“Shifting Your Worldview”
Pastor David Moore
Old Testament reading: Psalm 16:1-11 (NIV)
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Acts was written by Luke to a person named Theophilus which means God loves. Luke wrote his books with gentile themes in mind. Acts is a historical document that is stories Luke collected and events he lived through. The sermon today will set a context of Acts in the sermon series about Jesus life and the early church. ~D. Moore
New Testament reading: Acts 1:1-11
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. After His suffering, He showed Himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while He was eating with them, He gave this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?”
He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or the dates the Father has set by His own authority. 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.”
After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”
Luke writes Acts and Luke in a way that is learned, and demonstrates his education and understanding of what took place, with a subtext of convincing Theophilus and us that in these books contain truth. ~D. Moore
This truth, if it is accepted and believed, will shift in the person’s worldview. Luke in Luke 24 and Acts 1 gives a similar story of the truth about miracles that took place. ~D. Moore
The worldview during Jesus’ life was through the lens of Greek philosophy. The Greek’s thought was that if it was spiritual, it was good, anything material was less good. The Jewish worldview believed the material world was good because it was created by God. ~D. Moore
We have two different worldviews and Jesus was both; He is a man in flesh and of the Spirit. ~D. Moore
The Jews believed in a bodily resurrection at the end of time, so Jesus coming was outside of their world view. ~D. Moore
The people who were with Jesus before His death were shocked to see Him alive. A new worldview of miracles came about. ~D. Moore
Belief of Jesus being alive was a sudden revelation that changed world view about death and who Jesus was. ~D. Moore
If Jesus was actually resurrected from the dead, then people’s feelings about it did not matter. Because what they understood about death changed; worldview of the possibility changed. ~D. Moore
When people come to faith, what they most want is a solution to problems. They don’t want the worldview to change, they want to add something to their lives to make it better. ~D. Moore
The gospel says this: Christianity won’t work for you, if you summon up enough belief to believe it; but instead Christianity works because it is the truth. ~D. Moore
Christianity isn’t true because it works, it works because it’s true. ~Lynn Anderson
Christianity is not about following a teaching that will save you. Jesus saves us. Jesus takes our sin and hands us His sinlessness to go before God. And that changes people. ~D. Moore
This week: Think, dwell, and pray to Christ that we understand this dynamic relationship. Search for the truth, not for what works for you. What works is ever changing, but God is the solid truth to build our lives on. God bless. us that.