New Wine for New Wineskins

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins. Mark 2:22

Spending the last week in Mark’s gospel, one of the ideas that impacted me the most was the idea of the new wineskins that Jesus talks about in chapter two. In the past, this has always seemed a bizarre verse to me, and I would often brush over it as something to leave for later. Here, Jesus is discussing with the disciples of the Pharisees and John the Baptist about the practice of fasting. Beyond just the idea of fasting, God brought to my mind a revelation of how the idea of pouring new wine into new wineskins can apply to the world in which we live, and the way that we go about sharing the message of Christ.

I am not an expert in theology, and I am not claiming to be. One of the things that is emphasized in this Bible course is that as followers of Christ, He has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is faithful to bring the very insight of God to our human hearts. With this, even if we aren’t biblical scholars, as we seek God, he will be faithful to reveal himself to us in ways that we understand. So, I am not trying to state these ideas as something to quote in a research paper, but I simply desire to share with you all what God has revealed to my heart in these scriptures.

As a body of believers, we must be making attempts to bring the gospel to the spheres of society around us, in a way that is specifically relevant to those spheres of society. For each group we go into, we must bring the gospel in a way that will be most applicable to each group. Thankfully, we don’t have to figure this out on our own, as Christ already knows what will appeal to any group we are reaching. In Colossians it talks about Christ, “…in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3). Because all wisdom and knowledge are in Christ, he knows what is relevant to each sub-culture, scene, social atmosphere, generation, etc. and he will be faithful to reveal those truths to us through his Holy Spirit. God knows the type of wine that needs to be poured into each different wineskin. The gospel is a gospel of relevance. It is not old, it is not stagnant, and we must not portray it as such. The gospel is just as applicable to the life of a New York Stock Broker as it is to the homeless person they walk past on their way to work everyday. In each new area (the wineskin) to which we bring the message of Jesus, we must be sure to use the right wine to fill it, so to speak. The key is going to God to understand the proper approach.
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Porto Rafti has been an enjoyable place to study these scriptures, as it is very peaceful. It is definitely a huge blessing to be able to be away from the bustle and tourism in Athens, where Starbucks (a three story one at that) and McDonald’s (also three stories) are readily available. The weather has been getting a bit more extreme than when we first arrived here. It has been getting colder, very windy, and we’ve been having quite a bit of rain as well. Apparently this is the down-season for this area, as it the weather is getting colder and unsettled. Most of our weekdays are spent here at the conference center, with lectures in the morning, and then time for studying in the afternoons and into the night. In the next couple weeks, we will be going on excursions to Athens to have teaching on site at the Acropolis and Mars Hill, as well as in Corinth, so it will be nice to get to see a bit more of Greece.

This week we’ll be going through Luke. John Childers and his wife will be teaching us here again this week. It is such an amazing opportunity to be learning from people who have had so much different experiences in life, travel, and their ministry around the world. Looking at their lives, which have both been very impacted by the word of God, I am excited to think of the ways that these studies will bear fruit wherever I go or whatever I do. Thank you all for your prayers over the last week, they have been a huge help.

In Christ, Tim