Mark 7:1-23 External Vs Internal
Tom Shrader walks through Mark 7:1-23, where Jesus confronts the Pharisees and scribes over their tradition-driven religion, exposing how ceremonial hand-washing and the Corban loophole revealed hearts far from God. Jesus declares that defilement comes not from outside a person but from within, naming twelve sins that proceed from the heart. Shrader applies this by urging listeners to recognize that becoming a Christian is not a matter of religious behavior or church involvement, but of repenting of sin and trusting Christ alone for a new heart.
“What makes you a Christian is not how you behave but what you believe — I believe that I'm a sinner separated from God and there's nothing I can do to fix it, though I will try.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Redemption Gateway
Recorded: 2015 at Redemption Gateway
Duration: 33 min
Themes: hypocrisy, heart, sin, religion, tradition, repentance, purity, legalism, religious but lost, struggling with pride, new believer, longtime churchgoer, seeker, feeling self-righteous, young adult, questioning faith
Scripture: Mark 7:1-23, Acts 12, Colossians 4, 2 Timothy 4, 1 Peter 5:13, Isaiah 29:13, 1 Samuel 16:7, Proverbs 4:23, Jeremiah 17:9, Romans 3:10-12, Romans 3:23, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Titus 3:5, Philippians 3:4-8
Theological Themes: depravity, total depravity, regeneration, new heart, soteriology, salvation by faith, law and gospel, sanctification
Full Transcript
Introduction
You have your Bibles open to Mark chapter 7. It occurs to me that we've been in the gospel of Mark for some time now at all the Redemption congregations. I want to remind you, because we do this with the introduction to a book and sometimes never get back to it, that Mark is one of the synoptic gospels along with Matthew and Luke. One author writes this: "It would be possible to argue that of all of them, Mark is the most important. It would indeed be possible to go further and to argue that it is the most important book in the world."
Mark was written by Mark, and before we meet him, in Acts chapter 12, Peter is in prison and there is this miraculous releasing and deliverance. Peter runs to Mark's mother's house, where the church had gathered. Mark really breaks onto the scene for us in the book of Acts where Paul and Barnabas head out on their first missionary journey. Barnabas is an uncle to Mark, and he asks if they can bring Mark along. They do, but somewhere in that journey, for a reason we don't know, Mark leaves.
When they go on their second missionary journey, Barnabas wants to take Mark again. Paul says no. The two of them part ways over this conflict. Paul heads off with Silas, and Mark heads off with Barnabas. Then for some years, Mark disappears. Tradition says he went to Egypt and founded a church in Alexandria, though we cannot confirm that with certainty.
In Colossians chapter 4, Paul is writing from prison and says to the church at Colossae that Mark is with him. Then there is that wonderful scene in 2 Timothy chapter 4 where Paul is at the end of his life, writing to Timothy. He says, "Please come quickly. Only Luke is with me. Demas, having loved his present world, has deserted me — and pick up Mark, for he is a useful servant." That is this same Mark. Peter in 1 Peter 5:13 refers to "my son Mark," likely in the same affectionate sense that Paul called Timothy his son. There is a very special relationship here.
Mark gives us details that some of the other gospel writers do not include. He emphasizes both the deity and the humanity of Christ, and his gospel is the earliest of the four. It is a very important book. Regarding the chapter before us, one scholar writes that it is a very definite portion of Scripture, and that of all the teaching passages in the gospel, this one has to rank among the most important because it is so defining.
The Tradition of the Elders
Here is how I prepare a lesson. I read the passage, usually in the New American Standard first, and then I read two, three, or four other translations and a couple of paraphrases. In my first reading I underline things, mark things, put a box around them, draw lines — whatever thoughts come from that first reading. When I finish with those and the paraphrases, I make some notes, then read commentaries, and then try to pull it all together.
As I was standing there listening to Nicky read, I caught a phrase. If you are someone who marks or underlines, or if you are working with a Bible app, you might put a small box around the phrase in verse 3: "traditions of the elders." Then draw a line down to verse 5, where it appears again — "tradition of the elders" — and then verse 8, "tradition of men," and verse 13, "traditions." That gives you four occurrences. You get a sense that the tradition of men, the tradition of the elders, is absolutely central to what is happening here.
What you have in this scene is a tension that is almost impossible to accurately convey. In verse 1, the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Jesus when they had come from Jerusalem. The scribes were a group of men who studied, interpreted, taught, and recorded the law and the teaching of the rabbis from generation to generation. Some of these scribes were also Pharisees. The Pharisees were the separatists — the ones who dedicated themselves to living the law.
This group is referred to in various places in Scripture simply as "the Jews," with a capital J, speaking generally of scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees together. They are the arch enemy of Jesus. As you read through His life, He seems to get along with essentially everyone except the scribes and the Pharisees. They hated Him because He claimed to be God. They hated Him because He associated with tax collectors and sinners. They hated the popularity He was developing among the people. He was the opposite of everything they stood for. And at the core of this conflict is the very issue we have before us.
A Head-On Collision
These scribes had been gathered together and given the assignment to go from Jerusalem — the pinnacle, the apex of Jewish leadership and religious thought of the day — and to confront Jesus. There is a phrase for what happened: a head-on collision. And that collision surfaces right away. You see it in verse 2: they had seen some of His disciples eating with impure hands — they were unwashed.
This is very important. The issue they have with Jesus is not one of hygiene. It is not a matter of washing your hands to be clean. It is ceremonial cleaning. One author has said that what the Mishnah tries to do is take tradition and fence in the law — to ask what the law means, here is what you have heard, here is what is written, and then to work out how that law expresses itself in practice.
The Traditions of the Elders
Take something like the command not to work on the Sabbath. The Mishnah would come along and say you should not look into a mirror, because if you look into a mirror you might see a grey hair, and if you did, you would be tempted to pluck it, and that would be working on the Sabbath. You could not carry a handkerchief from upstairs to downstairs, but you could wear one — so if you put it on and wore it downstairs, that was how you would transport it. You could only travel a certain distance on the Sabbath from your home, but you could declare wherever there was an article, something that you owned, to be your home. So someone would go ahead and place those items out along the way, and you could still travel great distances by declaring that in each of those places you had never left home.
You laugh at it because it is silly, and that is exactly what had happened. That is the traditions of men. And so they come, and they are concerned. Verse 3: "The Pharisees and all the Jews did not eat unless they carefully washed their hands, observing the tradition of the elders. And when they came from the marketplace, they did not eat unless they cleansed themselves and there were many other things which they received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and pots."
The Mishnah had twelve chapters dedicated to explaining and amplifying the whole idea of ceremonial cleaning — what to clean, how to clean it, when to clean it, the process. Not just washing your hands, but with a certain amount of water, letting it drip down to the tip of your fingers, and all sorts of elaborate requirements. When you went out into public, you inevitably encountered an unclean Gentile, and then you would have to wash again. So there are these elaborate rituals everywhere.
The Confrontation with Jesus
They are on a collision course, and you see it in verse 5, because they said to Him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? But they eat bread with impure hands" — meaning they did not do the ceremonial washing. There is the issue. The fight is on.
And Jesus does not back away. Jesus said, you religious men, you remind Me of an Old Testament passage from Isaiah. In fact, He suggested Isaiah was thinking about them when he wrote it: "You hypocrites! This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Neglecting the commandment of God, they held to the traditions of men.
Jesus said, you want to talk about charges? You want to make accusations against Me? Let Me bring one back at you. You are hypocrites — those who wear a mask, who pretend to be something they are not. John MacArthur suggests that the key verse in this whole passage, the one that unlocks the entire incident, is verse 7: "In vain do they worship me." These are the religious people of the day. They are the people others stood back and marveled at. You could see their religion. It was all around them.
The Corban Loophole
After making this accusation, Jesus says, let Me give you an illustration. Verse 9: "You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your own tradition." Here is one of them. God commanded, honor your father and mother, and that he who speaks evil of father and mother should be put to death. But they said, if a man says to his father and mother, "Whatever I have that would help you is Corban" — that is to say, it is given to God — you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother. "Thus you have invalidated the word of God by your tradition which you hand down."
Corban was a declaration that something was dedicated, set aside as a vow to God. So here is what they were doing. These men who were so careful to wash their hands and keep the traditions of men had parents in need. What they had that could help those parents, they declared Corban — set aside for God. All they had to do was make that declaration. They could still use it for whatever they wanted themselves. In this way they circumvented the very truth of honoring father and mother. They kept it for themselves. They found a loophole.
You could almost hear them say to their parents: Mom, Dad, you should be so proud of me. Look how religious I am. I am doing what you taught me. It did not work out so well for you, but I am doing what you taught me.
What Truly Defiles a Person
Verse 14: "After He called the crowd to Him, He began saying to them, 'Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a man that can defile him if it goes into him. But the things which proceed out of a man are what defile him.'"
There is the principle. It is not what is out there and comes in that defiles a person. It is what is already inside that defiles. When the disciples left and asked Him to explain it further, He said in verse 18: "Are you so lacking in understanding? Do you not understand that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him?" What goes in does not go into the heart — it proceeds outward. The defilement comes from within.
The Real Problem Is Internal
Jesus is saying that which proceeds out of a man is what defiles a man. For within a man, out of his heart, proceed — and there is a grouping here of twelve things. The first six are in the Greek in the plural, so they are acts: evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, and deeds of covetousness. The second six are motivations: wickedness, deceit, sensuality, evil, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these things proceed from within, and they are what defile a man.
Here is what is going on — here is the scene. The Pharisees are saying they are clean from the outside, and Jesus is saying the problem is not the outside, the problem is your heart. You have evil thoughts and evil actions. You covet, you lust, you are jealous. You have problem upon problem upon problem, and Jesus said the real issue is in your heart.
Four Ways We Respond to the Problem
Here is the application to you and me, and it has been true all through time. The problem in our life and challenge is not to become religious, but to come into a relationship with Christ, with God. The challenge is an internal heart change.
Once you come to a realization that there is a problem and something wrong in your life, you have four ways you can approach it. You look around and you go: there is something wrong in the world — Turkey is a mess, the country is a mess, Arizona is a mess, Mesa and Queen Creek are a mess, my neighborhood is a mess, my house is a mess, my family is a mess — oh my gosh, I am a mess. Something is wrong.
The first response is to dismiss it: that is just the way it is, it is really not that bad, it is no big deal. The second response is to internalize it, see that things are bad, and simply give up. That happened to me my sophomore year of college — my theology was that to go to heaven I had to do more good than bad, and by my sophomore year my bad stack was so high that I figured I was never going to catch up, so I decided to just see how high we could get that stack.
The Pharisee Response: Getting Religious
What typically happens is the third response. It is the response of the Pharisees and the scribes, and my guess would be the response of some of you today: "I am going to clean up my act and fix it. I am going to get religious. I am going to start going to church." As Josh was talking about Greg's life, he was saying Greg had been in church but had not been saved, had not been delivered.
Sandy and I had dinner with a couple the other night, and one of the things I like to ask is how they met. Whenever there is a big smile, there is always a great story. She started to share the story — they were working in the same restaurant, and she was intrigued by him because on his break he would go and study the Bible. She had been to church all her life and was intrigued by that, did not necessarily want to do that herself, but thought maybe it would be good to have a guy who did.
They began to date and began to go to church, and then they got involved in something called Evangelism Explosion. Some of you who have been around church for a while would remember Evangelism Explosion — it was a class you took so that you could go out and knock on doors in the neighborhood and be the vehicle God would use to bring people to Christ. In the course of Evangelism Explosion, as she was preparing to go and share the gospel with people, she led herself to Christ. That is a great story. She realized she had never actually responded that way herself.
Religion Versus Relationship
That is religion. God hates religion. Religion is man-made — it is anything other than biblical Christianity — and it is at the very essence of the issue of what it means to be a follower of Christ, to be saved, to be delivered. Our fundamental problem, as Jesus says, is internal. It is in our heart.
God looks at the heart. First Samuel 16:7 — man looks at the outside. Proverbs 4 — guard your heart and guard what comes out of your heart, for they are the issues of life. Jeremiah 17:9 — the heart is deceitful above all things. Romans chapter 3 — if you have been around here for any length of time you have heard this, but let me remind you. Romans 3:10: "There is none righteous, not one. None who understands, none who seeks after God. All have turned away, together they become useless. There is none who does good, no not one." Romans 3:23: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
That is the condition of every man. It is not external — it is internal. It is my heart. I have sinned. I have walked away from God. And even when I come to grips with that, my human flinch is to fix it myself.
You Could Be Here and Still Miss It
So you could be here today and be in the position of one of those scribes and Pharisees. I love when I am at Gateway to look around and see all those kids' shirts — I think I make the same comment every time I am here. I am so grateful, and we are so grateful for you, because we could not pull off a Sunday without you. There are kids sitting there right now who, decades from now, are going to come back to you and say, "I don't know if you remember, but you taught that lesson."
So you could be here, involved in kids' ministry, on your way out getting ready to put money in the offering, involved in serving this week — and still be in the same position as those scribes and Pharisees, focused on the outside while the real issue remains in your heart.
The Heart Problem
You could be in a small group, ceremonially washing your hands like the Pharisees, and your heart has never been changed. My fundamental problem and your fundamental problem is a heart problem. What saves us is a relationship with Christ. He did not come to put a bunch of rules and restrictions on you. What makes you a Christian is not how you behave, but what you believe.
What makes me a Christian is not how I behave, but what I believe. I believe that I am a sinner separated from God, and there is nothing I can do to fix it — though I will try. We are almost incurably religious. I will try to fix it. I will read this book, listen to this tape, go to this study, go to this conference, start to read the Bible, get to Leviticus, and quit. Then I will start again next year, get to Leviticus, and quit again. Here is a tip: start beyond Leviticus.
Somehow we think that if we do enough, it will make us acceptable to God. What makes us acceptable to God is when we repent, when we turn from that human effort and trust Him and His provision, which is Jesus. I have been on a kick lately for the book of Titus, because it seems like we do not go there very often, and it has these rich statements. Paul writes in Titus chapter 3: "He saved us not on the basis of deeds which were done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." What solves the problem in my heart is Jesus.
As Jesus said, you must be born again. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature — a new heart. That is the beautiful story, and it was Paul's story.
Paul's Resume and Its Worthlessness
Turn with me to the book of Philippians — go to Mark and head to the right. Philippians chapter 3, verse 4: "Although I myself might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more." Paul was one of these Pharisees, and he laid out his resume. He was circumcised on the eighth day — he did not have anything to do with that, he is saying he came from a religious family — from the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a Pharisee. As to zeal, he did not merely talk about persecuting Christians; he actually did it.
Verse 7: "But whatever things were gained to me, those things I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish" — the King James says "dung" — "for the sake of gaining Christ."
Here is what Paul said: I did that Pharisee religious thing, and I did not play at it. I was as serious about that as I am about this Christian faith. But I can tell you those things are of no value apart from Christ.
Grace Is Not a License to Quit
Let me be clear about what I am not saying. I am not saying quit coming to church, quit working in kids ministry, quit giving, quit going to small group. But I am saying your motivation for doing those things is not to please God and find favor and salvation with Him. Rather, it is a result of Him already loving you. These are freeing words to a religious person, and they are shattering ones as well. Whenever I teach about grace, I get pushback from a lot of the Bible people — and I am a Bible person — but whenever you talk about grace, everybody starts to get nervous that somehow you are moving away from obedience. That is not what I am saying at all.
I am not on probation with God. Is my salvation not secure? The only way you can say that someone who believed in Christ is in heaven is because God said, "If you believe in Me, you will go to heaven." He believed in Him, and I cannot undo that relationship. God has accepted me. I am His child.
I have been saying this lately, and the first time I said it I thought it did not sound right, but I kept saying it until it did: God is stuck with me. He picked me. He knew everything I was ever going to say or do or think, everything I had already said or thought or done, and He said, "You are My child." So I do these things not in order to gain acceptance from Him — I am already accepted by Him — but because I know Him, I love Him, and if you love Him you want to obey Him. The more you obey Him, the more you love Him, and it starts this whole cycle. Religious people have it backwards, and it is a sad place to be. There is usually not much joy there.
Religion Without Joy
When I first became a Christian in 1980 — this sounded unbelievable then and sounds even more so now — there were churches where people did not play pinball machines, did not play cards, did not go to movies, did not dance, did not do anything that remotely related to fun. And that was their evidence that God was on their side. Now, if God convicts you not to play pinball, do not play pinball — easier for the rest of us, an open game. But you see what I am saying.
The Scene in Mark 7 Plays Out Today
That is the issue before us. This dramatic scene in Mark 7 has been played out every day since, and it is playing out today. God is not interested in you going through the motions and then sitting at the end of it declaring that somehow you are more acceptable to Him. You are as lost as you were. You are dead in your sins and trespasses, and there is nothing you can do to change that. What you need is life, and life is in Jesus and Him alone.
Have you come to that point yet? Have you come to the point where you acknowledge that your sin has separated you from Christ? That is what is wrong. If you are that person —
A New Heart Through Christ
The problem is not that you are not religious enough. It is not that you do not read your Bible enough. It is not that you do not pray enough. It is that your sin has separated you from God, and you need a new heart — and that comes only through Christ. It is as simple as repenting, turning, acknowledging your sin, and coming to Him in repentance and faith. From there, you begin to live a life that reflects that.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for this truth. As we come to a time of communion — a time when those of us who know Your Son Jesus come in repentance and faith — we celebrate and commemorate Jesus' death on a cross, not in some gruesome way, but as an incredible act of love. God, thank You for the men and women and students here today who are not trying to earn acceptance from You, but are living in a way that demonstrates that they already have it. God, we praise You in Christ's name. Amen.