Jeremiah 31:31-34

"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant." A "new covenant?" What's a "new covenant?" According to the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible a covenant is "a solemn promise made binding by an oath." It's a contract or agreement. Another word for covenant is "testament." Hence, the old contract between God and humanity was the Old Testament. And the new agreement is the New Testament.

There are covenants throughout the Bible. God said to Abraham, "Walk before me and be blameless for I will make you a great nation."(Genesis 17) In Noah's day, God promised never to flood the world again. At Mount Sinai God said, "Keep my commandments and I will be your God."(Exodus 20)

Most often these covenants were sealed with a sacrifice. When the Hebrew describes people making a covenant it literally says they "cut" a covenant. The reference is probably to cutting a sacrificial animal, usually in half. It was a way of saying, "If I didn't keep the deal let what happened to this animal happen to me." Hence we get the expression to "cut a deal." But when the deal was with God, the animal sacrifice also served as a means of worship.

So here in Jeremiah, God is saying, "Look out, because I am about to cut a new deal with the human race."

But to understand the significance of this new covenant we have to know what the Old Covenant was all about. It is called the covenant of law. It was the covenant made at Sinai when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments carved in stone. God gave the people the commandments and said, "Keep these and be my holy people."

This covenant was rather straightforward. The people would keep themselves holy, set apart unto God by keeping the Ten Commandments. Ten rather simple rules. And God would bless them and protect them and live in their midst.

But people would break these rules from time to time. Sometimes it was by accident, which was understandable. Even the most diligent and faithful follower of God can make mistakes. So God also gave them rites and rituals to make up for these human breaches of the contract. An important part of this was the sacrifice of lambs and goats and other animals as a way of renewing the covenant and asking for forgiveness for times the covenant was broken.

The problem with this covenant is it just didn't work. Apparently it simply asked too much of humanity to keep ten simple rules. People are just too evil and hard hearted. Many didn't even try to keep the laws. They just ran around doing what they wanted to. Cheating, stealing, having sexual relations with whoever and what ever. They even bowed to and worshipped idols. Much like people today, they just did whatever made them feel good for the moment and disregarded their agreement with God.

As if the hardness of people's hearts was not enough there was another problem. Even when people tried to keep the law they perverted it to their own use not God's. They would define the law in the way that suited their purpose. It said you shall not have other gods before me. So some rationalized and thought they could have other gods as long as they didn't put them before God Almighty. It said, "Thou shall not kill." But if you hire someone else to do the killing then you are not guilty of breaking the law. They found ways to keep the letter of the contract while they violated its spirit.

The best example of this was the way they used the Sabbath laws to persecute Jesus. Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath and people were mad. By the power of God he performed a miracle and relieved a man of this suffering in the name of God. But people were upset because they said he broke the law. But the Sabbath law was supposed to help people glorify God. What better way to glorify God than to relieve the suffering of one of God's children? The Sabbath law was meant to glorify God, but the religious folk used it to persecute God's Son.

This Old Testament simple was not working. People were either blatantly disregarding the laws or they were perverting them in subtle ways. God's commandments were designed to relieve human suffering and produce righteous living, yet just the opposite was happening. But the problem wasn't with God's law. They were fine. They were a perfect creation of God which, if followed, would produce righteousness and mercy. The problem was with humanity. We are just so morally twisted that we can't keep God's laws. Even when we try we become legalistic and twist them to serve ourselves and not God.

The laws didn't need to be changed; the people needed to be changed. So God proposed a new covenant, a New Testament. Under this New Deal, God would write the laws on people's hearts. In other words God would alter His people's hearts to conform to the law. It was their evil hearts that were causing the disobedience and perversion of the law to begin with.

This changed the way things were done entirely. The old covenant was a covenant of law, but this one would be a covenant of grace. Under the Old Testament the focus was on keeping the law. Under the New Covenant the emphasis was on God's gracious gift of salvation. Salvation was no longer a matter of a person changing his or her own behavior to conform to God. Now salvation was just a matter of letting God change their hearts and as a result their behavior. All that God required of people now was that they accept the gift of salvation.

But to cut this deal God had to do something else that was new and different. God wanted to make the laws, and their spirit of love and righteousness, a part of our beings. But to make them a part of us God first had to make the Law flesh and blood so it could be grafted to us. So God's word became human flesh. We called him Jesus and he lived love and righteousness. He was God's law in the flesh and his life was a living example of that law put into practice.

All that was required was that people believe in Him. But even that was too hard for many. Instead of accepting the gift many rejected Him. And out of our ignorance and evil we killed Him. And God wrote a new contract with humanity with the blood of his only begotten Son.

Jesus became the sacrifice for our sins replacing the innocent lambs of the Old Covenant. He was the one cut down to cut this deal. And now because of his sacrifice, all who come to God for salvation are offered a new deal. Simply accept Jesus and God will change you. No longer would God's law be written on stones they would become part of God's children. No longer will people need to study the law to come to God. Instead God would come to them and bring the law to life.

This New Testament written in the Blood of Christ is wonderful! The problem is there are still a lot of people trying to live by the Old Testament. I am not talking about Jews. I mean Christians. They are trying to keep the laws to save themselves. They are trying to be righteous by their own means.

It's impossible. It can't be done. Humanity is too twisted and perverted to be righteous on its own. The history of God's people under the Old Testament demonstrates that. More importantly being righteous by our own means is unnecessary.

God does not require that we make ourselves holy to be saved. All God requires is that we let Jesus into our hearts. Then he will make us righteous by writing his law on our hearts. Salvation us not something we earn. It's a gift of grace.

Stop trying to save yourselves. Just let Jesus in. Let him change you. Let him save you.

John 12:20-36

When it was about Passover time, Jesus and the disciples decided to go to Jerusalem. As they were headed there some of the people got wind of the fact that Jesus was coming. So they got some palm branches, and started yelling "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Long live Jesus, the King of Israel!"

Then Jesus found a donkey and began to ride it. He did this because that is what the prophets said the Messiah would do. So Jesus road on into Jerusalem. The people were shouting and waving their palm branches, laying their coats down for him to ride over, and saying he was the king of Israel.

They were hooping it up and having such a good time that I guess a prayer meeting broke out, because people started witnessing right there in the middle of the street. One guy said, "I know this Jesus. I saw him. I was there when he called a man named Laz'rus out of the tomb. This Laz'rus guy had been dead for four days, and Jesus, brought him back to life. If he can bring a man back to life then he can save us. If he ain't the King God sent to save us I don't know who is!"

Now among the people gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover was this small group of Greeks. They saw all the things which had happened: Jesus riding a donkey in, and the people waving palm branches. They heard those people witnessing in the street telling how Jesus had raised the dead. I'm sure their curiosity was peaked. Who was this man who brought the dead back to life? And why were people saying he was the King and laying their coats down for him to ride over. So they decided they would try to see Jesus to talk to him.\

They put their heads together and devised a plan of attack. First, they chose a spokesperson. They found someone from Jesus' inner circle who had a Greek name "Philip" who they could talk with. Someone they thought could relate to them.

When they were ready this spokesperson came up to Philip and said, "I have been chosen by our group to approach you about the possibility of arranging an interview with your teacher: Mr. Jesus. And we have heard so much about your teacher that we would like to talk to him. With all that has been going on here people back home will hear about your Jesus raising folks from the dead and being called God's anointed King. They will be asking us all about him when we get home. Could you arrange for us to talk with your teacher?"

I'm sure Philip was surprised. After all, these were Gentiles, not Jews, and they were seeking Jesus. But this could be an opportunity for Jesus to gain some more followers to help his cause. So Philip went and consulted with Andrew and the two of them decided to tell Jesus about the Greeks. They said, "Jesus - we have a little problem. You see there some Greeks here and believe it or not they want to talk with you. They may even want to become your disciples."

When they told Jesus this, it troubled him. Not because he didn't know what to do with Gentiles. Jesus knew it was part of his Father's plan to save the Gentiles. He was troubled because he knew this was a sign. You see Jesus knew that God had planned for him to be crucified sooner or later. So when he heard that these Greeks were seeking him he turned to his disciples and said, "You know how I have been saying that the appointed hour has not yet come. Well these Greeks are a sign. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified."

"Glorified!" someone said, "Does that mean your gonna raise some more dead folk." "No, not right away," Jesus said. "I need to explain to you what I mean when I say the 'Son of Man will be glorified,' so listen closely. When you plant a seed you bury it as if it were dead. If you don't bury it, it will not grow. But if you bury it, as if it were dead, it grows and produces other seeds, right. It has to die if it is going to be fruitful. Your life is like that seed. If you try to hold onto it, it will do you no good. It will be as fruitless as the unburied seed. But if you give up your life, you will save it for eternal life. If someone wants to serve me, that person must follow me. For wherever I am you'll find my servant there. And, I promise you, if someone serves me, the father will reward them."

"But now that the time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified I am worried. What should I do? Should I say 'Father, save me from what is about to happen'? No, I came here for this hour. Father, do what you have to do to glorify your name."

Just then a voice came out of heaven and said, "I have glorified it before and I will do it again." Now everyone in the crowd around him heard this. Some said, "Oh that was nothing it was just thunder." Others said, "It was an angel who spoke to him." Jesus said, "It was a voice. But it was not to help me. It was for your benefit. You see, now is the time when God will judge the world and the devil who rules this age will be cast out. I will be glorified by being lifted up, and I will draw all people unto me, not just the Jews but you Greeks and the whole Gentile world."

Now some of Jesus' followers took offense at this. They knew exactly what Jesus meant when he said, "Lifted up." So they said, "Hold on now Jesus! Do you expect us to give up our lives? You're saying that if we want to serve you we have to be willing to be crucified just like you. What kind of reward is that? What kind of glory is that?" Someone in the crowd said, "Now my mother was a Sunday School teacher, and she was a good one! She always said that the Bible said that the son of man would live forever. And my Dad was a preacher and he said the same thing. Are you telling me my Mom and Dad lied to me?"

Jesus was starting to get a little tired of all this. He could talk to them 'til he was blue in the face. His followers didn't really understand what they faced. So he looked them straight in the eye and said to everyone who wanted to follow him: "If you want to follow me there will be troubles. I am going to the cross, if you want to be my follower you will have to follow where I am going. Believe me there will be crosses in most of your futures." "I will only be with you for a short while. Trust me now and I will see you through the dark times. Walk in the light now while you have it, because the darkness will come, and you will not be able to see where you are going. So while you have the light, trust in the light, and you will become children of the light."

Then Jesus hid from the crowd. Most of them didn't see him again until he hung on the cross. But I am sure that the last words he spoke to them were ringing in their ears. "Darkness is coming, so while you have the light, trust in the light, and you will become children of the light."

Then Jesus left and hid from them!

In many ways we are like the people in that story. We have come here wishing to see Jesus. We have heard about Jesus and want to be his servants. So we have come to learn about him so we can serve him and tell others about him. But as his servants we are supposed to go where he goes. It's easy to follow Jesus when he is rasin' dead folk, but it is harder to follow him when he is headed for the cross. The people in that crowd hailed Jesus as Messiah when he was rasin' the dead but cursed him when he was being crucified. Yet it was God's will that Jesus be lifted up on the cross to draw all people to him.

If we wish to follow Jesus there are crosses in our future just as there was one in his. If we seek to be disciples of Jesus there are dark times ahead just as there were dark times for Jesus' first disciples. If we want the eternal life that comes only through Jesus we must hate this life. That is as hard to accept now as it was back then. Just look at how many seekers rejected Jesus back then.

But Jesus offers us hope for the times of darkness coming. The light is with us now. Christ is here. If we will trust in the light we will become sons and daughters of the light. Then, when the darkness comes, we will not be left stumbling in the dark.

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