New Wineskins
Matthew 9:14-17 HCSB “Then John’s disciples came up to Him saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast? Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests be sad while the groom is with them? The days will come when the groom is taken away from them and then they will fast. No one patches an old garment with unshrunk cloth, because the patch pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. But they put new wine into fresh wineskins and both are preserved.”
David Wilkerson said in this week’s newsletter that President Bush may not realize that he is being an instrument used by God in his confrontation with Iraq. We have got to know that THE NATION of Israel is loved by the Lord, where or not they are a stubborn and rebellious people who still refuse to believe in Jesus. David Wilkerson, (Times Square Church, Cross and Switchblade central character) said that Saddam Hussein wants to see himself as a hero in the Arab world. He can do this by reaping enormous havoc in Israel. If he can release his weapons of mass destruction on Israel and severely damage Israel – he will be seen as an Arab hero and the Arab world will come to him as it’s mighty deliverer. And whether Bush realizes it or not, he is an instrument used to by God to prevent the destruction of Israel by engaging Iraq in a military confrontation.
The last phrase in our scripture reading has mostly been ignored. In talking about new wine into fresh wineskins – the wine AND the skins are BOTH preserved. Now what can we see from this. We can see quite a bit – so let’s talk about it for a few minutes.
There comes a time for old things to be replaced – however good they have been. Please stay with me.
Jean and I have been driving our Mazda – 1990 for 12 years – and we have dearly loved that car. It had 15k miles on it when we bought it and it has 232k on it right now. It’s been a good car – a wonderful car, and it’s still pretty good. But, we have something even better now. The truck is 4 wheel drive – lots of room – leather seats – CD changer, everything we could want in a vehicle. I’ve been trying to drive the Mazda to keep the miles off the truck – but we have decided it’s time for the car to go.
The new year is here – the old one is gone. The new truck is here – the old car is going – and that’s the way life is – whether we like it or not – change happens and there is a codicil to the old saying, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Change is also certain – nothing on earth ever stays the same.
And the change can be for the better – or it can be for the worse. Whenever Jesus wanted to make a point with his people – instead of preaching them a sermon – he very often told them a story. The asked him about prayer and fasting and he told them about wedding guests and the bridegroom. You don’t fast during a wedding feast or a honeymoon. Jesus the bridegroom was still with them – the honeymoon was still happening. The time would come when the bridegroom would go away and there would be a time for fasting when that happened.
Then he explained about his new way of life. He was not and would not be a part of the old Jewish tradition. To make Him a part of the old tradition would be like putting a patch of new – unshrunk cloth on an old garment. When it got wet whether rained on – or washed – the patch would shrink and tear the garment – and the resulting hole would be bigger and worse than it was to begin with.
Jesus refused to be a patch on the old traditions – He would not be a band-aid – He was a whole – brand new garment – He was a new way of thinking – He was a new way of acting – He was a new way of living – He was a new way of thinking about God – God was Abba – Father – and endearing term – God is Papa – God is Daddy. God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. The old tradition said that God was LAW and Jesus said that God is LOVE – The old tradition said DO THIS and Jesus said BE THIS.
So Jesus is a BRAND NEW WAY of thinking about God. He’s not a patch on the old tradition – He is a BRAND NEW WAY to live.
So – What does that mean to us – to you and me – in the new year 2003.
Jesus is not into patchwork. He will not “patch-up” your old lifestyle – He will not be used as a temporary patch. He will give you a brand new way to live if you will take it. AND, you can’t patch-up selfishness. It must be dealt with at the core. You can’t patch up and unforgiving spirit – you have to let God deal with it at the core. Some people try to dump some Jesus into their old self and that doesn’t work. If you are going to follow Jesus, if your are going to be a Christian, He expects to be your whole wardrobe and not just a patch. Jesus came to outfit us in a whole new lifestyle that would testify of His great grace. He came to re-create – he came to re-generate – he came to re-make us into the likeness of God that was lost when sin came in.
There are times when we need to scrap a project or plan entirely, and just start over. God loves to help us make a fresh start. Do not suppose that being a sinner must keep you from God. Recognizing that you are a sinner is the first step toward God. Jesus came to call sinners. It is only the self-righteous who shunned Jesus, for Jesus came to forgive sinners and to have fellowship with them. You cannot be too sinful for God to save, or too holy to need His salvation. If you are a do-it-yourselfer- here’s one project that is over your head – here is something it is impossible for you to do. You can’t get good enough to deserve God – you can’t be holy enough to deserve Heaven – you can’t be pure enough to look God in the face – without the Son Jesus in your heart.
Then Jesus told them about wine and wineskins.
This would have been something they knew about – they were familiar with.
Wine was the most common drink for people in that day. However, they never had a bottling company that could process and packaged their drinks for them. They did not have refrigeration. Wine was less likely than water or milk to be contaminated as its alcohol content killed germs. Wineskins were bags made usually of a goat hide tied at the legs and the neck. After the skin was removed from the animal it was tanned over a fire. Then the openings were sewn shut, the neck was used for the spout, and fresh grape juice was poured in, the neck was sewn shut and the fermentation process began. As the new wine fermented and expanded, it would stretch the new wineskins. Putting new (unfermented) wine in old, wineskins, which had already been stretched and already dried out, would result in a catastrophe. The wineskins would break and both wine and skin would be lost.
The meaning of the saying "new wine into new wineskins" is that the presence and teaching of Jesus was something new and signaled the passing of the old. Jesus would not patch or pour His new spirit into the old tradition. Judaism had become inflexible due to the accumulation of non-biblical traditions – centuries old. Jesus refused be part of the old religion of Judaism, of circumcision and animal sacrifice. Furthermore, Jesus did not come to reform an old and worn out system but to fulfill or complete it and then introduce something radically new. For example, He Himself would be the ultimate sacrifice for sin, so the sacrificial system would no longer be necessary. Can you imagine still sacrificing goats and bulls when Jesus has paid the price for our sins? The Pharisees liked the old way better. They didn’t want to let loose of the old way. Did you ever meet anybody like that?
Application: God has a new thing He wants to do. I sense there’s some “new wine” God wants to pour out into the “new wineskin” of Ponderosa Church. Question: Will we be willing to stretch with new ideas? It’s time for you to trade-in. You’ve been driving that way of life for a long time. I believe God wants us to experience some new wine. Here’s what you can do today to experience the new wine.
1. Be restored to spiritual health. The load of sin accumulates and life gets heavy and church attendance burdensome. But we can get our obedience up to date. You know what you need to do in order to get in the clear with God.
A. The old Christian tradition has been to have church ‘REVIVALS” about twice a year. In my mind – that will not be necessary if and when we get our lives in shape to accommodate new wine. Now there is nothing wrong with church revivals – and we may have one – but when it do – The name itself implies that something is wrong with the church. The skin is old and dry and brittle.
2. Be submissive to Jesus’ Lordship. The Lordship of Jesus Christ cannot be poured into the old skin of our settled personality structure, our presuppositions about life, our prejudices about people, or our plans for the future. Jesus wants all of your life.
2. Be responsive to the call. I believe that God has given us the responsibility of communicating a call; a call to the Kingdom of God; a call to relationship with a God who wrapped himself in human flesh; a call to a life of service, mission and compassion; a call to prepare people for the coming kingdom; a call to authentic Christianity – not church-ianity. We have to call people to be committed to Christ himself. We call people to a life-long, life-changing relationship with the Divine Christ. The church becomes not a destination, but a conduit and channel through which people can find resources, relationship, tools and training for their relationship with their Lord.
In the beginning – I called attention to the last sentence of that story – with new wine into new skins both are preserved.
God is in the business of seeking people – changing lives – taking them to Heavne – giving them a taste of Heaven on earth - AND He is also in the business of preserving Israel. Whether or not the nation as we know it is preserved – he will preserve the people. He will do that – and He is doing that – and He is using his present day church – the people of his present day church – to bring His Story – HIS STORY – to it’s ultimate end – the penultimate consummation of the age - The redemption of the people of Israel. And he told that story when he gave the illustration of the wine and the wineskins.
Now the rest is up to you. Will you be a part of God’s plan for His earth – His invitation is for you to take him seriously - He will not be just a Sunday morning patch on six days of the old garment. Jesus is a new garment – a new suit – a new robe - trade in the old one – the new one is already paid for. We’re getting rid of our old car – you get rid of that old life – God has a new one you can take all the way to Heaven.
Jesus paid it all – all to Him I owe – sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
