JESUS & THE TRADITIONS OF THE ELDERS
Mark 7:1-23
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: GETTING IT WRONG
1. Back in the cowboy days, a westbound wagon train was lost and low on food. At last they saw an old Jewish Rabbi, sitting beneath a tree.
2. The leader rushed to him and said, "We're lost and running out of food. Is there someplace ahead where we can get food?" "Vell, I tink so," the old Rabbi said, "but I vouldn't go up dat hill over ‘der. Somevun tole me you'd run into a big bacon tree."
3. "A bacon tree?" asked the wagon train leader."Yah, ah bacon tree. Vould I lie? ..... Trust me, I vouldn't go dere.” The leader went back and told his people what the Rabbi said. "Of course he would say that" some pioneers said, “You know that Jewish people don't eat bacon."
4. So the wagon train went up & over the hill. Suddenly, Indians attacked from everywhere and they massacred all except the leader who manages to escape back to the old Jewish Rabbi.
5. "Oh Rabbi! There was no bacon tree, just hundreds of Indians, who killed everyone but me." The old Jewish man holds up his hand and says, "Oy..... vait a minute." He then got out an English-Yiddish dictionary, and looked through it.
6. "O, I made ah big mishtake! It vuzn't a bacon tree. It vuz a ham bush."
B. TEXT
1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus 2 and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why [do] your disciples...eat their food with defiled hands?” 6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” 14...Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” 19 (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) 21 “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mk. 7:1-2,5-8,14-15,19-23.
C. THESIS
1. Jesus regularly received criticism from the religious authorities who were seeking to discredit Him before the common people, so that they might maintain their own following and prestige.
2. The Lord countered these attacks by pointing out how they were “straining at a gnat, but swallowing a camel;” that is, picking on insignificant things He or His followers were doing while they were encouraging large areas of moral failure with their teachings.
3. In Matt. 23 Jesus condemned them for:
a. not practicing what they preached (23:3);
b. loading people down with excessive regulations (23:4);
c. of pride, loving positions of honor & titles (23:6-7);
d. of discouraging people from seeking God (23:13);
e. treating dedicated wealth as more important than spiritual sacrifices (23:16);
f. and for emphasizing tithing yet neglecting simple justice, mercy, & faithfulness (23:23).
4. So today we’re going to look at how the Pharisees got it wrong – how they totally missed the true message God was conveying about being clean and unclean.
5. The title of this message is “Jesus & the Traditions of the Elders.”
I. EPICENTER OF THE CONFLICT
A. DIFFERENT TYPES OF UNCLEANNESS
1. The Pharisees were far more worked up about sanitation than about the moral state of their hearts. The Jewish Law was all about what you physically did; most of its laws were like the health and civil laws of our country.
2. DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF “UNCLEAN:”
a. Sometimes it meant “contaminated by germs.” If people were contaminated (by body fluids, sickness, touching something dead, etc.) they had to isolate themselves and couldn’t go into public places or come to the Temple to worship God.
b. “Unclean” also referred to animals that were off-limits for eating because they had unhealthy characteristics or they represented spiritual defilement.
c. It could refer to spiritual contamination, from which all persons needed to be purified. Holiness is separation from all that is sinful, impure, or morally imperfect. There are holy persons, places, and things – that have been purified. To this end God gave the sacrifices and the different methods of purification (Lev. 12-15; Deut. 23:1-14).
3. The Jews seemed to have lumped all of these clean and unclean categories together so that being unwashed was equally unclean as spiritual contamination.
B. IS TRADITION EQUAL TO SCRIPTURE?
1. Another reason for this conflict was that they elevated the traditions handed down by the experts of the Law – in this case, about ceremonial washings – above even the written law itself.
2. God had told the Israelites, “You must act according to the decisions they give you....Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do” Deut. 17:10. This became the lever of power to the leaders; they had this command for all to obey their teaching, which thus became equivalent to Scripture.
3. But ARE THE JUDGMENTS OF CHURCH OFFICIALS EQUAL TO SCRIPTURE? The churches that operate under this assumption usually deviate from Scripture.
4. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...” 2 Tim.3:16. The Greek text makes it clearer; “Every writing God inspired is also profitable...” The WRITTEN WORD IS INSPIRED by God, but not necessarily the words of men apart from Scripture.
5. In 1 Cor.4:6 we are specifically told “not to go beyond what is written.” If a doctrine or teaching is not already in the accepted Canon of Scripture, it has no divine authority, and is to be rejected.
6. The Bible says, “If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book” Rev. 22:18, NLT. That’s pretty plain.
7. Paul said, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached [PAST TENSE] to you, let them be under God’s curse!” Gal. 1:8, NIV.
8. If it wasn’t part of the Gospel Paul preached, it’s not legitimate and should be rejected. Adding to the words of God is the highest form of treason.
II. THEY LIMITED THE MORAL SCOPE OF THE LAW
A. JESUS EXPOSED THE CAUSE OF THE O.T. LAW
1. The O.T. Law taught salvation by outward works, “The person who obeys them will live by them” Ezek. 20:21. But outward conformity was never God’s goal. As David said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” Ps. 51:17.
2. The Lord Jesus, rather than doing away with any of the moral law of the O.T., exposed the root spiritual contamination that caused the wrong actions, and pointed out that motives had to be right in order for the right actions to have value with God!
3. The commandment on murder included the root of anger (Mt. 5:22); adultery included the root of looking lustfully on a woman (5:28); the right to divorce was narrowed to marital unfaithfulness (5:32); oaths were completely ruled out as unnecessary to a truth-speaking person (5:33-37); the right to hate an enemy was reversed, and we’re told to love our enemies, as God does (5:43); giving to the needy must be done with the right motive (6:1-4); prayer and fasting had to be done humbly and unselfishly (6:5-18), etc.
4. So the Lord Jesus wasn’t destroying the O.T. Law, but amplifying it; He brought out the “spirit” of the Law, He didn’t just focus on the stringent details of the Law.
B. THE REAL LESSON OF CEREMONIAL WASHINGS
1. Of course, God is interested in our cleanliness and wants to protect us from germs and diseases that can’t be seen and may result in the death of our physical bodies.
2. However, I believe that God’s instructions on physical washings were symbolic of the spiritual washing that we need to save the life of our spirits.
3. Jesus repeatedly made the observation that the Pharisees were clean on the outside (due to ceremonial washings), but inside they were morally corrupt. They should attend to the inside instead of emphasizing the outside.
4. “You clean the OUTSIDE of the cup and dish, but INSIDE they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the INSIDE of the cup and dish, and then the OUTSIDE also will be clean...You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the OUTSIDE but on the INSIDE are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean” Matt. 23:25-27.
5. So the spiritual meaning of the washings is to cleanse our hearts, not just our hands!
III. THE UNCLEANNESS OF THE HEART
A. WHAT WE NEED GOD TO DO
1. The Bible says the human heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer. 17:9. A fallen, corrupted heart cannot be changed by any power of this world. Jeremiah 13:23 says, “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” See also Matthew 12:34-35.
2. But, thank God, GOD can change our hearts! God says, “I will give you a NEW HEART and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” Ezek. 36:26.
3. HOW IS OUR HEART CHANGED? By repentance – sorrow for, turning from – sin. The Kekchi Indians of Guatemala describe repentance as “it pains my heart.” The Baouli people of West Africa are more precise. They describe repentance as “it hurts so much I want to quit it.”
4. You may say, “I want to quit, but I can’t repent. My heart is so bad, so hard, so cold – that I can’t change.” Jesus Christ is the Great Changer! “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31.
5. I have one question: “Do you believe Jesus Christ is ABLE to save you?” If you do, then trust Him to save you now, and if you do trust Him, you are saved and your heart renewed! Ezek. 36:26 is your promise from God – receive it!
6. Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.” 1 Tim. 1:15. If God can save Paul, He can save you!
B. OUR PART IN THE BATTLE
1. Even after we experience new life through faith in Jesus, many of us discover that our thought-life is still in the same old rut of sinful thinking. That’s why Paul tells us not to be "conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." Romans 12:2.
2. The mind is like a sponge. Whatever the sponge absorbs will come out when it’s squeezed. Garbage in, garbage out! Truth in, truth out! So our obligation is to turn off the non-Christian music, movies, etc., and to read the Word of God, to pray & worship, to be an active part of a fellowship of believers -- which will combine to transform our minds and hearts.
3. We need to think like God thinks so we’ll start doing what’s pleasing to God. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord, Isa. 55:8. “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” 2 Cor. 10:5. Paul tells us we CAN have the “mind of Christ!” (1 Cor. 2:16).
4. James tells us to “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” James 4:7. Then we need to “put on” Christ, Romans 13:14.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: HIS DAUGHTER’S HEART
1. One time on the Oprah Winfrey show, one of her guests was a father who was saved by using his daughter’s heart in a heart transplant surgery.
2. The daughter died in a car accident, and the father had a failing heart. The doctor suggested that the dead daughter’s heart be used for the heart transplant the father needed. The father, very unsure at the beginning, finally agreed.
3. He appeared on the show, filled with gratitude for the ability to exercise his new heart.
4. We’re in a similar place. We have a new heart! God has put the heart of His Son in us! If we let it supply its life to us, it will restore the life of our dead spirits.
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you need to cleanse the inside of your spiritual cup? How many others have battled with feelings that you are superior to others?
2. Let’s go to God and pray. “Dear Lord, I ask for Your cleansing from my sin and from any areas of pride in my life. I ask you to wash away my sins with Your precious blood. Please give me a NEW HEART! I receive Your heart in transplant for my own old sinful heart. Give me the mind of Christ and help me to build myself up through your Word. I love You Jesus! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
