PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Luke 22:14-23
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” (Luke 22:20)
A covenant is an agreement, a contract or an arrangement between two parties.
God made different covenants in the past: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Israel, David.
Each arrangement was unique, designed for different purposes.
But they had one goal: “I will be your God and you will be my people.” (Jeremiah 7:23)
Jeremiah promises that one day God will make a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
A new arrangement, not through an animal sacrifice, but through Jesus’ sacrifice.
Jesus is the basis of our new relationship with God, one rooted in God’s grace.
God has restored us fully as creation partners through Jesus’s victory on the cross.
We are not under Moses’ covenant with Israel, though we can learn from it.
We are new covenant children of God, following Jesus and the Law of Love!
We now partner with him in his kingdom mission, until he returns again.
Please understand: the old covenant (OT) is instructive, but we are not under it!
Jesus – not the Law – is our Master; we need to devote our attention to him!
We sit at the table with Jesus, and he helps us by his Spirit to live as God’s children!
PRAYER
Lord, you have restored me as God’s child. You have restored God’s Spirit in me. You are working in and through me to follow God’s eternal will! You will be with me to the end! I gladly surrender to this new arrangement!
Jesus makes a new Covenant “in his blood” – through Jesus – the way – to the Father is by believing – by faith and not by marks of obedience to copious numbers of laws and decrees. By the new covenant – I am free – I’m perfected and ready to meet the Father. Because of this unbelievable gift of grace – I’m free – and I want to live for Him. I also become a temple of the living God – with the HS as my daily guide! This is the way of the new covenant!
Thank for this new cup of the covenant – thank you for being the Lord of second chances. Help make us like new, and forgive us when we go back to the old.
Eating a meal together is fellowship. Yet this meal was special because Jesus invites those with Him to take Him to the very core of their existence. Jesus lives within our hearts. And when He returns we will feast anew – His banqueting table. But in the meantime I need to live for Him in all I do and say.
Chorus:
I cannot come to the banquet, I cannot come to the banquet,
don’t trouble me now.
I have married a wife; I have bought me a cow.
I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum.
Pray, hold me excused, I cannot come.
A certain man held a feast on his fine estate in town.
He laid a festive table and wore a wedding gown.
He sent invitations to his neighbours far and wide
but when the meal was ready, each of them replied:
The master rose up in anger, called his servant by name,
said: “Go into the town, fetch the blind and the lame,
fetch the peasant and the pauper, for this I have willed,
my banquet seem so crowded, and my table must be filled.
When all the poor had assembled, there was still room to spare,
so the master demanded: “Go search every where,
to the highways and the byways and force them to come in.
My table must be filled before the banquet can begin.
Now God has written a lesson for the rest of the mankind;
If we’re slow a responding, he may leave us behind.
He’s preparing a banquet for that great and glorious day
when the Lord and Master calls us, be certain not to say: