CRCF””10-10-10
Question: Why won”™t some people go to church?
Answer: Because they”™ve been to church.
The Day Jesus Quit Going to Church
Luke 13:10-17
A church is no longer a witness to God”™s grace in Jesus when religious performance is more important than compassion for people.
Luke 13:10-17 (NLT)
10 One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, 11 he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” 13 Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God!
14 But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.”
15 But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don”™t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? 16 This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn”™t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?”
17 This shamed his enemies, but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did.
Message
15-16But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”
17When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and redfaced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on.
A church is no longer a witness to God”™s grace in Jesus when religious performance is more important than compassion for people.
Now, the “church” that this passage talks about is the Jewish synagogue””the “church” of Jesus”™ day. It was a place where the Jews worshiped regularly because they lived too far from the Temple in Jerusalem. Their communities centered around the synagogues.
McBrayer
“For Jews living in the first century, however, the Sabbath involved more than synagogue attendance and familiar unspoken expectations . . . by the time of Jesus, it had become a heavy weight, and it was nearly impossible for the average worshiper to keep up with all the rules.” (Leaving Religion, Following Jesus, 72)
Over time, the Pharisees had added rule after rule to God”™s Law. The original intention was to help people obey God”™s Law. But the actual result was layers of man-made rules that in and of themselves broke the heart of God”™s Law. You can rest assured of this:
Whenever we say something God”™s Word doesn”™t say, whenever we make rules that God didn”™t, our religious concoctions will always end up poisoning the souls of all who partake!
Why did Jesus pull this stunt at church on a Sabbath morning?
McBrayer
“Jesus intentionally broke the rules and customs of the religious establishment of his day, not for the sake of rebellion, but to reveal how preposterous it was to hold to meaningless rules. Strict legalism that misses the point of God”™s grace and freedom in Christ is more than preposterous. It is grotesquely sinful.” (70)
Colossian 2:20-23 (NLT)
20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don”™t handle! Don”™t taste! Don”™t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person”™s evil desires.
Galatians 5:1-6, 11-12 (MSG)
1 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
2-3I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ’s hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. 4-6I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.
11-12As for the rumor that I continue to preach the ways of circumcision (as I did in those pre-Damascus Road days), that is absurd. Why would I still be persecuted, then? If I were preaching that old message, no one would be offended if I mentioned the Cross now and then””it would be so watered-down it wouldn’t matter one way or the other. Why don’t these agitators, obsessive as they are about circumcision, go all the way and castrate themselves!
Whenever we say something God”™s Word doesn”™t say, whenever we make rules that God didn”™t, our religious concoctions will always end up poisoning the souls of all who partake!
A church is no longer a witness to God”™s grace in Jesus when religious performance is more important than compassion for people.
Notice the attitude of the synagogue ruler””it”™s clearly void of compassion for this precious lady.
Luke 13:14 (NLT)
14 But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.”
McBrayer
“In other words, ”˜Don”™t bring your sicknesses and illnesses, your addictions and demons, your problems and long-borne burdens in here. Leave those outside. It is good for people to get well, but not on Sunday and not in the church house. Don”™t violate God”™s law by healing on the Sabbath”™.” (74)
When that is the attitude you feel in any given church, it”™s time to check out!
THAT was the day Jesus quit going to church!
A church is no longer a witness to God”™s grace in Jesus when religious performance is more important than compassion for people.
McBrayer
“With no compassion for the suffering, these religious leaders violate more than the spirit of God”™s law; they violate God”™s people.” (74)
Charles Spurgeon said that the church was to be a hospital for sinners””a place where the wounded and sick could come for healing and comfort and care. And he was dead on!
Matthew 22:35-40 (NLT)
35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “”˜You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”™ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ”˜Love your neighbor as yourself.”™ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
In 1 John, we learn that it”™s impossible to truly do one of these without doing the other. That is, you can”™t love God but hate someone. Nor can you hate someone and truly love God. If you love God, you must love others””from your friends to your enemies, according to Jesus! Remember””God loved US, who were His enemies and sent His Son to die for us while we were still His enemies in our sin and rebellion (Rom. 5:8).
If there is no love and compassion for people in a church, it ain”™t the real deal!
Landon Saunders
“Get it right about people and the rituals, religion, Scriptures, and doctrines might get right. But get it wrong with people, and everything else will be wrong.” (McBrayer, 75)
A church is no longer a witness to God”™s grace in Jesus when religious performance is more important than compassion for people.
McBrayer
“A religious system whose rules and traditions are more motivating and more powerful than its compassion for people is a system of hypocrisy.” (75)
“Manipulation, threats of divine retribution, the micromanaging of people”™s lives and morality, judgmentalism, paranoid insecurites, obnoxious self-righteousness . . . all of these are mere symptoms of a deeper illness. As Jesus said, the real sickness is hypocrisy.” (77)
A church is no longer a witness to God”™s grace in Jesus when religious performance is more important than compassion for people.
The church””the gathering””that Jesus founded was a non-religious get together of folks full of God”™s love in Jesus who spent their time sharing that love and compassion with each other and all those around them.
McBrayer
“When ”˜doctrinal integrity”™ (a term usually defined by those using it) trumps kindness and grace, faith has wandered out of bounds. Anything claiming to be truth that does not lead to compassion for our neighbors cannot rightfully be called the truth.” (75)
Sometimes we get way too caught up in having all of our theological “I”™s” dotted and “T”™s” crossed!
Truth is NOT a doctrinal statement or a confession of faith.
Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6)
And Jesus was full of compassion for people!
How about you? How about me? How about our church?
I”™m thankful that our church focuses on loving one another and others just as we all are! I pray we”™re always growing in that.
THAT”™s why we”™re here! To show God”™s grace and compassion to our world!
But the day that we cease to do that, THAT is the day you should quit our church!
A church is no longer a witness to God”™s grace in Jesus when religious performance is more important than compassion for people.