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A Greater Covenant: Covenant Renewal Service · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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  preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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  learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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  For Advent 2025 we are in a series called Brought to the
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  Light, Advent for all who need it.
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  This series is looking at the themes of Advent and how Jesus
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  comes to us all. You can find more information
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  about our church at fumccollingswood.org.
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  Thanks for listening. This morning Scripture comes
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  from the book of Hebrews chapter 10, starting in verse one.
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  The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not
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  the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never,
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  by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make
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  perfect those who draw near to worship.
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  Otherwise would they not have stopped being offered.
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  For the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all, and
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  would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
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  But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
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  It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
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  sins. Therefore, when Christ came into
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  the world, He said, sacrifice and offering You did not desire
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  but a body you prepared for me with burnt offerings and sin
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  offerings. You were not pleased.
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  Then I said, here I am. It is written about me in the
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  scroll. I have come to do your will, my
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  God. First he said, sacrifices and
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  offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not
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  desire, nor were you pleased with them, though they were
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  offered in accordance with the law.
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  Then he said, Here I am, I have come to do your will.
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  He sets aside the first to establish the second, and by
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  that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the
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  body of Jesus Christ once for all.
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  This is the word of God for the people of God.
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  Thanks be to God, rarely, if ever, do we begin a relationship
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  with someone knowing the fullness of who they are, right,
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  no matter what kind of relationship it is right?
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  Child and parent, Spouse to spouse, best friends, even
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  siblings, right? Even even in a relationship that
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  might begin with a dramatic confession or some kind of deep
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  disclosure, that one revelation can never express the totality
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  of someone's being right. The reality is it simply takes
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  time for a relationship to develop and for us to get to
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  know another person. Often our our journey through
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  life involves a significant amount of time even learning who
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  we really are ourselves, right? Not just who others have told us
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  we are or maybe who we should be, right?
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  And the same is true in our relationship with God.
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  It takes time to get to know Him, and that's true for us as
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  individuals, but also it's been true over the story of humanity
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  as a collective right throughout the the story of redemption,
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  which is recorded in the Bible. One of the ways that God has
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  developed his relationship either with an individual or
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  with a group of people was through inviting them into a
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  special kind of relationship, a covenant relationship.
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  You might be wondering, well, well, what is a covenant really?
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  We're doing this covenant renewal thing.
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  What, what is a covenant or what does a covenant between God and
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  a person or a group of people? What does that look like?
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  Well, it's most basic. A covenant is an agreement,
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  right? It's a contract of sorts.
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  There are terms implied. There are commitments made.
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  Sometimes consequences are set out for not keeping your side of
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  the covenant. When covenants are made between
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  2 equal people, like in a marriage covenant, right?
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  The covenant spells out what each party is going to do toward
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  the other, right? To have and to hold from this
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  day forward, forsaking all others until we're parted by
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  death, right? There's, there's a mutuality to
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  that covenant and an exclusivity, right?
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  One person to one person. When a covenant's made between
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  one person and a group of people or between people of differing
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  ranks or powers, there's still expectations that are set forth
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  in a covenant for both sides even, but that relationship
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  looks different, right? The the expectations look
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  different on each side. The covenants that God makes
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  throughout the Old Testament look very much like the the
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  covenants that would have been made between a conquering king
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  and the people or, or the king that just been conquered.
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  Or the people would be expected to to submit, to pay tribute, to
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  keep certain set of laws. And the king, the conquering
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  king would be expected to protect that new people, that
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  new part of their Kingdom, and to govern it, to rule it, all
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  those things. But one of the ways that you can
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  look at the story of the Bible is as a series of covenant
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  between God and a person or God and a group of people, right?
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  So towards the very beginning, God made a covenant with Adam to
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  steward over the creation. Humanity would rule over the
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  creation as God's representatives.
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  That was their side. The one condition.
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  Don't eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the
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  garden, right? God made a covenant then with
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  Noah that he would never again destroy the earth by flood
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  again. This is more of a one sided
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  covenant. God was committing to the people
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  even though he wasn't really asking for anything in return.
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  But the covenant that God made with Abraham to bless Abraham
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  and his family and, and through them, to bless the whole world,
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  to give Abraham and his descendants when they were
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  childless, to give Abraham and his descendants the land of
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  Canaan, right? The promised land.
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  This covenant required Abraham to walk in relationship with
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  God, right? In an exclusive relationship
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  with God. Abraham couldn't worship or
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  trust in any other gods. It was only God alone.
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  And then in the story of of Scripture we get to the big one,
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  right? The covenant that God made with
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  the people of Israel after he led them out of their bondage
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  and oppression to Egypt. This covenant was reaffirmed
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  right before the people entered into the promised land 40 some
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  years later. God was covenanting to be their
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  God and they were to be his people.
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  And as God's people, there was a certain way of life that they
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  were expected to practice, a certain way that they were going
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  to live, as well as a whole system of of sacrifices that
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  would keep that relationship between the people and God
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  intact, right? That's what Hebrews was talking
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  about, right? All those sacrifices that had to
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  be offered. But through each of these
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  successive covenants that we see throughout Scripture, we see not
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  only God advancing his plan of redemption, his plan to bless
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  the nations of the world, but we see a further revelation of
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  God's nature and his character. We see more and more of who God
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  is as he engages in these different covenants.
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  Each step builds on those that preceded it, right?
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  It doesn't give us necessarily a new understanding of God, but a
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  deeper understanding of God. It's not a different God who's
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  revealed in each one, but we're growing in our understanding of
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  who this God is. And ultimately we get to the New
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  Testament, right? And, and Jesus says that he, on
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  that night in which he was betrayed, he gave himself up for
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  us. He sat and ate that meal
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  together with his disciples. On that night, he said he was
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  instituting a new covenant and asked the church.
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  Inspired by the Holy Spirit, we began to reflect on what that
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  meant. We're told that this new
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  covenant was meant to reveal even more fully who God is, that
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  in Jesus we see the clearest picture of who God is and what
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  God's desires and intentions are for humanity.
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  Or what had been revealed in the covenant at Mount Sinai, which
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  gave Israel the law that they were expected to follow, was
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  never going to be able to do what people needed done right.
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  It wasn't just the about the forgiveness of sins that were
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  obtained through all those sacrifices, but it was actually
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  what we needed was the defeat of sin and death, right?
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  We we needed to be brought close to God again.
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  But the blood of bulls and goats could never take away those sins
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  could never span that gap, as it says in Hebrews 10 Ford.
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  And so Jesus actually came once and for all as the sacrifice we
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  needed because even our faithful observance of of those Old
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  Testament sacrifices wouldn't have been enough to make us
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  holy. They had to be done over and
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  over again on repeat, some of them day by day by day.
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  And so Jesus, who was God himself, he came for us when we
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  couldn't keep the covenant. Jesus came and fulfilled the
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  demands of the law, which he knew we would never be able to
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  do. And so today we we come again
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  this year to recommit ourselves to a covenant relationship with
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  God because God has been faithful to us even when maybe
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  we've been unfaithful to him. In his mercy and his grace, God
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  has done for us what we could never do for ourselves.
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  By the sacrificial death and the resurrection of Jesus, and now
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  by the indwelling presence of God's Spirit in our lives, God
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  has made it possible for us to live up to our side of the
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  covenant, right? He invites us now to to enter
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  into that covenant relationship or, or to renew the covenant
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  that he's made with us and we've made with him, not because he's
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  changed or been unfaithful, right, But because it's it's
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  good to be reminded of who God is and who he calls us to be,
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  even when we have been unfaithful.
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  And so we can join with Charles Wesley in asking the question
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  when he said, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the
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  Savior's blood died. He for me who caused his pain
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  for me, who him to death pursued.
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  And he gives us the answer about how we should gain that interest
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  in Christ's death for us. He says it's amazing love,
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  amazing love. How can it be that thou, that
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  you, my God, would die for me, right?
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  He did it. When we couldn't do it, when we
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  couldn't keep our side of the covenant, God pledged himself to
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  us. When we couldn't live up to the
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  demands of the covenant, God came and gave himself for us.
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  He did it in the fullest expression of who God is.
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  Jesus died for you, for me, for us, for the world.
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  And He invites us today to live in that covenant relationship
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  with Him, to allow his Holy Spirit to work in US and
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  transform us and empower us to live as God has called us to
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  live. So that's why today we come
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  again. Not because somehow saying these
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  words year after year makes them true, but to be reminded to hear
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  again that call to walk with God and to respond to the grace that
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  He's pouring into our lives.