Part 10 “A Covenant Relationship With God”
Hebrews 8:6-13
Intro – one of the things I most love to do as a pastor is to stand with a couple at their wedding ceremony and say these words: “I now pronounce you husband and wife” …and to see the smile on the couple’s face and experience the joy of the congregation as people clap and celebrate…(…that is why I am dressed for a wedding today…)
John and Kathy Neufeld did that very thing just about 40 years ago (well, not with me officiating…I would have been 12 years old!) - pictures
-Oct 10 will be the Neufeld’s 40th wedding anniversary…congratulations! P John turns 65 this Friday!
On that day, they no doubt made vows and promises to each other…to be faithful, true, to love, honor and cherish one another…to care for one another during sickness or health…to forsake all others and keep themselves only for each other for the rest of their lives…I’m sure John vowed to play the accordion only when Kathy is not at home…
But what John and Kathy did on that wedding day, was make a covenant with each other…a sacred, relationship covenant that they have kept faithfully all these years…which we honor and respect you for…
…they made more than a legal transaction that day, more than a sincere wish…they didn’t make a conditional contract that day…they made a holy covenant in the sight of God…which I think if properly understood by couples today, would make a profound difference in the permanency of our marriages…
Today we’re going to talk about a covenant…in particular a covenant relationship with God…
…and since we’re not a covenant culture these days…(we don’t think in terms of covenants; we’re more of a contract culture or a legal agreement culture)…the concept can seem foreign and antiquated in today’s world…
The culture of the Bible was a covenant culture…in which covenants were understood and entered into, not always successfully… nevertheless, this is what guided the people during Bible times…
And in our passage today in Heb. 8, the writer contrasts the old covenant between God and His people with the new and better covenant made possible through Jesus Christ…
-let’s read Heb. 8:6-13…(turn there)…in the first part of the chapter the writer is finishing his discussion about the superiority of Jesus’ High Priestly role over that of the OT priests…but in v.6 he introduces the concept of a covenant and shows that the new one, made possible through Jesus, is superior in every way to the old one under the OT law…
Prayer…read…
Definition of Covenant
A binding agreement between two parties that was mutually beneficial.
-in Biblical covenants, often the stronger of the two parties initiated the agreement, with both parties agreeing to responsibilities and consequences if one of them breaks the covenant…
-then the covenant was sealed by some transaction: the exchange of a sandal at the city gate in front of the elders…
…or it was sealed in blood, as in the case of Abraham and God in Gen. 15 where God covenanted to make Abraham into a great nation of people…
…God told Abraham to cut a number of animals in half and arrange them opposite each other in a row…so that the parties can walk between these animals thus signifying that may this same outcome happen to me if I break my part of the covenant…
-I’ve been looking for a couple to allow me to do this at their wedding ceremony… to really signify the covenant nature of marriage…but for some reason I’ve had no takers yet…
The Old and New Covenants
In ch. 8, the writer of Heb. is showing the superiority of the new covenant over the old. And to help us understand the difference, I have prepared a chart that will help us see the contrast:
Old Covenant New Covenant
• a shadow of things to come • the final reality
• meant to be temporary • meant to be permanent
• external standards and rules • internal standards and Spirit
• from the outside in • from the inside out
• written on stone • written on hearts
• obey the rules • serve the Living Christ
• failed agreement by people • faithful agreement by Christ
• continual, repeated sacrifice • completed sacrifice
• forgiveness earned • forgiveness freely given
• based on law • based on grace
• human mediators (priests) • Jesus as Mediator
It’s important that we’re not to too harsh or judgmental about the OT covenant and law; it was given by God for a necessary and good purpose:
• to make people aware of sin
• to point to the necessity of a blood sacrifice to atone for sin – ultimately to Jesus…
• to provide people with a means to receive cleansing from their sin, even if it was temporary
The Old Covenant Today
-it’s easy for us NT Christians to think the OT law has no purpose for today and just outright reject it. But it does have an ongoing purpose.
The 10 commandments, for example, are still standards by which we are called to live…they still reveal the heart of God for the behavior of His holy people in this world…they still serve to set us apart from ungodliness and evil so that God becomes known and honored…mark us as God’s people…
…the only difference is we don’t obey those commandments to become holy and earn God’s righteousness…we obey them because we have been made righteous through Jesus Christ and we want to honor Him with a life that is holy and righteous…you get the idea…
Here’s the point folks: by introducing a new covenant, God is saying that the old one is no longer needed; it is now obsolete. It was fulfilled and completed by Jesus Christ. Old religious systems, old sacrifices, the old priesthood…have no value now in securing God’s approval.
This new covenant is founded on “better promises” (v.6), namely, the promise of Jesus and His perfect life and atoning death. Jesus is the pioneer and mediator of the new covenant between God and His people…
And as the Mediator of this new covenant, Jesus ensures that both parties fulfill their part of the agreement: God the Father will always accept us because of Jesus…and we will be given the internal ability through the Holy Spirit to chose to remain faithful and committed to God for the rest of our lives…
And that brings us to the heart of this passage.
The Heart of the Passage vv.10-11
In vv. 10-11 we get to the heart of the new covenant between God and people…and we discover why it is superior to the old…
…it’s superior because of the internal work of God’s Spirit within us giving us the desire and ability to follow and obey God faithfully our whole life long…
-verses 10-11 are a quote from Jeremiah 31…(listen again to what they say…read…)
To help us understand what is being taught here, look at these parallel passages that shed further light:
Ezek. 36:26
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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
This is God’s promise, not only to His chosen people of Israel, but also to us as God’s people today by virtue of His salvation being freely offered to the Gentile people…
2 Cor. 3:2-3
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Christ’s New Covenant Promises To Us
So, if we were in a wedding ceremony, with Christ as the Groom and we as His people as the bride, and we were entering a covenant relationship with Christ, saying our vows to each other…verses 10 and 11 give us what Christ would vow at the altar. Jesus would promise at least four things to us in His covenant vows. And here they are:
1. I promise you inward change v.10
“I will put My laws in your minds and write them on your hearts…”
-so instead of following Me and obeying Me and serving Me as a begrudging duty…as things we have to do from the outside in…I will give you a new inner desire and willingness and ability and motivation to follow Me…
-isn’t that what we all want folks? Isn’t that how we pray for our children and grandchildren? That instead of needing to be told or forced to follow Jesus (as if that ever works!), they will find a Spirit given, inner reason and desire to do just that.
Phil. 2:12-13 … continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
-let’s keep looking for and praying for inward change that Jesus promises…
2. I promise you personal closeness with God v.10
“I will be your God and you will be My people”.
In this new covenant, Christ promises a closeness and personal relationship with Him that could only be dreamed of by those under the old covenant…the gift of being called His friend (Jn. 15:15), His beloved (Song of Songs 2:16), the one who is united to Christ as one (Phil. 2:1)
Jesus is saying, “I promise a closeness with Me that your heart longs for…that will satisfy all your searching for true love…a love that can heal you from all your hurts…deliver you from all your fears…make you feel valued…”
There is nothing better than feeling close to God…if you’re not feeling close to God, then find out why and deal with it…
God longs to feel close to you…He loves your heart and He promises to take good care of it when you freely give it to Him…
3. I promise you inner knowledge of God v.11
“ you will all know me…”
-this is again contrasting the old system with the new in which the OT priests were the ones who had the knowledge of God and passed it on the people…
-but in the new covenant everyone has direct access to God and is able to be taught by His indwelling Holy Spirit…
-this promise certainly does not mean we no longer need to be taught by human teachers…nor does it mean we should stop saying “Know the Lord” to other people…there are many people who need to be invited to get to know the Lord…
Jesus is promising you a Spirit-given ability to know God; an inner Teacher called the Holy Spirit; the spiritual ability to comprehend biblical truth and wisdom; and to discover how to apply it in real life…
1 John 2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
4. I promise you complete forgiveness v.11
“I will forgive your wickedness and remember your sins no more.”
Lots of us know what it’s like to have people remind us of our past and treat us like the people we used to be…never able to fully trust us or accept us because we’ve got this record of wrongs hanging over our head…
Not so with Jesus…He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve…He doesn’t keep a record of wrongs…as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us…
-because God the Father is pleased with Jesus, He is pleased with us; because our life is now hidden with the righteous Christ, God the Father sees us as righteous…
Christ accepts you fully and without condition…all we have to do is to ask for His forgiveness and then receive it…
And all of that complete forgiveness has been made possible by Jesus’ death on the cross…
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So those are some of the amazing things Jesus promises to you in His new covenant vows…
What Token Do You Give As An Everlasting Symbol?
And then, just like a couple exchanges rings as a sign and symbol of this covenant promise, Jesus gives us the bread and the cup as a sign and symbol of His covenant faithfulness…so that we will remember often what this new covenant relationship is all about…
Let’s wrap this up…and what would be a fitting way to do that? With all this wedding talk ,let’s have a wedding! Perhaps there is a couple here this morning that would like to get married!…come on up…
Our Promises To God
As we wrap this up, let’s ask this question: in light of Jesus’ covenant promises to you, what would you promise to Him in response? What would you vow to Him?
Some of us are hesitant to promise God anything for fear that we’ll somehow mess up and fail to keep our promises and disappoint God or incur His wrath…
Well here’s the truth: we will mess up and fail to keep our promises…we won’t be perfect in our covenant keeping…
-but even if we do, we won’t disappoint God or incur His wrath…
-He won’t treat us like He did the OT people, like v. 9 says, and turn away from us like He did with them when they were unfaithful to the covenant…
2 Tim. 2:13…if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
Please remember that Jesus is entirely faithful to His covenant promises and will never break them…and even if we do, in small ways or large, He will keep loving us and calling us back to Him and not give up on us…
So, what would you promise God as a response to His covenant promises?
It’s a big question, not one that can be answered quickly or taken lightly…
That’s why I asked Lana earlier this week to think about this question and to share her answer with all of us…and she willingly agreed…
-so she’s going to come and do that now, and then lead us in a closing song…
But as she does, I do want you to consider the question, In light of Christ’s covenant promises to us, what would you want to promise Him?
Lana…Song…