NEW WINE, NEW WINE SKINS, A NEW UNDERSTANDING

Luke 33 Then they said to Jesus, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

34 And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

36 Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was takenout of the new does not match the old. 37 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. 38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. 39 And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.

The parable of the new wine and skins from the synoptic gospels is associated with fasting and the Bridegroom. That while the Bridegroom is present they do not fast. When He is taken then they fast. This is like when Christ indicates in the book of John “it is imperative that I go away, if I do not go I will not send the helper, His counter part “another helper” like Himself but not Himself but another. The bridegroom, meaning Christ, has the bride (John 3.29) And if there is no Bride now, there is no groom but today there are many who think that the bride is later, that she is not but will be, that she is being made.

A Bridegroom without a Bride is like a King without a city or without a kingdom. He makes himself a liar. But we know Him who is the King of kings. All other kings show faint likenesses of that King. So too is the City of cities. There is but one New City. And “the Bridegroom has the Bride” would not be said in present term if it were not an established fact, an eternal truth.

“He who has the Bride is the Groom. If you take one away the other ceases to exist. Like a driver without a car or a jockey without a horse. A doctor without a degree or a visionary without a plan.

The Bride is half of the two that make the one. “He made man in His image, male and female made He them”. The Greek word for bride is “numphee” which means “to veil”. She is the One hidden behind the veil. The veil is our carnal understanding. Like Thomas said of the resurrected Christ “unless I see Him and put my fingers in the holes of His hands I will not believe. We too do not want believe unless we see the Heavenly City, so we have developed a whole theology based around this seeing that speaks of another day. A place where time and matter intersect.

This is why the topic of the Bridegroom is spoken of with wine skins in the scriptures. We need new wine skins to receive new wine and what is a new skin? It is our mind. A new way of looking at things. We must be “renewed in the spirit of our mind” for “the carnal mind is enmity against God”. Him who gives life to the dead and calls those things that don’t exist as though they do. They exist, She exists. If I do not go I will not send Her. The man Jesus had to be transfigured. There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in great power and glory”, A concept others call the second coming was experienced back then. Christ had to be transformed. But He who is “the same yesterday today and forever did not have to become something He was not, at least not for Himself but for our understanding. So when we are instructed by Him to “follow Me that where I am you may be also”, He became a man for our sake so that we would receive the gift, our inheritance. So He did not renew Himself but all that He did was done to renew our understanding, our way of thinking to an eternal mindset. “Be ye renewed in the spirit of your (Greek word nous= knows = thinking) knowing. Christ in His eternal original state is not a man, not of flesh and bone, but spirit. And that the Bride is “flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone”. They are of the same spiritual, eternal makeup. Pre-existent, outside of time and matter, just beyond the veil of our understanding and perception. Outside of human experience of the carnal man.

This is the New Wine Skins, a new understanding to contain and understand eternal truths. Or as Thomas we can say, nope I am not going to believe until I see it.

If you do not have a renewed mind, a new wine skin, the Bride is a veiled topic. “Whom the world cannot see or know, but you know Her for She shall be in you”. If you think of Jesus as a man you see the “kingdom at hand” as a future earthly reality then you see the promises for another day. You have another gospel, a different Jesus. He was bone and flesh but “henceforth know we Him like that no more. If any man be in Christ he is a new creation” II Corinthians 5.16+17. And if we are “in Christ” we are this new creation and like the Bride and Groom it is not for the old. Outside is for muderers adulterers and whoever loveth a lie.

As Nicodemus aked “what is truth?”. It is what remains after the dust of time and matter are gone. “Everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that what is eternal may remain”. It was and is and is to come. It is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In each generation. Do you receive this now or later like Thomas?

This is why the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the revelation means the unveiling, is the unveiling of The City, The Bride. The words that are “faithful and true” is because they are pre-existent eternal timeless realities un-faltered by time and matter. They are what remains. This is the truth.

Most of Christianity is waiting for a visual event to happen on earth to get on with eternal life. They are waiting for another day, but “Today! if you will hear His voice harden not your hearts” Receive the invitation of the Bride and Groom, “The spirit and the Bride say come”. As John the baptist said, “He who has the Bride IS the Bridegroom, and the friend of the Bridegroom who stands and hears Him rejoices greatly because of the Bridegrooms voice. That is why he said, “my joy is full”. And from the Greek word “ekeinos meaning they” Ekeinos who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. The one from heaven is above all. He who has received this testimony has certified that God is true”. Do you now believe?

This is the new wine skin. It is our thinking being  continually renewed by the Holy Spirit in things pertaining to the ever present, always ready Kingdom of God.

His Kingdom is “At Hand” Today!