St Theodore's

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  Sermon of the Week 

Look up the passage

  30/7/00   
  A New Covenant  Jer 31:15-34 
     
  "Surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope." Those words from Jer 29 must have raised mixed feelings among the exiles when they heard them. They were words of hope but in a hopeless situation. But what were these plans that God had for his people? How was he going to carry them out? As we read them we're prompted to ask the same question. What were these plans? Were they simply, as the following verses suggest, to bring his people back from exile to Israel? To re-establish them in Jerusalem? Or was there more to God's plan than that?
  It's quite normal, isn't it, for plans to be multifaceted. You make plans to do one thing, but that involves a number of other steps. Our Parish plan, for example, aims to bring people to faith in Christ, to nurture them in their faith, and to encourage each one of us to grow in our knowledge of Christ. But to get there we have a whole range of subsidiary plans. We plan to run outreach events. We plan to run a Sunday School and kids club and youth group. We plan to make our services encouraging and uplifting using culturally relevant music and forms of worship. And so forth. Our plans are various, but they all move us in a particular direction. 
  So too, with the plans God had for his people. As we'll see in a moment, God's plan for his people was to unite them again, under his rule, but in such a way that no longer would they stray from his way like lost sheep. In fact, the plans he had for his people now were no different from the plans he'd had all along. Even from the moment of the first call to Abram to leave his country and go where God would direct, God's plan was the same: to create a people for himself, through whom all the peoples of the earth would be blessed. 
  But we're getting ahead of ourselves. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Jeremiah 30, because before we can look at the plans revealed in Jeremiah 31 we need to understand the context of those plans. "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you." Up to this point Jeremiah has been speaking to the people of Judah, the southern kingdom. But suddenly, here, the message becomes a message for all of the divided nation. God names himself the LORD, the God of Israel. This is his historic title from the days when Israel was a united nation. In v3 he says: "the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors and they shall take possession of it." The plans he's about to describe encompass the whole nation, north and south. In v6 of ch31 we see the people of the northern kingdom, represented by the tribe of Ephraim, returning to Jerusalem to worship God.
  But wait, there's more. As we think about it with hindsight, there's an even greater scope to this plan, as God's intention to bless all peoples through Abraham's descendants is worked out. In fact, this plan is of such importance that Jeremiah is to write it down. This wasn't just a proclamation to the people of his day. It was meant for later generations as well.
  The message is a message of liberation, of God bringing his people back from exile, back from the place of punishment. But that isn't to overlook the reason for their being in exile. He reminds them again of the prophecies he'd already given, announcing God's judgement for their disobedience (vs5-7). He reminds them of their inability to help themselves, and of the justice of the punishment they're experiencing (v12-15). But at the same time he promises that he will come and save them. In v18 he says "I am going to restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob, and have compassion on his dwellings; v19: he says: "I will make them many, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be disdained." They're unable to heal themselves, (v12) but God is coming to supply the remedy. And look at what that remedy will be (v21): "Their prince shall be one of their own, their ruler shall come from their midst; I will bring him near, and he shall approach me." A King is coming who will be not just a king, but a priest as well. One who will be invited into God's presence. Here is the priest-king of Psalm 110: "The LORD says to my lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' 2The LORD sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes. &127 4The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.'" 
  The writer to the Hebrews takes up this idea in Heb 4-8 where he describes Jesus Christ as this Priest after the order of Melchizedek: (Heb 8:1 NRSV) "Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens" In other words, this prophecy of Jeremiah of a king who will arise from their own midst and will enter God's presence, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And so we begin to get an inkling of the long term scope of this plan of God.
  As we move into ch 31 the picture is again this idyllic picture of restoration. There's a reminder in v2 of the exodus, and the picture that's then given is of the land flowing with milk and honey, of the people being fruitful and multiplying, of rejoicing, of God's protection, of prosperity and peace. 
  Even the reminder of their suffering in v15 won't be for long. There is hope, even for those who have lost their children to the exile. V17: "there is hope for your future, says the LORD: your children shall come back to their own country." Notice, by the way, that v15 is quoted by Matthew about the slaughter by Herod of those children under the age of 2. He's obviously associated this prophecy with the coming of Jesus. Is he saying that now there's hope for the future because Jesus has come to bring people back to God? But there's more to it than that. Rachel is crying for her children because her children were Joseph and Benjamin. While Benjamin has stayed with Judah in the south, Joseph (represented by his sons Ephraim and Manasseh) is now scattered. But already things are changing. Ephraim has begun to repent. He's realised the errors of his ways and now desires to return to the Lord (vs18-19). And so God will bring him back along with all those who are left of his people scattered throughout the world. And again Jerusalem will be blessed.
  At that point Jeremiah wakes from the vision he's been having and feels refreshed. He says my sleep was pleasant to me. This may well have been a nice change for him. I imagine his sleep was often spoilt by visions that were a bit less pleasant than this one.
  But the prophecy doesn't end there. In fact this is only the beginning of the outline of God's plan. You see, there was a basic flaw in the plan of God up to this point and God knew it. It was that the success of the plan depended on the ability of his people to do what God commanded them. Now we all know, don't we, how hard it is to obey God in everything we do. Ephesians 2 describes it like this: (Eph 2:1-2 NRSV) "You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once lived, following the course of this world" The normal state of the human heart is death. That is, it's unable to choose to do what's right. Instead it's a slave to sin. So if God was going to bring his plan to fruition, something basic needed to change. He needed to make some changes at the root of the problem. He needed to change us from the heart out. 
  So he says, the days are coming when things will be different: "The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt -- a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more." The old covenant was a covenant with a nation. It was a covenant that expected the whole nation to work together to serve God. It was a representative covenant, so that the elders, the priests and the kings determined the spiritual state of the people under them. It meant that if one generation disobeyed, the following generation reaped the results. But now, "they shall no longer say: "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." 30But all shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge." Corporate responsibility is about to be replaced by individual accountability.
  But that's because the means of obeying is going to change as well. "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD;" That passage from Ephesians 2 goes on to say: "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." God's plan is to bring his people back to life, to make it possible for us to respond in obedience to what's now written on our hearts.
  When I first studied computing at university we wrote our programs by hand, coded them onto cards and fed the cards into the computer, which would then carry out the instructions we'd worked out. It was a slow and laborious process to get the computer to do even a minor task. These days though I can sit down at my computer, open up a complex spreadsheet or database or word processing document and with relative ease do quite complex calculations. What's made the difference? It's that all those complex instructions are now written on the heart of the computer. I don't have to tell it how to find something, or how to resize a drawing. It knows how to do it already.
  That, says God, is what he's done with us. He's written on our hearts how he wants us to live so we don't need someone reminding us all the time. Now of course we're not computers are we? We still have the ability to choose whether we'll obey or not, so there's another step necessary in God's plan. That step is found in the parallel prophecy to this one in Ezekiel 37 where he also promises to make an everlasting covenant with his people. That promise is prefaced by this: "And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live." (Ezek 37:13-14 NRSV) God writes his law on our hearts and at the same time gives us his Holy Spirit to give us new life, to help us to obey him. To teach us all things and to remind us of what we've been taught, Jesus says in John 14.
  And so, as we watch history unfolding we see the plan of God moving to its conclusion. We see God raising up a people for himself. A people, not characterised by their national identity, but characterised by this: that God has put his Spirit within them to give them life; that he's written his law on their hearts so they'll know how to obey him; a people whose sins are forgiven through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and to whom God has said, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people".
  At that point we need to jump forward again to Ephesians, because there at the beginning of Ephesians we find God's plan for the ages outlined in succinct fashion: (Eph 1:3-10 NRSV) "he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." 
  Here is God's plan, a plan for our welfare, not for our harm. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be adopted as his children. He chose us to be holy and blameless before him in love. He redeemed us from slavery to sin through the blood of Christ. And the aim of his plan, the end to which it's moving, is to gather up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth, to put everything under the headship of Christ. Have you given any thought of late to the fact that you're part of God's eternal plan for the universe? That God chose you before the foundation of the world to be his child? That he chose you to be holy and blameless before him? Well let me ask you what difference that's making to your life. Are you asking his Spirit to fill you, to remind you of what Jesus taught, to help you follow those laws that God has written on your heart? Are you co-operating with the Spirit in making you the new person that God wants you to be?
  As we've gone through Jeremiah, one idea that's been at the fore throughout is that each of us can make a difference. It is possible to run with the horses with God's help. This is our last week on Jeremiah, though the book contains much more that would be worth your personal study. The message I hope you'll take away with you is this: God has chosen us to be his people for a purpose: to show forth his glory through the way we live in obedience to him, and to share the good news of his deliverance with others. If we can do that, as hard as it might be at times, then we'll clearly show that his Spirit is at work in us, that his law is written on our hearts and that the new covenant in Christ's blood is enacted in our lives. 
                       
 
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