Sermon –22 March 2015 –New Covenant - John Marsh

Jer 4:4
4Circumcise yourselves to theLord,circumcise your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or my wrathwill flare up and burn like fire because of the evilyou have done—burn with no one to quenchit.

Jer 31:29
‘The parentshave eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30Instead, everyone will die for their own sin;whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
31“The days are coming,”declares theLord,
“when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
32It 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 husbandto[b]them,[c]”
declares theLord.
33“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,”declares theLord.
“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. 34No longer will they teachtheir neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know theLord,’because they will all knowme, from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares theLord. “For I will forgivetheir wickedness and will remember their sinsno more.”

Introduction

Abrahamic Covenant –Blessed to be a Blessing

  • Not working
  • Other nations seen as enemies, Israel not blessing them.
  • Israel on the verge of Exile a new plan is needed, a new covenant

Timeline of Israel –where this fits

Creation, Fall, Babel, Abraham, Joseph into Egypt, Moses out of Egypt, Wilderness, Conquest, Judges, Saul, David, Solomon, Divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, sin, Prophets like Jeremiah, exile into Babylon.

Background to Jeremiah

Context of Exile and Return

  • Jeremiah prophesying the imminent exile of Israel but also that there will be redemption and return

Jeremiah –call Chp 1
Covenant –personal relationship, 4The word of theLordcame to me, saying, 5“Before I formed you in the wombI knew[a]you, before you were bornI set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

  • Kingdom - See, today I appoint you over nationsand kingdoms to uprootand tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

His Warnings Chp 7

3This is what theLordAlmighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your waysand your actions, and I will let you livein this place.4Do not trustin deceptivewords and say, “This is the temple of theLord, the temple of theLord, the temple of theLord!”5If you really changeyour ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,6if you do not oppressthe foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent bloodin this place, and if you do not follow other godsto your own harm,7then I will let you live in this place, in the landI gave your ancestorsfor ever and ever.

  • Call to repent
  • Call to follow covenant agreement
  • Failure = loss of Kingdom
  • Kingdom and covenant intertwined (relevance for church)

This passage –Jeremiah’s message of Hope

  • New covenant written on hearts
  • Stone tablet / Stone hearts Ezekiel 36
  • Behold the days are coming –an eschatological promise, future hope
  • The former covenant –Sinai found in Exodus
  • They will know me - an individual aspect to the covenant –doesn’t depend on someone else saying that there is a God
  • Based not on covenant keeping but on forgiveness and restoration by God’s will = GRACE

NT Links

  • New covenant –Jesus Last Supper Lk 22:20 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the newcovenantin my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
  • Moses then took theblood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is thebloodof the covenantthat theLordhas made with you in accordance with all these words.”
  • Circumcise your hearts –Romans 2:29 circumcision is circumcision of the heart,by the Spirit,not by the written code
  • The old covenant relying on circumcision is dead –see Galatians,
  • The salvation trajectory of the Old Covenant is found in Jesus and Jeremiah foreshadows this –see Galatians.
  • Sorry to go on about Galatians but it explains why we are here.
  • But why a new covenant required?
  • The old one is Exod 19:4-6 4‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt,and how I carried you on eagles’wings(link to last week’s sermon!) and brought you to myself.5Now if you obey me fullyand keep my covenant,then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earthis mine,6you[a]will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
  • Tom Wright –Postman too caught up in role forgot to deliver letters
  • Focused on being God’s Holy people at the expense of being His Priests.
  • Cuddled up to God but forgot to tell others, that’s putting it kindly... they were smug about their position and despised everyone else and wanted God to despise them too.
  • So the salvation trajectory is in danger of stalling because the Blessed nation aren’t being a Blessing, the promise to Abraham is coming up short.
  • So the covenant which formalises God’s relationship with the world and is meant to encompass the world has been hijacked
  • God decides on a new covenant not relying on Mosaic law but shortcutting to the individual, not a new Law but Grace forgiveness without you note repentance see v34
  • not a physical circumcision but a circumcision of the heart leading to knowing God

Application

How does this affect us 2015 in St Tim’s?

Changed behaviour after a new heart not to get one.

  • Heart transplant –people having change of personality e.g. beer
  • People don’t have to behave in a certain way to get a heart
  • After they get the new heart their behaviour changes
  • Grace forgives you and then Grace changes your behaviour
  • If you are a Christian you are a member of this new covenant by the forgiveness of your sin

Writing is permanent and unchanging. Heart is not the seat of the emotions but of the mind.

  • Writing 10 commandments on stone tablets –permanence
  • Writing 10 commandments choice to obey or not –act of will
  • Writing the new covenant on the heart is a permanent mark on the will, from where you believe
  • Knowing God by the power of the HS. Eph1 13And you also were included in Christwhen you heard the message of truth,the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal,the promised Holy Spirit,14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritanceuntil the redemptionof those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

The purpose of the new covenant is to put back on track Blessing to all nations

  • So the Abrahamic covenant is that God chooses to bless Abraham to be a blessing
  • The Sinai covenant in Exodus should establish Israel as a nation of priests but after dressing up in the funny outfits and building a lovely house for God they forget the point of it
  • “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. 34No longer will they teachtheir neighbor,or say to one another, ‘Know theLord,’because they will all knowme, from the least of them to the greatest,”
  • So the new covenant deals directly with the believer, no mediation required, no priests, no dressing up, no special buildings so that they can fully know God and so can everyone else.
  • We are the church. Lets not make the same mistake. Draw your own thoughts, please!!
  • We are blessed let’s be a blessing.

Group Questions:

1) What does it mean to you to have God's new covenant of grace written on your heart?

2) How could the church, generally, and then specifically St Tim's, make sure it 'deliver's the letter?'

3) What does 'the letter' say?