01/04/21 WHAT’S NEW? #9 — Matthew 13:52 (HCSB) “Therefore,” He said to them, “every student of Scripture instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who brings out of his storeroom WHAT IS NEW AND WHAT IS OLD.” — The disciples were not to spurn the old for the sake of the new. Rather the NEW INSIGHTS they gleaned from Jesus' parables were to be understood in light of the old truths, and vice versa.

Mark 1:27 Then they were all amazed, so they began to argue with one another, saying, “What is this? A NEW TEACHING with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” — Jesus had absolute authority in His actions as well as His words (Mt 28:18).

Acts 17:19 They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this NEW TEACHING you’re speaking of? — The Areopagus was a court named for the hill on which it once met. Paul was not being formally tried; only being asked to defend his teaching. [adapted from The MacArthur Study Bible]

Some church members insist that everything must be left “the way it’s always been”; in their determination to preserve the OLD they never see the need for and the value in NEW things. Others insist that the OLD must always pass away in favor of the NEW; like the Greeks in Acts 17, they view OLD things as obsolete and archaic and NEW things as exciting and progressive. Both groups are wrong and dangerous.

As Jesus clearly taught in Matthew 13, authentic Christian living is a MIXTURE of the OLD and the NEW.  The ancient, absolute truths of Scripture are OLD and must be guarded, protected and proclaimed. But our methods and programs need to be flexible, easily and readily adapted and even abandoned in order that we respond to our ever-changing culture. The sooner our churches realize this, the sooner we have a real hope of powerfully influencing our neighborhoods, towns, states, nation and the world with the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!