The New Covenant: THE CROSS

GET WHITEBOARD

The purpose of this series is for us to better understand and see how God is true to His word! If God said it - we can believe! We can have faith for it! He is a covenant making God.

There are 3 components in every Covenant God makes:

The Words of the Covenants (the vows, the promises, or curses)

The Blood of the Covenant (there is a sacrifice, there is a cost, “This is my body; this is my blood)

The Seal of the Covenant (your wedding ring, the clothing God provided, the rainbow)

Today we are going to talk about Jesus, the Cross, and the New Covenant and really just give a 40,000 foot view of the New Covenant.

Go with me to Jer 31 — However, I am going to be going to a lot of different verses today. This is definitely more of a systematic sermon. We are going to pull some similar threads and themes throughout the Bible.

All these covenants and people before are typifying this New Covenant.

Remember — it’s all the same covenant! It is God’s Everlasting Covenant

The OT is Christ concealed, the NT is Christ revealed.

The Words of the Covenant

So the New Covenant — is really just the ultimate fulfillment of THE Everlasting Covenant

The everlasting inheritance of the Abrahamic covenant, the everlasting Priesthood of the Mosaic covenant and the Everlasting throne and Kingdom of the Davidic covenant can only be possible in and through Christ.

Christ is all! He is the complete fulfillment!

And this was prophesied from the beginning! There are so many Scriptures we could read … Ultimately everything points back to Jesus and the Cross

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (ESV)

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

What was an external act in the OT has become a internal reality in the NT

In this New Covenant — the laws are NOT written on tablets of stone but on our hearts! Which was the plan and God’s heart all along.

Sometimes we have this thought that God was just mad in the OT and so He made everyone do all these sacrifices all the time and it wasn’t until Jesus came along that He was able to make God chill out a little bit … NO!

God has always wanted your heart!

Read through the book of Deuteronomy and circle every time that heart is mentioned.

From the Garden, God has been after your heart and wanted relationship.

You see ---The OT Covenants could only press the snooze button on the wrath of God —

Adam sinned. Humanity is doomed. God is perfect. He is Holy and He CANNOT tolerate sin.

The OT sacrifices weren’t good enough. The stain of sin remained on us.

But under the New Covenant, the wrath of God has been poured out on Jesus, allowing us to come boldly before God!

We never move on from the cross of Christ, only into a more profound understanding of the cross.

David Prior

The cross is the central fixture to which our faith is held!

2 Corinthians 5:14–17 ESV

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

What was an external duty in the OT — is now an internal reality in the NEW

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

‘So instead of transferring our guilt to an animal that could only press the snooze button on God’s wrath — Christ took the full punishment - paid off the debt in full!

Isaiah 53:10 ESV

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

—This whole chapter!! Remember — this is hundreds of years before Jesus was even on the scene.

Isaiah 53:3–12 (ESV)

3 He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked

and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

make many to be accounted righteous,

and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

It was God’s will to crush Jesus — Why? Because Jesus is the only one who can bear the weight of our sin

This whole BOOK are the Words of this Covenant!

The words of this covenant — every promise, every principle, everything that God has laid out and positioned for us — all of it hinges on the Cross.

1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

The fulfillment of the Christian life begins and ends at the Cross

1 Corinthians 15:25–27 ESV

25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him.

The old covenant simply covered the sinner while the new covenant provides cleansing of the sinner

The Old Covenants could only be a type and shadow of the real thing

They were never good enough to fully restore man back to how God originally designed and wanted before Adam fell into sin.

The Words - the Terms of this Covenant …

You must have REPENTANCE - FAITH - OBEDIENCE

God is not asking for something different. This is what He has always wanted from us.

Romans 6:4 ESV

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

This is the Gospel — this is a rough 40,000 foot view of the New Covenant

The most clear picture we will ever have of the Gospel is the Cross of Christ.

The Blood of the Covenant

WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?

Why couldn’t God just forgive? I mean, if He’s so loving…

Why did God draw such a hard line in the sand? Why couldn’t He just let His wrath go?

THE TRUTH IN TENSION — It is like tension rods in a tent

God’s LOVE and God’s HOLINESS — Held perfectly in tension on the cross!

The Bible - Christianity is seen as divisive. And because it is.

We live in a world that tells us not to draw lines in the sand

When we think of inclusion - what image comes to mind? A CIRCLE.

Circles are actually exclusive

Postmodernism and people groups are a circle …

Its not about the content of your character but the color of your skin

Orthodoxy (Chapter II—The Maniac)

For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed for ever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its heart a collision and a contradiction, can extend its four arms for ever without altering its shape.

Because it has a paradox in its centre it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound. The cross opens its arms to the four winds; it is a signpost for free travellers.

The Cross balances God’s HOLINESS and His LOVE perfectly. It is the prime example of who God really is. It is the fullness of Covenant

EVERYONE can submit to God’s Holiness and experience His Love.

Every nationality

Every color, creed, age, man, woman

No longer is God MAKING covenants — NOW GOD HIMSELF IS THE COVENANT

Hebrews 7:22–27 ESV

22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. 23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

This New Covenant is NOT made with the blood of bulls or lambs. Blood that will fade, blood that will decay.

It could not satisfy - it could not fulfill - it could only delay

It could only press the snooze button on God’s wrath

… the very power of the cross lies in the fact that it is the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of man.14

A. W. Tozer

NOW — This new covenant was made with the blood of Jesus — a blood that will not fade. A blood that is still active. Still alive. Still working!

This blood will never lose its power!

It fully satisfied God’s HOLINESS ALL WHILE REVEALING AND DEMONSTRATING HIS LOVE

Men crave life, but when they are told that life comes by the cross they cannot understand how it can be, for they have learned to associate with the cross such typical images as memorial placques, dim-lit aisles and ivy. So they reject the true message of the cross and with that message they reject the only hope of life known to the sons of men.6

A. W. Tozer

The cross is the central fixture to which our faith is held!

If you want to find your life — lay it down at the foot of the cross.

The world’s one and only remedy is the cross.

Charles Spurgeon

Whatever you are facing …

Depression

Marital stress

Worries

Financial worries

Maybe its your parenting and your children

Maybe its uncertainty about your future

Maybe its your health

I don’t know what kind of thoughts and worries followed you through the door today. I don’t know what you’re walking through today …

But I do know Who you can walk with

And I do know, regardless of your situation, the answer is the same: Come and die

Come surrender yourself and be a part of a better covenant.

A Covenant that Jesus has bought and paid for IN BLOOD

We must do something about the cross and one of two things only we can do—flee it or die upon it.

A. W. Tozer

-minstrel

Are you living fully surrendered? Are we willing to truly die to ourselves?

To join Christ - to identity with Christ in His burial and resurrection? In His cross?

"Holy Spirit - right now I pray that you would begin to convict us of things that we have refused to nail to the cross.

Little words and roots of bitterness…

FLOW DAVID

God we thank you for this New Covenant. We thank you for the Cross. We thank you for the Grace and Mercy you have poured out on us, an underserving people.

That through Jesus - through His blood - through His cross — we can experience a relationship with You.”

We talked of the Words of the New Covenant. All His promises are Yes and Amen. It is this whole book! It’s all found in Jesus.

We talked of the Blood of the Covenant. It’s Christ Himself. God Himself on the Cross.

And now …

The Seal of the Covenant

Holy Spirit --- YOU ARE EMPOWERED

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

God didn’t save us, establish a Covenant with us, and then left us and said - “okay! Have fun figuring it out!”

There is a GRACE that has been given!

Difference between grace and mercy --- car speeding. Getting a Ferrari

Grace is the ability to do what God has called you to do and to BE who God has called you to be!

ALTAR:

Salvation (make it clear for the kids)

Something you need to nail to the cross