God Declares a New Covenant

Daniel Norman

TGP A Kingdom Divided • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

Jeremiah 31:31–40

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The new covenant describes a time when God's people would truly know, love and obey Him

Notes

Transcript

So what a week we have had in global news right. The information superhighways of our lives have been spewing out all kinds of information that we have to do something with. Some of it reliable some of it questionable and the implications of all of seems to keep reaching further and further into different aspects of our lives. And so how do we as Christians respond to this?

I am not going to pretend to have all the answers on these things, because I don’t. I don’t even know to what degree the information that I have on what is happening is accurate, but what I do know is that as Christians whatever we face to whatever degree we face it, we have a hope that is based on information that we know deeper and stronger than anything we can access from our screens. So listen to this:

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

than any level of information can even touch. It is a hope that is not

As Christians we live in this material world, but we don’t find our hope here. We find our hope in the eternal promises that God has made for those who love him and are called according to His purposes. So as we seek to love and serve others in the name of Christ through any crisis, but we are resting fully in what we have in Jesus.

So I am not going to re-route the entire message this morning, but just give the message that I prepared to give, but I will say that I believe that God has shown me in this pre-planned message that He knew what we would be facing this week and that there are eternal things in this message that we need to hear right now.

But before we do that, I would like to challenge you with something that I was challenged with over the past few days. If you are like me then you have spent a lot of time researching and trying to find good and true sources for what is happening with this COVID-19 and I think that there is a place for that. But it occured to me, what would happen if I looked to balance that time by committing to spend at least as much time in prayer and Biblical exploration as I do exploring the internet for my answers. I am convinced that a commitment like that can do nothing but make us stronger to be able handle what ever may be heading our way.

wants to show us than any level of information can even touch. It is a hope that is not

Prayed as much as we searched out new news information?

So we are going to do something a little different this morning…spend some time in prayer. (Hospital personal, law makers, general panic or hysteria)

Introduction

In various scenarios and circumstances I have heard Christians say something like “My faith is not about a religion, it is about a relationship with God”. Have you ever heard this? Maybe you have said it. It is a very true statement. I have said it, and would say it again. But what does a relationship with God look like? If we were asked to describe it we could share about what it looks like in our life, our experience with it, our testimony... but how has God talked about His relationship with us? Typically when God wants to describe His relationship with us He uses the word “Covenant”.

We have talked about this word before, but it isn’t really the kind of word that we use on a regular basis, but it was in the ancient world. The Old Testament uses the word “covenant” some 275 times, but it wasn’t always talking about a covenant between God and man. Sometimes it was just between two people, two Kings of two nations.

So I have some great news for us this morning... We have a New Covenant! Isn’t that wonderful. I know it is really exciting isn’t it…or at least it would be if you knew what I was talking about.

x- Most of you are looking at me a little weird and I can probably guess why. The word “covenant” is not a word that we use very often in casual conversation is it? It is somewhat of an archaic term, something that was a part of life a long time ago, but has only a nostalgic connection to our here and now. We may have driven by Church signs with the word “covenant” in them or heard the term in a Christian wedding ceremony but we are not gonna throw it out in a discussion even among other Christians…but we could. Maybe we even should. Truth is that many of us have discussed the idea of “covenant” with others without even knowing that we did.

It has come up several times as we have been walking through the Old Testament Despite that reality, the word “covenant” is a very frequent word in both the Old and New Testament and I would argue that it is one of the most important words in the entire Bible.

Despite that reality, the word “covenant” is a very frequent word in both the Old and New Testament and I would argue that it is one of the most important words in the entire Bible.

You see the first person to make a “covenant” in the Bible was God.

The second recorded “covenant” in Scripture was made by…God.

The third recorded covenant was made by…nope Abraham

But the fourth recorded covenant was made by God.

My point is that when God talks about his relationship with us, he uses the word “covenant” but it was not exclusive wording for God’s relationship with man. It was also a concept that was familiar to the relationships of the people of the ancient world. Much more than it is familiar to us today. The third covenant was one that Abraham made to a man named Abimelech and it was about a well and some sheep in . These are very common things in the life of Abraham. They are very material. Very everyday.

And so before we can really get excited about or even grasp the significance of a “New Covenant”, we have to understand what a covenant even is. So I want to show you another video from our friends at the Bible Project that does a great job describing the role of the Covenant and how it played out though out the Old Testament.

A quick disclaimer though, the medium of video is picture based, but we all know that our minds cannot conceive of an accurate picture of God. So to describe our covenant with God, they use the Metaphorical image of an Old Man to Metaphorically represent God, but we know that God is not an Old man and we don’t want to think of Him in that way. So don’t get distracted by the limitations of this medium - focus instead on the truths that are communicated about the covenant that our infinite, un-picturable God has made with His people.

I do want to through out a disclaimer though. The medium of video is picture based, but we all know that our minds cannot conceive of an accurate picture of God. So they use the Metaphorical image of an Old Man to Metaphorically represent God, but we know that God is not an Old man. Scripture does tell us that we are made in His image and God himself said that Moses could not look on his face, but could see his back …but still we don’t want to think of God as some Old man because He is so much more than that. So don’t get distracted by the limitations of this medium - focus instead on the truths that are communicated about the covenant that our infinate, unpicturable God has made with His people.

Video: Covenants

This video will really serve as a review

Tension

I hope that you got a better understanding of the word “covenant” but I also hope that you saw how this “covenant” thing is really a thread that weaves right on the through the whole Old Testament. As we have been going through our Gospel Project, we have hit on each one of these partnership agreements between God and His people.

over the last year and a half or so then you have some idea of the role that covenants have plaid in the history of God’s people and this video will be a good review for you. But if you have no idea, then my hope is that this view will help clear it up for you.

So a “Covenant” is a formal, relational partnership to accomplish a goal

It is something that has literally existed since the dawn of time and it is the way that God has described his relationship with us. From the very beginning God has desired to partner together with us to accomplish His good work in the world.

Genesis 1:28 ESV

28 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.”

And then in chapter 2 we read

Genesis 2:15 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

So we had a job to do, God created our world with all this wonderful creative potential and we were made in his image to take what God had created and draw out of it the potential that He put in it. And when we rightly operate in this arrangement it brings God pleasure and glory. But from our first parents onward throughout the Old Testamant we have seen how we have not kept up our side of this partnership.

Over and over again, we failed to keep our side of the Covenant relationship. We just couldn’t do it. We didn’t have the ability to hold up our end of the bargain, but God never gave up on His side. And even though there were times when He disciplined his children for their rebellion and idolatry, He also made a way for them to come back to a right relationship with Him again. And it that part of God’s nature that gave us “The New Covenant”.

Then God made a covenant with Abraham, the parent of the great nation of Israel, eventually they broke their formal relational agreement with God and they were removed from the promised land.

did this for a while - until they gave themselves over to sin. They were kicked out of the garden and man was left in struggle to try and make coax

But over time, as we saw in both the video and in our many weeks of studying the Old Testament, our side of this partnership broke down. Over and over again, we failed to keep our side of the Covenant relationship. We just couldn’t do it. We didn’t have the ability to hold up our end of the partnership, but the beautiful thing is that God knew this. And that is why He established something He called “The New Covenant”.

It might not seem like a very striking phrase, but there is only one place in the entire Old Testament when God talks about this “New Covenant”, and that is our text for today, Jeremiah Chapter 31.

Over the last several weeks we have been in the age of the Prophets and we have seen how a lot of these prophets had some real tough assignments, and Jeremiah was no exception. The unique thing about the prophet Jeremiah is that he knew that he would be a failure even before he started. His often called “the weeping prophet” because he was to cry out to them to repent, like we talked about last week, but God told him that they would not repent and that instead of seeing their repentance Jereimiah would see Jerusalem’s destruction. Listen to what God told Jeremiah in

Jer 7:25-

Jeremiah 7:21–27 ESV

21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ 24 But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. 27 “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

Jeremiah 7:25–27 ESV

25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. 27 “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

What a job Jeremiah was given. He was guaranteed to fail going in...but God showed him things that none of the other prophet were privileged to see. Jeremiah was given a picture of this “New Covenant” hundreds of years before it came to be.

Pray? or open up with it today.

This is what the Prophet Jeremiah is

The second person to make a covenant in the Bible was God. The Third person in the Bible to make a Covenant was

The Old Testament Hebrew word for “covenant” is the word בְּרִית(be-reet). In the New Testament word is (diatheke). The Old Testament uses the word some 275 times but it is only used 30 some times in the New Testament. One of the reasons that we find it more often in the Old Testament is that we find it there describing different kinds of “covenants”. Let me give you one example that might help us at least get a handle on what this idea of “covenant” is all about.

1 Kings 5:10–12 ESV

10 So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the timber of cedar and cypress that he desired, 11 while Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cors of wheat as food for his household, and 20,000 cors of beaten oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year. 12 And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. And there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty.

If you are still looking for the word “covenant” here it is the last word in verse 12.

Eden

Adam

Abraham

So if you haven’t already, open your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 31 on page 660 in the Bibles in the chairs...

Moses

Tension

Jeremiah - weeping prophet

“New Covenant” is only mentioned here in the Old Testament - ?

Truth

The New Covenant is written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:31-33)

And the first thing that we will see is how:

The New Covenant is written on the heart ()

Jeremiah 31:31 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,

Remember, this is the only place in all of the Old Testament where God says this, but He is not talking about right now is He? He is talking about something that has not happened yet. It will happen in the future.

This is one of the roles of a prophet. To be a “see-er” someone who is given special sight from the LORD to see things. Sometimes they are just given clarity about past or current happenings but other times, like in this case, it is something that will happen in the future. God often gave his prophets vision to see future things in very difficult times, in order to give them a picture of hope to look forward to. Then God goes on to describe what will be so “new” about this covenant compared to the ones before.

give A “New Covenant” that God will make with his people. Something to look forward to, and then God goes on to describe what will be so “new” about this covenant compared to the ones before.

Jeremiah 31:31–33 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.

Jeremiah 31:31–32 ESV

What covenant is God talking about here? The one that God made with all of Israelites on Mount Sinai. The Covenant WITH God that was governed by the law OF God. The law that the people broke. The 10 commandments. These 10 commandments were written on two special tablets and carried around by the priest in a special box called the “Ark of the,,,Covenant”. It was symbol of God’s “formal relational partnership” with these particular people. But over time we saw that these people broke their side of the partnership that symbol pointed to a relationship that was no longer there. So now God is promising a “New Covenant” A future covenant. And this covenant will have the power to do that which the previous covenants did not.

Jeremiah 31:31–33 ESV

Jeremiah 31:33 ESV

Jeremiah 31:

Jeremiah 31:32–34 ESV

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.”

Jeremiah 31:33–34 ESV

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.”

Don’t miss this guys, there is a unique quality in this New Covenant that makes it different from the previous “relational partnership” between God and his people. Notice that there is nothing said here about the law itself being changed, just that we will interact with it in a new way. What was once written on stone tablets and carried around in a box by specialized priests will now be written on hearts and carried around inside each one of God’s people. This is a profoundly different way to interact with God’s law, but what difference will this change make? That is where our second theme comes in:

Different kind of covenant of Mount Sinai

The Ark of the Covenant - carried around the 10 commandments in it

The New Covenant brings about knowledge ()

“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.”

Jeremiah 31:34 ESV

In the previous days, the law was information that was passed from person to person, but now it will be processed not from the outside in, but from the inside out. This is the kind of thing that our opening verse in 2 Corinthians was talking about.

The Hebrew word here for “know” is “yada” ( not yoda...although they didn’t write down the vowels in ancient Hebrew so…) The better point is that this word carries a connotation of having a close intimate and personal knowledge of someone. It is like the difference between knowing “Yoda” from watching all of the Star Wars movies and knowing him because he lives next door. (How cool would that be?).

This “New Covenant” that God is promising through Jeremiah will fundamentally change how we relate to the law so that it is no longer something that has to work through our minds into our hearts but our close personal relationship with God will place in on our hearts and work it out through our heads and ultimately our hands. Our inner nature is so changed that we not only know those things that God commands of us, but we are now capable of obeying them. That is whole different way of interacting with God and His law.

But for Jeremiah, this hasn’t happened yet. This isn’t even right around the corner. So God offers some words of reassurance that the events described here are as fixed as the Sun and moon in the sky. Remember the track record of God’s people keeping up their side of the partnership is pretty poor, but there is hope in this “New Covenant” because

Our third theme for the week is that

The New Covenant provides lasting forgiveness ()

“For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:35–37 ESV

35 Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name: 36 “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.” 37 Thus says the Lord: “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.”

Jeremiah 31:35-

Jeremiah 31:34–40 ESV

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.” 35 Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name: 36 “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.” 37 Thus says the Lord: “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord.” 38 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

Sometimes when our world gets crazy, as it did this past week, we can start to wonder if anything is secure, if anything is solid. But my guess is that none of you woke up this morning surprised that morning had come again. You probably didn’t go to bed last night thinking, “Would you look at that, the Sun went down”. These are constants in our lives just as they were in Jeremiah’s day. God says that His promises are as sure as that sun rising and setting each day. They are fixed in the sky, and this “New Covenant” is just as secure and trustworthy as God’s creation of those .

Jeremiah 31:34

Gospel Application

fixed in his character

Gospel Application

2 Kings 24–25 ESV

1 In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. 3 Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4 and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon. 5 Now the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 6 So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. 7 And the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates. 8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. 9 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done. 10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. 11 And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it, 12 and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign 13 and carried off all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the Lord had foretold. 14 He carried away all Jerusalem and all the officials and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained, except the poorest people of the land. 15 And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 16 And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and the craftsmen and the metal workers, 1,000, all of them strong and fit for war. 17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. 18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 20 For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 1 And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it. 2 So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 4 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. 5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. 6 Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him. 7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains and took him to Babylon. 8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 And he burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. 10 And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. 11 And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. 12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen. 13 And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried the bronze to Babylon. 14 And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service, 15 the fire pans also and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. 16 As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight. 17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and on it was a capital of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits. A latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were all around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with the latticework. 18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold; 19 and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and five men of the king’s council who were found in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city. 20 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 21 And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land. 22 And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor. 23 Now when all the captains and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite. 24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chaldean officials. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” 25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 26 Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. 27 And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 28 And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table, 30 and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived.

Vision of hope

Gospel Application

So Jeremiah got to spread the news that a “New Covenant” is coming, even though no one in his day would even listen to Him. But today we know that this is true because the “New Covenant” has already come.

We celebrate it every month when we take communion together. Maybe that is where you remember hearing this word. Every time we take communion I read...

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:23 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,

1 Cor 11:

You see the only way that we can have an intimate personal relationship with God where He writes His law on our hearts is through the forgiveness that the blood of Jesus purchased for us on the cross. Jesus is the initiator of the “New Covenant” that Jeremiah spoke of. This is why we say that our faith is not about a religion, it is about a relationship. A personal and relational partnership where Jesus Christ covers us so that we can know God in intimate ways that Jeremiah only dreamed of. through the Holy Spirit that Jesus sent us, we now carry around God’s law on our hearts, so that we can obey Him in ways that no written law could produce.

Landing

The New Testament, which by the way is just the Latin translation of the phrase “The New Covenant”, The New Testament only uses the phrase New Covenant a few times. Half of them are in reference to communion and the Last Supper and the other half are found in the book of Hebrews, which is a book written to the Hebrews in hopes that they would know Jesus as the mediator of the “New Covenant” that their prophet Jeremiah spoke of. Among the other arguments for Jesus as this mediator, Paul makes this claim for himself and other followers. I would like to bold enough this morning to claim for those of us who are disciples of Jesus today. He says this:

2 Corinthians 3:4–7 ESV

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,

2 Corinthians 3

2 Corinthians 3:6 ESV

6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:4–6 ESV

You see we are to be ministers of the New Covenant. We are to proclaim Christ as the one and only way to ultimate peace. We experience that peace partially right now as God is working it in our hearts, but some day we will experience it in it’s fullness, and we are to live our lives today with that eternal perspective.

Let’s pray.

2 Corinthians 3:1–18 ESV

1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. 12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Many references to the covenant - written to the HEbrews. Now and not yet idea. We are living in the advent of the New Covenant with the Messiah having come, but it has not come completely to full experience until Christ returns.

Application for the Church: Our current circumstances do not reflect our ultimate estate - NIV app commentary 288

New Testament- comes from the latin “testamentum” which is translated from the hebrew word “be rit” We have a new covenant (opening statement) , a new testament,

Know God and obey his commandments through the Holy Spirit.

Gospel Application

Asking Jesus into our hearts

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