Sinners, Wineskins and the Sabbath (Luke 5:27-6:11)
Sermon Link
Sinners
Jesus continues with his mission to seek and save the lost. To do so, he does not choose the theologically trained, moral upright, or the spiritually disciplined. He chooses people like Levi the tax collector, who is worse than your average sinner. Jesus chooses all types of sinners from all types of backgrounds, and accomplishes the impossible. These sinners are united not by a common past, but by Christ alone and the future they share in Him. After immediately leaving his promising sinful career, Levi’s rejoicing leads him to unashamedly put Jesus on public display by holding a banquet to celebrate. The observing Pharisees were outraged to see Jesus in the midst of sinners. They mistook salvation to come through segregation from sinners rather than through association with Jesus and His people. The Pharisees of our day are those in the church that maintain a critical spirit about differences they have with others. They are those that would rather remain segregated from the drug addict, the homosexual, the post-abortive parent, the AIDS infected, etc. rather than risk discomfort as they influence them with the Gospel.
Levi’s rejoicing in Jesus led him to introduce Him to his friends. What opportunities do you have in your life to put Jesus on public display? How might you take better advantage of those opportunities?
The Pharisees with their critical spirit are never those outside the church, but inside. Are there hints of a pharisaical heart in any areas of your life?
Wineskins
It is absurdly inappropriate for someone to fast while they are at a wedding feast. Since Jesus, the Bridegroom, was with the disciples, it did not make sense for them to fast. We now live in a day of both feasting and fasting: we feast because we have the Spirit of the Bridegroom, and we fast because we long for the person of Christ to come. The Pharisees could not understand why Jesus’ disciples were not fasting because they were too preoccupied with the “old” (Judaism) to see the “new” (Christ). Jesus did not come to patch up Judaism, but to make all things new and give new garments of righteousness. He did not come to fill the old wineskins with something new, but to provide new wineskins of grace filled with the wine of His Holy Spirit.
– How might we more fully feast on the presence of Christ by His Spirit? How might we cultivate a heart of greater longing for Christ to come fully?
– What are some ways in which we wrongly try to use Jesus as a patch on the old garments of our life, rather than throwing out the old garment entirely?
The Sabbath
The Pharisees were knowledgeable in the Law, but they wrongly interpreted it and misapplied it to themselves and others. While focusing on the Sabbath, they missed the Lord of the Sabbath, and they were more concerned with critiquing others than they were with showing compassion. The Pharisees wrongly used one Scripture to usurp another based on personal preference. Bringing the crippled man before all the Jews, Jesus exposes their self-righteousness. It was not wrong to help the man; it was wrong not to. The Sabbath is for rest and regaining strength for further work, not for prolonging disability.
– The Pharisees gave excessive importance to lesser issues, and were lazy and lax about the larger, more primary issues. What are some of the lesser issues that we are prone to be overly focused on? What are the primary things to which we should give most importance?