Have You Upset Your World Today?

You want a desire to know the words of the you know, the author of the words so that you could revolutionize your world. That's a wonderful desire.

But it won't get you anywhere. Eventually, it has to turn into a discipline. So the apostle Paul said to study, to show yourselves approved under God, not for salvation. The word reproved or document means so that you could pass the tests of life. And you know what happens when you pass the test of life. All those watching you in the world see you passing those tests. And they have to say, I don't know what you've got, but I don't have it. And I want it to revolutionize their world.

In all areas of life, making progress and being effective takes more than good intentions and good desires, intentions and desires are a starting point, but they need to translate into action.

That's true of the Christian life as well. If we want to truly influence our culture for Jesus Christ, that's going to take more than desire. It takes action. Welcome to this vintage wisdom broadcast of Wisdom for the Heart.

Today, Stephen Davie takes us to Acts 17 with a lesson he's calling. Have you upset your world today? We're looking at the life of the apostle Paul and his missionary endeavors.

Paul certainly influenced his world. And today you'll be challenged to influence yours.

In 1894, the rhetoric teacher at Harrow in England wrote on a 16 year old's report card, A conspicuous lack of success at 16 year old was Winston Churchill, who would become one of the great orators of the century. In nineteen oh five, the University of Bern rejected the dissertation of a P.H. student and called it fanciful. A pasty student was Albert Einstein. Sometimes the value of the world is wrong. Most often it is. If you were to grade the mark or the effectiveness of the Apostle Paul at this juncture in his missionary journey, you would. You wouldn't give him a very high grade. He has been imprisoned. He has been stoned. He's been left for dead. He has had people for sake his ministry. He's been left alone.

And the result that he has had have been scattered and somewhat strange. At least that's what it seems like on the surface. And yet the exact opposite is true.

I sort of view it as if a tidal wave has just hit Europe and the water is beginning to spread inland and it will ultimately trickle its way all around Europe. God is beginning a revolution through the apostle Paul. And we come this morning to pick up our story and we discover not only an interesting passage of scripture that reveals to us a little bit more about what this individual was doing.

But it has within this paragraph, one of the most interesting descriptions of Christianity. So let's pick our study back up with X Chapter 17, verse one. Now, when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollinaire, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Remember, the last city he went to didn't have a synagogue in down by the riverside? Well, here they had a synagogue. According to Paul's custom, he went there. And for three, Sabbath's reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that Christ or the Christ, Cristoff, the Messiah, had to suffer and rise again from the dead, saying this Jesus, whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ the Messiah. And some of them were persuaded and join Paul and Silas, along with a great multitude of the God fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. But the Jews became jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and swept the city in an uproar in coming upon the house of Jason, evidently where Paul and Silas were staying. They were seeking to bring them out to the people when they did not find them. They began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities shouting these men. Here it is who have upset the world have come here also. And Jason has welcomed them.

And they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying there is another king, Jesus.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a direct relationship between upsetting your world and understanding the word. And Paul's strategy was simple. And we're just going to dissect it this morning.

He gave people the word and and the categorical phrase that described him and that he and that ministry was is upsetting the world.

He noticed back in versus two and three he reason, he explained, he opened the word. If you want to upset your world, the lever is the word of God. So the question, though, is this. Have you upset your world?

Do you have the kind of relationship with the word that creates a revolution in your world? Well, let's break that down. Let me give you six things that would be needed if we hope to upset our world for the glory of Christ. First of all, you have to begin with a relationship that is spiritual. In other words, you can't get to know God's word until you know who God is. The Bible delivers the revelation that expresses the character and attributes of God. As you study the word, you come to know him. And I was raised in a nondenominational church that had over the back of the wall to know him and to make him known. And they had it all right, because the first phrase was to know him. And then you make him known. You get to know him when you know the word. You go to the word and discover what it says about the author of the word fact. Paul wrote in First Corinthians that the natural man that is the the unbelieving man cannot receive the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness to him.

They can discern or understand them because they are spiritually discern. So. You have a relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a closed book. I get a little warm and fuzzy reading the Psalms or maybe the proverbs are are some good idioms that you can. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. But for the most part, this is a closed book. This will not revolutionize your life and through your life. It will not revolutionize your world.

Beginning with a relationship that's spiritual. Secondly, you must cultivate a conscience that is clear. Peter wrote in First Peter Chapter two. He said, to put aside all malice, all wrath or envy, all slander like newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

In other words, he says, before you study and learn the milk of the word put aside and he gives this long list of sins, made sure your relationship with Christ is clear when you come to the word so that you can grow thereby.

In other words, harboring sin hinders growth. Third, you must replace desire with a discipline.

Eventually, that longing has to get you into the word that develops. A discipline of study in the word desire has to turn into discipline.

You want a desire to know the words of the, you know, the author of the words so that you can revolutionize your world. That's a wonderful desire, but it won't get you anywhere.

Eventually it has to turn into a discipline. And so the apostle Paul said to study, to show yourselves approved and to God not for salvation. The word reproved or DOCA mouth means so that you can pass the tests of life study so that you can pass the tests of life. And you know what happens when you pass the test of life. All those watching you in the world see you passing those tests. And they have to say, I don't know what you've got, but I don't have it.

And I want it to revolutionize their world. So it has to become discipline takes more than desire. Next, you have to develop an attitude that applies as you study the word.

It isn't just so you can get smarter in the scriptural facts so that you and I can become more like Jesus Christ. James, chapter one. You might want to mark that in your margin or your notes as a great passage to look at. And verse 22. He talks about the person that is a hear of the word and not a doer. He is a forgetful man.

Then he gives the illustration of a man who goes up to a mirror and he says a blessed is the man in effect, that that looks intently into the perfect law of liberty and not forgetting what he's seen X does.

What the word says the word intently is a fascinating word. It talks about the man who leans toward the mirror to see a clear reflection. You guys did that this morning as you shave. You kind of leaned into the mirror.

That kind of man who responds in accordance with the reflection that he's been given is a blessed man.

The word is a mirror, as you and I look into the mirror of the word. We see our reflection.

I don't like what I see. I'll put the mirror down. That'll fix it. Or I don't like what I say. But I'm not going to change.

A person is going to revolutionize his world as a person who goes into the world allows the reflection of the word to reveal its true character and nature.

And he asked God to change him.

So you have to have an attitude of application. Next, you must pursue introductions that are intentional introductions of Jesus Christ. That is that our intention to look at verse two again and according to Paul's custom, he went to them.

Now, Paul, for a living, made tens. But it was his custom. It was his passion. It was his life to reason.

There are three words, in fact, we're giving her, first of all. He reasoned with them, you could write into the margin of your Bible. The word dialog is the Greek word dialog on my which gives us our transliterated word dialog. In other words, he isn't standing up, just delivering a sermon. There's dialog. He's having them ask him questions and he's answering them according to the scriptures.

And you say wouldn't. Nice. And so he could do that, you know, wonderful that somebody can hear a question and go right to the word and say, here's the answer. Has it ever occurred to us that that's what we're all supposed to be able to do? Because Peter said there were also us to be ready to give an answer for the hope lies within us.

Is it just for the professional which doesn't exist? By the way, we are all to do that, he reasoned with them.

The second word is he explained the first part of verse three. He explained the scriptures. He could literally render that he opened the scriptures. Luke, 24, uses the same word where the two disciples are walking along the road that a mayest road. We talk about and hear about. And Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord sort of slips in beside him and he's walking along with him.

And later on, after he disappeared, they realized what had happened and they said to each other and to others as they testified, did not our hearts burn within us?

As he opened same word, the scriptures to us, what this community needs and what our world needs are people who mirror the life of Jesus Christ, who slip in beside other people and open the scriptures to them, who intentionally introduce Christ the Christ of this book.

William Carey, who is the father of what we call modern missions, lived over 100 years ago in England. And he was a shoemaker and he began to view life like that, that I will intentionally introduce people to Jesus Christ. Have you begun to live like that? Yeah. And everybody who came into his shoe shop, he'd find a way to get the conversation around to tell them about Christ. He didn't, you know, nail him in the corner or something or threatened to hit him with a shoe.

He just took every opportunity could just present Christ. And one day, a friend of his said, William, you're going to ruin your business.

To which he responded. My business is advancing the kingdom of God. I sell shoes to pay expenses.

Wow. No wonder that man revolutionized his world.

We need Christians who will consider themselves to not have fulfilled their spiritual service by simply coming to church. So the Christians you live for. You go to church. I want to tell you, as you probably know, this is not it. This is where we who are living for Christ come for refreshment and encouragement and edification. We kind of be challenged and convicted and changed and we provoke one another until love and good works. But we haven't reached the world in here.

There's not a verse in the Bible that tells the world to come in here. There are versus that. Tell us to go out there and reach the world. And we haven't begun in here.

Given tools and encouragement to go do it. I like the way one man said it, he said this is kind of like a holy huddle. But eventually we have to break the huddle and go play the game.

Well, third word that I think is interesting, in the latter part of verse three, he gave evidence of Christ's resurrection. The word evidence means to place B side or to set B for he give people evidence. You just lay it out before them, according to the scripture. So we don't use the Old Testament. We don't know what he used in the Old Testament, but this kind of got me going. And I spent a lot of time this week giving you a number of references that you could search through and look up and maybe give a friend or especially those who who might be a Jewish, perhaps.

Paul turned to Isaiah chapter eleven, verse one that tells us that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. Maybe he turned to Michael five, too. That tells us that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

Maybe he he looked up Isaiah seven 14 and had them unroll that great scroll of Isaiah, their beloved prophet, where it says in Chapter seven, verse 14 that the Messiah would be born of a white virgin.

Isaiah nine, too. While you're here, he might say, look over there. And it says that the Messiah will bring to Israel a great light.

You see, when Jesus Christ stood up and said to the people, I am the light of the world. He was saying, I am the fulfillment of that messianic promise by the great prophet Isaiah. I am the great light.

Maybe he took him to Zacharias, chapter nine, verse nine that says The Messiah will enter Jerusalem riding upon a young donkey or maybe Psalm 22 that describes the crucifixion, talks about the bones of Jesus being out of joint, talks about the agony and the mockers who are there and even records in solemn Chapter 20 to the words.

My God, my God, why has now forsaken me or some sixteen tend to refers to the resurrection of Christ as this does the son of David will not undergo decay. My father was flying back from Russia a few weeks ago and was flying through a desert, had a stay over in Odessa for one in Ukraine. And he said that the airport was filled with Orthodox Jewish men. They were evidently flying and he would find out that they were flying to Israel to celebrate Young's before they were dressed in their black.

If you see an Orthodox Jewish men, black hats, long haired ringlets, and in boxes on their four heads, that in case the Ten Commandments, they take literally. But you're there to put the law between their eyes.

My dad was sitting there and had his Bible open and was reading in the terminal and young twenty five year old Orthodox Jew sat down beside him and my dad started talking to him and eventually worked it around where he was able to ask him a question and he asked him a great question.

I thought he said, Son, how will you recognize the Messiah when he comes?

And that young man said, Oh, we will we will know him. He will perform miracles. His personality will be dynamic. We will know him. My father said, but there have been many messiahs who've come claiming to be the messiah of Israel, and they've been false messiahs.

How will you know for sure that he is the true messiah? Oh, we will know.

My father said, I know how you will know in your Hebrew scriptures.

And he turned the Zacharias chapter 12, verse 10, where it says that the nation, Israel will look upon their returning king, the Messiah, and they will look upon him whom they have, what pierced.

That's not in my Bible. Oh, yes, it is. Let me write that reference down.

He wrote that reference Death.

He said, I want to. I'm going to turn to a chapter that you probably never heard in the synagogue. And he turned Isaiah 53. I had to write that reference down and he wrote the reference down. He turned to Genesis chapter 49, verse 10, where we're told that first one of the first messianic promises that that the the scepter that is the king's scepter will not depart the tribe of Judah. And when he comes, he will tie his young don't key to a vine.

Write that down. I haven't seen that before. I was right out of the Torah, he said. But I believe in the oral Torah.

We trace our beliefs back through our fathers generation, back generations back. We trace it back to Abraham and Moses. My father said that is the difference. You believe in the oral Torah more than you believe, as I do the written Torah.

And then he showed him a verse that has moved me as I have thought of it. Zakharia 13 sic. We're the nation, Israel asks their king. What are these wounds in your hands? And he will answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my brethren. Who knows if that man hasn't gone back to his Hebrew scriptures and studied that intentional introduction of Jesus Christ. That may indeed revolutionize his life. Finally, if you want to upset your world, you must embrace our position as opportunity. We'll go a little over time. You're sympathetic as always. Here, look at verse five.

But the Jews becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. Stop. They hit it. Interesting to you how how easy it is to incite opposition to Christ. It didn't take much. And they're there. They're ready to form a mob. It's just we're ready to march. And Luke doesn't pull any punches as he talks about this. He says he calls them wicked men from the marketplace. They were just ready available.

We have them in our marketplace as well. Available at any moment to stand against the truth. One translation reads describes them as wicked fellows of the rabble. Another one translated unprincipled loungers of the marketplace. Another translation says, worthless fellows from the streets. I believe that these were men who actually made their living off the O'Gara. That is the open area where they had the rostrum where politicians would speak. These men could be hired to either heckle or applaud. They were available to do whatever the person wanted. If the money was right. And so here they are, evidently hired by the Jews. In fact, Cicero, the 1st century Roman statesman, called these men that made their living this way. Sabras strongly, literally, those under the rostrum, they were there to be hired. And so they were hired. These were the hired guns in Macedonia's capital city for six when they did not find them as they go off looking. They began dragging.

Jason, we don't know anything about him, by the way. And some bretheren before the city authority shotting these men who have upset the world have come here also. And Jason, welcome them. I love this next phrase. And they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar. In other words, these men are not politically correct.

They go against the tide of popular opinion. And we don't like the fact that they upset the world. And they make us feel like we're wrong. Who do they think they are? And all that kind of jargon that you've probably heard.

They're not following the party line. First Thessalonians, Chapter one, and we not time to go there. That's the sequel of this event.

Paul encourages these believers and praises them as he writes. You have turned from your gods to follow the true and living God. Now, that's a volume because in their Greeks, Greek idol worship was their business. It was their heritage. You don't turn your back on your heritage. You don't turn your back on your family. You're a Greek. And they're living in the city named after Alexander the Great Sister Thessalonica. This is who you are.

They turn from it and follow the living God. Verse eight. They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities heard these things. Authorities politics gives us our word politician. Now they're involved. This is really turning into a brouhaha. It's kind of like the riot that was nearly started in Kansas. You hear about that about a year and a half ago. And the House of Representatives and the you know, they start their session, as we do with prayer.

Who knows who? Well, this guy knew who pastor's name was. Joe Wright. Had somebody come up to me after the second hour and say, this was our former pastor. Let me read you what he prayed as he opened the assembly that day.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance. We know your words says woe to those who call evil good. But that's exactly what we've done. Kind of feel the fidgeting now starting. Right. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and we have inverted our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self preservation. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We've shot abortion. And called it justifiable. We've neglected the discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We've coveted our neighbors possessions and called it ambition. We've polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment searches. Oh, God. And know our hearts today. Try us and see if there be some wicked way in us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas and have been ordained by you to govern this great state. Grant Grantham. Your wisdom to rule and made their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.

A man and that great.

You know, it's interesting that according to what it says here, it probably would have gone any further than the House of Representatives. But by the time he finished his prayer, there were representatives rushing for the microphone to begin their angry tirades against this man and his prayer that have made national news.

You have upset our world.

It ever occurred to you that the world is already upside down and we as believers are really trying to set it up right. And when you impact people for Jesus Christ, you're not really turning them upside down.

You are setting them up. Right. Solomon said that God sets a man upright. David said, You've taken me out of the Miri pit and you have set my feet upon a solid rock.

Well, there's more, but we're going to stop. The Church of Jesus Christ today needs men and women who will be willing to cultivate a conscience that is clear to replace a desire with discipline, to develop an attitude that applies to intentionally introduce Jesus Christ, to embrace opposition as opportunity. Let me just quickly say, what that means is that Paul left Thessalonica never to return. He started something totally new. You debate the chronology, the epistles. Many believe that that he did something he'd never done before. He couldn't go there to honor the pledge of Jason, right or wrong. But he didn't go back.

But he sat down and he wrote him a letter to them. And you have them in your Bible. A brand new way of disabling and encouraging and training was born.

May we be people whose business is advancing the kingdom of God and everything else pays expenses. Let's be people that break out of the huddle and go play the game.

Thanks for joining us today.

This is wisdom for the heart. The Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davie, Stephen Pastors Colonial Baptist Church in Carey, North Carolina. You can learn more about our ministry and access the complete archive of Stephen's Bible teaching at our website, which is wisdom online. Dot org. You'll be able to listen to all of the lessons in our archive and access Stephen's printed manuscript free of charge. If you're new to our ministry, welcome. We have a monthly magazine called Heart to Heart. It's a resource that features articles by Stephen as well as a daily devotional guide.

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