Jesus the Healer – Mark 8: 22-25

Posted on April 9, 2024 by dkoop

On November 30, 1991, fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per-hour winds reduced visibility to zero. The afternoon tragedy left a three-mile trail of twisted and burning vehicles, some stacked on top of one another 100 yards off the side of the freeway. Unable to see their way, dozens of motorists drove blindly ahead into disaster.

Blindness was one of the great medical curses of the Middle East. We find Jesus taking a blind man by the hand and leading him out of town so He could deal with him privately. The healing of this person is recorded only in the book of Mark and it is the only miracle that Jesus performed which happened gradually. In this miracle the blind man’s sight came back in two stages. After the first touch he had only limited vision, but after the second touch his eyesight was restored completely.

There is symbolic truth here. No person sees all of God’s truth all at one time. One of the dangers of a certain type of evangelism is that it encourages the idea that when someone has made his decision for Christ, he or she is a full-grown Christian. One of the dangers of Church membership is that it can be presented in such a way as to imply that when a person becomes a member of the Church he or she has come to the end of the road. This is so far from the truth because becoming a Christian and Church membership are only the beginning of the road.

Let us look together now at Mark 8, beginning with Verse 22:

22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.

Some friends of a blind man find out Jesus has arrived so they do two things that we’re called to do as well.

  • Bring people to Jesus. Look at the next phrase, “And some people brought to him a blind man…” The word “brought” has the idea of carrying, so you know it takes them some effort. This is similar to what the four friends did for their paralyzed buddy when they tore the roof apart to lower him to the Lord in Mark 2:3
  • Beg Jesus to touch them. After bringing this man to Jesus, they “begged him to touch him.” To “beg” means to “to invite; to come to the side of.” Now that their friend is in proximity to Jesus they start praying and pleading for Him to touch him.

Do you have friends who push you closer to Christ or are they pulling you away from Him? Who can you think of right now that God wants you to bring to Jesus? Do you know of someone in misery? If so, it’s time to minister by bringing them close to Jesus and then begin begging Him to touch your friend or family member.

 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” 24 He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Mark 8:22-25 (NIV)

No other miracle is like this one. In a sense that is not strange, because Jesus never did two miracles alike. We tend to fall into patterns and habits. And when a change is made, it takes people abruptly unaware. But our Lord was not that way. He did things according to what the situation demanded, and so no two miracles are really the same. But this one is very remarkably different, because of two unusual aspects.

The first that captures our attention is that he spit on the eyes of this man. This may seem unhygienic to some of us, but in three of our Lord’s miracles he employed spit in this way. In Mark 7, in the healing of the man who was deaf and dumb, Jesus spit upon his own fingers before he touched the ears of the man. And in John’s Gospel we have the account of the healing of the man who was born blind. There Jesus spit on the ground, mixed clay with it, and used that to anoint his eyes. Now he spits directly on the eyes of this blind man. So there is some continuing use of spit in this way.

It is difficult to know exactly why. Many of the commentators have wrestled with this problem. William Barclay suggests that this was done as an accommodation of the people’s belief that there is something therapeutic about human saliva. People do immediately put to their mouth a finger that is cut or burned to soothe it. That may well be where this belief arose, and there may be some weight to the suggestion. But it does not explain fully what our Lord was doing.

It seems to me — that what our Lord does is symbolic, as were all of our Lord’s miracles. They were parables in action, pictures of the truth he was attempting to convey. And in this case, spit becomes a symbol of the Word of God. It is the visible form of that which issues from the mouth. Our Lord was perhaps awakening the faith of this blind man, who could feel but could not see. And through the application of spit to his eyes, he sensed that something was going to happen which would involve the power of the spoken Word of God. At any rate, Jesus was certainly teaching his disciples this lesson. It is the Word which is the creative agency in God’s work, always. The author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us that we understand it is by the Word of God that the worlds were framed out of things which do not appear (Hebrews 11:3). This is what I believe is symbolized here.

The second unusual aspect of this miracle is the incompleteness of the healing. We have no other account in Scripture of anything like this, of there being a process involved in our Lord’s healings. In every other circumstance he spoke the word, and instantly the person was made whole. He leaped, if he were lame; opened his eyes and saw, if he were blind; or rose from the dead. But for this miracle alone a two-stage process was involved. Again, many have wondered about this. Some commentators suggest that this represents a weakening of Jesus’ powers, that he had reached a stage in his ministry where opposition was so intense, hostility so increased, that his power was not quite adequate, and it took a double dose in order to accomplish the healing.

I cannot subscribe to that “double-dose” school of thought. Our Lord always had adequate power to deal with any situation because, as he tells us so frequently himself, it was not his power; it was the power of God the Father at work in him. And, again and again through the pages of the Scriptures, God teaches us that nothing is impossible to him. It was like he challenged the faith of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, when he told them she would have a child, after her body had long since passed the age of childbearing. Sarah laughed in disbelief. And God said to her, “Is anything too hard for God?” (Genesis 18:14).

Some commentators have suggested that perhaps this was a very stubborn case of blindness here, much more difficult than the usual. But that is saying the same thing — that Jesus’ power was not adequate to deal with it.

Rather, we must see this as a deliberate act, done for the benefit of the disciples. Jesus is teaching them again. This incident falls in that section of Mark which deals with our Lord’s attempts to instruct the disciples. He is teaching them lessons by what he does and what he says. Here he deliberately does this in a two-stage fashion, because he wants these disciples to see that they are like this blind man — they, and we who read this account — and that we need our eyes opened in two stages, as this blind man did.

We need a second touch, don’t we? We all struggle with this. Every Christian must be taught this by the Spirit of God. Jesus himself said there would be these two stages: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” (Matthew 11:28). There you learn who he is, in the fullness of his power to give rest to a struggling, weary, laden heart. Ah, but that is not all: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart [having lost all my pride, all my prestige and status], and you will find rest for your souls,” (Matthew 11:29) — two stages.

That is what our Lord has illustrated for us in this healing of the blind man, and now he begins to bring into our knowledge the second stage, by which we will understand and see clearly who he is.

Here are a few questions for us to consider:  When were my eyes opened spiritually? What stages of spiritual sight have I passed through? How do I know Jesus more today than in the past?  How can I help those who are spiritually blind?

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/watch-now/leander-campus-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

Facebook: Upwards Church

Sources:

The Turning Point, Ray Stedman

Seeing Clearly, Brian Bill

Overcoming Spiritual Blindness, Lou Nichols

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He is Risen! Mark 16

Posted on April 1, 2024 by dkoop

The message of Easter doesn’t change from year to year. When it comes around we remember again, regardless of what is happening in the world that might tempt us to believe otherwise, that God is able to bring hope where there is despair, joy where there is grief, love where there is indifference, trust where there is fear, new life where there is death.

The reality of the resurrection is the foundation of our faith.  At the empty tomb three instructions were spoken to the women: “Do not fear – Come and see – Go and tell.” They apply to us today as well!

The women who come to the tomb in Mark 16 are not only grieving as some of us are today who have lost a loved one, but they are in the shock that comes in the first days of grief and loss because a relatively young person they love was killed in an act of violence. Today there are too many grieving people who find themselves in a similar place as these women. All throughout our nation and indeed the world – families of little children, teenagers, and adults are mourning the loss of loved ones who were killed by acts of violence. The women we meet that first Easter morning can relate to those who are grieving such losses.

While some of their names are probably unfamiliar to us, what do we know about these grieving women who came to the tomb – Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome?

Mary Magdalene was the woman who Jesus had delivered from demon possession. The other Mary was the mother of James the less Mark 15:40) one of the twelve disciples, who in the list of disciples is identified as James the son of Alphaeus. Salome was the mother of the famed disciples James and John, and she was the wife of Zebedee. These women were very devoted to Jesus Christ. They were some of the godliest women of their time and of all times.[1]

In Mark 15:40 we see that they are present at a distance when Jesus is dying on the cross which tells us they have the courage to risk being publicly associated with Christ. Do we have similar courage to be publicly associated with Jesus in our time?

In Mark 15:41 we learn that the women, followed Jesus and provided for his needs when he was in Galilee. They have not just been casual observers in the crowd. They have committed themselves to following Jesus, serving him, and providing resources to support his ministry. Have we committed ourselves to following Jesus, seeking to serve him and sharing our resources to support the Lord’s work today?

In Mark 15:47 we discover they stayed long enough after Jesus died to see Joseph of Arimathea take down Christ’s body and they went to see the tomb where Joseph placed the remains. They care enough to stay to the end. Sometimes it isn’t possible for us to do that after someone has died, but I know how much it means to families when people come to a service and stay to go to a reception to greet the family and share their love and support. These women stay.

And in this morning’s scripture in Mark 16:1-2 the women are portrayed as going to the tomb at the first possible moment on Sunday morning to anoint Jesus’ body. In all these snapshots we see the women are examples of a desperately needed virtue in our world today – compassion.

Sharing God’s compassion and love is the primary way of living out our faith. As the women went to Jesus’ tomb early in the morning on the first day of the week, the question foremost in their minds was who would roll away the large stone blocking the entrance to the tomb so they could anoint Jesus’ dead body. They are worrying about who will roll away the stone for them because that obstacle is too large for them to move on their own, but when they arrive God has already taken care of it. Often times in life we spend many wasted hours worrying about things that never take place or that we never have to face. God has gone before us and cleared the path, made a way, or rolled away the stone.  This is a lesson of Easter morning that is often overlooked in the amazing news of Jesus’ resurrection, but it is a very important thing to remember. Rather than worrying about how we will roll away stones that are so large and heavy and seemingly immovable and getting all stressed out about it and putting pressure on ourselves to figure it out, we’re invited to learn from the women’s experience to trust God for our future.

Hannah Whitall Smith author of The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, wrote, “Most Christians are like a man who was toiling along the road, bending under a heavy burden, when a wagon overtook him, and the driver kindly offered to help him on his journey. He joyfully accepted the offer, but when seated, continued to bend beneath his burden, which he still kept on his shoulders. “Why do you not lay down your burden?” asked the kind-hearted driver. “Oh!” replied the man, “I feel that it is almost too much to ask you to carry me, and I could not think of letting you carry my burden too.” And so Christians, who have given themselves into the care and keeping of the Lord Jesus, still continue to bend beneath the weight of their burden, and often go weary and heavy-laden throughout the whole length of their journey.”

The women are acting in love and devotion in going to the tomb, but they are burdened with worry about the stone blocking their path. Yet God has already gone ahead of them, even as God goes ahead of us to prepare the way for us when are seeking to live in faith and obedience. If you have a stone you’re worried about rolling away this morning, I encourage you to release your burden to God and trust the Mighty One to roll it away for you.

The women are shocked not only that the stone has been rolled away but also to discover a young man robed in white who tells them not to be alarmed and then shares the unbelievable news about Jesus of Nazareth, “He has been raised; he is not here.”  The women are charged to tell the other disciples that Jesus will meet them in Galilee, just as he told them. This reminder from the messenger is meant to assure the women that Jesus had already told them what was to happen before he was crucified. Verse 8 records their response to this incomprehensible experience, “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

We can understand being afraid, I’d be pretty shook up meeting a divine messenger in the early morning light of a cemetery where my loved one was supposed to be buried, wouldn’t you?

The late Dr. Ken McFarland told the story of a man who worked on the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift at a factory, and he always walked home after work. One night the moon was shining so bright, like it was the last few nights, he decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery, which would save him a half-mile walk. It went smoothly so he began to make the shortcut through the cemetery his regular route. One night he was strolling through the cemetery, unaware that during the day a grave had been dug in the center of his path. He stepped right into the grave and immediately started desperately trying to get out. His best efforts failed him, and after a few minutes, he decided to relax and wait until morning when someone would help him out.

He sat down in the corner and was half asleep when a drunken man stumbled into the same grave. His arrival woke up the shift worker since the drunk was desperately trying to climb out of the dark grave, clawing at its sides. The worker reached out his hand to calm the frightened man. Touching him on the leg he said, “Friend, you can’t get out of here…” but he did!  It is amazing what we can do when we’re motivated.

I imagine the women fleeing from the tomb with the same speed as the drunken man in that story. Give the women credit. They are the last at the cross, the first at the tomb, and they are still looking for ways to serve Jesus. They are not portrayed as hiding in a room or going fishing to forget their troubles like some other disciples we could name. The women had the courage to go to the tomb but they fled in trembling fear and ecstasy.

There is something about Mark’s resurrection story that distinguishes it from our memories of Easter and from the other gospels. I’ll give you a hint, someone is missing and it isn’t the Easter Bunny. No Jesus!  In Matthew, Luke, and John, Jesus appears to the women or the other disciples to take away their fear and doubt and to give final instructions.  But Mark ends literally almost in mid-sentence and there is no appearance of the risen Jesus following the report of the young man that Jesus has been raised. A good study Bible will make plain in its notes that Mark’s gospel ended at verse 8. The verses that come after are a later addition. Mark ends like an interactive, unfinished story and we are invited to write the next chapter.

We are invited and challenged to become part of God’s plan to tell others the Easter story.The messenger told the women, “go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee, there you will see him, just as he told you.”  The message for them and for us is this: Jesus goes before us, just as he told us. Jesus goes ahead and to see him we need to keep trusting his word and keep moving forward in life. In the command of the messenger lies the promise of forgiveness, hope, and new life.

The promise of forgiveness is that Jesus doesn’t give up on us when we fail. That is why Peter is specifically mentioned. He was the leader among the disciples and the one who denied Jesus three times. Yet Jesus is looking forward to seeing him in Galilee as well. Peter will be forgiven. Forgiveness gives people second chances.  Even when we have failed Jesus, he still goes on before us telling us what to do next on our journey of life and faith, if we’re ready to resume following him with all our heart.  Part of the hope of Easter is a fresh start and renewed purpose for disciples who have denied and betrayed Jesus. We can betray our friend Jesus in many ways: when we give in to the pressures of temptations and trials, when we have spoken words or made decisions that contradict who God calls us to be; when we have forsaken our commitments, neglected the poor, ignored the lost, or failed to devote our time and resources to matters of eternal consequence.

Jesus knows how his disciples fail him then and now, yet he still goes before us, inviting us to meet him and to resume the journey together. The messenger knows who the women are looking for – they are looking for Jesus.  Who or what are you looking for today?  Where are you looking for answers to life’s most important questions? A man went to a fortuneteller, hoping that she would be able to look into her crystal ball and make some stock market or lottery predictions.  “My fee,” said the fortuneteller, “is $100. For that amount you may ask two questions.”  The client winced and said, “Wow, isn’t that a lot of money for just two questions?”  “Yes,” the fortuneteller replied.  “What’s your second question?” 

This is a year when many of us have questions. We need to hear the Easter message that God can bring resurrection out of crucifixion, hope out of hopelessness, joy out of sorrow, purpose out of a lack of direction. For Mark, the joy of Easter, comes when we share the good news of the resurrection. God can use anybody – frightened women fleeing an empty tomb or even you and me. We can be scared and still act with compassion, faith, and courage.  Courage is doing the right thing in spite of our fear. God can use us regardless of our fears, weaknesses and faults.

We are blessed to know how the story ends for Jesus, He has been raised, and he is exalted.

How will it end for us and for others God wants us to tell?  “He has been raised; he is not here,” is the message from the angel that gives new hope to all of us.  Even and especially to those who are grieving.

Like the women, may we have courage to risk being publicly associated with Christ.

Like them may we commit our selves to following Jesus, serving him, and providing resources to support his ministry.

Like the women may we experience God moving away stones that we’re worried about so that they are no longer barriers or obstacles for God’s future for us.

May God grant us faith to continue our life following Jesus as we tell others the good news that Christ is risen.

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/watch-now/leander-campus-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

Facebook: Upwards Church

[1] John G. Butler, Analytical Bible Expositor: Mark (Clinton, IA: LBC Publications, 2008), 281.

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You’re Invited! – Iconic Jesus – Gospel of Mark

Posted on March 28, 2024 by dkoop

You’re invited to our new series staring on Easter Sunday, Iconic Jesus from the Gospel of Mark!

Description: Jesus is iconic, meaning He’s “widely known and acknowledged.” Join us in the book of Mark (the action gospel) to learn more about our Iconic Jesus.  He encourages his followers, heals the hurting and will return in power!  It’s “widely known” that He calls on those who would follow him to be in action as well.

 Dates           Titles           Scripture                          Events          

April 21         Jesus, He is Risen! (Mark 16)                 EASTER

April 28         Jesus the Healer (Mark 8)

May 5           Jesus is Returning (Mark 13)

Introduction to Mark

Mark’s gospel portrays Jesus as constantly on the move. The forward motion in Mark’s writing keeps the knowledgeable reader’s mind continually looking ahead to the cross and the resurrection. Thirty-nine times Mark used the word immediately, giving a sense that Jesus’s time on earth was short and that there was much to accomplish in His few years of ministry.

What’s the big idea?

While Matthew’s gospel portrays Jesus as the King, Mark reveals Him as God’s Servant. Jesus’s work was always for a larger purpose, a point clearly summarized in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark filled his gospel with the miracles of Jesus, illustrating again and again both the power and the compassion of the Son of God. In these passages, Mark revealed more than Jesus as the good teacher who offered people spiritual renewal; the book also portrays Jesus as the true God and the true man, reaching into the lives of people and effecting physical and circumstantial change.

But Jesus’s life as the agent of change wasn’t without an ultimate purpose. Amid His hands-on ministry, Jesus constantly pointed to the definitive way in which He would serve humanity: His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. It is only through faith in these works of Jesus Christ that human beings find eternal redemption for their whole selves. Moreover, Jesus becomes our model for how to live our lives—serving others as He did.

Who Was Mark?

The Bible records more information about Mark than any of the other gospel writers aside from the apostle John. Luke mentioned Mark’s name several times in Acts. A budding Jerusalem church met in his mother’s home. Mark also started the first missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas but went home early, though he later traveled with Barnabas to Cyprus for more mission work. He became significant in the life of Paul, being one of the last people the apostle mentioned in his final letter (2 Timothy 4:11).

However, Mark’s most significant personal connection was the one he had with Peter, who was likely Mark’s source for the material in the gospel. Mark’s mother’s house was a regular enough stop for Peter that the servants recognized him by voice alone (Acts 12:12–14). And it appears that Mark was present at Gethsemane, a young man watching the proceedings from a safe distance (Mark 14:51–52), leading some scholars to believe the Last Supper took place in Mark’s home.

When Was It Written?

Because Mark offered no further comment on Jesus’s prophecy regarding the destruction of the temple—an event that occurred in AD 70—we can safely assume that Mark composed the gospel sometime before that tragic event. Also, the gospel has a distinctly Roman feel to it, particularly when compared with the Jewish emphasis of the book of Matthew. Mark chose to leave aside most comments on fulfilled prophecy (compare Matthew 21:1–6 and Mark 11:1–4), and when he felt compelled to use an Aramaic term, he interpreted it (Mark 3:17). This suggests that Mark was in Rome, writing from Peter’s recollections sometime before that apostle’s death (ca. AD 64–68), possibly composing the gospel between AD 57 and AD 59.

Events in Mark’s gospel move rapidly towards the climax:  The Last Supper, the betrayal, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection are dramatically portrayed, along with more examples of Jesus’ teachings. Mark shows us Jesus—moving, serving, sacrificing, and saving! As we read Mark, be ready for action, be open for God’s move in our lives, and be challenged to move into the world we serve.

I hope you can join us as we celebrate the resurrected Christ and learn more about Jesus from Mark’s gospel!

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

Message Audio/Video and Outline: https://upwards.church/watch-now/leander-campus-videos

Watch Messages: YouTube-Upwards Church

Facebook: Upwards Church

Sources:

https://www.insight.org/resources/bible/the-gospels/mark

Life Application Bible Notes (Tyndale, 2007), 1610.

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The New Covenant – Jeremiah 31

Posted on March 26, 2024 by dkoop

God has always dealt with humanity by way of covenant.  A covenant is “an agreement between two or more persons.”  Covenant is often compared to contract, treaty, or alliance.

The history of God’s people is a story of covenants.  God promised to reward Adam with life if he obeyed and warned of death if Adam disobeyed (Genesis 2:16–17). God made a covenant of safety with Noah and every living creature (Genesis 9:8–17). The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant promise that he will never again destroy the world with a flood.
God made a covenant of destiny with Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3; 15:1–21; 17:1–27). He promised to give him a land populated with descendants as numerous as the stars (15:5). God said, “This is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.… I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you” (17:4, 7). He also promised that through Abraham’s offspring all nations on earth will be blessed (22:18; cf. 12:3). For his part, Abraham was bound to obey God by circumcising every male in his household (17:9–14). Every one of these covenants was a personal bond in which God promised to bless and his people promised to obey.
In Jeremiah 31 God refers to “the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt” (v. 32a). For Jeremiah, therefore, the Old Covenant meant the covenant God made with his people at Mount Sinai. The Mosaic Covenant was for a people already saved by grace. “God spoke all these words: ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery’ ” (Exodus 20:1–2). Once they were saved, God’s people had to keep God’s covenant in order to receive God’s blessing. They had to worship God alone, keep the Sabbath holy, preserve the sanctity of human life, tell the truth, and obey the rest of the Ten Commandments (vv. 3–17). The Mosaic Covenant was a good and gracious covenant.

The Broken Covenants 

There was only one problem with the Old Covenant—sin. The covenant was broken even before it could be ratified. By the time Moses came down from the mountain, the people had cast a golden idol in the shape of a calf. “When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain” (Exodus 32:19).
So God reissued the covenant (Exodus 34), only to see his people break it all over again. The history of the Old Testament is one of idolatry, immorality, discontent, and disobedience.
Jeremiah rightly identified sin as the problem with the Old Covenant: “ ‘They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD” (31:32b).  “Jeremiah does not condemn the old covenant. He condemns Israel for breaking the covenant.”7 And not just breaking it! The first twenty-eight chapters of Jeremiah are an exhaustive record of how Judah shattered the covenant and ground the fragments into dust.
The shocking thing was that this agreement was actually a marriage covenant. More than once Jeremiah stated that God was like a husband to his people. But the day finally came when the Almighty filed for divorce. Israel “fell out of love” and committed spiritual adultery “on every high hill and under every spreading tree” (2:20b). She stood up in court to deny the charges, but God made them stick. His virgin bride had become a spiritual whore.
Here is the real shocker, however: If every sin is an act of covenant-breaking, then every sinner is a covenant-breaker. Every time you sin, you are being unfaithful in your marriage to God. That is why sin is so tawdry, cheap, and degrading. As the Apostle Paul so carefully explained, there is nothing wrong with the Law, the commandment, or the Old Covenant (Romans 7:7–13). The problem is with us. We are covenant-breakers by nature.
Failure to keep the covenant brings a curse (cf. Jeremiah 11:8, 10–11). Jeremiah cited the conventional wisdom of his day: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (31:29b). This must have been a popular saying because the prophet Ezekiel quoted it as well (Ezekiel 18:2). It is a memorable proverb. When a father bites into an unripe grape, the lips of his children pucker in disgust. This refers to the curse of the Old Covenant, in which God threatened to “punish the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5).
How the people of Judah resented that curse! “While in exile the people concluded out of self-pity and fatalistic despair that they were being punished unjustly for sins of previous generations.”8  They felt sorry for themselves. The sour grapes their fathers ate left a bitter taste in their mouths. Why should they suffer for the spiritual adultery of their parents?
What the prophet Jeremiah taught them, however, was that they deserved God’s curse for their own sins as well as for those of their parents: “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for his own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—his own teeth will be set on edge” (31:29–30). Corporately or individually, everyone who breaks covenant is under God’s curse. This is also true for nations—including the United States of America—that have covenanted to live under God.

The New Covenant 

If the Old Covenant ended in a curse, then the New Covenant merits investigation. Jeremiah 31 is the place to start because it is the only passage in the Old Testament that promises “a new covenant.” It is the one place in the Old Covenant that lists the promises of the New Covenant. And since a covenant is also called a “testament,” it is the passage that gives the New Testament its name.

Jeremiah listed seven promises in all.

  1. The New Covenant promised reconciliation, the bringing together of all God’s people into one redeemed race.

“The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.” (v. 31)

Because of its emphasis on personal responsibility, Jeremiah’s New Covenant is sometimes viewed as the triumph of individualism. R. K. Harrison says:

Probably the most significant contribution which Jeremiah made to religious thought was inherent in his insistence that the new covenant involved a one-to-one relationship of the spirit. When the new covenant was inaugurated by the atoning work of Jesus Christ on Calvary, this important development of personal, as opposed to corporate, faith and spirituality was made real for the whole of mankind.9

The trouble with this view is that the first promise of the New Covenant was a corporate promise, not an individual promise. It promised to end the division between the northern and southern tribes. “ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals’ ” (v. 27). God promised to plant both houses in one land.
Jeremiah first promised this reconciliation at the beginning of his book:

“At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your forefathers as an inheritance.” (3:17–18)

He would repeat it at the end of his book:

“In those days, at that time,”
declares the LORD,
“the people of Israel and the people of Judah together
will go in tears to seek the LORD their God.
They will ask the way to Zion
and turn their faces toward it.
They will come and bind themselves to the LORD
in an everlasting covenant
that will not be forgotten.” (50:4–5)

Jeremiah’s promises were fulfilled with the coming of Christ. There is only one New Covenant people of God. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). In the New Covenant community there is no black, no white, no brown. There is no rich, no poor. There is only one New Covenant people in Christ.

2. The New Covenant promised regeneration, the transformation of God’s people from the inside out:

“This is the covenant I will make with the house
of Israel after that time,”
declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:33a)

The problem with the Mosaic Covenant was that it was written on tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18). If anything was written on the hearts of God’s people, it was only their sin:

“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool,
inscribed with a flint point,
on the tablets of their hearts.” (Jeremiah 17:1; cf. v. 9)

With the New Covenant, however, God solved the problem of the sinful heart by giving his children new hearts and new minds. According to Calvin, the New Covenant “penetrates into the heart and reforms all the inward faculties, so that obedience is rendered to the righteousness of God.”10
It must be emphasized that the New Covenant did not abolish the Old. Christ did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). So, “the new covenant is not so called because it is contrary to the first covenant.”11 Both covenants demand obedience to the Law. The difference is that the New Covenant brings the law from the outside to the inside. “The distinctiveness of the ministry of law under the new covenant resides in its inward character. Rather than being administered externally, the law shall be administered from within the heart.”12

The Law written on the heart is a promise about the coming of God’s Spirit, for the book of Hebrews attributes Jeremiah’s promise to the Holy Spirit:

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the LORD.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.” (Hebrews 10:15–16)

Only the Holy Spirit can change a heart. A Christian whose heart has been regenerated by God’s Spirit knows how to please God and does not need to pull out a Bible every time a decision needs to be made. The Law written on the heart helps the Christian know what to do instantly and instinctively.
For the Christian, obedience to the Law is not a prior condition for entering the New Covenant. Rather, it is one of the promised blessings of the New Covenant. In his notes on this verse Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) wrote, “I think the difference here pointed out between these two covenants, lies plainly here, that in the old covenant God promised to be their God upon condition of hearty obedience; obedience was stipulated as a condition, but not promised. But in the new covenant, this hearty obedience is promised.”14

3. The New Covenant promised possession. God’s people would have a claim on God, and he would have a claim on them: “I will be their God, and they will be my people” (31:33b). God’s people would no longer be their own. They would belong to God, and God would belong to them.
The promise of belonging to God in a mutual love relationship is among the most frequently repeated promises of the Old Testament:

“I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” (Exodus 6:7)

You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him. And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. (Deuteronomy 26:17–18; cf. 29:12–13; Ezekiel 11:20)

“I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ” (Hosea 2:23b; cf. Zechariah 8:8)

Whenever God makes a covenant with his people, what he is really giving them is himself. Thus the primary blessing of the New Covenant is friendship and fellowship with the Triune God. This “is the crown and goal of the whole process of religion, namely, union and communion with God.”15

4. The fourth aspect of Jeremiah’s New Covenant promise was evangelization.

“No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the LORD. (31:34a)

The Bible often commands believers to teach one another to know the Lord (Deuteronomy 6:1–9; Colossians 3:16). But Jeremiah promised a day when such teaching would no longer be necessary because everyone—from the youngest babe to the oldest saint—would know God. Here the word know “carries its most profound connotation, the intimate personal knowledge which arises between two persons who are committed wholly to one another in a relationship that touches mind, emotion, and will.”16
To a limited degree, this promise has already come true in the Church. Every believer knows Jesus Christ. So although every Christian needs the gospel every day, every Christian does not need to be converted every day.
Yet the promise of the end of evangelization is especially for eternity. There will be no revival meetings in Heaven. No one will stand on the corner and pass out tracts. No one will share the Four Spiritual Laws. No one will knock on your door and ask, “If you were to die tonight, what would you say to God when he asks, ‘Why should I let you into my Heaven?’ ” There will be no evangelism because there will be no need. Everyone will know God, from the least to the greatest.

5. Fifth, the New Covenant promised forgiveness: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34b). This is perhaps the best blessing of the New Covenant. The Old Covenant tried to deal with the problem of sin through the sacrifices of the Law. But in the New Covenant, sin would be dealt with once and for all. The price for sin would be paid in full; God not only forgives, but he also forgets.
The way the New Covenant deals with the problem of sin is through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The sins of God’s people were forgiven and forgotten at Calvary. When Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples, “He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’ ” (Luke 22:20; cf. 1 Corinthians 11:25). Jesus was claiming that all the promises of the New Covenant find their fulfillment in him. Jesus is the New Covenant. The New Covenant is established by his blood shed on the cross for our sins. All the blessings of the New Covenant are located in the crucified (and risen!) Christ.
The writer to the Hebrews was captivated by Jeremiah’s vision of the New Covenant. Again and again he speaks of “a better covenant” (7:22) or a “superior” covenant “founded on better promises” (8:6). A better covenant was needed because there was a problem with the old one. It was the same problem Jeremiah identified: “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people” (Hebrews 8:7–8a). God found fault not with the covenant but with the people. A better covenant was needed to deal with the problem of sin.
The better covenant in Hebrews is one and the same as the New Covenant in Jeremiah, for Hebrews quotes Jeremiah’s entire promise (8:8–12). Then the writer to the Hebrews makes this significant statement: “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he [God] has made the first one obsolete” (v. 13a). We have already seen that the Old Covenant is not abolished but fulfilled in the New. The laws of the Old Covenant remain, now written on the heart. But the New Covenant is so much better that it is as if the Old has been done away with completely.
The reason the New Covenant is so much better is because “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” (9:15; cf. 12:24). The New Covenant offers full and final satisfaction for the curse of God against every kind of covenant-breaking.

6. Sixth, Jeremiah promised that the New Covenant would be eternal:

This is what the LORD says,

he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar—
the LORD Almighty is his name:
“Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
declares the LORD,
“will the descendants of Israel ever cease
to be a nation before me.”

This is what the LORD says:
“Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,”
declares the LORD. (31:35–37)

The God of creation is also the God of salvation. Therefore, the New Covenant in Christ is as reliable as the fixed laws of nature, if not more so. It is irrevocable.
Jeremiah’s pleas for God to remember his covenant have not gone unanswered (14:21). Not even the disastrous events of 587 B.C. (the ultimate fall of Jerusalem and the beginning of the Babylonian captivity) marked its end. The New Covenant is as likely to fail as the entire universe is to grind to a halt. God will no more forget his people than humanity will unravel all the mysteries of interstellar space. The New Covenant is an everlasting covenant.
The Biblical covenants often sound like contracts, as if God does his part and we do our part. But of course we never keep our end of the bargain, and so the covenant ought to be null and void. Yet the mystery of God’s grace is that he continues to keep covenant even when we break it.
The only explanation for the permanence of the covenant is that Jesus Christ keeps it on our behalf.  The New Covenant is a blood bond between God the Father and God the Son on our behalf. Jesus Christ makes and keeps the covenant for us. We are in the covenant because we are in Christ.

7. The seventh and final promise of the New Covenant was to Rebuild Jerusalem:

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah. The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the LORD. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.” (31:38–40)

There would be life after death for Jerusalem. The parts of the city that lay in ruins would be rebuilt. What had been cursed would be blessed.
All these promises came true. When Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem after the Exile, his engineers started at “the Tower of Hananel” (Nehemiah 3:1) and worked their way around Jeremiah’s map to make repairs “above the Horse Gate” (v. 28). That was the earthly, physical fulfillment of Jeremiah’s promise.
There is also a heavenly, spiritual fulfillment of the promise of the New Covenant. God is building his people an eternal city.   “When Christ returns, his people will see “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:2).

Bible expositions often end by applying the promises and commands of God to daily life. But after hearing the seven promises of the New Covenant, what still needs to be done?
There is nothing left to do—only believe. For all the promises of the New Covenant are things God himself undertakes: “I will make a new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31). “I will put my law in their minds.… I will be their God” (v. 33). “I will forgive their wickedness” (v. 34). He will not “reject all the descendants of Israel” (v. 37). All the terms of the New Covenant are promises.  Will you believe them?

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Sources:
1 O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1980), p. 4.
2 John Murray, The Covenant of Grace (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1953), p. 31.
3 Robert Davidson, Jeremiah, Daily Study Bible, 2 vols., Vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983), p. 88.
4 Herman Witsius, The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, 2 vols. (London, 1773; repr. Escondido, CA; Den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1990), I.1.9.
5 Gerhard Von Rad, Old Testament Theology, trans. D.M.G. Stalker, 2 vols., Vol. 2 (New York: Harper & Row, 1960), p. 213.
6 J. A. Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1980), p. 580.
7 Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants, p. 281.
8 F. B. Huey, Jr., Jeremiah, Lamentations, New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman, 1993), p. 279.
9 R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah and Lamentations, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1973), p. 140.
10 John Calvin, A Commentary on Jeremiah, 5 vols., Vol. 4 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1989), p. 130.
11 Ibid., p. 126.
12 Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants, p. 190.
13 Thomas à Kempis, quoted in Urban Mission (June 1997), p. 30.
14 Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols., Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974), p. 765.
15 Murray, The Covenant of Grace, p. 31.
16 Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah, p. 581.
17 Oliver O’Donovan, The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 285.
18 Thomas Boston, The Complete Works of the Late Rev. Thomas Boston, Ettrick, ed. Samuel M’Millan, 12 vols., Vol. 8 (London, 1853; repr. Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, 1980), p. 430.
Philip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 464–475.
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