JESUS’ ILLUSTRATION OF NEW LIFE
The Gospel of Mark #8
Mark 2:16-28
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
REVIEW
Mark 1
Jesus preaches the Good News.
Jesus delivers a man controlled by an evil spirit and brings healing and deliverance to the sick.
Ministry drives Jesus to prayer to listen to the Father and the Holy Spirit is at work in Him.
Mark 2
Jesus forgives and heals a man and restores him to community.
Mark 2:16–3:6 (NLT)
But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” Once when John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some people came to Jesus and asked, “Why don’t your disciples fast like John’s disciples and the Pharisees do?” Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.” Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!” Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics and asked, “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” But they wouldn’t answer him. He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.
LEVI’S PARTY
1. Following Jesus is a radical break from my old life.
(Mark 2:14, NLT) “As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.”
2. Jesus befriends sinners like me, not to party but to love, save, heal, and transform me.
(Mark 2:15, NLT) “Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)”
(Mark 2:17, NLT) “When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
THE PRESENCE OF THE KING MEANS FEASTING NOT FASTING
3. We’re invited to a wedding, not a funeral.
(Mark 2:19, NLT) “Jesus replied, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. They can’t fast while the groom is with them.”
A. The resurrection will transform all grief and sorrow.
(Mark 2:21–22, NLT) “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”
B. The old is the Judaism of the Pharisees, the condemnation and exclusion of sinners.
SABBATH CONTROVERSIES
4. God gave us the Sabbath for worship, refreshing, and recovery.
(Mark 2:27–28, NLT) “Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”
GROWTHWORK
Worship Leads Me in the Path of Life.
(Ezekiel 34:4, NLT) “You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty.”
(Ezekiel 34:12, NLT) “I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day.”
(Ezekiel 34:16a, NLT) “I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak.”
- I do not have to do anything to become worthy of God’s love.
- Christianity is God searching for lost people. Befriending lost people testifies that God loves us and our lives can be changed.
- Jesus isn’t contaminated by my sin, He transforms me with God’s grace and power.
- Woodland is a Church of Joy not Gloom. Jesus welcomes everyone.
- We fast because of our love and deep concern for others to receive the grace and love of God. We fast with gratitude that we can.
- We observe Sabbath to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as a gift, and an opportunity to do good.