WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.799 We're working our way through the Gospel of Mark every Sunday morning. 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:07.360 And here we are. 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:12.080 This passage has one of the really famous sayings from Jesus that's not only known in 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:20.039 the church but also in pop culture about putting new wine into old wineskins. 00:00:20.039 --> 00:00:25.080 But the passage is actually about fasting. 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:30.559 The whole context and meaning of the whole story is really about what it means to fast 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.280 and to have a fast, to keep a fast. 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:37.640 And when Mark wrote this, when this happened in the first century, Jesus couldn't have 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:45.399 known at the time, Mark wouldn't have known that fasting is incredibly popular in 2023. 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:52.560 So ever since 2012, when a BBC, a broadcaster at the BBC made a documentary about intermittent 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:53.560 fasting. 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:55.440 And intermittent fasting has been enormous ever since. 00:00:55.440 --> 00:01:00.040 So most of you know about it if you've not done it, but probably many of you have even 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:01.040 tried it. 00:01:01.040 --> 00:01:02.440 And it's effective. 00:01:02.440 --> 00:01:03.680 It promotes weight loss. 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:05.840 It helps fight disease. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:08.000 But that's a physical thing. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:11.439 Actually, Christian fasting is not about the physical body. 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:13.439 It involves the physical body. 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:17.480 It's not eating for a certain period, but it's all about spiritual health, not physical 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:18.480 health. 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:21.879 It's all about spiritual reasons, not physical reasons. 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:28.039 And when you learn about fasting in the Bible and you really think about it and you realize 00:01:28.039 --> 00:01:33.759 what it means, it makes sense of why, when Jesus asked why He's not fasting, that He 00:01:33.759 --> 00:01:36.920 immediately starts talking about weddings. 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:37.919 So did you see that? 00:01:37.919 --> 00:01:39.359 He asked, why aren't you fasting? 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:42.840 And then He says, let me tell you about a wedding. 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:44.959 And so we've got to think about what that means. 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:46.599 What's the connection there? 00:01:46.599 --> 00:01:49.759 And so what's fasting? 00:01:49.759 --> 00:01:51.359 Why is fasting? 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:52.799 How does it exist? 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:53.799 And how can you do it? 00:01:53.799 --> 00:01:55.760 Three things today. 00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:57.719 So first, what's fasting? 00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:04.239 Now the context of this passage is the same that many of us will have had. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:08.840 If you've grown up in the church at all or you've been around religion for any period 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:14.520 of time, we all are tempted towards the same thing that's the issue at the beginning of 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:16.159 this passage. 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:20.199 Jesus Christ and His followers, His disciples are being confronted. 00:02:20.199 --> 00:02:26.560 And they're being confronted here because they don't display in public a relationship 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:31.799 to the traditions of religion like the custom around them suggests they should. 00:02:31.799 --> 00:02:32.799 Right? 00:02:32.799 --> 00:02:38.120 And so you see that what the people say here at the beginning in verse 18, Jesus, why aren't 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:42.479 you practicing the religion that's customary? 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:44.159 And here it pertains to fasting. 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:48.120 So in verse 18, it says that some people, we don't know who they are, but some people 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:53.879 come up to Jesus and say, why is it that you and your disciples are not fasting like John 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:58.640 the Baptist disciples are fasting and like the Pharisees and their disciples are fasting 00:02:58.640 --> 00:03:00.560 every single week? 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:02.159 And one commentator says it like this. 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:09.960 He says, if the Jesus movement was to be taken seriously, Jesus needed to get more serious 00:03:09.960 --> 00:03:12.719 about practicing religion. 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:14.040 That's the question that they're posing. 00:03:14.040 --> 00:03:17.560 And so here it's all about why aren't you fasting every week? 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:21.840 Next week you're going to see that it's all about why are you doing the Sabbath day different 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:25.240 than the way the Pharisees are doing the Sabbath day? 00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:30.120 So Jesus, why aren't you practicing the fasting practices of the Pharisees? 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:36.080 Now Mark's gospel is the earliest gospel to be written. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:42.280 And so in chapter two, verse 16, and then here in 18, this is actually the first moment 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:45.879 in the gospel stories we encounter the Pharisees. 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:50.519 So if you've been around the Bible, if you've grown up in the church, you hear Pharisee all 00:03:50.519 --> 00:03:51.519 the time. 00:03:51.519 --> 00:03:52.519 It's an accusation. 00:03:52.519 --> 00:03:53.519 It's all sorts of things. 00:03:53.519 --> 00:03:57.719 But this is actually the very first moment in scripture that you come to hear a story 00:03:57.719 --> 00:03:59.240 about the Pharisees. 00:03:59.240 --> 00:04:01.519 And so it's worth, I think, saying something about them. 00:04:01.519 --> 00:04:10.199 They are at this point in history a 200-year-old community and they are not all bad even though 00:04:10.199 --> 00:04:13.319 they get a really bad reputation. 00:04:13.319 --> 00:04:14.840 Actually the Pharisees did a lot of good. 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:17.879 They promoted obedience to God. 00:04:17.879 --> 00:04:20.280 They were serious about it. 00:04:20.280 --> 00:04:22.399 They said, obeying God is good. 00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:23.399 And we think that too. 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:24.399 Obeying God is good. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:29.759 And they believed in the resurrection in a time when lots of people in Jerusalem questioned 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:31.879 whether there was a resurrection at all. 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:34.399 So another group called the Sadducees said, there is no resurrection. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:36.040 The Pharisees said, no, no, no. 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:40.879 The hope of all existence is that we could rise from the dead. 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:47.240 So there was actually a lot of good that the Pharisees promoted, but 200 years on of development 00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:52.120 by the time you get to a passage like this, the Pharisees have culturally become something 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:53.120 different. 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:58.439 And what's happened is that they've publicly taken on, quote, the seat of Moses as it was 00:04:58.439 --> 00:04:59.439 called. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:05.879 Meaning they are now the public interpreters of what it means to obey Genesis to Deuteronomy 00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:07.759 fully. 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:10.560 And they've become culture makers in that way. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:16.240 And so over the years, they've added tradition on tradition on top of the Ten Commandments, 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.519 on top of the law of Leviticus. 00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:22.920 They've tried to teach people what it means to truly obey, but eventually it became so 00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:29.040 customary to follow their practices that it became a religion of tradition, not true 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:30.439 religion. 00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:33.879 And so from this point forward, you're going to see in the rest of the Gospel of Mark, 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:39.840 this battle that's taking place, not merely between a Pharisee and Jesus, not at all, 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:43.399 but between the tradition of religion and true religion. 00:05:43.399 --> 00:05:48.519 Jesus is going to try to bring people to see, including the Pharisees, the difference in 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:54.159 tradition and true religion and mere religious custom and public practice and what it really 00:05:54.159 --> 00:05:55.439 means. 00:05:55.439 --> 00:05:58.479 And here it's all about fasting. 00:05:58.479 --> 00:06:04.719 And the Pharisees fast every week on Mondays and Thursdays. 00:06:04.719 --> 00:06:09.399 And that means that the disciples of John are probably fasting every week on Mondays 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:10.719 and Thursdays. 00:06:10.719 --> 00:06:15.799 And everybody in Galilee and Jerusalem is fasting every week on Mondays and Thursdays. 00:06:15.799 --> 00:06:18.919 And Jesus Christ and his disciples are not. 00:06:18.919 --> 00:06:21.560 They're not fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. 00:06:21.560 --> 00:06:24.039 And that's making everybody very upset. 00:06:24.039 --> 00:06:28.959 Now Jesus in Matthew 6 makes very clear in the Sermon on the Mount that he loves fasting. 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:30.239 It's good. 00:06:30.239 --> 00:06:36.959 So he says true Christian, true discipleship as a Christian means fasting, praying and 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:37.959 giving. 00:06:37.959 --> 00:06:39.039 Those are the three things. 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.560 And those are actually the pillars of being a Pharisee. 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:42.560 You have to fast. 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:43.560 You have to pray. 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:44.560 You have to give. 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:47.600 Well, Jesus in Matthew 6 says, when you fast, there's a right way to do it. 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:49.840 When you give, there's a right way to do it. 00:06:49.840 --> 00:06:51.160 When you pray, there's a right way to do it. 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:56.200 So he wasn't saying no to the pillars of religion that the Pharisees had established because 00:06:56.200 --> 00:06:58.120 they come from the Old Testament. 00:06:58.120 --> 00:06:59.120 They were there. 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:04.320 Instead, he was saying that there's a different way that the Pharisees have corrupted it. 00:07:04.320 --> 00:07:08.759 And the way they've corrupted it is that when you go to the Old Testament and you ask 00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:12.560 how many times, Lord, should I fast every year? 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:18.560 Should I not eat food or not drink water even in some instances in the Old Testament? 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:24.000 As an act of worship, there's how many times, how many times does God say fast in the Old 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:25.000 Testament? 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.199 Once, only once. 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:29.759 Leviticus 16, the day of atonement. 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:34.959 There's only one day a year where God says you must fast to the Old Testament people. 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:39.239 The Pharisees are fasting Mondays and Thursdays, 52 weeks a year. 00:07:39.239 --> 00:07:42.560 So 104 times minus the feast days. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:48.519 And so Jesus is coming and he's saying, he's trying to say, he's trying to help us see 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:55.959 throughout the whole gospel that true religion is not a matter of public performance. 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:58.279 It's a matter of the heart. 00:07:58.279 --> 00:08:00.199 And he comes back to that over and over again. 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:04.199 And this is the beginning of that conversation in the Gospel of Mark. 00:08:04.199 --> 00:08:08.519 That true religion is dependence on God from the heart outward. 00:08:08.519 --> 00:08:10.519 It's an experience of grace. 00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:17.920 It's not a performance according to custom or ritual, even in the best of religious practices. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:21.680 Now let me bring this home for just a second. 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:24.319 This is not the main point of the passage. 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:29.779 But let me say that this is a danger for every single age of history. 00:08:29.779 --> 00:08:35.919 It's a danger for Christians and for our church and for every church that's ever existed. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:41.319 That we replace the true heart of religion, which is the experience of grace in the heart, 00:08:41.319 --> 00:08:45.839 its faith with custom and practice. 00:08:45.839 --> 00:08:49.879 And when you do that, what happens is you start to believe that your performances and 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:55.000 your attendances become the ground of acceptance before God instead of the grace of God being 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:56.959 the ground of acceptance. 00:08:56.959 --> 00:08:58.720 Let me give you two examples. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:00.360 This can happen subtly. 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:04.600 Let me give you two subtle examples of how this might happen. 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:06.680 One from this week. 00:09:06.680 --> 00:09:11.399 Many of you will have seen this week that in the United States and Kentucky, there has 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:14.960 been a revival happening. 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:16.519 This is made international news. 00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:18.240 It's been all over social media. 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:21.639 Now whether or not it's a true revival, that's exactly the question. 00:09:21.639 --> 00:09:23.399 We don't know yet. 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:25.560 But it's in Little Town in Kentucky. 00:09:25.560 --> 00:09:27.639 It's at Asbury University. 00:09:27.639 --> 00:09:33.439 Now today, right now, as we sit here, this is day 11 of this movement. 00:09:33.439 --> 00:09:37.480 It started 11 days ago with nothing but a small chapel service. 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:42.759 And ever since then, there has been a consistent act of thousands of people going to Asbury 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:48.120 University in perpetual worship and people coming to new faith and a real movement of 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:52.840 the gospel, it seems, going down at Asbury University. 00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:56.679 Now if you follow this at all, one of the things you might have seen this week is that 00:09:56.679 --> 00:10:00.519 many, many people have come and said, well, is this truly revival? 00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:02.079 And that's a good question. 00:10:02.079 --> 00:10:05.839 It's a question that we want to ask of any kind of movement like that. 00:10:05.839 --> 00:10:10.159 But here's the way the conversation's often going. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:15.679 When this revival started, the chapel service, the sermon just wasn't all that good. 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:18.559 And so I just don't think that this can be true revival. 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:22.399 And some people have said, look, this is a Methodist university. 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:23.719 And we're Presbyterians here. 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:28.200 We know that this could not be true revival. 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.040 And some people have said, look, this is a bunch of students. 00:10:31.040 --> 00:10:33.940 There's not an ordained person in the room. 00:10:33.940 --> 00:10:35.160 There's no way. 00:10:35.160 --> 00:10:36.960 The adults have not led this. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:38.720 It's only kids. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:40.759 How could this be true revival? 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:42.519 And you see what's happening. 00:10:42.519 --> 00:10:44.960 I don't know if it's true revival. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:52.000 But whenever you start to say that because the practices of religion weren't perfect, 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.600 therefore the spirit of God can't be at work, then you're entering the territory where you're 00:10:56.600 --> 00:11:03.360 simply saying that my tradition is true Christianity, my cultural practices. 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:06.960 If the order of service wasn't exactly right, there's no chance for revival. 00:11:06.960 --> 00:11:11.399 If the sermon didn't say exactly this, there's no chance for revival. 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:14.840 And that's phara-saisism. 00:11:14.840 --> 00:11:20.440 That's coming and saying our performance, the way we do things, is the ground upon 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:23.680 which the spirit can work. 00:11:23.680 --> 00:11:25.440 And who knows whether this is true revival. 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:29.520 It may be, it may not be, but the spirit goes where he wishes. 00:11:29.520 --> 00:11:34.520 And even if we don't build the altar correctly, God can still bring the fire. 00:11:34.520 --> 00:11:39.480 And that's a small example of a way we can subtly, you know, we can think that our tradition 00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:41.600 is the only right way. 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:45.320 When God works through all different forms of Christianity across the world every single 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:46.440 day, that's one subtle way. 00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:47.840 Let me give you one more. 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:49.400 And we'll move on. 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:52.240 There's a great theologian that I've always appreciated. 00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:56.600 I'm not going to mention his name right now, but normally everything he says, I find to 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:57.600 be true. 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:05.159 But once, once, it's all of us many times, but him only once, he said this, for Presbyterians 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:12.480 from Scotland to America, it's never been Sundays, but Wednesday prayer meeting that 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:15.960 has always been the true mark of the mature Christian. 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:19.279 He says, you know, it's not as much Sundays, but it's really about attendance at the Wednesday 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:20.279 prayer meeting. 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:24.360 Now look, I'm the first person to say, I love a Wednesday prayer meeting. 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:25.759 Please come. 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:26.919 Please come. 00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:29.559 But oh boy, you see what's happening when you say something like that. 00:12:29.559 --> 00:12:35.639 It's saying that the mark of true acceptance into the kingdom of God is a public act of 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:37.319 attendance. 00:12:37.319 --> 00:12:41.480 That to have true faith, real faith is that you got to show up on Wednesdays. 00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:45.079 And there's all sorts of reasons a person might not be able to come. 00:12:45.079 --> 00:12:48.319 And more than that, Wednesday prayer meetings aren't prescribed in Scripture. 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:49.400 Instead, why do we come? 00:12:49.400 --> 00:12:53.360 We come because it's good for the people of God to gather together in prayer. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:55.640 We come because we've experienced grace. 00:12:55.640 --> 00:12:57.320 It's a disposition of the heart. 00:12:57.320 --> 00:13:01.920 And so if you've been around religion for any length of time, you know how fast this 00:13:01.920 --> 00:13:02.920 can happen. 00:13:02.920 --> 00:13:03.920 Right? 00:13:03.920 --> 00:13:08.400 You know that, you know that it can come to a place where you say things like, you know, 00:13:08.400 --> 00:13:15.440 if we don't practice the Lord's Supper in exactly this form, it's corrupted. 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:21.760 Or if we don't arrange the chairs maybe even in the right way. 00:13:21.760 --> 00:13:26.680 You see, this is the religion of tradition, not true religion. 00:13:26.680 --> 00:13:31.120 It's anytime we take a custom, religiosity and act of performance and make it the ground 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:34.400 upon of our acceptance, the only way we can do things. 00:13:34.400 --> 00:13:38.520 And actually when you look at the Bible, you see that true religion is faith alone and 00:13:38.520 --> 00:13:41.400 Christ alone through grace alone. 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:45.519 And that then God gives Christians a lot of freedom actually. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:50.199 And the way we do things and the way we arrange our order of service and the way we do the 00:13:50.199 --> 00:13:53.720 Lord's Supper, all of it, there's so much freedom to be had there. 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:59.840 Now here in Mark two, here in Mark two, the gossip train is running along. 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:04.959 And some people, I love how Mark says it, he says, some people have come to Jesus and 00:14:04.959 --> 00:14:06.879 said, look, everybody's talking. 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:10.360 You're not practicing the Monday, Thursday fast. 00:14:10.360 --> 00:14:15.840 And that means that they regarded Jesus to not be Messiah, to not be the true teacher 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:18.480 because he's not religious enough. 00:14:18.480 --> 00:14:23.000 Because his outward customary approach is not the right one. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:30.800 Now there's only a few instances in which people fast in the Old Testament. 00:14:30.800 --> 00:14:35.720 The Pharisees are saying 104 times a year, Jesus isn't doing it. 00:14:35.720 --> 00:14:38.759 You know that there's only one day in the Old Testament prescribed, but when else do 00:14:38.759 --> 00:14:39.759 people fast? 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:43.360 I'll give you the three times people fast in the Old Testament. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:50.919 One is when a great matter was before them, a great decision, something that was really 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:51.919 difficult. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:57.720 They would fast to steady their prayer life so that they could make a wise decision. 00:14:57.720 --> 00:14:58.720 That was one. 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:03.679 Two, they fasted whenever they realized that they had committed a great sin. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:09.679 So fasting was a response of mourning and repentance to a great sin and a person's life 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:11.000 for the nation's life. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:16.519 And then three, whenever there was a national or a personal tragedy, it was an act of lament 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:17.519 at great loss. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:18.519 Those are the only three. 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:24.639 That means fasting was basically always occasional, never prescribed. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:26.919 And that was always the path from the Old Testament. 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:32.639 And this is exactly why fasting cannot be the grounds of acceptance here for Jesus and 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:34.959 his disciples or for anybody. 00:15:34.959 --> 00:15:38.039 Now secondly, why is fasting? 00:15:38.039 --> 00:15:39.919 We haven't actually defined fasting yet. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:42.439 What is fasting? 00:15:42.439 --> 00:15:50.799 Now fasting is occasionally withholding from food for a spiritual purpose, very simple. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:53.480 But still, what is it really? 00:15:53.480 --> 00:16:00.759 And you learn what it really is when you see the way Jesus responds to this question in 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:02.919 verse 19. 00:16:02.919 --> 00:16:05.879 So Jesus is asked, why aren't you fasting? 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:08.080 Why aren't your disciples fasting with you? 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:12.799 And Jesus says, can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:14.399 So they say, why aren't you fasting? 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:16.759 And Jesus starts talking about a wedding week. 00:16:16.759 --> 00:16:20.480 Now in the first century, you don't get married on a day. 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:23.679 You get married in a day, but the wedding is across the whole week. 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:28.360 It's a week-long wedding party all the way from Sabbath to Sabbath. 00:16:28.360 --> 00:16:29.799 We should pick that back up. 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:32.559 We should get that going again. 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:39.199 And Jesus is doing something here that worked in the first century and works perfectly today. 00:16:39.199 --> 00:16:40.199 Here's what he's doing. 00:16:40.199 --> 00:16:45.599 The word he actually uses for wedding guests is not generic, it's masculine. 00:16:45.599 --> 00:16:47.559 So it's colloquial language. 00:16:47.559 --> 00:16:54.399 So what he very literally says is, if the boys are with the groom, will the boys, will 00:16:54.399 --> 00:16:57.399 the lads fast while the groom is with them? 00:16:57.399 --> 00:16:59.439 He's talking about his groomsmen. 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:04.960 He's saying, when the groomsmen, the lads are with the groom and it's wedding week, do 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:05.960 they fast? 00:17:05.960 --> 00:17:11.000 In other words, say it's the day before your wedding. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:13.120 You're a man in the room and you're getting married. 00:17:13.120 --> 00:17:14.120 It's the day before your wedding. 00:17:14.120 --> 00:17:15.320 The day before your wedding, what do you do? 00:17:15.320 --> 00:17:16.320 You play golf, right? 00:17:16.320 --> 00:17:17.320 You go out to eat. 00:17:17.320 --> 00:17:19.400 You go to the best steakhouse in the city, whatever it may be. 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:20.920 You get all the groomsmen together. 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:22.360 You get your best man. 00:17:22.360 --> 00:17:27.000 You get your dad, whoever it may be, and you go out and you eat a great meal. 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:31.720 And you're sitting there and the waiter comes out and the waiter goes around the table and 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:36.119 asks and everybody's ordering porterhouse steaks and all sorts of things. 00:17:36.119 --> 00:17:39.759 And it gets to the best man and what does he say? 00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:42.359 Nothing for me today. 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:43.359 It's Thursday. 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:44.359 It's a Thursday. 00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:45.359 I can't. 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:46.359 It's a fast day. 00:17:46.359 --> 00:17:49.680 Now look, Jesus says this because not even the Pharisees would have done something so 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:53.559 ridiculous as fast on a wedding week. 00:17:53.559 --> 00:17:57.679 Fasts when the groom enters the room, when the bride comes, nobody's going to fast. 00:17:57.679 --> 00:17:58.679 And that's why he's doing that. 00:17:58.679 --> 00:17:59.679 It worked. 00:17:59.679 --> 00:18:01.779 Then it works the exact same way today. 00:18:01.779 --> 00:18:02.779 And you see what he's saying? 00:18:02.779 --> 00:18:05.679 Here's the point of the passage. 00:18:05.679 --> 00:18:09.720 You don't fast whenever it's time to feast. 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:16.559 And that means that the meaning of fasting is completely defined by the fact of feasting. 00:18:16.559 --> 00:18:23.519 You see, fasts exist in the Bible only because feasting exists. 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:26.480 Fasts are ordered to feasting. 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:29.039 Now let me explain what that means. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:34.039 To understand this, why Jesus jumps to the wedding, you've got to go all the way back 00:18:34.039 --> 00:18:39.799 to the beginning because Genesis is the reason that fasting exists and that feasting and 00:18:39.799 --> 00:18:42.119 that it's ordered to feasting. 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:50.799 In Genesis 1-3, Adam, the first man, the proto-human, was given a commandment by God to fast. 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:55.159 The very first command that Adam's given in the garden after the woman is made is you 00:18:55.159 --> 00:18:56.940 must fast. 00:18:56.940 --> 00:19:00.480 You must not eat of that tree. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:03.440 Fasting is the very beginning of history. 00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:09.680 And what he was saying there is, Adam, don't eat of evil. 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:15.279 And if you refrain, if you fast from evil, you will feast forever. 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:18.659 If you keep the fast, you'll have the feast. 00:19:18.660 --> 00:19:24.519 If you keep the fast, you'll have the feast that is God himself in the Garden of Eden. 00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:30.120 And so from the very beginning, fasting only makes sense because there's a feast at the 00:19:30.120 --> 00:19:32.640 end of the road. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:34.600 Fasting is ordered to feasting. 00:19:34.600 --> 00:19:39.279 If you fast from evil, human being, if you fast from evil, God says, I will give you 00:19:39.279 --> 00:19:41.200 the feast. 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:46.080 And Adam broke the fast and it wasn't just breakfast. 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:49.279 He chose evil instead of the feast. 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:55.519 And so fasting has existed ever since then as a lamentation, as an event where in your 00:19:55.519 --> 00:20:00.399 physical body, you feel the pain of breaking the fast. 00:20:00.399 --> 00:20:06.559 In your physical body, you experience hunger pains and you're reminded, my soul is starved. 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:07.839 I never got the feast. 00:20:07.839 --> 00:20:10.159 I was made for the feast and I never found it. 00:20:10.159 --> 00:20:12.079 I never reached the feast. 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:16.439 In the Old Anu Testament, the same verb is actually used for fasting. 00:20:16.439 --> 00:20:20.399 It's typically the verb literally to afflict oneself. 00:20:20.399 --> 00:20:23.359 So a lot of times in the Old Testament, it doesn't say they fasted. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:26.319 It says they afflicted themselves. 00:20:26.319 --> 00:20:32.000 Why it's saying that when I afflict my body with hunger pain, it heightens my spiritual 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:36.919 sense that I am not who I'm supposed to be and that I have not gotten what I was made 00:20:36.919 --> 00:20:39.279 for, the feast. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:44.119 And it's always been that way and fasting has always existed for that purpose. 00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:50.359 Even more it says, I fast today so that I'm hungry, so that I remember that I didn't get 00:20:50.359 --> 00:20:53.639 the spiritual starvation I actually deserved. 00:20:53.639 --> 00:20:59.839 I remember today in my physical body, hunger pain, that I have not actually gotten the 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:04.399 spiritual pain that I deserved, that I'm alive. 00:21:04.399 --> 00:21:08.440 Israel was to remember on the day of atonement, look at the forgiveness that God has offered 00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:12.920 me despite me and the fast actually helped them to remember that. 00:21:12.920 --> 00:21:18.320 Now Jesus here is saying something really important in the Old Testament. 00:21:18.320 --> 00:21:24.779 The fast is ordered to the feast and there's only one day a year, only one day a year where 00:21:24.779 --> 00:21:29.559 Israel is prescribed to keep the fast and that's on the day of atonement in Leviticus 00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:30.559 16. 00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:37.000 Now, on the day of atonement in Leviticus 16, they take two goats and they put their hands 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.440 upon the goat, the priest does and one is sacrificed as a symbol for the forgiveness 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:47.240 of sins, the other is sent out into the wilderness as an act of waiting. 00:21:47.240 --> 00:21:52.000 The one that goes out into the wilderness is a symbol and it's a message and it's Israel 00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:56.200 saying we don't yet have the feast. 00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:00.599 It's them saying in other words, yeah, we're sacrificing goats and bulls and the blood of 00:22:00.599 --> 00:22:05.539 lambs but it's not sufficient, it's not bringing the feast. 00:22:05.539 --> 00:22:09.639 These lambs are not bringing the feast that we were made for and so we send this one goat 00:22:09.639 --> 00:22:15.279 out into the wilderness to wait and to wander and to say that this sacrificial system isn't 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:16.920 enough. 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:21.079 It doesn't bring the feast that we were intended to have in the Garden of Eden with God himself 00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:25.440 and so when Jesus, when God I should say in the Old Testament comes to Israel in the 00:22:25.440 --> 00:22:32.079 prophets, he says, well one day, one day I will come to you as the great groom, the 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:38.599 groom's man and I will throw a wedding party, Isaiah 55 and you will have the feast. 00:22:38.599 --> 00:22:42.519 I'll come to you in my grace and I'll deliver you and I'll save you and I'll bring the 00:22:42.519 --> 00:22:43.519 feast to you. 00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:48.839 Isaiah 55 says one day you will drink sweet wine in the land of the living, the feast. 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:52.319 Now you see what Jesus is doing? 00:22:52.319 --> 00:23:00.599 He's saying when he says how could my groom's man fast when the groom is in the room? 00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:05.119 He's saying I am the God that promised the feast. 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:10.119 I am the God of the Old Testament who said I will come to marry the people. 00:23:10.119 --> 00:23:15.000 I am the God who will bring the feast and today there can be no fasting because I'm standing 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:16.119 right here. 00:23:16.119 --> 00:23:20.399 The fast was only ordered to the feast and here is the feast, I am the feast. 00:23:20.399 --> 00:23:21.559 That's what he's saying when he says this. 00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:29.240 Now that's why he gives these two famous illustrations, the shrunken cloth and the new wine, old 00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:31.480 wine skins, what in the world? 00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:35.640 These are very first century illustrations but actually they make complete sense when 00:23:35.640 --> 00:23:38.200 you just think about them for a moment. 00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:43.400 People in the ancient world had to shrink clothing like we have to shrink clothing. 00:23:43.400 --> 00:23:49.000 Sometimes clothing would be made out of all manner of things, sometimes animal skins and 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:54.519 they had to be combed multiple times and then washed and then combed again and that act 00:23:54.519 --> 00:23:59.559 would shrink it because you wore the same thing all the time, you only had one or two 00:23:59.559 --> 00:24:01.359 sets of clothing that you would wear. 00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:06.279 If you got a hole in your clothes and you tried to put a patch on that hole of your 00:24:06.279 --> 00:24:14.000 one cloak and it was not pre-shrunk material, eventually it's going to shrink and what you're 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:19.799 going to have is a piece of cloth trying to fit in a hole that's much too big. 00:24:19.799 --> 00:24:21.279 In other words he's saying it's not fitting. 00:24:21.279 --> 00:24:24.960 Is it fitting to put too small of a piece of cloth on a big hole? 00:24:24.960 --> 00:24:26.519 No, it's not fitting. 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:29.680 How about the wine skins? 00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:34.039 They would ferment wine but at the very end of the fermentation process, just before it 00:24:34.039 --> 00:24:39.039 was finished they would transfer the wine to wine skins which were typically goat hides 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:45.200 or some other hide from another animal and because the wine was still fermenting it dispelled 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:47.160 gas and what happened? 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:50.839 The wine skin, the goat skin spread through the gas. 00:24:50.839 --> 00:24:55.759 Now if you tried to put new wine, fermenting wine into wine skin that had already been 00:24:55.759 --> 00:24:58.079 stretched what's going to happen? 00:24:58.079 --> 00:24:59.579 It's going to explode. 00:24:59.579 --> 00:25:01.839 You're going to lose all your wine and there will be no feast. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:04.159 There will be no wedding party. 00:25:04.159 --> 00:25:06.559 That means that Jesus is making a very simple point here. 00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:13.879 He's saying just as new wine cannot fit into old wine skins you cannot engage in an act 00:25:13.879 --> 00:25:19.000 of spiritual mourning when the bridegroom is standing right in front of your face. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:21.200 It's time for the feast, not for the fast. 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:26.640 Now let's close this point and move on to the practical. 00:25:26.640 --> 00:25:32.599 Jesus nevertheless in verse 20 says there will come a day when it's time to fast again. 00:25:32.599 --> 00:25:35.880 So Jesus is not ending fasting here. 00:25:35.880 --> 00:25:40.440 Some suggest that when you read them on this passage but that's not at all what he's saying. 00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:45.240 He says there will come a time for fasting and he says it's when the groom will be quote 00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:47.960 taken away. 00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:51.240 There's still time for fasting, Jesus says. 00:25:51.240 --> 00:25:55.640 And he's saying, implying right there that the Christian church is still called to keep 00:25:55.640 --> 00:25:58.759 a fast, to fast. 00:25:58.759 --> 00:26:00.400 Why? 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:01.400 And here's how he puts it. 00:26:01.400 --> 00:26:04.240 He says because the groom is going to be taken away. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:09.480 Now this verb, this verb, the commentators, they all say it. 00:26:09.480 --> 00:26:16.400 This verb to be taken away is a quote and it's a quote that comes straight from the Old Testament 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:19.519 from Isaiah chapter 53. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:26.040 In Isaiah 53, just speaking of the Messiah, the suffering servant, it says he shall be 00:26:26.040 --> 00:26:29.640 quote taken away. 00:26:29.640 --> 00:26:31.640 He shall be taken away in judgment. 00:26:31.640 --> 00:26:35.640 He shall be cut off from the land of the living. 00:26:35.640 --> 00:26:38.280 Now Jesus is saying here that he knows something. 00:26:38.280 --> 00:26:42.980 He knows what claiming to be the groom has cost him. 00:26:42.980 --> 00:26:48.160 And he stands here on this day and says I am the groom, the God of the Old Testament. 00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:52.279 He knows that the Pharisees and the disciples of all the people around him are saying, are 00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:59.240 realizing, are awakening to what his claim really is, that he is the living God. 00:26:59.240 --> 00:27:00.400 Come to bring the feast to his people. 00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:02.279 And he says this is going to cost me. 00:27:02.279 --> 00:27:04.240 I'm going to be taken away. 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:08.240 There's going to come a day to fast and it's because the groom is not going to be with 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:09.240 you forever. 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:12.440 And the groom is not going to be with you forever because they're coming for me. 00:27:12.440 --> 00:27:13.960 They're coming to take me away. 00:27:13.960 --> 00:27:14.960 They're coming to kill me. 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:18.880 And of course he's talking here about his crucifixion. 00:27:18.880 --> 00:27:20.600 He's saying I'll be taken away. 00:27:20.600 --> 00:27:29.759 Now Adam, Adam the proto-human stood before the tempter in the garden of God and God said, 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:35.360 God said if you will fast from evil, I will give you the feast. 00:27:35.360 --> 00:27:38.799 And you will live forever and you will have utter joy. 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:40.600 And he failed. 00:27:40.600 --> 00:27:42.080 And we failed. 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:45.079 We fast because we didn't keep the fast. 00:27:45.079 --> 00:27:49.919 We fast as an act of mourning over what our sin cost the world, that we might remember 00:27:49.919 --> 00:27:56.199 in our bodies with the spiritual reality of our evil cost us. 00:27:56.199 --> 00:27:59.279 But you see what Jesus is saying here? 00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:04.919 He's saying that the groom, the groom of heaven, the feast himself, that he came into 00:28:04.919 --> 00:28:09.000 the world and that from the very beginning of his ministry he was going to do what Adam 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:10.000 never did. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:16.440 You see, remember last couple of weeks ago he stood in the wilderness in front of Satan 00:28:16.440 --> 00:28:20.119 and he took on a 40-day fast. 00:28:20.119 --> 00:28:23.240 And he relived exactly what Adam went through in the garden of God. 00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:27.759 And when Satan came to him and said, break your fast, if you will break your fast and 00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:30.400 feast on evil, I'll give you the whole world. 00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:33.279 And Jesus kept the fast. 00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:38.640 And he relived the fast and what it was meant to be for us in every way that we never did 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:40.080 and never could have. 00:28:40.080 --> 00:28:44.320 And then here he comes to the point and he says, I'm the groom, the feast has come, but 00:28:44.320 --> 00:28:45.320 I'm going to be taken away. 00:28:45.320 --> 00:28:50.320 And he's saying this, that the crucifixion, the crucifixion is where Jesus Christ chose 00:28:50.320 --> 00:28:53.400 to go and be starved. 00:28:53.400 --> 00:28:56.360 He chose to go and take the fast to the utter limit. 00:28:56.360 --> 00:29:00.320 He chose to go and fast all the way to the bottom. 00:29:00.320 --> 00:29:06.520 You see, our fast is nothing but a little hunger pain where we try to remember what our sin 00:29:06.519 --> 00:29:09.599 has cost us and what the Lord has done for us. 00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:14.440 But Jesus was starved all the way to the point of being forsaken by God, the Father himself. 00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:17.079 And he's saying, I'm going to be taken away. 00:29:17.079 --> 00:29:20.639 The party is going to end and it's going to be when I go and experience the ultimate fast 00:29:20.639 --> 00:29:25.160 for you so that you might know feasting. 00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:30.279 And remember the night before he was betrayed, he took bread, the feast, and he broke it 00:29:30.279 --> 00:29:36.480 and he passed the wine out and he said, tomorrow there is no feasting. 00:29:36.480 --> 00:29:38.920 But we will one day. 00:29:38.920 --> 00:29:42.839 After what I'm about to do, I'm about to go through the utmost fast so that you can keep 00:29:42.839 --> 00:29:44.519 the feast. 00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:49.480 And so Christians now, we fast, but we feast. 00:29:49.480 --> 00:29:50.920 We feast on the Lord's day. 00:29:50.920 --> 00:29:52.120 We feast on the Sabbath day. 00:29:52.120 --> 00:29:54.240 We feast at the Lord's supper. 00:29:54.240 --> 00:29:57.960 And we keep the fast to remember what the cross is for us. 00:29:57.960 --> 00:30:01.559 You see, fasting is like feasting today because of Jesus. 00:30:01.559 --> 00:30:05.400 It says, I remember what it cost him. 00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:12.519 I remember in my hunger pains that he starved, that he was forsaken for me from top to bottom. 00:30:12.519 --> 00:30:16.640 Now let me close, we'll close with this just a couple of things. 00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:18.640 How can you do it? 00:30:18.640 --> 00:30:21.440 How can you fast today? 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:23.480 Just a few things very quickly. 00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:28.880 Because Jesus Christ fasted all the way to the bottom for you, you are invited to the 00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:31.000 feast. 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:36.720 And you come to the feast by feasting on him, by faith alone, not by religious practice, 00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:37.920 not by fasting. 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:42.559 Fasting is never the grounds of your acceptance, just like attendance. 00:30:42.559 --> 00:30:45.380 It's never the ground of your acceptance and the grace. 00:30:45.380 --> 00:30:49.000 You come and fast only because you've experienced grace. 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:53.440 So if you've experienced grace and you're a Christian today, you're still invited to 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:56.339 fast as a Christian practice. 00:30:56.339 --> 00:30:59.839 Not to get grace, but because you've experienced it already. 00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:00.839 Why? 00:31:00.839 --> 00:31:02.359 What does that mean? 00:31:02.359 --> 00:31:07.799 Fasting now in the light of the cross is occasional, not regular. 00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:08.799 It's not prescribed. 00:31:08.799 --> 00:31:10.919 It's not religious in that way. 00:31:10.919 --> 00:31:17.879 Instead, it's an occasional act prompted by the Holy Spirit to help us become hungry and 00:31:17.879 --> 00:31:22.199 homesick for the true feast himself. 00:31:22.199 --> 00:31:26.519 Now let me give you four instances where you can think about fasting, and I'm just going 00:31:26.519 --> 00:31:27.959 to rattle these off. 00:31:27.960 --> 00:31:32.920 Four instances from the Old Testament to the New where it might be a good idea to fast. 00:31:32.920 --> 00:31:34.920 Now I want to say be wise. 00:31:34.920 --> 00:31:37.559 Some of you can't fast because of health reasons. 00:31:37.559 --> 00:31:38.720 That's okay. 00:31:38.720 --> 00:31:41.000 You don't need fasting to get into heaven. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:43.000 No, that's all grace. 00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:46.400 But here's four ways, four reasons you might fast. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:47.720 Remember, it's occasional. 00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:52.920 So if you're saying today, you know, I actually do feel prompted by the Holy Spirit sometimes 00:31:52.920 --> 00:31:59.000 in my life for this reason, that reason, or that reason to fast for spiritual renewal, 00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:00.759 then that's exactly it. 00:32:00.759 --> 00:32:02.440 That's exactly what it is. 00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:03.440 You should think about it. 00:32:03.440 --> 00:32:05.519 You should pray about keeping a fast. 00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:06.519 But here's four things. 00:32:06.519 --> 00:32:15.000 One, first, in order to strengthen your prayer life, and especially as John Calvin puts it, 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:22.400 whenever you have to pray concerning a great matter, it would be expedient to fast. 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:27.120 And Donald Whitney, he says it like this, fasting sharpens the edge of your prayers 00:32:27.120 --> 00:32:30.680 and deepens their passions and intercessions. 00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:36.280 And so in other words, we see in the Old Testament and New Testament that people fast occasionally 00:32:36.280 --> 00:32:39.280 when there's a great issue laying before them. 00:32:39.280 --> 00:32:44.280 A huge decision, a big trip, whatever it may be that you might be facing. 00:32:44.280 --> 00:32:49.400 Ezra called for a fast whenever he had to take the people of Israel from Babylon back 00:32:49.400 --> 00:32:50.400 to Jerusalem. 00:32:50.400 --> 00:32:51.400 He said, we've got a fast. 00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:52.759 We've got a fast journey ahead. 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:56.900 So fasting is an occasional act to strengthen and sharpen your prayer life. 00:32:56.900 --> 00:33:01.880 It doesn't mean that God's ability to hear you has changed. 00:33:01.880 --> 00:33:05.980 Instead it intensifies your own earnestness in prayer. 00:33:05.980 --> 00:33:06.980 So that's one reason. 00:33:06.980 --> 00:33:13.740 Second reason, fasting is very regularly in the Bible a means in the light of the cross 00:33:13.740 --> 00:33:17.380 to act out your repentance physically. 00:33:17.380 --> 00:33:20.420 So in both the Old and New Testament, people fast 00:33:20.420 --> 00:33:24.420 after they've really struggled with sin. 00:33:24.420 --> 00:33:26.260 So maybe there's a sin in your life 00:33:26.260 --> 00:33:28.500 that you feel like is overwhelming you 00:33:28.500 --> 00:33:31.060 and you can't get ahold of, well, it's very normal 00:33:31.060 --> 00:33:33.700 in scripture for someone to fast. 00:33:33.700 --> 00:33:37.460 And to remember through their physical pain, 00:33:37.460 --> 00:33:41.660 the spiritual cost unto Christ, but at the same time, 00:33:41.660 --> 00:33:44.580 to sharpen their senses for grace. 00:33:44.579 --> 00:33:48.460 And to relive and mourning what Christ has meant for them. 00:33:48.460 --> 00:33:52.419 And so fasting is a normal way to lament and mourn 00:33:52.419 --> 00:33:54.859 a problem in your life that you need to fight 00:33:54.859 --> 00:33:56.339 and to ask and to strengthen your prayer 00:33:56.339 --> 00:33:58.659 to house for help for God to get over that. 00:33:58.659 --> 00:34:03.659 Third, very normal in scripture also to fast occasionally 00:34:04.460 --> 00:34:06.619 when there's a great tragedy. 00:34:06.619 --> 00:34:08.940 So it'd be very normal, according to the Bible, 00:34:08.940 --> 00:34:12.860 to fast in the light of what's happened in Turkey 00:34:12.860 --> 00:34:16.380 and Syria and to hold a fast for the people there. 00:34:16.380 --> 00:34:18.460 An act of sharpening prayer, again, 00:34:18.460 --> 00:34:20.740 and asking for God to give great help, 00:34:20.740 --> 00:34:23.019 but it also is a symbol and a sign, 00:34:23.019 --> 00:34:26.620 a small S sacrament, if you will, that says, 00:34:26.620 --> 00:34:30.700 I'm wearing in my body my physical hunger pain, 00:34:30.700 --> 00:34:34.579 the plight that our sin has cost the world. 00:34:34.579 --> 00:34:37.820 You so we see something so horrible as an earthquake 00:34:37.820 --> 00:34:39.940 that's destroyed thousands of lives. 00:34:39.940 --> 00:34:43.260 Well, fasting helps us remember it is our sin 00:34:43.260 --> 00:34:44.460 that broke the world. 00:34:45.300 --> 00:34:49.380 I feel my spiritual poverty in my physical poverty 00:34:49.380 --> 00:34:51.340 in the midst of fasting. 00:34:51.340 --> 00:34:54.700 Fourthly and finally, we read from Isaiah 58 00:34:54.700 --> 00:34:57.360 at the beginning of the service. 00:34:57.360 --> 00:35:00.579 And God said there, Israel, you're religious, 00:35:00.579 --> 00:35:03.460 you're very religious, you fast all the time, 00:35:03.460 --> 00:35:06.579 but you don't use the fast for anything good. 00:35:06.579 --> 00:35:09.340 He said, you fast, but you oppress the poor. 00:35:09.340 --> 00:35:11.480 You fast, but you don't give. 00:35:11.480 --> 00:35:13.500 You fast, but you don't pray. 00:35:13.500 --> 00:35:16.700 You fast, but you don't seek justice. 00:35:16.700 --> 00:35:18.980 And that means that one of the ways 00:35:18.980 --> 00:35:21.940 that fasting can be used in the Christian life 00:35:21.940 --> 00:35:25.460 is actually to seek out ministry opportunity. 00:35:25.460 --> 00:35:27.980 So Don Whitney says, use fasting, 00:35:27.980 --> 00:35:32.260 use fasting as an opportunity to seek good things 00:35:32.260 --> 00:35:33.740 that God calls you to. 00:35:33.740 --> 00:35:36.079 So maybe instead of eating your meal, 00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:38.860 you seek a ministry opportunity at lunchtime. 00:35:38.860 --> 00:35:40.500 You say, I'm gonna go serve in this ministry. 00:35:40.500 --> 00:35:42.539 I'm gonna go witness to these people. 00:35:42.539 --> 00:35:44.620 I'm gonna go serve the poor in this way. 00:35:44.620 --> 00:35:47.460 In other words, God says, I don't want your fasting 00:35:47.460 --> 00:35:49.740 if it doesn't result in change in your life. 00:35:49.740 --> 00:35:52.620 And so fasting and change simultaneously, 00:35:52.620 --> 00:35:55.380 you can use the fast to pursue ministry 00:35:55.380 --> 00:35:57.340 in some specific way in your life. 00:35:57.340 --> 00:36:00.460 Now that means, and here's the last word, 00:36:00.460 --> 00:36:02.420 and we'll close, fasting, 00:36:02.420 --> 00:36:06.500 fasting is not for the specially holy people. 00:36:06.500 --> 00:36:09.099 Fasting is not for the particularly religious. 00:36:10.099 --> 00:36:13.380 Christian fasting is for the hurting, 00:36:13.380 --> 00:36:16.619 it's for the grieving, it's for the weary, 00:36:16.619 --> 00:36:18.780 and it's for those who have experienced grace 00:36:18.780 --> 00:36:20.219 and are looking for help and hope. 00:36:21.219 --> 00:36:23.900 And it's for the person who knows 00:36:23.900 --> 00:36:25.739 and is willing to say what Jesus said 00:36:25.739 --> 00:36:27.500 in the last week's passage, 00:36:27.500 --> 00:36:30.139 I'm sick and I need a physician. 00:36:31.139 --> 00:36:33.300 And fasting helps remind us of that. 00:36:33.300 --> 00:36:35.699 It's an illustration, it's a hunger pain, 00:36:35.699 --> 00:36:39.739 where Jesus Christ, we remember, he was starved for me. 00:36:40.659 --> 00:36:41.699 But I'm alive. 00:36:42.579 --> 00:36:44.460 I remember his pain and my pain, 00:36:44.460 --> 00:36:47.659 but oh boy, look at what he's given me. 00:36:47.659 --> 00:36:50.179 And so fasting is to heighten the senses 00:36:50.179 --> 00:36:52.099 and to make us hungry for the feast. 00:36:53.099 --> 00:36:53.939 Let's pray. 00:36:53.939 --> 00:36:58.939 Father, we ask now that you would help us always 00:36:59.179 --> 00:37:01.139 to remember that our religious practices 00:37:01.139 --> 00:37:02.899 are not the ground of our acceptance, 00:37:02.900 --> 00:37:05.579 but that Jesus Christ is. 00:37:05.579 --> 00:37:09.780 And if we fast, if we choose to fast, 00:37:09.780 --> 00:37:13.780 that it would be to the good of our dependence on you 00:37:13.780 --> 00:37:17.780 and for praise and worship unto Christ the feast himself. 00:37:17.780 --> 00:37:21.180 And so Lord, call some of us to this practice, 00:37:21.180 --> 00:37:23.700 this practice that we might see more of Jesus 00:37:23.700 --> 00:37:25.180 and see his greatness. 00:37:25.179 --> 00:37:33.179 And we ask for this in Christ's name, amen.