March 1 - Hebrews 8 - "Have a Heart"

MPC 1st March 2020.

Phil Campbell

It's been a revealing few weeks really when it comes to understanding the human heart. Because I reckon even ordinary people are starting to agree there's something wrong. Starting to get the inkling of a suspicion that the way we treat one another is just so often so badly wrong... that there must be something wrong with us in general.

Harvey Weinstein. For one example. Doing what for generations every other Hollywood producer used to do. Except crossing the line in every way. While the jury was deliberating in his case last week, before the guilty verdict, one media commentator said, "It makes you think, doesn't it? even if they do find him not guilty of breaking any specific laws. What he did was still evil. It's just that evil is not a word you're allowed to use any more."

The word that's the evil twin of the word sin. An act of evil. Which we don't use any more either.

And yet when we get desperate; when a man burns up his wife and kids in their car. Maybe then. We reach for words like that. Sin. And Evil. As we try to describe the almost indescribable.

But look, maybe you've got a definition that goes even further than that. Maybe even when there's such a laziness about keeping people safe on the rides at Dreamworld.

Someone said, "We had one job. make people happy. And instead of that we killed them." And when you dig down a few layers you find there's been astonishing negligence. That boils down in the end to just not caring whether people live or die because the maintenance is too expensive. Which looks like a good business decision as long as you're not there on the day when everything breaks.

I dunno. Maybe that falls into your own definition of evil as well. Of corporate sin.

Or there's the selfish over-consumption the Chinese Deputy Ambassador accused us of on Q and A on Monday night. not caring for the planet. He said, you Westerners just don't get it.

Maybe he's right. Maybe we're so selfish that in Greta's mind at least... we're evil.

Look, the point is, when you think about it we all draw the line somewhere. It's just that it's almost always a line that's somewhere else. Some one else. Rather than right through the middle of me!

Which is of course the famous quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He says, if only it were that simple. This is from his famous book The Gulag Archipelago...

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

We're in our series God's story, and we're tracking right through the story of the Bible. And we saw back in part 1, the bible says that's been exactly the problem since the very beginning. Or just afterwards. When after God made everything and it was good... mankind says, the one thing that could be better is if we decided right and wrong for ourselves.

And so they grab the fruit. Called the knowledge of good and evil. And so it begins. Evil. Has a foothold. And grows and spreads. And ruins the human heart.

Until God makes a deal. A covenant. With Abraham. And his descendants after him. Who become the people of Israel.

The Old Testament traces their story. The deal is, they'll honour God. And do what's right and just. And he'll be their God. Eden all over again.

He gives them laws through Moses. And this time unlike Eden they'll keep them. And live in their promised land. Enjoying his blessings.

At least, that's the plan. Trouble is, it doesn't go so well.

And so we saw in Episode 2; Israel flourishes as God's promises are delivered. The powerful kingdom of Israel safe in the promised land.

And then the crash. As they ignore the flip side of the covenant deal. Which was covenant obedience from the heart. No other gods. Do what's just and right.

So into exile and ruin. Twelve tribes scattered. Only two return. And come back and patch up Jerusalem. In a little patch of Judea.

Still with the promise that one day if they'll turn back to God with all their hearts. He'll change their hearts. That if only their hearts are broken; about their situation; he'll forgive all their sins, he'll wipe the slate clean, and even better than that... he'd retune their hearts. So they'd want to do right. Instead of want to do wrong. From the inside.

All they had to do. was turn back and ask. Hungry for it. Thirsty for it. Ready for it.

Now remember. We're still unfolding the story.

I'm not talking about you yet. Though you might get a niggle every now and then.

I'm talking about Israel. In history. So the prophet Jeremiah, in the middle of the mess; at the point where it's all gone so terribly wrong. He looks ahead with huge optimism, because he knows God's always promised that the time will come for a new covenant. Jeremiah 31:31-34

This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel    after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Not a bunch of laws written on stone tablets. But a bunch of right desires. Written in our deepest places. Written on their hearts.

And so Jesus comes with the promise of that. Comes as a new king; the Christ. To gather a people. Comes as a priest. To make a final sacrifice for their sins.

Comes as the one we saw at the start of Matthew's gospel last week who has God's Spirit on him; ready to pour it out on Israel. To change their hearts.

If they'll only turn back in their hearts. And repent.

And as we saw last week in the story Jesus told about the tenant farmers when the owner sends his son for the rent. It's a story about himself. And Jesus knows. It's not going to go so well.

The tenants are the nation of Israel. And their corrupt leaders. And the end point of that parable, if you remember last week, was if they reject the son... the vineyard. The nation of Israel as the people of God is going to be thrown down all over again. And handed over. To others.

As he "brings those wretches to a wretched end."

And in place of the old Israel there'll be a new Israel. With new hearts. Under a new covenant. Made up of all kinds of people like us. Who aren't even Israelites. But who will. be fruitful tenants.

Israel's tenancy contract; the old covenant. Is about to be revoked. Depending of course on what they do with Jesus.

And so it plays out. As the son of God; is handed over by them to be crucified on the charge that he claimed to be the son of God. Which he actually was.

Which looks like a crushing defeat for Jesus. But is actually the sacrifice that's right at the heart of the Christian story; that's the start of a new covenant in his blood. Which is something Christians of every variety say every time they celebrate the Lord's Supper together.

And better than that, three days later, literally; resurrected. As God says it's not him who's finished. It's the old covenant. The laws that could never change hearts. The city of Jerusalem. It's finished. The temple. Finished. Priesthood. Finished. Israel. Finished.

Replaced by something far better, which has been a long time coming. Replaced by the risen Jesus pouring out his Spirit. To change the hearts of his people not just from among the Israelites but from every nation and language of the world. Which you can read about and see played out in the book of Acts.

Where at last. After waiting so very long. The spirit is very visibly poured out on this first little group of believers. In the first instance in an astonishingly visible way. So everyone knows what's happened.

Peter explains it. Acts 2 verse 33...

Exalted to the right hand of God, Jesus has received from the Fatherthe promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

And so at last. The promise of circumcised hearts. Deuteronomy 30v6. And a people who want to do what's right and just ... . From the heart.

As they get on with the business of spreading the news. In ever increasing circles. From Jerusalem. To Judea. To Samaria. To the ends of the world. Gathering people in even from obscure places like Mitchelton. And Arana Hills. And Everton Park. And even Ferny Grove!

Under a new covenant not of law and condemnation but of the spirit and forgiveness. Which is great news.

As at the same time the clock is ticking on national Israel. A last chance to hear about Jesus and repent. As they're in the final countdown towards the year 70AD.

When there's a revolt. And the Romans come. And they surround the Jerusalem city walls.

And fulfilling the words of Jesus in passages like Mark 13 and Matthew 23, the armies of Rome besiege Jerusalem and they tear down the temple stone by stone.

Leaving only the wailing wall where Jewish pilgrims still cry and pray today. The only part of the temple left standing after the Roman invasion of 70AD.

And they take the temple treasure back to Rome; which funds the building of the Colosseum.

Which the Arch of Titus next door. Carved in relief. The golden lamp on its way out of the Jerusalem temple. On the shoulders of Roman soldiers. Jerusalem. Crushed. The old covenant. Obsolete. Outdated. Disappearing. Gone.

But not to worry. Because there's a new covenant available... not just for Israel. But for people even like the Romans who tore it all down. Even like us. People challenged by the evil that runs right through the middle of our own hearts. By the streak of selfishness, of unforgiveness, of greed, of wrong desire. By our inability to fix ourselves. Even if the world keeps saying we can.

A new covenant. That's all about new hearts.

Now that could rate as the longest introduction ever. Because the passage we read this morning was Hebrews chapter 8. And we haven't even got there yet.

Hebrews is a New Testament letter all about how you don't need a Jerusalem any more. And you don't need a temple any more. And you don't even need priests any more. Because the new covenant under Jesus is far better.

Better than anything that came before. Because of the better sacrifice. Of his own perfect life. A one off. Rather than over and over again.

Although it raises the question, as I know it does with some of us today, what about the first covenant? What was wrong with it?

If it was given by God. If the laws were so good. Shouldn't we at least be keeping them; or be basing the constitution of third world countries on them; or trying to legislate them for Australia? Or working out the economic principles behind them and applying them in our business... shouldn't we as Christians do our best to live by them?

And so if you're not a Christian at this point, that might be the message you've got. That being Christian is all about taking on a whole lot of new rules. And trying to make other people keep them as well.

You might be critical of Christians you know because they seem to cherry pick the rules they like and ignore the ones they don't. Like the awkward ones we saw last week about not cooking a baby goat in its mother's milk which American Jews have decided means you should eat milk with meat so no cheeseburgers.

And you say, "I saw you have a cheeseburger. So you're inconsistent."

Tough questions; especially if you're a first century Israelite who's just become a Christian. And here's the answer. That the scriptures always said there was a use by date on the law

It was printed there on the box. Right from the start.

Like the words from the Prophet Jeremiah. That are actually quoted in full here in Hebrews. In what I think is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Because it's important. The question is, what was wrong with the Old Covenant?

And the answer is, you were. You Israelites. you... were the problem. Which is the story we've seen all along. That their hearts just weren't in it.

Which is not to suggest for a moment that you or I would have done any better.

Pick it up from verse 7. Verse 6 has just been saying that jesus and his covenant are way better. Than the old one. For, verse 7... follow along...

7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.

And what was wrong with it? Keep reading...

8 But God found fault with the people, and said: "The days are coming," declares the Lord, "    when I will make a New Covenant with the people of Israel    and with the people of Judah."

There was a use by date. There was going to be a new covenant. Because there was a problem with the people. Their hearts. And rules weren't enough. To bring transformation.

And so the new covenant, says Jeremiah way back in the Old Testament, it's going to be different. Verse 9. Follow it in your bible.

9  It will not be like the covenant   I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand    to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,    and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.

The story we've seen already. The laws of Moses. The rules. The rituals. That in every way, Israel just ignored.

Now. For Jesus followers. The change is going to come from the inside. And not be imposed from the outside.

More from Jeremiah. Keep reading. Verse 10.

This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds  and write them on their hearts. I will be their God... . and they will be my people.

"And they'll all know me," verse 11, "and I'll forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more."

That's the promise. Back in Jeremiah. Delivered. In Jesus.

Which according to verse 13, makes the first covenant obsolete. Outdated. And so disappearing.

I don't know what it is about LP Records. Suddenly they're trendy again. We had coffee the other day in a café that also sold old LPs for $30 or $40 each. I mean, I know some people love the nostalgia. But if you remember the days when you had to keep cleaning the needle and dusting out the grooves with a sticky roller; why go back?

I mean, even CDs are outdated now. Because Spotify is better again. Every song you ever wanted. In every room. No hiss, crackle or pop. LPs and CDs are obsolete. Outdated. And disappearing. Except if you're an audiophile hipster. As I know some of you are.

But I mean even the name LP. Long playing. Who cares how long it could play? Put on Spotify and it can keep playing for ever. It's a redundant issue.

The laws of Israel. The rituals. The sacrifices. The temple. Even more-so. The effort to get yourself right. The things you gotta do. To be right with God. Jesus. Has done it.

The new covenant doesn't say, "Here. I'm going to show you how to be righteous. I've got this beaut list of Jewish laws for you. You'll have to earn it. And you'll have to sacrifice. And go through a priest."

The new covenant says, "The way to be righteous is to trust Jesus. Be forgiven. And let the Spirit get to work on your heart."

See, you can't make a law that says love people. You can't make a law that says be kind hearted. You can't legislate to change Harvey Weinstein's lust. Nor yours.

Sure, you can maybe make penalties big enough that scare you into not using your mobile phone in the car. But rules doesn't change hearts. It doesn't work.

Which is what the world so desperately desperately needs. Watch the news sometime; full of people doing unspeakably inhuman things to one another. The problem is, it's not actually inhuman at all. That's what humanity looks like. When we're riled enough. Or when we get the chance.

Sure we're not all as bad as we could be. But that's our tilt. And the promise is, turning to Jesus not only forgives that. But starts to change it.

Which I've seen happening in lives over and over and over again. Richard told some great stories at the men's breakfast yesterday of business friends transformed like that as he's sat down to read the first chapter of John's gospel with them. You can listen to his talk on our website and you don't even have to enter a special code to prove that you're a bloke. Countless stories. Countless lives.

Not of people perfected. If you're not a Christian today and you know one, if you know me... far from perfected. But a change of inclination. To the point that we are very much in Paul's words, a people eager to do good.

Which has been where God's story has been heading all along.

The question today is, do you want to be part of it? Part of the story. Part of the solution. Because the offer's open. The offer from Jesus to you. To join up with the project and be part of the new covenant people.

All it's going to take is that first step of saying. "Yes I need it." And then a simple prayer. To ask.

I reckon if you want to find out more about that, today would be a good day to start. So come and chat to me, chat to Doug or Dan or Pete; and step in an be part of God's great big story.