The Story of Jesus According to Mark, Pt19: Go For the Gold!

 

October 13, 2024          NOTES NOT EDITED
The Story of Jesus According to Mark, Pt 16:  “Go For the Gold”
Mark 7:24-30

SIS – Don’t settle for crumbs when God wants to give you a crown, but always do your very best and seek to achieve the very most you can out of life with the gifts and talents God has given you.

We just “suffered through” 2024 Summer Olympics held in Paris, officially known as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad. I say “suffered through” because the opening ceremonies were an abysmal, immoral display of “wokeness,” complete with a Drag Queen show and gay mockery of the Lord’s Supper. This fiasco led to millions tuning out of these international games. I was one who never watched an event.

Prior to this Parisian Disaster, the Olympic Games have been known as the pinnacle of all sporting events. And, the highest prize in these greatest games has been (excluding the Olive Leaf Crown of Rome) the Gold Medal. Thousands of athletes in hundreds of sports from hundreds of nations send they very best in hopes of bringing home a gold medal, or multiple gold medals. No athlete, worthy of that title, goes to the Olympic Games with the goal of getting a participation trophy—also know as a Silver or Bronze Medal.

All my life I have heard people, mostly parents, say regarding children and youth sports:  “It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” That philosophy usually exists only in the minds of parents—mostly parents with a child participating that . . . well, just ain’t that good. This phrase sounds so right—but I think it is so wrong. 

I used to take a vote before every season during our little league team’s “orientation.” In the crowd listening while I outlined our goals for the coming season were parents and grandparents of the children.  I would say to the team:  “This year, our primary focus is on having fun. Now, let me ask you, ‘do you have more fun when you win or win you lose?”

I never had any child answer they had more fun when they lost.

My point is not to suggest that a Gold Medal makes a person anymore special to God. My point is:  we should always do our very best and seek to achieve the very most we can with the gifts and talents God has given us.  We should never accept crumbs when God wants to give us crowns. 

The Apostle Paul, toward the end of his life, repeated this teaching of seeking to get everything out of life that life has to offer.  He said to Timothy,

2Tim. 4: ⁶ The time for my departure is close. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ There is reserved for me in the future the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day.

My point is this: play hard, play fair, and play to win. Playing to win in life means we never settle for crumbs when God wants to give us a crown. And make no mistake about: God has a crown waiting for every faithful follower.

This morning, we are going to see Jesus teach a young Mom this very important lesson about life:  “Go For the Gold!”  Never settle for crumbs when the Lord wants to give you a crown.”

One of the saddest parts of my ministry comes from seeing people who could do so much more, have so much more blessing, and bless so many more people, but they stop too soon and sell out too cheap—they settle for crumbs when they could have crowns.

Let’s read about this teaching together:  MARK 7:24-30.

Three statements about this text will help us understand better what it means to “Go for the Gold” in life, from a Biblical perspective.

1.  As many miracles happen when we DON’T get what we want,
     as when we DO (24, 28)

Look carefully at verse 24: 

²⁴ He got up and departed from there to the region of Tyre  and Sidon.  ^c He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it, but He could not escape notice.

Mark is vague about the exact location of the point of departure, but makes it clear where Jesus was heading.  The last mention of where Jesus was ministering was around the Sea of Galilee in what is northern Israel.  Tyre and Sidon are Gentile cities (now modern Lebanon) about 25-30 miles northeast of Galilee.  This would have been a significant journey into a land where Jesus should have been relatively unknown—being a heavily Gentile region. These are two powerful cities Israel never completely conquered when entering the Promised Land. They are still fighting there, even as we speak.

Jesus “wanted” to rest. The text makes that very clear. But, Jesus did NOT get what he wanted look at verse 25: 

²⁵ Instead, immediately after hearing about Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit  came and fell at His feet.  ²⁶ Now the woman was Greek,  a Syrophoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to drive the demon  out of her daughter.

Make note of the fact that even the Lord Jesus Christ while He walked this earth as a man, did not get everything He wanted.

Observe now in verse 29 what the Greek woman wanted.  I’ll read verses 26-28 to provide the context for verse 29:

²⁶ Now the woman was Greek,  a Syrophoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to drive the demon  out of her daughter. ²⁷ He said to her, “Allow the children to be satisfied first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ But she replied to Him, “Lord,  even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

This is a play on words highlighting the antagonism between Jews, who were known as God’s chosen people, and Gentiles who were considered by the Jews to be “dogs,” a very derogatory term because dogs were scavengers and therefore unclean. The Greek Mother was very much aware of her lack of standing being both a gentile, AND a woman. And, to add insult to injury, Matthew points out that she was a Canaanite, who were considered more wicked than the typical gentile.  But, she sought the help of Jesus anyway.

Now, the words of Jesus sound pretty harsh and discriminatory if you read it in most English texts. But, Jesus was not at all harsh.  He did not use the typical Jewish derogatory term for a gentile which meant, “a dog.” A wild adult dog was called, “kūnōn.” Jesus used a diminutive term (version of word meaning little) for dog which means, “puppy.” That word is, “kunarion.” So, Jesus was very kind and gentle, and the woman obviously picked up on it because she boldly continues the verbal exchange. Jesus was inviting conversation.

The term “children” refers to the Jews, and is a preferential position in the household compared to the “house pets.” Israel, the Jews, are God’s ONLY favored nation—in the past, in the present, and into the future until the very day that all of God’s children, Jew and Gentile make a final entrance into the Kingdom of God in heaven.  THAT IS A SERMON IN ITSELF. 

For this message, I want to focus on what the women was willing to accept.  Look at verse 28:

²⁸ But she replied to Him, “Lord, 
even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

She had no hope or expectation of gaining favored status with the God of Israel. She knew her place in life. She was just desperate. Desperation had reduced her to a beggar and she was willing to have just a “few crumbs” like the “house pets” eating from the floor.

Take notice.  Just as Jesus did not get what He wanted, the Greek, outcast, Cannanite woman did not get what she wanted. At least not at first. Initially, she didn’t get the healing for her daughter that she sought, but notice what she did get: Look at v28:

 (NIV84) 28 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Compare this to  Romans 11:13–17

(NIV84) ¹³ I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry ¹⁴ in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root,

Through Israel, the Jewish Messiah, Gentiles become part of God’s family. She wanted crumbs—just a healing. She received the “Crown of Salvation.”  She received so much more when she didn’t get the miracle she initially sought!  She approached the Lord Jesus Christ with great humility willing to accept whatever He was willing to give—which she hoped would at least be a crumb—and she received a “MIRACLE.”

Jesus did not get what He wanted—which was some much needed rest; and the woman did not get what she wanted—just a few crumbs of physical healing. Instead, she received an “eternal miracle.” We’ll see later, God even added a blessing to that!

Never settle for crumbs when God wants to give you a crown.

Another statement we can make to help us come to a life-changing understanding of what it means to “Go for the Gold” in life is this:

2.  truth is more powerful than tradition (26-28)

As I just mentioned, Jewish tradition declared that gentiles were as unclean as dogs.  Last week, we learned that the religious leaders of the Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees, had distorted the Word of God, or the Law of God, by adding hundreds of man-made traditions, such as meticulous, ceremonial hand-washing.

Jesus declared to the Pharisees, as we read last week: (verse 7:9)

You completely invalidate God’s command
in order to maintain  your tradition!

In this story, Jesus expands upon the idea that “tradition completely invalidates the grace of God” by intentionally engaging in a conversation with a gentile, Cannanite woman.  The strict tradition of the Jews—and remember Jesus was a Jew—would absolutely forbid Jesus to have anything to do with this woman.

In this present story, expanding upon the confrontation Jesus had with the Pharisees when He demolished their traditions by declaring that nothing “external” is unclean, Jesus demonstrates the power of truth has over tradition.

The woman knew full well that the tradition of the Jews meant she was “unclean” and had no hope of receiving anything from a Jewish man—much less the Lord, or Messiah. 

But, here’s the important twist in this story: she didn’t go to the Pharisees, or any other “religious” leader, she went to the Lord, Himself.  Verses 25 and 26 say,

a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit  came and fell at His feet. 

Not the religious leaders! Never seek in religion what you can only find through Jesus Christ.

Two elements in these verses tell us much about this woman.  One, she was a humble woman.  One, The Word says, she fell at Jesus’ feet. She was a humble woman. Two, she was a persistent woman.  The Word says, “she kept asking Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.”

The word for “kept asking” is in the imperfect tense, which all my Latin students understand, means it is a “continuous” action.  She didn’t just make a request—she kept begging for Jesus to do something.

Why would she “beg” Jesus to drive out this demon and not seek some religious leader steeped in false traditions.  The key is in the first part of verse 25:  “after hearing about Him [ei. Jesus].”

The fame of Jesus as a healer and as one having authority over demons had spread to northern territory of Tyre and Sidon.  All kinds of religions, and religious traditions, were practiced in Palestine.  Yet, what religious traditions could not accomplish, the Lord of Truth, Jesus Christ could.

Truth is more powerful than tradition.  This was the theme of our text last week, and it is continued in our text this week.  I’m hoping you are beginning to see that “religion traditions have nothing to offer you but religious crumbs!”

Another statement that comes to mind when I think of the Lord’s teaching about never accepting crumbs when God wants to give you a crown is:

3.  Words are powerful (29-30)

(CSB) ²⁹ Then he told her, “Because of this reply [logos, word of faith], you may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

Words can harm or help, hold back or move forward, bring cursing or blessing.  Words are powerful.  A popular aphorism appeared in Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac. It said, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” This saying has appeared many places since it was first coined in 1839 by an English playwright.

♦ This motto appears in the school room illustration on page 168 of the 1st edition of M. Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; 
♦ Woodrow Wilson's 1916 U.S. presidential re-election campaign;
♦ In the 1989 film Batman, the insane criminal known as The Joker uses the phrase in a darkly literal sense, after wielding a fountain pen like a dart to wound a rival crime lord;

♦ A recurring GEICO commercial uses the phrase as a question, "Is the pen mightier than the sword?" It shows a ninja wielding and brandishing a sword with elite skills; an amateur defeats him by signing (with a pen) a package for a taser, with which he then shoots the sword-wielder.

♦ In the 1989 film "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

 

The phrase is much older than even the English playwright in 1869. Assyrian sage Ahiqar, who reputedly lived during the early seventh century BC, coined the first known version of this phrase. One copy of the Teachings of Ahiqar, dating to about 500 BC, states that "The word is mightier than the sword."

 

For thousands of years, at least, man has recognized the power of the word, written and spoken.  If man’s word is so powerful, consider the power of the someone speaking the Word, or truth of God.

 

This is exactly what brought about the miracle for the Cannanite woman.  Look in verses 29-30:

 ²⁹ Then He told her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter.” ³⁰ When she went back to her home, she found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.

The original Greek word translated “reply” is the word, logon.  Literally Jesus, “Because of your WORD,” it was done.  What “word” is Jesus referring to?”  Look again at verse 26:

“she kept asking HIM.” 

The whole exchange between the woman and Jesus focuses on her relentless pursuit of gaining what she needed from Jesus Christ—her word, or words, were a testimony of absolute faith in Jesus Christ, believing that He alone could meet her need.  AND HE DID!

The most powerful words we will ever speak are words confessing “surrender to and absolute trust in Jesus Christ.” It is interesting that the word Jesus uses here to describe the woman’s faith in Him, is the same word John the Apostle used to describe Jesus.  John 1:1 says,

In the beginning  was the Word [logon] and the Word [logon] was with God, and the Word [logon] was God. 

When we confess with our words that Jesus Christ is Who He says He is—the Word Who is God—then our words have miracle-working power. 

So much of what comes out of the mouths of Christians are not words demonstrating our absolute faith in Jesus Christ. We speak words of defeat, and we are defeated. We speak words of despair, and we are hopeless. We speak ugly words and we are ugly.  We speak judgmental words and we are judged.  The Bible says that in that Final Day when we stand before God  (Matthew 12):

³⁶ I tell you that on the day of judgment  people will have to account  for every careless word they speak.  ³⁷ For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

This woman, could have accepted a few religious crumbs and never received the miracle of a crown.  This woman, because of the ruthless tradition of the Jews, could have accepted that tradition and fell into despair over her child. Instead, she spoke words of faith! She reminds me of what the John said in the Book of Revelation:

“they overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony.” (Rev. 12:11)

Words are powerful – words of faith are eternally powerful.

This event in the life of the Lord teaches us to “never accept crumbs when God wants to give us crowns—always Go for the Gold!” 

CLOSE: Too often in life, we get a negative attitude and settle for far less than what God wants for us, and wants to do through us. Too often, a negative attitude causes us to “settle for crumbs when God wants to give us crowns.” I recall reading this week about a young paratrooper who recently joined the Army. All his life he became accustomed to things going wrong. He just expected it. He never expected anything good to happen to him in life. He was about to take his first jump. All the new paratroopers were given clear instructions. First, jump when you are told to jump. Second, count to ten and pull the ripcord. Third, in the unlikely even the main chute doesn’t open, pull the reserve chute. Fourth, when you get down a truck will be waiting to take you back to the base. The plane reached the jump site. One by one the troopers jumped as told. This young recruit was the last to jump. He counted to ten and pulled the rip cord. Nothing happened. He pulled the reserve chute. It, too failed to open. Being accustomed to things going wrong in life he said to himself, “Great! I’ll bet the truck won’t be there either!”

The Gentile Mother could have given into the circumstances of life and settled for a few crumbs of healing for her daughter. That would have been enough for her—before she met Jesus! Jesus elevated the woman’s attitude and raised her expectations. She received more than she could have ever imagined. Instead of crumbs, she received a CROWN!

That is truly an amazing and inspiring story that illustrates what Jesus was trying to show the Cannanite woman.

Never settle for crumbs when God wants to give you a crown.
Always—Go for the Gold!

The Story of Jesus According to Mark, Pt 18: The Devil is in the Details

 

October 6, 2024     NOTES NOT EDITED
The Story of Jesus According to Mark: “The Devil is in the Details”
Mark 7:1-23

SIS – Religion nullifies the grace of God; or, a person can be devoutly religious down to the smallest detail and still miss heaven by a mile.

Have you ever heard the warning: READ THE FINE PRINT! This is very important when you are entering into any agreement or contract, or purchasing any product. The reason that warning is so important is because: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS. This is a phrase in English meaning, “The details of any matter are the most problematic.” Consider a group of ladies at an office who are planning a vacation to the Island of Maui. They are all excited about the idea of such a trip. One of the ladies speaks up and says, “I agree that it'd be really fun to have a girl's trip to Maui. Just remember that the devil is in the details! We have to make sure our schedules line up and that everyone has enough Paid Time Off.”

If the Devil is in the Details regarding a trip to Hawaii, imagine how much more so he is involved in trying to disrupt your trip to heaven. One of the Devil’s best weapons is to “bind up our devotion to Jesus Christ with endless details of tradition and religion.”

If the Devil can keep us busy being religious, we won’t have time to truly serve Jesus by faith.  I’ve said it many times: heaven comes as a result of what Jesus has done for us, not what we do for Him! 

What Jesus did on the cross, dying on our behalf for our sins, provides the foundation for a relationship with Almighty God.  Human efforts—no matter how sincere or austere—can provide nothing more than a foundation for religion; and religion actually nullifies the Truth of God according to Jesus Christ in our text.

Religion is all about the “traditions of men” and Jesus said (v 7):

“You completely invalidate God’s command
in order to maintain your tradition!

The fact is that salvation is not a stairway or path of any kind, but, heaven is a “gate, a narrow gate.” You pass through in one moment in time as the mercy of God floods over you with irresistible grace.  We do nothing to earn salvation—in fact, we CAN do nothing to earn salvation. 

READING:  Mark 7:1-7.

Herein, lies the foundation for our text this morning:  the religious Jews of Jesus’ day believed that by keeping the minute details of the O.T. Law, including the hundreds of detailed laws they added, they felt they could be justified before God—that is, by their works.

Jesus said:  “You are hypocrites!  Even if you could keep the Law, which you can’t, you could never by the details of your self-righteous devotion inherit the Kingdom of God.”  The Lord spoke very harshly to the Pharisees in regard to the plethora of religious details they taught others to practice.

Paul echoed what Jesus taught about how to be righteous.  Paul said,

“Therefore since we have been DECLARED righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

Salvation is not the reward for our devotion, but the source of it.  It’s that “cart and horse thing.”  A tradition-driven, religious devotion puts the “cart of works before the horse of devotion,” and Jesus, Paul, and even James taught that it must be the other way around.

The old saying, “The Devil is in the Details,” refers to the fact that one might have a great idea for some grand venture, but unless one gets the “details” correct, success will be an illusive dream.

I’m going to turn that phrase on its head and say, “One can get every detail of one’s religion correct to the most precise degree and the grand venture of gaining heaven will remain an allusive dream. 

Religion—the devotion to ritualistic details—will nullify the grace of God that leads to salvation; that is, a person can execute every minute detail of religion precisely and still miss heaven by a mile.

The Devil is in the Details.  It is not what we do that gets us to heaven, but what Jesus has already done.  In fact, Jesus stresses in our text that a “devotion to religious details will pollute one’s soul and prevent one from gaining eternal life.  That’s scary thought.

We read earlier what Jesus said about the Devil being in the Details. Now, let’s take a closer look:

1.  The PROCESS by which tradition develop (1-5)

Traditions, by nature, take time.  They develop slowly, often with the best of intentions.  The harshest words Jesus speaks in the N.T. are directed at the “religious crowd,” especially the Pharisees.

How did the sect, or group called the Pharisees come about, and how did they come up with hundreds of new religious rules to put on the backs of people and enslave them in the chains of impotent religion?

The Pharisees developed during the time of the Exile in Babylon (7^th Century BC).  Prior to the Exile, the Temple and Priesthood was the center of Jewish life. During the Exile, without a Temple, the Law (O.T. writings) became the foundation for Israel’s identity as the People of God.  Pharisees were experts in the Law.  There emphasis was on “purity” which came from keeping the Law of the O.T. along with hundreds of additional rules, strictly enforced.  Additional religious experts, like the Scribes, came along a few centuries later and the “purity rules” (traditions of the elders) expanded even further.

These arduous, tedious, and exacting “purity rules” are targeted by Jesus with reference to “washing hands” (vv. 1-5), just one of many, many “purity practices” required by the Jewish religious leaders. This “hand washing had nothing to do with hygiene.” It was totally religious and the process was exacting.

Verse 2 uses the word, “koinais,” to describe the unwashed hands of the disciples. The word literally means, “common,” as opposed to “sacred.”  The HCSB correctly translates it “unclean” which means, ceremonially unclean.

Verse 3 uses one of the most unusual Greek words in the N.T.  It literally says that the Pharisees and religious Jews would not “eat unless they washed their hands with a fist.” The word for fist is, “pygmē” which sounds like the English word, “pygmy,” but there is no connection between the two.  The word comes from the same root word as the Latin word, “pugnare,” which means to “fight, or hit with the fist.”

This word occurs only here in the Bible.  It refers to the “exacting method” of washing one’s hand by rubbing the fist in the palm.  The Mishnas, or later Jewish writings describe the exacting way in which one must ceremonially remove worldly defilement that could be transferred from the hands to the food to the body and soul by way of the mouth. The entire process was proscribed dictating exactly when and how to pour the water—palms up, then palms down; and exactly how much water—until it ran down the elbows to the waist, and exactly how to scrub with the fist.  The process was exacting.

So important was ceremonial handwashing that according to Jewish tradition, eating without proper handwashing put you at risk of being possessed by the demon, Shipta. Shipta was the demon of poverty and destruction.  Following tradition was a serious matter.

Originally, the tradition of the elders, or prophets, based their practice of hand washing on the texts in the O.T. such as Exodus 30 and the Book of Leviticus which talk about various washings.  These texts were part of the holiness code of the temple ceremonies to serve as a reminder that a person is “unholy” and “unable” to approach a Holy God without dealing with the matter of sin. None of the O.T. ceremonial system of washings, sacrifices, and other parts of the Holiness Code were ever intended to be practiced indefinitely, nor were they intended to be an alternative to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ—the only sacrifice that could remove sin.

The Book of Hebrews says about all the ceremonial laws of the O.T.

Heb 10:1 Since the law has _⌊only_⌋ a shadow of the good things  to come, and not the actual form of those realities, it can never perfect the worshipers.

Paul further explained the purpose of the O.T. traditions in Gal. 3:24:

²⁴ The law, then, was our guardian [tutor] until Christ,  so that we could be justified by faith. ²⁵ But since that faith  has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

So, this is how traditions grow and gain power. It starts out with something good that is stretched far beyond what was intended and becomes an “end in itself,” rather than a “means to an end.”

ILLUS:  A young woman is getting ready to host her first big family gathering and wants to serve her grandmother’s “special recipe” roast. The woman calls her mother and asks for the recipe. The mother begins, “First you cut off both ends of the roast before placing it in the roasting pan. . .” The young woman inquires: why cut off the roast’s ends? To which the mother replies, “I’m not sure. That’s how my mother taught me.” The big day arrives and the young woman serves the roast. Her grandmother is at the gathering, so she inquires, “Grandma, what is it about cutting off the ends of the roast that makes it so tasty?” The grandmother replies, “It has nothing to do with the recipe. The reason I cut off the ends of my roast was because the roast was too big for my roasting pan.”

Almost everything we do in church we do because, “that’s the way Momma did it, Grandma did it, Great-grandma, did it, etc.” Jesus said that these kind of “traditions” were “traditions of men” and would “invalidate (nullify) the truth of God in regard to salvation.”  Such traditions Jesus condemn in the harshest terms.

That’s the process by which traditions develop. As one great preacher once wrote, “tradition is the power of the past reaching into the present to strangle the future” (Stedman, adapted).

Tradition is the folly of men now living blindly following the methods of men long dead and completely missing the message that gives eternal life.  Traditionalism is a very serious error with eternal consequences.  This is why Jesus is harsh and direct with His words.

That’s the process of how traditions grow and gain power. Now, look at the

2.  The PRODUCT that tradition produces (6-13)

In a word, “following traditions of men” (religion) produces, “hypocrites.”  Look at verses 6-7:

⁶ He answered them, “Isaiah  prophesied  correctly about you hypocrites,  as it is written: These people honor  Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. ⁷ They worship Me in vain,  teaching  as doctrines  the commands  of men.

 

Ouch! That is some straight-forward rebuking.  Jesus did not beat around the bush with the Pharasees—He beat the Pharisees with a good, old tongue-lashing as “Momma would say.”

You may have heard that the word, “hypocrite”comes from the Greek theater referring to actors donning different masks to play different parts.  It literally means to “act under” (hupo, under; krinō, act, decide).  The idea is a “false presentation.” Basically, a hypocrite is a liar who is playing a part superficially, but it has no substance.

One great scholar says this about a hypocrite:  “it is one whose whole life is a piece of acting without any sincerity behind it at all.”

Hypocrites do more than just, “say one thing and do another.”  That’s the common application of the word, referring to another lack of sincerity.  But, that is not primarily what is at issue here with the Pharisees—they were very sincere!  In fact, Jesus sort of praised the sincerity of the Pharisees when he said: (Mat. 5:20)

²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus was not praising them for being “righteous” in the sense of having a right relationship with God.  Jesus was referring to the exacting manner in which they practiced their religion.  It was all about the details, or the methodology. Like Grandma’s pot, the method is the same but the message has long been forgotten.

The problem with tradition is it produces “superficial Christians” who “do all the right things (and more) but for all the wrong reasons.”  Religion is like a mask that simply covers up the real person underneath.

All world religions have strict rules to follow that determine your standing or position in that religion. It’s all about the “details”—kissing the Pope’s ring, lighting candles, saying a rosary, making the sign of the cross, bowing toward Mecca, giving alms, wearing special underwear, or being married in a special temple, and on and on and on the list goes.  The focus with any religion is on the “details”—and Jesus is warning us here:  “The Devil is in the Details!”

So, if tradition corrupts the truth and becomes a substitute for true righteousness produces hypocrites, then what’s the solution?  Jesus teaches here that the solution to falling prey to the Devil in the Details, is to understand the

3.  The PRINCIPLE of True Faith (14-23)

NOTE: THE SOLAS. Sola Scriptura-Scripture Alone. Sola Christus. Christ Alone. Sola Fide. Faith Alone. Sola Gratia. Grace Alone. Soli Deo Gloria. For the Glory of God Alone. The key word is, Sola—alone, as in, with no help outside of God.

 In verses 14-23 Jesus completely demolishes the religion of the Pharisees that was based upon the external details of religion.  The basic foundation for the religion of the Pharisees focused on avoiding contact with anything that brought defilement.  They got this idea from the O.T., especially from Leviticus, but they stretched the teaching of the O.T. to be a foundation for righteousness rather than a teacher showing man’s utter inability to be righteous apart from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The Pharisees methods focused on keeping ceremonially clean, and Jesus demolished the very foundation of their religion by saying:

Don’t you realize that nothing going into a man from the outside can defile him? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach  and is eliminated.”  (As a result, He made all foods clean.  ^o) ²⁰ Then He said, “What comes out of a person—that defiles him. ²¹ For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities,  thefts, murders,  ²² adulteries,  greed,  evil actions, deceit,  promiscuity,  stinginess,  blasphemy,  pride,  and foolishness.  ²³ All these evil things come from within and defile a person.”

This was like dropping a bomb on the religion of the Pharisees.  Without all the “external ceremonial details,” there was nothing of the religion of the Pharisees left.

Jesus was basically teaching what had been true all through the prophets and would continue with the teaching of the Apostles:  religion is about external details, but salvation is about a change of heart.  Religion is an outside job.  Salvation is an inside job.  Religion is all about the principle of “working for salvation, (whatever that particularly salvation looks like in any particular religion). Christianity is all about the principle of faith—faith is simply believing in your heart that Jesus is Lord and surrendering to Him so that He becomes your Savior.

You can adhere to every minute detail of the strictest religion and it will only lead you to the Devil—the Devil is in the Details.  Salvation is in the Deliverer, Jesus Christ.

By faith . . . is the term used throughout the 11^th chapter of Hebrews to demonstrate the true path to salvation.

By faith, Abel offered a better sacrifice; by faith Enoch was snatched alive into heaven; by faith Noah built an ark to save his family; by faith Abraham set out for a land he could not see to possess a reward he could not earn; by faith men and women have followed God and received the prize of heaven—by faith, not by traditions!

The Principle of Faith is diametrically opposed (the exact opposite) of the Traditions of Men.  The Principle of Faith is about something that happens “inside a person” not something external that a person does.

This has always been God’s plan.  Jeremiah, the Prophet, declared:

^31:31 “Look, the days are coming”—_⌊this is_⌋ the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant  with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³² _⌊This one will_⌋ not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them” —the Lord’s declaration. ³³ “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.

Paul reiterated this fundamental principle of salvation by faith:

^{2Cor. 3:3} It is clear that you are Christ’s letter,  produced  by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God —not on stone tablets  but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.

Sadly, most people follow the dead-end path of the Pharisees and seek salvation through religion which is concerned with issues like “ceremonial washing, lighting ceremonial candles, saying ceremonial prayers, or a plethora of other religious activities.”

Jesus taught the Principle of Faith:  believe in Your heart that He is Lord and you will be saved by what He HAS done—not anything that you can do.

Look at verse 19 and you see the Principle of Faith stated clearly,

. . . nothing going into a man from the outside can defile him? ¹⁹ For it doesn’t go into his heart but into the stomach.

It used to be that the standard definition of “death” was when someone stopped breathing.  A doctor would hold a mirror up to the person’s face.  If the warm breath fogged up the mirror you were alive, if not, you were buried—case closed. Not a very accurate test.  Then, with more sophisticated tests, the definition of death was “when one’s heart stopped beating.”  That no longer works as a standard test because we can keep the heart beating almost indefinitely by artificial means.

But, the “definition of spiritual death remains the same”—a person is spiritually dead when one’s heart has not been changed by the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation.  It doesn’t matter whether one’s breath can fog a mirror if one’s physical heart is still beating, or one has “brain functions”—those are all just details.

The Devil is in the Details – Eternal Life is in a Relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Everybody in this room today is in one of two categories:  1) one, you are relying on religious notions or practices to gain favor with God and go to heaven when you die—basically, you are trusting that your good deeds (your religious traditions) will outweigh your bad deeds; or 2) two, you are Trusting in the Principle of Faith that causes a change in your heart and establishes an eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  There is no middle ground.  It is one or the other.

Doing the wrong thing never makes it right no matter how often you repeat it. I remember three hunters on an excursion to Alaska to hunt for elk. The each had two permits to bag two elk each. They were successful and bagged and tagged six elk. When they got the elk back to the bush plane for the flight back to their city, the pilot said, “I can only carry you and four elk.” One of the hunters protested, “But the plane that we used last year was exactly like yours. Same horsepower. The weather was the same. We have the same three hunters and same six elk. Hearing this, the pilot decided to load up the hunters and six elk and fly out. Sure enough, before the plane did not have enough power to climb out of the valley with all that weight. They crashed. Nobody was seriously hurt. As the hunters were stumbling out of the wreckage, one of them said to the other two, “do you guys know where we are?” One of the other hunters answered, “I’m not exactly sure but it looks like about a mile from where we crashed last year!”

Religion will surely lead to a catastrophic crash no matter how much you pay attention to the details. Only faith in what Jesus has already DONE will bring you salvation

Jesus spoke harshly against the Pharisees for putting an emphasis on the external religious details like “ceremonial handwashing.”  The Pharisees were “dead wrong” – eternally dead wrong. Don’t let the Devil defeat your devotion by entangling you in a web of religious details.