The New Wine VS. the Old Wine
We read: Luke 5:39, “No man having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith,” ‘The old is better’.
One of the first miracles performed in the New Testament was performed at a marriage feast in Canna of Galilee. Jesus was there along with His disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said unto Him, “they have no wine”, meaning, the old wine ran out.
The miracle was in the filling six clay pots with water and Jesus changing the water into wine.
John 2:9, When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;). The governor of the feast called the bridegroom, 10, and said unto Him, “Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast keep the good wine until now.”
What happened? The Mother of Jesus said unto Him, “They have no wine.”
She then added, verse 5, His Mother saith unto the servants, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.”
Those in Luke 5:39, who thought the old wine was better were satisfied never experiencing the new wine and had no desire for it.
When we read the ministry of Jesus, His coming to His own, and they who had no knowledge of Him, they would be the first to persecute Him. All those who said that the old wine was better were those who had the knowledge of the God of the old Testament and of Moses and the law, so their thought was,”who needed Jesus?” They were perfectly satisfied with God and Moses the law giver. Jesus, throughout His ministry, was deliberately destroying their religious practices and traditions. According to them,He was breaking the law of the 7th day Sabbath,Luke 6:2, and the ceremonial laws of the washing of the hands,Mark 7:3. HE outperformed their works by raising Lazarus from the dead, John 11; and giving sight to a blind man, John 9:11. They accused him of being a sinner, John 9:24, having a demon and the casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, Luke 11:15. There was also a division among the religious leaders because of what Jesus said and did.
John 10:19, there was a division therefore among the Jews for these saying.
When we consider the religious leaders during Jesus’s ministry, we must include Nicodemus and Saul, before he became the Apostle Paul, and the High Priest Caiaphas who was appointed a High Priest by the Romans. Any one of them could have spoken the words we read in John 9:40.
John 9:40, And some of the Pharisees which were with Him heard these words, and said unto Him, “Are we blind also?”
The answer is yes, they were blind. they had eyes in which they could see physical things and do physical things, but they could not see Jesus Christ, other than being a physical man and could not understand the meaning of the miracles or why He was destroying the law given by Moses, Luke 6:2.
The Old Wine
What is the meaning of the old wine? All of the law abiding worship of God by the Scribes and Pharisees were done outside of man and not from an inward love of God of the heart, but by the letter of the law of Moses, Romans 7:6. Circumcision, physical baptism, Sabbath keeping, fasting, worshiping in the Temple, tithes and offerings, washing ceremonies and so on were not of the heart but contained in the law of letters written by Moses. This is a natural function of man, to be obedient to Him, because the natural man thinks that everything which God expected of the man, was written in the law given to Moses. The Jews of today can count over six-hundred laws written in the Old Testament, or the Torah which they are taught to try to obey. These religious leaders, like their predecessors Nicodemus and Saul before he was struck down, had to abandon their religious practices and undergo a “born again” experience. Their first birth, the birth of the flesh, would never qualify them into the heavenly realm, John 3:6-7; 1st Corinthians 15:50. Like all men, before their conversion don’t see Jesus Christ, yet we read that there is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved, Acts 4:12. This is a direct reference to Jesus Christ.
Judaism
We know that the Jews practice the religion of Judaism which excludes Jesus Christ.They have a love for God and Moses and that is all they need, they don’t need Jesus Christ, not yet anyway. Every function to them, pertaining to the worshiping of God is outward, meaning, they have the scriptures and the inward filling of the life of Christ escaped them. Many of them studied the scriptures diligently and because of their knowledge, the sin of pride rises. Jesus healed a man born blind and the reaction of the religious leaders was not humility, but of pride because they thought that they would be saved by their great knowledge.
John 9:34, They answered and said unto him, “Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us?” And they cast him out.
Some People Have a Mixture
Some people have a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. they are taught many truths, never realizing that there is a mixing of what is written because of the progressions which occur in scripture. Are we under grace or law, or both, Romans 6:14, or, that circumcision today is not the outward removable of the flesh, but circumcision is inward and of the heart, Romans 2:29. The Temple of God was once made of bricks and mortar but now,under the New Covenant, the temple is now made up of living stones, the redeemed people,1st Corinthians 3:16; 1st Peter 2:5. Jesus Christ dwelt among us thereby becoming our Tabernacle, John 1:14. When we consider the purpose of God sending His Son to be our Savior, it is important to understand that everything pertaining to Christ is inward, and not outward, as many Christians and Jews practice today.
The Name Jesus Above Every Name
How can so many miss out on the simplicity that the scriptures says of Christ, 2nd Corinthians 1:12; 11:3?
We all need to allow God’s Word to take away our earthy wisdom and intellectual pride in order to put our feet on a right path and follow His light.
God’s Garden
We read in Genesis 1:28 that God created man in His image. They were created to resemble God in His image, but only outwardly. They were not filled with his nature and Holy character inwardly, at least not yet. Chapter 2 tells us that God placed man before the Tree of Life and was told to take of it. God wanted the man to fill himself with the Divine Life as food. Instead, Satan lied to the woman causing her to be deceived and the man disobeyed the instructions given by God. The Tree of Life was then closed and the man, along with his wife, were put out of the Garden. The purpose of God was thwarted, resulting in the fallen nature of man. In Genesis chapter 3 we read that God, promised to restore man’s fallen nature, with the seed of the woman. That seed would eventually become Jesus Christ, who became the Gospel or the Good News, to all men. But the Gospel was substituted by religious people who were baptized as infants into their parents denominations, never realizing that they were following the traditions of men.
This is the case with Judaism as well as Christianity, they didn’t need Christ because they believe that they have God through the writings of Moses and the teachings of their denominations which they believed would never steer them wrong. Religion became man’s way of worshiping God through the devices of men, rather than the taking inwardly of Christ as the sheep’s only Shepherd and He as their food, John 6:54-56. They have set aside the will of God and are not willing to come to the only name in which men can have salvation, namely Jesus Christ.
John 5:39, “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. Vs. 40, and ye will not come to Me that ye may have life.”
These people were self- willed, self-righteous hypocrites. They had God and Moses with their own religious practices or those practices handed down from men and they were perfectly satisfied. It is much easier for them to see that everyone is a sinner, like the blind man who was given sight by Jesus, John 9:34. Their will is to follow a leader that they had raised up, with their own religion and the old wine, which, for a time, is good, but not better than the new wine, John 2:10, But now,because of Jesus Christ as the promised seed, He has now carried us from the old wine, our first birth which was good, to the new wine,our spiritual birth, which is better. This new wine will be served at the wedding feast with His new bride, fulfilling the prophesies written throughout scriptures.
The Simplicity of Christ
If we would forget all the religious practices handed down from men producing the old wine, we would realize that the written word, is simple and straightforward.
2nd Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
God’s promised seed in Genesis 3:15 will fill us with God’s eternal life. We need our own will broken and trust in the plan He has for all of us. Seed can only be planted in soil or the ground. God placed a curse upon the ground in Genesis 3:17, and because we are made of the soil or ground, we inherited Adam’s curse. It was Jesus Christ, and His Crucifixion which removed the curse. Those who have submitted to God’s will, have had the curse removed and are now a rejuvenated earth. We, as the rejuvenated earth, who have had God’s promised seed placed within us as a new earth can’t help but grow.
2nd Colossians 2:6, :As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.”
We walk in Christ Jesus as our new ground.
2nd Colossians 2:7, “Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
We are now rooted in Christ, as our new promised land, which was promised to Abraham and his progeny, Genesis 12:1.
1st Peter 2:2, “As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.”
2nd Peter 3:18, “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever, Amen.”
We can only grow if, Christ, as the promised seed, is planted within us, who are in Christ, as the promised land. The advice His Mother gave to his disciples should be for us also as we allow the old wine to run out as it is replaced with the new and better wine to fill us inwardly. Her advice is excellent: “Whatever He says to you, do it!”