Overview
This is the closing teaching from Reverend Ted Bidon at the Montana Christian Festival where he talks about All Things Becoming New. Reverend recaps the whole weekend, then delivers a final message from Luke 5:33-39 on new wine and new wineskins.
The recap walks through each speaker. Rico taught on solid foundations, using the illustration of an alley full of junk that we choose to walk past. Todd covered being reconciled to God, with Luke 24’s “don’t seek the living among the dead” as the standout line. Stacy encouraged everyone to be salty, Chris shared David’s prayer for a new heart, Courtney taught on the love of God and our call to express it, Benji opened the morning with forgiveness, Michelle covered seeing one another from God’s perspective, and David handled the new way of thinking.
The Reverand Ted’s main teaching centers on the Pharisees challenging Jesus about why his disciples don’t fast. Jesus answers with three pictures aimed at the listening crowd rather than his challengers: the bridegroom (preparing them for his coming death and Pentecost), the new patch on an old garment, and new wine in old wineskins. Ted’s key point is that the word for “new” bottles means unprecedented, something that has never existed before. When we were born again we didn’t just receive new wine, we became a new bottle entirely.
From there the reverend builds a running wine metaphor. Each believer is a unique vintage (Ephesians 2:10, “we are his workmanship”), and living this new life means being willing both to pour a glass for others and to humbly receive one when someone else pours for you, recognizing it comes from God. Verse 39, “the old is better,” becomes a warning about clinging to old habits, illustrated by his own hyper-efficient grocery shopping routine that leaves no room to notice anyone who might need ministering to.
The Reverand closes with a story about piercing his ears in the 80s to stand out, contrasting the world’s version of uniqueness (external things you do) with God’s: the more you humble yourself and let the spirit within you minister, the more unique you become, because you’re the only one of your vintage. He lands on 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, our weaknesses being the earthen vessels that magnify God’s power, and sends everyone off with the charge that the weekend was preparation for what God has next. Be brave, be fearless, be the Christ in you. A closing prayer wraps it up.
Teaching Transcript
Good morning everybody.
I feel like I have the easiest job because all the work has been done. But maybe that’s going to make it the hardest job. I don’t know. We’ll find out. Thought I’d do a quick summary because I think we’ve covered so much ground and it’s really good to reflect on what we’ve heard so far.
Rico covered the solid foundations that we need that we have to have underneath this. And he gave us a great illustration of the alley full of junk and that it’s still there but we have to choose to pass on by. You know when Rico said who would stop and you know go down the alley and pick junk. Well I almost raised my hand cuz you know one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. But no we don’t do it right. We leave it there. It’s there. We just leave it there and we move on.
Todd did a great job on sharing how we’re reconciled to God. And what stood out for me was in Luke 24 that we don’t seek the living among the dead. Man, that just really locked in and jumped out for me. You know, we we are the living and we’re out there to show others how they can do that as well.
Stacy did a great job. Uh he encouraged us to be salty. I’m pretty salty already, but uh I love that encouragement. It’s okay. I’m gonna encourage you to drink. So, that’ll all just go right along with that. But, it’s going to be Chris. It will be heart healthy. So, that you know, it’ll be it’s going to be good.
Chris did a great job there. That verse that scripture that he shared about David’s heart that how he he prayed and looked forward a time that when God would create within us a new heart, man, you know, that was his dream what he looked forward to. And we have that.
And then Courtney, was so tender and sweet, covered the love of God, that God is love, that we are love, and that we can love. People will not know the love of God unless we show it to him. It’s what we have. The one thing, the love of God does not exist except for in us as his sons and daughters. He he wants us to express that love and share that love with those around us.
Benji started us off this morning with forgiveness. That was powerful. Between that teaching and then what Sydney shared later on, and Michelle’s teaching, I had tears running down my face. It was so wonderful.
Michelle did a great job. That great illustration of God’s perspective towards us and the perspective that we have to have towards each other that we really just when we build our relationships, those relationships have got to be based on the love of God and the way that God loves us.
And then David just handled that new way of thinking. He handled that really, really wonderfully. That’s really what it is. It’s about in the moment identifying where we need to change our thinking so that we can walk like Christ walked. And that’s not always easy.
We’re going to turn to Luke chapter 5. That’s where we’re going to be in most of our time here.
One of the thing about people that’s really interesting is that we rarely learn a lesson the first time. It usually takes multiple times for us to get the message. And we’re not unique as individuals. That certainly is true for all of us. When we look here at the record of Luke, we’re going to look at two different group of people that are interacting with Jesus.
One is the Pharisees and scribes. We’ve heard a little bit about them already. We know about them. They asked lots of questions. They really didn’t care about answers. The questions were really to try to set Jesus up. But then you had the people that were there who Jesus was really talking to and really teaching and those are the ones that are listening, right? They wanted to hear what he had to say.
And that’s what we have here in this record. This the Pharisees and the scribes are challenging Jesus. They’ve challenged him before about the law with his disciples. Why don’t your disciples keep the law? Why don’t they keep to the standards that have been set? Well, this is interesting here because here they challenge him in verse 33, they say unto him,”Who do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees but thine eat and drink.”
So he challenged him. He says, “now we’re not not only going to include us but it’s the disciples of John too they do it. Then why don’t your disciples eat and drink?” The fasting and the fast in the Old Testament was part of the law. It was for one day. They were to fast for one day according to the law. Now, tradition became that they would do it more frequently and I think it was often done because it was a kind of a, “hey, look at me, I’m fasting”.
But that the law required them to fast on only one day and that was the day of atonement. It was the day that God forgave all the sins of the children of Israel every year. It’s pretty wild. So they challenge him on this and his response again is not for them but it’s for the people who are listening.
This is early in his ministry. And what he does is starts preparing those that are listening for what is to come, for what God has in store for them. And he says in verse 34, “And he said unto them, can you make the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?” It’s a great question.
He’s not really asking them a question. It’s a parable to get people to think. Does the bride get anxious and waiting when her bridegroom is standing right next to her? Of course not. She’s ready like they’re, you know, right? He’s there. She’s not thinking about, gosh, I wonder who my husband will be. He’s standing there. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.
He’s letting them know that something’s going to happen in the future, that he is going to die. Now, he doesn’t tell them that, but that’s what he’s talking about. And that there’s going to be a time where they’ll fast until the day of Pentecost and the new gift that we all have is received. But he’s preparing them because he wants them to be ready.
Is this the only time he says something like this? No. He says it over and over and over again. He’s preparing them. He tells them many different times that there’s something new coming, that there’s a change coming and that they need to be ready. They need to be prepared. And no matter how many times he kept telling them, even on the day of the ascension, they’re like, “Is this when the heavens, the kingdom is going to be restored?” He’s like, “No, I was telling you about this other thing.”
Because, that’s people, right? That’s how we are. Sometimes we don’t get it the first time. So here though, he’s telling them and reminding them so that they can be prepared for what’s to come. And he spoke also a parable onto them and said, “No man puteth a piece of a new garment upon an old.
If otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the peace that has been taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. He’s telling them that what’s to come is going to be new. It’s going to be completely different. I love this figure of speech because it’s extended throughout the whole New Testament. We’re told that we are clothed in righteousness, right? It’s not we’re clothed in unrighteousness and we take a little patch of righteousness once in a while to kind of plug in the holes, right? It doesn’t work that way, right? We are clothed in righteousness.
It’s a new cloth. The old cloth is gone. The rags are gone. It’s the white cloth that we are clothed with. He’s really preparing them for what’s to come. That it’s all going to be new. And the context of this is in traditions that you not to follow traditions. That’s the context that he’s teaching them so they can understand what’s about to happen.
He’s helping them to understand that they were going to be moving from the age of the law to the age of grace and that there was going to be a transition, that it was going to be different, that all things needed to become new, that they had to think a new way, that they had to consider what they were doing in a new way.
We’ve heard a lot about that this weekend, almost like it’s a theme. Chris reminded me and I thought it was great. We were talking about the other topics that we’ve had for the festival and we started with “living in God’s creation”, the witness of God’s creation is where we began and we really focused on the the trees and the insects and the birds and the sky and how everything that God created around us, these beautiful trees, all of this was all done as a witness and an example of God so that people could know him because he wants to know them.
Then secondly, we had “living in God’s creation”. I think they have that right. I think they have that order right. But it was living in God’s creation and how do we how do we take that and we move forward in that in our lives. And then well, “walking in God’s creation” was the third one.
Walking in love. Walking in love was the third one.
And we had a lot of focus then on on behavior like what kind of behaviors do we do do we show in our lives? And when I told Chris I said this topic this year really doesn’t really apply so much with those. And he’s like oh yeah it does because it’s a new creation. It’s like the focus was on the creation but this is a new creation we’re talking about because the gift is new within us.
I’m like yeah you’re right. It does. It all feeds together. It’s awesome. Our first three years we had a really like we picked our themes out pretty quickly but the this last year was a little more challenging but man that’s right it’s absolutely it’s absolutely what it is it’s all new. Let’s look at verse 37.
It says no man no man putteth new wine into old bottles. Else new w new new wine will burst the bottles and be spilled and the bottles shall perish. See like anytime you’re talking about wine that’s a good verse of scripture for me right there. We have some friends that have been here with us weekend, Daniel and Monica Belalout, and they make wine and it is delicious. It is absolutely delicious.
And I will tell you, when they bring a bottle over, I’m always excited. Um, I’m not actually excited about the bottle. As a matter of fact, I rarely look at the bottle. I really don’t care about the bottle. It’s what’s in the bottle that I get really excited about. Right. When Rico started, he said Corinthians is about people walking by faith or people walking by sight.
And that the Corinthians were walking by sight and not by faith. The Corinthians were looking at the bottle. They’re like, “Oh, the label’s nice. It must be good, right?” I’ve done that before. It’s not always right. Oh, the label. That’s really cool. They got a horse running on there. That’s got to be good. No, we’re interested in the contents of the bottle, right? It’s the spirit of God in each one of us.
That’s what matters. That’s what matters. And it’s unique. It’s unique to each one of us. That’s what we want. You know, when they when I have that wine and we we fellowship together with them, it’s it’s absolutely wonderful. You know, we have a great time together. And uh it just reminds me that it’s not just the wine, it’s the fellowship.
It’s being with them and sharing our lives one with another. We’ll look here at verse uh verse 38. But new wine must be put in new bottles and both preserved. So the bottles are important here in this illustration. the old bottles that I was talking about, they put wine in wine skins. And many I’m sure you know about this.
And when the wine goods would become old, the wine skins were the intestines of an animal. And when they would become old on the outside, it would get brittle. It would harden and get really hard. And when you put, and Jonathan knows this, when you ferment wine, it produces a lot of gas. There’s a lot of gas that’s off-put.
And when that wine ferments within that wine skin, it would stretch and it would burst. So the old, the new, the new wine, and this word new for new wine is the fresh. It’s the fresh wine. It’s the fresh that’s just been put in the bottle. It has not been aged whatsoever. The old will be torn and broken. So you can’t put the new in the old.
You got to get rid of the old and you got to go with the new. When it talks about the new bottles here, the language is absolutely beautiful because it’s not talking about new like fresh wine. It’s talking about new like something that has never been before. And I think you know if Jesus was an ad man, if he was doing advertising, he would he like he knew, right? He’s like, “Look guys, here’s what I got.”
“I have a product that we’re going to bring to market. It is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Unbelievable. Unheard of. And here’s the thing. We’re not going to do a pre-sale. We’re ain’t going to pre-sale anything. We’re going to drop it on the release date and we’re going to make it available to anybody who wants it. What do you think of that? He’d have been a great ad man.”
I’m sure I entertain myself with that. Sometimes it’s new like that nothing has ever been before. When we got born again, it’s not just that we got the gift of Holy Spirit. We got a new bottle. The old bottle’s gone. It’s a new wine skin. We’re new. That’s the way that God made us. new and fresh in every way, unprecedented.
And each one of us has that. Each one of us is unique. We can look at Ephesians chapter 2. We’re going to come back here, but Ephesians chapter 2, just as a reminder, we’ll look at this. We’ve got the we’ve got the time to do so. So, and I feel like maybe I’ve misled you a little bit because I’m actually going to kind of get into a bit of a networking opportunity here in a minute, but stick with me.
It’s going to be worth it. Ephesians chapter 2, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in him. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Each one of us is unique. Each one of us is our own vintage. We’re our own bottle.
And what we have to offer is unique only to us. And what other people have to offer to you is unique only to them. That’s beautiful. And it’s not works unto righteousness. God made us righteous and created that way so that we could do something with it. That we could do the good works that Jesus Christ has called us to. That’s the rub. All of us are here participating in this weekend because God is preparing us for something.
It’s going to be different for all of us. Everyone will have a different thing that they’ll be working on and doing. But God’s preparing us for something. And in each one of those situations, he’s going to ask us to choose. Do we want to pour a glass of wine for our neighbor or not? Do we want to drink a glass of wine served by our neighbor or not? You know, sometimes when you pour a lot, you feel like that’s what you got to do.
And you’re maybe not as eager to accept a glass from somebody else, but it’s not them, it’s God. If Christ is working in them to pour you a glass, who are you to refuse it? So when people come to you and they want to do something for you and they want to help you, the humble thing to do is recognize it’s from God and just receive it with thanksgiving.
And when people have a need and we see it, the right thing for us to do is pour them a glass. Be there for them. Pour them a glass up because it’s new. It’s something that’s new. Something like something that’s never been before. Verse 39. And here’s the confrontation to the Pharisees, but also it’s confrontation to anyone listening.
No man also having drunk old wine straight away desireth new. For he saith, “The old is better.” You know, I understand that there’s this new thing, and you know, it’s all good, but I like the old better. I like my traditions. I like the way that I do things. I really don’t want to change. You know that’s a human condition.
Now, none of us have traditions like that. I know that. But we do have habits which are worse than traditions sometimes. You know, one of my habits that I have to work on um when it comes to this category is grocery shopping. When I go grocery shopping, I have a list. I know where the things are in the store and I’m seeking maximum efficiency.
I’m going to get those things. I’m going to get them in the cart as quickly as possible. I’m going to use self checkout because I’m faster than those people over there. And I’m going to get out of that store as quickly as I can. When Ramona and I first got married, we’d go to the grocery store and she’d have her list and I’d be like, “Give me five things off the list and I’ll go get them.
And then I’d run off and get them and bring them back to the cart I’d find her and then I’d be like, “Okay, five more things.” And she’d be like, “What are you doing?” Some weird thing I have about grocery stores. But, you know, maybe what I could do instead is I could go to the grocery store and say, “I wonder if anybody needs a glass today. I wonder if I can pour out today.”
And not just be focused just on what I’m doing. Maybe that’s a habit I can change. and they’ll give me an opportunity to minister in a way that I never have before. Or maybe an opportunity will present me to do something and to minister to someone that I wouldn’t normally minister to. But because I’m not thinking about the outside, I’m thinking about the inside, I have that opportunity to do that and I don’t look past and I handle it.
So we all have may not have traditions that we need to change, but we all have some habits that we can afford to change. As I mentioned, you know, as Jesus is teaching here, he’s giving them a message to prepare them for what is to come. And I really think what we heard this weekend is that’s what it is for us.
It is the message that God wanted us to hear to prepare us for what’s in store. There’s going to be open opportunities that we haven’t experienced before that will be new. And if we’re ready and we’re willing, we’re going to be able to do exactly what God has called and to walk as Jesus Christ walked. We’re going to finish here.
We’re going to go to second Corinthians and just establish this thought. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and we’ll start in verse 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shine in our hearts. What an amazing statement. The same power that God commanded the light to shine out of darkness to put everything back together again.
The same power is the power that we have in us. to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, God’s glory. You know, when we have the opportunity to share God’s glory with other people, should we do it? Amen.
Right? We shouldn’t pass that up. When other people are sharing God’s glory with us, the gift of the Holy Spirit, God’s glory, should we deny it? No. We should accept it.
All throughout the weekend, what we’ve talked about is how much this is relational. It has to do with how we treat each other, how we love each other, how we build relationships. That’s really what it is. The mutual respect and the recognition that all of us have Christ within us and that it’s unique. And when we bring that forth, that’s how we’re glorifying God.
When I was a young man, like most young men, I wanted to be unique and I wanted to stand out. I wanted to be different. So, I got my ears pierced. Now, nothing if you got ears pierce guys, cool. I have no issue with that. But that was my way. I thought I would look different. And I wore black t-shirts.
It was the 80s. It was very popular. And a minister approached me one time and said, “Why do you wear those earrings?” I said, “Well, I want to be different.” He says, “Oh, so you wear them because it looks like everybody else.” And at the time, everybody, all the guys were wearing earrings. It was pretty popular. And I kind of had to process that.
I didn’t know what to do with it. I said, “Yeah.” I said, “Well, I was going to get a tattoo, but that was too permanent.” And again, if you have tattoos, enjoy. But what I recognized was what the world teaches is that if you want to be unique, you have to do things to stand out. You have to do.
And some people do wild stuff, right? Crazy stuff because they want to stand out with God in Christ. It’s the exact opposite. The more you humble yourself to God and you allow the spirit within you to minister and reach out, the more unique you become because you’re the only one. You’re the only vintage. One bottle, that’s it. That’s all there is.
The more unique you become. And when I realized that, it set me free and really allowed me to be the person that I am. I have things about me that people like. I have things about me that people probably don’t like, but I’m okay with that cuz I’m me, you know. And so, we have to be okay with ourselves and realize that the more that we walk as Christ walked, the more unique we will become.
And the more we will stand out for our strengths. David talked about how people have different strengths and abilities. It’s so true. The musicians that get up here and play, I love music. I really do. My wife can tell you I love it so much. She was putting a little band together years ago. I decided I would learn to pay the play the bass so I could play along with them.
I was so good that they quit inviting me to practice. I’m just not a musician. I try. I’ll try to sing. It’s just not me. It’s not what I’m good at. But I’m good at other things. But I love that we have people that are good at different things. I love that there is a variety. And we want that light to shine. See, it’s the fact that we aren’t perfect, that we do have things that aren’t perfect about us, that really shows that when we’re walking with God, that we’re unique and we’re special.
And that’s what’s here in the next verse. It says, “But we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” the fact that we have shortcomings and weaknesses and things like that, it’s okay because what’s magnified when we’re walking with the father and we’re living as Christ lived is the excellence of his power, his glory, his power.
We are his glory in this day and time. And that’s what our lives show forth when we walk with him. I said it earlier, say it again. This weekend is prepare you for what’s to come. God has a plan. He’ll keep reminding you. If you forget, don’t worry. He’s good at that. But he has things in for you, in front of you, and ready to do.
I encourage you when the moment presents itself. Be brave. Be fearless. Be the Christ in you. be that one rare vintage and give it all that you got and love him with the love of God. Amen. Amen Amen.
Father, we’re just so very thankful for this weekend and our time together. We learned a lot of your word. We developed new friendships, new relationships.
We’ve had a great opportunity to think and contemplate on what you’ve called us to do with our lives. We thank you for the privileges to know you, to know your son, and to walk accordingly. The freedom that we have by manifesting love and loving those around us, by really embracing forgiveness and recognizing that it’s a power that we have in our life, that something that we can do and it sets us free.
We thank you, Father, for the opportunity that we have to share with others. You know, it may not be a verse of scripture we share. It may not be, you know, they come to our church or our home. Maybe we just give somebody a hug at the right time or we give them a word of encouragement at the right time.
But it moves them one step closer to being a reconciled with God. That’s what we want to do. Whatever it is to help those that you’ve called and all those around us, we claim these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
