11/29/2020 Mark 7:1-8, 14-23 “Do You Have a Heart Problem?”

27 Nov 11/29/2020 Mark 7:1-8, 14-23 “Do You Have a Heart Problem?”

11/29/2020   Mark 7:1-8, 14-23    “Do You Have a Heart Problem?”

I think that one of the hardest things for us to do is to admit when we are wrong.  I often wonder if we aren’t hardwired that way.  But I also know that isn’t true because this is just the work of the devil.  He tries to give us a stiff neck for things like this so that it will get us in trouble.  I also think that one of the best ways out of this is to be in constant prayer with Jesus.  Anyway, when we are wrong like this, one of our basic tendencies is to blame someone or something else.  This has been with us since Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent.  At any time, Adam and Eve could have said ‘no.’  You may think that the world is against you and they are trying their best to make your life miserable.  I doubt if that is true.  Any time you want, you can say no to people.  Often and unfortunately, we get ourselves in so deep that getting out of trouble takes us some time, but that is ok.  Take the time to pray, say no to others and get yourself out.  Today, we are going to look at this rather long reading from Mark as Jesus explains what makes us clean or unclean.  Being clean was a big deal for the early Jews.  Let’s see if we can clean up our acts a little also.

R.C. Sproul observes that unbelievers often feel uncomfortable in the presence of an obedient Christian.  He demonstrates his point by this story.  A well-known golfer was playing in a tournament with then President Gerald Ford, Jack Nicklaus and Billy Graham.  After the round was over, someone asked the pro, “Hey, what was it like playing with the President and Billy Graham?”  The pro said disgustedly, “ I don’t need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat!”  With that the pro stomped off to the practice tee.  After a bit, his questioner followed and asked, “Was Billy a little rough on you out there?”  The pro sighed and said with embarrassment, “No, he didn’t even mention religion.”

So, what happened?  Billy Graham had said nothing about God, Jesus, or religion.  And yet he was accused of trying to ram religion down the throat of the unnamed pro.  I think that what happened was the famous evangelist had so reflected Christlikeness, that the man felt that he was in the presence of our Holy God.  He knew he was lost, he had unclean lips and he lived with people of unclean lips.  Therefore, he was uncomfortable.

The Pharisees in today’s Scripture were uncomfortable because the disciples had failed to wash their hands before eating.  In today’s world, we wash our hands as part of a normal physical hygiene regimen.  Even in countries where people use their fingers to eat, they wash to be clean.  But this is not really what the Pharisees had in mind.

First of all, we need to realize that the Pharisees were only lay people.  They were not priests but only learned lay people that wanted the Jewish people to live good lives in accordance to the Law.  They had seen what disobedience had done to their ancestors and they wanted something better for their people.

Also, if you notice, Mark goes into an explanation of the washing rituals of the Jews.  Experts and scholars believe that this is one of the sections in Mark that point to the fact that Mark is not writing to the Jewish people.  He is probably writing this for the Romans.  And it makes sense.  He would not have to explain the washing rituals if his audience were Jewish.

If we look in the Old Testament law, we can find a lot on the dietary laws.  One of the things that marked a Jewish person was the dietary law that they followed.  But what you will not find is the washing laws.  And that is because they are not there.  These rules came along later.  Previously, only the temple priest was required to wash.  The Pharisees came along and decided that all Jews should be like the priests and wash all the time.  These were man made laws.  If you want to look at this more, you will find that the Torah and the Mishna, which are sacred Jewish books, are filled with man made laws not found in the Old Testament.

Mark is telling us that the Pharisees are only concerned in the ritual.  Jesus tells them that this washing makes no difference in their cleanliness.  He quotes Isaiah to them to tell them that they are only teaching a set of rules.  He is telling them that they have missed the boat.  He tells them that their worship is in vain.  And worst of all, He is telling them that is does not make any difference what they put into their mouths or bodies.  Nothing outside of themselves can make them unclean.  It is what is inside of that that makes them unclean.

Wow!  Can you imagine being a Pharisee and hearing that your life time of work is being tossed aside?  You can eat anything.  It is right here that God is changing the covenant.  Jesus is telling us that we can eat anything and nothing we eat will make us unclean.  We can see in Acts how Peter has the vision from God about eating anything.  Jesus is changing the rules here.  And I would guess that the Jewish hierarchy is furious.

At this point I would like to take a moment and ask, “Do we have any of this Jewishness in our culture today?”  Just as the ancients knew the Jewish people by their ritual and customs, do we know people by their modern rituals?  Do we have modern cleanliness laws?

To look at this from a purely simple view, we think of a biker when we see boots and a motorcycle jacket with an emblem on the back.  We think of Jehovah’s Witness when we see a couple of young men dressed up in neckties walking in our residential section of town on a hot day.  When we see someone drop down and kneel facing the east and praying, we assume that the person is a Muslim.  So, I think that we do make assumptions of people just like the ancients did.  They would assume that someone was Jewish by their washing rituals.  And is this wrong?  I do not think that it is terrible for the most part, although if it is meant in some bad or evil way, we would have to analyze it a little closer.

But what about our churches?  Are we at all like the Jewish Pharisees of old?  If we put enough good things into a church, will that make it a Godly church?  The Catholic Church was the first real church that had Jesus as its focal point.  And they did a good job for years.  But then they started to consider themselves better than the government and they really started to fail.  At one point they even became the government.  Martin Luther came along and said that the only way to have a church is if it is focused on Jesus.  So, he split from the Catholics and the Lutheran church was founded.  And all this was because they were concentrating on what went into the church instead of what came out of it.  Is not that what Jesus is saying here?

And the same thing happened when John Wesley founded the Methodist church.  The Protestant church of the time was only concerned that the right people came into the church.  Wesley preached to the miners and the poor of England.  He preached to the people that the Church of England did not want.  The Anglican Church was concerned about what came into the church and Wesley was concerned about what came out of the church.

And our concern today is the same.  I would like to see us bring new people, not into the church, but bring them into a relationship with Jesus.  If people have a personal relationship with Jesus, then other good things will happen.  The same goes for giving our tithes and offerings to the church.  Instead we should not be thinking that we are giving to the church, but be thinking we are giving to God.  If we can just bring our mindset to be that of doing all works for God instead or ourselves or the church, then a lot of good things will happen.

Also, let’s not confuse our ideas for God’s ideas.  And it is so easy to do.  There is nothing, and I repeat nothing, that we can do that is apart from God.  Let’s look at the partial list of bad things that come out of us.  Jesus tells us of our evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.  There are many of these things that may never creep into our lives and I praise the Lord for that.  But there are others that just kind of slide in the back door.

This is what happened to the Pharisees.  These were not bad people in the beginning.  These were just a bunch of learned folks that wanted what was best for their people.  But over the years and over the centuries, they came to equate their rules and laws with the Old Testament Law.  Quietly, sin had crept into their culture until there was no resemblance of the original religion left.

Please do not misunderstand me.  There is nothing wrong with traditions.  We have Christmas traditions here in our churches and in our homes.  In the same way we have Easter traditions.  We have traditions of how we dress when we come to worship.  There was nothing wrong with the Jewish dietary laws or any of their washing laws.  For the most part, these rules were good and they probably helped the Jews to have a longer life.  Then and now these things have an important place in our lives and our hearts.

What Jesus is telling the Jews here is that there is a heart problem.  The people are just going through the motions of their religion.  They are thinking in terms of being clean or unclean as the ultimate goal.  They are having thoughts of the world, emotions of the world and a heart of the world.

Mark tells us in verse 19, that Jesus has declared all food clean.  By doing this He is saying not to focus on the food or the ritual, but focus on God.  Focus on Jesus!  For it is what comes from inside us that makes us unclean.  It has nothing to do with the food we eat, how we wash it, the length of our hair, the kind of Christmas program we put on, whether we wear jeans or shorts to church, or if we wear a motorcycle jacket or not.  It does not matter how we do communion.  It does not matter how we praise God on Sunday morning.  It does not matter how we pray to God.  It only matters that we do pray to God.

What matters is theirs and our focus!  What matters is a matter of the heart.  To get to the heart of the problem of sin, we must deal with the condition of the heart.  Are those sins that are listed in today’s Scripture coming from our hearts?  They were coming out of the Jewish hearts and they come out of my heart.  I am no better than anyone else here today.  I am a broken sinner just like you.  The only thing we have going for us is that we have accepted Jesus as our personal Savior.  We have someone that we can take our sins to and He will listen and He will care.  Ask Him into your heart today.

I think that it is always hard when we have to confront our own sins.  We just do not want to admit to them.  But we have to watch what is coming out of our hearts and our churches.  And all of this has to do with God wanting the very best for us.  By serving Hm first, then all the rest will fall into place.

So, the Jews had their washing rituals.  What are your washing rituals?  Leaders of your church, are they leading because someone has to do it or because they love God?  Worshipers in your church, do they come because they have been doing it for so many years or because they love Jesus?  When you are doing the everyday tasks away from and at home, do you do them because they have to be done or do you do them to glorify our Lord?  These are very hard questions but they need your answers.  And because of our brokenness, because of our sinful nature, Jesus is hard to follow.

But remember, my fellow sisters and brothers in Christ, Jesus loves you.  He loves you far beyond your comprehension.  So, when you stumble, and we all do, you are to take it to Him.  And as you continue to take everything to Him and as you get more focused on Him, your life will become better.  And that is only because of this tremendous love that He has for you.

I would like to leave you today with a little geography lesson.  The Rhone River is one of the most important waterways in France.  It begins its 500-mile journey in the Swiss Alps.  When it gets to France, it is a clear and clean river.  One might think that this only makes sense as it is coming out of the mountains.  But as it is coming through the Alps, the beautiful Rhone River picks up glacial clay and becomes very dirty and murky.  And just before it flows into France, the river empties into Lake Geneva.  Here all the clay sinks to the bottom.  So, when the river flows out of this lake, it is sparkling and clear.

This is exactly what Jesus does for you.  You come to Him all murky, dirty and unclean.  After you confess your sins, you emerge sparkling clean and clear.  So, now you can eat all the pork, lobster, crab and unclean foods you want.  These foods do not make you unclean.  Our sins make us unclean.  Let’s bring our sins to Jesus and leave them there.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.