The First Cancel Culture

The First Cancel Culture

Matthew 14:34-15:20 NIV

  THE PHARISEES WANTED TO  .

Matthew 15:1–2 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” 

JESUS EXPOSED THEIR  .

Matthew 15:3-7 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.” 

AUDIAPHORA: Morally neutral actions that Scripture neither mandates nor forbids. 

Non-essentials to the faith, that we graciously have freedom to practice or not.  

JESUS HAS A WORD FOR LEGALISTS:  .

Matthew 15:7-9 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘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.’ 

A TEACHABLE MOMENT:  .

Matthew 15:10-11 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.” 

JESUS WAS   WITH ENEMIES WHO WANTED TO CANCEL THE GOSPEL.

Mt 15:12-14 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 

WE HAVE A MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM THAN UNWASHED HANDS:  .

Matthew 15:15-20 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.” “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” 

                Jeremiah 17:9a The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. 

THE ANSWER IS  .  THE ANSWER IS  .  THE ANSWER IS  .

Ezekiel 36:26–27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you… 

Ephesians 2:8–9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What traditions do you practice that tend to Cancel Jesus in your experience?
2. What elements of culture today tend to Cancel Jesus?
3. What tempts you to Cancel Jesus?
4. Why is a new heart Good News?
5. What’s so great about being saved by grace?