A Religious Question

I. A Religious question?

Matthew 9:14 CSB

14 Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”

A. When asking a question motivation matters

It seems that these men were not asking the question strictly out of curiosity, but rather to make a comparison of their religious works to that of Jesus and His disciples.

If Jesus was a superior leader to John the Baptist and the Chief Priest, why would He not require of His disciples to fast as much or more often than the disciples of John or the Pharisees?

B. When asking a question the right answer will only seem right if we have the proper perspective.

Illustration: If a student goes to his teacher and asks “Why do I have to do so much math homework?” The teacher replies because I want you to be able to remember this process for the rest of your life” Well, if the student believes he will never use this type of math, the right answer will not be satisfactory. It is only when the student has the right perspective will the answer make sense to him.

I am sure that there are pastors all over this nation who have been asked this similar question. Pastor , why can’t we keep church the way it is now? Because....

We live in a unique time, place, and culture that requires us to adapt to our unique situation in order for us to speak the gospel in a heart language the culture understands.

It’s about the kingdom of Christ and not about us. If that answer is not satisfactory it is because our perspective has not been rightly informed by the Gospel Message

This was what was taking place in the lives of the religious in Jesus day. They weren’t interested in seeing beyond the neat and tidy walls of their religion. They weren’t really interested in Jesus’ answer as much as they were trying to justify their religious actions.

Trans:Jesus responds to this, not by giving an answer but by asking a question, followed by two more illustrations.

II.Jesus’ Question: “Can the wedding guest be sad while the groom is with them?”

Matthew 9:14–15 CSB

14 Then John’s disciples came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

The idea of the bridegroom was an Old Testament metaphor often applied to God. This was an image they would have understood.

Isaiah 54:5–6 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.

Isaiah 62:4–5 CSB

4 You will no longer be called Deserted, and your land will not be called Desolate; instead, you will be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land will be married. 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you; and as a groom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

A. In this metaphor Jesus was revealing himself to be the long awaited groom.

The disciples were his guest/friends. It was the job of the groomsmen to wait alongside the groom rejoicing until the groom came to claim his bride.

Would it be appropriate for the groomsman to put on sackcloth and ashes and not partake of the wedding feast? Of course not? They were to join the celebration and enter into the joy of the groom.

John 3:29 CSB

29 He who has the bride is the groom. But the groom’s friend, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine is complete.

Trans: Next Jesus uses the illustration of the old garment to reveal to us His work.

III. Illustration:The Old Garment with a new patch.

Matthew 9:16 CSB

16 No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse.

Today , if you go to the store and by a cotton t-shirt it will have already have been pre-shrunk. As I have often found out the hard way, even if It is preshrunk if I put the item in the dryer for too long or on too high of heat setting, it definitely can shrink further.

In the time of Christ, they obviously didn’t have electric or gas powered dryers. There was no precise heat settings. When they washed their garments they would hang them out to dry in the hot sun. If a garment needed to be patched they would first wet and dry the piece of patching material to make sure that it would not shrink more once it was sown onto the garment. Otherwise as the patch would shrink the stitching would tighten as well causing the material of the garment to eventually shred and then be much harder to patch again.

Application: Jesus didn’t come to be patch up the law by adding something new to it ,so that the law could save us. He came to be the new covenant, the new garment.

Thru the Bible Vol. 34: The Gospels (Matthew 1–13) Parable of Old Garment and Old Bottles

The old covenant, the old dispensation of law, was ending, and He had not come to project it or to continue under that dispensation. Actually, He had come to provide a new garment, and that new garment was the robe of righteousness which He gives to those who do nothing more than to trust Him.

*** This is not to say that the Old Covenant is unimportant or incomplete, but rather it had served it’s purpose of revealing the holiness of Yahweh and His Character. The Old Covenant shows us our sinful and hopeless condition and points to the final perfect sacrifice.

IV.Illustration: The New wine

Matthew 9:17 CSB

17 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”

The picture that Jesus painted here was an illustration that the hearers would have understood it well. The wine after it had been fermented would have been put into wineskins for distribution. A Wineskin was exactly what it sounds like. They would take and animal and remove its feet and head and attempt to skin or cape the animal whole in one piece. One the skin was pulled free, they’d remove the fur tie off the natural holes created by the legs and head, and turn it inside out. This would be a fairly watertight container. They tie a rope to it and carry if like we would a backpack.

Even after the wine was placed into the wineskin the fermentation process would continue. Fermentation produces gas. For this reason new wine had to be placed in a new wineskin.

A new wineskin was pliable. It could stretch and expand as the natural fermentation process continued.

Trans:

Q: So what was Jesus really saying?

A: Jesus had not come to preserve the old covenant, but to transform it into something new.

A. The old wineskin could not possibly contain the new wine

The Pharisees and religious leaders wanted a Messiah that would fit into neatly into their current system. They didn’t want a new covenant. They were happy with the old one. They thought when the Messiah arrived he would come and praise them for the adherence to the system, not someone who would come to redeem them from the curse of the law

1. The old wineskin was rigid and inflexible.

a. It isn’t that the old wineskin(covenant) was bad or lacked value, quite the contrary, it had served it’s purpose and laid the foundation for the New Covenant.

Now before we are too hard on John’s disciples and the pharisees we must ask ourselves this very question. How often do we try to contain the work of God in the old instead of allowing him to transform us into something new?

How often do churches become like the old wineskins? How often do we become so rigid in our ways of doing things, When the spirit of God comes to do a transforming work by creating the new wineskin and filling it with his new wine, we resist?

Instead many times We try to tell God that we want you to move, as long as it fits into our current system.

Then the results are disastrous.

Instead of churches being able to expand and flex with every movement of the Holy Spirit, we crack, fracture, and are torn.

****But what is the true object of value the wine or the wineskin?

You see the religious valued the container more than they did the movement of God.