“I HAVE NEVER UNDERSTOOD IT LIKE THAT BEFORE”

“From the Series THINGS JESUS TAUGHT US, this sermon was preached on Sunday, July 28, 2013 at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, Georgia by Pastor Paul Mims.

Luke 5:33-39Do you remember when you learned about Galileo in school? He was an Italian astronomer and physicist who challenged the traditional thinking of his day, and made some important discoveries. He is most famous for his invention of the telescope. In 1609, using his telescope and the Bible, he began to make spectacular discoveries about the heavenly bodies – the sun and the stars, our galaxy, and even about our own earth. Among his discoveries was the idea that the earth was not the center of the universe, nor was it even the center of our solar system. The universe did not revolve around the earth, as was taught in those days.

He showed his discoveries to Pope Paul V, but the church turned on him and attacked him. They told him that the earth was the center of God’s creation, and if anything else was the center, it would be like the earth was worshiping it, which would be idol worship.

In 1632, Galileo was called before the leaders of the Inquisition to answer charges that his writings contradicted church teachings and tradition. He was 70 years old at the time, and was at the very least threatened with torture. The outcome was that he was forced to recant his beliefs and state that his observations about the earth moving around the sun were errors and heresies. However, even after he recanted, he was placed under house arrest and treated badly by church officials until he became blind and feeble. He died on a cold, winter’s day in 1642 with his son and two pupils at his side. Of course, as we all know, Galileo was right, and the church was wrong because it was resistant to change. It resisted anything new.

Jesus faced the same kind of mindset when he began his ministry of teaching about the Kingdom of God. In our scripture text today, Jesus gives three brief parables about the newness, excitement, and life changing power of the good news he was bringing.

I. YOUR FAITH OUGHT TO MAKE YOU HAPPY (vv.33-35).

The Jews had a belief that a man was not being religious unless he was being made uncomfortable. They had a rigid system of observances that included fasting on Mondays and Thursdays each week. Prayers were to be offered daily at 12 noon, 3 and 6 p.m. They thought that God was impressed and that they were gaining favor with him by how much they denied themselves. Religion to them was not joyous. They felt that their mechanical righteousness was making them holy so that they would have salvation through ceremonial observances.

“They said to him, John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking”.

Here was the conflict. They said to Jesus, “True religion does it this way. Your disciples are out of step. They don’t fast like we do and they don’t pray like we do.”

Jesus defended his disciples by saying, “Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”
Jesus taught us that the Christian Life is like a wedding. The dominant characteristic of Christianity ought to be abounding joy. He taught us that we can have joy in the midst of pain and suffering. Our concept of God should not bring us dread and gloominess, but love and peace because of his tender-heartedness toward us.

What was a wedding like in this time? The couple did not go away for a honeymoon like as is our custom. The newly married couple stayed at home, dressed in their best, and for a week were treated like a queen and king. Whatever they wanted was done for them. Who would want to fast at such a time? Jesus was saying that his being with his disciples was a time of celebration, a time of joy, and was like a wedding. He was being wed to them and it was such a momentous time in their lives that they did not have to fast and pray to commune with him. But the time would come when he would be taken from them.

The same idea of the religionists of that time is present with us today. “Religion is a burden. It makes me do what I don’t want to do and keeps me from doing what I want to do. God will accept me if I show him how religious I am by doing all the religious disciplines.” No! Jesus is just as much with us today in the presence of the Holy Spirit as he was physically with his disciples. We are his disciples and he wants our faith to be marked by the joy of his presence with us. Our fasting and praying ought to be times of spiritual refreshment and not legalistic burdens. Properly understood – our faith does make us happy in the depths of our souls. If your faith is a burden, then you have not properly understood it but have fallen into the popular concept of religion as something that you do rather than someone you are.

II. YOUR FAITH DOES NOT PATCH YOU UP – IT CREATES A NEW YOU (v.36).

“He told them this parable: “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.”
Ladies, if you had an old dress that you had worn for several years and you tore a hole in it, you would not cut out a piece from a dress that you had just bought to repair it.

The old garment that Jesus is talking about here is the old religion, the old covenant, the stayed and strong tenants of Judaism. The new faith is the fulfillment of Judaism, the prophecies that had foretold his coming, the completion of God’s plan of salvation. What he is proclaiming is something new that God has in mind for them. No longer would the sacrificial system be required at the Temple for he was the Lamb that was to be sacrificed for the sins of the whole world.

Some people today just want to take a piece of Christianity and use it to patch up a certain area of their lives. Jesus indicated that this would not work because the patch from the new would not match the old. He does not want to patch us up, but to create a totally new spiritual being in his image. Our old fallen spiritual nature cannot be patched up. It has to be reborn through the grace of God. We then, do not continue in the shabby old clothes of estrangement from God because he now gives us a robe of righteousness because he has cleansed us totally and continues to purify us in his sight.

A businessman once had a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for years and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. “Forget about the repairs,” the buyer said. “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.” That is what God wants from us – permission to rebuild. By grace he goes to work rebuilding the foundation, putting up the walls, and protecting the new structure of our lives by a covering of his divine favor.

Christianity could not be a patch on Judaism, but Jesus did have high regard for the foundation of this new faith. It had to be fashioned into an entirely new faith if it was to fulfill the prophecies contained in the old. The Christ spirit was totally new. His indwelling in believers was entirely new. The church would replace the nation. The mission to the whole world would replace the limited structures within Judaism. They had been promised “a new heart” and “a new name” and “a new song” and here it was in Christ. The scriptures were now fulfilled!

III. YOUR FAITH WILL GIVE YOU THE SPONTANEOUS ENERGY OF NEW LIFE (vv.37-38).

“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘the old is better.’”

The bottles in that day were made out of the skins of animals like our leather shoes are today. They would pour the new wine into them and in the process of time the wine would ferment and produce a gas which would expand the wineskin bottle. A new wineskin would expand as required and preserve the wine. But if an old wineskin was used for new wine and the fermentation process began, it would split the wineskin and the wine would be lost.

Jesus is saying that this new faith of Christianity is like a new wineskin that will hold when the power of the new wine is poured into it. It will expand over all the earth and the taste of this new wine will be that for which the nations hunger and thirst.

We must be willing to break out of our old patterns of doing things and seek new ways of presenting the gospel to people. Often the church is like old wineskins. We have our ways of doing things and are reluctant to allow the Holy Spirit to show us anything new. But when the Holy Spirit is given freedom to work in a church – wondrous things can happen.

Rodney Buchannan said, “We used to sing a song entitled, “Give Me That Old Time Religion.” And in the song it says, “It was good for the Hebrew children, and it is good enough for me.” But it wasn’t good enough for the Hebrew children. The faith of Abraham was not adequate for them; God had something more. God had to deliver them from the bondage of Egypt and show them something new. The Red Sea would part, Mount Sinai would explode with fire and the voice of God. Commandments would be given and there would be new lessons learned in the wilderness. The song says, “It was good for Paul and Silas.” The truth is that the old time religion was not good enough for Paul and Silas. For years Paul wanted it to be good enough, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He wanted to keep the old wineskin of Jewish tradition, but Jesus was bursting the seams of that wineskin. New wine had come and new wineskins were called for.

You can’t have the old time religion. Your mother’s faith will not do, it has to be your faith. Your father’s faith is not adequate, you have to have your own experience with God. In fact, your faith, the faith used to get you by several years ago, will not do for today. If your faith has not grown since you first met Christ as a kid, the wineskin has dried and become brittle. It will not do for the new thing that God wants to do in you today. You can’t remain static. You can’t stay where you are. Yesterday’s experience will not do for today. Your faith must be current. The Lord says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18-19). If you are going to be ready for the new thing that God is doing, you are going to have to stop trying to fit it in to what you have always been used to. And, guess what, ten years from now, you will need to adapt again to the new thing God is doing in you and in the world. Jesus said, “No one sews a patch of new cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse” (Matthew 9:16). You can’t patch up your old experience and try to make it do. You have to have a whole new experience for a whole new day. You have to continue to grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to you and dead to me
But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is you, your spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of your blood
(Keith Green)