A wealthy business man died.At his funeral, many people came to his widow and the rest of his family to express their sympathies. Suddenly, a young man approached the widow with an unusual request. He said “Ma’am, I know you don’t know me, but I was wondering if I could get in on your husband’s inheritance.” The widow reacted, of course, with noticeable shock. The man saw this,and said “Ma’am,you don’t understand. I’m a really good person. I do lots of good things ,I’m very sincere, I even go to church sometimes. Doesn’t that entitle me to some of his inheritance?” “No,” the widow replied,”to be part of the inheritance, you must be part of the family.”
This little parable illustrates the attitude many people take toward God. Many ask;”But aren’t we all part of God’s family?Aren’t we all children of God?” The answer to these questions may surprise some, but the truth is, no, not everyone is a child of God. In John 8:44 Jesus tellssome very religious people “You are of your father the devil!” All people are CREATIONS of God, but not all are CHILDREN of God. In order to be part of God’s family, you must be adopted into it. That's what we'll be discussing in this message, which is called "Jesus vs Religion."
I don't know about you but I cringe when someone describes me as "religious." Don't hang that albatross around my neck!
James 1:27 ESV
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
This is the only time in the New Testament that the word "religion" is used in a positive way and, even then, it's telling us to keep it pure and undefiled. That's something to think about.
Culture today tends to think of religion in terms of preference rather than truth. One person likes chocolate ice cream, while another person likes strawberry ice cream. Similarly, one person says I get my truth from Jesus, while others say they get it from Buddha or Mohamed or someone else.
Now before we go any further, I want to give you something else to consider: Every major world religion, even ones that were around for thousands of years before Jesus Earthly life, still try to incorporate Him in. For example, a Hindu might call Jesus an avatar, an incarnation of one of their deities. A Buddhist might say that He was a bodhisattva, an enlightened person on their way to buddhahood. Islam came along 300 years later but Muslims would say that Jesus was a great prophet. The fact that all of these different religions acknowledge Jesus in some way really speaks to His impact on the world! At the same time, these are all very different and contradictory ideas about who Jesus is.
Have you ever heard someone say "All religions teach the same thing?" No they don't. I have been studying comparative religion for almost as long as I have studied the Bible. You can't homogenize all the different religions without stripping them of their core teachings. They simply can't all be true. To accept something as true automatically means to reject contrary ideas as false. Tim Keller put it well:
Every faith is "narrow." Even the faith that says all faiths are equal excludes those who disagree. Therefore, it's a mistake to assume some beliefs are more "open" than others. They all exclude those that disagree with them. The Christian faith though has Jesus dying for people who don't love or care for him. Placing him at the center of your life will allow you to do the same for those who don't love or care for you. That makes Christianity the most inclusive of all exclusive faiths.
Regardless, All religions do have a common theme and that's exactly what makes Christianity unique. What we call "religion" is our attempt to earn the favor of God, or whatever that religion sees as ultimate reality, through some moral code or set of rituals or things of that nature.
The problem with that should be obvious . Isaiah
64:6 tells us that
"...all our righteousness are as filthy rags" Please forgive the crudity of what I am about to tell you, but a literal translation of "filthy rags" is referring to a bloody menstrual cloth. That's how God sees our human religious efforts. He is totally disgusted by them.
Why is that? Think about being in court and trying to bribe the judge. How far will that get you?
Deuteronomy 10:17 New Living Translation (NLT)
“For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, the mighty and awesome God, who shows no partiality and cannot be bribed.
Instead of giving us some method to dig ourselves out of our sin, Jesus took the punishment for us. This is the opposite of what religion is. Rather than showing us a pattern for working our way to to God, which is impossible, Jesus was God reaching out to us.
Ephesians 2:9 talks about how our salvation is a gift from God, not a reward for our good works. If it was something we could gain through good deeds or religious devotion, it would be something we could boast about, We would get the glory instead of God.
We see this vividly in a conversation Jesus has with a very respected Jewish leader named Nakdimon or Nicodemus. Let's look at John 3:1?-?8 ESV
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
He comes to Jesus under the cover of night and we don't know what initially motivated him to come to Jesus in this manner.
Jesus wastes no time, telling this respected, educated devout man that unless he is born again, he will never see the Kingdom of God.
And again, I can't emphasize this strongly enough. Jesus wasn't saying this to your common, everyday "sinner." He was challenging one of the religious elite that, in spite of his piety he was still a lost man. He needed this new birth just as much as anyone else. In fact, when he asks Jesus what He means, Jesus chides him for being a religious leader yet not understanding this.
Jesus goes on to draw a distinction between natural birth, or "born of water," and spiritual rebirth. Born of water refers to when our mother's water breaks and we are born physically. But even then, although we are physically alive, the Bible isays in
Ephesians 2:2 that we are dead spiritually. How can that be? As we talked about before, it goes back to our first parents, Adam and Eve.
Let's look at Psalm 51:5:
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Psalm 51:5 ESV
Romans 5:12 ESV
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
And that condition reveals itself through our sin, our missing the mark of God's ideal, our disobedience to His commands. In the words of Romans 3:23 "... all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God"
I'll give you an example: Have you ever told a lie in all your life? Sure, who hasn't? So then, how many lies do you have to tell to make you a liar? Only one, and Revelation 21:8 says that liars will have their place in the lake of fire. So if we have to base it on our own good works, we are dead out of the gate!
It goes much further than that, though. God doesn't judge us based only on our actions, but He also judges our thoughts and our intentions. Maybe you have never physically cheated on your spouse or with someone else's, but Jesus said in
Matthew 5:28
that if you even entertain a lustful thought, you have already committed adultery in your heart. Maybe you have never killed anyone, but have you ever hated anyone? 1 John 3:15: " Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life.
How much" religion" does it take to undo all this mess? How much do you have to pray and fast? How much money do you have to give away? How many pilgrimages do you have to make? How much human effort can to bring something dead to life?
Again, in and of themselves, those are just filthy rags. Paul Washer said
“[Alot of people] think that Christianity is you doing all the righteous things you hate and avoiding all the wicked things you love in order to go to Heaven. No, that’s a lost man with religion. A Christian is a person whose heart has been changed; they have new affections.”
To echo what Grant said recently, this is why sound doctrine or teaching is so important. In a religious world with so many theories about Jesus, how do we know the truth about Him? He tells us that Himself. Turn to John 5:39-44
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 5:39?-?40 ESV
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:27 ESV
So Jesus said the way to know Him is to do exactly what we are doing right now: To search the Scriptures! And friends, He is all over them! Let's look at just a few of the countless prophecies made about Jesus centuries before He was born:
Genesis 12:3 tells us that the Messiah will come through Abraham's descendants
Genesis 17:19 says that He will come through Abraham's son , Isaac
Numbers 24:17 narrows it down even further: He will come through Isaacs son Jacob
Genesis 49:10 prophesies that He will come through Jacob's son, Judah
Jeremiah 23:5-6,, along with Psalm 132 states thatHe would be a descendant of King David
Michah 5:2, predicted 700 years ahead of time the the Messiah would be born in the city of Bethlehem
Isaiah 7:14, also written 700 years before His birth, said His mother would be a virgin.
Psalm 22, the Psalm Jesus quoted on the cross when He cried out "My God my God, why have you forsaken me?" also contains the prediction that the Messiah's hands and feet would be pierced. This is an obvious referance to His crucifixion. The amazing thing is that at the time this was written, crucifixion hadn't even been invented yet!
OK, so these are some Scriptures from the Old Testament about Jesus. But while He was on earth, Jesus was making sure His story would be recorded for us
“He who hears you, hears me. (Luke 10:16)”
This intensified during the time leading up to His death. In John 16, beginning with verse 13, He tells His friends that there were things that they were not ready to hear yet, but the comforter, the Holy Spirit would come in His place and would guide them into all Truth. Further, when He prays just before His crucifixion, He prays for them as they continue on with His work and for those who would come to faith through their teaching (John 17:6-26).
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 17:6?-?16?, ?18?-?26 ESV
Of course, a number of His apostles went on to write portions if the New Testament, Matthew, John, James and Peter. Mark worked closely with Peter and Luke worked closely with another key figure in Bible history, the Apostle Paul.
Most of us know the dramatic story of how this one time persecutor of the Christian Church became one of its most important messengers. If not, you can read about it starting in Acts 9. As important as the four Gospels are in telling us about Jesus, most of what they describe obviously focus on what happens leading up to His death and resurrection. Their significance after the fact is largely explained to us through the revelation given to Paul.
While again, Paul was not one of the original twelve disciples, he was still recognized as an apostle by those who were a part of that group. Turn to Galatians 1:18-20;
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)
Galatians 1:18?-?20 ESV
Next skip down to 2:9
and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
Galatians 2:9 ESV
Also, turn to 2 Peter 3:15-16
And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
So we see here that Peter also recognizes Paul’s writings as being Scripture .
So we see here how Jesus made sure we have a reliable document on His life. Unlike other religions, we have verifiable, historical data for our faith.
While there are lots of avenues we can use to explore this, tonight I want to focus on the single most verifiable fact in history: Jesus' resurrection!
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One of the most striking evidences for the Resurrection is its immediate impact on the religious world of the day. With the founding of the church in 32 AD, we see a sudden change in the day of worship. This is significant because all of the early Christians were Jews coming from a strict background of observing the seventh day Sabbath. Once they became Christians, however, they made their day of worship Sunday, the first day of the week (Acts 20:6-12; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2) (6). This was done in order to commemorate Christ’s Resurrection on that day (Matthew 28:1-7; Mark 16:1-9; Luke 24:1-8; John 20:1-16). In addition, we see new ordinances practiced by Christians from the very beginning of church history. These include Lord’s Supper, i.e. Communion or Eucharist, which represents Jesus’ broken Body and shed Blood, as well as baptism, which represents His death, burial and Resurrection. In addition, the Resurrection is depicted in Christian art found in the catacombs dating back to the time of the persecutions. The First Century Church has also left numerous other monuments to this history altering event, such as hymns and church readings done in honor of the Resurrected Christ (7).
This brings us to the strongest evidence of all: The fact that the risen Jesus was seen alive by over 500 eye witnesses! If these appearances were a delusion, how could this many people testify to the exact same thing?
This is especially significant when we consider that many of them were tortured and killed for bearing witness to it. Would people endure this for something they knew to be false? We also see the dramatic conversions of two previous skeptics: James, brother of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:7) and a brilliant scholar named Saul of Tarsus, who we now know as the mighty apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 15:8-9)
It takes something supernatural and miraculous to do that. You need a new heart, a new nature, which is what being born again is. Jesus took the punishment we deserved and paid the penalty for us. When we turn away from our sin and trust in Jesus and what He has done for us, He makes us new creations. Our sins are forgiven and we are welcomed into God's family. That was what the man in the story I told you earlier couldn't see. To be part of family, you have to be born into it or adopted into it. When you are born again through faith in Jesus, you get both! Let's look at Galatians 4:4?-?7 ESV
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Friends, this is the great equalizer. I am no better than anyone else. I am no less in need of God's grace than anyone else. Jesus saved me in spite of myself and He can save you too! This is the most important decision you will ever make. You are not guaranteed tomorrow or even your next breath so please don't waste this opportunity.
(Jesus said) I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. NO ONE comes to the
Father BUT BY ME.-John 14:6
Yet TO ALL WHO RECEIVED HIM to THEM gave He the right to become sons of
God.-John 1:12
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is NO OTHER NAME under
Heaven given among men by which we must be saved-Acts 4:12
Don't complain because God only provided one way of salvation. Just be thankful that He did provide one! And friends, He is more than enough!
“Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17 Amplified Bible)
