HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

> PRAYER ROOM

> Shepherd’s School APPLICATIONS

> Brasil 10.07 APPLICATIONS

> SPECIAL GIVING

family camp scholarships

metromissions brasil

VAL’S SURGERY - Tomorrow 12:30pm

Matthew 9:14-26 Desperately Driven to Jesus

Matthew 9:14-26 Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not? 15And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

WE REMEMBER From our study of the Sermon on the Mount that there was no law that forced them to fast.

There was ONLY ONE fast that God commanded of Israel - that was on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

However - Some of the Pharisees would fast three days a week.

Jesus called them hypocrites in that they fasted in order to APPEAR to be righteous and as a result receive the PRAISES OF MEN.

As Christians we don’t have to fast become righteous.

Our righteousness is by faith.

We have everything we need for right standing before God in Christ.

But fasting can certainly be a profitable practice in the sense it helps you to bring the flesh under control.

It is not something that you use in order to bargain with God.

It is a wonderful time for me to relinquish the time that would be spent feeding your body to seek the Lord! (TOMORROW FOR VALERIE!)

It is also a wonderful time to lay aside the concerns of the body in order to SEEK THE LORD… to say,

“Lord you know me better than I know myself.

Lord I’m setting my life aside now so that you might reveal more of yourself to me that I might more fully belong to You, Lord.

That you might make clear to me what it is that you want me to do.

I know that there are good works that you have already ordained for me to walk in….. I want to seek you that I might walk in them”

KEY OBSERVATION: Here Jesus speaks of Himself as “the Bridegroom.”

KEY INSIGHT: The Scriptures teach us that the Church (all those who trust Christ) is the Bride of Christ.

Eph. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Rev. 19:7-9 for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.

THIS ILLUSTRATION is rich in it’s meaning and application to our lives.

First - I think Jesus is hinting to them that He is the God of Israel!

Throughout the OT God speaks of Israel as being HIS bride.

So much so that when Israel goes after false gods, He refers to them as adulterers!

So let’s unpack this together!

KEY INSIGHT: The Jewish wedding in the day of Jesus lasted for an entire week.

The bride and groom did not go away on honeymoon.

Instead they stayed at home.

For the entire week their closest friends stayed in their house.

During the day and into the evening the couple rejoiced with their friends and in the evening they would go away into their chamber.

These closest friends were called “children of the bridechamber.”

During that week those friends - the “children of the bridechamber” would know

A joy…. A rejoicing… An abundance…. That might perhaps would come their way only once in a lifetime.

NOTE WELL: Jesus describes Himself as a Bridegroom and His disciples as the bridegrooms closest friends.

How can a company like that be sad?

This was no time for fasting… It was a time for rejoicing.

There are GREAT TRUTHS for us here!

1.) We clearly are told that BEING WITH JESUS not a dreary, drudgery, miserable thing

Religion…trying to work your way to God is drudgery… lifeless… sucks the life out of you!

REMEMBER - Matthew is writing to the Jewish audience.

Matthew was once named Levi -

He was the priest- turned-publican

He KNEW by experience

Not only the hypocrisy of the priesthood of his day

But also the drudgery and lifelessness of legalism and religiosity!

The Pharisees would fast THREE TIMES a week!

They might have gained their false sense of righteousness through such fanatic religious observance.

But they had NO JOY!

BY CONTRAST - Matthew records these words of Jesus so that those trapped in religion could see the JOY in having a relationship with Jesus

Matthew, and those around him, discovered that being with Jesus is a thing of joy!

To be in the presence of Jesus is life itself!

KEY APPLICATION: The man or woman who walks WITH Jesus should have a life marked by FULNESS OF JOY….

Ps. 21:6 NLT You have given him the joy of being in your presence.

1 Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:

2.) Only the joy of knowing Jesus lasts forever.

On the human level - joys come to an end.

On the human level - The wedding feast must end.

Those moments/relationships/events that bring joy to our earthly pilgrimage will end.

Only Jesus remains unchanging… ever-present

3.) Here is a challenging thought -

In these words I can also see Jesus saying to them -

You have experienced the joy that following me can bring….

But there is also in that fellowship with Me hardship and suffering… the shame of the cross….

Are you ready for the joy of knowing the Christian life AND the cross of Christ?

The Christian life would literally bring for these men blood, sweat and tears.

Though none of those things can take away the joy of knowing Jesus… those things must be faced.

4.) By referring to Himself as the bridegroom we also get a glimpse into the unwavering love of Christ for us

As Groom to His Bride He supplies all of our daily needs.

As Groom to His Bride He sympathizes with us in all of our troubles.

As Groom to His Bride He bears with all of our failures and shortcomings…

He never quits on us… will never reject us for our weaknesses.

In fact - He loves us to the very end…. Loves us to completion!

John 13:1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

Eph. 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Phil 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

AMAZING! By faith God joins sinners such as you and I to Jesus!

Not to religious drudgery and ritual….

But to a RELATIONSHIP with Christ that is marked by LIFE and JOY…

A life ENGULFED IN His perfect love!

ALL OF THIS WAS

OUTSIDE of what the average Jew perceived about religion and knowing God…

TOTALLY FOREIGN to… and UNACCEPTABLE to the religious system/leadership of Israel!

16No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent (flawed and damaged in the garment) is made worse.

He is in essence saying - The message that I’m bringing is not a new patch to be put on an old system. I am not trying to patch Judaism.

He didn’t come to FIX the old system… He come to bring life.

Whenever man tries to take a bit of real Christianity and use it to patch up church-ianity or legalist religion… it won’t work…. Won’t hold!

Jesus wanted to teach them

1.) HOW UNFIT the religious system of Israel was to contain such a thing

2.) THE WAY that God works.

TO DO THAT He use an image familiar to all of them in order to convey

17Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

The image was that of the process of fermentation.

You would NEVER put NEW WINE into an OLD WINESKIN.

Over time a wineskin would become rigid and inflexible.

The gases produced in fermentation would burst the old wineskin because it was incapable of stretching.

If you put NEW WINE into an OLD wine skin everything was lost.

The skin and the wine.

KEY POINT: Jesus did NOT come to put the new work of the Spirit into the old wineskins of legalism.

Jesus is saying the system of Judaism had become inflexible.

It was not capable of containing new life.

By the way that’s the story of Church history.

There have been a wonderful and powerful works of God’s Spirit.

Luther… Wesleys/Whitefield….. Welsh Revival

But over time each of those movements became rigid and inflexible….

And they can no longer take any new life.

They start to dry up…. become inflexible and it will fracture.

The same patter has held true even in the non-denominational movements -

Man > Movement > Monument

These ministries that prided themselves as non-denominiation… non-traditional/non-church have turned into franchise and come up with rules.

So then God looks for and prepares a new wineskin…. One that contain a fresh work of His Spirit

He starts something new somewhere else.

NOTE: We have seen a lot of people who feel called to stay in churches that have become in essence old wineskins.

They think God wants them to stay in a particular church and pray for this church.

In reality they are praying that God will put new wine into an old wineskin.

You can stay and do that - but you’re not going to see what you long for in a container that will burst.

EXAMPLE: Look at some of the main line denominations and the positions they have taken on morality and on abortion.

These were movements that once were vessels fit for the Work of the Spirit

It’s TRAGIC to see what’s happened.

EXAMPLE: Look at ministries that began so simple in their love for Christ… so ready to proclaim Christ…. So in love with His Word.

Now they are huge organizations that spend most of their time/energies/resources keeping the organization afloat…..

BUSY…. BIG…..

Filled with political strife more than filled with the Spirit.

INCAPABLE of moving with the leading of the Spirit

UNLESS there’s a God given awakening and revival they will never see life.

The TRAGEDY is that many don’t even know they need to be revived!

KEY INSIGHT: Did you know that revival is not for the unbeliever?

Revival is for the church.

I am desperate when I say this -

MAY GOD KEEP US PLIABLE….

A wineskin that can contain the work of His Spirit!

QUOTE: Pastor Chuck - “Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken.”

CRUCIAL: There is never a NEW MESSAGE or a NEW Gospel….

Christ died to save sinners… ALL have sinned

Man MUST be forgiven… CAN ONLY be forgiven… of His sins through faith in Christ

God MUST always, and CAN only be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth.

Those things can NEVER be changed.

But the ways of EXPRESSING worship and COMMUNICATING truth must be open to change!

Throughout the history of the Church God has moved OUTSIDE of the status quo.

Wesley and Whitefield preached open air because they weren’t allowed to preach within the walls of the Anglican churches.

There was a time when an piano or organ were the ONLY acceptable musical instruments to be used in a church service.

As the Holy Spirit was poured out upon so many young people in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s they began to EXPRESS their love of God in musical forms that were up until that time thought of as demonic!

I do NOT want to become one of those old groups holding on to the way God USED to work.

“Well I remember when we were in the Cimino’s living room….”

I do NOT want to worship the PAST!

The ONLY thing I want to hold on to about those days was that we wanted to be a part of a NEW WORK that God wanted to do!

What would tell me that I am becoming inflexible…. No longer fit for the new work fresh work of the Spirit?

ABSENCE OF JOY… which is evidence that our Christianity is no longer about FELLOWSHIP with Jesus…. That it has has sunk into dry, legalism… religiosity.

REVIVE ME, LORD! REVIVE US, LORD!