Matthew 64
(Chapter 15)
Suffering and Rules
Religion strikes again!
Matthew 15:1–20 (NLT)
1 Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him,
2 “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?
4 For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’
5 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’
6 In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
8 ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
9 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”
10 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand.
11 It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”
13 Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted,
14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”
15 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.”
16 “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked.
17 “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.
18 But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you.
19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.
20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
Suffering is part of our walk with Jesus!
1 Some Pharisees and teachers of religious law now arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. They asked him,
2 “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”
Quote:
“The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.”
― The Problem of Pain
· So now the big guns show up
· We have seen them from everywhere else, but now they come from Jerusalem!
· The Pharisees were a strong right-wing of the church, they believed God would not send the Messiah as long as the Jews were breaking the law and they appointed themselves the rule enforcers.
· And they brought the scribes (teachers and interpreters of the law) with them!
· And they started to turn rules into Sin!! (that’s where I draw the line)
Rules and traditions change, God's word never will!
· Rules are not bad, they keep order
· Rules are ways to keep the masses in a social order
· But when we start to impose rules in a church or religious pretense our Zeal can get a little carried away!
· And when rules get in the way of or stop people from hearing the word of God and meeting Jesus that’s a problem!!
Paul
1 Corinthians 6:12 (ESV)
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
· We as FOLLOWERS of Jesus must not let anything stand in the way of Jesus
· No rules
· No traditions
· NOTHING!!!!
Our Rules should never get in the way of Gods law
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?
4 For instance, God says, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.’
5 But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, ‘Sorry, I can’t help you. For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.’
6 In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents. And so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.
· This is where I have a hard time with denominational and super organized religion!
· Good intentions become rules, and rules become laws, laws become sin, and before we know it, we are changing God's own word and law to suit ourselves!
· We start to find ways then to benefit from our own rules
· As in this case, money was the driving factor, and we allowed people to not take care of their own family to line the pockets of the religious leaders!
I see church everywhere turning people off and away by their rules
· Dress codes
· Religious practices (nonbiblical)
· And their pious we are better than you attitude
BAM! Jesus calls them out!
7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
8 ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
9 Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.'
· That video always gets to me
· It gets to the core of why we have to, we must set aside any traditions, rules, that get in the way of Jesus' work in us and through us
· We preach Jesus
· We love people
· We hate sin
· And Let Jesus do the rest!!!
Part two (it’s a heart Issue)
Jesus wasted no time on the haters and turns to the ones He came to save!
10 Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand.
11 It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.”
· Jesus wasted no time on the haters
· He confronts the problem
· Deals with it and moves on
· As should we
· We should never worry about what others think (religious folks)
· We should keep doing what Jesus has called us to do
· Reach a culture, reach the left behind, the ones that don’t fit in, that need a safe place to learn
· A place they have no need to be afraid of where they come from, what they wear, or what bible they carry
You can’t fix stupid
12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?”
13 Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted,
14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”
· We can’t worry about who we offend along the way
· We can’t stop to make sure we are following every denomination's rules
· We can’t put a lot of time and effort into making sure folks that come from other churches get their traditions put in place here
o We have lost people along the way because we wouldn’t put things on the wall
o Place flags
o Do alter calls
o And the list goes on
· And we can’t worry about what other churches (religions) are doing or not doing
· We must follow what God calls us to do! And that is what Jesus did right here, He didn’t waste much time on the things that won’t win souls to Him!
It’s a heart issue, always has been, always will be.
15 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Explain to us the parable that says people aren’t defiled by what they eat.”
16 “Don’t you understand yet?” Jesus asked.
17 “Anything you eat passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.
18 But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you.
19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.
20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”
· It’s not what we eat
· What we say
· Or even what we do (good or bad)
· It’s what’s in the heart that matters to Jesus!
What comes out of your mouth comes from your heart
· In the heat of an argument
· What you type on FB
· What you say behind someone’s back
· Are heart issues, not mouth issues
The world is dying, so let’s put aside the things that don’t matter and let's start focusing on things that do!
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