More Powerful Than A Locomotive?

Posted on July 10, 2018 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters

“But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” – Acts 17:6 (NKJV)

Are we as effective as the early church was in reaching the world around us? Are we creating those “turned the world upside down” moments that shake up people in our everyday living? I’m not talking about creating the forever thread of theology debate on Facebook or Twitter either. I’m talking about living and speaking in such a way that people take notice and it causes them to examine themselves to the point where they know somethings gotta change. Now we can complain about the American church going straight down the tubes all we want, but until we shake the Babylon outta us, the Babylon around us ain’t noticing nuttin’!!

Author John Bevere wrote something in his book “Killing Kryptonite” that has been like peanut butter stuck to the roof of my mouth. “It’s as if we’ve contoured the gospel to align with our condition. We seem to draw back from—at times even disdain—anything that promotes power, strength, success, abundance, fruitfulness, or even health. We say such a message is extreme, unbalanced, and self-serving. In doing so, we actually protect ourselves from having to answer some hard questions and give ourselves an excuse for not impacting our world with the gospel.” This is quite an accusation because we do tend to fill in the blanks with all kinds of Babylonian nonsense and we really don’t take what Jesus had to say about things first.

Jesus was taking an upside-down world and said this is what it looks like when its right side up. Turn to Luke 12:16-21. Now back in verse 13 someone in the crowd yells out, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” This man obviously wanted Jesus to take action against this man’s brother but instead He’ll use this moment to point out the greed of man’s heart and as we read into this parable, we’ll see that it didn’t matter how much a rich man can accumulate, if he doesn’t use to further the Kingdom of God, he is just a fool fooling himself that he has it all. “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

If ya need reinforcement to this just look to the Book of James. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). So many well intended brothers will pass along a sermon that “spoke to them” but when I ask them how they would apply it they simply replied with, “it made me think.” Granted, getting our minds renewed is part of spiritual action, but taking it outside of your comfort zone makes His Word become that much more effective…. even to the point of inciting riots.

The Book of Acts has a couple of times where taking the Gospel out to the masses got some men in trouble. Jesus was very clear about what would happen when His name and His Word were proclaimed, “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake” (Luke 21:12). So by the time you get into chapter three of Acts, we already see Peter and John getting arrested because, “fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.” (Acts 2:43)

There is something that has gotten most of us church going men (and women) kinda stuck when it comes to doing more in getting the Gospel out into unsaved Babylon and it’s in this… the world has gotten quick to point its condemning finger at Christendom and say “Hypocrisy.” Living in a world that has become really good at finding fault with everything and anything can act like a sort of “Kryptonite” that keeps us keeping the Holy Spirit living in us very contained. But it wasn’t like that back in the early church days. In those days people were willing to die to expose the evil works of the world by putting the light of the righteousness of the church upon it.

In the city of Thessalonica, a man named Jason was willing to house two rabble rousers named Paul and Silas. They were two Jews who dared to preach that Jesus was the true King of kings to the Gentile listeners. Unbelieving Jews were angered by this and they stormed Jason’s house and dragged him off to court. Funny how they begrudged him for what they themselves would not accept as truth…hmm. We still see this being played out today, don’t we? I got some more to cover on this topic but until next time, don’t be afraid to turn things “upside-down” for the sake of the Gospel. God may be using you to put things right side up. Amen?

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris, a graduate of The Colony of Mercy (11-2003) has been married for 25+ years (Kathy), has a married son (Kevin) and a daughter in college (Karen). He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008.

The Daily Bible Reading: Isaiah 5-8 |You can download our 2018 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here

Daily Quote: “If we heard a sermon every day of the week, and an angel from heaven were the preacher, yet, if we rested in hearing only, it would never bring us to heaven.” — Matthew Henry

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:

Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God, Psalm 146:5