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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
New wine into new wineskins |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Lk 5:36-39 |
Date |
2003-12-28 |
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Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
It is the final Sunday of this year today.
Lets give thanks and glory to God our Father for protecting and leading us from a lot of accidents and disasters this year. I give thanks to all ministers of the Lord and all servants of the church for having carried out their duties for a year. And I am thankful to all brothers and sisters of this church, all members having joined this church this year around the country and around the world.
I will preach the message titled "New wine into new wineskin" at this day when everything is expired. Nonbelievers or believers often use this proverb "New wine into new wineskin" but there are few who know the spiritual meaning of this proverb.
Jesus our Lord gives us an important lesson about our fundamental belief speaking this proverb in parable. I hope you keep the important and spiritual lesson in your mind today. And I pray in the name of the Lord that you will find yourself again, determine what kind of person you should become in the sight of God next year and change into the more matured person of faith.
Body
New garment and new wineskin
Verse 36 says, "He told them this parable: "No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old."
Decades ago, Korea people grew cotton, picked cotton, spun wool from cotton and wove cloth on loom. They made their garments from such cotton cloth. Because it took much time and great effort for them to make garments this way, they could not wear new garments like these days.
If they made a pair of clothes, they had to wear it till it was worn out. If it was worn out, they had to patch it to wear it again. Because they patched it again and again, the parts for knees and elbows became thicker and thicker.
Do you think they cut some texture from new-made garments 세 patch old clothes? They never did. If they had done so, the new garments would have been out of shape and the old garments also become worse. Texture of old garments become worn out and weak, so if new cloth is patched on the old garments, it pulls weak wools of old garments and makes big holes here and there.
Jesus our Lord spoke this parable of new garments and old garments to explain the following verse 37. It says, "And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined."
In Jesus' days, people in the Middle East used wineskin to keep and carry wine. Wineskin usually became more rugged and inflexible as it was used more and more. In the end, it turned solid and hardened and it was forbidden to contain new wine because new wine continued to ferment and emit gas.
Generally, new wineskin can overcome the pressure of gas emitted from new wine because it is flexible and strong. But old wineskin is so dry and stiff that it is burst out when it is pressed by gas. Then, old wineskin becomes despoiled and new wine is spilled down to the ground. So, you should pour new wine into new wineskin.
Dear brothers and sisters,
What kind of teaching did Jesus want to give us through this parable?
To understand His teaching, we should realize the spiritual meanings of new wine, new wineskin, old wine and old wineskin.
Vine and wine
Wine is made from grapes, the fruit of vine. The Bible refers to our Lord Jesus as true vine. Jesus said in John 15: 1, ""I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener" and John 15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches."
The Bible symbolizes Jesus as rock, shining morning star, little lamb, Son of the Man and so on, each of which has its own spiritual meaning.
Because a true vine is our Lord Jesus in spirit, the fruit of vibe is all the fruit that He bore in His lifetime on earth. He preached the word of truth and enlightened people who God the Creator is, and taught them the way to either the kingdom of heaven, eternal life resulting from repentance or a horrible hell from sin.
He lived an exemplary life with humility, love, serving others and so forth, performed the power such as healing various diseases and infirmities and driving out demons and testified that His teaching came from heaven.
In this way all the fruit He produced through His life - all His words and all His deeds are the fruit of vive.
Next, wine is juice coming from grapes. Spiritually new wine symbolizes that Jesus shed the blood on the cross for all men after He bore a lot of fruits of truth and accomplished the work of human salvation. He was hung ion the cross and died for sinners to fulfill the providence of God that would make it possible to save sinners and give them eternal life.
While sacrificing His own life for sinners, He fulfilled the law of the Old Testament with the law of love. Regarding the law of love Jesus fulfilled on the cross, the Bible calls it new wine. Then, what is the old wine? It is the ways of living of observing the law of the Old Testament. People of Old Testament times lived with their mind tied to the law before Jesus fulfilled the law with love.
It is said in Hebrews 10: 1, "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship."
So, they call the New Testament a reality and the Old Testament a shadow. The Old Testament prophesied the Messiah's coming on the earth and the New Testament tells us about Jesus' life on earth and the way of human salvation He achieved.
Life of every living creature is its blood and forgiveness is not given without the shedding of the blood. So, people of Old Testament times slaughtered an animal and gave its blood as an atoning offering to be forgiven of their sins. Giving the blood of an animal focusing on the deeds of observing the law was drinking old wine for salvation.
However, people of New Testament times can be saved by drinking the new wine because Jesus shed the blood on the cross. In other words, anyone can be forgiven and saved when he believes in the power of the blood He shed on the cross and live according to the word of God.
On the one hand, in Old Testament times, God gave people the law because they lived in sins and did not understand the heart of God the Father. So, the law was not perfect. On the other hand, in New Testament times, Jesus demonstrated the love of the Father by sacrificing His own live on the cross and we can understand the heart of God because we received the Holy Spirit when the blood-giving Lord.
The Law and Love
Let's delve into the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Jesus said in Matthew 19 that it is not right for a husband to divorce his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness. Then, the Pharisees asked Him in question in Matthew 19: 7, "Why, then, did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" They said that God allowed them to divorce one's wife through the law.
But Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning." The will of God about marriage is that a man and a woman love each other faithfully and live happily unfailingly if they get married and become one flesh vowing in the sight of God.
By the way, fleshly people who did not receive the Holy Spirit could not understand the spiritual meaning of marriage or obey the will of God even though God said that God wishes they live in a true and eternal love about their marriage.
Suppose that a husband does not want to live together with his wife for some reasons after marriage. Their marital life cannot escape from unhappiness although they do not divorce so long as the husband's mind is not changed. Rather they will feel more painful and unhappy if they live together. In a sense, they had better divorce each other.
God set the procedure about divorce in the law because He knew the wickedness of man, but that way is not the perfect will of God. God does not wish that you hate and turn away from your partner when your partner shows transgressions or weakness, but He wants you to cover his or her weakness with love and to tolerate him or her patiently.
This true and perfect thing is God's will hidden in the New Testament and His will is manifested through Jesus our Lord who fulfilled the law with love. So, we call the New Testament new wine in contrast with the old wine of the Old Testament.
The Better
Dear brothers and sisters, which is the better, new wine or old wine? Of course, the former is the better because the law of love the Lord fulfilled is better than the imperfect law of the Old Testament.
But verse 39 says, "And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better.'" Wine is considered more valuable in the world as it becomes older. And those who are accustomed to the taste of the older wine tend to consider the new wine invaluable
That way is the same spiritually. People like spiritually older wine, namely the law of the Old Testament better than spiritually new wine, namely the new law of the New Testament. In Jesus' times the priests and the Pharisees did that way.
They thoroughly knew the law of the Old Testament to the point of memorizing the law, and made a lot of rules of the tradition of elders in addition to the law Moses had given them.
For example, Moses gave the commandment of the Sabbath day, but they devised many ways to keep the Sabbath day. They prohibited themselves from making fire to cook, traveling more than a few kilometers, carrying heavy luggage, and the like.
The law of God telling us to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy is true and perfect. The true meaning of the Sabbath is that we should keep our heart and body holy and blameless remembering God the Creator and give glory to Him. However, the fleshly people of Old Testament times changed the law of God in the framework of their own thought and made another old wine because they did not know the true meaning of the Sabbath. Putting aside the heart of God hidden in the law, they made the tradition of elders and considered it as observing the Sabbath to obey the traditions.
In addition, they blamed and slandered Jesus when He explained to them the true meaning of the Sabbath. So, they rebuked Jesus, "He broke the law of the Sabbath day" when He healed the sick people on the Sabbath day.
Our God did not give the law telling us no to heal the sick on the Sabbath day. Jesus healed the sick with the love of God on the Sabbath day and gave them true rest and peace in spirit and body.
But the Pharisees rejected Jesus because the new law Jesus preached did not agree with the framework of the old law. They rejected Jesus and His new teachings because they were tied to the framework of the law the way the people who are tamed in old wine do not like new wine.
Jesus rebuked the hypocritical people in , "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former."
The people of the Old Testament gave God many offerings according to the law of the Old Testament, gave the tithes and prayed with fasting. But it is not true that they obeyed the perfect will of God because they seemed godly but committed sins in their hearts, and repeatedly sinned after giving animal's blood as a repentance sacrifice.
God wants you not only to do right things outwardly but also to live a holy life changing the heart into godly one. In other words, He wants you to make your heart new wineskin able to contain new wine.
It is said in Ephesians 4:22-24, "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
These verses tell us that we should get rid of every kind of improper things in the sight of God like self-righteousness, wrong knowledge and the framework of our own thought and make our heart new in truth. This way is how we can change our heart new wineskin.
Those who love old wine
Unless you change your heart into new wineskin, you remain still old wineskin and become arrogant because of stored knowledge of truth no matter how long you have lived a Christian life and listened to the word.
When the word thrusts into your heart that has not been changed for long, you may get angry. Just as the wicked Jews drove sinless Jesus into a crucifixion, the arrogant people hate good people and blame them.
Dear brothers and sisters, there are many people who profess their faith in God but love old wine not changing their heart into new wineskin. They refuse to live according to the word of God because of the fleshly thought, the framework of their biased logic, and self-seeking desire. They are like the Pharisees who rejected Jesus and in the end will become old wineskins.
For example, some people who have been much educated and have prejudiced framework of lots of knowledge reject believers who live according to the word of God. God tells us to cry in prayer. But they refuse to cry in prayer saying that they should pray quietly and sacredly and that it is not right to cry and pray.
God commands us in the Bible to be holy and godly like Him, but some people deny this word because they feel it difficult to get rid of every kind of evil to the point of struggling against sins. They say that man can just try to cast away his sins but cannot throw away all sins. God tells us to love our enemy, but they say that they cannot love others because they are not acceptable to them. But they do so because they have not got rid of envy, hatred, or arrogance.
Just as old wineskin cannot contain new wine, those who are persistent in self-righteous thought and old ways of living cannot live according to the will of the Father. If you continue to love old wine and do not try to make your heart new wineskin, you will have nothing to do with God as an old wineskin and so be driven into the way of destruction apart from the way to heaven. All God's saved children should cast away all kinds of sins as soon as possible and make their heart new wineskin enough to contain new wine.
Do not be deceived
Dear brothers and sisters,
There are some people who consider themselves new wineskin even though they have not made their heart new one. They are patient reluctantly or unwillingly because God commands them to get rid of hatred and anger. They feel upset and painful in heart because they have not cast away those evils from their heart. They just seem to be patient outwardly because they listened to the word of God.
However, God never accepts those who are patient unwillingly and reluctantly because He sees the heart of each one. He never says, "You have become new wineskin containing new wine or you have changed into the spirit." Those outwardly good-looking people will expose their hidden wickedness in intolerant situation.
Let me take an example. Suppose that you endured a difficult situation. And you endured similar things a few times. Nonetheless, you met the same thing once again. Then, at last you were very upset and showed your great anger piercingly. And you showed your wickedness that has been oppressed. Your patience till that time becomes meaningless the way old wineskin is burst out when new wine is poured into it.
Let me take another example. Suppose a man who is eager to gossip, judge or blame others. By the way, he is temporarily controlling his desire to gossip to receive the answer from God. He does so to have no barrier of sins in the sight of God because he knows the word of God in his brain.
Then, does God say, "You are so lovely. Your heart was changed into new wineskin. I am very pleased. I will give you the answer"? Never. He will say, "You are still an old wineskin."
If you change your heart into new heart namely new wineskin, every kind of evil leaves you. When you meet the situation that had caused you to get angry or upset, you can embrace others with humble and meek heart.
And regarding the situation that you would have blamed or slandered, you will be willing to cover their weakness with love and feel compassion and mercy on them. When you become new wineskin, you can experience the blessing of the promise of the Bible.
You can receive whatever you ask, be prosperous in everything, and perform miraculous signs and wonders as the evidence of your faith. Then, diseases leave you, the enemy Satan and the devil come out of you and you meet the living God. In addition, you can live an active Christian life.
This way is the right route to true blessing and the kingdom of heaven.
Conclusion
Dear congregation, you have tried to pray earnestly obeying God's Word to be on the flow of spirit for last one year. But in order for you to become truly prepared vessels, you have to be a new wineskin.
You should not press down your sins and evil, just as an old wineskin holds new wine and blows up later, but become a new wineskin that is truly clean and holy.
As said in Proverbs 16: 2, "All motives are weighed by the LORD," our inner heart and mind must be changed to be recognized by God.
If you would like to be acknowledged and used as a precious instrument of the Father within unhindered works of the Father in the year 2004, I urge you to shine your inner heart more clearly with the works of the Holy Spirit.
You should check yourself in detail whether you truly love God and your heart is changing into a clean heart that resembles the Father, or if there is any dirty parts of your heart that you have not realized.
Therefore, I bless in the name of the Lord that you can boldly ask God, "Father, I have completely changed into a new wineskin. Bless me and use me for your glory." |
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