Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Hebrews 8:6-13
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date: March 29, 2018

Advertisers love to use words like “better,” or “new and improved,” to entice people into purchasing their products. The problem is that the promise doesn’t always pan out. The new isn’t always better or improved. Thankfully, that isn’t the case with the new covenant that God promised through the prophet Jeremiah—the covenant Jesus spoke of when he instituted the Lord’s Supper. On this Maundy Thursday, we again see Jesus as our Great High Priest. We see him establishing this new covenant, a covenant that is better and stronger and smarter than the old covenant.

The writer to the Hebrews says, “Jesus has obtained a ministry that is as much superior as the covenant that he mediates is better, because it has been established on the basis of better promises.” The first covenant that the writer hints at is the covenant God made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. God had just delivered the people out of slavery in Egypt. He gathered them at the foot of Mt. Sinai and promised that if they obeyed him, they would always be his special people and always dwell in the Promised Land of Canaan. Through Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, God laid out the Ten Commandments, the civil and ceremonial laws, which regulated every aspect of their lives—civil, social, and religious. The Israelites heard God’s terms and they agreed saying, “We will do everything the Lᴏʀᴅ has said; we will obey.” So the agreement was made and the covenant was put into effect using blood. Bulls were slaughtered, their blood was gathered, and some of the blood was splashed against the altar of the Lord and the rest was sprinkled on the people. As he sprinkled the blood of the bulls on the people, Moses said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lᴏʀᴅ has made with you in accordance with all these words.” The agreement was sealed, put into effect with blood.

But within days, the Israelites had broken the covenant. They worshiped the golden calf. The author of Hebrews quotes from Jeremiah 31 where the Lord says, “They did not remember by covenant.” Though he had every right to, God didn’t wipe out Israel or his covenant with them. He remained faithful to his promises and even more, the promised to make a new covenant with them. This new covenant would be different. The writer again quotes Jeremiah, “It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers at the time when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.” The new covenant would be different, indeed it would be better than the old covenant? Why? “The covenant that he mediates is better, because it has been established on the basis of better promises.”

That was the problem with the old covenant. It had promises—promises that Israel would always live in the land of Canaan and would always be God’s special people—but those promises were conditional. Those promises required obedience from the Israelites. God said, “If.” If you obey me you will be my people and live in Canaan forever.” But the Israelites couldn’t hold up their end of the covenant. They were sinful people; they broke God’s covenant by their sins. So God promised a new covenant, new in the sense that it was different. It would have better promises, unconditional promises. God said, “For I will be merciful in regard to their unrighteousness, and I will not remember their sins any longer.” That’s what makes the new covenant better than the old one. It’s based on better promises; sins are forgiven and forgotten for Christ’s sake without condition.

As we look at the covenant God made with Israel at Mt. Sinai, we must never lose sight of the promise of a Savior given in the Garden of Eden. That promise, repeated to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, was not replaced by the covenant on Mt. Sinai. No, the covenant was added as a temporary measure. It has added to safeguard the children of Israel, to protect that promise of a Savior, and to show them just how much they needed that Savior. The old covenant foreshadowed the ministry of Christ through the sacrifices and work of the priests, but that’s all it ever was…a shadow. We have the reality.

Tonight, we see how God put his new covenant into effect. As Jesus took the cup of wine and gave it to his disciples, he said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus became the mediator of the better covenant, the new covenant of forgiveness of sins, by offering himself on the cross for the sins of the world. By his blood, he has remove the sins that separated us from God. Because he died bearing the sins of the whole world, God can unconditionally promise the whole world of sinners, “Your sins are forgiven. My son has paid your debt and removed your guilt. God brought is into that covenant when he brought us to faith through Baptism, and he remains faithful to us and his promises. But, as we know so well, we are not always faithful to him. Like the Israelites of old, we find other gods to place first in our lives. We take his goodness for granted and grumble against him. Yet, in mercy, God shows us our sins, brings us to repentance and faith, and restores our blessed covenant relationship. And each time we partake of the Lord’s Supper, receiving Christ’s body and blood under the bread and wine, he reassures us that we are still his dearly loved children. Isn’t it interesting that as we hear Jesus say, “Do this in remembrance of me,” we are reminded of this great promise, “I will not remember their sins any longer.”

When you think about it, there’s really two different ways to motivate people: you can threaten with punishment or you can compel with love. Those differences really highlight the differences between the old and new covenants. There were those in Israel who were not Israel, who didn’t believe in God’s promise of a Savior, who weren’t compelled by his love. The only reason they obeyed was out of fear of God’s wrath and punishment. There were also those in Israel who believed. They knew their sins and their need for a Savior. They were inspired by God’s love to obey him, not by fear. That’s the way the new covenant would work. Those who have seen the true glory of God in his forgiving love will obey God from the heart. That’s what Jesus had in mind when he said to his disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another.” That command wasn’t really new at all. What was new was the motivation. Jesus goes on to say, “As I have loved you.” It’s the promises of God fulfilled in Christ, who in his great love, goes to the cross to bear our sins in his body and cleanse them by his blood. It’s the love of Christ that has opened our eyes to see the glory of his grace, which freely, fully, and finally forgives our sins. In the Lord’s Supper, he gives us his body and blood as a precious receipt that the payment for sins has been made. And now, with hearts warmed by his love, we strive to live lives of love for God and our fellow man. That’s what Paul meant when he wrote, “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” That’s the power of the new covenant, the power of God’s forgiving love in Christ.

The new covenant that God promised, that Jesus instituted promised a better knowledge. The writer quotes Jeremiah yet again: “Never again will a man teach his fellow citizen or his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” They will all know me. How is it possible for all to know the Lᴏʀᴅ? The revelation of the Lᴏʀᴅ, God’s covenant name, the one that emphasizes his grace, mercy and love, that revelation only comes fully with God’s sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  That offering—God’s offering of his Son on the cross in the place of all sinners—fully and truly reveals the glory of God. Jesus understood that. He understood that God’s glory would be revealed most clearly in his crucifixion. That’s why he said to his disciples on his way to the cross, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and glorified in him.” It is God’s greatest glory to be the Savior of sinners, to reveal his amazing grace as he offers his Son as the substitute for sinners. How blessed we are to have the full revelation of God’s forgiving love! How blessed we are to be able to grow in the knowledge of Christ and his love for us! May we strive like Paul who said, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” How blessed we are not only to grow in Jesus, but to tell of his love! We can do this in a variety of ways—through personal witness and prayers, through the offerings we bring our Lord to support the work of his gospel ministry. And even more, we do so each time we partake of the Lord’s Supper, as Paul said, “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

This indeed is a new covenant. A covenant of love, forgiveness, and grace. A covenant mediated by the one who not only made the better promises, but kept them. May we eat and drink this evening, proclaiming Christ’s death for us, until he comes. Amen