Joe White Drive Time Podcast

"It's pretty interesting that the most powerful possession that I have in my life, and I'll tell you if you knew my wife, it is the most powerful possession that I have in my life is this little ring that goes on this finger of this hand. And every time I see this ring, I remember a promise of, you know, over three decades ago and the woman that I promised it to."

Family Discussions:

1. What right did Jesus have to be able to make a covenant with God on your behalf?
2. How does this teaching this morning changed your view of the last supper or the communion, a meal that you take at Church?
3. Only after the covenant meal were able to the two covenant partners able to call each other their friends. And so if that is true now, who is Jesus to you?

Transcription:

00:13 You know, it's pretty interesting that the most powerful possession that I have in my life, and I'll tell you if you knew my wife, it is the most powerful possession that I have in my life is this little ring that goes on this finger of this hand. And every time I see this ring, I remember a promise of, you know, over three decades ago and the woman that I promised it to. This ring is the sign of a covenant that I made with her. And that ring, uh, reminds me that that is the only girl in my life. And Hebrews Chapter eight verses 10 through 12 talks about an even more powerful covenant than this. It says this in verse 10, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them upon their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people.

01:09 And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen saying to his brother, know the Lord for all will know me from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins. I will remember no more." This is about the new covenant and to set it up, I gotta tell you that in Bible history, the strongest agreement between two people wasn't a handshake. It wasn't giving an oath. It wasn't even a written contract. The strongest agreement ever known in the history of the world was when two people, two tribes, two nations made a covenant between each other. And these are the guidelines that made that covenant the most binding agreement ever made. First of all, the two parties would exchange coats and when they would exchange their coat, they would say to each other, I'm taking all your needs upon myself and you're taking all my needs upon yourself.

02:07 Then the two parties would exchange weapons. They would exchange swords saying, if you ever have an enemy, he's my enemy too. And then the two covenant partners would cut their pumps or they would cut their risks and then they would shake hands and they would literally rub their blood into each other. And when they did that, they were saying, my life is yours and your life is mine. And then next the two would rub dye into the wounds. So the scar would always be noticeable and, and that scar would be a sign that the covenant was binding forever. And then next the pair had come up with split an animal, a rock down the backbone and they would walk in a figure eight pattern between the halves of the animal. And as they walk together through the halves of the animal, they would say to each other, if I ever break this covenant, may God do this to me and worse.

02:57 And then the two would a covenant meal. They would share the bread and they would share the fruit of the vine together. And by doing this they were saying, if you ever have a need, I will automatically meet that need. The bread would be a symbol of my body. The drink would be a symbol of my blood. And then the two were one, and then they would call each other friends. You know what? When God made a covenant with Abraham, he made the Jewish nation, his chosen people. The Jews based their side of the Covenant on keeping the law. God declared that on his side of the Covenant was his love for his people. But folks, when Jesus died on the cross, he literally cut a covenant between you and God. And it was based on grace and grace alone. The scars in his hands are signs that he has made an unbreakable agreement between you and God, that you are his forever.

03:56 And when he shared the last supper, when they shared, you know, the bread and the wine, it was a forever reminder that his incredibly, amazingly divine act of love, of his sacrificial love would be the sign of the covenant forever. Isn't that awesome? So here's my question for you today. What right did Jesus have to be able to make a covenant with God on your behalf? And then how does this teaching this morning changed your view of the last supper or the communion, a meal that you take at Church? And then lastly, only after the covenant meal were able to the two covenant partners able to call each other their friends. And so if that is true now, who is Jesus to you?