“The New Life with Jesus Christ!”
Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #15)
Pastor Jerry Ingalls
May 8, 2011 ~ Happy Mother's Day!
Today, we continue to discuss the new life that is found in a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Let’s read together from the Word of God, Mark 2:21-22 (NAU), "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results. 22 "No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins." [Prayer]
These two parables are illustrations that not only emphasize, but expand the revolutionary teaching in Jesus’ response to the question posed by the Pharisees and the disciples of John the Baptist. Listen to the context for our passage from Mark 2:18-20, “John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and they came and said to Him, ‘Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘While the bridegroom is with them, the attendants of the bridegroom cannot fast, can they? So long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ‘But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.’”
As we studied last week, Jesus was questioned by the Pharisees (the established Jewish religious leaders) and the disciples of John the Baptist for not fasting (denying themselves food) as a part of His and their spiritual life. But it was a bigger critique; they were actually critiquing Jesus Christ for not being serious about His spiritual life. How could they claim this of the radical teacher who has been preaching & teaching with great authority, healing & conducting exorcisms, calling disciples and drawing huge crowds everywhere He went?
They critiqued Him because His spirituality did not look like the established practices of those who were serious about worship and discipleship in their day. Jesus had the audacity to challenge the status quo and to do it differently! Jesus was leading His disciples in a new direction—the new covenant with God based on the grace of God’s love and revelation through the person and work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus declared that because the Messiah had come and is with the people, the spiritual life would now be a wedding feast rather than a funeral fast. The new life with Jesus Christ was to be and is today the life of steadfast joy.
And today, we see two parables that directly challenge the heart attitude of the Pharisees and disciples of John the Baptist. Jesus heard the question and He answered it, but He never stays on the surface of the issue—Jesus goes right to the heart—their unwillingness to change; to be teachable. Let’s dive into our teaching point. THE NEW LIFE WITH JESUS CHRIST IS A FAITH JOURNEY OF BEING STRETCHED!
Let’s take a moment to understand each of these parables from Mark 2:21-22 and then we will make the spiritual connection into our own lives. Jesus taught, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results” (21). Old worn garments can be our very favorite; the most comfortable and familiar. These old clothes have seen us through quite a bit in our lives, so when they get a hole, we do not want to discard them. So we patch them. Jesus is saying that if you patch the old garment with a new unshrunk piece of cloth, as the patch shrinks it will rip away and do more damage to the garment than had you not patched it all, or simply discarded it for a new one.
The way of Jesus Christ is a new life! When you recognize your need for God and ask Jesus into your life, Jesus does not give you just enough of Himself to fix up a broken or ripped part of your life. Rather, Jesus gives you a completely new wardrobe—new cloths! Have you heard the saying, “people have just enough religion to be miserable”? Jesus did not come to give you any religion and definitely not to make you miserable; He came to give you the abundant life (John 10:10).
Jesus will not be a patch for your old way of life--He is not a self-help plan; a recovery program; a parenting class for rebellious children; a save your marriage in 40 days book; or a make yourself successful and be influential positive thinking motivational seminar. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). We don’t need a patch to fix our ripped up well worn lives; we need a completely new life—new cloths to replace the old!
Jesus make this exact point with a second parable, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins” (22).
Jesus is using yet another common everyday illustration to make His point. There were no glass bottles for wine; they used wine skins. New wine requires new wine skins because of the pressure of fermenting. The wine skin must be stretchable in order to yield to the gases released by the fermenting wine. Old wine skins did not have the elasticity to stretch with the new wine so if new wine was placed in them then they would burst and you would lose all the new wine.
Jesus was going to the heart of these religious people set in their ways of worship and discipleship, telling them that they must become new in order to contain His teaching. The way of Jesus Christ cannot be understood nor lived out with an old way of thinking. God desires to make you new, but change is hard. God desires to stretch you by filling you with His Spirit, but you first must be changed into someone new. What are the obstacles in your mind and heart to change?
Show 1st DVD clip from Fiddler on the Roof
There was a great man of faith who is a wonderful example of what it means to be changed by God, to such a point that his name was changed from Abram to Abraham. In the year 2100 BC, God introduced Himself to Abram and invited Him to a new life with Him.
Listen to Genesis 12:1-4, “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.”
Did you hear that last part about this man who met God and changed everything to follow Him? He was 75 years old! Listen to this quote from William Barclay written in the 1950s, “When our minds become fixed and settled in their ways, when they are quite unable to accept new truth and to contemplate new ways, we may be physically alive, but we are mentally dead. As people grow older almost everyone develops a constituted dislike of that which is new and unfamiliar. We grow very unwilling to make any adjustments in our habits and ways of life.”
Another way to look at this teaching of Jesus Christ is that old wine, unlike new wine, does not cause expansion inside its wine skin. Jesus calls His Way new wine because it causes expansion. Now, if you don’t think you need to be new wine skins because there is no need for expansion in your life, then I doubt you are listening to the Way of Jesus Christ! His ways demand that you be stretched out of your comfort zone; out of the familiar.
The Way of Jesus invites us to stay and soak in the River of Life through prayer, study, and fellowship. Spending time focusing on God’s Way in Jesus Christ will keep our minds and hearts from hardening. We are called to live a life of faith like Abram who was blessed by God and had his name stretched to Abraham, the father of nations. Listen to what the Bible says about this great 75 year old man who allowed God to stretch him. From Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
And God can use you in a similar and powerful way to reach the world, at any age, if you are willing to allow God’s Spirit to stretch you! Do you allow God’s Spirit to stretch you beyond your known boundaries (limits)? How has God stretched you along your faith journey?
The Bible teaches us that we must be transformed (changed) from the old skins to the new skins. We are to disregard old garments for new garments, rather than patch the old ones up. And once we have made this choice of our own free will, then the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and minds and He (God is the one who does this!) makes us new—God’s Spirit stretches us to look and be like Jesus!
Listen to God’s Word from Ephesians 4:22-24, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
The days of patching the old life are gone and the day of re-creating is upon you! Will you continue to try to patch, mend, or adjust your old ways or will you allow a relationship with God through Jesus Christ to make you new?
Show 2nd DVD clip from Fiddler on the Roof
Change is hard, I know this and you know this. But it is impossible to live the new life with Jesus Christ if we have not yet been made new. Old wine skins cannot contain the new wine. The flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God; only the spirit. Jesus teaches us this eternal truth in the Gospel of John 3:5-7, “Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ ’ ”
Friends, the old life cannot be done away with by dabbling in religion or self-help. The new life only comes through a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. In the blink of an eye you are changed—from old to new—the Holy Spirit pours into you and then the stretching begins. The more we allow God’s Spirit to reign in our lives and stretch us out of our comfort zones, the more we will experience the new life with Jesus Christ.
Are you giving God’s Spirit full reign of your life?
Are you living the new life with Jesus Christ?
No comments:
Post a Comment