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NO RULES, JUST RIGHT
Luke 6:20-26 Dr. Chuck DeVane, Pastor Lake Hamilton Baptist Church Hot Springs, Arkansas May 28, 2017 20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. 22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. 24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. — Luke 6:20-26, ESV This is not an old commercial for Outback Steakhouse. It is a new sermon for the kingdom of God. It presents a paradigm shift, an opposite way of religious thinking and living compared to that which prevailed in Jesus’ day and can still be found in ours. Fresh from recording several conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees, Luke now begins to write what looks like a summary of “The Sermon on the Mount.” In actuality, this was a different sermon preached from a different place than the one recorded by Matthew. Call it “The Sermon on the Plain” (ref. Luke 6:17) if you will. Some of the same images and principles are contained in both sermons to be sure, but great preachers like Jesus often repeat key themes in different settings. The setting here is the conflict between the religious realm of the Pharisees and the kingdom of God offered by the true Messiah and King. To the Pharisees, God was completely transcendent, detached, angry, ripe to punish all of the rule-breakers. In Christ, God draws near, compassionate, forgiving, dying to make people right with Him. To the Pharisees, salvation is earned by doing the right things. In the kingdom of God, salvation is given by a powerful grace that transforms us into the right kind of people. To the Pharisees, earthly well-being was a sign of God’s blessings for complying with their traditions. In the kingdom of God, however, material things do not matter very much, and there are certainly no religious rules to get them. In the kingdom of God there are no rules, just a right standing with God. It is not achieved by works, but given by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the lyrical words of Jesus and look at some of the ways His kingdom differs from the self-righteous song that was sung by the Pharisees. Poor and Rich The Pharisees, prosperity gospel preachers, and secular capitalists actually have a strong principle in common. To them, poverty is an absolute indicator that you have either done something wrong or refuse to do things right. Material riches, however, are the utmost things to be sought, and having them is a sure sign of success. That’s why the Pharisees had no qualms about “devouring widow’s houses” (ref. Luke 20:47), for they considered themselves to be right with God and the poor widows wrong. And though they claimed to be biblical scholars of the highest degree, they couldn’t seem to remember certain words of God (ref. 1 Samuel 2:7; Proverbs 22:2, etc.). Jesus shines a new light on poverty and riches, emphasizing being more than doing, turning things upside down by offering blessings to the poor and woes to the rich. The contrast was clearly aimed at the condition of His handful of followers, mostly poor Galilean peasants, as compared with the well-to-do Pharisees who had looked down on them all of their lives. One group was poor, and not just in spirit. The others were quite rich by first century standards. One group had God in their midst, the other did not know who He was. So, who was truly “blessed” (a spiritually permanent, not an emotionally temporal state of being) and who deserved a “woe” (living under the awful wrath of God)? Jesus does not commend poverty per se, for many of His followers then and now have much in the way of material means. The word Jesus used for “poor” here referred to a crouching, dependent beggar. Aren’t we all? Only those who live in the kingdom of God, however, recognize it. We are dependent upon God for every breath, every piece of bread, and every blessing. In the kingdom of God, riches and poverty are relatively unimportant. Use what you are given to seek blessings, not money. For blessings abound, the kind money cannot buy, for true followers of the true and living God, Jesus Christ. Hungry and Full As night follows day, so hunger follows poverty. No money means no meat, and in Jesus’ day there were no food stamps. Christ’s first followers often followed with stomachs growling, which is why He had to miraculously feed them on at least a couple of occasions. Pharisees in that day, like a lot of fundamentalist preachers in our day, were often found to be fat men, and would refuse to give even a crumb to beggars they referred to as sinners. Like He did at the beginning and end of His public ministry, here at some midpoint the Lord turns the tables upside down. Blessed are the hungry, Jesus said, literally, to those not just hungry for the word of God. Woes are for the fat, or overindulged, according to Jesus. Can you imagine what the food is going to be like in Heaven? And can you imagine the horror for the overeater when he realizes he cannot get any more? Again, Jesus is not saying that malnutrition is a spiritual gift. Yet many believers have literally gone without food for Jesus’ sake. The great Baptist missionary Lottie Moon died of starvation, refusing to deprive the native Chinese of what little bread she possessed. Less seems to be more in the kingdom of God. It is not about what you have, or how much you have, but Who you have that matters. Food is good, even necessary, but spiritual food is what we seek in the kingdom of God, for people will forever starve and die without it. Weeping and Laughter Going to bed at night with your pockets and stomachs empty is hard to take, especially when children are in the house. Surely it is enough to make one weep. On the other hand, the Pharisees were quite fond of mocking and laughing at the unfortunate in their midst. Somehow, in their sick minds, it made them feel better about themselves. The weeping Christ referred to might better be translated mourning. It is painful to experience, even to see, the effects of poverty upon people. It is even more painful to look upon the evidences and effects of sin upon a person, a community, a country. “Jesus wept,” and so should we, over sin, death, and all degradations. Jesus enjoys a good laugh, of this I am certain, but not the kind of pharisaical laughter wrought out of pride devoid of pity. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was once accosted by a parishioner peeved at the preacher who purveyed puns and jokes. Spurgeon told him, tongue in cheek, that the jokes came from his brother, so the man left to look for Spurgeon’s sibling. Laugh, but do not mock. Mourn for the excesses of sin and unbelief in the world. But know that those who live in the kingdom of God will have the last laugh when all is said and done. Blessed are those in the kingdom of God who have weeping and laughing, sin and salvation, in the proper perspective. Persecution and Popularity Following Christ is the proper perspective, albeit not the popular one. An especially unpopular Christians is one who is prophetic. In the kingdom of God, being prophetic is not telling the future, but speaking to the present. It is taking seriously the word of God, our Bibles, and holding its truth up as the source of authority for salvation and spiritual life. Such prophetic believers have always been booed by the world, even from within the visible kingdom. Prophets may be put down by the world but they are championed by God. On the other hand, those who claim the name of Christ and tickle peoples ears as prophets for profit may live in big houses now, but the walls will come tumbling down when they stand before the righteous judge of all the earth. The same is true for those who live a compromised faith for the sake of popularity. It is just not worth it, says the Lord. Once again, Jesus’ pronouncements are absolutely true but not absolute. Just as there have always been sincere followers of Christ who have money, are overweight, and laugh a lot, so there have been epochs of time when great preachers and committed Christians have found some popularity. A lot of them have sold a lot of books, got elected to office, and enjoy successful businesses, all without compromising the word of God. But in the norm of kingdom living, the more favor you find with God, the less you enjoy with men. The obvious point is that it is better to have Jesus with persecution, than to enjoy popularity without Him. The praise of men will not get you to Heaven, only the grace of God. The King and the kingdom is all that matters. The Pharisees lived in a world of rules, but they were not right with God. Christ has come to offer a kingdom without such a long list of rules, where you can become right with God, now and forever. The cost of the kingdom may include poverty, hunger, crying, and persecution. If any or all of these should be given to you, wear them as a badge of honor. The gospel is not meant to make you wealthy in this life, although if you find yourself with money, use it for the glory of God and the good of others. It will not fill you with all of your dietary and other desires, but you will find yourself quite full in the end. It will make you frustrated to the point of tears with how the world works for now, but you will have the last laugh when all your tears are wiped away. And, being a genuine Christian will not make you famous, and could bring infamy in these times, but consider the company you are in. This brings us to an end point where “The Sermon on the Plain” and “The Sermon on the Mount” perfectly coincide. You don’t want rules, you want to be right, with God. So, seek first the King and His kingdom. The rest will take care of itself. Copyright © 2017 Lake Hamilton Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Check out the weekly happenings at Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
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THE KING AND HIS KINGDOM
Luke 6:12-19 Dr. Chuck DeVane, Pastor Lake Hamilton Baptist Church Hot Springs, Arkansas May 21, 2017 12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. 17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all. — Luke 6:12-19, ESV The church is the visible expression of the spiritual kingdom of God. When did this spiritual truth become visible? Some say the birth of Christ was the dawn of the new covenant. Some say it began at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, with the baptism by John and the first four fisherman followers. Some say it started at the end of the first coming, with the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the Messiah, followed in fifty days by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Each claim is valid, but it is actually here, at some midpoint of Jesus’ ministry, that the King went public with His kingdom. The Spiritual King The kingdom of God exists wherever, or in whomever, God is king. But before we say much about the kingdom, we need to understand some things about the king. God is king, Jesus Christ is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is the power behind the throne. God the Father is spiritual and invisible. No one has seen God the Father at any time, yet God has revealed Himself opaquely through the veil of an epiphany or theophany. The Angel of the Lord, the talking donkey, the burning bush, and the fourth man in the fire are all examples of how God has shown up from time to time, but never the Father in the fulness of bodily form. But, when God got ready to show Himself vividly and concretely to the world, He did it in the perfect person and work of His only Son, Jesus Christ. God the Son is spiritual and visible. You can see Him here, in this episode, doing things with a visible body that are entirely spiritual. He prays all night. He appoints representatives, leaders, ambassadors, apostles for His new kingdom. He preaches, heals, loves, and saves, in ways and means you can see, all through the power of the Holy Spirit, whom you cannot see. God the Spirit is spiritual and invisible. The Holy Spirit is like the wind, out of sight but never out of mind. The silent member of the Trinity is not mentioned here, but He is always here, there, and everywhere God is at work in His kingdom and the world. God is spiritual, yet only visible in the person of the Son. To see the Son is to see the Father. To see the Son is to see the Spirit at work. The Lord Jesus Christ is the spiritual and visible king of the kingdom of God. Worldly kings rule by worldly means and offer worldly rewards. Our spiritual king works in spiritual ways and offers spiritual rewards. You can serve worldly kings but you should not worship them. You can worship and serve the spiritual king, Jesus Christ, and worship and serve Him you must. Such worship and service will be quite visible, to God, to one another, and for the whole wide world to see. The Visible Kingdom Jesus the Messiah put twelve men front and center for the other disciples, the nation of Israel, and the whole world to visibly see. These twelve men were different disciples from different demographics, and I dare say that one of them was not even a disciple at all. Yet even Judas was an answer to Jesus’ all night prayer to put His visible kingdom into action for all the world to see. What is important, at first, is that there are twelve of them. This is Christ’s signal, a bold statement, that the old covenant between God and the twelve tribes of Israel is giving way to a new covenant, a bigger and better and broader covenant, to visibly represent the kingdom of God until the second coming of the Messiah. If not the precise beginning of the church, this is the rock and blocks upon which Christ determined to build His church. These twelve men Christ named apostles. In one sense they were Apostles above the disciples. As Apostles with a capital “A,” they were given a special place and special powers above and beyond the more ordinary followers of Jesus Christ. They were given authority and became essentially the first elders or pastors of the church. They were given miraculous powers, unseen in human history other than in the epochs of Moses and Aaron, Elijah and Elisha, and Christ and the Apostles. In another sense, the twelve were ordinary apostles along with the other unnumbered and unnamed disciples. As apostles with a little “a,” they had gathered with Christ and were now being sent by the Lord to worship Him, serve others in His name, and tell others about His kingdom. All of this was done in a most visible way. I cannot say this is the definitive beginning of the church, but I can say that the church since this era, built on the witness of Jesus Christ and the Apostles, is the visible expression of the kingdom of God on earth. This is why we meet publicly, we preach openly, we baptize and share communion weekly, and we serve and share the gospel daily in our effort to expand the kingdom of our God. Our Mission is Spiritual and Visible Since we have such a great spiritual King, and since He has established a visible presence, the church, in which to give Him glory, let us do today what was done on this great day recorded by the Gospel writer Luke. Let us do spiritual things that will bear visible fruit upon the earth for God and people to see. Let us pray with great passion for God. How do you speak to the one you love? Often, I hope! In the mystery of the Trinity, so great was the Son’s love for the Father that they spent all night together in prayer. So great was the Son’s task in building the church, He spent all night consulting with the Father before taking this step of establishing the Apostles. Do you love God? Do you have great things to do for God? Pray, people, pray! Let us take our stand, on level ground, with Jesus. I’m not sure why Luke included this detail, but our world, like Jesus’ world, is a topsy turvy world. People have lost their minds and their morals. Pharisees pull against Sadducees, right against left, old against the young, law and order against freedom. Where is the level ground, the center, that can give us the spiritual and moral compass we need to put people together again? Only in the saving cross and spiritual church of the Lord Jesus Christ! Let us show up, visibly, in support of the Apostolic, Biblical, New Covenant church. Let us come to worship, pray, praise, and, as those gathered that day with Jesus, hear the word of the Lord. Some refuse to do so because they do not need God. What unbelief! Some professing believers will refuse to do so because they do not need pastors and people. What arrogance! We need God and we need one another to accomplish the spiritual and visible mission commissioned to us by the Lord. Let us help and heal other people. The people who met with Christ and the Apostles that day had great pains relieved by great power. If I had that rare power, I’d use it until every hospital was out of business, but I do not. Yet people are still sick, still troubled, still in physical and financial and mental and spiritual messes. I may not have miraculous powers to heal, but I can spiritually and visibly help, and so can you. But wait, there is one spiritual and visible miracle we can strive to perform, and it is the greatest one of all. How does one see the great invisible God and come to live in His spiritual and visible kingdom? It is the miracle of grace. By the grace of God, through faith in the Son of God, we come into the kingdom of God. Once we are in, we invite others to come in, too. If we are Christ-like in our walk, if we offer Christ in our witness, if they will accept Christ as Lord and Savior, then the power will come from Christ which “healed them all.” The power to heal sickness may be limited to Christ and the Apostles, but the power to save is present in every generation, in every Christian, and in every true church. There were moments in English history when brave British soldiers took to the battlefield with the battle cry, “For God, for King, and for Country.” We have a God who is King and invisible to us now, but worthy of our visible worship and work. We have a country God is making, invisible and incomplete to us now, but a visible expression called the church. Let us worship the King, publicly and unashamedly. Let us work for the kingdom, openly and tirelessly. Let us enjoy the glimpse the church gives us of the ultimate place God is preparing for us. And let us do it for the King and His kingdom. Copyright © 2017 Lake Hamilton Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Check out the weekly happenings at Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. SPENDING SUNDAYS WITH JESUS
Luke 6:1-11 Dr. Chuck DeVane, Pastor Lake Hamilton Baptist Church Hot Springs, Arkansas May 14, 2017 1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” 3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” 5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” 6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. — Luke 6:1-11, ESV A Sabbath and a Sunday are technically two different things, according to calendar and covenant. Yet they are the same thing, spiritually speaking. To the Old Covenant Israelite, the Sabbath day was literally the last day of the week, lasting from sundown to sundown. Sunday, of course, is the first day of the week, from midnight to midnight. It is the New Covenant Sabbath, or Lord’s Day, for the devout Christian. So, examining Sabbath days with the Lord in the Gospels should prompt us to search for the proper way to spend Sundays with Jesus today. Jewish Sabbaths in the Gospels were days of constant conflict between the Lord Jesus Christ and the Pharisees. Jesus’ new wine was being poured into the old wineskins and, just as the Lord prophesied, they were bursting. Either the new wine had to be bottled back up, or the fledgling followers of Jesus would have to become new wineskins, supplanting the old. On this issue Jesus lost the battle but won the war, at the cost of the cross. Luke’s account of two Sabbath days taken together give us a good record of the conflict, the issues involved, and the infinite wisdom of Jesus. He is our Lord and guide for the Sabbath Day, Sunday, and every day. We should desire to spend all of our days with Jesus, especially the one we name after Him. What Jesus Did Right on the Sabbath Day About 1,400 years before the two Sabbath days depicted here, our triune God spoke these words in the fourth commandment given to and through Moses: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. — Exodus 20:8-11 God ordained one day out of seven to be different. In keeping it, we become different people dedicated to God. Every seven days we are to refrain from our normal activities, gather with likeminded family and friends, and enjoy a day of holy worship and blessed rest. It is a divine commandment from our King, a written doctor’s excuse from our Great Physician, and a formal invitation to share in the celebration of the Lord. Jesus did it right. Jesus spent Sabbaths in restful enjoyment with family and friends. Here we find them delighting in an impromptu picnic in a grain field. At this point in his life and ministry, Jesus’ biological family thought he was a little bit crazy, townsfolk were a little leery of Him, so His twelve spiritual disciples were his closest family and friends. The Sabbath day was a special day to enjoy their company and do things with them that were good and satisfying. Jesus spent Sabbaths in the public worship of God. Sabbath days in the Old Covenant and Sundays in the New Covenant begin with the gathering of God’s people for the express purpose of worshiping God. Worshippers share His holy word, engage in the prescribed rituals or sacraments, offer prayers, sing praise, and give offerings. For some strange reason there have always been small circles of professing believers who are so enamored with individualism that they blow off this sacred commandment and divine opportunity. Jesus was not one of them. When you find Him in the Gospels on the Sabbath day, you find Him in a synagogue preaching, teaching, and otherwise worshiping God. Already the text is telling us how to spend Sundays with Jesus. We are to make is a special day, spent with our spiritual family, delighting in public worship, resting in the joyful presence of the Lord. Stay tuned. God is watching. And, so are others. What Jesus Did Wrong on the Sabbath Day (according to the Pharisees) As previously pointed out, the Pharisees had by now put a tracking device on Jesus and spied on the Lord everywhere He went. They pulled out the binoculars on Sabbath days and watched closely as they waited for Him to do something wrong. They did not have to wait long. Pharisees are fault-finders and fault-finders never fail to find fault. The Sabbath day was a good day to do it, too, for the Pharisees had taken one commandment of God and turned it into at least thirty-nine more. If someone did not do the Sabbath day their way, the Pharisees would nail them, quite literally in Jesus’ case. Here is what the Lord did wrong on the Sabbath, according to the Pharisees. He engaged in farming and practiced medicine. The Christian farmers and physicians I have known always take Sundays off, except in case of an emergency. Jesus, the Lord of the harvest and the Great Physician, did likewise, although not in the illegitimate opinion of the ill mannered legalists. Though Jesus acquitted Himself well of their false charges, their fault-finding would continue to hound Him until the end of Jesus’ life. My earliest days as a Christian were spent in the company of legalists. Far more than the careful exegesis of Scripture, I was taught rules and regulations, what to wear and what not to wear, where to go and where not to go, what to eat and drink and what not to eat and drink, who to hang out with and who not to hang out with, etc., etc. These prohibitions were loosely based on the word of God but were really nothing more than Pharisaical traditions. They robbed me of usefulness and joy and I will never put such prohibitions upon another child of God. According to Jesus, if you want to pick some grain or go to the market on Sunday, go. If you want to medically or otherwise help somebody, help. If you want to dine at a restaurant, go to a store, play a little golf, catch a few fish, go, go, go. Just make sure you go somewhere else first, namely to a gathering of God’s people for the public worship of God. Worship and enjoyment, in that order, is what we should do to spend Sundays with Jesus. What We Can Do to Spend Sundays with Jesus Recognize the importance of one day every seven. Every day is holy unto the Lord, but Sunday is especially the Lord’s Day. God took a generation of forty years, from the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, to transition His people from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Before Christ, God’s people Israel spent the last day of the week in worship and rest. In Christianity, the first day of the week, Resurrection Day, the Lord’s Day, becomes the Christian Sabbath. Once you recognize that Sunday is the Lord’s Day, you have to decide what you are going to do with it and on it. Since it is the Lord’s Day, I suggest you give it to the Lord. Worship Him, publicly and steadfastly, in the manner in which He has prescribed in the Bible. Fasten yourself to a people and place where, in Calvin’s infinite wisdom, the word is preached, the sacraments are observed, and the membership contains true disciples of Jesus Christ. Do not fear if you are absent due to providential hindered of sickness, work, or travel. Only fear if you are absent due to lack of desire to gather with God’s people and worship God. A person who has no desire for the public worship of God has no desire for a personal relationship with God. A person who refuses to worship God because hypocrites are numbered with the people of God is himself a hypocritical, judgmental Pharisee. Christianity is indeed a saving relationship with God, not the ritualistic worship of God, but you cannot have one without the other. As Augustine said, “One cannot claim God as Father if they do not embrace the church as mother.” Once your desire and duty for public worship has been quenched, spend the remainder of the day in heavenly rest and holy comforts. This day is God’s gift to you! Feel free, once you have pleased Him in worship, to enjoy yourself in any manner of rest and recreation that does not expressly contradict the word of God. The Pharisees may have collected a cadre of “thou shalt nots” for the Sabbath, but God really doesn’t have that many. If it glorifies God, blesses others, and pleases you, just do it, especially on Sundays. Spending Sundays with Jesus should be holy, peaceful, and dare I say, fun. It should recharge your batteries, spiritual and mental and physical. It should improve your relationship with God and God’s people. It should serve to enlarge the very essences of life, the glory of the Lord, the benefit of others, and the image of God in you. Spend every Sunday with Jesus, and it is likely that you will spend every day with Jesus, for now and eternity. Copyright © 2017 Lake Hamilton Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Check out the weekly happenings at Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. OLD TIME RELIGION
Luke 5:33-39 Dr. Chuck DeVane, Pastor Lake Hamilton Baptist Church Hot Springs, Arkansas April 30, 2017 33 And they said to him, “The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’” — Luke 5:33-39, ESV “Gimme that old time religion, it’s good enough for me!” What exactly is “old time religion?” Is it good enough for you? Is it really good for anyone? Before you drag yourself, Grandma and Grandpa, Paul and Silas, and Jesus into it, you need to ask yourself if the Lord was being serious or sarcastic when He said, “The old is good.” So, let’s go to a wedding, put on some jeans, pour ourselves some wine and find out. Old Time Rules A lot of folks like that old time religion based on a long list of rules. The Pharisees had taken some of the basic commandments found in Holy Scripture and multiplied them into a plethora of extra-biblical rules and regulations to be strictly obeyed. You could not be right with God, according to the Pharisees, unless you kept their brand of old time religion. For example, Old Testament Jews were required to fast, once a year, on the Day of Atonement. The Pharisees fasted twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, and made a public display of it for God and man to see. Furthermore, while the Bible commends fervent and silent praying, the Pharisees did it loudly and proudly, using their many words to express their sorrow over their neighbors’ sins (ref. Luke 18:10ff). Such old time religion is still practiced in certain sects of Judaism. Furthermore, it has made the transition into various forms of fundamentalist Christianity, complete with long lists of rules and regulations regarding dress, drink, dance, and other divisions they deem not sufficiently covered in Scripture. Is this old time religion good? Is it good enough for you? The Bible is good and it contains commandments to be kept. As Eugene Peterson put it, “a long obedience in the same direction” is something to be desired. But to get there, you must submit yourself to the authority of God’s word, not make yourself the authority over God’s word. When walking with God, obedience is not a means of gaining His favor, but a way of showing your love for God and your neighbor. The Pharisees got it wrong. Their old time religion was not good then, and it is of no use now. It is full of holes and you can’t patch it up nor fill it up. Yet those who are in it cannot seem to get enough of it. It’s good enough for them, but not for Jesus, and not for you. Old Time Experience Seeing the error in the Pharisees’ ways is fairly easy, but what about the followers of John the Baptist? The Pharisees dragged them into the argument against Jesus, and they admittedly did have their own brand of fanatical, fundamentalist, old time religion. But surely Jesus could patch it up, pour Himself into it, and make it work, couldn’t He? If ever there was a rebel with a cause, it was John the Baptist. He was perhaps the greatest man who ever lived. He was also a flash in the pan. John ran on high octane emotion, preached loud sermons, prayed long prayers, and engaged in a short but sensational season of fasting and other austerities. He began a brief but serious religious movement, obtained a good number of followers, pointed those followers to Jesus, then doubted, then died. Maybe it was due to his doubts, or more likely it was due to Jesus’ more subdued manner, that many of John’s followers did not follow Jesus. Jesus dressed normally, acted calmly, spoke softly, and carried no big stick (except for on a couple of occasions). John’s disciples liked that old time religion, the fiery excitement, the extreme unction, the whole craziness of the experience. Consequently, many of them needed to be properly evangelized long after both John and Jesus were gone (ref. Acts 18:24ff, 19:1ff). A lot of folks like that old time religion based on a one time experience. They can point back to some time of religious excitement that brought them to a decision for Christ. Admittedly, they never felt anything like it before, or since. They are not responsible church members but they think they are bound for Heaven because in a day gone by they got a taste of that old time religion. Revivalism plagued America for nearly a century and its remnants remain. It has left a scorched earth of superficially touched souls, inoculated against salvation by a small dose of superficial gospel. In a moment of hypnotizing music, loud preaching, and long altar calls they came forward in a blaze of glorious old time religion. But now they have holes in their souls and emptiness in their hearts that will never be fixed as long as they hold on to that one time experience of that old time religion. Revival is to be sought, revivalism is a fraud. You do not need that kind of old time religion. Neither do you need a stepping staircase of religious rules and regulations. You need a new relationship with Jesus Christ. New Found Relationship No one appreciates the commandments contained in the word of God and the ministry of John the Baptist more than Jesus. No one cares more about making disciples for God the Father than Jesus Christ His Son. And no one cares less about that old time religion than Jesus. Jesus came to offer us so much more than old religion, old rules, and old experiences. He offers a new relationship with God that will make you a new person. He gives new patches for new clothes that will never wear out. He pours new wine into your renewed soul that will never run dry. Let’s go now to that wedding, put on those new clothes, and pour out some of that new wine. If you are a true disciple, you are in essence married to Jesus. He is the bridegroom and the church is His beloved. You are not betrothed to Him because you passed some test or can boast of some ecstatic experience. You are His because He chose you and brought you into a relationship with Himself. Just as a bride receives a new name upon her marriage, you became a new person upon entering into a new and everlasting relationship with Christ (ref. 2 Corinthians 5:17, etc.). And, like a bride or groom at the wedding reception, Jesus fills your life with never ending joy. If you are a true disciple, you have not received a new patch for your old clothes, but brand new clothes that can never be torn. Like the prodigal son, you have been covered with the father’s best robe. By grace through faith you are covered in the righteousness of Christ which He purchased for you with His life and death (ref. 2 Corinthians 5:21, etc.). If you were to clothe yourself with your own righteousness, your clothes would fill with holes and soon wear out. A real relationship with Jesus Christ provides patches of grace and mercy that seamlessly repair any breech in your fellowship with God when you humbly walk with Him. If you are a true disciple, the Holy Spirit has been poured into your heart, bringing faith and repentance, even a brand new heart. Furthermore, at true conversion God comes in to live with your through the pouring out of His Holy Spirit into your life. You cannot put this new wine into old time religion. It cannot be compared with some past experience that had no lasting hold on you. It is a new covenant which makes you a new person and gives you new life in Jesus Christ. In advancing the kingdom of God in this episode, Jesus remarks that religious people are the hardest people to reach. They think they’ve saved themselves already by their works. Or, they think some remarkable but unstable experience was enough to break through into Heaven. That’s what the Lord meant when He said of them, “The old is good.” It was a touch of sarcasm, a sad lament, and a warning to take stock and repent. Do not clamor for that old time religion. Seek a new covenant relationship with the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and the bride, His church. Live in joyful obedience and constant repentance as you are filled with the Holy Spirit. You’ll sing to your dying day and beyond, “Gimme that new covenant relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.” Copyright © 2017 Lake Hamilton Baptist Church, All rights reserved. Check out the weekly happenings at Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. |
AuthorDr. Charles F. "Chuck" DeVane, Jr., is the Pastor of Lake Hamilton Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas. His weekly sermon article, "The Gospel Truth," has been published in newspapers in Arkansas and Georgia. Dr. DeVane is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and has served in the pastorate for over 20 years. Contact Pastor Chuck at PastorChuck@lakehamiltonbaptistchurch.org
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