A New Vessel

INTRO

As we have studied the life and ministry of Jesus we have already gotten to see Him do some pretty spectacular things.

He has cast out demons, healed a paralyzed man, made people’s jaws drop at the depth and the breadth of His teachings.

He has gained a gigantic following but he has also accrued a rather significant group of people who at best, don’t know what to do with Him and in many cases, want to kill Him.

The reason for this is that Jesus doesn’t fit into the theological and religious boxes that His people, the jewish people have created and are following.

They have departed from the heart and the sentiments of Gods word by adding to it their own sinful and ritualistic perspectives and practices.

Jesus had a lot to say about these legalistic rules and regulations that the pharisees and the teachers of the law had created.

Much of Jesus’ ministry was spent flipping the script on these false understandings of God’s word and His commandments and the text we are in this morning is a prime example of this.

Over the next 3 weeks, we will see Jesus tackle his critics head on and challenge their understanding of what it means to follow God in a right and proper manner.

What Jesus will ultimately show us this morning is that the life that He calls His disciples into requires A New Vessel

The legalistic structures created by the Jews cannot sustain the power that is found in following Jesus. It is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, it just doesn’t work.

What Jesus is going to show us today is what he spoke through the prophet Isaiah centuries before this event even took place…

Isaiah 43:19 “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 King is doing a new thing!

BODY

We kick off today in Mark 2:18 getting to see one of the practices that the Jewish leaders have missed the mark on…

Read Mark 2:18

We see here that two groups of people are mentioned participating in the practice of fasting…

Disciples of John the Baptist and The Pharisees

We ought not assume that the heart of fasting was the same between these two groups

The disciples of John the Baptist were also followers of Jesus since John’s job was to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus

It’s likely that their fasting was a practice that John the Baptist invited them into as they were eagerly awaiting the coming of Jesus.

In regards to the Pharisee’s, it was custom that they fast 5 times per year. these were fasts that God commanded his people to participate in.

They fasted every year on “The Day of Atonement” or “Yom Kippur” (A day of ceremony and sacrifice for the covering and forgiveness of sins)

They also had 5 other fasts that they would participate in each year

But in addition to these regular yearly fasts, it was custom during this time on jewish history to fast 2 times per week as well

Jesus rebukes and corrects the pharisees and their understanding of fasting multiple times in the gospel accounts. His most famous being in Matthew 6 when we instructs his listeners on how they should act when they are fasting since the pharisees had turned it into a spectacle.

All of this points to the extrabiblical weight the Pharisees had placed upon this biblical practice.

In their legalism and pride, they try to pit John’s disciples against by trying to stir up controversy over Jesus’ disciples not fasting and Jesus responds…

Read Mark 2:19

Jesus responds as he often does with a parable illustrated by a parable

Fasting is a practice often associated with trial, grief and desperate prayer

He says, if you are at a wedding and you are celebrating the union of a man and a women in covenant with God, is that a time for such a thing? Is that a time to be solemn and reflective? Or is that a time to celebrate, rejoice and feast?

When Jesus, the bridegroom of the church is present with his bride, there is no reason to fast

That is a time to be caught up in His presence, to enjoy Him! To know him and to be known by Him To love Him and to be loved by Him.

The Pharisee’s again miss the fact that Jesus is God and if God is present with us then we must rejoice!

Jesus goes on in verse 20…

Read Mark 2:20

Jesus points to the near reality of His death. That there is soon coming a day when his disciples will fast

There will be a day when the bridegroom goes away to make preparations for his bride in their forever hime and in that day, they will fast

It will be in that day, in our day church, that we will fast.

Fasting is powerful means of connecting ourselves to God’s presence.

By withholding food from our bodies, we can identify with Christ in his sufferings. We can add fuel and power to our prayers. We can focus our attention to God’s voice and His word as we focus solely on Him rather than our next meal.

But do we see how all of these things are mean to help our sinful souls more clearly connect with Jesus? But when He is with us, none of that is necessary.

When I am not with Jenna, often I will pull up photos of her to remind myself of her beauty, of my love for her. It makes me think back through all of the cherished moment I have with her.

But it doesn’t make much sense to look at her on the screen of my phone when we are together in person. Such is the case with fasting.

Not only is it nonsensical to fast when the savior is near, but Jesus goes on to explain that His disciples are not ready for fasting even when He is gone…

Read Mark 2:21-22

Jesus uses two illustrations to represent the disciples unfitness for fasting in their current state

He says imagine you get a hole in your favorite shirt. It’s ragged, worn and about to tear in other places, but you love this shirt so you decide to try and patch it. So you take a piece of new fabric and patch the whole but when you wash and dry it, that new fabric shrinks and ends up causing a bigger tear because it’s too string for the old weak shirt.

Or imagine you have a wineskin (Wine was often stored in vessels made from animal hides) and its old and needs to be replaced but you decide to put new wine in anyway.

That wineskin can’t handle the high acidity of that new wine and the result is a mess on your floor because your vessel wasn’t strong enough for the new wine.

Jesus is saying, a new vessel is necessary to carry the power of living life in the Spirit.

This new vessel is a change in perspective. His disciples are Old Covenant Jews and Jesus is the New Covenant King.

The Old Covenant was carried out through the law and through sacrifice but Jesus has come to live the law perfectly and then die as the perfect sacrifice.

The Pharisees had constructed a theology that in order for God to be happy with you, you must do XYZ. They missed the point of the law and of sacrifice.

The law was never meant to be lived perfectly, but to show us our inability to be perfect and perfection is what is required.

Jesus makes it clear that trying to do things like fasting to make God happy or to make yourself good is like putting new wine in an old wineskin… It doesn’t work.

God is happy with us not because of what we do but because of what His son Jesus did

Jesus has to break His disciples of this thinking before they are ready to fast and do all of the amazing things they would go on to do.

The same principle applies to us today. This is a problem that is plaguing the church even today

We buy into the lie that in order to make God happy, we must be something or we better not have done something

We believe that we have messed up too much for God to love us or if we do mess up bad enough He won’t love or forgive us

But the message of the gospel is love given freely through faith in Christ

Christ has done the work, now when we mess up, we can trust in His grace. and when we do good things, they are a means of connecting ourselves to God for our own benefit and enjoyment, not to make Him happy with us

this new vessel is one of grace and delight not ritual and law.

CLOSING

What vessel are you putting New Wine into?

Into the vessel of of the gospel or dead religiosity?

I remember the first time I fasted

I was anxious about how to do it just right.

My dad just looked at me and said, if this is how you are gonna be when you do it, you should probably pray and do it another time.

I wanted to be religious and do it perfect so God would see how committed I am

New wine doesn’t go into Old wineskins.

What good things are you trying to put into weak vessels?

What if this week you did things just to enjoy Jesus and His grace?