Have you ever met someone who seemed determined to steal your joy?
Someone so busy policing how you live that they squeeze every ounce of freedom out of your faith? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll opens Mark chapter two, where we read about three confrontations between Jesus and the religious rule keepers of his day. Along the way, Chuck identifies three battles every believer must be prepared to wage. These are struggles we dare not surrender, because our freedom in Christ hangs in the balance. Chuck titled this message, "Battles Worth Fighting." As we journey through the Gospel by Mark, we come to the end of the second chapter.
If you have a Bible handy, please turn to the second book of the New Testament, Gospel by Mark, and please note verse eighteen—the place we'll begin the reading—and we'll read through verse twenty-eight. Mark two eighteen. John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And they came and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they?" So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear. Results. No one puts new wine into old wine skins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and the skins as well. But one puts new wine into fresh wine skins. And it happened that he was passing through the grain fields on the Sabbath.
And his disciples began to make their way along, while picking the heads of grain. The Pharisees were saying to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need, and he and his companions became hungry? How he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests? And he also gave it to those who were with him." Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man." And not man for the Sabbath, for the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. You're listening to Insight for Living.
To dig deeper into the Gospel according to Mark, be sure to purchase a copy of our "Searching the Scriptures" Bible study workbooks by going to insight dot org slash offer. Chuck titled today's message "Battles Worth Fighting." I want to dedicate today's message to all of you who are Pharisees or recovering Pharisees. I first learned that label from my good friend Buddy Green, who blows a great harmonica, and plays a terrific guitar and, on occasion, banjo. He calls himself a recovering Pharisee, and I've been around Buddy Green long enough to know he's no longer recovering. He has gotten past it, but some of you have not, and so that causes me to ask the question that you might be asking: What is a Pharisee?
By that I mean a modern-day Pharisee. A Pharisee is an uptight individual who makes your business his or her business. Usually, Pharisees are very religious-looking and pious-sounding, and they spend too much time concerned with how you are living your life and not enough time addressing how they're living theirs. Of course, the way they are externally would lead you astray because you would think they are that way internally, but they are not. Down inside, they are controlling people.
They want to make you as miserable as they are, and they never run out of ways to do that. It seems. Few people have put it better than Eugene Peterson in a wonderful book called *Traveling Light*. And in it, these words appear: "The word Christian means different things to different people. To one person, it means a stiff, uptight, inflexible way of life, colorless." And unbending to another, it means a risky, surprise-filled venture, lived on tiptoe, at the edge of expectation.
Either of these pictures can be supported with evidence. There are numberless illustrations of either position in congregations all over the world, but if we restrict ourselves to biblical evidence. Only the second image can be supported. The image of the person living zestfully, exploring every experience—pain and joy, enigma and insight, fulfillment and frustration—as a dimension of human freedom. Remember that word, human freedom.
Searching through each. For sense and grace, if we get our information from the biblical material, there is no doubt that the Christian life is a dancing, leaping, daring life. He goes on. There are people who do not want us to be free. By the way.
I'm not one that has a lot of mottos hanging around. If you came to our home, you wouldn't see a lot of religious artifacts and things on the wall. That no offense here, but that's just not our style.
However, in my study, there is one piece of paper that's taped on the wall. How's that for class? I just tape it on the wall, and I read it virtually every week. It is this peace. That's the kind of value I place in writing like this.
Listen to what he says. There are people who do not want us to be free. They don't want us to be free before God, accepted just as we are by His grace. They don't want us to be free to express our faith originally and creatively in the world. They want to control us.
They want to use us for their own purposes. They themselves refuse to live arguously and openly in faith, but huddle together with a few others and try to get a sense of approval by insisting that all look alike, talk alike, and act alike, thus validating one another's worth. They try to enlarge their numbers only on the condition that new members act and talk and behave the way they do. I am, by the way, describing Pharisees—today's kind of Pharisees. These people infiltrate communities of faith to spy out our freedom, which we have in Christ Jesus.
And not infrequently, find ways to control, restrict, and reduce the lives of free Christians. If you have not run into a Pharisee, you don't know what you have missed, because there is one lurking in every church. In every mission field gathering, in every Christian organization, at every Christian school, it seems as though they proliferate in their work of killing grace and stealing freedom. Other than that, I don't have much of an opinion regarding Pharisees. They love rules and regulations, and they love for you to get in line and do those things that they have been doing, believing that they are more spiritual and therefore they have the right to bully you into living the life that pleases them.
It rankers them when they are confronted, and in fact, they rarely are. And it's with that point I sigh, because nothing stops Pharisaism like a strong, blunt confrontation. But they are rarely confronted. Like bullies, they usually get their way, and the result is a loss of liberty and freedom in the family of God. I'm going to level with you here: when we founded this church.
When we first thought of beginning Stonebriar Community Church, I remember because it was all in my mind at the time. My greatest concern was what to do with legalists who will come in and tear up the fellowship. My concern was not with the lost people. Lost people have never been of concern to me. They're simply lost, and and they don't know why they're miserable.
Pharisees know why, but they want you to be that miserable with them, so that their numbers will increase and they will get the joy of controlling your life. And I knew as soon as we began, there would be those who would try to manipulate and get their way, rather than help us all seek Christ's way. Over the passing of these years, the fears have come true, but by God's grace, we have done our best to confront them as often as we can and as boldly as we must. But still, they persist. There will always be those who are busy living your life instead of taking care of the logs in their own eyes.
Now, why would I come across so bluntly?
Well, I learned the script from Jesus. He did that, and that's part of the reason he was crucified. Whoops! What have I got to look forward to, huh? Tragically, tragically, when we come to verses like we're going to encounter in Mark chapter two, we're going to see the beginning of it emerge, and it takes on a whole new direction.
And listen to me, before it is over, they will have nailed him to a cross. The Judaizers, who were determined to get their way, those who were in official religious positions—they were the enemies of Christ, and they couldn't stand it that he stood against their man-made rules. Never stood against Scripture, of course. Not he would never do that, but he stood against their additions to what Scripture had taught, and by the way, that's still going on. We'll see more and more of that as we get deeper into this gospel by Mark.
Now, if your Bible is open to Mark chapter two verse eighteen, you will see immediately that this this group of Pharisees has been watching things occur, and they are now all over him, wanting to know why aren't you getting into line along with the rest of our followers? You see, Jesus came from Galilee, preaching this gospel of. Fresh, wonderful news regarding forgiveness and hope and purpose and abundance of life, and he met straight on, face to face, those who had been dominating and controlling the people with their constant put downs, their negative emphasis, and they ran into Jesus and they met their match. I love the boldness of our Lord as he handles it. Great, what were Going to have here, in the verses in front of us, are three battles worth fighting for.
First is the battle for joy. Second is a battle for flexibility, and third is a battle for grace. We'll take them in order. First, the battle for joy, which we call fasting and feasting. That's in verses eighteen to twenty.
John's disciples, verse eighteen, along with the Pharisees, and their disciples were fasting, and they came and said to Jesus, "Why do John's disciples fast and our disciples fast and we are fasting, but your disciples do not fast?" One of the classic characteristics of modern-day Pharisees, otherwise known as legalists. Is that they will observe what you do not do that they believe you ought to be doing, and if you don't do it, they add pressure to you to start doing it. Classic case in point is fasting. Remember, the context here is Jesus has been feasting with a bunch of riff raff. Who had gathered around Matthew, the former tax collector, who has his buddies come to a meal.
Remember verse fifteen. Look up there. It happened that he, that's Jesus, is reclining at the table in his house with many tax collectors and sinners who were dining with Jesus and his disciples. Number of them are lost. Most of them are lost.
Most of Matthew's friends do not know Christ. Matthew is leaving his profession, and his buddies are saying goodbye, along with a lot of people he's been doing business with, and they're all together. And Jesus is in their midst.
Now, I know that your first thought is, "Good for you, Christ. Good for you. That's right where you ought to be." Would you have been there? If you would not have been there, it's probably because of Pharisees. Today's Pharisees.
What would they say? What would you say? I'll make it even harder. If you're downtown Dallas and you're walking along a busy area one evening, and you look into a bar, and there is Chuck Swindoll having dinner with all the people in the bar. I have a feeling there would be letters to the elders, along with phone calls made so that other people might pray more intelligently, and very little said to me personally because I was in there and shouldn't be in there.
How do you know what I'm doing in there? How do you know why I'm in there? See, Pharisees don't take time to check the reason behind it. They just look at the surface things and they form conclusions, and then they attack. And no one can attack like a legalist.
No one, not even the lost person.
So they attack Jesus. These are Judaizers. These are Pharisees. They want to know why don't you fast like we're fasting? Understand that the law requires certainly one day for fasting.
A day of atonement is a required day of fasting. Fasting invariably revolves around something that is serious, somber. Others would say there should be a fast around the time of Purim, one of the celebration days in the in the Jews' calendar of events. Others would have other days; they would fast. The Pharisees, listen to this, required at least twice a week.
Twice a week, the law never requires it. They required it. As a matter of fact, they added to the law hundreds of their own rules and regulations. It wasn't in the law; they added those things to the law, and they gave the same credence to their additional laws as they gave to the law of God. And they couldn't understand why Jesus' disciples weren't fasting along with the others.
Why don't they do what we do? Why aren't they somber and sober? Why all the joy? Why all the pleasure in ministry as you're involved in it, and there isn't enough solemnity and seriousness?
Now let me let me add here, because you could jump to a wrong conclusion. Do I believe in solemnity? How about Good Friday night? You didn't hear any laughter, Good Friday night, nor should you. It's a very solemn occasion.
You may have fasted that day, and I respect you for that. I wouldn't ever require that, but I would I would respect your taking that so seriously that when you're focusing on the death of our Savior, and we're about to climax that day with time around the table in the darkness and the and the seriousness of that scene, you you have every reason to be somber. But life is not meant to live every day like Good Friday night. There is a place for that, but there is also a greater place, more days, I would say, for rejoicing, and the joy of the believers, the disciples of Jesus, rankered these Pharisees. I read this piece, this line, this past week.
A sense of joy is the grace note in the musical score of the good news symphony. Isn't that a nice statement? David McKenna said that joy is the grace note in the musical score of the good news symphony.
Now, please observe Jesus, who does not back down. This is a battle worth fighting for. But look at how he handles it. He asks them a question. He's great at counter questions.
While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they?
So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. He no longer asks, but now makes a declaration.
So look at his answer. It's important you understand the background of it because, even though weddings today certainly are times of great joy, weddings in those days were extended periods of great joy. One man writes this after an ancient Jewish wedding. This is after the wedding. The couple did not honeymoon, but stayed at home for a week.
Of open house in which there was continual feasting and celebration. Everybody likes that idea, but the groom. But we'll go on. For the hardworking, this was traditionally considered to be the happiest week of their lives. the The bride and the groom were treated like a king and a queen that week.
Sometimes they even wore crowns in their celebration. You picture that they were attended by chosen friends known as guests of the bridegroom, which means literally children of the bride's chamber. Their guests were exempted from all fasting through a rabbinical ruling, which said, "All in attendance on the bridegroom are relieved of all religious observances which would lessen their joy." Not great. For us believers, on the other side of the cross and resurrection, the application for this is hugely encouraging. We are not just guests of the bridegroom; we are the bride of Christ.
This is more than metaphorical language; it is reality. It speaks of the deepest intimacy and exchange. We actually have the spirit of God. Therefore, we are to outdistance the attendance of the bridegroom in the intensity and continuance of joy. Our joy.
I'll tell you, there is nothing that you characterize the body of Christ like joy. Why in the world has laughter been turned to the the comedy routines on television and been absent from the church? The church ought to be the place where there is the loudest of laughter and the freest opportunity for joy and pleasure and delight in one another. Isaac Watts was right when he wrote, "Joy to the world, the Lord is come." There's every reason for there to be laughter and joy and happiness, and that's his whole point. But the the bridegroom is with him, meaning himself.
I'm still with him now. Notice the first reference in Mark's gospel to the cross is in the verse that follows, verse twenty. First reference to the cross. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them. And then they will fast in that day.
There will be a day when there will be a somber mood of sadness as they, as they see the bridegroom gone from them, and in this case nailed to a cross. And how sad that will be! But for now. Wonderful it is that we can rejoice. Please notice there's no response from the Pharisees.
When you confront a legalist with the facts, they usually have no answer. But they run and back to their little huddle and try to get an answer, as they beef up their position, which really is, with without root. And logic.
So Jesus confronts them with this, and he addresses their lack of joy. I won't apply it here any further than saying, part of being free is being free to laugh, even laugh at yourself, laugh at life. And help your family know how to laugh. One of the responsibilities of every parent is to help their children know the joy of laughter, the fun of living. I've said for years I hope my kids remember me as the one who had fun in life.
I hope my children remember laughter in the walls. Rather than a preacher who frowned at them all through their childhood and young adult years, I hope they learn to laugh at life. I hope they learn to laugh even beyond the hardship and strange events that occur in life. Can't you just picture that laughter echoing through the walls of a home? That's the joy Jesus fought for, and it's the battle worth fighting in your life too.
Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Mark chapter two. He titled his message "Battles Worth Fighting." There's much more Chuck has to show us in this passage, so please keep listening. If you enjoy Chuck's captivating way of sharing stories from the Bible, if you smile at his spontaneous laughter, and you're grateful for his ability to weave truth from Scripture into everyday living, well, we have something you'll love. It's Chuck's once-in-a-lifetime memoir, filled with the wisdom he's acquired over nine decades of life. In this brand-new tell-all, Chuck opens his heart like never before.
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Again, the Advent devotional is called Everlasting Light. Call us at eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight, or give online at insight dot org slash donate. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us again when Chuck Swindoll continues his comprehensive study in the Gospel of Mark Monday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, "Battles Worth Fighting," was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R.
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