September 7, Grandparents Day

September 7, 2003 - Lesson: Matthew 9.14-17

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INTRODUCTION:

An old story tells of a company attempting to start a new pension plan, which required 100% participation. Every employee signed up except one. No amount of argument or persuasion could get this person to change his mind.

Finally, the president of the company called the man into his office. "Here is a copy of the proposed pension plan and here is a pen," he said. "Sign up or you're fired." Whereupon the man immediately picked up the pen and signed his name.

The president of the company then said, "I don't understand why you refused to sign until now. What was your problem?"

The man replied, "You're the first person who explained it to me clearly."

1. Jesus is the person who explains it to us clearly.

1. Unlike the president of the company there is no coercion.

2. There is only the desire to provide clear and precise information.

3. There is the desire that those who hear may understand, accept, and accomplish.

2. In the words of the song: "Open My Eyes, That I May" See: Words & Music: Clara H. Scott ⁽¹⁾

1
Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.

Refrain
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

2
Open my ears, that I may hear
Voices of truth Thou sendest clear;
And while the wave notes fall on my ear,
Everything false will disappear.

Refrain

3
Open my mouth, and let me bear,
Gladly the warm truth everywhere;
Open my heart and let me prepare
Love with Thy children thus to share.

Refrain

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MAIN BODY:

1. The initial question is about fasting.

¹⁴Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?" ¹⁵And Jesus said to them, "The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

1. For you and me, the question could become a diversion.

1. Jesus did not appoint a day of fasting.

2. He said that there would be times when it would be helpful.

2. If we concentrate on fasting we might miss the more important statement which follows.

3. It is here that Jesus says:

¹⁶No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. ¹⁷Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved," (Matthew 9:14-17, NRSVA).

1. The imagery is not hard for us to understand.

1. You would not sew a piece of unshrunk cloth on a garment that was already shrucken.

2. New wine should not be put into old wineskins which had become rigid and brittle.

3. The fermentation process would force the skin beyond its capacity to contain the process.

2. Both the garment and the wine would be lost.

4. Jesus did not come to patch a system.

1. He came to create a new system.

2. This is what he is seeking to communicate.

2. It is important for us to identify what is meant by the new and the old and how the two relate to one another.

1. The old garment and the old wineskins represent the old system, the Old covenant.

2. The new piece of cloth and the new wine represent the New Covenant.

3. It is now to the creation and understanding of the covenant to which we ought to turn to clarify our understanding and our need.

1. The Old covenant was created between God and the Israelites at Sinai.

1. Old Covenant: Exodus 19.1-8; Exodus 24.3-7; Exodus 31.18; Deuteronomy 9.9; Deuteronomy 10:1-5

1. ¹On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. ²They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. ³Then Moses went up to God; the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: ⁴You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. ⁵Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, ⁶but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites." ⁷So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. ⁸The people all answered as one: "Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do." Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD, (Exodus 19:1-8, NRSVA).

2. ³Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do." ⁴And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵He sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the LORD. ⁶Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar. ⁷Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient," (Exodus 24:3-7, NRSVA).

3. ¹⁸When God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God, (Exodus 31:18, NRSVA).

4. ⁹When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, (Deuteronomy 9:9, NRSVA).

5. ¹At that time the LORD said to me, "Carve out two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. ²I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you shall put them in the ark." ³So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴Then he wrote on the tablets the same words as before, the ten commandments that the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly; and the LORD gave them to me. ⁵So I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me, (Duteronomy 10:1-5, NRSVA).

2. We have heard a lot about Justice Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and the sculpture of the Ten Commandments that he had placed in the courthouse.

1. It is important for us to recognize what powerful symbols the commandments are.

2. It is necessary to acknowledge the ways in which good Christian people relate to them.

3. But from what we have learned the 10 commandments from the basis for the Old Covenant.

4. Is it fair to say that if you hold to the Ten Commandments than you are in a position living within the Old Covenant?

3. We do not observe the old rules, the fast days, nor the holy days, nor the Sabbath days of Judaism.

4. One other point that may or may not be helpful.

1. The fourth commandment is not "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."

2. The whole of the fourth commandment in Exodus 20:8-11, NRSVA) reads: ⁸Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁰But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work--you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

3. If you are going to hold to the 10 Commandments then do you need to observe the seventh-day Sabbath?

4. It would seem so.

5. How does that relate to the New Covenant?

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1. We are to be people of the New Covenant

1. Jeremiah 31.31-34; Luke 22.20; 1 Corinthians 11.25; 2 Corinthians 3.6; Hebrews 8.8-13

1. ³¹The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³²It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. ³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more, (Jeremiah 31:31-34, NRSVA).

2. ²⁰And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, (Luke 22:20, NRSVA).

3. ²⁵In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me," (1 Corinthians 11:25, NRSVA).

4. ⁶who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life, (2 Corinthians 3:6, NRSVA).

5. ⁸God finds fault with them when he says:

    "The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah;
⁹not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors,
    on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
for they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.
¹⁰This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
    after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
    and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
¹¹And they shall not teach one another
    or say to each other, 'Know the Lord,'
for they shall all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
¹²For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
    and I will remember their sins no more."
¹³In speaking of "a new covenant," he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear, (Hebrews 8:8-13, NRSVA).

2. Verse 13 is very important, listen to it again: ¹³In speaking of "a new covenant," he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear

1. The new covenant makes the old covenant obsolete.

2. What is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.

3. This is what Jesus attempted to communicate to Nicodemus in John 3

¹Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." ³Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."

⁴Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" ⁵Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'

⁸The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." ⁹Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" ¹⁰Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

¹⁷"Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

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4. The Christian is supposed to live according to the foundation on which the 10 commandments were based.

1. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 22:34-40, NRSVA).

³⁴When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, ³⁵and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" ³⁷He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

1. On these two hang all the law and the prophets.

2. The old was designed by God to teach the principles of love.

2. What it came to was that the people substituted law for love.

1. They would rather have rules than principles.

2. We, I would hope, would rather have principles rather than law.

5. We are called by Jesus to live according to the purity of the Gospel.

1. All that Jesus seeks to teach, to do, is teaching us the meaning, the purpose and the application of love.

2. Jesus said it so clearly in the Gospel of John

1. ¹⁵"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15 (NRSVA)

2. ²¹They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them." John 14:21 (NRSVA)

3. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. John 15:10 (NRSVA)

4. ¹²"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:12 (NRSVA)

CONCLUSION

1. There we have it, what more do we need.

1. We are not to sew a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made.

2. We are not to put new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed

3. We are to put new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both the wine and the wineskin are preserved.

2. May God help us to have eyes that see, ears that hear, and minds that can comprehend and accept and follow in the footsteps of the Savior.

1. Words & Music: Clara H. Scott; first appeared in Best Hymns No. 2, by Elisha A. Hoffman & Harold F. Sayles (Chicago, Illinois: Evangelical Publishing Company, 1895) (MIDI, score). Some hymnals show the author (incorrectly) as "Charles" Scott.

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