Mark 2:18-22
Fasting and Wineskins
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
Mark 2:18
• The Question of Fasting
“The voluntary abstention from an
otherwise normal function – usually
eating – for the sake of intense
spiritual activity.”
Richard Foster: The Life with God Bible
“Fasting
without prayer is called
….STARVATION”
“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
WHY?
“Fasting is a divine corrective to the
human heart. It is a discipline of
body with a tendency to humble the
soul.”
Arthur Wallis
Spiritual Disciplines
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Bible Study
Prayer
Evangelism
Meditation
Fasting
Etc.
Should Christians Fast?
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
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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
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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
Back to the Opposition
Mark 2:19-20
• The Bridegroom
• Old Testament reference to God
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
Paralytic
Levi’s House
Fasting
Patches 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?
• It is our natural tendency to fight against
change or anything new and misunderstood.
“The secret of change is to focus all
of your energy, not on fighting the
old, but on building the new.”
Socrates
“If you think change is hard…Try
being IRRELEVANT!”
Anonymous
“I am just old and set in my ways.”
Everyone
• 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.
• Meaning for the New Church
– Circumcision???
– Dietary laws ???
– Temple worship???
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
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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
Never get so “set in your ways” that
new things hurt you or you hurt the
new.