The Forgiveness of Jesus
"No one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are destroyed. Instead, they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved." - Matthew 9:17
This verse paints a vivid picture of something we all experience but often resist: change.
In biblical times, wine was stored in animal skin containers. When fresh juice was poured into a new wineskin and fermentation began, gases were released and the skin expanded.
Once the process finished, the wineskin became rigid, stretched to its limit, no longer flexible or pliable.
Jesus is saying this: When God wants to pour something new into your life, He's looking for you to become a new wineskin, pliable, flexible, able to absorb what the newness of God actually is. If you try to cram what God is currently doing into something old and rigid, it won't expand. It will rupture, and both the wine and the wineskin are wasted.
We all love the idea of something new. New car, new house, new clothes. But it's the process we find challenging, because there's nothing new experienced without God stretching us.
This verse paints a vivid picture of something we all experience but often resist: change.
In biblical times, wine was stored in animal skin containers. When fresh juice was poured into a new wineskin and fermentation began, gases were released and the skin expanded.
Once the process finished, the wineskin became rigid, stretched to its limit, no longer flexible or pliable.
Jesus is saying this: When God wants to pour something new into your life, He's looking for you to become a new wineskin, pliable, flexible, able to absorb what the newness of God actually is. If you try to cram what God is currently doing into something old and rigid, it won't expand. It will rupture, and both the wine and the wineskin are wasted.
We all love the idea of something new. New car, new house, new clothes. But it's the process we find challenging, because there's nothing new experienced without God stretching us.
The Question We Need to Ask
Years ago, people wore t-shirts and bumper stickers with "WWJD" - What Would Jesus Do? That's not a bad question when facing a dilemma. But I think there's an even more pressing question: What is Jesus doing? What is Jesus saying right now?
When you ask that question, be ready for the answer. Because when God reveals what He's doing and saying, it will always involve you being stretched spiritually. It will take you out of your comfort zone. It will challenge preconceived ideas. It will stretch you in what you're willing to receive.
Why? Because God is always about creating something new.
Here's the problem: If Jesus creates all things new, and eight out of ten people hate change, we've got a conflict. We're immediately at odds with what Jesus is doing because of our resistance to change, and usually that resistance comes from our fear of the unknown.
When you ask that question, be ready for the answer. Because when God reveals what He's doing and saying, it will always involve you being stretched spiritually. It will take you out of your comfort zone. It will challenge preconceived ideas. It will stretch you in what you're willing to receive.
Why? Because God is always about creating something new.
Here's the problem: If Jesus creates all things new, and eight out of ten people hate change, we've got a conflict. We're immediately at odds with what Jesus is doing because of our resistance to change, and usually that resistance comes from our fear of the unknown.
Three Truths About Change
1. Change Is Initiated by Jesus
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
When you received Jesus into your life, did you notice He didn't just leave things the way they'd always been? He wasn't satisfied with touching up the paint on the old house or doing a small remodel. No, He demolished the way life used to be in order to introduce the life He wants you to experience.
Jesus said He came to give life, not just ordinary life, but life in abundance, to the full. The only way you'll ever experience abundant life is if you're willing to let old things go and follow the newness Jesus is creating inside you.
Change is not an obstacle to His renewal. It's the very process.
2. Change Is Part of God's Plan
"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Change is not random or meaningless. God allows change in our lives for a reason. I'm a big believer in seasons. Just because God operated one way at one time doesn't restrict Him from changing how He operates at another time.
We try to put God in a box that's predictable, manageable, comfortable. But when Jesus dealt with people, even in healing, He used a variety of methods. Sometimes He spoke and people were healed from a distance. Sometimes He laid hands on them. Sometimes He used mud. Sometimes He used spit.
If you were healed by Jesus putting mud on your eyes, you might start thinking everything Jesus does will involve mud. But it may not. Jesus works in different ways in different seasons.
Right now, you may be in a season God is adjusting or transitioning. You may be fearful because you've never been in this season before. But it's not punishment, it's preparation for what God wants to do in your life.
Change isn't a sign that God has lost control. It's proof that He's at work.
Isaiah 43:19 says, "Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it will spring forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
God is doing a new thing, present tense, active. He's inviting you into a lifelong process of change because we never reach a place where we've arrived. His plan is that you're more conformed to the image of Jesus today than when you first got saved. You're growing deeper today than last year. You're further in your understanding of God today than previously.
Why? Because we're in a process of being transformed into the very image of Jesus.
3. Change Is Uncomfortable, But Always Beneficial
I grew up enjoying change. I like different ways, different rhythms. But I've learned something about myself, I love change as long as it doesn't involve the things I like the way I like them.
Haven't you noticed? We all love the idea of change until it touches something we need to change. Then it doesn't seem fair. Then it seems insensitive. Then it seems like God's not looking out for our best interests.
Here's where it gets really challenging. John 15:2 says, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away." Okay, we get that. If it's not working, eliminate it.
But then Jesus says: "And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so it may bear more fruit."
Wait, branches that ARE bearing fruit get pruned too? That seems confusing, even insensitive. Why would God look at healthy things in our lives and prune them?
You might be thinking, "God, I'm so blessed with this relationship/ministry/situation right now." And God says, "I'm so glad you're blessed." Snip.
"God, this is really producing great things in my life." "That's fantastic." Snip.
"God, I'm in the middle of my calling, doing what I've always dreamed." "I'm glad your dreams are being fulfilled." Snip.
God doesn't prune to hurt us. He prunes because His vision for us is greater than the vision we have for ourselves. He sees what we cannot see. He knows what we do not know. And even though something may be healthy and successful right now, He knows that if we'll adapt and shift, what results in the future will be so much greater.
This takes tremendous trust. Our comfort zone is not what God is about. Change is not for our comfort, it's for our calling.
It's like a sculptor working with a block of marble. In his mind, he sees a masterpiece. But right now, it's just a big block of stone. So he takes a chisel and hammer and begins chipping away, removing everything that doesn't look like what the masterpiece looks like in his mind.
None of that sculpting process is painless. It all comes with having stuff removed. Things we think are really important, God may look at and say, "If we prune that for a season, greater fruit will develop on the other side."
When the chisel is painful, we trust the Artist.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
When you received Jesus into your life, did you notice He didn't just leave things the way they'd always been? He wasn't satisfied with touching up the paint on the old house or doing a small remodel. No, He demolished the way life used to be in order to introduce the life He wants you to experience.
Jesus said He came to give life, not just ordinary life, but life in abundance, to the full. The only way you'll ever experience abundant life is if you're willing to let old things go and follow the newness Jesus is creating inside you.
Change is not an obstacle to His renewal. It's the very process.
2. Change Is Part of God's Plan
"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Change is not random or meaningless. God allows change in our lives for a reason. I'm a big believer in seasons. Just because God operated one way at one time doesn't restrict Him from changing how He operates at another time.
We try to put God in a box that's predictable, manageable, comfortable. But when Jesus dealt with people, even in healing, He used a variety of methods. Sometimes He spoke and people were healed from a distance. Sometimes He laid hands on them. Sometimes He used mud. Sometimes He used spit.
If you were healed by Jesus putting mud on your eyes, you might start thinking everything Jesus does will involve mud. But it may not. Jesus works in different ways in different seasons.
Right now, you may be in a season God is adjusting or transitioning. You may be fearful because you've never been in this season before. But it's not punishment, it's preparation for what God wants to do in your life.
Change isn't a sign that God has lost control. It's proof that He's at work.
Isaiah 43:19 says, "Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it will spring forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
God is doing a new thing, present tense, active. He's inviting you into a lifelong process of change because we never reach a place where we've arrived. His plan is that you're more conformed to the image of Jesus today than when you first got saved. You're growing deeper today than last year. You're further in your understanding of God today than previously.
Why? Because we're in a process of being transformed into the very image of Jesus.
3. Change Is Uncomfortable, But Always Beneficial
I grew up enjoying change. I like different ways, different rhythms. But I've learned something about myself, I love change as long as it doesn't involve the things I like the way I like them.
Haven't you noticed? We all love the idea of change until it touches something we need to change. Then it doesn't seem fair. Then it seems insensitive. Then it seems like God's not looking out for our best interests.
Here's where it gets really challenging. John 15:2 says, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away." Okay, we get that. If it's not working, eliminate it.
But then Jesus says: "And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so it may bear more fruit."
Wait, branches that ARE bearing fruit get pruned too? That seems confusing, even insensitive. Why would God look at healthy things in our lives and prune them?
You might be thinking, "God, I'm so blessed with this relationship/ministry/situation right now." And God says, "I'm so glad you're blessed." Snip.
"God, this is really producing great things in my life." "That's fantastic." Snip.
"God, I'm in the middle of my calling, doing what I've always dreamed." "I'm glad your dreams are being fulfilled." Snip.
God doesn't prune to hurt us. He prunes because His vision for us is greater than the vision we have for ourselves. He sees what we cannot see. He knows what we do not know. And even though something may be healthy and successful right now, He knows that if we'll adapt and shift, what results in the future will be so much greater.
This takes tremendous trust. Our comfort zone is not what God is about. Change is not for our comfort, it's for our calling.
It's like a sculptor working with a block of marble. In his mind, he sees a masterpiece. But right now, it's just a big block of stone. So he takes a chisel and hammer and begins chipping away, removing everything that doesn't look like what the masterpiece looks like in his mind.
None of that sculpting process is painless. It all comes with having stuff removed. Things we think are really important, God may look at and say, "If we prune that for a season, greater fruit will develop on the other side."
When the chisel is painful, we trust the Artist.
How to Prepare for Change
- Expect and embrace it. Seasons change by design. It doesn't mean you've done something wrong or haven't been effective. Change occurs. Expect it, and when it reveals itself, embrace it.
- Anchor to the unchanging Christ. When everything seems to be shifting, anchor to the foundation that never moves. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
- Trust God's hand without knowing the plan. Sometimes God wants you to trust and obey Him even when you can't figure it out. He says, "Just trust me. Follow the next step, and I'll give you enough light for the following step."
- Keep your eyes on the eternal, not temporary feelings. Don't let emotions control you or drive your decisions. Hebrews 12 says, "Fix your eyes on Jesus."
A Living Example
Sometimes we preach about change in theory. But today, our church walked through it in real time. After five and a half years of faithful leadership in our student ministry, my daughter, Krista, felt God calling her to transition to a new season. It was painful. It was difficult. She wrestled with God, "I can't just leave them with no one."
But here's how sweet and faithful God is: While she was wrestling with what to do, God had already brought a family into our church, a couple who had spent 13-15 years leading student ministries, directly gifted in the exact areas she had prayed for.
Before we even knew we had the need, God had already moved to provide.
That's why God prunes. Not to hurt us, but because He sees what we can't see. He knows this family will build on what was established, and the fruit will be greater than anything before.
But here's how sweet and faithful God is: While she was wrestling with what to do, God had already brought a family into our church, a couple who had spent 13-15 years leading student ministries, directly gifted in the exact areas she had prayed for.
Before we even knew we had the need, God had already moved to provide.
That's why God prunes. Not to hurt us, but because He sees what we can't see. He knows this family will build on what was established, and the fruit will be greater than anything before.
The Invitation
God is always doing something new. He's always moving you from one level to another, conforming you more into the image of Jesus. The question is: Will you be a new wineskin, pliable and ready for what He wants to pour into your life?
Change is hard. Transition is uncomfortable. Pruning is painful. But on the other side is greater fruit than you could ever imagine, and a God who has already gone before you to prepare the way.
Trust the Artist. He's creating a masterpiece.
Change is hard. Transition is uncomfortable. Pruning is painful. But on the other side is greater fruit than you could ever imagine, and a God who has already gone before you to prepare the way.
Trust the Artist. He's creating a masterpiece.