New Wine Must Be Put Into New Wineskins

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.

At the onset of what would later be identified as the second great awakening, John Wesley was banned from preaching in the London Churches, primarily because of the shift in his message: salvation by faith alone, which was in direct contradiction to the current teaching of the church salvation from good works.

By this time, George Whitfield had already been preaching in the fields and invited Wesley to join him. Wesley thought preaching outdoors was somewhat appalling, at least to his high church background. But after seeing the results, he accepted Whitfield's invitation. What he found were crowds of people who had been unwelcome in the church but very responsive to his new message.

As the awakening progressed under Wesley and Whitfield the increasing numbers of those who attended it became obvious the local churches could not have accommodated the response. Field preaching became the new wineskin. Clearly, the old wineskin could not have held the new wine.

Jesus was proficient at illustrating spiritual truths in natural things. New wine required a new wine skin. In the natural world, no one would consider or even think about putting new wine into an old wineskin because they knew the end result: The old wineskin would break, and the new wine would be ruined.

The wineskin metaphor was a response to a very specific question asked by John's disciples “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?”. Jesus does address the question but goes on to state the bigger issue, what I am bringing is a new paradigm that cannot fit in the existing religious structure.

To push the parable a little further, old wineskins become rigid over time. They lose their ability to expand. As a result, the old wineskins endanger the new wine. In Wesley's day, the churches were stuck in their current structures. Their teaching on salvation had fallen into error. Not only could they not hold the wine they would have corrupted its message.

I am convinced God will withhold the new wine until there are new wineskins. Yet in His grace, He has been passing out free samples. But let's not mistake those samples as the end of all of what God wants to do. The endgame is fullness but fullness will require a new wineskin. It will require us to think differently about the way we do church. Why does revival tarry? It is waitingon the new wineskin. It is waiting on us.