Introduction
      You and I live in a day when people like to do extreme things. For example, hang-gliders enjoy the rush that comes from taking a risk as the glider floats on the warm thermal currents coming up from below to sustain the flight. I am told that every year 4,000 more people take up the high-risk sport of rock climbing. You can see many of these enthusiasts right around here in Boulder. Using the grace of a ballet dancer and the strength of an athlete, they jam their toes and fingers into the cracks of the vertical rock face and seek to defy the law of gravity. Still others like the sport of whitewater rafting. I understand that every summer 25,000 people shoot the rapids of the Arkansas River here in Colorado. Rising and falling with the swirling current, they enjoy the thrill of trying to tame the river.
      In another kind of risk, other people enjoy playing the commodities markets. Betting on the future price of certain goods, they seek to profit in the face of an unknowable future. Some risk is a reality for most of us nowadays. Starting a business is risky these days. Starting a family is risky, too. Life is risky.
      And yet how many of us identify the call of the Lord Jesus Christ with a willingness to take risks for the sake of the Kingdom of God? Most followers of Jesus tend to play it safe and be conservative in Christian life. We are fearful of people thinking that we are a religious zealot or a Jesus Freak. However, this morning we study a passage of Scripture which tells of a man who took a risk and others who turned the world upside down. They responded to the message of God’s grace in such a way that they risked their lives for the gospel. As we consider this text in Acts today, I want you to note: a man who took a risk; and a people who searched the Scriptures; and disciples who turned the world upside down.

I.  A Man Who Took A Risk
      We are told that in spite of having been beaten in Philippi, Paul and Silas received strength from the Lord to preach the gospel in Thessalonica. Thirty-five miles southwest of Philippi was the city of Amphipolis on the Egnatian Highway. Although it was a larger and more important city than Philippi, Paul and his companions decided to pass through it. As they continued west-southwest another 27 miles on the road, they also passed through Apollonia. Their desire was to reach Thessalonica, the capital of the province of Macedonia and the largest and most prosperous city in the entire region. It was another 40 miles beyond Apollonia, and the entire journey covered about 100 miles. 
      Thessalonica was a harbor town situated on the Thermaic Gulf, and it commanded a strong trade on the Aegean Sea. You will see some photographs of Thessalonica on the screens. It was a flourishing commercial center, and the people were proud of having been made a free city in 42 BC. In the second civil war of the Roman Empire, the city sided with Mark Anthony and Octavian against Casius and Brutus, and because of its loyalty, it was made a free city. Paul seems to have viewed Thessalonica as a strategic center for the spread of the gospel throughout the whole Balkan peninsula (see 1Thess. 1:7,8).
      When they arrived there, as was their custom, Paul and his companions went to the Jewish synagogue, and on three successive Sabbaths, they proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ. Some of the Jews were persuaded, along with a great number of God-fearing Greeks and prominent women. However, just as at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the Jews who did not believe the gospel were incensed at the Gentiles' response to Paul's message, and they stirred up a riot. Their plan was to bring Paul and Silas before the assembly of citizens, called politarchs, on a charge that they were disturbing the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. They said that these men were proclaiming an illegal religion and advocating another king in opposition to Caesar. When the mob could not find the missionaries, they dragged a man named Jason and some other Christians before the government officials. 
      The evidence for the charges was scanty, and Paul and Silas could not be found. Therefore, they required Jason and the others to put up a bond, and they extracted a pledge from them that Paul and Silas would leave town soon and not return. It was probably this legal ban which Paul saw as Satan preventing him from returning to Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 2:18. As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to the city of Berea.
      Here we see a man who took a risk. Jason, a Diaspora Jew who became one of Paul's first converts in Thessalonica, got involved. Many commentators suggest that Jason was actually hiding Paul and Silas and perhaps sheltered them from the authorities. Because of this he was dragged before the city officials by a mob. He had to post bond and pledge that Paul and Silas would leave the city and not return. Presumably his commitment to Christ cost him in other ways, and perhaps he endured social and financial ostracism by the community.
      Ours is a day when people don't want to get involved. Perhaps you recall the woman in New York City who was beaten, robbed, and killed several years ago while 182 people looked on and did nothing. There is something in us these days that wants to keep to ourselves, stay detached, and remain uninvolved. But our calling in Christ will not allow us that luxury. We are called to engagement and action; we are called to risk, just like Jason. 
      Teddy Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who dies actually striving to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
      Are you willing to risk for the Lord? Do you step out in faith and take chances for Christ? Are you willing to risk misunderstanding and even rejection for the sake of the Gospel? Jason was, and today we remember him as a person of faith and a person of courage. What about you? If your commitment to Christ was going to cost you a friendship or a business account, would you be willing to make that sacrifice for the Lord?
      Bob Harlow is a man in our church who is in my small group. Earlier this year, he shared with us as a matter of prayer that a business opportunity had come his way at work in which a potential client, whose business was pornography, wanted to use the high tech services of his company. He faced the difficult choice of standing for his morals and losing an account, which would disappoint his boss, or compromising his convictions for the almighty dollar and approval of his superiors. As a Christian he chose to stand for what was right and run the risk of misunderstanding and rejection. God honored his stand, and things worked out well for him. But even if it didn’t, he was prepared to do the right thing regardless. Would you be willing to make that hard choice if you were faced with the same situation?  I believe our allegiance to Christ demands no less.
      The call to risk isn’t always so dramatic. Perhaps God is simply calling you to step out of your comfort zone and volunteer an hour a week to mentor an at-risk child through our Kid’s Hope ministry at Columbine Elementary School. Maybe the Lord wants you to take a risk by serving the homeless through Lamb’s Lunch on Saturdays at our church or through the Deacon’s closet during the week. Perhaps Christ wants you to trust Him with your finances during these tough economic times and to give a tithe of your income to the Lord’s work. Maybe He wants you to go on a mission trip and witness to Christ in another culture. Jason took a risk, and God honored him for his faith. What about you? Where does God want you to risk today?

II.  A People Who Searched The Scriptures
      After Paul and Silas, together with Timothy, were smuggled out of Thessalonica under the cover of darkness, they traveled 50 miles southwest to Berea. It was a city in the foothills of the Olympian mountain range south of the Macedonian plain. You can see some photographs on the screen of the town. Berea was actually of little importance historically or politically, although it had a large population during New Testament times. 
      When they arrived there, Paul and Silas once again followed their custom of sharing the gospel with the Jews first, and they went to the synagogue. Luke describes these people as having a more noble character than the Thessalonians. They received the message with eagerness, and they examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true. What a great testimony to a group of people. 
      When I was growing up in Atlanta at the North Avenue Presbyterian Church, there was an adult Sunday class called the Berean Class. It was named for these people in this passage, and that class wanted to model the same openness to the truth of God. They wanted to study the Scriptures and learn what the Lord had to say.
      I urge you to do the same. Measure anything you hear me say, or anyone who preaches or teaches in this church, against the truth of Scripture. If you ever find us saying something that doesn’t ring true with the Bible, reject it. God’s Word is the only infallible rule in matters of faith and practice, and it should be the standard by which we measure anything anyone ever says.  
      Socrates once said that an unexamined life was not worth living. As Christians we could change that statement a little and say an unexamined faith is not worth believing. Christianity commends itself to the head and to the heart. It answers the ultimate questions of the mind, and it satisfies the ultimate longings of the heart. Here we see that the people of Berea were men and women who searched for truth, who measured the words of Paul against the words of Scripture. What a marvelous testimony to these people.
      However, we note that there was not a unanimous acceptance of the gospel by the Bereans. As in Thessalonica, there was a division. Many of the Jews believed as did also a number of prominent Greek men and women. But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was sharing the Word of God in Berea, they traveled there too, and they stirred up the Jewish community against Paul. This time the believers did not wait for another public confrontation, and immediately they sent Paul to the coast, while Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea for the time being. The people who escorted Paul took him to Athens, perhaps by sea, a voyage of more than 300 miles. Then they left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
      While many of the Bereans searched the Scriptures and tested the words of Paul, the passage says that not all of them accepted the gospel message as true, and many did not come to faith in Christ. As in Thessalonica there was a division. It is a sad reality that many who study the Bible only look for it to confirm what they already believe. I can recall studying theologians when I was in seminary who were scholars of the Bible but who didn't have a clue about a personal relationship with Christ. They approached the exercise of Bible study as an academic discipline, and they did not allow the power of the Bible to penetrate their hardened hearts. 
      In recent years the Jesus Seminar, a group of liberal scholars of the Bible, have made headlines by denying the New Testament account of Jesus’ miraculous conception and virgin birth. They decided that Mary must have had sexual intercourse, either with Joseph or some other interloper, before she became pregnant with Jesus. They also declared that the visit of the wise men was a fabrication, the slaughter of the innocents a fiction, and the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt a fanciful allegory. 
      As Christians we do not have the luxury of picking and choosing the parts of the Bible we will believe and accept. We must take Scripture as a whole. When an element of the Bible offends our sensibilities, it should challenge us to understand it, to reconcile ourselves to it, and to correlate it with the larger testimony of Scripture. But we cannot scissor our way through the Bible like Thomas Jefferson did, when he attempted to cut out the miracles and preserve only the ethical teachings of Jesus in the New Testament. We are not to place ourselves above Scripture and sit in judgment over it. Rather, we are to place ourselves under the Word of God and let it sit in judgment over us.
      When we do, we will be like the tree in Psalm 1 where it says, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (Ps. 1:1-3).
      When I was in Greece several years ago, our group from the church visited Berea. We saw the synagogue there, and we viewed the frescos of Paul. We also saw an enormous tree planted by a stream which reminded us of this psalm. You can see that tree on the screen. By this tree as the water rushed below us, our guide shared a devotion on Psalm 1 and reflected on the depth of its roots and the nourishment it received by the stream. It was a powerful time to reflect on our lives and examine how we might become more intentional in our own study of God’s Word. 

III.  Disciples Who Turned the World Upside Down
      I want you to notice one more thing that appears in this text. In verse 6 we read, "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here."  The Revised Standard Version translation renders this verse, “They have turned the world upside down, and now have come here."  That is the title of this sermon series – Turning the World Upside Down. It is what is at the heart of the book of Acts, and it is at the heart of being a missional church. I believe the power of the gospel can turn the world upside down, or, to put it another way, right side up.
      There was once a little boy who was asked in Sunday School if he could name the last book of the Bible. He thought for a moment and then answered, "Revolutions!" That little boy was not too far off the mark. There is a revolutionary nature to the Gospel, and it will of necessity bring change to individual lives and to the world. When you have had an encounter with the risen Christ, you cannot go on living the way you did before. The Lord has a way of turning your world upside down, and life will never be the same again. There is a revolutionary nature to the message of Christ.
      In 1982, when George H.W. Bush was Vice President, he represented the United States at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The elder Bush said he was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow during the funeral. This was before the Berlin Wall had come down, and this was before the Soviet Union had been dismantled. Communism was still in full control, and a belief in God was against state policy.
      Mrs. Brezhnev stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture I believe ranks as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed. She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest. There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross. It was her hope that this same Jesus might have mercy on her husband who had died.[1]
      How revolutionary is your life? How open are you to allowing the Lord to turn your world upside down and to use you to turn the world upside down? Are you willing to risk for Christ, and what is He calling you to do? That’s something for all of us to ponder in the coming week. Amen.