Scripture: Matthew 9:17
Title: “Religion With A Kick!”
Introduction: Jesus came into this world to institute CHANGES! The forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist, and Jesus Himself began their preaching ministries with the message of “REPENTANCE.”
Evidently the Scribes and Pharisees were critical of Jesus, His disciples, and their ministry. In response, Jesus told the parable of the wine and the wineskins to describe our identity in the process of making us into the people God wants us to be. (Key)
As Christians we all face the questions of who and what God wants us to be in this world.
There were a number of issues that caused the scribes and Pharisees to criticize Jesus. * First of all, He healed the paralyzed man who was lowered into His presence on a stretcher by forgiving his sins.
* Second, he was willing to eat a meal with Matthew the tax collector and other guests who were tax collectors. * Third, Jesus’ disciples did not fast by the rules of the scribes and the Pharisees and were thought to fail in terms of religious duty. They couldn’t figure out what kind of religion Jesus was teaching.
* Further, they didn’t understand what His followers were to become. In answer, Jesus told the parable of the wine and the wineskins.
To understand the parable, we must understand the process of fermenting wine in the skins of goats. * After the flesh and bones were removed from the inside of the goat the skin was tanned over fires of acacia wood. * Then the openings were sewn shut, the neck of the goat was used for the spout, and unfermented grape juice was poured in. * Afterwards the neck was sewn shut and the fermentation process began.
* Only a new wineskin would have the capacity to stretch through process of fermentation and not break until the process was finished.
* If new wine was put in an old wineskin, both the wine and the skin would be lost.
* Therefore, the making of the wine required new wine in new skins for successful change to take place.
As the custom of Jesus was He gave this parable of the “Wineskins” in response to the rejection of the Jews toward His teachings.
Jesus had not come into the world to repair the broken down religion of the day. He showed no concern for preserving or conserving their traditions or practices in external religion.
Instead He was concerned about making people new from the inside out.
This is what fermentation does, it changes the contents inside, but it must have a container that will permit this to happen or the whole process will be wasted.
I. OLD WINESKINS. (Bottles) (KJV)
a. The “Old Wineskins” were representative of the teachings of the Old Testament. (The teachings of Moses in particular)
b. The MAIN objective of the Old Testament was to present man with what God required man to do to be PLEASING in His sight!
c. The Old Testament was God’s “School Teacher” giving INSTRUCTIONS on how to get to the “New!” “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:24)
d. The Old Testament had been STRETCHED to its greatest CAPICITY!
e. The TIME had come for SOMETHING NEW!
f. In the first sermon Jesus preached He made this statement, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (Mt. 5:17) (Not to be thrown away, but to remind us of how we got to where we are!)
g. The “Old Wineskins” could never hold “New Wine”, they could be used to contain water, or other things that wouldn’t put a DEMAND on their ability to EXPAND! (Life-less religion!)
II. THE NEW WINE (The Gospel)
a. For definition sake, the “new wine” is the Gospel of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. (The New Wine produces SOMETHING BETTER!)
b. The Gospel has a dynamic life changing power that is like the fermenting of grape juice in a wineskin. (DivineDynamite) * If the wineskin is not elastic, flexible, and adjustable, it will not endure the change.
c. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. (It changes things from the INSIDE OUT!) * It alone has the ability to make us a new creation.
d. The Apostle Paul said, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Rom. 1:16)
e. The Gospel message of Jesus Christ gives us the power to STRETCH (Change) to the POINT of becoming what God designed us to be!
f. New wine has tremendous power to expand and change the environment it touches.
g. The GOSPEL has the “Kick” of the Holy Spirit - It has POWER! - The Gospel has FEELING! - It has the power of ENDURANCE! - The Gospel has COMPLETE CLEANSING POWER!
h. The Gospel is not just another set of boring religious rules, but a PLAN of life with TRANSFORMING Power!
i. We have recognized the characteristic of the Gospel to be like fermenting wine, expanding within. (New Wine must have New Wineskins)
III. NEW WINESKINS
a. The “new wineskins” are those who become a new creation in Christ by being born again.
b. All “Believers” must continue to receive and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ to retain the ability to keep stretching?
c. Those receiving Christ must be of open mind and heart with willingness to obey His guidance. * Without becoming a new creation in Christ, this is impossible.
d. There are new wineskins scattered throughout the church waiting to receive the Gospel that will cause them to expand themselves to what God wants them to be.
e. Jesus said, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” (John 4:35) - All we need to do is LOOK around us and we will find POTENTIAL Wineskins everywhere we look.
f. But it is going to take CHANGE!
IV. CHANGE
a. When the New Wine was placed into the New Wineskins it wasn’t long until change began to occur. (From the INSIDE OUT!)
b. It was called FERMANTATION! - This is a natural process! - The Gospel received into a person’s heart begins to CHANGE the person’s life!
c. When a Christian quits growing and settles in with their comfortable ideas about God, they’re in trouble. - (Self-satisfaction and complacency is dangerous.)
d. Old wineskins can’t handle this change, and so resist. (Those who fail to grow as a new creation in Christ will find themselves becoming like an old wineskin.)
e. “New wine” has tremendous power to expand and change the environment it touches. (Does the relationship you share with God change the environment around you?)
CONCLUSION:
“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”
A rooster showed some hens an ostrich egg and said, “Ladies, I just want to show you what can be done.”
The greatest basketball free-thrower in the history of the NBA was a man named Rick Barry. Had phenomenal accuracy--well over 90%. Won free-throw record year after year in the NBA by throwing the ball "granny-style." Looked weird--even sissy. But it worked! It worked because Rick Barry was less concerned about how something looked than about whether or not it worked.
At the 19th Summer Olympics in Mexico City in 1968 an American named Dick Fosbury set an Olympic record in the High Jump and brought home a gold medal. No one had ever jumped 7’4.25" before! What was so unusual about Fosbury’s feat was that he did the high jump backwards. Looked awkward and strange. It was called "The Fosbury Flop." But it worked! It worked because Dick Fosbury was less concerned about how something looked than he was about whether or not it was effective.
There is no thrill quite like doing something you didn’t know you could do.
As a church we are not committed to doing things out of an old experience with Christ. We’ve discovered God with unlimited creativity showing Himself into our lives in exciting ways.
We are thankful for the traditions of our church and memories of our past. Yet we don’t live off them in our experience with Christ today.
We have recognized the characteristic of the Gospel to be like fermenting wine, expanding within. God’s presence is fresh with change on a daily basis. Only new wineskins can handle the challenge of revival. Our faith and obedience to the Gospel maintains our life with this much elasticity.
I hunger for the new wine of His presence and power as I get out of bed and go about the day. I hunger for the new wine in my prayer and Bible study. I hunger to share the new wine with those I meet. God is filling me with enthusiasm and joy that can’t be contained.
NEW WINE IN OUR LIVES (The Gospel and the Spirit are here)
The more we know Christ, the more we know His passion for others. We long to share what He has given us with those who do not know Him. Please bring others to service with you and give them opportunity to receive the Savior. Please be willing to share your faith with others wherever you are everyday.
www.jhcarver@excite.com
