New Wine in New Wineskins

Mark 2:18-22
Gerrit Buddingh’ | Sunday, December 15, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Gerrit Buddingh’

Today in Mark 2, starting in verse 18, we pick up where we left off a few weeks ago. If you remember, Jesus had called the tax collector named Levi, also known as Matthew, to come follow him as one of his disciples. This event was celebrated by Levi throwing a lavish dinner party at his house with other tax collectors and people considered to be sinners by the so-called good churchgoers of that day. This event both troubled and angered the rigid Jewish religious leaders who heard about it. How could this Jesus eat and fellowship with those who were considered social and religious outcasts? How could he eat with those they considered traitors to the Jewish nation, collaborators with the occupying Romans? How could Jesus dine with such disreputable sinners?

Jesus answers his accusers in verse 17, telling them that he had come to call just such “sinners” to repentance and not those self-righteous people who think themselves already right with God. Prior to that event, Jesus had caused the religious elite much consternation when he forgave a paralytic his sins, thus claiming for himself a prerogative of God to forgive sins. And then to prove that he is God, he healed the lame man who got up, took his stretcher, and went home.

Prior to that, Jesus had gone about doing what only God could do, that is, changing water into wine, healing the sick of every kind, and delivering demoniacs from the demons that occupied them. So we find that Jesus seems to be in the business of upsetting and causing trouble. He appears on the scene at thirty years of age and begins his earthly ministry by upsetting entrenched religious traditions, tipping over sacred cows. As far as the Jewish religious establishment was concerned, Jesus was involved in one scandal after another, and had to be stopped.

Our text this morning opens with another dispute between Jesus and these religious leaders. This time, it involves the ritual of fasting. Jesus had dared to ignore it, and the religious leaders are once again incensed. Later on, disputes will arise between Jesus and them over the issues of ceremonial washings and how to keep the Sabbath. From all this, we observe that highly religious people can be very difficult to deal with. They are often held in the grip of tradition, ritual, and legalism. If you step on their belief system, you will soon discover that their religiosity is a simple veneer. And most of them can be as mean as the devil when you cross them. Challenge their deeply held beliefs, and any rationality goes out the window. It would not take but a second to see that their religion has never penetrated their unregenerate hearts to bring about true salvation. They are like a new patch on old clothes and like brittle old wineskins that cannot receive Jesus and his kingdom rule. They will soon manifest the fact that their religion has not made them right with God, for they will reject Jesus as Lord, as do most people today. And I pray that no one here is in that category.

That is the kind of religious people Jesus is facing in these verses. He is facing criticism from a group of religious leaders who, though knowing about God, do not know God. They know the rules, the rituals, the things that they have been taught by others. But they do not know the life-changing power of a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Of such people the apostle Paul would later write, “Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people” (2 Tim. 3:5).

In today’s text, we find these religious leaders again scandalized by Jesus’ breaking one of their cherished religious conventions, that is, fasting. He does not necessarily feel bound to keep their ceremonial rituals and thus the rub between them. Usually, such religious people who observe rituals wrongly believe that these religious practices bring God’s favor upon those who mechanically observe them. For instance, some people believe the act of baptism will save the soul, or that circumcision automatically makes you a member of God’s chosen family. The Roman Catholic church observes seven sacraments which, if practiced, they believe brings salvation ex opere operato, a Latin theological phrase meaning that the physical act of receiving the sacrament, such as baptism, or regularly taking the eucharist, or receiving extreme unction at death, actually confers the promised benefit of saving grace. In reality, according to the Bible, which alone is the supreme and final authority, God’s salvation and blessings come only through grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. You must be born again from above by God the Holy Spirit if you are to be saved.

This morning we will consider, first, scandalized by eating and not eating; and, second, Jesus’ three responses highlighting the need for regeneration.

Scandalized by Eating and Not Eating

Early in verses 13 and 17, we find the Pharisees, the moral police of that day, were scandalized by Jesus eating with tax collectors and other notorious sinners. Now, in this passage, they hammered Jesus with another complaint. We are told in verse 18 that the new point of dispute is over fasting—to fast or not to fast. But as we shall see, that is not really the question. Religious people fast. Even Jesus would later say so. But not all people who fast are truly godly.

The Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist were known to observe religious fasting as part of their lifestyles. It was not just a weight reduction program, though some of us probably would benefit from fasting for that reason. But fasting was their serious religious regimen. It did not, however, make them truly godly because they were outside of Jesus Christ. They were spiritually dead, men who did not truly know God. In the end, their fasting was much ado signifying nothing. They claimed to be seeking God but refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah. They refused to embrace him as their Immanuel, the God-man, God in the flesh who stood before them. As a result, they were both deceived and damned by rejecting the very One sent by God to redeem his people from their sins and to rule over them as their Lord and King. So their fasting proved fake and false and of no merit with God.

Well, then, what is godly fasting? When it is good to do and when is it bad? And should we do it today? Fasting is nowhere forbidden in the Bible. In fact, it is recommended if done with the right motives. The Torah established only one mandatory religious fast day for the Jewish people of the Old Testament. In the regulations concerning the Day of Atonement, found in Leviticus 16:29, we are told, “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or an alien living among you.”

“Deny yourselves” is a euphemism for fasting. The Hebrew and English translations sometimes say “afflict your souls,” which perhaps better captures the meaning in the Hebrew and is what fasting feels like when you do it—an affliction of your soul. This expression is found in Psalm 35:13. “When they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself.” In the Hebrews, it is “I afflicted my soul with fasting.” We find that throughout the Bible other fast days were proclaimed from time to time. We see this in 2 Chronicles 20:3. Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judea. In Esther 4:16 we find Esther and Mordecai and the other Jews of Susa holding a three-day fast to seek God’s favor for deliverance from the wicked Haman, who threatened to eradicate the Jewish people.

Fasting and prayer are also associated with Daniel and Ezra and Nehemiah. Daniel was habituated to fast and seek the majesty of heaven for the pardon of the national sins of God’s covenant people, the Jews, whom Daniel knew had justly called down on themselves God’s righteous indignation. Daniel 9:3 reads, “So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”

Consider too Ezra at the beginning of his journey back to Jerusalem from Babylon. He halted the caravan for three days, knowing his own helplessness to protect the caravan and its priceless temple treasures. His purpose for fasting was to obtain God’s guidance and protection. His motive was zeal for God’s honor. He probably could have obtained an armed escort from Cyrus, the pagan king at the time. Ezra had enough influence at the court to probably have procured this. Additionally, the safety of the treasure to which the king himself and his counselors and some of the princes throughout the empire had so handsomely contributed would have been a sufficient reason for Cyrus to provide a calvary escort.

The problem was that Ezra had proclaimed to King Cyrus great things about the almighty power and presence of the God of the Bible. Ezra had declared that the hand of God is on those who seek him for good. Now he is afraid that if he asks for help from the king, the king might say, “Why don’t you ask your God and trust in him to protect you?” And shouldn’t we say this to ourselves when we are tempted to lean on our own human understanding and others’ help? So Ezra did not ask for a military escort. Instead, he was divinely protected on his way. His faith and trust in the living God to protect this caravan became a great testimony to Cyrus and to us of God’s immanent power to save and to protect, and of the jealousy of God for his own honor.

Consider too Nehemiah, the young cupbearer who was deeply affected by the bad tidings about the state of God’s people in Jerusalem and Judea. We are told in Nehemiah 1:4 he wept and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven for direction and favor for himself and for his people.

What, then, is religious fasting? When it is good to do, and when is it bad? Fasting is, as we saw, nowhere forbidden. But it does require a right and godly attitude. In the New Testament, we find that Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness. He taught on fasting in his Sermon on the Mount. In his sermon, Jesus said, “When you fast,” not “If you fast,” but “When you fast.” That was assuming his disciples would do so. So it appears that Jesus intended fasting to have a place in their lives, in the lives of those in the kingdom of heaven.

The apostle Paul for fasted three days right after his conversion. The leaders of the church in Antioch were fasting the praying when the Holy Spirit told them to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which God had called them. And Saul and Barnabas appointed leaders to each church in Galatia, committing them with prayer and fasting to the Lord.

The apostle Paul also taught that fasting might have the right place in the lives of married couples. In 1 Corinthians 7:5, he instructed that the only time husbands and wives may deprive each other was when by consent they devote themselves to fasting and prayer.

Fasting is a time of self-denial, usually abstaining from eating and drinking, but also refraining from other kinds of physical fulfillment for a set period of time and using that time in an effort to draw close to God in prayer, Bible study, and meditation in order to grow spiritually and to seek his favor in some other way. It is not simply abstaining from eating or something else. It includes a serious self-examination.

Closely connected with this is the confession of known sin—personal sin, sins of the church, and sins of the nation—and calling out to God for his mercy in the way that he has promised. And all this should be accompanied with resolutions for new obedience, that is, to do right as found in the strength of Christ and with a due regard to his glory. Jesus is then not opposed to the right kind of fasting so long as it is done with a sincere intent to seek God and to not show off to others.

In Matthew 6:17–18, Jesus declared, “When you fast, [anoint your head] and wash your face, so it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Thus, fasting should be birthed out of a zeal for God’s honor to be done in your life. It must never be done to show off, pretending to be spiritual in the eyes of others.

Know too that fasting by itself does not impress God. It is not saying, “Hey, God, look at me!” Such an attitude does not persuade God in any way. Fasting does, however, demonstrate a sincerity of heart on the part of the person fasting if it is done out of an earnest desire to seek God. And when sin is repented of and forsaken, God will forgive it. But we should always remember that it is not the fasting but rather the blood of Christ, our sin offering, which is the only atonement that takes away our guilt. Fasting merits nothing. We should fast because God invites us to fast.

Furthermore, no amount of fasting and no seeming repentance or change of life will benefit the person who rejects Jesus as Lord and Savior. All the names written in the book of life are those of penitent sinners, not those of self-righteous people who think they have no need for Jesus to forgive and rule over them. In this way, the Pharisees and John the Baptist’s disciples grossly failed. They proved that they did not fast with right motives toward God. History tells us that they fasted every Monday and Thursday from six in the morning to six in the evening, but it was all out of false motives.

In the story in Luke 18:11–12, the story of the Pharisee and the publican, each praying in the temple, we find the Pharisee stood by himself in the temple and prayed, in essence, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, and the like. I fast twice a week. Aren’t you impressed, God? And I give a tenth of all I have.” Clearly, the Pharisee’s fasting was not done with a sincere effort to seek God. Self-deceived, he hoped that God would see his self-righteousness. (GJB) But God saw it for what it is. And unfortunately for the Pharisees, who do everything to make their self-righteousness known, Jesus would say and direct, “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do. For they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret, and he will reward you.”

Fasting is not to show how pious and righteous you are. True fasting and intercession, however, are born out of a real humbling of yourself before King Jesus. How can you claim to seek God if you are too proud to submit to Jesus? How can you submit to him if you do not confess your utter sinfulness and total inability to save yourself, and then to seek him to change your heart, ask his forgiveness, and submit to his rule over you? Only then will you be properly clothed in Jesus’ righteousness and have right standing before God to seek his favor both in fasting and in prayer.

But that is not the case with the Pharisees that we find described in today’s text. Being offended and scandalized by Jesus, they have the audacity to cross-examine him. And here is the problem: Jesus simply does not keep their rules. He does not walk to the beat of their drum. These men wanted Jesus to obey them. They did not want to obey Jesus.

Jesus refused to allow himself to be pressed into their religious mold. He refused to allow their dead rituals to become the focus of his life and ministry. Fasting, when done wrongly, is just a mere, lifeless routine. The ritual often comes to take the place of real worship of God, and the ritual can keep a lost person from trusting in Jesus because the ritual itself is thought to be sufficient for the one who observes it.

Worse, some rituals are evil at their core. Things like lighting candles for the dead and praying to saints and statutes, is heresy. Regularly going to church to groove on the light show and the music concerts is foolish. But even things like praying, singing, going to church, and reading the Bible can become nothing more than lifeless routines if the focus is the ritual and not the Lord.

In verse 18 the self-righteous morality police complained, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast, and, of course, we fast. But your disciples are not very religious. We do not ever see you fasting.” Jesus takes note of their complaints and responds with three mini-lectures.

Jesus’ Three Responses Highlighting the Need for Regeneration

Response 1: The Wedding Party

In verse 19, Jesus’ first response to this issue is to give an example about a wedding party. Weddings in those days were nothing like they are today. Nowadays, as soon as the wedding ceremony is over and the ensuing luncheon or dinner wraps up, the newlyweds quickly depart on their honeymoon.

In Jesus’ day, things were different. The wedding ceremony, when it was over, did not end anything. It was in a sense the beginning. The newlyweds and their families and friends carried on for a full week of celebration. The couple would spend seven days feasting and being treated like royalty.

Jesus tells his Pharisaical critics that his presence among them is like that of a bridegroom among his friends. It is not the time for fasting, self-denial, and being somber; it is a time for celebration and gladness. To be sad and to mourn, to fast while he, Jesus, the Bridegroom, is present, would simply be wrong.

So from this verse, we learn that the Jews were so caught up in their rituals that they missed who was standing right in front of them. Had they known who Jesus truly was, they would have stopped their fasting and joined in the feasting. Sometimes we are guilty of the same thing. We do the “church thing” out of tired habit and fail to recognize the presence of God that is in our midst. If we could ever learn to recognize Jesus’ constant presence with us, it would transform every moment of our lives. We would cease our murmuring and complaining, and we would live with great joy. We would see a change in the way we come to church. We would come looking for Jesus. We would come excitedly to worship him.

Now the feasting of the Jews may have impressed those who saw them, but it did not impress Jesus. He knew their hearts. He knew they were not seeking him to follow him. He knew that they were still trapped in their sins.

Relatedly, the good things that we do in the name of religion and worship can be nothing but hypocrisy, if they are not done out of a heart that is truly sincerely seeking the Lord. Singing hymns, going to church, preaching, teaching, praying, and so on can all become hypocritical if they do not arise out of a genuine desire to worship and glorify Christ our King.

In verse 20, having set the record straight, Jesus tells all who are listening that there will come a day when the bridegroom will be taken away and that his disciples would fast from that time on until the time he returns, which would be capped, as we learn elsewhere, with a great wedding supper of the Lamb (see Revelation 19).

The phrase “will be taken away” speaks of a sudden removal. Jesus is referring to the day in which he would arrested, falsely indicted, dishonestly prosecuted, wrongly convicted in a show trial, and taken away to be crucified. In that dark and dreadful day, his followers would mourn and fast. Truly, it would be a day of sadness for them initially. That day for them was upcoming. But for them right then, Jesus was in front of them, and to fast would be wrong.

To drive home his point, Jesus uses two vivid illustrations from everyday life. And he wants the Jews to understand that he did not come to preach a new and improved Judaism. He wants them and us to know that he did not come to reupholster their worn-out religion. Jesus wants them to know that he came to do away with the old and to bring in something entirely new. He wants them to know that at best their rituals and their rules foreshadow him and his coming, and must be replaced by his kingdom rule. Jesus wants these people to know that what he is doing and what they are doing are so different that they are antithetical to each other. He wants them to get the message that his gospel cannot be contained within the confines of their religion. Jesus did not come to refurbish their old religious established thoughts. He came to establish true Christianity, faith in Christ, and life under his kingdom rule.

Response 2: Patching Up Clothes

In this illustration, Jesus uses an image that first-century people would have been familiar with. Today, most of us think nothing about throwing out old clothes when they become worn or torn. In that day, however, and even in my own youth, clothes were not thrown out when they became worn or torn. You wore clothes with patches on them because your family could not afford to buy new clothes. When you tore your pants, your mother sewed patches on them—that is, until the advent of iron-on patches. In fact, some of us learned to patch our own clothes and darn our own socks, and that was the situation in every home in Jesus’ day.

Additionally, they had not yet developed any synthetic fabrics that do not shrink when washed. In Jesus’ time, and even in my childhood, new cloth always shrank after the first few times it was washed. A person wearing a new garment had to make sure it was a couple of sizes too large so that over time the garment would shrink down to the right size. If you tore your pants, it was foolish to sew a patch of new cloth on it. Obviously, when it was washed, the new patch would shrink and the old cloth would stay the same, and rip. It would ruin both the patch and the old pants.

What Jesus is teaching here is a very important principle: The new cannot be blended with the old when it comes to faith. The old religion referred to here is Judaism, a religion of law, a religion of externalism, a religion that cannot liberate anyone from his sin, a religion that will not accept Jesus as his Messiah or Savior or Lord, a religion that locked the door to the kingdom of God under the rule of Jesus and threw away the key. That is the old garment in our text, and it is very much like the religions that surround us.

This text is a statement of the exclusivity of the gospel and its incompatibility with Judaism and also nominal Christianity in particular. And if it is incompatible with Judaism, which at least does have some connection to the Old Testament, then it is entirely incompatible with Islam, Hinduism, Marxism, socialism, religious environmentalism, and any other non-biblical ism.

What Jesus is saying here is that we have to make a clean break from dead, ritualistic religion, regardless of what it may be called or how popular it may be. It must be completely swept away in its entirety: out with the old and in with Christ Jesus. This is because Jesus is not only the Bridegroom but he is also the completely new garment. The new garment is Christ and his righteousness. It cannot be sewn onto any human self-righteousness. There cannot be any kind of relationship between old false dead notions of religion and thinking. There are some here who may be like that, and you need to throw away your present way of thinking.

In the early church, there were some people who tried to sew Christianity on to the cloth of Judaism. That was the central theme of the book of Galatians. These men were called Judaizers. They taught that salvation was only possible when a person both believed on Jesus and also kept all the Jewish laws in an effort to be saved by their own merit. They taught that you had to believe the gospel and you also had to be circumcised and obey Jewish dietary laws and observe the Jewish Sabbath and live like a Jew. Thus they taught that Christianity was merely an extension of Judaism.

All this happened in the early church at Antioch. In Acts 15:1 we read, “Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’” The early leaders of the church dealt with this problem head-on and gave the people there and us clear-cut instructions about the matter in Acts 15. The new believers were forbidden from doing things that would offend the redeemed Jews among them. But they were not required to keep Jewish rituals and ceremonial laws. Paul also dealt with these people when he addresses the same situation completely in Galatians 5:1–12.

But here is the lesson we need to learn today. The rules and rituals of ancient Jews are no longer in force. We are not obliged to keep either Jewish ritual laws or the moral law in order to be saved, as a means of salvation, for we could not. The moral law condemns us. None of us has kept even one part of it completely, and certainly not for any length of time. In fact, even our best efforts are tainted by independence and rebellion towards God the Lawgiver. And having broken one part of the law, we have broken all of it. So no amount of patching up your life will help. God must give you new life or you are doomed. Galatians 3:24 says, “So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.”

Jesus fulfilled every demand of the law for us, and we must never try to blend old law-keeping with new grace in an effort to help the Lord out in saving us. In Jesus, we are free from the penalty of the law. Colossians 2:13–17 says, “When you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he [meaning Christ] made you alive with him,” and I would say he regenerated you, “having forgiven all your transgressions, having canceled out the old certificate of debt consisting of decrees against you, which was hostile to you, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” And he goes on to say that you shouldn’t continue doing these religious tasks, holding to them as though they will merit something from God.

But he does say, “If you died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you are living in the world, do you submit yourself to such decrees, such as ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’” We could add, “Do not eat!” “(which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Col. 3:20–23, NASB 1995).

This was the argument of the Reformers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Jesus did not come to blend his teaching with the teachings of the Old Testament ceremonial law. Priestly robes and vestments, an ark near the altar to house the eucharist elements (known as “God in the box”), weekly and daily sacrificing Christ in the eucharist, eating fish on Fridays, and other such religious trappings are not only unnecessary but wrong. Jesus came to fulfill the law and deliver his people from bondage to these manmade rules and rituals.

Ephesians 2:4–7 says, “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ,” he regenerated us, “even when we were dead in our trespasses—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might display the surpassing riches of his grace, demonstrated in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

The Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 14, section 1, says, “The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word.”  The Larger Catechism answer to question 59 says, “Redemption is certainly applied, and effectually communicated, to all those for whom Christ purchased it; who are in time by the Holy Ghost enabled to believe in Christ according to the gospel.”

So I ask you: Have you savingly believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, then cry out to him to grant you a new heart so that you can entrust yourself to him for salvation and new life in his kingdom. And may he grant you a deep sense of the filthiness and odiousness of your sins in God’s sight as contrary to God’s holy nature and the righteous laws of God. And having done so, may you take hold of God’s mercy in Christ to the man, to the woman who is penitent, who grieves for and hates his or her sins enough to turn from them all in order to love Jesus as Lord, purposing to walk in new obedience with him to his command.

The lesson we learn is that the rules and rituals of the ancient Jews and other religious faiths are not enforced today. We are not obliged to keep any of it to merit salvation. Praise God for that, since outside of Christ we are dead in trespasses and sins and wholly unable to even take the smallest step towards God. But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, the righteous for the unrighteous (Rom. 5:8). “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Jesus has fulfilled every demand of the law and taken upon himself the wrath of God merited by the sins of his elect and believing people. So we must never try to blend the old rituals and ceremonies of any other religion with the new gospel of grace.

We are saved by grace alone. Jesus doesn’t just patch up your life, however. He gives you new life. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!”

Even the best religious works of the best Pharisees were nothing more than moth-eaten garments and rotten in the sight of God. Jesus came to give lost, elect people his robe of righteousness that will allow them to stand complete, whole, and approved in the presence of God.

Some people, and maybe some people here, think they are pretty good and only need Jesus to patch up some problem areas of their lives. It is said of most repairmen that they love duct tape. If something moves and shouldn’t, use duct tape. And if it doesn’t move and should, use WD-40.

But the problem is, Jesus did not come to put duct tape on your heart. He came to give you a new heart. When Jesus comes into your life, his goal is not to reform you but to transform you. We are all sinners by nature and by choice. Try to fix up our sinful characters by sewing a new, unshrunk patch on an old garment. It will fail.

In your physical birth, you were deformed by sin. That is why Jesus says you need to be born again. May you seek a new spiritual birth, for Christ promises that to everyone who seeks him in truth.

Response 3: New Wineskins

Tthe next illustration that Jesus uses—new wineskins—would also have been understood by everyone in that day, but probably is not immediately so clear to us, so it requires explanation. Jesus uses an image of wineskins because glass and plastic bottles did not exist. Ancient people often used the skin of a goat as a container for their wine. When the goat was killed, the skin was cut around the neck and the legs, and pulled off the body in one piece. The leg openings would be sewed shut and sealed, and what had been the goat’s neck would be used as a spout. Then its hide would be used as a wineskin, a large type of bota bag.

Now, the new hide was very elastic and would expand as new wine fermented inside. However, those wineskins that were old and brittle would not expand, and the new wine would burst them. Thus, both the wine and the wineskin would be lost.

Jesus here is insinuating that only an idiot would put new wine in an old wineskin. Only an idiot would try to patch up his own life. The only proper container for new wine is a new wineskin in Christ.

Again, the spiritual principle is clear. Judaism, with its rituals and rules, could not contain the message and ministry of the Lord Jesus. He did not come to pour the new wine of the Holy Spirit into sinful hearts that are trying to please God by self-righteousness. A sinful heart simply cannot follow God’s law or please God in any way. Consciously try, and you will always fail. So quit trying.

The unregenerate man hates God and his law. He only tries to follow it to the degree that his selfish, sinful interest allows him. So you see, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Jesus came to give new life to lost sinners on whom his favor rests.  He came to take the old wineskins of your old sinful nature and make you new by his power. He came to regenerate dead sinners. He then transforms his people through the new birth, and only then are we ready to receive the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Only one who is born again from above is a fit container for the Spirit of God. Second Corinthians 5:17 bears repeating: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

If you are born again in this way, you will welcome the kingdom of God in all its force and activity. The Holy Spirit’s rule in your life will expand and transform you. That is why you need to be born again and made a new wineskin that will accommodate this work of the Holy Spirit within you.

We have a number of oak trees in our parking lots. They provide nice shade in the summer months, but they are aggravating. They do not lose all their leaves in the fall. The dead, brown leaves hang on those limbs until springtime comes. But when spring comes, the sap rises in the tree. The new buds begin to push out from the end of the branches, and the old leaves are finally forced to fall away. The new life in the tree expands and causes that which is dead to fall away.

That is exactly what the Holy Spirit is doing in the lives of his people. When God the Holy Spirit regenerates you, the new life he creates in you changes the core of your being and then begins to visibly work its way out in you. The old ways of sin and self may hang on for as long as they can. But God’s transforming work will act. You are no longer the old man but have been made new into a new man or woman for the glory of God.

Other religions and philosophies of sinful people will not repair your old man. In the end, it will spell your ruin. You must have new life within you and be governed by a new king. Jesus comes into your heart to save you, to enable you, to live out his perfect will through the power of the Holy Ghost.  Pastor Mathew put it this way in Daily Delight: “Not only should we cry out to Jesus to save us, but we must also acknowledge him as our eternal King by surrendering to him and his sovereign rule.”

If we have surrendered to Christ as Lord, we will gladly obey his rule. Then you will know that you are numbered among the multitude in Revelation 7 who will rejoice forever before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.

Conclusion

There is only one true God who has given us only one authoritative book, the Bible. There is only one Redeemer of souls, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one gospel, the gospel of grace and faith. And that singularity of the Christian gospel means that any intrusion that mixes with or alters the uniqueness of the gospel renders the gospel null and void. The gospel stands alone.

Being a Christian is to the exclusion of all other religious systems and worldly thinking, or you are not a Christian. You cannot have it both ways. Jesus did not come to blend his new way with old spiritual dead ways of living and believing. You must be born again. No pseudo-repentance or human self-help will benefit those who reject Jesus as Lord. Their self-dependence proves that they are still unhumbled and full of pride. All the names in the book of life are those of penitent sinners only, and not one self-righteous person who thinks he has no need of repentance or turning to Jesus Christ is written there.

Now, there are far too many people who are trying to sew the patch of vital Christianity on to the old garment of their unregenerate lives. If that characterizes you, I implore you: Stop. Confess your sins. Turn to Christ and say, “O Lord, by your mercy, save me. Do this work of regeneration within me. Grant me repentance and faith that I might turn and love and serve you.”

So I ask: Have you experienced the power of the new birth? Are you saved? Or are you trying to mix the old with the new?

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, there may be some here who have done all the rituals. They have been baptized, and professed Jesus as Lord, and regularly take the Lord’s Supper, and have joined the church. They have done it all religiously. But they have never bowed to Jesus as Savior, as Lord. They are still lost sinners.

Grant them the gift of repentance. Grant them new eyes to see and ears to hear, that they may ask Christ to come in and cleanse them and rule their hearts. May they be born again this day by your grace in your Spirit. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.