We Are The Disruptors

(2) And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, (3) Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. (4) And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. (5) But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. (6) And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

I. “These that have turned the world upside down”, I got to ask; what exactly is wrong with that? Think about that statement and how absurd it sounds.

A. The Bible says this world is in “perilous times”, where “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. Where “iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” A world full of people whose “heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: A world where Man [that is] born of a woman [is] of few days, and full of trouble, a world where sin abounded. Where men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:

1. A world that changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. This is the world they were so upset about being “turned upside down”?

2. In scripture God’s people never won the popularity contest, they were not celebrated, you didn’t see them making any top list, you were not going to find them in the year book under any “most likely” categories, or featured in Who’s Who. Where you did find God’s people were in the pit and prison for dreaming, in the lion’s den for praying, in the fiery furnace for not bowing to a false god, rejected, mocked, put in stocks, and thrown down a well just for speaking the truth, beheaded because a lustful king made a promise to his niece if she danced for him she could have anything. God’s people would be tortured, burned, boiled, stoned, jailed, exiled and crucified.

a. Jesus said in John 15: If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

3. I know we like to always hear that we are the head and not the tail, that we are overcomers, weapons form but don’t prosper, you wept all night but your morning of joy is about to come, that God is about to call the cattle on a thousand hills to come in to your yard. Don’t worry we are going to get to that here in a few; just let me set this up for you. Don’t get depressed yet, in marketing everything I said would be the disclaimer that is written in small font and placed at the bottom in an inconspicuous place and read by a fast talking announcer while happy music is played louder than the announcer and images of people smiling and jumping out of airplanes. Nobody wants to hear this and you will be hard pressed to find anyone say any of that while they are sharing the Gospel.