Preschool
With God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
New Wine Goes in New Bottles
Memory Verses
Primary
With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26
Junior
And Jesus looking upon them said, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. Mark 10:27
Background Scripture: Luke 5
Lesson Scripture: Luke 5:36-39; 2 Corinthians 5:16-19; Psalm 40:1-5
Introduction
What if it were possible to forget the hurts and hardships of life—leave them all behind and start over with a clean slate? Jesus offers us a new beginning, a new life with new hope and a new song. But there is a condition—we must leave behind the attitudes and habits that cause hurts and prolong hardships.
There is life in new wine. The bubbles produced by fermentation create pressure that will burst an old wineskin. The new life that Jesus gives cannot be contained within our former way of life. This new life generated by the power of the Holy Spirit in a believer transforms him into a new creature. May we not quench the Holy Spirit but allow Him to transform us into the person He wants us to be.
Key Verse
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter (Rom. 7:6).
Lesson Scripture
Luke 5:36 And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.
2 Corinthians 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Studying the Lesson
In the verses preceding the parable about the new wine, the scribes and Pharisees found fault with the disciples because they did not fast and because they ate with publicans and sinners. Jesus answered the scribes and Pharisees with the example of new wine and old wineskins, indicating that something new was beginning that did not fit into their old idea of righteousness. Verse 39 implies that they were so accustomed to their old ways that they could see nothing good in the new.
In Bible times, wine was not considered a luxury nor an indulgence—it was a staple of life. Good water was scarce and dangerous to drink if one tried to store it. Fermentation turned grape juice into a healthy beverage that could be stored indefinitely. It was often mixed with water, which diluted the alcohol content of the wine and neutralized any microorganisms that might be in the water. It had antiseptic properties, as shown in the parable of the good Samaritan. In the Bible, wine is often associated with rejoicing over the blessings of God.
Wine can be indulged in to excess. This the Bible clearly condemns, saying those “that tarry long at the wine (Prov. 23:30) suffer consequences. “At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder (Prov. 23:32).
Jesus spoke of bottles for wine, but the bottles used in Bible times for carrying liquids were made of goatskin and were often referred to as wineskins.
When we become new creatures through the transforming power of God, we no longer relate to other people in the way we formerly did. Adam Clarke comments on Romans 3:23: “As we know that ‘all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,’ therefore we esteem no man on account of his family relations or the stock whence he proceeded.”
Psalms 38 and 39 are David’s prayers to God for his mercy, and Psalm 40 is a psalm of thanksgiving to God for granting the mercy for which he had prayed. His troubles are now past, and David sings in praise to God.
Practical Truths for Today
We are the containers into which God pours new wine when we are born again. The new wine is powerful enough to purge out the impurities within us and to transform our lives. But perhaps we came to this new life with a fixed idea of how Christian life will be. We were going to do things exactly right, expecting anyone who calls himself a Christian to do likewise. Though old things are passed away and we have begun a new life, the initial joy of salvation seems to have faded in the lack of perfect performance.
It is easy to have high ideals when we begin Christian life. Would it not be wonderful if we, and everyone else, could live up to such ideals? However, living those ideals may leave little room for compassion. When our idealism is inflexible, we are in danger of our old wineskin bursting, leading to the loss of both the new wine and the old idealism.
Compassion and forgiveness keep our wineskins flexible. When Christians around us make mistakes, we love and forgive them. If we do not feel compassion or cannot forgive, perhaps we make a bigger mistake than the mistake someone else made. Lacking vision of our own depravity will make Christian life difficult. We must admit that we make mistakes, too.
Being a new creature in Christ gives us a life transformed by the Holy Spirit’s power. We should not attribute it to something we inherited from our forefathers. Having parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who were Christian will get our names into the family history book but not into the Book of Life.
The law given to Moses specified that the testimony of a single witness was not enough to settle a matter. “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established” (Deut. 19:15). This principle is repeated in the New Testament. People who hear the gospel of Jesus Christ from several sources that agree are more likely to believe it to be true than if they had only heard it from one place.
God has provided the Holy Spirit, his Word, and the church of God as three witnesses of the truth of the gospel. People may hear the testimony of one of these witnesses and misinterpret it or doubt its truth and dismiss it. But when a person hears the same testimony from all three, it is not so easy to dismiss or forget. If our parents were born-again Christians walking by the leading of the Holy Spirit, reading the Word of God daily in the home, and living as faithful members in the church of God, we have been influenced by all three witnesses. We are grateful to faithful parents who have taught us the truth, keeping in mind that the inspiration of the witness comes from God.
When our children and grandchildren hear and see the testimony of all three witnesses, we have grounds to hope that they, too, will seek the new wine to transform their hearts and lives.
Illustration
The Holy Spirit spoke to an eleven-year-old boy, leading him to examine his life and confess evil thoughts and bad actions to God. For a few weeks he asked God daily to help him live a pure life. Soon he saw that the people around him who called themselves Christians did not take life so seriously. As he became permissive in his life and disobedient to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit’s voice became quieter and quieter; soon he heard it no longer.
After the young man grew up and left home, he stopped attending church and reading the Bible. He came to believe Christianity to be all man-made nonsense. He heard people talk of the power of God in their lives but discounted any evidence that they were any more honest, kind, compassionate, or happy than other people.
Nevertheless, he often felt restless. Something prompted him to get a Bible and read for himself what it said. He expected it to be full of inconsistencies and contradictions but hoped that perhaps some glimmer of truth would shine through somewhere in the Book. What he discovered was a Book where nothing stood by itself—every part was linked to every other part. He could not divide it; he must either believe it all or throw it all away. He was more unsettled now than before he began reading the Bible.
Then he met someone from the church of God, someone who made no boasts and was quick to apologize when he felt he had said something amiss. This brought deeper turmoil. The young man knew there were serious problems in his life, but what could he do?
In the storm and turmoil, he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit once again and listened. He opened the Bible, and his eyes fell upon a passage that struck fear to him. He fell to his knees and confessed to God that not only had he done sinful things but that he was a sinner, desperately in need of help. The storm and turmoil grew quiet as the new wine of the Holy Spirit began to cleanse him inwardly.
He knew without being told that this new life could not be contained within his former lifestyle. Though change came slowly, hesitantly, with many stumbles and mistakes, the Spirit urged him onward. After a few years he became a member of the church of God. Now he is where he can hear the voice of all three witnesses, and he knows that God’s cleansing work will continue as long as he has breath.
Questions
- Can we be idealistic and compassionate at the same time?
- In the light of Psalm 40:3, are we quenching the Spirit if we are reluctant to speak publicly of our joy and thankfulness for what God has done for us?
- What is involved in the ministry of reconciliation? See 2 Corinthians 5:19.
- What are ways to keep the new wine from growing stale as we get older?
- Are there things we can do to help people around us hear the testimony of all three witnesses? How do we know when it is time to invite someone to our church service? Or is it always time?
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Source: COGICM Daily Bible Readings (Daily Bible Readings, PO Box 124, Glenn, CA 95943).