HOW TO BE A BAD CHRISTIAN: SHUTTING THE DOOR OF GRACE
13 May 2007
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 23
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
-- a few weeks ago, we watched the newest Will Smith movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness" -- the true story about Chris Gardner, a bright and talented young man who was desperately trying to make a living by selling high-end medical devices on his own
-- as the movie opens, things weren't going real well for Chris -- his business was not doing well and he wasn't selling enough machines to pay the rent and the bills -- his wife was taking double shifts down at her job just trying to help the family survive
-- every time Chris tried to get something going, it seemed like fate would just throw it back in his face -- every time he tried to get someone to help, they wouldn't -- his wife left him to raise his son on his own -- his friends deserted him -- everyone told him to accept his fate in life and to just go on -- it seemed like everything and everyone tried to hold him back -- to keep him from reaching his dreams
-- but Chris had hope -- he could see an open door in his future leading to financial security -- and no one was going to hold him back and keep him from going through that door -- at one point in the movie, as he huddled with his son in a bathroom in a subway terminal to spend the night because they had lost their apartment, Chris told him, "Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something -- You got a dream, you gotta protect it -- if you want something, go get it. Period."
-- in a very real sense, the story of Chris Gardner is a perfect analogy of what was going on in Jesus' day in the church -- Jesus had been sent to earth by the Father for one purpose -- to open the door to the kingdom of heaven that had been barred shut since Adam and Eve's fall in the Garden of Eden
-- when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they literally fell from grace -- because of their action, sin had entered the world and the path to heaven was effectively blocked -- there was no way for sinful man to come to God and there was no way for sinful man to come into the presence of God in the kingdom of heaven
-- so God promised to Adam and Eve that the Messiah would come -- the One who would strike the head of the serpent and open the path for reconciliation with the Father again -- and in the fullness of time, He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, effectively removing the barrier between us and the Father -- opening the door to the kingdom of heaven and making it possible for us to come into His presence again
-- since the beginning of time, mankind had been looking for that door -- they had been trying to find God -- they had been trying to find the path that would lead to heaven through a variety of means -- works -- rituals -- sacrifices -- religion -- in a nutshell, religion is nothing more than man's attempt to find God
-- over time, men like the Pharisees had developed religion into an art form -- they had taken the commandments of God that pointed to the coming Messiah and that offered temporary cleansing of sin -- and they had come up with a list of additional rituals and practices and acts that had to be performed in just the right way in order to make it to heaven
-- it was this legalism that Jesus had condemned the Pharisees for in verses 1-12 of this chapter -- for making a burden out of religion and putting heaven out of the grasp of the people
-- and in the face of this extreme religiousity, Jesus has now come on the scene -- proclaiming the presence of the kingdom of God and telling the people how they could come to the Father through Him -- "I am the way and the truth and the life," He said in John 14:6 -- "I am the narrow gate" -- "I am the door to the sheepfold" -- "if you want to come into the kingdom of heaven, you must come through me -- there is no other way -- you can't work your way to heaven -- you can't be holy enough to get to heaven -- you can't even get there by following all of the rules of the Pharisees -- you can only get there through me"
-- the Pharisees didn't like this teaching of Jesus -- it was a challenge to their religiousity
-- a challenge to their orthodoxy -- a challenge to their basic beliefs -- look back at verse 13 again
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
-- in the first of seven "woes" to the Pharisees and scribes in this chapter, Jesus calls them "hypocrites" -- men who pretended to know and teach the way to heaven but who really didn't know the path themselves or, worse, were trying to keep people from it -- the Pharisees and the scribes didn't believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah and they certainly didn't believe that He was the path to heaven -- so they wouldn't follow Him or abide by His teachings -- and not only were they refusing to enter in themselves, but they were actively trying to keep the people away from Jesus, warning those who followed Him to turn away from Jesus and casting some of His followers out of the synagogues
-- isn't that the way of the world? -- you know, every time I think of this verse, I am reminded of crabs -- when I worked on Ossabaw Island, we would occasionally put out crab traps in this tidal creek -- we'd go check it first thing in the morning, and we'd put all the crabs into a bucket -- crabs are funny creatures -- when you threw a crab in, all the crabs that were already in the bucket would attack it -- and they'd all be there with their claws snapping at each other until they finally settled down
-- we didn't have a lid on the bucket -- it was just open -- but the crabs couldn't climb the slick sides, so they really couldn't get out -- but there would always be this one crab who thought he could get out -- he'd sort of climb on the backs of the others and reach up to the top -- and grab hold of the rim -- all he had to do was pull himself up and swing over and he would be free
-- but every single time -- without fail -- when the other crabs saw this one making it to the top of the bucket, they'd grab him and pull him back down with them again
-- I didn't know it at the time, but I guess all of the crabs we caught were Pharisees
-- the Pharisees couldn't abide with someone trying to escape from religion and make their way to heaven though Jesus -- and so when they saw them headed down the narrow path -- when they saw them getting near the open door -- they'd grab them and pull them back down and keep them in bondage to the rules and regulations of the religion of their day
-- this is the third way to be a bad Christian -- to shut the door of grace to other people and prevent them from entering in
-- you know, I hate to say it, but we do this all the time in our churches today in a variety of ways
-- the first way we shut the door of grace to other people is by judging them -- maybe they are sinners -- maybe we know that they are living in sin and not doing right -- we think there is no hope for them -- and so we don't offer them the grace of Christ
-- I'll never forget being in a Bible study in another church one day when the topic of visitation came up -- somebody mentioned that there was a family down the road from the church that someone should go see and invite to come to worship -- one lady in the Bible study said, "No, there's no need to do that -- they are too bad to be saved"
-- or maybe they're not obvious sinners -- maybe they just don't fit in with your congregation or with the people you consider to be Christians -- maybe they're from another race -- or another financial class -- or from the wrong side of the tracks -- maybe they've got tattoos and piercings and come to church in blue jeans and a t-shirt
-- in his testimony, Greg Laurie, a preacher in California -- talks about how Christians treated him before he came to Christ -- Greg was a hippie back in the 60's -- long hair -- unkempt dress -- he says he had perfected a "tough guy" persona to keep people away
-- from time to time, Christians would come to the beach where Greg was, witnessing to others and passing out tracts -- they'd take one look at Greg and throw a tract at him and basically run away without saying a word -- Greg said he wished they would speak to him and tell him about Jesus -- but their fear of someone who was different than them kept the door of grace shut to him -- thankfully, someone finally did witness to Greg and he was saved and called into the ministry as an evangelist and pastor
-- if you want to be a bad Christian, judge people before they come and assume that even Jesus can't save them
-- another way we shut the door of grace to other people is to stop them from growing in their Christian walk -- I had a couple of friends up in Athens who were strong Christians but who went to different churches -- one of these men had been a Christian for decades while the other was a relatively new believer
-- the new believer really was growing in grace -- studying the Bible and doing a lot for the Lord -- so the deacons in his church asked him to become a deacon -- to take on a leadership role in the church -- when he was asked, he went to my other friend and asked him what he thought about it
-- this guy, who had been a Christian for a long time, told the new believer that he was not spiritually ready to be a leader in the church and that he should say "no" -- you see, this guy was not a deacon himself, and he couldn't stand the thought of a person younger in the faith than him being put in a leadership role, so he held him back and stopped him from growing in his Christian walk
-- if you want to be a bad Christian, keep those around you from growing in grace and from growing more knowledgeable and more committed than you
-- I read about this young marine during the Korean War -- a new Christian who was being discipled by a group of Navigators -- he was taught the basics of Christianity -- how to read and study the Bible -- how to pray -- how to share his faith -- over time, this marine showed great promise and it was obvious that he was going to exceed his mentors in faith and in knowledge of spiritual issues
-- but instead of holding him back and not letting him grow to his potential in Christ, these men encouraged the marine to continue to follow Christ where He would lead -- in time, this marine was called into the ministry -- and you can hear him preach on WAFT every day -- his name is Chuck Swindoll -- how many lives would not have been touched by Christ if these men hadn't followed Christ and encouraged Chuck Swindoll?
-- the final way we shut the door of grace to other people is by making church foreign and hostile to people seeking the way to heaven -- by this I mean that we use Christianese -- Christian jargon and slang that we understand but that those who visit might not -- when they come to church, they think we're speaking a different language
-- what do they mean by "born again?" -- what is "justification?" -- what is "sanctification?" -- I know they say that grace is amazing, but what is so amazing about grace? -- what does it mean when they do that ritual? -- why do they take communion?
-- for someone seeking Christ, these words and actions can be confusing and can keep the door of grace shut simply because they don't speak the language
-- or maybe we just make church unfriendly to them -- and that's a big problem we have to watch for in our small churches -- because we are so small -- and because so many of us are actually related to one another -- we become a family -- and when visitors show up, they feel like outsiders -- and they don't come back because they don't think they can ever fit in
-- or maybe we just make church boring -- maybe our lackluster efforts at worship keep the door of grace shut and they never see the Christ we are claiming is always with us -- we need to make sure that we are fully present at worship -- by this I don't mean just showing up -- but showing up with a purpose -- showing up to actually worship Christ and seek His face and His presence through the entire service -- not letting our mind or our focus drift -- but concentrating on the One that we are seeking to introduce to our visitors and friends
-- or maybe we just make church ineffective and non-relevant -- we become too much like the Pharisees and the church becomes the means to the end -- in other words, we come to church just to come to church -- we don't try to live it out in our lives -- we don't try to reach out to those around us -- we just make church about us and those who have joined us
-- if you want to be a bad Christian, make the church into an institution of rules and regulations and with its own language and not into a community that welcomes everyone who comes seeking the Father
-- Jesus condemned and rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes for living hypocritical lives -- for being "religious" to the point where they missed the Messiah themselves and then kept others away from Him when He came
-- we have to be careful to not follow their footsteps -- to always put others first and to remember that we are all on this journey together as pilgrims headed for the Promised Land -- it is our duty and our calling to reach out to those not on the path -- to those who haven't received Jesus as their Lord and Savior -- and to call them to join us on our journey
-- in the same way, it is our duty and calling to help those with us on the path to reach their potential in Christ -- to grow in grace and in the fullness of the knowledge of Jesus -- even if that means that they know more about the Bible than us -- even if that means that they are put in roles of leadership above us even though we've been in the church longer or have known Jesus longer -- our job and our duty is to always put others before us and to never bar the door that Jesus opened with His body and His blood on the cross
-- as I close, I want to invite you to consider where you are in your journey and whether you have been a help or a hindrance along the way to others you have met
-- if you would like to respond to God's word by coming to the altar, I would be happy to pray with you
-- let us pray
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