“New Wine in 09”
Youth are ushering today. They will hand out corks to everyone when they come in today.
Opening Video Illustration– old to new! The world is changing and we need to change and adapt with it. We cannot dig our heals in and refuse to change and to grow.
Clip compares: TV then and now – radio then and now – trains then and now - cars then and now – phones then and now – computers then and now – planes then and now – boats then and now – light then and now – trucks then and now – music then and now -communication then and now – mail then and now?
Opening Remarks: Today we are entering into a new era of ministry at Christian Hills – we have a new year and the promise from the Lord of a new start – a new focus – a new theme – our new theme is “New Wine in 09.”
I did toss around the idea of this theme “Don’t Whine in 09!”
Scripture Texts:
Matthew 9:14-17 (NIV):
14Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
15Jesus 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.
16“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.
“17Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:17 (CEV): “17No one pours new wine into old wineskins. The wine would swell and burst the old skins. Then the wine would be lost, and the skins would be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins. Both the skins and the wine will then be safe.”
The parable of Luke 5:36-39 (NIV): 36He 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. 37And 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. 38No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. 39And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.’”
Acts 2:1-13 (NIV)
1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Introduction:
Opening Illustration: Show the wine skin – explain the meaning of Jesus teaching here to the church.
The teaching is simple – you cannot put new wine in to old wineskins because the old worn out skins will burst and the new wine will be lost. Instead there needs to be new wine and a new skin to contain the natural process of fermentation which will expand the wine skin. The new skin is flexible and therefore can sustain the pressure of expansion whereas the old wineskin is rigid and unable to expand and therefore it splits and breaks open.
Jesus knew that the Pharisees where irked with him because he was not following their manmade traditions of religion. They wanted to know why he was allowing his disciples to break long standing traditions. Jesus lets them know through this parable that the manmade traditions of Judaism where not compatible with the new wine of the Gospel and the new out pouring of the Holy Spirit which was coming. He tells them change is coming to the way you worship God and it’s new and refreshing not old and dry.
Snyder notes: What did Jesus mean? Certainly he did not mean everything that Christians through the ages have taken from these words. Jesus distinguishes here between something essential and primary (the wine) and something secondary but also necessary and useful (the wineskins). Wineskins would be superfluous without the wine. This distinction is vital for the everyday life of the church. There is that which is new, potent, essential-the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there is that which is secondary, subsidiary, made by human hands. These the wineskins-traditions, structures and patterns of doing things have grown up around the gospel” (Page 13, Radical renewal, the problem of wineskins today).
I. Pour – We need to let God pour out a new move of the Spirit on us as a church.
a. God’s Word reminds us that God is a creative God and He loves to birth new life.
i. The Bible speaks of newness often:
1. Psalm 40:3: He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
2. Isaiah 42:9: See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.”
3. Isaiah 43:19: 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.
4. Isaiah 65:17: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.
5. Ezekiel 11:19: 19I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
6. 2 Peter 3:13: 13But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
7. Revelation 21:5: 5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
b. It’s obvious from these Scriptures that God is a God of new life.
i. The truth is God is still creative today – He is still in the business of creating new creations!
ii. God’s nature is full of inventiveness and creative ways. He helps solve our problems today in creative ways – ways that you and I could never imagine. Jesus was very creative in the way he presented the Gospel and so should we.
1. But a question rings in the ears of American Christianity today - Are we creative? I believe that if you were to take a survey on the street today and ask people, “Who is more creative the Christian community or the secular community?” My hunch is the secular world would win the survey. But this ought not to be! Why? Scripture tells us that the most creative force in the universe lives within you and I.
a. John 14:15-17: 15“If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
b. I Cor. 3:16: 16Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
c. Galatians 2:20: 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
d. I John 4:15, 16: 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
2. Therefore since He lives in us should we also not reflect his creativity? Should we not have creative mindsets and find new ways to present the Gospel to the people in our area that grabs their attention and affects their lives? Yes! We should and the Holy Spirit will help us do this. But we have to ask for creative minds and be willing to follow through with what the Lord shows us.
iii. He is still creating new things and we need to get on board so as to reach more people for Jesus Christ!
c. Now some of you are thinking – hold on Pastor Mike I know my Bible and it says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
i. Some of you have Malachi 3:6 on your mind “I the Lord do not change…”
1. That also means that God is still creating new things – new ways of reaching the world with the Gospel and His Word.
ii. Others have James 1:17 racing through your mind, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
iii. These Scriptures warn us that God’s Word is always true – he does not change his mind on the definition of sin. He does not change his value system to accommodate a sinful world. He does no change his mind on tithing and giving.
1. He is fixed on these principles!
2. But when it comes to how the Gospel is presented and how one is to worship God – He is open to variety!
3. Jesus had an issue with a bunch of religious leaders who could only see God in the light of their man made religious practices!
4. Jesus has that same issue today with many churches – leaders and Christians even today.
a. They cannot see past their own manmade religious practices!
iv. I never forgot what Chuck Swindoll said years ago, “It is a sin to bore people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!” I have never forgotten it and no minister should.
d. Acts 2 paints a picture for us of what happens when God pours out the Holy Spirit onto His people.
i. People get filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues – they in essence became living witnesses to the unsaved by speaking in their native tongues.
1. And what did they say, “They declared the wonders of God.”
a. By the way this how we should witness to the seeker today!
2. This outpouring amazed and even perplexed the on lookers.
a. Some became amazed at the power of the Holy Spirit.
b. Others became perplexed – why – because they discovered they had a dilemma – do I put my faith in Jesus or do I put my faith in a manmade religion.
3. Some even made fun of what God was doing saying that the people of God where just drunk.
a. Please note the mockers will always be there trying to undermine a genuine move of God.
T.S. – We need to allow the Lord to pour out His Spirit on this church and in to our lives. Then we need to lean back and drink in the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
II. Then we need to drink of the Holy Spirit and be refreshed and renewed
a. But we need to prepare our hearts for the coming wave of change (we can call it renewal and even revival). God desires – He wants to pours out His Spirit in a new way here at Christian Hills. But we must be willing to receive it and drink it in.
i. We must be willing to drink in the new move of the Spirit:
1. John 7:37, 38: “…If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
a. Jesus said that we need to drink of His Spirit and then living water will flow out of our lives and out of our church.
2. Revelation 22:17: “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”
a. The Holy Spirit desires to empower the church by unleashing His creative power into its life so that it produces new life. So that it encounters a new spiritual awakening.
b. But we must drink the free gift of the water of life.
ii. For some to drink and be refreshed means we have to be willing to change. Some of us need to lose our self-centered Christians ways of religion and choose to lose to God’s new move of the Spirit.
1. We need to allow our wineskins to be made new!
a. We need to understand that this out pouring may look different than a past outpouring we were a part of.
2. God wants new life – new passion – new vision – new kingdom growth – a new fresh outpouring of his Spirit!
3. He wants a new commitment from us to the Great Commission:
a. Mark 16: 15-18: 15He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. 16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
4. Quote Snyder, “Every age tastes the temptation to forget that the gospel is ever new. We try to contain the new wine of the gospel in old wineskins-outmoded traditions, obsolete philosophies, creaking institutions, old habits. But with time the old wineskins begin to bind the gospel. Then they must burst, and the power of the gospel pours forth once more” (page 15, 16).
iii. Church history illustrates that if a church quits being renewed and refreshed every day then they slide into apathy – this leads toward man made religion and deadness. In essence the people of God lose their anointing and their transformational power to see lives changed.
1. Examples: The Protestant Reformation is a case in point. Luther – history
a. Luther set out to see renewal come to a church which had drifted from the truth. The following is taken from Christian History Vol. XI, No. 2 and Vol. XII, No. 3)
i. His favorite verse: Texts: Martin Luther’s Favorite verses. Romans 1:17 17For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
ii. His favorite quotes: To understand Luther’s message to the church lets listen to a few of his most famous quotes. In these quotes we can see an individual who was not a man of fear but a man of faith.
1. On the Bible: “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”
2. “I’d like all my books to be destroyed so that only the sacred writings in the Bible would be diligently read.”
3. On Church Practices: “A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above the pope or a cardinal without it.”
4. On human nature :“Nothing is easier than sinning.’
5. On music: “The devil should not be allowed to keep all the best tunes for himself.”
6. On Prayer: “Oh, if only I could pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope.”
7. On Himself: “If I rest, I rust.”
8. His three main themes were:
a. Scripture alone
b. Faith alone
c. Grace alone
d. Christ alone
iii. If you look at many Lutherans churches and denominations today you see that they have drifted away from the truths that Martin Luther lived and preached.
1. He wanted the people of God to read their Bibles and gain spiritual truth themselves.
2. He wanted them to understand that faith is what saves you no good works.
a. It’s all because of Jesus.
3. He wanted this church to understand that sin must be avoided not played with.
4. He wanted the church to be contemporary with their worship style so that it appealed to the lost.
5. He wanted his church to pray with the intensity he saw in a dog wanting a piece of meat!
6. He wanted people to know that you cannot stop serving God because when you do you start to rust – you must serve the Lord with your whole heart.
b. The Methodist movement as a whole is another case in point.
i. John Wesley helped to found this movement because he wanted to see renewal in the Anglican church.
1. Wesley stressed practical Christianity, one that was always demonstrating itself in a person’s actions in the world.
2. Wesley believed and preached that every man could receive Grace and that Grace was to make him good therefore as a Christian there was no excuse for being bad.
3. Everything he did He did for Christ. He stated in his journals!
4. He helped institute social reform in England. He believed that the power of the Gospel could renew a society that had become corrupt.
5. He and Charles formed the “Holy Club” at Oxford in 1729 – in those days not more than five or six members of the House of Commons went to church at all. At Wesley’s death in 1791 his followers numbered 79,000 in England and 40,000 in America, but by 1957 there were 40 million Methodists world-wide and he saw revival sweep these two nations during his life and ministry.
a. Many of the Great Awakenings we read about in the past birthed through with the Methodist as they hungered after God.
6. His most famous sermon – “The almost Christian” Acts 26:28
a. Quotes: “…in being almost a Christian, is having the form of Godliness, of that godliness which is prescribed in the gospel of Christ; the having the outside of a real Christian. Accordingly, the almost Christian (looks Christian but does not act like a Christian)…”Hell is paved (saith one) with good intentions.” The great question of all then, still remains. Is the love of God shed abroad in your heart? Can you cry out, “My God and My All!” Do you desire nothing but him? Are you happy in God? Is he your glory, your delight, your crown of rejoicing?...Yea, dost thou believe that Christ loved thee, and gave himself for thee? Hast thou faith in His blood? Believest thou the Lamb of God hath taken away they sin, and cast them as a stone into the depths of the sea? (Christian History Magazine, Vol II, No. 1 page 20-23).
ii. Look at the Methodist movement today – what happened to the New Wine?
1. Where is the spirit of revival?
2. Why is sin being allowed in the church?
3. Where is the holiness movement that Wesley pushed and prayed for?
4. The old wineskins have been erected in the bulk of this movement and truth has been suppressed.
5. The Bible has been watered down and eve distorted.
6. The fire of the Holy Spirit and revival have left the majority of Methodist churches today.
7. Sin has crept in like a weed choking out the vine of life.
c. The Congregational movement is another case in point.
i. Jonathan Edwards and the Congregationalist or UCC of today were and are in different camps today.
1. Edwards had a long list of spiritual and moral “Resolutions” which reminded him each day of his imminent death and eternal destiny – he lived by these resolutions: Here is one:
a. “Resolved, constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly and interest in Christ or no; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of.”
2. Marsden states in Christian History , Vo. XXII, No. 1) the following about Edwards:
a. He was the first person to publicize revival on a large scale, and he became part of the wider movement that, during his lifetime, birthed what we now know as evangelicalism. His was not an itinerant or mass-meeting revivalism, but a local, church –based one. His legacy can be most clearly seen in American education. Most of the important colleges and even state universities founded in America in the first half of the nineteenth century were founded by New Englanders seeking both to educate and to evangelize the nation…Edwards…insists on starting with God, as He is portrayed in Scripture. Whatever is true virtue, he says, must be first a virtue that is related to the loving God who stands at the center of reality” (page 44-46).
ii. And where is the revival among the UCC today?
1. The New Wine is long gone and secularism has taken over – sin is accepted as norm and old wineskins are calling the shots.
2. God is not first in a lot of these churches – and sin is accepted as being okay. Just go read their UCC website and it will blow your mind.
a. They have drifted from the Bible as truth and have distorted the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. The same can be said for other movements – or revivals or great awakenings!
a. Even some Pentecostal ones – the fire is ignited by the Holy Spirit and new wine rushes in like a flood and new life is created over and over and then old wineskins arise and eventually choke out the new wine and it all bursts!
i. The Jim Jones incident in Africa a few years back is a case in point.
3. Snyder, “But there is something else this parable teaches us: the necessity of new wineskins. Wineskins are not eternal; not sacred. As time passes they must be replaced-not because the gospel changes, but because the gospel itself demands and produces change. New wine must be put into new wineskins-not once-for-all, but repeatedly, periodically” (page 16).
b. The Lord is sending a new Great Awakening to this area and we need to be willing to be changed, to be renewed to be, re-birthed into what He wants to do – not what we want to do.
i. We need to die to the self and allow God to do a new thing in our church.
1. Matthew 6:24: 24“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
2. Ephesians 6:7: “7Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men…”
3. 2 Timothy 3:1-5: “1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”
c. One of the greatest roadblocks to the spread of the Gospel today is not new age, Satanism, secularism, materialism, evolution, and the like but it is the institutional church – a church with no Holy Spirit. A church who goes through the dead motion of religion.
i. A church that goes through the motion of religious tradition with no moving of the Holy Spirit is in danger today in all over America.
1. Bono’s quote: “Religion is what you are left with when the Spirit leaves the building!”
a. The church must break out of its institutional mindset.
i. We must drink in the fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit!
b. It’s not the building that wins people to Christ it’s the Spirit of the Lord moving on the person heart!
i. It’s not the great programs that win people to Jesus it’s a divine encounter with Jesus and touch of His Holy Spirit on a person’s life.
c. We need to present the experience of Jesus Christ because this world is looking for true experiences that will shape their life and give it meaning.
i. Jesus is to be experienced!
1. The church is to introduce people to Jesus and His Holy Spirit – not religion or my traditions!
d. We are going to take some time and meet with Jesus this morning personally at the Communion table:
i. Luke 22:20: 20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
ii. Instructions on Communion:
1. When you take communion today – you are saying to the Lord Jesus Christ that you are willing to change and be renewed.
2. You are making a commitment to the Lord that you are willing to change and to support the new vision and direction of Christian Hills as He leads us in a new Great Awakening.
3. You are saying that it’s not about you – But it’s about renewal-revival-salvations and a new fresh move of the Holy Spirit in our church.
4. Today you will serve yourselves communion at the designated stations – it’s between you and the Lord – it’s a commitment to become willing to receive a new wine skin and a willingness to allow the new wine of the Holy Spirit to be poured out on this church and into your heart.
5. If you cannot get to the communion table then please raise your hand and one of the deacons will bring you the elements to partake of.
6. Please come to the different tables to receive your elements and then take them to a place where you and the Lord can meet personally and intimately!
7. When communion is completed I will come back to share some closing thoughts.
Conclusion:
We have personally given permission today to the Lord (by our act of communion) to let the Holy Spirit pour out a new wave of spiritual renewal onto Christian Hills.
We have committed personally to drink of this new move of the Spirit and to allow the Lord to change our wineskins.
Since we have made a pledge and a commitment to do the first two steps “Pour and Drink” we now look to the third step – “A willingness to live by the Spirit” – we know determine or make a New Years pledge to become living sacrifices for God’s Kingdom in 09.
III. We must go and commit to living by the Spirit in 09
a. The Word tells us that we must live by the Spirit:
i. Galatains 5:16-26 (Life by the Spirit looks like this!)
1. Galatians 5:25 (key verse) “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit!”
ii. 2 Corinthians 5:7: “We live by faith not by sight.”
iii. Acts 17:28: “For in him we live and move and have our being…”
b. Over the next few months we will be learning how to live by the Spirit and how to pour out “New wine in 09” into our lives, into our church, and into our community.
i. We must be willing to let it pour over us to change us – this new wine.
ii. We must be willing to drink in the new wine into our spirits for personal renewal and revival.
iii. We must commit to living by the Spirit in this New Year so that the new wine of the Spirit impact our community.
