So what we’ve found from the last post is that Jesus’s word is the WINE. When was the last time you were at a fine restaurant and you asked for a nice aged bottle of Jesus’s words? We know it wasn’t that kind of wine, but what kind of wine was it? We know that a good tree bears good fruit, and Jesus was the true tree, and his fruit was true (Mat 12:33-35). Who is good? Who is true? His words are God’s, we know this not simply because he said so (really, anyone can claim they have a word from God), but because God backed it up with the Old Testament. Have you ever wondered what all those prophecies were for in the Old Testament? For us it’s so easy to look back and see Jesus was the Christ, the one who God sent, but when Jesus first came there was no New Testament or thousands of years saying he was the Messiah. The only word the Jews of that day had, was the Old Testament.
The Old Testament was familiar. The Old Testament was safe. And at the time it wasn’t even “Old” it was simply their scriptures. It explained the covenant they had to obey as given directly by God, written by the hand of God Ex 31:18. As history progressed it also included warnings to them as they lost sight of what God wanted. So they were meant to know and understand this word, to keep it in their heart so they could be obedient. However, it wasn’t long before God’s presence had left them and they didn’t even notice. Wow. So the scripture, that was their word from God, it was their wine. Their wine was comforting and they were used to it, and sure it was strange and parts seemed fantastical but their God was a powerful God and He had chosen them.
Then Jesus. Jesus’s word is the wine, as we found out, but they already had a wine. This had been promised in the Old Testament in Ez3:3-4 that God’s word would come again through the Son of man. All the same, change is difficult and Jesus acknowledges that in the New Testament scriptures, “And no-one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says ‘The old is better.’” Lk 5:39 Change is very difficult, just think of all those unfulfilled New Years resolutions, all those abandoned diet plans and forgotten gym memberships. Jesus knows. It’s not an excuse though. The job at that time was to recognize God’s new word, his new covenant, his new promise through Jesus. In Luke 5 and Matthew 9 the believers of the day are charged to examine their hearts and get rid of the old, be born again, and accept the new word, the new covenant, and new promise of God. It was no longer enough for the people of God to have the old, they must accept the new, after all it is the promised word of God.
That’s easy enough for most of us. Likely we didn’t step out of believing strictly the Old Testament into believing both the Old and New. But Jesus promises and warns of another new wine (after all shouldn’t it be a warning? Consider how God’s people did accepting the new wine at the first coming, do you think that you are so different from them?) Did you know that we had that promise? I didn’t, not before it was revealed from the Chairman, the one man who has been given God’s word that Jesus had opened (Rv 5:1-2) at this time (Rv 10:8-10). Nevertheless, even though it was opened now, it has ALWAYS been in scripture and if you were like me you simply read over it as inconsequential, and then like me, unintentionally subtracted from the word of God. It starts out familiarly but pay careful attention to the last sentence I’ve marked in bold.
Mat 26:28-29: This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
This was a prophecy, and I had skipped over it every time. Jesus is promising a new word at the second coming. Jesus words are true and they are from God. We know God’s kingdom comes at the end times, in fact that’s actually what we’ve been praying for every time we say the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:10). When His kingdom comes down to earth, just like it had on Jesus when God’s spirit came to rest on Jesus (Mt 3:16), there will be a new wine.
Well, the scroll has been opened by Jesus and given to the one man, Chairman Man Hee Lee. Although the word may seem new, as Jesus’s words did at the first coming, it is truly the same from God that had been promised even in Isaiah 5:6
Isaiah 5:6: On this mountain the LORD almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine- the best of meats and the finest of wines.
This was a prophecy for the first coming, but in the same pattern the “new” wine, the “new” word, the “new” covenant is really just his plan from the beginning. Ever since man’s betrayal he has been looking for a way to have his people come back to him in obedience and then his kingdom may be fully established. It’s not that God has changed his mind (Num 23:19), instead, now the time is appropriate to bring out the wine God has been planning and leading us to through his words to Moses, through the covenant by Jesus, and now in the opened words of the Chairman. That means at this time there is only one person and only one place where you can find the word of truth being proclaimed. There is one place where you will find the new wine of the second coming, that Jesus will drink “anew” with us – those who follow his word – and it’s up to you to continue to be born again by the word, or to stay with your comfortable old wine.
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