Acts Chapter 17 verses 1 – 9 Paul and Silas reach Thessalonica
‘These
people have been turning the world upside down’. This was the claim of those
who dragged poor Jason and some other believers before the city authorities, as
we learn in our passage from the Book of Acts today. And of course they were
absolutely right in what they claimed - even if they did not fully appreciate
the extent to which the Christian Gospel, when taken seriously and practised
faithfully, really can and does ‘turn the world upside down’. This it does in a number of hugely
significant ways; transforming individuals, families, communities in a way
which, when taken seriously and practised faithfully, can create the kind of
characters and relationships and communities Jesus spoke of in his teaching
about the Kingdom of God. Where the principles of God’s kingdom – principles
that can only operate where the King is both welcome and obeyed – are allowed
to operate in the world, then so much that rules in the world is indeed turned
upside down – or to put it better perhaps ‘the right way up’.
But to many
this poses a threat. It poses a very real threat to those interests that are
vested in the world staying the way it is; the way where greed rather than
charity, and division rather than harmony, and envy and hatred rather than joy
and love are the order of the day and the principles by which - if we are
completely honest with ourselves and not blinded by wishful thinking about
human nature, the market, and the state - so much, sadly, of society and the
economy, and even foreign policy tend to function. And it does not matter which
political party you happen to vote for: this is how things are and that is why
human nature, the market, and the state desperately need to hear and to put
into practice the principles of the kingdom of God in obedience to the king. As
I have said on a number of occasions, the Christian Gospel is seldom opposed or
rejected for its lack of reason or reasonableness or absence of moral principles
or priorities but because one or more of these in some way or in some measure
or other oppose or threaten those whose interests are vested in a world where
the king and his kingdom are not welcome.
We have seen
this at work already in the Book of Acts wherever the religious or social or
economic status quo has been threatened. We see it here again in this episode;
and we see it still today in our own country and even, sadly, in the Church of
England when the light of the Gospel comes up against the status quo and vested
interests of one sort or another.(Ugandan bishop)
One thing
the Book of Acts certainly makes clear is this: that Christianity is not a
‘peaceful’ religion - not in the sense that it aims to encourage everyone to be
good citizens and to not rock the boat. Far from it: Christian love, when
faithfully practised, will always find itself at odds, and sometimes violently
so, with the values of the world when such values are not the values of the
kingdom Jesus taught and called you and me to implement wherever we can.
There is of
course much that is good and of God’s kingdom at work in the world. Sometimes this
is simply unacknowledged or unknown; but it is largely on account of the
residual effect of Christianity on people and society or as a result of the
promptings of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives: however, there is much, and
often near to home, that is not of God’s kingdom and which needs the Gospel,
the good news of Jesus and his kingdom, to transform, to ‘turn upside
down’, the right way up.
You see our
country, as Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is well known for saying, is heading for
social, individual, and economic disaster if we continue, as is becoming
increasingly fashionable, to deny our Christian heritage of morality, law, the
value and true nature of human life, and discard what Christians have fought
for for hundreds of years in order to make this a more just and equitable
society, a society more in tune with the values and principles of God’s
kingdom. And we would be deluding ourselves, not to mention placing a terrible
burden on our children, were we to deny this: the Gospel, when we look at much
of the workings of society today, is counter-cultural. Indeed it always has
been because of those whose interests are vested in the world rather than in
God’s kingdom. Which is why Jesus calls you and me to challenge those vested
interests with his Gospel: and if we do that, some, whose hearts are already
God-seeking and God-fearing will welcome what we have to say; whilst others
will give us anything but a peaceful time. We have to choose sides; we cannot
sit on the fence; we cannot serve both God and Mamon. We are, if you like, to
be honest, loving trouble-makers for the sake of his kingdom and the glory of
his name.
This passage
shows us yet again, as I mentioned, that the Gospel was a stumbling-block to
those Jews whose preconceptions about God would not allow them to accept a crucified Messiah;
just as it was a stumbling-block to those for whom money or power or the status
quo were more important. But in today’s passage Paul introduces us to three
vital truths that many modern day atheists or agnostics find a moral and
intellectual barrier to belief; which is why we need to pay particular
attention to his statements in verse 3.
In trying to
persuade his Jewish listeners, Paul tells them, first, that God’s chosen one,
the Messiah, had to suffer and die, and then rise from the dead; and, secondly,
that Jesus was that Messiah, albeit a very different one from the one they had
imagined.
What do many
atheists and agnostics take exception to? Well it this. First, the ‘necessity’
of Jesus’ being killed; secondly, his rising from death; and, thirdly, his
uniqueness as the only way to salvation, to reconciliation with God, to heaven.
Paul
explained to the Thessalonians that the Messiah must ‘suffer’, that is to say
must atone for Israel’s sins. Now because an essential element of God’s perfect
love is his equally perfect concern for justice and abhorrence of sin, the
issue of Israel’s sin had to be dealt with. God could not simply, as many would
like him to do today, turn a blind eye to sin. But not just Israel: the Jewish
Messiah, as Paul had realised, had died for the sins of the whole world, and
therefore Jesus’ Gospel of reconciliation with God through faith in his
sacrificial death is ‘good news’ for the Gentiles too.
Of course,
as we have seen, some of the Jews, because of their favoured status, found
Paul’s inclusive Gospel a threat to their vested interests. And atheists and
agnostics today cannot think it grossly unfair and immoral and unloving of any
God that he should demand that any one man should have to bare such a heavy
penalty. But if that man were God, choosing in one of his forms of being God,
to become a man in order that he could save all those humble enough to trust
and to accept his gracious and merciful deal, then of course it all begins to
make sense because love and justice are honoured in all this whilst it is sin
and human pride that are affronted. As Paul says, it was ‘necessary’ for the
Messiah to ‘suffer’.
Secondly,
Jesus’ resurrection, his ‘rising from death’. Well, so much has been written
about this and why it is the cornerstone of authentic Christian belief. Suffice
to say here that it is, like Jesus’ sacrificial death, at the heart of Paul’s
teaching, just as it was at the heart of Jesus’ teaching And in terms of its
being an historical fact rather than some wishful-thinking myth, the evidence
is more than sufficient and there for all to see; though it will never be
sufficient for those who choose not to see or, we might very well add, for those
whose vested interests the facts threaten.
And the
thirdly and finally, there is the stumbling-block of the ‘uniqueness’ of Jesus
in our pluralistic religious world. This, to many who consider themselves to be
reasonable and thinking people, looking around the world and at the practice of
religion around the world, seems unreasonable. You’ve all heard, I’m sure, the
old relativist argument that ‘Surely all roads lead to heaven.’
But again,
if we examine what Jesus claims about himself, and about his Gospel for the
salvation of the world, then who are we to argue with him if we realise that he
is whom he claimed to be? And again, who are we to argue with the way in which
he chooses to save all people? We have to understand that it comes down to a
choice. If the relativists (the all religions lead to God group) are right then
Jesus is wrong, his coming to his world, his death and resurrection a waste of
time: but if Jesus is right, the relativists are wrong. Right? It is actually
as simple as that. This is not to say that we do not act lovingly and
graciously towards relativists; but we must not short-change them nor withhold
from them the liberating and life-fulfilling good news of, to quote the title
of Michael Nazir-Ali’s book ‘The Unique and Universal Christ’.
Wherever we
turn, wherever we go in the world, people still need to hear the good news of a
Gospel of salvation that will, if people welcome it and apply it to their
lives, turn their worlds upside down. Jesus has called you and me to believe
this and for the sake of all to proclaim it and to put it into practice: it is nothing
less than the fulfilling of the Second Commandment, which is after all, the vital
evidence that we are genuinely keeping the First.
