The New Covenant!
Applying the KIngdom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Reading:
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Introduction:
With our new life in Christ, we are given a new perspective; but most importantly a new way of life. Salvation isn’t restricted to a certain age when we can accept the Lord, we can accept the Lord at any point in our lives which means that when we come into our new birth we can be 6 or 60. The differences would give somewhat of an advantage to the 6 year old.
Why?
The 6 year old has less baggage to bring into this new life.
What does that have to do with this new life?
Less baggage means less to rehabilitate yourself from.
Less bad routines and habits to fix.
What advantage does the older one get?
They have more understanding and wisdom they bring into the mix through their 60 years of life on earth.
They understand people and the silliness of the world much better.
It could be an advantage for how to apply the wisdom found in the scripture.
How does all of this work into today’s scriptures?
At whatever age we receive the Lord we have a few advantages.
We have the Holy Spirit.
We have the Scriptures.
We have our family (the church).
All of these things are necessary for the foundation and support for transforming in our new faith.
There is one caveat though: We must choose to and desire change for our life, which the Lord makes possible by the tools He provides.
We are given the wisdom by the scriptures (The How)
We are given the power to do so through faith in the Holy Spirit (The Means)
We have the support through our failures and healthy guidelines through our church family by accountability, and prayer.
As we heard last week the parables reveal a portion of the kingdom for our guidance and to change.
The parable today deals with a question about fasting.
Fasting brings into the conversation spiritual desire with a show of physical devotion.
The teaching brings into the conversation perspective and a few stories to teach with.
Transition:
The teaching begins with questions about:
A Marriage (:15)
A Marriage (:15)
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
John’s disciples come to Jesus.
Why didn’t John come with his disciples?
It is believed that at this point he was in prison.
They came and questioned Jesus:
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
It doesn’t seem like an inquisitive question, it seems more like and condemning question.
It’s good to note here that there can be 2 reasons for fasting:
Fasting through a desire for those they care for: A dire situation they sought the Lord for on behalf of someone else.
Fasting because that’s just what the religious people did.
It seems on the surface that John’s disciples are aligning themselves with the Pharisees.
Paraphrase: All of the religious people are fasting, and we are to.
They seem to group themselves in with those who are “religious” and in doing so suggest that Jesus isn’t.
It is odd that the disciples of John would want to align with the Pharisees, since John’s ministry was to prepare the way for Jesus and strongly criticized the Jewish leaders.
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
The religious tradition at this time was to fast 2x a week, it wasn’t a demand but a tradition that found it’s way into the religious routine.
John’s disciples were keeping to the tradition that they knew.
From their point of view Jesus was disrespecting a religious tradition.
One commentator gives a defence for John’s disciples in their choice to fast with tradition:
Matthew 3. Paradigmatic Healing (8:1–9:35)
Preparation for the Messiah’s coming required repentance and a certain austerity, but now the time for joy has arrived. Neither the Pharisees nor John’s disciples were wrong in fasting as a prelude to the reception of spiritual blessings, but now those blessings are present. Jesus’ inauguration of the kingdom stimulates celebration and rejoicing, as at wedding festivities.
(Stuart Webber’s commentary.)
The disciples of John could’ve rejoiced at Jesus being there and sought Him on behalf of John.
That is 1 point of view, to think through for the context.
Another is, that they were fasting on behalf of John’s imprisonment to show their sorrow and deep grief.
Showing their love for John, maybe they wondered why Jesus didn’t show His love for John as they were.
In this situation it would seem like they were condemning Jesus for not doing what they thought He should.
We find that Jesus is being questioned 3x by different groups.
First was the Scribes:
And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.”
This was following the healing of a paralytic in front of them.
And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”
He was supposedly blaspheming since only God could forgive sins, and clearly Jesus declared He is God by forgiving sins.
Second was the Pharisees:
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
They didn’t question Jesus they asked His disciples to explain why their master was doing something that traditionally was unacceptable.
Notice the structure of authority here:
Jesus didn’t expect the disciples who were young in their faith and didn’t have the wisdom we hold here to answer for Him.
But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Jesus’ proclamation was that He came to reach those who need Him not those who believe they don’t.
The third questioning was done here by the disciples of John, and whatever their motivation for it provides us a perspective to reflect on for ourselves.
Connecting Point:
It is easy, in pursuit of what is right to do, that we find ourselves doing things that are built from traditions but not necessarily from a biblical standard or principal.
Then we measure other people’s righteousness on whether or not they follow those traditions as we do.
We must take caution when we expect other people to live by the different boundaries we have for our own life and fall into the lie that we are better than they are.
Those are not spiritual tests that should be done.
Transition:
The disciples of John were motivated to ask Jesus about why His disciples were choosing to not follow the traditions of their religion?
Jesus answered their question with questions.
He started with:
Common Knowledge (:15-:16)
Common Knowledge (:15-:16)
And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
What do people know about weddings?
There is a man and woman who have been waiting through a betrothal period whom have anticipated the joining together of each other.
Their families have also been waiting to be part of their joining together, and possibly their community as well.
What happens when that time for their wedding finally comes?
All will celebrate that day of joy.
All hopes are fulfilled, the day finally arrived.
What bridegroom was Jesus referring to here?
Probably Himself.
John earlier proclaimed exactly who Jesus was and through His name alone they could conclude that the Messiah had finally arrived.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
John proclaimed the coming of Jesus. He stated that God with us would be the bridegroom since that was a key Jewish metaphor for God.
“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
Jesus proclaimed Himself as God present in the world as the Bridegroom; but what would this have to do with fasting?
That is what Jesus answers by prophesying that after His death, He will endure.
And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Jesus will be taken away from the “guests” believers who have faith in Him.
The wedding is to be a time of Joy, not asceticism.
Asceticism being:
involves self-deprivation and is usually pursued out of a desire to glorify God by avoiding what is harmful and by limiting oneself to what is necessary to maintain life
Fasting would fit into this category.
Jesus was present fasting wouldn’t be necessary for the disciples of Jesus to fast in sorrow for Him.
It makes sense for the disciples of John to fast on behalf of him; but not for the disciples of Jesus.
John’s disciples lost their bridegroom as he was in prison, he was taken away, they had reason to mourn and not be joyful.
The same is true for Jesus’ disciples after Jesus was taken away; but theirs would only be for 3 days.
Jesus brought a real world understanding to the future that was coming:
There will be a day when my disciples will mourn my death; but I will come again.
He could’ve stopped right there; but instead Jesus continued His questioning.
No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
Jesus wasn’t explicitly addressing the fasting question, seeing how He already did with the marriage example.
He brings into the thought examples to help address the “traditions”.
The patch.
Jesus expresses something that is old being repaired with something new.
The containers.
Jesus expresses the bad decision of filling old things with new wine.
What is He teaching here?
The patch wouldn’t make sense to anyone who has ever been an endurance tester for Iron on patches for blue jeans.
Illustration:
When I was little I was rough on clothes and shoes. My mom and dad had a heck of a time trying to keep me in decent looking clothes.
My mom found a way to prolong the purchasing of new jeans.
Iron on patches.
Then never matched the faded and used color of my jeans and rarely did the stay on. It worked for a little while.
but eventually proved useless!
Jesus had illustrated a point about new unshrunk patches being sewed onto already shrunk clothes.
Everyone knew that unshrunk patches would shrink, and when they did would render the patch entirely useless and pointless and would cause more damage pulling away from the garment.
New material added to old clothes ruins what it is attached to.
With the wineskins we have a principal that people would’ve understood as well.
The old wineskins aged with the wine fermenting inside of them.
Like a balloon they would’ve reached their elastic capacity.
If someone were to put fresh wine into old wineskins they would burst.
As the wine ferments it produces gasses and since the bladders had reached their capacity they would burst.
They wouldn’t be able to handle the new wine and it would be a loss of their efforts and product.
Since the 2 object lessons don’t deal directly with the questions of fasting; what is Jesus teaching here?
Transition:
Jesus is teaching about:
The New Covenant (:17)
The New Covenant (:17)
In Matthew 9:15 Jesus gives a view of the future.
And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
The bridegroom was leaving and would be much further than John was in his prison cell.
With this thought in mind His illustrations further gird up this main point.
The new covenant fact that Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension changed everything.
Jesus was no longer on this world and there was mourning, fasting, and sorrow.
It all changed for Jew and Gentile alike.
The Jew kept the promises; but gained the new addition of a family by the way of the Gentiles having extended to them a relationship with God through Jesus.
The Gentiles gained entrance into God’s family.
Both of which could have God’s presence residing inside of them.
If you would like to look at it this way:
The new covenant was too fresh and important to be attached to the old traditions.
The new covenant was too vibrant and potent for something inflexible and rigid to contain it.
Transition:
Jesus’ questions can apply to where we are in our faith and is just as valid as it was to the disciples of John.
Conclusion:
Matthew F. Celebrate! The King Is Finally Here! (9:14–17)
Jesus indicated that pharisaical Israel will not be able to handle Jesus’ truth. Israel was too rigid and unresponsive to carry his message to the world. God would use the church to accomplish that goal.
We cannot be rigid as they were, we should be the wineskins that grow as Jesus works through us.
Always mold-able to His will and direction.
We should evaluate whether or not our life-style and words portray the joy of our salvation.
Is our relationship with Jesus close and is it vibrant?
The message of the gospel stays the same, the only things that should change are:
The methods of evangelism
Church growth
Music
Worship
All of which when evaluated should be effective in ministering to the current generations.
The traditions shouldn’t become a straight-jacket that hold us back from celebrating the sinners that hear and receive the gospel.
Jesus’ message would be poured into a new wineskin, the church, (That’s you!)
Our lives cannot be that of mourning it should be that of Joy because Jesus is with us and He will return to gather His children.
His new covenant is attached to you poured into you.
To be effective with that gift is to be ever ready for the ways He will stretch your faith, even when you’re uncomfortable and even when it hurts.
- Pray!