Jesus Makes Things New

Good Morning

Do you remember the chiropractor joke I told you

June 7th

It was about a weak back!!

Let’s Pray

We are going to be in Mark 2:18-22. Last week we saw Jesus call a tax collector to follow Him. The most hated group of people in the country, and Jesus called him. Mark also showed us why Jesus came, for the sinners! He came to call sinners to repent and believe in Him. Jesus went out and met the sinners in the sin and dirtiness. He didn’t wait for them to get clean or to get their act together. He didn’t wait for them to be good enough, He went to them and lifted them out of their filth and made them new. Today we are going to see Jesus answer why His disciples weren’t fasting and two parables that He tells about His new covenant.

Please stand as we read God’s Word.

Mark 2:18–22 (NASB 2020)

18 John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “While the groom is with them, the attendants of the groom cannot fast, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the days will come when the groom is 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 patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”

The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting regularly. John’s disciples were most likely fasting in anticipation of the coming Messiah. The Pharisees on the other hand strictly observed all the ritual fasts prescribed in the OT. They had also added fasting on Monday and Thursday. There was only annual fast that is required of all of Isreal in the Old Testament, and is the only yearly fast mentioned in the New Testament. There were other fasts that the Israelites did, expressing humility and repentance or preparing to inquire of God. None of these fast were mandated by the Bible. After their exile, four other yearly fasts were observed.

Zechariah 8:19

Zechariah 8:19 (NASB 2020)

19 “The Lord of armies says this: ‘The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth months will become joy, jubilation, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah; so love truth and peace.’

The added Monday and Thursday were more than likely added as a sign of their personal piety and consecration. It was not done for the right reasons. They did it to make them seem righteous. The prophets’ warned that fasting without a repentant heart and right conduct was a wast of time.

Isaiah 58:3–6 (NASB 2020)

3 ‘Why have we fasted and You do not see?

Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’

Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,

And oppress all your workers.

4 “Behold, you fast for contention and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist.

You do not fast like you have done today to make your voice heard on high!

5 “Is it a fast like this that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself?

Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed

And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?

Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?

6 “Is this not the fast that I choose:

To release the bonds of wickedness,

To undo the ropes of the yoke,

And to let the oppressed go free,

And break every yoke?

Also in

Zechariah 7:5–6 (NASB 2020)

5 “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? 6 And when you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?

Many believed vigorous fasting was foolproof way to of earning God’s favor or action. The Pharisees’ own intentions resembled this misconception since they sought to earn God’s rescue from Roman oppression through national purity and obedience. This is why they were asking why Jesus’ disciples were not fasting. Did they not care about God delivering them from the Romans?

The only time we know of Jesus fasting was in the desert during His temptation. Jesus is not opposed to fasting. He assumed His followers would fast. We see this in Matthew 6:16

Matthew 6:16 (NASB 2020)

16 “Now whenever you fast, do not make a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they distort their faces so that they will be noticed by people when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.

Jesus taught His disciples the correct way to fast. Their fast were to be genuine and directed at God. They were not to be a public display to earn praise or to appear righteous.

Jesus answered the question by telling a parable about a wedding feast. Jesus is the bridegroom and the disciples are the guests at the wedding. Back then, the wedding didn’t start until the bridegroom arrived. When he arrived, that is when the celebration of the wedding began. This was a time of joy and happiness, not mourning. Fasting while the bridegroom was there would be inappropriate and not even thought of. Him being there with them is a joyous occasion, not a time of grief and sadness.

We would do well to listen to Jesus’ words. A relationship with Jesus is not a solemn, boring event. It is a celebration, a spiritual banquet of joy and blessings! We should be holy, but we must not be gloomy. We should be moral but not legalistic and righteous but not stern. Why should be be that way? Because there is joy in Jesus! Do not mourn when it is time to celebrate! If Jesus is your Lord and Saviour, then it is a time of joy and celebration!!

In Jesus’ parable, He talks about the bridegroom being taken away. This would have been different. At the normal wedding celebration, it would be the guests that eventually leave, not the bridegroom. Jesus was referencing His death on the cross. He was going to be taken away from His disciples by the Pharisees. The bridegroom, our Lord Jesus, would be snatched away to suffer alone on the cross to atone for our sins, to die the death we should have died. He paid the price for sin we should have paid. He died in my place. He bore my wrath. He took on my judgement. God killed His Son so He wouldn’t have to kill me. There is appropriate time to fast and mourn. It is when I consider the infinite price paid for my sins by my Savior.

Mark tells us to more parables that Jesus told about how He came to make things new. First we see the parable about the new patch sewn onto the old cloth. This makes perfect sense to me, with all the sewing I’ve done, not!! I have never sown anything that I can remember. Even so, this still makes since to me. New clothes will shrink when washed, unless they have been pre shrunk. If we were to so a new non shrunk cloth onto old clothes that have already been washed several times and no longer shrink, when washed the new cloth would shrink and pull away from the old cloth making the hole even worse than before.

What Jesus is saying is that Christianity can not be united to Judaism. With the coming of Jesus, everything is new. The old is no longer usable. It has to be replaced with something better. To continue to try and use it and give it a new face is useless. It is not Jesus plus something else. It is either all Jesus or none of Jesus. Our salvation is in faith alone in Christ alone. It is popular to say today that all religions are basically the same. That all roads lead to God. This is called religious pluralism, and it claims that if you follow the teachings of Buddha, you will eventually be in a right relationship with God. They also claim, there are multiple Hindu ways to Hindu gods. They claim that there is a Muslim way to God, a Jewish way to God, and for us, a Christian way to God. Whichever path you take, you’ll get to the same destination eventually. All roads lead to the divine. Jesus can not be added to these old ways. They are incompatible. It is Jesus and only Jesus. When the real thing has arrived, we do not continue to worship the shadow.

The other parable is about new wine in old wine skins. In the ancient world the skins of goats were stripped off as whole as possible. They would clean them and then sew up all the holes. They would use the neck and the spout and fill it with new wine. These new fresh skins were naturally flexible and stretchy. They were also very strong. As the wine would ferment, the skins would stretch and expand keeping the new wine safe and secure inside. However, if you put new wine into an old wineskin that had dried out, when the wine fermented, it would bust open the dried and stiff old wineskin. The wine and the wineskin would be lost. This would be common knowledge. No one would put new wine into old wineskins. That is why Jesus used this parable. It goes along with the cloth parable. Jesus is the new cloth and the new wine. He is not an attachment, addition, or appendage to the status quo. He cannot be integrated into or contained by preexisting structures. Jesus came to give a new covenant. He didn’t come to add to the Torah and the added laws of the Pharisees. He came so that we could stop worshipping the shadow of the old covenant and worship the new covenant that He brought. When Jesus called His disciples, they left there old way of life and began a new life following Him. Jesus doesn’t call us to try and fit Him into our existing lives. He makes us new and we are to live a new life. A life devoted to Him and glorifying Him. We must stop fitting Him into our existing lives. If we continue to do this, we will be like the old wine skins. We won’t be able to handle the expanding truth of Jesus and His gospel in us. We must be new receptacles. We must do away with the old and begin to worship the new. The biggest problem with the Western church is that there is too much of the world in it. We are trying to add Jesus to our old pre shrunk world. It is ripping apart the church and it people. It was never meant for the church to adapt to the world. It was meant for the church to change the world. We must do away with the old, dried up, crusty wineskins of our old lives. We need to fill up the new wineskin that Jesus has made us. We must be different. We must be all Jesus and nothing else.

With Jesus and His life, ministry, atoning death, and glorious resurrection, everything changes. It changes for the better and it changes for good. There can be no compromise between Christianity and the world, between works based religion and salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, or between my old life and my new life.

Quote from Warren Wiersbe

Jesus lived, died, and rose again all for us. All so that we wouldn’t have to face the wrath and punishment for our sins. That changes everything!

Secular Music

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