The Lethal Lures of Legalism
Notes
Transcript
Things go from a ministry high(feeding 5,000; walking on water; healing people in streets), to a big low here in our story when Jesus is confronted by a group of Pharisees
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.”
Prayer
Things are not always as they seem. I love hearing stories about spy-craft. It has always interested me that people would be able to blend in and utterly fool someone into trusting them while they worked for the other side. In my research on spies, I came across a list of famous people that worked for intelligence agencies in some part of their life that might be interesting to you. After having a professional baseball career, Moe Berg worked for the O.S.S., which would be the equivalent to the CIA today. Harriet Tubman worked as a spy for the Union while she safely transported slaves to freedom. Harpo Marx served as a courier from the US Embassy by taking messages in and out of the Soviet Union by taping sealed envelopes to his leg underneath his pants. And probably the most interesting one that I read about was Julia Child working for the O.S.S. as a clerk. Things are not always as they seem.
The same could be said about people who profess Christianity. Things are not always as they seem. Things may look good on the outside but jumbled up on the inside. Might be a part time Christian (Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights).
Main Point - Applying scripture wrongly can be very dangerous.
Main Point - Applying scripture wrongly can be very dangerous.
Our passage today hits on the topic of legalism or traditionalism. This can be a cancer to the church of Jesus Christ and it is a sign in an individual that they are serving man instead of Jesus.
Legalism and traditionalism may start out with good intentions but it leads to more separation from God. In many cases, it begins with the attempt to apply scripture. But scripture can often be misinterpreted and in turn, misapplied. Legalism is when you take scripture and misapply it, and then make the misapplication of it to be greater than the scripture itself. And then, we make that “tradition” to be the rule in our life. My prayer be the end of this sermon is that you might identify aspects in your own life where you are leaning more on traditionalism instead of leaning on the word of God.
Probing Question - Are traditions more important to you than God’s word?
Legalism Results in the Appearance of Holiness
Legalism Results in the Appearance of Holiness
Things are not always as they appear. I used an illustration a couple of weeks ago about a magic trick. Doing the slight of hand is making it appear to be different than it actually is. You also have the illustration of an optical illusion. Aside from the folklore behind it, we have one of those just right up the road. There is a spot in Richfield, called gravity hill, where you can stop on the road, put your car in neutral, and let off the brake and it appears that you are rolling uphill.
Legalism is an optical illusion. Having the appearance of holiness while actually obeying the rules of man instead of the commands of God.
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.
things that led up to this point: fed 5,000, travel across sea(wind storm), land in Gennesaret, healing people; now the pharisees show up
75 miles from Jerusalem to Gennesaret; maybe there was another reason that they were in the area, but probably because of Jesus
earlier issues with Jesus and his disciples; now they observe the disciples and see another problem; there is truth in the fact that it doesn’t matter how well you serve Christ, someone will have an issue with what you are doing
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.)
Washing hands is a good thing; in the context of our world today, we may think this is a weird thing to gripe about.
The problem was they were making a tradition to be a spiritual issue; they were making something a spiritual mandate that shouldn’t be
Where did they go wrong? In OT ceremonial law, the priest would be required to wash when he made animal sacrifices. Exodus 30:20 “20 When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die.”
What happened is that they misapplied scripture; they took something that was given to the priests in a certain instance and applied it to everyone (v.3 All)
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?”
They do not approach the disciples, but Jesus; not the first time; Mark 2:23-24.
The Pharisees appeared to be following the law; it was the law of man and not of God; this misapplication of scripture makes it appear that these men are holy while in fact, they are false teachers
some people may appear to be holy(perfect attendance, tithers, ministry leaders), but if they place things above God’s word, then it is only superficial
Legalism Results in a Focus on Traditionalism
Legalism Results in a Focus on Traditionalism
Tradition can be a great thing; thanksgiving, Christmas, yearly outreaches at church; these are not inherently bad things.
difference in tradition and traditionalism; posture of the heart; this shapes us as believers
“Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living”
It is not a bad thing to take the things of our forefathers and continue them; traditions become evil when they are opposed to God’s commands in scripture
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.”
he doesn’t try to defend his disciples; instead he exposes the hypocritical nature of the Pharisees
he calls them hypocrites; lit. actors; they are playing a character that they truly aren’t
teaching commandments of men as doctrines of God(belief of what scripture says)
13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,
it is a show; a theatrical performance
Clark Kent/Superman; to some, he is only the soft-spoken reporter, to others he is the strongest man alive;
too many professing believers are imposters; they act a certain way, talk a certain way when they are at and around the church, but you get them away from it and they turn into someone else; this has brought a stigma to the title “Christian” in our world; close with their words, but distant with their hearts
They hold onto the traditions of men; we can all be legalistic about certain things;(light hearted illustration) I can remember growing up, Frances Furr, used to fuss at me wearing my hat at the church, the same church that we had boy scouts at and I had to wear my hat there. I just didn’t understand. I loved her dearly.
We should do things out of respect, not saying that we need to be disrespectful; but are we holding the traditions of man at a higher level than the word of God (dogmatic about people wearing hats in church while young men in our church are having children with their girlfriends)
This is what we mean by traditionalism
new pastor here and wanted to learn things about the church; ask on occasion why we did things a certain way; “that’s the way we have always done it”
For a church, this can be the death wheeze; traditions can build up a church, traditionalism can be what kills a church
When we are legalistic, this means that we don’t care what the bible says, we are going to do things the way we always have
in many churches, the by-laws hold more weight to the way it operates than God’s word does; let us not be this way
What are we holding higher, God’s word or mans traditions? Legalism results in a focus on traditionalism
Legalism Results in the Word of God Being Rejected
Legalism Results in the Word of God Being Rejected
As Baptist, people of the word; hold God’s word as primary; if scripture says do it, we do it; if it says not to, we don’t
Jesus speaks to them here and digs his heels in; you should not play around with the word of God
9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
quite a charge against them; these were the church leaders
feel certain that it did not start as a blatant rejection of God’s word, but it ended up there; slippery slope; in this instance, maybe it started as they thought it would be a good idea for the priest to wash up even when they weren’t preforming offerings, then they thought that since it was good for the priest to do it that the people would benefit from it, then we get to the time when this was happening in Mark 7, and the disciples are not washing their hands and the Pharisees see this as breaking God’s law, even when God’s law never says it.
So Jesus gives them a lesson in how people will take tradition to reject God’s word
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.”
Take a moment to explain; duty to take care of parents when they are aging; but people would neglect taking care of parents by saying that their money and possessions belong to God; then they would not have the money to take care of parents
God’s word says to take care of parents; tradition says that devoting your money to God is more important
invoke the name of God to justify neglecting their parents; legalism instead of obedience
Have to go back to God’s word; if it is not in God’s word, then it should not be a big deal
Have people in our world who are dying and going to Hell and there are too many churches that are fighting over what the by laws say, what version of the bible that the preacher is using, or what style of music the church is singing instead of going out and sharing the gospel
Conclusion
do we care more about traditions than we do God’s word
the main application that we can get from this passage is to focus on what God’s word says
study it and share it; this is our calling as believers
share the gospel; what is the gospel? (gospel presentation)
repent and believe
after this is baptism; interested in it, talk to me
closing statement: let God’s word live in you and go out and live it to others
