TEACHING

Don Atkin

THE WINE AND THE SKIN

I will build My church. - Matthew 16:18

We can presume to know just the right paradigm to give the Lord’s church proper expression.  History is jam-packed with a variety of paradigms and  paradigm shifts.  Today’s landscape is covered with many ways to express “church.”

I submit to you that the Lord Jesus Christ knows what paradigm will best express Him - His life - to the world around us. Our focus is to be on Him.  Our actions are to be obedient acts of faith, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Incarnation is a key to the wineskin that the Wine produces.  Jesus Christ took on human form, and became the Treasure in an earthen vessel (II Corinthians 4:7).  The earthen vessel - His earthly body- was the skin that contained the Wine.

The Way, the Truth, the Life was presented for the world to see, hear, taste, touch and smell in a human body.  He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.  John’s testimony (John 1:14) is that the glory of God was visible - seeable, if you please.

Yet, Isaiah (53:2) describes His outward appearance: He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. 

The world needs to see God in human skin!  So, Jesus became flesh, took on human form, to give expression to the glorious, abundant, overcoming, fruitful life that He makes available.

THE BODY OF CHRIST

Incarnation is still a key to the wineskin that the Wine produces.  Jesus Christ has returned in Spirit to take on human form.  He is still the Treasure in earthen vessels.

The body of Christ is the earthen container for and carrier of His divine life.

The church is a body with many members and a variety of ways of expressing His Glorious Life to the world.  Although this body has no form or comeliness, and when we see it, there is no beauty that we should desire it, others will be able to see, hear, taste, touch and smell Jesus - as we become more and more transparent by purifying ourselves.

Paul reveals the mystery to His saints in Colossians 1:27: To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is

The manifold promises of God are collectively for the children of God.  This is not an individualistic thing.  We are functionally effective within the framework (paradigm) of the body of Christ.  I do not constitute His skin alone.  Jesus said, where two or three are gathered together in My name (in My Person; Identity), I am there in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).

I, alone, am not the body of Christ.  I am merely one member.  We are the body of Christ - living stones, gathered together and assembled, fitly (and functionally) joined and knit together by what every joint supplies (Ephesians 4:16).  Christ in you [the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse - or any given geopolitical sphere], the hope of glory.

The corporate expression is to be defined by geography and discerned by the Life of Christ within.  We must move beyond gathering to having the many members assembled, so that the many parts may function in harmony under the Head – Jesus.

THE BODY OF CHRIST IS TO BE GOVERNED, LED AND EQUIPPED

The Wine’s skin - the body of Christ - includes government, leadership, and equipping ministry.  Where any of these are absent, you find an incomplete wineskin!  Jesus Christ delegates responsibility and corresponding authority, and anoints certain people for the establishing of His kingdom rule in His household.

God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

            - I Corinthians 12:28

He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. - Ephesians 4:11-12

These leaders are not the heads of the church.  The body has one Head.  They are our servants for good.  They are not above us, they are among us.  Nevertheless, they are to be honored, obeyed, submitted to, and supported.

Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.  For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

            - I Timothy 5:17-18

Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account.  Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. - Hebrews 13:17

CHANGING VENUES                  

The church - the wineskin of God - is Biblically defined as the church that meets in so-and-so’s house, the church in a city/region, and the universal church.  History confirms the gathering of the assembled church took place on riverbanks, on mountainsides, in upper rooms, on porches, in temples, and in homes.

We are in a season of transition.  Some call it revolution, others renewal or restoration.  There are many venues, new and old, for the gathering of the wineskins.  But the wineskin was, is, and always will be the skin in whom the Wine lives - the body of Christ.

God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples (or towers, or houses, etc.) made with hands.  Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being. - Acts 17:24-28

Jesus is the Vine.  We are the branches (where the fruit of His Spirit is borne). 

He is the Wine.  The church - the body of Christ - is His skin.

Christ in us, the hope of glory. - Colossians 1:27

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us . . . . . that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. - II Corinthians 4:7,11

POSTSCRIPT:  ABOUT OLD AND NEW WINESKINS

Paul continues in verse 16:  Even though the outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

It is the daily renewing of the inner man, by the oil of the Spirit, which keeps us flexible and pliable as parts of the body (skin) of Christ.  We remain new wineskins; flexing and making room for the excitement and agitations that come with having this Treasure – Jesus Christ – in us, revealed through us.