TCC–1361
1
A BETTER COVENANT WITH BETTER PROMISES
A. Introduction: The singular most important event in human history is the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus
did not come into this world to teach us to love each other or to bring world peace. He came to die as a
sacrifice for human sin. His resurrection is proof that His sacrifice was effective.
1. The night before Jesus was crucified, as He ate His last meal with His closest followers (His twelve
apostles), He offered them bread and wine as emblems of His body and blood.
a. Jesus “took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which
is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’” (Luke 22:19, NKJV).
b. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘All of you drink from it.
For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins’”
(Matt 26:27-28, NKJV).
1. When He said that His body would be given and His blood shed, the apostles didn’t know He
was going to give Himself as a sacrifice for sin and be crucified the next day. They did not
understand much of what Jesus said and did at that last meal until Jesus rose from the dead.
2. Once Jesus returned to Heaven following His death and resurrection, His followers continued
to take bread and wine in remembrance of His death. This practice, now called communion
or the Lord’s Supper, has continued among Christians for the last two thousand years.
c. We’re working on a series about the meaning behind communion and what Jesus accomplished
through His death. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection all who believe in Him have a
future and a hope that not only helps us in this life, but will outlast this life.
2. Rather than looking at the various ways communion is practiced in different denominations, we’re
considering how the men who ate with Jesus that night at the Last Supper would have heard and
understood what He said and did when He offered them bread and wine.
a. All of those men were Jewish, and their world view was shaped by the Old Testament, the
portion of the Bible that had been completed by that time.
1. The apostles believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah (Savior), written about by the Old
Testament prophets. They would have assessed everything Jesus said and did in terms of
what the Scriptures said about Him.
2. Keep in mind that these men had no idea that Jesus was going to be arrested that very night
and handed over to the Gentiles to be crucified. But once Jesus raised from the dead, He
used the Scriptures to explain to them all that He had done and why. Luke 24:44-46
b. We’re also looking at how Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself (His body and blood) fits into the big
picture or God’s overall plan for humanity. This is the big picture:
1. God created human beings to become His sons and daughters through faith in Him. The
Lord intended that we choose to partake of the life in Him (eternal life), and then live forever
in loving relationship with Him. Instead, humanity has chosen independence from God
through sin. This choice has disqualified all of us from God’s family. Isa 53:6; Rom 3:23
2. God created humans knowing that this would happen, and already had a plan in mind to
recover His family—Jesus would incarnate and be born into this world to die as a sacrifice
for sin. By His death, Jesus would open the way for all who believe in Him to be restored to
God’s family through faith in Him and His sacrifice. Heb 2:14-15; I John 4:9-10; I Pet 3:18
3. Last week we talked about what the apostles heard when Jesus referred to the cup of wine as “My
blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt 26:28, NKJV).
a. The apostles knew about covenants. Covenants were binding agreements between two parties
for mutual purposes that were ratified by shedding blood. As Jews, the apostles were included
in a covenant that God made with their ancestor, Abraham, many centuries earlier. Gen 15:8-21

TCC–1361
2
1. The Lord promised Abraham and his descendants that if they worshipped only Him, the One
True God, He would provide for and protect them and give them the land of Canaan (Israel).
2. Jesus’ twelve apostles knew from the Scriptures that at various times in their history, their
ancestors broke their part of the covenant by abandoning Almighty God to worship false
gods. But they also knew that, through His prophets, God promised to one day establish a
New Covenant with them and fix their weaknesses. Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 11:19-20; etc.
A. Although the apostles didn’t realize it that night at the Last Supper, Jesus was telling
them that He was about to shed His blood and establish the promised New Covenant—a
new relationship between God and man.
B. When Jesus offered His apostles the bread and wine as His body and blood, they didn’t
realize that He meant He was going to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin the next day.
b. The apostles were well familiar with blood sacrifices being offered for sin. God had given
Israel system of animal or blood sacrifices centuries ago. These sacrifices atoned for (covered,
made up for) Israel’s sin so that the God, who is holy, could dwell among sinful people.
1. But this wasn’t God’s final solution for mankind’s sin because these animal sacrifices could
only cover sin. They could not provide perfect cleansing for God’s people. Heb 10:1-4
2. God’s plan has always been to have sons and daughters who are holy and live holy lives. To
be holy means to be separate or set apart from sin. Sin is breaking God’s Law. I John 3:4
3. God created humans knowing that we would choose independence from Him through sin.
But His plan was and is to restore sinful human beings to holiness, to make us holy, through
the salvation that Jesus provided by His sacrificial death.
A. Eph 1:4—Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ
to be holy and without fault (NLT) before His searching, penetrating gaze (Wuest).
B. II Tim 1:9—It is God who saved us, and chose us to live a holy life. He did this not
because we deserved it, but because that was his plan long before the world began—to
show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus (NLT).
c. Jesus died as a sacrifice for sin to remit (put away, remove) our sin, once for all time. He died
to fully cleanse us and restore us to holiness because that’s God’s plan: What God wants for us is
to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time (Heb 10:10, NLT).
1. Heb 10:14—By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy
(NIV). The Greek word that is translated perfect means to reach the intended goal. In other
words, Jesus’ sacrifice was successful. It fully cleanses us from the guilt of sin.
2. This doesn’t mean that we are yet all that we are supposed to be as holy sons and daughters
of God. The idea is that no more sacrifice is needed to deal with our sin, because Jesus’
sacrifice was sufficient and He has cleansed us from the guilt of sin. And now, because of
Jesus’ successful sacrifice, a process of restoration to full holiness can begin in us.
B. Last week we also looked at some things Paul the apostle said in a letter he wrote to Jewish Christians,
(Epistle to the Hebrews). They were facing increasing pressure from non-believing Jews to reject Jesus
and return to the Temple system of animal sacrifice laid out in the Old Covenant (the Law of Moses).
1. Paul gave the Hebrew Christians many reasons why Jesus and His sacrifice is better than the old
system of animal sacrifices. Among other things Paul stated that (Jesus) “is the one who guarantees
a better covenant with God, based on better promises” (Heb 8:6, NLT).
a. The Greek word that is translated guarantee means a go-between, a reconciler. To reconcile
means to make friendly again (Webster’s Dictionary).
b. Jesus died as the ultimate sacrifice for sin to reconcile sinful men and women to God. And His
successful sacrifice is the guarantee that we have been reconciled, restored, to God.

TCC–1361
3
1. Col 1:19-21—For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and by him God
reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by
means of his blood on the cross. This includes you who were once so far away from God.
You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions (NLT).
2. Col 1:21-22—Yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his
death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very
presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single
fault (NLT); you are holy and without blemish and unchargeable before His searching and
penetrating gaze (Wuest).
3. Col 2:13-14—God has now made (you) to share in the very life of Christ! He has forgiven
all your sins: he has utterly wiped out the written evidence of broken commandments which
always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it to the cross (J. B.
Phillips).
2. This is why understanding the big picture or (God’s overall plan for mankind) is critical to
understanding what Jesus did through His death. God wants a family, and the Bible opens with a
statement about the kind of sons and daughters that God wants: Gen 1:27—God created man in his
own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female he created them (ESV).
a. Almighty God made human beings in His image, as much like Himself as a creature can be like
His Creator, in part so that mutual, loving relationship is possible between us and Him. But
there is more to it. The Hebrew word translated image in Gen 1:27 has the idea of an imager.
1. God wants sons and daughters who image Him or reflect Him—His love, His holiness, His
righteousness, His glory—and bring honor and glory to Him by the way that we live.
2. The Lord created us with the capacity to receive Him (His uncreated, eternal life and Spirit)
into our being and then reflect Him to the world around us. Sin made this impossible.
3. Jesus’ death was a means to an end. He died as a sacrifice for sin to remove the guilt of sin
from us and open the way for God Himself to indwell us by His Spirit and life.
b. Under the Old Covenant, God dwelled with the people of Israel and occasionally manifested His
visible presence to them (Ex 19:16-20; Ex 40:34-38). But God’s plan was always to indwell His
people. That’s why our bodies are called the temple (dwelling place) of God. I Cor 6:19-20
1. At the Last Supper, much of what Jesus said to His men was meant to prepare them for the
fact that He was soon going to leave them and return to Heaven.
2. He assured them that He would not leave them alone, because He and God the Father would
send the Holy Spirit: He lives with you now and later will be in you (John 14:17, NLT).
Through His death the next day, Jesus will open the way for God to indwell them.
3. Paul described the New Covenant, the new relationship Jesus established between God and man, as a
better covenant, based on better promises (Heb 8:6). Paul quoted the better promises in a prophecy
given to the prophet Jeremiah six hundred years before Jesus came into this world. Jer 31:31-34
a. Heb 8:10-12—This is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day says the
Lord: I will put my laws in their minds so they will understand them, and I will write them on
their hearts so they will obey them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they
will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their family, saying ‘You
should know the Lord.’ For everyone, for the least to the greatest, will already know me. And
I will forgive their wrongdoings, and I will never again remember their sins (NLT).
b. The prophet made four statements as to why the New Covenant is better: I will put my laws in
their minds and on their hearts, I will be their God, all will know me, and I will forget their sins.
(The first three promises would not have been possible without the fourth—Jesus’ death.)
1. God puts His laws in our mind and writes them on our hearts: The Old Covenant provided

TCC–1361
4
an exterior Law (the Law of Moses) to control human behavior.
A. The New Covenant converts the external Law into an interior life because, since we’ve
been cleanse by the blood of the Lamb of God, God Himself can indwell us.
B. The indwelling Spirit of God enlightens our mind and helps us understand God’s Law.
And He gives us power to live lives that please our Father and accurately reflect Him
C. For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what
pleases him (Phil 2:13, NLT).
2. He will be our God and we will be His people: Deliverance from the guilt of sin and the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit (God in us) gives us close, personal access to God.
A. Under the Old Covenant, only the High Priest of Israel could enter the innermost part of
the Temple where the presence of God manifested—and only once a year. But every
believer has direct access to God, all the time, through and because of Jesus.
B. Eph 3:12—Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come fearlessly into
God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome (NLT).
C. Heb 4:16—So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will
receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it (NLT).
3. All will know Me: The chief blessing of the New Covenant is direct fellowship with God
and direct teaching from the Holy Spirit.
A. Under the Old Covenant, the priests approached God on behalf of the people. The
priests were the ones who had access to the Scriptures and interpreted them for people.
B. All will know Him doesn’t that we don’t need to tell people about Jesus or that
everybody automatically knows God. It means that each individual can go directly to
God himself, and that He is in us to help us understand His Scriptures. Eph 1:18
1. The Old Covenant was light from God, but it was less light. Through the centuries,
God gradually revealed Himself and His plan for a family. until the full light came
through Jesus. Jesus is God’s clearest revelation of Himself and His plan. Heb 1:1-3
2. Mysteries such as the incarnation of Jesus, His suffering for sin, the coming of the
Holy Spirit and His indwelling are hinted at in the Old Testament (Covenant) through
types and shadows, but were not clear until they happened. I Pet 1:10-12
C. Conclusion: Christianity is more than a belief system. It is an organic, living relationship with God
through union and shared life—eternal life, the uncreated life in God. Jesus’ death, His sacrifice of
Himself on the Cross, opened the way for us to know God and to be indwelled by Him.
1. We were created to know God (John 17:3). Only Almighty God can fully satisfy the human heart.
Eccl 3:11—(God) has planted eternity in men’s heart and mind [a divinely implanted sense of
purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun, but only God, can satisfy] (Amp).
a. When Jesus was on earth He said: John 6:35—I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me
shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst (NKJV).
b. Those who come to Jesus will never hunger or thirst, meaning He satisfies our deepest longings
with Himself.
2. At the Last Supper Jesus used the emblems of bread and wine to represent what He was about to do
—give His body and blood in sacrifice for our sins. These emblems also picture a critical part of
our relationship with Him. We must receive Him into our being.
3. We do this by believing in Him, coming to Him, surrendering our life to Him as Savior and Lord.
Doing so unites us to the life in Him. This union relationship is only possible because of Jesus’
sacrificial death which established the new and better covenant—the New Covenant. More next
week!