Religion

"How Religion Works"
October 3, 2010
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My wife joined a local gym, and one of the things they offer is a class called “Zumba.” They are so excited about Zumba that they gave Robin a free pass to bring someone with her. Apparently, you get bonus points at Zumba if you bring others with you. Of course, everyone that does bring someone with them to Zumba says that they are only trying to share something that they love. Yeah, it sounded like church even before I showed up.

Robin and I dropped the kids off at their bible study, and went to Zumba. I was immediately greeted by a crowd of women gathered outside the sanctuary. And when I say women, I do mean women. I was the only guy in a crowd of about 40 Zumbian women. These ladies had special Zumba clothing with Zumba logos and hot-pink Zumba colors, and graphic tees with sayings like, “What Would Zumba Do?” The folks wearing the Zumba clothes were even wear frosty pink lipstick to match their outfits. These women were intense, excited, and over the top.

Two women were working the crowd. They came right up to me. I guess as the only guys in a sea of hot pink Zumba wear and frosty pink lipstick I stood out. They went out of their way to welcome me and make me feel comfortable, which I obviously was not.

We went in. I went right up to the front. I figured better to be the guy in the front rather than the creepy perv in the back. Well, that was my first mistake. (Actually, my second. My first was that I even showed up!). One second it was all welcome everyone, we’re here to have a great time, we believe that Zumba loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Then the music came on full blast, the instructor and associate pastor stepped to the pulpit stage, and immediately started doing stuff. All the other hardcore Zumbian women around me started doing the moves just like them. I had no idea what to do. NO clue. I started doing random dance moves from the 80’s: running man, the wave, that things where you grab your leg and pull it back.

A lesser man would have walked out. A more intelligent man would have never showed up! But I stuck it out. And the truth is, if I went back 3-4 times, I’d catch on. I’d start to recognize the music and the moves and soon I’d fit right in, as much as one man in a sea of women wearing hot pink Zumba wear could.

The whole time, as you’ve now picked up, I was struck by the parallels with church. Particularly the feeling of not fitting in at church. The fear that someone has coming for the first time. Being singled out. Feeling like an outsider. Wondering will I know when to stand up, sit down, spin around, clap my hands, close my eyes, say my prayers. The fact is that a lot of folks won’t come to church because they are afraid they will feel like an outsider, and for a lot of folks who do venture into a church, those fears are very quickly confirmed. They get this sense that church is not for them.

When I was in campus ministry met Bob. Bob was somewhere on the spectrum of autism. Really nice guy, but just a bit different. Bob became a Christian. Bob wanted to jump full on into Christianity, and Bob wanted to come to church with me. Now the problem was, I went to a church that was really churchy. Old building, stained glass, wooden pews with old hymnals. We had the choir in the robes and the organist, and the preacher even wore a collar and a robe. People had unofficial reserved seating. And the service was like a Zumba class: stand up, sit down, close your eyes, say a prayer. If you grew up in church you knew what to do, and the words to say. But if you were Bob, and you didn’t know what to do, or how to do it, or how to say it, well, it could be a very uncomfortable expereince. I found I would have to run almost constant interference between Bob and the service. “OK, now were about to stand up, and when we do were gonna say this prayer. Here, take this book, it’s printed in the back, now now one else will use the book because they know it by heart...”

Have you ever walked into a room, a club, a Zumba class and felt like it just wasn’t for you? Have you ever walked into a church and felt like it just wasn’t for you? It doesn’t feel good to be on the outside, does it. Maybe there are some folks here who are still feeling like a guy in a room full of women. Out of place. Out of step. Awkward. Singled out. You just want to get this over with, get out, and never come back again.

If you are feeling that way, you are not alone. And I am so glad you’re here. And we don’t to make it hard for you because we understand that if you feel like church is only for church people, then you might think that Jesus is only for Jesus people. But we believe that Jesus came for all people, and all people should be made to feel welcomed to be a part of the church.

The bible teaches that God so loved the WORLD that he sent his only son, Jesus, that whoever, WHO EVER believes in him should not die but have eternal life! And so I want to talk to you about how the church, and religion, works according to the bible.

Now this is a fascinating passage we’re looking at today. Who here LOVES business meetings? You’re idea of a good time is watching Parliament argue about raising taxes and the long gun registry. You are going to LOVE today’s message because I’m going to be reading to you from the minutes of one of the first church business meetings ever held. But this is exciting because like parliament, there is an argument going on. And all business or government meetings are more fun when there’s a fight. This is in Acts 15. And it’s being held because of this question, who is the church for, and how should the church work? (Thanks to Craig Groeshel of Lifechurch.TV for doing a great job on teaching this passage- I’ve pull most of my main ideas from his exegesis. And yes, that’s a big church word!)

 1(A) But some men came down from Judea and were teaching(B) the brothers, "Unless you are(C) circumcised(D) according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."

So some men were a part of this thing called the church. And the church is not very old here. We still have the new car smell. This is just a few years after Jesus. And already they are trying to figure out how this thing, the church, works. They made this claim that unless you got circumcised you could not be saved. Ok, we don’t have a policy on church membership, it’s basically, get involved and give. But whatever our process may someday be, I can promise you it won’t involve surgery. I imagine that the membership class at this point is made up of women and children. Really, think about what this would do to the message of the church- God loves you, but first... They were literally teaching that you had to be circumcised to be saved. To be saved! God will not love you, and you can’t be a part of the church, until you go Jewish!

This caused the big fight. They send Paul and Barnabas to go to Jerusalem to settle this matter. Jerusalem is church headquarters. It’s where the members of the board meet. These are the guys who lived with and followed Jesus. Here’s what happens...


2And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and(E) debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and(F) some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to(G) the apostles and the elders about this question. 3So,(H) being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria,(I) describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and(J) brought great joy to all(K) the brothers.[a] 4(L) When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and(M) the apostles and the elders, and(N) they declared all that God had done with them. 5But some believers who belonged to(O) the party of the Pharisees rose up and said,(P) "It is necessary(Q) to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses."

Don’t miss what was just said. Some believers were Pharisees. If you are church people, you know who the Pharisees were. They were the bad guys. None of this blurring of the lines betweens who’s the good guy, whose the bad guy, aren’t we all kind of grey. No, the Pharisees were the guys who had Jesus killed. Now, some are believers. This is one of those details that helps my belief. It takes a big man or woman, to admit they were wrong, and this is a BIG one. How does that happen? I think it would have to be something REALLY persuasive, perhaps something like a resurrection from the dead. These guys basically said, we who had Jesus killed now believe that he is the son of God and actually died for us, so we could be saved.

They got it. That’s great. But they didn’t get it entirely, because they said, you have to become Jewish first, in order to become a Christian, in order to be saved.


 6(R) The(S) apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7And after there had been much(T) debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you,(U) that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear(V) the word of(W) the gospel and believe. 8And God,(X) who knows the heart,(Y) bore witness to them,(Z) by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9and(AA) he made no distinction between us and them,(AB) having cleansed their hearts(AC) by faith. 10Now, therefore, why(AD) are you putting God to the test(AE) by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples(AF) that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11But we(AG) believe that we will be(AH) saved through(AI) the grace of the Lord Jesus,(AJ) just as they will."

Peter gets up and he says, “Do you really think that these folks, the Gentiles, the non-religious, non-churchy people, have to become Jewish first, then become Christians, in order to be saved?” He reminds them that of the story of Jesus. He tells them that the Holy Spirit came upon them, just like he came upon us. The spirit made no distinction. He didn’t say, OK, Jewish, check, now move onto Christian. No, the Spirit came upon all of them, and it says, their hearts were cleansed by faith. Elsewhere Paul will help us to understand this even better when he expounds on this just enough to say, we are saved by grace through faith. God saves us by his grace. The evidence of that grace is our faith. That’s how salvation works. It’s NOT by works, and certainly NOT by becoming Jewish! Peter says, you really want to make them become Jewish, when you, fellow Jews, know that it didn’t work. You’ve tried to keep the law, over 600 rules. You tried. And you failed. And the system failed you.

How does religion work? It doesn’t. Religion doesn’t work. The word religion appears 5 or six times in the NT, according to your translation. Sometimes it’s translated worship, or devotion. In most every case the context of using the world is negative. The bible teaches that religion doesn’t work. It didn’t work in the Old Testament, and it certainly doesn’t work in the New Testament.

Many of us in the church are really hung up and adamant about this. We are always saying Christianity is about a relationship, not a religion. Let me be real clear about this. There are two basic ways we understand religion. In it’s most basic definition religion is the belief in, and worship of, a god or gods. IN that sense, yes, Christians are religious. We believe in God, we worship god, we have a whole system of belief and action built around the story of God. So yes, we are religious.

But where most other religions teach that in order to be saved, to have eternal life and favor with God, you must be a certain kind of person and do certain kinds of things, then we say, “No, we are not religious.” If religion equals salvation, then we are not definitely not religious at all. We are not saved through religion, we are saved through Jesus. We believe that we are saved not because we have gone through Judaism, not because we’ve been circumcised, but we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Most most Christians talk about “spiritual discipline” rather than religious devotion. The world may hear that and think, “Well what’s the difference?” Christians say the difference is HUGE. There couldn’t be a more important difference. Religious devotion implies that I am trying to get right with God and get saved through the religious things I do. Spiritual discipline says, “Because I am saved I want to show grow in my relationship with God.” Functionally, the world is always going to say it looks a lot the same- you go to worship, you give, you serve, you read your holy book, you offer prayers, you have certain rituals and symbols that convey great meaning. But the Christian will always say, “I do this as a spiritual disciple in response to the grace of God, not to get the grace of God, and that is not an insignificant difference. In fact, that difference makes ALL the difference.”

After the Apostles say this, the whole place gets quiet. It’s starting to sink in. Your right. we’re not saved by religion, we saved by grace. We could never do all that our old religion required, how could these people ever do all that the religious law requires?

Then a guy gets up. His name is James. And when James spoke, everyone listened. James was Jesus’ brother. Any of you have a brother? Ask yourself this question: what would it take for my brother to make me believe that he is God? I have an older brother and I really looked up to him, but there was really never any danger of my worshiping my brother or telling other people to put their faith in and worship him. That James, of all people, believed that Jesus was God, is perhaps one of the greatest arguments for Jesus’ divinity, period.

James says, I’ve heard you. And here’s my decision:
19Therefore(AS) my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who(AT) turn to God, 20but should write to them(AU) to abstain from(AV) the things polluted by idols, and from(AW) sexual immorality, and from(AX) what has been strangled, and from blood. 21For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him,(AY) for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues."

And I think it was after this that all the Gentile men rose to their feet and said hallelujah and amen! James says here’s what the church needs to do. Here’s how we need to position ourselves in the world. We can’t make it difficult for people to turn to God. In fact, we should make it easy. We don’t want anything to get in the way of people finding God. We want to remove every obstacle, every road block. We want to meet every objection, and get rid of it. Everything except this one thing: Jesus. Let’s tell his story. Let’s invite everyone to believe. And if the Spirit moves on them to believe, then guess what, they are in. They are one of us. Elsewhere Paul says this is what we do: we preach Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. Yes, it’s offensive to some, and foolishness to others. But to those who the LORD is calling, for those who believe, it is the wisdom and power of God!

And that’s what all churches, and this church, wants to do. We want to make it easy for you to consider one question: Do I believe? Do I believe that Jesus is the son of God, he came to earth, he died for my sins, rose from the grave, and is coming again? Do I believe that I am saved through Jesus?

I find it wonderful then how he gives two qualifications. Two things very contextual to there time and place, yet very applicable to us. He says two spiritual disciplines will be very helpful: first, observe the dietary laws of the Jews, and second, remain sexually pure. The first recommendation is to not offend anyone so that you might become a road block to them coming to faith. He says for the reason that others might come to faith in Jesus, let’s not be offensive. Let’s respect their ceremonial, cultural laws, about food. Let’s be keep that door open for that relationship to grow. Wouldn’t it be great to be part of a church community that no only keeps coming to Jesus the most natural and easy thing to do, but also decides to not be offense and turn people off?

Second, guard your own purity. Specifically, sexual purity. You do that, and everything else is going to work out for you.

How does religion work? Well, it doesn’t really work for us. Only Jesus could fulfill the law. Only Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life. Only Jesus was able to work religion. So Jesus says, just let me work religion for you. Come to God THROUGH me. Believe in me. Put your faith in me. Get into a relation with me.

Jesus works. So we want to make it easy for Jesus to work for you, and for his church to work for you.