09-09-18, Sunday Evening Service (Dig Deeper), Mark 7:1-23

09-09-18

Sunday Evening Service (Dig Deeper)

Mark 7:1-23

A dispute about Ritual Washings!

Mark 7:1-5 Religious Leaders from Jerusalem come to find fault and to ask questions about the failure of the disciples to observe ceremonial washings.

(Read Mark 7:1-5)

One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem. –

Who are the Pharisees and teachers of religious law?

1)    They are very serious and very sincere about following God.

2)    Very Committed Jews!

a.    They wanted to make sure they understood what God meant by His Law because they did not want to go against it.

b.    When Jesus said, Don’t work on the Sabbath, they asked the questions like ‘what is work?’

3)    They developed during the Inter-Biblical Period.

4)    Strict followers of the ORAL Traditions of the Jews – “Talmud”

5)    Most scribes in Jesus’ Day were Pharisees.

6)    Pharisees means “The Separated Ones”

7)    Their down fall was that through their understand of What God Did Not Want Them To Do, They turned their and other’s lives into rules of what not to do. And if under some circumstances it would be right to do this but under different circumstances there wouldn’t be any harm in it, rather than to take a chance at it, a Rule was formed.

8)    They lived within RULES of WHAT NOT TO DO rather than in Relationships of Love.

9)    In our world today, The Sadducees pretty much were destroyed within the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD by Titus.

The Pharisees lived on and they are responsible of starting the Rebenticle Judaism that there is today. 

What would the Leaders of the Law be:

They are the lawyers of the day, they were the ones you would go to with a question of what is right here with this problem, they were the lawyers of our today.

There are many things but what was one large thing that separated the Pharisees from the Sadducees?

It was their understanding of the function of the Torah in Jewish society. In contrast, the Pharisees believed that God did not just provide the Jews with the Written Law, but also the Oral Law.

The Sadducees believed in on the Torah which contains the first 5 Books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The Pharisees believed in the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament (Which is Good) BUT They also believed in Oral Traditions that were passed down from person to person over the years.

They honored the WRITTEN LAW but there was also the ORAL LAW which was actually written down, but it was man’s tradition and interpretation of and on top of the WRITTEN LAW which is God’s Word.

The even Bigger problem of that day was the they honored the ORAL LAW more so than the WRITTEN LAW.

Here is one way of maybe understanding the ORAL Law a little better:

“There had grown up a great body of traditions; tradition which in the first place were intended to be interpretations of the Law, and application of the Law to local circumstances; Traditions which in the second place became interpretations of the traditions, and applications of traditions; and the traditions in the third place, which were interpretations of interpretations of traditions!

OK Then – Now Back to the Word…

Having come from Jerusalem. – This was another Official Delegation of Religious Leaders from Jerusalem, coming to evaluate the ministry of Jesus. They wanted to see where Jesus drew His understanding of the Law from, His Doctrine. We saw a previous delegation in Mark 3:22, and they pronounced a harsh condemnation against Jesus. This present delegation from Jerusalem had already made up their minds about Jesus and they were looking for something that they could confirm their opinion upon.

Was it a Good thing for Jesus to be evaluated?

The concept of evaluating Jesus’ ministry is really a Great thing.

In outward appearance, these men protected Israel from a potential false prophet or false messiah.

But the way they actually evaluated Jesus was all wrong.

What was wrong by how they evaluated Jesus?

First, they already made up their mind about Jesus.

Second, they did not evaluate Jesus against the measure of God’s Word. They evaluated Him against the measure of their religious traditions.

But eat bread with unwashed hands:  The religious leaders meant elaborate ceremonial washings, not washing for the sake of cleanliness. The observant Jews of that time strictly observed a rigid and extensive ritual for washing before meals.

The hand washing described here was purely ceremonial. It wasn’t enough to properly clean your hands if they were very dirty. You would have to first wash your hands to make them clean, and then perform the ritual to make them Spiritually Clean. They even had an accompanying prayer to be said during the ritual washing: “Blessed be Thou, O Lord, King of the universe, who sanctified us by the laws and commanded us to wash the hands.”

The biblical mandate that the priests had to wash their hands and feet prior to entering the Tabernacle (Exodus 30:19, 40:12) provided the foundation for the wide-spread practice of ritual washings in Palestinian and diaspora Judaism.

However for us to understand how BIG of a Deal this was, they took away a Rabbi’s credentials for the mere reason of not washing his hands correctly!

Demonstration of How they “Washed” within this Ceremony.

For these ceremonial washings, special stone vessels of water were kept because ordinary water might be unclean.

To wash your hands in a special way, you started by taking at least enough water to fill 1 ½ eggs shells. Then you poured the water over your hands, starting at the fingers and running down towards your wrist. Then you cleansed each palm by rubbing the fist of the other hand into it. Then you poured water over your hands again, this time from the elbow towards the fingers.

And here is their reasoning behind the Ceremonial Cleansing.

·         Question: Doesn’t God want us to Honor Him in Everything we do?

·         Question: Didn’t God command the priests to wash their hands before serving Him?

·         Question: Shouldn’t every faithful follower of God have the same devotion as a priest?

·         Question: Isn’t every meal sacred to God?

·         Question: Shouldn’t we take every opportunity to make ourselves pure before the Lord?

·         Question: Doesn’t God Say “Who may ascent into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His Holy Place? He who has clean hands and pure heart. Psalm 24:2-3

When the questions are put in this way, it is easy to understand why and where they had come from.

And it is so easy to slip right into following their logic and support their traditions.

But If in the end, you have:

·         A word of man

·         A tradition of man

·         A ritual of man

·         That has the same weight as the Word of God

·         Then you are wrong.

·         Your “spiritual logic” doesn’t matter.

·         You have become wrong.

Read Mark 7:6-9

So Again - WHY,

When we look at the question of the Pharisees: Why do Your Disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?

Why did Jesus respond with His First Two Words Being, “YOU HYPOCRITES!”

1^st we need to understand how this was asked to understand Jesus’ response better.

The words “ASKED HIM” that’s improper Greek meaning they asked Him over and over again.

Have you ever noticed a disrespectful child who wants some candy at the grocery store while the mother is busy putting the important items on the belt for the clerk to ring up.

Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy I want some. Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy…

The Pharisees where pestering Jesus,

Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi, Why don’t your disciples follow “OUR AGE-OLD TRADITION?

The word “Practice” or “Walk” means ‘lifestyle’ or ‘have the lifestyle of’

Why do Your Disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders?

“YOU HYPOCRITES!” = What does Hypocrites mean?

The word ‘Hypocrites’ come from two Greek Words: ‘Under’ and ‘To Judge’.

That is to Judge under a false mask.

To Judge under false Pretense.

To Judge under a false set of values.

An Actor

Someone who wears a mask

These washings were commanded by tradition, not by Scripture. The religious leaders knew this, yet they still criticized the disciples for not obeying these traditions.

So why did Jesus get so, so upset by this?

·         Jesus spoke so strongly because these leaders were far too concerned with trivial matters like ritual washing.

·         When they focused on these trivial traditions, they excluded everyone who didn’t keep the traditions.

·         And by doing this, they discouraged them from coming to God.

So is it true and if so How can we have the image of being religious or spiritual but in all reality, be far from God?

And if this is not true, why not?

·         They attend church, but their heart is far from Me.

·         They read their Bible, but their heart is far from Me.

·         They pray eloquently, but their heart is far from Me.

·         They contribute money, but their heart if far from Me.

·         They do ministry, but their heart if far from Me.

·         They love to sing, but their heart is far from Me.

·         They talk to others about Jesus, but their heart is far from Me.

“For they teach man-made ideas as commands from God”

This is one of the pillars of Legalism.

Taking a commandment or opinion of men and teachings or promoting it as a doctrine from God is what supports legalism.

It gives man’s word the same weight as God’s Word.

“You reject the commandment of God” or “For you ignore God’s Law”

This is another pillar of Legalism.

I would be bad enough to disturb the commandments of men to the Word of God.

But almost without fail, the Legalist or Religious Hypocrite goes the extra step, they reject the Commandment of God and this is so they can keep their traditions.

In doing this, they subtract the real essence and focus of God’s Word.

And Jesus provides us an example of this very thing.

Please read Mark 7:10-13

For Moses Said: In the Old Testament, it clearly lays out that responsibility of children to honor their parents. When children are young and in their parent’s household, the parents are responsible to the children but the children are also to obey their parents.

But even when the children are no longer responsible to obey, they are still responsible to honor their parents.

(7:11) “Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you”

In Greek it would read: “What I would have given to you is Corban” (that is, a gift)

In this practice, a son could say that his possessions or savings were vowed to God; and therefore unavailable to help his parents.

(7:12-13) “In this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.”

Or instead of “cancel the word of God” it is also written as “Making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition.”

Through this, a son could completely disobey the command to “Honor your father and mother” and do it while being Ultra-Religious. Jesus called this “making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition.”

Please read Mark 7:14-16

Jesus is speaking to the crowd, to us about the mere image of religion.

There is nothing that enters a man from the outside which can defile him.  This is not to say that there are not defiling things that we can take into ourselves (such as pornography). But in this specific context, Jesus spoke about ceremonial cleanliness in regard to food, and He anticipated the time when under the New Covenant all foods would be declared good to eat or ‘kosher’.

Please read Acts 10:15

(7:15) “The things which come out of him, those are things that defile a man.” Or “It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”

The fundamental principle is simple. Eating with unclean hands or any other such thing that we put into us is not defiling. Rather, what comes out of us defiles and reveals that we have unclean or defiled hearts.

Please read Mark 7:17-23

“Are you thus without understanding also?” Or “Don’t you understand either?”

In response to the parable, Jesus amplified the point made to the crowd. We are defiled from the INSIDE OUT rather than from the OUTSIDE IN, and this is particularly True of ceremonial things like food.

(7:21a) “For from without, out of the heart of men, proceed evil” or “For from within, out of a person’s heart, comes evil”

God is far more concerned with what comes OUT of us than what goes INTO us. This is especially true when it comes to foods and traditions and rituals.

(7:21b-23) “Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications” or in complete, “Evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.”

This is a 13-part list that exposes the kind of evil that can live in a human heart. You don’t need to travel a long distance to find the sources of these sins. You don’t even need to conduct an exhaustive search ether. All of these are found within the cell phones which we carry with us everywhere we go. And, all you need to do is look at your own heart.

The source from which these rivers of pollution proceed is the natural heart of man.

Sin is not a splash of mud upon a man’s exterior, it is the filth that is generated within himself.

Evil Thoughts: Every outward act of sin is preceded by an inward act of choice. Therefore, Jesus begins with the evil at its deepest root from which the evil action comes from and helps us remove it from the deep upward until it has been totally removed.

Blasphemy: This comes in two forms.

1)    When this becomes the words used against man, it means slander.

2)    When it is the words used against God, it means blasphemy.

3)    The definition of the word Blasphemy means words used against man or against God.