Jesus: The New Covenant

Introduction

What story from your life has greatly influenced you?

Grade 5 - told I was interrupting

- Hyper aware of that still today

For Israel the passover is a feast that reminds them of one of these stories

For humanity our story is the story of God looking to partner together to fulfill his purpose of blessing the whole earth

After blessing Adam and Eve he calls them to his purpose to extend that blessing

Genesis 1:28 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God looks to renew this blessing and purpose through covenants following Adam, Eve, and humanity disobedience

These covenants were a promise of blessing to be passed on but when misused would bring about great consequence

In many ways, the covenants tell the grand story for Israel and ultimately for all creation

This is what Jesus is pointing to when he says, “This is my blood of the covenant”

Which we will unpack here shortly

So let’s look at the story....

I. Context of Betrayal and Denial vs 10-11

I wonder how many of us would have a story of betrayal as one of our influential stories

A friend, coworker, sibling, spouse....

Story of Rod in High School

This is the bookend context of our passage this morning

jump back to vs 10

John’s account of the story just before this betrayal, has Mary anointing Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume and Judas getting irate over the expense of this perfume only to get rebuked by Jesus.

This seems, at least for Mark, to set the stage for Judas’ betrayal.

in vs 26-31, Jesus predicts the ‘falling away’ of the disciples and Peters denial

about 10 verses later Judas makes good on his promise of betrayal

This is a large reality throughout the story of the Bible

What leads to betrayal?

Unbelief, lack of trust, fear

Even the most faithful of Jesus’ disciples would fall away

Perhaps a warning to us all

Hebrews 3:12 ESV

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

There is an important moment in the story of Noah

After God’s pronouncement:

Genesis 6:13 ESV

And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

The building of the ark and flood that wiped out humanity followed

As the flood eventually subsides, Noah and his family disembark from the ark and out of gratefulness offer burnt offering to God

This leads God to say:

Genesis 8:21–22 ESV

And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

We might say, ‘in that moment God changed his tactics/plan’

God had given unfaithful humanity over to the full destruction of their violence and evil in death

This flood is what we all deserve as betrayers, deniers, unfaithful partners, corrupt, evil, violent etc.

But God single handedly promises a new way to deal with us, mercy and grace.

Application: Where do you stand with God? Do you realize you need saving?

II. The Reminder of God’s Salvation vs 12-21

As I’ve been reading in Gen and now Exodus I was struck by these verses

Exodus 2:23–25 ESV

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

This introduces us to the 3rd covenant

So many generation after Noah came Abram

God promised to Abram - great nation, a land and to be a blessing to all nations

This is what God remembers as the cry of Israel reaches him from Egypt, far from their land, enslaved and mistreated.

God hears, knows and responds to their cries

Thus the story of Moses, his confrontation of Pharaoh and the ultimate salvation of Israel

It all comes together in the last of the 10 plagues, the death of all first born of people and animals in Egypt

But God provides the protection and salvation of Israel through the death and blood of a lamb

Out of which God gave Israel the Passover meal to remember and celebrate

The Passover was the promise of the new plan and the fulfillment(faithfulness) of God and his promise

This first meal foreshadowed what was about to happen here

Which are echoed in

John 1:29 ESV

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

So this evening in Mark 14, as Jesus and his disciples remember the first salvation, he makes a declaration about the one about to happen

The old covenant broken by Israel’s unfaithfulness, the enslavement of humanity comprehensive and God’s purposes rejected

God once again steps in, this time in person

Application: Who or what are you looking to for your salvation?

III. The New Passover vs 22-25

Let’s look at the two aspects of Jesus’ new meal in reverse

A. New Covenant

“blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”

Paul states it as the “new covenant in my blood.”

Here’s what happened: Jesus fulfilled all these covenants on our behalf.

This New Covenant was realized at the coming of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus fulfilled the promises and stipulations from all of God’s covenants. He’s the second Adam, the ideal sinless human, Abraham’s perfect offspring, the one true obedient Israelite, and David’s ultimate royal heir. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus defeated sin and death, gave his people direct access into God’s presence, and inaugurated a new kingdom that will culminate in the New Heavens and New Earth. In the meantime, he has instituted communion as a sign of the new and everlasting covenant, the cup representing his blood shed for the forgiveness of sin and the ransom of his people. Subby Szterszky Focus on the Family

He sheds his blood on the cross, opening the way to partner with God again, for all people

Blood was the means of ratifying and show the seriousness of a covenant

Abraham - split animals and God walks between

Israel - animal sacrifice and blood was sprinkled on people

These foreshadowed what was to come

This time it was God as God and man who as the one who fulfilled all other covenants, perfect, shed his blood ratifying a new covenant of word, Spirit and promise in which all our betrayal, denial, rebelliousness and evil is forgiven if we just receive it in faith.

Application: Who or what else would be willing to give themselves up for you?

Do the stories that influence you the most ever include such a sacrifice?

B. A New Sacrifice

So Jesus says this is my body

Isaiah 53:4–5 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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.

Communion