The New Covenant (2006 March 9-13)
March 9, 2006
Exodus 19
Shawn Robinson, Clayton Community Church (Clayton)
Read the passage and respond to these questions:
1. how would you characterize God as he revealed Himself to Moses and the Israelites?
2. What was God’s fundamental message to the Israelites on this day?
3. How were the people called to demonstrate their part of the bargain?
In this encounter between Moses and God we see the special relationship God desires between Himself and His people. He has brought them out of captivity on “eagles wings,” drawing them near to himself. He sees his people as a treasured possession, hungering for them to follow Him in obedience so they can shine with his radiance. He longs to draw near to his people and to be heard by them so they may place their trust in Him.
Here’s the amazing part of this story…God desires this same intimacy with you! You are his treasured possession with whom He longs to be close. One author said it best when he commented, “The story of the Bible isn’t primarily about the desire of people to be with God; it’s the desire of God to be with people.” The rest of Scripture rings true with this same message. Consider Paul’s repeated desire to be found in Christ. Consider his famous heart’s cry in Philippians 3 to know “know him.” Of course, Paul is not saying anything different than Jesus himself, who said that eternal life is knowing the Father and His Son (John 17.3).
prayer
Today, let the focus of your time with God be to reflect on his love for you, his care for you, and your value in his eyes. You are His treasured possession!
March 10, 2006
Exodus 34:10, 27-35
Eric Strom, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (Concord)
Read the passage and respond to these questions:
1. Who was initiating and making the covenant spoken of here?
2. What was expected to be the other party’s response to the covenant?
3. What was the purpose of the veil (vs. 33-35)?
When I was young, I would go on skiing trips with my family. Each morning, part of our routine involved my father slapping some sunscreen on my face. I hated that part. Inevitably, the sunscreen had been sitting in the car all night, so it was really cold. Here I was already cold, it being winter in the mountains, and my dad is putting freezing goop on my face. Then one day – a sunny day, I might add – my father forgot the sunscreen. I didn’t say anything, since I hated it so much, and just hit the slopes. To call that a mistake is an understatement. Never before or since have I had such a sunburn in my life! I remember well the looks of mild horror on people’s faces when they saw how red I was. My burn practically glowed. It was not a good thing.
After Moses first spent some time alone with God up on Mount Sinai, his face radiated, too. Only in his case it was a good thing. His radiance came from spending time with God. Having never seen or experienced anything like it, the people were frightened by it. They had never been so close to God before.
Part of the good news of Jesus Christ is that we can now come near to God in prayer. We don’t need an intermediary to speak to God for us. In Christ, we have the privilege and joy of speaking to God, of basking in God’s presence.
prayer
Mighty God, as we bask in your presence even now, fill us with your Spirit, so that we radiate your love and grace to those around us, so that in us they see Christ. Amen.
March 11, 2006
Jeremiah 31:31-34
John Milgate, A Community of Grace (Concord)
Father, Please reveal something of Yourself to me today as Your Spirit takes the things of Jesus and shows them to me.
Read the passage and respond to these questions:
1. How is this covenant like the covenant through Moses (see March 9 & 10) and how is it different from the earlier covenant? ¼br /> 2. What thoughts are connected by the words “but,” “and” and “for”?¼br /> God says He will write on our heart and fellowship with us, “for” He will do something. God’s explanatory “for” takes us to the heart of the new covenant. It’s in verse 34: “for their sins and iniquities I will remember no more!” God says that, in this “new covenant” in which we live, He doesn’t remember our sins. Jesus makes us pure! Are you still holding on to the memory of something God refuses to remember about you? You won’t enjoy the sweetness of God’s other provisions in the “new covenant” unless you embrace the pureness of your heart in Jesus. Pause right now and thank Him that you are a “saint.” Ask Him to cause you to forget your sins!
Because God no longer remembers our sins, we can commune with Him without fear (vs. 33 “and I will be their God, and they will be my people”). Think in terms of newlyweds; each partner enraptured in the other’s love and living out his or her own love for the other. Do you find pleasure in being His beloved? Talk with Him about it!
To such lovers, enjoying God as our own beloved and conscious of His love for us, confident of a heart made pure by Him, God reveals His personal desires (“I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts . . .”). Not the Law of Moses, but “My law.” This “law” is the mind of Christ in our day-to-day life. It is the fruit of the Spirit, the tangible expression of His life within. Not a law of letters, but the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, including His moment-by-moment leading, guidance, assurance, and enabling.
In the “old covenant,” God wrote commands to the people of Israel on tablets of stone to be read, learned, and obeyed. In the “new covenant” God first effects a transformation within, then communes heart to heart, and then continually impresses His own image on our innermost being.
prayer
Lord Jesus, in You I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Thank You!
March 12, 2006
Romans 3:19-28
Art Barrett, New Life Christian Fellowship (Pleasant Hill)
Read the passage and respond to these questions:
1. What is the true purpose of “the Law”?
2. How does the righteousness of God contrast with the righteousness of the Law?
3. What happened to give sinners hope that they could be righteous?
Once upon a time, people who wanted to meet people talked to people about meeting people; soon people met people whom they then dated. Today there is a whole new way to meet people. Online dating is the No. 1 paid content category on the web.
Consider Trish McDermott, co-founder of Match.com, who left the company saying online dating doesn’t work. It sounds easy, “A few dollars down and you’ll discover the love of your life.” Months later and hundreds of dollars lighter, alone on Valentine’s Day, you may feel gypped! But McDermott has a new way, Engage.com, and she claims its solves all the problems!
History shows people dealing with a relationship with God the same way. “Check out the latest new way to God, it solves all your problems.” We have 21st century ideas and sensitivities. Even Oprah tries to help us find new ways of being cool with God. Do this and don’t do that . . . . But before we actually quit doing ‘that,’ we fail at doing ‘this.’
If we are honest, the whole idea that we could really become good by doing good begins to just look stupid. Paul says, “No one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God’s law, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying it.”(vs. 20 nlt)
Only our ignorance allows us to imagine we could suddenly get good. We aren’t good enough be “good enough.” The more we know what God says is “good” the more we see we can’t make a way to do enough good to be good.
Only one who is “good” can make a “good new way.” So God himself made the way. God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. The new way is not predicated on our doing enough good.
What is God’s new way? “We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins.”
Now watch this . . . “And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” (vs. 21-22 nlt)
Underline, “no matter who we are or what we have done.” How does that make you feel about your past, about your future?
March 13, 2006
2 Corinthians 3:4-18
Kevin Murphy, St. Matthew Lutheran (Walnut Creek)
Read the passage and respond to these questions:
1. For what have we been called? where can we find the confidence to do what we are called to do?
2. Is there a ministry for which you have felt inadequate but still sense that god is calling you to do? What word of encouragement do you find in this passage?
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17, nrsv). How do we adequately represent the New Covenant that is only found in Jesus Christ, Paul asks?
• by recognizing that “apart from Him we can do nothing” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6; cf. John 15:5);
• by preaching 90% less Law and 90% more Good News (2 Corinthians 3:7-11);
• by not feigning some false spirituality (like Moses did, 2 Corinthians 3:12-14); and
• by daring to be people who live lives of Christian freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).
What will this Christian freedom look like? It will be transparent. We must be transparent in the places where we are weak and inadequate, which will allow us also to reflect transparently the Lord’s power and glory in our lives.
We can’t do this by pretending or “play acting” (literally “hypocrisy’). It is the work of God’s Spirit in our lives. Paul warns the Galatian Christians that they cannot complete by human will power what God has begun in their lives by the Spirit (Galatians 3:1-5). It is by “believing in God” that the Spirit is able to make the necessary difference in our lives (Galatians 3:6-9).
Prayer
Gracious God, teach us to so trust in your love and mercy that we can live transparently before You and one another. In Jesus’ name and through the Spirit’s power we pray. Amen.