It was the last football game of my junior year in college. We headed north to play North Dakota State School of Science. It was always my custom when heading down to the locker room before the game to secure a game day program listing the players on the opposing team. As I was perusing the program in front of my locker, I came to #36. He was listed as a senior middle linebacker standing 5’3” and weighing 135 pounds. I laughed out loud! This had to be a misprint—maybe 6’3” and 235 pounds.
As we made our way to the center of the field for the coin toss before the game, I noticed #36 was coming to midfield with three other captains. Indeed, he was only 5’3” and 135 pounds. After the coin toss, we took our places. I went to my position, and, to my surprise, #36 was standing directly across from me. I humored myself thinking the coach was going to let him play one play on special teams where he couldn’t be too much of a liability.
Just before the whistle blew to start the game, #36 began walking toward me. He got about ten yards from me, pointed at me, and said: “You’re mine!” I thought, Yeah, right. The whistle blew, the ball was kicked, and I began to sprint to the end zone. I ran about twenty yards at full speed and picked out the ball floating toward the left side of the field like we had planned. Just as I saw the ball in my left peripheral, I picked up something else in my right peripheral. When I turned to see what it was, “he” had already left his feet. He was in a prone position parallel to the ground, like a heat-seeking missile! The next thing I remembered was his face mask hitting me squarely in the chest and knocking me backwards. Number 36 made an impact on me early in the game.
That midget of a player played the entire game at middle line-backer, and we could not block him. We spent the entire half time redesigning our plays to stop him, but we were unsuccessful. I never saw a player who was less impressive on paper but who made more of an impact on a football field.
In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul arrives in Thessalonica. No one had announced his coming. No flyers were passed out, and there were no billboards announcing a revival meeting. But by the time we get to verse six, it says that these men “turned the world upside down.” How did they do so? What was their method or strategy? Most of us would agree that our world needs to be turned upside down, or maybe better said, right side up. But how? The secret is found in this passage.
ENERGIZED BY THE SCRIPTURES
These men were energized by the Scriptures. In verse two we read: “And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.” Do we really believe today the Bible has the power to change lives? Why then do we spend so little time studying it and preaching it? Why do we not use it in our witness or counsel? Hebrews 4:12 states, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Man’s heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, but the Word of God has power to uncover the needs of the heart.
The prophet Jeremiah exhorts, “The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Man’s heart today is hardened but can be broken by the power of God’s Word. “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10–11). If we are going to reach our community and the world for Christ, we must be energized by the Scriptures.
EXALTING THE SAVIOUR
Secondly, we see that these men were exalting the Saviour. In verse three we read, “Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” It is not us or our message that will change people’s lives. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).
Our mission is not to make ourselves look good but to make Christ look good to a lost and dying world. John the Baptist could have resented the fact that Jesus had come on the scene, but his attitude was “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Too often people never see Christ because we are in the way. We are merely the instrument to point men to the Saviour.
ENVIED BY THE SKEPTICS
We notice next that these men were envied by the skeptics. Verse five reads: “But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.” When you endeavor to reach an area for Christ, don’t be surprised if someone gets upset. The old Evangelist Billy Sunday used to say: “If I’m rubbing the fur the wrong way, turn the cat around!” Indeed the fur gets ruffled when the Gospel is preached.
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12). Paul reminds us, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). The Lord comforted us along this line in John 15:18–19: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” But while the world may laugh, scorn, and hate us, our approval comes from God, not man: “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Many seek the ruler’s favour; but every man’s judgment cometh from the Lord” (Proverbs 29:25–26).
EFFECTUAL IN SERVICE
Finally, we see that these men were effectual in service. Remember, these are their enemies who make this statement in verse six: “And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” Within three weeks in this town, they had made a difference!
God has not called us to impress our city. He has called us to impact our city! Arm yourself with the Word of God; preach Jesus Christ as the only Saviour; be willing to stand in the face of opposition; and you will reach your community.
