Jesus explains that his disciples do not fast because he, the bridegroom, is with them. One day he will be taken away and then they will fast. He also says that new wine must go into fresh wineskins, otherwise the wine or skins will be ruined. Jesus is establishing that he has come to bring something new that is incompatible with the old religious practices and requires new people receptive to the gospel.

1. Mark 2:18-22

2. Jesus came to bring real change, both
historically and personally in your life,
through the gospel.

3. 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?” 19 And Jesus said to
them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the
bridegroom is with them?

4. As long as they have the bridegroom with
them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come
when the bridegroom is taken away from
them, and then they will fast in that
day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth
on an old garment.

5. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the
new from the old, and a worse tear is
made. 22 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 2:18-22).

6. Jesus came to make everything new
(vv. 18-20).

7. God I thank you that I am not like other
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or
even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a
week, I give tithes of all that I get (Luke
18:12).

8. By oppression and judgement he [the
Messiah] was taken away . . . cut off out of
the land of the living, stricken for the
transgression of my people (Isaiah 53:8).

9. The New is not compatible with the Old
(vv. 21-22).

10. 31 “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, 32 not like the covenant that I
made with their fathers on the day when I
took them by the hand to bring them out
of the land of Egypt,

11. my covenant that they broke, though I was
their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For
this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days,
declares the LORD: I will put my law within
them, and I will write it on their
hearts. And I will be their God, and they
shall be my people

12. 34 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 (Jer. 31:31-34).

13. The new requires new wineskins (v. 22b).

14. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of
water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to
you, ‘You must be born again’ (John 3:5-7).

15. O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? I
was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was
publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask
you this: Did you receive the Spirit by works
of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you
so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you
now being perfected by the flesh? (Gal. 3:1-3)

16. Religion The Gospel
If I obey, God will love me Because God loves me, I can
obey
Depends on what I do Depends on what Jesus has
done
Is about me Is about Jesus
Has an uncertainty of
standing before God
Has certainty based upon
Jesus’ work

17. Religion The Gospel
Motivates through fear and
insecurity
Motivates through grateful joy
I obey God in order to get
things from Him
I obey God to get delight in
Him and resemble Him
My identity and self-worth
are based mainly on how
hard I work or how moral I
am
My identity and self-worth are
centered on the one who died
for me.

18. My faith rests not in what I am, or shall be,
or feel, or know [or do], but in what Christ
is, in what He has done and what He is now
doing for me.--Charles Spurgeon

19. Jesus came to bring real change, both
historically and personally in your life,
through the gospel.