36 He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ’The old is better.’" Luke 5:36-39 (NIV)
Context – Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees. They had been criticizing him:
- v 21… Who can forgive sins but God alone?
- v 30… Why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?
- v 33… Why don’t your disciples fast as often as we do?
They had trouble understanding Jesus. He certainly did not fit into their pre-conceived notions of what Messiah looked like. That’s why they didn’t recognize him. And that’s why people today don’t recognize him. He simply doesn’t fit into the molds shaped by our education, our experience, our religion.
Jesus used two examples to illustrate why the Pharisees had a problem with him. And why we have a problem with him. You can’t use the new to patch the old. You can’t stuff the new into the old.
Why don’t you just wear the new shirt?
Wineskins in Jesus day were whole goatskins, sewed tightly shut where the neck, tail, and feet had been. Fresh wine was allowed to ferment in these for two to four months, until the fermenting process had stopped. The carbon dioxide gas generated by the fermentation process would stretch the skin to its limit. Job uses this analogy:
18 For I am full of words, and the spirit within me compels me; 19 inside I am like bottled-up wine, like new wineskins ready to burst. Job 32:18-19 (NIV)
When the fermenting process stopped, the alcohol was at around 12%, and the collagen protein that gave the skin its elasticity had been stretched out and denatured by the alcohol. The skins had lost their ability to expand or contract.
Those listening to Jesus understood. If you tried to put new wine into an old skin, the gas released during the fermentation would cause the inflexible skin to burst, ruining both the skin and the wine.
God is always doing something new…
18 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
- He told Noah to build a boat, when it had never rained before.
- He told Abraham to leave his home, without telling him where to go
- He told Gideon to send all but 300 of his soldiers home just before attacking an army
- He told Elisha to throw a stick on the water to make an iron axe head swim to the surface
- He told Jehoshaphat to put the choir out in front of the soldiers when they attacked the enemy
God’s going to make a way in the desert, and streams in the wasteland. And he doesn’t need to borrow your backhoe or garden hose to do it! He’s going to do a new thing!
I wonder if someone can hear God saying today, “I’m doing a new thing – don’t you perceive it?” Maybe all you see is desert – a wasteland. But God is getting ready to make a highway. He’s getting ready to reveal a river. God is wanting to – he’s already started to – do a new thing in your life!
New Wine looking for a New Skin
In these passages Jesus is setting the tone for the New Testament. It’s not that the Old Testament was bad. Absolutely not! But he was saying that the Old Testament could no longer contain what the Spirit of the Old Testament was doing. It served its purpose, but according to Gal 4:4, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son… He did a new thing. It was time for a new covenant.
The Holy Spirit is God moving.
The Holy Spirit has always been at work in the world. People misunderstand the Holy Spirit. It defines God’s activity amongst his creation. It is the moving and speaking of God – that of God that we can actually detect. The word translated Spirit, in both the Hebrew and Greek, literally means breathe or wind. The Greek word is pneuma, where we get our word pneumatic. It is the power of air.
Many try to make the Holy Spirit a separate personality from God the father. That would be like separating wind from air. Air is all around us. We live because of it. It gives us life, but we don’t often recognize it. But when it blows, so we can feel it - we call it wind. God is all around us. We live because of him. He gives us life, but we often don’t recognize it. But when God moves, so we can feel it – we call him the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was present and powerful in the Old Covenant. The Holy Spirit’s first and defining act in the Old Testament was creation. This is God moving on. He moved on the face of the waters. Later, we are told that the prophets wrote as they were moved on by the Holy Ghost. (2 Pet 1:21)
But in the New Testament, something changes. The Holy Spirit’s first and defining act in the New Testament is birth (Matt 1:20). Unlike creation, which is God moving on – birth is from the inside out. It is God moving in.
(see The Holy Spirit series at sermons.connectpoint.org)
The New Testament starts with the story of a young lady who is willing to let the Holy Spirit do something new in her. A virgin birth? Yeah, right… Yet Mary’s response was willing:
"I am the Lord’s servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Luke 1:38 (NIV)
This is still the theme of the New Testament. God wants to do something new - and he wants to do it in you.
It is not lost on me that in the book of Acts 2, when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, people called it new wine. (Acts 2:13).
The New Wine was looking for a new skin… There were 120 people in that room that had no idea what God was about to do. But they were willing. And those 120 people turned their world upside down in just a few short years.
The Pharisee’s (and our) dilemma
Here is the problem. When God wanted to do something new, the Pharisees were still caught up in the old. They were in a rut. (Someone said a rut is nothing but a grave with both ends dug out of it). And that is the problem for us today to. Jesus concludes these parables with:
And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ’The old is better.’" Luke 5: 39 (NIV)
Remember that old wine was at one time new wine. The point is not that old is bad. The point is that God is doing something new, but we’re more comfortable with the old.
Why do we prefer the old?
- Familiarity – it is comfortable… Music, dress
[elaborate]: We like the old things. We like the music that brought us to God. We get all nostalgic, and warm fuzzies. Apostolic music is “Hammond B3” music… But God wants someone that is willing to step out of their comfort zone.
- Safety – we’re not afraid of the unknown…
[elaborate]: We’ve been there, done that. I know how that works. I understand that. But God wants us to trust in Him, and lean not unto our own understanding. (Prov 3:5)
It is this place of familiarity, this place of safety, that leads us quickly to legalism. Legalism is also a misunderstood word. It is not obeying laws. It is depending on a known set to accomplish what only God can accomplish through his Spirit.
In that sense, we’re all tend to legalism – just like the Pharisees. We’re trying to use God to patch up a life that we are comfortable with. We’re trying to fit God into our safe set of rules. And like the Pharisees, we think that everyone else should also conform to our safe and comfortable box.
How many times have I heard, “Well, he didn’t get the same Holy Ghost that I got…”. Of course – what they’re saying is, “He didn’t act like I acted, or she didn’t change like I changed”
I’ve seen this same legalism bleed into worship. Some are jumpers, some are dancers. I’ve seen them roll on the floor, I’ve seen them run the aisles. Some laugh, and some cry. Some say you gotta hoop, and some say you gotta holler. But to tell you the truth – I’m not sure what you’re going to do. But I do know that God is going to do a new thing. He’s looking for someone that will say – I don’t care but what it looks like. I don’t care what people think. With all my heart, God – I want you in my life!
We simply cannot stuff the new into the old…
When we try, we ruin both. That’s why we must obey the Gospel. You see, God’s Spirit cannot live in the old man. We have to die. We have to be buried.
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3-4 (NKJV)
But sometimes, we have to die all over again. Paul said “I die daily” (1 Cor 15:31). Because we start leaning on the old again. We begin to retreat into what is comfortable, and safe. Every once in a while God has to start shaking our world. Because he doesn’t want us to start depending on the old man. He says put on the new man.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Eph 4:22-24 (NIV)
You see – God is always doing something new. [musicians called in preparation for prayer]
- Eze 36:26 – God says I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you
- 2 Cor 3:6 – This makes us able ministers of the new testament
- Heb 10:20 – because we have a new and living way opened for us through the veil
- Joh 3:5 – Jesus describes a new birth
- Mar 16:17 – He says believers will speak with new tongues
- 2 Pet 3:13 – Nevertheless… We look for new heavens and a new earth
- Rev 3:12 – Where, God says, He will write on us a new name
- Rev 5:9 – And where we will sing a new song
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Rev 21:5 (NKJV)
I’m here today to tell you that New Wine is looking for a new skin! God is looking to do something wonderful in Birmingham. There is a miracle waiting to be born – in you!
Stand… Heads bowed – eyes closed…
I wonder what it is in your life that simply cannot co-exist with the new thing that God wants to do? What safe, comfortable friend have you been retreating to? God’s looking for someone that will step out in faith and say, “I don’t know what’s going to happen – but I want God in my life.”
