KEEP MAIN THINGS THE MAIN THINGS

Introduction

-Matthew 23:23-28 <diff: topical/several pass>

<not going to make it through all…2 weeks>

-Several months ago, my eye doctor tweaked my contact lense prescription. When she did that my vision was changed, some for the good and some for the bad. For the good I can see distances pretty good. But for the bad, it’s made reading a little more difficult. Every once in a while wear reading glasses. Had to get new preaching bible so when I read the Word I’m not making words up. Letters so big you all can read in back row…

-You don’t know how important vision is until you lack vision or lose your vision. Without vision you can’t see where you are going and you wander around aimlessly.

-The same can be said of a church w/o vision. A church w/o vision will do a whole bunch of churchy stuff, but it’s not heading anywhere.

-About a year ago I challenged our staff about what we could do better as a church. But when we saw the various things that we could improve upon, it occurred to me that to fix this or tweak that wouldn’t necessarily move the church forward because the fixes and the tweaks weren’t part of a greater vision.

~So, we began to pray and ponder and talk and get some godly counsel, and we began to seek vision for the church. And the Lord has taken us on a path and is still taking us down that path.

-And I thought that it is important that we walk that path together as a church family. But down the road, when we get to the point of talking about the vision proper, don’t expect some mind-blowing experience. Don’t think that all of a sudden we are going to hit upon something that is uniquely profound. It’s actually going to be a bit of a letdown. But I’m hoping we’d all agree that it is where we should have been all along.

-But to begin this journey on the path, I felt led to focus in on what is most important for the church as a body of Christ.

~Stephen R. Covey said that, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

-Instead of being distracted by the things that will keep you from doing the main thing of whatever it is (be it running a business or working a job or chasing a degree or chasing a dream)—keep focused in on the main thing. Don’t let little things get you off the path.

-In the passages we are looking at Jesus indicated the focus that was most important for those who would do kingdom work with a kingdom mindset. And so, a church that would find and fulfill God’s vision is one where they focus on what Jesus said was of importance. So, let’s keep some main things the main things.

I) The main thing of real religion

READ MATTHEW 23:23-28

Matthew 23:23–28 ESV

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

-In this passage, Jesus confronts the Jewish religious leaders who have completely lost all semblance of the meaning behind their religion. They lost their purpose, forgetting the vision given to them by God through Moses and the prophets. And there are two lessons we need to remember:

a) Real religion is not faked piety but obedient love

-The Pharisees kept certain aspects of the law to the point of nit-picky detail, but they lost the heart of the law in the way that they treated other people. The Jews forgot the purpose for which God called them as His special people

-They turned it into a religion of self-gain, self-promotion, and self-righteousness. They loved to get the public accolades by putting on a show of religiosity on display for all to see, but it was all fake==that’s why Jesus calls them hypocrites

-When you think of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan: there was the guy who got beat up by robbers and left for dead unless someone helped him. But the Jewish religious holy people ignored the man’s need while a dreaded Samaritan was the one to show compassion.

~This was a picture of them. They followed certain parts of the law to a T, but when it came to making a difference in someone’s life they turned a blind eye. They made sure to tithe even the smallest of herbs, but they’d let someone die in the street because there wasn’t a specific command DON’T LET SOMEONE DIE ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD.

-And we’d like to say that wouldn’t be us, but how much of our Christianity is merely fulfilling duties or following rules (whether they be biblical or not) that is focused on ourselves and making ourselves look good.

~What Jesus says here is a warning to anybody who would go through religious motions but not have a heart for following Jesus’ heart.

-The apostle James put it this way:

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (Jas. 1:27 ESV)

-That is living in justice and mercy and faithfulness as Jesus put it. Real religion is not checking certain boxes off and legalistic rule-keeping. Real religion is living like Jesus with His compassion and ministry of love in light of who He is and what He accomplished for us on the cross.

-I am not saying that God doesn’t give us rules and commandments to follow. We have a whole book of them. But if your heart is more concerned about looking religious but you can be as much of a jerk as you want to be, then there is a problem with your religion.

-There’s a quoted tweet that has made the rounds on social media:

If your pursuit of doctrine and theology is making you more intelligent without making you more loving, compassionate, and humble, then your pursuit is not of God, it is of pride.

b) Real religion is inner transformation that brings right actions

-Jesus called them white-washed tombs:

If a Jew would walk over a tomb where there are dead men’s bones, it would make them ritually unclean. So, to prevent that, tombs were washed and painted white to stick out so no Jew would accidentally walk over them.

~The tomb looked great on the outside, but on the inside was death.

-Jesus said that was their religion—they looked all good and pious and religious on the outside, but their insides were rotted and decaying.

~And therein lies a warning: you can look all churchy on the outside, but if it doesn’t match your inside then there is a problem.

~It’s the difference between outward appearance vs. internal reality; religious show vs. real heart

-We are reminded what God said in the OT about seeing only with the eyes when Samuel was anointing the new king and it wasn’t they guy he thought it ought to be:

7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7 ESV)

-But this is also a reminder to us that true righteous behavior that is God-honoring is only possible after an inward transformation. Someone won’t act Christian until they actually are Christian—that is, people have to be saved first before they live out of the fruits of the Spirit.

-This is a good time for self-reflection—is my religion a reflection of something that God has done in my heart, or am I merely trying to put on airs. Do I do the church thing or the Christianity thing because it was how I was raised or because it was a social expectation, or is it because I’ve trusted in Jesus and He’s saved me?

-But this also means we have to be careful not to expect people to act a certain way when they first come into the church. And even after someone is saved they need time to grow and to learn and to be sanctified.

-Don’t expect lost people to act saved, and don’t expect children in Christ to act mature. Be careful how you approach someone about their actions or life because by your harshness you could completely derail someone from coming to Christ or you could completely derail someone’s walk with Christ. Let the inner transformation happen in Jesus, and then watch the right actions follow. That’s right religion.

II) The main thing of real discipleship

READ LUKE 9:57-62

Luke 9:57–62 ESV

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

-To be a disciple of Jesus is to follow in His footsteps—to live as He lived and taught, to minister with heart that He had and gives to His followers. But we have a skewed view of discipleship in our day. We think that it is enough (like I’ve just mentioned) to do religious things but to not actually follow Jesus in the ways that He calls us to follow.

-In this passage, there are several people who make an indication that they would like to follow Jesus, but it is not whole-hearted. They have conditions. But Jesus opens their eyes to the reality of what true discipleship is all about.

~While we think that it is enough to go to church and to give to the church, Jesus says that there is so much more to what real discipleship means.

-And we are reminded that we are called to be disciples—not merely converts or acolytes. Jesus has disciples. The main thing is real discipleship, but what does that entail?

a) Real discipleship is costly

-We have this idea that to follow Jesus is like He’s an addition to all the comforts that we already have. {I have a house and a family and a car and a job. And now I have a Jesus too.}

-But Jesus is not some new hood ornament to our already ornate lives—there is an absolute demand that wherever He leads I’ll go. And it isn’t always easy and it isn’t always pretty. In fact, it can be quite costly.

-There was a guy who came up to Jesus and said he would follow Jesus wherever He went, probably thinking that this will get him access to all the high and mighty people—the people of influence. He probably had this idea that Jesus was such a popular preacher, He must be raking in the dough.

-But Jesus tells the man that animals have better homes than He does. Being a disciple of Jesus isn’t a ticket to a better life. It is a commitment to a Savior that requires sacrifice.

-That’s why, when we talk about salvation, I try to avoid (as much as possible) using terms like making a decision for Christ or asking Jesus into your heart. One, that’s really not biblical language. But secondly, it makes it sound like following Jesus is like choosing an ice cream flavor.

{I’ll have the chocolate, the vanilla, and the Jesus}

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer laid it all out for us when he said:

“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

-True discipleship is a costly commitment. To put is another way: Salvation is free, ... but discipleship will cost you your life…

b) Real discipleship is dedicated

-The next 2 men want to follow Jesus as it is convenient. The one wants to wait until his father is dead and he can take care of his inheritance. The other one wants to have a duel commitment. He wants to live for the world and live for Jesus, but you can’t do both.

-Jesus tells him that no one can put the hand to the plow and look back. When people would plow in the 1st century they had to keep their eyes straight ahead in order to keep the animals going in a straight line. If they looked behind, they’d go crooked.

-This is the way it is with the disciple. You can’t serve two masters. You will love the one and hate the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. If you live with a split dedication, you will end up with a crooked life that is dedicated to nothing. Instead, we move ahead with Christ in full abandon.

-When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of Britain with his Roman legions, he took a bold and decisive step to ensure his men were dedicated to the cause. Ordering his men to march to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover, he commanded them to look down at the water below. To their amazement, they saw every ship in which they had crossed the channel engulfed in flames. Caesar had deliberately cut off any possibility of retreat. Now that his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but to advance and conquer! And that is exactly what they did.

-If you are a disciple of Jesus there is no going back—it is full dedication from now on. There is no such thing as a part-time disciple. This doesn’t mean that everyone should go into vocational ministry, but it does mean that there is an awareness that wherever you are (at work, school, etc.) you are His follower and you are following Him right where you are at.

Conclusion

-I’ll close:

Famous singer Luciano Pavarotti once said, "When I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song. He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy, took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teachers college. On graduating, I asked my father, 'Shall I be a teacher or a singer?' "'Luciano,' my father replied, 'if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.' "I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it's laying bricks, writing a book--whatever we choose--we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that's the key. Choose one chair."

-My question is if as individual questions and then as a church WILL WE COMMIT TO KEEP THE MAIN THINGS THE MAIN THINGS or be distracted by a bunch of nonsensical stuff.

~For so many churches the main thing is to maintain what has already been going on rather than devotion to what Jesus says are the main things. The status quo is more important than getting on mission and following the path to vision. May that not be us.

-Maybe there are some here who aren’t disciples of Christ because you have never repented of your sin and trusted Jesus for salvation….

-I ask our church members to come to that altar and ask God to give wisdom and guidance and discernment as we go down this path toward vision. Pray that God gives vision and that we obediently follow it.

-I ask others to prayerfully consider joining our church as members and come alongside us as we journey down this path.