New Wine - End of Week 1

INTRODUCTION
The following is a guide to help facilitate discussion. Feel free to add, subtract, or change questions to fit the conversation, and pray for the Spirit to lead in all things.

OPEN
If you make New Year’s resolutions, share one with the group, along with how the group can encourage you.  If you don’t make them, share what you’re hoping for in 2024.

HEAD

1. Read Luke 5: 36-39 and Colossians 3:1-17 together and share any wisdom, insights, or thoughts from the reading.
2. If the wine is the content/the message, and the wineskins are the delivery method, what was the “new wine” that Jesus was teaching/living?  
3. How did it differ from the ways the Jews had been teaching?  
4. What was some of the new wineskins that Jesus’ new wine would need to ultimately deliver that message to the world?
5. Colossians 3, and Paul in general, talk a lot about the old life vs the new life, death vs renewal.  Why is it so hard to die to the old self?  Why do you think we have a tendency to want to hold onto the old self/ways with one hand, and the new self/new ways with the other?  Why does this not work?
6. What was the new wine teaching found in Colossians 3:11 and why was it so revolutionary for their time?
7. In verses 10, 12, and 14, Paul uses the metaphor of clothing yourself with the new life, new qualities (after putting to death the old ones, v. 5).  How might the analogy of choosing what clothes you put on each day help you connect to “putting on” this new life each day?

HEART

1. What is the new wine (the message) that you are hearing today in and thru the ministry and community of Crosswalk that may differ from previous teachings as it relates to God, Jesus, salvation, etc…?
2. Have you ever seen, or visited, a community that simply put old wine (old covenant, or old teachings) into new wineskins (methods)?  If so, how did those experiences feel?  Were they genuine, impactful, exciting, or something else?
3. Why do you think we have to continue to “choose” to “put on the new self” each day, instead of accepting we are new creations and just continuing to move forward without looking back?
4. Put into your own words how you’ve grown in your walk with Jesus through the new wine of our Crosswalk community?  How might you help someone else experience that newness this week?

HANDS
Take some time to reflect on your life before the new wine of a new focus on Jesus.  What was missing?  What was hard?  What did you long for that you felt you didn’t have?  For this week, take some time to reflect back on your old self, and celebrate the new that is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  In some prayer time, thank God for His work in your life, and ask Him how you might partner with Him to help others experience the joy you’ve found in your new life.

LIVING WORDS FOR YOUR WEEK
“So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!“
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NLT