All Things New

Matt Horine

Mark • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

Mark 2:18–22

New Creation

Fasting and Abstinence

Jesus defends his disciples for not fasting

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Our sinfulness is cause for mourning but Jesus is cause for celebration. Our hope and joy in life is not found through old patterns of religion but through the person and work of Jesus. He has come to make all things new.

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Introduction

A couple weeks ago, my family and I were in our car driving home. Directly in front of us was a police officer who was driving kinda slow. He for sure was going well under the posted speed limit.

So, I looked back at my kids who were in the back seat and said, should I pass him? Have you ever passed a cop on the road? You know you’re not breaking any law, you’re driving responsibly, but you just feel tense don’t you as you inch farther and father in front of them. You all of a sudden revert back to the rules of the road class you took years earlier. Hands are at 10 and 2, which actually now it’s suppose to be 9 and 3. You’re checking your mirrors.

My son is a rule follower. I really do appreciate that about him. But he was adamant that I should not pass him because he thought for sure we’d get in trouble.

Now I’ve got a great respect for the police. I’m very grateful for them, but, their presence when you see them on the road doesn’t necessarily elicit much joy in our hearts, unless we’re in need but other than that, typically our response is, “slow down, be quiet in the car, there’s a cop up there!”

Whether they’re hiding on the sides of the road doing speed traps or just riding on the road keeping everyone in check, typically our hearts don’t jump for joy in exuberance when we see them but rather we tense up and make sure we’re obeying all of the rules.

The Problem

Now, how many of us in here, kids included, to some degree view our God this way? Do we see him as the giver or robber of joy? Is he the “policeman in the sky” who hides behind whatever he can just waiting to “pull us over” when we do something wrong or is he the source of our joy, our reason for celebration, our source of utmost delight which drives our glad obedience?

This is such a simple question to ask us this morning in view of the text in front of us but, are we as Christ followers, happy people? Do we view the gathering together as the church a reason for celebration as those who have been redeemed through Christ and now walk in relationship with him? Do we smile and find delight in the treasure of Christ’s presence and love? Is it seen in us?

Erma Bombeck, a well known American humorist once wrote years ago that one Sunday she was sitting in church when a small child turned around and began to smile at the people behind her. She said, this child was just smiling, not making a sound. When her mother noticed, she said in a loud whisper, “Stop that grinning - you’re in church,” gave her a swat, and said, “That’s better!”

Erma Bombeck concluded in her column that some people come to church looking like they had just read the will of their rich aunt and learned that she had given everything to her pet hamster!

John MacArthur once said,

“God is not a cosmic killjoy. I know some people who believe He is. They think God runs around saying, "There's one having fun; get him!" They believe God wants to rain on everybody's parade. But that isn't so. God made you. He knows how you operate best. And He knows what makes you happy. The happiness He gives doesn't stop when the party's over. It lasts because it comes from deep within.”

I’m not neglecting our pursuit of holiness or saying we should all plaster fake, half-hearted smiles on our faces when we gather together but I am saying that a pursuit of holiness isn’t a solemn, joyless, affair.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day thought that true religion meant looking miserable, looking unhappy, and adding more rules around rules to coerce people into right living so they would hopefully be accepted by God.

And now, Jesus steps onto the scene and wrecks all of their traditions, he rubs against the grain of their culture, he shatters all their rules and boundaries.

We finished the text last week with Jesus at a dinner party with Levi, a now, former tax collector. Jesus is engaging joyfully with others, he’s laughing, and eating good food with people who are social outcasts at Levi’s house.

This didn’t fit into the Pharisees box of religion. In their minds you could not be spiritual unless you were miserable and unhappy. The Pharisees thought that spirituality made you do things you didn’t want to do and that it kept you from doing the things you want to do.

Jesus just didn’t fit within their framework and so here we are again with another confrontation between Jesus and the religious. Christianity vs. religion. This time the conflict is over the topic of fasting.

And Jesus here is going to show them that delight and happiness is not found through rigid adherence to man-made rules, but through joyful relationship and intimacy with the King; just as a bride rejoices in the groom. We are the bride of Christ, the church, bought and purchased at great cost through the blood of Christ. We now belong to the bridegroom, Jesus.

Main Idea:

Though our sinfulness is cause for mourning, Jesus is cause for celebration. Our hope and joy in this life and the one to come is not found through old patterns of religion but through the person and work of Jesus. He has come to make all things new.

We’ve said it before here and we’ll continue to say it. The main difference between Christianity and every other religion on the face of the earth is that religion says, “Here’s what you must do to get to God” whereas Christianity says, “Here’s what God has done for you.”

Every religion apart from Christianity, when you boil it down, though each one will have different belief systems attached to it, at the end of the day, it’s still works based. There’s something you must do to be made right with whatever god the religion believes in.

Here today, in this text, Jesus is addressing the differences between Judaism and Christianity. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish law, the Jewish faith, not an add on. The Jewish leaders wanted Jesus to fit into their man-made pattern of religion. Jesus can’t be fit into a box and not only that, Jesus was going to show them that relationship with God can’t be attained through their religious works but through him. Jesus is about to change everything.

As one author put it, “The new wine of Christianity cannot be contained by the old wineskins of Judaism. With the coming of Jesus, it is a new day.”

There’s three things from this text today that Jesus is going to show us that sets him apart and gives us reason to celebrate.

Number one:

With Jesus, there’s joy.

In verse 18, religious leaders are coming to Jesus, most likely, as they’re watching him eating with the sinners and tax collectors that we just read of last week in verses 13-17.

Throughout chapter two, the religious leaders are just a bunch of grumps. So far they’ve witnessed Jesus forgive and heal a man who was paralyzed, they just witnessed a tax collector, Levi come to faith and turn from his sin of taking advantage of others, they’ve seen Jesus eating with other tax collectors, and we can safely assume that many of them are repenting of their sins and coming to faith and all the religious leaders can do is grumble and complain because Jesus isn’t doing things the way they want.

I mean, the most religious people of that day, the one’s supposedly closest with God are nothing but a bunch of unhappy, miserable souls.

I mean, think with me of what’s happening in this moment. Levi, a tax collector, someone despised by the people has just given his life to Jesus. That’s cause for celebration. And so, Jesus is celebrating, and the religious people are mad and pouting and saying, he shouldn’t be celebrating, he should be fasting.

In 2016, the Chicago Cubs, after an 108 year drought finally won the World Series. Can you imagine if on that final play, the ball is thrown to first baseman, Anthony Rizzo, he catches it, that’s out three, it’s done, the Cubs are World champions, if he then just turned around, said, “good game” to the other players, and then walked into the clubhouse showing no emotion, just another game, went home and went to bed?

The story the next day in the headlines would not be, the Chicago Cubs are World Champions, it would be, “What’s wrong with Anthony Rizzo?” Because that’s not a normal reaction. A World Series win is cause for joy and celebration, not mediocrity or apathy.

The religious leaders wanted Jesus to live according to their high religious standards and they missed that Jesus himself is the standard and the one who makes things right between us and God.

Jesus wasn’t opposed to fasting. He began his public ministry by fasting for 40 days. But what we’re seeing all throughout chapters 1 and 2 of Mark is Jesus showing the beauty of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is healing, he’s forgiving, he’s celebrating the new life that comes through him. Now’s not the time to mourn, now’s not the time to be sad. With Jesus, there’s joy.

Verse 19,

Mark 2:19 “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.”

He’s saying, I’m right here. I’m with you. How can you be sorrowful in my presence. I’ve come to bring joy.

You see, a relationship with Jesus is not a solemn, boring affair, it’s a celebration.

Secondly,

Because of Jesus, there’s hope.

Notice though what Jesus does say in verse 20.

Mark 2:20 “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.”

This is the first time in Mark’s gospel that Jesus alludes to his death.

And so, Jesus is acknowledging there is a time coming when joy will be exchanged for sorrow. When celebration will be replaced with mourning and sadness. When confidence will turn to fear.

There’s coming a day when the party will stop because the bridegroom will be taken away from them.

You see, what we’re seeing in Mark’s gospel up to this point is a foreshadowing of the glorious Kingdom of God. We’re seeing a snapshot of what life is meant to be: no sickness, no death, no disease, filled with joy and right relationship with our Creator.

But the completion of the Kingdom is far from realized. For there to be a final victory over sin and over death, all that we’re witnessing in Jesus’ ministry, the bridegroom, Jesus himself, must be sacrificed.

And on that day, there will be mourning, there will be fasting, there will be weeping.

Our sorrow today should be over what our sin cost Jesus, his life. The bridegroom sacrificed his life for his bride.

There is a time for fasting today. And honestly, it’s an often forgotten discipline. But our fasting should remind us of the sacrifice Jesus made for our sins, but it should also cause us to realize that our greatest hope in life and death is Jesus; that there’s nothing on this earth that will satisfy us like Jesus.

Number three,

Through Jesus, all things are made new.

Look at verses 21 and 22 again,

Mark 2:21-22 “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.””

With these two short parables, here’s what Jesus is saying: religion doesn’t work.

If religion is, “Here’s what I must do to get to God” then it doesn’t work.

The world Jesus was living in was a deeply religious world. The culture was focused on strict obedience to the law of God. Throughout the Old Testament, but specifically within the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy we find over 600 laws or commands given by God to his people on how they were to live.

But there were two main reasons why God gave his people the law.

To show them how life works best. The law was meant to lead us into freedom and joy, not away from it.

To show them their need for a Savior because of their inability to obey perfectly.

Now, what the religious leaders did, was they placed more laws around God’s laws to try and keep them from disobeying.

And so, rather than looking toward a Savior to make them right with God, they created more rules to try and earn their acceptance and credibility with God.

What Jesus is saying with this first parable is that you can’t unite the gospel with works based religion.

We are made right with God through the finished work of Christ, not through our good works.

The early church struggled with this. The apostle Paul in Galatians 3 confronts the church because they were trying to unite the gospel and religion.

Galatians 3:3 “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

He’s saying, church, you understand that you were made right with God through faith in the gospel but now you think your sanctification is accomplished through your morality and good works as if you don’t need the gospel any longer?

Brothers and sisters, we are either made completely new through Jesus or we’re not made new at all. It’s Jesus plus nothing.

With the second parable of the new wine being placed in old wineskins Jesus is saying that he has come bring something new, not to be added to the old pattern of religion. He’s the fulfillment of the law.

Jesus is not an add-on to our lives. He becomes our very life. We don’t take what we like about Jesus and leave what we don’t, we take all of him and submit to his reign, his rule, his kingdom.

You see it’s with Jesus and because of Jesus and through Jesus that we become a new creation, we become part of his church, the bride. We let go of the things of the past, we let go of man-made religion and hold fast to the one who is making all things new and then we long for and anticipate the return of our King who will once and for all establish his Kingly rule where all things are finally, once and for all made right again. So, let’s hope in him.

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