They Cannot Fast, Can They?

The disciples of John and those of the Pharisees were fasting,

and they came and said to him, “Why is it that the disciples of John and those of the Pharisees fast, but disciples who belong to you do not fast?”

Jesus said to them, “The bridegroom’s attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they?  As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can’t fast.  But the days will come

when the bridegroom is taken from them, and then,

in those days, they’ll fast.

Mark 2:18–20

Jesus’ question to the disciples of John and the Pharisees must have seemed strange to them.  Jesus and his disciples always kept the law of Moses, and the law of Moses commanded them to fast certain times of the year.  Of course they fasted, whenever the law said for them to fast.  So, what was Jesus talking about?

On another occasion, Jesus was criticized for not fasting (Mt. 11:19), but when his disciples could not cast out a demon of epilepsy, and Jesus did, they asked him why they could not cast it out, and he said, “This kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17:19–20).  But they were certainly fasting according to the law; otherwise, they would have been sinners in God’s sight.

Once, when the disciples were trying to get Jesus to eat, he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about” (Jn. 4:32).  Likewise, he had a fasting that they didn’t know about, one that they would not know about until he was taken away from them and the Spirit came to take his place.  That is the fasting Jesus was talking about when he said as long as the Bridegroom was with the disciples, they could not fast.  And that is the kind of fasting he was talking about when he said it took that kind of fasting to make the demon of epilepsy leave.

The disciples of John and the Pharisees could not see that kind of fasting because they could not see the kind of food Jesus was living on.  Jesus’ disciples could not see that kind of fasting, either, but after Jesus went away and they ate and drank of the Spirit that he sent back, they understood what he was saying.

So, no, the disciples could not fast (as Jesus was fasting) as long as he was with them.  They could not yet fast, by the power of the Spirit, from sin.  Jesus could, but they could not.  Not yet.  They knew nothing of the kind of life Jesus was living until they received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and neither does anybody else.

You must receive the holy Ghost to be able to fast the way Jesus fasted.

You Need Jesus’ Baptism

From a conversation with Damien Callaghan

The gospel of Matthew tells us this about the day Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptizer:

Matthew 3

13. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

14. But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”

Later, during Jesus’ ministry, he revealed to the multitudes who had come to him that John the Baptizer was as great a man of God as any who had ever walked the earth:

Matthew 11

7. Jesus began to say to the multitudes about John, “What did you go out to the wilderness to see?  A reed shaken by the wind?

8. But what did you go out to see?  A man dressed in soft garments?  Behold, those who wear soft things are in the houses of kings!

9a. But what did you go out to see?  A prophet?  Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet.”

10. For this is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you!’

11. Truly, I tell you, among those born of women, there has not arisen a greater man than John the Baptizer.

When we were reading the gospel of Matthew with some friends, Brother Damien made the observation that even though John the Baptizer was as great a man of God as had ever lived, he still felt keenly his need for the baptism Jesus would give.  And then he commented on how many people who claim to be right with God do not feel the need for Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit that John felt.

Dear friend, if John the Baptizer – as great a man of God as ever walked the earth – knew that he needed the baptism which Jesus gives, the baptism of the Spirit, then who is anyone among us to think that we do not?

The Only Proof of the Resurrection and Glorification of Jesus

The Spirit is the witness because the Spirit is truth.

1John 5:6b

An empty tomb.  The accounts of the resurrection found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The testimonies of witnesses found in those gospels.  Paul’s testimony, and others in the Bible.  All that falls under the category of evidence to the resurrection and glorification of Jesus.  None of it is proof.

Evidence can be debated.  There may still exist the empty tomb in Jerusalem that actually was the tomb from which Jesus arose, but Christian tradition notwithstanding, nobody really knows where it is.  Evidence can be interpreted in various ways, depending on the opinion of the individual observing the evidence.  Were the authors of the gospels stating facts concerning the resurrection, or were they speaking of the resurrection of Christ as a metaphor, to communicate a profound spiritual reality?   Was Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus a real event, or was it a psychotic episode produced by a troubled mind?  No evidence is above debate or beyond question.

Proof, on the other hand, is conclusive and irrefutable, and there is only one thing that is absolute proof that Jesus’ resurrection was real and that he ascended into heaven and was glorified by God to sit at His right hand, and that is the proof God alone gives: the baptism of the holy Spirit.

John the Baptizer proclaimed that the baptism of the Spirit would be the credentials of the Messiah.  He told those who came to hear him, “I baptize you with water upon repentance, but after me is coming one who is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to remove.  He will baptize you with holy Spirit!” (Mt. 3:11).  And shortly after Jesus’ disciples received that baptism from Christ in Acts 2, they boldly said to the Sanhedrin,

Acts 5

30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.

31. This man God has exalted to His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.

32. And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is the holy Spirit, which God has given to those who obey Him.

Jesus’ disciples are all gone; they are no longer among the living on earth.  They left us some writings, and so, they, themselves, are no longer witnesses for us.  The writings they left are evidence for the Lordship of Christ which can be, and are, interpreted in many different ways.  However, the holy Spirit has gone nowhere, and it is the only proof of Christ.  It was the Spirit which made the disciples, and has made many others since, witnesses of Jesus.

It is understandable that we might doubt and demand confirmation when we hear testimonies of humans.  Humans have the capacity to lie, or to be mistaken.  But not God.  The Spirit is God’s witness to His Son, and it is evil not to believe Him:

1John 5

9. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this [the Spirit] is the witness of God that He has given concerning His Son.

10. He who . . . does not believe God has made Him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God has given concerning His Son.

It is not the mere existence of the Spirit that is proof of the resurrection and glorification of Christ; the Spirit existed before Jesus was even born.  The proof for each of us that the gospel of Christ is true is the experience of receiving the Spirit which God gives to those who believe in and obey His Son Jesus (Acts 5:32).  That experience, the baptism of the Spirit, of which John the Baptizer spoke, is God’s irrefutable proof that Jesus is Lord, sitting in heaven at the right hand of the Father.

Now, when an individual who believes in Jesus is blessed by receiving the Spirit, he may truly know – because God has given him His witness of it – who Jesus is.  Some who hear that person’s testimony will doubt it (because it is a human who is talking), but if God touches a person’s heart, he will believe that testimony.  And if he believes, he will receive the testimony God gave to man to His Son.  Jesus said so:

John 7

37. On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!

38. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water!”

39a. But he spoke this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive.

It Is God’s Gospel

“I have written you, brothers, because of the grace

that is given to me by God

for me to be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,

ministering as a priest the gospel of God.”

Romans 15: 15b–16a

“We were bold in our God to declare to you

the gospel of God in the face of much opposition.”

1Thessalonians 2:2

For the appointed time has come for judgment to begin

at the house of God, and if it begins with us,

what will be the end of those who refuse

to obey the gospel of God?”

1Peter 4:17

The first thing we need to understand about the gospel of God is that when Paul and Peter said “the gospel of God”, they did not mean “the gospel about God”; rather, they meant “the gospel from God”.  There are as many gospels about God as there are religious sects, each having its own standards and rituals, but the gospel that comes from God is known only when it is revealed.  God’s gospel is beyond all human understanding and experience.

The second thing we need to understand about the gospel of God is that His gospel belongs solely to Him.  He alone decided what it would be, when it would appear on earth, and by whom it would be believed.  To this day, He alone decides who will believe His gospel.  When the Spirit was poured out and the gospel of God began to be preached, we are told that “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48b).  God’s gospel must be revealed to a heart; it cannot be figured out.  Saving faith in the true gospel must be granted by God; it is not in man.  This includes faith in Jesus.  “No one”, Jesus said, “can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” (Jn. 6:44).  If anyone believes a gospel because he has researched it and decided to believe, he cannot be believing the gospel of God.  And the Jesus of such a gospel cannot be the real Jesus.  Only if God chooses and calls someone can he believe His gospel.  And even afterward, when he has received the grace to believe God’s gospel, he will continue to believe it only if God continues to give him the grace to do so, day by day.

We live, every moment, by the mercy of God.  Nothing else.  The Bible is consistent and clear in its message that God’s grace can be, and has at times been, withdrawn from rebellious souls to whom it had been given.  I have seen this happen, and to see it is a frightening, humbling experience.

I once visited a brother who had fallen away from Christ.  He was sweet-natured, though backslidden, and was happy to see me.  As we talked in his home, he attempted to bring up something from the Bible, but then realized that he could not say what he wanted to say because it was gone from his mind.  With some sadness, he looked at me and said, “I used to warn people that God could take back what He gives us if we are unfaithful, and now, look at me.”

Another brother close to me used to write songs filled with the truth of God’s gospel and testify about it, but he compromised the truth that God had shown him to become an ordained minister in a Christian sect that proclaims a different gospel.  At first, he would not, and today, he cannot testify to the truth, and none of his songs are filled with God’s gospel because it is gone from him.  He did not value it, and God took it away.

Always remember that after we are blessed to hear and to understand God’s gospel, His gospel is still His, and He is free to take it back if we cease to value it.

The third thing we need to understand about the gospel of God is that God alone determines who can preach His gospel, and He does this by revealing His gospel to a person and then ordaining him to declare it on behalf of Christ.  We are told that Jesus “went up on the mountain and called for those he wanted, and they came to him.  And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him and that he should send them out to preach” (Mk. 3:13–14).  Paul told the Galatians, “I would have you to know, brothers, regarding the gospel preached by me, that it is not according to man.  For I neither received it from a man, nor was I taught it, but I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11–12).  And he told Timothy, “I was ordained a preacher, an apostle” (1Tim. 2:7), and he repeatedly emphasized that his ordination was from God, just as the gospel he preached was from God: For example, he began his letter to the Galatians with these words: “Paul, an apostle, not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ, and by God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Gal. 1:1).

Paul loved God’s gospel and demonstrated his gratitude for it by not compromising it.  He told the Galatians of a meeting in Jerusalem attended by some brothers who did not believe the gospel that God had given Paul.  They demanded that Paul teach their gospel instead.  But Paul told the Galatians that he did not yield to those men “even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might continue for you” (Gal. 2:5).  Paul was faithful to God with the gospel entrusted to him, and God was faithful to Paul and never took it away from him.

Jesus, too, loved the gospel he received from God, and he cherished it.  “My doctrine”, he said, “is not mine, but His who sent me” (Jn. 7:16), and Jesus valued that gospel above his own life.  But after saying that, Jesus added this precious promise for us all: “If anyone is willing to do God’s will, he will know of the doctrine, whether it is from God or if I speak on my own” (Jn. 7:17).  This promise is for “whosever will”, my friend.  Whoever is truly willing to do the will of God will recognize His gospel when he hears it, and will believe it.

Fulfilled

“Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

Matthew 5:17

There is at the present a rise in anti-Paul sentiment on the internet, specifically, against his teaching that the New Testament does not include keeping the law of Moses.  It is good that some people can see that Paul taught his Gentile converts not to submit to Moses’ law, but it is not good that they oppose that teaching.  To understand Paul, we must understand what it means to fulfill a thing, for Jesus fulfilled the law, as he said.  But what does it mean to fulfill something?  Considering how the Bible uses the word “fulfill” will help us understand what it means.

Let’s begin by looking at one of the first times the Hebrew word for “fulfill” is used.  This has to do with Isaac’s wife, Rebekah:

Genesis 25

24. And when her days to deliver were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

Rebekah’s time of pregnancy ended when she gave birth to her twin sons, Jacob and Esau.  Their birth fulfilled the purpose of her pregnancy.  It did not mean that her pregnancy had been worthless; rather, that fulfillment meant that the purpose for her pregnancy was complete, that its usefulness was ended and the pregnancy was over.

Another example of what it means to fulfill something is from Solomon’s prayer of thanksgiving to God concerning His promise to give David a son who would build a temple in Jerusalem:

1Kings 8

14. The king turned his face about, and blessed all the Assembly of Israel, and the whole Assembly of Israel stood up.

15. And he said, “Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel, who spoke by His mouth to David my father, and by His hand has fulfilled it.”

By “fulfilled it”, Solomon meant that since God’s promise to David had come to pass, there was no longer any need for God to keep promising David that it would happen.  What would be the point of God continuing to promise that He would give David a son who would build His temple, when it was already done?  As Solomon said,

1Kings 8

20. Jehovah caused His word to stand which He spoke, for I have risen up in the place of my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Jehovah said, and I have built the house for the name of Jehovah, God of Israel.

Jesus’ revelation to Paul was that his fulfilling the law meant there is no longer a reason to continue in it.  Jesus did not destroy the law or condemn it as worthless.  On the contrary, his fulfilling the law proved beyond all question that it was from God.  Paul honored the law of Moses by honoring Jesus and receiving his baptism of life, which was the law’s entire purpose.  “The love of God”, wrote Paul, “is poured out within our hearts by the holy Spirit which is given to us,” and “love is the fulfillment of the law, [for] love does not do wrong to a neighbor” (Rom. 5:5b; 13:10).

It is as impossible now for people to continue in the law as it would have been for Rebekah to continue to be pregnant after she gave birth to Jacob and Esau.  And what use would there have been for God to continue promising David a son who would build His temple after David was long dead and Solomon had done it?  Just so, it is useless for anyone now to try to keep Moses’ law after the law’s purpose has been fulfilled.  It cannot be done.

Dear friends, do not believe those who are saying Paul was wrong.  It is my sincere prayer that God will open the eyes of your understanding, as He opened Paul’s, to see the surpassing glory of what Jesus accomplished for us all!  The law of God is now written on our hearts by the Spirit, and because that is done, Paul rejoiced that 

Romans 8

2. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death!

3. For what the law could not do, in that it was powerless because it was of the flesh, God did, after He had sent His Son in the form of sinful flesh to deal with sin.  He condemned sin in the flesh

4. so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk after the flesh but after the Spirit. 

Let us rejoice with Paul that because of Jesus, “we are released from the law so that we now serve God in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of a document” (Rom. 7:6).

Testifying with an Unclean Spirit

Judah has been unfaithful, and an abomination is done

 in Israel and in Jerusalem,

for Judah has defiled the sanctuary of Jehovah which He loved,

and he has married the daughter of a foreign god.

Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this and then

gets up and testifies and makes an offering to Jehovah of Hosts.

Malachi 2:11–12

Through the cleansing of the blood of the Lamb of God, we overcome the world through our testimonies.  Your testimony is unique and precious to the Lord—and very valuable to the saints of God!  Guard it from the pollutions of the world.  The Israelites in Judah polluted their testimony by allowing the influence of foreign spirits into their lives.  They still worshipped God; they still stood up and testified of His greatness, but their testimony was tainted with the spirit of the world.  What struck me this morning when I read this verse is that God did not consider that error to be merely a mistake.  In His eyes, it was an abomination.

That being the case, how much more, in this holy New Covenant, must it be an abomination to Him if His people testify to the greatness of Jesus when their spirits have been polluted with worldliness?  James exhorted those among God’s people who dared do this, “If you have bitter envy and strife in your heart, do not glory in spite of it and, so, lie against the truth.  This wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (Jas. 3:14–15).  To join in worship with holy souls, to stand and testify before God’s holy people when your heart is not pure in His sight is a serious offense.  That is how Satan lived while he was in heaven, and his judgment was to be cast out of God’s presence forever.

The wise admonition of the author of Hebrews is for us today as much as it was for the saints of his time.  Please take it to heart:

Hebrews 10

28. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy, by two or three witnesses.

29. Of how much worse punishment, do you think, will he be worthy who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has regarded as a common thing the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has done outrage to the Spirit of grace?

30. For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”  And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Redefining the New Birth

To be born again is to receive Jesus’ baptism of the Spirit.  The greatest change in the gospel, after first-century believers rejected Paul’s gospel, was the redefinition of the new birth from being baptized with the Spirit to believing in Jesus.  Believing in Jesus was always essential to receiving the new birth, of course, but believing is not the experience of new birth; it only qualifies one to be born again.  This is what John had in mind when he wrote, 

John 1

12. As many as received him [Jesus], to them he granted the right to become children of God [be born again], to those who believe in his name,

13. who are born [again], not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John was saying the same thing when he penned these famous words:

John 3

16. This is the way God loved the world: He gave His only Son so that every one who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The Spirit is life, Paul said (Rom. 8:10), and understanding that simple truth helps us to see that John 3:16 was teaching that whoever believes in Jesus should afterward receive the life of the Spirit.  According to John, Jesus taught the same to those who believed on him:

John 7

37. On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!

38. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water!”

39. But he spoke this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive, for the holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

The author of Hebrews wrote, “He who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6b).  Just so, he who comes to Christ Jesus must first believe that he is Lord and that he is a baptizer of those who diligently seek him.  Demons believe (Jas. 2:19b), but it does them no good, for Jesus will not baptize them into his body.  But for us, believing may lead to the new birth if we diligently seek the will of God in Christ Jesus.

We are complete in Christ, just as Paul said, but there are but three verses in the Bible which tell us how we get into Christ, and all three say it is by baptism: Romans 6:3, Galatians 3:27, and 1Corinthians 12:13.  In 1Corinthians, Paul made it clear which baptism he was talking about: “By one Spirit were we all baptized into one body.”  That baptism, the baptism of Christ, is the baptism Peter was talking about when he said, “Baptism saves us” (1Pet. 3:21a).  Jesus described the new birth to the Jewish elder Nicodemus, a description of the new birth which he said applies to all times and all people:

John 3

7. “Do not marvel that I told you, ‘You must be born again.’

8. The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it’s coming from or where it’s going.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

That is a perfect description of what the followers of Jesus experienced in Acts 2:

Acts 2

1. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one accord, in one place.

2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

3. And there appeared to them divided tongues like fire, and it sat upon each one of them,

4. and they were all filled with holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit moved them to speak.

That is the new birth.  Believing in Jesus always precedes receiving it.

The Christian redefinition of new birth as simply believing in Jesus is by far the gravest error believers made after rejecting Paul’s gospel, for when the new birth is redefined, everything is redefined.  Repentance is redefined because what one must do to receive Jesus’ baptism of the Spirit (believe the gospel and repent) is different from what one must do to believe.  In fact, I know of nothing the Bible says that one must do in order to believe.

Many a soul today has stopped at the point of believing that Jesus is Lord, for Christian ministers have taught them that they are at that point in Christ.  But they need someone to ask them, as Paul asked some men he met at Ephesus who believed in Jesus, “Did you receive the holy Spirit after you believed?” (Acts 19:2).  With that, Paul was asking them, “Have you been born again since you believed?”  He knew that it was possible to believe in Jesus and not have the Spirit.  Every person on earth who believes in Jesus should be asked that question.  It is an essential point because, as Paul said, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him” (Rom. 8:9b).  Everyone who believes in Jesus should be told that believing is not the experience of new birth; it is the path we must take to receive it!

Paul was not born again on the road to Damascus, as many Christians think; he was convicted on the road to Damascus.  He became a believer when Jesus revealed himself to Paul, that he was the Messiah.  Paul was converted three days later, after diligently seeking God and repenting (Acts 9:9).  It was then that he was baptized with the Spirit and his sins were washed away (Acts 9:17; 22:16).  Likewise, the disciples were converted on the day of Pentecost when they were baptized with the Spirit.  They had many miraculous experiences with Jesus while he was here among them, just as Paul had a miraculous experience on the road to Damascus, but they never had the experience of new birth until after Jesus ascended to heaven and offered himself to God as a sacrifice for their sins (Heb. 9:23–26).  This is why Jesus told Peter during the last supper, “When you are converted, strengthen your brothers” (Lk. 22:32).  Yes, even at the Last Supper, the disciples were not yet converted!

All true knowledge begins with understanding the new birth.  The foundations of the Faith are, in effect, destroyed when they are redefined, and in that case, there is little that the righteous can do.  If the Reader embraces the truth that the baptism of the Spirit, not believing in Jesus, is the experience of being born again, then the message of this book will be much easier to understand.