This is a continuation of last week's message. This message was preached on Sunday, July 6, 2008 at Grace Baptist Church in Westlake, Ohio. The audio of this message can be heard at www.gbcwestlake.org by clicking on Listen now and then choosing that date. The issues addressed in this message; especially the issue of defilement coming from within not from without are a good reminder for me. It challenges me to focus, not on the external things, but on the heart issues.
[video of heart monitor, showing a heart-beat, and then a flat line and long beep.]
Mark 7:14-37
Please turn in your Bible to Mark 7. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 872 or 889.
Last week, we covered the first 13 verses of Mark 7, and focused on the heart problem of the religious leaders. On the outside, they looked and sounded spiritually healthy, as though they had a heart relationship with God. But, in reality, they were spiritually dead! They had a way of taking God’s rules and changing them to fit themselves. I read recently of a very tempting perspective on changing the diet rules. Since I am somewhat on a diet right now, this really appealed to me:
Rule 1: If you eat something, but no one else sees you eat it, it has no calories. Rule 2: When drinking a diet soda while eating a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are canceled by the diet soda. Rule 3: When you eat with someone else, calories don’t count as long as you don’t eat more than they do. Rule 4: Foods used for medicinal purposes never count. Examples: hot chocolate, toast, Sara Lee cheesecake Rule 5: If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner. Rule 6: Movie-related foods do not have calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one’s personal fuel. Examples: milk duds, buttered popcorn, junior mints and Tootsie Rolls Rule 7: Cookie pieces contain no calories. The process of breaking the cookie causes calorie leakage. Rule 8: Late-night snacks have no calories. The refrigerator light is not strong enough for the calories to see their way into the calorie counter. Rule 9: If you are in the process of preparing something, food licked off knives and spoons have no calories. Examples: peanut butter on a knife, ice cream on a spoon Rule 10: Food of the same color have the same number of calories. Examples are: spinach and Mint chocolate chip ice cream, mushrooms and white chocolate. Additional note: Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other.
I like those! But, of course, changing the diet rules to please my own selfish desires defeats the purpose of the diet in the first place. The religious leaders were doing the exact same thing with the commands of God. They acknowledged the commands were there; but they made up their own traditions and used those to escape the expectations of God. They changed the rules for their own satisfaction.
And Jesus responded to that, by saying this:
Mark 7:6-8 – “And he said to them, well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
Religious Pharisees, whether the ones spoken of here, 2,000 years ago, or those who exist today, have the same problem: a heart problem. Religious Pharisees are so concerned with outward appearances that they neglect the inside. And yet, as Jesus is going to address today, the inside is where the crucial work takes place – the inside work that eventually leads to outward expression. Jesus now addresses the real heart issues involved.
Mark 7:14-15 – “And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
1. We are defiled from the inside out
Jesus asked for everyone’s attention and asked them to understand what He was about to say. Keep in mind that the religious leaders had just been talking about the outward appearances and the ceremonial hand washings. Jesus said, however, it is not what comes from the outside that defiles a person, but what comes from within. The religious teachers said that the things that defile are from without, the particular things that you touch, the people you are around, the things you eat. Have you ever heard the statement: “You are what you eat”? But Jesus was pointing out that it is not those things, in particular, but what is going on within a person that defiles. Jesus is not talking about the physical food as much as he is talking about the spiritual defilement from within.
But, as with many things Jesus taught, his disciples needed more explanation:
Who here has an NIV (New International Version)? Would you please read the next verse: Mark 7:16? What do you mean there is no verse 16? What is wrong with your Bible? Don’t worry. Everyone who has an NIV or ESV (English Standard Version) which I am using, will find that verse 16 does not exist. Why not? Let me summarize briefly:
There are thousands of Greek manuscripts (copies) of what was originally written as the New Testament. However, there are some minor differences between those copies. These copies, called manuscripts, are what the Bible translators study when deciding how to bring us our English translations. They have to make some choices when some of the manuscripts disagree. The few manuscripts that the King James and New King James translations used had verse 16 in it and so they went with that. The New American Standard has verse 16 but puts it in brackets to explain that this verse was not in many of the earliest manuscripts. The NIV and ESV leave it out all together.
Keep this in mind: It doesn’t change the meaning of this text or the entire Word of God, if verse 16 is included or excluded. Verse 16 says this: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” It is something Jesus has said many times; and he says something like that a couple verses before in verse 14. If it is included, it makes sense; but also, if it is excluded, it doesn’t change the meaning. So, let’s move then, to verse 17.
Mark 7:17-19 – “And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled? (Thus he declared all foods clean).”
The disciples still didn’t get it, so they asked Jesus to explain. He said they should have been able to understand it, but he goes ahead and explains it anyway, as something that should be common sense: “Since food, or anything else from the outside, for that matter, cannot touch your heart, then it does not affect you morally. It comes in your mouth, is digested, and then leaves your body again.” In fact, by saying this, Jesus was saying that the foods themselves were to be considered clean. This might have been big news to the Jewish people who had been taught that the food itself was the problem, as well as other external things. God had set up dietary restrictions for His people, but the spiritual implications were the important thing; not the food itself. So, Jesus declared all food clean. He continues, then, to explain what does defile a person.
Mark 7:20-23 – “And he said, What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Jesus was declaring all foods clean, but that didn’t mean that people could eat whatever they wanted. If God had commanded them not to eat of certain things then they still must obey. That was true of the Jewish people. But it wasn’t the pig that was unclean, it was the unclean heart of disobedience that defiled the person.
This is not an exhaustive list, by the way. He is not trying to list every sin that comes from the heart. But, he does give us a pretty good variety of some of the common sins believers and non-believers struggle with on a daily basis. When he listed these, his disciples could certainly relate because they struggled with them. I can relate; and you probably can as well. So, he uses these common sins to teach us about what true defilement is.
[heartbeat monitor]
2. True defilement is a heart issue.
The heart is seen as the moral center: the true make up of the person. It is seen as that which must respond to Christ for salvation: [read these with me please]
Romans 10:9,10 – “…believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified…”
We also know, from the Bible, how deceptive the heart can be:
Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things; and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
And this is why the Bible tells us to care for our heart, in a spiritual way:
Proverbs 4:23 – “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
It is from the heart, from the inside, that these evil things come about. Look at this list in verse 21. Jesus is saying that the evil thoughts are not an outward problem, to be blamed on society for introducing those thoughts. The evil thoughts we have are a heart problem, because we choose to entertain them, rather than obey and think about what God says:
Philippians 4:8 – “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable…think about these things.”
Sexually immorality – we would like to say it is an outside job – someone looks at pornography on the internet or has sex with someone outside of marriage, we want to focus on the outward act and the causes for it and the people responsible. But, Jesus is saying that the real defilement came from within the heart, not from the outward temptations. It was from in the heart that the person first considered disobeying God; and started to believe that he needed sexual fulfillment outside of God’s provision for it.
Do you get the idea here? We could go all through this list and show the same thing. Theft – someone who steals can blame it on society or a kleptomania disorder; but Jesus says the reason you steal is because of a heart problem. Your heart is not right with God; and you decide to disobey Him, not believing that what He provides you is enough. You don’t trust His promise:
Philippians 4:19 – “But my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Murder – Jesus said if you hate someone in your heart, you have murdered them. It comes from the inside, and then it makes its way into outward action.
Adultery – Jesus said, if you look at a woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery in your heart. When someone commits physical adultery, it happens first in the heart. These are heart issues. You think if you take out all pornography and make it illegal, that it would solve the heart adultery or sexual immorality problem? It wouldn’t. Jesus said: the defilement comes from within. If pornography is not available, and your heart is full of lust, you will still find a way to fulfill it.
Verse 22 continues the list: coveting – you want something that someone else has. The problem is not that that person has those things or won’t give them to you; or that if communism was in vogue (everyone ideally had the same), that problem would go away. No: the coveting begins in your heart.
Wickedness, sensuality, envy, pride, foolishness –they are all on this list and they all begin in the heart.
Deceit and Slander are also on this list. What did Jesus say?
Matthew 12:34 – “…For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
When you slander someone, those words are not a mistake. You can try to take them back; but the specific words are not the issue. It is a heart issue. When you take God’s name in vain, when you lie, when you back-bite, when you let out an expletive – these demonstrate what is going on in the heart.
So, to solve these sin issues, you have to go deeper than the external issue itself.
Sometimes, people think that if we could just change some of the laws of our country, that would take care of our problems. But, changing laws will not change hearts, and according to Jesus, that is where the problem lies. That is why:
3. We must be changed from the inside out.
James 1:14,15 – “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…”
We want to say that if certain things are taken away, then the temptation is taken away. But, according to the Bible, the temptation comes from within, and then your fleshly desires turn into that sinful action.
[heart monitor slide]
Where were the hearts of the religious leaders? The Pharisees thought they could get rid of this problem by changing the rules and making things look good on the outside. But, Jesus said to them:
Matthew 23:25 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”
So, we might ask: Then, what is the solution? It is the same as it has always been:
SO WHAT?
Confess your sin
I John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
I know this sounds simple; but I want to be simple. This is the basic step God gives for what to do with a defiled heart.
If you are willing to agree with God, that there are no excuses, no one else to blame for your sin, and you take full responsibility, then He, based on His faithful character, wipes your heart clean – your sin is gone. The Pharisees were not willing to recognize their sin. But you can.
Larry Crabb, in his book Inside out: “…An awareness of all that’s within us is more important to changing than a set of instructions about what to believe and do. Second, the actual process of change can never be fully explained; the work of God’s Spirit cannot be packaged into our neat categories. We must expect neither precision in our understanding of change; nor confidence that we’re saying all that needs to be said. Third, no one is fully changed. It should comfort us to know that everyone has ample room to grow. Even Paul admitted, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it (Philippians 3:13), referring to the richness of all Christ has provided.” – Inside Out – Larry Crabb
I share this somewhat disturbing quote because I think it is true. We would like everything to be simple and work out the way we think it should every time. But, the Christian life is not that way. When you think you have conquered a particular sin, another one will rear its ugly head. When you think you have changed in one area, not only does the Bible say to be careful of pride unless you fall; but also you will change in one area and soon find you need to change in another. So, although confession is important, it is also continual. That leads us to another application:
SO WHAT?
Keep asking for God’s help
And you can pray this prayer continually, which I think will demonstrate that you have a humble heart before God: [say it with me]
Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
“One Sunday morning, an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were very worn and ragged. In his hand he carried a worn-out old hat and an equally worn-out Bible. The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen. The people of the congregation were all dressed in expensive clothes and accessories. As the cowboy took a seat, the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were all appalled at his appearance and did not attempt to hide it.
As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor. Before you come back in her again, have a talk with God and ask him what he thinks would be appropriate attire for worship. The old cowboy assured the preacher he would. The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirt, boots, and hat. Once again he was completely shunned and ignored. The preacher approached the man and said, I tough I asked you to speak to God before you came back to our church.
I did, replied the old cowboy. If you spoke to God, what did he tell you the proper attire should be for worshiping in her? Asked the preacher. Well, sir, God told me that He didn’t have a clue what I should wear. He said He’d never been in this church before.”
How easy it is for people, even religious people, to get so caught up with the external, that we forget God looks at the heart. This was the major issue Jesus had with the Pharisees and other religious leaders of His day. It is something we must guard against. This is a matter of the heart.
Rules and regulations will not guarantee spirituality. In fact, they can sometimes cover up what is really going on in someone’s heart. Eventually, our inward reality will come out in the form of sin. And when it does, we must deal with the root issue: the heart. Don’t be like the Pharisees:
In his book Inside Out, Larry Crab writes: “God wants to change us into people who are truly noble, people who reflect an unswerving confidence in who He is that equips us to face all of life and still remain faithful. Spirituality built on pretense is not spirituality at all.” He also wrote:
“To call self-protection the problem right at the moment when the pain is most severe is not easy. But it must be done. When relieving pain becomes our priority, then we have left the path of pursuing God. The experience of pain has the power to either harden us in our self-protective style or to drive us to deeper trust in God. It can enable us to clearly see how our relational style accommodates our commitment to stay sage rather love is the ultimate virtue, self-protection is the ultimate problem.” One other thing he said:
“Change from the inside out is rare. Very few people are willing to deeply embrace their disappointment. And even fewer, when they’ve faced their disappointment and are filled with excruciating pain and sadness, are willing to firmly say, ‘My pain is not the problem. The problem is my determination to relieve my pain any way I can.”
For the religious leaders, the way they rid themselves of the pain that sin caused was to go into self-protection mode. They protected themselves with their laws and traditions, which they controlled. We are all tempted to sin when the pain of life causes us to protect ourselves and relieve ourselves at any cost – this leads to a variety of sins. But, if this pain thrusts us toward trusting in God, then our heart is in the right place.
Have you checked your heart lately?
[heart monitor slide]
Mark moves us from here right into a couple of examples of people who demonstrated hearts of faith.
Mark 7:24-“And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.”
Jesus probably traveled about 40 miles to get to the region of Tyre and Sidon, the area of present day Lebanon. Jesus was there, it seemed, to get some more rest with his disciples, as he had begun before (Mark 6:30-32). But, just as before, he gets quickly interrupted as people find him and their needs for help become evident. People were spreading the word quickly about Jesus’ healing power, and these people, 40 miles away from where Jesus was previously, heard about it as well.
Mark 7:25,26 – “But immediately a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.”
Mark reminds us this is an action packed gospel, as he said that “immediately” this woman with the sick daughter came and fell at his feet. She had heard that he could do miracles and that is just what she needed. Her little girl was possessed by an unclean spirit; and Jesus was her only hope. She had, perhaps, already heard that Jesus cast out demons out of many people before, so hopefully he would help her daughter as well.
We are supposed to know here that this was not a Jewish woman, but a Gentile. She was born in Phoenicia, part of the province of Syria. We are beginning to see, in these passages, somewhat of a transition for Jesus. We see Him ministering to Gentiles, partly as a result of His own people, the Jews, rejecting Him.
Mark 7:27 – “And he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Jesus uses figurative language here, to communicate to her. He talks about His followers as thought they were the children, who should get the benefits of the Messiah first. And the dogs, using a term for a pet dog or puppy - well, that referred to the Gentiles. In this case, Jesus was not using it as a derogatory term, but descriptive.
I like Walvoord and Zuck’s explanation: “Jesus is telling the woman that His first priority in being there was to instruct His disciples. It is not appropriate to interrupt a family meal to give the dogs food from the table. So it was not appropriate for Him to interrupt His ministry to His disciples to give His services to her, a Gentile. But Jesus’ reluctance to help stimulated her faith.”
Mark 7:28 – “But she answered him, yes, lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
She accepted Jesus’ words and demonstrated respect (yes, lord). But, I believe in faith, she kept asking. She pointed out that in the context of his figurative language story, the dogs would also get food (the crumbs) at the same time the children would; but the dog would just be under the table. She was desperate for just this one thing – she had to have Jesus’ help – to save her daughter from this demon.
She showed faith and the right spirit. How do we know that? Look at verse:
Mark 7:29 – “And he said to her, For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”
Jesus said: Because of what you just said, I will answer your request: The demon has left your daughter. Go to her. Based on this woman’s faith and persistence, Jesus healed her daughter.
Mark 7:30 – “And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.”
Was there any doubt? She went home and found out it was true. Her child was healed. It was obvious – no more demon.
4. Jesus healed the girl based on the faith of the Gentile woman
SO WHAT?
Praise God for opening the message of hope to the Gentiles
You may think that this is just about a young girl being healed. But, there is much more than that. In these passages of Scripture, we are seeing God turn to those referred to as dogs – the unclean Gentiles. And this is just one of the examples in this gospel of Jesus turning His light toward the Gentiles, who were more willing to receive it. Eventually, in the book of Acts, we are going to see a major transition as the Apostles begin to see the good news of the gospel open to the Gentiles. Because this is part of a major transition; and since we are a part of people known as Gentiles, we can rejoice in this story. What did the Apostle Paul write?
Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Anyone who comes to Jesus Christ, with a humble heart, responding in faith, can be saved.
[heart monitor slide]
We don’t get much time to rest, as Mark takes us into another action scene.
Mark 7:31,32 – “Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him.”
Jesus travelled another 20 plus miles and once again, people who were in need found Him very quickly. In this case, they brought a deaf man, who struggled with his speech. They pleaded (begged) with him to just lay His hands on this man. They had heard or seen what Jesus had done; and they knew that if he laid His hands on this man, he could definitely be healed.
Mark 7:33,34 – “And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.”
We are not told a lot of the details of why these things happened. But, we do know Jesus did them, perhaps only understood by this man or Jesus Himself. He took him aside, away from the crowd, most likely showing personal concern for this man – not trying to embarrass him. And then Jesus was very personal: He put his fingers into the man’s ears, spitting on the ground or even into his hand, and then touching the man’s tongue. He then looked up to heaven, sighed (not sure why) and said to the man: “Be opened.”
I bet you can’t guess what happened next!
Mark 7:35 – “And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.”
The man could now hear and speak clearly. This was a great physical illustration of what was happening spiritually with those that Jesus was trying to teach. In a spiritual way, their “hearing” and speaking were connected, just like this man’s. If they did not have “ears to hear” (spiritual understanding) then they also were not able to speak the words of God correctly.
5. Jesus personally touched and healed a man, brought to him by friends who had hearts of faith.
Mark 7:36 – “And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.”
Jesus seemingly wanted to minister there in that area without being known as the miracle guy; but the people just wouldn’t allow it. The more he told them to keep it quiet, the more adamantly they let everyone know what Jesus had done. I can certainly understand their actions, even though it was not right to disobey Christ. They had seen him do amazing things, and they just had to tell everyone.
Mark 7:37 – “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
They were “dumbfounded”. They couldn’t believe what Jesus had done. They were overwhelmed. They testified that Jesus had done great things. He can even heal the deaf and the mute! Unbelievable!
SO WHAT?
Those with hearts of faith take those in need to Jesus
This is true if it is physical healing. It is true if it is spiritual healing. If there is someone in your life that has no spiritual life, there only hope is to be introduced to Jesus. Back in Jesus’ day, friends and family took their loved ones to see Jesus, when they had lost all other hope. No matter what issue your friend is facing in life, taking him to Jesus is the first step- it is the answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment