New Wine for a New Generation of Faithful Followers

Matthew presents Jesus as the One who makes everything different. Jesus calls Matthew from the tax booth, then sits at table with tax collectors and sinners. The meal becomes a sign that people kept at a distance are welcomed near. Jesus does not offer a God who must be appeased from afar. Jesus comes into the mess, touches the unclean, embraces the outcast, serves at the feet of his disciples, and gives mercy over judgment.

Jesus answers the religious question with a hard word: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Mercy is not a soft extra for a church family. Mercy is the shape of a people who have received mercy. The kingdom does not run on keeping the right people out. Jesus calls sinners, eats with them, and sends his people into a polarized world as people marked by compassion, grace, and love.

Jesus then speaks of new cloth and new wine. New wine cannot be contained in old wineskins, because the new thing Jesus brings changes everything. The kingdom is alive, expanding, and always moving. Every generation must become a vessel for the new wine of Christ and the Spirit. A church can honour what God has done in its history while still letting go of what must be released in order to take hold of what God is doing now.

Gideon gives a picture of what keeps people from that newness. Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press because fear has driven Israel into hiding. A wine press is not a place for threshing wheat. It is a place for producing new wine. God meets Gideon in that hidden place and calls him “mighty warrior.” God names Gideon not by his fear, weakness, or family standing, but by what God intends to do through him.

Gideon carries the old story that God has abandoned his people, but God turns that story around. Israel has forgotten the God who rescued them and has passed fear to the next generation. God says, “Go in the strength you have. Am I not sending you?” The call is not to wait for perfect gifts, perfect circumstances, or every question answered. The call is to follow Jesus into the messy work of mercy, faith, hope, and love.

The pressing and crushing of life need not be wasted. The image of new wine says that God can bring something new even through costly places. Christ still asks each person whether they are in for the new wine of his kingdom.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Mercy makes room at the table
  Jesus places mercy above religious sacrifice because mercy reveals the heart of God. The table becomes a place where the excluded are not treated as projects but as welcome guests. Christian faithfulness is measured not merely by what is offered to God, but by whether God’s compassion is released toward neighbours. [09:28]
• 2. Jesus makes everything different now
  New wine means Jesus cannot simply be fitted into old assumptions, old habits, or old boundaries. His presence changes how God is understood, how people are received, and how mission is lived. The kingdom requires people willing to let Christ reshape what has become familiar. [12:44]
• 3. Fear threshes wheat in winepresses
  Gideon’s hidden work exposes what fear does to a people. Fear can make survival feel like faithfulness, even when people are standing in the very place where God intends new wine to be made. God meets hidden people without shaming them, then calls them out by a truer name. [23:34]
• 4. Go in the strength available
  God does not wait for Gideon to become impressive before sending him. God’s command rests on God’s presence, not on human adequacy. Faith often begins before certainty arrives, as people take the next obedient step with the strength already in their hands. [26:59]
• 5. Pressing can prepare new wine
  Crushing seasons are not automatically signs of abandonment. God can bring depth, compassion, and fresh life from places that have pressed a person hard. The cost of following Jesus is real, but the work of God can turn even painful pressure into preparation for kingdom fruit. [31:15]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [02:57] - A Church for Every Generation
• [04:02] - A Word About New Wine
• [05:35] - Jesus Makes Everything Different
• [07:17] - Matthew Called From the Tax Booth
• [08:57] - Mercy, Not Sacrifice
• [10:28] - New Wine and New Wineskins
• [13:47] - A New Wine Church
• [14:38] - Jesus Comes Into the Mess
• [17:07] - Following Jesus Into New Things
• [19:26] - Gideon and the Fear of Midian
• [22:36] - Mighty Warrior in a Winepress
• [26:36] - Go in the Strength You Have
• [29:17] - The Call to Be All In
• [31:15] - Pressing, Crushing, and New Wine

Bible Reading

Matthew 9:9-17
“As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?' But when he heard it, he said, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.' Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, 'Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?' And Jesus said to them, 'Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” [07:30]

Judges 6:11-16
“Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.' And Gideon said to him, 'Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, "Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?" But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.' And the Lord turned to him and said, 'Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?' And he said to him, 'Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.' And the Lord said to him, 'But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” [19:26]

Hosea 6:6
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” [09:21]

Observation questions

1. In Matthew 9:9–17, what actions does Jesus take toward Matthew, the tax collectors, and the people described as sinners? [08:57]
2. What concern do the Pharisees raise about Jesus’ meal, and how does Jesus answer their concern?
3. What two images does Jesus use to explain why the new thing he brings cannot simply be fitted into old patterns? [11:08]
4. In Judges 6:11–16, where is Gideon working, what is he doing there, and what name does the angel of the Lord give him? [22:36]

Interpretation questions

1. Why might sharing a meal with tax collectors and sinners have been such a strong picture of welcome and mercy in Jesus’ day? What does this reveal about the kind of people Jesus draws near to? [08:43]
2. What does “mercy, not sacrifice” mean in the setting of Matthew 9? How might religious activity become disconnected from compassion for people? [10:08]
3. What might Gideon’s choice to thresh wheat in a winepress show about the effect fear had on Israel? In what ways can fear make survival feel safer than faithful obedience? [23:34]
4. God calls Gideon a “mighty warrior” before Gideon sees himself that way. What does this suggest about how God sees people who feel weak, overlooked, or unready? [24:18]

Application questions

1. Jesus makes room at the table for people others would rather keep at a distance. Who might be easy to avoid, judge, or treat as a project rather than as a person to welcome? What could a first step of mercy look like this week? [09:28]
2. Mercy is meant to shape people who have received mercy. In a polarized relationship, workplace, family, or online space, what would it look like to show grace without pretending that disagreements do not matter? [09:45]
3. New wine requires new wineskins. Is there a familiar habit, expectation, or way of doing things that may be making it difficult to respond to what Jesus is doing now? What might need to be released while still honouring the good of the past? [14:15]
4. Fear can lead people into hiding, like Gideon working in the wrong place because he was trying to stay safe. Where might fear be causing someone to hold back from serving, speaking, giving, reconciling, or following Jesus more fully? [24:48]
5. God tells Gideon to go in the strength he has, not the strength he wishes he had. What is one next step of obedience that can be taken with the abilities, time, and resources already available? [27:34]
6. Seasons of pressure and loss are painful, and they are not wasted in God’s hands. Is there a difficult season that may be producing deeper compassion, faith, or readiness for new life? How can the group support one another in that process? [31:15]