In Matthew 9:17 the Lord Jesus says, “Neither do they put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are destroyed.” The Greek word translated “new” in this verse is naos, which means new in time, recent, young. This new wine signifies Christ as the new life, full of vigor and cheering strength, stirring us to excitement and satisfying us. When we receive His life, it works within us to stir us up, excite us, energize us, and make us happy. As the new wine, Christ is our content, the provision for our inward thirst. He is not only the Bridegroom but also the new life to excite us inwardly for the enjoyment of Him as our Bridegroom.
The Lord Jesus said that we should not put new wine into old wineskins. Old wineskins signify religious forms, rituals, and practices, such as the fasting by the Pharisees and the disciples of John in their religion (Matt. 9:14). All religions are old wineskins. New wine put into old wineskins will burst the wineskins by its fermenting power. To put new wine into old wineskins is to put Christ as the exciting life into any kind of religion. Today some attempt to squeeze Christ into their different modes of religious ritual and formality. But we should never try to put the wine of Christ’s life into the wineskin of old religious practices, for the wine will burst those practices. The new wine of Christ as life requires a new wineskin.
In Matthew 9:38 the Lord Jesus says, “Beseech the Lord of the harvest that He may thrust out workers into His harvest.” Here Christ is revealed as the Lord of the harvest. This indicates that His kingdom is established with things of life that grow and multiply and that He is the Lord who owns this crop. We are the Lord’s crop. Under His hand nothing is lifeless. He does not care for lifeless things but for things that are living. Everything under His care is living.
We all need to see a vision of the Lord Jesus as the Lord of the harvest and realize that we should beseech Him as the Lord of the harvest to thrust out workers into His harvest. Whenever we sense the need for workers, we should pray to the Lord of the harvest, calling on Him to thrust out workers into His harvest and recognizing that the harvest belongs to Him. Whenever we pray in this way we honor the Lord Jesus very much. To pray like this indicates that we have seen the vision that our Christ is the Lord of the harvest. We all need further revelation concerning this aspect of the Lord.
In Matthew 10:24-25 the Lord Jesus uses three parables to instruct the twelve apostles regarding the suffering of persecution in their going out to spread His ministry. In these parables He likens Himself to a teacher, the lord, and the master of the house, and likens the apostles to disciples, slaves, and those of the household. In suffering persecution they cannot be above Him; they must not expect a better lot. It is sufficient that, in suffering persecution, they become as He. He is their Teacher, Lord, and Master of the house, and they are His disciples, slaves, and those of His household. If the Pharisees revile Him, calling Him lord of the dunghill (Beelzebub), how much more them. This word of the Lord prepares the apostles to suffer the persecution of the Jewish leaders.
In Matthew 11:16 and 17 the Lord Jesus says, “To what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call to the others and say, We have played the flute to you, and you did not dance; we have sung a dirge, and you did not beat the breast.” John the Baptist and Christ “played the flute” to preach the gospel of the kingdom, but the Judaizers “did not dance” for the joy of salvation. John and Christ sang “a dirge” to preach repentance, but the Judaizers “did not beat the breast” for the grief of sin. The righteousness of God required them to repent, but they would not obey. The grace of God afforded them salvation, but they would not receive it.
In Matthew 11:18 and 19 the Lord goes on to say, “John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” John, coming to bring men to repentance (Mark 1:4) and to cause them to grieve for sin, had no taste for eating and drinking (Luke 1:15-17). But Christ, coming to bring salvation to sinners and to cause them to rejoice in it, had the joy of eating and drinking with them (Matt. 9:10-11). Because John the Baptist lived in a strange and peculiar way, not eating and drinking in the regular way, the opposers said, “He has a demon”—He is demon-possessed. But they called Christ a gluttonous man and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Christ is not only the Savior; He is also the friend of sinners, sympathizing with their problems and sensing their griefs.
In the parables of the sower and of the tares Christ is revealed as the Sower. At the beginning of the parable of the sower the Lord says, “Behold, the sower went out to sow” (Matt. 13:3). Then in the parable of the tares He says, “The kingdom of the heavens was likened to a man sowing good seed in his field” (Matt. 13:24). As verse 37 explains, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.” Thus, the sower in these parables is Christ Himself. Apparently He was a teacher and a preacher. Actually, in teaching the truth and in preaching the gospel He was a Sower, and His life was a life of sowing. For example, when the Lord Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, something out from Him, the sowing Savior, was imparted to her (Matt. 8:14-15). Likewise, as the Lord was cleansing the leper, something from Him was sown into the one cleansed (Matt. 8:1-3). As a result of the Lord’s sowing, a great change took place in the being of both the leper and Peter’s mother-in-law. Matthew 13 reveals that what was imparted to those with whom the Lord Jesus came into contact was the seed sown into them by Himself as the Sower.
The Sower is the wonderful person of the Lord Jesus, and the seed sown is also the Lord Himself, the embodiment of the Triune God, as life to produce the kingdom of God. Through incarnation Christ became the seed of life, and in His ministry He sowed this seed into others. This means that into His followers He sowed Himself as the embodiment of the Triune God. If we consider our experience, we shall realize that the seed sown by the Lord Jesus into our being is just Himself as life to make us sons of the kingdom (Matt. 13:38). As the Sower Christ has sown Himself as the seed of life into our hearts so that He may live in us, grow in us, and be expressed from within us.
The fact that Christ is both the Sower and the seed sown by Him indicates that He establishes the kingdom not by teaching or by outward working, but by sowing Himself as the seed of life into the believers so that the kingdom may be brought into being by the growth in life. This seed will grow, and the life in it will produce the kingdom. Eventually, the Sower, who is also the seed, will become the “stone cut out without hands” that will smite the nations and become “a great mountain” filling the whole earth (Dan. 2:34-35). This great mountain will be the kingdom set up by God, a kingdom that “shall never be destroyed” but “shall stand forever” (Dan. 2:44). This reveals that the kingdom of God is actually a person, Christ Himself. In the beginning this kingdom was the Sower sowing Himself as the seed of life. This seed will grow and develop into a mountain—the kingdom of God in the age of the millennium.