P.O. Box 53055    
Los Angeles, CA 90053   

ARE YOU READY FOR SOMETHING NEW?

He hadn’t had a bath in six weeks. You could almost smell him coming before you could see him. His clothes were of the most questionable nature—made of rough cloth, cut rough and ill fitting.

If you chanced to meet him on the street, you probably wouldn’t be inclined to invite him to church.

Unless, perhaps, you had heard him preach.

Because the man I’m telling you about was one of the most renowned speakers of his day. In fact he was employed as the Roman emperor’s Court Orator. He was one of those men who have gone down in history with just one name, but one name that is recognized all over the world. Like Buddha or Plato or Galileo. His name: Augustine.

But what was this famous, talented, highly-placed government official doing wandering around the streets of Milan, Italy dressed in haircloth, looking and smelling like a beggar?

He was preparing for the bath of a lifetime. He was preparing to be baptized. He was ready for something new in his life, and part of preparing to receive new life in Christ involves getting tired of the old ways and deciding you never want to go back to them. The rough, smelly clothing symbolized the life Augustine was leaving behind.

The year was A. D. 387, and Augustine was not the only one who had spent the 40 days of Lent wearing uncomfortable clothing and avoiding the baths. In those days baptism into the Christian Church was not something one took lightly. It was not something that happened to you a few weeks after birth, when you had no clue what was going on. It was something you chose to do only after earnest and careful consideration, and after you had undergone a period of thorough instruction as a catechumen.

The people preparing for baptism on Easter in Milan that year had all spent the period of Lent in penitence and preparation. They hadn’t had a bath in all that time because they wanted their baptism to symbolize being cleansed once and for all from the sins of the world.

They had eaten only the smallest portions of the plainest foods as part of their preparation as well, because they wanted to focus their attention on partaking of Christ.

They took baptism quite a bit more seriously than most people seem to today. Everyone who was baptized knew what was happening to them, and had chosen to start his or her life over anew as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

By the way, if you go to Milan, Italy today, you can still see the eight-sided baptistery where the man we know as Saint Augustine was baptized in A. D. 387. In fact, all over Europe, you can find these ancient baptismal fonts where people put their old life behind them, were buried beneath the waters, and rose to new life in Christ. I’ve seen many of them.

Are you ready for something new? Ready for some big changes in your life?

Let’s take a moment to look at the parable we’re studying today. I’m reading from Luke 5:36-38

“He also told them a parable: ‘No one tears a piece from a new garment and sews it on an old garment; otherwise the new will be torn, and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins’ ” (NRSV).

The picture Jesus paints is very clear. He starts with a simple, obvious observation: if you have an old, worn-out pair of pants that needs to be patched, why go into the closet, get out your newest Armani suit and tear a piece off the pant leg to patch your worn-out work clothes? For one thing the patch will be a different color, and for another, why spoil the new suit to fix the old?

The second part of the story draws on the fact that in the absence of refrigeration fresh grape juice ferments quickly. And if you put it in old, stiff wineskins, the “tiny bubbles in the wine” will soon burst the skin. Fresh grape juice needs new wineskins made of fresh, supple material.

There’s an important spiritual principle here. Have you noticed it, throughout the Bible—when God wants to do something really important, something really new, He has to start with new people or with people who are willing to make drastic changes in their lives.

Think of Abraham for example. When God was ready to start something new, He came to Abraham and invited him to pull up stakes, leave the old hometown behind, move away from family, and start life over again in a new land.

And do you remember the story of Elisha? When the prophet Elijah was ready for retirement—retirement to heaven that is—God sent him to find the man who would be his replacement, who would continue the prophetic work in Israel.

1 Kings 19:19 tells us what happened next: “So [Elijah] departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him” (NKJV).

Elisha responded immediately, running after Elijah—who pretended like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But Elisha knew something very extraordinary is going on when the premier prophet of all of Israel casts his mantle on your shoulders. He quickly ran back to the oxen he had been plowing with, took the yoke off, and proceeded to sacrifice them, distributing the meat to all his neighbors. Then he left everything behind and set out to follow Elijah.

He didn’t take his oxen with him or load all his possessions on the family camel. He left it all behind and began a new life—a life of serving the Lord.

God needs new people—people who are willing to leave the old behind—to do His work on earth.

Then there’s the disciples: Peter, Andrew, James, John. Did you men really expect to meet someone who would ask you to leave everything behind that day when you were tending your nets by the Sea of Galilee? And if someone had told you that by the end of the day you would have closed up shop permanently to become itinerant preachers, would you have believed them?

Probably not.

But when God comes into your life, something’s got to give, something’s got to change. There isn’t room for both Jesus and the old stuff. You can’t stay the same. If you try to, you’ll end up looking like an old garment with a new patch sewn on—not a pretty picture. Or you’ll become like an old wineskin that can’t take the pressure of the new life that Jesus wants to pour into you. You’ll burst if you try to take Jesus into your tired old life without giving Him permission to make everything new.

The apostle Paul put it plainly in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (NKJV).

Are you ready for something new? Just imagine what God could do with your life if you were willing to let Him make any changes He wanted to make. If you were willing to leave everything behind and let Him make all things new!

Maybe you’ve already done that. Maybe you’ve already left your old life behind and become a Christian. Maybe it was a dramatic experience in your life, calling for drastic changes. And if you let God make those kinds of changes in your life, well Praise the Lord!

But you know, that’s not supposed to be just a one-time event in your life. In fact, Jesus wants to come in every day. And our hearts must be prepared daily for the kind of expanding, stretching influence that He wants to pour in.

Not only that, Jesus is a whole new piece of cloth. His teaching can’t be just patched over one little part of our life. He wants to make you into a whole new garment. That’s the only way His cloth will look right on you.

You know, you may not agree with everything the man they call Saint Augustine said and did. But there’s one thing he got right for sure. He took his walk with Jesus seriously. He put the old aside and embraced the new. And God blessed him richly and used him to lead many others to Christ.

I think you’d like that to be the testimony for your life too, wouldn’t you? I know that’s what I’d like people remember about me—that I gave my life whole-heartedly to God, and helped others to do the same.

Jesus’ parable of the patched garment and the new and old wineskins can teach us a lot about letting God’s power really work in our lives. The power is there. But does it have room to bubble up in my life? Will I let Jesus make me a new garment each day—right there beside my bed, when I first get up in the morning and kneel before Him?

I want to do that. How about you?