Good morning church. Today we're going to be reading
from Matthew 9, verses 14 through 17, and if you're using
the Bible beneath your seat, you can open up to page 764 starting
in verse 14. Then the disciples of John came
to him saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your
disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the
wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from
them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk
cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the
garment, and worst hair and a worst hair is made.
Neither is new wine put into old wine skins.
If it is the the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the
skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh wine
skins and so both are preserved. This is the word of the Lord.
Good morning. My name is John.
I'm one of the pastors here and we're continuing our series
today in Matthew 8-9 as we look at the authority of the king,
see Matthew in his gospel, he continues to establish Jesus
authority as the king. And today's really going to be
no different. I mean, as we jump back into
where we were last week, I want you to think about a time you or
someone else could not read the room.
I feel that way a lot of times. But whether it's telling a sad
story at a party, you know, that's a mood killer, right?
Or when you walk into a library with your with kids or your kids
or some kids and they're practically yelling, right?
You're like SH the library, you know, or it's like those
Progressive insurance commercials where they're trying
to keep new homeowners from being their parents or acting
like their parents. Most of it's just not reading
the room though, right? You know, whether it's eating in
the locker room without getting dressed first, taking photos for
someone and then turning that into a photo shoot.
Or my favorite, which is the, you know, they're in their
department store and they basically give someone advice
who didn't even ask. So we we could fail to look
around and pick up on what how the situation fits and and we
can miss it. This can happen a lot, though,
because when we have something on our minds or questions that
we're mulling over that, you know, that kind of just spills
out and everything. And that's what we see today in
our text. OK, so we're still at the dinner
party that's happening at Matthew's house.
OK. Everyone is reclining at table
like we saw last week, right? It's it's a party.
Not sure how many people were there, but I would imagine it's
a packed house. But it's Matthew and he's a tax
collector, so he's got a little bit of money.
This isn't a 500 square foot job, right?
This is more like a 2500 to 3000 square foot like branch, right?
So there's probably a lot of people there, in other words,
right? So people are talking to each
other, they're slowly eating and drinking, they're chilling,
they're vibing, right? They're having a good time.
The centerpiece of the occasion, though, is Jesus visiting
Matthew and his tax collector buddies, I would assume, right?
This is. But this, this like fact has
added a bit of a spectacle to this particular party.
OK, See, in Jewish society, as in all societies, there's always
those people you associate with and there's people you don't
associate with. But The thing is, is that
Matthew is definitely in the group that you don't associate
with. All right?
I mean, we learned that last week.
But yet there were people who were not ordinarily be there
just out of curiosity as to what Jesus was even doing.
OK. And one of the groups was the
Pharisees. Who were they?
They were right there. They asked a question, and we
talked about that question last week.
So the question last week was more or less this.
It was why are you eating with them, those people?
But they didn't dare ask Jesus directly.
If you remember, they actually asked the disciples and then
Jesus spoke up an answer, which probably kind of escalated
things for them, probably further than they thought.
I kind of imagine they had a bit of embarrassment in the pit of
their stomach, like, oh, and they immediately regretted the
question that they asked. But this week we get a different
question at the party. So let's look at that.
So who we're going to look at who asked the question, the
question itself, Jesus answer to the question and the
implications of his answer. So questioners a question and
answer and then implications. OK, let's look at the
questioners first. So the awkward exchange kind of
continues this week. All right, so the Pharisees
asked the disciples a question and Jesus answered.
Now the conversation has switched directly to Jesus.
OK, with the pit of embarrassment in in the
Pharisee's stomach, a different group kind of steps up and
quickly ask a follow up. This time it's the disciples of
John. And so if you don't remember
John, he's the guy who wore camel hair, clothes and a
leather belt and he ate locust in honey and he lived in the
wilderness. Kind of a strange dude, but he
was a serious dude. OK?
John preached a baptism of repentance and he was actually
Jesus cousin, one of those crazy cousins, but he was a cousin.
So I like to think that the disciples of John are pretty
serious, but they're genuine. After all, they would have
received a baptism of repentance, if you will.
And it really takes humility to kind of own your own failures,
right? So yet at this party and with
their question, they align themselves though with the
Pharisees, another pretty serious group, but not that
humble. In fact, they boasted about
their law keeping and paraded their righteousness before
others and Jesus kind of called them out on it as we saw last
week. But I think I like to think that
the disciples of John came to really learn.
They seem to have a genuineness about them despite their
association with the Pharisees. See Jesus response kind of also
indicates that as well. But they're like their teacher.
They follow their aesthetics. John was a minimalist camel hair
attire. You know, that's not exactly
Gucci, but I imagine the disciples of John followed him
in his asceticism and we're extremely disciplined.
OK. They probably were trying really
hard to just bear fruit and keeping with repentance is what
John taught them. They took God's law seriously
and earnestly and tried to obey. This frame of mind is probably
why they asked the question that they did.
So let's look at that question again.
Let's look at the question verse 14.
He says, then the disciples of John came to him saying, why do
we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast.
So the question last week was why do you eat with them?
The question this week is why are you eating at all?
Right. Notice last week the question
was asked about Jesus to the disciples, but this week the
question is asked about the disciples to Jesus.
Notice that you're the teacher. Why don't your disciples fast
like us? We fast.
You guys are always eating now It's not clear.
It's not it's really not clear from the text though.
If it, it could be that they are actively fasting for some
occasion right there at the party, hence the inclusion of we
and the Pharisees. Or it could just be a general
question, you know, let you guys don't fast.
We noticed, but as best as we can tell, both groups had a
regular rhythm of fasting, and so the Pharisees were probably
more seeking A righteous life with their fasting, and the
disciples of John were probably seeking an aesthetic lifestyle
of repentance, which fasting regularly would have
demonstrated. So the question was a serious
one for the disciples of John, and they genuinely wanted to
know about the discipline of fasting.
You could rephrase their question to be how do you teach
your disciples to live or practice?
What are your rhythms? That's what they're asking.
They probably were wrestling with a cognitive dissonance, if
you will. They understood a life of
repentance to look like John the Baptist and the ascetic life of
abstaining from so many things, including food.
They probably knew John baptized Jesus.
They knew that John held Jesus in high esteem, but they were
having trouble reconciling the lack of fasting in an ascetic
lifestyle. And suddenly they may be asking
Jesus, am I doing this right? Am I missing something?
They couldn't even be calling into question Jesus's devoutness
because it contradicted their understanding of a devout life,
which was asceticism. But let's look at Jesus's
response. OK, Look at verse 15.
And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests mourn as long as
the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the
bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
No one puts a piece of untrucked cloth on an old garment, for the
patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is
made. Neither is new wine put into old
wine skins. If it is, the skins burst and
the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed, but new
wine is put into fresh wine skins, so both are preserved.
OK, so let's get the easy part out of the way.
How about that Jesus simple answer?
His simple answer is they will fast, just not now.
OK, just not now. That's the simple answer.
But Jesus loved them by not just saying that, He added one
important reason. Then he gave some explanation
through a couple of parables which we'll get into in a
minute. But you can simply know that
Jesus answer to their question is that they will fast, just not
now. OK, but the reason why not now
is remarkable. Let's look at that.
He answers the question with a question.
Love that, don't you? Can the wedding guests mourn as
long as the bridegroom is with them?
Can he mourn? So remember, they're reclining
at table, OK? And they ask him a question
about fasting. Guys, read the room.
It's a party, and you're asking about fasting.
Really remember their aesthetics and this is on their mind a lot.
So Jesus rhetorical question has an obvious answer.
No, no, you don't mourn when you heard a guest at a party with a
bridegroom. If the groom is there, you're
celebrating with him, right? You're you're focused on him and
the joy of his coming wedding. Now I want I want you to see
something though Jesus. He makes a mental association.
He associates fasting with mourning.
That's important. One reason you fast is linked to
mourning. OK?
So the reason they don't do it now is because it's not a time
for mourning, but a celebration. It's like having the groom with
us. Jesus is telling them graciously
they're missing something. But we'll come back to that in
just a minute. Let's look at the parables.
OK, so Jesus doesn't stop with his simple answer associated
with the bridegroom. He gives him two parables to
illustrate his point further. Here's what he said.
Let's read it again. Look back, no one puts a piece
of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch tears away
from the garment and a worse tear is made.
Neither is new wine put into old wine skins.
If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the
skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh wine
skins and so both are preserved. OK, two parabolic illustrations,
cloth and wine. OK, first one cloth patching an
old piece of clothing with a new piece of cloth.
That's what that's the example. So apparently the whole 100%
cotton shrinking thing is an age-old problem, right?
The first illustration is about a new piece of cloth shrinking.
When you put it on an old piece of clothing, you wear it and
wash it. The new cloth tears away.
It doesn't work. This is why your grandma cut up
old clothes for patching clothes, right?
This is Bible wisdom, right? So then the second one, wine.
Using old wine skins or containers to put new wine in.
Leather containers were used before bottles, in case you're
wondering. But one thing we should know
about animal skins. And if you're pita sensitive,
you're just going to have to bear with me for a second.
When the skins are new, they're soft and flexible.
But as they age, they harden and they come more rigid and they
become less flexible. This is important because new
wine emits CO2, carbon dioxide as a result of the fermentation
process. And so the new wine skin
containers, they will expand, right, with the gases of the, of
the old and the wine. And so the old wine skins,
they're not going to hold up to the pressure of the gases of the
new wine. And they're going to, they're
going to rupture, right? They're going to burst.
It's kind of like those, anybody remember those device charging
backpacks that were out a while back?
They just kept exploding, like people were just like walking
down the street. You can watch videos of this on
YouTube later and the battery would just explode.
And then just like drop the bag. You didn't run away.
If you put the new wine in old wine skins, you're just going to
be walking down the street. And basically the next thing you
know what you're wearing wine, you're going to look at it and
you're like, man, this was my best tunic.
You don't want that. You don't want that.
It doesn't work. The wine is ruined and the wine
skin is ruined as well. So it's you got to, you got to
have a new container. You got to have a new container.
See the concept in the illustrations is that the idea
of putting new inside of old fakes?
That's the concept. And when you put the new inside
the old, it tears or explodes, OK, The old cannot hold the new.
This is kind of the point. The old cannot hold the new.
That's the point of both parables.
So Jesus is more complex answer to the disciples of John is that
they are missing something. They are trying to put something
new within something old. And if they do, it's going to
RIP, it's going to explode. OK, but what does all this mean?
Right. Let's look at the implications.
Now let's pull together all of the loose ends of what Jesus is
saying. Here's the first implication of
what he's saying. The Kingdom and its king has
come, has come. See Jesus telling the disciples
of John that the bridegroom is here.
Jesus is telling them I'm here and that's why they don't fast
when I leave. Then they'll fast.
He's the bridegroom. But this language of the
bridegroom is no accident. See Jesus has the writings of
the prophet Hosea on his brain. You see he just told the
Pharisees, if you look back at verse 13 that he says, go and
learn what this means. I desire mercy and not
sacrifice. That's a quote from Isaiah.
Hosea 66 OK, but Hosea also says in chapter 2 early on, I'll just
read it to you and I will betrothed you to me forever.
I will betrothed you to me in righteousness and injustice, in
steadfast love and in mercy. I will betrothed you to me in
faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord to betroth this, to get
engaged, to promise to Mary. In Hosea as well in Isaiah, the
bridegroom is God himself and the bride is his people.
Jesus is the bridegroom preparing for the upcoming
wedding or marriage. But notice in the Old Testament
context, God is the bridegroom. This means Jesus is in fact
positioning himself into a title reserved for God.
And he does that because what Matthew, Matthew has already
said in chapter 1, if you look at that in verse 23, he says,
behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they
shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.
See, Jesus is the bridegroom because he is God with us.
Jesus is Emmanuel, disciples of John, you are missing something.
What you're missing what is happening among you, the God
man, he's here see, read the room.
It's not a time for mourning, but rejoicing.
The the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The king is here, God is here. You may find some joy, you know,
from your rhythms and practices, disciples of John or us, but you
are missing out on the joy of Jesus himself.
You see, it's kind of like being married and enjoying the rhythms
of your married life together, but not actually loving the
person you're married to. I like that we do this, this,
and this, but I missed you. And that's what they're doing,
Jesus telling the disciples of John that there is a celebration
going on, and you're missing the joy of the celebration because
of your practice. You don't love your rhythm so
much that you miss Jesus. All right, so that's the first
implication. The next implication.
This means things have changed. Things have changed.
The main point of what Jesus said to John's disciples is that
the bridegroom is here, and you cannot put the new and the old.
It doesn't work. And worse, it'll explode.
OK. This means that there is a
continuity and there's a discontinuity that's going on.
OK, so on the one hand, Jesus is in fact the Messiah, the Christ,
the promised 1 He is the fulfillment of all the promises
made to the Jewish people. He is, but on the other hand,
Jesus sits at the transition of something new.
So there is a continuity with the past, a continuation of
things God was planning and He's doing.
And Matthew really does a great job of pointing all those things
out, this promise fulfillment, promise fulfillment pattern.
There's a continuity in things, but then there are things that
are just new. OK?
There's a discontinuity. In other words, with what is to
come, many things will not be the same as they were before.
In other words, Jesus didn't come to patch up Judaism.
He didn't. He came to do something new.
It's a continuation for sure, but it's not a re envision of
Judaism. It's just not.
Notice in our text, the disciples of John asked him
about fasting and he reframes the conversation around the
bridegroom. Did you see that?
They asked a question about rhythms, But Jesus reframes the
rhythm around himself. You see, rhythms were to be
centered on around God, not tradition.
See, Jesus is adding more clarity.
The rhythm of fasting relates to his presence.
If he is here, it's not the time for fasting.
When he goes away, which hints out his death and resurrection,
then it's a time of mourning where fasting will be present.
But fasting orbits around him, not something else.
And what this means is that rhythm center around Jesus, not
tradition. The new way forward has
everything to do with Jesus. Have you ever noticed that
although Jesus is a Jewish Messiah and descended from
David, who was descended from Abraham, is Jewish as it gets,
right? But those who follow Jesus are
no longer referred to as Jews. They're not even early on, the
followers of Jesus referred to themselves as those practicing
the way. But even that didn't really last
long because something new happened.
The good news of Jesus travels to not just tax collectors and
sinners like Matthew, but to Gentiles like us.
Later on in the New Testament, we're even going to see that the
Gentiles, the Gentile Cultural Center of Antioch the Third,
which was the third largest city in the Roman Empire by the way,
they start calling followers of Jesus Christians, Christianos to
be exact, which means of Christ like Christ.
They're not just Jews practicing the way one rabbi taught them.
No, something bigger and something new has happened.
See, they tried to just patch the way in with the rest of
Judaism, but it didn't work. There's no need to sacrifice
anymore. There's no need for a temple
anymore. Things have changed in Acts 15.
You're going to go on to learn that you don't even have to be
culturally Jewish to be a Christian.
So there, there would become this like Jewish Christian and
this Gentile Christian. So this new wine basically
exploded out of the old wineskins.
It couldn't hold it. They couldn't hold it, but
that's kind of like a historical angle, if you will.
Let's focus for a second on a personal one more personal note.
Not mixing the old with the new means that a set of rhythms
doesn't make you a Christian. It just doesn't.
The disciples of John came asking about rhythms, and Jesus
came, gave them a relational response.
So you may be here and you want to try out being Christian.
Maybe it's attending a service like this one, reading the
Bible, trying to pray and maybe it's even fasting.
Or maybe you may you may be curious, you may want to learn
and and lean in and learn more, right, that's great.
I think that's awesome. Please explore, ask questions
and get answers. Find out how Christians think,
live in love. Do it.
You need to do that. OK, but what I want to cautious
us on because it's becoming a thing historically and currently
you can try out these things, but becoming a Christian is not
about enacting rhythms. It's just not I'm a Christian
now because I do these things. That's not how this works.
It's just not. That is part of what that's part
of what Jesus is trying to tell the disciples of John and we
need to see it as well. Rhythms don't make you a
Christian. Being in Christ does.
See, they came with a question of rhythms and he answered with
a relationship. See, this means that being a
Christian is not a tradition. You were not born a Christian.
I love you. You were not born a Christian.
Your traditionalism doesn't make you a Christian.
It can't. It can't.
It's even possible to even stand up a whole set of Christian like
practices and traditions and have nothing to do with Jesus.
Paul warns us of these things. The apostles laid this out for
us. He wrote in Colossians 2.
He said this. Listen to this Colossians 2
verse 16 says. Therefore let no one pass
judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard
to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath.
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance
belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you.
Insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in
detail about visions, puffed up with all without reason by this
His sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head.
That is Jesus, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit
together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth
that is from God. He goes on to say this, If with
Christ you die to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if
you were still alive in the world, do you submit to
regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do
not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used
according to human precepts and teachings.
Don't miss this. These have indeed an appearance
of wisdom and promoting self-made religion and
asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value
in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
No value. It's possible to fabricate a
self-made religion that has the language of Christianity, the
symbols of Christianity, but misses the king himself.
It's possible to have something that sounds and looks like
Christianity, but it is Christ less.
It's possible. In fact, I'm going to give you
an example later today. I want you to go and research a
group called the Hutterites. HUTTERITES.
The Hutterites. They're a small sectarian group
that isolates itself from society at large and claims to
be Christian. They're mostly located in
Montana in the United States, and they have the language, some
practices, but they do not talk about Jesus.
For the most part. They miss grace.
It's Christ less. It's possible to be traditional
and Miss Christ. It's possible to be committed
and religious and miss Christ. It's possible to participate in
Christian rhythms and Miss Christ.
It is the substance. Hear me.
The substance is not the church. It's not tradition.
It's not rhythms. The substance is Christ.
That's what Paul wrote and just before that section that we read
in Colossians, Paul also wrote this right before that in verse
13 he says and you talking about those who repented and trust in
Christ and you were dead in your trespasses and the
uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with him
having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the
record of debt that stood against us with its legal
demands. This he set aside, nailing it to
the cross, and he disarmed the rulers and authorities, and he
put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.
And then he said, therefore do these things.
See, what Jesus is hinting at to the disciples of John is that in
Him everything changes. What they are anticipating in
their fasting and rhythms is actually here.
He's in front of them. The day is dawn, the king has
come, the bridegroom is here. You see, we are all dead in our
trespasses and sins, in our uncircumcision, meaning we're
not Jewish, we don't keep the law.
We were cut off from the life of God from the very start, but
making us spiritually dead. We may be walking around, but
we're still there's an aspect of our humanity that is dead.
It's it's defunct. It's it's gone, but in Christ he
has made us alive. We can be forgiven.
Our trespasses, our record of debt can be canceled because
there was a cross on which Jesus died.
Jesus didn't die of death as a mere example, though He did not.
For those who are in Christ, by grace through faith, your sins
are no longer counted against you.
They're not, but have been nailed to the cross on which
Jesus died. Past tense, completed, done.
It's done. In Christ, our relationship into
law, the practices and God Himself changes.
Friends, this can be yours. Repent of your sins and trust
Christ. But faith, family, this is true
of you right now. Right now, if you just try to
add Jesus to your religious population of of rhythms, things
are going to RIP and tear. It may look like it fits for a
while at first, but it will come apart.
It may look like things are fine, but they'll blow up on
you. They will.
Jesus is the substance. Our rhythms are to be centered
around him to actually be Christian.
There's all kinds of people around the world.
Fasting doesn't make a Christian.
Anybody can do that for different reasons.
Unique Christ. You may have heard the phrase
eat the fish and spit out the bones, right?
You may want to grab from Christianity those things that
augment your life, make it better in some way, like
fasting, right? I'll adopt some of these things
into my life because it seems like it would improve my
relationships, my health, and just make me a better person.
I'll eat the fish and spit out the bones.
I'll do these things, but leave some of this Jesus talk behind.
Friends, I'm telling you, Jesus is actually the fish.
He's the meat. Jesus himself is the best part.
Jesus is the substance. This changes everything are the
next implication. The Kingdom is now but not yet.
Kingdom is now but not yet. Remember the simple answer Jesus
gave. Look back, he says.
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from
them and then they will fast. They won't fast now, but later.
We are in the later. Jesus, the bridegroom has been
taken away. See, we're still awaiting A
reunification with Jesus. Christ has risen from the dead,
but he's not returned. He's not here yet.
We call this the now, and the not yet fasting is here.
And we kind of need to read the room.
The Kingdom has come, but it's not yet fully realized.
So what does this mean? It means that there are sad
days. There are there will be fasting
in our morning. There will be fasting in our
repentance. Fasting is here, but but we will
not fast to get God to do something.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
It's not. Doesn't mean it doesn't have
benefits or rewards to it as Jesus taught in the Sermon on
the Mount. Go look that up.
It may teach you something. Fasting will, but you don't fast
to get something from God. You don't fast to get God to do
something. Fasting is to get Him to do
something. It's like bargaining with God.
OK, God, I did this. Now you do this, right?
God, I'm serious. So serious that I won't eat.
Look at me, God. See, I'm for real.
Look at this. Let me.
Let me let you know. Like a secret.
Not that's so secret. If you want God to do something,
just ask him. Just ask him.
Pray. Talk to him.
Ask him. But let me tell you something
else. The answer will be either yes or
no, OK? God doesn't need you to grease
his palm with fasting. He doesn't.
He'll either say yes to something or he won't.
He has his reasons either way. Just ask him to bribe him.
You don't fast to get you fast to focus.
Remember what Paul said in Colossians Do not handle, do not
taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as
they are used according to human precepts and teachings.
These have indeed an appearance of wisdom and promoting
self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the
body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of
the flesh. Here's the thing, fast that
fasting will not purify you. Fasting will not get God to like
you or put you in His graces. Fasting helps us focus.
OK, Fasting helps us focus. Here's why.
Fasting helps us focus because it a withdrawal from something
brings sobriety. OK, but unless I fail to read
the room myself today, if you struggle with disordered eating,
you should not be fasted for food.
Period. If you're struggling with
disordered eating, you cannot fast.
You shouldn't be doing that. Food is fuel.
Period. Your body needs food.
Food is not a reward. Food is not an obstacle.
It's not. Food is fuel.
God made us in such a way that we need food.
Food is good. Food is good.
God made us in such a way that food is enjoyable.
That flavor. It was God's idea.
The creativity of the chef among us is God's idea.
To create in the kitchen is to image God.
Well, OK, food brings unity. It's why he gave us a meal as
one of our symbols. OK, food is good.
And Paul even tells us in 1st Corinthians 1031.
So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, you do all to
the glory of God, OK. And so while there are elements
of self denial in the life He has called us to, asceticism is
a life of only denial, only denial.
And in asceticism you are constantly framing your life
around denial, OK? This is not the life that Christ
has called us to. Faith, Emily.
If we give something up, then it's for the sake of gaining
Christ. We may put something away or
take something off or put something to death, but in the
same breath we are called to put on Christ, to put on life.
You are trading for a life with God and a life that is Christ.
Like, OK, it sounds unbiased, but a life with Christ is not
just one giving up party. It's not.
Will there be things that we give up?
Yes, but never to the exclusion of gain.
It's just not well. Following Christ cost us
something yes, but it's pales in comparison to what we gain.
That's what Philippians 3 says. We get God himself, friends and
faith family. If you just see your
relationship with God as only giving up stuff, then you'll
just see a life with God as a killjoy.
This doesn't mean that God will always like have you healthy and
wealthy, but he wants you holy. And there are paths, in fact, we
will, He will lead us down that are just no fun.
They're no fun. You might be in one right now.
It's not fun. But our life with God is not
just one big denial of everything.
It's actually a reordering of things.
OK, imagine this. It's kind of like when you move
into a new house, you have all your furniture and stuff from
the old house, right? And you might be in the new
house, might be roughly the same size, but some things just no
longer fit anymore, right? There's a window there where you
can't put the couch. We come to Jesus.
When we come to Jesus, some of the things in our life, they
have to go. It's a new house.
Not everything goes, but not everything fits anymore either.
It's kind of like that and what a rhythm like fasting does in
the now but not yet is it acts like a pause button.
So fasting is a pause button, right?
So I remember in 2020 during lockdown, good time, a lot of
things had to stop, right? I remember thinking how busy my
life and other people's lives around me were prior to that
event and how everything just came to a sudden halt.
It was just like breaks. It was jarring, it was
disorienting. But when things started to
return back to normal, if you remember 2 years later, we often
found ourselves, you know, we were like, I'm not necessarily
going to add that back into my schedule.
People start re evaluating their schedules and refuse to put
things back in right. This is what fasting does.
It gives us a chance to pause and re evaluate.
Many times this corresponds with things that are sad and
disappointing in our lives. When we mourn, we often find
ourselves in a period of fasting, a period of reflection
and reconsideration. What a prayer, a season where we
abstain from some things. Now, as I mentioned earlier, if
you struggle with disorder eating, you have no business
fasting from food. That is, food is fuel.
And this is similar to the way someone who struggles with
alcoholic beverages should be taking communion where wine is
used instead of juice. You shouldn't be doing that.
It's just a limitation. But that doesn't mean that we
don't need to fast from something from something,
because here's the reality. If you lost me, come back.
Here's the reality. Fasting has everything to do
with food, and it has nothing to do with food.
What do I mean? Fasting is a practice that keeps
us from 2 ditches. If you can imagine a road with
two different ditches. 1 ditch is gluttony on the one side and
aestheticism on the other. It's meant to keep us from too
much or too little. But fasting can only help us
with the one and not the other. The other rhythm is the obvious
one in the story. Do you see it?
It's feasting. It's feasting.
See, Jesus was feasting because the moment called for feasting,
not fasting. We need both.
But why? Why do we need it?
Because fasting has everything to do with food and has nothing
to do with food. It's all about pleasure.
But some most of the time we think about it relating to the
pleasures found in eating. However, it targets an
overindulgence and pleasure seeking.
What fasting does is it pulls us back to moderation by helping us
find sobriety. And it's hard to know if you are
over indulging in the midst of something we we fast to focus.
For some of us it does have something to do with food.
If you overindulge, then fasting will bring you back to
moderation. If you under indulge, then
fasting brings you back to moderation.
You see how that works? But that's the rhythm of it.
But what lies behind the reality that what we are looking for in
that bowl, you're not going to find it.
It's not there what you were looking for behind the self
infliction of hunger and the power and control you think you
might have in it, it's not there.
It's not there. Neither over or under indulgence
will give you what you want. We need God, we need God, and
more poignantly, we need Jesus. We need Jesus, we need the
Bridegroom. And while fasting in the New
Testament is mainly concerned with food, I get that it's not
limited to food. I mean, how many things do we
over indulge in within our own culture, right?
Social media, TV, streaming, right?
Your fantasy team, a hobby, some kind of activity from needing
attention, from being in the center of attention, from
talking about yourself, whatever it is, there's a need to fast so
that we can focus. But this isn't, this isn't so
that we can just work on ourselves, but so we can prize
Christ. You prize Christ.
This doesn't mean that the things that we fast from are
bad. Again, food is not bad.
It's fuel. It's good.
Neither are many of the things we need to moderate.
We need to moderate them because we have become gluttonous.
But again, you can be a glutton with food, or you can be a
glutton for punishment. See how that works?
We are aiming at a temperate life that glorifies God through
faith in Christ and always say or do.
We are aiming to keep things, good things, as gifts and not as
idols, not as gods. OK, That's what we're trying to
do. So the disciples of John, they
were in fact missing something. The king was among them and he
came to give them life and life abundantly.
And this party of at Matthew's house, it was only the
beginning. It was only the beginning.
Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you are
a God that meets us in celebration in the morning.
Father, I just thank you for sending your son to to buy us
back. Thank you Jesus for doing what
we could not do. Thank you for bringing us back
into a life with you God, where we are tempted to choose rhythms
over you. Forgive us, we need you.
God, would you show us your beauty?
Would you capture our imaginations once more?
Jesus, you were the King of the new.
Would you continue to make us new it's review flame?