ALL – Psalm 66:1-20
ALL – Proverbs 11:24-26
OT – Numbers 36:1-Deuteronomy 1:46
NT – Luke 5:29-6:11
I don’t know much about wine. But I know enough to say that those who love wines tend to prefer the old ones. The best ones have aged for decades, according to connoisseurs.
Jesus knew that people develop a taste for the old. And, comparing Himself and His ministry to new wine, Jesus noted:
But no one after drinking the old wine seems to want the fresh and the new. “The old ways are best,” they say. – Luke 5:39, The Living Bible
Jesus is still new to many people. Many people reject Him because they prefer their old ways. But in Jesus’ case, there is simply no better “wine” than Him. No other attempt to approach God realizes that mankind depends on God’s intervention; no other approach points to humanity’s sinfulness and God’s righteousness so clearly; no other religions demonstrate God’s justice so fully, nor can they demonstrate such grace; no other view offers such hope; no other view can promise such transformation; no other approach can set men’s hearts at rest like this; no other God stepped into history as a man, determined to re-create His broken creation to be like Himself.
Won’t you drink the new wine and set aside whatever old wine you’ve been contenting yourself with?
To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.
Showing posts with label old. Show all posts
Showing posts with label old. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
New is Usually Different
ALL – Psalm 36:1-12
ALL – Proverbs 10:1-2
OT – Leviticus 4:1-5:19
NT – Mark 2:13-3:6
The unexpected can be annoying—perhaps even offensive.
But when Jesus came, He didn’t apologize for His unexpected new ways. In fact, He defended them. When the Pharisees implied that His disciples ought to be fasting along with theirs and John’s (the Baptist), Jesus said,
It is like patching an old garment with unshrunk cloth! What happens? The patch pulls away and leaves the hole worse than before. You know better than to put new wine into old wineskins. They would burst. The wine would be spilled out and the wineskins ruined. New wine needs fresh wineskins. – Mark 2:21-22
The old and the new often don’t work well together. Everything about Jesus was new, and new is usually different. Jesus was surprising. Jesus was unconventional. Jesus was different. Why? Because Jesus was new and brought a new reality with Him from heaven.
As Christians, we have to be careful how we apply this lesson. We want to be new like Jesus—there’s no question about that. But to some people, “new like Jesus” means that we must shake up the traditional ways of the church at every opportunity. “New like Jesus” can be used to justify people’s whims to be different, unconventional, even slightly rebellious against church practices and traditions. That’s not what being new like Jesus is about. We must remember that Jesus lived 2,000 years ago. For Christians, there is much about following Jesus that should be tradition by now. Why? Because we can never become newer than Jesus. He is the Father’s final word.
On the other hand, our behavior and teachings will always be new to the world around us, because people perpetually follow the world’s tradition of sinning against God. That is the tradition we must aim most passionately to break as we stand with Jesus in the newness of the covenant He sealed with His blood. We are not to differ from Jesus’ followers, but from the world and its patterns. New is usually different. Let’s aim to be different in Jesus’ way—not from Jesus and His followers, but from those who oppose Him.
What is new in your life because Jesus lives in you?
To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.
ALL – Proverbs 10:1-2
OT – Leviticus 4:1-5:19
NT – Mark 2:13-3:6
The unexpected can be annoying—perhaps even offensive.
But when Jesus came, He didn’t apologize for His unexpected new ways. In fact, He defended them. When the Pharisees implied that His disciples ought to be fasting along with theirs and John’s (the Baptist), Jesus said,
It is like patching an old garment with unshrunk cloth! What happens? The patch pulls away and leaves the hole worse than before. You know better than to put new wine into old wineskins. They would burst. The wine would be spilled out and the wineskins ruined. New wine needs fresh wineskins. – Mark 2:21-22
The old and the new often don’t work well together. Everything about Jesus was new, and new is usually different. Jesus was surprising. Jesus was unconventional. Jesus was different. Why? Because Jesus was new and brought a new reality with Him from heaven.
As Christians, we have to be careful how we apply this lesson. We want to be new like Jesus—there’s no question about that. But to some people, “new like Jesus” means that we must shake up the traditional ways of the church at every opportunity. “New like Jesus” can be used to justify people’s whims to be different, unconventional, even slightly rebellious against church practices and traditions. That’s not what being new like Jesus is about. We must remember that Jesus lived 2,000 years ago. For Christians, there is much about following Jesus that should be tradition by now. Why? Because we can never become newer than Jesus. He is the Father’s final word.
On the other hand, our behavior and teachings will always be new to the world around us, because people perpetually follow the world’s tradition of sinning against God. That is the tradition we must aim most passionately to break as we stand with Jesus in the newness of the covenant He sealed with His blood. We are not to differ from Jesus’ followers, but from the world and its patterns. New is usually different. Let’s aim to be different in Jesus’ way—not from Jesus and His followers, but from those who oppose Him.
What is new in your life because Jesus lives in you?
To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.
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