Sunday Worship Service March 3, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Ezekiel 11:19
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
Prayer Time
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 134 Sing them over again to me
Offering
Scripture Luke 5:33~39
Prayer
Sermon “New wine into new wineskins”
Prayer
Hymn JBC #656 Give of your best to the Master
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude

In today's Bible passage, people ask Jesus a question:
“John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”
John here refers to "John the Baptist." The man known as John the Baptist was the one who baptized Jesus. John's disciples and the Pharisees frequently fasted and prayed.
However, those who asked this question had the impression that Jesus' disciples, although they believe in the same God, did not seem to fast much, but rather were always eating and drinking.
The passage before today's passage tells the story of a tax collector named Levi, who was sitting at his tax booth when Jesus called out to him, “Follow me”, and he became Jesus’ disciple.

Levi immediately followed Jesus, and he threw a great banquet for Jesus at his house. Levi was very happy that Jesus called him and that he became his disciple.
Many other tax collectors and other people were also invited to the banquet.
During that time, tax collectors were regarded as people who cooperated with the Roman Empire, who ruled the Jewish people, and therefore they were shunned and hated by their fellow Jews because they were regarded as traitors. Tax collectors were seen even as “sinners”.
The Pharisees and teachers of the law, who strictly interpreted the commandments of the scripture (in their own way) and tried to live their lives in accordance to the law, saw Jesus eating with people who were regarded as “sinners” and asked the following question:

“Why do you (Jesus and his disciples) eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:30)

　Those who were called Pharisees and teachers of the law had decided not to eat with tax collectors or sinners, or to associate with them at all. So, for them the act of eating with sinners is unthinkable.
Therefore, they expressed their doubts by asking, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? (Even though it is not right to do so)?”

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
By saying this, Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees and the teachers of law who thought they are righteous, that “all people, including you, are sinners and in need of God's healing and forgiveness”.

　In today's passage, Jesus and his disciples were eating together with tax collectors and sinners, and they don't seem to be fasting much so people may have thought in their hearts that Jesus and his disciples were inferior in terms of religious belief.
In reality, Jesus and his disciples were also fasting. Since the times of the Old Testament, people who believe in God have fasted to express their feelings of sadness, suffering, and also repentance.
There are passages in the Gospels where it is recorded that Jesus himself fasted. It happened when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness before beginning his public ministry of evangelism.

In Luke 4:1-2 (also written in Matthew 4) it says:
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

Jesus fasted for 40 days, resolutely putting himself in a very severe situation, and trying to resist the temptations of the devil with the words of God (the power of God).
Jesus also did not forbid his disciples to fast.
However, Jesus gave the following warnings to his disciples regarding fasting.
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

The original purpose of fasting should have been to express suffering, sadness, and repentance by abstaining from food and becoming hungry, and through hunger receiving more spiritual power from God and increasing one's trust in God.
However, as Jesus points out here, fasting was deviating from such spiritual purposes to a "performance to impress others that you are virtuous and religious."
When Jesus said "hypocrites," he did not refer to only a few certain people at the time Jesus lived, but actually any of us today can become such hypocrites. That’s why we must be careful and keep this in mind.
I hope we can learn from today's passage that we can become like these hypocrites: using even our own faith to fulfill our desires to be proud of ourselves and to be recognized by others.

Fasting and prayer (Jesus also tells us in another passage not to pray in public like hypocrites with too many words) are actions that deepen our relationship with God; they are not ways to show people how religious we are.
Jesus taught his disciples the right attitude towards fasting and prayer. Therefore, Jesus never forbade fasting itself.
But Jesus' disciples didn't seem to be fasting as often as John's disciples and the Pharisees, so people asked, “Why don't your disciples fast instead of eating and drinking?”

Jesus answered as follows. It’s from verse 34-35.
34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”

Jesus answers with a parable. The bridegroom is Jesus himself.
There, Jesus asked the people whether they truly have the joy of knowing that the Savior Jesus Christ, God, was with them.
That means when putting first the joy of knowing that there is God who forgives our sins and lives with us (eats with us), we would never be able to fast and would rather have a grand banquet.
In other words, Jesus was asking those who question the faith of others by saying, “Why don't you fast?” this question: Jesus asked them “Do you really have the joy of faith?”

That question is indeed directed to each of us today. Sometimes it is meaningful to fast and receive spiritual nourishment from God.
However, we must ask ourselves the following question: Do I really have the joy of knowing that “God is with me”, “I am so loved by God that Jesus Christ died for me” as the foundation of our faith? Each of us must take this seriously once again.
Let us once again remember the ultimate joy we have in Christ, in God’s calling, and offer our heartfelt gratitude and joy to God.
However, "the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away" - that is, the time will come when the Lord Jesus will bear our sins and die on the cross in our place.

At that time, Jesus said that His disciples would also do fasting as a form of sincere repentance.
We are currently in the season of Lent. As we remember the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the way to the cross (regardless of whether we actually fast or not), let’s observe the season of Lent with gratitude and repentance (turning our hearts toward God).
　Starting in verse 36, Jesus tells a parable about wine and wineskins: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one.”
New cloth will shrink when washed. So, if we patch old cloth with a part cut from new cloth, the new cloth will also be wasted, and when we wash them, the new cloth will tear the old cloth, ruining the old cloth as well.

Jesus also gives the example of how the force of fermentation of new wine tears the old wineskins apart. (For those of us who don't have the habit of putting wine in a wineskin, this parable may be difficult to understand)
The meaning of this illustration is that Jesus is the one who brings a completely new life and way of life to people, and those who believe in Jesus Christ cannot remain the same as they were before they met Jesus.
This means that you cannot receive the life of Christ while maintaining your old lifestyle.
When you accept Jesus Christ into your life, you are no longer the center of yourself.

If we are the center of ourselves, we will always try to find our worth by boasting to others about our own righteousness and abilities.
Therefore, even acts of faith such as prayer and fasting will become a means of boasting and showing off to others.
However, once we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts and truly make Him the center of our lives, we no longer have any reason to be proud of ourselves. Because there’s no need to do that anymore.
Since Christ is the one to be worshiped, believers in Christ will not find self-value (value of their existence) by boasting their own deeds or abilities.
When this happens, prayer, fasting, and the worship we offer will become acts of heartfelt joy and gratitude. That joy will become the light of faith, and will surely illuminate those around us.
If we are rejoicing in our new life in Christ, then the worship we offer should also be one filled with gratitude and joy. And people will naturally be drawn to such worship.
By encountering Jesus Christ, believing in Him, and allowing Him to live in our hearts, we can no longer remain in our old selves.
Rather, the "old wineskin" of our old "self" was broken through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us live a life centered on Christ and walk the path of a new life led by Christ.