A Question About Fasting

In this part of the sermon: Jesus answers with an analogy: friends of the bridegroom do not fast while he is present, as it is a time of joy. He then predicts a future time of sadness and fasting when the…

Jesus uses the analogy of friends of the groom fasting at a wedding reception to show the incongruity of his disciples fasting while he, the Bridegroom, is present, as it is a time of joy.

He takes an incident from the original of an ordinary wedding practices and uses it to answer their question. Now these sons of the bride chamber are what we would say the close and intimate friends of the bridegroom. And here they are all at the wedding. Let's take it into modern terminology and say they are sitting at the head table with the bride and the groom.

18:34 - 19:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains the two parables: the 'unshrunken patch on an old garment' leading to a worse tear, and 'new wine into old wineskins' causing both to perish. He details the…

Martin explains the ancient practice of pre-shrinking cloth and how sewing an unshrunken patch onto an old garment would cause the new patch to shrink and tear the old garment further, illustrating the incompatibility of mixing old and new covenant forms.

It calls these incidents or these references to cloth and wineskins parables. So you have the parable of the patch and the parable of the wineskins. Now in this age of pre-shrunk, no shrink, wash and wear fabrics, a passage like this doesn't make much sense because we could live to be 150 years old and never see it happen. But remember Jesus was talking in the day before pre-shrunk materials, before wash and wear, before synthetic fibers.

25:06 - 25:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains the two parables: the 'unshrunken patch on an old garment' leading to a worse tear, and 'new wine into old wineskins' causing both to perish. He details the…

He describes how old, brittle wineskins cannot contain new, fermenting wine, which would burst them. This illustrates that the expansive, dynamic 'new wine' of the gospel cannot be contained within the rigid, worn-out 'old wineskins' of the Mosaic economy.

And then he goes on to give the parable of the wineskins. We'll hold off on the meaning of those parables for a moment. Now here again, we don't use wineskins or skins to store water or wine in. We have plastic bottles, we have glass bottles, and other containers, thermos bottles and the rest.

28:21 - 28:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Weep with those who weep, even when you are in a joyful mood, demonstrating self-denial and sensitivity to their grief.

The story of Billy Bray, a Cornish miner who was so full of joy he would shout 'Glory, Hallelujah' and even 'Glory out the bunghole' if put in a barrel, is used to illustrate intense personal joy, which must sometimes be disciplined in the presence of others' grief.

That takes sensitivity. That takes discipline of your own spirit. I mean you've come out of your devotions one morning and you're shouting happy and like old Billy Bray said, the Cornish miner who got converted and he had an unusual baptism of holy joy. And when he walked down the street sometimes he would just shout and praise God.

54:15 - 54:34 Read in full sermon