The Bible Study Podcast, episode 426. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of the gospel of Matthew in chapter 9.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We started chapter nine last week,

and we're going to continue on with chapter nine in verse 14. Then John's disciples came and asked him,

how is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? Jesus answered,

how can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?

The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them.

Then they will fast.

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.

Neither do people pour new wine into old wine skins.

If they do, the skins will burst. The wine will

run out and the wine skins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wine skins and both

are preserved. Now, I don't know how many wine skins you happen to have around the house, but if you

do, you may know that an old wine skin is not as elastic as a new one, and that a new wine may still be fermenting and will potentially let off gas and therefore will stretch the skin.

And what he's saying here is there are old things and there are new things.

There are old rules and there are new rules.

And sometimes things don't fit. And he gets this question because the

disciples of John, of John the Baptist, come to him and say, what's the story with fasting? Are you

against it? Are you for it? Should we be doing it? I mean, this is a real honest question. It's a very good

question. Unlike the Pharisees, these are not people trying to trap Jesus.

They want to know what's going on. He says, we see that you're doing things differently than we're

doing them. Maybe one of us is doing the wrong thing. So let's talk it out. You know, John is your

cousin. We know you're close. We know that he has great admiration for you and has

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