Jesus and the Bible

What gets you in and what gets you out?

You see, back in the day, I remember that crocs were all the trend.

They were all arranged.

You'd wear socks with crocs.

And the thing is, for me, crocs made you out.

Crocs weren't cool.

Bourbon socks were easy.

You'll see me a lot of the time wearing Bourbon socks.

In fact, I heard someone ask their parent recently,

and that's a new shoe.

It got to the point where, even today,

I was at another youth group preaching,

and I was talking about crocs and how old they were,

and everyone looked at the person, and they were like,

crocs are the best thing because crocs are in acrimony.

I remember when I was wearing puffy jackets,

my friends said that I did not look cool.

And it was only something that old people would wear.

But guess what?

Crocs are in, and so are puffy jackets.

It's what the young adults have been wearing for the last decade.

You see, in today's passage,

the Pharisees are about who is in and who is out.

The Pharisees were so caught up in whether people were clean,

holy by their standards,

and the people who were in were the people who were clean

and following their religious and cultural traditions.

And the people who weren't clean were out.

During this period, the Pharisees were seen as the most holy people,

the ones who knew God and went above and beyond to follow his law,

to adhere to these cleanliness customs.

You would be of the same level of the Pharisees.

So why wouldn't you keep these customs?

Well, in this passage, the Pharisees have observed that Jesus and his disciples

were not practicing these Jewish religious traditions,

and they tried to trap him.

So for today's sermon, you can open up to the St. Paul's app,

or you can write four points that will follow along our sermon.

Number one, the trap.

Number two, Jesus' correction.

Number three, what is our trap?

And number four, what is Jesus' solution?

Well, number one, the trap.

Let's look exactly what is going on in verse one.

Have your Bibles open.

It says,

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law,

who had come from Jerusalem,

gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food

with hands that were defiled.

That is, unwashed.

Now, Mark goes further.

He writes some little backstory for his initial audience,

who most likely were non-Jews and were unfamiliar with these customs.

It was just what the Jews did.

It says in verse three,

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat

unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing,

holding to the tradition of the elders.

And 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.

What Mark is doing here is helping us understand

that the tradition Jesus and his disciples were breaking

were not from God's word.

When you read the Bible,

often you'll see little letters that refer to footnotes.

And in these footnotes,

you'll see other Bible references

when a quote or an idea relates to other Bible passages.

And that's actually to encourage us

to actually get some context

and to see how the Bible is unified in its message.

In here,

notice that there are no references to other texts,

no references to biblical laws.

In other words,

what the Pharisees were actually catching Jesus on

were things from man and not from God.

They added a blanket rule

on what it meant to be God's people,

but not listen to God's word himself.

The term in verse three,

the tradition of the elders,

refers to Jewish traditions

passed on from generation to generation

from the authority of each teacher of the law.

That has become their authority.

In other instances,

this term would refer to not a tradition that's passed on,

but what the authoritative contemporary Pharisees held.

But it is not the authority of God.

It's why we are in this series,

because we believe that the Bible is God's word,

that it is ultimate authority.

It is trustworthy and necessary.

It's clear and final.

And we're encouraged to go deeper into God's word

to submit to God's authority.

And what the Pharisees are really doing

is like us making a policy book here at St. Paul's

and say that the people who are in

are only people who wear summer clothing in winter at church

or only have cold showers.

We already know that I will probably win one of those.

Sometimes we might link it to,

oh, it's because we want to be uncomfortable

to know that our comfort truly is in Jesus.

Guess what?

That is not a policy that we have here.

And that would be a man-made thing.

The original intention of this cultural custom

was that they recognize that God cared about cleanliness.

But boy, did they get it wrong.

So how does Jesus correct them?

Jesus answers two questions we might have for the text.

Number one, where did the Pharisees go wrong?

And then number two, how then are we in?

How then are we made clean?

So where did the Pharisees go wrong?

Jesus corrects them in verse six to eight.

He replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, hypocrites.

As it is written, these people honour me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain.

Their teachings are merely human rules.

You have let go of the commands of God

and are holding on to human traditions.

Jesus, who loves God's word, he knows it.

He uses it as a defence against temptation.

He recognises that the Pharisees are those who want the identity

of being godly and religious.

And he noticed how he characterises the Pharisees,

the lip service, the vain worship.

They're just holding on to human traditions.

And it characterises them as those of the world and of themselves.

And it is as if these external observances

are what makes them God's people.

In fact, Jesus later makes it known in verse nine to 13

that it's not just clinging to human tradition as the problem,

but in fact, their human traditions,

the things that they're putting their pride in,

make it actually impossible to follow God's word.

Verse 13, that they in fact nullify the word of God

by your tradition that you have handed down.

And this is not the only time they do so.

Cleanliness by God's standards,

being in with the crowd of God,

has never been about how you look,

never been about the food you consume.

God, from the very beginning,

has always been about the heart.

1 Samuel 16 verse 7 tells us this.

1 Samuel 16:7

Although man might look to the external,

the Lord looks into the heart.

And Jesus says later in verse 15,

nothing outside of the person can defile them

by going into them.

Rather, it is what comes out of the person

that defiles them.

For later in verse 20, he says that the things,

that the unclean things that come out of a person,

comes from an unclean heart.

We're in MasterChef season right now,

and I hope you're watching because it's just amazing.

But there are so many times when contestants cook things

and the judge finds the tiniest thing to go on and say,

nah, I can't eat it at all.

There might be a raw component,

maybe there's a speck of dirt.

If you didn't know, I didn't know because I eat it.

Shock horror.

In a prawn, there is an excrement vein in them.

And you can see the judge's refusal to eat in their faces.

They're just like pulling divisively,

oh, there's this thing, therefore I can't eat it.

But we need a solution to our unclean heart.

Any little bit is unacceptable to God

because he's perfect, he's pure.

We can't just do more clean things.

It's already unclean.

It's useless washing our hands.

Once it's made dirty, it's unacceptable.

But the transformed heart is something that God promises his people

way back in the Old Testament.

He promises in Ezekiel 36, 26,

that one day he will give them a new heart, a new spirit.

The hope for us comes in Hebrews 10.

The writer talks about Old Testament sacrifices

and their purpose before Jesus.

It was the way to be made right with God,

but by Christ's sacrifice on the cross,

verse 22 is our battle song against our unclean hearts.

It says,

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart

and with the full assurance that faith brings,

having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience

and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Faith in Christ makes us in.

Faith in Christ purifies our heart.

Friends, it is possible that we fall into the Pharisees trap too.

We too can fall for human traditions

or we might even distort truths of God's word

or even his gospel and deceive ourselves like the Pharisees.

We may not collectively do that as a church.

We don't require scribal traditions

or have an additional law book.

However, we have some subsumed ideologies for our culture

that we put as a priority

or even some self-talk that diminish the reality

of the gospel in our lives.

An awesome kids ministry Bible teacher

named Jack Klumpenhower puts it this way.

Take this torch light on the screen.

Imagine this torch

is someone who's discovered God's light.

The beam of light will point to two things.

Number one, the glory of God, his holiness.

Number two, the knowledge of sin,

missing the mark of his glory in the law.

And that's how we start our journey

as followers of Jesus, right?

We discover the wonder of Christ and the glory of God.

Wow, there's something about him that's so cool.

But we also have the spirit

who convicts us of our sin

and we recognise our sinfulness.

When a person becomes a Christian,

they discover that what bridges the gap

is the gospel.

The gospel reconciles the two ends

of the spectrum of God's holiness and our sin.

And when we grow in our faith,

we discover more about God

and we realise our imperfections even more.

So the beam widens

and so we have a gap in our faith.

And if our understanding of the totality

of Christ's accomplishment and the cross

does not grow alongside this,

we will fill these gaps with anything else.

We'll fill it with things of this world,

or we'll say things to ourselves like,

if our knowledge and love of the gospel hasn't grown,

we will fill the gap to reach the holy standard of God.

Well, all that matters

is that I personally think that I have a good heart

or I'm doing my bit for society.

I'm not perfect,

but surely God recognises that I'm serving,

that I'm coming to church.

Surely God is good with my little obedience

or following all the Bible is impossible.

In other words,

we lower God's standard

or make less of the creator of the universe.

I know I have done that.

But we will also fill the gap

when we realise that our sin

is way too deep.

You might say or think that

I just need to hide my sin from others

or

I might

look like a good Christian to others

and surely

that will be okay.

Maybe we get defensive

when we are called out on our sin.

Maybe my sin isn't so horrible.

And in these situations,

you and I fall in the same trap as the Pharisees.

We've made it about man

and not about God.

See, the only solution

is when the gospel grows

alongside our understanding of God's law

and our sin.

Last week, we were reminded by John

that we are all on the journey as Bible students.

And naturally, what will happen is

we will realise that God is so gracious,

glorious and merciful.

Remember that the only solution,

rather than be ashamed in your sin

or hide from God,

is when the cross grows alongside everything else.

The gospel makes you ever more certain

about your status being forgiven,

adopted and totally accepted.

You'll no longer fall into legalism

or be given into yourself,

free licence to live your own way.

It's the grace that keeps on giving.

Because Jesus himself valued God's word.

He affirms it all.

He doesn't ignore it.

He doesn't say,

don't worry about the Old Testament.

Steve pointed to us early in the series

that Jesus in Luke 24, 27 says

that the whole scriptures point to himself.

Every single story we read from the Old Testament,

the law, the prophets, the songs,

they are filled with God's glory

and his promises for his people.

And friend, for you,

they have never been more true,

more realised,

better than ever in Jesus.

When you read Psalm 32

about how God is our hiding place in tribulation,

you recall to how Colossians 3, 3 says

that our hiding place is in Jesus.

It's even easy for me

to get confused about a book like Leviticus

when it's talking about sacrifices, worship.

But you recall to mind,

the core of the gospel

is that Jesus is our Passover lamb

who was sacrificed,

who took away the sin of the world.

When you come across the pages

about David and Goliath,

you don't go and read that God

will help you against your impossible giants.

No, you look to Jesus.

The pioneer and perfecter of your faith

who says that even though

you can never reach the glory of God

on your own,

Luke 18, 27 says directly to that matter

that nothing is impossible for God

and through Jesus,

you can receive forgiveness and freedom

that was seemingly impossible.

But the gospel does not just have the power

to change your Bible reading,

but in every high and low of your life.

See, what the gospel does

is make the law not a bar that we can attain

because we've established already

what makes us clean is the blood of Jesus.

What the gospel does,

it makes us look to Jesus even in our life.

The law is no longer a means

to be legalistic and tick a box,

but one that is aspirational,

that by the Holy Spirit,

you are becoming more like Jesus.

For example,

if I'm in a perpetual state of people pleasing,

my boss, my family, my parents,

but I know that Jesus

is my saviour,

I have an audience of one.

I live to worship the Lord

knowing he already deeply affirms me

because I am his child.

If you're a parent

who feels like you need to be striving

harder and harder

for your child's happiness

or for their achievement,

hit the brakes.

Know that your value doesn't come

from being class parent of the year,

but that you are loved as a child of God.

If you're making a priority

to nurture a home

for your kids to know and love Jesus,

you are already doing

what God calls you to do as a parent.

And this is regardless of whether

your child trusts in Jesus at the end.

That is God's work, not yours.

If you're single and want to be married,

married is a wonderful gift.

It is right to be desired.

But marriage isn't your solution.

The gospel solution is knowing

that in Jesus,

you are never alone.

For the spirit that rose Jesus Christ

from the dead is in you

and that your marital status now

reflects the marital status

of all Christians in eternity.

That we will all be single.

Those who are married right now

will all be single in eternity,

solely committed to God.

When you look at your own sin

and keep wondering why you aren't changing

and you feel like,

maybe God's forgotten about me.

No, he hasn't.

For Jesus became defiled

by your sin

so that you might have a clean heart,

so that you can be confident

in the promise of Philippians

that God is doing a good work in you

and will carry it to completion

when Jesus returns.

Friends,

the gospel is gold for all.

Do you see how every narrative

in the Bible,

old and new,

familiar and foreign,

they weave in together

and it all converges

to the climax of the cross.

Every story,

longing,

triumph

and problem in your life

is and can be met

and fulfilled in Jesus.

As we've been opening the Bible,

we've seen that it commands us

to value the scriptures

as God's authoritative word.

To not just glance at it

and be ready

to gaze,

but be ready

to gaze at

God's grace

and glory.

So what I want us to do

is to consider

some questions

for both

our life

and times we read the Bible.

Number one,

when it comes to your Bible reading,

here are three

really simple questions

to help you

every time you read.

Number one,

what is God doing

for his people

in this story?

Number two,

how does he do

the same for us

but better

in Jesus?

Number three,

how does believing

this change

how we live?

And here are three questions

to reflect on your own

about your life.

What is the deepest longing

in your life

you wish to be resolved?

How does Jesus address

the deepest longing

in the gospel?

What from God's word

brings you

this comfort?

I want to give you

a few moments

to jot down right now

these questions.

Maybe just answer

the first question

and get your calendars out

to reflect on

how the gospel

is the solution

to your deepest need.

Take a photo of the screen

but if your heart

has been stirred,

do something.

I would hate

for us to be

like the man

who looks in the mirror

then forgets

what he looks like.

I'll pray in a bit.

Heavenly Father,

we thank you

for your word.

We thank you

that the pinnacle

of scripture

aligns our hearts

to see the gospel

clearer.

We thank you

for Christ crucified.

We thank you

for the risen Lord Jesus

that in trusting

in him

we have a gospel

that does not just

have the power

to save

but to change.

We pray

that we might

trust you

as the one

who changes hearts.

We know we cannot.

So Lord,

give us your spirit

to renew us

and renew the joy

of our salvation

but we pray as well

that you might give us

a new heart,

a clean

and contrite heart.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.