Turning the World Upside Down

The greatest compliment ever paid to the early church was meant as an insult. When the Jewish leaders incited a riot in Thessalonica, they described Paul & Silas with these words: “These who have turned the world upside down have come here, too.”

The accusers meant to discredit Paul & Silas, but it was actually a compliment! To understand why, you have to understand that the world was already upside down. God created this world right-side up: perfect, beautiful, designed for human flourishing and for the worship of its Creator. But when humanity fell into sin, that Fall inverted everything. Death entered where there was life. Shame replaced innocence. Fellowship with God became separation from God.

The world has been in a moral free-fall ever since – upside down, though it doesn’t know it. You can see evidence of that everywhere you turn. From the perspective of an upside-down world, it looks like the troublemakers have arrived! But we understand that Paul & Silas were actually turning things right-side up.

What does it look like to turn YOUR world right-side up for Jesus? Your school, your workplace, your family, your neighborhood. Please find Acts 17:1-15.