Sermon Tone Analysis

Mark 7:14-16 And after He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.

And if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Mark 7:17-18 And when He had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples were asking Him about the parable.

And He said to them, “Are you lacking understanding in this way as well?

Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from the outside cannot defile him,

Mark 7:19 because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and goes to the sewer?” (Thus He declared all foods clean.)

Mark 7:20-22 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

Mark 7:23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Mark 7:14-23 (LSB)

Thesis: Sin works its way from the inside out.

Intro:

Three different times in our text Jesus explains Himself.

He wants to be very clear about this message, He wants His disciples to understand this concept.

Sin does not come from the outside of a person, it is buried deep within them.

People say, “But I thought people were naturally good.”

That’s not true, and if you believe that, I’d suggest you turn off the Disney channel and go outside and meet some real people.

People are wicked, people are evil - what do you base that on Pastor?

Well, human history, for one.

I once heard a pastor say how much a small child wanted his shiny watch.

The little boy would cry if he took the watch out of his grasp, and kick and throw a fit.

The pastor said, “Now give that boy the strength of a full-grown, 18 year old man, with the same desires and childish temperament as that baby, and he would beat me if not kill me for that watch.”

(Paul Washer)

People have wickedness, rebellion, SIN within their hearts.

It comes from the inside out, not the other way around.

So Jesus clarifies this three separate times within our passage.

(Recap Last Week, Pharisees would wash to keep themselves clean, upset about Jesus’ disciples not washing)

Jesus makes one thing very clear - it’s not what a person puts into their body that is sinful, it’s what a person does with their body, with the fruit that comes out of them.

Sin works its way from the inside of a person, from the inside out.

And Jesus calls us to face our sin, in order for us to understand our sin, so He can cure our sin.

Face Our Sin

Mark 7:14 And after He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:

Notice Jesus is talking to more than just the Pharisees and Scribes.

Last week, Jesus had a sparring match with them, and it was one on one, but now Jesus is calling all the people in close.

He wants them to hear this, He wants to make sure they know the truth.

If you remember, the Pharisees were using oral traditions, fences around the law, to keep the people in nice little boxes or cages, and last week Jesus kicked in the door to that cage.

Here, He turns to the whole crowd and says, “Everybody listen up!”

He’s about to teach.

This is why He came, if you remember.

When the crowds wanted a healer, and they couldn’t find Him, and the disciples went looking for Him, Jesus said,

Mark 1:38 And He said to them, “Let us go elsewhere, to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came out for.”

Mark will consistently, and has consistently shown us that the two reasons he wants us to focus on Christ’s coming is to teach the people, to teach us, and to destroy the kingdom of Satan, and here He does both.

You see, whether they realized it or not, the Pharisees were serving someone else entirely.

They’d convinced themselves they were serving the Lord, but in fact were serving themselves, their traditions, and ultimately the devil.

The traditions of men - Jesus said they’d left the commandment of God in order to keep their traditions, the traditions of men (back in Mark 7:8-9)

And in John’s Gospel He exposes who they’re truly serving, because they’re building their case to kill Him, He calls them children of the devil!

John 8:44 ““You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

So Jesus, in a sense, says, “Okay Pharisees, I’m done with you.

I’m moving on from you.

I am going to teach the people and finish destroying the cages you’ve built for them.”

And He turns to the people, He calls the crowd to Himself once again, and He says “Listen to me, all of you, and understand...”

Jesus wants the people to know the truth, not the tradition.

Jesus wants the people to know the reality, not the ritual.

Jesus wants the people to know cleansing, not conformity.

He says to the crowd...

Mark 7:15 There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man.

Now, this is the first time Jesus says this, but it won’t be the last.

Nothing that is outside of a man defiles him, even if it goes into him, but what comes out of a man is what makes him defiled.

That word, defiled, by the way appears 5 times in our text today, about 14 times total in all the New Testament.

It comes from the Greek word Koin-ah-oh [κοινόω (koinoō)] and it means to profane, to make impure, to be dirty or polluted.

This is the opposite of what the Law had taught them.

God had declared that exposure to certain things rendered a person ceremonially unclean, a condition that had to be remedied by time and by washing before a person could interact with their community again, or enter into the temple for worship and sacrifice.

The Law determined that some behaviors even required specific rituals to restore someone’s status as ceremonially pure, because they’d been made unclean.

Certain diseases, bodily discharges, things people could help, things people couldn’t all had the potential to make someone unclean.

And the Pharisees had weaponized this law against the people, using it to manipulate them, to enslave them, in a sense like we saw last week - people couldn’t even eat without performing ceremonial rinsing of their hands (Mark 7:3-4).

What Jesus is saying is flying in the face of - not only religious tradition - but it appears to fly in the face of God’s Word.

One author (Dr.

Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark) says, In laying down the principle that uncleanness comes from within, and not from without, Jesus’ pronouncement stated a truth, uncommon in contemporary Judaism, which was destined to free Christianity from the bondage of legalism.”

William Barclay called this passage, “well-nigh the most revolutionary passage in the New Testament.”

This is a radical concept in its day!

It does not fit into the legalism the Pharisees insisted upon the people.

Now, until the Jews were carried into exile by the Babylonians in 586 BC, they seemed to understand that becoming “unclean” didn’t automatically make you “sinful” or immoral.

They certainly would not have elevated themselves above others after having to have themselves washed and restored to the “clean” status the Law required.

The confusion came during the exile - and if you remember last week’s message - the “fencing” of the Law came after the exile, so this makes sense, this tracks.

A good example is when Daniel decides to reject King Nebuchadnezzar’s food.

Daniel 1:8 “But Daniel set in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.”

Daniel was concerned he would be eating meat that had been offered to idols - and that’s a horrible thought to any Jewish person, especially one in exile because his people had been serving idols - so Daniel and his friends rely on the Law.

They lean on the Law of Moses in order to establish and cling to their identity as Hebrew men.

And this loyalty to the Law becomes the root of this loyalty not only to their God but to their country - if they follow the law perfectly, there’s a chance God will do for them what He did for Daniel, what He did for those who were freed from bondage of exile.

God may rise up and overthrow Rome if they can just.

follow.

the.

rules.

Then Christ comes in and says, “You guys can eat whatever you want, that’s not the problem.

Your heart is the problem!”

And the idea is so ingrained in their minds, that even though he’s standing right there, next to Jesus, years later - even after Pentecost, Peter will be told in Acts 10 to eat foods that are unclean, what’s his response?

Acts 10:14 “But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything defiled and unclean.””

“No way, God, I’m a good Jewish boy, I follow the rules.”

I love God’s reply to that: (Acts 10:15) “Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider defiled.””

What God has cleansed, it’s no longer unclean.

The rules can’t save you, but He can.

Then we come to verse 16, and it may or may not be in your Bible.

This is truly one of those passages some of the earliest manuscripts don’t include but here it is:

Mark 7:16 “And if anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Now, Jesus said this plenty of other times, but in this case, it really does appear to be something a Scribe had written in the margins and it somehow got into the main text.

But it doesn’t add or take away from the meaning - it’s basically Jesus’s way of saying “If you hear this, act on it.”

If you’re listening, if you’re paying attention, do something what this information.

Face the ugly truth of your sin - it’s not someone else’s fault, it’s not because you grew up in a rough home or got bullied at school, that’s a child’s excuse.