Segregated Elevators and Fickle Minds
Notes
Transcript
So, I went to Pensacola Christian College for my bachelor’s degree. Many of you have heard of this school, but many haven’t. I went there because it was a cheap Christian college. When I started, they charged $5000/yr for room, board, and tuition. When I left, they had increased it to about $6500, I think. Which is a steal.
The rest of the tuition was not in money, but in rules. They had a student handbook with rules, and then they had the unwritten handbook, with even more rules, that you found out once you broke them. Like, I was tired and accidentally walked out of the school library with a book that I hadn’t checked out. The alarms went off and I sheepishly took the book back to the counter. I was charged 25 demerits, not for walking out with a book, but for setting off the alarm.
Demerits were their disciplinary system. If you got less than 25 demerits a semester, your slate was wiped clean. If you got over 75, you were campused, which meant that you had to stay on campus for a period of time. You’re parents were also sent a bad boy letter. If you received 150, you were expelled.
I heard one person say that PCC was like a carnival: you received 150 tickets to spend, after that you get to go home!
I could tell you more stories, like sex segregated elevators and staircases, lights out, room checks, and the underground resistance.
Most of the rules that PCC had were based upon reactions to what students had done in the past. Most of what PCC taught about the Bible and our faith, were based upon what others had taught in the past. Everything was tradition oriented.
Well, that might work to change someone’s actions, but it doesn’t work to change someone’s soul, and therefore it cannot change someone’s status before God.
As Paul records in Galatians:
Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”
This is the simple truth from the very long text that we are going to study today: The just shall live by faith and not by tradition. We are going to look at tradition first, and then will we look at faith.
Before we dive in, will you pray with me?
1. Tradition
1. Tradition
The Pharisees were people of tradition. They were the ruling religious party in Israel at that time. Charles Spurgeon boils down the religious atmosphere: The Pharisees majored on rituals. The Sadducees majored on rationalism.
But perspectives missed the mark. Both were rooted in a form of tradition.
A. Rules
A. Rules
Both focused on following rules in order to be right with God.
At the beginning of our text, the Pharisees approached Jesus with a complaint about the disciples not following the rules:
Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
“ ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’”
It is very human to focus on rules. This helps us discriminate between people who are doing right and people who are doing wrong.
But, as I said, this merely changes someone’s actions, it makes someone act morally, but it does nothing about someone’s soul.
B. Priorities
B. Priorities
This shows in the priorities of the Pharisees, the priorities of Tradition.
Jesus tried to teach the crowd about this:
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”
Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”
“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Those who focus on rules and tradition are focused on the outside of a person. Their priority is that everyone follows what a person is supposed to act like, speak like, interact like.
They are like a dishwasher that is loaded wrong. The outside of the dish is clean, but then you reach down to pick it up, and you have a finger full of some sort of icky slime, because the inside of the dish hasn’t been cleaned.
Tradition prioritizes what we can see as humans. But, we don’t see what God sees.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
The actions of our bodies. The words of our mouth are not what defiles us. Our heart, which controls those actions and those words, are what defiles us.
C. Teaching
C. Teaching
Because of the priorities and the rules of the Pharisees, they taught specific things.
The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.
He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.
Jesus had performed signs after signs.
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
But, the Pharisees refused to see the signs. Even after Jesus fulfilled the sign of Jonah by rising from the dead, they refused to see it. They refused to believe, because they were caught up in their rules, their priorities, their tradition.
Jesus turned to the Disciples and told them:
When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
He told the disciples don’t follow the teaching of tradition, because it will not fulfill what we need. It will not change our soul. It will not make us right with God.
What will?
2. Faith
2. Faith
Faith. Because rules will not change our hearts, our minds, our affections.
A. Sinfulness of Our Hearts
A. Sinfulness of Our Hearts
Jesus in our passage is pretty clear about the sinfulness of our hearts.
“Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
Our hearts are sinful, despite the popular motif from Disney: Follow your heart!
It is because of people following their heart that we have drug and alcohol abuse, broken families, school shootings, suicides, rape.
The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
Following our heart is not the answer, because it is wicked. Trying to change our actions is not the answer either, because it doesn’t change the heart.
It’s like trying to do weed control by just snipping the stalks off of the plant, but the root is still there. It’s still going to grow! The shape of the stalk and the orientation of the leaves might be different, but it is still a weed.
No, tradition with its rules and its priorities doesn’t work. Leaving the week and letting it grow doesn’t work.
We need a heart transplant. And God has promised to do this, if we let him.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
He stands ready with a new heart and an open ER, waiting for us to sign the consent form. But, we keep finding different excuses, trying different cures, that will not help.
Oh, the sinfulness of our hearts.
B. The Forgetfulness of Our Minds
B. The Forgetfulness of Our Minds
We also struggle with the forgetfulness of our minds.
Last week, we studied how Jesus fed the 5000 plus with only 5 loaves and 2 fish.
Well, possibly 6 months have past, when we pick up the narrative in Matthew 15:29.
Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
“How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked.
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was four thousand men, besides women and children. After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.
6 months is a rather long time. But, with a miracle as drastic as miraculously causing 5 loaves and 2 fish to explode into enough food for over 5000 people, you’d think the disciples would remember. However, the disciples, when faced with 20% less people and 2 more loaves, they still ask Jesus:
His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
We are people who forget the amazing power and character of our God. We are like the Israelites saying that we should have stayed in Egypt, because God has brought us out here to die.
Yeah, we are sinful, we are forgetful.
C. The Fickleness of Our Affections
C. The Fickleness of Our Affections
We are also fickle. I don’t get to say that word very often. Our affections change so easily, based on the most absurd and base stimulii.
And the disciples were the same. They had been with Jesus two years or so, and Jesus still has to warn them against the traditional teaching of the Pharisees.
When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
They had seen Jesus perform such amazing miracles: he provided food, sight, hearing, ability to walk, freedom from spiritual bondage. He provides everything that we need, so that we will follow him.
But, so often, in the face of need, our affection is turned to the one who can seemingly provide that need right now, or the one who has provided it for us, seemingly, in the past. Following Jesus doesn’t seem to be working at this stage, so I am going to go back to what I used to do. Our affections get swayed and we throw Jesus in the ditch. Even though the thing in the past never really supplied.
Oh, the fickleness of our affections, the forgetfulness of our minds, the sinfulness of our hearts.
We need something to change us and the teaching of the Pharisees, their traditions, rules, and priorities will do nothing for us.
D. The Simplicity of Faith
D. The Simplicity of Faith
That is why the just live by faith and not by tradition.
In the middle of our text for today, we read a story about a Canaanite woman:
I love this story.
Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”
Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.
This lady is not a Jew. She hasn’t been to synagogue or studied the Old Testament law. But she knew some things.
She approached Jesus as Lord: Yahweh, the one true God. Son of David, the Messiah come to save the world, and all she does is come and say: Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, help me!
She doesn’t explain how she is worthy, in fact she admits that she is not. She doesn’t try to earn his favor or follow the rules. She comes and kneels before him and begs for mercy, knowing who he is and what he can do.
We are all stuck in our sinfulness, our forgetfulness, our fickleness, and we need a heart transplant. And Jesus is waiting to fix our heart, our mind, our affections, if we would come like the Canaanite woman and cry to the one true God, confessing our faith in who he is and what he has done, and beg him to have mercy and help us.
Will you do that today?
