Introduction

Imagine a late middle-aged man with a family history of coronary disease starts to feel unwell. He experiences tightness in the chest, a tingling in his arm, nausea, shortness of breath and cold sweat. But his response is, “I’ll just ignore this and it will go away.” Certainly it isn’t a pleasant thought to admit to himself that these symptoms point towards a heart-attack, but choosing to ignore them, won’t make them go away. They’ll just end up making him dead.

Sometimes we are confronted with ideas that we don’t want to hear. Do we accept hard truths when they confront us? Do we make the changes they require? Do we deny them because we don’t want to believe them? Their implications too painful

As fallen people who try to live with a Holy God, unwelcome news is something we’re going to receive. This is basically what OT prophets are: God telling his people: What you’re doing isn’t working; What you’re hoping for is the wrong thing; The way you’re worshiping me is harmful.

God does this because he loves us and wants to liberate us, but often liberation is a difficult journey

In the short run, the slavery of sin may be more comfortable than the journey through the wilderness of uncertainty to the freedom of the land of promise.

Just as the Israelites in the desert longed to go back to to Egypt, we may prefer the way of slavery to the way of liberation because of the journey to freedom is fraught with difficulty.

Becoming liberated means learning to live in a way that often runs contrary to our instincts

We need to unlearn many of the things we see as self-evident truths

eg. My security is my greatest concern, I need to seek what’s good for me, I should strive to be important

The counter-intuitive nature of God’s plans is why we often refer to it as the ‘upside-down kingdom’

Seen from our worldly perspective, God’s plan for humanity, perfectly expressed in Jesus seems upside-down

Salvation requires us to reevaluate our way of seeing the world, and accepting that God’s way, as odd as it often seems to us, is better.

If we don’t recognize the paradoxical nature of the upside-down kingdom, we may find ourselves working against God’s salvation while we think we’re working for it.

We see this possibility in two back-to-back stories of how two different communities responded to the message of the upside-down king and his upside down kingdom.

Picking up Paul’s story after his departure from Philippi:Acts 17:1–14NIV

1 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. 5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. 10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. 13 But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea.

In two different cities Paul goes to the Jewish synagogue and tries to persuade people that Jesus is their Messiah.

What did Paul say? We’re not explicitly told, but implicit from the text, we can see the basic idea of what Paul was saying.

Jesus died and was raised again (ie. Faith is based in God’s action)

The scriptures say the Messiah will die and be raised (Faith is in line with God’s word)

Therefore, Jesus is the Messiah (Faith centres on God’s Messiah)

Many of the Jews in Thessalonica didn’t want to accept this vision, so they resisted Paul’s message

They charged Paul with being Seditious against Roman authority

Showing they wanted to believe that Caesar really was Lord

Or perhaps their allegiance to Caesar was false. They wanted to see a Messiah replace Caesar, but not a Messiah like Jesus. They want a strong Messiah (like Caesar, but on our side) not a ‘weak’ messiah.

The Jews in Berea responded differently

They hear testimony about Jesus, search scripture and come to faith.

So in these two cities, we see two different responses to the News about Jesus. One that rejects the news because it doesn’t line up with their hopes or expectations, and one that responds to the truth, even if that truth is uncomfortable. We face this same choice. Do we accept the message of the suffering Messiah—The upside-down king—if it means we must live in an upside down kingdom, or do we reject the message of Jesus because he isn’t the saviour we want, and he doesn’t offer us the kind of salvation we would prefer?

Let’s look at the Faith Paul is preaching an its implicationsI. Jesus Was Killed and Rose Again

Paul’s message starts out as a news report.

Jesus of Nazareth was crucified (not very remarkable

But then something remarkable: God raised him from the dead

Any old person can kill, but raising dead people is something else entirely

So the message centres on something God has done

When people come back after a crucifixion and 3 days in a tomb, that’s the only possible explanation

But how could Paul’s assertion possibly be credible?

This takes place 20 years after Jesus’ resurrection

There are eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. Paul was one- The Risen Christ appeared to Paul on The Road to Damascus

For people in our day, there is still strong evidence

Most people (even secular historians) will accept a guy named Jesus of Nazareth was crucified by the Romans

Was Jesus raised to new life? The claim has strong indirect historical evidence in the Martyrdom of the Apostles

The Apostles said they saw Jesus alive (Gospel accounts written a few decades after events, could be contradicted by eyewitnesses if they hadn’t)

Most of them died horrible deaths because they proclaimed Jesus’ resurrection – You wouldn’t endure that unless you believed Jesus was raised

So Jesus was killed, but God raised him up.

The resurrection is a vindication of both Jesus’ message and his messiahship.

As David says:Psalm 16:10NIV

You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

God has vindicated Jesus in his resurrection from death. Admittedly this victory isn’t what we would expect, but it is corroborated by the testimony of credible witnesses.II. The Scriptures Said the Messiah Would be Killed and Rise Again

Now, there have often been things in history that are questionably attributed to God.

People might see a hurricane or an earthquake in a faraway place and say God did that in punishment.

The problem is that we don’t know the mind of God. So without scripture, we’re on thin ice when interpreting God’s actions

Our understanding of God’s actions in history need to be filtered through the Scriptures – the two are mutually interpreting

God often telegraphs his moves, even the unexpected ones

Paul can demonstrate that the messiah’s suffering is consistent with the witness of scripture. For exampleIsaiah 53:7–9NIV

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

The scriptures also point towards Jesus’ resurrection. The same poem about the servant of the Lord says,Isaiah 53:11–12NIV

11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Other OT messianic passages could be interpreted quite differently. But they need to be interpreted in light of God’s actions in Jesus.

So promises that the Messiah will govern with an iron rod, need to be reinterpreted in light of who Jesus is.

Like an iron fisted despot, Jesus will eventually be in total control – but unlike the despot, he accomplishes this through love, rather than through coercion.

God’s action and scripture work together to help us understand what God has done.III. Therefore, Jesus Is the Messiah

If Jesus has killed and raised, and the scriptures anticipated a messiah who was killed and raised, the conclusion must be that Jesus is the Messiah.

This is the message the Thessalonian Jews seem to reject so vigorously. Why?

Jesus turns messianic expectations on their heads

He is humble and gentle in ways most wouldn’t have expected

His victory—by dying on a cross—looks like most people’s understanding of defeat

Jesus is an upside-down king, to be his followers, we must live in his upside-down kingdom

An upside-down king, doesn’t deliver on our right-side-up expectations – He won’t build the kingdom we’re after.

He’s not:

Jesus the hero of Jewish nationalist hopes

Buddy Jesus who just says, “I’m OK, You’re OK”

Jesus the anti-regulation capitalist

Jesus the social justice warrior

To be Jesus’ follower means we follow his program, rather than trying to make him the mascot of our programs

Perhaps this is the challenge of the Thessalonians Jews. If what Paul says about the Messiah is true, then their accommodation to Caesar or their dreams of nationalist deliverance must die in order to follow him.

The Jesus Paul preaches isn’t the Jesus of their aspirations, so they reject the message and the messenger.

The Bereans show us the alternative – They hear what God has done, they consult the scriptures to see if the interpretation that Paul gives it holds water. Then the accept the message, regardless of whether Jesus is everything they had hoped for in a Messiah.

Jesus may not represent the salvation we were looking for, but he is the salvation God is offering.What Is Our City?

Like the Jews in those two cities we face the same choice today.

Like the Bereans we can accept the testimony of the witnesses back up by the testimony of scripture

We can adjust our hopes and expectations in order to follow the upside-down king and seek his upside-down kingdom

Or like the Thessalonians we can reject the message about Jesus

We can try demanding that God save us on our terms, rather than his, that he accommodate us with a right-side-up king

Good. Luck. With. That.

Mere humans can’t dictate terms to God. Jesus’ upside down kingdom is the only vision of Salvation God is offering.

So let’s accept God’s salvation like the Bereans rather than Rejecting it like the ThessaloniansFollowing An Upside-Down King

How Might following an upside-down king and seeking his upside-down kingdom change how we live our lives. Some examplesPower

Many Christians seek political power so they can bring about God’s kingdom with the power of the state

But our upside-down king actively eschews political power – hiding when the crowd intended to make him king by force

The Kingdom of God governs through loving persuasion, not violent coercion or self-intersted inducement, so the tools of state power—carrots and sticks— can’t bring about God’s kingdom, no matter how noble our intentions are. Power doesn’t transform human hearts.

The good news here is that God’s brings his kingdom. Our job is to humbly receive it

We receive God’s kingdom when we lovingly surrender to our upside-down king.

We can’t bring others in (God has no grandchildren), but we can invite them by showing how surrender to God’s gracious will is a blessingRiches

It’s said that resources are limited, but human desire is limitless, so there will always be scarcity But the upside down kingdom sees economics differently

If having stuff is the way to the good life, scarcity is a problem. But if the things that truly satisfy us aren’t scarce, then we can find contentment

Upside-down economics orients our lives away from conspicuous consumption towards meaningful relationship

Things are necessary. Our bodies require food and clothing. But if we understand that material goods are secondary to right relationships, that will transform what we want out of life.

Things then sustain life, our own, but also those of others around us (knitting us together in a web of loving inter-dependence). As the ultimate giver of material goods, God becomes the one who graciously provides for us.

So if we follow upside-down economics, we will understand that in God we have received what we most need and that things are for sharing. Significance

We all have a need for significance. But right-side-up kingdoms achieve this by comparison: I am significant by being richer, more accomplished or more powerful than you.

This leaves us always feeling insecure (What if someone else accomplishes more?) and it leaves us competing for significance

But the upside-down king calls our understanding of greatness into question.

He isn’t rich. He has no political power, He’s from a suspect family, he actively does things others think make him less important

spending time with sinners and tax collectors, washing his disciples feet

We see just how Jesus’ vision of significance upends conventional wisdom in a breif exchange with James & John’s mom.

Their mom asks that James & John sit at Jesus’ right and left (positions of authority). He uses this as an object lessonMatthew 20:25–28NIV

25 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The upside-down king is a servant, and his followers must find their significance in humble service, even if that makes them seem insignificant to right-side-up Kingdom people.Conclusion

The Upside-Down King and his upside-down kingdom represent a vision of salvation very different from what we naturally hope for. How do we respond to this disconnect?

Thessalonian: We reject the King and his Kingdom

Berean: We adjust our hopes and expectations, aligning them with Jesus.

Pursuing his vision of the good life

Trusting that God knows better how to save us than we know ourselves.

Whether we want this kind of Salvation, Jesus’ Kingdom is the only salvation God is offering. So let’s accept this salvation, rather than rejecting it. Let’s be Bereans, not Thessalonians.