#12 Parties, Patches And Wineskins Series

#12 Parties, Patches and Wineskins

Series: Mark

March 15, 2020

Chuck Sligh

Several ideas and illustrations for this sermon were adapted from David Dykes’ sermon on SermonCentral.com, Old Whiners or New Wineskins.

TEXT: Mark 2:18-22 – "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."

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever known someone who was a chronic whiner? They’re constantly whining about their health, or the weather, their boss, their appearance, their spouse, their kids, or what’s going on in Washington. Do you know someone like that? Let me turn that around: Do you think anybody was thinking that about YOU?

Chronic whiners and complainers are everywhere. I came across a list of actual complaints that were sent to a travel agency.

• “On my holiday to Mumbai, India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.”

• “The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.”

• “No one told us there would be fish in the ocean. The children were scared.”

• “We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they all spoke Spanish.”

• “I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.”

Whiners. Who needs them?!

In our passage we’re going to discover there was a group of religious whiners who followed Jesus around complaining, and Jesus explains that they represent the old guard—a way of thinking and living that was to pass away, for someone and something new and vibrant and infinitely better had arrived..

Follow along with me in your Bible as I read Mark 2:18-22 – “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.”

The Pharisees were professional whiners. They followed Jesus around and criticized everything He did and said. In the previous passage, they whined that Jesus had hung out with sinners and outcasts at a feast Matthew had thrown. Jesus and His disciples were the party-goers and the Pharisees were the party-poopers.

In today’s passage, they hammered Jesus with another complaint. They whined, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast, and of course, we fast, but your boys don’t fast, so they’re not very religious!”

Jesus took their whining complaint and responded with three mini-parables. This is the first time Mark records a parable in his brief Gospel The word parable comes from the words “para-bole” which means “through alongside.” When Jesus told a parable, He told a natural, earthly story or made a natural, earthly analogy; then beside it, He tossed down a deep spiritual, heavenly truth. Someone described a parable as “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.”

Some of Jesus’ parables are long and famous like the parable of the Prodigal Son, or the parable of the Good Samaritan. But these three parables in our text today are only a few words long. They have some explosive truths in them that signal a massive paradigm shift God was about to inaugurate. The first one is about a wedding party; the second is about a patch; and the third is about wineskins. Simple things, but with deep meanings.