A daily devotional moment by Chris Garcia
Matthew 9:14–17 (NKJV): Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Mark 7:9–13 (NKJV): He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Did you know that a wrong mindset concerning God can affect God's power to be inoperative in your life? It is Biblical. Let's take a closer look at Matthew 9:16. It says, “Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is then made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Now, this is in relationship to the teachings of Christ. So the disciples of John the Baptist are coming to Jesus asking "Why don’t your disciples fast?" Jesus responds, “Can the friends of a Bridegroom mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the day will come when the Bridegroom is no longer with them and then they will fast.” He is referring to the time when Jesus will be removed and taken away at His death, burial, and resurrection. Then the time will come when they will fast. Then He says something that seems to be out of a different thought pattern but it really is not. He says, “No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment for the patch pulls away the garment and the and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins will break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” So what do we see there? We see this parable, that Jesus is saying when He is speaking about His teachings, He is talking about the reality of the New Covenant and of what He is trying to do in His 3 1/2 years of teaching on the earth. The old wineskin represented the pharisees. Basically what Jesus is talking about is a new and living way. Which is found in the New Covenant that comes from His presence. His Person. The life that He offers us. He was in constant conflict with those that have an incorrect mindset. So what ends up happening is that Jesus is moving and doing things in the ministry, while the pharisees are resisting because they have a wrong mindset.
Because they have an old wineskin, old cloth mindset, it is incompatible with the new thing that God wants to do. So sometimes the Scriptures speak quite a bit where Jesus would say things like, “Through your traditions and through your unbelief, you have made the Word of God have no effect.” For example, Mark 7:9-13 says, ‘He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.’” So what do we see here? We see that the mindset of tradition was making God's Word have no effect. Did you know that God's Word can be inoperative in a person's life, because of an incorrect tradition or incorrect thought pattern that they had received? What is tradition? To be honest with you, it is just an incorrect thought pattern. What I am especially addressing here is mindsets. So many times the Lord is like new wine to us or our new wineskins. The Spirit of God is like new wine. In order for us to receive new wine, we need to have new wineskin. What is a new wineskin? A new wineskin is a container that receives new wine. You cannot put new wine in an old wineskin. Because if you put new wine in old wineskins, it will burst, as the new wine is fresh and fermented. There is a lot of oxygenation happening in that new wine. So when you put it in an old brittle bag it begins to expand and the old bag then rips open and bursts. Why? Because it is not designed for that. It has no flexibility or elasticity to contain the new expanding wine, so you put new wine in new wineskins to support and contain the new being received. This is why the Spirit, through the Word and through the teachings of Paul who wrote 3/4 of the New Testament. If you look at nearly all the teachings that come from Romans to Jude, you see Paul attacking the old mindsets and thought patterns. So what ends up happening is that God wants to release a new thing in you but you cannot see it because you are operating from an old perspective or mindset.