Cleansed from Within: The Heart of the Matter Mark 7:14-23
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Cleansed from Within: The Heart of the Matter
Cleansed from Within: The Heart of the Matter
Bible Passage: Mark 7:14–23
Bible Passage: Mark 7:14–23
Introduction
Introduction
For anyone who doesn’t know me I am Sherdan White I am the associate pastor here at Calvary Chapel Nanaimo. What is the purpose of an associate pastor? Well that is different for many churches. In this church it is when Graeme has an emergency I am here!
In all seriousness Greame found out yesterday morning his grand daughters are getting baptized today! Not only did he want to be there to witness this tremendous decision they were making but apparently it was also requested of him to take part in the service! So I got the call at 9am saying hey can you preach?
You can ask Crystal my immidiate reaction was are you crazy?? I have to work, I have a client calling from Quebec today & I have to be in ladysmith in an hour, I am suppose to be letting contractors into the house, I have issues with the lawyers this is going to take all day.
Plus I have to write a sermon to be ready for tomorrow?
So my wife being who she is says STOP, pray about it take it to the Lord and than decide.
I told her, I know you think its fine you don’t have a sermon to prepare!!
But following the instructions of the one the Lord put in my life as my universe organizer and helper. I stood in the shower (This is probably too much information) and I started negotiating with God.
Understand, Graeme called me but said listen I am not prepared to preach but if you feel this is somthing you can do let me know.
A obident associate Pastor would say “of course, in fact I already prepared a sermon for exactly a moment like this.
NOT ME!
Now I am negotiating with God, ( I do not recommend doing this) saying OK God if I am suppose to do this I have three contractors I am suppose to meet today, If I am suppose to do this reschedule all three appointments and clear my schedule I get out of the shower & all three got back to me “sorry I know we were hoping to do today but could we do Monday?” The Lawyer called and to let me know that they will handle everything and need nothing from me and everything that needed to be worked out was exactly that.
Ok Lord I am listening and looks like I am writing a sermon! So have patience with me today!
Here is the cool thing, I was looking for every reason to tell Graeme I would love to cover for you but it is just not going to work I just don’t have enough time to prepare, Crystal pulled me aside and said: Just read the next section of Scripture we are going to cover, just look at it and ponder it before you decide.
And I read the passage and as I read it I realized that without knowing it the Lord was preparing me for this next section of scripture throughout the week:
We are in Mark 7: 14-23
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)
He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
As I read this passage the passage the Lord had for his church, the next passage we were going to go through together, I had this though, this passage in fact all of chapter 7 is Jesus speaking to the the Pharasee’s, the teachers of the Law, and the new JEWISH believers about “that which difiles”
Lets look back at what we know to be true at this time!
Jesus is speaking to who? Jews and pharasees
Did the Jews and Pharasees understand the law? Yes
They were previously under the law, are they still under the law? Yes
Are we under the law? No
1. Challenge to Conformity
1. Challenge to Conformity
Mark 7:14-15
As this point in time Jesus was speaking to a group of Jews that came from a lifetime of being under the law not only the 10 comandments but remember the 613 Jewish laws, Mosaic Laws, that are found in the old testiment, found in Exodus & Leviticus. In no small part these told the Jews how they were to live, dress, and what was clean and unclean. The Pharises went on to add laws on laws including the cemermonial washing prior to a meal least it become unclean! Jesus challenges the prevailing view of the time that these Jews would have understood and said:
Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”
Let me clarify, one thing this is not to say that there are not defiling things that we can take into ourselves (such as pornography). But in this specific context, Jesus spoke about ceremonial cleanliness in regard to food, and He anticipated the time when under the New Covenant all foods would be declared kosher.
Jesus was taking the cerimonial ritual cleansing, somthing that if a Jew did NOT DO or adhear to under the old covanat, would have been understood to be sinful against God. Jesus said “listen its not the outward cerimony that makes you rightous or the ritual that purifies but what is in your heart that the Lord sees and judges.”
The Jews in Jesus’ day would have seen following the Law as a good thing, a righteous thing to do, so cerimonal cleansing was good and eating food that was defiled by diry hands as a sin. There was a ritual put into place so they could determine what was deemed “good” and “bad” according to the law.
Are there any rituals of the world that we take part in today where the boundary of God’s law and tradition run against eachother?
I am going to step out and take a risk here and say some would consider what we did as a church Friday night taking part in an evil and demonic ritual, one the world celebrates. Halloween.
There is no doubt that the North American Ritual of cellebrating Halloween is steeped in evil and the demonic. No question, we saw the costumes being worn by even the small children as they walked through this gym.
So if we know that halloween is steeped in evil and the demonic, the question always arise “Should we as Christians take part in Halloween?”
Remember how I mentioned at the beginning the Lord was preparing my heart for this message? Follow me here, I want to address this because maybe there is someone here today that is wrestling with this question.
Earlier this week before I realized the section of scripture I was going to be teaching or the fact that I would be preaching the Sunday following halloween I was actually considering this exact question.
Should Christians take part in the worldly ritual, of Halloween?
In considering this I was listening to a pastor out of Texas, Josh Howerton, who was asked this question and his response resonated with me. I am going to give you the coles notes:
He said when it comes to the question of if a Christian should participate in Halloween, or any question as Christians we will face when considering the world, there is a 3 fold test can consider he called the 3 R’s
Recieve
Reject
Redeem
There are some things in this world we can
Recieve: There are some things in the world that Christians can recieve. Help for instance, we might have a hairdresser that is an athiest we can still recieve from them a service even though they are not a believer. We can recieve from the world
Reject: There are things that we explicitly regect like Pornography. These are things we outrightly reject as evil.
Redeem: So the question is should Christians redeem modern North American ritual of Halloween?
We actually have a really good analog in 1 Corinthians 8 to help us answer this question.
In Corinth, we have all of these Christians that just converted out of peganism. What they use to do is they use to go to their pagan, demonic, temples and they would offer sacrifices there and then they would take the meat that was offered to demonic false gods, they would cook it and they would eat it. The extra was taken to market in town.
All of these people came out of this and are now Christians and they are like “Hey man when we go to the store, God said worship no other Gods but when we go to Roman equivalant to Save on Foods there is this meat in the ‘previously sacrificed to idols section’ and its a litte cheaper, are we allowed to get the bacon from that section and eat it?”
This is what is interesting it is the exact same situation. If we look at the question in the text today and in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and the question today it is the same question!
Christians today look at Halloween and say “Hey Halloween seems demonic. Christians shouldn’t have anything to do with things that are demonic.”
Than other people are like “Yea…. but it’s just kids dressing up like a fireman and I am going out with my Christian buddies or as a Church and we are just trying to share Christ with the neighborhood that is coming by. Can we redeem that?”
Paul’s principals in 1 Corinthians 8 and in our passage in Mark 7 I would posit the spirit of what Jesus is saying is the same!
The principles are these:
The meat is fine
Everyone needs to be convinced of this in their conscience, the second principal is never violate your conscince. I would apply that here, if there is anything that is inside of a Christian that says “I don’t think I should be doing this” Don’t, because the word says you will defile your conscience if you feel like it is wrong and you do it anyway.
Don’t bind other people consciences by your own. In otherwords just because others are doing it doesn’t mean you should, if the Lord has put a check in your Spirit, listen to it!
Don’t look down on other people.
We have explicit biblical comands to have nothing to do with the sorcery, darkness, evil things.
So in our family we don’t take part in watching movies that include witches, demons, hauntings, evil spirits. We just don’t have anything to do with them.
What we did as a church Friday night was we set up this gym with games, lights and music, all for what purpose?
To Glorify Jesus.
I think this is a great example of somthing that the world has that celebrates evil that we as ambassadors for Christ can redeem.
But here is the key who is it glorifying, is it glorifying the world, ourselves, or is it Glorifying Jesus? This is the question we need to ask ourselves.
Let me reitterate it may not be for everyone, as believers we need to heed the spirit, each individually to what the Lord’s will is in our lives and strive to honor Him. That is the call on each of our lives.
Which is somthing I think was achieved Friday night. Thank you again to everyone who took part, I think it was a light to our community in an otherwise dark time.
Stepping backing into Mark:
Jesus' invitation to us as believers is to reflect on their own lives, considering how our thoughts and motivations must align with God's will. This dramatic shift in thinking emphasizes that cleansing comes from within and through faith in Christ. There is an importance set out by Jesus not to focus on outword appearance or rituals but our focus is on inner purity. This challenge calls believers to focus not on ritualistic acts but on a heart transformed by Christ.
Jesus is telling them the same message in our passage in Mark 7 as Paul in 1 Corinthians 8 it is not what goes into your body that defiles you but what comes out!
This is reitterated in Luke 6:45
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.
It is made clear that in ourselves our hearts are wicked it is only through the transformative work of Jesus in our lives that the purity required to please God can be achieved.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
God is not looking on the outside to see if you have everything together like the pharasee. He is interested in your heart.
Somtimes we as Christians miss it, we get caught up in what other Christians are doing and judge them based on our own understandings and what we think God wants without truly understanding His will.
Our outward appearance says one thing, but our heart says somthing completly different.
The world has a word they like to call Christians that don’t practice what you preach:
Hypocrite
When someone lets something come out that they maybe thought in their mind and didn’t mean to share we say it “Slipped out” or “you used your inside voice”. Jesus is saying there is no such thing! From your mouth speaks the aboundance of the heart!
Jesus warns Mark 7:21-23
For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
I think if we are being honest we can look look inwardly and understand at a deep level the words Jesus spoke here is true.
I know it is true in my life, I didn’t realize the true extent of this until I became a parent. Having children I believe is Gods way of showing us 2 incredible truths.
We get a glimpse of what unconditional love is. It is no accident that we are given the understanding of the trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. As a parent you start to get a glimpse of understanding of what unconditional love might look like. I have a love for my kids that I never understood before I had them. I would do absolutly anything for them
At the same time they test me beyond what I ever thought possible. I have come to realize,
I am in and of myself not “good” there is anger, resentment, fear, and mallace. I read through the discripters of what Jesus says comes form the heart and realize yes that is me!
It took me becoming a parent to see some of the intentions of my heart I didn’t previously know I had.
but here is the beautiful truth that sets Jesus appart from every other religion.
In every other religion you are told what you must DO to earn favour with God. What works you must achieve to please god so that one day might make God happy enough with you to get to heaven.
Jesus on the other hand shows us true unconditional love, He is the only one in history that said I love you so much I am willing to die on a cross to take the penalty of your sin the wickedness that comes from your heart.
The beautiful diffence in Christ is,It is not what we can do for God but what God did for us because he Loves us! Because He wants a relationship with us even though we don’t deserve it.
All that is asked is that we repent from our sin that comes from our hearts, surrender it to Him, turn away from it and honor him with our lives.
If you are here today and maybe you are wondering how Jesus could want a relationship with you? Or you feel maybe you have fallen too far to ever have a relationship with him I have a list of biblical truths, verses that have helped me not only understand the Lords heart towards this sinner but His heart towards each and every person.
I want you to write these down.
If you are a believer in Christ but maybe life has kept hitting you and maybe you are feeling defeated I want you to write these verses down as a reminder of the Good news we have in Christ Jesus.! I would encourage you to first write them in your bible and than memorize them.
I wrote down these verses in my bible in oder to remember the gift we have in Him and it is a great way to share the very promises Christ has given each and everyone who gives their life to Him. This is the tranforming work of Christ that can take a wicked heart like mine and transform it into the likeness of God Himself.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Why is this needed, why do we need Jesus?
for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus.
We see though our passage today It is not the works that we can do, we can not purify our own hearts. Jesus has made that abbundantly clear.
What are we to do
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord
We are unable to live the Christian life on our own however, it is promised when you accept Jesus you will be given a helper in the form of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
How do we take every thought and make it obediant to Christ? By being in the word studying the Bible allows us to understand the very charater of God and know him personally.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.
this means to deeply and fully allow the word of Christ the Bible to be a central, governing part of your life. This involves not only reading and understanding scripture, but allowing the Holy Spirit to transform your thinking.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
It is through prayer talking to God that our relationship with Him is streanthened.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
He not only promises that he hears us when we pray but He is there when we seek him.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Finally he promises us that no matter where we are if we seek Him witho our whole heart we are not going to be left wanting. When we seek him he is there.
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts.
The message is the same yesterday today and forever, Jesus wants our hearts, not a part of it but the whole thing. When surrender outselves to him the promise is He will never leave us and never foresake us. We are to taste and see that the Lord is Good.
If this is somthing you have never had and you want please, I emplore you, today is the day of salvation, Jesus loves you and wants a relationship with you. All he asks is you come to him with your heart ready to recieve Him. If that is you today I would encorage you to come forward and we can pray together.
Today is a special Sunday. we are going to share in the Lords supper. This is simply a time to remember what we just finished discussing remembering what Jesus did for us at the Cross.
We do this not as a tradition, but in rememberance and thanksgiving for what Christ did.
We are called before taking communion each to examine ourselves if there is anything between you and the Lord that you need to bring to him do that. We will take a few minutes and maybe if Daniella you could come up we can spend some time with the Lord.
There is a further request that if you do not have a relationship with the Lord that you obstain form taking part.
But lets go to the Lord together in prayer.
the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
