Wineskins
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In our exploration of the parable of the wineskins from Matthew 9:14-17, we discover that Jesus calls us to a transformative journey, urging us to leave behind our old ways of living. We see how Jesus uses the metaphor of a wedding feast to illustrate the joy of His presence and the necessity of embracing a new life in Him. He challenges us to examine our beliefs about salvation and the narrow path that leads to eternal life, emphasizing that we cannot simply add Him to our existing lives; we must undergo a complete transformation.
We also learn that Jesus teaches total surrender rather than selective wisdom. He warns against the danger of trying to patch our lives with bits of His teachings while holding onto our old habits. Instead, He invites us to become new creations, shedding our past selves to fully embrace the life He offers. Ultimately, we are reminded that we cannot pour Jesus into our old selves; He requires a whole new us, one that is willing to surrender everything and follow Him wholeheartedly.
Key Takeaways
- Jesus calls us out of our old life and invites us to embrace a new way of living through Him.
- We must not treat Jesus as a genie or a self-help tool; He demands total surrender, not selective wisdom.
- The metaphor of new wine in new wineskins illustrates the necessity of being transformed into new creations in Christ.
- Our beliefs about salvation must align with Jesus' teachings; He is the only way to eternal life.
- The journey of faith requires us to let go of old habits and fully commit to the new life Jesus offers.
Scripture References
Discussion Questions
- What does it mean to you to be called out of your old life by Jesus?
- In what ways have you experienced the challenge of total surrender to Christ?
- How can we avoid treating Jesus as a genie or a self-help tool in our daily lives?
- What old habits or traditions do you find difficult to let go of in your faith journey?
- How does the metaphor of new wine in new wineskins resonate with your understanding of transformation in Christ?
Matthew 9:16-17
Series Overview: The parables of the gospels answer the question “what does Jesus teach?” – Matthew 7:13-14
What new truths does Jesus Teach?
Jesus calls you out of your old world V. 15
Jesus teaches total surrender not selective wisdom. V. 16
Jesus teaches a new Heart not the old one. V. 17
Bottom Line: "You can't pour Jesus into your old life — He requires a whole new you."
Transcript
· You are going to have to give up everything in your life and you're going to have to fully transform yourself
· See some of us don't want to do this. If we're honest with ourselves
· We look in the mirror sometimes and we see jesus
· And we treat him like a genie. Hey god, just grant my wishes. I'll call upon you when i'm ready
· Sometimes we treat jesus like this a podcaster a self-help book a feel-good fortune cookie
· an interesting professor
· A philosopher a politician instead of treating jesus as the savior of all humanity
· What's up church
· How you guys doing
· Hey, if you are new here, we preach out of the bible
· So if you don't have a bible, there's a bible right underneath your seat pull that out
· We are going to be in matthew chapter 9 verses 14 through 17
· We're going to talk about the parable of the wineskins today guys. I'm so excited to be with you today
· What is a parable?
· Why do we have parables?
· For the last series we have been on this journey of learning who jesus is through his miracles
· And now we make this transition into parables. We make this transition of what does this man teach?
· And now we're gonna ask that very question. What does jesus teach us in the parables?
· What does he teach us about our life about his kingdom?
· Well in matthew 7 13 through 14 it says this jesus himself talking it says this
· Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction
· And there are many who go through it
· How narrow is the gate and difficult?
· The road that leads to life
· And few find it
· jesus right off the bat
· Right off the bat tells us what he teaches. He teaches us about eternal life
· And not just about eternal life that he is the only way to heaven
· Jesus describes the narrow gate. He's describing himself
· This is the way of how you are going to have eternal life and get into heaven
· So it made me ask this question as I was preparing this sermon today do people really believe that
· Do people really believe that jesus is the only way to heaven?
· And I found this article
· This article that explained what americans think about jesus what americans think about heaven and it says this
· The majority of americans do not believe jesus is the only way to heaven
· One major survey found that about 70 percent of americans believe that many religions can lead them to eternal life
· Even among self-identified christians about 65 percent said that many religions can lead them to eternal life
· Other surveys have found that the opposite question phrased differently about 53 percent of americans say
· Salvation is found in christ alone while 45 percent of christians today say there are many ways to heaven
· That's crazy, right
· That's crazy here in the american church. We don't like to talk about heaven
· Here in the american church, we don't like to talk about hell either
· We think it's not important. We don't ever talk about these things on stage anymore
· And in the result of that we have christians in the church today that say that there are other ways to heaven other than jesus
· There's other ways to get through the narrow gate
· That is the result of removing god's word out of our stage out of our church
· And thinking that we can just follow something else
· In student ministry, I told the student leaders. I told the students that man this year
· I'm going to preach aggressively about heaven for you
· I'm going to preach aggressively about it with you young people
· I'm going to preach this i'm going to tell you about hell and the consequences of what it means when you don't follow jesus
· And this year we made that commitment in student ministry because we need to understand what jesus is teaching us right here in this first verse
· In actually the theme of our series
· See i'm the youth pastor here at cross church and I have a little different of a story than most pastors
· I was born and raised in a mormon family born and raised in a mormon religion
· And a major event happened in my life at the age of 12 where I was told I was adopted by my half-sister on my space
· My parents kept that from me and through that major event. It led me to become atheist not believe in god
· Not believe in mormonism. So I grew up in a mormon house as an atheist
· Went through a lot of rebellious things in my life
· Leading up to my mormon mission if you don't know anything about mormons mormon boys are supposed to go serve on their mission
· And they are sent off for two and a half years
· Overseas or inside the states and they live in this mission for two and a half years just learning about their faith
· learning about mormonism
· Well, I went to chile rancago. I learned how to speak spanish there for two and a half years
· It was awesome great experience
· But for the first six months of my life, I was an atheist
· I did not want anything to do with the mormon god the christian god anything
· I was there for myself. So I was a very
· Disobedient mormon boy if you want to if you want to have a name with it, okay?
· But there was one moment where my companion he was gung-ho about the mormonism
· And he challenged one of the teenage boys that we we found in the plaza
· He challenged them to pray for the first time and when this boy said this prayer
· I instantly knew everything he was saying all these chills went through my body and I was like, what is this?
· So for two and a half months after that prayer was said I said, okay, i'm gonna go disprove who you are god
· I'm gonna go disprove the christian jesus and i'm gonna go disprove the mormon jesus
· I disprove one of those gods
· See I determined that when I read the book of mormon that that was false it was a false religion
· But the gospel of jesus christ the four gospels that I dove into the gospel of luke that transformed my life
· It I I said my first prayer to jesus at 2 a.m
· In the middle of a mud hut on a bamboo chair and I gave my life to christ and it changed me ever since then
· So
· When I was learning about jesus and what he teaches are these same parables that I wrestled with I had to come to
· realization
· What does this man teach?
· Is this man teaching is it true or is it not?
· See what does he teach does it have real weight in my life or is it just good wisdom that I can add on
· to my life
· You see man
· When I found jesus, I made him lord of my life. I made him everything of my life the songs that we just sang about
· All my information comes from him all of my guidance comes from him and it has been a difficult journey
· Ever since i've said those words. It has been a difficult journey to live those words out
· Christianity is hard guys in this series. I pray that you dive in
· Jesus has a mountain of gold for you. And if you keep on digging into his mountain, all you're gonna get is gold
· All you're gonna get is more gold and more gold and if you dive into the parables of what jesus teaches
· He is never gonna dry up on you
· He is constantly going to give you gold
· So as I want to address this question today as we dive into this parable
· What new truths does jesus teach?
· And we're gonna start with a parable of the wineskins matthew 9 14 through 17
· Let's start reading 14. It says then john
· then john's bad 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 guest 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
· See the first thing that I want you to see right here is that jesus calls you out of your old life
· Verse 15 before we can even dive into what jesus is saying we have to ask this question
· How do you understand a parable?
· Right, how do you understand a parable? What is a parable?
· A parable is a practical story that is taught in assembly like a like-as
· illustration
· And as we as we learn about these stories, they reveal something to us. They reveal to us spiritual truths
· Something is revealed to us remarkable about god's kingdom
· So how do we listen to a parable three things you need to know first?
· Is that you listen from the hearer's perspective? Who is jesus talking to?
· Who was his original audience?
· right
· Second thing look at the main point jesus has many main points sometimes in his parable
· But what is the main point that he's teaching us and the last part is probably the most important part
· The parables of jesus are supposed to challenge you
· Confront your life
· Change your life
· Sometimes jesus is going to tell us things and it's going to challenge the heck out of us
· So when the disciples of john the baptist come up to jesus and they say hey, why aren't you fasting?
· Why in the heck does jesus go to wedding groom and death?
· Very confusing, right?
· Especially if you're not familiar with god's word
· Well, let's look at the audience of who he's talking to before we even get to this parable
· Jesus has already been confronted by the scribes and the pharisees
· these two parties
· These two parties already had their minds made up about jesus
· They said that they were going to disprove jesus. They said hey, he's going to be a false prophet
· We're going to prove that he is a false prophet that he means nothing to us. They've already made up their mind to kill jesus
· So when john the baptist disciples come and check out jesus they want answers
· They want answers is this guy really the messiah that the the messiah that john the baptist talked us talk to us about
· Is this really the guy we read about from the prophets of the old testament is this guy really the messiah?
· They wanted answers
· You see jesus when he says the word groom he is referring to something
· I thought it was just that jewish people just loved the party
· You know now, I mean his first miracle was wine right water into wine. So I was just like, okay
· Yeah, they like weddings. They like to party, right? No jesus is referring to something
· When he says the word groom isaiah 54 five tells us this for your maker is your husband
· The lord of hosts is his name
· See john's followers
· They would have got that reference
· They would have understood what jesus is saying
· They understood what it meant when he said I am the groom
· See prophets had a way of preaching about the messiah in a very intimate way. They called him husband
· They called him head of the house head of the church. He is head of the church
· He is the head of us the people of god
· And the prophets had a very intimate way of describing that he's the maker of all creation
· He is the maker of his kingdom
· And jesus when he calls himself groom is might as well that the disciples were there with moses
· Hearing the words I am out of a burning bush
· Jesus said i'm the one you've been waiting for
· I'm the one that you've been waiting for come and sit at my table
· Come and sit at my table disciples of john
· You see the disciples thought they were just getting an ordinary traditional answer
· They thought they would get an ordinary traditional answer up from families that have been passing on from generation to generation
· But jesus said no, I don't come to bring ordinary family traditions to you
· I am coming to teach you a new way of life
· I am coming to call you out of your old ways of doing things and calling you into a new way of life
· Are you going to have a seat at my table? He's saying
· Some of us are trapped in our old ways of tradition
· Some of us are trapped in our old ways of thinking
· And jesus is saying to you right now. Are you gonna come and sit at my table?
· Are you gonna learn about this new life that I teach this new narrow and difficult gate that I teach?
· Because this is the only way to heaven
· See when I found out that I was adopted and I found out about my can epicide i'm italian by the way
· So my irish name doesn't have nothing to do with italian. So
· But I found out about my biological father
· And I started digging in about him
· This guy was in and out of drugs
· sleeping around with women
· Me and my sister are only a month apart because you got two girls pregnant at once and he decided to leave me
· And my mom and choose her and her mom
· Eventually, he would leave her as well
· See when I when I found out that the mormon faith was false. I actually grew up in a house of lies
· That led into my adulthood to where I question everything i'm the biggest skeptic when it comes to the bible when it comes to jesus
· Because every single day I ask this question who is going to save me out of this twisted lying deceitful world
· Who is going to get me out of this
· Maybe some of you are saying that right now who is going to get me out of this lying and deceitful type of world
· And jesus is saying come and sit at my table because i'm the god of the universe
· I am calling you to sit at this table and learn about what a new life looks like
· See, here's the second part in verse 16 jesus goes on he says this no one patches an old garment
· With unshrunk cloth because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse
· See the second thing I want you to see in this verse is that jesus teaches total surrender not selective wisdom
· Guys we have to we have to get what jesus is saying right here
· We have to look at what he is saying right here stop taking pieces of jesus to patch up your life
· right
· Meaning we have to stop treating jesus like a genie
· right
· Matthew 13 10 pastor andrew he's going to talk about this next week
· Why do we have parables see the disciples came up to jesus at one point and they were like jesus
· Why do you teach people in parables?
· And jesus responded this way because the secrets of heaven have been given for you to know
· But it has not been given to them
· What is jesus talking about? He's separating two different people here. He's separating the believer and the non-believer
· Right, what does the believer believe about jesus think when you believe about jesus things are revealed to you
· The mysteries of heaven are revealed to you
· You guys can know about the grace of god you can know about the glory of god
· You can know about the mercy of god because you believe in jesus
· You will have the peace of eternal life on this side of heaven. That is what jesus is saying
· But the ones that do not believe in jesus the ones that constantly deny the obvious
· God says if you constantly deny me you will stumble over me
· You will trip over me if you want more confusion i'll give you what you ask for i'll give you more confusion
· If you want more deceit i'll give you what you ask for i'll give you more deceit
· They are constantly choosing to be confused and judge god so god confuses them and constantly judges them
· See guys when you start reading scriptures
· If this doesn't scream exclusion, then I don't know what type of jesus you've been following your whole life
· If this doesn't scream exclusion
· I don't know what type of jesus you've been following
· See many people today think god is a genie a wise man a good teacher
· a guy like gandhi
· People think that jesus is a fortune cookie instead of the main course when they come to the dinner table
· They think that man. I don't need this whole resource. I don't need the main resource for my life
· I can just take the fortune cookie and go I can take the dessert and go
· See we are currently teaching students about this
· Right now i'm in a series with my students that i'm calling an influencer who you are is greater than who follows you
· And in this series this last time that I preached I shared with them this statistic about americans today
· And in this title, it's called this
· Americans are most likely
· To base truth on feelings
· And in this article it displays this barna research surveyed american adults and found that by three to one
· Margin people believe truth is relative
· Among younger adults
· That number climbs to 75 percent
· Here's where it gets uncomfortable
· Substantial numbers of christians believe pornography
· cohabitation drunkenness and abortion gay marriage gay sex
· Are morally fine
· Why
· Because when you remove absolute truth george barna said that you are left with philosophies like this
· If it feels good, just do it
· And as long as it's not hurting anybody it's permissible
· See the whole generation has adapted a whole generation has adapted
· It has adapted this one word world view whatever goes
· Whatever
· And that one word is destroying lives inside the church and outside the church
· See last time I checked jesus didn't just say hey whatever goes
· You can live your life. However, you want to live it
· No, jesus described himself i'm a narrow and difficult gate and you can't just take pieces of what I say
· And apply them to your life
· You need to take the whole thing that I say and you need to transform your whole self
· You need to surrender all of your old habits to me
· Because we are evil
· We are sinful
· See a lot of times people don't like me teaching young people
· Teaching young adults because i'm too intense i'm too passionate i'm too much in your face and getting uncomfortable and challenging
· I've had parents tell me that
· Guys i'm not here to give you a half message about jesus
· When I made a commitment to follow jesus for the rest of my life
· I said that everything about him is going to be my life
· I'm not here to give you a full a feel good message if you want a feel good message
· There is plenty of churches all around surprise that will give you a feel good message
· I am not here to give you that i'm here to give you the whole thing of who jesus christ is and how you get to heaven
· See when jesus said to me in that mud hut on a bamboo chair
· He said kyle you are going to have to give up everything in your life
· You are going to have to give up everything in your life and you're going to have to fully transform yourself
· You will have to give up all of your old habits and surrender to me jesus christ your lord
· See some of us don't want to do this if we're honest with ourselves
· We look in the mirror sometimes and we see jesus
· And we treat him like a genie
· We say hey god just grant my wishes i'll call upon you when i'm ready
· Just grant my wishes when I get on my knees sometimes we treat Jesus like this a podcaster a self-help book
· A feel-good fortune cookie an interesting professor
· A philosopher a politician instead of treating jesus as the savior of all humanity
· What happens when that piece of jesus runs out though guys
· What happens if you're treating that jesus?
· Like a fortune cookie what happens when that dries up
· You run for more wisdom of jesus, right?
· You run. Hey, I gotta have that thing again
· See, I love what first peter says to the church
· Towards the end of his life. He saw a lot of pain. He saw a lot of hurt
· He saw a lot of persecution. He saw things that were happening in the church and it wasn't letting up
· Day after day there was pain happening and this is what peter said he said in 5 10 the god of all grace
· Who called you to his eternal glory in christ?
· Will himself referring to jesus restore you establish you strengthen you and support you after you have suffered?
· a little while
· When you're in pain and you're in distress and you're hurting are you running to this jesus that can restore you
· Establish you strengthen you support you when you are constantly hurting every single day
· That is the jesus I believe in
· See jesus doesn't want you to just surrender to some truth
· He wants you to surrender to all of his difficult ways to heaven
· Look at the third thing on verse 17, and this is the most interesting part
· And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise the skins burst
· The wine spills out and the skins are ruined
· No, no
· Put new wine into fresh wine skins
· And both are preserved
· And that's rich
· That's a mountain of gold and if you keep digging into that you'll just find even more gold
· I told you that in the beginning of my sermon
· I love how the gospel of luke frames this he goes a little bit more into detail
· He's more logical about this. That's why I fell in love with the gospel of luke and look what it says in
· and luke 5
· 37 through 39. He says this and no one puts new wine skin
· New new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise the new wine
· Will burst the skins it will spill and the skins will be ruined
· No, new wine is put into fresh wine skins
· And no one after drinking old wine wants new wine
· Because he says the old is better
· Man, I think that's a mirror look, right?
· Where are you holding on to old wine skins that you look at jesus in the face and you say that wine's better than
· What you got
· Where are you holding on to the old wine skins where you're saying man that tastes a lot better than what you have to offer jesus
· See jesus is describing something a present reality and a future realization
· We have to live in the reality and we have to acknowledge what is coming
· And this is what jesus is saying through this the king is here
· Jesus is here his kingdom is advancing
· Jesus is the king that has come into this world and offers something to us way better
· And he is going to continue to save people when they believe in him. That's the reality we live in
· That is the present that we live in. I love what second corinthians 5 17 says about this
· Therefore if anyone is in christ, he is a new creation the old has passed away and see
· The new has come
· Everything is from god who has reconciled us to himself
· Through christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation
· Jesus requires that your old self passes away
· That your old self dies you put it in the grave and you become something new
· I fell in love with this scripture as I was studying for this sermon
· I was beside my bed. I was reading this scripture and I just started crying
· My daughter clove is coloring on the bed. So goodness, thank goodness
· She couldn't see me on the side of my bed crying as I was reading this scripture
· But this scripture just overwhelms my heart
· The scripture just like touched me in a deep way
· And I was like, I just want to share this scripture
· And last week we had an incredible vbs and we're getting ready for students camp to come up next
· And as I saw jessica in the lobby I saw her and I was like jessica you got to go read this verse
· You got to go read this section in second corinthians because it's incredible. It should amp you up
· We get to be a part of this ministry that god is calling us to do that
· We get to call kids and students to become new creations and proclaim the message of jesus christ
· Christ
· Guys that's what we're doing on sundays and a wednesday night
· We're showing lost people how to have eternal life
· We're showing them how to get to heaven. That's all we're doing at church
· And you get to be a part of it if you call yourself a believer in christ
· See christ says that my kingdom is coming back
· I'm coming back
· Jesus says in second corinthians 5 20 it says this therefore we are ambassadors for christ
· Since god is making his appeal for us
· We plead on christ's behalf
· Be reconciled to god
· He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us
· So that in him we might become the righteousness of god
· You can't contain what jesus is going to bring
· God knows that your old self would burst your old self doesn't belong in heaven. You have to be a new person
· See, I saw this come full circle
· When one of the members of my family passed away in 2020
· my grandfather
· That found me when I was homeless
· Took me into his home. He still believed in mormonism
· And my grandfather a month before he died
· He still believed in mormonism and 99 percent of me still says that he went to hell that day
· The one percent
· The one percent gives me hope because a month before he died. He said this to me. He said kyle i'm proud of you
· And I see what you are doing
· But here's the thing
· Maybe he saw jesus the way me and my wife were living out christ
· Maybe he saw jesus the way my kids were going to church
· But he never gave his life to this christ the christ of the bible that died for all of his sins
· He never said that I surrender to that jesus
· Yes
· And sometimes you guys might think that that's harsh to say about your grandfather, yeah
· It makes me sad inside it tears me up inside knowing that I probably will never see my grandfather again
· That is the disaster
· When somebody doesn't know christ
· See people look good on the outside and they have great intentions and you guys tell me all the time man mormons are
· awesome
· They have good family values, but they do not know christ of the bible and they are bound for hell
· Some people can say all the right things about jesus, but if their heart is not transformed if they are not a new creation
· They are going to hell and yes, it is a real place
· It is not made up
· See, I love what jesus says right here
· If you give your life to christ if you become something new he says both are preserved
· If you become a new wine you get a new life you are that new life that jesus talks about
· Guys jesus left us the way to heaven
· Jesus left us the way to heaven jesus left us the truth of how to get to heaven
· It does not come in multiple ways it comes through one way and that is our lord and savior jesus christ
· This jesus christ of the bible if you dive in and you listen to what he says
· He challenges you to become something completely new a whole new you
· See I saw this happen one night as I continue to preach to my students as I continue to preach the gospel of jesus christ
· One night after I got done preaching to my students I wrapped it up
· I went up into that studio to listen back to my sermon to take my notes to pray to god
· And I got a text from one of my family friends
· kim gerber
· This lady she's been pouring the gospel into me ever since that major tragedy happened in my life at the age of 12
· She's been leaking the gospel to me. She's been planting the seed. She's been sharing jesus with me all throughout my life
· And she said she texted me she's like kyle you gotta call me right now
· So I pick up the phone and I call her
· And she goes kyle you would never guess who showed up in my garage
· 15 years ago, I left home
· I never talked to any of my siblings or any of my any of my family members for 15 years
· And she said your little brother logan showed up in my garage
· And she said it gets better. I promise
· She said logan left the mormon church
· Logan has been watching your sermons online and he wants to know what the jesus who's the jesus you know
· Logan hasn't given his life to christ yet
· Logan
· But because me and my family have been faithful
· Of preaching the message of jesus christ living out who jesus is being a new wine
· A new wine skin
· It has overflowed to online to where my brother has been searching for me and he is trying to find jesus right now
· Maybe some of you are like logan right now
· Maybe some of you are fighting jesus and you're not willing to come to this table and you're not willing to live
· Listen to the god of the universe
· Are you sick and tired of your old life?
· Are you sick and tired of living in a twisted deceitful lying world?
· And you don't know who to trust
· Well, jesus is the guy to trust
· Jesus is the guy that you can sit at his table and you can learn how to have a whole new life
· That is way better than what you're living right now. I'm living proof of that
· But church a lot of you are believers in here
· Get back on track
· Stop falling to your old traditional ways
· Start surrendering your whole old habits to jesus and become something even better than you can possibly imagine
· Get back on track
· And listen to what jesus is saying to you of what you need to totally surrender to him
· See guys your bottom line is this you can't pour jesus into your old self
· He requires a whole new you
· Because you never know who's watching you on a screen
· You
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· You are going to have to give up everything in your life and you're going to have to fully transform yourself
· See some of us don't want to do this. If we're honest with ourselves
· We look in the mirror sometimes and we see jesus
· And we treat him like a genie. Hey god, just grant my wishes. I'll call upon you when i'm ready
· Sometimes we treat jesus like this a podcaster a self-help book a feel-good fortune cookie
· an interesting professor
· A philosopher a politician instead of treating jesus as the savior of all humanity
· What's up church
· How you guys doing
· Hey, if you are new here, we preach out of the bible
· So if you don't have a bible, there's a bible right underneath your seat pull that out
· We are going to be in matthew chapter 9 verses 14 through 17
· We're going to talk about the parable of the wineskins today guys. I'm so excited to be with you today
· What is a parable?
· Why do we have parables?
· For the last series we have been on this journey of learning who jesus is through his miracles
· And now we make this transition into parables. We make this transition of what does this man teach?
· And now we're gonna ask that very question. What does jesus teach us in the parables?
· What does he teach us about our life about his kingdom?
· Well in matthew 7 13 through 14 it says this jesus himself talking it says this
· Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction
· And there are many who go through it
· How narrow is the gate and difficult?
· The road that leads to life
· And few find it
· jesus right off the bat
· Right off the bat tells us what he teaches. He teaches us about eternal life
· And not just about eternal life that he is the only way to heaven
· Jesus describes the narrow gate. He's describing himself
· This is the way of how you are going to have eternal life and get into heaven
· So it made me ask this question as I was preparing this sermon today do people really believe that
· Do people really believe that jesus is the only way to heaven?
· And I found this article
· This article that explained what americans think about jesus what americans think about heaven and it says this
· The majority of americans do not believe jesus is the only way to heaven
· One major survey found that about 70 percent of americans believe that many religions can lead them to eternal life
· Even among self-identified christians about 65 percent said that many religions can lead them to eternal life
· Other surveys have found that the opposite question phrased differently about 53 percent of americans say
· Salvation is found in christ alone while 45 percent of christians today say there are many ways to heaven
· That's crazy, right
· That's crazy here in the american church. We don't like to talk about heaven
· Here in the american church, we don't like to talk about hell either
· We think it's not important. We don't ever talk about these things on stage anymore
· And in the result of that we have christians in the church today that say that there are other ways to heaven other than jesus
· There's other ways to get through the narrow gate
· That is the result of removing god's word out of our stage out of our church
· And thinking that we can just follow something else
· In student ministry, I told the student leaders. I told the students that man this year
· I'm going to preach aggressively about heaven for you
· I'm going to preach aggressively about it with you young people
· I'm going to preach this i'm going to tell you about hell and the consequences of what it means when you don't follow jesus
· And this year we made that commitment in student ministry because we need to understand what jesus is teaching us right here in this first verse
· In actually the theme of our series
· See i'm the youth pastor here at cross church and I have a little different of a story than most pastors
· I was born and raised in a mormon family born and raised in a mormon religion
· And a major event happened in my life at the age of 12 where I was told I was adopted by my half-sister on my space
· My parents kept that from me and through that major event. It led me to become atheist not believe in god
· Not believe in mormonism. So I grew up in a mormon house as an atheist
· Went through a lot of rebellious things in my life
· Leading up to my mormon mission if you don't know anything about mormons mormon boys are supposed to go serve on their mission
· And they are sent off for two and a half years
· Overseas or inside the states and they live in this mission for two and a half years just learning about their faith
· learning about mormonism
· Well, I went to chile rancago. I learned how to speak spanish there for two and a half years
· It was awesome great experience
· But for the first six months of my life, I was an atheist
· I did not want anything to do with the mormon god the christian god anything
· I was there for myself. So I was a very
· Disobedient mormon boy if you want to if you want to have a name with it, okay?
· But there was one moment where my companion he was gung-ho about the mormonism
· And he challenged one of the teenage boys that we we found in the plaza
· He challenged them to pray for the first time and when this boy said this prayer
· I instantly knew everything he was saying all these chills went through my body and I was like, what is this?
· So for two and a half months after that prayer was said I said, okay, i'm gonna go disprove who you are god
· I'm gonna go disprove the christian jesus and i'm gonna go disprove the mormon jesus
· I disprove one of those gods
· See I determined that when I read the book of mormon that that was false it was a false religion
· But the gospel of jesus christ the four gospels that I dove into the gospel of luke that transformed my life
· It I I said my first prayer to jesus at 2 a.m
· In the middle of a mud hut on a bamboo chair and I gave my life to christ and it changed me ever since then
· So
· When I was learning about jesus and what he teaches are these same parables that I wrestled with I had to come to
· realization
· What does this man teach?
· Is this man teaching is it true or is it not?
· See what does he teach does it have real weight in my life or is it just good wisdom that I can add on
· to my life
· You see man
· When I found jesus, I made him lord of my life. I made him everything of my life the songs that we just sang about
· All my information comes from him all of my guidance comes from him and it has been a difficult journey
· Ever since i've said those words. It has been a difficult journey to live those words out
· Christianity is hard guys in this series. I pray that you dive in
· Jesus has a mountain of gold for you. And if you keep on digging into his mountain, all you're gonna get is gold
· All you're gonna get is more gold and more gold and if you dive into the parables of what jesus teaches
· He is never gonna dry up on you
· He is constantly going to give you gold
· So as I want to address this question today as we dive into this parable
· What new truths does jesus teach?
· And we're gonna start with a parable of the wineskins matthew 9 14 through 17
· Let's start reading 14. It says then john
· then john's bad 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 guest 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
· See the first thing that I want you to see right here is that jesus calls you out of your old life
· Verse 15 before we can even dive into what jesus is saying we have to ask this question
· How do you understand a parable?
· Right, how do you understand a parable? What is a parable?
· A parable is a practical story that is taught in assembly like a like-as
· illustration
· And as we as we learn about these stories, they reveal something to us. They reveal to us spiritual truths
· Something is revealed to us remarkable about god's kingdom
· So how do we listen to a parable three things you need to know first?
· Is that you listen from the hearer's perspective? Who is jesus talking to?
· Who was his original audience?
· right
· Second thing look at the main point jesus has many main points sometimes in his parable
· But what is the main point that he's teaching us and the last part is probably the most important part
· The parables of jesus are supposed to challenge you
· Confront your life
· Change your life
· Sometimes jesus is going to tell us things and it's going to challenge the heck out of us
· So when the disciples of john the baptist come up to jesus and they say hey, why aren't you fasting?
· Why in the heck does jesus go to wedding groom and death?
· Very confusing, right?
· Especially if you're not familiar with god's word
· Well, let's look at the audience of who he's talking to before we even get to this parable
· Jesus has already been confronted by the scribes and the pharisees
· these two parties
· These two parties already had their minds made up about jesus
· They said that they were going to disprove jesus. They said hey, he's going to be a false prophet
· We're going to prove that he is a false prophet that he means nothing to us. They've already made up their mind to kill jesus
· So when john the baptist disciples come and check out jesus they want answers
· They want answers is this guy really the messiah that the the messiah that john the baptist talked us talk to us about
· Is this really the guy we read about from the prophets of the old testament is this guy really the messiah?
· They wanted answers
· You see jesus when he says the word groom he is referring to something
· I thought it was just that jewish people just loved the party
· You know now, I mean his first miracle was wine right water into wine. So I was just like, okay
· Yeah, they like weddings. They like to party, right? No jesus is referring to something
· When he says the word groom isaiah 54 five tells us this for your maker is your husband
· The lord of hosts is his name
· See john's followers
· They would have got that reference
· They would have understood what jesus is saying
· They understood what it meant when he said I am the groom
· See prophets had a way of preaching about the messiah in a very intimate way. They called him husband
· They called him head of the house head of the church. He is head of the church
· He is the head of us the people of god
· And the prophets had a very intimate way of describing that he's the maker of all creation
· He is the maker of his kingdom
· And jesus when he calls himself groom is might as well that the disciples were there with moses
· Hearing the words I am out of a burning bush
· Jesus said i'm the one you've been waiting for
· I'm the one that you've been waiting for come and sit at my table
· Come and sit at my table disciples of john
· You see the disciples thought they were just getting an ordinary traditional answer
· They thought they would get an ordinary traditional answer up from families that have been passing on from generation to generation
· But jesus said no, I don't come to bring ordinary family traditions to you
· I am coming to teach you a new way of life
· I am coming to call you out of your old ways of doing things and calling you into a new way of life
· Are you going to have a seat at my table? He's saying
· Some of us are trapped in our old ways of tradition
· Some of us are trapped in our old ways of thinking
· And jesus is saying to you right now. Are you gonna come and sit at my table?
· Are you gonna learn about this new life that I teach this new narrow and difficult gate that I teach?
· Because this is the only way to heaven
· See when I found out that I was adopted and I found out about my can epicide i'm italian by the way
· So my irish name doesn't have nothing to do with italian. So
· But I found out about my biological father
· And I started digging in about him
· This guy was in and out of drugs
· sleeping around with women
· Me and my sister are only a month apart because you got two girls pregnant at once and he decided to leave me
· And my mom and choose her and her mom
· Eventually, he would leave her as well
· See when I when I found out that the mormon faith was false. I actually grew up in a house of lies
· That led into my adulthood to where I question everything i'm the biggest skeptic when it comes to the bible when it comes to jesus
· Because every single day I ask this question who is going to save me out of this twisted lying deceitful world
· Who is going to get me out of this
· Maybe some of you are saying that right now who is going to get me out of this lying and deceitful type of world
· And jesus is saying come and sit at my table because i'm the god of the universe
· I am calling you to sit at this table and learn about what a new life looks like
· See, here's the second part in verse 16 jesus goes on he says this no one patches an old garment
· With unshrunk cloth because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse
· See the second thing I want you to see in this verse is that jesus teaches total surrender not selective wisdom
· Guys we have to we have to get what jesus is saying right here
· We have to look at what he is saying right here stop taking pieces of jesus to patch up your life
· right
· Meaning we have to stop treating jesus like a genie
· right
· Matthew 13 10 pastor andrew he's going to talk about this next week
· Why do we have parables see the disciples came up to jesus at one point and they were like jesus
· Why do you teach people in parables?
· And jesus responded this way because the secrets of heaven have been given for you to know
· But it has not been given to them
· What is jesus talking about? He's separating two different people here. He's separating the believer and the non-believer
· Right, what does the believer believe about jesus think when you believe about jesus things are revealed to you
· The mysteries of heaven are revealed to you
· You guys can know about the grace of god you can know about the glory of god
· You can know about the mercy of god because you believe in jesus
· You will have the peace of eternal life on this side of heaven. That is what jesus is saying
· But the ones that do not believe in jesus the ones that constantly deny the obvious
· God says if you constantly deny me you will stumble over me
· You will trip over me if you want more confusion i'll give you what you ask for i'll give you more confusion
· If you want more deceit i'll give you what you ask for i'll give you more deceit
· They are constantly choosing to be confused and judge god so god confuses them and constantly judges them
· See guys when you start reading scriptures
· If this doesn't scream exclusion, then I don't know what type of jesus you've been following your whole life
· If this doesn't scream exclusion
· I don't know what type of jesus you've been following
· See many people today think god is a genie a wise man a good teacher
· a guy like gandhi
· People think that jesus is a fortune cookie instead of the main course when they come to the dinner table
· They think that man. I don't need this whole resource. I don't need the main resource for my life
· I can just take the fortune cookie and go I can take the dessert and go
· See we are currently teaching students about this
· Right now i'm in a series with my students that i'm calling an influencer who you are is greater than who follows you
· And in this series this last time that I preached I shared with them this statistic about americans today
· And in this title, it's called this
· Americans are most likely
· To base truth on feelings
· And in this article it displays this barna research surveyed american adults and found that by three to one
· Margin people believe truth is relative
· Among younger adults
· That number climbs to 75 percent
· Here's where it gets uncomfortable
· Substantial numbers of christians believe pornography
· cohabitation drunkenness and abortion gay marriage gay sex
· Are morally fine
· Why
· Because when you remove absolute truth george barna said that you are left with philosophies like this
· If it feels good, just do it
· And as long as it's not hurting anybody it's permissible
· See the whole generation has adapted a whole generation has adapted
· It has adapted this one word world view whatever goes
· Whatever
· And that one word is destroying lives inside the church and outside the church
· See last time I checked jesus didn't just say hey whatever goes
· You can live your life. However, you want to live it
· No, jesus described himself i'm a narrow and difficult gate and you can't just take pieces of what I say
· And apply them to your life
· You need to take the whole thing that I say and you need to transform your whole self
· You need to surrender all of your old habits to me
· Because we are evil
· We are sinful
· See a lot of times people don't like me teaching young people
· Teaching young adults because i'm too intense i'm too passionate i'm too much in your face and getting uncomfortable and challenging
· I've had parents tell me that
· Guys i'm not here to give you a half message about jesus
· When I made a commitment to follow jesus for the rest of my life
· I said that everything about him is going to be my life
· I'm not here to give you a full a feel good message if you want a feel good message
· There is plenty of churches all around surprise that will give you a feel good message
· I am not here to give you that i'm here to give you the whole thing of who jesus christ is and how you get to heaven
· See when jesus said to me in that mud hut on a bamboo chair
· He said kyle you are going to have to give up everything in your life
· You are going to have to give up everything in your life and you're going to have to fully transform yourself
· You will have to give up all of your old habits and surrender to me jesus christ your lord
· See some of us don't want to do this if we're honest with ourselves
· We look in the mirror sometimes and we see jesus
· And we treat him like a genie
· We say hey god just grant my wishes i'll call upon you when i'm ready
· Just grant my wishes when I get on my knees sometimes we treat Jesus like this a podcaster a self-help book
· A feel-good fortune cookie an interesting professor
· A philosopher a politician instead of treating jesus as the savior of all humanity
· What happens when that piece of jesus runs out though guys
· What happens if you're treating that jesus?
· Like a fortune cookie what happens when that dries up
· You run for more wisdom of jesus, right?
· You run. Hey, I gotta have that thing again
· See, I love what first peter says to the church
· Towards the end of his life. He saw a lot of pain. He saw a lot of hurt
· He saw a lot of persecution. He saw things that were happening in the church and it wasn't letting up
· Day after day there was pain happening and this is what peter said he said in 5 10 the god of all grace
· Who called you to his eternal glory in christ?
· Will himself referring to jesus restore you establish you strengthen you and support you after you have suffered?
· a little while
· When you're in pain and you're in distress and you're hurting are you running to this jesus that can restore you
· Establish you strengthen you support you when you are constantly hurting every single day
· That is the jesus I believe in
· See jesus doesn't want you to just surrender to some truth
· He wants you to surrender to all of his difficult ways to heaven
· Look at the third thing on verse 17, and this is the most interesting part
· And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise the skins burst
· The wine spills out and the skins are ruined
· No, no
· Put new wine into fresh wine skins
· And both are preserved
· And that's rich
· That's a mountain of gold and if you keep digging into that you'll just find even more gold
· I told you that in the beginning of my sermon
· I love how the gospel of luke frames this he goes a little bit more into detail
· He's more logical about this. That's why I fell in love with the gospel of luke and look what it says in
· and luke 5
· 37 through 39. He says this and no one puts new wine skin
· New new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise the new wine
· Will burst the skins it will spill and the skins will be ruined
· No, new wine is put into fresh wine skins
· And no one after drinking old wine wants new wine
· Because he says the old is better
· Man, I think that's a mirror look, right?
· Where are you holding on to old wine skins that you look at jesus in the face and you say that wine's better than
· What you got
· Where are you holding on to the old wine skins where you're saying man that tastes a lot better than what you have to offer jesus
· See jesus is describing something a present reality and a future realization
· We have to live in the reality and we have to acknowledge what is coming
· And this is what jesus is saying through this the king is here
· Jesus is here his kingdom is advancing
· Jesus is the king that has come into this world and offers something to us way better
· And he is going to continue to save people when they believe in him. That's the reality we live in
· That is the present that we live in. I love what second corinthians 5 17 says about this
· Therefore if anyone is in christ, he is a new creation the old has passed away and see
· The new has come
· Everything is from god who has reconciled us to himself
· Through christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation
· Jesus requires that your old self passes away
· That your old self dies you put it in the grave and you become something new
· I fell in love with this scripture as I was studying for this sermon
· I was beside my bed. I was reading this scripture and I just started crying
· My daughter clove is coloring on the bed. So goodness, thank goodness
· She couldn't see me on the side of my bed crying as I was reading this scripture
· But this scripture just overwhelms my heart
· The scripture just like touched me in a deep way
· And I was like, I just want to share this scripture
· And last week we had an incredible vbs and we're getting ready for students camp to come up next
· And as I saw jessica in the lobby I saw her and I was like jessica you got to go read this verse
· You got to go read this section in second corinthians because it's incredible. It should amp you up
· We get to be a part of this ministry that god is calling us to do that
· We get to call kids and students to become new creations and proclaim the message of jesus christ
· Christ
· Guys that's what we're doing on sundays and a wednesday night
· We're showing lost people how to have eternal life
· We're showing them how to get to heaven. That's all we're doing at church
· And you get to be a part of it if you call yourself a believer in christ
· See christ says that my kingdom is coming back
· I'm coming back
· Jesus says in second corinthians 5 20 it says this therefore we are ambassadors for christ
· Since god is making his appeal for us
· We plead on christ's behalf
· Be reconciled to god
· He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us
· So that in him we might become the righteousness of god
· You can't contain what jesus is going to bring
· God knows that your old self would burst your old self doesn't belong in heaven. You have to be a new person
· See, I saw this come full circle
· When one of the members of my family passed away in 2020
· my grandfather
· That found me when I was homeless
· Took me into his home. He still believed in mormonism
· And my grandfather a month before he died
· He still believed in mormonism and 99 percent of me still says that he went to hell that day
· The one percent
· The one percent gives me hope because a month before he died. He said this to me. He said kyle i'm proud of you
· And I see what you are doing
· But here's the thing
· Maybe he saw jesus the way me and my wife were living out christ
· Maybe he saw jesus the way my kids were going to church
· But he never gave his life to this christ the christ of the bible that died for all of his sins
· He never said that I surrender to that jesus
· Yes
· And sometimes you guys might think that that's harsh to say about your grandfather, yeah
· It makes me sad inside it tears me up inside knowing that I probably will never see my grandfather again
· That is the disaster
· When somebody doesn't know christ
· See people look good on the outside and they have great intentions and you guys tell me all the time man mormons are
· awesome
· They have good family values, but they do not know christ of the bible and they are bound for hell
· Some people can say all the right things about jesus, but if their heart is not transformed if they are not a new creation
· They are going to hell and yes, it is a real place
· It is not made up
· See, I love what jesus says right here
· If you give your life to christ if you become something new he says both are preserved
· If you become a new wine you get a new life you are that new life that jesus talks about
· Guys jesus left us the way to heaven
· Jesus left us the way to heaven jesus left us the truth of how to get to heaven
· It does not come in multiple ways it comes through one way and that is our lord and savior jesus christ
· This jesus christ of the bible if you dive in and you listen to what he says
· He challenges you to become something completely new a whole new you
· See I saw this happen one night as I continue to preach to my students as I continue to preach the gospel of jesus christ
· One night after I got done preaching to my students I wrapped it up
· I went up into that studio to listen back to my sermon to take my notes to pray to god
· And I got a text from one of my family friends
· kim gerber
· This lady she's been pouring the gospel into me ever since that major tragedy happened in my life at the age of 12
· She's been leaking the gospel to me. She's been planting the seed. She's been sharing jesus with me all throughout my life
· And she said she texted me she's like kyle you gotta call me right now
· So I pick up the phone and I call her
· And she goes kyle you would never guess who showed up in my garage
· 15 years ago, I left home
· I never talked to any of my siblings or any of my any of my family members for 15 years
· And she said your little brother logan showed up in my garage
· And she said it gets better. I promise
· She said logan left the mormon church
· Logan has been watching your sermons online and he wants to know what the jesus who's the jesus you know
· Logan hasn't given his life to christ yet
· Logan
· But because me and my family have been faithful
· Of preaching the message of jesus christ living out who jesus is being a new wine
· A new wine skin
· It has overflowed to online to where my brother has been searching for me and he is trying to find jesus right now
· Maybe some of you are like logan right now
· Maybe some of you are fighting jesus and you're not willing to come to this table and you're not willing to live
· Listen to the god of the universe
· Are you sick and tired of your old life?
· Are you sick and tired of living in a twisted deceitful lying world?
· And you don't know who to trust
· Well, jesus is the guy to trust
· Jesus is the guy that you can sit at his table and you can learn how to have a whole new life
· That is way better than what you're living right now. I'm living proof of that
· But church a lot of you are believers in here
· Get back on track
· Stop falling to your old traditional ways
· Start surrendering your whole old habits to jesus and become something even better than you can possibly imagine
· Get back on track
· And listen to what jesus is saying to you of what you need to totally surrender to him
· See guys your bottom line is this you can't pour jesus into your old self
· He requires a whole new you
· Because you never know who's watching you on a screen
· You
Parables