Editor's note: Tim Ross, pastor of Embassy City Church in Irvine, Texas, has a popular podcast called "The Basement with Tim Ross" that you may have heard. His stated mission is "to turn people's expectations upside down and leave them right side up." Enjoy this excerpt from his new book, Welcome to the Basement.
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Upside Down
So we're talking about living a life that's been overturned, turned upside down by the power, the presence, and the love of Jesus Christ. And, because of that, how you can use that life to turn the world upside down and bring more people to the Basement. But before we rush into anything, I want to take the time to break this down a little. Let's start with Paul and Silas.
Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was Paul's custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, "This Jesus I'm telling you about is the Messiah." Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women.
But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd. Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers instead and took them before the city council. "Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world," they shouted, "and now they are here disturbing our city, too. And Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, named Jesus."
The people of the city, as well as the city council, were thrown into turmoil by these reports. So the officials forced Jason and the other believers to post bond, and then they released them. — Acts 17:1–9
If you pick up the New King James Version or the English Standard Version (or if you grew up reading the King James Version like I did, which just sticks in my memory), it says Paul and Silas have turned the world "upside down." But the word in Greek — the language the book of Acts was originally written in — literally means "to upset." Instead of "caused trouble" in verse 6, that phrase could be translated, "they caused the world to be upset, and now they are here disturbing our city, too."
But... why be upset? Why would you want to live your life turned upside down? Who wants to do that — live in an entirely different way than you're living right now? Who wants to go to the Basement initially? Aren't we all trying to make it to the top?
I'm a bit of a literalist, so I love definitions — a lot. Just in case you're not a nerd like me, I want to give you the definition of "upset" so you have the necessary context for the coming pages.
- Upset (v.): 1. to overturn, to destroy the power of, to overthrow, to defeat, or to vanquish. 2. to disturb, or derange completely; to put out of order, to throw into disorder.
The definition in dictionaries always goes on to give a few examples, like upsetting a system, a mechanism, or an apartment, or defeating a more formidable opponent in war, politics, or sports, as we talked about already (see, nerds do rule the world).
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