April 21, 2024
Matthew 15:1–28

Man, left to his own, is by default in opposition to God. Today we are going to be reminded of what religious leaders will do when they decoupled themselves from God. You already know, it ain’t pretty. ¶ Matthew will bring us another beautiful contrast this morning. The title of the sermon is “The Blind Guides and the Faith of a ‘Dog.’”

Traditions and Commandments (15:1–9)

1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.”

• “The fact that … [these Scribes and Pharisees] came all the way from Jerusalem to speak to Jesus, indicates the seriousness of their purpose.” (Wiersbe, 44)
  • It is likely that this group was a delegation that spoke on behalf of the Sanhedrin Council in Jerusalem. (Wiersbe, 44)
• Where did this tradition(s) of the elders come from? These were the oral, commentary ideas passed down from the generations of Israel’s leaders.
  • Where there are many words, sin is not far.
  • These oral commentaries about the law became laws unto themselves as time passed. These oral commentaries were “finally” written down and became the Mishnah in the second century AD.¹ “Unfortunately, the Mishnah became more important and more authoritative than the original law of Moses.” (Wiersbe, 44)
• They directed their charge at the Rabbi in charge of the Disciples.
  • For a "Rabbi was responsible for his disciples’ life as well as their theology, and their practice is correctly taken to indicate that Jesus had taught them to transgress the traditions of the elders.. (France, 241f)
  • The delegation’s charge regarded “washing hands”, but “it had nothing to do with cleanliness.” In Judaism, in a first century context, one was defiled if one were to not wash his hands before eating. (Wiersbe, 44)
  • The committee’s view: “It was bad enough that Jesus and His disciples mingled with outcasts, but they did not even seek to be purified!” (Wiersbe, 44)

In true Jesus style, he asks his accusers a question in reply. Verse 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? Jesus illustrated His accusation of tradition trumping the word of God with an example from their own teaching: v. 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” 6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.

• What does this mean? EXPLAIN
• So according to Jesus, “honour due to parents includes the financial responsibility of the child. This responsibility was being evaded with the approval of the scribes get by a convenient ‘extension’ of the Old Testament provision for oaths.” >> (France, 242; British spelling retained.)
• !Their commentary about the law had replaced the fifth command in the Ten Commandments! (cf. France, 243)
• This is exactly how false teaching works.
• Teaching either lines up with the word of God or it is false teaching. >> A cancer in both the individual and in the community.

Jesus gave this committee a pointed piece of His mind. Verse 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 9 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

• Jesus started by calling them “hypocrites” which, in this context, technically means “actor” or “pretender.” (Thayer)
• Jesus makes many points in this section:

1. “Isaiah’s words ([in] 29:13) related originally to the people of his own day,” but Jesus sees a “‘typology’” between the false religion practiced by the people in Isaiah’s day and in that of the religious leaders of His day. (France, 243)
2. Jesus’ charge of them? Actors giving lip service.
3. Moreover, the quote from Isaiah “is quite sufficient to make” its point clear: a religion of merely formal worship and obedience to rules and regulations is “useless if their heart is far from [God].” (France, 243)
4. Furthermore, Jesus and His Disciples “had [indeed] transgressed the tradition of the elders, but what was the tradition worth?” (France, 242)
5. This passage sets up a distinct “contrast between the commandment and the tradition, and between the two authorities from which they derived (of God… your).” (France, 242)

APPLICATION

• What is your proof text?
• Any command or tradition which overrides the authority of the Bible is to be utterly rejected by Christians everywhere and in every case.
  • To borrow part of a quote from Wiersbe, “Traditions [often rob people] of the power” of God through due to their substitutions of God’s truth from His word. (Wiersbe, 44)
  • The warning in Isaiah still stands today: man’s religious traditions stand in the way of God accepting worship.
  • Unfortunately, how many people’s worship is being rejected by God this morning in the churches due to their embrace of rules taught by man that have replaced the direct teaching of God?
• Tradition / culture vs. the word of God is nothing new …
  • What man wants, man makes a quote—unquote “theology” for. >>
  • This is nothing more than an allowance for sinful desires. Anything that violates the word of God is sin.
  • The standard man sets up beside what God has said ends up trumping the word of God.
  • This is what happened in the garden, “Did God really say…”
• The end goal of the study of the Scriptures is the application of God’s truth to our lives. This is a prerequisite to worship of God. We don’t study the Scriptures and do what we want.
• Wiersbe astutely said, “God wants us to give Him our hearts, … We believe in the heart (Rom, 10:9–10), love from the heart (Matt. 22:37), sing from the heart (Col. 3:16), obey from the heart (Rom. 6:17; Eph. 6:6), and give from the heart (2 Cor. 9:7). No wonder David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps. 51:10).” (44)

What Defiles a Person (15:10–20)

10 And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

• First thing here: this teaching of Jesus will later be more fully understood and seemingly slowly applied to bring down the Old Testament ceremonial “purification laws” among God’s people.
  • This took some time.
  • France thought that the reason for this is that it was what he called “sufficiently cryptic” at to “not to be perceived immediately.” (France, 243f)
  • But I believe it was just difficult for devout Jews to transition off of 1500+ years of ceremonial traditions, as we see later with Peter in Acts.
• Secondly, inside each one of is a mountain of evil desperate to activate itself mostly through the mouth.
  • This is the effects of “‘original sin’, i.e. that send springs from what a man is in himself, not from his environment.” (France, 244)
• James 1:14-15 presents the truth clearly as well, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”

12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

• “It is hardly surprising that the Pharisees were offended” by Jesus cutting “at the roots of their understanding of religion.” (France, 244)
  • The Disciples knew that, Jesus’ teaching had offended the Pharisees and “was certain to create serious problems.” >> (Wiersbe, 44)
  • To the committee, “If Jesus rejected the sacred traditions of the nation, then He was a heretic!” >> (Wiersbe, 44)
  • And that could carry serious physical consequenses. >>
  • COMMENT on Judaism in the first century.
• The Pharisees came to Jesus from Jerusalem and thought that they were confronting a Jew who was failing in His leadership. (cf. France, 244) But these religious leaders were blind guides leading bling people. These blind had one thing in common: they all are led by false teaching passed done one false idea at a time.
  • “The implication of Jesus’ words is therefore that the Pharisees’ claim to be God’s true people is false.” (France, 244)
  • Furthermore, Jesus was not worried about the Pharisees. Neither they nor their teachings had been planted by God, and therefore would not last. They were headed to the pit (Pit being a possibly metaphor for hell here.).
• Today, while there are “isolated groups that seek to maintain” the traditions of the Pharisees [around the world], “for the most part, pharisaeism is gone. However, the spirit of pharisaeism (tradition, legalism, hypocrisy …) is still with us [not only among the Jews but also in the Church], what Jesus called ‘the leaven of the Pharisees’ (Matt. 16:6).” (Wiersbe, 44)

Peter wasn’t satisfied with Jesus’ applicational conclusion of “leave them”, so he unwisely decided to press Jesus for more. This led to one of his rebukes. Verse 15 But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.” 16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

• Almost certainly, all the “disciples were astounded by what Jesus taught about foods. After all, they had been raised good Jews … They knew the difference between the ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ foods …” (Wiersbe, 44)
• But Peter, left us no doubt of his astonishment.
• Peter knew how human waste was generated, but he obviously was struggling with what Jesus told the Pharisees regarding food.
• These ideas here speak to the problem in Judaism: they were constantly focused on a check list of dos and don’ts but they were rarely focused on their hearts, attitudes and actions.
• The Disciples had some of the same issues due to the blind teaching they too had received.
• Therefore, a harsh rebuke comes Peter’s way due to his illiterate perception of the source of sin.
• Again vv. 19-20 "For out of the heart come: evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality [which is prostitution, having sex with an unmarried person, and being unchaste], theft, false witness [which is perjury] , slander [literally: blasphemies] . These are what defile a person.
• Jeremiah 17"9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” God can. People often are ignorant of this or deny it all together.
• Unadulterated evil is on us. Every evil we have ever heard of lives in all of its potential within each one of us. Only be God grace are we saved from it! GOSPEL

Learn from Peter:

• Peter, in true Christian style, was a hard-head.
• The Lord had to repeat this lesson on foods to Peter in the sheet vision in Acts. Also, as you might recall, Paul would have to publicly rebuke Peter for his pulling away from the Gentile buffet when the Jews’ arrived. Peter’s actions sent confusion into the Church.
• Paul seemed to continually teach about all foods being clean (1 Timothy 4:3–6; Romans 14—15; et al.). (cf. Wiersbe, 44)

APPLICATION

• Our attitude: “God said it, done!” If God said something ONE TIME, it is time to change our theologies.
• Theological drift is a real issue throughout time. Today, it may be more acute with the phone problem.
• We are slow to turn our backs on error—especially our own! Be quick to say, “I now SEE I have been wrong” when confronted with God’s truth found in the Scriptures.

“(1) The enemies of truth are often religious people who live according to man’s traditions. Satan often uses “religion” to blind the minds of sinners to the simple truths of God’s Word.
(2) We must beware of any religious system that gives us an excuse to sin and disobey God’s Word.
(3) We must also beware of worship that comes from the lips only, and not from the heart.
(4) If we major on the inner man, the outer man will be what God wants it to be. True holiness comes from within.
(5) It is difficult to break free from tradition. There is something in us that wants to hold to the past and make no changes. Even Peter had to learn his lesson twice!
(6) … The gospel came “to the Jew first” (Rom. 1:16), but today is for all men in all nations. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).” (Wiersbe, 46)

Works Cited

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and I usually include other citation information from Constable as well (e.g. authors’ names).

Other Works Cited

Note: All of the resources below were cited in at least one of the sermons in the Book of Matthew but not necessarily this one.

Augsburger, David. Dissident Discipleship. Brazos Press, 2006.

Barclay, William. Barclay’s Daily Study Bible. Westminster Press, 1955-1960. Sourced digitally from studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb.html.

Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. New American Commentary, vol. 22, ed. David S. Dockery, et al., Broadman Press, 1992. May be sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/matthew0000blom

________. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation. Baker Academic, 2004. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/preachingparable0000blom/page/82/mode/1up)

Bruce, Alexander Balmain. The Training of the Twelve. Ed., A.C. Armstrong and Son, reprint 1984, Kregel Publications, 1971 edition.

Carson, D. A. “Matthew.” The Expositors Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, Ed. et al., Zondervan, 1984.

_______. The Sermon on the Mount : an Evangelical of Matthew 5-7 Exposition. 1978, Baker Book House, fifth printing, 1989. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/sermononmounteva0000cars/page/54/mode/1up

_______. When Jesus confronts the world : an exposition of Matthew 8-10. Originally published by Inter-Varsity Press in 1988, Paternoster, 1995. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/whenjesusconfron0000cars/page/n3/mode/1up

Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest. Our Daily Bread Publishing, web ver.

France, R. T. The Gospel According to Matthew. Gen. Ed. Leon Morris, W. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1985.

_______. The Gospel of Matthew. W. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000fran/page/n6/mode/1up

Gibson, J. Monro. “St. Matthew.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary. William R. Nicoll, Editor. Sourced from Bible Portal. Click here for a list of the authors of the EBC.

Harrington, Daniel J . The Gospel of Matthew. Sacra Pagina Series, vol. 1, A Michael Glazier Book, Liturgical Press (publ.), 1991. Sourced from archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/gospelofmatthew0000harr/mode/1up

Hendriksen, William. New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke. Baker Book House, 1984.

McGee, J. Vernon. Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee. Thru the Bible Commentary (Series), Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1991.

Phillips, John. Exploring the Gospels: John. Loizeaux Brothers, 1988.

Plumptre, E. H. “Matthew.” Commentary for English Readers, Charles John Ellicott, Compiler/Editor, Lord Bishop of Gloucester Cassell and Company, Limited, 1905. Sourced from BiblePortal.com. Click here for a list of the authors of the CER.

Robinson, Monte. The Way of Discipleship. Independently published, 2021. Web, aimdiscipleship.org/book.html, accessed Oct 2023.

Wiersbe, Warren. The Wiersbe Bible Commentary. 2 Volumes, David C. Cook, 2007.

Yancey, Philip. The Jesus I Never Knew. Zondervan, 1995.

Notes

Notes from above may not be in numerical order.

¹ “What Is the Mishnah?” from myjewishlearning.com, accessed April 19, 2024; cf. Wiersbe, pg. 44, et al.