Busting Jesus out of the Box

Open your Bibles with me to Mark 2.

You’ll remember that we are walking our way through the Gospel of Mark.

We took a little break starting at Easter to spend some time reflecting on the resurrection

This morning, we’re returning right where we left off.

And whether you were with us then or not, let me just recap that the last time we were in Mark, we read about Jesus’ calling Matthew, the tax collector, to follow Him.

We saw Matthew respond with joy in radical change.

We saw the religious leaders struggle with why Jesus would choose to eat with sinners and tax collectors.

And we found hope in the fact that Jesus came for sinners, not the self-righteous.

And as we turn back to the text, what we’re going to see is that Jesus continues to defy expectations.

Let’s look at Mark 2, beginning in verse 18, and as we do so I invite you to stand with me in honor of God’s Word as we read it together:

Mark 2:18–22 CSB

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?” 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. But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. 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. 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, invite people to sit.

As our passage opens, we encounter a group of people that want to fit Jesus into a box.

The Pharisees considered REGULAR fasting to be a true sign of religious commitment.

Fasting showed remorse for your sins

They also saw fasting as the doorway to “real” prayer.

Fasting wasn’t required, but if you were religious, you would do it.

Most Pharisees fasted on Mondays and Thursdays.

And as the people question Jesus about fasting, what they are really wanting is to put Jesus in a box.

THE PEOPLE SAW JESUS AS A RELIGIOUS LEADER AND SO THIS WAS THE EXPECTATION FOR HIM AND HIS DISCIPLES!

JESUS SAID HIS JOY AND WISDOM WOULD NOT FIT THE BOX OF TRADITION.

AND THE SAME THING IS STILL TRUE TODAY.

JOY AND NEW LIFE IN JESUS REQUIRE YOU TO CHANGE, NOT YOU CHANGING HIM.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to change in order to be saved.

Only Jesus can save you from your sins when you put your faith in Him, even as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 CSB

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

But what it does mean is that when Jesus becomes the King of your life, YOU WILL BE CHANGED.

You cannot stay the person that you were before and be a follower of Jesus

AND you can’t try and shove Jesus into the box of what you want Him to be.

SO, the question is HOW?

How does new life in Jesus require me to change?

And our text gives us at least three ways you must allow Him to change you.

Look at verse 18:

Mark 2:18–19 CSB

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?” 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.

The first way you must change to really experience your new life in Jesus is this:

Embrace Jesus as the source of joy, not a religious supplement.

The followers of John and the Pharisees were fasting.

Fasting was a sign of mourning, penance, and a religious devotion

But Jesus flips the script- He is the bridegroom, and His presence is cause for joy!

I was on a medication for years that caused anemia.

Now, even though I’m not on the medicine, I struggle with mild anemia.

I take an iron supplement because that adds to the iron in my diet.

Taking a supplement for something implies that we’re doing something that just needs a little help.

Vitamins, nutrients, protein. Supplemental education.

All of these supplements point to the idea we just need a little help.

But when it comes to pursuing God, we don’t need a supplement- we need something completely different.

We say that what we want is God, but what we do is sin.

We say that what we want is holiness, but what we do is fall short.

If we want to be close to God, what we need is a reorientation-

Jesus isn’t just an addition or a supplement to your religious routine.

Jesus wants to replace your routine with relational joy!

Jesus is God with us! When we are walking with Jesus, we are walking in relationship with God Himself!

It is time to move away from duty and into the joy of knowing Him and making Him known.

If you want to be filled with new life, you are going to have to embrace Him!

Allow Jesus to move you from religious duty to relational delight in Christ.

Look at verse 21:

Mark 2:21 CSB

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.

When I was child, my family didn’t have a whole lot. We had what we needed, but not a whole lot else. If I tore a hole in my jeans before I outgrew them, You’d better believe that we were sewing patches onto the knees.

I learned a funny thing about patches. There were two great ways to get a patch.

One was to take fabric from another pair of jeans that were about the same age of use.

The other was to buy a patch of pre-shrunk fabric.

Of the two, the old jeans always made better patches, because no matter how much they “pre-shrunk the bought patch, it was still new.

And the tension between the old fabric that was done shrinking and the new patch that was still shrinking ended up ripping a bigger hole than I’d started with.

This experience as a kid really brings the illustration Jesus uses in our passage to life, because:

The second way you must change to really experience your new life in Christ is to

Accept that Jesus doesn’t patch up your old life-He gives you a new one!

There are many people in the world around us that claim the name of Jesus, but who are trying to live their old lives.

They like the idea of Jesus as Savior, who takes away their sins

But they aren’t so excited about Jesus as King who changes everything.

They take the attitude towards Jesus that I call “Jesus in my pocket.” They treat Him like the patch on my jeans.

I’ve got Jesus, right here in my pocket.

He’s here to help me when things are going wrong. All I have to do is just pull Him out, sprinkle some on my problems and He just patches them right up.

Then, when I’m done with Him, I just stick Him back in my pocket

Because, see, there’s some things happening out here He might not want to see! and it would be better for Him in my pocket.

But the problem with a patch is the hole is still there, and eventually it’s going to show through.

You can’t have Jesus as your Savior and not have Him as your Lord!

Jesus isn’t here to just fix or improve your old way of life; He gives you an entirely new life and purpose.

He isn’t just a fill-in to fix all of your problems-He is the King who wants you to experience new life.

Your old way of doing things was rooted in a life of sin, and that life was leading you straight to death.

It is time for us to let go of our old way of doing things.

Let go of old sin habits that are destroying your life and keeping you from his Joy.

Let go of your striving to be good enough, as if you ever could.

Put away the old life Jesus died to free you from.

You can’t receive the new life Jesus has for you until you’ve let go of the old one.

Look at verse 22:

Mark 2:22 CSB

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, this is a fantastic analogy for life in Christ, but what does it mean?

Before there were glass bottles closed with corks for wine, there were wine skins.

Wineskins were sealed leather bags that could be filled with wine.

During the fermentation process, wine would expand, and so the leather wine skins would stretch with the wine, taking the form that the wine needed them too.

But just like leather used for other purposes, as the wineskins aged, they also got harder.

the lost flexibility and the capacity to expand.

So if you put new wine into old wine skins, the expansion of the wine as it fermented would simply break the bag.

So, as it turns out, the old cloth and the old wine skins have the same problem-they just can’t take on anything new.

So, this means two things in our new life in Christ

Like we said a moment ago, you have to take off and put away your old life, your old way of thinking and doing things.

Let go of your patchwork religion.

Let go of your patchwork life.

You have to accept that Jesus isn’t here to just patch up your life-He wants to give you a new one. That starts with you taking the old life off.

But the second meaning in these wineskins is also the third way you must change to experience your new life in Christ:

You must become a new vessel for the life of Jesus to fill.

This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that to enter God’s Kingdom you have to be born again.

Your old life won’t do! You need a new one.

This is why Paul writes in Colossians 3:7-10

Colossians 3:8–10 CSB

But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.

If you want to be filled with the new wine of the New Life that we have in Jesus, You have to be a New Wine Skin

You need a new heart that beats for what God wants and not what you would pursue.

You need to let Jesus reshape what you think about and what your dreams are.

Romans 12:1–2 CSB

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

If you want the life of Christ to fill you, your life has to be able to conform to Him.

The truth and the problem for most of us, if we’re honest, is that we’re always too happy to try and just add Jesus into everything else we were before we met Him.

But the reality is that while the grace of God we have in Jesus is free, it isn’t cheap!

Because Jesus will change everything about you.

TRYING TO FIT JESUS INTO OLD PATTERS OF THINKING, BEHAVIOR, OR TRADITION WILL ALWAYS BREAK THE SYSTEM.

After all, for it to be new, it has to be changed.

If you want to be filled with the new life Jesus is giving you, You must be transformed. You must be made new.

The worship team is going to come to lead us in a time of reflection. And as they do, I ask you to reflect on these things:

Are you trying to make Jesus a patch or an old wineskin to fix and hold your old life together-Or are you ready for Him to fill you and reshape everything?

Are you mourning your old life you are leaving behind you-or are you rejoicing in the presence of the Bridegroom!

Are you ready to surrender your old wineskin, or will you burst under the pressure of His unrelenting grace?

Jesus is here. He is the new life you need. It’s time to let go, to be new, and to be filled.

Pray