New Wine into New Wineskins (Part 1)

11/1987

In Luke chapter 5 was the next question, and He told them this parable. Now, bear in mind that the context of this passage in Luke 5 is Jesus healing men on the Sabbath, Jesus supposedly reaping grain on the Sabbath, and all the traditions of men - Jesus refusing to wash his hands like everybody said he was supposed to. The context is the traditions of men done in the name of God and this man who was supposedly unscriptural named Jesus.

Jesus told them this parable - no one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he’ll have torn the new garment and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the new wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And, no one after drinking old wine wants the new for they say the old is better.

That last statement first - you’ll always find this is true that if anything ever approaches our sacred cows and intimidates us because we’ve got pride invested in it or we’ve got laziness invested in it, immediately we’ll say the old is better, the old is better. I think Jesus being as it says the “wisdom and revelation of God” had the wisdom to say He just knew everybody would say the old is better, the old is better.

And, of course, in the context of this parable that’s obviously not true, but the point is that people will argue, “Hey, let’s just leave everything alone. We like our wineskin. It may be brittle, but it’s always served our purposes till now, and so let’s just leave it alone.” So Jesus, who cried over Jerusalem, he said, “I would have loved to have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not. You said the old is better.”

Jesus wanted to pour out new wine on the Israelites, but He said ultimately (as Isaiah even prophesied), “I’m going to have to be a light to the Gentiles. I’m going to have to bring light to their darkness and the unfruitful branches will be cut off and new branches will be grafted in.” He said, “I’ll leave to you your house desolate.”

And two chapters earlier He also said, “I’m going to take away the Kingdom of God from you and give it to a people who will produce its fruit.” Again, that’s a mind-boggling statement, but that’s the way Jesus did business usually was pretty mind-boggling. “I’m going to take away the Kingdom of God from you and give it to those who will bear its fruit.” God is still looking for a people who will bear its fruit. Not just study about it, talk about it, and play patty-cake with it, but will actually bear the fruit that Jesus bore.

In this parable He said that if we try to pour new wine that’s in the process of fermenting and growing and expanding into an old rigid wineskin - the process would eventually burst the old rigid wineskin. It won’t be able to handle the growth. He goes on to say that it will ruin the wine and the wineskin. Now the wine is good stuff. The wine is the Good News of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. And the wine will be ruined too, if we try to pour new wine into an old brittle wineskin. The question really though isn’t the age of the wineskin. The question is the flexibility of the wineskin. The issue at stake is - will the wineskin expand and be able to hold the wine or will it not expand and be able to hold the wine. If it’s brittle and old and hard, then it will crack and it will ruin the wine and the wineskin.

Now something I think we need to be careful of is that we assume that every wineskin is old. It’s not. Every wineskin is not old and brittle. There are people that are hungering and thirsting for righteousness that just haven’t found a better way yet. In all innocence they want to be everything God wants them to be. I know people in congregations all over the country that want to be everything God wants them to be. They’re not willing to settle for less than that, but they just don’t know where to go. They don’t know how to handle it. They don’t know where to get what God has for them. So, although these people might be old, they’re certainly not brittle and, therefore, they’re not old wineskins.

Something we see practically in Jesus’ life was that He went into the synagogues, especially in the early part of His ministry. He didn’t say, “Ok, Mom, Dad, you can keep going to church here if you want to, but I’ve got a better idea. I’m going to start my own church.” He didn’t do that. He kept going into the synagogues, into the synagogues, and eventually there came a time when the synagogues didn’t want any more of Him. And eventually He had to do what He had to do.

Paul did exactly the same thing. He always went into the synagogues. Here is a man that was an apostle to the Gentiles by his original commissioning - “You’ll go to the Gentiles and to their kings.” And yet what did he do? He always went to his people first. He went back to his roots - to the old dry dead religion. The Holy of Holies did not have the Ark in it anymore. The Babylonians had taken that away. There was no Ark in there, and they went on doing their little rituals and going in and having their little bells and their ropes and their incense and all that stuff, and the Ark, the Glory of God, wasn’t even in the Most Holy Place. There was nothing in it. The room was empty and they kept right on going through the same motions anyway.

Now Jesus knew that. He was the Ark of God. He was the Glory of God. He knew it wasn’t in a little box in that room anymore, and yet, he kept going back to them; and the same way with Paul. He knew that this was essentially a false religion because it didn’t recognize a Messiah. He came to His own and His own received Him not. And as Jesus said, they did not recognize the time of their visitation and Paul knew that. So it was essentially a false religion, but he used that opportunity to go in and try to breathe life and he got stoned for it. He got beat by rods. He got flogged for it. But it seemed like every place he went that he just kept going right back into the synagogues, even though he was an apostle to the Gentiles, not to the Jews.

At one point he said, “I wash my hands of your blood. Your blood is on your own heads. I’m going to go to the Gentiles from now on.” The next thing you know he’s back in the synagogues again. He just can’t leave it alone. He said, “I would rather die and even give up my own salvation for the sake of my countrymen, the Jews, if that were possible.” So his heart was not to pull away and to say, “Nanny, nanny, boo-boo,” but to just keep pouring his life into those people even at a great expense.

Now there came a time, for instance Acts 18 & 19 he begins to be abused in the synagogues, and he goes next door to the house of Titius Justus. And so he starts a church next door to the church that threw him out, but he began in the synagogue. He tried to pour out his life to them and tried to help them, and then people went next door.

In the next city he went to, in Ephesus, some publicly maligned the Way for three months. He preached in the synagogue, in the house of this false religion that had denied the truth. And he just stayed in there anyway pouring out his heart to them. After three months they finally said, “Get out of here.” They publicly mocked him and made fun of him and mocked Jesus and the Way. So what do you do? He went next door. Again, he went to the lecture hall of Tyrannus, I believe in this case, and it says, “Daily, daily, daily he kept after it,” and it says that everyone in the province of Asia eventually heard the word of Jesus because of what he did daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

So in pouring new wine into old wineskins, I think it’s safe to say that what we need to do is to pour out our life as a drink offering for those people that have got a scriptural religion like the Jews did, but they missed the power. They have a form of Godliness, but they deny the power. I think it’s essential that we like Jesus, and we like Paul keep pouring our lives into people. Not be a separate entity. Now there may be a time where we need to go next door because the way is publicly maligned, but I don’t think that’s the starting place to see a vision and then to go off and do something different. I don’t believe that’s a starting place. I think we need to pour out our life as a drink offering for people who deserve every bit as much of a chance as we did and do. We haven’t got it all together either, and we owe it to them. We are a debtor to all men as it says in Romans 1. We owe a debt. It’s a debt that we pay - that we need to pay. We make ourselves a slave to all. To the Jews we become as a Jew. To the free men, to the slaves, to the weak we even become as weak in order that somehow, someway, by making ourselves a slave to all and counting them better than ourselves, we might win some somehow.

That is the example of Jesus. That is the example of Paul. When Jesus was teaching, you’ve got to watch His example as well as His words. He poured out His life for the Jewish people. There came a time where He said, “I’ll leave to you your house desolate, because I wanted to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks, and YOU would not. It’s not that I would not, it’s that YOU would not.”

And that needs to be their decision. There needs to be clear testimony of - this is the word of God, this is life, I lay down my life for you. I beg you. I plead with you to not just simply have a form of Godliness and deny the power. I’ll do anything for you. I’ll give up my own salvation if somehow I can show you what it is that I’m talking about. And I’m going to keep laying down my life for you.

At the point where THEY would not and they publicly malign the way…then maybe it’s okay to go next door as Jesus did. He went next door with His disciples when the Jews decided they would rather mock him because of their competitiveness and their envy. Two of the gospels say that it was because of their envy - they didn’t like Him. And so He finally did end up with His disciples, but He did make this statement, He said when they came to take Him prisoner, “I didn’t do anything in secret. Was I not publicly in your midst? Didn’t I teach right in your midst? “

We need to have that same attitude - that we are not secretive. We don’t have a hidden thing that we’re doing. We are right out there giving our life as a ransom for many. And we would gather them as a hen gathers her chicks, but they would not. It’s not a self-righteous thing. It’s a pouring out of our life. And when they finally kick us out, then we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do, but our heart is that we would rather give up our own salvation than pull off and be some isolationists and extremists and fanatics and competitive and judge them and exalt ourselves.