Eugene Peterson, The Jesus Way...

"I love Jesus but I hate the church" is a theme that keeps reappearing with variations in many settings. So it is interesting to note that Jesus, who in abridged form is quite popular with the non-church crowd, was not anti-institutional. Jesus said "Follow me," and then regularly led his followers into the two primary religious institutional structures of his day: the synagogue and the temple. Neither institution was without its inadequacies, faults, and failures. The temple especially was shot through with corruption, venality, injustice, discrimination...All the same, he didn't boycott the place.

...A spirituality that has no institutional structure or support very soon becomes self-indulgent and subjective and one-generational.

James Steward, The Life and Teaching of Jesus Christ...

Pharisees had externalized religion

Scribes had professionalized religion

Sadducees had secularized religion

Zealots had nationalized religion

1. Jesus broke the stereotype of a religious leader

* Rules without relationship

* Laws without love

* Conviction without compassion

* Holiness without heart

* Tradition without transformation

* Judgmentalism without Jesus

1. Jesus broke the stereotype of a religious leader

2. Jesus replaced religious rigidity with a heart for people

* He broke the stereotype of a religious leader

* He replaced religious rigidity with a heart for people

* He confronted religious hypocrisy with shocking courage

* Hope that we can look past our religious hurt

* Hope that our spiritual deadness can be revived