RELATIONSHIP OVER RELIGION (MARK 2:18-22)

Mark 2:18–22 (NIV)

18Now 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?”

19Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them.

20But 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.

22And 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.”

Jesus is in the business of stirring up trouble! From the time He appeared and began His earthly ministry, to the moment He ascended back into Heaven, Jesus was busy upsetting tradition, tipping sacred cows, and doing the opposite of the way things have always been done.

Where the Jews were concerned, Jesus was involved in one religious scandal after another.

Jesus had already offended the religious Jews when He forgave a man’s sins, 2:5.

Then they got upset because He is attending a feast at Matthew’s house, 2:16.

Matthew was a tax collector and they could not understand why this apparently religious Jew was spending time with sinners.

The verses we have read today open up another scandal between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. This time it involves their traditions. Jesus dared to ignore their rituals and they are offended once again!

It seems to me that no type of person is as hard to deal with as a religious person. You take a person who is held in the grip of tradition, ritual, and legalism; if you step on their little belief system, you will soon discover that most of them are as mean as the devil.

It won’t take long to see that their religion has never penetrated their heart and brought about true salvation and godliness. That is the kind of people Jesus is facing in these verses.

He is facing criticism from a group of people who do not know God. They know the rules, the rituals and the things they have been taught by others, but they do not know the life changing power of a personal relationship with God.

There are three things that I see in our scripture that will help us to not be a modern day pharisee.

First of all....

WE NEED TO HAVE THE RIGHT CONVERSATION V18-20

The Pharisees tell Jesus, You know John and his disciples fast. Why don’t your disciples fast? Probably meaning that they did not fast so frequently as the others did, or for the same purposes, which is very likely, for the Pharisees had many superstitious fasts.

They fasted in order to have lucky dreams,

They fasted to obtain the meaning of a dream,

they fasted not to have nightmares.

They fasted to gain things they wanted

They fasted to recover things that they lost

They actually had a calendar that they would follow. They had set days that they would fast. They would have the mindset of I can’t have joy this day. All sackcloth and ashes.

Then other days when fasting wouldn’t be on the calendar. On these days they would have the mindset of okay, I can have joy today, I can appear to be upbeat and happy.

Their are certain attitudes that are very common to Pharisees. And you don’t have to be a leader to have a pharisee spirit.

1. Pharisee’s are more busy in correcting the conduct of others than working on their own.

2. Pharisee’s desire that every one should regulate their self-righteousness by theirs; and embrace their particular customs and forms of devotion.

3. Pharisee’s speak and compare themselves with other people, only that they may have an opportunity of puffing and exalting themselves.

Jesus answers the pharisee’s criticism on why his disciples don’t fast with saying...“How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them.”

Jesus was saying that his disciples are the guests and that he is the bridegroom. Now fasting was only commanded once but it was practiced many times in the Old Testament and it was in connection to the day of atonement.

The Day of Atonement is A day on which Israel fasted, cleansed the sanctuary of impurity, and dealt with their sin through blood rituals and sending a goat into the wilderness.

Now remember how we talked a couple weeks ago about how the pharisees were mad because Jesus said that he has authority to forgive sins. Picture this, they have this grand festival. It’s like the mercer county fair or the bean bake.

You have all your ducks in a row. You know who does what and when they do it and then someone shows up and changes everything.

This is essentially what Jesus did. He messed up their system.

They had a priest who would atone for people’s sins,

they fasted and lamented,

they brought animals for sacrifices,

they had a sin offering, a grain offering, burnt offering, peace offering and guilt offering.

They had all this and then Jesus shows up and messes everything up!

Jesus didn’t have his disciples fast while he was with them because He is the ATONEMENT.

He is the one that will cleanse the sanctuary of impurity and deal with sin by the shedding of his blood for the remission of sins.

Jesus is the goat who would be sent into the wilderness.

It wasn’t so much the fasting that the pharisee’s were upset about because Jesus fasted, his disciples fasted but it was at different times and different purposes then the pharisee’s.

Remember Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights.

What the Pharisee’s were upset about was that they were losing their control...

It makes me think of how we all have A spiritual gift. Spiritual gifts are given to build up and encourage the church.

There are many gifts but only one body. A couple examples of spiritual gifts are the gift of helps and the gift of teaching.

Some have the gift of helps, while others have the gift of teaching.

They are both used to serve God’s kingdom. What isn’t serving God’s kingdom, is when we think everyone should be doing what we are doing....and doing it how we do it!

Along with having the right conversation....

WE NEED TO PUT ON THE RIGHT CLOTHING V21.

Another illustration Jesus uses is one they would have all know well.

In that day, clothes were not thrown out when they became warn or torn.

Every mother was a so-er and she would patch those clothes so that their lifespan would be extended.

Most of us think nothing about throwing out old clothes when they have become worn or torn.

But, I am sure there are some here who can remember having to wear clothes with patches on them because your family couldn’t afford to buy new clothes.

That was the situation in nearly every home in Jesus’ time.

If a person took a torn and worn garment and sewed in a new piece of cloth as a patch, the first time it got wet and dried, the new piece of cloth would shrink.

When it did, it would pull apart the older, weaker garment and the hole would be worse than before.

Both the new patch and the old garment would be lost. The spiritual principle here is very clear.

The old cannot be blended with the new! Judaism, with its external rituals,rules and religion could not contain Christianity with its emphasis on an Eternal relationship with God.

Especially when it came to the new sacrificial system of Jesus being the lamb of God who would pay the ultimate sacrifice.

Jesus did not come to blend His teaching with the teachings of the Law. Jesus came to fulfill the Law and deliver His people from the bondage of manmade rules and rituals.

They taught that you had to be circumcised; obey the dietary laws; and live like a Jew. They taught that Christianity was to be an extension of Judaism

Jesus has fulfilled every demand of the Law and we must never try to blend old Law with new grace.

In Jesus, we are free from man-made laws and legalism! We obey the law of God such as the 10 commandments, but we are not saved by it.

The Pharisee’s were focused on external righteousness. They were focused on how they looked on the outside, their reputation and how other’s seen them

but Jesus was concerned with internal righteousness. That our heart, motives and minds are aligned with God’s.

Even the best religious works of the best Jew were nothing more than filthy rags, rotten in the sight of God,

Jesus came to give lost men a robe of righteousness that will allow them to stand complete and whole in the sight of God!

Not only do we need to have the right conversation and the right clothing but we also need to use the right containers.

WE NEED TO USE THE RIGHT CONTAINERS V22.

The next illustration Jesus uses would also have been understood by all who heard Him speak that day.

Jesus uses an image of wine bottles because Glass and plastic bottles did not exist in those days.

Ancient people often used the skin of a goat as a container for their wine.When a goat was killed, the skin was cut around the neck and the legs and pulled off the body in one piece.

The leg openings would be sewed shut and sealed. And what had been the goat’s neck would be used as a spout.

The hide would be partially tanned. Then, this hide could be used as a wine bottle, or a wineskin.

The hide was very elastic and would expand as the wine fermented inside.

These wineskins dried out over time and became brittle. If new wine was poured into an old wineskin and began to ferment,

the old wineskin couldn’t stretch to accommodate the gases put off by the fermenting wine and would burst.

The wine and the wineskin would both be lost. Thus, the tragedy would be twice as great. The only fit container for new wine was a new wineskin.

Again, the spiritual principle is clear. Judaism, with its rituals and rules, could not contain the ministry and message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He did not come to pour the new wine of His Spirit into hearts that were trying to please God by keeping the rules and traditions of men. Jesus came to give new life to lost sinners.

He came to take the old wineskins of our flesh and make us new by His power. When He has transformed us through the new birth, we are ready to receive the new wine of His Spirit.

Religion, religious rituals and the traditions of men will not repair your old man; those things merely hold him down for a little while.When Jesus moves in, He creates a new life within you.

The new life He places in you begins to work its way out of you. Before long, what the Lord has done on the inside becomes clear on the outside as He changes the old man into a new creature for the glory of the Lord.

The new wine of Jesus on the inside will burst the wineskin of the old man on the outside. This old flesh cannot contain the work of God in the heart!

As Jesus fills the wineskin of our lives, He stretches us to new limits. The inner pressure of His presence displaces unneeded things and fills every area of our lives.

This new life is so powerful, so dynamic and so different that the old wineskins of religion and old ways of living must give way to the new life He places within us.

Let me make it clear that Jesus did not come to destroy the Law, He came to fulfill it.

Like old wineskins, the Pharisees and indeed the entire religious system of Judaism were too rigid to accept Jesus, who could not be contained in their traditions or rules.

They were the self-appointed guardians of the “old garments” and the “old wineskins.” Christianity required new approaches and new structures.

Our church programs and ministries should not be so structured that they have no room for a fresh touch of the Spirit, a new method, or a new idea.

We, too, must be careful that our heart does not become so rigid that it prevents us from accepting the new way of thinking that Christ brings. We need to keep our heart pliable so we can accept Jesus’ life-changing message.

APPLICATION

Far too many are trying to sew the patch of Christianity into the old garment of their lives.

It will not work! Jesus does not want to remodel your old life; He wants to make you into a new creature!

Too many want Jesus to fill the wineskin of their old belief system.

They want Jesus, but they do not want all the changes He brings. That will not work either!

When Jesus comes in, the changes He makes are so expansive, so powerful and so explosive, that they totally destroy the old and leave only the new.

You cannot mix Jesus and your religion.

You cannot mix Jesus and your old way of living. To be saved, you have to come to Jesus and completely forsake the rest.

When you do, you will discover that He has the power to transform you from what you are into what you could never have imagined.