Well, hello friends, and thank you for joining me in our daily reading from God's holy word. Today. We're reading Mark chapter 7 And in this lesson we see Jesus confront the Pharisees show compassion to a Gentile and confirm his own deity Now before we read let's pray Our Father in heaven we ask that you would give us eyes to see Jesus and then do good to our hearts in his name I pray Amen Mark chapter 7 now when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem They saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly holding to the tradition of the elders And when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash and there are many other traditions that they observe such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? But eat with defiled hands and he said to them well Did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites as it is written this people honors me with their lips But their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men And he said to them you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition For Moses said honor your father and your mother and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die But you say if a man tells his father or his mother whatever you would have gained from me is Corbin that is Given to God then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother thus making void the word of God By your tradition that you have handed down and many such things you do And he called the people to him again and said to them hear me all of you and understand There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him But the things that come out of a person are what defile him and when he entered the house and left the people his disciples asked him about the parable And he said to them that are you also without understanding?
Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart But his stomach and is expelled Thus he declared all things clean And he said what comes out of a person is what defiles him for from within out of the heart of man come evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and They defile a person and from there He arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon and he entered a house and did not want anyone to know yet He could not be hidden But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet Now the woman was a Gentile a sirofinesian by birth and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter And he said to her let the children be fed first for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs But she answered him yes, Lord get even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs And he said to her for this statement you may go your way the demon has left your daughter And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon dawn Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee to the region of the Decopolis And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment They begged him to lay his hands on him taking him aside from the crowd privately He put his fingers into his ears and after spitting touched his tongue and looking up to heaven He sighed and said to him F. Vothah that is be opened and his ears were opened his tongue was released and he spoke plainly And Jesus charged them to tell no one but the more he charged them the more zealously They proclaimed it and they were astonished beyond measure saying he has done all things well He even makes the deaf here and the mute speak Amen, this is God's word. Jesus first here confronts the Pharisees They cared so much about externals but not internals about how you looked on the outside and to others But not your heart on the inside and to God They thought the holiest person was really strict with man-made traditions instead of loving God and others from the heart So that they were really disturbed that some of Jesus disciples didn't wash before eating don't they know unclean hands make unclean food which makes an unclean person that was their attitude and Jesus responds a variety of ways He says you honor God with your lips, but you know, but not your life You follow man-made rules, but you don't keep God's own law your religion is a fraud. He says it's not from the heart He also exposes their hypocrisy by the example of their man-made rule about promising their money to God Just so that they don't have to honor their mother and their father by giving that money to help their aging parents He says your religion is at loving and then he says well He declares often it's clean as he tells them that their real problem is not what goes into them and passes through But what comes out of their hearts?
He says what really makes you unclean is your wicked heart out of your heart comes all these nasty desires and thoughts and words and actions He doesn't sugarcoat it your real problem. He says is you don't want God's law which exposes your evil You just want man-made laws that make you look good because you can keep them And so we see that we all most need saving from is not ritual unclean this or even the coronavirus But but the disease of our hearts are rebellion against God and against his law The seed of every known sin lies hidden within my heart now breaks out in our lives differently in different strengths or weaknesses But it's all there so a Christian praise from myself. Oh Lord save me Now in the second story Jesus has compassion on a desperate woman her daughter is demon possessed this woman was called Cyro-finesian she was Greek not Jewish of Canaanite origin from the coastal region of where the Phoenicians settled Jesus He isn't being cruel to her when he quotes the proverb about food being for the children He is in fact highlighting her lack of claim on him. He came first for the lost children of Israel She responds yes, I know Lord, but even the dogs eat the table scraps Let me have a scrap of your mercy you can first for them.
It doesn't that mean you can at least second for for a person like me? Just give me a little scrap That's all it take to heal my daughter and and Jesus does he heals the daughter his compassion his salvation is for the Jew first But also for the Gentile and she understood that truth before even his own disciples did and then in the third story Jesus confirms his deity He makes a deaf man here and a mute man speak and this confirms he is God in part by fulfilling the promise of Isaiah 35 Beginning of verse 4 say to those who have an anxious heart be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance with a recompense of God He will come and save you then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy And so it is that the people said and you can imagine the the deaf and mute man who has it all back Saying as well, he has done all things well And so let me ask you can you sing with the saints? Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemers praise the glories of my God And King the triumphs of his grace he breaks the power of reigning sin He sets the prisoner free his blood can make a foulist clean his blood availed for me Hear him you death his praise you don't you're loose and tongues employ He blind behold your Savior come and leave you lame for joy Let's pray Father in heaven. Thank you for this this Jesus who teaches the truth Who rebukes our sin but shows us his salvation his compassion on this woman who can heal our diseases Oh have mercy on our souls in his name.
I pray amen Well, thank you for listening in and I hope you'll join me next time