I will open my Mouth in Parables

Transcript

But so during the pandemic was the first time that I looked at this topic that we're going to consider tonight. And at that time, my family and I were attending the Simi Hills Ecclesia in Southern California. And I was asked to put together a series of classes on the parables that we find in the books of Matthew. So in our first class, we considered the parables from Matthew five verses 13 to 14 on salt and light. And we looked at both the physical and spiritual elements of these parables and how important they are in our walk towards the kingdom. We were reminded of the importance of letting our light shine to those around us by spreading the good news of the gospel and spreading God's plan with the earth. In the same manner, we saw the importance of consuming the salt of the word so we can in turn give that life preserving element to the world. And one of the core elements of the parable on salt that I wanted to leave everyone with at the end of that class was was what was found in Matthew five and 13. Where after telling his disciples that they are the salt of the world, Jesus says to them, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. In these trying times before the return of our Lord, it can be easy for us as the salt of the world, as the spiritual salt of the world to lose our saltiness. There's so much out there that can distract us and fill our minds with that we can become diluted to the point where we lose all of our saltiness. We lose that fire or that love for the word of God and the knowledge that it contains. It's not just distractions or other activities that we fill our life with that can dilute our saltiness. It can just be the stress of life. If we spend any time watching the news or browsing social media, you'll find out pretty quick that life today in the world is pretty stressful. People everywhere are losing hope and many within our community are even losing their faith. A recent CDC report showed that 41% of adults surveyed say that they had at least one mental health effect, including symptoms of anxiety or depression, symptoms of trauma or stress related disorder. And it started to or they're increasing their use of substances to cope with the stress that they're facing. For those of us with families and young children, it can be a lot easier in times like this to just close ourselves in and focus on our family or single family units. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with making sure that your own house is taken care of first, but taking care of our immediate family is one of the most important jobs in our lives. However, now more than ever, we need to have strong, ecclesial family ties as well. It's in times like these that the parables of our Lord and the study of his word can be so crucial and even revitalizing to our health or to our saltiness in the truth. As a spiritual family, this is the time that we can have the most impact on our brothers and sisters, times of great stress and uncertainty. So this week, if you're feeling a little extra salty, if you're feeling confident or sunny, share that with someone you haven't talked to in a while or just check in on another member of your ecclesia. You never know the impact that you can have on someone who may be quietly struggling. That's probably one of the biggest challenges that we face is a lot of people are struggling, struggling quietly, and we don't realize that they're that they're having the problem. So tap somebody on the shoulder, give them a hug, remind them that they're not in this alone. I think it's a great, a great lesson. So this evening, as we said, we're going to consider the parable found in Matthew chapter six and verses one, 19 and 20, which focuses on the moth, rust and thieves and the treasure of God. Now, at this point in Matthew six, Jesus is still on the mountain preaching to his disciples. And as we saw in the first 14 verses of this chapter, he focuses primarily on being genuine in our service to God. He tells us not to practice our righteousness where others can see, so we'll get recognition, nor to give long, grandiose prayers in front of people to look righteous. And when we fast to do it without giving an outward show, the example that the people had of all of these things at the time was, of course, the scribes and the Pharisees or the hypocrites, as Jesus calls them. In verse two, he says, Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. And then he comes to verse 19, where he addresses the idea of where they keep their treasure. He tells them this, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys or where neither thieves do break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. It's clear from his line of teaching in previous verses that this parable is also in relation to the religious leaders of time. The scribes and Pharisees were known for having special garments, and many would embroider their robes with fine jewels or gold. In Matthew 23 in verse two, Jesus warns the people concerning them, But all their works they do for to be seen of men, they make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the borders of their garments. Two of the most basic signs of wealth in this time period was fine clothing and jewelry. And the religious leaders in their attempts to stand out from the common people put this wealth on display for all to see, leading many astray and causing them to emulate their behavior. To them, in order to appear righteous, you had to wear the finest clothing and have great possessions. That way, all could see how much the Lord had blessed you for your good deeds. This is brought out in Matthew 19, when a young man comes before Jesus and asks him what he must do to have eternal life. And the Lord tells him to keep the commandments, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And the young man said to him, All these things I have kept, what do I still lack? And Jesus said to him, If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. And when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? It was so culturally ingrained in them that wealth was a sign of blessing from God. And if you had that much wealth, you must be righteous. We see from the young man's reaction that he knew where his treasure was, and his wealth was more important to him than the promise of eternal life. It's easy for us to get sucked into the same trap. It's in our nature. Today's marketing is so clever that it makes us want things that we don't need, and oftentimes things we didn't even want in the beginning. The depictions of the happy family enjoying life because they have the newest car or the biggest house on the block can consume us and make us feel like we have to have those things. It's one of the oldest stories in the world. The pursuit of riches can consume us. And once you have it, it can become all you do just to keep it. The Bible is full of messages about the dangers of running after wealth. We have Balaam, Ananias and Sapphira, Solomon and Ahab, all sought after material gain and met their ends losing the greatest treasure of the kingdom. Even if we do obtain the things we desire, the Lord reminds us that eventually these things will decay or their rust or even be stolen. Moths and rust and even thieves were more of a concern to those living in the first century than they are for us now, but the principle can still be applied. Clothes might not be eaten by moths, but there's not a fabric known to man that won't wear out or tear or go out of style. Rust isn't much of a concern to us in Texas. Maybe it's more for those who are in places where they salt the roads like Detroit or the East Coast, but even a car that's kept in a garage will eventually decay if it's not serviced and run constantly. With the invention of banks, safes and strong boxes, most of our valuables can be protected, but nothing can protect our wealth from economic collapse or the change in the markets. The conclusion of the matter is then, forget about chasing after the treasure of this life, find clothes, the silver and gold and precious jewels, and focus on gathering the treasure that the Lord values. Our God is a God that places great importance in treasure. There are references all through the scriptures to silver and gold, precious stones and jewels. These physical treasures have a strong spiritual significance that the Lord has emphasized time and time again. Using these physical symbols, we can extract powerful lessons and visions that remind us of God's underlying purpose and plan. For the remainder of our class, we like to focus on these lessons and symbols and highlight what the Lord sees as treasure. So when you think about the word treasure, what's the first thing that comes into your mind? This is an open question. You can unmute and give me an idea. What's the first thing that comes in your mind when you think treasure?

Pirates. Pirates. That's a good one.

Precious things, valuables. Money.

Things and money. Very good. Those are all great things. My kids. Your kids.

Oh, hey. Hey, Madison's listening to you from our hospital bed. Oh, fantastic. This is my sister, Mallory. She's in Australia. So we have people from far and wide joining the class. All right. So yeah, all these things. I think that's wonderful. I think Mallory brought up probably the best one that we can think of that naturally most of us aren't inclined to think of. But that is the greatest treasure that we're given as our children and our family and those that we can pass on the knowledge of God to. For me personally, when I see the word treasure in my mind, and this is the first thing that pops up. I think somebody said pirates. This is really the epitome of treasure that comes into my mind. But gold, silver, jewels, maybe diamonds or rubies, pearls or crowns. These things have been constants all through time. Rocks and metals that shine and glisten in the sunlight that are appealing to look at. I'd like to suggest that all of these things, while they are valuable to man in God's eyes, they're symbols of his plan and purpose with us. For example, gold, as I'm sure we've all heard before, is a symbol of tried faith. In 1 Peter 1 and verse 7, it says that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So we see here the connection between gold and faith. As gold is smelted in a fire to remove its impurities, so is faith made stronger by the fire of trials and temptation. Which is why the Lord Jesus exhorts the Ecclesia and Laodicea in Revelation 3 and 18 to buy of me gold and tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich. So the idea is that our faith will be tried on our walk towards the kingdom, and if it endures, then it will shine as purified gold. Likewise, we have silver, which is mentioned in Numbers 18 and verse 16. In this chapter, we're told that the firstborn of every man and beast was to be given to the Levites as their portion. However, in verse 15, he tells them everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord shall be yours, speaking to the tribe of Levi. And he says, Nevertheless, the firstborn of man, you shall redeem and the firstborn of unclean animals, you shall redeem and their redemption price at a month old, you shall redeem them. You shall fix at five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is 20 garas of silver, then represents that which is redeemed or ransomed by paying a price under the law. They would pay this silver as a foreshadowing of the price that would be paid by the Lord Jesus Christ. In First Peter one and 18, he says, For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So silver and gold, then, are symbols of true believer who has faith that has been tried and proven true and who is redeemed by the blood of Christ, which is the silver. So Paul exhorts us on how we should use these precious materials in his first letter to the Corinthians and First Corinthians three and verse 10 through 15. Sorry, I've got that reference here in First Corinthians three and verse 10, Paul writes to them, According to the grace of God given to me like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it, for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work, each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Now it's clear here that Paul is building on the same parable the Lord Jesus spoke in Matthew six that we read at the start of our class. Once we receive that foundation stone, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, we have two choices of how we can build on it. We can either build on it with the treasure of gold, silver and precious stones, or we can use wood, hay and stubble. We can build with materials that wear away, or that are quickly destroyed in a fire, or we can use materials that will last forever and stand up to the temptations and the trials of life. And so we have here a symbol of the characteristics that we need to be working on in ourselves that reflect the foundation that our lives are built on. Do we have characteristics that can withstand the trials and the fires of this life, or will they crumble and fall when we are put to the test? Now I know we all stumble and we all fall. That's just the curse that is our nature. We're going to fail when we pass through fiery trials. But the true test of our character is if we get back up again when we fall and try our very best to continue on and make the effort to remove that stumbling block from our path. That is how we build upon our foundation with gold and silver and precious stones by strengthening our faith and looking to our Redeemer, Christ Jesus, who we have to rely on for forgiveness. Now, while we're on this topic or this idea from Paul of the foundation, I'd like to take a short detour to two references that highlight another treasure that's found in scripture. Now we went to references on gold and silver, and now we'll see the importance of precious stones. You don't have to turn it up. I'll put this up on the screen. But at 1 Peter, chapter two, in verses three through seven, Peter says, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. And skipping down to verse nine, Now the other thought that comes to mind when we're considering the stone that is the Lord Jesus Christ is the image spoken of in Daniel, chapter two, the image of the nations of man. Now this image was made of precious metals, not precious to God, because they are all grounded to dust, but precious to a man from precious to the man who was Nebuchadnezzar, which he saw in his dream. And in Daniel two and 45, Daniel tells the king that he saw a stone that was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. I've often imagined this stone that is the stone that he says is cut without hands to be a rough misshapen rock, like many of the images and our libraries depicted. But after reading this passage in Peter, it's hard to see it as anything other than a flawless gemstone that glistens in the light and is precious. After all, what makes the most valuable gemstone so valuable is the fact that they aren't manufactured or cut. They occur naturally. They're cut without hands. And this great stone that is treasured of God will come and destroy the things that are treasured of men by grinding them into powder. And once it grinds the things of men into powder, Daniel says that it grows into a great mountain that covers the whole earth. One day, very soon, Lord willing, the stone will come and his kingdom will be established and encompass the whole earth. A wonderful vision of what we have to look forward to. But finally, we'll come to 2 Timothy chapter two, verses 19 to 21 to wrap up this idea of the foundation that we're built on. Paul says to Timothy in verse 19 of chapter two, but God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use and some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. This passage is a symbol of the ecclesia of God. Surely the foundation, which is Christ, is sure. And the house that God is building may be filled with some that have the characteristics he's looking for and some that don't. When he comes to inspect his house, he will remove those who lack the precious metals and stones so that only the faithful redeemed will be left. Now is the time for us to be storing up in ourselves the precious metals and stones that will withstand that day of judgment. And we do that by burying ourselves in the word of God, by filling our hearts and our minds with its teachings and building one another up as we work together as an ecclesia. We're given a great example of this and a contrast between two ecclesias in the book of Revelation chapter three.

Now, earlier in our class, we mentioned the ecclesia in Laodicea. We know from history that it was a wealthy city and it flourished under the Roman Empire. It benefited greatly from its position on a trade route and became one of the most important and flourishing commercial cities of Asia Minor. It was known to be a place where large money transactions and extensive trade in black wool were carried on.

In verse 17, he says to the brethren of the ecclesia there, For you say I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Although they may have been very wealthy, spiritually they were miserable, poor, blind and naked. Here was an ecclesia of believers who had stored up for themselves riches on earth and they had put their trust in them. In contrast, we have the ecclesia of Smyrna, who were apparently poor and destitute. The spirit says of them in Revelation two and nine, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich and the slander of those who say that they are Jews are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. Here, even though they were poor in material things, the Lord calls them rich, because they were rich in the things of God. Their faith and their steadfast dedication to the truth, despite their trials, made them precious in God's sight. As someone who grew up in the US and abroad, that was raised in relative luxury, middle class family, it's easy for me to see myself as one of the Laodiceans. If we look around us, it's rare to see someone within our community that lacks all of the creature comforts of life. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but for the majority of us, we live stable financial lives and oftentimes the stuff that we have can distract us from our need for God. Just a thought to consider as we go about our daily lives. Let's not let the things that we're blessed with become a distraction to us in our walk, as apparently the Laodiceans did. Now there's one other precious material that comes up in the Bible that we haven't mentioned yet, and that's the pearl. In another parable of Jesus in Matthew 13, he says that the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. I'm sure this is what it was like for many of us who were not born into our faith. You search and you search for years, sometimes a whole lifetime to find the truth, and once you finally find it, you're willing to give up all you have to obtain it. Many have lost family, friends, and even their own lives for the sake of the truth, because the value of the kingdom is far greater than anything this life can give us. It is truly a pearl of great price. Now the pearl is a unique treasure because it's the only precious material that's formed by an animal. Pearls are only formed by oysters and saltwater and mussels and freshwater when an irritant or a parasite makes its way into the shell of the mollusk. Now once the irritant becomes trapped, the mollusk starts to coat it with a substance called nacre as a defense mechanism, and the unique luster or glow of pearls comes from this nacre. The mollusk coats the irritant with thousands upon thousands of layers of it, and over time, a pearl begins to slowly form. Now how long it takes for the pearl to form is dependent on the growth rate of the nacre, but most pearls typically take anywhere between two to four years to fully develop. It's hard not to feel a bit sorry for the mollusk because in most cases, they have to live their entire life with this irritant inside them. But all the while, they work with the irritant and live with it until eventually they produce something from it that's beautiful and unique and treasured by man. What a beautiful illustration of how we live our lives and service to our Father. We all have different irritants in our life, different trials and struggles, but we can take comfort in knowing that if we work through those trials and use them to develop the character of God, then in the end, we'll have produced a treasure that is precious to our God. The trials of this life are working to develop in us pearls and precious metals. In Acts chapter 14 of verse 21, it says, And when they preached the gospel to the city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, saying, We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. In the Greek, the word tribulations is threepsis, and it means oppressing or pressure. Did you know that the most almost all naturally occurring precious metals and stones only require two conditions to be formed? They need heat and they need pressure. So again, we have this wonderful symbol of how pressure and fire or trials create the characteristics that are treasured by God. There's one last example of precious stones that I'd like to look at today, and that's centered around the ceremonial dress of the high priest. I started this study by simply looking for references of treasure of treasure and precious stones or gold and silver in the Gospels. And when I started looking at the fine clothing that the scribes and the Pharisees used to wear that Jesus warns his disciples not to long for, I came across this picture of the high priest. What's shown here was a special garment that only the high priest wore. So it's not what Jesus was referring to in his parable. But all the same, it made me want to look closer at the ceremonial garments. And if you notice on the breastplate of the high priest, there are 12 gems. This has great significance because everything in the law was for a purpose, and it was a foreshadowing of what was to come. Paul tells us that the law was a schoolmaster that brought us to Christ. The high priest especially and everything pertaining to him was significant because the Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest and mediator and took over the role of the high priest from the descendants of Aaron. To see this, we'll have to go to Exodus chapter 28. And in this chapter, we have a description of the high priest garments. The garments that it says in verse two were made for Aaron for glory and for beauty. And in verse three, they were there to consecrate him. So in verse four, we're told, and these are the garments with which they shall make a breastplate and an ephod and a rogue and a broider coat, a miter and a girdle. And they shall make holy garments for Aaron, my brother, and his sons that he may minister unto me into the priest's office. And dropping down to verse 15, we have the description of the breastplate where the stones were held. It says in verse 15, you shall make a breastplate of judgment and skilled work in the style of the ephod. You shall make it of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. Shall you make it? It shall be square and doubled a span, its length and a span, its breadth. You shall set in it four rows of stones, a row of sardis, topaz and carbuncle shall be the first row. In the second row, an emerald, a sapphire and a diamond. In the third row, a jasinth, an agate and an amethyst. In the fourth row, a burl, an onyx and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree. There shall be twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They shall be like signets, each engraved with its name for the twelve tribes. And so we have described here this order of stones with all the names of the tribes of Israel. And every stone had a name engraved on it with gold. Now in verse 29, it says, It's not just that it was to be worn on his chest. It specifically says that it should be worn on his heart. And why his heart? Well, because that's what the high priest was supposed to treasure. Jesus told us in the very parable that we're studying, Where your treasure is, there will your heart also be. And so when we consider the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our high priest, who came to lay down his life for his friends, where was his heart? It was focused on the people of God. It was upon the treasure of God, not the treasure of man. Now the people of God, his peculiar people, were written on the very heart of his high priest. And every time he put on the ceremonial robes, he would be reminded of the importance of that treasure. Now we can take this one step farther. Now here is the traditional layout of the stones like we saw in the original picture of the high priest. You can see each stone has a name engraved on it. We have four rows with three stones in each row, just as described in Exodus 28 and verse 17. You shall set it in four rows of stones. However, if we look at the Hebrew word row, which is tour, it can also be translated as a wall round about. So we could translate verse 17 like this. You shall sit it in four walls of stones. If this is the case, then the breastplate would have looked more like this. And if this looks familiar to anyone, it's because you've probably seen this layout before. Only it was in the layout of the camp of Israel when they would make camp each day. Every day, the children of Israel set up camp. And no doubt the Levites and the priests would have been involved in the organization of these movements. They would have been reminded of how they were meant to be a peculiar people, a special treasure to God. Every time the high priest put on the breastplate of precious stones, he would have seen the people laid out by their tribes surrounding the tabernacle and the mercy seat. So now that we have this image in our minds, let's look ahead to the future application of this layout, which we find in Revelation chapter 21. In this chapter, we have a description of the holy city, the New Jerusalem, starting in verse nine, that perfected city that will house the temple of the Most High God, which the angel calls the bride, the wife of the lamb. He says there, Then came one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls full of seven last plagues, and spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. And it had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and at the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. And on the east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Now, this description of the layout of the city sounds amazingly similar to the description of the camp of Israel, and the positioning of the stones on the breastplate of the high priest. In fact, they're almost identical, which cannot be anything more than a deliberate act of the spirit. And so, in the Kingdom Age, we come full circle to a complete fulfillment of what was laid out in the law. The twelve gates of the New Jerusalem, like the twelve stones on the breastplate, will have the names of the twelve sons of Israel inscribed on them, and each gate will stand a judge, one disciple for each tribe of Israel. If we continue on in verse 19 of Revelation 21, we read, And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third a chalcedony, the fourth an emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysalith, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth a chrysophorus, the eleventh a jicent, and the twelfth an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate was one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. If you notice, the foundation of the city is no longer made of one stone than the Lord Jesus Christ that was spoken of by Paul. The foundation of this perfected city is made up of twelve different stones, just like the twelve stones that are listed in Exodus 28 for the twelve tribes. This new foundation is made up of those who dedicated themselves to the work of God and spreading his gospel message and allowed the pressure and the fiery trials of life to transform them into jewels, precious stones that can be used by our Father to fulfill his purpose. And each gate is made of pearl, the pearl that, as we pointed out earlier, is formed from the constant struggle with irritants in our life, but through perseverance and hard work is transformed into something precious. This is what we have to look forward to in that great kingdom age, the age when, Lord willing, we can be added into this glorious city of beauty and light, so that we, in turn, can reflect that light of our Father to the world around us. As someone pointed out to me that each gemstone that we find in these lists have no luster of their own. If you have it sitting on the ground, it's not bright, it doesn't look like anything special, but when you shine a light through it, it becomes radiant and beautiful. And that's a perfect example of what we are to our God. If we put on the characteristics of his son and are transformed into a gem, we can have the light of God shown through us and we become beautiful to the world around us. So as we face the trials of this life in the coming week, let us try and forget about vainly storing up for ourselves the riches of this earth that can be eaten by moths, tarnished by rust, or that can be stolen away from us by thieves. But let us rather store up within ourselves the treasures of heaven so that when our Lord does come, we will appear to him as polished gems and precious pearls fit to be added to his city.

Transcript

So tonight what we're going to do, we're going to pick up on a study that I had put together a few years back, actually when we were still living in California during the COVID era. At that time, we were all kind of sequestered in our homes and I was asked to give a series of five classes on the parables of Jesus from the book of Matthew. And so just to kind of give you an idea of, you know, kind of the layout of the studies and I believe the last time we met, I went through this class called Moth, Rust and Thieves. So that was kind of looking at the treasures and some of the parables that Jesus spoke in Matthew 6 regarding those. But tonight I'd like to share the final class that I did in this series, that's the one highlighted in red there, the patched cloth, wine skins and new wine. So to understand this parable, it's important for us to understand the context in which the Lord told them and what the situation around him was. So in addition to this, it's very helpful to add accounts of the other gospels and the gospels that they record and what the different writers put down. It fills in more of the detail or it gives another perspective of the events. And in the case of this dual parable, we'll look at Mark chapter 2 and Luke chapter 5. All three of these accounts add a piece of detail that's essential to understanding what the Lord was trying to teach his disciples and the Pharisees that were questioning him. So let's start by reading the account from Matthew chapter 9. It's in Matthew chapter 9 and we find this at verse 9 through 17. So in Matthew 9, starting at verse 9, it says, And as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we in the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wine skins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But the new wine is put into fresh wine skins, and so both are preserved. All right, so at this point in Matthew's record, Jesus is in the city of Capernaum, and he's just finished healing a man that was paralyzed. And as he's walking down the street, he sees Matthew sitting at the customs table. And we are told why he's sitting there in this account. Maybe he was, we have to assume maybe he was paying his taxes, or he was meeting with someone who worked there. But if we go to the Luke 5 account, Matthew is actually called Levi, and the Gospel of Mark does the same. Levi or Matthew is initially seen as sitting at the tax booth, which if we read Luke's account, we learn that this was his place of employment or his business. So if we, I think just for context, we'll go ahead and pull that up. That's Luke chapter 5 and verse 27. This is Luke's edition of the account. It says in verse 27 of Luke 5, After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. There's no doubt from Luke's account that Matthew was a tax collector. His employment would have made him a figure of contempt for many of his Galilean contemporaries. One such commentator noted that there's a measure of debate over just how heavily Roman and Herodian taxation was felt in Galilee. But most propose that the issue was pretty sore. The actual collection of taxes was contracted out to private tax collectors, so the Romans didn't have to send a man to perform the job. Tax collector, what would happen is they would pay the tax for his entire territory up front. And then he would take the individual collected taxes from the people later, which would mean that Levi or Matthew would have had to be fairly wealthy before. It says that he left everything and he followed Jesus. So to make this business profitable, he had to charge his fellow Jews more than the actual tax rate. And then he would pocket whatever the markup was. By doing this, the Roman authorities would delegate the politically sensitive work of tax collection to members of the local community. But it led to a high rate of effective tax, and it opened the doors for all sorts of corruption. We see this in the example of Zacchaeus. When Jesus calls Zacchaeus out of the tree in Luke 19 and 8, it says, And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, since he also was a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Now in Luke 19 and verse 8, the people respond to Jesus going into Zacchaeus' house the same way that they respond to Matthew. They call him a sinner. This is most likely because he was extorting the people by charging them more than what they actually owed to the Romans. Now the fact that we initially encounter Matthew in his tax booth means that he is, in effect, a living symbol of Roman occupation and a reminder of the fact that some Jews were willing collaborators with the Romans. The link made in all three accounts between tax collectors and sinners reinforces these negative associations. Luke also tells us that it is in fact Matthew's house where Jesus and his disciples go to have a meal with Matthew and his colleagues. Continuing on in Luke 5 and verse 29, it says, And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with him. And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And they said to him, The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. 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. 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. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. And we don't know what transpired after Jesus called Matthew to follow him, but it appears something significant happened, because Matthew decides to throw a banquet for Jesus and his disciples, and he invites all of his friends and his colleagues. Very possible Zacchaeus was a part of those colleagues. And now we find Jesus with all the deplorable members of society, fishermen, tax collectors, and sinners, reclining with them at table. Now, I used to always think it was weird when it said that they reclined at table. The only thought that came into my mind, and this is a cultural thing, was that all of them had lazy boys, and they all leaned back at the dinner table, and they were fully extended, eating off dinner trays. It wasn't until I was invited to an Iftar feast with a Muslim friend of mine in Qatar that this phrase finally made sense. Traditionally, all meals in the ancient Middle East, and even today, were eaten on the floor, and what they call Majolus seating. At the evening meal, everybody would sit around this open space, or around a low table, and food would be brought in on trays, and everyone would eat off the same tray. You take a piece of bread or a sop, and you reach your hand into the center of the tray for each bite or serving, which really brings new meaning to Mark 7 when the Pharisees question Jesus for not commanding his disciples to first wash their hands before they ate. It's definitely not a dish you want to share with someone who has dirty hands. So, after the meal was done, everyone would have stayed where they were, and reclined back on these seats, and talked with the group. Culturally, after the meal is when business would be discussed, or when more serious matters of the gathering were brought up. This would have been the time when Jesus would teach his followers, and in many cases, show them the error of their ways. However, before the meal is even finished, the Pharisees, who must have followed him into the banquet, began to question his disciples. We're told in Mark's account in chapter 2 and verse 16, And the scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. I can't help but think that the question was posed to the disciples quietly, while Jesus was mid-sentence speaking to Matthew and his friends. And Jesus would have halted what he was saying, and spoken up to the Pharisees so that all could hear. And what Jesus and his disciples were doing was a foreign concept to the Pharisees, who would never associate themselves with such people. It was below them to reach out to those who were sick and in need of care, for fear of making themselves unclean.

And as the meal continues, the Pharisees pose another question. Now that they have insulted Jesus' company, they decide to question the quality of his disciples. It says in Mark chapter 2 and verse 18, Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and the people came and said to them, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? Now, they could have been fasting for many reasons. It's possible that the disciples of John were fasting because John had been arrested at this point, or simply because it was the tradition of the Pharisees and those who followed them to fast often and visibly. Jesus had just finished telling his disciples on the mountain that when they fast, not to do it where other men could see, like the hypocrites did. And to this question the Lord responds, As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. And then he continues by presenting them with this parable of patching an old garment with new fabric, and filling an old wineskin with new wine. It appears that while he's delivering this answer to them, a ruler rushes into the feast and begs Jesus to come to his home and raise his daughter from the dead. And because of this, we don't get to see the response of the Pharisees or the disciples of John. But I can imagine them going home that night, scratching their heads, trying to figure out why Jesus responded to them in this way. Or maybe they didn't. Maybe this was a clear cultural example that would have conveyed his point to them as clear as day. I tend to lean towards the first idea, but maybe some of them got it. If they didn't, then I'm sure they were in the same boat as many of us were when we first read it, and where I was when I began this study. First, it may be beneficial for us to try and understand some of the cultural nuances of this parable by looking into the physical elements. Let's start by looking at the old cloth and the new patch. Brother John Carter paints an interesting picture of the inspiration Christ may have had for this parable. He brings to mind an image of the Lord and his boyhood in a cottage home with eight or nine mouths to feed, where there may have been an anxious Mary that had to stitch and repair garments often to keep her children clothed and tidy. It may have been that a suitable patch was not available when one of them tore a cloak or a robe, and one of the children suggested that a new piece of fabric be cut to supply the patch. It's a child's solution to a pressing need. However, as the Lord explained in his parable, the new cloth is not worn in like the old garment, and once worn in, it will tear away from the old. This practice of mending torn clothes is something that's a bit foreign to us now. Nowadays, when you tear your clothes or you get a hole in them, you just get new ones. But it wasn't always that way. Even I can remember a time when I was a kid my mom's sewing patches in my blue jeans when I'd scrape the knees out, and I'm sure some of you out there had similar experiences as well. At least up until it became fashionable to have holes in your jeans, then nobody patched them anymore. But even though this fixed the problem temporarily with enough play and climbing trees, eventually my jeans always wore out again and the patch would start tearing away and we'd be right back where we started. Now, the next parable of the new wine and old skins is also something that would have been commonplace in the culture of the Jews and those living alongside Christ, but less familiar in our times. The process of making wine in this time period lends a lot to the reason the Lord chose this element in his parable. The grapes grown to make wine would have been stamped in a wine press, somewhat similar to this one. The grapes would be poured into this upper deck, this upper deck up here. I don't know if you guys can see my pointer. Yeah, so this upper deck up here is where a lot of the grapes would be stamped and then they would fall down these holes and come into the lower areas down here. So when they came down to the lower areas, that's where the first stage of fermentation would take place. And because of this activity, it was called the tumultuous stage. Now, wine put into either old or new skins before this process would complete would burst the containers because of the gases released from the liquid in the fermentation process. Now, after three or four days, the wine is transferred to secondary containers and the containers were often partially tanned goat skins somewhere, something like this image here. The openings where the legs and the tail would have been were sewed up, leaving only the hole at the neck, which would be firmly tied when the skin was filled. And when the tumultuous stage is passed, a new skin would yield to the expanding gases just enough to allow fermentation to complete. However, once the skins are stretched in this way, they could not be stretched again. And if they were, they would crack and break, spilling the wine. Both parables are answers to the same question. Both introduce elements of old and new and both conclude that if you add something new to the old, the old will break. Well, I did end up doing a bit of digging into different interpretations of these parables. And I'd like to share one with you that I think is the wrong answer. And then one I feel is a better answer. And maybe the one that our Lord intended. Expositors have been scratching chins and nodding heads over this parable for a long time. The expositions that I found dated as far back as 1954, and still some came from the 70s and 80s and 90s. And no doubt long before this, there were countless others that have been lost to time. The meaning of the parable to so many is seemingly obvious. Most are in agreement that the new garment represents the gospel, grace, the kingdom, and the church. And the old garment represents the old covenant, the law, and Judaism. No one tears a new garment to patch an old one. Grace and law do not mix. Similarly, the new wine is the gospel, grace, the kingdom, and the church. And the old wineskin is the old covenant, the law, and Judaism. Just as new wine would burst the old skins and be spilled, so too the new covenant gospel would be wasted if it was poured into the old covenant, the legalistic, mosaic religion of Judaism. Now, many have agreed that the old wine or old wineskins and the old coat are all symbols of Judaism and law, whereas the new wine and the new coat are symbols of Christianity and grace. The harmony of this interpretation of Jesus' words has been so standardized in Christian thinking that in one such commentary the term old wine was figuratively used to refer to Judaism as a whole. One commentator summarized it this way. He said, traditional interpretation of the double parable can be summed up in one word, incompatibility. It's supposed to teach that the old and the new wine are incompatible, that Judaism is incompatible with Christianity. The old is worn and obsolete. The church must be a new and separate movement, not a patch attempting to prolong the institutions of the old covenant. The new covenant was erased and replaced the old. This meaning of the double parable seems obvious to so many. However, personally, I disagree with this interpretation, and I'll explain why. While there may be elements of it that are true, I don't believe that was what Christ was intending to teach the scribes, the Pharisees, and even the apostles of John in this instance. It's clear from his teachings that Jesus did not believe the law was incompatible with his teachings. In Matthew 5 and 17, he says, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus did not come to nullify the law, but to show its true meaning and interpretation, which have been lost to the legalism and tradition of the Jewish spiritual leaders. Perhaps one of the greatest points one might bring up to discredit this interpretation is the last thing Jesus says to the Pharisees in this very parable. In verse 39 of Luke 5, Jesus says, And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. If the old wine represents Judaism, and the new represents Christianity, then in Jesus' parable, everyone would prefer the old. No, I think there's something else the Lord was trying to get at here, and it's a direct response to the reason the scribes and Pharisees were asking their questions about Jesus' company and his disciples. The context in which these parables occur is a narrative involving how Jesus chose his disciples. All of Luke chapter 5 and the first 16 verses of chapter 6 string together several stories which deal with the calling and selection of the disciples. Luke 5 and verses 1 to 11 records the story of the first miraculous catch of fish during Jesus' invites. Sorry, it involves the story of the first miraculous catch of fish where Jesus invites James, John, and Peter, and by inference, Andrew, to become his disciples. The narrative concludes in Luke 5 and verse 11 where the fishermen leaving their boats, their nets, and the miraculous catch to follow Jesus. It then turns aside to relate two short healing stories in Luke 5 verses 17 to 26, but it returns to the calling of the disciples with the call of Matthew in Luke 5 and 27 and 28. And like the fishermen, Matthew leaves everything and follows Jesus. He then holds a banquet for Jesus, and at this banquet, the Pharisees' level criticism aimed at Jesus' disciples. They ask his disciples, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? They ask Jesus, why don't your disciples fast and pray like John's disciples and like our disciples? Both questions are criticisms of Jesus' disciples and his choice of company. He replies to the question on fasting with the bridegroom statements in Luke 5 and 34 and verse 35, and then he tells the double parable. Now, following the double parable, Luke 6 begins with a short story that at first seems unrelated to the concerns of choosing disciples. In the story from the beginning of Luke 6, the Pharisees challenged Jesus on Sabbath issues, but it's in fact the disciples' behavior that the Pharisees criticized, not the behavior of Jesus. Turn over to Luke chapter 6. I'll read just a couple of verses there. Luke chapter 6, beginning at verse 1. It says, on a Sabbath, while he was going through the grain fields, his disciples plucked and ate some of the heads of grains, rubbing them together in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath? And Jesus answered them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry? He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those with him. And he said to them, the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. They accused the disciples of breaking the Sabbath by picking the heads of grain and husking them in their hands. Again, the criticism is directed towards Jesus' choice of disciples. Now, Luke has gone to some pains to demonstrate the unsavory character of Jesus' choice and followers, at least from the perspective of the scribes and Pharisees. They were fishermen, they were tax collectors and sinners. They're feasting and drinking instead of fasting and praying. They bungle Sabbath observances to feed their stomachs.

Outwardly, they are not the pious type. They're not the types to follow in the tradition of the disciples of the Pharisees. They haven't been educated with the sages or the religious elite of the day. In this regard, they're like new wineskins or a fresh uncut piece of cloth for Jesus to work with. There is nothing of the old traditions and rituals of the elite to wash away. This is not to suggest that the disciples had no education. One commentator noted that a primary education in Jesus' day involved an extensive memorization of Scripture and knowledge of the Torah. Educational standards in Galilee may have even surpassed those of Judah. So even fishermen and tax collectors had received training in the Scriptures. However, only the very gifted went on to study beyond the age of 12 or 13 and only the truly exceptional or perhaps wealthy went on to become disciples of the sages. Now, the Pharisees up to this point in the gospel narrative were not yet opponents of Jesus, but were probably still contemplating whether or not to become his disciples. They couldn't understand Jesus' choice of disciples and must have been baffled that he hadn't yet approached them with the position. At Matthew's banquet, they criticized the coarse character and behavior of those around him. Jesus responded with a double parable, which in essence explained to the Pharisees why they were not qualified for the job of disciple and why the deplorables of society, which he chose to associate with, were. The double parable is not an attack against Judaism or the law. It's simply an explanation of his choice of disciples. In essence, Jesus was saying to the Pharisees, look, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. We can now understand how the double parable answers the question about fasting. They said, John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, which is to say, so do we. But yours go on eating and drinking. Jesus' statements about the bridegroom answered directly to the issue of fasting, but the double parable answered to the broader criticism being raised. That criticism was that Jesus' disciples were not at all like the disciples of John or the Pharisees. Now, this interpretation of the parables also solves the problem raised by Luke 5 in verse 39. And no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new, for he says the old is good. If the parable is comparing Jesus' teaching, new wine, with the Pharisee's teaching, which is the old wine, the meaning becomes perfectly clear. Disciples who have already studied the Torah under the Pharisaic schools or under the tutelage of John and have learned to interpret according to those traditions and models will be unlikely to be interested in a new approach. Those students will be apt to disregard contradictory teaching because they have already formed opinions and made judgments. They will regard the education they have already received as superior, and they will tear away from the new. Jesus, therefore, chose fishermen and tax collectors precisely because of their lack of formal education. This lack of formal education is brought up again in Acts chapter 4, when the Sanhedrin questions Peter and John. In Acts 4 and 13, Luke writes, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. On that day, when two poorly educated fishermen stood before the Sanhedrin, they demonstrated the full caliber of their education under Jesus and vindicated his choice of disciples. New garments, new wine skins, and new students. These, brothers and sisters, are the type of people that the Lord is looking for in his kingdom. Of course, we don't have to be the dregs of society, but it's certainly a lesson to us when we consider who we see fit to hear the word of God. James warns us of this in James chapter 2. He says, You sit here in a good place. While you say to the poor man, You stand over there or sit down at my feet. Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? We may scoff at this and think, we'd never do this. But for many, it's an unconscious bias, and it may not be someone's clothes that we judge. Maybe it's their age. Maybe it's their nationality or the color of their skin. We all bring with us into the Ecclesia our life experiences and our secret prejudices. And whether we like it or not, whether we admit it or not, it's in our nature to behave this way. The goal of a follower of Christ is to throw off these chains that prevent us from sharing the love of God to all and see everyone around us as a potential servant of Christ. Jesus looked around the nation of Israel, and he saw the strict, pious, dedicated servants of the Pharisees and even his beloved cousin John, and knew that because of their training and their preconceived notions of what a disciple should be, they would not accept his teaching. Like the fishermen and the tax collectors, we must be blank slates for the Lord, leaving our preconceived notions of law and legalistic thinking behind. This interpretation of the dual parable also brings new light to Christ's teaching from Mark chapter 10. In Mark 10 and 13, we read this, and they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belong the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. This passage has always made me think, because before having children of my own and going through the process of teaching them about God and the kingdom, it was hard for me to understand this. The word that Jesus uses here for child is the Greek word paideon, and it gives the impression he's speaking of very small children. Some translations use the phrase little child. So how do we receive the kingdom of God like a little child? Well, it may help to look at some of the attributes of young children. Children are joyful. Not all the time, obviously, but in general, kids can find joy and delight in just about any situation. Everyone else in the room is bored and tired, and little kids will be running around, laughing and playing and having a grand old time. One may argue that that's because they're ignorant, but it's not their ignorance that makes them joyful. They're joyful because of what they focus on. They're not yet distracted by the cares and worries of the world. A child doesn't know about what's happening on Capitol Hill or even why it should matter. They don't worry about paying the bills or if they're going to make it to work on time. They care about playing games and doing things that make them laugh and feel loved. We may be less ignorant than children, but we too can have the same joy if our faith is unhindered by fearful distractions. Jesus told the story of a man who joyfully sold everything he had to buy land that had a hidden treasure. There was risk involved, and the man could have been fearful about his investment, but his focus was on the reward. The kingdom is a priceless treasure, so the prospect of entering it should bring us great joy. Children are also trusting. When my kids were smaller, they had absolutely no hesitation in jumping off the couch or a jungle gym into my arms. The words, catch me, were hardly out of their mouths before they would leap. No doubt in their mind that their daddy would catch them. Is this the way we behave with our God? Do we trust in him beyond the shadow of a doubt that he will care for us, watch over us, and protect us? Obviously, I'm not implying that we make dumb choices and expect God to save us from them, but do we trust in him wholeheartedly that he's going to do what he said he would? When we think of examples of trust in the Bible, David is perhaps the strongest of all. The Psalms are littered with verses, with verse after verse of declarations for trust in the Lord. In Psalm 9 and verse 10, he says, And those who know your name put their trust in you. For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Psalm 22 and 5 says, To you they cried and were rescued. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. Psalm 52 and verse 8, But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. Do we trust in the Lord like this? Do we trust that he's going to set up his kingdom on this earth? To accept the kingdom of God like a little child, we must trust in him and believe that it will happen. In addition to these, we know that little children are innocent. They're not perfect, but they have a level of innocence that no adult could pretend to have. They're not tainted by the ways of the world. The children that came or were brought to Jesus came with pure intentions. This is related to Jesus' words from Matthew 5 verses 6 through 8, where he says, Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled, and the pure in heart will see God. Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do we crave those things that are pure and good? There's so much in this world that's just vile and filth. Every year, it seems, the entertainers of the world are in competition to see who can come up with the most repulsing lyrics or jokes. Are these the things we take pleasure in? Or are our hearts pure, like the man Job, who God himself said was perfect and upright? This is how little children are. Their minds are pure, and they don't want the things that are dark and disgusting. If we wish to be the disciples of Christ and inherit his kingdom, this is how we should be too, pure of heart and thirsting for righteousness. Finally, little children are dependent. As much as my daughter Adalia wanted to do everything herself when she was little, and still does, she was still completely dependent on my wife Jerusha and I for everything. For her clothes, her food, shelter, and love. No child can obtain any of those things on their own. They must have the help of an adult or a caretaker. Once we become adults, dependency on anything becomes very unpopular in our society. The world teaches us that we should all be independent, self-made, and self-reliant. We are the masters of our own destiny, and we are in control of our own fate. That's the American way. If you follow your dreams and you work hard enough, eventually you can accomplish anything on your own. This, however, is not the spirit of the disciple of Christ. That isn't to say that we don't try, but if we live our lives thinking we can do everything on our own and by our own strength, we'll never stop to see the hand of God in our own life or allow it to work. Matthew 6 and 25 says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? If God provides all the things the animals need, how much more to us if we rely on him? In addition to the physical needs to survive, there's one very important thing that only the Lord can give us, and that's grace. Without grace,

no hope of being in the kingdom. It's only through the gift of God. Ephesians 2 and verse 8 reminds us, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that one may boast. To enter the kingdom of God, we must realize our dependence on him for grace, as a little child depends on their parents for the things they need. So in conclusion, brothers and sisters, we can view the parable of the old garment and the new patch and the old wine skin with new wine as a symbol of the type of disciple the Lord Jesus Christ needs us to be. If we allow ourselves to get caught up in the legalistic, law-driven thinking that leads us to judge others and think that we can earn a position in the kingdom by checking boxes, we will fail and be broken, and the grace of the Lord will be wasted. However, if we approach the kingdom of God like a child, with trust and joy and dependence on the mercy of God, we will be accepted. So let us be as little children, innocent in the ways of the flesh, and honest in our search to please our Heavenly Father as we eagerly await for the return of his Son. Thank you.