OPEN: I recently ran across a “good news” “bad news” joke for preachers:
Good News: You baptized four people down at the river last Sunday
Bad News: You lost 2 others to the river’s current
Good News: You finally found a choir director who did things your way.
Bad News: The choir mutinied
Good news: The Women’s group voted to send you a get-well card.
Bad news: The vote passed 21-20.
Good news: Church attendance rose dramatically the last three weeks.
Bad news: You were on vacation.
Good News: Mrs. Jones is wild about your sermons
Bad News: Mrs. Jones is also wild about the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre."
Good News: The board just accepted 100% the job description just the way you wrote it.
Bad News: They also formed a search committee to find someone to fill the position.
APPLY: Jeremiah has the distinction of being known as the “weeping prophet” and with good reason… it seemed (even to Jeremiah) that all he ever talked about was bad news. At one point Jeremiah cried out: Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction...” (Jeremiah 20:8).
It seemed that every time he opened his mouth he declared judgment and destruction and death.
But here in this part of Jeremiah, all that changes. In this section of his book, Jeremiah is allowed to give a message of hope.
In Jeremiah 30:14 God told Judah: “I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel, because your guilt is so great and your sins so many.”
But then three verses later He declared: “I will restore you to health and heal your wounds… because you are called an outcast...’” Jeremiah 30:17
In fact God promised them: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place. From them will come songs of thanksgiving and the sound of rejoicing. I will add to their numbers, and they will not be decreased; I will bring them honor, and they will not be disdained.” Jeremiah 30:18-19
In the midst of all of these words of encouragement Jeremiah introduces what I believe is perhaps one of the most important statements in all Scripture. You’ll find it in chapter 31:31-35 (REREAD)
God was telling Israel, through the prophet Jeremiah that something new was coming. A new Covenant - or a new contract – that would bring a dramatic change in God’s relationship with His people.
I. When was this New Contract to take effect?
The Book of Hebrews tells us that you and I are living under that contract it right now!
Hebrews 9:15 tells us that “Christ is the mediator of a new covenant… now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”
In other words, when Jesus died on the cross the blood that He shed was His signature on the bottom line of this New contract.
(PICK UP A COMMUNION CUP) In fact, every time you take of communion, Jesus said that you should remember that He paid for this new contract with His blood:
“(Jesus) took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” Luke 22:20
Jeremiah 31 is telling us that God was going to write a New Contract with His people.
It wasn’t going to be like the Old Contract Israel had been living under for more than 1000 yrs.
This was going to be something entirely new
But… now why would God want to write a new contract for His people?
ILLUS: Several years ago, when you bought a house you would have been lucky to get a mortgage rate of 9 to 10%. But then, the interest rates went down and banks began to offer mortgages for about half that.
What did people do? (wait for an answer)
That’s right, a lot of people marched on down to the banks and refinanced their homes. They asked the banks to make out “new contracts” with lower monthly payments for the home owner.
You see… the only reason anyone would ever want a new contract is because it’s better than the old one was.
So also, God’s New Contract was going to be newer and better than the old.
II. But, what made God’s new contract / new covenant/ so much better than the old?
Quite a lot actually.
First God created a new relationship for His people
The Old Contract was something you were born into. If you were born of Jewish parents, you were an Israelite. You were an Israelite because all your family had been Israelites. It wasn’t a choice that you made – it was pretty much made for you.
But to become a Christians is something else again.
You can’t be born “into the church.”
Granted, you CAN be born of Christian parents and be brought to go to church every Sunday of your life. But you can’t be “born” a Christian just because your parents were.
You have to be reborn “of water and of the spirit” (John 3:5).
You have to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
You need to recognize that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness and repent of your sins.
You need confess Jesus is your master, the one who will now run your life.
And you need to be buried in the waters of Christian baptism and rise again to a new life.
No one else can make that decision for you.
But when this happens, when you’ve made that decision, Romans 8:15 tells us we have
“… received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, <"Abba,> Father.”
ILLUS: I have two children. I have a son, age 10 and a daughter age 7. They live in my house, they eat at my table, they watch my TV and sleep in my bedrooms.
Now, there are other children in the neighborhood that come into our house once in while. They can watch my TV, play the computer, eat at our table and even stay overnight… but the next morning – they go home.
Only my children have the right to stay in my house.
Only they have the right to call me father, and daddy.
That’s what Paul was telling us in Romans. He’s saying: “Because we have been adopted into God’s family, we now have the right to call God - Father and Daddy.
But we can’t be born into the Kingdom by being born of Christian parents. We have to make that decision ourselves – it can’t be made for us.
And because of that, God tells us in Jeremiah 31:34,
“No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
You see, the reason we don’t need to be taught to “know God” is because that is one of the basic requirements of belonging to God in this New Covenant.
So, one of the great promises of this NEW covenant is that we’ll have a new personal relationship with God.
Now, in addition to that, we’ve also received a new citizenship.
ILLUS: I am a citizen of the United States of America with all the rights and privileges that go along with it. But now I have a higher citizenship. I belong to the Kingdom of God which is far superior to any human nation or government.
But wait… something is wrong here.
Reread Jeremiah 31:33 “This is the covenant I will make with (whom??) the house of Israel…”
The house of Israel!??
But, I’m not an Israelite! I wasn’t born of Israelite parents. Neither were most of you.
You and I were what people in Jesus’ day would have called Gentiles.
But here in Jeremiah we’re told the Covenant was to be made with Israel, not Gentiles. How can I take part in this New Covenant if I’m not born a “naturalized citizen” of Israel?
TURN TO Ephesians 2:11-20
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men) — remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
What Paul is telling the Ephesians is:
1. Once you were just Gentiles
2. you were separated from Christ
3. excluded from citizenship with Israel
4. foreigners to the covenants
5. without hope
6. AND without God
BUT that’s not true anymore…
“… now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13
AND “… you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. Ephesians 2:19-20
I have a new citizenship. I’m a part of the covenant with Israel because… where I was once “excluded from the citizenship with Israel,” I’m now part of Israel.
God has made good on His promise He prophesied in Ezekiel
“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.” Ezekiel 36:26
Because of this new relationship and new citizenship, I now have a new heart and a new spirit within me. I am a new person.
ILLUS: A man approached a woman in a restaurant. With a broad smile: “Dorothy! It’s so good to see you! I really love what you’ve done with your hair. And your clothes style is really great.
The woman was blushing and she said, “Sir, I think you have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Helen.”
The man paused for a moment and then said, “ho ho – and you’ve changed your name too!”
That was a case of mistaken identity – but with Christ’s blood there no mistake. We are Children of God. We are remade & reborn with a new identity.
As Paul wrote Titus: “(God) saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” Titus 3:5
That’s what it means in Jeremiah 31:34 when it says…
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Hmmm, now wait a minute.
We’ve just got done saying that this new covenant is offering things that the Old Covenant didn’t. Does that mean that under the Old Covenant people’s sins weren’t forgiven?
Well… yes they were forgiven … but no they weren’t.
Hebrews tells us that, under the Old Testament Law, the blood of bulls and goats was required to obtain forgiveness. In Hebrews 9:22 we’re told “the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
But then Hebrews 10:4 declares “…it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
So, did the sacrifices of Old Testament forgive peoples’ sins or didn’t they?
Well, yes… and no
ILLUS: (pull out a Credit card) I took my family out to eat this last week and when the bill came, I gave them this credit card and signed a piece of paper. Tell me, had I paid for my meal? The restaurant thought so. I didn’t have to wash dishes.
But did “I” really pay for my meal? No. I won’t pay for that meal until the end of the month when I receive the bill.
So also, the sacrifices of the Old Testament paid for people’s sins… but the bill came due at the cross. If Jesus hadn’t died on the cross for our sins, all the sacrifices of the Old Testament would have been worthless.
It is because of the blood of Jesus that we have any hope
AND because of the blood of Jesus that the New Covenant has any power
CLOSE: John Wesley was a popular evangelist in early America and often rode from one church to another to preach. On one such journey, outside of Hounslow Heath, he was accosted by a highwayman who shouted, "Halt, your money or your life."
Wesley got down from his horse, emptied his pockets to reveal only a handful of coins. He even invited the robber to search his saddlebags in which he carried his books. In disgust, the thief was turning away when John Wesley cried "Stop, I have something more to give you."
Puzzled, the robber turned back.
Wesley then leaned bent over towards him and said "My friend, you may live to regret this sort of life in which you are engaged . If you ever do, I beseech you to remember this: ’The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanses us from all sin.’"
The robber hurried silently away, and the man of God rode on his way praying for the soul of the criminal.
Years later, at the close of a Sunday evening service, a stranger came forward and begged to speak with John Wesley.
Wesley recognized him as the robber who had sought to rob him so long before, but now the man was a well to do tradesman and better still, a child of God.
Raising Wesley’s hand to his lips the man affectionately kissed it and sad in deep emotion, "To you, dear sir, I owe it all."
Wesley replied softly, "Nay, nay, my friend, not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ which cleanses us from all sin."
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES
· Formed For A Purpose - Jeremiah 1:4-1:10
· Accept No Substitutes - Jeremiah 2:4-2:13
· The Smell of Sin - Jeremiah 5:20-5:25
· If I’ve Got It Why Can’t I Flaunt It? - Jeremiah 9:23-9:24
· The Effect Of Judgment - Jeremiah 10:17-10:25
· Time To Decide - Jeremiah 15:15-15:21
· Planning For The Future. - Jeremiah 29:8-29:14
· A New Hope - Jeremiah 31:31-31:35
· Knowing God’s Phone Number - Jeremiah 33:1-33:3
· You Can’t Tell Some People Anything - Jeremiah 44:1-44:30
