The Religionists
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jeremy_1_11-20-2025_115449: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts. We are in John chapter 10. We've been working our way through the gospel. The last couple weeks. We've seen Jesus use the imagery of sheep and a shepherd. We're gonna see him continue that today.
Like we've seen with so many of these encounters already in the Gospel of John, this one is not going to end well in, in very serious terms. So let's check this out. This is John chapter 10, verse 22. It was now winter and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication. He was in the temple walking through the section known as Solomon's colon aid.
The people surrounded him and asked, how long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. Now, we might want to argue at this point [00:01:00] that Jesus has already been pretty obvious about being the Messiah.
Lemme explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up
jeremy_1_11-20-2025_115449: now, some scholars have noted that the key word in this sentence is likely the word. Us, tell us plainly or submit your messiahship to us, to our authority, to our religion, to our way of doing things. Tell us so that we can endorse you. We can put our authority behind you as long as you play by our rules.
Which is what we often try to get Jesus to do today as well. Jesus, we need you to fit into these doctrines because this is how we make sense of you. This is how we explain you or Jesus. We need you to respond to these spiritual practices that we have already established and we've been doing 'em for a long time.
So we need you to fit into those, respond to [00:02:00] those when we do them. It's any type of formula that we develop around religion. When we expect Jesus to fit into that, we have the same problem as what they're running into when they were encountering Jesus as well. We always run into a problem trying to fit Jesus into religion.
Verse 25 says, Jesus replied, I have already told you, and you don't believe me. The proof is in the work I do in my father's name, but you don't believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else.
No one can snatch them from the father's hand. The father and I [00:03:00] are one heck of a statement to end on there. So why does Jesus tell them that they are not his sheep? Now, some Christians take this to mean in, in similar passages that God decides who's going to be saved. Who's not gonna be saved? Now, I don't think that makes sense with the version of God we see revealed in the person of Jesus that God just arbitrarily picks and chooses who's in, who's out.
I would say it differently. The fact that they are not Jesus's sheep, does not excuse them. It indicts them. Jesus is saying that this is the result of your choices. Now if you take verse 26, which we've already read, and you just flip the wording a little bit, this becomes easier to understand. You could read it like this.
You are not my sheep because you don't believe me.
Now this is very consistent with what we see all throughout the [00:04:00] life of Jesus that he's never going to make you. Follow him. So if you choose not to follow him, he doesn't make you be one of his sheep if you don't want to be, and they will never follow him until he submits to their authority and to religion as they know it, and as it's been established, which is where they're at, this stalemate, then you get to verse 31 where it all goes real bad.
Once again. The people picked up stones to kill him. Jesus said, at my father's direction, I have done many good works for which one are you going to stone me? They replied, we're stoning you. Not for any good work, but for blasphemy. You a mere man claim to be God. This is such a wild thing and it's become normal in this gospel.
Already we've seen this. Before. I love the way John [00:05:00] just casually says, once again, the people picked up stones to kill him. It's like, come on everybody. You know the drill.
Okay. It's happening. Everybody. Stay calm. What's the procedure? K one. What's the procedure?
jeremy_1_11-20-2025_115449: Now, we saw this before in chapter eight, right? That they picked up stones to try to kill him. I don't think we realize or appreciate how provocative Jesus's teaching was to the people who first heard him. We have so sanitized Jesus today. We have made him so safe, so comfortable. Such an easy go with the flow.
Fit in with the crowd person. That when we read stories like this, we just gloss over them 'cause it doesn't fit our view of Jesus. But literally multiple times when Jesus would finish teaching, people would pick up rocks to kill him. Like how provocative do you have to be to end your sermon and people wanna kill you [00:06:00] multiple times?
This is not like a one-off fluke anomaly. This is becoming a pattern. But when we realize that Jesus is offering a way to God outside of religion, we often reject Jesus.
It reminds me of something that Jim Henderson and Matt Casper have written about. They said it like this, in my opinion. Some professed Christians are not actually following Jesus, but instead are following religion. These people should more accurately be called Religionists and friends. In my experience in ministry today, that is 100% true.
So many people that call themselves Christians would be more accurately described. As religionists, they love religion. They love the system. [00:07:00] They love the rules. They love the doctrines. They love the certainty that religion provides. All of it will make sense. I can play by the rules, I can get God to do things.
It becomes very formulaic, very predictable. But you don't actually need God to be at the center of religion. You don't actually need an experience with God to be the, the focal point when religion is what you're after. But here's something fascinating that we find in Jesus. He offers something to people from all religions.
Jesus has something to offer you no matter what religion you are a part of. And equally, Jesus offers something to people with no religion, that if you say, I have nothing that I've ever claimed, nothing I've ever been a part of Jesus equally, has something to offer you. [00:08:00] But if you expect Jesus to fit into a religion, you will have a hard time seeing him as your shepherd.
That is the struggle that they had when, when this first happened in John chapter 10, and it's the same struggle that you and I can get into today as well. So will we be able to experience Jesus apart from our need for religion? I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
