Jesus Against Religion
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?