Bible Lesson: Parable-Our Lord's:
The Patched Garment.
Occasion: Jesus
Spoke To The Pharisees.
Lesson: A
Change In Heart Is Needed!
Bible Text:
Matthew 9:16 NLT
"...Who would patch old
clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away
from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.
Mark 2:21 NLT
"...Who would patch old
clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away
from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.
Luke 5:36 NLT
Then Jesus gave them this
illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and
uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be
ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.
Any tailor will
tell you, when it comes to clothing there are some basic rules! One
of these basic rules is, you may not patch an old garment with new
cloth! And of course the reasons are obvious. When washed, the new
cloth will pull away from the old (shrinkage).
An other reason why
is because the color which is bright in the new cloth, will stand out
from the older cloth, which is faded, because of washings and age.
Now why, oh why,
would The Savior be lecturing the Pharisees on clothes repair?
He was using
several illustrations to show that holding to Jewish Mosaic Laws as
their salvation, they could never enter the kingdom of heaven. And
why, because to enter the kingdom of heaven, they had to become New
Creatures, created in Christ.
John 3:1-21 NLT
1 There was a man named Nicodemus,
a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee.
2 After dark one evening, he came to
speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has
sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is
with you.”
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you The
Truth, unless you are born again, you cannot
see the Kingdom of God.”
4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed
Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and
be born again?”
5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no
one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and The
Spirit.
6 Humans can reproduce only human
life, but The Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.
7 So don’t be surprised when I
say, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows wherever it wants.
Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or
where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of The
Spirit.”
9 “How are these things possible?”
Nicodemus asked.
10 Jesus replied, “You are a
respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these
things?
11 I assure you, we tell you what we
know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony.
12 But if you don’t believe me
when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if
I tell you about heavenly things?
13 No one has ever gone to heaven
and returned. But The Son Of Man has come down from heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze
snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted
up,
15 so that everyone who believes in
Him will have eternal life.
16 “For God loved the world so
much that He gave His one and Only Son, so that everyone who believes
in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
17 God sent His Son into the world
not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.
18 “There is no judgment against
anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him
has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and Only
Son.
19 And the judgment is based on this
fact: God’s Light came into the world, but people loved the
darkness more than The Light, for their actions were evil.
20 All who do evil hate The Light
and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.
21 But those who do what is right
come to The Light so others can see that they are doing what God
wants.”
The Apostle Paul
spoke to the Galatians concerning the law and Christ.
Galatians 2:16
KJV
Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we
have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the
faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works
of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Galatians 2:21
KJV
I do not frustrate the grace of God:
for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain.
Galatians 3:6-29
NLT
6 "...“Abraham believed
God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
7 The real children of Abraham,
then, are those who put their faith in God.
8 What’s more, the Scriptures
looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be
righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good
news to Abraham long ago when He said, “All nations will be blessed
through you.”
9 So all who put their
faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham
received because of his faith.
10 But those who depend on the
law to make them right with God are under His curse, for the
Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe
and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book
of the Law.”
11 So it is clear that no one can
be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the
Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person
has life.”
12 This way of faith is very
different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying
the law that a person has life.”
13 But Christ has rescued us from
the curse pronounced by the law. When He was hung on the cross, He
took upon Himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in
the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
14 Through Christ Jesus, God has
blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing He promised to Abraham,
so that we who are believers might receive The Promised Holy Spirit
through faith.
15 Dear brothers and sisters, here’s
an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend
an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case.
16 God gave the promises to Abraham
and his Child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his
children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to
his Child”—and that, of course, means Christ.
17 This is what I am trying to say:
The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years
later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking His
promise.
18 For if the inheritance could be
received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of
accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a
promise.
19 Why, then, was the law given? It
was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the
law was designed to last only until the coming of The Child who was
promised. God gave His law through angels to Moses, who was the
mediator between God and the people.
20 Now a mediator is helpful if more
than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not
use a mediator when He gave His promise to Abraham.
21 Is there a conflict, then,
between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law
could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying
it.
22 But the Scriptures declare that
we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of
freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.
23 Before the way of faith in
Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We
were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith
was revealed.
24 Let me put it another way. The
law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we
could be made right with God through faith.
25 And now that the way of faith
has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.
26 For you are all children of God
through faith in Christ Jesus.
27 And all who have been united with
Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.
28 There is no longer Jew or
Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in
Christ Jesus.
29 And now that you belong to
Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and
God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
