Out With the Old, In With the New

Take your Bible and turn with me to Mark chapter number 2. Mark chapter number to, as we are picking up where we left off last Sunday. Mark chapter 2 and verse number 18.

Mark 2 Verse 18. The Disciples of John and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to him, why do you, why did the Disciples of John? And the Pharisees fast. But your disciples do not fast, and Jesus said to them, can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them. As long as they have the bride bride groom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will Fast and Noah's days. No one's so's, a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment or else. The new piece pulls away from the old and The Tear is made worse and no one puts new wine into old wineskins or else, the new wine burst the wineskins. The wine is spilled in the wineskins are ruined, but new wine must be put into new wineskins on a priest. You this morning on this saws, out with the old in with the new, let's pray together. Our Father, we once again about humbly before your presence Lord we are thankful for your power were thankful or for your omnipotence Glory thankful, Lord for the healing that you have brought Niall and and were able today to hear power. Testimony of your power and father operate as we go through out this worship service and throughout this message. Father, I pray that you would speak to her. So I pray the Holy Spirit. Would fill me up Lord, give me the words to say but Lord more importantly, I pray that you would speak to individuals here and those lure that are here that are lost and do not have a right relationship with you father. I pray that today would be the day of salvation and lure, those who are born, again, those who have life in, you father would leave here with a new sense of Celebration knowing that Jesus is with us while we love you. We ask all of these things in Christ name, all of God's people said, amen. Well most of you know, there are really just two kinds of individuals in this world. There are some folks who go out of their way. Define trouble. I've been there are folks who are not necessarily looking for trouble because trouble, always finds them. And this is Jesus, Jesus is not intentionally looking for trouble. Trouble is finding the Lord Jesus from the time he appeared and began his Earthly Ministry to the very moment that he ascended back into heaven. Jesus was busy establishing a new kingdom, the kingdom of God, and in him doing. So he was upsetting the traditions of men. now, as far as the Jews were concerned, Jesus was involved in one religious scandal after another In chapter one. Jesus offended, the religious Jews and Pharisees. Remember chapter one when he touched the leper and healed the leper, A Jesus offended, the religious Jews when he publicly and 2:5 when he publicly forgave a man's sin. And then that since Jesus was claiming to be God for, only God, can forgive sins into the religious Pharisees. That's this was a scandal. This is very thin. So they called it blasphemy and then they got upset as we saw last week because Jesus attended a feast at Levis house at Matthew's house, Levi being a tax collector, they could not in their mind understand why this young Rabbi this very popular Rabbi would spend time with sinners. And so here was another scandal. Jesus celebrating in and conversing with sinners. Until the versus we have read. Already this morning, It opens up another Scandal between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. But this time, it involves their Traditions. It involves their rituals as Jesus had the audacity to ignore their longtime rituals. He had the audacity to ignore their traditions, and they were offended by that once again.

It seems to me that no type of person is as hard to deal with. As religious persons. Are you take a person who is held by the grip of tradition? You take a person who is held by the grip of a ritual and legalism and if you step off their little belief system you will soon find out that they are as mean as a junkyard dog.

It won't take. But a second to see that their religion that their rituals at their tradition has never penetrated their heart and brought about true salvation and brought about true godliness. So this is the kind of people that Jesus Christ is dealing with in his Earthly Ministry, he is facing criticism from a group of people who claim to know God, but they do not know God. Now they know the rules, they know the rituals they know all the traditions and the things that they have been taught until them, but they do not know the life-changing power of a personal relationship with God as the Apostle. Paul would later on say they have a form of godliness, but they denied the power thereof. Don't want us to know this very quickly, this morning three screws that we see as Jesus answers his accusers here. I first of all noticed with me Jesus and the rebuke Jesus and the review Verse 18 tells us the Disciples of John and other Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to him, why do the Disciples of John and the Pharisees fast but your disciples do not fast. Well, we seeing this verse there, is this mention of a ritual. There is a mention of a, a particular tradition were told in this verse that the Pharisees along with the Disciples of John, the Baptist were known to observe fasting as part of their lifestyle. Now, we know fasting is a is something that is a of a self-denial and is a time of self-denial, that serves to focus the mind. It serves to focus the heart and an effort to grow spiritually during a period of fasting. The Flash is denied in the attention, then is given to seek in the very face of God. The one who is fasting might refrain from eating the mites refrain from sleeping or some other kind of physical fulfillment for a. Of time. But it's very interesting to notice that fasting was never, never commanded in the law of God, you'll never find that in scripture. But by the time Jesus appears in the time of Jesus fasting had become a big part of Jewish life. It is one of those many laws that the Pharisees had added on to the law of God, the Pharisees for instance, Fasted 2 days every week at according to Luke 18:25, it tells us that are they fasted every Monday and Thursday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. but yet they're fasting was not done in a sincere effort to seek the Lord. Know they fast in an attempt to seek the to impress God. They faster to impress more than that. The fastest to impress men. They was fast for 12 hour. And then they would become gluttons as soon as the fast was over. The Pharisees believe that God was Seether self-denial. And he will bless them for their sacrifice. They also did everything they could to make sure that others knew that they were fasting, they would wipe their faces. They were put ashes upon their head, they would wear a clothes and obvious disarray. They tried to look as sad and as much info as they possibly could, they wanted everyone to know those who passed them by that, what they were doing. They were fasting before the Lord. Not only did the religious Jews practice and regulate fasting, but here's what they did. They forced it upon others, to do it as well. They commanded others to do it. They expected the common man to follow their lead in fast. Like they did, you know? Because they were up here. Spiritually. If you don't do as what we do, then you're just not as spiritual as we are. so these men had elevated, a tradition of man a ritual of man until it had the same Authority as a law of God and that is legalism, that is really heresy to a certain extent. So, we see the ritual but then we notice and verse 18, this review. Going back to verse 18, Jesus and his disciples are enjoying a fees. They are enjoying a celebration at the house of Levi. But here's the problem. Jesus did not keep the Pharisees rules. These men had already decided. How good people were supposed to live a righteous. People were supposed to live, they sent the standard. Jesus refused to allow himself then to be pressed into their religious mold. He refused to allow dead rituals or man's rituals and traditions to become the focus of his life and Ministry. Now listen to me this morning, there is nothing wrong at all with fasting in and of itself. A man, there's nothing wrong with that and that is not what Jesus to say but it is when the rituals become more mere religious, lifeless routines. That's were trouble. Arises. Because it is, then that the ritual, oftentimes comes to take the place of God as the focus of true worship. Does the ritual can keep a lost person from trusting in God because the ritual is enough for the one who observes it. It can also keep the believer from experiencing genuine communion and genuine relationship with God. Again, some rituals are evil at their very core. I things like lighting candles for the dead or things like praying to Saints are praying to statues. That's heresy. That's a evil ritual. But even things like pray and singing, and going to church reading God's. Holy word can become nothing more than a lifeless routines. If we're not careful, if the focuses on the ritual on the tradition and not on the Lord himself, So we see Jesus and the review of noticed his response. Sexually notice Jesus response. Will a 19? We see something of an explanation. You responds to their criticism. I talkin about a wedding verse 19 and Jesus said to them. Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them. As long as they have the ride room with him, they cannot fast. The understand weddings in those days were nothing like nothing like the weddings in our day, okay? And our day, as soon as the wedding is over, The newlyweds, they head out on their honeymoon and all of the guests. They go home and then the parents of the bride and groom figure out how we're going to pay for all this wedding festivities.

Well, in Jesus Day sayings for much much different and those days as soon as the wedding was over the newlyweds, they hosted their families and friends in a week-long celebration. They would spend seven days feast and they will spend seven days celebrating and being treated like a king and queen. What is the best week of our lives? Especially if you consider the hardship that individuals face in those days and so I week-long wedding was something that they had to look forward to something that they celebrated.

But Jesus tells his critics. That his presence. Among his people. Is like that of a bridegroom among his friends. And so beloved, it is not a time for morning. It is not a time of self-denial. It is not a time of sadness, rather. It is a time for celebration and gladness to be sad the morning to fast while the Lord was present would be totally out of character with what the Lord was doing in those Day. Jesus is essentially saying I am here now, with my followers, with my friends and like a Jewish wedding Feast like a Jewish wedding celebration. This is a joyous occasion where the bridegroom and his friends are celebrating and they're not morning. It's a fasting. Here would be totally inappropriate.

Because his presents with them. Is a time of joy and celebration. Not a time of Sorrow. Certainly not a time of sadness. all beloved, we would do well, To heed the words of Jesus here. You think about a relationship with Jesus? Is not a time of. Is not something solemn. A relationship with Jesus is not a boring affair. It is a celebration.

It is a spiritual banquet. It is a time of joy and blessing. Of course, we should be holy. We should live righteously. But we don't have to do so and be somber about it. Amen. Jesus is with us.

We should be moral, yes. But we don't have to be legalistic. We should be righteous. But we don't have to be hard-hearted. Why? Because there is joy in the presence of Jesus. As a matter of fact, the New Testament States us having unspeakable joy and full of Glory. And so Christian, listen to me. Delaware living in difficult times. Christian do not mourn. It's a time to celebrate because Jesus is with us, his presence is with us. So we have this explanation. And then verse 20, we have this expectation. Verse 20 townhouses but the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast in those day. So Jesus having set the record straight. Jesus has all those who were listening that there will come a day. There will come a specific time when their bridegroom will be taken away. And that in that day, his disciples Jesus disciples will Fast and they will be sorrowful in that day. Now that phrase in verse 20, Ritz says will be taken away speaks of a sudden removal or what is Jesus referring to hear, what he's referring to the day that he will be taken away, arrested beaten and crucified on the cross of calvary. Hey listen in that. Dark day in that. Dreadful day his followers. Yes will mourn. His followers will then fast. I remember the kingdom of God. has made a personal appearance in Jesus, but the final victory has not yet been realized you see you in order to overcome seeing and death, the bridegroom must first become their victim, the bridegroom. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ would be snatched away to suffer alone on the cross of Calvary to atone, for our sins to Die. The death that we should have died to pay the price for sin. We should have paid, but yet Jesus Christ the bridegroom, he died in my place. He bore my he took on himself my judgment.

In reality God killed his son. So, he would not have to kill me.

Now. There is an appropriate time to fast into morn. Is when I consider the infinite price, paid for my sin and my savior. That when I think about my wretchedness in my sin and then look to Christ, all that should bring about a sense of mourning. Isaac, W Swope, wrote The Great him when I Survey the Wondrous Cross. On which the principal or he died. My richest gain, I count, but loss and pour contempt on All My Pride. Forbid. It Lord that I should boast save in the death of Christ. My God, all the vain things that Charming, most, I sacrificed them through his blood and then verse three, towels to see from his head, his hands his feet sorrow in love flow. Mingled down did are such love and sorrow, meet, or Thorns compose. So rich a crown. all there's ever a time that we are too fast and to mourn is when we look to the Cross of Christ, However we as Christians do so even with a sense of Celebration because even though that worst day had come and Jesus Paid his pay for our sins by the death on the cross, Jesus rose again and we serve a risen savior. Notice. Lastly, Jesus and his revelation.

The imagery that Jesus gives he now shifts. 22, very short parables. The connection to Jesus. And what his first coming means, I remember verse 17 and it taught us that Jesus came to save. Sinners not The self-righteous in verse 19 we we saw that Jesus came to bring gladness and not sadness. now the the pertinent question is Are the pertinent. Question is not why Jesus disciples did not fast rather. The greater question is why the Pharisees did not feast, and celebrate the presence of the Messiah who was before then? Hear Jesus, informs us that he came to make things new. he came not to to continue the old, he came not to extend the whole So listen, here's the point. With the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Judaism. Judaism must give way to Christianity. And rightly. So, For in Jesus, the Hebrew Faith Finds Its ultimate, fulfillment and completion. In Jesus Christ. So Jesus gives a short concise illustration. First of all numbers 21, we see the illustration of the clothes. Verse 21 says, no one shows a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment or else. The new piece pulls away from the old and The Tear is made worse to in this Parable. Or in this illustration, Jesus is showing the foolishness of the Pharisees attempting to somehow want to unite the gospel, and keep the old religion of Judaism Love that is foolish Jesus. The Same that is just as foolish as trying to patch an old worn-out garment, with a new on front piece of garments, Because when the new peace becomes wet Visa says, it will shrink, it will tear away and it will make even a larger hole. And so, with the coming of Jesus, everything is new. You cannot use Jesus as some new patch that we'll just that you're just going to put over the old clothes.

The ol. Was not necessarily bad. The old is just no longer usable. I listen to me, this is a little bit deep and I hope I pray that don't muddy up the waters, but listen to him in Judaism before Christ. Before the New, Covenant was not bad, okay? That was the religion that God had put in place. but after after the arrival of Jesus, which was the ultimate fulfillment of Judaism, it had been replaced to something much better than Judaism, okay? So to continue to try to prop it up. And give it a new face is useless. It is absolutely futile. Because again, the real object, That Judaism was picturing has arrived. It's on the scene. And when the real object has arrived, we do not continue then to worship The Shadow. Here, here's a verse to remember Hebrews, 10:1, Hebrews 10 and verse. Number one, it says, for the law, That is speaking about Judaism, for the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things can never know with these same sacrifices, which they continually year-by-year make those who reproach who approached perfect. And so, when the real object has come in this case, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no need whatsoever to continue to worship the Shadows. Now, to do, so would be to create a false religion. A religion that cannot save only damn, and that's exactly what happened and with a judaizers as Paul confronts them. In the Galatians where they were trying to mix the old Covenant with a new company, you had to have Jesus, but yet you had to be circumcised, you had to follow the law. That did nothing but create heresy. Can we see the illustration of the cloth? We see then also in verse 22, the illustration of the containers verse 22, talisis and no one puts new wine into the old wineskins or else, the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled and the wineskins are ruined, but knew why I must be put into new wineskins. Now, in these ancient times, and he's anxious anxious days in Jesus day, they did not have glass bottles. They did not have plastic containers to put their wine into as a matter fact that these ancient times a whenever a goat or a sheep was killed. The skin that she forgot was cut around the neck and the legs and pulled off the body in one piece. The leg openings would be sewed, shut, and they would be sealed. And what had been the goat's neck or the Sheep's neck would then be used as the spout. Maybe we should do that for our Lord's Supper you know to be more biblical. I don't know. Maybe not But the hide would be partially tanned.

Then this particular hide could be used as a wine bottle or a wineskin. The new wineskins were very elastic, they're very flexible, and would then allow the skin to stretch and to securely contain the new wine as the formation process. Would expand the wineskins. however, if you put new wine, In old wineskins that are not flexible, that is not elastic at all, but rather brutal and we win fermentation took place the expansion itself would burst the skins in both the wine and the wineskins would be lost and no one in that day. Was thinking about doing that. No one would think we're going to put this new wine in these old wineskins. They would never think that. So this Parable and the one about the patch, just previous to it both illustrate. The radical new era in Jesus is coming, Jesus, beloved is a new cloth and the new wine, he is not an attachment. He is not just the an addition to the status quo Jesus cannot be integrated into. He cannot be contained in the preexisting structure of structures. Even those things that were at one time. Very good such as Judaism and following the Torah and the synagogue and so forth. Again, the question is not whether the Pharisees will add Jesus to their teachings. I could have a list of traditions and rituals. Like sewing a new patch on an old garment. But whether they will forsake the shadow of the old Covenant, that's the question and then embrace the reality of the New Covenant in reality. They did not want to give up the old Covenant. Because in the old Covenant the Pharisees and the Sadducees in the Sanhedrin had power and with that power pay money and they did not want to give that up. He even when they knew the Messiah has come.

And so it is another question or excuse me. It is not a question, whether disciples will incorporate Jesus and their old way of life. Much like refilling an old container but whether they will become an entirely new vessels for the expanding fermentation of Jesus and the gospel in their life. The bottom-line Jesus did not come to blend his new way with our old ways of living and believing. Jesus came to redeem Sinners and give them New Life in him. This is why salvation is referred to as what the new birth. And sadly far too many are trying to sew the patch of Christianity into the old Garment of their lives and it will not work.

Jesus does not want to remodel your old life. He wants to make you new. He wants you to make. He wants to make you a new creature in him. Sally too many Want. Jesus. Just to feel the wind Skin of Their old belief system. They want Jesus, but they do not want. All the changes that Jesus brings in Beloved that will not work. All when Jesus comes in the changes, he makes are expensive. They're so expensive. They're so powerful. And so explosive that they totally destroyed the old and leave. Only the new You cannot mix Jesus.

And your old way of living. She believed it to be saved, you have to come to Jesus and completely forsake the rest. And when you do you will discover that he has the power to transform. You from what you are into what you could have never imagined. So the question is this morning, have you experienced the power of God and salvation?

Have you been guilty of trying to mix the old with the new? Have you been trying to apply the patch of Christianity to the Garment of your life friend? Listen, to me. If you're trying to do that, it will never work. You need to come to Jesus and you need to be saved. Maybe you've done all the rituals that, you know,

have you been baptized? You've become a member of a church. You joined the church, you've done it all, but you've never bow the knee. You've never truly bound your heart to the lordship of Jesus Christ. You have religion. But you don't have Jesus.

Maybe you're a Baptist. The Bingham Baptist doesn't make you a Christian. A lot of Baptist in hell.

I'll listen. Come to Jesus today. and if you are a Christian, you do not mourn. There's no reason to be sad because Jesus is with us, his presence is with us. The scriptures tell us that he's a friend that sticks closer than a brother and he'll never leave us. Nor forsake us. Let's pray together. Our Father, Thank you. Lord for This passage of scripture in the reminders lore that you give us. I pray. Lord that you.

Will give us a sense. Those of us who have crossed over death into life. Or just give us a new send. So the celebration that we have not because of any work that we've done but because of the work your son Jesus has done for us. and father, I pray that even in these sad days, That Lord that you would give us a joy. That is unspeakable and full of Glory. And father, I pray Lord for those that are here. That may be going through the motions in the rituals and traditions that they have been taught all of their life. But they know deep down within their heart that they have never truly been saved. Father I pray that the Holy Spirit would come among them and father draw them to your son. Jesus, that today would be the day that they call upon your son and salvation. Father, I pray that you take this word and seal it to our hearts, For Your Glory West, all of these things, in Christ, name. Amen. Let's all stand. We're going to have a him a response as we reflect upon the words of Our Lord.