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Book of Mark Lesson 4 · Bible Study with Pastor Brian an NLCC Teacher

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Life in the Word, our verse-by-verse study of God's Word.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: This is Pastor Brian at New Life Community Church, and we're glad you joined us today.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: We are in our study in the book of Mark.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: And last week we finished chapter one, where battle lines were drawn between Jesus and the power of Satan.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: We kept seeing these demons coming, attacking people, and Jesus dealing with these demons.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, chapter two now introduces us to a new type of conflict: resistance to Jesus by the religious establishment.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish religious leaders, accustomed to giving lip service to the idea of a coming Messiah, found that Jesus threatened their power and their prestige.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: He challenged their authority, questioned their teachings, and trampled on their way of doing business.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And here in chapter 2, Mark illustrated their reactions and rejection of Christ with five clashes that formed chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: So turn with me to Mark chapter 2, beginning at verse 1.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: And presumably, we think he's at Peter's house where he'd stayed before.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So almost immediately the home in which Jesus stayed was packed.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Some were just curious, others were new bright eyed disciples who hung on to every word, and others just wanted miracles.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: They wanted healings.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: And as always the case, crowds attract greater crowds.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And soon it was impossible to get to the door.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: Outside there was dust, noise, heat, people shoving to get near the doorway.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And yet with all the great crush, there were two dominating forces there, two dominating presences.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: First, as the parallel account of Luke tells us in Luke 5.17, there were Pharisees and teachers of the law there.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: To the unsuspecting crowd, these theological heavyweights may have looked like a spiritual life conference, but in actuality they were an investigative committee eager to find something wrong with the young rabbi.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Though there was standing room only, the Pharisees were sitting, and we can picture them seated in honored positions, wearing suspicious looks, and just waiting for a slip-up by Jesus.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: There was fire in the air at this point.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: The other presence was, of course, the Lord Jesus, who was calm, unperturbed, and in control.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: He preached them about the nearness of the kingdom and the necessity of faith and repentance.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: It's the same message we must be repeating today about the nearness of Christ's second coming, his return to judge earth, because we're seeing warning signs of the nearness of return and the rise of military attacks in the Middle East, radical ideologies, talk of global currency and identity chips, just to name a few things.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: So we need to be out preaching the gospel.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: So back to our text.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: The room was packed and charged when a disturbance began.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: And while he was preaching God's word to them, verse 3, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: There was no way they were going to get in that house.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: So they dug a hole through the roof above his head.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: So four men struggling with the litter on which lay a paralytic approached the impossible crowd with no way through.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: The men come up with a new plan.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Let's get in through the roof.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: And possibly there was an outside stairway leading to the roof as some homes had, or perhaps they ascended to the neighbor's house and stepped across to the crowded house.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Then they did an amazing thing.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: They began to tear a hole in the roof.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Now the typical Syrian roof was constructed of timbers laid parallel to each other two or three feet apart.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Then crosswise over the timbers they laid smaller sticks closer and formed a roof, a basic roof.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Upon this they laid reeds, branches of trees and thistles, and the whole thing was then overlaid with about a foot of earth, which was then packed down to resist water.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: All told the roof was about two foot thick, and during the spring grass grew and flourished on these primitive roofs.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: So these men were literally digging through the roof.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Now those inside the house had to hear the shoveling and then the pounding in the midst of the loud conversation as the men dug away the dirt, tore away the branches, and pried the loose roofing loose between the beams.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Debris began to fall on those in the house, and there was all of a sudden a crack of light that widened and widened to the sides of a man.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: And I'm pretty sure there were shouts exchanged between those inside and those on the roof, especially if it was Peter's house.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: He was probably going, What in the bleep are you guys doing in my roof?
5:07
SPEAKER_00: Finally there was a warning from above, and down came the paralytic's bed on ropes.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can you imagine being there and seeing that?
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Above four sweaty, dirty, and determined men, below the Pharisees and scribes shaking dirt off their robes, and in the midst of it all was the Prince of Peace and a paralytic man.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: Nobody would ever forget about this historic event.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: And for a moment, let's concentrate on the four friends.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: What are your thoughts about them?
5:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, they really loved their paralyzed friend, didn't they?
5:40
SPEAKER_00: So much so they wouldn't be put off by any crowd.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: They even vandalized another person's property to achieve their goal.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps the paralyzed man was a family member, a beloved brother or uncle or father.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was simply a neighbor with whom they grew up playing with.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: Whatever their relationship, they loved him.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: And most importantly, they had faith.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And whatever happened that day, healing, rejection, whatever, the paralytic man was a very rich man.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: He had something for which some people spend years, even spend millions of dollars, and never find good friends.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: And along with great love, his friends had great faith in Jesus.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: There was no way they could have gone to such outrageous extremes of action if they didn't absolutely believe that Jesus could and would heal their friend.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Their amazing faith invites the Lord's miraculous power.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Their faith was persistent, creative, and sacrificial.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, somebody's got to pay for a new roof, right?
6:45
SPEAKER_00: But they were willing to help a friend no matter the cost.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: These four men were a great example of what faith looks like.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: The real paralytics were the Pharisees and the scribes, actually.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: In mark contrast to the four stretcher bearers, they were just sitting there, probably complaining and complaining about the dirt and dust on their fancy and expensive robes.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: As religious leaders, they should have been outside directing the traffic to Jesus and his free clinic.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: And when the roof opened, they should have reached up to receive the poor cripple.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: But instead of love, there was indifference.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Instead of faith, there was only criticism.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And of course, our Lord saw everything more clearly than we do, so he decided to use this charged moment with the paralytic before him to make his point.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that the Pharisees and scribes were looking for something to pin on him, he gave it to them, or so they thought.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, of allergies.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, My child, your sins are forgiven.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: So here's a wretched paralytic, barely able to raise his head, hoping for a cure, hoping to walk.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Your sins are forgiven.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: How do you think his friends felt?
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, we did all this, even spent the night at Maine, spent the night in jail for tearing a roof apart.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus didn't heal him.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's what happened.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: From your perspective, does this seem cruel?
8:22
SPEAKER_00: It kind of does.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: But there's no indication, though, that the paralyzed man had faith.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: So why did Jesus say it?
8:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, the man may have well been a paralytic due to some personal or imagined sin.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Many Bible scholars think that's possible.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: And we know from modern science that paralysis and many other diseases can have a moral base.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: So perhaps in order to receive a full healing, Jesus' words were actually very necessary.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: And understand, you can be healed of an illness or disease and still go to hell.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: So, regardless of the man's physical condition, his greatest need was far by far was the forgiveness of sin.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness was a far greater work, for it would cost Jesus his very life.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Thus he met the man's greatest need first and eternally.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Third, Jesus pronounced forgiveness to trap the Pharisees with the implication of the healing that he was about to perform.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, What is he saying?
9:27
SPEAKER_00: This is blasphemy.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Only God can forgive sins.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, Do you question this in your hearts?
9:37
SPEAKER_00: Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man your sins are forgiven, or stand up, pick up your mat and walk?
9:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, obviously it's easier to say your sins are forgiven.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, words are easy, aren't they?
9:50
SPEAKER_00: It's easier because this is internal.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: A paralyzed man can walk is external.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: Everyone can see it.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: So verse 10.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority in earth to forgive sins.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: So why does Jesus call himself the Son of Man?
10:08
SPEAKER_00: That's an interesting question, isn't it?
10:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean the phrase literal means a human being or a son of Adam.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: Jesus used Son of Man to show that he truly lived, felt tired, suffered, and died in the flesh.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: He calls himself the Son of Man to highlight his true human nature, to fulfill an important Old Testament prophecy and prophecy in Daniel chapter 7, beginning 13 and 14, if you want to look that up, and declare divine authority without using the heavily politicized label of Messiah.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: So, so to prove to you that I that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, Jesus then turned to the paralytical man and said, verse 11, stand up, pick up your mat, and go home.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: I mean, his physical miracle verified his moral miracle.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: They were all amazed, which is an understatement, I think, and praised God, exclaiming, We've never seen anything like this before.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: So everybody's having a great time.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: They're praising God.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Everyone except the Pharisees and scribes.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else is whooping it up.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: His four friends are yahooing down through the opening.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: The crowd was ooing and awing, but the Pharisees and scribes, they were frowning.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: And as he went home, this healed man bore something far more important than his bed.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: It was a clean heart.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: The greatest miracle of all, no guilt, no bitterness, no tension.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Someday those newly restored limbs would wither as he grows old.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: But there would remain in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life, for his sins had been forgiven.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Lord can do anything he wants, he can heal any disease he pleases.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: But the greatest miracle, the only one that is eternal, is that he can forgive our sins.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: So, what's the application for us this here?
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, Luke says of this event, and the power of the Lord was with them to heal.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: That power was unleashed by the love and the faithfulness of a helpless paralytics four friends.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: And that's how it's unleashed today to a world paralyzed in sin.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: We must love the people of this world.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: And it begins by loving those who are near us, our family members, our neighbors, our colleagues at work.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Please don't assume you will always have another day to get serious about Christ.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: Don't assume you can share God's love later.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: We must begin where we are.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: Determine to love those in your circle of influence with the truth of Jesus Christ.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: We must be persistent, creative, and sacrificial in bringing our friends and family to Christ.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: So let's keep going.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: The next clash between Jesus and the religious leaders revolved around the company he kept.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus went out to the lake shore, the Sea of Galilee again and taught the crowds that were coming to him.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus left Capernaum back to the seashore.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, as he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus, sitting at his tax collector's booth.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: So Levi got up and followed him.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: This was a very decisive act.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Levi gave up everything here, his business, his wealth.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: There was no going back.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: After leaving this Roman job, he could never get it back.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: Now Levi, a Jew, was a tax collector for the Roman Empire.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: The Romans collected taxes through a system called tax farming.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: They assessed a district, a fixed tax figure, and then sold the right to collect taxes at that location to the highest bidder.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: The buyer had to hand over the assessed figure at the end of the year and could keep whatever he gathered above that, which was usually a very significant amount.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish tax collectors were easily the most hated men in Hebrew society, and all of the people in Capernaum, to them, Levi was the most unacceptable to be one of Christ's disciples.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: The Jews considered him a traitor, a money grubbing extortioner.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: He was everybody's candidate for scum of the year.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus sought out the man no one else wanted, the one everyone else wished would fall under the immediate wrath of God.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: So why would Jesus choose a hated traitor like Levi to be one of his disciples?
14:37
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Jesus renamed Levi Matthew, which means gift of God.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: He made Matthew to be a gift to others.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: And I believe he called Matthew to demonstrate the transformative power of divine grace.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: By choosing such an outcast, Jesus showed that his mission was to save sinners, the outcast of society, not just the outwardly righteous.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: And then there's great application for us here too.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sees physical sickness the same as soul sickness.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: Both are destructive and both need healing.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Our purpose in life is to join him as doctors who make house calls.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: We are to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to do the work of Jesus while we're here.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: Because we are his body, his hands, his feet, his mouthpiece on earth, called to fulfill Jesus' mission on earth.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Later Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: There were many people of this kind among Jesus' followers.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: So why the dinner party?
15:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, obviously to honor Jesus.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: This was a spontaneous celebration of Levi's new life.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: So this was a kind of a farewell dinner.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: Farewell to his old life, his old way.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Levi wanted also to share Jesus, the author of his newfound faith, with his friends.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: They needed Jesus too.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: But this was just too much for the good citizens and religious leaders of Capernaum.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: When the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciple, why does he eat with such scum?
16:19
SPEAKER_00: See, the Pharisees saw themselves as the righteous, and above everyone else, everybody else was a sinner.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Then came along this man Jesus, who was popular and taught with great authority from the scriptures, and who claimed to speak for God Himself, and yet ignored their laws and seemed to condone sin by keeping company with sinners.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Pharisees would never eat with common people because the sins of the commoners might make them ceremonially impure.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Several years ago, my wife and I took a group of high school students to Skid Row in Los Angeles.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: An incredible, credible experience.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we had to do was one day we had to find a homeless person.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: We broke up into groups of six, take find a homeless person and invite them to lunch.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And it was a small amount of money.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: I think we gave everybody$20.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: You had to take this person to lunch, which means he's probably going to eat and you're not.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: And we did that.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: My wife and the girls found this man who was homeless.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: He was an alcoholic sitting next to a bar door at a bar, just hoping people would give him money to get another drink.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: He smelled, he was disgusting looking.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: But they asked him and he said, sure, he could use some food.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: They took him to Subway.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: And my wife said the people in Subway were not very happy about it, but they took him in there, they had lunch with him, they got to talk to him.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it really felt he was just a normal guy that needed Jesus.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: I did the same with the boys.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: We got pizzas.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: We had a Christian pizza owner who we told what we were doing.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: He gave us two huge peaches, all kinds of bottled waters for 20 bucks, way, way, way more than what we had.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: And we went and we had a pizza party with several people.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: We had someone from Korea, we had people from Mexico, we had locals, alcoholics, drunks, and drug addicts, and we got to share Christ with them.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: It was a wonderful experience.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like what Jesus did.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's how we felt.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Everybody needs Jesus.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, when Jesus heard this, he told them, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: So here Jesus reveals that the kingdom of God is a hospital for the broken, not a showcase for the outwardly righteous like the Pharisees.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees were only finger pointers.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: They pointed fingers of accusation.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to save souls.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps none of us espouse such pharisitical beliefs, but in fact we should load them.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: But however, many of us sometimes live like them, nevertheless.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: We come to Christ in our desire to be godly, we seek out people like us.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, we arrange our lives so that we are with non-believers as little as possible.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: We attend Bible studies that are 100% Christian.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Sunday school classes are 100% Christian.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Social function are 100% Christian.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: We play golf or tennis with Christians, eat dinner with Christians.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: We have Christian doctors, Christian dentists, Christian plumbers, Christian veterinarians, and even our dogs are Christian, right?
19:30
SPEAKER_00: The result is we pass by hundreds without ever noticing them or positively influencing them for Christ.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: None of us are Pharisees philosophically, but we may be practically.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: We need to reach out to the people with whom we work, go to dinner with them, attend sporting events together, have them over to our homes.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: We need to extend ourselves to those we know are lost, those who are hurting.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: We need to minister to multiple cultures, volunteer at food banks, volunteer at rescue centers, wherever.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: Get involved in our community.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: Get outside the walls of church and go to the lost and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Be doctors.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: They need your healing.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: They need the word of God to touch their lives and save them, heal them.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in his prayer to the Father in John 17, 15, I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: History records that when Oliver Cromwell ruled England, the nation experienced a crisis.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: They ran out of silver and could not mint any new coins.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Cromwell sent his soldier to the cathedrals to see if any silver was available.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: And they reported back that the only silver was in the statues of the saints, to which Cromwell replied, Melt down those saints and get them back into circulation.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes God must do that with us.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: We must be melted down so that we'll get back into circulation of this world that He created for us to serve in and start sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: So from Levi's dinner party for Jesus, we learn two things.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: First, to people who think they are righteous, Jesus has not much to say.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: But to those who know they have need, a need to be forgiven and restored to God, Jesus has come.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Second, Christ and his followers must not isolate themselves from a needy world.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: The Christian's life is not to be one of isolation nor assimilation, but mission.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: We are on a mission to fulfill Christ's mission.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 18 where we see another collision with the religious leaders.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Once when John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, some came to Jesus and asked, why don't your disciples fast like John's disciples?
21:39
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist is referred to, and the Pharisees do.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: Now many believe the question came because of the exact moment Christ was feasting with Levi, the Pharisees and John the Baptist, it was a time of fasting for them, I guess.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: So what is biblical fasting?
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a voluntary abstinence from food for a limited period of time for the purpose of drawing near to God.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Spending time in the prayer.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: It's denying the flesh to strengthen the spirit.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: That's basically what biblical fasting is.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a time that the Puritans called soul fattening.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: It's a time when you build up your soul, fatten your soul while denying your physical flesh.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: And for us, we can fast from other things that interfere with our relationship with God.
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SPEAKER_00: You can fast from YouTube, social media, TV, or Netflix, whatever, for a period of time.
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SPEAKER_00: If that's keeping you away, you need to do that.
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SPEAKER_00: You can fast from shopping or golf.
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SPEAKER_00: And I only mention shopping and golf because I don't like either one, and I'd rather convict you than me.
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SPEAKER_00: And there are things that you and I can do to carve out whatever is taking too much of our time so we can draw nearer to God.
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SPEAKER_00: Fasting is mentioned 65 times in Scripture, and the Scriptures commanded fasting only once a year on the Day of Atonement, which was a national day of repentance and forgiveness, we see in Leviticus 16.
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SPEAKER_00: But by Jesus' time, the Pharisees did decree that godly people should fast twice a week on the second and fifth days, Mondays and Thursdays.
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SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees' attitude derived from, among other things, the false assumption that true religion was a solemn, joyless affair, an assumption that some people hold even today.
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SPEAKER_00: Irma Bombeck, if you knew who that was, she was actually a neighbor of ours, and her husband was my high school principal.
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SPEAKER_00: Irma Bombeck, an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper, Humor Describes Suburban Home Life, was what she did, wrote books.
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SPEAKER_00: Once she told how she was sitting in church one Sunday when a small child turned around and began to smile at the people behind her.
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SPEAKER_00: She was just smiling, not making a sound.
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SPEAKER_00: And when her mother noticed, she said in a stage whisper, Stop that grinning.
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SPEAKER_00: You're in church.
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SPEAKER_00: Gave her a swat and said, That's better.
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SPEAKER_00: Irma concluded that some people come to church looking like they had just read the will of their rich aunt and learned that she had given everything to her pet hamster.
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SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees were like this too.
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SPEAKER_00: They actually whitened their faces, put ashes on their head, wore their clothes in shoddy disarray, refused to walk, and looked as forlorn as possible when they fasted.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean, you could not be spiritual in their eyes when fasting unless you looked uncomfortable.
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SPEAKER_00: And they wanted people to notice how spiritually they were.
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SPEAKER_00: So they self-righteously put the question to Jesus about fasting.
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SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus answered them directly and brilliantly.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 19.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus would reply, Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom?
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SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
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SPEAKER_00: They can't fast while the groom is with them.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 20, but someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
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SPEAKER_00: After an ancient Jewish wedding, the couple did not honeymoon.
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SPEAKER_00: They stayed at home for a week of open house in which there was continual fast feasting and celebration for the hardworking, this was traditionally considered to be the happiest week of their lives.
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SPEAKER_00: The bride and groom were treated like king and queen.
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SPEAKER_00: And the guests were exempted from all fasting.
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SPEAKER_00: And while Jesus walked on earth, his presence was a cause for celebration.
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SPEAKER_00: The Messiah had come.
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SPEAKER_00: People didn't need to mourn, they needed to rejoice.
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SPEAKER_00: But Jesus knew that soon the bridegroom would be taken away.
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SPEAKER_00: That day refers to the day of Jesus' crucifixion.
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SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
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SPEAKER_00: On that day, Jesus' disciples would indeed fast and mourn.
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SPEAKER_00: But right now, with Jesus among them, how much closer can you get to God than that, right?
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SPEAKER_00: So they didn't need to.
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SPEAKER_00: Now we get to another section I want to talk about.
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SPEAKER_00: And it's it's about a time.
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SPEAKER_00: Before I get to this section, let me tell you a little story.
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SPEAKER_00: And some of you will know this.
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SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, I played outside a lot, most of the time.
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SPEAKER_00: That's what we had.
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SPEAKER_00: We didn't have television, we didn't have internet, we didn't have all that stuff.
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SPEAKER_00: And when we were playing as kids, we get tears and holes in our jeans.
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SPEAKER_00: And my mom would iron those waxy patches, right?
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SPEAKER_00: See, if you're too young to know this, you've been spared a lot.
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SPEAKER_00: But there were these waxy patches that on one side was kind of a waxy-like adhesive.
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SPEAKER_00: So you put the the waxy side down on the jeans and you would use a hot iron and melt the wax adhesive onto your pants.
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SPEAKER_00: After a few washes, though, those patches would start to peel and they'd start to roll up and your jeans looked even worse.
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SPEAKER_00: I share this to bring up this point because when I read the next section of scripture about Jesus saying, don't put new patches on the old garments, I know exactly what he's talking about.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
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SPEAKER_00: Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth?
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SPEAKER_00: For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.
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SPEAKER_00: So Jesus' arrival on earth is ushering in a new time, is what he's telling them, a new covenant between God and the people.
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SPEAKER_00: The newness of the gospel and its relationship with people could not be combined with the religion of Judaism any more than a piece of unshrunk cloth could be used as a patch on worn-out garment.
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SPEAKER_00: The patch will shrink, pulling away from the old garment and leave a bigger hole than before.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't come to patch up the old religious system of Judaism with his rules, traditions, and celebrations.
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SPEAKER_00: His purpose was to fulfill it and start something new, something new that had been prophesied for centuries.
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SPEAKER_00: He was bringing a new covenant to replace the old covenant.
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SPEAKER_00: So what's the difference between those covenants?
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SPEAKER_00: Well, the old covenant was a performance-based religion between man and God.
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SPEAKER_00: The new covenant is a grace-based relationship between man and God.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't come to patch up your old life.
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SPEAKER_00: Christ came to do something brand new in us.
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SPEAKER_00: He came to change our hearts.
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SPEAKER_00: We're no longer under combination.
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SPEAKER_00: We're redeemed children.
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SPEAKER_00: We're a new creation.
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SPEAKER_00: We need to live like a new creation.
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SPEAKER_00: Christ didn't come up to patch your old life, he came to make us new.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
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SPEAKER_00: And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, for the wine will burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost.
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SPEAKER_00: New wine calls for new wineskins.
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SPEAKER_00: In biblical times, wine was not kept in glass bottles, but in goatskins sewn around the edges to form watertight bags called wineskins.
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SPEAKER_00: But after the wine had been aged, the old whineskins would be brittle and couldn't stretch anymore, and would burst if you put new wine into them.
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SPEAKER_00: New wine, therefore, was always put into new wineskins.
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SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, remember, Jesus responding to the question, why don't your disciples fast like John's disciples and the Pharisees do?
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SPEAKER_00: So, how does the story about garments, patches, and wineskins relate to this question?
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SPEAKER_00: Well, the new life that Christ brings expands us.
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SPEAKER_00: When he fills the wineskins of our lives, the willing life within stretches us to new limits.
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SPEAKER_00: The inner pressure expels unneeded things and fills every aspect of life.
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SPEAKER_00: So dynamic is a new life that the old wineskins of previous religion structures give way.
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SPEAKER_00: It's like taking off our old clothes and putting on our new.
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SPEAKER_00: And like old wineskins of Pharisees and indeed the entire religious system of Judaism were too rigid to accept Jesus Christ and could not be contained with their traditions and rules.
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SPEAKER_00: That reminds us we have to be careful that our heart does not become so rigid that it prevents us from accepting the new way of thinking that Christ brings.
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SPEAKER_00: We need to keep our hearts pliable so we can accept Jesus' life-changing message and continue to share that message and do his work while we're here.
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SPEAKER_00: Returning the flow of our text, the reason the Pharisees were repeating and colliding with Christ is that they were in effect old wineskins.
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SPEAKER_00: They simply couldn't handle the reality of this new gospel.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
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SPEAKER_00: One day, as Jesus was walking through some of the grain fields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat.
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SPEAKER_00: But the Pharisees said to Jesus, look, why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?
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SPEAKER_00: God's law said that crops should not be harvested on the Sabbath, Exodus 34.
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SPEAKER_00: This law prevented farmers from becoming greedy and ignoring God on the Sabbath.
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SPEAKER_00: It also protected laborers from being overworked.
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SPEAKER_00: So here the Pharisees are quick to complain about Jesus' disciples gleaning wheat.
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SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees interpreted the action of Jesus and the disciples picking grain and eating as they walked through the fields as harvesting.
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SPEAKER_00: And so they judged Jesus a lawbreaker.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Pharisees had a clear-cut case, right?
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SPEAKER_00: Wrong.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus and the disciples clearly were not harvesting the grain for personal gain.
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SPEAKER_00: They were simply looking for something to eat.
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SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees were so focused on the words of the world that they missed its intent.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, Jesus said to them, Haven't you ever read the scriptures in the scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry?
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SPEAKER_00: So the Pharisees knew the scriptures thoroughly, yet Jesus' question, haven't you ever read, reveals their ignorance of the true meaning of the scriptures they claim to know so well.
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SPEAKER_00: 26.
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SPEAKER_00: He, David, went into the house of God during the days when Abathar was high priest and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests were allowed to eat.
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SPEAKER_00: He also gave some to his companions.
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SPEAKER_00: This story is recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 21.
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SPEAKER_00: Each week twelve consecrated loaves of bread were presented, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and they were placed on a table in the house of God meeting the tabernacle.
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SPEAKER_00: The bread was called the bread of presence or shoe bread.
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SPEAKER_00: After its use in the temple, it would be eaten only by the priest.
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SPEAKER_00: On one occasion, when fleeing from Saul, David and his men were given this bread to eat by the high priest Avatar.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 27.
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SPEAKER_00: 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.
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SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees added all kinds of restrictions for the Sabbath, so much so that it was difficult for Jews to get any rest on the seventh day because they were too busy making sure they didn't do any work.
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SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees had completely forgotten God's purpose in creating the Sabbath.
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SPEAKER_00: God mercifully provided the Sabbath as a day of rest for his people.
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SPEAKER_00: A day to set aside the normal duties of the work where you could spend time resting and worshiping.
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SPEAKER_00: But the Pharisees had only succumbed in making the Sabbath an impossible burden.
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SPEAKER_00: Verse 28.
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SPEAKER_00: So the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.
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SPEAKER_00: So who created the Sabbath?
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SPEAKER_00: God did.
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SPEAKER_00: Therefore, because Jesus is the Son of Man, God's Son, given authority and power by God, the Father Himself, then he is also the Lord of the Sabbath.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus is that Lord, claiming to be greater than the law.
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SPEAKER_00: He claims to be great by doing by claiming himself as Lord of the Sabbath, he's claiming to be greater than the law and above the law.
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SPEAKER_00: To the Pharisees, this was total heresy.
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SPEAKER_00: They didn't realize that Jesus, the divine Son of God, had created the Sabbath for man and not for the Sabbath.
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SPEAKER_00: And the creator is always greater than the created.
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SPEAKER_00: Thus Jesus had authority to overrule their traditions and regulations about what this chapter is all about.
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SPEAKER_00: Hey, that's the end of chapter two.
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SPEAKER_00: I hope you've learned from it, you grow from it, that it'll challenge you in some way.
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SPEAKER_00: And I hope you'll join us next week as we'll get into Mark chapter three.
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SPEAKER_00: Have a blessed week and keep your eyes focused on the Lord.