COURAGE TO STAND IN A FALLEN WORLD

“The New Covenant”

Pastor Duane Cross | 03.24.2013

“’The time is coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah... I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people... For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’”

Jeremiah 31:31, 33b, 34b

THE OLD COVENANT

Adam: a covenant of obedience

Noah: a covenant of safety

Abraham: a covenant of destiny

“This is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations... I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you.” Genesis 17:4, 7

Moses: a covenant of freedom

“The covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.” Jeremiah 31:32

“They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them.” Jeremiah 31:32

“Instead , everyone will die for his own sin; whoever eats sour grapes-his own teeth will be set on edge.” Jeremiah 31:30

THE NEW COVENANT

1) The New Covenant holds the promise of reconciliation

“The time is coming, ‘declares the Lord,’ when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.’” Jeremiah 31:31

“’In those days at that time, ‘declares the Lord,’ the people of Israel and the people of Judah together will go in tears to seek the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.’”

Jeremiah 50:4-5

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:28

2) The New Covenant is a promise of regeneration

“’This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.’”

Jeremiah 31:33

3) The New Covenant is eternal

“I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” Exodus 6:7

“My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Song 2:16a

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

GOING DEEPER QUESTIONS

For the Week of March 24, 2013

Pastor Duane Cross

These questions are designed to help you go deeper with the sermon during your week-to take a closer look at the Scripture and find fresh ways to live out the main points of the sermon. Going Deeper questions also are used for discussion in all of our Grow Groups at Hope.

Scripture Reading

Genesis 17:4-7; Jeremiah 21-31

Getting Started

What insight or principle from this weekend’s message or from Jeremiah 21-31 did you find helpful, interesting or challenging? Explain.

Do you consider yourself “Old School” or “New School”? Why do many prefer the “old ways” they grew up with to the “new ways”of today?

What is the difference between a contract and a covenant? Why are covenant’s such a foreign concept in our culture?

Do you believe the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament? Why or why not?

A Closer Look

Throughout history God enters into relationships through covenants-God makes covenants with Noah, Abraham, Israel, David, and the Church. Why? What is the purpose of these covenants? How are they different and similar?

Read Jeremiah 31:30-35. In this passage the prophet is giving Israel hope after the exile. God says he will bring Israel back from captivity (v. 13) and offer them (and by extension the world) hope, consolation and salvation.

•How does God’s long-term plans (i.e. salvation) help throw light on his short-term judgements (i.e. Babylonian exile)?

•What will be God’s new way of relating to his people?

•What will happen to God’s people’s sin?

•How is this prophecy fulfilled with Christ’s New Covenant? (see Hebrews 8)

Read Galatians 3:19-25

•What was the purpose of the Old Covenant Law?

•What could the law never do? Why was it so difficult to obey?

•How were the ceremonial (e.g. sacrifices) and civil (e.g. citizen laws) and

moral (e.g. Ten Commandments) parts of the law fulfilled in Christ?

How do they apply to us? (see Matthew 5:17-19)

Digging Deeper

Pastor Duane said that the New Covenant is “eternal” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). What does that mean to you?

How can you view the law through the “lens of Jesus” and obey it today? How is it transformed and filled out by the “law of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:21) we find in the New Testament?

What is one or two New Covenant promises from Jeremiah 31 that you will reflect on and praise God for this week?