In The Way | Tradition | Week 4

Redeemer Weekend Sermons

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In The Way | Politics | Week 4 | September 29, 2024

Teacher: Pastor Dave Brown

/> Tradition helps us remember God’s faithfulness.

/> This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance…Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on the this very day that I brought your division out of Egypt…Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, “What does this ceremony mean to you?” Then tell them, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.

—Exodus 12:14, 17, 24-28

/> One thing we can learn from this is the importance the Bible places on ritual. The Old Testament repeatedly refers to teaching Israelite children who God is and what he has done.

—Peter Enns

/> Tradition gives us anchors for belief.

/> Repetition and familiarity work. What is repeated becomes familiar, and this becomes a part of us…Far too many equate ritual with spiritual dryness. True, ritual and liturgy can be dead but only when the significance and power of those rituals are forgotten. Spiritual death is not a property of ritual itself. To the contrary, ritual has always been and will always be a means of securing for future generations the power and reality of the gospel…Ritual breeds familiarity. It seeps into one’s subconscious and, however subtly, begins to exert a formative influence.

—Peter Enns

/> Tradition “gets in the way” when we misunderstand the why behind it.

/> Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being.They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

—Isaiah 1:13-17

/> As with the Israelites, our worship practices and religious activities are intended to be symbolic of deeper realities. There is no necessary connection between these and the realities. But there is a direct connection between those realities and our ethical behavior. We can be very religious and yet be living our lives for ourselves. We can give the appearance of obedience and yet be living a self-centered life that is nothing but rebellion.

— John Oswalt

/> Tradition “gets in the way” when it no longer accomplishes its why.

/> Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

—Acts 15:1

/> Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are…It is my judgement therefore that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.

—Acts 15:10-11, 19