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Summary

If you would please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark the 2nd chapter, we will be in the Gospel of Mark the 2nd chapter. We see that Jesus also brings upon himself opposition, he brings judgment from the current rulers upon himself and he brings about a lot of conflict or controversy. So we have at the beginning of chapter 2 we studied last week where Jesus heals the paralytic and then in the beginning of chapter 3 we have another healing where he heals a man with a withered hand and then from that healing we move towards a center point and we see these controversies over eating or food laws where where Jesus is eating with sinners and tax collectors or Jesus disciples are going about on the Sabbath and they are plucking and eating the heads of the grain of the grains and these move parallelally into a center point which is Jesus and this new way that Jesus is bringing in. It was to carve out for them a holiness, a sacredness where they would be separate or separated from others they would be holy unto the Lord it was to separate the Jewish people to be holy to the Lord himself. So we want to look down on these Pharisees it's really really easy for us to in our modern era condemn the Pharisees for wanting or questioning why there's an abuse or a dismissal of the law why the disciples would not be fasting why Jesus would be eating with sinners because they are concerned with seeking righteousness. In their concern over obedience to God's rule and law the Pharisees miss the entire purpose of the rules and regulation of the law of God they look past the very humanity that the law is there for them to pay attention to to serve the prophet Amos writes for the Lord regarding the law he says I hate I despise your festivals and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings I will not accept them and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon them take away from me the noise of your songs I will not listen to the melody of your harps but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream you see the Pharisees the Pharisees took the law took the rules and the regulations and they they turned it very mechanical in interpretation and all of a sudden the humanity was lost due to obeying the law due to seeking out how others were flawed and failing when it came to the law seeking to use the rules to embolden themselves and abuse of the law led the Pharisees to self love and self righteousness when the Pharisees were questioning Jesus when they were questioning the lack of fasting the lack of righteousness under the law Jesus says something new is here something new is here I usher in a new era a new word a new way of righteousness and what's key here is that new way is in the presence of Jesus the new way is in the presence of Jesus in verse 19 Jesus says the wedding guests cannot fast while the bride groom is with them can they as long as they have the bride groom with them they cannot fast the days will come when the bride groom is taken away from them and then they will fast on that day Jesus compares his presence with the disciples as to when a bride groom is present with his bridal or bridal company and no one is fasting at the wedding feast no one is fasting in the presence of the bride groom it's a celebration it is a time to rejoice there will be a time when there will be fasting there will be a time when the bride groom is taken away from these disciples and we of course know that Jesus is speaking of his crucifixion when he will be taken from his disciples and there will be persecution there will be trials there will be suffering there will be a time for that solemn fasting for that solemn quiet but now in Jesus presence now was not the time the disciples they don't fast because of who they are with they don't fast because of who they are in the presence of and what he has come to bring he has come to bring a new way this is not to say that the old covenant is no and void if we remember in the gospel of Matthew Jesus says I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it he did not make it no and void but he fulfilled the very law of righteousness which no man or woman ever could or will the old covenant is not no and void under Christ but it is fulfilled righteousness is not found in the law scripture says that sin sin is found in the law in Romans the third chapter Paul writes through the law comes the knowledge of sin when we stand ourselves up against the holy law of God we find that we fall woefully short woefully short of righteousness woefully short of obedience great in our sin part of what Jesus brings to the people around him to the disciples is a word to repent and turn to the Lord we repent and we turn to the Lord because the law shows us our sin and in our sin there is nowhere to turn but to the Lord who saves the only place righteousness is to be found Jesus is the way we read that in the gospel of John Jesus says I am the way the truth the life no one comes to the Father except through me Jesus is the only way of righteousness Jesus is the only way we are able to stand before the Father we are able to be in the presence of the Triune God the old cloth that we read about the line skins that we read about those are metaphors for living the old life under the law the the old covenant but Jesus fulfills that law for us and when we're living in this new covenant the Christ's blood we can't be bound by the old laws the ceremonial laws the ritual law in Galatians the third chapter Paul writes for all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse for it is written cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law now it is evident that no one is justified by God a before God by the law for the one who is righteous will live by faith but the law does not rest on faith on the contrary whoever does the works of the law will live by them Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us we are not redeemed we are not made righteous by following the old covenant by making sacrifices of grain offerings animal offerings by making sure that we are we can never be fully obedient to God's holy and perfect law but Jesus Jesus was obedient Jesus fulfilled the very law every single one of them every single point of the old covenant and what are we told in the last supper what does he say that this is a new covenant in my blood shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin Jesus Christ fulfilling the law he lived a perfect life that none of us can do but he took it further he did not lord it over us that he can live perfectly and we cannot instead he became a curse for us instead he took his perfect life under the old covenant and he placed himself upon a tree and he hung outside the city and he died and he died to the old law he died under the old covenant and in that death to the old covenant he took every single one of our sins thoughts words and deeds and he brought them with him into death and in our baptisms as we are washed through the waters we are washed with his perfection we are brought into this new way of Jesus Christ into this new way of righteousness by his blood and his blood alone and this new way when we try to fit it back into the old covenant when we try to work our way into righteousness the new way bursts forth and says mm mm you cannot earn your way to righteousness I give you your righteousness out of my mercy out of my grace out of my love and then God's law not the ritual not the ceremonial law the moral law the law that says love God love your neighbor that law enters into us by the power of the Holy Spirit and we are able to relate with one another through God's perfect law God's righteousness and by his grace and his guidance by the Holy Spirit we are able to live into the new covenant and we don't seek to find this old way of righteousness we are given righteousness we are given away the way to eternal salvation to the great wedding feast through Jesus Christ can it be that simple we try so hard to drag in the old covenant for our righteousness what are we doing we have been given the only way to the Father through the blood of Jesus Christ we don't have to wonder am I doing this right we don't have to look at our brothers and sisters to see how flawed they are but we live in the freedom that we have been given through Christ and Christ alone and we have been invited to that eternal wedding feast in the presence of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit out with the old in with the new doesn't quite work right always with the new always with the new the old then is not tossed but the old is made new because we are new in Christ and Christ alone

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