Matthew chapter 15:1-9 (continued)

“Then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, ‘Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.’ He answered and said to them, ‘Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?’

For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God’— then he need not honor his father or mother. ’

Thus, you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.9 And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Last time we were considering the need for us, as the Lord’s people, to simply invite people to Jesus. Invite them to come and see Him, meet Him and let Him reveal Himself to them through His Holy Spirit. The more people we invite the more people get the chance to meet Jesus and submit to Him in obedience.

Today we will begin a new chapter in this kingdom gospel and take a look at what defiles a man. In the midst of this study we will encounter some of the teaching of men that still plague the Lord’s churches today. Most churches I have been in, profess to be conservative New Testament churches; they “pride” themselves on the importance of the Bible and use it as their sole rule of order and faith.

But in the midst of all that doctrine is a vein of tradition that is often of more importance to people than doctrine. The nation of Israel and her religious leaders had a similar issue. They knew the law of God, I do not think this was the issue, but mixed in with the sound and good doctrine of God, were manmade rules, and these are the traditions that more often than not trumped the laws of God.

Tradition vs. God’s Law, Verses 1-9

The Pharisees and these other religious leaders were supposed to be involved in the spreading and teaching of the Laws of God for the good of the nation of Israel and the rest of the world around them. But they had so polluted the Laws of God with traditions that more often than not people did not get any Law at all.

Let us be clear, we understand the importance of washing one’s hands before you eat. Dr. Louis Pasture was the one to discover that the fastest way to stop the spreading of diseases from doctor to patient was to wash one’s hands and to boil one’s medical instruments. Washing one’s hands is a good thing and it is beneficial to your body and the lives of people around you. But is it not a SIN to not wash your hands.

The Scribes and Pharisees had elevated it to this level. According to Matthew Henry’s commentary a Rabbi names Joses made this statement, “That to eat with unwashen hands is as great a sin as adultery.”

This would give you some insight into the mindset of those that hold firmly to the traditions of men at the expense of the Laws of God; in doing so we, mere men, elevate our “doctrines” to the same level as the doctrines of God. How arrogant of us. The modern New Testament church is rife with the “traditions of men.” We (I) often judge a person’s relationship to Christ based on the way they dress, if they have or don’t have tattoos, the way they wear their hair, the way their children dress and on and on.

In the church I was raised the women ALL wore dresses or skirts to church. If one of the dear sisters came in pants there would be such uproar (more in the form of whispers and disapproving looks). If a man wore his hair too long or did not wear a tie or a suit there could be some pushback.

In the seminary I attended men were not permitted to wear beards, we had to be clean shaven and in the case of some churches ladies are expected to wear head covering into the worship assembly. The Bible simply says that we are to be modest.

“Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments” (1 Timothy 2:9).

It is amazing to me how often we read the first part of the verse about modesty but do not go on to read about the ‘braided hair, gold, pearls and costly garments’. It would appear that we have lot of people who go to church every Sunday dressed in costly apparel and with braided hair, gold and pearls. We call it dressing up for church BUT all we are required to do is to ‘dress modestly’. That simply means to dress so as not to draw attention to you.

In another tradition we have much ado about music in the Lord’s churches. Should we have drums, guitars, lights and the like? Again, the entire idea of worship music is to draw attention to Jesus and to tell of His greatness. Anything else is wrong. But the Bible allows for all types of musical instruments to be used in the worship of the Lord, from drums to loud cymbals and all in between.

The book of the Psalms is rife with these instruments that were used by the men and women of God to loudly and energetically worship God. King David even danced before the Lord not to draw attention to him, but for the Lord.

But men want to have something more than obedience to the laws of God we want to make some laws ourselves. We want to have some degree of control and to feel important. So we intertwine the traditions of men into the Laws of God and what actually happens is that the Laws of God take a backseat to the traditions of men. Jesus ventures into such an example in verses 4-7. He brings up the 5th Commandment from Exodus 20: 12:

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”

Part of the honoring was the responsibility of the children to care for the parents as they aged and became dependent. But the scribes and Pharisee had made a tradition of “dedicating your wealth to the Temple and it cause.” Once this dedication had been transacted, then when a parent asked for help or needed help one could say that all my earthly wealth is dedicated to the Temple so I can no longer use it to help you.

These men, the scribes and Pharisees had an idolatrous relationship to the Temple to begin with and this was the pretense of this ‘dedication’, but the subplot of this was for one to keep his money and not be obligated to help anyone, even one’s parents. Thus the traditions of men became more powerful to them than the Laws of God. Jesus in His wonderful way simply called them “hypocrites.” But less we get too high minded and prideful, are we any different?

Let us ask ourselves what church traditions or even personal and family traditions do we use as excuses to disobey, annul or diminish the laws of God? Every church should take the time to go through their rules and by-laws and examine each one according to the Laws of God. We need to make a clear distinction as to what is manmade and what is God made.

Obedience Is the Only Real Form of Worship, Verses 7-9

We love pomp. We do. We love to watch parades. We love it when a dignitary comes to
town and we can go out and see him (her). We love it when our beloved sports teams win
a championship and we get to go to a parade. We love royal weddings and ceremonies.
We cheer them on for human accomplishments.

In religions we also love pomp. Some love the robes and bright colors that the Pope wears.
We see hundreds of thousands that will turn up to be blessed by him and to hear him speak.
We see entities like the Masonic Lodge that has its pomp and ceremonies or we observe
solemn times of reflection in situations of great loss. Folks these are not important to God.
All the pomp and flare in the world, no matter from which church or synagogue is of no importance to God.

How good your choir is, how good the preacher is and certainly not how nice your church building is—is not of any importance to God. Just yesterday, I read of an account where a man and his family came to a church where he was the pastor. He stayed there for five years and then left. Shortly after that, the church got a letter from the “pastor” apologizing for the fact that he was in fact an atheist.

I have seen many surveys that attest to the fact that many “pastors” do not believe in the basic fundamental doctrines of the Bible; things like God creating the heavens and the earth in SIX literal days, things like the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave; the perfection of the Bible and its accuracy in all things and on and on we can go.

Jesus said this in verse 9, that we teach in vain if we teach the traditions of men instead of the laws of God. He calls us hypocrites. It is very important for pastors to make sure that they are teaching the truths of the Scriptures and NOT the traditions of our church, or our association or of our heritage for that matter.

What does the Bible say? That is all that matters. We are to diligently research what God says about a matter and then faithfully teach it. We should be sure not to weave in a bit of Man’s traditions into the doctrine by doing so we elevate man to the status of God.

So is washing your hands bad? No. Is wearing a nice dress of suit to church a sin? No. Is wearing jeans to church a sin? No. Is a man with long hair sinful? No. Is a woman with short hair sinful? No. These things become sin when we put them of more importance than the laws of God and when we do them to draw attention to ourselves and not to God. This is what it is about, the Pharisees used the pretense of ‘worship’ to justify breaking the Laws of God but more importantly to draw attention to how ‘religious’ they were.

But God saw them as hypocrites. Does God see you and me as hypocrites? To some degree we all are. But are we taking the natural state of fallen man to that of deliberately defying God while at the same time pretending to love God and worship Him. Obedience to the Laws and principles of God is the ultimate act of worship. God desires obedience from us. When we obey then our worship is genuine and our honest desire is to elevate God and His ways for they are far above ours.

In response to Saul’s deliberate disobedience to God’s very clear instructions about killing everything including the livestock of the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15, God send these sobering words by the prophet Samuel in verse 22, we should heed them in our lives today:

“And Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.’”

Samuel goes on to tell us that this kind of disobedience in the name of religion is the same as witchcraft. Witchcraft is punishable by death in the Scriptures:

“ Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18).

We should take heed to this warning and check every tradition we hold against the expressed and clearly written Laws of God. When we find there to be a conflict we need to repent and obey.

Missionarybaptistchruch76@yahoo.ca

www.mississaugamissionarybc.com

 

Matthew chapter 14:22-33 (continued)

“Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.  And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.  But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’

And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”’ So He said, ‘Come.’ And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’

And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.  Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Truly You are the Son of God.’”

Last time we looked at the account of the “Feeding of the 5000.” We saw the responsibility we have as the Lord’s servants to take care of the needs of the people around us. We explored the power of being a servant and our call to be servants to each other in the family of God and especially to the unsaved masses around us. Today we will look at another famous account in the life and ministry of Jesus as He walked this earth, come with me to a boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee during a storm in the wee hours of the morning.

This is a familiar account to anyone who has been in church for a long time. This is one of the most popular Bible stories ever told and there are many of you that will approach this lesson with rolled eyes and maybe a hint of familiarity that leads us all to complacency when handling the Word of God.

I offer that this is the defining moment in the life of the apostle Peter. And it stands as a defining moment in our lives as well. This is a picture of how the Christian life is and how we should approach it. I love the apostle Peter; he is a very clear picture of who we are and who we can be in Jesus. He is a reminder to us that failure is not the end; often it is the beginning of a walk with Jesus that will change lives for eternity.  We will fail, Jesus is there to catch us and make our failures His victory.

Jesus Finally Gets Away, Verses 22-23

When we began our look at the ‘Feeding of the 5000’ Jesus was trying to get away for some solitude to mourn the death of His cousin and friend, John the Baptist. Well the people did not let Him get away they followed Him resulting in the previous encounter.  But the people are fed, they have been sent home and it is now into the evening and they are all gone.  Jesus sends the disciples away in a boat into the Sea of Galilee and He goes off by himself to mourn.

Here we learn a couple of very important lesson about the Lord and how He deals with us. First Jesus sent the disciples away into the Sea of Galilee knowing that there would be a storm. This is hard for us to fathom since we, as protective parents, try to shield our kids from danger. The thought of sending them out into danger deliberately is foreign to most of us. But it is important to notice that in verse 22 we are told that Jesus “made His disciples get in the boat.”

This was a deliberate act on His part.  God will allow you to get into situations that are stormy, in fact if we are to take the Bible at face value God will actually send you out into the storm. The sea was calm when they left or they would not have launched, but the storm lurked out in the midst of the sea. God of course had the power to stop the storm before they even got into the boat. He had the power to warn them ahead of time that there was going to be a storm and give them the chance to sail around the storm.  But, God simply put them in the path of the storm. Or maybe consider this; what if God sent the storm to them?

There are things in your life that are storms, deaths, job losses, family stress, illness, a wayward child, financial stresses and a myriad of things that can come our way.  These things come to us not because of sin or failure but simply that God allows it.  In fact these men had just left a great victory and maybe some of them still had baskets of food left over from the “feeding of the 5000” with them.

They actually still had the evidence of God’s great power in their sights.  And it is at this time that they are tested and put into the storm.  God is an awesome teacher and one who never stops teaching.  He is constantly challenging us if we want to be challenged. In John 6:60-70 we find that once Jesus begins some hard lesson on being true disciples that a lot of his followers leave Him and just the 12 men and a few women as we learn in other accounts are left, He asks them why they are staying and we have these famous words from Peter:

“But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Once we have come to this point and we understand and accept who Jesus is, and we choose to stay with Him, we then give Him license to transform us into His image.  This is what storms are for.  They come to humble us, magnify God, build faith and create in us, the image of Christ.

Secondly we learn that it may seem that Jesus/God has abandoned us in the storms of life. It may seem that God has gone off and left us to fend for ourselves but make no mistake God/Jesus knows exactly where you are and at the right time, the time that brings Him the most glory and humbles us the most, Jesus will show us. He shows up walking above the storm, walking on it and showing that He is unfazed by our circumstanced and is in fact, in control of all of our circumstances.

Don’t Be Afraid, Verse 27

Wow, that is easy for Jesus to say, He already knows what is going to happen. There is a legend going around that the phrase ‘don’t be afraid’ and its derivatives are mentioned 365 times in the Bible. If you have ever watched the movie Facing the Giants you would have heard that.

I will admit that I have done searches on that phrase mentioned in the movie and I was not able to find the reference 365 times. However we are told here by Jesus not to be afraid. Do not be afraid in the storms of life and when we appear to be engulfed in turmoil and strife. We should not let our circumstance betray our trust in God’s ability, God’s power and God’s promises.

When we are in the storms of life and we will be, this is a given and once the initial shock of the diagnosis is gone, or the death has passed or whatever happens has happened then we need to let our trust in the Word of God begin to take over. This is where the power of constant and consistent Bible reading and study is essential.

The only way to fight fear and despair is with the Word of God. It takes the power of the Word of God to stand in the midst of life’s storms. It also bring us to a point where we either have to trust in God’s promises or not, but storms do not allow us to sit on the fence. God is God or He is not; if He is God, then He is God in the storm and more importantly the God of the storm. Do not be afraid.

In verse 32 the storm stops as soon as Jesus is in the boat and the men are humbled and confess that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the ultimate goal of the storms in our lives to magnify God and bring us into a right understanding of who Jesus is.  Storms are there to BENEFIT us, not destroy us.

Peter Walks on Water, Verses 28-29

Peter walked on water!!!!  I am going to bet you that he never forgot that ever in his life.  He was a fisherman when Jesus found Him and he had spent his entire life on a boat, but never had he walked on water.  But that night Peter walked on water.  But there was something ever more important for us.

Peter got out of the boat. The other 11 did not. When I was a kid I heard so much about Peter’s lack of faith and how he sank. Yes he did. and we should not miss that but what was MOST important was that Peter got out of the boat and he actually walked on water on the way to Jesus and he walked on water on the way back to the boat, notice verse 32, “when they got back to the boat.”

He did something that none of the others did.  He stepped out in faith even in the face of pure and real logic.  He stepped out in faith in the midst of a storm; he, for a brief moment that would set the tone for the rest of his life in Jesus, saw Jesus and not the storm. Of course we also recall Peter was the one who denied Jesus on the night before the crucifixion. But we often forget that it was this same Peter that Jesus went and called back into leadership in John 20.

This was the same Peter that drew a sword and charged a Roman guard to try to deliver Jesus from being arrested, John 18: 10-11. Imagine that this fisherman was charging a Roman troop by himself to deliver Jesus. Don’t tell me that walking on water did not change his life. Yes his understanding of God’s plan needed a bit of refining and he needed to let God be god.  But there is no question that Peter was the leader of the NT church in Israel after Jesus ascended and he was the leader for a long time.  Did he still have failures? Yes he did.  But Peter led.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather be the guy out in the water who walked a few steps and then sank than the 11 in the boat who never knew what it was like to walk on water. I want to be that guy that when Jesus is looking for a leader He will come and touch me on the shoulder. I want to have the faith to charge an obviously bigger enemy and to be out numbered but to trust Jesus so much I just pull out my sword and head into the battle.

Call me rash, Peter was. We need this kind of boldness today in our churches we need some men and women who step out of their boats into the middle of stormy seas and even if they sink, they will forever change the course of their lives. They will be able to look back and know that Jesus is the Son of God and that in Him, by Him and with Him they can walk on water, conquer the enemy, survive the storm and be triumphant in this life.  Come let us walk on water together with Jesus.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8: 35-39).

Missionarybaptistchruch76@yahoo.ca

www.mississaugamissionarybc.com