Community Baptist Church
March 29 2026

      • Psalm 24:3–4HCSB

      • Zechariah 9:9HCSB

  • Blessed Redeemer

      • Philippians 2:5–11HCSB

  • Hallelujah What A Savior (Gethsemane)
  • Glory To His Name (Down At The Cross)

      • Matthew 21:1–11HCSB

  • At The Cross (Love Ran Red)

  • COVENANT RENEWAL

    Prior to Moses’ death (see Deut 34) he has one last message to share with this new generations (Deut 27 and following). The message begins where we will end our study of Deuteronomy.

    The Old Covenant for a New Community

    Most of those listening to Moses were raised in the ‘great and terrible wilderness.’ Some may have been teens or older children when God has set His people apart by a covenant shortly after deliverance from Egypt.
    Now as God’s people are poised to enter the Promised Land Moses assembles the entire congregation.
    Deuteronomy 29:2–3 HCSB
    Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to his entire land. You saw with your own eyes the great trials and those great signs and wonders.
    This generation had experienced God’s provision in multiple ways, over the 4o years. A significant part of knowing God’s presence is built on our previous experiences of God’s provision. Moses reminds this new generation, ready to move into the land of promise that His provision had been more than sufficient - vs. 5-8.
    Now it is time for this generation to enter into a covenant with God, like their ancestors before them.
    WHAT IS A COVENANT?
    Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch Covenant

    A covenant “is a solemn commitment guaranteeing promises or obligations undertaken by one or both covenanting parties.”

    Deuteronomy 29:10–11 HCSB
    “All of you are standing today before the Lord your God—your leaders, tribes, elders, officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—
    The covenant community is built first upon family ties. Exodus opens with a reminder:
    Exodus 2:23–25 HCSB
    After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out; and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor. So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and He took notice.
    Second, there were more than ‘family’ that left Egypt:
    Exodus 12:37–38 “The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 soldiers on foot, besides their families. An ethnically diverse crowd also went up with them, along with a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds.”
    The covenant then is a document that celebrates family and creates family. Throughout the OT we learn of all sorts of people being included in the larger group we call ‘the people of God.’ Think of Rahab, or Ruth, or some of those who were recipients of God’s miraculous intervention through the prophets.
    The covenant God initiated with the people of Israel - those descended directly from Abraham and those who chose to link their lives with them by trusting in God - is a building block upon which we can understand and experience the ways and works of God.

    A Covenant with David

    Centuries later God singled David as His chosen king. The covenant God initiated with David, unlike the covenant with all Israel, centers on One yet to come:
    2 Samuel 7:11–12 HCSB
    I will give you rest from all your enemies. “ ‘The Lord declares to you: The Lord Himself will make a house for you. When your time comes and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
    This One, whose entry into Jerusalem is being celebrated all over the world today, we now know as Jesus Christ - Son of David.
    Between David and Jesus, however, there is another covenant announced by God.
    Jeremiah 31:31–34 ““Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them” —the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” —this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.””
    A couple of things to note:
    The ‘new covenant’ which God initiates with His people is not because the ‘old covenant’ has somehow failed.
    The ‘new’ comes because for generation after generation Israel has been disobedient over and over.
    The old covenant had been written - by the finger of God - on tablets of stone. The ‘new’ covenant will be written on the hearts of God’s people. The ‘old’ covenant, written on tablets of stone could be broken (as indeed Moses did with the first tablets). A covenant written on a heart is unbreakable, indestructible.
    The ‘new covenant’ is not restricted to a specific group of people as the ‘old covenant had been.
    Through the forgiveness of sin, symbolized by the sacrificial system, and promised through the Suffering Servant introduced in Isaiah, a universal knowledge of God is available to all people.

    The New Covenant Fulfilled

    Matthew 26:26–29 HCSB
    As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is My body.” Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. But I tell you, from this moment I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it in a new way in My Father’s kingdom with you.”

    The New Covenant Applied

    Hebrews 9:15 HCSB
    Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
    The death of Jesus, the cross which is the focus of much attention during what is often called ‘Holy Week’ is the inaugaration of the new covenant, the one rooted in God’s calling a people for His own possession, a covenant expressed in God’s promise through David.
    Hebrews 9:19–22 HCSB
    For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you. In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of worship with blood. According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

    Reflect and Respond

    God’s people are facing new and different challenges than those standing on the eastern shore of the Jordan River.
    The covenant was/is God’s tool for creating a people for His own possession;
    It is God’s plan for giving confidence in God’s presence regardless of the challenges;
    As Jesus died on the cross, His last words ringing out, ‘It is finished’ we are able to fully participate in all that God is doing even now in our world.
    He is creating a people for His own possession
    By placing your trust in Jesus as the One who died to pay the penalty for your sin; trusting that God then raised Him and all who believe to new life.
    He is granting us confidence to face whatever the future may hold
    The challenges we face may differ in many respects from that new generation preparing to enter the Promised Land.
    Our challenges in many ways are the same -
    Will we obey God fully, with all our heart, mind, soul, and body?
    Will we experience victory over the ever-present adversary through the death and resurrection of Jesus?
    Will we enter the future God has in store for us?

      • Deuteronomy 29:2–3HCSB

      • Deuteronomy 29:10–11HCSB

      • Exodus 2:23–25HCSB

      • 2 Samuel 7:11–12HCSB

      • Matthew 26:26–29HCSB

      • Hebrews 9:15HCSB

      • Hebrews 9:19–22HCSB

      • 1 Peter 1:18–19HCSB

Community Baptist Church
sschenewerk@gmail.com
5416799569
http://www.winstoncommunitybaptist.com
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