To Eat or Not to Eat

Good Morning Church!

2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!! (cookies outside to celebrate)

Bibles out, Mark 2:18-28.

The last few weeks, Jesus has healed and casted out demons, and made statements that He has come to save sinners, and even called the most unlikely men to serve along side Him…

If we were present for these things…We would be leaping for joy…

But notice that every time Jesus does a miracle, speaks with authority, heals, casts out, announces His diety…

He is not met with joy…but questioning….

these pharisees…have questioned every action Jesus has done since His ministry started.

Let me give you a few:

“Who is this that teaches with authority?”

“Who is this that commands and has authority over unclean spirits?”

“Why does this man speak blasphemy?”

“Who can forgive sins but God only?”

“why does He dine with tax collectors and sinners?”

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS…

They should be rejoicing instead of questioning…

WHY DO THEY DO THIS???

Lets dig into that…lets pick up where we left off last week…

Last week:

Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector…

After that they are dining at Matthews house, and at the table are tax collectors and sinners…

Scribes and Pharisees saw…questioned…the sick are in need of the physician…not the healthy…

We pick up there in v18

READ V18-28

So we pick up at this dinner at Matthews…

Johns (JTB) disciples and the Pharisees are present, again the Pharisees have been questioning Jesus on why He dines with these sinners…

And again instead of rejoicing in the fact that God in the flesh seeks undeserving people…

They question…

2 Questions being asked…

Why don’t your disciples fast???

Why don’t your disciples honor the sabbath day???

WHY DO YOUR DISCIPLES NOT FAST?

Lets understand biblical fasting…

Fasting isn't a command in the NT…

In the OT it was only commanded one day out of the year (Leviticus 23)…The Day of Atonement (Yom Kipper)

However this is an action that we see both Jews in the OT and Christians in the NT practice…

We see Jesus fast, We see Jesus teach about fasting (assuming His disciples will fast) we see Paul fast….

Fasting can be good and beneficial in a Christian walk…

Most fast when they are mourning, when they are seeking Gods will, or to pull their focus away from temptation and place it all on the Lord…

But in the time that Jesus is speaking here in Mark 2, fasting was common, especially for religious people as a religious practice…

We know that the Pharisees fasted about 2 times a week…And we know that they did it for their own gain and to be seen by people as “holy men”

But because they connect this with being Holy…they press Jesus on why His disciples don’t fast…

If you are a “holy man” like us…why don’t you make your followers fast???

Jesus answers (READ V 19-20)

The Jews are called “children/attendants” of the bride chamber…

These were the wedding party…the guests…I encourage you to study more about the attendants of the bride chamber in Matthew 25 and Psalm 45.

How many of you have ever been to a wedding???

What if the groom came out before the ceremony and said…”we are all going to fast at this wedding, there will be no food or drink” “BUT this is a celebration so have a good time”

NO WAY! When its time to celebrate its time to celebrate…when its time to mourn its time to mourn…

We don’t mourn at weddings…(at least I hope we don’t)

No its a time to celebrate…

NOW…if the groom leaves before the ceremony…there will be mourning and sorrow right???

For the wedding party and the bride…(the bride is you and me)

This is what Jesus says…When I am with them…there is no sorrow, no fasting…we celebrate…

But days are coming when I will be “taken away” from them…when the groom leaves…there is mourning again…

Jesus is speaking here about His death…

WHY DO YOUR DISCIPLES NOT HONOR THE SABBATH?

The disciples of Jesus are walking through grain fields on the sabbath day.

Corn: A single seed of certain plants (cereal), as wheat, rye, barley and maize; a grain.

So as they are walking…they are pulling off ears of grain and eating them…

Pharisees see them…V24 READ

This is an accusation …that the disciples of Jesus are not honoring the sabbath as holy…

The Lords commands of the Sabbath day shows its importance to God…

It is the longest command of the 10 commandments…

And to break it by the Law…meant death…(Numbers 15 a man is stoned for gathering stick on the sabbath)

So the Jews are always fully focused on the ceremonial law…

But they missed the mark on the commands of the Lord here…

The law doesn’t call for you not to eat…it calls for you not to work…

In fact…the law allows for the exact circumstance we see here in Mark 2.

Deuteronomy 23:25. “When you come into the standing corn of your neighbor, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor’s standing corn.”

This says you can pluck and eat from the plant, you just cant pull out a sickle (the tool used to harvest) and harvest the field…

SO JESUS IS RIGHT IN STEP WITH THE LAW…

He knows the word of God …BECAUSE THEY ARE HIS WORDS…ITS HIS LAW!!!!

Jesus responds by asking a question back at them…

“HAVE YOU NEVER READ??”

Don’t you know the scriptures mister “holy man”???

Don’t you know what David did when he was hungry

David went into the tabernacle and asked the priest fro bread…all he had was the show bread…

this was set aside fro the priests to eat at the end of the week when fresh bread was prepared…

It was NOT lawful for David and his servants to eat this bread…

BUT when they did…they were never condemned for their actions…

Jesus points to this to show that God had grace for David in His hunger…and provided for his needs…

THE DAY WAS MADE FOR MAN…NOT MAN MADE FOR THE SABBATH…

It was made for mans rest…not to enslave but to free…

So here is what you have to see…what Jesus is doing is letting these Jews know…

Everything is becoming new…fasting…the sabbath day…everything they know about the law…the law itself…

Its crushing weight of religious ritual…its constant observance…you cant hide from it…you cant deceive it…it never sleeps…

These Pharisees cant see the miracles happening in front of them: healings, casting of unclean spirits, the word being preached, the Messiah present before them…

They should be celebrating…rejoicing…but they cant bring themselves to it…

They are in bondage to it…

THIS IS WHAT JESUS CAME TO DO!!!!

To live perfectly under the Law…to fulfill it…So we don’t have to…to free them from it…

BIG IDEA: JESUS LIFTED THE BURDEN OF THE OLD LAW AND USHERED IN AN AGE OF FREEDOM THROUGH GRACE.

GALATIANS 4:3-5 “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. “

This is not a reformation of the Law…But a transition from the Law into something new!!!

LOOK BACK WITH ME IN V21-22 (READ)

Something new— A law fulfilled and grace available!!!!

The Law is no longer Lord over your lives I AM LORD OVER ALL!!!

OUR REST IS NO LONGER FOUND IN A DAY BUT IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!!!

Don’t worship the Law…worship me…

WHATS THIS HAVE TO DO WITH US AS THE CHURCH….

Because of this…we as gentiles (non Jews), are able to be adopted as sons through Jesus…

Before this…you had to live under the Law perfectly…

GENTILES DIDN’T HAVE THE LAW TO LIVE UNDER...IT BELONGED TO JEWS…

HOW CAN WE LIVE UNDER A LAW WE DON’T KNOW???

BUT NOW!!! Jesus has come and fulfilled the Law…so now all you need is faith in Him…

We don’t follow the Law…We follow Jesus and His commands!!!

The fact that salvation is available to us as Gentiles should make us jump for Joy everyday!

That is only because of Jesus…

SO HOW SHOULD THIS TEXT EFFECT US????

Unlike the Pharisees…When we hear Gods word…when read and hear about His miracles…

When we come into contact with Him through the Holy Spirit…

WE DON’T QUESTION…WE WORSHIP!!!!

We don’t lumber through life as religious legalists…following our rituals…under a law

We live in freedom…we rejoice!!!!

We don’t live under a law…we live with Christ…He brought us up from under the law and made us one with Him….

And we have the HS…He is with us…we don’t mourn…we rejoice!!!

We aren’t alone…the groom lives inside of us!!!

WHEN A NON-BELIEVER LOOKS AT YOU WHAT DO THEY SEE???

A rejoicing Christ follower? One who is free? One who worships out of desire and truth…not out of obligation…

What do they see???

THEY SHOULD SEE A PEOPLE WHO WORSHIP AND ARE OBEDIENT TO A GOD THAT FREED THEM…FROM SIN AND DEATH THROUGH HIS DEATH BURIAL AND RESURRECTION…

THEY SHOULD SEE A JOYOUS PEOPLE…WHO STAND OUT LIKE A LIGHT AMONGST DARKNESS…

THEY SHOULD SEE A PEOPLE WHO DESIRE GOD AND HIS WORD…

THEY SHOULD SEE A BRIDE ON HER WEDDING DAY…WITH A GLOW OF EXCITEMENT…

THEY SHOULD SEE A PEOPLE THAT GOD DWELLS INSIDE OF…

ARE YOU LIVING LIKE THAT???

LETS PRAY…