September 13, 2026

Acts 17:1-15

Turning The World Right Side Up

Sunday Sermons

They accused Paul and his friends of turning the world upside down. It wasn’t a compliment — a mob dragged his friends into the street in Thessalonica, furious that a message this small was causing trouble this big. But what if they were more right than they knew? What if the world we’ve gotten used to is the one that’s upside down — and the gospel isn’t the disruption, but the correction?

Join Pastor Jim for this study of Acts 17:1–15. It’s the story about a riot, a night escape, and a city called Berea where ordinary people did something remarkably simple: they checked Paul’s story against Scripture for themselves. Along the way we’ll ask three questions worth asking about anything you’re asked to believe: Is it rational and reasonable? Does it have any real life irony? And ultimately, is it true or, right? Join us as we look at what it takes to turn our world right side up.

Speaker

Jim Thomas

Series

Acts of the Apostles

Go to Series

Scripture

Acts 17:1-15

Topics
Growth & Discipleship Worldview & Culture

Sermon Notes

Acts 17:1-15

Turning The World Right Side Up

Pastor Jim Thomas

“The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”
G. K. Chesterton

If We Want to Turn the World Right Side Up:

1. We recognize the gospel is both rational and reasonable. (vv. 2-4, 11)

“Faith in God is a step taken in the light of reason, and anything but a leap in the dark. It may certainly be a step taken with deep emotions, but it is a decision taken about objective reality, and it is not purely subjective. Yet while the step of faith is fully rational, and not for one second irrational, it is certainly more than rational.”
Os Guinness, The Great Quest: Invitation to an Examined Life and a Sure Path to Meaning

2. We recognize the irony of the gospel. (vv. 6b, 8, 13)

“The cross enacts an utter rout of the paradigm of control-as-containment by the paradigm of love-as-liberation, exploding into the world from a lonely hill in Palestine, where a man hangs dying as a public spectacle of Rome’s power to rout and contain its enemies. If ever proof were needed that God has a sense of irony, we have it here.”
Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture

3. We recognize the rightness of the gospel. (vv. 4, 11-12)

“We instinctively long for our lives to arrive upon not mere happiness but a kind of rightness. The question is, How do we best account for such feelings? In what kind of story do they make the most sense?”
Gavin Ortlund, Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t

“I believe that Christianity makes the most sense out of our individual life stories and out of what we see in the world’s history. I have been arguing that the Christian understanding of where we came from, what’s wrong with us, and how it can be fixed has greater power to explain what we see and experience than does any other competing account.”
Timothy Keller, The Reason for God

How do we turn our world right side up?

  • Receive the Word
  • Believe the Gospel
  • Repent from sin
  • Receive God’s grace
  • Repeat

Discussion Questions

  • Read the passage together: Before today’s sermon, what did you already know or believe about this passage? Did anything in your understanding shift after hearing the message?
  • Challenge and Reflection: Was there a part of today’s message that was particularly challenging or surprising for you? Why?
  • Unpacking the Message: Pick a quote from today’s sermon notes. Discuss what it means to you.
  • Personal Impact: What’s one specific way you feel called to change or grow after hearing this message?
  • Practical Application: What’s one step you can take this week to put today’s message into practice?
  • Connecting Scripture: Are there other Bible passages or stories this message reminds you of? How do they expand or confirm this teaching?
  • Gratitude: What aspect of God’s character stood out to you in today’s message? How does it inspire praise or gratitude?
  • Pray the Scripture: After hearing the message, is there a specific area where you feel led to pray? How can we pray for one another in light of today’s teaching?

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“Holy Holy Holy“ by John Bacchus Dykes and Reginald Heber
“Crown Him With Many Crowns“ by Matthew Bridges, George Job Elvey, and Godfrey Thring, arr. Bailey, Mickle
“Speak O Lord“ by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
“He Is Making All Things Right“ by Ben Shive, Bryan Fowler, and Skye Peterson
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690

Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led on our YouTube Channel!

Call To Worship

Great is Your Faithfulness

Leader: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
People: Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds.

Leader: The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
People: The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Leader: The Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.
All: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Confession of Faith

New City Catechism
Part 2: Christ, Redemption, Grace. Q 29, 30

Leader: How can we be saved?
People: Only by faith in Jesus Christ and in His substitutionary atoning death on the cross; so even though we are guilty of having disobeyed God and are still inclined to all evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of our own, but only by pure grace, imputes to us the perfect righteousness of Christ when we repent and believe in Him.

Leader: What is faith in Jesus Christ?
People: Faith in Jesus Christ is acknowledging the truth of everything that God has revealed in His Word, trusting in Him, and also receiving and resting on Him alone for salvation as He is offered to us in the gospel.

Classic Prayer

John Cosin

O Lord, our God, grant us, we beseech You, patience in troubles, humility in comforts, constancy in temptations, and victory over all our spiritual foes. Grant us sorrow for our sins, thankfulness for Your benefits, fear of Your judgment, love of Your mercies, and mindfulness of Your presence; now and forever.

TVC Prayer Ministry

TVC Ministry: All Church Events Team
Vocation: All aspects of Medical Care and Research
Mission Highlight: Men of Valor
Praying for the Persecuted Church: Uzbekistan

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