One of the most gratifying times I enjoy each week is teaching the Bible to a group of Zoomers.
One of the students, 30-year-old Josh, sat heavy with the weight of the world, confused and devastated at what he sees in his young life. He said, “I don’t know what I think of the Old Testament and Israel anymore.”
I said, “Josh, I understand. We have to look at the bigger story. In August 2024, three weeks flat on my back in the hospital, God said He was resetting my clock. I believe He has reset my clock for you. I have words for you that are relevant for today. These are words that I haven’t heard all the days of attending church. Stick with me. You will grow accustomed to the taste of this new wine.”
In the hospital, God said, “Things are set in heaven. The noise of the earth is the reaction to it. Write from the things that are done in heaven, not the noise of this earth.”
Since then, I have learned to hear new and wonderful things. Some sound like heresy and you might want to run me out of town on a rail. But what I’m serving you is new wine in new wineskins.
Those words done in heaven will be spoken before they become real to the hearing or seeing. They must be received in faith. So, as I write, many times, a thought or concept will be hard to hear, much harder to write, but I have purposed to write what the Lord is saying to me. He has always proved to be truthful. I can trust the words I hear.
One of the other students said, “I’m loving this new knowledge. But, it’s so deep, it’s hard to understand.”
“It’s because you are trying to hold new wine in old wineskin teachings. Old wineskins are the way we used to hear God’s word. Today, it’s not church as usual.”
Gen Z and millennials now lead older generations in church attendance. They are hungry to hear. They are thirsty to drink. They are not easily satisfied. That’s good. They have an uncertain future staring them in the face. They will not be satisfied by the tickling of their ears.
I have spent many hours before the Lord. It is hard to put a new word from heaven together in a tidy message or article for people to understand. But, it is necessary.
The Barna Group states, “Church leaders will need to reimagine discipleship pathways, relational connections and volunteer engagement in ways that resonate with a younger majority.”
I say, “Whoa. Hold the phone. What about the message?”
I contend that reorganizing church activities is not going to cut it for these young people who have seen more in the last few years than we have in our whole lives. They are thirsty for new wine. It’s not a new truth, it’s what Jesus is saying: “I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29, NKJV).
That day is here. I used to think Jesus was saying that we had to wait until heaven to taste this new wine. No, Jesus is in heaven and He is drinking it new with us in His Father’s kingdom on this earth.
Then He spoke a parable to them: “… And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved” (Luke 5:37, 38).
I said to the Bible study student, “The reason why it is hard for you to understand, you’re used to how the old wine tasted and you think it’s better. Jesus says it this way, ‘And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better’” (Luke 5:39).
As I continued with the teaching, I said, “I can’t go back to teaching about old wine. Once I tasted wine from the kingdom, I can’t be satisfied with anything else.”
Final brushstroke: Let this new wine breathe. It’s alive. Don’t put a straightjacket on me yet. I’m not bending to how it used to be. The Lord won’t let me. Stick with me. I love you too much to pour you a glass of old wine.
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Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of The SUN.
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