WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.919 I'd like to look with you at some words that we read there earlier in Luke chapter 5, verse 38. 00:00:16.339 --> 00:00:22.059 These words, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:25.940 New wine must be poured into new wineskins. 00:00:25.940 --> 00:00:30.440 New wine needs new wineskins. 00:00:31.420 --> 00:00:33.439 New wine for a new year. 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:40.280 Some of us may look back at 2023 with fondness, even with nostalgia. 00:00:41.100 --> 00:00:43.700 But as they say, nostalgia ain't what it used to be. 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:50.719 But others of us may look back on the year that's gone with memories of sad and difficult times. 00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:53.520 That's true in our own case as a family. 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:58.480 But maybe we're all hoping that the new year will be better. 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:02.500 New wine needs new wineskins. 00:01:03.380 --> 00:01:09.520 For many of us, for 2024 to be a good new year, we will need radical change. 00:01:11.180 --> 00:01:13.960 New wine needs new wineskins. 00:01:15.300 --> 00:01:22.379 Jesus used this very homely example from his time to illustrate the radical nature of himself and his work. 00:01:22.379 --> 00:01:27.339 New wine required new leather wineskins. 00:01:27.339 --> 00:01:38.439 If new fermenting wine was put into old, worn, cracked wineskins, it would burst the wineskins and the wine would be lost. 00:01:39.479 --> 00:01:45.299 I don't think we grasp how radically new Jesus was and is. 00:01:45.299 --> 00:01:51.060 We're so familiar with the gospel stories like the prodigal son or the good Samaritan. 00:01:51.620 --> 00:01:56.000 And they've become part of our literary heritage like Shakespeare or Robert Burns. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:58.519 They become part of our religious landscape. 00:01:59.219 --> 00:02:03.259 We don't realize how shocking Jesus was to his contemporaries. 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:09.080 There was a book written about modern art, I think back about 1980, called The Shock of the New. 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:13.080 And that's the way that Jesus' contemporaries felt. 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:14.439 The Shock of the New. 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:16.819 This was something new, revolutionary, radical. 00:02:18.439 --> 00:02:19.680 Some people liked it. 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:20.939 Some people hated it. 00:02:20.939 --> 00:02:26.400 First, we see the astonishment of the ordinary people in their reaction to Jesus. 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:31.139 When they heard Jesus teach, they said, He speaks with authority. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.340 Not like the scribes and teachers of the law who said, well, there's this authority. 00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:37.800 This is what the Word of God says. 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:39.280 This is what our tradition says. 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:39.740 And so on. 00:02:39.780 --> 00:02:42.599 But Jesus said, truly I say to you. 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:47.739 And many of the ordinary people heard Him gladly. 00:02:49.359 --> 00:02:59.139 Some who were sent to arrest Jesus went back empty-handed to their leaders and said, never man spoke like this man. 00:03:00.079 --> 00:03:02.599 This was something new, something revolutionary. 00:03:02.599 --> 00:03:15.939 Think also of their reaction to people on the other side of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus crossed over there and He met this poor, wretched man who was infested by thousands of demons. 00:03:16.139 --> 00:03:18.299 He called himself Legion because of that. 00:03:19.879 --> 00:03:21.359 And Jesus cast them out. 00:03:22.459 --> 00:03:24.959 And He was sitting there clothed in His right mind. 00:03:25.500 --> 00:03:28.400 And all the people of the region came to look and see. 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:30.439 And they were astonished. 00:03:30.439 --> 00:03:32.240 But were they delighted? 00:03:33.079 --> 00:03:33.479 No. 00:03:34.219 --> 00:03:35.979 They asked Jesus to leave. 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:36.919 They were afraid. 00:03:37.180 --> 00:03:38.099 Why were they afraid? 00:03:38.180 --> 00:03:38.939 What was wrong? 00:03:40.300 --> 00:03:47.000 Because Jesus had freed this poor, wretched man by casting the demons into a herd of 2,000 pigs. 00:03:48.139 --> 00:03:55.259 And to those people of that area, the monetary value of 2,000 pigs was far more important than this poor, wretched man. 00:03:56.259 --> 00:03:58.000 But not in Jesus' world. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.979 And think of Jesus' hometown of Nazareth. 00:04:01.979 --> 00:04:12.199 When Jesus got up and read from Isaiah in the synagogue and started to preach, the people were amazed. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:14.000 They said, this is the carpenter. 00:04:14.379 --> 00:04:16.139 Where has he got this from? 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:34.019 And then Jesus went on to speak about the days of Elijah and Elisha when God sent help, not to the people of Israel, but to an outsider like the Naaman the Syrian, or to a widow, a part of Tyre and Sidon. 00:04:34.019 --> 00:04:37.019 And the people were offended. 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:40.859 And they wanted to kill Jesus. 00:04:41.079 --> 00:04:41.839 They were furious. 00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:49.319 These were the kind of reactions that even amongst the ordinary people there were to Jesus. 00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:53.839 Because this was something different, radical, revolutionary, new. 00:04:54.259 --> 00:04:56.659 This was the new wine that Jesus speaks of. 00:04:56.660 --> 00:05:01.480 But supremely, of course, there was a prejudice of the religious leaders. 00:05:02.340 --> 00:05:05.800 Think of Nicodemus, who was quite kindly disposed towards Jesus. 00:05:05.960 --> 00:05:07.040 He came to see him at night. 00:05:07.100 --> 00:05:08.180 He was interested in him. 00:05:08.600 --> 00:05:13.860 But when Jesus said, you must be born again, he said, how can this be? 00:05:14.820 --> 00:05:16.180 He couldn't take it in. 00:05:16.379 --> 00:05:17.320 This was new wine. 00:05:17.400 --> 00:05:18.180 This was too heady. 00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:19.820 This was too powerful for him. 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:24.759 Or think of the Samaritan woman that Jesus met by the well. 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:31.219 She spoke out of that background of what the religious leaders of the day said. 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:33.579 Jesus had simply asked her for a drink. 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:38.319 And she said, she said, how can you ask me for a drink? 00:05:38.699 --> 00:05:40.860 You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:44.779 There were all these social and religious barriers between them. 00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:46.920 It was revolutionary to her mind. 00:05:46.920 --> 00:05:49.579 In the end, she grasped what it was all about. 00:05:49.579 --> 00:05:51.099 But that was the immediate reaction. 00:05:51.219 --> 00:05:54.139 And that's the way that people reacted to Jesus so often. 00:05:54.359 --> 00:05:58.379 Here in this passage, we see this about eating and drinking. 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:04.680 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, Jesus says in chapter 7 of Luke's Gospel. 00:06:05.099 --> 00:06:09.779 And the people said, he's a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:11.659 We see the same thing in this passage. 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:15.120 Or they accused him of breaking the Sabbath. 00:06:15.459 --> 00:06:17.599 In this passage again, chapter 6. 00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:25.860 The disciples walking through the cornfields picked ears of corn, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them on the Sabbath day. 00:06:26.080 --> 00:06:29.120 And their accuser said, ah, you're breaking the law. 00:06:29.400 --> 00:06:30.100 You're harvesting. 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:30.800 You're reaping. 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:31.900 You're making bread. 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:33.420 All on the Sabbath day. 00:06:33.420 --> 00:06:49.040 Or when Jesus made this man with the handicapped hand stand before them, he asked, is it right to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath day? 00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:53.120 And when he healed the man, they were furious. 00:06:53.780 --> 00:06:55.780 And they wanted to do away with Jesus. 00:06:55.779 --> 00:07:00.799 But above all, it was his claims, was it not? 00:07:02.159 --> 00:07:11.599 Here in this passage again, in chapter 5, verse 20, he said to the handicapped man who was lowered down through the hole in the roof down in front of him, what a mess there must have been there. 00:07:12.039 --> 00:07:13.959 But Jesus was quite unperturbed. 00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:18.459 But did he say to the man, first of all, you're healed of your paralysis? 00:07:18.659 --> 00:07:18.899 No. 00:07:19.699 --> 00:07:21.879 He said, your sins are forgiven. 00:07:22.680 --> 00:07:26.319 Because he saw right to the heart of that man's real problems. 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:41.639 And then when he demonstrated that it was as easy for him to forgive all that man's sins as to heal his handicap, the people again, the religious leaders, were angry. 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:44.519 Who can forgive sins but God alone? 00:07:45.459 --> 00:07:46.279 They were right. 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:50.939 Nobody can forgive all somebody's sins but God alone. 00:07:50.939 --> 00:07:56.459 I can forgive you sin if you sin against me and whatnot, but I can't forgive all your sins. 00:07:57.500 --> 00:07:58.279 But God can. 00:07:58.339 --> 00:07:59.579 They were quite right about that. 00:07:59.719 --> 00:08:01.319 But they were wrong in their conclusion. 00:08:02.180 --> 00:08:06.639 Their conclusion was, here is a man trying to make himself God. 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:07.779 It's blasphemy. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:12.980 But Jesus constantly said such things. 00:08:12.980 --> 00:08:16.100 He said, before Abraham was, I am. 00:08:16.500 --> 00:08:19.199 Taking again the very Old Testament name Jehovah. 00:08:19.579 --> 00:08:20.279 I am. 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:23.680 I and the Father are one, he said. 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:30.899 When asked at his trial by the high priest, putting him on the spot, are you the son of the blessed one? 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:34.960 The name of God was so holy in those days they wouldn't pronounce the name of God. 00:08:35.620 --> 00:08:37.419 Are you the son of the blessed one? 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:45.440 And again Jesus says, and this is in Mark's Gospel, chapter 14, quite categorically he says, I am. 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:53.100 Either people had to accept that or reject it. 00:08:53.700 --> 00:08:56.140 And these religious leaders rejected it. 00:08:56.400 --> 00:09:02.260 Instead of changing their views of Jesus, they accused him of blasphemy. 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:08.840 But Jesus' attitudes, not just in these areas, but in every area, were so revolutionary. 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:10.259 His attitude to children. 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:11.659 His attitude to women. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:14.659 His attitude to the poor and despised and rejected. 00:09:14.659 --> 00:09:16.759 Revolutionary in his time. 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:23.219 We don't realize how revolutionary all this is because Jesus' influence has been so great in our Western world. 00:09:24.500 --> 00:09:30.339 His attitude to wealth and power that these things were not the ultimate important things. 00:09:30.340 --> 00:09:35.700 Just about everything about Jesus was new and radical and revolutionary. 00:09:36.100 --> 00:09:37.420 Unsettling and shocking. 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:42.519 Is that the way that his church is perceived today? 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:49.320 Or does the church just echo the values of the world? 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:54.940 If that's the case, there's something far wrong. 00:09:55.879 --> 00:10:00.580 Because Jesus is sending us into the world just as the Father sent him. 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:04.460 And the Father sent him as a new wine. 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:10.800 To be this radical, revolutionary changer of people's hearts and lives. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:18.419 I want to look with you at this new, revolutionary, innovative nature of Jesus' mission. 00:10:19.539 --> 00:10:27.899 As it's our paradigm, our blueprint, our pattern for our thinking, our lives, and our mission. 00:10:29.059 --> 00:10:34.459 First thing I want to notice is that Jesus was people-focused, not regulation-focused. 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:39.379 Relationships are far more important than regulations to Jesus. 00:10:39.379 --> 00:10:40.879 As we see that here in this passage. 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:46.539 This whole business about Jesus' disciples and not fasting and so on. 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:53.679 Jesus considered having fellowship around a meal was more important than showing off how spiritual you were by fasting. 00:10:54.919 --> 00:10:57.039 Or this whole business about the Sabbath. 00:10:57.580 --> 00:11:05.820 Jesus considered the well-being of his disciples and the well-being of a handicapped man more important than man-made regulations about the Sabbath. 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:13.760 There was no stipulation in the Old Testament that the disciples weren't allowed to pick ears of corn, rub them in their hands, and eat them on the Sabbath day. 00:11:13.980 --> 00:11:19.260 That was this kind of hedge of rules that the Pharisees and others put around the gospel. 00:11:20.680 --> 00:11:22.000 Around the law of God. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:30.259 An example of someone being people-focused comes from a very surprising source. 00:11:31.259 --> 00:11:43.360 There was a man called Pastor Jack Glass who was, in his day, a kind of notorious extreme Protestant and was viewed a sectarian. 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:51.379 Well, the Pope visited Glasgow and there was a big meeting in Bella Houston Park to welcome the Pope. 00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:58.200 And, of course, Jack Glass was there protesting against the visit of the Pope because he disagreed with the Pope's theology. 00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:10.860 But in the great crowds that were there trying to get into Bella Houston Park, there was one lady in a wheelchair who was trying to get across the street into Bella Houston Park. 00:12:11.940 --> 00:12:16.040 And the only person who noticed her was Jack Glass. 00:12:17.160 --> 00:12:23.240 And he went and he took the wheelchair and he wheeled her across the road into Bella Houston Park. 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:34.120 In other words, he was people-focused in spite of what his theology was or what interpretation he may have put on things or he may have been viewed as being anti-Catholic. 00:12:34.779 --> 00:12:36.180 He was people-focused. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:37.539 Here was a person in need. 00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:39.460 He showed love to his neighbor. 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:42.899 That's what it means to be people-focused. 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:52.320 Our mission will not succeed unless we too are people-focused, seeking to build relationships and show Christ's love. 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:58.399 Because reaching the lost is more important than my private religiosity. 00:12:59.960 --> 00:13:05.419 Fasting is about trying to improve our relationship with God, focusing on prayer, mourning for sin. 00:13:05.539 --> 00:13:08.940 And it can be a good thing in certain circumstances, as Jesus said. 00:13:09.180 --> 00:13:12.600 When there was a time when the bridegroom would be taken from them, they would fast. 00:13:12.680 --> 00:13:13.740 There would be a time of mourning. 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:20.299 But when this kind of spirituality is treated as the most important thing, it fails. 00:13:20.299 --> 00:13:28.579 Leonard Cohen, the great singer-songwriter, at one point in his life, he became a Buddhist monk. 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:30.199 He was kind of fed up with the world. 00:13:30.279 --> 00:13:31.379 He became a Buddhist monk. 00:13:31.719 --> 00:13:35.519 But that didn't stop him womanizing and drinking whiskey with his guru. 00:13:35.899 --> 00:13:36.919 It didn't work. 00:13:36.919 --> 00:13:43.639 And it was the same in the Middle Ages, so often, with the failure of monasticism. 00:13:44.539 --> 00:13:49.039 People found either they couldn't keep the vows or they pretended to keep the vows. 00:13:49.319 --> 00:13:53.319 And even when they did keep the vows, it didn't bring them peace and satisfaction. 00:13:53.539 --> 00:13:54.399 Think of Martin Luther. 00:13:54.599 --> 00:13:57.299 He tried everything to find peace with God. 00:13:57.299 --> 00:14:07.659 But in the end, he found that it was only through being justified by faith in Christ alone that he found peace and satisfaction. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:11.719 The Apostle Paul speaks of this in Colossians chapter 2. 00:14:11.819 --> 00:14:12.139 He says, 00:14:12.139 --> 00:14:18.740 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why, as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules? 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:21.259 Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:30.100 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body. 00:14:30.439 --> 00:14:33.439 But they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:41.940 Jesus viewed eating and drinking with sinners as more important than a false, proud asceticism. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:47.500 Because his purpose was to seek and to save the lost. 00:14:48.640 --> 00:14:51.800 And that's our purpose as Christians and as a Christian church. 00:14:52.260 --> 00:14:53.720 That's why we're in the world. 00:14:54.860 --> 00:14:56.400 Let's follow Jesus' example. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:04.699 Have we been guilty of sometimes making our religiosity an excuse for not engaging in mission and being people-focused? 00:15:05.659 --> 00:15:11.980 Second thing we see about Jesus is that it was communication-driven, not conservation-driven. 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:18.019 The Pharisees and others viewed their mission as conserving what they had. 00:15:18.419 --> 00:15:21.899 Now, conserving can be a good thing if what you're conserving is good. 00:15:22.319 --> 00:15:26.159 But if what you're conserving is not good, then it's not a good thing, is it? 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:30.000 Conservation in itself is not necessarily good. 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:35.379 One thing they wanted to do was to protect themselves from contamination by sinners. 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:43.740 So, so many things were built as a kind of wall around them so that they wouldn't come in touch with sinful, evil people. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:52.460 They also tried to protect the law by the addition of a hedge around it, multiplying rules to try to protect God's law. 00:15:52.460 --> 00:15:57.580 Those religious leaders also tried to protect the temple. 00:15:57.580 --> 00:16:02.720 People were not even allowed to bring their own sacrifices or to bring their own money. 00:16:02.940 --> 00:16:04.259 They had to change their money. 00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:08.820 They had to buy the animals that the temple authorities had prepared. 00:16:08.820 --> 00:16:16.580 And that's why Jesus drove out those money changers and all the animals from the temple. 00:16:17.460 --> 00:16:22.920 Because He said, God has made this house a house of prayer for all the nations, and you made it a den of thieves. 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:26.959 Didn't make them very popular. 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:31.960 And above all, they just wanted to maintain the status quo. 00:16:32.060 --> 00:16:34.540 Now, again, if the status quo is good, that's fine. 00:16:34.900 --> 00:16:36.900 But if it's oppressive, that's wrong. 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:44.299 By contrast, Jesus was concerned with breaking down the barriers and reaching people, communicating. 00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:47.039 He went where people were. 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:53.600 The streets, the seaside, hillsides, fields, houses, dinner parties. 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:56.740 He didn't stay in the synagogues and the temple. 00:16:56.959 --> 00:16:59.360 He went to the synagogue and temple, of course. 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:02.720 But He went everywhere where people were. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:08.319 He broke down the barriers between Himself and others, like the Samaritan woman we mentioned earlier. 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:16.700 No one of His race and of His religious standing would have had anything to do with such a woman. 00:17:17.559 --> 00:17:19.559 Yet He engages her in conversation. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:28.360 Or the sinful woman who came and washed His feet with her tears, dried them with her hair. 00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:32.319 Or the tax collectors like Levi. 00:17:33.159 --> 00:17:35.579 He goes to His house and mixes with them all. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:43.039 And of course, Jesus also used a huge variety of approaches. 00:17:44.219 --> 00:17:45.459 Innovative methodology. 00:17:45.899 --> 00:17:46.699 He used dialogue. 00:17:47.139 --> 00:17:48.119 He used conversation. 00:17:48.619 --> 00:17:50.539 He used visual aids. 00:17:50.740 --> 00:17:54.199 Like when people were saying, who should you pay taxes to? 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:56.779 He took a coin and said, whose picture's on that? 00:17:56.779 --> 00:17:57.660 Caesar's. 00:17:57.819 --> 00:17:58.899 Well, give to Caesar's. 00:17:58.940 --> 00:17:59.660 What is Caesar's? 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:00.440 And give to God's. 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:01.619 What is God's? 00:18:02.359 --> 00:18:05.059 So often Jesus was doing surprising things like that. 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:10.099 And He used, of course, story and parable and even drama, like when He wrote on the ground, 00:18:10.460 --> 00:18:13.759 when people were accusing this woman of being caught in adultery. 00:18:15.660 --> 00:18:17.660 Jesus even used silence. 00:18:17.660 --> 00:18:35.840 Jesus had nothing to say to this man who was totally insincere. 00:18:37.120 --> 00:18:41.200 It's one of the most chilling passages in the whole of the Bible. 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:45.980 Jesus had nothing to say to him. 00:18:47.860 --> 00:18:51.319 May that day never come when Jesus has nothing to say to us. 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:55.519 May we respond to His word and His invitation now. 00:18:58.299 --> 00:19:00.680 So, Jesus' great concern was communication. 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:02.680 He came as a witness to the truth. 00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:04.680 And that must be our great concern, too. 00:19:05.400 --> 00:19:07.460 It may be in simple ways, like Jesus. 00:19:07.460 --> 00:19:09.259 That's conversation, debate, preaching. 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:16.299 But Jesus set as a pattern, the new wine of the gospel must be put into new wineskins for every age, 00:19:16.779 --> 00:19:18.019 for each new situation. 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:20.440 We mentioned Martin Luther already. 00:19:20.440 --> 00:19:25.100 He used the printing press and his hymns to spread the message of the gospel. 00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:28.120 The Reformation got people reading and singing. 00:19:29.700 --> 00:19:31.880 And then there was the age of mass evangelism. 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:38.820 There was Whitefield and Wesley, who preached to tens of thousands of people out in the fields, 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:41.960 because they weren't allowed to preach in the churches. 00:19:42.860 --> 00:19:46.300 Then there was the age of D.L. Moody, and more recently, Billy Graham. 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:50.640 And, of course, so often, that kind of thing was criticized. 00:19:52.700 --> 00:19:55.760 But Moody once said, when he was being criticized, he said, 00:19:55.759 --> 00:20:00.980 I prefer the way I do evangelism to the way that you don't do it. 00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:04.000 A very telling criticism, was it not? 00:20:06.220 --> 00:20:10.200 Today, of course, we have to consider new methods, whether it's information technology, 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:16.539 the Internet, drama, film, music, alongside the more central methods of preaching and personal witnessing. 00:20:17.140 --> 00:20:18.279 We must be open to it. 00:20:18.359 --> 00:20:21.220 New wine needs new wineskins. 00:20:21.220 --> 00:20:30.860 But third and finally, for Jesus, transforming people was what was important, not changing the message. 00:20:32.019 --> 00:20:33.079 This is his priority. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.620 New wine needed new wineskins. 00:20:37.660 --> 00:20:42.819 Jesus and the good news will not fit into our old preconceptions. 00:20:44.039 --> 00:20:46.100 This is what the Pharisees realized. 00:20:46.099 --> 00:20:51.919 They knew that what Jesus was and what he was saying would not fit in with their worldview, 00:20:52.259 --> 00:20:53.500 so they rejected him. 00:20:54.459 --> 00:20:55.859 At least they were honest. 00:20:57.219 --> 00:21:02.019 But so many people try to make Jesus somehow fit in with their ideas. 00:21:02.579 --> 00:21:08.500 Even the disciples, Peter, remember, couldn't accept what Jesus said about the fact he was going to die. 00:21:09.099 --> 00:21:10.519 May it never be, Lord. 00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:12.879 May that never happen. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:15.179 And Jesus had to rebuke him. 00:21:15.180 --> 00:21:27.980 And Jesus rebuked him with one of the most serious rebukes there is in Scripture. 00:21:28.140 --> 00:21:29.480 He said, get behind me, Satan. 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:31.580 Why did he do that? 00:21:32.100 --> 00:21:37.000 Because for Jesus, his death was fundamental to the whole Christian gospel. 00:21:38.100 --> 00:21:39.500 This is the new wine. 00:21:39.500 --> 00:21:44.660 Remember, Jesus at the Last Supper took the cup of wine and he said, 00:21:45.819 --> 00:21:52.339 This cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 00:21:52.339 --> 00:22:01.899 Many people find this whole emphasis upon the blood of Jesus Christ, the cross, the death of Christ, 00:22:02.419 --> 00:22:05.220 as being something we don't want to mention today. 00:22:05.879 --> 00:22:07.679 That's not very nice. 00:22:07.779 --> 00:22:10.259 That's not something that's going to help people. 00:22:11.019 --> 00:22:13.319 Jesus says it's absolutely fundamental, 00:22:13.319 --> 00:22:17.579 because what he was doing there upon the cross was paying the price of our sin, 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:22.159 taking the evil of the world upon himself so that we might be forgiven. 00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:30.620 So, there's a tendency, you see, to try to make Jesus fit into our lives by cutting him down to size, 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:32.600 by changing his message. 00:22:33.100 --> 00:22:38.320 And this is a process that has been going on for over 150 years in the Western world. 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:46.899 If the virgin birth or the atonement or the resurrection won't fit in with our worldview, 00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:48.759 then cut them out. 00:22:49.460 --> 00:22:53.439 If Jesus' teaching about marriage won't fit, cut it out. 00:22:54.059 --> 00:23:00.000 If Jesus teaches most clearly about the reality of hell, cut it out. 00:23:01.259 --> 00:23:05.519 People have taken the bits of Jesus and the gospel that they like 00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:08.059 and tried to fit these into their lives. 00:23:09.139 --> 00:23:11.359 I saw this recently on Facebook. 00:23:12.399 --> 00:23:15.019 Ten attributes of the woke mind. 00:23:15.919 --> 00:23:17.220 It included things like, 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:21.059 you're willing to change your mind when new information becomes available. 00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:24.019 You believe in true equality for all people. 00:23:24.639 --> 00:23:25.480 You have empathy. 00:23:26.099 --> 00:23:27.399 You embrace cooperation. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:29.879 You respect others' rights. 00:23:30.539 --> 00:23:31.539 You care for the planet. 00:23:33.059 --> 00:23:36.019 As the historian Tom Holland has pointed out, 00:23:36.019 --> 00:23:42.700 these kind of values have their roots in the Christianity that influenced the Western world. 00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:48.799 They did not exist prior to that in the world of the Roman Empire or in the pagan world. 00:23:49.480 --> 00:23:51.100 Think of those values here. 00:23:51.700 --> 00:23:53.380 You're willing to change your mind. 00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:55.920 That's literally what repentance is. 00:23:55.920 --> 00:23:59.700 You believe in true equality for all people. 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:03.120 God has said that we are all made in the image of God. 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:05.299 You have empathy. 00:24:05.679 --> 00:24:07.259 Who had more empathy than Jesus? 00:24:07.439 --> 00:24:09.319 And more than empathy, he had compassion, 00:24:10.099 --> 00:24:12.839 where his love reached out to help and to change people. 00:24:12.839 --> 00:24:16.980 You embrace cooperation, he said. 00:24:17.220 --> 00:24:19.639 Love one another as I have loved you. 00:24:20.339 --> 00:24:22.619 You respect others' rights, he said. 00:24:22.679 --> 00:24:24.459 Love your neighbor as yourself. 00:24:25.359 --> 00:24:26.659 You care for the planet. 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:31.199 God is the creator and he has given us this creation to be looked after, 00:24:31.619 --> 00:24:35.379 not to be despoiled and wrecked and destroyed. 00:24:35.380 --> 00:24:41.760 You see, all of these values that people kind of take for granted as what is ethical and moral, 00:24:42.060 --> 00:24:46.080 they have their roots in Jesus and in his word. 00:24:46.920 --> 00:24:48.940 They didn't exist in the Roman Empire. 00:24:49.520 --> 00:24:51.440 They didn't exist in the pagan world. 00:24:52.620 --> 00:24:57.200 So, people take the ethics of Christianity, but without the foundation. 00:24:58.200 --> 00:25:00.800 And that will ultimately lead to collapse. 00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:04.440 Because where does the power and the motivation come from? 00:25:05.500 --> 00:25:07.720 It doesn't come from the science. 00:25:08.379 --> 00:25:10.460 It doesn't come from evolution. 00:25:11.119 --> 00:25:13.299 It doesn't come from Mother Nature. 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:19.940 It doesn't come from the idea that there is nothing but the interactions of material molecules 00:25:19.940 --> 00:25:21.680 that we are made up of. 00:25:22.339 --> 00:25:29.180 None of these things gives an explanation or a motivation as to why we should do those things. 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:32.019 Whereas the gospel does. 00:25:32.860 --> 00:25:35.519 Love one another as I have loved you. 00:25:36.820 --> 00:25:40.860 Because you see, this is where it becomes very personal. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:44.740 Jesus says you must be born again. 00:25:45.600 --> 00:25:47.759 You must repent and believe in him. 00:25:49.259 --> 00:25:53.000 The one who came to give his life as a ransom for many. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:59.240 But we so often transform this glorious gospel into a form of legalism. 00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:05.059 We take the instructions that Jesus gave about how his people are to live, like love one another. 00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:09.119 But we take that as the basis for our acceptance with God. 00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:16.579 Whereas the reality is, love is the outworking of the new life of faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. 00:26:16.579 --> 00:26:22.559 As Jesus points out here with the wineskins, all of this is destructive. 00:26:23.419 --> 00:26:25.599 It's destructive of the gospel, of course. 00:26:26.199 --> 00:26:29.539 But such legalism is also destructive of ourselves. 00:26:29.939 --> 00:26:34.500 It leads either to pride and hypocrisy or it leads to despair. 00:26:35.460 --> 00:26:41.099 The Pharisees were guilty of pride and hypocrisy, of looking down on others that they thought weren't keeping these laws. 00:26:41.099 --> 00:26:45.699 But for many of the common people, it led to despair. 00:26:46.119 --> 00:26:48.339 Because they knew they couldn't keep these commandments. 00:26:51.779 --> 00:26:59.859 The truth is, the new Savior, this new revolutionary, radical, innovative Savior, needs new people to receive him. 00:27:00.339 --> 00:27:02.500 But where are those new people going to come from? 00:27:02.639 --> 00:27:03.939 How can we be made new? 00:27:04.459 --> 00:27:07.539 Do we have to do something ourselves to make ourselves new? 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:09.019 No, of course not. 00:27:09.019 --> 00:27:10.299 Because we can't do that. 00:27:10.299 --> 00:27:11.680 We can't change ourselves. 00:27:12.859 --> 00:27:17.180 But the good news is that the new Savior is the very one who can make us new. 00:27:17.960 --> 00:27:19.480 By his great redeeming work. 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:21.779 By his regenerating spirit. 00:27:22.539 --> 00:27:24.220 And by his life-giving word. 00:27:25.899 --> 00:27:27.419 He gives us a new heart. 00:27:28.059 --> 00:27:29.019 A new perspective. 00:27:29.899 --> 00:27:30.960 A new relationship. 00:27:32.980 --> 00:27:35.480 Do you feel the need this morning to be made new? 00:27:36.519 --> 00:27:37.960 Well, Jesus is calling you. 00:27:38.359 --> 00:27:39.059 Come to him. 00:27:39.059 --> 00:27:45.099 Trust in his life and death and rising again for failed and broken people. 00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:47.200 Just like you and I. 00:27:49.940 --> 00:27:54.740 Jesus was radical, revolutionary, and innovative. 00:27:54.740 --> 00:28:01.380 So often the church has timidly and tragically lagged far behind Jesus. 00:28:01.380 --> 00:28:04.819 We need to recapture his spirit today. 00:28:05.220 --> 00:28:08.680 If you're a Christian, make this your New Year resolution. 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:15.579 Trusting Jesus and his redeeming work, you'll endeavor to follow his example. 00:28:15.579 --> 00:28:17.579 If you're not yet a Christian. 00:28:17.579 --> 00:28:18.379 If you're not yet a Christian. 00:28:18.379 --> 00:28:18.399 If you're not yet a Christian. 00:28:18.399 --> 00:28:21.460 Or perhaps you're unsure as to where you stand. 00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:23.419 Grasp this. 00:28:24.179 --> 00:28:30.599 You cannot fit Jesus into your present preconceptions and lifestyle. 00:28:30.599 --> 00:28:33.279 Something has got to give. 00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:38.199 Either you will try to cut Jesus down to fit in with you, which will be disastrous. 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:46.240 Or else you'll realize that you must ask him to make you a new creation, which will lead you to glory. 00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:52.740 A number of years ago now, Dylan sang these words. 00:28:53.079 --> 00:28:56.460 Surrender your crown on this bloodstained ground. 00:28:57.220 --> 00:28:58.440 Take off your mask. 00:28:59.079 --> 00:29:00.279 He sees your deeds. 00:29:00.799 --> 00:29:03.579 He knows your needs, even before you ask. 00:29:04.059 --> 00:29:07.000 How long can you falsify and deny what is real? 00:29:07.299 --> 00:29:10.380 How long can you hate yourself for the weakness you conceal? 00:29:10.380 --> 00:29:40.360 How long can you fail? 00:29:40.359 --> 00:29:42.359 How long can you fail? 00:29:42.359 --> 00:29:52.659 Lord, we have to confess that so often we have liked what is old because it is ours rather than the new, which is Jesus. 00:29:54.139 --> 00:29:59.819 Lord, we pray that you would give us wisdom in applying this truth to our own lives. 00:30:00.559 --> 00:30:04.099 And we pray that you would work in this world at the present time, 00:30:04.099 --> 00:30:14.699 which thinks that it knows what Jesus was all about and has either rejected it or has appropriated what is sensible for them. 00:30:15.699 --> 00:30:27.359 Oh, Lord, our God, enable people to see Jesus in all his grace and glory and loving kindness and respond to that love. 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:32.979 So, Lord, we pray that you would bless us in this year in which we have entered. 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:36.379 Bless us and our families, our friends, our neighbors. 00:30:37.059 --> 00:30:40.819 Bless us as we seek to influence others, as we seek to converse with others, 00:30:41.059 --> 00:30:44.199 as we seek to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ. 00:30:44.200 --> 00:30:47.880 And so we ask all of these things in his name and for his sake. 00:30:48.380 --> 00:30:48.680 Amen. 00:30:52.039 --> 00:30:55.080 Now we close by singing the hymn to God's praise, 00:30:55.480 --> 00:30:57.720 Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery. 00:30:58.200 --> 00:30:59.100 Let's stand to sing.