Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We’re finally here!

Week 6 of our 6 week study on God’s faithfulness and covenants with His people from Genesis to Revelation.

This has been such a beneficial study for me and I pray that it has been fruitful for you as well!

We’ve seen that our God is not reactionary but that He is purposeful as He makes a promise to not only help His people but to save His children even whenever we fall short.

In this study we’ve looked at God’s covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and tonight we’ll study how Jesus brings about the New Covenant and promises to save and sustain His children.

As we get started by looking at what Scripture tells us about this new covenant and Christ’s faithfulness, I want you to think about a time in your life where you experienced Jesus’ faithfulness.

Maybe there was a situation where you sinned and deserved a consequence and felt like God was going to kick you to the curb but instead you experienced God’s grace in the midst of that difficult time.

That is His faithfulness and promise to never leave or forsake you!

If you’re a Christian, you’ve experienced Christ’s faithfulness to you as you’ve made a mistake and you’ve felt conviction from the Holy Spirit.

This is God’s faithfulness.

We’ve experienced His love, grace, mercy, presence, patience, and peace… All of these things are wonderful truths and it is all due to what Jesus Christ did for us as He saved us and brought about the new covenant that was not based upon our works but on His work in our place!

We don’t always like new things.

The Israelites were the same way as they liked the old ways of doing things and not everyone was sold on this new covenant - especially in the book of Hebrews.

They wandered if Jesus’ blood and sacrifice could really save them or if they needed extra help and more sacrifices.

This new covenant was anticipated in the Old Testament as we looked at last week in Jeremiah 31:31 as the Bible tells us this

What is different about this new covenant than the older ones?

The Mosaic Covenant was written on tablets of stone on Mt.

Sinai.

It was given to Moses to share with God’s people.

It required the people to keep the law perfectly.

The Davidic Covenant promised a son who would rule with righteousness and for all eternity.

The Abrahamic Covenant promised God’s people a land and a rest.

The Noahic Covenant promised that God would deliver His people from His judgment and wrath.

These are all pieces to the formation of the New Covenant which builds on all of these fragments in the Old Testament as Jesus Christ fulfills all of these things and even more!

Jesus Starts the New Covenant

Something had to change as the blood of bulls and goats couldn’t forgive sins - the people needed a better sacrifice.

They needed a better priest, one who wasn’t corrupt and a sinner himself.

They needed a better messenger from God instead of the prophets or the angelic messengers.

They needed a better king, one who wouldn’t give into sin and worship false gods.

Enter Jesus - as we’ve been studying in Hebrews, the better messenger, sacrifice, priest, and king!

In Luke 22, before His death burial and resurrection, Jesus has the last supper with His disciples during the passover celebration.

Think back to passover in the Old Testament - what did this celebration commemorate?

The people of Israel being spared from the 10th plague in Egypt because they placed the blood of the sacrificial lamb on their doorpost.

This substitute would take God’s wrath in their place… but the people of Israel in the promised land would have to continue to offer these types of sacrifices.

Do you see how passover points us to Jesus?

He is the greater sacrificial lamb who bears our sin and takes God’s wrath upon Himself so that we experience God’s grace

How does Jesus accomplish this?

How can Jesus serve as this sacrificial lamb?

Through Dying.

This is what Luke 22 tells us at the Lord’s Supper as we observed it back at the beginning of November.

His body and His blood is given for us and is poured out to bring about the new covenant at His death.

He takes the penalty of our sins and dies in our place.

He drinks the cup of God’s wrath against our sin.

See, this is the bad news of the Gospel.

Everyone talks about how the Gospel is good news - which it absolutely is… but before you get the good news, you have to look at the bad news and be honest about how bad it truly is.

What is the bad news in the Gospel?

We are in need of a Savior because we are sinners and we cannot save ourselves.

We can’t just try harder and make ourselves better.

We’re sinners with a sinful nature.

We’re separated from God because of our sin!

This is bad news.

What is the good news in the Gospel?

Jesus Christ saves sinners.

He came to seek and save the lost!

Our book shares on page 136 that even though Jesus knew that His disciples would tuck tail and run and abandon Him, He still ate with them.

He still died for them.

This demonstrates the amazing love of our Savior.

Even whenever we fail Him, He still desires restoration with His covenant people.

He still dines with us.

He still accepts us.

He still forgives us.

He loves us and remains faithful even whenever we are faithless to Him.

Jesus Seals the New Covenant

So, Jesus dies on the cross for sinners and in dying, He forgives those who place their faith in Him as Lord and Savior - this is permanent.

His blood has been shed, it cannot be reversed.

What does this mean for us today, though?

Sure, Jesus died for our sins.

He bore our curse as Galatians 3:13 tells us.

But what happens on the cross?

If Jesus just died, you and I would be forgiven but the Bible shares that something remarkable happens… We see this great reverse in 2 Corinthians 5 as the Bible shares this

Not only did Jesus die but those who are in Him become the righteousness of God - what does this mean?

It means that not only are you forgiven, but you are adopted.

You are not an alien any longer - you are a family member.

You can rest securely in the love of Jesus Christ.

He has paid your penalty and He provides a change of status unlike anything you’ve ever experienced.

Instead of God being against you as a sinner, God becomes for you.

He loves you as He loves His own Son because you receive His perfect righteousness.

This is good news, friends!

Not only does Jesus die and give us these benefits, though, He also raises from the grave and in doing this He promises that His people will have this same hope of resurrection and eternal life with Him in glory.

He shares that He goes to prepare a place for us and we know that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth as God will reign over His covenant people and we will see Him in the flesh.

This is the hope for all who call upon the name of the Lord in repentance and faith.

Not just for the ethnic Jewish people.

Remember God’s promise with Abraham was to bless all the nations of the earth through his offspring.

This is fulfilled in Jesus as all the people of the earth are blessed as we can be grafted into this promise by grace through faith in Christ

If you’re a Christian, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, you can have this assurance that you are sealed with the Holy Spirit and going to spend eternity with Jesus!

You’re sealed with Christ.

You’re forgiven because of Christ.

You are loved and adopted because of the work of Jesus Christ.

This is good news!

But what do we do while we wait?

This is our daily problem.

Jesus, Our Covenant-Keeper, Will Return

This is one of the greatest promises that we see in Scripture - Jesus promises to return.

It won’t be a secretive return where only some people are aware of it.

It won’t be as a lowly baby in Bethlehem… No, His return will be the Return of the King and we all will be aware of what is happening.

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord.

This is good news and it is exciting to remember - but how does it impact us today?

Should it impact us today?

The return of Jesus should impact everything that we do in this life individually and as a church body.