Wednesday Night, June 3, 2020 PM

Welcome we are going to go ahead and get started. It's good to have you guys here tonight.

We're going to sing a hymn and have a devotional out of Luke 5 and then we will spend some time in prayer together.

Our hymn tonight is going to be The Church's One Foundation, hymn number 277.

The Church's One Foundation, number 277.

The church, o 'er men's tribulation and truth of the

Lord, she makes the consolation of peace forever more.

The steps of calm are opened with those whose rest is brought.

O happy ones and holy, the new day is here.

Alright, let's open our Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 5. We continue our look at the way in which

Jesus is answering the objections of the Pharisees and scribes as they seek to find fault with the way that he is conducting himself.

Their objections are proven to be incredibly nonsensical by Jesus as he points out the obvious time and time again.

It only makes sense that as the Savior, as the

Son of God, that he would come and he would forgive the sins of sinners, that he would spend time with those who were in need of his salvation, even as a doctor would spend time with the sick.

And it only makes sense that the attendants of the bridegroom during the festivities of the wedding week would rejoice and feast and partake in all the joyous aspects of that celebration.

Why would they fast? Why would they mourn as if something were the matter? And so Jesus is answering the objections of the

Pharisees and their scribes by using common sense and just stating some very obvious truths and using some analogies that are very helpful.

Well, we're going to return to this passage and I will be reading verses 33 through 39 for us this evening.

Luke chapter 5 verses 33 through 39. And they said to him, the disciples of John often fast and offer prayers.

The disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but yours eat and drink.

And Jesus said to them, you cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?

But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.

And he was also telling them a parable. No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment, otherwise he will tear both the new and the piece from the new will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined.

But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wishes for new, for he says the old is good enough.

We're going to turn our attention to verse 35, especially tonight, as we think about the way in which

Jesus is extending this analogy that he has begun with the bridegroom. Again, Levi, who has just become the disciple of Jesus, recognized the needs of Jesus and his disciples that they were hungry and must have been getting on in the day.

And so, having left all to follow Jesus, he throws a feast. He prepares a meal.

As best as he can, he provides a grand meal for Jesus. And he invites those acquaintances and friends whom he still had, even though he was a despised tax collector.

Naturally, birds of a feather flock together, and so everyone reclining around his table were people of sinful notoriety.

And this really bothered the Pharisees and the scribes, whom they saw

Jesus cut in the mold of a holy man, a rabbi, someone who should be keeping his distance from the likes of these

Pharisees, these tax collectors, and these sinners. And so Jesus is explaining things in a very obvious way to them, and he has used this metaphor of the bridegroom.

We talked about some of the reasons why he did that. It was a biblical metaphor.

It made biblical sense that at a wedding around the bridegroom, there would be joy and feasting.

One of the most famous stories about a wedding and the glory surrounding it would be

Solomon's own wedding, and very clearly someone greater than Solomon is here in the person of Jesus Christ, and so why should not the attendants of the bridegroom feast and rejoice?

He also used this metaphor of the bridegroom because that was the language that John the Baptist used of Jesus.

And here the Pharisees and the scribes are trying to put a wedge between John the Baptist and his disciples, and Jesus and his disciples.

They were trying to sow discord amongst these two, and they should not be doing that at all.

John was the forerunner. Christ is the Messiah. There should be a unity. In fact, John the

Baptist, as he was explaining to his own disciples why it was that his ministry must diminish while Christ's ministry increased,

John the Baptist used the very expression of the bridegroom, talking about Jesus in that way.

And so Jesus is using that language to speak to the followers of John that they should also, like their leader, like their rabbi, their master, they should rejoice in him as the bridegroom.

Jesus also uses the metaphor bridegroom because in the traditions of the Pharisees and scribes themselves, they had all manner of exceptions written into their traditions about a wedding, that when it was time for a wedding, those involved should feel free to let off their fastings and let off their normal disciplines, and so on and so forth.

And so Jesus uses that metaphor for all those reasons and more. Jesus is the master teacher, and so when he picks a metaphor, he picks a metaphor, and it just keeps going.

And so we're gonna look at another reason why he chooses this analogy here in verse 35.

And he says, the days will come, he says, but the days will come. So he's prophesying, he's saying there is something yet to come, and he says, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.

So what do we have here? We have the sacrifice of Christ foretold. It says, the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them.

The word Jesus uses for taken away does not envision some kind of slow lingering departure, you know, like the cruise ship taking away the passengers as they wave to their jealous relatives on shore.

This is a very violent kind of taken away. It's the kind of taken away of, you know, someone getting kidnapped, somebody being seized, and that's exactly what happened to Jesus as he was seized by the guards who brought him before the

Jewish authorities and then later on to Pilate. And so Jesus is foretelling of his violent arrest and his violent death.

He is saying when the bridegroom is taken away in this manner, well then they will have reason to mourn.

They will have reason to be concerned, and then they will fast at that time.

I think it's remarkable that Jesus here is instructing the scribes and Pharisees.

He is prophesying to the scribes and Pharisees about him being taken away, and he's speaking to the very ones who would be involved in that criminal act.

These Pharisees and scribes were grumbling against him now, but soon they would be plotting against him.

They would be actually conceiving and trying to come up with an effective plan precisely to do this, to seize him, to take him away when they had opportunity.

So these same Pharisees and scribes were going to conspire with the

Sadducees and with the Romans to put Christ to death. We'll find them later on in the story, foaming at the mouth before Pilate in his courtyard, saying, his blood be upon us and our children.

We have no king but Caesar. Well, when Jesus speaks of himself as the bridegroom, he's doing so because he's prophesying and he's preaching the gospel.

Jesus is the bridegroom who comes for his bride, and this is a gospel image.

He came to redeem his bride. He came to save her, to raise her from the dead, to protect her, to lead her, to wash her with the water of his word.

These are the biblical images, and we actually sang a little bit about that tonight in our hymn.

From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride.

By his blood he bought her, and for her life he died.

So this language of the bridegroom instantly is to bring to our mind the gospel message.

And as the first Adam was put into a deep sleep, and he shed his blood as the rib was removed for the creation of his bride, so also the last

Adam was laid dead in the tomb, having shed his blood for the creation of his bride.

And while the first Adam did not refuse, refute, dominate, and destroy the serpent, the second

Adam did refuse, refute, and dominate the serpent, and he will soon crush

Satan even under our feet, Paul promises the church. When we think about Jesus Christ being the bridegroom, we're not to think of the bridegroom as simply a central prop to the bride's special day, right?

The bridegroom is the central figure in the marriage story and the wedding story in the

Scriptures, and he gets far more glory than the bride does.

Now in our culture, the bride gets all the glory on her day, and the groom is there for the ride, and whatever she wants, that's what goes.

But in the biblical story, the wedding is much different. It's the groom who has all the glory, and the bride, she's the one along for the ride, whatever he wants.

And so as we think about this bridegroom, he is not a passive figure in the wedding.

He's not a passive figure in this relationship. In fact, he's a very heroic figure in all respects.

I remember when Jonathan Wilcock, our missionary, was here and he was searching for a really good quality answer about, you know, what's the message of the whole

Bible, and I managed to bumfuzzle him by saying, kill the dragon and get the girl, which is a borrowed expression, but it's it's the story of the

Bible. It's what the whole story is about, and I appreciate Dwight trying to clear things up. He says, yeah, and we're the girl, and it's true, and so when we think about the bridegroom, he's the one who kills the dragon, and he's the one who gets the girl.

This language of the bridegroom is gospel imagery, and it's helpful for our prayer lives if we would remember that Jesus Christ, our bridegroom, was taken away.

He willingly gave himself up for us, that's true, but he was violently taken, beaten, crucified, murdered by a hateful generation who eagerly welcomed the blame for the blood of the

Son of God. That is helpful for our prayers in this. As you may speak face -to -face more freely and more at length and more deeply with someone whom you love, someone who has proven their worth to you by sacrificing for you greatly, someone who has demonstrated to you amply their faithfulness to you, and you may speak with such a person more deeply, more freely, more at length.

Isn't that not the case? Then somebody who you do not know as well. Well, in the same way, let us remember that we may speak even more freely and even more at length, even more deeply with our bridegroom who has sacrificed for us and who has so amply and faithfully loved us.

Let's remember who we're talking to. We're talking to our bridegroom and what did he do for us. Now the sorrow of the friends is clear.

Jesus is saying right now they're rejoicing, they're feasting, so why should they fast with prayers?

But he said that the days will come, however, in which fasting will make sense.

Why will it make more sense for them? Because they will sorrow. They're not sorrowful now, but they will be sorrowful when the bridegroom would be taken away.

They did sorrow, and they did mourn when he was taken away from them.

It's interesting that Jesus points to a genuine reason, a genuine occasion for fasting.

There's nothing in the Bible against a regular fasting or fasting as a spiritual discipline.

Maybe somebody would consider it helpful for them in their pursuit of Christ, and they're raising up the various sales of the spiritual disciplines that they would raise the sale of fasting, however often they felt that that would be appropriate in their communion with God.

But Jesus points to the fact that fasting is not merely to be looked at as a regular habit to have, but there should be a genuine reason behind it, and that means that it would be also occasional.

The genuine reason, of course, that he's pointing out is that they should be fasting because of how they love

Christ. And if something happened to Christ, if there was some disruption in their relationship with Christ, this would give them cause to fast.

And that's really where we get to the significance of fasting, as Jesus is directing the attention of the

Pharisees and the scribes to the main point. You see, the Pharisees' confusion about the disciples feasting rather than fasting had everything to do with the fact that they were oblivious to the obvious.

Messiah had come. Someone greater than Solomon was here. It was his wedding week, and surely the attendants of the bridegroom could not fast as they rejoiced with him.

It just makes sense. But even as their feasting was centered upon Messiah, so also should their fasting be centered on the

Messiah. If something happened, if the wedding week should be interrupted somehow in the middle of the week, if the

Messiah were to be cut off, as Daniel says, that would give reason, would it not?

Would that not give reason to the disciples to fast? And as we think about the true occasional nature of fasting, and not to deny the regular sense of that spiritual discipline, but to think about the occasional reality of fasting, we need to remember that the times of joyous feasting and the times of mournful fasting are not really ours to generate by some artificial means, but these are ordained by God.

Ecclesiastes 3, 1 through 4, you probably remember this passage, there is an appointed time for everything, and there was a time for every event under heaven, a time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and time to uproot what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

This is a very strong passage about the sovereignty of God. God has appointed these times a time for everything.

So there is no virtue, as the Pharisees are suggesting, there is no virtue in introducing a gloomy fog to a bright and sunny day.

You are not thereby more holy if you are able to generate fog on a bright, cheerful day.

And it's no holiness either to whistle past the graveyard, speaking your happy reality into existence in defiance of oppressing forces.

God is sovereign. He reminds us of this everywhere in the

Bible, so that we will humble ourselves in worship of him. Ecclesiastes, again, 7, verse 14, in the day of prosperity, be happy, but in the day of adversity, consider,

God has made the one as well as the other. And what's the reasoning we should recognize this?

It's humility, so that man will not discover anything that will be after him, putting us in our place.

We're not God, God is, and as we live in the times that he has ordained for us, let us be humble.

Jesus is essentially teaching the scribes and Pharisees, the disciples of John, and his own disciples the following.

He's essentially teaching this, feast when you have reason for joy, fast when you have reason for sorrow, but in your feasting and in your fasting, keep me as your focus.

The bridegroom, he's everything to us. Sometimes folks will wonder, should

I do more fasting? I think Jesus would answer that with a question, as he so often does, do you have good reason?

And I think with Christ in view, sometimes we do. Talking a lot about prayer in the

Gospel of Luke, about how the scriptures equip us and teach us to pray, well fasting goes along with prayers.

As we sense the absence of our Savior, is it not the theme here, when the bridegroom is taken away from the disciples, then they would have reason to fast.

If we would sense the absence of our Savior, well there's no deficiency in him if we feel like he's absent.

His promises are true, and his work as a mediator is ever faithful.

There's no deficiency in him, and he says, I will not leave you orphans. In fact, he has sent another comforter, who is the

Holy Spirit. He does call for us to abide in him.

He instructs us to do that. He says, abide in me, and sometimes knowing his nearness may mean fasting.

If we sense the distance of our bridegroom as he has gone away to prepare a place for us, if we eagerly desire the nearness of his shepherding power, of the shepherding direction, in that case

I think fasting would be appropriate. After all, Jesus says when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast.

There is something about a sense of needing the nearness of Christ in our life, his power to deliver us, his direction for our decision -making.

When we need the nearness of Christ, if we need to sense that, if we need his grace at hand, then fasting seems to be appropriate.

Jesus says that certain foes are only cast out and brought down by fasting, and we need that sometimes we need to see the directness of Christ's power.

Certain decisions critical to the advance of Christ's kingdom are best precipitated by fasting.

Why? Because we need the nearness of his leadership. So by fasting with prayer, the

Holy Spirit will endow and direct us as he does as he desires, in order that the authority of Christ will be made manifest to us in our lives.

And as a final consideration, I want you just to think about what the Pharisees and scribes are up to here.

They are in a public venue, and they are criticizing

Jesus and his disciples for their lack of conformity to the widely accepted public piety.

You don't look like you're being pious like us.

You're not doing the exact same acts of piety that we are. You know, they have no idea how

Jesus and his disciples prayed in private. They have no idea how they fasted in private.

They have no idea about their piety. In fact, Jesus in Matthew 6 says that our acts of piety should be normally private.

Jesus is not against praying in public. He's not against the fact that fasting may end up being an obvious thing that you're doing.

He's not against the fact that a generous gift might end up being outed, and someone will find out.

But his main point in Matthew 6 is that our piety, whatever it is, whatever sails that we're running up on our ship, we can't control the

Holy Spirit. He is sovereign, but if we don't raise the sails of our spiritual disciplines when the

Spirit blows, you know, we're not going to catch the grace. So put up the spiritual disciplines, but do that in private, nominally.

Normally, that's what we do, is we put it up in private. We're not supposed to be going around and making a big deal about how pious we are, and I fasted three days this week, and I read 45 chapters at one sitting, and here's all the pious things that I do in response to other people saying similar things.

That's what the Pharisees and the scribes were accustomed to. They would fast twice a week on the market days so that they could look bedraggled and just moan and groan through all the market stalls with all the food, and look longingly at the food, but not partake, and everybody would know, you know, oh, they're fasting.

It's the same thing as blowing the trumpet really loud before you give the gift to the beggar on the corner, and the whole thing was staged, right?

Well, this is their mindset, so they are criticizing Jesus and his disciples in this passage because their public persona, their social media profile does not fit with the accepted standards of the day, and so I think we need to be careful as we engage in our spiritual disciplines to be fast, as we pray, as we give, as we read our

Bibles, and so on and so forth. Jesus would have us treasure up secrets with our

Heavenly Father. If we have no secrets with God, and I mean not just the sins that he covers, but if we don't have any secrets with God about developing our relationship with him, if we don't have any intimacy with God, everything we do with God we publicize, we've got a real problem.

Jesus wants us to store up treasures, secrets with God where we are communing with him and abiding with him, and there are things that only our

Heavenly Father knows about each one of us, and Jesus says that's where the real treasure is.

So, fasting and prayer, giving and scripture reading, these essential spiritual disciplines, whatever they are, they are to be focused upon Christ rather than others' approval or disapproval, and should not be focused on our own virtue signaling.

All right, well let's close our time in the Word with a brief word of prayer, and then we'll pray about the concerns that we have for one another.

Father, I thank you for the time that you've given us in your Word. I thank you that you have given to us our

Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. We thank you for his sacrifice, we thank you for his love, we thank you for his faithfulness, we thank you for his promise, that having bought us by his blood and been raised for our justification, he has gone away to prepare a place for us, and he will come again and receive us to himself.