On Fasting
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
The most important figure of the Reformation was a monk by the name of Martin Luther.
Luther was a man full of self-doubt, guilt, and worry. In his early 20s, Martin Luther was nearly struck by lightning while crossing an open field during a storm, which led to his vow to become a monk.
As a young monk, the corruption of the church, the debauchery of priests, and the power of the Pope disturbed him, disgusted him, and depressed him.
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He did everything possible to appease his anguished soul:
From climbing the 28 stairs of the famous Scala Sancta to going to regular confession, but for all the vigils and fasts and penances, he still felt empty, accursed, and worse.
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Why did he not experience the assurance of salvation?
Why did he still feel so rotten in spite of all efforts to please God?
Why was his soul at war and peace so illusive?
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The dramatic turning-point of Luther’s life occurred when he was sitting alone in his study at Wittenberg.
His eyes fell on a passage from the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
It says:
“The just shall live by his faith.”
He couldn’t believe his eyes, he couldn’t contain himself, or keep to himself the simplicity of God’s ageless path of salvation:
Faith in God.
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That discovery changed the course of the church, the course of Western civilization, and the course of history.
So on October 31, 1517 Luther nailed his famous Ninety-Five Theses onto the door of the castle church at Wittenberg, 60 miles from Berlin that resulted in his excommunication from the church, the start of the Reformation, and the division between the Protestant and the Catholic church.
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Two days from today will mark the 506th year year anniversary of this historic event...
And although 506 years past...
Catholics and other works based religions still refuse to repent of their error and follow in the footsteps of the Pharisees and religious elite of Jesus’ day...
They hold on to their old ways...
Ways that many be old but are of human origin...
They are more eager to follow the wisdom of men in light of the practices of the Pharisees than follow the New that Jesus represented...
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Al through out the Gospels Jesus and the religious elite clashed...
Today we will explore their clash over the subject of fasting.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 5 and focus on verses 33 through 39.
Our message this morning is titled, “On Fasting”
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This message today...
Will focus on showing the contrast of how certain religious groups viewed fasting...
And how our Lord and Savior revealed what is the right attitude of this religious practice.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
A Question on Fasting...
The Bridegroom & Fasting...
And...
Parables on Fasting.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
Mighty God...
Awesome Creator!
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Help us to understand the truth found in Your precious Scriptures...
Help us to have a biblical view of fasting...
Help us to have a biblical view of every aspect f our life.
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Equip Your saints to be ready in season and out of season to defend the faith...
Equip Your elect to be ready to face our enemies...
Equip Your church with the full Armor of God...
Equip us with the Belt of Truth...
Equip us with the Breastplate of Righteousness...
Equip us with the Shoes of the Gospel of Peace...
Equip us with the Shield of Faith...
Equip us with the Helmet of Salvation...
And equip us with the Sword of the Spirit!
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Forgive us falling short every day...
We confess our sins...
We confess to one another...
And we confess to You...
For all our sin is sin against You.
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Thank You for not giving us what we deserve...
Thank You for Your patience...
Thank You for Your mercy and grace that is always enough!
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”
34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.
37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.
38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) A Question on Fasting
1) A Question on Fasting
Verse 33: And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.”
We need to start by identifying a few of the key terms and phrases in this verse.
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The “they” is actually the disciples of John who ask this question...
They are asking what they, the Pharisees, and others in attendance wanted to voice as a concern.
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We know the ones posing the question are the disciples of John from the parallel account in Matthew 9:14 which says:
14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
This is not totally shocking that the question came from the disciples of John...
For we see evidence that some seemed to be a bit envious of the success of Jesus as seen in John 3:26-30:
26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”
27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’
29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Despite John the Baptist's clarification that Jesus is the Christ...
Some of John’s disciples may not have fully embraced this truth...
Or maybe they were not present when John made this declaration...
And John the Baptist was not available to clarify this as he would have been in prison at this time.
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What is especially significant from this statement is that the Pharisees’ opinion on this matter actually agrees with the John the Baptist’s disciples...
Usually they were at odds with each other.
So, the initial impression and take away from this charge is that something must be wrong or off with Jesus’ disciples...
So much so that even the Pharisees and the disciples of John agree.
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Let’s now look at the definition of “Fasting”...
This is what I came across in Logos, the Bible Software I use to put together my teachings and messages:
“[Fasting is] the practice of abstaining from food (and probably drink).
This could be done as an expression of remorse for wrongdoing, as an expression of mourning for a loss, or as a spiritual discipline meant to help one focus on spiritual matters.”
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Additionally, The Lexham Bible Dictionary has some great information on fasting:
“In Mesopotamia, fasting was a part of mourning rituals.
It was a public display of one’s grief that stood in stark contrast to celebration.
In the ancient Near East, fasting held social significance similar to feasting.
Both practices could create or renew a social bond and displayed an individual’s or group’s current state.
While feasting was often a public display of wealth and success, fasting was a display of humility and grief.
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[Regarding] Fasting in the Old Testament...
Apart from the Day of Atonement, fasting is absent from the Pentateuch but appears throughout the rest of the Old Testament.
Fasting is frequently performed along with other practices of mourning, lamentation, or penitence, and it often is conjoined with prayer.
At times, fasting functions as a preventative measure prior to engaging in dangerous activity, such as a journey or battle.
In the Old Testament, people often tear their clothes and dress in sackcloth and ashes as they fast.
Such activities mark the participants as being in a lowly state and indicate weakness; fasting is a means of physically lowering oneself.
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The Mosaic law contains only one command to fast, connected with the Day of Atonement .
The Hebrew text does not use the word for fast ‘tsom’ in Hebrew, but instead uses ‘anah,’ which is often translated as ‘deny yourself.’
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The term ‘anah’ also means ‘to afflict,’ ‘to weaken,’ ‘be humble,’ or ‘be bowed down.’
On a day when the sins of the people were to be atoned for, afflicting or denying oneself by fasting would serve as an outward sign of inner repentance for breaking God’s law.
Another purpose of this fast may have been the belief that the temporary suspension of normal activities such as eating allowed one to focus on God and acknowledge dependence on Him.
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In addition to the fast on the Day of Atonement, the Old Testament mentions general and individual fasts undertaken for a variety of purposes, including mourning, repentance, and seeking divine deliverance.
Fasting was a means of asking God to have pity and relent from inflicting punishment on the person or people praying.
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For example, David hoped to see divine compassion over his newborn son’s life by fasting, perhaps imitating the conditions surrounding death.
The Israelites also practiced fasting following the loss of loved ones.
After the death of his sons, Aaron refused to eat the prescribed priestly meal.
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Other passages suggest that fasting acted as an aid for prayer.
Israelite leaders prayed and fasted during wartime to ask for God’s guidance and intervention and to make requests for success in battle.
Fasting also accompanied prayer when requesting relief from famine.
Those fasting may have hoped their denial and anguish would produce a response from God.
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In the New Testament, fasting occurs primarily in the Gospels, where it is a regular practice of John, his disciples, and the Pharisees.
Jesus fasts for 40 days during His temptation in the wilderness, perhaps to express reliance on God in times of temptation or spiritual warfare.
Luke and Acts depict fasting as a part of worship.
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In the Sermon on the Mount , Jesus criticizes those who fast hypocritically in order to attract attention.
He tells people to give alms, pray, and fast in ways that are visible only to God.
They should not mar their faces or look gloomy; instead, they should wash their faces and put oil on their heads so that only God knows they are fasting.
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Because the Pharisees fasted, as did disciples of John the Baptist, Jesus’ disciples were unusual for not fasting.
Jesus defends this behavior using a parable of a bridegroom.
He indicates that His presence, like a bridegroom’s, was a cause for celebration, making fasting inappropriate.
According to Jesus, a time for mourning (and fasting) would be fitting when the bridegroom is taken away.
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The earliest Christian fasts seem to have been voluntary and were undertaken for a variety of reasons, such as self-discipline and reinforcement while praying.
Calling for God’s blessing on the church’s mission, the church at Antioch engaged in fasting before sending out missionaries and in connection with the appointment of presbyters.
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So, there was only one fast that was required in Judaism...
That was on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur...
We know this from Leviticus 16:29–31 which says:
29 “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.
30 For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins.
31 It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever.
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However, voluntarily fasting was found through out both the Old and New Testament...
So, lets look at a few of those examples in Scripture...
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When Haman’s decree to kill the Jews reaches the provinces of the king, there is mourning and fasting for the Jews...
And Esther, who is about to risk her life by seeking an audience with the king, proclaims a three-day fast for all the Jews in Susa as it says in Esther 4:15–16:
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,
16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
In Daniel 9:3 we witness this description of Daniel fasting:
3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
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And in Nehemiah 1:4 we see how the prophet Nehemiah fasts when he hears that the gates of Jerusalem have been destroyed and the captives are in danger.
4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
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In the New Testament...
As we have already covered in our study...
We encountered Anna who made a practice of fasting and prayer as she was waiting for the long promised Messiah to arrive...
We covered this in Luke 2:36–37 which says:
36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin,
37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.
Our Lord and Savior Himself practiced fasting...
He did this for forty days and forty nights as recorded in Matthew 4:1–2:
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Even after Jesus ascended...
We see that the early church in the Scriptures took on this practice as recorded in Acts 13:2–3 which says:
2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
And in Acts 14:23 it says:
23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Again, The Lexham Bible Dictionary has some great insight about fasting in the early church:
“A number of Christian authors comment on fasting, indicating that it was widely practiced by the church before the middle of the third century.
Various Christian documents reference fasting as an ongoing practice.
While the Didache encourages fasting and mentions a twice-weekly fast, the Shepherd of Hermas conveys that obedience is more righteous than fasting.
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The early church fathers might have believed that fasting could conquer temptations and prepare people for worship.
Certain texts recommend fasting before baptism.
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So, fasting has been well documented in the Old and New Testament..
However, we need to distinguish what are proper and improper practices and attitudes of fasting...
Let’s look at as pair of passages from both testaments that will shed some light on what we should not do when we are fasting.
Isaiah 58:1–7 says:
1 “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Notice what it said in verse 4 of this passage that we just read:
“Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.”
We need to have a proper attitude when we fast...
It is not just a checklist item...
It is not something we are to boast about.
It is not something that we should hold over others.
And it is not something we are to make into a performance to show our spiritual level.
Jesus did not hold back any punches when He said in Matthew 6:16–18:
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
So, the proper attitude is no make your time of fasting something between you and God...
Fasting should be don in humility...
And in addition to that...
Fasting should be do at the appropriate time...
And that is the next issue we will cover...
So, let’s take a look at our second point.
2) The Bridegroom & Fasting
2) The Bridegroom & Fasting
Verses 34-35: And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”
In other words...
Like the NLT rendering of verse 34 is:
“Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not.”
So, The followers of Jesus will then return to the practice of fasting to seek the presence of God, but they need not do that when Jesus, the Son of God, is with them.
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The phrase “taken away” is an indirect prediction of Jesus’ death...
By this expression, Jesus also suggests that Him being taken away will be a violent one...
So, Jesus is fully aware of his coming death.
This brings to mind passages like Isaiah 53:8 which says:
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
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The term “in those days” refers to the time between Jesus’ death and resurrection, and also after He has returned to heaven...
Fasting will be appropriate for his followers during those days.
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New Testament Theologian Robert H. Stein says:
“Jesus’ reply assumes that the expression of sadness and sorrow through fasting is inappropriate in the present context.
The bridegroom’s presence and the joy of the kingdom inaugurated by Jesus makes such behavior highly inappropriate.
There is a time for everything.
But this was not a time for weeping or mourning; it was rather a time for laughing and dancing.
Since the question is introduced with the Greek particle mē, it anticipates a negative answer from the reader.
Even though Jesus’ message is one of repentance, such repentance leads not to sorrow and mourning but rather to the joyous celebration of forgiveness and membership in the kingdom.”
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So, our fasting needs to be done at appropriate times...
To fast and mourn does not fit with the joy and celebration.
We can’t treat fasting in a legalistic way.
This is what the Pharisees and John’s disciples were doing...
They had in view the practices of the old covenant mixed with the traditions found in the intertestamental period...
That is the period between the Old and New Testament...
However they were not considering the new covenant and the One who brought it...
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
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New Testament Theologian James R. Edwards says this to better understand the view of fasting during the old covenant and how Jesus responds to that:
“Mishnah tractate Taʿanit, which is devoted to proper observances of fasting, specifies three other types of fasts, however.
One was fasts that lamented national tragedies, such as the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar; another, fasts in times of crises, such as war, plague, drought, famine, etc; and a third was self-imposed fasts for any number of personal reasons.
The Pharisees normally fasted on Mondays and Thursdays, although this was not required.
The required fast on the Day of Atonement lasted a full twenty-four hours, whereas voluntary fasts as a rule extended only from dawn to dusk.
Although not a legal requirement except on the Day of Atonement, fasting had become in Jesus’ day a prerequisite of religious commitment, a sign of atonement of sin and humiliation and penitence before God, and a general aid to prayer.
The rabbis often referred to fasting as ‘an affliction of the soul,’ thereby designating it as a characteristic and sacrificial act of piety.
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To the abstemious question of fasting, Jesus responds with a wholly contrary and festive image of a wedding feast.
A wedding celebration in a Jewish village normally lasted seven days for a virgin bride, three days for a remarried widow.
Friends and guests had no responsibility but to enjoy the festivities.
There was abundance of food and wine, as well as song, dance, and fun both in the house and on the street.
Rabbis, too, were expected to suspend Torah instruction and celebrate with their students.
‘The guests of the bridegroom’ pictures the gathering of the wedding party, waiting impatiently to eat.
On such an occasion fasting is entirely out of the question!
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Jesus is not opposed to fasting in principle.
The reference to ‘frequent’ [or ‘often’] fasts (verse 33) may suggest that his disciples also fast, although perhaps not as often.
The statement that, when the bridegroom is taken away, ‘in those days [his disciples too] will fast’ (verse 35), implies the same.
In his chronicle of roughly the first thirty-five years of the Christian movement in Acts, Luke describes the deprivations, hardships, and opposition faced by early Christians after the ascension of Jesus, and the role that fasting played in sustaining the nascent community of faith.
The discipline of physical privation in fasting was an aid to watchfulness, contrition, and strength and sensitivity in Christian life.
But while the ‘bridegroom’ is present, the ‘wedding’ supersedes and suspends the principle of fasting.”
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Next Jesus gives two parables to help us better understand how fasting like in the manner of the Pharisees was not compatible with the manner of fasting that Jesus presented...
And this takes us to our third and final point.
3) Parables on Fasting
3) Parables on Fasting
Verses 36-39: He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 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.’ ”
Let us consider this...
Verse 36 is rendered like this in the NLT:
“No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.”
So, making a patch from a new garment for an old one spoils both—the new by having the patch torn from it, the old because the patch does not match.
As Pastor John MacArthur says:
“The Lord’s point is that the gospel cannot be patched into Judaism (or any other system of salvation by work).
His teaching was completely at odds with that of the Jewish leaders.
They viewed themselves as righteous; He preached the necessity of repentance.
They were proud of their supposedly exalted religious status; He proclaimed the need for humility.
They focused on external ceremony, ritual, and outward observance of the law; He focused on the heart.
They loved the approval of men; He offered the approval of God.
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The old garment in the Lord’s illustration is not the Old Testament.
It is not God’s eternal law, which is holy, righteous, and good, and which Jesus came to fulfill, not to replace.
Rather, it is the ritualistic, legalistic religion based on rabbinic tradition, with its man-made regulations that obscured the Law of God.
Jesus did not come to patch that system, but to replace it with the garment of salvation—the good news of salvation by faith in Him.
No works-righteousness system can be patched into the gospel of grace and faith.”
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Simply put, a “gospel” that advocates works-righteousness like Catholicism and Orthodoxy is not in any way compatible with the pure Gospel message of grace and faith...
A “gospel” that advocates works-righteousness like that found in the Hebrew Roots movement and the Judaizers is not in any way compatible with the pure Gospel of the Bible...
A “gospel” that advocates works-righteousness like that found in cults like Jehovah’s Witness and Mormonism is not in any way compatible with the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ!
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Now let’s take a look at the next parable Jesus gave...
And let’s pause and discuss what wineskins are and the use of them in the 1st century...
“Wineskins” are skins of small animals, such as goats or sheep, which were made to hold water, milk, and wine.
The neck area of the animal became the neck of the container...
And the body portion was skinned, the hair was removed, and the hide was treated to prevent the skin from changing the taste of the contents...
Finally, it was sewn together.
Animal skins were also the perfect choice to use when considering the fermentation of wine because of their elasticity.
As the wine fermented, pressure built up, stretching the wineskin.
However, over time the skin of such a container would age and become brittle...
So, a previously stretched skin lacked elasticity and would rupture, ruining both wine and wineskin.
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Again, Jesus is illustrating for us how a works-righteousness worldview is not possible to be merged with a truly biblical worldview that is based on the Gospel message.
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The ESV Study Bible summarizes these parables like this:
“Jesus concludes his response to the question about fasting with a parable consisting of two main metaphors:
(1) A new patch cannot be put on an old garment, for upon washing it will shrink and, pulling on the already shrunken, old garment, will tear it.
(2) One does not put new wine into old wineskins.
New, fermenting wine would stretch the old, inelastic wineskins and cause them to burst.
New wine needs newer, more elastic skins.
No one is best understood as an ironical condemnation of the Pharisees, who favored the past and rejected the arrival of the kingdom and the ‘new covenant’ it brought.
The point of these two metaphors is that one cannot mix the old and the new covenant, and that the new covenant era inaugurated by Jesus’ coming will require repentance, regeneration, and new forms of worship.”
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The New International Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says this:
“Jesus’ new way of life also demands new forms of worshipping God.
There must be no mixing of the old with the new.
There is indeed the closest connection between the Old and the New Dispensation, but only in the sense of preparation and fulfilment, shadow and reality.
And now that Jesus has come as the Fulfiller of the promises of the Old Covenant, everything has been made new and no room is left for the old ceremonial, shadowy forms of divine worship.
The new spirit existing in the religion of the New Covenant demands new forms of expression.
So Jesus does not allow His disciples to act like those of John and of the Pharisees.
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In these words our Lord explains why the followers of the old forms of religion are not immediately inclined to accept the new forms which He brings.
Just as one who is accustomed to drink old wine has no taste for new wine, so those who are accustomed to the old form of divine worship have no taste for the new form of religious life taught and inaugurated by Him.
This aversion to His new way was what led to the Saviour’s being crucified by the persevering adherents of the old Jewish religion.
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Just as the new forms of religion brought by Jesus could not tolerate any compromise with the old forms, so it is also with the new life which every regenerated person finds in Christ.
The acceptance of this new life demands the renunciation of all forms of the old life of sin and unbelief.
There must be no mixing with the former kind of life to which a man was accustomed before his conversion.
Jesus desires and is able to make everything new in the life of the believer.
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During the Babylonian exile, as a result of the lack of the sacrificial services, the opinion arose more and more that fasting was a meritorious work that would be rewarded by God.
Thus the practice of fasting assumed an increasingly outward and formal character and lost much of its religious value.
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Jesus’ attitude towards fasting briefly amounts to this, that He rejects it as a religiously meritorious ceremony bearing a compulsory, ceremonial character; but He practised it Himself at times and permits it as a voluntary form of spiritual discipline”
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So, the church may have variety in practice without requiring conformity in regards to fasting.
The evidence of the early church also reflect this approach to issues of this kind...
Take for example the freedom we have as believers over which food to eat and which days to celebrate as holy days as found in Romans 14:5–9 which says:
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Additionally, we find biblical truth in the avoidance of excessive regulation as found in Colossians 2:16–23:
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—
21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
So, fasting is a great spiritual disciple to incorporate into your life...
However, do not make it more than what it is...
And do not make it a time of mourning when you should be celebrating!
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Many of us grew up in some kind of a works-righteousness type of religion...
So, you may well now that for many in a works-righteousness religion...
There is a comfort is that kind of system...
For it is better to check off a check list than it is to surrender to God...
It is better to pridefully judge others for not doing the same practices one is engaging in than to look inward at one’s own sinfulness.
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I have witnessed many Catholics and Orthodox adherents mock Protestants for not fasting like them...
They have their lent and special holy days...
But were are their hearts?
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I have witnessed Jehovah’s Witness followers look down on actual Christians because they dare to celebrate holidays...
But were are their hearts?
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I have witnessed Mormons boast of all the good works they accomplish during their life times all while look at the actual followers of Christ as if they are the one’s lost...
But were are their hearts?
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Theologian Darrell Bock summarizes the final verse in our passage this way:
“Jesus asks the disciples to recognize that change from the law comes only after reflection.
However, in light of Jesus’ later rejection of the Pharisees and the mention that the new wine is not even tried, it is better to see the point as, ‘You have set your course, you will never change your ways.’
There is a note of rebuke here in the realization that some people will not alter the way they look at Jesus.
They reject the new way he brings.
Some people will not taste the new wine of the gospel, since some tastes never change.
Rejection of the new message by many in Judaism is very likely.
One will not try what one does not sense the need for.”
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like to share this that I came across in my study this week:
Jonathan Edwards was a man used by God in the First Great Awakening.
I have read that he preached in a weak, squeaking, monotone voice and held his tiny manuscript so close to his face that people could not see his expressions.
When he preached one of the greatest sermons ever delivered, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in his weak, squeaking, monotone, people had to strain to hear him.
It is said that he preached powerfully without the energy, eloquence, or theatrics some modern “evangelists” depend on.
Strong men gripped pews and pillars as if they felt themselves falling into hell.
Judgment day had dawned and they were desperately holding on to life until the altar call.
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For three days before he first preached that sermon, he did not eat or sleep.
Claiming New England for Christ was the only thing that mattered to him.
Prayer was important to him.
Food and sleep were not.
Nothing distracted him.
I am certain he did not intend it, but people passing his room heard his weak, squeaking voice as he sobbed, “God, give me New England! Give me New England!”
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He finally rose from his knees and made his way to the pulpit.
He was so weak, he could barely prop himself up.
Before he opened his mouth, great conviction had already fallen on the congregation.
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Fasting can absolutely be a powerful tool in our spiritual walk and I advise the followers of Christ to make this a practice at appropriate times...
But let us not do it out of compulsion or a desire to work our way into heaven...
Instead, let us fast for the glory of God...
Let us fast to help us deny our flesh and better focus on feeding our spirit with God’s truth.
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To God be all the glory.
Amen.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.