New Wineskins

Introduction

We are studying the gospel of Mark

Last week we looked at Jesus’s movement towards sinners

We saw him call Levi

And we also saw that the Pharisees were upset that He would eat with sinners and tax collectors

And today we are going to see another way that Jesus rubs against the religious leaders

He doesn’t do things how they would expect

Scripture Reading:

Mark 2:18–22 CSB

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day. 21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.”

(SLIDES)

The Expectations of the Pharisees

The Response of Jesus

Challenging our Expectations

The Expectations of the Pharisees

The Pharisees play a key role in this section of Mark

There is growing tension from who Jesus is hanging out with, the sort of life he is living, and next week we’ll see it culminate with his view on the sabbath

And this section ends in ch 3 v 6 where the Pharisees begin to plot how they might kill Jesus

If you’re reading this without prior knowledge this is shocking!

But today we are looking at one particular way that Jesus rubbed against the expectations of the Pharisees—He did not fast like they did

(SLIDES)

Mark 2:18 CSB

18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. People came and asked him, “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples fast, but your disciples do not fast?”

We don’t know who is asking this question, and we don’t know their motive in asking it, but people are beginning to make the connection

Jesus is a prophet from God

Why is he living life so different from their religious leaders?

Who is right in their way of living?

Their traditions and teachers?

Or this man who obviously sent from God?

The reason why the issue of fasting came up, needs some context

The Pharisees were known for their devotion to God

They would fast two days a week as a sign of their commitment to God

Fasting in the Bible is almost always in response to loss, sin, destruction, defeat—it is a way of mourning with our whole bodies

And the Pharisees were mourning

Their nation was in exile—occupied by the Romans

Their people have gone astray in idol worship

Things were bad for the Jewish people

At this time, they believed that if enough people prayed and fasted for long enough… that God would end the exile and send his messiah

I mean look at the story of Esther!

So two days a week they would fast

To show their need for God to intervene

But just like any spiritual act, there is a danger of it becoming a ritual

I do this… God will do this

And this danger is still alive today

If I pray and read my Bible… My day will go good

If I pray enough for something… God will give me it

If I pray long enough… God will hear me

If I pray passionate enough… God will listen

If I do good things… God will give me good things

We turn a relationship into an equation—a transaction

And the some of the Pharisees may have been genuine, but this quickly became a way of making them feel better about themselves

I want others to know how serious about God I am

So fasting became a way of ‘virtue signaling’

[Not just a Christian Term]

But this is not the way of Jesus

He’s not concerned with how we look

He cares about who we are

In the sermon on the mount, He has this to say:

(SLIDES)

Matthew 6:1 CSB

1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

Matthew 6:16–18 CSB

16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

So the Pharisees made it obvious that they were fasting

So why weren’t Jesus and his disciples fasting like this?

The Response of Jesus

(SLIDES)

Mark 2:19–20 CSB

19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they cannot fast. 20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.

Jesus’s response is unexpected

The Pharisees saw this as a time of fasting—a time of grief and mourning for the nation

But Jesus says—you have this all wrong

It’s a time of feasting not fasting

This is a celebration like a wedding

And weddings are big now, but they were even bigger in Jesus’s day

Wedding parties often lasted a week long

Of eating, drinking, socializing, and celebrating

And Jesus is saying a guest at a wedding wouldn’t fast while the party is going on

That would be disrespectful to the hosts

Think of the opposite

Imagine it is a time of mourning—you lost a family member

And someone comes over wanting to party and celebrate

Jesus is saying—You don’t know what time it is

You have been fasting and praying waiting for God to send the messiah to save you

It’s not time for the nation to fast—its time to celebrate that the messiah is here

And there is a deeper truth that Jesus is striking here

Throughout the OT, the metaphor of marriage is used in how God relates to his people

God is the faithful groom

Israel is the unfaithful bride

This is all over the OT

But here Jesus is saying—the groom is here

God is among you

He has come to bring you back into his love

I believe Jesus is fulfilling this scripture in Isaiah:

(SLIDES)

Isaiah 54:5–10 CSB

5 Indeed, your husband is your Maker— his name is the Lord of Armies— and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of the whole earth. 6 For the Lord has called you, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,” says your God. 7 “I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion. 8 In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love,” says the Lord your Redeemer. 9 “For this is like the days of Noah to me: when I swore that the water of Noah would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. 10 Though the mountains move and the hills shake, my love will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says your compassionate Lord.

Jesus is saying—Wake Up!—The Groom is here!

God is among you!

Recognize the time and rejoice

But Jesus then goes on to give two more metaphors that address how he is defying the Pharisees’ expectations:

(SLIDES)

Mark 2:21–22 CSB

21 No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new patch pulls away from the old cloth, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost as well as the skins. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins.”

And these metaphors are very straightforward in their message:

Jesus has come to do something completely new, not just patch up the old system

The Clothes

What happens if you have a old piece of clothing that gets a tear?

Would you sew a new (and unshrunk) piece of cloth over the tear?

What would happen?

That new piece of cloth would shrink

Causing the sewing to rip out

Ruining the new piece of cloth

And making the old garment worse than before

The Wineskins

What happens if you put new wine into old wineskins?

They didn’t have glass bottles back in the day

They used wineskins (animal skin/leather)

Wine would ferment and produce a gas causing the wineskin to expand

Which new supple wineskins could stretch and there would be no problem

But if you put fresh wine into old (already stretched) wineskins… they would burst

You would not only lose the old wineskin

You would lose all of the new wine!

What Jesus is saying here is that he is doing something completely new

He hasn’t come to patch up Judaism with some new teachings and revelation

He hasn't come to pour out a new power into the old way of doing things

He has come to bring something completely new and unexpected

They want a messiah to strike down their enemies

Jesus voluntarily lays down his life

They want a savior to free them from the Romans

Jesus comes to be the savior of the world

We’ve talked about this on Wednesday nights recently:

But we cannot fit God in a box

It will constantly frustrate us and it will poison our relationship with God

When we think we know what God should do

And this was the Pharisees’ problem

They did not accept Jesus as the messiah because he defied all of their expectations of who the messiah would be

Challenging Our Expectations

And guys, even though we see more clearly than the Pharisees did—we are faced with the same exact problem

God will constantly challenge our expectations

But we must remember Isaiah’s words:

(SLIDES)

Isaiah 55:8–9 CSB

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. 9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We all have many expectations about God

The ways he should act

The sorts of things he does/doesn’t do

The kinds of people he uses

And these expectations arise because instead of recognizing ourselves as made in the image of God

We try to make God in our image

Our thoughts about God are less about who God is and more about “How I would act if I were God”

And we see here that Jesus has not come to patch up our old life

And he has not come to give us a new power for our old life

He has come to give us a new life completely

Are we willing to receive it?

And this boils down to the question: Who are we living for?

Are we truly living our lives for the glory of God?

Or are we living our lives for ourselves?

Often we can be living for ourselves but try to make ourselves feel better by seeking God’s stamp of approval on it

We aren’t actually surrendering anything to him—we are asking him to bless our plan

He want us to throw our plan out the window and trust him and his plan

And this doesn't mean that none of your desires will come to pass—but you are focused on obedience rather than your plan

Ex. Singleness

Seek first the kingdom

Later in Mark, Jesus has this to say:

(SLIDES)

Mark 8:34–37 CSB

34 Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it. 36 For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life? 37 What can anyone give in exchange for his life?

We all give our life to something

so some its career, to others its physical fitness, family, money, community

But in the end what do we get in exchange for our lives?—Nothing

Jesus is saying something profound here

He doesn’t want to be our career advisor or life coach, he wants to be Lord of your life

And his promise is that if we give him our all—he will give us his all

He will save our lives that are headed towards death

We need a completely new garment and new wineskins

He hasn’t come to give us our ‘best life now’—that’s not Biblical

But Jesus has come to give us eternal life

It is so ingrained in us that if God is happy with us and we are obedient that we will be free of suffering and things will go well for us

But that’s not what is promised

The new life to come is greater than any of us can imagine

And that is what Jesus came to bring

(Slides)

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Conclusion

So guys, I want you to know that Jesus doesn’t just want to patch up your life

He wants to do great things in and through you

And what those things are… Only God knows

I love this prayer of Paul in Ephesians

(SLIDES)

Ephesians 3:20–21 CSB

20 Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us—21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

And I am confident that if you give your life to Jesus and walk with him by faith, you will look back on your life and be astonished at what he has done both in and through you

Reflection Questions:

What are expectations I have about God?

What in my life do I need to surrender to Jesus?