Harvest 10.2  New Wine Skins

Luke 5:36-38 (New Living Translation)
36 Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.
37 “And no one puts new wine into old wine-skins. For the new wine would burst the wine-skins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. 38 New wine must be stored in new wine-skins. 39 But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”
Remember: Jesus is TIMELESS!  But the Pharisees were stuck in their old system. He spoke of LOVE,  they spoke of the he Law.  Jesus spoke of Grace they only know Performance.  He spoke of His Kingdom & they of their tired system of works.  He told stories – they had their lists…*God sent Jesus to upgrade the system!  To fashion the “new wineskin.”  That new wine-skin is His Church.

Three Principles of Wine-skins:
1. Wine is TIMELESS… Transcendent.  In other words, people are always going to drink wine.  People are ALWAYS going to need Jesus! Only HE can satisfy their spiritual thirst.
2. Wine-skins don’t last forever.  The culture around us changes so our methods much also change.
3. New wine requires new skins.  If we are going to be a relevant witness to this generation then we will have to understand the culture & reflect Jesus to it.

This is part of the ongoing process of God’s Spirit is consistently drawing us out of our comfort zones to live a life of faith & total dependence on HIM.

We have to put the venture back into the adventure of the church.  We must stop being so risk-adverse.  Do we love God & people enough to let go of the way we’ve always done things & trust Him to lead us into His ways?

kc