Matthew 15 - Introduction

Changing Hearts And Causing Faith Matthew Fifteen

It is Jesus' desire that our hearts be changed and our faith becomes strong. Pure hearts and strong faith lead to devoted service to the Master. A lack of purity of heart or having weak faith causes one not to be able to distinguish between faith and custom. These failures also cause us not to recognize Jesus as the Christ of God.

Jesus was the master teacher. In spreading God's truth He often came in conflict with the religious leaders of His day over the matter of keeping traditions. Traditions start and people keep them up with no understanding of why. The problem is never tradition but it is "traditionalism." This happens when people give human traditions the same authority as is given to the word of God.

Paul even referred to the word of God as the "ordinances" or "traditions" that I have delivered to you. "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you." (1 Corinthians 11:1-2) He said, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle." (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

Obviously not all "traditions" of men are wrong. When the traditions are the inspired teachings of God they must be respected. The doctrines and commandments of men are not to be looked upon in that way. The problem with the traditions of men is that they can: (1) make void the word of God, (2) lead to vain worship, and (3) lead to hypocritical worship that does not come from the heart. We must be certain that our faith is based on the written Word of God and not on the traditions of men.

Jesus also dealt with the bind leaders of the blind. These blind leaders held to the traditions of men. They put traditions above the word of God. They planted things that God had not planted. Jesus said, "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up."

The very touching account of the Syrophenician woman was is also found in Matthew 15. She was a Gentile. She was from one of those nations that should have been driven out of the land of Canaan. This account of a mother's search for help for her demon possessed daughter demonstrated great faith.

Matthew 15 likewise provides record of Jesus feeding the 4,000. There were Jews, Gentiles, men and women, adults and children. The thing they all had in common is that they were hungry. They were hungry both spiritually and physically. Their spiritual hunger caused them to stay with Jesus three days without physical food. His compassion caused Him to perform this great miracle.