Sermon Tone Analysis

The Upside Down

The Upside Down is an alternate dimension in the NetFlix series “Stranger Things.”

The Upside Down dimension parallels the human world except that the Upside Down is over run with vines and a misty fog that has dark spores floating it in.

The dimension has a grey shade that covers everything.

Human life does not bode well in the Upside Down.

Aside from the environment not being tolerable, there are humanoid creatures that devour life from humans.

Needless to say, everything that the human world values and holds as significance is turned upside down.

The Upside Down values death over life.

When God created the world everything was good.

All of creation and his image bearer’s flourished in abundant life.

Mankind was given dominion over all creation and was told to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with God’s glory.

Everything was good.

Mankind and God lived in unity and valued the same things.

Then, the serpent came along and deceived Eve.

Eve eats of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, a tree God commanded them not to eat.

Instead protecting Eve and defending the Garden, Adam follows Eve into sin.

Now the world is turned upside down.

Instead everything being good, now, the earth and mankind is thrown into an alternate dimension of sorts that parallels the world they once lived, but is now run over with sin and death.

God’s image bearer’s are now sinners, who suffer separation, shame, and death, not only with God, but with each other.

Sinners now live in the Upside Down world.

In the Upside down world, we value things differently that what God values.

We place a high degree of value on power, prestige, and pomp, everything that comes with wealth.

Those who have wealth are loved and adored.

The Upside Down world is ok with looking the other way when the rich exploit others to get more wealth.

The poor are looked down upon.

They are made to feel powerless and insignificant.

The Upside Down world is ok with exploiting the poor because they are worthless.

In the Upside Down world, instead of turning to God for who made us in His image, we turn to ourselves.

The poor and the rich try to find their significance in the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life.

That is life for us in the Upside Down world.

The apostle John warns the poor and the rich,

1 John 2:16–17 (ESV)

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

And the world is passing away along with its desires...

James, by the the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has a good word for both the rich and the poor who are in Christ.

He says,

Whether rich or poor, your significance is based on your identity in Jesus Christ.

Jesus gives the poor significance by making them heirs to His kingdom (James 1:9)

James’ readers were Christians who were forced to leave Jerusalem and establish new lives in Syria and Northern Palestine.

Most of them brought very little with them which put them in a difficult financial spot.

Being broke and a Jewish Christian, made them targets of ostracism.

These are the “poor” James is referring to in verse 9.

The world has disdain for the poor.

To many in the Upside Down world, the poor are weak and destitute who leech off of society.

The poor have little significance in the world’ estimation and are ripe for oppression.

God, however, has always seen the poor differently.

The Psalmist says,

and that God will

God has a special place in his heart for the poor and promises one day he will bring about the great reversal.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her “Magnificat” considers the day when God would turn the Upside Down world right side up.

She sings,

One day, God will reverse the fortunes of the rich and the poor.

The rich will be humbled and the poor will be exalted.

But until then, what are the poor to do? James says, boast in your exaltation.

The word “boast” in James 1:9, refers to “bragging” or “ to pride oneself” in something.

This may seem odd that James is encouraging the poor to “take pride” in something.

Usually you are told not to boast.

Boating is arrogance.

In many respects that is true, however, boasting is not always bad.

It really depends on what you are boasting in, or taking pride in.

To boast in your self is arrogance, but to boast in the Lord is worship.

You get a sense of this from the prophet Jeremiah

Jeremiah 9:23–24 (ESV)

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,

but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.

For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

The poor are to boast in their exaltation.

The term “exaltation” refers to their “high position.”

This word depicts a divine realm.

For example, Jesus promised to send his Spirit to them from on high.

Jesus also ascended into this realm (Eph 4:8).

James is speaking of heaven.

The Christians who are the “poor” thatJames is referring too, are to boast in their position in heaven, who they are in Christ Jesus.

The poor are to look beyond the Upside down world, to look beyond the Upside Down world’s view of them, and look to heaven, to how God sees them.

How does God see them in Christ?

He sees them as sons and daughters, heirs to His Kingdom.

Paul says of every Christian,

Galatians 3:26 (ESV)

for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

And then Paul explains your faith wrought inheritance further in

Galatians 4:4–7 (ESV)

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!

Father!”

So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

And as an heir, you have the full rights of sons and daughters of God, the same rights as the firstborn son (Hebrews 12:22-23).

As an heir Jesus promised that you would inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).

As an heir, you will inherit the kingdom (Matthew 25:34).

As an heir, you will inherit all things (Luke 15:31; 1 Cor 3:21-22; Rev 21:7).

Jesus himself will be your portion (Psalm 73:26) and you can say with the Psalmist,

Psalm 16:6 (ESV)

The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

And lest you think the rich will come and take it away from you, Peter says of your inheritance that it is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded though faith (1 Peter 1:3-5).

Speaking of our inheritance, Charles Spurgeon says,

“Talk of princes, and kings, and potentates: Their inheritance is but a pitiful foot of land, across which the bird’s wing can soon direct its flight; but the broad acres of the Christian cannot be measured by eternity.

He is rich, without a limit to his wealth; he is blessed, without a boundary to his bliss.”

Charles Spurgeon

For those in Christ who are poor in this world, through faith in Jesus as their Christ, they have been adopted as sons and daughters, coheirs of the kingdom of God.

I’m reminded of a story of adoption in Reader’s Digest.