Sermon Central
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Confronting Jesus? Series
Contributed by Paul Clemente on Mar 7, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Do we question Jesus?
We had been learning from the Gospel of Mark. Although we are currently in the middle of Chapter 6, we will look at the beginning of Mark 7 this morning in preparation for Communion. We will come back to Chapter 6 next week. Please open your Bibles to Mark 7…..
We have noted in earlier chapters of the Gospel of Mark how quickly the Jewish religious Leaders were jealous of Jesus and were always trying to trip Him up; they were afraid of losing their lofty positions). We will note in our passage today another thing they found religiously wrong with Jesus. Read along with me Mark 7:1-8….
v1-4: Jesus’ disciples (His followers) were caught not following religious traditions as seen by the Jewish leaders!
Now, Jesus had been proclaiming that He is the Son of God (Jesus is God!); but yet,
v5: The Jewish Religious Leaders directly confronted Jesus!
Let’s pause and think about this for a moment; If Jesus walked the earth today, would people bow down to Him or confront and ridicule Him?
In general, how did Jesus respond to the accusation??
a. Jesus cited God’s Words (Scripture)!
b. Jesus made them think of their inner being, what God sees!
Their hearts were not right with their talk and actions!
All of us do this don’t we; we all have a tendency to just think of the physical and ignore the spiritual.
Besides questioning the Son of God, what else did the religious leaders specifically do wrong?
v7a: worshipped God in vain (self-pleasing worship instead of God pleasing)!
Do people do this in churches today? Can people actually go to church but then just please themselves instead of God? God sees our inner attitudes!
v7b: taught man-made rules instead of God’s!
v8a: actually ignored God’s Word!
v8b: they focused on traditions!
What about us today?
1. Is it possible for us to directly confront Jesus, who is God? How?
We must always humble ourselves before God!
2. Always consider what God sees in our hearts, especially in our worship and our view of people!
3. Is our worship truly God focused or do we do it just to feel good about ourselves?
4. Watch out for man-made rules and traditions instead of God.
5. God is only pleased with our faith in His Words (the Bible)!
How are we treating God’s love letter to us on a daily basis?
