So I rode my bicycle for a year in 2010 from Canada to Columbia. And as part of that journey, I discovered that basically a billion people in the world didn't have access to clean drinking water. So I began this journey and did some higher level education and then on a series of trips with my friends in the last six years. That's all led us to this spot now we've become very interested in small scale decentralized desalinization projects. It's really the future. Hi everyone, I'm Stokie.
You can be with us for today's beach talk. I want to help us understand every word of God that's in the word of God. God has so many amazing things to say to us every day. We'll just take the time to read and listen, try to apply them to our lives. Now, my objective is always the same. It's disciples making disciples who plant churches that plant churches. So in this way, we can see Jesus be a beautiful grassroots movement. They can go anywhere God wants it to in and through our lives.
So today we're in Matthew 15, verses one and two. It says, then the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat bread. Now up to this point, most of Jesus's ministry had been in the region of Galilee. Galilee was north of Judea where Jerusalem is.
Now these scribes and Pharisees were an official delegation from Jerusalem coming to investigate and assess the words and the work of Jesus himself. William Barclay points out that they were genuinely bewildered. And in a very short time, they're going to be outraged and shocked by some of the things that Jesus says to them. These ceremonial washings were commanded by tradition, but not by scripture. The religious leaders refer to the traditions and not the commandments of God.
We're going to see this drama unfold in the future chapters. Now the matter in question here had to do with hygiene. Now they were offended that the disciples didn't observe these rigid rituals for washing before meals. So in verse 3, he answered them and said, now why do you also break the commandment of God? Because of your tradition. So when the disciples were accused of sin, Jesus answered with an accusation.
Jesus was strong in his reply because these leaders were far too concerned with the ceremonial trivialities versus what God was concerned about, people's hearts. Now this is a strong reply from Jesus. Now these conflicts with the religious leaders are going to escalate in the chapters to come, ultimately leading to his crucifixion. So Jesus repeated what the scribes and Pharisees had already said about that accusation based on the tradition.
So they demanded that they follow the traditions instead of the commands of God. So verses 4 and 6, he says, honor your father and mother. Whoever curses his father and mother, let him be put to death. But whoever says to his father or mother, whatever profit you have received from me is a gift to God and he need not honor his father or mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your traditions. What's going on here?
Well, there was a command of God that everyone should give honor to their father and mother, even stating a penalty of extreme disobedience to this command. So when we're adults and no longer in our parents' household or under their authority, we no longer have to obey our father and mother, yet we're still commanded to honor them. Now that command endures for all of time.
Now some of the Jewish people today tried to get around that command to honor their father and mother and they declared that all their possessions or savings were a gift to God that were especially dedicated to him. Then they could say that their resources were unavailable to help their parents. You see, they were trying to twist it for their own purposes. Now this was a trick, but really at the heart of it was selfishness. And this is what Jesus was confronting.
So verses seven through nine, he says, You hypocrites, didn't Isaiah say about you, these people draw near to me with their mouth, but they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain they worship me. They teach as doctrines the commandments of men. So now this was true of the religious leaders that Jesus confronted and quoted the passage from Isaiah 29. He says, yet it may also be true of you. We can appear to draw near to God.
All the while our hearts are terribly far from him. So it's easy to want and be impressed by the image of being near to God without really doing it and without our heart being transformed. And this is what Jesus is getting at. God is interested in the internal and the real, for we're more interested in merely external and our image. We must take care of the relationship with God that's on the inside, not the relationship with people that's on the outside.
You see, it was described as a real problem with these religious leaders. They thought of man's tradition as equal to God's word. Never a good idea. Now all traditions aren't bad. All traditions, some can be good. It just depends on the intent behind them. So you see in verses 10 and 11, when he had called the multitude to himself, he said to them, hear and understand, not what goes into a person's mouth defiles them, but what comes out of their mouth. This defiles a person.
So Jesus is dealing with what makes a person right. So Jesus now instructed the common people about authentic godliness. He stated a fundamental principle that eating with unclean hands or any other such thing isn't what makes a person unclean. It's what comes out of their heart. What comes from their heart comes out in their words. Now that's not to say there aren't defiling things that we can take into account ourselves. One example of this might be pornography.
But in this specific context, Jesus spoke about ceremonial cleanliness in regard to food and he anticipated that under the new covenant, all food would be declared right before God. Now verse 12 and 14, then his disciples came to him and said, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this? But he answered and said, every plant which my father in heaven has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind and the blind leads the blind.
Both will fall into a ditch. Now this is a humorous scene. The disciples came to Jesus saying something like, Jesus, did you know that you offended those guys? Of course Jesus knew that he offended them. In fact, he intended to offend them. But because they valued what men thought versus what God thought. Now this applied directly to them and everyone like them. Their commandments of men will not last because they're not rooted in either God or the truth.
This principle should make us examine ourselves to see if we imitate the Pharisees in making traditions, our traditions, more important than God's word. You see, he knew that their efforts would fail under the weight of its own legalism. Now we sense that Jesus said this with sadness, and perhaps more sadness for those who were led by the blind than the blind leaders of the blind. In these words of Jesus, we see the guilt of those who are blind leaders of the blind.
We also see the responsibility of the followers to make sure their leaders are not blind. Now verse 15 through 20, then Peter answered and said to him, explain this parable to us. So Jesus said, also, are you still without understanding? Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and they defile a man.
For out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands doesn't make a person unclean. Jesus didn't really speak in a parable, except for the brief illustration of the blind leading the blind. Yet because the disciples did not understand him, they asked for an explanation. Are you also still without understanding?
Jesus amplified the point first made in Matthew 15 that we're defiled from the inside out rather than the outside in. And this is particularly true of ceremonial things like foods. Jesus boldly said that these things come from our inside. These aren't accidents or mistakes. They reveal how corrupt we are in our own hearts. They reveal our true character. We become obsessed with outward versions of being pure and being right before God. And God sees through all of it.
You see, murder begins not with the dagger, but with the malice in someone's soul. So said plainly, many people who worry about external habits, what they eat or drink and other such things, should care more about the words that come out of their mouth. They do more against God as people by what they say than by what they eat or they drink.
Unfortunately, the emphasis of the religious leaders in Jesus' day, and often in our own, is often only on the external things, not the internal things that make for true righteousness. Verse 21 and 22, And Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and behold a woman, a Canaan, from that region, and cried out to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely demon-possessed.
So Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities, they're about 50 miles away. And Jesus went all this way to meet one Gentile woman's need. This shows remarkable, unexpected love from Jesus to this woman. Think about that, how far he traveled to help just one lady. Very interesting. Jesus often travels to us to help us. Now it was unlikely for Jesus to go to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
At that time, or not much later, Josephus, a historian, would write that the Phoenicians and the Tyrants had a terrible feeling towards people from Jesus' area. Now this woman came to intercede for her daughter, she provided a picture of an effective intercessor. Her great need taught her how to pray, when she came to Jesus, she made her daughter's needs her own. This Gentile woman also understood who Jesus was.
Many of Jesus' own countrymen didn't know who Jesus was, but this woman of Canaan knew. Now perhaps this woman knew that Jesus had healed the Gentiles before. Yet what made this encounter unique is that Jesus did these miracles as Gentiles came to him in Jewish territory. Now here, Jesus came to Gentile territory and met this woman. Now verse 23 and 24, he answered her not a word, and his disciples came to him and said, send her away, for she cries out after us.
But he answered and said, I was not sent, except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So though the Gentile mother interceded for her daughter, Jesus did not immediately give her an encouraging reply. His reticence drew a more energetic and faith-filled response from a Gentile woman. Now it's likely that the disciples meant, send her away by giving her what she wants. It is entirely possible that they just wanted her to go away. They were tired of her.
The easiest way was for Jesus to fix her problem. So Jesus defined the focus of his mission to his irritated disciples and the Gentile woman. He made it clear that he was not sent to the Gentiles like her. It is fair to ask whether Jesus meant the lost sheep among the house of Israel, or meant to say that it was Israel as a whole who were lost sheep. Jesus's instructions to his disciples in Matthew 10, rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, would seem to imply the latter.
Now verse 25 and 27, then she came and worshiped him saying, Lord help me. But he answered and said, it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. And she said, yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table. So what's happening here? Well, she responded to the rebuke from Jesus with increased dedication. To prevail on her request, in doing so the Gentile woman continued to show what a dedicated intercessor she was.
So Jesus continued to say discouraging things to the woman, yet this was not quite as severe as in my first sound when Jesus called her one of the little dogs. He used little as a way to soften the harshness of calling her a big dog. This softened the traditional Jewish slur towards Gentiles, which called them dogs in the most derogatory sense. Now we're at a great disadvantage of not hearing the tone of Jesus's voice here as he spoke to the woman.
But we would suspect that his tone was not harsh. We'd rather suspect that it was kind and loving and gracious and inviting to her. It is possible to speak with harsh words in a playful or winsome manner. Now the woman responded with great faith. She admitted that her low estate and did not debate the issue when Jesus called her a little dog. She did not demand to be seen as a child, but only to be blessed.
Wow, it was as if she said, Jesus, I understand that the focus of your ministry is to the Jewish people, that they have a special place in God's redemptive plan. Yet I also understand that your ministry extends beyond the Jewish people, and I want to be part of that extended blessing. She had great faith. Now her response is especially meaningful in light of the increasing rejection of Jesus by the religious leaders.
It was as if the woman said, I'm not asking for the portion that belongs to the children, just the crumbs that they don't want. Now in the flow of the gospel here, there was more and more that religious establishment did not want to receive what Jesus was saying. Now verse 28, Jesus answered and said to her, Oh woman, great is your faith, let it be to you as you desire. And your daughter was healed from that very hour. Finally, the woman will receive an encouraging word from Jesus.
Now Jesus never said this to another person. He complimented the great faith of the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal a servant, Matthew 8. But he said it to the crowd, not to the centurion directly. Now this gentile woman heard it from Jesus directly. The only two people to receive this compliment from Jesus were these gentiles. This shows us that great faith may be found in Jesus. Great faith may be found in unexpected places, like we find here.
Great faith is sometimes measured from its disadvantages. Their faith was great because it did not have the advantage of being nourished by the institutions, the religious leaders. Faith is often greatest when it's expressed on behalf of someone else's need. Now her faith was great enough to receive her request, what she desired from Jesus. Her faith was great even compared to other virtues. She was humble, she was patient, she was persevering, she cared for her child.
Yet Jesus didn't compliment any of these good things, but only her faith. Now her faith was great because it was unlikely no one might have expected a gentile to trust Jesus so much. Now her faith was great because she worshipped Jesus even before she had an answer from him. Her faith was great because it had been tested so severely. It's hard to think of a greater test than a demon-possessed child, but her faith was also tried by the indifference or coldness of Jesus.
Her faith was great because it was clever. She turned Jesus's words inside out and made what might have been taken as an insult as an open door of faith. Her faith was great because it concerned a need right in front of her and a real need at that. A lot of people have faith for everything except those things that are right in front of them. So her faith was also great because it would not give up. She did not stop until she got what she needed from Jesus.
Now we could say that her faith conquered Jesus. He not only healed her daughter, but he did so immediately. Something that she had not even asked for. We read of nothing else that Jesus did during this time and time and time and time. It would seem that only his divine, this divine appointment was to meet this woman and help her with her faith and her daughter. In verse 29 and 31, Jesus took off from there and he went along the sea of Galilee, went up to a mountain and he sat down.
Then great multitudes came to him having with them the lame and blind and mute, maimed and many others, and he and laid them down at Jesus's feet and he healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the lame whole, the lame walking and the blind seeing, they glorified the God of Israel. Though Jesus briefly withdrew from the multitudes, he did not do so permanently. He still had to work, he stood among the multitudes.
Now a lot of commentators believe this marks a unique period in Jesus's ministry when he did his healing and providing work in a predominantly Gentile area. Especially if you look at like Mark 7 and you'll see what happened there on the eastern side of Galilee, the region known as the Decapolis. So the remoteness of this place, you know, in the wilderness fits better with the eastern side that we talked about in Matthew.
Now these people were probably very far from God, basically had no relationship with God. So Jesus healed and provided this mixed and predominantly Gentile group of people. He showed the miracle after miracle that the healing was for them as well. In this incident we read nothing about any faith on the part of those who were healed except for the fact that they came to Jesus for help.
Now even in something as potentially self-promoting as the ministry of healing, Jesus always drew attention to God, not himself. The multitude, most likely predominantly Gentiles, learned to praise God. Now verse 32 to 39, Jesus called the disciples to himself and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they have now continued with me for three days and have nothing to eat and I do not want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way.
Then his disciples said to him, where could we get enough bread in the wilderness to fill such a great multitude? Now Jesus said to them, how many loaves do you have? And they said seven and a few little fish. So he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks and broke them and gave them to his disciples.
And the disciples gave them to the multitudes so they all ate and were filled and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left Now those who were four thousand men besides women and children and he sent away the multitude got into the boat and came to the region of Magdala. So you see this miracle follows the same pattern as the feeding of the five thousand except it reveals that the disciples were generally as slow to believe as we are.
They said, where where could we get enough bread to feed such a great multitude? Hadn't they learned anything? Perhaps the disciples did not expect Jesus to use his power when the crowd were Gentiles and not Jewish people. Jesus did what he could do but left the disciples to do what they could do the distribution of the food. You see Jesus multiplied but they distributed. At the end of the meal they gathered more not less.
The seven large baskets show that God provided out of this abundance the way that the Messiah miraculously fed both Jews and Gentiles was a preview of the great Messianic banquet. This was greatly anticipated among the Jews of Jesus's day but they were offended that the Gentiles would also be there. Now this wraps up our time looking at the chapter in Matthew today.
I always like to end my beach talks with a chance to pray and ask God for a fresh start to hit reset in our lives to stop doing some things to start doing others. Would you take a moment to pray with me right now and just say hey God would you give me a fresh start in my life would you help me to hit reset would you help me to stop doing things that are hurtful and help me to start doing things that are helpful in Jesus name. And as always I hope you have a great day.
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