Tradition and Vain Worship
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· 302 viewsHypocrites are self-righteous, focus on externals, and elevate tradition above Scripture.
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Introduction:
All of us have traditions. Everyone in this room has certain traditions they have had passed down to them. In fact, tradition simply means that which has been handed down or passed down.
Or even some develop new traditions, new traditions that you may pass on to your kids.
Maybe your family has traditions on holidays. Maybe you have the tradition of eating a big meal Christmas Eve, and opening Christmas presents at midnight. Or your family opens Christmas presents in the morning, with fresh baked cookies and you spend the day building ginger bread houses watching movies like Home Alone or Charlie Brown Christmas.
Churches have tradition.
Every church has traditions. Baptists have traditions. Presbyterians have traditions. Lutheran or Anglican tradition. Some churches read from a particular translation or they have a specific order of service. They may sing some favorite songs or hymns.
Or even in this church, we usually celebrate Mother’s Day or Father’s Day or Graduations or you were a Barong on Filipino Independence day.
Every Sunday, we have potluck lunch whereas other churches don’t? Why? It is a tradition of CFBC to have potluck lunch.
Countries have traditions.
You go to a baseball game, and it is tradition to sing the national anthem. On July 4th, we celebrate Independence Day with fireworks. Schools say the pledge of allegiance. These are traditions that have been passed down to remember our history as a nation.
The Bible has traditions.
Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
2 Thessalonians
Traditions are not necessarily evil. Traditions can help teach and aid someone in remembering important lessons in history. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, and traditions help us get up to speed whether it is family or in the church or as a citizen of a country.
But when does tradition go wrong? When does tradition turn into traditionalism? What we are against is capital T tradition.
Main Proposition:
Well in our passage today, , which is really one section all the way to verse 23 which we will tackle next week, we will see tradition goes wrong when it leads to legalism, vain worship, and hypocrisy.
We are not against lower case tradition, we are against capital case Tradition.
Traditionalism
“Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
We don’t want a dead and cold and lifeless faith. We don’t want to worship God in vain.
Traditionalism is wicked when it is legalistic, empty in its worship, and hypocritical. And we will see that those are the marks of a hypocrite. A hypocrite is legalistic or self-righteous, he is worships externally, but not internally, and he elevates tradition over Scripture. And we as a church want to make sure that tradition always serves Scripture, rather than Scripture serving tradition.
And we want to do this so that we wouldn’t be self-righteous and hypocritical in our worship.
Let’s look at our text:
Scripture Reading:
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 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.) 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?” 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;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 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)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Legalism and Hypocrisy
I. Self-Righteousness vs. Righteousness
I. Self-Righteousness vs. Righteousness
As we will see, one of the marks of a hypocrite is that it looks down on others. It is critical of others. It is hard on others when others do not live up to the rules set up by the person. We see that in Jesus’ time.
Tradition goes wrong when it makes one self-righteous and critical.
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,
You remember Jesus had just walked on water displaying his divinity to the disciples. The boat arrives at Genessaret, and Jesus is healing people from the towns, villages, and marketplaces.
We would say that the news of Jesus is trending or he was popular among the Galileans. And notice that the Pharisees and the scribes who had come from Jerusalem came up to Galilee to criticize him. They wanted to see what the buzz was.
they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.
Pharisees meant separated ones. These religious leaders were considered the guardians and interpreters of God’s law. They wanted to remain separate from others to maintain their religious identity and purity.
Scribes were a subset group of the Pharisees. They were called lawyers or the legal experts who would spend their time debating the interpretation of the Law from various rabbinic perspectives.
They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is unwashed.
They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is unwashed.
The literal translation was that they ate with common hands where we the word koine is derived. They did not engage in the ritual that the Jews and Rabbis had practiced before they ate their bread.
We tell our kids to wash their hands before they eat. And if you go to a bathroom at a Starbucks, the sign says “Employees must wash their hands before returning to work.”
And we wash our hands for hygienic purposes. But the Pharisees and Scribes washed their hands for religious and ceremonial purposes.
For instance, the Old Testament law required the priests of Israel to wash their hands before they entered the Holy Place and offered sacrifices. However, there was no law that required ordinary people to go through a ritual cleansing before they ate
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 155). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Although the Law only prescribed the priests to wash their hands, the Rabbis extended that command to all the Jews. They were extremely devoted. And they wanted to extend the Law to all of life and washings was a ceremonial and religious act that marked you off from the unclean Gentile community.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 155). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
And Mark, writing to a predominately Gentile audience gives the explanation, that is why verse 3 and 4 are in parentheses.
(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 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.)
Mark 7:3-4
Tradition of the Elders
Presbetereous is where we get the word elders from. Now the tradition of elders is the body of oral tradition that was passed down from the scribes and rabbis. The rabbis believed that God not only gave us Holy Scripture, but gave us the oral tradition of Moses to apply that Scripture.
The command to keep the Sabbath is clear. But how do we keep the Sabbath? Same thing with honoring parents. How do you honor your parents.
The Jews had the Halakhah, which included the oral teachings of the rabbis.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 155). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition
And the Mishnah was composed around A.D. 200. Talmud would be rabbinic commentary on both Mishnah and OT.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)
rabbis promoted the idea that Moses had received two laws on Mt. Sinai, the written Torah and the oral Mishnah. The Mishnah was believed to preserve an unbroken chain of authorized tradition extending from Moses to the “Great Synagogue” of Jesus’ day (m. Avot 1:1–13). The Mishnah called the oral interpretation “a fence around the Torah” (m. Avot 3:13)—“fence” being understood as preservation of the integrity of the written law by elaborating every conceivable implication of it
The tradition was to be a fence around the law. But the fence became a barrier to the true intent of the Law. The fence became a wall to prevent people from knowing what God said.
The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Mark A Foretaste of Confrontation in Jerusalem: The Issue of Purity (7:1–23)
The food laws of Lv. 11 and 17, and the whole concept of ritual purity which underlies them, were of central importance to Jewish culture and identity. Together with the rite of circumcision and their observance of the sabbath, the literal adherence to these dietary laws served to mark out the Jews as the distinctive people of God, and to separate them socially from other people. The sharing of meals is one of the most basic forms of social integration, and these laws effectively made it impossible for Jews to share in meals prepared by non-Jews.
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?”
Why do YOUR disciples not walk/live according to the tradition of the elders? They are accusing and criticizing Jesus. If you were a true Rabbi, a true lover of Moses, you would follow the tradition of the elders and the Scribes and rabbis?
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: The Servant-Teacher (Mark 7:1–8:26)
The Mishna, a collection of Jewish traditions in the Talmud, records, “It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself.”
The danger of Tradition is that it takes man-made rules and turns them into Law and Scripture where the Bible is silent.
Legalism will elevate human opinion to Law in order to justify oneself before God and outwardly appear more righteous than others.
Legalism happens not only in Israel, but in churches today.
You are not really Christian if you go to public school and not homeschool. You are not really Christian if you vote democrat and not republican. You are not really Christian if you drink, dance, smoke, play video games, watch movies.
Just think about how we can take the Word of God and just club people with it.
says Submit right. Well, what does Submission look like. Does submission mean the wife has no say? Does submission mean a wife can’t work outside the home? Does submission mean a wife must always cook her husband lunch and dinner?
Or the issue of modesty? Are dresses be worn on Sunday? If so, how short? How long?
Or clothing? Should we wear ties? Coats? Sneakers?
Should parents discipline their children? Should they use sandal or a stick? Should they give time out or spanking?
Now there is nothing wrong with a particular tradition or applications, it is when we elevate that tradition as equally authoritative as divine and God’s Word.
Where we take something that is generally wise, and make it law. And when others don’t follow our laws, we look down on others.
We won’t say that outwardly, but our inward attitudes may reflect the legalism of the Pharisees. Where we elevate preference to law, and we major on the minors while failing to major on the majors.
Christian, be careful to not elevate your preferences about Scripture.
Because when you do, you will be overtly critical to those who don’t follow your preferences. Or you will be a proud self-righteous person who no one wants be around. When you seek to bind people’s consciences where Scripture does not, you fall into the trap of legalism. I think all of us have been guilty of this at times because we are naturally legalists and we look down on others where we excel, but where others excel we look at ourselves in self-pity.
2. Christian, be careful of disregarding what the Law actually says in order to lessen the force of the law, to elevate yourself in the eyes of God, or the eyes of man.
Isn’t that why Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. The true intent of the Law was lost. The Law was never the problem, it is wicked people trying to lessen the demands of the Law so that we can appear more righteous and we can justify ourselves.
The Pharisees took the principle of ritual purity, and took it to another level. And you can be external righteous, but inwardly impure.
3. If you are overtly critical and always looking down on others, while never being critical on your own sin and your own shortcomings, maybe you are guilty of self-righteousness.
Everyone in this room have been at times guilty of looking down on others because they didn’t live up to your preferences, and now being critical and examining your own self before God.
When you measure your standard of righteousness with others, while never examining your own righteousness in light of God’s righteousness, you will exalt yourself and look down on others.
The major problem with legalism is that it is a subtle form of idolatry; it elevates that which is human above that which is divine. It substitutes human traditions, human policies, and human regulations for the very Word of God.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 158). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 158). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
But when you look into God’s holy law and see the true intent of God’s law, you can’t help but with Isaiah say,
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Church-As a church, we can give lip service to Sola Scriptura, but functionally we hold on to traditions.
We can’t change our doctrinal statement because its our tradition.
We can’t have elders because that is not a tradition of baptist churches.
We can’t discipline because thats not what our church does.
That’s now how we used to do it!
We must govern everything according to fidelity to Scripture, not our opinions or traditions.
Transition: Tradition becomes vain when it is self-righteous and critical of others, but second, tradition is hypocritical and vain when it focuses on externals rather than what goes on in the heart....
II. External Worship vs. Internal Worship (vv. 6-9)
II. External Worship vs. Internal Worship (vv. 6-9)
Notice how Jesus responds to the accusation:
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;
Mark
Jesus doesn’t quote a Rabbi, he quotes a prophet. He doesn’t quote a tradition, he quotes Scripture saying it is written.
I think that is a good principle of life: what does the Bible say. Baptists don’t do that! I don’t care if Baptists don’t do that, what does the Bible say?
Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites!
A hypocrite was the word used taken from the Greek Theater. A hypocrite would wear different masks in the play. He was an actor. He was pretending to be something he was not in reality.
This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts is far from me.
Jesus is quoting from Isaiah the prophet. in particular
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,
The prophet Isaiah condemned the people who worshipped God with empty ritual. And just like the Israelites who offered sacrifices without the right heart, the Pharisees were more concerned about external appearances than what was going on in the heart.
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;
for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master’s crib,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”
Ah, sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have forsaken the Lord,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
“When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Why will you still be struck down?
Why will you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head,
there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores
and raw wounds;
they are not pressed out or bound up
or softened with oil.
Your country lies desolate;
your cities are burned with fire;
in your very presence
foreigners devour your land;
it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.
And the daughter of Zion is left
like a booth in a vineyard,
like a lodge in a cucumber field,
like a besieged city.
If the Lord of hosts
had not left us a few survivors,
we should have been like Sodom,
and become like Gomorrah.
Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
Isaiah
The problem was not the sacrifices, or the festivals, but it was the wrong attitude.
It would be like bringing your wife flowers on Valentines day, while watching porn throughout the day or texting or chatting with another women. The flowers is an empty ritual if there is not a heart and fidelity behind that.
How many Christians do that today?
You can come to service. Sing the song on your lips, recite the Scripture being read, amen the sermon being preached, yet it is an act you play on Sunday when Monday comes. You have a mask for church, you have another mask for home, you have another mask for work or school, and you utter these things without heart.
For some, church can just be an empty ritual. It could be vain and empty when it is only focused on the externals.
To worship God externally, but not to treasure him supremely is ultimately vain worship. To worship God in the lips, and not in the heart is abominable and hypocritical before God.
The heart is the control center of the human will, emotions, and thought processes.
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Their worship is vain. Empty. Without profit. Without purposes.
Could it be that there are many worshippers in church who never really learned how to worship? It was all a front?
Maybe you care more about going to church to show face, rather than come humbly before the face of God.
Maybe you pray better in public, than you do in private.
Maybe you amen the sermons, but your life throughout the week says a different story.
Maybe you say you love God, but you are secretly loving and harboring a secret sin in your life.
The activities that go on in the church can just be an empty ritual if your attitude or your heart is not in it.
Let me say that there all times where we didn’t feel it, and we confess that to the Lord and ask him to renew us from within.
The pharisees and Scribes held to the teaching as doctrines and commandments of men.
Jesus had a pointed rebuke for them and for us who care more about externals rather than what goes on in our hearts.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
These men were more concerned about clean hands, rather than clean hearts. They were more concerned about external purity rather than internal purity.
The only defilement that the disciples need worry about has to do with the heart, not the hands, with evil thoughts that leak out from within a person, not food that ends up in the latrine.
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 276). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
It is so easy for religious people to obey all the regulations and believe all the correct doctrines in a perfunctory way, but their heart is not in it....Goodness comes from inner purity, a life transformed within, rather than from the pure observance of rules and doctrine.
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 286). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
1. Be careful of lip service rather than service from the heart. Guard your heart. Maintain your heart. Cultivate your heart. Cultivate your soul.
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn your righteous rules.
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
Psalmist 119:
I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart!
Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
and observe it with my whole heart.
2. Pray God would grant you an undivided and sincere heart.
Incline my heart to your testimonies,
and not to selfish gain!
3. Confess sin often and regularly so that you would not play the hypocrite
Confess your heartlessness. Confess your apathy. Ask God to grant you an undivided heart.
4. Be careful of not going through the motions of church without the heart.
Because even Christian activity can turn into empty ritual if you are not cultivating your heart before God.
And we see prayer was so important in Jesus’ life. He was cultivating his inner life. Make sure you are doing that to.
All Christians Are Hypocrites!
You know what that is true. We all don’t live up to what we say or do.Because we are fallen and to be human is to be inconsistent. Every human has been hypocritical. It is a matter of degree.
And for a person saying that, you have hypocrisy in your own life. You can be harsh and critical on others, but fail to put that same standard on yourself.
The Bible says
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
And we all need grace to move from hypocrite to sincerity and being honest with ourselves.
To become Christian is one sense to confess your hypocrisy and duplicity and own up to your hypocrisy and ask Jesus to help you be like Him who was not a hypocrite.
Is that you?
Transition: Christian actors care are proud people who focus on appearances than humble people who focus on the heart. But thirdly, tradition goes wrong and becomes hypocrisy when tradition is the final authority and Scripture is not.
III. Tradition vs. Scripture (vv. 9-13)
III. Tradition vs. Scripture (vv. 9-13)
I listened to a sermon this week and the preacher used the Fiddler on the Roof as an introduction. I looked up the lyrics and I thought this tied in so well that I had to use as well:
"Because of our traditions, we've kept our balance for many, many years.
Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything...
how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes.
For instance, we always keep our heads covered and always wear a little prayer shawl...
This shows our constant devotion to God. You may ask, how did this tradition start?
I'll tell you - I don't know. But it's a tradition...
Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do."
The thought is that God approves of these traditions, when in reality some traditions don’t find any basis in Scripture.
Devotion to God
Tradition goes wrong when it elevates tradition above Scripture.
Tradition serves Scripture not the other way around. When tradition contradicts Scripture, we must always choose Scripture over tradition.
But the Pharisees elevated tradition above Scripture.
This was one of the debates in the Reformation. The battle cry of the Reformation was Sola Scriptura or Scripture Alone.
RC and Tradition
In the late medieval period, the John Huss who was condemned by church officials said,
“Show me from Scripture and I will repent and recant!”
For the Reformers, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, all authority, whether it was the pope, the creeds and traditions of the church must be subordinate to Scripture.
Scripture is the word of God and the voice of God and Scripture was the final authority.
In the famous words of Martin Luther:
“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise, here I stand, may God help me, Amen.”
It wasn’t that the Roman Catholic Church denied the Bible, they added to the Bible with their traditions. This is why the RC contains extrabiblical books like the Apocrypha and beliefs that are not found in Scripture such as purgatory, the immaculate conception of Mary and bodily assumption of Mary. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says,
“The catholic church does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”
Protestants reject capital T of the church, not the lower t.
They repeated the errors of the Phariesses. They added to the Law with the Mishnah and the Talmud and now the true intent of the Law was missed.
“There is a difference between tradition and truth. Tradition is outward; truth is inward. Tradition has to do with ritual; truth has to do with reality. Tradition is something you keep; truth is something that keeps you.” Jerry Vines.
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
Commandment is singular. You have a way of rejecting what God says, for what men say!
You know how to nullify or invalidate God’s Word to keep your tradition.
And Jesus gives a illustration on how the Rabbis and Phariseees found loopholes to avoid obeying God’s Law.
For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 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)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
Mark 7:10-1
Jesus is quoting from and 21:17.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.
If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
Even adult children had the obligation to care for aging parents. Respect to parents was serious matter. After giving the first commandments regarding worship of God, the second and even transitional way to honor neighbor was to honor parents.
But the Pharisees found a loophole to avoid caring for their parents.
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
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)—
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)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother,
Corban as Mark translates it was a Hebrew term denoting something dedicated to God or devoted to God. A worshipper could devote something to God while making a vow. For instance, he could dedicate property to the Temple. Although he lived, he maintained control of the property. Only until he died, the property could be released to the Temple.
The Gospel of Mark 8. The Conflict between Commandment and Tradition. Ch. 7:9–13
In the hypothetical situation proposed by Jesus, if the son declared his property qorban to his parents, he neither promised it to the Temple nor prohibited its use to himself, but he legally excluded his parents from the right of benefit.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)
Today a person may will property to a charity or institution at his or her death, though retaining possession over the property and the proceeds or interest accruing from it until then. In the case of Corban, a person could dedicate goods to God and withdraw them from ordinary use, although retaining control over them himself. In the example of v. 11, a son declares his property Corban, which at his death would pass into the possession of the temple.
Children and Adult Children—We have an obligation to honor our parents. How many people spiritualize their disobedience in the name of God?
1. Don’t use spiritual language to mask your hypocrisy or disobedience?
Church plants are actually church splits.
Pastor feels God is leading him or has an open door because there is a bigger salary.
Children I don’t come home by curfew because I’m at bible study.
The Lord is leading me to another church because I don’t feel like I have anyone to talk to here when there is really unresolved conflict.
Saul was an example of this. He offered an unlawful sacrifice because he didn’t wait for the prophet Samuel and he said he did it for the Lord when in reality his impatience was driving him.
2. Sola Scriptura
Let us not only say Sola Scriptura, but functionally practice it. Test everything with Scripture.
Church—Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter Christians.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:1
“Holiness is not a matter of externals, but of the heart.”
“Religion had been smothered beneath ritual. Washing the hands counted for more than the devotion of the heart. They were careful of petty rules, and careless of the great commands of God.”
Traditionalism is hyprocritical.
Traditionalism is illustrated.
“Religion had been smothered beneath ritual. Washing the hands counted for more than the devotion of the heart. They were careful of petty rules, and careless of the great commands of God.”
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
You can be a hypocrite in two ways.
3
3. God’s Commandments Apply Today
We are not saved by obedience to God’s commandments. We are saved by Jesus and faith in his finished work. But he doesn’t say us to live in disobedience. We obey God’s commandments through the work of His Spirit and His grace in our lives.
Be more concerned about tradition vs. the obeying the Word of God.
Now because of Jesus, we want to do God’s commandments and want do it because we are saved by amazing grace.
“Religion had been smothered beneath ritual. Washing the hands counted for more than the devotion of the heart. They were careful of petty rules, and careless of the great commands of God.”
Honor your parents still applies even though we are under the New Covenant. Not committing adultery still applies today.
Jesus sums up the essential problem: by following their human traditions, they have nullified God’s law.
Jesus condemned the hyprocrisy and the tradition of the elders because they were proud, self-righteous, focused on externals rather than their hearts, and nullified God’s law by their traditions.
Jesus sums up the essential problem: by following their human traditions, they have nullified God’s law.
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 276). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 276). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
How do we worship truly? How do we get righteousness not only focuses on the outside, but the inside? How do we maintain Scripture over tradition?
It is by confessing our hypocrisy and our attempt to justify ourselves.
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 276). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
It is by seeing that the main story of Scripture is not how man has been faithful and sincere and righteous, but that man has been hypocrital, false, and unrigtheous.
And it is seeing that the drama of Scripture is in Jesus who came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill the Law.
Jesus was the only One who never displayed an ounce of hypocrisy.
Matthew 5:
Matthew 7:
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 277). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. w
He was the only One who lived a sincere and sinless life before God as a man.
When does tradition become bad?
He was the only One who was not proud of his achievements where it made him look down on others, but where His achievements elevated others.
When it looks down on others
We use our achievements, whether personal or religious achievements to look down on others. Jesus used his achievement on the cross to elevate others.
He was the only One who loved the Lord with all his heart and soul and mind and neighbor as himself because He kept the Word of God.
Concerned about externals
And because of His death on the cross, he died for hypocrites. He died for those who worshipped God in vain through empty ritual. Hypocrite like this one. Hypocrites to everyone in this room.
Invalidates the word of God.
And he rose again victorious from the grave so that we can repent of our hypocrisy.
And practice true righteousness from the heart because we have been forgiven. Some traditions should be kept.
The good tradition that has been passed down to us is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And all other traditions must serve that end when we see that the goal and end of Scripture is God himself in Christ.
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 285). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Only then can we be truly compassionate instead of critical, pure in heart rather than externally pure, and see that Scripture regulates our worship as it points us to Jesus the only one who wasn’t a hypocrite because He was truly righteous, pure in heart, and loved Scripture to the point of dying and therefore fulfilling it.
Goodness comes from inner purity, a life transformed within, rather than from the pure observance of rules and doctrine.
So let us not be hypocrites who are always critical on others because of our own man-made religious achievements.
Let us not be hypocrites who focuses only on what is on the outside, but never on the inside.
Let us not be hypocrites who care more about tradition, than obedience to God’s revealed will.
And only Jesus can help us do that as we see that the Bible is all about Him.
Let us pray.
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 286). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 286). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Be careful of lip service rather than service from the heart.
Strauss, Mark L.. Mark (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) . Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Jesus sums up the essential problem: by following their human traditions, they have nullified God’s law.
Strauss, Mark L.. Mark (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) . Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
Strauss, Mark L.. Mark (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) . Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 155). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 155). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 158). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Sproul. Mark (Saint Andrew's Expositional Commentary) (p. 158). Reformation Trust Publishing. Kindle Edition.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
The Gospel of Mark 7. Defilement According to the Tradition. Ch. 7:1–8
The biblical mandate that the priests had to wash their hands and feet prior to entering the Tabernacle (Ex. 30:19; 40:13) provided the foundation for the wide-spread practice of ritual washings in Palestinian and diaspora Judaism. At least as early as the second century B.C. many Jews voluntarily assumed the purity laws of the priests and regularly washed their hands before morning prayer. The accompanying benediction was designed not for the priests, but for laymen: “Blessed be Thou O Lord, King of the universe, who sanctified us by thy laws and commanded us to wash the hands.”11
Going to church can be an empty ritual if your heart is not in it.
The Gospel of Mark 8. The Conflict between Commandment and Tradition. Ch. 7:9–13
In the hypothetical situation proposed by Jesus, if the son declared his property qorban to his parents, he neither promised it to the Temple nor prohibited its use to himself, but he legally excluded his parents from the right of benefit.
The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Mark A Foretaste of Confrontation in Jerusalem: The Issue of Purity (7:1–23)
The food laws of Lv. 11 and 17, and the whole concept of ritual purity which underlies them, were of central importance to Jewish culture and identity. Together with the rite of circumcision and their observance of the sabbath, the literal adherence to these dietary laws served to mark out the Jews as the distinctive people of God, and to separate them socially from other people. The sharing of meals is one of the most basic forms of social integration, and these laws effectively made it impossible for Jews to share in meals prepared by non-Jews.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)
rabbis promoted the idea that Moses had received two laws on Mt. Sinai, the written Torah and the oral Mishnah. The Mishnah was believed to preserve an unbroken chain of authorized tradition extending from Moses to the “Great Synagogue” of Jesus’ day (m. Avot 1:1–13). The Mishnah called the oral interpretation “a fence around the Torah” (m. Avot 3:13)—“fence” being understood as preservation of the integrity of the written law by elaborating every conceivable implication of it
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Recovering the True Intent of the Law (7:1–23)
Today a person may will property to a charity or institution at his or her death, though retaining possession over the property and the proceeds or interest accruing from it until then. In the case of Corban, a person could dedicate goods to God and withdraw them from ordinary use, although retaining control over them himself. In the example of v. 11, a son declares his property Corban, which at his death would pass into the possession of the temple.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.
but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.
For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.
Deuteronomy
Vain means empty, fruitless, without profit.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: The Servant-Teacher (Mark 7:1–8:26)
The Mishna, a collection of Jewish traditions in the Talmud, records, “It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself.”
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: The Servant-Teacher (Mark 7:1–8:26)
The Mishna, a collection of Jewish traditions in the Talmud, records, “It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself.”