The Old Garment
by David Newby
Matthew 9:16 Jesus said "No-one puts a patch of new cloth onto an old garment…."
Luke 5:36 "No-one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn (ruined) the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old."
What Jesus was saying is this - "This new covenant Church that I am building is not just an add-on to the old covenant and ways…… and if you just try to keep the old going by tacking bits of the new onto it, both will be ruined."
In Matthew 9:17, Jesus said that the old wineskin had to be thrown out, otherwise the new wine would be wasted.
If we try to enforce old covenant values and practices into the new covenant Church, then the new wine will be lost.
In trying to fix up or patch up the old system that we are used to, we will dilute and ruin the new and the old will still be old.
It would be like King David trying to set up his Tabernacle in the outer court of the Tabernacle of Moses. Imagine David wanting the Ark to stay in the outer court for everyone to praise God in His presence, while the priests would have been trying to get the Ark back behind the veil where no-one could see it. Asaph, the musicians and singers would have been trying to get the people to worship before the Ark, while the priests and Levites would have been trying to chase them out of the Tabernacle. There would have been confusion, boundary crossing and dilution of the principles, patterns and truths God was wanting to establish then, and finally fulfil, in the new covenant Church.
This is occurring in many churches which set up Cell church, Ministry Teams, and so forth in an effort to get people functioning, but only within the existing boundaries of the "old" church structure. While these steps can produce change, this does not always happen. It is often a band-aid solution to a situation where major surgery is required.
When reading Old Testament Scriptures, we need to view them through the filter of the cross by which we enter the New Testament or new covenant relationship with our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, we can no longer say "Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11). In the light of God's promises to us in the new covenant, such statements are inapplicable, faithless and unscriptural.
This same new covenant changes our relationship with one another also, as evidenced in the life of the early Church.
We need to be clear in our thinking about the "law and the commandments" which Jesus said He was not removing, but rather establishing. He meant the ten commandments and the associated laws that clarified these into everyday life so the Israelites could "love God, their neighbours and themselves". Under the new covenant, these are the "laws" that He writes on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34). These laws are the ethical bases for the way we live, walking in and controlled by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was not talking about establishing the Levitical laws, those that related to the priesthood, rituals, sacrifices, feasts, etc. pertaining to the Tabernacle of Moses and the worship style and systems there.
It is the shadow that these laws and the principles behind them cast across our churches today that I call "old covenant Christianity" or the Old Covenant Church.
The Apostle Paul said - "Be careful how you build!" (1 Cor. 3:10). We need to make sure that we have had the paradigm shift into new covenant thinking and values so that we do not waste our work or establish believers on things other than new covenant Truth.
We must not try to build the Gospel of Grace onto a foundation of hierarchy, works, external performance, laws and expectations. These are the shadows that the old covenant casts across the new covenant era.
We need to identify the old wherever it appears, throw it out and replace it with the new.
Of course it is easy to think that the old still works! Because it is what we are used to, and we are secure in it. It has been handed down for generations in most churches and denominations. Even new churches and groups have the old because it comes in with people, their mindsets and backgrounds.
But if we could be honest, the old does not work at all. It is now a broken eggshell, a discarded snakeskin. It can now only produce condemnation and bondage. How often has a revival started but then died? In how many churches is the back door as large as the front? New people come through all the time, but our numbers remain the same. How many new converts do we retain? As little as 5% in many churches.
Many long-term believers become disillusioned, discontented and finally bitter as they strive to fulfil the call of God in their lives, but the old structure can't make room for them because they can't make it to the ultimate ministry goal – Pastor.
Many ministers who become "Pastors" were never called to fit into this role. It is a major stress-out for them. Many become disillusioned and fail or just resign. (see chapter 9)
All because the Old Wineskin pattern cannot make room for them to minister in their true calling and they have to push through into what they are not.
That is why, according to a 1997 survey of pastors*, there were over 100,000 church leaders in burnout at that time, with 1500 pastors per month leaving their churches and the ministry. (*Full details in Chapter Nine).
The new works much better. A thousand times better. But people will continue to choose the old for personal security reasons.
In the previous chapter, I talked about the value and mindset changes that the early Church had to go through in the first formative years.
The disciples had wanted the Kingdom of Israel. (Acts 1:6)
Jesus was establishing the Kingdom of God. (John 18:36)
Some of the early Christians wanted a Jewish church. (Acts 11:1-3)
Jesus broke the racial barriers by including Gentiles in the church. (Acts 11:18)
Some wanted the Gentile Christians to come under the law of Moses (Acts 15:1)
The Holy Spirit released the Church from the law (Acts 15:28-29)
The disciples wanted leadership positions and prominence in the new Kingdom of Israel (Mark 10:37)
Jesus lived and taught servanthood (Matthew 23:11; Luke 22:25-26)
A natural kingdom discriminates, compares and segregates (Ephesians 2:11-12)
The Kingdom of God espouses mutual acceptance and mutual submission (Ephesians 2:14-22; 5:21; Philippians 2:2-5; 1 Peter 5:5-6)
The disciples wanted an Imperial (pyramid) governmental structure (Mark 10:37)
Jesus established a brotherhood of absolute equality (Matthew 23:8).
These are big issues, strong values. It was hard for them to change, to give up what had been so precious to them. The "hope of Israel" was no longer to them as it had always been. For the Jew, this was nothing short of a death experience. We may need a similar encounter with the Truth - a cataclysmic value change!
An Alternate Day of Pentecost -
Let’s imagine that Acts chapter 2 occurred before Peter had his concept and value change. The sword with which he had rashly moved to defend his leader was still sheathed on his belt.
When the crowd were convicted after his sermon and asked what they should now do, Peter would have replied -
"Repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of your sins. And now, as members of the family of God and the spiritual kingdom of Israel, enlist into the Liberation Army of Israel of which I am the Commander-in-chief. We must throw off the shackles of the Antichrist Roman Emperor and free our land of the invaders. Jesus said "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free". The Lord Jesus came to set us free yoke of bondage, so let’s play our part and fulfil His goals for our nation. Enlist with Colonel John and Major Phillip on my right. Boot Camp training will start in 3 days time……"
But that did not happen like this because, under the control of the Holy Spirit, the early Church grew in understanding of the truths of the Church and the Kingdom of God.
John 18:36 Jesus answered "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom was of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm." (NASB)
Acts 1:3b "Jesus…… appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God." (NASB)
An examination of our beliefs, traditions and practices reveal a lethal mixture of old and new covenant values. Lethal, because it robs us of the power and effectiveness that we could be experiencing in the preaching of the Gospel and extension of the Kingdom of God.
The following chapters will help us to identify some of the symptoms of the old so we can divorce ourselves from it in order to comprehensively embrace the new.
Remember, Jesus did not establish the new covenant as an optional extra. It is not an add-on to the old. It REPLACES the old, because it is BETTER -
Hebrews 8:6 “But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant to which He is Mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.
v7. For if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.
v13 By calling this covenant "new", he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” (NASB)
The argument for the new covenant Church could not be put more succinctly than in this passage of scripture.
But the problem is this - we cannot easily identify the old even though we can easily accept the case for the establishment of the new.
Why?? Because it has never entered our heads to question what we have; to test it to see if it fulfils all the criteria to enable it to wear the label "new".
Why?? Because it has never occurred to us that most of the numerous changes that comprise the “evolution” of the Church since the Book of Acts have actually been negative, driving the Church away from the pattern established by Jesus and the apostles.
Why?? Because we think that belonging to a Protestant church, especially if evangelical or pentecostal, means that we are free from non-scriptural traditions.
It would be true to say that the Church has gone further backwards than forwards since the 1st century AD, mainly because it donned again the old garment which Jesus threw away. He replaced the old with something far superior which we need to discover afresh.
This was taken from the authors book "THE BUBBLE WILL BURST"
David M. Newby