Sunday Morning Service

Matthew 14:34-Matthew 15:20 (Click title for audio access)

"The Compassion And Condemnation" • 10.10.10 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- As we have been moving through the Gospel of Matthew, we've noted that one of the greatest themes is the nature of Christ and His Kingdom.

- It is the theme throughout the story, the thread of what this Kingdom demands from us. Jesus is the King of the Kingdom. He is the center of the book and the centerpiece of God's agenda.

- He is and will always be THE polarizing subject in any life. People responded to Him and His message because both are so dynamic, they leave one with little choice.

- This section continues that theme with two contrasting views, based not on how men responded to Christ, but how He responded to them.

Text

• Matthew 14:34-36 : "When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well." : It's early in the morning and the disciples have made land.

- These are likely the men that had been at the feast from the previous evening. They had returned home and woke up to find Jesus in their area.

- When they saw Jesus, they sent word out to those who were around that Jesus was there and they had people that needed to be healed.

- These people were looking for a miracle, and perhaps, another feeding. They were not followers of Christ's doctrine. They were followers of His works.

- They wanted something from Him that was He not necessarily selling but they came to Him nonetheless. They were desperate for Him to heal them.

- Relatives, friends, and aquaintances were delivered to Jesus and they begged him that they might simply touch the lowest part of His garment.

- There is a sense here that they did not want to impose upon Christ. They would do the work. He did not need to be put out to heal them.

- They wanted to His hem, the bottom of His garment. This was not the special place that you touch for the sake of healing. It was a point of contact and they reached out to Him.

- Their faith in Christ’s ability to heal, coupled with His presence and desire to heal, caused them to be made perfectly well, fully restored, back to complete physical health.

- Jesus demonstrated the authority of His Kingdom and the concern of God for this people.

- These people were made perfectly well on earth, but there is no report that any of them followed Jesus beyond that which brought them to Him in the first place.

- These people came to Jesus for healing, but wanted little else from Him. Yet, He healed them anyway. He bound up their wounds and gave them a gift from heaven.

- He responded to their desperation. He responded to their needs.

- These healing passages are meant to be an encouragement to us, and yet, often, we are stumped as to why healing does not flow to our lives.

- Some have suffered for years and some have suffered affliction upon affliction. Just yesterday, I learned of Joni Eareckson Tada’s breast cancer diagnosis.

- This is a Christian woman who is already a quadripilegic and now she has to face this!

- Because Jesus lives, there is a possibility of healing, here on earth. There are some, who for the purposes of God, will be healed here. We are to ask that He might do that for us.

- On the other hand, because Christ lives, there is an inevitability of healing in heaven!

- It WILL take place there when He touches those who are redeemed and gives us new bodies which will be impervious to pain.

- This section here reminds us that the Kingdom, represented by Christ, is one of compassion mixed with power to make perfectly well. One day, we will all experience that.

- Now, to provide the contrast, Matthew takes us into the next section.

• Matthew 15:1,2 : "Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, ^'Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.'" : What a strange thing to say, but it's an old problem.

- A recent study shows that half the people who use the restroom don't wash their hands. Yeah, they are called "Men!"

- That's obviously not what these guys are referring to. These religious leaders are a step above the other religious leaders that we have seen thus far, as they were from Jerusalem.

- They had come from the religious epicenter of Judaism. To make it in Jerusalem was quite a feat. These men would have been respected in the same way as a dignitary would today.

- When they approached Jesus, they had noted that the disciples were not up to code. They were transgressing the tradition of the elders of Jerusalem.

- We have noted before that the law of Moses was the foundation for Jewish living. Upon that foundation, other works were added. There was the oral law, which later became the Talmud.

- The Talmud was codified and was later called the Mishnah. These were the backbone to Jewish thinking. These “traditions” were treated with equal weight by the people.

- In fact, among certain rabbis, the tradition of the elders held GREATER weight that God’s Word! Ah, the beauty of religion!

- I want us to notice several things pertaining to religion as we go along. First, religion accuses! “Why do your disciples…”

- We see this over and over again: An accusatory, sin sniffing attitude!

- Second, religion is man made! It’s the “tradition of the elders.” Men had brought this together and enforced it upon other men.

- Third, notice that religion is all about externals. “They do not wash their hands.” What I am about to tell you is true. If it was not true, it’d be a great joke.

- There were two reasons why one had to wash their hands in a ceremonial fashion. First, if you happened to touch a Gentile, you were considered, by the traditions, unclean.

- If you happened to be walking on a road and you passed a Gentile, the dust that came up off of his feet would have likely come into contact with you, which would also have made you unclean!

- My favorite is the second reason why one would need a ceremonial wash before eating.

- The Jewish people of that time believed that a demon called “Shibnah” sat on your hands while you slept. If you did not ceremonially wash, you would accidently ingest some demon with breakfast!

- What comes next is simply unbelievable! The ceremony of washing involved water poured out of a third of a half of an eggshell onto the hands.

- You held up your hands and allowed the water to drip down. When it came to the wrist, you wanted to move your hands parallel to the ground to avoid defiling your arms!

- Adding insult to injury, I am told that you had to do this after every course of the meal!

- This is what men required of other men! How serious was this to them? Listen to this quote:

˚ “He sinneth as much who eateth with unwashen hands, as he that lieth with a harlot.” Rabbi Jose

• Matthew 15:3-6 : "He answered and said to them, 'Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, 'Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God'— then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition." : Jesus does not answer the question directly. Instead, He goes straight for the jugular saying, “Why do you also transgress.”

- He was admitting to them that His disciples DID IN FACT, transgress the traditions of men, in the same way that they were guilty of breaking God’s law!

- They had learned to follow the tradition of men at the expense of the law of God.

- The disciples were transgressing their traditions, but these Pharisees and Scribes had learned to transgress God's command by keeping their traditions.

- He gives an example of what He is talking about. He lays out the 5th Commandment. This is one of the originals. God's top 10! This was as old a commandment as the nation itself.

- The Pharisees had found a way to circumvent this command. The law called for honor of parents to come in the form of offering financial assistance when the parents were old.

- The tradition held howver, that certain monies could be reserved for God. When it came time to offer assistance to the parental units, the son could simply defer to the synagogue.

- "Oh, the only money I have left is the tithe! Sorry!" It was supposed to be God’s gift, but later, it could be used in any way. They nullified God’s command by following their traditions.

• Matthew 15:7-9 : "Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’" : Verse 7 is arguably the most damaging blow to religion: Jesus rejects it! Jesus sees in these men the prophesy that Isaiah once spoke over 600 years earlier.

- He quotes here from Isaiah 29, which is an accurate picture of what has been happening in Matthew's account. The problem was exactly this: People came near to God with their mouth!

- Their traditions and their exercise of the law had the effect of seeming spiritual. It was however merely lip service and simply, an act.

- When Jesus looked into their hearts, His assessment was that their heart was far from Him.

- Their rituals had become more sacred than the Lord they had originally intended to honor! Jesus responds in kind: Hypocrites, actors!

- You have to notice the contrast. Here Jesus condemns these religious leaders, while He had just a short time ago, been compassionate upon the crowd!

- He received the crowd which was desperate for Him but rejected the proud and self-righteous Pharisees.

- Their worship, their acts, their outward devotion, did not have an impact upon the Lord. It was vanity. It was empty and fruitless. God was not impressed or honored.

- The worst part was that they taught men to respect their traditions, which made men double guilty before the Lord.

- This is why religion is so odious to God: It gives men a false sense of security. They believe that they are moving the heart of God, so they strive to be more religious.

- All they have done is fool themselves and others into thinking that God is impressed, when in reality, they are lost.

• Matthew 15:10-14 : "When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, 'Hear and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.' Then His disciples came and said to Him, 'Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?' But He answered and said, 'Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.'" : Jesus wanted to make sure that they understood something, before the accusation made the rounds.

- The influence of their words would have confused or corrupted the crowd.

- He tells them not to worry about what came into one's body, directly referring to the Pharisees hand washing scandal.

- They were worried about what came in to their bodies. They fought against external pollutants, but this did not defile anyone before the Lord.

- What they did not worry about was what was coming out of their lips! That was entirely more revealing and worth much more of their worry.

- You can tell that this hit home with the Pharisees and Scribes, as the disciples let Jesus know that he had offend them. They knew what He was saying!

- Jesus says that they are not one of God's plants. Ultimately, they are blind guides, leading others to a terrible ending! What does Jesus instruct about them? Let them alone!

- Often, we want to struggle, argue with and fight against people like this. The sad truth in Christ's words are that the weight of their religion will end in their own destruction.

- Unless they are freed from their religion, they and those that follow them will be doomed!

• Matthew 15:15-20 : "Then Peter answered and said to Him, 'Explain this parable to us.' So Jesus said, 'Are you also still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.'" : The essence of what Jesus is saying is this: Religion doesn't deal with the problem of humanity!

- Any germ or bacteria that enters a man's body will eventually, if painfully, exit his body, one way or another. That's not theology, that's biology!

- The true defilement of a man, that which makes him unacceptable to God, comes from what comes out of His heart. Unless that part of a man is changed, there is no hope for him!

- Religion can reform a man, but it can never transform Him. It can make a person look acceptable, but it cannot change what makes him unacceptable.

- Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks! The mouth becomes the fountain which reveals what is at the source of any person.

- Jesus proceeds to give us a list of thoughts and actions that come out of the heart of man.

˚ "The heart is the cage from whence these unclean birds fly forth."

Charles Spurgeon

- Notice that these come FROM people. These are not from the devil. These are attitudes and actions that are imbedded into the nature of fallen men and women.

- He begins with evil thoughts or an evil dialogue. Murders and adulteries are fairly easy to consider, though we need to remind ourselves that Jesus talks about these in thought form.

- Hating without cause and lusting over a person are tantamount to commiting these sins.

- Next Jesus lists "fornications." This is a wide category, which refers to any sexual expression outside of the bounds of marriage.

- The action of theft comes straight from the heart that covets or desires something that he cannot quickly afford.

- False witness is lying about someone, including one's self!

- Blasphemies can also be translated "slander." These are damaging words spoken discreetly about another person.

Conclusion

- Desperation should lead us to Christ. Let His faithfulness keep you there. Run back and ask Him to do more than just deal with your current circumstance.

- Begin first with an attitude that recognizes that there is nothing about you which can be dealt with without Him changing that which is most offensive to Him: Our fallen hearts!

- Let Him change that first in all of us!