Jesus reigns and rules in the hearts of His followers, Matthew 9;14-17

Quick explanation of the context of the passage…

In Matthew 9:9-13 the Pharisees questioned the fact that Jesus was eating and feasting with tax collectors and sinners.

As we pointed in our sermon last week,

Jesus came to make the unacceptable acceptable

Matthew presents a list of people that were unacceptable in one or more ways. They were socially, politically, and religiously unacceptable.

The leper was unclean and unacceptable

The Roman Centurion was unclean and unacceptable

The demon possessed men were unclean and unacceptable

The paralytic (who many would have assumed was this way because of his sin or his parents sins) was unclean and unacceptable

And Matthew- the tax collector was unclean and unacceptable

In today’s sermon passage John the Baptist’s followers ask Jesus why his disciples don’t follow the traditions of the Pharisees like they do. Look with me at Matthew 9:14–17 (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. 16 No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. 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.”

This question in verse 14, comes on the heels of the controversy around Jesus eating with the sinners and tax collectors. John’s disciples want to know why those who follow Jesus are feasting while those who are following the traditions of the pharisees are fasting?

Fasting is the discipline of going without food for a spiritual purpose.

The Pharisees built fasting into their standard regimen, but the practice of the Pharisees went much further than the OT law actually required. There was nothing wrong with the pattern of fasting the Pharisees followed. The problem was that they condemned those who didn’t keep their standard. The disciples of John the Baptist are asking a good question. If Jesus is the authority and teacher of the law that they think He is, then why are his followers not following the teaching and example of the Pharisees?

Jesus and His disciples are feasting rather than fasting because of who He is. Jesus' disciples were eating and feasting because they were with Jesus, and knowing who Jesus is makes all the difference.

Jesus refers to Himself as the bridegroom twice in this moment. John’s disciples have heard this reference used for Jesus before. John the Baptist used himself and it’s recored in John 3.

John 3:25–30 (CSB) says, 25 Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples and a Jew about purification. 26 So they came to John and told him, “Rabbi, the one you testified about, and who was with you across the Jordan, is baptizing—and everyone is going to him.” 27 John responded, “No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I’ve been sent ahead of him.’ 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. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

The significance of the bride and groom language can be traced back to the prophet Hosea. And by knowing Hosea 2:16-23 we see that through Matthew’s Gospel

Jesus has come to establish His reign and rule in the hearts and minds of those who follow Him.

Why? Because in Hosea 2 God condemns Israel for its sin of rebellion. In particular, God tells the nation through Hosea that they are being judged and punished. God tells them that He is removing their celebrations, he is taking away their wine, he is destroying their crops, and he is even removing the fabric and cloth used to cover her shame. God is punishing Israel for all of the days and years spent claiming to belong to Him while they whored themselves out to the gods of the age and of the world.

God used Hosea’s marriage to demonstrate what it was like for Him to be in a covenant relationship with Isreal. Just like Gomer, Hosea’s wife, Israel kept going back to their sin by wandering from God.

But, in Hosea 2:16, immediately after declaring judgment on Israel, God then prophecies about the days of redemption and forgiveness that would come later.

Hosea 2:16–23 (CSB) says,

16 In that day—this is the Lord’s declaration—you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer call me, “My Baal.” 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth; they will no longer be remembered by their names. 18 On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will shatter bow, sword, and weapons of war in the land, and will enable the people to rest securely. 19 I will take you to be my wife forever. I will take you to be my wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. 20 I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness, and you will know the Lord. 21 On that day I will respond—this is the Lord’s declaration. I will respond to the sky, and it will respond to the earth. 22 The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. 23 I will sow her in the land for myself, and I will have compassion on Lo-ruhamah; I will say to Lo-ammi: You are my people, and he will say, “You are my God.”

When Matthew records Jesus referring to Hosea 2, He opens our eyes to the fact that Jesus has come to fulfill the promise of redemption and forgiveness God made through Hosea.

The first miracle Jesus performed was turning water into a wine a wedding feast. If you’ve every wondered why he did that… here it is. Jesus is signifying that He has come, like God promised in Hosea 2:22, to bring the new grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil. Jesus has come to cover the shame that was once exposed for the world to see. The time of waiting is over, the bridegroom has arrived! The King God promised has come and He has brought joy and celebration with Him!

The time for redemption and forgiveness is here! And because redemption and forgiveness are going to happen through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension… Jesus predicts there will be another time for fasting when He is gone again. Jesus says in the rest of the verse that, "The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Jesus has come to establish His reign and rule in the hearts and minds of those who follow Him.

There is so much that we can say by way of application from this passage. There are some things that I believe we need to look at today, and there are some we will come back to in the future. For today we have 3 truths that allow us to think about Jesus, our personal lives, and the church.

3 Truths for today:

Jesus doesn’t fit into your life, He calls you to fit your life to Him.

(Like the unshrunk cloth and the new wine)

The reason that Jesus and his followers don’t follow the traditions established by men is because Jesus hasn’t come to fit in or to follow. Jesus has come to reign and rule over your life.

Too many people want Jesus to fit into their already good life. They want Jesus to make their life better, when in fact Jesus came to give them a whole new life. Not only did Jesus come to give you a new life, He calls you to die to the old one.

Matthew 9:15-16, the unshrunk cloth will tear the old cloth when it begins to shrink. The new wine would burst the old dry and brittle wine skins as it ferments and releases gasses.

You need new garments, not patches on the old ones. The old garments of the law and traditions that Israel tried to use to cover up her sin won’t work. You cannot mix your attempts at covering up your shame with the true covering of Jesus’ righteousness.

You need new wineskins to contain the new, not old ones that will burst. The old traditions and ways of the pharisees cannot contain the way of Jesus. They had added to the law, they had added to the requirements of God. The New Covenant Christ cannot be contained in the Old One. Jesus has come to fulfill the law and the prophets and establish a kingdom and a law that is written on the hearts of men through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus doesn’t fit into your life, He calls you out of the darkness and guilt of your sinful way of life and into the light to live under His rule and under His grace for all eternity.

When you say yes to following Jesus, you are saying yes to His ways over your ways in all of your life.

Your lifestyle and behavior reveals who Jesus is to you

Jesus disciples lived according to the ways of Jesus. They didn’t follow the patterns and traditions of the Pharisees. They did what Jesus said, and they didn’t do what Jesus condemned.

What you do, and even what you prioritize reveals who Jesus is to you.

Following Jesus will take you to places you never thought possible. One of those places will be at odds with those who choose the world over Jesus. Another place following Jesus will take you is at odds with others who claim to follow Jesus.

This happens in two ways:

1. You will find yourself at odds with those who claim Christ but condone sin

More and more you hear of Christians promoting and condoning the sin God condemns. But, the problem is that Christians don’t promote and condone sin.

Jesus is fully aware of what He calls you too. Jesus isn’t your cheerleader who is hoping that you have some good moments in the game of life. Jesus is the sovereign king of the Universe who is coming again to judge the living and the dead. He doesn’t make suggestions, He makes decrees.

His Word is true, authoritative, and without error. God didn’t get it right back then and wrong today.

Your lifestyle will reveal if Jesus is who you follow.

2. You will find yourself at odds with those who claim Christ and add tradition to the standard for faithfulness.

This one can be tough, so I am going to let it be the basis for our third truth. But, before we move on to that truth…

Following Jesus will mean there are times when you stand with Him so that the church doesn’t drift away from him by focusing on the traditions of men rather than the Word of Christ.

This leads me to the third truth:

Traditions and customs may come and go, but the truth of the Gospel never changes.

Back to the cloth and the wine…

In the same way that we have to consider what our lifestyle says about Jesus, we must also consider our traditions and customs in the church.

The gospel never changes. But, there is a time and a season for many of the methods we use for evangelism, preaching, church growth, music, and worship. What was once effective in one time and place will eventually give way to what more effectively wins the lost and ministers to the current generations in the church.

Remember that the gospel never changes, and remember that the church is always changing.

The church is changing because God is sanctifying her to be more like JesusThe church is changing because God is saving more and adding more members to the bodyThe church is changing because every 20-30 years we lose one generation and gain anotherThe church is changing because it has a desire to share the unchanging gospel message with the world of today, not the one of yesterday.

Unfortunately this conversation gets hijacked pretty quickly in most circles. I understand why too. There are countless examples of churches that made changes that compromise the gospel.

This is why the gospel is the most important thing…

- It’s what we judge each other on

- It’s what we judge our efforts on

- It’s what we judge others on

There is a place for honoring the forms that have come before by letting them have their place. While at the same time moving forward with new forms that accomplish the task of today.

Whatever a church does must conform to the gospel. The baseline for preserving traditions and beginning new ones must always be the gospel. If we preserve the gospel and build our practices and traditions around the gospel we will be good. But, if we strive to keep traditions that the gospel does not demand then we will eventually lose the gospel and be left with traditions that don’t change anyone’s life.

There is a season for almost everything, but the gospel never changes.

3 Questions for Application:

Are our traditions and customs reflecting the Christ and His gospel, or are they reflecting our cultural or generational preferences?

- Sometimes its both

- Sometimes its preference- and preference is one of the hardest things for some Christians to admit. It feels like defeat when it really might be the first step toward a Christ-centered unity in the church.

But it must always be Christ and the gospel

The moment that we can admit what we prefer, we can come together around Christ. We can’t ever sacrifice the gospel, but we can sacrifice our preferences. The problem is that until we admit what our preferences are we will continue to die on all the wrong hills while the world around us dies and goes to hell.

Are you trying to fit Jesus into your life rather than fitting your life to Him?

This is such a helpful question for life.

This helps you think about every little part of your life, and it helps you think about the entire big picture of your life.

What does your lifestyle and behavior say about Jesus?

This can be indicting…

If someone spent a week with you, would they know that you are a Christian?

Too many people who claim Christ live no different than those who are lost.

no difference in purity

No difference in spending habits

No difference in marriage

No difference in parenting

No difference in language

No difference in priorities

No difference in the way they go through HS or MS

No difference in the way they go through college

I’m not asking you to think about what you believe or say. I am asking you to consider your way of life, your lifestyle. Is your lifestyle uniquely Christian or is just conservative and somewhat moral?

Remember…

Jesus has come to establish His reign and rule in the hearts and minds of those who follow Him.

Let’s pray and commit ourselves to following Him with hearts, minds, and lives.

Quotes & Commentary:

What he repudiated was not Scripture, but the current religious practices allegedly based on Scripture. He did not even repudiate those practices all at once and call on his followers to forsake Judaism. But he did repudiate the suggestion that they should remain confined within the accepted understanding of the old system. His new approach could not be fitted into those old forms. His followers must find new forms or there would be religious disaster.55 Much the same point is, of course, made in the Fourth Gospel with its account of the changing of the water of Jewish purification into wine (John 2).

55 Gundry asks, “if we were to identify the new wine with the gospel and set it in contrast with the old wineskins of Judaistic forms, what could we make of the concern not to let the old wineskins of Judaistic forms perish?” But Jesus is not calling for the old wineskins to be preserved from perishing; he is saying that it is the new wineskins into which the new wine is put that are to be preserved. Ridderbos remarks, “Jesus did not mean to condemn the old forms; He merely said that they had had their time.”

Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 226–227.

“All Christians would do well to reflect on whether their demeanor, life-style, and words convey to others, especially the unsaved, this joy of salvation and the lively presence of Jesus or whether they communicate, even unwittingly, a dour, judgmental attitude that is quicker to point out the wrongs of others. We must also consider, even as the message of the gospel remains unchanged, whether the methods of evangelism, preaching, church growth, music, and worship, once effective in different circumstances, have turned counterproductive and need to be replaced by new methods that will more effectively win and minister to the current generation.” Craig Blomberg, New American Commentary

“At the very time when Matthew, his friends, and Jesus were feasting in Matthew’s house, the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were fasting—and seemed to be unhappy about it. “ JM Boice

“Matthew 9:16 (GK:CBM): Jesus did not come to patch up our old outward religiousnesses, but to make a new robe of righteousness for us. All attempts to add the gospel to legalism will only make the rent worse.” Charles Spurgeon

“Matthew 9:17 (GK:CBM): The old cloth will always be tearing, and tearing all the worse because of our new pieces; therefore let us leave the old garment to those who prefer antiquity to truth.” Charles Spurgeon

The focus must be Jesus and truth. But, what about the forms that I like or that I grew up with? At what point do the matter? At what point do they cease to be the way things work today?

Can we compare this passage to our current situation in the church? Have we reached a “wineskin” moment?

Can we decide that reaching the lost and living faithful to Jesus matters more than keeping the “base” happy? Have we considered that keeping the base happy in things that don’t reach lost people is out of touch with Jesus?

Jesus is focusing on joy, and in particular the joy that comes from knowing Him and being with Him. What if the joy we should be seeking is the joy that comes from living for Him and carrying out His mission.

He said in Matthew 28 the he would be with us as we went out to make disciples. Holding on to the old ways, when there is opportunity to reach new converts seems like sure way to miss the joy of the Lord.