What Does The New Wine Represent

In one paragraph

Brian opened a short series on Jesus's words about new wine and new wineskins, prompted by a question from Nancy the previous week. The conversation drew heavily from the congregation, with people reading, questioning, and connecting the text together throughout the morning. The sermon started with two readings of the same event, one from Matthew and one from Luke, where the disciples of John the...

Read together

1. Matthew 9:14-17 read aloud as the first main text on fasting, patches, and new wine
2. Luke 5:33-39 read aloud as the second main text, giving additional details on the same event
3. Matthew 5:1-12 mentioned by reference as the Beatitudes, identified as an example of new wine
4. Matthew 5:17 quoted on screen, Jesus saying he came not to abolish but to fulfill the law
5. Romans 3:21-23 quoted to show God's new way of being made right with him without keeping the law
6. Romans 8:1-2 quoted on no condemnation for those in Christ, used to illustrate new wine and new wineskin language
7. Colossians 3 quoted by a congregation member listing qualities to clothe yourself with as an illustration of the new wineskin

Talk about it

1. Brian asked why Jesus answered a question about fasting by talking about wine and fabric. What connection, if any, do you see between fasting as a religious practice and the idea of old wineskins?
2. Several people in the room described getting comfortable with familiar routines, whether where you sit in church or how you practice spiritual disciplines. Where in your own life do you notice yourself preferring the old wine simply because it is familiar?
3. Brian drew a distinction between the new wine representing the gospel specifically and any new way God is moving generally. How do you tell the difference between something that is genuinely new wine and something that is just a change for its own sake?
4. The group wrestled with the line at the end of Luke 5 where Jesus says no one who has been drinking old wine wants the new. Has there been a moment in your life when you resisted something God was doing because it did not look the way you expected it to look?
5. Joy and others gave examples of new wine, the charismatic movement, smaller discipleship-focused communities, technology in ministry. What is one example from your own life or community where you can look back and say that was a new way God was moving?