Turning America Right-Side Up
Rex Yancey
Acts 17:1-6
Paul ran into trouble on his second missionary journey. I think we tend to forget that Christians have been blamed for many things in history. One historian said, "Christians have been looked upon as if they had a wolf's head, for as the wolf was hunted for his head everywhere, so have the Christians been hunted to the uttermost ends of the earth."
The Christian maxims are contrary to the maxims of the world. "It was said by them of old time, eye for eye and tooth for tooth; but I say unto you, resist not evil." "Whoever would sue thee at the law and take thy cloak, let him take thy coat also." "If any man smites thee on the one cheek, turn unto him the other also." If these precepts were kept would it not turn the world upside down?
The opponents of Paul and Christians called them "The people who have turned the world upside down." This statement adequately describes what the first Christians actually did. They literally shook the world.
What they did was to turn the world right-side up. They turned darkness into light, hatred into love, sadness into laughter, chaos into leadership, bondage into liberation, and death into life.
They took a world that was tired, tangled, and troubled and turned it right-side up. That is our challenge today. Our world is characterized by darkness, hatred, sadness, chaos, bondage and death.
The question today is how can we put the world back on its feet? Christians have organized politically and seen some success. However, political efforts are as likely to create chaos as to solve it.
Confrontational efforts are as likely to drive people away from Christ as to draw them to him.
I want to suggest some ways to turn a world upside down, right side up.
1. WE MUST HAVE AN IDENTITY.
Acts 11:26 "Believers were first called Christians at Antioch..." This word "Christian" is used three times in the New Testament. Each time it is used the ...
Rex Yancey
Acts 17:1-6
Paul ran into trouble on his second missionary journey. I think we tend to forget that Christians have been blamed for many things in history. One historian said, "Christians have been looked upon as if they had a wolf's head, for as the wolf was hunted for his head everywhere, so have the Christians been hunted to the uttermost ends of the earth."
The Christian maxims are contrary to the maxims of the world. "It was said by them of old time, eye for eye and tooth for tooth; but I say unto you, resist not evil." "Whoever would sue thee at the law and take thy cloak, let him take thy coat also." "If any man smites thee on the one cheek, turn unto him the other also." If these precepts were kept would it not turn the world upside down?
The opponents of Paul and Christians called them "The people who have turned the world upside down." This statement adequately describes what the first Christians actually did. They literally shook the world.
What they did was to turn the world right-side up. They turned darkness into light, hatred into love, sadness into laughter, chaos into leadership, bondage into liberation, and death into life.
They took a world that was tired, tangled, and troubled and turned it right-side up. That is our challenge today. Our world is characterized by darkness, hatred, sadness, chaos, bondage and death.
The question today is how can we put the world back on its feet? Christians have organized politically and seen some success. However, political efforts are as likely to create chaos as to solve it.
Confrontational efforts are as likely to drive people away from Christ as to draw them to him.
I want to suggest some ways to turn a world upside down, right side up.
1. WE MUST HAVE AN IDENTITY.
Acts 11:26 "Believers were first called Christians at Antioch..." This word "Christian" is used three times in the New Testament. Each time it is used the ...
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