MARK 2

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04600640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" ><B>BOOK OF JOB</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>    |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF JOB"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Content"><U>My Content</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Album"><U>Photo Album</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Favorite Links"><U>Favorite Links</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JOHNS GOSPEL"><U>JOHN'S GOSPEL</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PSALMS"><U>PSALMS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EASTER"><U>EASTER</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SERMONS ON MARK"><U>SERMONS ON MARK</U></A>   |   <B>MARK 2</B>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 3"><U>MARK 3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 4 THRU 6"><U>MARK 4 THRU 6</U></A>   |   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF JOB"><U>BOOK OF JOB</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 7 THRU 12"><U>MARK 7 THRU 12</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 13 THRU 16"><U>MARK 13 THRU 16</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF REVELATION"><U>BOOK OF REVELATION</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SONG OF SOLOMON"><U>SONG OF SOLOMON</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TOPICAL SERMONS"><U>TOPICAL SERMONS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="GODS NATURE"><U>GOD'S NATURE</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JAMES"><U>JAMES</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IJOHN"><U>IJOHN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IIJOHN"><U>IIJOHN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IIIJOHN"><U>IIIJOHN</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>MARK 2</I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> THE GREAT PHYSICIAN  MARK 2:1-12</div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      People who survive great dangers and diseases are often creative people who do the unusual.  Robert Muller, in his memoirs, Most Of All, They Taught Me Happiness, tells of how creative he became under pressure.  In 1943 he was a member of the French Resistance.  Using the name of Parizot, he infiltrated a government agency, and was able to gather information on German troop movements.  He was tipped off that the Nazis were on to him, and coming to arrest him.  He fled to the Attic of his office building.  Gestapo men were soon searching the premises. </div> <bR> <div>       Muller knew he had to come  up with a plan to survive.  So he took off  his glasses, and slick down his hair, and grabbed a file folder, and walked down stairs. He walked right into the office where his secretary was being interrogated.  He asked her what all the excitement was about.  She didn't bat an eye, but said the gentlemen were looking for Parizot.  "Parizot!"  He exclaimed.  "I just saw him a few minutes ago on the fourth floor."  The Nazis rushed upstairs, and Muller was led to safety by his friends.   </div> <bR> <div>      Cleverness and creativity are the keys to surviving what seem like hopeless situations.  We see it in the realm of diseases also.  Senator Frank Church of Idaho was told at age 33 that he had incurable cancer, and he was given 6  months to live. He decided to take chances, and he submitted to a new radiation treatment just being developed.  He also decided to take chances, and be creative with his life.  He went into politics and sponsored risky legislation on civil-rights and the environment. He was the first Senator to publicly oppose the Viet Nam war.  He did eventually die of his cancer, but not until 1984, which was 37 years after he was given 6 months.  </div> <bR> <div>       The point is, people who are clever and creative, and who chose to do the unusual, are the people who experience the exceptional in life.  They survive when others parish.  They are restored to health when others die. The paralytic in Mark 2 is just such a man.  He was bed ridden, and yet he got his body where men with two good legs could not get.  Jesus was surrounded by people, and no one could even get through the door into the house, let alone, near to Jesus.  </div> <div> Even Zacchaeus's idea of climbing a tree would not work here, for Jesus was in the house.  We don't know if it was his idea, or that of his friends carrying him, but they were like an ancient ambulance team who got there patient to the doctor on time.  When the normal route is closed, you need to come up with a creative alternative to reach a goal.  This team recognized that sometimes you have to start at the top and work down, and that is what they did.  </div> <bR> <div>      They created a skylight before anybody thought of such a thing, and let their patient down through the roof right into the presence of Jesus.  They had no doubt what would happen, for Jesus, as far as the record reveals, never had a sick person in His presence that He did not heal.  We have no hint that any sick person ever went away saying, "I am not healed."  Nor do we have any record of Jesus ever walking away from a sick person, and not healing them.  They knew if they could just get him into the presence of Jesus, their labor would not be in vain.  Their faith in Jesus motivated them to be clever and creative.  </div> <bR> <div>       I've read this account many times, and I always read verse 5 in a restricted sense.  Jesus seeing their faith responded and healed the paralytic.  Their faith, always meant to me, the faith of the friends who let him down.  Some make a big point of this being their faith, rather than his faith.  It is true, if it would have said his faith, the friends would be excluded.  But saying, their faith, does not exclude his. The their, is plural, and could refer to all five of the team, including the young paralytic himself.  There is no reason why he should be excluded, as if he was just a lump of clay, with no say in what his friends were doing.  For all we know, he was the couch, and the whole thing was his idea from the start, and the roof route was his creative choice.  </div> <bR> <div>      All we know for sure is, there were many paralytics who never walked again, but here was one who carried his bed home that day.  He was the exceptional paralytic.  He was aggressive in his search for a miracle.  We have all had experiences where it was hard to get into see the doctor, because he or she was so busy.  That was the problem with this paralytic.  When he got to the place where Jesus was, he realized he should have made an appointment.  The line of those ahead of him was long, and his only hope of seeing the doctor was aggressive cleverness.  </div> <bR> <div>      This morning we want to look at this event from the point of view of the doctors response to this most aggressive patient.  Keep in mind, it is aggressive patients who are often a pain to the doctor, who are the most likely to get well.   Let's begin with a negative aspect from the doctors point of view, and look at-</div> <bR> <div> I.  THE DISTURBANCE OF THE DOCTOR.</div> <bR> <div>      I've often thought that one of the hardest aspects of being a doctor is the perpetual interruptions.  They can be doing one thing, and get a call to do another, at anytime of the day or night.  They can have a waiting room full of patients, and get called away to deliver a baby, or some other emergency at the hospital.  Being interrupted can put a lot of stress on people.  </div> <bR> <div>      In our text, you will note that verse 2 tells us that Jesus was preaching to the crowd.  He was preaching the word, and nobody likes to be interrupted in the middle of a message.  This is highlighted by the police report concerning the New Testament Baptist church in Stockton, Cal.  It seems that Oscar MacAlister interrupted the morning message by shouting at the pastor that he was getting out of hand.  After the service pastor Murphy Paskill had an idea on how to prevent further such disturbances.  He got a revolver, and shot MacAlister for four times.  The pastor was booked on charges of attempted murder.  We do not know if he was as poor as preacher as MacAlister thought, but he was obviously a very poor shot.  </div> <bR> <div>      The point is, interruptions can be very disturbing.  They can add so much stress to life that they become a cause for illness.  Rabbi Joshua Liebman wrote the popular book, Peace Of Mind, that started the avalanche of such books.  He was so swamped with calls and letters from people who wanted his help to get peace of mind, that he lost his own peace of mind.  He tried to help all who interrupted his life with a cry for help, and in just three years he was dead at age 43.  </div> <bR> <div>      Perpetual disturbance can be deadly.  That is why Jesus very wisely got away from the burden of dealing with people's problems perpetually.  He was a physician who healed Himself by getting rest for restoration.   But we see also, that He handled interruptions in His life as opportunities.  It was a radical disturbance to have the roof torn away while you are preaching, but Jesus was not overly disturbed by this disturbance.  He was preaching the word of God, but he recognized that even the best things in life can be set aside to deal with the emergency of the moment.  If you are having your devotions, and are in prayer, and your child comes crying with a cut finger, it is not an offense to God to leave you devotion to care for the cut.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus was a good emergency doctor.  He took this radical disturbance in stride, and gave it His full attention.  What Jesus demonstrates here is that we can decide to make an interruption in our life a burden or a blessing.  It was a very rude thing to do, to come in through the roof.  It is not only not appropriate in polite circles, it is not appropriate in any circle.  Jesus could have been offended, and He could have complained, and gotten the whole crowd to be critical of this team of disturbers of the peace.  Instead, He turned it into one of His greatest messages.  By healing this paralytic, Jesus not only demonstrated His power to heal, but His authority to forgive sin, and even more important, His willingness to do.  </div> <bR> <div>      The crowd learned more that day about Jesus then they would have had this disturbance never taken place.  This paralytic became a powerful object lesson for the Greatest Doctor who ever lived.  If we are going to be like Jesus, we need to ask of every interruption in our lives, "How can I use this for a blessing?"  Next look at-</div> <bR> <div> II.  THE DIAGNOSIS OF THE DOCTOR.</div> <bR> <div>      Diagnosis is a Greek word used only once in the New Testament in Acts 25:21. It refers to a judgment based on thorough knowledge.  Jesus judged immediately that this young man was a paralytic because of sin, for he did not say this to most of His patients, which He said to Him:  "Son, your sins are forgiven."  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus called him son, and so he was a young man, and so his illness was not age related nor accident related.  He was obviously a victim of a disease somehow related to his life-style.  You can break nine out of the ten commandments that do not directly relate to illness, but one does, and that is sexual immorality.  Sexually transmitted diseases have been a major health problem all through time.  Aids is one of the most talked about diseases of our day.  But there is also Herpes, which is epidemic, affecting 20 million Americans.  </div> <bR> <div>      Gonorrhea is the most prevalent bacteria infection on earth, with over one hundred million cases a year.  Syphilis is another major social disease, and this is likely the disease of the young paralytic of our text.  Syphilis leads to many other illnesses, and by 1876 it was discovered that if it moved to the spinal cord it could cause complete paralysis.  It is the only social disease I could find that could lead to paralysis.  The Greek words used to describe this mans disease are paralutikos and paraluomai.  Out of 14 uses of these two words in the New Testament, ten of them refer to this young man.  He is the most paralyzed man in the New Testament, and Jesus says it was because of sin in his life.  </div> <bR> <div>      Sin and sickness are sometimes directly linked.  Immorality and illness are linked. Defiance of God's laws and disease, often go hand in hand.  Here is the immoral man made conspicuous by his paralysis.  Note, Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven."  He used the plural of sins, for seldom is an immoral person immoral just once.  The man's life-style was an open invitation to infection.  </div> <bR> <div>      My problem here is, how can Jesus be so forgiving of such an immoral person? It seems that Jesus is just too lenient with some sinners.  I think we all feel like the elder brother at times, and wonder how the father could let the prodigal son off the hook so easy, and welcome him home, when he knew he wasted his substance with harlots.  He was immoral, and yet dad took him back like he was still a virgin.  There are some hard things to grasp about forgiveness, and one of them is, how can you do it, and still escape being soft on sin.  Christlike forgiveness almost seems immoral to us at times, and makes being forgiving very hard.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus diagnosed this man immediately as suffering from a sin caused disease, and yet, without a call for repentance, or a lecture on holiness, or at least a brief condemnation, He healed him, and did so by forgiving his sins.  It was not his mistakes, his poor judgments, his inadequacies, but his sins.  I have struggled with this for years, for Jesus seems to take sin to lightly at times.  Another famous example being the woman taken in adultery.  But then I began to look at Jesus in the light of His major role as the Great Physician.  A doctor is a healer, and his or her task is not that of judging the patient, but of helping them to be healed.  The reason Jesus was 100% successful in the area of healing, when He was not in preaching or teaching, is because in healing there was never a distinction between those who were sick because of their sin, and those who were sick just because they were a part of a fallen world.</div> <bR> <div>      Jesus never failed to heal people who deserved what they were suffering, because they brought it on themselves, because of their sin.  This explains so many of the mysteries of the world of healing.  There is no discrimination in healing.  It falls into the same category as the sun rising and the rain falling on the just and the unjust.  Healing is not a gift God gives only to His own children.  Unsaved people can be healed as well as the saved, for the same laws of health work for them, as for the Christian.  They can receive miracles also, for miracles also have laws by which they operate.  </div> <bR> <div>      In the next paragraph the Pharisees are upset with Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners.  We are talking about prostitutes here, and people who are immoral, and who spread the sort of diseases that lead young men to become paralytics.  Jesus responds in verse 17, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."  Jesus never asked anything of His patients except the nature of their illness, and if He diagnosed it as sinned caused, He never hesitated to heal, for the sick need to be healed, and that is a need He always met regardless of the cause.</div> <bR> <div>      Not only does this mean non-Christians can be healed, it means Jesus supports all the medical efforts to heal all diseases, even those that are caused by sin.  Many Christians are involved in ministering to those with aids, a usually sin caused disease.  This is a legitimate ministry for those with the compassion of Christ.  I abhor the folly that leads to such a disease, but at the same time, I must applaud those who seek a cure for aids.  It seems that to do so is to be soft on the sin that leads to it, but it is the spirit of Jesus as the Great Physician.  If aids is the judgment of God, then how can a Christian be concerned about healing those who come under His wrath?  This has been the same question all through history on leprosy, syphilis, and many other diseases.  </div> <bR> <div>      We need to see that you can know a disease is a direct result of defiance of God's will, and still seek for the healing of that disease.  This is so clearly illustrated in Num. 12 where Miriam is cursed with leprosy for her critical stand against Moses. She was facing a horrible fate, and Aaron,  her brother, pleaded with Moses not to hold this sin against them, for he too was a part of the criticism.  He pleads, "Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with flesh half eaten away."  What a gruesome fate.  Moses did not say, "She made her bed let her lie in it.  She suffers the just reward of her sin and folly."  Instead, knowing it was God's judgment on her sin, He prays in Num. 12:13, "O God, please heal her!" And God answered that prayer, and she was made clean, and only had to suffer 7 days of shame outside the camp.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus had the same attitude toward those clearly under the judgment of God.  The paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda was an invalid for 38 years.  Jesus did not hesitate to heal him, but after He said to him in John 5:14, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."  Sin led to his disease, and again, it was likely a sexually transmitted disease, yet Jesus healed him.</div> <bR> <div>      The evidence is clear:  Disease discrimination is as inconsistent with Christlikeness as is race discrimination.  It does not make any difference if one is suffering from personal sin, or from just being a part of the sinful world, the sick need the physician, and all are to be cared for and healed.  A Christian nurse or doctor, or any of us, need not feel we are compromising our faith if we care for, and loving seek the healing of, people who are suffering as a direct result of their sin.  </div> <bR> <div>      Pat Boone writes about his experience with a Jewish pornographer in Las Vegas. He was facing gall bladder surgery, in feared he would die.  He read one of Pat's books and called him up, and asked him to pray for him.  Pat not only prayed for this man, so out of the will of God, he got him to pray for himself.  When he went in for his surgery they could not find the gall stones on the x-rays, and he was sent home. He was a happy and healed man, and Pat got him to reading the Bible, and learning about the Jesus who healed him.  At the time of his writing the man had not yet received Christ as his Savior.  Was he right to help a godless man like that to find healing?  Would not the world be better off had he suffered a just judgment, and died?  </div> <bR> <div>      The answer to both questions is yes.  Yes the world would be better off without him, and yes it was right to seek his healing, even if he never does come to Christ, and eventually dies as a lost man anyway.  Why is this right?  Because in healing there is to be no discrimination.  Christian, Jew, Moslem, or Atheist:  They are all to be dealt with in compassion, and if possible, by medicine or miracle, be delivered from their disease.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Christian has the right, and even the obligation, to make a distinction between people in many areas of life.  You do not have to cooperate with all people in their projects or life-style.  You do not have to let your children date unbelievers. You have to discriminate in dozens of ways, and refuse to let homosexuals be Sunday schools teachers, and camp counselors.  Life is loaded with valid discrimination, because light and darkness cannot share the same space.  But when it comes to healing, there is a universality about it that cannot be escaped.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is doctors orders.  Whatever the diagnosis, and however related to sin, the Christian healer does not discriminate.  The Christian healer heals all.  Jesus is the universal physician, and because it is so, the non-Christian may also experience his healing power.  Medical missionaries minister to many non-Christians around the world.  They heal more non-Christians than anybody, and they always have, because it was the way of, and the will of, our Great Physician.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> THE MEDICINE OF FORGIVENESS  MARK 2:1-12</div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      Language can be lethal.  Dr. Bernard Lown, professor of Cardiology at Harvard, tells of how he learned this, very dramatically.  He had a middle age woman as a patient, who had a narrowing of the tricuspid valve on her heart.  She had this problem for a decade, but one day a Dr. Levin was leading a group of visiting physicians through the clinic, and when he came to the particular patient he turned to the doctors and said, "This woman has TS."  As soon as they left the room, the woman began to hyperventilate, and her pulse accelerated to 150.  Her lungs began to take on fluid also, and Dr. Lown asked her what was going on.  She said, "Dr. Levin said I have TS, which means terminal situation."  </div> <bR> <div>      He was amused at her misinterpretation, and informed her that it meant tricuspid stenosis.  But she didn't buy it.  She got worse, and nothing they could do would reverse the congestion, and later that day she died of heart failure.  She was no worse that day than she had been in a decade, but she died because she heard a death sentence in a doctors use of two words.  It is a rather trivial reason to die, but since our bodies believe what the mind tells them, faith in a false idea can have deadly power.  </div> <bR> <div>      There is, however, a positive side to the power of the spoken word.  It can also lead to amazing healings.  Dr. Lown has marvelous examples of this also.  He had a heart patient who was at the end of his rope.  They had exhausted all their means to help him survive.  On his morning rounds of what should have been this mans last day, he commented to his staff around the mans bed that he had a wholesome, very loud third-sound gallop.  This was a poor sign, for it meant the heart was under a great strain, and was failing.  But to the surprise of all, this man suddenly took a turn for the better.  He made such a marvelous recovery that he went home. </div> <bR> <div>       When he came back to the doctors office for a check-up, Dr. Lown asked him why he thought he made such a recovery.  He said ,"Doctor, I not only know what got me better, but even the exact moment it happened.  I was sure the end was near, and that you and your staff had given up hope.  However, Thursday morning when you entered with your troops something happened that changed everything.  You listened to my heart....and announced to all those standing around my bed that I had a wholesome gallop....I figured I still had a lot of kick to my heart, and could not be dying.  My spirits were for the first time lifted, and I knew I would live and recover."  </div> <bR> <div>      Fortunate for him, he did not understand what the doctor meant, for it probably would have led to his death that day.  His misunderstanding saved his life, because it gave him renewed hope.  Words can kill or make alive, and all of us have this potent potential at all times.  The snake has his venom, and we have our vocabulary, and both are capable of giving or taking life.  The world is a sicker or healthier place everyday, just because of the things we say.  </div> <bR> <div>      This is the truth so relevant as look again at the Great Physician at work.  Jesus did not write out prescriptions, He spoke them.  His very words were the medicines that people needed to get well.  The wonder drug of words was his specialty, and no where do we see a more potent dosage than we see Him using on this young paralytic.  In verse 5 Jesus said, "Son, your sins are forgiven."  </div> <bR> <div>      The Greek word for son here is teknon.  This is not the usual word for son in the New Testament.  This is a much rarer word, for it is an endearing word.  It is the word Paul used in calling Timothy his beloved son.  It is used only a few times in the Gospels, and Jesus uses it for this pathetic paralytic.  Not only does Jesus address him with this loving term, He unconditionally says to him, "Your sins are forgiven." If this is not spiritual penicillin to a sin sick soul, there is no such thing.  This was the verbal antic-biotic that set the sick sinner free.  Just as Jesus spoke the word and the sea was calm, and just as He spoke the word and the demons fled, so here he spoke the words of comfort, love, and hope, and brought healing to a paralyzed body.  Jesus had a bed side manner that was excellent, for there are no better healers than those who make it clear to the patient that they are determined to heal.  </div> <bR> <div>      Hippocrates, over 25 hundred years ago said, "Some patients, though conscious that their condition is perilous, recover their health simply through their contentment with the goodness of the physician."  The words that came out of the mouth of Jesus could have been words of anger at being so rudely interrupted by this paralytic, but they were not.  They gave instant assurance that Jesus had compassion for him. </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus was determined that this man be made well, and so even though He knew it would anger the Pharisees, He said to him, "Your sins are forgiven."  These words that gave the paralytic back his health made the teachers of the law sick.  They were so disturbed by his audacity that they said, "He is blaspheming."  This was the beginning of the end for Jesus, for the charge of blasphemy is what led Him to be crucified.  Jesus really stuck His neck out for this sick sinner.   But in so doing, He revealed to us for all time one of the most powerful wonder drugs of the universe-the medicine of forgiveness.  Jesus did not invent this medicine, for it was clearly linked to healing even in the Old Testament.  Jesus just highlighted it, and made it clear that it is more available then we realize.  Let's look at the linking of forgiveness and healing.  </div> <bR> <div>      There is no way to separate the two, for any time you forgive another, you cause healing to take place.  Healing of relationships, and healing of guilt in the offender is common by  forgiveness.  If sin is a great cause of suffering, then forgiveness is a great cure of suffering, for whatever eliminates the effects of sin, heals.  To forgive is to heal, and thus, the two are inseparable.  Ps. 103:3 says, "He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases."  Is. 33:24 says, "No one living in Zion will say, I am ill and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven."  </div> <bR> <div>      Here we see that forgiveness is a panacea.  It leads to total health, and freedom from all disease.  To be totally forgiven is to be totally healed, and thus, totally healthy.  The greatest healer in the world would be one who could provide forgiveness for all sin.  This would be the ultimate, for this would guarantee that all disease could be eliminated.  All sickness ultimately has its origin in sin, and therefore, whatever can lead to all sin being forgiven, can lead to all sickness being healed.</div> <bR> <div>      Many ask, "Is healing in the atonement?"  If the atonement deals with forgiveness, then it by its very nature deals with healing.  You can't forgive and not heal, and so you can't have atonement and not have healing.  If Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins, then He died for the healing of our diseases.  Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil says I John 3:8.  Sickness and disease are the devil's works, and Jesus destroyed them in His life ministry, and also in His death.</div> <bR> <div>      If our sickness has any connection with sin, Jesus is ever ready to heal, for He is every ready to forgive.  If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and this leads to healing.  If, of course, the sickness is not due to sin, forgiveness cannot be a cure, for there is then no connection between it and the disease.  All sickness is a result of sin, but not necessarily the sin of the one sick.  </div> <bR> <div>      In the healing passage in James 5, there is a clear distinction between sickness that is sin related, and what is not.  But the connection is made very clear, and the idea of forgiveness is made crucial to healing.  James 5:15-16 says, "And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.  If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.  Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."  </div> <bR> <div>      Forgiveness, both on the divine and the human level, leads to healing.  Christians are often sick because they are not forgiven by God or by other Christians.  Bad relationships clouded by sin lead the Christian to physical problems.  The remedy is to be found in forgiveness, which is a medicine that God is ever ready to dispense from the pharmacy of His heart.  It is a medicine that each of us possesses also, and which we can dispense if we are willing.  All who can forgive are, to that degree, into healing.  Gift or no gift, all can heal by the medicine of forgiveness. </div> <bR> <div>      A great deal of the sickness in the body of Christ is due to the lack of the medicine of forgiveness.  Christians do not forgive themselves, or others in the body, and they will not forgive those lost sinners outside the body, and the result is weakness and sickness within the body.  No relationship can survive without forgiveness.  No two persons can relate as family, friends, mates, or partners, in anything without offense. We not only sin against God, but against every person we relate to, and sometimes even against total strangers.  We have all heard this famous prayer, </div> <div>                           God, grant me the serenity </div> <div>                           To accept the things I cannot change;</div> <div>                           Courage to change the things I can,</div> <div>                           And the wisdom to know the difference.</div> <bR> <div>      One of the things you can't change is that people you love and care about will sin against you, and offend you.  This is the bad news of a fallen world.  But the good news is, there is an antidote to prevent this negative reality from destroying relationships.  It is the medicine of forgiveness.  </div> <bR> <div>      There is a power greater than the power of sin, and that is the power of forgiveness.  By this power we can restore to wholeness what sin has broken.  By forgiveness we can even raise the dead, and bring to life again that which has been killed by sin.  If we were as willing to be as forgiving as Jesus was with this sin sick paralytic, we would all be in the healing ministry.  It works for everyone.</div> <bR> <div>      Gigi is Billy Graham's oldest daughter.  She is married to a doctor.  One day he had several patients with heart breaking problems, and an emergency took his lunch hour, and he was behind all day.  A traffic jam on the way home added to the tension.  He was uptight as he arrived home to his wife and seven children who demanded his attention.  Gigi had a rough day as well.  She had a sleepless night with the baby, and a rainy day that kept the kids confined in the house all day.  After a hectic supper and clean up, these two weary Christians found themselves in bed together.  </div> <bR> <div>      The potential for conflict was high, and they took full advantage of it, and were soon into a quarrel saying things they didn't mean.  Soon Stephan was slamming the door and driving away, leaving Gigi to dissolve into her tears of discouragement.  It happens to the best of  mates.  But the best of mates, Christian mates, know the antidote to this poison that destroys millions of marriages.  Their separation was not used to plot vengeance, but rather to deal with their Lord.  Robert Quillen said, "Marriage is the union of two good forgivers."  </div> <bR> <div>      Listen to the way Gigi describes the rest of the story, and how that evening ended. "I fell on my knees beside the chair, asking the Lord to forgive me and to fill me with His Holy Spirit so I could be to Stephan all he had ever dreamed.  I asked for His strength, His sensitivity, His wisdom so I could juggle my own schedule, the demands of my home and children, and still have time to meet my husbands needs when he came home from the day's work.  Then I added a timid P.S., asking Him to give Stephan a change of heart, too. </div> <div>  </div> <div>      I felt peace and a sudden refreshing.  I got up, washed my face, adding a little color to my cheeks and lips, combed my hair, lavishly sprayed perfume on myself,  and climbed into bed to wait.  Presently I heard the front door open and familiar footsteps in the brick hallway.</div> <div> Our bedroom door opened quietly and Stephan stood there, his tired face and kind, loving eyes drawing me like a magnet.  I flew into his arms.  Later, our loving erased the last traces of frustration and anger.  Clinging to each other as we fell into a much-needed sleep, I couldn't help wondering why we hadn't thought of this in the first place."</div> <bR> <div>      We so often forget the power of forgiveness until we have a broken relationship, and then realize that forgiveness is the only cure.  Marriage is the testing ground for Christian principles.  If you can't forgive your mate-you can't be forgiven by God, Jesus made clear at the end of the Lord's prayer.  A healthy relationship towards God is dependent upon a healthy relationship to your mate.  If you are not a healer you can't be healed.  The medicine of forgiveness only works in those who dispense it themselves.  </div> <bR> <div>      There are only two things you  can do with sin.  You can make it worse, or you can make it better.  It's like a stain on your tie or blouse.  You can make it worse by smearing it over a wider area, or you can make it better by finding a way to get rid of it.  Forgiveness is the stain remover.  Anything else just smears it and increases the damage.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus is sometimes accused of being soft on sin.  He so freely forgave people who were clearly guilty of sin.  But we need to examine this clearly, for it is a misconception which I have had too.  Non-forgiveness is what is soft on sin.  If you do not forgive sin, it grows in its power and influence.  Wars, murder, and divorce are the results of unforgiveness of sin.  Sin not forgiven is magnified, and it spreads until many are affected, besides the original victims.  </div> <bR> <div>      Forgiveness hates sin to much to allow it to have greater impact.  Jesus could say, "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more," because His goal was to decrease sin and it's influence.  Forgiveness is the only power that can eliminate the spread of sin and its influence.  The most radical thing you can do to sin is to forgive it.  Anything else you do may only spread it.  Forgiveness is sin's most deadly enemy.  It does to sin what penicillin does to a culture of bacteria-it destroys it.  Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and forgiveness is the weapon that most often does this.  In the war on sin and disease the most powerful weapon is forgiveness. </div> <bR> <div>      The other side of the coin is, Satan's most effective weapon is the unforgiving spirit.  By this one weapon he is able to produce misery beyond calculation.  In contrast to Gigi and Stephan, we have these words of Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, where he says of Eliza Doolittle-</div> <div>                      But I will never take her back,</div> <div>                      If she were crawling on her knees!</div> <div>                      Let her promise to atone</div> <div>                      Let her shiver, let her moan</div> <div>                      I will slam the door</div> <div>                      And let the hellcat freeze.</div> <bR> <div>      This is the spirit that keeps the world sick, and so full of broken relationships.  There is only one cure, and that is the medicine of forgiveness.  Joyce Landorf tells the typical story of her relationship with Laurie her teenage daughter.  "I recall somewhere in her 14th year, she had her own rebellion about everything from skirt lengths to hating peas and carrots.  She made it very difficult for us to love her.  And she casually, yet deliberately, drove us all up the wall!  She didn't go into drugs (four friends did).  She didn't have an abortion (one friend did).  But for 18 months she doubted everything about the Lord, she disagreed with everything we said or did, and she made life in general miserable.  We refused any of her ugly actions stop our loving her-it wasn't easy but we managed in spite of her.  </div> <bR> <div>      By the power of forgiveness they limited the damage of her rebellion, and she came through it to be a beautiful Christian woman they were proud of.  At the heart of every good news story is the power of forgiveness.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is, in fact, the very essence of the Gospel.  Jesus died for the sins of the world, that all of us might be forgiven.  Forgiveness is no mere sideline, it is the very heart of the Christian faith.  Without forgiveness of sin there is no good news that makes any ultimate difference.  But with it, it makes all the difference in the world.  This poem says it all.</div> <bR> <div> Not far from New York, in a cemet'ry lone,</div> <div> Close guarding its grave stands a simple headstone,</div> <div> And on it is graven this one word alone-</div> <div>                 FORGIVEN!</div> <bR> <div> No sculptor's fine art has embellished its form,</div> <div> But constantly there, through the calm and the storm,</div> <div> It bears this one word from a poor fallen worm,</div> <div>                 FORGIVEN!</div> <bR> <div> It shows not the place of the silent one's birth,</div> <div> Reveals not his frailties nor lies of his worth,</div> <div>  But tells out its tale from those few feet of earth,</div> <div>                  FORGIVEN!</div> <bR> <div>  The name is unmentioned, the date is untold;</div> <div>  Beneath lies the body, corrupted and cold;</div> <div>  Above rests the spirit, at home in the fold-</div> <div>                  FORGIVEN!</div> <bR> <div>  And when from the skies the Lord shall descend,</div> <div>  This stranger will rise and to glory ascend,</div> <div>  Well-known and befriended, to sing without end-</div> <div>                   FORGIVEN!</div> <bR> <div>      The greatest healing in the world is to be forgiven, and the greatest healing you can give is the medicine of forgiveness. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>MATTHEW THE TAX COLLECTOR  Based on Mark 2:13-16</B></div> <div> <B>By Pastor Glenn Pease</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Someone said, you never could take  your money with you, but some can remember when the government would let you keep some while you were still here.  It  is hard for many to believe that our country was founded partly to avoid taxation.  As bad as taxes are, however, only two classes of people ever complain-men and women.  Taxes are nothing new, however.  The Romans had just about every tax we do today, and they were heavy.  Rome needed taxes because she built the best road system the world had ever seen.  Some of the roads built in New Testament times are still in use today.  Trade was booming because of the road system.  Soldiers patrolled the roads to protect travelers from bandits.  To maintain this system and highway patrol protection, plus build government buildings, town halls, baths and stadiums, there was a need for many taxes.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     They taxed one tenth of crops of grain, one fifth of produce of wine, oil, and fruit, plus they had an income tax of one percent.  On top of this, they had a poll tax for men 14 to 65 and women 12 to 65.  This was one denarius a year, which was the wages of an average man for one day.  Then, of course, there were the import-export taxes, the road taxes, the harbor taxes, and the tax for the use of the market place.  Custom officers were stationed everywhere to collect these taxes, and they had the power to be very unjust.  It is known that some levied taxes so high the trader could not pay, and so the tax collector would loan him the money for his tax at a high interest rate.  It was literal highway robbery.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     This tax burden and the abused power of the tax collector has survived into the modern day.  Charles Brown, the dean of Yale Divinity School, went to Palestine years ago when it was under Turkish control.  He talked to a farmer in Jericho who told him he was required to place his harvested crop of wheat in ten stacks.  He made them as even as possible because the tax collector had the right to come and select one of the ten for the state.  To get the tax collector to come and make his selection he had to give the collector another of the ten stacks for his personal fee.  Then to get a paper signed permitting him to thresh his crop he had to give another stack in final payment.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     This same kind of oppression was going on in New Testament days, and the Jews despised it, and everyone connected with it.  The Jews were not opposed to taxes, but, as a theocracy, they felt only a God appointed man had the right to collect taxes.  They did not mind supporting their government, but the objected to the support of a foreign government.  Those who cooperated with the Romans were considered traitors to Israel.  They were so hated that their money was not accepted in the temple.  Their word was of no value in court, and they were listed by the Jews along with harlots and murderers.  Even the Romans themselves did not respect the tax collector.  Cicero said that it was a trade unbecoming to a gentleman, and it was vulgar.  Lucian listed them with the adulterous, informers, and moneylenders.  All in all it was a class of people  highly unlikely to contribute anyone to a religious movement, and yet Jesus chose one of these tax collectors to be one of His 12 select men.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Matthew the publican was chosen long before the only Pharisee Jesus ever chose as an Apostle, which was Paul.  Matthew, or Levi as he is called, also had potential which no one else would have ever tried to discover, but Jesus not only discovered it, He developed and used it.  When Matthew left his tax booth he took his pen with him, and was used of God to record words of Jesus which we would otherwise not have, and be much the poorer.  The Sermon on the Mount being just one of the major examples.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     In 1844 a New Testament scholar visited the monastery of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai.  While there he saw some papers in a basket.  His eye detected Greek characters which turned out to be the famous manuscript of the Bible called Codex Sinaiticus.  It was a copy that dated back to the 4th century.  To the monks there it was just an old Bible of no value, but to the scholar it was a priceless discovery. So it was with Matthew the publican.  To his own people he was a worthless Jew;</B></div> <div> <B>a disgrace to his nation, and of no value at all, but to Jesus he was so precious that he chose him to be one of the foundation stones of the New Israel-the Church.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus did not select His 12 according to any standard of social acceptance of His day.  He chose men of any class or position who had depth of character and commitment.  In His selection of Matthew we noticed that He chose a man who was successful and wealthy.  We know this because he had a house and was able to throw a big party in it for Jesus and His disciples, plus a large number of old friends who were publicans and sinners.  The Scripture stresses how big this affair was.  It was probably the largest social event Jesus ever attended, and the news of it spread so that the Scribes and Pharisees complained of his eating with tax collectors and sinners.  In Luke 5:29 we read, "Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others sitting at table with them."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Matthew was obviously a leader among his class of despised people, and he was well liked if they would all come to his party.  The point we want to notice again is that Jesus did not call a dozen loafers to be His key men.  He called men who had already demonstrated their ability in the secular world.  Matthew had achieved success in his profession, as did Peter, Andrew, James and John in the fishing business.  As far as we know everyone of the 12 were in middle and upper middle class of the society of that day.  Often we like to emphasize that Jesus took a bunch of poor nobodies and turned them into dynamic leaders.  He can and has done it, but when He chose men for the foundation of His church He chose the best He could find.  We are not being honest with the facts of Scripture if we do not recognize that the men Jesus chose were sharp men in their field.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Another factor that is common in the selections Jesus made is the way He chose sets of brothers.  Peter and Andrew were brothers; James and John were brothers, and now we come to Matthew who also had a brother who was one of 12. In Mark 2:14 we read, "As he passed on he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me, and he rose and followed Him."  Mark gives us the same quick picture of a call to discipleship without any detail as to the background just as he did in the call of the fisherman.  We know, however, from John's Gospel that a great deal of background took place beforehand.  We can be confident that this was true with Matthew as well.  We don't know the story of that background, but Jesus must have had frequent contact with Matthew and his family, for Matthew is called the son of Alphaeus, and the other Apostle named James is in Matthew , Mark, Luke, and Acts, always listed as James the son of Alphaeus. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      This is no doubt to distinguish him from James the son of Zebedee and brother of John.  It also links Matthew and this James together as another set of brothers. It is not impossible it is only a coincidence that they both had fathers of the same name, but the pattern of Jesus makes it probable that Jesus got into that family and won both boys to Himself, just as He did with other families.  Jesus seemed to specialize in brothers.  The result was that He had a close knit group from the start.  He had a natural loyalty to build on from the beginning.  What a joy this must have been to Alphaeus the father of Matthew.  Remember, Matthew was a despised outcast by the establishment, and the majority of respected citizens.  Matthew had sold his patriotism down the drain because he wanted to make money at any cost.  </B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <div> <B>      Matthew represents the millions who long to make a fortune, and are willing to forsake all other values to do it.  Matthew was money hungry, and the path he took cut him off from his people, and alienated him from the institutions of Israel's faith.  Matthew said the religion of Israel irrelevant, but making money and friends in the world, and getting somewhere is all that counts.  Yet, though he made his dicision, and was doing quite well, he was not satisfied.  You can just imagine Matthew at that big feast giving his testimony.  There can be no doubt that he did so, for he was leaving his old life to follow Jesus, and he wanted to tell his old gang why.  He had gained all he could ask for in terms of wealth, success, and fame among his class of people.  Yet, he was empty.  The story of Matthew is repeated in lives everyday.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Boswell said to Johnson as they went through the mansion of Lord Scarsdale, "One would think the proprietor of all this must be happy."  "No sir," replied Johnson, "All this excludes but one evil-poverty."  That is the only evil Matthew escaped, and it cost him more than it was worth, and he knew it, and Jesus knew that he knew it. Jesus knew that sometimes your best potential is in people outside the institution of the church.  Sometimes a rebel is so valuable just because he has broken away, and found the world so empty, and is hungry to find his way back into the real experience of commitment.  Matthew was not in the pig pen like the Prodigal, but he was just as empty and hungry.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Matthew was a rebel who had fulfilled his dream in the world, and who realized it was not satisfying.  He calls himself the publican, however, in his Gospel, because he rejoices that he is a trophy of grace.  He had quite a testimony in his giving up success in the world to follow Jesus.  Matthew's Gospel reveals clearly the authors personal experience.  Matthew is the only one who records the parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price.  These so fit him that he could never forget them.  The story of a man hunting for something, and then finally finding it in Christ, describes Matthew perfectly.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     It is also in Matthew that we find such text as, "You cannot serve God and mammon."  That  was the decision he had to make.  "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you," is only in Matthew.  How it fits him.  Or, "What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul."  That is the very thing Matthew almost did.  How it must have poured out of him as he wrote for others to read the words of Christ which had been so relevant to his own life.   There are many more that reveal the author was very conscious of the dangers of the love of money.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Matthew became a zealous Bible reader, for his Gospel has 65 quotes from the Old Testament.  It is the first Gospel, and it bridges the gap between the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Tradition says that for 15 years Matthew preached to the Jews.  He is the most Jewish of the Gospel writers, and aims at Jewish conversions.  Matthew forsook Israel to get rich, but Jesus called him to forsake his riches to be a missionary to Israel.  He had already learned to be hated by the Jews for being a money hungry collaborator with Rome, so he had no problem in adjusting to be hated for being an Apostle of Christ.  All the hate and ridicule he faced in his old life prepared him to be a bold witness for Jesus.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     It is interesting how little things can reveal a factor in a man's character.  Matthew was a humble man, and one who, no doubt, felt inferior to the other Apostles who had never deserted Israel as he had.  In Mark and Luke the Apostles are listed with Matthew and Thomas, in that order.  But in Matthew's Gospel it is Thomas and then Matthew.  This is an incidental witness to the author's humility.  You need to know the author of the part of the Bible you are studying, for this gives you the perspective from which you are seeing his revelation.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Traditions vary as to where and how Matthew died.  Some say in a Arabia, and others in Ethiopia.  Some say he died by the sword, but the Greek church uses fire as a symbol of Matthew, because they believe he died a martyr by burning.  All we know for sure is that this ex-tax-collector became a profitable servant of Christ; teaching us to never underestimate the potential of any worldly person for the kingdom of God.  When ever you see an ambitious, materialistic, money hungry man, remember Matthew, and do not despise him, but pray and labor for his conversion.  Like Matthew, he can become as zealous for the Master as he formerly was for money.     </B></div> <div>  </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>WHY FASTING IS OUT OF FASHION  Based on Mark 2:13-22</B></div> <div> <B>By Pastor Glenn Pease</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     William Broden, reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, begins his book called The Private Sea, with an account of a party in Chicago on LSD.  A young man under the influence of this drug seized his live kitten and began to eat it.  Later in an effort to explain his action he said he had an urgent need to experience everything.  Eating a kitten is a long way from everything, but you'll have to admit he got the jump on most people for having that particular rare experience.   </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     As rare as it was, however, it was not a great deal more rare than the experience of fasting among modern day Protestants.  However much we abstain from literal cat nipping, we are not exactly noted for abstaining from eating </B></div> <div> <B>altogether. Except for times of sickness and operations the thought of deliberately going hungry is distasteful to our minds.  Is this solely because we are of an over indulgent bent of mind, or are there possibly some legitimate reasons for fasting to be out of fashion for us today?  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     It might seem like a trivial matter to even consider such a subject as fasting, but it only seems trivial to us because it is so foreign, and so absent from our way of life.  It has played a significant role in many cultures down through the centuries.  All of us do fast through the hours we are sleeping.  That is why we call our first meal when we awake a breakfast.  It is the meal that breaks our daily fast.  The origin of fasting has been traced to this natural fast.  When we sleep we dream, and since this takes place while we are fasting it was thought that we could stimulate dreams and visions by deliberately abstaining from food while we are awake.  This has been practiced by many peoples including the American Indians.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     In Daniel chapter 10 he tells us he had a vision after three weeks of fasting.  Moses fasted 40 days and nights when he received the law, and Jesus fasted 40 days and nights before His great spiritual struggle with Satan in the wilderness.  There seems to be clear Biblical and historical evidence to support the belief that fasting allows man to become more sensitive to the world of spirit.  John Chrysostom in the 4th century said, "It makes the soul brighter and provides it with wings to mount and soar."  There are many mystics who will testify to the great value of fasting, and they will say that by making the body lean you can make the soul fat.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     If all this be so, do modern Christians have any good excuse for neglect of fasting?   Yes they do!  The evidence for its danger and abuse is also abundant.  Many have felt voluntary pain was pleasing to God, and so they felt there was direct merit in going hungry.  Others merely used it as a test of one's endurance.  For example, among the Algonquin Indians it was an enviable distinction to be able to fast long.  Many tribes have fasts during pregnancy, after birth, and on many other occasions.  Much of it is pure superstition.  In New Britain no pregnant woman could eat cuttle fish which is said to walk backwards lest the child become a coward.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     We could list hundreds of fasting practices around the world that show it to be a universal practice.  It is generally done either to placate the gods, or to gain revelation.  The Zulus say, "The continually stuffed body cannot see secret things."  They fast until they dream a successful hunt, or of a victory over their enemies.  Then they are ready to go out to fulfill the dream.  There can be little doubt that fasting does open one up to spiritual experiences, but there is no guarantee they will be good.  LSD users have spiritual experiences also, but if they have a bad trip they wish they had remained less spiritual.  Not all that is spiritual is good, for Satan and his angels are spiritual.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Fasting has led to some weird experiences.  St. Jerome in the desert of Arabia would have visions that put him in a frenzy, and made him throw rocks at the crucifix, and blaspheme as if a demon were using him to express hate for the cross of Christ.  The Christian has good reason for not desiring such experiences, and so may neglect fasting for the same reason they neglect using LSD.  It can weaken ones resistance and allow negative experiences as well as positive.  The whole things seems too mysterious to the average Protestant to even consider.  It is Biblical, and so we cannot ignore it just because it is abused.  The more we study the subject the more we can find value, but also see why it is out of fashion.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     One of the major practical questions of life concerns the matter of self-expression versus self-denial.  Should a man obey his desires and express himself freely, or should he suppress and deny himself the fulfillment of his desires?  Which category does the Christian fall into?   These are often thought of as mutually exclusive alternatives, but the facts of history demonstrate that both are a fool's paradise when taken as an exclusive pattern for living.  Each leads to a self-inflicted hell.  One does not need 20/20 vision to see the wrecks of life due to self-expression.  A man quickly reveals himself as a fool when he expresses every thought that enters his mind, and follows every desire that tugs at his body.  Just as foolish, however, is the religious ascetic.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The man who feels the essence of life is to find out what he doesn't like and then do it, and suppress all he does like by self-inflicted torture if necessary is an ascetic.  A classic example is Joam de Almeida, a Jesuit in Brazil.  He considered  his body a rebel slave which he despised by flogging it and punishing it in every way he could imagine.  With a choice assortment of cat gut, leather and wire whips he flogged himself.  He wore an undergarment of rough hair with seven crosses inside made of iron with sharp points on the surface.  Another of his virtues was the practice of putting pebbles or grains of corn in his shoes when he took a journey.  In fasting and torment he nevertheless survived to the age of 82.  The modern man looks at that life and considers it debatable as to who is more insane, the cat eating LSD'er, or the fanatical ascetic.  Neither the craving to experience everything, nor the craving to suppress everything appeals to the Christian mind.  There must be a balance.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The extreme tendencies met head on in Hellenism and Hebraism.  In the days before Christ when the Greeks confronted the Jews you had two cultures clashing. Alexander the Great conquered the world and spread Greek culture everywhere.  The Greeks said, live it up and express yourself to the full.  The message of the cross and self-denial was foolishness to the Greeks says the New Testament.  This philosophy of life was self-realization and not self-renunciation.  Some of the Jews found this appealing, but others were repulsed by it.  The result was two parties developed, the Saducees and the Pharisees.  The Saducees said yes to the Greek philosophy.  The rejected the resurrection and immortality and said let's live for now.  The Pharisees said nothing doing.  They fought this denial of Judaism by making it more exclusive than ever.  They multiplied laws and made life a burden in an attempt to fight the Greek idea of self-expression.  They went to the opposite extreme.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     While each was falling off the opposite side of the ship, Jesus came and took the wheel, and held the ship on a steady balanced course, and became the Captain of our salvation and the Master of the art of living.  Jesus combined the philosophy of self-realization and self-renunciation.  He welded Hellenism and Hebraism together into a new and fuller philosophy of life.  We find Jesus both enjoying and promising abundance as well as experiencing and calling for great self-denial.  Which ever one is appropriate depends upon the circumstances, and like Paul, we must be ready to be abased or to abound.   </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     All of this is essential background to really see the subject of fasting in proper perspective.  Now we can look at what Jesus actually said about fasting in our text. Jesus has just been feasting with tax collectors and sinners.  This was bad enough in the eyes of the Pharisees, but to make matters worse it was a time when they and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting.  The Pharisees fasted twice a week.  It looked like they had Jesus in a difficult spot when they could even point to those whom He approved of and ask why do they fast and your disciples do not? Jesus did not deny the charge, and so we know the disciples of Christ did not follow the two day a week fast of the Pharisees, or for that matter, any fast.  The answer here of Christ becomes a basic text for all Christian thinking about fasting.  In verse 19 He tells us when fasting is inappropriate, and in verse 20 when it is appropriate.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I.  WHEN FASTING IS NOT FITTING.  v. 19</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus says you can't expect my disciples to fast.  I am the bridegroom, and as my attendants they are responsible to make these days ones of joy and feasting and celebration.  If you want to be a real wet blanket you could fast on Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving, and also at your wedding reception.  Fasting is just out of place when people are happy and rejoicing.  This is one of the primary reasons fasting is out of fashion.  If one has claimed the proposes of Christ, and is living and abundant life rejoicing in his salvation, why should he fast?  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     There is no merit in fasting, and so there is no motive to fast as an end in itself.  Jesus and His disciples did not fast during His ministry because it was a period of excitement, joy, victory, and amazing spiritual growth.  Jesus was no ascetic denying Himself the pleasures of life.  He enjoyed a feast, and a marriage celebration.  Paul in I Tim. 4:3 rejects asceticism.  He writes, "Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving."  In 6:17 he says that God "Giveth us richly all things to enjoy."  The abundant life is not found in dullness and fasting, but in the foe and legitimate enjoyment of all God's creation in the way He intended it to be enjoyed.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The ministry of Jesus was so filled with people being healed and forgiven that there was constant rejoicing and celebration.  It just didn't fit the circumstances to be doing any fasting.  When you add to this the fact that it is no where commanded that we fast, nor is it even anywhere recommended in the New Testament, then we see there is good reason why it can be out of fashion, and a very small part of the Christian experience.  On the other hand consider verse 20 where we see-</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>II.  WHEN FASTING IS FITTING.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus says the day is coming when the marriage feast will break up, and the bridegroom will be taken away.  The implication is that he will be removed by force.  Then He says it will be an appropriate time for them to fast.  When Jesus was crucified, and all His disciples were crushed with grief, you can imagine how many banquets they had in those sad days.  Jesus lays down the simple principle that fasting is a sign of grief and bad times.  The only time it makes sense is when there is distress or great need.  When there were great national calamities in Israel the people fasted.  People of Nineveh fasted when they heard God was going to destroy them, and they were spared.  Fasting is an act of repentance, or a deep longing for the mercy of God.  Such times should be rare in the Christian life, but when they come fasting is appropriate.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      The whole thing boils down to this:  When self-expression is for the glory of God and the good of men, then live to the fullest and enjoy life.  When self-denial is needed for victory over temptation and sin, then do not hesitate to fast in order to gain that victory.  Fasting is never an end in itself, it is a means to an end.  If by fasting you can give yourself to prayer and meditation, and grow in Christ, by all means, fast.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     There are also practical values for health.  Benjamin Franklin said, "The best of all medicines are resting and fasting."  John Chrysostom said, "Fasting is a medicine."  There are values in fasting that are not spiritual, but natural, and all men can benefit.  When it comes to strictly Christian values, fasting is a very personal matter.  The value of it will depend upon the circumstances of your life, and your motive, and also in what you do while you fast.  If you do nothing but fast it will be about as valuable as experiencing the flu.  Henry Bohn said, </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>               He who fasteth and doeth no good</B></div> <div> <B>               Saveth his bread, but loseth his soul.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Unless it is a means to a greater end of learning, prayer, or service, it is useless.  It is worse than useless if you do it for the motive of the Pharisees, which was to be thought of as being uniquely pious.  Pascal said, "It is better not to fast and be thereby humbled, then to fast and be self-satisfied therewith.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      C.S. Lewis writes of his health in a personal letter and says, "The real nuisance is that I am beginning to get horribly fat.  I have had to give up potatoes, milk, and bread:  Perhaps having to fast for medical reasons is a just punishment for not fasting on higher grounds.  In the Old Testament fasting was prescribed just on the Day of Atonement.  Other fastings were voluntary.  Jesus condemned its abuse, but not its practice, Paul in Rom. 14:6 puts it in the category of those things on which there is no command.    </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     In conclusion, we can say that it makes good sense why fasting is out of fashion in our day, and there is little reason to suspect that we have suffered spiritually by neglecting it.  On the other hand, since in our day the Greek concept of self-expression is dominating our society, it could very well be that the self-denial involved in fasting could bring Christians back to a balanced life where spiritual values dominate their actions and attitudes.  I would encourage Christians to experiment, but  not to expect to find a panacea for all life's problems.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Francis de Sales of the 17th century, echoing a principle of the Apostle Paul, gives us the proper Christian attitude.   "As long as he who fasts, fasts for God, and he who fasts not, also fasts not for God, devotion is well satisfied with one as with the other."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     </B></div> <div> <B>OLD AND NEW  Based on Mark 2:18-22</B></div> <div> <B>By Pastor Glenn Pease</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     In his book Like A Mighty Army, Halford Luccock tells an interesting story about theatrical history.  In the middle of the 19th century the right to produce dramatic performances was limited to a few theaters which had been able to develop a monopoly.  Some bright boys of the theater found a loophole, however, and made a breakthrough.  The law said plays were forbidden, but it did not apply to operas.  Plays with music were permitted.  So when they began their play one of the staff would give one loud bang on the piano.  That made it an opera, and they could go safely ahead with their play.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     This is one way that progressive people overcome the obstacles of the establishment.  They find a loophole and the basis of a technicality they worked their way on to the stage of history.  Others take a more radical approach in which they ignore and defy the laws of the establishment.  This was the approach that Jesus took.  Jesus was a revolutionary who told the leaders of the establishment right to their face that His business was to put them out of business.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     When they approached Jesus about His disciple's lack of conformity to the laws of fasting, Jesus told them that He had no intention of making His movement a patch on their old garment, nor did He intend to poor His new wine in to their old skins.   Jesus did not come to be a reformer of Judaism, or to patch it up and give it new life.  He came to revolutionize the relationship between God and man in such a way that Judaism would become obsolete.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus was a revolutionary, but not in the same sense that many think of it.  No Christian can condone the tactics of extremists who are violent for violence sake, and who attempt to destroy the establishment, but who offer nothing better to replace the old they seek to eliminate.  Jesus offered something new that was so much better that the old was no longer needed.  Jesus was revolutionary in the same positive way that we use the word in industry.  Many men are hired to spend all their time trying to come with something new.  They are looking for some new process, product, or technique.  They want something that will revolutionize the industry, for this kind of revolution builds, and is profitable, even if it does render the old obsolete and useless.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Harold Bosley tells of a man who perfected a new process in the manufacture of pigments.  In a twinkling of an eye he made millions of dollars of equipment in his employers plant obsolete.  Did they fire him for this radical change?  No!  They made him vice president.  Even though he destroyed their old machinery just as effectively as if he would have blown them up with dynamite.  The difference between the revolutionary who blows up the plant, and the one who invents something new is  that the man who comes up with something new makes it so the old is no longer needed.  The destructive revolutionary eliminates something that is still needed, for there is nothing new and better.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Men recognized the value of the revolutionary in the world of industry, for the prophets speak loud and clear, but when it comes to ideas and religious values, men are not progressive.  Moncure Conway said, "It is the darling delusion of mankind that the world is progressive in religion, toleration, freedom, as it is progressive in machinery."  It is clear to anyone who studies history or human nature that there is perpetual tension between the old and the new.  It was the greatest tension Christ faced, and also the early church, and it is still the primary cause of tension in the world today.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The old strives to grow older by making sure the new does not survive.  It is Herod killing all the babies to make sure there was no new king.  The crucifixion was the answer of the old to the new.  The Pharisees hoped that the cross would preserve the status quo, but instead it shattered the foundation beyond repair.  The supporters of the old never learned, and they continue to fight the futile battle to suppress the new.  When lady Montague brought back to England from the East the practice of inoculation she was roughly spoken to by medical men who were angry, for that practice was not in their books.  This story is repeated thousands of times in the history of new ideas.  They always have to fight for survival, because men who have lived long and well with the old ideas oppose them.  Their theme song is, "Come weal or come woe, My status is quo."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Everyone tends to fall into one of two categories:  Those who strive to preserve the old, and those who struggle to promote the new.  All of history is a battle between the liberal and the conservative.  One of the most fascinating paradoxes of Scripture is that Jesus was both a liberal and a conservative.  Much Scripture supports His conservative nature.  He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  In this passage, however,  Jesus is fighting the conservatives of His day, who were the hardened Pharisees bound by old tradition.  Their traditions were so strong on trivialities that they have survived even into this modern age among Hasidic Jews.  These extremely orthodox Jews, like the Pharisees, are so concerned to make sure they do not work on the Sabbath that they have invented a device called the Sabbath Watcher.  You switch it on before the Sabbath and it turns the thermometer on and off in the refrigerator periodically so that when you open the door at an incorrect time it sets off an alarm making you guilty of work on the Sabbath.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     This same ultraconservative attitude characterizes some of the old leaders of the Catholic church.  Cardinal Ottaviani had embroidered on his robe the Latin words semper idem which mean always the same.  He was expressing the attitude that the Catholic church was right from the start, and never needs to change, for you can add nothing new to the changeless truth.  This is the attitude that Jesus fought, and was, therefore, a liberal in His philosophy of life concerning progress.  Jesus believed in the new.  He came to establish the new covenant, and to make all things new in the lives of men who received Him.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus came to do radical work in men.  Paul says, "If any man in be Christ he is a new creation.  Old things are passed away and behold, all things are become new."  If conservatives in theology faced what Jesus does through the Gospel, they would realize that they, by proclaiming that Gospel, are real liberals, and the liberals are the reactionary conservatives, for they are the ones who want to make Christianity a patch on the old life.  They are the ones who spread the patch work Christian theory of getting a little religion into all areas of life.  There is nothing new about this, for it is as old as paganism, but the man who believes Christ makes all things new is as liberal and radical as they come.  He is for doing away with the old man completely.  We have a revolutionary theology, but we are not as wise as Jesus.  We do the very thing He said He would not do because it is foolish.</B></div> <div> <B>Let us examine these parables and learn His attitude so that we too might be wise and not foolish in how we relate the new and the old.  First consider-</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>I.  THE PARABLE OF THE GARMENTS.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus is saying that no one is so foolish as to ruin the new in order to preserve the old.  Anyone who would cut up a new garment to patch and old one is in need of some common sense.  Jesus is saying He will not link His new teaching to the old forms of Judaism, for Judaism was worn out and old, and it would be folly to ruin the new by trying to patch up the old with it.  If Jesus would have encouraged His disciples to fast, wash their hands ceremonially, and keep all the Sabbath laws as did the Pharisees, He would have guaranteed that Christianity would have gone to the bottom with the sinking ship of Judaism.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus is telling the Pharisees that His movement is no mere reform of the old, it is a totally new religion designed to replace Judaism.  It is a new religion of joy and a marriage atmosphere where fasting and solemn trivialities are completely out of place.  You can see why the Pharisees hated Jesus, for this was a challenge to a duel unto death.  He said they were old and worn out and obsolete, but the old does not go down without a fight.  Even after the cross some of the Apostles such as Peter had a hard time becoming disengaged from the old ways of Judaism.  So radical and new was the Gospel of grace that even its top promoters had a temptation to be reactionary, and tie Christianity to Judaism.  Christianity was a whole new garment, and not a patch on Judaism.   Jesus encouraged His disciples to defy the old traditions in order to protect the new from entanglement with the old.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      A.B. Bruce wrote, "..in accustoming His disciples to disregard existing Jewish religious customs in certain particulars he was educating them for the ultimate abandonment of the whole system."  The principle that Jesus is teaching is that the new must be kept independent and free from entanglement with the old to be preserved.  If this is  not done, the new becomes a mere patch on the old which ruins the new and does not improve the old.  In marriage, example, God says a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.  Marriage is to be a whole new garment in life, but so many make it merely a new patch on the old garment.  Parents look upon their son or daughter as still basically theirs.  The marriage just adds a new patch to their old family life.  Sometimes a couple themselves feel this way.  There is no radical new life developed independent of the old, and, therefore, the best things of marriage are lost. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     One of the greatest perpetual tragedies of history is the patch work theory of Christianity.  It is the theory of being religious in some areas of life make up for deficiencies in other areas.  When the Franks were baptized, whole armies went into the water at once.  Many held their right hand above the water so they could use that hand for evil, since it was not baptized.   This is the patch work type of Christian.  It is not a radical new and beautiful garment like Jesus meant it to be, but an old garment patched up.  It is a little patch of prayer, and possibly even a patch of Bible reading, with a patch of church attendance added to the old life.  The patches do not have a powerful influence, for the old is dominate.  The patch work Christian is no different than the non-Christian.  All things have not become new, because he has not put on the bright new robe of the righteousness of Christ. </B></div> <div> <B>He has only cut out a few patches to put on his old robe of self-righteousness.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Jesus was a radical to prevent this, and to preserve the new as distinct from the old.  We are only truly Christian in the sense that Jesus meant when we let the old die.  A true Christian is a revolutionary Christian, for the old has passed away, and all things are become new, and not just mended or modified.  Next look at-</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>II.  PARABLE OF THE WINE.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      Jesus again uses an example from common life that is so obvious no one can miss his point.  No one does this He said.  No one is so foolish they will risk the loss of their new wine by putting it into old wine skins.  A new and radical faith cannot be held in old forms.  The old forms just cannot hold the creative fermentation of the new faith.  The new is active and expanding, and the old skins are hard and not flexible, and so they would burst.  Jesus is saying that the new must not be mixed with the old, for the new can  only survive by developing its own independent methods.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Paul lamented the fact that the foolish Galatians could not see this and were trying to pour to the new wine of grace back into the old skins of the law.  Christians are constantly doing this, and suppress the freedom of the spirit.  This is the reason for the generation gap in the church.  The older people who have lived well with their ideas expect the youth to conform.  Like all conservatives they feel their wine skins are the best.  What is good wine skins is good forever is how they feel.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Young Christians feel different.  They have new ideas that are explosively relevant.  The old skins cannot hold them, for the old skins are not flexible enough.  Thus you have today as always the encounter of the new and the old.  Those who hold the old forget that it was once new and radical.  Those who believe the King James Version of the Bible is the best do not realize the controversy it stimulated when it first came out.  The old does not stop to think that the church does not exist to promote the schemes of men, or the leaders of the past.  We do  not exist to preserve the conviction of any group.  We exist to serve Christ, and to offer the world in His name the radical new garment of grace.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>    Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.  Each generation is free, under the Holy Spirit, to use new methods to reach its generation with the Gospel.  If the old methods are not flexible enough to be effective,  then according to Jesus, one is foolish to poor the new wine into the old skins.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      The paradox of these parables is that Jesus is being liberal for the sake of being conservative.  He wants to keep away from the old and let it die in order to preserve the new.  There are two kinds of conservatives, therefore, those who want to preserve the old, and those who want to preserve the new.  The conservative who wants to preserve the new does so because he knows this is the only effective way to insure the progress of eternal truth.  Those who preserve the old preserve only a fragment of the old old story.  Eternal truth cannot be poured into any limited historical mold.  It must be free to expand along with man's progress in every other area of life.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The true conservative who conforms to the conservatism of Christ is one who strives to keep the Gospel ever fresh, beautiful, and appealing.  Anything that makes it appear old and shabby is to be set aside.  Tennyson put it, </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>               May freedom's oak forever live</B></div> <div> <B>                    With stronger life from day to day;</B></div> <div> <B>               That man's the true conservative</B></div> <div> <B>                     Who lops the moulder'd branch away.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The true conservative is a liberal who is constantly changing to keep the old old story relevant to his day.  He does not point to the victories of the past as proof.  He offers fresh fruit as evidence of the vitality of Christ in contemporary life.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     What this means for us practically is this:  We ought not to reject anything just because it is new.  Much that is new is folly, but not because it is new, but because it comes out of mans old nature, and not a new nature filled with the fresh wine of the spirit.   It is folly to say we have never heard of that before, or we never did that before.  The Pharisees could say, we never heard of anyone being saved by free grace before apart from the law.  So what?  Is God bound by the limitations of man?   Not at all!  God is a perpetual revolutionary making all things new where ever He can.  He will make a new heaven and a new earth.  There is yet to come new bodies, new robes, new songs, in the New Jerusalem, and eternal new adventures.  The changeless God has an every changing progressing plan of newness.  God never gets into a rut.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     May God help us to be among those who do not sit and sigh for the good old days, but who rise and labor for good new days.  George Buttrick has these words of challenge to us as conservative Christians.  "A conservative which, for the sake of the future, safe guards the treasures of the past wins its crown.  A conservative which denies the future, counting its little system as full and final truth, has blood upon its hands-the skyline of the ages is black with the cruel crosses it has raised."  Let us be among the progressive conservatives who are always laboring with Christ to make all things new.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>