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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor January
6, 2002 Throughout
the Bible, God revealed Himself
to humanity through the medium of
"covenant." 9-The
God
Who
Fills
Heaven
and
Earth Then
at last came a covenant like no
other. On the night He was
arrested, Jesus shared the
Passover meal with His disciples.
Being the teacher, Jesus was the
leader of the ritual. Toward
the end of the ceremony He was to
take a cup of wine, bless it, and
pass it to the others. It was
then He said something that
wasn't part of the ritual: "This
cup is the new covenant in my
blood, which is poured out for
you" (Luke 22:20). We,
who are Christians, live under
that New Covenant with
God. The
question I'll address today is:
Why did God choose to use
covenant in revealing Himself to
humanity? To
answer that question we need to
first know something about
covenants and then something
about God's intention in
revealing Himself to us. First
let's consider the
covenant. By
definition, a covenant is a
contract -- but it is more than
contract. In a contract, the
parties enter into an agreement
that conveys certain privileges
and imposes certain
responsibilities on the parties.
A lease is an example. In a lease
the parties remain separate and
distinct entities; the lease or
contract merely establishes their
rights and obligations concerning
that particular piece of
property. A
covenant has all of those
elements, but it goes far beyond.
The parties became "family." All
the property and assets of each
party is available to meet the
needs of the other. In addition,
each is expected to defend the
other, to death if necessary. In
covenant the parties do not
remain separate and
distinct. The
one remaining thing in our
culture that still represents
this understanding of covenant is
Christian marriage, at least in
concept. Christian marriage is a
contract by definition -- but the
intent of it goes beyond
contract. After it is entered
into, something new arises. The
bride and groom do not remain
separate and distinct persons,
but are joined together to become
one flesh and their assets become
community property. I
learned about covenant as a
child, as I'm sure many of you
did, although you probably didn't
recognize it. I learned it from
Westerns -- movies. Gary
Cooper or John Wayne or whoever
happens along just as a bear is
about to kill an Indian he has
never seen before. He shoots the
bear to save the Indian and they
become friends. The white man
gives the Indian a Timex pocket
watch and the Indian puts a bear
claw necklace around the white
man's neck. They cut their wrist
and mix their blood. They become
"blood brothers." They make a
blood covenant. Years
later, our hero is a scout for
the army during the Indian wars.
Out on patrol he is bushwhacked
by an Indian war party. They have
him on the ground about to give
him a real close haircut when
they see the bear claw necklace.
Instead of killing him, they take
him to their chief who, of
course, is the Indian he rescued
from the bear years before. They
work out a peace treaty and end
the war. Now,
the reason those Indians didn't
kill him was they recognized him
as the blood kin of their chief
-- because of the covenant. When
they made the covenant, they
didn't remain separate and
distinct. Something changed, they
became as blood kin. For the
Indian war party to kill this
white man would be the same as
killing the chief's brother. The
covenant is so serious and so
strong, it forces anger and
bitterness aside and proves to be
the vehicle of peace. So
covenant has to do with
relationship. In the ancient
times it was the highest form of
human relationship, other than
biological blood kinship.
Jesus
said, "This cup is my blood of
the New Covenant." What
is it that God seeks to
accomplish in and through this
New Covenant? The prophecies
concerning the New Covenant make
that abundantly clear.
Look
at Jeremiah 31:33-34. No
longer will a man teach his
neighbor, or a man his
brother, saying, 'Know the
LORD,' because they will all
know me, from the least of
them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD. "For I will
forgive their wickedness and
will remember their sins no
more." God
wants to be in an intimate
relationship with us. God knows
us, for He formed us from the
dust of the ground, but He also
wants us to know Him. Under
the Old Covenant, knowing God
meant knowing about God by
knowing His law. Under the New
Covenant it's different, God
wants us to know Him
personally. Look
with me at Ezekiel
36:24-29. You
will live in the land I gave
your forefathers; you will be
my people, and I will be your
God. I will save you from all
your uncleanness." The
reason God made provision for the
forgiveness of sin is because sin
separates and divides -- that's
why Adam and Eve hid from God
after they had sinned. If you sin
against someone, you probably
would rather not be in his
presence. So
God says I'm going to forgive you
and purify you, cleanse you of
your sin so we can live in a
relationship. In fact, God says
I'm going to put myself inside
you and move you to obey me so
there won't be any hindrances to
our relationship. God
chose covenant as the means of
revealing Himself to humanity
because it is the highest form of
human relationship. Being
party to this covenant is more
important than any other thing in
this life. When we enter into
this covenant with God we don't
stay the same -- we become new
creations in Christ. God changes
us on the inside. He begins the
process of making us like Jesus,
and includes us in His
family. Living
under the covenant means that we
give ourselves to God and God
gives himself to us. It means
that when the reapers come at end
of time they will see the blood
of Jesus on us and, rather than
throwing us into the lake fire
with the devil, sin and evil,
they will take us instead to
their chief, Jesus, our blood
brother. It means that all of the
Father's resources, all the
assets of the heavenly kingdom
are committed to our ultimate
good. Some
of you might say that's sounds
good, preacher, but I'm a
Christian and my what your
talking about doesn't sound like
my life. Let
me read you something from My
Utmost for His Highest by the
late Oswald
Chambers: Why
doesn't God save me? He has
accomplished and provided for
my salvation, but I have not
yet entered into a
relationship with
Him. Why
doesn't God do everything we
ask? He has done it. The point
is -- will I step into that
covenant
relationship? All
the great blessings of God are
finished and complete, but
they are not mine until I
enter into a relationship with
Him on the basis of His
covenant. All
the promises and blessings of God
are by-products of living in this
covenant relationship with God.
That means we enter into a
personal relationship with God
that is centered in Jesus Christ,
which involves our absolute trust
in and obedience to God. Out of
that relationship flow all the
promises and blessings of
God. Today
is covenant renewal Sunday for
us. This is our opportunity to
repent of our failures and return
to God; to once again affirm our
acceptance of God's offer of
covenant. John
Wesley wrote this
covenant
renewal
service
in the 1700s. It reflects the
attitude of heart and mind of a
group of people called Methodists
that God use to change the face
of two continents and the course
of world history. As
we renew our covenant, let us
whisper a simple prayer: "Do it
again, Lord."
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
Ministry
of the
Word:
Recent
sermons
Our quarterly e-magazine
Gateway
Today
For the Gateway family
Pastor
Jerry's Weekly
E-Mail
A
GATEWAY SERMON
A
God of covenant
(Third
in the series, Knowing
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
Through Noah, God declared a
covenant for all living things on
the earth, that He would never
again destroy the earth by
flood.
Then
God covenanted with Abraham,
promising that the He would make
Abraham's descendants a great
nation and give them the land of
Canaan.
Then
came the covenant of the Law,
given through Moses to the
descendants of
Abraham.
In
this
series
The
meaning of
covenant
An
illustration from the
movies
A
covenant better than all
others"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. I will be their God,
and they will be my
people.
"I
will sprinkle clean water on
you, and you will be clean; I
will cleanse you from all your
impurities and from all your
idols. 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.
No
longer the sameIt
is the will of God that human
beings should get into a
right-standing relationship
with Him, and His covenants
are designed for this
purpose.
Conclusion
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020106a: A God of
Covenant.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado