P3 OF 5 | WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MISSION? | PILLARS OF A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW

Pillars of a Biblical Worldview, Part 3 – January 28, 2024
Sermon Intro: Telescope

Your worldview is the framework from which you perceive reality and make sense of life and the world

Biblical Worldview Pillars:
God created all things

Biblical Worldview Pillars:
Every person has a sinful nature

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NIV2011)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV2011)
“…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Biblical Worldview Pillars:
Every Christian has a responsibility to share God’s message of reconciliation
Application: Compare to Non-Biblical Worldview

John 14:6 (NIV2011)
6  Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the only way to God
Example: Google Maps

2 Corinthians 5:14 (NIV2011)
Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
We are compelled by love

John 3:17-18 (NIV2011)
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
 
John 3:36 (NIV2011)
36  Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
Example: Kids’ car

Different people reach different people
We have different stories

Different people reach different people
We play different roles

1 Corinthians 3:6-9 (NIV2011) 

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

So if you're new to Redeemer, we're in a series. You're joining us in the middle of a series we're calling pillars of a biblical worldview. We're basically talking about the lens through which we perceive the world around us. When I was a kid, I was probably, I don't know, five, six, maybe seven years old, early 70s. My father was teaching at the time, teaching, among other things, high school physics. And one of the projects that his high school physics class had one year was to build, design and build a telescope. Now, this is not the kind of telescope you're used to seeing on Amazon. This was a very large telescope that was quite powerful. Well, they finished the construction of this telescope, and one evening they scheduled an event to try it out to see if their telescope really worked. So I was able to tag along. I was excited to do so to hang out with the high school kids. So we set up the telescope that night, and we focused it on Saturn. Never forget it. And before we looked through the telescope, we all looked. Now, that's Saturn right up there. You see that twinkling dot in the sky? That's Saturn. Well, we took turns crawling up on this ladder and looking down through the eyepiece. When it was my turn and I looked down through that eyepiece as a little boy, I could not believe what I saw. Saturn is a whole lot more than just a twinkling star in the sky. I saw a planet. I saw rings around that planet. And those rings had beautiful colors. You see, I could see Saturn for what it really was because I was looking through an eyepiece that helped me see it properly. When it comes to seeing our world as it really is, God has given us an eyepiece called the Bible. Scripture is the lens that God's given us through which we can see the world according to. Not our perspective, not a human perspective, but according to his perspective. So in this series, we're talking about how to see the world through the lens of the Bible. That's called having a biblical worldview. If you want a definition of what a worldview is, here's the definition we've been working with in this series. Your worldview is the framework from which you perceive reality and make sense of life and the world. And it's important for us as christians to have a biblical worldview, to see the world from God's perspective. But as I've shared with you over the last couple of weeks, according to a 2022 survey conducted by Arizona Christian University, only 6% of christians in the United States have a biblical worldview. That is to say 94%. The vast majority of christians in our country fail to view the world through their right eyepiece and fail to see the world as it really is. So in this series, we're examining what scripture has to say about certain pillars that undergird a biblical worldview. For example, we started the series in the very first verse of the Bible. The very first pillar of a biblical worldview is this. God created all things. Now, we know the Bible says that. Most everyone knows the Bible says that. But what we did was we looked at the implications of that truth. If God created all things, what does that mean to you? And what does that mean to me? Last week we looked at the second pillar of a biblical worldview. Every person has a sinful nature, and we saw that helps to make sense of the world that we live in today. We're going to examine a third pillar of a biblical worldview, and this primarily comes from some of Paul's writings in the New Testament, specifically to a single church. There was a church that Paul had helped to establish in a place called Corinth, and he wrote multiple letters to that church. We have two of them in our Bible, and we're going to look at what he said to that church to discover a third pillar of a biblical worldview. We're going to begin in two corinthians, chapter five, verse 17. Paul writes this to christians. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. In this passage, Paul emphasized a christian duty, a christian responsibility. It's a responsibility, Christians, that you and I, we all share. No one is exempt from this. No one gets a buy on this. Every Christian has a duty. And Paul, in saying this, reiterates what Jesus himself said just before he ascended. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. The third pillar of a biblical worldview is this. Every Christian has a responsibility to share God's message of reconciliation. The message of. Listen, Christian. God's message of reconciliation to the world has been entrusted to you and me. Now, as I've done the last couple of weeks, I want to take just a moment to compare this to a non biblical worldview. How does the biblical worldview here differ from the non biblical worldview? Here's what a non biblical worldview says. A non biblical worldview says matters of faith are personal and private. In other words, you're free to believe whatever you want to believe spiritually, but keep that belief to yourself. I've heard this sometimes no one has the right to push their faith onto anyone, as if that were possible. Faith cannot be forced. But faith is to be personal and private. Just keep it to yourself. In fact, the non biblical worldview leads to something even more than that. It leads to this kind of thinking. It's only by religious tolerance that we can live at peace and all get along. But see, a biblical worldview is very different from that. A biblical worldview insists that we share our faith. We are to champion God's message of reconciliation in our world. Our faith in Christ is personal, but it is not private, nor should it ever be. And for very good reason. Why is it that this is such a vitally important pillar of a biblical worldview? The Bible has much to say about why we as christians should champion the message of reconciliation in our world. And I want to share some of those reasons with you, starting with something Jesus said on the night Jesus was betrayed. He made many remarkable statements. Perhaps this one is the most remarkable. Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Church. One of the biblical motivations for us to serve as God's ambassadors is simply this. Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus is the only way according to Jesus'own claims, the only hope that your friends have, the only hope that your family has, the only hope that your coworkers have. According to Jesus, the only hope we all have is Jesus Christ. There is no other. Now, a non biblical worldview. I don't have to tell you this. A non biblical worldview just outright rejects this. Here's what a non biblical worldview says. The religions of the world are just different ways to get to the same place. It's kind of this picture of God on top of a mountain. And Christianity has one path up that mountain to get to where God is. But Islam has yet another path, a different path that leads to the top of the mountain in a different way. Buddhism has another path to get to where God is or this state, and it's different from other religions. But other religions are just as valid as any other religion because they all lead to the same place. The non biblical worldview looks like Google Maps. I was in Florida a few weeks ago and I was in the Orlando area, so I wanted the fastest way home. So I plugged in my home address into Google Maps and I hit go. And it gave me several different options. Have you all seen this? It actually drew out on my little screen a map, several different maps to get from where I was to where home was. And each route said something like, if you go this way, it will take you about 7 hours to get home, but if you go this way, it will take you seven days because it goes through McDonough. And I don't know, you know what I'm saying? If you've come up 75, if somebody out there can fix McDonough, I mean, that would be a great thing. But there were different ways to get from where we were to where we were trying to go. But I knew no matter what route I chose, no matter which path I clicked on, I knew that I'll get me home. But the Bible says there's only one way to get to where God is, and that way is through Jesus. In fact, according to Jesus, listen closely. According to Jesus, who validated his credibility in the most convincing way possible, tells us that all other paths to get to where God is, all other religions are wrong. Pastor Jeff, how could you say that? I can't. But Jesus certainly did. You see, we share the message of reconciliation because God's message of reconciliation through Jesus is the only hope that those we care about have. Which leads me to something else in the Bible that speaks to our role as gospel bearers. This is found in two corinthians, chapter five, verse 14. Listen to this. Paul says, christ's love compels us because we're convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. Another reason that we as christians are to share the christian message is because we are compelled by love. Listen to what I'm about to say. There is nothing more loving. The greatest act of love that you can show someone is to share with them how they can be reconciled to their creator. Last week, if you weren't here, we talked about sin, which is always one of the most popular topics. But we talked about sin, by the way, we're against it. We talked about sin and how serious it was. Sin is sin's deadly. Sin's not like a cold. Sin's like cancer. Sin's terminal. And when we fail to share the gospel with someone, we could be sending them to their eternal death. We all know John 316. Probably most people in the room could quote John 316 by heart. But verses 17 and 18 follow verse 16. Listen to how they read. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him, speaking of Jesus, whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned. But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only son. And a little later in that same chapter in verse 36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them. Which leads me to a very interesting question. Given what's at stake, why are we sometimes afraid to share our faith? Given what's at stake, and given how much we authentically care for other people, why is it that gospel conversations are oftentimes awkward? Why do we steer clear of those kinds of discussions? I'd like to share a true story that I think helps clarifies the answer to that question. When my children were small, we bought for them one of these little cars that was battery operated. Have you all seen these? You sit in the car and you press the accelerator and you can steer the. It's like a real car, just miniature. Well, our kids love that thing. I mean, they spent hours driving around in that little car. Well, we had a single rule about that little car. We told them, look, you enjoy that little car just as much as you want, but don't go toward the road. Don't go toward the road. You can drive it down the sidewalk, you can drive it in the driveway up by the house, but if you take it toward the road, you're going to be punished. Well, one day I come beboping out of the house and one of my children, who will remain nameless, was beelining for the road in that little car. So to make a long and unpleasant story short, I raced down there and I disciplined my child, took the car away from them and did some other things. All right, let me just share with you. When I disciplined my child, there was a rift in our relationship. My child did not like me very much after that for a little while. But if I as a father had said, you know, I value my relationship with my child so much that I don't want to create a rift. I'm just going to go ahead and let my child go toward danger. What kind of father would I have been? That is not a loving thing to do. Why is it that sometimes we're afraid to share our faith with those we care about? You know why? I think it is because we love our relationship with that person more than we love that person. We want to guard that relationship with everything that we have, even if it means withholding life saving truth from our loved one. We are called to love people more than we love our relationship with them. The Bible says that we are compelled by love. Sharing our faith is the greatest demonstration of love that we can show someone. And I want to finish by sharing another reason why this pillar of a biblical worldview is so important. And here it is. Different people reach different people. Listen closely. God has placed into your life people that perhaps only you can reach. God has given you divine appointments. He's given you relationships. He's given you points of credibility that uniquely position and equip you to reach someone unlike anyone else can. You know, I used to wonder when I reflected on how we are God's ambassadors. He has given us the most important message in the history of the world. I used to wonder, God, why on earth would you do that? I mean, time out. That doesn't sound like a good plan to me. Why would you trust the most important message in the world, in the history of the world, to people, people who are prone to fail, people who make mistakes, people who are not always faithful? I mean, God, surely there must have been a better option. I mean, what about angels? I mean, angels aren't as prone to failure as we are. Why not let angels evangelize the world? Or how about this, God? Why not just write messages in the sky for everybody to see? I mean, coming from your hand, that would be a lot better for than no, but God chose to make us the bearers of the gospel. God chose to use people to reach people, because different people reach different people. Let me give you a couple of examples how we all have different stories. We all have different stories. God has routed your life through experiences that make you uniquely capable and credible to connect with someone who is going through a similar journey. You know, as much as I care about someone, as much as I want to help someone, I can't always empathize with people the way others can. My wife taught me this early in our marriage. We had just had our first child, and we had a friend, a lady, who was expecting her first child, and she was nervous. She was pregnant. She was nervous about giving birth. So Catherine and I were trying to comfort her and give her some courage. And I said, look, I know you're concerned. I know you're nervous, but labor's really not that bad. That was a very foolish thing for me to say and did not go over very well. Kata was very quick to remind me how foolish that was. See, look, I wanted to help that poor lady, but I have no credibility with that experience. God has given you experiences in your life, some of those painful times, and you pray sometimes in your quiet time. God, why did you let that happen to me? Why did I have to go through that? You know why you may have had to go through that? Because God's got someone in your future who's going through the very same thing, and he has already planned for you to intersect with that person so that you can point them toward him. One of the reasons it's so important for us to share the message of reconciliation is that we have different stories allowing us to connect with different people, but we also play different roles. Now follow me on this. Sometimes when we talk about evangelism, especially as evangelicals, our minds leap to confronting someone with the gospel, taking them through the Romans road. If you were to die right now, do you know you would go to heaven? Why would Jesus let you into his heaven? We immediately go to those things, and that's wonderful. That is a vitally important part of sharing our faith with others. But church, according to the Bible, evangelism is far more than that. I want to read to you a passage in one corinthians, chapter three. Paul's writing again to the corinthian believers. Here's what he says. I planted the seed. Apollos watered it. But God's been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but only God who makes things grow, the one who plants and the one who waters have the same purpose. And they will each be rewarded according to their own labor, according to what they did. For we are coworkers in God's service. You are God's field, God's building. You see, there are many different activities that precede the harvest in farming, before a harvest can come, that soil first must be tilled, it must be broken. Seeds must be planted, seeds must be watered, and then after all of that happens, the harvest can take place. What am I saying? God may use you to reach someone by giving you an opportunity to break the ground of their heart. Maybe he gives you an opportunity to ask some questions of someone who does not yet know Jesus. That might cause them to think deeper and more carefully about spiritual things, breaking the soul of their heart. Perhaps God might give you an opportunity to plant a seed in that person's life. Maybe by sharing with them a passage of scripture, or inviting them to a Bible study, or inviting them to church, helping them take that next step. God may give you an opportunity to water seeds that have already been planted. By showing that person love through service and acts of kindness, selflessness. And perhaps God will give you a chance to harvest from that which has already been tilled, planted and watered. And you yourself will be the one to lead someone in to the body of Christ. What I'm saying is we're all given different opportunities to fill different roles in the garden. But it takes all of us. If someone tries to harvest without the soil being tilled, there's going to be no harvest. It takes all of us to fill different roles to make sure the harvest will come. Let me close with this question. Who do you know that has not yet placed their faith in Jesus? Let me ask that question a little bit differently. Who do you know that is not on the path to where God is? God has placed that person in your life for a reason. Your prayer this morning during our response time might be, God. Would you make me sensitive to every single opportunity you lay before me to till the ground, plant the seed, water the seed, or reap the harvest? Help me not to miss a single opportunity to share the wonderful message of reconciliation you have entrusted to me because I care too much about the other people to miss out on an opportunity. There may be people here this morning either in this room or listening to me online, and you've never placed your faith in Jesus. You've never said yes to Jesus. You yourself are not yet on your way to where God is. The wonderful news of the gospel is this. God sent his son Jesus to die to pay for your sins so that your sin that has offended a perfect, holy God. Your sin could be washed away, you could be cleansed whiter than snow, because Jesus died in your place. And the gospel says that whoever places their faith in that will be saved. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. If you've not yet said yes to Jesus, my prayer for you is that in these next moments of silence from your heart, you would cry out to your creator, something like this. God, I realize my sin has separated me from you, but I believe Jesus, your son, died and rose again so that my sins can be washed away. And I confess to you right now, I'm placing all my hope in what Jesus did for me, to rescue me from my own sin, and to make everything right between you and me. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. If that was your heartfelt prayer this morning, we'd love to share with you some literature that more fully explains what it means to place your faith in Jesus. If you prayed along with me, or if you'd like to know more about what Jesus has done for you, that literature is available for you at guest services. As you leave, just stop by. Say, Pastor Jeff mentioned some literature. May I have a copy? And they'll give you a copy of that. If you're watching online and you prayed along with me just now, I would love the chance to be able to send to your home, wherever you are, that same literature. We've set up a website called imadadecision.com. I made a decision. There you'll find resources that help to explain what it means to place your faith in Jesus. You'll also find there a place where we can receive from you your mailing address. And if you'll provide that to us, we'll put the same literature that we're giving away this morning in the mail to your home this coming week.