The Gospel Confronts Our Use of Alcohol

I'm creating a series of bible studies for the college students I work with. Here is a sample from the first one on alcohol...

The Gospel confronts the way we use alcohol to get happiness. The more we drink to find comfort, the more uncomfortable our hangover is. The more we drink to get approval, the more we feel unapproved of in the morning after the regrets set in.

Only in Jesus will we get the happiness that we long for, without all the side effects. And only when we realize that all the things we are looking for in alcohol can be found in Jesus, will we be freed to enjoy alcohol the way God intended. We have all been guilty of slipping toward legalism or drunkenness at some point in our life. But here’s the good news.

Jesus lived the life we should have lived - a life without legalism and drunkenness. And instead of coming to condemn a world full of drunks and legalists, he died to save it (John 3:17).

Jesus is not a cosmic killjoy as many have thought. His very first miracle was turning over 100 gallons of water into wine at a wedding party. Pastor Tim Keller mentions that in the same way Jesus saved the wedding party from a disappointing end, he will also save you and the rest of the world from a disappointing end. Jesus died to keep the party going! His sad death has made it possible for us to have a happy, eternal life.

And one day very soon, Jesus promises that those of us who are his, who have been filled with his Spirit (Eph 5:18), will enjoy a drink together with him. The very night before Jesus died he said, “I tell you I will not drink again until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s Kingdom.”

Isaiah also point us to the future Feast: "On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine... He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces...’" - Isaiah 25:6-9

The feast in heaven will be filled not with those who have made the gift of alcohol ultimate, but with those who have made Jesus ultimate and use alcohol as a way to heighten our fellowship with him.

This content was taken from a gospel-centered bible study series that I'm working on called Gifts of God. To download the Alcohol study and others go to: http://t-zach.com/giftsofgod/