righteousness

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Introduction

I want to start tonight by telling you about a young man named Tim. When Tim was in his early twenties his father was diagnosed with cancer. Tim was heartbroken. Worse than that, Tim was afraid. You see, Tim was aware that he hadn’t been as good of a person as he knew he should be. He knew he wasn’t the most religiously faithful person in the world. And so he couldn’t help but think, “God is punishing me for not being obedient to him. If I wouldn’t have done what I did last month, if I would have been living right more consistently, my dad wouldn’t be sick right now.” Tim was afraid that his dad was going to be taken from him because of his own lack of obedience to God.

And so what did he do? He immediately started doing everything he could to earn his way back into God’s good graces, thinking that if he just did the right things then God might remove his punishment and spare his dad’s life. So Tim started going to church more, he started praying longer, he started reading the Bible more consistently, he made sure he was faithful to give money to the church and to help those in need. He did these things faithfully. He did these things religiously.

And then his dad died.

And Tim became more afraid than before. Because even with all these new things he was doing he knew that he was still falling short of God’s standards. As far as he could tell, all of the good things he had been doing were not good enough to remove God’s punishment from him. So he became even more intensely committed to those and other things. Tim thought, “If I just do better, if I just try harder, if I’m just more obedient to God, if I’m just less self-absorbed then God will be pleased with me and he won’t bring suffering like this into my life again.”

Well, Tim did do better, Tim did work harder, but suffering still came just as suffering still comes for all of us. So now, three years after his dad’s death, Tim is still ruled by fear. The fear of whether or not God accepts him. The fear of if and when God is going to punish him again. Despite all of his attempts to earn God’s favor Tim is never quite sure if he’s good enough.

What about you? Whatever your spiritual beliefs are, do you ever find yourself influenced by fear? Are you ever concerned about whether or not you’re good enough? Are you ever worried about whether or not God accepts you? Or other people accept you? As you strive to do good things, as you strive to be a better person, do you ever become weary? Or burdened?

If you would answer any of those questions with a “yes” Jesus wants to speak to you tonight. And he will. As we open up the Scriptures to Matthew chapter 23 tonight and for the next four weeks. But before we hone in on the specific verses we’re going to focus on tonight Jeff is going to set the context for us by delivering Jesus’ entire teaching from this chapter. As you listen to Jesus’ words remember that he begins by addressing his disciples and then goes on to talk about the scribes and the Pharisees, the very well-respected religious leaders of his day.

What the Problem is Not

Jesus’ words in this chapter speak to Tim and to his situation and they speak to every one of you, because every one of you can identify with Tim in some way. As you probably already know, we have chosen to summarize Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 23 with these strong and offensive words: “Jesus Hates Religion (And You Should Too).” Now why would we say that? It’s clear that there’s something about the religion of the Scribes and Pharisees that has Jesus vehemently upset. But what is it? What is it about religion that so repulses Jesus? What is it about religion that should so repulse you?

If I were to ask that question of my irreligious friends most of them would say, “the rules.” They would say that the biggest problem with religion is this long list of rules because those rules open up the door for judgment. Maybe you would answer in the same way. But here’s the interesting thing. This is not Jesus’ answer. This is not Jesus’ issue with religion. Jesus is not opposed to religion because he’s opposed to rules. In fact, Jesus himself is quite a strict rule-giver. Remember the famous Sermon on the Mount found in this same book? In that sermon Jesus goes out of his way to very clearly define a number of rules. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” He says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” He goes on to say, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus is not anti-rule. Jesus himself has laid down the most difficult rules of all.

We see this in the opening verses of Matthew 23. Looking at verses 2 and 3 we see Jesus say, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you.” Jesus says that the scribes and Pharisees – the religious leaders of his day – are in some ways to be respected. Why? Because they sit in Moses’ seat. In other words, they interpret Moses’ teaching, they interpret the Scriptures, they interpret the inspired Word of God. When they interpret God’s Word properly, Jesus says, you must listen to them, you must be careful to do everything they tell you.

As we heard when Jeff shared Jesus’ teaching with us, Jesus does not approve of all of their teaching (not by any means). But he does approve of their teaching when it is consistent with what God has revealed in his Scriptures. Does Jesus hate religion? Absolutely. Does Jesus hate religion because he hates rules? No. So while, yes, you should hate religion you should hate religion not for your own reasons but for the same reasons Jesus hates it. And what are those reasons? We’ll uncover one of them now as we continue to examine these first few verses.

What the Problem is

Right after Jesus tells us to do what the religious leaders tell us to do in verse 3, he goes on to add, “But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” Here we start to see Jesus’ distaste for these religious leaders. Jesus’ issue with religion is not that religion has rules. Jesus’ issue with religion is that religion calls us to obey both right and wrong rules for the wrong reasons. Again, Jesus’ issue with religion is that religion calls us to obey both right and wrong rules for the wrong reasons.

How do I know that? Because of what Jesus just said. On the one hand he said that there’s nothing wrong with rules per se. But then he says that the rules of these religious leaders are like heavy, cumbersome burdens that they heap upon our shoulders. So what’s the difference between the rules that we are to be careful to obey and these rules that Jesus calls heavy and cumbersome burdens? Well, there are three things I want to point out, one of which I want us to focus on for the remainder of our time together.

The first problem is that religion provides us with rules that even the religious leaders themselves can’t keep. That’s why Jesus says, “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” In other words, unlike Jesus, religious leaders are hypocrites. The second problem is that a significant portion of religious rules are man-made instead of God-given. Jesus is not against rules so long as those rules come from God. God-given rules are life giving. But man-made rules are life draining. And religion is filled with man-made rules. God says, “Don’t get drunk”…religious people then say, “Don’t drink.” God says, “Don’t commit adultery”…religious people then say, “Don’t watch R-rated movies.” God says, “Pray to me”…religious people then say, “Pray this many times a day for this length of time.” And why? Why is it that religious people create these additional rules? They do it to make it more difficult to break God’s rules, right? They say, “Don’t drink” so that it will be even more difficult for you to actually get drunk. They’re doing everything they can – including making up their own rules – in order to keep you and them from breaking God’s rules. And this brings us to the third reason that Jesus is opposed to such religious rules. They are born from fear and they produce fear.

This is the first reason that Jesus hates religion and you should too. Jesus hates religion because religion is based on fear and produces fear. Religion stacks upon your shoulders rule, upon rule, upon rule, upon man-made rule and then says that you must keep these rules in order to be accepted by God. And that’s the basic definition of religion that we’ll be working from these next four weeks. Every religion in the world basically says this: “If you obey then you’ll be accepted, loved, and blessed.” Every religious leader, with the exception of Jesus, teaches some variation of this same basic philosophy: “If you obey these rules then you will be accepted, loved, and blessed by God, or by the universe, or by others, or by yourself – or whatever.”

And Jesus hates religion for this very reason. If you are most accepted, most loved, and most blessed when you obey the demands of your religion then you will only obey the demands of your religion out of fear. Everything you do you will be doing because you fear not being accepted, not being loved, or not being blessed. Remember Tim? The young man whose story we started with tonight? Tim was convinced that his father was dying because of his own disobedience. Tim was certain that if he had just obeyed the demands of his religion then God would be blessing him instead of cursing him with this suffering. So he immediately gave himself to following the very particular demands of his religion. And even though some of the things he was doing were good things he was doing them for only one reason: fear. He feared losing his father so he started doing religious things hoping that God would accept him, love him, and bless him in return by keeping his dad alive. But, as you know, his dad died. And then Tim responded with even more fear. Because as good as he was doing he obviously still wasn’t doing good enough to receive the acceptance, love, and blessing that he so desired from God. So he gave himself to praying even more, and reading the Bible even more, and going to church even more, and avoiding the “wrong” people and the “wrong” things even more. But for what? For fear. He feared what would happen to him if he didn’t do it. He feared that God would not accept him, would not love him, and would not bless him. He feared that God would allow even more suffering to come into his life.

How This Works in Your Life

This is why Jesus hates religion. Jesus hates religion because of what it did to Tim. And Jesus hates religion because it does the same thing to you. It enslaves you. It enslaves you. Do you see that? If you live as though the acceptance, love, and blessing of God depends on how good of a person you are then you will forever be a slave to fear. You will never know for sure when you have done enough good for God to accept you, love you, and bless you so you will break your back carrying these heavy burdens on your shoulders, always afraid that if you drop them then God will frown upon you and punish you.

Now maybe you’re not a religious person. Maybe you would describe yourself as spiritual or irreligious. So maybe you think that this isn’t an issue for you. But it is. Even if you’re not concerned about living for God’s approval you are concerned about living for someone’s approval. You’re living for the approval, love, and blessing of someone whose opinion you value. It might be your spouse, it might be your boss, it might be your peers, it might be karma, it might be your conscience. You too are living for the approval, love, and blessing of someone. This is why you get so upset when religious people tell you that God doesn’t approve of the way you live. This is why you are so quick to tell religious people that you may not go to church but you are a good person. You too are living for the approval, love, and blessing of someone. You’re thinking, “I better do this because if I don’t then I might not get what I want from this person…I better not do that or it might come back to hurt me…I better be like this so that this person will love me…I better not ever do that again or it’s going to be very hard to feel good about myself.”

Religion and irreligion look very different. But at their core they’re really the same thing. Whether you’re religious or irreligious you’re living in fear. You’re doing what you do and saying what you say because you want the approval, love, and blessing either of the Creator or of the people he’s created. Jesus hates religion – and Jesus hates irreligion – for this very reason: it makes you a slave to fear.

Conclusion

Every religion in the world – EVERY religion in the world – tells you that you must earn acceptance, love, and blessing by doing what that particular religion demands of you. Every religion in the world thrives on your fear and tells you that you must earn acceptance, love, and blessing by your faithful adherence to the religion. Even irreligion does this. But not Jesus. No, Jesus is different. Jesus does not make God’s acceptance, love, or blessing dependent on your ability to measure up. Jesus does not heap burdens upon burdens upon your shoulders that you cannot carry. No, Jesus doesn’t offer religion. Jesus does not offer religion. Jesus offers something utterly unique. Something that no other system of belief or philosophy offers. Instead of offering religion Jesus offers redemption. Jesus offers rest.

Let me read to you the words of Jesus from Matthew 11:28-29. As he spoke to the religious and irreligious people of his day this is what Jesus said to them and what Jesus now says to you. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Religion offers slavery to fear. Jesus offers freedom to rest. Listen, if God’s acceptance, love, and blessing depends on your performance as so many religious people have told you then, yes, you should be plagued by fear. Because look, the holy and righteous God doesn’t merely demand your obedience to this or that rule, he demands absolute perfection. And you’re not perfect. In fact, you’re not even close. You are more likely to reach the moon with your bare hand than you are to ever reach perfection.

So if it’s up to how well you live to earn God’s acceptance, love, and blessing then, yes, you should be plagued by fear. But you don’t have to plagued by fear. Because it’s not up to you to earn God’s acceptance, love, and blessing. Jesus has earned the Father’s acceptance, love, and blessing for you. Being God himself he willfully became like you and came to you in order to save you. He lived the life of perfection that you daily fail to live. And he lived this life in your place. He also died the death under God’s righteous and wrathful judgment that you deserve to die for loving yourself more than the God who made you. And he died this terrible death of God’s rejection, hate, and curse in your place. And then the Father, God, raised his Son, Jesus, from the dead to show that his work was completed and accepted on your behalf.

Now, if you choose to trust in Jesus’ work and not your own then God has declared Jesus’ righteousness to be your righteousness so that, regardless of your performance, God accepts you, loves you, and blesses you on account of Jesus. If you choose to trust in Jesus’ work and not your own then God has likewise declared Jesus’ judgment to be your judgment so that, regardless of your performance, there is no wrath remaining for you, only the reward of being united to God now and forever on account of what Jesus has done in your place.

This is why while every other religion offers you fear Jesus invites you to come to him and find rest. Because all that God demands of you no longer rests on your shoulders. Jesus has taken your burden and made it his own so that you can be free from fear now and for all eternity. If you find your religion or irreligion wearisome, burdensome, exhausting, fear-inducing, or guilt-inducing the odds are you are missing out on the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. Flee from religion tonight, flee from irreligion tonight, and rest in Jesus who has met every one of God’s demands for you.