The Authority of the King

INTRO

Conquering King; Suffering Servant

Conflict Narrative — 5 in Chapter 2 & beginning of Chapter 3

Heals the Paralytic | Meal with Tax Collectors & Sinners | Fasting | Sabbath | Heals man with withered hand —> on the Sabbath

Authority of Jesus - Because he is the Son of God - God the Son.

Illustration of Confusion:

NFL lineman Jim Marshall was part of the revered “Purple People Eater” Minnesota Viking defensive line. For twenty seasons he never missed a game, earning a reputation for toughness and reliability. On October 25, 1964, he made a mistake…

VIDEO

At the end of video you see the player from the other team trot up and pat him on the back, and thank him. Marshall suddenly realized that he was standing in the wrong end zone.

(He had just scored a safety, giving two points to the 49ers. The Vikings still won that day, thanks to eight total turnovers from the 49ers.

On the return flight to Minnesota, teammates ribbed Marshall, who said he simply got confused. “They kept telling me to get up in the cockpit and fly the plane. That way we'd end up in Hawaii instead of Minnesota.”)

TENSION

In football, as in much of life, it doesn’t matter that you’re doing something earnestly if you are NOT doing the right thing.

Fasting & Sabbath

Celebration & Mourning 2. New Nature of the Kingdom 3. Purpose of Disciplines

TRUTH

Mark 2:18–28 (ESV)

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

PRAY

Celebration & Mourning 2. New Nature of the Kingdom 3. Purpose of Disciplines

1) Celebration & Mourning

Fasting - OT —> Intertestimental period —> NT —> “abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink, especially as a religious observance.”

OT — Reserved for mourning/crying out to God (David after his son with Bathsheba is born).

Only required on Day of Atonement OR special institution

Intertestimental — Fencing the Torah

Developed lots of extra rules & regulations - including Sabbath (we will talk about later)

NT - Three types of Fasting

National Tragedy | Crises (war, plague, drought, famine, etc.) | Self imposed (Pharisees fasted on Mondays & Thursdays)

Pharisees would look disgruntled and uncomfortable — became a sign of their piety - Jesus will later tell his disciples to wash their face & act normal when you fast…

“People” ask why Jesus’ disciples aren’t fasting — NOT the Pharisees — Would have been expected at this point of religious folk like them.

FEASTING — Jesus doesn’t just answer them, or tell them they are FASTING WRONG — He teaches them

Mark 2:19–20 “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.”

Lots of Layers to these verses.

WEDDING — Huge banquet - would last a week.

Even Rabbis were excused from their duties & religious observance — would not fast during the celebration.

BRIDEGROOM — In Isaiah 54 the prophet tells us that God himself is the Husband (bridegroom) of Israel “For your Maker is your husband,

the LORD of hosts is his name;”

Here again is a claim by Jesus to be GOD — the Conquering King — Maybe even more scandalous than if he had simply said “I am God.”

FEASTING — The followers of Jesus are to be a people of JOY — They were accused of being drunkards — In contrast to the miserable Pharisees.

Maybe the first allusion to his crucifixion — “When the bridegroom is taken away” —> Appropriate fasting (in mourning).

But Jesus isn’t done teaching…

2) New Nature of the Kingdom

Two Parables of Old vs. New

Mark 2:21 “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.”

Common example that everyone would have understood… Old has been shrunk and settled into its position — the new would make a bigger hole!

Mark 2:22 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.””

Another common example, easily understood — New wine would release gasses and would would burst the already stretched thin OLD wineskins — You would have to have a whole new housing for this New things.

What’s the point?

Old = the teaching & practices of the Pharisees & Religious Leaders.

What Jesus has brought — the inauguration of the Kingdom — Can’t simply be added to these religious practices.

Isaiah 43:18–19 ““Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

The New Covenant Jesus will institute cannot be contained by these old rigid, cold, dead practices — A New Creation — Born Again!

This must have upset the Pharisees…

3) Purpose of Disciplines

Apparently the Pharisees have taken to spying on Jesus & his disciples — Maybe they are following him — looking for something to accuse him of…

They find them picking grain on the Sabbath so they can eat — This was allowed for the poor (Duet. 23:25) — But not on the Sabbath.

Jesus could have simply corrected their view of the Sabbath & observing the Sabbath — Which he sort of will eventually…

David & his soldiers: Mark 2:25–26 “And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”

Again, Lots of Layers to these verses…

Insulting to begin, “Have you never read”…

He gives an example of another regulation that is side-stepped due to need… But why this example?

David — The greatest King in Israel’s history — Authority — The Messiah is supposed to come from the Line of David — One with even greater Authority!

Vs. 27-28 HE SPELLS IT OUT FOR THEM: And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.””

Reinterprets (or Redeems) the Sabbath.

The point is not to keep all of these regulations! (Could not do any work, walk a certain distance, save an animal, help people in collapsed building, etc.) — Some traditions as many as 39 regulations!

As the Message reads; “The Sabbath was made to serve us; we weren’t made to serve the Sabbath.”

Only one of these was made in the image of God!

God rested on the 7th day to give us an example — We NEED to REST — We have to! — It reminds us that we are NOT God - we will can’t just keep going.

Mark for You Jesus and the Sabbath

The real irony in this story is that the Pharisees are doing something unlawful with the Sabbath. They are working on the Sabbath by turning the Sabbath into a work. They think of the Sabbath as a way to earn God’s blessing and acceptance. But the Sabbath is not a work that we bring to God so he can be impressed with how well we are resting. The Sabbath is not the point; it is a pointer. The original Sabbath provision of rest points to Jesus’ greater provision of rest.

“Son of Man” — Again claims to be God & have AUTHORITY even over the institution of Rest!

Basically - “The Sabbath is to honor me anyway —

CONCLUSION

The Authority of Jesus — Conquering King — FULFILLMENT

The Early Church did not see themselves as outside of Judaism — “Christian” was an outsider term - only used twice in Scripture

They were called The Way — The fulfilment of what they had been doing & had been promised.

Diaspora after Pentecost —> Driven out of Jerusalem —> The Mission of the church.

Must be Born Again - John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.””

New Life in Christ

You cannot simply add him to the trappings of your current life - it takes a new wineskin to contain the new wine that is life in Christ.

Spiritual Disciplines

Feasting & Fasting —> Good Things! —> Just don’t miss the LORD!

Feasting — Celebration of what God has done - reminders; remember

Fasting — “Fasting is a vehicle for creating intense focus and fuller concentration on the things of God.” - Tim Keller

If we forget the grace of God through Jesus the disciplines (Bible Reading, Prayer, Silence, Solitude, Sabbath, Fasting) will become cold ways of attempting to earn God’s favor — WE CAN NOT — But with Grace in sight, these become methods of driving us to dependence on & communion with the Lord.

David — “A man after God’s own heart” | 1 Samuel 16:7 “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” | Psalm 51 “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise”

God want us — Not our performances.

The chief end of man is to glorify God & enjoy him forever!

Sabbath Rest — Planning a Series on this

Hebrews 4:9–10 “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

We are returning to a Completer Sabbath rest — when death & decay, pain & struggle, tears & mourning, will be no more! — but we don’t have to wait to enter the “rest” that Jesus has provided through his finished work on the Cross.

“In the beginning, God said, “my work is finished!” so he could rest. On the cross. Jesus said, “my work is finished!” so we could rest.” - Tim Keller

Have you found that rest? Have you been born again - prepared to receive the “new wine” of Jesus?

Rest from the toil of this life — doesn’t mean an easy life — but REST from trying to “live up to something” you never can & never will — It’s exhausting — Find true rest in the Lord of the Sabbath — Jesus Christ.

Come forward —

PRAY

Lord of the Sabbath —>

Fasting & Feasting —>