Jesus Against Religion

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Once I was in a large store with a demonstration model of a living room. The furniture was all arranged and on the shelves were beautiful hardback editions of classic works like Moby Dick and Great Expectations and War and Peace. Being a book lover I was drawn to these beautiful books and I went over and pulled one down. I was very disappointed to discover it was not really a book– it was just a box with a pretty cover and famous title. There were no pages, no words.

This is what many Christians are. We look like Christians externally, but there is no internal reality. Jesus came to bring us an internal spiritual power, not external “religion.” By “religion” I mean external religious rituals and practices. In the letters of Paul we are going to see that Jesus called people to leave behind external religion (both divinely given and pagan) and seek the internal spiritual reality in Jesus alone.

Traditional church often deteriorates into external religion, often distracts us from what really matters: the internal spiritual reality. I know this does not apply to everyone here, but it does apply to many of us. Many of us have no internal spiritual power. We are simply doing external religion. We have a “form of godliness but denying its power” 2 Timothy 3:5.

Colossians 2:6
6-7 internal spiritual reality
8 external religion (philosophy was a word used by Greeks of religion as well as secular thought, “basic principles of this world” also refers to religion)
9-10 internal spiritual reality
11 This is not external circumcision (not a religious ritual) Paul is referring to an internal spiritual act of Jesus
12 Baptism is an external reality but it points to an internal reality (no value as an external alone)
16-17 you have left all this external religion now you have the internal spiritual reality in Jesus
18 external religion
19 internal growth in Christ
20-23 external religion

Galatians 3:26-4:11
Galatians were returning to the slavery of external religion instead of the sonship of internal spiritual work of God
4:19 what Paul wanted for them was Christ formed in them
5:1-6 don’t go back to external religion: none of that matters what matters is internal faith expressing itself in love (actions of love not religious ritual)

Matthew 6 Jesus mentions 3 Jewish religious practices alms, prayer, fasting
does not tell them to stop but tells them the way they do them is empty, external religion they must be done in such a way that is internal and real: pray in your closet, give alms with no one knowing

We do many things here publicly read the Bible, listen to sermons, sing songs, eat the Lord’s Supper, put money in the plate, baptize with water, pray in public but all of this can be simply religion: external actions
Most of you have this religion, but is the Spirit in you?

What if I asked each one of you this question:
“Did you live this week walking by the Spirit?”
How many would say “yes”? half? 10? 1? I wonder.

Some of you may ask: How do I know if the Spirit is in me? Know that the apostles talked as if it was obvious. Paul tells us how we know the Spirit is in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

What will our children be saying in 20 years? Will they complain about the lack of spiritual life in the external religion of East Ridge Pres in which they grew up? Or will they talk about the spiritual life and love and joy in many in ERP?

Five Virtues

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2.24.08
Colossians 3:12 (1-17)
5 Virtues

COMPASSION
feeling with someone in his or her misery
feeling in the depth of your being

the right response to misery and suffering is compassion deep in your heart

Some of us are so business like
we don’t ever have compassion
we just do what we think is right
there is no pain within, no heat within,
no flood of pity within

it is common wisdom to say no one can feel another’s pain
your pain is your own
I can’t feel your pain
and yet Jesus calls us to feel with others in their pain
there is so much misery in the world
and yet most of us spend our days insulated from that misery
keeping the misery out, living in peace
not paying attention to the suffering

We see the faces of a human being
a child, a teenager, an adult, an elderly man
in pain– and often we don’t care

you see a news report on TV about people without shelter, food, and water
and you turn it off and you go about your day and you don’t care

you see an acquaintance who is suffering and it is too much to deal with
he causes you disquiet and discomfort
you don’t like hurting people because they cramp your style of life

we are too busy
and we want think we have the right to comfort at all times

don’t want to hurt with someone who is hurting, this derails us
“I am doing good– don’t knock me off the track with our problems”

Romans 12:15
weep with those who weep

other people’s pain
is to be an important part of over lives

KINDNESS

kindness is an action
one feels compassion and then one acts in kindness

you don’t just pity,
you act on that pity

Jesus had compassion and he fed the crowd
The Good Samaritan had compassion and he helped the man beaten by robbers

often you can’t fix the problem

you come alongside someone in his pain
you be with him– listen to him

sometimes you try to do something to meet the need
help with the problem
ease the misery of a situation

we can’t fix all the problems, but we can practice acts of kindness

2 Tim 2:24
“the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but be kind to all”

Romans 12:13
“contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality”

this is not simply being polite
this is not simply being friendly
this is not simply being nice

this is not simply paying taxes
and tithing and letting the government and church take care of those people

sometimes we give to one so he can give to another, but we must act with kindness directly toward others as well

HUMILITY “lowliness”

We often help other people from a superior position, our kindness is condescension, we hold ourselves in honor and the other as lowly and we come down to help them

but here Paul calls on us to take the position of lowliness, to help from underneath,
not to help from above

Philippians 2:3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
(or more significant than yourselves)

Romans 12:3
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
you position yourself under the other

you don’t put yourself in the position of honor
you put the other in the position of honor

sometimes we show kindness wanting to be paid in honor
we give kindness to the other and honor to ourselves, but we should give kindness AND HONOR to the other

12:10
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

12:16
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Often we show kindness but we keep our distance, we must join those in the low position (not as superiors)

GENTLENESS

how we handle others in our exchanges with them
do we handle them in a rough way, in a haughty way
like a powerful bully, like a policeman or teacher or parent abusing power and running roughshod over people

Paul warned parents not to exasperate or anger their children by the way they treated them

2 Timothy 2:25
Those who oppose him he must gently instruct

Gal 6:1
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently

fellow brothers and sisters even when they are in the wrong must be handled gently

1 Peter 3:15
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness

the way we talk to those outside the faith is important
it is not just the message, part of the message is the way we communicate that message

countless people have left the faith because of the way the message was taught

I have often communicated the truth in a condescending and harsh manner

PATIENCE

long-suffering
When you suffer at the hands of someone else.
They hurt you. They anger you.
They irritate you. They frustrate you.

You suffer long. You endure it.
And you continue to treat them with kindness, humility, gentleness.
You don’t get rough and harsh with them.

1 Peter 2:20
But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

Rom 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

2 Timothy 2:24
patient when wronged

these five virtues are to be who we are
what is in our hearts and what comes out of us

I am not giving you self-help tips
you cannot simply do these things
by following my advice

only the Spirit of God working life and renewal inside of you
only the green life of God within you
can give you compassion and humility

you try to feel compassion, feel humble and feel patient on your own
it will not work
you can’t create these things inside of you on your own, they are not there unless God has put them there

instead confess you sin and ASK God who gives to all men generously