Matthew 15:1-2…Ready

Matthew 15:1-2…Ready

15:1 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem (This was no short walk, but a 100 mile trek taking several days. Shows just how motivated and bent they were in destroying Jesus, that they were willing to travel for days just to pick a fight and give Jesu a hard time-(New) and asked 2 “Why do your disciples (People often attack others by going after they’re followers.-(New)  break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” (Marks Gospel adds a parenthetical explanation saying “The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.-(Mark 7:3-4) Accusation may have been based on the earlier feeding of the 5000.-(New)  [For Complete Expository Notes See Book.]

Extended Sermons 

“Teaches how religion is not a checklist of Do’s & Don’ts, it’s about a personal relationship with God.” → What is your list of do’s & don’ts that you use to look righteous and justified before God? Is your law “if I don’t sin God will bless me”. “If I don’t sin God is going to answer my prayer”. Trying to do good without God in your life is simply behavior modification. That’s good for quitting smoking and losing weight but doesn’t work for changing one’s heart…….(To be Continued)

“Warns against judging another’s religious practices just because they don’t do it as we do it.” ⇒ Sometimes we think people who worship differently can’t  be real Christians or they’re not as spiritual as we are. How that looks like today is things like; “You can’t be a Christian if you don’t attend church regularly.”  “You can’t be a Christian if you don’t obey the Sabbath”. “You can’t be a Christian if you drink alcohol”.  “You can’t be a Christian and wear all that makeup and jewelry.” “You can’t be a Christian if you don’t take communion.” “You can’t be a Christian and still send your kids to public school”. “You can’t be a Christian and still vote for Trump.” You can’t be a Christian and……………)

“Warns against trying to win God’s favor and acceptance through performance and rule-keeping. ⇒ This is not saying wanting to live a life that is pleasing and obedient to God is wrong Putting forth effort in the Christian life and striving to live a life of self-discipline in accordance with the scriptures is not wrong. The bible’s teachings and instructions is to be followed and obeyed by God’s people. In fact every true Christian should be devout; You cannot halfheartedly serve or live for Jesus while living for something else. But when we try to earn Salvation and justification before God, then it is wrong.-(Gal. 2:16-20) Outward demonstrations of piety prompted by pride or selfishness, or adding rules to the Bible and claiming they are what God requires, are not a result of being devout to God. Rather, such things result from devotedness to self and self-righteousness. God wants devout followers—those who truly obey Him and follow Him—not religious followers who trust in their own strength, rules, or traditions in an attempt to earn God’s pleasure. Being religiously devout and holy is not all bad, it signifies a deep commitment to one’s faith and ethical principles, often associated with positive qualities like compassion, kindness, and a strong moral compass. However, the potential negative aspects could arise if this devotion leads to extreme behaviors like intolerance, judgment of others, or neglecting other important areas of life.

“Even today, we can make being holy & right with God a checklist to follow. If I attend church regularly, if I read my bible daily, if I pray more often, if I tithe a little more, if I give to charity, if I help the poor, etc. I’m O.K. and good with God”⇒ All these things; church attendance, prayer, bible study, fasting, alone time with God, serving in ministry, tithing, evangelism, etc. Are all good and necessary practices and should not be overlooked. And we should be taking time everyday to be in the word, prayer, bible study. But what can happen so quickly is that it can go from being a means of grace in growing and connecting with God to becoming a law. Did you read through the bible in a year. Did you memorize ten bible verses a day. Did you pray for at least an hour a day. Before you know it we take the joy out of them and make them noting more than ritual. Ask yourself this, how do you feel when you miss one of those things. If you don’t do your bible time every morning, if you don’t pray everyday, if you don’t take your quiet time with God. Do you feel that your not close with God that day? That somehow God’s holding that against you.  Or we start to use those things to gain favor with God. I must be doing well because I’m at Church Sunday mornings. I go to bible study class on Wednesday, I’m engaged a daily devotion time in the word. I pray regularly before meals and before bed. So we go along checking all the boxes, these are the things that make for spiritual growth and health. Yet, where is your heart.  If you don’t check the condition of your heart, you can find yourself having wondered far away to the point that’s almost imperceptible to you!  Because you’ve been measuring spiritual health by the wrong standards of outward conformity and religious observances in the name of God. We can be doctrinally straight and fully active in the things of church, God, and community. Yet no inward reality of the heart. You need to beware of offering to God what is external in the place of your heart.

“Church Traditions are not inherently a bad thing, some can be very healthy in creating stability, unity, and purpose.” ⇒ But it’s when those traditions become rigid to God’s leading, or undermines God’s Word then they become evil. We should follow customs and traditions, so far as they are helpful. But they should not be a litmus test of faithfulness. When traditions begin to dictate your actions above the commands of scripture, then you have become a Pharisee. When we let our new carpet keep us from having a real children’s ministry, lest they spill something on it, then we have become Pharisees. When we cannot budge on our location of a bible study, because it is not church unless it is at the building, then we have become Pharisees. When we shun people who visit our fellowship, because they are not dressed appropriately (or are the wrong color), we have become Pharisees. And those are the easy ones to see.

More Notes & Applications

Warns against measuring our faithfulness to God by how well we follow church rules and traditions.

Warns if not careful we can see uncleanness in others, while refusing to see it in ourselves.

Warns how Jesus doesn’t answer to us, we answer to Him.

Warns how not living the truth can be a poor reflection on Jesus.

Warns if not careful we can Major on the Minors, and Minor on the Majors. We can focus on petty and trivial details of law, purity, and worship. While missing the greater need for grace, repentance, and  transformation.

Calls for seeing that were not prohibiting what God has not prohibited. Or demanding what God has not demanded. (Never ask someone to give up something that God has not asked them to give up. Or expect some to do something that God has not asked them to do)

The reason why the Jews put some much emphasis on ceremonial defilement was because the more pure and holy you were, the more God would bless you and Save you. Their Traditions and rules were like a fence meant to protect them from sinning accidentally. Their list of do and don’t laws were to make them more righteous before God.

This hand washing was a ceremonial custom that the Jewish people at that time carried out before every meal. First you started out with a specified amount of water, something like half a cup or so. And what you did was, you would take that water and begin by dripping the water down from your fingertips to your wrists. And you wet your hands that way. Then you would take the fist of your right hand, and put it in the palm of your left hand, and sort of scrub your palm clean. Then you would do the other with the other hand. Then you would take what was remaining of the water and let it trickle down from your wrist off your fingertips and lit it drip to the ground. And while they did that they even had a special prayer that they would pray. “Blessed be thou, O Lord, King of the Universe, who  sanctified us by the Laws and commanded us to wash the hands”  Then, and only then, we’re your hands ceremonially clean and you could eat. This was purely ceremonial, they probably had no understanding of germs back and the need to thoroughly clean your hands of germs before you ate. (Watch Video  https://youtu.be/FAAlzSZU-Rw  )

Many Church’s today have their own Traditions. Some churches observe communion on the first Sunday of the month. Others on every Sunday. Some churches sing old time gospel hymns. Others sing contemporary praise music. Some churches have casual dress. While others have formal attire; suits, ties, dresses, etc. Some churches use only the King James bible. Some churches have coffee & refreshments between services. Some churches pass around offering plates during service. Some have alter calls after service. There is nothing wrong with us doing any of these things, but it would be wrong if we judged other people because they did things differently. There are some traditions or practices that are causing a lot of stir in churches today. Some of the hot-button issues include worship style, dress, the use of media, and the number and format of services during the week. We need to be careful how we approach both old and new practices in the church. Younger people need to respect some of the older traditions, while older people need to open up and trust some of the newer practices. Just because we did it one way in the past, doesn’t mean that’s the best way to do it today. If we’re going to reach other people and other cultures, we need expand our viewpoint beyond traditions. If we’re locked in our tradition of only wearing Hawaiian shirts, we’re not going to reach people if they’re not wearing an Hawaiian shirt. Or if they’re not wearing a suit like us, we’re not going to listen.

It would be easy for us to think what a bunch of religious zealous nuts for emphasizing such silly traditions like this. We say how dumb, I’m glade we don’t have traditions like that. Who would go through something so silly as that. A special ceremony cleaning the hands every time before your going to eat. But friends we don’t realize how subtly these things merge and accepting they become. As an example we don’t know for sure that Jesus was born on December 25^th. Yet it’s a tradition we celebrate at Christmas anyway. We don’t know why we use trees and mistletoe’s at Christmas. Yet it’s a tradition we celebrate anyway.  We don’t know why we give gifts at Christmas. Yet it’s a tradition we celebrate anyway.  We don’t know why we use the image of Santa Claus during Christmas. Yet it’s a tradition we celebrate anyway. We don’t know why we set up Nativity sense of Jesus being born in a stable, when He was born in a house. Yet it’s a tradition we celebrate anyway. We don’t know why we use eggs and bunnies during Easter. Yet it’s a tradition we celebrate anyway.  We don’t know why we send candy and flowers to loved ones on Valentines Day. Yet it’s a tradition we celebrate anyway. We don’t know why we say “Bless you” after a person sneezes. Yet it’s a tradition we observe anyway.

Some would argue what’s so bad about religion. Isn’t religion a good thing for people. Hasn’t religion brought a lot of good things to this world. And the answer is yes, sometimes.  But a lot of times just the opposite. Did you know Jesus biggest enemies were religious people in the New Testament. It was the religious people who sought to put Him to death and succeeded. Jesus’ harshest words and biggest criticism in the Gospels were for religious leaders. Not only that but it was religion that brought the blood lust of the crusades. It was religion that brought conflict to Ireland, between Catholic and Protestant. It was religion that lead to Spanish Inquisition by the Catholic church. It was religion that lead to the Salem Witch Trials where 60,000 people were executed for witchcraft. It was religion that lead to the mass death of 913 people in Jonestown Guyana. It was religion that lead to the Branch Davidian disaster in Waco Texas where incent children were killed. It was religion that brought airplanes into the World Trade Centers on 9/11. It was religion that motivated Isis to cut peoples heads off. It’s religion that still continues to fuel the conflict in the Middle East to this day.

SIGNS YOU HAVE A RELIGIOUS SPIRIT

• You judge other people by their outward appearance.

• You try to earn God’s Approval & Salvation through works and good deeds

• You focus on outward holiness rather than on inward transformation.

• You go through religious activates with no heart connection

• You are always critical & judgmental of others who don’t look or act like you.

• You are always critical of another’s persons walk with God and way od worship

• You perform Christian duties but have no passion or hunger for God

• You desire position and honor in the church more than honor from God.

• You are always judging & condemning the faults & failures of others

• You feel as though your closer to God than other people

• You are rigid to progress, refuse to embrace change or any new movement of God

• You are unable to take criticism, feedback, and rebuke

• You only see what is wrong in others and never in yourself

• You pride yourself on you spiritual growth & maturity compared to others

• You persecute those who disagree with you

• You feel guilt or shame that you can’t measure up to God’s standard

• You tend to compare your church & ministry results to others

• You argue doctrine in a way that creates division and discord

• You twist & distort the Word of God to justify your own behavior