Mark 6:53-7:23
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Big Idea:
Big Idea:
The gospel is Jesus made salvation simple.
Intro:
Intro:
Hello Church Online! Thanks for joining us today.
I’d like to start off with a quote from a pastor of old. His name is D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. And he says this...
First of all let me make a comment, to me a very important and vital comment. The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. That is a very good test of gospel preaching. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not exposit it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel.
He goes onto say...
…I would say to all preachers [Christians]: If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you better examine your sermons again, and you better make sure that you are really preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, to the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of God. There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation.
Let me summarize his profound words in a simple way:
When you’re preaching the gospel...
… That is, the good news of Jesus, that although we are sinners condemned to eternal death, because of God’s love - and grace (His underserved favor) - we can be saved by simply turning from our sins and put our faith in Jesus...
… when you’re preaching THAT correctly, people will accuse you of preaching it wrong, because it sounds TOO SIMPLE. They will say things like, “That can’t be all that God requires of me (or others). There’s got to be more. Don’t we have to DO MORE!”
Let’s see how Jesus would respond to that kind of thinking....
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore.
Real quick, let me remind you of the context. As a church we’ve been going thru the Book of Mark. And last week talked about Jesus revealing Himself as Savior to His disciples. He did in two ways:
By miraculously feeding 5000 with only 5 loaves and 2 fish.
By supernaturally walking on water, saving them from the storm, and getting them safely to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.
This is not where I’m going with the passage, but can I ask something? It says people “ran” to Jesus. My question is, “Why is this not happening anymore? Why aren’t people in our communities running to Jesus?”
Sure, the people in this story ran to Him because He was supernaturally healing people. But has God changed? Isn’t He still powerful and doesn’t He still heal?
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Maybe it’s because people don’t think God is here, even if the church (His Body filled with His Spirit) is. And, if I could challenge us for a second, maybe they don’t run to Jesus because we (Christians) don’t run to Jesus. When was the last time you ran to church?
I remember when I first started going back to church in 2003. It was a church meeting at SDSU and it was exploding. They had 5 services on Sunday just to accommodate all the people. And one thing I remember was people RUNNING to church. They were RUNNING because if you didn’t get there in time, the seats would fill up, and you’d have to sit in the overflow room. And everyone wanted to be present in the main sanctuary. They wanted to be in the presence of God.
That’s not to say God wasn’t in the overflow room. But, I think you get the point. People were excited about God. They were experiencing the power of His presence. And so they ran, which caused more people to run, just like the people in this story.
Another possible reason people aren’t running to God is maybe they don’t think they can have access to Him. Their only exposure to God is from what social media says about Christianity (and they don’t want anything to do with that God). Or, since they don’t personally know any Christians, because they all hide in their churches and homes to prevent being corrupted by the world, they assume God is hiding from them too.
But look at the example Jesus gives us...
And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
Jesus went to the villages, cities, and countryside. And people found Him in the marketplaces, not just the synagogues (the Jewish churches). And if Jesus was in every public place, shouldn’t we be too? And maybe if we were, people would experience first-hand God’s love. And they’d start running towards Jesus as they follow us run to Jesus.
But here’s what I was getting at… here’s how Jesus would respond to the charge that the gospel is too SIMPLE. It says Jesus healed all that were brought to Him. Does this mean Jesus physically heals everyone who comes to Him? No, not exactly. But it does communicate a vital and important principle… it tells us that Jesus desires to save everyone. And receiving that salvation isn’t complicated. It’s SIMPLE.
We see that here...
People came to Him - SIMPLE.
They came as they were (dirty, educated, broken, rich, whatever) - SIMPLE.
They didn’t even believe all the right things - remember, the practice of “touching the garment” was more superstition than good theology. But they did believe something SIMPLE: They believed Jesus could heal them.
And that was enough for Jesus to open up the Kingdom of God to them- SIMPLE FAITH IN CHRIST is more than enough!
If you’re taking notes, point number 1...
1) Jesus made salvation simple.
1) Jesus made salvation simple.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
The sense of this verse is Jesus made the way clear to God. On the road to eternal salvation, He removed every obstacle. He filled in every valley. He flattened every mountain. He made becoming a child of God SIMPLE.
God’s hasn’t made salvation difficult or complex. His heart is for YOU! He WANTS to have a relationship with you.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
It’s us - humans, specifically and unfortunately religious/church people - that make it difficult.
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.
Really? People are being supernaturally healed and they’re worried about washing your hands? “Oh, I’m sorry that you’re suffering and dying from terminal cancer. We’ll get to that if there’s time, but first I need to ask you an important question, did you wash your hands before you ate?”
But… before we are too critical of the Pharisees, we church-people still do this today.
I remember when I was a youth pastor and God was powerfully reaching young people at my church. There were times when Youth Group had like 50 kids… and only like 5 of them were from church families. God was bringing kids from off the streets. They were being changed and finding hope in Jesus. Then, these kids started coming to BOTH Youth Group and church on Sunday. One would ride his bike in the rain to church. And the Youth Group filled up half the sanctuary.
And after church, we’d often have a potluck. And these non-church kids would be so excited! They’d run to get in line. And that’s when the church-people would get mad. And as the Youth Pastor, they would get in my face and say, “How dare you let the kids eat before us. They take all the food, are messy, and too loud!”
And I’m thinking, “Are you serious? These kids are in church, without their parents, because they’re experiencing the power of God. And you’re getting mad because they got the last slice of pizza? Right now, they are running to Jesus and you want to make it difficult?”
All too often, people who should know God’s heart the most, make experiencing God’s love the most difficult...
(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’s letting us know that the “handwashing tradition” is just the tip of the iceburg. It says, “there are MANY OTHER traditions that they observe...” Meaning, the religious experts made it really difficult to know God by all of their rules and traditions.
But that’s not God’s heart.
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!
Jesus is not happy here. By the way, it’s interesting to observe that in the Bible, Jesus is often more upset at the church-people instead of sinners. And I think that’s because His children often forget His heart.
We’re quick to beat sinners with the Bible, but here we see Jesus smacking the saints. He says...
You guys (Pharisees/religious experts/ and for us: church-people) are hypocrites. You pretend to represent Me but you don’t!
You say all the right things, but your heart is far from Me. Your heart is way different than My heart.
And here’s the part that really stings, “In vain do you worship me.”
Another way to translate that is, “Your worship is pointless.”
Ouch!
Imagine Jesus telling you, “Your worship is pointless!” Why? Is it because you’re a sinner and your less-than-perfect offering or faith is unacceptable? Is it because you didn’t wash your hands before worship? No, it’s because you care more about your man-made traditions than God’s heart expressed thru His Word.
Let me clarify, traditions aren’t evil. They can be beautiful and helpful. But we need to be careful that our traditions don’t replace or reject God’s heart. Therefore, for us who follow God, a healthy question to ask is, “Are my traditions (that is, how I habitually practice my faith) powerful or pointless?”
And the way we answer that question is by considering:
Do my traditions match God’s heart?
Do my traditions make my personal preference more important than God’s preferences.
Remember, God loves the world and has made salvation simple. Do your traditions speak that? Or would Jesus say to us..
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
We need to be humble and honest about this, because we are naturally gifted at disguising our personal preferences under the banner of devotion to God...
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
The other day I paid for Kade’s registration for next year’s football season. Our team is coming off a great season. We got a lot of momentum even though we ended last season losing in the first round of playoffs to Southington.
Southington is a beast (I just threw up in my mouth a little bit). But it’s true. They have a great football program. They run an offense called the “Double Wing.” And they are great at it. This team destroys opponents and are long-time champions.
That being said, my job as a coach is to scout their offense and help the Defensive Coordinator come up with a game plan. I watched a lot of film on them! And spent hours researching ways to defeat the Double Wing. It’s a high task for “Youth defense” because there’s a lot of misdirection.
But one effective strategy is to have the defensive ends watch the “opposite” Wing back. You may not know what that means, but regardless, it worked! We shut down their high powered offense for 3 and a half quarters. It was 0-0 in the 4th. But we lossed because we turned the ball over at the end, and they scored.
But all that energy and effort that went into developing that strategy to defeat Southington is the same idea Jesus has in mind when He says, “You have a fine way of rejecting God’s commands for your own traditions.” In other words, “You are really good at strategically justifying a way to reject or defend against obeying God’s word! You put a lot of effort into it!”
Then Jesus gives an example of how they did that...
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.”
God commands us to honor our parents. It’s in the 10 Commandments. It’s pretty important to the Jewish people (and us). And for them, that included financially providing for your aging mom and dad. But the Pharisees came up with a strategy. If we say, “Our money is dedicated to God,” we won’t have to give it to our parents. But they didn’t have to give it to God either. They strategically created a religious loophole to keep it for themselves.
And Jesus’s point was to show that they were really good (strategic, hard-working) at making faith about “personally preferred traditions” rather than God’s will. And these traditions are often opposite of God’s heart! They make biblical faith difficult when Jesus made it SIMPLE.
Point number 2 is...
2) Don’t make following Jesus difficult.
2) Don’t make following Jesus difficult.
I don’t mean to say following Jesus won’t be difficult. Jesus said...
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
We will face difficult circumstances in this broken world.
He also said...
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
We will face difficult people in this broken world.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
We will need to make difficult sacrifices to follow Jesus in this broken world.
But finding salvation and following Jesus is SIMPLE. It’s only becomes difficult because we create complex rules and work hard to preserve those man-made traditions.
What’s crazy is we fully believe that our religious complexities...
Honor God.
Preserve biblical worship.
Keep us spiritually healthy.
What’s crazy is it actually accomplishes the opposite...
Our legalistic traditions (or believing following rules makes us right with God) usually...
Dishonor God.
Make our worship pointless.
And make us (and others) spiritually sick.
This is NOT God’s heart. Which is why Jesus says...
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 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.”
In other words, “I’m going to make this clear: Don’t worry about these religious rules that make things difficult. They don’t represent My heart!”
But Jesus, without rules, won’t people just live wildly? Maybe.
But with rules, people still wild. They’ve just created a strategic system to hide it.
As we see, the Pharisees were just as spiritually sick as the sinners.
Think about the irony found in this story...
Jesus went to sinners and made sick people well - SIMPLE!
Religious people made it difficult for sinners in order to avoid being contaminated by but ended up making themselves spiritually sick.
Rules don’t save us because they don’t address our biggest problem...
And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 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, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
You see, our biggest problem is our heart. And the heart isn’t fixed by avoiding contamination, but rather by experiencing transformation. It’s impossible for a complex, comprehensive collection of rules (even helpful, well-intended ones) to produce transformation.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
It’s humanely impossible to fix our broken and sinful hearts. There’s only one SIMPLE thing that fixes the heart: Jesus.
When we simply come to Jesus and trust in what He did for us on the Cross, He does the impossible. He makes us brand new… we’re “born again.”
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
And the prophet Ezekiel describes the process this way...
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
You see, being made right with God isn’t about following new rules, it’s about receiving a new heart. A heart no longer enslaved to sin, but freed to follow God. And God gives us the gift a new heart by grace, not because we earned it by following the rules...
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
My final point for today is...
3) Keep the gospel about simple faith.
3) Keep the gospel about simple faith.
That’s how we faithfully follow Jesus. That’s how people find salvation and new life.
Response:
Response:
So, as we close, I want us to end by have us ask ourselves a question: What’s the condition of my heart?
The way we answer this will differ because we’re all in spiritually different places...
Some of us don’t follow Jesus. Maybe that’s because Christians we know made it too difficult. Today, through God’s word, I hope you see that following Jesus is SIMPLE. It’s “turn away from your sin and put your faith in Jesus.” Today, if you need to, you can SIMPLY start there. Jesus will take care of the rest.
Some of us have been in church a long time. We’ve got experience and preferences to prove it. We got plenty of spiritual traditions. But I wonder what they say about the condition of our heart?
Do they make our worship pointless? Meaning, do they prioritize our heart over God’s heart?
And is that evident thru a lack of sinners coming to Christ because our faith-practices put barriers in front of them, even though Jesus made the way clear.
What barriers do you need to be throw away today so you can share Jesus’s heart with the SIMPLE gospel.
Some of us have been accused of making the gospel too SIMPLE. If that’s you today, be encouraged. If you preach and live out the SIMPLE gospel, and people are running to Jesus - Keep it up!
Wherever you’re at… this is one of those messages where I believe it’s best for the Holy Spirit to speak directly to you about how to respond. And so, I’m going to give Him the space to do that.
Think about God’s heart.
Think about your heart.
And ask, “Do they match?”
Let’s pray...
Father, this morning we offer a simple prayer to You. Forgive us. For rejecting you. For making all this about ourselves. For keeping people out of the Kingdom. Change our hearts this morning. We are thankful for a simple gospel that promises if we put our faith in Jesus, He is faithful to transform us. To give us a new heart and new spirit. And not just us, but anyone who does the same - no matter who they are or what they’ve done. Change us. Change our church and community. In Jesus name, amen.
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