02/01/2026
So sorry folks again! The Live stream isn't wanting to cooperate. So here is the message for today:
Wedding Party
What is your most joyful wedding memory?
Joel’s wedding
Mark 2:13-22 - He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
The Joy of the Bridegroom (1:18-20)
Mark 2:18 - Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
The setting of this verse is still at Levi’s dinner theater where we continue to deal with the pious Pharisee’s who look down on those who don’t measure up to their religious traditions; traditions they have created that often are given greater authority than Scripture.
Fasting is one of those areas.
The Old Testament commands fasting only once a year: the Day of Atonement, which was a National Day of Repentance and fasting (Leviticus 16:29-30, 23:27-31; Numbers 29:7). While fasting is mentioned a number of times throughout the entire Bible, all other instances in the Old Testament, such as in Esther, Jeremiah, and 2 Samuel, were voluntary or associated with specific occasions rather than a direct command.
However, by Jesus’ day, the Pharisee’s had DECREED that truly godly people should fast twice per week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Religious tradition had gone far beyond scripture. For some religious people then, and today, you can not be godly unless you are miserable.
So, in this Mark 2 encounter the religious party poopers moved from criticizing who Jesus celebrated with, to criticizing why he was celebrating at all! In no uncertain terms they were condemning Jesus of being ungodly because He loved the sick and celebrated them being made whole!
For that reason, Jesus brilliantly answered them, trapping them in their own traditions regarding marriage: And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. (Mark 2:19-20)
These same religious teachers had also issued instructions to the people regarding weddings that exempted them from fasting during the wedding celebration. In ancient Israel, weddings would last for a week with an open house where there would be continual feasting and celebration. This was considered to be the happiest week in their lives. A ruling by religious leaders stated, “All in attendance of the bridegroom are relived of all religious observance which would lessen their joy.”
Jesus uses their own teaching to declare His divine identity as the Bridegroom who has arrived, and with his arrival there is exceeding joy!
Galatians 5:22 teaches us “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy . . .”
Jesus said in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
1 Peter 1:18 – “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,”
Romans 14:17 – “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus brings perpetual wedding joy! And we who believe on Him are not just “guests of the bridegroom” – we are the Bride of Christ! Our joy should far exceed the joy of the guests!
I want to invite you to examine whether your walk with Christ is marked more by joy or by religious obligation.
The Pharisees added rules that God never commanded, and as a result, they lost the joy of God’s presence, grace, beauty, love and forgiveness. Jesus contrasts that by presenting Himself as the Divine Bridegroom—the true source of joy, celebration, and new life.
Ask yourself:
• Have I allowed tradition, expectations, or pressure to replace genuine joy in Christ?
• Do I relate to Jesus as a Bridegroom who brings delight, or as a taskmaster who brings demands?
• Where is the Holy Spirit prompting me to rediscover joy?
The New Life of the Bridegroom (1:21-22)
The Bridegroom has arrived! He has not come to patch up something old and brittle and inflexible. No! He has come to bring something completely new and the old cannot contain it!
“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” (Mark 2:21-22)
The 2nd Autumn – There are certain trees in my neighborhoodt that hold on to their leaves throughout the fall and winter, but in the spring the sap begins to run, sending life through every branch and twig until that life expels every bit of deadness that remains.
That’s what Jesus came to do in our lives, not to patch something old and dead but to make something completely new.
2 Cor.5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
What in your life is rigid, brittle, or resistant to change?
What is God trying to renew that you keep trying to patch?
The life-giving wine of Jesus is rising; will you allow His life to expel every leaf of sinful deadness that holds on in you?
As we consider this scene in Mark’s Gospel, we are reminded that Jesus did not come to reinforce a burdensome system of rule keeping, but to invite us into the joy of His presence and life-giving grace. The Bridegroom has arrived—bringing celebration, renewal, and a life that cannot be contained by old forms or rigid traditions. His coming signals the end of mere religion and the beginning of a relationship marked by joy, transformation, and spiritual abundance.
Just as new wine requires fresh wineskins, the life Jesus offers requires repentant hearts ready to be reshaped by His Spirit. He did not come to stitch patches onto our old patterns; He creates something entirely new. The invitation before us is simple: to welcome His joy by welcoming Him into our lives, to release the brittleness or lifelessness of sin, and to embrace the new creation He came to form in us.
May we be a people who celebrate the presence of our Bridegroom, who walk in the joy of the Holy Spirit, and who continually allow Christ’s renewing life to flow through us—pushing out every remnant of deadness and making all things new.
