OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
Luke 5:33-39
Proposition: “Jesus revealing power forced a new decision for His kingdom people: choosing between old or new ways of doing things & between fasting for show or fasting for refreshing."
Objective: My purpose is to challenge God’s people to understand that Jesus came to give us something new in our spiritual life.
INTRODUCTION:
Everyone thinks they understand what religion is all about. It’s about stopping doing bad things and doing good things. You stop swearing, and stealing, and womanizing, and drinking. You conquer your addictions, and you start going to church, and giving to charity, and staying at home with your family in the evenings, and reading the Bible. That is what almost everyone judges religion to be; you stop doing bad things and in their place do good things.
That is what people thought in Jesus’ day too. They looked at Jesus with his disciples & they noticed that they were a decent gang of men. They didn’t fight & get drunk; they didn’t fool around with women. Then they noticed how they said grace before they ate their food. They were always in the synagogue on the Sabbath. They talked a lot about the Scriptures, and so they were ‘very religious men.’ However, then they spotted an inconsistency, that there was one thing they didn’t do that every other group of ‘really religious’ people whom they knew about certainly did. Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast. The Pharisees also fasted and they did so because they were serious about religion, and they wanted to abstain from temptations of the flesh. Everyone knew when the Pharisees were fasting; they paraded the fact by putting white ash on their heads as they walked down the street. They decided to fast twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, although God required fasting on just one day in a year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, but the Pharisees with their commitment to being serious about religion had to multiply that requirement a hundred-fold.
Our text is a continuation of the dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees and their scribes. What is the lifestyle to follow? Which comes first, fasting or feasting? Fasting was one of the three most important religious duties, along with prayer and almsgiving. Jesus knows there’s a time for fasting and a time for feasting (or celebrating). Do you take joy in the Lord’s presence with you and do you express sorrow and contrition for your sins? Jesus goes on to warn His disciples about the problem of the "closed mind" that refuses to learn new things. Jesus used an image familiar to his audience — new and old wineskins. What did Jesus mean by this comparison? Are we to reject the old in place of the new? Just as there is a right place and a right time for fasting and for feasting, so there is a right place for the old as well as the new. The Lord gives us wisdom so we can make the best use of both the old and the new. He doesn’t want us to hold rigidly to the past and to be resistant to the new work of His Holy Spirit in our lives.
I. A NEW DISCIPLE: The Inquiry (v. 33) “Why do…”—If you want to know how upset the Pharisees were with Jesus for enjoying himself as guest of honor Levi’s feast, these are the verses to read. They immediately struck back with a biting accusation. They challenged Jesus’ standing as a spiritual man.
1. The complaint “Then they said to Him”—This is Jesus’ response to the dialogue of the Pharisees & the scribes. The religious leaders (v. 30; Mark 2:18) and John’s disciples (Matt. 9:14; Mark 2:18) raised the question of fasting. They did so because it was another practice, besides eating with sinners, that marked Jesus and His disciples as unusual (cf. 7:34). Since Jesus preached repentance (v. 32), why did He not expect His followers to demonstrate the accepted signs that indicated it?
2. The comparison “Why do disciples of John fast often and make prayers…and those of the Pharisees”— What they were really asking was: "Why are your friends so happy looking when they’re supposed to be religious?" The Pharisees wanted to know why Jesus’ disciples did not fast like they & John the Baptist’s disciples did. They were doing something new. They fasted on Mondays & Thursdays & often whitened their faces so that people could see what they were doing. The idea was to call God’s attention to the faster. Their ritual prayers were at noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. daily. Usually these prayers were in public so that everyone around them knew they were praying.
3. The celebration “But Yours eat and drink”—The fast to the Pharisees meant mourning. To the Pharisee, you could not be spiritual unless you were uncomfortable. Spirituality consists of doing things you do not want to do & refraining from the things you want to do.
Illus: Erma Brombeck wrote about sitting in church one Sunday when a child turned around and began to smile at the people behind her. When the mother notices, she whispered to her daughter, “Stop that grinning—you’re in church.” She gave her a swat and then said, “That’s better.” Brombeck: Some people come to church looking like they just read the will of their rich aunt only to learn that she left everything to her pet hamster.
II. A NEW DELIGHT: The Insight (vs. 34-35) “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast…”--- Weddings & bridegrooms are symbols the Pharisees are used to. The image of the bridegroom was used throughout the OT to represent God’s union with his people. The wedding therefore represents a new life, a life to be lived in intimate relationship with God. He is the bridegroom, and what is being celebrated is salvation. What delight He is!
1. The response (v. 34a) “And He said to them”—He uses a happy occasion of a wedding to illustrate His disciples omission of fasting. This is Jesus’ answer which is divinely bold and packed with meaning for the Jewish listeners. He’s saying that as long as they have Him close by in their lives, it is not the time to be sad and to fast. It is time to party!
2. The request (v. 34b) “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast”--A Jewish wedding was a time of special festivity. The unique feature of it was that the couple who were married did not go away for a honeymoon; they spent their honeymoon at home. For a week after the wedding, open house was kept; the bride and bridegroom were treated as, and even addressed as, king and queen. And during that week their closest friends shared all the joy and all the festivities with them; these closest friends were called the children of the bride chamber. On such an occasion there came into the lives of poor and simple people a joy, a rejoicing, a festivity, a plenty, that might come only once in a lifetime. The Lord’s disciples had come to understand that life in God’s way was a life of rejoicing, not mourning.
3. The reflection (result) v. 35) “But the days will come…they will fast in those days”— ‘You cannot make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?’ They’ll fast when he’s gone. Jesus also indicated that a sad time was coming. He told them that "the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast." Jesus was specifically referring to his crucifixion and the days between when he died and when he arose from the grave. That would be a very sad time when fasting and praying were most appropriate and partying would definitely be out. This happened at the cross, but their sorrow gave way to the joy of the Resurrection, the Ascension, Christ’s being seated at the right hand of God and the coming of the H.S.
Illus: There was once a guy who had just got married and as all husbands do, he was watching his wife preparing a pot roast and drooling in anticipation. As he watched she cut off one end of what looked like a perfectly good roast and threw it away. Asked “What did you do that for.” The answer - "Because that’s that way it is always done – ask my mother if you don’t believe!" The poor guy was confused. He rang his mother-in-law and asked why we cut the end of the roast off. She said, "Because that’s what my mother always did!" He then rang his wives grandmother, now old and feeble, and asked her about this strange family practice. The old woman laughed. She said she “I always had to cut off the end because I didn’t have a pot large enough to fit the whole roast!”
III. A NEW DISCLOSURE: The Illustrations (vvs. 36-38)—The parable—This is what Jesus revealed by using an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus next illustrated with parables the fact that His coming introduced a radical break with former religious customs. He did not come to patch Judaism up but to inaugurate a new order. Simply adding His new order to Judaism would have two detrimental effects. It would damage the new order, and it would not preserve the old order. It would also appear incongruous. Only Luke’s account includes the first effect, that it would damage the new order.
1. The practice (v. 36) “No one puts a piece of new garment over an old one”—Patched garments were common. No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. This was because people were poor and would patch clothes that might be wearing out. As Jesus often did, he used ordinary images that were familiar to everyone in order to teach spiritual truth. Perhaps he even held up a new garment and an old garment while He was teaching. New cloth, sewed on an old garment, will shrink when washed, and so will pull apart the older and weaker cloth. To patch an old garment with a piece of new material is foolish; for a Jew to insist that Jesus’ way of life was simply a “new patch” on Judaism is equally senseless. This part about the garments shows us that we must make Jesus the Lord of our whole life. We must accept Him completely.
2. The problem (v. 37) “No one puts new wine into old wineskins”—The containers were not glass containers, but skins of animals (goat hides) used as sacks for liquid. The old wineskins had lost their elasticity, and would not hold the new wine, which might still be in partial process of fermentation. Likewise the new teaching of the kingdom of God could not be contained within the forms of the Law, but must be expressed in new ways. A fresh revelation had come in Christ, which demanded a different form of worship. So Jesus’ strong point is this, that true religion is not discovered by making religious additions to your life. True religion is not found in making religious subtractions from your life. You mustn’t think in terms of the patches you add or the new wines you taste. You can subtract from your life certain obvious sins. You can add to your life certain obvious good deeds. When all the additions and subtractions have been made, however, what are you? You are still the same old man.
3. The preservation (v. 38) “New wine must be put into new wineskins”— A new wineskin was strong and elastic. It could handle new wine, wine that was still fermenting and producing gas. When these skins became old , they became brittle and broke easily. Jesus suggested that no man puts new wine into an old bottle because the new wine is still fermenting. The fermentation would cause the brittle skins to burst and the wine would then spill, the bottles also perishing. The Jew could not take the principles and precepts of Jesus and force them into the old forms of Judaism. Although the Jew regarded fasting as a superior expression of dedication, fasting was not so regarded by Jesus. Jesus was offering a whole new way of life. To become a Christian is to have God inside you. This means that everything is new & different & wonderful & good. But, the old stuff has got to go.
Rudyard Kipling once accompanied General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army to a foreign county. They were met by a group of Christians who greeted them and playing their tambourines. Kipling, a proper young Englishman, was shocked by this activity. His orthodox soul resented the tambourines and he expressed his displeasure to General Booth. Booth replied, “Young man, if I thought I could win one more soul for Christ by standing on my head and beating a tambourine with my feet, I would learn how to do it.”
IV. A NEW DECISION (Desire): The Indictment (v. 39) “The old is better” -- Christianity is a radical change from Judaism & the Pharisees deemed the old way better. Only Luke included this statement. Jesus’ point was that most people who have grown accustomed to the old order are content with it and do not prefer the new. They tend to assume that the old is better because it is old.
1. The performance “having drunk old wine”—Those who are used to the old ways of Judaism (fasting, ceremonial observances, etc.) are not willing to accept the new way of life He offers. (Jn. 10:10) Do you see what real religion is? It is not adding some outward morals to an immoral heart.
2. The punctuality “immediately desires new”-- Do you see what real religion is? It is not adding some outward morals to an immoral heart. The Gospel is new--always renewing, bringing life to where there is death. Bringing light where there is darkness, peace where there fear. Forgiveness where there is guilt. Joy where there is sadness. Where the good news of Jesus Christ is shared, there God is at work. When we take our eyes off Jesus, the Holy Spirit quietly leaves. He is the God of the new wine.
3. The preference “The old is better”—“The old stuff is better.” He concluded this teaching with the suggestion that the individual who has drunk old wine does not immediately desire new wine inasmuch as he feels the old is superior. The new content (His way of life) could not be forced into the old forms (the Jewish way of life). He rejects the proper way to God (Jn. 14:6). One of these Pharisees who fasted twice a week came to see the Lord Jesus one night. His name was Nicodemus and he respected and admired Jesus. Jesus didn’t mistake respectability for true religion. Jesus didn’t confuse prestige and piety, or position and a pure heart. He didn’t suggest five practices for Nicodemus to give up and five pluses to add to Nicodemus’ religion. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (Jn. 3:3). For all his religion Nicodemus was an old wineskin. For all his goodness and morality he needed to be born again. Why? Because all his religion and his behavior was a veneer. They were an exterior coating on the true man. Within was the same old man, dead and hard and sinful, alienated from God. Nicodemus himself needed to be changed. He needed a new heart, a new nature, a new birth, a new beginning, a new wineskin. How could he contain a life of turning the other cheek and mortifying remaining sin without the new structures to do that?
Illus: If we keep on doing what we have always done, we will get the same results that we always got.
CONCLUSION:
1. The Christian life is more like a wedding celebration than a funeral procession. Its symbol is not a fast, but a feast.
2. Jesus did not come to improve the Old Covenant; He came to replace it with something new. A question we should ask is: Does it point to Jesus?"
3. The Christian life is a constant flow of new ideas, new methods and new insights into God’s truth. The truths do not change but our understanding of them may. It is a fact of life: people resist change.
4. If you become inflexible and harden your heart, accepting new ideas will be difficult and painful.
5. Jesus comes into your life to create something totally new!
Illus: In Fresh Fire, Jim Cymbala honestly reveals his mind by saying "I despaired at the thought that my life might slip by without seeing God show Himself mightily on our behalf. Carol and I didn’t want merely to mark time. I longed and cried out for God to change everything - me, the church, our passion for people, our praying. One day I told the Lord that I would rather die than merely tread water throughout my career in the ministry ... always preaching about the power of The Word and the Spirit, but never seeing it. I abhorred the thought of just having more church services. I hungered for God to break through in our lives and ministry."
Illus: Evan Roberts, mightily used of God in the 1904-1905 Revival in Wales, tells this: “For thirteen years I had prayed for the Spirit, and this is the way I was led to pray. William Davies, the deacon, said one night in the society: “Remember to be faithful. What if the Spirit descended and you were absent? Remember Thomas! What a loss he had!” “I said then to myself: ‘I will have the Spirit.’ And through all weather, and in spite of all difficulties, I went to the meetings. Many times, on seeing other boys with the boats on the tide, I was tempted to turn back and join them. But, no. Then I said to myself: ‘Remember your resolve to be faithful,’ and on I went. I went to the meetings for prayer throughout the 10 or 11 years praying for revival.
At a certain morning meeting which Evan Roberts attended, the evangelist in one of his petitions besought that the Lord would “Bend us.’ ‘That is what you need, to be bent’ said the Spirit to me. And as I went out I prayed, ‘O Lord, bend me.’ I felt a living force come into my bosom. This grew and grew, and I was almost bursting. And instantly someone ended his prayer-my bosom boiling. I would have burst if I had not prayed. What boiled me was that verse, ‘God commending His Love.’ I fell on my knees with my arms over the seat in front of me, and the tears and perspiration flowed freely. I thought blood was gushing forth. Some friends wiped my face. For about two minutes it was fearful. I cried, ‘Bend me! Bend me! Bend us!’ ‘Suddenly the glory broke! After I was bent a wave of peace came over me, and the audience sang, ‘I hear Thy welcome Voice.’ And as they sang I thought of the bending at the Judgment Day, and I was filled with compassion for those who would be bent on that day, and I wept. Henceforth the salvation of souls became the burden of my heart. From that time I was on fire with a desire to go through all Wales, and if it were possible, I was willing to pay God for the privilege of going. In the next 18 months Evan and others went throughout Wales and there were many commitments to Christ. A hundred thousand outsiders were converted and added to the churches, the vast majority remaining true to the end. Drunkenness was immediately cut in half, and many taverns went bankrupt. Stoppages occurred in coal mines, not due to unpleasantness between management and workers, but because so many foulmouthed miners became converted and stopped using foul language that the horses which hauled the coal trucks in the mines could no longer understand what was being said to them, and transportation ground to a halt.
To receive MY SERMON NUGGETS weekly, e-mail: grsteffy@yahoo.com
