Don’t Let Religion Keep You From Jesus

“Jesus did countless things that I haven’t included here. And if every one of his works were written down and described one by one, I suppose that the world itself wouldn’t have enough room to contain the books that would have to be written!” (John 21:25 TPT)

Often people say to me, “Jessi, I am not an evangelist. I am afraid to share the Gospel.”

I simply just say to them, “Come, come and see. Once you encounter the living God and see His love for others, it is impossible to not talk about Him.”

I truly believe that nothing robs us of God’s promises more than the “religious spirit” and tiny deceptions. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us and paid the price for our sins. Afterward, He rose from the dead. We can hear this so much in church and easily neglect the power. Jesus really, actually died. This isn’t a spiritual metaphor. He was dead-dead. Wrapped up in burial garments and in a tomb. You don’t put someone in a tomb unless they are really, truly, absolutely dead.

Then, Jesus rose from the dead.

This is the central part of the Gospel, which many neglect to emphasize. We love that Jesus saved us from our sins, but He wasn’t just a dead sacrifice; He is alive! Like, really, really alive! In John 14:18-21, Jesus on the way to the cross tells His disciples:

I promise that I will never leave you helpless or abandon you as orphans—I will come back to you! Soon I will leave this world and they will see me no longer, but you will see me, because I will live again, and you will come alive too. So when that day comes, you will know that I am living in the Father and that you are one with me, for I will be living in you. Those who truly love me are those who obey my commands. Whoever passionately loves me will be passionately loved by my Father. And I will passionately love you in return and will manifest my life within you (TPT).

Jesus is actually alive and wants to have a relationship with us. I sang about it for years in church but still never “got it.” I hold these verses like a treasure. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead means that these words are true. He will never leave you because he is not dead, but alive! I don’t know about you, but for me that changes everything. That means that I can hear from God, I can know what He is doing on the earth, I can feel His love for me and for others. It means that when I pray, He is actually listening. He says, “Those who truly love Me are those who obey My commands.” This isn’t about obeying commands to earn His love! He is telling us that “When you really know Me, when you have experienced My love for you, you will obey Me.” If you have a hard time obeying God, pay attention!

The Scriptures Are About…

When talking to the Pharisees, Jesus said:

You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want (John 5:39-40 MSG).

The Pharisees were the people who knew Scripture better than anyone. They were so stuck in pondering the laws of Moses that they missed the presence of God. My heart aches when I read these words. I believe Jesus is speaking to each one of us now. We want some other way; we want some magic method. We want supernatural lives, but we don’t want Him!

Jesus goes on to say:

I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5:41-44)

OOF!

Selah.

How did Jesus know that they didn’t have the love of God in their hearts? Jesus came in His Father’s name, which means that He came in the Father’s authority, not His own. Jesus leads the way in humility and confronts those with pride. When we read the Scriptures, we should leave more humble, more in awe of how big God is, and thankful for His love for us. If our Bible studies, evangelism campaigns, Facebook ministries, or book deals lead to an inflated ego and not a humble, repentant heart, then we must lay it all down and do so quickly. I find that Jesus reveals more of who He is to those with pure motives, whose hearts burn to know Him above all things.

He May Not Be the Messiah You Want; He Is the Messiah You Need

As I have been praying recently, I keep hearing that “the lion wants out of the cage.” Jesus never pulls punches to please the crowd. He didn’t use the Scriptures to flatter His hearers or to make them think that God was pleased with them if He was not. When you read Scripture, when you spend time in His presence, there should be times when you feel challenged. Jesus is so often not the kind of Messiah we think we want. One scroll on social media, and we can see so many ministry leaders playing the same cards that the Jews did when Christ came to earth. Yes, of course, we mock the Pharisees in our preaching, but don’t we do the same thing?

They wanted a political messiah who could deliver them from Rome and provide peace and prosperity. How much has changed? If He had satisfied their tastes, Jesus could have been a popular leader and a rich megachurch pastor. After He fed the multitude, He knew that they wanted to come and take Him by force to make Him king. Jesus just doesn’t do things the way we would. Jesus withdrew to the mountain by Himself, all alone (see John 6:15). I wonder how many of us, myself included, need to continue to learn these lessons from Him? Jesus refused the popular way for the way of the Father. Jesus would not falsely convey who God is or who He is to gain a following.

Savage Jesus warned the Pharisees that their rejection of Him made them susceptible to follow false messiahs who came in their own name. Later on, as Jesus spoke about the end times, He warned of false prophets who will arise and lead many astray. Accompanying this deception, people’s love for God will grow cold (see Matt. 24:11-12).

I believe that for so many of us, our Christianity isn’t working because we want a more comfortable Jesus. We are prone to follow false teachers because it “feels good.” Paul the apostle later warned:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NASB).

We see the same thing today—focus on the positive, never confront sin, and you’ll have a large congregation or a large social media following.

Is It Working?

Many of you have heard about Jesus, but you may feel like you don’t really know Him. You may identify as a Christian, but it seems like other people have some kind of magical special access.

If your Christianity is not “working,” it may be a good idea to take a pause and find out why. When we first moved to California, we had a used 2010 Jeep Commander. At one point, the engine light kept turning on when we’d start the car in colder weather. It would never light in warm Orange County, but on cold road trips there would go that good ole engine light. Do you know what we did? We ignored it.

Of course not. We took the car in to a mechanic to check what was wrong. It turned out that it was nothing major, we simply needed to get a new battery. When we have problems with our cars, we know to take them in to get fixed. Yet our faith could be completely failing and we don’t stop, pause, and think, “Hey, maybe something is wrong here. Maybe I need to fix something.”

I think for many of us, we can end up adhering to a culture of Christianity in which Christ is not involved at all.

I know this seems incredibly harsh, but it’s a reality that is wildly impacting the nations. I don’t want you to continue reading this book, learn some new tools, launch some big evangelism campaign, and still not know Christ intimately.

If you want revival, you must truly and deeply know the Reviver.

I know, it almost seems too simple.

Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So, they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent the day with him (John 1:38-39).

To give you a little bit of context here, Jesus had just started His public ministry. He was demonstrating the Kingdom of God that is now available to everyone, and He was inviting these onlookers to come and follow Him into this new life. I find it interesting that the early disciples said to Him, “Where are You staying?” It’s kind of a strange question. He replies by saying to them, “Come, and you will see.” Jesus starts off His ministry by offering an invitation. He says to them, “Come.”

Come and See

The way that He gathered His very, very first disciples was a simple invitation to “come and see.” The Greek word for see is the word horaó, which actually means, “behold, perceive, see” or properly, “to stare at, to discern clearly (physically or mentally); by extension, to attend to; to experience” (Strong’s, G3708).

Jesus is actually saying to His first followers, “Come and experience everything I am talking about. Come behold, discern, perceive, and attend to the Kingdom life.” He’s not merely trying to teach them something. He’s trying to give them an entirely different experience of living.

Then later, in John 1:46, we see Jesus gather more disciples and have an encounter with Phillip. Guess what happens to Phillip after his encounter? He goes to find his friend Nathaniel and tells him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathaniel responds, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Isn’t this this world we live in? We expect God to move in a certain way, through certain people, in certain places that we call “holy” like our church buildings. Yet He is so much more creative than that. For years, people have prophesied death and destruction over California saying, “Can anything good come out of California?” Yet here we are! Seeing revival being birthed once again in the place the religious have turned their backs on. Philip said to Nathaniel, “Come and see.” He urged his friend to come and experience this Kingdom life that they had been searching for. Phillip gives us a “blaze” on our journey to encountering a real Jesus. He doesn’t tell Nathaniel what he thinks he knows; he offers him an invitation to come and see for himself.

So here we are. If you are ready to come alive, to be revived, to live the life you were created for, I want to invite you to take a step toward the fire. Many of you have prayed this at some point, and there are some of you who are praying this for the very first time. I personally regularly pray this prayer as a reminder of the decision I have made to follow Jesus.

Pray this out loud with me:

Jesus,

I believe in You. You are real, Lord!

Thank You for forgiving me of my sins when You died on the cross.

Thank You for Your sacrifice for me to live free from sin and shame.

Forgive me, Lord.

Jesus, I believe in You. I believe You died and rose again.

Fill me with Your Holy Spirit.

Heal my heart, heal my mind, fill with me the same power that raised You from the dead! Empower me to live for You, and not for myself, every day of my life.