OUR NEW WINESKINS FOR OUR NEW WINE
Mark 2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins.
If you have ever made wine you would understand right away what this is talking about. When wine is made yeast is mixed with the sugar and the grape juice. Soon the yeast begins to do its thing it produces gas. If the container can not expand it will burst. My dad was not a big wine drinker, but he liked to make it. He would get a gallon jug, put all the ingredients in it, and then put a big balloon over the end of the jug. Each day we would go in and check on it to see how big the balloon was getting. It was surprising how big the balloon would get. Then after awhile it would start to go down. Once all the gas was out then the wine was ready to drink.
What Jesus was getting at was not wine, but becoming born again. In John 3 a Pharisee named Nicodemus who was part of the Sanhedrin came to Jesus late one night. He came at that hour because the Sanhedrin mostly consisted of men who wanted to have Jesus killed, but Nicodemus was not one of them. As he talked to Jesus he said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus responded to him by saying, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.” Thinking only physically Nicodemus responded, “How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he can not enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answers him with a spiritual reply. He said, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to the spirit.”
Being born again is not an option for the person that wants to go to heaven when they die. God is setting the requirements and not people or denominations. Being born again was not a suggestion! As smart as Nicodemus was concerning religious matters or even trying to be a good person it was not good enough. The reason was it was a God thing to be received. Being born again is really a two part thing like the wine and the wineskin or jug. The wineskin is the person, and the wine is the Holy Spirit. A person is conceived in sin. (Psalm 51:5) This is not to say that sexual relations is sinful. God gave us this to continue new generations, and to unite a husband and wife in a personal unique way to increase their love for one another. What this is talking about is the carnal nature, or the rebellion a person is born with that wants their will rather than God’s will for their life. It came about with Adam and Eve’s rebellion from God, and with each new generation it has been passed down to future generations. This is not to say that a person has no control but to rebell against God. What it is saying is that the carnal nature pulls at a person's free will to sin and rebel from God’s will. Even with the carnal nature a person has a choice to obey God or not. Sad to say most of the time people choose their will to be done. You can see it or hear it in any toy aisle of Wal Mart as the child screams, cries and pouts until they get their toy. And this pattern only become perfected as we get older!
To be born again means we must have this removed, and only God can do this. Our vessel or body needs to be cleaned out. We need new wineskins so to speak. This can only come about through the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood. We must ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins, and to come into our heart. This is the starting point for every Christian. Salvation is not brought about by being good enough, doing good works, sacrificing our self or even desiring it. We receive this forgiveness as a gift of God’s grace. When we have faith in the grace offered in Jesus’ atonement, God removes our guilt and our carnal nature. We see this carnal nature or sinful nature being removed in Romans 7:5,6 & 8:1-17.
Now that we have a new nature with Jesus in us, we need new wine or spirit. This is the Holy Spirit. We must invite him to come into us to give us new life. He will transform us daily into ever increasing ways of glory becoming more and more Christ-like. Each day he will add to the previous days with more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. He will empower us with ability to serve Jesus. So as you can see we need a new wineskin and wine to be able to be all that Jesus would want us to be. If we try to become more Christ-like and have the gifts to serve Jesus on our own we will only become frustrated and end up quitting or in other words exploding. Sometimes we can even see this in pastors. They become a pastor because they want to do good and help people without first becoming a Christians and being set free of the carnal nature. If they do this they will only find themselves like Nicodemus trying to do it out of God’s will.
Do you have a new wineskin and new wine? If you have never become born again I encourage you to do it right now. Just ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, and to come into your heart and he will. Then you need to ask the Holy Spirit to come into you to transform you into Christ-likeness and empower you to serve Jesus and he will. Even a child can do this just like Jesus said. But you must do it if you want to go be with Jesus in heaven when you die. Take that step of faith right into Jesus arms today!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for enabling us to become born again. Thank you for a chance to start all over, and this time with you and the Holy Spirit helping us. We love you Lord, and ask it in Jesus’ name.
