Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
January 31, 2010 - W1005

Today you will get about two years of Bible College teaching within the duration of this service.  Today I will give you context for the Old Testament so that each time you hear about something from the Old Testament, you will have a better understanding of what is being said because you will understand the context in which it was being said. 

We will start in the time of Abraham, or Abram as he was known at the time, in about 1800 B.C.  Abraham, the father of our faith, is the first person God revealed Himself to.  Why Abraham?  We don’t know exactly but we know that God did choose Abraham through which he would reveal Himself.

To understand this, we need to understand the context of the time.  We know from our own personal experience that different people learn differently. For example, I have three children and I have to communicate with each one differently or I just won’t be heard.  One says, “Just pick up the phone and call me.” Another says, “Text me Dad.  Just text me.”  And the third one says, “Send me an email and I’ll get back to you.”  If you deliver your message in a way that they understand, they will learn more.  The same held true in the time of Abraham.

In those days, the only way someone could increase their real estate holdings was through war.  So, in order to increase your holdings or wealth in those days, you needed an army.  Because your family was basically your “army,” if you had a small family, you didn’t have very many warriors. Because of that fact, men back then had multiple wives so they could have more children and basically increase the size of their army.  In fact, Jewish women who didn’t have children were a disgrace because if their family were ever attacked, they didn’t have children to protect them. 

Back then, tribes would usually annihilate the other tribe – kill everyone including women and children – to avoid possible retaliation from any survivors, but some benevolent kings would not immediately kill the innocent (e.g., women and children).  Instead, he would give the survivors an opportunity to join his tribe by doing the following:

He would take the bodies of the slain tribesman and set up a gauntlet -- a corridor with bloody, dead bodies on either side.  Then he would tell the survivors that if wanted to continue to live, they could do so if they would obey his laws.  To signify their agreement and acceptance of the new king’s laws, they would walk down the corridor of dead bodies which would serve as a reminder that that’s what would happen to them if they disobeyed the new king’s laws. 

That is the context of those days and Abraham understood this.   That being the case, God talks to Abraham:

"He said to him, 'Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.' Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other ... Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him... And it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram..." (Gen 15:9-18).

When God set this opportunity before Abraham, to choose to abide by His laws, Abraham hesitated.  In fact, the whole day passed, night came and Abraham still couldn’t cut that covenant – suggesting that he knew he couldn’t keep God’s laws and that the penalty would be death. 

As a result, God didn’t punish Abraham but rather quite the opposite:  he took on the covenant on Abraham’s behalf.  God made a covenant with himself so that we would not suffer the dire consequences.  

"For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself..." (Heb. 6:13).

God Himself walked through the pieces signifying “if you sin, I will die.” But then God said that you need to institute a ceremony that you perform each year to remind yourself of God’s sacrifice for you.  Under God’s original covenant, if you sinned, you should die but God gave them a substitute.  In spite of God’s sacrifice and His small request that you do something each year to remind yourself about what He’s done for you, man started to forget. 

Although God gave man an easy out, man started to mess that up as well.  God needed a new covenant, so He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins.

1.   Jesus took our place and FULFILLED the law's requirement for sin.
"Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When He was hung on the cross, He took upon Himself the curse for our wrongdoing..." (Gal. 3:13 NLT).

Because God fulfilled the old covenant, our accounts are marked, “paid in full.”  We, the people of the new covenant, live under grace.  God bankrupted heaven to give us this new covenant of grace.  And when we understand the new covenant of grace, it transforms our lives.   

"Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!'" (John 19:30).

Because of God’s grace and sacrifice, I am free.  God has given us two perpetual statutes, the first being to come to the cross often.  That is what communion is… a time to remember God’s sacrifice and the fact that “that should have been me!”

2.   Communion is REMEMBERING His love for us & committing to live by His law of grace.
"When He had given thanks, He broke [the bread] and said, 'This is My body, which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' He took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, and as often as you drink it, remember Me.'" (1 Cor. 11:24-25).

God’s second statute is to die to the old and rise up again in Christ.  Baptism symbolizes this act. 

3.   BAPTISM is an outward sign of us stepping across the line of faith.
"Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined Him in His death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives." (Rom. 6:3-4).

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20).

Communion and baptism are perpetual statutes and we do it in remembrance of the sacrifice he’s done for us.  2 Corinthians tells us that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation…old things will pass away. 

Abraham couldn’t make a covenant with God because he knew he would fail, so God made a covenant with Himself on Abraham’s behalf, and they instituted a substitute.  Then eventually, Jesus came and “paid the price in full.”

DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1. Why did God make the covenant with Himself when Abraham couldn’t/didn’t?  What was He thinking?

2. Then when man failed to even honor God’s covenant with a yearly ceremony, why did God create another, newer covenant?

3. What did God’s last covenant – the sacrifice of His Son – really mean?  How was it different from the previous covenants?

4. What does communion mean/represent to you?

5. Have you been baptized?  If yes, what affect did baptism have on you?  If not, what are you waiting for!?!