LUKE 5:27-39 FOLLOWING A MULTIDIMENSIONAL GOD2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 5:27-39 Following A Multidimensional God

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020.

Well, this morning, we're going to continue our journey as we work our way through the Bible in three years. We're now in the Gospel of Luke. And this past week, one of the chapters we read was Luke chapter 5, as we're watching the life and ministry of Jesus. And there's some important interactions that take place there at the end of the chapter that we want to spend some time considering. And so I'm going to begin by reading verses 27 through 32 here of Luke chapter 5. Here's what it says.

After these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. So he left all, rose up, and followed him. Then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house, and there was a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.

And their scribes and the Pharisees complained against his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Verse 31. Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Let's pray.

Lord, as we dedicate this time to seek you out in your word, I pray that you would move upon our hearts by your Holy Spirit. Lord, would you allow your word to be alive in our hearts and to speak to us and to bring fresh perspective.

on things that you want to say about us, about our life, and about our walk with you. And so lead us, Lord, into a closer relationship with you, into an honest and real relationship with you. Lord, that we might know you, and Lord, that we might represent you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, this morning as we look at Luke chapter 5, I've titled the message, Following a Multidimensional God.

We need to understand about God something important, that is that he is multidimensional. Now, please don't worry. I'm not going to be talking about math or physics or, you know, anything. I couldn't even, if I wanted to, talk about those kinds of dimensions of space and time. And I'm not going to be talking about the superhero multiverse, Avengers or Spider-Man. I'm not going to be talking about any of those things.

But when I talk about God being multidimensional, well, the word multidimensional speaks of having many aspects or facets, or another definition says it's exhibiting many diverse characteristics. And this is something that is very true about God, that he cannot be narrowed down to just one thing. There's not just one characteristic of God or one attribute of God or one aspect of God, but everything.

As you spend time with God, as you read through the scriptures and get to know God, you learn that he is very complex. His nature, his character, who he is, is complex beyond really our ability to fully understand. He's not just one thing. He's many things. And sometimes the aspects of God even seem to be so different that we wonder how they both can apply to the same God.

One that people often wrestle with is the love of God and the holiness of God, that there is the love of God. And if God is love, then how can there be the reality of hell and judgment? And there is a wrestling and there seems to be tension between these two things. And yet God is both love and he is also holy.

A few weeks back at the men's Bible study, we talked about and I was reflecting on the picture of the Lord as the lion and the lamb. The lion and the lamb. I mean, trying to find two animals that are more different would be a little bit of a challenge. One is a predator and one is a prey. And they're vastly different. And yet the Lord is both. He is the lion and the lamb.

John tells us in John chapter 1 that when Jesus came, he was full of grace and truth. And those two things can be at odds with each other, we might think. The grace of God and yet the reality of the truth of who we are seems to be in opposition.

The Bible teaches that God is a God of justice. He's a righteous judge. But then it also teaches that he is merciful. He's a merciful judge. And how can justice be done and, you know, that be taken care of, but at the same time, mercy being shown? There's tension between these two concepts.

You see Jesus in his ministry overturning tables, making whips, and driving people out of the temple as they're selling goods and things there. And yet you see him dealing with the woman who is caught in the very act of adultery with such gentleness. There's such variety to the characteristics of God, to the attributes of God. Now, as you think about some of those opposites, there is an exception to that. If you think about the reality that God is light,

Well, we also know from 1 John 1, verse 5, that in him is no darkness at all. So it's not that God is light and darkness, that it's not every aspect or everything that we could think of. But so many aspects of God are, well, multidimensional, that there's more than one side to it. There's more than one aspect or perspective on it. Walking with God, then, cannot be reduced down to a simple system.

It can't be reduced down to here's a bunch of rules. Here's a system. Here's a, you know, a procedure to follow. It can't be reduced down to a bunch of directions. But instead, walking with God is, well, it's going to be multidimensional because God, the one that we're walking with is God.

And so we want to take some time to consider this as we work our way through Luke chapter 5 verses 27 through 39 this morning. Four points we'll consider to help us walk with our multidimensional God and understanding that that means there's going to be some, well, challenges.

complex aspects to our walk and understanding that as we walk with God, that there's going to be some things that we're called to do that are seemingly at tension and seemingly at odds with one another, are different. And yet at the same time, it is what God calls us to do. And so we're going to start in verses 27 through 29 with point number one. Walking with God as a multidimensional God means, well, that there's also going to be full abandonment

and commitment. Full abandonment and commitment. Check out verse 27 and 28 again. It says, after these things, he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. And he said to him, follow me. So he left all, rose up, and followed him.

Here we are jumping into the ministry of Jesus during the time where he is commissioning his disciples. Earlier, we saw him call the fishermen and they began to follow Jesus. And now Jesus walks by the table of Levi. He's there at the tax office working for the Roman Empire, but he's a Jew. And his name is Levi, but his name is also Matthew.

And so we typically refer to him as Matthew. He is one of the 12 disciples. He's the author of the gospel of Matthew. And so we typically know him by that. But he's also known as Levi. And here the Lord walks by, sees him and says, hey, you, Matthew, Levi, you come follow me.

Now, being a tax collector as a Jew in those days was something that was really frowned upon. The Jews really hated the tax collectors. They felt betrayed because they were working with Rome and requiring and bringing in the taxes that Rome was requiring. And the Jews hated that. But then also the tax collectors were often corrupt.

And they would often charge way more than what was required by Rome because Rome just said, here's what you need to bring in. Anything over that, that's what you get to keep for yourself. And so they would work out ways to benefit themselves while collecting tax from the people. And so just as a general rule, the tax collectors were considered the worst of the worst people.

And so here's Levi. He is a Jew, but he is involved in this occupation of tax collecting. And the Lord sees him. And the Lord says, this is a guy who is called to be one of my disciples. Levi, you come and follow me. Now, when Jesus tells him to follow me, it's not a call to follow Jesus temporarily.

Back in the day when I was working at Walmart, I was in my training instructed to never tell somebody where something is. If someone was asking for, you know, where the hammers were, it wasn't just, you know, go down two aisles over to the left. And they instructed us at that time.

Stop what you're doing. Walk the customer over to what it is that they're asking for. Don't just point and tell them directions. And so if I, you know, was working there at Walmart and you came up to me and said, where are the hammers? Well, I could say, follow me.

But when I say follow me in that context, it wouldn't mean quit your job, quit your life, leave your family, you know, stay all day with me here at work, come home with me, go to the store with me, go to the park with me. That's a different kind of follow me. When Jesus looked at Levi and he said, follow me, he wasn't saying, hey, why don't you hang out with me today? He wasn't saying, why don't you spend the next couple hours with me and go where I'm about to go for this event or this occasion.

When Jesus looked at Levi, he said, follow me. He meant surrender your life, abandon your job, quit everything, change everything, and come and follow me. That's what Jesus meant. And that's what Levi did. In verse 28, it tells us, so he left all, rose up, and followed him. And Levi never went back to tax collecting. He never went back to that position. He didn't go back to that life. He went from then on,

into a whole new life, walking with Jesus, serving with Jesus, ministering with Jesus, and then being commissioned by the Lord at his ascension to go out and to preach the gospel to the world. Levi responded exactly the way that Jesus intended for him to respond. He didn't go overboard and, you know, do more than what Jesus was asking. He didn't hold back parts of his life and do less than Jesus was asking. He did exactly what Jesus asked.

He left all, he rose up, and he followed him. It's a full abandonment, not in an irresponsible way, but in a way that reflects the attachment of Levi to the Lord. Pastor Thomas Constable says, Luke's terminology stresses Levi's decisive break with his former vocation and his continuing life of discipleship.

This decision undoubtedly involved making financial and career sacrifices. What would it look like for you if Jesus gave you this kind of commission? And he doesn't commission everybody the same way. So this exact circumstance isn't exactly right.

what the Lord intends for every one of us. But at the same time, the level of commitment, the level of abandonment is what the Lord expects. That we would be willing to surrender all. That if the Lord asks us to quit our jobs to follow him, that we would be willing to do that. If the Lord asks us to move to another state or another country or to the moon or wherever, that we would be willing, that there would be a willingness to let go

of what we know in this life, a full abandonment to follow the Lord. It's not just for Levi that God required this extent of abandonment. Jesus tells us in Luke chapter 14, verse 33, so likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not forsake all that he has. He says, if you can't do that, you cannot be my disciple.

Now, again, he's not requiring every believer to not have any possessions and not have an occupation. And, you know, that's not his requirement. But the willingness to forsake, that we engage in our occupations, that we maintain those possessions, not as our own as followers of the Lord, but that we're stewards over the life that the Lord has called us to. It really doesn't belong to us.

It's really not our decision. It's not our say. We've abandoned all to follow Jesus. At least that's what Jesus has called us to. It's interesting to consider in verse 29 as it goes on, then Levi gave him a great feast in his own house. And there was a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. Here's Levi. He abandoned all. He forsook all to follow Jesus. And yet,

he still had the resources to throw a massive party. You see, it didn't mean that he liquidated all of his accounts. It didn't mean that he, you know, just gave everything away and lived in poverty. That isn't what happened in this case. God may call some people to that, but that's not what the Lord meant when he told Levi to follow him. He still had a great number of friends. And sometimes when the Lord says, abandon all, it means for us to, well, abandon.

disconnect. But for Levi, he was still connected to friends. And there was a great number of tax collectors and others who came to this party. And so full abandonment does not mean throwing everything away, but it does mean the willingness to surrender everything to Jesus. And so if Jesus says, throw it away, well, then you need to throw it away.

And if Jesus says, sell it all, give the money to the poor and then come follow me, well, then that's what he wants of you. If Jesus says, manage it well so that you can provide for your family and the kingdom of God, well, then do that. But the abandoning is really something that happens in our heart where we let go of our hold on things, where we let go of our hold on the plans and the purposes and the decisions of

And we turn ourselves over to the Lord complete. It's a full abandonment, but at the same time, it's a commitment. It's a giving of ourselves and a committing of ourselves to the Lord. Entrusting all of us, all that we are, our time, our schedule, our families, our possessions, all of everything. And entrusting it to the Lord, committing ourselves to the Lord.

Pastor John Corson says, the people who soar the highest in the Lord presently and who will be rewarded in the kingdom eternally are those who have left things behind. I've seen my own life limited when I was not willing to do so. Satan wants to weigh us down with the stuff of this world and Jesus wants to set us free. We can be weighted down when we're not willing to forsake all, to abandon all.

and to follow Jesus. We can be held back and weighted down because we're holding on to things that the Lord wants us to let go of. Our God is a multi-dimensional God. And that means that in my life, there are going to be things that the Lord wants me to just surrender completely and let go of and abandon it and never go back to it.

There are some things he's going to call me to set aside and then come back to later. There's some things he's going to call me to maintain and preserve for his sake and for his glory. And all through that, there is this commitment of myself to the Lord, my heart and my mind, and all that he has called me to. We follow a multi-dimensional God. And as followers of that God, there's going to be areas of full abandonment.

and full commitment unto the Lord. Well, moving on to verses 30 through 32, we get the second point for this morning, and that is pursue righteousness and friendliness. Pursue righteousness and friendliness. Read verses 30 through 32 with me. It says, and their scribes and the Pharisees complained against his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus answered and said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Here is Jesus is hanging out with Levi now. Levi throws this massive party. He invites all of his friends over. And the thing is, Levi was a tax collector. The only people who would hang out with a tax collector was

Other tax collectors. They were the scorn of society. And so nobody wanted to hang out with them except for, well, those who were like them. And so it was the sinners. It was those who were looked down upon that would hang out together. That's who Levi knew. So when he throws this great party, well, that's who comes over.

It wasn't, you know, the religious leaders that were excited to get that invitation from Levi. It wasn't, you know, the most popular people and, you know, the cream of the crop from society. It was those who were like Levi, sinners, tax collectors, people that would be scorned by others. And you can see that right here in the passage. In verse 30, the Pharisees begin to complain against the disciples.

And they say, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Now, as you look at verse 30, there's three groups of people in this verse. You have the scribes and the Pharisees. And as you look at this group, you can see they're really impressed with themselves. They're impressed with their efforts. They're impressed with their righteousness. They're really impressed with who they are and how they live. We also have the disciples. And the disciples are really impressed with Jesus.

Jesus has captivated their heart. He's captivated their mind and their followers of Jesus now. Then you have the rest, the tax collectors and the sinners. Now, of course, you and I know today that we are all sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God, Romans tells us.

But the general idea here of the tax collectors and sinners is that these are people who really were not trying to walk with God. They weren't, you know, walking through the elements of the law. They weren't bringing their sacrifices to the temple. They weren't seeking out the things of God. They were just living their life and doing what they wanted to do. And so here you have the religious leaders, you have the disciples, you have the tax collectors and sinners walking.

I would encourage you to consider what group do you fit into? Are you part of the group that's really impressed with yourself and how diligent you are in your relationship to God and your efforts of righteousness? Or are you really impressed with Jesus and you're just captivated by him and your heart is filled

intertwined with his and you're seeking out the things of the Lord? Or are you kind of not really in either of those, but you just kind of do what you want to do and you're around and you believe in God and you know about the things of God, but your focus is not so much on pleasing him and doing what he wants, but it's living out the life that seems right to you, that feels good to you.

Well, the religious leaders here are looking on at this scene and they're seeing these tax collectors and sinners and saying, oh, this is disgusting. We would never have a meal with this kind of people. Good Jews would not associate with tax collectors and sinners, especially the religious leaders.

They would have the mindset, the mentality, I'm pursuing righteousness. So I can't associate with people like that because I'm wanting to be holy. I want to be devoted to the Lord and dedicated to the Lord. And then to eat and drink, not just associate, but to eat and drink for them. Oh, it meant so much more. There was such an intimacy in their meals and it was so close. It was like, no way that would never happen for those religious leaders.

It's safe to imagine that this question brought to the disciples came with great contempt and horror. Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? They were horrified by this. It was the worst thing imaginable. And yet, here is Jesus, the most holy, the most pure, the most righteous person who has ever existed.

And he's spending time with the worst sinners of their society. How can this be? From their perspective, they don't understand it. But even from our perspective, perhaps we don't understand it. How could this be? Well, Jesus explains it in verse 31 and 32. He says, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

The Lord never compromised his holiness or righteousness, but he also came with the mission as a physician. He is seeking to heal, not a physical ailment, but heal a spiritual issue, the issue of sin, and to bring people back into right relationship with God. And so he comes not seeking to distance himself and to be separate and set apart in that way,

But he comes as a physician. He's rushing in to where, well, there's critical injuries and the worst cases need to be dealt with immediately. And those were the worst of the worst of their society. And so Jesus says, it's not the well who'd need a physician. Now, in reality, the religious leaders were not well. They were not actually righteous. They were really impressed with their own righteousness, but they weren't righteous before God.

But Jesus here is explaining, look, it's not that I came to hang out with all of the perfect people because there was no perfect people. And he's not going to hold back from hanging out with the worst of the worst because that's actually who he came for. Those who are sinful, those who are in need of a savior, those who are in need of a physician. Pursuing righteous personally does not have to include disgust and contempt for others socially.

pursuing righteousness personally. That's something that every one of us should be partaking in. We do need to pursue righteousness, to pursue God's ways and God's plan for us. But pursuing righteousness personally does not have to mean then that I disgust and have contempt for others in society. I think it's an important thing to consider. Is my life only filled with healthy people?

Now, right now, maybe that's a good thing, right? In the physical sense, right? Like you're supposed to stay at home, you know, social distancing and fill your life just with the healthy people. And that's an appropriate thing for this season for us. But in a spiritual sense, is your life only filled with healthy people? Do you only allow into your life those who, well, you deem worthy and you deem to be righteous and acceptable?

Of course, that's more comfortable for us. We want to hang out and spend time with and be around those who are easy to be around. At the same time, Jesus didn't come to be like that. He came on a mission to reach, to be present, to be with those who needed a Savior. During the time right now as the crisis continues and, you know,

quarantines continue and all of that, there's been a lot of applaud, and rightly so, for the medical staff, the emergency workers, those who are, you know, still, they're doing the work that they've been commissioned to do, and even putting themselves at risk and in harm's way and at great expense. That's a good picture for us spiritually, that as followers of the Lord, we are to pursue righteousness, but at the same time, we're to pursue friendliness. Yes.

And we're not to be so distant that people are not able to approach. And we're not to be so set apart and so far away that there is no connection and there's no opportunity for us to introduce them to the Lord. Here, Levi throws a great party, invites all his friends over, and Jesus says, yes, absolutely. I mean, these guys that Levi's inviting over are not going to be my disciples. That's Levi. He's called to be my disciple. But they are called to salvation.

They are in need of healing. And so Jesus has no problem going to be with them. Now, I can imagine some concern kind of rising up and wait a minute, Jerry, because if you give people authority and authorization to go and hang out with sinful people, boy, they're going to get into all kinds of trouble. And yes, there is a concern there. And there does need to be caution. And again, it's about walking with the Lord and understanding that

Yes, there's going to be times, there's going to be occasions where the Lord wants you to engage with and be around those that perhaps make you uncomfortable. And those that perhaps, you know, would be not the normal people that you would want to be hanging around. But there's a need there. There's an opportunity there for the Lord to be presented.

I like what Pastor John Corson says about this. He says, if you find the party or the people affecting you rather than you affecting them, watch out. But if like Jesus, you can go into a place and make a difference by your joy and the unmistakable reality of God's work in your life, then go with God's blessing. You need to be wise and you need to follow the Lord and his leading. Understand that, hey, if hanging around those people is causing you

to stumble in your relationship with the Lord, then you're probably not ready for that ministry. Even though there is a need there, you're not ready for it. But at the same time, as you have an unmistakable reality of God in your life, as God is working and your joy, your life is transformed, well, you can make a difference and you can make an impact. And there are people around you that need that influence and that impact. Pursue righteousness, but not to the cost of friendliness.

Not to the point where there is now a disgust for those who don't measure up to, you know, your life and your pattern and what you think is right and good. There should still be a friendliness, an openness, keeping the door open and the opportunity there for the gospel to be presented and for the Lord to work through your life. Pursuing righteousness personally does not have to include disgust and contempt for others socially.

Moving on to verses 33 through 35, we get the third point for this morning. And that is that we experience joy and sorrow. Again, God is multidimensional. There's many aspects to God. There's many aspects to our relationship with God. And there's going to be different seasons where we experience a variety of different emotions and different types of experiences with the Lord. We're going to jump into verses 33 through 35. Here's what it says.

Then they said to him, why did the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise those of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink? And he said to them, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and they will fast in those days. The religious leaders aren't done asking questions. First, they want to know how can you hang out with people like that?

And then now they want to know, how is it that you don't practice your religion the way that we practice our religion? They're asking questions about fasting. Now, this question about fasting comes from their own experience and their own practice in their lives. The Pharisees, again, they were impressed with themselves. They fasted twice a week.

on Mondays and on Thursdays. You might remember a little bit later on in the Gospel of Luke, in Luke chapter 18, as Jesus compares the prayer of the Pharisee and the prayer of the tax collector, the prayer of the Pharisee was, God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. I'm not extortioner, unjust, or adulterer. I'm not like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of all that I possess.

God, thank you that I am so great, essentially, is what this Pharisee prayed. I fast twice a week. Again, really impressed with themselves. And so here, as they fast twice a week, it seems that it's possible this event that we're reading through here in Luke chapter 5 may have happened on one of those days that

And that's one of the reasons why they're prompting the question. They're fasting. And so they're kind of hungry and miserable and grumpy. And they're like, everybody else is eating. And hey, how come you guys get to eat and we don't get to eat? And so Jesus, why don't your disciples fast like we do? Even the disciples of John fast, they said. Now, the Pharisees did not agree with John the Baptist's message.

but they at least respected the discipline of him and his disciples. They fast, we fast, what's with you guys? How come you're not fasting? Now, fasting is an important subject, one that is a little bit broader and there's more depth to it than we are able to get into this morning. It's a very misunderstood subject. I would just point out a couple of things. First of all, fasting is not actually commanded in the scriptures.

Fasting is misunderstood by many people, and it's used in an attempt to manipulate God. Sometimes fasting is an attempt to get what I want. Sometimes fasting is, well, a way to try to make God more pleased with me. And there's all these, you know, different ideas and things around fasting that are not actually taught throughout the scriptures.

And so aside from actually teaching all about fasting, I would encourage you to dig into that on your own. If that's something that is on your heart or maybe you're considering that, make sure you understand what is the purpose of fasting and what does the Bible say about it? But I don't want to get sidetracked into that because, well, Jesus didn't.

He doesn't actually address the fasting. Instead, he addresses the fellowship. He says in verse 34, can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? The question was, why don't you guys fast on the schedule that we have or in the same way that we do? And Jesus says, let me give you the illustration of a wedding feast. And for them, a wedding feast was a week-long ordeal.

And the wedding feast, when it would take place, the predominant responsibility of those who were involved was to exhibit joy. And so even the most religious would lay aside the requirement for fasting and those kinds of things during that week-long feast.

Because their primary responsibility was to be joyful. Pastor David Guzik puts it this way. A wedding feast was the most vivid picture of joy and happiness in that culture. During the week-long wedding feast, it was understood that joy was more important than conformity to religious rituals.

If any ceremonial observance could detract from the joy of a wedding feast, it was not required. And so they would change the rules for a wedding feast because, well, that was the first priority. And so Jesus says, think about this example here of the wedding feast that you're familiar with and you willingly lay aside these rules in those circumstances. Jesus says, this is what the disciples are experiencing right now.

They're the friends of the bridegroom. They're participating in the wedding feast. Here is the groom with them, and they're celebrating. And so it's not appropriate for them to fast right now. Now, Jesus is not saying it's never appropriate for them to fast, but he's saying now's not the time. This is a different season. Right now is the time for them to experience joy and to be filled and to be overflowing in that way. But then he goes on to say,

The season will change. In verse 35, the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and they will fast in those days. This is one of the important aspects that we need to understand about walking with God. Walking with God does not mean that we experience only the celebrations all day long, every day of the year, you know, for our whole lives. There's going to be different seasons. Again, God is multidimensional.

And there's enough aspects to who God is that, well, we need to learn to walk with him in times of great joy. We need to learn to walk with him in times of kind of normal, you know, medium joy. We need to work, learn to walk with him in times of great sorrow and mild sorrow and discomfort and pandemics and, you know, all of the different things that we face.

It's a relationship. We often talk about that, that Christianity is a, it's not a religion, it's a relationship. And relationships change over time. There's different seasons for relationships and there's different types and different ways that you communicate and express and walk and different things that you experience together. There's different seasons. So there needs to be a flexibility and we don't have to pretend to be in a season of joy when it's a season of sorrow.

We don't have to pretend to be in one condition when it's a different season for us. They don't have to pretend to not be experiencing joy and fast right now. Later on, they're going to experience sorrow. They're going to be fasting. They're going to be spending time with God and connecting in a different way. But they're not in that season yet. When you follow a multidimensional God, that means, well, the variety of things that you're going to experience in your relationship with the Lord is going to change throughout the years.

There will be seasons of very high highs and seasons of very low lows. But God will be with you through all of them. And we need to learn to walk with him genuinely through them all. Well, finally, we're going to look at verses 36 through 39. Here's the fourth point, the final point for this morning. Appreciate the old and embrace the new.

Again, there's some tension between some of these things. Joy and sorrow, how can we have that? Righteousness and friendliness, how can those things be found in the same person, in the same walk with the Lord, appreciating the old, embracing the new? There's a lot of tension here, and we see it demonstrated between these religious leaders and Jesus. Jumping into verse 36, it says this, Then he spoke a parable to them. No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one.

Otherwise, the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new, for he says, the old is better."

Here Jesus gives three illustrations to further his point with the religious leaders. He says, the first illustration, think about a patch, a garment that has a tear in it and needs to be patched. Well, the way that you do that is not by taking a new garment and cutting a piece out of that and putting it on the old garment. There's some issues with that. First of all, you ruin the new garment because the new garment now has a hole in it that you cut out.

But when you apply that patch to the old garment, because the material has not seen the same wear and tear, it's not been washed and shrunk and all of that. When you put the new garment or the new piece on the old garment, well, that new piece will shrink and will end up causing a worse tear and greater damage to that old garment. And so in the end, you lose both.

You lose the new garment because now that has a hole in it. You cut out that piece. You lose the old garment because, well, that tear became worse and is in worse condition now than when you started. And so there's a dangerous thing here, taking something new and fixing it on the thing that is old. Here, Jesus, of course, is addressing their attachments to their traditions.

attachments to the law, but even there on top of the law, they had their traditions that they had built and fasting twice a week was one of them. And they're trying to make Jesus fit into you. They're trying to patch it on. They're trying to make all of this work together to force him to conform to that old system. And Jesus says that that's not going to work. If I conformed to the old system and your traditions, that would destroy your traditions and it would destroy my work.

It would ruin both. No, the old, well, it needs to be appreciated, but at the same time, the new needs to be handled differently, and it needs to be embraced. The second illustration he gives is that of a wineskin. They would use these wet leather wineskins to ferment wine.

the the juice into wine and so they would take the the wineskin they would pour the juice inside they would seal it and and there it would ferment within the wineskin in verse 37 jesus says no one puts new wine into old wineskins or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled and the wineskins will be ruined you don't take a new batch of wine and put it in a wineskin that is old because in the fermentation process

Well, the wineskin is not going to be flexible and able to handle the changes and things that are going on within it. And so the wineskin will burst. And again, you lose both in that case. You lose the wine and the wineskin as a result of trying to mix these two. Again, he's saying you can't attach these two. You can't have both at the same time. There needs to be a transition from the old to the new.

The third illustration, he goes on to talk about old wine versus new wine in verse 39. He says, Nobody goes back to an old wine and goes, That's good, but you know that the new one is better. Now, I don't know anything about this, but...

You can take Jesus's word for it, okay? So he says, look, there's a rejection of the new wine. There's a rejection. It's not as mild. It's more harsh. It's more sour or whatever the case may be. It's not as pleasant, perhaps. And the idea here, the point that Jesus is making is, well, we're comfortable with the old things, with the old ways, and we don't immediately embrace the new things and the new ways.

Very often between the old and the new, there's tension. And perhaps there seems to be conflict. Even as you look at our Bibles, and you have the Old Testament and the New Testament. And a lot of people have a hard time bringing those two together. How can they both be in the same book? Sometimes, you know, you might think about or people talk about the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. And there's this difference that seems to be unreconcilable. And yet, they are reconcilable.

But there needs to be a correct understanding of how they are reconciled. Here's what Jesus said in Matthew 5, verse 17. He says, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. He looks back at the Old Testament. He says, look, I didn't come to cast those things out and destroy them. I came to fulfill them. He had an appreciation for the old. That was important. That was needed. It was what God wanted.

had given for that season, but now there's a transition into relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ. And so Jesus said, I came to fulfill all of those old things and become the new way of walking with God and the way of approaching God. The method really didn't change. It was still by faith and by grace, but instead of practicing the sacrificial system, Jesus says, now I'm going to be the sacrifice.

And so there's an appreciation of the old, a fulfilling of the old, as well as a transitioning into the new. I think this is especially appropriate for us to consider right now. We're living in a new season right now, just in the very sense of doing church this morning. I see Noah here in the sanctuary. Roman's hiding somewhere and John and Lena are hiding somewhere. This is different. This is a new season for us. But many of you are watching and you're participating in service from, well,

Things that you're not used to as well, from places you're not used to as well. It's a new season. Now, things may go back to what we're used to. We kind of pray for that, right? Over the next few weeks, hopefully these things wind down and the pandemic resolves. At the same time, things might be forever changed. And that's okay. It's okay. We need to learn to appreciate the old. We don't cast it out and say, okay,

Boy, those days when we used to go physically, you know, be in the church. Oh, we were such fools, you know, such a silly thing to do. We didn't have to do that, you know. But no, no, we appreciate the old. That was definitely what God had for us for that season. And perhaps, Lord willing, that's something that God has for us again in the future. But right now there's something new and we need to learn to embrace that. Appreciate the old, but embrace. God wants to do some new things in this season.

And it's not that, well, okay, you know, this is the best, what we used to do, that was the best. And, you know, now we kind of, we just kind of substitute it. It's not quite as good, but, you know, what else are we going to do? No, no, I would suggest God, God's able to do as much and even more than what we've ever experienced in the past, even under these new circumstances. God hasn't changed and he's not limited.

And he still meets with us and he still speaks to us. He still leads us and he wants to work through us. Embrace the new season. God wants to do some fresh things in your life. He wants to do some new things. He wants to speak to you in new ways. He wants to develop your relationship with him to a greater degree. But it's going to require a willingness to appreciate the old and an embracing of the new.

For us to come before the Lord, again, it's a relationship with him. How do you, God, want me to spend this time with you? How do you want to work in my life? And how do you want me to interact with you? There's going to be a need for flexibility. The picture of the wineskins is a picture of inflexibility. That the wineskins, if new wine is put into an old wineskin, it's not flexible. And so it bursts. It cannot handle the pressure of the new.

But Jesus says in verse 38, new wine must be put into new wineskins and both are preserved. So how do we do that? How do we handle this season and find ourselves in a position where we're able to handle the changes and embrace those things? Well, it's interesting that Jesus uses two different words for new here in verse 38. He talks about new wine and he talks about new wineskins.

The word new, when he talks about new wine, can only mean new in the sense of time. So it's new, it's brand new wine that's never been wine before. It's juice that's about to become wine. But when he talks about new wineskins, it can be new as in new in time,

but it also can be new in the sense of being renewed, that it was made new again. And they had in those days processes for taking an old wineskin and soaking it in water and making it renewed so that it was flexible and pliable again and able to handle a new batch of wine. It wasn't, you know, a one-time use necessarily, but if it wasn't handled appropriately, well, that wineskin would burst. If it wasn't prepared,

that wineskin would burst. There needs to be some flexibility. God wants to speak to you and he wants to work in your life. Even as we are not able to gather together in person, there's some new ways that God wants to develop you and your interactions with others and your interactions with him. Be flexible. Let him show you. Let him grow you. Let him develop you in those ways. You appreciate the old, but still embrace the new.

Don't try to force the new stuff into the old format. Don't try to force things to happen the way that you used to have them or the way that you're comfortable with, but be flexible. And I'll have the Lord to show you some new things that he wants you to do and see the potential. Look for the potential. In verse 39, Jesus says, no one having drunk old wine immediately desires new.

where he says the old is better. It's so easy for us to be comfortable and to think, oh, no, no, the old is better. Just stick with what we're familiar with. Sometimes we need to look beyond the immediate. We say, well, this online church thing, boy, it's pretty bad. There's a lot of hiccups and complications. It's been hard the last couple of weeks to connect and find out where do we live stream and all of that, right? We can easily get hung up on those kinds of things. That's just one silly example, but see the potential.

There's a potential for God to do something much bigger through this process that we're all experiencing. Play the long game. Learn some new things. Learn to walk with God in different ways and experience what it is that he has for you. I really like this quote from F.B. Meyer. It's kind of old English, so bear with me. But man, it's packed with such meaning.

He says,

Let it have new skins. What F.B. Meyer is saying here is we need to embrace the new. Let the new batch of wine fill you. Don't hold on to the old so that you miss out on the new. And don't force the pace and try to throw away the old before it's ready. Now there's some old things that God still has purpose for and is going to use. And so we can't rush the pace, but at the same time,

When those old things are done, we need to let them go and trust. And we know, hey, it hasn't affected the new vintage. God's still going to be doing a new work. He's still going to be pouring out his Holy Spirit. There's still those grapes reddening on the vines. Go collect them and be part of the new things that God wants to do. Embrace the old. I'm sorry, embrace the new, but still appreciate the old.

Our God is multidimensional. He doesn't just do one thing the same forever and ever all the time. He's moving in different ways. He's changing things. And so as we walk with him, there's going to be, well, a variety of dimensions and aspects and characteristics to our walk. There's going to be a full abandonment, which may look differently at different points in our lives, but at the same time, there's this commitment that is unto the Lord.

And again, that commitment may look different in a variety of times and variety of places throughout our life. We need to pursue righteousness, but at the same time, be friendly and be accessible and able to communicate and connect with people around us who are even considered by society the worst of the worst. We need to learn to experience joy and sorrow. Both are part of our walk with God. All kinds of emotions are part of our walk with God.

We need to learn to appreciate the old and embrace the new. One final thought as I close. Yesterday, in continuing the work that God has had us do, be doing on our house, I was installing our kitchen window. Now, we purchased all of our windows to replace them back in November, and we installed most of them in December. But we had to wait on the kitchen window. Some other things had to happen first. And so yesterday was the day to put in the kitchen window.

Before I started, I thought, you know, I should double check the measurements. So I pulled out my tape measure. I measured the width of the window. Oh, it's 57 inches wide. It's perfect. It's exactly the right measurement. And so I disassembled the old window. I removed it all from the frame and I placed the new window in place. And what I realized as I did was, well, it was the right width, but it was about five inches too short. It wasn't tall enough.

I forgot there was more than one dimension to the window. I checked the width, but I didn't check the height. For us in this season, we need to remember God's multidimensional. It's not just one thing. It's not just your devotional life. It's not just, you know, your online church experience. It's not just one thing. There's many things. There's many aspects to your relationship with the Lord and your walk with him and how that's going to be demonstrated in your life. And so I would encourage you, don't just check one measurement.

but you spend some time with God. It really is a relationship. Learn how he wants to relate to you in this time. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. And again, for the opportunity to continue to hear from you. And Lord, that you're not limited by time or space, but you're able to work beyond both.

And so God, we invite you. Lord, would you minister to us? Would you speak to us about our relationship with you? Show us, Lord. If we're pursuing righteousness but unfriendly, Lord, would you show us that? Lord, if we're not pursuing righteousness at all, would you reveal that as well? Lord, if we are holding on to the old and trying to force the old to continue on when you're calling us to let that go and embrace something new, Lord, would you reveal that and speak that to us? Help us, Lord, to be flexible.

to hear from you and respond as your spirit leads. Lord, you're big. You are multifaceted. There is so many folds to your wisdom, to your character, to your nature, to your will and to your ways. Lord, we can't figure it out with a system of rules and regulations. We need to spend time with you. And so Lord, help us to do that. Would you speak to us and show us your will and your ways for us right now. We pray this in Jesus' name.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.