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Setting
• Series of Encounters with Opposition– Pharisees, Scribes and John’s Disciples
• Opposition so far:– After healing the paralytic• “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming!
Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
– After calling Levi • “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Remember!
• “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark 1:1
• HUGE CLAIM– Sure to bring opposition
• Same with us
“The voluntary abstention from an otherwise normal function – usually
eating – for the sake of intense spiritual activity.”
Richard Foster: The Life with God Bible
“Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all
that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the
resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the Kingdom
of God.
Andrew Murray
“Fasting is a divine corrective to the human heart. It is a discipline of
body with a tendency to humble the soul.”
Arthur Wallis
Jesus on Fasting • Fasted 40 days to overcome Satan’s Temptation (Matt 4: 1-11)• Jesus assumed Christians would fast
“Whenever you fast do not put on a gloomy face…” (Matt 6:16)
“But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and on that day they WILL fast.”
(Mark 2:19-20)
• Jesus taught the true and effective way to fast• The Early Church practiced it
Enemies to Fasting
• Inconveniences – it would mess up my schedule• Comfort – I don’t like the feeling• Unwillingness – I just don’t want to • Ignorance – I don’t know about that
Tips to Begin Fasting
• Desire to be like Jesus • Let God lead you as to when • Fast for a why or purpose• Pray as you fast• Fast to gain self control• Keep it a secret
“If the reward you aim at in fasting is the admiration of others, that is
what you will get, and that will be all you get. In other words, the danger
of hypocrisy is that it is so successful. It aims at the praise of
men, and it succeeds. But that’s all.
John Piper
Mark 2:21-22
• Patches and Wineskins
–Don’t ever try anything new or it will destroy you.
–Don’t ever get so “old” that new will
destroy you.
Illustration Explained
• New Patch & New Wine = Jesus and the Gospel
• Old Garment & Wineskin = Old Religious system
• New Garment & New Wineskin = Our Hearts
Context Mark 2:21-22
ParalyticLevi’s House
FastingPatches and Wineskins
Grain field Healing in Synagogue
Why did Jesus or his disciples not follow the religious customs and traditions?
Why are you not like us?
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the
old, but on building the new.” Socrates
• The gospel was not to patch up old existing institutions
• Jesus’ continuity with the Old Testament was not in the following of laws but in His revealing of the nature of God.
Transcends Generations
• Traditions are fine as long as we are ready for new– Lessons from Lots wife (Genesis 19:26)
• Holding on to an old life when Jesus, the new wine, has come is not a good thing, for both.
• Old habits must be destroyed
Apply personally
• Jesus comes in• We have an expanded new life• God wants to stretch us• We can become hardened, brittle• People can refuse to expand• Become hostile to the gospel