Desktop Computer Christians Part 3
Tablet Computer Christians
Scriptures: Matt. 15:1-9; Matthew 23
Introduction:
This morning I will continue with part 3 of my series I’ve titled “Desktop Computer Christians” by focusing on tablet computer Christian.
As you recall from my first two sermons, the primary difference between a desktop computer Christian and a laptop computer Christian was the laptop computer Christian’s ability to fulfill the commission that Jesus has called all of us to – to go out and make disciples of all nations. The desktop computer Christians do not make God an active part of their everyday life and keep Him assigned to Sundays and/or other religious services/places. They do not strive to be able to know enough about God’s word as that is something that should be left for those who are actually “called” into ministry work. The laptop computer Christian has a different perspective on how God interacts with Christians. They believe that God is active on a daily basis with all of His children versus just those called into ministry work. They believe it is their responsibility to know God but more important, to represent Him to the world. They are not ashamed of Him and do not believe that we should only interact with God on Sundays. That being said, there is still yet another type of Christian that exists in the world today – the tablet computer Christian. For this message I am using the term “tablet” to refer to computers such as the iPad.
The first tablet computer and the associated special operating system (pen computing technology) go all the way back to 1888 when the first patent for an electronic tablet used for handwriting was granted. The first patent that recognized handwritten characters was issued in 1915. The first publicly demonstrated system using a tablet and handwriting recognition instead of a keyboard for working dates back to 1956. Development of the tablet computer continued through the 1980s and in 1987 Apple Computer started its tablet project. In 2010, Apple introduced its first iPad. The iPad placed restrictions on the owner to install software thus deviating it from the PC tradition and its attention to detail for the tough interface defined it as a new class of portable computer devices. Since the iPad’s introduction, other companies have developed their own versions of the tablet computer but one thing has remained constant – there are restrictions on the owner to install software to the device. So let’s examine this more closely as it relates to Christians.
I. Restrictions
Everyone who owns an iPad or similar tablet computer understands the need for “apps”. With the iPad, in order to get the most out of it, you must download apps that allow you to do whatever it is you desire to do. Even though there are thousands of apps available to choose from each one of those apps have been pre-screened and pre-approved by Apple. If Apple did not like the app then it would never be available for an iPad’s owner to download. While this is thought to be a positive benefit for the purchaser as it protects the purchasers from dangerous apps that could do harmful things with their personal data, it also acts as a filter as it restricts what people have access to limiting their freedom to purchase what they choose. Unlike the first two messages in this series, this morning I will focus on the restrictions component as we examine the tablet computer Christian. Turn with me to Matthew 15:1-9.
“(1) Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, (2) “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” (3) And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? (4) “For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’ (5) “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” (6) he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. (7) “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: (8) ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. (9) ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ ” Matthew 15:1-9 (NASB)
The Pharisees were at various times a political party; a social movement; and a school of thought among Jews and it was the latter which often caused Jesus to be in conflict with them. After the destruction of the Second Temple, the Pharisaic beliefs became the liturgical (how public worship/ceremonies would be done) and ritualistic (rituals of behaviors) for Rabbinic Judaism. Their rituals became more important than the Old Testament teachings and were in constant conflict with what Christ taught. This is what Jesus was addressing in this Scripture. Jesus said that they transgressed the commandments of God by choosing instead to follow their own traditions. Let’s examine what they did.
“(1) Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, (2) “Why do Your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” The disciples were known to eat without washing their hands and Jesus had done the same (Luke 11:38). The Pharisees had a serious issue with this. If you examine the question that they asked Jesus, they asked Him why His disciples broke the “tradition of the elders” not the word of God. The written Law did not require the washing of hands (Lev. 22:1-16) for the average person and only the priest needed to do so before eating to cleanse themselves from anything unclean. The Pharisees had made this a requirement of everyone through their traditions. Now here is what really irritated Jesus, they cared more about people breaking their traditions versus being obedient to the Word of God. Jesus responded with the following:
(3) And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? (4) “For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’ (5) “But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” (6) he is not to honor his father or his mother.’ And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.” Jesus asked them why did they transgress (break) the commandments of God with their tradition. After asking the question he gave them two examples. The first comes from the Ten Commandments (the fifth commandment) “Honor your father and your mother that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” (Exodus 20:12) The second example was taken from Exodus 21:17 which say “He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.” Both of these examples pertained to children respecting and helping their parents when they are in need which was obviously very important to God. The fifth commandment is the first that contained a promise that if a child did so their lives would be prolonged on the earth. Well the Pharisees, through their traditions, nullified these commandments. As it related to the fifth commandment the Pharisees changed it to say that if a parent needed help and the child desired to give the money to God (the temple) which could have been used to help the parent, then that was okay. In other words, as long as the child was giving the money to the temple (thus profiting them) they were not “obligated” to honor (help) their parents.
Jesus called them hypocrites and reminded them of the prophesy spoken by Isaiah. He told them (7) “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: (8) ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. (9) ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. ” Jesus told them that their desire to follow their traditions versus the commandments of God resulted in them worshipping God in vain. They had actually nullified the commandments of God in order to follow their own doctrines and traditions while thinking that they were still “worshipping” God. He told them that Isaiah had prophesied correctly about their “form of worship.”
So what would this look like today as it relates to a tablet Christian? Let me described some “doctrines/traditions” that are so ingrained in some Christians that they override the teachings of Christ especially as it relates to our walking in love towards one another. This is a short list of things that some believe will send you straight to hell:
• Communion must be taken on the first Sunday of every month. Not only must it be taken, it must be taken in a certain way, through a certain “procedure” and with the use of certain proclamations.
• Suits for men and dresses for women must be worn to Church for Sunday worship. If you come to Church wearing anything other than this you are subject to being ridiculed or being told that you were not dressed appropriately to attend “their” service. This is a very serious offense in some Churches. We have actually had members who were offended that people did not dress up for Church on Sundays.
• Baptizing a baby. Yes there are many Christians who believe that if a baby dies before they are “baptized” they will go to hell.
• If you dance or drink alcohol you’re going to hell. These Christians are not fond of dancing in any shape or form (even praise dancing in Church) although real wine for communion is acceptable.
• Tithing: not only are you going straight to hell if you do not tithe but while you’re here on earth you will not receive any blessings from God. However, as long as you pay your tithes you can do whatever else you want to do.
• Ministers should wear their robes when in the pulpit. Anything less is an offense to God and to the position.
Some of you might be thinking that these things are crucial to being a Christian and worshipping God, but consider what is missing? Each one of the things I have listed represents a “restriction” that someone places on your life in order for you to be able to be a Christian. Just like the tablet computer, you can only download apps that have been prescreened and approved by the manufacturer of the device. You only have access to what they want you to have access to. You must accept these restrictions if you want to use their device. Well, for the tablet computer Christian, you must accept their restrictions if you want to be a tablet computer Christian and only after you accept their restrictions can you enjoy all of the other benefits of being “one of them.” Does this make sense?
II. Eight Woes
Turn with me to Matthew chapter twenty-three. In this chapter Jesus did one complete teaching on the sorrow He felt for the scribes and Pharisees, those who should have fully understood what God required of His followers. Jesus begins by describing to the people what the scribes and Pharisees had done in setting themselves in the seat of Moses (acting as teachers of the Law.) He said that they tell them to do something and then they themselves do not do it. But what I want to read to you this morning are the eight “woes” that Jesus called out. The word “woe” is use to express grief, regret and/or distress. These woes are not only evoked by indignation, and pronounced as a solemn judgment, they are also expressive of profound pity. They were also prophetic of the future which includes our current times. Consider what Jesus was expressing in the following verses and how the same is happening even today:
• (13) “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” Teaching people that if they do not do certain things they are cursed and going to hell. Also because of all of the “restrictions” placed upon a person they choose not to accept Christ at all because they cannot measure up to man’s standard of what a Christian is.
• (14) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Pastors and leaders who attach themselves to widows with the purpose to deceiving and robbing them, of their possessions. This comes through enticing them to give to their ministries by giving them “special” attention. There are some pastors, ministers and televangelists who actually prey on single women and widows for financial support.
• (15) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” When reaching out to others we are more concerned with people’s outer appearance (in the case of the Pharisees having men circumcised was more important than them having an inward change) versus them changing inwardly. A proselyte was someone who converted to Judaism. What Jesus was saying was that when the Pharisees converted a person to Judaism it did them more harm than good as what they taught them was not of God but their traditions.
• (16) “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.’ (17) “You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?” When an oath/promised was made by the temple (similar to saying “I swear by this building”) it was not binding and could be broken. However, if someone swore by to gold in the temple, it was binding and could not be broken. In other words, all promises could be broken except those consisting of a promise to give money to the Church. Those promises could not be broken.
• (23) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.” The law of tithes only applied to produce and the Pharisees took it to include even the smallest pot-herbs. If you grew anything, no matter how large or small the plant, they wanted “their” ten percent of it. They paid special attention to this small matter while ignoring the more important things like justice, mercy and faithfulness. The same is happening today.
• (25) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.” Jesus was speaking to how careful they were to wash their dishes as if the cleanliness of the dishes affected the food/drink for which they held. Again, many people today consider the outside visual as the core of who a person is and are often fooled. Rev. Welcome shared with me this week about a “cool” reception she received from a pastor and his wife when they noticed her tattoos. They would never know the calling on her life!
• (27) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. (28) “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” Once a year the Jews used to whitewash the tombs and the places where the corpses were buried, partly out of respect for the dead, but chiefly in order to make them easy to see to reduce the risk of a persons' incautiously contracting ceremonial defilement by touching or walking over them. Although the tombs were clean on the outside, they still held rotting corpses on the inside. This is what Jesus was comparing the Pharisees to; clean on the outside, rotten on the inside. We witness this in Church especially in those Churches that have a dress code.
• (29) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, (30) and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. (31) “So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. (32) “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. (33) “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” In this last woe Jesus speaks of the Pharisees bragging about how they would have been different from their ancestors as it related to them killing the prophets. Even though they professed not to be like their forefathers, they were the same as they rejected the current day prophets. (Matthew 23:13-17; 23, 25, 27-33 (NASB)
I want to leave you with this – if you are tablet computer Christian and you have the ability to affect a lot of people because you are so portable, the same people that you are impacting could be the same one you’re putting into a prison as it relates to their relationship with Christ. Understand, I know there are many benefits to the tablet computer verses the desktop or laptop computer, but the one criteria that others control what you have access to is so similar to the restrictions that we place on one another as Christians is remarkable. The reason we have so many different types of Churches is because of the “restrictions.” The reason that many people will not come to Church and some will even outright reject Christ is because of the restrictions that we place on them in order for them to be “saved.”
The last thing I want to point out this morning if you did not pick up on it, the Pharisees were about the money – what was coming into the temple. If there was a way to “tweak” a commandment and increase the funding coming into the Church they would do it. Does this sound familiar? There are many pastors threatening their members with hell in order to get more money into their Churches. If you doubt me, just turn on the TV late one night and watch.
So, are you a tablet computer Christian?
Next week I will end this series with the no-computer/no-tablet Christian. (Yes there are Christians in the U.S. who do not own a computer and thus they learn and operate the old fashioned way.)
Until next week, may God bless and keep you.
