Recently my wife and I attended a high school musical to support some of her students involved. We asked a teacher selling tickets how it was, and her answer was “It’s so good, it’ll make you rethink your religion.” This drastic measure is similar to the southern expression, “It’s so good, it’ll make you slap your Mama.” Here, the food someone is eating is so delicious that the eater will be forced to strike his mother because her homemade cooking doesn’t compare. While it was not intended to be a personal slight against our faith, ‘religion,’ in the first expression, is recognized as something intensely meaningful to people. And so, to describe how good she considered the show, she said the experience would make us reconsider our core values–even the gospel that brings salvation!
I. Colossians 2:6-23. The postmodern world we live in doesn’t believe in God and so has severed itself from Him and His Word as a standard for our lives. It desperately seeks meaning and purpose and so grabs onto emotion and experience to futilely try to quench that need. Sadly, many churches believe they must infuse their worship with the “hollow and deceptive philosophy” of the world as they have missed the deep and sufficient meaning and purpose in the gospel of Christ.
II. Acts 9:1-22. There is a time to ‘rethink our religion.’ Saul, who became Paul, encountered such a time on the road to Damascus as he was “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.” When he realized he was persecuting Jesus who not only gives eternal life but a second chance on life, he was baptized and became a powerful preacher in the early church, who was willing to be persecuted for Jesus instead (Philippians 3:10-11).
III. Acts 18:24-28. Complacency or misdirected zeal is another reason to ‘rethink our religion.’ There was no doubt that Apollos was a bold preacher already, but his knowledge was insufficient. After Priscilla and Aquilla took him aside and “explained to him the way of God more adequately,” God used him to debate and prove from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. A similar story happens with those still called “disciples” that Paul encountered that didn’t know about the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7).
Although the acting and musicianship of my wife’s students were superb, we didn’t much care for the worldly message of the musical. The good and enjoyable experience was not enough for us to ‘rethink our religion,’ and we left sad for the wonderful packaging wrapped around ungodly themes but still holding onto our core values of the gospel of Christ. What else could compare to it?