#4 The “Stumbling Blocks To Spirituality”
Series
“WHAT AN UGLY MUG!”
TEXT: Matt.
23:25-26; Luke 11:38-41
INTRO: My son
Jeremy often came in from playing outside to eat supper with mud all over him
... his hands were so dirty but he sat ready to eat. Then the strangest thing would happen,
he'd ask for a clean spoon for dessert because the one he used for his dinner
had food particles still on it; all the while ignoring his own dirty hands! (Some adults are like this
too!)
How like this we are sometimes
spiritually ... so concerned about some speck of dirt on some outward action of
someone else, while failing to notice the dirty hands we have ourselves! It is an easy error to fall prey to!
The Pharisees and Scribes had
already done this with their hearts; they were like cups that were washed on the
outside but dirty inside!
This is unappetizing to God and to
mankind, just as it is unappetizing to you when you go into a restaurant and
when you finish the soup and you find dirt or old food stuck to the bottom of
the bowl ... even though the outside looked so good! We would find this offensive ... and God
finds this offensive in our lives!
ILLUS: The number
one cause of atheism is Christians.
Those who proclaim God with their mouths and deny Him with their
lifestyles is what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable. -- Karl Rahner, quoted in the Wittenburg Door (June/July
l988). Christianity Today, Vol. 34,
no. 8.
PROP.
SENT: The Word of God teaches us that
God is deeply concerned about what we are in our hearts, and not just what we
seem to be by our appearance!
I. SOAP IN THE HAND Matt. 23:25-26; Luke
11:38-39
A. Unrelenting Myths
Matt. 23:25; Luke
11:38
1. The Talmud records a Jew by the
name of AKHIBHA (ak-heeb-a) – A man who died of thirst rather than break the
Jewish customs of washing before eating, he used the little water he had to wash
and so had none to drink, and thus died of thirst! This was recorded to show him as a
HERO!
a. Rather than see “life” as more
sacred, ritual was held up as more sacred.
b. Demonstrates the corrupted sense of
values, both by those who follow and those who value and praise
them.
ILLUS: English is
a strange language. There is no butter in buttermilk and no egg in eggplant.
There is no ham in a hamburger and no apple in a pineapple. Quicksand works very slowly and boxing
rings are square. Inconsistencies
of language are not significant.
Inconsistencies in life are significant. Christians must act like Christians.
Our words and deeds must be
consistent with what we profess. -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio:
Standard Publishing Company, 1997).
2. The Talmud also taught that
unwashed hands had a demon sitting on them, thus to not wash your hands before
you ate meant you let the demons sit on your hands and corrupt you and your
food!
3. Instead of our common saying today
of, "Cleanliness is NEXT to Godliness" it was for them, "Cleanliness IS
Godliness."
4. Jesus likely failed to wash his
hands on purpose ... probably to evoke this discussion and their inconsistent
ways.
5. We still have myths in this area
... Christians have valued certain looks; have certain hair-cuts, or certain
cultural standards equal to Biblical standards; and we judge people based on
these as though they carry the same weight as true Biblical absolutes ... God
looks for the heart as the most important standard however ... but it doesn't
mean the outward appearance is unimportant, just not as
important!
a. Jesus' point was: "Where is your
energy spent?"
b. “Does the
outward take MORE importance over the
inward?”
c. They had gotten lost on the outward
... to the point they would honor one of their own for dieing of thirst rather
than failing to wash their hands!
d. There are some things worth dieing
for ... this “ain't” one of them!
e. They were wasting time, energy,
life, and material goods on the wrong things!
B. Ugly
Mugs! Matt. 23:26; Luke
11:39
1. What
an ugly mug!
a. A cup in this condition is so very
unappetizing!
b. A person in this condition is so
very unappetizing too, to God and the world!
2. There's nothing wrong with
looking nice ... but being nice makes looking nice acceptable and
a joy! Looking nice and not being
nice is another matter!
ILLUS: It is an
obvious error for all to see in those ministers of the Church who make such a
wide gulf between their preaching and their living. They will study hard, to preach exactly
and yet study little or not at all to live exactly. All the week long is little enough time
to study how to speak for two hours; and yet one hour seems too much time to
study how to live all week. They
are loath to misplace a word in their sermons; yet they think nothing of
misplacing affections, words, and actions in the course of their lives. Oh, how curiously I have heard some men
preach, and how carelessly have I seen them live! -- Richard Baxter, Leadership, Vol. 7, no.
2.
3. This is Jesus' point with them;
they looked great but were anything but great!
a. Their hearts were filled with greed
and wickedness!
b. They needed the "WATER OF LIFE
TO WASH THEIR HEARTS" not the soap of this world to wash their
hands!
II. SPIRIT IN THE HEART Luke
11:39-41
A. Unacceptable Manipulation
Luke 11:39
1. They used their "LOOKS" to gain
personal glory and prestige.
2. Their goals were not to teach
righteousness ... but to be renowned as great men ... without the actual works
of righteousness!
3. They used others to gain the goals
they set for themselves, goals that were self-glory
oriented.
ILLUS: Most of
the evil in this world does not come from evil people. It comes from people who
consider themselves good. -- Reinhold Niebuhr, Christianity Today, Vol. 30, no.
5.
4. Robes with special pouches,
carrying around special pieces of scripture visible to those who passed them by,
special borders on their robes, special seats in the sanctuaries, long prayers
on the street corners; all this outward stuff to lead people to believe they
were on the inside what they seemed to be on the
outside!
a. Titles and such are not wrong ...
if they actually apply to the person’s heart!
b. In the case of the Pharisees these
didn't really apply, it was all show … what was on the inside didn’t match the
appearance on the outside!
B. Uncovered
Meaning Luke
11:40
1. Jesus drops the bomb on them ...
they were dirty on the inside while looking good on the
outside!
a. Wearing the robes didn't make them
spiritual.
b. Carrying a passage of scripture
didn't make them know God's Word.
c. Titles didn't make them teachers or
Pastors. (This is still
true!)
d. Long prayers didn't make them
intercessors.
e. Wide borders on their robes didn't
increase their righteousness.
2. Only what was in their hearts could
open the doors to these other things!
3. "As a man
thinketh in his heart ... S0 IS he!"
4. True religion had been corrupted by
all the various groups or factions in Judaism: these errors are still
with us today ... they just have different names!
a. PHARISEES: EXTERNALIZED RELIGION;
LEGALISM;
b. SADDUCEES: SECULARIZED RELIGION;
RATIONALISM
c. SCRIBES: PROFESSIONALIZED
RELIGION
d. ZEALOTS: POLITICIZED (NATIONALIZED)
RELIGION (“Liberation Theology”)
5. These are still the ways many
people respond to God's call to be saved!
ILLUS: There is
today an evangelical rationalism which says that the truth is in the Word and if
you want to know truth go learn the Word.
If you get the Word, you have the truth. That is the evangelical rationalism that
we have in fundamentalist circles:
"If you learn the text you've got
the truth."
This evangelical rationalist wears
our uniform. He comes in wearing
our uniform and says what the Pharisees ... said: "Well, truth is truth and if you believe the
truth you've got it." Such see
no beyond and no mystic depth, no mysterious or divine. They see only, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our
Lord."
They have the text and the code
and the creed, and to them that is the truth. So they pass it on to others. The result is we are dying
spiritually. To know the Truth, we
must "know" the Son. -- A. W. Tozer in Power for Living (Oct. 16, 1977).
Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 13.
6. TRUE RELIGION however changes the
heart ... which then does change the outward ... notice Jesus says, "CLEAN THE INSIDE
OF THE CUP AND THEN THE OUTSIDE WILL ALSO BE CLEAN!" MATT.
23:26
C. Unconditional Mercy Luke
11:41
1. When love comes from the inside it
can't help but influence the outside as it passes through
it!
a. Jesus called these men to give to
the needy ... to love unconditionally!
b. If they gave the food inside the
cup to the poor then they wouldn’t have to worry about the “dirty” inside bowl,
the gift of giving the food to feed the poor in itself would have served the
need of loving others, and would have made the bowl “clean” even though it still
looked dirty from the refuse of the material! Cleaning the bowl by a ritual is not the
issue; ministry is, so Jesus tells them to give what is on the inside of the
bowl to the poor. “But give what is
inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”
Lk. 11:41
c. They couldn’t give however because
they were men full of greed ... thus they needed to learn to
give!
2. This is why God starts with the
heart ... it is the base of all attitudes, which ultimately leads to all our
actions!
ILLUS: I saw a
Peanuts cartoon with Lucy saying to Charlie Brown, "I hate everything. I hate
everybody. I hate the whole wide world!"
Charlie says, "But I thought you
had inner peace."
Lucy replies, "I do have inner
peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness" (from Barbara Brokhoff, New and Improved Jesus? C.S.S.,
1991, p. 53). -- W. Frank Harrington, "When You Really Want to Quit," Preaching
Today, Tape No. 138.
3. Learning ALL the looks of a
Christian are not nearly enough ... BEING a Christian is what counts, being has
to do with the heart!
4. God wants us to have a heart ... a
heart of His love!
CONCLUSION:
God hates an ugly mug! Nothing ruins an appetite more than
finding garbage inside a cup after drinking from it ... nothing ruins the
world's appetite for God more than finding an unloving heart in someone who
claims to be a Christian! God looks
in our heart ... don't let Him see an ugly mug, but a clean vessel ready to be
filled with His love. The world may
drink in His love from a life like
this!