Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact eric.black@baptiststandard.com.
Dr. E.K. Bailey: Jesus vs. Religion (Mark 2:14-28)
We close this year’s Black History Month with a sermon from Dr. E.K. Bailey, founding pastor of Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas and namesake of the annual E.K. Bailey Preaching Conference. Dr. Bailey died Oct. 22, 2003.
Preaching from Mark 2, Dr. Bailey described several differences between religion and Jesus. Among them:
- “Religion isolates; Jesus gets involved.”
- “Religion brings a funeral, while Jesus brings a feast.”
- “Religion brings a burden, and Jesus brings a blessing.”
Plenty of people have religion, he declared, but that doesn’t mean they know Jesus; it doesn’t mean they are saved.
Bailey expounded on the rising hostility toward Jesus on the part of the religious establishment. “Perhaps one of the most dangerous and deadly things on planet Earth is religion. There are few things in this world that are as wicked and as cruel as is religion,” he declared. Jesus had to confront this, he added.
When Jesus confronted religion, three controversies erupted: association, fasting and Sabbath. The religious establishment took issue with Jesus over the people with whom he associated—in particular, Levi the tax collector. Bailey described what it meant for Levi to associate with Jesus.
The religious establishment fasted and wanted to know why Jesus’ followers did not. Religion hardens and puts on a somber face, but knowing Jesus produces joy, Bailey declared. “Religion is boring,” but God makes life exciting, he proclaimed.
The religious establishment wanted to maintain the law and its rules, but Jesus indicated human need supersedes religious law, Bailey said. Religion inhibits with rules, but Jesus inhabits as a Redeemer, he concluded.
This sermon was delivered in October 1988 for the morning worship service of Concord Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas. It is part of a series on the Gospel of Mark. This and other sermons are available on the Dr. E.K. and Sheila M. Bailey Legacy website.
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