WEBVTT 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:07.440 Hello everyone. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:08.880 This is Pastor Benjamin. 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:12.000 You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.439 At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:19.920 For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:22.960 Please join me in prayer. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:34.719 Holy Spirit, make us hungry for your word, that it may satisfy us, lead us, and bring us life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:00:34.719 --> 00:00:35.600 Amen. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:38.640 Today's scripture reading comes from Luke five. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.359 Please remain standing if you are able. 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:51.359 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:54.640 And leaving everything he rose and followed him. 00:00:54.640 --> 00:01:03.039 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. 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:11.519 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:18.000 And Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:22.480 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:32.560 And they said to him, The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:38.000 And Jesus said to them, Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:44.719 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:46.959 He also told them a parable. 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:51.439 No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:56.159 If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:59.760 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:05.439 If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:08.719 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:14.879 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:16.719 This is God's word. 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:18.080 Thanks be to God. 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:19.599 You may be seated. 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:21.759 Thank you, Evan. 00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:23.919 Well, good morning. 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:33.680 This last Tuesday and this last Wednesday were kind of uh events in the church calendar or community life. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:38.560 Last Tuesday was Fat Tuesday, and then it was Ash Wednesday. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:03:01.039 So now I don't know if you guys participate in Fat Tuesday or Ash Wednesday, but if you don't know what those things are, those events, Fat Tuesday is a party where all I would say the sick, the sinners, the saints, they come together to celebrate, to have fun, to try to squeeze out all that life has involved in it. 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:08.879 And in that, uh, they're trying to do that before the big decrease of the Lenten season of Lent. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:11.680 And so Ash Wednesday is the next day, right? 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:14.319 They're celebrating this Tuesday, this big event. 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:22.240 And then it leads into Ash Wednesday, which is a sober ritualistic service that starts the season of Lent, as I said. 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:28.080 So when I used to work downtown, I uh I would try to engage in this practice. 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:29.520 Um, I would go to St. 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:36.000 Luke's and I would walk along uh from one point of downtown to another, and I invite the people in my office. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.800 I did this because I wanted to deepen my faith. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:41.599 And me inviting others was two reasons. 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:44.719 One, there are people who practice faith in my office. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:52.800 I wanted to help encourage them in their faith, but I also wanted to expose those who did not know Jesus to faith. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:04:03.199 But after the service, and now I don't know if you know what happens in the Ash Wednesday service, actually, they take the palm branches, certain traditions, and they burn them and they make ashes out of that. 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:07.599 And they take these ashes and they put the sign of the cross on your forehead, right? 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:14.639 And so after the service with my friends and colleagues from the office, we had a decision to make. 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:17.519 Like, what do we do with these ashes? 00:04:17.519 --> 00:04:18.639 What was this? 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:23.839 Was this a ritualistic cross on my head to be worn as a badge? 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:29.040 Was this a superstitious relic that was wrong to wipe away? 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:32.480 Or do I leave it on there and try my best to explain? 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:36.240 Oh no, this is a symbol of my intimacy with Jesus. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:45.519 But I think the honest question beneath those was for me was for how do I control what others think of me when they look at this cross on my head? 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:50.480 Or maybe even more true, how do I control what God thinks of me? 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.920 Will God love me more if I keep this cross on my head? 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:58.079 Or will God look away from me if I wipe this cross off my head? 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:07.199 Historically, the in the early church and church tradition, Christians developed this pre-season to Easter to prepare themselves. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:13.040 It was a time of repentance, it was a time of renewal, a desire for Jesus. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:17.839 It involved fasting and it also involves other disciplines in their lives. 00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:33.680 It was also a time that was for instruction, for new believers, uh, catechisms, catechim catechism communicants, rather, who would study for a year and they would enter in this season and then they would be baptized on the Easter Vigil service. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:44.639 So at the time of Jesus, Judaism was just capturing, I mean, Christianity when Jesus came was just kind of capturing what Judaism had already been practicing. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:49.279 You had John the Baptist, who was calling for a baptism of repentance. 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:53.839 You had the religious leaders fasting in the name of God, some of them doing it twice a week. 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:58.319 We read that in Luke 18, which uh Will was referencing. 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:03.920 And our text says that the Pharisees and John's disciples fasted often. 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:13.279 In fact, if you just think about it, most religions include fasting as a practice, as a way to get to God, as a way to build yourself up to God. 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:21.439 So fasting was not a new concept, it was a part of the religious practice, it was a part of this religious way of life. 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:25.360 So why didn't Jesus' disciples fast? 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:30.000 What's the role of fasting in our Christian life? 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:35.600 If Jesus said on the cross that it is finished, what work is left to do? 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:41.199 If it's all mercy and grace, why are we working so hard in this life? 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:49.759 Well, we're going to explore those questions through our text through these two points: the old way of life and the new way of life. 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:56.720 If you have your Bibles or advice or a bulletin, turn with me to Luke 5, starting in verse 29. 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:08.399 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with him. 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:09.839 What's going on here? 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:17.120 Well, this is the setting, the calling of Levi or Matthew and the other gospels to come and follow Jesus. 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:19.199 And who was Levi? 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:22.000 Levi was a tax collector. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:26.160 He was working as an agent for the enemy. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:31.439 He was profiting off of a system of oppression as this tax collector. 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:35.199 And I was trying to think through what does that look like in our day and age? 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:48.160 The only thing that came to my mind, or a lot of things came to my mind, but one that I'll share is a predatory lender, a debt collector in our day, who's profiting off of the least of these who are stuck in this cycle of poverty. 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:52.879 So this is who Jesus was hanging out with him and his friends. 00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:57.680 This is who Jesus was calling to himself, the enemy of the people. 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:00.480 Do you feel the scandal in that? 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:05.439 The people at the party were unwanted by the religious leaders of the day. 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:11.680 They were unclean, unfavored, and unchosen by those who were under Roman occupation. 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:15.279 Then comes Jesus, the bridegroom. 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:19.040 And this is a story of radical conversion for Levi. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:21.519 And we'll look at that more in our point number two. 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:24.720 But this angers the religious of that day. 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:28.800 This angers them and it confronts them. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:38.720 And I think it confronts us too to see a religious leader sitting with sinners and tax collectors, sitting with the enemy of the people. 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:48.320 It's like having a predatory loan officer sitting with Billy Graham's treasury and having a meal, and you're trying to understand what's going on between these two people. 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:50.480 So what do the religious do? 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:53.600 They grumble and they question. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:56.159 Look down with me at verse 30. 00:08:56.159 --> 00:09:04.639 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and the sinners? 00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:10.000 People usually grumble when they think they deserve more than they are getting. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.799 This is the story that we learn in the book of Numbers, right? 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:14.559 We went through the book of Numbers. 00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:22.240 God's people was freed from slavery in Egypt, and now they're wandering their desert and they were wanting to go back. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:28.960 And they're grumbling to Moses because they think they deserve more from God than the manna that's falling from the sky. 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:34.240 And people usually question when their way of life is being challenged. 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:38.240 We question because we think our way of life is working. 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:43.600 We question because we think our way of life is actually superior and sufficient. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:49.919 And so the Pharisees, the scribes, and even John's disciples, they continue to ask these questions of Jesus. 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:56.960 They continue to question him and challenge him about the way of life, particularly around fasting and prayers. 00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:59.039 Look down with me at verse 33. 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:09.600 And they said to him, The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:14.399 Now Jesus, he answers in a clever way, but in a very clear way. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:17.840 He answers with a question, which is like the Jesus thing to do, right? 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:26.559 And Jesus said, and continue on, verse 34 to them, Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:32.000 So when the bridegroom is here, you don't fast, you feast. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:36.320 Jesus' presence actually changes the way of life. 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:42.320 Jesus furthers that answer with the parable about the garments and about the wine and the wineskins. 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:44.000 So what is Jesus talking about? 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:48.879 I'm going to focus just on that latter part of that illustration about the wine and the wineskins. 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:53.039 I believe the new wine is the teaching that Jesus brings in his ministry. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:57.200 That this message, that the kingdom of God is at hand. 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:02.159 It's breaking into time, in time in Jesus. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:08.799 And this brain breaking of the kingdom requires a new container, a new vessel for it to be contained. 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:13.519 And the new wineskin, I believe, is the new way of life that Jesus brings. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:19.279 It holds the new wine, it holds the new teaching of grace and mercy of Christ. 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:24.000 The old wineskin container is the old way of life. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:30.240 The old way of life that seeks self-righteousness in the form of control before others and before God. 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:35.600 If you're receiving the new wine in the old wineskin, what happens? 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:38.399 Look at what he at verse 37. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:41.679 No one puts new wine into old wineskins. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:48.399 If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:51.679 What happens when the new wine is put into old wineskins? 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:53.360 It bursts the skins. 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:58.080 The wine is spilled and wasted, and it destroys the vessel. 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:06.240 The point is this the old way of life, the old wineskins, couldn't hold the new wine, couldn't hold the new teaching in Jesus. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:12.960 I want to tell you a story about Eugene Peterson, who is like a spiritual father to many of us probably in the room. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:21.919 Early on in his life, uh in his seminary days, he was in New York City and he befriended this man named William or William Asa. 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:23.519 He was German, right? 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:32.159 And uhsa loved to talk about religion, and then Eugene loved to talk about art, and so they became fast friends. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:37.600 But the thing is, Asa grew up in Germany under the war effort of the Nazi regime. 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:47.600 And so he experienced the ways that Christians were complicit in that story, the ways that Christians failed to the death of six million Jews, right? 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:49.840 And to this tragedy of this world war. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:55.679 And so this pitted up inside of Asa kind of this hate for religion. 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:58.159 But regardless of that, they were friends. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:01.279 And uh Eugene asked them to paint him a self-portrait. 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:05.440 And so Asa agreed, and uh they kept on doing that over weeks. 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:08.480 I don't know how long it takes to do a painting, but weeks, maybe months. 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:12.480 But uh, Asa would never show Eugene the portrait. 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:25.679 One day, Asa's wife comes in and screams in German, sick, sick, and he responds, Asa responds to Eugene and says, No, not sick, but no mercy. 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.240 And what what was going on there? 00:13:28.240 --> 00:13:34.720 What she saw was this shriveled man, this ghostly figure of Eugene Peterson on this canvas. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:36.639 And she couldn't make sense of it. 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:41.919 But this is how Asa was making sense of the old way of life, the old religion that leads to death. 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:48.799 It leads to a squeezing out of grace and mercy, it leads to a squeezing out of morality. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:54.559 And in a way, Asa was trying to tell Eugene Peterson a warning. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:59.679 If you become a pastor and go down this path, this is who you will become. 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:09.919 But what he didn't realize is that Eugene also understood that there is this new vessel, that there is this new way of life, the way of life that leads to intimacy. 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:17.759 And so Eugene kept that painting as a warning, as a reminder to choose a new way of life, not to continue down the old path. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:25.519 Old wineskins and old rigid, unflexible ways to do life can squeeze out the mercy and grace of the soul. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:27.679 And we're not so different than they. 00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:37.039 We wonder if our religious obedience can be a badge of self-righteousness, or we wonder if our disobedience can be a badge of unrighteousness, like a scarlet letter. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:43.360 We have the same problems as the Pharisees and the scribes and the disciples who asked the question of fasting to Jesus. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:51.120 Fasting in the old way of life can become a badge rather than a bell to wake us up of our need of Him. 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:58.879 Obedience in the old way of life can become a ritual rather than a relationship to intimacy and freedom. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:02.720 We tend to hold on to the old way of life. 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:03.679 Why? 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:07.039 I think it's because it works for us. 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:12.399 It seems to be a superior and sufficient way of life, a way of life to control. 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:16.000 We feel like it gives us at least enough life. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:25.200 And I will say not a full life, not an overflowing life with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:28.639 But it seems to be like enough life in the old way. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:32.960 The old way, I will call it, gives us a muted life. 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.279 And we think it's good. 00:15:35.279 --> 00:15:38.879 Have you ever tried to drink wine out of a Dixie cup? 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:44.720 Something doesn't fit, but we think it's good. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:48.000 This is what Jesus is getting at at verse 39. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:51.759 Look at we in your text of chapter 5 of Luke. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:56.720 And he says, No one after drinking old wine desires new. 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.039 For he says the old is good. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:04.799 We need to be careful of our religious badges, our inflexible religious structures. 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:12.399 The old way of life does not get in the way of communion and intimacy with our bridegroom, Jesus. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:17.200 So here's a diagnostic question for you all, and one I've been sitting with this week. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:20.480 When do we tend to grumble? 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:23.840 When do we tend to question? 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:37.679 When we do grumble or question, I wonder if there's a connection to our controlling way of wanting to go through life in the old way that leads to a muted good. 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:41.600 Jesus isn't only answering a question about fasting, though. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:48.960 I think he's trying to expose a deeper issue that that old way of life isn't just a muted good, but it leads to death. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:54.240 And by its control, it squeezes out the grace and the mercy from the message of God. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:55.919 So I have a question for you. 00:16:55.919 --> 00:17:00.559 What kind of container or vessel have your hearts and your lives become? 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:05.039 Are they ready to hold the new wine, the teaching of grace and mercy from Jesus? 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:10.480 And this leads me to my second point: the new way of life. 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:12.240 The new way of life. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:14.960 In one word, it's intimacy. 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:20.880 Turn with me to verse 27 in Luke 5. 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:28.319 After this, he went out, this is Jesus, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:30.640 And he said to him, Follow me. 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:33.839 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:36.880 This is a story of radical conversion. 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:44.079 I wish I had stories about radical conversion that only in two words somebody would leave everything and follow me. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:46.319 Jesus just says two words. 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:55.839 And to celebrate his radical conversion, his leaving the old way of life and entering into this new way of life, Levi, he throws a party. 00:17:55.839 --> 00:18:06.400 But this conversion, as I've already said, and this celebration, it challenges the control and the constriction of the old way of life. 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:11.279 It challenges the self-righteous and honors the sick and the least of these. 00:18:11.279 --> 00:18:17.440 It challenges the ways that we self-righteously build our own kingdom. 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:25.359 We self-righteously, and that leads to, that challenge leads to, as we build our own way, it leads to that grumbling and questioning. 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:36.400 Look with me at verse 31 and 32. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:44.240 And Jesus answers them those who have no need of physician, but those who are sick, those are the people that Jesus is coming. 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:47.599 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 00:18:47.599 --> 00:18:49.680 And I've been thinking a little bit about this. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:57.200 It's painful actually sometimes to go to a doctor because you actually have to admit and be honest about your own health. 00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:01.599 The Bible tells us that we are dead in our trespasses. 00:19:01.599 --> 00:19:03.599 That's the reality of our health. 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:07.119 The sinner needs to come to Jesus in repentance and belief. 00:19:07.119 --> 00:19:12.240 The old wineskin prevents is anything that prevents seeking healing. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:16.400 The old wineskin is anything that causes us to avoid repentance. 00:19:16.400 --> 00:19:23.440 The old wineskin is anything that keeps you saying to Jesus, No, this way, this old way, it is good. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:31.200 It is good news to hear that there is a physician who says to us instead, follow me. 00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:39.359 The physician who comes with skillful hands and removes the heart of stone that's within all of us and replaces it with the heart of flesh. 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:44.720 Jesus says, I know the way that leads to true life. 00:19:44.720 --> 00:19:51.279 It is all what we want to hear when we realize that our old systems, our old way of life, aren't working. 00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:56.960 Jesus chooses the sinner who repents, not the self-righteous who builds. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:03.119 Repentance doesn't just happen once, though, but it is a new way of life. 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:07.759 We say with the psalmist in Psalm 139, search me and know me, O God. 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:10.319 Find any grievous way within me. 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:12.880 We ask, and this is what Will said earlier. 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:14.799 Why does he participate in fasting? 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:24.960 It exposes something inside of us, it exposes our thoughts, exposes the self-righteousness, the ways that we try to build in the old life. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:26.880 We must examine ourselves. 00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:29.039 This is a call for the new way of life. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:30.720 Repentance is a part of that. 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:34.000 The new wineskin, though, as we understand it, it's flexible. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:40.000 It's urging self-examination and openness to sanctifying grace of the new wine. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:48.079 We see that faithful following to Jesus, when Jesus says, follow me, it means receiving him as the bridegroom. 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:58.079 Jesus says in John's Gospel, and I just kind of quoted this, paraphrased it, but he says in John's Gospel, chapter 14, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. 00:20:58.079 --> 00:21:01.359 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:03.680 In him is the new way of life. 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:08.240 He's the bridegroom who has come with new wine in his blood. 00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:15.519 And this is why he says in verse 38 of our text, the new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:18.720 Jesus' earthly teaching and ministry established a new reality. 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:26.319 When the Holy Spirit came in Pentecost, if you're following along in our Bible reading plan as a community, we're going through the book of Acts, right? 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:30.400 Early on, when the Holy Spirit descended in Pentecost, what did they say? 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:34.400 They were filled with new wine in Acts chapter 2, verse 13. 00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:44.000 So the reality is Jesus isn't fighting against Moses, but rather against the Pharisaic Judaism of that day, the Pharisaic Judaism that's in our own hearts. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.359 Jesus doesn't abolish the law of Moses, but can came to fulfill it in himself. 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:53.440 Something new is bursting forth in a new covenant in his blood. 00:21:53.440 --> 00:22:03.039 It's the fulfillment of that to which the old covenant, the old sacrificial system that we've been preaching through, That they were all pointing to. 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:15.200 It's a fulfillment in which God's role of God's amazing grace kind of comes really forefront in the glorious person of Jesus Christ, who we're called as who is called as our bridegroom. 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:22.559 This is why Jesus quotes Hosea in Matthew's gospel, recounting the same story of the calling of Levi in this parable. 00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:31.519 Jesus says, Go and learn, teaching, go and learn what it means that I desire mercy and not sacrifice. 00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:41.920 We need new teaching and a new way of life to be healed from our sickness and led to the wedding feast, where there is intimacy awaiting for us with the bridegroom. 00:22:41.920 --> 00:22:49.839 So where does fasting then fit in that paradigm for the believer, for you, for me, for what Will was talking about earlier? 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:53.359 We live in the already but not yet reality. 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:55.200 Kingdom of God has come. 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:59.680 But there are ways it's not here in his fullest expression. 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:02.720 This is what Jesus is getting at in verse 35. 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:05.839 Jesus says, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away. 00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:09.039 Yes, he's alluding to the crucifixion and his death. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:18.000 And then those days they will fast, but he's also alluding to the real to the reality that someday Jesus is going to be ascended on heaven after the resurrection. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:19.599 And he's going to send the Spirit. 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:22.400 The Spirit will be sent to us. 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:26.720 But there's this already not yet reality where we still deal with the brokenness. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:35.119 Now, much of my story of fasting is probably much like yours, or I hope it is, with failure and maybe some successes. 00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:36.480 I was zealous in college. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:42.240 I came to came to know the Lord right at the beginning of college, and I would fast for a week on end. 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:47.200 And then I would gorge myself at uh all you can eat pizza at CC's. 00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:58.880 It was like not a good idea, and I don't think I was getting it, but I was just, I think I was actually doing it in the old way, and I wasn't experiencing this communion with God in the new way. 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:07.519 Now, sometimes I think fasting is a good idea, and sometimes I I come to the day when I'm gonna fast and I'm like, oh yeah, this is great. 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:10.160 This is intermittent fasting, this is healthy for you. 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:13.680 But I don't think Jesus is talking about like a diet regimen. 00:24:13.680 --> 00:24:33.200 When we what I've come to learn though, in my failing to try to fast is that in the new way of life, fasting isn't a way to prove my holiness, but it allows this hunger to kind of come up inside of me to be a reminder of my need and my dependence on Him. 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:40.480 Somehow fasting actually declutters my heart and makes room for something else to grow. 00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:43.440 That something, I think, is intimacy with Jesus. 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:47.680 That something is a new strength from him to carry on in grace. 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:50.000 And we need strength to fight the good fight. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.559 We need strength to throw off every weight of sin that so easily entangles. 00:24:54.559 --> 00:24:59.279 But it only comes through weakness, recognizing our dependence through fasting. 00:24:59.279 --> 00:25:06.640 If you can't deny, I've heard this said, if you can't deny the body through fasting, then you won't be able to deny the flesh in transgressing. 00:25:06.640 --> 00:25:09.920 So it teaches, it trains our body. 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:13.680 For the believer, a discipline can become a desire. 00:25:13.680 --> 00:25:17.680 It exposes you, as well said earlier, and it opens you up. 00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:34.480 Right now, the elders of our church have been invited to fast on Wednesdays during Ramadan for our Muslim neighbors, creating in us an intimacy with the bridegroom, I hope, but also an intimacy we want to see fall afresh on those who are not yet believers. 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:41.599 And what I'm hopeful for is that we all grow in that intimacy with Jesus, that we might see the kingdom of God moved in our prayers. 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:47.680 This is also in our text, but there is something they had right when they said a question about fasting and prayers. 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:50.000 Fasting and prayers that go together. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:26:00.799 And I long to see these small hinges of our prayers and fasting open these large doors of salvation and intimacy for those who do not believe. 00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:04.240 Small hinges can open large doors. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:08.799 The bridegroom has come and the bridegroom is coming again. 00:26:08.799 --> 00:26:13.359 The new wineskin and the new way of life leads to an ache for him. 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:17.440 Fasting is not an achievement, it's a posture. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:20.240 God, I want you. 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:28.000 Alicia Britt Cole, who writes a Lenten devotional, and I'll put the quote behind me, says this. 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:37.119 My fasts are more love offerings than disciplines, though it certainly requires discipline to maintain them. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:39.200 In short, I ache. 00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:41.519 I ache for my bridegroom. 00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:45.519 I ache to live every waking moment conscious of his presence. 00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:49.119 I ache to live aware of his past and present suffering. 00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:54.480 I ache to live unattached to what man counts and measures. 00:26:54.480 --> 00:27:00.400 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. 00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:06.480 Jesus, as the bridegroom, has you, and he has me, the bride, the church. 00:27:06.480 --> 00:27:09.200 In the new way of life, we have intimacy with him. 00:27:09.200 --> 00:27:17.119 Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and his gospel for us, for those who are outside, and also for us who believe. 00:27:17.119 --> 00:27:18.319 It is good news. 00:27:18.319 --> 00:27:20.480 It's a new way to live. 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:34.400 He himself is an is presenting to us an intimate opportunity of relationship with him, in which we ache for the fullness of the kingdom to come, where we get to see Jesus face to face. 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:38.880 I'm going to close with a simple confession, and this is our hope. 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:47.279 Christ has come, and that has made a big change in the way that we move in this life, right? 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:49.279 There's something that has been broken in. 00:27:49.279 --> 00:27:51.519 So the old way of life we put down. 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:54.160 We take up this new way of life in Christ. 00:27:54.160 --> 00:28:00.319 Christ has come, Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. 00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:05.519 It says this in Revelation about the marriage supper of the Lamb, which we fast towards, right? 00:28:05.519 --> 00:28:09.680 Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:11.279 Let us pray. 00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:27.440 Father, we are grateful for your love for us, in that you sent your son, the bridegroom, the bridegroom, to ransom a people, to ransom your bride, to be an inheritance by your blood. 00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:34.000 Jesus, you are the one who has us as a bride. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:38.240 You're the one who has purchased us in your blood. 00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:40.640 We are not our own. 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:50.559 Spirit, we ask you that you would fill us up with new wine, help us to throw off the old way of life and move us toward love in a new way of life. 00:28:50.559 --> 00:28:52.400 We give you the glory. 00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:53.359 Amen.