S3 E33 - An Upside Down Bible

We ordered some new bibles for some of our newest converts, and one of the bibles had a unique issue with it. The entire text had been bound and printed completely upside down. It's unlike any other issue I have ever seen with a bible. I had to life at the irony of it all, because, well...the Word of God is the thing that turns the world upside down. Everything about Jesus' ministry challenged what the world thought it knew about love, power, hope, etc. And to this day, Jesus continues to turn the world upside down but setting his disciples right side up again. 

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Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths?

Would you believe me? 
 Hi, I’m BJ Sipe – and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast. 

I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father.

Thanks for tuning in!

I am always looking for a good deal on a good Bible, and trust me you can find them. Even if I was not preaching, I would still be an avid collector of different translations of the Scriptures. It is important for study to know the strengths and weaknesses of each translation, and to study from multiple versions every time you are engaged with the Word. That being said, I am stickler for a good quality Bible as well. I don’t want imitation leather or a poor layout of the text – be that spacing or too small a font or small margins – there are a lot of things that I am particular about. Obviously, the value of the Word of God is not the material it is printed with, but the content of the Words of God – but still, you understand what I mean by a “good bible”. I don’t think that I am alone in that pursuit, I am sure for most of us that we have at least one really good quality Bible that we have used and plan to use for a long time. And if that isn’t the case, our shepherds have made it a point to do something about it. Here in Danville, we keep on hand a collection of good quality, leather bound Scriptures to give as a gift to new converts who perhaps have never had that level of quality of a Bible. So when Lifeway had their 70% off sale of their best quality Bibles this past month, I jumped on the opportunity alongside our shepherds to restock our supply and ordered six more. We just had three young ladies obey the gospel, so when our new Bibles came in we handed each of them a brand new one to use as they continue in their faithful walk of being disciples. Well, fast forward a week and one of our young ladies gave us her Bible back and said, “There is a funny problem with it, can I get a different one?” Of course, our shepherds immediately swapped it out, and intrigued took the Bible and opened it up – amazed at what they saw. Charlie, one of our shepherds, put the Bible back on my desk so we could send it back and order a new one. “What’s wrong with it?” I asked. “Just take a look,” Charlie said. So, I took the Bible out of the box and first examined the exterior. It was a nice quality Bible – goatskin leather, dark brown in color, and absolutely no scuffs or misprints on the exterior. So far so good, the issue then must be somewhere on the inside. Perhaps it was missing a book? Perhaps the print was not vertical and had a slight tilt to certain pages? I opened it up, and burst out in laughter – it was something I had never seen before in my life. The Bible, which was in perfect condition otherwise, had been bound completely upside-down! You open up the text to find an upside-down concordance, followed by an upside-down Revelation and all the way through to Genesis. I had never seen anything like it before. How in the world could something like this happen? All of the other Bibles we had ordered had no issues with them whatsoever – but for some reason or another, this Bible had been bound, glued, and stitched all topsy turvy. Honestly, I hope that Lifeway doesn’t ask for it back and just sends us a new one; this is one I would love to hold on to and add to my unique Bible collection.

I’ve enjoyed showing people here in Danville this particular misprint, but the more I did the more I got thinking about irony of the whole thing. Here was the Word turned upside-down, but regardless of how it’s printed, it is the Word of God that in actuality turns the world upside-down. As a matter of fact, we read that exact terminology in Acts 17:1-7. Speaking of Paul & Silas, the text reads, “After they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As usual, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and rise from the dead: “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah.” Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women. But the Jews became jealous, and they brought together some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob, and started a riot in the city. Attacking Jason’s house, they searched for them to bring them out to the public assembly. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too, and Jason has welcomed them. They are all acting contrary to Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king—Jesus.” How exactly had the world been turned upside down on account of these men who were preaching and teaching the gospel? To answer that question, let us just take a few moments to consider the teachings of Jesus and how counter-cultural everything he taught was. 

For starters, let’s begin with one of the most difficult teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew records for us in chapter 5:43-48, ““You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What comes naturally to the world is what they had heard: love your neighbor, hate your enemy. But Jesus turned things upside-down when he insisted that we not only love our neighbor, but as a matter of fact we are called to love our enemy. To not return evil for evil, but to overcome evil with good. Who would do such a thing? Jesus did, and any who follows him are called to also. 

In Matthew 20:25-28, we are given the account of Jesus also teaching the following: “Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; 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.” Jesus addresses the natural order of the world – those who are great in the eyes of men (power, money, success, etc.) are not the ones who serve, but rather demand to be served by those lower than them. However, when Jesus came on the scene and established his kingdom, everything would be turned upside-down. Just as he, the King of Kings, did not come to be served but to serve, those who follow him would do the same. To be great meant to be a servant. As he had stated earlier in the chapter in vv. 16, “So the last will be first, and the first last.” Jesus took everything we thought we knew about what it meant to be great or valuable and turned it upside-down. 

We could spend the majority of the rest of the day bringing up point after point of how Jesus has turned the world upside-down. The gospel hit the world with a spiritual uno reverse card, and ever since God started to reveal his Word to his creation he has challenged everything we thought we knew. If you are not yet a follower of Jesus, trust me when I say that if you become a disciple your life as well will be turned topsy turvy. But also trust me when I say that in doing so, Jesus will actually be setting you back on the upright path. It is we, the world, who in our sins have gotten things so backwards and messed up. Let God’s Word come in and disrupt your life, everything you think you know and understand, and put you back right-side up again. 

Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode, and I would invite you back every Thursday for a brand-new episode each week. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for future announcements or even some special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, share it with someone else that you think would benefit from it also. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.