Embrace Your New Life (Mark 2:18–22)
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Introduction
I believe God has a new thing that he wants to do in your life. So many of us are keeping one foot in the world, when God has called us to have both feet and everything in him. God has a new life, a better life for you, but we are so quick to embrace other things. Today, I want to encourage you to embrace the new life that God has for you. If you want to be used by God, you need to embrace what he has for you.
I was remembering the story of the YouVersion Bible app. Here are these Christians that are passionate about technology. In 2008, they created an app called the Bible app. It was one of the first 200 free apps on the Apple ITunes store in 2008. It saw 83,000 installs on the first 3 days. It reached 10 million installs by 2010, and has now been installed in more than 330 million devices. Here is a story of a computer app designer who God used according to his abilities. God used the app designer to reach millions of people and give them an opportunity to interact with God’s Word.
Christ took someone with abilities, someone willing to surrender his talents to the work of God, and used him for his glory in an amazing way. But I think sometimes we are reluctant to fully surrender. There are areas in our life that we hold onto. How can we learn to surrender and embrace the new life that God has for us?
We are continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark, and are in Mark 2, starting in verse 18.
Scripture Reading
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.
20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made.
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.”
Pray
What do these verses teach us about embracing the new life God has for us.
First,
Embrace your new life over stale religiosity.
Embrace your new life over stale religiosity.
A group of people came up to ask Jesus a question about his disciples. The ask him why his disciples were different. Look at verse 18:
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
It appears that John’s disciples had a similar pattern of fasting that the Pharisees did. We don’t know much about what happened to John’s disciples. We know that some of his disciples became Christians, while others continued to follow his lead.
But we do know about the fasting practices of the Pharisees. The Old Testament called for a fast once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:26-32). But the Pharisees sought strict ways to purify their minds and souls. They would participate in a fast twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. They believed if they could abstain from food and drink, they would demonstrate that they were humble and devoted to God, and that practice would purify their souls of any impurities.
Since the people are grouping the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees, it’s likely they both followed a similar pattern of fasting. At least for the Pharisees, their religiosity was a source of pride for them. Their strict adherence to the Law and their practice of fasting showed their devotion to being religious to others.
Jesus described the practice of the Pharisees in Matthew 6:16-18:
16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.
17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,
18 so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
The term “hypocrites” is a term that Jesus used for the Pharisees. It is a term from the Greek culture that referred to an actor. The actors would play different characters on stage and use masks and costumes to hide their identity. The actor would pretend to be someone they were not in order to entertain the audience.
When Jesus used the term, it described them as people who wore a mask to hide their true person on the inside. When he says, “Don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. They make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people.” What he is saying is that they are wearing a mask and putting on a show for people. Their religiosity is not for God. It is for people.
Jesus spoke about the Pharisees fasting twice a week. We see that in a story that Jesus spoke about between a Pharisee and a tax collector who were in the temple praying. Jesus described the Pharisee praying this way in Luke 18:11-12:
11 The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’
From this text, you really get a sense of how much pride the Pharisees took in their religiosity. This Pharisee is thanking God for how good he is! He is saying, “God, thank you that I’m not like all of these bad people. Instead, look at how religious I am! I fast twice a week, way beyond what the Law says, and I give a tenth of everything I get.”
Remember the original question. They went to Jesus and asked, “Why is it that John the Baptist’s disciples fast, and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” What’s wrong with this question?
Sometime, when you ask a question, you miss the point of what’s in front of you. The question was basically, “Why don’t your disciples behave like all of these other religious people? They want to be religious, don’t they? Why don’t they behave like our religious culture?” The question should be, “Are these religious people missing something?”
Our religion becomes a stale practice when we forget the point of why we are doing what we doing in the first place. When religion stops being about having an encounter with the living God, religion becomes less about God and more about culture.
We see this today. There are all kinds of people who don’t know what it is to connect with God, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to seek to know God according to his standard. Instead, they put on masks and try to be religious by adapting to a culture.
This is a big issue with Jews and Catholics, who have never had an encounter with God. Instead, they take on religious acts and practices. They go through the rituals and become culturally Jewish or culturally Catholic. But if you ask them who God is, you will get a range of answers, most of which end up sounding agnostic. They’ve picked up a culture, but do not know the living God.
The Christian church also has it’s culture. You can grow up in church, go through the motions, sing the songs, greet people, go to VBS, do all of the things and feel good about yourself as a religious person. But all of the while, you’ve never encountered God in prayer, never had a heart transformation by the Holy Spirit, never repented of sin and turned your life to Christ.
The Christian life is not about adapting a culture, but about embracing a new life that comes through a heart transformation from Jesus. God does not want people who are culturally Christian, but live like the world on a day-to-day basis. Christianity is not about living in an old culture, or in a stale religion. Christianity is about embracing a new life.
Embrace a new life over stale religiosity.
Second,
Embrace your new life to understand God’s work in your moment.
Embrace your new life to understand God’s work in your moment.
In response to the question from the group about fasting, Jesus answers the question this way in verses 19-20:
19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast.
20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
Now, remember what Jesus is answering. The question was, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees?” Jesus’ answer describes that they were constrained and confined to the Old Testament Law, but they didn’t understand that God was doing something new in their moment.
God was doing a new thing, and the Jewish leadership were missing it because they were confined to a stale religion that looked good on the outside, but inside God was not present. God was not working on the inside.
If God were working on the inside, they would have realized that the bridegroom, the Son of God, the Lord, was with them in their midst!
When you are fasting, you are in a place of repentance or mourning and anticipating that God will do something great. Fasting would be done during mourning in anticipation of God’s comfort. Fasting would be done in anticipation of God’s will in a situation, such as David’s fast for his son in 2 Sam 12:16. Fasting was done to seek God in anticipation of an upcoming battle (Judges 20:26) or a safe journey in Ezra 8:21.
So Jesus’ response to the question is this: “Why would my disciples fast? What are they anticipating? Everything that Israel has been anticipating is here, in your midst, in me, the Messiah!” That’s why he says that “the wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is present with them.” This is another declaration in the Scriptures where Jesus is saying, “I am who you have been waiting for! I am the Messiah. Don’t miss it.”
Jesus uses the image of a bridegroom at his wedding. Weddings in first century Israel were joyous and festive occasions that involved the whole community. If you were a wedding guest, you were a part of this joyous occasion. The wedding was a time to celebrate the beginning of a new life between a bride and a groom.
The wedding imagery that Jesus uses is a picture that the prophet Isaiah uses to speak of the God of Israel. The prophet says in Isaiah 54:5:
5 Indeed, your husband is your Maker— his name is the Lord of Armies— and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of the whole earth.
The husband, the bridegroom, is the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth! Or look at Isaiah 62:5:
5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you; and as a groom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
Why would their be fasting when the bridegroom is present with his people? The presence of Jesus is a reason for rejoicing, because he has come for his bride. God rejoices over his people, and his people rejoice over him.
The point in Jesus’ response is they are missing the moment. God is fulfilling his promises to them in their midst, and they are missing it. They are tied down and trapped to looking backwards, when God wants them to be present in the moment and see the work that he is doing.
We do the same thing. We get caught up in our past, and we lose focus on what God is doing today, in the moment.
Often, we live in one of two places, but neither of them are in the moment. Sometimes we are living in the past. We are caught in our regrets, or in our memories of good times, or in whatever it is. Maybe we are upset at something we have done.
I’ve counseled many men with addiction issues. And what happens is, when you get some sobriety, you sort of come out of this haze, and you finally get some clarity. But when you do, it’s almost like you wake up to a war zone. You knew things weren’t great, but you were numb to it before. Now, you see this big mess around you.
Many of those guys would feel regret over what they had done. They would start to get depressed, and start reliving all of those things they had done in the past.
Sometimes, you’re living in a different moment. Sometimes, its in the future. You’re so worried about what might happen. I would see this with the guys often. They were so worried about getting a job, and if they would only get a job, then everything would be better. They would spend time spinning their minds on the future.
But, you don’t live either in the past or in the future. Sure, you may have consequences from past decisions. Sure, their may be things you need to pay attention to that are coming up. But neither of those moments are the present.
The truth is, we only ever have the present, this moment. You need to know what God is doing in your present life. There may be an amazing story of God’s work in your life in the past, and that’s awesome, that’s part of your story. God has an incredible future for you in Christ. But don’t miss what God is doing right now! How many of you believe that God wants to do a work in your present life, right now?
I was reminded of this yesterday. I was in a pastor’s meeting this past week in Tennessee, where a bunch of pastors from around the country were meeting to discuss discipleship in our churches. It ended with a time of worship. The pastor preached a powerful word, and many of us were in tears as you could sense the presence of God in the room. Men were confessing and sharing things. There was repentance in the room. Pastors hugged each other, and we lifted hands in worship to God.
That time was a reminder to me of the presence of God right now, in our moment. Christianity is not just about an old thing that happened 2,000 years ago, although the cross and resurrection is essential to our faith. Christianity isn’t even just about your salvation story, which is awesome when you look back and see what God did. Sometimes Christians get the idea that after they get saved, that’s it. They just wait around for others to get saved, and then we all go to heaven.
Salvation is not the finish line. It is the starting line. There is a move of God that he wants to do right now, in your moment. But it happens when you die to self and embrace the new life God has for you right now, today.
Embrace a new life over stale religiosity.
Embrace a new life to understand God’s work in our moment.
Third,
Embrace the new life God has given you and live it out.
Embrace the new life God has given you and live it out.
Jesus follows up his response to the question of fasting with his statement about the bridegroom, and then he adds this verses 21-22:
21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made.
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.”
Now the picture of unshrunk cloth on an old garment and new wine into old wineskins is a repetition of the same idea. Repetition is often seen in the Old Testament as a way to emphasize a point. It will say it one way, and then rephrase the same thing in a different way. For instance, in Proverbs 3:5-6: “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.” The same thing is repeated in different ways. Jesus used this same method of Hebraic teaching in his own teaching.
The first picture might be more familiar. Suppose you have an old t-shirt, and that shirt has already shrank one size too small. It’s not weight, we’ll blame the dryer. But, then you have a new piece of unshrunken t-shirt cloth that you sow on to the old t-shirt. You go and dry it on extra high heat. The unshrunken cloth will shrink, but the old cloth will not, and it will end up tearing.
The second picture of a wineskins is the same idea, but not as familiar. New wine would be put in new wineskins, which were actually new animal skins. Why is that? The new wine would ferment in the wineskin, and the gases in the new wine would cause the wineskins to expand and stretch. You needed new wineskins, which would be flexible enough to expand.
Old wineskins would be stiff and brittle. You couldn’t put new wine into old wineskins, because the old wineskins would crack and break under the pressure of the gases in the fermenting wine.
Now, what in the world does all this mean? What was Jesus trying to teach? Remember the question. “Jesus, why don’t your disciples fast like the Pharisees?” The Pharisees were following old traditions, old things that had no power. They were attempting to justify themselves according to the Law.
The Law is God’s Word. But the Pharisees misunderstood the purpose of the Law. The Law came to show people that they couldn’t try to justify themselves to God. This is what the Pharisees were doing. They were trapped in legalism, when God was doing a new work in their midst.
The Law exposes the fact that we are dead inside, and need a new life in Jesus Christ. John says it this way in John 1:17:
17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Jesus is saying, “Pharisees, you are still looking backwards, and attempting to justify yourselves through Moses. The Law came through Moses, but the Law was not the end. It was the means to get you to look at God’s new work of Christ, of his grace and truth in your life.
Now, the new life of grace and truth don’t mix with a heart that is holding on to old things. The Pharisees are being called to repent of their old life, turn from their old life, so God’s new life can work inside, and their would be a filling of his work within them.
Do we do this? Yes, we do! People become Christians, and then they attempt to live a Christian life that walks as close to the line of salvation as possible, with one foot in the world and one foot in Christ. That is a miserable way to live out your Christianity. That is not the life that Christ has for you. New wine is not meant to be poured into old wineskins. Your old life is to stiff and brittle to handle the new things that God wants to do in your life.
The Bible is clear. We need to die to self to live for Christ. Jesus says it this way in Luke 9:23:
23 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
What does it mean to take up your cross? The cross is a symbol of death. There is a death that has taken part in our life, and we need to claim that death to ourselves daily. Jesus is calling you to take up your cross daily and follow him.
We are called to die to ourselves daily and follow him. Jesus says it this way in John 12:24-25:
24 Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.
25 The one who loves his life will lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Where are you in this? Are you holding on to old things in this world? Are you attempting to keep one foot in the world? Do you love your life in this world more than you love your Lord? God is calling you to die to self. When you are broken, when there is a humble and contrite heart, the Spirit does his work. When you die to self, you will produce much fruit. Embrace the new life God has given you. Die to self, and live out the new life God has for you.
What does dying to self look like? I heard a pastor share this story about meeting Billy Graham. He got to meet Billy Graham towards the end of his life. He said he shared his testimony with Billy Graham, and Billy said, “The gospel still works!” He commented that all Billy spoke about was Jesus. Here was this man with a big platform, and he couldn’t stop speaking about Jesus. Billy asked the Reverend who led his funeral to make his speech not about Billy, but about Jesus.
Jesus will not share his throne with anyone. He won’t let you sit beside him on the throne in your heart. No, the Lord is on the throne, and if you want him to work in your life, make much of Jesus in your life. Embrace the new life that God has given you, and live out your life for Jesus.
Conclusion
Embrace a new life over stale religiosity.
Embrace a new life to understand God’s work in our moment.
Embrace the new life God has given and live it out.
Conclude
Prayer
Last Song
Doxology
24 “May the Lord bless you and protect you;
25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’
24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy,
25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
You are dismissed. Have a great week in the Lord!
