Wineskins and Garments

Luke 5:36-39

Good morning, I hope everyone enjoyed their extra hour of sleep last night. So now there’s no excuse to fall asleep on me.

Well, since it’s November now, we are going to start getting into some holidays where we like to eat, right. We got thanksgiving and Christmas; we load up the dinner tables so I thought today we could talk about fasting. Now imagine for a second someone came in a and started saying things like we need to fast on these days, especially Christmas, the birth of Jesus and easter, His resurrection, we can’t be eating, these are serious days.

You would say hold on a second, that doesn’t make any sense, we are celebrating these days. The day Jesus stepped down off His thrown and became man. The day he resurrected and defeated death for our behalf. You’d say this guy’s crazy. These are days of celebration! So, we eat, we fellowship, we have a good time! And you would be right.

And I bring this up because we are going to look at a parable today in which the basis is the religious leaders challenging Jesus’ thinking, His way of doing things. And they specifically bring up fasting. So, there’s no real way to talk about the parable without addressing fasting. So, If you ever wondered about fasting and when is it appropriate to fast or not, we are going to address that.

But the main subject that this parable addresses is: The gospel stands alone. You might have questions about your friends, your family members, your loved ones who are in different religions, or have different ways of thinking. What about them? They might know the gospel, but they keep going to a Mormon church, or a Catholic church, or they know the gospel, but they are into witchcraft, or they have some different background. Well Jesus addresses that also.

If you have God’s word in your laps, please turn with me to Luke chapter 5:27-39. The parable of new wine and old wineskins. It’s not until the last few verses of chapter 5 but I want to start at verse 27 so we get a good context. Let’s read it together.

Luke 5:27-39 (Find and Read)   

This same section we just read is found in Matthew and Mark also, but I like Luke’s account the most and I’ll explain why later on. But first, let’s break down the context.

So, Jesus is walking along, sees a tax collector and tells him to follow him. The tax collector obeyed. His name is Levi otherwise known as Matthew in case you didn’t know. The same Matthew who wrote the Gospel of Matthew. Luke calls him by his other name Levi.

Then Levi has a big reception, and it says there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. Matthew and Mark use sinners in place of “other people.” Tax collectors were the scum of the earth at that time, no one liked them. Not the pharisees, not even the common people of Israel, because tax collectors stole from the people, they charged way more taxes than they should have so they could keep a prophet. The people being taxed knew this, but they couldn’t do anything about it because the tax collectors were protected by Rome. And if you mess with Rome, you get crucified. So, they could be as greedy as they wanted. So, the only friends of tax collectors were other tax collectors or other people who were rated as scum by that society. So, in this house with Jesus, you have the lowest of the low, the scum, the nasty evil sinners according to that society, especially the thinking of the self-righteous Pharisees.

The Pharisees who are most likely outside the house, because this was their attitude and thinking, they wouldn’t enter certain people’s homes if they deemed them a sinner because they could be defiled and become unclean with sin if they entered the house. So, they ask Jesus disciples the first question. Why do you eat and drink with them? The Pharisees would never be caught even associating with these types of people, and here’s Jesus telling us he is the Messiah, and he eats with them?

Jesus must have overheard the question, so he answers them in verse 31-32.

The self-righteous don’t know they are sick. But they are as sick as anyone else. It’s the people who realize they are sick that beg for a cure. You see in the Pharisees mind, the messiah would come down to Israel and immediately ask, where are the super righteous pharisees and that the messiah would only associate with them, not with sinners. Jesus knowing this, always slams them with truth. So here he says, “I didn’t come to call you, the righteous, I came to call them. He completely reverses what they think is true. In another parable he says the tax collectors and prostitutes are going to get into heaven before you.

Ray comfort says it all the time, I like using it. I always ask people, are you a good person. Most people will say yes. If they say yes, you know they are most likely not saved, and you need to give them the law of God. Notice I didn’t say the gospel. They need the law, now. You need to show them that they are desperately sick. They are missing it. They are self-righteous. They are sick. Once you show them that, only then you can show them the way to the Great Physician. They will not go to the doctor if they don’t know they are sick. They will not come to accept Jesus if they think they are a good person. Self-righteous.

So, then the Pharisees ask this next question. In Luke 5:33 it’s posed as a statement, but the two previous gospels pose it as a question. We know from Mark; the Pharisees are currently in a fast. And they say, hey we are fasting, John the Baptist disciples are fasting, why are you and your disciples not fasting?

Before we move on, I should explain where the Pharisees are coming from. It could seem at first that Jesus and his disciples are breaking some sort of law. But we know that can’t be the case because Jesus remained sinless. You hear about fasting quite a bit throughout the OT and NT. Jesus mentions when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites and make yourself look like you’re fasting just to be noticed. So, fasting is a thing that people can practice. But where did it originate in the Bible is the question.

Leviticus 16:29-31 (Find and Read) This chapter is all about the day of atonement. And the first 28 verses describe everything Aaron the high priest is supposed to do. The main thing he was to do was to sacrifice a lamb on behalf of him, the priest and all of Israel to make atonement for their sins. I want you to notice the phrase in here “humble your souls.” (Read)

The term, “Humble your souls” commonly included the idea of refraining from food. Literally it meant bow down your souls, bow down your entire being to God. It was a serious time of laying your sins before God. You took the whole day and devoted it to nothing else other than letting your mind dwell on God. If we bow our souls before God and dwell on Him and His salvation, His mercy, His grace, if we devote a period of time of just being in awe before God almighty, we are doing nothing else. And that’s why God said to do no work on this day. Nothing. All of your focus should be on me.

So, we see fasting was only commanded once a year to the nation of Israel. But we see many other cases of fasting in the OT, in which people would feel great sorrow and regret for their sins and wanted to truly repent, so they didn’t just say it, they showed it. You’ve heard the term actions speak louder than words, that’s true. They wanted to humble themselves before God, repent of their sins, so they fasted.

A great example of this is in the book of Jonah.

Jonah 3:4-9 (Find and Read)

Verse 4 is all God wanted Jonah to say to Ninevah. He never told them to fast. All He said to them was: 40 days and I’m going to destroy you. The first thing Nineveh did, they believed God and called a fast. Then the king said let no one eat or drink a thing! Why?

This shows that they were sincere, they meant it. They were so grieved by their sin and evil deeds that the last thing they wanted to do was to eat. But it was also to show God how serious they were. They showed that they desired God’s mercy for than food, more than their most basic survival needs. They desired God’s mercy more than anything else.

Fasting was also commonly associated with mourning, as in crying, sadness, great grief or distress. A lot of us I think have experienced it before. If a child is ill, a family member is passing or has passed. We might be pretty hungry but the last thing we want to do is eat. Or in some cases, we are so distressed or grieved, it completely eradicates our appetite and we are not in the mood to eat anything. So, some of the time it came naturally. People naturally fast when they are grieved to a certain point.

But back to Israel, It was only commanded once in the OT. The Pharisees took this idea, it looked religious to them, thought it would get them brownie points with God, so they took the idea of fasting, which was voluntary most of the time and made it mandatory all of the time.

They took this idea of fasting and multiplied it and added to it as they liked to do with God’s word. They took the Scriptures, manipulated it and made it into a heavy yoke to place upon the Israelites. This is why the Pharisees and Jesus were at such odds all the time, because they kept changing and misinterpreting Jesus Scriptures and kept leading his people astray.

So as Christians today, the question about fasting for us, it’s completely voluntary, some of the time it occurs naturally, it does not add or subtract anything. If you fast, it does not give you brownie points from God. If you don’t fast, it doesn’t make you a worse Christian. It falls under Christian liberty, they only thing Jesus says, if you do fast, don’t make it known just to be seen by others.

- John Boys, a puritan said this: “Fasting which tames the body, without humility, makes proud the mind.”

- So, we as Christians can practice fasting if our intention is to humble our soul before God, we devote a special time frame to Him and Him alone. It’s a great practice in order to tame our bodies, back up from all the pleasures in life and say I just want God and nothing else.

Should we advocate fasting? Be legalistic, and tell Christians they need to fast?

1 Timothy 4:1-3 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by the hypocrisy of liars, who have been seared in their own conscience, 3 who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods…”

- Paul says don’t make fasting a law, or some religious exercise, or you are following doctrines of demons. And all false religions who practice these things have fallen away from the true gospel. The only one I can think of that currently practices both of these is Roman Catholicism. Their priests are forbidden to marry, and they abstain from certain foods on certain days.

In Luke 18:12and some extra biblical sources, we know the Pharisees required fasting twice a week for all of Israel. They wanted to make sure all these nasty sinners were humbling themselves throughout the week usually on Monday and on Thursday every week.

So, we pick back up here in the parable. The next question

In Mark 2, it says the Pharisees were fasting when they asked Jesus this question: we are fasting, why aren’t you?

You see the irony here? They are telling the Ultimate Authority what they believe is actually right, but in reality, is a perversion of God’s command. They went up to the Creator of the universe, the writer of the holy Scriptures, and asked Him why Him and these people aren’t following their manipulated version of His Scripture. So, you can see why Jesus always was challenging their thinking.

And here we see Jesus gives an analogy and then two short parables. Now It’s not hard to see what Jesus is doing here, for them and for everyone else who reads and studies His Scripture. I do the same thing when I want to get a point across to someone, I’ll give several analogies. One after another, just to make sure they understand what I am saying.

So, Jesus challenges their made-up rules first with a pretty well understood analogy, to them and to us. READ Luke 5:34-35.

Jesus is using the wedding analogy. You go to a wedding, it’s a time of celebration. And we talked about this in a previous parable, this was the days of all days in that day. This was a big event. Parents would spend their life savings on their child’s wedding day. A ton of food and drink and celebration. Jesus says, who in the world would force a wedding party to fast? They are about to get married!

Jesus is the bridegroom or groom as we know it. And his apostles the attendants are currently with him. The groomsmen if you will. Jesus is about to get engaged to His church. It’s currently a celebration. Imagine the joy they had when God stepped down off His throne, became a man and chose you to follow him around.

Matthew Henry said: “Imagine the joy, that the Great Healer came to call the worst of sinners to repentance, and to assure them of pardon, upon repentance. These are glad tidings of great joy indeed.”

Just like I mentioned at the beginning, if someone attempts to force us to fast on Christmas or Easter, we would say that’s crazy, these are glad tidings of great joy indeed.

Jesus uses this analogy to completely contradict their thinking. Then He says, there will be a time when I’m taken away, then they will mourn. Referencing His crucifixion.

Then Jesus gives two parables for it to really sink in for us. He just told the Pharisees and John the Baptists disciples that your old way of thinking, not only doesn’t make sense, it not only defies common sense, but it cannot work with the Gospel that I bring.

Read Luke 5:36

Clothes back then were made of material that shrank, just like our cotton clothes do today. So, an old garment means it’s been around for a while, it’s been washed several times, and it has shrunk down the most it will shrink. If there is a tear in the old garment, He says no one takes a new garment, one that hasn’t been washed and shrunk down and attaches it to the old garment. Why?

Because as you would find out the hard way, if you did this, once you washed that piece of clothing, the new patch would shrink, the old can’t shrink anymore so it would tear the old garment even more than what was already there. The new patch would pull away and be worthless as well.

Then He says, (Read 37). So back then, when they made wine, they had to ferment it. They did this by putting new wine, meaning not fermented yet and they put it in animal skins. They sealed it up and let it ferment. Now the animal skins had to be fresh and new as well. So that were still elastic. Because when the wine fermented, the gases inside the animal skin would expand, so the container had to allow for expansion and expand itself.

But once the animal skin container expanded to a certain point, it couldn’t expand anymore, it became an old wineskin, which could still be used to finish off the fermenting process of wine, but you never put brand new wine in it, because like Jesus says, if you do that, the new wine will want to produce a lot of gas inside a container that can no longer expand, then it bursts and spills the wine.

So, he says this is why in verse 38, he says new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. They understood what He was saying physically but not spiritually.

The new patch and the new wine is the new gospel that Jesus brings to the world. Something radically different from Judaism, radically different than all the other false religions and ideas out there, and radically different from the Israelites and Pharisees old way of thinking.

And that’s the old garment and old wineskins. People’s old way or in other words, their way of thinking. Their way of religion, their idea of how to get to heaven. It’s not talking about the OT as some people think. Jesus came not to abolish the law or OT, but to fulfill it.

Taking everything in context here, we see Jesus is challenging their old way of thinking.

And back to our question of what about people in these other religions, that might know the gospel but stay in their false religion for whatever reason. Notice I just said they know the gospel, meaning they haven’t accepted it yet. They haven’t repented and given their life to Christ; they haven’t truly believed in the gospel.

Because here’s the thing, I know people that will say the right things, I have people close to me that will say, you are saved by faith alone, but they continue to go to the Catholic church. I have friends that know the gospel, they will say Jesus is the only way but continue to have no fruit in their life. They claim to be children of God but live like children of the devil. I recently talked to a Jehovah’s witness who said Jesus was her Savior. Mormons, Islam, Hinduism, they all believe in Jesus. So, can it kind of work? Can they kind of slip into heaven maybe not as well as true Christians?

Jesus says in these two parables, no. It doesn’t work. Notice what happens to both objects in each parable. The new patch and old garment are both destroyed. The new wine spills out and the old wineskin burst making both completely useless.

Jesus says the Gospel stands alone. It has to. Whatever old way of thinking you have; you have to completely get rid of that and accept the gospel alone. Neither can work together. Jesus doesn’t allow it. The Gospel is Grace alone by Faith alone. As soon as you say: Faith + or Faith and, you’ve ruined it. It can’t work.

Roman Catholicism teaches your saved by faith in Jesus, plus good works, plus being baptized, plus doing communion, plus going to mass, plus doing several other sacraments. You cannot shove the new Gospel into the old religiosity of Catholicism. You either accept the gospel, which completely excludes any part of a works based gospel, or you accept Catholicism which completely denies the true gospel, you cannot blend them, and if you try, they both are ruined and you have nothing that can save you.

You cannot shove the new gospel into Jehovah’s witness theology. The JW I talked to at the fair. I asked her who Jesus was to her, she said he’s, our savior. Most people would say okay she’s good. But I asked her then, do you think He’s God, and she says very quickly and adamantly, NO! You see, they deny Jesus’s deity, they believe he was created and only a man. They believe in a Jesus who does not exist and cannot save. So, they can’t be saved, unless they repent and believe in the true gospel, and accept the gospel alone.

You cannot shove the new gospel into Mormonism which believes Jesus is a god but was created by the father, is a brother to Satan and just one god among an infinite number of other gods. It can’t work.

You can’t shove the new gospel into any other religion or any other way of thinking. Jesus says I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life, no one gets to the Father but through Me.

This is why Jesus says in verse 38 of Luke 5 (Read). When coming to accept Christ, you have to come with a new mind, a fresh mind, one that’s holding onto nothing. Not holding on to old ways of thinking. Not bringing anything over from another religion. Because they can’t work together.

But that’s hard for most people, they were raised a certain way. The Jehovah’s witnesses and Catholic’s I talked to at the fair, I asked them why they chose those religions, and most said they were raised that way. My heart aches for them when I hear that. 50, 60, 70 years of being in a false idea, it’s hard to give it up, it’s hard to admit you were led astray for that long.

Jesus says in verse 39 (read). This resonated with me, because I’ve seen this verse play out. The Jehovah’s witness rejected the gospel because she said that’s how I was raised so I’m going to stick with that. The Catholics said the same thing. I gave them the true gospel, and they said I will not change their mind. They drank the old wine for years and years. I presented the new wine, and they said the old is good enough for me.

That’s the interpretation of these parables, it talks about the new gospel cannot work with anyone’s old way of thinking. It’s radical, it’s different and it can’t work with anything else. But I’ve been dwelling on verse 38 over and over again. (Read) Fresh wineskins being a fresh mind, an empty mind, that’s not bringing anything over from our past, our past way of thinking, our past religion, our past life apart from Christ.

The Bible calls us to all be unified, with one mind, one way of thinking. We all believe the gospel, we all believe God’s word, we all believe the doctrines, primary, secondary and tertiary. Christians now have so many different denominations, different ways of thinking, different secondary doctrines. But even within this church I suspect, some are divided or disagree on smaller things. I’m not saying you’re not saved by any means. You can be saved and disagree with secondary doctrines. But why are we divided, why do we disagree. One of us has to be wrong, we both can’t be right. And I’ve always wondered about that. Why are Christians not unified on the Bible.

And this passage about fresh wineskins intrigued me. And I thought, is it because we have all accepted the new gospel, we all got rid of our old way of salvation and accepted the new way of salvation alone, by faith alone, we have both been saved by the blood of Jesus, and we are both going to heaven one day, but with some of the secondary issues, we’ve brought over those old things, the secondary old things. We’ve since been saved but haven’t had a completely empty mind. We’ve brought over past experiences, past feelings, past ways of thinking, past ways of doing things, that we just can’t let go. Or might I suggest that most Christians don’t know what God’s word says about these things. Not, just us in here but everywhere.

Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 10. Pual tells us we are at war. Not Christians against Christians, but Christians against something else. What is this war we are in and what are we as Christians supposed to do.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (Find and Read)

We as Christians, not just this church, but all Christians everywhere, are at war constantly. But it’s not a fleshly war as Pual says. It’s a spiritual war. Paul says our weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but are spiritual and divinely powerful for tearing down strongholds. Again, it’s not fleshly, it’s not physical. We aren’t going down the street and ramming our tanks into brick castles. Have you ever thought about it, where are these strongholds that the enemy has set up?

Verse 5 gives us the definition of these spiritual strongholds. Speculations, lofty things, thoughts. MacArthur writes, it’s referring to any and all human or demonic thoughts, opinions, reasonings, philosophies, theories, psychologies, perspectives, viewpoints, and religions.

These strongholds are ideologies and where they are at are in your mind. This spiritual war you are in is a war over your mind. And the enemy is very crafty and very sneaky, and he’s planted strongholds in each of our minds, that a lot of us don’t even know are there. And that’s why we disagree on things. Because one of us is keeping ahold of that stronghold, that false idea or experience or ideology or whatever is it that the enemy built in our mind, we brought over with us, and we won’t demolish it. Not because we know it’s a stronghold, but because we don’t know it’s an evil enemy stronghold.

What’s our spiritual weapon that’s divinely powerful according to Ephesians 6:17. The sword of the Spirit which is: THE WORD OF GOD. I want us to dwell upon this verse, as we continue in Psalm 119 with Pastor Steve. Talking about the Word of God. Do you see yet the importance of the Word of God, why we need to be in it daily, reading, studying, meditation upon it, memorizing it.

I heard a Pastor say something like this: If we went into a physical battle for 16 hours each day, would you leave your sword at home? Why would Christians who fight a spiritual battle 16 hours a day sporadically be in the Word for very short periods of time?

Folks, there are strongholds in our minds that need tearing down. The reason I believe so many Christians today are not unified, I’m not talking just this body right here but In general. We’re not in the Word of God like we should be. We all have so many different ideologies we bring along with us, plus all the distractions of today’s world detaching us from our sword that can demolish the strongholds in our minds, and we are not doing what God’s word tells us to do in 2 Corinthians 10:5

- Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Take every thought that you’ve ever thought, take every way, every tradition, every experience, every opinion, every fact that we think is a fact, and place it before the Word of God, that’s what that verse is talking about. And see if it truly matches up, if not, it’s a stronghold, it’s the enemy, it’s demonic, it needs demolished, and you need to forget about it, and let the Scriptures change your mind.

An example in my life: I got saved but I brought over with me this idea that I wouldn’t obey my employer if he was being unreasonable. Not going to do it. I thought God wouldn’t want me to obey him if he was unreasonable.

Then I read 1 Peter 2:18 one day: Servants be subject to your masters even if they are unreasonable. Hmm. I better change my mind. And I did. But think of how long I would of went on disobeying and being unaware of God’s word if I didn’t read it. It’s things like that that just make me crave the Word all the more. I want to know what God wants of me, how He wants me to live, and to demolish the strongholds in my mind.

Imagine if someone broke into your house and was hiding in there. How hard would you want the cops to search your house? Just a peak from outside really quick?

But we as Christians treat an even more dangerous enemy that’s invaded a more precious residence, our minds, like it’s no big deal. Just let the Word of God take a peek from the outside really quick. It’s all good, rest easy, and the enemy stronghold is still there.

There are some popular sayings out there that Christians say. Old sayings that they brought over with them. Let’s test them against God’s word.

St. Francis a couple hundred years ago said: Preach the Gospel, and when necessary, use words.

· Romans 10:14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

· When necessary, use words, NO! Use words all the time. Present the law and gospel.

God helps those who helps themselves. Is that in the Bible? No, Ben Franklin said that, and he got it from another early article.

· Isaiah 25:4 For You have been a defense for the helpless, A defense for the needy in his distress…

· In terms of salvation, we were utterly helpless and can only be saved by God’s grace, by His mercy. God helps those who are helpless.

· While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say 2 Corinthians 10:5 is the most important verse in the Bible that we all in this church need to memorize and keep with us at all times. Not even the whole verse but take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. If we aren’t doing that, then we don’t we don’t really care what any other verse has to say.

I always thought there was something wrong with my brain in school. I knew simple math, in knew 100% that 15 + 16 = 31. I knew it, but I always got my calculator out, just to be sure. And I thought later, I knew the answer, but I always liked that second confirmation from another source that I knew was always correct.

I assume you know where I’m going with this. That’s what we all need to be doing with God’s word. I don’t care how many times you learned it; I don’t care if you experienced it, I don’t care who said it. I don’t care if MacArther said it, if Charles Spurgeon said it, if your favorite bible teacher said it, I don’t care if your parents raised you to think it. Guess what, they can all be wrong, I can be wrong, Steve can be wrong, but God’s word is never wrong. Even Paul the great apostle who was commissioned by Christ Himself to write a quarter of the NT commended the Bereans for not taking what Paul said for granted but went back and checked the Scriptures to see if everything Pual said matched up.

Turn with me to one last verse: James 1:19 (Find and Read)

- What’s the context here that James is talking about? You can read it later at home. But He’s not talking about being slow to anger in general but being quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger when it comes to reading God’s word, the Scriptures.

- He says read it, have a teachable heart, don’t be angry at it, just let it conform you. Slow to speak, don’t bring your old dirty ideas, be quick to hear what God has to say.

James 1:20-22 Think about the old wineskins that remain with people.  

- Did you catch that? Lay aside all that remains. And receive God’s word, being a doer of it, accepting it, letting it transform us, our minds.

So, my challenge for us is this, have a fresh wineskin, and empty mind WITH a teachable heart, and just fill it with Scripture. Get rid of the old. If you still drink the old wine and haven’t repented and believed in the gospel, please my friend, the old wine is nothing, it leads to destruction. Drink the new wine, repent and put all your faith in Christ alone, and you won’t thirst for righteousness ever again.

Even if you’ve gotten rid of old false way of salvation, to the saved who are in the room, get rid of all the old stuff. Everything you grew up with, check all of it against Scripture. Some of it may match up, keep those things. But dump the rest.

Get rid of those strongholds in your mind that you aren’t aware of just yet. But you will once you are being saturated with the word. And I’m not trying to pry the spec out of your eye, I need to do this too. We all need to do it for the rest of our earthly lives. Because when we do, we will be taking the divinely powerful sword and sweeping our mind and demolishing the strongholds. Let’s all do this as the body of Christ, and let’s as a church body, be unified in God’s word.

Let’s go to our Lord in prayer.