Small Group Guide

“Legalism: When Washing Makes You Dirtier”

Mark 7:1-30

Message Summary

In Mark 7, Jesus confronts the Jewish religious leaders about their hypocrisy and their legalism, highlighting their need for Him, which greatly contrasts with the faith of the Gentile woman in the following section of the chapter. While the Pharisees and the scribes traveled many miles to challenge Jesus, Jesus exposed their shallow understanding of worship, authority, and morality, and in addition to demonstrating how legalism distorts the truth of the gospel, Jesus explained how sin is what defiles us and that sin doesn’t come from the external things we do or don’t do. Sin comes from within. While it can be easy to focus just on outward behavior, we must address the heart because it is the heart that is defiled. While those who are self-righteous like the religious leaders do not see their need for Jesus, the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24-30 knew she was dirty or impure as a Gentile, and she desperately sought Jesus’ grace instead of trying to earn it or show she deserved it. If we are to look more like the Gentile woman than the Jewish religious leaders, then we must confess our sins to God and to others, renounce our righteousness, and look to Jesus for forgiveness and grace.

Discussion & Application Questions

After briefly reviewing the message summary, use these questions to further examine the sermon and to discuss how these truths apply to daily life, so we can “be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (Jas. 1:22). Based on your knowledge of the people in your small group, select the questions that will best help you frame the group’s discussion of this sermon and sermon text.

LEGALISM DISTORTS

  1. In what ways does legalism encourage self-righteousness and a judgmental attitude?
  2. Why would a Christian be or become legalistic?
  3. Why can’t we as people earn God’s favor?
  4. What pleases God and brings Him glory?
  5. Why would Jesus confront the Jewish religious leaders about their own legalism and hypocrisy?
  6. How is legalism hypocritical among Christians?
  7. How does legalism express a shallow understanding of worship, authority, and morality?
  8. In what ways does what you say believe and how you live misalign? How can you address that inordinacy?
  9. Regarding personal convictions, how do we not hold others to our own convictions? How do we avoid judging someone for having different convictions than us?
  10. Identify examples of areas in which we as Christians often apply our personal convictions to others.
  11. How can we communicate our convictions with grace, not judgment?
  12. Application: If you recognize that someone close to you tends towards legalism, how can you lovingly approach that person about their legalistic tendencies? What gospel truth could you communicate to them?

SIN DEFILES

  1. How does sin defile us?
  2. How is it true that all sin is a worship issue?
  3. How do you know what or who it is that you are actually worshiping?
  4. Why does God prioritize the state of a person’s heart over their behavior?
  5. Application: How can you cultivate love for God? What can you do this week to cultivate a greater affection for Him?
  6. How does legalism affect parenting and families?
  7. How does the gospel affect the way that people in the home, all of whom are sinners, treat each other?

JESUS SAVES

  1. Read Mark 7:24-30 and Matthew 15:21-28. What we can learn from this woman’s example?
  2. How was this woman’s faith great?
  3. How does she contrast with the Pharisees in Mark 7:1-23?

FIGHTING LEGALISM: CONFESS YOUR SINS, RENOUNCE YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, & LOOK TO JESUS

  1. How does confessing our sins to God and to others fight against legalism?
  2. What keeps us from confessing our sins to God and to others?
  3. With regards to what hinders confession, how do we ward against fear or pride?
  4. Application: Is there sin that you need to confess? When will you confess it to God? To someone else? Who else do you need to confess it to? When will you tell them?
  5. Why is it important to renounce our righteousness? How does this fight against legalism?
  6. Application: What does it look like to renounce your righteousness? How can you do this?
  7. What do you tend to treat as your functional savior, your replacement for Jesus?
  8. What keeps you from running to Jesus and finding your freedom in Him?
  9. Read 1 Corinthians 4:7. What is true about what you have and can do?
  10. How does legalism result in either guilt or in pride? Why would it result in one of these two things?
  11. How does looking to Christ address our guilt? Our pride?
  12. Application: If you are currently dealing with either guilt or with pride, on which gospel truths can you meditate?
  13. Application: Is there anything – a sinful habit or a self-reliant attitude – that is currently characterizing your life? If so, what does your next step need to be?

Things to Consider

If you have people in your group who did not hear the sermon, read Mark 7:1-30 together and briefly summarize the main points of the sermon, but recapping the sermon text and sermon outline can also be a helpful way to start the group, even if everyone did hear the sermon.

Since legalism is a church word, spend some time in the beginning of the group meeting defining the word. In the sermon, Pastor Matt defined it as believing “that we can earn or keep God’s favor by what we do.” Discuss why legalism is so dangerous to Christians and to the church. What does legalism suggest about our view of God? About our view of ourselves? With this, what does your behavior, your emotions, and your thoughts communicate about your view of God?

In the sermon, Pastor Matt stated that we all have an “inner Pharisee.” As a group, discuss what this means. In what ways does your inner Pharisee show itself in you? In what ways do you act “more spiritual than the Bible”? Because of the personal nature of these questions, it might be helpful to break up into smaller groups of the same gender (especially if in a co-ed group) to encourage honest sharing. Also, encourage the groups to discuss how they can address and expel our inner Pharisee. What would it look like to take a step towards doing that over this next week? In the next meeting, have the groups follow up with each other about their next step.

Weekly Prayer Focus

Pray for Our Church:

  • Praise God for His design for motherhood, and pray that all of our mothers would embrace their role and responsibility in preparing their children for the lives to which God has called them.
  • Pray for women who desire to have children but have found that to be a struggle.
  • Pray for mothers whose children have passed away.
  • Pray for women throughout our faith family who are spiritual mothers to continue making disciples.

Pray for Our City:

  • Pray for Abiding Hearts Home Care (abidingheartshomecare.com), a gospel-centered ministry led by Brook Hills members Randy and Courtney Johnson, which provides living assistance, home maintenance, and physical, spiritual, and psychological care to the sick, elderly, and widowed, while providing an avenue for life-on-life discipleship.
  • Pray for Household of Faith Church and Pastor Larry Cockrell.

Pray for Our World:

  • Pray for Rekindle Children’s Hope (rchafrica.org), which serves orphaned, disadvantaged, and abandoned children in villages throughout Cameroon through reading programs, tuition for school, and after school programs, which connect to a local church effort for discipleship.
  • Pray for the Wom people of Cameroon.

The Church at Brook Hills “Legalism: When Washing Makes You Dirtier,”May 14, 2017 | Page 1