Get Ready for Change

Introduction

The pastor begins with a confession: he's one of those people who doesn't notice changes. His daughter cuts his hair: he notices that, it goes from long to short, it shows. But when his wife changes her haircut (lightens her hair, evens it out, thins it), he barely notices anything. And the day she comes back from the hairdresser catches him off guard. He laughs about it, but it raises an honest question: Am I sensitive to change? Or do I miss it? Second story: in 2019, in Korea, he plays soccer with some students. Twelve years of playing soccer in Japan, he thinks he knows the game. Except the kickoff rule changed in 2016, without him knowing. Result: he runs to stand next to his teammate "to help him," when his teammate can now kick off alone. The Koreans look at him, polite but uneasy, like some twenty-seven-year-old guy just running around to touch the ball. Two examples to make one simple point: the world changes around us, and no one comes to ask our permission. Today, in Luke 5:33-39, Jesus wants to talk to you about exactly this: an immense change has happened, grace has arrived, and he invites you to become attentive, to prepare your heart to receive it without trying to force it into your old frameworks.

Outline of the message

1. The common thread of Luke 5: the old becoming new

• For several weeks now, the church has been moving through Luke 5. The chapter begins with Peter: Jesus asks him to go out into deep water, the miraculous catch happens, Peter confesses his sin, he's called to a new ministry.
• Then comes the leper: no one could touch him, Jesus touches him, purifies him, defilement becomes purity.
• Then the paralytic: Jesus first pronounces forgiveness of sins, then healing follows.
• Then Levi, the tax collector (the one who will become Matthew): Jesus sets his gaze on him while he's still at his booth, calls him, makes him a disciple.
• The same thread runs through the whole chapter: the old becomes new. No one imagined these people receiving grace. Jesus reaches them, touches them, forgives them, chooses them. That's the context in which the question of verse 33 falls.

2. The Pharisees' question and Jesus's answer: the Bridegroom is here

• At Levi's house, a banquet breaks out. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law grumble: why do you eat with sinners? Then they come back at him: John's disciples fast often, so do the Pharisees' disciples, but yours eat and drink (Luke 5:33). The accusation is clear: your disciples aren't pious enough.
• In the Old Testament, God commanded only one fast per year. The rest were added over time: fasts tied to the exile, rabbinic traditions. The Pharisees fasted twice a week. For them, a true disciple shows it through these markers.
• It's still a trap today: ranking people by spiritual "performance." Some people today say a pastor is "awake" and another is "asleep." The preacher admits he's been told himself, "Pastor, you're awake," and he wonders who's judging, by what standard. Let's not become those evaluators.
• Jesus answers in Luke 5:34-35: "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days."
• Two things stand out in this answer. First, Jesus calls himself the Bridegroom, a name the Old Testament reserves for God (Isaiah 62, Hosea 2). For the Pharisees listening, this is an explosive claim. Second, he reminds them that fasting is not abolished: it will have its time. But as long as the Bridegroom is present, no one is forced to fast. True fasting is born from a heart responding to grace, not from a box to check.

3. The old garment and the new wine: two parables for one call

• Jesus follows up with two images (Luke 5:36-38). No one takes a patch from a new garment to patch an old garment: you'd ruin the new one, and the patch wouldn't match the old. No one puts new wine into old wineskins: they would burst, the wine would be lost, and the skins too. New wine is put into new wineskins.
• The old garment and the old wineskins represent the old way: piety centered on the law, rituals grown rigid, fixed ideas of "it has to be this way." This framework is dry; it has lost its flexibility.
• The new cloth and the new wine represent the grace of the gospel, the new covenant in Christ. It is alive, it ferments, it overflows.
• Jesus is saying two things at once. One: you cannot sew grace onto your old religion, it tears. Two: you cannot pour grace into a heart that has become rigid, it bursts. You need new wineskins, a flexible heart, renewed, able to receive what God is pouring out today.
• The preacher reframes the title: "get ready for change" is good, but "notice the change" might be even more accurate. The age of grace is already here. The question isn't whether to wait for it: it's whether to recognize it.

4. The new heart that receives: Ezekiel 36 and the morning manna

• We cannot manufacture this flexible heart ourselves. God is the one who gives it. Ezekiel 36:26: "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." The new wineskin is God placing it in your chest.
• When you met Jesus, this miracle happened. You became, according to 2 Corinthians 5:17, a new creation. The old has passed away; the new is here.
• And this grace, received once for all, is renewed every morning. Like the manna in the wilderness, it is there for today. The preacher insists on this: Jesus died on the cross, that is enough, and yet, every day, he still comes to add grace upon grace, giving you what you need this morning.

5. The trap of the old wine: "the old is better"

• Verse 39 seems to contradict everything said so far: "No one, after drinking old wine, wants new wine; for he says, 'The old is good.'" After saying that everything becomes new, why does Jesus add this line?
• Because he knows your heart. He knows that after being made new, you can still be tempted to go back to the old: to your former habits, to your favorite sin, to your self-centered way of living, to old wounds that dictate your reactions. This is an honest description of human nature.
• We sometimes say "it was better before," not gentle nostalgia, but a step backward toward what used to imprison us. That old wineskin is still there, in a corner of the heart.
• But Jesus doesn't stop at this observation. He knows your weakness, and he keeps pouring his new wine into you anyway. That is grace: he didn't save you because you had become clean, he saved you knowing you would remain fragile. And he asks you again today: "Will you give me a new wineskin to receive what I'm giving you this morning?"

Key takeaways

• Luke 5 tells, episode after episode, how the old becomes new under Jesus's hand: Peter, the leper, the paralytic, Levi.
• Jesus calls himself the Bridegroom (Luke 5:34-35), a divine name in the Old Testament. His presence is a feast, not an imposed mourning.
• New wine requires new wineskins: you cannot glue grace onto old religion, nor pour grace into a rigid heart.
• It is God who gives the new wineskin (Ezekiel 36:26): the heart of stone is removed, the heart of flesh is placed in you. You don't make it yourself.
• Every morning, grace is renewed like manna. The title takes on a new meaning: less "get ready for change," more "notice the change already given."
• Old wine keeps its appeal. Be honest about where you're tempted to go backward, and hand those places over to Jesus, who never stops pouring you his new wine.

Personal application

1. What is, today, in your life, an "old wineskin" you recognize: a frozen religious habit, an idea of "it has to be this way," a judgment on others in the manner of the Pharisees?
2. Is there a place where you're trying to glue grace onto your old way of life, without letting Jesus renew the framework? Name it.
3. Do you perceive God's grace as new every morning, or more as a stockpile you received once and that's running out?
4. Where do you hear "it was better before" echoing inside you about something that, in fact, was imprisoning you? What would you tell Jesus about it today?
5. What simple action can you take this week to notice the change already at work: reading, praying, serving, forgiving, laying down a burden?

Verses cited

• Luke 5:33-39 (LSG)
• Luke 5:1-11 : Peter (LSG)
• Luke 5:12-16 : the leper (LSG)
• Luke 5:17-26 : the paralytic (LSG)
• Luke 5:27-32 : Levi (LSG)
• Ezekiel 36:26 (LSG)
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 (LSG)

Frequently asked questions

What does Jesus mean with the image of new wine and new wineskins?

The new wine represents the grace of the gospel, the new covenant brought by Jesus. The old wineskins represent a heart frozen in the law, in religious habits, or in an old way of living, grown dry and rigid; it would burst under the pressure of the new wine. Jesus is therefore asking for a flexible heart, able to receive his grace without trying to force it into our old frameworks.

Why didn't Jesus's disciples fast like John the Baptist's disciples?

Because the Bridegroom (Jesus) was present with them. In the Old Testament, fasting was tied to mourning, repentance, and supplication. But Jesus calls himself the Bridegroom, which is a divine name. His presence is a feast, not a time of mourning. The disciples' fasting isn't abolished, but it must remain a free and spontaneous response to grace, not an imposed religious performance.

How do I know if my heart is still an old wineskin?

Look for the places where you've become rigid: "it has to be done this way," "it's always been like this," "it was better before." Also look at whether you judge others by a religious standard (the way the Pharisees judged Jesus's disciples). Finally, examine whether you secretly go back to your old way of living, your former sin, your self-centeredness. Wherever you resist new grace, there's still an old wineskin to hand over to Jesus.