Well, good morning, everybody. My name’s Conrad, I’m one of the pastors here. Um, it’s always good when you can start off with the Pink Floyd cover in the morning. Amen. Um, yeah. Thank you.
Introduction: The Pot Roast Story
So, um, I want to start off with a story. It’s not from my life. I don’t know if it’s actually from anybody’s life, but it is a classic story, and it’s one that I love, because it illustrates the point we’re talking about this morning.
And the story goes like this. A little girl comes home from school and sees her mother making a pot roast. But before her mother puts it in the oven to cook it, she cuts off the ends of the pot roast. And so she says, Mom, why are you cutting off the ends of the pot roast? And mom, without hesitation, says, oh, it’s an old family recipe, that’s how your grandmother did it.
The girl said, okay. So she called up her grandmother and said, Grandma, Mom said that she got this recipe for cutting off the ends of the pot roast from you. Why did you cut off the ends of the pot roast? And without skipping a beat, the grandmother says, Well, my mother used to do that. That’s our old family recipe. Your great grandmother.
So the great grandmother’s still alive, living in assisted living, the little girl calls her and says, great grandma. Why did you cut the ends off the pot roast? And great grandma said, so it would fit in the pan.
So it would fit in the pan. Sometimes we just do stuff without really thinking about why we’re doing it that way, am I right?
So, this is totally gonna work. Or not. Okay, let’s try this. There we go. All right.
Scripture Reading: Mark 2:18–22 (NET)
So we’re going to read, we’re picking up at the after Mark left off last week in Mark chapter 2, verses 18 through 22.
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came to Jesus and said, “Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they do not fast. But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and at that time they will fast. No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear becomes worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins will be destroyed. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”
Let’s pray.
Opening Prayer
God, thank you for your word. Thank you that we get to read these series of confrontations that you have with the Pharisees and these legalists and see how you respond and how you prioritize things. And I pray that as we study your word this morning, you would open our hearts to see, maybe to be convicted of things that we’re doing or to get a new perspective on something. Um, but just to not do stuff because that’s the way we’ve always done it. But to understand why things are done the way that they are. So thank you, Jesus for that. Bless us this morning, in your name. Amen.
Introduction to the Pharisees and the Confrontation
So like I said, this is an ongoing series of confrontations with the Pharisees, right? Remember a couple weeks ago, Mike talked about how these guys were lowering the paralytic man down, and the Pharisees were thinking in their heads, what’s this guy doing? And Jesus confronts them. And then last week, we see Mark Folich talked about Jesus eating with the sinners and the Pharisees confronted him. And here we have it again.
So let’s read verse 18 again. Now, John’s disciples, that’s John the Baptist. John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. So they came to Jesus and said, why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast.
Now, first things first. I want to get this out of the way, who are the Pharisees? Now, if you’ve been coming to church for any amount of time, You’ve heard this word probably multiple times. And the thing is that everyone talks about Pharisees as though they already know what they are. You know what I’m talking about? Right? And so they do it with such confidence that you feel like this is something everyone already knows. So you sort of pretend like you know what it means too. Right? This is what I did through the first 4 years of Bible college. You just pretend that you do know, and you always talk about them just vaguely enough that you’re not committing to any particular knowledge. And then you start repeating what other people say, right? So that it sounds like you know what’s going on. Yeah, yeah. I heard that. I knew that.
But then, you get a little overconfident. You start feeling like maybe you know what you’re doing because not only is no one questioning you on the fact that you don’t know anything about this. You heard someone repeating something to someone else that you know is not true because you made it up. So you started ending up being like these guys a little bit later on.
So, I’m gonna help us all to avoid this all too common scenario. I know we’ve all been there. Um, we’re gonna look at who the Pharisees actually were, and it’s not really that complicated. But I just thought it was funny, because we always talk about them, and I don’t think I ever had it explained to me. had to look it up myself.
So the Pharisees were actually formed in the mid second century BC, around 168, I think. Um, and they basically were born out of a group of scribes who became slavishly devoted to the scriptures. Right? They were really particular about the scriptures. Now, from the outset, you might say, okay, well, being really devoted to the scriptures sounds like a good thing. And honestly, it probably was at the outset.
But the problem comes in where instead of coming in under the authority of the scriptures, they use the scriptures as a foundation upon which to build their own separate thing. Okay? And they became so concerned about the Torah and the law and the rules of the law, that they made new laws, 613 of them, in fact, to make sure that they never broke the real law. So you would never break the fake law in order to protect yourself from ever breaking the real law.
And this structure became tradition, and this tradition became equal with scripture. And eventually, they went so far with these rules that instead of being the law being something designed to protect and show the holiness of God, the law became this crushing, burdensome 613 pound weight on people.
And while the Pharisees were a relatively small group, not political in nature, just religious, only accounted for about one percent of the population. They had an incredibly outsized influence on the culture. particularly among the Jews. So a small group with outsized influence on the culture. I wonder if there are any parallels for that today. Moving on.
So that’s where the Pharisees were, right? They were basically, um, you could think of them as like a flock of Karens. Well, they were probably men. They were a flock of kens. Um, And so John the Baptist disciples join this flock of kens, which I find interesting. John the Baptist. Now, I don’t know, it’s been a couple weeks. Maybe you don’t remember, but John the Baptist said, Jesus is coming, one whose sandals I am not fit to untie. Then he baptized him. You remember this? Mike talked about it. The heavens tore open. The Holy Spirit just sounded like a dove. The voice of the Father God echoes through creation. This is my son.
And they’re like, I don’t know if you’re holy enough, bro. Why aren’t you fasting? Really? Um, it just goes to show that anyone can get caught up in traditions, right?
So, what did fasting mean in the Old Testament? It might surprise you to know that there’s actually only one time out of the entire year, one day that you’re commanded to fast according to Old Testament laws, which was the day of atonement. But the Pharisees had a lot of influence. And there was lots of other reasons in the law that you could fast. So Jews would have chosen to fast at other times, but the Pharisees were like, no, no, no. optional fasting is no good. We need to up our game. So they went from one day a year, not to one day a month, not even to one day a week, but 2 days every week, Monday and Thursday you had to fast. That was the law, according to the rules.
So you see how the flock of Kevin’s, flock of kens. I dont know what the correct male term is. They come to Jesus. What is it? Chad’s. This is how out of touch. I thank you, young people, for explaining to me a flock of Chads. Okay. Sounds like a bad ’80s new wave band. Um…
So our flock of Chads come, and they’re like, Why aren’t you guys fasting? Why aren’t you seeking God? I mean, he’s literally here. He’s literally beside them in the flesh. Like, if you’re stepping out of line and you’re praying, God, show me the way. If Jesus was there, he could slap you in the face and say, hey, knock it off. I think he did that to Peter a couple of times.
So they’re really concerned with going through the motions of fasting and they’re missing the point that these guys are literally with God. Right now. It’s not about looking holy. It’s about doing what’s right. Actually, you know, this is, like, the one line that I remember, that Pastor Grand preached years ago, like in the mid 90s, I must have been 16. And he said, don’t do what is right. Do what is righteous. Don’t do what is right, do what is righteous.
We’re not worried about law and legalism and going through the motions and checklists. We’re worried about doing what God actually wants us to do. So, they think that Jesus is a fraud because he’s not trying to appear to be holy. Right? And we might cluck our tongues and go, oh, those ridiculous Pharisees, that flock of Chads. But here’s the thing.
If we’re honest with ourselves, the fact is that rules are easy, aren’t they? Because then you can slip into a comfortable, repetitive pattern. This is the thing that we do. This is what it means to be a Christian. It turns, it makes it simple and safe, right? Instead of having gray areas where you have to discern things and go to God for guidance, you just have a list of blacks and whites, do’s and don’ts, yes’s and no’s, it’s very simple.
But this is the thing, gang. God does not want us to make a checklist. Okay? Checklist can go in one of two ways. Checklist can result in legalism, right? You’re not like the Pharisees and the disciples of John who got caught up in their rhetoric, right? Um, it can result in this legalism. And that’s destructive because it takes you away from God while you think you’re drawing closer. It might be the worst kind of destructivism.
But on the flip side, a checklist can lead you into a false sense of security of thinking that you really got this when maybe you really don’t, and I’ll illustrate that with this clip from the Simpsons.
Name your son’s hobbies. Building a soap bug, razor. Name one of your child’s friends. Martin, who is your son’s hero? Three times soapbox derby champion, Ronny Beck. Oh, and one question away from being a perfect father. Name another dad you talked to about parenting. Flanders. Flanders? Um, uh, well, when should a boy start dating? Well, sir, there. Two schools of thought on the subject. Great, thanks. I talked to Flanders about parenting. I’m a perfect father.
Can you imagine if we did this?
The Christian Stool and Motives
Now, I often talk about the Christian stool, right? And how there’s three legs on the Christian stool, that is, scripture reading, um, prayer and fellowship. But the important thing to remember is that these three sort of legs are not ends in themselves, right? We’re not reading scripture and praying and fellowship for the sake of saying we do it. It’s not a checklist, right? We’re not just going to flip open to a random, I don’t know, let’s hear, let’s go to Psalm 19. The heavens proclaim the glory of God. Ooh, good. Scripture read for today. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. I prayed. Hey, Xander, how you doing? Done. Checklist, finished. I am an excellent Christian. I’ll have you know.
See, these things are supposed to be done in service of a relationship with God. That’s what he wants from us, right? The relationship and the growing of that relationship. So why are you reading the scriptures? Why are you reading this? Because this is God’s revealed word to us. This is stuff that he wants us to know to help us live the best life that we can, right? As much as, you know, Tony Robbins wants to tell you how to live your best life now, the Bible has the real stuff. Okay, it’s not just designed to make you feel good. It’s designed to make you better.
Prayer is an opportunity to really come before God. And yes, we can bring our request to him. He wants to know what we want. He already knows. He wants us to ask for it. But it’s also an opportunity to listen. to be quiet and still before God, because we don’t have Jesus standing here in the flesh to smack us in the face and say, hey, Connor, get your life together, bud. Prayer gives us an opportunity to be intentional, intentional about pressing into God.
And fellowship. Fellowship is something we get wrong in the church all the time, okay? Now, I’m sorry if I hurt some feelings here, but it has to be said. We like to talk about doing life in the church, and you’ve probably heard me rail about this before. Again, if you have I apologize, but it needs to be said. If you are going for FroYo with your BFF from church, that is not fellowship. Okay? If you’re going to a movie with your friend from church, that’s not fellowship. That’s just friendship. That’s a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with these things.
Fellowship is intentional. It’s about building into each other. When you’re struggling. And your friend comes alongside you and says, let me encourage you in this way. Let me tell you what God has to say into that situation. That is fellowship. Right? If my buddy comes to me and says, oh, Conrad, God sent this beautiful woman into my life, and I say, unless she’s your wife, that’s not true. then that is fellowship. If we’re praying for one another. That is fellowship. Just being friends is a good thing, but it’s not the same as fellowship. Okay? Okay.
So these are things that we’re doing to an end of improving our relationship with God.
Closing Prayer
So with that, I’m actually going to invite the worship team back up to close us off for today. But let’s remember that we don’t want to let the stuff of Christianity get in the way of our walk with Christ. Okay? We’re not filling out a checklist. These are things that are supposed to help us on our journey.
So keep an eye on your motives because we cannot checklist our way to heaven. Amen? Amen.
Let’s pray.
God, thank you again for your word. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for challenging us to check our motives and to know what it is that we’re doing, and the reason for it, God, to not get caught up cutting off the ends of our pot roast without understanding the reason for it. Help us to lean into you, to rely on you, to work on that relationship with you, and to surround ourselves with people who will help us do the same. Thank you for all of this in your name, Jesus. Amen.