So that's Matthew chapter 15 verses 1 to 20.
Anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God.
He need not honour his father.
For the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.
You hypocrites!
Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, these people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
And he called the people to him and said to them, hear and understand, it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person.
Then the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?
He answered, every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be rooted up.
Let them alone.
They are blind guides.
And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.
But Peter said to him, explain the parable to us.
And he said, are you still without understanding?
Do you not see whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?
But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart and that defiles a person.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
These are what defile a person.
But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.
Well, for those who are visitors, my name is David.
I'm one of the pastors here and I'll be taking you through this passage, Matthew 15, 1 to 20.
Last Sunday, we started to ease back into Matthew's account of the life and ministry of Jesus after a 10-month break.
I spoke last week about the importance of understanding both Matthew's big picture and also the details of the many incidents and personal encounters people had with Jesus.
And I said that we needed to understand that the specific incidents stand alone.
They're stories in their own right.
But we should never take them alone.
Because together, they form what I'm calling this morning an identikit composite of Jesus, who he is and what he's come to do.
If you're familiar with identikit, it's what the police use.
They'll put the eyebrows on and the mouth on and the nose on and eventually they'll get a very, very close resemblance to the person they're trying to describe.
Well, that's what Matthew's doing here.
Bit by bit, he's brush stroking in the picture of Jesus, who he is and what his mission is.
And he's writing particularly to a Jewish audience.
And he's writing to convince the Jews that Jesus is the long-promised, long-awaited Messiah from the Old Testament.
The one who was called God's King and Savior.
The one who would come and establish God's kingdom, God's eternal kingdom, a worldwide kingdom.
That is, God's rule in the hearts and minds of people.
Matthew wants the Jews particularly to understand that Jesus is this man, this Messiah.
He's here.
It's happening.
And so therefore, the big picture of Matthew is that Matthew primarily wants us to see the Jesus that people met.
It's his picture that we want to see emerging from Matthew's account.
The Jesus people met as they encountered him individually and in groups, in all sorts of different circumstances and incidents.
And it's then that the details of the people that Jesus met become really helpful because we then see people's individual and perhaps also group conclusions about this Jesus they've been encountering.
People form conclusions and respond personally to Jesus, either positively or negatively, but they do respond.
So the details feed into the big picture.
And the big picture then, as I say, delivers perspective.
So from the start of Jesus' ministry, the public ministry, Jesus declared himself to be Messiah, God's King and Savior.
Now, we would expect, when that's declared by a Jew to the Jews, we would expect them to welcome Jesus and respond, fall in line and believe.
But in fact, as we trace through the life and times of Jesus, we find actually growing opposition.
Many of the huge crowds who initially flocked to Jesus out of interest had now left the crowds and gone home in bitter disappointment.
Jesus just wasn't the sort of person they expected Messiah to be.
And therefore, Jesus couldn't be Messiah that he claimed to be.
Perhaps some of them left because Jesus wasn't the sort of Messiah they wanted him to be.
In response to his growing opposition, as I said last week, chapter 13, Matthew teaches a series of parables.
And in those parables, he says, my kingdom is like.
And throughout that chapter, Jesus is really saying that in spite of opposition, his kingdom, that is his rule in the hearts and minds of people, was here.
It was happening, already happening.
And that in spite of appearing weak and pathetic and small in the face of opposition, it would flourish.
It would end as a massive, eternal, worldwide kingdom.
It would sweep up all sorts of people who would see him as the treasure they'd look for, the most desirable thing they could imagine.
And they would reorientate their lives to align with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then after chapter 13, as I said again last week, Matthew illustrates this truth in a series of rejection incidents.
And we talked to those a little bit last week.
And I just want to bring them all together to build this big picture.
So Matthew introduces to rejection in Nazareth.
Nazareth was, of course, Jesus' hometown.
It was his local community.
Now, here's the thing.
In a culture, in a society, where pedigree was everything, lineage and pedigree was everything.
It was a major pillar of society.
What did they conclude about Jesus and his hometown?
Nah, Jesus is way too ordinary.
Way too ordinary.
He doesn't have.
He's the son of Mary.
Yeah, Mary, that Mary.
Then there was rejection by the Jewish royal household.
Chapter 14.
Herod Antipas, who's the son of, also called Herod the, I don't know, I'll get it.
The son of Herod the Great.
He had murdered John the Baptist.
And now he's on the trail of Jesus, thinking that Jesus is a reincarnation of John the Baptist.
Now, remember, this is the second major pillar of Jewish society.
This is the king.
The king who is supposed to rule God's people with God's righteousness.
And here he is lining himself up for a second murder.
Why?
Because he didn't want to be called out for his sinful behavior.
And then as we move into chapter 15, we find the third pillar of Jewish society, the Jewish religious leaders, the Sanhedrin.
They also are ganging up against Jesus.
But we'll get to that in a minute.
But in the meantime, in the midst of all that opposition, and Jesus teaches and shows some miracles, he's providing ample evidence.
He's calm.
He gets on with the business of what he's here for, of healing people.
That is, demonstrating that he's here to undo the effects of sin and renew people.
To bring them into the kingdom.
That is, to bring them under his rule in renewed form as they were created to be.
He's getting on with the business of doing that, calmly, and providing at the same time ample evidence that he is who he says he is.
Only God could do the things that Jesus is doing.
And in the doing of those things, he shows himself to be Lord of the universe, able to suspend the laws of nature at will.
He shows himself to be a compassionate saviour who comes to his people in the midst of their brokenness and sin and lostness and restores them.
And he shows himself to be the one worthy of worship.
We saw all that last week.
Now, we bring all that with us into chapter 15.
That's big picture stuff.
Rejection is real.
But Jesus calmly gets on with the job of building the kingdom.
So let's walk through the incident in chapter 15 then.
So, the Jewish religious leaders throughout his public ministry have constantly challenged Jesus
about what they believed was careless disregard of various aspects of God's law.
And so, you can see what they were pushing for.
They believed that Messiah would never act like that.
So, since Jesus was acting like that, conclusion, well, Jesus had to be a fraud.
That Jesus was misleading God's people.
Verse 1.
It all comes to head when a high-level delegation of Pharisees and scribes, that's the Jewish religious leaders,
arrive from Jerusalem.
And essentially, they ambush Jesus as he's getting about his business.
And what is happening here is that these scribes and Pharisees essentially put Jesus on public trial.
And they do so by launching a formal, serious charge against him.
And the charge is that he's got no regard for the very important practice of ritual cleansing
as defined by the tradition of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Now, in the judiciary of the time, when you were charged like that, you had to respond.
You had to defend yourself.
For Jesus not to defend himself, for Jesus to be found guilty at this point,
left himself open to a punishment of death.
So, this is a major ambush by a high-level delegation.
Let me tell you how it all works, if I can, very briefly.
So, the Pharisees and scribes were very, very, very religious people.
And they wanted people to know that they were very, very, very religious people.
And essentially, they were.
They were good people.
They spent their lives trying to do good, trying to do right, trying to honour God's law.
And they thought they were pretty good at it, to be honest.
Now, they had, the scribes and the Pharisees, we might consider them to be sort of high-level academics
and professors at our sort of theological colleges or something like that.
That's the sort of people we're dealing with here.
But they also had legal responsibility to ensure that God's written law to Moses was kept on every detail.
And also, to ensure that Jewish culture, defined by the ceremonial law given to Moses,
was preserved from generation to generation.
So, the way they did that was they took each written law from the Pentateuch.
And alongside that, they spelled out in detail how that should be applied in any situation,
especially new situations that weren't around at the time of the giving of the law.
And so, what happens over a period of years is that you have these laws,
and then around about them are things that the Pharisees and scribes wrote in
as essential to keeping these laws.
And these things became known as the tradition of the elders.
And they were legally binding and came to have equal authority with Scripture.
Now, a little bit more specific.
They charged Jesus with being careless in regard to the laws of ritual cleansing.
Well, there's some logic to what they've done here.
They read in the Pentateuch that God is a clean God
and will not have any fellowship or relationship with unclean or dirty people.
The Pharisees believed that you could become unclean
even just by touching someone or something.
So, to ensure that God's people didn't inadvertently become unclean,
they formulated these ritual hand-washing traditions.
So, before any eating, you had to wash your hands in a particular way
for a particular length of time.
Now, you can see the logic.
They were trying to protect God's word, trying to protect God's people.
And the traditions grew up around that.
So, they insisted that every person had to ritually cleanse their hands.
Not to do so was to risk treating God with contempt.
And if that was proven, then the sentence was death.
Now, this is what they charged Jesus with.
But verse 3, Jesus immediately launches a more serious counter-charge
saying that they gave their own laws, that is their traditions,
greater authority than the word of God.
And he cites a very, very damning piece of evidence in verses 4, 5, and 6.
So, here's how this works.
God's law was clear that children ought to honor their parents
by supplying their needs as they were able.
But one of the interpretive rules of the scribes and Pharisees
gave people a way out of that.
That is, if they said to their parents,
look, mom and dad, the money and energy and time
I would ordinarily have been putting into you,
I'm actually dedicating that to the Lord's cause,
then they could ignore God's written word.
And so, what they had done was they'd used a man-made tradition
as the basis of excusing people from obeying God's written law.
And that's what Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees of
as a counter-charge.
But not only does he accuse them of that,
he really goes to town on them.
They tried to king-hit him.
He's effectively king-hit them.
And he continues then to publicly condemn
these prominent religious men.
Men who appear to be concerned for God's honor,
but he condemns them as the worst sort of religious frauds.
They came to him thinking he was a religious fraud
and misleading God's people.
The tables are turned and now he's accusing them
of being religious frauds
and misleading God's people.
Verse 7-9, look at the harsh words that he uses.
He calls them hypocrites.
Apparently, they're concerned for God's honor,
but even more concerned to see their own traditions upheld.
And they're prepared to distort God's law
about the basis of acceptance and relationship with him.
And Jesus is really saying,
that renders all your so-called worship useless.
Verses 12 and 13.
Effectively, he calls them noxious weeds.
Completely out of place in God's kingdom.
They might claim the authority of God,
they might look and sound like wheat,
like God's holy people,
but Jesus is really saying,
no, I didn't plant them.
They're a totally different species
and they do not belong among my people.
Those are strong words.
In verse 14, he calls them blind guides.
He's speaking of them now with contempt.
Because not only have they been misled themselves,
but they lead God's people to destruction,
not life.
And the irony is just palpable.
The very reason for forming all these traditions,
they said,
was to lead God's people to life.
To make sure they didn't break God's law.
To make sure that in the keeping of God's law,
they would be acceptable to God.
And Jesus says,
blind guides,
you're leading God's people to death
down this pathway.
So the question then is,
is Jesus over the top
in his condemnation of these
eminent,
religious,
good people?
Surely,
you could say,
they had good concerns.
Surely,
you could say,
they wanted people to come to God
carefully and properly.
Surely,
they were right to point out
that God expected his people
to keep the ceremonial law.
That was the whole purpose
in giving it in the first place.
Surely,
their desire to protect
traditional values and practices
was commendable.
Surely,
these guys deserve some credit.
And yet,
there's just
complete condemnation.
So the question
the rest of my time this morning is,
why?
Why does Jesus condemn them
so completely?
I think the answer is really,
really simple
and I'll dig into it.
I think he condemns them
ultimately because
he hates religion.
Jesus hates religion
and religious people.
That might sound a bit weird
for somebody in a church
to say that Jesus hates religion.
The religious understanding
and thinking
was so fundamentally wrong
that affected everything else
and undid everything else
about these people.
it's a little bit like a house
can look absolutely magnificent
when it's just been built.
But if it's discovered
that the foundations
are totally dodgy,
then there's only one way ahead
and that is
you demolish the whole thing.
So,
let's dig into that a little bit
about why Jesus
condemns them.
The first point
I want to highlight here
is that they refused
to know themselves
properly.
They refused
to know themselves
properly.
what they had done
was convince themselves
that externals
or appearance
was what mattered
in terms of being
acceptable to God.
Do this.
Keep this law.
Not only will you look good
to those around you
but you'll be acceptable
to God.
And the doing of religious things
was what they emphasized
as pleasing to God
but were completely
oblivious
of heart attitudes.
Now,
I remind you again
that these guys
were the gatekeepers
of God's word.
But they were willfully
ignorant of it.
Verse 11,
Jesus tells them
sin or uncleanness
comes from the inside out
not the outside in.
Jesus said
it's what a person
is in their heart
in their nature
born state
which makes a person
unacceptable to God
and unworthy
of relationship
with him.
Now,
here's the rub
for these Pharisees
and the scribes.
This was not new teaching.
This is what
Moses had taught.
This is what
Joshua taught.
This is what
King David had taught.
This is what
the prophets
one after the other
over a hundred of years
had all testified to.
they had condemned
any thought
of self-righteousness.
They kept on saying
to God's people,
your heart
is far from God.
You're doing all
the right external things
but your heart
is far from God
and God is not
pleased with you.
And the prophets
condemned
any notion
of self-righteousness,
self-salvation
and they pushed
God's people
to look
for God's grace.
self-righteousness.
So these guys
willfully
refused
to know
themselves properly
but even worse
they failed
to know God
properly
and were actually
I think in practice
determined to shape
God
to their own
thinking.
Possibly they weren't
even conscious
of doing that
but because of the way
they viewed
their traditions
I think they inevitably
started to do that.
These religious people
and they were
religious people
they were good people
they had enormous
reputation
across society.
They believed
sincerely
they could create
good relationship
with God
through their own
actions and efforts.
But as Jesus
says in verse 9
quoting
from the Old Testament
the whole thing
is worthless
in vain
do they worship me.
In other words
good actions
underpinned
by a bad heart
are useless.
Their engagement
with God
was not because
he was desirable
and the ultimate
treasure
as Jesus
had taught
in the parables
in Matthew 13
their ultimate
reason for engaging
with God
was self-salvation.
Their life
was spent
trying to be holy
trying to be good
trying to look good
because they believed
this would
secure
and guarantee
their place
in heaven.
And so
they brought
that with them
when they came
to God.
And as I was
preparing this
I was thinking
about the
other reference
where the
Pharisee
and the tax
collector
and the Pharisee
said
in his opening
of his prayer
Lord thank you
I'm not like
these other people.
That was
where they'd
got to.
And verse 12
even when
Jesus
made
it clear
to them
that they
were wrong
these
guys
and remember
again
they're gatekeepers
of God's word
these guys
chose to be
offended
rather than
be corrected.
they didn't
like
the idea
of having
to look
at their
heart
attitudes.
They didn't
like the idea
of being guilty
and rebellious
on the inside
in their hearts
before the Lord
because they
had put all
their efforts
into what
was on the
outside.
And ultimately
in being
offended at
Jesus
rather than
being open
to correction
and thinking
my goodness
me
he's right
we're the
gatekeepers
of God's word
and somewhere
along the line
we've lost it.
Rather than
taking that
line
they thought
how dare
Jesus say
that to us.
ultimately
they rejected
Jesus' word
for their
own views.
And ultimately
as Jesus
here says
to them
ultimately
they were
very keen
on salvation
and talking
about salvation
but it was
salvation
according to
their standards.
and they
were showing
themselves here
prepared to
manipulate
God
and even
twist or
bypass his
standards
for their
standards.
And for those
who claim to be
gatekeepers of
God's word
you can sense
now something
of Jesus'
ire at them.
And the
third thing
is that they
wouldn't accept
their need
for what
Jesus was
offering.
Verse 19
Jesus gives
a catalogue
of the heart
for out of
the heart
come evil
thoughts
murder
adultery
sexual
immorality
theft
false witness
slander
these are
what defile
a person
but to eat
with unwashed
hand
that doesn't
defile anybody.
Jesus gives
a description
of what's
inside each
one of us
and that's
not a
comprehensive
that's just
an illustrator
of the list.
All of us
in our
nature born
state
have the
same
bad heart
and are
capable of
the same
terrible thoughts
and attitudes
and actions.
we can't
explain it
away.
Our society
wants to
explain it
away.
Well
it's only
looked at
because of
unemployment
or because
our youngsters
have bad
role models
or because
there's so much
violence online
and in gaming
videos
or because
they get into
bad company.
we don't
need circumstances
to prompt
us to
these sorts
of things.
We don't
need others
to teach
us these
sorts of
things.
Just hang
around a
two-year-old
for half an
hour.
We don't
need Satan
to tempt us
into these
things.
We can't
blame it on
him either.
Not
ultimately
or not
immediately.
sin
naturally
arises
in our
own
hearts
and
overflows
out of
us.
What a
tragedy
that these
religious leaders
for all
their knowledge
of God,
for all
their knowledge
of the Old
Testament,
for all
their years
of study
did not
see what
is on
almost every
page of the
Old
Testament.
that God
measures the
state of
our hearts
against his
word.
And that
leaves us
undone.
But the
tragedy is
even worse
because these
guys, because
they were so
committed to
their actual
thinking and
so dull to
what Jesus
was saying
to them,
they couldn't
even see
that they
were actually
talking to
the heart
specialist.
As people
who had bad
hearts desperately
needing them
renewed,
they were
actually talking
to the
heart
specialist.
the one who
knows the
nature and
extent of sin
in the
heart.
The one who
knows precisely
how to
treat it,
how to
undo its
effects.
The one
who's shown
himself in
preceding
incidents to
be the one
who comes with
compassion to
those who are
lost and
destroyed by
sin with a
willingness to
heal and
restore and
renew.
the people
at Gennesaret,
they just
came to
Jesus and
Jesus willingly,
gladly dispensed
grace and
healing to
them at the
very moment of
their most
being aware of
being caught up
in the tragedy
of sin.
And that's
why the
Jesus people
met in
this public
confrontation
hates religion
and religious
people.
And as I've
already said,
this incident
is in such
sharp contrast
with Jesus
reaching out
as the
compassionate
saviour to
those who
knew they
were
caught up
in the
power and
the effects
of sin
and came
to Jesus
in their
sinful,
hopeless state
for healing.
As opposed
to these
guys who
came to
Jesus wanting
to take
him down
because they
didn't need
healing.
They were
the ones who
were telling
Jesus what
was right.
The contrast
couldn't be
clear.
And next
week when we
jump into it,
the next
incident is the
faith of a
Canaanite woman.
And I can't
help but just
dip into it
for a minute.
Here was
this woman.
She wasn't
a Jew.
She wasn't
even a Jew.
So she
didn't have
any lineage,
any pedigree.
She was a
woman in
those days,
a Canaanite
woman.
She had no
power influence.
She had no
access to the
Jewish temple.
all she had
was her words
to plead with
Jesus to
heal her
daughter.
And the
contrast, he
condemns these
religious leaders,
these guys who
know their
Bible back
to front, and
he commands
this woman.
contrast is
just phenomenal.
Big picture,
contrast is
phenomenal.
So friends, let
me just wind up
here now.
Please don't
settle for
religious
appearance
without gospel
reality.
It's so
easy to
do.
So easy
to do.
Jesus'
gospel message,
the very
reason Jesus
came into
the world,
is to tell
people that he
is the
complete
provision
for our
most desperate
need.
He is the
only provision
for our
most desperate
need.
Jesus'
mission is
about telling
us that he's
come to people
who have bad
hearts, and
he's come to
his people with
bad hearts as
the one who's
able to renew
bad hearts.
He comes to
those who have
a bad track
record with
God because of
sin and
disobedience, and
he comes as
the one who
will wipe that
bad track
record.
he wiped the
bad track.
When he died,
for his people,
he wiped the
bad record of
unacceptable
thoughts,
attitudes,
and actions,
and he gave us
a good record
instead,
putting us back
into good
relationship with
God, but not
done there.
He gave us
new hearts,
changed us from
the inside out,
changing us from
the inside out,
so we have new
thoughts, new
desires, new
attitudes, which
prompt us to new
obedience to love
God.
So, friends,
believers or
Christians are
chug and cheese
with religious
people.
Now, we've got to
nuance that a little
bit.
At first glance,
it might not
look that much
different.
It's hard to see
sometimes the
difference between
a religious person
and a true
believer,
because they do
the same sorts of
things.
The critical thing
here is they do
the same sort of
things, but for
vastly different
reasons and
motivation,
from a vastly
different perspective.
religious people
go to church,
they give their
money, they read
their Bible, they
try to be good,
in an attempt to
make themselves
acceptable to
God, to save
themselves.
Believers do
the same thing,
believers do the
same things, by
and large, but
it's because they've
already been saved
by grace, and
they want to
respond to that in
an overflow of
love and
thankfulness and
obedience.
Because Jesus
has done for
them what they
could never do
for themselves,
and that is deal
with their sin and
truly make them
acceptable to
God.
So a believer's
orientation and
motivation to do
what is pleasing to
the Lord is
heart-driven,
inside-out
overflow of joy,
overflow of
delight, an
overflow of
love in
response to
God's grace and
mercy.
So I just want to
wrap up by
pointing two
different directions.
So if you're a
religious person
here this morning,
that is if you
haven't actually
encountered Jesus,
if you haven't
realized that you
cannot do it on
your own strength,
you cannot earn
God's favor,
then I point you
to verse 10 and
verse 16 where
Jesus says,
you need to pay
attention, you
need to understand,
because your bad
heart will actually
make you dull to
the basic truths
about yourself and
God.
God's favor of
God.
You need to ask for
understanding these
key areas.
Ask for Jesus to
show you how your
best efforts will
never be good
enough because you
cannot meet God's
standard of
perfection in your
own strength.
And that will point
you to the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And as you're doing
that, remember this,
that these guys
here came with
impeccable
credentials.
They had massively
good reputations.
They were just good
people.
And Jesus
condemns them.
Yet in previous
incidents, he opens
his arms warmly to
anybody who comes to
him with an
awareness of sin.
Just saying,
Jesus, I need your
help.
I need you to fix
me on the inside.
I need you to
renew me.
And if you've
already been
changed by Jesus
and now trust him
alone to make you
secure and keep you
secure, then my
friend, I don't need
to tell you, you
know just how much
grace you've received
in your life.
And you know that
grace every day in
face of your
disobedience.
grace.
And you know that
grace.
So then surely we'll
want to guard our
thoughts, guard our
hearts so that they
continue to overflow
with thankfulness and
joy because the Lord
is our treasure.
Pray with me.
Lord, everything in our
society and indeed in
so many churches
around Australia would
say that religion is
good.
And yet your word,
Lord, shows it's
condemned.
I pray, Lord, that
there might not be
anybody here this
morning who
perseveres in a
religious way of
thinking.
Lord, help us to
measure ourselves
against your
standard of
perfection and from
there, Lord, see
that we're done for
because we cannot
consistently do or
say the things that
would be acceptable
to you.
Lord, help us to
come to Jesus for
that first encounter
and have the freedom
of knowing that he
will do for us that
which we could never
do even though we
spend a lifetime of
effort trying to.
That is he will make
us acceptable to
Jesus by dealing
with our sins.
Make us acceptable
to God by dealing
with our sins.
And Lord, help us to
just throw ourselves
on Jesus knowing that
he will never
reject or condemn
those who come to
him with a full
awareness of sin and
a full desire for his
renewal.
But Lord, help us
also remember that he
will condemn those
who dare to come to
him on a religious
basis, pleading their
own merits as a
reason for acceptance
and passage into
heaven.
Help us to
understand these
profound things in
Jesus' name.
Amen.