Faithful with Worldview

Acts 17:16-34

Evaluating the worldview you've adopted

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Good morning, church family! (Introduce self + welcome guests)

In our sermon series this November, we are focusing on A Faithful Life. (Comments on child dedication and connection to our topic for today)

Today, the focus of our discussion is on Faithful with Worldview. The topic at hand is essential for everyone to understand, whether you’re younger and still in the process of figuring out your worldview or you’re older and have adopted a worldview that you are now passing down to the next generation.

(Girl with glasses) Just like this image represents, the type of glasses or worldview through which you view the world has tremendous impact on your life – both in the present and into the future. What you think about God, self, salvation, abortion, body image, sex and sexuality, or any other major issue of the day depends on your underlying worldview more than anything else. Let me ask you this… (Faithful with Worldview)

Do you think your neighbors view life and the topics just mentioned in the exact same manner that you do? Probably not. How is it that people who live in the same neighborhood, with very similar experiences of the world around them, can come to such radically different conclusions about the world and how we should live in it? The primary reason is that we have different worldviews.

Take just one example. There are many people who think that the scientific evidence supporting the Darwinian theory of evolution is overwhelming and beyond dispute, such that anyone who doubts that theory must be, to use the memorable words of Richard Dawkins, “ignorant, stupid, insane, or wicked.” Yet there are many other people—including myself—who think that the scientific study of organic life points in a very different direction, namely, to the existence of an Intelligent Designer behind the natural world. What accounts for this sharp disagreement? Is it because one side has access to a mass of evidence that the other doesn’t? Is it because one group is more familiar with the scientific data than the other?

No, those can’t be the reasons. The scientific evidence is publicly available. It’s out there for anyone to examine and evaluate. There are very intelligent and well-informed scientists on both sides of the debate. The explanation for the sharp disagreement doesn’t lie in the evidence itself but rather in the interpretation of the evidence—and that interpretation is determined, more than anything else, by the worldviews of the people interpreting the evidence (specifically, whether their worldview allows for intelligent supernatural causes).

Let me unpack that a bit…

A worldview is the lens or glasses through which you view the world.

Author Michael Palmer defines it this way, in his book Elements of a Christian Worldview, "A worldview, then, is a set of beliefs and practices that shape a person's approach to the most important issues in life."

Worldviews play a central and defining role in our lives. They shape what we believe and what we're willing to believe, how we interpret our experiences, how we behave in response to those experiences, and how we relate to others.

Nancy Pearcey in her book Love Thy Body helpfully points out, "Every practice comes with a worldview attached to it." (repeat)

Whether you realize it or not, everything you do is informed by your worldview.  (And the same is true for everyone else.) It is safe to say that your worldview is an essential component to who you are!

Now here is an interesting thing about worldviews… Worldviews can be true, partially true, or entirely false. For example, what if my worldview says that the way humans arrived on earth was that an alien race landed here 3 billion years ago, planted seeds that would later develop into human life, and then left to allow us to grow up so they could observe us from space (kinda like a giant petri dish science project)? Would you say that worldview is true, partially true, or entirely false? *pause* How do you know!? What determines whether my worldview is right or wrong or whether yours is right or wrong? The answer is how closely the worldview corresponds to reality – that which is true. We’ll come back to that idea as we go.

For now, understand that you all have a worldview whether you realize it or not. Everyone does. The question is what worldview do you have? And, more importantly, is it the biblical worldview?

Our primary text for today is Paul’s visit to the city of Athens, which is recorded by Luke in Acts 17. In this passage, you are going to witness three different worldviews on display. Paul is going to be representing the biblical worldview, while those he is dialoguing with will be representing the pantheistic and atheistic worldviews.

With that in mind, let’s turn our attention to the study of God’s Word. To help you understand where we are at and what is going on, Paul is in the middle of his second missionary journey currently traveling through the region of Macedonia. (MAP) He had just been run out of Thessalonica and Berea by an angry group of unbelieving Jews and traveled by boat down to the city of Athens, which was still a great city of Greek culture, even in the days of the Roman Empire. We join Paul having arrived in Athens and spending time in the city waiting on his traveling companions, Silas and Timothy, to catch up to him. Let’s see what Paul busies himself with while he’s waiting for his friends…

You have got to love Paul! He is so passionate for the Lord that he cannot remain quiet as he tours the great city of Athens. His love and commitment to the One, True God and his love for others leads to his spirit being provoked within him at what he saw. To be provoked means he was greatly upset within. Why? Because he saw that the city was full of idols. Another way of saying that is that the city was buried under their idols. Innumerable temples, shrines, statues and altars were everywhere he turned! According to one source I read, in the Parthenon stood a huge gold and ivory statue of Athena, ‘whose gleaming spear-point was visible forty miles away.’ The point being that these people were committed to their idolatry! It was everywhere on display and Paul, as a Christian, was deeply troubled by it, so much that he was led to speak up and seek to share the truth about God with those around him.

Do you have a similar response to the prolific idolatry all around us? All around us people are living for and worshiping someone/something. Whether it’s the new Islamic mosque in Granger, the Sikh shrine in Johnston, the materialistic mall temples of our American culture, or a variety of other alternatives to the One, True God and biblical worldview… We also walk amongst a society full of idolatry in our day and age and this issue of Faithful with Worldview is of the utmost importance! Both for your sake and for everyone we share this life with…

Paul’s response was driven by his commitment to the biblical worldview. Because he knew the truth, he was convicted of sharing it with others, so that they might have the hope that he had! In our time together this morning, I am aiming to lead you through…

If you’re going to be a good steward of your worldview, you must first take the time to evaluate what worldview you have and then seek to conform it to the biblical worldview. Then, and only then, can you be faithful with it as you seek to live it out each and every day.

So, our journey begins as we…

If we were to bring our earlier definitions of worldview back into this statement, it would sound like this:

I hope we can all agree on that. We intrinsically know it to be true based on our own experience of life, but we have also seen it on display in Acts 17. These people were “very religious” as Paul put it. That wasn’t a compliment. They were busy with all kinds of activities that were driven by their worldview commitments. As I mentioned earlier, there are three different categories of worldviews on display in this passage:

These are the three all-encompassing and mutually exclusive categories of worldviews. We see examples of each of these still around in our day. Since my goal today is not to focus on all the other kinds of worldviews, we’re not going to spend our time discussing them.

My priority is to help you evaluate:

The unfortunate reality is that most in our society do not have a biblical worldview, even amongst those who profess to be Christians. Many of you have likely heard of Dr. George Barna who is known for his 40+ year commitment of researching the cultural and faith trends of our nation.  In his most recent American Worldview Inventory from this year, his reports are showing that the dominant worldview in our country is known as Syncretism. Syncretism is the blending of elements from multiple worldviews into a customized individual philosophy of life. It means a person is picking and choosing which parts of a variety of worldviews they like to arrive at their own custom worldview. This view has dominated the worldview landscape of our country for several decades now but is clocking in at 92% of adults in our country. The runner-up to Syncretism is the biblical worldview at 4% of our nation. Now what you need to understand is that alongside of the 92% who are Syncretistic in their beliefs, 66% (2 out of every 3) of American adults (18+) describe themselves as Christian. This means there is a tremendous overlap in those who identify as Christian yet, in their practice, are living out a different, biblically untenable worldview.

Barna’s American Worldview Inventory 2023-25: The Annual Report on the State of Worldview in the United States reveals that only 13% of those who are labeled as born-again Christians hold a biblical worldview and that of all Americans surveyed only 4% hold a biblical worldview. Note: Theologically-identified born-again Christians refers to people who believe that when they die, they will go to Heaven, but only because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. The designation is not based on self-identification of being “born-again.”

These sad statistics reveal that the majority of those who profess to be Christians are not living in a manner consistent with the teachings of Christ. Though they profess to follow him with their lips, their hearts and therefore their lifestyles are far from him. And the danger of this trend is that the truth of God’s Word and ways are increasingly being abandoned for alternative worldviews. That not only will shipwreck our nation, but it also more importantly shipwrecks souls for all eternity.

This is why Paul’s spirit was provoked within him as he walked around Athens! He understood the spiritual peril these people were in. Do we have the same understanding for ourselves and our neighbors?

Now let’s move beyond acknowledgement of the facts to seeking understanding of what makes up a worldview. To evaluate the worldview you’ve adopted you must also…

In Paul’s dialogue with the Athenians, we find him addressing many of these essential elements. My hope is to demonstrate these from the passage in Acts, wherever possible, and then to discuss how we can know whether a worldview is correct. Once we’ve done that, then we’ll discuss what it looks like to steward or be faithful with the biblical worldview.

So, let’s consider what we find about the essential elements of a worldview from Acts 17. It starts with our:

What you believe about God is going to have a tremendous influence on the rest of your worldview and life. As we’ve heard, in Athens there were many views of God represented in the people. In verses 24-27, Paul speaks to them about the One, True God. Here’s what he said:

Ironically, the truth about God is the underlying foundation that we’ve been focusing on in stewardship month. God created all things. He owns everything. He is the supreme authority or Lord of heaven and earth. He answers to no one. He is not dependent on his creation for anything but is himself the source of humanity’s life and breath and all that we have.

The biblical worldview has a BIG view of God. To be more precise, He is the pre-existent, eternal Creator of all things. And he has revealed himself as the triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the single clearest passage on this reality is Jesus’ own baptism in Matthew:

The biblical worldview is also mono-theistic, meaning there is only ONE God. This was driven home to the nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:

Understanding that there is only ONE God means that every other so-called god is a myth or idol. It is impossible to call yourself a Christian and believe that there are multiple gods. The biblical worldview affirms ONE God who reveals himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Now, this is only brushing the surface of what the biblical worldview believes about God. There is so much more that can be said about his character, his works throughout history, including the grand redemption plan he has put into action with humanity, but we simply do not have time to get into all those details. If you are desiring to have a correct (biblical) view of God, then you need to commit to studying His Word for clarity.

This brings us to our second essential element of a worldview.

Now Luke does not directly call attention to this in his writing in Acts 17. But let’s think about the basis for Paul’s argument to the Athenians. He is appealing to the reality of truth – truth exists – and truth is knowable. And from what source of truth is he making his arguments? The Scriptures. For Paul that would have included the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus that he had received. He did not have the benefit of the completed written New Testament like we do today.

Paul, and all those who hold a biblical worldview since the foundation of the church, believe that God’s revelation through the apostles and prophets is God’s inspired Word. These teachings have been written down for us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. When the Bible is spoken of as being “inspired” it means that the very words recorded in the original manuscripts of all 66 books of the Bible are God’s words.  Paul wrote about this conviction to Timothy:

Paul states that the Bible is θεόπνευστος (theopneustos), which literally means God-breathed and is also translated as “inspired”.  The Bible has its origin in God.  This passage implies that all the Word carries the same authority for life and godliness.

Every worldview has a view of truth. Some will claim it is unknowable. Others that it is relative – you have your truth, I have mine… And some will make specific claims to the truth. The biblical worldview understands that the One, True God is the source of truth and therefore truth exists and is knowable. Not only that, but God has revealed to us the truth necessary for life and godliness through His Word.

Now, as you are hearing from these passages, and as Paul taught in Athens, other essential elements of a worldview are:

Where does humanity come from? Every worldview must answer that question. Some are going to claim through evolutionary processes over billions of years. From goo to zoo to you. But the biblical worldview teaches that God made us. In fact, Paul gets even more specific than that. In verse 26 Paul affirms the historical Adam – God began with one man through whom every nation has developed. That is a specific truth claim that the biblical worldview makes and upholds.

So, if you’re paying attention, the biblical worldview believes that man is a created being. If you’ve been here with us in previous weeks of this sermon series, you have heard from Genesis 1 where we are told that God made us in his image, after his likeness. That means that every human has inherent dignity and worth because they are an image-bearer of God. This conviction is going to inform the way a Christian thinks about abortion, euthanasia, and many other issues that relate to the image of God in man.

In Acts 17:27, Paul states, “that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him…” God’s purpose for humanity is to seek Him and know Him! We have been made to know God and make Him known to the world around us. As we’ve said in week’s past, we are the visible representatives of the invisible God. Or, as we heard from our sermon last week:

In all things, we have been created to bring glory to God. This is the conviction of biblical Christianity. I am not my own, I have been bought with a price, therefore I am to glorify God in my body. (1 Cor. 6:20) As we’ve heard in previous weeks, this belief has tremendous implications for how we steward our lives here on earth! The way we manage the resources God has given us, from finances to time to health, matters because they are worship issues. These convictions originate from our biblical worldview! A worldview worth adopting must have compelling answers that correspond to reality about where we come from, what it means to be a man/woman, and why we’re here.

We also see from Acts 17 that there are the essential elements of:

In verse 18, the philosophers of Athens were mocking Paul for his “new” teaching that seemed like babble to them. Well, what was Paul preaching? Jesus and the resurrection. The Athenians’ worldviews led them to entirely different views of the problem of evil, the necessity (or not) of salvation, and of what is to come (eternity). Those are not elaborated upon in Acts 17, but Paul certainly is seeking to address them in his preaching!

The biblical worldview believes that since the days of Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve chose to sin by disobeying God in the garden, humanity has been born into a sinful state, dead to God, and incapable of saving himself. This means we are in need of a Savior, someone outside of us to rescue and redeem us. That is why Paul is preaching Jesus and the resurrection, because Jesus is the Son of God who has made a way of salvation available to us. The biblical worldview believes that faith in Jesus is the ONLY way of salvation. This is exactly what Jesus claimed:

And, lest we simplify the message too far, Jesus also taught that those who are truly believing in him will live a life of repentance as they follow him:

These convictions are why Paul called upon the idolatrous Athenians to repent and believe in Jesus! He knew that a day is coming, fixed by God, where the Righteous One will judge everyone. His proof for this was the life and ministry of Jesus Christ which was proven by God through his resurrection from the dead.

The biblical worldview provides compelling explanations for the problem of evil, the necessity of salvation and its means, as well as the existence of eternal life, either in heaven or hell based on your response to Jesus.

Now you are aware of the essential elements of a worldview, even if at a high level, but how does one know which worldview is correct? As we’ve seen in Acts 17 and as I’ve shared today, there are many possible worldviews out there. How can you evaluate which is correct and whether yours is the correct one?

The answer is straightforward. You want the worldview that corresponds to reality/what is true. It fits with what you can see/hear/touch/taste/smell and it is logically consistent. It makes no sense to trust in a worldview that is verifiably false or contradictory to itself. You want one that is proven true in every regard.

So, what I’d like to do now is walk you through some logical tests to consider for evaluating a worldview.  Regardless of what a worldview claims, to be viable it must pass some tests. Here is a basic summary of these tests:

 

 

There are a bewildering number of religions represented in the world today and the differences between them can be very striking. But all these religions have at least one thing in common: each represents a distinct take on reality—a particular way of viewing the universe and our place in it. In short, every religion reflects a particular worldview. And what’s true of religions is also true of secular ideologies such as Darwinism, Marxism, Existentialism, Postmodernism, and Expressive/Radical Individualism. Each one has its own distinct take on reality: on what is ultimate, what is good, what kind of beings we are, and how we should live. (Main Points)

Knowing these things is a significant step in the right direction for thinking rightly and evaluating your worldview. My hope is that by this point in the sermon you are better equipped to step back and think carefully about what you believe and why. Perhaps you are beginning to realize that you have not been careful in assembling your worldview. Perhaps you are a product of Syncretism – taking a little bit of the biblical worldview, with a little bit of a New Age worldview, mixed in a little religious pluralism, and poof you’ve arrived at a distinctly “you” worldview but not one that aligns with God’s teachings in the Word. Unfortunately, if we are to accept the statistics, it is highly likely that many of us are in this category, especially the younger you are.

That is why this matter of stewarding your worldview is so important! We live in a pluralistic society that accepts many gods and many competing truth claims. This is not a problem only for the secular world but also for those who profess faith in Christ.

In the words of George Barna:

Barna says that 1 in 10 of those who say they trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and entrance into heaven have a biblical worldview! That is shocking.

My goal in sharing these startling statistics is to motivate us to evaluate whether our worldview is the biblical one. And, if you are a parent or grandparent, to evaluate whether you are doing your job in having intentional conversations with your children to teach them the biblical worldview. While it is great to have Harvest Kids or Adventure Club to help instill these truths, this is primarily the responsibility of the family. That is why family worship or Bible time is so important. You need to have specific time set aside in your day/life to pursue knowing God and making him known to the next generation! It is necessary to forsake unbiblical worldviews and commit to the biblical worldview. This is where Paul was driving in his argument in Acts 17:30-31:

Paul was calling them to repent, to turn from their sinful ways to God’s ways. In the language of our emphasis today, he was calling them to commit themselves to the biblical worldview. And that same calling is our final step in evaluating the worldview you’ve adopted:

If you are not already committed to seeking to know God and make him known, through and according to his revealed will in his word, then it is time to repent. Paul’s call to action is necessary for you too. Repent for wrong belief and turn to the One, True God who can save you from your sin. He has made the way of salvation known by sending his Son, Jesus Christ to take our sins upon himself. Jesus lived the perfect life that you could not and went to the Cross in your place. On the Cross he bore the wrath of God for his people. There is no wrath left for those who believe in Jesus Christ and follow him! If you have never recognized your need for Jesus to save you and have never counted the cost of following him, then I want to encourage you to do so today. Ask him to forgive you for your sins and to give you a deep-seated, insatiable desire to know his commands through his Word! Far too many people are content with a half-hearted approach to knowing God and have little to no appetite for knowing or obeying his Word!

Jesus said:

The calling of Jesus is to turn from your old selfish ways, to die to your flesh and the world, and to spend your days following him. “Losing your life” for his sake but gaining eternal life. That is the beauty of following Christ. By learning to put off unbiblical beliefs/convictions/ways of thinking and living, you will actually be gaining what is truly “the good life” as you walk in God’s will and ways.

Will this be easy? No. Denying yourself and taking up your cross daily (an instrument of death) is quite hard! But will it be worth it? Absolutely. For you will walk in the way that leads to life, both in this life and the one to come. And, as King David so wisely put it:

Or, as Peter put it after Jesus asked the 12 if they were going to desert him upon hearing his hard teachings:

If you have tasted and seen the truth, then you know that there is no where else to go. Commit yourself to the biblical worldview by evaluating anywhere your faith and practice deviate from the teachings of Scripture. And where you find that you are living disobediently or believing false things, confess and repent! (Main Points)

This is going to take effort. It is going to require you to be a student of the Word. There is no excuse to be apathetic about reading your Bible. It is the word of truth that reveals the way of life. Paul and Christians down through the ages have been men and women of the Word. They walked in Jesus’ way. And they learned how to do so through what God has revealed and captured in the Scriptures.

And not only are we to personally commit to the biblical worldview, we are also called to be ready to share this truth with others, just like Paul. Because he had been saved and transformed by God, he could not remain silent while surrounded by people who were believing lies and heading to eternal destruction. He opened his mouth and engaged them in the synagogues, in the marketplace, and even the Areopagus. Wherever God gave him opportunity, Paul took it to share about Jesus and the resurrection.

And he was not afraid to endure rejection or persecution for his faith. At the end of our text today we heard that some mocked, others were still curious, and some believed. Paul was used to being run out of town due to his proclamation of the truth about Jesus. Yet he kept on preaching the truth in the hopes that more would hear and believe. Christian brother or sister, we must have the same convictions, as we too have been appointed as ambassadors for Christ! Will you be ready to share Christ with your unbelieving family/friends/neighbors/co-workers? Will you be ready to lovingly confront and share the biblical worldview with those who claim Christ yet are living unbiblically?  And will you be willing to endure rejection or persecution, should it come your way?

If you’re going to be faithful with the biblical worldview, then you must get to the place where you are saying “yes!” to these questions. It is not only for our own benefit, but so that others may know and believe in Jesus and have the hope of eternal life.

Let’s pray and ask God to help us be faithful in our worldview as we seek to live a faithful life.