Living As CLEAN (Sermon Audio)

This is the audio from the March 6, 2022 sermon, “Living As CLEAN”, shared by Tom Lemler at the North Wayne Mennonite Church.

Text: Mark 7:1-37

When God calls us to come near to Him, He tells us to wash our hands and purify our heart. As the One inviting us to the wedding banquet of the Lamb, it is time we clean up for dinner. To live as one who is actually clean, God calls us to live as . . .

Compassionate. Mark 7:9-13
- When the religious leaders complain about the disciples of Jesus eating without washing their hands, Jesus turns and points out their love for legalism that is greater than their love for people. In fact, the religious leaders would fail to show compassion toward their own parents and use a commitment to God as their excuse. When God calls us to live as one who is clean, He calls us to live with compassion for all people.
Learning. Mark 7:14-16
- The moment any person decides they know all they need to know, they stop growing. God’s Word is given to help each of us learn more about Him and how to live as His child. When it comes to being clean, God wants us to learn what really makes us unclean so that we would avoid those things. Jesus taught that it is what comes out of a person that makes them unclean rather than what went in. When God calls us to live as one who is clean, He calls us to live a life of learning.
Explaining. Mark 7:17-23
- One of the great things about the gospels is that they are not only full of Jesus teaching much that we need to learn, they also contain many accounts of Him explaining His teachings to His disciples. As important as it is to know the Word of God, the key to it becoming transformational in our life is to allow it to explain how we ought to live. As we grow in Christ, our role ought to include being able and willing to explain the good news of Jesus to others. When God calls us to live as one who is clean, He calls us to live a life of accurate explaining.
Accepting. Mark 7:27-30
- Once you understand the explaining done by Jesus regarding what makes a person unclean, it ought to become clear that without Jesus we are all equal in that department. In our text, we find Jesus moving from an explanation of sin making us unclean to an encounter with a woman who would have been considered unclean by the religious leaders because of her nationality. After an encounter that I believe was meant to teach us a truth about acceptance, Jesus declares a healing of this woman’s daughter because of the mom’s faith. When God calls us to live as one who is clean, He calls us to live a life that is accepting of one another just as Christ as accepted us.
New. Mark 7:36-37
- The next event recorded for us by Mark was the healing by Jesus of a man who was deaf and mute. While Jesus tells the man and those witnessing the healing not to tell anyone, they can’t help but spread the news about how Jesus has made him new. As you consider all of your own history in light of the things Jesus says makes a person unclean, it should become painfully obvious that you needed to become a new person in order to be clean. Fortunately, God says that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation, the old has gone and the new has arrived. When God calls us to live as one who is clean, He calls us to live a life that is new