Matthew 50
Jesus Vs Religion (Part 1)
Matthew 12:1–8 (NIV)
1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them.
2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.
5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?
6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.
8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
· Jesus is starting to get a little irritated with the religious right of His day
· I can almost hear it in His voice when He says:
o 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
o “8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
· I would imagine His tone changes
· And we are dealing with the same things today
SHOW PICTURE
· Religious people everywhere are picking fights and enforcing rules
o Instead, we should be showing grace
· Religious people everywhere are holding up signs and in the middle of politics
o Instead, we should be feeding the homeless and loving on folks with hungry souls
· Why does man constantly want to take what Jesus has given so freely?
VIDEO
Religion and Jesus are two different things
Jesus has never been about rules!
· Jesus denounced the religious rulers because they heaped an impossible burden on ordinary people like you and me.
· To even attempt to follow all the rules you would have to devote your entire life to just rules.
· The problem was that in keeping to the letter of the law they omitted to do more important things like caring for other people and promoting justice and mercy.
Love transcends law
· The trouble with laws is that they can only try to do away with negatives. “Thou shalt not kill”, “Thou shalt not Steal”, etc.
· Love is the opposite of law in that it deals with the positives.
o You cannot legislate for love or define degrees of love.
o You cannot pass a law that forces people to love.
o You cannot define degrees of generosity.
Why did Jesus break all these rules?
· The old testament law was not possible for man to keep.
· Religious rules and traditions only placed burdens upon people.
· Jesus came to abolish the idea of trying to please God through (any) religion.
· When religious rules get in the way of mercy, compassion, and justice they should be overridden.
· Jesus didn’t break rules to be rebellious, He broke rules to show that people mattered more than rules.
Matthew 23:23 (NLT)
23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things."
What church is and what it should be
Religion = bondage / Jesus = Freedom
· Religion
o Religion ties our hands
o It binds us and weighs us down
o It keeps us caught up in red tape
o It chains us down and makes moving and accomplishing things almost impossible
o And it makes us unapproachable
· Jesus
o Frees us up
o He releases us from the bondage of our past
o And allows us to move as one body
o We can get rid of the traditions that get in the way of progress
o Because we are not bound to them, we are not trying to please God in our actions
o We are obedient to carry out the mission set forth
o To Make disciples, love one another and love our neighbors
o We are free to show grace and mercy
o We are free to show compassion
o While the transforming love of Jesus changes us all from the inside out!
Religion Blinds us / Jesus gives us sight!
· Religion
o Instead of relying on the living God to give us the worth and significance we crave, we can easily start relying on religious traditions, doctrines, and ethical rules in order to get our self-worth.
o We feel like our life is worthwhile and significant because we are right—as opposed to all those who are wrong.
o The more tightly we cling to our religion, the more our judgments will blind us to the living God who is always active right under our noses.
o Instead of rejoicing that God has just saved someone, we might find ourselves offended that one of our religious rules was broken.
· Jesus
o Jesus allows us to see the world like He does
o With compassion, with mercy
o When we start to “see” who we are, who we really are we can start to love more freely
o Because He loves us in our sin, in our mess, right where we are
o Religion is about being RIGHT, about being self-righteous
o Following Jesus is about His strength and our weakness
Too often today I encounter “Christians” that think they are always right and everyone else is wrong. I see them hiding behind rules no one can keep and doing it all in the name of Jesus. All the while Jesus is still preaching the same thing:
· Love
· Grace
· Mercy
· Forgiveness
Religion is the infection
· Religion is the cause for the decline of the American church
· Religion can infect the body of Christ
· And just like cancer it is a silent killer
· It kills families
· It kills communities
· It chases away followers
· And it turns people from Jesus
Jesus is the cure
· For everything that’s wrong with Religion
· He is the example we are to follow
· He is the light that is to Guide us
· Jesus hates Sin! and He is the only one that can
o Save us from it
o and convict us to walk away from it
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