New Wine For New Vessels

The most curious part of this text is probably the explanation of the unshrunk cloth and the new wine. It’s these kinds of natural things used in Christ’s teachings that capture my attention and wonder. I love how Jesus does this.

But there is really a lot going on here. We’ve got 2 sets of disciples, the Pharisees, and Jesus.

The religious leaders have already complained about Jesus and the disciples eating with the wrong people, thinking falsely that someone can be holy by simply not being around bad people. That’s a complete lie.

There’s another complaint now, and look how it comes to Jesus…through the disciples of John the baptist. John is a righteous man, the forerunner of Jesus, a man whom Jesus said no other man on earth compares to, and here are his followers saying, “Why don’t your disciples fast?”

You have to wonder if the Pharisees had a hand in poisoning John’s disciples with their jealousy and hatred, and convinced them to question Jesus in order to cause trouble.

Some people are bent on turning Christians against each other. If you ever find yourself giving ear to someone’s complaint about another Christian, shut down the conversation and don’t play their game. Can’t you picture the Pharisees? Hey, did you hear that the disciples of Jesus don’t fast like WE do? All the while, there’s a perfectly good explanation for it.

Another aspect of this is simply to remember that people will notice the difference that Jesus is making in your life, and when they ask you about it, whether it comes from genuine curiosity, or from ill motivation, be sure to have a good answer for them.

What they observed is that they were not fasting.

Now, a basic definition of fasting is to go without food for some portion of time, and this denial of physical satisfaction serves to awaken a part of you that often lay weak beneath the surface, which is our hunger for God.

Jesus did give instruction on fasting in the sermon on the mount, and it’s not to be done in a boastful way that draws attention. It’s a private discipline usually, but based in other texts, can be done corporately, and even nationally, like times of war, or deep mourning over national or corporate sin.

And it is a curious thing, because we do fast today as Christians. And the OT saints fasted. But for this short period of time when Jesus was on earth with His disciples, they did not fast. Why?

He gives the answer in v 15-17. What does it all mean?

v15 Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

There’s another place where the analogy of bridegroom is used. Turn to John 3:25-30 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification.

Take note! This was not the first time the pharisees tried to create bad blood between the two groups of disciples.

26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Between this passage, and the one in Matthew 9, we can say confidently that the bridegroom is Jesus Christ.

The friend of the bridegroom is John the Baptist. He gives that name to himself in order to explain how joyful he is that Christ had come. What jealousy can there be on the part of the friend, when the whole purpose of the wedding is for the groom and bride to come together. John’s thinking, I’m good. Let all the people go to Him. He’s gathering His bride. I will decrease so that He might increase.

Ok, then back in Matthew, we have the addition of wedding guests at a feast. Why are the wedding guests at a wedding feast? To celebrate! So, can the wedding guests (the disciples) mourn with Jesus (the bridegroom) while he is there with them? NO. But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them (after his ascension), and then they will fast.

Couple things.

There are two systems colliding here, and Jesus is explaining how this is going to work. The two systems are OT and NT. Old Covenant and New Covenant. Both good systems. Both have a purpose. But one is superior in what it accomplished. In fact, the Old Covenant was never intended to be a system that completes anything. Its entire design was to teach and foreshadow something better.

Galatians 3:23-26 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

See the word, until? It came up twice. The system of the law was a guardian until. The law held Israel captive in sin…until. But now that Christ has come, we are not under that system any longer.

When Jesus says, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away, I believe he’s referring to another long era in their future when things will be different. That’s the days in which we still live. Christ is in the presence of the Father. That distance, and that waiting and longing, though we have Christ in us through the Spirit, is cause for times of mourning and fasting to happen today. Should we fast today as His disciples? Yes, from time to time. But we look to a day when we will feast again with Christ. He told us that day will come.

Ok, let’s move forward.

Look at their question again. “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

Why do we do, but they do not do.

This is the OT system of the law talking.

Brothers and sisters, don’t let your doing or not doing become a law unto righteousness, when Christ placed us under a system of grace in which righteousness is imputed through faith, not earned.

The Pharisees didn’t just fast. They fasted often. That was their boast. The disciples were instructed to fast between themselves and God, and boast in their private reward. But it’s easy to get prideful in our doing Christian things.

Listen to what Paul says to the Galatians once more...

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? - Galatians 3:2-3

You’re either earning wages in the flesh, right now, which leads to death... or you’re receiving grace by the Spirit, and you’re alive in Christ.

Now, what we’re seeing in the text this morning is a time of transitioning between two systems, the old and the new.

The old system of law and regulation was passing right there in front of their eyes. The law and the prophets built a foundation for Christ’s Kingdom to come, and to bring something completely new, for the message of the gospel to be carried by the church to the ends of the earth.

So, let’s look at the two parables Jesus gives in order to clarify this.

v16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

When you see a hole that’s been worn in an old garment, it’s because it’s been used. It’s been used well, and served a good purpose. If you take new material and sew it to the old, you might think you’re doing something good, but it’s going to stretch and tear, and make things worse.

Christianity is more than just patch work on an old garment. True Christianity is the putting off of the old garment of law and flesh, and putting on Christ.

People of that day could see the world was broken, and the system wasn’t bringing about the Kingdom like they had hoped. But were they willing to set the garment aside completely for something altogether new?

The wine and wineskin parable speaks a similar lesson, but it probably would have struck a little closer to home considering how the Jewish people cherished the blessing of fruitful vineyards and full wineskins.

In the case of the new wine, again, that’s Jesus, the Kingdom that was coming into the world, the church, the Gospel of grace,, all of it…if you take all of that newness and goodness, and pour it into a system that had been stretched and stressed like an old wineskin, it will burst. What good is this?

Rather, put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

What exactly is new here?

It’s not the message. The Gospel has been preached since Genesis, and foreshadowed by the law and prophets.

What’s new is that Christ had come and brought His Kingdom, and the preaching of that Kingdom was like nothing heard before. We heard His message in v13. “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” So if the new wine is the work of Christ, and the soon to come Spirit of God poured out on this world, then the new wineskins must be sinners in whom Christ will work and redeem.

But this takes out all boasting, because he does not choose choice men and women who deserve salvation, but sinners who can do nothing for themselves except lean fully on the power of God to create in them a new heart after His.

Wine gets better with time. One thing that can spoil your life as a Christian is to become that rigid, old, and tired wineskin again.

This happens when you’re no longer looking for or expecting a new work in you. You become uninterested in change and transformation both in yourself and in others. Don’t be an old worn out wineskin. Keep putting on Christ. Keep pouring in His living Word. Keep investing your time and energy into those things that give life to your soul.

But I’m tired, someone might say. Where is life?

Here is a reminder from Paul of the new wine we have been given.

Romans 8:9-11 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Brothers and sisters, Christ is in you. You are His vessel. Be a vessel of honorable use..., set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

The Gospel of the Kingdom is the new wine. He’s working in you, and will complete the work He begins. Not only in you, but in this world.

The bridegroom has been taken away. We live in that reality now, but Jesus has sent the new wine of His Spirit so that we would not be left as orphans. He said it would be better for him to go than to stay.

John 16:20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. John 16:22

Brothers and sister, remember the joy that the truth of the Gospel is. This is the new wine that gets better with age. The law and ordinances cannot contain it. God in His grace alone has made you fit to be a vessel by saving you from your sins by His death and resurrection.

Throw all of your faith into that, and He will restore your joy.

If you only feel like mourning, because of the awful world of evil that we live in…or because your circumstances are testing you, just remember this…you are worse than you think you are…and yet Christ loves you still. You’re not a garment that simply needed a patch. You were an old filthy garment, and Christ so graciously gave you his garments of righteousness.

Keep putting on Christ.

Let’s pray.