Sermon Tone Analysis

Bible Reading:

Introduction

Pastor and Author JD Greear writes in his book “Gospel” the following words:

How does God feel about you, right now?

And how do you determine that?

Do you base your answer on what kind of week you’ve had?

How consistent your quiet times have been?

Whether you’ve been nice to your children?

For many years qualifications like these drove my response.

If I’d had a good week - a real “Christian” week - I felt close to God.

When Sunday came around, I would feel like lifting my head and hands in worship, almost as if to say, “God, here I am … I know You’re excited about seeing me this week.”

If I’d had a stellar week, I loved being in God’s presence and was sure God was pretty stoked about having me there too.

But the opposite is also true.

If I hadn’t done a good job at being a real Christian, I felt pretty distant from God. if I’d fallen to some temptations, been a jerk to my wife, dodged some easy opportunities to share Christ, was stingy with my money, forgotten to recycle, kicked the dog, etc…well, on those weeks I felt like God wanted nothing to do with me.

When I came to church, I had no desire to lift my soul up to God.

I was pretty sure He didn’t want to see me either.

I could feel His displeasure - His lack of approval.

That’s because I didn’t really understand the gospel.

Or, at least I had forgotten it.

As we come to our text this morning, and as we look to the passages coming up in Mark’s Gospel, we are going to see just something of what JD Greear says in that portion of his book which was alive and well in the days of Christ.

As I’ve mentioned in previous weeks, the pharisees in particular had become a powerful group of people who were zealous for doing “works of righteousness” in order to win the favour of God.

They took the basic laws of God as given through Moses, and they created all sorts of additional laws, rules and regulations that they said needed to be abided by if they were to win favour with God, and to keep the favour of God.

But sadly, that idea of pharisaism, doing certain good works in order to keep in step with God and in order to please Him, is still very much alive and well today.

It is alive and well in many religions (in fact all religions, apart from Christianity) but it is even alive and well in certain churches that place burdens of works on people.

But I want to ask you, as I read that portion from JD Greear’s book, if you didn’t perhaps see yourself in that description.

Perhaps you also struggle with trying to keep yourself right with God, so that you will be seen as acceptable in God’s sight!? Perhaps when you fail to live up to God’s standards, you have that nagging sense that God has displeasure with you, and perhaps you are at risk of losing your salvation.

The passage that we come to today is another one of those where Jesus Christ really speaks out against the religiosity of many of the Jews of that day, and begins to demonstrate to them the significance of the newness of the new covenant that Christ came to establish with His people.

As we go through these next few conflicts / confrontations that Christ faces with the religious leaders and people of that day, we are going to get a picture through Christ that what is being brought in here through His coming into the world is something radically new.

And so this is really the focus that I’d like us to have this morning.

We need to consider from this text the newness and the significant differences that exist between what was established in the Old Covenant, over against what was now being established in the New Covenant, as the Messiah has now come to dwell amongst His people.

This idea on the differences between Old and New is not insignificant.

We need to understand this fully in order to fully appreciate just how great the work is that has been done for us in Jesus Christ.

I would in fact encourage all of you to be in prayer as we consider these texts together, that God may give us much wisdom and understanding through these difficult questions that are raised relating to the law (this week perhaps less so, but certainly in weeks to come, extensively more so as we look together at the contentious matter of the Sabbath!)

1.

The Question

As we come to this passage then this morning, we will consider firstly the question posed to Jesus.

Scriptures to support fasting today...

In verse 18, we read...

Acts 13:

There are a few points to notice concerning this question that is posed to Jesus.

Firstly, we see that the Pharisees, as well as the disciples of John, were at that time either going through a fast, or were known to repeatedly fast.

These were two completely different groups of people, but they were notable religious groups at the time of Christ.

Before we consider each of those groups and the fasting that they were doing, I’d like us to just consider what the law of God (i.e.

Scripture / law of Moses) said concerning fasting.

If we go back to the Old Testament, and the law that God gave to Israel, we find that there was only 1 fast that was required or commanded by God to the nation of Israel.

The fast that they were commanded to observe took place on 1 specific day, which was the Day of Atonement.

Day of atonement was the day of the fast.

There was only one fast that was practiced by the Israelites.

deals with the Day of Atonement in detail, and outlines all that was required of the priest in order to make atonement for the people, the nation of Israel.

But when you get to verse 29-31 we read these words...

Now the word that is used in that text from the Hebrew really meant “to afflict” themselves, or to humble themselves, or (as used in the NIV) to deny themselves.

The term used in the original usage was not the typical word for “Fasting” in the Hebrew.

But nonetheless, it was a requirements, and part of their observances that on the day of atonement, they were to fast as a part of denying themselves.

But that was the only fast that was actually commanded or required by God.

Over the years that followed, there were various other fasts that were instituted and observed, but these were not requirements of God.

There were various reasons why these additional fasts were established, and they had various purposes that they served:

It was practised as a preparation for converse with God

It was practised by the individual, when oppressed by great cares

Practised as a nation in imminent danger of war and destruction

Judgesw 20 26

These fasts were varied however, and arose as different needs arose in the course of everyday life.

But we also see other more specific days of fasting beginning to be established.

In the book of Zechariah for example, we read about four fast-days that were established after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587BC.

These fast-days were laid down as days of remembrance.

Zac

Later on again in , we read these words...

Later on again in , we read these words...

Z

What is evident from this statement from the Lord that these fast days were particular days of mourning, which God says will eventually become glad occasions!!

So certainly there were additional fasts being held, but again, these were not commanded fasts by God.

But what I’d like us to notice further from the Old Testament was how God so often was not pleased with the fasting that was taking place, because it was done out of wrong motive.

The hearts of the people missed the entire point of the fasts, and what they were to try to do...

at least three other types of fasts.

One type was fasts that lamented national tragedies, such as the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar (Zech 7:3–4; 8:19); another was fasts in times of crises, such as war, plague, drought, and famine; and a third type was self-imposed fasts for any number of personal reasons (2 Sam 12:16; Ps 35:13).

But what I’d like us to notice further from the Old Testament was how God so often was not pleased with the fasting that was taking place, because it was done out of wrong motive.

The hearts of the people missed the entire point of the fasts, and what they were to try to do...

But what I’d like us to notice further from the Old Testament was how God so often was not pleased with the fasting that was taking place, because it was done out of wrong motive.

The hearts of the people missed the entire point of the fasts, and what they were to try to do...

But what I’d like us to notice further from the Old Testament was how God so often was not pleased with the fasting that was taking place, because it was done out of wrong motive.

The hearts of the people missed the entire point of the fasts, and the motivation that should have driven the fasts.

We’ve already seen something of that in , where God asks the people of Israel if the fast they were doing was really for Him…!?

But look with me at …These verses really give something further concerning what should have been the motivation behind the fasts that they did...

Discuss and elaborate as reading through...

In this text from Isaiah, it becomes very clear that the nation of Israel was observing the fast that God had commanded, but that they were missing the point of the fast because their lives and actions failed to demonstrate what God truly required from them as a people.

With all of that background in mind, let us then come back to our text and consider what was taking place with these two groups of religious people that are mentioned.

Firstly, there were the Pharisees; those so-called “great” religious leaders who took the laws above and beyond.

By this time, the Pharisees had gotten to the point where they would fast twice a week, every week.

Mondays and Thursdays were their fasting days.

The problem, as as evident with the Israelites from the texts we’ve read, was that they missed the point of the fasts, and used them as means of elevating themselves and their self-righteousness.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus spoke out against those who, while fasting, would put on a big show...

With many of those fasting, they were merely doing it in order to win the approval of men (which by the way they would never have acknowledged)!!

That was the fast of the Pharisees.

They were known to be those who were very religious.

And these very religious people would naturally do that which showed just how religious they were, and so they fasted!

But what about the second group of people - the disciples of John?

Well to be honest, not much is known concerning them and why it was that they would fast.

It has been suggested that this may have taken place at the time that John the Baptist was put in prison.

And so the disciples of John were fasting at that time.

But very probably they were also holding more regular fasts.

You will recall that John the Baptist lived a very minimalistic life, out in the wilderness, with clothing made from animal skin, a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and honey.

His life was really marked by a kind of self-denial, and it’s not a far stretch of the imagination that he too would have times of fasting, with his disciples then learning from him.