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READ: Mark 2:18
CHALLENGE: Be New Through Christ.
Vv18-20 – Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?” 19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
There is a spiritual practice of fasting. This is typically a day where you don’t eat food so that you can demonstrate your humility before God as you seek His help for something. It was and is considered a spiritual discipline. Our church does fasts during Lent. Other individual Christians do them either regularly or if they believe their situation warrants it. It’s a time where you earnestly seek God’s attention! It was often times associated with repentance or seasons of great distress and/or sorrow.
John’s disciples fasted. The Pharisees and their followers fasted as well. In fact, they fasted twice a week even though it was only mandated one day a year. They added days beyond what God required. Still, they asked Jesus why his disciples did not fast. We’re fasting but you’re not, why? Let’s assume that they were plain curious more than being judgmental or thinking they had some superior spiritual footing over Jesus and His followers.
Jesus is about to school them as to why it would make zero sense for the followers of Jesus to be fasting at that moment in time. Jesus was bringing something completely new and that supplanted the old ways. He will compare his ministry to new wine which must go into new wineskins. The new doesn’t fit the old. Christ was bringing something new to the spiritual equation and His presence changed the religious norms. It’s not the same old – same old, thus the practice of fasting was obsolete for his followers while he was on earth. Jesus was carving a new path for relating to God.
- CHRIST MAKES ALL THINGS NEW
19 Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.
Basically, Jesus compares Himself to what? A bridegroom. How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? You don’t fast at a wedding reception; you eat. If you plan to fast at a feast, you’ve somehow got your wires crossed. This is a happy time. A time for rejoicing. A time for laughing and eating and fellowshipping. This is no time for moping. So yeah, we’re not fasting. The answer to prayers is already there with them. The bridegroom isn’t begging God to find a wife, he’s already experiencing the answer to his prayers. He is joyful, or at least ought to be.
Jesus functions in our world like this bridegroom. There’s love and joy associated with him. They were experiencing the AMAZING power of God and had no need to fast in order to gain what they already had. Thus, it was not the time for fasting! It’s like this perhaps. You don’t have to study for a test you already took. Fasting when Jesus is there, is pointless. You have what you need.
Them not fasting is also making a huge statement. It kind of begs the question, “How great is Jesus”? “How extraordinary” is Jesus that He’s SO great that you don’t need to fast? That’s kind of shocking in and of itself. This really shows the stellar identity of Christ. The fact that he made fasting obsolete is part of a series of clues that Jesus was no ordinary Joe. In fact, He’s divine.
I’m a pastor. I wouldn’t say, as long as you’re with me, you don’t even need to read your Bible or pray or fast ‘cause I’m here. No, I’m just a sinner like the rest of you and we all need to be seeking God. No one could elevate the spiritual climate so much that you don’t need to seek more of God.
Jesus is special! A game changer. You shall name him Immanuel which means that God is with us. John the Baptist was a powerful prophet and preacher, but Jesus is greater. Think about how John described Jesus Christ. I’m unworthy to even touch his shoe laces! I baptize you with water but He’s going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is unique and totally other and WAY more powerful.
Is Jesus just another religious leader? Jesus had the authority to forgive sins. You can forgive me for what I did for you. You cannot forgive me for what I did to someone else, right? Christ could and He could erase the stain. He could still waters. He could heal all kinds of diseases.
At the moment that Jesus Christ died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn in two. This was the curtain that divided the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. We could never even get close to that place of God’s presence if we lived in that day. If you were non-Jewish, you could be in an outer courtyard at the temple. Jewish people could be in the courtyard. Only certain priests could enter the Holy Place and maybe only once in a lifetime would they get that privilege. And only the high priest could walk into God’s presence in the Holy of holies and that was only once a year. And he did that on behalf of all the people.
At the death of Christ, that curtain that barred access to God was torn apart and we can now approach God directly with our problems and troubles. So here are the people reaching for God in the practice of fasting. The disciples already had God, in the flesh, right there.
Colossians 2:9 – For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
The uniqueness of Christ is something that we can take from this story. He is something new. He brings a new deal between man and God. Their relationship with Christ was changing their practices.
So, if we’re in the presence of Christ, won’t we be impacted? How can we be in the presence of someone so amazing and not be impacted? If you’re around the bridegroom, you’re encouraged by his excitement and emotion. It changes behaviors and attitudes.
If I’ve been around a fire, I smell like smoke. We build them in our fire pit and that smoke swirls about and our clothing gets saturated with it. You go into the house and smell your sweatshirt and it’s like the fire is right there.
When Moses returned from meeting with God, his face was glowing. So much so that he had to wear a veil because his face. It was obvious that he had spent time with God.
I was around a guy not long ago and I just knew that he was a believer without him ever telling me. There was just something about what he said and perhaps what he didn’t say. He was super honest and came across as trustworthy. I don’t always get that sense but at times in my life, I just knew in my Spirit that I was walking and talking with another Christ follower.
Let’s just start by admiring the fact that being around Jesus physically brought heaven to earth in such a way that fasting was obsolete for those years that the disciples were together. That was new. Jesus changed plenty of lives while He was here. We know that in the book of 2 Corinthians and chapter five it says that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Following Jesus Christ leads to the change.
When you introduce Christ into your life, that is something that is new. And because of that we will be different. New means new!
B. CHRIST BRINGS NEW SEASONS
As we said, you can’t be fasting at a wedding. The disciples of Jesus were with the Messiah. Jesus is healing people and teaching people and freeing people. AMAZING! The others who were fasting were obviously not enjoying that same season. Jesus brought spiritual summer and the rest were in the equivalent of spiritual winter.
Fasting would be a time of mourning and calling out to God. Jesus brought a different season. And different seasons call for different behaviors. Different priorities. Different actions. It may present different challenges as well. At least Jesus knew the season changes he brought to the table and that clearly meant that they weren’t fasting.
But we can think about this principle for a moment. There are different times we’re in different seasons that require different behaviors. This would be like – hey, you’re engaged to be married so you don’t still need a dating app! Like, hey brother, that’s a strong “no”. You’re not in that hunting season and you should change your patterns accordingly.
The season of grandparenting has changed my life – that’s for sure. I’ve rolled as much time into Zeke as I’m permitted to. In real terms, I’ve done less things I used to be doing to open up more time for this grandparenting season. And then the season is coming when he starts playing sports. I just sign my life over now! Can’t do everything but I’ll be at games.
If you have been scot free and then get married and have children, you’re not free as a bird now! You’ve got responsibilities. Maybe you had a season of mom and dad doing everything. Now you’re in a season of HAVING YOUR OWN PLACE! You have to change your behaviors to accommodate this new period of “adulting”. Because coming home and doing nothing is not an option any longer!
Adulting means stuff needs to get done, you can’t just sit there and stare at it. And you find that in many seasons of life that your time is not your own and you adjust accordingly.
We have a seasons of being single. Of being married. Perhaps of having kids. Of home ownership. Of empty nesting. Of grand kids. Of being younger and of being older. And it all brings some amount of change. You’re in a different situation, so adjust accordingly.
Having Jesus in your life is a new chapter, right? And to make room to live that life is going to require changes. New means new!
- CHRIST BRINGS NEW PATTERNS
21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.
What’s the point here? If you cover a hole in an old garment and you use new cloth, that new cloth will shrink and pull away from the old making the tear much worse. In the analogy that Christ uses. Old, washed, and worn material is incompatible with new material.
Something about Jesus Christ was incompatible with the old ways. You couldn’t merge the two things together. You cannot merge worldlines and godliness. It doesn’t work!
We get used to doing things a certain way. Talking a certain way. Reacting a certain way. These are patterns of behavior. Then a person comes to Christ and you cannot patch Jesus onto the old sinful ways. Light cannot merge with darkness.
The old cloth of “just flip them off” doesn’t work with Jesus. The old cloth of anger. The old cloth of cursing a blue streak doesn’t fit this new pattern of controlling anger and love and forgiveness.
Ephesians 4:31-32 – Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Can you see it? Slander doesn’t fit with kindness. They don’t go together. Your old pattern might be checking out other women but that doesn’t fit Matthew 5. You have to adjust to the new spiritual reality.
The old pattern is complaining and negativity but that doesn’t really fit Philippians 4:8 – Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”
Maybe as a guy, you used women. That’s an old pattern and Jesus doesn’t fit that because we’re called to be moral. New means, new. Before if you got upet, you might go get stupid drunk. How does that fit with living soberly?
Listen, some people doing things your own way has directly led to pit of their problems. It’s time to take responsibility and try other things. You have to change. Pray to God you can see where those changes need to happen and replace bad patterns with Christ like patterns.
- CHRIST BRINGS NEW POWER
V22 – And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
The new wine fermenting will blow up a dried out old wine skin. You have to make new skins for new wine. “Old wineskins already stretched to their limits will burst their seams when the new wine continues to ferment and emit gas. Combining new with old will result in torn garments, spilled wine, and ruined wineskins. The point is that the old – the old forms of Judaism – is incompatible with the new, not because the old is outmoded, but because the new packs such power that the old cannot contain it”. (Zondervan p223)
Once again, Christ is bringing something new. And what he pours into us is fresh. The old ways could not contain it. Knowledge of the law could never transform a person. It could point out the problem but was not the solution. The solution is the Holy Spirit that God places in each one of us to help us combat the sin nature.
The woman at the well wanted to know about where the proper place of worship was. Jesus said, it’s not about the place, it’s about the heart. Worship is spirit and truth – that’s what God wants. He wants something genuine.
Everyday can be new for us. In essence the message of Christ is, why don’t I put the power in you to do the right thing and we’ll call it a day! What we don’t want to do is just to fit the learned church patterns but never be really renewed. We can be regenerated!
Galatians 5:16-18 – So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
New is new. The Spirit is new. It’s not about some new religious practice tack on. The Jewish people were plenty religious but it didn’t stop the erosion of the flesh. Have you become new through faith in Christ?
The law could point out sin but could never rescue from it. Jesus is here to rescue you. Knowing the law alone can never actually transform a person, thus leaving a spiritual hole. And you can’t patch the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. You replace it.
I would have to imagine that they saw their need for holiness. Be holy for I am holy. They would make rules and add to rules to increase their version of holiness which became smug. What they did in essence was whitewash the tomb of sin that we were. Jesus came to clean us up.
We are entering into communion with God. Unworthy as we are. But it’s a reminder of the new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
Vv33-34 – “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
In this time of communion we celebrate the new covenant which Christ said was in his blood. This is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
God would put his laws on our heart. It’s not just on stone, it’s deep within. The love of God deep within. Yeah, no old system can touch this. He’s forgiving us and remembering our sins no more. We have something to celebrate.
You have the power to change. Christ makes all things new.