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Ever feel like everything used to be better? It's easy to get stuck holding on to the past.

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But this Sunday, we're exploring why entering into the new covenant requires a radical paradigm shift. Join me, Pastor Richard, as we examine Mark chapter 2 and discover what it means to move from the old into the new.

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The Gospel reading is taken from the Gospel of Mark chapter 2 verses 18 to 28. Together we say, Glory to Christ our Savior. Mark chapter 2 verse 18. Now, John's disciple and the Pharisees were fasting, and people came and said to him, Why do John's disciple 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 they will fast in that day. Verse 21. No one sues a piece of unswung cloth of an old garment. If it does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and the worst tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskin. If it does, the wine will burst skins, and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins. One Sabbath he was going through the games field, and they made their way. His disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them, Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God in the time of Abedah the high priest, and are the bread of the and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat. And also gave it to those who were with him. And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for men, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. This is the gospel of Christ. Praise to Christ our Lord.

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Good morning, church. I wonder if you have noticed. I I've noticed, I've certainly noticed. I noticed when I go out for marketing. You know, I I noticed when I went out to eat with my family last week. Have you noticed? People have made up terms for this, but the the term a bit crude, it's not something uh we will repeat. But I assume you've noticed, right? Have you noticed? If you have noticed on the count of three, you're just gonna quietly say this. Where you're seated, if you think you've noticed. One, two, three. Prices are going up and quality is going down. That's what you said, right? Have you noticed that? I have certainly noticed that. Uh my coffee at the Hawke Center, it's gone from a dollar to about a dollar fifty usually. Uh, restaurant prices have gone up, portions have gotten smaller, uh, utility bills, and on and on and on, right? And so, in a sense, I feel like I've joined the crowd of people who say, you know what, it used to be better, but now it's all going downhill fast. Right? That's something, especially as we get older, uh, we tend to say a bit more. You know, in my day, people made eye contact with one another. They weren't staring down at their phone or they're trying to talk. In my day, you know, sometimes things got rough, sometimes things were tight, sometimes had to do without meals because it just didn't have the money for it. But now, oh my, now. Well, if someone doesn't have their bubble tea or a snack, they say it's a crime against humanity. You you know where I'm coming from? For most of us, even if our past was more difficult, still we we feel that the past was somehow better. And today's passage is, in a sense, about those who hold on to the past, who aren't ready to move on into the future. Today's passage is also about the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. And the fact is, there's a lot of people who want to stay under the old covenant. Church, shall we pray? Precious Lord, even this morning, would you speak to us? Would you illuminate those areas that are not pleasing to you? Would you give us the strength and resolve to work on those areas? And would you work mightily in us by your Holy Spirit that we can become evermore Christ-like? Give us understanding as we examine your word today. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. So Mark sets the scene for us, and as a reminder, uh the four gospels, by the way, Mark wasn't there when these things happened. Did you know that? Mark wasn't there. Um so why was he writing one of the gospels? Well, tradition holds that actually uh he was connected with Peter, and so much of what he writes is what Peter experienced. And so Mark sets the scene for us in verse 18. He says, 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 they don't fast. So John's disciples and the Pharisees, where where was John the Baptist, right? John's disciples, where was John the Baptist? Well, John the Baptist had already been imprisoned by King Herod Antipas. And so he wasn't there, but his disciples were holding strong to the teaching that they had received from John. And so who are these people? Well, Matthew tells us that they were the disciples of John. These are the ones who came and were asking Jesus this question. And so they had been fasting, and the Pharisees have been fasting. Under the old covenant, there is only one day in the year they are required to fast, and that was for the Day of Atonement. Later on during their captivity in Babylon, they observed four more yearly commemorative feast days. Excuse me, fasting days. And these fasting days reminded them of their past and aided them to maintain their distinct identity even while they are in captivity. But by Jesus' time, however, we find that the Pharisees, they had made it their standard practice to fast twice a week. Two times a week they would fast, generally on Mondays and Thursdays. And so this had become a religious tradition, not a divine requirement. And according to the New Testament, their heart or their motivation for fasting was wrong. So I began by saying this passage is in a way about the old covenant and the new covenant. So is the old covenant the same as the Old Testament? Do you know what the Old Covenant is when we have that term? See, they're not really the same. The Old Covenant refers to specific agreements between God and his people. And it was mainly established through Abraham and through Moses. And the Old Testament, on the other hand, is a collection of books. So the Old Covenant, some agreements, specific agreements that God made with his people. And biblically, a covenant is a sacred agreement between God and his people or the representative. And so there are four major covenants in the Old Testament. The first is the uh the one with Noah, all right? And in Genesis chapter 9, verse 11, he says, I establish my covenant with you. That never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. This was a one-sided covenant. One-sided. So God promised never to destroy the earth again, and in return, actually, he didn't ask anything when that covenant was made. There's the Abrahamic covenant, and this is the one that we hear perhaps more of. Genesis chapter 12, beginning in verse 1, it says, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And so Abram, later on, Abraham would leave his homeland and go to a place that God would show him. That was Abraham's side of this covenant. And on God's side, he said, I will bless you and your descendants, and I'll make them a blessing to the nations. We have the Mosaic covenant in Exodus, and the law was given to Israel, and Israel would agree to be obedient to that law. And under those terms of the covenant, God would agree to bless obedience, but disobedience would lead to curses. And finally, the fourth major covenant in the Old Testament is the Davidic covenant. And so this is found in 2 Samuel chapter 7. And it was again a one-sided agreement. God would establish an everlasting kingdom through the line of David. And this pointed to uh, of course, the coming of Jesus as Messiah. So the Pharisees believed that it Israel would even just for one single day keep perfectly the law that had been given to them through Moses. It would usher in God's blessing, and this Davidic covenant would be fulfilled in the shape of a Jewish political kingdom that would rule over the nations. This was their understanding for the Pharisees. This is why for them they were fasting twice every week. And they were strong on this. We have to do this. God's going to usher in a new kingdom. And they were probably thinking, oh, and by the way, as Pharisees who have kept the law and been so diligent, we're going to have a pretty prominent place in this new kingdom, right? They had long since shifted their focus from the God who had established this covenant to the covenant itself. They had lost sight of the one who had established the covenant. They failed to recognize that they could never keep the whole covenant by their own human effort. So John's disciples had the same practice of fasting as the Pharisees practiced. And they seemed to have encountered Jesus. It must have been on a Monday or a Thursday, right? Because they were fasting and Jesus' disciples were not. And they saw everyone eating and they thought, what sort of Jewish rabbi is this? Why are they eating? And so they challenge Jesus. Hey, we fast regularly. The followers of the Pharisees, they fast regularly. You're supposed to be a rabbi, right? How come your disciples don't fast? Are you covenant keepers or not? They're thinking people who were serious about their cultural faith. Their faith is Israel. People who are good Jews, well, they would fast regularly, twice a week. To them, Jesus and his disciples, they were faking their devotion to God. They weren't being good covenant keepers. On this topic of fasting, you know, growing up in the U.S., we have this tradition that we would follow quite a bit Friday fish fries. On Fridays, many restaurants, wherever you go, uh they would have a fish fry, especially on Fridays. And I remember growing up, we would all get into this old, old van that was our vehicle for the family. And I don't think there were enough, I don't know if there were seats in the back. Like the back of the van was empty. My sister and there would be sitting on a mattress while my parents were driving. Uh sorry, no seat belts that time. This was a long time ago. And we go down and we would go about 10 minutes drive to the fire station, the firehouse. And every Friday they would have a big fish fry. They'd have these long tables, and you just come in and you pay, you sit down with neighbors and whoever's there, and you'd have this fish fry together. And this tradition of Friday fish fry actually originated from this Catholic practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays, particularly during Lent. And so this allowed fish to be consumed as a meat substitute. I'm not saying for our Lenten prayer that uh we cheat with fish, but growing up, uh, this was one of my experiences. And so Jesus, to the shock of those questioning him, he seems to downplay the importance of fasting. He replied 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. His response must have really confused John's disciples. I mean, you see, God had revealed to John the Baptist, right, that Jesus was the Messiah. He'd had that vision. And this was the one that he had been preaching about. But his disciples, well, I think they didn't really understand yet. John had said that this was the Messiah, but he didn't even practice regular fasting. And so Jesus had answered them, you know that wedding guests can't fast at a wedding, right? And culturally, it was very true in the culture. Weddings could carry on for several days, could carry on for a week, and if that spilled over onto a Monday or Thursday, well, you had no choice but to eat. You had no choice. No wedding guest would have fasted while the bridegroom was there. It would have been a terrible insult. This was a time for celebration. And so, John's disciples, they're, you know, scratching their head. Hey, we ask you about fasting, you're talking about weddings. I mean, it's true, no one fasts at a wedding, but what are you trying to say? And so Jesus continues. He says, The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and they will fast in that day. And now, what, John's disciples, they must be very are you confused? I think John's disciples, they're very confused. What is all this about weddings? We're talking about fasting. What point are you trying to make? I mean, what what do you mean, Jesus, that the bridegroom will be taken away and then there will be fasting? And so Jesus carries on. He says, No one sows a piece of new cloth on an old garment. It will tear apart once it begins to shrink. And no one puts new wine in old wineskins. It will cause the wineskin to burst. And so at this point, at least John's disciples, they know Jesus is not really talking about fasting and weddings. They're clear on that, all right? But did they understand what Jesus was really talking about? I I wonder if you this morning know what he is talking about here. This passage in main in many ways is about the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant that was established in Jesus. The Pharisees fasted because they believed, keep the law for one day, the kingdom will come down. And it will usher in a new political kingdom of God. But Jesus was saying, your old kingdom idea just isn't going to fit with what is actually happening right now in your midst. Right here and now, because the bridegroom is with you. The one that God has promised is right here. You cannot incorporate the new covenant that I'm establishing into your old covenant understanding. You have to leave the old behind. You must embrace the new thing that I'm doing. Entering into the new covenant, it requires a paradigm shift. Now, what's a paradigm shift? A paradigm shift, it's a radical change in the way that you think. And so it results in a new worldview, new concepts, new practices. And for some of us here this morning, you have already had a paradigm shift. You've already had it when you chose to place your life in Christ. Maybe you you came from another religion that emphasized works. Maybe before you felt an obligation to pray a certain number of times per day. Maybe you had to burn incense. Maybe you had different practices before. Or perhaps you were a free thinker in the past, and your choices were made according to what kind of felt right, or what seemed logical to you. But as you came to Christ, you learned that worship is about what's pleasing to God, and it begins in your heart. You had a paradigm shift about the way you see the world, yourself, and others. Began to learn what it means to not repay evil with evil, but instead to bless and do not curse. That's what the Bible teaches. It requires a paradigm shift, a complete different way of seeing the world to be able to grasp this. You discover that it's more blessed to give than to receive. You found that denying yourself for God's sake doesn't leave your life empty, but instead it brings internal meaning. You found life is more meaningful by denying yourself. You had a paradigm shift. Entering into this new covenant requires a paradigm shift. And this is the new covenant as it was prophesied long, long before Jesus came to the earth. This is what Jericho. Jeremiah prophesied. He said, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, I will write it on their hearts, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. This is the heart of the new covenant. I'm going to read that last part again. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. And we're reminded of this new covenant every time we celebrate Holy Communion. Just like we'll be doing a bit later in this service. In Luke chapter 22, verse 20, it says, And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. This is the new sacred agreement between God and his people. That those who come to Christ will figuratively be washed by the righteous blood that was shed, and we'll be cleansed of our sins. Mark continues with another story that Peter must have told him about. He recounts that Jesus was going through some grain fields with his disciples, and the disciples, they were just picking the grain as they walked around, and they'd rolled in their hand to get the sheath off of that grain, and they just pop it in their mouth. They were just eating as they were going. They accused them of work on the Sabbath. And Jesus he responds with the story about David, one of the heroes of the Old Testament. Someone whom God had made a covenant with that ultimately pointed to Jesus himself. And so Jesus said to the Pharisees, Have you never read that David, what he did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who are with him. Ouch. If we're there in the situation, this would have been a very strong thing to say. See, everyone would have been more comfortable if this part of history had been erased, because the bread of the presence was in the holy place of the tabernacle. Only the Levitical priests were meant to be entering that holy place to begin with. David was not of the Levitical line, and it was supposed to be, according to Exodus, it was supposed to be the death penalty for going in there when you weren't supposed to. The death penalty. And yet their hero, David, did it, and the bread itself was only to be eaten by the priests. And so why did Jesus refer to this? What was he getting at? Humid need takes precedence over the ritual observance. This is the principle that we see here. And it's in line with what Jesus said in the very next verse. He said to them, Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Who decides when human need is more important than ritual observance? Who gets to make that decision? Well, Jesus declares that he is the one who gets to decide. He says, So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. And just in case his readers still didn't get it, Mark continues on with another story in chapter three, the beginning of chapter three. And it talks about he entered a synagogue and there was a man with a withered hand, and everybody was watching.

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What will Jesus do?

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Here's an opportunity. We've heard about things going on right here in the synagogues, a man with a withered hand. And so he brought the guy over and he said to the crowd, he said, Is it lawful to do good or to harm, to save life or to kill on the Sabbath? And everybody was silent because it's a bit of a trick question, right? If we say it's not lawful to do good, well, there's something wrong with us. But if we say yes, well, then what about all these laws we've received from Moses? So they were silent. And he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And it was restored. Jesus' healing power at work. And so we read that at this point the Pharisees, this was the turning point. This was where they started looking for ways to destroy Jesus. He healed a man, but they were stuck on the law because they believed this is what's going to bring in the kingdom is the law. They forgot about the one who gave the law. Human need takes precedence over ritual observance, is what Jesus is taught. Now, many of us, I don't know about you, many of us struggle moving from the old to the new. Some of you may even be sitting here this morning and you you still find yourself in some ways stuck in the old. The old way of thinking, the old way of living, the old way of relating to God. Like the Pharisees, you're used to living to a strict code for living. You have your own code. This is what I shall do. These things are out of bounds for me. It gives a sense of security almost. And there's a fear of what will happen if you let go of living according to that code of living. How will you know you're right with God? We all need, church, we all need a paradigm shift, a change in our thinking. And so I have to ask if you're ready to move today from the old to the new. Even as uh Chinese New Year is coming up, and for many of us, we have the practice, it's time to clean house, let's do all the vacuuming, the tidying up, get everything ready, because when New Year starts, we're not going to be doing any of that. It's time to prepare. And for us, as we're looking at moving from the old to the new in the way we live our lives, it's time to put things in order. God has offered us a way to be forgiven for our many sins against him and against our flow man. This is the new covenant, right? Trying to do a lot of good deeds isn't going to earn us a favorable afterlife. That's not how it works. But God has established this covenant. If we would confess our sins, if we would ask for forgiveness in Jesus' name and make him Lord and boss of our life, we will be saved. And if this is your first time coming into a church today, this is what it's all about. This is the gospel that we talk about.

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If we will confess our sins, God will forgive us for the sake of his son Jesus, who died for us, and we will be saved. We pray that you've been ministered to by the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about each Christian church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.