ENLARGING YOUR VISION OF THE WORLD

8/26/00 AND 8/27/00

John 3

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, {Or his only begotten Son} that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

2 Corinthians 5

19 That is, that God was in Christ making peace between the world and himself, not putting their sins to their account, and having given to us the preaching of this news of peace. (BBE)

-Last week I talked about America and God’s place in this nations history and hopefully, future.

-This message continues the whole idea of looking at things from God’s perspective. We are looking this week at the world.

-The title is “enlarging your vision of the world”.

-One of the values that are written each week in the bulletin is that:

EVERY BELIEVER SHOULD BE A WORLD CHRISTIAN (GREAT COMMISSION CHRISTIAN) ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN MISSIONS

2 Kings 6

17 And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so that he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all round Elisha.

-In a National Geographic study 24 million Americans couldn’t find their country on a world map.

-The English often joke about American ministers thinking certain African nations are located in Europe.

-They also talk about how world events are covered in Europe and often ignored on U.S. TV, even CNN.

-Why is that important? BECAUSE YOU ARE A WORLD CHRISTIAN.

-Jesus died for the whole world. Jesus cares about the whole world.

-An example of a Biblical Worldview is in the area of FINANCES.

LARRY STOCKSTILL said we all need to go overseas for about a year then come back and get a good perspective.

-God wants to prosper His people in every nation. We have a tendency to judge everything by American values that aren’t necessarily biblical values.

-It is very easy to become NEAR-SIGHTED.

-JONAH HAD A BAD WORLDVIEW. HE WAS RAISED TO HATE THE NINEVITES SO HE COULDN’T SEE ANY REASON TO WANT TO HELP THEM.

-You are motivated by your worldview. How you see God’s world affects how you see God’s purpose.

-Your LIFE EXPERIENCE/UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIBLE/SELF-INTERESTS determines how you view the world.

-I saw a teaching that in order to change someone you have to change their worldview first. That will change their beliefs which will change their values which in finally change their behavior.

-Missionaries often work on the outside guy…religion has tried that for centuries.

ETHNOCENTRISM- the belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group.

Ever hear of Hitler/KKK/Black Panthers/Red and Yellow Black and White-all are precious in His sight???

-Examples with Europe: deodorant/wine/movies/etc.

-Lets look at 3 Scriptures that deal with this issue. (There are more.)

Acts 1

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

-Jesus gave us four areas to concentrate on simultaneously. We shouldn’t evangelize one country then move to the others.

JERUSALEM-EAST CENTRAL MISSOURI

JUDEA-UNITED STATES

SAMARIA-EUROPE/JAMAICA

THE ENDS OF THE EARTH-TOTALLY DIFFERENT CULTURES

-In Acts 8 we see the church reaching out to the hated SAMARIANS. We later see Philip reach the first AFRICAN: the Ethiopian Eunuch.

Acts 10

9 ¶ About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.

 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.

 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.

 13 Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."

 14 "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."

 15 The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

 16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

 17 While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate.

 18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.

 19 ¶ While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three {One early manuscript two; other manuscripts do not have the number.} men are looking for you.

 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."

-God was saying that He valued all men.

-One of the biggest issues in the church was the ethnic problem.

-It has never gone away in the world…it must go away in the church. The church must lead the way in not calling impure or unclean what God calls clean.

-I am going to begin a few questions to ask ourselves.

-The answers to those questions will make us examine how we view God’s world…the one that Jesus died for.

1.           WHO IS JESUS?

-What is all of this about Jesus? Is He really the savior of the world?

-Do we actually believe that following a man is the answer to the problems of the world?

Matthew 16

13 ¶ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

 14 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

 15 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, {Or Messiah; also in verse 20} the Son of the living God."

 17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.

 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, {Peter means rock.} and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades {Or hell} will not overcome it. {Or not prove stronger than it}

GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Jesus took His disciples to Caesarea Philippi to the foot of Mount Hermon North of Galilee. This was a place where there was a cave nicknamed “THE GATES OF HELL”. There is a cave there from which a major spring flowed and idolaters gather to worship the god PAN. It is a creature that is half man and half goat. It was a fertility god that involved all sorts of perverted sexual things.  They believed that the water there returned to Hades-the underworld. It was known as the entrance or gates to Hades. Against this backdrop Jesus brought His disciples and said see that weird goat dancing and paganism? As crazy as that is it will not prevail against the Church. That scene represented everything that was wrong with the culture at that time and now. Jesus was saying….even that can’t prevail against Me and the revelation of Me. That was a direct challenge to pagan culture. If you read the account in Mark it looks like Jesus turned to the crowd and said “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

-Jesus was preparing His disciples who would face pagan gods in the culture and be emboldened to preach the answer JESUS.

Lu 10:3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

(NIV)

John 16

33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

1 John 4

4 ¶ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

-Your life is based on who you say Jesus is.

-Is Jesus unique?

-What can motivate someone to go to another culture? What can motivate someone to lay down everything and obey because Jesus says:

FOLLOW ME?

-Pilate said “Are you the King of the Jews?”

-The religious leaders said “Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

-The demons said “Lu 4:34 "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"

-The disciples said “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

-Who do you say He is?

-A Hindu man once asked E. Stanley Jones what Christianity had that his religion did not. The reply: “JESUS CHRIST”.

-In response to the claim that Jesus was a great moral teacher but not God…C.S. Lewis said:

“That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.”

-Your worldview changes when you see the uniqueness of Jesus.

-When you get it in your heart that the world will die separated from God forever without Jesus…it motivates you to do things you normally wouldn’t do.

-Jesus said He was the way, the truth, and the life.

-If Jesus is the truth:

(Paul Borthwick)

WE SHOULD HAVE A SENSE OF URGENCY/WE HAVE A SAVIOR TO PROCLAIM

WE SHOULD HAVE A SENSE OF SACRIFICE/WE HAVE A MODEL TO IMITATE

-C. T. Studd was the English equivalent of Michael Jordan. He was a famous cricket player in the 19th century. He left sports to become a missionary to India, China, and Africa.

He said, “If Christ be God and gave himself for me, then no sacrifice that I can make for him is too great”.

-If Jesus is the Messiah then we can overcome the world.

-Everything I believe must be adapted to that truth.

1 John 4

4 ¶ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 

-Who is Jesus to you?