Jesus was not a Christian
Dec 14, 2025
What we call Christianity was created by people not God.
Jesus is bigger than Christianity, he’s not a joiner of groups or the head of a denomination. He’s not a fan of religion which Christianity has often been reduced to.
All forms of tribalism were created by us including denominationalism.
I’m a Christian but that doesn’t define me or Jesus or you.
I love and follow Jesus but often Christianity tells me how, where and when to do that like an instruction manual for an object I bought.
Let’s not reduce Jesus to our Christian tribe or any tribe. If Jesus has a group it’s the humanity group.
The cross was not for the church, it was for the world.
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Jesus was not a Christian
I'm sorry to announce that to all you
Christians listening to this
and I am one of you but Jesus was not a
Christian seems a strange thing to say
doesn't it but the actual word Christian
and the language of Christian and the
religion of Christianity was invented by
us not by God not by Jesus all religions
all tribes all groups were invented by
men invented by humans not by divinity
not by God
and I think it's just worth saying into
you in the way I said it so that we
remind ourselves as Christians that
Jesus is not one of us
sometimes I think we relate to Jesus as
a Christian instead of relate to him as
Jesus
we define and confine and
contain him to
Christianity and we relate to him in the
same way that we relate to the church
and we get mixed up between Jesus and
the church
and we start to have a relationship with
Jesus in the same way they have a
relationship with the church ie becomes
method or it becomes methodical it
becomes systemized institutionalized
it becomes a time and a place and
that's all religion is you know we were
designed I've said this other times but
worth saying again as I make this point
to you that human beings were designed
to be spiritual not religious
religion is organized spirituality
spirituality means you can appreciate
and see God in a tree or a flower or a
stream or a mountain or somewhere in
nature you can engage and encounter God
through that just as much if not more
then you can often in church that's the
difference between between religion and
that version of being spiritual and
spirituality which means that you can
have a spiritual experience anywhere at
any time because you are a spiritual we
are spiritual beings we are not
religious beings and I think that's
another part of the mistake we make in
the way that we make God in our image
rather than we allow him to make us in
His image when we make him a Christian
when we make him white when we make him
black when we make him male or we make
him female when we make God a
Democrat or Republican or in my case
labor or conservative in the UK when we
make God one of our group or we make him
one of their group
we are making him in our image we are
becoming the Potter and making him the
clay rather than we are the clay and he
is the Potter he is the maker the design
of the sculptor the artist the shaper
and we are the ones that have been
painted and shaped and worked on so
Jesus is not a Christian he is not a
joiner he's not the head of a group he's
not the head of an organization
he's not
he's not the
superintendent the district leader the
apostle the pasta and I think we
sometimes shift psychologically those
labels to him as if he's one of the
people we call that on earth he's not
he is bigger than the church he existed
before the church he was he will exist
after the church
and I'm saying this to you because I
don't want you to and I think you know
pastoring for 30 years plus I know that
I slipped into this
blind spot of
thinking God was one of us he is one of
me he is one of our church he's part of
our church and that denominational
exclusivity tribal thing kicks in and I
have you know walking to that twenty
years ago now well into my pastoring I
didn't figure this out when I stopped
pastoring this genie came out the lamp
while I was still pastoring and I'm glad
I had another sort of twelve years after
that discovery of building a new kind of
church around those new versions of me
and those new awarenesses and awakenings
in me so Jesus is not a Christian
you may be a Christian
but I hope you know what you mean by
that I hope you know what you mean is
you have chosen to be a follower of
Christ and that may include a Christian
experience but it is not only that it is
way bigger than that don't make Jesus
join your church
don't confine Jesus to your Christianity
don't think that you know all there is
to know about Jesus because you're a
Christian and no one else
has a valid relationship or perspective
understanding of him on the Christians I
think we Christians and especially the
right-wing evangelical version of us
have given us a bad name we have made
him
this ranting finger-pointing judgemental
he is what I am against God and we've
made him in our image and that's not who
he is so
Jesus is not a Christian now that
shocking statement that you heard me say
earlier I hope now you've come down and
realized is a great wisdom for life for
us
Jesus is not a Christian what a lovely
thought I'm glad he's bigger than that
and I want you to be too