The King of the New

Good morning church. Today we're going to be reading

from Matthew 9, verses 14 through 17, and if you're using

Matthew 9:14–17

the Bible beneath your seat, you can open up to page 764 starting

in verse 14. Then the disciples of John came

to him saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your

disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the

wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from

them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk

cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the

garment, and worst hair and a worst hair is made.

Neither is new wine put into old wine skins.

If it is the the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the

skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh wine

skins and so both are preserved. This is the word of the Lord.

Good morning. My name is John.

I'm one of the pastors here and we're continuing our series

today in Matthew 8-9 as we look at the authority of the king,

see Matthew in his gospel, he continues to establish Jesus

authority as the king. And today's really going to be

no different. I mean, as we jump back into

where we were last week, I want you to think about a time you or

someone else could not read the room.

I feel that way a lot of times. But whether it's telling a sad

story at a party, you know, that's a mood killer, right?

Or when you walk into a library with your with kids or your kids

or some kids and they're practically yelling, right?

You're like SH the library, you know, or it's like those

Progressive insurance commercials where they're trying

to keep new homeowners from being their parents or acting

like their parents. Most of it's just not reading

the room though, right? You know, whether it's eating in

the locker room without getting dressed first, taking photos for

someone and then turning that into a photo shoot.

Or my favorite, which is the, you know, they're in their

department store and they basically give someone advice

who didn't even ask. So we we could fail to look

around and pick up on what how the situation fits and and we

can miss it. This can happen a lot, though,

because when we have something on our minds or questions that

we're mulling over that, you know, that kind of just spills

out and everything. And that's what we see today in

our text. OK, so we're still at the dinner

party that's happening at Matthew's house.

OK. Everyone is reclining at table

like we saw last week, right? It's it's a party.

Not sure how many people were there, but I would imagine it's

a packed house. But it's Matthew and he's a tax

collector, so he's got a little bit of money.

This isn't a 500 square foot job, right?

This is more like a 2500 to 3000 square foot like branch, right?

So there's probably a lot of people there, in other words,

right? So people are talking to each

other, they're slowly eating and drinking, they're chilling,

they're vibing, right? They're having a good time.

The centerpiece of the occasion, though, is Jesus visiting

Matthew and his tax collector buddies, I would assume, right?

This is. But this, this like fact has

added a bit of a spectacle to this particular party.

OK, See, in Jewish society, as in all societies, there's always

those people you associate with and there's people you don't

associate with. But The thing is, is that

Matthew is definitely in the group that you don't associate

with. All right?

I mean, we learned that last week.

But yet there were people who were not ordinarily be there

just out of curiosity as to what Jesus was even doing.

OK. And one of the groups was the

Pharisees. Who were they?

They were right there. They asked a question, and we

talked about that question last week.

So the question last week was more or less this.

It was why are you eating with them, those people?

But they didn't dare ask Jesus directly.

If you remember, they actually asked the disciples and then

Jesus spoke up an answer, which probably kind of escalated

things for them, probably further than they thought.

I kind of imagine they had a bit of embarrassment in the pit of

their stomach, like, oh, and they immediately regretted the

question that they asked. But this week we get a different

question at the party. So let's look at that.

So who we're going to look at who asked the question, the

question itself, Jesus answer to the question and the

implications of his answer. So questioners a question and

answer and then implications. OK, let's look at the

questioners first. So the awkward exchange kind of

continues this week. All right, so the Pharisees

asked the disciples a question and Jesus answered.

Now the conversation has switched directly to Jesus.

OK, with the pit of embarrassment in in the

Pharisee's stomach, a different group kind of steps up and

quickly ask a follow up. This time it's the disciples of

John. And so if you don't remember

John, he's the guy who wore camel hair, clothes and a

leather belt and he ate locust in honey and he lived in the

wilderness. Kind of a strange dude, but he

was a serious dude. OK?

John preached a baptism of repentance and he was actually

Jesus cousin, one of those crazy cousins, but he was a cousin.

So I like to think that the disciples of John are pretty

serious, but they're genuine. After all, they would have

received a baptism of repentance, if you will.

And it really takes humility to kind of own your own failures,

right? So yet at this party and with

their question, they align themselves though with the

Pharisees, another pretty serious group, but not that

humble. In fact, they boasted about

their law keeping and paraded their righteousness before

others and Jesus kind of called them out on it as we saw last

week. But I think I like to think that

the disciples of John came to really learn.

They seem to have a genuineness about them despite their

association with the Pharisees. See Jesus response kind of also

indicates that as well. But they're like their teacher.

They follow their aesthetics. John was a minimalist camel hair

attire. You know, that's not exactly

Gucci, but I imagine the disciples of John followed him

in his asceticism and we're extremely disciplined.

OK. They probably were trying really

hard to just bear fruit and keeping with repentance is what

John taught them. They took God's law seriously

and earnestly and tried to obey. This frame of mind is probably

why they asked the question that they did.

So let's look at that question again.

Let's look at the question verse 14.

He says, then the disciples of John came to him saying, why do

we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast.

So the question last week was why do you eat with them?

The question this week is why are you eating at all?

Right. Notice last week the question

was asked about Jesus to the disciples, but this week the

question is asked about the disciples to Jesus.

Notice that you're the teacher. Why don't your disciples fast

like us? We fast.

You guys are always eating now It's not clear.

It's not it's really not clear from the text though.

If it, it could be that they are actively fasting for some

occasion right there at the party, hence the inclusion of we

and the Pharisees. Or it could just be a general

question, you know, let you guys don't fast.

We noticed, but as best as we can tell, both groups had a

regular rhythm of fasting, and so the Pharisees were probably

more seeking A righteous life with their fasting, and the

disciples of John were probably seeking an aesthetic lifestyle

of repentance, which fasting regularly would have

demonstrated. So the question was a serious

one for the disciples of John, and they genuinely wanted to

know about the discipline of fasting.

You could rephrase their question to be how do you teach

your disciples to live or practice?

What are your rhythms? That's what they're asking.

They probably were wrestling with a cognitive dissonance, if

you will. They understood a life of

repentance to look like John the Baptist and the ascetic life of

abstaining from so many things, including food.

They probably knew John baptized Jesus.

They knew that John held Jesus in high esteem, but they were

having trouble reconciling the lack of fasting in an ascetic

lifestyle. And suddenly they may be asking

Jesus, am I doing this right? Am I missing something?

They couldn't even be calling into question Jesus's devoutness

because it contradicted their understanding of a devout life,

which was asceticism. But let's look at Jesus's

response. OK, Look at verse 15.

And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests mourn as long as

the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the

bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

No one puts a piece of untrucked cloth on an old garment, for the

patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is

made. Neither is new wine put into old

wine skins. If it is, the skins burst and

the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed, but new

wine is put into fresh wine skins, so both are preserved.

OK, so let's get the easy part out of the way.

How about that Jesus simple answer?

His simple answer is they will fast, just not now.

OK, just not now. That's the simple answer.

But Jesus loved them by not just saying that, He added one

important reason. Then he gave some explanation

through a couple of parables which we'll get into in a

minute. But you can simply know that

Jesus answer to their question is that they will fast, just not

now. OK, but the reason why not now

is remarkable. Let's look at that.

He answers the question with a question.

Love that, don't you? Can the wedding guests mourn as

long as the bridegroom is with them?

Can he mourn? So remember, they're reclining

at table, OK? And they ask him a question

about fasting. Guys, read the room.

It's a party, and you're asking about fasting.

Really remember their aesthetics and this is on their mind a lot.

So Jesus rhetorical question has an obvious answer.

No, no, you don't mourn when you heard a guest at a party with a

bridegroom. If the groom is there, you're

celebrating with him, right? You're you're focused on him and

the joy of his coming wedding. Now I want I want you to see

something though Jesus. He makes a mental association.

He associates fasting with mourning.

That's important. One reason you fast is linked to

mourning. OK?

So the reason they don't do it now is because it's not a time

for mourning, but a celebration. It's like having the groom with

us. Jesus is telling them graciously

they're missing something. But we'll come back to that in

just a minute. Let's look at the parables.

OK, so Jesus doesn't stop with his simple answer associated

with the bridegroom. He gives him two parables to

illustrate his point further. Here's what he said.

Let's read it again. Look back, no one puts a piece

of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch tears away

from the garment and a worse tear is made.

Neither is new wine put into old wine skins.

If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the

skins are destroyed, but new wine is put into fresh wine

skins and so both are preserved. OK, two parabolic illustrations,

cloth and wine. OK, first one cloth patching an

old piece of clothing with a new piece of cloth.

That's what that's the example. So apparently the whole 100%

cotton shrinking thing is an age-old problem, right?

The first illustration is about a new piece of cloth shrinking.

When you put it on an old piece of clothing, you wear it and

wash it. The new cloth tears away.

It doesn't work. This is why your grandma cut up

old clothes for patching clothes, right?

This is Bible wisdom, right? So then the second one, wine.

Using old wine skins or containers to put new wine in.

Leather containers were used before bottles, in case you're

wondering. But one thing we should know

about animal skins. And if you're pita sensitive,

you're just going to have to bear with me for a second.

When the skins are new, they're soft and flexible.

But as they age, they harden and they come more rigid and they

become less flexible. This is important because new

wine emits CO2, carbon dioxide as a result of the fermentation

process. And so the new wine skin

containers, they will expand, right, with the gases of the, of

the old and the wine. And so the old wine skins,

they're not going to hold up to the pressure of the gases of the

new wine. And they're going to, they're

going to rupture, right? They're going to burst.

It's kind of like those, anybody remember those device charging

backpacks that were out a while back?

They just kept exploding, like people were just like walking

down the street. You can watch videos of this on

YouTube later and the battery would just explode.

And then just like drop the bag. You didn't run away.

If you put the new wine in old wine skins, you're just going to

be walking down the street. And basically the next thing you

know what you're wearing wine, you're going to look at it and

you're like, man, this was my best tunic.

You don't want that. You don't want that.

It doesn't work. The wine is ruined and the wine

skin is ruined as well. So it's you got to, you got to

have a new container. You got to have a new container.

See the concept in the illustrations is that the idea

of putting new inside of old fakes?

That's the concept. And when you put the new inside

the old, it tears or explodes, OK, The old cannot hold the new.

This is kind of the point. The old cannot hold the new.

That's the point of both parables.

So Jesus is more complex answer to the disciples of John is that

they are missing something. They are trying to put something

new within something old. And if they do, it's going to

RIP, it's going to explode. OK, but what does all this mean?

Right. Let's look at the implications.

Now let's pull together all of the loose ends of what Jesus is

saying. Here's the first implication of

what he's saying. The Kingdom and its king has

come, has come. See Jesus telling the disciples

of John that the bridegroom is here.

Jesus is telling them I'm here and that's why they don't fast

when I leave. Then they'll fast.

He's the bridegroom. But this language of the

bridegroom is no accident. See Jesus has the writings of

the prophet Hosea on his brain. You see he just told the

Pharisees, if you look back at verse 13 that he says, go and

learn what this means. I desire mercy and not

sacrifice. That's a quote from Isaiah.

Hosea 66 OK, but Hosea also says in chapter 2 early on, I'll just

read it to you and I will betrothed you to me forever.

I will betrothed you to me in righteousness and injustice, in

steadfast love and in mercy. I will betrothed you to me in

faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord to betroth this, to get

engaged, to promise to Mary. In Hosea as well in Isaiah, the

bridegroom is God himself and the bride is his people.

Jesus is the bridegroom preparing for the upcoming

wedding or marriage. But notice in the Old Testament

context, God is the bridegroom. This means Jesus is in fact

positioning himself into a title reserved for God.

And he does that because what Matthew, Matthew has already

said in chapter 1, if you look at that in verse 23, he says,

behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they

shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

See, Jesus is the bridegroom because he is God with us.

Jesus is Emmanuel, disciples of John, you are missing something.

What you're missing what is happening among you, the God

man, he's here see, read the room.

It's not a time for mourning, but rejoicing.

The the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The king is here, God is here. You may find some joy, you know,

from your rhythms and practices, disciples of John or us, but you

are missing out on the joy of Jesus himself.

You see, it's kind of like being married and enjoying the rhythms

of your married life together, but not actually loving the

person you're married to. I like that we do this, this,

and this, but I missed you. And that's what they're doing,

Jesus telling the disciples of John that there is a celebration

going on, and you're missing the joy of the celebration because

of your practice. You don't love your rhythm so

much that you miss Jesus. All right, so that's the first

implication. The next implication.

This means things have changed. Things have changed.

The main point of what Jesus said to John's disciples is that

the bridegroom is here, and you cannot put the new and the old.

It doesn't work. And worse, it'll explode.

OK. This means that there is a

continuity and there's a discontinuity that's going on.

OK, so on the one hand, Jesus is in fact the Messiah, the Christ,

the promised 1 He is the fulfillment of all the promises

made to the Jewish people. He is, but on the other hand,

Jesus sits at the transition of something new.

So there is a continuity with the past, a continuation of

things God was planning and He's doing.

And Matthew really does a great job of pointing all those things

out, this promise fulfillment, promise fulfillment pattern.

There's a continuity in things, but then there are things that

are just new. OK?

There's a discontinuity. In other words, with what is to

come, many things will not be the same as they were before.

In other words, Jesus didn't come to patch up Judaism.

He didn't. He came to do something new.

It's a continuation for sure, but it's not a re envision of

Judaism. It's just not.

Notice in our text, the disciples of John asked him

about fasting and he reframes the conversation around the

bridegroom. Did you see that?

They asked a question about rhythms, But Jesus reframes the

rhythm around himself. You see, rhythms were to be

centered on around God, not tradition.

See, Jesus is adding more clarity.

The rhythm of fasting relates to his presence.

If he is here, it's not the time for fasting.

When he goes away, which hints out his death and resurrection,

then it's a time of mourning where fasting will be present.

But fasting orbits around him, not something else.

And what this means is that rhythm center around Jesus, not

tradition. The new way forward has

everything to do with Jesus. Have you ever noticed that

although Jesus is a Jewish Messiah and descended from

David, who was descended from Abraham, is Jewish as it gets,

right? But those who follow Jesus are

no longer referred to as Jews. They're not even early on, the

followers of Jesus referred to themselves as those practicing

the way. But even that didn't really last

long because something new happened.

The good news of Jesus travels to not just tax collectors and

sinners like Matthew, but to Gentiles like us.

Later on in the New Testament, we're even going to see that the

Gentiles, the Gentile Cultural Center of Antioch the Third,

which was the third largest city in the Roman Empire by the way,

they start calling followers of Jesus Christians, Christianos to

be exact, which means of Christ like Christ.

They're not just Jews practicing the way one rabbi taught them.

No, something bigger and something new has happened.

See, they tried to just patch the way in with the rest of

Judaism, but it didn't work. There's no need to sacrifice

anymore. There's no need for a temple

anymore. Things have changed in Acts 15.

You're going to go on to learn that you don't even have to be

culturally Jewish to be a Christian.

So there, there would become this like Jewish Christian and

this Gentile Christian. So this new wine basically

exploded out of the old wineskins.

It couldn't hold it. They couldn't hold it, but

that's kind of like a historical angle, if you will.

Let's focus for a second on a personal one more personal note.

Not mixing the old with the new means that a set of rhythms

doesn't make you a Christian. It just doesn't.

The disciples of John came asking about rhythms, and Jesus

came, gave them a relational response.

So you may be here and you want to try out being Christian.

Maybe it's attending a service like this one, reading the

Bible, trying to pray and maybe it's even fasting.

Or maybe you may you may be curious, you may want to learn

and and lean in and learn more, right, that's great.

I think that's awesome. Please explore, ask questions

and get answers. Find out how Christians think,

live in love. Do it.

You need to do that. OK, but what I want to cautious

us on because it's becoming a thing historically and currently

you can try out these things, but becoming a Christian is not

about enacting rhythms. It's just not I'm a Christian

now because I do these things. That's not how this works.

It's just not. That is part of what that's part

of what Jesus is trying to tell the disciples of John and we

need to see it as well. Rhythms don't make you a

Christian. Being in Christ does.

See, they came with a question of rhythms and he answered with

a relationship. See, this means that being a

Christian is not a tradition. You were not born a Christian.

I love you. You were not born a Christian.

Your traditionalism doesn't make you a Christian.

It can't. It can't.

It's even possible to even stand up a whole set of Christian like

practices and traditions and have nothing to do with Jesus.

Paul warns us of these things. The apostles laid this out for

us. He wrote in Colossians 2.

He said this. Listen to this Colossians 2

Colossians 2:16

verse 16 says. Therefore let no one pass

judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard

to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance

belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you.

Insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in

detail about visions, puffed up with all without reason by this

His sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the head.

That is Jesus, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit

together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth

that is from God. He goes on to say this, If with

Christ you die to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if

you were still alive in the world, do you submit to

regulations? Do not handle, do not taste, do

not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used

according to human precepts and teachings.

Don't miss this. These have indeed an appearance

of wisdom and promoting self-made religion and

asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value

in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

No value. It's possible to fabricate a

self-made religion that has the language of Christianity, the

symbols of Christianity, but misses the king himself.

It's possible to have something that sounds and looks like

Christianity, but it is Christ less.

It's possible. In fact, I'm going to give you

an example later today. I want you to go and research a

group called the Hutterites. HUTTERITES.

The Hutterites. They're a small sectarian group

that isolates itself from society at large and claims to

be Christian. They're mostly located in

Montana in the United States, and they have the language, some

practices, but they do not talk about Jesus.

For the most part. They miss grace.

It's Christ less. It's possible to be traditional

and Miss Christ. It's possible to be committed

and religious and miss Christ. It's possible to participate in

Christian rhythms and Miss Christ.

It is the substance. Hear me.

The substance is not the church. It's not tradition.

It's not rhythms. The substance is Christ.

That's what Paul wrote and just before that section that we read

in Colossians, Paul also wrote this right before that in verse

13 he says and you talking about those who repented and trust in

Christ and you were dead in your trespasses and the

uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with him

having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the

record of debt that stood against us with its legal

demands. This he set aside, nailing it to

the cross, and he disarmed the rulers and authorities, and he

put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

And then he said, therefore do these things.

See, what Jesus is hinting at to the disciples of John is that in

Him everything changes. What they are anticipating in

their fasting and rhythms is actually here.

He's in front of them. The day is dawn, the king has

come, the bridegroom is here. You see, we are all dead in our

trespasses and sins, in our uncircumcision, meaning we're

not Jewish, we don't keep the law.

We were cut off from the life of God from the very start, but

making us spiritually dead. We may be walking around, but

we're still there's an aspect of our humanity that is dead.

It's it's defunct. It's it's gone, but in Christ he

has made us alive. We can be forgiven.

Our trespasses, our record of debt can be canceled because

there was a cross on which Jesus died.

Jesus didn't die of death as a mere example, though He did not.

For those who are in Christ, by grace through faith, your sins

are no longer counted against you.

They're not, but have been nailed to the cross on which

Jesus died. Past tense, completed, done.

It's done. In Christ, our relationship into

law, the practices and God Himself changes.

Friends, this can be yours. Repent of your sins and trust

Christ. But faith, family, this is true

of you right now. Right now, if you just try to

add Jesus to your religious population of of rhythms, things

are going to RIP and tear. It may look like it fits for a

while at first, but it will come apart.

It may look like things are fine, but they'll blow up on

you. They will.

Jesus is the substance. Our rhythms are to be centered

around him to actually be Christian.

There's all kinds of people around the world.

Fasting doesn't make a Christian.

Anybody can do that for different reasons.

Unique Christ. You may have heard the phrase

eat the fish and spit out the bones, right?

You may want to grab from Christianity those things that

augment your life, make it better in some way, like

fasting, right? I'll adopt some of these things

into my life because it seems like it would improve my

relationships, my health, and just make me a better person.

I'll eat the fish and spit out the bones.

I'll do these things, but leave some of this Jesus talk behind.

Friends, I'm telling you, Jesus is actually the fish.

He's the meat. Jesus himself is the best part.

Jesus is the substance. This changes everything are the

next implication. The Kingdom is now but not yet.

Kingdom is now but not yet. Remember the simple answer Jesus

gave. Look back, he says.

The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from

them and then they will fast. They won't fast now, but later.

We are in the later. Jesus, the bridegroom has been

taken away. See, we're still awaiting A

reunification with Jesus. Christ has risen from the dead,

but he's not returned. He's not here yet.

We call this the now, and the not yet fasting is here.

And we kind of need to read the room.

The Kingdom has come, but it's not yet fully realized.

So what does this mean? It means that there are sad

days. There are there will be fasting

in our morning. There will be fasting in our

repentance. Fasting is here, but but we will

not fast to get God to do something.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

It's not. Doesn't mean it doesn't have

benefits or rewards to it as Jesus taught in the Sermon on

the Mount. Go look that up.

It may teach you something. Fasting will, but you don't fast

to get something from God. You don't fast to get God to do

something. Fasting is to get Him to do

something. It's like bargaining with God.

OK, God, I did this. Now you do this, right?

God, I'm serious. So serious that I won't eat.

Look at me, God. See, I'm for real.

Look at this. Let me.

Let me let you know. Like a secret.

Not that's so secret. If you want God to do something,

just ask him. Just ask him.

Pray. Talk to him.

Ask him. But let me tell you something

else. The answer will be either yes or

no, OK? God doesn't need you to grease

his palm with fasting. He doesn't.

He'll either say yes to something or he won't.

He has his reasons either way. Just ask him to bribe him.

You don't fast to get you fast to focus.

You don't fast to get you fast to focus.

Remember what Paul said in Colossians Do not handle, do not

taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as

they are used according to human precepts and teachings.

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom and promoting

self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the

body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of

the flesh. Here's the thing, fast that

fasting will not purify you. Fasting will not get God to like

you or put you in His graces. Fasting helps us focus.

OK, Fasting helps us focus. Here's why.

Fasting helps us focus because it a withdrawal from something

brings sobriety. OK, but unless I fail to read

the room myself today, if you struggle with disordered eating,

you should not be fasted for food.

Period. If you're struggling with

disordered eating, you cannot fast.

You shouldn't be doing that. Food is fuel.

Period. Your body needs food.

Food is not a reward. Food is not an obstacle.

It's not. Food is fuel.

God made us in such a way that we need food.

Food is good. Food is good.

God made us in such a way that food is enjoyable.

That flavor. It was God's idea.

The creativity of the chef among us is God's idea.

To create in the kitchen is to image God.

Well, OK, food brings unity. It's why he gave us a meal as

one of our symbols. OK, food is good.

And Paul even tells us in 1st Corinthians 1031.

So whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, you do all to

the glory of God, OK. And so while there are elements

of self denial in the life He has called us to, asceticism is

a life of only denial, only denial.

And in asceticism you are constantly framing your life

around denial, OK? This is not the life that Christ

has called us to. Faith, Emily.

If we give something up, then it's for the sake of gaining

Christ. We may put something away or

take something off or put something to death, but in the

same breath we are called to put on Christ, to put on life.

You are trading for a life with God and a life that is Christ.

Like, OK, it sounds unbiased, but a life with Christ is not

just one giving up party. It's not.

Will there be things that we give up?

Yes, but never to the exclusion of gain.

It's just not well. Following Christ cost us

something yes, but it's pales in comparison to what we gain.

That's what Philippians 3 says. We get God himself, friends and

faith family. If you just see your

relationship with God as only giving up stuff, then you'll

just see a life with God as a killjoy.

This doesn't mean that God will always like have you healthy and

wealthy, but he wants you holy. And there are paths, in fact, we

will, He will lead us down that are just no fun.

They're no fun. You might be in one right now.

It's not fun. But our life with God is not

just one big denial of everything.

It's actually a reordering of things.

OK, imagine this. It's kind of like when you move

into a new house, you have all your furniture and stuff from

the old house, right? And you might be in the new

house, might be roughly the same size, but some things just no

longer fit anymore, right? There's a window there where you

can't put the couch. We come to Jesus.

When we come to Jesus, some of the things in our life, they

have to go. It's a new house.

Not everything goes, but not everything fits anymore either.

It's kind of like that and what a rhythm like fasting does in

the now but not yet is it acts like a pause button.

So fasting is a pause button, right?

So I remember in 2020 during lockdown, good time, a lot of

things had to stop, right? I remember thinking how busy my

life and other people's lives around me were prior to that

event and how everything just came to a sudden halt.

It was just like breaks. It was jarring, it was

disorienting. But when things started to

return back to normal, if you remember 2 years later, we often

found ourselves, you know, we were like, I'm not necessarily

going to add that back into my schedule.

People start re evaluating their schedules and refuse to put

things back in right. This is what fasting does.

It gives us a chance to pause and re evaluate.

Many times this corresponds with things that are sad and

disappointing in our lives. When we mourn, we often find

ourselves in a period of fasting, a period of reflection

and reconsideration. What a prayer, a season where we

abstain from some things. Now, as I mentioned earlier, if

you struggle with disorder eating, you have no business

fasting from food. That is, food is fuel.

And this is similar to the way someone who struggles with

alcoholic beverages should be taking communion where wine is

used instead of juice. You shouldn't be doing that.

It's just a limitation. But that doesn't mean that we

don't need to fast from something from something,

because here's the reality. If you lost me, come back.

Here's the reality. Fasting has everything to do

with food, and it has nothing to do with food.

What do I mean? Fasting is a practice that keeps

us from 2 ditches. If you can imagine a road with

two different ditches. 1 ditch is gluttony on the one side and

aestheticism on the other. It's meant to keep us from too

much or too little. But fasting can only help us

with the one and not the other. The other rhythm is the obvious

one in the story. Do you see it?

It's feasting. It's feasting.

See, Jesus was feasting because the moment called for feasting,

not fasting. We need both.

But why? Why do we need it?

Because fasting has everything to do with food and has nothing

to do with food. It's all about pleasure.

But some most of the time we think about it relating to the

pleasures found in eating. However, it targets an

overindulgence and pleasure seeking.

What fasting does is it pulls us back to moderation by helping us

find sobriety. And it's hard to know if you are

over indulging in the midst of something we we fast to focus.

For some of us it does have something to do with food.

If you overindulge, then fasting will bring you back to

moderation. If you under indulge, then

fasting brings you back to moderation.

You see how that works? But that's the rhythm of it.

But what lies behind the reality that what we are looking for in

that bowl, you're not going to find it.

It's not there what you were looking for behind the self

infliction of hunger and the power and control you think you

might have in it, it's not there.

It's not there. Neither over or under indulgence

will give you what you want. We need God, we need God, and

more poignantly, we need Jesus. We need Jesus, we need the

Bridegroom. And while fasting in the New

Testament is mainly concerned with food, I get that it's not

limited to food. I mean, how many things do we

over indulge in within our own culture, right?

Social media, TV, streaming, right?

Your fantasy team, a hobby, some kind of activity from needing

attention, from being in the center of attention, from

talking about yourself, whatever it is, there's a need to fast so

that we can focus. But this isn't, this isn't so

that we can just work on ourselves, but so we can prize

Christ. You prize Christ.

This doesn't mean that the things that we fast from are

bad. Again, food is not bad.

It's fuel. It's good.

Neither are many of the things we need to moderate.

We need to moderate them because we have become gluttonous.

But again, you can be a glutton with food, or you can be a

glutton for punishment. See how that works?

We are aiming at a temperate life that glorifies God through

faith in Christ and always say or do.

We are aiming to keep things, good things, as gifts and not as

idols, not as gods. OK, That's what we're trying to

do. So the disciples of John, they

were in fact missing something. The king was among them and he

came to give them life and life abundantly.

And this party of at Matthew's house, it was only the

beginning. It was only the beginning.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you are

a God that meets us in celebration in the morning.

Father, I just thank you for sending your son to to buy us

back. Thank you Jesus for doing what

we could not do. Thank you for bringing us back

into a life with you God, where we are tempted to choose rhythms

over you. Forgive us, we need you.

God, would you show us your beauty?

Would you capture our imaginations once more?

Jesus, you were the King of the new.

Would you continue to make us new it's review flame?