Inside the Covenant 1987

Last Sunday we talked about apprehending the resurrection power of Jesus, and looking at the Apostles in the Apostolic Church, we observed that there were three particular ways or places in which they received that, and we're going to be doing the same. The thought was that we would spend Easter all the way through, the whole Easter season until we get to Pentecost on June 7th, concentrating on three definite things. One, putting our lives under the cross of Jesus.

Two, sticking together in the body of Christ. And three, feeding the sheep. Today, thinking about the first of those three, and I don't know how exactly this is all going to work out, but thinking of the first one today, putting our lives under the cross, looking at what it means to be under the cross, inside the new covenant, which is the covenant in his blood.

I'd like to begin by reading from Acts chapter 19, starting at verse 11. And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and diseases left them, and evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.

Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was, leapt on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks.

And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. These seven sons of Sceva would travel around the Greek world, look up the Jewish community in every city, and then they would hold meetings in somebody's house or wherever they could find a place, meetings in which they concentrated on casting out demons. When they got to Ephesus, they ran across Paul.

And they were astounded at the power, the authority that this man Paul had. So they figured, Paul must have devised a better formula. Paul must have tapped in to a more profound source of his power.

This Jesus thing that Paul's into really works. So they tried it. What they didn't understand was that Paul was not using a formula.

Paul was not an exorcist, or a wizard, or a magician, or a spiritualist. That the power, the life, the healing that flowed out of this man Paul, poured forth from him because Paul was living inside a covenant which was totally invisible to the spiritually blind eyes of these seven sons of Sceva. Paul was inside an invisible circle, and the one who was in this circle with him was Jesus.

He was in a covenant relationship with the Lord of Lords. And so, radically submitted and committed to this Jesus, servant, bond slave of this Lord, Paul became the means by which the life of Christ flowed out through Paul into the world. I am crucified with Christ, he said.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I am his bond slave.

I am his servant. And that wasn't just pulpit talk, that was his life. And so rivers of living water flowed forth from Paul.

Sometimes we think and act like the seven sons of Sceva. We read our Bibles and we notice the tremendous power that flowed out of the prophets and the apostles, but when we try to use that power the way they did, nothing happens. Sometimes it even backfires and we get hurt.

We notice Abraham standing up on a mountain, bargaining with God, haggling with God to try to save the city of Sodom when his nephew Lot was living. Or Jacob, wrestling with the angel of the Lord at the port of the Jabbok River, I won't let you go unless you bless me. Or Moses, interceding with God to keep him from destroying the Israelite nation, if you're going to do that, block my name out of the book, he says.

Or the man in our Lord's parable who goes to his friend at midnight, insisting, demanding bread for his midnight guest. But when we try to bargain or haggle with God, or wrestle with God, or even pester God a little bit, nothing seems to happen. Sometimes things even get worse.

What we fail to see is that long before Abraham stood on that mountain, haggling with God to try to save Sodom, which he couldn't, but he did in fact by this intercession undoubtedly save his nephew Lot, long before he did that, Abraham had entered into a covenant relationship with God. He had submitted to the living God as Lord of his life, he had come inside that circle. And long before Jacob wrestled with the Lord at the fort of the Jabbok River, Jacob at Bethel had submitted to the Lordship of the God of Israel, his God, way back years before.

And long before Moses fell on his face and pleaded with God in order that the Israelites should not be destroyed, Moses had taken off his shoes at the burning bush and committed himself to the God of Israel as Lord of his life, had entered into the circle of that covenant. And the man who went to his friend for bread at midnight did not come with some prayer formula that he had learned in a new Christian bless me book that he just got, just came out last week, but he went to somebody who knew somebody with whom he was in covenant with somebody he was in covenant with. People say, how come we don't have the power they had? And the answer is simple.

When we live inside the covenant in which they did, the power of the living God will flow and it will flow at his will. From John chapter seven, verse 37, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.

If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. Don't just stand off in a distance and admire. Don't stand at afar and look at me, come to me, come and drink.

What I have to give you. And if you're really thirsty, you're not just going to come and get half a sip once every three weeks, you're going to take advantage of every opportunity to drink the living water, wherever it's available to you. Come to me and drink.

Nobody's serious about it until they do that. That's the first way into the covenant. And then he says, he who believes in me out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.

And to believe in Jesus means commitment to him. Take and drink the blood of the new covenant shed for your sins. The blood of the new covenant.

So what's the new covenant? When a man and woman are married, that's a covenant. Now, I belong to you for the rest of our lives, as long as we're both alive. And you belong to me as long as we're both alive.

And if we live in that covenant, if we are faithful inside that covenant, not only in our behavior, but even in our thought, then the grace of God and the mercy of God and the rich blessing of God comes down upon that marriage. And if the wife is in the North Pole and the husband is in the South Pole and they stay inside the covenant, the power of God holds him. Now, that's only a taste of the covenant between God and his people.

A much richer and deeper covenant between men and women and the living God. Now, the old covenant began at the foot of Mount Sinai when Moses killed oxen, took the blood, half of the blood that he got from his oxen and threw it on the altar. This is in Exodus 24.

Then after having done after he did that, he spoke to the people, the commands of God, and they answered, we will do it. We will do it. Then he took the other half of the blood and he sprinkled it, threw it over the people.

So now we have a blood covenant, meaning God says, I will be your God. And the people say, we will be your people. Far more radical and consuming is the new covenant in the lamb's blood.

When I enter into the new covenant in the lamb's blood, I admit that my life has been bought by his death. He paid for me with his own blood. It is now raising me from the dead by the power of his spirit and that I am not my own.

I belong to him. When we live inside that covenant, we experienced tremendous freedom and awesome power. Reading from second Corinthians chapter five, verse 16.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view, even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away.

Behold, all things have become new. What does it mean to be in Christ? It means to be in that covenant with him so that I'm dead, that he might live in me. I'm crucified with him so that living dead to myself, he may begin to fulfill his purpose through my life.

And his resurrection power cannot move in me if I'm not also crucified with him. It's a covenant, an awesome, radical binding covenant. Now, our problem is that we get the doctrines and the principles of the covenant down pat.

We get that cold. The problem is. When it comes to the way we treat our husband, our wife, our friend.

The way we handle our money and the way we function on our jobs, we just step outside the covenant. It's my money. I'll do what I want with it.

It's my time. Nobody's going to tell me how to use my time. Not even God.

That's my kid. And I'm going to treat my kid the way I feel according to my mood. Don't be telling me that's my child.

We will change our living. The way we live will change the way we treat each other, the way we handle our possessions, the way we function on our jobs. When we live inside that covenant.

Take and drink the blood of the new covenant shed for your sins. When I drink that blood and enter that covenant and stay there, it means three things. Means first of all, I submit to Jesus complete Lordship over my life.

Secondly, it means that for me, Jesus is Lord over his body, the church, and no one else is in charge or rules his church, but Jesus. And thirdly, it means that for me, the only ruler of this earth, the earth is Jesus and every ruler, every king, every dictator, every union leader, every corporation CEO, and all the rest, all the way down to bishops and church leaders and all the rest will answer to him. He's a ruler.

Starting with the first of those, we will stay inside the new covenant when we submit to his complete Lordship over us, I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in this flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now, if Christ is going to live in me, and if I'm going to live in this flesh by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, this means I'm committed to him utterly. That means every morning I get up and I give this body back to him as a living sacrifice. I submit this mind to his mind so that this mind has the seal of the lamb on it all the time.

And, you know, to get specific about that, I have to keep reminding myself that Jesus is not my servant to do my heart's desire. You're going to hear that stuff all over the place these days. He'll give you your heart's desire.

Well, how about a Cadillac for it? No, no, we are his servant, his servant to fulfill his desire. Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, said Mary, let it be to me according to your word. And that's how that woman lived.

And when her son became a man, the one prayer that governed his life was, Lord, I come to do your will, father, not my will, your will. And if we're serious about following Jesus, that's how it is for us. We submit to him, even as he submitted to the father.

So if he says, feed my sheep, we feed his sheep. And if he says, let your light shine, we let it shine. And if he says, wash feet, we wash feet.

And if he says, love your enemies, we do it. When we live that way, we're inside the new covenant. Secondly, we stay inside the new covenant when we submit to his lordship over his body, the church.

Churches split, divide, and fall apart when we try to rule them subtly or quite openly. And it can either way, be either way. We're all tempted to do that.

We all think we can do a better job than the Lord. Or when we submit to some man or woman other than Jesus, that's when we have trouble. But when we submit to him as Lord over this body, the church, and walk in the light as he is the light, then we have fellowship with each other.

And his blood cleanses us continuously from all sin. Reading from Ephesians 4, I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all lowliness and meekness, with patience for bearing one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all who is above all and through all and in all. One body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one God. You know, it goes, unity, one, one, one, all the time.

One body. So then we say, well, that's all fine, but I don't know how I fit into this body. What's my job? What's my calling? I don't know what my ministry is here.

Listen to his words to us again. If I then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

The major calling of every believer in the body is foot washing, to wash feet. That means simply an act of encouragement, a word of encouragement, you know, maybe a ride someplace, maybe some hospitality. And it's foot washing without walls.

In other words, I mean, these people over here, they got feet that look like mine and smell like mine. I'll wash their feet. These guys over here, let somebody else wash their feet.

Then the funny thing is the Lord brings us together. We have all different sizes, shapes and colors and smells of feet. And then he mixes us up and he says, go to it.

And as soon as I say, I break the unity of the body and God has given us wonderful opportunity here to have foot washing with no wall. Each member of the body, every man, woman, young person is to be treated with respect and high honor. And if we do that, we're inside the covenant.

And only if we do that, thirdly, we stay inside the new covenant. When we submit to Jesus Lordship over the earth, reading from James chapter four, verse 13. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get game.

Whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you want to say if the Lord wills, we shall live and we should do this or that.

We have a hard time believing that Jesus is Lord over Babylon out there. So when we go to the plant or the school or the university or the office or the hospital or the neighborhood meeting or the warehouse or wherever it is. We are inclined to somehow say in so many words or deeds.

Well, here, I'm sorry, but I'm on my own. You know, excuse me, Lord, but I work for Ford. And in order to stay alive and function at Ford, I have to step outside the covenant.

I got to go by the rules of Babylon in order to survive the rat race of Babylon. And that is not so. No matter where we are, how difficult it is, what the problems are, what program is they're trying to impose on us.

The Lord, as we submit to him in the midst of that will be with us and he will show us what to do, when to keep our mouths shut and go along with the program, when to repel, rebel, when to quit. Whatever we're supposed to do, he'll let us know at the proper time. But he will be there with us.

And if we submit to him and stay inside the covenant right in the middle of the rat race. His power will flow out. His glory will be manifest.

His word will be confirmed. Lives will be touched by his grace through us. Take and drink the blood of the new covenant shed for your sins.

If we will drink that blood, submit to that covenant, our lives will burn with his light and his power will flow forth from us like a river. The question we need to ask is, am I living inside the new covenant? And that's a question we need to ask ourselves every day this week. Wherever we are at this moment, am I in fact living inside the covenant? If we are, we will know it.

And every life we touch will feel the impact.