Have You Not Read?

Answers Bible Curriculum Year 3 Quarter 2 Lesson 6

This week in Sunday school, we consider how Jesus dealt with religious leaders using tradition to misinterpret Scripture and excuse sin. What can we learn from Jesus’ example to deal with this issue in our own lives and in the world at large?

Our main texts for Sunday school will be Mark 7:1-23 and Mark 12:18-27.

Auto Transcript

Note: This rough transcript was automatically generated by YouTube’s AI algorithm. We provide it here for your convenience, but know it will surely contain errors as it has not been proofread or edited by a human.

all right well we’ll get started if you’re moving over great so I would love to be able to hear what you’re saying but welcome to Sunday school thank you for being here we are in the transition point in our quarter well the whole quarter is focused on the authority of Jesus we’re looking at the New Testament looking at the Gospels and focusing on the authority of Jesus and we’ve been seeing his authority displayed in his miracles he has power over nature he’s however diseased he has power over death but now we’re gonna in the second half of our quarter we’re going to look at Jesus authority in his teaching we’re gonna focus more on that and therefore this sixth lesson which is a review in some classes but for us we’re going to consider when the the thing that Jesus says have you not read what is that all about well we’ll investigate in just a second but let’s pray before we go on pair with me my lord god I pray that you would cause your word to get into our hearts as it needs to God because what we’re talking about today is very very relevant so I pray that you’d help me to be able to explain it help the people to be able to take it in Holy Spirit please work now among your people Christ build up your church father provide in your perfect way Jesus name Amen so our lesson is titled have you not read well what’s this about well what we’re really talking about today our topic is the twisting of Scripture for the sake of tradition where someone changes or ignores what the Bible says to fit his religious ideas or religious system now when I mention this topic of using tradition to change or to interpret the Word of God what sector of Christianity probably most comes to mind yeah the Roman Catholic Church certainly they’re not the only one but it is Reformation month five year after all when we think tradition we think probably the Catholics and it’s when we consider some of the things that the Catholic Church teaches it’s just so obvious how they depart from scripture for the sake of their tradition they forbid priests from getting married even though the Bible explicitly says that is a useless thing to do people who don’t understand what the gospel really is forbid people from marrying or they worship Mary they pray to the Saints they teach that the sacraments like the Eucharist are necessary for one salvation spiritual hell and worst of all they add works to the gospel it’s faith plus works makes you safe now we might wonder how the Catholic Church gets so obviously contradicts Scripture in their teachings but such is the power of tradition you see when you elevate another authority to the same level or even above the level of the scripture that authority begins to act as a judge on the scripture it becomes the lens through which you actually view Scripture and therefore the contradictions in your traditions in the Bible disappear because you’re no longer viewing the Bible in a fair way you’re viewing them through your traditions and therefore you see no contradiction now are the Catholics and is the Catholic Church the only ones guilty of using tradition to affect the way they interpret the Bible no they’re not the only ones we could think of many different parts of Christianity those who would call themselves Christians and dare I say that even we ourselves might fall into this trap yes even we who would identify as conservative evangelical Protestants we can easily fall into the trap of allowing traditional practices or systems of belief to affect the way that we read that we understand and that we apply the Bible and we can do this without even knowing it so what’s going to protect us from falling into this trap of unbiblical traditions and systems of the thought affecting the way we interpret the Bible well a huge part is going to be going back to what our Savior does let’s look at how Jesus deals with the Bible and with those who twist and misinterpreted because that is something that Jesus encountered many times in his ministry he’s often dealing with religious people and religious teachers who for the sake of unbiblical traditions will change the scriptures twist the scriptures so let’s see how our Lord dealt with such persons and what we can learn from him so please open your Bibles to mark chapter 12 we’re gonna look at two main passages today both from the Gospel of Mark mark chapter 12 is our first place we’re gonna look at verses 18 to 27 so mark chapter 12 verse 18 to 27 that’s page thousand ten in the Pew Bible if you’re using the church’s Bible just to get some context here where are we in Jesus life in ministry Jesus has already entered Jerusalem in his Passion Week the triumphal entry is recorded in mark chapter eleven Jesus comes in he ends up cleansing the temple getting the religious leaders very upset with him they demand to know how he has authority to do that he tells them first tell me where John the Baptist ministry came from was it from heaven or from men they weren’t willing to answer that question so he wasn’t willing to answer theirs but the religious leaders are still upset with Jesus and they come to him different parts of the Jews different groups within Judaism they come to him with different questions in mark chapter 12 now we’re going to see one of those groups coming with a question for Jesus in verses 18 to 27 now pastor Bobby preached this not too long ago so some of this may be fresh in your minds but we’re going to look at it again and we’re going to consider it especially in light of tradition how do we protect our from misusing the Scriptures for the sake of tradition and if we are in that state how do we get out of it so follow along with me as I read starting in verse 18 and mark chapter 12 some Sadducees say that there is no resurrection came to Jesus and began questioning him saying teacher Moses wrote for us that the man’s brother dies and leaves behind a wife and leaves no child his brother should marry the wife and raise up children to his brother there were seven brothers and the first took a wife and died leaving no children the second one married her and died leaving behind no children and the third likewise and so all seven left no children last of all the woman died also in the resurrection when they arise again which one’s wife will she be for all seven had married her jesus said to them is this not the reason you are mistaken that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God for when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven but regarding the fact that the dead rise again have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the burning bush how God spoke to him saying I am the God of Abraham and the god of Isaac and the God of Jacob he is not the god of the dead but of the living you are greatly mistaken okay too long the passage here but we’re gonna apply our inductive Bible study method observe interpret apply and we start with just basic observations the group that approaches you this is the Sadducees I remember who the Sadducees are of the two main groups or of the religious elite Pharisees on one hand Sadducees on the other the Sadducees are the ultra-conservative group to it to a wrong and unbiblical extent remember they accept only the as God’s word that is only the first five books of Moses they rejects there’s other books songs prophets just the Torah therefore they deny most things that don’t occur in the Torah and occur more specifically in other books so they don’t believe in angels and they denied the resurrection and we’re not talking about individual resurrections we’re talking about the coming final resurrection where everyone will be raised they say that’s not in the Torah that’s only in other books like Daniel in the Psalms which aren’t inspired so we don’t believe in it they didn’t believe in a resurrection so if essentially your life consists of only the time you have on earth and then there’s nothing else afterwards nothing you have to look forward to how are you going to live on the world if there’s no resurrection you know what is I think Paul save a New Testament well is the drink be merry this nothing else so we might as well have as good life as best the time as we can right now and that essentially was the attitude of the Sadducees they were very worldly they are very corrupt they loved money they loved power they were essentially looking for their best life now because they didn’t think anything else was coming now unfortunately the Sadducees became the majority of the priesthood and they are also on the Religious Council so in one sense the highest official religious authorities in the land were a bunch of people who believe that there is nothing else beyond this life that God would be your God only for a while you were living on the earth and then that was it now the people the Jews they knew that the the priesthood the Sadducees were corrupt but it wasn’t really anything they could do about it they were the ones in power so we have this group of Sadducees and they come to Jesus and they have this question for him they say no this wrote for us remember they love Moses he’s the only guy they recognized Moses wrote for us this law of levirate marriage they don’t say that here but that’s what we call this law that they’re bringing up from Deuteronomy 25 verses 5 to 6 law of levirate marriage now don’t be confused by that term levirate marriage it doesn’t have to do with the tribe of Levi or Levites and actually Leverett comes from a Latin word meaning brother-in-law this law relates to brothers-in-law and you hear it briefly described in the text but that is when a man marries a woman but doesn’t have any children with her in the Old Testament law for Israel if that man had an unmarried brother that brother had a duty to marry the widow and produce a child with her for the sake of his brother and that child would actually be considered as being the son of the deceased brother so that his name would carry on in Israel they had this law the law of levirate marriage and then with this law that Sadducees lay out a situation for Jesus you got these seven brothers they all marry this one woman one at a time but none of them have any children with her each brother in law keeps doing his duty marrying the widow but the brothers all die none of them have any children and then the woman dies also now with this information there’s nothing super significant to distinguish the brothers in their relationship to this woman other than maybe the order that they married her none have children there’s no indication that one brother loves this woman more than the other so they put to Jesus when the resurrection this suppose that resurrection comes whose wife will she be now most answers to this question most simple answers appear unacceptable could you say one brother over the other whoa what really distinguishes them why if as you say to first why not the second or why not the last but if you say well maybe she’s married to all of them know that that’s just totally weird in the Old Testament you did have men with multiple wives but you never had a woman with multiple they would have felt like that was just totally crazy so if you can’t find a good answer to this theoretical question what conclusion at least the Sadducees would hope then you would have to come to okay so specifically for Jesus you’re right if you can’t come up with an answer this question he’s gonna be discredited what kind of authority does he have especially as a messenger or a teacher from God if you can’t shed accurate and sufficient light on this question but if nobody is able to come up with an answer this question what does that mean about the resurrection that’s right that’s what the Sadducees are hoping to show you can’t answer this question obviously there’s a logical problem with a resurrection it must not actually be something that will occur course this frustrated the Pharisees and the others in Jewish society who believed in the resurrection and they couldn’t come up with an answer so they put this question to Jesus they think they’ve got him but in his response he gives first a two-fold indictment this the reason that you’re not mistaken that you on the one hand don’t understand the Scriptures yes to the priest yes to the religious leaders you make up part of the Sanhedrin but you don’t understand the Scriptures and you don’t understand the power of God and then he explains a very simple answer to the situation he says look in the resurrection nobody’s married to anybody they’re like the angels in heaven so you answer that question pretty simply but then he goes further he says but in regard to the resurrection of the Dead have you not read and he points them to Exodus chapter 3 verse 6 now again here already told him they don’t understand the scriptures but now he’s asked them have you even read and this book Exodus that’s part of the thing that’s part of the Torah that’s what you say is the word of God and that’s what you say oh that’s what we’re totally devoted to says have you not even read it in the book or the law of Moses in the passage about the burning bush they should have known about this by the way why doesn’t he just quote chapter and verse number to them yeah at that time there were no chapters and verses the breakdown of verses in the Hebrew didn’t take place until the Middle Ages and verse numbers and chapter numbers those were not put together till later in the Middle Ages both of those things coming together around the 1500s so remember verse numbers and chapter numbers are not inspired they didn’t come originally with these documents but they were put there later to be helpful for those who were studying the texts so Jesus refers to the passage rather than a chapter in verse number II says remember the passage about the burning bush and then he quotes it for them what’s so significant about the verse the part of the verse that he quotes for them what one word am I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob what’s so significant about that now that present tense right one word and one aspect of that verb because for God to say it in the present tense what does that mean about Abraham Isaac and Jacob in some I think I heard it in some way they’re still alive because if they died and there’s no resurrection and there’s no going on after that God would have to say I was the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob but that’s not what God says God says I am I’m still their God because they still live and Jesus strives at home or drives that point home with his last word stem he says God is not a god of the dead he’s not using the past tense God is the god of the living therefore you Sadducees are greatly mistaken all right so we’ve made our observations on the passage oh I forgot to actually click this slide showing those observations there they are but now let’s good a step to talk about interpretation now this may been something we was obvious from the start but why did the Sadducees bring this question to Jesus was it because they really wanted to know the answer now this is about discrediting Jesus exalting their own authority making Jesus look foolish discrediting his claims to be Messiah and Son of God show that he’s not the authority on God or God’s work of course when the results of this exchange that Jesus are actually that’s my next question based on what happens here what does well something about himself but before we even get to that what does Jesus demonstrate about the Scriptures here what does Jesus show about the word the Word of God the Scriptures based on his exchange with the Sadducees he shows that it is true and reliable and we can even say it is the authority you want to know about the resurrection you want to have an answer about the resurrection you got to go to the scriptures and that’s what Jesus does but more than that it’s not simply that you should listen to the scriptures or the answers in the scriptures but every part of the Scriptures is significant you can draw a conclusion about the resurrection based off of one word and the verb tense of that verb in one verse every word of God is significant and inspired you know there’s a view when it comes to the Bible that says a view on inerrancy that is the perfect and having no errors in the Bible that says the meaning of the Bible is inspired and inerrant but not necessarily every word now that doesn’t even make a logical sense the meaning comes from the word but it’s a it’s an effort to qualify and not go all the way when you say that the Bible is inerrant but that doesn’t square with Jesus own treatment of the Bible if he’s able to draw out the verb tense of one word as an answer to whether the resurrection is true or not the whole word has to be inspired all of Scripture which is of course what the New Testament says all Scripture is god-breathed it is inspired it is useful for teaching and Jesus says also in another place scripture cannot be broken so Jesus demonstrates that the scriptures are the authority and that every word of it is significant now he’s proving something about the word but he’s also proving something about himself what did Jesus show about himself in this passage if they were trying to discredit him he’s not the authority you can’t trust him as being from God if he is able to answer the question and even show that the other people don’t know what they’re talking about what does he show about himself he shows himself to be the authority he is the word of God he is the perfect interpreter of God’s Word he is able to declare God’s Word accurately and completely as another part of the New Testament column he is the revelation of the father which is important if Jesus is going to demonstrate that he really is Messiah Messiah must not simply demonstrate Authority and power in the natural realm or even the spiritual realm over demons he has to be able to be an authority on God’s Word on truth which is what Jesus demonstrates himself to be you can’t outwit Jesus you can’t trick him or trap him into saying something untrue about God or saying oh I don’t know the answer no he’s the Messiah he understands God and God’s Word he’s able to perfectly declare the revelation of God so Jesus shows himself not only to be the perfect Word of God but also the Son of God and Messiah based on the exchange here and really the each of the exchanges in this passage every time they come out to him they’re trying to trap him trying to make him say something that’s gonna discredit him and they can’t do it because he’s the Messiah no Jesus demonstrates that he is he has divine power in both word and deed he’s the Messiah what must man do in response it’s the same thing we’ve been saying you’ve got to believe in him how many times Jesus has to demonstrate how many time to the Gospel writers have to demonstrate Jesus authority before you recognize he’s the Messiah he’s the Lord he’s the son of God you’ve got to believe in him you’ve got to submit to him now normally I save application to the very end of our but we’re gonna do application for each one of the passage as we look at it today how can we apply these words from mark chapter 12 a couple things I want to point out to you first of all once again we’ve got to believe in the Messiah so what the Gospel writers are trying to get us to understand do you believe in the Messiah do you believe in him as word of God son of God do you submit to him and do you follow him that’s ultimate application but we can also see there’s some application about the Scriptures and really our attitude towards the scriptures if the Scriptures are the Word of God if they are the authority on life and truth and we ought to seek it as the authority right we have to submit ourselves to what it says we must bring other truth claims and other assertions from teachers or different authorities in the world and we must submit them to the scriptures and along with this means it means that we ought to read the Bible and brothers and sisters it always grieves me when I hear that our brother or sister is not reading the Bible consistently or even at all why would we do this doesn’t the scriptures say man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God doesn’t the New Testament say you are to desire the word like a newborn babe desires milk if the authoritative word declares those things why don’t you read the Bible why don’t you read it consistently I know life is busy and we have different obligations and things come up but if this is the authoritative Word and if we have those verses that declare our need for it aren’t we gonna make time for it aren’t we gonna make the Scriptures our priority and if you say well it’s hard and I’m not getting anything out of it we’ll get some help ask some people who understand your pastors your elders our other mature people in the church ask them how they can help you read the scriptures I’ll give you some principles so that you get more out of it when you do read it this is the Word of God it’s the authority it’s the it’s the land for our feet we’ve got to be reading it and from our passage we can see that when we read it we ought to pay attention to the details of the word we want to give it close reading our close reading is the term that’s often used in literature when it comes to looking a piece of English literature or something like that what close reading it is is that beyond really looking at the content of a text the information that’s contained inside you also pay attention to how that text is delivered the form and you also pay attention to the different details in the text and how they all relate to the main message it’s a little bit of what Jesus just did in this passage and that’s what hopefully what you’re hearing from the pulpit each Sunday as pastor preaches or someone else preaches they’re showing you how the form and the details of a passage all correspond to delivering a main message you wouldn’t be paying attention to those things to you as you read the Bible that’s what Bible study really is now I’m not saying that every time you open the Bible you need to do a word study and go to the Hebrew and consult commentaries and all those types of things know there is a place for lighter more devotional reading that doesn’t get as deep into all those details but even in devotional reading think about the form of the text and why the different details appear as they do because that will help you resolve questions that come up in the text especially those most important questions why did the author write this and what is his main message so we want to seek the text seek the scriptures of authority we want to read it we want to read it closely and we want to be aware of coming to the text with preconceived notions because that’s what the Sadducees did write they never considered the significance of this phrase from Moses because they had already resolved in their minds there’s no such thing as the resurrection and when you have an assumption or a preconceived notion or system of belief that you want to impose on the text you’ll miss what’s actually there you won’t be able to see what’s there because a tradition is guiding your thinking and this happens very easily it’s like what we were discussing at the beginning of the lesson even well-meaning people do this and for well-meaning systems of thought let me say I’m a good I’m a good follower of reformed theology but if you take your theology and you impose it on different texts you abuse scripture you misuse it you know there’s a phrase that I hear a number of times in seminary the professor’s really want to drive home to us it relates to exegesis versus theology exegesis is just the term the Toxic that means your study of Scripture or your interpretation of Scripture and they say your exegesis should not come from your theology rather your theology should come from your exegesis or to say it another way your understanding of God no let me say the way you read the Bible the way you study the Bible doesn’t come from what you already believe about God or some other system you have about God but what you believe about God in the world and life it must come from your study of scriptures I mean pastors mentioned recently Sola scriptura right that’s what this is if once you read in the word of what the word says contradicts some tradition or some point of Orthodox theology you’ve got to submit yourself to the scripture because that’s the authority now in saying this would you need a guard against two things one on each side one is that we don’t say all right I submit myself only to the word I don’t care what anybody else says and we’ve become our own Pope we basically become a mini cult leaders no that’s not what we’re supposed to do Bible says we need one another where to interpret the Scriptures within a faithful community we can’t just say I’m the only one who understands the scripture no we want to be with other people and consider what they have to say here on the other hand we cannot simply follow what some theologian says even somebody who’s right a lot of the time somebody who’s well celebrated whether he’s alive today or in the past oh what a John Calvin say about this I better believe that what a Martin Luther say about this or what a Spurgeon say about this I better believe that well they did have some helpful things to say you don’t submit to them you submit to the scriptures so you have two Guardians both of those both of those ways of going off track because otherwise we become subject to the same rebuke that Jesus gave to the Sadducees which is have you not read didn’t you know how did you miss this we can’t afford to do that for the sake of the Lord Jesus and his glory but also for the sake of our own joy and walk with Him we’ve got a subject ourselves to the scriptures questions so far yeah Ron hmm I’m not sure what other section might be referring to that he’s the god of the dead hmm that verse isn’t coming to my mind certainly the we know the point of Jesus words here he’s saying that these patriarchs are not dead and gone they continue to live in some way and that way that’s why God is able to use the present tense so Jesus is explaining the significance of that verb I can see perhaps I don’t know exactly how its worded it in another place as you’re saying but I could see someone saying God is the god of the dead meaning in the sense that those who have died he’s still lord over them and if they belong to him they they’re still gonna be taken care of by God and if they don’t belong to him they’re going to be judged by God I think the one verse that does come to mind is that charge that Paul gives to Timothy in 2nd Timothy says he who is going to judge the living and the dead so we do we do have that categorization of those who are physically still alive and those who are physically not but certainly in this passage Jesus point is that these patriarchs are not dead and gone they continue to live before God so there is a resurrection other questions so we see from this first passage how systems of belief for the Sadducees not believing in the resurrection or even the rest of the books of the Bible systems of belief can cause one to ignore truth or miss truth that is in the scriptures you must be careful about that but another great danger is when unbiblical traditions actually justify sinful behavior unbiblical traditions justifying sinful behavior and we’re going to see an instance of that in the next passage turn over to mark chapter 7 mark chapter 7 we’re gonna look at verses 1 to 23 I’m going backwards and Mark that’s okay normally this lesson calls us for go to Matthew 15 Matthew 15 1 to 20 if you’re using the student guide there might be some notes there but I’m gonna use the parallel passage in mark they’re really talking about the same thing which is the certain instance where the Pharisees confront Jesus they both giving an accounts of the same event but Mark’s account is a little bit fuller so I’m gonna go with mark here what’s the context this is late in Jesus ministry not yet in his Passion Week in Jerusalem this is right after he’s fed the 5000 plus by multiplying the bread this is after his discourse during declaring himself the bread of life we talked about that last time mark doesn’t record that discourse but it does record the miracle so we’re still in a part of Jesus ministry where many of Jesus disciples have left him and his increased opposition from the Pharisees the Sadducees the Herodians there’s opposition groups that don’t like Jesus they’re coming after Jesus more and more now we’re gonna see one example of that another example of that in the Pharisees in this passage so read with me mark 7 verses 1 to 23 starting in verse 1 the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around him when they had come from Jerusalem and had seen that some of his disciples were eating their bread with impure and that is unwashed for the Pharisees in all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands thus observing the tradition of the elders and when they come to the marketplace they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves there are many other things which they have received in order to observe such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots the first season the scribes asked him why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat their bread with impure hands and he said to them rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written this people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me far away from me but in vain do they worship Me teaching as doctrines the precepts of men neglecting the commandment of you hold to the tradition of men he was also saying to them you are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition from Moses said honor your father and mother and he who speaks evil a father a mother is to be put to death but you say if a man says to his father and mother whatever I would happen whatever I have that would help you is Corbin that is to say given to God you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother thus invalidating the Word of God by tradition which you have handed down and you do many such are you do many things such as that after he called the crowd to him again he began saying to them listen to me all of you and I understand there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man if anyone has ears to hear let him hear when he had left the crowd and into the house his disciples questioned him about the parable and he said to them are you lacking are you so lacking an understanding also do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him because it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and is eliminated thus he declared all foods clean and he was saying that which proceeds out of the man that is what defiles the man or from within out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts fornications thefts murders adulteries deeds of coveting and wickedness as well as deceit sensuality and the slander pride and foolishness all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man all right we read our passage let’s go back to step 1 now and observe this time it’s the Pharisees and scribes coming to Jesus Pharisees are the other group of religious elite they take the whole Old Testament Scriptures as God’s Word but they also hold to the traditions added to the word the traditions of the elders elders and the rabbis piracies were all about a bang these commands but from the Old Testament and from the traditions but they focus so much on the externality of the commands there’s anything that the Scriptures had to do they would do it but they often neglected the heart which is something that Jesus will constantly point out to them you guys are only good on the outside and they were well respected these Pharisees are well respected among the people they were considered the most pious the most righteous Jesus says you are only good on the outside in the inside you are wicked Jesus did not mince words with their Pharisees and the Pharisees hated Jesus probably the most there would describes what’s a scribe again it also could be called lawyer they were experts in the law they would sometimes copy text but they were experts with text especially the Old Testament text and so they were considered experts in the law if you had a question about the Bible or about what is the appropriate mode of action you could go to a scribe and they would tell you they were like another kind of religious teacher so these two Pharisees and scribes come to Jesus and they complain about his disciples eating with impure hands they say why don’t you wash your hands before you eat now does the Old Testament command that you were supposed to wash your hands before you eat it doesn’t actually command that it does have various provisions regarding clean and unclean even when it comes to food not supposed to eat unclean foods and also you were to be careful that not to touch unclean things like a person who was unclean that would make you unclean but there’s no specific provision in the Old Testament about washing your hands before you eat nevertheless the tradition arose among the Jews and among the religious leaders that one had to wash in a special way whenever he came back from the marketplace marketplace all kinds of people there even if you don’t touch those people you’re kind of in the same area so you need you just need to go cleanse yourself and we’re not talking about germs here some of you might wash your hands before you eat put you like oh you know I don’t want to get sick I want to make sure that my hands are clean before I put food my mouth didn’t know anything about Germans back then this wasn’t about sickness this was about ceremonial cleansing this is about getting that geekiness from the Gentiles off of you just breathing the same air and this wasn’t the only thing this was just a the tip of the iceberg there are other things that they felt like they need they needed to wash before they ate mark just alludes to washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots so there there was something in the Old Testament about clean and unclean and then when he became unclean you did have to go through a certain kind of cleansing but what their this tradition goes beyond the scriptures and requires other cleanse things now would it be wrong to even though the Bible doesn’t say it to wash your hands in this ritual way not necessarily you can do it if you want God isn’t requiring but it was their tradition and they’re concerned that Jesus and His disciples are not following it and they asked him why don’t your disciples keep this tradition their hands were impure why are you letting that happen now as is often the case Jesus doesn’t answer their question directly you may have seen this a number of times by now when people ask you those questions in the Bible he often does not give them a straight answer he gives them the answer they need he doesn’t often answer their main question at least not directly actually Jesus starts out by saying you guys are hypocrites and Isaiah rightly spoke of you Niq quotes Isaiah 29:13 in that passage Isaiah God through Isaiah is speaking of Judah in the days of Isaiah at that time the people of Judah were following God but following idols at the same time they said that they wanted to serve the Lord but they were serving their own lusts and desires and so God pointed out to the people that you honor me only with your lips your hearts are far from me and you don’t honor my word you want our traditions you teach the doctrines of men as if they were the doctrines of God Jesus says the Pharisees are the same way you are hypocrites you only keep man-made traditions and you don’t really love God then he goes further he says not only do you ignore the important things for the sake of your tradition but you actually use tradition to nullify the commandment of God says you’re experts at it you’re skilled at doing this this isn’t an accidental thing that happens with you you’re you’re well-practiced than this and he uses an example this thing with honoring your father and mother and Corbin now honoring your father and mother that’s so basic some of the 10 commandments but somehow they were nullifying this command how are they doing it well this tradition called Corbin this is a post-exilic tradition something they came up with after the Jews came back from exile the idea was you would dedicate something to God maybe some money you had or some property you had and then once you did that you declared it Corvin you weren’t allowed to use it for personal or secular interests so you say I declare this certain amount of money as Corbin and if something comes up in your life you need to pay for something you say oh I can’t use that I can’t use that to pay for my needs I need this is only for sacred purposes but Jesus says the people were using this and what they might not support or help their parents they’d say oh I see your need but whatever I would have given you is already korban they wouldn’t do anything to help their parents now why wouldn’t you want to help your parents why would these Jews not want to do that okay could be simply because they they want to keep the money for themselves or they simply don’t like their parents or maybe a combination of the two like oh I don’t like the way my parent has been treating me lately oh he’s in need I’m gonna say that my money is Corbin and you can imagine that this dedication may not take place this declaring something Corbin may not take place until some realizes his parent is in need oh my parents need something from me I better declare this quarter on so I don’t have to give anything to them and you can also see how you can be strategic about this you’re like hmm you know I’ve got some temple offerings coming up or I’ve got some sacrifices I need to do my parents need money why don’t I just declare this Corbyn that way I would have been paying this for the sacrifices anyways but now there’s no way my parents can make me feel bad about not giving it to them and when I get more money later on I can take care of my other needs but for now I can just declare these things Corbin and that way I don’t have to give anything the system was being manipulated and that’s why Jesus says for the sake of your tradition you totally nullify the commandment of God to honor your father and mother it makes us the people dishonor their parents and don’t even provide for their needs don’t even help them out you says this is just one example you do many such things as that and that’s all he has to say to them he doesn’t answer their question about the impure hands thing he does answer that question for the sake of the crowds he’s not really addressing the Pharisees and scribes anymore notice the latter part of this passage Jesus calls the crowds to himself he wants to make clear to them it’s not the things that come from the outside especially not food that can defile a person and why can’t they defile a person say that again okay he does provide it though Jesus points out there’s something that there’s some place that these external things cannot go and therefore they can’t defile you where can’t they go they can’t reach your heart right it says when you eat something it goes into the stomach and is illuminated it doesn’t go into your heart the hearts the place that matters that’s where that’s where something came to follow you Jesus says actually the source of defilement is not from the outside to the inside but it’s from the inside out it’s actually what comes from your heart that defiles you now what comes from the heart well sin and Jesus list various kinds of sin adulteries fornications covetousness wicked thus these come from within Jesus says and defile a person so Jesus makes clear it’s not the external things that can defile a person or make them impure it’s what’s internal it’s sin by the way mark tells us Jesus declared all foods clean if you make this principle it’s nothing external then truly there’s no such thing as an unclean food this doesn’t mean that Jesus immediately went and had some ham I’m sure he continued to keep the law until he died and was resurrected but asked Jesus for food the law there was no reason for his disciples or any of those who believed in him to any longer follow these rules of external ritual uncleanness because there’s nothing from without that can defile a person so for these observations let’s move now to step 2 interpretation has some questions what does this account show us about Jesus yeah Roy yeah well said Roy Jesus again shows himself to be the authority of truth he understands God’s words perfectly he’s quoting Isaiah and rightly applying it he understands what is the biblical tradition and what’s not a biblical tradition he speaks with authority about God’s truth he understands it as what was saying and better than anyone else ever has we see also that Jesus is zealous for God’s truth notice how uh abrasive is too strong a word or maybe it’s not but he comes out boldly against these Pharisees he just goes right off and says you guys are hypocrites he’s not afraid to firmly in boldly confront their sin and their self-righteousness we often in our day hear people characterize Jesus sister oh you know he was so loving he was so meek she says was loving and he was humble but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t a zealous for God zealous for truth and indignant with sin he was compassionate but he was also zealous for his father his zealous for God’s truth he’s the authority of God’s truth and this again points us that Jesus is the Messiah this is exactly what Messiah should be and was foretold to be this account also shows us something else about what true righteousness is before God what is true righteousness in God’s eyes yeah yeah it’s not about the external it’s not about keeping traditions it’s not about rituals first of all it relates to what God actually commanded but more importantly it’s ultimately about the heart you can do everything you want on the outside to look good you can keep all sorts of rituals all sorts of external commands but if your heart is not clean it doesn’t matter you’re defiled before God you’re not clean before him and we know God hates uncleanness he hates sin if you mean in that state you’re under judgment the truly righteous person needs a clean heart but we know from other scriptures none of us have clean hearts naturally we’ve inherited a defiled heart from Adam so for any person to be saved what needs to happen to him he needs a new heart he needs a cleansing he needs a supernatural transformation and only God can provide this and this of course is what the gospel is all about God is able to do what you cannot do you cannot clean yourself before God no matter how much you changed the outside but he’s able to clean you from within if you will believe in the one who’s been sent to your cleansing where is Jesus Jesus sacrifice is transforming work by faith we take hold of that and God gives us a new heart and he cleanses us from all defilement that’s what salvation is really all about but that becomes herb let me say it this way that’s not on the Pharisees Minds what’s on their minds is tradition therefore this passage shows us why where this passage shows is the answer to this question why are man-made religious traditions often very dangerous yeah really yeah absolutely traditions distract us from what God actually said we could become zealous for those traditions and we don’t actually pay attention to God’s Word anymore Craig were you gonna say something no Rob yeah yeah absolutely you’ve hit both of you have been on two very important aspects traditions caused us to neglect God’s Word and traditions also caused us to neglect the most important part which is the heart traditions they keep you focused on the external part and you neglect the heart and we also see here that traditions can be used to ignore or invalidate the word the words of the Bible you can actually justify evil by tradition and contradict the Word of God so traditions can be quite dangerous if they’re not biblical or if they’re followed in an unbiblical way by the way which is easier to keep man-made traditions or to keep God’s Word it’s their traditions because as we said they focus on the externals we love things that focus on the externals because they’re not that hard to do and you get a certain sort of satisfaction from doing it may you still feel very righteous but that’s not what God actually required it required you to be clean in the heart it’s so easy to get sucked up with traditions and things only related to externals so we must be on guard so you can see that we have some application from this this was not only a problem for the Pharisees but it can become a problem for us some questions for us to consider when it comes to application this passage shows us again that we need to believe in Jesus as Messiah but that we also must believe the true gospel gospel goes after our hearts it’s not about simply doing more good things on the outside it’s about getting a new heart from God you can’t do that on your own you need God to cleanse you save you from his wrath and make you into his own slave of righteousness which is what happens when you embrace Jesus by faith now we’ve been using the term tradition to describe most of what’s going on in this passage but what term do we use more often to describe adding man-made rules and traditions to the Bible what term do we use starts on the nail legalism legalism and you can see the idea of the legal law in the name said that we add rules to God’s Word and we can even even we can become legalistic and be legalistic with one another what are some areas in which Christians often get legalistic with one another today I’ll give you some examples holidays do you celebrate Christmas do you celebrate Halloween we can get legalistic over those things Bible does not command us to celebrate Christmas or Easter for that matter in a specific day you can get legalistic over prayers did you pray before you eat you know sometimes we joke I don’t know if you joke but sometimes someone forgets to pray before you eat and you say heathen what are you doing and it’s kind of a joke but you know what sometimes it’s not you’re like oh they don’t pray before they eat does the Bible commands you to pray for me no so food is sanctified with thankfulness doesn’t say you have to pray for it we can get legalistic over food do you eat this do you eat that being a legalistic over drink do you drink alcohol bring it legalistic over the Sabbath what do you do on Sunday we get legalistic over what we do on worship what do you wear to worship what are you singing worship we get legalistic over entertainment choices what kind of music you listen to do you have a television in your legalistic over dating your legalistic over education choices do you homeschool oh you know homeschool you could put them in Christian school do you put them public school maybe it leaves the legalistic overdress in appearance oh he’s wearing earrings are these things actually commanded in the Bible now understand the Bible does have things to say about those areas I just mentioned and of course there are other areas too there is a standard that we ought to apply in things like our entertainment or what we decide to do in worship or what we decide to do when it comes to educating our kids but we need to be able to distinguish between what the Bible actually says in commands and what is just a personal application from that command we also need to be able to distinguish because this happens all the time when you actually give what the Bible says about something people will often call you a legalist they say oh you saying not allowed to do that you must be a legalist you’re just being legalistic no there actually is a biblical standard and sometimes people don’t even want to listen to that we must be careful not to go beyond that we do want uphold the biblical standard we don’t want to be legalist now you can for your own personal application you can add things that the Bible doesn’t say you have to do that’s because you think that’ll be more helpful for you or because you want to honor God in that way that’s fine let’s be careful that we don’t impose that standard on others because over such issues of tradition and preference what do we Christians often do to one another we condemn we’ve judged and condemned you know what people often quote Jesus not to judge and we’re like oh you misunderstand that phrase because people are trying to excuse their sin but Jesus did say not to judge right we can’t ignore that he did say that what did he mean we said don’t judge an unrighteous standard don’t judge with unrighteous judgment and what’s unrighteous judgment when you use the standard that goes beyond God’s Word and when you condemn people before you actually know the situation and we do this don’t we we see somebody not following some tradition Christian tradition and we say oh you know he’s compromising it’s kind of a worldly person this is a misplaced zeal this is just like what the Pharisees were doing God he didn’t wash his hands before he ate this is distracting us this is distracting us from the actual words of God this is distracting us from the most important matters of the Christian life and it’s actually causing us to sin against one another we become condemned natori and even hateful towards one another tradition is causing us to sin and we can also say this is kind of a different way to think about tradition sometimes we justify sin because everybody else does it well you know all the Christians are doing this thing it must not be wrong all the Christians I know it may just be a tradition what does the Bible actually say because even as a society or as a Christian that’s a Christian body we might have blind spots we might be doing things where people might be doing things that are actually not biblical but they’ve just become accepted we have to go back to the word it’s not that all traditions are wrong or that no tradition is helpful for you personally but you have to go back to the scriptures we must go back to the standard which is God’s Word so brothers and sisters this morning as we close please consider yourselves and consider your own life have you been living legalistically have you been coming up with a standard that goes beyond the scriptures and then imposing that standard on other people and judging them based on that don’t judge with unrighteous judgment also do you have you been subjected to Christian bandwagoning how all the other Christians must be doing or doing it must not be wrong and we’ll go back to the Scriptures examine things that are common or just tradition and make sure that they’re actually biblical but that they’re not being exercised up in an unbiblical way we need to repent of these things if we’re involved in that because there’s sin they distract us from the things that are important but of course when we repent we have restored fellowship with God and we have restored fellowship with one another we have different examples of Nilla even in the New Testament or Christians who fall into legalism but then repent Peters 1 right he wouldn’t eat with the Jews IRA he wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles because some people came here who thought that wasn’t right he started act legalistically he repented he never forgot the lesson that he learned brothers and sisters let us be zealous for the right things let’s be zealous for God for Jesus our Savior for His Word and not for traditions we’re out of time for today do you have other questions or comments please email me we’ve seen some wonderful truths in these two passages but we’re going to continue to see more next week as we continue looking at Jesus’s teaching and we look at Jesus Sermon on the Mount pray with me as we close our God I thank you for this word picaud it is so easy to get caught up in traditions to get caught up in mere externals and to start judging one another how do we know that there is a standard that we do need to exhort one another to hold that’s the standard of your scriptures God’s so easy it is for us to go beyond that and start becoming self righteous just like the Pharisees so God let us be in the biblical place what we actually hold to your word and are not distracted from it I pray that you would accomplish that God willing the people of Calvary and I need those listening tonight in Jesus name Amen thank you guys – see you next week