Wine and Whiners Luke 5:33-39

Luke 5:33–39 ESV

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”

# Introduction

Some people live what appears to be joyless lives. Do you know these people? They're always down, always defeated, always angry maybe...

If your faith makes you angry then I don't think you understand it.

Last week we covered the calling of Levi to follow Jesus. He left everything and followed Jesus. He gets up and walks away from a life of taking advantage of other people for his own benefit in order to follow Christ instead.

The first thing he did was throw a party and invite a bunch of his sinner friends to come meet Jesus and celebrate. The Pharisees and scribes also show up at the party and they are the New Testament party poopers. These guys don't seem to be happy about anything. It must be a terrible existence. But they of course, don't realize what their lives are actually like.

These religious leaders have complaints. They first complain that Jesus is hanging out with sinners at the party. They don't understand then basic truth that Jesus came to save those who know they are in need of a Savior. Jesus lays out his purpose for coming right here, to save sinners. Not to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance.

I. Fast or Feast? (v. 33-35)

Their second complaint has to do with fasting.

Luke 5:33–35 ESV

And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.”

They want to know why Jesus' disciples don't fast. John's disciples fasted. It's the thing for holy people to do. Jesus answers them with an amazing answer that is centered on himself.

Understand, these Pharisees are uber conservative Israelites. They would actually create new laws that God never imposed on His people. They made up their own traditions and some of these involved fasting.

IN the Old Testament

- God commanded Israel to fast on one occasion - The Day of Atonement

- Otherwise it was a voluntary activity

- There were two times we see it most often in the OT

- When people caught a deeper and sharper focus on the things of God.

- As an expression of mourning

The Pharisees made up laws that required the Jews to fast twice a week for some portion of the day. They got so wrapped up in chasing after righteousness that they veered into teaching that you were so holy if you fasted that you could earn merit before God. This was par for the course with the Pharisees always trying to be righteous in and of themselves and therefore never realizing that they needed an outside source to make them righteous before Holy God.

Jesus would continually run into these guys in His public ministry.

R.C. Sproul, when he was preaching on this passage said this, "This is the first rule of the legalist. The legalist legislates where God leaves people free. They take "you may" and turn it into "you must," and that is fatal to a healthy Christian life. The Pharisees, who considered themselves the ultimate standard of righteousness, were the fathers of this kind of legalism.

The second point of legalism is the idea that you can earn your way into heaven legally by doing good works or obeying the law. Again, the Pharisees were at the forefront of those who taught that fatal error. They were, as I say, archconservatives, but what they were zealous to conserve was not the law of God."

It is interesting that they mention John's disciples because they didn't like him either. John denied himself things and they criticized that but they accuse Jesus of being too into wine and parties. They were not conserving the law of God but their own, man-made traditions. This is a challenge for us in the modern church today as well.

Traditions are not all bad. But when they veer away from keeping with the law of God and turn the you may to the you must, we must discard them. There is a good tradition, the good tradition of the gospel which has been passed down from the apostles to the church. We should guard this with a closed hand.

Jesus answers the complaining of the Pharisees by talking about a wedding.

Basically he's saying, you don't invite people to a wedding and then declare it a fast. You feast! You serve food.

The wedding feast - illustration of going to Evan's wedding... lots of food because the party was on... when the bridegroom left, the party was over...

The fast when the bridegroom is taken away

He's making a statement about His identity. When the one who is the one who brings joy into the world is in the world, you party! You celebrate. When He's around, His followers are going to feast!!!

Later, when He's executed on the cross and taken away from them, they will fast. But now, it's party time because the Lord is among them.

He is saying: I'm here. The bridegroom is here. Celebrate the coming of the Messiah. When He goes away, then His followers will fast.

Implications of Jesus' answer to this question:

What does it say about who Jesus is?

Remember Luke wanting us to have certainty about what we are taught about Jesus in scripture by the apostles.

Jesus goes on to tell them a story, as He often did.

II. Jesus + Nothing = Everything. (v. 36)

The fabric parable

Luke 5:36 ESV

He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

It's pretty easy for us to shake our heads at the legalistic Pharisees. Some of us today are in their shoes. Some may say, that's not me, I'm free in Christ. But you are misusing your freedom. Some say, we have to follow all these rules and unwritten expectations and others say, no, we don't have to do any of that because we are free. The problem is that both of those people are relying on something other than Jesus Christ and following Him the way He says it looks to follow Him.

What did Jesus come to do in His preaching?

III. New Wine Needs New Wineskins (v. 37-38)

Jesus goes on to an illustration of wine and wineskins.

Luke 5:37–38 ESV

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

In order to keep wine and preserve it they would put the wine into wineskins. Then you could carry it around and enjoy it. Wineskins in those days were made from goatskin or sheepskin and as the wine in them would ferment they would stretch to its limit.

If you put new wine in an old wineskins that had no more elasticity left, it would burst open and you'd lose both the wine and the wineskins.

You couldn't take the new and drop it into the old because once again, it was incompatible. It didn't work as an addendum but needed something brand new.

Jesus was not editing Judaism. He was brining a brand new life to them.

The new wine

The new covenant in Jesus' blood

A new way of relating to God.

You could not take Christianity and slap it on top of the ways of the Pharisees and have it work.

It requires a change. Repentance.

There is no such thing as a carnal Christian. Some have taught in the past that you can become a Christian and never change. They would say that you're just a fleshly or carnal Christian. This is not a thing. If Jesus has not changed you, you are not a Christian.

Expound on this.

Conclusion

Luke 5:39 ESV

And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ”

The old wine tasted fine so they wouldn't try the new. (v. 39)

People resist often because of comfort with their current state.

People won't change until the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of changing.

This is really a continuation of the interaction from Levi's party. In part one we say Jesus call specifically to Levi to follow Him. Levi got up, left his life of sin, and followed Jesus. He showed that by worshipping Jesus, showing honor to Him by throwing a party, and by inviting lost people to meet the one who could save them. He wanted others to meet his friend Jesus. The Pharisees don't like what the people following Jesus were doing. And we find that Jesus points out that He was brining a new way of relating to God. God was among them and they should celebrate. You can't follow Jesus and add other things to following that Jesus doesn't add. Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

A man named Ray Miller wrote some amazing lyrics in

the early 1920's, and a woman named Bev Shea took those lyrics and put them on

her son's piano because she wanted her son to read those words and think about

them with regard to his commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Her son was a very

talented composer and had been offered a lucrative contract by NBC to come and

write music for the National Broadcasting Corporation. And he sat down at his

piano that morning and saw the words, and he was deeply moved by those words,

and he wrote a tune to go with those words. The words were:

> "I'd rather have Jesus than

silver or gold;

> I'd rather be His than have

riches untold.

> I'd rather have Jesus than houses

or lands;

> I'd rather be led by His

nail-pierced hand,

> Than to be the king of a vast

domain,

> Or be held in sin's dread sway.

> I'd rather have Jesus than

anything

> This world affords today.

> "I'd rather have Jesus than men's

applause,

> I'd rather be faithful to His

dear cause.

> I'd rather have Jesus than

worldwide fame,

> I'd rather be true to His holy

name."

You know his name: George Beverly Shea. And he traveled

around with Billy Graham for many years and wrote many, many songs that have

encouraged the saints over his time. But he had the choice -- follow his dreams

into a lucrative career, or follow Jesus.

The Pharisees and many today don't want to believe Jesus because they are comfortable in their ways. They think they have it all figured out. Oh that they would taste and see how good the Lord is. No one who has truly tasted this Jesus would rather go back to the old way.

PRAY