Cancerous Religion

author: Ryan Hayden

Introduction

What is Cancer?

Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 6. Luke 6. We are going to be looking at the first 11 verses of this passage in a minute.

When I was in 8th grade one of the most traumatic things in my life happened. My grandmother, who I was very close to, went through a pretty rough bout of lung cancer and passed away.

Grandma Neff actually went through cancer three different times. But this last one was a doozy. She lost all of her hair and had to wear a wig. She lost tons of weight. She could barely do anything. Eventually, it took her life.

I'm sure everyone in here has either lost someone to cancer or has come close to it. Some of you are going through that right now.

What is cancer? Cancer is when a group of cells in your body bad and start growing out of control. Your body knows how to make new cells and it knows how to stop. But sometimes, something goes wrong, and the cells grow too quickly and don't stop. That's cancer.

Enough of those cells multiply and you end up with tumors, which have to be removed with surgery or poisoned with chemotherapy.

But cancer is (at least in my simplistic understanding of it) when parts of your otherwise healthy body starts doing things that it wasn't created to do.

I want to talk to you today about cancerous religion. What happens when followers of God take things farther than God intended? What happens when a certain function of the body goes too far? When there is so much growth in one area of religion that it's out of control.

We are going to see a very clear picture of that in our text today.

Luke 6. Let's read verses 1-11

[!bible] Luke 6:1-11 - KJV

1. And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.
2. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?
3. And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him;
4. How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone?
5. And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
6. And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.
7. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.
8. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth.
9. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?
10. And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
11. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.

The Origin of the Pharisees

In the book of Ezra chapters 10-11, (A passage I'll be preaching from next Sunday Night) Ezra leads a national revival. The people of Israel had disobeyed God and fallen into idolatry. One sign of that was their marrying of pagan women. The problem had gotten so bad that even the high priests family had these pagan marriages.

In those chapters, they pray to God and ask His forgiveness and they put away their pagan wives and idols and they determine that they will never again be this way. They are going to separate themselves to live as God's' people.

They had a revival of learning about the Bible and what it teaches and they were determined that they were going to live it. Out of that revival came this group called "the separated ones." Which the New Testament calls "the Pharisees."

In Jesus day the Pharisees were basically in control of Israel. They were the religious leaders of the day. And in chapters 5 and 6 we see the Pharisees trying to catch Jesus and his disciples doing something wrong.

The Sabbath Trap

In this chapter, it's the Sabbath. Jesus and His disciples are walking through a grain field, and some of the disciples get hungry so they pick some of the grain and they rub it in their hands and they start eating it.

And the Pharisees say "ooh, we got em."

Now, you might think that the problem was them being thieves - picking and eating someone else's grain. Some of you who are farmers wouldn't take too well to people walking down the road and picking your corn and eating it. But that wasn't the problem.

In fact, there are verses in the Old Testament law that said it was ok to pick and eat people's fruit and grain so long as you didn't go through with a basket and take a bunch home. If you were hungry and walking by an apple orchard, it wasn't stealing to pick an apple and eat it. It would be stealing if you filled your backpack up with apples.

So them eating wasn't the problem. The problem was that they were doing this on the sabbath.

What the Bible actually says about the Sabbath

Now, in the Old Testament, the Sabbath was a big deal. It still is a big deal to jewish people (as our brother here could tell you.)

What the Bible actually says about the sabbath is very simple. It says in the ten commandments "you work on six days and you rest on the sabbath." It says "don't work on the sabbath." Let's read it Exodus 20:8-11.

[!bible] Exodus 20:8-11 - KJV 8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

That's it. That's very simple. Don't work on the sabbath.

But the lawyer in me looks and it and says "that's kind of vague." There is one main question this command brings up: what is and isn't considered "work"?

The Bible doesn't really answer that question.

I mean, if you really think about it, you can define just about anything as work.

• Picking out your clothes can be work - after all, there are professional clothes picker outers.
• Brushing your teeth can be work - after all, there are professional teeth cleaners.
• Walking on a journey could be considered work.
• Cooking could be considered work.

What the Pharisees said about the Sabbath

And the list goes on and on. And what had happened by the time of Christ is that the Pharisees had actually come up with 43 different definitions of work. And they were so crazy about making sure they kept the sabbath that the sabbath became this unbearable thing - because you couldn't do anything.

To this day, orthodox jews keep all the lights on for the sabbath, because one of the rules is "you can't kindle a fire" and they are concerned that if they hit the light switch on the sabbath, they will kindle a little fire in the light switch and break the sabbath rules.

There was a time when there was an apartment building on fire in New York City where orthodox jews lived, and it caught on fire on the sabbath, and the jews who lived there actually took the time to find the Rabbi and ask him if they would be breaking the sabbath if they used the telephone to call the fire department. The Rabbi said they would. The apartment burned down.

• So when the disciples walked through the corn field on the sabbath - they were working by traveling.
• When the disciples picked the corn - they were working by reaping.
• When the disciples rubbed the corn in their hands - they were working by winnowing.

And these pharisees thought they had them dead to rights. They were sabbath breakers!

So they asked Jesus "Why do your disciples do these things on the sabbath that are not lawful?" (I mean, they got Him now.)

I'm going to hold off on giving you Jesus answer and talk about the second story that is attached to this.

On another sabbath Jesus is preaching in a synagogue. There is a man there who had a withered hand. I've seen people and maybe you have who have a birth defect and one hand never grows. That's always what I imagined this man was like.

The Pharisees know Jesus, and they know He will probably heal this man, and they want to catch Him in the act, catch Him healing on the sabbath day. (Because to them, healing is work.)

So Jesus asks the pharisees "Is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good or to do evil? to save life or to destroy it?"

Then Jesus stared them down and He commanded this man to stretch forth his hand and he was healed right there before everyone.

And what was the Pharisees reaction?

[!bible] Luke 6:11 - KJV 11. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.

The Pharisees were an example of cancerous religion

Now, I told you earlier that I want to talk about cancerous religion.

Clearly, something had gone wrong here with the Pharisees. Clearly, they had taken things much farther than God and the Bible intended.

These people and this movement which grew out of a good desire to obey God's laws became a religious cancer. This function of religion was out of control and growing in ways that were never intended and causing all kinds of problems. Here by the end of this story they are plotting to kill Jesus.

Listen, don't miss this. These people are fiercely religious. They claim all they are doing is to worship God. Yet God comes to them and they reject everything He says and plot to kill Him. If that isn't religious cancer, then I don't know what is.

Now, I want to look at this story and give you six points about religious cancer.

The first thing to note here is...

1. Religious cancer grows from well meaning God followers.

As I've already told you, the Pharisees did not start out bad. They started out as a great revival movement. They wanted to obey God. They wanted to serve God. They stood for what was right at their own peril for centuries.

Everything they did that we can look at and say "that's crazy" started out with innocent and even holy intentions.

So we need to remember that just because something starts out good - doesn't mean it stays good. Just because a religious expression has good intentions, doesn't mean that it can't metastasize into something cancerous.

So how did things go wrong?

Well, let me give you the second point about religious cancer...

2. Religious cancer lifts interpretations and applications up to the level of God's word.

One of the things that Jesus said about the Pharisees is found in Matthew 15:9:

[!bible] Matthew 15:9 - KJV 9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

What the Pharisees did is they took one of God's laws - don't work on the sabbath day - and they invented all kinds of applications of it.

Don't miss this: That in itself is not bad. That is good. That is necessary. If you don't take the principles of scripture and apply them to your life - you don't really believe the scripture.

I'll give you a ridiculous example because you can relate to it.

Take the amish. Have you ever wondered why amish men have beards, but they don't have mustaches? Surely you've noticed this. They all shave their mustaches and let their beards grow.

Do you know why? Because when the Amish were forming, having a mustache was a symbol of being a military man, and the amish believe that Christians should be peaceful people. So they made this application - no mustaches.

Was that a bad application? I don't know. I'm not going to judge them on it. I don't know what it was like in the 1800s.

Now, over a hundred and fifty years later - still no mustaches. But do you know what? Nobody looks at a guy with a mustache today and thinks "he is a warrior."

Do you understand how this can happen? How well meaning people can make rules based on God's word - and those rules can become kind of a thing in themselves and those rules can be lifted up in people's minds to the level of scripture?

When that happens, it can be a symptom of religious cancer. It can be a symptom of metastasized religious expression. Things can get out of control fast.

What ends up happening is people get in a race to see who can have the strictest rules. It becomes a strictness competition.

I'll give you another example: the Bible teaches the principle of modesty. We shouldn't draw attention, particularly sexual attention, to our bodies.

Amen. I hope you have rules for that. Applications for that principle.

But, how far do you go with it? You do realize that in Muslim countries modesty is the justification for those burkas that cover everything but a woman's eyes?

Think with me here. Is it possible to take God's commands farther than God intended? To over-apply them?

I would say yes it is, and our text is the example of that. You can be stricter than God, and when you are, that's a problem.

• Religious cancer grows from well meaning God followers.
• Religious cancer lifts interpretations and applications up to the level of God's word.

Let me give you a third point:

3. Religious cancer turns things God intended to be a blessing into a burden.

In a parallel passage to this, in the book of Mark, Jesus made an interesting statement to the Pharisees. Mark 2:27 says

[!bible] Mark 2:27 - KJV 27. And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

You see, God intended the sabbath to be a blessing for mankind. A day of rest and worship - a day to be reminded that the world doesn't rest on our shoulders but that God is in control. That is a good thing for man. It is a wonderful gift.

But these Pharisees had turned the sabbath from a blessing into a burden.

Listen, don't miss this, there is no life so blessed than a biblical life. There is no life more happy than living as God intended for you to live. God's laws are a blessing! You will not flourish more outside of God's blessing!

When you follow God and life in His word, you become what God made you to be and there is peace and happiness there.

But it is possible to take God's good laws, God's good word, and misapply it, and misinterpret it, and amp it up to the point where it's not a blessing, it's a burden.

The sabbath is a blessing. Not being able to turn lights on or pick an apple as you walk by it on the sabbath - that's a burden.

I think it behooves us to take a look at our rules from time to time and say "Ok, are we turning this thing God intended to be a blessing into a burden? Are we just doing this out of vain tradition? Is this God's command or man's command?"

• Religious cancer grows from well meaning God followers.
• Religious cancer lifts interpretations and applications up to the level of God's word.
• Religious cancer turns things God intended to be a blessing into a burden.

This brings me to a fourth point:

4. Religious cancer takes over God's job of justification and condemnation.

What these Pharisees were doing was justifying themselves. They were into self-justification. Self-righteousness.

In there mind, the way they were going to be right with God was to keep all of these rules, and to make sure they kept all of these rules they were going to add another layer of rules, and then another layer of rules around that.

Because if they broke these rules - then they wouldn't be righteous before God.

And what they missed - what is pretty clear in the Old Testament - is that they were already not right with God. They were already unrighteous.

You see, the purpose of the law wasn't to make people holy and righteous before God. The purpose of the law was to show people that they couldn't be holy and righteous before God. The law was to drive men to sacrifices - and the sacrifices were to point ment to Christ.

Because justification - being made right with God - God always had a plan for that. And that plan was Jesus.

Do you know why we don't talk much as Christians about the sabbath anymore? Because the Sabbath was fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus is our rest. We don't have to work to be right with God anymore because Jesus did the work for us and we can rest in Him.

You see: it's not our job as religious people to condemn people - God does that through the law. It's not our job as religious people to justify ourselves - Christ does that.

But when religion turns cancerous, we forget these things and we become obsessed with condemning others and justifying ourselves with our own works.

And that brings me to my penultimate point (that means next to last by the way.) Number 5:

5. Religious cancer subtly turns worship into self-worship.

Do you know what the religion of the Pharisees had turned into? It had turned into a weird form of self-worship.

It wasn't about God anymore, it was about them. God wasn't the hero - the self-righteous jews were.

Do you know why they hated Jesus? Because Jesus blasphemed their (little g) god.

Their god was themselves. Jesus showed them how dirty they really were - and they killed Him for it.

Listen, I've been in a lot of religious meetings that were basically just a bunch of people patting themselves on the back:

• We are the only ones who keep the right rules.
• We are the only ones who do missions right.
• We are the only ones who read the right Bible.
• We are the right ones.

And do you know who doesn't shine in those meetings? God. Christ.

Whenever your religion is more about glorifying you than glorifying God - you can be sure you have religious cancer.

So let's review:

• Religious cancer grows from well meaning God followers.
• Religious cancer lifts interpretations and applications up to the level of God's word.
• Religious cancer turns things God intended to be a blessing into a burden.
• Religious cancer takes over God's job of justification and condemnation.
• Religious cancer subtly turns worship into self-worship.

Let's not end on a negative note. Let me give you one more point and I'll close...

6. Religious cancer must be treated by Christ.

The answer to religious cancer is not to get rid of religion. The answer to religious cancer is to put Christ back in His rightful place in our religion.

The answer to the pharisees wasn't to burn the Bible and the laws to the ground, the answer was to understand the gospel.

Jesus sets us free from manmade religion in two important ways:

First, He sets us free because we understand that we don't have to keep all these impossible rules to please God - Jesus pleased God for us.

Galatians 3 makes this very clear. No man is justified by the law in the sight of God. (3:7a)

We can't religion hard enough for God to be pleased by us. That's not how it works. Instead, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. (3:13a)

Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly and then, as the only one who ever did, died on the cross and took our sins.

So in that sense, we are free from the obligations of religion, because Jesus fulfilled it for us.

But there is a second way Jesus sets us free, because in Christ we no longer obey out of fear, we can obey out of love. Because we aren't fearing condemnation, we can look at God's word as the great blessing that it is and live in that blessing.

As believers we now have the Spirit of God in us, and can live in that Spirit, empowered to obey God as He intended. We are free to do what Jeremiah 31:33 says:

[!bible] Jeremiah 31:33 - KJV 33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Conclusion

So, let's do a spiritual pet scan.

• Are you trusting in religion, or are you trusting in Christ?
• Are there areas in your life where you have added rules or traditions to your faith that may not align with God's word? How can you refocus on Christ's teachings instead of human traditions?
• Are you experiencing God's commands as a blessing or a burden?
• Do you find yourself condemning other people and justifying yourself?
• Who is the hero in your spiritual story? Is it you or is it Christ?
• Do you obey out of terror or do you obey in freedom?

If you have religious cancer today - I know the great physician. Run to Him today. And He will heal you.

Let's stand for prayer and invitation.