From Sorrow to Joy! From Jeremiah to Jesus!

Transcription

1 From Sorrow to Joy! From Jeremiah to Jesus! Sermon Transcript March 13, 2016 New Covenant Joy! A New Heart Jeremiah 31:31-34 This message from the Bible was addressed originally to the people of Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church on March 13, 2016 at 511 Maple Street, Wethersfield, CT, by Dr. Scott W. Solberg. This is a transcription that bears the strength and weaknesses of oral delivery. It is not meant to be a polished essay. An audio copy of the sermon on CD is available by request at (860) An audio version of this sermon may also be found on the church website at 1

2 Sermon Text Jeremiah 31: Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares 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. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the LORD, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 2

3 Introduction Jesus said of himself in John 15, I am the true vine. For many of us, this is a pretty familiar image we have of Jesus. John 15 is a familiar passage to many of us. Many of you can probably finish the verse that comes just a few verses later, I am the vine; you are the branches. Jesus is using the metaphor of a grapevine to illustrate our relationship with Jesus. One of the main points Jesus is making in this passage is that the branch can t bear fruit if it is not connected to the vine. John Collins is quick to point out that it makes a lot of sense for Jesus to use this image in making his point. Collins says of Jesus, He was speaking to agricultural peasants who were familiar with the vine; its produce was a staple in their diet. 1 Vineyards were somewhat common place in ancient Israel. The first miracle Jesus performed was the turning of water into wine. In Mark 12, Jesus told a parable about a man who planted a vineyard. And of course, last week we looked back to the cup that Jesus held up at Passover. This produce of the vine, says Jesus, has become the sign of the new covenant in my blood. So it does not seem at all out of place for Jesus to take this familiar image of a grapevine to make a spiritual point to his disciples. I wonder, though, could Jesus have made the same point by using some other common or familiar agricultural point of reference? For example, olive trees were a common tree of this region and time. Could Jesus have said, I am the olive tree and you are the branches. It would seem the same principle still applies. An olive branch needs to be connected to the tree for it to bear fruit. Or, could he have used a fig tree to make his point? I am the fig tree and you are the branches. What about a sycamore tree? I am the sycamore tree, you are the branches. Each of these metaphors seem to be interchangeable. That is, if the main point is that if you want to be fruitful and productive in the Christian life, you need to remain connected to Jesus. But what if there is something more being said here than what you might readily see? I believe Jesus does choose his words carefully. You probably would not be surprised to hear me say that there is nothing incidental or haphazard in choosing a grapevine over some other tree to make his point. In fact, Jesus chose a grapevine over any other kind of tree because only the grapevine could be used to make the point Jesus was making about himself and about us. When Jesus says of himself I am the true vine. he is actually making a statement about the new covenant. Through this statement, Jesus is telling us something about his role in fulfilling God s promise to form a people who will partner with God to bring others into a renewed relationship with God. 3

4 The Covenants We are spending some time in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. Right now, we are specifically camping out for four weeks in Jeremiah 31: I mentioned last week that this is one of the most important passages in the Bible and it is the only place in the Old Testament where the phrase new covenant is used. The reason this is such an important passage is because the New Testament is all about the new covenant. Everything we are doing this morning has to do with the new covenant. So these words from the ancient prophet have something to say to you and me this morning. In Jeremiah 31:31, Jeremiah writes, Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Those days have come. The phrase new covenant implies that there was at least an old covenant. In fact, we discovered last week that there is actually a series of covenants in the Old Testament that string together the story of the Bible. The covenants move you along the storyline of the Bible: from Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to the people of Israel, to David and then ultimately, to Jesus. These covenants tell us how God is at work to restore this broken and fallen world. Through these covenants, we discover how God forms a people who are brought into covenant relationship with God for the purpose of partnering with what God is doing in this world. And what is it that God wants to do through his people who are brought into covenant relationship with God? Through God s people, God wants the world to know that the secret to life is found in knowing God. St. Augustine put it this way, To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement. God can be found because through these covenants of grace, God has moved towards us and made himself known. So seek him with all your heart. That is what Jeremiah says to the people of Israel who find themselves in exile. In Jeremiah 29:13-14, You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD. This is a promise of God that is anchored in the new covenant. God can be found. I would like to briefly rehearse two of the covenants we saw last week. Early on in the story of the Bible we see how God enters into covenant with a man by the name of Abraham. What you find God doing in all of his covenant relationships is that he makes promises. What was the promise that he made with Abraham? He promised to give Abraham many descendants. God compared the number of descendants promised to Abraham to the grains of sand along the shore and the number of stars in the sky. But for what purpose did God make this grand promise? It was through the descendants of Abraham, God promised to make himself known to this broken world. 4

5 God keeps his promise to Abraham and in time, the descendants of Abraham become known as the people of Israel. Having delivered them from bondage in Egypt, God brings them to Mt. Sinai where he enters into covenant with them. It is here where they officially become the people of God. As God s covenant partners, their responsibility is to make God known to the world around them. They are to do this by keeping God s commandments. It is here where God gives them the ten commandments. After Easter, we are going to spend time looking at the ten commandments. These commandments reflect the righteous character of God. And so as covenant partners with God, if the people of Israel are faithful covenant partners by keeping the commandments, they will demonstrate to the nations around them what it is like to know and love God. For where we are going this morning, this is important to understand. When the people of Israel were gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai and about to become covenant partners with God in this world, God said to them in Exodus 19:5; If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples. But God doesn t stop there. In his very next breath, God says, for all the earth is mine. And he goes on to say that if they keep this covenant, they will become a kingdom of priests. In other words, as they obey the commandments given to them in this covenant, Israel will bring the blessing and presence of God to the nations around them. God s intent for Israel is conveyed in Isaiah 49:6 when he says, I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation will reach to the end of the earth. As covenant partners with God in this world, God will make himself known to the world through Israel. But what have we discovered as we have spent time in the book of Jeremiah? Israel failed to be a faithful covenant partner with God. In Jeremiah 31:32, it says that Israel broke covenant with God. In Jeremiah 11, God reminds them of the covenant he made with their fathers back at Mt. Sinai and how over and over again God called them to obey his voice. But we learn in Jeremiah 11:8, Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. So in Jeremiah 2, we discover how Israel had forsaken God and chased after other gods. In Jeremiah 17, we read how they failed to honor the Sabbath. In Jeremiah 7, we read of the charge against them in failing to execute justice. They oppressed the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow. They were guilty of shedding innocent blood. Clearly you can hear overtones of breaking the ten commandments in this indictment that is read against them all throughout the book of Jeremiah. Consequently, the book of Jeremiah ends with the people of Israel removed from the land and living in exile. Jeremiah 52 leaves us with the city of Jerusalem lying in ruins. 5

6 But more fundamental than that, it is very apparent that the people of Israel are incapable of being faithful covenant partners with God to bring the blessing of God to the world. It leaves us wondering how God will keep his promise to form a covenant people through whom he will bring his blessing to this broken world. How will God bless this world through the children of Abraham? How will God form a covenant people who will represent God to this world? A Broken Vineyard The major prophets in the Old Testament are Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. A prophet is someone who represents God to the people. The prophet comes to the people with a word from God. These three major prophets are constantly heard calling the people of Israel to repent and to turn back to God. Each of these major prophets rehearse how Israel failed to be faithful covenant partners with God in this world. Do you know what image each of these prophets used to describe Israel s failure to keep covenant with God? Do you know what image each of these prophets used when they described how Israel broke covenant with God and how God consequently sent them off into exile? Each of these prophets used the image of a vineyard that had been trampled and destroyed. Actually, the grapevine became a national symbol for the people of Israel. Just a few hundred years before Christ, the vine was a symbol found on their coins and it was symbol that stood for the nation of Israel. Isaiah, the first of the three major prophets, begins in Isaiah 5 by speaking of the great care by which God formed the people of Israel. He compared it to the great care it takes to plant a vineyard. He starts by saying, Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved has a vineyard on a fertile hill. In poetic fashion, Isaiah goes on to describe how with great care God established his vineyard the people of God. If you know the story of the beginnings of the people of Israel, you know all that God did to establish them as a people. From Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob and then to his twelves sons, you can see the hand of God at work. There is the story of Joseph betrayed by his brothers and sold into Egypt, but at the end of that story you can see the hand of God at work. There is the miraculous way God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. The parting of the Red Sea is no common occurrence. Then, in spite of their rebellion, God provided for them for forty years in the wilderness and he miraculously brought them into the promised land. Adversity and even the sins of Israel did not keep God from carefully forming them and planting them in the promised land. Isaiah compared this careful work of God to one who carefully planted choice vines, put 6

7 in a watchtower, surrounded it with a hedge and he pruned it and hoed the ground. I have a very vivid image of this in my mind because this past summer Bonnie and I were in California and we toured some of the vineyards in Napa Valley. It was amazing to see all the care that went into these beautiful vineyards. No matter where you stood, everything was so symmetrical and they were meticulously pruned. These vineyards were all over the countryside, making for a scenic drive. Consequently, I have a little appreciation for all that goes into managing a good vineyard. Using this image of a vineyard, God says of Israel in Isaiah 5:4, What more is there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it. After all God had done for the people of Israel, he had expected to see good fruit. But instead God found wild grapes. And so he says, I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured; I will break down its walls and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. If there is any question as to who God is referring to through this metaphor he concludes in Isaiah 5:7, For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah. Ezekiel also uses the image of a vineyard to describe Israel s relationship with God. But by the time you get to Ezekiel 15 you discover that the grapevine is already dead. And so the prophet wonders out loud, what good is the wood of a vine? What can you do with the wood of a vine that has no fruit? Not much! It is only good for burning. And so it is with Jerusalem, says Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 15:8 he says, I will make the land desolate, because they have acted treacherously declares the LORD God. Bearing fruit is one of those churchy phrases we use a lot and perhaps we assume everyone knows what we are talking about when we use it. But do you know what the Old Testament prophets meant when they talked about being fruitful? It meant being faithful. It meant that Israel was to be faithful covenant partners with God. But no good fruit was found. In other words, the people of Israel were not faithful. Ezekiel says that this vineyard was trampled down because the people of Israel acted faithlessly. Isaiah said in Isaiah 5 that God looked for justice, but behold bloodshed. We come to Jeremiah 2:21 and Jeremiah puts it this way, Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? In the very next verse he defines what he means. He accuses them of not being faithful by referring to the stain of their guilt. I like the way the Greek version of the Old Testament translates this verse, Yet I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, all true; How then 7

8 have you turned into bitterness, O wild vine? Collins writes, God planted Israel to be the true vine, intending for them to bear fruit. The prophets teach us that bearing fruit means living lives of faithfulness, through which God would bring his light to the world. 2 But Israel failed to be that true vine and so it leaves us to wonder, how will God bring his light and blessing to this broken world? The New Covenant - A New Heart Can we go back and replay the words of Jesus from John 15:1? I am the true vine. With the backdrop of what we just saw from the Old Testament, what is Jesus saying here? In claiming to be the true vine Jesus is declaring to be the true Israel through whom God will form a people who partner with God to bring others into a renewed relationship with God. He is actually making a play on the words used in Jeremiah, Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. Or as it says in the Greek version, Yet I planted you a fruit-bearing vine, all true. But as we have seen the story unfold for us in the book of Jeremiah, we see that the people of Israel were not of pure seed. Jesus is the true vine. Unlike Israel, Jesus is a faithful covenant partner who keeps the law of God for us. Is this not the essence of the new covenant that we saw last week? Did we not discover last week that what Israel could not do, Jesus can do. That is the point Paul is making in 2 Corinthians 1:20, For all the promises of God find their Yes in Jesus. If you go back to what Jeremiah said about the new covenant, you will discover three things that will come as a result of the work of Jesus, the true vine. Jeremiah says in verse 33, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares 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.... I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Through Jesus, the true vine, we are given a new heart, made into a new people and given a new standing before God. I want to spend the rest of my time this morning by talking about the new heart that is given to us through Jesus and the new covenant. Jeremiah says, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. He is speaking here about the work of the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel is a little more obvious when he says in Ezekiel 36:26-27, And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. The promise of the new covenant is that through the Holy Spirit, God is going to do something inside of us. God is going to change us from the inside out. 8

9 It has been said this way. When God gave the law to the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, Moses went up to the mountain where there was fire and lightning and he met with God. When he came down, he had with him the law of God written on stone tablets. But when Jesus ascended to God, he sent the Holy Spirit who descended upon the disciples on Pentecost with tongues of fire. When the Spirit was sent, he wrote the law of God on the hearts of God s people. That is the difference. Do you know what Jeremiah 17:1 says about the heart of the people of Israel? It says that sin was written on their hearts. It says, The sin of Judah was written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart. And that was the problem. Yes, they received the law of God having had it written for them on stone tablets by the very finger of God. But on their hearts was written the law of sin and so they were unable to be the faithful covenant partners with God to bring about the blessing of God to the world. Now, before you cast the first stone, know that this was true of you and me as well. That is, until through the Holy Spirit, God rewrote what was on our hearts. How does the Spirit of God rewrite our hearts? The first thing he does is that he unites us to Christ. It is the branch that abides in Christ that bears fruit. By uniting us to Christ, the true vine, we are united to the one who has faithfully kept the law of God and who has also paid the penalty for our sin through his death on the cross. And so as we abide in Christ we become part of the covenant family of God. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that unites us to Christ. I find in very interesting that John 15 is between John 14 and John 16. In these two chapters, Jesus is talking about the coming Holy Spirit. In John 16, he says that when the Holy Spirit comes he will convict the world of sin. This is what Jesus is talking about in John 3 when he says, you must be born again. In other words, when you put John 14, 15 and 16 together, you discover that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that unites you to Jesus. You may be here this morning because you sense something is missing in your life. Perhaps you have a restless spirit within you. And yet at the same time, as you hear God s word you sense a stirring in your heart. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. He points us to Jesus. He breathes spiritual life into us. If you are sensing this stirring in your heart, I would encourage you to seek after God and to learn what it means to know Jesus Christ. Remember, if you seek him, he can be found. Starting on Sunday, April 10, we have a group that will be meeting called Exploring Faith. It meets on Sunday 9

10 mornings for seven weeks at 9:30. It is a great way to learn what it means to be in Christ and united to the true vine. Jesus fulfilled all that is required of God and by being in Christ we receive the blessing of a new heart. Turn in faith to Jesus! Do you know what else the Holy Spirit does in us? He empowers us and energizes us to keep the commandments of God. Being fruitful is still being faithful. But our ability to be faithful is the product of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. The fruit of the Spirit is love. The summary of the commandments is to love God and to love others. You can t legislate love. Love is the work that God produces in us through the Spirit of God who is now living in us through faith in Jesus. That is the essence of the new covenant. My thoughts for this sermon were largely shaped by an article I read by John Collins on what it means to abide in the vine. What does it mean for us to abide in Christ? As we become part of the covenant people of God through faith, the calling is still the same. We are to be faithful. We are to represent God to this world. The church is the presence of Christ in this world. So how do we abide in Christ? How do we bear fruit as covenant people of God united in Christ? How do we abide in Christ? Collins writes, When most of us read these words about abiding, we probably think about individual practices of Bible reading, prayer, resisting temptation, and attending worship service. All of these are good and certainly a part of what it means to abide. But they are a small part of a larger picture. 3 He reminds us that when we are connected to the vine to Jesus we become part of the people of God. And so as we become connected to each other in the church, the life of Christ is formed in us. He said, To abide in Christ is to use our connection to other Christians as the vehicle by which Christ ministers life to us and each of us is a vehicle of Christ s life to others. 4 In fact, Jesus tells us two times in John 15 to love one another. We need each other. The other week I had the joy of sitting down with most of our community group leaders. Right now we have 26 community groups and 270 people involved in community groups. I was so encouraged to hear what God is doing through these groups. It is an illustration of what it means to abide in Christ. I shared with the community group leaders how engaging in community is a keystone habit. A keystone habit is a habit that has impact on forming other good habits. I am convinced that the habit of forming regular community with God s people is what God uses to shape our hearts and enable us to be the presence of God in this world. Through community we grow in prayer, and in serving each other, in other disciplines. We are also carried along during our times of 10

11 Conclusion doubt and times of darkness. Through all of this, we become a people who bring the presence of God to this world. This is what the Spirit of God uses to shape our hearts. Next week when we have sign-ups for community groups, make sure you sign up. It is through community that we abide with one another and the Spirit of God shapes our hearts. Jesus is the true vine. He is the true Israel through whom God is forming a people who partner with what God is doing in this world. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God gives us a new heart. If you are yet to turn to Christ, repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus. You need to be in Christ. And then, through the power of the Spirit, we will bear the fruit of faithfulness to God as we remain connected to each other. So press in on community and watch how the Spirit of God uses God s people to shape our hearts so that we can be the presence of Christ to this world. 1 John Collins Abiding in the Vine in Christianity Today March Ibid 3 Ibid 4 Ibid by Dr. Scott Solberg - All rights reserved 11

12 Sermon Title: New Covenant Joy! A New Heart Sermon Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34 Sermon Date: March 13, 2016 Getting To Know Me Questions 1. In preparing for Holy Week, share what you most appreciate about the story of the cross and the empty tomb. How do you intend to spend time during that week in spiritual reflection? 2. What do you think would be a good next step for your community group? Is there some way you can better care for each other? Is there some way you can work together to serve others outside of your group? Is there someone you can invite to join your group for the next segment starting the week of April 10 th? Or, is there something else you would like to consider? 3. Share what you learned from the sermon this week. Diving Into The Word 4. Read Isaiah 5:1-7. Discuss how this passage pictures God s relationship with Israel and Israel s failure to be God s faithful covenant partner in this world. From the story of Israel, can you identify ways God carefully planted them and took care of them. What kind of fruit did God expect of Israel? Read also Ezekiel 15 and Jeremiah 2:21 5. Read Jeremiah 17:1. What was written on the hearts of the people of Israel? How does this describe the general nature of man? Read Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36: How do these passages describe the hope that we have in the new covenant? 6. Read John 15:1. Based on what you heard in the sermon, what is Jesus saying about himself here? What is Jesus able to do that Israel can t do? It is through the work of the Holy Spirit that we are united by faith in Jesus Christ. Share with the group what it was like for you when Jesus became real in your life. 7. Read Galatians 5: This is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. If abiding in Christ includes being connected to each other, how does the Holy Spirit use his people to transform our hearts? How has being connected in community helped form and shape your faith? 8. Read John 15:15 - Nothing compares with Jesus calling you his friend and treating you as a coworker in bringing blessing to the world. How do we bring blessing to this world by simply staying connected to Christ s body? Taking It Home 9. Fill in the blank: Thank you God for God help me 12