The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Mark 2:18-22read aloud as the discussion about fasting, including the wedding guests, new cloth, and new wineskins sayings
18 John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?”
19 Jesus said to them, “Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast.
20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day.
21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made.
22 No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins.”
read aloud as the discussion about the Sabbath, including David eating the sacred bread and the Sabbath being made for people
23 He was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain.
24 The Pharisees said to him, “Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?”
25 He said to them, “Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry—he, and those who were with him?
26 How he entered into God’s house at the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?”
27 He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
28 Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
read aloud as the account of Jesus healing the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath
1 He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had his hand withered.
2 They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.
3 He said to the man who had his hand withered, “Stand up.”
4 He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” But they were silent.
5 When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.
6 The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Ray walked through Mark 2:18 through 3:6, looking at what Jesus said about fasting, the Sabbath, and the healing of a man's withered hand. The through-line was simple: Jesus was not patching up an old religious system but showing what God's law had always actually meant, people first, mercy over sacrifice.
What was said
Ray opened by noting that Mark has become his favorite book in the study, even though he came into it reluctant. What keeps striking him, he said, is that Jesus is swinging the doors wide open throughout this gospel, inviting sinners, healing the sick, forgiving the disreputable, and confronting not just evil but the misinterpretation of God's law itself.
On the question of fasting, Ray pointed out that John the Baptist and his followers fasted as an act of humility and repentance, and that was good. But Jesus answered the critics with a question: do wedding guests fast while the groom is with them? Ray connected this to a passage in Isaiah where God rejoices over His people as a bridegroom over his bride. The groom had arrived. This was a moment to celebrate, not mourn.
The wineskin and patched-cloth illustrations, Ray said, were Jesus making clear that He was not here to shore up an old, rigid system. New wine needs new wineskins, meaning hearts that are open, pliable, and ready to receive what Jesus was actually bringing. One person in the room noted that Jesus was speaking with authority here because He knew His Father's intent from the inside, not just from a rulebook.
When the Pharisees accused the disciples of breaking the law by picking grain on the Sabbath, Jesus pointed them back to what David did when he and his companions were hungry. The Sabbath, Jesus told them plainly, was made to meet the needs of people, not the other way around. Ray said some traditions simply need to die, and Jesus was showing them which ones.
The healing of the man with the withered hand pushed the confrontation to its sharpest point. Jesus asked His critics directly whether the law permitted good deeds on the Sabbath, or whether it was a day for doing evil. They would not answer. He healed the man anyway, and the Pharisees immediately began plotting to kill Him. Ray noted the conversation in the room that the man had been suffering for thirty-seven years, and all they could focus on was the day of the week it happened on.
Ray closed his remarks by saying that Jesus was leaving a lot of room for belief and very little room for religious performance. The transformation Jesus brings is real, he said, but the doors are thrown open first. The people Jesus ate with left changed, but He received them as they were.
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Pastor Ray described Jesus as 'swinging the doors wide open' throughout Mark, inviting sinners and confronting misinterpretations of God's law. Where have you seen that picture of Jesus challenge something you assumed about how God relates to people?
Jesus used the image of new wine and new wineskins to say his message could not simply be patched onto the old religious system. What traditions or habits in your own faith life might be acting like old wineskins, rigid and resistant to what God is actually doing?
Yeah. Let's just go with what we got. Hey, friends. Welcome. Good to see you.
Glad you're here. Hey, what do you say? We start by worshiping in song. Just warming up to the Lord in song and living hope. You wanna stand?
We'll sing.
And bore my sins and bear my the cross is broken I am forgiven the king of kings calls me his own beautiful savior I'm yours forever Jesus Christ my living lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free.
Hallelujah. Who you are that has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ. My living hope again.
I hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. I hallelujah. Then came the that sealed the promise your buried body began to breathe Jesus shows Jesus Christ, my Thank
you, lord, that we get to sing to you, lord. Our living hope that you are alive and well. You are alive and well in us, in your church, in the body of Christ, in believers. Thank you, Jesus. As we sing to you, God, we sing in in in faith and adoration and praise.
You deserve it. Amen.
For your mercy never fails me. All my days, I've been held in your hands. From the moment that I wake up till I lay my head, I will sing the goodness of God. It's been faith. And all my life you have been faithful and all my life you have been so so good with every breath that I am able I will sing of the goodness of God.
I love your voice. You will lead me through the fire in darkest night. You are close like no other. I've known you as a father. I've known you as a friend.
Now you've lived and the goodness God.
It's goodness running out.
Your goodness is running out, running after me. Goodness is running out, me. Your goodness is running after me and all my life. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so so good.
With every breath that I am able, I was of the goodness of God I was sick of the goodness of God
God, I do thank you for your goodness and for your grace. And Lord, we see it in our lives, but we're gonna see it in in scripture tonight. And I pray that it would you'd you'd shed light on what it really means, what it really means to fulfill the law of love, showing mercy over sacrifice, and that would be sticky for us tonight. And we carry it out just as you did. We're not perfect.
We don't do it perfectly. You did. You did that for us. But, God, you strengthen us, and you empower us to live out that love love. In Jesus' name, amen.
You're gonna have a seat here for a moment. Alright. We're Mark. I have been loving this study in Mark so much, so much. And I don't know if I said it, but it was a gospel that I thought, I don't think I wanna do this gospel.
I'm more of a I'm more of like a John guy or a Matthew guy or Luke guy. And this is my favorite book right now. It really is. And tonight's tonight's really, it grabbed ahold of me. And I wanna pair the scripture with some video clips from the chosen.
I felt like it kinda brought it to life. But I wanna address Mark two eighteen through three six. There's a discussion about fasting and a discussion about the Sabbath, and then Jesus heals on the Sabbath. Let me see if this will work for me. Is Mark is is so good at showing us who Jesus really is and and what it meant that God's kingdom has had come, and Jesus is swinging the the doors wide open.
That's what I see in Mark. Jesus is swinging the doors wide open. He's inviting sinners. He's healing the sick. He's forgiving the the disreputable.
He's confronting evil. He's confronting the misinterpretation of the law. And tonight, we see that he's gonna spar a little bit with the religious leaders, and they they don't like it. They don't like Jesus because he did not conform to their interpretation of the law. And so instead, Jesus demonstrates how it was really meant to be interpreted.
And that's what that's what stood out to me is Jesus is interpreting how God's law was really meant to be interpreted, putting people first and showing mercy over sacrifice. So that being said, I wanna read the scripture, watch a couple of clips on it, share a few thoughts, and then I'd like to open it up in here too. I love the conversation, and this is a great small group to be able to do that. So starting with a discussion about fasting. So Mark sorry, Blake.
I didn't mean to walk on you there. A discussion about fasting. So Mark two eighteen through 22. So this comes right after the dinner party at Luke's or, excuse me, at Matt's house Matthew's house. Matt's Maddie's house.
Maddie's dinner party. And Jesus said he he had invited a bunch of the disreputable, the people nobody liked, cared for, out of reach of the religious people. And this is where Jesus had said he just said to those religious leaders, I I haven't come to call the those who think they're righteous. I've come to call those who who know that they're sinners, and they didn't like it. They didn't like what Jesus said or what he's gonna say here.
So I'm gonna go ahead and read it. Alright? And, Lord, bless the reading of your word. So beginning, verse 18. Once, when Jesus' disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, why don't your disciples fast like John's disciples and the Pharisees do?
And Jesus replied, do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can't fast while the groom is with them. But someday, the groom will be taken from them, and then they will fast. Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth?
For the old patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving even bigger tear than before. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins. So next, a discussion on the Sabbath. So this is verses 23 to 28.
It says this, one Sabbath day, as Jesus was walking through some grain fields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, look. Why are they breaking the law? By harvesting grain on the Sabbath. And Jesus said to them, haven't you ever read the scriptures, what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
He went to the house of God during the days when Abiathar was high priest, and he broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests were allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions. And then Jesus said to him, the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the son of man is lord even over the Sabbath. I've got a little video clip for that one, and let me let's see if it let me let's see if it plays.
Oh, yes. And if you are watching online, I am so sorry, those who are watching online. But if we play videos from YouTube, it kicks us off. And so then we don't get to broadcast any of this. So we're just gonna cut out just for a little bit online, and then we'll come back in.
So I've got one more section here, and that is chapter three verses one to six where Jesus heals on the Sabbath. So I wanna read it first and then show a clip on that as well. So chapter three, verse one. Jesus went into the synagogue again, and he noticed a man with a deformed hand or a withered hand. And since it was a Sabbath, Jesus' enemies watched him closely.
If he healed the man's hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. And Jesus said to the man with a deformed hand, come. Stand in front of everybody. And then he turned to his critics, and he asked, does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?
But they wouldn't answer. And so he looked around at them angrily, and he was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, hold out your hand. And so the man held out his hand, and it was restored. At once, the pharisees went away and met with the the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.
They were that angry. They were that jealous. I've got a short video clip of that section. And, again, we're gonna cut out online just for a minute. We have mark two eighteen.
Sorry. Mark two eighteen through three six. So that was a discussion about fasting, about the Sabbath, and then Jesus healing on the on the Sabbath. And I wanna share just a few thoughts, and then I'd like to hear yours as well. But first on on fasting, I thought this was kind of an interesting one in verses 18 through 22.
You remember when, John the Baptist came on the scene, and he's calling people to repent. Remember that? And he's preparing them for Christ's coming. So John the Baptist's message was a a sobering message. And so John and his followers fasted.
So if you go, where's this fasting things come coming from? There's there's some background there. They were fasting to show humility, to show regret for sin. It's a good thing. Jesus didn't condemn that.
Jesus fasted too. But in verse 19, this was a call to celebrate, and I really like this verse right here that the wedding do wedding guests fast when celebrating with a groom? Of course not. They can't fast when the groom is with them, and I this is kind of a a callback here to to Isaiah, the book of Isaiah. They would have been familiar with this passage right here, where your children will commit themselves to you, Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride, then God will rejoice over you as a bride bridegroom rejoices over his bride.
So in other words, the groom had come, and that was Jesus. And he was calling the bride to himself, his people. And, Jesus is fulfilling the scriptures here. I just I think that is is is such a cool part, and that callback to Isaiah that Jesus wasn't patching up the old religious system with the rules and the traditions or filling old wineskins that were rigid or would burst. But this was new wine, and it required new wineskins, hearts that were open, pliable, and receptive to Jesus' message.
I just really like the imagery here, and I wanted to to make note of that first. So I'm fasting. And, Lord, help us to be like those new wineskins, to have open, pliable hearts to your message to us. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Another comment here, on the disciples harvesting grain or working as as they were accused of of working on the Sabbath, and it and it upset them because it broke their traditions. Not God's law itself, but it broke their traditions. Some traditions need to die. Right? And Jesus shows them what the Sabbath is really about, and that is this right here.
The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. And here Jesus is showing people take priority always, even on a day of rest. And that healing of the man's withered hand, that's a prime example of that too. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a a day to save life, or is it to destroy it?
And, again, I just I love that Mark is showing us here that what God really meant in that law of Moses in the Old Testament and how it was being fulfilled right before their eyes in Jesus. He's bringing the kingdom on Earth, God's will done on Earth as it is in heaven. He's swinging the doors wide open, and that's what I'm seeing in Mark. Jesus is swinging those doors wide open. He's inviting sinners.
He's healing the sick. He's forgiving sins. He's confronting evil. He's confronting the misinterpretation of God's law. And he's leaving a lot of room for belief, and he's leaving little room for for religious performance.
And I think the same is is is still true for today. Jesus is leaving a lot of room for belief and little room for religious performance or traditions that just just need to die. And, Lord, help us. If we have traditions that just need to go away or if we're missing the point, Lord, help us to see as you see. In Jesus' name.
Amen. So those are just a few of my thoughts, from this section of scripture, and I would love to hear yours too if you have any comments on it. But before I open it up, can I can I pray one more time? I'd really like to. Lord, I thank you for this chunk of scripture tonight.
Thank you. I pray that it would give us a new and a fresh perspective to always put people first, to show mercy over sacrifice, and to value belief over religious performance, and to have hearts like those new wineskins that are open and pliable, ready to receive what you've what you've got for us. In Jesus' name, amen. Alright. Well, from those three sections and let me just go back to those, the discussion about fasting on the Sabbath and then Jesus healing on the Sabbath.
Any thoughts? Any any verses that that really pop for you in the in this section of scripture?
I already have the microphone, so I'll start. I like a lot the the last slide that you had there about the Sabbath, and that's there so people can rest. Right? You work six days a week, and then you have seven days of rest. And he kinda comes in with a new interpretation.
Like, is it for doing good or is it for doing bad? Like, they interpret it as just this is a rule. But what's it really about? Is it for doing good or is it for doing doing evil? So I really like that line a lot.
And speaking of new, the Pharisees not the Pharisees, the parables that he uses, the examples make no sense in our context to me. It's like wineskin. I've never seen a wineskin in my life. And I've never sewn an old piece of or a new piece of cloth onto an old t And
you worked at Blue Spruce Cleaners.
And I worked at a dry cleaners for Pete's sake. Anyways, I just wonder. I've had to I think Ray preached on that and explained the wineskin years ago and so it was interesting to me like you have to kind of dig in and figure out what it means. My interpretation is just that he's coming in with the new. You're not gonna put this new stuff on the old.
So like, that was the old way. This is the new way sort of thing. And out of curiosity, I also wonder what parable Jesus would use if he was talking to us in this room. Probably wouldn't be wineskins, but it would be something. And I and I just my two takeaways.
New new instead of old.
It's good. I love it. I and I do love that analogy because if if they would have used new wine in old wineskins, would have burst because wine ferments and it gets big, it swells. So they needed new wineskins to do that. But it was like, hey, here's the new.
Here's how it was meant to be interpreted. And your old rigid ways, they're not gonna work, and I'm not gonna patch them up. I wanna show you how they're actually being fulfilled, how how it was actually meant to be interpreted. And that's what I love about this. It leaves so much room for for God's intent rather than traditions and things that just that need to die.
Following the letter of the law rather than the actual intent of the law. Yeah. The spirit. Right? The spirit of the law.
Thank you. Any other thoughts on this section?
So a part of kind of along with what Blake was just saying right there. Jesus is speaking with authority, first of all. Yeah. And for him to say why it's written is because he knew. I know my father.
I understand why he's doing this. He's merciful and he's compassionate and he's loving and he's caring and you weren't designed to work 100% of the time all the time and Jesus lived that out by, it says, often, he withdrew into the wilderness to pray, to rest, and when it was early in the morning, he got up and he went off by himself and he prayed, you know, got alone and rested. He did a lot of work and it seems like that was constant when he saw the crowds. He was moved with compassion but the the fact that Jesus is the perfect representation of God and that he can say with authority why it is that God made that. We still have the chance to read the Bible through different lenses and so typically the lens that you read scripture through is called your hermeneutic, Your hermeneutic and a hermeneutic of goodwill means that God has a good will and there are a lot of people who read it more with a hermeneutic of rules and regulations, dos and don't dos.
They're a long list and that God is an angry God and he's angry and because he's angry, we have to follow his list, follow these rules, and if we believe that God is angry and justifiably so, then we are tempted to head that direction with him. And we will also be angry and feel justified in it. And what Jesus is saying is God is loving and merciful and he cares about you. He doesn't want you to work yourselves to death. So he's giving you a break where you don't have to feel guilty about taking a break.
And he says that with authority. Ain't that good? Yeah. And it's just really good. It's like, I I understand.
And great. You're trying to do the right thing, but you're missing the point, and and you're really missing it on this one. You you missed it to the point that, you know, I I mentioned yesterday that the fellow that he healed at the Pool Of Siloam had been thirty seven years ill. Thirty seven years And he healed him on a Sabbath and all they could think about was the fact that he did that on the Sabbath.
Right. Not the thirty seven years that that man had spent Right. In suffering and pain and and Yeah. It was just awful.
Right. And so, he's healed and they ended up kicking that guy out of the temple. They kicked him out of the synagogue, out of the fellowship completely but he's healed. Mhmm. And the power of God worked in him, on him, and I would assume through him.
And they missed it completely. And we can still do that in our religiosity if we aren't careful. Yeah. Aren't humble actually. Go
ahead. Go ahead.
One thing that I find interesting is that, like old friends that I've ever talked to that you wouldn't classify as believers. That's what they would call the Bible is a is a guidebook. Some guidelines for how to be a good human sort of thing. So is it a guideline? Is it about rules?
Is it about what to do? Or is it about the spirit? The spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus, the intent. That's what stuck out in my mind as you were talking, Ray. The
conversation. Part of the new wine and old wineskins, new wine. So the old wineskins, basically crusty. They have gone through the process of having fermentation and all that sort of stuff.
Like an old golf club? Do you ever have an old golf club in your bag? It's all nasty because the leather and stuff or hockey glove?
Don't know you have hockey gloves. So since specifically he's talking about the spirit, there's an introduction of new wine. Spirit in Greek, it's pneuma. Pneum in in like pneumatic tires are filled with air. And so when something ferments, it puts off an air, a spirit as it were, and the spirit swells in this and it would cause it to break open because they're stitched clothes.
They're not not just an animal, bladder or whatever. But, yeah, pneuma is an interesting concept too that is he's introducing something where it's gonna be spirit filled and that old wineskins just aren't ready for that. The old paradigm no longer works.
I I love that in the introduction to Mark when John the Baptist said, listen. I I'm I'm gonna baptize you with water. I'm I'm preparing you here for the message, being washed clean, but Jesus is gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And here, we're we're we're seeing this. It's it's all coming into play right now when we see God's real intent real intent through the of the law fulfilled in Jesus.
I it's just exciting to me and Mark how all of this is coming to g together. Jesus is it's it's being played out in Christ. So good. Yep. Oh, sweet pea.
Any other any other comments? Guys, I'm just I I really am. I I appreciate the conversation, and I'm I'm loving the the study here. I really am. And this one just hit me.
I the mercy over sacrifice, always. Always. You know? I I see what in in this, Jesus really is he's throwing the gates wide open. Come on in.
Come on in. Now do we change do is there is there transformation along the way? Yes. Yeah. Do we just get to stay sinners?
I mean, you think about the people that Jesus ate with and, you know, he's inviting in. He accepted them as they are, but I don't think they ever they they they left unchanged. You know what I'm saying? Their hearts were transformed. So I'm just I'm really digging it.
And, Lord, help us. Lord, would you help us to always show mercy over sacrifice, to have that kind of compassion that you have, a gut level compassion for others. And thank you, Lord, for revealing that along the way. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's should we stand and and close in one more song?
Evidence. That's a pretty chord, isn't it?
Wait for spring. Every season from where I'm sitting in, I see the evidence of your goodness all over my life, all over my life. I see your promises in fulfillment all over my life, all over my life. Help me remember when I'm weak. Feel me come to feel I see the evidence of your goodness all over my life, all over my life.
I see your promises in fulfillment all over my life, all over my life. See the cross, empty grave. See the cross, see empty grave. Yeah. That ends his endness.
All over my life. I see your promises in filming all over my life, all over my life. So why should I fear? Why should I fear? Oh, the
I wanna do a different benediction than that one. I wanna do one from Luke because we we just read about the care and the compassion and the mercy of Christ that he is showing others. Lord, help us to do the same. But know this, from from Luke, it says, the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So Jesus knows the inside and out.
That's what he's saying. And so don't be afraid because we have a tendency to fear. We do. You are much more valuable to God than a whole flock of of sparrows or little birds. You know?
