New Patch + New Wine

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

When you talk to people about their spiritual journey, oftentimes if you ask enough questions, you hear about roadblocks, right? You hear about hurt, you hear about confusion, you hear about feelings of separation. And when you ask a little bit more, because a lot of times people's spiritual journey, you know, very long, very kind of detailed, kind of ins and outs, ups and downs. When you say, well, how did you get through that? How did you learn? How did you get past it? How did you grow?

What you find is, and it's not, this isn't verbatim, this isn't what everybody says, but this is what a lot of people say, on the other side of kind of just this big roadblock, you'd say something like, there's a big difference between who I thought Jesus was and who he actually is. Like before that roadblock, before that hurt, before that separation, I thought things were supposed to kind of work one way, I thought Jesus was this way. But then after that, I've kind of learned that I had kind of this wrong perspective. I would submit to you that that is why we need parables. We need parables because they are stories that reorient our perspective to Jesus and his kingdom. And they don't just change how we see a roadblock, they don't just change our perspective on something, they change really how we see ourselves. They change how we see our life, our purpose, our calling.

Today, we are gonna look through another one of those parables. This is the parable of the patches and the wine skins, or the garments and the wine skins, kind of whichever translation you have. And we're gonna be in Luke chapter five, starting in verse, we're actually gonna start, start in verse 29. The parable of the patches and the wine skins, or the garments and the wine skins. Theologians, if you study parables for a little bit, theologians will often classify parables. They classify parables a lot of different ways. Sometimes it's by structure, by theme, or by whatever. When they go by theme, they're often things like spiritual growth, or the future kingdom, or investing in other people. Sometimes they're classified by, these are the seed parables, these are the nature parables, et cetera. Today's parable, which is a full-on parable, it actually says in the scriptures that it is a parable,

this parable defies just about every categorization. Sure, that's a word. It doesn't sound like a word right now. Sorry, I'm having a moment. It defies all those categories. In fact, theologians don't know what to do with this, and so this parable doesn't make many lists. If you look up lists of parables, it will skip this parable. This parable is listed in three different gospels. This is Matthew 9, Luke 5, John 2. And when you look at lists of parables, it will often not be in there. It's definitely not classified very well.

And so because of that, that made me, obviously that made me more interested in it. I wanted to know a little bit more about this parable that was unclassifiable. I wanted to know about this parable that defied other parables. So if we're gonna really get into it, we need a little bit of context, so let's look at the backstory really quick. Let's look starting in verse 29, Luke 5, verse 29. And what you need to know even before this is that Luke, in verse 27, has written about Jesus calling Levi. So Levi and Matthew, that's the same guy. Levi and Matthew, so Jesus has just called Levi from a tax collector booth in verse 27. And then in verse 29, we get the setting of this parable. It says, and Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. So this idea of reclining at table, that's a phrase,

that's a Jewish phrase from the first century. And it means that everybody was relaxing. Everybody was, they didn't sit in chairs. They kind of laid down on pillows, and the tables were really low. So if you're reclining at table, that just means literally you are kind of laying down lazily like just eating food. So this is a very kind of a comfortable thing, right? That they're all there, they're all just talking. There's a lot of people. And it's not a hostile environment. It's a party, but there's people that are testing Jesus. And then another one kind of pipes up, so there's a couple of tests before even this verse, but another one pipes up in verse 33. Luke 5:33, and they said to him, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers. And so did the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.

In effect, what they are saying here is, Jesus, your disciples' practices don't fit. And the implication is that Jesus and his disciples, even the disciple he just called, right, Matthew, in verse 27, right, he just called Levi, Matthew, he just called him out of a tax collector booth. And what's being implied here is that Jesus, you and your disciples and your teaching and everything you're saying about the kingdom, that is out of step. That is out of step with tradition. And we need to look carefully here at this verse in particular, because it is upon this verse that this verse is the basis for all that comes after it. This verse gives us context to why Jesus responds the way he responds, so we really need to understand it. Okay? People, and it says, they said to him, it's not necessarily Pharisees, because they're kind of talking, they're referencing the Pharisees.

These are just people, when you look at the other places where this parable is, sometimes it's the disciples of John, sometimes it's just random people. So it's not Pharisees, and this is a lot more maybe of an innocent question, or maybe not innocent, but just, these aren't people necessarily trying to trip Jesus up, but they do have, it seems, a complaint. People are observing that Jesus and his teaching and his disciples by extension, they're kind of looking at it and they're classifying him and everything that he's doing is non-traditional. Okay? What you are doing does not line up with how we think things should go. Okay? Here is the way it's supposed to be done, and you're over here doing something else. And in fact, it's so the way it's supposed to be done that the disciples of John are doing it and the disciples of the Pharisees are doing it. Okay? Those guys weren't exactly friends.

Okay, John had no love for the Pharisees, so if John's disciples are doing it and the Pharisees' disciples are doing it, it's almost like saying the Republicans are doing it and the Democrats are doing it, why aren't you getting on board? So the complaint here, or at least the implication is, Jesus is out of step. And so this is a case of people, these people that are asking Jesus' question, these are people that are kind of getting into their own tradition, right? They're getting into their own tradition. When you engage in a different culture,

like a foreign culture, you will get into your own tradition very quickly, okay? So it could be anything from diet to manner of speaking, sometimes even a specific word. For example, if I would say right now, and I will, I'm gonna say it, if I would say bloody, there, there were no audible gasps. Nobody was offended that I said that word, right? It's a totally benign word in our culture, doesn't mean a darn thing, however, if you go to England and I'm in this exact same position and you guys are out there and I say bloody,

there you go, audible gasps, that's right, thank you, Kenneth, for supplying the audible gasps, that is good. If I say that in England, I'm offending everybody there, I'm offending all the locals, and they're probably not hearing anything else I'm saying after that, they just are sitting there in shock that I've said that word, you know, preaching a sermon for crying out loud, I just, you know, you can't believe it. But I say it here and it's not a big deal at all. This is an example of people getting into their own tradition, in our tradition, it's not a big deal to say bloody. In British tradition, it is a very big deal to say bloody, right? It's akin to just a really terrible curse word. So people often do this, right? You and I do this. There's actually nothing wrong with this. We draw distinctions between what is traditional and what isn't, what's proper, what's not,

what words we should say, what words we should not say. Right, and there's nothing wrong with that, that is just the basic definition of a tradition. However, there's a little bit more going on here. The people that are asking this question are assigning value to their tradition. In other words, they are saying the way that we practice our devotion, the way our tradition tells us to practice devotion to God is spiritual. And the way you, Jesus, and your disciples, and your teaching, the way that you're practicing devotion to God is unspiritual. Jesus takes this occasion to open up the rest of it,

and he does so with an analogy first, and then a set of parables after that. So verse 34 and 35, Luke five. So this is Jesus' response. He says, can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. Okay, so let's break this down. Jesus is responding with an analogy, and he's saying, what you're asking me to do, it's like making people fast when they're supposed to feast. In a wedding feast, this is a several day event. People are going there, they're expecting to eat a ton of food. They might have actually not eaten that much food that day in anticipation of this. And he's saying, you're trying to make people fast when they're supposed to feast.

And this brings out two things that I want you to see. First, Jesus is saying, look, your practices are fine, but your timing is off. Your practices are fine, but your timing is off, okay? The second thing he's saying is that your focus is slanted. Your timing is off, your focus is slanted. What does he mean? Well, in saying your timing is off, this practice of fasting and praying is not the issue, because Jesus actually did it regularly. But he's saying, you're trying to fit a mentality in a place where it doesn't go. You're too early. It's not time to do that yet. Your mentality, it doesn't fit here. Also, implied in Jesus' response, he's saying your focus is slanted, because he's saying, in effect, you're not paying attention to the bridegroom, right? In his analogy, the bridegroom, while he's with them, they're supposed to do something. While he's not with them, he's supposed to do something else.

Okay? Your timing is off, your focus is slanted, and Jesus drives the point home even further with a set of parables. We start here in Luke 36, 536, excuse me. He also told them a parable. It says, no one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old. Okay? So he says, no one tears new garments to mend old ones. Why?

Because it hurts you twice. The first way is that it ruins the old garment and it ruins the new garment. You've taken a new garment and you've torn it, so you've ruined it. You've then tried to attach that torn piece to the old garment, you've ruined that. You're ruining both, it hurts you twice. You don't tear a piece from a new garment and try to put it on an old. And here's the other parable he tells them, verses 37 and 38.

It says, and no one puts new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins. He's saying, no one stores fresh wine in old wine skins. Why? Because it hurts you twice. You lose the fresh wine and you lose the old wine skins. It hurts you twice. And what does he say? Instead, put fresh wine into fresh wine skins. Okay? And here, in verse 38, it seems like this is exactly where the parable ends, right? And it seems like whatever Jesus is saying, he's talking about new. He's saying something about new wine and new wine skins. But there's another verse, verse 39. And it says this. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. Now, this is not something that you would anticipate Jesus saying. You would actually expect him to flip it.

You would actually say, and no one after drinking the new wine desires the old, for he says the new is good. But it's flipped around. So you're kind of left with a question at the end. Which one is Jesus favoring? Is he favoring the old or the new? Or really, to put the question in a different way, what in the world is this parable about? What are we talking about? Old, new, wine skins, garments. Which one is Jesus favoring? What is this parable about? And to really understand this parable, we gotta really understand two things that are really important to notice with both of these parables. It also has to do with the analogy that he told. It also has to do with the question that was asked in verse 33. To get it, we need to notice two things. First, Jesus says specifically in those parables that both old and new are good. He doesn't, in other words, he doesn't condemn the old

for the favor of the new, and he doesn't do the opposite. He's saying the new is worth saving, and the old is worth saving. And this really, when you talk about the new being good, the new is worth saving, this correlates with Jesus' own ministry. We're talking about the newness of Jesus' ministry. Jesus is doing a new thing. There is a new dawn. He's a new kind of teacher. He is the Son of God in human form, and that is brand new. The kingdom of heaven is near in a new way. It is close to you in a new way. There's a lot of newness in what Jesus is saying, but at the same time, there's also old that is worth saying. It is no coincidence from Jesus' parables that wine and garments often get better with age. There's nothing like a worn-in pair of jeans, right? You put those things on and you're like, yes. That's how jeans are supposed to fit. Or a broken-in pair of shoes, right?

You ever put on a pair of new shoes? Those are terrible, okay? I don't care what your feet are like. It is a, I mean, it is a one in a million shot. You're gonna put on a pair of new shoes and be like, oh, these fit exactly like they're supposed to. No, you gotta break those jokers in. And old wine is better. At least that's what I've heard. It's definitely more expensive, okay? So you get old wine. You get wine from 100 years ago. That's gonna cost a lot more than wine that was made last week, okay? Old wine, old garments get better with age. And this is also kind of a commentary on Jesus' ministry, right? That Jesus, in effect, he is doing new things, but he also came to fulfill the old covenant, the old promise. What does he keep saying in his teaching? What does he keep saying in his ministry? I'm doing this today in your presence so that scripture might be fulfilled.

What scripture is he fulfilling? The Old Testament. Old, ancient promises. Stuff from Genesis he's talking about. He's referencing Jonah. He's referencing Moses. He's referencing David. He's referencing Adam. These are the things that are on his mind as he's teaching people these new things. As he's saying, the kingdom of God is near. It's not like the kingdom of God was invented two weeks ago. It's an old thing. It's an ancient thing that is coming in a new way. So which is it? Is it old or new? Which one is Jesus favoring? And it's really hard because that last sentence, that last verse, it's the last verse of the chapter, and it's the last verse of this chunk of scripture, and it's meant to be kind of a punctuation mark. It's at the end. It's not like we're just making this a big deal for no reason. It's kind of there stubbornly.

It kind of just sits there and stares at us. We have to make sense of it. And we can't change the words because we don't like the words. We have to understand kind of what Jesus means when he says these things. But let me pose something to you. What if Jesus is doing this on purpose? And I want you to remember verse 33 again, and the question that we're answering, the question that Jesus is answering in the following verses. These are people, remember, that are getting into their own tradition. And they see their practices as traditional. They see their practices are more spiritual, right? They're getting into their own tradition. They're saying it's better because it's the way that we do it.

And they believe in this scenario, when they're looking at their practices versus Jesus and his disciples, they believe that they are the old and that Jesus is the new. Right? That's exactly what they think. When they're saying to Jesus, hey, the disciples of the Pharisees and the disciples of John, they're doing this thing and this is traditional. This is the old way. This is spiritual. This is how it's always supposed to be done. This has merit. This has weight.

You're doing something new. And it's true. Jesus is doing something new. That's true. They believe that they're the old and that Jesus is the new. And that in some ways is true. But it's also true that Jesus is bringing back something older. Just like we've already talked about. That Jesus is actually returning people to the way it was supposed to be. Jesus is actually fulfilling Ezekiel 36 in ways that they don't even realize. Jesus, whenever he is on a donkey, going up to Jerusalem to die, he's fulfilling minor prophets at that point. I don't remember if it's Zephaniah or Zechariah. I can never remember. But he's fulfilling prophecy as he's doing these things. Jesus is fulfilling prophecy left and right in the New Testament. He's bringing it back to something older. So what in the world is Jesus telling us through this parable? What are we supposed to understand?

First, I think it's helpful to see that Jesus is helping us see something about timing. Right? See something about timing. And that in many ways, old and new is not better than the other. You wanna talk about old? You wanna talk about the way it's always been done? That's fine, but it doesn't necessarily make it better than new. You wanna talk about new? You wanna talk about innovation? You wanna talk about being progressive? You wanna talk about being ahead of the curve? That's great, but that doesn't necessarily make it better than the old.

Whenever we are getting into our own tradition, a lot of times we want to just stay there, talk about how great our tradition is, how much we've learned from it, how helpful it was, how formational it was, and then really we fight the temptation to like lob bombs at whatever we perceive the other side is. I believe that in part of this parable, what we need to see is that Jesus is helping us understand it's about timing.

That in some ways, the thing that you, the tradition that you got into is about timing. It's not better or worse, it's timing. And when you try to compare them, when you try to combine them, you often lose both. It's often extremely tumultuous. It often doesn't work. And this is where we get stuck, right? This is where you and I get stuck. We look at how we practice our devotion to Jesus. We like it, we get into our own tradition and over time we assign spirituality to it or we assign unspirituality to other ways. I actually had a conversation with somebody about this. This is maybe a couple years ago where there was a gentleman, a friend of mine, and we were talking about, this is whenever reading the Bible on your phone was relatively new. Okay, this is about five years ago, something like that, six years ago. We're having a discussion about reading the Bible on your phone.

And he goes, well, you know, I only read the Bible, like I only read the Bible on paper, right? Only on paper. I was like, oh, okay, that's cool. Like that's like a big conviction for him. Cool. And I'm not asking other questions about it, but he keeps talking about it. You ever been in that situation, right? You keep, you're like, oh, cool. And you're hoping that another subject comes up and they just kind of, you know, like, oh, okay, this is obviously a hobby horse for you. So in that kind of that quick conversation I learned, he reads the Bible in book form because it's more spiritual than reading it on your phone. Because you actually learn more from reading the Bible in paper form than you do in book form, excuse me, on your phone. And that reading on your phone is actually less spiritual than reading it on your book. And at that point, I'm like resisting the urge

to argue with this man, okay? He's a friend of mine, you know, and I'm, he's a little crazy and that definitely came out in that moment. And sometimes, right, we're like that guy. We think our tradition, the way we do it, the way it's supposed to be done, right, we think it's not just better, it's not just what we're used to, it's more spiritual. We assign value to that. Friends, that is very toxic. That is hard, right? You have to understand that your tradition, the way that you see it, just like being an American versus being a Briton, right, right, that in some sense, traditional just depends on your tradition. That's why it's kind of funny to me whenever people talk about traditional music. Because inside, I'm always thinking, what tradition? Well, it's traditional music. Please go on, tell me more about this tradition you speak of. I mean, I need to know whose tradition you're talking about.

Because even in the United States of America, you go out on the West Coast, you talk about traditional anything, that's different than going out in the Northeast. It's going out in the South, it's going out in the North, right? If you're in Detroit versus Dallas, the traditions are different, particularly in churches. You wanna say that yours is more spiritual, and that's not good. And you wanna, listen, you wanna talk about how great those spiritual practices are? That's fine. Fasting, cool, praying, yes. Jesus did both of those things, right? Those are great. There's nothing wrong with them, but when we begin to assign spirituality to tradition, Jesus is going to step in on that, and he's gonna show us this second thing. Because traditions don't win over each other, right? Because traditions are really just about timing. What's the tiebreaker? What makes one tradition better than the other?

Well, Jesus kinda answers that by refocusing it on himself. Jesus cuts through the categories of traditional and non-traditional, and he calls us to worship him. He's saying, look, it doesn't matter if your practices are pre or post bridegroom accessible, but it does matter where the bridegroom is in that situation, right? It matters who we're talking about.

So if somebody wants to talk to me about their tradition is to, and I've actually heard about this in a church before, their tradition is for their worship leader to read atheist philosophy, right? That was part of their tradition, I know. Let me just say, that's a bad tradition, and it's not because it's different than mine, and it's not because I don't like it. It's because it doesn't worship Jesus. Does that make sense to you? So we can talk about things, your tradition versus my tradition and all that, but here's the bottom line. The bottom line is like, who does it focus on? Does it lift the Lord high? And if it does, can't we agree on the fact that we wanna worship Jesus? Jesus cuts through all of that. He cuts through whatever kind of tradition you have. If you're getting into your own tradition, that's great. There's nothing wrong with your tradition. In fact, Jesus uses traditions to teach us,

inform us, and shape us. If somebody says, well, I don't wanna have a tradition, well, good luck with that. That's like trying to speak without a language, okay? And ASL does not count as an exception to that rule. It's still a language. It's just sign language, okay? You are going to have a tradition. There is no escaping it. You're going to have it. It's good, but let me just give you two encouragements about new and old and your tradition. Encouragement one, let the new point you to worshiping Jesus. Let new things point you to worshiping Jesus. If all you do, if all you do is just whine when something is new, that's on you. Because it is still possible to read the Bible on your phone and worship Jesus. It's still possible to worship Jesus with electric guitars playing. It's still possible to worship Jesus to rap music. It's still possible to worship Jesus. And the reason I know this is because it's possible

to worship Jesus in every tradition, because every tradition that we've ever had, none of it has been like, oh, God's like, oh, I mean, I can't redeem that. I can't work in that tradition. I can't know, it's stupid. No, that's not how it works. And I'm not equating all traditions. I'm not equating all cultures. What I am saying though is that because Jesus is the point, there is no tradition that you can't find something new and let that prompt you to worship Jesus. Let the new remind you of spiritual renewal in Jesus, of new life in Jesus, of being made new every day in Jesus. Let the new remind you of that. But let's not forget the old. Let's let the old point us to worshiping Jesus too. Because it's still possible to worship Jesus with music from the 1800s. It is. It's still possible to worship Jesus following the traditions of our elders. There's nothing wrong with it.

In fact, there's a lot to be gleaned from it that sometimes gets shoved aside in favor of new. And I know this is possible. I know this is possible because my elders worship Jesus before me. There was a church running a long time before you or I got here, right? For 2,022 years, okay? The church has been alive and well throughout all kinds of traditions. African tradition, Asian tradition, European tradition, South American tradition, all kinds, man, you name it. Any kind of subculture, you name it. The gospel has been going out. People have been worshiping Jesus in all kinds of traditions. You, our tradition right here, this tradition that we share, in one sense, it's special because we share it. In another sense, it is not. It is not because it is just another thing that can just remind us of worshiping Jesus. Let the old remind us of the ancient promises that Jesus came to fulfill.

Let the old remind us of the promises that Jesus has already kept in our lives. So let the old, let the new point us to worshiping Jesus. Here maybe is some ways that you can think about doing that, right? Right now, I just want you to take a second and you don't have to close your eyes. You can just think for a minute. I want you to consider what Jesus has done in your life. Consider what he's done. Maybe it's a new thing.

Maybe it's reminding you of an old thing. Consider what he's doing and thank him for it. As you drive home today, as you get home, as you're kind of in that afternoon, maybe after the nap, this might be a post nap application point here, I want you to consider your own tradition. I want you to consider how you get into your own tradition. Good or bad, right? I'm not even trying to say your tradition is bad, but examine it in all of its good and its bad and know this about yourself. Know what your tradition is. Maybe ask a friend, maybe ask a spouse, am I getting stuck in my own tradition? Am I getting into my own tradition and kind of just not liking what's in the outside? And listen, that can happen with people that are addicted to the latest technology and people can get into that tradition, right? It's called chronological snobbery, okay? If new is always better to you,

then you don't know what better is, okay? New's not always better. If old is the only thing that's better, then you don't know what better is, right? You kind of lost touch with that. You're getting into your own tradition. Think about how maybe you're getting into that. This week, I want you to think about this. I want you to try something old. Try something old, right? Dust off the old journal, bust out, you know, like a Christian CD from the 90s,

maybe bust out like an old spiritual habit that you did, maybe right after you became a believer. And if you've only been a believer for a little bit, read a book about a dead person that did spiritual disciplines and try one of theirs, okay? Try something old, that's my encouragement. Try something old and also try something new. Do it different on purpose.

Do it with the expectation that you can worship Jesus there. And here's the catch, here's the only thing I want you to think about as you're doing it. Don't just do it for the sake of change. Don't just do it for that. Do it because you are attempting to worship Jesus. Let's pray. Jesus, you are our rock, our redeemer. You love us when other people don't. You consider us when we are forgotten. You see us and hear us,

even when we feel like we're on an island. I pray that you would help us to do something new, to do something old, to see what new wine you wanna put in new wineskins in our lives. How are you calling us to change? And maybe also to drink some of the old wine and remember how good it is to put on the old pair of jeans and to remember how comfortable they are, what you've called us to do

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