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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 The Beginning of the Gospel

02 A Day in the Ministry of Jesus

03 Controversies

04 Parables

05 Miracles Around the Lake

06 Inside Out

07 Teaching Disciples Part 1

08 Teaching Disciples Part 2

09 Jerusalem Controversies

10 The Last Days

11 Taken and Tried

12 Tried and Crucified

13 The Risen Lord

Marching right on through our study of the book of Mark, we've now come to lesson 6, titled Inside Out.

Whereas last week looked at the miracles around the lake, you know, and some certain miracle encounters, this week we're looking at some of the, well, still moving in chronological order through the Gospel of Mark, but this time looking at some of the interactions that Jesus has with different groups of people and learn some lessons, hopefully, how we can have interactions with people too.

Well, you did the talking points this week.

So Why don't I pray and then you can walk us through what we have and I think we have another.

We're gonna go off the standard a little bit and go with 2 talking points this time.

Father in heaven, we are thankful for your word and for the gospel of Mark.

We thank you for the guidance of your Holy Spirit as we've been studying through and the things we've been learning.

We just ask for your special blessing upon this presentation and also Lord upon all of our classes as they study this lesson that it would be a rich blessing to them and would help them to be closer to you and more faithful in their Christian walk, we ask it in Jesus' name.

Yeah, when we look at the Gospel of Mark, of course, it is the shortest of the Gospels and the most concise Gospel, and you would think, well, that means that there's going to be less to talk about, when the reality is, he takes big things and puts them into a few words and stacks those up so that when you do, say, 1 chapter or 2 chapters, there's a lot in there, and I think that each of us have, when going through the talking points, have had to pick and choose a little bit like which thing we want to pull out or or better yet draw out from all of them kind of mixed together.

So in this instance we're looking at chapters 7 and 8 or at least 7 in the first half of 8 and there's a whole string of encounters that we could highlight and dig into each 1 of them, but instead of just going through them...

Well again, we've talked about Mark, how Mark goes through things quickly, but that doesn't mean he cuts things out.

It's something like 2 chapters of a whole bunch of stuff.

So What I've done this time is try to draw out themes that come out of these very, instead of looking at every encounter in its order, just saying, let's kind of overview them and draw out the lessons we can take away.

So with that in mind, we have 2 talking points this week.

Talking point number 1, Jesus consistently exalts the 10 commandments That comes from Sunday, Monday, and Thursday.

And by the way, I put both of these in present tense because it always makes me uncomfortable when Jesus did something, but he's still alive.

So Jesus exalts, and he still does this day, the 10 Commandments.

And talking point number 2, Jesus always speaks judiciously.

We've used the word strategically before, or carefully, or deliberately, but this is yet another example of where Jesus, when he has encounters with people, he doesn't just shoot from the hip.

And this is coming specifically from Tuesday and Wednesday.

But this time, let's look into Mark chapter 7.

We're going to start with the first verses.

The first 13 verses recounts this story of Jesus being confronted by people who don't wish him well, his enemies, his, now not that he did anything wrong, but of course they're always finding fault with Jesus, looking for something to, not that there's any fault to find, but they're trying to create a problem, right?

And this time it's the Pharisees, the religious leaders who come along and they have an issue with the washing or lack thereof.

So why don't you read the first 2 verses of Mark chapter 7.

Mark chapter 7 verse 1 says, then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him having come from Jerusalem.

Now, when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is with unwashed hands, they found fault.

So this time notice they've, they've not just like happened to see it, they've come together, they're looking for a thing and they're like, aha, we found it.

His disciples don't wash their hands the right way.

Well, you might, it's good that you're about to clarify this because you could look at that and say, well, what did they do?

But evidently there was something very visible that they were looking for.

And by the way, the lesson brings out that maybe children might look at this and say, this is the best, you know, we shouldn't have to wash your hands, but the Bible says, well, it goes on to explain in verse 3, for the Pharisees and all the Jews, now that's interesting, not just the Pharisees, but all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way holding the tradition of the elders.

So the hand washing we're talking here is not hygienic merely, it's not just like, oh you've been, you know, got grease on your hands or something.

This is a spiritual imposition on the people that the religious leaders have laid on, they're imposed on the people, and it really comes from the Old Testament tradition of which were ceremonial laws established by God for specifically the leaders in their their ceremonial role in the sanctuary services to be clean and undefiled.

And now, as the lesson brings out, well there's a comment from Sunday, paragraph 2, why don't you read that where the lesson explains.

Yeah, it says, during the time between the Testaments, the idea of washing hands in order to remain ritually pure was extended to common people even though these Rules originally applied only to the priests in the Old Testament and it gives a reference there to Exodus chapter 30 It is in keeping with this concept That the religious leaders complained to Jesus about his disciples.

So what they're frustrated at Jesus and they found quote fault Was not something that he was actually doing wrong, but something that they had said Needed to be done and Jesus wasn't going along with their tradition not with anything with the law of God, right?

Well, it very specifically says, holding the tradition of the elders, singles it out as that and what have you.

And what he does is he calls them hypocrites.

We go to verse 6 and he said to them, well, did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites?

So he didn't just say, we've read in scripture, he said, this was about you.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." So you guys, he says, are laying on these people man-made rules that you consider to be doctrines when you're actually in violation of the true law of God, right?

4, he goes on in verse 8, for laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things as you do.

And then he goes into giving a specific example of this hypocrisy, And he invokes the concept of Corban.

Now Corban of course is the concept of a gift, but it's a special gift in this context.

It's like the word tithe means a tenth, but it means a tithe to the Lord.

Here Corban is a gift, but specifically it's a gift to the Lord that had been, now I could be wrong about this, I'm fine with that humility, but I don't recall that being established by God as an ordinance, but had been created apparently by the religious leaders over time, as 1 way we can honor God is by establishing this Corban gift but then beyond just establishing the Israel economy is full of gifts the same as they're full of gifts and so they evidently had come up with this idea in in fact I mean it's very similar to what we would call an annuity.

I mean today we offer annuities through the church where hey if you have if you have something you want to Give to the church you can set up an annuity and so you can live on whatever you need but when you die it goes to the church.

Well it's very similarly right in this case.

Right and so it's not like there's anything immoral with it except when you extend the practice to in when it you know it no longer parallels God's law but a perpendicular it goes perpendicularly to God's law then you have to choose which 1 you're going to keep.

And Christ quotes the commandments and he says, you know, honor your father and your mother, but now your little gift, while claiming to honor God, actually breaks the law of God by short-circuiting what's due to your parents.

So let's clarify that To the practice that we're describing here was they'd concocted this way to say hey We need money in the temple and if you give a gift to the temple It like So today I can pledge it to the temple, and so it's technically God's, I gave it to God.

I can live off of it, but I can't use it for anything else.

I can't help friends, I can't help my parents in need, I can't help any.

I can use as much as I want, but it's technically, so it keeps more money in the account for the church.

And then I can piously say, I would give, but I've already, and you don't want to violate your oath to God, right?

He quotes in verse 10, from Moses said, honor your father and your mother.

And that's a quote from the 10 commandment law, right?

And he said, but you've made this vain, of course, you've undermined this by your practice of Corbin.

Now I don't want to get too hung up on this 1 alone, but in this instance, Jesus is contrasting the tradition of men and the commandment of God, and he tries to right this.

Not that there's anything wrong with giving gifts to God, but your made-up thing, which even if it originally came from a good intention, can never trump the law of God, right?

The 10 Commandment law is our standard of righteousness, right?

Now, following immediately on that, verse 14 comes along, and why don't you read verses 14, well actually, verse 14 talks about the, he makes the statement in verse 15 that there is nothing that enters a man from outside which can file him but the things which come out of him those are the things that defile man.

And why don't you read verses 18 through 23 where Jesus explains what he means.

So he said to them, are you thus without understanding also?

Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him because it does not enter his heart but his stomach and is eliminated thus purifying all foods?

And he said, what comes out of a man that defiles a man?

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.

Series

Talking Points 3rd Quarter 2024: The Book of Mark

06 Inside Out

Transcript

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