Out With the Old, In With the New
Notes
Transcript
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
Prayer
Introduction
Talk about how I clean the house, Peighton and getting new clothes, Spring cleaning.
Big Main Idea - For us to be filled with Jesus, we must remove the old things
Set the scene - Jesus has been doing ministry in Capernaum. He has casted out some demons, made a sick woman healthy again, healed a paralyzed man. In our text last week, Jesus calls Levi(Matthew) as a disciple. He was a tax collector and was despised by his own people because of his job. After Jesus calls Levi, they are at Levi’s house around the table and Jesus is being condemned by the scribes because he is eating with tax collectors and sinners. I pointed out that this passage challenges us to open up our tables to the undesirable and share meals with them, just as Jesus did.
From the beginning of chapter 2 of Mark through the first verses on chapter 3, we see Jesus being engaged by controversies from the religious elite. The first one was when he was healing the man who was paralyzed. Jesus declared this mans sins to be forgiven. The scribes questioned, “who has the power to forgive sins but God alone”. After that, when Jesus was in the house around the table, the scribes questioned, “why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners.” The text that we are in today is the 3rd controversy. It will deal with fasting and people questioning Jesus about the religious and how they are fasting.
And that leads us right into our text today. First, as we dive into our text, we will see what Jesus is doing
What Jesus is Doing
What Jesus is Doing
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
Levi has become a follower of Jesus and they are feasting. And, as we have seen before, Jesus gets questioned. They want to know why Jesus’ disciples don’t fast like the Pharisee’s and John’s disciples. They are basically saying, “if you are so religious, then why don’t you make your disciples fast like the others”. So that we can understand what is being questioned and the motives behind it, let’s talk about fasting.
Fasting, as you probably know, is when you go without eating. In the context of religion, it is when you go without eating as a means to focus your attention on God and away from the troubles of this world. Sounds like a good thing. So why are they questioning Jesus? If we study fasting in scripture, we will see that fasting is only mandated for one day of the year for the people of Israel. (DAY OF ATONEMENT (יוֹם כִּפֻּרִים, yom kippurim). A day on which Israel fasted, cleansed the sanctuary of impurity, and dealt with their sin through blood rituals and sending a goat into the wilderness. Took place on the 10th day of the seventh month. You may know this now by the name Yom Kippur). So this is the only day that was required. But these groups (John’s and Pharisees) stress the need for repentance (John’s) and purity (Pharisees). So they institute extra biblical principles. They begin fasting twice a week on Monday’s and Thursdays.
The prophets had warned the people in the Old Testament that fasting without a repentant heart and right conduct was useless. They would have been doing it in vain. But despite the warnings, people still believed that by doing it, they would earn God’s favor. If we are honest with ourselves, we know all about that. The question was towards the disciples and Jesus’s dedication towards God.
19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
I can remember back to our wedding day. It was a very nice day. Me and Brittany got married in front of close to 250 people, many of whom I had no idea who they were. We decided, for our reception that we would have a full meal. If I remember right, it was BBQ with the normal sides. I say “if I remember right” because we did not get to enjoy it like everyone else. While we were finishing up taking pictures, we made the decision to let our guests go ahead and eat. Well, because they had already eaten, when we got there, they were finished and ready to visit with us. So while everyone was talking to us, the food in our plates got cold. Our wedding night meal was a tray from Cookout. So, for us, it was more like the bride and groom fasted while the guest were with them.
If you remember, the people were fasting 2 days a week. But there was an exception. After the wedding, the couple would not honeymoon like we do. What they would do is they would stay home for the first week. This would be considered one of the happiest weeks for the couple. They would sit in their home and be tended to by guests. They would eat like royalty and be treated like kings and queens and it would not be rare for them to actually wear crowns. If you were one of their guests, you would not be able to fast that week. Why?
Because it was time to celebrate. Because the celebration would not last forever. It was only for a short time. And then, they would no longer be exempt from fasting and would have to resume. But while they were celebrating, the celebration to precedence. Jesus is using this example to teach them. This is a parable type lesson for them. Because he knew that his time was limited.
20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
Who is the bridegroom that he is talking about? It is him. Jesus is the bridegroom. Throughout the New Testament, the church is referred to as the bride of Christ. But they don’t catch that. We know this because we are on a different side of scripture. But we know that he is talking about himself. Because he says that when the bridegroom is taken away. If he was talking about a normal bridegroom, there should not be this looming thought of him not being there any longer. But he is talking about himself. The bridegroom that is going to willingly lay down him life for the bride. This is what the gospel teaches us.
(gospel presentation).
They don’t need to fast because they are in the middle of a celebration. The fact that they are in the physical presence of God. This is reason to celebrate. Because there will be a day in the near future when the bridegroom will be taken from them.
Today, we can understand what Jesus was doing. He is showing them the importance of being in the presence of Jesus. He is showing them that they do not need to let unneeded traditions get in the way of their worship.
Not only do they need to see what Jesus is doing, they need to see what Jesus is offering.
What Jesus is Offering
What Jesus is Offering
21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
Jesus makes a transition here. He goes into a sort of parable talking about cloth. Whenever an old garment would tear, you couldn’t just take a new piece of cloth and sew on and it would fix the problem. In fact, it would cause a worse problem. Because when the cloth would get wet, it would shrink. And then, the original hole that you patched up, would tear and become even worse than the original. But then he uses another analogy as well.
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
Kind of the same concept as the cloth. If you put new wine into old wineskins, it would burst. They would take the skin of a goat and strip it down as much as they could. Then they would fill it with new wine. Because of the freshness of the goat skin, it had quite a bit of elasticity. The wine would ferment and would expand and the skins would stretch with it. But after they are used, they will become brittle and weak. So if you try to use old wine skins to store new wine, they will not be able to expand. They will ferment and not be able to stretch the skins and then the skins will tear.
And we also have this image of tearing in this analogies. Tearing is an important picture in the book of Mark. In chapter 1, we see the heavens tear open at the baptism of Jesus. Here, we have this image of cloth tearing when you add the new to the old. But then, when we get to the end of the book of Mark, we see the curtain being torn in the temple when Jesus breathes his last breath. What does all of this have to do with each other. The picture of tearing in the book of Mark is signifying a change. The old going away and the new coming. At the baptism of Jesus, it is ushering in the ministry of Christ. In our passage today, it is giving us the picture that the old and the new cannot mix together. And at the death of Jesus on the cross, the curtain in the temple being torn is representing a new period when Jesus is now our mediator and we no longer have to go to an earthly priest to have communication with God.
Out with the old, in with the new. I am sure we can all remember a time in our life when things changed so drastically that it seems like everything was different. For me, it was when we got married. Before that, we were not living together and had never lived together before. So everything changed. I now had to share a home with another person that I had never lived with. I had to figure out meals every single day to share with this new person. We shared a bank account, so we had to figure out how to spend money together.
See, if I had continued to try to live the same way I had always lived after we got married, she would have divorced me. Jesus is saying that with him, things change. He had just told them that he was going to be gone. They didn’t know what that meant. But, as you go through scripture, you see that their lives changed completely. If they would have continued to live the way that they did when Jesus was here on earth, the gospel would not have spread.
What Jesus is offering to them is a new life. When we have seen the apostles responding to the call of Jesus before this, they dropped everything and they followed him. The same goes for us. When Jesus calls us into a relationship with him, everything changes. We may still have some of the same things from our old life (jobs, family, relationships). But he has called us to a new life with new priorities. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
We are declared new creations. There must be this line drawn between the old and the new. But we often times still go back to the old looking for the things that comfort us. Our lives should be radically changed to the point where we don’t want the things of the old life. I want you to know this is an area that I struggle in.
Think of the line between the old and the new as a fence line. Now, I am on the new side of the fence line. But when I walk, I don’t walk away from the line, I walk along the line. And as I do, I see the things that are on the old side that I really like. It would be like see grape vines or a peach tree or a blueberry bush on the other side of the fence. Now, I have clearly crossed onto the new side of the fence, but it wouldn’t hurt just to hop over there long enough to get me some blueberries. Except, those aren’t blueberries, it is an old sin that we just can’t let go of. We do this, I do this. So what is the solution? Instead of walking along that fence, run in the opposite direction of the fence. This is repentance. Turning away completely from our sin and running to Jesus.
What is Jesus offering? Jesus is offering new life.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This passage may seem like some irrelevant passage mixed into the book of Mark that does not really apply to us like other ones would. But we cannot treat it that way. There are no wasted words in scripture for us. So what does this passage tell us today? Remember at the beginning I gave you a main take away from this passage. For us to be filled with Jesus, we must remove the old things. So that is what we must do. This may be different things for each of us. Some of us may be gossipers. Some of us may have anger issues. Or maybe it is a habit of honoring yourself with your money rather than God. Or maybe it is an issue with lust. We all struggle with different things in our life. But each and every one of those things has the same solution. Jesus. There are two different camps here today. Those who have placed their life in Christ, and those who haven’t
If you are here today and you have never made a real, true profession of Jesus being your Lord and savior, I want you to listen to me. Quit running. Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart and you are ignoring it. Maybe you have been coming to church for years, maybe your whole life. Maybe you have recently starting going to church. Maybe you have never made a profession of Jesus before in your life. Or maybe you have walked down an aisle, raised your hand, been baptized, and been a member of the church for decades but you never really believed that Jesus was Lord. Today is the day of salvation. The bible tells us that we need to repent and believe. Repent means to turn.
What do you need to believe. (gospel presentation)
If you do these things and it is really real for you then you are saved. You are what 2 Cor 5:17 calls a new creation in Christ. And if this is you, then we need to celebrate you doing this. We do this through baptism. A picture of us dying to the old life and being raised into new life with Christ. But maybe you are weary because you have been in church for years and everyone thinks that you are a believer. Do not let this stop you. Everyone that is a Christian knows what it means to be brought from death to life. And true believers would never make any sort of judgment towards someone saying that their life is now truly changed. If you have placed your faith in Jesus as your lord and savior, please let me know. You can catch me after service, call me, text me. My number is in the bulletin if you need it.
But for the believers in the room, what do we do with this. This passage should be a reminder to us of repentance. There are times when we drift a certain way and then we read a passage like this and it reminds us that we are new creations in Christ. It stops us and makes us check ourselves. My encouragement and challenge to everyone who is a believer is to make sure that we are doing what we need to be doing to grow in our relationship in Christ. Spending that time in God’s word, spending that time in prayer, being around other believers and asking each other hard questions to make sure we are all going in the right direction. If you don’t have those close relationships, I would encourage you to come to Sunday school or our Wednesday night. These are good places to build those relationships.
As I close in prayer, let us dwell on and praise God that he has made us new wineskins.