Luke 5:33 - 39 Jesus: Joy or Mourning (Part 1)

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Pastor Mike Abendroth preaches Luke 5:33 - 39 Jesus: Joy or Mourning

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Luke 5:33-39 Jesus: Joy or Mourning (Part 2)

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Well, they say pastors are involved in people's lives from the beginning to the end.
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They are there when people are hatched, they are there when people are matched, and they are there when people are dispatched.
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And so, it is good to do that. Regarding the matching, the weddings part,
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I usually get the best seat in the house when it comes to weddings. When I officiate, I get to see both the groom and the bride at the same time.
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You all, when the bride comes in, turn around and look at the bride, but then you quickly look back at the groom because you want to see if he's crying, or you see that look of love and acceptance, this is my bride, this is my woman, but I get to see both at the exact same time.
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I get to see that gorgeous bride and that handsome groom, and happy parents, and smiling friends.
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Weddings are certainly a time of celebration and joy. I looked online and found some etiquette for groomsmen.
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So what do the groomsmen need to do? Bridesmaids know what to do, but the men need the help, and so I looked up the groomsmen etiquette.
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Here's what a secular site said. Show up for all the pre -wedding events, such as the engagement party and the bachelor party.
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Know where, when, and what is required of you. Be the groom's support system.
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Make sure your toast or your speech is appropriate. And have fun at the reception, but not too much fun.
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Wise words. And out of the sites that I looked at, not one single site said, groomsmen, make sure you look miserable.
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Be sad, gloomy, don't eat at the dinner, don't drink at the dinner, don't dance, and just look like you are walking around in sackcloth and ashes.
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Not one website said that. Why? Because weddings are a time of feasting, of celebration, and of joy.
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And we all know that. This morning we're going to look at a passage, if you turn your
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Bibles to Luke chapter 5, about Jesus and joy. About weddings, groomsmen, and the groom.
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About brides and grooms. And how do you act at a wedding will help us figure out how do we act when we're around the
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Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus the groom is present, how should the groomsmen act?
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When Jesus the groom is present, how should the bride act? Should they be joyful?
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Should they be sad? Should they be feasting? Or should they be fasting?
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And of course for us, as we think through this, we have the risen Savior Jesus. We have
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His Spirit dwelling in us, the Holy Spirit, the one whom He sent. And as we're going to look at these men in the passage today, it's going to kind of turn around on us with a mirror, and we must ask ourselves the questions, since we have
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Jesus, are we joyful? Are we celebrating? Or are we gloomy, fasting, and just sad?
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Yes, we have deep, dark trials. There are real issues that float around in our world that affect us.
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But can the Christian have joy? If a Christian has Jesus, can he or she have joy?
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Should Christians be joyful? If I ask you the question, are you a joyful person?
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Are you joyful? And you say, well, I'm not as joyful as I want to be, but I'd like to be. I think this passage today will encourage you.
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Yes, again, there's a time for suffering. There's a time for discouragement. There's a time for discomfort.
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But in the deepest, darkest trials, Christians can have joy because Jesus has them, and they have
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Jesus by faith. Now, when you come to the gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, all kinds of things pop into your mind.
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I could probably review every chapter. That might be a good thing to do, and sometimes I do that. But before we dive into the passage today,
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I just wanted to say this about the gospel of Luke and, of course, the other gospels as well.
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How do you know God is good? How do you know God is good? And you say, new babies being born, ears to hear wonderful music, taste buds.
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You get to see Niagara Falls. You get to see the sunset and the moon and all these things, marriage and intimacy and friendship.
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God is good. That's how I know God is good. Well, then I might ask you this question.
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Isn't there trouble in the world, war, plague, physical ailments,
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MS, cancer? How do you know if God is good? I mean, there's good things there, but there are bad things too.
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How do you know God is good? And the answer Luther knew, and it was the right answer.
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The way you know that God is good is by looking at the incarnate
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Jesus. How do I know God is good? When there's pain and sickness and toil and stress in the world, the answer lies in who
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Jesus is, the eternal Son, assuming flesh. And you begin to walk through the gospels like Luke, and you realize
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Jesus is good. He's good when it comes to his fulfillment of prophecy. He's good to the leper.
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He's good to the paralytic. He's good to forgive sins. He's good to the disciples. He's good to Peter's mother -in -law.
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He's good to the people that have demons. He's good to the people that have sickness. He is good as he preaches. He's good in the synagogue.
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He's good on the Sabbath. And you think, that's true. Jesus is good. And so one of the things
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I want to encourage you today as we look through the gospels is to remember, if you want to know if God is good, the answer is found in the incarnate
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Jesus. If you want to know if God is for you, the answer is found in the incarnate
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Jesus, dear Christian. Martin Luther's Smaller Catechism says this,
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I believe that Jesus Christ is true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also a true man, born of the
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Virgin Mary, and that he is my Lord who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won for me all my sins, from death and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious blood, and with his innocent suffering and death, in order that I might be his own, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.
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Just as he is risen from the dead, he lives and reigns to all eternity. And then Luther said, this is most certainly true.
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And he knows it's true because he has the Gospels in front of him, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and all the
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Testament, the New Testament proclaiming that, the Old Testament proclaiming that.
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Our passage today is Luke chapter 5, verses 33 through 39, and so we wrap up chapter 5 today.
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And to tie in, to make it easier for us to understand, since verse 33 starts with and, let me read the passage we looked at last week, verses 27 through 32, because they're connected in more ways than one.
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Luke 5, 27. After this, he went out and saw a tax collector named
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Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
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And Levi made a great, mark this, feast in his house.
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And there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. And the
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Pharisees, they showed up later, and their scribes grumbled at his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?
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Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
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I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
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And so this scoundrel of a man named Levi, who was a Jew, who extracted money from other
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Jews on behalf of Rome, was a man who was a traitor, a man who was despised, a man who was rich, a man who had the tax franchise.
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And he is approached by Jesus. And the Lord of the universe says, you are mine.
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I call you. And he responds like they would back in those days to follow a rabbi, to get up and actually follow the rabbi.
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He leaves everything. Unlike the rich young ruler, Levi follows him. And Levi is so excited that he could be saved from all his sins because Levi knows he's an unrighteous man.
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He throws a big party. And he uses his money to have this party to invite his other friends, his other friends that were lowlifes, tax collectors and sinners.
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And again, remember sinners in the gospel, in the gospel accounts are people that weren't under Mosaic law in their mind.
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They're Gentiles and they just were lawless people. Yes, we're sinners. But here's a, it's a term, a
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New Testament, a gospel term for just really lowlife people. But this man's so excited that he got saved, that he's redeemed, that he's forgiven, that he's right with God, that he invites all his friends, not to celebrate their sin, not to applaud their sin, not to say you're finding your sin, but because he's now has the spiritual doctor,
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Jesus. And that spiritual doctor is going to talk to these men about their sin and call them to repentance.
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The Pharisees didn't like it because the Pharisees don't like Jesus because the
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Pharisees like themselves and they like their own power structure, eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners.
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And so our passage today could be led into by these words, speaking of eating and drinking.
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So we come to our passage. I don't think the Pharisees like the answer from Jesus.
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So they're back at Jesus with more objections. Don't eat with sinners now turns into don't eat at all.
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Don't drink with sinners turns into don't drink with sinners at all. There's too much celebration around you,
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Jesus. Too much happiness, too much joy, and we don't like it. My purpose this morning is simple.
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Two words, Jesus, joy. Those two words go together because where there's
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Jesus, there's joy. And if you'd like to have joy, the answer is found in Jesus.
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It's not found in your trials, your circumstances, the blood test that you're raised or lack thereof.
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It's found in Jesus. If you'd like to have joy, the answer lies in who Jesus is.
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And so our outline is simple. Do you want joy? Then you need to see
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Jesus for who he is in this passage. If you want joy, you need to see
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Jesus. And why do I say see Jesus? Because I'm thinking about Hebrews chapter 12. Looking to Jesus, seeing
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Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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So two focal points that we're going to look at are outlined today to answer the question, would you like more joy?
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Would you like to be a joyful person? I read one person, he said, you know, I've met a lot of Christians and I'll call them dill pickle
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Christians. I love to, some of you just gave me a look like you look like a dill pickle
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Christian. Like what? You know, it's always fun to give like a little infant, a little toddler, rather, you know, lemon for the first time, or you get some of that lemon juice and that fake little lemon plastic thing and you squeeze it in their mouth.
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I don't know why I like doing that to kids, but I just like it. And it's kind of like we walk around in our lives instead of walking by faith.
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And we walk by sight and it just drives us down and we become moody and crabby and depressed and nobody wants to be around us.
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And we're just this kind of pity party Christian. You know some of these people because you are some of those people and so am
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I. And it's like you walk up and you talk to the person and hi, how are you? What's going on? And before you know it, you're in the black hole vortex of all their problems.
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They never seem to say, I praise God in spite of what I'm going through. God's been good to me. Oh, he's been so faithful.
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He's good. Even though I'm crying, even though I've lost a loved one, I'm still trusting in him.
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So today I think it's good for all of us to be reminded that joy and Jesus go together. And if you're not a joyful person,
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I know what you're not thinking about. I know you're not thinking about a person who's named Jesus, the risen
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Savior. We need to be reminded this morning that Jesus is alive. That Jesus's words are true.
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And that God is good because we see that in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Would you like joy?
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Number one, see Jesus as a bridegroom. See Jesus as a bridegroom.
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Now there's all kinds of names for Jesus. And they tell us things about him. Alpha and Omega, First and Last, Savior, Captain, Redeemer, Friend.
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You could go on and on and on with the names of Jesus. King, Lord, Sovereign.
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We saw last week there's a good name for Jesus that helps us understand him. And that was the name Physician. Luke knows a little bit about being a physician.
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And he calls Jesus a physician because people don't necessarily need their bodies healed as much as they need their spirits healed.
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That is to say, to be forgiven and cleansed and washed. And so the last section, Jesus was a physician.
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And he basically said, physicians need to be around sick people. You know, in the world of telemarketing.
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Not telemarketing, although that's happening true. I met with my cardiologist a while ago and it was over the internet.
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That's what that's called. Or Zooming. It's just telephysician.
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You know, Jesus, the real physician, is around people. And so now we move into this passage in verses 33 and following.
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From Jesus as physician to Jesus as groom, to Jesus as bridegroom, as we might say.
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So let's pick it up in 533. Luke 533. If you're not familiar with our church, we just are going through the
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Bible verse by verse. And I want you to know what's in the Bible. So you can remember God is good in the personal work of Jesus.
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533. And they said to him, the Pharisees said to him, we're so happy you, the
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Messiah, have arrived. We are thrilled. Is there a fattened calf around here that we can kill?
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Break out the wine. Go tell everybody Jesus is here. This is the best day of our lives.
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That's not even in the amplified version. It actually reads, and they said to him,
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I don't know how to say it as sternly as they said it, but here goes. The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers.
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And so do the disciples of the Pharisees. But yours eat and drink.
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They're going straight to Jesus. Here's another confrontation by the Pharisees. It's the clash of the legalist and it's a clash of free grace.
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It's the clash of those that want to control Jewish society. We'll do our own rules. We'll not even do
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Mosaic law, which is good. But we'll add our own traditions. More and more and more.
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Legalists add law after law after law after law. Just populating like rabbits in spring.
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Jesus, on the other hand, grace. Grace incarnate. Sovereign grace. The grace of God that saves.
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Based on nothing that the people have ever done or will do. Because God is generous and gracious. Not just unmerited favor, defining grace, but demerited favor.
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They come right to Jesus. How can you be the Messiah? How can you be a religious rabbi and not fast?
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We're fasting. We're gloomy. We're miserable. We're not feasting.
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And you not only feast with tax collectors and sinners, you feast at all. How can you be godly and not fast?
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I mean, I don't know if they were nice when they said it, but certainly they're trying to attack
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Him and discredit Him. Hey, by the way, Jesus, don't you know even you brought up the topic repentance?
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To bring sinners to repentance? When you're repenting in the Old Testament, according to us especially, you have to fast.
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Repentance, fasting, they go together. They're Siamese twins. Don't you know that,
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Jesus? You're talking about fast and repentance. And that means you're talking about mourning and fasting.
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And we refrain from pleasure because we're godly. We're ascetics because we don't want to do those fleshly things.
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It's almost like the body's bad. Flesh is bad. We're the spiritual ones.
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We endure life. We have the daily grind. And your disciples and you, you're just enjoying yourselves.
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And what is happening here is a clash between old Pharisees controlling
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Judaism wrongly and new Jesus has arrived. It's the old and the new.
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And we'll see that in a little bit. William Barclay said the
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Pharisees took the Old Testament fasting law and now made it on Mondays and Thursdays every fasting.
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Fasting would have to occur every Monday and Thursday. I think you remember in Luke 18, the tax collector was there praying, but the
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Pharisee was there and he said, I fast what? How many times a week? Twice a week. So we fast all the time.
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And Mondays and Thursdays are fast days. And probably Levi had the party on a
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Monday or Thursday. Now, if you read your Bible rightly, especially the
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Old Testament, what would your Bible tell you about fasting? When I first got saved, I heard fasting was good.
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And so I fasted with Kim every Tuesday when we were in California because I thought, well, that's just what you do fasting.
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By the way, when I say fasting, I'm not talking about intermittent fasting. I'm not talking about health fasting or anything like that.
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Fasting before procedures or anything. I don't mean that. I'm talking about for religious reasons.
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If I say to you Old Testament fasting, what should you say? You should say morning.
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You should say sorrow. You should say times of calamity, times of affliction.
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Not just a regular thing. We fast. But something's going on and I should be fasting.
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Let me give you a few illustrations. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan replied, the
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Lord has taken away your sin. You're not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the
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Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die. And after Nathan had gone home, the
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Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife had born to David and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child.
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He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground.
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Fasting had to do with times of affliction and mourning. When Saul and his son
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Jonathan were killed, they all mourned and wept and fasted. Second Samuel.
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When the Moabites were going to come and attack, Josaphat resolved to inquire of the
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Lord and proclaim to fast. What did Queen Esther say should happen when they were going to try to destroy all the
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Jews? Fasting. And so when you think about Old Testament, you should be thinking about fasting.
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True or false? There's only one command in all the Old Testament to fast.
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50 -50 shot. Answers, true. One, and it was on the Day of Atonement.
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In Leviticus 16. Is it fine to fast other times? Certainly. But you're not sinning if you don't fast except for the
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Day of Atonement if you were Jewish. Is it okay to fast? I think last time I checked in Luke chapter 4, did
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Jesus fast? In the temptation? Yes, 40 days. Fasting isn't the issue.
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The issue is why you fast and when you fast. And here these Pharisees are saying, you know what?
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We fast. Jesus, your people aren't fasting. And true groups of fasters.
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Look again at the text. The disciples of John often fast and pray. And so do the disciples of the
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Pharisees. Now the disciples of John could be fasting for lots of reasons.
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John's in jail. And so is there a calamity? We're going to pray for that. Some of us maybe as John's disciples aren't sure
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Jesus is the Messiah. So if the Messiah is not here, Roman government's taking over. We fast. And then these
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Pharisees and the disciples of the Pharisee, they're fasting. And as I said earlier, but I want to repeat it, legalists add to Scripture.
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Rule after rule after rule after rule. Sometimes even with good intentions do people add to the
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Bible. It was years ago, I think 30 years ago, promise keepers came out and they gave seven more promises that you should keep in order to live a life of this, that, and the other.
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Probably they had good motives with that men's movement. But nonetheless, adding to the
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Bible. But the Pharisees certainly with bad motives add fast this day, fast that day.
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And if you're spiritual, you'll fast. If you're super spiritual, you'll fast all the more. And what they would do when they fasted is they wanted to make sure they looked as miserable as possible.
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And they kind of, they put makeup as it were on their face to make their faces look even worse.
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Jesus talked about that in Matthew 6. Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do.
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For they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men.
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And here these Pharisees fasting. We're controlled by Rome. The Messiah is not here. And so we're going to be gloomy and sad and mourning and awful.
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We know what to do. It's a sign of true piety. You feast, we fast.
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Pharisees were exacting. They were precise. Mike, could you please say something nice about a
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Pharisee? Okay, I'll say one thing nice about a Pharisee, even though they're false teachers.
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When you disobey Mosaic law, you get exiled to another country. Israel has disobeyed
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God and has been exiled not once but twice. The only thing I could say positive about a
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Pharisee is they really want to obey Mosaic law so they don't get exiled again. If I had one word to describe legalism, adding human traditions to the
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Bible to say to yourself, I'm more right with God if I do these things, I would say it's the word suffocate.
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They asphyxiated people. They smothered them. And you know, one of the things they suffocated was the joy of the people.
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Because legalism suffocates. It pushes down. I always thought to myself, that'd be kind of a good punk rock band name,
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The Suffocators. I don't know if they exist or not, but probably. The Jewish Pharisees in control of the religion at the time were also in control of how everything operated and they were legalistic to the core.
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And now Jesus arrives. Remember what happened in John chapter 2? The Jewish legalism that just cranks everybody down and Jesus shows up.
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And what does He do with those six water pots that were for pharisaical hand cleaning to be better before God?
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What did He say? Jesus knew that Psalm 104 and other places talked about wine being a good thing that God gives out of His generous heart.
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And He says, you've got those six water pots in John chapter 2 that are for pharisaical hand cleaning and you are just wringing the proverbial necks of the people having joy.
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And I'm going to take those water pots and I'm going to have my first miracle. What's the first miracle? If it was me,
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I'd have the first miracle Lazarus being raised from the dead. The first miracle is water to wine.
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The Messiah is here and you should have joy. And for you Baptists, it's okay. You can have
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Welch's. I mean, it's just better. Did you know
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Mr. Welch was a Methodist pastor who didn't think communion should have wine?
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So he wanted to have grape juice and learn how to pasteurize it. So I didn't get anything out of that sermon today, pastor, but the suffocators and Welch's.
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That's all I got. Jesus, the master teacher.
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Jesus, the master preacher is going to use an illustration, an analogy about how we should act when the
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Messiah is here. How the men should act when Jesus, the incarnate one, is right in their very midst.
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And so he uses a wedding or marriage analogy. It's brilliant. What's not brilliant is the way the
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ESV translates it, but we'll work through that because translations, I mean, it's a great translation overall, but once in a while it just fumbles.
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And here's one. Let me read the ESV and then let me tell you what it says more specifically or in other translations.
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And Jesus said to them, can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
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And again, Jesus, the great preacher, rhetorical question, gets straight to the point. Can you make the wedding guests?
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Other translations will say, can you make the attendance of the groom? Literally, he's saying, can you make the groomsmen, those that attend to the groom, fast?
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Oh, it might apply to the wedding guests, but we're talking about groomsmen. We're talking about people that help the groom.
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So let me just reread it again. Can you make the attendance of the groom, groomsmen, fast while the bridegroom is with them?
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And here we have this good picture. And what's flooding through your mind already? Flooding through your mind is, oh, I know elsewhere where Jesus is called the groom and we're called the what as the church?
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The bride. Oh, I see what's going on here. If you were a
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Pharisee, guess what? And you went to a wedding, you wouldn't fast. They went to weddings, but they didn't fast then.
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Matter of fact, tradition was, you didn't have to do any religious training or religious stuff while you're at the wedding.
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Now for our weddings, they're basically 24 hours. We have the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and then the reception.
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Jammed into, let's just say one day. For the Jews, it was seven days, seven day wedding.
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The couple wasn't married and sent off on a honeymoon. The couple was married and then they celebrated for seven days.
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Feasting, joy, drinking, dancing. One writer said for rabbinical writings, all in attendance on the bridegroom are relieved of all religious observances which would lessen their joy.
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We don't want to have anything to tamper down joy. Life is hard, we're farmers, we have to go get our water, we have the cattle, we have everything else.
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And so you just say, oh, for a week. King for a day, queen for a day, no, for a week.
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And everybody has fun and celebrates. There was nothing more festive in those days than a wedding.
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Probably the same for us as well. If I said to you back in those days, wedding, you would say joy, happiness, celebration, excitement.
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So now we have the groom and we have the groom's men. And when the groom doesn't show up, you know, an hour before the wedding,
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I can imagine what the groom's men might be like. But the groom is here. Jesus is here. He's saying,
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I'm the groom. My attendants, my groom's men are my disciples. I'll call them as apostles in the next chapter.
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And why would they be sad, mourning, sackcloth and ashes?
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I'm here. Jesus is on scene. The Messiah has arrived and they're going to be happy.
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John the Baptist even knew this. He said, he who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, like the best man who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
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So this joy of mine has been made full. When you think about wedding analogies and you think about the ultimate wedding, where we're united with our
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Savior Jesus, does this sound familiar? Revelation 19, let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to him, for the marriage of the
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Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. What is eternity going to be like in the presence of God for Christians, forgiven
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Christians? Well, we can't explain it. We can't describe it. The Ferraris and the
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Avon Ross went autocross racing a while ago. And it's like motocross, but you're in a car and you're screaming through this course and everything else.
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And it just feels like there's like 10 G -forces on your face. And I thought to myself, if my friends ask me how is autocross,
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I don't know how to explain it. Because how do you explain a feeling? How do you explain a feeling, joy?
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I can't explain it. I feel it, I know it. But how do I describe something that's kind of a feeling?
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And so for scripture, what happens is, while we'll never know until that day what it's like to stand before Jesus face to face, what we could do is say, what do we have that's best on the earth?
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Wedding, bride, consummation, groom, celebration, happiness, food, wine, tasty buds, taste buds.
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And Jesus is saying, it is inappropriate to fast and mourn. I'm here. You're acting like I'm not the
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Messiah. You're acting like I'm dead. True or false? For everything, there's a season.
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I hope you say true because it's Ecclesiastes 3. It would be insane to mourn and fast when
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Jesus is present. Now, I've officiated quite a few weddings in my ministry.
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I officiated one right here on Friday morning. My three favorite weddings are when
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I got married to Kim, of course. Glad that's over because the pastor, he told me
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I had to love my wife like Christ loved the church. I'm like, oh. And he looked at me like, are you ready for that son? Kim's father -in -law, father rather, stepfather.
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I also loved Marty and Haley's wedding on the beaches of Malibu. Don't tell anybody we didn't get a permit.
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You're like, you lawless pastor. I didn't know I was supposed to. And then
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Luke and Hannah last summer, San Diego. I love those.
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I love other ones. And I was trying to think to myself, what's the most extravagant wedding I've ever been to?
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I've only been to one rich person's wedding. I didn't officiate it, but I was invited to go there and to pray before the meal.
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And it was down Cape. Notice how I said that? Down Cape. And it was like Yameth.
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And it was at a country club. And everything's open.
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And I especially love the open bar. The open oyster bar.
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And I took three or four oysters. And they were the best oysters I'd ever had. I mean, this is an expensive country club.
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I said to Kim, I have to go back for more. And she goes, you have to share it with the other people. I said, they'll never know.
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I'm lawless. I do weddings in Malibu without a thing. I might as well just do it. So I thought, well, there's a way to solve this problem.
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And so I went to the person, the attendant. And I said, do you have a lot of oysters back there?
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Is just a few per people? I don't want to just overdo it. He goes, we have so many. Eat as many as you want.
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I didn't have dinner. Because my dinner was the oysters. I bet you had 50 oysters.
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And every one, I was just thinking, these are like four bucks a shot in Manhattan. 60, that's 240 bucks.
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I wasn't mourning. I wasn't fasting. I wasn't sad.
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I wasn't mad. I was thinking, this is a time of celebration, the goodness of God to bring a man and a woman together in holy matrimony, which pictures something much greater.
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If 40 to 60 oysters are that good, I wonder what heaven must be like.
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I wonder what a little piece of bread dipped in a little olive oil on the
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Sea of Galilee with Jesus must be like. I wonder what it must be like when Jesus makes for the disciples after his resurrection, breakfast, fish and bread.
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I wonder what that must have been like. So see, the whole point is, these men trying to control everything, suffocate the joy out of everyone when they should be celebrating, when they should be feasting, when they should have joy.
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Jesus is comparing himself to be the groom, and it's a wedding feast, and he's on earth, the
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Messiah has come. Jesus is the bridegroom. And fascinatingly, God in the
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Old Testament refers to himself as a groom in Hosea 2. I am
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God incarnate. I'm the groom. My people are the bride. So let's just stop for a second.
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It's kind of easy to look at them and say, okay, right. We believe, because the
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Bible teaches it, that Jesus has been raised from the dead, that he has ascended, that he has given his spirit, the
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Holy Spirit, one just like him, to be indwelling in our hearts, to seal us to the day of redemption.
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If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're a Christian, you have the
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Spirit of God, Jesus' Spirit in you, and he is present. So if we go back to those two words again,
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Jesus and joy. If I have Jesus, better he has me, should
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I have joy? Say, well, I don't, you don't understand what I'm going through. I know that, that you're going through something.
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But can you be joyful if Jesus has you? I'll go farther.
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Isn't it a disgrace to Jesus to say, you're the bridegroom and I'm the bride, and you have me, and it's like a wedding feast and a celebration.
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But I, like the Pharisees, because of my circumstances that you put me in God, because you're sovereign,
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I will not be joyful. See, when I put it that way, I think,
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Lord, I don't want to be that. Lord, forgive me. You and your providence have put me in a certain place.
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You've promised that it's even for my own good. You said in spite of the various trials, I could count it all joy, because you're working in my heart, because the
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Savior's real. And my response to you, while difficult, but still right, is
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I should rejoice. Are you a rejoicer? Kim's grandmother always said, it was her slogan, and she wrote it down in all kinds of piece of paper all around the house.
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Make it your choice to rejoice. Sometimes I think, we just want to have a pity party with ourselves, because that's a way of extracting attention from others.
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Woe is me, let me tell you all my problems. And certainly with Christians, we can share our trials and weep to those who weep.
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I get that part. But even with a tear in your eye and the blood test not going your way, can we have joy knowing that Jesus has us and we have
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Jesus? The answer is we know what the answer is. So Lord, help my joyless heart.
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I could maybe put it this way. When was the last time you were accused of being too happy? When was the last time you were accused of being too joyful?
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I mean, come on, I can't stand that guy. I mean, he's so joyful all the time. I just have to avoid him and all. We're not just the guest of the bridegroom.
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We're the bride. We're not the attendants. We're the ones that he pours out his special attention, dying for us, living for us, being raised for us.
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J .C. Ryle said about the word bridegroom, for Jesus, groom, it is a name comforting and encouraging to all
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Christians. It teaches the deep and tender love with which Jesus regards all sinners who believe in him.
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Weak and unworthy and shortcoming as they are in themselves, he, Jesus, feels toward them a tender affection.
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That's how God thinks of you, dear Christian. As a bride is loved by her husband, the
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Lord Jesus loves us. German philosopher
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Nietzsche said, I would believe Christian salvation if they looked a little more like people who had been saved.
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One man said, if you have no joy in religion, there's a leak in your Christianity somewhere.
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It's so true. Everybody is smiling. You know what I'm talking about. And when you study who
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Jesus is in the gospels and elsewhere, of course, you realize how God is good and that brings joy.
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Everything about Jesus in his life oozes joy. Let me give you a couple of illustrations. At his birth, the angel said to them, do not be afraid for behold,
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I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be for all the people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior, who's
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Christ the Lord. From his birth to his ascension, Luke 24, he led them out as far as Bethany, the resurrected
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Jesus, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came about that while he was blessing them, he parted from them.
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And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising
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God. When I was in a Lutheran church in the 70s, we regularly sang that song.
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They'll know we are Christians by our what? I know we are Christians by our love, by our love. Let's put joy in there because last time
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I checked, the fruit of the spirit is also joy. Love, peace, what? Joy. And again,
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I'm not saying there are trials, real trials on earth. I'm saying if Jesus has you, should you not respond with joy?
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1 Peter 1, and though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, you believe in him.
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You greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. One writer said, you cannot get a hallelujah out of some
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Christians if you squeeze them through a ringer. Thoughts dominated by who
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Jesus is. And I've regularly said this to you and I say it to myself. When's the last time you read a book about Jesus?
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I could back up. When's the last time you read a book? When's the last time you read a religious book? When's the last time you read a book about Jesus? Well, no,
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I need to read that book about how to receive comfort. I've got a few cancer books these days and I've got, you know, something about when they call you and say you have cancer.
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I just read it from David Paulson, I think. And so I read these books about comfort and anxiety and this, that, and the other.
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But what about the Lord Jesus? Isaiah 61, I will rejoice greatly in the
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Lord. Not my circumstances, but the Lord. My soul will exalt in my God. Why?
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For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He's wrapped me with the robe of righteousness. Listen, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
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Jeremiah 31 contains the new covenant. And before it talks about the new covenant, they shall come and sing aloud on the heights of Zion.
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They shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord. Then the young women will rejoice in the dance and the young men and the old shall be merry.
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I, God, will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow.
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I will feast the soul of priests with abundance and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness.
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That's the key to joy right there. Verse 35 of Luke chapter 5, some foreboding words.
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Jesus says the days will come when the bridegroom, me, Jesus, is taken away, crucifixion, from them and then they will fast in those days.
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How do you think the disciples responded after they denied Jesus? He was taken away, scourged, tortured, crucified and died.
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I don't think they ate much. I don't think they drank much wine. I think they mourned and fasted.
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There's a time they're going to take me away. It's inappropriate to fast now because I'm here.
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There'll be a time when I'm rejected by the elders and killed. They'll fast in those days.
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Isaiah 53, when he was taken away, they'll fast in those days. But remember, we're on this side of the resurrection.
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We're on this side of the cross. We're on this side of Jesus died. Now we have Jesus. He has us.
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At the death of Jesus, the men fasted and mourned. At the death of Jesus, the legalists celebrated and feasted.
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Dear Christian, we have Jesus because he has us.
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And with the language of Isaiah 25, I want you to be reminded of this so that you can have joy because you have
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Jesus. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away all tears from all faces.
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And the reproach of his people, he will take away from all the earth. For the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, behold, this is our
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God. We've waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord. We've waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
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I would like you, dear Christian, to say,
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Uncle, theologically. Okay, for some of you MMA people, I know we don't have anybody stooping so low to be in such a sport, but I want you to tap out.
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Here's what I want you to tap out to. My circumstances that are full of trials, sin, war, plague, politics.
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I'm going to say uncle to that and say, God, you put those things in my life for a reason. I can complain about it.
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I can murmur. I can have pity parties. It won't change anything. But I know,
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Lord, you're changing me in the spite of these things. And that's why I can count it all joy. I'm living on this side of the risen
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Savior. I'm living on this side of the promises of God. Yes and amen in Jesus. I'm living on the side of the
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Savior that says, I'm your physician. I'm your groom. I will take care of you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.
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And I'm just going to have to say, Bob and I were talking about this yesterday or two days ago.
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It took me a long, long, long time to say from my heart and mean it.
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God, thank you for my cancer. It took a long time.
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It took a long time for me to tap out and to say, Uncle, I have this issue in my life.
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And I just have to say, what am I going to do? Get mad at you, God, and compound my problems?
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My problem will now be I have a sickness and you're disciplining me. I don't want that.
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And I think as you focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will focus on His sovereign hand and His good hand because we know
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He's good. And you can say, my good Savior brought me into this trial for my good and my glory.
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And because while I don't like cancer on my trial, I will say uncle to this and say, thank you for my trial.
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Thank you. And it will explode in your heart of joy and expressible full of glory because instead of the focus on the trial, the focus is on the one who's the
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Lord of trial because He's good. How do I know God's good? Because I've just been watching
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Him and Luke over and over and over. Jesus, the incarnate one, the one who gives joy.
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If Jesus is dead, mourn and fast and weep and suffer alone, you pitiful person.
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But since He's alive, you ought to have joy. Rejoice in the
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Lord always. And again, I say rejoice because where Jesus is, there's joy.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. I confess as a pastor, I don't have the joy that I ought to so many times.
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Would you please forgive me? Would you forgive these dear people as we rehearse your truths, how nothing can separate us from your love?
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As we rehearse the truths, if you're for us, who can be against us? If we rehearse the truths, we deserve hell and we get heaven.
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We say we want to be joyful. Let us now rejoice. May the