LAUNCH DAY!
Mark 2:18–22 (ESV)
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. 21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
The disciples in this passage were having to wrestle with the same struggle that we are still facing today: How do we follow Jesus WELL?
The context of what Jesus was talking about here is religious practices - more specifically: fasting
How do we reconcile "Following Jesus" and being good at practicing Christianity?
It's a struggle between what is religion and actually being a follower of Jesus
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THIS PASSAGE -
The pharisees of Jesus' time had taken the point of the law and twisted it to be something that brought them notoriety
Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter here and says:
21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
Jesus is talking about their religious system:
Jesus did not come to patch things up
He was not there to give them Judaism 2.0
The purpose of Jesus hasn’t stopped:
Jesus didn't come to patch things up in my life
He came to make all things new
So many times I want Jesus to make me better before I ever allow Him to make me new.
It means that I don't have to get all the "holes" patched up in my life before Jesus can save me
It means that I don't have to be good at religion before I can begin my relationship with Jesus
WHEN YOU BEGIN THE RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS - THE PROCESS IS JUST GETTING STARTED
This is what Jesus said about it:
22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
New wine in old canteens:
So let's understand what he's talking about:
"Wineskins" were leather canteens
After using them, they would dry out and lose their elasticity
They were fine for something like water - but grape juice is different
Grape juice (as it sat in that canteen) begins to ferment
His point: The religious system of the day could not handle what He was about to do.
We are good at creating comfortable systems that leave very little room for anything Supernatural
Let's go back to what Jesus was saying:
I didn't come to patch something old up - I came to start with something new
That old canteen can't handle the violence of the process that is about to happen
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
There is this underlying spiritual truth here in this passage -
The old garment tearing:
The old wineskin ripping:
EVERYTHING HAS A BREAKING POINT
You can't push these garments too far - they will break
You can't push these wineskins too far - they will break
Earthquakes are caused when the PRESSURE around a plate-line becomes greater then the RESISTANCE
It's friction that holds them together - keeps things from slipping
But when the pressure is greater than the resistance earthquakes happen
Sometimes that happens to us
We try to keep it together
We try to brace against the things happening around us
But when the pressure I'm facing becomes greater that my ability to hold it back - BREAKING POINT
What if we flip that around -
What if the moving of the Holy Spirit in your life becomes greater than the forces that you're facing?
What if God does something so significant in my life that it breaks out of Sunday morning and becomes part of my lifestyle?
What abundant life becomes my reality and the resistance I've been facing has to break because of the pressure of the Spirit!?
Jesus told us in John 10:10
John 10:10 (ESV)
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
You're facing a very real enemy this morning - Some of you are under pressure - you're facing some resistance
Jesus made a way for your breakthrough
He has come so that you could have life abundantly
But for every battle that you're facing - every piece of resistance that the enemy can throw at you - there is an source of power that is greater than anything this world has ever seen -
Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
