Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, one of life's special blessings and comforts is the presence of dear loved ones. It changes everything, really. Maybe children, you can remember a time when a dear loved one, maybe a relative or perhaps a friend was coming to visit on a holiday. They had a holiday and they were coming to visit you, and what a time. What a time that was. It was a time of joy, a time of celebration, A time when life was totally different and wonderful. And you felt it when they left. You missed them and you could hardly wait till they came back again. But imagine for a moment that they had come and you hardly noticed. Imagine you just went on with your life the way you always did, as if their presence made little or no difference at all. Maybe that's hard to imagine. But you know, that's how many people live in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. They live as if His presence makes little or no difference. They just go on with their lives the way they've always done. That can happen. It can happen sadly even in the church, even among us. We can live or be tempted to live as if Christ's presence is not really all that significant. We can fail to appreciate it. We can fail to long for it. We can be more concerned with formal outward religion rather than with the presence of Christ. We can look to other things for salvation and for satisfaction instead of relying only on Christ. We can treat Him as nothing more than a nice add-on to our lives instead of being totally submitted and surrendered to Him. This can be a struggle even at times for Christians, sadly. The Bible speaks about Christians losing their first love, their love for Christ. We can develop an apathy, a coldness, a carelessness toward Christ. we can struggle to appreciate the great significance of His presence. Well, that is what we see in our passage this morning in Mark 2, verses 18 through 22. Verse 18 tells us that the disciples of John, meaning John the Baptist, and of the Pharisees used to fast. In other words, they would often go without eating for a period of time and maybe without drinking as well. The Law of Moses only required fasting once a year on the Day of Atonement, but the disciples of John and of the Pharisees did it more often. It was a regular practice for them. In fact, the Pharisees, in Jesus' day, they fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, as a sign of their supposed devotion to God. But they noticed that Christ's disciples didn't fast. In the verses before, we read about the feast that Levi gave for the Lord Jesus and his disciples, and they were eating there, and even eating with tax collectors and sinners. They didn't fast, and that raises a question, a concern in the minds of these people. Verse 18 says that they come and say unto Jesus, why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples fast not? It may be that there was an implied challenge to Jesus in this question, on the part of the Pharisees at least, but either way, the question shows they did not rightly understand or appreciate the significance of Christ's presence. The answer that Jesus gives in verses 19 through 22 makes that clear. And we'll look here just for now at verse 19, where Jesus replies, and Jesus said unto them, can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them. As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast." Christ's point is that His presence, just like the bridegroom's presence at His wedding feast, makes fasting inappropriate and even impossible. In other words, Christ's presence changes Everything. And the following verses just drive that home as we hope to see with the help of God. So our theme is the presence of Christ changes everything. How so? Well, first of all, it calls for great jubilation. Secondly, it signifies a wonderful salvation. And thirdly, it demands a spiritual transformation. That's what we hope to see from our text. So the first thing the Lord Jesus teaches us here is that his presence calls for great jubilation, great joy. Look again at what he says in verse 19. is with them. Can the wedding guests, in other words, that's what the children of the bride chamber are, they refer to the wedding guests, can they fast while the bridegroom is with them? And the answer should be obvious, of course not. Fasting is usually a sign of grief, a sign of sorrow, sometimes because of tragedy or sickness or because of a threat or a danger of something bad or because of sin. And of course that would be completely, fasting would be completely out of place at a wedding when the bridegroom is present. Jesus confirms that, he goes on to say, as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. And then in verse 20 he adds these words, In other words, the absence of Christ, not his presence, calls for grief. His presence calls for joy, and not just a little joy, but great joy. Great jubilation. I mean, think about the joy of having Christ with us. What an extraordinary joy that is. Jesus compares it to wedding guests, the bridegroom's friends, having the bridegroom with them. That's a wonderful thing. Weddings are among the most joyful events in life. They're not a reason for fasting, they're a reason for feasting, for celebration, especially at the reception. In fact, to fast at the wedding feast would even be an insult to the bridegroom. It's true even in our day, isn't it? When you've been invited to a wedding reception, usually you arrive before the couple comes, and what do you do? You don't go to the... the servers and say, well, can I have my dinner, please? No, you wait for them, you talk, you visit, but when they come and dinner is served, then you eat, you're expected to eat. After all, the dinner's been paid for. Imagine going to a wedding reception and fasting as a sign of grief, of sorrow, refusing to eat any of the food when the bridegroom is there. What an insult that would be. Not just to the family of the bride and groom who probably paid for the meal, but to the bridegroom himself. It would be acting as if his marriage is a tragedy. Treating it like a funeral. Well, that's not proper, is it? Children, it's maybe a comparison that you might relate to. It could be a little bit like your parents giving you Brussels sprouts for your birthday dessert instead of birthday cake or ice cream or something like that. We just don't do that. At least I assume we don't. It's not proper. That's what Jesus is saying here. It's not proper to fast and be sad at a wedding when you have the bridegroom with you. Having the bridegroom with you calls for extraordinary gladness, not sadness. But how much more when we have Christ with us? That's the point. Having Christ with us, having fellowship with Him, experiencing His presence calls for extraordinary gladness, like the joy of the bridegroom's friends having the bridegroom with them. What greater joy can there be? When Christ has called you and has saved you out of your state of sin and misery and made you His disciple, His follower, and you experience His presence, that calls for great jubilation. Or maybe you're thinking, though, that sounds a little extreme, but it's not. The joy of having Christ with us is not just an extraordinary joy, you see, it's a well-grounded joy. The Old Testament speaks of God several times as the bridegroom or the husband of his people. In Isaiah 54, verse five, we read these words spoken to Israel as God's people, for thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. And Isaiah 62 verse 5 speaks of God rejoicing over his people as a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride. And so when Christ here compares himself to a bridegroom, what is he saying about himself? He's saying he's more than just a man. He's also God. He's the Lord. And that means that when Christ is with us, we don't just have a man with us, we have Emmanuel. We have God Himself with us. the Lord of hosts, the Almighty God. And He's with us in love, in grace. He's with us as a divine bridegroom. He's with us as the one who's come with almighty power to seek and to save the lost, His lost and sinful people from their sins, and to marry them and to love them as His bride. Doesn't that call for great jubilation? I mean, isn't that what we need? Isn't that what you need? What real hope do we have without that? If we're without God, we're without hope. That's why trusting in Jesus is so important. Because when you trust in Him, you're connected with Him. You're united to Him. We have, when we trust in Jesus, we have Him with us, and that changes everything, because when we have Jesus with us, we have God with us. Then we have hope, real hope, because then He's with us as our Savior, as our Bridegroom, as our Husband. Oh, how important trusting in Jesus, how important it is to trust in Him. Are you? Oh, when you are, that should fill you with unceasing joy, even with great jubilation. That's what the presence of Christ calls for. And the Lord Jesus actually emphasizes that because he speaks not only of the joy of having his presence, but also of the grief of losing it. Look with me again at verse 20. But the days will come, he says, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. In other words, he's saying the disciples will lose the presence of Christ for a time. And when that happens, they will grieve. That's a certainty. They shall fast. They will grieve. And they will grieve deeply. That's what fasting signifies. It signifies a deep grief, a deep sorrow. And that makes sense, doesn't it? If there's no greater joy than having Christ with us, then there can be no greater grief than losing him. In some ways it's like when a dear friend or relative whom you don't see very often has been visiting for you some time but then has to leave. Or when a dear loved one passes away. It makes you very sad, doesn't it? You feel their absence. You feel it in the pit of your stomach. You feel deeply the grief of losing them, of not having them with you anymore. Well, that's a little bit what it's like to lose Christ's presence, only more so. The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. Jesus may be referring here to his arrest or perhaps to his ascension, but either way, he's highlighting the grief of losing his presence, at least physical presence, mainly to show how much joy having it calls for. Well, what does this all mean for us? A couple of things. In one sense, it means we should always be joyful when we're Christians, even when life is hard, even when the fig tree does not blossom. You see, when you're a true Christian, trusting and following Jesus Christ for your salvation, then He is with you by His Holy Spirit. He's promised that, and He's promised also never to leave you or forsake you. He is with you always. And that should fill us, in one sense, with unceasing joy, even with great jubilation. But at the same time, we don't yet experience the presence of Christ in its fullness, do we? What's more, we don't always sense His presence here. It's true that Christ never leaves or forsakes His people, but He can take away the sense of His presence. He can withdraw His blessing personally and even also as a church. Sometimes He does that to test us or to humble us. Other times He does it to discipline us because of some sin in our lives. And when that happens, that calls for grief, doesn't it? that calls even for fasting at times. The Bible never condemns fasting as such. In fact, it gives several different reasons to fast, but certainly losing the sense of the presence of Christ, the presence of God, is a reason to fast, isn't it? When the bridegroom is taken away, then they will fast. They will go without food for a time. Do we? Don't misunderstand. Not as a work to earn God's favor. That's not possible. That's how the Pharisees fasted. And that's wrong, but as an expression of our grief at the withdrawal of God's sensible presence with us, of his blessing, Do we ever fast and pray as an expression of our longing for Christ to come and save us, for Christ to come and restore us, to revive us, to visit us, to make His face shine upon us once more? Do we ever fast and pray for the Lord to return in His glory? Do we ever do that either personally or even as a church? I ask myself this question, this has been a learning passage for me as well. Or could it be that we do not care that much for the presence of Christ? We don't care enough to go without food for a period of time. Or shouldn't we? After all, the presence of Christ changes everything. It calls for great jubilation. There's no greater joy than being in His presence. Shouldn't our lives show, as the hymn goes, that I'd rather have Jesus than anything? Shouldn't we be wholeheartedly committed to Him? Are we? Well, maybe you struggle with that. Maybe you struggle to be wholeheartedly committed to Jesus because you struggle to believe that he's enough. Don't I need something else? Well, that brings us to our second point. The presence of Christ not only calls for great jubilation, it also signifies a wonderful salvation. That's what Jesus is essentially saying in verses 21 and 22. Look with me at what he says there. No man also sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment. Else the new piece that filled it up takes away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man puts new wine into old bottles, or literally wineskins. Else the new wine does burst the wineskins, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins will be marred. But new wine must be put into new wineskins. What's Christ doing here? Well, he's using two illustrations common in his day to point out that his presence signifies a wonderful salvation. You say, how so? Well, for one thing, his presence signifies a full salvation. You see, the piece of new cloth in verse 21 is a picture of the presence of Christ. And Jesus says that no one sews a piece of new cloth on an old garment. In other words, you don't patch an old robe that's got a tear in it. You don't patch it with a new piece of cloth. Now, I don't know if you still put patches on clothing. I remember when I was younger, my mom would often patch the knees of my pants when I was young, because I'd wear through them like nothing else. But whether you still do that or not, the point is you don't patch old clothing with a brand new, unwashed piece of cloth. Why not? Well, because brand new cloth always shrinks the first time it's washed. Unless, of course, now you can get pre-shrunk clothing and all of that. But normally, that's what happens. Maybe you've experienced that. You've bought some new clothes at the store, and you tried them on there, and they fit just perfect, but then you brought them home, and you washed them, and then you put them on, and they were too small because they had shrunk. That's what happens to new cloth the first time it's washed. And that's why you can't use it to patch a hole in old clothing. Because what will happen is the new cloth will shrink and it will pull away from the old garment and make even a worse tear. In the same way Jesus is saying, He's not an add-on. He's not a patch that we can just add on to our existing lives. It's not like our works or our man-made rules and traditions, whether it's fasting or something else, whatever it is, makes us partially right with God and Jesus just comes in and fills in the holes. No, that won't work. Christ's presence doesn't signify a partial salvation. It signifies a full salvation. He's not like a patch. He's like a brand new robe. That changes everything, you see. Because when you have Him, that means you have everything you need. You are complete in Him. He is enough. There is nothing lacking in Him. With Him is perfect righteousness and holiness. With Him is fullness of grace. With Him is steadfast faithfulness. With Him is full forgiveness of all your sins. With Him is total cleansing and renewal. Yes, with Christ you have everything you need. Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. Christ Jesus of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is all-sufficient for your and my salvation. How liberating that should be, that is, and how that calls for our joyful, wholehearted commitment and devotion to Christ. Is that how you're living? It should be. It should be how all of us are living. You see, His presence signifies not only a full salvation, but the only salvation. That too is part of what this picture is saying, isn't it? If you try and put a new patch on an old garment, you'll end up with no garment at all because the new patch will shrink and the tear will become worse. Well, in the same way, you can't be saved by Christ plus something else. You cannot. And the picture in verse 22 reinforces that. Just like the new piece of cloth in verse 21, the new wine is a picture of the presence of Christ. And Jesus makes a point, new wine, you can't pour new wine into old bottles. Children, don't think here of glass bottles like we have today, but think of bottles made out of animal skins. Sort of like big leather canteens. Usually these animal skins were goat skins. And over time these skins, they would wear out and they would become brittle. You probably know what old brittle leather feels like and how there's no more flex to it. And when wine is new and fresh, it's often still fermenting and expanding. And so what do you think happens then if you try pouring new wine into old, brittle wineskins? Well, Jesus tells us the old wineskins will burst because they can't stretch anymore to handle the pressure of the new wine as it expands. And then, as Christ points out, the wine is spilled and the bottles, the wineskins, will be marred or ruined. You can't put new wine into old wineskins. And in the same way, you cannot be saved by Christ plus something in you, or something you do. Whether that's Christ plus fasting, or Christ plus circumcision, or Christ plus prayer, or Christ plus good works, or Christ plus anything. No, the only way to be saved is by Christ and Christ alone. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him and by Him alone. Christ must be all or we have nothing. How important that is to remember. And yet how easy it can be to forget, even in Christian churches. Just think of the New Testament letters, how often we hear the calls, the warnings, the reminders to look to Christ alone for salvation. You think of what Paul writes in Colossians 2 verse 8. Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him. Or think of Paul's letter to the Galatians. The Galatians were living as if Christ wasn't enough. As if he wasn't, they needed something else. He wasn't the only way of salvation. As if they also needed to be circumcised and keep the law in order to be fully saved. And Paul warns them over and over and quite sharply even in his letter to the Galatians. He warns them against that. And in Galatians 5 verse 1, he calls them, as he starts to bring his letter to a close, he calls them to stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, he goes on, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, in other words, be circumcised in order to contribute to salvation somehow, Christ shall profit you nothing. Picturing, perhaps, that spilled wine on the ground. Verse 4 of Galatians 5, he says, Christ is become of no effect, no effect, not just a little effect, no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. You are fallen from grace. And his point is that our salvation is in Christ, and in Christ alone, his presence signifies the only salvation there is. How important to remember that. That's what these pictures in Mark 2 are highlighting. And they're calling us to put all our trust in Christ for our salvation. Not in anything else. Not in our feelings. Not in our experiences. Not in our baptism. Not in our good behavior. Nothing. Those things, yes, they're good in their place, but as our saviors, they're no better than old, torn clothing and brittle wineskins. Salvation is only and all in Jesus Christ, in His perfect life of righteousness, and in His perfect satisfaction for sin, in His death on the cross. The presence of Christ really does change everything. It signifies a wonderful salvation, a full salvation, the only salvation. What a call that is to all of us to put our trust in Him for our salvation, to be joyfully and wholeheartedly committed to Him. But maybe you're not yet convinced, or maybe, again, it seems too extreme. Well, let's briefly notice one more thing that Christ teaches us here about His presence. It not only calls for great jubilation and signifies a wonderful salvation, but it also thirdly demands a spiritual transformation. And here I'm thinking just of the last words of our text at the end of verse 22. Jesus has just explained that if you put new wine in old bottles, it will burst the bottles, so the wine will be spilled and the bottles ruined. And so what are we to do then with new wine? Well, Jesus tells us, new wine must be put into new bottles. Notice that word, must. It's a strong word. The new wine requires, it demands new wineskins in the same way Christ's presence demands new forms. And that's true not just generally in the sense that the coming of Christ demands new forms different from the ceremonies and sacrifices of the Old Testament, but it's also true personally in the sense that Christ's presence with us and in us demands a whole new life. In other words, it demands a spiritual transformation. It demands a new nature, a new heart. In other words, regeneration. One of the Pharisees, a man named Nicodemus, had a hard time understanding that. But it's true. Jesus made that clear to him in John chapter three. Nicodemus had come to him by night, and as a Pharisee, he thought that he was okay the way he was. He thought that religious works and covenant membership basically guaranteed salvation. But Jesus made very clear it doesn't. We need a new nature. We need to be born again. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Christ went on to explain that he wasn't talking about being born again physically, but rather spiritually. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You see, the problem is that no matter how religious we are, No matter what religious works we may do, we are all spiritually dead by nature. We cannot do anything in and of ourselves that pleases God. We need the Spirit to work in our hearts, to give us a new nature, a new heart. We need Him to raise us up spiritually from the dead, together with Christ, to work in such a way that we repent and believe in Jesus. We cannot know the presence of Christ without that. I read something in my devotions this past week, a quote from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, and he confirms this. He's speaking about a passage in Romans, but he says this, the thing that ultimately matters is this, have we received the new nature? Have we got the life of God in our souls? Are we partakers of the divine nature? You can be highly moral, he says. You can be well-versed in Scripture. You can argue about it. You can teach others, and you can preach to others. You can do all these things, even more than the Jews did, and still be condemned. It's the state of the heart that matters. Have we got the new heart, the clean heart, the heart in which the Holy Spirit dwells? That, he says, is the thing that proclaims we are truly Christian. Just as new wine must be put into new bottles so we cannot be saved without regeneration. And that's the work of God. That's not meant to make us passive. It's not meant to give us an excuse for not being saved. No, it's meant to make us understand we have nothing truly good in ourselves. And that should humble us. That's what it's meant to do. It's meant to show us how desperately helpless and hopeless we are. How foolish any and all reliance upon ourselves really is. It's meant to drive us to the Lord. Yes, even to Christ, who came and lived and died and rose and ascended into heaven to give his Holy Spirit so that sinners might indeed be born again and be given that new nature. The point is we must go to Christ. We have nothing in ourselves. There's no other way. There's no other way to be saved. Christ's presence demands regeneration, but it also then demands a new life. It demands conversion. A life of repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ. That's the fruit of regeneration, of being born again. And Jesus also pointed out our need for this. In Matthew 18 verse 3, Jesus says these words, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." You see what he's saying? He's saying, my presence demands conversion. It demands that you trust and follow me. That's the only way you can have me with you, now and forever. His presence demands a spiritual transformation. Have you experienced that? You may not be able to point to a specific time when that happened, but that doesn't matter. What matters is are you living in the way of repentance and faith in Jesus? Are you wholeheartedly committed to him? That's what his presence calls for. It changes everything. Has it changed you? How wonderful when it has, because then He is with us, and He is even in us by His Spirit. And even the Father through Him is with us. We experience his presence even now, not in its fullness, no, but it's there. It's there, and that calls for great jubilation because it signifies a wonderful salvation. And then even death, even death is not something to be afraid of. It's something even, in a sense, to look forward to because it means we'll be with Christ in an even closer way, which in Paul's words is far better. And not only that, but Christ will also one day return in glory, and He'll make all things new. And then we, together with all of God's people, the rest of Christ's bride, will have Christ with us forever. What greater joy can there be than that? The presence of Christ changes everything. Let's live them together in joyful, wholehearted commitment to Him. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, we thank you for the coming of Christ. and his life here on earth 2,000 years ago, we also give thanks for his presence through his Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives, the hearts and lives of all who repent and believe by grace in Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to appreciate the significance of Christ's presence. Help us to rejoice, even with joy unspeakable, even when we do not yet see the Lord Jesus, but whom we love, even in the midst of grievous trials. And Lord, help us when we also experience times of chastening and discipline when we lose the sense of your presence with us, that we would not be careless about that, or not look to other things to satisfy, but that we would go and humble ourselves before you. praying and even at times fasting as an expression of our longing for your presence with us again, for your blessing upon us again. Lord, we think of what Moses prayed when you promised that your presence would go up with them and how he pleaded that promise and said, if thy presence does not go up with us, do not carry us up from here. Because we need, we need Jesus, we need Christ. Lord, grant that every one of us would realize that and cling to him and follow him in repentance and faith. Bless us in our fellowship after as well, that you'll be present in our conversations, you'll be present also in the classrooms, with the teachers and with the students. And bring us back again this afternoon. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.