Message by Doug Bunnell, recorded live March 30, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham. Scripture read by Diane Tate.

New Skins for New Wine

• Why do you think Jesus chose Levi (a tax collector) to be one of His disciples?
• Why do the Pharisees and teachers of the law criticize Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners?
• How does the idea of Jesus being a "physician" for sinners challenge our understanding of who can come to Jesus?

• How does the imagery of a wedding feast help us understand the nature of Jesus’ ministry and His presence with His followers?

• What does the statement, "No one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, 'The old is better,'" reveal about human resistance to change?

• In what ways do you, or might you, identify with the Pharisees’ attitudes toward sinners and outcasts?
• How can you move past this mindset?
• Are there areas of your life that feel like “old wineskins” that might need to be transformed to receive something new from God?

Luke 5:27-39

27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And he got up, left everything, and followed him.

29 Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others reclining at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

33 Then they said to him, “John’s disciples, like the disciples of the Pharisees, frequently fast and pray, but your disciples eat and drink.” 34 Jesus said to them, “You cannot make wedding attendants fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? 35 The days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.” 36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise, not only will one tear the new garment, but the piece from the new will not match the old garment. 37 Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and will spill out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new wine but says, ‘The old is good.’ ”