Living on the Edge

Chip Ingram: Today on Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, you've probably heard it said, too much of a good thing can be bad for you, right? Well, that actually can be true of religious things. And we're going to see today it's possible to be doing good things, right things, religious things, and yet be fundamentally going in the wrong spiritual direction. Stay with me today as we discover how to avoid death by lethal religion.

Guest (Male): Lethal injection works in three stages: anesthetize, paralyze, stop the heart. Chip Ingram says that's exactly what religion does to the soul. And Jesus himself had the most devastating words in all the Gospels to describe it. Today, Chip opens Acts chapter 9 to show the difference between a man who was religiously perfect and spiritually blind, and what happened when the living God finally got his attention.

I'm Dave Droughy, and this is Living on the Edge, continuing Chip's series The Jesus Revolution. Well, don't go anywhere after the message. Chip's going to share about our mid-year match, and it's something you'll want to know about. Well, here's Chip now.

Chip Ingram: We've talked about three specific agendas that Satan has. Not sort of the scary type demonic things like on movies, but subtle agendas that are deceitful, the kind of agendas that get us off course and we don't even know it. Acts chapter 9 may be the most diabolical and most deceptive of all because it comes packaged in spirituality.

We're going to talk about agenda number four. And agenda number four is death by lethal religion. Religion may be one of the most powerful ways in all the world in the name of God that Satan deceives people, steals their life, ruins their relationships, warps their thinking about themselves and God.

And as I was doing the research, I came across a little information about lethal injection. Lethal injection became actually the preferable way for capital punishment. That's the rationale that it should be done in a way that's kinder, if there's a kind way to kill people.

And I don't know why, but in my mind, as I was praying, I thought, I wonder how that works. And I think about how Satan is working. It is a very kind way through religion that he destroys people. Lethal injection has a three-step process. Step one, it's done intravenously, and it anesthetizes the person. Sodium pentothal is giving and within about 10 to 30 seconds, a person goes into a deep sleep.

So, the goal is to anesthetize. In other words, a person's eyes shut and they fall asleep. The second thing that happens is they give the person a paralyzing agent. It's called Pancuronium bromide or Pavulon. It's a muscle relaxant that's given at a dose that causes the muscles to be paralyzed, so the ability to bring in oxygen for life is inhibited.

And the third stage then is a toxic agent called potassium chloride. And it's given in a dose to stop the electrical impulses sent to the heart. And so, the way lethal injection occurs is you anesthetize persons, then you paralyze them, and then you put a toxin that goes straight to their heart to stop the heart from beating.

And I want to tell you if you want a profile of how the enemy works through religion, it's that. Open to Matthew chapter 23. This is from the very lips of Jesus. This is his view of what religion does, how diabolical it is.

Then Jesus said, Matthew 23 verse 1, to the crowds and to his disciples, The teachers of the law and the Pharisees, they sit in Moses' seat, so you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Now, listen to what he says religion does. They tie heavy loads and they put them on men's shoulders. Everything they do is done to be seen by men. They love the place of honor. They want the most important seats in the synagogue. Skipping down verse 13. Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the kingdom of God in men's faces.

You yourselves do not enter, and you will not let those who are trying to enter to enter. Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and then you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourself. These are not calm words. These are not nice words. These are not Jesus meek and mild.

This is Jesus attacking what's diabolical and what religion does to the human heart. He goes on, because this is what really happens. Woe to you blind guides. Later he calls them blind fools. Then he says, you blind men. Woe to you teachers of the law and the Pharisees, you hypocrites. You give a tenth of your spices of your mint of your dill, but you have neglected the far more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup, but inside you're full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisees, you hypocrites. You look like whitewashed tombs, which are beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you're full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.

On the outside you appear to people as though you are righteous, but on the inside you're full of greed and hypocrisy and wickedness. And then it's just like Jesus went off. And he said, You snakes, you vipers. How will you escape the condemnation of hell? And then he says, I'm sending you prophets. I'm sending you wise men, and I'm sending you teachers.

Teachers and wise men of the truth of love and life. And this is the prediction he makes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Others you will flog in your synagogues, and you will pursue them from town to town. So upon you will come the judgment of all the righteous men, all the way from Zachariah to Barachiah. All will come upon this generation.

I don't know about you. Those are the strongest words that are anywhere in this book. Those are from the lips of Jesus about religion. And no one is immune over time to becoming religious. You can even make up your own religion. Secularism is a religion, humanism is a religion.

So here's the question I want to ask and answer. What's the difference between dead religion and a living relationship with God? What's the difference between a dead religion and a living relationship with God? And I want to suggest that Acts chapter 9 will give you a very clear picture of it.

So, open your Bibles to Acts chapter 9. But you need to follow along scene number one. The movie has begun. We pick up the story. Meanwhile, Saul was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and he asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus. So if there were any one found there who belonged to the way, the early Christians were called that, they were the way. They said, Jesus is the way.

Whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground, he heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? Saul said, I am Jesus, whom you're persecuting, he replied. Now get up and go into the city. And you will be told what you must do.

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound, but they didn't see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, and when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus, and for three days he was blind. He didn't eat or drink anything.

Scene number two, the big change in Saul's life. Picking it up at verse 10. In Damascus, there was a disciple named Ananias. And the Lord called to him in a vision. Ananias, Yes, Lord, he answered. And the Lord told him, go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he's seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him and restore his sight.

Lord, Ananias answered, I've heard many reports about this man and all the harm that he has done to the saints in Jerusalem, and he's come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call upon your name. But the Lord said to Ananias, go. This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.

And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. Then Ananias went to the house, and he entered it, and placing his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, he has sent me here to you so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again, and he got up and he was baptized, and after taking some food, he gained his strength, and Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. In a word, he was converted. In a word, he realized that the Yahweh of the Old Testament, that the angel of the Lord, that the Messiah is Jesus.

And all that knowledge, and all that wisdom, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was trained under the top Pharisee of the day. Secular writers say of the apostle Paul, he was the greatest intellect in all of the culture in the first century. And now this man has just had this jarring relationship. He's gone from a religious person, literally without fault, to someone that has met the living God personally.

Things are going to change.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll have more in just a moment. This month, Living on the Edge is participating in a special mid-year match. Every dollar given in June is being matched one for one by a group of generous partners who want to see this ministry go further. Your gift doesn't just help, it's doubled the moment it arrives. You can get all the details at livingontheedge.org and stick around. Chip will share more about it before we're done today. Right now, back to the message.

Chip Ingram: Before scene number three and four comes, there's an intermission. Let's read the intermission together. Picking it up verse 20. So what happened to him? All at once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, isn't this the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on his name, and hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?

I mean, they're just like wiping their eyes, are you kidding me? Yet Saul grew more and more powerful, and he baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ, he's the Messiah, he's the long-awaited one. Notice what happens next. After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan and day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him.

But the followers took him by night, and they lowered him in a basket through the opening in a wall. Later, when he comes to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him, not believing he was really a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and he told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord, and how the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he'd preached fearlessly in the name of Christ.

So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and he debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the brothers learned of this, they took him to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. Then notice the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. Well, their number one enemy just became their number one advocate.

It was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, and it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord. Now scene number three. As Peter was traveling about the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic, who'd been bedridden for eight years. Aeneas, Peter said to him, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat.

Immediately Aeneas gets up, and all those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. And so we get this quick snapshot. And so we have the apostle Paul on the one hand, a religious man, walking ready to kill people, and he's blind. And when he ends up being blinded by the light of truth, he becomes an invalid, and they walk him into Damascus.

Now the author wants you to know, that's what happens with religion. People who think they can see are actually blind. And then here's someone who's in need and is paralyzed physically. And notice how carefully the text says. Peter says, in the name of Jesus. It's the person, it's the power, it's the living relationship.

And then he says this little phrase, take up your mat. Now, it's similar to when Jesus said take up your mat, but this phrase is a shade different. when we see that and I read that because it's a paralytic, we often think it's about taking up your mat and walking, which it could be. But the primary use all through the New Testament of this little phrase is that you can now get up, you can live, you can do something. Open your mat and eat to get strengthened, so that you can begin a new life.

Scene number four. Peter is about 10 miles from another city called Joppa. And as we pick up the story in verse 36. In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas, who was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time, she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in the upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa, so the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, and they sent two men to him and urged him, please come at once.

Peter went with them, and when he arrived, he was taken upstairs to the room, and all the widows were standing around crying and showing him the robes and the other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them. Peter sent them all out of the room. Then he got down on his knees and he prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, Tabitha, get up. She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.

He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers in and the widows and he presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. And then notice this final line. Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon. There's scene one, scene two, scene three, and scene four.

Here's what I want you to see. This is a picture of dead religion versus living relationship, and Acts 9 is a study of contrasts. This is how the Holy Spirit put it together, so we could see the dramatic contrast between religion and living relationship. Let me show it to you. Look at this. Notice that it opens with a Pharisee who is clean. It ends with a tanner who's unclean.

The focus is what, what's Paul doing as the chapter opens? With murderous threats he wants to kill people. The chapter ends with what? The focus is life. She's resurrected. Uh the subject is a murderer in the opening chapter. The subject is a doer of good works, someone who loves people. You'll notice that Jesus, what's he do? He rebukes Paul.

But by contrast, he resurrects Dorcas. Those things aren't put there by accident. The author wants to carefully help you see the distinction. The apostle becomes an invalid. And remember the story, the invalid becomes someone who walks and serves. Both of them are told to get up. The apostle Paul said, God speaks to him, says, get up, go where I tell you, this is what you must do.

The paralytic is, he gets up, and instead of going, all the people of Lydda come and they believe and they hear because of the miracle. The apostle Paul is healed to carry his message to the Gentiles. This paralytic is healed very carefully, in the name of Jesus. And so, if you take those things, the core teaching and point is verses 20 and 22.

If you still have your Bible, open it up. I want you to see this. Verses 20 and 22. It is the dividing mark, it is the core, it is the main point between dead religion and a living relationship with the living God. Verse 20, at once he began to preach, notice in the synagogue. That's where the religion is. What's he preaching? Jesus is the Son of God. That's deity.

Jesus is God. Truth. Person, not rules, not patterns, not ceremony. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, isn't this the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among all those who call upon his name? Second point, when you meet the living God, your life changes. It's dramatic. It's different.

There is a before and an after. I mean, there's something that happens. Relationship with Christ brings life. Dead religion brings death. Notice it goes on. And has he he come here to make prisoners? And then here he is, instead of prisoners, what? He's setting people free. Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

Here's what I want you to see. Here's what happened. Two things. Number one, he had a 180-degree conversion. The apostle Paul was sincere, devoted, smart, educated, a Roman citizen, wealthy. He had it going. And I mean, he's going like this, and bam, he meets the living God, and now he's going exactly 180 degrees a different direction.

It's called conversion. The apostle Paul was transformed into something completely new. Everything changed. When he met the living God, his relationship with God changed, with the Jews changed, with Christians changed, with people changed, with himself.

Uh his perspective changed. He went from being a persecutor to a preacher. His his values changed. He was a religious guy. You heard Matthew 23. He was focused on fame, success, prestige, status, and control. And now you can read 13 books that were penned by the apostle Paul, and he was consumed with people, relationships, the hurting, the oppressed, and serving.

His goals changed. You see, conversion is that point in a person's life when they fully realize that their way is not the right way. They may be devoted, they may be sincere, they may be quote morally good, they may be religious, but they realize that Jesus Christ and he alone is the answer to the most penetrating issues and problems of life.

Why am I here? Is there life after death? Who is God? What do I do to have a relationship with him? Christ is the Son of God. He came and died for all. He rose from the dead to prove that it's true, and he offers eternal life to whosoever would put their trust in him.

Guest (Male): This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. In the start of a lesson titled Death by Lethal Religion, from his series The Jesus Revolution. We'll hear more from Chip in just a moment, so don't go anywhere. Every message in this series is available on the Living on the Edge podcast. Subscribe wherever you get your audio and take it with you all week. Or find Chip's full-length sermons by searching for The Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast.

Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee of Pharisees, educated, devoted, zealous, morally faultless by every external measure. And he was was using every bit of it to hunt down and destroy followers of Jesus. Acts 9 is a study in contrasts. The chapter opens with a murderer who thinks he can see and ends with a paralytic who can't walk. And the author wants you to see it clearly, religion blinds, relationship heals.

The question Chip leaves hanging is a personal one. Have you had a Damascus experience? Because it's entirely possible to believe the right things, do the right things, and still be running in exactly the wrong direction. Well, here's Chip with a word about the movement that begins when people stop performing and start encountering the living God.

Chip Ingram: In Acts 12, when Peter's thrown into prison and facing execution, the church does only one thing it knows to do. It prays, earnestly, persistently, all night long. And God sends an angel, Peter walks out of prison, and the church is so stunned they can't believe it. I mean, he's there knocking at the door and they don't think it's him. There's something powerful and a little humbling about that story. They prayed and they weren't entirely sure God would answer, and he did, because he always does. Not always the way we want, not always in the timing that we'd like, but he answers.

As I'm teaching through Acts right now on the Jesus Revolution, one of the overarching themes of the entire series is the centrality of prayer in advancing the movement. This isn't hyperbole. He wants us to pray. He wants us to believe. And so I want to encourage you. For some of you, you wish you could give, but you don't have much money. For some, I get notes from 16-year-old girls and people in their 80s on social security and they feel bad sending a tiny gift. I've got news for you.

When you pray with all your heart, whether your gift is small, whether it's large, or for some of you that really pray and you simply can't give, you just give what God gives you. And we will be exactly the ministry he wants us to be, accomplishing exactly what he wants us to accomplish. We're going to keep on praying because the world is in chaos, but the Jesus movement is forcefully moving all around the world and God wants you to be a part of it. Would you pray? Would you give if he allows and would you stand with us? Let's make a difference.

Guest (Male): Prayer moves things, and so does a gift that's doubled. Stand with us in the mid-year match this month. Go online to livingontheedge.org or call us directly at 888-333-6003. To give by mail, just write to us at Living on the Edge, P.O. Box 3007, Atlanta, Georgia 30024.

Well, I'm Dave Drewry. Next time, Chip Ingram goes deeper into what separates dead religion from a living relationship with God. The symptoms may surprise you. That's ahead on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge.