The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, March 29, 2009. The text for this week's comes from Jeremiah 31:31-34.
Last week we spent a lot of time looking at John 3, and here are a few of the highlights just to refresh your memory. Nicodemus, even though he was one of the spiritual leaders of the Jewish people, did not understand the things that Jesus was teaching. Because he was born Jewish, he thought that there was no need for him to be born again. He was already part of God’s covenant people by virtue of his birth. But Jesus challenged this assumption by giving Nicodemus a fresh perspective on one of the more well-known stories from the book of Numbers.
Even though the people were Israelites, not all were saved from the poison of the serpents that were biting people through the camp. Those that were saved were the ones that looked upon the bronze snake that Moses lifted up for the people to see. In the same way, we have been poisoned spiritually, but there was one who was lifted up so that we may be healed. If we look to Jesus, the spiritual poison that lives in each one of us can be cured. We cannot rely on our birth to save us. No one is born a Christian, regardless of family or nation of origin. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but by being born of spirit, we can be a part of God’s spiritual family. True life comes through being born again into God’s family.
Sometimes, we look through the Old Testament and get frustrated about how often the Israelites strayed away from God. We think on some level that they were really messed up and confused about everything that was going on at the time. They certainly had some sense of national identity, but they didn’t really have the same kind of unity and understanding when it came to their religious identity. More often than we’d like to admit, we see our forefathers in the faith straying away from the one true God and worshiping the idols of their neighbors.
Over and over again, the Israelites would fall into idolatry. It was a seemingly endless cycle, until God intervened in a big way. God’s intervention appeared in a most unlikely way. The people, God’s people, who lived in the land that God had promised to their forefather Abraham, were exiled. The Babylonian army came in, conquered Jerusalem and exiled the Israelite leaders. Seventy years later, the Persians conquered Babylon, and the Israelites were allowed to return to their home. And from this point forward, the never turned to idolatry again.
They identified themselves as God’s people; children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They remembered their identity as the people who were brought out of Egypt and made a covenant with God in the wilderness at Mount Sinai. They raised their families in the ways of the Lord. By the first century, by the time Jesus was on the scene, not only did the Jewish people know the Law, but they also were familiar with the hedge that was built around the Law. This was the protective series of laws that, if kept, would assure that none would break the Law that was given by God.
The problem was no longer idolatry, but now the Jewish people were more concerned about following the strict laws that had been handed down to them by the elders. Their hearts weren’t in the right place any more. It wasn’t about being in relationship with God; it was about doing the right things and assuming that God would bless them because they were His covenant people. They were the chosen people of God, and it was only a matter of time before the rest of the world saw it. Instead of seeing God’s covenant as a standard by which to live, they saw it as their birthright. But they missed some very important parts of Scripture, that would describe something that was on the horizon, and it wasn’t just for the Jewish people, but for all people.
In Jeremiah 31, the author tells us that God will establish a new covenant with His people. No longer will they have to take the law and memorize it, but the law will be written on their hearts. It is a new covenant that will confirm the people as God’s people. It won’t be a treaty that is signed between two parties, but it will be something that profoundly changes the lives of those involved. This new covenant is not something that can be easily ignored because it will be internalized by the people. It is a change in the heart.
If you don’t remember anything else today, remember this: The new covenant is God’s way of reaching into our lives and transforming us into His people by the forgiveness that is available in Christ. It’s not about following a strict list of laws. And it’s not about birthright. Like I said last week, being a Christian is not a matter being born in America. It’s not a matter of being born in a Christian home. And if we want to get brutally honest here, it’s not a matter of just showing up on Sunday morning.
Being a Christian is a choice. It is a choice that we have to consciously make every day until we get to the point in our lives where it takes over every aspect of our lives.
When we stop just showing up on Sunday morning, and start to listen to God’s voice on a daily basis, then we start to understand what this new covenant is about. It’s about living in close relationship with God on a daily basis. It’s about how we live out our Christian life Sunday afternoon to Saturday night; not just about being present on Sunday morning. We are here on Sunday morning to strengthen our relationships with one another, to build relationships with new people that may come through the door and to recharge after a week of living out our faith in the world. Our faith, our covenant life with God, is lived out beyond these walls.
If you took an honest look at your life right now, outside of being in church on Sunday morning, how often do you listen for God’s voice over the course of the week. I’m not saying this to make anybody feel guilty, but to cause us to take an honest look at our lives. Are we living out the faith we profess? Do we make room for God in our daily schedule? Have we internalized the new covenant in our lives? One of the books that I’ve been reading lately talks about the necessity of taking an honest look at where we are. It may not be the prettiest thing to look at, but if we really want God to be at work in our spiritual lives, then we need to take a hard look at where we need God to do the most work. It’s going to be messy. There are places in our lives that simply don’t want God to touch. But here again, like we talked about last week, when God turns on the lights, we can let our eyes adjust or we can run back to the darkness.
The scariest thing about living in the light is knowing that we have messed up somewhere along the way. Often we let our past control our future, and here’s what I mean by that: many people are trapped by their past. There are things in our past that we cannot let go. We punish ourselves for our past sins. We bring them up time and time again. It’s not like we make it the topic of conversations, but we think about them all the time. We cannot let our past define us. The good news of the gospel, the good news of the new covenant, is what God says here in verse 34, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” If God can move past our sins, why can’t we?
Forgiveness is available through Jesus Christ. The new covenant is available through Jesus Christ. New life is available through Jesus Christ. When we recognize the sins of our past and take them to God, we don’t have to worry about them any more. In Psalm 103, the writer says that God removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. Now, the last geography class that I had was in high school, but I’m pretty sure that east and west are pretty far apart. We don’t have to worry about our sin when we come to Jesus.
The new covenant is God’s way of reaching into our lives and transforming us into His people by the forgiveness that is available in Christ. Jesus doesn’t want us to wait until we get our lives together to come to him. He wants us now, with all of our baggage, with all of our junk. If we are already perfect, there isn’t a whole lot of transformation that needs to take place. God’s new covenant is about transformation. Moving from who we were to who we are supposed to be – that’s what the new covenant is all about.
So the question that we have to ask ourselves at this point is, “Now what?” Now that we know what the new covenant is, what do we do with it? Now that we know we can be forgiven and begin a new life in the presence of God as His people, what are we to do? The simple answer, if there is such a thing as a simple answer for a question like this, is “live it out.” Live out your faith on a daily basis. Each morning, when you wake up, make a conscious decision to follow God. Remember Jesus’ teaching: deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Him. I’m not going to stand up here today and tell you what it looks like to live out your faith on a daily basis because the fact is that it’s different for each person. But there are some very basic common threads that can be seen in the life of a disciple.
The first is that one spends time with God. This is time reading the Bible, as well as time in prayer. The reason that I challenged everyone to spend 15 minutes a day reading the Bible is not because 15 minutes is some kind of magical formula, but because it’s a way to ease into Bible reading on a daily basis. If you want to read more, then do it. If you can’t quite fill 15 minutes each day, that’s all right too. Just spend some time each day reading the Bible.
Praying can be another effective way to communicate with God. And here’s a little known secret regarding prayer. It’s a closely guarded secret and I risk having my seminary degree revoked by sharing it, but I’m going to say it anyway. Anybody can pray. There are no secret words that have to be said. There are no formulas that have to be followed. Prayer is a conversation between us and God. There’s no need for us to fill the silence. We don’t have to do all the talking. In fact, I would recommend spending some of your prayer time in silence. When we pray, we don’t tell God anything that He doesn’t already know. But we put ourselves in a position to hand things over to Him and to listen. Very rarely will you hear an audible voice, but God has a way of moving our hearts if we are open to it.
A second thread that is seen in the life of disciples is spending time with fellow believers. This is where showing up on Sunday morning is important. While coming to church every Sunday doesn’t make you a Christian; not coming on a consistent basis makes it very difficult to live out the faith on a daily basis. We are built for fellowship. We are created in the image of God, and God is eternally the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is always in community. We also need to be in community with other believers. We can lift up one another, learn from one another and live out our lives together. I’m a big supporter of small groups because they are opportunities for us to live our lives together. To grow together, to hold one another accountable and to support one another when things are difficult. Down the road, I’d like to see everybody as a part of a small group. That’s how important I think they are.
A third thread has to do with stewardship. And remember what I said when I first got here: stewardship is not just about money. Stewardship is about being faithful with what God has given. That includes money. Do we recognize that our money comes from God? Do we use our money wisely so that God may be glorified in our giving? It also includes the message of the gospel. Are we being good stewards of the gospel? Are we sharing it with others? Stewardship also includes the gifts and graces for ministry that we’ve been given. Do we know how God has gifted us for ministry? Are we using those gifts to build the kingdom of God? Again, down the road, I’d like to do a brief study on spiritual gifts and look for ways to involve everyone’s gifts on some level. A disciple is one who recognizes that everything we have comes from God, and everything we are is because of God.
We are all at different points along the road of discipleship. There’s nothing wrong with that. There doesn’t need to be any kind of pride or disappointment over the fact that there are some further down the road and some that are way behind. In fact, it’s wise to listen to those who are further down the road than we are. It’s also wise to be a model for those who are behind us on the road as well.
So this week, let me encourage you to take another step forward in your faith. When you wake up tomorrow morning, make the decision to follow God. Know that there is freedom in Christ. Know that your past doesn’t have a hold on you any more. Listen to what it is that He has in store for the day. Look for ways to share the message of God’s forgiveness and love with other people. And remember that the new covenant is God’s way of reaching into our lives and transforming us into His people by the forgiveness that is available in Christ. Accept that forgiveness and allow God to transform your life.
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