Latest / Accidental Bible Scholar / The New Creation in the New Covenant, Part 2
Transcript
- Jeff Ward: All right. Welcome back to the Accidental Bible Scholar podcast. We're somewhere around 12 or 13 of these so far. Thanks for hanging with us. And our prayer is that you're learning a lot about Jesus falling in love with him and about his word and enjoying reading it. So we're going to continue on from last time where as a new creation, how do we operate under the new covenant? So last time we a little bit about the holiness of God and how it's only within that context does righteousness as a gift makes sense. Yeah. And it's illogical any other way. Right. We just can't measure up. But Christ has measured up for us. He's actually we talked about whole creation around God is a kingdom, multiple kingdoms. And talk about a little bit of how Satan's kingdom was established then how Jesus kind of reestablished the kingdom of God on earth, that's of next place. And we talked about also Colossians that you and I are all believers are now in a brand new kingdom with completely different rules set, with completely different powers and laws that govern. Okay. ⁓ And we'll get more that after we discuss the covenants. But let's just start right in and I know we've had the covenants before, but let's read the Genesis 1 covenant. This is with Adam. This is God speaking. He does a similar covenant, or he iterates this covenant with Noah. So there's a couple of places this kind of restarts, but this is the basic one. It says, then God said, let us make humankind in our image ⁓ our likeness so that... I mean, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle and over all the earth and over all the creatures that move on the earth. God created humankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female. He created them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground. So this is the covenant that God set forth with Adam. So God spoke this covenant and he's basically saying, you guys, your job is to rule, subdue, reign, do it as a man subject to and underneath my authority, which means he's going to, God has now by his choice decided to, that he is gonna rule the earth through man. so I would like to point out too that He says they made them in their image so they may rule, so that they may rule. So part of this being made in God's image is that God did it to enable us or give the ability to rule and to reign and to fill and to execute dominion. That hasn't changed, that won't change in heaven, the new heaven and the new earth. We will rule and reign with him forever. So as a... as a product of us being created in his image or the purpose behind creating an image. It's certainly one of them was so that we can rule and reign So that up one thing that we've already talked about, but once you notice there's no conditions here. God doesn't any conditions. So this is an unconditional covenant. What I mean by that is he didn't say rule reign, fill, subdue as long as you're doing it right. As soon as you mess up, then I'm taking it back. He didn't say that. didn't put any conditions on it. So, he didn't intend to. If he didn't intend to, he would have. And he knows what's going to happen. He still did it. So what happens is, now Adam refuses obey God and instead to obey Satan. So let's go to Romans 6:16 Okay, yeah, read it. Roman 6:16 says, do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death or obedience resulting in righteousness? So there is a spiritual truth, a spiritual law that says, and it's said in a couple other places too, but this is the one that I usually go to, says, whoever you obey, That's your master. So when Adam obeyed Satan, Satan became Adam's master. the master owns and operates everything that the slave owns. So now we have this covenant that's still in effect. The covenant, the design of the covenant was broken in that it was never meant to be that, right? But covenant was not nullified. The covenant, since it's unconditional, is still in force. Like I the connection of God's intention has been broken because of Satan. and I think it's John chapter 12. I haven't looked at this in a while, but John chapter 12, Jesus calls Satan the God of this world. He's also called the God of the air. And you know, when I used to read that, go, well, that's weird that God would create this being that he then calls God of the world, God of this world. And it's like, no, God didn't make Satan God of this world, Adam did. By obeying him, receiving this covenant, that now puts Satan in charge of this world, because Adam all of his descendants are now slaves of Satan, therefore, operates through to enable Satan's will on earth instead of God's will on earth as it is in heaven. Okay, so that's an important distinction of where we are and now that sets up the conflict between the two kingdoms. Okay, there's the kingdom of Jesus Christ, there's the kingdom of Satan. I am in no way putting Jesus on equal footing with satan, Jesus created satan. Okay, so I'm not doing that. But there are these two kingdoms. It is the church now who Jesus has left here on planet earth, who he is working through, living in each individual. He said that the church is his body, right? getting ahead of myself just a little bit. So it's the church in this war between these kingdoms. as As Jesus said earlier in last one, talked about Matthew, both Luke, Luke 11 20, that he talks about that as we push back the effects of Satan, we're actually pushing back his kingdom, disease, demonization and death and those kinds of things. Anyway, let's read. Go to Matthew 28 and you can stay there because we're gonna look at it a couple times and just read Matthew 28:18 28:18. Then Jesus came up and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Okay, there is the establishment of Jesus Christ under the authority of the Father, now able to delegate as his followers are under his authority. And we'll talk about authority later, but... Then Jesus came up and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Okay, there is the establishment of Jesus Christ under the authority of the Father, now able to delegate as his followers are under his authority. And we'll talk about authority later, but... But that establishes this kingdom. I think we talked about this earlier in previous podcasts, but you go, Jesus show up at Matthew 1.1? Why does he wait till Matthew 28, the last chapter of Matthew, the last few verses of the last chapter and go, all authority has been given to me. Why didn't he stand up in the manger and go, guys, listen to me? I'm here and I have all authority. The reason is But that establishes this kingdom. I think we talked about this earlier in previous podcasts, but you didn't show up at Matthew 1.1? Why does he wait till Matthew 28, the last chapter of Matthew, the last few verses of the last chapter and go, all authority has been given to me. Why didn't he stand up in the manger and go, guys, listen to me? I'm here and I have all authority. The reason is because he didn't have all authority. And you're like, well, God has, God can do whatever he wants. He can, but he delegated authority to Adam. Adam started following a new master. And so now Jesus came back as a man. And now that he has lived an authentic, true human life, and then he has a perfect human life, and then he became a perfect sacrifice, and now he has risen again. Now he has wrestled back the authority of that covenant back under God through a man that is totally obedient to God, even to the point of death on a cross. And now he's reestablished this kingdom back the way it was meant to and the way it was in Genesis 1 before Genesis 3, before the fall. He has put it back where it belongs. But he cannot destroy yet the other covenant. or the other part of that word. Now we have men and women who follow Satan and have men and women who follow Jesus Christ. And there's the war between the two kingdoms there. And we as the church, and we're called Christ body because we're here with, as a body to execute the authority that Adam had and now Jesus has wrestled back. Let me read that in something, probably just what I just said, a little different. This is Romans five. 5:17 it says, for by the transgression of the one man, that's Adam, the context we're talking about here, death reigned through the one. How much more will those who receive the abundance of greatest and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So what he's saying is man's sin or one man's disobedience caused to reign for generations through Adam. And that was just a normal guy. That was just Adam. So he adds, Paul adds this, much more will those who receive the abundance of greatest, talking about now comes from the obedience of one man, which is a man, the God man, Jesus. How much more those who receive the abundance of greatest and to get to righteous reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. So we have this, and if you keep going 18 and 19 there, we won't take the time, but in this whole little section, last part of Romans 5 compares and contrasts Adam's disobedience and what it caused and Jesus' obedience and what it caused. And I'll just, since we're talking about this, skip to 19. 4. Justice through the disobedience of the one man, so Adam's sin. Many were made sinners. So also through the obedience of one man, many will be made righteous. There's the, and it's a couple other places in Romans 5, the compare and contrast between sinners and righteous. There is no overlap. You're either a sinner, not in a right standing with God, or you're a righteous, which means to be in a right standing with God. I was a sinner because Adam sinned, okay, and now I've been made new and I am righteous because Jesus did not sin because he obeyed. That's what set up, and we go back to 17. There's this idea that those who receive the abundance of greatest and of the gift of righteousness, there's where I come back and we say, righteousness is not a side benefit. a, it is a. primary characteristic. so now you and I are reigning in life, just like Genesis 1 told us that we are in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So that righteousness is important. The psalmist tells us that God's throne sets on a foundation of righteousness and justice. you and I reign in this life sitting on that same foundation, the exact same righteousness that is the righteousness of God. we'll look at that in St. Corinthians 5:21 and other places where it says that. that's the covenants that we now operating. So we're in this new covenant that, and we're in Adam's covenant. The new covenant changes us, which we'll look here a little bit. And then plugs us back in this brand new creation, plugs us back into a reestablished redeemed, let's call it a redeemed Genesis 1 covenant. Makes sense. All right. Next, let's talk about some of the tasks and some of the things, just big picture stuff that has changed for us as we're now walking around here. talk about, read Matthew 28 again, but read 18 through 20. Okay. Then Jesus came up to them or came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit. teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And remember, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Okay, so if we have a covenant, we have a kingdom established on covenants, we've been remade and reborn into this new creation. And here we are, I wanted to call this, what's our task? So if you're in a kingdom, if you're a son of the father, you have task. This is our task to go. and make disciples teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. Another task, and this is not covering everything obviously, but Matthew 6 10 is another pretty good encapsulation of our task, which is to declare and to work toward thy kingdom come, that will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's what Jesus said to quote unquote pray, but his prayers are declarations. He says, His disciples say, teach us to pray. And he says, well, here's how you, when you pray, say, and he's, and he doesn't, these are not prayer requests. These are declarations of a son or a daughter in right relation to their father in the kingdom of his son whom he dearly loves. So to use some of the language of Colossians 1:13-14 So one of the things we are to do is to work toward declare, speak, obey, do. Sometimes with our mouth, sometimes with our hands and feet, idea of God's will being done on earth. I put here, I wrote my margin, said, God doesn't say, stand back and watch me do my will. He you need to declare my will be done and I will work through you to make your will be done. That's not because he's incapable. It's because he chose to do it that way. And he told us that in Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 and Psalm 115 verse 16 and so on and other places where he has talked about it. That's executing the authority. In part you read, Matthew 28:18-20, says, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. Matthew 10, back up 18 chapters is some of what he's commanded. Preach the kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Those are certainly five of the tasks that we as believers in Christ have been taught to do. This one- Pushing the kingdom. Yeah, pushing the kingdom. Exactly. Making God's will be done and it's his kingdom and we're pushing back the kingdom of darkness. Exactly. of the other changes is we have a new greatest commandment. I'm not going to go into a lot of time and explain this and I step on your religious toes that's okay or if I'm wrong that's okay too if you I'm wrong but everyone found one to me along. But the new greatest commandment, the greatest commandment is the greatest commandment that we know is the greatest commandment in the Old Testament. And Jesus was an Old Testament man speaking to Old Testament people, answering a question about the Old Testament, and then he gives an answer from the Old Testament. OK, that's commandment is an Old Covenant or Old Testament command. What does the new commandment is? is love Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind. Yeah, you're talking about. Yeah. and love your neighbor as yourself. Yeah. That's the two answers. That's the two answers. They're, from Deuteronomy. Yeah. The law and is, that's the law. Right. So what's the new, what would be the greatest commandment in the New Testament? Well, my Bible doesn't have it labeled as greatest commandment because there's not a scribe there asking what is the greatest commandment. But here's a pretty good, here's what think it is. 1 John 3:23 John says this, now this is the commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he gave us the commandment. And I know there's a question that we're gonna answer later on a later podcast about the commandment John's talking about here and in John, particularly 14 through 17 and other places, I think maybe John 11, but don't quote me on that. versus what that commandment means versus is it 10 commandments? Because our brain all make those 10 commandments. But the 10 commandments, Hebrews 8-12 have been made obsolete. dead to it, Romans 7-4 and on and on. So this is the command. It's no longer love your neighbor as yourself is the number two. If we go back and research in John, what this commandment is talking about is love others as I have loved you. That's a much higher standard than love you the way I love myself. but I'm to love you the way Jesus loved you. And this other one, flips around from ⁓ being based on my love for the Lord. And I am now concentrated, the first commandment is for, concentrating his love for me, believe in his name, believe in his love for me and everything that he's done by providing me his name. Believe in his name. That's another thing we go back and say many of the time, all the times about believing in the name of Jesus means and does. in the life of a believer. It's throughout the whole New Testament, but we don't have time for that. So we have these new commandments. We're in a new kingdom with new powers, new laws, new commandments, new task. The other one is, I put here, a new continuous relationship. And we can go to 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18. Many of us, most of us probably have this memorizing if you don't. No, you haven't memorized. Once I read it, you'll go, ⁓ I got that memorized. First Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18 says, always rejoice, constantly pray, and everything gives thanks for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. You want to know what God's will is? There's lots of books out there where you can just go look right here. His will is this constant ongoing relationship. That means rejoicing or being glad, being joyful. Okay. constantly praying or praying without ceasing and in everything give thanks. What an amazing thought that we can as we go from our day throughout our day we can be in totally constant awareness of this God who has indwelt us, has we're in him, he is in us, who has given himself for us, who has recreated us. And we can have this constant sense of his presence through prayer, through rejoicing, through Thanksgiving. I want to do another thing, but I'll do a quick side about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is such a massively awesome thing. It is actually a weapon in your arsenal. know, Jesus sits down, he's got five fish and two loaves, five loaves and two fish, sorry. So he's got this small kid's lunch and he's got 5,000 men out in front of him and. probably wives and children. So let's say 10,000 people in front of him. Before he does that, I think it's awesome. says, hey, you got, they go, hey, we need to let these people go. They're hungry, he's disciples. And he goes, you feed them. And he kind of blows their mind. And they go, well, you know, that's impossible. And he says, well, what do you got? Well, I got this one little kid's lunch. know, I want to know the disciples that stole the kid's lunch. But anyway, yeah. So we got this happy meal here. Jesus then. gives thanks, thanks for what is not enough, by the way. And then he distributes it to the disciples in 12 baskets. And then guess what? They go feed the people. I think he it into 12 baskets. They left. I don't think they ever came back to him. I think they just kept pulling stuff out of that basket. And what's that mean? They did what he originally told them. He said, you feed them. And in fact, through him working through them, they in fact did feed them. a momentous thing, But I say all that to talk about Thanksgiving and how important it is to say this. Later on, when they refer back to that, when the Bible refers back to that moment, what do think the headline is? The headline for us would be what? Jesus feeds there on the hill where Jesus fed 5,000. Back there where Jesus turned loaves into gazillions of ⁓ No, it doesn't describe it that way. The Bible says, back the hill where Jesus gave thanks. That's all it says. And you're like, that's the headline? I thanks was just kind of a polite thing that your mother taught you to do. No, it is a powerful spiritual weapon to be thankful. There's a couple other places exactly where it talks about the that God's doing ⁓ so that he can praised through thankfulness. In other words, some of purposes alone are only to create thankfulness. And that thankfulness then creates this atmosphere of the Father, of the Holy Spirit, of Jesus Christ, the atmosphere in the room, changes the atmosphere in the home, in the neighborhood, just by thankfulness alone. But anyway, that goes to this new continuous relationship. Another, going back to kind of thinking about the task, one of our tasks is to bring every believer into maturity. Colossians 1.28 says, we proclaim Him, that's Christ, we proclaim Christ by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ. That's part of the task that we in this kingdom are given is to pass it on and to make sure that we bring everybody into maturity. Ephesians 4.11-15, I won't read it exactly, but it talks about apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. that their job is to bring the believers into the full stature of Jesus Christ. Meditate on that for a while. The full stature of Jesus Christ. Sounds a lot like what Jesus said in John 14, 12 through 14. The full stature of Jesus Christ is that every person may be mature, that we may have unity in the faith. These are all tasks of this kingdom work that we are to do when we preach the kingdom. heal the sick and so on, is bring these, every person into every believer into maturity. Okay. Questions, comments, Nope. Want to keep going? Yes, sir. All right. Tell me when you want to stop. We're going to change gears slightly. Okay. And we're going to spend probably one or two or three podcasts here, depending on how it works out, talking about the identity the new covenant believer. Why don't we do that in the next podcast? Okay. So we'll take a break. Okay. When we, the next podcast, we're going to talk about identity. We're going to talk about new creation. are forgiven. They are free. They are righteous. They holy. Okay. We're going to talk through those. I'm going to show you scriptural evidence for each one of those. And then, they're the and daughter. Anyway, this will go over into several of them, several podcasts. Yeah, sounds good. Yeah, you don't want to miss it. You don't want to miss this next one. Thanks, Randy.