"The Outside Is A Direct Reflection Of The Inside" Series

The Ministry, Message, and Messiah in the Book of Mark Week 17:

"The Outside is a Direct Reflection of the Inside"

(Mark 7:14-23)

Crossroads Community Church

Rev. Ricky A. Rohrig Sr., Founding Pastor

How many of you have been sick? All of us right! Think about how it happens, it is something on the inside that is going on to alert us. Our body is so complex and advanced that we have warning systems. It is in those times that it alerts our mind that hey something is not right here. The inside of our body alerts our external by various forms. That’s how our physical body works; but you know what? That is how our spiritual body operates as well. Would do I mean? Think about what happens when we come to a spiritual crossroads in life? When we visibly face a situation on the “outside” we have the Holy Spirit on the inside of us that gives us warning signs when something is wrong. That’s why Paul tells the Romans in Romans 12:9

9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Dissimulation means sincere without hypocrisy. Abhor means to dislike, to literally detesting that which is evil, sin. Cleave to which is good. Cling to it, hold onto it with all your might, power, and strength. That’s our spiritual warning system! God wants us to refrain from the evil one, who plants seeds of doubt, makes you ponder and tries to justify why doing right is okay, and pushes you in a direction to sin. Through the Holy Spirit we have the awesome ability not only to recognize sin, but to refrain from it, run from it and to Him!

As we continue in our series: The Ministry, Message, and Messiah in the Book of Mark” I am going to teach and minister from this thought today, “The Outside is a Direct Reflection of the Inside!” Turn to your neighbor and say neighbor, The Outside is a Direct Reflection of the Inside, now turn to your other neighbor and say neighbor, The Outside is a Direct Reflection of the Inside. Now let’s say it all together, The Outside is a Direct Reflection of the Inside!

Please open your Bibles, smart phones, or tablets to Mark 7:14-23. Let us stand in reverence for the reading of God’s Holy word.

Mark 7:14-23

14 And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:

15 There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Two weeks ago in our series Jesus was rebuking the scribes and Pharisees for the tradition of men and being ritualistic and religious. They were so concerned about themselves that they took their focus off of God. Does that sound like anyone you know?

1. The Call by Jesus – Mark 7:14-16

Jesus is calling the people’s attention to him because he has something to say. Most likely he is addressing three groups in these passages:

• The Pharisees and scribes

• The people or the crowd

• Eventually the disciples

Jesus is illustrating that the things that defile you, so let’s dig a little deeper on that particular word, because this sets the tone and foundation for things to come:

(7:15) The word “defile” is again koinoo (??????) as in verse 2. The word koinos (??????), the noun form, refers to that which is common to everybody. In later Greek it came to mean what it means here, the profane as contrasted to the hallowed or sacred. “Profane” is used in the sense of secular, non-religious. When our Lord spoke of that which enters a man, He was speaking here of food. That does not make a man ceremonially unclean, even though he eat it with ceremonially unwashed hands. When He spoke of that which comes out of a man which defiles him, He was referring to the extra-biblical teachings of the Pharisees which defiled them in the sense that these teachers were, by their teachings which were in direct opposition to God’s Word, constituted false teachers, thus, not hallowed or set apart for God.