Mark Chapter 7
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Students! It’s great to be back!
I missed being away and am sure you missed me as well 🤣
But man I had some fun without you guys — pictures of Gideon
But hey you guys will meet him at some point!
Anyways lets get on with the book of Mark!
Two weeks ago Matthew went through Mark chapter 6, so we are jumping into Mark chapter 7!
Traditions
Traditions
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?”
Chapter 7 starts with the Pharisees challenging Jesus
They see His disciples eating without washing their hands — without purifying themselves
Whereas the Pharisees would perform the process of becoming ceremonially clean before they would eat
The Pharisees take the law with all seriousness
They put the Law above everything
That’s why they come to Jesus and ask why His disciples do this
They are looking at the disciples and are judging them because of their lack of what they are discerning as discipline
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.”
Jesus looks at them and responds in the best way possible — with Scripture!
He quotes from the book of Isaiah showing them how they are missing the point
This leads to our first point of tonight:
Jesus > Tradition
We must keep Jesus first in our priorities
He must be first in everything that we do
See here is the dilemma — what the Pharisees are doing isn’t bad
In the Law the are commanded to clean themselves before eating — the are commanded to do this before the Lord
It isn’t a bad thing — even with Jesus being present — for them to do this
The problem comes when they made the most important thing being clean instead of Jesus
Here’s the reality — we sit here and think that sounds crazy and that we would never do something like this
BUT
I’d be willing to bet we are more like the Pharisees than we are the disciples
I would put money on the fact that we rely to much on our self and not on Jesus
See that is what the Pharisees are doing here
They aren’t relying on Jesus — they are relying on themselves
They are trusting in their power
In their ability to become clean
Don’t we do this all the time?
We trust in our power and our ability all the time
We try to make ourself look good
We try to make ourself clean
We try to fix our issues
And we can’t
We are just like the Pharisees relying on our traditions
We are miss the point
We cannot fix ourselves
It’s a heart problem
It’s a heart problem
Listen what Jesus continues to say
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.
Jesus then continues this thought by telling them that its not what goes inside the body that makes them sinful — its what comes out
He’s telling this to the Pharisees who saw cleaning as the most important thing — they didn’t want anything unclean to enter their body
Jesus responds by telling them it isn’t what enters that makes them unclean — it’s what they do with it
He is using this to show them that all food is clean to eat — something that later in the book of Acts Peter (one of Jesus’ disciples) gets a vision of
Here’s the second thing Jesus is teaching us here
Sin starts in the heart
Sin always starts in the heart
Sin is always a heart problem for us!
It’s not about the actions — its about the heart
The actions are bad because our heart is bad
Let me explain:
If you go against one of God’s commandments
Don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery (outside of marriage, or inside marriage)
The action isn’t the sinful part
The action isn’t what damns us to hell
The heart behind the action is what does it
The heart / motive behind the action — murder, stealing, adultery — is saying I am greater than God
I know more than God
I can choose what I want to do
That is when the action becomes sinful
Not the action, but the heart behind it
You start to believe that you are God, that you are greater than God
Than you can do it and God doesn’t know anything
Thats when it becomes sinful
Jesus is looking at the Pharisees, the disciples, and us saying — I care about your heart, not your actions
Don’t get me wrong your actions matter — but heres the reality
When your heart is chasing after God and not yourself your actions will follow
Listen to what Jesus said in the book of Luke
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks
Or out of the abundance of the heart the body acts
If you are chasing after God with your heart you won’t do the sinful actions — murder, stealing, adultery
Jesus doesn’t care about our actions — he cares about the heart
Because heres the thing: you can do the right thing with the wrong motives
Think about the Pharisees in the verses earlier — they were doing what God commanded — to wash before eating
But their wasn’t in it for God — they only did it for themselves
The right actions, wrong motives — thus it is sinful and Jesus calls them out of it
Our heart is the root of sin — it’s where sin starts and Jesus is warning us of that
Jesus saves
Jesus saves
Heres how Jesus ends this section
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.”
He finishes by reinforcing what comes from the heart
That the heart of man is only evil
He is essentially stating what Paul later says in Romans
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
That all people have sinned
That their heart is sinful — it only produces sinful things
Isaiah tells us how we are all like sheep and all of us go astray
That we cannot choose God, but will always infinitely choose to go against God
We are sinful
And Jesus is telling the disciples and us this truth
But here’s the beauty — and the last thing we can take away from this section:
Jesus gives us a new heart
Jesus when we accept Him as Savior and Lord gives us a new heart
He makes us clean — he not only forgives our sin — but gives us a new nature
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
We are made as a new creation when we accept Jesus as Lord
We are given a new heart and a new motive
We are no longer slaves to sin, but now we are slaves to righteousness
We are given a new heart and a new nature — the ability to follow Him!
If you are far from Jesus — if you feel like you are under the power of sin and cannot break the strongholds of sin — guess what: YOU CAN’T!
Instead RUN TO JESUS
Jesus forgives sin and creates in us a new heart — a new nature
He is the one that forgives!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Our traditions —what we do for ourself — it doesn’t save us
We cannot save ourselves
In fact we can only ever get farther away from the Lord
Our heart is the root of all sin
BUT
That’s where Jesus comes in
He offers forgiveness — he offers us a new life and new heart
A new nature for us to follow Him
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
How can we ensure that our worship is genuine and not just a performance of traditions?
In what ways can understanding that sin starts in the heart change how we approach temptation?
What are some practical steps we can take to keep Jesus at the center of our lives?
What are some areas in your life where you might be relying on your own power instead of trusting in Jesus?
How can we support each other in our youth group to develop hearts that reflect Christ's love and righteousness?
