God Doesn't Want Man Babies!

On today's episode of the Iron Saints Podcast, we continue our journey through the Gospel of Luke. We follow up with the Pharisees on yesterday's challenge to Christ and examine their misunderstandings through another parable. We look at Christ's challenge for men of faith to move to maturity instead of dwelling in infancy.

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.’ ” 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Lk 5:33–39.

Transcript

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints podcast with your host, Dan Willis. 2s Welcome back, Saints. We are back at it again today, continuing our walk with Christ through Luke. Thank you so much, all of you guys who have been joining, sharing, commenting, sending prayer requests, it has been awesome to get back to this and seeing everybody come back around. I'm amazed constantly to see the amount of people that listen from all around the world to the podcast. Thank you so much for all you guys have done so far to encourage any prayers that you've given up. For those that have had prayer requests on the podcast, greatly appreciated for that as well. But I don't want to take up too much time here today. Let's get down to it and let's continue our journey through Luke. So yesterday we saw the calling of Levi. We saw Jesus sitting down and dining with tax collectors and sinners. We saw Jesus trying to explain to the Pharisees, I'm not here for those that would think that they're, well, I'm here for the sinners. I'm here for the sick. I'm here for those that need the gospel, that recognize the gospel, that are here to hear the gospel. That's who I'm here for. And you have your own preconceptions about who I'm supposed to be. This teacher, this military leader, this great king and ruler. That's not me. This is why I'm here. I'm here to do this work. And he knows and he's convicted of it, and he makes a point of being in the world and not of the world. And we go into that a little bit yesterday. If you missed that on that episode, go back and take a look at it. But today what we're seeing is kind of the left hook that follows the jab, right? Yesterday, the Pharisees popped in and gave him, why do you dine with thieves and tax collectors? And why are you this way? And that's their jab. And then they follow it up with this hook that we're going to take a look at today as we continue in Luke. So for those of you that are able to follow along, no problem. We're looking at Luke five, verse 33 through 39. So right till the end of the chapter, I'm reading from the ESV directly. If you guys are listening to this in a car on your commute wherever, no problem. I'm going to read the scripture and then we'll break it down a little bit. So let's get down to it. 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. Jesus said to them, can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fasten those days. 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. And no one puts new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins and no one, after drinking old wine, desires new. For he says the old is good. So this can seem like a really interesting response to the Pharisees here, that this is a follow up of even John's disciples fast. Why aren't you just doing the things that we do? Our disciples do? The Pharisees disciples fast and pray. John's disciples fast and pray. So why is your deal any different? How come your followers get to be different? And he's literally looking at them and going, don't you guys realize you had fresh wine given to you when you were fresh? You had your Moses, you had your judges, you had your prophets, you had fresh wine given to you when you were a new wine skin and that wine was allowed to mature over time and you became an old wine skin. When you're asking why are we not being treated like new converts? It's because you're not new converts. It's because you're not sinners. You've been given the Old Testament. You know the prophecies. You know what the Lord has for you. You know the call to be his people. You know these things. I'm now dining with these sinners, these tax collectors, these people that have never heard of the Lord before sitting at this table here. They need new wine. They need to understand that the bridegroom has come. They need that gospel. And don't worry, in time they will mature just as you have. They will go back to the Old Testament, they will appreciate the prophets. This is such a beautiful way of bringing together the Old Testament and the New Testament and that it's completely lost on the Pharisees. This beauty is a call to maturity. That when you're young, how many of you, when you come to church or when you first come to that realization of your own personal faith with Christ, how excited are you? How fresh is that? How new is that? It's exactly what Christ is getting at you're, a new wine skin. There's fresh new wine in there. It's a party, it's a celebration. It's excitement, it's jubilation. It's the honeymoon on the wedding, the bridegroom and the bride together for the first time. It's that excitement that Christ is trying to grab here. And he says, don't worry in time, that will mature, that will grow. It won't diminish the love or the passion or the truth of the gospel, but in the maturity that you gain as a Christian in that process of sanctification through trials and walking with Christ, that new wine will mature and grow into old wine. We read about this later in the Epistles. That movement from milk to meat, right? That's what he's getting at here. And for pharisees that have meat and don't realize it going well, how come they get milk? You had milk. You had milk and now you are supposed to be on meat and yet you're looking for baby food. It's that crazy. He's looking at them baffled, up. Why is it that you're looking for what a young believer has when you've been given so much? Here comes the challenge today. Saints to you men out there listening. Where are you in your walk? Are you a fresh wine skin? Are you lightly matured? Are you are you an aged wine skin? Consider where you are in your walk and ask yourself, are you maturing? Are you growing in flavor? Are you something more palatable to God's, palate now, today than you were when you began? There's nothing wrong with being fresh wine in a fresh wine skin. But if you're an old wine skin that's still looking for that fresh wine, that's still going back to, oh, I wish it was like it was when I first became a believer. Really challenge yourself. Go to the word. Look at what has to say about maturity, about wisdom, about growth, about building yourself up in the Word, about sanctification and the joy of trials and how that brings you to perseverance and steadfastness, how it brings you to Christ likeness. Really challenge yourself today, man. Again, guys, we're going to go into prayer here. I just want to leave you with that TIVIT. Challenge yourself about what's your wine skin and what kind of wine is in it. For those of you that are in need of prayer, please, please do not hesitate to reach out anywhere where you can listen to this podcast on social media. All of that stuff is in the notes. You guys can find me anywhere there. If you have prayer requests, please do not hesitate to send them out my way. I am am absolutely thrilled to be able to pray for you guys on this. And hopefully the rest of you men that are listening to this podcast, wherever you may be, are also lifting these people up in your prayers. But let's get down to it. Let's have this time of prayer, close this out, and get you guys out to your day. 1s Lord, thank you so much for the blessings that you show us. Thank you so much for the challenges that you give us, the trials that help us mature and grow as Christians. Lord, thank you so much for Your word that we're able to not only read it, but we can also broadcast like this, that we can actually get the message out onto the Internet that reaches masses without fear of repercussion or reprise all persecution and personal risk to safety. Thank you so much for the blessings that you show, Lord. Want to lift up David Franklin to you, Lord. David has taken that huge step to walking into seminary. It's never an easy practice, Lord, to take that step. All kinds of spiritual warfare will undoubtedly come his way. Trials, aplenty. And I just pray, Lord, that you would continue to work through whatever calling you have for Him, Lord. Let Him cling to the Holy Spirit through this time and face those trials head on. Lift up. Alyssa's daughter lord. She's asked for praise for great recovery through medical procedure, lord, thank you for the healing. I pray that there's continued healing there. What a blessing that she felt comforted and Your presence throughout. Lift up Jim Webb to you, Lord. He's going through a difficult time right now. You know his heart, you know his needs. He's currently without a place to stay, Lord, and he's looking for Your guidance, Your wisdom, Your hand. Help Him find a solution in that. Show him some mercy, show him some guidance. And lastly, Lord, I would lift up Shane Pruitt to you. He's heading into his summer preach schedule, Lord. He's looking at what's coming up ahead, and he has the ability and the opportunity that you've given him, as well as a trial, to speak to 20,000 youth over the next few weeks, that God would be glorified, lives would be transformed through the gospel, by his preaching, through you showing up and the Holy Spirit speaking through him. Lord, pray that the preaching would be accurate to the Scriptures, hearts would be changed. Through You, Lord, people would come to know Your Gospel in a greater way. Your name, we pray. All right, that's it, Saints. Have an amazing day today. I will be back again tomorrow with another episode, and then I am considering possibly doing a longer episode on Saturdays, one that is more of an exegesis of scripture where we look at a longer passage. We won't call it a sermon because it's not going to be a sermon, but at least a longer breakdown of a passage, something that's more thematic than our continued walk through Luke. So if you have any thoughts on that, please do feel free to drop those comments on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or directly onto the podcast episode. I look forward to seeing you guys tomorrow. Have an amazing day. Blessings on you later. Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all. Until next time.