What Defiles Us?
Notes
Transcript
Good morning! Glad each of one of you are here with us this morning. Make sure if today is your first time with us or if you haven't done so yet you fill out a connect card or scan the QR code on the back of the chair in front of you so we can stay connected with you.
Announcements:
Announcements:
Why Mark?
Mark is the shortest and sharpest of the stories about Jesus. Many people think Mark’s gospel was the first to be written, and certainly it has all the punch of a quick story that’s meant to grab you by the collar and make you face the truth about Jesus, about God, and about yourself.
Something interesting about Mark. None of the other gospels present the disciples in such a pervasive negative manner.
Rather than saying they have “little faith” (Matt. 8:26), Mark’s words accused them of having “no faith” (Mark 4:40). In another parallel account, Luke presented the disciples in a most favorable light as he removed altogether Jesus’ rebuke of Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mark 8:33). It is true that the disciples initially left everything and followed Jesus. But their motives never seem to have been in sync with the Kingdom principles Jesus repeatedly championed.
The more He healed, the blinder they became to His person. The more He taught, the more deaf they became to the truth. Not even the privileged insight bestowed to them (4:11) seem to have enlightened them. They seem to be the poster children for bad disciples. They are constantly described as fearful , they pursued selfish ambition, and they publicly displayed spiritual failure (9:14–29).
Their climactic act as a group was their corporate flight at the moment of Jesus’ arrest (14:5–52). A summary statement about the disciples could be put this way: They gave all they had and tried to the best of their human ability, but in the end they were sinners at heart in need of transformation (6:52). The answer to this discipleship dilemma is found in the Cross, which will change them from the inside out.
We will be in Mark 7:1-23 today! So lets get some background of whats going on leading up to this.
BUT FIRST LETS PRAY!!
What’s The Situation Section:
What’s The Situation Section:
Jesus has just fed 5000 men closer to 8-10,00 if we count women and children. He walks on water in the middle of the storm and reminds His disciples to “Have courage! and not to be afraid”
There is strong evidence here that Mark is writing for Gentile readers since he pauses to explain what most Jews already know (7:3–4, 11). One senses that the case against Jesus from the Jewish leadership is now being prepared in detail
The scripture we are gonna be in today deals a lot with the Tradition of the elders.The covenant between Israel and the Lord was the reality that defined the nation of Israel.
Which is why they viewed, obedience to the stipulations of this covenant was essential to the nation’s relationship with their Lord.
In order to prevent disobedience to the covenant, the religious leaders of Israel formulated a “buffer” of instructions to ensure covenantal faithfulness. If the “Tradition of the Elders” or “Oral Tradition” was obeyed, then the people would not break the covenant.
Have you ever told a joke and seen a row of blank stares? They didn’t get it? What can you do? Explain it? Surely that’ll take all the fun out of it
Jesus in this passage once again uses a parable (we talked about parables a couple of weeks ago)...... A parable isn’t a joke. This one in particular was no laughing matter. Jesus has grasped something, a deep truth about the way humans are, which means that as part of his kingdom-message he must take a different line. A radically different line. It’s not going to go down well
That’s why Jesus had to use parables, not only here but on many other occasions. It was the only way he could say some of the most devastating things he wanted to say. If you’re trying to tell your own world that it’s going the wrong way, that its heroes fought for the wrong cause and its martyrs died in the wrong ditch, you’ll be careful how you do it. It’s got to be cryptic. The Pharisees needed to be answered (clearly the dispute was not private; Jesus had to make some kind of statement), but Jesus was not about to hand them an obvious propaganda victory.
Read Mark 7:1-23
The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him. They observed that some of his disciples were eating bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, keeping the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ceremonially unclean hands?”
He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.
They worship me in vain,
teaching as doctrines human commands.
Abandoning the command of God, you hold on to human tradition.” He also said to them, “You have a fine way of invalidating God’s command in order to set up your tradition! For Moses said: Honor your father and your mother; and Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or mother: Whatever benefit you might have received from me is corban’ ” (that is, an offering devoted to God), “you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. You nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many other similar things.”
Summoning the crowd again, he told them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
When he went into the house away from the crowd, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean). And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
Tradition....The Heart and Mind Section:
Tradition....The Heart and Mind Section:
Disregarding the purity laws was a serious matter for tradition-minded Jews, for it disqualified one from worship and stained the inner conscience, hindering one’s relationship to God.
The debate between Jesus and the Pharisees, was between two different ways of understanding what it meant to be a good Jew in the first century. This wasn’t just about doctrine or (what we would call) ‘ethics’, but about political agendas as well. Of course there are parallels and overlaps between our meanings and Jesus’, but it’s important to go back to the first century at this point and not get stuck in the sixteenth, or in times even closer to our own.
The charge Jesus levels against the Pharisees and legal experts is that, by teaching as fundamental law what is in fact only human custom rather than divine revelation, they are guilty of hypocrisy, play-acting.
They are claiming to be teachers of God’s truth and law, but in fact they are only teaching human traditions.
Jesus was not advocating the rejection of all traditions; He was thoroughly Jewish, steeped in the traditions of His ancestors. However, Jesus’ argument was that traditions themselves may become corrupt when they run counter to the will and the purposes of God.
Isaiah 29:13 says, "The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.'"
This verse highlights a common issue that God's people have faced throughout history: they have a tendency to go through the motions of worship without truly engaging their hearts and minds in it. It's easy to recite prayers, sing songs, and participate in religious rituals without really thinking about what we're doing or why we're doing it. When we do this, our worship becomes superficial and meaningless.
God is not interested in superficial worship. He wants us to truly connect with Him, to love Him with all our hearts, souls, and minds. He wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. When we come before God, we must do so with sincerity and authenticity.
Isaiah 29:13 also speaks to the danger of putting our faith in human traditions rather than in God. It's easy to get caught up in the rules and rituals of religion without really understanding the heart of God. We must always remember that God is the ultimate authority, and His Word is the final say on all matters.
So let us take this to heart and make sure that our worship is genuine and heartfelt. Let us seek to connect with God on a deep level, to love Him with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and to put our faith in Him alone.
May we always remember that true worship is not about following human rules or traditions, but about loving and honoring God with our whole being.
Defilement Comes from Within Section :
Defilement Comes from Within Section :
I want to speak to you about defilement from within which is also the name of this sermon.
Read Mark 7:18-23
He said to them, “Are you also as lacking in understanding? Don’t you realize that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile him? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach and is eliminated” (thus he declared all foods clean). And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, self-indulgence, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”
Jesus said, "It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person." Jesus was not just talking about food, but also about the things that we allow to enter our minds and hearts. We can defile ourselves by what we think, say, and do.
We live in a world that bombards us with messages and images that can corrupt our minds and hearts. The media we consume, the music we listen to, and the people we surround ourselves with can all influence us in negative ways. We need to be vigilant and discerning about what we allow into our lives.
At this point a lot of contemporary readers get thrown off the scent. Popular religion and philosophy, from at least the time of Plato, have often suggested that the physical world is bad and the spiritual world is good. We expect Jesus to say that sort of thing. So when he says that food doesn’t matter and the heart does, what we are ready to hear is ‘externals—physical things—don’t matter; what matters are the internal, spiritual things’. And so, since what he says looks like that at first glance, we assume he’s said what we expected him to say. And since we can fit that view into several other things most people today believe, the passage doesn’t disturb us.
But we would be wrong. The passage should disturb us. Jesus is precisely not saying that external and physical things are irrelevant or bad and internal or spiritual things are good. He is not saying that if we get in touch with our deepest feelings, or learn to listen to what our heart is truly telling us, we will find our real identity and thereby discover happiness, fulfilment, or whatever.
He is insisting that good and bad external and physical actions come from internal and spiritual sources, and that therefore the poisoned wells of human motivation are the real problem to which the purity laws are pointing. We cannot isolate one part of our human make-up and blame it for evil. We can’t suggest that ‘getting in touch with our truest feelings’ will sort us out. What if the feelings that most truly express who we currently are turn out to be murderous, adulterous, envious, and the rest? The fact that they are there, in our hearts, does not mean they are thereby validated.
On the contrary, it means we have a problem, a problem that runs right through us. There is a crack in the building which isn’t just a bit of damaged stonework on the exterior; the whole structure is faulty. Keeping physical purity laws can be a way of papering over the crack; so can ‘getting in touch with your feelings’. If there is evil, it infects the whole. That’s what purity and impurity are really all about.
But it's not just external factors that can defile us. Our own thoughts and desires can also lead us down a path of corruption which comes directly from our corrupt hearts!. As James 1:14-15 says, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."
In Mark 7:20-23, Jesus lists some of the sins that come from within: "evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness." These sins can destroy our relationships, our reputations, and our souls.
In this passage, Jesus is teaching his disciples and the crowds around him that it's not what we eat or how we wash our hands that defiles us, but what comes out of our hearts. He lists a number of sins that come from within us and emphasizes that these sins are what defile us.
What Jesus is saying is that sin is not just about external actions, but also about the condition of our hearts. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that as long as we don't commit certain sins, we're doing okay. But Jesus is saying that sin starts in our hearts and minds, and it's only a matter of time before it manifests itself in our actions.
So what does this mean for us today? It means that we need to pay attention to our hearts and minds, and not just our external actions. We need to be vigilant about the thoughts and attitudes we allow to take root in our hearts, and we need to be intentional about cultivating a heart that is pleasing to God.
We need to ask ourselves some tough questions: What thoughts and attitudes do I harbor in my heart? Do I struggle with envy, greed, or arrogance? Am I quick to speak ill of others or hold grudges? Do I allow sexual immorality or impure thoughts to take root in my mind?
If we find that we are struggling with any of these sins, we need to turn to God in repentance and seek His help in overcoming them. We need to ask Him to cleanse our hearts and minds and fill us with His Holy Spirit so that we can be transformed from the inside out.
Let us not fall into the trap of thinking that external actions are all that matters. Let us pay attention to the condition of our hearts and minds, and strive to cultivate a heart that is pleasing to God. And let us remember that it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can overcome sin and live a life that is pleasing to God.
We need to be aware of the sin that lurks within us and take action to resist it. We can do this by renewing our minds through prayer, studying the Bible, and surrounding ourselves with fellow believers who can hold us accountable. We can also ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us the strength to resist temptation.
often overlooked in our discussions of sin and wrongdoing: our corrupt hearts. While we may be quick to point fingers at external factors or other people for our moral failings, the truth is that the root of our sin lies within our own hearts.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" This verse reminds us that our hearts are not only prone to deception but that they are also incurably corrupted by sin. Our natural inclination is to rebel against God and to pursue our own selfish desires.
Throughout Scripture, we see examples of people whose corrupt hearts led them astray. King David, a man after God's own heart, fell into adultery and murder because of the lust in his heart. Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus' closest disciples, betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver because of his love of money.
But it is not just the "big" sins that come from our corrupt hearts. Even seemingly small sins like lying, gossiping, or harboring bitterness and resentment can be traced back to a heart that is not fully surrendered to God.
So what can we do about our corrupt hearts? The answer is simple but not easy: we must allow God to transform us from the inside out. This transformation begins with confessing our sins and asking for God's forgiveness. We must also ask God to give us new hearts, hearts that are soft and pliable, willing to be molded by his Word and his Spirit.
The good news is that God is faithful and willing to do this work in us. In Ezekiel 36:26-27, God promises, "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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."
But there is hope. In 1 John 1:9, we are told, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We can turn to God in repentance and ask for His forgiveness and cleansing.
Read 1 John 3:20 “whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things.”
Here John reminds us that God is greater than our feelings of guilt, and He is greater than the mistakes we make when we sin and our sinful hearts.
Today, we often use the word heart to refer to the organ that pumps blood through the body. However, in the Bible the word heart usually refers to someone’s emotions or desires—the center of his will or his true self.
This is true of both God and humanity. For example, God refers to King David as “a man after my own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). In other words, David sought to do all that God had willed. In Mark 7:21–22, Jesus says that out of a person’s heart flow sinful and evil desires.
When John says that that God is greater than our hearts, he’s telling us that God is greater than our desires, emotions, and wills.
First John 3:20 begins with a conditional clause: If our hearts condemn us. This is a reference to the conviction and guilt a believer feels when he or she sins. Such a feeling is actually a sign of a mature and growing faith in a believer—it shows he is aware of his sin and his continued need for God.
But those who are in Christ can be assured of their salvation and the forgiveness they have received from God (Hebrews 10:22). In other words, they can trust that God is greater than the sins that flow out of their hearts.
First John 3:20 ends by reminding us that God “knows everything“—He is omniscient. He knows every action we take and every motive in our hearts. He knows our sin. He also knows what we’re thinking and feeling when we sin. Yet He wants us to know that He’s bigger and greater than all of that, and He wants us to rest in that truth.
So, when we feel convicted for our sins, 1 John 3:20 reminds us that God’s love is greater than that conviction. When a believer sins, he or she should not wallow in guilt or fear before God but rather ask for His forgiveness and rest in the truth that He is faithful to forgive (1 John 1:9). When a believer remembers his or her past sins, however awful they may be, he or she should not despair but trust that God is greater than our past. Hebrews 4:16 gives us this encouragement: “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Questions:
1.Do you think traditions draw you closer to God? Or do you feel like they can make it easier for you to just go through the motions and lead you to not always have a meaningful connection with God?
2.What are some things in your heart that you feel may be corrupting your relationship with Jesus? Are you ready to give it over to Him and allow Him to remove it?
3.How do you navigate through your thoughts and desires when you know they don’t align with God and His ways? Do you notice them on your own? Or does someone have to point it out to you?
4. Are you currently wrestling with anything that you feel you cant take to God because of shame, guilt, self-condemnation? Read 1 John 3:20 and give it over to our all knowing and loving God!