Today, on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe, the gospel of Jesus Christ. can't be contained in the old Judaism of the Pharisees. The kingdom of God is incompatible with all other kingdoms. New wine is for new wineskins. Welcome to the verdict with Pastor John Monroe.
Senior Pastor of Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Some people think that being spiritual means being rigid, critical, and always thinking about rules. But where's the joy? Today, we'll learn that Jesus brings a new life of freedom, of joy and celebration. living a life of grace. Let's join Pastor John Monroe for his message: the new wine of the kingdom.
Would you agree that we live in a culture often characterized by gloom, frustration, anger and even violence? But this darkness and hopelessness are not unique to our world. Israel was dark and gloomy in the first century. The religious leaders were self-righteous. legalistic and in some cases even corrupt.
But it was into this dark world our Lord Jesus comes. We're continuing to look at Matthew chapter 9, considering the new wine of the kingdom. Last time we saw Jesus calling Matthew to life in the kingdom, but the religious leaders were critical and legalistic. In Jesus, new wine has come. A wine of joy, a wine of celebration.
And this is offered to you as you follow Jesus.
Now, what about the disciples of Jesus? Why were they not fasting? at this time.
Well, the followers of Jesus are having a party at Matthew's house. They're eating and celebrating. And Jesus is saying, A verse. 15. Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?
When the bridegroom is there, you don't fast. The picture is of weather. of the guests joyfully celebrating. I can you imagine uh coming to Uh a wedding. And then you're invited uh to the reception somewhere.
And you go to the reception, and you're told, well, the reception is a little different, we're having a fast. You ain't I'm going home. Right? I mean, yes, there's a time to fast, but it's not at a wedding reception. No, a wedding reception, the bridegroom is there, the bride is there.
This is not a time of fasting, it's a time of celebration, it's a time of joy. Fasting and celebrating don't go together. The bridegroom is still there. Who is the bridegroom? Our Lord Jesus.
Yes, there is an appropriate time to fast. but not at a time of celebration. Not when a bridegroom is present. Not when Matthew has called together his friends, his fellow tax collectors and the sinners, and they're having a feast at his house and rejoicing, and Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God. That is not the time for Jesus and his disciples to fast.
But no, that's what Jesus says. Verse 15. The days will come, the end of verse fifteen, When the bridegroom is Notice the expression, is taken away from them and then They will fast. This verb taken away is a violent removal. The same term, very interestingly, is used in Isaiah 53, verse 8, in that great chapter of our suffering Messiah.
We read Isaiah 53, verse 8: By oppression and judgment, he was taken away, and as for his generation, Who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? Notice the expression: by oppression and judgment, he was taken. Away. Yes, the bridegroom, our Lord Jesus, is going to be taken away. There is going to be a violent removal of Jesus.
Opposition. In the Gospels. to Jesus is increasing. The Pharisees, the Herodians are plotting to kill Jesus. And yes, it's going to be taken away.
And the death of Jesus is not going to be A very nice death, it's going to be a violent death, it's going to be crucifixion. He's going to be violently taken away. He's going to be whipped. He's going to be crucified on a cross. Between the crucifixion and the resurrection.
The disciples of Jesus are in a state of shock, devastation, and despair. Yes, that's a time to fast, but not now when the bridegroom. is there. What's the point that Jesus is making? The old ritualism.
Is not appropriate now that the kingdom of God has come in Jesus.
Now is a time of feasting, not fasting.
Now is a time of joy, not condemnation, is the point. What have you seen first? Jesus called sinners to life. In the kingdom. Secondly, the kingdom is not a place of legalistic ritualism.
Third, the kingdom is a place. of celebration. I want you to get this. Being in the kingdom of God is a place of celebration. And to help us understand, Jesus uses two analogies.
In a sense, they're parables. To demonstrate that the old, Judaism, and the new, the kingdom of God, are incompatible.
Now let's look at both of them. First of all, verse 16. Are you following this? Teaching of Jesus. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.
For the patch tears away from the garment. And the worst here is made. First, the analogy of the garments.
Some of you will remember, I certainly do. Your mother sewing a patch on your clothes.
Okay, somehow you came from really wealthy homes, and that didn't happen. I didn't. I came from a relatively poor home. And being one of six boys, the clothes are passed down. And invariably, when you're out playing and you're wearing your trousers, Uh A hole appears, often at the knee.
And what does mum do? Rather than throw away a pair of what she thinks are perfectly good trousers, she puts a patch. on them. And so you have a patch. on your trousers.
Am I the only one that had this? Thank you, another honest brother. Shows the background we came from. The amazing thing is now people go to a store and buy clothes with holes in them. And they buy clothes with patches on them.
You know, when I was growing up, a sign of patches and holes was a sign of poverty.
Now it's a sign you're really cool. And by the way, if you've got holes in your pants or patches on them, we welcome you to Calvary. I'm not judging you. Don't judge me wearing my tie and I won't judge you having holes in your jeans. You're really cool and we welcome you here.
But that's the point, right?
So here are old clothes and the new patch. Is sewn on to the old clothes. What happens? A new unshrunk patch As it shrinks, It rips the old garment. There is a shrinking in the new, but not of the old.
That is, the new patch can't really be connected to the old clothes. The new patch is stronger than the old garment. And if you try to do that, you end up with a worse. situation. No, you don't put new patches on old clothes.
Secondly, the analogy of the wineskin. Perhaps it's a little easier for us to understand. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skin bursts and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.
Where was wine kept in those days? in wineskins, a container made from the skin of an animal.
Now, new wineskins are pliable. And they stretch.
So the new wine goes into the new wineskin. That's fine, because the new wineskin is pliable. And as the wine ferments and expands, so does the wineskin. Old wineskins, on the other hand, are hard. They're brittle.
The rigid. They're unbending. And so if you put new wine, Jesus is saying, into old wineskins. As the new wine ferments, it expands. And it means that the old wineskins burst open.
and you no longer have an old wineskin and you no longer have wine. Both are destroyed. Pint old wine. Skins. cannot contain new wine.
The analogy of the Patch? The analogy of the wineskin. What's the point? Jesus is making a profound point. one that the Pharisees really resent.
The legalism. The religious traditionalism of Judaism is outdated. and it's incompatible with the celebration. of those who are in the kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees promoted outward conformity and rule keeping.
They were very exact, very pedantic, very critical. You can almost see them with their little book writing down another breach. of one of their interpretations. Of the law. We see this over and over again in the Gospels.
We're going to see it to do with the Sabbath and so on. They judged People's spirituality by the external. How do you dress? How do you wash your hands? Uh how do you keep the Sabbath How do you fast?
How many times do you fast? What about your prayers? It was all to do with the. external legalism. Outward compliance was their speciality.
Adding their rules, their regulations to the commandments of God, where our Lord Jesus is preaching the inner reality of repentance and faith. That's the gospel of the kingdom: repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus is teaching here that the old and the new could not and cannot be mixed. The new is neither connected to the old the analogy of the governments. Nor can the new be contained in the old, the analogy of the wineskin.
Legalism, traditionalism, self-righteousness. The old All of that is incompatible with the kingdom of God, the new which comes with Jesus. You're trying. Patch things up with your life. You say, well, yeah, I believe in the Lord Jesus.
I believe in God's grace, but I've got to do my part. As well. Paul says in Romans 11, verse 6: If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. The gospel of Jesus Christ can't be contained in the old Judaism of the Pharisees. The Pharisees honor tradition.
If something was old, it was good. You heard people like this, the good old days? Everything was good in the in the old days? Not really. Right?
I wore patches on my trousers in the old days, right? I heard recently on the radio, just a few days ago, you may have heard it, the guy is selling, I think it's pasta or meatball, something Italian. And uh His his pitch is this. that it is his grandmother's recipe. And I'm thinking, okay, I don't know your grandmother.
I mean, she may have had the taste buds, you know, of a caterpillar. I don't know. But his point is My grandmother's got this recipe. That was the old way and therefore it's good. I mean where's the logic in that?
Right? His point is if it's old, it's good. No. If it's old, it may be bad. If it's new, it may be bad.
The question is, for us who are followers of Jesus Christ, does it conform to the Word of God? The mission of Jesus, please get this, is not to patch up the old. It's not to put new patches on old Judaism.
Now that the bridegroom has come, our Lord Jesus. The legalistic traditions, the interpretations, the Far empty formalism of the past. Must be rejected. The gospel of Jesus Christ can't be connected to or synthesized with any other religion, belief system, or philosophy. This is totally new.
What do we want to do?
Someone says, Well, this is my heritage. I I was brought up in this this church. I was brought up in this belief. And now, oh yes, thank you for telling me about Jesus. Yeah, there's a lot to be said about Jesus.
And I'm going to take a little bit of that teaching and patch it here. I'm going to add a little bit of the Christian faith to my life to help me get through. Absolutely not. You've totally missed the point. Salvation We're saying I got saved.
If you're going to be saved, you must understand. That salvation is totally by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. It cannot be mixed with or connected to your ideas, to your works, to your religion, to yourself. effort to your rituals, to your belief systems? Absolutely not.
The kingdom of God is incompatible with all other kingdoms. New wine is for new wineskins. And the only life That can truly contain the righteousness of God is the new life given by God. When you repent of your sin and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, don't trust in your religious heritage. It may be a good one, but don't trust in that.
That doesn't get you into heaven. Don't trust in the externals. Don't tell me, well, I've been a Christian all my life and I was baptized when I was a baby and I took communion and I did this and I did that. All of that may be true, but all of that can be true and you miss the whole point of the gospel, which is salvation by Christ and Christ alone. Don't trust in your church.
Don't trust in your works. Don't trust in your religious heritage. Put your trust totally in Christ. That's what Matthew did. He left everything.
And he follows Jesus. and experience the inner reality. and celebration of the kingdom of God. When the Holy Spirit is at work. The old wineskins.
Burst. Can I speak to those of you who are followers of Jesus? You you're truly saved. Praise God for that. Is there is there still a bit of the the old Pharisee sticking to you.
Are you sometimes like an old Wineskin. Your heart. Brittle. Critical. resistant to change and growth.
You're a bit of a fault finder. You're always trying to find fault with someone. You're always worried that someone somewhere is enjoying themselves, as it were. That's the spirit of the Pharisee. And I think few of us would say that we're totally free of that.
So let me ask you a question, brother-sister. You say that you're saved. How wonderful. But let me ask you. Where is the joy in your Christian life?
I meet people who tell me they're saved. But their Christian life Doesn't seem very joyful. Is there joy in your home? Would your children look at your dads? And you talk about your faith.
Do they see the joy of the Lord? What do they hear? criticism from you. about other believers, about the church. About things going on.
Is there try? Sister, is there joy in your relationships? Your friends, your Christian, is there joy there? Is there joy in your ministry, or has it just become A legalistic obligation. And you do it, but you kind of fret and you complain.
And I wish people did it like you is is Is that there? If you're so spiritual, Why is there so little joy? in your home. in your relationships. In your service?
That's a question I ask myself. See God's Spirit. brings new wine. New joy. Paul says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is.
What? Freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The Pharisees specialized in bondage and self-righteous and criticism and rigidity and being pedantic and wanting everyone to conform to their own ideas. They wanted to be in control of everyone and everything.
But the Spirit of the Lord brings true freedom, liberty, and joy. Not bondage to rituals, not bondage to your traditions, not bondage to rules, not bondage to the devil, but true freedom. And where God is at work in your life, I hope this is the case for you. Fellow believer. When God is at work in your life, There's growth.
There's freshness. There's humility. There's a desire to learn and there is joy. No, Jesus does not come to patch things up. Jesus is not there like some person that you just turn to when there's a problem and you look to Jesus.
That's not the gospel. The gospel is this. That you are transformed totally. Here is a man, Matthew, collecting taxes, a greedy man, a materialistic man. Jesus calls him.
He's totally changed. No, he's not perfect, of course not. But he follows Jesus, he gives his life to telling people. about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And maybe it's time, yes, it is.
for some of us to throw out some of the old stuff in our life.
some of the old attitudes. The old garments, the old wineskins, as it were. What does Paul say? If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come.
Don't allow the devil. to bring you back into that critical attitude. into that bondage that you were brought up in. Understand, there is this new wine into fresh wineskins. This is radical living.
Do you hear Jesus call you? Do you hear his voice today? Follow Me. Do you hear Jesus saying that to you? Follow me, John.
I want you to keep following me. I've been following Jesus for many years. I need to hear this fresh. from the Master. Because of my own Flesh.
I can become critical and hard. And I didn't get off track. And I need to hear and you need to hear afresh these words. Follow Me. God is the God of new beginnings.
The gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. How important it is, brothers and sisters, we experience the new power of the gospel breaking through the old and flowing in newness of life and joy. I'm saying to you, be an authentic follower of Jesus. Live the abundant new life of the Spirit. A life of freedom, a life of joy, a life of celebration.
No, not being Pollyanna, not. Saying there are no problems in life, we've dealt with that, but in spite of the problem in your life, in your heart, in your home, and in society, that this is overwhelming you. that once you were lost, And now you're found. And now whatever happens, whatever the culture, whatever the politics, whatever happens, you're following Jesus. And all is well.
Jesus still says New wine. is for fresh Wineskins. This is the new wine. of the kingdom. This is the verdict featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe.
There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever. but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource, John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity.
Get your copy today by visiting our website at theverdict.org. While you're there, consider making an investment in this Bible teaching ministry. Whether it's $5, $50, or more, your gift today helps cover the cost of sharing these gospel messages to listeners around the world. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Verdict Podcast, featuring John's weekly podcast exclusive called Avizandam. It's available wherever you get your podcasts, or simply go to our website.
Again, that's theverdict.org. The verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte. We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road. If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ. We invite you to join us for our Sunday services.
For more details about Calvary and our service times, visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Could it be that you're caught in the ritualism and legalism of a dead religion? Do you find yourself being critical of others? Rather than joyfully following Jesus and celebrating the new life that you have in Him. The Apostle Paul writes that if you are in Christ, You are a new creature.
The old is past, the new has come. If you've never experienced the new wine of the kingdom of God, repent of your sin. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and live a life of freedom. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies.
Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
