What it means to live under the New Covenant

This evening I want to do four things:

1. Describe what a covenant is
2. Talk about the Old Covenant
3. Explain the New Covenant
   • As I we are going through this I want to talk about how this affects our lives

1. What is a Covenant?

• a relationship (often friendship or family), not merely a legal contract.
  • today we have legal contracts, enforced by putting our signature on the bottom (e.g. DirectBuy)
  • the only things in our society which are like covenants are marriages and adoptions
  • even they are not quite the same as a covenant
  • We are going to read a passage from Genesis in a moment about God making a covenant with Abraham
  • Before we read this passage, it might seem strange to you, but this was the common way of doing things when you made a covenant.
  • In ancient times, suppose a king went to war against another king of a smaller nation
    • after a time the king surrendered
    • The two kings would often make an agreement
    • I will promise to pay you tribute of 1000 talents of gold every year
    • I promise to be loyal to you
    • The big king would promise to defend the small king against attackers
    • Then they would cut some animals in pieces and the two of them would walk between the pieces
  • What do you think the walking between the cut up animals symbolized?
  • We see a mention of this in Jeremiah 38:13-20 Where God is going to punish them for breaking the covenant by causing them to die like the animals.
• Abram & the smoking torch Follow along in Genesis 15
  • [enact role-play by cutting up transparencies]
  • Pictures of animals used in the Genesis 15 covenant
  • Note that this was a special covenant with Abraham, not what we call the Old Covenant or the New Covenant
  • read passage
  • why does only God go between the pieces (not dependent on Abraham)
• so this is what a covenant is:
  • very serious affair: life and death
  • not just a legal agreement, but brings two people into a relationship
• The covenant we have just read about was the original covenant with Abraham
  • It was a picture of the New Covenant, as I will explain in a minute

2. The Old Covenant

• God made a covenant with the whole nation of Israel in Old Testament times
• He gave them a lot of laws and commandments
  • If they kept them, then he would give them
    • financial blessing
    • health and long life
    • lots of children
  • If then broke them then
    • He would punish them
    • He would take away all the good things
    • Ultimately the nation would be destroyed
• It was all based on their performance
• It was mostly external
  • (this is an oversimplification because mixed in with these laws were promises of a new covenant)
• What does it mean to be living under the Old Covenant?
  • They related to God as an authority figure
    • who would judge them if they failed
    • The Jews would never call God “Abba” (daddy)
    • Blessings and cursings: Deut 27, 28, 29, 30 (e.g. 28:1-2 & 28:15)
  • in fact, it was impossible for them to completely keep all the laws
  • God was actually very patient with them
  • but in the end the whole nation rebelled against God and all the curses came upon them

3. The New Covenant

• Hebrews 8:6-13 (quoted from Jeremiah 31:31-34)
  • Four promises (see overhead)

A. God’s law written on our hearts

• In Galatians Paul tells us that no matter how many laws you make, it can’t change the heart.
  • Just imagine that the government passed a law that everyone must love each other—no more hate!
• But the Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives: [Gal 5:22-23]
  • “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
• However, it is not just that we have a new heart, the old one has been removed
  • we have had a heart-transplant—we don’t have to carry on with our old lifestyle
    • [get volunteers to demonstrate a heart transplant using a large stone, bag of wheat (& pen), and scalpel]
  • we are free to serve Christ
  • Recently I saw a trapped butterfly, under a piece of glass on our deck.
    • If you throw a caterpillar up in the air and say “fly! fly!”, it won’t work
    • but a butterfly naturally flies (unless it is trapped, and there are things that can ensnare us but that is another subject)
• Relationship to the law
  • Moses brought the 10 commandments
  • How many commandments did Jesus give?
    • Someone has cataloged the commands in the N.T. and come up with 1,050 !!
    • Did Jesus have a higher standard?
    • So do we end up replacing the OT laws with more and harder laws?
  • Some teach that Jesus just gave us some more commands to add on to Moses, but that is a total misunderstanding
  • The replacement for the law is not a new law, but a person, Jesus himself!!!!
  • He says “follow me”, do what I do, think how I think, love others like I love others
    • Moses never said “follow me”!!
  • Goes far beyond a written list of rules
  • Can we do it ?
    • Not in our own strength, but Jesus is actually living in us through the Spirit.
      • Moses never said “I will come and live in you!”
    • We are united with him
    • he has defeated the power of sin and he is living within us
  • e.g. girl who was recently saved. Her family started hostile, but stopped being antagonistic within days when they saw her change of life, and eventually were saved.
    • It wasn’t that she now had more laws to obey!!
  • lovers outperform servants
• So what does this mean in practice?
  • Two ways of thinking: old heart (legal) or new heart:
  • Here is a key idea: what has changed is not the law
    • but our relationship to the law
  • How does this make a difference in my life and your life on Monday morning?
  • Sam Storms Story
  • Me cleaning up after lunch yesterday
  • Another practical example:
    • Law says “Thou shalt not steal”
    • It is so easy on your income tax, if you are self-employed, to “forget” some of your income
    • It totaly changes things if you think
      • “it’s his money
      • “It will bring joy to his heart if he sees me being honest with it”
      • “He can so easily bring me more anyway”
    • This takes all the resentment away
  • Another example from the workplace I heard about recently
    • woman who was about to be disciplined for messing up her work
      • was probably going to lose her job
    • boss was a Christian and took the blame: “I should have given her better training”
      • She heard about it and went to him and said, “No, it was my fault”
      • He said, I’m a follower of Jesus and he says good leadership is servanthood
        • I failed to serve you in this
    • She was so impacted she ended up getting saved (and keeping her job)
• Let me ask you a question
  • Could we run the country like this: not by laws but by grace
    • no speed limits, just tell people to drive in a way that would please Jesus?
  • (He is not in their hearts)
  • What about our children—can we run a family like this?
    • Do we need rules in a home?
    • Need to model grace as much as we can
      • Chris Mc’s daughter —ice cream Sundae
    • some books on bringing up children are pure behaviourism
• If there is one thing to remember it is this:

  It is not the law that has changed, but our relationship to the law

  • Story of the maidservant (get a couple up)

B. We belong to him and he belongs to us

• The essence of the New Covenant:
  • brought into God’s family
  • we were enemies, in rebellion. Now we are brought into his family
  • He is “ours”, in a sense he belongs to us as a possession, and we belong to him
  • This is like love language, isn’t it:
    • “I am my beloved’s and my beloved’s mine” [SongSol 6:3]
  • secure!!!
• Three pictures or aspects of this relationship in the New Testament:
  1. Servants (Paul calls himself a “bondslave of Jesus Christ”)
  2. Children / Father (Adopted as “sons”)
     • Jesus taught us to call the father “Abba”
     • The Spirit puts that cry into us [Rom 8:1]
  3. Bride / Bridegroom
  • A marriage is probably the closest thing we have today to a covenant (we don’t usually do the parts with the blood)
    • Our wedding rings are the seals (get Anne to hold her hand up)
    • What do they symbolize (all that is mine is yours)
    • What is the seal of the New Covenant? (The Spirit e.g. Eph. 4:30)
      • That is why it is so important that we experience being filled in a tangible way
• How does this affect us on a Monday morning?
  • It is so important that we regularly have a tangible touch from God
  • Daily devotions can become a chore, a duty
  • But think of it like this: Imaging a wedding ceremony
    • (Get a couple up)
    • Duty of spending at least 10 mins a day talking to him!
    • Must kiss him at least once a day!
  • But what if I never touch my wife or kiss her?
    • So, back to Monday: regular times with God are not chore, they are the life-blood of the relationship
• I think the most important element of this part of the N.C. is that it is unshakable
  • Think of God going between the animals
  • Not dependent on our feelings
  • Whole point of the book of Hebrews is “better promises”
  • This is what we can hang onto in the storms of life
    • “an anchor within the veil”
• Anxiety issues:
  • Witnessing to a lady
  • “If God has infinite power... and he loves me... they what is there to worry about”

C. We can all hear God for ourselves and don’t need to be totally dependent on “priests”

• God still gives teachers to his people, but they are to be listened to with discernment
• Since we have the Spirit, we can discern truth from error
• There is a fundamental difference between the O.T. prophet and the N.T. prophet
  • They spoke into a community who didn’t have the Spirit in the same way we do and so could not weigh their words
  • Most people couldn’t read anyway
  • Totally dependent on the priests to speak the truth
    • (That is why it was so serious when O.T. prophets spoke falsehood)
  • In the N.C. we all have a responsibility to test what we here
  • Not just from prophets, but from teachers as well
• The Bible is our primary authority, but we can all read it for ourselves!
• In O.T. times if someone wanted to know God’s will, they had to go to a prophet,
  • Even David did (Ziklag)
  • but in the New Covenant, Jesus says “my sheep hear my voice”
• This is a responsibility that many of us would rather not have
  • It is much easier to have a priest who will tell you the answer to every question
    • Tell you how to live without you having to think it out yourself
  • This is how cults get going
  • Something in us wants to follow a leader
• Christ is our leader—he leads us all directly
  • This gives us encouragement
  • “I thought something was not quite right, but I never liked to question the leader”
  • You are empowered to disern the truth
• But of course leaders should be honoured—they are gifts to the church

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