Sermon Notes 5-19-2013

Not a fan!

Sermon Five: Rules or Relationship???

Gandhi: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

 In John Chapter 8. We read about Jesus teaching in the courtyard one morning. His teaching is interrupted by an angry mob that bursts onto the scene, but the mob is made up of the religious leaders of His day. Being pushed along on the crest of the mob is this woman, and perhaps she is dressed in nothing but a bed sheet as she is shoved to the dirt on the ground in front of Jesus. One of the religious leaders gives the accusation to Jesus and says, “We found this woman in bed with a man that was not her husband. The Law says we stone her. What do you say?”

This was a pushy move by these religious leaders. They use the rules to try to trap Jesus. Rules can do that to us; turn us into an angry mob of sorts. We might not form together and parade a sinner around town, but we’ll huddle in whispering circles and drop someone’s name to everyone we talk to.

Please understand: God’s Word provides both guidance and commandments. And those commandments, those laws, they are here to protect us. And, if we’re honest, none of us can follow those laws perfectly.

Every one of us has fallen short, some of us in more public settings, and others in more private ones. But when we overemphasize following the rules, we can get people thinking we’ve got it all figured out. We can get people thinking they shouldn’t share their struggles with us, because we’re perfect. And that’s what I want to address this morning.

Sometimes, certain Christians can be a lot more like the Pharisees and religious leaders than Jesus. Rules are good, but without Grace, without the price Jesus already paid, we get lost in all the rules, all the stuff and we forget it’s about Grace first and foremost.  There is nothing we can do to receive a free gift nothing we have to pay, Its Free!

And that’s what salvation is a free Gift, and if we start attaching rules, if we put a bunch of fine print to it then we take away the Gift.

Are rules bad, no. God gave us ten and all of us fall short, and it’s by God’s grace alone we get the chance to become followers. 

1) Rules Can Be Cumbersome

Me, the cousins and Catholic Church and school

·         The rules were overwhelming

·         I write bad with both hands

·         No one knew all the rules

·         There was no way to follow them all

·         They cared about the rules more than anyone or anything

·         Only certain people knew all the rules

We were exhausted from trying to keep all these rules at school, at church and at home.  Most of my family walked away from the church, they started to tie having a relationship with Jesus, with all the rules. The rules were rigid and without grace we we’re constantly having to prove our worth and pay for our “gift” of salivation. 

Back to John chapter 8

·         This woman is looking down—humiliated, guilty, and ashamed. She’s been caught breaking the rules, and this may be the day that breaking a rule costs her everything.

·         Then Jesus does the most amazing thing! He kneels down and He begins to write something in the dirt.

o   We don’t know what He was writing.

o   Some commentators speculate that perhaps He was writing the sins of the accusers in the dirt.

·          Meanwhile, the religious leaders wait for an answer.

o    They know they’ve caught Jesus by surprise, and they’re ready to hear Him submit to the letter of the law.

o   They’re waiting for him to shrug his shoulders and say, “Well, those are the rules.”

Finally, Jesus looks up at these spiritual leaders and says, “If any one of you is without sin, he can cast the first stone.” And one by one these bullies drop their stones and walk away; and Jesus is left alone with this woman. And perhaps, with a little bit of a smile, He looks up at her and He says, “Is there anyone left to condemn you?” Maybe she thought, “There is still one. There is still one who could condemn me.” And then Jesus says with tenderness, “Neither do I condemn you. You go now and leave your life of sin.”

2) Guilt over Grace! The Rules Don’t Inspire Grace

Matthew 23:1–4 (NLT)

Jesus Criticizes the Religious Leaders

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses.* 3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.

·         Fans who follow the rules instead of following Jesus find that they are weighed down with guilt.

·         Every time they come to church they find that the preacher has another weight to add to the bar…

·         For fans it’s all about Do, Christ did the work that’s why it’s called Grace!

·         Fans of Jesus sooner or later find themselves exhausted.

·         Fans grow tired of trying to maintain an outer appearance that doesn’t match an inner passion.

·         They find themselves weary of trying to keep all the rules in hopes of somehow earning God’s favor.

·          

And I want you to know, before we go any further, the grace of Jesus, that same grace that saved a woman from being stoned, calls to those who have been hauling around a long list of rules and rituals and obligations – Jesus calls to those who are tired of pretending to be more than they are. He calls to those who have had the guilt and fear of religions wear them down and he says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”, Jesus invites you to follow him:

Matthew 11:28–12:1 (The Message)

      28–30      “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Jesus wants you to live without the weight of religious rules, Jesus knows that if you put the relationship first the rules won’t matter because you will follow them because you love him, not because you have to. You want a light burden, you want all your wishes to come true? When your dreams for you align with what Jesus wants for you THAT’S when it happens in a split second all your dreams come true! You follow Him and he takes over! All the worries of tomorrow are gone, you live each minutes just glorifying and loving Him!

3) The Rules Don’t Keep Us Around

You know when I grew up in the Catholic Church the rules didn’t keep me or any of my family around. The rituals, the things we had to do it didn’t keep us in church. We were never taught about relationships, or grace just a bunch of rules. The rules didn’t keep the women in John 8 from breaking them, even if it would have cost her life. She had no internal compose,  no relationship with a living God to guide her, to Follow.

Things have to change; we have to define Christianity, first and foremost, as the following of Jesus Christ. We cannot expect to recruit the world to a set of standards that we would never live by or follow if it wasn’t for a love relationship with Jesus Christ. They’re not going to get on board with that—unless it’s because they know Jesus. So it must, first and foremost, be about following Christ.