Reorientation

Do I honestly think I can run my own life?

Paul and Silas got accused in Thessalonica of claiming another king, and the charge was true. When the people turned from their idols to serve the living God, submitting to Christ stopped being an idea and started showing up in their money, their homes, and their plans.

When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also, whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!”

Acts 17:6–7

For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 1:9–10

Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5–11

“Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

Luke 12:32

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.

Matthew 6:24

Do I have to check my brain at the door to believe this?

Paul did not walk into the synagogue and ask people to feel good about it. He opened the scrolls, set the evidence in front of them, and reasoned from the Scriptures for weeks. The first question ever asked in the Bible was one that made God should doubt, and Paul answered it by taking people back to the text.

Paul, as was his custom, went in to them; and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

Acts 17:2–3

“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Isaiah 1:18

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms concerning me must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures. He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,…

Luke 24:44–46

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men.

Acts 17:11–12

Why do I so often feel like God is mad at me?

The pastor kept returning to the idea that the Son of God truly paid it all, and the resurrection is the receipt. If the debt were not paid in full, the tomb would still be closed. It is finished means there is nothing left for you to be condemned for.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1

For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,…

Romans 8:3

…by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins, but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 10:10–14

…who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

Romans 4:25

For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

How do I keep my feet when a wave knocks me flat?

The pastor described the world as upside down from the beginning, and a temptation or a tragedy or a long trial can still knock any Christian off their feet. The gospel is not a state you hold once. It is something you keep returning to, a leash you pull on when you feel like you are drowning.

Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas: of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women.

Acts 17:4

Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.

Psalms 42:11

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.

John 6:68