The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel (Continued)

The Day of Pentecost

Those believers that qualified to be members of the new order, the Church, were gathered in Jerusalem at the Feast of Weeks, when the ascended Son of God sent the Spirit of God to initiate the New Covenant for them. As with the Messiah at His baptism, so now with the disciples of the Messiah, the Spirit of God descended and rested upon each of them. More than that, He indwelt them, thus fulfilling that part of the New Covenant that speaks of the law, statutes and ordinances of God being written on tablets of flesh. Spontaneous praise to God broke out and was heard and understood by many of those who were in Jerusalem for the feast, no matter which was their native language. This phenomenon drew much public attention, and gave Peter an opportunity to explain the significance of these unusual events and how they were the activity of the Man that was recently crucified, but who had been resurrected and returned to heaven to a place of honor at the throne above. In this, the first public address of the new dispensation, Peter references prophetic Scriptures to explain what had happened. He brought forward the words of Joel who spoke of the day when the New Covenant would be in play. Peter said, “… this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:16-18) That Joel was speaking of a day when the Spirit of God will be poured out upon all flesh, that is all Jewish flesh, is supported by other writers. For example, Paul says, “all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” (Rom. 11:26) In that future day it will be all Jewish flesh without exception. But the T’nach regularly uses the words ‘all flesh’ to refer to the whole of humanity.[1] And, in the light of the historic events of the day of Pentecost, we must initially interpret the phrase as all flesh without distinction, that is, the young and the old, male and female, bond and free. And later events allow us to add Jew and Gentile but that is getting ahead of ourselves.

 Many of the crowd convicted by Peter’s words, no doubt because they had tacitly, if not actively, rejected the claims of Jesus, raised the question, “what shall we do?” (Acts 2.37) This prompted Peter, apostle to the Jews, and holder of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, to respond and in his response we will find the clue needed to illuminate how it would be possible for individual Jews to receive the blessings of the New Covenant. Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” (Acts 2:38-40) What is envisaged here is an offer of the blessing of the New Covenant to those who would distance themselves from the decision of the nation’s leaders and recognize Jesus as Israel’s Messiah and take Him as their Lord. Peter, in saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation” recognized that it was ‘this generation’ that was under a suspended sentence from the Son of God. Those that wish to be saved from the blanket judgment that was upon the nation were required to act then, on the day of Pentecost, in the same manner as the whole nation will be required to act sometime in the future. Indeed, any Israelite of any generation has the same opportunity, and can know the same salvation, if they fulfill the conditions that Peter laid on his listeners, to recognize Jesus as Messiah and Lord.  

More Next Time:

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[1] Gen.6.12,13,17; Job 34.15; Ps.65.2; 145.21; Isa.40.5, 6, etc

The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel

The Messiah and the New Covenant

The New Covenant as it applies to Individual Members of the Hebrew Race

 

For what has been observed so far it seems that the implementation of the New Covenant for the Hebrew nation as a whole awaits a future day when they will be brought to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah and King. How can it be implemented for individuals? It is Peter that began the process. This was to be expected – for he had been specially selected for that ministry. The record of his commissioning is in Matthew chapter 16. It took place when Peter himself was finally and completely convinced of the Messianic claims of Jesus.  He confessed - “You are the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16) These titles encompass the person and work of the incarnate God. Jesus indicated this was to be the foundation for a new order, a collective of people with the same conviction, that Jesus is both Messiah and Son of God. “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 16:17-19)

 

Those that have the same conviction and confession as Peter will be called out to be a new entity, the ‘ekklesia’, the called out ones, the Church. Since the ‘ekklesia’, the Church, is here spoken of as a building, the analogy is continued by the use of the image of ‘keys’. Peter is considered to be the steward with the keys to the building. His ministry, recorded by Luke in the book of Acts, includes those occasions when he opened the door to the kingdom of heaven and admitted Messianic believers into the Church.

 

The Introduction of the new ‘house rules’ that controlled entry and membership of the Church.

 

To facilitate this change to the implementation of the New Covenant, Peter is given authority to bind and loose. Within Jewish culture these words are understood to mean forbid and permit. The terms binding and loosing were in regular use in rabbinic canon-law. They represented the legislative and judicial powers of the rabbinic office. In the new age that was dawning, that is, the Church age, these powers were granted by the head of the Church, the Messiah, first to Peter, and later to the other apostles.[1] These were the ones charged to advertise the new ‘house rules’ that were to be in place in the new dispensation of grace. Holders of the apostolic office were empowered to immediately offer the benefits of the New Covenant to those individuals who qualified to enter the Church, that is, those individuals whose confession of Jesus is that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. Once the door had been opened, of course, others were permitted to enter, as long as it was on the same basis – acceptance of the person and work of the Messiah.

Next Time: The Day of Pentecost

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[1] John 20:23

The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel

The Messiah and the New Covenant

That the death of the Messiah provided the basis and ground for the implementation of the New Covenant can be ascertained from the events that took place the night before His execution. In conformity to the historic command of Moses to celebrate the Passover on the 14^th of Abib (Nisan) He hosted the remembrance meal for His disciples. The table was furnished with the roast meat of a lamb that had been killed in the Temple, and every aspect of the celebration had been meticulously followed, including the provision of unleavened bread and wine. They had drunk from the cup of thanksgiving, and eaten of the bitter herbs, dipping them in salt water, and haroset. They had feasted on the lamb, reclining at table as free men. It was when they were due to drink the third cup of wine, the cup of blessing, that the Messiah introduced a new aspect to the festival. Taking some of the unleavened bread He “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) In a similar fashion “He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you’” (Luke 22:20; see also Matt.26.28; Mark 14.24; 1 Cor.11.25). In anticipation of His execution the following morning, He informed the future leaders of the Church that His death was ground for the commencement of a new dispensation, a dispensation of grace, a dispensation that would be founded on the New Covenant. It is His death that permits the implementation of that aspect of the New Covenant that grants forgiveness for sin. And it is His resurrection that points to the implementation of the Davidic Covenant, and it is His ascension that furnishes the Holy Spirit under the terms of the New Covenant to indwell His followers.

But how can we explain the implementation of the New Covenant as it was practiced in the early Church, for it stands in contrast to the Jeremiah text which points it directly to the houses of Judah and Israel and clearly anticipates it being activated for the nation as a whole? Paul, a minister of the New Covenant[1] and apostle of the Messiah with a special remit to go to the Gentiles, offered to them the benefits of the New Covenant without requiring their conversion to Judaism. Moreover, the book of Hebrews spends a great deal of time developing the argument that the New Covenant, that had been activated by the death, resurrection and ascension of the Messiah, is substantially better that anything provided in the Mosaic Covenant.[2] On the face of it this does not present any problem, but in light of the Jeremiah prophecy, it is slightly off centre because the Hebrew letter is directed, not to the nation as a whole but to those who have individually recognized the Messianic claims of Jesus of Nazareth.

The foundation text in Jeremiah[3] speaks of the New Covenant being activated for the nation as a whole, but in the early Church it was activated for individual Jews as well as individual Gentiles.

How so? Let’s find answers to this conundrum. (Next Time)

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[1] 2 Cor.3.6

[2] See Heb.7.22; 8.6-13; 9.15; 10.16,29; 12.24; 13.20

[3] Jer.31.31-34