Mark 7
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Group Exercise
Group Exercise
I want to add a tool to your toolbelt.
We need many different ways of learning/growing, not just one.
Today I want to teach you about:
FCF
FCF
After teaching it to you, we are going to break off into small groups, where you will quickly practice how to do it.
Fallen Condition Focus (FCF)
The Fallen Condition Focus (FCF) is the mutual human condition that contemporary persons share with those to, or about whom the text was written that requires the grace of the passage for God’s people to glorify and enjoy him.
What is the human problem that resulted in the Holy Spirit including the passage in the Bible?
Proposition — Solution
Proposition — Solution
Once we understand the human problem that caused the Holy Spirit to include the text in our Bible’s, we now need to use the features of that same text to understand the Proposition: How does the Holy Spirit address those concerns then and now?
What is the solution to the human problem the Holy Spirit is addressing?
This cannot be a fleshly solution…
It’s not just about trying harder…
This is a divine solution.
Quick Example
Quick Example
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—
7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
What is the FCF?
We are easily led astray…
We are easily convinced against our convictions…
We struggle with doubt…
What is the Proposition?
We can be confident of the gospel handed down to us by the apostles…
We should not be willing to listen to someone who preaches something contrary to the gospel as laid out in Scripture…
We have to be careful who we listen to…
Let’s read the passage…
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?”
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.”
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.”
What is the FCF of Mark 7:1-13?
What is the Proposition of Mark 7:1-13?
FCF
The Pharisees and Scribes were following man-made rules rather than following God’s Word.
Jesus gives an example:
You don’t have to honour your father and mother if you give to God.
By doing this, they make God’s Word void and elevate their tradition.
We are tempted to go our own way, following man-made rules rather than depending on God’s Word.
Proposition
The Scribes and Pharisees needed to put a priority on God’s Word rather than their own ideas.
If they would have trusted God’s Word, they wouldn’t have missed Jesus as the Christ.
We must put God’s Word first… make God’s Word a priority, so that we stay on the right track.
The Heart is the Problem
The Heart is the Problem
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.”
FCF
We think that it is things from the outside that defile us.
But the problem is deep within our hearts.
We have a sin problem that goes back to the garden of Eden.
What is the heart?
The problem is not the food we eat, the things we touch…
It’s not our heritage, or where we come from…
It’s what comes out of us, which tells us the fallen condition of our heart.
We need to address our sin at the heart level…
Not from the outside looking in.
Our sinful hearts are the problem…
not the things we touch…
not the things we eat…
not things like our heritage or race…
Our hearts are prone to disregard God, and go our own way.
Transition
Then Mark records two stories that make the point that it isn’t what is on the outside that makes a person unclean.
There is the story of a Syrophoenecian woman… and
A deaf man with a speech impediment.
Both of these
Jesus is the Solution
Jesus is the Solution
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.
25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.
26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
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.”
The Syrophoenecian woman
came to the one who could heal them.
She was “unclean” because she was not a Jew.
Yet she came to Jesus… the One that she had heard could heal.
The defilement that we need to be concerned about is not external, but internal.
Jesus is the solution to our heart problem.
31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
32 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.
This man too would have been unclean because of his deformities.
Yet Mark’s intention in both of these stories is to reiterate the point that is isn’t the outside that defiles a person.
The heart is the problem.
Both the woman and the man come to Jesus because they have heard of his healing power.
They understood that Jesus is the solution to their problem.
Transition
As we talked about in Mark 6…
Faith is the Key
Faith is the Key
28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”
30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Jesus was testing this woman’s faith.
His first mission was to reach God’s people, the Jews.
The Gentiles had a place in God’s kingdom, but it wasn’t the prominent one.
Her faith in Jesus is what ultimately results in the healing of her daughter.
This shows that her heart was made right as well.
She was a true daughter of Abraham because of her faith in Christ.
Likewise with the deaf and stuttering man…
33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue.
34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
36 And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
Jesus healed him because of the faith they had that Jesus was the solution to their problem.
CLOSING
We too must recognize that our heart is the problem.
Things that are outside of us are not what defile us… but our hearts are the problem.
This should draw us to Christ, who is the solution.
He came in order to be the sacrifice that cleanses our sin…
and to give us changed hearts!
He does this through giving us His Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts, giving us new desires.
Come to Jesus in faith, which unlocks these promises!
If you have never repented of your sins, and confessed Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, what is stopping you from doing that today?
You do not need to be perfect… you simply need to acknowledge your sinful heart, and come to Jesus in faith.
He will give you a new heart, and help you walk in victory over sin, and give you assurance of your salvation.
If you have repented of your sins, and have confessed Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, and have been experiencing a changed heart as God teaches you how to walk faithfully according to His Word…
Have you taken the next step of obedience and been baptized?
Maybe there is something holding you back from doing it and you have more questions…
But this is simply a step of obedience to openly declare what God has done in your heart.
Feel free to talk to me if you have any questions about that.
If you are a follower of Christ, and have been baptized, continue:
to look faithfully to Christ...
to call on Him in prayer…
to depend on His Word…
and He will strengthen and guide you by His Spirit.
Be confident that Christ has transformed your heart through His sacrifice, and nothing can separate you from His love.
Small Group Prompt
What fruit do you see in your life that shows a need for your heart needs to be transformed by Christ?
