On September 10, 2001, a trip to the airport was a fairly painless exercise. There was curbside check-in where your luggage quietly rode away to its appointed destination after they asked you, "Has anyone you don’t know given you anything?" "Did you pack your own bags?" Show them your picture identification, and you’re in. A brief few moments in the scanning line then you and your family and friends accompany you to your plane’s gate.
On September 12, 2001, everything changed. No curbside. Come at least two hours early. Scans. Searches. Questions. Lines. Shoe scans. Random searches. Why had things changed? We were disturbed.
On September 10, 2001, New Yorkers smoked and drank. On September 12, 2001, New Yorkers were smoking and drinking more, including more marijuana. Why? They were disturbed.
A sedentary man leaves his doctor’s office after hearing the bad news: "You’ve had a mild heart attack. If you don’t change your diet and start exercising, the next one will kill you." The man starts walking thirty minutes five days a week. From now on it’s fruits, vegetables, and more white meat. Why? He’s disturbed.
Our prayers are bland, plaid, beige, and boring. God plunks us down in the middle of an emergency. We’re now prayer warriors. Why? We’re disturbed.
It’s in our genes—we change only if something disturbs us. We slow down when the officer in the distance has a radar gun or we’ve just gotten a ticket. We’re disturbed. Students change their study habits only when low grades are tending toward a parent-disturbing "F."
In Acts 2:37, the Jews only ask about salvation when Peter’s sermon disturbs them. The Philippian jailer only asks, "How can I be saved," when an earthquake knocks him out of bed. In Acts 17:6, non-Christians speak in angry tones that this missionary team has "turned the world upside down."
John the Baptist disturbs people. Later Jesus preaches one of His first sermons and it’s so disturbing that the pushers-over-the-cliff are at the ready (Luke 4). Jesus so upsets Roman soldiers, the toughest of the tough, that they say, "Nobody ever talked like He talks."
The Bible has so disturbed kings that they cut it up and throw it into the fire (Jeremiah). The author of the book of Hebrews says that the Word of God is so powerful that it "pierces" and "divides." Jesus upset whole families and a whole nation while saying that He was bringing raw-edged tension (Matthew 10:34-36) into their lives. (So much for the "gentle Jesus meek and mild.")
Let’s face it: grace is disturbing. It’s upsetting to hear that when God saves us it’s apart from anything worthy of salvation in us. We aren’t worth redeeming; if we were, it wouldn’t be grace. Paul said that grace so disturbs that people yell, "Foolishness!" (I Cor. 1:23) Paul also wrote that the Bible does two things that are upsetting—it rebukes and corrects. Who likes to be rebuked and corrected?
But our message must disturb because people won’t come to Christ unless the message disturbs their worldview. The convicting work of the Holy Spirit is a disturbing work in and of itself. We won’t believe in Jesus for eternal life and forgiveness of sin unless the message of grace has turned our works-oriented worldview inside out. The message of the early church never stopped upsetting religious people, Roman soldiers, gentile rulers, and the rank and file.
Is the message of our churches upsetting anyone, ever? Do people ever leave the services disturbed by the Word of God? Or do they leave riding the same rut they rode all the way to the pew? When the Holy Spirit works, He disturbs, and, like Christ in the Temple, He uses the Word to turn the tables on us.
We should thank Him. Unless He disturbs us, we’ll never believe, act, think, or talk any differently.
Dr. Mike Halsey, Pastor
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