Futile Worship and The Human

Heart

Jesus Confronted by Pharisees and Scribes

The scribes from Jerusalem have come to watch Jesus.

The Pharisees and scribes see the disciples of Jesus eating with unwashed hands.

The Pharisees ask Jesus why his disciples do not walk according to the traditions of the elders?

Jesus Describes Their Condition

1) Jesus tells them that they honor him with their mouths but their hearts are far from him.

2) Jesus tells them that their worship of God is futile.

Reasons Their Worship is Futile

1) They have replaced the commandments of God with their own human traditions.

2) They have abandoned love and devotion to God.

3) They now hold to love and devotion for self, religion and the praise of people.

An Example of Their Futile Worship

The Practice of Corban: The practice of disregarding the law

of God to honor your parents in order to honor the human tradition

of dedicating one’s resources to God.

Revolutionary Teaching It is not what enters someone from the outside that defiles a person but it is what comes out of the person from the inside

that makes them defiled.

The Disciples and Jesus Jesus leaves the people and enters

a house with his disciples. The disciples ask Jesus the

meaning of his teaching. Jesus rebukes the disciples for not

understanding and then he repeats the teaching.

Jesus connects worship and defilement with the heart.

Jeremiah 17:9-10

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;

who can understand it? 10 I the Lord search the heart…

Truths of Your Heart 1) You can defile God’s law while

actually seeking to righteously keep the law.

2) You can honor God with your lips while your hardened heart is far from him.

3) You can engage in the seemingly sincere worship of God while God considers it futile worship.

Truths of Your Heart

4) You can pridefully point out the dirty hands of others while your heart remains filled with evil intentions.

5) Jesus is primarily concerned with your worship and your heart – and they are intertwined.

Ezekiel 36:26 -29 And I will give you a new heart, and a

new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of

flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my

statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you

shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all

your uncleannesses.

Has Jesus redeemed Your heart?