Our next topic in our "Rediscovering Your First Love" series talks about how Jesus came and challenged the religious establishment.
The church should be saturated with Jesus. It should have Jesus' DNA all over it. But for the most part it doesn't. It has years of tradition and religious practices passed down from man that get in the way. Maybe this is why early in Jesus' ministry he challenged the religious establishment.
The teaching this week will walk through Mark 1:21-3:6; 7:6-8. Mark 7:6-8 says this:
"Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
I had a Jewish friend of mine tell me that he had been studying Jesus. He said, "I am finding out that Jesus was quite Jewish." What he meant was that Jesus practiced Judaism. He is partly correct, Jesus practiced Judaism the way it was meant to be practiced. He did not however hold himself to the laws that were added to Judaism by man.
This attitude did not sit very well with the religious leaders and eventually led to Jesus' death. Instead of being saturated with God, Judaism had become a mixture of what God gave Moses and what man decided to add later.
Christianity has done the same thing. While Judaism has different schools of thought on the law like Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai, Christianity has Calvin, Luther and the Wesley. A mixture of God and man, with the man side of things taking precedent most of the time.
Jesus came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law. (Matthew 5:17)
It is important that we see Jesus as the leader of the church and strive to become saturated with him, not our religious practices.
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For many of us who grew up in the church, we might believe that we are "righteous" and Christ followers because we have been indoctrinated into what we've been taught is Christianity. This is why there is so much confusion today. We have different styles of worship services throughout the "Christian" churches. Is any one style wrong, or is any one better than another? I don't think so, but what is important that I worship my Lord and King. And that I know the Truth.
ReplyDeleteFor this reason it is so important that we pray for guidance as we read our Bibles, so we can know what God wants for us to be. So we can know what He wants us to do to be Christ followers. As I've said to many people, church doctrine is man-made. The true doctrine is what is written between Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 22:21. Discernment comes from studying the Word. If we don't know what is there, we can't follow Christ.
But we have to read it ourselves, not just come to church & Sunday school so we can say "we've been churched."
2 Timothy 2:15: Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
"Spitfire"