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Acts 17-18:17 How to Turn the World Upside Down
Acts chapter 17 be reading the whole chapter and then chapter 18 verse 17 hear the Word of the Lord. Now when they have passed and for polis in Ampollonia They came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews and Paul went in as was his custom and on three Sabbath days He reasoned with them from the scriptures 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.
And Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas is that a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the Leading women, 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 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 and Jason has received them and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar.
Saying that there is not there is another King Jesus and the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things and when they had taken money as security. From Jason and the rest they let them go.
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 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.
Many of them were therefore many of them therefore believed but not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God had put what was proclaimed by Paul at Berea They came there to agitating and stirring up the crowds.
Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 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.
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens His spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day.
With those who happen to be there some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him and some said what does this babbler? Wish to say. Others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because it was preaching Jesus and the resurrection and They took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said men of Athens I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.
What therefore you proclaim is unknown. This I proclaim to you the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples Made by man. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. That they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.
Yet He is actually not far from each one of us for in him We live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said for we are indeed his offspring being then God's offspring. We ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone and Image formed by the art and imagination of man.
The times of ignorance God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. But by a man whom he has appointed and of this He has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked but others said we will hear you again about this. So Paul went in went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed among whom also were Dionysius the Arapa guide and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth and he found a Jew named Aquila a native of Pontus recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome and he went to see them and because he was of the same trade He stayed with them and worked for they were tent makers by trade.
And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia Paul was occupied with the word Testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.
And when they opposed and reviled him He shook out his garments and said to them your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent from now on I will go to the Gentiles. And he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius justice a Worshipper of God.
His house was next door to the synagogue. Crispus the ruler of the synagogue believed in the Lord together with his entire household and many of the Corinthians hearing Paul Believed and were baptized.
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision Do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent. For I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you for I have many in this city who are my people.
And he stayed a year in six months teaching the Word of God among them. But when Galileo was procounsel of Achaia the Jews made a United attack on Paul and brought him from Brought him before the tribunal saying this man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.
But when Paul was about to open his mouth Galileo said to the Jews if it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime Oh Jews I would have reason to accept your complaint. But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law see to it yourself I refuse to be a judge of these things and he drove them from the tribunal and they all see Sothony's the ruler of the synagogue and beat him in front of the tribunal but Galileo paid no attention to any of this.
May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. Well ever had your mind blown. By some experience you just never expect it exposed to something you never considered you're stretched By something you encounter this before you just thought was unimaginable.
You had never even considered that was possible. Maybe a culture shock. That makes you realize that there is more in heaven and earth that is dreamt of in your philosophy. I Grew up in the south mostly in Alabama in college.
I probably could have been voted most likely to be ethnocentric. I like coca-cola barbecue and college football and I was comfortable with that. I didn't have any desire to leave the South. Only because of seminary that these seminary I chose happened to be in California.
That wasn't a draw by the way that had no it was not a factor at all. But it happened to be there so I only because of that I ventured out there. Now in Alabama, we go to the Gulf and we go for beach visits.
But you won't go to the beach you go to the Gulf of Mexico. And so we got a lot of experience with the ocean. I thought you know, I knew. The the ocean water is warm and soothing. You could just take that for granted.
But when my brother and I reached the west coast the Pacific Ocean there we see the ocean. We know what it's like changing our bathing suits. We go running out just like it was the Gulf of Mexico into that water and the shock.
It's it's cold. It's shockingly cold as we ran right back out as soon as we could get as soon as we could. It's mind-blowing to think. The ocean is cold. Never considered that before. I Thought I knew driving, you know.
We southerners drive with a kind of a everyman for himself attitude. If you get stuck behind some slowpoke on a two-lane and curvy highway, well, that's just your tough luck. You've got to be patient.
I was shocked when behind a slowpoke on a California highway the driver pulled over to let me pass. What is this people actually considering one another or the way in in the like a bigger than the city in Los Angeles.
People when they go if they're going forward in a traffic light. They will stop to let people who are turning left go. I Remember seeing the way races mix there in California in the 80s that in Alabama.
I had thought I've seen that on TV, but I thought that was just something they made up for TV. You know blacks and whites didn't really mix like that. I Felt for a while very foreign there. I thought though, you know, I looked okay though.
The money's the same. The flags the same the language is mostly the same but everything else seems so foreign. In fact, I felt so foreign that there at the seminary when I needed a mattress and I was too poor to buy one I went to the seminaries International student services office.
I figure I'm I feel like I'm international. I might as well take advantage of their services. That office was headed by a lady from Brazil named Swaley. And I got to know her she had a roommate from Singapore.
Oh. And because of that my cultural stretching. Which I thought I thought of California was something was just beginning. I lived in Singapore and found I hadn't I had so much to learn. There's more in heaven and earth than was dreamt of in my philosophy.
Family names come first if you meet a taehui I. She's miss Tae not miss. I in fact you have met her and she's mrs. Carpenter, but that's beside the point. You take your shoes off at the door. You give paper with with both hands.
Okay, don't casually criticize authorities. Except older people older people can get away with it. You're like 60s or 70 you can do that. Did not you 20-something smile Alex? No, you can't do that. No casually asking about people's politics.
On the other hand don't be embarrassed if they ask Direct personal questions about you or your health if they come up to you has happened to me once in a crowded shopping center and ask About your bowel movements.
Well, that's just weird or it's even sexual things. Don't boast of your accomplishments. Always offer at least a drink to a visitor in your house. At least don't be surprised if no parents come out to watch their kids play sport play a soccer game.
But there on the other hand, they are obsessed with their kids. Applicants lessons their enrichment classes. They're tutoring they pay rapt attention to which kid will do the best in the exams this year.
It's like the SATs being more important than the college football championships. Can you believe that? Well how weird that would be? That's a whole different world. We're nearly everything. It seems is Upside down now depending on you look at it.
Maybe we're the ones upside down. What I learned the most though. What I learned about the most was was not about another culture. But about my own. They say if you want to know about water, the last one to ask is a fish.
So I had to go outside of America to learn about America. You know, we're think we're so individualistic. Oh, we're our own man. We make up our own mind about everything. Nobody's gonna tell me what to do in some ways.
That's true. But why don't we all wear the same jeans? Why don't we conform so much? You know, we all like pizza and wear jeans. If you're absorbed into something if it's in the air you breathe. You really can't analyze it.
You can't get a good objective. Look at it. You're just you're inside it. You you might sense that there's something wrong. But you can't put your finger on what it is. And when something happened except maybe something it happened something from outside an invasion.
Like a bolt from the blue it just revolutionizes everything that turns your world upside down and that's what the kingdom of God is doing and We see that here is the Apostle Paul takes the gospel and the kingdom of God into the heart of Western civilization in Four parts in four cities.
That's Alenica second Berea third Athens and finally Corinth. How do you turn the world upside down? How do you transform cultures of people who expect that things are done a certain way? That's all they've ever known.
They just assume it to be true and anything else. It's just unimaginable. You can talk about it, but they didn't have no concept of it that you may be here. You've got to have the relationship first. Right, you know or maybe you got to have money first for some people money is everything.
That's just life. Everyone lives that way, right? No one really Seeks first the kingdom of God. It's a good slogan, but who does that? How do you change that? But first the Thessalonica you reason. The apostolic team leaves Philippi.
Heading west going to Thessalonica. Paul following his usual strategy says as was his custom in verse 2 he and he reasoned with the people in the synagogues from from the scriptures because he's talking to Jewish people have been taught in the scriptures and he Reasoned he's having a reason with him because he's trying to overturn What they already believe what they think what they assume to be the case.
They've been taught especially what they've been taught about the Messiah the Messiah. They've had it just drilled into them. Will be a victorious conquering king. Who will return Israel to its glory days?
So you just got to got to look for him coming leading Israel. It'll be very obvious because he's the one He'll be like the general in charge who will throw out the Romans and put them on top again. But Paul explains in verse 3 proving with passages like we looked at in Isaiah a couple of months ago the servant songs.
That it was necessary. Says verse 3 was necessary for the Christ to suffer now. That's a that's a mind-blowing thing for them. That is necessary because the the Messiah of all people should be the one who doesn't have to suffer.
He's the king. He has everything goes right for him, but he has to revolutionize their thinking is Necessary for the Christ to suffer as from Isaiah 53. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. If they don't have their false expectations of Messiah overturned.
They'll never be able to accept that Jesus is the Messiah if they don't understand that he had to die. He'll never understand what it means that Jesus rose from the dead. And so the conclusion in verse 3.
This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ he is the Messiah. He's that King you've been looking for to bring in the kingdom of God. Now some of them were persuaded and believed in Jesus along with and along with them.
You know with these people converted from the Jews. There were also in verse 4 a great many it says devout Greeks devout I think they means they believed in the Lord, but they hadn't been converted Judaism yet.
And and then he's here's one of Luke's favorite phrases kind of seems a little odd to us but not a few of the leading women. Which I guess means a lot of the leading women. At least it's more than a few together.
They make up a new church. Now but but some people from the synagogue where they had now they had lost a lot of members. To Paul we're jealous and like in Philippi. Where the mob was turned against them.
They're whipped into a frenzy with false accusations. I remember that from last week like today people use the internet to spread rumors in your window. I don't say that there's a long list of cases by.
Against such-and-such or that man or that church or whatever when there really isn't any or maybe it's just baseless accusations. And then they take everyone to be true. You know where the smoke there's fire.
Yeah, but maybe the smoke is all false. Learn to listen by the way past emotional rhetoric heated. Accusations because you're like everyone knows that guy is bad. Really? Why? Everybody knows it. Okay when they when they really don't have any bait facts, we don't listen for that.
Listen past emotional rhetoric for actual facts if there are any. Be careful that you're not manipulated by claims with no proof. Here are some wicked men of the rabble in verse 5 started an uproar. The mob is in a frenzy.
Somebody probably said we've got to stop him now. You know our our our culture our people are at stake. And so they go to the home where the where the team has been staying the home of a man named Jason.
Paul and his team are are out they're doing something else and so they drag out Jason from his own home and some of the a few other Christians happen to be There and they bring them before the authorities.
Shouting these men have turned the world upside down. Like that's a bad thing. Of course the reality is the world is already upside down. It's in the power of the evil one. The kingdom of God is coming through the gospel to set it.
Right side up again. How have they turned the world upside down really right side up. By reasoning from the scriptures by telling the truth. Declaring that Jesus is King that what the mob says about the apostolic team.
Well to say what that mob is saying. In a way is right. It's basically right. They are turning the whole world upside down. Jesus is the Messiah. It's a different kind of Messiah than they expected. He's the anointed one who has brought in God's kingdom.
It's a different kind of kingdom make than they expected is raining now. It's a different kind of rain that they expected and they they either accept this. And how their world turned upside down. Oh, they don't and they get in an uproar.
Now they had heard some of what Paul had said. You know this Jesus a new king. They just didn't like it now. They wanted to spin it. Because they're trying to bring him before the the secular the Gentile authorities.
They wanted to spin what Paul is saying to make it sound seditious to make it sound treasonous a threat to the state so that the authorities would crack down on the church and their message the mob is saying is a threat to the political order and The gospel does have political implications.
It calls us to make Jesus the ultimate ruler our highest authority. So we must refuse to give any other ruler any other cause any party. Supreme loyalty and obedience that are due to Jesus only no one gets to be unquestioned.
Jesus is Lord, but if the rulers of course if our earthly rules they preserve justice. Will we support them sure the authorities though? don't want to be bothered with the details and so demand bail money from Jason to let him go and The church here called the brothers in verse 10 send Paul and Silas away.
People are shocked. They're dismayed there their mind has been blown and they're often they either accept that or they are revolted. Maybe violently opposed to the revolution that Jesus brings his kingdom.
Overturns everything that they expected and so they're comfortable is particularly if they're comfortable with the way things are now. They're one of the ones benefiting. They're not the slaves. They're the masters.
Then they'll want to keep the status quo. It's good. It's good situation is good for them. They want to preserve it when someone comes upsetting things. Showing that the way you've been living your life your whole life is wrong.
Now here's a new way. They'll fight to defend what they have. They'll use anything violence slander. How do you turn them upside down? They'll continue to reason with them and next they come to Berea.
This is the second city. How how do we turn the world upside down so that they're willing to see life? Differently that it's not all about the money or the relationship or even the family but all of that serves something higher.
You need people to be to be noble to be teachable to really believe what they say they believe and we see that in Berea as Before they go to the synagogue to teach to reason from the scriptures and here they find noble people.
Noble because the scriptures they said they believed. You know that they claimed were from God and they should accept what it says no matter no matter what even if it's contrary To their culture and their upbringing their expectations.
They should accept and conform to it. That's what they said. It's what everyone says when they say they believe the Bible, but the reality is so many people both both then and now. They say it with their mouths.
But as soon as it teaches something It's just too inconvenient for them to follow or maybe just too mind-blowing for them to accept. It can't possibly be the case and it can't possibly be. God created all People in his image and he wants to love our neighbors ourself, you know that neighbors black.
I can't do that. Just mind-blowing that the culture around them says it's impossible is outrageous. That that's the culture is saying that civilized people. They don't believe that anymore. It could be about now maybe more it's often about sex or about roles of men and women.
Whatever that whatever it is. They accommodate to the culture and they read their beliefs and To the Bible twisting scripture to fit what the culture is demanding that they believe. That's kind of the normal way people do things even people say they believe the Bible and that's not noble.
That's the opposite of noble that's ignoble it's a lack of integrity and here though the Bereans They're different. Like the Thessalonians they have been raised to believe that the Messiah would be a triumphant King.
And so, you know, they what Jesus couldn't possibly be the Messiah. He was crucified but here Paul is able to show them what the Bible really says he was despised and rejected by men and They nobly believed What they said they believed the Word of God.
They had integrity. Once I went in the church shared with me something from their favorite teacher. They showed that this favorite teacher was Dispensational that's what the theology is called dispensationalism and I thought I should proceed carefully to show what was wrong with dispensationalism.
First undermine its presupposition show that its foundations its assumptions Are wrong or unbiblical which they are and so we did a long Sunday school series on the on the kingdom of God. Because that is really that's at the heart I believe of what's wrong with dispensationalism because basically believes what the Jews here believe but the kingdom of God.
That is what Jesus was supposed was bringing was supposed to be a literal Kingship from Jerusalem where he would rule with you know political power and dispensationalists say yeah. That's what we're supposed to be and they rejected him.
And so the kingdom of God is still on hold. Of course, that's all wrong. Jesus taught that He's casting out demons by the power of God the finger of God. Because the kingdom of God has come among you and it has come and it's a spiritual kingdom.
He taught those parables to show that it's different what you expected. It's like yeast and a lump of dough. It's like what's the other one like a seed it grows gradually. But that's anyway, that's what it gets wrong so we did a long series on that and the kingdom of God try to undermine the Presuppositions of dispensationalism and then a another not quite as long but also another fairly long series on interpreting the Old Testament.
That it's not all about just literal juice that that's but that's also key to its error. I shouldn't get back into the background of it. And then after about a full year of Sunday school almost a full year.
Okay, I want you to understand how much teaching went into this. Of Sunday school lessons laying the groundwork. We finally then approached the subject head-on and I could see I was teaching and this person finally realized That we were addressing the teachings that he had learned from his favorite teacher.
That he just turned off. Then he wouldn't hear it. He wouldn't listen to a word started whispering to his wife about Apparently what was wrong with what I was saying never mind whether it was biblical or not and with that he dropped out.
That that's probably not uncommon in our day. I think that's probably normal and It's totally the opposite of what Christians are supposed to supposed to do. It's a direct. In fact, it's a direct threat to the church to what we're about.
It's more like that. Why teach why preach this is a waste of time. People say that we need churches that quote, you know, you need to preach the word brother preach the word, but we can't have that. If you won't listen to the word.
If people are just so stuck at what they already think that they'll not hear anything else. That's ignoble. Here in Berea, they're not like that. They are teachable. That's really rare, man I'd like to meet a load to be there a group of people like that.
They receive the word with all eagerness. It says in verse 11. In other words, they're not just taking Paul's word for it. Because if that happens Paul could come and teach them and then the next false teacher comes through town and they follow that guy.
That's what would happen. But they they heard Paul they examine scripture. They went with scripture. They're certainly not taking some favorite teachers word for it. Well, he's right. Whatever he says I'll go with no, but they examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so and because these things are so.
That's because the and we know from the previous passage of Thessalonian. That because the Old Testament really does teach About Jesus that he is the Christ that he has to suffer then because of that because it really does teach that many of them therefore Interesting therefore there because they were no.
Because they were teachable. They looked at what the Bible said and so they they believed. But then the troublemakers from Thessalonica Having been successful in their hometown. Well, they come to Berea.
They agitate there against Paul. And so they decide Paul you better need to be moving along and. And so he leaves but he they leave behind Silas and Timothy there. To continue teaching these teachable people.
They probably asked to stay because you know, it's a great joy to teach teachable people. Well, how do you turn the world upside down? Well, you'll never do it. You'll never make any difference at all.
We're really just all we're wasting our time preparing sermons. Are you listening to them? Studying the Bible if we lack the nobility the integrity the teachableness to put aside what we think We know and be corrected by Scripture if we're not willing to change both our doctrine of theology and Our actions our lifestyle when that when the Bible corrects them.
Then all this this whole church thing Is for nothing. This is a waste of time. What we need absolutely is the nobility the integrity to change everything. Even what we take it for granted is true. Maybe from our childhood.
We need to be Teachable. Well next Paul moves on to Athens. Well, apparently now he's alone. He goes south to Athens. There's a good long trip down there, which is Athens being the pinnacle of Greek culture.
The cradle of Western philosophy the home of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle with magnificent architecture the Parthenon enshrining their cultural achievements. It had an altar a shrine or idol to every known God and just in case they missed out on some God somewhere.
They didn't want to make that unknown God Angry, so they had an altar to the unknown God and it was full of idols in verse 16 is swamped by Idolatry is steeped in religion and here comes the Apostle Paul alone into the heart of least the beginnings of a major part of Western civilization and he comes embodying another civilization bolt from the blue.
And that civilization is the kingdom of God come to overturn even What the most glorious of what the world can offer to overturn that and Paul is not impressed. By Athens, maybe you like the architecture.
Maybe it doesn't say but indeed he's the opposite of impressed. He is revolted in verse 16. It says his spirit was provoked. Within him literally the word the Greek word is Proximo where we get the word paroxysm from is that a is that a medical term?
Paroxysm. It's like a seizure. Paroxysm. Yeah, but that's the Greek word. That's where it comes from. He like you like a seizure not physically but in his heart. Though at a medical term may wait while we're Robert up, but he's been working hard.
He was Paul. He was was roused by the idolatry. When I first went to Singapore in 1990, I commented that it was. This must be a lot like what Athens was like to Paul full of idols. Yeah, and they were all probably of things that Mary would of.
Not even have noticed. They were just kind of part of her world that the background that she was absorbed in but to me they were they were striking. Athens was like that full of idols. It says so verse 17 interesting conjunction at the beginning of verse 17.
It was full of idols so because it was full of idols because it was swamped in idolatry therefore He's a reasoned with the people. In the synagogue and every day synagogue. They probably only come on the Sabbath.
Every day you go out into the marketplace. Where anyone will listen and we talk to anyone who would listen to him and there were some of the philosophers there. They conversed with him in verse 18 and there especially there were epicureans.
Who were like hedonist our hedonist today? They kind of believed either there there either is no God. They probably got to keep that to themselves because I could get you in trouble in those days or or the gods.
They're so far away. Well, you really don't matter. The world is ruled by chance. There's no life after death. So, you know eat drink and be merry for tomorrow. You may die. That was their attitude or the Stoics who believed that we really can't know much about God or the gods.
That we need to stop concerning ourselves with things that are outside of our control and work on on mastering ourselves. The world they thought was ruled by fate. Other words, you can't change it. So don't why bother and there's nothing we can do about it except control ourselves.
So you do your duty face facts get on with life. That's sort of Stoicism. They both believe like most most Greek philosophy did that matter is it important material things are not important. Even our bodies aren't important that we're spirits.
We're trapped in a body. You can choose to control your bodies like the Stoics did or you can choose to enjoy it while it lasts. I can't be Koreans, but really the spirit the body is it isn't you? These philosophers heard Paul.
Some scoff some called him a babbler in verse 16, which literally means a a seed picker. He was someone playing with words. They thought. Some thought he was teaching new foreign gods. Apparently two of them they thought somehow they got this idea, you know, say say he's preaching foreign divinities one called Jesus another called Maybe Anastasia resurrection in verse 18.
I guess they're so stuck on on. But a polytheism as many gods that they can't imagine. He's only believes in one. For supposedly being so smart. These philosophers don't seem to be comprehending all that.
People if that's a like I seem to have understood him better than the philosophers in Athens did anyway. They invited Paul to speak to their gathering in the arapagus, you know, come to our meeting and entertain us with your new theology.
We want to hear what this guy has to say. Luke comments in verse 21 and really he's just scorning this. They spend their time in nothing. Except telling or hearing something new. Philosophy theology they thought is for play.
So starting from verse 22 Paul speaks to the great philosophers of Athens, how do you turn the world upside down? You communicate. To communicate requires that you know your audience and that's what Paul shows here.
He starts with a with a point of contact something they got kind of had in common. You all have an altar to an unknown God. Well, here's a God you don't know about. I mean, I'll tell you who he is now.
He is the God who made the world and everything in it. You know the Lord of Heaven and Earth as we sang just recently he's coming under. Well Paul here is coming up under their beliefs. Trying to upturn their priests up with their assumptions that the world the physical thing that they would have thought.
We're not made directly by the God least not by the great gods the high up gods. But maybe about by lesser gods in emanations from God. They believe material things aren't important matter. Does it matter is Material.
The material world is like a shadow of the spiritual things. The spiritual things are the real substance. But Paul overturns that the true God made everything. It really is real. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth.
He doesn't live in any of the many temples you all have here in verse 24. He doesn't need your religions. He he sustains us. He doesn't need us to sustain him in verse 25. So he doesn't need our M &Ms, you know, not even our peanut M &Ms and he made from one man all the nations.
Even the barbarians you scoff at who you think are just inferior beings these these non Greek people verse 26. He's undermining the idea of their other racial their own racial and superiority and other people's inferiority.
As though they're less in the image of God than than they are. He made every nation He says with their boundaries and he expects that they should Seek God. I Was you don't be like the Stoics said we can't know him.
So don't you worry about it? Just take care of yourself. No, you are you have a responsibility to seek God. Even if you don't have a Bible you don't have the gospel yet. They should grope toward him like a person in the dark.
You never been the lights are not in the dark and groping round. Find your way around the house like that. You grope to find God even if you don't have any light around you right now because if they would they would find him.
Because unlike you philosophers think he is actually is not far From each from each of us. Epicurean said he's far away. You can't know him. It doesn't matter and Paul says no, it's not true. He is close to you verse 27 and here he quotes two of their own poets.
They're dramatists who wrote plays and to prove that to kind of blow their mind to teach them from their own culture something they they didn't believe it should and him we live and move and have our being and.
For we are indeed his offspring. How do you think Paul learned what their poets had written. You know, he didn't Google it. Libraries were uncommon. So he probably Probably went to their plays. He went to the amphitheater and watch their shows and he's listening carefully he's learning About their culture and he's looking for four points of contact so we could bridge.
To build a bridge to communicate to them what it takes to turn the world upside down is The commitment to communicate that drives you to learn about the people you are trying to reach. But Paul warns that this true God, you know, he's not like your many idols.
He's not he's not like an image that we make all all of that all your your images your idols your temples all that your Civilization that you're so proud of you think is the pinnacle of the world of culture.
He says it comes from ignorance in verse 30. Imagine he's right in the The hill of the philosophers right in their school in Athens, and he just said. Maybe he said it politely with a nice tone. I'm sure.
But you're ignorant. So you all these idols it's ignorance. But he says God has overlooked it so far as he's not judged it not condemned you for it yet but now He commands God commands all people everywhere to repent.
The turn from their idolatry don't live just for the pleasure. You can milk out of today look for the coming judgment and The judge will will be that man that God has appointed and we know who he is. We know who the judge is and Here he springs on them an idea utterly Shocking to their culture just mind blowing to them a culture where They were sure that the body is something to be escaped from.
This this is a prison for the spirit. You actually want to get away from it in their culture and they're thinking but God has revealed who the final judge is. By raising him from the dead raising his body up from the dead.
Can you believe he said it. You know in the heart of the culture that hates matter the body the physical he said that God raises The dead that he has raised Jesus already. What's it take to turn the world upside down.
Just really set it right side up the courage to tell the world the truth. That it is sure Cannot be true. It just blows their mind. But when they heard that yeah, their mind was blown and some mocked probably probably laughter erupted from some of them.
Everyone knows they cause that's that's Ridiculous, it's repulsive not even desirable for them. It's for barbarians to believe something like that. Probably some laughter and then some said some did say they want to talk some more about it if you believe though Dionysius is apparently one of the philosophers and a woman named Damaris.
Now, why didn't he get a great response. Only a handful of people and I think Luke had explained that already. They weren't looking for the truth. They they were looking for any entertainment. They're looking for something new.
They got something new, but they're not gonna commit to it. They didn't care if it was true. They might keep an open mind like the Bereans. But they never settle it on anything. They say that the mind is like the mouth.
You open it. In order to bite down on something. What it takes to turn the world upside down is for people to love truth more than entertainment. So he moves along. This time to Corinth not far down the road.
I think it's like 20 30 miles if Athens has the greatest history Corinth had the greatest present. It was actually the capital of that province of Achaia the same Providence same province that Athens was in and It was renowned for its wealth had two ports because there were two different bodies of water on each side.
It was had lots of trade. So lots of prosperity a lot of people passing through and it was known for its immorality with a large temple to Aphrodite the goddess of love or really probably of sex that was staffed by a thousand temple Prostitutes it had such a reputation that to commit immorality was sometimes is called in the Roman days to Corinthian eyes.
Right. They probably said what what happens in Corinth stays in Corinth may have been their slogan. So Paul goes from the home. They get this he's going from the home of philosophy and religion and culture in Athens debating with the intellectuals the scholars he's going for that to the heart of of Politics and business promiscuity fast-living.
You know, there's our day bright lights. It was like the San Francisco of its day, San Francisco, maybe Las Vegas. What's it take to overturn the world? When the world is given up giving given over to chasing dollars and skirts.
Well, we see that right here. What it takes and in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. Which we'll be looking at. Starting in two weeks. We're taking a break from from acts. We'll hear what he says to these people in Corinth.
Well first though it takes a community. It takes a church in Corinth. Paul quickly finds new friends. Aquila and Priscilla who were refugees from Rome expelled from their Settling in Corinth who were already believers or or maybe they were soon converted and quite clearly say but Aquila is a tent maker.
Like Paul was trained to be so like last week in Philippi Aquila and Priscilla's open hearts need to open homes. They invite Paul to stay with him. Apparently he did some of his work there for a while making tents to help support himself and like before Paul reasoned in the synagogue and then after a while Silas and Timothy remember them they rejoined him from Berea and Probably bringing money with them.
We learned that from 2nd Corinthians so that Paul can be Occupied with the word says in chapter 18 verse 5. He doesn't have to make tents anymore to pay the bills. But now he could occupy himself with teaching the word.
One of the things it takes to turn that we need to turn the world upside down as people who are gifted and who we let Be occupied with the word. He testified like in Thessalonica from Scripture that Jesus was the Messiah.
When they rejected him says they and then they not only rejected his message. They just reviled him. So they're insulting him. They're scorning him. They're slandering him. Well, he just shook off his clothes to separate even the dust from him that they might share and I get even shit.
We're not even sharing dust anymore. We're so separate from you and he said your blood be on your own head. In other words the responsibility for you dying in your sins is now on you. Paul says I am innocent.
Because he told him the truth. Right, he can't convince them. He can't convert them. All he's responsible for is telling them the truth he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. But they wouldn't hear of it and he said from now on I Go to the Gentiles at least me means here in Corinth.
So instead of meeting in the synagogue and teaching there he moved his meetings next door to the house of justice. The guys. He was converted new Christian happened to have his house right next door to the synagogue and now there's a separation.
And make for quite a scene when it. You can when they're having their meeting times. Some of the people are going to the synagogue and then right next door many others Going into justice's home and many of them the same people who used to go to the synagogue.
So they're probably glaring each other's they're going into different doors. Even Crispus who had been the ruler of the synagogue, which was right next door which converted with his family. They all started going to the church.
While the synagogue was next door and many others believe the gospel and were baptized business is booming spiritually in Corinth. The church is growing its flourishing and despite all the immorality and greed some people to Christians today lament.
How how how's the church going to survive when this culture America becomes so immoral and so given over to materialism, you know I think well, I don't know. Seem to work pretty good for the early church.
They get along pretty well with it. I mean he didn't approve of it, but they grew as. The church is flourishing that the Lord Jesus speaks to Paul one night in a vision notice verses 9 and 10 Jesus says to him do not be afraid.
Because there's coming things that will tempt Paul to be afraid. But he says but go on speaking and do not be silent. Otherwise, don't move on Paul. You know when when when persecution came like you had before not criticizing what happened before but this time.
Stay in Corinth for two reasons stay here because Jesus says for I am with you. It's the promise of protection. No one will attack you to harm you. Although they'll try to attack him but they won't succeed in harming him and second for.
Because go on speaking stay here don't move on. I won't let them harm you because Jesus says I have Many in the city in Corinth who are my people. Think of that phrase. That's an amazing phrase you think about that in this context.
The Lord won't let Paul be harmed and he is to stay here to continue his ministry to continue to speak about Jesus. Because Jesus has its present tense. It's currently he's not saying I think I'm gonna have it looks.
Prospects look good for this area. You know, I think if they will choose if they will cooperate With what I'm doing and by their free will choose the message that I'm offering. I think though some of them might accept it.
Jesus doesn't say that does he he says I have. They're mine in this city many people. They're mine. Now they don't know they're mine. But they are. They're his sheep. They're his soon-to-be believers.
They're in Corinth. They don't know that they're Jesus's people yet. They haven't been converted yet, they probably haven't heard the message yet, but Jesus knows them they are Jesus's people think about that.
Even before they know Jesus. So Paul is to continue to speak and he stays there for a year and a half. So that these people who are already Jesus's people whom the Lord already knows. He foreknows, right?
He foreknows Whom he foreknows he predestines so that through Paul here He calls and he can justify them and sanctify them and in the end glorify them. How do we turn the world upside down? We need the Lord to have to have foreknown people.
To people he is foreknown people who are his. That then we can be used to call Paul. Needed. Paul would need that encouragement to stay because just like before is every city now. We've seen what happened except for Athens.
I guess they didn't come there. But almost every city like before of his sisters troublemakers came after him here in Corinth and they brought him. They brought Paul to the pro council. We see the governor and in Galileo who we know by the way.
Was the Roman governor there from we know it from Roman sources? To have been there from 51 to 52 AD. They complained these. These troublemakers for him. Paul complained that he was teaching contrary to the law now it looked like.
This would turn out to be another kangaroo court that he would soon be bounced out of Corinth like he was out of Philippi and Thessalonica. In Berea, but this time before Paul could even say a word. This Galileo said, you know you you people go solve your own religious problems.
It's your own, you know, he says words and names and Leone law. I refuse to be a judge over these things. In other words get out of here with that. I'm not. I'm not worried about your religion. He's so annoyed.
That his crew decides to have their fun by beating up a man named Sothcenes. Who's the new ruler of the synagogue who had brought the complaint? They beat up Sothcenes right in the court. Galileo just kind of shrugged his shoulders.
Probably muttering something like serves him right. Wasting my time teach these guys a lesson. But this is what the Lord Jesus said that he wouldn't let Paul be harmed here in Corinth where he's calling his many people Sothcenes.
Well, that's another story. Sothcenes maybe a maybe a beanie will do him some good. But Jesus kept Paul safe. What's it take? To set the world back upright again. It takes the Lord protecting his messengers.
So that he can call his people whom he foreknows through them. What's it take to turn the world upside down. It takes us reasoning with people from the scriptures. Communicating us being so committed to communication and to our people to people that we know our audience.
We learn about them for there to be no it takes their course to be noble people who really want to hear who care about The truth who are teachable. It takes us staying and at least some of us supported by the rest being occupied with the word.
It takes a team like Aquila and Priscilla and Silas and Timothy. It takes a church but most of all. It takes the Lord. It takes the Lord having people whom he has foreknown and predestined whom he will through his word.
Call and justify and sanctify and finally glorify. It takes the Lord having People. Are you one of them?