SCC Engagement Hour - Foundational Scriptures

Luke 5:33-39 - New vs. Old

Old and New — An age old battle of generations.

Old and New Covenants — A gracious story of God’s work in the world centered on Jesus.

A great kickoff for our Acts of the Holy Spirit series!

Biblical & Theological Context —

Biblical Covenants -

An agreement between God and humanity (individuals or corporate) that is defined by loyalty and love. They structurally included binding obligations on both sides stated as promises with (usually) consequences for the weaker party (humanity) if they did not uphold their part of the covenant.

Covenants are the way that God structures His work and relationships with humanity.

The covenants are the nerve center that contains what we think about God’s promises for Messiah, His purposes for humanity and His people, and His works of salvation.

What are they?

Abrahamic

Noahic

Mosaic - Old Covenant refers to Mosaic Law and God’s Use of the Mosaic Law in the OT

Davidic

New Covenant

New International Version (2011) Chapter 5

They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”

34 Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? 35 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.”

John’s Disciples were famous for praying and fasting in a certain way. That is because prayer and fasting was an important part of the Old Covenant and the current spiritual practices of Jews under Roman occupation.

Why are they not fasting? Especially with the people you are eating with? (context, banquet with tax collectors and sinners)

New Age in a Person: The bridegroom is here — its a time of celebration.

Arrival of forgiveness, repentance, and the Kingdom of God leads to celebration.

There will be a time for fasting — when Jesus is taken from them. Between the crucifixion and resurrection.

Jesus changes everything about how we relate to God. How was anyone to relate and know God? The presence of Jesus changes everything about it.

New International Version (2011) Chapter 5

“No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.

Jesus builds out two metaphors for how the New Covenant, inaugurated in Jesus’ Kingdom, relates to the Old Covenant.

First Metaphor: You don’t take a new piece of clothing to repair the old. The new is better and simply adding the new to the old will not due.

Just use the new piece of clothing.

So What: The New Covenant is not something that switches in and out with the Old Covenant. The promises and power of the New Covenant cannot be contained within the Old Covenant. We cannot bind ourselves to the Old Covenant, or synchronize the two, we must fully embrace the New Covenant in total.

New International Version (2011) Chapter 5

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

Second Metaphor: New wine ruins and does not belong in the an old wineskin. The new wine then becomes ruined as well as the old wineskins. Both fail.

The promises of the new covenant must be embraced within the structure of the new covenant. The wineskins hold the revelation of God. You cannot hold the new (perfect) revelation of God in old wineskins.

Jesus came to usher in the promised realities of the Old Covenant — but the Old Covenant cannot contain or hold the promises of the new. The Old Covenant must give way to a New Covenant — to new wineskins.

Why no fasting? — New Age in a New Person

Garment/Wineskin Parables — New Age in a New Person with a New Covenant

So What for SCC?

Understanding God’s Word, Works, Promises, and Fulfillment

Jeremiah 31:31–39 ““The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is his name: “Only if…”

Ezekiel 36:22–36 ““Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes. “ ‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will…”

Hebrews 8:8–13 “But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.”

Hebrews 9:15 “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Understanding God’s Grace and Power for Us and In Us

The Good “New” of the New Covenant

Internal Nature —

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Old Covenant

internal nature of the new covenant. Whereas the old covenant was written on tables of stone (

Intimate Relating/Knowing God —

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Old Covenant

A second contrast is in the way God’s people know him under the two covenants. There is no doubt that Israel under the old covenant “knew” God; God had revealed himself, though at times the nation tended to forget this (Jgs 2:10;

Greater Solution to/Dealing with Sin —

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Old Covenant

Finally, the two covenants differ in regard to God’s dealing with human sin. Jeremiah promised that God would forgive the iniquity of his people and blot out their sin. Israel already knew that God delighted in mercy and forgiveness (

SCC — We are people of the New Covenant with God’s law written on our hearts, the Spirit dwelling in us to empower us to fulfill the law of Christ, and can rest in the fact that the promise of forgiveness is built on the blood of Jesus. Forever removing the stain of our sin and maintaining our status before God as members of the New Covenant.