WOE TO US

GRIEVES JESUS.....HURTS THE HEART OF jESUS…HE WANTS TO UNDO IN OUR LIFE

DRIVING.....MERGING.....HYPOCRISY......KNOW A HYPOCRITE......SITTING NEXT TO ONE??

JOKE: HYPOCRISY AT CHURCH....WELL YOU MIGHT AS WELL JOIN US CAUSE WE HAVE ROOM FOR ONE MORE

MARK 7

CONFLICT---CONVICTION--- CHOICE

CONFLICT

John 6:26–27 (ESV)

26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Mark 7:1–23 (ESV)

1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

DID THIS EARLIER CHAPTER 3 :22 BEELZEBUB .....SCRIBES ALSO “TEACHERS OF THE LAW”

NOT ALL SCRIBES PHARISEES BUT OFTEN PHARISEES WERE ALSO SCRIBES

SCRIBES: copyist.....upgrade few centuries earlier, EZRA, “teacher of the law”

METICULOUS .....EVEN COUNTING LETTERS AND SPACING....THANK THEM BUT BEGAN TO TAKE IT TOO FAR

BIG WIGS FROM JERUSALEM The Pharisees and the scribes

may have known the Mosaic Law, but they lived according to the specific traditions (rules and routines)

LETTER OF THE LAW OVER SPIRIT OF THE LAW

The Mosaic Law demands that when priests or Levites enter the tabernacle, they must wash their hands and feet (Exodus 30:17–21). The Jewish religious leaders twist this law into a rule that all Jews should wash their hands before they eat for fear of defiling their food, and thus themselves. Mark explains that in addition to washing their hands before they eat, they also clean the implements used in the meal.

RITUAL OVER REALITY

RITUAL OVER RELATIONSHIP

RITUAL OVER RIGHTEOUSNESS

of how it applied to the Jewish people passed down to them by rabbis for the last few hundred years. These oral traditions surrounding the Torah (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). Many were eventually written down in the 2nd century after Christ walked this earth in a book called the Mishnah. It is these oral applications of the Law that define the phrase: traditions. And just so you know, they are immense in number.

MISHNAH......around 2nd century after Christ

oral application of the Law..........traditions surrounding the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deurteronomy)

JUDGING PEOPLE BASED ON TRADITIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS.......NOT ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF GOD

What the Pharisees did, was like building a barb wire fence around the Torah to make sure there were no questions about how the laws, statutes and commandments were kept.

And then they honored their barb wire fence far more than what was inside it.

What they’ve done is replaced a Biblical warning, with a man made prohibition.

INTENTIONS GOOD.......over excessive intentions can miss the point

They weren’t afraid of DIRT they were terrified of DEFILEMENT

1 Corinthians 5:12 “12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?”

John 7:24 “24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.””

6 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; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

Hypokritēs - an actor under a mask Titus 1:16 “16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” hoop-ok-ree-tace'

Matthew 23 7woes: EXCLAMATION OF GRIEF

Matthew 23:27-28 “27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

IT’S NOT ABOUT DIRTY HANDS, IT’S ABOUT DIRTY HEARTS

Psalm 19:14 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

Go back to Isaiah chapter 1. The prophet Isaiah is sent by God long before the Babylonian captivity but to warn Israel that judgment was coming in the form of the Babylonian army who would sweep into Israel, slaughter tens of thousands of people, destroy Jerusalem, destroy the temple, take people captive into Babylon as a divine judgment.

Why would the judgment fall? Chapter 1 verse 10, “Hear the Word of the Lord.” Verse 11, “What are your multiplied sacrifices to me? I’ve had enough of burnt offering of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?”

They were doing what the Old Testament prescribed with regard to sacrifices and coming to the temple but heartlessly so, with no love for God. “Bring your worthless offerings no longer,” verse 13, “incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.” You can’t hold onto all your iniquity and then come and worship and expect me to accept it.

“I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek righteousness. Reprove the ruthless. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow.”

And then He says in that famous next verse that’s, “Forgiveness in salvation is available. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.” Forgiveness is available if repentance is present.

Jesus faced this hypocritical worship in His day as it had been faced by all the Old Testament prophets before the exile and even after the exile. We face it today. There is vast, far-reaching, sweeping, worldwide, empty, meaningless worship directed at God that is nothing but hypocrisy and sham and externalism and legalism and ceremony and ritual, and we’re all very, very familiar with it.

Our Lord collided with this. Came to bring the true religion, the religion of the heart, loving God from the heart with all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, all your heart.

Called them snakes and vipers. He cursed them in Matthew 23, curse after curse after curse after curse after curse. “Cursed be, you Pharisees and scribes, hypocrites.”

He repeats the word “hypocrite” again and again and again. And He gave that speech in the temple in the last week of His life, right in the face of the leadership and hearing of all the people who were gathered for the Passover.

Yes, this compassionate Jesus who healed everybody, who delivered people from demons and who raised the dead, who brought such common grace at such an extent the world had never seen and has not seen since, demonstrated His love and compassion and mercy and kindness toward those who were suffering.

But at the same time, when He turned to face the purveyors of false religion, He unleashed the most blistering denunciation that ever came out of His lips, Matthew 23. Empty worship - empty worship engulfs people in a damning false religious system.

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Corban -deferred gift to God, dedicated and set apart for God’s use.

14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 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.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 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, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

HAND WASHING NOT NEAR AS IMPORTANT HEART WATCHING

Proverbs 4:23 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.

Only Jesus can cleanse our hearts of unrighteousness and enable us to worship God as His holy people. That is true in any and every facet of our relationship to God. The apostle John says it so simply: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. The hymn writer asked and answered this question well, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

Eternal life is not a reward for keeping man-made rules or traditions. It is a gift to all who’ve looked in faith to Christ Jesus to forgive their sins and cleanse their hearts (Acts 15:9).

Even those who live by faith need spiritual cleansing because we still sin. Jesus said this in John 13 when He washed the disciples’ feet. After David sinned with Bathsheba he wrote these words in Psalm 51 “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” The Lord Jesus has the spiritual soap and water necessary to clean our hearts. It is His sacrificial blood.

Psalm 51:10-12 “10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”