FBC Sunday Evening Service

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good evening, I hope you had a good afternoon, got some rest, maybe enjoyed some fresh air today.

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It was a good day for that. These nice pleasant summer days that we're having these days and kind of thank the

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Lord for them. So thank the Lord for the rain we had this past week, been praying about that.

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I was talking to one of the men at the farmer's market yesterday, one of the farmers at the farmer's market.

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We talk a lot when I go in there and because he knows what

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I do for a living, I know what he does for a living. So I asked him if he was busy out in the fields, he says, yeah, yeah,

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I've been busy, finally got some rain. He said, yes, thanks for praying about that. So I said, my pleasure.

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So even though I had to mow the lawn as soon as I got back from the farmer's market, but anyway.

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Well, let's begin tonight with number 154 in our hymnals. This is the hymn

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Amazing Grace, but with the alternate tune. It's that very pretty

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Appalachian melody, at least I think it is. But anyway, let's stand as we sing, shall we? Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretched soul like me.

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I once was lost, but now am found.

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My eyes were blind, but now I see.

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God's grace has taught me not to fear.

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His grace my every fear relieved.

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How precious did that grace appear, through many dangers, toils, and snares, by grace

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I have. God's grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me safely home.

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When we've been there, ten thousand bright shining as the noonday sun, we've no less days to sing

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God's praise than when the song was first begun.

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Praise the Lord for his amazing grace. Eric, would you please open us in prayer tonight?

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Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. And let's turn to the, in our

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Bibles, to Psalm 85, 85th

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Psalm. Do want to give some opportunities for some prayer requests tonight, but then also for word of testimony.

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Psalm 85. So we'll read this Psalm and then sing it from our

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Psalter. Find it, Psalm 85.

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Psalmist writes, Lord, you have been favorable to your land. You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.

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You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. You have taken away all your wrath.

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You've turned from the fierceness of your anger. Restore us, O God, of our salvation and cause your anger toward us to cease.

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Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?

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Show us your mercy, Lord, and grant us your salvation. I will hear what

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God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people and to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly.

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Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

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Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

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Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and shall make his footsteps our pathway.

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Well, that is a blessing to the reading of this psalm. And in our Psalter, it's number 177, 177.

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And the tune is one you'll recognize. It's, I think, it's the tune to the hymn for all the saints.

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It starts off with this boom, and then we start the song, all right? So, In Times of Old is how it's titled,

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Psalm number 177. In times of old, you showed your favor,

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Lord, to Jacob's line, whose fortunes you restored.

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For all their sins, forgiveness freely poured.

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Mercy on us forever. Return, O God, restore us once again.

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Our sin will you, our souls, contend.

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Mercy on us forever. For grace outpoured, for loving -kindness shown.

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Our listening ears will wake you up. You speak of peace, you make salvation known.

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Mercy on us forever.

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The paths of truth and loving -kindness meet.

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Sweetly embrace of righteousness and peace.

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You will restore and give our land increase.

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O Lord, have mercy on us forever.

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I picked that psalm and that song tonight because the text for our message focuses on the

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Lord Jesus expressing mercy toward those who others think don't deserve it.

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We'll look at that in just a little bit. But just by way of announcement, the finance committee, we're supposed to meet after church tonight at the service.

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So right after service, we'll get together and go over that financial report from the last month and prepare for next

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Sunday evening at the conclusion of the service of our quarterly business meeting.

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So be looking forward to that. And then the other third thing is the picnic cookout on Wednesday night.

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So if you haven't signed up for that, you want to be sure to do that on your way out this evening so we have enough brats.

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We have enough brats. All right. So a word of testimony tonight.

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Anything to share? I will say this. I'm going to speak for Jean. She said to me before service,

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I'm so thankful. For the first time in a long time, I was able to see the hymn book with the lighting.

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I didn't have to hold it up this close to my eyes. I may, I don't know if it's that dramatic for everybody, but it was good.

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Yes. Good. Yes.

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Yes. Kent and Lori, did they get home? They got, okay. They're supposed to be home today.

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Yeah. So we're praying for them this week. Good. Looked like they had a good time and saw their

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Facebook posts and pictures of having a wonderful time down in Gatlinburg.

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So good. Yes, Jean. Oh, good.

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Good. I'm sure. Yeah. The blessing to have that family all together. Great.

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Yes. Let's do Roger and then Priscilla. Roger. Good. Yes.

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And thank the Lord. Kyle's doing well. Getting along well. He does have,

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Kyle does have this angiogram in two weeks. So keep that in mind.

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Pray for him. Yes, Priscilla. Oh, you need some

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Pepto -Bismol, huh? Okay. We'll pray for you to feel better.

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Yes. This is... Good. Amen.

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Oh, you made it.

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That's good. You got to time that commute a little better. Amen.

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We need to move on, but this is Amanda. And she lives across over here at Sterling Towers.

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And so pray for her, pray the Lord protects her when she gets comes back and forth to church because she's riding on this, driving on this thing out here on Freeport Road.

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And you don't have, you don't have any headlights or taillights on that thing, do you? Okay. Yeah. Name written in heaven.

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Amen. Amen. Well, thank you.

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Thank you. All right.

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Let's turn to Mark chapter two. Actually, I'm sorry.

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I got ahead of myself there. In our hymnal first. Number 177. 177.

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Our great savior. What a great savior is. We'll sing stanzas one, three, and five.

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First, middle, and last of this hymn. And let's stand together again, shall we?

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177. Jesus, what a friend for sinners. He is with me to the end.

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Jesus, I do now receive him.

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More than all in him I find. He has granted me forgiveness.

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I am his and he is mine. All I want is a savior.

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Saving, helping, keeping, loving.

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Is with me to the end. Thank you.

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You may be seated. I like the text in this song. And I like the tune.

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I enjoy the tune, hearing it. I don't enjoy leading the tune.

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I mean, it's because when you're doing the song leading, you have to sing the melody. And this is one of those hymns

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I'd rather sing the bass because it gets so high. So I think when we sing this hymn,

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I think of the nursing home services because we'd often go there. And this hymn, it was in the cycle of hymns that we would use.

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And I never, I got in the middle of singing it and I often wondered, why did I pick this? Because it's such a strain on my voice, you know, to hit these high notes.

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And I can't imagine what that sounds like on the live stream. If anybody's watching the live stream tonight and you heard that,

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I apologize for that because it sounds really flat and bad. But anyway, Mark chapter two,

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Mark chapter two. But it is a wonderful hymn, our great savior. And we see this brought out that he is a great savior in our text for tonight.

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I want to read verses 13 to 22 for the message. Mark chapter two, verse 13.

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Speaking of Jesus says, then he went out again by the sea and all the multitude came to him and he taught them.

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As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, follow me.

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So he arose and followed him. Now it happened as he was dining in Levi's house that many tax collectors and sinners also sat together with Jesus and his disciples.

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For there were many and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, how is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?

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When Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

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I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The disciples of John and of the

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Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to him, why did the disciples of John and of the

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Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?

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As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them.

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And then they will fast in those days. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment or else the new piece pulls away from the old and the tear is made worse.

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And no one puts new wine into old wine skins or else the new wine bursts the wine skins. The wine is spilled and the wine skins are ruined, but new wine must be put into new wine skins.

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Brief prayer. Thank you for our great savior, father. Thank you for the

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Lord Jesus, who had some startling companionships in his earthly ministry, but we are so grateful that he did.

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Bless these thoughts to our hearts tonight. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, in Mark chapter one,

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Jesus creates quite a stir as he expresses his authority in teaching and healing and casting out demons.

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But most of the stir is very positive. People hear about what

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Jesus is doing, what Jesus is saying, and they're drawn to him. He becomes more and more popular.

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But here in chapter two, in this text before us tonight, Jesus causes a stir, but not so much because of what he's doing, but with whom he's doing it.

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In other words, it's more the companionships that he's engaged in in this particular text that causes a little bit of a problem for some people, causes eyebrows to raise and causes questions to be asked.

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And I want us to notice these companionships. So in verse 13, the first set of companions, if you will, is the multitude.

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He teaches the multitude. And this actually reflects his purpose. It says he went by the sea, the multitude came to him, or literally there was coming to him.

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They just kept coming to him, and he taught them. So as I said, this reflects his purpose.

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Remember back in chapter one, verse 38, Jesus said, let's go to the next towns that I may preach there also, because for this purpose

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I have come forth. His purpose was to communicate God's truth, was to communicate the truth of the gospel, to communicate the good news of the coming of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.

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So he came to deliver truth, and he came to deliver that, to do that through preaching the heralding of that truth, as he says in verse 39 of chapter one, he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all

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Galilee. He also did that in simply conversing, in speaking with people.

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So in chapter two, verse two, where it says many gathered together, so there's no longer room to receive them, not even at the door, and he preached the word to them.

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Well, the word preached there, literally is simply the word spoke. Like, I mean, you would use that same word of two people having a conversation.

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They were speaking to one another. It's the Greek word laleo. It just means to speak.

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So there's heralding that he was doing. There's simply speaking that he was engaged in.

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And then here, in this particular case, in verse 13, he was teaching.

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This is a more formal kind of term that is used for instruction.

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It's a more formal approach. So the multitude just kept on coming to him.

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The crowds kept on coming to him because they wanted to hear what he had to say.

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But this manner in which Jesus was doing what he was doing is the thing that was exceptional.

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He was departing from the norm. The norm, as far as teaching the scriptures is concerned, is that this took place in the synagogue.

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Now, Jesus did that. We read of that earlier, that he was preaching, in verse 39 of chapter one, he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all

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Galilee. So he would do that, but he wasn't tied to that. He wasn't restricted to teaching and preaching in the synagogue, even though that was the norm.

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And what was also the norm is that just men and boys would attend the synagogue for this instruction, for this teaching.

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That was the norm. I'm not recommending the movie. I don't remember that much about it.

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I saw it many, many years ago. There's a movie entitled Yentl. Oh, you thought it was a great one, okay.

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But it is a thing of Barbara Streisand was Yentl. And she was a

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Jewish girl who wanted to learn. Her dad was very instrumental in getting her to read and teaching her to read.

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And she just had a voracious appetite for reading and learning. But the problem was she was a

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Jewish girl. She couldn't go to synagogue. She couldn't go to be taught.

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But when it's out in the open like this and the crowds just keep coming to him, the crowds can be men, women, boys, girls.

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It didn't matter. And Jesus didn't care. The multitudes came to him. And so it was his practice here outside of Capernaum as the multitudes came to him, it was his practice to preach and to teach the gospel of the kingdom out in the open air.

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And he was available to anyone and everyone who would come to him.

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This is kind of like the precursor or the precedent maybe for the ministries eventually of John Wesley and George Whitefield, speaking of George Whitefield, who the bulk of their ministry was preaching in the open air, out in fields, because they weren't invited into the established churches of their day.

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They weren't welcome there. So they would go out into the open fields and they would preach the gospel to anyone and everyone who would come to hear.

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Jesus establishes that precedent. So he teaches the multitudes in verse 13.

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In verse 14, as his companionship continues, he chooses one who is despised.

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Verse 14, he passed by and he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office.

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This is the New King James. I think the King James says that the receipt of custom or something of that nature.

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But it's a tax office. It's a tax collector's booth. And this man,

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Levi, as a tax collector, was despised for what he did.

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I mean, if someone was a member of the church here and they worked for the

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Internal Revenue Service, we would love them. We would love them. We would embrace them. We would welcome them.

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And we would not hold their occupation against them in the least bit. They're a brother in Christ.

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But you know as well as I do the sort of default attitude towards someone if they say, yes,

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I work for the Internal Revenue Service. Oh, really? Okay, and you just kind of go on and talk about something else other than their occupation.

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Well, it was even much worse than that because at least those who work in our country for the

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Internal Revenue Service, I mean, they're very limited in what they do and they're paid by the

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IRS exclusively for what they do. And there's all kinds of limits on their categories of their employment and their salary caps and all that kind of stuff.

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Not in that day, the tax collector, the Roman tax collector would get his position by the

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Roman government and then he was able to, he was allowed to tack on to the assessed tax pretty much whatever he wanted to for his,

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I mean, that was his profit. That's how he made his living. And some of these guys, remember

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Zacchaeus, same kind of guy, they were ruthless in their taxation and their exorbitant extra fees that they would add on.

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And so Levi here sitting in the tax office, the tax booth, he collected taxes on any goods exported from Capernaum, including the fish caught in the

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Sea of Galilee. And he would also charge taxes on anything coming in to Capernaum or even passing through.

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Capernaum was a crossroads. It was kind of like, it was on the trade route. So if there's a trade caravan coming through and they got a semi -truck load full of goods, you know, they'd had to have a manifest saying what all was on that, what all was in the trailer behind the semi.

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And Levi would look over that manifest and Rome would charge $1 ,000 in taxes and Levi could add on another 1 ,000 for himself, you know, that kind of thing.

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So you can imagine why a tax collector might be despised for what he did.

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But with this particular individual, the attitude of animosity toward him is amplified by virtue of his race or his ethnicity.

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He's a Jew. I mean, his name is Levi. And you think about the conflicting juxtaposition of his name and his occupation.

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Levi, that's the name of the priestly tribe, the temple service tribe, the tribe of Levi, who are supposed to be especially dedicated to the service of God and pious and all the rest of that kind of stuff.

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But Levi is a tax collector and nobody liked, no

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Jew liked a Jew who is a tax collector. I think that the closest way we can understand the attitude is to think about the

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Jewish foreman, they were called, that worked in the ghettos in like in Warsaw and Poland.

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This is during the Nazi occupation of Poland and World War II.

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And all of the Jews were being collected from whatever Germany occupied in Europe, brought them to the concentration camps, brought them to the ghettos.

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And the Germans would entice Jewish men to serve as foreman, being in charge of certain things within the camp or the ghetto.

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And those Jewish foreman would get special treatment, they'd get special favors, and they would be treated well by their

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Nazi captors for a while. And everybody, all the

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Jewish brothers and sisters hated them, hated them for selling out to the

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Nazis and for what those foreman were doing to them. You can understand the sentiment.

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This is the sentiment that's expressed toward Levi. But Jesus becomes a companion of Levi and chooses him, he chooses

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Levi and he chooses him for a radical transformation. He says to Levi, follow me, follow me.

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Some of you are watching that Chosen series and the scene in that series, the episode where Levi is called from his tax office is really a really humorous, almost humorous, dramatic scene where he's sitting in his tax booth with the bars in front of it so nobody can attack him.

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And he's got a Roman guard outside so nobody can attack him.

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And Jesus comes by and Jesus looks him in the eye and he looks Jesus in the eye and Jesus says to him, follow me.

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And Matthew, Levi, they're in the tax booth, he's looking around, he says, me, who, me?

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Yes, follow me. And he closes up shop and he walks out the door and he hands the keys to the

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Roman guard and says, I'm done, I'm leaving, I'm following, I'm following him. Jesus chooses him to follow him, chooses him for a radical transformation.

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From here on out, Levi is going to focus on a completely new priority, not amassing wealth, not taking advantage of his countrymen, but learning from learning of Jesus, becoming a follower of Jesus, becoming a new man.

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Mark tells us that his name was Levi. But in the gospel account that this disciple wrote, we call it the gospel of Matthew, he refers to himself as Matthew.

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And you can turn over a page or two in your Bible to chapter three and verse 14.

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In all of the lists of the 12, you don't read Levi, you read this.

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Verse 13 says, chapter three, he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he himself wanted.

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And they came to him and look at verse 18. One of them was in this list. It was Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus and so forth.

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Matthew, Matthew and not Levi. And the significance of that is the name change.

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And Jesus did this with others. With Peter, he did that. You are

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Simon, I'm naming you Peter. You are Levi, I'm naming you Matthew. Whether or not

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Jesus gave him that name or he was born with that name, we don't know for sure. But from this point on, he's not referred to as Levi, he's referred to as Matthew.

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And Matthew, the name means gift of the Lord. Gift of the

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Lord. He's chosen for a radical transformation. So in his companionship,

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Jesus is teaching the multitude. He's choosing the despised. And both of these things are creating a stir.

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And thirdly, in verses 15 through 17, he's associating with those who are maligned.

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Those who are maligned. And this, of course, is when he goes to Levi's house and he has dinner.

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And that meal is with the tax collectors and sinners who are sitting together or reclining at the table with Jesus and his disciples.

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So he associates with the maligned by, notice first of all, accepting an invitation from them.

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From Levi. We know in the other gospels that Levi invited him to his home to throw a great feast.

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And here he is dining at Levi's house. Now, again, let me just point this out just so we get a sense of the custom and get an image of the custom.

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The New King James says he was dining in Levi's house. The King James says he reclined at meat.

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Or he sat at meat, I should say. He sat at meat. And the word is literally, he was lying prostrate.

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And that was the posture that people assumed when they were eating a meal.

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The table was a low -lying table just a few inches off the floor. And cushions were set around that table.

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And those who were dining at the table, they would lie down. They would be reclining to eat.

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Now, that seems awfully strange to us, very strange to us. As a matter of fact, but this was the norm.

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So Jesus accepts this invitation, comes to Levi's house and breaks bread with this crowd of undesirables, of maligned people.

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And in doing this, and I think this is important for us to understand, in doing this, this allowed

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Jesus to have contact with people on a more intimate basis, people who were barred from the synagogues.

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No tax collector was allowed in the synagogue. The sinners were not allowed in the synagogue.

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And Jesus, in doing this, was violating some deeply held taboos.

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You don't associate with tax collectors and sinners. Publicans, tax collectors were hated.

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They were off limits. You touch a tax collector, it's like touching a rat in the thinking of the day.

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It's vermin, filth, and the sinners too. I mean, even worse, the sinners.

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I mean, you don't have anything to do with sinners. Tax collectors, because they're in constant contact with and they are united with the

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Gentiles, defiled. They're engaging in friendly cooperation with the

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Roman government, defiled. They make frequent unjust demands on the taxpayers.

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They are defiled. And the sinners, the sinners, this would include those of the character of the

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Mary Magdalenes, the prostitutes, and so on and so forth. Those who were of ill repute, they were maligned.

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They were maligned. This all may sound a little foreign to us.

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I mean, we don't have tax collectors and categories of sinners like this, blah, blah, blah. But we do, we can, we can develop our own list of tax collectors and sinners, right?

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Our own list of kinds of people that, you know, we don't want to have anything to do with them.

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We would not even want to be in the same room with them. I remember someone mentioning to me a few years, several years ago now, that they were invited to an activity, all kinds of people were invited to this thing, and this person said,

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I'm not gonna go, because there's gonna be a guy there that's a homosexual. I am not gonna be in the same room.

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I am not gonna be in the same room with that guy. Well, see, we can do that.

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We can have, we can develop the same kind of an attitude that the Pharisees had, where we have our, we have our list of publicans, our list of sinners, that we will not have anything to do with them.

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We'll not touch them. We'll not be anywhere near them. Well, Jesus corrects these critics here in verses 16 and 17.

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Notice how this companionship of having a meal with these people creates such a stir.

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The scribes and the Pharisees, they saw him eating, and notice what they did. They didn't go to Jesus. They went to his disciples.

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They went to his disciples, and they said, how is it he eats with these tax collectors and sinners?

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I mean, what is he doing here, eating and drinking with them? So the critics here in verse 16 reveal their perspective.

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By asking that question, what is the implication? He has no business doing such a thing.

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If he's such a great rabbi, teacher of the law, then he is way out of line here.

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That's their perspective. Well, Jesus corrects them and chastens them by recasting these untouchables.

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So in verse 17, he says to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

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I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. What Jesus is saying is this.

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These people need a doctor. They need a doctor, and I'm the doctor.

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I'm the physician. The medicine that they need to take is the medicine of repentance.

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But basically what he's saying is, I can't personally offer this medicine if they're harshly maligned and they're cast away, and I refuse to have anything to do with them.

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How in the world could I, as a physician, offer the medicine to those who I won't let near me? Can you imagine going to the doctor's office?

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You're sick. I mean, you're sick, and you go to the doctor's office, and you go to the receptionist, and you say to the receptionist,

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I need to see the doctor. Why, what's the matter? Well, I've got, I'm sick. Well, I've got this sickness. And the nurse, the receptionist says, well, hold on just a minute.

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She closes the glass door, and she holds it. She says, hold on just a minute. Closes the glass door. A few minutes later, she comes back, and she just cracks the glass thing open a minute, and says, get out of here.

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Get out of here. The doctor doesn't want to see you. He doesn't want to have anything to do with you. Get, leave, get out of here.

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It's incongruous. I mean, it makes absolutely no sense. This is what Jesus is saying. These people need me.

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I'm the physician that they need. They are sick with sin, and they need to repent, and I have the medicine that they need.

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Why would I not have dinner with them, giving me an opportunity to provide the medicine that they so desperately need?

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So he teaches the multitudes. He chooses the despised. He associates with the maligned, and then in verses 18 through 22, he unsettles the religionists.

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So another layer of his companionship is not really positive companionship.

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He's interacting with these religionists in verses 18 through 22.

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They come to him because, or they come to interrogate him because it seems that his willingness to freely associate with these sinners has led to the neglect of some, what they consider essential devout practices.

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Look at what they do. So John the Baptist has some disciples, and the

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Pharisees, they practiced fasting. Statement of fact. Then they came and they said to Jesus, why do the disciples of John and of the

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Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? It's like, what kind of compromise has been going on in your teaching, in your ministry,

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Mr. Rabbi, that your disciples aren't practicing these essential spiritual practices like fasting?

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And what they're getting at is that these companions of Jesus, his disciples are violating the traditions of the

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Pharisees, and they are unsettling these Pharisees, terribly unsettling them.

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Now, by the way, isn't fasting commanded in the Old Testament? Once, yes.

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There's one fast day per year that's commanded in the Old Testament. It's the Day of Atonement. It's the only one that's commanded.

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But when the Babylonian captivity occurred, there were more frequent fasts that were added, not by the law of God, but by the practice of pious, well -meaning religious people.

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But they then interpreted those additional fasts as being meritorious.

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You know, this is going to gain favor with God. If we engage in these fasts, then

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God will deliver us from this captivity. So we need to be more engaged in fasting so we can get out of this captivity faster.

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See what we're doing, God, see what we're doing. And then by the time of the first century, by the time this

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Pharisees come on the scene, they had developed the whole ritual of fasting to the extent that a pious

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Pharisee would fast two days a week on Sunday and Wednesday.

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It has nothing to do with the schedule of the local church ministry, okay? Oh, yeah, that's kind of like us.

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You know, we go to church on Sunday and then again Wednesday. Nah, it's, but they did. They established this ritual of two fast days per week,

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Sunday and Wednesday. So you have the Sabbath. When Sabbath is over, you may have a celebratory

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Sabbath after Sabbath feast, but then you fast on Sunday and you fast again on Wednesday.

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If you didn't do that, there was something wrong with your spirituality. You were spiritually inferior.

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And here's Jesus. He's got this group of disciples who are following him, listening to what he's teaching, and they're not fasting at all.

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They're not fasting on Sunday. They're not fasting on Wednesday. They're not fasting at all. How come?

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What's going on? Well, Jesus explains and he challenges them. And the explanation comes in verses 19 and 20.

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Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? Come on, you don't fast at a party.

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You don't fast at a celebration. That's a time for merrymaking.

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That's a time for enjoying a feast. And what he's saying is that the bridegroom is here.

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And who's the bridegroom? Of course, Jesus. Who's the bride? Those who are his disciples, those who are followers of him.

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And then in verse 20, he says, the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.

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Some, by the way, have read this and they say, well, okay, doesn't that mean then that, you know, now we ought to be fasting.

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We ought to establish fast days and all the rest of that stuff. If you want to fast, fast. If you're burdened about something and so burdened that you don't want to eat, you want to forget about eating, fine, forget about eating.

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But no, that's not what this is saying. The day when Jesus is going to be taken away from them and they will fast in those days,

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I think had to do with the days of the day after, you know, the crucifixion and shortly thereafter when

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Jesus wasn't present with them. But remember what Jesus said just before being ascended into heaven?

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I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So it would not be appropriate for us to say, well,

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Jesus isn't with us, so therefore we need to fast. The bridegroom isn't with us, therefore we need to fast.

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No, the bridegroom is with us. He said he's with us. Well, anyway, this is his explanation.

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My disciples aren't fasting because I am with them and it would be inappropriate for them to fast when the bridegroom is with them.

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But then he issues this challenge in verses 21 and 22. And the challenge is in the form of this analogy.

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He said no one takes a piece of unshrunk cloth, you know, sews it into an old garment.

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The new will pull away from the old, the tear will be made worse. No one puts new wine into old wineskins.

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You know, the old wineskins have been stretched out because of the fermentation process and you put new wine in there, they can't stretch anymore and the wineskin will burst and the wineskin will be ruined and the wine will spill on the ground and new wine must be put in new wineskins.

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What Jesus is saying is this, that new life in union with Jesus, new life in union with Jesus could not simply be confined to the old forms of Judaism and especially as those old forms of Judaism have been distorted and expanded upon by the

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Pharisaical traditionalists. Trying to do so, verse 21 says, trying to preserve the

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Pharisees' way of thinking and the Old Testament form of the faith would be like patching up the old with what is new and that makes it all worthless.

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And in verse 22, he's saying that, you know, using the new wine of the gospel, the new wine of the gospel of the kingdom and putting it into the old wine of the old covenant, well, it would end up destroying both.

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In other words, Christianity isn't simply a reformed sect of Judaism.

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That's what Jesus is saying. Well, that unsettles the religionists. So look at these companions that Jesus has developed in this passage.

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The multitude creates a stir. He enjoys companionship with the despised tax collectors and sinners.

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That creates quite a stir. He associates with the maligned tax collectors and the sinners.

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That creates a stir. And in his ongoing companionship with his disciples who don't practice the rituals and the traditions of these legalistic

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Pharisees, that unsettles those religionists and creates quite a stir as well.

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But he does all of this, he does all of this entering into companionship with these people because simply he is the friend of sinners.

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Just as we sung before the message, right? Jesus, what a friend of sinners.

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Is he your friend? Is he your friend? Is he your great savior? So grateful for how he handled these situations to demonstrate his friendship with those that would otherwise be thought of as unworthy of the attention and love and compassion and mercy of God.

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Our Father and our God, we thank you tonight for our great savior. We thank you for his compassion.

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We thank you for his companionships. And thank you that he would even associate with sinners such as we are.

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We thank you for our friend, our savior. This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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So we close tonight. I wanna take, do you have your blue supplement book? There's a hymn in here that we haven't sung very often but it's a good old hymn and it's entitled,

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My Song is Love Unknown. So you see it was written back in the 1600s.

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I'd like to sing a couple stanzas of this song from the supplement book. Anybody need that?

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Dan's got a couple back there. All right, it's number 45. Number 45 in our supplement.

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My Song is Love Unknown. Let's stand, shall we, as we sing. ♪

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My song is love unknown ♪ ♪ My savior's love to me ♪ ♪

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Love to the loveless shown ♪ ♪ That they might lovely be ♪ ♪

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Oh who am I that for my sake ♪ ♪ My Lord should take frail flesh and die ♪ ♪

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He came from his blessed throne ♪ ♪ Salvation to bestow ♪ ♪

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But men made strange and none along for Christ would know ♪ ♪

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But oh my friend, my friend indeed ♪ ♪ Who at my need his life did spend ♪

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On the last. ♪ Here might I stay and sing a story so divine ♪ ♪

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Never was love, dear King, never was grief like thine ♪ ♪

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This is my friend in whose sweet praise ♪ ♪

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I all my days could gladly spend ♪

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Well, I trust the Lord to give you a good week and a walk with him and walk with your friend. Be aware of his ongoing companionship with you through this week.

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Bless us now as we go our separate ways, Father. And I pray that indeed we would spend our days with our friend, being aware of his presence with us.

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And regardless of what else happens in the course of that day, realize we have something for which to praise you.

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And that is our ongoing companionship with our friend, the

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Lord Jesus. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, you are dismissed.