Sermon Series: Getting to Know Jesus 

It's What Comes Out That Counts 

Mark 7:1-23 

PSBC 4/20/02

In a nutshell: It's what comes out of a human beings, after being filtered through the human heart that makes a person acceptable or unacceptable to God; harmful or beneficial to society.

I. Introduction

A. The story of David Kraft

There was a young man who lived in the South Bay area of San Francisco, by the name of David Kraft. David grew up with a father who loved him, who consistently lived a godly life before his family, and who intentionally introduced his children to the love of Jesus and His salvation when they were all very young.

Early on in his life, David felt the call of God to go into the pastoral ministry. So, after college, he enrolled at Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary.

David was a big, athletic young man. He was always good at sports. And even after his sports activities were through, he remained fit and trim. He stood six feet two inches tall and weighed a solid two hundred pounds. After seminary, he accepted a ministry role with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes organization.

But a short time after his 32nd birthday, he was diagnosed with cancer. Over the next year, the cancer wracked his body, and by the end of that year, he had dropped from weighing two hundred pounds, to just eighty pounds.

When death was imminent, he asked his father to come into his hospital room. Lying there in the bed, he looked up and said, "Dad, do you remember when I was a little boy, how you used to just hold me in your arms close to your chest?"

David's father nodded. Then David said, "Do you think, Dad, you could do that one more time? One last time?"

Again his father nodded. He bent down to pick up his 32-year-old six-foot two-inch, eighty-pound son, and held him close to his chest so the son's face was right next to the father's face. They were eyeball to eyeball. Tears were streaming down both faces. And David Kraft said to his dad, "Thank you for building the kind of character into my life that enables me to face even a moment like this." (adapted from an illustration used by Ron Lee Davis, "Introducing Christ to Your Child," Preaching Today, Tape No. 92.)

B. Transition

How do you do that? How do you build into your child the kind of character that would enable him or her to face such a crucial moment like imminent death? How do you gain the kind of character that will affect those around you in such a positive way? We're really asking how do you impact people with your faith?

Jesus tells us how in Mark 7. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn there and look with me at the first 23 verses.

II. Dialog with the Religious Leaders

The action at the beginning of this chapter takes place on the western side of the sea of Galilee, near a town called Gennesaret. As usually happened wherever Jesus went during this time in His ministry, a crowd of people gathered around Him. And every time Jesus would stop and teach them and heal their sick.

A. The Question

His fame was beginning to spread to the southern part of Palestine, as well. And folks in the city of Jerusalem were hearing stories about this new young rabbi. So, some of the religious leaders from the Temple went to see what was going on.

Mark 7:1-5 1 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and 2 saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed. 3 (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) 5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"

When these pious religious leaders came on the scene, one of the first things they noticed was Jesus' disciples eating the fillet o' fish leftovers from the feeding of the 5000. If you'll remember from last week's study, twelve baskets or large plates of leftovers were gathered at the end of that miracle. So, it is very probable that each disciple had his own sack lunch of fish and bread for the next day. And at the time of the religious leaders' visit, they were chowing down and enjoying a good meal.

The religious leaders saw the way the disciples prepared to eat, and they became indignant. You see, the disciples started eating without ceremonially washing their hands. Now, in defense of the disciples, I don't think they were slobs. If their hands were dirty, I'm sure they washed them before they ate. The issue wasn't washing hands, the issue was they didn't wash them properly according to rabbinical law.

You see, the law that God gave to the Jews on Mount Sinai, made a distinction between clean and unclean things. Basically that meant that certain things were taboo, while others were O.K..

Certain animals were considered unclean; a person with leprosy was unclean; anyone who touched a dead body was unclean; certain preparing foods made that food unclean. The list of unclean things was huge. AND, anyone or anything who was considered ceremonially unclean, made anything they touched unclean. So, in practice this meant that anytime a devout Jew returned from the market place he washed in clean water to take away the taint of unclean-ness he might have acquired from coming into contact with something that may have been unclean.

In this ceremonial washing, the hands were of primary importance. To do the cleaning exactly right, the rabbis taught that the hands were to be held out with the fingers slightly up, and the water poured into the palms. The water was allowed to roll back across the wrists and slightly up the forearms. Then a fist was made with the right hand, and with that fist you scrubbed the palm of the left hand. Then you reversed the process. Finally, the hands were pointed downward, and clean water was poured from the forearms, down the hands, and the excess water dripped off the ends of the fingers.

This was this process that the Jewish religious leaders referred to when they asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"

B. The Answer

This is the answer Jesus gave…

Mark 7:6-7 6 He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'

Then Jesus transitions to what He knows is the real issue with these religious rulers...

Mark 7:8 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."

He's now going to connect this ridiculous practice of ceremonial hand washing, with an insidious practice that had crept into the lives of those religious leaders. Both things He refers to, are results of the religious leaders letting go of the commands of God and setting up man-made rules and regulations, in their place.

Mark 7:9-13 9 And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' 11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."

Let me explain what Jesus is referring to, and why I call this insidious. The law of God requires a person to take care of his parents when they are in need-this is part of honoring them, as one of the 10 Commandments teaches.

But the greedy Jewish leaders had devised a way to get around this command of God. If a person simply made a public declaration that the money he would normally have used to take care of his elderly parents was "Corban" which means set aside for God's use, then he was under no obligation to take care of his needy parents. He didn't even have to give this money to the Temple! He only had to declare that it was set aside.

This was clearly a case of establishing a human law to circumvent one of God's laws. And Jesus said, "This is wrong! This cheapens the authority of the Word of God!"

C. Getting to the heart of the issue

By now a curious crowd has gathered around Jesus and the religious leaders. So, Jesus turns His attention to the crowd…

Mark 7:14 14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.

Now, what Jesus is about to say in the next verse is crucial for us all to understand! Don't miss it! What He is about to tell this crowd is completely and totally in opposition to the prevailing world view of the influential people of that time. But also, what He says in verse 15 is a philosophical statement that is diametrically opposed to the prevailing philosophy that has permeated our culture today. Look at it…

Mark 7:15 15 Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'"

The religious leaders of Jesus' day said that if you did the right things, studied the proper Jewish religious curriculum, and followed the law to it's exact letter, then you would be living in a right relationship with God, and contributing positively to society.

Friends, little has changed in 2000 years. Today there is an almost sacred prevailing philosophy throughout our entire north American culture that says: all the ills, problems, prejudices, selfishness, and inhumanity in our society can be cured with the right external stimuli-it's called proper education.

And Jesus is saying, "No way!" It's not the education that goes into a person that makes that person lose negative behaviors-as good as that education may be. Because as He will tell us in the next verses, everything that goes into a person automatically runs through a filter, called the heart. And when Jesus talks about the heart, He's not talking about that muscle that pumps blood. He's talking about your inner core-the seat of your emotions-your mind. And that filter is not necessarily a good thing.

III. The New Philosophy

A. Explanation to the disciples

I don't know about you, but there are times when I'm glad the disciples were kind of dense on some occasions. If they had been real perceptive, then we wouldn't get to hear Jesus' explanations of some of His teachings. That's the case here…

Mark 7:17-19 17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")

Did you catch it? There is nothing that can be done from the outside to a person that will make a permanent change in who he or she is, how they think, or how they act.

B. Its What Comes Out That Counts

Why? Jesus is going to tell us. It has to do with this filter we all have-this thing called our hearts.

Mark 7:20-21a 20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21 For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts,

It's what comes out of a human beings, after being filtered through the human heart that makes a person acceptable or unacceptable to God; harmful or beneficial to society. The human heart can be a lousy filtering device. It can accumulate things that will pollute a human life.

In the rest of verse 21 and all of 22, Jesus gives a list of what I call heart polluters. Folks these are the things, according to Jesus, that can accumulate at the core of who we are, and cause all the good intentions of knowledge and education to fall flat.

These are the reasons why, while living in the most educated society the world has ever known, our world isn't becoming a better, safer, more accepting or loving place. Let's look at this list of heart polluters…(pick it up in the middle of verse 21) sexual immorality, --sexual immorality is a broad term which means any kind of dabbling in sexual vice that you can think of. It includes everything from the thoughts you have when you view a scantily clad person on the street, to the things that the Catholic church is having to deal with right now. There is no degree to sexual immorality. Impurity in any part of this area is viewed as unclean or evil by God. And it pollutes your heart.

theft, --In the Greek language in which the New Testament was written, there are two different concepts of thievery. There is a specific word that's used for someone who steals because of a cause, like Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. And there is another word that means a deceitful, dishonorable person. That's the meaning here. The issue of this heart polluter is deceit, not just taking something that isn't yours.

murder, --this is hate that is so strong that it is willing to devalue human life to where it is a commodity or an inconvenience. Murder means that respect and value for other human beings is completely gone, and only selfish desires remain.

adultery, --this isn't referring to just the physical act, but it's referring to the plotting, lusting, obsession, the lack of integrity that would cause you to dishonor your vows, and selfishness that precedes the act.

22 greed, --this describes the person who is wrapped up in getting and obtaining things simply for the pleasure of having them. This appetite is never satisfied.

Illustration: When I was about 10 years old, my dad took me crappie fishing in Minnesota, along with a friend and his child who was about the same age. The four of us got in a boat and went to a spot on the lake where the crappies were supposed to be really biting. And sure enough, they were. It seemed like every two minutes, someone in our boat was catching a fish. Once we caught the fish, we'd put it on a mesh bucket that hung over the side of the boat. After about two hours, we were tired from catching so many fish, so we decided to pull up the basket and get a count. Low and behold, when we pulled the bucket out of the water, we saw one of the fish we with it's body half way out of a hole in the bottom of the bucket, struggling to get free. And instead of a bucket full of fish, we only had four.

As you can guess, we had fished for two hours, and had kept catching the same fish over and over again. But even if we had been catching different fish, we would have never filled that bucket, because there was a hole in it.

Well, that's what greed is like. It can never be satisfied. It is a bottomless pit searching for one thing after another to take the place of God. And it pollutes your heart.

malice, --This is the action of a person who is bent on hurting someone else. A definition I read this week for malice was…aptness to do shrewd turns; to delight in mischief's and tragedies; loving to trouble another and do him ill. In other words, it is a bent to treat someone with great disrespect, or to treat someone with prejudice.

deceit, --This is different than the idea of theft that appeared earlier in this list. In the Greek, this word is actually the word for bait. It means using trickery or craftiness to get what someone else has.

lewdness, --the actual literal translation for this word is "wanton wickedness". Often we think of lewdness in a sexual sense. But the reality of the word is a resentment of authority and a desire to do whatever I want to do, without restraint. That prideful attitude will pollute your heart.

envy, --this word has occult foundations. It has something to do with giving someone an "evil eye". Practically were talking about an attitude of jealousy. You can't let someone else have success. You have to be the center of things. That pollutes up the heart.

slander, --this is a bent toward cutting another person down so you can build yourself up. Gossip is a typical way slander rears it's ugly head and pollutes the heart.

arrogance --the root of this word in the Greek is very interesting. It means something that would never come out in public. In other words, this is a prideful attitude of superiority, that never has to be spoken, but is felt by the people around you. In other words, you project that you're better than someone else. That thinking pollutes your heart, as well.

and folly. --this describes someone who knows the right path to follow, but willfully decides to go the opposite way. Basically, it's blowing off God's expectations for you, to do what you want to do.

Then Jesus says…

Mark 7:23 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'"

Illustration: The week before Easter, I had a terrible sore throat. So, on a night I decided to make my self some hot tea with lemon and honey. I took my coffee pot and emptied out the leftover coffee that was in it. I rinsed it thoroughly and poured clean filtered water into the reservoir of the coffee maker, and turned it on. I went out to the garage to do something, and when I came back, to my dismay, I saw brown water coming out of the coffee maker, not clear water for making my tea. As you can guess, I forget to clean out the filter of the leftover grounds from that morning. And by running the water through those old coffee grounds, my clean, clear water had become polluted.

Folks, Jesus' point is that no matter how good the education and knowledge is that a person receives, it's not going to make a hoot of difference, unless the filter of that person's heart is free from pollution. You can know the Bible backwards and forwards. You can recite for me chapter and verse on any topic I could name. But if your heart isn't clean, then nothing of significance will result from your knowledge.

IV. Conclusion

I'm reminded of David Kraft's father in the story I told you at the beginning of this message. How could one man influence his son so much that the son was brave enough to face certain death. It happened because David's dad was a consistently godly man, and that godliness influenced his son. David Kraft's father had a heart that wasn't polluted.

Most Bible scholars believe that the apostle Peter was the source for much of Mark's information in this gospel. After learning from Jesus, after trusting in Him for his salvation, and after leading the first century church to becoming a true FORCE in the world…, shortly before he was arrested and put to death, Peter sums up what it's going to take to continue influencing the world for the Savior. It's found in 2 Peter 3:11, and its written on the front of your WIG's this morning.

"…what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives."

And Jesus' point in this mornings passage is that you can't live holy and godly lives if you have a heart that's polluted. So examine your heart, and if there is one or more of these polluters in it, get rid of it by confessing it as sin to God, and asking for the strength of the Holy Spirit to overcome it.

Amen.