Turning the World Upside Down: Lessons for the Church from Acts 1-8

“Iain Duguid’s Turning the World Upside Down—based on the opening chapters of Acts—is a splendid gift to us from a writer who stands in the church’s best tradition of being both a professor and pastor. It skillfully combines interpretation of Scripture with clear and relevant applications. It is scholarly yet readable, simple yet enriching, enjoyable yet challenging, packed with expositions of the ‘there and then’ that help us see and feel their implications for the ‘here and now.’ Here is a book to help both the church and the individual Christian turn our world ‘upside down’ in order to turn it ‘the right way up.’”

“Though undergirded by Iain Duguid’s profound scriptural knowledge, Turning the World Upside Down is not a dense theological treatise on the important New Testament book of Acts. Rather, it walks through the story told in the first eight chapters, presenting its profound truths in a conversational way, making penetrating and personal applications at every step.”

“My colleague, friend, and former pastor Iain Duguid has dedicated his life to understanding the Scriptures at their full depth, teaching biblical truths in an understandable way, and growing healthy churches by developing godly leaders. This makes him the ideal pastor to do what he does so helpfully in Turning the World Upside Down: connect the story of the first church to the ministry needs and gospel opportunities of the church in today’s post-Christian, prerevival society.”

“One suspects that Iain Duguid’s Turning the World Upside Down is meant to help turn the church right side up. Local church leaders and church ‘starter-uppers’ could get their sea legs here (don’t miss, by the way, the superb treatment of Acts 2:42–47). More broadly, Duguid’s exposition carries just the right balance of bite and comfort; yet the reader has the strange sense that he or she is being ‘chased,’ for Iain repeatedly and relentlessly pursues the religious and the raunchy, the respectable and the rebellious, with the claims of the upside-down gospel.”

“Iain Duguid’s combined experience as a biblical scholar, church planter, and preacher makes Turning the World Upside Down a practical, illuminating, and challenging exploration of the achievement of the risen Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit in the infancy of the church in its new covenant form. Duguid shows from the early chapters of Acts that both the planting and the thriving of churches are attributable not to our methods but to the sovereign power and presence of Christ himself—a message that both pastors and God’s people must take to heart.”

“Warm and wise, clear and edifying—this is a wonderful exposition of Acts 1–8 from a seasoned pastor and professor. Iain Duguid skillfully relates the teaching of Acts to the rest of Scripture, and to our lives today.”

“At a time when it seems like Christianity is fading in the West, Iain Duguid turns our focus to the explosive spread of the gospel in Acts. Ours is the God of the resurrection and Pentecost; bringing life out of death is his specialty. If you need a powerful dose of encouragement from the apostolic mission for your ministry and life in the church today, read this book!”