor. Here is what it said:

• The perfect pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes.

• He condemns sin roundly but never hurts anyone's feelings.

• He works from 8 AM until midnight and is also the church janitor.

• The perfect pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church.

• He is 29 years old and has 40 years of experience.

• Above all, he is handsome.

• The perfect pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends most of his time with senior citizens.

• He always smiles because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church.

• He makes 15 home visits daily and is always in his office to be handy when needed.

• The perfect pastor always has time for the church session and all of its committees. He never misses the meeting of any church organization and is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.

• The perfect pastor is always in the next church over!

• If your pastor does not measure up, send this notice to six other churches that are tired of their pastor, too. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of the list.

• If everyone cooperates, in one week, you will receive 1,643 pastors.

• One of them should be perfect.

Then, if all of that did not convince you to give it a try, there was one more bullet point:

• Have faith in this letter. One church broke the chain and got its old pastor back in less than three months (see https://www.angelfire.com/in4/thelighthouse/humor/xianjokes.html).

Every church wants the “perfect” pastor.

But, since pastors are sinful human beings, no pastor is perfect.

I am astonished at the first-century church leaders.

I think of men like Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke.

What God did through these men is astonishing. It should cause us to seek models like them for our churches and ministries.

Let’s learn about people who turned the world upside down.

Scripture

Let’s read Acts 17:1-15:

1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

Lesson

The apostle Paul and Silas were thrown into prison in Philippi.

This happened after they had been severely beaten with rods because they had freed a slave girl of a demon.

While Paul and Silas were in prison, God sent an earthquake, and the prison doors flew open.

The Philippian jailer thought the prisoners had escaped and was about to commit suicide when Paul shouted, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”