NEW WINE

NEW WINE

                “And do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even the Father and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” Eph. 5:18-21

                It may seem a strange thing comparing getting drunk with wine to being filled with the Holy Spirit. It sort of takes us off guard to even think in such terms, but there is a lesson in it. If you drink enough wine it changes the way you walk, the way you talk and the way you see life and since birds of a feather flock together, those who drink much wine tend to hang out together, because if you are planning to get drunk, then it is more comfortable to hang out with others who are drunk rather than to hang out with stone sober people, who will probably not share in your exaggerated views and actions.

                Jesus also made a similar comparison saying: “Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins and both are preserved. “ Mt. 9:17

                This idea here of trying to pour new wine into old wineskins has a great deal to do with being born again. Nicodemus was well-versed in all of the traditions and the religion of Judaism. He was probably an authority on the religion of the day, but Jesus was telling him in essence that life in the Holy Spirit cannot simply be added to his traditions. Like wine, the Spirit filled life takes over and in time changes everything. It changes the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we see life, the way we see our purpose in the world. We are no longer simply parroting a list of doctrines but we are living by and being motivated by the very Spirit of Christ and as such, flesh cannot contain it.

                So being born again means not only the receiving of the Holy Spirit, but a newborn container to put it in… a new skin that can handle the ever-expanding influence of the Holy Spirit upon our lives.

                We need to understand that on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did much more than to empower the old message. He did not make them better Jews, better scribes… better Pharisees; He made them into new creatures with a new message. “Everything has changed!” And even though the old bears testimony to the new, it can in no way contain the new. Jesus has risen from the dead… B.C. has changed to A.D. types and shadows have now become realities in the Spirit. We have good news to announce. It is the Gospel of the Kingdom and the very Spirit of Christ has entered into us to empower us to do the works of Christ and to destroy the works of the devil. Behold all things have become new!”

                In a very real sense Old Covenant Law cannot contain or rule over the new life for the Law cannot produce love either for God or for our fellow man. It can tell you what to do and what not to do, but it cannot produce the life of the Spirit in you.

                Jesus told Nicodemus in essence: “You are coming to me on equal terms to talk shop, but we are not even in the same dimension. To get into My kingdom… My dimension, you must be born again.

                To this day, there are Christians that try to convert people with a list of information, rather than bringing them to death and resurrection in a direct encounter with Jesus Christ. Our Christianity becomes a new religion about Christ rather than a new birth that has become empowered by the very Spirit of Christ and like Nicodemus, we hunger for something that Jesus has, but we don’t know how to get there because we want to put it into an old wineskin. We want to empower our traditions rather than to be empowered and transformed by the all- consuming wine of the Holy Spirit.

                Do we really understand what Paul is talking about in Phil. 3:7-10?

                “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

                Paul is here talking about entering the cocoon as a grub worm and then emerging from it as a butterfly, having virtually nothing in common with his previous life. He didn’t just paste wings to his old grub worm self, but he had gone through a spiritual metamorphosis… a transformation into a new creature with entirely new abilities and an entirely new life and purpose.

                Some grub worm teachers may have tried to teach him how to build a better cocoon, but that kind of instruction no longer applies to him. Now he must go to flight school and learn how to be carried by the wind of the Spirit… how to use his wings and how to steer clear of bats and birds that would like to eat him for lunch.

                Life in the Spirit, even though it is permeated with joy unspeakable and full of glory, is nevertheless not a carefree life. In fact it is when we get our wings that we learn just how many predators are out there. We live in a kingdom that despises butterflies and wants to clip our wings and to make us to conform to grub worm normalcy… to eat what grub worms eat and to hang out where grub worms hang out, but we no longer fit somehow and so we hunger for the sweet nectar of the Holy Spirit. We hunger for Spirit and Truth… the kind of food we once didn’t like.

                But lest we get the wrong idea about butterflies, that they are part of an elite group of superior beings that look down on others, we must consider the life of a butterfly. For whereas a grub worm looks out for himself and only lives for himself, a butterfly flits and flies from flower to flower spreading pollen… bringing life to everything it touches. The butterfly becomes a servant of life and rather than gloating about its new wings, it rather goes around telling others that they can have new wings too… and even though we must enter into this butterfly kingdom through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we nevertheless pass through the doors of eternity… into an eternal priesthood and we are saved by grace through faith and not on the basis of some great thing we have done.

                “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, rose from the supper and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, girded Himself about. Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciple’s feet and to wipe them with a towel.” John 13:3-5

                “And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And he causes all to receive a mark on their right hand or forehead so that no one might buy or sell unless he has the mark of the beast. Rev. 13:7, 16, 17

                The difference between the servants of Jesus Christ and the servants of the antichrist should be reflected in the characters of the two. When the antichrist is given power and authority over all of mankind, he will force them… control them and kill all who will not comply. But when Jesus was given all authority in heaven and on earth, He stooped down and washed the disciple’s feet.

                Likewise it must be for us… for we must love and serve one another and all the more if we share in the power of Jesus Christ so that we can minister to others in the same way He ministered to us.

                And again; whereas the harlot woman of false religions is drunk with the blood of the saints, (Rev. 17:6,) so the true church of Jesus Christ is filled with His Spirit… living in obedience and bearing the testimony of Jesus… and they love not their lives unto death… and they overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

                Christianity is not merely a change of philosophies: It is a change of kingdoms through death and rebirth… it is a metamorphosis… a transformation brought about not by our own power, but by the power of Christ unto salvation. It is borne of humility and not of pride. It is born to serve rather than to be served. We must be known for our love and we are called upon to bear much fruit and that fruit is love in all of its aspects. Gal. 5:22, 1 Cor. 13

                God help us, for we have very far to go. Fill us with Your new wine today… and make us into new wineskins that will grow and not break when Your Holy Spirit stretches us.