Garments and Wineskins
In this sermon, we explore the significance of Jesus' parables, particularly focusing on Matthew 9:14-17, where Jesus addresses the question of why His disciples do not fast like those of John the Baptist and the Pharisees. We discover that Jesus uses the metaphor of a wedding to illustrate His presence as the bridegroom, emphasizing that His arrival is a time for celebration rather than mourning. This leads us to understand that fasting, while valuable, is inappropriate when the Messiah is present.
We also delve into the parables of the new cloth and new wine, which serve to reveal the divine truth that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. These parables illustrate that just as new wine cannot be placed in old wineskins, the new covenant brought by Jesus cannot be confined to the old ways of religious practice. Ultimately, we learn that our lives as new creations in Christ should reflect what is fitting for our new identity, encouraging us to embrace the joy of our relationship with Him while rejecting the old ways that do not align with our new life.
Key Takeaways
- Jesus uses parables to reveal divine truths to those who seek to understand, while concealing them from those with hard hearts.
- Fasting is unfit while the bridegroom, Jesus, is present; it is a time for celebration and joy.
- The parables of the new cloth and new wine illustrate that the new covenant cannot be confined to old religious practices.
- As new creations in Christ, we are called to live lives that reflect our new identity, rejecting old ways that do not fit our new life.
- Our relationship with Christ should lead us to new desires and behaviors that align with our identity as His followers.
Scripture References
Discussion Questions
- What does it mean for us to celebrate the presence of Christ in our lives today?
- How can we discern what is fitting and unfitting for our new life in Christ?
- In what ways do we sometimes cling to old practices or mindsets that do not align with our new identity?
- How can we better seek to understand the truths revealed in Jesus' parables?
- What are some practical ways we can celebrate our relationship with Christ rather than mourn?
Matthew 9:14-17
Matthew 9:14-17
Celebrating the Messiah’s Arrival:
The distinction about Jesus’ disciples. (V. 14)
The distinction about Jesus Himself. (V. 15)
Two illustrations of one divine truth. (V. 16-17)
Parabolic truth: Just as it was unfit to sew new cloth to an old garment or put new wine in old wineskins, it was also unfit to fast while the Messiah was with them. Today, it is fitting to fast as we eagerly seek God and await Christ’s return. When He returns, it will again be unfitting to fast because we will be with Him forever enjoying the marriage supper (wedding feast) of the Lamb!
Transcript
· Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you?
· Good. Good.
· Good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you?
· Yeah, there we go. All right. All right. All right. I know. Everyone's so tired from VBS. It's like everyone's like, man, that's But yeah, good morning. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. If you're new with us, uh, welcome in. Come find me afterwards. I'd love to chat with you, get to know you some more. And, uh, this time I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9.
· And if you don't have a Bible, there's one in the seat back in front of you or near you. You can feel free to use that one. Uh you can highlight it, underline, mark it up, make that your Bible, and uh bring it back next week. Uh but that is our gift to you if you don't have one. I want to echo what Brian said, a hearty thank you to all of you who are involved with VBS. This was the best VBS I've ever been involved in. Okay, I don't know about you, but I've ever done. It was awesome. It was really cool. So, uh thank you to all of those.
· It was a lot of hard work. Uh but we had a lot of fun as well. So uh pray for uh continue to be in prayer for those uh families. Uh we had a new family at 9:00 which was great. And um just be be in prayer that God would continue to bring um men, women, and children into his kingdom.
· Well, last week uh we concluded our miracles of Jesus series looking at different miracles of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.
· And this morning we are shifting our attention to the parables of Jesus. So this is part of a broader series, the miracles and parables of Jesus. Now we did eight miracles and we have about nine parables and this will take us up to uh like into the fallish. But we will be continuing to do this in the book of Matthew and then looking at of course gathering details from the other gospels along the way as we did with the miracles.
· Now before we get into the parables of this passage um I want us to it is very important that we know what a parable is and its purpose. What is a parable? Well, the word parable literally means to place beside. You kind of have that root wordish like parah, right? Like we have parallel. Um, and you think when something's parallel, they're placed beside each other.
· Parable is to place beside. We could use words like comparison or a juxiposition to describe what a parable is. In scripture, parables are stories that are placed beside a truth, a divine truth, a spiritual truth, a spiritual reality.
· You may have heard it said that a parable is a an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And I would agree, of course, with that. So when Jesus teaches in parables, he uses everyday things that people would be familiar with, but the purpose of it is to illustrate a divine truth. Uh maybe it's about a Christian principle or it's about the kingdom of heaven. uh any number of things.
· Jesus is using what you would know, what anyone living in his day would immediately know and recognize to illustrate divine truth. So that's a parable. But what is the purpose of a parable? Why does Jesus speak in parables? Well, I'm glad you asked because the disciples ask Jesus the exact same question in Matthew 13.
· And while he gives a longer answer than what I can go into this morning, I will give you the summary answer, which is this. Matthew 13:13 says Jesus is speaking and he says, "This is why I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
· And you say, "What on earth is he saying?" That's supposed to be a reason he speaks in parables. Well, the broader context of that answer in Matthew 13 is Jesus is quoting a prophecy of Isaiah. And that prophecy is essentially about people's callous hearts, their dull ears, and their shut eyes hearing.
· They'll hear, but they won't actually hear. They will see things, but not actually see them. And you can kind of hear the difference, right? And and you know the difference of what I'm talking about when I do it that way, right? You can hear something and then you can hear something. There's a difference. So the bottom line is this. Parables.
· The reason Jesus teaches in parables is because they simultaneously reveal and conceal truth to the person who really wants to know what the kingdom of heaven is like or the divine truth that Jesus is teaching to that person. The parable reveals it to them.
· The parable is a sweet, rich example of divine truth for the real listener. For those who have you've heard, as you've heard me say, have ears to hear. Let them hear. Right? However, to the disinterested person, the one who has zero interest in godly things and in Jesus day would be those who just want free stuff from him but don't really care about what the truth is, what he has to say to the disinterested person.
· Jesus parables hide truth. So parables reveal truth to those spiritually ready to receive it and they conceal truth to those with hard hearts. They con they reveal truth to the diligent seeker genuinely hungering for God and they conceal truth from the lazy apathetic person who has no interest in what God is saying. That's why Jesus spoke in parables because parables separate the true listeners from the fakers.
· And I find it appropriate that we pray that the spirit would give us ears to hear. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word, God. All we can do is ask that you would help us.
· Help me, God, as we work through this passage. Help us as a church to not just be hearers of the word, but doers also. Help us to rightly understand what is um what the truth is here in your word. Give us eyes to see, God.
· Give us ears to hear what your spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church Phoenix. We pray God, I pray against hard-heartedness and for soft hearts in Jesus name. Amen.
· Well, if you are able, let's stand as we read Matthew chapter 9 14-17. And if you're uh unable to, no worries. Uh stand with us in spirit as we honor God's word. Matthew chapter 9, beginning at verse 14.
· And it says this. Then John's disciples, this would be John the Baptist's disciples, came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
· No one patches an old garment with untrunk cloth because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wine skins, and both are preserved. Amen. Thanks. You can be seated.
· Certain things in life are not wrong in and of themselves, but are inappropriate at certain times. For example, for you ladies, you wouldn't wear a beautiful flowing white dress to a funeral. or for all of us in here really, you wouldn't wear all black clothing to a wedding.
· I mean, nowadays, you never know. But generally speaking, we don't, right? We do live in some weird times, but you know what I'm saying. As one uh Presbyterian pastor uh put it, who's now gone to be with the Lord, he says this, quote, "You don't give your wife a skillet for your anniversary, and she doesn't give you a rake for your birthday." End quote.
· Maybe they did. I don't know. But you would agree with me that it was inappropriate then. White dresses, black clothes, uh, skeleton rakes, not bad things, but they can be inappropriate based on the situation. Sometimes they fit the occasion. Other times they don't. And I believe that's exactly what Jesus is teaching here.
· I'm going to come right out at the beginning and tell you what I don't want you to leave with this morning. I do not want you to walk away from this sermon thinking, "Okay, Old Testament bad, New Testament good." Because often when we read Old and New, we automatically equate old, bad, new good.
· And this passage I think has been taken out of context in a few ways um that we're not going to get into. But this is not what is not happening is Jesus pitting the Old Testament against the New Testament. God gave us both Old and New Testaments. They are both good and reveal the same God. Nor is Jesus marginalizing fasting as if it's outdated and no longer useful.
· We'll see the New Testament church fast and pray often. Jesus himself said he did not come to abolish or do away with the law. He came to fulfill it. So, this is not like an out with the old, in with the new kind of of sermon because that's not what Jesus is teaching here.
· And you say, "All right, so what is happening here?" Right? Like, what is going on with all this? Well, it's our main heading this morning. And if you have a handout, they're in the If you don't have a handout, they're on the back tables. If you do, um, you can follow along. We actually don't have the points up here this morning. um they didn't get put in, but we got you on the handout and I will read it to you.
· Our main heading this morning, what is going on? Celebrating the Messiah's arrival. Celebrating the Messiah's arrival. We begin in verse 14. Point number one, the distinction about Jesus disciples. The distinction about Jesus disciples, something was different about Jesus disciples. They weren't observing the same fasts, which was this twice a week uh thing that they did. Not biblical.
· The twice a week fast is not in the Old Testament. The Old Testament knew of one mandatory fast which was on the day of atonement in Leviticus 16. This fast that they're doing, they fast often which is fine. Um they they have this twice a week fast and John the Baptist disciples do it, the Pharisees do it, but Jesus disciples do not.
· This is also a legitimate question. If you read um the gospels and the Pharisees often ask Jesus questions, the writer of the gospel will tell you what's really going on, right? He'll say this. They asked Jesus this because they're trying to trap him. They want to trip him up. This is not one of those situations. I believe this to be a genuine inquisitive question. Why don't you guys fast?
· Why are you guys not doing what the other religious leaders of and followers of John the Baptist are doing? Uh Jesus ministry is growing and there's people following him and he seems like a pretty good Jewish religious rabbi. There's a new teacher in town and he's got a lot of followers. But why doesn't he do what the other religious leaders are doing?
· And why isn't he telling his disciples to do it? The Pharisees have their own disciples and they teach them to do this twice a week fast. Whatever. John the Baptist disciples were doing this as well. This isn't the first thing to catch their eye about Jesus. If you look up before this passage, they ask why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners.
· So, they're concerned about Jesus feasting and fasting, right? No matter what Jesus did, they it was going to be wrong anyway. Um Jesus points that out when he talks about John the Baptist, right? You got John the Baptist came fasting and you rejected him and then I come, you know, eating and and celebrating, eating and drinking and you reject me anyway. So really the bottom line is what is that? It's a spiritual issue.
· But they're concerned about Jesus eating with sinners, not fasting um like they're like like they do. The bottom line is Jesus disciples are different and they want to know why. Which is a great question. It leads us to our second point. Number two, the distinction about Jesus himself. The distinction about Jesus himself.
· Please listen closely.
· Verse 15 is what this whole passage is about. Sometimes we get distracted like I did this week, right? Trying jumping to the parables and trying to figure out their meaning before understanding fully the impact of verse 15. I don't want you to miss it. Verse 15 is Jesus outright claim to be God.
· It is Jesus is claiming to be the Christ, the Messiah, and Yahweh of the Old Testament. Claiming to be the groom, claiming to be the bridegroom is a claim to be God. And we cannot overlook this. Verses 16 and 17 are parables. Verse 15 is not. verse 15 is a statement of truth, a a statement of fact.
· And in Luke's gospel, he's very careful to tell us that exact thing. He doesn't want you to mix these things up. So, in the parallel passage of Luke 5, beginning at verse 34, it says this, "And Jesus said to them, can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with him?" Similar to what Matthew just said, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in those days.
· He also told them a parable and he goes into the garments and the wine skins. Now, I'm showing you Luke 5 uh 36 because Jesus saying he's the bridegroom is not a parable. It is a statement of truth. Luke distinctly calls the garment in wine skins part a parable.
· It's either two parables in one or just one big parable. Whatever it doesn't matter. The purpose of these parables, the point of verses 16 and 17 is to support the fact that Jesus is the bridegroom. And that is why fasting is unfit at this time. What's interesting is that no one has said anything about a wedding. Jesus in the context came from dinner at Matthew's house eating with a bunch of tax collectors and sinners.
· So, he did come from dinner, but why does Jesus start to use wedding language?
· Can they mourn? Can they be sad while the bridegroom is here? Can my disciples should they be fasting right now when I'm right here?
· Why does Jesus use wedding language?
· This is where it gets awesome. Because of verse 13. So look up at verse 13.
· In verse 13, Jesus is correcting the Pharisees, right? Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus?
· Right? And he answers them. verse 13 of Matthew 9ine, our chapter, right before our our our passage today, Jesus is correcting the Pharisees and he says, "Go and learn this thing, right?
· Go and learn what this means, guys. I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Take take your scroll, take your Bible, go home and learn what that means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. He is quoting Hosea 6:6.
· That's where that comes from. And he's talking to religious leaders who would know hopefully what he's quoting. They would know this is coming from Hosea. What's the book of Hosea about?
· You may have never read it. I highly encourage you to. It's the opening of the the 12, we call them minor prophets, but they all have a major uh role. But Hosea is about God being a faithful husband to Israel while Israel was unfaithful to God. And so the summary of that is that God tells Hosea to take a wife and her name is Goomemer.
· So for you single people, you know, if you're looking, find a, you know, find someone named Goomer. No, I'm just kidding. Um, you know, or a guy named Goomer. I'm kidding. Well, maybe. I don't know. But Hosea marries Goomer who will leave him and be unfaithful to him.
· And God tells Hosea, regardless of how unfaithful she is to you, how much she hurts you, how much she le how often she leaves you and betrays you, guess what you're going to do, Hosea? You're going to take her back, buy her back, and be a faithful husband to her. Why? because your life is going to illustrate the truth of what Israel is doing to me, to God, being unfaithful to me and worshiping other idols.
· All of it is an illustration of God's unfailing love for Israel, though Israel rebelled and was unfaithful to God. So he quotes Hosea 66 and then uses the context there to say the bridegroom's here. The husband, the divine husband, so to speak, is here.
· And that is why Jesus I believe I should say that's why I believe Jesus uses wedding language calling himself the bridegroom. What's even more fascinating is that Jesus calling himself the bridegroom is not only a claim to be the Messiah, the Christ, the the coming one, but also is a claim to be God.
· In Hosea 2:16, the Lord, right, Yahweh is speaking and he says this, Hosea 2:16, "And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband." And a few verses later, Hosea 2:19 and 20, God is still speaking. He says, "And I will betro you to me forever. I will betro you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
· I desire mercy, right? I will betro you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. And Hosea is not the only prophet or prophetic book in the Bible to talk about God being Israel's beloved husband. It's a it's a picture of God's love for Israel. For example, Isaiah 54:5 says, "For your maker is your husband.
· The Lord of hosts is his name, and the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer. The God of the whole earth he is called.
· Israel, your faithful, loving, redeeming husband, is the holy one of Israel. your redeemer, the God of the whole world, the God of the whole earth, and he is Yahweh. Right?
· Jeremiah 3:14, "Return, oh backsliding children, says the Lord. Come back to me, for I am married to you. I will take you one from a city and two from a family. I'll bring you to Zion." And there's a lot of context. Jeremiah 3. But God again is saying, describing his love for his people as a wedding, as a marriage to them, and they had been unfaithful even though God had always been faithful to them.
· Saying all that to say this, by calling himself the bridegroom, Jesus is claiming that he is the Lord. He is Yahweh. Therefore, this is a time of rejoicing because God is here.
· This is not an appropriate time to fast because God's here. Fasting in those days served multiple purposes and it was supposed to be a show of covenant faithfulness and sorrow for sin and a a time to seek God. Now, the Pharisees and others had twisted fasting, right? They use fasting to make you think they're super pious and religious when inwardly they were. And Jesus calls them out for that. Yes. But real true fasting was a seeking of God and and these things.
· And Jesus is saying that the one that the Old Testament points to is here. Christ, the Messiah, the bridegroom, God is here. It's not fitting. It's not appropriate to fast right now because I'm standing in front of you. It's not a time to be sad. It's a time to rejoice.
· Notice what Jesus says. There will come a time when they will fast. It's when he's taken away, right? When the bridegroom is taken away, when he's he's speaking of his crucifixion and his resurrection, then he'll ascend. And he says, "Then they'll fast." And what do we see in the book of Acts? They fast.
· So Jesus isn't doing away with fasting because when we get to the parables, it's not like so get rid of the old like fasting is the old way, in with the new. Just like gorge yourself. No, no, that's not what he's saying. He's talking about it is not the time to fast right now cuz I'm here. There will come a time later.
· The early church fasted, prayed, and the Holy Spirit would move, give guidance, and it was an appropriate time. So, this takes us to our our last point here. Two illustrations of one divine truth. These parables don't teach two different things. They are two parables with one divine truth.
· The parables of six, verse 16, and 17 point to the truth of verse 15. I I want to repeat that. I know I've been saying that probably over and over and you're tired of it, but remember that.
· So, let me put it this way in trying to be with brevity and clarity. Because Jesus is the Messiah, it was unfit to fast just like it was un it would be unfit to patch an old garment with unshrunk or new cloth.
· Jesus never does say it's inappropriate to sew an old patch to old clothes. He's like just no one uses a new one. Right? The logic behind this is that if you use a new cloth and patch it to an old like t-shirt, when the t-shirt when the clothes are washed, the new patch which hadn't been washed yet or gone through that cycle would shrink and tear and make the tear on the old shirt worse because it would pull away from it because it was unshrunk new cloth on and all of it would shrink.
· He doesn't say that you couldn't take an old cloth that had been through the wash a few times or whatever and put it on a new piece of clothing. And he doesn't he doesn't speak either way, but as I'm interpreting the passage, I'm thinking, well, he doesn't say that you couldn't use old. He's just saying no one does new, right? or because Jesus is the Messiah, it's unfit to fast. Just like how it's unfit to put new wine in old wine skins.
· Wine skins were made from animal skins. And over time, right, we we bottle it now in glass bottles, but they had old wine skins. Animal skin is what it is.
· And over time, they would dry out and they would become brittle. So, if you put fresh new wine that hadn't fully fermented yet into an old wine skin, when it ferments, pressure would build in it, and the new wine would burst open the old wine skin that had become brittle.
· What Jesus is saying, I believe, is simple. I over complicated it for a while and I think a lot of of folks do because it's a interesting parable. But here's what he's saying. I believe new cloth goes on new garments because it's fitting. New wine goes into new wine skins because it's fitting. celebrating and feasting while the Messiah is here is fitting.
· Let me put it in the in the negative here. New cloth on old garments is unfitting. New wine in old wine skins is unfitting. Fasting while the Messiah, while God's standing right in front of you is unfitting.
· Now, I do want to take a moment, a quick moment to address uh what something that Luke says that he adds that the other gospels don't. In Luke 5:39, Jesus adds one last statement that just kind of also strikes you as like, huh? Right?
· Luke 5:39 Jesus says, "And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good."
· What does he mean?
· Well, how do you get old wine with new wine that sits around and becomes old, right?
· You got to start somewhere. Everything that's old was once new. This tagline that Jesus adds, I think, believe with all my heart, simply adds to the parable. New wine goes into new wine skins so they grow old together. So the wine skin can hold it and the wine can ferment and become good, right? And tastes good.
· The result is good wine. You don't want to ruin the aged wine by adding new or mixing it together with uh with anything else. When you have, what I believe he's saying is simply this. When you have your aged wine, it's satisfying. You're not left longing for the new that's not ready yet. You would let that batch stay there because it goes together. And this batch you just enjoyed because it did its thing. It fermented. You let it sit for a while.
· So you're not left longing for the new wine that's not ready yet. The old was just fine. Why? Because it was handled properly. It was placed properly in the appropriate wine skin.
· At the end here, I just want to give you some parabolic truth. I'm probably going to do this with every parable. Kind of a summary that you can take home with you if you so desire. But I'm going to read this and it's on the handout as well if you'd like a copy of it.
· All right.
· Insummation.
· Just as it was unfit to sew new cloth to an old garment or put new wine in old wine skins, it was also unfit to fast while the Messiah was with them. You don't need to fast and long for God when he's standing in front of you.
· Right. Today it is fitting to fast as we eagerly seek God and await Christ's return. And as I thought about this kind of holistically, if you if if you think through it, the last sentence, when he returns, it will again be unfitting to fast because we will be with him forever enjoying the marriage supper or other translations say the wedding feast of the lamb. In Revelation, heaven is described as the marriage supper, a feast.
· Can you imagine being in heaven with the Lord and you're sitting, however this looks, I know there are different interpretations of Revelation, but it uses a wedding supper, right? Imagine yourself, you're in heaven at the marriage supper of the lamb and and you're sitting there with God and you're like, "Sorry, I can't eat. I'm fasting."
· What is there fasting in heaven? Do you need to fast and mourn and be sad when you're with God for eternity enjoying his presence forever? No. It would be there will come a time when fasting will be unfit again when you're with him.
· As I was considering some applications of this text, um I'll tell you the word fitted and unfittedness. And I don't even know if unfittedness is a word, but it is now, right?
· Things that are fit, things that are unfit, everything. It really stood out to me. So here, consider your life.
· Consider your life.
· As a believer in Jesus Christ, you and I are completely new creations. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.
· Right?
· As a new creation, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. And God keeps you. He preserves you and and he guides you. Jesus didn't come to improve your old life, just patch you up, bring a little bit of newness to you with all your oldness, leave you mostly how you are. No, no, no. He came to give you completely new life. The Holy Spirit isn't coming into you to make you a better old you.
· Does that make sense?
· You are completely made new when you come to Christ.
· So reflect on your life. What is fitting and unfitting for your new life in Christ? Cuz I'll tell you, sin fits our old lives pretty well, right?
· Sin fits the old DJ really well. The old dead DJ, sin fits right in with him. But then something happened. When you come to Christ and you become new creature in Christ, guess what? It is unfitting to go back to your old ways. You're made new. It's unfitting for you and I if you proclaim Christ Jesus Christ is my savior. It is unfit for you to go home and watch pornography.
· It is unfit for you to lie, get high, cheat, steal, worship yourself or any other idols. insert idol here, money, whatever it is, lust, it is unfit for you because you're new.
· At least you profess to be, right?
· You're made new. Your life in Christ should lead you to new desires that fit. Here's what fits the new creation. That is you who are in Christ or I. A hunger for God's word, a a vigilant prayer life, a desire to be in fellowship with others. These are fitting for someone made new. You give me somebody who says, "I believe in Jesus and lives completely the opposite kind of life." Very concerned for you.
· Sin should stay in the old dead and trespasses DJ and I want it to stay right there. I'm not telling you that I don't struggle or you don't struggle. I'm not saying that we won't struggle with sin. I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is that it shouldn't fit you.
· It should be uncomfortable for you to sin. I think this is why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6, right? What partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with bile, right? Or Satan? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement does the temple of God have with idols? The answer, spoiler alert, nothing. The implied answer of all of those questions that Paul is rattling off is zero.
· These have zero things to do with each other. Someone who is in Christ, a new creation, has should have no partnership with lawlessness. Somebody who is new in Christ should not have fellowship with darkness because they walk in the light as he is in the light. Right? We taught our kids all week long, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." John 8:12, we heard him say it about 100 times. Is great.
· Right?
· If we are in the light, we will walk in the light. Read First John. Big fat giant letter to warn you about whether or not you're truly a believer or not.
· Read for Go home and read First John. I challenge you to, right?
· What does the temple of God have to do with idols? Nothing. You don't mix those two together. You don't mix in your idolatry with your worship of God. These things don't fit.
· You can't mix God with your idolatry. It won't fit. Don't try to make it fit. And that's why I often will say a Christian in sin should be miserable. Right? A Christian in sin should be miserable because it's uncomfortable. You should feel convicted. You should feel sorry.
· And you should turn away from it and come running to Christ. And yes, you are forgiven of sin, past, present, and future. And then you come to Christ and you confess your sins. And when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And then we press on. We press on. It shouldn't sin shouldn't fit comfortably in your new life. It should stay in your old dead self. That's what I believe.
· And at this time, we're going to transition into appropriately um transition into communion, the communion we have with Christ. If you don't have um one of the communion packets, you can walk back real quick and grab one if you're going to partake. Um I give a few admonitions here. You don't have to be like a member of Cross Church to partake in communion.
· This is for Christians, right? It's for believers in Jesus. So, if you've trusted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you are invited, uh, to partake and celebrate the Lord's Supper with us. Um, if you're here, um, and those of you joining online, if you want to grab the elements, um, I almost forgot to say that. U, but if you're here and you say, I don't know what all this is about.
· Jesus is the bridegroom. Like, he's God. Like, what? He's savior. I don't know.
· If you don't know Jesus Christ, number one, today can be the last day that that's true about you. And I would love to introduce you to Jesus Christ and have you uh get saved and come to him in repentance and faith in Christ. That is the invitation for you. But I would also say um don't partake and just simply watch. Um Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians chap 11 that we do this communion in remembrance of Jesus. looking back. We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Looking forward to his coming.
· And the scriptures say right, therefore, we examine ourselves looking in.
· So, I want you and I, if you're participating, to take time now to examine yourself. You say, "What do you mean by that?" I mean, are there any sins that need to be confessed to the Lord? Is there anything in your life you need to turn over to him? Is there anything in your life unfit for you as a as a Christian, as a new creation in Christ?
· Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Reflect on your love for Christ. Do you love and cherish Christ? Is he everything to you? I invite you to take a minute and reflect and then we'll uh partake. And if you're in prayer or community, with the Lord. Don't uh let me disrupt that. I do want to read us the scriptures as we partake. If you'll peel back the layer with the the bread.
· Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 11:23. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the body of Jesus Christ, our savior, broken for us.
· We thank you that we serve a risen savior. We thank you for his coming fully God and fully man. That great act of humility, living with us, among us, dwelling with us, never sinning once, and going to the cross for Pastor DJ's sin, for the sins of all of us in this room, all of us online, and the sins of the world. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake.
· And if you would peel back the layer with the juice. Paul continues to write in the same way. He Jesus also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat the this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. You realize this is a proclamation.
· I always love how Paul says, "You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." You kind of have to be alive to come, right? So, we proclaim his death on the cross because he's risen and coming again. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. We know and believe. What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
· What could possibly make us whole again?
· Nothing but the blood of Jesus. We thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. That you died, were buried, rose again on the third day just as it just as it was written. You fulfilled it. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.
· Let's partake.
· I want to invite the worship team down for our last song.
· If you're here and you say, I don't know Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, please, please, please talk to me. If you're like, I don't like your face, DJ, you can talk to someone else. Um uh maybe someone up here where just go find someone that you can talk to and say, I want to know Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word.
· God, help us to be and do what is fitting for our new lives in Christ. We We run from sin. We don't flirt with it. We don't mess with it. We run from it. God, help us to be that radical about our sin. Pray that you would rid ourselves, God.
· Rid us of any lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Fill us with your spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These ought to be the things our lives are filled with because it is fit for a new creation in Christ. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.
Part of Series
Parables
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· Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you?
· Good. Good.
· Good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you?
· Yeah, there we go. All right. All right. All right. I know. Everyone's so tired from VBS. It's like everyone's like, man, that's But yeah, good morning. I'm Pastor DJ. I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. If you're new with us, uh, welcome in. Come find me afterwards. I'd love to chat with you, get to know you some more. And, uh, this time I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 9.
· And if you don't have a Bible, there's one in the seat back in front of you or near you. You can feel free to use that one. Uh you can highlight it, underline, mark it up, make that your Bible, and uh bring it back next week. Uh but that is our gift to you if you don't have one. I want to echo what Brian said, a hearty thank you to all of you who are involved with VBS. This was the best VBS I've ever been involved in. Okay, I don't know about you, but I've ever done. It was awesome. It was really cool. So, uh thank you to all of those.
· It was a lot of hard work. Uh but we had a lot of fun as well. So uh pray for uh continue to be in prayer for those uh families. Uh we had a new family at 9:00 which was great. And um just be be in prayer that God would continue to bring um men, women, and children into his kingdom.
· Well, last week uh we concluded our miracles of Jesus series looking at different miracles of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.
· And this morning we are shifting our attention to the parables of Jesus. So this is part of a broader series, the miracles and parables of Jesus. Now we did eight miracles and we have about nine parables and this will take us up to uh like into the fallish. But we will be continuing to do this in the book of Matthew and then looking at of course gathering details from the other gospels along the way as we did with the miracles.
· Now before we get into the parables of this passage um I want us to it is very important that we know what a parable is and its purpose. What is a parable? Well, the word parable literally means to place beside. You kind of have that root wordish like parah, right? Like we have parallel. Um, and you think when something's parallel, they're placed beside each other.
· Parable is to place beside. We could use words like comparison or a juxiposition to describe what a parable is. In scripture, parables are stories that are placed beside a truth, a divine truth, a spiritual truth, a spiritual reality.
· You may have heard it said that a parable is a an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And I would agree, of course, with that. So when Jesus teaches in parables, he uses everyday things that people would be familiar with, but the purpose of it is to illustrate a divine truth. Uh maybe it's about a Christian principle or it's about the kingdom of heaven. uh any number of things.
· Jesus is using what you would know, what anyone living in his day would immediately know and recognize to illustrate divine truth. So that's a parable. But what is the purpose of a parable? Why does Jesus speak in parables? Well, I'm glad you asked because the disciples ask Jesus the exact same question in Matthew 13.
· And while he gives a longer answer than what I can go into this morning, I will give you the summary answer, which is this. Matthew 13:13 says Jesus is speaking and he says, "This is why I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
· And you say, "What on earth is he saying?" That's supposed to be a reason he speaks in parables. Well, the broader context of that answer in Matthew 13 is Jesus is quoting a prophecy of Isaiah. And that prophecy is essentially about people's callous hearts, their dull ears, and their shut eyes hearing.
· They'll hear, but they won't actually hear. They will see things, but not actually see them. And you can kind of hear the difference, right? And and you know the difference of what I'm talking about when I do it that way, right? You can hear something and then you can hear something. There's a difference. So the bottom line is this. Parables.
· The reason Jesus teaches in parables is because they simultaneously reveal and conceal truth to the person who really wants to know what the kingdom of heaven is like or the divine truth that Jesus is teaching to that person. The parable reveals it to them.
· The parable is a sweet, rich example of divine truth for the real listener. For those who have you've heard, as you've heard me say, have ears to hear. Let them hear. Right? However, to the disinterested person, the one who has zero interest in godly things and in Jesus day would be those who just want free stuff from him but don't really care about what the truth is, what he has to say to the disinterested person.
· Jesus parables hide truth. So parables reveal truth to those spiritually ready to receive it and they conceal truth to those with hard hearts. They con they reveal truth to the diligent seeker genuinely hungering for God and they conceal truth from the lazy apathetic person who has no interest in what God is saying. That's why Jesus spoke in parables because parables separate the true listeners from the fakers.
· And I find it appropriate that we pray that the spirit would give us ears to hear. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word, God. All we can do is ask that you would help us.
· Help me, God, as we work through this passage. Help us as a church to not just be hearers of the word, but doers also. Help us to rightly understand what is um what the truth is here in your word. Give us eyes to see, God.
· Give us ears to hear what your spirit has to say to the church here at Cross Church Phoenix. We pray God, I pray against hard-heartedness and for soft hearts in Jesus name. Amen.
· Well, if you are able, let's stand as we read Matthew chapter 9 14-17. And if you're uh unable to, no worries. Uh stand with us in spirit as we honor God's word. Matthew chapter 9, beginning at verse 14.
· And it says this. Then John's disciples, this would be John the Baptist's disciples, came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
· No one patches an old garment with untrunk cloth because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wine skins, and both are preserved. Amen. Thanks. You can be seated.
· Certain things in life are not wrong in and of themselves, but are inappropriate at certain times. For example, for you ladies, you wouldn't wear a beautiful flowing white dress to a funeral. or for all of us in here really, you wouldn't wear all black clothing to a wedding.
· I mean, nowadays, you never know. But generally speaking, we don't, right? We do live in some weird times, but you know what I'm saying. As one uh Presbyterian pastor uh put it, who's now gone to be with the Lord, he says this, quote, "You don't give your wife a skillet for your anniversary, and she doesn't give you a rake for your birthday." End quote.
· Maybe they did. I don't know. But you would agree with me that it was inappropriate then. White dresses, black clothes, uh, skeleton rakes, not bad things, but they can be inappropriate based on the situation. Sometimes they fit the occasion. Other times they don't. And I believe that's exactly what Jesus is teaching here.
· I'm going to come right out at the beginning and tell you what I don't want you to leave with this morning. I do not want you to walk away from this sermon thinking, "Okay, Old Testament bad, New Testament good." Because often when we read Old and New, we automatically equate old, bad, new good.
· And this passage I think has been taken out of context in a few ways um that we're not going to get into. But this is not what is not happening is Jesus pitting the Old Testament against the New Testament. God gave us both Old and New Testaments. They are both good and reveal the same God. Nor is Jesus marginalizing fasting as if it's outdated and no longer useful.
· We'll see the New Testament church fast and pray often. Jesus himself said he did not come to abolish or do away with the law. He came to fulfill it. So, this is not like an out with the old, in with the new kind of of sermon because that's not what Jesus is teaching here.
· And you say, "All right, so what is happening here?" Right? Like, what is going on with all this? Well, it's our main heading this morning. And if you have a handout, they're in the If you don't have a handout, they're on the back tables. If you do, um, you can follow along. We actually don't have the points up here this morning. um they didn't get put in, but we got you on the handout and I will read it to you.
· Our main heading this morning, what is going on? Celebrating the Messiah's arrival. Celebrating the Messiah's arrival. We begin in verse 14. Point number one, the distinction about Jesus disciples. The distinction about Jesus disciples, something was different about Jesus disciples. They weren't observing the same fasts, which was this twice a week uh thing that they did. Not biblical.
· The twice a week fast is not in the Old Testament. The Old Testament knew of one mandatory fast which was on the day of atonement in Leviticus 16. This fast that they're doing, they fast often which is fine. Um they they have this twice a week fast and John the Baptist disciples do it, the Pharisees do it, but Jesus disciples do not.
· This is also a legitimate question. If you read um the gospels and the Pharisees often ask Jesus questions, the writer of the gospel will tell you what's really going on, right? He'll say this. They asked Jesus this because they're trying to trap him. They want to trip him up. This is not one of those situations. I believe this to be a genuine inquisitive question. Why don't you guys fast?
· Why are you guys not doing what the other religious leaders of and followers of John the Baptist are doing? Uh Jesus ministry is growing and there's people following him and he seems like a pretty good Jewish religious rabbi. There's a new teacher in town and he's got a lot of followers. But why doesn't he do what the other religious leaders are doing?
· And why isn't he telling his disciples to do it? The Pharisees have their own disciples and they teach them to do this twice a week fast. Whatever. John the Baptist disciples were doing this as well. This isn't the first thing to catch their eye about Jesus. If you look up before this passage, they ask why Jesus eats with tax collectors and sinners.
· So, they're concerned about Jesus feasting and fasting, right? No matter what Jesus did, they it was going to be wrong anyway. Um Jesus points that out when he talks about John the Baptist, right? You got John the Baptist came fasting and you rejected him and then I come, you know, eating and and celebrating, eating and drinking and you reject me anyway. So really the bottom line is what is that? It's a spiritual issue.
· But they're concerned about Jesus eating with sinners, not fasting um like they're like like they do. The bottom line is Jesus disciples are different and they want to know why. Which is a great question. It leads us to our second point. Number two, the distinction about Jesus himself. The distinction about Jesus himself.
· Please listen closely.
· Verse 15 is what this whole passage is about. Sometimes we get distracted like I did this week, right? Trying jumping to the parables and trying to figure out their meaning before understanding fully the impact of verse 15. I don't want you to miss it. Verse 15 is Jesus outright claim to be God.
· It is Jesus is claiming to be the Christ, the Messiah, and Yahweh of the Old Testament. Claiming to be the groom, claiming to be the bridegroom is a claim to be God. And we cannot overlook this. Verses 16 and 17 are parables. Verse 15 is not. verse 15 is a statement of truth, a a statement of fact.
· And in Luke's gospel, he's very careful to tell us that exact thing. He doesn't want you to mix these things up. So, in the parallel passage of Luke 5, beginning at verse 34, it says this, "And Jesus said to them, can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with him?" Similar to what Matthew just said, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in those days.
· He also told them a parable and he goes into the garments and the wine skins. Now, I'm showing you Luke 5 uh 36 because Jesus saying he's the bridegroom is not a parable. It is a statement of truth. Luke distinctly calls the garment in wine skins part a parable.
· It's either two parables in one or just one big parable. Whatever it doesn't matter. The purpose of these parables, the point of verses 16 and 17 is to support the fact that Jesus is the bridegroom. And that is why fasting is unfit at this time. What's interesting is that no one has said anything about a wedding. Jesus in the context came from dinner at Matthew's house eating with a bunch of tax collectors and sinners.
· So, he did come from dinner, but why does Jesus start to use wedding language?
· Can they mourn? Can they be sad while the bridegroom is here? Can my disciples should they be fasting right now when I'm right here?
· Why does Jesus use wedding language?
· This is where it gets awesome. Because of verse 13. So look up at verse 13.
· In verse 13, Jesus is correcting the Pharisees, right? Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus?
· Right? And he answers them. verse 13 of Matthew 9ine, our chapter, right before our our our passage today, Jesus is correcting the Pharisees and he says, "Go and learn this thing, right?
· Go and learn what this means, guys. I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Take take your scroll, take your Bible, go home and learn what that means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. He is quoting Hosea 6:6.
· That's where that comes from. And he's talking to religious leaders who would know hopefully what he's quoting. They would know this is coming from Hosea. What's the book of Hosea about?
· You may have never read it. I highly encourage you to. It's the opening of the the 12, we call them minor prophets, but they all have a major uh role. But Hosea is about God being a faithful husband to Israel while Israel was unfaithful to God. And so the summary of that is that God tells Hosea to take a wife and her name is Goomemer.
· So for you single people, you know, if you're looking, find a, you know, find someone named Goomer. No, I'm just kidding. Um, you know, or a guy named Goomer. I'm kidding. Well, maybe. I don't know. But Hosea marries Goomer who will leave him and be unfaithful to him.
· And God tells Hosea, regardless of how unfaithful she is to you, how much she hurts you, how much she le how often she leaves you and betrays you, guess what you're going to do, Hosea? You're going to take her back, buy her back, and be a faithful husband to her. Why? because your life is going to illustrate the truth of what Israel is doing to me, to God, being unfaithful to me and worshiping other idols.
· All of it is an illustration of God's unfailing love for Israel, though Israel rebelled and was unfaithful to God. So he quotes Hosea 66 and then uses the context there to say the bridegroom's here. The husband, the divine husband, so to speak, is here.
· And that is why Jesus I believe I should say that's why I believe Jesus uses wedding language calling himself the bridegroom. What's even more fascinating is that Jesus calling himself the bridegroom is not only a claim to be the Messiah, the Christ, the the coming one, but also is a claim to be God.
· In Hosea 2:16, the Lord, right, Yahweh is speaking and he says this, Hosea 2:16, "And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband." And a few verses later, Hosea 2:19 and 20, God is still speaking. He says, "And I will betro you to me forever. I will betro you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
· I desire mercy, right? I will betro you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. And Hosea is not the only prophet or prophetic book in the Bible to talk about God being Israel's beloved husband. It's a it's a picture of God's love for Israel. For example, Isaiah 54:5 says, "For your maker is your husband.
· The Lord of hosts is his name, and the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer. The God of the whole earth he is called.
· Israel, your faithful, loving, redeeming husband, is the holy one of Israel. your redeemer, the God of the whole world, the God of the whole earth, and he is Yahweh. Right?
· Jeremiah 3:14, "Return, oh backsliding children, says the Lord. Come back to me, for I am married to you. I will take you one from a city and two from a family. I'll bring you to Zion." And there's a lot of context. Jeremiah 3. But God again is saying, describing his love for his people as a wedding, as a marriage to them, and they had been unfaithful even though God had always been faithful to them.
· Saying all that to say this, by calling himself the bridegroom, Jesus is claiming that he is the Lord. He is Yahweh. Therefore, this is a time of rejoicing because God is here.
· This is not an appropriate time to fast because God's here. Fasting in those days served multiple purposes and it was supposed to be a show of covenant faithfulness and sorrow for sin and a a time to seek God. Now, the Pharisees and others had twisted fasting, right? They use fasting to make you think they're super pious and religious when inwardly they were. And Jesus calls them out for that. Yes. But real true fasting was a seeking of God and and these things.
· And Jesus is saying that the one that the Old Testament points to is here. Christ, the Messiah, the bridegroom, God is here. It's not fitting. It's not appropriate to fast right now because I'm standing in front of you. It's not a time to be sad. It's a time to rejoice.
· Notice what Jesus says. There will come a time when they will fast. It's when he's taken away, right? When the bridegroom is taken away, when he's he's speaking of his crucifixion and his resurrection, then he'll ascend. And he says, "Then they'll fast." And what do we see in the book of Acts? They fast.
· So Jesus isn't doing away with fasting because when we get to the parables, it's not like so get rid of the old like fasting is the old way, in with the new. Just like gorge yourself. No, no, that's not what he's saying. He's talking about it is not the time to fast right now cuz I'm here. There will come a time later.
· The early church fasted, prayed, and the Holy Spirit would move, give guidance, and it was an appropriate time. So, this takes us to our our last point here. Two illustrations of one divine truth. These parables don't teach two different things. They are two parables with one divine truth.
· The parables of six, verse 16, and 17 point to the truth of verse 15. I I want to repeat that. I know I've been saying that probably over and over and you're tired of it, but remember that.
· So, let me put it this way in trying to be with brevity and clarity. Because Jesus is the Messiah, it was unfit to fast just like it was un it would be unfit to patch an old garment with unshrunk or new cloth.
· Jesus never does say it's inappropriate to sew an old patch to old clothes. He's like just no one uses a new one. Right? The logic behind this is that if you use a new cloth and patch it to an old like t-shirt, when the t-shirt when the clothes are washed, the new patch which hadn't been washed yet or gone through that cycle would shrink and tear and make the tear on the old shirt worse because it would pull away from it because it was unshrunk new cloth on and all of it would shrink.
· He doesn't say that you couldn't take an old cloth that had been through the wash a few times or whatever and put it on a new piece of clothing. And he doesn't he doesn't speak either way, but as I'm interpreting the passage, I'm thinking, well, he doesn't say that you couldn't use old. He's just saying no one does new, right? or because Jesus is the Messiah, it's unfit to fast. Just like how it's unfit to put new wine in old wine skins.
· Wine skins were made from animal skins. And over time, right, we we bottle it now in glass bottles, but they had old wine skins. Animal skin is what it is.
· And over time, they would dry out and they would become brittle. So, if you put fresh new wine that hadn't fully fermented yet into an old wine skin, when it ferments, pressure would build in it, and the new wine would burst open the old wine skin that had become brittle.
· What Jesus is saying, I believe, is simple. I over complicated it for a while and I think a lot of of folks do because it's a interesting parable. But here's what he's saying. I believe new cloth goes on new garments because it's fitting. New wine goes into new wine skins because it's fitting. celebrating and feasting while the Messiah is here is fitting.
· Let me put it in the in the negative here. New cloth on old garments is unfitting. New wine in old wine skins is unfitting. Fasting while the Messiah, while God's standing right in front of you is unfitting.
· Now, I do want to take a moment, a quick moment to address uh what something that Luke says that he adds that the other gospels don't. In Luke 5:39, Jesus adds one last statement that just kind of also strikes you as like, huh? Right?
· Luke 5:39 Jesus says, "And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good."
· What does he mean?
· Well, how do you get old wine with new wine that sits around and becomes old, right?
· You got to start somewhere. Everything that's old was once new. This tagline that Jesus adds, I think, believe with all my heart, simply adds to the parable. New wine goes into new wine skins so they grow old together. So the wine skin can hold it and the wine can ferment and become good, right? And tastes good.
· The result is good wine. You don't want to ruin the aged wine by adding new or mixing it together with uh with anything else. When you have, what I believe he's saying is simply this. When you have your aged wine, it's satisfying. You're not left longing for the new that's not ready yet. You would let that batch stay there because it goes together. And this batch you just enjoyed because it did its thing. It fermented. You let it sit for a while.
· So you're not left longing for the new wine that's not ready yet. The old was just fine. Why? Because it was handled properly. It was placed properly in the appropriate wine skin.
· At the end here, I just want to give you some parabolic truth. I'm probably going to do this with every parable. Kind of a summary that you can take home with you if you so desire. But I'm going to read this and it's on the handout as well if you'd like a copy of it.
· All right.
· Insummation.
· Just as it was unfit to sew new cloth to an old garment or put new wine in old wine skins, it was also unfit to fast while the Messiah was with them. You don't need to fast and long for God when he's standing in front of you.
· Right. Today it is fitting to fast as we eagerly seek God and await Christ's return. And as I thought about this kind of holistically, if you if if you think through it, the last sentence, when he returns, it will again be unfitting to fast because we will be with him forever enjoying the marriage supper or other translations say the wedding feast of the lamb. In Revelation, heaven is described as the marriage supper, a feast.
· Can you imagine being in heaven with the Lord and you're sitting, however this looks, I know there are different interpretations of Revelation, but it uses a wedding supper, right? Imagine yourself, you're in heaven at the marriage supper of the lamb and and you're sitting there with God and you're like, "Sorry, I can't eat. I'm fasting."
· What is there fasting in heaven? Do you need to fast and mourn and be sad when you're with God for eternity enjoying his presence forever? No. It would be there will come a time when fasting will be unfit again when you're with him.
· As I was considering some applications of this text, um I'll tell you the word fitted and unfittedness. And I don't even know if unfittedness is a word, but it is now, right?
· Things that are fit, things that are unfit, everything. It really stood out to me. So here, consider your life.
· Consider your life.
· As a believer in Jesus Christ, you and I are completely new creations. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.
· Right?
· As a new creation, you are filled with the Holy Spirit. And God keeps you. He preserves you and and he guides you. Jesus didn't come to improve your old life, just patch you up, bring a little bit of newness to you with all your oldness, leave you mostly how you are. No, no, no. He came to give you completely new life. The Holy Spirit isn't coming into you to make you a better old you.
· Does that make sense?
· You are completely made new when you come to Christ.
· So reflect on your life. What is fitting and unfitting for your new life in Christ? Cuz I'll tell you, sin fits our old lives pretty well, right?
· Sin fits the old DJ really well. The old dead DJ, sin fits right in with him. But then something happened. When you come to Christ and you become new creature in Christ, guess what? It is unfitting to go back to your old ways. You're made new. It's unfitting for you and I if you proclaim Christ Jesus Christ is my savior. It is unfit for you to go home and watch pornography.
· It is unfit for you to lie, get high, cheat, steal, worship yourself or any other idols. insert idol here, money, whatever it is, lust, it is unfit for you because you're new.
· At least you profess to be, right?
· You're made new. Your life in Christ should lead you to new desires that fit. Here's what fits the new creation. That is you who are in Christ or I. A hunger for God's word, a a vigilant prayer life, a desire to be in fellowship with others. These are fitting for someone made new. You give me somebody who says, "I believe in Jesus and lives completely the opposite kind of life." Very concerned for you.
· Sin should stay in the old dead and trespasses DJ and I want it to stay right there. I'm not telling you that I don't struggle or you don't struggle. I'm not saying that we won't struggle with sin. I'm not saying that. But what I'm saying is that it shouldn't fit you.
· It should be uncomfortable for you to sin. I think this is why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6, right? What partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with bile, right? Or Satan? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement does the temple of God have with idols? The answer, spoiler alert, nothing. The implied answer of all of those questions that Paul is rattling off is zero.
· These have zero things to do with each other. Someone who is in Christ, a new creation, has should have no partnership with lawlessness. Somebody who is new in Christ should not have fellowship with darkness because they walk in the light as he is in the light. Right? We taught our kids all week long, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." John 8:12, we heard him say it about 100 times. Is great.
· Right?
· If we are in the light, we will walk in the light. Read First John. Big fat giant letter to warn you about whether or not you're truly a believer or not.
· Read for Go home and read First John. I challenge you to, right?
· What does the temple of God have to do with idols? Nothing. You don't mix those two together. You don't mix in your idolatry with your worship of God. These things don't fit.
· You can't mix God with your idolatry. It won't fit. Don't try to make it fit. And that's why I often will say a Christian in sin should be miserable. Right? A Christian in sin should be miserable because it's uncomfortable. You should feel convicted. You should feel sorry.
· And you should turn away from it and come running to Christ. And yes, you are forgiven of sin, past, present, and future. And then you come to Christ and you confess your sins. And when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And then we press on. We press on. It shouldn't sin shouldn't fit comfortably in your new life. It should stay in your old dead self. That's what I believe.
· And at this time, we're going to transition into appropriately um transition into communion, the communion we have with Christ. If you don't have um one of the communion packets, you can walk back real quick and grab one if you're going to partake. Um I give a few admonitions here. You don't have to be like a member of Cross Church to partake in communion.
· This is for Christians, right? It's for believers in Jesus. So, if you've trusted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you are invited, uh, to partake and celebrate the Lord's Supper with us. Um, if you're here, um, and those of you joining online, if you want to grab the elements, um, I almost forgot to say that. U, but if you're here and you say, I don't know what all this is about.
· Jesus is the bridegroom. Like, he's God. Like, what? He's savior. I don't know.
· If you don't know Jesus Christ, number one, today can be the last day that that's true about you. And I would love to introduce you to Jesus Christ and have you uh get saved and come to him in repentance and faith in Christ. That is the invitation for you. But I would also say um don't partake and just simply watch. Um Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians chap 11 that we do this communion in remembrance of Jesus. looking back. We proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Looking forward to his coming.
· And the scriptures say right, therefore, we examine ourselves looking in.
· So, I want you and I, if you're participating, to take time now to examine yourself. You say, "What do you mean by that?" I mean, are there any sins that need to be confessed to the Lord? Is there anything in your life you need to turn over to him? Is there anything in your life unfit for you as a as a Christian, as a new creation in Christ?
· Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Reflect on your love for Christ. Do you love and cherish Christ? Is he everything to you? I invite you to take a minute and reflect and then we'll uh partake. And if you're in prayer or community, with the Lord. Don't uh let me disrupt that. I do want to read us the scriptures as we partake. If you'll peel back the layer with the the bread.
· Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 11:23. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the body of Jesus Christ, our savior, broken for us.
· We thank you that we serve a risen savior. We thank you for his coming fully God and fully man. That great act of humility, living with us, among us, dwelling with us, never sinning once, and going to the cross for Pastor DJ's sin, for the sins of all of us in this room, all of us online, and the sins of the world. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake.
· And if you would peel back the layer with the juice. Paul continues to write in the same way. He Jesus also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat the this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. You realize this is a proclamation.
· I always love how Paul says, "You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." You kind of have to be alive to come, right? So, we proclaim his death on the cross because he's risen and coming again. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. We know and believe. What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
· What could possibly make us whole again?
· Nothing but the blood of Jesus. We thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. That you died, were buried, rose again on the third day just as it just as it was written. You fulfilled it. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.
· Let's partake.
· I want to invite the worship team down for our last song.
· If you're here and you say, I don't know Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, please, please, please talk to me. If you're like, I don't like your face, DJ, you can talk to someone else. Um uh maybe someone up here where just go find someone that you can talk to and say, I want to know Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word.
· God, help us to be and do what is fitting for our new lives in Christ. We We run from sin. We don't flirt with it. We don't mess with it. We run from it. God, help us to be that radical about our sin. Pray that you would rid ourselves, God.
· Rid us of any lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Fill us with your spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These ought to be the things our lives are filled with because it is fit for a new creation in Christ. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.
Parables