Bible Readings : Jeremiah 31:1-6, 31-34, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, Hebrews 9:15

· Living under contracts in today’s world:  Contracts are part of our modern day world. We are often under daily pressure to change our contracts. Phone companies in particular plead with us, saying that they can give us a better deal, etc. You will be better off, they cry! One is about to sit down for tea when the phone rings. ‘We have a better phone contract than you have at present. It will be cheaper, faster, with a nicer mobile phone.’ It is almost as if our future happiness depends on us signing up for this new contract.

Jeremiah here speaks of a new contract or covenant, a new relationship or testament that God was about to bring into being. The benefits would be enormous compared to the old covenant if only the people would listen, believe and obey. Let us first however examine just what the old contract was.

· The nature of the old covenant: The use of the word ‘covenant’ in the OT is very significant. It has the meaning of ‘to cut or divide”. When covenants were established, a sacrifice was divided in two and offered up to God. The people walked between the two parts of the offering to remind them that they could be divided if they failed to keep their side of the covenant.  In other words, they would be separated from God if they were disobedient.

God thus entered into covenant with his people in the Old Testament. While there were many promises that he made, such as the one to Noah concerning never again to destroy the world through the means of a flood, the main covenant or contract was initiated at the time of Abram. In Gen 12:3 we read, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all people on earth will be blessed through you.” The blessings of God would flow through the line of Abraham to all people. Abraham then responded in faith to what God had said. In Gen 15:6 we read “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

Then in Gen 17:7 God said “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendents after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendents after you.” In Exodus God reaffirmed the covenant he had made with his rescued people, pledging to be their God if they would walk in his ways. He gave them his law, commanding that they live in obedience to it. In Ex 19:5 we read, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” At the center of the covenant was thus the need for faithful obedience to God and his law.

The keeping of the covenant became focused on the tabernacle and then later the temple. Keeping the law was administered through the work of the High Priest and his fellow priests. Each item in the temple had special significance as the priests went through their daily ceremonies. They were to offer up regular sacrifices and engage in ceremonial washings, leading up to the Day of Atonement sacrifices each year, sacrifices offered up for the sins of the priests and the people, external regulations that needed to be kept day after day, year after year.

There was nothing wrong in itself in the activities of the priests at the temple. The problem was that the ritual had become for the people the reality. Instead of being a personal heart response of love to God demonstrated by the obeying of his law, the people engaged in a mechanical routine. Instead of the law being that that brought them to their knees in confession of sin, they felt that could obtain favor with God through their own efforts. They would thus do the religious bit and then get on with living how we pleased.

In 1903 the Czar of Russia noticed a sentry posted for no apparent reason in a remote corner of the Kremlin grounds. On enquiry he found that in 1776, some 127 years earlier, Catherine the Great had discovered at that very point in the grounds the first flower of spring. “Post a sentry there,” she had commanded, “so that no one tramples the flower underfoot.” From that time on, for the next 127 years, a sentry had been posted at that spot. Sometimes we do things out of ritual and tradition, long after the reason for doing it has passed away.

Ritual and routine that now had no point or purpose had become the daily religious activity of God’s people in the time of Jeremiah. But it is not confined to those days. There are Christians today who have a similar understanding of their relationship with God. They feel that if they can just get the spiritual part done then they can get on with life. This is a sad caricature of what God intended for his people.

In Heb 9:10 we read about the true nature of the old contract  “They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings – external regulations applying until the time of the new order.”  The old covenant was there to usher in the new. It was about to be superseded. The new was now just around the corner.  That was the exciting news that Jeremiah was seeking to share.

· The new covenant was to be so different: Jeremiah spoke of a covenant that would be fresh and new. Instead of being external and linked with sacrifices and ceremonial washings this one would be internal and based in the heart. Instead of being framed in the context of law, this new covenant would be set in the context of love. For both covenants, salvation was focused on the need for sacrifice. With the old, however, there was the need for the continual offering up of animal sacrifices. For the new, it was the once for all offering up of God’s Son, Jesus. There was no comparing the old with the new. As the saying goes, they were ‘like chalk and cheese’.

The New Covenant thus speaks of the promise made by God in offering up his son for us all. Salvation was to be secured by the death of Jesus on the cross. We now need to accept by faith what God has done for us in Christ. This covenant is new, not only in time, but also in kind and essence. It is of a different nature to the old. It supersedes and surpasses the old in every possible way.

To understand the difference between the two covenants is like having a photo of a loved one in your pocket. You pull it out often to remind yourselves of who the person is. Then suddenly the person appears and you are overjoyed with their coming. No longer just a photo but the reality is here. You would never think of pulling out the photo when the person is there. In Heb 10:1 we read, “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves.” The reality was to be found in Christ.  Jesus’ coming in every way fulfils and supersedes the old.

The new covenant speaks of forgiveness and grace, of seeking to obey God by choice and not by compulsion.  The new covenant speaks of God’s mercy, with the Holy Spirit providing the strength for us to live for him. God’s redeemed people will desire to keep the new covenant for it will be written on their hearts.

· The response of the people to the new covenant: One would have expected an excited response of ‘Yes!’ from the people of Jeremiah’s time, of great joy that things were about to change. But such was not to be. The people largely ignored what Jeremiah said. From the king on down, their attitude ranged from indifference to outright rejection. As the words of Jeremiah’s declaration were read out, we find in Jer 36:23 King Jehoiakim and his officials showing utter contempt. “Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes.” Theirs was a total rejection of God’s message to them.

It was the same with the new king Zedekiah and his people. By now some of the people had gone into exile. In Jer 37:2 “Neither he (King Zedekiah) nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.” They had turned their backs on God and didn’t want to hear any more from him. They wanted to live independent of God, just as many people today have chosen to do. Theirs was a total indifference to God and his word. In spite of the desperate nature of the times, they chose to thumb their nose at God. What about us today?

· Are we living under the new covenant? Where do we stand today? Are we trying in our own strength to please God? Are we seeking to please God by keeping up appearances, turning up at church due to a sense of guilt, trying our best to fulfill what we feel are God’s expectations of us? Or are we rejoicing in the freedom that Christ has brought through his death on the cross. Jesus himself reminds us of the nature of the new covenant in 1 Cor 11:25 “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” He has instigated a new covenant in his blood, a covenant so much superior to the old one. In Heb 9:15 we read “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”

Why not sign up right now for this new contract, this wonderful covenant. The conditions are very straightforward. Acknowledge that you haven’t been able to keep the terms of the old contract, and that you do not have the strength or ability to live as God intends. Ask God to forgive you and thank him for the new covenant, the covenant brought in by his son, Jesus. Christ died on the cross for each of us as the final sacrifice for sins. We now receive by faith the benefits of Christ’s death - freedom from condemnation, being able to stand before God as a cleansed person, indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God and set on the pathway to eternal life. This is certainly an amazing new covenant. Have you signed up? Why not do so today through a simple prayer I will pray soon for you?

Perhaps you signed up some time ago but since then have slipped back into trying in your own strength to fulfill the terms of the old contract. As Colin Urquhart has said “You are not accepted by God because you deserve to be, or because you have worked hard for Him, but because Jesus died for you.” Why not his morning make it your time to submit to God. It all comes down to what Christ has already done for us on the cross.

Please join me in prayer.

 “Dear Lord, please forgive me for trying to live in my own strength in a futile attempt to please you. I realize that at times I have reverted back to the old covenant, of feeling that I can only come to you through my own personal effort. Help me now daily to rest in Christ on what he has done for me, asking his Holy Spirit to empower me for whatever may come. Thank you, Loving Lord for all that you have done for me in Christ. I now submit to you as master and Lord of my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen ”

Pastor Colin Meadows  26th June 2005