Christianity or Jesus Christ

Matt. 16: 13-15.

Mark. 2:18-22.

Heb. 1:1-3.

RESPONSIVE READING: JOHN 1:1-6.

INTRODUCTION

I want to handle this subject with great prayer and caution. I also want to acknowledge the fact that I’m a Christian- a follower of Christ and a member of his church. I am a practitioner of Christianity and I am sensitive to the unrest of our times.

I want to apologize in advance for covering so much ground and so short a time. If the Lord leads we will cover more on this crucial topic. The Lord has placed this on my heart. We may be experiencing the great falling away. 2 These. 2:3.

I want to speak from a place reflecting on the Old Testament prophets. They were the servants of God. They challenged God and they challenged God’s people. They honestly struggled with both, which made their faith authentic.

“A christian can be devoted Jesus Christ and question Christianity.”

There is no question about Christianity’s contribution to the world.

Christianity is a belief system that forms the basis of the Christian religion. Christianity has been beneficial in the advancement of medicine; essential in striving for the equality of women and all races; It has enhanced the appreciation of philosophy, art, social justice, and education. it is the only way to receive salvation and communion with God, according to the New Testament.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary says, “Christianity is The beliefs, practices, and cultural expressions of the Jesus community and the wider Christian religion and culture.”

The Term Christian was first used by Ignatius of Antioch in 110 a.d. It describes the belief system of social identity of the followers of Jesus. Here is where our humanity comes inn. Jesus told his disciples, “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.”

Not long after Jesus’ crucifixion, his church developed and grew into a religion. The further we moved away from Jesus’ return to heaven, the more challenges we faced.

The further you move away from the origins of a religion, the more you create structures of support. And those who saw Jesus in flesh, and blood believed that he would return again, shortly after his crucifixion. Jesus himself said, “Some of you standing here shall not taste death…" The longer it took for Jesus to return, the more the church needed organization. This is why we see Paul appointing, deacons and bishops to establish Jesus’ church.

The primary purpose of the great commission was replication, not duplication.

A duplicate is the exact image of something. If you put a document in the copy machine, it will give you the exact duplicate of what you inserted in the copier. A replica is different. A replica is something that was produced from the original. It's close to the same thing, but not the same thing. There is only one Jesus, and he cannot be duplicated. The church is to replicate his life and character. When he said going to the world and make disciples of all nations, he was speaking of replication and not duplication.

Religion’s Fatal Flaw

The problem in religion is people need to be reminded. As human beings, we forget who we are and what we are. We forget what we believe.

2 Peter 1:12 NIV

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have.

We have to constantly be reminded of our faith. From old testament times until now, we forget what we believe and move away from our foundations.

The further you move away from the original faith, the less you remember, it’s seed truth. Thus you have to augment those truths with interpretations.

John 20:30–31 NIV

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

After the apostles, who walked with Jesus, died. The church appointed other apostles to succeed them. But the further we moved away from those who handled Jesus in the flesh and blood, the more we diminished their testimonies.

With time, the faith we so strongly believe in becomes a tool of pain and confusion. Now we suffer from several things.

1. Religious Intolerance: Throughout history, some followers of Christianity have engaged in acts of religious intolerance, persecution, and discrimination against those of different faiths or beliefs.

2. Cultural Assimilation. Christianity was often used as a tool to justify the subjugation and exploitation of different peoples. It supported slavery, classism and racism. Christianity has led to wars and bloodshed.

3. The manipulation of scripture: people misuse in abuse the Bible to make it say anything they choose.

We do not follow a religion; we follow a Savior.

True Christian faith leaves the womb of religion It was born in.

Mark 2:18–22 NIV

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

We are constantly trying to put Jesus in the old wine skins of religion.

Jesus changed the rules. He defend the poor; he to reached the outcast, he healed the brokenhearted, and called judgment upon religious hypocrisy.

Christians suffering persecution and erosion were turning away from their faith. The writer of Hebrews gave them reasons why they should never turn away from Jesus Christ. The answer to their fear is holding to who Jesus is.

God spoke in the past through prophets, but in these last days, through his Son, who is THE WORD OF GOD, THE RADIANCE OF HIS GLORY AND THE SIGNET RING OF HIS AUTHORITY.

Jesus is not a dead prophet who called his followers into a religion.

Jesus didn’t called us into a religion. He got us into a relationship. He is the Vine and we are the branches. We are his temple and his body.

Jesus is God before the foundation of the world. He is the Word of God made flesh. He is transforming us into his own image, by his Spirit.

Jesus is the atoning sacrifice...

Jesus is sympathetic to our needs because he was made in our image and likeness...

He is seated on the right hand of majesty.

Jesus is currently praying for us, and interceding on our behalf.

It was by faith in him that people like Paul, preached the gospel, Martin Luther challenged religion. And Martin Luther King Jr. led the civil rights movement. People like Henry J, SEYMORE, Charles, Parham, Smith, Wigglesworth, lead the Pentecostal movement.

Women like Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Rosa Parks, fanny j Crosby, sojourner truth, Harriet Tubman- dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ, and lived for a cause.

Churches have been built in his name. Community is the full of heartache and oppression hear the word of God. Preachers on working, along with their congregations to feed the hungry, to educate the congregations to fight for justice, and to bring about the kingdom of heaven.

We are in Christ.

Religion is about order and we need order, but we have a relationship with Jesus.

Our relationship has a longing connected to it. My children call me sometimes and say I was just thinking about you I wanted to give you a call. What is saying is I want to be with you and Jesus Christ says that to us every day through his Holy Spirit

Matthew is saying no matter where Jesus is I want to be with him. The reason why we are Christians is because we are with Jesus Christ. If he was something else, then we would be something else. If he dwells somewhere else, then we would dwell somewhere else.

Jesus has the answer to our forgetfulness.

John 14:18–20 (NKJV)

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

There is a promise, one day will come when we shall not tell one another to know the Lord.

Ezek. 36:26-27 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

Jer. 31:33-34 ““This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.””

Before Jesus went away, he told his disciples something we should never forget.

AND LO, I WILL BE WITH YOU, EVEN UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD.

I LOVE THE LORD, HE HEARD MY CRY AND PITIED EVERY GROWN, LONG AS I LIVE AND TROUBLES RISE, I’LL HASTEN TO HIS THRONE.