The Teaching of the King (Matthew 15:1-20)
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
“A tradition unlike any other.” This is the start of an advertisement for a unique sporting event. An ad not for March Madness, college football, the NFL, NBA, or MLB. It is the start of an advertisement for the Masters tournament of the PGA that takes place every April in Augusta, GA. The full add says, “A tradition unlike any other, the Masters on CBS.”
A catchy ad for sure, but beyond that, it is fascinating when you think about the unique traditions of the Masters. For 4 days, professional golfers compete in the first major golf tournament of the year for the coveted Green Jacket that the winner of the Masters will receive on Sunday afternoon. The tradition of the beautiful course with its Azaleas and Dogwood Trees in full bloom. Even the tradition of the Par 3 contest on Wednesday before the opening round, where golfers will compete with their children often tagging alongside. It truly is a tradition unlike any other.
Of course, the Masters isn’t the only thing filled with tradition. There are traditions that take place on certain holidays, there are family traditions. These traditions can be good and wonderful things that make lasting memories.
There are even traditions that are in the church. For example, traditions of standing for the singing of songs, the passing of plates for the Lord’s Supper. There are the traditions of various kinds and types of prayers and scripture readings that vary from church to church. In and of itself, none of these are bad things in and of themselves.
However, tradition can quickly turn into a bad thing. Especially when we begin to look to those traditions as the guide for how we are to do things rather than the Word of the Living God! Traditions that are continued on, but no one knows the Biblical grounding for such a thing. And yet, when those traditions are pressed against, there are those who would put up a fight, no matter how much the word of God pushes against their beloved tradition.
That reaction of fight is what we see from the Pharisees and Scribes in our passage this morning.
Therefore, it is this subject of tradition, along with defilement that I want to talk with us about this morning for the next little bit. Therefore, please turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 15:1-20. That can be found beginning on page #975 in the Red Bibles there in your seats.
While you are turning to Matthew 15:1-20, let me set the stage for where we are at this morning. Opposition to Jesus and his teaching regarding the coming kingdom has already been taking place. And that opposition will only begin to increase as the religious leaders of the Scribes and the Pharisees continue to cling to their ceremonial traditions of what it looks like to keep God’s law. However, Jesus’ teaching stands in direct contrast to this. For even in his early teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This coming from the beatitudes in Matthew 5:8.
This purity of heart is then elaborated in what comes in Matthew 5:21-48 with the greater righteousness that is required to enter the kingdom of heaven. A righteousness that…goes to the heart.
The heart is an important matter for the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus has not been shy about emphasizing this. But this purity of heart is now further elevated as it is put in direct contrast to the defilement that naturally comes out of our hearts as he addresses what it is that defiles man. Let’s then hear these words of the LORD from Matthew 15:1-20…
Main Idea: True religion and true purity are a matter of the heart; not outward religious acts of hypocrisy.
1. True Religion (Matthew 15:1-9)
2. True Purity (Matthew 15:10-20)
1. True Religion
1. True Religion
True religion is not about traditions
True religion is not about traditions. And we see this from the Pharisees and the scribes in Matthew 15:1-2 as they sought to rebuke Jesus and his disciples for breaking the tradition of the elders with the eating of unclean hands.
This particular group of Pharisees and scribes though are not from the region of Gennesaret where they are, they are from Jerusalem. This likely being a small portion sent by the whole to test and examine Jesus from what they have heard. But in their examining, they find that there is no adherence to their traditions.
Traditions that were extra biblical requirements for how to live. Traditions that they established by their own authority in hopes to appear more godly.
The elders they refer to knew the law. They knew that God had instructed the people in such manners of cleansing themselves.
First for the priests, the sons of Aaron:
17 The Lord said to Moses, 18 “You shall also make a basin of bronze, with its stand of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it, 19 with which Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. 20 When they go into the tent of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering to the Lord, they shall wash with water, so that they may not die. 21 They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”
Second, for the various laws concerning bodily discharges, various skin diseases, and many more specific instances throughout the book of Leviticus that when over, they were told to wash themselves that evening and be clean.
The traditions of the elders, and now of these Pharisees and scribes is born out of these laws. For they took these specific commands of God and made them a requirement for at least the religious leaders, if not all the people to ensure they were properly cleansed, even before putting any food in their mouths. This certainly goes above the line of Scripture in saying more than God has said. A line that they have elevated and now made the measuring test of faithfulness if people do not practice the same.
However, instead of Jesus justifying their eating habits, Jesus turns the tables on them. For while the Pharisees and the scribes are worried about the breaking of the tradition of the elders, Jesus is concerned with the breaking of God’s commandments. Verse 3…
True religion is about keeping God’s commandments (law)
True religion is about keeping God’s commandments (law)
True religion is about keeping God’s commandments (law). The authority of all who would seek true and right religion in Jesus are not to be under the authority of traditions, but God’s unchanging, authoritative Word as found in the pages of the Bible.
This is why week in and week out, we seek not to gather and listen to man’s opinions on certain topics, but we labor to get to the main argument of the passage of Scripture and present it as the argument of the sermon. This is what we call expositional preaching. That is, the preaching that works to expose the text in its purest sense and then apply it in that context as we want to keep God’s word and allow its authority to sound forth.
For when this word is set aside, other things, like tradition begin to push out the word and even labor to make it void as the traditions of the elders was doing. The example Jesus uses here in verse 4 is that God had commanded his people to honor your father and mother, this coming from Exodus 20:12. And being paired with that is a further command from Exodus 21:17 which says, “Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.”
This is the clear command of God as given to his people on Mount Sinai after delivering them out of Egypt through the Red Sea. A law that was to instruct the people to honor father and mother throughout the entirety of their lives.
This means for you children, to love God is to honor your father and mother in recognizing that God has given you to them and that they have a good and right authority over you. Therefore, you are to honor them through your obedience to them.
But honoring father and mother and not reviling them is more than just obeying dad and mom as children. To honor father and mother is to also honor them as they get older and the tables are turned, when the children become parents to their parents in caring for their regular needs.
My wife recently came across an article talking about this concept. In the article, Jen Wilkin equates the stages of life form a chiasm. A chiasm being a literary structure where concepts are repeated in reverse order. And the chiasm of life stages, she argues, goes something like this: (A) “we are first children to our parents, (B) then parents to our children, (B) then parents to our parents, and (A) finally children to our children.”
Therefore, honoring father and mother and not reviling them is to be ready to care for them when they are no longer able to care for themselves. To care for them with the same love and dignity that they cared for you when you were a child. For now they are in need of financial care, assistance in things they are no longer able to do on their own.
It is this that is the commandment of the Lord, a command that if one is to find true religion is to honor and due with joy in obedience to the LORD. This is the call of righteousness and faithfulness.
And praise God for those even in our midst who are laboring to be faithful in this very area right now! Beloved, who are in this, see that this is part of your faithfulness to God! Therefore, be encouraged and keep being faithful in what God has commanded!
However, the tradition of the elders sought to elevate their tradition above God’s commandments. They were willing to break God’s word for the sake of keeping their traditions as they elevated these traditions above God’s word. Verses 5-6…
One of the traditions of the elders was known as Corban. Corban, though not used here in Matthew, is used in Mark’s parallel account to this passage. And it is a financial vow to give God a certain amount of money. In the case of this tradition, large amounts of money that would remove the possibility of caring for one’s parents in their old age. But the tradition would allow one not to break this vow of Corban, all the while neglecting the fifth commandment to honor father and mother. God’s law was then broken and made void for the sake of tradition which is far from true religion.
Tradition can creep into every part of our lives. It is not even that tradition is evil in and of itself. However, tradition can never be our authority. The word of God, Christian, is to always be our authority. Therefore, every tradition we have must always and regularly be brought back to the Scriptures for examination. Asking why do we do this, and does it have Biblical warrant? If not, we must break from such traditions and return to the way that God has prescribed us to live and worship him!
True religion leads to right worship of God
True religion leads to right worship of God
True religion leads to right worship of God. For the root of the elevation of these traditions for the Pharisees and scribes was that they sought to honor God, but not from their hearts, but externally through their lips.
So, they would seek the appearance of godliness, all the while being actors. Actors who would wear masks and be two-faced as they professed God, while rejecting his authority. Were they then not rightly called hypocrites by King Jesus? Verses 7-9…
Jesus here borrows from Isaiah in Isaiah 29:13 in his warning to the contemporaries in his day, telling the Pharisees and scribes, that this is fitting for them.
For they too honored God with their lips, but they did not have a heart that drew near to God and loved God. They elevated their traditions above the God who created them and was to rule over them.
True religion will always lead to a right heart worship of God, not mere acting. Not a going through the motions.
Friends, it might be easy to show up here week in and week out and go through the motions of religion with your lips. But beware if your heart is not in it, it is not true worship, it is empty and vain worship.
For true religion will always come from a heart that delights in God and what he has commanded. Let us beware then of thinking that our traditions will keep us from defilement. For these rituals will not keep us from defilement, only a cleansed heart will.
2. True Purity
2. True Purity
True purity is not external cleansing
True purity is not external cleansing
True purity is not about external cleansing. And having called out the Pharisees and the scribes for their wrong religion of traditions, Jesus now turns his attention back to the crowds, who had likely stepped back while the Pharisees and the scribes interacted with Jesus. And as he calls them back to him, he tells them there in verses 10-11, to hear and understand. To hear and understand that its not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth. Defilement is what flows out of us, not what goes in.
Beloved, how much more then should we be concerned about what comes out of us, then we are what goes into us? Particularly the evil and vile and defiling words that come out of our mouths? Words that are quick to tear down, assault others, mock them, and even judge them? As James taught us over a year and a half ago when we studied it together, we should be slow to speak.
True purity will prevail
True purity will prevail
True purity will prevail, while false purity will not. Verses 12-14…
Here the disciples are worried about the Pharisees and scribes reaction to being offended, to their stumbling at Jesus’ calling them out on their hypocrisy. Yet, Jesus here that their time is short. They are not planted by the Father and therefore they will be rooted up and the pit of judgment awaits them. True purity isn’t had in their false religion. They are blind guides leading others who are also blind in this past of destruction.
And while this call to let them alone is not a call to cease any and all evangelism or a protecting of the church, it is a call to let them go to their own ruin as they continually reject the truth of God’s word, though it has been clearly put before them. It is a call to not exert one’s energy in such toils.
Yet, it is an important point then for us to pray from such blind teaching to never enter our midst. It is an important reminder for us to always carefully examine those who would belong to this church, especially to those who would rise and be those who teach others, both formally and informally. For if they have blind teaching and conviction, those who would follow them would be lead to the same destruction, to the pit that they would fall.
We long for the day in which such will be rooted out and cease to exist. For the day when the teaching of God's word is pure. And we can wait with hope as Jesus tells us these will be rooted up, as external purity will not endure.
True purity is a heart matter
True purity is a heart matter
True purity is not about external matters, true purity is a heart matter. Jesus already has told the crowds that what defiles a person isn’t what enters, but about what comes out through the mouth.
Unfortunately, the disciples are still clueless, and Peter speaks up on behalf of the whole down in verse 15, asking Jesus to explain this parable to them. And Jesus first gives them a slight rebuke, verse 16…
Jesus expected his disciples at this point to begin understanding these issues! He is patient with them, but does expect them to begin grasping these things. Starting with verses 17-18…
Again, Jesus makes clear, defilement is not what enters the body, but comes out of the heart. Food enters, goes through the digestion process and then the waste is expelled. Food doesn’t defile the person. The heart however, is where defilement comes. As the heart has been affected by sin. verse 19…
Each of these sins continues to work its way through the 10 commandments. Explicitly commandments 6-9, and implicit on 10 being what leads to the others in their coveting what others have. But all of these flow from the heart and are what defile us.
We are defiled, because it is from our hearts tainted by sin that causes us to have evil thoughts. Thoughts that work first on our mind and then will lead to further evil action. Evil thoughts
Scripture Reading & Prayer
Scripture Reading & Prayer
1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
