Tuesday, August 06, 2019
Turning the World Upside Down
Establishing Christianity was undoubtedly the handiwork of Almighty God. It doesn’t make sense that a poor rabbi from an insignificant town and his motley crew of blue-collar followers would change the world by evangelizing the far-reaching, powerful, immoral and corrupt Roman Empire, by traveling from town to town (on foot, often sleeping under the stars) and challenging people to pick up their cross and follow Him. Jesus and His followers were uneducated, unconnected, under-funded zealots who were disdained by the elite press, the powerful politicians and the prestigious religious community of their day. Yet, within a few years of Jesus death, when Paul and Silas were evangelizing Thessalonicapeople tried to convict the two missionaries in court by saying “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” (Acts 17:6)
Early Christianity spread quickly throughout the Hellenized Roman Empire and beyond into East Africa and South Asia. The first century Christians traveled extensively and established communities in major cities. One source said “Apostles and other Christian soldiers, merchants, and preachers founded early church communities in northern Africa, Asia Minor, Armenia, Caucasian Albania, Arabia, Greece, and other places. Over forty existed by the year 100, many in Asia Minor, such as the seven churches of Asia. By the end of the 1st century, Christianity had spread to Greece and Italy, even India.” (Spread of Christianity, Wikipedia)
History bears out that these believers were world-changers because they were authentic in their faith and practice. The book of Acts reveals that they were not just religious; they had the goods. Just as Jesus did, they healed the sick, raised the dead and set people free.
A document form AD 130 called The Epistle to Diognetes, described the first centuryChristians like this:
For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.
They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good yet are punished as evildoers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.
How did they do it? They followed the lifestyle modeled by Jesus. Some may still hate them, but Christians are still turning the world upside-down.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
