Patches and Wineskins | Mark 2:18-22 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] for our bible study today we are mark's gospel chapter 2. if you have your bibles turned there now let me begin at verse 18. i'm going to read verse 18 down through verse 22. mark chapter 2 starting at verse 18. the disciples of john and that is john the baptist and of the pharisees were fasting and then they came and said to him that's jesus why do the disciples of john and of the pharisees fast but your disciples do not fast and jesus said to them can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them as long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast but the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast in those days no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment or else the new piece pulls away from the old and the tear is made worse and no one puts new wine into old wineskins or else the new wine bursts the wineskins the wine is spilled and the wine skins are ruined but new wine must be put into new wineskins let's pause there and pray father thank you for this time together and your word as we gather in your house we pray that you would bear witness to this passage that we might learn and grow and be challenged and encouraged in our faith today and we thank you lord for your presence among us where two or more are gathered there you are in our midst so we thank you lord and we pray you'll be with us now as we open up the word together it's in jesus name that we pray and everybody said amen i am a uh a product of the 70s i grew up in the 70s and um the 70s were an interesting decade of various things musically i remember fleetwood mac how many of you remember fleetwood mac yeah you can go your own way that's all right um the bee gees staying alive that was part of the 70s too the brady bunch and if you ever watch the brady bunch that theme song is continually in your head for the rest of your life and if you watch the brady bunch you'll remember that back in the 70s we only really had three networks abc nbc and cbs and uh you know amazingly for those of you too young to know this you actually in that day had to get up to change the channel there's no remotes if you want to get i mean i was a human remote my dad's like go change the channel so there there i was um but but that was the decade of of the 70s in terms of sports the dominant sports team in the nfl was the pittsburgh steelers oh okay all right well you're not saved anyway uh but that was the dominant sports team um and then and then part of the 70s was jimmy carter and the gas crisis how many of you remember the gas crisis all right um i asked in the first service and people were nodding their head that i was having a time trying to remember but i think it was and people said so in the first service you could only get gas if it was an odd or even day based on your license plate and so you'd pull up to a gas station and if it was the odd day and you had an odd number on your license plate i think at the end then you were good to go and even then it was only 10 gallons max i mean it was it was a strange time in the 70s and so because of of all of that it was also a thrifty time people would tighten their belts they would pinch pennies it was a it was a frugal thrifty time and so i remember growing up in my household that there were a few um shall we say budget conscious rules uh in order to try it as a family pull pull together and tighten our belts a little bit and so we had two main rules that i remember one was called the three square rule and one was called the one knuckle rule three square rule one knuckle rule yeah here's here's how it went when you needed to go to the bathroom you were limited to three squares of toilet paper per use not not the entire time you're in the bathroom but you know per per use three squares that's it now i i think honestly that was probably for my sister's sake because nothing against the ladies but listen when you got when you wrap the toilet paper you just wrap and wrap around you come out like a human q-tip it's just like crazy yeah yeah uh and and then so that was the three square rules per per wipe three squares that's it all right and then there was the not one knuckle rule what's one knuckle when you fill up a bathtub it can't exceed one knuckle friends on the depth now when you're like eight years old your knuckles like a half inch high and is that the low end by the drain or the upper end where it's not as deep on the other end of the bathtub but that's what it was around our household just three three squares and one knuckle one knuckle now again i think that was primarily for my sister i mean i'm taking showers i don't really care how long i take a shower but the one knuckle rule that's what we had around our house friends now as part of this thrifty season of the 70s one of the other ways that we were budget conscious my mom would take me to buy jeans and corduroys in the day that were way too long so i could grow into them and i'm talking like six inches too long you're relating to this whole thing aren't you i know you it's like six inches way too long and then you're expected to just grow into them over the next like 25 years but what you'd have to do is when you first bought them and they're way too long you'd roll them up you'd roll them up okay but the problem is that year after year would go by and as you grew you would unroll it one you know one inch and you'd unroll the next year you'd unroll it again so by like five years later people could look at the rings on the bottom of your jeans and say that you've had that pair for about five years haven't you it's like cutting down a tree and figuring out how old the tree is count the rings that's what people would do looking at your jeans and part of this time when you're wearing one pair of jeans for like eight years is that when you would go outside to play you would actually get tears and holes in your jeans i lived in the day when you would get tears in your jeans because you played outside not like today where'd you get those torn jeans oh i paid extra for those really you didn't you didn't cause that no no no no no i paid extra for those tears baby yeah because some kid in a sweatshop in thailand was ripping your jeans for you you didn't get those because you're outside playing so when i'd get these big holes in my jeans my mom would iron on those waxy patches see if you're too young to know this man you've just been spared a lot but there would be these patches that on one side was had some kind of waxy you know adhesive and so as you put it down and you would use a hot iron it would like melt the waxy adhesive onto your pants and then you'd walk around with patch patches and rings i mean what a great look that was you know and after a few washes those patches would start to peel and they'd start to roll and then your jeans are even worse now so i bring this all up because when i read this whole story about jesus saying you know you don't put new patches on old garments you don't put new wine in old wineskins i'm thinking to myself the patches and the garments thing i get that because i'm a product of the 70s i know exactly what he's talking about here now what is he in essence talking about in the context of our story when he says here about garments you don't take an old garment put a new patch on it the two materials are not compatible the new patch will end up pulling away from the garment making the tear worse in a similar way he talks about wine in wine skins he says you don't put new wine in old wineskins now back in that day a wine skin was typically an animal hide that was sewn to be used as a wine vessel and usually the neck of the animal is is where the opening after you sewed up you know the rest of the body of of the animal you just had the the leather the hide the neck of the animal is usually where the spout was but the problem is that over time a leather wine skin would become old and brittle and hard and if you put new wine in an old wine skin the natural fermentation of new wine would create an expansion and thus the old wineskins would break or burst and jesus says and then then you've lost the wine and you've lost the wine skin he says you don't you don't you don't put a new patch on an old garment and you don't put new wine in an old wine skin now why is jesus saying all this about garments and wine skins because it seems an odd follow-up in case you didn't notice when we were reading to the original question that jesus was asked which was about fasting and this question about fasting comes from some disciples or followers of john the baptist and some disciples or followers of the pharisees that's what it tells us in the opening verses there now it was usual in those days it was common in those days that a rabbi or a teacher or religious leader would have followers would have disciples would have students it wasn't unique to jesus we read about jesus and his 12 original apostles or disciples but that was not unique to him every rabbi had a group of disciples or students or followers every religious leader had a group of disciples or students or followers so that wasn't unusual what is unusual in our story is that disciples of john the baptist teamed up with disciples of the pharisees to ask jesus a question about fasting because you see the disciples of john the baptist were very pro-jesus john the baptist was the one chosen by god to herald the arrival of the messiah john the baptist and jesus were cousins too so there was familial connection there there was theological agreement there and and so the the disciples of john the baptist very pro-jesus very pro-jesus as messiah the pharisees were not the pharisees were skeptics about jesus they they would uh mock jesus they would try to trap jesus in his words they were opposed to jesus as messiah they didn't accept him as messiah so it isn't unusual that different people have disciples what is unusual is that these two particular groups with their disciples came together for this question of fasting and jesus answers an initial statement here about fasting this whole sermon is not going to be about fasting but i only want to just summarize a little bit about fasting so we can shape the context of the whole conversation here but for those of you taking notes biblical fasting is the voluntary abstinence from food for a limited period of time for the purpose of drawing near to god it's denying the flesh to strengthen the spirit that's basically what biblical fasting is and and the process of denying the flesh and strengthening your spirit this is the reason why the puritans used to call fasting soul fattening because it was a time when you would really build up your soul build up your your your spirit you would fatten your soul but in in the process of denying your your physical flesh uh the the idea the concept or the mention of fasting appears a little more than 65 times throughout the bible and by the way i think it's okay but it's not strictly the way that the bible teaches fasting but i think it's appropriate for people to look at their lives and to ask in general what what things do i engage in that are not necessarily wrong but they crowd out my my time with the lord maybe i should fast from some of those things not just food sometimes you might feel led to fast from social media for a short period of time or fast from tv and netflix is taking too much of your time fast you know you play too much golf you know you need a faster golf game you shop too much fast fast shopping you know and i only mention golf game and shopping because i don't like either and i'd rather convict you than me but but there are things that you can that you can do to to just i'm gonna carve out this is taking too much of my time i'm gonna deny myself this and i'm gonna really draw near to god so you can do like modified kinds of fasting in that way as well but notice here in our in our passage that initially when jesus has asked this question why don't your disciples fast he actually downplays the need for them to fast and he downplays the need for them to fast because again the definition is you deny yourself physical food in order to strengthen your spirit because you're going to draw near to god well how much more can you draw near to god than when god's already there in your presence and so because jesus is walking among them and ministering among them he says to the disciples of john the baptist and the pharisees my disciples don't need to fast because the bridegroom is here with them and this is what jesus says in verse 19. he says can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them as long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast in other words you can't draw near to god more than being in god's presence there won't be fasting in heaven in other words because once you're in the presence of the lord there's no need to draw near to him you can't get any closer than that however the next verse verse 20 in our passage jesus says but the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them and then they will fast in those days so the bridegroom jesus has gone away the bible says he's coming again for us the bride and while he's away it is appropriate again for us to fast to it's a spiritual discipline to strengthen our spirit and once in a while as god might put it on your heart to to go ahead and fast so we're because we're living in that time period right now while the bridegroom is away now a couple of quick things about uh what fasting is not and then we're gonna move on to the what i think is the the bigger point of of the passage here but a couple of things what fasting is not fasting is not a christian dieting plan that might be the the unintended consequence where you lose weight but it's not a christian dieting plan it's not a ritual to show you're more spiritual it's not intended to punish the flesh it's not required but it is encouraged and will be jesus said in matthew 6 16 to 18 will be rewarded there's benefits to fasting so that's all i really want to say about fasting because the truth of the matter is that that's not really what they were driving at when these disciples of john the baptist and the pharisees ask jesus about fasting they're asking him a question about fasting but it's not really about fasting it's about tradition look again at what they say in there in verse 18. the disciples of john and other pharisees were fasting and then they came and said to him why do the disciples of john and other pharisees fast but your disciples jesus do not fast translation why aren't your disciples doing what we are doing because that's the way it's always been done and so they're questioning him because he doesn't do according to their traditions a lot of the times now there's nothing wrong with traditions only when traditions supersede the bible and unfortunately sometimes in christian circles or religious traditions people elevate traditions and they do things and they don't even know why they do it they just do it because it's the way we've always done it okay fine and you might still want to do it but what's the biblical basis for it well i don't really have one it's just the way we've always done it okay all right not necessarily a bad thing but you have to be able to look at some things and say okay why do we do this so these different disciples are like jesus why don't your disciples fast that's what we're doing this is what religious people typically do but again they're challenging him because he's not living in their traditional way and and by the way this isn't the only time they will question jesus about things like why are you healing on the sabbath we're not supposed to do that that's considered work we don't do that you're not playing by our traditional rules he's not violating anything it's more needful to bring life and health to people than than to you know abstain because it's the sabbath and that would be like doing work no no no you're you're you're helping someone who's in need that's not a violation of the sabbath well what about the fact your disciples don't wash their hands before they eat well washing your hands is a pretty good practice in in terms of hygiene but what they were talking about was there was a ritualistic way of water purification certain ways you had to wash your hands and cups with two handles so you didn't contaminate and all this kind of stuff and the disciples weren't doing that and then they would ask jesus also at times why do you why do you eat with sinners and tax collectors we don't do that that's not what you're supposed to do see all of this was we're not we don't do this why are you doing it or we we do this why don't you do this and so then jesus goes into this last part of this section talking about new patches on old garments and new wine and old wine skin to really get to the underlying issue why didn't jesus play by their traditional rules i mean was he just being a rebel for the sake of being a rebel we know people like this to be honest with you they just refuse to do something not because it's wrong but just because they want to flex their own independent uniqueness i'm not going to do that why don't you want to join well i'm just i'm not going to do that like like they just want to like make a statement that i'm i'm going to be different okay fine but jesus didn't do this just to make a statement like he wanted to be different what jesus was doing here was he was trying to help them understand some of the things you do by tradition that are not necessarily biblical and so he launches into this whole thing looking in verse 21 and 22 where he says no one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment or else the new piece pulls away from the old and the tear is made worse and then he adds and no one puts new wine into old wineskins or else the new wine bursts the wine skins the wine is spilled and the wine skins are ruined but new wine must be put into new wine skin listen what he's saying here and this is the big idea jesus didn't come to patch up something old he came to offer something brand new that's the main point that he's making here so he's saying i'm not going to just go along with traditions for tradition sake because i didn't come to just patch up an old system i came to bring something new listen this is the reason why we have an old covenant also known as old testament new covenant new testament now jesus didn't come to abolish the law he said but to fulfill the law because the old covenant was pointing to the new covenant in jesus so let me just by way of clarification of old verses new covenant let me just point out a couple of things and i'm going to go to the back screen on this just so we can understand what jesus came to do you see the old covenant was about man's way to reach god through the sacrifice of animals the new covenant is about god's way to reach man through the sacrifice of a savior jesus you see this number two the old covenant centered on man's faithfulness toward god the new covenant centers on god's faithfulness toward man do you know that every other world religion besides christianity places the emphasis on your ability to try to do enough good things to reach god christianity says because god knows that we are all sinful and we can't do enough good things to get to him he decided to come down to us to rescue us that's why he offered jesus as a sacrifice the third thing is the old covenant was a performance-based religion between man and god the new covenant is a grace-based relationship between god and man and so these are big differences and and thus old versus new jesus said i didn't i didn't come to just you know put a band-aid on the old system i came to offer something brand new but now listen to me on this the same is true for your individual lives and i'll and i'll say it this way and i'll put it on the screen jesus came not to patch up your old life but to do something brand new in you you see sometimes people mistakenly think that coming into faith with jesus is just folding jesus on top of your current lifestyle like i i'm just going to continue to to do what i do and live the way i live and behave the way i behave but i've come to faith in jesus and now it's like just adding him on top of your lifestyle but that would be like an old rotten dilapidated fence that you think all it needs is a fresh coat of paint no it needs something brand new there and so this is what this is what christ calls us to be about you see a relationship with jesus is not about dressing up the old life but it's about trading it for a new life we're not to mix the old with the new it's incompatible let me illustrate it to you this way so i have a couple of uh my my favorite beverages here orange juice and uh cold brew iced coffee all right and let's say that the orange juice represents your your new life in christ and the cold brew represents the way you lived before you knew him right now they're both by themselves pretty tasty including the way you used to live delicious right they say well that almost sounds unbiblical to say that the way you lived before christ was tasty no no friends friends listen to me on this a sinner's life is fun who are we kidding when i hear christians try to persuade non-christians you need to come to faith in jesus because your life is miserable most non-christians look at you and go no it's not smoking weed you see what we do is we we try to treat the symptoms and not the core issue the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart people need to understand what you need is a heart change a life-changing relationship with jesus you can't try to convince them unless you hit them on a bad day when they're having a really bad day and they're like yes i need jesus most people that you encounter who are living the high life they're like i'm going to get drunk on friday night again they're loving that sleeping around lachlan porn lie and cheat yeah that's fun got a good grade out of that one that's what they do it's fun for them they need to understand a heart change you can't convince them based on you must be miserable no we're having fun thank you very much leave me alone that's the way they're going to respond to you then you come to know christ and it's like oh jay only jesus and you like get up in the morning and you're like oh i can't wait to read my bible oh he has forgiven me oh there's no condemnation now oh free of shame and guilt i'm loving that oh that's tasty right and that's wonderful and that's the way it should be here's the problem and this is what jesus is addressing sometimes christians think they can just do this [Applause] see that's like vitamin a vegement that is that is that's nasty this is nasty but this is this is the way some christians think i can just kind of blend the old with the new it's just adding jesus to the way that i like to currently live no no no no you've missed the point jesus didn't come to patch up your old life he came to give you something brand new and this is what the bible says along those lines second corinthians 5 17 therefore if anyone is in christ he is a new creation old things have passed away behold all things have become new now please hear me on this that's not just a statement about how god sees you as a new creature in christ forgiven loved redeemed that's also a statement about how god calls you to live as his redeemed children not blending the old with the new but leaving the old for the new this is a long passage of scripture i'm going to put it up on the back wall for you and i'm going to walk you through it so i know it's long but bear with me because in colossians 3 this is exactly what paul is talking about when he talks about i want you to die to self and put off the old ways and i want you to put on the new ways that are consistent with christ don't try to blend the two jesus didn't come to put new wine and old wine skins he didn't come to patch up an old life this this needs to be a pudding off and a putting on so gla colossians 3 verse 5. therefore put to death your members which are on the earth now this is new king james that almost sounds like kill church people doesn't it put to death members on the earth in the esv or niv i think it says you know put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature that's what it's talking about look at the list fornication uncleanness passion evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry because of these things the wrath of god is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them before you became a christian that all that stuff was natural that's the way people live who don't know christ but rather than folding jesus into it he says verse 8 but now you yourselves are to put off all these and he lists a few things like anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy language out of your mouth verse 9 do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him where there is basically no respecter of persons neither greek nor jew circumcised nor uncircumcised barbarians city and slave nor free but christ is all and in all therefore as the elect of god as believers as disciples of jesus holy and beloved put on tender mercies kindness humility meekness long suffering bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another even as christ forgave you so you also must do verse 14 but above all these things put on love which is the bond of perfection and let the peace of god rule in your hearts to which also you were called in one body and be thankful let the word of christ let god's word the bible dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the lord and whatever you do in word or deed do it all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god the father through him amen this is how we're called to live this is how we're called to live not to blend the old with the new not to patch up the old life but to walk in newness of life paul would put it this way in ephesians 4 22 and 24. put off concerning your former conduct the old man the old person man or woman which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and put on the new man the new person which was created according to god in true righteousness and holiness again jesus didn't come to patch up your old life he came to make all things new amen let's pray lord we thank you that you came to change us to make us brand new in you and we pray for the help of your holy spirit because our flesh wants to still run the way of the world that we used to live in before we came to know christ or maybe for some here who don't know christ that's that's where they are right now but you've come to set us free from a life of condemnation and from a life of shame and guilt to find forgiveness in you and redemption and to be recipients of your love and grace and because you change our hearts then lord we also want to change our lifestyles to honor the one who changed our hearts and it's not always easy because our flesh tends to gravitate towards fleshly things so we need the strength and the power of your holy spirit to put off the old ways and to put on the new ways and to walk in newness of life as your redeemed children for you have not come to patch up our old lives but you have come to give us something brand new a new life in jesus help us lord to walk in that newness of life in a way that honors you and pleases you and every time we stray back to the things of the world may you just quicken us in our hearts speak to us gently to bring us back to a place of greater surrender we love you lord and we thank you that you first loved us and gave your life for us help us lord we're weak we need you and we trust you today in jesus name and all god's people said amen you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 12,679

Rating: 4.8327975 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers, New Wine, old wineskins, old patches on new clothes, parables, Patches and wineskins, old wineskins and new wineskin, old wineskins parable, old wineskins bible verse, old wineskins and new wineskin parable, old and new wineskins explained, mark 2:18-22

Id: ryp3eUQzPiY

Length: 32min 57sec (1977 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 26 2021