Slides: Blood of the Covenant

Blood of the Covenant
David Feddes

Blood of the covenant
Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28) 

Covenant love
Covenant: a relationship based on set conditions and promises, usually confirmed by a sign.
He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. (Deut 7:9)

Promise to Abram

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

God said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” 

So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. 

Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.  (Genesis 15:5-11)

Nightmare of slavery
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.”(Genesis 15:12-13)

Dream of rescue
“But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” (Genesis 15:14-16)

Covenant sign
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land.” (Genesis 15:17-18)

Covenant offspring
I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. (Genesis 17:7)
God announced the gospel in advance to Abraham… if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring. (Galatians 3:8, 29)

Covenant mark
“As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. (Genesis 17:9-10)

Babies & newcomers
For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised… Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. (Genesis 17:12-13)

Covenant oath
I swear by myself, declares the LORD… I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore… and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. (Genesis 22:16-18)

Promise + oath
When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself… Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. (Hebrews 6:13, 16)

Anchor for the soul
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things [God’s promise and oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. (Hebrews 6:18-19)

Guaranteed on oath
Jesus became a priest with an oath when God said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’ ” Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. (Hebrews 6:21-22)

Oath, covenant, blood
His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

Covenant concern
The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. (Exodus 2:23-25) 

Salvation meal
They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. (Exodus 12:7-8)

Our Passover lamb
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7)
You were redeemed … with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)

Salvation meal
This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:14)

Explain to children
“And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you? then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” (Exodus 12:26-27)

Babies and newcomers
“An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you.” (Exodus 12:48-49)

Covenant signs & seals

• Sign: visible, physical picture of invisible, spiritual facts
  
• Seal: confirms gospel promises to each member of God’s family
  
• Old: circumcision, Passover
  
• New: baptism, Lord’s Supper

Baptism and Supper

• Babies of covenant members and new converts are to be baptized.
• Baptism comes first, then Lord’s Supper.
• People should not take Supper until they have been baptized.

Covenant nation
“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4-6)

New covenant nation
You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God. (1 Peter 2:9-10)
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. (Rev. 5:10)

Spoken & written words
When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.” Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain. (Exodus 24:5-6)

Blood on the altar
Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD. Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”  (Exodus 24:5-7)

Blood of the covenant
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.” Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Exodus 24:7-8)

• Blood on altar absorbs God’s wrath against sinners (propitiation)
• Blood on people removes guilt and cleanses conscience (expiation)

Meal in God’s presence
Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.  (Exodus 24:9-11)

Blood of the covenant
See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey… He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and … to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. (Zechariah 9:10-11)

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26-28)

You have come to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood… (Hebrews 12:24)

New covenant sprinkling
He will sprinkle many nations… He was pierced for our transgressions… he poured out his life unto death... (Isaiah 52-53)
I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. (Ezekiel 36:25)
… chosen for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. (1 Peter 1:1)

Blood-bought church
… the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. (Acts 20:28).
…the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. (Hebrews 13:12)

Cleansing blood
Jesus entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption… the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God (propitiation), will cleanse our consciences (expiation) from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:12, 14)

New covenant mediator
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses. (Hebrews 3:3)
Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:15)

Draw near to God, clean and confident
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22)

Covenant warning
How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29)

Blood of the eternal covenant
… the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20)

Covenant praise
Jesus Christ… is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:5-6)