The Joyous Religion of Jesus!

Introduction:

Good morning. Welcome to our virtual service on this the Lord’s Day! I want to also welcome those who don’t normally attend our local church in Glenbush. While we are grateful for technology that allows us to serve one another, this isn’t doing church at home. Church is the gathering of the saints physically each Sunday to worship the Lord our God in song, prayer and proclamation of God’s word. I long for that day to come quickly Lord willing!

In setting our minds firmly upon Christ let us turn to Romans 5:12-17.

In this wonderful passage, it leads to the theme of our message today. Jesus offers all who humble themselves before God in true repentance and faith the free gift of grace. By his grace that is the unmerited favour of our Creator, we reign with our King over sin and its power in this life and we will in the life to come eternally. Let this gospel truth lift up our hearts to worship the eternal One who sits at the right hand of God in magnificent and glorious splendour. Please join me in prayer.

The message this morning is “The joyous religion of Jesus!” Our message is going to be all about removing the old and bringing in the new. As some of you may know, I don’t really like change. My wife will attest to you how I see no reason to rearrange the furniture in the living room. That doesn’t seem to hinder her though.

But I am probably the only one who struggles with change right? Whether it be learning a new computer program at work or eating a different diet due to health reasons. For anyone who has lived around church life for a while, the issues around worship music could also bring this close to home. Bringing in the new can be very positive and greatly beneficial, but one must be willing to accept change. In knowing that we all struggle with change, let’s see how Jesus brings in the new that causes this great tension. Let’s read Luke 5:33-39.

In our passage, Jesus is bringing the age of the law to a close and inaugurating the age of grace. This is the joyous religion that Jesus now begins.

To begin, Jesus puts his finger on the Pharisees old worship of fasting and exchanges it with the joyous worship of the Messiah. Next week God willing we will see how Jesus redefines the Sabbath. As you can imagine, this is going to create quite a stir with the spiritual elites.

To get us up to speed, if you recall from the last passage, after Levi has been called by Jesus to follow him, he threw this great party to share Jesus with everyone. The Pharisees were questioning why Jesus would defile himself as he eats and drinks with the tax collectors and sinners. Jesus rebukes them by stating only the sick need a doctor.

Now they push back at Jesus in why his disciples don’t fast and pray like John the Baptist’s disciples and the pious Pharisees.

Fasting and prayers were acts of Jewish worship. By practicing self denial of pleasure, you were considered more spiritual and godly. To have pleasure meant you were being cavalier before God. They were suspicious of anyone displaying joy. The Pharisees fasted twice a week and had long prayers in public. This fasting was an outside act of worship to make people think they were more spiritually mature than others. They would pass this onto others and basically say “Since we do this, everyone should do this as well because we are the authority in Judaism. God is pleased with us because of our holiness.”

Jesus, who is the real authority as God replies to this question with a question. “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?” Jesus gives an illustration for them that as the bridegroom at a wedding feast, how can you make everyone be sad and hungry? That makes no sense whatsoever. A wedding is meant to be joyful with feasting and drinking the best wine.

Jesus then states that the time is coming when his disciples will fast when the bridegroom will be taken from them. This is the first hint at the period of time between the his death and resurrection. Jesus does not allow his disciples to participate in acts of outward worship defined by laws and legalism.

Is Jesus putting an end to fasting? Not at all. The old way of worship in fasting was all about the outward appearance. Jesus is all about the inner heart that fasts due to an appeal for God to do a great work, mortifying sin, or grieving like Saul after his conversion. This is proper worship in fasting out of gratitude as you fear God from a new heart. Not of the letter of the law that kills but of Spirit and truth that brings life and victory in Jesus.

You see, the real point of this passage is not necessarily about whether or not we should fast. But rather exposing the motivation behind it. Seeing it as a shadow of the old way of doing things in comparison with the real things in Jesus that is now here. So in order to teach this he gives a parable. A parable is just a story given to make a memorable point.

Jesus says that no one takes a new piece of fabric, tears off a piece and places that as a patch on a hoodie that burned a hole from a muffler. Why? Because when you wash them, the new material will shrink and now both the new material and the hoodie are ruined. He gives a second illustration in that you never take new wine and put it into old wineskins. Why? Because the new wine is still fermenting and when it expands under the pressure it is going to burst. You will spill the wine on the ground and the wineskin will be tattered. Now both are destroyed. The way Luke states this is like “What a waste!!” That is foolish to do.

What is Jesus saying here? Two things are made clear. First, is that this new age of grace that Jesus establishes cannot be mixed with the old covenant of the law. You can’t hold to the law and add a little Jesus. Or you can’t have a lot of grace and sprinkle in some law. They cannot blend together. They are like oil and water. Think of the problem of the church in Antioch Acts 15 where there was this great argument that if you are not circumcised (law) you could not be saved. This led to the meeting in Jerusalem where they came to their senses and saw that you can’t mix law and grace.

The second thing we learn is that when you do try mix the two, both are destroyed. This type of religion will wreck peoples lives and not lead to salvation of souls. It will be like the prosperity gospel that lives in the earthly blessings. When things go bad, well that is your fault because you didn’t have enough faith. This is mixing law with Jesus. Throughout church history there has been plenty of this and has ruined the joyous religion of Jesus.

Jesus then (38,39) states that new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine desires the new, for he says, ‘The old is good’” What is Jesus saying here? Again two things are stated. First is that there is a new way of religion. The new wine and wineskin is the blood and body of Christ. The gospel is a completely new garment like a white wedding gown. The old covenant is a worn out pair of coveralls. The law of fasting and prayer is replaced by the celebration of who we are now in Christ Jesus. Eating and drinking with joyous worship from a new redeemed heart created in Jesus when we repent and trust in Christ as our Saviour and Lord.

Secondly, and most difficult for the Pharisees and scribes to hear is the last verse of this chapter. “And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘the old is good.’” If I have done a good job of explaining the text so far, our minds should come to the same conclusion. Jesus very pointedly says that those who are ingrained in the law of the old covenant will not even taste the new wine that the bridegroom is offering. They won’t feast, they won’t drink the new wine as they are completely content with the old. They will in fact fight tooth and nail to preserve the old because it gives them some measure of thinking that their good works of fasting, long prayers on the street corners, tithing on all they have and being special guests at all the banquets is too good and righteous to give up. They love the adoration of how pious they are. If you challenge them, you are dead to them and God according to their standards as the teachers of the law. Consider Saul’s life prior to drinking the new wine of Jesus when he killed the Christians from Acts 7-9.

How do you think the Pharisees and scribes will respond to Jesus for this new wine???? Come back next week and find out.

Now, what can we as Christians draw from this passage for our own lives? 3 things I want to focus on:

We are waiting with eager anticipation for the Lord to return as the bridegroom for us the bride or church. Yet we are not alone as Matt. 28:20 states that Jesus is with us till the end of the age by his Spirit. We fast and pray, yet our fasting is done not with the outwards signs of sackcloth and covering ourselves with ashes to draw attention to our piety. While corporate fasting and prayer is good, most times it is quite personal. As we worship God in this way let us pay heed to Joel 2:13 “Rend your heart, and not your garments.” There is no value in fasting before God unless it is accompanied with personal affection of the heart for the Lord as John Calvin rightly states. This fasting may be to call upon the sovereign Lord for a stop to this pandemic. It may be as seeking God for help in overcoming a personal sin. We may fast for the purpose of holy devout prayer and personal meditation on God’s word for discernment and wisdom navigating through an important decision. Much like you would ask a local skipper to guide you through dangerous waters on a river. We may also fast for God to satisfy our soul that longs for more of Jesus.

As the old doesn’t mix with the new, we believers don’t mix the new wine of this new life we have in Jesus with our sinful old wineskins. To mix will destroy us. We have been saved from sin and its power by the death and resurrection of Jesus. We repent of that lifestyle because sin is why Jesus had to die as a sacrifice. We now walk by the Spirit in this new age of grace. As Paul says to the Galatians 5:16-26 we are at war with the flesh by the power of the Spirit. We put away sexual immorality, drunkenness, idolatry, and anger and now bear fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy, peace and kindness. This is the type of living that we are called to as Christians for as Paul states in Romans 6:14 “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

This passage presses us on the point that new wine is poured into new wineskins. As a follower of Jesus in the new covenant, we delight in obeying his words. In the sermon on the mount Jesus states the law and then clarifies what it really means. If you are a peacemaker, this means you are acting and imitating God as the true peacemaker. By being peaceful, your faith is strengthened that you truly are a son or daughter of the living God. This new way of living that obeys willingly, though not perfectly should lift your spirit to rejoice and praise God. You have new affections and desires that you used to hate. Because you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus you now enjoy a new way of living in the power of the Spirit. This new way of living gives us assurance that we truly are saved by the mercy of God.

Now what could this look like if we genuinely submitted to the teachings of Jesus?

I believe with complete conviction that the people around us would be captivated by our humility, reverence and awe of God.

I believe that we would have more holy and godly lives, filled with joy and confidence in the Lord that his ways are always best. By our obedience to the Lord, we would see more clearly than ever that God’s ways are for our good and benefit. Whether that be in marriages, families, discipling and evangelism.

I believe that our lives would be seen as walking the talk. Practicing what we preach. Our witness as followers of Christ would not be seen as hypocrisy but authentic and beautiful. A sweet aroma to the living. Gospel saturated lives that bring glory to our King Jesus!

To conclude, the reason the disciples did not fast like the Pharisees and John’s disciples is because Jesus was establishing a new joyous religion of grace! When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we are reminded of this new covenant. And we wait with joyous anticipation for his return for us the bride, where together we will feast and drink at the greatest marriage feast EVER!!

PRAY

Romans 12:1–2

[1] I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. [2] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (ESV)