The End of Religion

And so we are finishing our series this morning. A quick three-week series called Losing My Religion. And I don’t know if you know this, I’ve told you multiple times, but religion and relationship are not the same thing. And Jesus didn’t come to bring us another religion. He came to offer us real true relationship. And for these past three weeks, we’ve been looking at the birth of religion. That was the first week. Last week was the evolution of religion. And today is the end of religion. Is that Keith Brooks? Oh my gosh! Incredible. Unbelievable drummer. Played drums here for so many different years. Keith, it’s great to see you. Love you so much.

Today’s the end of religion. And as we’ve told you, people use the word religion differently. Different people mean different things when they say it. Some people, when they say the word religion, they mean something positive. And so we’re we don’t argue over words, but what I’m talking about during this series, religion is a system set up by man in an attempt to achieve our way to God. And so that’s the religion that we believe that Jesus came to abolish.

And in week one, we talked about the very beginning. We talked about the origin of religion, how religion was born. We talked about how religion didn’t start because God asks for it, but religion was born from us, and the fact that we bought the lie from the enemy that God was far away. And then in week chapter week number two, we did about how religion evolved. And we talked about how religious systems were introduced not originally by God, but by us. And for centuries, God worked within these religious systems. Kings and temples and sacrifices, all the while pointing to something better. All the while pointing towards Jesus.

The end of religion

And today what we’re going to talk about, and I’m excited about it, is we’re going to talk about the end of religion. I don’t know if you know this, but Jesus did not just come and gently suggest that religion was not that great. But he comes and he deliberately takes on religious systems to show us that there’s something better. In fact, I like to say it like this that Jesus came to have an intervention with humanity to free us from our addiction of religious systems.

Like old classic art, you know, stained glass, the old paintings of all the saints. I think that’s so cool. I’m into all of that. But I do think it’s a little bit funny when we put Jesus in religious art because Jesus was so non-religious. And he goes way out of his way to show us that there’s these religious rules, not created by God. This is an important distinction for this morning. Religious rules not created by God, but created by man, that he actually goes out of his way to intentionally break. And Jesus forces people to come and make a choice. That Jesus would either have to be followed or killed.

John chapter 5, if you’ve found your way there, what I’m gonna just want to warn you that what I’m about to show you this morning for some of you is gonna be a few weeks ago, someone came to me and they said, They said, Pastor David, I like when you preach, but in the best way. So it’s painful, is it painful for you? Well, this is gonna be one of those mornings for sure. John chapter 5 and verse 1 says this.

Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the sheepgate, a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda, and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

I always like to laugh that it’s so funny that they would call people lame. Because now that means something different. Now that’s what your teenagers call you. My parents are so lame. Well, in Jesus’ time, lame didn’t mean like you wear bad pants. It meant it meant you couldn’t walk. And so there was this pool, and sick people would hang around the pool hoping to get healed.

Verse 5: One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked, Do you want to get well?

So thirty-eight years, this man had been disabled almost four decades.

Verse 7, Sir the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.

There’s this whole thing where the belief was that an angel would come and he would stir the water, and then when you could hop in that there would be a healing deal. And he says, Well, when the water is stirred, I’m too slow. I can’t get in. No one’s gonna help me. And someone else goes down ahead of me.

Then Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured. He picked up his mat and he walked.

So here we have this incredible miracle, right? So this man was healed and he can walk after almost four decades of being unable to. But did you notice that there’s something kind of weird in the story? That Jesus didn’t just say, get up and walk. Right? He says, get up, pick up your mat and walk. And it’s like, I’ve always thought, you know, I’ve read this story since I was a kid, and I’ve always thought, like, who cares about the mat? You know what I mean? Like a mat? It’s just, it feels like four decades of not being able to walk. And Jesus says, like, don’t forget your mat. It just seems like a strange thing to harp on, both for Jesus, but also for the writer of the Gospel of John. John, like, why is this an important detail to emphasize? Well, I’ll show you. Let’s read the rest of the verse.

John chapter 5, verse 9, it says this. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath.

A Sabbath. And that’s the punchline. And you might be thinking, no, it’s not. That’s also unimportant and meaningless to me. But it means something very significant. It’s this that Jesus heals this man on the Sabbath. And Jesus specifically tells him to pick up his mat on the Sabbath. And you might be thinking, like, so what? The Sabbath? Like, who cares? Well, let me tell you why that’s a big deal.

I’m going to teach for like two minutes here, okay? So there’s this thing called the Mishnah Shabbat. It’s this is the Jewish oral tradition that has been passed down. So now it’s a book, but in the time it was, you know, written on parchments and scrolls. And the Mishnah Shabbat, it’s the Jewish oral tradition. So I want you to be clear that it’s not scripture, but it’s people elaborating on scripture and talking in practical ways how this thing plays out. And so it’s not the Bible, but to the Jewish leaders of the time, the Mishnah Shabbat was like a huge deal.

And in the Mishnah Shabbat, chapter 7 specifically, you know, you’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath. Y’all know that, right? Like that’s the official rule. Like, don’t work on the Sabbath. But the Mishnah Shabbat goes into 39 categories of work that you’re not allowed to do on the Sabbath. And one of them, specifically from the Mishnah Shabbat, is you are forbidden from carrying personal items from one place to another. You couldn’t do it. In fact, let’s read it. This is probably the first time and maybe only time. I’ll ever put up the Mishnah Shabbat here on the screen. This is Mishnah Shabbat chapter 7, verse 2. Again, this is not the Bible. This is Jewish oral tradition. It says this.

The principal acts of labor prohibited on the Sabbath are 40 minus one.

I like that. It makes you do math. I’m pretty sure 39 was also a number at the time. They don’t want to say that. I want to say 40 minus one. And it lists 39 things, and one of them is this. And I quote, carrying from one domain to another. Carrying from one domain to another. Unless you think I’m making it up, even the prophet Jeremiah called out the people of Jerusalem for carrying stuff on the Sabbath. You can go read about it. Jeremiah chapter 17.

So when Jesus comes and he tells this man, pick up your mat and walk around Jerusalem on the Sabbath. It’s not an accident, it’s a deliberate statement. It’s an intentional thing.

Listen to this, verse 10. So the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath, the law forbids you to carry your mat.

I always think it’s funny. Notice that they’re upset about not the fact that Jesus performed a miracle. Not the fact that this man who had been unable to walk for 38 years can now walk. They didn’t care about that. What they cared about was the mat. They said, You shouldn’t be carrying your mat. So they confront him about it.

Verse 11, but he, the man who was healed, replied, The man who made me well said to me, Pick up your mat and walk.

So he’s saying, like, y’all don’t yell at me like the guy, the magic guy, like he told me to do it. And so they go and then they confront Jesus about it. And you might think that Jesus, when he’s confronted about it, you think he might say, like, sorry, y’all, my bad, my bad, my mat, my bad. I know I didn’t mean to offend you guys. I know that’s your sacred. I didn’t mean it. You know, it’s my bad. I just got carried away. I didn’t mean any disrespect. I was just so excited, and I forgot about the whole mat thing. Or maybe you think Jesus didn’t know about the mat thing, which would be untrue. Jesus knew the Jewish tradition. Look at what Jesus actually says.

In his defense, Jesus said to them, My father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.

So he doubles down because you’re not supposed to work on the Sabbath, and he doesn’t, but but and he’s not, he’s like, minimize that. But he says this He says, My father is always at work, and I too am working. Work, work, work, work, work, work, work on the Sabbath. And Jesus is making a statement here. He’s saying this. He’s saying, I have the authority that supersedes your religious systems. I have something that is bigger and better and greater than what y’all have.

Jesus deliberately breaks the religious add-ons

Now, if you have your Bibles again, turn with me to John chapter 9. I’m just gonna warn you, it gets worse.

John chapter 9, verse 1 says this, as he, this is Jesus, as he went along, he saw a blind man from birth.

And y’all probably know this story at this point. The disciples, so he’s this he was born blind. And so the disciples, they want to have a theological discussion. They want to say, like, well, who do y’all think they you know, they talk, who do y’all think sinned so that this man is blind? Do you think maybe it was his parents, or maybe it was him, which is a weird thing to say, right? Because the man was born blind. But apparently in Jewish culture back in the day, they used to believe that you could like you could sin in utero, you could sin in the wood. I don’t know, you got like a tiny little cigarette in there or something. Like it’s you know what I mean? Like what you want to do. But they want to, but they see the man and they use seeing a blind man as an opportunity for a theological discussion.

Right? Jesus, on the other hand, he just wants to help the guy. And so Jesus, he walks over and he stops, and the disciples are probably thinking, like, okay, here we go. Miracle time. But Jesus stops and then he bends down and he picks up some dirt. And the disciples are probably thinking, like, okay, that’s different. And then, and then you know what Jesus says? Then he looks at the dirt in his hand, and you know what he does? Spits in it. Like, can you imagine this? Like, this is not the Jesus you see in stained glass with like this is Jesus making spit mud in his hand. And then he walks up to the blind guy, and I just find that so funny because the guy’s blind, so he doesn’t know this is happening. You know what I mean? He’s just hanging out. Jesus had crafted spit mud in his hand. And then Jesus comes and he takes the spit mud and he rubs the spit mud into the man’s eyes.

Now let me ask you a question. What day of the week do you think this happened? The Sabbath, right? And so if we were to go back to the Mishnah Shabbat, the religious rule book of the day, again, not scripture, not God’s commands, mankind’s add-ons to God’s commands. There’s three things that are absolutely forbidden in the Mishnah. I’ve got them for you on the screen. Number one is this attempting to heal anyone on the Sabbath, unless it was life or death. This is the Mishnah Shabbat, chapter 22, verse 6. Anointing someone with anything for any reason is forbidden on the Sabbath. Three, making any kind of dough, clay, or paste is also specifically forbidden on the Sabbath.

And what’s interesting, I just hope you can appreciate this, is that Jesus breaks all three of these rules simultaneously. Right? And then let me ask you a question. Like, do you think he needed to do the spit mud thing to make the miracle work? Like, no, of course not, right? He like he did this exact miracle multiple times, right? But he does it so that he’s not just breaking one man made rule, he’s breaking three. Right? And he’s making a point. He’s saying, like, here’s what I think about your mountain of religious add-ons. Right? And look, I don’t want I don’t want I don’t want to oversell it. I don’t want to be unclear. Jesus never broke the commands of God. But the commands of man, the add-ons of man, is another story. In fact, it’s one of the things that puts him on a collision course with the religious rulers of the day, is that he refused to abide by all the things we add on to the faith.

And he’s not even done yet. Like, so the man, because again, he’s not healed yet, right? So the man he’s just got mu spit mud in his eyes, but he’s still not healed. He still can’t see. I don’t know if he knows what that is. It’s just speculating. But look, Jesus tells the man this. He says this, go, he said, told him, wash in the pool of Siloam. Now, if you don’t know, there’s lots of these different pools in Jerusalem. Lots of these different pools. And so he had to like walk past other pools to go specifically to the pool of Siloam. And the pool of Siloam was special. And the story tells us that this all happened during what’s called the Feast of Tabernacles. Big it’s a Hebrew word, Sukkot. And during Sukkot, this is like a big Jewish festival, during that time, they have one particular parade where they go from the temple to the pool of Siloam and back to the temple. And what they do is they go down and they bless the water to make it holy, they take water and they parade it back to the temple, and then they do what’s called a libation ceremony. That’s where they pour out the water in like a ritual sacrifice or as an offering. And so, like, this is special, sacred water, especially during the Feast of Tabernacles. And Jesus sends the man with spit mud, like covering his eyes to walk across town, like you know what I mean, to this pool when a religious festival is happening to wash off the spit mud in the sacred water.

Right? And you might be thinking, like, man, Jesus is just kind of like being like kind of like, maybe like kind of combative. And I’ll say this, I think you’re partially right. Because when Jesus, when people see that this man who’s been born blind, is healed, but only after Jesus breaks three religious add-ons and muddies the whole the holy water, people are forced to make a choice. That’s good. And the choice is this it’s me or it’s that, but it ain’t both. It’s me or it’s that, but it ain’t both.

Look at this, John 9, verse 16. Some of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.

By the way, let me just say this. They’re wrong. Jesus did keep the Sabbath, but he did not keep the Sabbath in the way they wanted him to keep the Sabbath. And so we talked about in week one. You can see how religious systems, you it’s just like uh Eve says the one thing, like, oh, we’re not supposed to eat from the tree, nor are we supposed to touch it. It’s like God didn’t say that, but you just added a little thing. You just added a little thing, and you can see generation after generation after generation, you can see how you have a whole book of rules from well-intentioned people that are not reflective of God’s heart. Right? So Jesus does and did keep the Sabbath, but he does not keep the Sabbath in the way they want him to.

Look at this. But others asked, how can a sinner perform such signs? So they were divided.

Right? And so what happened? Well, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious rulers, well, they decided, well, this guy must use the power of Satan. And then they plot, they begin in their hearts and in their minds first, plotting how to kill him. And so just wanting to point out something really simple. And it’s this is that Jesus is not subtly suggesting that religious systems are not that great. Nor is Jesus just a rebel trying to like stir up trouble. Jesus is deliberately challenging religious systems. He’s not trying to reform them, he’s not trying to make them better. He’s showing us how ineffective they ultimately are.

He came to replace the covenant

I want you to know this that Jesus didn’t come to tweak nothing. Like he didn’t replacing completely. In fact, the theologians in the room would know that he came to replace the old covenant with the new covenant. Right? He didn’t reform, he didn’t make a tweak to the covenant, he replaced the covenant. In fact, the writer of Hebrews says it like this Hebrews chapter 8, verse 13.

By calling this covenant new, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

So it’s obsolete, right? The whole system, the whole sacrifices, the religious performance, the rule keeping, the guilt trips to like maybe if I do enough that maybe like God would someday love me and someday accept me. All of that is obsolete. And I think that’s a pretty strong word, obsolete. Obsolete doesn’t just mean old-fashioned. Obsolete means replaced. Right? Like, just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s obsolete. It’s obsolete when it’s replaced. It’s like, it’s like let’s say you got a flip phone. Jesse McDermott, I don’t know if you remember, he had a Motorola razor. Y’all remember that? Really thin. Oh god, we thought it was so cool. Had like a dragon on it. It was really a thing. But now, like let’s imagine you’re using a you’re using a flip phone, but like right next to you, you got like an iPhone. Right? It’s not that the razor doesn’t work, it’s obsolete. It’s been replaced by something better. Remember dial up internet? Remember you had AOL, remember all the sound? Right? Like nobody has that anymore. Why? Why? Because it was replaced by something better.

And so Jesus says there was an old covenant, there was an old way of relating to me, there was an old way of achieving some sort of relationship with me, but all of that is not just tweaked, not just improved upon, but it’s replaced. The old covenant is replaced with the new covenant. God finally comes and says, enough of the religious systems. Not because he’s tired of working with us, right? Not because he ran out of patience, but because Jesus accomplishes what all of those systems were pointing to. And what he accomplishes is something that religion never could. And so now when Jesus comes, and now on the other side of the cross, like the work is finished. It is finished. And so we don’t need a religious system anymore. And we can finally have what we were created for, which is intimacy with the Father, relationship with God. No middleman, no religious hoops to jump through, not based on your religious performance, based on the finished work of Jesus. Right. He didn’t come to tweak, he came to bring something new, a new way of relating to God, a new way of having relationship with God.

God uses regular people in regular places

And of course, I could like end the sermon right now, but you know me, I gotta have three points. Keith, if you don’t know this, I always have three points. So these are three points that I want you to write down. You can take away, apply to your life. Number one is this God uses regular people in regular places. God uses regular.

So Jesus, during all of this, he’s also assembling a team that’s gonna be responsible for spreading like his non religious message to the world. And so it’s an exceptionally important job. And I just want you to say who did he choose to put on his team? Right? Like he didn’t go to the seminary, he didn’t go to the temple to recruit guys with the theology degrees, right? He didn’t pick the most religious people. He went down to a boat dock and picked fishermen. He went down to the tax office and picked a tax collector. He picked regular people doing regular jobs in regular places. And look, like I have my degree in biblical theology, right? So I’m not dissing education, I’m simply making the point. That’s not who God chose. Right, that that’s not who God chose to start and push his message.

And I just want to encourage you, that’s still how God works today. He God still chooses to use not exclusively, but significantly regular people in regular places. And I just want to say this on behalf of me and Jordan, Marshall, Sid, like I we hope you don’t think that you have to, like, in order for God to really use you, that you have to be a pastor. Please don’t think that. Please don’t think that for God to use you in an amazing way, you have to be a missionary. Don’t think that. Don’t think like you gotta work at a church. All of those are beautiful callings. It’s great. But that’s not the only way that God uses people. Your ordinary job is where God wants to use you. Your ordinary job. Like, think about it like this. Where do you spend the most waking hours if you’re not retired? At work. Where do you have the most relationships with people who don’t know God? At work. And so why would you think God only wants to use you on Sundays? And you’re not like you don’t need a title to make a difference. Right. Just be faithful to where you are. God can use you.

Carl, some of y’all know Carl Carl Allerd lays fence for a little. And by but I don’t let me downplay it. It’s like miles and miles of fence. He’s out in the boondocks doing it by himself. Like, that’s why he’s so ripped. But he lays fence. And so he’s out in these different towns and stuff, and he came to me and told me last week he’s working on a job out there, and he says he has to go to Home Depot like every day to get material, sometimes multiple times in a single day. And he says he in this town, and he says he befriended some of these guys that just work at the Home Depot. And he’d talk, you know, because he’d be there, he’s like, I’ll see you in four hours. When I need more stuff, but he was always going, and so. And so he would talk to him and he says, he would ask him, he says, Hey, do you know Jesus? And one of the guys is like, nah, man, I don’t believe in, I don’t believe in Jesus, I don’t believe in God. And Carl’s like, really? He said, Well, maybe you should, maybe you should think about that. Maybe you should try talking to him. See what happens. Right? Doesn’t push it, right? But just over time, over time, he’s still building this relationship, building this relationship. You know, sharing his life, sharing his faith, not in creepy ways, just in really practical ways. At Home Depot. In the middle of, and he told me that one of the guys came up to him last week and he said, Carl, you know how you know how I told you I don’t believe in God? He says, Well, now I do. Home depot. You know what I mean? Like that’s ministry.

I don’t know if you know this, but like this room, as amazing it is as it is, is actually not the best place to practice your evangelism. Right? So most people in here already believe. Right? But the second you leave this room and go out into this city, you know what you have? A huge mission field. Everywhere you go. I hope you don’t just get groceries. I hope you know that you’re representing Christ. I hope you know that God can use you at your job. It’s like I work at Wendy’s. Yeah, God can use you at Wendy’s. He uses ordinary people in ordinary places. He wants to use you in your everyday life, not just during church. If you even think about it like this, that you are God’s plan to reach the people in your world. Not me. Because I don’t know your coworkers, I don’t know your neighbors. Like I don’t know the people that you interact with every day, but you do, and God has strategically placed you in those relationships for a reason. Strategically placed you where you’re at for a reason.

And so here’s an application question for you. I’ve got on the screen. How can God use you right where you are? How can God use you right where you are? Maybe it’s, I don’t know, it’s being kind to the coworker that nobody likes. Maybe it’s like doing your job with excellence and integrity so that people notice that there’s something different about you. Maybe it’s just being a person who brings peace instead of drama. Maybe it’s like being someone people can trust. I don’t know what it is, but you don’t need all the answers. You don’t need like perfect theology. You don’t have to know it. You just have to be faithful where God placed you. Because being out of religion, because the end of religion shows us something, and it’s this that God wants to use you to be his representative in your ordinary regular life. Not because you’re so spiritual, but because it God has chosen to use you as his ambassador. And I think that’s pretty cool. So number one, God uses regular people in regular places.

Stop waiting, start walking

Number two is this stop waiting, start walking. Stop waiting, start walking. So you know, when Jesus was, again, when he’s assembling his disciples to form this non-religious cohort of people that will spread this message to the world. When Jesus finds these men, where do you think most of them are? What are they doing? What do you think? Most of them working. And like, I’m not making a point about like, you know, kids these days gotta learn how to work, even though I do agree with that. I’m not making that. I’m saying if you want to find God’s purpose for your life, you’re much more likely to find that when you’re working than if you’re just sitting around and waiting. Like Peter and Andrew, they were fishing, James and John, they were mending nets. Matthew, he was collecting taxes. And it’s just not, they weren’t just sitting around waiting to be picked. Like they were working, and I can tell you this the pastors they can tell you, churches are filled with people who are sitting around waiting to be asked to do something by the pastor. That’s like, I don’t know, I don’t know what else to say. We don’t know what else to say other than like we’re in this together. Go spread the gospel. Go make the kingdom of God great in what you do. Like, don’t just sit around like, boy, I could really, I mean, maybe God could use me, but no nobody even pays any attention to me. It’s like stop waiting, start walking, do something, make a move, proclaim the gospel, represent Christ well.

Faith requires movement and action. Faith does, right? And James tells us that faith without works is in your imagination. He says it’s dead, but I say faith that is without works that doesn’t move is not real, right? And this is what I’ve learned. I’ve learned that you don’t learn how to walk by studying how to walk. You learn how to walk with God by walking. It’s like learning how to drive. You know what I mean? Like you can read all the books, you can watch all the YouTube videos, you can read all the drivers, you know, the car instruction manuals, backwards and forth. But you don’t learn how to drive until you get behind the wheel and actually drive. Let me ask you how do you learn how to paint? By painting. How do you learn how to preach? By preaching. Like, do you know how many sermons I’ve preached to myself in my car? Thousands. Right? You know how you learn to unclog a toilet? By unclogging a toilet, right? It’s the same with faith. You can study faith, you can read about faith, you can go to conferences about faith, but you don’t actually develop faith until you start walking it out.

And there are too many people who are waiting for the perfect conditions before they actually step out. Like, man, boy, I’m gonna start a business as soon as I have enough money saved up. It’s like just why don’t you just start it? You know, like I’m gonna go back to school once the kids are older. It’s like, why don’t you just do it? You know, I’m gonna serve at church once I like reach spiritual perfection, so never. You know, like I’m gonna start sharing my faith once I have Leviticus memorized. It’s like, just do it. Just do it, you know what I mean? Like, there’s never a perfect time. You’re never gonna feel like you have enough money, knowledge, confidence. But this is what I’ve learned as someone who has at least tried to live by faith most of my life, is that you don’t need to see the whole staircase to take the first step. That’s good. Just do it, man. You know what I mean? That’s what I tell young people step out and find out. Do it. Step out and find out. Just try something.

You know, it’s like I think about these kids getting married, you know. You know, I like to do I do these weddings, and like these incredible people in their 20s, you know, and they’re getting married and they’re so in love, and it’s so great. But you know, like it’s funny, you know, they’re up there and they’re doing their vows, and it’s like, you know, for better or for worse, and richer or poorer till death do us far. It’s like you don’t even know what you’re saying. Like you don’t even marry people anyway, you don’t even know what you’re committing to. You know what I mean? It seems so easy when they’re in that dress and it’s so pretty, and oh, I just feel so much love. It’s like you’re committing your entire life, good and bad, to be with this person. You know what I mean? Like, they don’t even know what they’re saying, but you know what? You take the first step. And God meets you each step of the way.

You don’t have to get every detail figured out to start moving. Wanna get in shape? You know, you don’t have to order 17 books from the glucose goddess. Who I like. You know what I mean? Like, like if you want to just want to get healthy, just like go for a walk today, you know what I mean? Like some of y’all have been saying, like, diet starts Monday for like 48 years now. Right? Just maybe it starts right now. It’s like, well, I want to read through the whole Bible, you know, so I can’t wait for January 1st to come. It’s like just read one chapter right now. You know, like read one chapter a day starting today. Like you want to start serving, don’t wait till you feel qualified. Go sign up for something today.

Here’s the application question. What’s one thing you’ve been waiting to do that you could start today? What’s one thing you’ve been waiting to do that you could start today? Maybe it’s like a conversation that you need to have. Maybe it’s an apology you need to make. Maybe it’s a dream you need to pursue. Maybe it’s just taking the next step in your faith. Whatever it is, stop waiting, start walking. Number one, God uses regular people and regular places. Two, stop waiting, start walking.

Religion says do, Jesus says done

And number three, this is my theological conclusion to the series, and I’m done. Religion says do, Jesus says done. That’s pretty good. I was pretty proud of that one. Religion says do, Jesus says done. Religion is all about do, do, do, do. Jesus, so I can reach God. Jesus, though, says done, done, done. Religion is about human achievement. What we can do to reach God, to accomplish so that we can get to God. Christianity is about divine accomplishment. What God has already done. Religion looks like this. I’m looking in. What can I do? What can I achieve? How can I do this better so that I’ll feel God? Christianity is Christ focused. Right? So the center, the center of my gaze in my faith is not me. It’s Jesus. It’s the cross. It’s what he came to bring us.

And in everything in the Christian faith, God is the initiator, not us. And so for us, it’s about having the faith to receive. Right? But we’re receivers. And then, just like it says in our creed, that the life that He offers us, that’s His gift to us. And then we, and then we offer Him a gift, which is living it well. But it’s just saying amen to what he does.

Genesis chapter 15. You know, God comes to Abraham and He says, I’m gonna bless you, you know, count the sand, count the stars, I’m gonna make you a great nation. People are gonna be blessed through you. I love you, I’ve got a plan for you, I’m gonna be good to you. And Abraham’s response was this. What did it say? It says he believed God. That word believe in the Hebrew, it literally just means this, amen. It means amen. So, like God comes and he says all of these different things. I’m gonna bless you, I love you, I’m gonna prosper you. And Abraham says, Amen. And on that amen, Abraham received all that God had for him.

And that’s exactly how it works for us today, right? Right? Like, like I don’t try to add to it, I just see the amazing life that God has come to offer me for free. Just through faith. And I just say, Amen. Jesus died for my sins, amen. Right? I’m holy and blameless. Amen. It is finished, amen. Right? Faith is saying amen to what God has already accomplished.

And it’s like if you were gonna, let’s say, let’s say after church today, you were to go out and you were to eat with some people, and then let’s say someone comes and someone in the group, they pay for the bill. You know what you say? Thank you. Right? You don’t go back and try to pay again if it’s been paid. That’d be foolish. And that would be dishonoring of what they did. So it’s already done. The price has been paid for us having intimacy with the Father. Right? The payment for your sins, all the times you fall short, all the times you you know the right thing to do when you don’t do it. The price has been paid for that. So you don’t go try to pay again. Right? So why do you try to pay for something that’s already been paid for? Jesus comes and he says, it is finished on the cross, and he meant it. The Greek word there is to telesty. It just it literally means fully paid for, not almost paid for, not most of the way, paper, fully paid for.

And of course, the classic objection, I know Marshall has been facing it for 45 years, is that if you preach grace, if you teach this way, won’t people get lazy? Here’s what I’ve learned. I’ve learned that if people know that they’re completely loved and there’s nothing left to earn, they don’t do less, they do more. But from a different place, right? They do it from gratitude, not trying to earn something.

Here’s the question you can write down. What are you trying to earn from God that He’s already given you? What are you trying to earn from God that He’s already given you? Everything we do in the Christian life is a response, not an initiation. So we don’t pray, we don’t pray to initiate something with God. We don’t pray so that God will love us, we pray because we’re already loved. We don’t serve to earn acceptance, we serve because we’re already accepted. And that’s the difference between religion and relationship.

So number one is this God uses regular people in regular places. Number two, stop waiting, start walking. Number three, religion says do, Jesus says done.

Where we’re going

And as we close the series, I’ve just got a final thought for you, and I want to switch just for a minute from where we have been, because this series is, of course, a lot of looking back. But I want to switch from looking back where we’ve been to where we’re going. In the last book of the Bible, if you all have ever been brave enough to travel there, it’s a book called Revelation, and there’s a man named John, and he gets a vision of where we’re going. And look at what he says.

Revelation chapter 21, verse 1. He says, This, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

So see, if you’re thinking, see, but I like to fish. See, the sea in ancient cultures was symbolic of struggle and evil and sorrow. And so he’s saying he didn’t see any of that.

Verse 2, I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. Verse 3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God’s dwelling place is now among the people. And he will dwell with them.

Remember when he’s asking in the Old Testament prophets? He says, Where shall I live? You know, he says, Is you’re gonna make me a home? Where and at the end he’s saying this, that my dwelling place is now gonna be among the people, and I will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be with their God.

So I don’t know if you think about it like this, but where we’re going looks an awful lot like where we came from. Back to the garden, back into direct relationship with God. There’s so whether it’s not some holy special institution that’s like a gatekeeper for God’s presence, there’s not a holy ritual that you have to perform to get God to show up. There’s not a religious performance required. It’s just just you and God. Direct relationship. Just intimacy with the Father. It’s direct.

Verse 22. I did not see a temple in the city. Because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Is that interesting? There’s not a temple because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. So where we’re going, there’s not a temple, there’s not a religious establishment, there’s not a sacrificial system. Why? Because God Himself is the temple that we live in. Like we’re living in direct intimacy with God. And so instead of being surrounded by walls of a temple, we’re literally wrapped in God’s love. Right? That He is the temple. So instead of it being stucco and what like we’re wrapped every single moment, we’re wrapped in the love of God. There’s nothing closer. Every moment we’re wrapped in the love and the intimacy of the Father.

That’s where the story started in the garden, and that’s where it’s heading. And what’s beautiful though is that we as followers of Jesus Christ said we don’t have to wait for that. We are people who get to live in that reality now. In fact, we’re a movement of people who have lost religion and are now experiencing real relationship. Religion says, do this, maybe God will accept you. Jesus says, I’ve already done everything. Now rest in my finished work. That is the gospel of grace.

Here’s my closing statement. Jesus deliberately challenged religious systems to show us something better. Direct relationship with God through his finished work. One, God uses regular people in regular places. You don’t need a title to make a difference. God wants you to use you right where you’re at, where you are in your ordinary life. Number two, stop waiting, start walking. You learn to walk with God by walking, not by waiting for perfect conditions or complete understanding. Number three, religion says do, Jesus says done. Religion demands endless performance, but our faith is a celebration of Christ’s finished work on the cross.