Mark 07 Jesus is active amongst the Gentiles

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The Pharisees had ritual without reality

MARK 7:1   Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem.

An official delegation had come from Jerusalem with the intention of finding fault in Jesus. They came to argue and condemn, not to learn.

MARK 7:2   And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault.

The Pharisees had made up many unscriptural laws. One such law was that you had to carefully wash your hands before you can eat.

MARK 7:3   For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

Pharisee is an unscriptural ministry. They got their man-made rules from previous elders. Not from the Law of Moses.

Churches today appeal to the Nicene fathers from the AD 325 Council of Nicaea in order to establish the unscriptural Trinity and the unscriptural Good Friday.

MARK 7:4   And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.

They had special rules for the washing of pots and cups and tables. Without going through that routine, they were not allowed to eat. It was all an outward show.

MARK 7:5   Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?

They quoted the made-up rules of their elders. They did not quote the Scripture.

Now they insisted that the disciples must also obey their man-made rules. To them, it was a sin if you did not wash your hands before eating.

This handwashing was not done with soap and water to get clean hands. It was just a ritual using water whereby they showed how carefully they obeyed the rules of the Pharisees. It was all done to improve their self-image. Look how good I am.

MARK 7:6   He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

From the heart we believe. It is wrong to say the right words unless you really agree with those words from the bottom of your heart. Whatever we believe should be written in the Word of God.

If we believe a wrong doctrine then we are in trouble with God because we were too lazy to check that doctrine against the Scripture.

MARK 7:7   Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

If we believe some man who says what is not written in the Bible, then we waste our time. God is not impressed with our worship. God only wants us to believe what is written in Scripture.

The fact that we worship Jesus does not prove that we have a good spirit.
MARK 5:5   And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

MARK 5:6   But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

Remember, the madman at Gedara also came to worship Jesus. His worship did not impress Jesus.

MARK 7:8   For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

Every man-made tradition is obeyed by church members like Lent, Good Friday service, Easter Monday Easter eggs hunt, hot cross buns, Easter bunnies, Christmas, 25 December, etc.

These are all an outward show whereby we can impress others with our so-called godliness while we keep unscriptural traditions with great sincerity.

But inwardly there is no substance, no Scripture requiring us to do these things.

MARK 7:9   And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

We make up rules for our own self-gain that enable us to bypass God’s laws.

The law of God is nullified by the devious fraud that subtle and corrupt human minds can think up.

These people enrich themselves by defrauding their parents.

But God said that we must honour our parents.

MARK 7:10   For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:

Children should use part of their money to help their parents if their parents are poor.

If they declared that money to be a gift to God (Corban) then they did not have to give it to their parents. Nobody would ever know if they ever gave it to the Temple or kept it for themselves.

MARK 7:11   But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.

But the Jews allowed a man to go free from his obligations to help his elderly parents if he said that he would give that money as a gift to God some day.

MARK 7:12   And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;

Then the man can leave his parents destitute and still be considered a fine upholder of the Law.

MARK 7:13   Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Human traditions rapidly replace the Law of God.

Human deviousness could always find some way of evading the responsibilities that God places on us.

As humans we desire an easy and comfortable life. The crown without the cross.

In the last “church of the Laodiceans” the church-goers make up their own beliefs in order to serve God in a way that suits them.

Unbelief in the human heart defiles a person

MARK 7:14   And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:

Nothing that a man can eat can defile him.

It is the unbelief in the human soul that generates corruption and sin.

MARK 7:15   There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

Unbelief in the heart produces sinful thoughts. Sinful ideas express themselves as corrupt words and wrong actions. So the defilement of a man comes out from within himself.

Jesus repeats the words that He said to every church age in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3.

MARK 7:16   If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

The Jews rejected Jesus Who is the Word of God,

So, Jesus is thinking in terms of turning to the Gentiles during seven church ages.

But Gentiles must make certain that they stay with the Scriptures. They must not be like the Jews who followed their unscriptural leaders, the Pharisees.

We must remember that the New Testament never put a pastor as the head of the church.

This means that our beliefs must only be built on what we hear from the Word of God.

ROMANS 10:17   So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

ROMANS 14:23   … for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Anything that you believe that is not written in the Bible is sin.

MARK 7:17   And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

In a small house church, people can ask questions and elders can contribute additional Scriptures. This enables people to develop a better understanding of a topic.

Questions and answers are the best way to gain a better grasp of a subject.

MARK 7:18   And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;

Everything we eat passes through the digestive system and leaves the body, thus it does not defile the body.

MARK 7:19   Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?

The soul is in the heart. From the heart, we have our deepest beliefs.

A pregnant woman carries her baby just underneath her heart. Thus she really loves the little one that is born.

MARK 7:20   And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

It is the wrong desires that come out of the heart that defiles a person.

MARK 7:21   For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

:22   Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

Thirteen awful and corrupt cravings ooze out of the sinful human heart and leave a person wallowing in filth, both physical and mental.

MARK 7:23   All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

JEREMIAH 17:9    The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

There is no good in the human heart.

That is why we need to be born again.

That is why we need to die to self.

I CORINTHIANS 15:31   ... I die daily.

Jesus goes to Gentile territories

The Pharisees endlessly opposed Jesus so He decided to visit the Gentiles. This was symbolic of the Gospel of salvation turning to the Gentiles after the Jews rejected Jesus at Calvary.

MARK 7:24   And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.

Jesus had actually come to preach to the Jews. When they endlessly accused Jesus and His disciples then He turned to the Gentiles but He tried to be unnoticed. However, this was impossible for a man of His stupendous talents.

He first went to a Gentile house.

This was a preview of the future Gentile church.

The early church were the people, not a building.

Those early Christians would meet from house to house.

The oldest building that has been discovered that was used as a church, is dated around the year AD 220 which is in the second church age. There were no separate church buildings in the first church age. That made it very difficult for a centralized church organization to develop. Thus, the Holy Spirit had more freedom to control the individuals.

Before AD 220, they gathered in houses.

In Jerusalem, they would often gather in the Temple out of habit. The Jerusalem church could easily consider themselves to be the most important church. God solved that problem by destroying Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. By then, almost all the apostles were dead or had left Israel to spread the Gospel around the world.

Self-importance was not a Christian virtue that was encouraged.

MARK 7:25   For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:

The first and last church ages were represented by the Gentile mother church of the original apostles of the New Testament and the last church age daughter church. This last church has an unclean spirit as the Bible says nothing good about the church of the Laodiceans (People’s rights). The Laodiceans feel that they have the right to make up their own form of worship that suits them. They have no desire to be strictly Scriptural.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

REVELATION 3:16   So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

The modern church is partly hot (Scriptural) and partly cold (unscriptural like Trinity, Christmas, and Good Friday). Thus the church is lukewarm vomit. They become more unscriptural as vomit is ejected from the mouth of God where His Word is spoken.

REVELATION 3:17   Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

This is a complete condemnation of the modern churches as they are so full of pride and their own people's rights to worship God in the way that they want to. In the way that suits them. But they have absolutely no idea that they are blind to the revealed Scriptures.

REVELATION 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:

Christ is no longer in the modern church as they hurtle, unknowingly, to their doom in great Tribulation.

But we, as the daughter church with a bad spirit, have to be restored back to the mother church.

MARK 7:26   The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

The mother was a Greek.

This is interesting. When the Hebrew-speaking Jews killed Jesus, God broke off that branch and stopped using the Hebrew language.

So, the New Testament of the Gentiles was written in Greek by the early apostles.

The New Testament church is our Gentile mother church.

We are the lukewarm young daughter church growing up in a corrupt age that is blind to the revealed mysteries of Scripture. This Scripture makes it clear that the fault lies with the daughter, not the mother.

The daughter church has accepted a man, a Bishop or a pastor, as its head instead of Christ.

EPHESIANS 5:23    For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church:

Jesus is the Word of God. So, we do not listen to a man, we only listen to Scripture.

A preacher must only explain what is written in the Bible.

MARK 7:27   But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

Jesus makes it clear that He came to the Jews, not the Gentiles.

The Jews classified Gentiles as dogs.

The Jews were God’s children and Jesus came to the Jews as the Bread of Life.

JOHN 6:35   And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life:

Testing her, Jesus said that it was not correct to take the Jewish children’s bread and throw it to the Gentile dogs.

Calling a woman a dog is a supreme insult.

Eve was fooled by an animal, the serpent, that was the highest mammal (beast of the field) between ape and man. The ripples of that original fall continue to run far.

Thus, women are still allergic to being called animal names like a bitch (female dog) or a cow.

This Gentile woman was so desperate to get help from Jesus that she did not object to any personal insult.

Consequently, any Gentiles who claim that they rejected the call to repent and be Scriptural because they in some way felt insulted or put down, will have no excuse. This Gentile woman needed help and died to her own personal opinions and feelings. She simply ignored any offense to her self-esteem.

When she humbled herself then she had a remarkable insight or revelation.

MARK 7:28   And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

In effect, she was saying: You fed 5000 Jews from a schoolboy’s lunch to prove you are Messiah. But the Jews rejected 12 baskets worth of bread fragments and crumbs. That means they will reject your Gospel teachings. The Scripture in Isaiah Chapter 53 speaks of the death of Messiah. So, the Jews will reject Messiah and what He taught. But the 12 baskets speak of the bread fragments and crumbs of the rejected New Testament being collected and going back to the 12 tribes of Israel some time. If the Jews will get crumbs after rejecting Messiah, cannot a Gentile get crumbs after accepting the Jewish Messiah?

MARK 7:29   And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.

Because the Gentile woman, representing the first church age, accepted the Gospel crumbs that the Jews rejected, then the Devil had no hold over the first church.

That enabled the first church to learn the truth from the apostles.

When the apostles died, the church got taken over by Bishops who led them away from the Scriptures.

In order to find the original truth again, it is imperative for the last church age to believe what the first mother church believed.

Then the Devil will have no hold over the seventh church age Bride either.

MARK 7:30   And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

It was back to the house church example of the early church.

The Devil was cast out of the last church-age daughter church but the Devil had done much damage to her. It was going to take some time for her to recover.

We have believed so much error from today's churches that we have to go through the fire of being rejected by church people in order to develop our faith in Scripture. We have to search for truth outside the church systems. A long, slow process.

Free from church traditions, we need God to anoint our eyes so that we can see the revealed mysteries of Scripture. There is a lot of Bible truth to learn and that will take time. We need to overcome our Bible ignorance, which is a spiritual sickness before we can get up and start walking in Bible faith, uncontaminated by the opinions of each human head-of-the-church.

REVELATION 3:18   I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

REVELATION 3:19   As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Today, the people that God loves are still indoctrinated with much church error. To get us to believe the truth requires God to rebuke us and chasten or chastise us because we refuse to see where we are unscriptural. We cannot accept that our churches have errors although almost everyone claims that the Bible has mistakes and contradictions.

We need to be zealous to repent. That means we have a lot to repent about. We just do not realize it.

The early house-meetings of the first Gentile church held few people. Each local home church was run by a group of local elders. Thus, there was no Nicolaitan spirit that elevated a holy man above the laity or congregation. That was the only way to stop one man from claiming to be the head of the church and telling everyone what to do and what to believe. In addition to taking their tithes money.

Nowhere in the New Testament was a pastor put in charge of a church as the head of the church. Nowhere does the Bible say that a shepherd is the pastor of the church.

The local church was fed by a group of local elders.

I PETER 5:1   The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

:2   Feed the flock of God which is among you,

taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

Gentiles are deaf to the true Word until our ears open

MARK 7:31   And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

Decapolis was a region of ten Gentile cities.

This was the region where Legion the madman from the city of Gedara had been healed. The demons had left him and gone into the pigs which had drowned in the Sea of Galilee.

Once he was delivered, the man went around spreading the news about Jesus. This symbolized the willingness of the Gentile converts who wanted to spread the news about Jesus during the first church age.

The coasts were the borders of the territory.

MARK 7:32   And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

This man summed up the problem with us Gentiles. He was deaf and could not hear the Word of God.

Thus, he could not speak the Word that he was unable to hear.

Faith starts with hearing the Word of God.

MARK 7:33    And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

To make the man effective as a convert, Jesus had to remove him from the crowd. We Gentiles tend to follow the herd and what we can then discover is that all the green grass has already been eaten. "Groupthink" is the weakness of our modern churches that are growing increasingly Bible-illiterate. We have no ability to prove our beliefs just from Scripture. All we can do is repeat what somebody else has said. We can only say what the church says.

We no longer think for ourselves as individuals. We no longer speak from the King James Bible.

"I have a quote" has replaced "It is written".

Christians today readily criticize the King James Bible but they are too scared to criticize their church.

The finger of God wrote the ten commandments on stone.

Now the fingers of God, pressed into his ears, wrote the commandments of God into the Gentile man’s mind that is in his brain. This would give the man a desire to want to obey the Word of God. He would become Scriptural because he wanted to live that way, not because he had to.

The spit came from the Lord’s mouth to his Gentile tongue.

We should only speak what the Lord says in the Bible.

MATTHEW 8:8    The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof:

but speak the word only,

and my servant shall be healed.

“Speak the Word only”.

Do not mix up Scripture with human opinion.

Do not say anything that the Bible does not say. Do not leave anything out that the Bible does say.

MATTHEW 8:10    When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

Faith is built on Scripture.

If we only say and believe what is written in Scripture then we have great faith.

MARK 7:34   And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

Jesus sighed. He knew that when he dealt with the Gentiles that He would have a big problem in each church age. That problem was to get the Gentile church to hear what the Spirit was saying to each age.

That meant that God has to spend much time getting the Gentiles to open their ears.

We have two ears and one tongue.

That means we should listen twice as much to Scripture as what we speak.

MARK 7:35   And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

Once he could hear and understand the Word of God, then only would his tongue be loosed so that he could speak the truth.

MARK 7:36   And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

Jesus tried to keep His dealings with this Gentile man a secret because the seven church ages of the Gentiles was a secret that the Jews did not know about. But the Gentiles had a great urge to tell about Jesus.

This symbolized the early church which was so keen to evangelize everywhere.

MARK 7:37   And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

The effect of the Gospel on the people of the first church age was astonishing.

Gentile pagans had their ears opened to the true Word of God. With great enthusiasm, the pagan converts who had never spoken God's truth before suddenly began to speak the Word and spread the Word of God far and wide.