Luke 5:36-39

Luke chapter 6, reading verses 33 to 39, our focus is on 36, 39. 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? He said unto them, can you make the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. And he spake also a parable under them. No man puteth a piece of new garment upon an old, if otherwise then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeeth not with the old. and no man puteth new wine into old bottles, else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new, for he said the old is better. God bless to us his sacred and holy word. This morning, a small grocery store received a call from an unhappy customer. It seems that this woman had sent her young son, James, to the grocery store, to get five pounds of apples. But when he came back, there was only four and one quarter pound when the apple’s. when the woman weighed out the apples. The grocer replied madam my scales are regularly inspected by the state they are correct but then he added have you wager little boy you know it’s easy to draw the wrong conclusions and fail to consider all aspects of the situation in this passage of scripture john’s disciples here seeming are seeming to find fault with christ’s disciples about the matter of fasting. And we looked at this last week in verses 33 to 35. We said this dispute seems to be instigated by the disciples of the Pharisees and the scribes. They seem to be behind this and they attempt to discredit Christ in this manner. Christ carefully answers their question in such a way that he doesn’t. not offend the disciples of John in verses 34 and 35. He provides really two basic arguments in defending his disciples. The first we looked at in verses 34 and 35, and that is this. It’s not the proper season for fasting. Because as long as Christ is physically present, the bridegroom is present, then of course it’s a time of joy and celebration. You don’t mourned during a wedding. And so he’s saying this is a time of celebration. The second part of his argument is found in verses 36 to 39. That is this. The difficult exercise of extreme fasting isn’t suitable for weaker Christians and Christ’s disciples are young in the faith. So I want to talk about young Christians and religious Christians. duties from this passage of scripture this morning. Let me begin by saying this. You are to contemplate the parable of Christ. You’ll notice he says he spake also a parable under them. Now a parable is what we might call an earthly story, but it has a heavenly meaning. Where Christ takes something that we’re familiar with in this world and he applies it to a spiritual makes a spiritual application from it. He draws a spiritual conclusion from it. Now there are three different illustrations here in verses 36 to 39, but he uses the word parable in the singular because they’re really all one idea. They all carry the same idea. Well, he’s going to look at it from a different perspective. I’m going to follow Kelvin’s lead here, and this is what he’s. he said on this and I think it’s helpful as we look at this because there’s a lot of confusion about this passage of scripture and as you read it sometimes you’re saying what in the world is he talking about here? Let me give you a quote here from Calvin. Those who think that he compares worn-out garments and decayed bottles to the Pharisees and the new wine in fresh cloth to the doctrine of the gospel have no probability on their side. The comparison is beautifully adapted to the matter at hand if we explain it as referring to weak and tender disciples of Christ and to a discipline more strict than they were able to bear. And I think that makes the most sense out of this passage of scripture. Now the first illustration he gives us here is found in verse 36. That is new cloth on an old garment. No man putth a piece of a new garment upon an old. If otherwise, then both the new makeeth the rent and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeeth not with the old. Now we could say that this first illustration has to do with patching clothes. Matthews, excuse me, Mark’s Gospel, and Mark 221 says, No man soweth a piece of new cloth on old garment. because the new cloth will tear away from the weakened fibers of the old cloth, making an even larger tear in the clothes. I remember when I was younger, I went through a lot of Wrangler blue jeans. Maybe because I did a lot of, we play a lot of baseball, and I slid a lot, you know. And you’re wearing out the knees all the time. And the hole would develop. And so my mother would buy these iron-on patches for the blue jeans. They were like blue-gene color and they’d just iron them on there. They were darker in color than the blue gene, which was faded by that time. But she patched them, the ironed nose on, and it covered the hole. However, inevitably the stiffness of the new patch would cause it the old material in the pants to tear right where the patch was. and so it would tear anew and make the whole larger than it was before. It was a hopeless case in that situation. So what Jesus says here is vividly illustrated for me, I remember that when I was younger, that’s what happened. And I can see what he’s saying here in this picture. If you can picture that for yourself, maybe you’ve experienced that. You got an idea. So the eye. The idea of being old here is used in the sense of being weak and lacking strength. The disciples were not seasoned veterans in the Christian faith at this point. They were still babes in Christ. Matthew, we know just, we call him Levi in Luke’s Gospel. He just got converted. So the disciples were like the old cloth because of their weakened spiritual state, as young believers, trying, therefore, to force. force the disciples to undergo the new rigors here of strict and difficult fasting, Jesus says it’s not going to be good for it. Not all Christians are the same. Not all can be compelled to indiscriminately be alike. Some are strong like the pieces of the new cloth, and some are weak, like pieces of the old cloth. So this is the new cloth on the old garment argument. The second illustration is new wine in old bottles, verses 37 and 38. An old man puteth new wine into old bottles. Else the new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles and both are preserved. Now, this is a new wine. This second illustration is like the first. It sort of reinforces the first. It’s another example of the same principle. Now, when we use the word bottle today, we usually think a glass. Maybe plastic, but glass bottles, which remain strong for years. You know, wine bottles, you can be hundreds of years old than in the glass. However, our Lord here is using the word bottles in the sense of a container made of animals skins or leather. And the bottles of animal skins is what they used before the invention glass. And it would be flexible in some ways. You could easily carry it on the back of camels or horses without danger of breakage and so forth. So the old wine skins were already stretched because of previous use. When they put the… new wine in it, it would expand and put pressure on it. But if you’ve done that already and you’ve done it several times, the skin can only stretch so far. And he’s saying if you put new wine in it, it’s going to burst the wine skins because it can’t handle the pressure. So the new wines would burst, the old wine skins because they can’t stretch anymore. their elasticity is gone. So then you lose the wine bottles and you lose the wine. Again, we have the idea of the weakened state of the disciples as new believers made them like the old wine bottles. And putting the new wine of a duty here of rigorous fasting upon them would harm them. And the point that he seems to be making is this. We’ve got to spare the wine. the weaker Christian and not overwhelm him with a weightier burden that he’s able to bear. So this is the new wine in old bottles. The third illustration he uses is that of the old wine is preferred to new wine. Verse 39. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new. For he said the old is better. Now, the idea behind this verse seems to be that people become accustomed to the wine they drink. New wine has a bite in it, a sharpness in it that the old wine doesn’t. The old wine’s more mellow. It’s more smoother, if you would. Thus more pleasant to drink. And you have to sort of become accustomed to the bit of the bitters. aspect of the new wine. So adjusting from drinking old wine to new wine takes time. And the idea is that you may be going to do it gradually, not just all of a sudden get rid of all the old wine and jump right into the drinking just a new wine. Christ’s disciples were not used to the rigors of constant fasting, and that’s like the sharpness of the new one. wine. They think their old ways are better. They’re like the old wine, it’s more mellow. For the present time, while Christ is with them, there is no need for them to do these more difficult duties. When he’s gone, then they can do them. It’s better to be trained up gradually in the rigorous exercise of fasting. You shouldn’t be too hasty to thrust them. this upon them. These are more trying duties of the Christian life. So you are to contemplate the parable of Christ here. You have new cloth on an old, new cloth on an old garment. We have new wine in old bottles, and we have the old wine preferred to the new one. So what are we to learn from this? What practical applications can we draw then from this parable that Christ has told us in these three illustrations. The first is this. You have to take into consideration the weak state of some Christians when making demands upon them. In the physical realm, you go through various stages. You start out as a baby, then you become a child, then you go into the teenage years, then you come a young adult, then an adult, then you go into old age. You grow and you advance and you’re capable of doing more as you progress. The same is true in the spiritual realm. When you’re born again, you’re a babe in Christ. You know, John’s Gospel, if you read his first epistle, he actually divides Christians into three categories. He calls them little children, young men, and fathers in chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. The little children are the young babes in Christ. Then you become stronger. Then you become stronger. Then you become old men where you’re more seasoned and so forth. Remember what Jesus said to his disciples in John 1612. I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. And sometimes there’s things that the younger Christians can’t handle or bear all at once. It is indeed the rule of God’s dealings with his people to so proportion their lessons, their services. They’re their trials to their capacity, their progress in the faith and the strength that they have. He sort of weighs it out so that we don’t have more than we can bear. Now, it’s true as we become more mature in the faith, we may be able to have to have to bear more than we did when we were younger as Christians. But when we were younger, we may not be able to bear the hardest things. God proportions that out to us. You know, when the Lord led Israel out of Egypt to Canaan, he didn’t take the shortest route. He took the roundabout route. He went through the wilderness of Sinai and so forth. And then he comes to the land of Canaan. I mean, he comes circling around like this to the land of Canaan. He can just cut across the Gaza strip and go right into Canaan. Here’s what the scripture says, Exodus 13, 17 and 18. He led them not through the way of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, less peradventure, the people repent, change their minds, when they see war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. God prepared the people first so that in due time they would be able to vanquish their enemies. This seems to be. what God is saying. Only after many trials and many chastisements will they be ready, really, to take on the conquering of the promised land. And so it still is. God considers your frame. He’s not going to lay a trial on you that you can’t endure. He’s going to give you something that you can endure. And what God demands of you is going to depend on your maturity. that makes sense. You know, when my girls were very young, they were given the task of setting the table, the glasses, the plates, the silverware, and the napkins. Now, they were actually shorter than the table. And it was funny to see them do this. I mean, their mom would hand them the plates and they would have to, you know, put them up like this on top of the table. And then, you know, they’d be sliding the silverware up there with the napkins, and they slide the glasses up. They weren’t able to do it. too much, but they could do, they could set the table. And so they were able to set the table for dinner. Now, I didn’t have them haul out the kitchen trash because it was too, it was too heavy for them to carry the trash out. That was too much for them to bear. You take into consideration what they can do and what they can’t do. And so constant regular fasting was not a duty Christ demanded of his disciples at this point. So don’t expect every child of God to do exactly as you may be able to do. Sometimes they have to be led gradually to that point, so they can handle certain things. So you have to take into consideration the weak state of some Christians when making demands on them. Secondly, you will find some duties of religion more difficult than others. When we talk about prayer, Bible reading, church attendance. That’s expected every Christian from the greatest to the least. Without fail, without question. However, fasting is not as easy to do. Nor do people properly understand its significance, I think. Depriving yourself of food requires a disciplined spirit, a humbled heart, and a desire to draw near to God. We have to have the right approach to fasting. It’s not just a lever by which we get things from God, as if, you know, we’re trying to force something from God. Fasting is not something one should do all the time. The Pharisee is why fast twice a week? Well, the scripture seems to indicate to us it’s more on special occasions that we should fast. I mean, I’m not going to condemn someone if they want to fast twice. a week, but I’m just saying that I don’t think that that’s necessarily what the Bible would lay out for us. When you’re undertaking a new endeavor, when Paul and Barnabas were going to go out on their first missionary journey, the Bible says the church fasted and sent him out. This was a new endeavor. Isaiah 58 talks about when you want to break the bands of a beset of a setting sin. Fasting is one of the means of doing so. When you want to mourn this state of your country, Nehemiah won, you know, the sad state of his nation, Nehemiah fast because of what he hears about how bad things are, Jerusalem, and so forth. When you want to seek God’s help and intervention, as Esther did, as she fasts before going before King Azuarez and risking her life. She fasten seeks the Lord. So fasting can be done out of religious pride, as we know the Pharisees often did it that way. And you might consider yourself, well, I am a superior or Christian, because I do this or I do that, and look down on others. Setting days of fasting for everyone to observe leads to formality. It sort of empties, I think, fasting of its significance. In book of Zachariah, Chapter 7, the Jews had established fastings for the fifth and the seventh month. This had to do with their captivity, with Babylon, and so forth. So they inaugurated these days. But God says, when you fasted and mourn in the fifth and seventh month, even these 70 years, did ye at all fast unto me, even unto me? You set these days of fasting, but really were you’re fasting to me? They weren’t really doing it properly. And for 70 years they did it. And they still weren’t doing it properly. Thus, to fast properly, and a God honoring manner is more difficult than many imagine. Once you’d carefully study the scriptures about fasting, and see what the Bible says about fasting, like Isaiah 58, for example. So that you do it in a manner that’s pleasing to God. Most Christians are familiar with Jonathan Edwards. And I suppose that perhaps most of you were also aware of his famous sermon, sinners in the hands of an angry God. When he gave that sermon, the people in his crowded church were greatly moved by it, there was a tremendous impact when he preached. One man sprang to his feet, rushed down the aisle, crying Mr. Edwards have mercy. Others gripped the back of their pews lest they would slip into perdition. People were under such conviction. They felt the day of judgment was going to arrive any second. Why don’t people, what people don’t usually understand or know, is that Edwards fasted for three days before. he actually preached that sermon. He had not closed his eyes and sleep, but he engaged in prayer, and he prayed, Oh, God, give me New England. Give me New England. Because he saw the spiritual state of the people was dismal. And thus he fasted and prayed that God would bless his efforts that these people may be converted and may be saved. So you’ll find some duties in religion more. difficult than others. My third point is this. You shouldn’t attach undue importance to common religious practices that many follow. The disciples of John and the disciples of the scribes and the Pharisees demanded that Christ’s disciples conform to their standard regarding fasting, which we talked about last week. But Jesus indicates that too much importance was placed upon this regiment they had on fasting. Such demand for conformity leads to broken bottles and spilled wine. Ultimately, it leads to young Christians maybe having their profession miscarry because you’ve become a stumbling block to the week. Let every man be persuaded in his own mind when it comes to fasting. It is a a matter between you and God. You shouldn’t do a religious activity simply because everybody else is doing it. There may be overdoing, even when we’re well-doing. It’s an odd statement made in the book of Ecclesiastes. Maybe you’ve read it. Chapter 7, verse 16. Be not righteous over much. Neither make yourself over wise. Wise shouldest thou. Thou destroy thyself. Now this is not a warning against true righteousness. Too righteous behavior. We should always be concerned about doing what God’s commandments teach without fail on our question. But even the upright and heart, I think, are cautioned here against a false display of religion. There is a danger in hypocritical pretension to our actions in religion. We can have vain deceit in our religious activities. We can put on airs as if we were better than others or possess more wisdom than others but that we’re over wise, you see. Religion becomes focused then upon mainly externals. How much fasting do you do? compared to me. Self-conceded professors and certainly insist on their own shibboleth, you’ve got to meet their standard without regard to the different judgments of their brothers in Christ. Christian duties can be pressed beyond their due place and end up making an obligation where God has allowed freedom. Paul, in dealing with the Christians at Rome, found they were squabbling over several things. One of the things they were squabbling about is this. Whether or not they were limited to eating herbs or whether they could eat meat. And so there was a debate about that. He says, well, the weaker eat the herbs and the stronger will eat the meat. Some were demanding that all Christians observe all the holy days, evidently of the Jews. I don’t think he’s talking here about the Christian Sabbath. And some people didn’t observe any of the holy days of the Jewish calendar. So what does he decide? Does he say, okay, all of you should be eaten meat and all you should be observing these days? What does he say? Who art thou that judges another man’s servant to his own master, he standeth or falleth, yea, he shall be holding up, for God is able to make him stand. And he concludes in verse 5 of chapter Romans 14, let every man be fully persuade in his own mind. If you want to eat herbs, eat herbs. If you want to eat the meat, you can eat the meat. If you want to observe a day under the Lord, you observe the day under the Lord. If you don’t want to observe the day on the Lord, you don’t observe the day on the Lord. You don’t have to judge everybody’s servant about every little thing. The mother of the little boy who she sent to the grocery store for apples, complained that the store shortchanged her, but I think the grocer probably had it right. Did you weigh your little boy? He probably ate one of those apples on the way home. It’s easy to conclude you know what’s best for everyone. And you don’t see any other perspective on things. Hopefully, this passage will make you more cautious about, you know, demanding everybody meets our standard and regarding some of the common practices even in the Christian faith like fasting here, that there’s a time and place for fasting. Let’s be careful we don’t put everybody on our regimentation of this and that we do what we feel is right before God according to the guidance that he has given us. Let’s close with a word of prayer.