Monday, May 16, 2011

Matthew 9:14-17

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4 Then the disciples of John came* to Him, asking, ``Why, do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?'' 15 And Jesus said to them, ``The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast. 16 ``But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment and a worse tear results. 17 ``Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins and both are preserved.''

Why do your disciples act differently than what we have been taught? The primary difference between that of the disciples of John and the Pharisees and the followers of Jesus.

Jesus makes it clear that those who follow Him are very different from all of the other "religious" people. Those who follow Jesus will be drinking a new wine-Jesus. And what is the new wineskin Jesus is referring to? One of my brothers pointed out that the new wineskins are those of us who believe in Jesus. Jesus is the new wine and we are the wineskins! I like this BIG TIME! We are empowered and filled with only the new wine-Jesus!

We are the containers of the new wine. He will work in and through us! We are NEW wineskins, not old wineskins that have been patched up! It's OK to be so different from the other spiritual profiling. We contain the new wine-JESUS-and this new wine is the only real significance we have!

So, we're back to square one. It's Jesus plus nothing!

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