What New Wine Looks Like In Action

God says:

I hate, I despise your religious festivals;
    your assemblies are a stench to me.
Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
    I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings,
    I will have no regard for them.
Away with the noise of your songs!
    I will not listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice roll on like a river,
    righteousness like a never-failing stream!
- Amos 5:21-24

When Jesus shows up in Luke 5 saying that his kingdom is like new wine and that it’ll burst old wineskins, he’s appealing to an ancient tradition. Eight hundred years before Jesus taught, the prophet Amos came teaching that the people’s religion was useless. He cast God’s vision for a new way to practice their faith, with justice and righteousness - namely, doing right by the poor, welcoming the foreigner and caring for the marginalized.

And along the way Jesus makes sure that people know that the kingdom of heaven is available to all who are willing to enter into a simple connection through him. Revolutionary!

This same Jesus is here today inviting you into the new wine of his way of life. Will you follow?