Tonight, I would like to start off by talking about a simple word – “new.” What comes to your minds and what do you think about when you see or hear this word?
• Births
• CD/Movie releases
• Car
• Fad
• Wedding
• Second chances
What emotions are usually associated with these things? I would say that typically there are two sides to the emotional response to something new. On the one side, there is a lot of excitement and joy. Huge parties are thrown for the opening night of the new, popular movie that is coming out. Think about a wedding or a birth; happiness and excitement usually fill the hearts of everyone who is connected to them. Think about the last big “thing” to come out – maybe the X-Box 360 or some other gadget for you guys or the new fashion to come out of Abercrombie and Fitch or Hollister for you girls – excitement and anticipation surround them, especially if you are one of the lucky ones to bring them home.
On the other side of the emotional response to something new is fear and anxiety. Sometimes new things can be scary because you don’t know what is going to happen. I think about my wedding day and, as much joy and excitement there was, there was also a small part of me that was a little scared and anxious. For some of you, change and new things might be overwhelming because you want things to stay the same, the way you always have known them because it doesn’t require you to change. And still some of you might not like new things because you tend to not have the money to get the new popular gadget or to shop at Hollister so you fear how you will be viewed and looked at by others.
So what does this conversation about “new” have to do with a God that is millions of years old and lived on the earth 2000 years ago? Well, I have a few scriptures that I would like us to read together to help us understand this.
John 3:3 – “Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.’”
Titus 3:4-5 - “When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 – “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
Galatians 6:15 – “It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.”
Over and over again in the New Testament, we see this comparison between having a relationship with Jesus and being a new creation or having new life. In fact, if you study the life of Jesus, that was His whole mission while He was on earth. He did not come to keep everything the same or to enforce the old laws and rules that existed but to bring about something new and different.
With this newness that Jesus brought, the same emotional responses were present in the people of Jesus’ time. There is a great story that is actually written in Matthew, Mark and Luke that looks at this idea and can really speak to our own lives as we continue talking about jumping into a relationship with Christ. For our time, we are going to focus on the account in Matthew 9:14-17.
***Read Matthew 9:14-17***
As we think about what is going on in this text, it is important to note what was going on right before this. In the preceding verses, we have the story about Jesus and His disciples going to Matthew’s house for a party that we looked at a couple of weeks ago. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these two stories come back to back from one another. Think about it – there were Jesus and His disciples at a dinner party having a blast and hanging out with “sinners.” Meanwhile, the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees were fasting and mourning. How wound you have felt if you were a Pharisee or one of John the Baptist’s disciples?
I can just picture them sitting together and just complaining nonstop about what is going on. Half of them are prideful and are just bashing Jesus and His disciples. “Don’t they know the rules! Today is a day we should be fasting and mourning…and they are out partying; partying with sinners at that! They are not pleasing God! How can they do that?” The other half of them are curious and feeling a little bitter. “Isn’t that Jesus guy a Rabbi and religious leader? How come He and His disciples get to party while we follow all the rules?”
After a while, a few of John the Baptist’s disciples decide that the conversation has gone on long enough and approach Jesus. “We and the Pharisees fast all the time and You and Your disciples don’t fast at all…why is that?”
Jesus responds in typical Jesus fashion, by asking a rhetorical question and then answering it. “Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Now, some of you might be thinking that Jesus is condemning fasting here but that is not the case. In fact fasting is something that Jesus suggests and approves at different places in scripture. The problem with John’s disciples and the Pharisees was not the mere fact that they were fasting but what they were fasting for. A lot of Jews would fast every Tuesday and Thursday and then yearly on the Day of Atonement with the purpose of praying for the Messiah to come and save them. Think about how ironic this situation was.
Here were John’s disciples and the Pharisees fasting for the Messiah and Savior to come and they approach Jesus, the Messiah himself, and complain about Him and His disciples not fasting! Jesus’ response tries to clue them into this irony by using language that was found in the Old Testament. Mainly in Isaiah and Jeremiah, when they would write about the coming Messiah, they would often call Him the groom and the people He was coming to the bride. Also, it was prophesied that the Messiah would be killed and beaten and thus was what Jesus meant when he said that “someday the groom will be taken away.” So really, Jesus isn’t saying don’t fast, he is saying, “Here I am!”
Then Jesus gives two rather odd examples to help communicate the fact that the Messiah had come and brought about something new. First, he talks about putting a new, unshrunk patch on an old piece of clothing. Why doesn’t that work? Because eventually, the patch will get wet and shrink and when it does, it will make the tear even bigger. Second, he talks about how no one stores new wine in old wineskins. Does anyone know why? Because, new wine, as it ferments, creates gasses and acids that would stretch the animal skin. When skins got old, they would we stretched out and begin to dry and crack. If new wine was put into them, the gasses and acids would be too much, causing the skin to burst and the wine and the skin to be ruined.
So Jesus makes his point! He is on earth to not just continue the old Jewish traditions, He is here to make them better and bring about a new life for all those who have a relationship with him. It is a newness that is based on a relationship with God and not on rules and behavior. As I said a few moments ago, with that mission came the two emotional responses that are both shown in this Bible passage.
First, we see the excitement and the joy in the lives of Jesus’ disciples as they partied. Remember what that dinner party was for? Matthew was so impressed with Jesus and His love that he threw a party so that all his friends, who were considered scum, could meet Jesus. They knew, firsthand the new message and love that Jesus brought and they partied, celebrated and lived out this newness of life so that everyone could see.
Second, we see the fear and the anxiety in the lives of John’s disciples and the Pharisees. They couldn’t get past the rules and the way things had always been done. But yet, they were missing out and missing the Messiah that they had been waiting for.
When it comes to the newness of life that is offered to us in a relationship with Jesus, which emotions are you living by?
If you have a relationship with Christ, are you living with an excitement and joy that is contagious and lived out in front of all to see? If not, why? You are a new creation, a new masterpiece made right and given the opportunity to have a relationship with the one and only God! When we jump into a relationship with Christ, we should be excited and want to share that excitement with others. This is ultimately how Jesus wants us to live and what Sonya talked about a few backs back when she looked at having a contagious joy.
But, maybe you have a relationship with Christ and are living in fear and anxiety about the newness that Christ offers. You are worried about what others will think of you or maybe you are scared about this faith thing and not being in control. I just want you guys to know that that’s an ok place to be. Anyone who has a relationship with Christ has been there time and time again. There are still times when I am scared to show my new life in Christ like to the guys I work with doing valet at Beverly Hospital. The important thing though is that you keep asking questions of Jesus and keep pushing forward in prayer and worship. Eventually, you will feel that excitement and be able to live it out!
Lastly, maybe you are here tonight and you don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I want to encourage you guys to think about this offer that Christ gives you – a new life that is so full of joy and purpose unlike anything that you can find anywhere else. Some of you have heard this before and have always been a little scared and anxious and I don’t blame you. A new life in Christ can be difficult and hard at times, it is not always the cool thing to do or to profess, but it is so worth it. Jesus offers a relationship with God that can’t be found anywhere else and will never be replaced. I encourage you guys to keep wrestling and exploring what a new life in Christ means. Jumping out of a plane would be scary as heck but really exciting at the same time. Jumping into a relationship with Christ and becoming a new creation does the same thing!
