Jesus Christ's Mission

Sermon Transcript

Lord Jesus, we give you all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise for who you are. Lord, we thank you that you did not leave us alone, that you gave us your Holy Spirit, and that you provided your word so that, Lord, we could know you, that we could hear you. Lord, as we look into your word today, I ask for your help, Lord, as I faithfully proclaim your word, and, Lord, we just ask your Spirit's help so that can understand what you're sharing with us, that we can hear you directly and, Lord, that you would have your way with us, that we become who you say we are and, Lord, we put into practice the very things you show us. Now, Lord, we just want to give you all the glory, honor, and praise in advance, and all God's people who are ready to receive His word and believe His word and put into practice what He showed you agreed by very loudly saying with me the word amen.

Amen.

Amen. Sometimes, life has a way of becoming so routine in certain areas that we need to check out our routine to make sure we're doing things right. Life can just become routine. If you have children, it's easy to get into a routine where this is just what we do, and then you find out one day your kids have grown up and left the house, and you look back and you think maybe that wasn't the best routine that we had after all. Professional athletes in the off season, even if they're the best at their trade, will get lessons in what they do, whether it's swinging a golf club or throwing a football or shooting free throws so that they can be better at what they do. They check out their routine to make sure they really understand what they're doing.

When it comes to the world of faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ, it's important to check our routine because religion can just become so religious. Can't it? Where we go through the motions, where we do the right things, where we attend the right services, we say the right things, we do the right routines and rituals, and yet, inside, we missed the mark.

This morning really is a back to the fundamentals of the faith and what's this whole thing about. I've entitled the message Jesus Christ's Mission. We'll be taking a look in Luke chapter 5, starting in verse 27 this morning, and really highlight four pillars of Jesus Christ's mission, what it's all about. Now, I want to warn you before we get into this this morning, that when you start hearing some of these ideas that God is going to expound to us, you're going to think that this message is for somebody else. If you're tempted to think that this message is for somebody else, let that be doubly aware that this message is for you. Okay? As we look in God's word this morning, look for those four pillars, and then we'll unpack them together. Luke chapter 5, starting in verse 27, we'll go through the end of the chapter, and then we'll look at them together.

It says, "After that, He ..." That's Jesus. "... went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, 'Follow me,' and he left everything behind and got up and began to follow Jesus, and Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling to His disciples saying, 'Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?'"

'Jesus answered and said to them, 'It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,' and they said to Him, 'The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers. The disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but yours eat and drink,' and Jesus said to them, 'You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and they will fast in those days.'"

He was also telling them a parable. "No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old, and no one puts new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined, but new wine must be put into fresh wine skins, and no one after drinking old wine wishes for new for," He says, "the old is good enough."

Here, Jesus is spelling out his mission and His ministry in the calling of Levi, also called Matthew in Matthew's gospel. What we're going to see is four pillars of Jesus Christ's mission this morning. The first pillar you're going to see is this, that Jesus Christ invites sinners to repent and follow Him. Jesus Christ invites sinners to repent and follow him. Now, when I read this, you didn't interact with the text enough this morning. So, I'm going to need full participation with you so that you understand what this text is actually talking about.

Notice this. It says, "After that ..." This is after He performed a miracle of healing a leper and a paralytic. It says, "After that, He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in a tax booth." Now, if you were a Jew in the first century, here would be your response to that text. Boo. I mean, in some way, you would go crazy. Why? Because tax collectors extorted money from their own people. For the Romans. The Romans appointed these tax collectors to go to their own people and tax them.

Here was the challenge. There was nothing written down from the Romans as to how much they needed to tax. So, tax collectors were known not only to take the tax that they needed, but take extra on top of it. Tax collectors were robbing you of their money and making themselves rich. Nobody, but nobody, but nobody in Israel liked tax collectors. That's why they're always mentioned with tax collectors and sinners. I mean, they get their own category as to how bad they are. I mean, they're tax collectors. Everybody hates tax collectors. If you were reading this in the first century, you would yell, "Boo," at the top of your lungs when you heard this being read.

So, would you participate with me this morning so we can get a feel? All right? Let me read this to you and see if you can participate. "After that, He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in a tax booth."

Boo.

Amen. That's what it feels like. Why in the world would Jesus want anything to do with a person like that? Here's why. Because Jesus Christ is always inviting sinners to repent and follow Him. Now, notice what it says next. "And He said to him ..." Not only are they booing, now He says to them, says to Matthew, "Follow me." Here would be a response. "What?" Okay, can you participate with me? "And He said to him, 'Follow me."

What?

Come on.

See, that should be the response. There's no way Jesus should even associate with a person like that, and now Jesus is not only associated with him, here's what He's saying. "I want you to follow me." The response is ...

What?

Some of you are participating. Some of you aren't. We're going to do this whole section because you got to get the feel of this because, too often, we've been in the Bible and we read it and we know it and like, "Okay, He met a tax collector named Levi, and He said, follow him," and notice what happens next. "And he left everything behind and got up and began to follow Him." Here's your response? Whoa.

Whoa.

Whoa.

Whoa. Can we read those two verses together with your participation as loud as you can? Because it'll make the text so much more alive. "After that, He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi-"

Boo.

"... sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, 'Follow me.'"

What?

"And he left everything behind and got up and begin to follow Him."

Whoa.

Do you see what He did? I mean, isn't that Jesus' invitation all the time? Jesus' invitation all the time is to repent and follow Him. It's to repent and follow Him. Even when Jesus is spelling out the gospel in the Sermon of the Mount, He talks about there being a wide road and a wide gate and a narrow gate and a narrow road. There's a narrow gate and a narrow road. It's not just coming up to the gate and believing there's a gate. It's opening the gate and following on the road. There's a pathway to following Jesus. There's no such thing as just believing that Jesus is Lord.

If you really believe that Jesus is Lord, here's the challenge. Here's where repentance comes. Repentance is a gift from God. When you recognize, like it says here in Englewood, that Jesus Christ is Lord, here's what happens. The Bible says that there is no one good, no, not one, that all of us have sinned and gone our own way, every single one of us, which means this.

We become the lord of our own life, means my life is about me. My schedule, my family, my vacation, my income, where I live, what I do, my whole life centers around me. From the time I'm conceived, I'm conceived in sin, and the way that it fleshes out is I am the lord of my life. If I come to the recognition that Jesus Christ is Lord and I truly believe that He's Lord, then I can't, at the same time, be lord anymore, which means Jesus has to be Lord, which means I've changed my focus and my mind about me being the lord of my life, and now Jesus is the Lord of my life. Instead of me following my own path, I'm now following what the Lord wants me to do. That's called repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. That's salvation. That's the way it's spelled out every single place in the New Testament. Repent and place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. Without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sins. It's not enough to say, "I just believe."

Now, you're going to go to the places in the Bible where the Philippian jailer, where he was about ready to kill himself, and Paul and Silas stop him and say, "What must I do?" They say what? Believe on what?

The Lord.

Believe on who? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be saved, you and your whole family." In other words, if you believe that Jesus is the Lord and you'll no longer live for you, but Jesus will be the Lord of your life, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, then Jesus becomes the Lord of your life. So, there's an internal change on the inside where you're no longer lord and you're following Him. Yes, you will be saved, which means this, church. Listen to me.

Jesus Christ came to invite sinners into a relationship with Him, and here's how you have a relationship with Him, by repenting that your life is no longer about you and your pathway. It's about Jesus and following His pathway. That's salvation. In just the same way we read this, and we're like, "Man, Jesus, not a tax elector. Boo. And He asked him to follow him? What?" And he got up and left everything.

Now, notice this. What did he leave? I mean, if you were a tax collector, just know that those jobs filled up fast. People wanted that job. It was a great government job. I mean, you got as much money as you want. You lived in whatever kind of house you had because the way that you got your money is people had to give you whatever you asked. So, when Matthew leaves his job, he's not leaving to give it a try for a couple weeks with this Jesus thing in hopes that if it doesn't work out, he'll come back. His job's going to be taken that very same day. He's done on that job. Matthew is done. He got up and he left everything. What'd he leave? He left his job. He left his financial security. He left everything he had to do what? To follow Jesus. Why? Because he found the pearl of great price. He found what was so worthy of his full allegiance, that nothing else in his life mattered.

That's what you see in the gospel all the time. If that's not true, that in Luke 18, when Jesus meets the rich, young ruler, he owes Him a massive apology because the one thing the rich, young ruler had in his heart that Jesus could see that he didn't even know himself was his own greed and his own lust for money. As this man leaves, saying how he'd done all the right things, Jesus lets him go and says, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Truly I say to you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven." Why?

Here's what He was saying. He goes, "Because when your allegiance is to something in this world that's so powerful and so hard to let go of, you can't give me your full allegiance, and unless I have your full allegiance, I don't have any part of you. I'm the Lord. I'm not an option. I'm not something that's out there."

So, here comes the question. As we watch this text, when was the time in your life where you repented and Jesus Christ became the Lord of your life? When was the time you repented instead of following your own path, you started following the path of Jesus Christ? That becomes the question because too often, in America, the way that the gospel gets presented is just believe. Well, the demons believe and shudder. I mean, just believing that Jesus died on the cross, there were people standing there at the cross that day that knew that Jesus claimed to be God that died on the cross. That didn't save them. It was believing that He was the Lord of the universe, and by following after Him, being the Lord that saved them. It's been true ever since.

Search the scriptures. You will not find one person in the Bible who saved, who came to Jesus, who said this. "I believe that you're the Lord, but I have no desire to make you the Lord of my life. I'm not going to follow you. I'm going to live my own self-sustained sin life, and then I just want to go to Heaven someday," where Jesus looked at them and said, "Cool, I'll see you when you die."

Never.

Never. That person was never in the family of God. That's what Jesus is pointing out here. Jesus is showing His mission is inviting sinners to repent and follow Him. This is why Jesus is known as a friend of who? Sinners. It's a pejorative term, but it's all he had the choice of hanging out with because everyone sinned and fallen the short of the glory of God. What other choice did He have? There was only one righteous person on the planet, the God man, Jesus Christ. Who else could He hang out with, but sinners? That's why He came to invite sinners to turn from their allegiance to themselves or whatever idols they'd made up and make Jesus Christ to be the central focus of their life, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He was doing. That's what He was saying to Matthew. Just like the disciples, when He called them and said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men," that's exactly what they did. They packed up their nets, and they went and followed Him. This was the consistent message throughout the entire New Testament.

John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3 comes and proclaims, "Repent for the kingdom of God is near." He talked about the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Then Jesus comes. Jesus' first message in Matthew 4:17 is, "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand." Peter, when he stands up and preaches the first message in Acts chapter 2, where people are cut to the heart and say, "What must we do to be saved?" He's like, "Repent, be baptized, and you will receive the Holy Spirit."

Then, Paul, later on in the book of Acts, says, "Now, I command all men everywhere to ..." What? Repent. Repentance is not a work. It is a gift from God when you recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord and you're not, and you have the privilege of placing your faith and trust in Him and Him alone and following after His allegiance and His leadership in your life. That's salvation. That's why you'll meet many people that will tell you they're Christians, that don't believe Jesus is the Lord and don't follow after Him because they may be a lot of things, but the one thing they're not is a believer in Christ. Believers in Christ all understand that Jesus Christ is Lord.

2nd Corinthians 4:5, Paul says, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as bond servants for His sake." Jesus calls us to follow Him. That's why you see in 1st Corinthians 11:1, you see the apostle Paul say the same thing. "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ," or, "Follow me as I follow Christ." In other words, if I'm following after Christ, then because Jesus is the Lord of my life, I should be able to look at people that I'm discipling and say, "In the way you see me following after Christ, follow those ways. Don't follow me, but follow the ways in me you see me going after Christ." Paul said this throughout his entire ministry. Even in Philippians chapter 4, in verse 7, we read about how Paul addressed the Philippian church. He says this. Philippians, I'm sorry, 4, verse 9, Philippians 4, verse 9. "The things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

See, faith is really followership, and it's not duty. It's a delight. We have the privilege of following the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way that then other people could follow after us. When we're called to go and make disciples of all nations, we're calling people to follow the Lord in the same way that we are following the Lord, and this is Jesus Christ, pillar of His mission. He came to invite sinners to repent and follow Him.

Here's the question. Have you ever repented so that Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life? Are you following after Him? Now, let me be clear. Notice what I didn't say. Are you perfect? Do you not sin anymore? When did you get all that right? That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, "When did Jesus Christ become Lord of your life, where you knew that there was a change, where you wanted Jesus to be the Lord and you wanted to follow after him?" That's the gospel. That's the gospel.

Now, notice the second pillar of Jesus Christ's mission. Jesus Christ not only invites sinners to repent and follow Him, but Jesus Christ pursues sinners, but He rejects the self-righteous and the religious. Make no mistake about it. Jesus Christ pursues sinners. He doesn't just hang with sinners. He pursues them. Notice what happens following this incredible transformation in Levi's life. It says in verse 29, "And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house." Well, the reason Levi could give a big reception in his house is because he had a lot of money and a big house because he had taken it from all the people. "And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house, and there was a great crowd," notice this, "of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them, and the Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?"

Now, understand this. In the first century, to have a meal with someone, to recline at the table with someone, to be there with someone, was more than just eating a meal. It was saying, "I identify with you. We have a friendship together. There's a kindred here going on. I want to get to know you better." The self-righteous Pharisees are like, "How can you eat with people like this, the tax collectors and sinners?" In other words, what are you doing hanging out with people like this, right? That's the question. Now, they didn't ask Jesus. They asked the disciples, but Jesus is going to interject for them. Here's what He says in verse 31. "And Jesus answered and said to them, "It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick," and then this loaded statement in verse 32, "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Who did Jesus come for? He came for sinners. He did not come for the righteous. Now, why didn't Jesus come for the righteous? Because there aren't any. There are none. I mean, the irony of His statement is that He came for sinners. Now, who in the room is sinners? Here's the answer. Everyone is. The tax collectors and sinners are sinners, as well as the self-righteous Pharisees are sinners. What is Jesus saying? "I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners." Now, the Pharisees were saying, "Well, then He didn't come for us because we're righteous."

See, most of us, in our own mind, we probably wouldn't say we're righteous, but here's what we are. We're self-righteous. In other words, I wouldn't say I'm perfect. I just know I'm better than a lot of people out there. You know what I'm saying? We don't think that we're better than everybody, but we're better than the categories we've set up for ourself. That's self-righteous.

That's right.

Jesus came for sinners, and here's the problem with self-righteous people. Self-righteous people always think they're better than some group. There's some group of people out there that you think are worse than you if you're self righteous. If you're a sinner, you realize that you're in the same group as everybody else. See, self-righteous people have a problem with testimonies that go something like this. When they hear about someone who's on death row, who's done extremely heinous crimes and has murdered and raped different people, and then before they die, genuinely are converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, are forgiven of their sins, self-righteous people ask questions like this. How could God save someone like that? Sinners say, "The same way that He saved me."

That's right.

See self-righteous people think certain people are less than them. Self-righteous people think people of the other political party are less than them. Self-righteous people think that people that live in different neighborhoods are less than them. Self-righteous people think people that make less money than they do are less than them. Self-righteous people think that other people deserve the pain that they've gotten because of the poor decisions that they made. Self-righteous people always look through a lens of that wouldn't be me. I'm better than you. Sinners understand that, apart from the grace of God, I'm the same as anybody else. There is no worse sinner than me. Paul said, "Of all sinners of whom I am the worst." See, that's the problem with the gospel. The gospel goes after sinners, but the problem is most of us don't see ourself as that.

Whew.

See, Martin Luther referred to those who are saved as nothing more than snow-covered pieces of dung.

He said it, yeah, Uh-huh (affirmative).

I mean, picture this. One of the most gross things I can know, and I'm not going to go into a depiction of this because you can picture it in your own mind, is a latrine, and you know what's floating around in there. If you can imagine a conversation that was taking place between what was floating around in there, where one was telling the other, "I float higher than you, I'm bigger than you, and I don't stink as much as you," it'd be ridiculous. Yet, that's how self-righteous people talk all the time. Religious people always talk like that. Sinners say this. "If it weren't for Jesus Christ shedding His blood on the cross, I'd have no relationship with the Father, and I'm a total sinner, and I put myself in that camp with sinners, and praise God that Jesus Christ pursues sinners like me." That's the gospel.

So, here's the question. If Jesus Christ was a friend of sinners, who are the sinners that you're friends with? I mean, if you're really a Christian, who are you pursuing? I mean, who's the one that you're pursuing where, if you were pursuing them, people would be like, "What? Why are you hanging out with them if you call yourself a Christian?"

Notice, I'm not telling you make your best friends sinners. You have to have a group of Christian people around you, and based upon your former life and your sin patterns, there's probably certain places you shouldn't go or shouldn't be because of the temptation in your life, but everybody, but everybody should be pursuing sinners.

If you're here in church this morning or on our Broomfield campus this morning, and you say, "I've been looking around. I can't find any sinners," you haven't opened your eyes wide enough. They're everywhere you go, in every city that you'll ever be in, every town and village. That's all that they're made up of is what? Sinners.

Apart from the grace of God who came to pursue a sinner, like me, who came to pursue sinners, like you, we have no hope. Jesus Christ came to pursue sinners, but who does He reject? The self-righteous and religious. Self-righteous and religious ask questions like this. How can you hang out with people like them? How can you call yourself holy and hang out with people like them? How could you really be a Christian and hang out with people like them? It's because I am a Christian that I'm hanging out with people like them because I'm one of them. If it wasn't for the grace of God, I would still be stuck in my sin like them, and I'm with them because I'm calling them to a relationship where they can repent of their own personal idolatry and the lordship of their own life and turn and follow Jesus Christ and have the same freedom that I now have.

See, Jesus was making a loaded statement here. "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." The reason the Pharisees, many of them didn't get saved, is they didn't see themselves as sinners. They were. Oh, make no mistake about it. They were some of the chief of sinners because they were filled with pride, and God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. So, it wasn't that Jesus didn't love them. He just couldn't be there for them because He's only come for sinners, and they're standing ... I mean, picture this, feet, yards away from the God of the universe. That's how close they are. Jesus is telling them, "I've only come for sinners," and they don't get it. "Well, you didn't come for me then because I'm awesome." They're telling God, "I don't need you."

We do that in our own religion, too. I don't really need to repent and come to Christ. It's just that new stuff that you guys talk about. I've been Baptist my whole life. I've been Lutheran since I was a kid. I was baptized at six months. I've been saved since then. Don't give me any of this religion. I'm not giving you religion. I'm telling you Jesus Christ's mission. Unless you repent and follow Him, you do not have a relationship with Him, and He's calling sinners to repent and trust Him, and that's why He's pursuing you.

Look at this third pillar. This third pillar about Jesus Christ's mission, He begins to explain the joys of fellowship with Him. Jesus Christ explains the joy of fellowship with Him. Now, notice these religious people. Notice what they say in verse 33. "And they said to Him ..." This is what religious people talk like all the time. I can't stand it. "'The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees like us also do the same, but yours eat and drink.'" What are they saying? When you get around religious people, they will always value their relationship on God based upon what you do or don't do. That's the only way they can ever talk about their relationship with God. Here's why. Because they don't have a relationship with God.

Amen.

So, the only thing they can talk about is what they do or don't do. Listen to this. The Pharisees, who Jesus created, who Jesus loved, who Jesus gave air for their lungs, sight in their eyes, taste in their mouth, that He's standing just feet away from them, and they're giving Him a lecture on what it means to pray, like, "Yeah, you don't understand anything. John's disciples, they pray, and we pray."

It's almost like Jesus was going to say, "Well, who you praying to? I'm God, and I've never heard anything you've said." Jesus told the Pharisees, "You diligently study the scriptures, but these are the very scriptures that testify about me. Yet, you refuse to come to me to have life." It's not your religious activity that makes you spiritual. It's a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, experiencing His joy. Religious people, if you're around them, they will always make you feel bad no matter what. Religious people will always make you feel bad. Religious people have a way of making you feel bad, even when they're not trying to make you feel bad. Notice how Jesus responds. "And Jesus said to them, 'You cannot make the attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them. Can you? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and they will fast in those days."

I've been to a lot of weddings, been to my own. I did not fast at my wedding. I wasn't gloomy like, "Jeff, why are you so down?" "I'm fasting today. I'm getting married." People don't fast at weddings. Fasting is a time of celebration. It's a time of joy. When the attendants of the bridegroom are with the bridegroom, they're celebrating. I've heard of a lot of bachelor parties, some godly, some ungodly, but I've never heard of a bachelor party where the men went away for a week, and, "What'd you do?" "We fasted." I've never heard of that. Why? Because there's this joy. There's this celebration. Here's what Jesus is saying. "My disciples are not ... They're eating and drinking because they're with me, and I'm the God of the universe, and they're joyous because they have a relationship with me. They're enjoying me. You're five feet away giving me a lecture about prayer when you should be enjoying me." That's what's going on.

Religious people will always talk about what you do or what you don't do, and it will always make you feel bad. You're either not doing enough or you're doing the wrong things every single time you get around a religious person. Jesus is all about this. Here's what Jesus is about. Check it out. "Come and enjoy me. There's great joy in a relationship with me. I'm so contented in who you are because we have a relationship and because we have fellowship, that even though you're not perfected yet, and yet even though I'm going to challenge things in your life and even though there's areas of behavior I'm going to change over time, I want you to know something right now in this moment. I love you with such an unconditional love. I died on the cross for your sins. I was buried. I rose from the grave. Will you please just enjoy me?" Religious people are like, "Well, I would, but I got to do my quiet time first."

Now, hear me on this. I think a quiet time is really good, but if your spiritual disciplines make you more religious than godly, they're the wrong spiritual disciplines. You can be around people. I'm a big proponent of worship. I love to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, both here corporately and both personally. I like to sing to the Lord. I like to clap. I love the Lord, but worship can become a religion, too, where you can be in a church and be like, "Hey, I saw you today. You didn't raise your hands on that song very much, and when the offering came around, you didn't clap as loud as the other people. Are you stingy with your money or something? I didn't notice you didn't clap. I always clap really loud. You should watch me, or prayer. How you praying? Did you pray this morning before you got here? How long did you pray? Really? I did five minutes longer than that. Did you kneel? Oh, you were standing. Hmm. I knelt."

Do you see what I'm saying? Something that can be intended for such good in enjoying Jesus can turn into a religious ritual that makes other people feel bad because we've turned that religious ritual into thinking, "If I worship and pray and read my Bible and fast and give, and then if I read the right people, oh, my goodness, have you read this book? I'm reading The Puritans right now. It's so deep. You probably couldn't handle it." You ever been around people like this? Ridiculous. If you've been a Christian for two minutes, you can enjoy the fullness of joy with Jesus Christ right now. Don't ever let people put you down because of their religion.

Hallelujah.

Yes, I want you in church every weekend. Yes, I'd love you to be in the word every day. Yes, I want you to pray, but I want you to do it so you're growing in your relationship with Jesus, not because you're developing a habit to keep somebody else happy. It's all about this relationship that you have with God, not a duty. It's a total delight. That's what it's about. Jesus is saying, "Why would my disciples fast now when I'm here? There's coming a time where the bridegroom will be taken away because I'm going to be crucified on the cross, and then I'm going to ascend into Heaven, and at that time, they'll mourn, and at that time, they'll fast because they'll year for what they have with me right now, and they'll look forward to the day that they have it." But while Jesus is present, it's not a time to fast. That's what He was saying. I mean, that's a beautiful, beautiful thing, and Jesus was telling the Pharisees, "You don't get it because you don't have a relationship with me, and you're not enjoying the joy of the fellowship.

Let me just tell you this. I mean, even in the Sermon on the Mount, that's why Jesus, in Matthew chapter 6, talks about prayers and He talks about fasting and He talks about giving alms. It wasn't that people did it. It was how they did it. When you're doing all those things in such an ostentatious way so that everybody else will notice you, you're doing it all for the wrong reason. If you came to church today so that other people would notice you and think you're a good person, you did it for the wrong reason. If you came here today because you said, "I just need to get closer to Jesus and He deserves my allegiance and I want to grow and learn more about Him, then you came for the right reason.

The truth is all of us are at different stages in our growth, and while you're following after other people that may be more mature, you're following after the way they're going after Jesus. You're not following them. The only one worthy of following is the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sin stained all the way through to the extent that you see me following after Jesus. Follow that. Don't follow me. Follow Jesus.

I'm just telling you, church, and you'll know when you've experienced a religious person because, in your time of joy where you're telling them about something you enjoy about Jesus, you'll walk away, and you'll have this feeling in your gut like, "Why do I always feel so icky after I walk away from a conversation with that person?" Here's why. Because they're religious, because, in some way, whether they knew it or not, they were putting you down. They were making you feel like you were less than, and here's the truth of all the kids in God's family. There is no less than in God's family.

I have three children. I love them all the same, differently sometimes on different dates, but I love them all the same. It hurts me if I see any of my other children mistreat one of my children because they're all my children, and God wants all of us to experience His joy. Here's the truth. When you get around a religious person, they'll look down on you and say, "How long you been Christian? Oh, only a year? Yeah. Have you read this? Have you done this? Okay, yeah. You're not quite there. I remember when I was like you." That's religion. When you get around a true sinner that's been converted, they'll be so ecstatic that you've been a Christian for about 30 seconds, that they're so glad you're in the family, and they want you to experience the joy of all that Jesus has right now and enjoy Him presently. You get around people like that, and you're like, "I love this group of people." That's called the church, friends. That's what it's all about. It's about enjoying the joy of Jesus Christ presently.

Now, look at this final pillar. It's really important that we get this. The final pillar is this, that Jesus Christ illustrates His uniqueness and His exclusivity, His uniqueness and His exclusivity. In verse 36, He begins to tell them a parable, and He says this. "No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old, and no one puts new wine into old wine skins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined, but new wine must be put into fresh wine skins."

During Jesus Christ's ministry, here's what He said. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father, but through me." Why? "Because I'm uniquely God. I'm the God man. I'm God in flesh. There's an exclusive way into the kingdom, and it's through me." There is no other way, but through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the one and only way. This is what he's saying here. He's using a parable. He uses two different parables.

One, He talks about this. If you have a hole in a garment, you don't take a new piece of cloth and sew it onto the garment because, when that new piece of cloth shrinks, it will tear the garment and nothing will match. So, you can't mix the new with the old. It won't work. Then, He tells the story about what? Putting new wine into old wine skins. He says old wine skins, when you pour wine into wine skins, the wine would ferment and the skins would expand. So, if you pour new wine into old wine skins that are already stretched, when the wine begins to ferment and expand, they'll break. Here's what Jesus' point is. You can't take what I am and what I'm wanting to put into your life with your old religious system. It won't work. It will not work. You can't put new wine into old wineskins. It'll burst. You can't put a new patch on an old garment. It will tear.

In other words, I'm so unique and I'm so exclusive, you have to have all of me. I'm not another form of religion where you keep your old and add me to that. You need to leave your old religion and come and follow me and take all of me. My new wine must be poured into a new wine skin so that you can be who I created you to be. This is why in the New Testament, we quote it all the time from this pulpit, that Paul says, "If anyone is in Christ," 2nd Corinthians 5:17, "he is a new," what, "creation. The old is gone. The new has come. Why? Because before Jesus can do anything with your life, He's got to recreate you from the inside out so that when he puts the third person to the Trinity, the Holy Spirit on the inside, you're already newly created, that can house the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, you can't house Him. You're brand new.

Check this out. Isn't it interesting? In John chapter 2, what was Jesus' first miracle. He was at a wedding. I'll give you a hint. He turned what?

Wine.

He turned water into ...

Wine.

... wine. It was interesting because the steward at the banquet took a sip of the wine, and he's like, "Whoa.:" He goes, "Normally, we feed the good wine first until people start drinking and getting buzzed, and then we do the bad stuff later, but this is the best wine we've ever had." See, most people think that it's the aged wine. You ever heard people talk about wine that are skilled in wine? "Ooh, it's as good as a old bottle of wine. It's aged. It's like a fine wine."

Here's what Jesus says in the next verse. Look at the last verse of this chapter. Jesus says, "And no one after drinking old wine wishes for new, for," he says, "the old is good enough." Here's what Jesus is saying. He says, "Here's the problem with religion. Most people prefer their old religion to a new relationship to Jesus Christ." Most people have tasted the old. We know what old wine taste. It's so good. We don't want new wine. New wine's never any good. It was for Jesus. It was actually the best. Most people prefer their old brand of religion to leaving that for a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Well, you don't understand, Pastor Jeff. I grew up Baptist. I'm Baptist. You don't understand, Pastor Jeff. I grew up Methodist. I'm Methodist. I can't just leave Methodism. I can't.

You need to leave anything you have as quickly as you have it to get to Jesus Christ because most people prefer religion than they do Jesus, and Jesus is saying, "I came so that you would have life and have it abundantly. Leave your old religious forms. They don't mix with what I'm about ready to give you. What I'm about ready to give you, I need to recreate you from the inside out and make a deposit of my Holy Spirit on the inside. And when I do, I'm pouring new wine into new wine skins. I'm not bringing a new religion to the world. I'm bringing myself into a relationship with the world. And the only way the world can have a relationship with me is to forego any other form of religion, repent of that, and place their faith and trust in me alone."

Here's the question. When did you do that? I'm not asking, "When did you feel moved at a service?" I'm not asking when you kind of believe that Jesus died on the cross. I'm asking when you knew you gave up your religious ways for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you began to follow Him. I've heard so many baptism testimonies since being a pastor.

I hear baptism testimonies like this, and I'll usually ask the person this question at the end, but they go something like this. "Well, the first time I got saved, I was seven. I was at my church. Pastor gave a sermon. I got saved. I came down, I got baptized. Didn't really know what that meant, but it felt really good that day," but I'm like, "Well, tell me about what happened after the age of seven?" "Nothing. I never walked with the Lord ever again, but when I was in college, I kind of got in a small fellowship group and I got in a Bible study. We started reading the Bible a lot and that was good. And for a time I had kind of one foot in the world and one foot out. And I really didn't walk with Jesus and didn't know Him, but about three years ago, I started coming to BRAVE Church, and everything clicked. And I love the Lord and I love His word and I love praying, and I wanted to go after Jesus and everything in my life has changed, but I was baptized when I was seven."

I'm like, "Well, why don't you get baptized now since you just got saved three years ago?" "Well, you don't understand, Pastor Jeff. I mean, the Lord's been ..." Listen, the Lord pursues sinners. The Lord's around everybody. The Lord's pursuing you right now. That's not my question. My question is, when did transformation take place on the inside where you knew that you knew that you knew that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life. That's salvation. That's salvation.

So many people come to church with the routine year after year. "Yeah, I kind of got saved back then. Maybe I got saved." I'm 100% sure when I got saved. I mean, it's the clearest thing that ever happened in my life. I knew I was religious here, and I knew the day that I gave my life to Jesus Christ because I was repenting and following Him, and that's not something that automatically happens. It's not something that you fall into. It's an act of your will, where God reveals His son, and you choose to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. When did you do that?

Now, if you're sitting out here and thinking about two different thoughts, I want to correct you real quick. One is, "Yeah. I don't know. I think I always have." Then, make today your day. For those of you that are mad that I'm telling you the truth from God's word, saying, "Oh, that's just how Pastor Jeff had the experience. I don't need to have an experience like that," show me someone in the New Testament that didn't have that experience. Show me. I'm open. I'm not trying to be religious here. I'm not asking you to do something that Jesus is not asking you to do. I'm wondering if the enemy is just lying to some of you saying, "Well, you've kind of always believed this. You kind of always known this." If I were to say, "That wasn't me," then I'm real saying, "For the last 48 years, I've kind of been a fraud." No, you haven't. You've been lied to by the enemy, and the true Jesus Christ has been wanting to invade your soul and you haven't let Him, and I've seen it over and over and over happen in church.

It's not a trick question. When did you repent and follow Jesus? If you can answer that question crystal clear, I know. I know that I know. Then, here's my question. Who are the sinners in your life that you're pursuing so that they can repent and follow Jesus? Who are the people that you're hanging out with, that people would look at you and be like, "What? They're not even of our religion. What? I wouldn't bring a person like that into my home. You know what people like that are like. What? They're not even our same skin color. What? I mean, who are you hanging out with that's different than you? Who are you pursuing that God's telling you to pursue? If you don't know, here's what Jesus says. "The fields are white under harvest." All you have to do is pray this prayer.

Hey, Lord, I don't know the sinners that you want me to be around. So, put me in touch with some sinners that you want to reach. It's a great prayer. He'll answer it, but here's the problem with the prayer. It won't be who you want.

That's Him.

It will not be who you want. You'll have in your mind, "I can love people like that. Those people, I can win them to Christ. I've always had a passion for Hollywood stars." Just beware, if you pray and you're sincere, just be careful because God's going to take you to some place you don't want to go. In the process, He's going to show you His heart for you as you begin to love unlovable people.

The way I wanted to end our service on both campuses today is by giving you opportunity to repent and trust Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. If you've never done that, I want you to be able to pray that prayer today and make today the day that you know for sure. Yep, today was the day where I heard the Lord. I'm repenting and following Him.

I also want to give you the opportunity, if you said, "Yep, I've done that," to pray and reflect on since God's forgiven me so much, God, who are the people in my life you want me to pursue? Who do I need to go after? Who do I need to love and show your love to? That's a question Jesus would have for you, too. Afterwards, we will take communion together on both campuses. It'll give us a time during the singing of the song to reflect on the ways in which Christ has forgiven us.

Would you just bow your heads and pray with me? Lord Jesus, we come before you, and this message demands a response. Lord, it's not enough just to talk about who you are. It's an invitation for people to repent and place their faith in you. If that's you here today, you say, "I don't know that I've ever done that, but I know that I need to do that, and I'm kind of dragging my feet, Pastor Jeff, but I know today's the day I need to repent and trust Christ," here's how you can pray. Lord Jesus, I just confess to you right now that I'm a sinner, but I believe that you died on the cross and that you rose from the dead for my sin. Lord. I want to turn from my life, and I want to give my life entirely to you. I repent and place all my faith and trust in you. I want to follow after you, even though I don't know completely what all that means, but, Lord, you have my life.

If you prayed that prayer on either campus today, would you just raise a hand? Just kind of extending it to the Lord, like, Lord, I heard you. That was me. That was me praying to you today. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Praise the Lord. Lord, for those of us who are here, here's what we know. Look, Lord, if you've saved us, we have a desire to reflect your love to the world. Lord, in this moment, as we're reflecting on our own sin, as we hold the cup and as we hold the juice, Lord, show us, show us people, groups of people that you want us to come alongside and show the love of Jesus to. We give you all the praise, all the glory, and all the honor. In Jesus' name, amen.