The Promise of a New Covenant

Friends, it's a great delight for me this morning to have been asked by the pastoral team to preach from Hebrews chapter 8.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

I've come to Trinity on and off now for the last seven years. Whenever I'm in town, I come here to church.

It's my spiritual home in the US, so to preach this morning is a great gift to me, and I pray for you as well.

We're reading from Hebrews chapter 8, and I'll read from verse 1 to give us some context, though the sermon will be on the second half.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

So from Hebrews chapter 8, verse 1.

Hebrews 8:1

Now the point in what we are saying is this.

We do have such a high priest.

Now if he were on earth, he wouldn't be a priest at all.

Since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law, they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.

For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying,

See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better,

since it's enacted on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there wouldn't have been occasion to look for a second.

For he finds fault with them when he says,

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

For they didn't continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach, each one his neighbour and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord.

For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.

And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

So let me pray.

Our gracious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, please this morning wing these words to the deepest places of our lives.

Please give us gifts that we're not expecting.

Please surprise us with thoughts which are from you.

Please may we learn this morning how to be your people in this world.

For Jesus' sake.

Amen.

We all yearn for something bigger.

We all try to connect to something bigger than ourselves.

It's like the cinema in Melbourne where I live, which has been shaped like an Egyptian temple.

Now, I think it's probably not like an Egyptian temple, actually, but there was an architect who was probably cheap on the day,

and he made a movie house that is as good as he thought an Egyptian temple should be.

You arrive and there are carvings of gods above the door.

You walk through the long passageway and there are icons of movie stars leading you to the actual cinema.

And, of course, when you get into the cinema, it goes dark and you're connected into a story much bigger than yourself.

If it's not movies for you, perhaps it's that you like buying your coffee at Blue State and getting those wooden tokens and putting them in the jar afterwards and supporting some local cause.

Or perhaps you think if you drink enough coffee you'll be able to alleviate world poverty.

At least they know, selling us the coffee, that you want to buy into something bigger.

Or you can buy pairs of glasses, which the companies give half of what you're spending to some worthy cause.

The glasses are probably overpriced in the first place, but at least they know you want to buy into something big.

Or it might be sporting fixtures, attending a football game with thousands and thousands of others screaming around you.

The closest I get to that is turning up to a cricket match with 100,000 others each summer and turning up five days in a row with nothing happening.

It's just brilliant.

We want to connect into something bigger.

It's part of the way we are as human beings.

And I know as we've been reading through the book of Hebrews, the language is foreign.

The details are odd.

We've learned of priests and sacrifices, sabbaths, angels, blood, covenants.

But effectively, in the end, though, this isn't the vocabulary we might choose to use day by day.

The big theme of the book of Hebrews is this is the way you connect into something bigger.

This is how you ought to worship.

This is the way we're introduced to the transcendent, the eternal, the universal, the perfect, the things that make life worth living.

The book of Hebrews is teaching us how to connect into something big.

And as we heard last week, we have a great high priest seated at the right hand of God, ministering in the holy places.

Even today, we are connected into the heartbeat of the universe at this very moment because, friends, we have a great high priest.

We all need a great high priest.

Everyone in the room today needs a great high priest.

And the wonderful, bold claim of Christian faith is that we have been given a great high priest in the person of Christ.

But not everyone hearing these words from Hebrews 8 first read would have been entirely happy.

For the first Hebrews who read this letter or who had it read to them loved their covenant.

They had a God who had made a deal with them, who had handed down his law to his people, who gave order to the life of the nation, who gave them a constitution.

And not only was this God giving to his people a gift of the law, God himself was committing to live by it himself.

To be predictable.

If you obey me, this will be the blessing.

If you disobey me, this will be the curse.

So when the first hearers were presented with this text, which reminds them from the prophet Jeremiah that God will establish a new covenant.

Indeed, has established a new covenant through the Lord Jesus.

You can imagine there's some muttering in church.

What's been wrong with the way we've been living?

Don't we have a special relationship with God anymore?

Has God changed his mind about what he wants to do in the world?

We're God's chosen nation.

Surely we're God's treasured possession.

We're the apple of his eye.

How can he do this to us, pulling the rug out from under our feet?

This new covenant that the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 8 describes wouldn't necessarily have been heard with overwhelming joy by many of its first hearers.

But the writer points out that we've needed, or the people of God needed a new covenant because the first covenant had been faulty.

There was something about it that didn't yet achieve God's purposes, according to verse 7.

Indeed, verse 8, he finds that his God finds fault with them when he says.

The old covenant wasn't perfect because it couldn't make people perfect.

It gave those who were following no power.

It gave them a path for living, but not yet the power to live it out.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I'll establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

God had certainly taken the initiative.

God had certainly reached out compassionately his hand.

God had certainly taken them out of the grip of Pharaoh and brought them through the Red Sea into the promised land.

Certainly God had shown his great love and compassion.

But we read on in verse 9.

But they didn't continue in my covenant, so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.

Though God gave the lead, the people didn't follow.

And so they were punished, as we heard would be the condition in Jeremiah 7.

Indeed, in verse 13, more explicitly, the writer says, in speaking of a new covenant,

God makes the first one obsolete.

And what's becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

There's no clearer verse describing the relationship between the old and the new.

But please, please recognise that it's not because the first covenant was bad workmanship or a wrong plan.

It was the right plan, but just the first phase of production.

The old covenant wasn't God's mistake.

It was God's beginning to renovate the world.

A few years ago, there was a Rembrandt exhibit in Melbourne, where I live.

And as you walked in the door of the gallery, there were some Rembrandt charcoal sketches.

Glorious in themselves.

The figure of Jeremiah, or the figure of Peter, or the figure of Paul.

And looking as you came in the door at these wonderful outlines,

you were already taken by the expression on the face or the posture,

the mood of the person being depicted.

But so cleverly, the curators of the exhibit,

after you walked past the charcoal sketches,

you saw the actual portraits in full colour,

three times larger, hanging on the wall.

Rembrandt wasn't mistaken by first sketching a charcoal outline of his painting of Jeremiah.

It wasn't in error that he did that.

In fact, he had to do that first,

in order that he had a better sense of how he might then construct

the full-blown, full colour, large portrait with all its detail.

You see, the covenant has built-in obsolescence.

The old covenant is the sketch.

The new covenant is what was planned from the outset.

The full-blown, three-dimensional, glorious gift

that the old covenant just in some small way pointed to.

And we get, living in a consumer society,

that built-in obsolescence is part of the way marketers do their work.

I'm told, though you might be able to correct me,

that Apple computers, the icon of our age,

actually are designed with built-in obsolescence.

Because we want to choose cheap and light,

they make the circuitry in a way that responds to our demands,

though, of course, we know that if you get five years out of your laptop,

you're doing well.

Light bulbs have built-in obsolescence,

so they could design them to last forever,

or at least for a longer time.

No, they're built in such a way that we will buy a new one when it blows.

The pair of shoes I'm wearing I bought just three months ago in the US,

and already the soles are worn down.

The leather uppers are fine,

but the shoe manufacturers know that they don't want me to have these shoes too long,

or at least they want me to buy another pair.

They all have built-in obsolescence.

They're designed to last a certain time

and then to give over to the better model.

But lots of Christians find this very difficult to believe.

I was on a committee a few years ago with a Roman Catholic nun,

and she placed the argument in the room

that all religions are basically the same,

that really Jews are Christians,

though they don't know they're really Christians.

Muslims are Christians,

though they don't really know they're Christians.

Christians.

I was horrified by her call,

the argument she was mounting.

One, it's pretty arrogant to tell to a Jewish neighbour,

a Muslim neighbour,

that they're really ignorant

and they don't know that they're worshipping Jesus.

I think that's just pure imperialism.

But more than that,

she hadn't recognised from Hebrews chapter 8

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

that it's the Jewish prophet Jeremiah himself

who says that the covenant will one day be obsolete.

It's not like it's a Christian saying to a Jew

that the covenant is inadequate.

No, it's one of the greatest Jewish prophets of all time

who's making this call.

And, of course, you could turn to Ezekiel 36

for the same kind of argument,

that God one day will put a new heart within the people,

a new heart that wasn't achieved under the old law.

The Old Testament has within it built in obsolescence.

It came home to me starkly a few years ago

when I did a tour of the Holy Land of Israel and Palestine.

Our tour leader, whose name was Anani,

had been a Jew but was converted to Christ.

He was a Messianic Jew.

This is his story.

It's quite remarkable.

He was reading the law, Exodus and Deuteronomy,

which describes how a servant could choose to live

in the household of his master,

even after his freedom has been granted,

by allowing an awl, a sharp metal object,

to be pierced through the lobe of his ear

against the frame of the door.

And Anani was reading these texts in the law

and had no idea what it could mean

that a servant's ear might be pierced with an awl.

So he decided he had to read on

and he read beyond the law

and got to the end of the Old Testament scriptures

and he was still frustrated.

He still hadn't found what the point of this law was.

And so in a moment that could only be described

as inspired by God,

he decided that he had to read the Christian scriptures as well

and see if they provided some resolution to his question.

And he did.

And he became a Christian.

He read on and discovered the climax of the story.

Indeed, from Hebrews in the early chapters,

I think it's chapter two,

that Christ was a servant over all the household of God,

unlike Moses,

finding their understanding of what it might mean

that the awl pierced the servant's ear.

Friends, we ought to be praying

for our Jewish friends and neighbours

to read on in the story

and discover its climax.

But it's not just that God has big plans for the world

and the language of covenant,

the conceptuality of covenant,

is part of that package describing God's great purposes.

It's not just that God has a great plan,

a big plan,

it's that God's big plan

is also about the depths of my heart.

It's not just that God's plan is big for the whole world,

it's that God's big plan for the whole world

is anchored in me.

For this is the covenant I will make

with the house of Israel after those days,

declares the Lord.

I will put my laws into their minds,

I will write them on their hearts

and I will be their God

and they shall be my people.

It's not merely that God wants to work in history,

he wants to work in you.

In our hearts, in our minds,

writing our law there,

living there,

just like God lived in the Holy of Holies

above the tablets of the law.

God wants to get in,

God wants to get close,

God wants to get intimate,

God wants to get personal with me.

I will be their God

and they shall be my people,

he says,

drawing on some phrases

which are scattered throughout the Old Testament.

There's only really one covenant,

a relationship with the Lord.

But this new phase of the covenant

sees God getting really, really close.

And they shall not teach,

each one his neighbour

and each one his brother,

saying,

know the Lord,

for they shall all know me

from the least of them to the greatest.

And this new heart knowledge of God

is not merely an understanding of law.

This new heart understanding of God

is not something academic presented to our ears,

but it's personal experience of God

in our hearts for everyone

from the least to the greatest,

such that there'll be no need

of an elite class of people

to do the teaching.

Indeed,

the book of Hebrews

is itself teaching us.

The writer to the Hebrews

is himself

explaining and teaching.

He doesn't think that

there's going to become a day

when you don't need people

giving sermons

or leading discussions.

It's just that

in that day,

everyone has a responsibility

together

of making sure

that God's word

is heard and obeyed.

there's no elite priesthood

anymore.

Everyone can know God.

And in a sense,

in our age,

we hear this language

of intimacy

and closeness

and most of us

feel encouraged.

We live in a world

where close connections

are desired.

But just remember

that for those

hearing Jeremiah

speak these words

for the first time

or the writer to the Hebrews

speaking them later,

they felt differently

about closeness

than we might.

We kind of like

the thought of intimacy.

But in the Old Testament,

intimacy with God,

closeness with God

was very,

very dangerous.

They'd remember Uzzah

who touched the ark

of the covenant

when he stumbled

and died.

Or they might remember

Nadab and Abihu

who offered

unauthorized fire

in the temple,

in the tabernacle,

I beg your pardon,

in Leviticus 10

and were consumed.

No, you can't get

too close to God.

Getting close to God

is dangerous.

Our God

is a consuming fire.

Yet the promise

is closeness.

How can we have

closeness

and safety?

Well, the prophet

explains it in verse 12.

For I will be merciful

towards their iniquities

and I will remember

their sins

no more.

I will be merciful

towards their iniquities.

I will remember

their sins

no more,

says the Lord.

God

comes close

and it's safe

for God

to come close

because he's made

a promise

under the new covenant

that when he comes close,

he will always

forgive our sins.

He will always

show his mercy

towards our iniquity.

He will never

remember our sins

and hold them

against us.

Our conscience

is cleansed

as the writer

of the Hebrews

says in a number

of other places.

We're washed.

Sin's not remembered.

It's wiped.

When Christ

died on the cross,

he called out,

it is finished.

Tetelestai.

Tetelestai

being the word

that you stamped

on contracts

in the ancient world

meaning paid

in full.

Sin has gone.

It's been dealt

with.

It will not be

remembered

by the Lord.

God.

Now this

imagery

of being

washed,

cleansed

in our conscience

in the deepest

part of our life

is for me

such an important

and passionately

held belief.

I didn't grow up

in a Christian home.

My parents

were God

fearers

but they

weren't

Jesus

believers.

It was first

at high school

I was 13

I think

13 or 14

when I was

introduced

to Christ.

It was a

lunchtime

Bible discussion

and a video

was being played.

In fact

it wasn't a video

because we didn't

have videos then

but it was a

reel-to-reel

Super 8 movie

if that means

anything to anyone.

And a magician

took

a dirty

cylinder

and placed

over the top

of it

a scarlet

blood-coloured

cylinder

and then

removed

the outer

cylinder

and the

internal

cylinder

was

white as

snow.

And he

explained

that's what

happened

when Christ

died.

You were

made

white.

You were

made clean

on the

inside.

Now no one

had ever

explained that

to me.

Why had no

one ever

explained that?

I knew that

Christ had

died because

I'd seen

people wearing

crosses around

their neck

with a man

on it.

But no one

had ever

explained to

me why

Christ

died.

To make

me clean

in the

deepest

parts of

my life.

So I

went home

that night

and knelt

by my

bedside

and prayed

that Christ

would wash

me on the

inside.

And I

became a

Christian.

Oh happy

day, oh

happy day,

you washed

my sin

away.

Oh happy

day, I

will never

be the same

forever I

am changed.

When I

stand in

that place

free at

last, meeting

face to

face, I

am yours,

Jesus, you

are mine.

What a

glorious day,

what a

glorious way,

what a

glorious name.

Oh happy

day.

It's why I

describe myself

as an

evangelical

Christian.

For

evangelical

Christians in

the last few

hundred years

have worked

really hard to

keep reminding

the church

that the

internal life,

the life of

our heart,

must be

addressed and

protected.

We aspire to

godliness with

power,

not merely

trusting in

outward forms

or outward

religion.

We have

been washed

and forgiven

so that we

are no longer

merely observers

at a cricket

match or

observers at

the movies.

Friends, we

are no longer

observers, we

are participants.

We are

deeply connected

to the life of

God now and

forever.

But too

often, you

and I and

people we

meet are

content with

just watching

the world,

observing life

go by.

But we've

actually not

been invited

just to stay

on the

sidelines

watching the

game.

We've been

invited down

onto the

victory lap

with the

team that

we've been

supporting.

We might

not have

ourselves

contributed to

the victory,

but the

victory having

been won.

We're

invited to

participate

with the

team and

enjoy the

great glory

that comes

with being

connected to

Christ.

God's big

plan for the

universe will

succeed, but

God's big

plan for the

universe involves

your heart.

Intimately,

gently,

deeply,

satisfyingly,

wholly.

decide today

to be a

new covenant

believer.

Decide

today to

be a new

covenant

believer.

For it's a

glorious life.

It's a

glorious life

living in

this way.

for if you

belong to

the new

covenant,

if you

have placed

your trust

in that

great high

priest,

if that

great high

priest has

written his

law in

your mind

and in

your heart,

you are

free.

It's quite

extraordinary

that when

Paul describes

the new

covenant in

2 Corinthians

3,

it's the

freedom

language he

turns to.

I think

I should

read it.

Paul writes

in 2

Corinthians

3,

6,

God has

made us

sufficient to

be ministers

of a new

covenant,

not of the

letter of

the spirit,

for the

letter kills,

but the

spirit gives

life.

Reading on

from verse

7,

now if the

ministry of

death carved

in letters

on stone came

with such

glory that the

Israelites

couldn't gaze

at Moses'

face,

because of

its glory

which was

being brought

to an end,

will not the

ministry of

the spirit

have even

more glory?

For if there

was glory in

the ministry

of condemnation,

the ministry

of righteousness

must far

exceed it in

glory.

Indeed,

in this case,

what once had

glory has come

to have no

glory at all

because of the

glory that

surpasses it.

For if what

was being brought

to an end

came with glory,

how much more

will what is

permanent have

glory?

glory.

And from

verse 17,

now the

Lord is the

spirit,

and where the

spirit of the

Lord is,

there is

freedom.

Important,

isn't it,

that Paul,

when describing

the ministry

of the new

covenant,

has to conclude

with a description

of the freedom

that we enjoy

belonging to

the new

covenant.

covenant.

And Paul,

as well,

if you go to

Romans 8,

describes our

life,

no condemnation

for those in

Christ because

we've been set

free from the

law of sin

and death,

free from

external temples,

for we are the

temple,

free from an

elite priesthood

because we have

a great high

priest,

free from sin

because we have

a sacrifice who

has been enough.

friends,

we are free.

Of course,

the alternative

is slavery

and despair.

But the new

covenant wants

to spare us

that great

evil.

But we're not

just free,

we're also

therefore

bold.

We're bold

because we're

free.

We're bold

to approach

the throne

of grace.

We're bold

to come to

God.

We're bold

to come even

to God's

table this

morning.

We're bold

because look

at all the

things that

God has done.

He says in

this passage,

I will make

this covenant.

I will engrave

my laws.

I will be

their God.

I will teach

them all.

I will make

myself known

to the least

and to the

greatest.

I will be

merciful.

I will forget

their sins.

If God has

done all that,

what is

holding us

back?

For if one

of the great

distractions of

the Christian

life is

despair

because of

slavery,

another great

distraction in

the Christian

life is

panic

because of

timidity.

humility.

When we

panic, we

stumble.

When we

panic, we

don't keep

our eye on

the goal.

When we

panic, we

express our

fear that

there's something

bigger than

God in this

world.

Please,

friends, don't

pretend that

your timidity,

sorry, don't

pretend that

your humility,

no, I've got it

right the first

time.

Please don't

pretend that your

timidity is

really just

humility.

humility is

one thing, but

being fearful

and timid is

quite another.

We are

free, we're

free to be

bold, confident

to come to

God in full

assurance of

faith without

wavering to

find the life

that's worth

living.

And

indeed, by

taking the

bread and the

wine this

morning, you

can enjoy

the closeness

of God.

For Christ

said, this

cup that is

poured out for

you is the

new covenant

in my

blood.

Bold by

the blood.

Bold by

the blood.

Bold by

the blood.

blood.

This is

the message

of Hebrews

8.

Amen.