WEBVTT 00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:02.069 Thank you, Candice and worship team. 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:13.199 One correction to Andre's announcement earlier: he may plan on showing up at 6:30, but the meeting starts at six o'clock, so Andre, you be here at six o'clock, too, wherever you're sitting. 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:22.980 So if you show up after six o'clock, you will probably miss the announcement of the pastoral search team, and we're also going to announce what the pastoral profile is tonight. 00:00:22.981 --> 00:00:28.769 In other words, what is the criteria that we're looking for in our next lead teaching pastor? 00:00:28.769 --> 00:00:32.429 So be here at six tonight for the beginning of the meeting. 00:00:33.009 --> 00:00:40.770 If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn to Mark chapter 7, the seventh chapter of the gospel of Mark that we are working our way through. 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:47.609 While you are turning there, you'll see coming up on the screen something you may or may not recognize. 00:00:47.609 --> 00:00:51.240 First couple times I saw this, I had no idea what this was. 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:57.179 This is something you might find along the beach as you're walking, and it is a shell. 00:00:57.180 --> 00:01:09.450 It is the shell of a crab, and a crab, you know, whether you know or are interested in this or not, a crab is an invertebrate, which means that it has no spinal column. 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:17.549 And because it has no spinal column, instead, it has a rigid exoskeleton, that hard shell. 00:01:17.579 --> 00:01:27.180 And as a crab matures, in other words, as its body grows, its body size, of course, increases with growth. 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:34.019 But that shell is made up of a substance, a hard substance, that doesn't grow, that doesn't expand. 00:01:34.021 --> 00:01:42.750 And so, in order for the crab to keep on growing, it must periodically shed its shell in a process called molting. 00:01:42.751 --> 00:01:54.900 And as it sheds its shell, there's a new shell growing underneath, and the crab has to continually go through that during its lifespan, if it's going to not only live, but grow. 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:57.390 Now, what does that have to do with Mark 7? 00:01:57.391 --> 00:02:11.729 We'll come back to that, maybe, but keep that image in mind, because it is an illustration from the natural world of, really, something that I think Jesus is teaching us about here in this text today. 00:02:11.730 --> 00:02:14.759 We'll come back to this illustration at the end. 00:02:15.419 --> 00:02:29.310 Mark chapter 7, reading the first 13 verses, beginning with verse 1:"And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Jesus when they had come from Jerusalem." This takes place in Galilee. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:30.120 He's still here. 00:02:30.121 --> 00:02:32.879 This is still the Galilean part of his ministry. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:49.349 And apparently a delegation of leading representatives of Pharisees and scribes has been sent from Jerusalem, probably at the request of the Pharisees in Galilee, because they are concerned with Jesus and his teaching and his effect upon the people. 00:02:49.830 --> 00:02:56.370 And these Pharisees and scribes, they had seen that some of Jesus's disciples were eating their bread with impure hands. 00:02:56.371 --> 00:02:58.379 That is, unwashed. 00:02:59.169 --> 00:03:03.310 Now at this point, in verse 3, Mark gives a parenthetical explanation. 00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:09.460 Mark is writing largely for non-Jewish people, and that's most of us, probably. 00:03:09.461 --> 00:03:13.360 Maybe all of us don't come from a Jewish background. 00:03:13.539 --> 00:03:18.310 So he adds this explanation for those of us who may not know what that's talking about. 00:03:18.311 --> 00:03:27.009 The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders. 00:03:27.010 --> 00:03:31.729 And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. 00:03:31.730 --> 00:03:40.870 And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots. 00:03:40.871 --> 00:03:57.610 And now in verse 5, he picks up the account again:"And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus,'Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?'" This is not an innocent question. 00:03:57.610 --> 00:03:59.080 This is an accusation. 00:03:59.710 --> 00:04:02.110 This is a challenge. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:06.099 They are meaning to shame and discredit Jesus here. 00:04:06.819 --> 00:04:20.500 And Jesus responds from quoting the word, the Old Testament, Isaiah 29:13 to be specific:"And he said to them,'Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites. 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:27.550 As it is written,"This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. 00:04:27.550 --> 00:05:04.240 But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men."'" And now in verse 8, Jesus begins to apply that scripture from Isaiah to them, to the Pharisees and what they were doing:"Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." He was also saying to them,"You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition." Now, in verse 10, he gives them a specific example:"For Moses said,'Honor your father and your mother.'" There's the commandment of God. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:05.500 You may recognize that. 00:05:05.500 --> 00:05:22.439 That's the Fifth Commandment from Exodus 20, verse 12, and he goes on in Exodus 21:"And he who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death." Now he speaks about the tradition of men. 00:05:22.449 --> 00:05:43.600 Verse 11:"But you say, if a man says to his father or his mother, anything of mine, you might have been held by is Corban(that is to say, given to God), you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother", thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:46.629 And you do many such things as that. 00:05:46.630 --> 00:05:50.199 "This is not an isolated example," Jesus is saying. 00:05:50.201 --> 00:05:54.939 You know, the Pharisees are easy to pick on. 00:05:54.940 --> 00:05:57.250 We caricature them. 00:05:57.259 --> 00:06:12.319 You know, we have this way of saying, if we find somebody hypocritical,"Well, he or she's acting like a Pharisee," but I want to start in kind of a counterintuitive way today and talk about my sympathy for the Pharisees. 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:22.459 You see, the Pharisees, even though they are easy targets to caricature, they were not the power brokers of Jewish society. 00:06:22.461 --> 00:06:26.149 That was the Sadducees who were the power brokers. 00:06:26.629 --> 00:06:29.019 The Pharisees began as a sect. 00:06:29.060 --> 00:06:34.069 It was a group within Judaism that had very noble goals. 00:06:34.230 --> 00:06:44.689 The Pharisees began with the goal of simply wanting to honor the law of God, what God had written in what they had, the first five books of the Old Testament. 00:06:44.810 --> 00:06:52.339 The Pharisees simply wanted to preserve the unique identity of Israel as God's chosen people. 00:06:52.610 --> 00:07:00.829 They had lofty goals, and so they were motivated, very honestly, by some of the same desires and motivations that I have as a pastor. 00:07:01.819 --> 00:07:07.220 For example, first of all, they took God's command to pursue holiness seriously. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:12.560 They read and took seriously what I read and take seriously. 00:07:13.699 --> 00:07:22.639 Leviticus 19:2, God says,"Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." And they heard that, and they took that seriously. 00:07:22.641 --> 00:07:26.420 God wants us to be holy because we are his people. 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:30.680 We should live increasingly holy lives. 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:35.839 And that's a desire of myself as a pastor, and of other church leaders. 00:07:35.841 --> 00:07:45.410 And yes, we understand now, on this side of the cross, that it is the holiness of Jesus that saves us, not our holiness. 00:07:45.411 --> 00:07:49.069 We understand that what he did on the cross is all-sufficient. 00:07:49.071 --> 00:08:15.379 I can't, in other words, make myself holy enough to be pleasing to God, but we also understand that, as part of our changed heart, as a response to what Jesus has done on the cross, and with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we are called to live increasingly holy lives, that the grace of Jesus Christ does not cancel out God's call to us to be holy. 00:08:15.380 --> 00:08:16.699 So I can sympathize with them. 00:08:17.149 --> 00:08:22.459 Secondly, they wanted to preserve the unique identity of Israel as God's people. 00:08:23.300 --> 00:08:27.589 I mean, consider what they knew that God had said about Israel. 00:08:27.620 --> 00:08:36.110 Exodus 19:5-6, God says,"Out of all the nations, you, Israel, will be called my treasured possession. 00:08:36.110 --> 00:08:56.700 You will be for me a holy nation." They took that seriously, and their traditions were intended to put some boundaries around that, to preserve and to protect the unique identity that Israel had from being basically washed away, assimilated, by the pagan nations that surrounded them. 00:08:56.701 --> 00:09:10.679 And again, I can identify with that as a pastor, as I think most church leaders can: we want the church to be in the world, but we want the church to have a unique identity in the world. 00:09:10.950 --> 00:09:19.200 We don't want the church to be compromised by the worldliness of our culture around us, so I can sympathize with them. 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:28.649 And thirdly, the Pharisees wanted to give people a clear, practical guidance about holy living. 00:09:29.190 --> 00:09:48.840 You know, they, in striving for holiness, the Pharisees face the very same challenge that we do today, and the challenge is this: how do you apply the specific, but often general in nature, commands of scripture to the unique circumstances of your life? 00:09:48.841 --> 00:10:01.889 Obviously there's lots of God's law in the Old Testament and the New Testament, but there's a lot of gaps, and how do you take the law and apply it to the specific, unique circumstances of your life? 00:10:01.890 --> 00:10:04.590 They felt this, and they wanted to do something about this. 00:10:04.591 --> 00:10:18.029 And so through their tradition, they wanted to give people a map, so to speak, that charted the way through: what is permitted and what is forbidden, what is clean and what is unclean, impure. 00:10:19.980 --> 00:10:23.009 And that's what developed as the oral law. 00:10:23.429 --> 00:10:29.610 The written law was God's commandments, that, at that time, they had in the first five books of the Old Testament. 00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:32.370 Now, the written law is what we have in the entire Bible. 00:10:32.730 --> 00:10:40.799 The oral law is what they developed to apply the written law, to fill in the gaps, to practically apply it. 00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:46.169 The oral laws are what Jesus calls in our text today"the tradition of the elders". 00:10:46.379 --> 00:10:50.610 That's the oral law,"the tradition of men", he refers to it as. 00:10:50.610 --> 00:10:54.090 The tradition, he says, which you have handed down. 00:10:54.091 --> 00:10:56.789 It's been developed over the generations. 00:10:56.791 --> 00:10:59.970 Let me make this concrete for you. 00:10:59.971 --> 00:11:00.419 I'll give you an example. 00:11:00.421 --> 00:11:04.289 Here's from the written law, Leviticus chapter 15. 00:11:04.291 --> 00:11:08.759 That whole chapter is on cleanliness and purity. 00:11:08.760 --> 00:11:13.019 What do you do if you come in contact with something that makes you unclean? 00:11:13.020 --> 00:11:15.330 Certain bodily fluids make you unclean. 00:11:16.470 --> 00:11:20.370 What do you do if you become unclean from touching a corpse? 00:11:20.789 --> 00:11:21.779 Well, God answered that. 00:11:21.780 --> 00:11:25.169 God answered that in that verse that you see up on the screen. 00:11:25.171 --> 00:11:36.000 Leviticus 15:11:"Rinse your hands with water, and you will be clean." And if you don't, you will be unclean, is what you see on the verse up on the screen. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:37.259 Well, that's very well and good. 00:11:37.260 --> 00:11:39.960 God has provided a way, but what does that mean? 00:11:39.961 --> 00:11:42.330 How do you rinse your hands with water? 00:11:42.331 --> 00:11:45.029 Is there a technique you're supposed to use? 00:11:45.030 --> 00:11:47.610 How often are you supposed to do this? 00:11:47.610 --> 00:11:49.620 In what settings are you supposed to do this? 00:11:49.620 --> 00:11:55.269 You see all the blanks that scripture, even for them, doesn't fill in. 00:11:55.270 --> 00:12:00.429 That's what they tried to fill in with their regulations of washing. 00:12:00.431 --> 00:12:06.159 The oral law, the tradition of the elders, sought to answer those questions: What do you specifically do? 00:12:06.160 --> 00:12:08.500 And that's what we see in our text today. 00:12:08.500 --> 00:12:17.769 Mark 7, verse 3:"Carefully wash your hands before eating." That verb"carefully wash", it comes from the root word"fist". 00:12:17.770 --> 00:12:29.230 So we don't know exactly what their technique was, but you know, it may have been something that involved rubbing one fist in the hand or immersing your hands so all your fist was covered. 00:12:29.230 --> 00:12:45.490 We're not sure, but they developed a technique so they could answer the people's questions,"How am I supposed to wash?" Verse 4, the first part,"Cleanse yourself when you come from the marketplace." You're in the marketplace, you come in contact with dead things, dead meat. 00:12:45.909 --> 00:12:49.210 You come in contact with Gentiles, unbelievers. 00:12:49.389 --> 00:12:52.360 You come back from the marketplace impure. 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:53.679 What are you supposed to do? 00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:57.340 They developed a way of cleansing themselves, a more full washing. 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:02.679 Again, we don't know the details, but it went beyond washing their hands. 00:13:03.009 --> 00:13:07.480 The second part of verse 4: washing cups and pitchers and copper pots. 00:13:07.899 --> 00:13:16.720 What do you do when the things that you use to make your meal and serve your meal become exposed to something that renders them unclean? 00:13:16.840 --> 00:13:24.190 Well, they had rituals and explanations, traditions, traditions of the elders, for how to address that. 00:13:25.149 --> 00:13:39.100 And you may sit here and you may hear all that today, and you may think,"That is ridiculous." And let me remind you, kindly, let me remind you: you have your traditions, you have your ways of filling in the blanks. 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:41.289 Let me give you a couple of examples. 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.090 Consider the New Testament command. 00:13:43.091 --> 00:13:44.980 This speaks to us now. 00:13:44.980 --> 00:13:52.299 Hebrews 12:28:"Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe." There's the command. 00:13:52.301 --> 00:14:05.350 When we come together as a church body, we're to offer worship that is acceptable, worship that is reverent, worship that has awe of God, but what does that mean in terms of how do I dress? 00:14:05.860 --> 00:14:08.740 Does that mean I'm supposed to wear a tie? 00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:14.139 Well, they didn't have ties at the time this was written, so that can't be in there. 00:14:14.140 --> 00:14:23.320 So if I bring my belief that I should wear a tie to make my worship acceptable, that is me filling in the blanks. 00:14:24.460 --> 00:14:25.779 How about talking? 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:32.700 I grew up in a church, from the time I was saved on, where when you came into(we called it) the sanctuary, all right? 00:14:32.710 --> 00:14:35.049 It wasn't the worship center; it was the sanctuary. 00:14:35.289 --> 00:14:37.299 When you came in, you were to be quiet. 00:14:38.049 --> 00:14:41.139 You were to be quiet, because that's what it meant to be reverent. 00:14:41.140 --> 00:14:44.419 To be reverent is to be quiet. 00:14:44.620 --> 00:14:47.440 Well, where is that in scripture? 00:14:47.441 --> 00:14:50.350 That is something we added to fill in the blanks. 00:14:50.350 --> 00:14:51.299 Now is that a bad thing? 00:14:51.301 --> 00:14:54.529 No, it is not a bad thing, but is that a prescribed thing? 00:14:55.159 --> 00:14:57.200 Is that something that is clearly in God's law? 00:14:57.649 --> 00:14:59.450 No, that is something we have added. 00:14:59.451 --> 00:15:00.919 That as the traditions of men. 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:01.820 Singing. 00:15:01.821 --> 00:15:02.480 How do you sing? 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:04.580 Some of you sing; some of you don't sing. 00:15:05.129 --> 00:15:11.330 I've noticed in the services, some sing some songs; some don't sing other songs. 00:15:11.331 --> 00:15:20.809 Even your practices of when you sing and what you sing, they come from your traditions, the expectations that you bring. 00:15:20.990 --> 00:15:21.799 Raising hands. 00:15:21.801 --> 00:15:23.629 Can you raise hands in worship? 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:31.429 Well, if you came from a tradition where you experienced that, and you were taught that that's actually part of worshiping, you say"yes". 00:15:31.700 --> 00:15:39.409 If you came from a tradition that"no, that's not reverent, and that's not acceptable", you say"no". 00:15:39.410 --> 00:15:53.600 However you answer all those questions: what you wear, and whether you speak as you come into the worship service, and how you sing, and whether or not you raise your hands, those are your and my traditions. 00:15:54.110 --> 00:16:05.929 Those are you and me, from our cultural experiences and backgrounds, taking our expectations and filling in the blanks, the specifics that scripture does not address. 00:16:05.931 --> 00:16:27.529 Let me give you another example, perhaps even more relevant, relevant to even what's going to happen here tonight: the New Testament directions from Paul to people like Titus about"how do you establish a church congregation?" Let me tell you, there's remarkably little information given in scripture about how you would set up a congregation. 00:16:27.530 --> 00:16:29.720 Here's just one, and there's not many more. 00:16:29.721 --> 00:16:49.789 Titus 1:5: Paul tells Titus,"As you are going through Cyprus or Crete, and you are setting up churches, set in order what remains, and appoint elders in every city." Okay, we know elders are to be part of it, but notice how little detail is given. 00:16:49.791 --> 00:16:53.600 So what is the proper structure of elders. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:56.629 And are we to have membership, and what's membership supposed to look like? 00:16:57.889 --> 00:17:02.179 And what is the government structure of the church? 00:17:02.181 --> 00:17:09.259 Do you notice the big gaps that God, in his providence, does not allow to be filled in? 00:17:09.260 --> 00:17:20.150 And so again, the way that you interpret and apply this, and the few other verses about church organization and church government, that goes beyond the written law. 00:17:20.151 --> 00:17:30.710 That is bringing in your interpretations from your experiences and what you have learned: the oral law, the traditions of men. 00:17:30.711 --> 00:17:41.450 So as we read this account, let's not be so quick to dismiss and disdain the Pharisees' traditions of washing, of purity rituals. 00:17:41.451 --> 00:17:53.880 Instead, let's see how their traditions resemble our traditions, and let's hear Jesus's warnings to them about their traditions as warnings to us, as we consider our own traditions. 00:17:53.881 --> 00:18:06.329 Here are some key principles that I see coming out of this text, and the first one, I've kind of already made this clear, but I'll state it clearly: We all observe and obey some traditions at one time or another. 00:18:06.330 --> 00:18:21.569 I mean, Paul, or excuse me, Jesus, makes that point clear to them, that Mark brings out in verse 3:"The Pharisees and all the Jews observed the traditions of the elders." This is widespread. 00:18:21.569 --> 00:18:28.740 And the traditions that we observe: we may bring different traditions, but we all observe some traditions. 00:18:28.740 --> 00:18:36.509 The issue is: do you recognize that what you hold onto, and the expectations you bring, they are traditions? 00:18:36.539 --> 00:18:42.119 They go beyond what God clearly says in his law. 00:18:42.121 --> 00:18:49.079 Secondly(this is also kind of implied in what I've already said), but traditions have a powerful effect upon our lives. 00:18:49.080 --> 00:18:55.559 They have a powerful effect upon our lives together as a congregation. 00:18:55.560 --> 00:19:09.180 I love what Ray Stedman says:"Tradition is the power of the past reaching into the present to shape our future." And let me just state the obvious example: The constitution. 00:19:09.181 --> 00:19:26.819 We have a hundred-year-old constitution that is not the word of God, that was the people who wrote it at the original time, over a hundred years ago, their best attempt to apply the word of God to how to govern the church, but it's still tradition. 00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:35.009 It's the tradition of the past, that now, as we consider it in the present, will shape the future. 00:19:35.010 --> 00:19:37.349 That's why it's important for you to be here tonight. 00:19:37.351 --> 00:19:42.420 That's why it's important for you to hear the warnings as Jesus goes further in this text today. 00:19:42.690 --> 00:19:45.960 Third, traditions can be good or bad. 00:19:46.410 --> 00:19:46.859 Right? 00:19:46.859 --> 00:19:50.460 There are traditions that, in some degree, are neutral in and of themselves. 00:19:50.461 --> 00:19:54.569 They can be good or bad, depending on how we observe them. 00:19:54.570 --> 00:19:59.460 You know, most traditions begin in the right way and for the right reasons. 00:19:59.461 --> 00:20:00.869 At least that's my experience. 00:20:00.871 --> 00:20:06.420 People begin traditions in a way of somehow honoring God. 00:20:06.421 --> 00:20:18.000 They read something in scripture and they think,"What is the best way for us to try and honor that?" And they develop tradition, or they take the tradition from somebody who has come before them. 00:20:18.779 --> 00:20:29.609 But the problem is, over time, that original purpose is forgotten, and if it's forgotten, then what happens over time is all that matters is the tradition itself. 00:20:29.611 --> 00:20:32.880 You know, all that matters is the tradition itself. 00:20:32.881 --> 00:20:43.799 And that's what Jesus was talking about in verses 6 and 7, in his use of Isaiah 29:"Those people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 00:20:43.800 --> 00:20:45.420 They worship me in vain. 00:20:46.200 --> 00:21:23.200 Their teachings are but the rules taught by men." The prophet Isaiah, he's not specifically thinking about these Pharisees, but Jesus is taking that, and Jesus is teaching both the Pharisees, and he's teaching you in me, that when we keep practicing our traditions, when we keep going through the motions, but we let our hearts become disengaged by why we even have those traditions when we're no longer focused on the underlying purposes of honoring God, we become like the people that Isaiah condemns. 00:21:24.730 --> 00:21:26.950 Our traditions go bad. 00:21:28.029 --> 00:21:29.650 How do our traditions go bad? 00:21:29.651 --> 00:21:31.990 How do our traditions become corrupted? 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:48.279 Jesus describes this in verses 8 and 9:"Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men." Two contrasting verbs there: we cling to our traditions, we hold to our traditions. 00:21:48.280 --> 00:21:56.470 That becomes what's most important, and in doing so, we let go of the underlying purpose, the commandment of God. 00:21:56.471 --> 00:22:01.329 And that's how traditions get corrupted and go bad. 00:22:01.330 --> 00:22:07.990 Traditions, number four, go bad when we lose sight of the underlying law of God. 00:22:07.990 --> 00:22:11.990 Now, Jesus gives an example here, but it's one of many examples he could give them. 00:22:12.380 --> 00:22:17.619 Picking it up in verse 10:"Honor your father and your mother." There's the commandment of God. 00:22:17.621 --> 00:22:21.130 Again, the Fifth Commandment from Exodus chapter 20. 00:22:21.131 --> 00:22:22.869 What does it mean to honor your father and mother? 00:22:22.869 --> 00:22:36.069 It means not only to respect them and love them; it means, when they become aged, and especially in that culture, where there was no Social Security net, to care for them, to make sure their needs are met. 00:22:36.069 --> 00:22:39.369 But what's the tradition that had developed in that time? 00:22:39.371 --> 00:22:46.150 The tradition that's called Corban, that you see mentioned here, which simply means"consecrated to God". 00:22:46.151 --> 00:22:52.329 And again, I know this is, you know, this is so far removed from us, but think about designated giving. 00:22:52.330 --> 00:22:53.950 You may or may not be aware of that. 00:22:53.951 --> 00:22:55.029 That's something you can do. 00:22:55.030 --> 00:23:08.349 You can, in your will, you can say,"I'm going to leave my house to some charity, and so I'm going to put it in my will now, while I'm still alive, but I am going to do it as a designated gift. 00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:09.519 I'm going to retain possession of that house. 00:23:10.450 --> 00:23:12.640 "I'm going to retain use of that house. 00:23:12.641 --> 00:23:21.880 It's my house," in other words,"til I die, but when I die, it goes to that charity." Well that's kind of the same principle of Corban. 00:23:21.880 --> 00:23:38.200 In Corban, a Jewish young man could say, you know,"I know my parents are in need of financial assistance, and I do have some resources, but basically, my parents have, you know-- I don't like my parents"... 00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:39.190 you know, whatever, whatever. 00:23:39.191 --> 00:23:47.339 "I'm upset with my parents, and so I'm going to take my resources and I'm going to make a designated gift to the temple. 00:23:47.340 --> 00:23:50.640 I'm going to say these are consecrated to God. 00:23:50.641 --> 00:23:52.109 Now, I retain the use of them. 00:23:52.111 --> 00:23:53.940 I can keep using them. 00:23:53.941 --> 00:23:56.549 It only goes to the temple when I die. 00:23:56.550 --> 00:24:00.900 But then when my father and my mother come to me in need, I can say,'Sorry, I can't give you anything. 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:22.650 "'Everything that I have is already designated to go to God.'" And Jesus says that is using the principle-- that is using a tradition of man, the tradition of the elders, to cancel out, to neglect and cancel out, the commandment of God. 00:24:22.651 --> 00:24:24.329 How do some of our traditions go bad? 00:24:24.330 --> 00:24:29.579 If that one doesn't connect with you, consider how we do this, maybe knowingly or unknowingly. 00:24:29.580 --> 00:24:34.890 Let me give you, again, a New Testament commandment of God. 00:24:35.130 --> 00:24:39.240 Ephesians 5:19, he's talking to us when we come together to worship. 00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:43.890 "Speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. 00:24:43.891 --> 00:25:02.130 Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord." And I would make the case to you that that is not only a commandment, but that is a command of God that we're to worship God with a variety of musical styles, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. 00:25:02.130 --> 00:25:15.539 I'd even make the argument that that means we are to worship him with songs from a variety of cultures, because the Church of Jesus Christ is not just the Church of North America, but what do we do? 00:25:15.540 --> 00:25:20.910 We come to church bringing our own musical preferences. 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:32.970 Some of those preferences are preferences from the kind of music that I heard in the church that I grew up in, and that's some of us, that's why I like hymns, or whatever it was that you heard from your church background. 00:25:32.971 --> 00:25:44.039 Some of us bring our musical preferences from the kind of music that we listened to in other parts of our life, that moves us emotionally, and that's what we want to hear. 00:25:44.040 --> 00:25:57.690 And when we begin to say,"Well, we're not really worshiping unless we sing hymns or sing contemporary songs or sing country Western, or whatever it may be," that is your taste or your preference. 00:25:57.691 --> 00:25:59.190 What have we done? 00:25:59.191 --> 00:26:08.039 We have begun to raise up our traditions, whether we recognize them as traditions or not, over the commandments of God. 00:26:11.539 --> 00:26:17.210 Why is it that we hold so tightly, so dearly, to our traditions? 00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:29.420 How is it that we can get to the point where, like Jesus says, we are even, maybe consciously or unconsciously, setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep our tradition? 00:26:30.730 --> 00:26:34.390 Very honestly, it's because traditions give us security. 00:26:35.349 --> 00:26:36.759 Traditions give us comfort. 00:26:36.760 --> 00:26:47.599 There's order, there's security in traditions, in doing the things the way I grew up with, or doing things the way that I've become accustomed to, or the way my family did it. 00:26:47.601 --> 00:26:49.069 There's comfort. 00:26:49.070 --> 00:27:02.269 It comforts us, maybe, to come hear a certain kind of music or observe a certain kind of liturgy in a church or do other kinds of church practices in familiar ways. 00:27:02.270 --> 00:27:22.519 And you know, there's nothing wrong with finding security and comfort in our traditions, unless we take our comfort and our security of our traditions, and we elevate it to a place where it becomes truly more important than the underlying commandments of God. 00:27:22.520 --> 00:27:25.039 And in doing so, we've made it an idol. 00:27:25.040 --> 00:27:31.430 We've made it something that we worship more than Jesus Christ himself. 00:27:31.431 --> 00:27:43.220 So traditions give us security and comfort, but if those traditions and that security and that comfort become an idol, our traditions become rigid, and they risk quenching the Spirit. 00:27:44.349 --> 00:27:46.779 Do you know that verse? 00:27:46.780 --> 00:27:49.240 1 Thessalonians 5:19? 00:27:49.240 --> 00:28:06.210 Paul, or God speaking through Paul, to the church body, to us:"Don't quench the Spirit." Don't throw a bucket of water by your preferences and what you want and what you're trying to hold onto on the flame of the Holy Spirit. 00:28:06.220 --> 00:28:12.789 Think of the early church, in the first few chapters of the book of Acts. 00:28:12.790 --> 00:28:13.480 What do we see? 00:28:13.480 --> 00:28:16.450 We see the Church growing exponentially. 00:28:16.599 --> 00:28:23.619 We see people coming en masse to Jesus, because the Holy Spirit is moving powerfully. 00:28:23.621 --> 00:28:25.599 He's moving in new ways. 00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:42.250 There were very few forms in the early church there, and so the Holy Spirit was free, was unrestricted and could move in new ways and bring in groups of people like the Gentiles that the original believers never even foresaw was possible. 00:28:42.250 --> 00:28:50.049 The Church was growing, because while there were traditions, it wasn't restricted by traditions. 00:28:50.050 --> 00:29:03.369 Here's Jesus's warning to the Pharisees and to you and to me: when we make the traditions, even the good traditions that give us comfort and security, the main thing, we risk quenching the Spirit. 00:29:04.750 --> 00:29:14.049 We risk restricting the Spirit's ability of our church to make us grow and move and be used by God in the world. 00:29:15.420 --> 00:29:17.160 So let me come back to the crab. 00:29:17.819 --> 00:29:19.859 That brings me back to the crabs. 00:29:19.980 --> 00:29:20.400 Remember? 00:29:20.401 --> 00:29:22.140 Shedding their shells? 00:29:22.141 --> 00:29:28.920 And by the way, this is not my illustration; it came from a commentator named David Garland, but it just connected with me. 00:29:28.921 --> 00:29:30.539 I hope it connects with you. 00:29:30.540 --> 00:29:39.150 Think of that crab: to live and to grow, the crab must shed its shell from time to time. 00:29:39.151 --> 00:29:41.390 Now, it needs a shell. 00:29:41.391 --> 00:29:42.920 It can't go without a shell. 00:29:42.921 --> 00:29:57.559 It's weak and vulnerable and unprotected without a shell, but if it tries to hang onto its shell, or if the shell becomes so rigid and hard that it can't somehow shed its shell, what happens? 00:29:57.560 --> 00:29:59.660 The crab will cease to grow, and the crab will die. 00:30:02.410 --> 00:30:04.000 That's like our traditions. 00:30:04.960 --> 00:30:13.660 Whether it's the traditions of music or the traditions of dress or the traditions, even, of constitutional forms. 00:30:13.661 --> 00:30:15.799 We need traditions. 00:30:15.800 --> 00:30:21.650 We need the ways that we have learned to worship and do life together as a church congregation. 00:30:21.651 --> 00:30:23.420 They do protect our identity. 00:30:23.421 --> 00:30:26.210 They do give us comfort and security. 00:30:26.210 --> 00:30:34.849 But we can easily, if we're not careful, fall into the error of the Pharisees, elevating our traditions above the principles in God's word. 00:30:34.851 --> 00:30:40.819 And when we do, if we do, our traditions make us hard-shelled. 00:30:40.820 --> 00:30:47.779 We become like that crab: the body wants to grow, but the shell is too hard, and it can't be molted. 00:30:47.780 --> 00:30:48.950 It can't be shed. 00:30:48.951 --> 00:31:00.680 And so, it kills the crab, and our traditions can keep us from growing and can even kill us, if we become hard-shelled. 00:31:00.681 --> 00:31:20.210 So again, whatever the Lord is laying on your heart, whether it's your style of music or how you dress or how you do reverence as you come into our worship center or constitutional revision or anything else that is left open in scripture. 00:31:20.630 --> 00:31:24.440 Let's heed the words of Jesus here, to the Pharisees, to us. 00:31:24.441 --> 00:31:30.170 Let's heed the warning not to quench the Spirit. 00:31:30.171 --> 00:31:34.609 Let's be aware and open to how the Spirit wants to move. 00:31:34.611 --> 00:31:41.089 Let's extend grace to each other, recognizing there's a variety of different traditions. 00:31:41.090 --> 00:31:45.500 Let's embrace the best of all of those traditions. 00:31:45.529 --> 00:31:48.200 Let's do this so Jesus would be glorified. 00:31:48.200 --> 00:31:48.200 Let's pray. 00:31:53.079 --> 00:32:29.630 Jesus, you speak to these men, these Pharisees and scribes, but you speak to us, and Lord, I ask that your spirit would take your words and convict as needed, in all of our hearts, and I think of even where we are as a congregation, Lord, and how important it is to just be very aware of these distinctions between what is actually in your word and what is the expectations, the preferences, the traditions that we sometimes impose upon your word. 00:32:29.631 --> 00:32:32.059 Give us great discernment, Lord. 00:32:32.060 --> 00:32:35.299 We don't want to quench your Spirit. 00:32:35.300 --> 00:32:38.029 Make us open to what your Spirit wants to do. 00:32:38.030 --> 00:32:42.500 We pray this, Jesus, that you would be lifted up and glorified. 00:32:42.500 --> 00:32:44.359 We pray this in your name. 00:32:44.359 --> 00:32:44.359 Amen.