Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King #23 Jesus and the New Parables Luke 5:29-39

 

Jesus: Creator, Savior, Lord and King
#23 Jesus and the New Parables
Luke 5:29-39

 Introduction: 

This event takes place shortly after the healing of the man let down through the roof. In all the synoptic accounts, Matthew, Mark and Luke. After Jesus tells the paralyzed man to take up his bed and walk, He then calls a tax collector by the name of Levi, better know to us as Matthew the writer of the first Gospel.

We see this problem even in our life in Christ. In Jesus there is a newness in every prayer and page of scripture. Life in Christ is always new and should be filled with promise and hope. Yet many times we don’t live in His newness of life, and we fail to find the hope. I think the reason oftentimes is that we have the wrong expectation of Christ’s New Life.

The newness of life in Christ does not erase the difficulties of the old life. Oh yes, praise the Lord, that new life means new birth, it gives us a new name, it gives us a new heart, but it does not give us new flesh, nor does it erase our memories of our old life, or past sins. This problem of living the new Christian life was something that Paul, Peter, James, Jude dealt with in many times in the New Testament, but the most striking teaching about the new life is taught by Jesus himself in Luke 5:29-39. Get ready for Christ’s New clothes, new wine and a truly new life.

Three New Things - New Matthew, New Acquaintances, New Perspective - Luke 5:29-35

29 And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. 30 But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? 31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. 32 I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 33 And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? 34 And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.

The Messiah Meets Matthew’s Mates.

Jesus calls Matthew and Matthew host a great feast to honor the One he now knows is the Messiah. It may also to have been a time to announce that he was now a disciple, a follower of Jesus and no longer a publican, a tax collector for the Romans.

Levi had placed his faith in Jesus as and accepted Him as the Christ, and as his Savior he now had a new heart and a new birth. There was a lot to celebrate and so naturally, he threw a party. The Greek word here is doche, it means a reception. He invited all his publican (tax collector), societal outcasts, and sinner friends to meet Jesus.

 At this “super supper for sinners” sat Jesus, the guest of honor and all the other disciples as well, might have felt pretty awkward for them. The reception was probably in an outdoor patio, with a cover roof and would have been open to at the gate or possibly all the sides. So it was easy for the Pharisees, these moral watchdogs of Jewish society to see who was eating with this Jesus of Nazareth.

Soon, they began to murmur. This word γογγύζω goggyzō originally meant the sound made when doves roost and begin to coo. The scribes and Pharisees whispered and talked, and the sound the goggyzo they made was heard even in the reception. Finally, Jesus either because He had to deal with the noise or perhaps as he left at the end of the feast, speaks to the Pharisees.

            The scribes and Pharisees started asking some critical questions not because they care about an answer but because they wanted to influence and teach Jesus and his disciples. Their questions reflect their old attitudes and outlook on life and religion.

First they asked, “Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?” This was a reflection of their old bias, not against sin, but against sinners who were more identifiable as sinners than they were.

Jesus’ answer though, reflects a new attitude and new Life. Jesus, “They that are well don’t need a physician; but they that are sick do. I come to call sinners not the righteous to repent.” Just as a physician can give medicine to bring someone to new health and life, Jesus as Savior was come to give New Life to sinners. Lester Roloff, the well know Texas Baptist Preacher had a message called Dr. Grace and Dr. Law. Here Jesus is acing as Dr. Grace and the Pharisees as Dr. Law.

Then when they didn’t like that answer they asked, “Why do John’s disciples fast often, and pray, just like the disciples of the Pharisees; but yours eat and drink and don’t fast?  Why do your disciples feast instead of fast like us and even John’s disciples?

His answer reveals a new perspective, “Can you make the guests at a wedding fast, even as they celebrate while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away. When those days come, then they will fast.”

New You and New Me

In this opening passage there are three new things.

First there is a New Matthew and he is unashamed of his new life.  He has been to Jesus the great physician and been given a new heart, a new life because he has been born again by his faith in Jesus and by Jesus’ gift of grace.

Second, there are new People. He was unashamed of his friends. Matthew invites all his old friends to become new friends with Jesus and the disciples. I’m sure it wasn’t comfortable for either group at that party but Matthew knew it was the right thing to do. If you really want to honor Jesus as Savior then introduce Him to your family and friends. Matthew wasn’t ashamed of Jesus, he was humbled by Jesus’ invitation, and he was proud to say, “This is the Messiah. This is my Savior. We should never be ashamed to tell our family, friends, co-works and even strangers. This is my Lord, let me introduce you. This is my church where we meet together and worship Him. This is my life where I try to live and honor Him.

Remember what Jesus said about being ashamed of Him. Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Matthew considered it an honor to know Jesus and brother and sister so should we.

The third new thing Jesus talked about was a New Perspective, a new way of understanding and seeing a relationship with the Lord. With Jesus there was joy.  When the Pharisees ask why Jesus and His disciple don’t fast, Jesus tells them, you’re not seeing this properly.  Luke 5:34 Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?

Jewish weddings lasted for a week and no one in their right mind would say it was proper to fast at a wedding feast. Jesus gives us a glance of what our relationship with Him is supposed to be, a feast of happiness not a fast of hopelessness. One reason the Pharisees would fast was to call attention to the plight of the nation of Israel, they were showing God they needed deliverance as a nation, they need a Messiah.

And in a not very subtle way Jesus just told them, “Your prayers and fasting have been answered. They Messiah is here. Now is the time to have a joyful feast.”

Jesus did tell the Pharisees that He the bridegroom would be taken away and then His followers would fast. And there are times when we as today’s followers of Christ should fast, for many reasons and especially that we might focus our spiritual time and energy on our prayers, but our perspective should be, “Jesus is with me and I will have a joyful life, a joyful spirit, a joyful perspective because Jesus is with me.”

Jesus said, John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Later that night when He prayed to His father in the Garden of Gethsamane he prayed, John 17:13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Joining Jesus brings Joy. And we should never forget it.

Jesus goes on in vs 36 to more deeply explain the radical change that is made by a knowing Him.

Two New Things  - New Clothes, New Wine - Luke 5:36-38

36 And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. 37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. 38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.

New Garments and New Wine

Jesus was just getting warmed up to the subject of Newness in Him and in these verses, he uses parables, or metaphors to further illustrate the lesson He is teaching. He starts with common, everyday things and then takes the people from the everyday truths they easily understand to eternal truths He wants them to understand, from a physical reality to the spiritual realization.

A parable takes an earthly story and then teaches a heavenly truth, and no one was better at it than Jesus. Parables weren’t new, the Greek philosophers used them all the time, but no one really remembers their parable and most of us have forgotten the names of those philosophers, but even in our neo-pagan world people still know the parable of the prodigal son or the good Samaritan. The parables of Jesus have become part of the foundation of our society. Though these are not as well know as the prodigal son or good Samaritan, they still teach a vital truth about our life in Christ.

1st Parable - New Patches Don’t work on Old Clothes. Jesus no one would take a brand new garment, cut a patch out of it to try and mend and old garment, both garments would be ruined.

Now this takes place in the times before pre-washed jeans and synthetic cloth that doesn’t shrink. But in Jesus’ day when cloth was made by hand from wool or linen. If you had an old piece of clothing and it torn you wouldn’t patch it with new cloth because the new cloth would draw up and shrink when it was washed while the old would not. This could tear the cloth and make the original tear even worse. Nor would anyone cut up a new garment in order to patch an old one. Now you’ve ruined both.

Jesus is telling the Pharisees, “You can’t take who I am, what I am giving and what I am teaching and then try and use it to try and repair what you are. Jesus is the new garment and the Pharisees are the old. Jesus is the New covenant, the Pharisees the old. Jesus is grace and joy, the Pharisees are law and brokenness.

2nd Parable New Wine Doesn’t Go in Old Wineskins - Next Jesus says, “No man puts new wine into old bottles, because the new wine would burst the bottles and everything both wine and bottles would be lost.”

The bottles Jesus is talking about were goatskins. Now I’ve know a lot of Christians that you could call an old goat, but that isn’t the lesson here. In New Testament time, A goatskin was cleaned, cured and tanned, then the legs were tied off and a spout put in the neck or one of the legs and it formed a bottle. (Mmmm, mmmm, good. Why don’t we still drink things out of the dead bodies of skinned goats?) Back then though, these bottles, goatskins were used for transporting wine, especially new wine, which is unfermented wine, in other words grape juice.

If you had to carry new wine, which was any less than 40 days old, you had to use a new wine skin. The new wine, if put in an old previously used goatskin, would come in contact with residue of the yeast of the old wine left in the goatskin and begin to ferment. The old skin would then burst because it could not stretch like a new wineskin. New wine was carried in new wineskins, new bottles so it would not ferment, burst the skin and destroy the shipment.

Jesus was trying to tell the Pharisees you can’t take the new life I give and put it in the old of goatskin of Judaism and the Law. The new life of Christ will not work with the old life of sin. The new way of Christ will not work with the old ways of tradition. The new relationship in Jesus will not work with the old rituals of empty religion.

New You and New Me Don’t Fit the Old You and Me

We can see that Jesus’ new didn’t fit the old ways of the Pharisees. 

We understand that but often our problem is that we think we can make Jesus fit into my old ways and life. What Jesus does in us and to us through salvation is so powerful, so overwhelming, that it can’t possible work in or with our old self. Like Matthew, we are new in Christ.

Just like the old garment and the old wineskins trying to make Jesus fit into my old life and ways means that I will ruin both. I will ruin my new relationship with Jesus and I will see my old life as torn and broken. Jesus didn’t come to repair Judaism, he came to replace it and Jesus didn’t come to patch up your past, He came to erase your past, give you an new life and a joyful eternity.

At the end of the Bible in Revelation 21:5, Jesus sums up what he did in time, history, the new creation and in new lives. He says, “Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.”

Jesus brings the new to all of my life. He brings it at salvation, and he brings it to us every time we need it. Our challenge is to learn and walk in this truth and then find the power and the hope of the declaration of Jesus, “Behold, I make all things new!”

But many lives are ruined because they want the power and hope of the new life, but they want to put it in the wineskin of their old life, and it can’t be done. They want the love of Christ to just put a patch on the gaping holes of their old life instead of putting on the new garment of His righteousness.

It’s true of our lives and its true of our families. The attempt to protect your family with a little inoculation of church once a week while living without the new life of Jesus the rest of the week won’t work. It will only ruin your family and ruin the church for your family. Both will be ruined, just as Jesus said.

So many churches try to fit new patches on old garments, new wine in old wine skins in their services and in their so called “Gospel.” It won’t work. You can’t take the true Gospel and put it into a Star Wars or Indiana Jones presentation for lost people and then expect them to be changed by that old worldly wisdom and entertainment. A church can’t take the old rituals of paganism and find the new power of Jesus. Rituals, works, laws only bury the new in old traditions and expectations.

The Experience of Useless Garments – Oswald Chambers

The Holy Spirit does not patch up our natural virtues, for the simple reason that no natural virtue can come anywhere near Jesus Christ’s demands. God does not build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, He totally recreates us on the inside.

This is true of our lives, true of our families, true of our churches.

2 Corinthians 5:17 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 Why do we do this ? Jesus has the answer in vs. 39

 One New Thing - New Desire Luke 5:39

39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.

People Prefer The Past

 Jesus final word to he Pharisees was targeted right at them, “No man having drunk the new wine right away wants it because he says the old is better.”

New wine, fresh grape juice, especially in Jesus day, could be tart, tasting sharp and if you were expecting a mellow wine mingled with your water, which is how they drank it, then straight juice would make you take notice. What you were used to, the old was mellow and comfortable. It is pleasant because it is what someone is familiar with. It is what they had come to expect.

The Pharisees didn’t want to lose what they were comfortable with.

They were the leaders of religion, not this new Nazareth Rabbi, named Jesus. They didn’t have publicans and sinners at their supper tables. There were no surprises or shocks in their way of doing things. They had been running Israel since the return from Babylon. It was what they expected and what they wanted. It was comfortable and did not surprise, upset or shock anyone.

The New Me and New You Must Get Past the Past to Navigate The New

Now, none of us want to be Pharisees, the villains of the New Testament. Yet I act like a Pharisees if I hold on to my old ways and reject the new way of Jesus. If I refuse to release the old ways of legalism, of pride, of tradition, worldliness or even habits, traditions and ways of thinking and let the new man in Christ work through me, then I am more a Pharisee than a disciple of Christ.

We mentioned at the beginning of the sermon how many times this is taught in the New Testament. Look at Ephesian 4:17-24 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Putting on the new man is in the Greek tense that means “do it continually. Do it daily, do it consistently. It is not a once for all but something that I must be aware of and practice. No this is not salvation, only Jesus makes us a new man, but we must choose to put on that new man daily.

We read these parables and hear Paul talking about putting on the new man and in our minds we say, “Well of course. That is great I want to do that.” But remember what Jesus said, “No man desires the new, because they say the old is better.”

I love old things, especially old cars and old tools. LeeOra loves old things too and that’s why we’re still together, she loves the oldest antique in our house and that’s me.

The old things in our life are even more comfortable and familiar. It is so much easier to settle into the recliner at the end of the day and watch shows streaming through the internet that it is to get up, get outside and exercise. But new health doesn’t begin in old recliners. Nor does new life and new hope and new direction come in our live or our church by sitting in comfortable old pews on Sunday, but not doing anything else to bring new life the rest of the week.

What we can joke and laugh about old comfortable recliners and pews but be careful that the outcome of preferring the old is what Jesus warned us about, “both will be ruined.”

You must see, you must have this new perspective that Jesus is always pushing us to new things, always giving us new challenges, urging us on to new heights, always forcing us to reevaluate everything in our lives that we thought was just fine and didn’t need to change. Yet that is who Jesus is and that is what Jesus does. It did purpose to give us joy, but He did not intend to make our lives easy or comfortable. His certainly wasn’t nor were any of the apostle comfortable after they followed Jesus. I need to contantly evaluate my life in light of  the parable of “New garments and new wine.” I must ask myself daily, what did I do today that showed I had “put on the new man in Christ?”

 Continuous Conversion – Oswald Chambers

These words of Our Lord are true of our initial conversion, but we have to be continuously converted all the days of our lives, continually to turn to God as children. If we trust to our wits instead of to God, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. Immediately our bodies are brought into new conditions by the providence of God, we have to see our natural life obeys the dictates of the Spirit of God. Because we have done it once is no proof that we shall do it again. The relation of the natural to the spiritual is one of continuous conversion, and it is the one thing we object to. In every setting in which we are put, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered, but we have to “put on the new man.” … Our natural life must not rule, God must rule in us.

Conclusion:

One of the saddest aspects of any Christian life is that they no longer answer the challenge of being new in Christ.

It happens to me all the time. That comfortable recliner calls my name, and I settle in maybe take a nap and wake up just in time to go to bed. That’s not good for your physical life and as a metaphor of the Christian life it is even worse. Jesus didn’t make you a new person spiritually, just so that you could get old spiritually. Everyday is a new day and into each new day we should step out renewed once again in Jesus. Renewed to find, face and overcome the challenges of this old world.

It is sad when we no longer answer the challenge but on the other hand, One of the most wonderful aspects of any Christian life discovering the reality that in Jesus my life is always new because it is always renewed in His power, love and grace. 

Age? Doesn’t matter. Health? Doesn’t matter. Fatigue? This is hard for me to say but no it doesn’t matter. Those are old things and you and I are new in Christ every day. Just stop and listen, you can still hear Jesus say, “I put my new wine in you and my new garment on you, there are new ways to live, new things to accomplish, new places to go and new people to touch with My grace.”