Religion Versus Relationship

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  Matthew 21:6-16
"15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant 16 and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes. Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise'?""
 
In this section of scripture the incident of Christ coming into Jerusalem on a donkey is related. There was immense excitement surrounding this. The people laid branches and garments out for Him. The disciples and others realized the significance of Christ entering in this way. It was the way that a king entered a city. They all thought that Jesus was setting things up for Him to become their king. There were a lot of things happening around this time. Lazarus had been raised from the dead, people were being healed and many wonderful miracles were taking place. But not everyone was happy about this.
 
The priests and the scribes knew what all this meant. (They thought). They knew enough of the scriptures to know that this meant that Jesus was setting Himself up to be the next king. They became angry and indignant. They became full of hated and malice.  They did not want Jesus as their king! They called Him a blasphemer and wanted Him killed. Jesus was messing up their religious tradition!

Some Christians are like this. They know enough of the scripture but not enough of Jesus Christ. There is no relationship with Christ, only a religion. Anyone can be religious, but not everyone has a relationship with Christ.  Christ was trying to get them out of their religious mold, but it only made them made. And when you look around today, many are angry when God tries to get them out of their religious mold. They don't want that. They don't really want Jesus as their King. They only want a surface knowledge of Him, just enough, they think, to get by.

Today- think about this. Have you stepped out of your religious mold and into a relationship with Christ? He wants you to. He desires for each one of us to have a personal relationship with Him- that means a day to day communion with Him. 

Step out of the religious mold and into a relationship with Christ today!

(Taken from Pastor Keith's message 3/29/2015)

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