Anyone who has ever been camping, spent significant time in the elements, read tales of extreme adventurers, or watched them on TV, knows that fire is essential to survival as it provides warmth and light, can purify water and cook food, and can discourage predators and signal rescuers. It’s no exaggeration to say that, in the great outdoors, life depends on fire. Now, to build a fire one must first find, collect, haul, and arrange the wood. This can be a time-consuming and labour-intensive activity. And yet, all that effort is futile without one final piece of wood: the match. The match is the fiery climax of the whole endeavour, bringing an essential ingredient for survival. The last piece of wood, as small as it may be, ignites the whole stack to usefulness.
Today we come to the match of the New Covenant—the final, climactic divine oath that ignites the covenants collected and arranged before it. It’s the New Covenant that provides the power the other five lack in-and-of-themselves and provides God’s people with a more completed picture of God’s plan to restore his fallen creation.
SERMON MANUSCRIPT
If you’ve ever been camping, spent significant time in the elements, read tales of extreme adventurers, or watched them on TV, you’ll know that fire is essential to survival. A fire provides warmth and light, can purify water and cook food, can discourage predators and signal rescuers. In the great outdoors, life depends on fire.
Now, to build a fire one must find the wood, collect the wood, haul the wood, and arrange the wood. This can be a time-consuming and labour-intensive activity. And yet, all that effort is futile without one final piece of wood—the match. Without the match, you’re just looking at a pile of potential fuel. It’s the match, the final piece of the campfire puzzle, that’s the fiery climax of the whole endeavour, bringing the essential ingredient for survival. The last piece of wood, as small as it may be, ignites the whole stack to usefulness.
Today we come to the match of the New Covenant—the final, climactic divine oath that ignites the covenants collected and arranged before it. It’s the New Covenant that provides the power the other five lack in-and-of-themselves and provides God’s people with a more completed picture of God’s plan to restore his fallen creation.
Let’s start at Jeremiah 31, a passage in which the New Covenant is clearly introduced. And, as we’ve been doing throughout this series, we’re going to ask a series of questions of this covenant. The first of which is What is it?
What is New Covenant?
What are its contents? What expectations does it evoke in its hearers?
When we come to this section of Scripture, Israel has experienced destruction and exile because of their repeated rebellion against God. And yet, in spite of that, God promises restoration and hope. [30:18; 31:1, 16–17] They’ve blown it again but God’ll heal them again.
At this point of the biblical storyline, we’ve got to ask: what good is that going to do? Even if God brings them back to the land and restores their glory, aren’t they just going to sin like they always do?
Wasn’t it Albert Einstein who said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Far be it from us to call God insane but, from a human point of view, it seems Israel is on a merry-go-round of sin, discipline, repentance, restoration, sin, discipline, repentance, restoration, and that this ride’s just going to keep spinning unless something foundational changes.
Well, that’s exactly what God promises in Jeremiah 31. [31:31–32] Notice both factions of the divided kingdom are included—Israel in the north and Judah in the south—lest anyone think God’s only speaking to his favourite half. No, this new covenant is for all descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And this coming covenant is going to be dissimilar from a previous covenant. Which one? We’ve only got five to choose from. Well, it’s pretty clearly the Mosaic covenant, the one cut with Israel at Mount Sinai after God took them by the hand … out of the land of Egypt.
This new oath isn’t going to be like that one. In what way, we’re not yet sure but we get a hint with the emphasis here on covenant loyalty. Israel was unfaithful, God was faithful. They broke it, he kept it. They were adulterers to him, he was a husband to them. So, whatever’s new about this new covenant, it’s going to have something to do with ensuring fidelity on both sides.
[31:33] Whereas the terms of the Mosaic covenant were written in a book and on stone tablets, this new covenant will be etched on the hearts of God’s people. While the former was external, the latter will be internal, making keeping it unavoidable.
And then look what happens: [31:34]. Evangelism won’t be needed because everyone will already know God.
You don’t need to convince members of an orchestra that music is beautiful or teachers that education is beneficial. You wouldn’t go to an auto show trying to prove to the attendees that cars are neat. Why? Because you’d be “preaching to the choir.” They already know! That’s how it will be under the New Covenant with the terms written on the hearts of every member of every tribe of Israel. Complete buy-in and universal intimacy with God.
Another OT prophet, Ezekiel, describes it another way. [Ezek 36:22–27] We hear again of that sinful merry-go-round and the foundational change that God is going to bring about to stop the ride. Ezekiel describes it as a spiritual bath, a heart transplant, and an indwelling that causes obedience to God’s law. And, all of this, for the good of creation and the glory of the Creator.
And as we leave Jeremiah and Ezekiel, anticipation grows for the arrival and ratification of this covenant. [Hos 2:16–20; Zeph 3:14–15, 20; Mal 3:1–3] You see, to stop the merry-go-round of sin God’s people needed something foundational to change. They knew they needed sin dealt with finality and, for that, God had to do it. They couldn’t.
So, what is the New Covenant? The New Covenant God’s solemn oath to unilaterally provide power for obedience, relationship for rebels, forgiveness for sin, and salvation for the lost.
Where does the New Covenant fit?
The Noahic covenant laid the foundation. The Abrahamic covenant added a location for a population that would disseminate benediction. The Mosaic covenant brought preservation for that population, ensuring they would remain distinct enough to accomplish that mission. The Priestly covenant promised representation for people before God and the Davidic covenant promised jurisdiction for God before people.
Everything is in place for the restoration of what was lost in Genesis 3. Everything is in place for God to dwell with his people again. Everything, except one thing. None of these covenants have dealt with sin. None of them has offered a remedy for the poison that led to this chaos in the first place! Not one has made provision for the salvation of sinners. And if that isn’t dealt with, nothing else really matters.
Without sin dealt with, even a flood-less foundation is still cursed. What kind of a global benediction can come from a population steeped in guilt and shame? Who cares if they have a location when it’s stained with blood? What good is an eternal priesthood when the priests are unforgiven idolators? What good is an everlasting kingdom when that kingdom is filled with rebels and marked by death?
No. For God to restore what was lost in the Garden, sin has to be dealt with. And the Mosaic covenant demonstrated clearly, tragically, and repeatedly that, if humanity is involved at all, it’s not going to last. We soil everything with our sin-soiled hearts. Like scrubbing white walls with greasy rags, it doesn’t matter how sincere we are, we bring filth to the job and make things worse.
What we needed was a New, better covenant, one that would replace the Mosaic, a covenant ineffective at producing fidelity and insufficient at bringing purity. And like a match set to firewood, so this new covenant ignites the other covenants that have been collected and arranged, waiting for the life-giving flame. [Jer 33:14–26; Ezek 37:24–28] They’re all connected. The New Covenant sets them ablaze.
With new hearts, total forgiveness, Spirit-empowerment, and flawless obedience, there will come a new heavens and new earth—a perfect fulfillment of the Noahic covenant. That preserved population will finally be holy, living in their land uncontested, spilling the undiluted blessing of a perfect priesthood and righteous monarchy around the globe. It’s in the New Covenant that the rest of the covenants come alive and can now produce the heat, light, and sustenance we need to live eternally in God’s presence.
That’s where the new covenant fits. It’s not only the apex of the biblical covenants, it’s the match that gives them all power.
Why does the New Covenant matter?
Well, it matters for so many reasons, but let me offer three ways for our consideration this morning.
First, the New Covenant leads us to Jesus. Actually, we can go a step further and say that the New Covenant is Jesus. [Isa 42:1, 6; 49:5–8] The New Covenant leads us to Jesus because he is the New Covenant, declared so by God himself centuries before the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Remember that the failure of the Mosaic covenant wasn’t its specificity or intensity. It was human involvement that made it unable to save. It was the bilateral nature of the covenant.
In contrast, the strength of the Abrahamic covenant was that he was asleep when it was cut. That God himself passed through the animals, swearing by his own name, his own character. It was unilateral, meaning no matter how much Abraham and his descendants blew it (and they would), God would remain faithful.
Well, how much more unilateral can a covenant be then when God himself is the covenant. At the perfect time in world history, Jesus, the second person of the godhead, came into the world, lived under the Mosaic law—fulfilling it, not abolishing it—and died a sinners’ death though he knew no sin himself. Like Moses in Exodus 24, after reading its terms, used blood to ratify the covenant, so Jesus did. Only he used his own blood.
[Heb 9:13–15] Where the Mosaic failed, the New will succeed because it’s unilateral, it’s all on God. God promised the New Covenant, planned the New Covenant, and performed the New Covenant. In fact, he is the New Covenant.
And this is where we fit in. What’s Paul’s favourite two words to describe a saved person? “In Christ.” According to the NT, when I believed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead, in an instant I am placed “in him.” In Christ I’m hidden, blessed, gifted, rich, redeemed, forgiven, equipped, sealed, kept, loved, chastened, and shaped.
As Christians we are positionally in Christ and Christ, as we learned today is the New Covenant. Therefore, we’re in the New Covenant. While the biblical covenants deal primarily with Israel, one branch of the Abrahamic covenant promised global blessing through the Seed of Abraham. Well, in the New Covenant we see that that global blessing is salvation and that Seed is Jesus. [John 3:16]
The New Covenant leads us to Jesus. He is the New Covenant, a covenant ratified in his blood. He is the match that ignites and empowers the life-giving covenantal firewood collected and arranged throughout Scripture.
Second, the New Covenant sends us to the world. [2 Cor 3:4–6, 12–18] We don’t have time for a full exposition of that passage but, suffice it to say that the New Covenant sends us to the world.
When we understand what we’ve been given—power for obedience, relationship for rebels, forgiveness for sin, and salvation for the lost—it moves us to action. When we realize the liberty we have in Christ, the sight we’ve been given to see the beauty of our Lord, the permanence of his salvation, the extent of his forgiveness, we go to those who have it not! [3:12]
This is right fuel for evangelism, brothers and sisters. Not guilt or obligation or fear, but hope. The more we are fascinated and filled with the New Covenant realities and beauty of he who is the New Covenant, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the more it sends us to the world.
Third, the New Covenant points us to the Table. I trust that when you came in this morning you were able to grab a package of the elements. If not, feel free now. The Table of the Lord, the Lord’s Supper, the Breaking of Bread, this is the natural and intended terminus of a discussion on the New Covenant.
Yes, the New Covenant leads us to Jesus and sends us to the world, but it also points us to the Table where we remember the sacrifice made, the body given, the blood shed on our behalf. [1 Cor 11:23–26]
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
