The Disturbing Church
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. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king-Jesus." - Acts 17:6–7
Some today are telling us that the most important thing the church should be focusing on is global warming. That is the priority we are to have, they say. But there is another kind of warming the church should focus on preventing, and that is people spending eternity separated from God in hell.
The church of the first century made its impact on the world through prayer and through preaching. It was said of the early church that they turned the world upside down. And that, by the way, was offered as a criticism, not as a compliment (see Acts 17:6).
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May God give us more "criticisms" like this, because it seems today the opposite is happening in the church. We have double standards and moral compromise and little to no power. G. Campbell Morgan said, "Organized Christianity which fails to make a disturbance is dead."
What concerns me is that we are not making a disturbance anymore. We are so worried about fitting in. We are so worried about relating. We are so worried about being cool that we have forgotten what it is to make a stand for what is true. My fear is that instead of the church turning the world upside down, the world is turning the church upside down.
Vance Havner said, "We are not going to move this world by criticism of it nor conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God." That is why we need to get back to what the early church experienced as given on the day of Pentecost, because they turned their world upside down. And in this crazy, topsy-turvy world where wrong is right and right is wrong, we need to do the same.
