Speaker 1: 0:00

When I was at Northwestern University there was a group of guys that we all lived together and we were inseparable. There was Poo Dog, he was the nice one. There was Flippo, he was the crazy one. There was Andrew Kim, ruler of the gym, he was the athletic one. There was Hawaiian Ryan, he was the soft and musical one. There was Miller Time, who was the strong one, and there was me, dent Boy. We don't need to know why I was called Dent Boy, but me Dent Boy.

Speaker 1: 0:29

I was the religious one and I was unashamed of my Christianity. In fact they knew it. I was kind of bold in their face about my Christianity. At that time I was passionate. I would tell them all the times about Jesus and how they should follow him, and I would hold Bible studies in my dorm room and sometimes they would come and they would say man, jason, I've never met anybody who knows as much about the Bible as you do. We even would talk about it at different times.

Speaker 1: 0:58

One day we went all as a group of guys to see Titanic. It was a strange movie as a group of guys, not an action movie. But we went to see Titanic. It was a strange movie as a group of guys, not an action movie, but we went to see Titanic. It was back in the 90s, as you may imagine, and you know that famous scene where Rose, for some reason, leonardo DiCaprio is on the board, but I mean, rose is on the board and Leo is going down down, down into the water and he passes away. And later that night I turned to my roommate, hawaiian Ryan, and I said, ryan, when I saw Leo go down into his death, I thought about you and I thought about your Christless eternity and would you follow Jesus? This is not the way to explain Jesus to people. He was scared, he didn't answer, it didn't go well, but he forgave me.

Speaker 1: 1:50

And a little bit later in that year, as we did every single night at about midnight is when we stopped studying and we all went down to Burger King. So we walked down Sheridan Avenue to Burger King because they had a $2.99 Whopper meal Now it's $39.99, but back then it was $2.99. And we ordered our $2.99 Whopper meal. We had it and we were walking out and there was a homeless guy there. He was there every night. We were there and he asked us for money. True Dog gave him some money and talked to him. And then he turned to me and he asked me for the same. Not only did I not give him money, I turned my back to him and walked away and didn't even acknowledge that he existed.

Speaker 1: 2:37

A little bit later that night, poo Dog said to me Jason, I thought you were all about Jesus, wasn't Jesus about helping the poor? And I realized in that moment, while I claimed to be a Christian, I had taken Christ out of Christian and all I was left with was anger and pride and judgmentalism and things unfortunately, I had learned in my church growing up. I told him that you know what God helps those who help themselves. I told him he's probably an addict. His choices brought him there and I ignored the teachings of Jesus that I'm not the one to judge. I ignored the teachings of Jesus where he said I have come to proclaim good news to the poor. I ignored the teachings of Jesus that said I have come that all may have rest. See, my Jesus was really just masquerading as Jason and I had taken Christ out of Christian.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Mahatma Gandhi was once asked why he did not call himself a Christian. Listen to what he said I believe in the teachings of Christ, but you on the other side of the world do not? I read the Bible faithfully and see little in Christendom that those who profess faith pretend to see. The Christians of all others are seeking after wealth. Their aim is to be rich at the expense of their neighbors. They come among aliens to exploit them for their own good and cheat them to do so. Their prosperity is far more essential to them than the life, liberty and happiness of others. The Christians are the most warlike people. I like your Christ, but not your Christianity. In so many ways this is true today. Christians have taken Christ out of Christian.

Speaker 1: 4:34

We live in a country where the term evangelical where at its root means bearer of good news, of hope of something beautiful. When we hear the word evangelical now, people think of hatred and judgmentalism. Christian has been synonymous with hate and anger and isolation. We see this with immigrants and refugees. Christians are often the leading voice on the front line celebrating the horrific actions of kids being torn away from their family, family members who have not committed a crime. Jesus said in Matthew 25, when you welcome the stranger, you welcome me, and there is verse after verse in scripture about welcoming immigrants and strangers into your land.

Speaker 1: 5:16

We have taken Christ out of Christian. We see it as Gandhi said, in war. Now, war is complicated, I know that, but those who are Christians, call themselves Christians have often, with blind theology and incomplete theology, supported. In Gaza, one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time, where 22% of the population, 470,000 people right now, are facing starvation, malnutrition is at its peak, infrastructure has been destroyed, limiting the ability for electricity, clean water, sanitation and health care. According to the Red Cross, 52,000 people have died since October of 2023, and the worst off are the elderly, the women and the children the elderly, the women and the children. Yet many Christians are okay with this, claiming their theology as the reason why We've taken Christ out of Christian.

Speaker 1: 6:19

I could spend years talking about the LGBTQ community, how, in the name of Christianity, people have shown hatred and bigotry and even violence. I'll never forget when I was a pastor of a church, a woman came in and said hey, can we grab coffee someday? And so we grabbed coffee and she told me her story. She was a trans woman and she didn't ask for our church's position on sexuality. She didn't ask for a white paper on what do you believe about marriage, what do you believe about this or that she just simply asked me a question. She said, jason, can I come here? Because I've been to churches where when they find out I'm there, they kick me out the next week. And I told her in our church you can have a front row seat and one of the greatest joys of my time there was baptizing her and her husband, who's a passionate follower of Jesus. But for her, many Christians had taken Christ out of Christian. It wasn't about their stance, it was just do you love me or not? We could go to people of color.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Christians have been on the front lines of being against issues of race in the past dates back to the days of slavery, where pastors would use the Bible to justify it, or the days of segregation in the 50s and 60s, but now as well. I remember not too long after the Ferguson riots, I felt it was necessary to speak to my church just on what the Bible says about race and what Jesus calls us to. I didn't use any politically charged comments. I just used 67 verses from the scripture to show God's desire for racial equity and why it's at the core of Christianity. And while some people understood it, the next day I started getting letters anonymously sent to my house threatening my kids. I got anonymous emails from church leaders calling me a fascist, a heretic and the antichrist. I soon had to have security at the church and people tried to get me fired.

Speaker 1: 8:33

We've taken the Christ out of Christian For the females in the room. You know what this is like too. If you go on Desiring God website right now the website that I was told in seminary was a great source for all things theological, prominent site for thousands of churches around the country you would see multiple books by a man named Douglas Wilson. Douglas Wilson is pastor of Christ Church in Idaho and a leader of movement of churches across the United States, and prominent figures, including politicians, attend his churches. He recently said in an interview with CNN that women are the kind of people that people come out of and that takes no talent, and he and his church leaders advocate for a society where the 19th Amendment is revoked and women should not be allowed to vote and instead the husband should vote for the household. It's extreme that many of the women in this room have faced restriction in church, inability to lead and abuse at home in the name of Christianity. I'll never forget a seminary, a fellow seminarian of mine. She graduated summa cum laude from seminary and she went into the placement office, which helps with placement of students into churches, and the placement officer laughed at her and said what are you doing here? There's no jobs for you.

Speaker 1: 10:00

Taking Christ out of Christian. The Christ who elevated the role of women, had women disciples, women who financed his ministry, who entrusted with the message of his resurrection. Yet we don't. Shane Claiborne, a Christian author and activist, writes this when someone asks us if we are Christians, I think the best answer is to tell them to ask the poor, the incarcerated, the immigrants, the refugees, the widows and the orphans, the least of these. They will tell you who the Christians are. See, when we take Christ out of Christian, we're left with nationalism, judgmentalism. The Christian we're left with nationalism, judgmentalism, isolationism, sexism, racism, classism, anything but Christian. But this is much more personal than just something globally or nationally or politically. It's personal for a lot of us.

Speaker 1: 10:53

I could tell you of a woman I know whose husband emotionally abused her and controlled her every move. He didn't let her have money, he tracked her every move, left her broken in a shell and when I confronted him on it he said well, jason, I'm the head of the household. I'm supposed to lead it as Christ led the church. And I said that's not how Christ led the church. He gave himself up for her. He didn't control her. He had taken Christ out of Christian. I could tell you my own story of how, a few years ago I mean you know my life imploded from an addiction.

Speaker 1: 11:29

I was hesitant about going back into church. I had moved down to the Chicago area and while I was still connected with Madison Church which was awesome, you're a bit far away, so I couldn't come up here every Sunday and so I went and I said I'll give church a try again. I had hurt church, but I'd also been hurt deeply by church. And so I went and the pastor there gave an amazing message about grace and redemption and forgiveness and second chances. And I remember sitting there in the pews just crying, grateful I'd found a safe place.

Speaker 1: 12:02

I decided to take the next step and sign up for a small group. Even though I didn't really want to. I thought I should you know they tell me to do this, that I'll go to hell if I don't. So I'll just do this. And so I signed up for a small group.

Speaker 1: 12:18

I got a call from one of the leaders of the small group ministry and he said let's meet on Wednesday night to talk about your application for small group ministry, to be in a small group. And I thought, oh great, this must be kind of a personal way they introduce people to small groups. And I walked through the door and the first thing he said wasn't hi, it wasn't hey, we're glad you're here. He said I know who you are, I know your story and you can't be a part of our groups. Even though I had never broken a law, I'd never prayed on anybody in my congregation, I had never done anything with anybody that would in any sense keep me from small group ministry.

Speaker 1: 12:59

I was broken goods taking Christ out of Christian. Many of you here have similar stories Family members who are the most adamant about church and Bible but the most abusive towards you. Friends who use the Bible as a weapon against you. Churches who, in the name of, hurt you and left you hanging out to dry and if that's the case, I'm so sorry. That's not Christianity. In so many ways and so many forms we've taken Christ out of Christian. This problem is nothing new. We're in a series called Pharisee and Me looking at these religious leaders, these pastors, these priests, these spiritual authorities who live lives marked not by grace and mercy and love, but by judgmentalism, hatred and bigotry.

Speaker 1: 13:44

In John, chapter 5, jesus comes, and I love Jesus. He doesn't mince his words with these leaders, he calls them out on it. Look at John, chapter 5, verse 36. He says this I have testimony weightier than that of John For the works that the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I am doing testify that the Father has sent me, and the Father who sent me himself has himself testified concerning me. You never heard his voice, nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.

Speaker 1: 14:17

You study the scriptures Now. Don't miss this. You study the scriptures diligently because you think dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study the scriptures Now. Don't miss this. You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. That's a lot of words, but what Jesus is essentially saying is you know the Bible, you have the verses, you claim the religious high ground. But you've missed the point altogether. In fact, a little later in the passage, he says you follow the words of Moses. But Moses was about me. He was pointing people to the coming Messiah. I'm the focus, not some laws, not some who's in, who's out, who's right, who's wrong game you are playing. No, it's about me. Always has been, always will be. Those Psalms that David wrote, they're about me. Those prophecies that were in the Old Testament, they're about me. Yet you have missed it. You have taken Christ.

Speaker 1: 15:13

They had these words back then out of Christian. John would write this earlier in his gospel. John very first words of his gospel in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. He's talking about Jesus here. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made. That has been made In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness. And that word, jesus, people had often missed it. Jesus was saying that I am the word. He's saying Don't use these words for other things. Use them to point them to me.

Speaker 1: 15:58

And it's easy for us when we hear these examples that I talked about earlier or we read what the Pharisees are doing here, it's easy for us to shake our heads and say how can they miss it? How can they take Christ out of Christian? But remember, this series is not the Pharisee and our politician, it's not the Pharisee and the people who hurt us. Pharisee and our politician. It's not the Pharisee and the people who hurt us. No, stephen chose the title of the series to be the Pharisee in me. I'm a Pharisee. All of us have a Pharisee inside of us. Will we miss the point altogether? All of us in some way, big or small, take Christ out of Christian. So the question remains if we claim to be Christian, how do we make sure Christ is actually in the center of the Christian entity we live out?

Speaker 1: 16:49

Jesus gives the answer to this, and it's powerfully simple and powerfully hard. I do not accept the glory from human beings, he says in verse 41, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. Jesus is saying the reason you're missing me is you're missing love, one of the words of the great theologians, the Black Eyed Peas. Where is the love? I mean. That's what Jesus was about. People asked him what's all the Old Testament laws, what are they all about? He said let me just put it on the table for you Love God, love others. It's as simple and as difficult as that. And so if you and I are ever to put Christ into our Christian, we have to be about love. It's not complex, but it's not easy the first thing we need to do. There's many things we can talk about, but let me just talk about a couple of things this morning. We have to accept Christ's love. Stop trying to earn it. We have to accept Christ's love. Stop trying to earn it.

Speaker 1: 18:04

See, the life of a Pharisee is a life that always is desperate for people's love and affirmation. Jesus pointed this out right after saying they are missing love. Look at what he says, verse 43, for I have come to you in my father's name and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. No wonder you can't believe, for you gladly honor each other, but you don't care about the honor that comes from the one who, alone, is God. He's saying you're living your life dependent on acceptance of others. You are living trying to prove to them that you are good, that you are something, but you missed the whole point. No wonder you can't believe. Your whole life was pointed to them to gain their approval. You've forgotten who you are. In me and I read this and I think how could they be so blind? Why are they so focused on the approval of other people? But I remember most of my life was lived that way.

Speaker 1: 19:01

I've shared a bit of the story with some of you before, but it bears repeating. I grew up in a seemingly perfect family. My dad was a vice president at Michigan State University. He won regularly awards for being the best fundraiser in higher education in the nation. He led a $1.5 billion campaign Stephen, you should talk to him about the giving here at the church, but he was amazing. He was the chairman of our elder board at church. People loved him. He was one of those guys that just had it and he still has it. People love my dad. He's extremely successful and an awesome person to boot. My mom was just as impressive. She was a stay-at-home mom for much of my life, but stay-at-home mom for her meant that she did everything and anything in the community and she ran the largest women's ministry in our city. She could preach and then just for kicks. When I was in high school she went and got her master's and did a whole second career just on top of that, my brother my brother's just annoying.

Speaker 1: 20:06

I mean, I love him most of the time, but he was perfect at everything. He was an all-athlete at everything. He was an all-state. I didn't even know you could be this. He was an all-state musician and he dated my friends, which was really annoying, even though he was a little bit older. But there's one thing that he wasn't perfect at he didn't have a perfect 4.0 GPA, he just had a 3.97. So I thought I can beat that.

Speaker 1: 20:37

And even though we went to the number one ranked school in the state of Michigan, I decided I'm going to get a 4.0, no matter what it takes. And so every day in my high school and this is not an exaggeration every day I would come home from 3.30 until 11.30, I would study. My parents actually had to put a limit on how much I was allowed to study. I know that's sick and twisted, but it's my life. After I graduated from high school, I would actually study on this love seat in our family room. They actually had to throw the love seat away because I'd worn a hole in it from sitting there for so long.

Speaker 1: 21:15

But lo and behold, my senior year. I graduated with a 4.0. I had destroyed my brother and I got this medal that was put around my neck that proudly states I am valedictorian. I remember how good that felt for 20 minutes. And then I went home and I realized well, what's next? What other medals do I need to get now? People are clapping for me now, but they're not going to keep clapping for me. And so I need to get now. And people are clapping for me now, but they're not going to keep clapping for me. And so I went to seminary and I went to grads, undergrad, and I went to seminary and said well, I got to graduate number one. And so I got another medal and graduated number one there. And then, when I was stating this outwardly, I actually wrote this down somewhere that I need to be a pastor of a megachurch by the time I'm 35. And I accomplished that. I got another medal.

Speaker 1: 22:26

But then the medals stopped coming, and the more they stopped coming and the more I didn't know what to do. My marriage, which was a medal in itself, was falling apart and soon that medal felt like it was being taken away. For the first time in my career, I was being criticized by people and in that moment, when I started to lose my medals, I went into addiction and I lost lose my medals. I went into addiction. I lost all my medals. I lost my job, my marriage, my reputation. I found myself sitting in the Arizona desert at a rehab center asking who am I now that I don't have this?

Speaker 1: 23:20

See, our problem is that we live our lives trying to get and keep our medals. We may get them for a bid, we may get them in relationships. She, she's into you and for a while it's amazing she puts that medal of acceptance around your neck. She's your person, until she's not, and she rips that medal off you and you wonder what happened. Maybe you get it in a career for that time. In your job, you get the promotion. You're going up high in your career, you're climbing that ladder, you get that medal. You get medal after medal until you don't, until you lose that job. You may have it with your kids. They want to be with you as much as possible, and then they get older and life gets complicated and they don't want to be with you and that medal you had around your neck is taken away again.

Speaker 1: 24:19

You may have done well financially lots of medals, gold medals. Your portfolio is strong, you have the house, you have the cars, you have the vacations, until you don't you lose that medal. But maybe we don't lose our medals, maybe life is good and we just keep adding more and more and more medals. But the more we add, the heavier they get and the more pressure we put on ourselves to keep them around our necks. Let me ask you what medals do you have? What medals are you so desperately trying to get? Which ones have you lost? Which ones are you trying to hold on to?

Speaker 1: 24:59

I mean, these things aren't bad, don't get me wrong. Relationships are good, success is good, careers are good, financial blessings are good. But when we hang our worth on that, jesus says you've missed the whole point. Stop trying to look to other people for your honor, jesus says in John, chapter 5. Instead, realize that from the day you were born, I put a medal around your neck and it doesn't say CEO, it doesn't say valedictorian on it, it doesn't say any of it, it just simply says child of God. And that medal never leaves your neck. You don't have to get other things. Those things will come and they will go, but you always have this you were loved by me. It doesn't matter what other medals you get.

Speaker 1: 25:56

Want to put Christ into Christian. Accept that. Stop trying so dang hard to prove to other people. You're worth something. You are worth something. So accept Christ's love. Stop trying to earn it.

Speaker 1: 26:16

The second thing and the last thing we'll focus on today is show Christ's love, even if they don't deserve it. That's the hard one. That's what Kyle spoke of a couple of weeks ago in a great message. I encourage you to go listen to that. But perhaps the greatest way we can show Christ in us is loving people who don't deserve it.

Speaker 1: 26:40

But the problem is and let's just be honest here that goes against the emotions that rile up inside of us. I mean, aren't we supposed to call out the wrong? Aren't we supposed to be against the people we mentioned earlier who use Jesus' name to hurt? And we have this list of people who hurt us or hurt people in general, who we are convinced that God actually agrees with us on them, that our enemies are God's enemies. I love what Anne Lamott, one of my favorite authors writes. She says this you can safely assume you've created God in your own image. When it turns out, god hates all the same people you do. If we're honest, does God hate the same people you do? But what if? Just what if God doesn't see them the way we see them? What if, instead of seeing them through the eyes of anger or through the eyes of trauma, which is very real, or through the eyes of hurt, which is very real, or through the eyes of hurt, what if, instead of seeing them through the eyes of confusion or the eyes of right and wrong, like we do, what if, instead of seeing them through those eyes, jesus instead sees them through the eyes of love?

Speaker 1: 27:59

The fact is, in John 5, these Pharisees thought that they were viewing people rightly. They thought they had the right to judge, the right to call out evil in other people. And throughout the Gospels you see them again and again pointing to people and saying look at him, look at her. They deserve what they are getting. They are not following God's ways. But Jesus comes to them and says in verse 43, I know you. You don't have the love of God, the Father, in you. You're judging other people. You're claiming to be better than them. But here's the deal Pharisees, you have the medal I gave you around your neck, but so do they. Everybody wears the medal. So do they. Everybody wears the medal. You want to put Christ back into Christian. It's about seeing people the way my father sees them as his kids, no matter how lost they are, as people deserving of love, as people who have that medal around their neck, just like you. No matter what they've done, no matter how much you disagree with them, no matter what political party they're a part of, no matter how much they have hurt you, they have the medal too.

Speaker 1: 29:08

Jesus is adamant about this and throughout his Gospels Matthew 5, he writes this you have heard that it is said love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your. This is love. Jesus says to love the unlovable. Pray good for them. In other places he said bless them, don't curse them. Bless them. Leave judgment, he says in Romans 12, to God, but you, as much as it depends on you. You live at peace with them. Don't repay evil with evil. You live at peace with them. Don't repay evil with evil. Instead, repay evil with good. That's what Jesus did, jesus who never did anything wrong to anybody.

Speaker 1: 29:54

He was lied about, accused of crimes he didn't commit. Lies were said about him, betrayed by his closest friends, beaten nearly to death, hung on a cross, gasping for air, desperate for something to drink. The Roman soldiers give him something to drink, but it's a towel soaked in urine and vinegar. In that moment, he had every right to fight back. In that moment, he could have remember he's God. He could have called down the heavenly armies to just take everybody out who is fighting him. Instead, what does he do? He says, father, what? Forgive them. They have no clue what they're doing. In the moment that he should have been angry, he showed compassion and forgiveness.

Speaker 1: 30:46

In June 2015, at Emanuel AME Church, church members gathered in a basement just like this for their weekly Bible study. The church was a predominantly black church, but that night they welcomed into their group a new member, dylan Roof. Into their group, a new member, dylan Roof. He was a white male. The study went on as usual for about an hour and then Roof, the new attender, stood up and started firing. See, roof was a neo-Nazi hoping to start a race war. He would later admit he shot at anybody, and anybody he could fled the scene and actually a friend of mine who had attended my church and had moved to Charleston was one of the first responding officers on the scene. He said what he saw was hell on earth. In that church basement he found nine dead people, nine beautiful souls mothers, sisters, brothers, grandfathers lying in pools of blood, all killed.

Speaker 1: 31:49

Roof was later captured and the nation was enraged. This was in the midst of rising tensions of racial issues in our country. Other murders had caused riots in cities, as I mentioned, like Ferguson, and the world was waiting to see if another riot would happen in Charleston. A couple days after he was caught, there was a bond hearing and the judge, just as he does, read to Dylan, who was appearing via video from his prison cell, what was going to happen. But the judge then gave some of the family members a chance to talk and to address Dylan directly, and family member after family member said the same thing.

Speaker 1: 32:40

One member said this I just want everybody to know that to you I forgive you. You took something very precious away from me. I will never talk to my mom ever again. I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you and have mercy on your soul. You have hurt me. You have hurt a lot of people, but God forgive you and I forgive you. Another family member stood up and said. She said this for me I'm a work in progress. I acknowledge that I'm very angry, but one thing with us is that we are a family that love built. We have no room for hate, so we have to forgive. I pray God to have mercy on your soul. Another person stood up and said although my grandfather and other victims died at the hands of your hate, this is proof Everyone here is pleading for your soul that they lived and loved and their legacies will live and love. So hate won't win. I forgive you, person after person, dylan, we forgive you, person after person. Dylan, we forgive you. In that moment, family started to heal. Charleston did not erupt in a riot. The nation saw this. They saw something nobody was expecting. They saw the love of Christ. Father forgive him. He has no idea what he did.

Speaker 1: 34:13

While that story is certainly extreme, I wonder, I just wonder what would happen if we were given the same opportunity. What would happen if, in this room, the person who has hurt you the most just stood there and they couldn't say anything. And you were given the mic. What would you say? What would you say to the friend who you thought would always be there but she betrayed you? What would you say to her? What would you say to your ex if he was brought in, the one you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with but you're not and he left? What would you say? What would you say to your boss, who has treated you like dirt but she was forced to stand there silently as you had the mic? What would you say? What would you say to that dad who was supposed to be there for you but never was? What would you say to the kid who you poured your life into but now pretends you don't exist? What would you say to the person who has hurt you the way they hurt you? What would you say?

Speaker 1: 35:40

I'm not saying there shouldn't be justice Dylan Roof was sentenced to death. I'm not saying reconciliation is possible. It may not be, and it may not be wise or safe, but would you have the love of the Father in you, the love that Christ showed? Would you have the guts to say may the Lord have mercy to you. Would you have the guts to say may God bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and give you peace. Would you have the courage to say I forgive you. You don't know what you did to me. You have no idea how much it hurt, but I forgive you Because when we do that, christ is alive, and Christ is at the center of Christian life.