January 20, 2008
Morning Worship
Text: Matthew 9:14-17
Subject: Fasting
Title: Why Aren’t You Like Everyone Else?
We live in a very confusing time in our culture. Sometimes it becomes difficult to differentiate between the good guys and bad guys. Of course we understand that as a sign of the times when people will begin to call evil good and good evil. I watched a video on the Internet the other day and a lady told Governor Mike Huckabee she couldn’t vote for him because Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics. She asked him, “You aren’t one of those narrow minded people who think that just the Baptists are going to heaven are you?”. To which he responded, “No, I’m more narrow minded than that. I think there are a lot of Baptists who won’t make it.”.
As we were growing up many of us heard comments like, “Why can’t you be like the other kids?” or, “Why do you have to be so different?” And then when we do the same things the other kids were doing we were asked, “If they jumped off a cliff would you follow them?” I grew up in a time of mixed messages. But early on I made up my mind that I was going to be different than everyone else. For much of my life that difference was headed in a negative direction. Then there was a time when I was just like everyone else and living for the devil. When I became a Christian I was so convinced that it was right that I determined in my heart that I was going to live it for all it’s worth and try to be a radical Christian. I think that’s the only kind of Christian. It goes against the grain of the world for you to be a true Christian. It’s OK to go to church but don’t go overboard. But in our passage today Jesus is telling us that is exactly what needs to happen. We need to be radical in our worship, our thoughts, and our actions. If not then we become just like the “religious” people. The world is asking the same questions that many have heard from parents.
Why can’t you be like everybody else?
The one thing that I enjoy about my Christian faith is that Jesus has never asked me to be just like someone else. I am a new creation but with a personality of my own. Paul said we are supposed to imitate him because he imitates Christ but I’m not Paul, I’m Mike. Even though we all read the same Bible and the words mean the same to us the way we live out our faith is expressed in our individuality that fits in to the whole of the body of Christ.
Let’s look today and see what Jesus says about being like everyone else.
I. CHRISTIANS DON’T DO THE SAME THINGS (14) 14Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” In this verse there are three different groups mentioned. 1) John’s disciples. This is talking about John the Baptist. Even though by this time John was in prison and had already introduced Jesus as the Messiah, John’s disciples still clung to him. Listen to what John said in John 3, 27 “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. 28You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ 29The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30He must become greater; I must become less. John’s disciples followed him because of the message of repentance that he preached. They had seen firsthand what religion had become in Israel. They knew that there had to be some changes made. John came along and offered them something different than what they had heard before. For a period of time there must have been great personal satisfaction and spiritual reward in being the agents of change from the old established religion. But their position had become a source of spiritual pride. You see, what God was doing in their midst had not been totally revealed. They had left their life of sin and had repented and been baptized, but now they see Jesus and His disciples eating with sinners – the same kind of people that they once were. Back in verse 10, 10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” 12On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Go back to verse 14. There it tells us that the John’s disciples fasted. They were following the example of their leader who humbly preached the baptism of repentance. Even though their attitudes were misdirected, they were fasting for the right reason – to draw closer to God – and I believe their hearts were right but their revelation was lacking. 2) The Pharisees. This was the “religious” class of the Jews. When we think of Pharisees I think we tend to lump them all together. That’s a mistake because even though their religion had become a religion of strict devotion to the Law and their interpretation of the Law, there were still some Pharisees who loved the Lord their God with all their hearts. Nicodemus appears to have been one of them. The Pharisees fasted. But to many of their leaders it became a display of their “Holiness” in front of the people. They fasted so they could be seen as holy. Jesus said this about the Pharisees in Matthew 6, 16“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. John’s disciples fasted for the right reasons. The Pharisees fasted but it was for the wrong reasons. 3) Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast at all. John’s disciples were saying that they wanted to believe what John had said about Jesus, but He was so radically different in what He did, what He said, and what He believed that it became extremely difficult for them to accept Him. Yet this radically different truth that Jesus taught was THE TRUTH. Here is the truth that Jesus is still communicating today. Matthew 8, 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. John’s disciples didn’t understand it. The Pharisees surely didn’t get it. And today, the world and “religious” people don’t get it, that true disciples of Jesus Christ are not concerned with being like everyone else but follow the voice of the Holy Spirit.
II. CHRISTIANS DON’T FOLLOW THE SAME TIMELINE - I want you to look at the attitudes of the three groups. 1) John’s disciples – “ We want to fast and draw closer to God. Their motives were right and pure. Their understanding was limited. They didn’t get it that John said he must decrease so Jesus could increase. Why? Because Jesus was the Messiah that John had prophesied was coming. They couldn’t see that the time was now – God was right in their midst. You can relate these disciples of John to the people today who hear the truth and respond to it in a limited way and maybe give mental ascent to who Jesus is without placing all their faith in Him. The long for some religious experience but are willing to go only so far. Once they have experienced something they think that they have found what they are looking for and then advance no further. (People who go on “religious” retreats simply for the spiritual rush you get. Then they go back to their old lives. For them to experience the move of the Holy Spirit in their lives they have to keep going back to their “spiritual retreats”. 2) The Pharisees - We want to fast so everyone knows that we are holy and when the Messiah comes He will see that we are holy. We just want to impress people and God. The Pharisees don’t need any kind of religious experience. The Jews are God’s chosen people. All you have to do is know that and then let everyone see your holiness. These are the people who go to their churches because that is their tradition. That’s where they have always gone. I remember when Charlotte and I had to tell the good catholic people in our Sunday morning bibles study that we were leaving the church. One particular little old lady came up to us and asked, “Why?” When we explained that we were tired of walking out of church without getting anything out of it. We had tried to but there just wasn’t anything there. Her response? “I’ve been like that all my life. I just thought that’s the way it was supposed to be.” These are the people today who have allowed a religious establishment to dictate what is “spiritual” and what is not. To them God is distant and not really concerned with them in a personal way. But when the time comes they will be ready for Him because they are doing the right things. 3) Jesus’ disciples 15Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. Jesus is speaking here but He is speaking what His disciples understand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Get this train of thought. First, John’s disciples want to get close to God so they fast. Second, The Pharisees want to be ready for God so they fast. But Jesus’ disciples don’t need to fast in order to draw closer or be ready for God Himself is right in their midst. Jesus is the bridegroom. Now Jesus is not saying that those who trust in Him should never fast – just that His disciples were to rejoice while He was in their midst. When He is taken from them they can fast. That is specifically for Jesus’ disciples. Once Jesus was crucified and had risen from the dead and then ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father they would need to fast and seek God’s will for their lives. Isn’t that the whole purpose of fasting? We need to seek God’s will for our lives. We need to seek His direction. We need to hear His voice. Our timeline is now as we prepare for the second coming of Christ.
III. CHRISTIANS DON’T ACCEPT THE SAME EXPERIENCE. 16“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Here’s the message that Jesus is giving to the three groups. 1) To those who trust Him and Him alone. This is something new – beyond what the religion of old had to offer. It is the message to the church today. Joel 2, 28 “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth… Even though the new message that Jesus was bringing was radically different that what the others had ever experienced or even conceived it was not a new message. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”. 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. It was the same message of faith and grace that God had declared from the beginning. It was man’s understand (or misunderstanding) of the message that led to dead “religion”. But it is what happens beyond our initial faith in Christ that stirs up the religious establishment and the traditional religious groups. It is the new wine of the Holy Spirit that creates difficulties. 2) To those who are like John’s disciples. Having a new experience while trying to hold on to the old traditions is like trying to repair an old piece of clothing with a new unshrunk piece of cloth. It does not work. Both will be ruined. But with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes something different. I had a man tell me one time after his sister-in-law had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit that he didn’t believe in it. He knew it was in the Bible but his church tradition did not allow for that. If you’re not willing to be a part of the new vessel then good, go on and go somewhere else. But don’t try to attach the new to the old – it. 3) To those who are like the Pharisees. This new wine cannot be contained in old dead churches. It cannot be attached to the old. It is new and the vessel to receive it has to receive it in a new way. I’m not talking about individuals here but religious traditions. If you have the new wine then the vessel has to change along with it. Because the new wine is in a continual state of fermentation (a person is continually being stirred up in the spirit) the wineskin will continually be stretched. The new vessel is pliable and durable. The old is rigid and dried up. Not compatible to the new wine.
You do understand don’t you that this passage was not about fasting. But it was about separating the old from the new. It’s about being radically different. It’s about change. It’s about new wine.
Joel 3, “In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk;
all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the LORD’S house
and will water the valley…
Why Aren’t You Like Everyone else?
Acts 2, 14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
Ephesians 5,18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
I know that I am different. I know that I will never be the same. I know that I don’t want to look like, act like, or sound like some one else. I want to be radically different. I will not be caught up in religion. I will not receive something from God and then turn back because it doesn’t look familiar.
A new life in Christ, a new understanding of the times, a different experience in the Holy Spirit; This Pentecostal anointing that He has given to us is the anointing for life, the anointing for understanding and the anointing for a new experience in power.
