Fasting, Feasting and Our Faith | Mark 2:18-22 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Series)

Why don't we go right into the word of God together? Mark chapter two, gospel of Mark chapter two. Again, if you're joining us for the first time, we're so glad you can be with us. As a church, we're going through the gospel of Mark, and we are just week after week beholding the glory of Jesus. And it has personally been one of the most sanctifying experiences as a Christian, just to just see Jesus, to focus week after week, time devoted to behold his his infinite beauty, mercy, and goodness has been enriching, and I hope it's been the same for you.

And prayfully, we will see that as we begin in verse 18. You have your bibles? Meet me in verse 18. In a familiar passage, we'll read it and then pray. The word of God says, now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.

And people came and said to him, why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast. And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.

If he does, the patch tears away from it and 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. Lord, this is your word.

We recognize it as the eternal word. We need your help to understand it. We humble ourselves as our brother prayed, and we ask for mercy, mercy upon the revelation we need to be more like your son and to know him intimately. Lord, our hearts are so quick to be hard, so easily distracted, so swift to look for other cisterns to drink from in order to be gratified. But, Lord, in this place today, we, even from the beginning of this time before your word, confess that you alone satisfy.

And we ask that this word would only help us know deeper satisfaction in Jesus Christ. Lord, we confess that apart from the assistance of the Holy Spirit, this will be a dead meeting. This word will not have its way in us, and we will leave the same way we came in. But, oh, Lord, you have given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we ask for Him. And you said if evil men know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?

Thank you that we are sealed with Him, but, Lord, we wanna be filled with Him. That is our cry this afternoon, and may you even overwhelm the one who does not have that desire, and taste and see that the Lord is good. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. You and I are continuing to comb through the book of Mark. We're walking through it carefully, and our meditation before us in this text evolves around a question that was asked by an id identified people, but an observant people at the same time.

It's only when you and I go to Matthew and Luke that we are told who exactly Mark terms as people are the ones who came to bring this inquiry to him. And we see that in Matthew, it was actually John's disciples who asked this question. And when you go to Luke, he implies that it was the Pharisees, and the disciples are the Pharisees who approached Jesus themselves. That's not a contradiction. The simple conclusion is this, is that there is a coalition.

There is some kind of a partnership here that these two schools of thought, spiritually speaking, though they differed on many things, apparently shared the same concern about Jesus and his ministry, and it had to do with the apparent lack of the discipline of fasting. And so they come before him, and and they just plainly inquire. And we can use this text for the rest of the afternoon to guide us into a teaching about the relationship between the spiritual practices, fasting, known as fasting, and us as followers of Jesus Christ. But we're not going to do that. That's not gonna be the heart of the matter.

And the reason why it's not gonna be the heart of the matter is when you when you see Jesus's answer, he touches on principles about fasting, but he seeks to address an underlying issue behind the question. There is something deeper and more significant that needs to be clarified, and that's what the Lord does. He takes advantage of this confrontation so that he can provide clarity about a principle that goes beyond just fasting and what we're supposed to do with that specific practice. And the way we're gonna go about this, the best way we're gonna handle this text is not to have different points and thoughts behind those points, but to just follow the flow of thought, pause and draw some some observations, but ultimately come to where Jesus wants us to come to. His his thrusting point that penetrates a problem that is common today.

So we look at verse 18. Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people, as we know, John's disciples and the Pharisees, and that could include even just a general crowd, said to him, why did John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast? But your disciples do not fast. That seems like a very random question.

But but it's not random because we know from last week that Jesus and his disciples were invited as guests into the home of a converted tax collector by the name of Levi. And Luke tells us that Levi held a great feast. It was a celebration. It was a banquet, and Jesus was there. And the crowd that was there obviously brought the attention to the Pharisees to recognize this and even criticize Jesus because of it.

The criticism was what? How is this holy man eating with tax collectors and sinners? And so we have to understand that that is the backdrop. The Pharisees knew very well that Jesus just finished a great feast, and so they criticize him because of the associations within that home. But what's amazing is now they go from criticizing Jesus about eating with certain people to Jesus eating period.

Why do you eat all the time? Why don't you take a break? Why don't you abstain from food? Why do you find yourself always in the homes of people with the most undeserving kind of people? And what's amazing here is that, you know, if the gift of encouragement is having the ability to find the good in someone and the good in something, then the curse of criticism is that you can find the bad in everything.

And some people just have that gift. I wouldn't call it a gift, but they seem to think it's a gift. And they seem to shoot off with much ammo about how things are not like this, or things are like like that, or things should not be this way. But the general crowd in Jesus' day made many observations that obviously disturbed them. And one of those observations was the the day to day involvement that Jesus had in casual social activities.

You found him at weddings. You found him at dinner parties, and this obviously shook them. And it shook them further because of the people he sat and ate with, his contacts, his entourage, his willingness to be with people with questionable reputations. But the very thing that we adore about our Lord was a scornful thing to them. And we even see Jesus quoting the masses at one point in a way to rebuke their critical spirit.

And you know the scripture, but let me read it to you in Matthew eleven eighteen. Jesus said, for John came neither eating or drinking, and they say he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. So you have these Pharisees who didn't like John's aesthetic way of life or at least use that to criticize him, And then they looked at Jesus and didn't like his casual approach and approachability either.

And Jesus says, you're just not happy with anything, are you? And it's amazing because people who reject the truth will come up with so many excuses for the reason why they reject it. No matter how it's presented, who it's presented by, no matter how much you put grace into it or if you emphasize on fear, they will always stiff arm and pull back and say, well, this is the reason that I don't want to submit to Jesus Christ. But I love my Lord in this text because my Lord teaches me and teaches you that when it comes to serving him, one of the things that you have to adopt very early is the refusal to be moved by the opinions of men. Because there are some that no matter what you do, no matter what you do to cater, they will find a way to reject you and reject your ministry.

So how about do this and set yourself free? Live before God and God alone. Live before his face. Yes. Be free from legitimate criticisms, but be like your master and be like the forerunner, John, who are unmoved by the very things that sought to move them.

And we see here that Jesus answers very clearly of why he does not adopt their idea of fasting back in Mark. Why are they so agitated? Why are they so flustered by the fact that he's feasting more than he's fasting? Well, this is this is a teaching moment, so you're gonna have to focus in a little bit. And then as we go on in this message, it's gonna turn very quickly into a preaching segment.

In the old testament, it was not uncommon to see different instances of people abstaining from food for a predetermined amount of time for the purpose of a spiritual goal, or God centered motivation. And it was often the case that fasting was a mournful response to personal or national tragedy. It was one of the greatest expressions of grief and lamentation. But more than that, it was also a preemptive practice. So you had people who fasted because they wanted to demonstrate humility before God with the hope that judgment or his wrath would be replaced with mercy and grace.

And then there are other examples where where fasting was a way of removing daily distractions so that you can put a greater focus on God in your pursuit of him, and so is often accompanied by serious and long term prayer. But with all the examples of fasting that we see in our Old Testament, the Mosaic law only gives us one clear command in the word of God by God concerning fasting. Only one. Out of all the books in the Old Testament, out of all the laws, there is only one that is designed to encourage the people to fast, and that is on one specific day, the day of atonement. In Leviticus chapter 16, when that great sacrifice will be made for the sins of Israel once a year, that was the time, if you look at Leviticus 16, where the nation was to afflict themselves.

And that actually means to fast, to abstain from food as a demonstration of brokenness and penitence because of their sin. Once a year, every other example or demonstration of fasting in the Old Testament was voluntary. But when you come to the testament was voluntary. But when you come to the time of Jesus, fasting became a different thing. It developed into something much more.

And that is seen by Jesus giving a hint to that in another teaching, and I want you to see it very quickly in Luke chapter 18. In Luke 18, you see what was the common practice of the devout in Jesus' day, and this will bring us to more understanding of what's behind this question. Luke 18 verse 11. He's teaching about self righteousness and true justification, and he gives an example about a Pharisee and a sinner praying in the temple. And he says in verse 11, the Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

Verse 12, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. So the Pharisees, for many, many, many years, who've added much tradition to the to the Jewish law came to a point where fasting was not reserved for a single day, nor was it, an emergency response to seek God for deliverance for some circumstance that is urgent. It was a lifestyle. It was a lifestyle.

It was something that he did weekly, multiple times a week. It was voluntary, but regularly done. Now Jesus has no problem with that necessarily. What he had a problem with according to Matthew six was the motivation and the goal behind their fasting. You remember.

Right? To be seen by men. But what's amazing is when you take this truth and you partner it with the question that they asked back in Mark chapter two, what you have is a question that is actually an accusation. It's cloaked behind a question, but it's really a way of confronting Jesus because fasting was not only a common practice among the supposed spiritual in Jesus' day, fasting actually became a standard to measure someone's piety. In other words, the credibility of Jesus' ministry was under investigation because there was an apparent lack of this fasting lifestyle, which was a ritual created by the Pharisees in order to promote promote their own saintliness before others.

And this is for our instruction, is it not? You and I may have personal convictions as we follow Jesus Christ. The New Testament is clear. Something might be on your conscience that might not be on a brother's conscience or a sister's conscience, and this is a nudge to us to be careful not to project our personal convictions on someone else to measure whether or not they are truly spiritual, because that happens all the time. We will make the same mistake as the as these Pharisees because unless something is black and white in the bible, you and I must restrain ourselves from making judgments upon others because guess what?

Those people that you might be judging for things that are not even biblical might even have a closer walk to Jesus than you. And so be careful. Be careful, my brother. Be careful, my sister. Somebody is not more spiritual, including a pastor, because they wear a suit behind the pulpit.

Bad guys wear suits too. You know that. Right? And just because somebody doesn't hold to or read from or preach from your preferred or what you believe to be the only bible translation that God has reserved and protected, don't judge that person. We have every right to judge with righteous judgment, but these Pharisees now are taking what they thought was the one of the signs of true spiritual maturity and holiness, and now they're they're using that as a lens upon Jesus and his his disciples.

Dangerous move. And we see here that Jesus responds, but before he responds to this, knowing why they're saying what they're saying, have you ever wondered why John's disciples are asking this? I mean, we're talking about John the Baptist. It says that John's disciples and the Pharisees are fasting. Luke tells us that John's disciples also asked.

And so they had a custom of fasting themselves. And it could be that up to this point, they were mourning because their leader, John the Baptist, was what? In jail. He was imprisoned. And so they are clearly broken.

And they're perhaps even seeking God for for his liberation. Or it could be that they, like the Pharisees, but for different reasons, had a fasting lifestyle as those who were involved with John's ministry because John's ministry was of of of serious repentance, of serious reform, of turning away radically from your sin and from your tradition. And so it it makes sense for them to to be continually fasting as a physical demonstration and symbol of repentance and being examples to a watching crowd. But it makes you wonder too, like, John's disciples didn't some of them didn't get it. Do you realize who you're speaking to?

Do you realize who you're criticizing? Do Do you realize who you're approaching? It's amazing. It's amazing what we are capable of even though you might be sitting under amazing preaching. John was one of the greatest preachers ever, and still some of his disciples didn't fully get it.

May God help us. May God help us. Let's go to Jesus's response. And Jesus said to them in verse 19, can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

Brilliant response. Unapologetic. You don't always have to apologize to people who criticize you, especially if it's illegitimate. What he's saying is I'm not against fasting. But you do realize, Pharisees, you do realize John's disciples, you do realize other inquirers that there is an appropriate time to fast, and there is an an inappropriate time to fast.

And this was very difficult for the Pharisees to disagree with. And the reason why I'm gonna say Pharisees from this time on because Jesus, his main problem was with the Pharisees. Very hard for him to for you to find any rebuke concerning John's disciples. Even the Pharisees would find it very difficult to disagree with Jesus because culturally, it would be very strange, if not extremely rude, to be in a state of mourning and abstaining from food during a wedding when that wedding was a time of celebration and great joy, which included food and drink. And so Jesus almost immediately wins the argument, but he wants to continue.

And I'm so glad to know that Jesus' definition of true spirituality is not being perpetually somber and stiff all the time. That's not true spirituality. But what the Lord is saying here is even more significant than than just the obvious day to day life and how you should conduct yourself socially. When he says that the wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, he's saying that the wedding guests are his disciples and that he is the bridegroom. And why this is so important is because he's saying something about himself that only a careful student of the Old Testament would understand.

If you read from Genesis to Malachi, you will notice that there is no imagery that is tied between the predicted and prophesied savior and a bridegroom. You won't find it. The the one who is going to be sent to bring salvation to Israel, he Yeah. He would be a prophet. Servant?

Sure. King? So many places. Bridegroom? Very hard to find a reference to the Messiah being a bridegroom.

But you read from Genesis to Malachi, and you look for a reference of God being a husband and God being a bridegroom, then you have something. Do you see where I'm going with this? Turn to Isaiah 54 verse five. Here is one of the most explicit statements that God himself calls himself a husband. And the metaphor of God's relationship with Israel as a husband with a wife is not just in Isaiah, but look at one of the strongest statements that God himself makes in Isaiah 54 verse five.

For your Maker, capital m, is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name, and the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer. The God of the whole earth, he is called. This is so obvious, so clear, and so strong because when you go not just here, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, this picture only continues. It's so obvious.

It's difficult to divorce the imagery between God as a bridegroom and the nation of Israel being his bride. And it's also difficult to believe that Jesus was not conveying the same thing about himself when he refers to himself as a bridegroom. But it didn't click with the Pharisees. They didn't see it. The same way that the disciples didn't understand what Jesus implied when he would be taken away from them as the bridegroom.

They didn't register for them either. But this is what he is exactly communicating. I am the bridegroom of your people. I am the husband, spiritually speaking, of this nation. And if he's saying that, then he's also saying this.

If your maker is your husband, then Jesus is also the Lord of hosts. He's also the holy one of Israel. He's also the redeemer. He's also the God of the whole earth. And so people say, well, we can't really use this to say that Jesus is fulfilling some messianic prophecy.

No. Greater. He is using this to claim deity. I am your husband. Well, the only husband we have according to the scriptures is God.

Exactly. That's the point that he's trying to make. And the lack of reaction just shows how they were lacking understanding of what Jesus was saying. But before we move on, I want you to see something else in Isaiah. Go to 62 verse five.

Isaiah 62 verse five. What do we read here? It says, for as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. Here's what's so amazing.

When you compare that with what he says in Mark, what he says in Mark, let me remind you, is that the wedding guest cannot fast when the bridegroom is with them. In essence, because the Messiah has arrived and his presence in the midst of them is a time of celebration, they cannot be in a state of mourning. They also will be in a state of joy at his arrival. He is bringing his kingdom. The one that we've been waiting for has finally arrived.

And so the joy in Mark is on the side of the disciples of the true followers of Jesus Christ. The ones who believe that he is the one who is anointed by God and the fulfillment of all that has been predicted. And so we we should understand that as these disciples are rejoicing, that is good. But when you come to Isaiah, we read that it's not a one dimensional joy. Because in Isaiah 62, we read the bridegroom will rejoice over them.

The same way the bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. I understand what's being said here. When you and I get to heaven, we are not going to encounter a stoic statue like deity. When you and I arrive there with great excitement and glee and bliss because we've been finally redeemed, we are going to meet someone who also is rejoicing at our arrival, who also will be celebrating that we are now finally united with them, who also will have excitement and an explosion of adoration for those that he has purchased with his blood. It's a shared mutual happiness.

It is not only coming from us because we're undeserved sinners who received his grace. He also, our God also, will look and see that when a sinner repents, yes, they will rejoice in heaven, but when we arrive, he also, like a bridegroom on his wedding day, will be filled and thrilled that she has finally arrived. It's kind of hard for many people to picture about God. God being excited, God being filled with with joy about sinners being saved. Absolutely.

I hope that's how you see God. I hope that's how you perceive God because the scripture paints him in such a way. Let me prove it to you in another way. Let me ask you this question and don't answer it out loud. What happens according to the New Testament by the words of Jesus, what happens in heaven when one sinner repents?

The common answer is this, the angels rejoice. Correct? All the angels, and there are thousands, and there are millions, erupt with praise when one sinner repents. But is that what the bible says? Is that what the bible says?

We have to read our bibles very carefully. Go to Luke chapter 15 and verse 10. The parable of the lost coin, when the woman loses a coin and finds it, Jesus concludes by telling us what happens when a lost sinner is found. And I believe the ESV communicates it clearer than any other translation, though the other translations, I believe, are implying the same thing. Luke fifteen ten.

Just so I tell you, there is joy, where? Before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. There is joy before well, now who stands before the angels? Who do the angels stand before? God.

The essence of heaven. So the joy actually communicated here is coming from the one who is before the angels, namely God himself. And the angels are witnessing this joy that God, the holy one, is actually thrilled to see when one sinner repents, and then they share in that joy. And if you if that com conflicts with your Sunday school understanding of this, just just peel back and go to Luke 15 early on with the 99, and the shepherd who finds a lost one, And you'll see that the shepherd rejoices when he finds that sheep. It's God himself who rejoices.

He is the one who is actually enthralled with our salvation, and he will be when we see him face to face. So let's go back to verse 20 of Mark four. He continues by saying, the days in verse 20 will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. He's not opposed to it. He's just saying the timing is not now.

The timing is not now, but there is coming a time, and this is very unnatural, where the bridegroom imagine the bridegroom at a wedding is forcefully taken away from the wedding. So there's something strange there. And and this is a clear reference to his crucifixion, to his arrest, and to his death. When that happens and the physical presence of Jesus is removed from my disciples, then out of sorrow, naturally, they will not be able to eat and they will mourn because of the absence of their master. That's when they're gonna fast.

You got it wrong. It's coming, but it's not coming now. Now I see something there because this is not a rule, but it's a principle. And and this is not gonna be a teaching about how Christians should fast, when they should fast, for what purpose they should fast. But if I see a purpose of fasting in the Christian's life, it's tucked in this verse.

Not a rule, a precept, a principle, and this is it. The same way that the disciples, because of their sadness of the presence of Jesus being removed from them, the presence that they loved and enjoyed and cherished, Believers in the new covenant can also, as an expression of worship, fast, refrain from food in order to communicate a longing for the presence of Jesus Christ. A yearning and an aching with the bride who says, come, Lord Jesus. But even in this life to say, oh, Lord, I'm going to choose to step away from the distractions that come with daily preparation of my lunch, for example, and the time that I would use to eat that lunch, to instead come before you and say, I hunger. The same way I'm hungry physically, I hunger for your fellowship.

I long to know you. Would you make yourself known? Would you come near? Would my eyes be open? Lord, please, I need you.

I need you. And I believe that is a legitimate reason to fast as new covenant believers, as an act of devotion, as an act of worship, as a way of saying, just because there's already so many things pulling away at my time and pulling me away from Jesus, I'm going to separate greater time to do what the disciples did in essence, to express my longing for him and my desire for him to be closer. And up to this point, Jesus is just revealing how out of touch the Pharisees are, because that's what tradition does. That's what legalism does. When you're supposed to be celebrating, you're actually feasting.

When you're supposed to be agreeing, you're actually complaining. When you're actually supposed to be agreeing, you're opposing. Like, you're you're literally living on opposite ends of the spectrum. They didn't get it. The Messiah is here.

The bridegroom is here. God has arrived in your midst. He took on flesh to rescue you, and and you can't see it? You can't understand what's happening here? It's amazing how much you can clothe yourself with religiosity.

It's amazing how much you can actually impress people with your spirituality, supposed spirituality, and not even understand basic Christian truth just like these Pharisees. I think Jesus could have ended here, but Jesus is much more wise than I am. He could have stopped it right here, but instead, he takes advantage of the moment to to now teach a larger truth. Here's where going into preaching mode. He's gonna teach a much more important truth that applies to the the broad realm of religion.

And he's gonna do this by taking twin parables that are essentially saying the same thing, and he's gonna drive the central Point home. You've heard it before. No one, verse 21, sows a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. And then in verse 22, no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins.

So what is Jesus trying to say? He's taking daily practical things, and he is proposing something instrumental and profound. In the same way that you can't take an old piece or a new piece of cloth and try to sew a hole in an old garment without damage happening. And the same way you can't take new wine and put it in a container of animal skins, and think that as it ferments that it's gonna be able to hold, instead it will burst. My message is in direct conflict with your man made faulty salvation by works based system.

It doesn't work. Incompatible. What he's trying to say is, I I came here not to try to patch up something that's already established. I came here not to be added to something that you believe to be true. My salvation that is offered by grace is is not reconcilable with your understanding of how one attains righteousness.

Jesus and man made religion cannot mix. They cannot work together. They cannot function. When the Lord came, he came to reform. He came to bring about a new covenant, something that no other thing can work with, something that no other thing can contain, something that is altogether new.

And therefore, it requires a total surrender to it, a total submission to it. And this is exactly what he's getting to. This idea of fasting as a way of measuring someone's spirituality is just one symptom of a greater problem. And what Jesus is telling these Pharisees early on is, this isn't gonna work if this is how you think. We're not gonna go anywhere because what I'm presenting to you overcomes all that you believe to be true.

You can't attach him. You can't add him. And if every other religion out there wants to try to coexist with their doctrine, let the words of Jesus be clear. My message is exclusive. It stands alone.

It can't be in partnership with anything else. Though men may try, they may have they may have bumper stickers, coexist, though they're trying to figure out ways to bring all these different schools of thought and spiritual thoughts together, Jesus is clear. It doesn't work. It doesn't work with mine. The ceremonial self righteous rituals of the Pharisees could not contain what Jesus is bringing to them, and I wanna tell you today that if you're a person that comes from a traditional background, tradition isn't wrong, but if that tradition trumps the word of God, it's very wrong.

And this message is for you. Because over the years, it's been amazing to see and witness people who wear crosses, who go to church buildings, but are so seeped and ingrained in tradition. And Jesus gave the same teaching, the same parables in a different gospel, but he adds one thing in Luke that is so insightful. And if you're a person in here that struggles with tradition and rituals and ceremonies, and you can't come to terms with what Jesus preaches and teaches because it conflicts with that, listen to what Jesus says. I want you to see it for yourself in Luke chapter five verse 39.

He adds one phrase, and when I saw this, I thought that's it. Like, that's it. That that makes so much sense. I get it. The conversations with people from different branches of of traditional Christianity, for example, or anybody who comes from a works based kind of religion.

I I get what Jesus is saying now. It makes total sense. Look at verse 38 just for the context. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. That's profound.

Many are no different today. They're so ingrained in their empty, hollow religion. They they are so fascinated and familiar with what has been passed down from their cultural generations and past. Fathers bringing down teachings from fathers down to fathers down to the present time. And because of that fascination of the historicity of whatever practice you're involved with, and the familiarity because it's so close to your ethnicity and your upbringing, it's just so hard to let it go.

It tastes good. You enjoy it. You're comfortable with it. And so here's the gospel of Jesus Christ that comes, and it crashes into your world, and it it brings a message of freedom. It calls you to embrace grace and not grace with works, And and it calls you to obedience to what he says needs to happen in his church and what he says needs to happen at baptism and what he says communion is is, and he says what it means to be truly spiritual and what life is and what And then now you're saying, but but the old wine tastes so good.

I don't wanna let it go. Then drink it. Drink it and be intoxicated with it. Nobody's forcing you. But what Jesus is saying is you can't have both.

You can't have both. It's one or the other. You you can't have this old wine skin. It it literally cannot hold what I am giving in the new wine of the new covenant. The joy in me, the freedom in me, the salvation by grace, by faith alone in me.

You can't have both. So choose. Choose. And many, unfortunately, Jesus predicted the attitude and the convictions of the Pharisees moving forward, they will stick with the old.

We're gonna stick with it.

And so if you ever wondered, why is it my relative, why is it my friend, they can't seem to shake it off, It's because they enjoy it. It's as simple as that. There's nothing profound about it. They just really enjoy it. They they love it.

And when something new comes along, namely in Jesus Christ, no matter what it offers, they will stick with what they want, Even if it offers salvation. It's a sad reality, but Jesus is very honest with his commentary. Because the reality is works based religion is very satisfying to the flesh. It feels good. It's my effort in there.

It's it's my participation that gains God's favor. It's it's the external that that I want, and this wine is not for you. I'm sorry. It's not for you. Jesus extends it to you, but you can't have both.

You can't have both. And I was meditating on this last night, and no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. And I realized here, this is incredible, that the principle of Jesus being the the new that cannot attach to the old, being the new that cannot be contained in the old does not just apply to religion. The principle goes beyond that. Listen very carefully.

I say this in love, and I'm gonna say it seriously because I realize what kind of temptations and distractions can happen in a setting like this. So I you will see me smile at the end of the service. I will shake your hand, and you can be, are you the same guy that was up there? I am the same guy. This applies not just to the rigid, old, weathered, wineskins that cannot hold the freedom in the grace of Jesus Christ.

It applies to life altogether. What do I mean by that? The same way Jesus cannot be attached, cannot be contained in a religious system that contradicts the foundational truths of his gospel. Christianity will never work for you if you just add Jesus to your life. I I read this and I thought, this makes sense.

I get it, at least to a degree. I understand it. I can see it now. Why there's so many professing believers that are so bound in sin? Why they do not have the joy of the Holy Spirit living in them?

Why is it that they're so caught up in the world and the entertainment of this world and the riches of this world, and the values of this world, and the deceptive narratives of this world. I get it in part why it is. And it all goes back to a moment where you added Jesus to your life. That doesn't work. No wonder it's not working for you because you did it wrong to begin with.

You tried to add Jesus. You tried to include Jesus. You invited Jesus into a compartment of your life. No wonder it doesn't work. No wonder you're not going anywhere.

No wonder you're the same person that you were before you said some supposed prayer because you were pressured to say a prayer of salvation when there was new true repentance that was taking place in that prayer. No wonder. It makes sense, doesn't it? The masses have done exactly what Jesus said would never work. You added Jesus.

You didn't surrender to him. So so take the wine skin as a picture of your life. Your old life cannot hold the truth and the person of Jesus. You have to get a wine new wine skin altogether, and that's what he does. He removes the hardest stone from your flesh and replaces it with a heart of flesh.

He he brings to life the spirit that was dead in you because of sin and now it comes into an awakened state where it can relate to God and know God and enjoy God and surrender to God. But that that stuff, that supernatural transaction that happens outside of it does not work if you just add him. Did you just add him? Did you just add him? You know.

You know. For nineteen years of my life, Jesus was a patch on the garment of my existence. And if that's the same for you, then you will never know all the blessings that Christ purchased for you. You will never know it. So the honest question you have to ask yourself today, even though it's been years where you've worn this garment where Jesus is just a piece of it, did did I did I say, Lord, take it all away from me and just do what you need to do in me, or did I say, Lord, you can you can here.

Yeah. I guess I can fit you into my Sunday mornings. You can come in my Sunday mornings.

It won't work.

And you'll stay stuck in that place of defeat, and you'll never know the joy of the Holy Spirit. You'll never know victory, power, strength. You'll never know his supernatural presence. You'll never know his leading. You'll never know his you'll never know it because you just added him, and didn't give yourself over to him completely.

And do you know why some people don't surrender the same way the Pharisees would not give up their religious traditions? You think that your life with just Jesus' attitude is good. It tastes good. I like it like this. You're telling me that I can have this and this?

No. If you have this, you can't have this. And whatever you think is Jesus in your life is a facade. It's fake. It's powerless.

It's hollow. It doesn't change anything in you, and it's because you just added him. And what Jesus is saying to these Pharisees, he's saying to you, you can't add me. You can't sow me into your life. You can't attach me.

You have to die and let me take over. You have to come to full stop surrender and saying, lord, all that I am is yours. 100% of my existence is now submitted to your lordship. That's when you will know the new wine flowing into your heart. And he's waiting for you.

You know what's amazing? He says, and no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. Fine. If it's good, then keep it. Enjoy it.

Like what he says in Ecclesiastes. Young men, I'm paraphrasing at the end of chapter 11, if you wanna live and do whatever your heart desires, then do it, but take this into account. You will be judged for it, so go do it. Jesus didn't say, I'm gonna grab you by the throat, open your mouth, and shove the new wine in you. If you wanna, drink it.

But know this, you can't have that old wine and the new wine in me. And so with all this being said, this is what Jesus is really wanting to drive his point. It really answers all these issues with the traditionalists that confront Jesus. It's just and he's trying to tell them ahead of time because they're gonna come with many more questions in the future. But he just wanted to nip it at the bud.

You cannot reconcile your way of thinking and my way of doing this. And so here's my call. Many calls, but here's my simple call. May we all be convinced today that Jesus was not added to our lives, but that he's the Lord of it. Lord, we ask that that would be true in this place.

And if there's even one person in here who is not convinced, who is not convinced that you have reformed them completely, you have transformed them from head to toe, that their hearts are completely given over to you, then may today be the day where they confess and admit, I don't want him to just be part. I want him to be the whole. And so, Lord, we thank you that your message and your truth is exclusive. We thank you that it stands alone. Nothing can compare to the gospel.

Nothing can come close to you. What you have done and what you offer, Islam cannot offer. Catholicism cannot offer. Mormonism cannot offer. Jehovah Witnesses cannot offer.

Thank you that salvation is a gift and that we are free and stand righteous because of the blood of the lamb that was shed for us. And we just ask, Lord, that in this place, people would not be able to say, you know, I'm good, but that there would be this spirit inspired craving for the new wine which is found in Jesus. That's our prayer and our cry. In your name we pray. Amen.