God's New

Interludes  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  25:12
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As the new year comes to the people of Renew, what does it mean to us? Is the New Year just another year? Or do we look forward to God doing a new work in our hearts, and in the hearts of those around us? And why is the idea of "new" such a big part of Christianity, anyway? Are we just consumers in disguise, or is there some deeper reason? Let's dig a little and figure this out!

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Introduction

Ask people: What are your hopes and goals for 2020?
Share some of my own.

Reflection

The Bible’s focus on Newness

But why are we as a culture so obsessed with the new? Are we afraid of the old? Do we think old means bad?
Why are we as a church called “Renew?” Is this just a form of consumerism, like our society where we despise perfectly good old stuff and will rush out to buy new stuff?
Let’s quickly look at the thread of “new” throughout the Bible, and try to get a handle on a healthy understanding of the relationship between the old and the new.
The Bible starts with God’s promise of deliverance through Eve’s “seed” (a new person) in
Genesis 3:15 NLT
15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
This promise is culminated in the New Covenant that Jeremiah prophecies about in
Jeremiah 31:31–34 NLT
31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. 33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
This covenant is finally realised when Jesus comes. Jesus makes this clear to his disciples when sharing his last supper with them, as we have remembered today in communion:
Luke 22:20 NLT
20 After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
Jesus emphasizes just how incompatible the new covenant is with our old ways of life with the parables of new clothing and wineskins:
Matthew 9:16–17 NLT
16 “Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth? For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before. 17 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
The New Covenant won’t fit into old religious practices! And that’s still true—the ancient human religious practices of trying to earn our way to God via various sacrifices (Jesus is specifically addressing fasting in this passage in Matthew) no longer work. In fact, they never have!
Jesus explains that, rather than trying to earn our way to God—the old religious approach—we must be born anew by the Holy Spirit:
John 3:3–7 NLT
3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” 4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” 5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’
We reflect this teaching of Jesus in our own Christian practices, with Baptism expressing our newness of life, as Paul explains in
Romans 6:3–4 NLT
3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 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.
In fact, Christ’s work on the cross, dying for us and rising again to new life, is so powerful that, when we claim it as our own by faith in him, it completely renews us. Paul explains our new state as being a “new creation.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
Of course, while we are a new creation, we have not yet completed our renewal. The completely renewed creation is yet to come, and when it does, God will make all things new
Revelation 21:5 NLT
5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”

But why new?

So, from that brief tour, you can see that the Bible has a very strong theme of newness running through it, can’t you?
But why is it so obsessed with newness? Any ideas?
That’s right, because the old has been corrupted: the promise of the new seed that would destroy Satan in Gen 3 is given in the context of the fall, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and messed up the whole world. The promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah is given in the context of
Jeremiah 31:30 NLT
30 All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker.
And Paul’s ideas of the new creation stand as a solution to his understanding of the old creation taken from the Old Testament, when he writes in
Romans 3:10–12 NLT
10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
Paul understands that the old has been irrevocably corrupted, and so the only solution is to completely renew it.
A good illustration of this need for complete renewal is from the Bible itself, one of the Old Testament laws, on contaminated clothing.
Leviticus 13:47–58 NLT
47 “Now suppose mildew contaminates some woolen or linen clothing, 48 woolen or linen fabric, the hide of an animal, or anything made of leather. 49 If the contaminated area in the clothing, the animal hide, the fabric, or the leather article has turned greenish or reddish, it is contaminated with mildew and must be shown to the priest. 50 After examining the affected spot, the priest will put the article in quarantine for seven days. 51 On the seventh day the priest must inspect it again. If the contaminated area has spread, the clothing or fabric or leather is clearly contaminated by a serious mildew and is ceremonially unclean. 52 The priest must burn the item—the clothing, the woolen or linen fabric, or piece of leather—for it has been contaminated by a serious mildew. It must be completely destroyed by fire. 53 “But if the priest examines it and finds that the contaminated area has not spread in the clothing, the fabric, or the leather, 54 the priest will order the object to be washed and then quarantined for seven more days. 55 Then the priest must examine the object again. If he finds that the contaminated area has not changed color after being washed, even if it did not spread, the object is defiled. It must be completely burned up, whether the contaminated spot is on the inside or outside. 56 But if the priest examines it and finds that the contaminated area has faded after being washed, he must cut the spot from the clothing, the fabric, or the leather. 57 If the spot later reappears on the clothing, the fabric, or the leather article, the mildew is clearly spreading, and the contaminated object must be burned up. 58 But if the spot disappears from the clothing, the fabric, or the leather article after it has been washed, it must be washed again; then it will be ceremonially clean.
You see, mildew or mould sinks its hyphae, the tiny little threads, deep into a porous material like cloth or leather, so if a discolouration really is mould or mildew (that is, the spot grows), the only thing to do is to burn the piece and start with a new one.
Every human being is like that cloth. The mould of sin has sunk its hyphae deep into our hearts. Our hearts cannot be cleaned except by destruction!
Thank God that the destruction is poured out on Jesus, on the cross, so that our hearts can die and be remade as new hearts by the power of Jesus blood!
Romans 6:6 NLT
6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
We don’t need to be discarded and replaced if we accept the power of Jesus’ blood to wash us clean from sin. And we await the completion of that destruction and renewal at the end of time.
Revelation 21:4 NLT
4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Contrast culture’s old/new with Christianity’s old/new

So, let’s go back to our thoughts about how our culture here in Australia thinks about old and new. I would suggest that in our culture, the difference between old and new is simply based on novelty. New things are not necessarily better than the old, they are just different. In our culture’s constant search for answers to our fears, failures, pains, yearnings, and hopes, we desperately try new thing after new thing.
But for Christians we have recognised the corruption and wickedness of our old self, and we understand the purity, beauty and goodness of God’s new creation. We are not merely seeking novelty—throwing away our boring, old clothes to buy the latest fashions—we are discarding our rotten food to buy fresh, new, healthy food.
Our name, Renew, reminds us that God has made a way to bring new life to the walking dead!

New plans

So now, with that understanding of God’s new: replacing the corrupted old with the purified new, I would like you to spend a few minutes talking about your hopes and goals for the year with your neighbours.
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