Challenges and Withdrawals

Matthew 15 is where we begin tracing the steps of Jesus tonight. We look at our Lord's life. Let me set the stage for where we pick up the seeding. We are about one year before the death of Christ. Somewhere in the neighborhood of one year before Christ's death, we are in a six-month time period which is often called the training of the twelve. That's because Jesus now focuses on training the twelve, teaching them, modeling for them, what ministry is all about, but also specifically pulling them apart to teach them in very focused ways. And so that's why this time is often called the training of the twelve. We saw last time that Jesus rejected efforts to make him king on the part of the crowd and then he and John chapter six, preaches a hard sermon. And that hard sermon that Jesus preached was a challenge to the great crowds that were swarming around him wanting to take him to Jerusalem and lead a rebellion against Rome. And he preaches a sermon that basically drives the crowd away. It's a very strong sermon that is designed to turn them away from the physical benefits of his miracles, the bread that they were getting fed and help them to see that what was really important was that he was the bread sent by God from heaven to provide eternal life and they simply could not grasp that. They wanted the bread to eat. And so Jesus preached very hard sermon and drove them away. The disciples, many disciples who were followers of Jesus but not really committed to him also left that day in Jesus' turn to the twelve and said, will you also go away? And Peter said to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And so the twelve continue to follow him pretty much everybody else is gone. Now that doesn't mean that Jesus will not have any more followers or crowds surrounding him. We'll see tonight that he still does but the crowds are very fickle. And they pop up when he's around and then they disperse again. Well what happens after that hard sermon is Jesus begins to withdraw more from the multitudes and have focused time with his disciples even so much so that he will leave the region of Galilee and go into Gentile territory. Now what we will find is that crowds still find him and he simply cannot because of that have time very much time alone with the disciples but there is a lot of training and teaching going on and this is really a very tense time. You're going to see this as we go through some of the stories tonight. It's a very tense time. Jesus and the Pharisees are sparring even more directly. That's why we're calling this study tonight controversies and withdrawals because Jesus has a couple of controversies with the Pharisees very sharp controversies and then he will withdraw from public view but it's also a tense time with his disciples. They do not understand what's going on. The crowd has left now they're somewhat confused and they will be until after the crucifixion and resurrection. They will not fully understand what Jesus is doing. Jesus is going to more and more point them toward his death in the cross and they will more and more kind of be at odds with him. In fact in the very next chapter in Matthew we'll find that Peter confronts Jesus says Lord not so this can't happen to you and Jesus has to review him and so there's some tension between Christ and the disciples because Jesus quite clearly has turned a corner in his ministry and is focusing now on pushing toward the end and the disciples don't understand it. So that's kind of the dynamic and the background of what's happening here. Where we begin tonight is Jesus withdrawing in the midst of controversy. In Matthew 15 we pick up there with the first controversy we see tonight and that is controversy with the Pharisees over tradition. Let's begin there in verse one of chapter 15. Then some Pharisees and the teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders. They don't wash their hands before they eat. Now do you think the Pharisees were correct in rebuking Jesus for this? Didn't your mother tell you to wash your hands before you ate? Are the disciples guilty of just being unpleaned? You can knit picking okay? Some knit picking going on here for sure. We'll see that it really is very deep knit picking on the part of the Pharisees. Right. Right and that's really the the crux of what Jesus is going to respond to the Pharisees about since it is tradition they're bringing up. It really was not a part of God's law and what's going to happen here is that the Pharisees are enforcing what Jesus will call man's rules in verse six. Their traditions on the people of Israel as though it was God's law and demanding they do this. Now I think it's important that we understand the Pharisees are not talking about washing your hands to clean your hands before you eat. That's not what they're talking about. It's not an issue of just you know get the dirt off your hands so you don't mess up your food or that kind of thing. It's not cleanliness. They are talking about by the way Jesus responds to them we know. They're talking about a tradition that the Pharisees and the scribes the elders of Israel were enforcing on the people and we know from Jewish writings of the day the Talmud the the Mishnah the writings of the rabbis that are kind of commentaries on the Old Testament law. We know from the writings of the rabbis what they were talking about. They were talking about a ceremonial cleansing that was being enforced on the people which was basically designed to ceremonial ceremonially cleanse you religiously cleanse you if you had had any contact with a Gentile. So this kind of cleansing should be done anytime you came out of the market anytime you came away from any association with people and before you ate they had to ceremonially cleanse their hands. It was a religious right. It was not just cleaning up for a meal. In fact the Pharisees had very specific requirements for this cleansing. You had to take an egg shell and a half of water. You had to hold one hand up and pour the water over your fingers letting the water drip to your wrist. You could not touch your hand with the other hand because this hand is defiled. You know you may have shook hands with a Gentile or touched his wares and so this hand has to be cleansed to the to the wrist first and then you do the same with this hand and then you can rub them and cleanse it and that is supposed to make you religiously spiritually prepared to take your meal. It's supposed to cleanse you spiritually. It's not an issue of washing your hands before dinner. This is an issue of carrying out a religious tradition. Notice how Jesus responds to them verse three. Jesus replied and why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition. Now the word break is an interesting word. It's literally the word transgress and it has the idea of going beyond, going beyond. They were breaking but in the sense of they were going beyond what God commanded for the sake of their tradition. Now in the Old Testament God did require a ceremonial cleansing similar to what they were enforcing on all the people but it was only for the priests. When the priests part of the meal from animal sacrifices that was brought to them they had to go through a ritual cleansing ceremony before they would partake of that meal. But what the Pharisees did is they went beyond. They went beyond the law and said well if it's good enough for the priests it'll it'll be good enough for everybody and so God wants everybody to do that. God wants everybody to do it for every meal and God wants everybody to do that for every meal or anytime you've been in the marketplace and had any possible potential contact with a Gentile person. Okay that's going way beyond what God required but isn't that typical of tradition? Men's traditions typically begin with a desire to uphold God's word and to do what is right but you know take it a little further just so that we'll make sure we're really doing it really right and pretty soon you've moved several steps beyond what God's word teaches. That's the way traditions work and what the danger is is that people take tradition and put them on us on any Christian as though they were Bible truth and if you break one of the traditions then certainly you're not spiritual you're not walking with God and we you know we have our own traditions today but this is the one the Pharisees were guilty of. Now the Lord gives an example of their going beyond and even breaking God's word because of their traditions verse four for God said honor your father and mother that's one quote in the Old Testament that here's a second quote in the Old Testament and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death so the Old Testament is clear God's word is clear honor your father and mother and Jesus is going to interpret that as provide for them in their old age you see there were not the there's not the same kind of social systems in place as we have today there was no social security Medicare Medicaid all those kind of things elderly people were totally dependent upon their families and and so and I don't mean to mitigate the responsibility we have toward our our parents today either we still do but what I'm saying is it was it was total dependence in that day there were no government subsidies or programs to help so God's word was clear you honor your father and mother and you do not treat them badly you do not curse them but verse five but you say that if a man says to his father or mother whatever help you might have otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God then he is not to honor his father with it thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition and what Jesus is referring to here is the the common practice of the Pharisees to say well yeah we do have some funds that we probably could have used to help you out mom and dad but it's it's been dedicated to God it's been devoted to God now here's here's the catch in the Old Testament book of Leviticus you can look it up whenever there was an offering of dedication or a vow offering which is the kind of offering they're talking about that kind of offering you would take to the temple and the priest would get part of it but the giver would take the rest of it home the whole thing is dedicated devoted to the Lord but you actually get to keep most of it so that's the catch they're saying this is dedicated to the Lord so it can't be used for you but you end up pocketing most of it anyway and Jesus is saying basically you're violating God's law on a technicality you know and just as we would be enraged by someone scurrying justice in our justice system through a technicality and getting off because of a technicality Jesus is enraged that they would do that because they're breaking God's command and violating God's command by dishonoring their parents in that way and he says thus you nullify you make void the word of God for the sake of your tradition so Jesus really comes down hard on them and it's gonna get worse in the next few verses let me pause though and ask any question or comment on these verses before we move on verse seven okay Jesus is not gonna spare anything look at what he says in verse seven you hypocrites now here's what tradition does here's what an emphasis on tradition does to people exactly what Jesus said it did to the Pharisees you hypocrites Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you these people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me you know they they say they want to honor God they say they want to worship God but that's not really coming from the heart really all they're concerned about and this is the essence of hypocrisy all they're concerned about is making sure their traditions get carried out and making sure their traditions get recognized and that everybody keeps them like they do that's all they're really concerned about they're not concerned about God or worshipping him or his commands concerned about their traditions verse nine Jesus says they worship me in vain any worship that is built on tradition is worthless it's empty it's vain because really the the the purpose of a person who's just concerned about traditions is not really about God it's not the focus is not on God the focus is on making sure we do everything like we've always done it or we follow all of our traditions that's the focus and Jesus says that's empty that's worthless and then the middle of verse nine their teachings are but rules taught by men so this kind of focus on tradition leads to a hypocrisy where you may talk about a concern to honor God but that's not really the concern the concern is to maintain the traditions that's the real concern and Jesus puts his finger right on it says that's hypocrisy that is empty worship and it's just leading people astray so Jesus is done with the Pharisees at least and this encounter they'll come back for more but he's done with the Pharisees for now and notice what he does in verse 10 he called the crowd to him and said listen and understand so he's going to teach the crowd what's wrong with the position of the Pharisees verse 11 what goes into a man's mouth does not make him unclean but what comes out of his mouth that is what makes him unclean Jesus makes an extremely important distinction here with the Pharisees it was all about what you did ceremonial cleansings made your heart clean the cleansing of your hands made you right with God the carrying out all the traditions made you right with God and Jesus says that's not it at all it's not what goes into you that makes you unclean it's what comes out of you what comes out of your mouth in other words what comes out of your heart through your mouth the point Jesus is making is the Pharisees religion is all about external looking good doing the right things saying the right things keeping all the traditions making all the right spiritual moves or religious moves but that's not what makes a person right with God that's not what makes a person spiritual it is the heart and the problem with man is not the outside clean up my act you know getting my act together making sure I stop this do this get all the things it right that's not the issue the issue is a dirty heart and the heart has got to be dealt with you see God's got to deal with the sin in the heart it's not what you put into a person that makes him unclean and Jesus is probably referring there to all the food laws and so forth it's what comes out the problem is on the inside not the outside so cleaning up that outside by washing the hands not going to do you any good it's got to start from the inside well notice what happens in first 12 then the disciples came to him and asked do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this I imagine the Pharisees walked off because Jesus turned away from them and started dressing the crowd and the Pharisees probably huffed off you know I mean they were angry and that intimidated the disciples Lord I can you can just sense it in their question here Lord are you going a little too far here you know he's just preached away the crowd in in John chapter 6 who were wanting to make him king and now he's gotten the Pharisees mad and the disciples are beginning to get a little concerned and there will be more of this as we go along more of the disciples kind of questioning what Jesus is doing not not understanding what's going on here Jesus reply is even harsher than what he set up to this point verse 13 he replied every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots the pulling off of a plant by the roots is a symbol in Bible times for judgment remember John the Baptist saying that he will have his one-oing fork and he'll he'll put it in for the harvest and he'll separate the shaft from the wheat all these agricultural terms for pulling up weeds or separating shaft from wheat or a harvest all of those were metaphors for judgment and what he's saying here is people who are sowing these weeds you know the rules of men they're going to be judged the plant and the people who planted it because he's talking about people the heavenly father has not planted and he says in verse 14 then leave them leave them let the Pharisees go don't be concerned about them leave them okay there's already been an official rejection on the part of the Pharisees and Jesus does not want his disciples to be concerned about what the Pharisees are teaching it's weeds and it's going to be judged and so he says leave them they are blind guides if a blind man leads a blind man both will fall into a pit and what Jesus is saying here is the kind of religious instruction the people of Israel are getting from the Pharisees is like blind people leading blind and they're both going to fall into the ditch they're both going to fall into the pit or the sister is what the word means so their religious instruction is absolutely no good it is simply leading people to stray it is causing people to have a focus upon the externals and missing the heart issues missing the fact that a relationship with God has to do with the cleaning up of the heart not the cleaning up of the hands and getting all the rituals right it's got to be the heart that's cleaned he goes on to stress this Peter says in verse 15 explain the parable to us parable evidently being the plant situation there and look at Jesus response and this is this indicates some pressing on the part of Jesus to get these guys come on come on guys you got to get up to speed with me now he says in verse 16 are you still so dull Jesus asked them again a little bit evidence of the tension between them Jesus is really going to challenge them out of their comfort zones with what he's doing and what he's saying in the next few weeks verse 17 don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body but the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these make a man unclean for out of the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false testimony slander mark even has a few others in his account these are what make a man unclean but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean so Jesus point is the distinction between the Pharisees kind of religion which is all about do the right things make sure you keep the traditions don't break any of the traditions follow all the religious rules and you'll be okay and Jesus says that doesn't even begin to address the problem because the problems on the inside the problem is the heart the problem is that man has a dirty wicked sinful heart and out of that wicked heart come evil things that's where sin comes from so the problem cannot be addressed by externally doing the right things the problem has to be addressed on a heart level you have to get to the heart issues sin has to be dealt with relationship with God has to begin from the heart and not with religious do's and don'ts that's Jesus whole point and what Jesus is saying is is these blind leaders of the blind are leading Israel astray by a focus on just keeping the traditions and you'll be okay now it's the heart that needs to be dealt with and that's Jesus whole point that's the focus of his rebuke of the disciples here okay questions comments about this controversy with the Pharisees over tradition lots of application for today I remember a number of years ago preaching through the section of Matthew and I I preached one message on the passage I preached a whole other message on the application and took about you know eight or ten traditions that we typically have I do see a lot of application I'm hesitant to go too far into that tonight and I know you understand Max but we do have a lot of traditions that we put on a level of scripture and that's the danger it's not it's not a it's not necessarily a bad thing to follow a tradition as long as you recognize it's a tradition it's not binding it's not authority you've on me like scripture so I can't enforce it on anybody else and I can't say that to do that makes me more spiritual let me throw it out to you what traditions do you think we have today that we sometimes struggle with Sunday Sabbath is one of those traditions yes I do I do believe it is and that's a whole other issue about the Sabbath and its place in Israel's life but a lot of people place traditions on Sunday and we've talked about that some on Sunday mornings with Romans 14 a lot of people put certain traditions about you should or should not do certain things on Sunday that the scriptures don't talk about but if you break one of those traditions you better be careful right yes a lot of those issues of Christian liberty what people do is take a certain position and it becomes a tradition a traditional that's a traditional position that's kind of handed down through the church or through family or whatever and that tradition often becomes equivalent to scripture and it's binding authority on us and there are lots of issues like that okay a lot of Roman traditions or cultic practices that yeah maybe I know there's a lot of difference of opinion on that but some Christians get condemned if they do put up a Christmas tree and maybe that is an area of tradition that what about service times does there's anywhere in the Bible tell us how many services were to have per week and when there to be no and don't go to seed with that don't go wild with that don't say well we don't even have to ever meet just forget it that's not what I'm saying but there's no place in the Bible that says thou shalt meet at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning seven o'clock Sunday night seven o'clock Wednesday night our basic meeting schedules were set in the 17 and 1800s in the western world by the schedule of farmers and we typically don't have that kind of culture anymore so that lots lots of traditions that we have that are sometimes put on a level with scripture really the kind of tradition we're talking about is a religious tradition that is enforced on people as equivalent to God's law that's the kind of tradition that really would fit this context and so most of them would have to do with things that we do in the church things that we do in in Christianity that really don't have any basis in scripture okay let's let's move on what Jesus does next is withdraw to Tyre and Sidon and I want to show you this on a map because this is pretty dramatic really if you can see the map show you a couple but let's look at this one first here's the Sea of Galilee here's the region of Galilee here's Copernum where Jesus has been in this area he's been teaching and and so forth on the north side of the Sea of Galilee now here's Tyre way over here I mean this is the border of Israel this green area that's in Phoenicia here and this is this is Gentile territories not even Israel and he takes this route all the way up to Tyre and then later we'll go to Sidon let's look at the next map this is a this is actually a satellite view of the of the holy land of Israel and gives you kind of the the layout this is the Sea of Galilee as it actually looks from space and this is a Mediterranean Sea over here and this is the land very arid mountainous regions also some in Galilee especially some very fertile regions but you can see this would be about Copernum is right here and then he traveled up to Tyre on the coast I want to show you next to an artist's rendition of what Tyre would have looked like in the first century this is what Tyre would have looked like in the first century as best we know from historical documents and so forth looking from the north this would be the road that would go into Tyre and through the city gates this is the city on the Mediterranean coast let's see did we have okay we'll wait on the picture of the next one very until we get into the story a little bit but Jesus after this running with the Pharisees withdraws a long ways away from from any contact with the Pharisees he's way up in Gentile territory to escape hostility to be able to get some time with his disciples and it's interesting what Mark's gospel says at this point in March 7 and verse 24 listen to this Mark says it this way Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre he entered a house and did not want anyone to know it yet he could not keep his presence secret remember Jesus had earlier just you know within the last couple of weeks or so tried to get away from the crowds with his disciples after they're preaching to her Galilee so that they could come apart and rest a while and when they got to the place where they were going to come apart and rest a while the crowds had beat them there and remember that was when the feeding of the five thousand took place and ever since then Jesus has been pressured by crowds it's obvious from what Mark says he wanted to get away again and he wants he wants to be in Cognito he moves totally out of Israelite territory he wants he does not want to be noticed he's wanted his presence there to be a secret but Mark says he could not maintain that secrecy so what happens in Matthew 15 verse 21 with Drew to the region of Tyre and side in verse 22 a Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him crying out Lord son of David have mercy on me my daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession now this is a Canaanite woman you couldn't get any more Gentile than she is Matthew 1st to her is a Canaanite by race so by race she's Canaanite in other words you trace her family tree back far enough and they they're the the Old Testament Canaanites that were in the land when Israel came into the land so that that's part of her background is Canaanite Mark says she was a Greek so she was Greek by citizen by by citizenship and by culture she was Greek so she's Canaanite by race she's Greek by culture and citizenship you cannot get any more non-Jewish than that now you have to you have to get that in mind when you look at what happens between her and Jesus you have to realize who she is okay and and so she comes to Jesus and and she's begging him pleading with him crying out look at what she's crying out Lord son of David does that strike you as odd from a Canaanite by race Gentile I mean Greek by nation or by culture and and citizenship does that strike you as a little odd Lord son of David what does son of David mean do you remember we've seen some people in Israel call him by that name what does that mean means he's Lord yes and even a step further than Lord who was David King King of Israel okay what was the promise that was made about Jesus when he was born rule set on the throne of his father David son of David is a messianic title it's a title that shows she somehow had heard about Jesus and evidently believed he was the Messiah for Israel she's not even an Israelite she's a Canaanite Greek but somehow she's gotten word that this is the the Messiah Israel's Messiah and she calls him by an Old Testament Messianic title son of David the one who is to rule on David's throne and she calls him Lord three times in this story three times she calls him Lord so I think we're dealing with a woman here who somehow and we don't know how but obviously remember word for about Jesus his fame had spread abroad to lots of places evidently this woman had heard about him and when she hears he's there she has enough information that she's already made a decision in her heart as to who he is he is Lord and he is the Jewish Messiah okay now that tells you something about this woman and her faith but the problem that she presents to Jesus has to do with her daughter she says my daughter is suffering suffering terribly from demon possession and we know that from other accounts in the gospels demon possession could manifest itself in very cruel ways remember the man who who's boy the demons would throw the boy into the fire and and there are other accounts the one we saw the demon possessed man and the the tombs at Gidara who would cut himself and had such power they couldn't restraining with chains I mean demons when they really took possession of someone and and dominated the personality of a person just led to horrible results we don't know what always going on with this little girl or this this woman's girl but she's suffering terribly as her description and it must be pretty bad now notice Jesus response in verse 23 this might strike you as odd too Jesus did not answer a word ignored her why why do you think he did that I traditionally weren't allowed to speak to them if even pardon me he's our showman for digit yeah yeah religious tradition he is but now cultural it would be typically inappropriate for a man to speak to a woman in in public that's the reason why like the woman of the well the disciples were amazed that Jesus was talking with this woman there were some cultural things there that may that may play a part but I think this I think it goes deeper than that yeah it does it does and I'm not trying to lead you on here but just to get you thinking why would he do that verse 24 will will really answer the question but notice what the disciples response is disciples came to him and urged him send her away for she keeps crying out after us I think really what they were saying was Lord do something about her request and get her out of here she just keeps bothering us and Jesus response first of all ignores her secondly he rejects her verse 24 he answered I was sent only to the law sheep of Israel can I think that's the clue remember he's in Gentile territory he came to the Israel's Messiah now obviously the gospel is going to go to the Gentiles but it's not time yet remember when he sent his disciples out on the last preaching tour he told them don't just go to the law sheep of Israel that's all it's not time yet that will come the time will come in the book of Acts for the gospel to go unhindered to the Gentiles but at this point it's still Christ is still focusing his ministry upon the Jewish nation okay so that seems to be the answer for why he first ignores her and then just plain rejects her but notice this is really this is so beautiful in verse 25 the woman came and not before him Lord help me she said she's persistent isn't she she's not going to give up now notice Jesus next response which has raised a lot of eyebrows and a part of a lot of people he replied verse 26 it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs whoa what is that what is that about who are the children is relights who are the dogs Gentiles now I will say that if you could read Greek you would you would see that there are a couple different words for dogs in Jesus used the one for a household pet so he does soften he's not talking about the wild ravenous dogs that roam the streets that were a minister's society he at least softens this a little bit by saying we are talking about a household pet here but still it's pretty strong and I guess again what Jesus is saying is that it is not time yet for the message of salvation to go to the Gentiles as a whole it's not time yet the bread is still being given to the children and then would you notice her response yes her response is priceless in verse 27 yes Lord she said but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table now what does that say about her we ought to be proud of her I mean in a good biblical sense her faith is huge Jesus will talk about it essence of humility I really yeah I think that that comes out so strongly what she says she is not in the least offended by Jesus referring to her as one who is categorized as the dog in fact she owns that she says I she recognized who he was and she is willing to bow before him and say you know you're right I am a Gentile I'm one of the dogs yes all because of her daughter her daughter's desperate condition her desired have Jesus do something to help in her her faith that Jesus could do something to help she's desperate yeah and I think she genuinely agrees with with Jesus you're right I'm willing to identify myself with the dogs I am I know I know my place now there's a sense in which what she reveals is what is necessary for any of us to come to Christ and that is that we have to realize we are not worthy of salvation okay we're none of us are worthy of salvation and so what she's admitting here basically is what every person the level all of us have to come to in order to be saved and that is to recognize where sinners were sinners and we can't do anything to save ourselves I admit I don't deserve I do not deserve any of your mercy I do not deserve any of your grace I don't deserve this I'm pleading with you have mercy on me and now notice Jesus response verse 28 then Jesus answered woman you have great faith your request is granted and her daughter was healed from that very hour what a what a great story this is what a beautiful picture of what it means to come to Christ this woman had great faith because she believed who Jesus was she understood who he was she had great faith because she realized who she was she had great faith because she believed that Jesus was able to drive the demon out of her daughter he had the power to do that and she had great faith because she was persistent in coming to him and him alone now you want to know what great faith is that's what it is that's what Jesus said it was that's kind of faith he categorizes as great faith your faith is great faith that knows who God is knows who we are knows his power to save to do whatever the need is and continues to come back to him that's great faith great faith will continue to come back to the Lord even when God has said no great faith does not give up on God when God has said no or when God seems to be ignoring great faith keeps coming back great faith does not abandon when the going gets tough there are lots of beautiful lessons here in this story about faith okay well we got one controversy and one withdrawal tonight we'll try to pick up and get another couple next week okay any questions before we close all right let's close in prayer