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Welcome to our online church. My name is Stephen Feith. I'm the lead pastor. Glad you're joining us.

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I don't want to begin again, as I do almost every week, but especially during this series, it's really important to ask these questions. Have you ever felt like you were doing all the right spiritual things but still missing something? I think that's pretty common. A lot of us go through seasons like that. We feel like we're doing all of the right things that the pastors say, that Christians say, we read the Bible, we pray, and yet it still feels like God is far away. You might pray before meals, read your Bible every day, attend church every week, but yet it still feels like God is really far away. And that is the danger that we're exploring in this series the Pharisee and Me Because if we're not careful, we can trade our relationship with God, knowing God and being known by God for a routine centered around God. Now, most of us I mean if you grow up in or around the church or you've been around for just a little bit you know that the Pharisees are often not portrayed great in the gospels, and so it's easy for us, this side of Jesus, to look back and be critical of them and be like I can't believe they would do this or I can't believe they would say that. And yet they're not the bad guys. I mean, they weren't the villains of the story. These people were devout, they were serious about scripture and they were committed to living how they thought God wanted them to live. I mean, they were the ones who were all in, so they weren't the bad guys. And yet, though, we have to realize that when God in the flesh stood right in front of them, they missed him completely, and I worry that I do that him completely, and I worry that I do that, I worry that you do that, I worry that we do that.

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We measure spiritual maturity by how early we do our devotions. You ever catch that when somebody's talking about spirituality and how much they love Jesus, it's like I get up at five. Well, I get up at 4.30. Well, I get up at 3.30 and I pray for two hours. I pray for three hours every day and it's like, okay, I like sleeping in. I mean I love the Lord, but like I also have a rhythm here. We measure our spiritual maturity by how many church events we go to. Well, I don't just go on Sunday. I'm a part of a small group and I did that volunteer thing on Saturday and then me and the worship team got together on Thursday night and then, just for extra, I had a meeting on Monday night and we're like we're measuring our spiritual maturity by like how much we show up to things.

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But last week we looked at Matthew 23, where Jesus delivers a very strong rebuke to Pharisees, the men who honored the law, taught the scriptures and looked impressive, and Jesus exposed them for what they were. Yes, those things they were trying, but they were also full of pride and greed and hypocrisy. And today, in Matthew 7, jesus, in another scene, another event, is going to confront the Pharisees, not just for hypocrisy, but for using tradition to avoid obedience. Using tradition to avoid obedience, their rule following wasn't just empty, it wasn't just hollow, but it was a way to sidestep the very heart of God. And, as we're doing throughout this entire series, we're holding up the mirror. We're not looking back in the past that these Pharisees, they're awful, I'm not like that. We're not talking about the person in front of you or behind you. We're asking you to look in the mirror and to say in what ways have I become like a Pharisee. Who is and where is that Pharisee? In me? And so we're going to Mark chapter 7, if you want to follow along.

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Mark places this particular confrontation we're about to read. Right after a series of powerful events, jesus has fed 5,000 people with just some loaves and some fish. He's walked on water. He's healing the sick. So all of these things are happening and the Pharisees come to check him out. They leave from Jerusalem to come check him out and it has nothing to do with any of those things. It has nothing to do with the 5,000 being fed, walking on water, the sick. It has something to do with hand washing. Let's read One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus.

Speaker 1: 4:17

They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. And then, if you look in your Bible and you notice parentheses, this is actually Mark who's writing these things. He puts a little sidebar in for his Gentile readers and so he's like there's going to be Gentiles, non-jewish people, and they're not going to understand what's going on. So I'm going to just kind of sidebar and explain. The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions, not law traditions. Similarly, they don't eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to, such as the ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. So these Pharisees remember, these are the theologians. They're kind of like here's how you should live this stuff. And the scribes, these are the ones who study it, kind of check some balances within their religious system. They've come all the way from Israel's religious center, jerusalem and yes, jesus is gaining influence and they're there to investigate. And what they point out is that the disciples are eating without washing their hands.

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This wasn't just about cleanliness or good hygiene. This was about ceremonial purity. This was about being pure and to be clean. To be physically clean was to be close to God. You've heard that praise To be physically clean, was to be close to God. You've heard that praise cleanliness, is godliness or cleanliness is like that right. This is where this comes from.

Speaker 1: 5:50

Hand-washing rituals, although they're not found in Scripture, had taken a deep spiritual but also cultural weight. This was important amongst the people, the Jewish people, and the system of rituals came from what's called the tradition of the elders. So, again, this wasn't Old Testament law. This was oral tradition, passed on and passed down to be interpreted and applied, and by Jesus' time. After hundreds and hundreds of years of this, human traditions carried nearly the same weight as scripture. That might sound somewhat familiar to some things that are going on today and which is like well, that's not in the Bible.

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So why do we take it so seriously? Aha, see the Pharisee and me. These things come up. What started as a good idea, a desire to honor God, had become a burdensome system of control. Another unique aspect of this is when we look at the Pharisees and what they're doing. They didn't just see themselves as teachers. They weren't coming to teach the disciples well, you should wash your hands. This comes from the elders, and here's why we do this and here's where it's based from. Rather, they came did you catch it? As guardians of holiness. Yes, guardians of holiness. They are the gatekeepers of who's in and who's out. And why did they do this? Well, the world they believe was drifting. They're seeing it all around them. People weren't taking their faith as seriously as they were. Spirituality was on the decline all around them, and how they fought back was by guarding and protecting their traditions.

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Now, today, we may not impose ritual systems, but we still create unspoken rules in spiritual checklists. I mean, like nobody's going to probably follow you into the bathroom to make sure you wash your hands before you eat, and if you don't, we're going to think that's gross, but it's not like it's going to affect your relationship with God very much. But we have our own signs of spiritual maturity. Again, go back to that idea how much quiet time do I spend with God? What's my church attendance like? Moral behavior? Well, I don't swear I don't watch bad movies, I don't listen to bad music, I don't drink, etc. Etc. And so therefore, I must be spiritually mature and more advanced than those who do do those things and partake in them. Now, again, these things aren't bad the quiet time, the church attendance and moral behavior. They're not bad. But they easily become an external substitute for an internal transformation that's supposed to occur.

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And this becomes the turning point in Mark's gospel, right here in chapter 7. Jesus begins to reframe what makes a person truly clean Not tradition, not the Old Testament law, not washing your hands, but a surrendered heart. And that conversation gets more direct in verse 6. Jesus replied to them you hypocrites. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote these people honor me with their lips. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God. For you ignore God's law and substitute your own tradition. So, in response to the Pharisees' challenge, hey, they should be washing their hands. They're not clean, jesus. How are you letting this go? Jesus doesn't defend his disciples. He doesn't get into a debate, he goes straight to the heart and he does it with force, and he quotes a prophet. They all love Isaiah.

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Now, the thing was this prophecy from Isaiah. It wasn't like directly at this time and place, it wasn't like Isaiah had this vision. Oh, I can see Jesus and he's walking around and the Pharisees come and they're mad that people aren't washing their hands. And he writes it down and he puts it in a letter, and that's what we have. Rather, he's saying Isaiah's saying this is going to be a pattern that continues to occur. It's happened, it's happening and it will continue to happen. This isn't new. This is what people do. This is what specifically religious people have always done.

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The Pharisees honored God outwardly with their rituals and their appearances, but inwardly their hearts were elsewhere. Their hearts were elsewhere. The Greek word here that Jesus uses is in vain or pointless. It looks spiritual but is empty, because they had replaced God's truth God's truth with their own man-made rules. They teach human ideas as if they were God's commands, and Jesus goes on. He explains what went wrong. Their traditions had taken place of God's word, which I think is something that still happens today.

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These were experts in the law. They devoted themselves to preserving tradition and teaching faithfulness, but instead of leading people toward God, and specifically God in the flesh who was there with them, they were blocking the way. They were blocking the way and, like the Pharisees, I think we're still prone to worship. That's words or all words, it's all appearances, it's all. Look at me. We can sing the songs and we can know all of the words.

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I joked last week. We can raise our hands at the right part, right, never verse one, always the bridge. We can show up on Sundays, we can be early, we can stay late, we read the Bible in a year, and yet we can do all of those things and the reality is our hearts can still be far from God. Our hearts can still be far from God, because what happens is our spiritual routine helps us avoid surrender to God that he actually wants. God is calling us to surrender, and that's difficult and that's challenging, and so what we do is what we do with what the Pharisees did. We create rules. Well, these are a little bit easier than what God wants me to do, and I can kind of guard these better than those, and I'm good at these and other people aren't, so this kind of makes me feel good about myself. And so then, in the verses that follow, we're going to verse nine.

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Now Jesus is going to offer a specific example to show how the rules don't just distance them from God, but it distracts from what God wants to have happen, that their man-made traditions actually replace the word of God, and that's what makes the moment here a turning point. Jesus exposes the core issue of the Pharisees who have come to see him Vain worship, distant hearts and a faith that looks right but lives wrong. He said Jesus said you skillfully sidestep God's law in order to hold on to your own tradition. Skillfully sidestep, for instance, moses gave you this law from God. Honor your father and mother and anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death. But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents sorry, I can't help you, for I vowed to give to God what I would have given to you, and in this way, you let them disregard their needy parents. And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example of many.

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Jesus moves from a confrontation to an illustration. His tone turns. If you're reading this in the Greek and you were in the first century reading this, this is sarcasm at its best. Jesus is saying you skillfully sidestep for your own tradition. It's intentional. This wasn't an accident. They didn't stumble on disobedience. They were actively avoiding God's will under the appearance of devotion. And to prove it, jesus uses just a foundational command, something that they wouldn't have been able to argue with. He says well, you remember? In the Ten Commandments? It says honor your mother and father. And in a world without social security, retirement plans, honoring your parents was practical. This was how we're going to care for them in their old age, so they don't starve to death. And Jesus reinforces the seriousness of this. He says well, it's not just the Ten Commandments. Do you remember when Moses said that anyone who speaks disrespectfully must be put to death? This is a big deal. It's not just about being polite. This was a covenant-level responsibility. And then he says you guys have a man-made rule, a tradition that lets people break that, Because if you vowed something to the Lord land or money you could still use it and access it, but you wouldn't have to give it away.

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Then, sorry, mom and dad, I can't give you that money because I've already promised it to the Lord. Well, I can't give you that money because I've already promised it to the Lord. Well, I haven't given it to him yet, but I'm going to. Meanwhile, mom and dad are starving to death. Sorry, mom and dad, I can't give you this land. I've promised it to the Lord. I'm going to use it for a little bit longer, but then I'm going to give it to God. Mom and dad aren't doing well.

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So a person could label their resources as set apart from God, so that they didn't have to help their parents. This was a way of looking devout. Look at all that I've promised the Lord my land and my money. But actually it was a way that they avoided sacrifice, avoided loving people. Jesus calls out this manipulation. You cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition.

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What meant to be sacred at one point, this was a good idea. It was honorable. Hey, you know what? We're going to set things apart for the Lord. We're going to plan our generosity. What ended up being a good thing turned into a bad thing, because then it was like well, you know, I'm not just planning my generosity, I get to now keep this myself and avoid giving it away. The very system that was initially there to form their hearts was now protecting their selfishness. And then he adds, he goes, and just so you know this isn't just like a one-off thing. There are many other examples of this. Jesus is saying we can go down the list of all of the other ways that this happens. It's a pattern.

Speaker 1: 15:52

Your traditions, which were supposed to help people draw near to God, are actually insulating them from God. Now, this isn't something that I think a lot of us could particularly relate to today, because we prioritize freedom and independence, individuality, sincerity and independence, individuality, sincerity. So we are a people I think here at Madison Church too that are less likely to hide behind tradition. I don't think we're going to hide behind tradition at Madison Church. But that doesn't mean this passage isn't applicable to us, because I think what we do do, rather, is that we hide behind our personal preference or our emotion. So we may not be able to look at a church council that made a decision 600 years ago or even 1,000 years ago, but we internalize it.

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We might say well, god knows my heart, I shouldn't have done that. It was wrong. I knew it was wrong going into it. I had plenty of opportunities to not do that thing, but I did it anyway. But you can't judge me, only God can judge me. Well, man-made, personal versus what God has said. Or we can say this just doesn't feel right to me. This is a common one, right? We can say like well, we have a specific command. God wants you to love your enemies. Love your enemies so well, you know what. It just doesn't feel right to me to love my enemies. Well, you don't really like. That doesn't take claim over the word of God. And so, again, while we might not have tradition, I think we have the emotion and I think we have personal preference. And Jesus is calling that out.

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The rules didn't distract from scripture. They use the rules to override it, and I think that that might be, in some of our cases, the Pharisee in me that I hide behind my preferences or my emotions to avoid what I know God is telling me to be. They thought they were preserving holiness, but instead they were dismantling it. And Jesus flips the whole conversation. He says you're worried about clean hands. That's how this whole conversation started, remember. You're worried about clean hands when your rules are letting people abandon their needy parents. You're worried about clean hands and people are suffering. It's a devastating reversal. If you're there, you're like. This makes a lot of sense what he's saying right now. They saw themselves as guardians of purity, but Jesus reveals they're corrupting the very law they claim to uphold.

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So we have Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees and again, the issue here isn't tradition itself. It's that they were using religious structures not to draw near God, but to sidestep his commands. They were using the traditions not to honor God, to draw people close to him, but to sidestep. And what we ought to take away today is that true worship flows from a heart aligned with God, not from external rituals, traditions or appearances, Not from the outside. In God isn't impressed by your religious performance. I don't know if somebody needs to hear that, but he's not impressed with your religious performance.

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What God is after is integrity. Who are you when no one else is looking? He's after a surrendered heart. Is your heart really surrendered or does it just appear to be surrendered? He's looking for people who have a life that reflect his character. Think back to the Old Testament. This isn't a new concept Psalm 51, verses 16 and 17. David talking to God you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. You, god will not despise. You see, david understood that God isn't moved by empty big rituals. He's drawn by honesty and he's drawn to surrender.

Speaker 1: 19:47

And it continues into the New Testament, in which Paul in Romans, chapter 12, tells us use your body as a living sacrifice. Offer everything to God, not as a ritual but as a response. Jesus has changed you from the inside out. God has always cared more about the condition of our hearts and the performance of our religion. Nt Wright says you can tell the story of the Bible as the story of how human beings have again and again substituted religion for God and how God has again and again sought to call them back into real relationship with him. This is the story Again and again and again and again throughout the whole scriptures, thousands of years. People constantly substituting relationship for religion, and constantly Jesus and God. They're pursuing us relationally. God isn't looking for people who look holy. He's calling people to be holy, which always begins with humility and obedience and love. And so the next step for us today isn't to do more religious things. It's not to do more religious things. Rather, it's about looking in the mirror and asking whether the things we're already doing look in the mirror and ask are the things that I'm already doing forming me into a person who loves God and reflects his character? That's the question.

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Where is your faith just going through the motions? Where is your faith just going through the motions? Where is your faith just going through the motions Yesterday, today, this week? Maybe you read your Bible in the morning because you're supposed to right, somebody said you're supposed to, so you read your Bible in the morning, but you read it real fast so you can go check your email. So you got work to do. And maybe you pray before dinner I mean, god forbid you don't pray over your Big Mac. Maybe you pray before dinner I mean, god forbid you don't pray over your Big Mac but you haven't had an honest or real conversation with God outside of that little moment in months. Maybe you go to church every Sunday, but you avoid the hard places God is actually calling you to obey. Going to church is a little bit easier than doing what he wants you to do.

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This Thursday, right, we can look faithful and still keep our hearts from God, and so the challenge for us today is to trade performance for presence. Let God have your heart, not just your habits. And that might mean you're going to read the Bible this week, but not to check a box, but rather you're going to read the Bible to listen to what God might be saying to you in this moment. Not to say I did it now, I can move on with the rest of my day Grandma would be proud but to open it up and to hear what is God saying to me today, it might mean examining your spiritual habits. Are these things drawing you closer to Jesus or are they helping you avoid surrender A lot of the things that we do as people? We're following Jesus. It might start off as a good idea that help us, but at some point it stops being that and it becomes a rule. We've outgrown that, so we can let go of that rule, whatever that might be in your own situation or your circumstances.

Speaker 1: 23:06

Look at your habits. Those things that were once good, are they still? This one's scary. But ask someone close to you Do you see congruence in my life between what I say, I believe and how I live? Are you open to that kind of feedback? That kind of scares me a little bit.

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And if you're new to faith or you felt burned by religion in the past, this passage is great news for you, because Jesus doesn't want your perfection. Jesus simply wants your heart. You don't need to clean yourself up, you don't need to learn all the rules. You just come as you are. So the key question for us this week am I honoring God with my lips while keeping my heart at a distance? That's the thought, the question that we need to ask.

Speaker 1: 23:57

The key step here is to do one thing not to look spiritual to anyone else, but to draw near to Jesus in truth and to let him meet you there, because Jesus isn't interested in religious performance. He wasn't then and he isn't now. He's interested in your heart. The Pharisees looked the part. The Pharisees knew the rules, but in clinging to tradition, they lost sight of God's heart for love and justice and mercy. And if we're honest, when we look in the mirror ourselves, we can do the same.

Speaker 1: 24:36

We follow habits that make us feel spiritual, while resisting the very obedience God is inviting us to. And that's why we come to the communion table every week at Madison Church. It's not to perform a ritual. We don't have a denomination that tells us we have to the communion table every week at Madison Church. It's not to perform a ritual. We don't have a denomination that tells us we have to do this every week.

Speaker 1: 24:52

When we started the church, we decided we wanted to do it, not because of a religious thing we had to do, but because of a relational thing we get to be in. And every week we take the time to reflect on not just what Jesus did back then, but what Jesus is doing in my life today. We remember the one who didn't cancel out God's commands but who fulfilled God's commands, the one who invites us to stop pretending and to just bring your real self broken, hungry and in need of grace. And so, as we take communion today, let this be your prayer, god I don't want to just look faithful, I want to be formed in you. And next week Kyle will continue with another encounter that Jesus has with the religious elite, a moment where everyone was ready to cast judgment and seem justified in doing so, except him. And the question we're going to wrestle with is I judge others, but do I show mercy?