Can you love Jesus and hate religion?!

1. Can you love Jesus and hate religion?!

2. The claims (1) • Religion started many wars. • Religion is concerned with building churches, but fails to feed the poor. • Religion is a mask that covers the faces of those who can’t fix their problems. • Religion is about pretending to be pious while being addicted to pornography.

3. The claims (2) • Religion makes the church a museum for the good, not a hospital for the broken. • Jesus hated religion and called those in authority fools. • Jesus was called a glutton and drunkard by religious men. • The Son of God never supported self-righteousness.

4. The claims (3) • Religion is man made invention. • Religion is an infection. • Religion says “do,” Jesus says “done.” • Religion says “slave,” Jesus says “son.” • Religion puts you in bondage, Jesus sets you free. • Religion makes you blind, but Jesus makes you see.

5. The claims (4) • Religion is Man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for Man.

6. 1. Religion started many wars!! • Wars are waged by men. If some use religion as the reason to pursue an unjustified war, it is their error, not religion's fault. • Misusing or abusing religion for corrupt purposes does not make “religion” evil. • Is a “knife” evil because someone can use it to kill others?!!!!

7. 2. Religion builds churches and fails to feed the poor!! (1) • Building churches does not mean automatically neglecting the poor. This is not religion, but mismanagement. • Solomon built the temple of God with the most expensive materials and was not rebuked by God: “So Solomon overlaid the inside of the temple with pure gold. He stretched gold chains across the front of the inner sanctuary, and overlaid it with gold. The whole temple he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the temple” 1 Kings 6:21-22

8. 2. Religion builds churches and fails to feed the poor!! (2) • The Lord praised the woman who poured very costly fragrant oil on His head saying: “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always.”Matthew 26:10 -11 • Do all those that advocate feeding the poor live in shoddy homes so they can give all their money to the poor?!!!!

9. 3-4. Religion is a mask!! • This is again the misuse of the word “religion.” • Going to the church while being addicted to pornography is a personal weakness, not what the “religion” leads us to. • The mask that the Lord hates is the sin of hypocrisy, not “religion.”

10. 5. Religion makes the church a museum for the good, not a hospital for the broken • The church is a hospital to the broken because it calls the people to come, repent, and find healing. • Accusing “religion” of making the church a museum for the good is an empty claim without basis.

11. 6. Jesus hated religion and called those in authority fools (1) • The Lord called them fools because of their hypocrisy and for abusing God’s Law. • There is a difference between the corrupt workers of religion and the religion itself. • The Lord commanded the people to observe what the Pharisees say: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works” Matthew 23:2

12. 6. Jesus hated religion and called those in authority fools (2) • If those claiming to be “religious” accused the Lord, it is their sin not religion’s. • The Lord rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes for three reasons: • Burdening the people with the traditions of men (e.g. their misunderstanding about the Sabbath). • Not practicing what they preach. • Keeping some precepts, but neglecting others:

13. 6. Jesus hated religion and called those in authority fools (3) • - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone” Matthew 23:23 • Is it logical to abolish the police because some police officers are corrupt?!!!

14. 8. The Son of God never supported self-righteousness • God never supported self-righteousness and neither does true “religion.” • Self-righteousness is a sin that some who practice religion might fall into. Religion is not self-righteous, but condemns self-righteousness.

15. 11. Religion says “do,” Jesus says “done!” (1) • Actually the accurate statement would read: “Religion says what to do, Jesus says done.” • The Lord accomplished salvation for all mankind on the cross through the shedding of His blood. • True religion teaches what you should do to acquire this salvation for yourself.

16. 11. Religion says “do,” Jesus says “done!” (2) • This is clear in the people’s response to St. Peter’s first sermon: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” Acts 2:37-38

17. 13-14. Religion enslaves you and makes you blind!!! (1) • The wrong understanding of religion leads to slavery and blindness. • God is the founder of the Law, and the giver of the commandments. • The Lord Jesus did not come to abolish the Law: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” Matthew 5:17

18. 13-14. Religion enslaves you and makes you blind!!! (2) • God is the one who taught His people how to pray in both the Old and New Testaments. • God is the one who instituted the way we ought to worship. • He established the priesthood, and the doctrine of forgiveness through the shedding of blood. • He commanded His people to observe fasts and celebrate feasts.

19. 15. Religion is Man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for Man!!! (1) • True religion recognizes that God is the One who searched for us while we were immersed in our sins. • True religion teaches us how to embrace God’s love and grace. • True religion teaches us how to be united with the Lord Jesus and abide in Him through the church sacraments:

20. 15. Religion is Man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for Man!!! (2) - “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” Romans 6:4-5

21. 15. Religion is Man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for Man!!! (2) - “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” John 6:56 • True religion is the means by which we receive the Lord’s grace and learn how to fight spiritual battles.

22. “He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me” Luke 10:16 • “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” Acts 2:42 • IT IS JESUS WHO FOUNDED THE TRUE RELIGION , HANDED IT TO HIS APOSTLES, AND COMMANDED US TO OBSERVE AND HONOR IT.