Matthew 15:1-20

Defilement Comes From Within
Book of the Bible
Matthew
Speaker
Tony Ferguson
Sermon Date

In this passage Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees from Jerusalem because His disciples ate with unwashed hands. The Pharisees were professional fault-finders, and seemed to be more than willing to over look the mighty works that were being accomplished in Jesus ministry simple because their traditions were being ignored. 

Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for elevating man's tradition above the Word of God, and goes on to teach the multitude about the true source of defilement. The Pharisees were extremely concerned with external defilement, but were completely neglectful regarding inward defilement.

Jesus teaches us very plainly that food enters our stomach, and not our heart, so food does not defile us. The source of defilement is our sinful hearts, and since defilement is an inward problem, it requires an inward solution. Human hands can't cleanse the human heart, but the blood of Jesus can!

Description of the book of Matthew

As you come to the New Testament the first three books you encounter (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are referred to as the "synoptic" gospels. They are called the "synoptic" gospels because for the most part, they have a "similar view" of the life and ministry of Jesus. Though they account for much of the same narrative regarding the life and ministry of Jesus, they are not identical, nor are they intended to be. They assemble the accounts in different contexts, and contain different amounts of detail, but they are all important. God always seeks to establish a matter on the testimony of 2 or 3 witnesses, so having these 3 synoptic gospels about the life an ministry of the Son of God is in no way redundant.

Matthew’s gospel communicates to us the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus in the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. From His lineage, to His birth, to His miraculous ministry, to His teachings, to His crucifixion, Matthew will time and time again point out that these things happened “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet…”.