New Wine, Skinny Jeans Series

The word Gospel is from the greek, “euangélion “good news”; specifically the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ (Matt. 11:5 par. Luke 4:18; Heb. 4:2, 6; 1 Pet. 1:12). In classical Greek, the term originally designated the reward given to a messenger of good tidings and later came to mean the good news itself.” (Eerdmans Bible Dictionary). The idea is of a herald entering a village declaring the victory of the army over an adversary.

Time for celebration, right? Time for fasting? No. “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? 35 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them—then they will fast in those days.” (Lk 5:34–35). Here’s an amazing caricature of Jesus. The messiah here, this isn’t a time for mourning it is a time for celebration, like at a wedding feast. The ones that have the most to rejoice about the messiah coming are the sinners and the imprisoned. Weddings were a time of celebration. There were special arrangements, flowers, clothes, and a feast that lasted 7 days. Jesus says, "Look, you don't fast at a wedding, do you? A wedding is a celebration and when the bridegroom is there, you celebrate." And in that future time, the wedding joy is going to end. Why? Because the bridegroom is taken from them, apair, snatched. This is the first reference in Luke of the crucifixion.

There’s a big difference between the gospel and religion.

Religion is man-made, the gospel is God-given.

Religion is what man does for God, The gospel is what God does for man.

Religion is a man trying to climb the ladder of his own self-righteousness, with the hope of meeting God on the topmost rung. The gospel is God coming down the ladder of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and meeting us as sinners at the lowest rung.

Religion is good views, the gospel is good news.

Religion is good advice, the gospel is a glorious announcement.

Religion takes a man and leaves him as he is; the gospel takes a man as he is and makes him what he ought to be.

Religion ends in an outer reformation.

Religion whitewashes, the gospel washes white.

Religion often becomes a farce; the gospel is always a force, the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes.

There are many religions, but only one Gospel. (Dallas Linaman)

So now we come to Jesus’ second parable:

3. The Gospel Doesn’t Fit

36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’ ” (Luke 5:36–39 ESV)

The illustration is very simple. If you have a worn garment that has torn, you cannot patch it with a new piece of material without causing the garment even greater damage. The reason being that the old material has already shrunk. If you sew a patch of new material over the hole, the new material does not match the old and will shrink with washing causing the new seams to tear the old material. You cannot fix religious practices patching it with moral reforms.