New Wine, New Wineskins

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Brian Hunter · November 16, 2025

Scripture Referenced

Recap

Brian opened Matthew 9:14-17, where John’s disciples ask Jesus why his followers don’t fast like everyone else’s. Jesus answers with the image of a wedding (you don’t mourn while the groom is still there) then adds the parable of new wine needing fresh wineskins, since old, rigid skins will burst under the pressure of something genuinely new. Brian had the room read the parallel account in Luke 5 as well, then posed two questions to carry through the rest of the message: what is the new wine, and what is the new wineskin?

To find an answer, Brian turned to John 3 and Nicodemus, a religious leader whose old categories couldn’t make sense of Jesus until he was confronted with the need to be “born again”, an old wineskin encountering new wine. The room landed on 2 Corinthians 5:17, being made a new creation in Christ, as a working definition: the new wine is the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, and the new wineskin is the condition of a person’s heart, willing or unwilling to be reshaped to hold what God is doing.

Brian closed by turning the metaphor into a direct prayer, asking God to stretch the room’s own wineskins rather than settling for old, familiar containers, and inviting people into communion with a moment to examine what in their own hearts might need to flex to receive what God wants to pour in.

Touch Points

1. Where in your life have you tried to fit something new God is doing into an old, rigid way of thinking or living?
2. Like Nicodemus, is there a category or assumption you’re holding onto that makes it hard to fully receive what Jesus is offering?
3. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says you’re a new creation. Does your day-to-day life reflect that, or does it still run on old patterns?
4. What would it look like this week to ask God to “stretch your wineskin” rather than staying comfortable and unchanged?

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