Sunday Night, June 17, 2020 PM

Luke, and as we pray for one, our creator for so abundantly providing for us, deserve we owe it all to you.

Give you thanks in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. We invite you to open your

Bibles to Luke chapter 5 and we're looking at verses 38 to 39 to finish up this chapter and we've been dealing with the obvious as Jesus is teaching his critics and his disciples and and others who may be led astray.

He's teaching them by using some very obvious observations, trying to make things clear and plain.

He has called Levi, the tax collector, to follow him and Levi seeing the need of the hour, invites

Jesus and his disciples over to his house where he gathers his friends, fellow tax collectors and sinners of certain notoriety, and they have all gathered together to feast.

Matthew is excited, he is joyful, he has been called to follow the Messiah, and he is throwing the biggest party he knows how.

And this of course gets the attention of the Pharisees and their scribes who have been lately disturbed by the fact that Jesus, although he is a miracle worker and though he teaches the things of God, has said other things that just does not fit with their paradigm.

For instance, he forgave the sins of this paralyzed man that had been let down through the roof in the house.

He forgave the man's sins and he said that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins and this has challenged the

Pharisees and they're not so sure about Jesus and they see him now feasting with sinners, with tax collectors, and they're even more disturbed.

They've got the disciples of John all stirred up and so Jesus begins to respond to their objections.

And he has given them a common -sense illustration in answer to the grumbling saying, you know, if physician goes to the sick and the doctor doesn't hang out with those who are well, he goes to those who are in need of the doctor, which are the sick.

Doesn't that make sense? And then he says in verse 32, we'll pick it up right here, I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

And they said to him, the disciples of John often fast and offer prayers. The disciples of the

Pharisees also do the same, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, you cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you?

But the days will come and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. And he was also telling them a parable.

No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment, otherwise he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined.

But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new, for he says the old is good enough.

So Jesus answers with this metaphor of a wedding feast. Now a wedding feast lasts for seven days.

It was something that was very common. We see it in the Old Testament, see in the New Testament, and he says, and he uses this metaphor of a wedding feast because he wants to, you know, use something that the biblical image with some common sense.

You never find any story in the Bible where there's a wedding of any quality where the attendants of the bridegroom are fasting and mourning.

It doesn't make any sense. And since they've brought, they've roped in John the

Baptist's disciples, and John's in prison, so they're kind of leaderless and kind of, you know, wavering back and forth, and the

Pharisees and their scribes have roped them into this now. And so John's disciples are wondering, well yeah, why are you not fasting and praying like we are?

And Jesus uses this metaphor about the bridegroom because it's the very language of John the Baptist himself, and saying that the friends of the bridegroom rejoice with the bridegroom.

He must increase, I must decrease. And since their master used that very same language,

Jesus uses this metaphor as well to call them back to the faith, to be faithful to what their master taught them.

He also uses this analogy because in the scribes and Pharisees, in their own teachings, they gave exceptions to wedding parties.

They didn't have to go through their normal spiritual disciplines of fastings and tithings and so on and so forth during the wedding feast.

They all were exempt. And so Jesus says, you know, basically uses this metaphor that by your own traditions, you know, there's no need for fasting during the celebration of a wedding week.

And also, he then speaks about himself as a bridegroom because he says he's gonna be taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.

He's speaking to the fact that he has come as the bridegroom for his bride.

He will be taken away. He's going to suffer. He's going to suffer and die upon the cross, so it's a gospel image.

And then he begins to tell them a parable, it says in verse 36. It's a parable, but there's two images.

One is that of the piece of cloth and an old garment.

No one would buy a new dress for the, you know, for the bride for the wedding.

No one's gonna buy a new dress, cut a piece off the new dress, and patch it on to some old dress for the bride.

That makes no sense at all. And you're ruining the new dress, and then that patch of new material on the old won't fit it, and they won't stay together.

That will rip apart. And then Jesus says, no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

Wineskins are animal skins, and they harden after time. And so if you put new wine into old wineskins, as that new wine ferments and expands and the gases expand, it will crack the old wineskin, and then everything will be ruined.

And so the garment, the special garment and the wine put together, those are images that go right with the metaphor of the wedding, right?

The wedding dress and the wine were common images for any wedding of that time.

So Master Teacher, he picks the perfect metaphor, the perfect analogy, and is applying it on several levels all at once.

And what is happening here is that he's talking about a distinction between new and old, new and old, new and old.

And he wants the Pharisees and their scribes, and he wants the disciples of John, and he wants his followers, and he wants

Matthew and his friends. He wants them to know that you cannot have a happy mixture of the new and the old.

The old is the old, and the new is the new, but you cannot mix them together. You can't just take a little snippet of the new and put it on the old, and you can't get a refill of new inside of the old.

It just doesn't mix. It doesn't go well at all. In fact, both are ruins. And so that's the basic idea he's trying to get across.

And the Scripture, the Bible, is full of this language of old and new, old and new.

And that's not just in the New Testament. It talks about the new. There's lots of promises of the new throughout the

Old Testament. Can we think of anything from the Old Testament that talks about something new?

Anybody think of anything? New heart?

Okay, that's one. New covenant? Isaiah talks about new creation, new heaven and new earth, right?

A lot of new, even in the Old Testament, a lot of new being promised. Isaiah, especially, is full of promises in which the

Lord declares in the face of Israel's idolatry and rebellion that he will make new things.

It says more than once, he'll make new things that are accompanied with a new song. He's creating new heavens and a new earth, a new creation in which a new people from all nations rejoice in a new

Jerusalem. These are all things from Isaiah. Jeremiah says the

Lord will create a new thing in the land and that a woman will encompass a man. It was an allusion to the virgin birth, the incarnation, when just a few verses later talks about this incarnation will bring about the new covenant,

Jeremiah chapter 31. And that's the new covenant that Jesus presented in symbol in the cup of wine at the

Last Supper. It's the new covenant that he purchased with his blood, and here he is talking about new.

Why? Because he's using the metaphor of the wedding, himself as the bridegroom.

Why? His wedding week signals the end of the old covenant, and so he said it's about instructing people about the new covenant.

There's a need to lay aside the old, and now it's time for the new. And he says in verse 38, you've got to have the new with the new.

New wine must be put into fresh wineskins. That's a very obvious statement, almost not worth mentioning to these people.

They would say, well, duh. Why would anyone do that differently? You know, that's such common sense.

But he's saying, so also should it be common sense that with the new covenant things are new, and we should not be trying to mix it with the old.

Remember how Nicodemus said, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Now, he's pretty favorable towards Jesus, and we see that throughout the Scantan mentions of Nicodemus.

He's pretty favorable to Jesus compared to others on the Sanhedrin. And although the

Pharisees and their scribes are less friendly to Jesus in this context, there's something similar.

They are still interested in Jesus. He's doing these signs and wonders. There's something up about him.

There's something amazing about him. They disagree and they grumble, but they can't seem to just let him go about his ministry.

They have to challenge him. Why are they challenged? They're seeking to understand him. This is his answer to Nicodemus goes, just as much for them as well.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You need something new.

You need to be born again. Can't get more new than that. Everything new. So they needed the new birth.

They don't need a repair patch of new cloth. They don't need a refill of new wine. They need a whole new dress and a whole new wineskin.

They need a thoroughgoing newness. New wine must be put into fresh wineskins. It's the only way that they are preserved.

Now, the new covenant with Jesus, we see from, we've already been through that study in Jeremiah, but it's clear that the new covenant is for the new birth, a way of salvation.

And it's all brought about through the person and work of Christ, ordained by the Father and applied by the

Spirit. This is a good thing to apply. I think there are many folks that are trying to patch up the tatters of their lives with a scrap of Christianity, right?

I've repeated a prayer, or I've got this connection with a church, or Christian, or I pray, those kinds of things.

Patching up their lives with a little bit of Christianity. However, just as Jesus says at the end of verse 36, the piece from the new will not match the old, right?

It just doesn't go with it at all. It's the same here. There's no real suitability between their claim and their actual name.

The scrap of Christian fabric that they've tried to stitch onto their rags just does not match.

You know, I've heard more than one person who was a liar, or a person who was a drunk, or a person who was a wife beater, or so on and so forth.

They go, I know I'm going to heaven when I die. I know I'm a Christian. And they have put their patch of assurance that they have done some sort of superstitious ceremony, and they've tried to stitch that onto their lives, but they have no life of Christ in them.

They need something new. They need a new name.

So I think this is easy for spouses and for children, especially, to live under the many blessings of Christian grace.

Many a lost husband has been blessed by a Christian wife. Many lost children have been blessed by born -again parents.

Many lost people have lived a blessed life indeed inside the good of a church community, and they have absorbed wisdom and truth and virtue and identity without ever having been born again.

But pouring new wine into old wineskin eventually bursts the skins, and the result is a ruin for both.

People talk about walking away from the faith. Incompatibility between new and old, and it eventually pans out.

What was needed is to be created anew, raised out of death into life. Now that is the secret and sovereign work of the

Holy Spirit, but we never lose the zeal in calling all men, even those within our

Christian homes and within our church, to repentance and faith in Christ. That should be the tireless challenge.

It's not about patching people up or topping people off. It's about new birth.

It's about coming and repentance and faith to Christ. So consider how we pray.

I mean, we can pray for folks. We often pray for folks we know, we love, and we care for. We pray about them, and we pray for the mess in their lives.

But how are we praying about the mess in their lives? Are we simply praying that God will help their lives of disobedience and idolatry and false profession to go more smoothly?

Is that what we're praying about? Oh, so -and -so has another horrible mess in their life. Okay, we're going to pray that God will clean up the mess so they'll feel better, or are we going to pray that they're born again?

How are we going to pray? We should be praying for their regeneration, that new wine will be put into fresh wineskins.

Now Jesus is not only indicating the newness of the new birth here in his language, which of course the new birth existed long before the

New Covenant, but the newness of the New Covenant means that there is no distinction between the two.

There's no more shadows and types, no more people of God who were not yet born again. In the Old Covenant, Israel's called the people of God, a whole lot of people in there who were lost and going to hell, you know, idolaters and so on and so forth.

They were still called the people of God, but they weren't born again. And there's always a remnant within Israel who were born again, true worshippers of God.

In the New Covenant, there's no distinction between the new birth and the New Covenant. All the people of God are all those who are born again.

There's nobody who is considered the people of God who are not born again, saved.

So we think about the comparison of the old and new, we've got a kind of a contrast going.

Let's go over to Galatians 4. Galatians 4 is, I think, helpful to put these things out for our consideration.

Paul uses an extended analogy, he calls it an allegory, kind of a, you know, a lesson time, story time with Paul, and he says, you remember the story about Abraham's two wives, to show the difference between those who would live under the law without trusting in the fulfillment of the law in Christ, and those who live by the promise fulfilled by Christ.

So Galatians 4 verse 21, tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman,

Hagar and Sarah. Someone's listening.

Okay, Hagar and Sarah, but the one by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh,

I remember Sarah and Abraham's plot, and involving

Hagar, and the one by the free woman through the promise, through the promise. He says, this is allegorically speaking, he says, all right,

I'm gonna use this as an allegory, we're going to use this as an extended analogy here.

These women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai, bearing children who are to be slaves, she's

Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai, so she's a woman and she's also a mountain, Mount Sinai, where the law was given in Arabia, and it corresponds to the present

Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. He says, so picture this, picture this, we all know the children who came from Hagar, and not the legitimate heirs of Abraham, right?

That's why Ishmael had to be sent away. So Paul's like, okay, I want you to picture this, okay, so Abraham had two wives,

Hagar and Sarah, and they each had children. I want you to think of Hagar like Mount Sinai, with the giving of the law, and those who live for the law, they're under slavery, just like Hagar was a slave, and guess what?

This is none other than those running things there in Jerusalem, at that temple in Jerusalem, the earthly Jerusalem, right now.

He doesn't want them listening to them, right? So, I mean, this is pretty inflammatory language. He just called them a bunch of Ishmaelites.

He just called them a bunch of Arabs, didn't he? Now, contrast, but the

Jerusalem above is free, right? There's a new Jerusalem, isn't there?

There's a different Jerusalem. The Jerusalem above is free. She is our mother, Sarah, right?

For it is written, rejoice, barren woman who does not bear, break forth and shout, ye who are not in labor, for more numerous are the children of the desolate than the one who has a husband.

And you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise, children of promise. He's already established that Abraham was justified by faith, justified by faith, and those who are justified by faith are

Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. Verse 29, but as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the

Spirit, so it is now also. Remember, Ishmael making fun of Isaac, picking on him.

Well, Paul is writing during a time, pastoring Christians in a time when the

Jews who were running things at that temple in Jerusalem were responsible for the murder and the persecution and the dispersion of Christians.

They hated Christians, and they were persecuting them violently, and he's saying, look, same as always, same as always, children of the bondwoman picking on the children of the free woman.

Verse 30, but what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be in error with the son of the free woman.

So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman but of the free woman. Do you hear what Paul is saying? You can't have the old with the new.

You see, the old is fulfilled in the new. Paul makes clear there's nothing wrong with the law that God gave.

The thing that's wrong with it is if you live for the law as if the law is the end of itself, then what?

You're in slavery. The law of God, the law of God is good.

It's from God, and it is fulfilled in Christ. So Christ, essentially, is the one who is marrying the free woman in his wedding week, the

Jerusalem above, the Jerusalem above. She is our mother. The children of the free woman have reason to rejoice in feasts, while the children of the slave woman, the

Pharisees and their scribes, are in slavery if they submit themselves to the law as its own end, rather than submit to the one who fulfills it.

There's no happy synthesis between the old and the new.

There's a happy fulfillment, a happy fulfillment of the old and the new, but no happy synthesis.

But some just gotta have the old. Verse 39, Jesus admits to this, and no one after drinking old wine wishes for the new, for he says the old is good enough.

I like the old wine, it tastes better. I prefer the old wine, is the idea. So Jesus has already said some very obvious things about patching an old garment with a new one, and putting new wine into old wineskins, so he has a third obvious observation.

This is straight out of his first miracle he did in Canaan. You remember that one at the wedding celebration, where he turned the water into wine, and it was like better than the best wine they already had.

And the head waiter conversed with the bridegroom of that house, he's like, you're supposed to serve the good wine first, right?

You are dulled through so much wine, the bad wine comes along, they don't notice. You're supposed to serve the good wine first, which means the older wine that has been sitting for a while.

So Jesus is just pointing out that some have developed a taste for the old, and they don't desire the new. That's the way these

Pharisees are, and they're scribes. But think about how disastrous it would be, how disastrous is it for the

Pharisees and the scribes to embrace the old to the rejection of the new, right?

And they reject the new altogether. They reject Christ altogether. Where do they end up? They end up in the courtyard of Pilate, screaming, his blood be upon us and our children.

We have no king but Caesar. That's where they ended up. And this whole time, here's the irony, this whole time they have been trying to get rid of the oppressors, the

Romans, Caesar. Why are they so morose? Why do they fast twice a week?

Why do they make such long, torturous prayers? Why do they afflict themselves so?

Because they believe by the holy sacrifices that they offer before God and before everyone, that they will appeal to God in that way, and he will deliver them because of their holiness, because of their purity, he will deliver them from their oppressors.

That's what they think. If they can just continually show their zeal and their purity and show how awfully sorry they are for everything that's happened, then finally

God will relent and he will give them back their land. They believe that 100%. But Reformation without regeneration or Reformation without resurrection only brings insurrection, which is of course what they did, because they fought an insurrection against Rome and their city and their temple was destroyed.

So that's where they ended up. What about these followers of John the Baptist? Here's your homework,

Acts 18 24 through 19 verse 7. Acts 18 24 through 19 verse 7.

Basically the end of Acts 18 and the beginning of Acts 19. The followers of John the

Baptist were a perfect example of those who were halfway to the new without the new.

They were the followers of the forerunner, but they never came to know Christ himself.

And so we find this very special focus on them in the book of Acts, where they are instructed further along to know the newness of who

Christ is, because there's no happy synthesis between the old and the new together.

The book of Hebrews, for example, Hebrews 6 1 through 12, which we don't have time to read tonight, but the whole sermon in Hebrews is dealing with those who are tempted to go back to the old due to the hot persecution they're under from the

Jews. They are tempted to go back to the old ways of doing things, and perhaps they're like these who have drunk old wine and say,

I want to go back to the old wine now. But Hebrews 6 says if you go back, you're basically joining those who crucified

Christ. How could you do that? Don't go back and join with those who have rejected

Christ by crucifying him. And Hebrews 8 13 says that the old is obsolete and is passing away.

Don't go back to the old. Stay with the new. Stay with the new. We have not come to a mountain that we cannot touch, a mountain that is all smoke and fire,

Mount Sinai. We have come to the mountain, Mount Zion. We have come to the new

Jerusalem. Very same imagery as we find in Galatians 4. There is no happy synthesis of old and new.

There's a happy resolution, there's a happy fulfillment of the new, of the old into the new, but there's no happy synthesis of both of them together.

So as we think about that, as we pray, we ought to pray that very same common sense that Christ gives us, not only for our lives but for those that we know and love and care for.

It's not about a little bit of Jesus fixing a little bit that's wrong with people. It's not about adding

Christ to anybody's life. It's about a transformation. It's about a new birth, an actual thoroughgoing newness.

That's what Jesus says we need. Okay, well let's take some prayer requests tonight.