Mark: The Good News Of Jesus – Chapter 7
Reading — Mark 7:1-37 ESV
4 Movements in Mark 7
We see Jesus as:
-
-
- The Truth
- The Teacher
- The Lord
- The Healer
-
Movement 1 – Jesus the Truth — Verses 1-13
From Isaiah 29 —
“This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” – Mark 7:6-7 ESV
Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees warns us that it is possible to be passionate ABOUT God, without actually knowing Him.
The Importance of the Heart:
-
-
- “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength..” – Mark 12:30 ESV
- “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” – Proverbs 4:23 NIV
- “You delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.” – Psalm 51:6 ESV
- “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” – Psalm 51:17 ESV
- “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7b NIV
-
The heart of the Pharisee looks like:
-
-
- self-centered religion
- legalism
- works based salvation
- comparing ourselves among ourselves
- getting too familiar with the things of God
-
Movement 2 – Jesus the Teacher — Verses 14-23
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind..” – Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV
Movement 3 – Jesus is Lord — Verses 24-30
Jesus’ response —
“Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” – Mark 7:27 ESV
The woman’s response —
“Yes Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children crumbs.” – Mark 7:28 ESV
The woman understands what the Pharisees, and most of the people of Israel could not – that He is Lord, she is not deserving of this, but she has to have Him!
It’s about Jesus’ love for every person, and His pursuit of, and desire for, each of our hearts.It’s about His kingdom being at hand, available to all who would receive it.
Movement 4 – Jesus the Healer — Verses 31-37
3 “Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” – Isaiah 35:3-6 ESV