New wine will eventually go sour if it sits for too long. New wine is not meant to sit. It is meant to be served and drunk. It is meant to bring nourishment, joy, pleasure, sustenance, and health to those that partake of it. While each glass of new wine is not meant to last for ever, the great thing about new wine, is that as long as you have a healthy vine with healthy branches, fresh grapes will be regenerated constantly and consistently for ever! The potential for new wine is always there. Fresh, new wine. Yes the grapes must be pressed (often uncomfortable), but the potential for something joyful and refreshing to be drunk AND served is always ready and available.

Old wine will not last for ever. Once the wine becomes fermented it has a shelf life. It too is meant to be served and drunk. However, those who minister in the things of old wine often try to save and store the oldest as long as possible until just the last minute. Old wine often becomes something that connoisseurs collect and show off to others. It can become something that they store up. It often becomes a family heritage and heirloom. Once wine becomes fermented (becomes old), it MUST remain in it’s OLD BOTTLE and STAY there. That is it’s ONLY HOPE of lasting. If the cork comes off, and the old wine leaves it’s old bottle, it must be drunk, or it will be for ever lost. Unfortunately, the natural man, prefers the old to the new. “For the old, saith he, is better.” When consistently drinking and partaking of old wine, one will NEVER desire the new. Until he realizes that the old has done NOTHING profitable for him (and/or his family, etc.), his health, his state of being, his mind, his heart, etc. EXCEPT give him a TEMPORARY EXPERIENCE of pleasure and ESCAPE from reality and then leave him with a CRASH the next morning, (and thus, his only hope becomes to get back to the old wine), UNTIL he realizes this, he will NEVER leave the old to go for the new. The new doesn’t appear to have the POWER of the old. And yet, the amazing thing is, that health wise, it has much more power than the old. You just don’t feel it as much in the moment.

All wine starts as new wine. How does It become old? One must add the leavening agent of yeast to the new wine. And one must place it in a BOTTLE specifically designed for OLD WINE. Thus, in order to create this old wine, one must take that which was created by God to be FRESH and LIVING and JOYFUL, and add their leaven of yeast to it and shut it up in a specific bottle where it must be closed and sealed in there (not free to be served or drunk) until time has allowed the work of the leaven to do it’s work and corrupt and break down the new wine.

Jesus said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” He warned that they “Love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues.” He warned that they “Exalt themselves”. He warned that they “Make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.” He warned that they “Do their works for to be seen of men.” He warned that even the Gentiles exercise lordship over each other. This is the bottle of the old wine. The old wine has become corrupted within, but appears beautiful without. It focuses on outward appearance, but cares not of the corruption of the heart. It is hypocrisy. And it must be placed in the OLR BOTTLE of lordship dominion of it’s followers. It’s converts must be sealed in tight and not allowed to hear or receive ANYTHING else than what is closed and sealed in the bottle. It is not meant to be served. Much time must take place for the leavening process to have it’s full effect. Old Wine cannot reproduce and multiply quickly. It cannot attain to the things of the Holy Ghost in the book of Acts. It cannot start a church and move on with fresh life within a year and the church continue and survive. It will be lucky to start and keep one church in it’s entire life. It takes too much time for the converts to become what they need to become to go out and serve this corrupted wine.

But what is the new wine like? Jesus said that he hates the doctrine and deeds of the Nicolaetines. He said that he didn’t come to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom. His disciples are to be like him. He was always ministering and serving fresh wine right from the vine. He was not BOUND by any bottle or stuck in any cellar waiting for corruption to take it’s full effect. No, he was free to go about by the Holy Ghost and pour his wine into the hearts of men and women that were thirsty and longing for sustenance and joy and hope in believing. He was able to multiply quickly. He was able to reproduce rapidly. His church spread through the entire earth in 1 generation. He did not put his family heritage and heirloom first. He did not keep his wine for himself and his family for years and years and years. No, he told us that we too, if we want to be great, must be servants. We must continue to minister the things that he has freshly given us. We must trust that he will continue to feed us and give us the fruit of the vine. And we must allow others to get in on this life. This is not a double life. This is not where you pretend to be something in 1 designated building, and then appear to be something else in another designated building. This is not where you act 1 way during 1 ministry program time, and then act another way during leisure family time. This is where we are genuine and eager servants of this new and living wine that he has given us to minister. And everywhere we go, it will bring joy, hope, and health to all who will partake.

Beware! Don’t let the leaven of hypocrisy enter your wine. Don’t preach the word of God that you don’t obey yourself (Paul said he wouldn’t dare try to make the Gentiles obedient in word or deed in anything that God had not first wrought by him.) Don’t talk one way in a pulpit and then another way to your wife. Don’t allow the leaven of secret sin to corrupt your wine and your heart. Don’t live for a temporary EXPERIENCE of CHURCH that is only an ESCAPE from reality but has no real POWER to change your reality. (For how many people is church only an experience and an escape from their reality but has no real power to change who they are into something godly and Christlike?!).

No let us reject the old, and be partakers of the new. Let us not seek perfect old bottles that can hold the old wine for a LONG TIME. But let us make quick new bottles that can hold the new wine for a SHORT TIME because the NEW WINE is not meant to be hoarded, or stored, or kept for yourself and your family, it is meant to be SERVED frequently to MANY!

“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”