How to be a Christian Without Being Religious
James 1:27, Matthew 23:26-28
1. What do you think of when I use the word religion?
∑ For some it is large impressive cathedrals both old and new
∑ Others it is the experience of worship in a church assembly
∑ For others it is weddings, funerals and the like
∑ Maybe you thought of televangelists
2. A whole lot of people today are saying that they want God but don’t want religion. There is a lot of reasons for that but it is a widespread statement of people who have deserted faith. They just want to be a Christian without being religious.
3. When you preach a lesson like this you are going to offend someone. I am not trying to be offensive.
I want all of us to know what God thinks religion is. We are going to be looking at it a lot today so we need to make sure we are all on the same page and more importantly on God’s page.
True Religion according to God Is…..
"27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27, NIV.
When people say they want to be a Christian without being religious this isn’t the religion they speak of. They are referring to ……
Organized Religion
1. Really it’s disorganized religion - I’ve been working with churches for 30 years and believe me they aren’t very organized.
2. A very negative perception by many people. Why?
a. Seen as institutional and irrelevant
b. Seen as being very hypocritical. Especially in the light of child sex abuse cases that have come to light in many churches.
c. Seen as being old fashioned and out of touch with modern communication styles etc.
d. Seen as being more interested in money than spiritual issues
3. This attitude is reflected in the followed poem called Return the Cross to Golgotha
I simply argue that the cross be raised again
at the center of the marketplace
as well as on the steeple of the church.
I am recovering the claim that
Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral
between two candles;
But on a cross between two thieves:
on a town garbage heap;
at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan
that they had to write His title
in Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek...
And at the kind of place where cynics talk smut,
and thieves curse and soldiers gamble.
Because that is where He died,
and that is what He died about.
And that is where Christ’s men ought to be,
and what church people ought to be about.
Jesus had something to say about organized religion and from His statements we can discern what we should really be about.
1. Outside Inside
Matthew 23:26-28 “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
Appearance versus substance
* Being a Christian means being concerned about what is really on the inside.
* Being religious means only being concerned on what the outside looks.
1 Samuel 16:7 “…. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.””
2. Camels & Gnats
Matthew 23:23, 24 ““Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”
Details Details!
Details are important but not when you neglect the more important matters.
* Being a Christian means being concerned with what God says is important.
* Being religious means being only concerned with the little issues that you think are important and neglecting the big issues.
I hear of a church recently that had a great disturbance amongst the members when one of the sisters in the church started to bake the unleavened bread for the communion. It was different. It was a bit chewy and so some complained they could not break it. They felt breaking it was important. It tasted different to the previous bread they used. A major inquiry was made into what the sister was putting in the bread. The story goes on as it does in many a religious group and gets nasty. Do you think this is what Jesus had in mind when he gave us this spiritual meal to remember His love and sacrifice?
AKA Planks & Specks - check this out when you get a chance
Matthew 7:1-5 ““Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
3. “That’s not the way we do it around here”
Matthew 15:2-6 ““Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honour your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
Tradition versus the Word of God
* The overly religious find a great deal of comfort in tradition even to the point of nullifying the word of God to keep the tradition
* The Christian enjoys tradition but would never let it get in the way of doing what God says.
Example: Many of us grew up or are familiar with churches that practice the baptism of babies. It is so cute. It is a very old tradition. It connects the family to the church. But do you know how many times that it is mentioned in the Bible. Zero. Why do we have it today? It became a tradition in many groups and eventually became the law of many churches. So we ended up forcibly baptizing unwilling babies and many times neglecting the baptizing of adult believers.
4. Relationship & Ritual
Matthew 15:7-20 “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean’, but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean’.” Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this? …. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean’. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean’.””
Lip Service and Heart Service
* The overly religious are concerned with the rituals, like hand washing here.
* The Christian is concerned with what really messes us up
5. The Worship Day and the Worshipped God
"On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shrivelled. 7 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8 But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shrivelled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" 10 He looked round at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11 But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus." Luke 6:6-11, NIV.
The power of God versus the power of religious performance
Here we have the most powerful demonstration of Jesus about the difference between being a genuine worshiper of God and just a religious person.
* The overly religious are concerned about the problem of this man being healed miraculously on the Sabbath.
* What do you think the Christian is concerned about? A miracle has occurred and I have witnessed it. This man has been made whole
Conclusion. How do we being this all together?
1. Jesus was not impressed with the overly religious of His day. His most scathing and public criticism was reserved for them.
2. We need to be genuine Christians who are not just performing rituals or going through the motions.
3. What sort of Christian are you? The superficial religionist who is concerned with how things look or the heart motivated one who looks to the inside as well as the outside.
4. What’s the most important thing you need to do today? Jesus made it clear. Love God. Love People. Everything else is secondary to that and in fact is useless without it.
Remember the warning of Jesus.
Matthew 5:20 “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
