Community Group Questions:
Read Mark 7:1-23
1. Have you been taught to follow traditions that are not biblical and are man-made?
2. Was this experience confusing to you?
3. Do you feel that you religious do something that you can’t support biblically?
4. Can man-made tradition make you acceptable to God? Why or why not? Do you feel they actually bring you further from God?
5. In the passage what was the point that Jesus was trying to make?
Snapshot16 Mark 7:1-23
• The problem with following “Mans Traditions”… 7:1-13
-Promotes self righteousness. Vrs 1-5 (I can do it myself)
Vrs 5. The Jewish leaders thought that the disciples’ failure to observe ritual washing was a symptom of a deeper problem. That Jesus was leading them astray. The teacher was blamed for the actions of the followers. Because they were so puffed up and judged one another by how the ones who followed them lived
-Causes hypocrisy Vrs 6-7 hypocrisy -the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform.
By teaching the tradition of men they were actually saying “this is how you please God or become Godly” but in reality it made them further from God because is those things they were ignoring His commands.
The Pharisees are hypocrites for two reasons: (1) their actions are merely external and do not come from their hearts, which are far from God
(2) their teachings are not from God but reflect the tradition of men. They had more passion for the man-made traditions then they did for the God-given law.
Not only do man-made rules not “clean” you they actually bring you further from the truth of God.
-Ignores obedience to God. Vrs 8-13
Traditions get in the way of following the Lord…Ill-Like the church the could not figure out what their tradition was regarding standing or sitting during the opening Scripture reading.
So if a son declared his property Corbin he neither promised it to the Temple or prohibited its use to himself but legally excluded his parents from the right of benefit. Then if the son changed his mind and regret he did this the scribes would say that the vow was valid and must be honored
The scribes would then say that the son had to obey Num 30:1 This is why Jesus quoted the Isaiah passage to ensure the Scribes that they miss the point and their hearts were hard.
Corbin illustrates a hard heart toward obeying the law of God and a blinded heart that follows man’s tradition. They really did not care about the law of God or man’s tradition they really only cared about themselves. Religion is selfish “what can I do”, or better yet “look what I can do”
Many religious people want to add to that and make extra Biblical rules, they want to say that church has something to do with our Salvation and they elevate traditions in doing so they elevate people over the Lord Jesus.
There are three things that Christians need to remember. Preferences, Convictions and Absolutes.
Illus. Standing for worship.
The preferences and convictions we cannot put on others but the Biblical Absolutes are for everyone. What Jesus is saying here is that you are ignoring Biblical absolutes because of your traditions. In order to look more Godly you are actually becoming less Godly.
This is our conviction: We trust Jesus and live in accordance to His Word that the Holy Spirit helps us to understand and follow. We don’t follow people but we appreciate people who have dedicated their lives to study the Scriptures so we can have a better understanding. We don’t bog ourselves down with man-made traditions but try to be culturally relevant with Biblical truth
-Does not fix our problem 7:14-15
Vrs 14-15 Nothing outside a man (generic, “person”) by going into him can make him “unclean” (cf. 7:2). Jesus spoke in a moral not a medical sense. A person is not defiled morally by what he eats even if his hands are not ceremonially washed. BKC
• Our problem is a sinful heart 7:16-23
Vrs 16 Some manuscripts “If anyone has ears let him hear”
Vrs 17-19 Jesus explains that ceremonial washings and “defiled” foods don’t actually defile a person morally. The rulers should understand it is the heart. Jer 17:9
Vrs 20-23 The heart being the center of the person is where sin comes from. Jesus rattles off a list and its not comprehensive of every sin but the disciples get the picture. In lists like these every person says “oh He named mine”
All these evils defile a person, and have their source from inside, from one’s heart. So Jesus took the focus of attention away from external rituals and placed it on the need for God to cleanse one’s evil heart Psalm 51
We get callous toward personal sin
If you live in a graveyard too long you stop crying when someone dies. Traditional.
Our hearts become hard and unfortunately sometimes tradition is a small band-aid attempt to make us feel better about our hard heart. (because I did something)
Then how do are hearts become clean? And freed of sin?
-The solution is Jesus.
Gal. 3:24-25 says So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,
We come to know truth not only reason, but still more so through our hearts. B. Pascal.
The 19th-century Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard identified two kinds of religion -- Religion A and Religion B. The first is "faith" in name only (2 Tim. 3:5). It's the practice of attending church without genuine faith in the living Lord.
Religion B, on the other hand, is a life-transforming, destiny-changing experience. It's a definite commitment to the crucified and risen Savior, which establishes an ongoing personal relationship between a forgiven sinner and a gracious God. GOSPEL
Conclusion: We have a heart problem that no tradition, religious act or good work can ever fix. Only faith in Jesus can fix .
Read Galatians 2:16-21
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