New Wineskins Are Being Prepared for the Coming New Wine
On the day of Pentecost, following Peter’s message to the gathering crowd, about three thousand people came to Christ. Sometime later, another five thousand believed in Christ, and that was just counting the men. If these eight thousand represent perhaps another four thousand women or so, their numbers were approaching eleven or twelve thousand. And that was just the beginning.
With this explosive beginning to the church, one hears no mention of several things. There was no church building, no pastor, no organized meetings, no worship team, no sermons and no statement of doctrine, no evangelism program, bulletin or order of worship. Instead, the new believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles” (Acts 2:42,43).
They were free in Christ. They met daily in the temple and in each other’s homes and ate meals together and rejoiced and praised God together in the excitement of their newfound faith (Acts 2:46). There was no religious protocol to bind them, no rules to quench the grace of God, no organized services to stifle their spiritual liberty. Religion had not yet taken hold of the people. Men had not yet used the church as a means of gain. They were walking together in the glorious light of the resurrected Christ who was alive in them and in their midst.
This was the new wine of the Spirit poured out on the waiting and hungry believers on the day of Pentecost. But new wine needs a new wineskin. In His parable of the new wine Jesus said, “Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved” (Matt. 9:17).
Perhaps you are familiar with this parable. Jesus was saying that new spiritual life must wait for the new spiritual containers to be made ready. New wine is still expanding and will burst the stretched, and already fully expanded old leather wineskins until they burst and the wine is wasted. Old, stretched, inflexible, religious forms cannot contain the new life of God because the tendency of life is to expand and move further than they are able to go. God must then fashion new forms by the Spirit that can contain the new life He desires to pour out.
In Luke’s account of the beginning of the church in Acts, the old wineskin was the Jewish religion with all of its traditions, rules, regulations, ritual and other protocol. The new wine was the life of the Holy Spirit poured out into the receptive disciples in the upper room and the spiritually eager people in the streets of Jerusalem.
Today, the old wineskin is the organized Christian church with its carnal embracing of its own traditions, rules, regulations, ritual and enormous religious protocol. We are living in a time when unbelievers will not set foot in church buildings and true seekers recognize the demise of the old Christian wineskin and are seeking alternatives that are still living and vibrant with the presence of Christ. The program-oriented version of the ekklesia of Christ is fading fast. It is being pared down by recent events like Covid and political upheaval. Barna Group reports that 38% of pastors considered leaving the ministry during the pandemic and one third of practicing Christians disengaged from church during the same period. More than 4000 churches closed their doors in America in 2020 while 20 thousand pastors left the ministry. Half of the pastors said they would leave the ministry if they could find another way to make a living.
This has been one small shaking of the Christian tree to break free the loosely connected fruit. No doubt, other shakings will come as the Lord prepares the body of Christ for the end times that appear to be approaching. This paring down is not a bad thing. It is a culling out of those who have been professing Christ while not being true followers of Christ. Jesus promised us that tribulation would come as we approach His return. He told us we will be hated and some killed followed by a great falling away from the faith when so called Christians turn against one another and false prophets arise and mislead many. Lawlessness will increase and people’s love will grow cold but only those who endure to the end will be saved (Matt. 24:9–13).
So we are now in preparation time of a new wineskin for the last days. The new wineskins begin in the hearts of those who receive God’s life. The renewing, cleansing, healing ministry of the Holy Spirit will ready the hearts of those who receive God’s life in Christ. The hearts of the people must be right with God as individuals before any expression of the wineskin will be successful. He must be allowed to purify our lives with His presence and lead us into a life that puts Him first in all that we do.
John the Baptist prepared the hearts of the people for the coming of Christ. He was preparing a new wineskin for the pouring out of the new wine of the Holy Spirit by calling people to repentance (Matt. 3). When David repented of his sin with Bathsheba, he spoke of this preparation of the heart: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. . . Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7, 10).
The condition of the hearts is the fabric of the wineskin but there is a corporate expression made for the new wine of God. As hearts begin to be renewed, God will bring us together into a corporate container of His glory. As Paul wrote, we are “. . . being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). It is the desire of Christ that we are “. . . being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part,” (Eph. 4:16).
This is why Christ prayed in His upper room prayer “. . . that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21). Paul also taught that a time would come when “. . . we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).
Surely there will be a last days rising up of the body of Christ in fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus, the prophecy of Paul and the eternal purpose of God to have faithful followers who overcome the enemy of God (Rev. 12:11). It follows then, that God is forming a new wineskin, a new outward expression of His church that will contain the pouring out of His new life for the end times. The over-used, dead, stretched out, fibers of the old wineskins cannot contain this new life without being destroyed. So the old wineskins must reject the new wine or face the wasting of the wine. God must prepare a new wineskin.
As a brother of mine might ask, “What will that look like?” My answer to that question is it will look like something that has its origin in the word of God, the Bible. The Bible clearly describes the features of the wineskin that is able to contain the life of God. Here are a few characteristics of that new wineskin:
Simplicity: “But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). In a world of complications and Satan’s craftiness, this wineskin will remain simple and pure in our devotion to Christ. People seek the simplicity of life in Christ without the trappings of mundane religion. The early church devoted themselves to merely four things: the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. The word of God, sharing together, communion and meals together and prayer. That’s simplicity.
Hearts being transformed: The new wineskin expression will be an environment in which continuous transformation of our lives is taking pace. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). This leads to genuine unity and maturity in Christ (Eph. 4:13; John 17:23; James 1:4).
Servant leadership: The leaders will be mature men who have been humbled before God and are not hirelings using the ministry as a means of gain but committed servants who lay down their lives for the sheep of God (Acts 20: 2;8). They will be recognized not by their gifts but by their spiritual maturity (1 Tim. 3:1–7).
Liberation of the Equipping Ministries: The saints are equipped by the five equipping ministries given by Christ for the entire church age: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. They are given by Christ and available to us for equipping the saints for the work of ministry (service). Without them the equipping is incomplete. All of the saints are involved in serving one another and the surrounding world with the reality of Christ through His Spirit (Eph. 4:11, 12). These five gifts are not a special elite group but humble believers as gifts of God to help us become servants.
A Growing Underground Church: This new wineskin will come under attack because it poses a serious threat to the enemy. The present political climate seems aimed at the ostracism of true believers. Many will meet discretely and in simple fashion to avoid the distractions leading to conformity with the world and Satan’s attack through his channels of control. They will abandon performance and entertainment for truth God reveals to their hearts through His word (Ps. 51:6; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17). This simplicity will cause many to meet in homes and other informal places without fanfare and apart from institutional abuses.
Lifestyle Evangelism: Evangelism will not be a program but a normal result of people growing in Christ and having the desire to share their experience with others.
I know this is a lot to take in for those who are still involved in aspects of the old wineskin. You may even reject my application of Christ’s parable to your church situation. I don’t know everyone’s situation and I know that I can never make anyone believe anything. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2;7f).
