Old wine-skins were hard, rigid, stiff, and unyielding. Does that sound like you or someone you know? On the other hand, new wine-skins are flexible and malleable…able to receive the newly pressed wine. They change as the fermentation process happens…they expand as the wine ferments…finally stopping when the wine is perfect inside. As Believers we must never stop growing until the God-given purpose inside us is perfected. At the wedding feast in Cana what did the Master of the Banquet tell the Bridegroom after tasting the water Jesus had turned into wine? “You have saved the best for last!” I originally wrote this back in 2008…but it still remains pertinent today. Just as you don’t pour new wine into old wine-skins, you don’t sew a new patch on an old garment, (Mark 2:21)…or both will be destroyed. The journey of a Christian is a pathway of newness…new covenant, new hearts, new minds, new selves…of the process of constantly putting off the old and putting on the new. For when we stop growing in the Lord, we become stagnant and unusable. The Lord is looking for new vessels to contain His new works. The question is, are you willing to be that new wine-skin?
Tag: new covenant
Jeremiah 31:31 ” The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
It goes on to say in verses 33 and 34, “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. No longer will a man say to another, Know the Lord…because they will all know Me.” This new covenant is the everlasting and eternal covenant of peace, given to us by the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, if we will but trust in Him. And when we do…we will truly know Him with a individual and personal relationship…not settling for just being told about Jesus, but experiencing Him for ourselves.
II Chronicles 6:14 “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven or on earth – You who keep Your covenant of love with Your servants who continue wholeheartedly in Your way.”
It’s all about the relationship. In any kind of relationship hopefully there’s give and take… communication and mutual respect…connection and co-operation. But our relationship with the Lord is totally unique from any we have here on earth. God’s covenant relationship with us is binding and unbreakable…bought by the blood of Jesus Christ…while we were yet sinners. And His loving kindness and mercy towards us has nothing to do with how good we are…for it is a free gift. So think about it…the relationship we have with our Lord is really rather lopsided, with Him giving so much more to us than we could ever give back. This covenant of love that flows between God and us gives us a purpose in life… and as we commit our heart, soul, and strength to Him, we are ever being changed from the inside out.
Isaiah 42:6-7 ” I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness; I will take hold of Your hand. I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
God’s plan was to save the nations through the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. In this Scripture, Isaiah foretells of this plan and purpose…or what we call the New Covenant. Jesus explained this plan and purpose to Paul on that fateful road to Damascus in Acts 26:18 when He said, “I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” And God has faithfully maintaining that covenant with all mankind…offering salvation and life… and the chance to break free of the chains of bondage that hold us prisoner.
Isaiah 42:6-7 ” I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
The Prophet Isaiah again speaks of the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. These verses speak of the promise to come for both Jew and Gentile… of life, salvation, wisdom and justice in place of spiritual blindness, falsehood, and ignorance. At the very beginning of His Ministry, Jesus confirms this in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus is the covenant between God and us…He’s the bridge over the deep chasm that keeps us far from God… for no one can come to the Father except through Him.
Deuteronomy 26:18 ” And the Lord has declared this day that you are His people, His treasured possession as He promised, and that you are to keep all His commands.”
Later, in Titus 2:14 it says, “Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, eager to do what is good.” If as a Believer, we could fully grasp just how valued and cherished we are in the Lord’s sight, we would be radically changed. But we can grasp it in a fashion. Jesus Christ died in our place on that Cross…taking upon Himself our sins, in order that we may have a pathway to God. You want to know how precious you are to the Lord? Take a look at His hands and feet…He willingly endured that for you.
Joshua 1:5 ” No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
No matter what, the Lord is there for you. His presence doesn’t hinge on how good you try to be or how many times you read His Word and pray…No, it doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do… God’s always there. Maybe you’ve been abandoned or deserted by someone in the past, so now you feel you can’t trust God. But it’s different with the Lord, for His covenant with you is unbreakable, unchangeable, unshakeable. Realize today…God will never leave or forsake you.
I Corinthians 11:23-26 ” The Lord Jesus, on the night He as betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this , whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.’ “
The Eucharist…Holy Communion…the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper – these verses are used often to explain and give enlightenment to this sacred act. But sadly, the receiving of Communion is often rushed or so common place that the Believer isn’t allowed the time to truly dwell on what the elements they hold in their hands mean. Communion is a reminder of who Jesus is and what He has done for us. It’s a chance to ponder where we’d be without Him. The next time you take Communion…look at the bread and cup carefully…reflect on His goodness and mercy…meditate on what He’s done for you…and declare your thanks.
Jeremiah 31:34 ” No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.”
This scripture shows perfectly the vast difference between the Old and New Covenant. No longer would we have to be instructed about the Lord, from someone who was also instructed about Him…now, we could experience Him personally, with no middleman. No longer would we only be able to read about His love and mercy…now, we could encounter it ourselves intimately from our loving Heavenly Father. No longer would we just gaze at a painting of God longingly, wishing to know Him better….now, with the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us, we have that unshakeable confidence of knowing Him profoundly. The New covenant… a covenant of peace, and personal relationship with the Prince of Peace.
Safetypinlove 