New and Old Wineskins

New and Old Wineskins

Jesus’ life was always controversial. There were always many people who murmured because of His conduct. When He went into Zacchaeus’ house, they called out that “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.” If He went to a feast at the tax collector Levi’s house, the Pharisees and scribes murmured against His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Luke 5:29, ff. But Jesus answered them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” It was occurrences such as these that preceded Jesus’ amazing parable about new wine being poured into new wineskins; otherwise, the new wine would burst the skins, the wine would spill out, and ruin the wineskins. New wine is meant to fill new wineskins. And no one who has drunk old wine wants new wine, for he says that the old wine is good.

In this parable, the Pharisees were the old wineskins. Their religious life of forms and a legalistic worship service constituted the old wine, which they said was good. It was very pleasant for their flesh; therefore they had no desire for the new wine with which Jesus came. Therefore Jesus sought new wineskins for His new, healing wine. For this reason He walked past the old religiosity, going directly to the sinners who were not corrupted in their minds by old doctrines. Healing someone from old, poisonous, religious doctrines is more difficult than healing a mind that is corrupted by sin. Therefore Jesus did not want to blend His new teaching with the old teaching in the old wineskins, for if He could have poured His truths into them for a while, it would still have become evident one day that the old wineskins could not hold the new wine, and all the wine would have spilled out.

Just as it was then, so it is now. Wherever people have made a form out of old, Christian experiences, regardless of how far they have come in their development, there they no longer desire new wine—the greater and more gloriously advancing truths—for they say, “The old wine is good.”

Proclaim the baptism of the Spirit in an old assembly that is set in its ways, and they don’t want to know about this new wine because they “stay with the old way”; they don’t want to have anything to do with something new. Proclaim the truths that lead further; tear off a new piece of cloth and put it on an old garment—you view the new piece of cloth and rejoice that now the light is beginning to shine, now things are getting better—but one day it all tears apart. The new piece of cloth didn’t fit the old garment after all; it tore apart. The skins that you filled with wine broke and the wine was spilled.

Furthermore, you can meet those who have received the baptism of the Spirit, but who have stopped at that point without advancing further. Just as others live off their old conversion, so many people live off their old baptism of the Spirit of six or eight years ago. You can proclaim a deeper spiritual life as disciples of Christ to such people, but this new wine doesn’t taste good to many of them because they have no desire to surrender their life into the death of Christ. Even here you can see examples where you have attempted to pour new wine into old wineskins. It worked well for a while, but when tribulations in the flesh became too great because of the Word, the skins burst and the wine spilled out. The result is wailing and crying as always when the old skins burst. Then people always fault the new wine, whose fault it also is. It was too strong and powerful, forcing out old religious denominational dogmas and doctrines. One day people couldn’t take any more of it, and the skin burst; the wine spilled, and one’s entire work turned out to be in vain. You can see many such burst skins in these days. They walk around, not finding any wine that is to their taste; the old and the new wine is spilled, and they walk around totally confused without any fixed point in their life. This happens when acknowledgment stops. Then the skins burst and hearts are hardened.

So that we don’t engage in such futile work, Christ instructs us concerning new wineskins—tax collectors and sinners who enter the depths of God before those who have stopped in their development. A soul can, in an unbelievably short time, be saved, baptized in the Holy Spirit, receive gifts of the Spirit, and enter onto the way of the cross; he receives the Spirit of wisdom from God, serves in the church, and sacrifices his life for others. I have seen many souls who within a few months have passed leading people who were baptized with the Spirit many years ago. For the new wineskins, full of acknowledgment and hungry for an abundant life, were receptive to all that new wine, for all the life and truth they could possibly receive. We should not fear that they will burst, for the fear of the Lord has captured their minds. They don’t have any old wine—old corrupted factional doctrines—which they have to blend with the new wine. Jesus’ blood cleanses from sin, but not from doctrines that are misleading. Such leaven has to be cleansed out by the person himself; but since most people think that it is good, they keep it.

It doesn’t surprise us that Paul would rather proclaim the gospel where Christ was not named before, lest he would build on another man’s foundation. Rom. 15:20. New wine into new wineskins! Then he knew that his work would endure. “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns.” Jer. 4:3. Jesus’ words are truly fulfilled, also in this instance: “The last will be first, and the first last.”