HOW TO BE A BAD CHRISTIAN: MAKE CHRISTIANITY A BURDEN ON OTHERS
15 April 2007
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 23
-- the story is told about this teenager who was playing basketball in his driveway when he lost a contact lens -- he got down on his hands and knees and he searched all over the driveway for it -- he couldn't find it anywhere, so he went inside and told his mother that he had lost it
-- undaunted, his mother went outside and in a few minutes came back into the house with the contact lens in her hand -- "How did you manage to find it, Mom?" the teenager asked -- "We weren't looking for the same thing," she replied -- "You were looking for a small piece of glass -- I was looking for $150"
-- before we turn to the text this morning, I want to look again at something that some of you at the sunrise service last week heard -- which was, namely, Christ's charge to His disciples on the day that He ascended
-- as you remember, after Christ rose from the dead, He stayed with His disciples for a period of 40 days -- teaching them from the scriptures and diligently explaining to them the meaning of the cross and the resurrection
-- and just before He ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives, Christ told the disciples that they were about to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and that they were to go forth in His name and be His witnesses to Judea and Samaria and to all the ends of the earth
-- Matthew records these final words of Christ as the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20
18. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20. and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
-- now when these passages are taught, they are generally taught from our perspective -- that is, the perspective of man -- in other words, when we hear these words, we understand them to be a command to us -- the charge of the church -- what we are called to do as Christians
-- but, I think there is another perspective on these passages that we are missing -- namely, the perspective of Christ -- this was not only a command that Jesus gave to us, but it was Christ's vision of the church
-- through His body and His blood -- through His death and resurrection -- Jesus had instituted this new body -- the church -- comprised of all those who had believed in Him and trusted in His name and His salvation
-- and this was Christ's vision of the church -- that we should be a people -- called by His name -- empowered and indwelled by His Spirit -- that we should be a holy army of Christians -- a royal priesthood -- who would go forth in His name and His power to bring the people to Him
-- this Great Commission was also given to us to be our Great Vision -- motivating and driving us to be more than we are -- to do more than we do -- to be God's people -- doing God's work -- and growing His church
-- Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" -- people wonder why our mainline denominations, such as the United Methodist Church, continue to lose members every year despite the fact that our country is growing in numbers almost exponentially
-- people wonder why the churches in our communities -- even this church -- show absolutely no growth despite the fact that the population in this county grew by more than 12% last year alone
-- I think it comes down to this -- I think it comes down to a lack of vision -- I think we have lost the vision of Christ for our churches -- I think we have forgotten what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be part of the body of Christ
-- Christ did not envision us hiding in our sanctuaries while the world around us went to Hell -- He envisioned us as His hands and feet -- carrying His message to the ends of the earth through the power of the Holy Spirit
-- the problem is just like in my illustration about the contact lens -- we are spending our time looking for a piece of glass while we should be looking for something of greater value
-- we need to catch a new vision of church -- we need to catch a new vision of Christ -- and we need to catch a new vision of ourselves
-- Adrian Rogers once said, "The me I see is the me I'll be" -- our problem is that we have been limiting what Christ can do through us because we refuse to see who we are and who we can be in Him
-- You are the people of God -- you are the people who Christ died for -- you are His church -- His hands and feet -- called and gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth
-- you need to claim the vision -- you need to live the vision -- you need to believe in the vision
-- you need to start seeing yourself through the eyes of faith -- at the end of the service, I am going to pass out some pictures for you -- just black blobs on a paper -- I want you to take this and keep it with you until Pentecost and I want you to follow the instructions on the bottom of the paper
-- I want this to be a physical reminder to you that if you look at life -- if you look at yourself -- with the eyes of faith rather than the eyes of the world -- that you will see the Christ who is there with you -- leading you and empowering you to be His people -- to be His Christians
II. Those Burdensome Pharisees
-- now, as we try to work together to recapture Christ's vision for us as His church and His people -- I want us to look at what we should be and what we should not be -- along those lines, I am starting a message this morning on "How to be a Bad Christian" to give you something to compare yourself to
-- in this passage in Matthew, Jesus gives us seven examples of how to be a bad Christian -- so, if you would, please look with me now at Matthew 23:1 and let's look at the first way to be a bad Christian
-- verse 1
1. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
2. "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
3. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
4. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
-- when we read of the Pharisees in the Bible, we always tend to make them out to be the bad guys -- the guys with the wrong doctrines and the wrong teachings who were always arguing with Jesus
-- but, truth be told, Jesus did not have a problem with the doctrines of the Pharisees -- in fact, He was closer to the Pharisees than the Sadducees -- the Pharisees believed in an after-life -- they believed in the Messiah who was coming -- they believed in angels -- they believed in a bodily resurrection at the last days -- in fact, a lot of their teachings were the same that we hold in this church
-- in this passage, Jesus points out to His disciples that they should listen to the Pharisees -- the Pharisees were the teachers of the law -- they sat in Moses' seat -- with the responsibility to teach the people the Holy Scriptures and the commandments of God -- Jesus said that the disciples should follow and do everything that the Pharisees told them from the Scriptures
-- Jesus had no problem with that at all -- He found disagreement with them in only two areas -- first, of course, they refused to accept Him as the Messiah -- as the Christ who had come to take away the sins of the world
-- but, secondly, he faulted them for not practicing what they preached and for putting heavy burdens on themselves and their followers -- you see, the Pharisees added to the Scriptures -- originally, there were 613 commandments given from God to the Israelites -- but the Pharisees added hundreds of laws, requirements, and so-called "godly" ordinances upon the people -- over 1,500 additional requirements -- that they made up to help the people be holy -- and there was no way the people could ever live up to these extra burdens that the Pharisees put on them
-- lots of these burdensome rules were just absurd -- for instance, the Pharisees said that it was a sin to spit in the dirt on the Sabbath -- here's where they got this -- we all know that one of the ten commandments says that we are to remember the sabbath and keep it holy -- to do no work on this day
-- well, farming is considered work -- and when you spit into dry dusty soil, the surface of the dirt is disturbed and a crater is formed with a raised rim -- like when a meteor hits the moon -- the Pharisees saw this as creating a furrow -- furrows are part of plowing which is a part of farming -- farming is work -- work was forbidden on the sabbath -- therefore, spitting in the dirt on the sabbath was forbidden [illustration borrowed from Kesha Klarensovich]
-- all of these extra rules and requirements and ordinances put a burden on the people that they just couldn't bear -- and so Christ condemned the Pharisees for this in these verses
III. How to Be a Bad Christian: #1 -- Make Christianity a Burden on Others
-- so from this example of the Pharisees, we learn the first way to be a bad Christian -- namely, to make Christianity a burden to others
-- we no longer live under the law as the Pharisees did -- we are no longer bound to follow all of the 613 commandments in the Old Testament to the letter -- we live under the grace of God that came through Christ
-- however, we have a tendency to add our own set of rules and laws and requirements to God's grace that end up being a burden to others -- now most of the time, these aren't written rules, although a few churches and few denominations have made them church law
-- let me give you a few examples of burdens that we place on others in our churches today
1. The Burden of Appearance
-- this burden addresses how you dress and how you should look when you come to church -- some churches have gone so far as to say that women cannot wear pants and must wear dresses at all times -- some have said that women must have long hair and must keep it bound and not let it be loose
-- other churches have an unwritten dress code -- you have to wear your best to church -- if you show up wearing jeans or a t-shirt or anything similar, you will be frowned upon
-- if you want to be a bad Christian, make a point about what a person looks like or what they wear and look down on those who don't dress like you when you come to church
2. The Burden of Proper Worship
-- this burden addresses how you should act while you are in church -- some churches frown on people who speak in tongues or who raise their hands during the service -- some churches wouldn't dare to let anyone speak out and say "Amen" during a sermon -- some churches say you can't have praise songs -- or instruments -- or that you have to use a certain hymnal and that only
-- if you want to be a bad Christian, set rules on how you can act in church -- limit what people can do and don't let them do anything that makes you uncomfortable
3. The Burden of Works
-- this burden adds to grace by making works a part of the Christian experience -- it's not good enough to only be saved through grace in faith -- you have to do something, too -- you have to read the Bible -- not because you want to -- but because you are expected to -- you have to pray daily and take communion and do acts of service -- not because of any desire on your part -- but because it is expected that all members of the church will do that
-- some expect people to attend every service and function and activity at the church -- and if they don't show up, then they get a sense of disapproval
-- if you want to be a bad Christian, make every spiritual discipline a chore and a duty rather than an act of worship -- hold people accountable for being at every function whether they want to or not, and make them feel bad if they don't come
4. The Burden of Holiness
-- this burden relates to how a person lives their lives -- it gives them a standard that they must follow and that they must adhere to or they are not really Christians -- it doesn't matter if God considers it a sin -- if you do it, then you're out
-- for instance, some churches have unofficial lists of banned books and movies and other forms of entertainment -- you can only go to "G" rated movies -- you can't read that popular new book that's out because it is of the world -- you can't go to that restaurant with your friends after work because they serve alcohol there
-- some people look down on those who smoke and drink occasional and go dancing at night clubs -- some look down on those who go to the race on Sunday or the game on Saturday because that's not a Christian activity -- some look down on those who buy lottery tickets on Saturday night
-- if you want to be a bad Christian, make yourself holier than others and look down on anyone who does anything you don't consider Godly -- whether it's actually in Scripture or not, if you don't think it looks good for a Christian to do, then make them know that you disapprove of them
IV. Closing
-- as Christians, we are called to be gracious and to extend the grace of Christ to all -- not to tolerate sin, of course, but not to call that which is not a sin, a sin
-- as Dr. Frederick Wilson once said, we don't want to be the kind of people that are intolerant and intolerable toward others -- or that add to Christianity by putting unbiblical burdens on others -- simply because we have become Pharisees in heart -- assuming that we are more pious or more holy or better than others because we are Christians
-- Christ shows us in these verses what the difference is between a good Christian and a bad Christian -- a bad Christian adds to Scripture and judges others based upon these added burdens -- a good Christian uses the Bible as their source and the Holy Spirit as their guide -- responding to others with a gracious and inviting heart
-- Christ's vision was for us to be His representatives -- for us to reflect His goodness and His holiness and His appearance to the people of this world -- to be His hand and His feet in this world as we serve and invite others to come with us to the cross
-- as we close this morning, I want to invite you to consider the ways that we can avoid making Christianity a burden to others but instead show people God's grace as we strive to live out the vision of Christ in this community
-- as always, the altar is open for all who wish to respond to God's word -- and I will be happy to pray with you if you want
-- let us pray
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