Interestingly, every time they lead in the Lord's Supper (Communion), when the cup is passed, they read from Matthew 14:24. "This is my blood of the New Covenant, which is poured out for many." Maybe they read from 1 Corinthians 11:25, "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
Once the Lord's Supper is over, they do not mention or preach from the perspective of the New Covenant again until the next Lord's Supper service.
That is sad and borders on heretical. Jesus IS the New Covenant. That's what He came to be.
The Jews were in covenant relationships with God. There were 7 covenants in the Old Testament: the Edenic Covenant; the Adamic Covenant; the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant; the Mosaic Covenant; the Palestinian (Land) Covenant and the David Covenant. Every practicing Jew would be aware of these covenants. They revered them. They memorized them. They felt bound by them.
In the Old Testament, following the Davidic Covenant, Jeremiah said that God was going to establish a "new covenant" with Israel, one that would find its place in the heart, not in rules and regulations. This New Covenant was established in Jesus, Christ (Messiah). And He ABSOLUTELY DID AWAY with the Old Covenants. More accurately, He FULFILLED all of the requirements of all of the Old Covenants. We do not have to fulfill them, He has already done that for us. (Hebrews 8:13)
Every Pharisee, Sadducee and Levite would have understood EXACTLY what the implications of this New Covenant were. That understanding is what made them so furious about Jesus' ministry that they wanted Him dead. They did not want their covenant(s) made obsolete. That is because under the New Covenant, there would no longer be a need for the office of priesthood because EVERY believer would be a priest in his/her own right.
This is not about the so-called "New Covenant Theology," which is fraught with error. It is about coming to grips with and learning to live as New Covenant people.
We need to be steeped in the New Covenant (but not New Covenant Theology). We need to hear it from the pulpit, not on special occasions, but every Sunday. The New Covenant is Jesus. "Obedience to God" is not our message. Our message is following Christ. If we immerse ourselves in following Him, there is no need to ever be concerned about knowing how to be obedient. He will have written His New Covenant on our hearts. If he hasn't, we are not His.
So, should we preach about obedience here and obedience there? NO. We should preach that in our natural state we are totally and irrevocably depraved and cannot be good enough to even be in God's presence, let alone to please God. We should preach that the wages of sin is eternal death. We should preach that God offers a gift called "salvation." We should preach that the gift is freely given to those who accept it by trusting in, and only in, Christ, who shed His blood at the cross of Calvary.
So many Christians and pastors are so staunch in their legalistic upbringing and what they were taught in Bible study, Bible college or seminary that they COMPLETELY MISS the real message. They seem to believe that if every sermon is about, and only about, the salvation available through the Christ of the New Covenant that they will be seen as irrelevant and out of date.
There is NOTHING irrelevant or out of date about the message of salvation in Christ. That is the ONLY relevant message. It is a message NOT TO BE TACKED ON TO A SERMON TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO BECOME CHRISTIANS, it is to be the MAIN FOCUS of the message from the first word to the last.
If the message of salvation in Christ is boring to you, you probably are not saved. If you are a preacher and you are struggling to come up with a "relevant" sermon message, QUIT STRUGGLING! God has provided you with the message. The only thing you should be "struggling" with is how to present THAT message more clearly and fervently. If you think God has led you to some message that is about social injustices, moral issues or how bad the world, country and/or church is, you are dead WRONG. HE HAS NOT LED YOU TO PREACH THAT MESSAGE. He only leads you to preach the message of Christ.
If you are preaching from one of the great Old Testament passages, learn to contrast it and compare it with the New Covenant message of the New Testament! If you are preaching from the New Testament, learn to present its New Covenant message with enthusiasm, accuracy and power.
Christians and pastors, learn to resolve to know NOTHING except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). That's all you need to know. What you need to learn is how to preach HIM.
Stop treating the Bible as though it is a list of things that displease God and things that please Him. Faith in Christ (not some generic faith in faith or even faith in some generic God concept) is the only thing that pleases Him.
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