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?