THESIS: To explain the parable and what are both the warnings and the blessings to us as Christians.
18 And the
disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast: and they come and say unto
him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but thy disciples
fast not? 19 And Jesus said unto
them, Can the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with
them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20
But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be
taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. 21 No man also
seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled
it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. 22 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new
wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be
marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.
Luke’s account of this parable concludes, “No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new:
for he saith, The old is better.” (Luke 5:39) We’ll be focusing on verse
21-22. As a young man I recall reading
and re-reading it, in different translations…mulling it over and thinking that
I am in deep water – and theologically I wasn’t ready for the deep side of the
pool! As far as that goes, I am not
claiming that I have mastered the depths, but let’s together explore the
mysteries of our God.
From the outset, consider that this parable is comparing
old and new. How they are different and
what that means to us is what we will be exploring. My goal for you tonight is to explain the
parable and what are both the warnings and the blessings to us as Christians.
There are two comparisons made – old and new cloth,
and old and new wine. In both
comparisons Christ makes the statement that no one does the thing. No one sews new cloth to old cloth – no one
puts new wine in old bottles. No one does these things. Why?
It’s self-explanatory – the loss of the garment or the wine.
I don’t think I need to long get into the particulars
of how the loss occurs, except to say torn clothes and broken bottles are
pretty useless. For the sake of the
younger among us, the phrase bottles might better be rendered wineskins. You might even think of a leather water
canteen… After a while the leather gets
stiff and loses its pliability. As wine
ferments it needs room for the fermentation process to occur – as gasses build
up. So an old leather pouch – a wineskin,
has no pliability to allow for the fermentation to continue, and the pouch
bursts. The same with clothing. A new shirt, unshrunk may fit nicely, until
it’s washed. But how many of us have
lost a perfectly fitted shirt to the first wash in the machine! You have to plan for that and buy a larger
than normal shirt. Thankfully most
material is pre-shrunk, before the sewing process these days.
As I was preparing for this message I read many
commentaries. I looked up many
cross-references. My thought at the
first was that the new wine and the new cloth was the Church, and the old
Israel. This troubled me, since it meant
even more study. How Israel and the
Church relate is not a small theological matter. Men with longer and greyer beards than I,
have long studied it. Terms such as dispensationalism, and replacement theology
are quickly tossed around like theological bombs. And there are distinctions
between Israel and the Church. What our job is today is not to settle the
disputes – but to grasp Christs’ teaching in this parable. If we limit ourselves to this goal, we should
be able to look for warnings and blessings and leave tonight more blessed than
we arrived.
There are 3 main interpretations of the parable in no
particular order:
1.
Israel replaced by the Church.
2.
The Legalistic Judaism vs. Grace in Christ. (also a variation, the Mosaic Law
vs. Grace.)
3.
The forms and shadows of the Old Testament being fulfilled in the realities in
the New Testament.
Providentially I have been working my way through Luke
in my personal quiet time and arrived at Luke 20:9-19. This is another parable which informs us as
to the one in Mark we are studying.
Please follow along,
9 Then began he to speak to
the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to
husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.10 And at the season he sent
a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the
vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. 11 And again he sent another
servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him
away empty. 12 And again he sent a third:
and they wounded him also, and cast him out. 13 Then said the lord of the
vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will
reverence him when they see him. 14 But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among
themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the
inheritance may be ours. 15
So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the
lord of the vineyard do unto them? 16 He shall come and destroy
these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they
heard it, they said, God forbid.
17 And he beheld them, and
said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected,
the same is become the head of the corner?18 Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be
broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 19 And the chief priests and
the scribes the same hour sought to
lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had
spoken this parable against them.
This parable – One can hardly call a
parable, in the sense that it is also a prophecy of sorts is simply fascinating! We
read here in verse 16 that the vineyard owner will, as a result of the death of his
son, give the vineyard to others!
We know plainly that the chief priests and the scribes recognized that
it was they who would lose the vineyard, since they replied, “God forbid!”.
Amazingly, their hearts that were so dead, that though they realized it was
them to whom the parabolic prophecy was directed, they still the same hour
sought to lay hands on Him! Talk about
blind leading the blind!
But is this parable speaking to the truth
we are trying to get at in Mark 2? I want to say no, it is not
simply the fact that at some level Christ is taking the vineyard away. Yes, there is a truth in the parable, which
applies to our text – but not simply.
Yes, clearly the Jews have lost something. And clearly the Church is a new body. But is it really that simple? I say no it is not.
A great many of the commentaries I reviewed seemed to
make the old out to be the Mosaic Law.
This I reject outright. Christ
himself stated categorically in Matthew 5:18, “til
heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law,
until all is fulfilled.” Some
writers went so far as suggesting Christ was bringing in a new salvation! This is plain bald faced heresy.
I believe the answer is primarily found in the 3rd
of the 3 main interpretations. The forms and
shadows of the Old Testament are being fulfilled in the realities in the New. To illustrate this, let’s travel back
to the garden and consider God’s response to Adam’s sin. In Genesis 3:15 we read of a seed who would
crush the serpent’s head. As early as
Cain – some theologians have thought that Eve’s comment in Gen 4:1, “I have gotten a man from the Lord” was a confession of
her belief that perhaps even Cain was the seed?!
We know how wrong that was in Cain’s murder of
Abel. Yet God’s plan cannot be thwarted
by Cain. He simply blesses Eve with
Seth. This promise can be traced right through the Scriptures and it’s a most
beautiful exercise to do so. Even when
the sons of God chose daughters of men as wives, and it looked as if all hope
was to be lost, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. All through the redemptive history we see a
golden thread of hope found.
In Gen. 12:3b we read God’s promise to Abraham, “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Later in Gen. 25:23 we read of how two
nations were in Rebecca’s womb. The war
between darkness and light was even being waged in her body!
And here we are, in the Christmas season, to remember
the birth of our Saviour, the Seed who crushed the head of the serpent. We read in Galatians 4:4 that “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” The birth of our Saviour was not to be
thwarted by Herod – though he slay thousands of innocent baby boys. An act which was prefigured historically by
Pharaoh in respect of Moses. God will
deliver his people!
And who are these people? Is Enoch, who walked with God to be
discounted? What about Shem – He wasn’t Jewish – but his line was the blessed
line. And though Job was probably
contemporary with Abraham, he looked for a Saviour, “For
I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; 26
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my
flesh I shall see God, 27 Whom I
shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart
yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27) Job wasn’t Jewish – but he had his
hope in a Saviour – a seed to come.
Surely God’s promise to Abraham is not to be
lost. Yet even in that promise, we see
there were those who were called Israel who were not counted among the physical
seed. Think of Rahab the Harlot and Ruth
the Moabite through whom David derived.
Are they not Israel because they were not of the flesh of Abraham? And
if we think of them, how about those who are truly of the flesh of Abraham,
such as Ishmael – Is he among the blessed? Why not? Because in Isaac your
seed shall be called. (Gen 21:12) And Esau, who despised his birthright
was nevertheless a physical descendant.
Yet God does have a people. His
chosen ones. Think about how God
contended with Moses after the sin of the people with the Golden calf. We read in Exo. 32, “And
the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a
stiff-necked people! 10
Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot
against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
(Ex. 32:9-10) Both Jesus and John the Baptist reference this. John says, “And think
not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto
you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” In the triumphal entry Christ tells them, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones
would immediately cry out.” (Luke 19:40b)
Let’s look again at the passage in Galatians 4, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” You see here I added verse 5. There is a redemption and an adoption. Adoption indicates a familial
identification. Adopted children take on
the surname of their father. They get to
take part in the inheritance. And
inheritances are never earned. They are
granted for no other reason than the pleasure of the testator.
Think about how Christ spoke to Nicodemas, a ruler of
the Jews, a teacher of Israel. This man
should have been looking for the consolation of Israel – the Messiah, like old
Simeon. This man was a righteous man if
ever there was one, yet he did not understand that you must be born again! Turn
to the next chapter and we see Christ speaking to an utterly sinful woman of a
despised cross-bread people in Samaria! And
what did this woman say? “I know that Messiah is
coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
She was looking, just as was Nicodemas for the Messiah, the seed to come. He spoke of himself, the Messiah, to them
both. And who else was looking for
Messiah? Nearly 2 years after his birth,
the wise men of the east came saying, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have
seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” These men, Gentiles by definition, were
looking for the salvation come from Israel!
So when you think of Messiah in the Scriptures, I want
you to think of him as the Messiah for all mankind. The Jewish nation was the chosen vessel to
deliver Him to the world. Old Simeon said He was the light to lighten the
Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel.
Listen to how Peter describes it, “Of this
salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of
the grace that would come to you,
11 searching what, or what manner of
time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them
it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the
things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the
gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.” (1 Pet.
1:10-12)
The question of how the Church and Israel are related
is tied directly to his office as Messiah.
Since the Messiah is not for the Jews alone, but for all people we ought
to see evidence of it in Christ’s ministry.
We do as I have been showing, and here is another reference, we read in John
10, “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold;
them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one
flock and one shepherd.” (John
10:16)
Peter tells us this, “9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who
called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who
had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” (1 Pet. 2:9)
This is not to say that the old wineskin is of no further
use to the Lord. But the purpose for
which she existed has by and large been fulfilled in the delivery of
Messiah. However, we cannot overlook what
Paul tells us in Romans 11 that God is not yet through with Israel. Listen to Rom. 11:25-28 , “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this
mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is
happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written,
There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob:27 For this is my covenant
unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes:
but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.”
And while we can perhaps debate how he will again use
them, or if there is another interpretation to consider, it is clear in that passage that we Gentiles have to realize that
branches grafted in can be removed just as easily. This is the warning to us. If we were grafted
in due to branches broken off – certainly we ought to hold our stewardship in a
reverent manner. Peter also reminds us
to be Holy as I am Holy. Some of you
may be familiar with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There is a theme in the book where the city
of Gondor has a steward. This steward
received his stewardship from his father who had received it from his on down
the line. Once the King returned, he was
to relinquish his stewardship. In the book
the steward goes mad rather than return the city to the King. Tolkien was really just borrowing from the
Scriptures when he wrote. The Jewish
nation was a chosen race – they were to deliver the Messiah. To the Jews were committed the oracles of God. They were to bring in a light to lighten the gentiles. Peter states that we are also a chosen
nation. The message of the Old Testament
was. “He’s coming!”
We live in New Testament times. So what is our
stewardship? Among our many
responsibilities is to honor and obey the Word – living as a holy people
should. But we are also to spread the
word of this Messiah! We are to make disciples,
teaching them to obey all our Lord has commanded. Paul tells us that, “Therefore
let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” in 2
Thessalonians.
Brothers & sisters – let’s not fall into the same
trap as the Pharisees – protecting our stewardship from impurity by adding to
it our own wood, hay, and stubble! Our
works will never be a substitute for the pure unadulterated word of God.
Why did the Pharisees ask the Lord about fasting? They did so because they had added to the commandment
of the Lord. The only prescribed fast in
the Scripture was found in Lev. 23:26, the Day of Atonement, an annual fast. But the Pharisees would fast on Monday and
Thursday as a matter of course. Adding
to the command – they put heavy burdens upon men.
Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 8,
“Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are
coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah – 9 not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant,
and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and
write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people. 11 None of them shall teach
his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know
Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their
lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
13 In that He says, “A new covenant,”
He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old
is ready to vanish away.” Heb. 8:7-13
Quoting Jeremiah the writer of Hebrews tells us that the
reason the new covenant was brought in, was “because
they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them” according
to the Lord. Who know brothers and
sisters? Perhaps because we are not
working to obey the great commission – our stewardship – our place will be
broken off and Rom 11 will be fulfilled.
We can debate all the day about the eschatological, but the
fact of the matter is at least this – we’ve been given a great blessing in the
stewardship of evangelism, teaching them to observe all that He has commanded
us. We’ve been given the promise that
He’ll be with us always – to the end of the age – at which time we should be
looking for Him, our redemption!
Until then – we must not sleep! Wake up! Do the work of an evangelist! Spread the Word! The
message of the New Testament is twofold – He came, and he is coming again to
judge the living and the dead. Let’s
prepare those living so that if He comes while we are at work, we are all
prepared. If He tarry, we prepare those
to meet him after death. Let’s be sure
that for our part – we faithfully work, acting on the stewardship given so that
we may be told, “Well done you good faithful servant!”
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