Holiness from the Heart

Mark 7:1-23

Transcript

Would you pray with me this morning? Father, we thank you for your word. We
thank you that Christ brings true holiness and inward purity. Father, I pray
that we would pursue the way of Christ by faith as we submit to your word. Work
in our hearts, I pray, that we would pursue a holiness from the heart. We ask in
Jesus' name, Amen. I was very blessed as a young man to attend a very
conservative Christian college. There were lots and lots and lots of rules. And
so it was challenging at times to find creative ways of having fun. But we did
find ways to have fun and for whatever reason, one of the ways that we thought
would be something we could do for fun was to take various food items and
rearrange them to surprise unsuspecting people who would grab those dishes. We
would like specifically to take burritos. So on Thursday you had a burrito line
at the school and that was kind of an exciting day. The burritos were mediocre,
which was significantly better than most of the food that we ate. So lots of
people would go into the burrito line looking for a beef and bean burrito. So on
Thursdays, we would carefully take a burrito. We'd go back to our seats and then
with surgeon precision, we would open the burrito up. We would scoop out all of
the meat. The heart and soul of the burrito was carefully taken out so that it
was only a shell of what it was supposed to be. Sometimes we would then just
kind of seal it back up and place it carefully back in line. Other times if we
were feeling particularly mischievous, we would fill it with less than desirable
things. Replacing the beef and the beans with nasty green things like green
beans and peas and broccoli and other such things that are not tasty. So we
would take these burritos, we would again open them up, replace the good with
something less than good, put them back in line and see what would happen to
those who might unsuspectingly pick up that burrito. We were thinking that it
was one thing when it was actually something entirely different. It looked like
a beef burrito but it definitely was not. Now it's disappointing when we think
something like a beef burrito is not an actually beef burrito. But it's far more
dangerous when we take something as sacred and good and holy as God's word and
we gut it out and replace it with something else. Jesus is going to in this text
confront the common practice of that day butchering God's word and replacing it
with man-made traditions in order to demonstrate that true holiness, true
religion as God intends is a matter of the heart. True holiness is not simply a
matter of appearance or performance, it's a matter of the heart. And to help us
understand this, Christ first exposes the hypocrisy of heartless holiness in his
confrontation with the Pharisees 1-13 and then in the remaining section he
explains the need for a holy heart as he speaks with the crowds and with his
disciples. So let's begin with the confrontation verses 1 and 2. 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? Beginning in verses 1-2 we find a group of Pharisees and scribes,
these were the religious leaders, the teachers of God's law, had been sent from
Jerusalem to investigate Christ's activity in Galilee. And the goal was to find
fault in Jesus so that they could discredit and delegitimize his ministry. The
reality was that Christ had now become a serious threat to the religious
establishment. His actions and his teachings were undermining their authority
and contradicting their traditions. And the crowds were all about it. They were
all about Jesus. They had never seen or heard anyone like this before. And as
they would gather, Christ would teach them with authority, unpacking the true
meaning and the heart of God's word. And the Pharisees were upset. So they
arrive on the scene and they're looking for anything that they could find that
would bring Jesus down. So they notice in verse 2 that Jesus' disciples ate
without first washing their hands. Now you might think that seems kind of trite
and pointless but the issue isn't simply hygiene. It's about the fact that the
disciples were not following the tradition of the elders and therefore they were
eating with defiled or unholy hands. They were not ceremonially pure according
to their interpretation of the Old Testament Levitical law. And if Christ's
disciples weren't pure, that means that Jesus as their master and teacher was
also not pure. Now verses 3 through 4, Mark explains a little bit more about
these different traditions. He says in verse 3, 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 marketplaces, 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. Throughout this
text we read this word tradition six different times. You'll notice again how
extensive and thorough and binding these traditions had become really
encompassing and regulating all of life for the people of Israel. Now when we
talk about the tradition of the elders, we're not simply talking about the kind
of say family traditions that you and I might have. We're talking about
teachings regarding the law that were passed down from generation to generation
that were given initially to safeguard the people from breaking the law. To help
them live according to the law, but over time these traditions from elders gone
by had become as authoritative as the law itself. And if there was anything in
the Old Testament law that the elders and the religious leaders thought was
vague, you can be sure that they would develop a tradition that was clear,
thorough and very specific. And the traditions as we read in verses three
through four had a particular focus on washing and cleansing and defilement.
They would wash the cups and the dishes. They would make sure that when they
went into the marketplace, when they came back, that they would wash. There was
this emphasis on external purity. So according to the traditions of the elders,
the Jews would become unclean, defiled or unholy if they were exposed to things
or people that the elders deemed as dirty or unholy. And so according to the
traditions, if you want to be holy, stay away from everything that was
considered unholy. If you want to be holy and you get in touch with anything
that is unholy, immediately go wash so that you can be clean. If you want to be
holy, it boils down to following the traditions. In their zeal to maintain these
traditions about the law, here's the sad reality. They had abandoned the very
heart and soul of God's law, which is to love the Lord your God with all your
heart, soul, mind and strength. Somewhere along the way, the purpose of the law
had been abandoned. They replaced that which is good and holy and pure and true
with that which is man made. So that their holiness, their spirituality was only
a shell of the reality that we see in God's word. And so the Pharisees, seeing
that Jesus did not regard the authority of their traditions, asked Christ a
question. Verse 5, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of
the elders but eat with defiled hands? This is not simply a question. This is
somewhat of a backhand rebuke. Essentially, they're saying, Jesus, if you're not
abiding by our standard, you're not clean, you're not holy. You have no right to
do and say things that you're doing and saying. Here's the shocking reality in
the very presence of the one who had come to fulfill the law. The one who was
the Lord that they were called to love with all their heart, soul, mind and
strength. They didn't even see who he was. Their attempts to keep the law left
out the Lord of the law. And so notice Jesus confrontation beginning in verse 6.
And he, that is Jesus, 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. Friends,
this is a stunning, harsh rebuke. You hypocrites. This is the only time the word
hypocrite is used in Mark's gospel. In fact, this is the longest confrontation
that we read of Jesus with the Pharisees in Mark's gospel. He says, you
hypocrites. Why? You honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me.
He's quoting from Isaiah chapter 29, a passage where Isaiah rebukes the leaders
of Israel because of their spiritual blindness. Outwardly they seem fine.
Outwardly they look the part. But inwardly, like my burrito concoctions, they
were thoroughly corrupt. Their worship was mere lip service. Their holiness, if
you will, had become heartless. Their piety was simply a performance. There was
no real heart shaping, life transforming relationship with God rooted in grace.
You say one thing, but your heart is far from me. In vain you worship me,
teaching as doctrines, as essential the commandments of men. And in doing so,
you leave the commandments of God. Jesus exposes the hypocrisy. They claim to be
models of holiness, but they are not holy. The focus is only on the outward, but
there's nothing really going on on the inward. They claim to be teaching the way
of God, but they were not walking according to the word of God. They were more
loyal to their law than to the Lord, and their holiness completely contradicted
the beauty and the goodness and the wisdom and the purity of God's ways and
God's word. You hypocrites, Jesus says. In verse 8 he summarizes the hypocrisy
of this heartless holiness in your supposed commitment to God, in your devotion
supposedly to God. Ironically you leave, you reject, you replace the command of
God in order to hold on to your own traditions. Now you might think, does this
really happen? Is this happening today? Well we know from the Old Testament it
was happening before Jesus' time. We know from Jesus' time it was happening
then. During Paul's ministry it was happening, and today it still happens. For
example, we can see that there are many supposed churches or Christians that
exalt religious rituals and the external above the sacred scripture. And we
recognize that, but the issue here isn't something that is only out there. It's
also very much a problem that we face as well. We can fall prey to this very
same kind of hypocrisy. So don't be deceived. We who have been saved by the
grace of God can fall prey to the same temptation. Think about this, isn't it
easier to kind of outwardly conform to the Christian standard and culture that
surrounds you than it is to really cultivate a heart for holiness? Isn't it
easier to do what others do instead of being transformed from the inside out by
scripture? Aren't there times in our own zeal to pursue holiness that we take
our application of scripture and make it as authoritative as scripture itself?
So friend, we need to be careful. Because of our ongoing battle with pride, we
can easily drift and fall prey to the hypocrisy of heartless holiness. In verses
9 through 13, Jesus not only exposes the hypocrisy here, but he also explains it
in detail. Verse 9, he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the
commandment of God in order to establish your own traditions. For Moses said,
honor your father and mother, and whoever reviles father and mother will 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. Man made
tradition always fails to get to the heart of God's commands. In theory, the
traditions were given to fence people and to keep them from disobeying God's
commands. But the reality was these man made traditions not only distorted the
purpose of God's law, but they actually became a perverted way of getting around
it. And Jesus gives us a specific example. He says in verse 10, honor your
father and mother. This is good. This is beautiful. This is right. Whoever
reviles father or mother must surely die. But the Pharisees and the elders had
established this tradition of Corban. You say, Mike, I'm not sure what Corban
is. What's that all about? Here's what Corban was about. Basically, the idea
here is kind of a deferred giving. Because initially when we read Corban, it
sounds good. Hey, you're going to give what you have to God. I mean, isn't that
what we ought to be doing as God's people? But here's what was going on. A child
could declare that whatever he intended to give to his parents to honor them and
take care of them in old age would now be considered a gift given to God. So
once the child died, whatever that gift was, whether it was the proceeds of his
possessions would then go to the temple. But until that time, that child could
basically maintain control over the gift. And so essentially what people were
doing was they were using the idea of Corban as a formality to keep things for
themselves instead of taking care of their parents. How heartless is that? And
Jesus said, this example is not some kind of an outlier, but actually he says,
you do many such things. You establish your own word and by doing so, you reject
God's word. In fact, there's three ideas here that he says are the result of
man's traditions. He says in verse 8, you leave the commandment of God. In verse
9, he says you reject the commandment of God. Then in verse 13, you nullify or
make void the word of God by your traditions. Do you see the danger, not just
the hypocrisy of this, but the danger of this? As the people of God, we
recognize that life comes as we embrace the message and truths of the word of
God by faith. For the believer, we know that it is the word that births faith,
that sustains faith, that nourishes faith. This is why the Old Testament would
tell us that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out
of the mouth of God, the word gives guidance and direction, real holiness. True
spiritual health is cultivated as we submit to the scriptures. This is why as
the people of God, we are called to be men and women of the book, the word of
God. And so here's the hypocrisy of heartless holiness. It replaces the life
giving, heart shaping truths of scripture. Simply a mirage of external, empty,
powerless tradition. It misses the mark. It's not true holiness because true
holiness is not a matter of the hands. It's a matter of the hearts. So in verses
1-13 Christ exposes the hypocrisy of this kind of heartless holiness and he did
this so that his followers, his disciples would embrace the true intent and
purpose of God's law. To pursue a true holiness that comes from a cleansed
heart. And so we move from the confrontation of verses 1-13 to two different
conversations that Jesus has, one with the crowds and one with his disciples.
Verses 14-16. After this confrontation Jesus called the people to him again and
he 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. Again the question is, why do your disciples eat
with defiled hands? Jesus says it's not about what is on the outside, it's about
what's going on on the inside. Jesus says hear me and understand. This is a
seriously important message that Christ gets across with a deep sense of
urgency. Because he's addressing really the heart and soul of God's law. The
heart and soul of true godliness or holiness and he's telling us that true
holiness is a matter of the heart. It's not about what goes in, it's about what
is coming out. Our sin problem is not simply external, it is internal. It's not
outward, it's inward. The heart of man's sin problem is the problem of man's
sinful heart. And that's what Jesus wants to address. This is why we need more
than standards or rules or regulations or rituals or traditions. We need a heart
transformation. Now Jesus doesn't just tell us we need this. But here's the good
news. He provides this. In fact that's why he came. To write God's law on our
hearts. To change and cleanse us from the inside out. Through his sinless life,
through his sin bearing death, through his triumph over sin, death and hell in
his resurrection. He forgives and frees us from sin. He gives new life, new
birth, new hearts. He empowers us to pursue true holiness. A heart for God to
love the Lord as we follow his word through the power of his spirit. The good
news is Christ not only commands but he provides and empowers and enables. And
through him, we who were dead in sin with impure hearts bound to our sin can
experience freedom and cleansing and transformation from the inside out. If all
you have are traditions, if your relationship with God is simply following a
list of do's and don'ts, you have no real power over sin and its desires. You
might be able to keep the outside clean and look good. But true holiness is a
matter of the heart. He explains it to the crowds. Then in verses 17 through 23
he explains it to his disciples. Verse 17, 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. The Pharisees thought
what defiled what was going on in the hands. Jesus said defilement is about
what's going on in the heart. Now in verse 17 things start to get really
interesting. Because based on what we've seen so far from Mark's gospel, we
would surely expect that the religious leaders and the crowds wouldn't really
grasp Jesus' teachings. But even Christ followers, even those who were with him,
who saw the miracles and heard him speak day in and day out, failed to grasp
what Jesus was teaching. They failed to understand what true holiness is all
about. You see, it's not about what's outside. It's a matter of the heart. Now,
when the scripture speaks of the heart, to be clear, we're not simply talking
about emotions. We tend to think of the heart in terms of emotions, but the
scripture, when it uses the word heart, is talking about the inner man. The real
you. The beliefs that actually impact your practices. Not the things that you
say you believe, but the actual beliefs that affect the way you live. The
values, the things that you love, the priorities, the passions that shape your
behavior. The truth is all of our actions, good and evil, flow from the heart.
Proverbs 4 23 says, guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the
issues of life. The heart of our problem is not circumstances, it's not people,
it's a problem of our heart. And what Jesus is saying here is not novel. It's
not new. It's the heart of true religion before God. We read in Deuteronomy 10,
as Moses exhorts the people of God, he says, and now Israel. What does the Lord
require of you? What is the essence of what God desires from you? But to fear
the Lord your God, to see him for who he truly is. To walk in all his ways. To
love him. To serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
To keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you
today for your good. Circumcised therefore the foreskin of your heart. Don't be
content with merely externally going through the motions. Don't be content with
simply trying to conform to the standard. Have a heart for God. David said,
create within me a clean heart, O God, as he repented of sin and renew a right
spirit within me. Friends, from Genesis to Revelation, it's always been about
the heart. God is seeking for hearts that are set on him. True holiness is
always a matter of the heart. So what comes out is ultimately a reflection of
what's going on in. We look at the trials and the circumstances of life and in
many ways those trials are like a hot thing of water and you put the teabag in
the water and what happens? Everything that's in the teabag comes out. All of
the circumstances of life are like that and when we put the heart in, what comes
out is simply a reflection of what's really in. And Jesus says that true
holiness is a matter of the heart. Now it's interesting to note, as we come to a
conclusion, that this is the longest conflict section in Mark's gospel. Mark
wanted his readers back then and he wants us today to understand that following
Christ, pursuing a life that pleases God is always a matter of the heart. About
loving God and letting his word shape our thoughts, actions, attitudes, motives,
passions and pursuits. The reality is you might be here today and you have all
the right doctrines. You know all the right things but there's no real heart
devotion to Christ. Your Christianity is cold, calloused, calculated, no joy, no
real inward love for Christ. Maybe you're here, you're doing the right thing but
the truth is your heart is far, far away. Concerned about the cares and things
of this life. Maybe you've slipped into thinking your relationship with God is
about how well you're performing all of your Christian duties. Friend, you can
do all the duties in the world and yet miss the heart and soul of God's
commands. Somewhere along the way, you and I forget the true holiness is a
matter of the heart. So would you take this time with me now to acknowledge and
confess sin and ask God to renew your heart. That you from a heart renewed by
his grace would afresh love him, love his people and pursue a real holiness from
the heart. You take some time with me now to confess and ask God for his grace
to renew your heart.