OL,4-24-05,AM

 

“A PATCHWORK RELIGION”

 

I.       JESUS WAS A MASTER TEACHER...

 

A.      Even the officer’s sent by the Jewish leaders to arrest him, declared,   “No one ever spoke like this man.” (John 7:46)

 

B.       At the end of the Sermon on the Mount this statement is made, “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.” (Matt 7:28)

 

C.       His words truly did “afflict the comfortable” and “comfort the afflicted.” 

 

          D.      He had real, deep, genuine concern and that

                   enlivened his message. 

 

1.       Matt 9:36. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them…”

 

II.      ONE OF THE MAJOR SOURCES OF CONFLICT WITH THE JEWISH LEADERSHIP:

 

A.      His seemingly flagrant disregard and contempt for human tradition that supplanted and replaced God’s Word as authority!!

 

B.       No chapter in the gospel is more vivid or intense in depicting this conflict than Mark chapter 2.

 

1.       He forgives the sins of the paralytic and raises their ire and their accusation of blasphemy: 

 

a.       “Who can forgive sins but God

                                       alone?” They asked angrily!

 

 

 

 

2.       To further infuriate them, he heals the man to prove the validity of his authority to forgive.

 

3.       He then calls Levi (Matthew) to be one of his disciples and has a meal in his home with other tax collectors (By the way, who else would Levi reach out to first to bring them to Jesus?).  The Jews again are incensed that he would eat with these tax collectors and other “sinners.”

 

                             a.       Then he makes that famous statement as

to His purpose:  v 17.  “Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call . . .

 

4.       The chapter ends with Jesus and his disciples

                             going through the grainfields and, as they walked,

                              picking some heads of grain to eat.

 

a.       V 24. “The Pharisees were saying to Him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not

                                       lawful on the Sabbath?’”  

 

                             b.       Jesus again angers them by saying:  “The

                                       Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath...”

                                      (V 27)

 

C.       But sandwiched between in vv 18-22 is a profound statement of Jesus about trying to mix Christianity with Judaism or anything else for that matter.

 

1.       Probably, there were some of the old Jewish leaders who thought, “He would make a fine Rabbi if he would just mellow and tone down his teaching and incorporate it into the Jewish system of traditions.

 

III.    THE NEW WAY OF JESUS WAS NOT COMPATABLE WITH OR DESIGNED TO BE AN ADDENDUM TO JUDAISM.

 

 

 

 

A.      2 Cor 3:6.  “God…has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

 

1.       He then goes on to compare the Jewish law written on stone and the new covenant written on the heart. 

 

a.       He points out that it is not centered on a law that brought death because of the adherents inability to keep it perfectly, but around Jesus whose living reflection we strive to reproduce in our lives by loving submission to His will!!

 

IV.     HOW SAD THAT THE JEWS WANTED TO TRY AND PATCH CHRIST AND HIS TEACHINGS INTO THEIR RELIGION.

 

A.      And yet, it strikes me that people are still trying to do that same things:  Patch their own wishes and beliefs and preferences with a semblance of Christianity!!

 

                   1.       Some try to patch various religions with

                             true Christianity:

                            

                             a.       One woman tried to explain her faith

                                      in Buddhism:  “Budda recognizes

                                      Jesus Christ as God.  In fact, every

                                      great man who ever arose to deliver

                                      men was a form of God.”

 

                                      1)       In our pluralistic society that

                                                sounds good.  The only thing

                                                is that Jesus denied it:

                                     

a)       John 10:7. “Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door to the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and robbers.” 

 

 

 

14:6.  “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”

 

                                      2)       The apostle Peter denied that

                                                there was any other way for

                                                salvation:  Acts 4:12. 

 

                             b.       Just patching a denomination with a

                                      little bit of Bible doesn’t make it the

                                      Lord’s church:

 

                                      1)       Matt 15:13.  “Every plant...”

                                               

a)       And the “seed” that produces God’s plant (church) is the Word of God!

 

·        Luke 8:11

 

2)       Matt 15:8,9.  “These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.”

 

3)       Matt 28:18-20.

 

a)       It’s not just enough to claim that Jesus is your Lord:  Luke 6:46;  Matt 7:21.

 

2.       Some try to patch their homes and marriages with Christianity: 

 

a.       Having the sign on the wall, “God Bess This Home,”  doesn’t mean he will if all we’re trying to do is patch ungodliness with semantics.

 

1)       A lot of people patch their lives with “religious” statements:

 

a)       “Well, I’m a Christian,” or “I believe God and Jesus,” or “I was raised in a Christian home by Christian parents,” or “I believe the Bible is the Word of God” or “I try to live by the golden rule”

 

b)       They treat these as a sort of magic formula that when spoken covers everything.

                                               

b.       Some think that just marrying a “member of the church” will solve all problems.

 

1)       What we ought to be doing is marrying someone who is a deeply

                                                committed Christian, not just

                                                someone who has patched their

                                                life with “church membership.”

 

2)       True Christianity can mend broken and splintered homes and marriages but true Christianity is more than mere principles patched onto ungodliness.

 

                                      1)       Matt 7:24-27. 

 

                   3.       Some try to patch empty lives with Christianity:

 

                             a.       Substitute attendance for commitment,

                                      ritual for righteousness.

 

1)       One day of worship doesn’t make up for a week of sinful practice.

 

4.       Some who have not obeyed the gospel are trying to patch Christian morality to an unredeemed life:

 

a.       If being a good person could save, we don’t need the blood of Christ!

 

                                      1)       Eph 1:7;  Gal 3:26,27.

 

V.      CONCLUDING THOUGHT...

 

A.      A little boy came to his mother in tears after his balloon had broken in his hand.

 

                   1.       “Fix it, Mommy, fix it!”

 

                             a.       But the mother explained that she couldn’t.

 

                   2.       “Daddy will fix it!”

 

a.       Again she told him that his Daddy couldn’t fix the balloon either.

 

3.       He finally understood and said, “Daddy will get me a new one.”

 

B.       You know, we sometimes do that with our lives, don’t we?  Our balloon breaks and we try every human solution only to find none of them work.

 

1.       When all the time, the grace of God and the blood of Christ can buy us a new one.

 

a.       I Cor 15:9, 10. “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

 

a.       Col 3:9.  “You have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.”