Luke 5:37-39

There is a similar thing regarding a person's feelings also in chapter 5, but this time in verse 37. It is a story that the others have, but only Luke has this.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this, but only Luke tells us the effect of drinking the old wine. What he is doing here, is showing the power of habit; he is showing the power of association. In this case, it is the power of association to what leads to death. Our tie to Adam is not completely broken. Our tie to sin is not broken.

What Luke is saying, using our feelings—very common, normal human feelings—is that we indulge ourselves in what is old, in what excites us. We will not relish what is new! Do you get the teaching, brethren? If we continue to do what we did in Adam—if we continue to do what we did before baptism, if we continue to do prior to our repentance and our conversion, if we continue to do things like that—then the way of Christ will not be attractive to us. We will not do it! We are going to have trouble overcoming.

Luke illustrates this by reminding us of feelings. Feelings are powerful motivators for what we do. We have to recognize that the old is going to be very appealing to our feelings because we feel comfortable with it and it gives us feelings of pleasure that we want to continue. We are afraid to let go of it and indulge ourselves in the new.

Luke 5:36-39

Jesus is using an illustration in which the wine represents the new things that are coming into our mind. And what is already there exerts a powerful influence on a person's choices because there is a natural rejection mechanism at work within us to something that is new.

I am not talking about an object like a new house, new car, or new clothing. I do not think that there is a natural rejection process to that, but rather to a new concept—a new, different way of doing, seeing, or understanding something.

The new thing jars our sensibilities because it disturbs our sense of values. It disturbs us and motivates us to resist accepting something even though there might be an admission that what we are rejecting is true. What is ours is valuable to us. I wonder if we realize how pervasive this rejection system is!

Luke 5:36-39

You understand that the new wine represents the truth of God. The old wine represents the traditions of the culture that we have been born into—the one that has produced the prejudices in our mind that we do not want to get rid of whenever the new wine comes. We are the vessel, and if we do not have the willingness to change, then we will be "burst," the old wineskin by the new. A process of destruction begins to take place unless we become new.