“Commandments or Tradition”

(Matthew 15:1-20)

Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

November 3, 2019

The Passage

Matthew 15:1-20

1 Then Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”

3 He answered them, “Why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? 4 For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 5 But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple,” 6 he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said:

8 This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me.

9 They worship me in vain,

teaching as doctrines human commands.”

10 Summoning the crowd, he told them, “Listen and understand: 11 It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth—this defiles a person.”

12 Then the disciples came up and told him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”

13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father didn’t plant will be uprooted. 14 Leave them alone! They are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15 Then Peter said, “Explain this parable to us.”

16 “Do you still lack understanding?” he asked. 17 “Don’t you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander. 20 These are the things that defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person.”

Introductory Comments:

Have you ever had a situation where someone wanted to come check out what you were doing just to make sure you were doing it correctly, but you didn’t really need their opinion on the matter? That kind of puts you in an awkward position, doesn’t it?

Well, Jesus was put in a situation like that in this passage, but He took it to another level. He took it from awkward to offensive. Let’s check it out and see what we can learn from this passage. 

Before we do, let’s pray together.

(prayer)

Remember, that Jesus is getting insanely popular. Everywhere He goes people want to come see and experience the miracles of Jesus. 

Well, the Pharisees have heard about Jesus also. 

They want to make sure that everything that He is doing is good and right. They want to make sure that He fits with their rules and their ways. 

That takes us to today’s passage.

From this passage we’re going to learn about three warnings. 

First, we learn about the . . .

I. Warning against false religion (vv. 1-9) [on screen]

Have you ever seen someone live a false religion? I’m not just talking about religions who follow false gods. I’m talking about pretenders!

Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees and the scribes that they were just pretenders. 

Let’s look at the passage. Look at verses 1-9. 

1 Then Jesus was approached by Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their hands when they eat.”

3 He answered them, “Why do you break God’s commandment because of your tradition? 4 For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. 5 But you say, ‘Whoever tells his father or mother, “Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple,” 6 he does not have to honor his father.’ In this way, you have nullified the word of God because of your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Isa