The Gospel of Mark | Authority Unlike Any Other (May 6th, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

You can turn them to uh the gospel of Mark chapter two.

Mark chapter two.

Now, have you ever seen anybody throw their authority around?

You ever seen that before?

Like I'm sure, you know, I'm sure we've seen it with our parents.

You know, our per parents had to get up in our grill about something and tell us what's what.

You know, maybe you saw it uh with a teacher as a student growing up, you know, a teacher really, you know, take command and take control of the classroom.

Maybe for you, you had a boss who came to you and had to sit you down and give you a talking to and tell you, you know, straighten you out.

For me, I remember um as a, I don't know, I was about 20 years or years old or so, and wasn't what it was one of my first kind of full-time jobs.

I worked in a warehouse and uh I worked there for three years, and I had a boss named Wayne, and uh his nickname that we all called him was Cantankerous.

So that kind of tells you everything you need to know, kind of about his personality and how he rolled.

But he was, I mean, he was one of those guys who just came on real strong.

He sort of, you know, he was he was an older gentleman, he was like real close to retirement, and so he was a veteran, he'd been around the block a lot, and he wasn't afraid of anybody.

He'd kind of walk around and you know, strut his authority and chest was out, and he wasn't afraid to, you know, curse out a driver, a trucker.

He was, you know, he would be hard on us as as uh employees and all of that.

And I remember he had to give it to me a couple of times, and looking back on that, I probably deserved it.

Um but also I remember kind of as time went on, I also uh got to the point where I really sort of appreciated Wayne and I and I and I liked him, and it didn't really happen at first, but eventually I got to the point where I actually appreciated him and and even his angle on authority and all of that.

Now, isn't it kind of interesting how um we often view authority as this as this negative thing, don't we?

As a negative thing.

We don't we don't always appreciate coming under the authority that has been placed over top of us.

Right?

We've we've probably all heard people spout off at different times in very anti-authority ways, like really against all of that, which always kind of strikes me as a little bit funny.

Why?

Because they say it so authoritatively, don't they?

And you hear this anti-authoritative rant in a way where this, again, anti-authority sort of becomes the new authority.

And so it's just kind of funny how that how that all kind of works sometimes.

Now, why are we talking about this?

Well, we're talking about this because Jesus himself came full of authority, right?

He has the full authority of God in such a way that people had just straight up never seen it before.

We're gonna see that in our text here today.

Right?

And just like our experience with human authority, right?

Some people back then they they took to Jesus' authority, they really appreciated him, and others, yeah, they didn't.

They didn't like him at all.

Okay, so a really good question for us to think about here this morning as we go through this chapter of Mark's gospel is is where are we at when it comes to the authority of Jesus Christ?

Have have I in have I embraced it?

Do I appreciate it?

Do I have I submitted myself to it?

We're gonna see here as we go through this that the authority of Jesus, it wasn't a bad thing, right?

It really wasn't, and it remains not a bad thing.

It was, it is, very much a good and necessary thing for us, his creation.

Okay, so this is where we're going here today.

But before we get into it, before we jump into it, join me as we pray.

God, we thank you for just the strength, the power that that you demonstrated, that you bring, Lord, that you are.

Lord, we see it by way of your authority here throughout this gospel, but specifically in big time in chapter two.

And so, Lord, I pray that as each one of us have pride in our hearts, Lord, each one of us has um arrogance, we maybe know how to hide that, maybe not so much.

Lord, I pray that you would, uh by your love, by your grace, maybe even by rebuke if need be, Lord, that you would bring us under uh your authority, God, because that is the best place to be, that is the safest place to be, Lord.

I pray that we would no longer chafe under that, Lord, that we would seek that, that we would seek your face.

Lord, be merciful to your church here today.

Lord, we are so needy.

We we need you, we invite you here in this place, in power, by your spirit.

Transform your church, we pray.

In Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, Jesus has authority unlike any other.

Here's the first thing, which empowers him to forgive all my sins.

Empowers him to forgive all my sins.

Okay, take a look at this here in verse one.

We're gonna go through a bunch of this.

We've got a lot of verses to read here today, but take a look at this.

Okay, it says, and when he returned to Capernaum after some days, so Capernaum ends up being sort of Jesus' home base during this season of his ministry.

Okay, he goes back there and it says, It was reported that he was at home.

Okay, and many were gathered so that there was no more room, not even at the door.

And he was preaching the word to them.

Okay, we're about to see a pretty amazing miracle take place here that you know many of us are very familiar with.

We've heard, we've read, you know, the miracle of healing the paralytic.

We're gonna see all of that, and that very quickly takes the emphasis and takes the focus here.

But just notice how Jesus' commitment and at the center of all of this was was how he preached.

He taught, he instructed them through the word.

Just remember that as you see all the way through this here.

Now keep going.

It says, and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him.

And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

And Jesus, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

Amazing.

Now some of the some of the scribes, okay, so some of the religious leaders, these are the scribes of the Pharisees, okay, they enter the scene here.

They were sitting there questioning in their hearts.

Notice that.

Why does this man speak like this?

He is blaspheming.

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Okay, and immediately Jesus, because he's God, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things in your hearts?

Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, Rise, take up your bed, and walk.

An interesting couple of questions there.

And as you read that, you might be like, well, what's he getting at here?

I don't know.

What is the easier thing?

What is the more difficult thing?

Well, on one hand, you know, you gotta say that it's that it's easier to say that your sins are forgiven.

It's easier to say that because how could anyone possibly verify whether or not that has actually taken place?

You can say those words, your sins are forgiven.

You can say that all day long.

People don't have the ability to prove or disprove, again, whether that has that forgiveness has actually occurred.

Right?

Forgiveness isn't a, it's not a visible thing that you and I can see.

It's not verifiable with the human eye.

Okay?

So it so it's harder to say on one hand, rise, take up your bed and walk.

Why?

Why is that harder?

Because if the guy doesn't actually stand up and walk, it shows that the person who said those words does not have the authority to heal.

Right?

So you see how it's harder to say that from that end.

You know, keep going.

Verse 10.

It says this, but that you may know, that you may know that the Son of Man has authority.

See that word there?

Has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.

And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all.

So that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this.

Okay, so Jesus, showing that he does in fact have the authority to forgive sin, does the harder of the two miracles, okay, harder to visibly prove that is, and and what does he do?

He physically heals the guy.

Right?

He heals him, he the guy gets up and walks.

Now, I don't know if you have uh an ESV study Bible handy, you've got that app or you carry that that big old beast of a Bible with you, but I love this note here that it says there on this verse.

It says, the logic here is that if Jesus can do the visible miracle, okay, heal the paralytic, this is evidence that he also has the power to do the invisible miracle, which is to forgive sins.

Okay now, this was a dramatic scene that unfolded here.

This is a dramatic display.

This this shocked everybody who was in attendance here.

Right?

This was a this is a wild thing.

They said, we never saw anything like this before.

Right?

This is this is the first time.

We're paving new ground here.

Okay, this is authority like none other, and I mean it just straight up blew people away.

Okay, now people I think were were were likely more taken aback by the fact that the guy stood up and walked as opposed to the guy the fact that the guy's sins had been forgiven.

And you know, if you and I were there, you ever put yourself in the picture and kind of wonder what your reaction might be?

I think we'd probably be just like the crowd.

We'd be like, oh my goodness, that guy was laying there, he's never walked before, ever, and now he's now he's walking now?

This is incredible.

Right?

It would have been like in one ear and out the other, in terms of the fact that the guy's sins had been forgiven.

Okay, but don't miss that.

Don't miss the what Jesus was getting at here.

That as as much as you know, people are physically suffering, and there are all kinds of challenges in life, and all of these trials that we're enduring, and and as much as Jesus cares about all of those things, right?

We've already seen multiple examples just in the first chapter of Mark alone.

Okay, as as much as all of that, and listen, he's here to address man's greatest need, which is forgiveness.

Okay, which which on another level is is actually the harder thing to do, really, if you think about that.

Okay, forgiving sins, yeah, it's easier to say.

But ultimately, who's the only one that can do that?

God.

Right?

God is the only one.

And so He was He was saying, I'm God.

He was demonstrating who He was in His nature and in His character.

Okay, only He possessed that kind of authority, that kind of power necessary to make you and I right before God.

No more guilt that we need to carry around.

You can do you still carry guilt around as a Christ follower?

Guilt of sins far gone in the past, guilt that you shouldn't be carrying anymore.

You've been forgiven.

Right?

Do you carry that?

Do you carry those burdens and they're just they're just weighing you down?

Listen, there's no more of that.

There's no more, there's no more wrath between you and the Lord, there's no more enmity anymore.

No many ish, no more issues in the way of you being on good terms with the Creator.

Right?

It's all been wiped out through Christ's authority to forgive.

Now, don't you kind of find it amazing?

I mean, I do, and I mean this in a in a sad sort of way, that that you and I we so easily forget the enormity of the reality that you and I are fully forgiven.

Right?

We we forget that.

And instead, we tend to focus on things that that while being while being big from an earthly perspective, like maybe you know, through tax season, you're thinking, like, man, how can I how can I possibly afford to pay what I what I owe the government?

Right?

Like, that's not an insignificant thing at all for us on a human standpoint.

But listen, the the size of the miracle needed there pales in comparison to the magnitude of the miracle, okay, of the forgiveness that Christ, through his full authority, the authority of God, has already granted you.

Right?

That's already taken place, it's already happened.

Pretty incredible.

Listen, a couple of things to jot down here.

All right, because Jesus forgives my sin, here's the first thing.

I'm already healed of my worst condition.

Right, that's kind of what I've been getting at.

Right?

And no matter the ailments in our life, no matter the challenges, listen, even the very worst ones, even the most difficult.

We've got lots of different things that harass us and annoy us throughout the week for sure.

For me, some of you saw the video I posted, like half my roof blew off in that wind on Friday.

Right?

And I'm thinking, like, I'm kind of moping a little bit about it.

I'm like, man, this is like the worst timing ever, and you know, how inconvenient.

I've got so many things I gotta do this weekend.

And then you try to call insurance, and they're like, they literally they're like, we can't take your call, you're being disconnected.

Right?

Because it's just the overflow of people, people calling in.

And I started to think about it.

I'm going through all of this and sort of preparing for today, and I'm thinking, this is a perfect example of it.

I'm already healed of my worst condition.

I've got eternity waiting for me.

My sins have been blotted out through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Who cares about my roof?

I'll throw a tarp on that all day.

It's really not a big deal, it'll work itself out.

Listen, that's a fairly minor issue.

Some of them, I get it, they're more serious.

There's a wide range of issues, but really, no matter what they are, I'm already healed of the very worst thing ever.

We've got heaven waiting for us.

We need to find perspective in that.

We lose perspective so easily.

Don't be the person who prays and prays and prays for things, and Lord, I need things, and and he answers that prayer, and then it's like, thank you.

I'm moving on to the next thing now to complain and worry about.

Find perspective.

You've got forgiveness.

You've got all the best things in life already.

All right, because Jesus forgives my sin, I can't earn it or pay him back.

I can't earn it or pay him back.

You realize we have nothing to offer the Lord.

We have nothing.

We can't we can pay the Lord back for what he's done.

It's a gift, right?

It's by grace.

It's if if if you buy a gift, a present for a person, and you hand it that hand it to them and just say, hey, this is for your birthday.

I I love you and I'm and I'm glad you're in my life.

I just want to give you this gift.

And they're like, no, I insist to pay uh that I pay you back for this.

And you're like, no, no, seriously, like it's a it's a gift.

Like, honestly, it's for your birthday, like there's an occasion.

They're like, no, here, take the money.

Like at some point, you're gonna be like, man, like get off me, right?

Why are you doing this?

Just take it.

Okay, this the same thing goes for us when we think that we need to pay God back by being good Christians, when we we got we gotta pay God back by being kind in all kinds of different ways.

You can't you can't pay him back.

It's a gift given to you, it's done, it's it's finished, it's it's complete in him.

Our only response is just gratitude.

Right?

It's it's surrender to him, it's it's worship.

That those are the responses.

Okay, the paralytic, that guy had nothing to give to the Lord.

Okay, we're the exact same way.

We don't either.

Okay, because Jesus forgives my sins, third thing.

I'm accepted.

I'm accepted by God Himself.

I think so many of us sometimes we we sort of have this mentality like we're we kind of act like we're still outcasts.

We still kind of gotta get God's approval somehow by behavior and all of that kind of thing.

Listen, you're not an outcast anymore.

Because you're forgiven, you've been fully accepted.

Well, hold on a second, what if I sin tomorrow?

Guess what?

Yeah, you are, and that doesn't ruin your acceptance with the Lord.

He accepts you already on your best day and listen, on your worst day.

His acceptance doesn't go up and down based on your performance, based on your behavior.

He accepts you fully, completely, all of that.

You're part of the family now.

Okay, his authority made all of that possible.

His authority is not something for us to be chafing against, it's not something that we should disdain or hate or try and get out from underneath.

No.

We should just be submitting to it.

It is nothing but good news for you and I.

Here's the second thing here.

Jesus has authority unlike any other, which appeals to me the more I sense my need.

Okay, take a look at verse 13 now.

This is what it says.

It says, He went out again, okay, beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him.

So they're just flocking to him at this point, and he can't get a moment's rest at all.

Right?

And he was teaching them, it says.

So there's the teaching piece again.

It says, and he passed by, he saw Levi, who we know as Matthew.

That's what they call him later on.

Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth, okay, tax collector.

And he said to him, Follow me.

And he rose and he followed him.

Okay, so more of that authority that we actually saw back in chapter one, is he remember he was building his team and he's calling disciples to him, and he would just say, Okay, come follow me.

And God's just leave everything and go?

I mean, wow, the to the authority that Christ possessed there.

And it says, and as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

And the scribes of the Pharisees, go great, here they here come these guys again, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

Now, of course, we know this, like everyone's a sinner, right?

We know that no one is righteous.

The Bible tells us that.

We're all broken, we're all depraved, our our our our nature has been corrupt entirely, right?

We're we're all we're all sinners.

Okay, and he's actually gonna mention that here in the verse in just a second, but but first of all, notice notice how they they first questioned him in their hearts, right?

We saw that back in verse 6.

And now they're starting to question the disciples out loud.

So you see the progression that's that's taking place here?

It's starting to pick up steam, and we know, of course, that we know the end of the story, we know that it goes to the cross, we know that it just all just gets worse.

Pretty soon these Pharisees and then they're gonna be grumbling against him, and and then they're confronting him boldly, and they're showing their hatred, and they're trying to, they're looking for ways to kill him, and he escapes all of that, and then obviously they they drag him away, and he goes through the whole trial, and he he goes to the cross.

Right?

And so there's again there's that progression, but now look at this, verse 17.

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

Now again, that there's that part, right?

We know that we know that everyone's a sinner, and so you might be wondering, like, well, what does he mean then by this?

Well, if I could I could paraphrase Christ's words here, essentially what he's saying is that he he came not to call the self-righteous.

Okay, the self-righteous.

That's that's not who he came to call or to or to heal.

He came to those who who know that they're sinners, uh the ones who who get it.

Right?

Not not the healthy, not the not the healthy in their own estimation, those who don't think they need Christ, okay, but the sick, those whose whose pride has been stripped away, those who see very clearly their their spiritual depravity and and their spiritual ruin, those who get it.

You ever notice in the Gospels that the people who are who are most drawn to Jesus Christ are are those who just fully understand that they've got sin in their life.

Right?

They're the ones that are like, yeah, you don't have to convince me, right?

I I know that that I'm a mess, right?

It's almost always, it seems, not always, but very often it's it's the prostitutes, right?

It's it's the corrupt tax collectors, it's the political zealots, and it's the marginalized, it's it's the lowly.

Those are the type of people who who Jesus seemed to always appeal to.

Again, he didn't have to convince them, twist their arm, he didn't have to rail against their sin, he didn't have to do do any of that.

They saw it loud and clear, they get it.

But it was always the it was always the self-righteous, it was it was the proud, it was the the full of you know a sense of their own self-importance and and those who felt you know self-satisfaction in in their accomplishments and and their you know it was the religious elite types, it was it was the religious conservatives who who just hated Jesus.

He had like next to no appeal to that crowd.

Why?

Because they didn't think that they needed him.

They thought that they were fine on their own.

They hated him because he spoke sometimes very firmly and in their face about their hypocrisy, about their sin that they were so blind to, about their legalism and their.

Their cold hearts, and because of that, and because they refused to humble themselves, they just grew that much more cold and that much more vicious towards him.

Again, and it all came down to their blindness and their lack of a deep sense of their need for a savior.

They thought, in their own estimation, again, that they were doing just fine.

They were offended at the thought that they needed redemption.

Now, I find that an extremely important thing for us to mine down a little bit as a church.

It's really important that we watch out for this kind of thing.

Why?

Well, because we're uh, you know, North American, theologically conservative, kind of make no apologies, Bible-believing doctrine is important kind of church.

Okay, so that so do you think that, you know, generally speaking, anyways, as a group, that we would tend to align more with the crowd of sinners or the crowd of these hypocritical Pharisees.

Which side?

Yeah, probably the Pharisees.

Right?

Generally, again, speaking, I think most of us here are, you know, we're a product of our culture around us.

You know, we're pretty self-sufficient individuals.

We've kind, you know, most of us are not starving and we're at least moderately successful individuals with some money in the bank and life's pretty comfortable.

Right?

We know uh and understand morality, and at least on an external level, we we we sort of know how to play that game, don't we?

We know how to behave in a way that that doesn't make us look like that sinful crowd over there.

Right?

We know how to cast the best version of ourselves to people, right?

We know how to do that.

We we give, we we serve, we can put on the smile, all of that.

I mean, in some ways, and you could say that we look a lot like the the scribes and the Pharisees here.

Which means that, you know, as much as we might not like to admit it, it means that sometimes, because of kind of where we find ourselves, we end up not all that enamored with Jesus Christ.

Do you find that true of your life sometimes?

Do you find that you're constantly fighting sort of like this cold heart?

Why don't I care about this?

Why don't I care about the Lord?

Why do I find sin more enticing?

Why do I care more about my own pleasure?

Why do I care about my agenda more than about the agenda of Jesus Christ?

Why is my mission more prominent than his mission?

Why have I grown bored with the Bible?

Why am I distracted by other priorities?

Why don't I not seem to care about community and I like solidarity and isolating myself from all these things, and I don't seem to care about getting the gospel out to my neighbors and listen, all of that.

And we find maybe that his authority doesn't seem to carry the same kind of weight that maybe it once did, or at the very least, the way that it should.

And again, why?

Because Jesus has in many ways lost his appeal to us.

Again, if we're honest.

And I think it really comes down to if you want to break it down, it's because we're not filled with an overwhelming sense of how badly we really do need it.

We don't get it.

We we understand it in our heads.

We've heard pastor guys talk about this all the time.

We've thought about it, we've talked about it, we've probably prayed about it, but in our hearts sometimes we just seem to not get it.

And of course, from the heart overflows everything else.

We think we're fine on our own.

And if that's you, the question that should be like the alarm bells, the question that should be going off in our heads right now is like, how do I fix this?

How do we fix this in our lives?

How do we love the Lord more in this and see him, see ourselves get more excited and fired up about it?

Well, well, listen, if Christ has lost his appeal and grown dull to you, hey, do these three things.

Okay, the first one, identify the root cause.

Okay, identify the root cause.

Okay, for you, you might be kind of you know doing uh you know a bit of a think through your life at this point and and kind of looking at how you're living, and you might realize that you know what, on the outside, actually everything's just fine.

I I come to church, I give an offering, I have a pretty good marriage, and you know, I, you know, I'm serving in the church, and I externally everything is fine.

Well, why is my heart cold?

Well, it's because maybe we haven't gone deep enough to expose the roots and identify the roots so that we can we can get that all fixed through the grace of Jesus Christ, and that will begin to change everything else and start to bear real fruit.

Okay, so so begin to identify the root cause.

If your heart has grown cold to Jesus and you're not psyched about him, you're not excited about him, you're not passionate about him, what's replaced that?

Well, nothing that I can think of.

Well, start thinking.

Something has replaced that.

We're all worshipers.

We all worship something.

We worship the pursuit of money, we worship sex, we worship pleasure, we worship something other than Jesus Christ.

Identify what those idols are.

Think about these things.

Talk with other people in your small group, talk with people that know you well, begin to identify, go after that, identify the root cause.

As you begin to do this and apply the gospel to it, you're gonna find that the appeal of Jesus Christ and what he has done for you through the cross is gonna start to sound awesome again.

Here's the second thing to do: anchor back to the gospel, right?

And that's what I just said.

Right?

What Jesus did for you is key in your turnaround.

Remember, we talked a lot about this kind of thing as we went through the series in Galatians for sure, and how it always comes back to the gospel.

The gospel needs to be driving our motivations and capturing our heart.

You need to anchor back to the gospel.

If your heart is cold, don't just do a bunch of external things to try and get that going again.

Address the heart issue and anchor back to the gospel.

Here's the third one.

Pursue rejuvenated motivations.

Rejuvenated motivations.

If Christ's appeal has grown dull, but you're still serving, for example.

Listen, it means that your motives are not being driven by a gratitude for the cross.

It means that your motivations for serving is now being functionally operated by something else.

Okay, maybe it's maybe it's a sense of guilt.

Well, I have to do this, or you know, pastor's gonna have to do another announcement about needing servants.

And I feel bad about that, and I feel like he's staring right at me when he gives that announcement.

I'm not, by the way.

Or maybe it's some kind of people-pleasing thing.

I'm trying to impress others, and that's why I'm serving.

Maybe you're not thinking about it at all.

Maybe it's it's not guilt-driven, it's not people-pleasing, you're sort of going through the motions.

It's just on autopilot for you, and I'm serving, but I'm not thinking about how you know how this is an awesome, you know, piece of the puzzle that I get to play here, and I have the opportunity to point people to Jesus through welcoming them to church in the morning or coming and setting up and tearing down or holding kids in, you know, harvest kids so their parents can come and focus on the word of God.

Like, that's awesome.

You're not even thinking about that.

It's just like you could do this whole thing blindfolded.

Okay, your motivations, maybe they're for it's for your own glory.

I'm doing this because it makes me feel awesome.

And that's what it's really all about.

And I just like the attention that people give me and the compliments that people give me for how well I do in these areas.

Listen, pursue rejuvenated motivations, which again goes back to anchoring to the gospel.

As you understand the sacrifice of Christ and the extreme love that He has poured out on you, it's gonna make you desire to serve.

It's gonna make you want to get into God's word.

It's gonna make you want to come to a prayer night, it's gonna make you want to lead your family well.

That's the motivation that's gonna drive you.

Again, it's getting back to where you're captivated by Jesus Christ and his authority again.

Here's the third thing, the third point.

Jesus has authority unlike any other, which exposes all my religious tendencies.

Verse 18, take a look at this now.

It says, Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting.

Okay, and people came to him, or came and said to him, Why do John's disciples, that's John the Baptist, okay, why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast.

And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.

And he gives another example here.

No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.

If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.

And here's the third example: no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins.

But new wine is for fresh wineskins.

Now you might be thinking, like, did Jesus even listen to the question?

Because that doesn't seem to compute at all.

Okay?

But understand, some people came up to him and they asked him a question about fasting, which was one of the key pillars to Judaism back in this time.

This is one of the things that they were, you know, super fired up about.

It was one of the things that showed just how religiously devoted they were.

Okay?

John's disciples fast.

How come yours don't?

The Pharisees' disciples fast, how come yours don't, Jesus?

Right?

And so he gives them again a couple of illustrations here and he draws from everyday life in a way to kind of answer their question.

So, first of all, he says, you don't fast from food during a wedding feast while the bridegroom is present.

Okay, you don't do that.

It's party time, right?

During a wedding celebration, it's like, let's have fun with all of this.

It's not like, you know, be mournful and sorrowful and fast and all of that.

Okay, in the same way, Jesus is saying here that while he's present with his disciples now, it's not time for fasting.

It's go time.

Let's get to work, let's do this.

It's exciting, like the kingdom of God is moving forward.

Let's get involved, let's go for it.

He says, that time will come later, though.

He foreshadows the cross when he says that he'll be taken away from them.

Okay, secondly, here he talks about sowing uh a new or unshrunk piece of cloth into an old gar uh garment.

And then also putting new wine into uh into an old wineskin.

Okay, you don't do those things because the new patch will tear away from or rip the garment uh when it shrinks, right?

And it tears that away.

And in the same way, the new wine will burst the old skin when it ferments and it expands.

Okay, now understand here that as much as it doesn't seem to compute to the question, okay, what he's doing is he's actually exposing these people's religious tendencies.

Okay, they're thinking, they're concerned mainly with the external religious duties of what?

Of fasting, which again, they believed showed off their piety and their devotion.

And look how great we are, and they're comparing themselves to disciples of John and disciples of the Pharisees, and who can be better at all of this?

And okay, understand these he's telling these people who are very much challenging his authority through this question, okay?

That he's he is far greater than their legalistic traditions, their outward religious approach that they've gotten sucked into towards God.

Okay, now keep going here.

There's actually more.

Verse 23.

It says, one Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to, notice it, pluck the heads of grain.

Okay, you and I might read that and we're like, so?

No big deal.

Okay, but listen, the Pharisees were saying to him, Look, what they are doing is not lawful on the Sabbath.

Okay, so the rules police come out.

Okay, and he said to them, he's like, Listen, have you ever read, have you never read what what David did when he was in need and he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God, right, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him.

And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

So again, another challenge to his authority.

Right?

Like I thought, you know, Mr.

Smart Rabbi guy, they come at him, and they're like, hey, I thought you kind of understood the scriptures.

Don't you realize that that what your you know disciples are doing right now by plucking these heads of grain and getting food to eat on the Sabbath, that's that's wrong.

You're breaking law and all of that.

Right?

Their whole thing was breaking the Sabbath.

What they had done is they had taken God's commands, okay, his good command, to observe a day of rest.

It's good, we need that.

The work week is is busy, we need rest.

Okay, uh the command was for our benefit.

But what they had done is they had taken that way too far to the point where you couldn't lift a finger for any reason.

How much work is it to pluck a grain of?

And they're like, no, can't do it, can't do it, that's work.

Right?

They're just trying to to they're just trying to nail him.

They're trying to call him out for being a false leader, a false teacher.

So what does Jesus do?

It's so genius.

He he shows them that even David, one of their biggest heroes ever, right, he did the same thing.

He ate the bread of the presence when when his situation was dire.

What's happening here is that Jesus is exposing, all right, the religious, works-based my performance earns me something with God approach that these people had when it came to how they related to the Lord.

Jesus is showing that their ultra super strict piety and that being that way about fasting or about the Sabbath, listen, that doesn't earn you any brownie points with God.

And will ultimately show that he's come to be what gains them good standing with God.

That's what he's slowly revealing to these people.

It's not about you, it's not about your performance, it's not about what you do, it's what about I, it's about what I have done.

It's through his blood, it's by his death alone.

Listen, when we elevate in the same way our religious performance above and beyond knowing God through Jesus Christ, right?

We know that that's by grace.

We miss the entire point of why he came.

And so many people, people who don't know Jesus Christ, and again, we even know that as the church, the default mode of our hearts is to fall back into this legalism and think that we need to earn something that's already been earned for us.

Right?

When we do that, we show that we miss the whole point of why he came.

So, in full authority here, Jesus, he just begins to unearth all of this, right?

That attitude, that that mindset in these people.

And and again, he does the same thing with us too in our day with the different religious tendencies that we tend to fall into.

Okay, so here's what happens when I elevate religion over relationship.

Here's the first one I fall into the trap of works-based righteousness.

Works-based righteousness.

Okay, again, we've been sort of getting at this all morning, but but of course we know that works-based righteousness isn't righteousness at all.

Right?

The because the focus has become all on me and what I'm doing or not doing, and you know, it's my performance, it's me trying to impress God as opposed to resting in the fact that Christ, through his authority, has already earned my salvation for me.

So we gotta always be mindful of not falling into that trap of works-based righteousness.

Here's the second thing that happens the heart of the mission is lost.

The heart of the mission is lost.

I grow cold.

Right?

I I no longer care about making disciples.

I I care more about what I'm doing, and people are an obstacle to my happiness, right?

And they are in the way of my schedule.

And again, I no longer love others from uh out of the overflow of a heart that's so enamored with Christ and his love for me.

And maybe you're still kind of trying to hold it together, and maybe you are still sort of trying to, you know, love people and and and care for them, but but maybe again it's become kind of become this outward thing.

And you're kind of, yeah, technically you're carrying out tasks that you could call evangelism and and mission and all of that, but because you've elevated the religious task over your relationship with Christ and what he has done for you, the heart of the mission is lost.

Your your love for others has grown hollow.

The acts themselves are hollow.

There, you know, you've lost joy in the mission, you've lost purpose in it, and again, maybe you're just going through the motions.

It's a sad thing when the heart of the mission is lost.

Again, when I elevate religion over relationship, I often remain blind to the gravity of the situation.

That's another scary thing that happens.

You ever notice how easy it is to become blind to your blindness?

Right?

And and and for months and years and decades sometimes we can go on and on and on, not even realizing the state of our souls and where we're at with all of this.

And if you want to jot something down, I would just write down, check check your blind spots.

Check those.

Are there am I blind to the gravity of this situation?

Is this actually gotten worse?

You know, and am I uh kind of a religious doer as opposed to, again, resting in the work that Jesus has already done for me?

Am I going through the motions type of Christian?

Am I super disengaged from what the Lord is doing and what he wants to call me to and have me engaged in?

Listen, don't allow that blindness to continue, but realize that it can for a long time.

Bring this all to the Lord in repentance.

Bring it before him, cry out to him.

He wants to change you.

He wants to make you new.

Right?

When I elevate religion over relationship, last thing here, obedience becomes slavish instead of joyful.

And again, this is another way of saying a little bit about what we've been saying already here today.

Obedience becomes slavish.

Ugh.

I gotta go to a small group.

Ugh.

I gotta prepare a lesson for harvest kids.

Ugh.

I gotta go to church, I'd love to sleep in.

Ugh.

I gotta be kind.

The list goes on.

I know you just want me to say, uh, again, so there you go, there's a bonus one.

Okay, if your obedience has become a hassle, again, it just likely means that the joy in your relationship with the Lord it's it's stalled out.

Right?

It's kind of it's leaked out of you like a like a popped tire.

I would just encourage you, and I've been encouraged about this even this morning as I'm just thinking about this.

Get with the Lord again this week.

It's it's not ultra complicated.

Just get with Him, bring these things before the Lord.

Be honest with him.

Invite him back in to refresh your spirit and your soul in his word.

Get after real intimacy.

Be willing to face those things that are blocking that and getting in the way.

Facing that stuff head on.

That's what will make your obedience become joyful again.

Listen, don't be repulsed by the authority of Jesus.

Don't be rattled by it.

Don't disdain it.

Don't hate it.

I think there's so many examples that we see in the world of leaders and people in authority where we see that and we're just, ugh, like this is the worst.

Seriously, man?

And you see it and we just don't like it, and we begin to kind of allow that to taint our entire picture, and we begin to sometimes think that authority is it's never good.

Listen, yeah, it's displayed in ugly ways by man for sure at times.

But his authority, Jesus' authority, it's awesome.

Again, remember, it empowered your forgiveness.

It makes him appealing to you the more that you humble yourself.

And it's it is his authority that gently just uncovers and continues to reveal and shine the light on my legalistic and your legalistic tendencies, and instead begins to kind of replace all of that with a heart of tenderness and gratitude for the gospel and gives us joy in our Savior.