Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, through scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation within throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twyman, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Daily Together on Mission podcast. And I just want to be honest from the beginning of this podcast that I may have bit off a bit more than I can chew in 10 minutes, so I might need 12 minutes, but we will see.
I love this passage. I love this idea, and I love what we're going to be talking about this morning. And so grab a Bible, Mark chapter 2, the title of the podcast this morning is Tomorrow Does Not Need to Be Like Yesterday. Long title, I know, but tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday.
And that is very, very good news. That is euangelion, which is the Greek word for good news. Tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday. That's really good news, and if we could just think about for a moment in what area of our lives is that very, very good news.
Let's think about our relationships with girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, parents, children. Let's think about mission, vocation, job, activity, creativity. Let's think about health. Let's think about peace.
Think about the way we've been living. Think about what we've been presenting. Let's think about life. In what area is that really, really good news that tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday in that area?
In other words, tomorrow can be new. Sometimes I think that we settle into thinking that this is as good as it gets, and once we settle into this is as good as it gets, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and then this is as good as it gets. But Jesus of Nazareth, the most brilliant, the most practical, the most irresistible teacher and person in the history of the world, did not have that perspective. Now, of course, Jesus talked about suffering.
He said, in this world you're going to have trouble, but take heart, I've overcome the world. It's not that Jesus said there's not going to be suffering, there's not going to be pain, but the perspective that Jesus of Nazareth had and invited his students into is that tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday, and in that was the euangelion, the good news of the gospel. And interestingly enough, the image that Jesus often used when he was wanting to explain this perspective that tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday is the image of wine. And sometimes it actually wasn't an image.
It was a reality. And so just a little bit of Old Testament background. There are a number of verses in the Old Testament where the prophets, Hosea, Isaiah, other prophets are saying there's a time coming where the hills will be flowing with new wine. New wine, fresh, sweet wine will be running down the hills and it will fill up the vats.
And of course, there's some prophetic metaphor going on there. That was what the Old Testament was pointing to when God did the new that God was going to do. It was a wine image. So when Jesus shows up in Cana of Galilee at a family friend's wedding and the wine runs out and he turns water into wine.
Yes, that was to save face with the host because running out of wine at a wedding was socially incredibly taboo. Yes, it meant a practical, important need. God's acts always do. But then John says this was the first sign.
Signs point to something. The disciples saw this sign and they believed. And the sign is that what the Old Testament prophets prophesied is that this new day is here. And now tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday because the new wine that's been promised, the new life that's been promised in this area or that area or this situation or that relationship has now come.
And that's what the disciples saw. And they understood that the new is here. And Jesus is often saying things like, behold, I make all things new. That's another way of saying that tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday.
And so I want to read this incredibly kind of cryptic, unbelievable statement about wine and wineskins. Mark chapter two, verse 22. Jesus says to his students, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. No one pours new wine into old wineskins, Jesus says.
If you do that, those old wineskins will burst, right? They can't hold the new wine and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, Jesus says, you pour new wine into new wineskins. Now, when we know a little bit about the Old Testament and we know what Jesus did at that wedding in Cana, and then we see this cryptic parable teaching that Jesus gave his disciples, what he is saying is, behold, all things are being made new.
Tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday. God is doing a new thing in my life and in your life. He is making us into new wineskins so that we can hold the new wine that God wants to pour into our lives. Now, let's think about this for just a moment, right?
Some of us want to be more vulnerable in our intimate relationships. We feel that there's a depth that we could enter into. We're holding back, but the good news is tomorrow does not need to be like yesterday. And so there's an amazing amount of vulnerability that's available.
Some of us want to get more vulnerable in our marriage. Some of us want to stand up and be honest in our relationships. We want tomorrow to be different than yesterday as we become people that are honest. Some of us want to become more generous.
Some of us want to step into the leadership again. Some of us want to pick up that paintbrush or that guitar or start to write that book or go after that endeavor or whatever it might be. Some of us want to risk again in relationship so that tomorrow is different than yesterday. Some of us want to start fresh with our children because there's ways in which yesterday we have not been the kind of parent that we want to be and we want tomorrow to be different.
Some of us want to forgive and stop carrying around rage toward someone who might never change because we will realize that when we do that, we are in prison and tomorrow can be different than yesterday. And I could go on and on and on. Let's think and reflect about the Old Testament promises that have come true. The hills are flowing with new wine.
Jesus has turned water into wine. And as this passage says, God has this new wine for tomorrow that he wants to pour out into our lives and our relationships. And so he's making us into new wineskins, new people, new whites, so that he can do just that. See, the good news of the gospel is that tomorrow does not have to be like yesterday unless we want it to be.
We could choose for tomorrow to be just like yesterday or even worse. We could choose that. God does not force his new wine upon us. He invites us to become the kind of people that can hold what he wants to do tomorrow.
So let's reflect on this image and let's reflect on our lives. And some of us have heard that Solomon said, there's nothing new under the sun. And maybe that was true when Solomon was writing, but a new day is here. A new day has come.
Water in the wine. New wine for new wineskins. And Jesus says, I have indeed made all things new. There are all kinds of new things and all kinds of possibilities in our lives because Jesus has been raised from the dead.
So let's dream again. Let's think again. Let's feel afresh. What new is God bringing you into?
And this morning, let's read this passage in Mark chapter 2 a few times and let's meditate on it and let's invite the Spirit of God to fill us afresh with new wine as we are made into new wineskins and released into tomorrow that is different than yesterday because that is the good news of the gospel. And we will talk soon. Let's pray.