Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning
in to the weekly sermon podcast. We pray this
message encourages you, strengthens your faith,
and helps you to take your next step with Jesus.
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Now let's dive into this week's message. So there
is a world we can see and a world we can't see.
and bad news. And then there's another world
just as real that is breaking in through the
cracks. And that unseen world is the kingdom
of God, the rule and reign of King Jesus breaking
into every day. Over the past few weeks, we've
seen that wherever Jesus goes, things begin to
change. Wherever Jesus goes, the blind, See the
paralyzed walk. The outcasts are brought near.
Heaven collides with earth and broken things
begin to work again. Amen. Last week, our brother
Kyle, he reminded us how the kingdom breaks in
through grace that heals broken people who admit
their need and turns them into agents of mercy.
And that's where we're going to pick up today
in passage today. So if you have your Bibles,
I'd encourage you to turn over to Matthew chapter
9, verse 14 and 17. Matthew 9, 14 and 17. If
you don't have a Bible and you want to borrow
one or you want to take one home with you, there's
one in the pew, the pew, the seat in front of
you. Wow. Oh, gee, there. No, they used to be
right there. There's a Bible under the table,
under the table, under the chair. Man, I'm all
over the place. I'm juiced from worship, man.
I got sweat rolling down my back. There's a Bible
under the chair. I'm going to slow down a little
bit. There's a Bible under the chair. That's
our gift to you if you want to take the Bible
with you. But right now, turn to page 554 in
the chair Bibles. 554. Or if you need your Bible,
to Matthew chapter 9. Get right to it. 554. That's
it. Matthew chapter 9, 14 through 17 is going
to show us that once the... We've got a little
scene going on over here. Praise God, man. This
is an awesome full house today. Praise God. I'm
glad that you're here. We're going to get into
this scripture eventually. And when we get there,
it's going to tell us. That the kingdom is breaking
into our lives and into our everyday. And it
begins to stretch. When the kingdom comes, it
begins to stretch our old ways of thinking and
living. They no longer fit anymore with the kingdom
of God. God can't be contained in our old containers
of religion, of ritual, or self -righteousness.
Because the king hasn't come to improve the old
life. The king has come to make all things new.
And so we're going to look at Matthew 9 now.
It's going to be up here on the board as well.
Matthew 9, 14 through 17. Then John's disciples
came to him saying, why do we and the Pharisees
fast often, but your disciples do not fast? Jesus
said to them, can the wedding guests be sad while
the groom is with them? The time will come when
the groom will be taken away from them and then
they will fast. No one patches an old garment
with unshrunk cloth because the patch pulls away
from the garment and makes the tear worse. And
no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise
the skins burst, the wine spills out and the
skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into
fresh wineskins and both. are preserved. If you're
taking notes, we're going to have four points
this morning, and the first point I'll have you
write down is self -righteous striving. Number
one, self -righteous striving. Verse 14 says,
Then John's disciples came to him, saying, Why
do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your
disciples do not fast? And you can almost hear
the tone in that question. It's not just confusion.
There's a measure of comparison, isn't there?
Why do you guys do it that way when we do it
this way? But John's disciples, and we're talking
about John the baptizer, John the Baptist. We
met him earlier in Matthew, in Matthew chapter
three. John the Baptist, back in Matthew chapter
three, is where he baptizes Jesus and kind of
the public unveiling of Jesus's ministry, the
beginning of it. And John had disciples who walked
with him. And John's disciples and the Pharisees,
well, they had built their reputation for seriousness
and devotion in their practices. Fasting was
a sort of badge of spirituality. And according
to the law of Moses, Israel was only required
to fast once a year. On the day of atonement
in Leviticus 16, you can read about that. That
day was set apart for repentance and humility.
It was the Hebrew word that's there in Leviticus
16 is a word that literally means a day for afflicting
your soul. Wow, what a day, right? And afflicting
your soul, like, yeah, let's take that one, right?
And use that this week. Like, how did you afflict
your soul this week? But the Day of Atonement
was a day set apart to remember, to sacrifice,
and to afflict your soul. And that word, afflict
your soul, over time began to be understood as
fasting. Fasting was afflicting your soul. It
was denying yourself something. But over time,
additional fasts were added to the nation of
Israel's practice, national fasts that were called
to mourn Jerusalem's destruction. And later,
weekly fasts that marked religious piety. You
could show yourself to be religious by fasting
once a week. Well, by Jesus' time, the Pharisees
fasted twice a week. So we're just upping the
game, right? You do one, I'll do two, right?
And the Pharisees are fasting twice a week. And
that rhythm had come to define what a serious
believer actually looked like. Do you fast twice
a week? Eh, you're mid. You're so -and -so. And
so they ask, why do we fast but your disciples
don't, Jesus? And underneath that question lies
a deeper spirit. It lies the spirit of religion.
And the spirit of religion is the need to measure
devotion by performance. The need to measure
my devotion or other people's devotion by their
performance. And this wasn't the first time that
tension had come between John's disciples and
Jesus and his ministry. In John chapter 3, they
came to John, his disciples came, and they were
complaining. They were like, Rabbi, that one
you testified about, the one you said that was
coming, everyone's going over to him now and
getting baptized. Everyone wants to follow him.
His ministry is blowing up. What's happening
to your ministry, John? They weren't celebrating
Jesus' success either. They were threatened by
it. They saw his growing crowds as competition.
And now in Matthew 9, that same rivalry shows
up again. In the narrative, if you think of the
narrative here in 9 and what we've been following,
Jesus' ministry is challenged by the scribes.
And then Jesus' ministry is challenged by the
Pharisees. And now Jesus' ministry is challenged
by John's disciples. And that's what a self -righteous
religious spirit does. It replaces humility with
comparison. It whispers, why doesn't your ministry
or your devotion look like mine? How often do
you fast? How often do you read your Bible? How
serious are you about Jesus? Let me look at your
performance. But the kingdom doesn't measure
by that standard. The kingdom measures faith
by awareness and acknowledgement. Do you recognize
who's standing in front of you? And John's disciples
didn't. They couldn't see who was standing right
in front of them. Fasting made sense while we
were waiting for God to act, while we were waiting
for God to arrive. But what do you do when God
himself shows up? When the king has come, the
time for ritual mourning is over. And that's
why Jesus' disciples weren't fasting. The king
was already there. You don't fast at a wedding
when the groom is beaming with joy at the table,
right? However, that same religious spirit still
slips into our lives, doesn't it? It looks holy
on the outside, but it's a heavy weight to carry
inside. I don't know if you guys ever experienced
that, the weight of a religion based on performance.
It's always checking the scoreboard. Who's doing
more? We can be so busy doing things for God
that we forget to delight in God. We start thinking
busyness equals holiness and that activity equals
intimacy. But religion that starts with us will
always end in exhaustion. I'm going to say that
again. Religion that starts with us, us at the
center, our performance at the center will always
lead to exhaustion. I've been there before. I
know some of you have too. The kingdom of God.
that starts with Jesus will always end with joy.
That's how you know which one you're playing
in. Is it ending with endless exhaustion, weight,
heaviness, keeping up appearances, or is it ending
with joy? A kingdom that starts with Jesus always
ends with joy. One strives, the other one abides.
One is earning, the other is responding. Grace
doesn't just heal your brokenness. It draws you
into joyful nearness to Jesus. It frees you from
comparison. It releases you from performance.
It invites you to rest in the presence of the
king. And when the king is here, the emphasis
shifts from achievement. to awareness and from
ritual to relationship, from fasting to find
God, to feasting because he found you. And that's
where Jesus takes the conversation next. He paints
a picture of joy that self -righteous religion
could never imagine. He says, you don't fast
when the bridegroom is in the room. And so if
you're taking notes, number two, the bridegroom
brings joy. Verse 15, Jesus said to them, can
the wedding guests be sad while the groom is
with them? The time will come when the groom
will be taken away from them and then they will
fast. So you have to understand something about
ancient Israel. Ancient Israel in their time,
weddings, weddings were like the most joyful,
most communal celebrations in the entire village.
And they didn't last for a few hours. Like you
didn't carve out three hours on your Saturday
afternoon to go to a wedding or Saturday morning.
No, you carved out some time. It could be a day.
It could be two days. It could be a whole week
of celebration. And it was marked by music and
dancing and food and laughter, joy everywhere.
You didn't fast at a wedding. You feasted. And
to fast while the groom was present would have
been offensive. It would have an insult to the
celebration that was going on. And we're told
in the Old Testament that God himself identifies
himself as the bridegroom to his people. That
he is the bridegroom to his people. In Isaiah
54, he says, indeed, your husband is your maker
and his name is the Lord. Your husband is your
maker and his name is the Lord. And we looked
at Hosea a little while back in our study through
Hosea. And in chapter two, it says, I will take
you to be my wife forever. I will take you to
be my wife in righteousness, justice, love, and
compassion. Jesus says that one of the ways he
relates to his people is as a husband to a wife.
He is the bridegroom. And when Jesus calls himself
the bridegroom, he's not just using a metaphor.
He's saying, God has come. The covenant love
of Yahweh is standing right among you. The commentator
Craig Keener writes, Jesus' self -identification
as the bridegroom is a claim to divine prerogative.
The joy of the messianic wedding feast has begun
and fasting must give way to celebration. The
long -awaited groom has arrived to claim his
bride, to bring his people back into covenant
relationship. You know, in some Eastern cultures,
Especially in India. We've got great friends
here from Pacific Grove. Pastor Sean and Shiny.
Stand up really quick. We want to honor you.
They're visiting here today. Pastor Sean and
Shiny. We're so glad to have them with us. Thank
you guys. They pastor in Pacific Grove. So not
too shabby. Beach right over there, right? But
they have spent their life on Christ. They have
been missionaries. And Shani hails from India,
right? And so hopefully I get this illustration
right. Talk to me afterward if I'm wrong. But
in Eastern cultures, especially in India, the
wedding day isn't just about the bride. See,
in Western cultures, you know, we're all standing
up here and the bride, right? But in India and
some Eastern cultures, there's a full -blown
celebration when the groom is coming, when the
bridegroom is making his way. There's music and
dancing, a parade through the streets, shouting,
laughing, rejoicing, energy. I was talking to
Nick before. He spent some time in India, I think,
on a missions trip. And he was saying he was
staying at a hotel, he and some of the people
there. And the whole thing was starting like
right outside the hotel. Like they were gearing
up and getting ready to go on the procession
with the bridegroom to get to the bride and get
this wedding going here. And it was kicking up.
So he and the friends went out and like, hey,
can we join? And they're like, yes, it's a celebration.
Let's go. Let's go. Now, in the literature, at
least, it says usually it's marked by a white
horse, but this guy couldn't afford it, so his
friends kicked in and said, hey, we'll be your
horse. There's a white horse, yeah. Man, that's
the energy Jesus is talking about here. The bridegroom
has come. You don't fast when he rides in. You
celebrate because his presence means that feasting
has begun. When the bridegroom is present, there's
no time for mourning. It's time to rejoice. I
remember having a friend who had a birthday celebration
and spent money to gather all of his closest
friends together to eat some good food and celebrate
his birthday together. And he wanted all his
friends there, and he went no holds barred just
to bless his friends and give them a good time
on his birthday. And I remember showing up and
someone showed up at the birthday party and we're
all feasting and just having good food. And they're
like, I'm fasting today, sorry. And I'll tell
you, it sucked the wind out of the party because
everyone's like, gosh, man, I'm sorry. I'm eating
this right in front of you. Like, wow, that's
good. And they're like gloomy in the corner.
And I remember a friend looking at them and going,
why did you come? Like, leave. We'll talk later.
We can have communion later, but don't come to
my party with your gloomy down face when we're
trying to celebrate. Leave. Now, Jesus isn't
rejecting fasting. He's not saying don't fast,
but he is reframing it, right? He's saying fasting
belongs to longing. Fasting belongs to longing.
not to legalism. And sometimes we put it in legalism.
I've got to fast every week. This is just what
I have to do. This is what Christians do. No,
fasting belongs to longing. And the presence
of the groom removes the longing. There's no
more longing. So fasting is not bad when you're
in a position to long after the bridegroom. But
when he's there, There'll be a time to fast again.
In fact, Jesus says that when the bridegroom
is taken away. And in the Greek, those words,
that means like a swift and violent removal.
And so it seems to be that it's a veiled reference
to the cross. Jesus is going to be taken from
them. They're not going to know what happens.
Their hearts are going to be filled with longing
to be reunited with Christ again when he is dead
for those three days. It's going to come. And
his followers will mourn his death and they will
long for his return. But for now, while he's
here, his presence demands celebration. The king
has arrived. The wait is over. And at its core,
Christianity is an experience of joy. At its
core, Christianity is an experience of joy, not
shallow happiness or naive optimism, but deep,
unshakable joy that comes from being loved by
the bridegroom who gave himself for you. And
I'm sorry if your experience with Christianity
hasn't been that. I'm sorry if the church and
other believers have heaped on you pounds and
pounds of legalism and watched you and critiqued
you as to whether you were performing and measuring
up. I'm sorry that the church has acted poorly
in the example of who Christ is. But what you've
experienced, if you've experienced what I've
experienced in the past of legalism in a performance
-based religion, don't believe that to be the
true authentic thing. Don't believe that to be
the genuine article. Reject it. Rejected and
instead lean into one that centers around a person,
an act of faith, something that's vibrant, that
breathes, as we'll see. If we're not careful,
we can treat the Christian life, the kingdom
life, like a never -ending religious duty. checking
boxes, saying prayers. Did I go to church enough
times this month? There's probably a time where
you used to be expected to be here every week,
right? Society's changed. It's now like once
a month and you're a regular attender. But even
that is like, did I get my once a month in so
they think I'm still around, right? And they
don't make that awkward call like, you doing
all right, right? It's so easy to slip into that,
to slip into a performance -based religion. I'm
not in any way saying that saying prayers or
going to church or worshiping or anything are
bad, no. But when it's based on performance,
when it's trying to measure up and when it's
compared to someone else, that is bad, that is
wrong, that is not the kingdom of God. Be free,
be released. The presence of Jesus Changes the
very atmosphere of your life. I'm so grateful
that I had an opportunity yesterday to be at
a pastor's conference. And I sat right over here
with one of my good friends, Timothy Stewart,
who pastors down in Lodi. And if you're looking
for a fun thing to do on November 16th, come
on down to Lodi. We're gonna join them in their
citywide worship service at Vintage Church in
Lodi on November 16th. And we're just gonna join
in. We don't go to Lodi. We're not from Lodi,
right? But we're just gonna go and say, let's
worship together. We're with you, heart and soul.
But that's November 16th, we're heading down
there. But I was with Timothy yesterday and we
were in the middle of a conference and I think
one of the speakers was talking at the time and
me and Timothy were being very bad students and
just talking to each other right over here and
making noise and yeah, not playing by the rules,
which I'm glad because he was so excited to share
something with me. He pulled out his phone and
he said, check out this text message. He said,
Adventist Church, an atheist showed up a few
weeks back, a month or two. An atheist showed
up. And they said, you know what? I'm an atheist.
I'm a hardcore atheist. But I wanted to see what
this thing was all about. Just wanted to see
what this, you know, don't try to convert me,
basically. I just wanted to see what this thing
was all about. And so he started to come and
he regularly showed up. And then a few weeks
later, he brings his 12 -year -old son. And now
his 12 -year -old son is sitting there. And after
a few weeks, Timothy is doing baptisms on a Sunday
a couple weeks back. He's doing baptisms, and
at the end of doing all the baptisms that he
had signed up, he said, is there anyone else
who's ready to make the declaration to say, Jesus
is Lord of my life in public? And he said he
was looking this direction, and he saw out of
the corner of his eye the 12 -year -old raise
his hand. Praise God, but he said he started
sweating. He's like, the atheist who said, I'm
an atheist no matter what. His 12 -year -old
is now raising hand. If I acknowledge it with
the dad there, we're going to have a scene in
two seconds. He's going to be like, you're not
baptizing my son, right? I don't know if he had
that voice. So Timothy said he tried not to look.
Tried not to see the toy. Anyone? Anyone? Right?
And the dad said, my son. My son would like to
be baptized. And Timothy was like, okay, get
up here. And he baptized his son. Fast forward
a week or two. And Timothy gets a text message.
And he said, the dad says, I'm finding it increasingly
more difficult to be an atheist. And then just
yesterday or the day before, he shows me a text
message down the thread from yesterday. It just
gives me chills thinking about seeing that. But
he said, I don't know what happened yesterday,
but I feel like a new person today. I don't know
what happened. He was praying, he was reading
the word, he was thinking, he was studying something.
I don't know what happened, but I feel like a
new person. I feel renewed. And he's like, can
we meet? Can we talk tomorrow? I don't know what's
going on. Timothy's like, absolutely, let's.
The presence of Jesus changes the atmosphere
of your life. The air you were breathing yesterday
can be brand new air today. Because Christianity,
it's not a religion of mourning. It is the announcement
that the wedding has begun. And the proper response
is joy. You can't treat the new reality of the
kingdom like the old religion of waiting. You
can't treat the new reality of the kingdom, the
new reality of fulfillment, like the old religion
of longing and waiting. It was good, it was appropriate.
Something I didn't point out in the first service,
but you notice that Jesus said both wineskins
need to be preserved. He didn't discard both
wineskins, the old and the new. He said they
both need to be preserved. They both need to
be intact. But one served a purpose and now I
need a new one for what I'm doing now. Number
three. New wine, new way. Verse 16 through 17.
No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth
because the patch pulls away from the garment.
and makes the tear worse. And no one puts new
wine into old wineskins, otherwise the skins
burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are
ruined. No, you put new wine into fresh wineskins,
and both are preserved. Jesus gives these two
short parables that really make one point, and
that is the new reality of the kingdom cannot
be contained by the old systems of religion.
And these illustrations could have been instantly
or would have been instantly understood by the
folks in their day. You don't sew a patch. You
don't patch an old garment with a new cloth.
I get this confused every single time. Which
one's new and which one's old, right? No one
patches an old garment with a new cloth. Everyone
knew that fiber shrink. And when you washed it,
it would pull away and make the tear worse. And
you don't pour fermenting wine. into an old,
brittle wineskin, the fermentation process would
cause it to explode and the skin would be destroyed
and the precious wine would be all over the ground.
To do either would be foolish, wasteful, and
even destructive. And so what Jesus is saying,
he's saying, I haven't come to patch up your
old life or fit into your old categories. I've
come to make you new. Amen? old garment, the
old wineskin represent the old covenant system.
He's talking about the laws and the purity codes
and the temporal ritual that once defined what
life related to God looked like. And those things
were good. They were God given, but they were
temporary containers. They could hold the promise,
but those containers couldn't hold the fulfillment.
And so those containers were good and useful,
but they couldn't hold it coming to be, the fulfillment
of it. And now the promise arrived in Jesus,
and Jesus steps onto the scene, and he's not
adding a new rule or ritual to the Mosaic law.
He's fulfilling it. He's fully embodying everything
that it pointed to. The scholar N .T. Wright
says the metaphors, the patch and the wineskins,
point not to reform but to replacement. The kingdom
is not an addition to Judaism, but it's fulfillment
and transformation. The old covenant had served
its purpose. It was like scaffolding around a
building that was necessary while the structure
was being formed. You had to have it there in
order to form the structure. But once the house
is complete, you don't keep the scaffolding around,
do you? No, you take it down, you move in. Oh,
it's like all you crazy people who listen to
Christmas music the day after Christmas. Like,
no, no, no. Christmas music got us ready for
Christmas. Then once it's done, it needs to go
away for a year. Sometimes two years. But Christmas
music, it's done, we're over, right? Let's be
done. Sorry, that's just my pet peeve with Christmas
music. I know people who take it into January
and there's little remnants in February. And
I know some of you guys have Christmas lights
up still from last year, right? No, the music,
the atmosphere is getting me ready. It's preparing
my heart. It's starting to get me excited about
the fulfillment, which is Christmas. And then
Christmas is done. I don't need that anymore.
Like, we done. Let's move on. And that's what
Jesus is doing. He's inviting people to move
into a new way of relating with God. Not through
ritual performance, but through relational presence.
The old wineskin, which was rigid and brittle
and structured, can't handle that kind of life.
The spirit of God expands and stretches and transforms
everything he fills. You can't put that into
the old wineskin. You can't put the spirit in
there. That's why religions that are built on
control or hierarchy or performance always crack
under the pressure of grace. It can't stretch
to hold the dynamic, expansive presence of the
spirit. Jesus' kingdom is alive. It grows. It
breathes. It ferments. And when the spirit begins
to move in someone's life or in the church, the
old containers of how we've always done it simply
can't hold what God is wanting to pour out. We
experience that even here as a church. This church
has been ministering in the city of Sacramento
for 110 years. For 110 years, there's a legacy
of ministry here. And for 70 years, there's been
a legacy of ministry literally here. This building,
the sanctuary, was dedicated 70 years ago. And
it had a presence. And it had seasons where God
poured out his spirit. And ministry was thriving.
People were discipled. The community was reached.
The lost came to faith. The gospel was preached.
People grew up in their faith. And they went
through season after season after season where
God's favor was here. But every time that season
came to an end, the container needed to be changed.
And we saw this as we entered into our Renew
project and our relaunch. We knew that God wanted
to do something and the old container couldn't
hold it. And some of it was just really practical
things. Like most of you guys probably don't
know, but this wall was all 1970s wood paneling.
Right here, this wall right behind. Yeah, right
there. Sam's going to model it like Vanna. Here's
the... Yeah, so you would be tower, it would
tower above you right now. And in the 70s or
80s or whenever that was installed, that was
great. That was money. But there came a time
where that couldn't contain what God wanted to
do in the future, the people that he wanted us
to reach. And so we made some decisions about
making some changes to open up. the container
and let God reshape it for what he wanted to
do. And many of the relations, amen, many of
the relationships that we now get to have, many
of the smiles and encouragements and discipleships
and collision moments that I get to have and
you get to have are because we made room and
space for it. It wasn't an easy decision. There
was lots of prayer and going, what do we do?
How do we do this? We did some of it wrong. But
It was all with the desire, Lord, open this up
and fill it with new wine. And I thank God for
what he's done through that act of faith. We
all went along for that ride, right? But you
got to be honest. We love our old wineskins,
don't we? Well, they're predictable, right? They're
predictable. They're familiar. They're manageable.
Maybe even for me, like I got really good in
the old game. Like I'm sitting on the top stats
in the Pac -Man, you know, arcade game. Like
that's my name, right? We know the rules. We
knew what to expect. This sounds scary. This
sounds dynamic. Sounds like more change is coming.
Yes. The problem with old wineskins is they don't
stretch anymore. They don't stretch anymore.
They've gotten hard and brittle. They can't stretch.
And if you try to pour the living, breathing
life of the Spirit into a rigid heart or into
a rigid structure or a rigid church, it will
crack. It'll crack and it'll spill out. It will
not be able to contain it. And that's why sometimes
God will actually let things break. He'll start
to pour the Spirit in. That act of life will
not jive and bah! It'll pop. And God says, do
you trust me to give you new wineskins for the
new wine that I want to pour into? He breaks
old patterns because our old patterns can't hold
his presence. He breaks your pride because your
pride can't hold his grace. It can't contain
it. It can't keep it. So he breaks it. He breaks
your religion because it can't ever hope. to
contain the fullness of God. And village, the
kingdom of God doesn't just patch your old life,
it replaces it. He doesn't pour his spirit into
the same old habits and attitudes and routines
that used to define you. He makes you new. That's
what Paul said in 2 Corinthians. If anyone is
in Christ, they are a new creation. The old is
gone, the new has come. When the kingdom breaks
in, it doesn't fit into what's familiar. It changes
your form. It calls you to surrender control.
And guess what? That's good news. Because what
it means is God isn't finished with you yet.
No matter what your age is, no matter how many
times you've been around the block, how many
times the spirit is poured out, he wants to do
a new thing. But it requires surrender. And it
requires allowing him to change the form of your
life. And because he wants to, man, that's good
news. He wants to still use you and me. He still
wants to reshape us so that we are useful in
his kingdom. So that we are honoring to him and
reflect the glory of who he is. He wants to pour
new things. He wants us to discover more than
just usefulness. He wants us to discover the
depths of who he is. And his spirit guides us
there. We don't know how to get there, but we
need to make space. He's still stretching you
to hold more of his spirit. Tim Mackey, who's
associated with the Bible Project, he says the
gospel of the kingdom doesn't fit into our lives
as they are. It recreates our lives around itself.
Our lives. you know, used to be outside of Christ.
I don't remember who said it. Someone can remind
me afterward, but our lives are bent in on ourselves.
That's what I'm like that outside of Christ.
We just, our lives are bent in on ourselves.
Everything is about self bent in the spirit reshapes
us around the good news that Jesus Christ is
King around the good news that he has brought
salvation around the good news in the mission.
Of his kingdom. It changes our form. So what
do we do with all this? Well Jesus says. The
old can't contain the new. And that means every
follower of Christ. Has to make a choice. Will
I cling to what's comfortable. Or be stretched
by what is coming. The new wine is being poured
out. The bridegroom is in the room. And the kingdom
of God is breaking in. Not to improve the old
you. But to create the new you. So if you're
taking notes, the final point is number four,
from mourning to longing. The time will come
when the groom will be taken away from them and
then they will fast. Those words hold both a
shadow and a promise. The shadow is this, that
Jesus will be taken away. A phrase, again, that
hints at his violent death on the cross. But
the promise is this, his disciples will fast
again, but this time they'll not fast as mourners
of a lost cause. They're not going to fast because,
man, we missed out on getting our thrones or
whatever. They're going to fast now as lovers
longing for reunion. They're going to enter in
to that dark night of their soul because their
master, Their king, their bridegroom, Jesus,
is no longer with them and their heart is going
to long to be with him. So here's a question.
What does fasting mean for followers of Jesus
now in the age of the Spirit? If the bridegroom
is both gone and present, how do we live in that
tension? Jesus said, I am with you always in
Matthew 28. And his spirit dwells within every
believer. We're not fasting because we've lost
him. He's right here. But in another sense, the
bridegroom is still away, isn't he? We haven't
yet seen him face to face, even though our hearts
long. And sin still lingers and suffering still
wounds. and death still casts its shadow over
our lives. So we fast now in the space between,
living in that tension of the already but not
yet. We fast not as people without hope, but
we fast as people with a holy hunger. Amen? I
love the way Pastor John Piper puts this. He
says, Christian fasting is not the hunger of
emptiness. but the hunger of fullness, a homesickness
for God. We fast because we've tasted the wedding
wine. We fast because we've tasted the wedding
wine and we long for a day when the cup won't
run dry. In the old covenant, fasting was often
a ritual of mourning or self -punishment. It
was a sign of sorrow or guilt or desperation.
But in the new covenant, fasting becomes an act
of desire, not despair. It's how we say, Lord,
we want to experience more awareness of your
presence, more of your power, more of your renewal
in our world. Fasting doesn't move us closer
or move God closer to us. It moves us closer
to an awareness of him. He is with us, and yet
we long for him. You think of a spouse whose
partner is deployed overseas somewhere, and every
night pulling up her phone and looking at the
photos and pictures of her loved one or her lover
who's not with her. It's not because they've
forgotten their beloved, is it? No, it's because
they remember their beloved. That picture keeps
love alive. in the in -between. Fasting for the
believer is love's aching heart seeking reunion
with the beloved. It's the longing of a soul
that says, I know you're there, but I want to
see you face to face. In Acts 13, the early church
fasted not out of ritual, but out of response
and to tune in to how the Lord wanted to accomplish
his mission through them. They worshiped and
fasted and the Holy Spirit spoke to them and
they heard him and followed him. Fasting is how
the church says we're available for what you
want to pour out next. And that might look to
you like fasting from food to focus on praying
for your one more. That person in your life that
the Lord has put on your heart to pray for their
salvation. Not because you're far from God, but
because they're far from God. And you've experienced
the life of God and you want them to experience
that too. You've tasted and you want them to
taste now. It's your heart of longing that they
would meet Jesus, the beloved. It might include
fasting from distraction, technology, entertainment,
noise, to create space to hear the Spirit so
you can respond. It might be fasting as a church
to say, Lord, make us flexible wineskins to be
ready for the new thing you're about to do. See,
that's not legalism, that's longing. It's how
the bride prepares herself for the groom. And
that's the tension we live in. We are a feasting
people because Jesus has come and we are a fasting
people because he's coming again. And when we
fast, we're reminding ourselves that no earthly
comfort, no success, no possession can satisfy
what only his presence can fill. And we fast
because we've tasted grace and it makes us hungry
for glory. I love what the Christian scholar
Chad Bird says. He said, we fast because the
bridegroom has been taken away, but we feast
because he's coming back. And you notice he just
said the opposite of what I just said, right?
And we're not in conflict because both is true.
Do we fast or do we feast? Yes. Yes. We fast
because we long for his presence to be reunited
with him. We feast because he is with us. His
spirit he is with. And we can rejoice and be
joyful. And we do both. And we live in that tension.
It doesn't mean fasting is irrelevant. You can
long for him and feast on his presence. Even
while denying yourself something to focus on
him. We fast because the bridegroom has been
taken away, but we feast because he's coming
near. So in conclusion, the kingdom is breaking
in and the old life can't stay the same. And
God is building his kingdom with broken stones,
as Kyle said last week. He's building his kingdom
with broken stones and he's shaping these stones
into new vessels for his presence. He doesn't
just forgive you, he... reforms you he he doesn't
just use your story he fills it with new wine
and if you've been patching up holes with a self
-righteous religion instead of surrendering let
him make you new today if you've been clinging
to the familiar trust him to stretch you for
more i know it's not our temperament some of
our temperament is not for stretching we hate
change right Some of us, I'm sure, right? I'm
not naming names, right? We don't like change.
But can we trust him to stretch us to whatever
point he wants to stretch us, to fill us with
the new wine, to see what this kingdom breaking
in might look like. By the Spirit, the bridegroom
is here. And by the Spirit, we long to be with
the bridegroom. And so we fast and we feast.
I'll just ask us the final question. Will you
make room for him today?