True Religion

True religion

Good morning. Is Christianity a religion or a relationship? I ask because that's the kind of false dichotomy that really frustrates me. Christianity is about worship. It's about worshiping the God who has taught us how to worship him. That's religion. It's also amazing because that God who has called us to worship him has made himself known to us and knows us. We miss everything if we lose either part of this. The one holy and awesome God is to be worshiped with right reverence. And he is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit who has come down to us so that we might experience his love. Jesus is going to warn us about a false religion. Here there are the words, beware. Jesus is going to teach us what he really values, a right religion, by pointing out the widow's actions. If you think about religion, it's clear Christianity is a religion because James tells us what it means to have a true and undefiled religion. It's to care for widows and orphans. Why is that specifically true and undefiled religion? I believe it's captured in the word give. True religion is giving ourselves over to the one who has given us everything. As we read before and meditate upon for the offering, God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He gives us all. And to all him we owe. We have to fully embrace. He has given us all so that we would have a real relationship with him. And therefore, know how to practice real, true religion. Our text this morning is shorter than normal. We're gonna see in verses 45 to 47 of chapter 20, a warning against false religion, a false religion that masquerades and takes. If we're to summarize 45 to 47, it's beware of the false religion and how you recognize a false religion is it masquerades and it takes. And then we're going to see Jesus highlight the actions of the widow in true religion that trusts and gives. Trusts and gives. Let's look at our text. Notice there in 45, in the hearing of all the people, he said to the disciples, beware, beware. There's numerous themes in scripture that we might not appreciate how often they come up unless we're reading scripture just to look for them. One of those themes is the regularity we would see God warning us of false teaching. We have to understand almost every letter we have in the New Testament is written to confront some kind of false teaching. It was prevalent in the early church. If you want to look at what this really looks like, The pastoral letters are focused specifically on the need for sound doctrine that would build up the church and correct false teaching. We could go back to Ezekiel 34, which is an incredible picture, where God is saying, I'm going to judge those priests who are taking what's meant to be offerings for God and using for their own consumption, using for their own glory. God says, I'm going to judge those priests. I'm going to judge those shepherds. And then he says, I myself will be your shepherd. I myself will mend your wounds. I myself will gather you. And old friend, don't miss it. When Jesus says, I am the good shepherd in John 10, he is saying he is that good king who comes to care for his people. Beware. Last week, if you're with us in verses 41 to 44, we saw Jesus confronting the scribes specifically, directly to them regarding how their teaching is void. They don't understand that the Messiah isn't just the son of David. The Messiah is the son of God. The Messiah is David's own Lord. He's not just a human descendant of David. He's the great God who's gonna come down to save us. Now he's going to warn the disciples. Now he's speaking directly to the disciples. Now he's turned his direction about the ungodly and unacceptable practices that are the scrubs. Here Jesus is warning the disciples to recognize you're not going to be like these guys. You're going to be concerned about these guys. If you're new with us, we're walking through the Gospel of Luke. Jesus has been in the temple. This is his last trip to Jerusalem. He has turned his face there. Back in chapter nine, verse 51, the triumphal entry has happened. He's wept over Jerusalem. He's gone to the temple. And what's happened before this is really interesting. It's kind of a take your ticket at the door to get whooped. Right, so the Sadducees, the chief priests, the Pharisees, they're all coming in to try to dupe Jesus. The Sadducees, the Pharisees, the chief priests, the scribes, they're all trying to figure out how they can destroy Jesus with some kind of deception. And what a picture of our foolishness. We're gonna overcome God in his temple? And verse 40 is so important. After the last group comes in to try to trick him, verse 40, no one dared ask any more questions. And here we see Jesus has turned the tables, he's asked the scribes a very important question with the Savior, the Messiah, and now he's warning the disciples. He says, beware of the scribes. He's pinpointing a significant theological problem. They think too little of God. They think too little of their problem of sin. They think too highly of themselves. Beware. Watch out. Keep a distance. Now, if we look at this, he's going to just describe behavior. If we just look at the behavior described in verse 46, beware of the scribes. And this is what you're looking for. This is the kind of behavior you're wanting to be cautious about, be on guard against.

They walk around in long robes, they love greetings in the marketplace, and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts.

So they walk around wanting attention, they love the greetings, they love the attention in the public spaces, and they want the best seats. Okay, let's kind of have a rubric for how we're gonna let this passage wash over us. First, disciples of Jesus, he is speaking to us directly. We need to be aware of people like this. There's always going to be an attack from Satan who's on the prowl, who wants to send in false teachers. We need to be aware that false teachers will come into a church, it's almost promised. We need to be constantly aware that Satan is prowling. So watch out for this kind of false disciple or false teacher. Okay, so second way. there's something very important in the way this should hit home for pastors and leaders. Me, Brian, Javier, Daniel. There's a way in which this should be specifically a heavy warning for us as we look at ourselves, as we want to be held accountable by you, the church. There's reality. There's many who twist what God gives and uses for their own sake. There's a way in which those who are in authority can abuse that authority. And too many Christians have suffered because of that. And so we want to think about that. Third, what he's warning of reflects sinful desires we all have. There's sin that's going to come from out there. There's going to be some kind of false teacher who wants to come in and stir up division. All right, there's leaders that we need to be aware that we don't act like these guys. And then all of us have all of these sins within our heart. And there's gonna be opportunity for repentance. Okay, so it begins with the problem. They like to walk around in long robes. So many questions that I have not had any good answers for this week. How fancy were these robes? How long do they need to be before they were sinful? Was there a train? Were these robes isolated so that only religious leaders got to have them? What does this really look like? The picture seems pretty obvious. They dress up in such a way that they would draw attention to themselves. Okay, so culturally, what would be the equivalent today? We could quickly ask, why in the world would any religious organization named under Christ insist upon having certain kinds of special robes for their priest or rector or whoever that may be? We could ask that question. We should also ask, we as Baptists, we may not have robes, but there is a formality that we could impose that might be like this. Now, this might surprise you, but I find the idea of wearing a robe attractive. But a special robe, a black, simple robe tied to the Protestant Reformation. And the whole idea of wearing that black robe was to make it clear that the person speaking needs to disappear. And it's the word of God that goes out in power. That idea of the robe is actually meant to take away from the person so that the word of God is clear. But I want to be very clear. I merely like the idea of the robe. It sounds really hot. All right, to continue to give my own personal reflection on the passage, this is one of those passages I come across and I feel kind of self-righteous and like, yeah, I don't have that problem. I in no way have ever been tempted to dress up fancy so people would look at me. Those of you who know me, I actually probably have the opposite problem. I don't want to dress up at all. Hey. There was all kinds of responses I was expecting, but not that one. To be clear, This sin, as I must believe, resides somewhere in my heart, but it's very dormant. We all have some sin issues. I have got my issues, but it's more of a desire for comfort, not this. The focus here is they like to be seen. They want honor, and that should sound true to us. Here's the real problem. They want honor, without being honorable. They want respect without being truly respectable. They put on a garment that hides the emptiness of who they really are so that they would be seen and honored because of how they present themselves rather than having the kind of character that would carry dignity with it. Titus 2 tells us older men should be dignified. There's a way in which we should all be looking to grow up with the characteristics of a disciple, of godliness, that others would look up to you, not because of your outward expression, not because of how you're masquerading. This is all a lie that's covering their emptiness. And there's a right way in which honor is meant to be given to those who have character. They're a facade. Next. They love greetings in the marketplace. Okay. We actually want to put this next to it. One of the qualifications of an elder is that they love the stranger. They're hospitable. We want to put these two side by side, I think, to help us understand. The scribes that were to be aware of and warned of, they like to go out and they like to receive a greeting from everyone. They want to be seen as important when they go out. But notice the hospitality that's required of an elder, it's they like to receive somebody in their own home. You see the scribes, they're trying to go out in the public to take. The elder, they're wanting to receive people into their home to give. What Jesus is observing of the scribes, they desire to approach others in order to receive from them. They're takers, not givers. The concern is they are unusually selfish when they are in the position to represent him who is abundantly generous. They're unusually selfish when they are in the position to represent him who is abundantly generous. They come in, they posture themselves as God's representatives, and they're distant. They want reward, they want to take. That's not God at all. He's near. He gives. He receives. Leaders, this is a high calling of what it means to represent God. We act like him and we give. It's the picture of verse 46, be on guard. Their presentation is empty. They want the seats of honor. They want to just, they depend upon people for their own well-being rather than depending upon God and giving themselves over. It gets a little more specific in verse 47. Notice there's two other practices. Verse 46, I think, captures they want to present themselves in their emptiness so they still receive honor that's undeserving. But here we see two other practices. They devour widows' houses. The word devour there means cheat. It assumes the idea they're cheating, and for a pretense, make long prayers. cheat widows, and they cheat God. We can see pretty basic the problem here. They don't love their neighbor as themselves. They don't love God. If we're to put the idea of love your neighbor as yourself, the second, as Jesus gives it, in terms of the order of the command that summarizes all the commands, it's actually the most extreme example. The widow is the most vulnerable. Loving the widow would be protecting her. Loving the widow would be giving to her. Loving the widow would be coming around her and caring for her, but they're doing the opposite. They're intentionally going against her to take from her. She who is most vulnerable is taken advantage of. We see no love of neighbor. Then we see the other concern. They pray with pretense. There's a pride. They like to give long prayers so that people would hear them and think how reverent, how spiritual. They're praying for the sake of gaining attention of men. Now, let's just be very clear. There's nothing more spiritual about short prayers based upon this passage. There's warnings about praying over and over again, repetition, for the purpose of having other people think, wow, what a spiritual person. The length of the prayer isn't the real problem, it's why they're doing it. The problem is focused on their desire for that. Others would want to hear them and think much of them. Just to be clear, I'm afraid our churches and our culture probably have the opposite problem of not praying long enough. We're too busy. Let's make that short. Let's not properly lead the church to trust God with a prayer that walks through the numerous aspects. We have a whole book of prayers, there's 150 in the middle of your Bible. The length of the prayer isn't the problem, it's the posture, it's the purpose. And now this last line, beware of the scrubs.

they will receive the greater condemnation.

Now, let's just think about this for a moment. Everything we've seen about these scribes is they're taking from others. They're intentionally receiving honor that's undue to them. They're intentionally receiving money and wealth from a widow that's undue to them. They're intentionally receiving glory instead of giving glory to God in their prayers. And notice the grand irony of the end. They're gonna receive something in the end, a greater condemnation. The disciples are told those who are promoting a false religion, those especially who are in a position to teach who God is. They have the unique opportunity, they have the unique blessing of standing in the place of those representing God to God's people. They're gonna receive a greater condemnation. Now, we can see the principle of this in James 3.1, where James says those who are teachers are going to have a greater scrutiny. There is a greater judgment. But it leads to a lot of questions. Are there layers in hell? Is there more punishment? Are there more severe punishment? Are there less punishment? We can ask these questions. It clearly is making it obvious that there is going to be a greater severe punishment for those who are misrepresenting God in this way. But that's not really the main question I want you to think about is, am I going to have a little punishment or a lot of punishment? No, you want to avoid hell and condemnation altogether. There's only one way to do that. Everyone is deserving of condemnation. And the only way we escape that condemnation, the only way we're delivered out of that condemnation is if we believe in Jesus Christ, who died for our sin. Let's think about this warning. One, it's telling the disciples, do not participate in this wickedness. Do not follow these men, don't be like these men. You're going to have to be a whole different kind of disciple because these guys, if these guys are your model, you're gonna get it wrong again. The whole goal of the church is to grow up like Christ so that they need to understand you're not gonna be takers like these men, you're gonna be givers like Jesus Christ. We could meditate upon Philippians 2 as to what that really looks like.