The Blood of the New Covenant

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:10

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

00:18

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

00:25

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

00:30

Luke chapter 22. Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the

00:37

Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the

00:44

Passover for us that we may eat it. They said to him, where will you have us prepare it?

00:50

He said to them, behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.

00:56

Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room where I may eat the

01:03

Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished, prepare it there.

01:10

And they went and found it just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover. And when the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him and he said to them,

01:21

I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

01:29

And he took a cup and when he had given thanks he said, take this and divide it among yourselves.

01:35

For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

01:41

And he took the bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you.

01:48

Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

01:57

This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

02:05

Hear again these words from the Prophet Jeremiah, behold the days are coming declares the Lord when

02:11

I will make a new covenant, new one, with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

02:17

Now do not be deceived here or at least misinformed. You sit there and go, well what does that have to do with me?

02:24

I am not of the house of Israel or of the house of Judah. Fear not because we

02:29

Gentiles, we have been grafted into Israel and Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.

02:36

And so this is a covenant that he is making with us. Consider the old covenant if you would, the one that came via Mount Sinai, thunders, lightning crashes, and the loud voice of God speaking from the top of Mount Sinai.

02:53

These are the words of God, you shall have no other gods before me. And you can almost hear the thundercrash and the lightning going with it.

03:02

And then he goes down the line through all of the commandments and at the end of it people of Israel at the base of the mountain were shaking in their sandals saying, we don't want

03:16

God to talk to us anymore. You talk to us Moses but not God. Such is the law.

03:28

And you'll know, each of us, if we are honest, that thundering voice of God from Mount Sinai, when he says thou shalt not, thou shalt, we consider our own lives in light of those commandments.

03:46

We too, like the children of Israel at the foot of Mount Sinai, now also shake in fear, rightfully so.

03:57

For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a righteous and angry

04:02

God, who is righteously angry, wrathful towards our sin, because we have sided with the devil.

04:13

But what is this new covenant of which Jesus is speaking? A new covenant, a new contract.

04:19

The old one hasn't quite done its work. Well, consider what the book of Hebrews says in this regard, a little bit more context than our text from the epistle.

04:32

Here it says in Hebrews 9, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and the more perfect tabernacle, not the one made with hands, not the one of this creation, he entered once and for all into the holy places, not by the means of blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

05:04

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, well how much more, how much more would the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, how much more will then will he purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living

05:29

God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant. And there's that talk again, a new covenant.

05:37

Remember in the Old Testament, covenants were generally cut, which means that animals died.

05:43

You think of Abraham, when God cut his covenant with him, he had all these animals cut in half and the pieces laying next to each other.

05:54

And God, in cutting that covenant with Abraham, caused him to fall into a deep sleep.

06:00

And God is the one who laid out all of the promises of that covenant and all of the curses, and he is the who fulfilled every single one of them.

06:11

Because that's how God works. So now Jesus is a mediator of a new covenant. We think of mediators, this all sounds so legal, we need a mediator, we're cutting a contract, we got a new covenant, well that's kind of the thing.

06:24

Because when we have this covenant, the covenant is now between you and I, and God the

06:30

Father. So Jesus now is the mediator of this new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

06:43

Doesn't this sound like something that you would like to hear from an investment banker? Yeah, we got a mediator, we got a contract, and yeah, there's this inheritance we need to have a discussion with you about.

06:53

It does kind of sound that way, doesn't it? But see, that's kind of the point when it comes to new covenant talk.

07:01

These are all legally binding promises, legally binding, at least God himself has bound himself to this covenant.

07:09

And so those who are called, who are called by the mercy of Christ, called out of darkness, called out of the dominion of the devil through the waters of baptism, through the preaching of the gospel, through the receiving and the hearing of the means of grace, and that faith that God gives, that they are the ones who receive then the promised eternal inheritance.

07:32

And Jeremiah himself alludes to that eternal inheritance in his text that we read, where he says, listen,

07:39

I'm making a new covenant. It's 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.

07:47

But my covenant that they broke, you know, I was their husband, declares the Lord. See, that covenant was kaput because, well, man didn't keep that covenant.

07:57

And so God describes himself here with that original Mosaic covenant as the husband of Israel, but Israel became an errant and adulterous wife.

08:07

But he's cutting a new covenant, making a new contract, better promises.

08:13

In fact, this is the covenant that I will make, God says, with the house of Israel. Again, we've all been grafted in.

08:19

The house of Israel, after those days, declares the Lord, I'll put my law within them. I'll write it on their hearts.

08:27

And I will be their God, they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know the

08:36

Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. And see here, we get this picture then of this eternal inheritance, a time that is coming when each of us will know the

08:50

Lord face to face. I've always said that when Jesus shows up, I'm out of a job.

08:56

I'm gonna go on welfare, I guess. I don't know what I'm gonna do. You know, I'm not good for much else. But that's kind of the point.

09:03

No one will have to have a pastor say, let me tell you about Jesus. Let me tell you what he has done for you.

09:09

Let me tell you about the love and the mercy of Christ. No, that time that is coming during the time of the eternal inheritance, when you finally get to take possession of the inheritance, you will see your

09:22

God face to face. And not in a way that will cause terror and knees to knock and people to cover their eyes or wish that rocks would fall on them.

09:34

No, you will know God and you will see the joy of your salvation.

09:42

And the joy of knowing him and his ways. And see, here's the thing, a death has occurred.

09:49

A death has occurred that now makes it so that we have been written into this will. And we are being told now, because this death has occurred, we need to let you know that you have been written into the will.

10:01

Because this death has occurred, this is a death that has redeemed us from the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant.

10:09

All of the transgressions and the sins that you committed by breaking God's commandments.

10:17

For where a will is involved and the death of the one who made it is established.

10:24

For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.

10:31

Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop.

10:49

And he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.

10:57

And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood, both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood.

11:07

And here are these critical words. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

11:16

None whatsoever. And so, you'll note then, woven into this new covenant talk is talk of an inheritance, talk of a will, and everybody knows that wills only go into effect upon the death of the person who made the will.

11:30

And that's the point. Jesus wrote us into his will. And then when he bled and died, that will goes into effect.

11:41

The new covenant, then, it is rightly to think of it as Jesus's last will and testament.

11:50

This is his last will and testament. But see then, the author of Hebrews goes on, the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities.

12:00

So, the law can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

12:08

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin.

12:17

But in these sacrifices, there's a reminder of sin every year, for it's impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sins.

12:24

So, consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me, and burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure.

12:35

And then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written to me in the scroll of the book. So, when he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings, these are all offered according to the law, then he added, behold,

12:51

I have come to do your will. So, then he does away with the first covenant in order to establish second.

12:59

And every covenant always has signs, every one of them.

13:07

The sign of the covenant that God cut with Abraham was circumcision, a little bit of an awkward sign.

13:15

The sign that God made regarding the covenant that he made with Noah was the rainbow.

13:22

And so, then this covenant that God has established, the one established by the blood of Christ, you see, the blood of Christ that he, his blood now has perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified, namely us, his body, his blood now are the signs of this new covenant.

13:45

So, tonight, when you come up here to receive the body and blood of Christ, know this thing.

13:54

What you see here is to remind you of the great promises of this covenant.

14:01

And what are those promises? I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

14:14

Now, that's some good news, because God remembering my sins and my lawless deeds would end very poorly for me, as well as you.

14:27

And where there is forgiveness of these, there's no longer any need for an offering for sin.

14:33

Christ has done it all. So, tonight, as we consider

14:39

Jesus beginning his passion, beginning his suffering, him going to the cross, his words in his last will and testament then are established for us in these words.

14:52

Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

15:00

And take, drink, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

15:08

And that blood was shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins. You see, covenants are cut.

15:16

And so, the new covenant was cut. But it was cut at the expense of the very life of the

15:23

Son of God. Rather than the animals being torn in half and laid out, it was

15:29

Jesus who was taken and laid out so that the soldiers can beat him and flog him.

15:39

And then he was laid out on the cross as the soldiers nailed his hands and his feet to the wood.

15:49

And then he was suspended between heaven and earth. You see, Jesus is not only our high priest, he is also the, well, the sacrificial animal that establishes this new covenant.

16:05

And so, note then these great promises from God, an eternal inheritance, the forgiveness of our sins,

16:12

God remembering our lawless deeds no more, and take comfort and confidence in that.

16:20

And then tonight, as we finish up our service, the last thing that will happen will be the stripping of our altar.

16:29

The altar will be stripped and there will be no color on it, none whatsoever. Because knowing this, that because the way

16:38

Holy Week works, especially this last part, that now we get to follow the sufferings of Christ in real time.

16:46

It was about this time that he ate the meal with his disciples and established the new covenant.

16:57

And then shortly after this, after the sun sets, when dinner is settled in and everyone's feeling a little bit like it's time to go to bed,

17:07

Jesus takes his disciples to the Mount of Olives and he begins to pray,

17:13

Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Not my will be done, but your will be done.

17:22

And then shortly after that, shouts and torches and a sword cutting off Malchus's ear, all preceded by a kiss from the one who betrayed him.

17:38

And all of this that begins his suffering, he is doing willingly, laying down his life, and his blood then is the blood that forgives us.

17:51

Because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. He accomplishes what we cannot accomplish for ourselves.

17:58

He accomplishes what no goat or bull or calf could accomplish for us in our place.

18:04

All of those were pointing to him, so that we might be forgiven, so that we might be pardoned, so that we might have an eternal inheritance, so that we might know

18:15

God from the least of us to the greatest of us, in a new earth, in a world without end, in a world without sin, in a world without diseases and weeds and devastating floods and things of that nature.

18:36

I look forward to that inheritance, but we still have a long night ahead of us as we consider the sufferings of Christ that begin on this night.

18:45

In the name of Jesus. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

19:07

Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. And again, that address is

19:15

Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

19:20

Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744. We thank you for your support.

19:28

All of our teaching messages may be freely distributed as long as you do not edit or change the content of the message.