Lakewood Bible Study | Erik Luchetta & Jeremy Marrone

Pastor Jeremy, it's good to be back. Good to be back. Mark chapter 7. So, we're going to talk about Mark chapter 7, another exciting chapter. Tell us what's Mark chapter 7 about. Great question. So, last week we talked about God's wisdom through love, right? And I want to continue that discussion. really we've talked about it for the last few weeks understanding um God's wisdom specifically through his word um for the purpose of being truly human.

But I want to start off with this question before we get into it. What is the purpose of you and I as humans? What's the purpose of being human in God's world? Yeah, we are God's image bearer made in the image of God. And so the way I see it is that God created human beings to live to work in the world in such a way where heaven and earth reflect one another.

So we are basically the people who stand in the middle of heaven and earth. And again we live in such a way where we bring order and justice and beauty to God's world so that the world reflects heaven. And I think that when you look at the Garden of Eden and you you look at Adam who was put in the garden to take care of it, to tend to it, this is the language.

This is temple language where a priest looks over the holiness and the order of a temple. So Adam and all of Adam's family were meant to be priests who bring order to God's world so that the earth and heaven reflect one another. And that's the very definition of the phrase image of God.

That's good. And and in the ancient world, you had temples all over the place. Oh, yeah. Different gods. And they the ancients believed if they constructed some sort of idol or image of their god and put it in the middle of the temple that it would be the orderbringing presence of that god itself.

Yeah. That's what they believed. Yeah. Well, God actually demonstrates his rule in the earth by creating his image, but living images. Yeah. Right. So that's why he warns Adam and Eve and all those that come after not to worship graven images or idols, not to construct or create much like the children of Israel did at the at the the base of Mount Si.

They made a golden calf and worshiped this calf. That was consistent normal practice in the pagan nations around Israel at that time. Normal. Yeah. But that's what God warned against because he already created an image of himself, which is us as humans. Yeah. To bring justice and order and beauty.

And so, um, I guess what I want to talk about tonight is the fact that God's wisdom brings life. God's wisdom is the the ability to know what our purpose is as human beings to bring order to God's good world so that it reflects heaven. You know, I just had a thought there.

Can I just share this real quick because I don't want to forget it. So, wisdom is what really enables us to bear God's image. Yes. Because I just had this thought here. You'll help me out with that where it is in in the book of Romans where it talks about they exchange the wisdom of God.

What is that? Romans 2. Romans 1 Romans 1 18 through32 where it talks about how they exchanged the wisdom of God for a lie a lie and I so what what Paul does there in in in the first part of Romans is he explains what what the fall was we talk about how Adam and Eve fell it seems as if what he is saying is we fell from wisdom we don't understand what it means to bear God's image right we don't understand what It means to properly order the world where heaven and earth reflect one one another.

We tend to order the world in such a way where heaven is not reflected in the earth. But wisdom is what's needed. You need to know what an image bearer is. What an image bearer is supposed to be aiming for. And what we aim for is for heaven and earth to reflect one another.

So that's why I think that when you by the time you get to Romans chapter 8, you're talking about humans being glorified once again, brought back up to their proper status as imagebearers working in the world causing heaven and earth to reflect one another. Anyway, I just had that thought right there is, you know, to fall from wisdom is to fall from properly understanding the image of God.

Yes. And creating another idol or image of some God is essentially saying we want to be replaced. Yeah. As human. Because if we're made in the image of God to reflect God's nature and character by wisdom into the earth, then we're essentially worshiping an idol or or another, you know, some sort of statue or something.

What we're essentially saying is we don't want our job. Yeah. And wouldn't it put that? Wouldn't it put human beings beneath the image? Because isn't the image of God supposed to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air. So if if something else is the image, then they're higher than you.

Yes. And you become worshiping that thing, we the word is subjugate, but we put ourselves under the slavery to this idol or image. Wow. And I we're going to talk about a specific passage in Psalms tonight. um that actually mentions what happens when we do that. What actually happens when we create an image, we're supposed to be the image.

But if we make an image and put ourselves under the slavery to that image, what happens to us? And and the writer of Psalms warns us against that, but then gives us this hope because um God has created us for a specific purpose, which is in the same passage.

But I want to start in Mark 7:es 6-8. Um, the Pharisees are complaining about uh traditions not being met with Jesus's followers. So Jesus is calling out in this first section of Mark 7, their hypocrisy. They're complaining because Jesus's followers are not um they're not putting on hand sanitizer before they eat their Taco Bell. they're not washing their hands before their their meal.

And he calls out their hypocrisy. He said, "Okay, um you're you're this is a tradition. You're using this tradition and lording it over people in a hostile manner, a a fierce, forceful manner." But then he says, "But you neglect the very charge that you've been given with your own family members.

When your parents become older and they need your assistance and support, you're actually taking the tithe that you're supposed to use for your own family and giving it to the temple and saying, "Well, our duty is met." And Jesus is calling out their hypocrisy. Now, when Jesus uses the word hypocrisy, it just simply means this.

They're play acting. He said, "You're you're doing the the actions on the outside, but your heart is not in it." And what we're going to see in this passage tonight is Jesus is doing a heart check with human beings, with the Pharisees, with the rulers of the temple.

He's doing a heart check with them to call them out because they've their hearts are far from him. They're acting like they're doing the actions and the traditions on the outside. Their their physical outside being is is going through the motions, but their heart is not fully in it, which is the true word for hypocrisy.

And so we see in verses 6-8, he said this. Isaiah was right. Jesus said to them, calling out their hypocrisy. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. He wrote it like this. These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain.

Their teachings are merely human rules. And then he says in verse eight, you have to let go of the commands of God. and uh you have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions. So right here at the very beginning we see what happens when you let go of God's wisdom and you try to create wisdom on your own terms.

That's what human beings did from the very beginning with Adam and Eve at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. God said choose life. They choose to try to define what is good and evil. Or let's say it this way they choose they chose to try to define what wisdom means on their own terms.

Right. Right. So what happens when we re we we uh basically let go of God's wisdom and try to create wisdom in our own human traditions or our human ideas or our human understanding and knowledge. It goes sideways. But the true wisdom of God brings life. So how does God's wisdom bring life?

Well, if humans are created in the image of God to be his image bearsers to bring order in his world such that earth reflects heaven, then wisdom must be the knowing what it means to be truly human. Like you said, it is the knowing of what it means to be truly human.

You know, I had a friend of mine who ran a business years ago before he got saved. He ran his business uh very unethically. Um he was doing shady business. He was cutting corners. He was sort of cooking the books, as we say. Um, he was overcharging. He was false advertising.

And I asked him about it. Um, we had been friends for a long time before he gave his life to the Lord. And I asked him about it. I said, "What are you doing with your business, man? Cuz you're underwater." He was in debt. It was not going well.

And he said, "Look, if you want to get in this specific career field, if you want to get ahead in this career field, you have to cut corners to stay up with the the companies next to you. you have to do whatever it takes to win. And I'm like, you're in debt.

This isn't winning. This is everything but winning. And I was like, maybe maybe God's way of doing things is better. He ends up giving his life to the Lord. And over the next few months started changing his business habits and his business boomed. He did four time the next year he did four times as much business than the five years previous.

Yeah. Why? He got in the word. He started employing what what Solomon says about wisdom in Proverbs in his money and he took the the wisdom of the kingdom of God that God gives. Now, the wisdom of God isn't necessarily just to make us rich. Right. Right. The point of the story is not that.

The point of the story is when we do things God's way, when we live out being truly human, it brings life. Yeah. It brings abundance. It brings what God desires to give to his people so that we can be his reflection in the earth. So that we can order the earth.

His business was bringing order. He did machinery for oil fields here in Texas, which is a massive multi-hundreds of billions of dollars every year. And he makes the machinery that helps oil fields do what they do. And I'm like, there's no reason you should be underwater. There's no reason you should be in debt.

Mhm. But he was employing the world's way of cutting corners, of bad business, of unethical treatment of people. When he got saved and started doing it God's way, his business boomed. And I and I think that is that is um a great um illustration of what it means for us to walk in God's wisdom.

What does it mean to be truly human? Yeah. Does it mean to to to try to cut corners? Does it mean to tell somebody a lie in our advertising? Yeah. Does it mean to give them less than the product that we promised we would give them for the money they're paying us?

No, you can't do that. Yeah. It's never wise to employ deception to get ahead. No. No. And that's the beauty of the wisdom of God is it's pure number one, and it's peaceable. It's clear. As James says in the book of James, God's wisdom is first peaceable and clear.

It's purehearted. That's the beauty of it. And God honors that. God blesses that with human beings and his creation. Yeah. Because it's wisdom. Yeah. It is understanding and knowing his truth. So how does God's wisdom give life? God's wisdom turns the heart of humans from looking to ourselves to create our own wisdom.

And it defines what's good and evil on God's terms, not our own. Let me say that again. God's wisdom turns the heart of human beings from looking to ourselves for wisdom and trying to define good and evil on our own terms and we embrace God's way of being human which helps us to understand justice, order and beauty.

Yeah. The wisdom of God, it enables us um to trust God's way of doing everything. And so we see here in this story um that there was a the healing of a deaf and mute man in verses 31-35. And I want to talk about that a little bit and we're going to we're going to end it here.

I I would talk about the um the the woman the Cyranician woman's daughter in a moment. Um but in in Mark 7 31-35 it says this. Then Jesus left the vicinity of Ty and went through Sidon, which is a gentile area, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of Decapus.

There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. And they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. Verse 33, after he took him aside away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue.

Verse 34, he looked at, by the way, Jesus did this a couple of times in the gospels where he spit in his hands and then touched different parts of the body. The first time was a guy's eyes. This is the tongue. I know that sounds a little interesting, weird.

Um, but Jesus is demonstrating power. Um, but in verse 34, it says, "He looked up to heaven and with a a deep sigh said to him," which is the the um Aramaic phrase, "be opened." And at this the man's ears were opened and his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.

So we started off the chapter talking about what is it? What is the purpose of human beings? To be God's imagebearers. Another way to put it is God's and I'm going to say this in a positive way to be God's idols in his temple. Yeah. Yeah. But living Yeah. idols.

Yeah. The wisdom of God brings life. Wisdom is the way we know how to live in God's world. to be his imagebearers. It is the knowing, it is the discernment, it is the very ability for us to know what it means to be human, which is God's image bearsers.

But we are as living images. So the psalmist says in Psalm 115, he basically says this, "Our God is in heaven and he does whatever pleases him." Verse two, uh, excuse me, verse three, "Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold made by human hands.

They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, noses but cannot smell. They have hands but cannot feel. They cannot walk. They cannot utter a sound with their throats. Those who this is this is where I want to land tonight and finish here.

Those who make them will be like them. Wow. and so will all who trust in them. So again, God's wisdom brings life. We have been created to be his image in the earth, his living image. These images of their gods are dead. We're the living image. But the psalmist warns, he says, "Look, if you worship these images, if you create them and make them, you will be like them."

Yeah. Yeah. You'll become what you worship. Yes. If you worship that non-living image, you're not experiencing life, right? And so to to then put yourself at where you rightfully belong to be as God's image bearer is to really order everything properly in creation. Yes. God, human creation, human be.

We'll put it this way. God ordering creation through his image. Yes. Reverse that around and now you've put creation in the middle. Yes. And now human beings are now underneath that. You've made creation the idol. Yes. Whether it's made of stone or wood or gold or whatever it is.

Um man, God's wisdom is so important. And you you could see how Paul is right. We really fell from wisdom. We did. We did. And and I think that's the point of Jesus healing this man who was deaf and mute. Now this is a physical illustration of a healing but it's really a spiritual message.

Jesus is saying humans have become like their own idols. They have become deaf and mute and blind. Jesus how many times in the gospels does Jesus go if you have ears to hear. Right? Listen. How many times does he say that? Why? Because humans when we try to define wisdom on our own terms, we become the anti- idol.

We become the anti-image of God. We become dead spiritually on the inside. Yeah. Paul actually says you you become alive in Christ, right? When we receive Jesus, we become alive. Now, there's a lot to that that we can unpack. That's not just spiritual life, but also physical life and resurrection.

But the whole point is the heart. Jesus's issue with the Pharisees at the beginning of the chapter is you have traded the wisdom of God in your heart for the wisdom of man. And what happens with the wisdom of man is you create your own idols and then you become like them, dead spiritually on the inside.

No wisdom, lack of wisdom. And we order the world in with a lack of wisdom. But here's what God does. God rescues. God pulls us out of that darkness. He pulls us out of man's wisdom. Yeah. And our own deception and our own corruption. And he places back in us a wisdom by the Holy Spirit through his word.

So the point I believe the point to this chapter is Jesus calling out human beings. When we give up our godpurposed place in in creation to be his image and we create images and we worship them, we become like them. And Jesus here in this healing in verse 35, it literally says, "And the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly."

What is the wisdom of God? Clarity. Yeah. He begins to speak plainly. Yeah. Wow. So, what Jesus is doing is he's inviting us back in. He's inviting us back into wisdom. Inviting us back into wisdom. He's calling out the Pharisees and saying, "Your wisdom is not going to work.

Your wisdom as mankind has gotten us here." Yeah. He's like, "But the wisdom of God from above is what is is truly bringing God's healing and his abundance to the earth. And I'm showing it through these these healings were so much more than now, does God love this man?"

Yes. Does Jesus love this man to to heal him? Does he want to rescue this man and deliver him from some ailment? Yeah. But there's so much more happening with this illustration behind it. And this is the wisdom of God brings life. And when human beings made in his image, when we rule with his wisdom in the earth, it orders it like heaven.

When we don't, it becomes corrupt. Yeah. We become like the idols we create. And so Jesus is calling us into this incredible uh relationship with God. He's calling us into this incredible wisdom living kingdom. And so the wisdom of God brings life for us. And so I want to challenge anybody out there.

Um there's a there's this incredible story in First Kings chapter 3 where King Solomon who's been given he God asks him after his father David who was the greatest king of Israel had died. He came to Solomon and said you're now ruling the kingdom. What do you want because of your father's relationship to me?

I'll give you anything. And he said I want wisdom. And God said okay I'm going to give you wisdom to rule. Yeah. There's a story of two women that came to him with a baby. Both women had a baby. One woman's baby died. That woman whose baby died went and stole the other woman's baby in the middle of the night.

This is First Kings 3. Stole the other woman's baby in the middle of the night and tried to pass the child off as her own. So the true mom came to Solomon and said, "That's my baby." And the other woman said, "No, it's not. It's my baby." So now Solomon's in a position where he's having to try to figure out through God's wisdom who's the true mom.

So he said, "Bring me a sword. A sword. A sword. Bring me a sword and cut the baby in half." Now I can only imagine his attendance in his chamber, the king's chamber. We're like, "I'm sorry. You want to do what?" Yeah. Like God specifically calls out child sacrifice in the Old Testament over and over and over and over and over.

You're actually saying like we're going to figure out who the true mom is by doing a hideous pagan practice. And he said just bring me a sword. So they bring him a sword. And he's just about to do it when the true mom says, "Don't do it. This other woman can have the baby."

And Solomon knew you're the true mom. Yeah. Why? Because the wisdom of God checks our heart. Solomon had an understanding and discernment to check these women's heart. The other woman was callous and cold. Solomon said, "Cut the baby in half." And she goes, "I don't care. Do it."

Yeah. That's not the heart of a mom. I I I got a mom. That's not the heart of a mom. Mothers love. Mothers will protect. They are fierce. Yeah. So God gave Solomon this interesting discernment and wisdom to figure out where their hearts were. Not just not just um a sort of a weird situation with a sword and a baby and he was testing hearts and he found the truth.

And I think that's what the wisdom of God does. It reveals to us truth, goodness, and beauty. Yeah. So that we know how to order the world just like heaven. Yeah. And I think that's essential in this chapter. Jesus is checking the heart of the Pharisees like Solomon was checking the heart of these women.

And he's calling us to say, "Do not abandon the wisdom of God, but embrace God's wisdom so that you know God's loving rule in the earth so that the earth can reflect heaven." Yeah. Yeah. That is fantastic. And I think one of the things that shocked Jesus, and I don't mind using that word, um, was here you have religious leaders here in Mark chapter 7 who are upset with Jesus.

These are religious leaders who say they want the wisdom of God. They're religious leaders who are awaiting the kingdom of God for where they and humanity can be the sort of human beings that God intended. And now that it's arrived through Jesus, they reject it, showing they actually don't want wisdom.

That's one of the things about wisdom is that the wisdom of God is something that has to be esteemed. It has to be wanted. Yes, it doesn't force itself on you. If you want to go the world's way of wisdom, like your like your friend who at one time was doing kind of shady deals and using deception, God's wisdom isn't going to force itself on you.

He He was honest. He said, "This is the way the business is done. This is how everybody does." He said, "This is wisdom, right? I'm going to go this way." And but here's what happens is when you cry out for wisdom, you want wisdom, God's wisdom, it'll be there.

It will. And it begins to order things in your life and in the lives of the people around you. Uh but I think it's about esteeming wisdom, not treating it lightly. And here you have religious leaders treating it lightly. Wisdom itself is standing there in the person of Jesus and they're saying, "No, we're not going to have wisdom in this way.

The way you're talking about it is not what we're interested in." And Jesus like, "Well, then the wisdom is not for you." It's in in a sense, he's basically saying, "Don't worry. Wisdom won't bother you. If you don't want it, it's not going to bother you. It's not going to force itself."

So if if God's wisdom gives life and we're answering the question, how does God's wisdom give life? It gives life by teaching and reminding us of what it means to be truly human, our imagebearing vocation. Um, so then if that's the case and we're supposed to bear the image of God, wisdom teaches us and reminds us that we are made in his image to order the world in such a way that it reflects heaven.

Um, then how does it shape our living every day? Um, and how do we go about receiving that wisdom? So I want to answer this question. How does wisdom shape our lives? Wisdom shapes our lives by opening our eyes and our ears to receive the word of God.

The word of God is active and alive. And it instructs us in righteousness, which is simply how to do things right, how to set wrong things right so that we can bring order to the earth so it reflects heaven. Let me say that again. Wisdom shapes our lives by opening our eyes and our ears to receive his word because the the word is active and alive and it instructs us in what is right so that we can order the earth so it looks like heaven.

Human beings we must embrace the wisdom of God. It is there. We do it through reading God's word, looking to Jesus and asking for wisdom. Yeah. Awesome. That is awesome. What a wonderful explanation of Mark chapter 7. Let's close out in prayer. Father, we just thank you for this opportunity.

We thank you for wisdom. We humbly ask for wisdom just like your word tells us to. Thank you, Lord, for revealing to us the right way to go. Show us what it means to be human from your perspective. And help us to order the world in such a way where people get to see you and see heaven's will on earth.

And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. See you next time.