The New Covenant
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In this series, “Making Sense of the Bible”, we will be looking at what I believe are some of the most important passages of scripture.
I believe this series will help us make greater sense of the over–arching story of scripture and further understand God’s purposes for our lives.
Review: We’ve looked at Creation in Genesis 1-2 and the “Creation Mandate, God mandate for man to contribute to the common good and human flourishing. In this God is glorified.
We also looked at Genesis 3 and the Fall of Man. Man was tempted to rebel against God and the curse of sin entered the world. We are under the judgment of God needed to be saved. In this message, we saw God’s promise of deliverance to come from the “seed of woman”.
We looked at how God moved his redemptive purposes forward with Abraham and the people he formed. We also learned that God’s dealings with man would now be by faith.
We looked at how in order to govern his people God gave the Law through Moses. This Law would be life–giving and provide the necessary boundaries for God’s people to live under his blessings.
Lastly, we looked at how God established his reign under a king who’s reign would be immediate and also eternal. This king would be a direct descendant to King David.
Today, after Israel’s repeated failure to keep God’s covenant of the Law, God gives a “new covenant”.
Where Are We?
Where Are We?
After the reign of David, Israel goes through a cycle of good and bad kings.
As prophesied by Ahijah (1 Kings 11:31-35), the house of Israel was divided into two kingdoms. This division, which took place approximately 975 B.C., after the death of Solomon and during the reign of his son, Rehoboam, came about as the people revolted against heavy taxes levied by Solomon and Rehoboam.
During Rehoboam's reign, the tribe of Judah and the majority of the tribe of Benjamin accepted Rehoboam as their king. They became the kingdom of Judah, or the southern kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Jerusalem.
The other 10 tribes and the remainder of the tribe of Benjamin – usually spoken of as the Ten Tribes – chose Jeroboam as their king. The collective Ten Tribes retained the title of Israel, and became known also as Ephraim, which was the dominant tribe. It became the northern kingdom, with headquarters at Shechem in Samaria.
On the whole, Judah remained more faithful to Jehovah. Almost as soon as the northern kingdom of Israel was established, it went into apostasy. Although great prophets such as Elijah and Amos ministered in the kingdom, the people worshiped false gods and adopted many practices of Baalism.
Both kingdoms of Israel and Judah would be taken captive by foreign oppressors as the Lord’s judgment for their apostacy.
Transition–even though the people of God were in a disastrous predicament, we must remember God’s redemptive purposes will come to pass.
The New Covenant
The New Covenant
Just before the Babylonian armies swept into Judah for the last time, the prophet Jeremiah delivered a message of hope to those about to be torn from their homeland.
For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
This is a tremendous promise to God’s people.
Although they will remain captive for sometime, they will eventually be freed.
This freedom concerns their national oppressors.
This was a promise of a return from exile and re-establishing of relationship.
Yet, God was going to go one step further.
EMPHASIS: The real oppression the people were dealing with was their continued rebellion and disobedience to the Lord’s covenant.
It is the consequence of their behavior that had gotten them in the place they were in.
This “new covenant” would be different.
Jeremiah had an even more exciting message to share regarding this “new covenant”.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
In this covenant, God would reveal himself to them in a way like never before.
EMPHASIS: In this revelation of God, the people’s response would determine an amazing transformation within their hearts.
They would see God for who He truly is and through the work of the Spirit of God, they would KNOW God like never before.
They would be free from the consequences of their failings and sin, and live in freedom, worshipping God and enjoying his blessings.
This could only be done when their sin is FORGIVEN and God now draws near to them in a remarkable way; He will dwell WITH them and IN them!
Transition–This “new covenant” brings amazing benefits that outdo the former, “old covenant”.
The Benefits of the New Covenant
The Benefits of the New Covenant
The Limitations of the Old Covenant
Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.
Only the priests would be able to enter the “inner part” of the tabernacle and only once a year to atone for the people’s sins.
There were limitations to who had access to God’s presence.
God dealt with his people only through a mediator.
The Benefits of the New Covenant
But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Jesus instituted the “new covenant” by his own blood shed for our sins.
He is our mediator.
Through his sacrifice, our consciences are cleansed and our sins are forgiven.
This gives each of us who have placed our faith in Christ access to God’s presence.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
We can now “draw near with a “true heart in full assurance of faith”.
The “new covenant” through Christ does a much deeper work within us–”our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water”.
Jesus’ sacrifice is the final and complete sacrifice for ur sins.
Transition: What this means for us.
What This Means
What This Means
The new covenant is God’s new arrangement with us on how we may now approach his presence.
In order for us to be accepted, our sins must be dealt with.
God did this through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
Remember the penalty, judgment for our sin is death.
In order for God to be just, the penalty needs to be paid.
This judgment is separation.
We now may approach God’s presence.
The New Covenant moves us “beyond the veil”.
And God’s presence now dwells within us.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
We are now enabled to better glorify God by living fruitful and obedient lives.
This is made possible by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
God’s laws are no longer written on tablets of stone, but in the hearts and minds of all who’ve acknowledge Christ.
No longer are we under obligation to obey the law and external observances.
The “new covenant” transforms us and our obedience to God is now because of the inner compulsion of the Holy Spirit.
There is no fear of losing covenant with God when we fail, because we are forgiven.