A Messiah Who Keeps Us Focused
Text: Matt. 15:1-20
Introduction
1. Illustration: [Children have] a great need to know where behavioral boundaries are and who has the courage to enforce them. Years ago, during the early days of the progressive-education movement, an enthusiastic theorist decided to take down the chain-link fence that surrounded the nursery-school yard. He thought the children would feel more freedom of movement without that visible barrier surrounding them. When the fence was removed, however, the boys and girls huddled near the center of the play yard. Not only did they not wander away, they didn't even venture to the edge of the grounds. Clearly, there is a security for all of us in defined boundaries.
2. The same can be said for adults. When we narrow our focus we are less confused and able to hewn in on what's important.
3. Jesus teaches us to focus:
a. On the Word
b. On the Inside
c. On the Heart
4. Read Matt. 15:1-20
Proposition: Jesus teaches us to focus on what is really important.
Transition: The most important thing to do is...
I. Focus On the Word (1-9).
A. Commandments of God
1. When someone does the wonderful things that Jesus had been doing the word gets around. As a result, "Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus."
a. The ministry of Jesus has disturbed the local Pharisees, so they apparently send word to the highest level of their leadership in Jerusalem, who arrive in Galilee to confront Jesus about the practices of his disciples.
b. Jerusalem was the location of the Temple and of the most eminent schools of Judaism; and therefore this delegation doubtlessly carried a lot of weight.
c. And because these Pharisees and scribes had prestige and learning superior to that of their counterparts in Galilee, Jesus treated them with greater severity (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 8-15).
2. They ask Jesus, “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? They ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”
a. The primary point of contention is that Jesus does not recognize the binding authority of the oral law, here called the "age old tradition."
b. This phrase became a technical expression to refer to interpretations of Scripture made by past esteemed rabbis and passed on orally to later generations (Wilkins, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Matthew, 534).
c. It was known as the "oral law," and the Pharisees put it on equal ground with Scripture.
d. The religious elite insist that their way is right, even though it is based only on tradition.
e. Once again they object to a practice of Jesus' disciples, implying a deficiency in the training Jesus has supplied to them.
f. Hand washing was one such extra biblical tradition, perhaps originally adopted from foreign Jews, concerning which the Pharisees were especially meticulous (Keener).
3. As Jesus usually does, he gets right to the heart of the matter. He says, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?"
a. Jesus counters the Pharisees’ charge against his disciples by asking why they and teachers of the law transgress God’s command because of a commitment to their "tradition."
b. In this question he goes to the heart of the problem, which is the relationship of the developing oral law to the written law.
c. The tradition of the elders was not simply a preferred way of living, but it became equal in authority to the written law.
d. Jesus makes it clear to them that the Old Testament came from God, while their traditions are simply the pronouncements of human elders (Wilkins, 535).
4. Jesus uses a great example of how they ignore the Word because of their tradition. He says, "For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’ In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition."
a. The specific example concerns the way that the Pharisees’ tradition regarding vows made to God have actually caused them to violate the Old Testament’s directives about honoring parents.
b. God made it clear that the Israelites were to give unreserved honor to their parents: "For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ "
c. But the Pharisees’ commitment to human traditions regarding gifts given to God caused them to violate God’s law (Wilkins, 535).
d. One could dedicate an object for sacred use; one could also prohibit others from using one's property by declaring the property dedicated to the temple (Keener).
e. In other words, they would say that something was dedicated to the temple just to get out of giving it to their parents.
f. They were ignoring the commandments of the Word in order to keep their tradition.
5. Jesus then calls it like he sees it when he tells them, "You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”
a. They claim to be spiritual leaders but they are spiritually bankrupt.
b. They are all show on the outside, but there is nothing on the inside.
c. They are teaching their own ideas as the commands of God.
d. They have abandoned the authority of God for their own.
B. Word Focus
1. Illustration: When I was in Bible College I had several friends who would take as many class hours as possible in order to finish school faster. However, I found that things were better for me if I took the minimum and focused my attention and effort on just a few classes. It was better for me to try and do a few things well than to try and do a lot of things minimally.
2. We need to focus our attention on the Word of God.
a. Joshua 1:8 (NLT)
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
b. The word gives us guidance.
c. The word gives us strength.
d. The word tells us everything that God has for us.
3. When we focus on the Word it keeps us from sin.
a. Psalms 119:11 (NLT)
I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
b. It will help us in times of temptation.
c. It will give us ammunition against the devil.
d. It will give us a heart that is steadfast towards God.
4. When we focus on the Word it sheds light on our darkness.
a. Hebrews 4:12 (NLT)
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
b. It shows us for who we really are.
c. It shows those areas of our life that need to change.
d. It shows us how we should live.
Transition: The next thing that Jesus shows us we should do is...
II. Focus On What's Inside (10-14).
A. What Comes Out
1. The Pharisees were worried about what was on the outside, but Jesus wanted the crowd listening that what's more important is what is on the inside.
2. He told them, “Listen, and try to understand."
a. "Listen, and try to understand" was a common idiom that meant, "Listen carefully and pay close attention," and was used to precede a message of great importance.
b. It was not that what Jesus said would be hard to understand but that it would be hard to accept (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 8-15).
c. They had heard so much from their religious leaders about concentrating on the outside that what Jesus was about to tell them was going to seem foreign to them.
3. He told the crowd, "It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
a. Jesus states categorically that spiritual impurity is not contracted through eating foods that are not ceremonially cleansed.
b. He thereby renounces publicly the Pharisees’ tradition that required ritual cleansing before eating.
c. He is not speaking of hygienic cleanliness but of spiritual purity. Ceremonial cleansing is not the key element in producing godliness.
d. A hypocritical show of devotion to God can mask a heart that is more intent on gaining a religious reputation than it is on seeking to do God’s will as revealed in Scripture.
e. In challenging Jesus about conformity to the tradition of the elders, the Pharisees reveal that their inner life is unclean.
f. They continue to rely on their own practice of external righteousness, which does not allow them entrance to the kingdom.
g. They have not only deceived themselves but have misled the people with their traditions (Wilkins, 536).
4. Concerned about what the Pharisees who had a lot of power might do, Jesus' disciples said, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”
a. They saying to Jesus, "take it easy Lord, you're going to get all of us in trouble."
b. Jesus knew very well that His statement about ceremonial washings undercut the very foundation of the legalistic system of the Pharisees and that they would be greatly offended by it.
c. He meant to offend them (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 8-15).
d. Jesus is interested in speaking God's truth, not in winning influential allies.
e. Although many people respected blunt, radical teachers, polite Mediterranean society generally emphasized public respect toward persons of appropriate rank.
f. When one is planning to get crucified anyway, however, one does not need to accommodate the opinions of those who lead God's people astray.
5. Rather than being concerned as to what the Pharisees might think Jesus tells his disciples, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”
a. Jesus responds by alluding back to the prophetic image of building or tearing down, planting or uprooting people according to God's message.
b. Jesus' calling the Pharisees blind guides was a play on their own description of themselves as "leaders of the blind."
c. Jesus was saying, "Yes, you are leaders of the blind; but you are in the same condition as those you lead. You yourselves are blind" (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 8-15).
d. However, Jesus point to them is clear, don't worry about what is on the outside but on what is inside.
B. From Within
1. Illustration: Years ago, Tina and I were a part of a Christian rock band. One year we played at an outdoor Christian fesitval and we kept seeing all of these rather rough looking bikers. In my ignorance I began to think to myself, "what are these heathens doing here?" Until I noticed their leather vests which simply said, "Sons of God." They were Christian bikers and they were going around the festival serving the groups that were playing and witnessing to the lost. I was judging them based on what I saw on the outside, but God was seeing them based on what is on the inside.
2. God is much more concerned about what is inside a person.
a. 1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT)
The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
b. He is not as concerned about their clothes as he is about whether their robes have been washed in the precious blood of Jesus.
c. He is not concerned about their hair as he is about their hearts.
d. He does judge people by how they appear on the outside, but how they look on the inside.
3. God doesn't care as much about what side of the track they've come from as he does about whether they've been transformed.
a. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NLT)
16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
b. God does see them as who they were but who they have become.
c. Not but what they have done, but by what Jesus has done in them.
d. Not by their past but their eternal destiny.
Transition: Most importantly we need to...
III. Focus On the Heart (15-20).
A. From the Heart
1. Once again Jesus' disciples just didn't get it. He had to spell it out for them.
2. He tells them, “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you."
a. Because food is only physical, it can only affect the physical. It cannot defile the inner person, represented by the heart, because the physical and the spiritual are of two different orders.
b. Physical pollution, no matter how corrupt, cannot cause spiritual or moral pollution.
c. Ceremonies, rituals, and other external practices cannot cleanse a person spiritually, and failure to observe them cannot defile a person spiritually.
d. Ceremonial cleansing, even under the Old Covenant, never did more than picture spiritual cleansing (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 8-15.
e. These traditions of the elders have nothing to do with true spiritual cleanness, because they only focus on the external physical activities.
f. They do not make a person unclean before God. God’s judgment concerns behavior that originates in the heart of a person (Wilkins, 538).
3. Jesus goes on to say, "For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
a. This is an explicit statement about the heart that was implied in Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
b. Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament revelation about God’s will for his people and to bring about the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven in those who respond to his message.
c. That righteousness is an inside-out transformation that begins with the heart and works throughout the process of the disciple’s life to produce external righteousness while pursuing the perfection of the Father (Wilkins, 538).
d. The things that defile the man come from an unwashed heart, not from unwashed hands.
e. The need is for God to cleanse men's hearts, not for men to wash their hands (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 8-15).
B. New Heart
1. Illustration: Johnny’s first day of school the class was to put their right hands over their hearts & repeat the Pledge of Alliegence. The teacher watched the children as he started the pledge, "I pledge allegiance to the flag..." She stopped when she noticed Johnny’s right hand over the left side of his rear end.
"Johnny, I will not continue until you put your hand over your heart." Johnny replied, "Ma’am, It is over my heart." After several attempts to get Johnny to put his hand over his heart, the teacher asked, "Why do you think that is your heart?" "Because whenever my Granny visits, she picks me up, pats me here, and says, 'Bless your little heart,’ and my Granny doesn’t lie!"
2. When we come to Christ He gives us a new heart.
a. Ezekiel 36:26 (NLT)
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
b. It is not a heart filled with rebellion.
c. It is not a heart filled with deceit.
d. It is not a heart filled with evil.
e. It is a heart that is tender towards God.
3. God's concern is whether your heart has been transformed.
a. Colossians 2:11 (NLT)
When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
b. He doesn't care about what clothes you wear.
c. He doesn't care about what kind of car you drive.
d. He doesn't care how big your house is.
e. He only cares about how your heart has changed.
4. Others will see Christ in you by the change in your heart.
a. 2 Corinthians 3:3 (NLT)
Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This “letter” is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.
b. Not because of your bumper sticker.
c. Not because of your 20 lb. Bible
d. Not because of your Christian t-shirt
e. Not because of the cross hanging from your neck.
f. Only because of the transformation in your life.
Conclusion
1. Jesus teaches us to focus on the things which matter most.
a. The Word
b. The Inside
c. The Heart
2. What do you need to focus on?
3. Are you out of focus?
