Luke 5:36-39
Jesus, the Lord Who Brought Something New
Luke continued to introduce Jesus to the Gentiles, readers who had no
Jewish background. Luke gave us the details of Jesus’ forerunner,
John the Baptist’s, miraculous birth and of Jesus’ miraculous
conception. Then he turned to record Jesus’ ministry. So far, he had
presented Jesus in his ministry as:
1. \\#Luke 4:30-37\\ Jesus, Lord over Sickness and Demons
2. \\#Luke 5:1-11\\ Jesus, the Personal Lord
3. \\#Luke 5:12-16\\ Jesus, the Lord Who Cares
4. \\#Luke 5:17-26\\ Jesus, the Forgiver of Sin
5. \\#Luke 27-35\\ Jesus, the Lover of People
Tonight, we see Jesus presented at "the Lord who brought something
new."
Neither Matthew, Mark, nor Luke present this parable as a stand-alone
event. Notice the conjunction in \\#36\\ "AND." We see it also in
\\#34,33,31\\. It appears that all of this takes place at Levi’s
good-bye feast and all in a conversation with the scribes and
Pharisees, who wanted to know why Jesus and his disciples were not
behaving in a more traditional fashion, avoiding sinners and fasting
were the specific questions being asked.
Jesus had already given a short answer to why He associated with
sinners in \\#Luke 5:31-32\\, namely, they are the ones who need Him.
I would go further to say that they are also the ones who wanted Him.
And I did go further to day that Jesus loved them.
But this parable gives another answer, a bigger picture answer, to
why Jesus did not do things the way others had done.
I. The old did not fit the new.
A. The old is what the religious leaders had.
B. It is a reference to the law and that system of worship.
1. While Jesus did not come to cast away the law…
Mt 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfil.
2. Neither did He come to upgrade it either.
3. We need to understand that the Law was never broken.
a. God never intended the Law to save sinners.
b. The Law’s purpose was twofold.
(1) The Law was given to teach man.
Ga 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith.
(a) Paul said that even he learned what sin was
by the law.
Romans 7:7 …I had not known sin, but by the
law: for I had not known lust, except the law
had said, Thou shalt not covet.
(b) Paul was an educated man, a religious man, a
logical man, but he would not have known
what right and wrong was without the law.
(2) The Law was given to condemn man.
Ro 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the
law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God.
d. So the law’s purpose was never to join man TO God but
to prove to man that he was separated FROM God.
(1) The Law served that purpose quite well.
(2) There was nothing that could be done to the Law
to create a means of coming TO God.
(3) That would be like trying to make an elevator out
of a bobbed-wire fence.
(4) Their purposes are totally different!
4. \\#36\\ In this parable, Jesus was illustrating that
impossibility.
a. The old and the new don’t match any more than a new
patch would match an old, faded garment.
b. The old won’t weave with the new any more than a new
patch would weave with an old, rotted garment.
c. The old won’t hold the new anymore than new wine can
be placed into new skin garments.
(1) This part of the parable is foreign to Americans
for we think of bottles as clay, glass, or
plastic.
(2) Theirs were skins which when new, stretched as
the juice in the skin aged, giving off gases.
(3) But in time, the skins stretched to their limit.
(4) Putting knew wine into the bottle would cause
more gases and with no stretch in the skin, they
would explode and break.
(5) Instead, new wine needed new skin bottles.
5. \\#37\\ The bottom line is that if you attempt to mix law
(the old) and grace (the new), you ruin both of them.
a. Both do their jobs just fine separately.
b. But trying to save someone from sin with the law
will destroy the grace and the law.
(1) One cannot use the Law to save a person.
(2) Neither can one use grace to teach about sin.
(3) These are two separate tasks, both needed to lead
a person to salvation and sanctification.
(4) Let them both do their jobs.
II. Jesus came to bring new.
A. Mankind did not need a new patch but a new garment.
B. He did not need more of what they already had but something
new—even in a new container.
C. Man needed grace.
1. Grace does not destroy the Law.
2. Grace completes it!
Mt 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfil.
a. The Greek word is play-ro-o.
b. It means "to finish, to accomplish, to end, to make
fully, to make perfect.
c. Grace completes Law like a woman completes a man.
(1) The woman finishes the man not by replacing him
but by having gifts and abilities different
from him.
(2) God never intended grace to eliminate the Law
anymore than He intended woman to eliminate the
man.
(3) They are to work together to accomplish the will
of God.
(4) What is God’s will for the Law and grace? Law
does the condemning and grace does the saving!
D. A principal - We do not make grace stronger by weakening the
Law. Rather, we make grace necessary by preaching the Law.
III. The Jewish leaders only wanted the old.
A. Like in the parable, they thought the old was better.
Luke 5:39 No man also having drunk old wine
straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old
is better.
B. This rejection of the new is what put the Jewish leaders at
odds with Jesus.
C. Luke show us that in chapter six by pointing out two
particular Sabbath Days.
1. \\#Luke 6:1-5\\
a. Notice Luke’s numbering.
Luke 6:1 And it came to pass on the second
sabbath after the first…."
(1) I don’t think Luke was counting weeks here. (This
numbering has caused confusion for many.)
(2) I think Luke was counting Sabbaths that had an
instance with the Jewish religious leaders.
b. The disciples pluck and eat raw corn on the Sabbath.
c. The Jewish leaders protest.
d. Jesus answered that " the Son of man is Lord also of
the sabbath."
2. \\#Luke 6:6-11\\ Jesus healed a man with a withered hand
on the Sabbath, angering the Jewish leaders.
D. What is happening?
1. It would appear that Luke was listing the three Sabbaths
that offended the Jews.
a. \\#Luke 4:31\\ When Jesus first came to Capernaum, He
cast out a demon right in the synagogue. Nothing was
said by the religious leaders at the time, but they
are starting to say something now.
b. \\#Luke 6:1-5\\
c. \\#Luke 6:6-11\\
2. Why? Because they demonstrate the Jewish leaders
determination to stay with "their version" of the old.
a. On the one hand, you want to commend them for their
determination to be faithful to what they believed
was right.
b. On the other hand, they have to be condemned because
of their pride, deceit, their inability and
unwillingness to be taught, along with their evil
sinfulness.
c. They, like we, need to understand that if you have to
do wrong to defend your version of right, it isn’t
right at all.
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