Non-Traditional Traditions
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· 13 viewsEven though we say we are "non-traditional" and "non-denominational" we often allow our own created traditions to creep in and dictate our behavior and interpretation of the Gospel.
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome!
It is an honor to be able to share the Word with you this morning on the topic of “Non-Traditional Traditions.”
Which is actually a topic that we do no talk very much about in the Church.
We spend a lot of time talking about the differences between religion and relationship and the strong need to break away from the religious noose that the Church sometimes puts around people.
Which is all very important and something that we definitely need to teach about.
However, one thing we tend to mix in with religion lots of times that really should be a subject of it’s own is that of traditions, or religious traditions that some like to call it.
And traditions are somewhat different from just general religion because religion tends to suppress on a global scale and traditions more on a local scale.
What I mean by that is, religion is typically rooted in some sort of denominational affiliation or even in non-denominational churches, their overall doctrinal statements.
And while those religious ties definitely play a role in shaping our traditions, they are only one part of it.
Because traditions lie solely on the local church.
And what we end up seeing are these traditions being raised to the status of Scripture and carried out as the law of the land.
And it really does not matter if your church has been around for 100 years or 100 days, you will have traditions that develop over time.
And I know that in this church we speak to the fact that we value relationship and try to push against the oppressive nature of the religious elite,
But we don’t need to fool ourselves, we still have traditions that have been developed.
We still have things that even though our Church is still very young, if we are not careful, we ourselves can confuse these traditions and make the mistake of lifting them up to the place of Scripture.
And I know that we say that we reject the traditional church model with all it’s rules and tradition— and I honestly think we do a decent job, but even we have traditions we hold to.
Some of them we brought with us when we came from other churches that we still hang on to.
And some we have developed since being here.
And even though our traditions are not just like the traditions of the church down the road, they are traditions none the less.
They are Non-Traditional Traditions.
And I’m not saying that all traditions are bad either, so don’t confuse that.
What I am saying is that if traditions are not put in their proper context and place then they can be very dangerous.
They can destroy the work of the Holy Spirit and leave yo with a dead dried up church that is on autopilot.
They can lead you down a path where your church is operating on a spirit other than the Holy Spirit because you operate based on feelings and not on the Word of God.
And ultimately they can lead to division in the body, which is honestly the root of where most church splits happen.
So this morning I want to talk about this and some of the reasons that this happens, even in churches that try to avoid this kind of stuff.
And I want us to start out in Matthew 15.
So, Matthew 15, starting in verse 1 . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ ”
You Have No Honor
You Have No Honor
So, right off the bat here we see this conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees.
And the whole thing is over a matter of tradition.
The Pharisees come and they ask him, “why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? Why don’t they wash their hands before they eat?”
And before you get grossed out, let me explain what is going on here.
The washing of hands that they are arguing about is not like us washing our hands before we eat with just some soap and water.
This washing was a ceremonial washing.
It was this big drawn out ritual where they would go through this elaborate process of washing their hands and cups and pitchers, and kettles with chants and prayers and the whole nine yards.
And what is important to note about this tradition is that this was not a Mosaic tradition, meaning it was not a part of the Law of Moses.
Rather, this was a Rabbinic tradition, meaning it was something they added to the law themselves later on.
It would be like us saying your salvation comes by putting your faith in Jesus Christ, which would be the essential must do, and then the preacher coming along and saying you have to also be baptized by immersion in order to be saved.
So what the Pharisees were doing was elevating this ceremony to the level of Scripture much like some denominations will elevate baptism rituals to the place of Scriptural authority.
So, they are all mad because Jesus and his disciples are not following the rules and being “good Jews,” and they come and confront him with it thinking it will discredit his ministry.
Well, Jesus has a different take on things . . .
He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
So, Jesus flips the script on them.
He calls them out for taking something that is nowhere in Scripture and elevating it to the same, if not a higher level, than one of the actual 10 commandments which all of the Mosaic Law is based on.
In fact, they were breaking ONLY commandment that had an actual promise from God attached it it.
Jesus tells them in verse 4 of our passage that . . .
For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’
And the Commandment is worded in the Old Testament as . . .
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
And Paul explains this to us in Ephesians 6 . .
“Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise: “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
So Jesus is telling them that they are violating that basic tenant of Scripture, which is extremely offensive to the Jews.
So much so that in their tradition if you dishonor your parents you are considered cursed and were to be put to death.
So you can imagine how angry they were with Jesus by even suggesting this.
But the question begs, how?
How were they dishonoring their parents?
I’m glad you asked!
Jesus goes on to explain here . . .
But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God.
So, what is going on here is that part of the Jewish tradition is that whenever your parents are in need, whether it is because they have fell on hard times or were getting older and needed help, it was the children’s responsibility to care for them.
And you can imagine that sometimes that might get expensive and you might have to sell some possessions or something of value to care for that obligation.
And what the Jews were doing was anything they owned of value they were presenting it as gift devoted to God.
Which meant it could not be sold and the money used.
It was devoted to God after all.
So these greedy children would have all these possessions that they got to keep and enjoy and protect because they were “set aside for God.”
And then when it came time to actually take care of the parents, they were absolved of this responsibility because they didn’t have the means to help.
So in other words they were shaping and using their traditions to basically do whatever they wanted and not be obedient to God’s Command to honor their parents.
So Jesus calls them out and then tells them this . . .
So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ ”
We Need to Grow Up
We Need to Grow Up
Do we hear what Jesus is saying here?
Because he is describing a central problem that the Church in the United States faces today.
A problem that this church will face down the road if we fail to heed God’s Word and God’s instruction.
First, he calls them hypocrites—literal translation for hypocrite is “actor.”
They were simply acting the part.
In our terms, they were giving the appearance of being a good and Godly Spirit filled Christian.
They may show up in their Sunday’s best with a smile on.
They may volunteer for every single church activity under the sun.
They will sing and lift their hands.
Maybe dance a little or shout.
Might even flop around on the floor like a fish pretending to be touched by the Holy Spirit.
Speak in tongues louder and more eloquent than anyone else in the room.
Make it sound like honey coming off their lips.
But it’s an act.
They are acting out a part and playing a role.
There is no substance there and they are just wanting to be seen and heard.
And the reason being is that’s all they have to hold on to.
This is what tradition has told them that is supposed to go on in every church service so they have to play the part.
But they are void of the Word of God and so is their worship.
And this is not a popular thing to preach about in any church, especially a Spirit filled church.
Because it’s taboo to talk about people faking the moving of the Holy Spirit.
Because when we do, we may just find out we are not as Spirit filled as we think we are.
We may find out that we are being led by emotions and feelings and not by a sound foundation in the Word of God.
Everything we do as a Christian and a Church should be rooted in the Word of God, which is what fuels our faith.
God created us with emotions and they have their place.
And when the Holy Spirit is moving on you, YES ABSOLUTELY some emotions will manifest, which is normal.
However, what many in the Church today have done is instead of seeking a meaningful, deep, and life changing relationship with God, they spend all their time seeking an emotional experience which is momentary and fleeting.
And this is why you do not see lasting change in people.
Their only use of Scripture is to try and back up how they are feeling in the moment, which is backwards.
And it actually goes against God’s Word, against Scripture . . .
The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it?
And ....
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.
And we get wrapped up in this because it is easy.
But this constantly being led by emotions is a sign of spiritual immaturity.
I want to show you something out of Ephesians 4.
In verse 14 Paul says . . .
We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.
Now in the verses just before this Paul has laid out the framework for the 5-Fold Ministry.
And had ever started out the chapter by saying . . .
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
And now here in verse 14 he is telling them to stop acting like children, wishy-washy and moved by every emotion and feeling they have.
And if you go to the next verse he says . . .
But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
And what I am saying is, which is not popular and may not be received well is that we need to grow up and start living our lives worthy of the calling we have.
We need to stop fiddling around seeking emotional experiences and begin to dig deep into the things of God.
But yet we don’t.
And Paul explains to us why . . .
And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?
And that’s a big part of the problem.
For the most part the Church has never been weaned from the milk.
And because that we are spiritually immature.
And consequently is why we lack the discernment to tell what is real and what is not.
About this we have much to say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
Do we hear what the writer of Hebrews is saying here?
The very last line, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
He is talking about discernment.
And we lack discernment because we lack maturity.
And we lack maturity because we are still on the elementary and basic things of God.
We are only going surface deep.
You want your worship to be good, then go deep with God.
Otherwise, what we’ve got is all we will ever get.
Because that’s all we can handle.
Leaning On Traditions
Leaning On Traditions
And as a result, you know what will happen?
We will start to develop and lean on traditions and those things we’ve done in the past that have made us feel good as a sign of God’s approval.
We develop a formula for how we do things.
And it may be different than the church down the road’s formula but it’s a formula all the same.
And if someone comes and challenges our formula, the way we do things we get offended and mad.
Or, if we observe someone else’s formula we start to critique it and find everything we can wrong with it.
Which reminds me of something else Jesus said . . .
Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
Also reminds me of the old saying, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
Now, that’s not Scripture but pretty much sums up what Jesus is saying here.
We had better get our own house in order before we start criticizing the houses of others.
And we should be looking inwardly examining ourselves to see where we line up with this.
Because going back to our passage Jesus finishes that little section like this . . .
‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ ”
Our lips may be saying one thing, but our hearts are saying something different.
And eventually, what’s in that heart will manifest itself.
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
And the worship is in vain, because it is not sincere.
And I am not talking about in that moment.
I am talking about long-term.
I am talking about transforming us, changing us, moving us closer to God.
Are we having a worship experience?
Or...
Are we worshipping because of how we have experienced God?
Before we ever walked into the room.
Where is our worship rooted?
Where is is flowing from?
Is it God or human precepts and doctrines?
Altar/Challenge
Altar/Challenge
And listen, I know this word has been hard.
And something you may not have really wanted to hear.
But my job is not to tell you what you want to hear.
It’s to tell you what God has told me you need to hear.
And what you do with it is up to you and the Lord.
But what I would like for you to do today is to take some time and examine yourselves.
Ask yourself first, how deep are you going with God? Are you ready to move from the milk to the meat?
Then ask yourself, if you are seeking a worship experience rooted in emotions or are you worshipping God because He is God?
And finally, how much of your Christian life is rooted in tradition as opposed to a relationship with God?
Those are hard questions but necessary questions.
Let’s pray . . .
