Matthew pt. 27 - Fasting, Garments, & Wineskins

Couldn't get the printer to work this morning, so I got a big old

laptop I got to. Figure out how I'm going to do

all this. So of course we saw last week

the calling of Matthew on Easter Sunday as we talked about that

actually. Can I go ahead and pass this off

to the counter team? Thank you.

There we go. The calling of Matthew walks

away from it all. Everything.

And he doesn't feel sorry for himself either.

He doesn't go, man. I just want to remind everybody,

like I'm the one who walked away from the most.

He's the man with the treasure in the field and says Jesus is

worth it all. And then the Pharisees come that

night, Matthew hosts the party. He invites his friends.

His only friends are a bunch of other sinners just like him.

He says, come, come, I'm going to have this rabbi overcome.

Come, I'm going to have this rabbi over.

And of course, criticisms of Jesus continue.

Why are you? Eating.

Why are you spending time with these sinful people?

It's not a good look, you know. People could get the wrong idea,

Jesus said. It's not the the healthy who

need the doctor, but it's the sick.

And I haven't come to call the righteous, but the unrighteous.

So I've come to call sinners. And actually what they didn't

realize is that included them. They thought they were the

righteous, but Jesus lets you stay.

Blind in your pride. That's the interesting thing.

With pride. God opposes the proud, but he

gives grace to the humble. You can look through Scripture

and see where it says the Lord hardened someone's heart, and

you could think that doesn't seem fair, right?

And yet you'll often see that it's always the person who are

in their own heart. First Pharaoh hardened his

heart, Pharaoh hardened his heart, Pharaoh hardened his

heart. And the Lord said, you know

what, you can have it. And at that point you are

doomed. And yet you didn't have to be.

You weren't destined from birth to be doomed.

And yet, in your pride, you became doomed.

Because you hardened your heart and God says, oh, pride is an

ugly thing. And this is what the Pharisees

continue to have and they continue to have.

So Jesus speaks in parables. Jesus speaks in statements that

people find outlandish, but if you're wise and humble, you'll

go. I don't quite know what that

means, but I'm here for it. I'm sticking around because

Jesus is king. Like Peter said, you have the

words of life. Where else would we go?

And the Pharisees and others just go?

This is a hard saying. I'm out of here.

They they judge the judge himself, they condemn the Lord

of glory because they think that doesn't make sense to me.

And rather than asking a wise and respectful question of the

master, they judge and condemn the masters.

This foolishness continues and now we come to verse 14, we'll

continue. Then the disciples of John came

to Jesus, came to him saying, why do we and the Pharisees

fast, but your disciples do not fast.

And Jesus said to them, can the wedding guests mourn as long as

the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the

bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

No one puts a piece of unshrunk. Cloth on an old garment for the

patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is

made. Neither is new wine put into old

wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and

the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed.

But wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are

preserved. Let's pray God thank you so much

for this passage, for this, this truth, this revelation that

Jesus is sharing with with John's disciples, with the

Pharisees, with the Sadducees, with everyone else who is

listening. God, we pray you will bring

light and revelation. This is a passage.

It's often been just a mystery to the Saints.

But we pray that you will bring light and life to it and to all

of our eyes and to all of our hearts today.

So we will be healed. So we will be helped so that we

would grow, so we would be matured by it.

In Jesus name. Amen.

So John's disciples, remember, John has already been arrested

at this point. John's in prison.

Why is John in prison? Well, because he was preaching

righteousness. He was preaching truth and

people didn't like it. So they put him in prison.

Eventually, later, he's going to be beheaded.

He's going to be killed because again, people don't want people

to preach against sin. John, though, is not a Pharisee.

And yet John's disciples are having some doubts.

It's very likely that John, even later, would have some doubts.

Some people interpret that differently.

We'll get to it when we get to it.

But remember, John recognizes Jesus.

John baptizes Jesus. John says this is the Lamb of

God. Come to take away the sins of

the. World, he says.

I'm not worthy to untie his shoes.

I'm not worthy to carry. His sandals he says he must

increase and I must decrease and yet?

John also at one point says he sends his disciples to find out.

Are you the one? So John's a man right?

He he he has a question. Jesus reassures him.

He says go tell John this and he he didn't tell him the answer is

yes. He said go tell him the

prophecy. Go tell him what you see done,

this and this and this, or what the Messiah will.

Do. That's what I'm doing.

John, it's me, John, it's it's really, really me.

But John's disciples are without John now, but they're not with

Jesus. So that's odd, isn't it?

John has said that's the Messiah.

John's in prison, and now John's disciples don't have John, but

they have not latched onto the Messiah.

That tells us something. That tells us that they've got

some doubt. That tells us that they've got

something holding them. Back from loving and faithfully

following King Jesus and recognizing that the Messiah is

worthy of all their. Devotion and that.

Hey, hey bro. Just so you know, you're living

in the most exciting moment of human history ever.

You get to walk with the master. You should beg him to.

Not ever. Leave your sight.

You should do everything you could to stay close to him for

the next 3 1/2 years. You should beg to be crucified

with him if you would be so counted so worthy.

And yet people treat Jesus as he's just someone else.

He's just another rabbi. So they've likely been

influenced by the Pharisees. They've likely been influenced

by the Sadducees. They've likely started to put on

some prideful presentation, some self righteousness to say look

at us. We fast.

I don't know if you know, but I haven't eaten all day because I

love the Lord and you're like, oh man.

And then what are you supposed to feel?

You're supposed to feel bad about yourself, because this is

such a holy man. He's so amazing.

He loves God so much, and he had to tell you, you know, why, why

he was behaving this way and why he thinks this way.

So it goes from the the accusations go from why are you

eating with those people? Why were you eating with the

sinners to now? Why are you eating at all?

And the. The thing that was happening is

the Pharisees in particular have a self-imposed schedule for

fasting and John's disciples might have adopted this

practice. By the way, other gospel

accounts tell us that others came here too.

So Matthew specifically said John's disciples.

Others also tell us that it was Pharisees.

Others also tells others which wasn't.

It was all of them. It's all true.

The whole Bible is true without contradiction.

It is the perfect inspired word of God.

So why are you eating with those people to now?

Why are you eating at all? But the Pharisees would impose

this, this thing that was not commanded by God, but that they

had made their own standards around.

So at least twice a week the Pharisees would fast, and they

would do this often times on Tuesdays, often times on

Thursdays. These were days that were most

most often more busy in the marketplace and they would go

and be sad in front of everybody.

This was their presentation. This was the way to show that

they love God. And this had to, this had to,

this was part of their presentation to show that, like,

we're sad because the Messiah hasn't come yet.

So we're mourning and we're grieving and and we're very sad

about this today. So they've made their own

standards. And that's what we're going to

talk about because there's a lot of, there's a lot of times

people accuse someone of being a Pharisee.

Have you ever heard that accusation?

You're being a Pharisee. You know, that's being a bit

like a Pharisee. Like the New Testament, like we

don't have, we don't have laws, we don't have commands.

So anytime you set up a rule or command for somebody that you're

you're, you're told you're being a Pharisee.

Well, it's possible to be a Pharisee, but I want you to know

the difference. Between God's law and man's law.

And by the way, that is the difference.

You're a Pharisee. Whenever you emphasize man's

law, you're just a Christian. Whenever you emphasize God's

law, God's law is good. God's law is faithful, and the

church is supposed to bring truth to the world.

That is the responsibility of the body of Christ and the

earth. Jesus is king.

Remember, over all spheres of life, household, government, and

church. What is the church's job?

The church tells the world the truth.

It's not the government's job to vote on the truth.

We inform the government and the family what the truth is, and

then the government can make rules and then the government

can punish the evil doer. That's not the church's

jurisdiction. We can't execute people.

Somebody sins against us violently.

We can forgive him and say God bless you and the and still the

civil magistrate can say. But our service to King Jesus is

to determine what would be right to do with this evil doer.

And that's on the judge, that's on the jury, that's on that

system. That's the police.

All that that's the government's job to bring order, to bring

peace, to make sure evil doers are dealt with and to make sure

the righteous are rewarded. And then the family, the

household again. All three spheres under King

Jesus. It's not two spheres under the

under the under the rule of the government.

All three spheres are to be in obedience to King Jesus.

How did you get me there, Saints?

I don't. Know where we where we were

going with. This Pharisees making rules.

Thank you. So Pharisees will make rules for

men. But of course, God has a

standard that he does make real rules for men.

But there's a difference between having a biblical standard and

having your own conviction. And this is what the Pharisees

were putting on everybody. The Pharisees were going Why

don't you do what we do? And they did this over and over.

Why don't your disciples wash their hands like we do?

Why don't your disciples do this like we do?

Even things that they had, they. Thought they had.

Scripture on Jesus surprised them and they said, your your

disciples are eating on the Sabbath and Jesus goes, look,

man was not made for the Sabbath, The Sabbath was made

for man. So they continue to emphasize

things. But their point, their purpose

was not ever out of love and devotion for the Lord that

that's the big problem. It's not that Jesus wanted to

get caught up in the details of semantics with them, but this

was the whole problem with the Old Covenant.

There's no problem with the covenant in itself.

The covenant was weakened though by the sin of mankind.

That's the only problem with the covenant.

There's nothing wrong with God's covenant except that it's

weakened by our flesh. And this is where men would

always want to go. I want to have.

External things. Give me a checklist.

It's why you and I still feel that temptation.

What am I supposed? To do well, the only thing

you're supposed to do is love and follow king.

Jesus. That's what you're supposed to

do. And then, yeah, there are things

that we will do out of the overflow of that.

There's plenty of New Testament commands.

There's a lot of New Testament commands for us to walk in

obedience to, but we don't do those things to become

righteous. And that was the distinction

that that the Pharisees didn't understand.

They wanted to do things and then be seen as righteous for

doing them. So I fast.

I pray for this long. I do this.

I read my Bible for this long. I've had visions, I prophecy, I

speak in tongues. All kinds of things that we

could still do and become phariseeical and go hang on a

second. Plenty of good things you just.

Listed there friend and yet just love and follow King Jesus.

If you want to prioritize anything, prioritize the fruits

of the Spirit. By all means seek the gifts of

the spirit as well. And yet, don't ever do it in a

way that would be showy. Don't ever do it in a way that

would promote you. Make sure it would always

promote Jesus. If you have a story, if you have

a testimony when people are finished hearing it, they should

think more about Jesus than they think about you when somebody

finishes something. And they This happened.

And that happened. And this happened and that

happened. They shouldn't go.

Wow. Josh is amazing.

He's the greatest Christian ever.

They should so they should say Jesus.

Josh's Jesus is amazing. That's what they should say.

They shouldn't say wow. Angelina is just like a St. and

she is Angelina is literally a St.

But that but that shouldn't be their big take away.

Their big take away should go. Wow, Jesus is so good.

Jesus is so faithful. But the Pharisee would always

want you to go. Wow, did you see Rabbi so and so

this week? That guy, He's just so amazing.

Or man, Pastor John Michael, Man, I just get around him.

I just feel so bad about myself as a Christian friends, if that.

If that's how another believer makes you feel.

About your walk. Then you can know that you've

been in the presence of someone who's self-righteous.

If you've been around somebody who you just feel I can never

ascend to the throne, then that's then that's a Pharisee,

or at least in that exchange. So maybe I could even be guilty

of that in one exchange with you and you go, I feel terrible, not

because of your own sin, that's different, but because of

myself. Righteousness.

If you walked away thinking I could never grow to John

Michael's level, then you can be assured that John Michael was

walking in pride and self righteousness.

So in Christ. We are free to have our own

convictions on many things, but we're not free to demand that

others obey our convictions. Again, that's the Pharisees

like. Brother, you're free to fast.

You can fast on Tuesdays. You can fast on Thursdays.

But remember what Jesus said back in the Sermon on the Mount

when you fast. He didn't say don't.

Fast fasting is a very biblical, normative thing for believers,

Old Testament and New. But he said when you fast, wash

your face, present yourself and don't let anyone know.

Whereas the Pharisees would do and go.

I'm fasting. I don't know if you could tell

I'm really sad today. Oh, why are you sad, Rabbi?

Son said. Well, my love for the Lord and

the Messiah hasn't come yet. They're like, Oh yes, like

you're just trying to have like a normal day.

You're just trying to have like, you know, a nice afternoon.

And then this guy comes through and you're like, oh man, I can

never be that spiritual. I guess I don't love God enough.

But Rabbi so and so keeps reminding me, so you're.

Free to have. Convictions on many things, but

you're just not free to demand that others obey your

convictions when there's a clear scriptural standard to uphold

and you urge others to follow it.

That is not being a Pharisee. When there is a clear scriptural

standard to uphold and you encourage others to do it,

that's not being a Pharisee. Lukewarm Christians will accuse

you of being a Pharisee. When you do that, you'll you'll

say, hey, you know, well, here's the thing that that the Lord

says, and here's what the Lord wants, and here's why this is

best for your life. And like you're being a

Pharisee. I don't need all these rules.

I have my own walk with the Lord.

And then you being a reasonable person, goes, am I being a

Pharisee? Am I being well?

Did you invent your own conviction and then put it on

them? Did you say, hey, it's my

conviction, like you've got to do this and this and this and

this many times? And did you tell them that they

need to pray? Or did you tell them that they

need to pray for six hours a day?

Because one of those is a scriptural command from the Lord

and the other is your personal conviction that you are now

putting on to someone else and you're giving them be like I

have this conviction. Well, by all means, obey it,

follow it. We don't condemn you for that,

but don't put it on them well. I find it wise.

You may find it wise. I could see that.

Being very wise. And yet that's not a command of

the Lord. So, man, this almost feels like

you need to be led by the Spirit.

Who knew? Like we actually need the Lord

to lead us and walk with us so that we can grow in these

things. By the way, we've all been

guilty of this. I certainly have.

I've certainly been guilty of it.

And I Joe Michael gets very passionate about whatever he

believes in. So I have to be careful that

whenever I'm excited, I've I've got, I've got strong convictions

on certain things. Say homeschooling, for example.

Strong convictions on homeschooling.

And yet I can, I could argue some biblical points there.

I can argue that parents need to raise their children.

I could argue are you really raising your children if they're

never. I can.

I can do all kinds of things and I can share wisdom with you, but

I I don't need to do it in a condemning way.

And no matter what, I don't need to do it in a way that makes you

think that. I think I'm superior.

So I can say, hey, I see wisdom here, I see a blessing here, I

have things to share with you here if you're open to it.

But I don't condemn you. I don't condemn you because of

what you're doing. And that's a that's a that's an

important heart distinction. So if there's a clear scriptural

command and you urge others to follow it, you're not being a

Pharisee. That's just being the church,

the pillar of truth and the earth.

When there's not a clear scriptural command to uphold and

you urge others to follow it, watch out.

You might be. Acting self righteously.

And if you're going to stand in judgment over someone, you

better make sure it's with God's standard and not with a man made

tradition. So the church does this all the

time. We're famous for it.

The body of Christ has done this.

And again, like we're growing, we're learning.

What would a biblical scriptural command be?

It's sinful to sleep with someone.

Unless you're married. That's Bible.

You're not being a Pharisee. It's sinful to love money.

That's Bible. You're not being a Pharisee.

It's sinful to be intoxicated with wine or any other

substance. That's that's Bible.

That's not being a Pharisee. Pastors should preach from the

Bible. That's that's good.

That's Bible. That's not being a Pharisee.

But now let's take those a bit farther like the Pharisees

always did. It's sinful you're.

Not going to like this one. It's sinful to never be alone

with the opposite sex. I thought I've always heard

that. I thought, I've always heard

like, hey, you know, it's really wise to Wise is different from

sinful. It's a personal standard that I

follow. It's a personal standard that if

there's other pastors in the church, I would require them to

follow but it but I don't have a biblical command to say you and

Becky could never possibly be alone in a room together for any

moment. But there are ministries, there

are people who believe that, who have that strong conviction.

And to them, I say no problem, but you cannot thrust it on

others. You go, pastor, Wouldn't that be

a wise thing? I personally believe it is a

wise thing. I personally believe it's it's

very applicable for a lot of reasons, not just the obvious

one. Does that equal temptation?

It frees you from accusation? There's all kinds of reasons

that that might be wise. And yet I cannot thrust that on

somebody and say this is the command of God.

Why? Because it's not.

Because it's just. It's just not.

We could also say, you know, we we said it's it's sinful to love

money. That's true, but you could say

it's. Sinful to make millions of

dollars. Well, you got to be careful not

to love money, right? That's the command.

Making millions of dollars was not the command.

So I can have $0.00 in love money, or I can have a billion

dollars and not love money and vice versa.

So which is it? How much money is enough money?

Like how much? When do I have to stop?

You know, because they're saying to you, like, look how big their

house is. Look how big that, you know,

that person's house is. Like, I don't what square

footage do they become unrighteous?

Like like how how many, how much acreage, how much are they

allowed to have in savings? They've made so much money over

the years, like they wrote good books and they sold well.

You know, like to. For which thing are we going to

penalize them for, You know? Well, I think there's a lot more

to it. OK, Well King Jesus will sort it

out. I assure you the King Jesus is

the judge over his church. And yeah, if they're not in in

wise fellowship to keep them in check and maybe it is obvious

that somebody has a love of money, fine, pray for them.

And yet we don't just get to put up our standard, you say?

Well this is my personal boundary for things.

Hey friend, no problem. You have a personal standard and

personal boundary and share that with me and wisdom.

And I'll share mine with you and wisdom.

I say hey manly. And I have found this is really

good practice for marriage. And we really encourage you to

adopt it. And you go, I'll think about it,

OK. It's not a command of the Lord.

It's just a practice. Hey, here's a here's the thing

I've learned as a father, as a parent, hey, here's the thing

I've just learned and walk in with the Lord that has helped

me. You know, this is some

convictions that I have. And maybe I'm even stronger.

Maybe I'm really trying to impress upon you.

I'm really trying to persuade you.

I'm like Chris, brother, you got to do this.

But it's. But I still have to communicate

with Chris. Like it's my conviction.

I feel so strongly about this, brother.

But I'm not telling you you're sinning by not obeying it

because I. It's my conviction.

The Lord led me to do this years ago, OK?

The Lord LED you, John Michael. He didn't lead Chris.

He might want to do it differently for Chris for some

reason. So let's keep going.

We said it's simple to be intoxicated.

That's true. We could go farther and say.

It's sinful to consume any alcohol.

Not true. Well, don't you think it could

be wise? The wisdom is a different

conversation. Totally different conversation.

Well, alcoholism runs in my family, blah blah.

Then, friend. There's probably a lot of

reasons for you to wisely abstain and yet don't thrust

that upon someone else because you don't have scripture.

For it, Jesus made wine at a wedding.

Jesus drank wine. He didn't drink grape juice.

I used to believe those things. They're kind of laughable now,

but I kept reading my Bible and kept finding out otherwise.

So again, like man, is that a license to No, the humble heart

isn't looking for a license for anything.

The humble St. is saying, Jesus, I want to walk with you, but

this is where we have to protect ourselves from pride.

Pastors should preach the Bible. We said, well that's good,

that's fate. Like men of God should preach

the word of God. But we could take that farther

and say press pastors have to preach verse by verse, and they

cannot preach topical sermons. So right now I'm preaching to

you verse by verse. We're going through the book of

Matthew. It's called exegetical

preaching. If you care about the the type

of sermon it's called versus topical preaching verses like,

hey, next we're going to do a series on loving your neighbor

and then we're just going to kind of hop around scripture.

So there are some who would say you have to.

It is the only way to preach verse by verse.

Well, just like Jesus did when he's talking about there's the

birds, there's the flowers, don't worry about anything, you

know, just like the apostles did, like they didn't.

So it's just a silly thing. It's a conviction that many men

of God have, and I respect their conviction and I would never

argue with them. And I do both.

That's why we've done both insult.

I'll do verse by verse, then we'll do a topical series and

maybe we'll do verse by verse again.

But again, there's there's freedom there.

Here's another one that's going to make you uncomfortable that

you're not going to like. It's sinful to gamble, Pastor.

That could be really unwise. I agree.

I think it could be really unwise, but at what point do you

become the judge of that? Because the scripture doesn't

make it perfectly plain. Well, we've got biblical

principles and we should apply them all.

But you know, at which point? Well, I know a guy who who what,

mortgaged his house and didn't tell his wife.

Yeah, well, that guy was sinful and an idiot and unwise.

Like, we could go on for days about that.

But your standard also prevents these other guys from bringing

$5 on Friday nights to each other's living room and playing

with quarters and playing again with poker together.

Well, is that OK? Well, I think it's OK.

Well, how much money would be wrong?

How much will be right? Pastor, I'm not comfortable with

this. I feel like you're giving me

licenses. I'm not giving you anything the

New Testament hasn't already given you.

But I want to clarify standards. I want to clarify.

We should be so devoted to the word of God, and we should be

sensitive to the Holy Spirit. This is so the humble heart.

I'm not worried about a sheep. A faithful sheep is going, Lord,

keep me close to you, Holy Spirit, I want to be led by you,

which is what we're going to get to.

Yes, And yet the goats will go. Yeah, all I heard out of that

sermon was I can drink, I can gamble.

What else do we say we can do? I can get along with folks who

ain't my spouse like, it's your life and it's your eternity in

hell. And those things could easily

lead you away from the Lord. So if you want to be a fool, you

can do that. But I'm going to.

Preach the word of God to you. And that's what Jesus rebukes

the Pharisees over. They take the word of God.

And they said, well, the the command is this.

Let's make sure we don't ever do that.

I love you. I love where your heart's going,

Mr. Pharisee. And they say, so we're going to

make a loot, a new law, and put a giant fence around this way

out here and tell people if they go over this fence, then they've

sinned. Yeah.

Hey Mr. Pharisee, that might be your personal desire for your

life, to keep you away from the thing, but you can't put that on

other people. And they're like no.

This is the thing. They were called the fences of

the Pharisees. So the law of God is this.

And the Pharisees put a fence around it.

They're like, hey everybody, we're looking out for you.

And, like, I appreciate that. But what they should have said

is, here's some wise practices we found to keep ourselves in

check. And instead they said this is

the law. And Jesus said, no, it's not.

You've heard it said this, but I say that you've heard it said

this, but I say that. I'm I'm clarifying.

That the sheep actually hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.

The sheep actually hear his voice.

What's the protection here? What do you do with that St.

Who's like, Well, the Lord told me, blah blah blah, blah, blah.

Well, friend, do we have the scripture on it?

Because if so, then we can come to them with love.

We can come to them with correction.

We say, hey, I want to want to point something out to you.

I want to help you with something here.

But if we don't have the scripture on it, then we just

go, Hey, I still want to talk to you.

I still want to share this conviction with you.

Hey, I've got a conviction. I've got something I want you to

consider. I've got something I want you to

look out for and then go. I hear that.

I don't see that. See that?

Thank you. But it's a different

conversation. So we don't have to remain

silent. It's just that we have to

understand the difference the Pharisees didn't and Jesus.

Didn't tolerate it. So you could argue for wisdom

for these things, but you shouldn't argue that they are

the commands of God. But the Pharisees love to

convince people that their traditions.

Were God's law. So Pharisees love outward

measurements rather than inward ones, right?

Because the Lord can see the heart.

But Pharisees, they want to have a a no, a yes or a no rule for

everything. Whereas sometimes the Lord

didn't put one. Hey, can you know, Can can I

gamble? No, because gambling runs in my

family and it's a sin. Well, and my dad destroyed our

family. OK, well, if you feel temptation

there to go into excess, to not have self-control, anything not

done in faith is sin. So remember, all the fruits of

the spirit still protect us in all of these areas.

So if you, if you feel free in your conscience to participate

in the fantasy Football League where everybody throws in 20

bucks for fun and you get to talk trash at each other for the

coming months to say my team's beating your team and your

team's beating my team and at the end somebody gets $200 for

the thing, I don't condemn you. And there is and there is no

scripture to condemn you. And yet at the same time, we

walk in wisdom. We walk with the Holy Spirit.

And this is uncomfortable. I wish there was a hard set of

rules. Keep reading your Bible.

Keep walking with the Lord. Your master will guide you.

The Lord will actually lead you, and the Saints around you will

sharpen you. We will have friction.

We will have a rubbing off on one another.

And we will be able to share things and we will be able to

ask questions, you know, So, so you see me do something.

You say, can I ask you about that?

And say absolutely. And you say, here's a concern,

here's a thought. I always thought this.

I always thought that, hey, let's have that conversation.

Let me talk with you about that. Because the other thing that the

word of God teaches us as we consider our liberty in Christ,

is that the Kingdom of God is not about my rights and my

liberties. The law of the New Testament is

the law of love, and my love and priority for you has to be

greater than my desire and my demands for my right.

So This is why if you know that I abstain from alcohol.

Because it is a temptation for me and it is a struggle for me

and it's something that I am actively having to resist.

This is why when I come to your home for dinner, you won't drink

in front of me as you go. You know what?

I know that's a challenge for pastor.

So we're just we're not going to have a glass of wine with our

with our pasta tonight. Why, yes, I can.

The Bible doesn't say that I can and but but you love me.

So you're going to actually do something loving towards me.

You're going to say I'm going to.

I think this could hurt his conscience or I think this could

this could bother him. And if you don't know again we

don't get caught up. You don't worry.

You don't worry. Well this is this bad?

Is that right? We talk.

We love one another. We build relationship together

and we say, hey, may I share something with you?

As we say yes and we say consider it done, Consider it

done. Why?

Because my love. For you is.

Greater than my freedoms because the Kingdom of God is not about

eating and drinking what I want to The Kingdom of God is about

Lovejoy and love, Peace and joy. And I'm misquoting this verse.

Lovejoy. Peace.

Patience. No.

I've quoted it multiple times this week as I've been preaching

the sermon to myself. The Kingdom of God is not about

eating and drinking. Come on, Saints, I thought

somebody would bail me out. Here, peace, joy, and love in

the Holy Ghost and joy in the Holy Ghost.

I'm misquoting. Sorry, Trust me, it's in the

Bible. No, seriously.

Oh, it is. Yes, Somebody could Google that

really quick. Lovejoy and Peace and the Holy

Ghost and then blurt it out here in a second.

So Pharisees love outward measurements rather than inward

ones because they can look good by using outward measurements.

That's why we like. Outward measurements, because I

can present myself well to you and you can go, man, that guy is

really set apart because look at the external standards.

But you didn't get to see my heart.

My heart is filthy. It is gross.

And I'm full of pride. And that's why I'm doing this.

And all you saw was the hours. Like, he's fasting, he's doing

this, he's doing that. Jim Michael would never do this.

Jim Michael would never do that. Jim Michael would never do this.

But I'm My only motive in all of that is to present something to

you, not out of love for you, not of devotion and holiness

under the Lord, but because of my own pride.

Man. It seems a bit tricky.

It's almost like you got to really walk with him.

It's almost like the heart is deceitful above all things and

we have to constantly submit it before the Lord.

We all become Pharisees when we take our personal, perhaps wise,

perhaps experience, perhaps even spirit LED convictions and give

them to others as though they're God's law and this is what they

were doing here. Why do you eat with sinners?

That's a sin. That's the implication.

Why don't you fast like us? That's a sin.

That's the implication. The root of all this is pride.

They're not as holy as us because they don't adhere to our

man made tradition. Sinners accusing the sinless one

of sinning. So again, there's nothing wrong

with traditions or personal. Convictions.

You should obey them, but it is wrong to impose them on others

like their God's laws. And remember Jesus said in his

sermon on the Mount. Again, Pharisees had this habit

of fasting to be seen. So understand the context there.

But again, we'll, we'll wrap this point up and we'll move on.

Imagine you're in the grocery store, You're talking to a

friend or family member joyfully, and I come walking

down the aisle and it's a Tuesday.

So it's my fasting day, supposedly.

And I'm just like, you're like, oh, oh, hey, hey, Pastor John

Michael, Mike. Hello, friends.

Like what? What's wrong, pastor?

Well, I'm just, you know, I'm just grieved, you know?

What do you grieve for? For the Lost.

You know, the people who don't know the Lord.

And you're like, I was just trying to buy some cereal and I

was just, I was just catching up with my cousin here on aisle 7.

And you're coming in, like with this cloud, I'm like, well, it's

because I love the Lord, you know, And I love the lost.

And I was just, you know, just been in prayer this morning and

I'm just so just, it's just so heavy on me, like, huh, When I

walk away, did that make you feel like Jesus is wonderful or

did that make you feel like, man, Jeff Michael is a holy man?

Hopefully it didn't make you think I was a holy man.

Hopefully make you think I'm full of it, because I am.

But, but hopefully you hopefully when when you start to feel that

way, that's an exaggeration. But whenever you start to do

that, that's whenever you're presenting just a a facade for

somebody else to see, and you can't be.

Real with other believers. So fasting is a sign of

mourning. We're in verse 15.

Fasting is a sign of mourning, in part because they were

waiting on the Messiah to deliver them.

So Jesus is saying we're going to talk about this bridegroom

part. What is he talking about?

The bridegroom? The groom.

He's. Explaining you guys are sad

because you're waiting on the Messiah, but my disciples are

joyful because they know that the Messiah is already here.

That's the teaching. So verse 15, Jesus said to them,

can the wedding guests mourn as long as the groom is with them?

The days will come when the groom is taken away from them

and then they will fast. So they're saying, why don't

your disciples fast? And it's so funny.

Jesus always answering like these cryptic answers like, OK,

so back to the thing I asked. He says no.

I answered it. You're fasting for mourning

because the Messiah hasn't come yet.

But you're wrong. He's right here.

My disciples know it. How could you?

How could you fast? How could you mourn at a wedding

reception? So weddings at this time lasted

about seven days. It was feasting all week long.

They partied hard. They had a wonderful time.

The honeymoon happened at the same time.

So the marriage was consummated at that same day and everybody

knew it. It's very awkward.

So like the bride and groom go in, everybody's like, yay, they

go into the house, they come out of that yay.

And so now, now the marriage is consummated and everybody has

the bride and groom. Like, huh?

Yeah, Like, we know. We know what just happened.

Yes, yes, we know. And then so, so they feast, and

they. Celebrate all week long.

It's a wonderful, joyous time. But the way that it would start

with the the bride would be at her house and the groom would

leave his home, his home that he has prepared and he goes and he

gets the bride. He pays a price for the bride.

Any of this sound familiar? Can you think of a?

Can you think of the husband who left his home, who came and paid

a price for his bride? He comes.

And pays the. Price for his bride, and he

brings her back to his home. And the whole wedding party

follows. And they party and celebrate for

a week. Rejoice and rejoice and rejoice.

Jesus saying I'm the groom, I've come, I've taken my bride.

Of course she's what do you expect her to act like?

She's at a funeral when she's at when she's married to me.

Now I'm here, now a day is coming, he says.

The groom. Will be taken.

The groom will lay down his life, and then we'll be taking,

said. Then my disciples will will fast

again. It is right and.

Appropriate for us to fast and we'll get to that.

But this is what Jesus has. Explained.

He's like you're fasting, but you shouldn't be.

You should be rejoicing. You know how many eyes

throughout the generations have have wished that they could have

seen what you get to see? You get to see me face to face.

You're blessed because of that. But blessed are those who

haven't seen but are still going to believe.

So they should feast. They should rejoice, They should

celebrate my disciples for them to to fast and more.

Right now it will be incompatible.

I am the groom. I am the husband.

I have come for my bride, the Church.

I am with her, and she should rejoice.

So that is our position. The groom will be taken away and

then they will mourn and fast and like I said, we'll come back

to that. So let's keep going.

Verse 16 and 17. Now no one puts a piece of

unshrunk cloth onto an old garment for the patch.

Tears away from the garment and a worst tear is made.

Neither is new wine put in old wineskins.

If it is. The skins burst and the wine is

spilled and the skins are destroyed, but new wine is put

into fresh wineskins. And so both are preserved.

Have you ever wondered what in the world Jesus is talking

about? I sure have, Lord.

OK, so back to the thing, right? You always ask Jesus a direct

question, and he's like, here's a parabola man.

Just tell me. Well, again, stick around.

He'll keep explaining things. If you're his closest disciples,

you get new revelation. So what's going on here?

First, I'll explain the very specific thing he said, and then

we'll explain the meaning behind it.

The the garment, kids. Here's how wool works.

So if they're closer made. Out of wool.

If I get a hole in this shirt, now it has.

It needs a patch on it, right? But this shirt has been washed

and dried and washed and dried. So what did it do in the washer

and dryer? It shrunk a little bit, but now

we get this new piece of. Fabric.

It's never been washed or dried and we put it on to patch my

shirt and now we put this shirt in the washer and dryer.

What's going to happen to that patch?

It has to shrink, right? Oh no, we have a problem.

We just sewed it onto a shirt and now the patch is going to

shrink. So when that patch shrinks, it

actually. Destroys the shirt and makes the

hole even bigger than it was before, right?

So we have to 1st. Shrink the patch and then you

could put it on. That's how that would happen.

And the same thing would happen with the wineskins.

So wineskins, they would kill an animal, a lot of times a goat

and they would, you know, they would clean the hide and.

Everything else and and cure it just a little bit and then they

would sew it up. Then they would leave the neck

open, or maybe sometimes with the legs, but they'd sew up this

hide. And then you would pour in grape

juice, You would pour in new wine and then you would seal it

up tight. And then the process begins to

happen and expands, and over time it ferments and it becomes

wine. But as it does that wine skin,

that animal skin stretches, and that animal skin is getting used

up Over time, it even becomes brittle.

But now you've got really, really nice wine in there, an

aged wine. This is what Jesus's listeners

would have understood. They they knew all about this

process. So what does it mean for for

them? What is the application Jesus

saying a few things here to John's disciples, to the

Pharisees and to us? The 1st is this.

I'm not coming to patch up your old religious.

System. I'm not putting new covenant

patches onto your old covenant. I'm not joining up with your

broken ways. This is their constant

expectation. Hey, Jesus.

Do it like this. Do it like that.

Do it like this. Do it like that.

This is not Judaism. 2 point O God is establishing a new and a

better covenant in his own blood.

He's giving us a totally new garment and he's providing a

brand new wineskin and brand new wine.

So from the religious point of view, he's saying this isn't

like a new modification. This isn't every The Old

Covenant as you've understood it.

And now with a new upgrade like our software, our cell phones,

right? Version 4.5 is going to update

tonight and then in a few months they'll go to.

Version four point. Six, he says.

No, this is not that. This old garment, the whole

thing is going to be done away with.

I'm doing a brand new thing. It's making sense to you.

So this is the garment teaching. This is the new wine and the new

wineskin teaching. It's not Judaism plus Jesus.

It's not a modification. It's not the traditions of men.

It's Jesus plus. Nothing equals everything.

The old has been fulfilled, and now the new has come.

The second point he's making is that Jesus isn't coming to patch

up people's torn lives. He's not coming to put patches

on you. He's coming to give you an

entirely new life. A new garment and a new life.

He didn't come to put new wine in a brittle wineskin.

So we were these old wineskins. And if you pour new wine and do

an old wineskin and you seal it up tight, that thing is already

done. It's stretching.

It can't do it again. So now it will break and wine

will seep out and everything will be lost.

The wineskin is destroyed. It's worthless for any kind of

storage in the future, and the wine itself has been destroyed,

wasted and totally gone. Jesus wants to preserve both.

But he's got to make us new to do that.

So Jesus came to give you a new garment.

Jesus came to give you a new life.

He didn't come to put new wine in a brutal wineskin.

It wouldn't be able to hold it. Why?

They're incompatible. Just like mourning at a wedding

you go to, if you show up at somebody's wedding, you start

mourning grow. Oh, I'm so.

Sad. Like, OK, then leave like we're

here to. Rejoice, this is a happy time.

Go be sad by yourself. Go sit in your closet.

That's actually what Jesus told you to do.

Go fast and and be be quiet about it.

But we're here to rejoice. Today.

There's a time and a season for everything.

I won't come to the You don't go to the funeral and rejoice.

We do the right thing at the right time.

So Jesus is not making small adjustments to your life.

He gives you a new identity. He's not giving out patches.

Right. We're tempted to give patches.

Hey, here's a stop cussing Patch.

Hey, here's a here's a Don't Lose Your temper patch.

Here's a Don't get drunk. Patch, just patch.

Just try and patch yourself up. It's a mess.

And you can't do any of it. Anyway, you end up hypocritical.

You end up destroyed your the wineskin is destroyed there.

There is no wine to be poured in anyway.

The Lord will not pour his wine into an old wineskin.

He says. But I'll give you a new

wineskin. I will make you new, and you

have a new desire. You'll have a new identity and

you will be pliable. Pliable.

This is what Saints are in the hands of Jesus.

Lord, I'm pliable. Whatever you want.

Whatever you say, whatever direction you would take me.

Help me grow me, mature me, and we can become fixed in our

tradition. Even believers can be brittle,

and believers can even cease to become pliable.

Why, when I get into the traditions of men, whenever I

get into my rut, whenever I'm stop being.

Whenever I've no longer been led.

By the Holy. Spirit, I get fixed in my

tradition, and even Christians need to become new wineskins.

Over and over and over. And really, we want to stay a

new wineskin. How?

What does that look like? We'll get to that in a moment.

But if you try and pour in the new wine of Jesus, it will be

too much for you. This is why you have to be a

soft. Container And this is.

This also might be why dear St. that you're not hearing from the

Lord. This also might be why it seems

like the Lord is distant and the Lord is far off.

You might be brittle and he's not going to pour in new wine.

What's the new wine? New revelation?

The gospel of the Kingdom? Whenever we were talking about

that first point as as to bring in the new covenant, it is the

old covenant is gone. It is totally replaced and we

have a new covenant. So that's the gospel message.

That's his new wine that he wants to bring to the earth.

But what's the new wine in me? It's direction.

It's the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

It's the anointing of God. It's the power of God.

If you want any of those things, you have to be a new wineskin.

And a new wineskin is, again, a humble person.

But if you're a hard shell, you might go, Well, I love the Lord,

and I know I'm going to heaven when I die.

Well, good. That's a really good thing.

And yet that doesn't make you pliable.

That doesn't mean that you're compatible for the new wine of

the spirit. The new wine of the spirit.

Will grow you today. The new wine of the Spirit will

grow you again tomorrow. You're like, yeah, I'm kind of

the same Christian I've been. For the past decade, I'm kind of

like the same spot. Well, that just tells you that

that you're stuck. That tells you that maybe it's

your tradition, maybe it's pride, maybe it's a lot of

things. But to be pliable allows my life

to be compatible. With the new wine that Jesus

has, he wants to preserve his pure gospel, and he wants to

preserve the people he. Came to save.

That's you. That's me.

That's the wineskins. You don't.

Need to make. People think you're holy.

You need to actually be holy, and that happens when you're

pliable. In His hands again, the things

the Pharisees were not, the things John's disciples are not.

It actually becomes a cult years later, called the disciples of

John, who actually said that John was the Messiah.

Maybe these are some of their forerunners, like 100 years

later, there's people who were still.

Saying like John was the Messiah?

Yikes. Pliable.

In his hands the Lord is. Doing a new thing and he wants

to do a new thing in your life. And so we'll close with this,

going back to fasting. Now, why did how is all this

relevant to fasting? I get it, Jesus said.

He answered the question why they're not fasting, he says.

I'm the groom, I'm here. It's time to celebrate.

Got it. But what does fasting have to do

with the patches? I get the, I get what the

patches. Are he's not just trying to

patch up my life, he gives me a new life I got.

That he wants me to be a pliable wineskin.

Get that? Living a life of repentance and

humility. I get that.

But why did he say it right after fasting?

Because fasting is a way to be sensitive and to remain

sensitive to the Lord. Fasting is a powerful way to

keep yourself a pliable wineskin.

What is fasting? Fasting is denying your flesh

food. We talked about.

Fasting this or fasting that. There's nothing.

Nothing is fasting unless it's food.

Or is it wrong to do those other things?

No, not at all. You can set other side, set

other things aside and say I'm going to get off Facebook for

the next year, I'm. Going to do this or I'm going to

do that. Nothing wrong with any of that.

Wise decisions to be made friends.

And yet fasting is fasting food. Why is this powerful?

Why does this work? Something inside of us?

Fasting prepares you. Fasting makes you a pliable

wineskin. Why?

Because your flesh, literally your flesh, is kept alive by

food. So when you fast the very thing

that actually keeps your body alive, It is.

It is as if you get a new wineskin.

The Bible even says that the stomach can be a God, and we're

so used to staying filled at all times and serving that God.

So fasting becomes this thing to say.

No flesh, just want to remind you that you're not in.

Charge. I want to set aside this time

that would have been for meal prep or meal enjoyment, a good

gift that the Lord gives but I for the sake of my flesh, not

because of command or condemnation of others, but for

the sake of my flesh, and for my desire to seek the Lord in

something. I want to make sure I'm

compatible with His new wine. Would you look at your life and?

Say I don't. I don't see that the Lord's been

pouring out new wine. Then I would say fast.

I would say fast. How long?

I'm not giving you any rule. I can't give you a rule, friend.

You just fast. You just seek the Lord could be

a mule. Some people have fast a mule.

Some people fast 40 days. You be led by the spirit.

But don't think that man, the 40 day person, wow.

Super duper Christian, right? My pastor, he would never tell

you this. He's fasted for 40 days before.

He would never tell anybody that.

Why? Because he's the most humble man

that I know. He's got a doctorate and he and

you wouldn't know it and and he's fasted for 40 days and you

wouldn't know it. And he probably even wouldn't

want me to tell you that. So don't tell him that.

I told you. But the more time I spend it

around Ken Kramer, the more I think about Jesus.

And here I am, college. Dropout and my head, Pastor Kim,

I got a question about the Bible.

I don't know. Stuff, you know?

And he's like, he knows everything.

He knows everything, but he's just humble and wise and loving,

and he just makes much of Jesus. The more I'm around him, the

more I'm just like, I want to follow Jesus more closely.

I don't think Ken is just the ultimate now.

He is a man I'm following. Make no mistake, the scripture

says so. You should mark and follow your

pastors and the leaders in your church, and yet that can get

carried away. But I do honor that man.

I follow that man. I trust that man.

But why? Because he always makes much of

Jesus. The more time I spend around

him, I go. Jesus is awesome.

Jesus is king. Jesus is worthy, Jesus is good.

So the stomach can be a God, but we're saying no to you stomach

because we're so tempted to do the opposite.

Like when we say I'm hungry, don't we say it like it's a

crime, like I'm hungry? Who did this to me?

Like it's been 4 hours. Like what on earth is going on?

We've we've normalized that. We normalize that.

We normalize that. So again, we don't be condemned

by that, but also know they're like, hey, I can survive being

hungry. I can make it, I can make it.

And not only just to skip meals, I'm just going to buckle down

and work. But could I devote that time to

the Lord? Could I get closer with him in

the word and say, Lord, I'm asking for new wine?

Lord, I set aside the sandwich today, or I set aside breakfast

this morning, or I set aside dinner.

But but Lord, I'm not going without food.

I need the bread of life. Now give me this daily bread.

Give me your word. Pour out your spirit upon me

more. We stay filled with junk,

especially as Americans. Entertainment replaces

edification. Food replaces faith, the lust of

the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Make us old wineskins. We become brittle.

God's. God's in there.

And yet there's nothing fresh flowing.

There's not a fresh anointing. There's not a fresh revelation.

There's not a fresh devotion, right?

We, those of us who who are married.

Haven't you seen times and moments and seasons in your

marriage? It's on fire.

That's the romance. That's what we want.

That's the flow that you want to stay in.

And if that, if that starts to dry up, we need to make

adjustments. We need to make changes.

We need to pursue that again. We need to revive and rekindle

that flame. We want that to be our default

setting. Yes, there's a deep bond of love

that forms. And yet we don't want to grow

complacent. We want a fresh love and a fresh

fellowship. To always be there.

And if it's not, that becomes a warning light.

A light starts flashing for us and we just go.

This is normal. This is fine.

Same is true with the Christian walk.

If there's not a fresh flow of of fellowship between you and

the Lord, then you say that's a check engine light.

Whoa, let me let me get that thing fixed.

Let's get that adjusted right away.

God keep. Me pliable, keep me soft.

Staying full of junk is one way to guarantee that we won't have

the Lord's new wine poured into us because we're incompatible

and we'll close with this and then we're going to receive

communion together. We don't fast to get God's

attention. We fast to make ourselves

compatible with the new wine. The Lord is eager to pour.

New wine into you? The Lord is eager to give you

revelation, direction. Breakthrough Anointing He is.

Eager to pour out the new wine. But he loves you and he will not

destroy you. So it's not that I've earned it

now. And he goes, Aha, well done.

This is your reward. He's going.

I've been eager to share this with you.

I have something good and wonderful to share with you.

And you've made yourself compatible.

Now you have aligned yourself with where you need to be.

That's the purpose of fasting. Not because look at me, I

fasted. But instead to go.

Lord, how much is crucify this flesh?

More? Because I want more of you.

And I know this flesh is what's getting in the way.

My will, my mind, my intellect, my traditions.

So let me do it for your glory. And for your will, Amen.