NEW WINE INTO NEW WINESKINS

NEW WINE INTO NEW WINESKINS Matthew 9:14-26 Key Verse 9:17 "Neither 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." Last week we learned that Jesus came to call and to heal all kinds of sinners including old wineskin religious leaders. The Bible is filled with the analogy of the old and the new. When Jesus came to preach the good news of the kingdom of God, people were amazed at his teaching, saying, A new teaching. Jesus gave a new command to love one another. Jesus establishes a new covenant through his blood. Those who are in Christ are called a new creation. We received new life in Christ. We have new birth into a living hope of the kingdom of God. Jesus will come again to establish a new heaven and a new earth. The Bible says, The old has gone; the new has come! (2Co 5:17b) In today's passage Jesus teaches us the parable of new wine and new wineskins. In this parable, Jesus likened himself to new wine and his disciples to new wineskins. But I guess you already knew that. May God bless us to become new wineskin Christians. Part I: Unhappy disciples of John the Baptist (14). Look at verse 14. "Some of John's disciples came to ask Jesus: "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" (14) It is interesting that some disciples of John the Baptist positioned themselves with the Pharisees, saying, We and the Pharisees fast. They identified themselves as keepers of the religious tradition along with the Pharisees and joined the Pharisees in criticizing Jesus and his disciples. They should have been natural allies. Why would they do such a thing? Their teacher John the Baptist came to prepare for Jesus coming as his forerunner. John the Baptist said of Jesus, He must become greater, I must become less. (Jn 3:30) John the Baptist knew who he was and who Jesus was. John the Baptist was truly humble before God. As John s disciples, they should have been humble also. They should have exalted Jesus above themselves and support Jesus disciples in prayer. But they were not. They were full of jealousy toward Jesus ever-growing ministry 1

and his disciples. Once they enjoyed prime time with John the Baptist. But when John rebuked King Herod s immorality, John was put in prison. Soon Jesus took over the ministry and Jesus disciples began to enjoy prime time with Jesus. Jesus' disciples looked presumptuous, arrogant and carefree. So John s disciples asked Jesus this sharp question to express their unhappy feeling toward the whole new development. John s disciples did not understand the flow of God's history: John the Baptist came to this world as the forerunner of Jesus. He lived on locusts and wild honey. Virtually he fasted everyday. He did so in order to wait for the coming of the Messiah. But Jesus the Messiah came; the kingdom of God descended on earth with power, bringing us into the new era of his messianic ministry. Jesus healed the sick and preached the good news of his kingdom. He mingled with tax collectors and sinners, eating with them and revealing himself as Immanuel, God with Us. Indeed, the old has gone and the new has come. If John's disciples were as humble as their teacher John the Baptist, they would not criticize Jesus' disciples. If they had a sense of God s history, they would not pass judgment on Jesus disciples. But they became as proud as the Pharisees and they didn t have a sense of God's history. So they couldn t cooperate with Jesus disciples. Part II: The characteristics of Jesus kingdom (15-20). John s disciples also did not understand the characteristics of the kingdom of God. So in verse 15 Jesus kindly answered them. Jesus answered, How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while they are with the bridegroom? " Here Jesus describes the kingdom of God as a joyful wedding banquet, himself as the bridegroom and his disciples as the guests of the bridegroom. As long as Jesus' disciples were with Jesus the bridegroom, they didn't have to mourn with long faces and stony expressions. It is because where Jesus is; there the kingdom of God is. Another characteristic of God s kingdom is that it has dynamic power. It is not static. It is not fixed. The kingdom of God shrinks and expands; it cannot be self-contained. It is explosive, full of life, power and vitality. Look at verse 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." Unshrunk cloth is flexible: it shrinks when it is washed. The old garment is inflexible and lifeless. It cannot shrink again when a new patch of unshrunk cloth is applied. So when someone 2

sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, the patch will pull away from the garment, making a bigger hole. Jesus is unshrunk cloth. He shrinks, like a shrinke-dink, making himself smaller and became completely humble. Php 2:5-8 tells us of Jesus great humbleness: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Can you humble yourselves as Jesus did? Some may say, Piece of Cake! But in reality humbling oneself is the most difficult thing for groundlessly proud sinners to do. But we must repent our groundless pride with tears and have a burning desire to shrink ourselves together with Jesus, so that Jesus may be in us and we may be in Jesus. Look at verse 17. "Neither 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." Jesus is new wine. What is the big deal about wine and wineskins? Well, new wine expands as it goes through the process of fermentation. It expands in all directions: vertically and horizontally, in height, width and length. It expands quickly. So if someone pours new wine into old wineskins, the wine will burst the skin because the old material cannot stretch anymore, it is set. Both the wine and the wineskins will then be ruined. People pour new wine into new wineskins because new wineskins are very flexible and elastic like a rubber band. So as new wine expands explosively in all directions: a new wineskin can expand with it. And both are preserved. Jesus compared himself with new wine and his disciples with new wineskins. Jesus is like new wine because he came to expand the kingdom of God vertically from heaven to earth in order to bring sinners to his glorious kingdom. Jesus came to expand the kingdom of God horizontally, beginning with Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Jesus came to expand people s heart and vision. Jesus disciples were like new wineskins. In the past, the disciples were very nationalistic. They had tunnel vision. They only worried about their own future securities and the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. But Jesus planted in them God s greater purpose of making them a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Ex 19:5, 6) They were mostly Galilean country boys. They did not have an excellent education. They were full of mistakes and had no manners whatsoever. But they loved Jesus and had humble learning minds. So they 3

expanded their hearts together with Jesus. They changed sometimes slowly and sometimes radically with Jesus. They were full of life, youth, adventure, and courage in their successes as well as in making many mistakes. Because of their new wineskin attitude toward Jesus and his gospel, they grew to be spiritual generals who could serve God s world salvation work and history. Peter also had tunnel vision. He lived in his own world. But in Jesus, his vision expanded explosively until he said in 1Pe 2:9. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Wow! Jesus wonderful grace is deeper than the ocean and higher than mountains. With him there is no limit in what he can do. Jesus did not hesitate to conclude: "New wine into new wineskins." Here we learn an important truth: We should be expandable like new wineskins in order to have Jesus in our hearts. Jesus wants to expand our vision. Jesus wants to expand our ministry. Are you willing to expand yourself by taking care of God s flock of sheep? We love COD; we love DuPage county. But Jesus wants us to expand our prayer and vision beyond our campuses, our county, our state and our country to the whole world because Jesus is the Lord of all creation. He commands us to go into the whole world and preach the good news to all creation. Are we expanding ourselves together with Jesus, making his vision our own? If not, we are nothing but old-wineskin Christians. I thank God for Msn Sarah Barry whose vision expands toward Moslem countries and North Korea. It seems that the situation in North Korea is not favorable. Nowadays Mr. Jung-il Kim, the president of North Korea, is making headlines with his threat of continuing his nuclear weapons program. He wants an upper hand in getting foreign aid through this threat. But God is answering our prayers and opening the door of the gospel little by little. As her prayer for North Korea, she visited North Korea last year. Even though she is well advance in years, her heart is young and fresh like new wineskins. May God help us to repent our old wineskin tunnel vision and pray for Moslem countries and North Korea. Now, under Dr. John Jun s new leadership, we have a new challenge and prayer topic. It is to double the number of Sunday worshipers and one-toone Bible studies by the year of 2010. We must grow 20% per year. This can happen by the power of God s word and prayer. We must all make a new decision to study the Bible deeply and obey it from our hearts. May Jesus kingdom be expanded through our new wineskin ministry. Part III: New-wineskin faith of a ruler and a bleeding woman (18-26). 4

Look at verse 18. "While he was saying this, a ruler came and knelt before him and said, 'My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.'" Here the ruler of a synagogue was Jairus. In light of this passage, he had a one and only daughter who was twelve years old. No doubt this pre-teen girl had been a source of joy in her family, especially to her father. But one day the elements of tragedy knocked at his door. All of a sudden his daughter fell ill; she was getting worse and worse; finally she died. But Jairus did not give up on his daughter. He had an undying love toward his daughter. It was not easy for Jairus to come to Jesus and beg his mercy for his daughter. Jairus was a man of standing in his community as a synagogue ruler. On the other hand, Jesus was known as the son of a carpenter. But for the sake of saving his daughter's life, he threw away his old-wineskin pride as a synagogue ruler. He loved his daughter more than himself. He loved his daughter more than his job, dignity and pride. He also had faith that Jesus could raise his dead daughter to life. His faith was amazing. Though he was old, his faith was fresh like new wineskins. How did Jesus respond to Jairus? Look at verse 19. "Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples." Jesus was moved by his new wineskin faith and went with him to raise his dead daughter. Look at verses 20-21. "Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, 'If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.'" This woman had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. Because of her problem, she was regarded as an unclean woman. She could not have a normal social life, mingling with people. She could not have a dream of marriage or a happy home. She had been a lonely and shameful woman for twelve years. To make matters worse, she had lost all her money to medical doctors (Mk 5:26). Still, her condition became worse and worse. But she did not become fatalistic. One day the woman heard about Jesus. But there was a problem: There were too many people around Jesus. Being an unclean woman, she was not privileged to appear before Jesus publicly and ask Jesus' favor to heal her bleeding. But this did not stop her from coming to Jesus. She decided to throw away her oldwineskin self-consciousness as a woman. She came behind Jesus in the crowd and just touched his clothes secretly, because she believed, "If I only touch his clothes, I will be healed" (21). She was a beautiful woman who had "only touching his clothes" faith. She was healed because of her new wineskin faith. Look at verse 22. "Jesus turned and saw her. Take heart, daughter, he said, "your faith has healed you. And the woman was healed from that moment. 5

Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. Jesus recognized her new wineskin faith and said, Your faith has healed you. When she had faith in Jesus, Jesus' power was channeled into her body through her faith. Immediately her bleeding stopped and she was healed completely. This woman' faith was amazing and fresh like new wineskins. Look at verse 23. When Jesus entered the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd, he said, Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep. But they laughed at him. When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly (38). They didn't cry and wail loudly before Jairus came. They were eating or chatting with one another. But at the news of Jairus' arrival with Jesus they began to make loud crying and wailing noises. Look at verse 24. he said, Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep. But they laughed at him. They laughed out of their unbelief, not out of joy. They were old wineskin people due to their unbelief and doubt. Look at verses 25, 26. After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. News of this spread through all that region. It was indeed amazing that Jesus raised this girl from the dead. Jesus is the Living God. Amen! In conclusion; Young people should look joyful and fresh. But nowadays even young people look old, tired and worn-out. They do not need another beer; they need Jesus the new wine. They must renew their hearts in Jesus. They must renew their faith and vision in Jesus. In order to be a blessing to them, we ourselves must renew our hearts first. May God change us into people of new wineskin faith. May we shrink and become as humble as Jesus. May we expand together with Jesus. May God bless us to expand our Sunday worship service until we can have 120 faithful members. May God expand COD UBF to raise 12 courageous men disciples and 12 prayerful women disciples through our Friday meeting. May God bless us to expand our prayer and vision to the whole world through the upcoming Easter Bible conference. 6