Of Weddings and Wineskins (Luke 5:33–39) | The Gospel of Luke (Part 42)

Transcript

JRNT 93
9/21/2025
Of Weddings and Wines – The Gospel of Luke (Part 42)
Luke 5:33-39
Jesse Randolph

“Pharisee.”
A highly charged word, if there ever was one, right? “Pharisee.” That’s sort of high on their horse, “puritanical”, “pious”, “prudish” type. The “Pharisee.” Now, we think of that term in our day, in those terms. It’s the holier than thou person. The better than everyone else’s type of person. But we sometimes forget, as that word gets thrown around, as a pejorative label that the Pharisees were an actual group. An actual group of religious people. Highly religious people during Jesus’ day. As we’ve already seen in our study of Luke’s Gospel, up to this point; the Pharisees were this works-based, holier-than-thou, legalistically-skewed religious sect within first-century Judaism. We also know from our study of Luke so far, and as we’ll get into it further, as we continue to study this Gospel. That whenever Jesus ran into this bunch, the Pharisees. He shot straight with them.

See, there were all sorts of problems with how the Pharisees conceived of religion. They were known for giving all the right answers. They always knew what to say. But they rarely did what others were supposed to do, according to their standards. Jesus would say of them, in Matthew 23:4, of the Pharisees – “. . . they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.” There was this dissonance, this discontinuity, in other words, between what the Pharisees said they believed and the reality of how they actually lived. The Pharisees were also known for practicing their religion to be seen by others. “. . . they do all their deeds to be noticed by men” Jesus would say of them in Matthew 23:5. That included their long and dramatic prayers. Their various public displays of do-gooding. It was with the Pharisees in mind, that Jesus warned His disciples with these words, in Matthew 6:1 – “beware of doing you righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.”

In other words, don’t say you’re worshiping God in heaven above . . . if, as you’re doing so, you’re looking around to see who’s watching. The Pharisees were also known for using their status as “religious people”, to cover their sin up. They cleaned “the outside of the cup,” as Jesus said in Matthew 23:5. But inside they were “full of robbery and self-indulgence.” They were, as Jesus said in Matthew 23:27 – “like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones. “Outwardly, Jesus said in Matthew 23:28, they “appear[ed] righteous to men, but inwardly [they were] full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” So, on the outside they had these bleached exterior walls, but inside they were full of death. They were this conservative, moral religious crowd, but in reality, they were unrepentant, hypocrites.

Well, what we’re going to see in our text for today. Is that in addition to having those various distasteful traits I’ve just rattled off. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were also known for adding their man-made traditions to the Word of God. Elevating those man-made traditions above the Word of God and then clinging to those man-made traditions, even when Jesus – who is the “Word of God”, was right there standing in their presence.

Now, as we get into this account we’ll be in this morning in the Gospel of Luke. It is one that is very much steeped in first-century Judaistic thought. So, I want us to hang on to this thought, as we make our way through a lot of deep-dive historically and culturally that I’m going to take us through. I want us to hold on to this thought, almost like a balloon tied to our finger, ok? Let’s keep this going, as we work through this text today.
The thought is this: Though the Pharisees lived in a unique first century, Jewish context. The reality is, we all have to be mindful of our own Pharisaical tendencies today.

Think about it: Knowing all the right answers. Insisting that others do what we ourselves are unwilling to do. Doing good deeds so as to be seen by others. Cleaning the outside of our cups. Wearing our Sunday best, to mask what’s really going on the inside. Holding on to our traditions with a white-knuckle death grip. If we’re being honest, we all have a little Pharisee in us. And we all must be mindful of those Pharisaical tendencies. And we all must be willing to receive a corrective from God, as we consider how the Lord Jesus, in our text this morning, interacted with the Pharisees of His day. So, hold onto that thought. That’s the balloon on the string on the finger.

With your other finger, turn with me in your bibles, please, to Luke 5. Now, Luke 5, we’re going to be in verses 33-39 today. Luke 5:33-39 – God’s Word reads:
“And they said to Him, ‘The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do likewise, but Yours eat and drink.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can you make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.’ And he was also telling them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise, he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skin, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, “The old is good enough.”

Now, to set the stage for our study of the text this morning, let’s go back a bit to our text from last week, Luke 5:27-32, where we encountered Levi . . . Matthew, this Jewish tax collector, who Jesus came across while Levi was sitting there in his tax office. And Jesus said to him, you’ll remember, verse 27, “Follow Me.” Then, we’re told by Luke, right away in verse 28, that Levi “left everything behind, [it says] and rose up and began to follow Him.”

Now, if that were the end of the story, that would be one of those “happily-ever-after” type moments.
‘Jesus called Levi to follow Him.”
“Levi rose up immediately to follow Jesus.”
“Everything was great after that.”
“Everyone was happy.”
“The End.” “Role credits.”
But the account doesn’t end there. No, look at verse 29, it says, “And Levi gave a big reception for Him. [meaning Jesus] . . . in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them.” You remember that scene, Levi has just given up everything to follow Jesus. So, he throws this “big reception”, this party so that his friends from his old life could meet Jesus. So, he could bring people to his Savior. Again, that would be another one of those happy places to wrap up the account. To end the story on a high note. But again, that’s not where it ends. Reading on, verse 30 - “And the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples.” You might remember that word “grumbling” is that fun-to-pronounce Greek verb – gonguzo. That’s what the Pharisees were doing, they were “grumbling at [Jesus’] disciples, saying . . .verse 30 - “Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Again, the Pharisees, they thought in terms of ceremonial purity and cleanness. They Pharisees thought in terms of ritual and tradition. They couldn’t fathom that this Man who claimed to be the Messiah, this Teacher of the Law. This Man who had healed this paralytic right in their presence, and in doing so, had declared that man’s sins forgiven. They couldn’t fathom that that sort of Man would be associating here with the lowly. They couldn’t believe that Jesus would “eat and drink with, [of all people] tax collectors and sinners.” So, these are very religious men. And for this Man who claimed to be the “God-Man” doing what He was doing. What it was doing was turning the Pharisees notion of what it means to be religious completely upside down.

Well, Jesus called them out on it. Remember His reply, verses 31 and 32 “And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘It is not the well who need a physician, but those who are sick.’” So, the Lord began with this illustration. This illustration is that we don’t go to the doctor when we’re feeling great. When we’re feeling at the very top of our game. We go to the doctor when we’re felling – what? Sick. Jesus, the Great Physician, came for those who were sick, spiritually sick, spiritually hopeless, spiritually listless, spiritually dead. That’s who He came for.

After the illustration, comes this major principle . . . verse 32 – “I have not come [this is Jesus speaking] to call the righteous . . .” Meaning, the supposed “righteous.” The so-called “righteous.” Those who, like the Pharisees, wrongly believed themselves to be “righteous” by their good deeds and their acts and their traditions. Jesus is saying – “I have not come to call them.” But rather, sinners to repentance. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” “I’ve come to call those who understand their desperate need for salvation.”

Now, by the way, those are words, which truly ought to be sweeter than honey for any follower of Jesus Christ here in the room this morning. When you consider those words. Right? I am a sinner. You are a sinner. We all are sinners, and “Christ Jesus [I Timothy 1:15] came into the world [to do what?] to save sinners.” Jesus Himself says here in verse 32 – “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Meaning, no matter how far off the wagon your fall was and no matter what societal barrel you’re scraping the bottom of, right now. No matter how much others in this world consider you to be scum. No matter how much you think yourself to be a hopeless cause. Whether you think you’ve gone too far, or you think you’ve sinned too much, or you think God’s saving arm is too short to grab a hold of you. Remember these words from Luke 5:32 – that Christ didn’t come to save the good. He didn’t come to save the righteous. He didn’t come to save the holy. He came, it says: “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” The unrighteous.

That brings us back to our text, beginning in verse 33. Now, again, it’s the same parties to this conversation that we were in last week. It’s still Jesus and the Pharisees dialoguing here. But by this point, it appears everybody has moved away from Levi’s house, where we were last Sunday morning. That’s where the “big reception” was being held, where Jesus was being hosted. And now, it’s moved, this conversation, to some other place outside Levi’s house, but still there in Capernaum. Take a look at verse 33, it says: “And they said to Him.” Meaning, the Pharisees said to Jesus:
“The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do likewise, but Yours eat and drink.” So, obviously, the Pharisees were drawing some sort of distinction here. Probably a better way to say that, is they were attempting to catch Jesus in a trap here. They were saying that Jesus wasn’t doing what others did. This was an accusation rooted in comparative righteousness. You know, “You’re not as good as the other guy” is the idea. He wasn’t doing what “the disciples of John”, meaning John the Baptist did. He wasn’t doing what the other Pharisees – “. . . the disciples of the Pharisees” did. So, by this point, it wasn’t only Jesus’ decision to eat with sinners, that was getting under the skin of the Pharisees. But now, it was His refusal to follow their idea of what normal practices of piety were. Specifically, in the area of fasting.

Now, to get into some background here, the law of this time, the Law of Moses, which governed fasting for the people in Israel. Only required God’s people, the Jews, the Israelites, to fast one day a year – on the Day of Atonement and we see that over in Leviticus 16 and Leviticus 23. But as time went on. I mean, the Law of Moses was written some time around the 1400’s B.C. But as time went on, fasting became a more regular and customary practice in Israel on other days and at other times. In fact, over the years, fasting became associated with times of sadness and times of darkness. In the centuries after the Law of Moses was written, fasting began to be practiced voluntarily, as a sign of mourning; to acknowledge disaster or calamity. We see that in II Samuel 1:12, where we’re told that – “they lamented and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan and for the people of Yahweh and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.” So, there was a fasting of mourning. Or in Nehemiah 1:3-4, where we’re told that “the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire,” Nehemiah then says, “when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Then in the book of Esther, after the decree went out to Persia to slaughter all of the Jews who lived in the kingdom at the time. In Esther 4:3 it says - “there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing.” Then there’s I Kings 21:27, which says that when King Ahab heard, that the prophet Elijah had foretold that his wicked wife Jezebel would one day be killed and eaten by dogs, Ahab “tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted.”

So, for the Jews of Jesus’ day fasting was mandated just that one time in the Law of Moses. Namely, in connection with the Day of Atonement. But even as we’ve just seen in these other examples throughout Israel’s history, that I’ve just quickly run through. From Nehemiah and Esther and II Samuel and I Kings; we do note that when people fasted, there was at least some sense of religious significance to the practice. When somebody fasted, there was at least some sense of a person crying out to God, making some appeal to God, for something they wanted Him to do.

But as time went on and we know, as we study the history of Israel. As Israel became progressively more wicked. As they got closer to, and even after their days of exile and captivity. Fasting by the average Israelite gradually took on lesser and lesser spiritual significance. Fasting became more and more of an empty ritual. Fasting became something people did much more for show. In fact, when we go over to the book of Isaiah, you can turn with me to Isaiah 58. We see that fasting had devolved into routine in various quarters in Israel. Isaiah 58:1, what we really have here is God telling the people of Israel, through the prophet Isaiah, that true fasting is not even really about abstaining from food or what kind of drink you put in your body. Fasting is a posture of the heart that involves repentance of sin. This section begins, Isaiah 58:1, with God speaking to Israel, through the prophet Isaiah, and he says this - “Call out from your throat, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek Me day by day and find pleasure in knowing My ways, as a nation that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the judgment of their God. They ask Me for righteous judgments; they find pleasure in the nearness of God.”
Now, in verse 3, this is now Israel speaking collectively back to God. This is Israel saying - “Why have we fasted, and You do not see? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You do not know?” Israel is saying to God effectively there. “Don’t you see us, God?” Which is quite the insulting statement to decree to the all-seeing, all-knowing God who sees everything in His sight. But they’re saying – “Don’t you see us, God?” “We’ve been fasting!” “Sure, we’ve been living like total pagans.” “But at least we’re taking breaks from our eating and drinking schedule.” God grabs the microphone back, as it were, in verse 3, right in the middle there. He says - “Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast for contention and quarreling and to strike with a wicked fist. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to afflict himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to Yahweh? Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to release the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the afflicted homeless into the house; when you see the naked, you cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” God, in other words. Wasn’t looking for empty religious compliance from Israel. No. He was looking for, and He always had looked for, heart-level obedience from His people. If Israel could come to understand that and if Israel could come to truly get that. Look at what would happen. Verses 8 and 9 - “Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of Yahweh will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer; you will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’”

Now, fast forward to the time of Jesus’ life on earth, 700 years after the book of Isaiah was written and fasting was still taking place in Israel. In fact, among the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, fasting had become quite the regular routine practice. We’re told in Luke 18:12, that the Pharisees fasted twice per week. So, though fasting was required by the Law, only to happen once per year, on the Day of Atonement – Leviticus 16, the Pharisees had made it now a biweekly practice.

Not only that. The Pharisees, as they fasted, they did so not worshipfully but strategically. They did so in a way so as to be seen by others. See, the two days a week that the Pharisees chose to fast, were Mondays and Thursdays, that’s not a random detail or a random fact. Mondays and Thursdays, at this time in Jerusalem, happened to be the busiest market days in the Holy City. Meaning, what? Meaning, that the Pharisees were not only trying to get God’s attention, as they fasted. But they were trying to get man’s attention. They would do things like rub ashes on their cheeks, to make themselves look ashen and gaunt. They wouldn’t wash themselves. They would wear this torn and tattered clothing all to give the impression to those who were watching them on Mondays and Thursdays, that they were fasting perpetually. And that they were these truly spiritual individuals who were solemn and serious and joyless and glum because that’s how religious people are supposed to act. Theirs were the very practices that Jesus would call out in His Sermon on the Mount, as it pertains to fasting. In fact, turn with me, to Matthew 6, where we see Jesus speak into this type of fasting. This type of ritualistic fasting. This type of attention seeking fasting. That the Pharisees were engaged in. Matthew 6:16, of course Jesus here is speaking to His disciples. He says - “Now whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

So, that’s all a lot of background. But hopefully, helpful background. Now, color and set the stage for our passage, back in Luke 5. Turn with me again, back to Luke 5. Remember that what Jesus had just come out of, was a reception, a party at Levi’s house. A reception which involved, verse 30, eating and drinking. Again, as we saw last time, the Pharisees did not like that. The Pharisees, with their long prayers, and their long list of requirements, and their long faces, didn’t think that Jesus and His followers were taking religion seriously enough. He didn’t fit the Pharisees profile of what it means to be pious and religious and serious.

So, having just seen Jesus and His disciples eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners at Levi’s house and having questioned Jesus for doing that very thing. The Pharisees here in verse 33, decided it was time to try to make another point. Time to land another blow. That’s what we see in verse 33, when it says - “And they said to Him, ‘The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do likewise, but Yours eat and drink.’” Now, note there’s no question being asked here. It’s just this loaded statement. It’s this indictment, again of this idea of comparative righteousness. You know, it doesn’t even require a response. Jesus could have just gone, “Yeah?” “So?” “Did you want to ask Me a question?” “There’s no question pending here.” But He didn’t. Instead of getting snarky. Instead of criticizing the Pharisees for being these empty legalistic shells. Instead of getting defensive. Jesus made a spiritual point. He used this opportunity to teach them something. Remember, Jesus was a Teacher. He came as a Teacher.

Look at verse 34 - “And Jesus said to them.” And then He asked them a question - “Can you make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?” So, in response to the Pharisees making their statement about Jesus and His disciples not fasting, but instead eating and drinking; implication, partying. Jesus throws out this scenario, where He compares Himself to a bridegroom. What we would simply call “a groom” at the time of his wedding.

Now, I’ve got to give you more background. Jewish weddings during this time, in the first century, were in some ways, similar to weddings like ours. There were, of course, these happy festive occasions. Weddings, of course, were opportunities to rejoice. The wedding involved a ceremony. But one way the Jewish wedding would differ from ours, is that after the ceremony, there would be seven days of celebration following that initial ceremony. Then, over the course of those seven days, there’d be this abundance of food and wine and song and dance. It was a time of merriment. Not a time to mourn. Not a time to fast. It was an absolutely celebratory occasion. Jesus’ point here, is really simple. His point is that now, with His arrival, with His joining up physically with His people, Israel. It's time to rejoice. It’s not time to fast. It’s not time to mourn.

Now, this wedding imagery that He brings in is not coming out of left field, as Jesus brings it in here. This wedding imagery is really tied into a lot of the imagery we see in the Old Testament, where God is presented as the groom of His people. Now, going back hundreds of years before Jesus’ arrival on earth. God’s relationship to His people, Israel, was presented in marriage type language. Bride and Groom type language. In Isaiah 54:5, it says - “For your husband is your Maker, whose name is Yahweh of hosts.” Hosea 3:19-20 says, this is God speaking - “And I will betroth you to Me forever; [He’s talking to Israel] indeed, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know Yahweh.” Well, Jesus came as God in human flesh. God came to earth in the Person of His Son. The Groom came for His Bride, as God came for His people. John the Baptist made this connection, in John 3. He knew that Jesus was the Groom, as it related to Israel. In John 3:29, John says - “He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, [that’s John referring to himself] who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So, this joy of mine has been made full.” So, John the Baptist acknowledged that Jesus was the Groom. And of course, that language about Jesus being the husband, the groom, would be adopted by later New Testament writers to describe Christ’s relationship to this new organism, called the church

Ephesians 5:25 - “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her . . .” Now remembering that we’re still in the context of Luke’s Gospel, which is describing events that come years before the church is even born. We must remember that before the church was Christ’s Birde, Israel was God’s.

That’s what we see all throughout the Old Testament. And that’s what Jesus is getting after here in verse 34, as He makes this statement really, with this question where He says - “Can you make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?” So, that phrases the question, but it’s really being stated as a proposition. He’s making a point and that point, that proposition, again, is that a wedding is a time of celebration. The fact that Israel’s Messiah was before then, right in front of them in the flesh was cause for celebration. A cause to celebrate that the next occasion on the development of God’s timeline for history. Whereby He sent His Son into the world, to call sinners to repentance. To proclaim the message of the kingdom. To offer the hope of eternal life is reason to rejoice, to celebrate. In other words, that Jesus was then and there present among His people, was not a time to fast. Not time to mourn. Not a time to be gloomy. It was a time to celebrate. I mean, nobody brings fireworks to a funeral, right? Nobody brings a sympathy card to a wedding, I hope, right? No, we must understand the times. We don’t fast at weddings. Verse 34, you don’t “fast when the bridegroom is with [you].”

Now, a day would come where fasting would be appropriate. Where mourning would be appropriate, in relation to the ministry of Jesus. Look at verse 35 - “But the days will come; [he says] and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” So, Jesus here was very clearly signaling that far-less-joyous days were coming, when He would be “taken away from them.” Taken away from His people. Taken away from Israel, in the context here. A day was coming when Jesus would face opposition. And He would face consequences. A day was coming when His visible presence before His people, in the flesh, would be withdrawn. A day of funeral, you could say, was coming when there would be mourning and there would be weeping, and there would be fasting. With those words, verse 35 - “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them.

Jesus here is alluding, of course, and for the first time in Luke’s Gospel, to His death. He’s previewing the fact that a day was coming where He would be taken out of this world. But this isn’t the only time that we’ll see Jesus, in Luke’s Gospel, pointing forward to, even predicting His death. In fact, you can turn with me over to Luke 9:22, we’ll see an example of this. Luke 9:22, Jesus here says - “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.” That’s getting really specific, is it not? Or down the page in verse 44, he says there – “Put these words into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” Or look all the way over at Luke 18:31, it says - “But when He took the twelve aside, He said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be completed. For He will be delivered over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have flogged Him, they will kill Him, and the third day He will rise again.’”

So, Jesus, in other words, was putting His cards on the table. As He highlighted the fact, as it says back in our text, in Luke 5:35, that a day was coming when the “bridegroom [would be] taken away.” A day was coming when Jesus would be taken from them. And that happened, of course, initially at His death . . . and then later, at His ascension. When that happened. When He was “taken away.” At that point, Jesus is saying here . . . it would be appropriate to mourn and to fast, “. . . then they will fast [it says] in those days.” So, big picture here. What Jesus was challenging these Pharisees to do was to be mindful of the times in which they sat. To take stock of what was actually happening. To “read the room”. To understand whose presence, they were in. That is a challenge not only for the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, specifically to be mindful of the days in which they were living with the Messiah right there in front of their face. But it really is a challenge for all generations to understand where we sit, sequentially on God’s providentially planned out historical timeline. That’s even true for us today in the church age to know where we are under the whole sweep of history.

If fact, if you would, turn with me over to II Thessalonians 2, to give you an idea, a picture of what I mean here, by saying understanding the historical timeline in which we live. Look at II Thessalonians 2:1, it says - “Now we ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken in your mind or be alarmed whether by a spirit or a word or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.” Now, the context here is that in a previous letter, namely I Thessalonians, which was written just a few months before II Thessalonians, Paul had referenced these events on the historical timeline related to the future. Namely the catching away – the Rapture – of the church, which he mentions in I Thessalonians 4. Then also this later event, the Day of the Lord, which would be ushered in by the coming of the Lord in I Thessalonians 5. What we see here in II Thessalonians, written just a few months later, is that the Thessalonian Christians, likely under the influence of false teachers who had entered this church, apparently had come to the conclusion that they had missed all of it. They had missed the Rapture. They were now subject to the wrath of God on earth. They thought that the Rapture, the Second Coming, had already taken place. They thought they’d missed the boat. So, Paul here in II Thessalonians 2 is correcting those wrong views. He’s correcting the wrong notion they were holding on to that the Day of the Lord, the Rapture even, had already happened. Again, he starts with these words, verse 1 again - “Now we ask you, brothers, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, [that’s a Rapture reference] that you not be quickly shaken in your mind or be alarmed whether by a spirit or a word or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.”

Then look at these words in verses 3-4 – “apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the sanctuary of God, exhibiting himself as being God. We will not go into all those details here this morning, about the “man of lawlessness” and “the apostasy”. But for our purposes, what I want us to know is that Paul is saying to the Thessalonians, fear not, think historically here. You haven’t missed the Rapture. You haven’t missed the coming of Christ. You were not left behind. Be mindful of the times, read the times.

Back to our text, Luke 5. That is in a sense, what Jesus is doing here with the Pharisees, as He’s telling them to be mindful of the times. To read the times. To understand where they sit on the calendar. Where they sat on the timeline and that now, was not a time for fasting. Why? Well, because He – was right there in their presence, speaking with them. Yes, a funeral, so-to-speak, was coming. Yes, there would be those three days of sorrow when He went into the grave, and that would be a time for mourning and weeping and fasting. But as He stood before the Pharisees here in Luke 5, those events hadn’t yet taken place. This, rather, was a wedding scene. This is a cause for celebration. Not a time to mourn or fast but a time to rejoice and a time to feast.

Alright, we’ve just covered, in those first three verses, this wedding related imagery . . . where Jesus is making this broader spiritual point, that with His arrival, this was not a time to mourn. But rather, it is a time to rejoice. Not a time to fast, but instead a time to celebrate. Now, in verses 36-39, we’re going to see some heavy wine related imagery come in as Jesus makes the broader spiritual point. That with His arrival, a new era had been ushered in. In this new era, this was no time to cling to old, hollow shells of religiosity. But instead, was a time to embrace the new teachings and the new ways that Jesus was proclaiming. But as we get into this, we see that it’s not only wine imagery that He uses, there’s also some stitching and seaming and sewing images that He uses. I hope I can get this right. I have not done much sewing or stitching in my life. But look at verse 36, it says, still Jesus addressing the Pharisees, this is Luke’s comment here - “And He was also telling them a parable: [it says, and then here come the words] ‘No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old.” Now, that word there that Luke uses for “parable” can mean a number of different things. We go right to the parables, like Matthew 13, for instance, we think it must be that kind of parable. The word “parable” is actually quite generic in the Greek language. It can mean “maxim.” It can mean “illustration.” It can even mean “riddle.” It can mean “proverb.” Here though, it’s always context driven, when you see that word “parable.” Here, Luke is referring to that word “parable” to mean an illustration. An illustration drawn from daily life, to make a single spiritual point. That’s what Jesus was about to do here, as He was drawing from the practice, the everyday practice of patching and sewing clothes to make a spiritual point.

Then the picture that Jesus is painting with this language, with this parable, it this: you’ve got some sort of old garment, let’s say it’s an old shirt with a hole under the arm. Ok, that’s the picture here. Now, if you have an old shirt with a hole under the arm, what you’re definitely not going to do, if you’re a seamstress, to fix this problem, you’re not going to take a brand new shirt and tear a strip out of that brand new shirt, and then try to sew it onto the hole under the arm of the old shirt. Right? Why not? Why wouldn’t you do it that way? Well, if you were to do it that way, if you take a strip of a new shirt and then sew it onto a hole under the arm of an old shirt, you’re going to end up ruining both garments. Because now, the new shirt which otherwise was in tip top condition, has this giant tear in it, this giant hole in it. Now, the old shirt has this unmatching patch, sort of awkwardly attached to it.

Not only though would there be this new patch on this old shirt, which would clearly not match, whether because of color or texture or stitching or something like that. The parallel passage to this account over in Mark’s Gospel highlights something else. That when you put the new patch, and sew that new patch on the old garment you’re going to actually do damage to the old garment, because that new patch with usage and as time goes on, and as it’s washed and as it’s exposed to the sun, it’s eventually going to shrink, and it’s going to tear away from where it was attached on the old garment. Creating a worse hole, a worse tear on the original garment, the old garment. Here's how Jesus puts it in Mark 2:21, the parallel account. He says - “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; otherwise, that patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear results.” Now, whether you go with Mark’s account, and how Mark has captured Jesus’ illustration. Or you go with Luke’s account, the principle is the same. The spiritual principle is the same. Which is that:
Whenever there is an attempt to simply layer the new on top of the old, like a new patch on an old garment, a bigger problem results.

The broader principle that this parable is pointing to is that the message that Jesus came to proclaim and the old religion of the Pharisees, they don’t mix. One can’t be layered on top of the other. But just like a patch of new cloth on an old garment won’t work. There can’t be a blending between Jesus’ teachings and that old, dead, legalistic, works-based, Pharisaical religion. The new era that Jesus was ushering in, simply couldn’t be mended with or wed to the old ways. An old commentator named John Phillips says: “Jesus isn’t going to darn [knit] some new religious ideas into the threadbare system of a warn and fading Judaism, His teaching cannot be tacked on to rabbinical ramblings . . .” That’s right. Jesus, you see, did not come to mend existing Jewish practices. That would be like sewing a new patch on an old garment. Rather the old garment, in this context, the Judaism of the Pharisees needed to be tossed out. It needed to be discarded. This new garment, the teachings of Christ were put in its place. Jesus didn’t come to do some sort of patchwork modification to the religious climate of His day. He came to overhaul the whole thing. He came, you might say, not to bring patches but an entirely new wardrobe.

Now, we’ve got to get into wine in verses 37 and 38. This is still the same parable, but it’s in multiple parts. Now, we move from patches and holes and garments to wine and wineskins. Look at the text, verse 37-38, He says - “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” Now, what is this one all about? Well, it’s really the same spiritual truth that’s being communicated here. Which is Jesus saying, I am bringing in a new way of doing things. A new form of teaching. A new set of commandments. My new ways cannot be mixed in with the old ways of Pharisaical Judaism. Now, I’m going to get there, but before we hit on that bigtime spiritual principle let’s dig in further on the parable itself. The illustration itself, and let’s talk a little bit about wine and wineskins, and first century Judea. As is true today, wine made in Jesus’ day, was a beverage that came from fermented grapes. But unlike today’s wine, which is typically stored in a glass bottle of some sort. In Jesus’ day, it was stored in and poured from the skin of an animal.

You would make a wineskin to store it in and to pour it from. And to make a “wine skin”, what you would do is remove the skin from an animal like a goat or sheep. After the animal skin was removed, and after the hair was removed from that skin. The skin was tanned, not like SPF 50, kind of tanning. But what I mean by that is that process of treating and drying the animal skin out in the hot Mediterranean sun until it becomes sort of leathery. Then what you’d do is you would take that leathery tanned animal skin, that had been baking out in the sun, and you would turn it inside out. The neck opening from that animal, that would be the place from which you would pour your wine.

So, first you put the fermenting grapes into that neck-hole. I’m going to get a little graphic here, but to seal it up, so things didn’t spill out the bottom, you would actually tie a series of knots and cords around the places where the feet and the tail would have been, so it all stays within the inside of the skin. That’s kind of the picture of what an animal wine skin would look like. What you would do in this context is you would, again, you’d pour the juice from crushed grapes into those tanned animal skins. As time went on, the natural yeast from the grape skins themselves would transform the natural sugars in the grapes. What you would have, overtime, would be alcohol. Specifically, wine. Now as the fermentation process happened there’d be a release of carbon dioxide from within the wineskin. And that would cause pressure to build up within the wineskin. Leading the wineskin to stretch and expand. Now, if it was a newer wineskin, it would be more elastic. It would be more flexible. It could handle this mixture of gases and carbon dioxide and fermentation that was happening as the mass, the volume of the wineskin expanded. But older wineskins, it was a different animal, no pun intended, altogether. With older wineskins, they’d already been through that process of fermentation in one previous cycle at least. And they didn’t have the elasticity that newer wineskins had. Older wineskins were a lot more brittle, dry.

The way I like to think about this is thinking of an older wineskin and a newer wineskin in comparison to an older human body and a younger human body. Ok, let’s picture a 4-year-old. A 4-year-old out in the front lawn can do all kinds of crazy gymnastics, right? They’re bendy, they’re flexible, they’re stretchy, and they don’t have any pain or fear. Now, if a 4-year-old tries to do that on the front lawn, that’s one thing, they can recover quickly. If a 44-year-old tries to do the same parkour gymnastics type of routine on the front lawn, they’re going to be hurting the next day. Right? If an 84-year-old tries to do the gymnastics routine that the 4-year-old did on the front lawn, that 84-year-old will not only be sore, but they will also literally be broken in half. Right? There’s sort of a picture there of the flexibility, the elasticity of newer wineskins verses older wineskins. I hope the point was landed without offense.

But back to the words of the text here. The illustration Jesus is giving. Is that if you pour new wine, meaning wine that is still in the process of fermentation where the carbon dioxide gas, the explosions are happening within the wineskin. Wine that is still brewing and bubbling and producing a lot of pressure. If you pour that kind of wine into an old wineskin, the old, stiff fibers of that old wineskin are eventually going to burst and rupture under the pressure. The outcome is going to be totally disastrous because now you’ve lost not only the wineskin, which is now useless and exploded, but now there’s wine all over the floor.

That’s the picture here. With that in mind, that visual in mind, let’s go back to the text to read it again, where Jesus says, verses 37 - “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” Now, remember, this is a parable. As Jesus is addressing these Pharisees and painting this picture using old and new wineskin language; He’s doing so for the purpose of landing a spiritual point. What is His spiritual point? His spiritual point is that He came to usher in a new era. He came to usher a new period of history. The scripture reading this morning, Hebrews 10:19-20 we read that - “we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus. [and we do so, it says] by the new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.”

So, we have a new way of access to God. Jesus also came bringing new teaching one which would no longer involve: sacrifices or priests or temples or ceremonies or rituals – like fasting. But instead, His teaching would be centered on words like He said to His disciples in John 13:34-35 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” So, He came offering a new way. He came with a new commandment. And what this tells us is that when Jesus here is speaking to the Pharisees in Luke 5 of new wine, He’s speaking of Himself. He’s speaking of God’s purposes being accomplished through Him, as He offered this new teaching, and as He brought these new commandments. The old wineskins of old traditional, Pharisaic, Jewish religion of Jesus’ day, those had all grown hard and brittle and unpliable. The new wine of Jesus’ teaching couldn’t simply be poured into them. Jesus came not to preach a gospel of mixture. A gospel of syncretism, where you mix a few parts of His message and a few parts of the Jewish message and you’re good. No, you can’t do it that way. That’s not what He came to do. That’s made very clear in Hebrews 8:13, where it says - “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” In other words, the old ways have been done away with under Christ. Not the Old Testament. I’m not saying the Old Testament has been done away through Christ. The Old Testament is God’s Word, it’s eternal. God’s Word is fixed forever in the heavens, says Psalm 119:89 – “. . . all of that has been done away with.”

There’s a reason none of us today needs a priest to have access to God. That we don’t have to go to a priest or a confessional or any other thing like that. There’s a reason nobody here brought a lamb or two turtledoves to sacrifice before the pulpit on a Sunday. Right? There’s a reason that you aren’t confined by Sabbath restrictions. There’s a reason why you don’t have to abide by Levitical dietary restrictions. There’s a reason that you don’t fret when you’re going through the Runza drive-through to think, “Man, is this animal they’re going to serve me?” “Did it have a cloven hoof or not?” Right?

The reason for that is that Jesus brought in an entirely new age, an age of grace. John 1:17 says it clearly - “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Jesus came bringing the “new wine” of His teachings. The “new wine” of his commandments. A new commandment I give you. A “new wine”, verse 37 here cannot be put into “old wine skins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined.” Instead, verse 38 - “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.” Patches of “new” cloth don’t belong on old clothes. “New” wine doesn’t belong in old wineskins. And Jesus’ “new” teachings didn’t mesh with old practices. The old wineskins of Judaism, Pharisaic Judaism were now obsolete. They were, Hebrews 8:13 – “ready to disappear.”

Well, surely at this point. These Pharisees who had been encircling Jesus outside Levi’s home. And having heard Him deliver this multi-part parable. Give these illustrations of patches and garments and wine and wineskins, surely the Pharisees, at this moment fell to their knees and said - “I want this new teaching, Jesus!” “I want to follow You!” “I want this new wine!” “Fill my cup.” “I’m tired of my hollow religiosity.” “I want the real thing.” Right? No. Sadly, no. Look at verse 39. This is still Jesus speaking, He says - “And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.” See, Jesus was a realist and though He had told the Pharisees in this account that He had come to introduce something new. And that to try to force His new teachings into the old wineskins of Judaism, would never work. At the same time, He recognized the sheer force and power of custom and habit and tradition. He knew that it’s characteristic of the human heart to resist anything new.
He knew that His message would be received by most. And as it was received, it would be received with resistance. He knew that the response of those who would hear His message of new teaching and new commandments and new wine, their response to Him would be, ultimately, that “the old is better.” “What I’ve been doing all these years is good enough for me.” “I’m set, Jesus, I don’t want to do anything new.”
He was aware, in other words, of the stiff winds of opposition He would face. So, what we have here in verse 39, is our Lord’s divine commentary on the inflexible traditionalism of His day; namely, that of the Pharisees and their followers. He knew He faced an uphill battle as He made these points about bringing in this new era. This new teaching. These new commandments, this new wine. He knew that they were of the mindset that the old is good enough.

We know, as we continue reading on in the Gospel that that very attitude of the “old being good enough” is ultimately what would lead these religious leaders to reject, not only His teachings but Jesus Himself. Though He urged them to see the times for what they were, the Bridegroom – their Messiah – was with them! They didn’t have eyes to see, they truly were, as He would call them, “blind guides.” Though He pled with them to see that He was bringing in this new era, with new teaching. And this new way to approach God – namely, through Him, they didn’t have ears to hear. They preferred to cling to the tattered garments of their dead religious conservatism. They preferred to keep sipping that old wine of ritualistic, man-made rules. They chose to reject the One who had been sent for them. The One who came offering this “new wine.” Not only “new wine” but as we learn in John’s Gospel – “living water.” They rejected the message of grace and forgiveness and mercy and hope and salvation which He came offering.

Back to that “kite-string thought” I mentioned at the beginning. This would now be the time to hold up a finger, figuratively speaking, with that thought. Having learned here this morning from this passage about all of these details surrounding the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Knowing that we do have, everyone of us, if we’re being honest, a little bit of “Pharisee” in us. I mean, that’s really just a matter of our fallen condition that we still live in these sinful bodies of flesh. The challenge for everyone of us, as we consider the negative example of the Pharisees, is to be vigilant. Absolutely vigilant as members of this church. As members of one another. Guarding against that drift into this sort of Pharisaical mindset. To guard against that practice of cleaning up the outside only, while being dead men on the inside, or being adrift on the inside. Guarding against that tendency to make our faith performative as a way to impress others, horizontally a comparative righteousness. Guarding against that tendency we all have, to cling to our man-made traditions, rather than clinging to Christ Himself. Let’s have that be our takeaway this morning, for those who know Christ. Let’s have that be the fodder for our 84th Street conversations. Or our conversation in our Home Bible Studies this week. How important it is, not merely to be externally religious but to have devotion to Christ, in all aspects of our lives.

If you don’t know Jesus Christ this morning, so much of what I’ve shared with you is just going right over your head. Some might be going right over your head if you are a believer, with all the stuff we’ve covered. But if you don’t know Christ. What you shouldn’t come away from with this message – is “Wow, I learned a lot about wine and wineskins. I learned a lot about patches and garments. I learned about first century Pharisees. The most important thing you can know, if you’re not a follower of Jesus Christ is what we’ve all had to grapple with at some point in this room. Which is that there is a God who is holy. A God who has created us. But He’s a God of justice and He’s a God of mercy. We must understand that we are sinners. We sin, we’re sinful and we routinely fall short of the mark that God has set for us, to live lives of holiness and righteousness as His creatures. We have to know that most of the world will teach us that we just have to keep doing better and trying harder to earn a right standing before God. But, friend, that will never work. God is simply too holy and we are simply too sinful to ever bridge that gap between the Creator and the created. So, what you need to do, if you don’t know Jesus Christ here this morning. Is trust in what God’s one solution is for our sin problem. You need to trust that Jesus came into this world on your behalf. You need to trust that He lived a perfect life, was the ultimate Lamb, the perfect Lamb. But ultimately, where your hope ought to be found, where you need to lay your hope, is what He did for you on the cross. As He stood in your place, as a substitute for you. He died the death that you deserved, so that you might have eternal life. But that message of hope and salvation doesn’t come to somebody who just sits here and says “Ok, I could get with that.” “That’s a reasonable solution for my sin problem.” No, what you must do is trust, believe, put your full faith in what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. Repent of your sin. Repent of the patterns of ungodly behavior that you’re engaged in, whatever those are. And trust in what He did for you, as the only means by which you might have eternal life. Your sins forgiven and be saved. You’re completely welcome here, so glad you’re here. I pray that you don’t hear this morning’s sermon as just a lecture. Some interesting things to hear. Some interesting things to know. But most important thing to know is Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Give your life to Him today.

Let’s Pray.
Father, we thank You for this time this morning. We thank You for Your Word and its clarity. We thank You for our Savior, Jesus Christ, our hope. Thank You for this message that has so much application to us today, as believers. We can be, if we’re not careful, those who drift into this sort of Pharisaical behavior, where its all about form and externals, rather than inward heart led change. Help us not to fall into that trap. Again, for those who are here, maybe in their open disbelief, or their deceit. I pray that they would come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And truly, today, have the hope of eternal life. We love You and thank You, in Jesus Name. Amen