New Covenant
Jeffery Anselmi / General
Core 52 / God Promises to Make a New Covenant With the People of Israel / Jeremiah 31:31–34
God promised a new, better covenant with humanity!
INTRODUCTION
- How many times have you been using a product, and then suddenly, the reliable product you have been using has now come out with a "new and improved" version?
- Today, as we enter week 16 of Core 52 and week three of our Hidden Hope mini-series, we will transition to the New Testament.
- Next week will be our final message based on the Old Testament.
- Today, our focus will be on a passage from the book of Jeremiah, a passage of hope.
- A brief account of the historical situation in Jeremiah's day may help us appreciate God's prediction through Jeremiah.
- Jeremiah lived from about 650 BC to 580 BC.
- There was turmoil internationally as three kingdoms vied for world supremacy.
- Assyria had ruled the world for about 300 years (during which time the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken into captivity) but was growing weak.
- Babylon was becoming a world power.
- Egypt, which a thousand years before had been a world power and declined, was again becoming ambitious.
- Babylon became a world power after defeating Assyria at about 610 BC and Egypt at Carchemish in 605 BC.
- From the start of his ministry, twenty years before the political situation became clear, Jeremiah insisted that Babylon would be the victor.
- It was during the reign of Josiah that Jeremiah began his ministry, and he witnessed the revival that occurred when the Law was rediscovered in Josiah's eighteenth year (2 Kings 22:3-8).
- But he saw the spiritual awakening that occurred would not be permanent. It was just a matter of time before the southern kingdom would be punished by being taken captive for 70 years by Babylon.
- It was during the early days of the Babylonian captivity that Jeremiah received the prophecy of the New Covenant, recorded in Jeremiah 31:31ff.
- Speaking through the Prophet, God said that Israel and Judah would return from their captivities.
- Then God would give the suffering nation a New Covenant in which there would be an accomplishment of those things which the Mosaic Covenant was never able to do. (Gareth Reese Hebrews Commentary)
- Here is what Jeremiah began the text with.
Jeremiah 31:31–32 (NET 2nd ed.)
31 “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the LORD.
- Today, we will see how this New Covenant is much better than the old one!
- Let's begin with verse 33.
Jeremiah 31:33 (NET 2nd ed.)
33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the LORD. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.
SERMON
- When something is new, we expect it to be better.
- God made a promise through the Prophet Jeremiah that He was going to make a New Covenant.
- Our message will examine the four ways the New Covenant is better than the Old.
- In verse 33, we see the first way that the New is better than the old!
- The New Covenant allows one to have…
I. A deeper heart for God.
- The language of Jeremiah 31 makes it clear that the Covenant God was replacing was the Old Covenant given through Moses on Mt. Sini.
- Even though generation after generation of people make promises to keep and live by the Old Covenant, neither those who made the promises nor their children did a good job keeping the Covenant.
- I have been reading through the Books of the First and Second Kings and through Judges.
- What a mess!
- From the moment Moses ascended to the top of Mt. Sinai when the people worshiped the golden calf, people have struggled to keep the Law of Moses.
- Why was God going to bring in a New Covenant?
- For over 800 years, the people were constantly guilty of breaking into one in place at the time of Jeremiah.
- Verse 32 bears this thought out.
- In the New Testament book of Hebrews, the Hebrew writer quotes Jeremiah 31:33-34 close to verbatim, in Hebrews 8:8-12.
- I want you to see verses 7-8 from Hebrews 8.
Hebrews 8:7–8 (NET 2nd ed.)
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one.
8 But showing its fault, God says to them, “Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
- The Hebrew writer explains that because of the nature of the Old Covenant, God would usher in the New.
- Verse 10 begins with the word "FOR," indicating that the Hebrew writer understood WHY the New would be better.
- The first way the New would concern an issue of inward knowledge.
- The first promise refers to the incredible truth that people will WANT to do God's will because of a change of their heart.
- Under the Old Covenant, people were taught and explained God's commands, but they had no help obeying them.
- In the area of help, God promised to do something better!
- The indwelling of the Holy Spirit would be available to those under the New Covenant.
2 Corinthians 3:2–3 (NET 2nd ed.)
2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone,
3 revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.
- Paul contrasts the Law written on stone tablets with the Spirit of the living God, who helps us with our inner knowledge.
- When we have the Spirit of God within us and allow the Spirit to work within us, we will begin to be obedient to God, not because some law tells us to, but because we are driven by our heart for God, our love for God!
- The Holy Spirit convicts us through the Word (John 16:8-11; 1 Corinthians 12:13) leading us to want to give our lives to Jesus so that we can be made alive again!
Romans 8:10 (NET 2nd ed.)
10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness.
- Our love for God motivates us to grow in Him, to live for Him, and to want to please Him.
- Let's look at verse 33 again.
Jeremiah 31:33 (NET 2nd ed.)
33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the LORD. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.
- The New Covenant allows one to have…
II. A deeper relationship with God.
- This thought speaks of how we can experience God as our God and be His people.
- Under the Old Covenant, the only ones who could experience this joy were the Jewish people.
- With the New Covenant, both Jews and Gentiles could enjoy being a part of God's family.
- All those in Christ are grafted into the family tree of Abraham.
- You may remember past messages from Core 52, where we talked about having to be a child of Abraham to be able to participate in the promises that God made to Abraham.
- The New Covenant would open the door for that to be possible for all people!
- In the book of Romans, Paul quotes the book of Hosea to bring out this point.
- Peter also builds on the same thought.
Romans 9:25–26 (NET 2nd ed.)
25 As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’ ”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
1 Peter 2:9–10 (NET 2nd ed.)
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- Peter used words that were reserved for the Jewish people and applied them to all who are in Christ!
- Because of the fact that those in Christ would also receive the Holy Spirit, we will be able to have a deeper relationship with God.
- Let'sallows move to verse 34.
Jeremiah 31:34 (NET 2nd ed.)
34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the LORD. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
- The New Covenant allows one to have…
III. A deeper knowledge of God.
- Here, we find the third reason why the New Covenant would be better than the Old.
- Under the New Covenant, people will be able to know the Lord in a far better way than those in the Old Testament who knew Him.
- To be a part of the Old Covenant, one was born into a Covenant relationship by physical birth.
- As children grew, they were taught the tenets of the Covenant they were already physically a part of.
- That did not always go well; hence, God sent Prophets to get people back on track.
- The great thing about the New Covenant was that Jesus showed us God in a way only one who was in a special relationship with God could!
John 14:7–10 (NET 2nd ed.)
7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be content.”
9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds.
- Another thing to understand is that under the New Covenant, one learns about God BEFORE entering into a Covenant relationship with Him.
- Verse 34 does not imply that we learn nothing from others or that we will not need to be taught; it means that we will know Him before we make the choice to follow Him.
- The process of conversion involves first teaching, then acceptance of said teaching, and then birth into the new family through faith, repentance, confession, and baptism.
- The difference we need to grasp between the Old and New Covenant is that in the Old you are born into it, with the New, you must be of an age to willfully apprehend the teaching and make the decision yourself to make the decision.
- No one can choose for you.
- Let's take a final run at verse 34.
Jeremiah 31:34 (NET 2nd ed.)
34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the LORD. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
The New Covenant allows one to have…
IV. A deeper level of forgiveness from God.
- I will keep this brief.
- In the Old Testament, sins were set aside; this was a form of forgiveness, but it was not complete forgiveness.
- Follow me in Hebrews 10:10-18
Hebrews 10:10–18 (NET 2nd ed.)
10 By his will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands day after day serving and offering the same sacrifices again and again—sacrifices that can never take away sins.
12 But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13 where he is now waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy.
15 And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts and I will inscribe them on their minds,”
17 then he says, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no longer.”
18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
- Jesus takes away our sin, and it is no longer remembered!
- Your sin does not hang over your head.
- Jesus takes it away!
CONCLUSION
- I am so glad we are no longer under the Old Covenant!
- We are blessed to have the freedom from sin we have in Jesus!
- Jesus paid the price; He nailed the Old Covenant to the cross when He fulfilled its demands!
- This is yet another reason that Jesus is the only way to get to God!
