Salvation History

The Passover is the most important Christian ceremony of the year. Now, I say that, and I know some of you may think, well, wait a minute, we've got the Sabbath, we've got all the other Holy Days. What makes that the most important? If we don't truly understand the Passover, we won't truly understand the Sabbath and the rest of the Holy Days.

The Passover is the center point in God helping us understand salvation history. The term salvation history is a theological term that's used for those who look at the Bible, and they start with Genesis, and they go to Revelation, and they say what they see in the Bible, which we do, is that God is working out salvation for humanity, and all of history is God doing that. Now, humanity is messed up, Satan is involved in all this, but if you follow the threat of history, you will find where God intervened to carry out salvation.

Salvation history. Today we're going to talk a little bit about some salvation history, and it's nothing new. It's pretty basic material, much of it. But what I want to do is go through just a few aspects of the Abrahamic Covenant, the Sinai Covenant, and the New Covenant, and tie it into Passover.

Because when we look at how God interacts with human beings, He appears throughout history, and He makes covenants with people. It's an agreement He makes, and He makes a covenant, and in those covenants we always find something about salvation history. There's actually ten major covenants in the Bible.

One of them, by the way, is the marriage covenant. Marriage itself is part of God's salvation history. It's not in terms of, you know, we can't receive salvation through marriage. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying it's part of the plan of what God does to bring humanity to Him. Because it's very interesting in the New Testament, we see marriage as an analogy for the relationship between Christ and the Church. That's part of this concept. So we're going to look at those three covenants, and we're going to look at them in terms of some threads that run through all of them, some important threads that run through all of them, and actually lead us to the Passover, when we observe the Passover.

The Hebrew word that's usually barit, which is usually translated covenant in the Old Testament, although it can't be translated treaty, agreement, it has a lot of different ways it's translated, because sometimes people make covenants in the Bible. But God shows up and makes covenants. Now when God makes a covenant with a person or a group of people, there's something very special about it. First of all, He's the one who initiates the covenant. Nobody goes to God and says, I brought my lawyer with me, I would like to negotiate an agreement. That's not how it works.

God shows up and He says, I wish to make a covenant with you. I wish to make an agreement. And this agreement is official and it is made legal in the court of heaven. God makes covenants with men. Men don't make covenants with God. He's the one that makes the covenant. In fact, we don't get any negotiation powers at all. What's interesting, though, we think of covenants today. You and I make a covenant, a legal covenant, we buy a house. And there are actual papers that are drawn out, and it's legal.

And then there is an outward sign of the covenant. The outward sign of the covenant is when you sign it and the notary punches it, right? You can't come along later and add something to it. Oh, yeah, I'd like to add something to that. And you just scribble it in and say, no, it's binding on you. No, it's not binding until you make an amendment. You have to change it. Because once the signature is signed and the notary stabs it, it is now official. There has been an outward sign that says, this covenant is now official.

You can't go back on it. If you go back on it, there are serious consequences. When God makes a covenant with us, with human beings, many times He carries out His part of the covenant even when we don't. In fact, He's doing that all the time. He's carrying out His side of covenants that the people involved didn't do their part. But there are serious consequences to entering a covenant with God and then leaving that covenant. There are serious consequences to that. Because it is bound and there are signs, just like a signature, that says, I agree with this covenant.

So let's take a few snapshots of the Abrahamic covenant. The covenant that God made with Abraham. Let's go to Genesis 12. Last week I used four scriptures. I'm going to go through a lot more scriptures today. Because I'm just putting together a puzzle. We're looking at pieces. We're not looking at the whole puzzle.

We're looking at pieces of a puzzle so I can show you part of the continuity between these three different covenants and how it applies even to Passover. So let's go to Genesis 12 and verse 1.

God calls Abram, he changes his name to Abraham because he's going to be the father of many people and he tells him, I'm going to make a covenant with you. And the next chapters, many chapters here in the book of Genesis is all about this covenant. God is working out with Abraham. He keeps appearing back to Abraham and talking to him about this covenant. And Abraham keeps responding. And this covenant becomes ratified. It becomes legal in the court of heaven. But he says there's two things here. One, that he's going to make him into a great nation. There is a blessing here that the physical descendants of Abraham are going to be a great nation, a great people. But also, that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him. Those are actually two different blessings. Those are two different parts of the covenant. And I'll show you what I mean. What is that the physical descendants, in your children, you know, your descendants will become a great nation. And we even show how God did that. We'll look at how God did that. But then we'll have to look at what's that second part mean. Now, when God makes this covenant, as time goes on, and God and Abraham interact with each other, God eventually says, we have to make this legal. You have to sign on the dotted line. You have to sign. We have to say, yes, you agree. God is explained to him everything that's in the agreement, and now he has to sign it. So let's go to Genesis 17.

So he comes along and says, I want to make an agreement with you. First thing you have to do is you have to lose and leave everything you know. You have to leave your house, your culture, where you live, and you have to go to Canaan. You know, you don't find too many ancient maps around. When you do, they're not very accurate. He lived in Ur, in the Tigris-Rue-Phrades River Basin.

Canaan is someplace way off to the west, way out there somewhere.

It's like he doesn't know what he does, and he snapshots. You know, I'm going to look up on Google, and I'm going to find some pictures of Canaan.

He has no idea what it looks like. God just says, this is where you're going to go. It's going to be your land. This is what I promised you, and it's going to be good. But you've got to leave everything behind. That's part of this covenant. It's part of the agreement. And as Abraham does that, God comes along at some point and says, okay, we have to sign it now. We have to do an outward expression that this is now bound. It is a binding agreement between you and me. So let's go to chapter 17, verse 1. When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am Almighty God, walk before me and be blameless, and I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly, once again, to promise that his physical descendants were going to become a great people. Go down to verse 9.

God said to Abraham, because now he changes his name to Abraham, which means he's going to be the father of lots of people, As for you, you should keep my covenant, you and your descendants, after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you, for your descendants after you, every male child among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

He said, Abraham, here's how you sign on the dotted line at 99. I would require physical circumcision. And all your males, and he goes on to explain, at eight days, every boy born into this family is circumcised. And you think, well, why is this just for the males? I mean, what would the women do to show that they're part of the covenant? Understand, this covenant is being made to a family who becomes a tribe. And in that family, the heads of the household, when they were circumcised, that means everybody of that house is part of the covenant.

It's not like women were excluded from the covenant. This was made with the head of a household and his tribe. It's a very tribal thing. And so every male is circumcised. What happens if a male isn't circumcised? He's not part of the covenant. So my circumcision was such an important thing throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament.

We'll get to there. Why it was so important? It's because that's how I sign on the dotted line. I don't have an outward sign of the covenant I have with God if I'm not circumcised. And so he says, now this is the outward sign. This is the sign that you and I have a covenant. Abraham, of course, was circumcised along with his children and for generations. And to this day, in the Jewish community, they circumcised as a sign of the covenant they have with God. Now, let's go to Genesis 26 as we put these little pieces of the puzzle together. Because we go back to the fact that there's two components of the promise made to Abraham.

Genesis 26. And verse 2. This is even later now in Abraham's life. And it says, Then the LORD appeared to him. Actually, this is to Isaac, but this is Abraham's son. So he's reiterating the covenant he made with Abraham. The LORD appeared to him and said, Do not go down to Egypt, live in the land in which I shall tell you. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you.

For to you and your descendants I give all these lands. And I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the sars of heaven. I will give to your descendants all these lands, and your seed, all the nations of the earth, shall be blessed. Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Now notice there's two components to this. This land is yours. You know, it's interesting when you go to the prophecies about the return of Jesus Christ.

He gathers all the scattered people of Israel, brings them together, and what does he do with them? He puts them in that land. Because he said, this is what I gave to Abraham, and this is where they all get gathered in after the tribulation, and Christ comes back, all the people of Israel come back together, they're taken to that land. And there's prophecy after prophecy that talks about that. We went through the body of prophets, we showed that over and over again in the series of Bible studies. But there's also, in your seed, all nations, all people, get blessed.

This is real important. This is part of that Abrahamic covenant. God told Abraham, now, your descendants are not going to fare very well. At one point they're going to end up in slavery, and they're going to go to Egypt. But I will bring them back. I will bring them back to this land. And there, they're going to become a great nation. Well, what happened? Well, we know, great-grandson Joseph ended up, where? In Egypt. And where did the entire family end up? In Egypt. And over time they became slaves in Egypt. And as we keep the Passover and the Days of 11 bread, we're going to be talking about and thinking about how God brought Moses along to bring them out of this captivity.

Now, understand, that captivity was part of the Abrahamic covenant. It was a prophecy given to Abraham. This is part of the covenant, because your people have to become a great nation, and I have to bless all nations. These two things have to happen. Well, Moses comes along, he gathers the people together, and he says we have to leave.

But first, God has to bring down Egypt, because Egypt doesn't want to let them go. And the last of those plagues is the slang of the firstborn and the Passover. So now we're bringing the Passover into this. Let's go to Exodus 12, because this is important. Once again, it's a little detail. And then we're going to do some small things today. But these details are really important if we're really going to understand here how the Abrahamic covenant, the Sinai covenant, the New Covenant actually fit together in many ways.

There are differences between them. We'll talk about some of the differences. But the way they fit together centers around understanding the Passover, for one thing. Exodus 12, verse 43. They're getting ready to take the first Passover. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance of the Passover. No forerunner shall eat it. Now, what did they mean by forerunner? So, okay, no Israelite. But what does that mean here? Let's go on. But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Slavery is an interesting thing in ancient Israel. A lot of the slaves came from...if you ever picked a fight and tried to invade Israel and you fought a war, they made slaves out of the people they conquered. So, these are non-Israelites. They were forbidden to even keep an Israelite as a slave for an extended period of time, unless the person agreed to it. So he says, if you have a slave, they can't eat it unless they become circumcised. In other words, they have to become a participant in Israel's covenant with God. Look at what else he says here. A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it.

In one house it shall be eaten, you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. In other words, if you're part of Israel, you must keep it. Do not keep the Passover, you were outside of the covenant. He says, keep the Passover to the Lord, and all his mails, oh, I'm sorry, let's start in verse 48. I skipped down a little bit. And when a stranger dwells with you, and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his mails be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it.

And he shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat it. One law shall be for the native born, and one for the stranger who dwells among you. Now you notice what he just said here. So if people come into Israel, if they want to keep the Passover, that means that, well, they've had to accept the God of Israel. They've had to accept the teachings of the Levites and the elders.

They've had to accept the teachings of the law. And what he says is, then they can become, or can keep the Passover, but they have to become an Israelite. They have to become a participant in the covenant. So even though they were a native born, because he said, they shall be like a native born person, right? They now become like a native born Israelite. Why? Because they have signed on the dotted line. They accepted the God of Israel, the covenant made to Abraham. And when I say the covenant made to Abraham, the Sinai covenant hadn't been made yet.

The only covenant they're under at this point is the covenant God made with Abraham. There is no Sinai covenant yet. They haven't even gotten the Sinai. They're still in Egypt. And what is required as a sign, as God told Abraham, the sign of this covenant between you and me is you're going to be circumcised. And so God tells them, if you are not an Israelite, if you are an Israelite, you have to be circumcised. If you're not an Israelite, you have to convert, and you have to become an Israelite, and then you have to be circumcised.

And so here we see that the sign of the covenant was not just something to be taken lightly. You couldn't take the Passover unless you had participated in the sign of the covenant. It was a public thing. You were publicly marked, if you will, as someone who had agreed and entered into the covenant that God made with Abraham.

So let's skip down to, they're on the, Israel's on the very edge of going into the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30. And we know very well the chapters before this. They're called the blessing and cursing chapters. Where God told Israel, if you obey the covenant, all these good things will happen to you as a nation. Now remember, when he got them together on Mount Sinai, he made them a holy people, a holy nation.

Meeting together and having God give them the Ten Commandments was the next step in God's promise to Abraham to make his descendants into a holy nation and in his seed to bless all nations. So both of those promises, that next step is Sinai. Well, he had to get them out of slavery first. But he gets them there, and he makes them into a holy nation.

Then after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, they're about to actually become a nation. They're about to move into that land, that promised land. Verse 1 of chapter 30. Now it shall come to pass when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have said before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you.

Well, that's got to be the oddest thing to hear that at that time. We're about to go into the promised land. This is so exciting. Think of all the people who didn't make it, who died in the wilderness because they didn't want to go in. We're about to go in. We've just been told, here's the blessings for keeping the covenant. We're going to keep the covenant.

And then the first thing you're told is, okay, in the future, when you don't obey, I'm going to drive you out of this land. Now, this is the promised land. I mean, it's called the promised land, right? It's the promised land. You say, I'm going to drive you out of it because you won't keep the covenant. You won't keep the covenant I made with Abraham, and you won't keep the covenant at Sinai that makes you into a great nation.

He says, but after he drives them out, he says, and you return to the Lord your God and obey his voice according to all that I have commanded you today, you and your children, with all your heart, with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you.

He says, now you will be scattered all over the place. You won't even know who you are. You're just going to be scattered among the nations because you wouldn't keep the covenant. But see, God's going to keep his end of the covenant. God makes agreements. He keeps his end. They didn't keep their end, and he had told them, you will be destroyed as a nation. But his side of the covenant is, I will bring you back again someday. I will gather you again in that promised land around Jerusalem, from where all the places you've been scattered.

Verse 5, that the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. And he will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Oh, the promise of a great nation. But notice what he says next. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, that you may live.

Well, this is a whole new concept. They had been circumcised in the flesh. And he says, no, there's going to come a time when circumcision is internal. Sort of what we talked about last week. It's something that happens internal. It's circumcision of the heart. And he told them that. What's interesting is from this point on, Israel, of course, is just a story of Israel and Judah, of people who kept breaking the covenant. And God kept doing his part, and they would sort of do it for a while, then they wouldn't.

And eventually Israel was scattered all over. They don't even know who they are. Judah was put into captivity and brought back. There's a reason they were taken into captivity and brought back. We'll talk about that in a minute. Why weren't they just scattered? Well, there's a promise to be made here. I will make unto you a great nation, and through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. It's a promise. He's carrying out that promise to Abraham even today, God is. He's carrying it out even today.

And so, the prophets came along. Ezekiel comes along and says, there's going to come a point where God has to circumcise your heart. And another point Ezekiel says, God's going to have to give you a new spirit. The prophet Jeremiah talked about how God was going to have to give them a new spirit and a new covenant. So all the prophets talk about the Messiah coming, the Messiah coming, and what he does, he's going to gather his people together. In fact, in Jeremiah 31, that passage about the new covenant is quoted in the New Testament. I think it's the longest quote of an Old Testament passage in the entire New Testament. Let's just look at it, some of it. Let's go to Hebrews 8. Because the subject of Hebrews 8 is, we're under the new covenant. So what was the problem with the Old Covenant? I mean, it was good. The law of God is good. I want you to think about this, because when we get into the new covenant, we need to really expand this out. The Sinai covenant did not do away with the Abrahamic covenant. If it did, the promises would have disappeared. Paul argues this in the book of Galatians. Now, that means the Sinai covenant was a different administration. God administered his covenant through a family. And it got big enough, he now administered it through a nation. Why do you think there are so many more laws given to ancient Israel than what we see God seem to have given to Abraham? He didn't need all those laws. He wasn't a nation. He wasn't leading a nation. He also didn't need a Levitical priesthood. He did his own sacrifices. But now God is administering his covenant, and it's still connected to the Abrahamic covenant. It didn't do away with it. Because what we think sometimes, people say, well, the new covenant did away with the Sinai covenant, so therefore we throw out the Ten Commandments. I've heard that argument many times. No, because there's promises made in the Sinai covenant. If it's done away with, is Deuteronomy 30 going to happen? Is Jeremiah 31 going to happen? Or, oh no, God's just done away with those things. And there are people who say that. Those promises were done away with. No, I hate to quote Bob Dylan, but God don't make promises he don't keep. Anybody ever heard that song? It was on a B-side, okay? It wasn't a big hit. God don't make promises he don't keep. I'd sing it like he does, but I won't.

So the... That was on that album. You have to serve somebody. You can serve the devil or you can serve the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. That was the course of that song. Now let's get back to here. Oh, the New Covenant. There are certain parts of the Sinai covenant that don't apply because it's a different administration, but the covenant wasn't done away with. It's still... it's just being administered differently. Just like there were so many changes in the Sinai covenant over the Abrahamic covenant, but nobody would think the Abrahamic covenant's done away with.

In the New Testament, they proved the Abrahamic covenant is still going on. But it is under a different administration. So why don't we circumcise? That's an interesting question. Because there has to be an outward sign, and both of those covenants require that as an outward sign. Well, let's go now to Hebrews 8, verse 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless... Sorry about the Sinai covenant. Then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, there was no problem with what God came up with. The problem was human beings. And he says, and now he goes directly to Jeremiah. And the next few verses here are just a quote from Jeremiah.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, while I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I discarded them, says the Lord. Now, it's very interesting.

They didn't keep them by the covenant. I brought them out. I stood them before Sinai. I made a covenant they'd be a great nation, and then I discarded them. But it's not a permanent discarding. Why? Because God made promises in His covenant with them, and He's still doing them. That's what's amazing here. He's still doing them. He says, no, no, I keep my part of the bargain. You folks never do, but I'm keeping my part of the bargain. He says, 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 in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. He goes on and says, and I will forgive their sins. The circumcision of the heart. So we read Jeremiah 31, or this quote of Jeremiah 31, and it's interesting. I have seen commentators say, well, this just shows that the new covenant is for Jews only, which makes no sense.

But you realize Jeremiah 31 is talking to Israelites. Right? It's talking to Israelites. So where do all the non-Israelites come into this? Well, let's go to Isaiah 42. Like I said, I know we've got a lot of Scriptures today, but we're looking at pictures of a puzzle. Isaiah 42. A Messianic prophecy. Christians, Jews, all see this as a Messianic prophecy. Verse 1. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one, and whom I sold the lights. I put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

Now, this is talking about Jesus Christ, and the Father here is looking at him and he's saying, you know, I'm going to be with him and guiding him, and he's going to bring justice to the Gentiles. Gentiles, unfortunately, I guess because the sort of connotation that Jews have attached to it, it's like a bad phrase or bad word. Gentile just means anybody that's not an Israelite. That's all it means. You know, I've been to France, and it was obvious to everybody in France that I was not French. Now, nobody treated me badly. They may not have liked me, I don't know, but everybody treated me nice.

You know, I've been to Australia. It didn't take long. All I had to do was open my mouth and people would say, Oh, a yank! At first they thought, is that a bad term? But no, it didn't seem to be. They all laughed, you know. I used to say, what you doing here? I mean, I made friends out on the streets of Sydney. But all it means is non-Israelite, everybody else, okay?

He's bringing justice. The Messiah is bringing justice to everyone. And he doesn't mean that in a negative connotation, because he talks about, in verse 2, He will not cry out nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break. He goes on and talks about how he's going to be gentle. He wants to bring all people to him. In fact, the end of verse 4 here, he says, Till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastland shall wait for his law.

Septuagint translates that, I think, that way, some Hebrew text a little different way. Because basically what it means is, you'll go out all over the world, wherever you find land, the Messiah is going to be bringing people to justice and fairness and goodness. It's a global thing that's happening here. It's a global thing that he's doing. This is part of the prophecies of the Old Testament, that there must come a time when the Messiah brings God to the world.

He goes on here, look at verse 6, I the Lord have called you, talking about the Messiah and righteousness, and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to everybody. This tells us God's plan.

This is salvation history. God started through Abraham and said, look, what I'm going to do is I'm going to bless you and build a great nation out of you, and through your seed all humanity will be blessed. He comes along and makes Israel a great nation, and he starts with Mount Sinai. Let me give you the Ten Commandments. He says you will be lost, they became lost, except for the Jews. He says, and the Messiah will come, and it's for everybody. It's for everybody. How does the New Testament explain this? Let's go to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3. And verse 13. The church in Galatia was primarily, well, at the time they would have called Greek, as in Asia Minor, but today it's Turkey.

The Turks weren't there yet. The Turks didn't come into Asia Minor until, oh, late Middle Ages. So they weren't Turks as far as the ethnic background, but they usually just called them Greeks there because they spoke the Greek language. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Now, was the law a curse? This couldn't have been written by the same man who last week we read said the law is good and righteous and good, and I love the law if he thinks it's a curse, right?

He tells us what the curse is. For as it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. In other words, the law brings a curse of death, and cursed is anyone who dies, hangs on a tree, a terrible way in a way to publicly humiliate it and kill it. And that's a quote from the Old Testament. Now, get this. Christ has redeemed us from the death penalty of the law.

Now, look at the rest of the sentence, verse 14. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon who? The Gentiles. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

I mean, we're back in Isaiah 42. We're back in Jeremiah 31. When he tells Israel, I'm going to put a new heart in you. I'm going to put my spirit in you, as Ezekiel said. We're going to create a new covenant. And here Paul is saying, all people today are called by God, when they are called by God, are to become part of the new covenant. People are not being called to be part of the Sinai covenant, although there's elements of it. Or the Abrahamic covenant, there's elements of it. You can't destroy any one of those covenants without destroying all three of them. But they're being called specifically. Why? How? Verse 15, Now, think about that. Once again, you go buy a new car. You sign some... you know, the guy comes over to clean your... your... there are fixture plumbing. Then you sign up a paper. He agrees to do the work. You agree to pay him so much. He can't come back later and say, you know, I've decided to add $300 to this bill. You say, well, that's not what I signed for. Yeah, I don't care. Your signature doesn't mean anything. I mean, when you've signed, you've signed, right? And he says, look, once the agreement's made, you don't change the agreement. Then notice the rest, then he says, verse 16, Now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made, he does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed who is Christ.

The promise made to Israel to become a great nation, is it the same promise as in all nations you shall be blessed? In your seed, all nations shall be blessed, according to Paul has to do with Jesus Christ. That's why Judah didn't stay in captivity. Judah had to go back so Christ could appear. You see how intricate he works this out? They had to go back. They couldn't have stayed in captivity. He couldn't keep his promise. So he sent him back. And Mary was there in the right place, the right time, the right person, where Jesus Christ would be born into a woman. How's that for salvation history? And that promise was made all the way back to Abraham. In you, there'll be a great nation, but in your seed, everybody gets blessed. And Paul says, ah, we know what that means now, because we've seen that blessing, that blessing of Jesus Christ. There's the core of the new covenant. What do we do on that Passover ceremony? We will break bread. We will all take a piece of bread. And we will all take a little bit of wine. And remembrance of Jesus Christ saying, eat this bread. It is my body. Drink this wine. It is my blood. And remembrance of me. And this is the new covenant. We'll read it. This is the new covenant. This is what went through the Abrahamic covenant, through the Sinai covenant to here. And this new covenant means everybody. Everybody can come now that God calls to him through Jesus Christ. And the covenant is now administrative through the church, through the body, because Christ is the head of the body. It's not administrative through a nation anymore. The new covenant is not administrative through any government in this world. It's not administrative through some Jews who claim to be under the Abrahamic covenant. Those covenants still exist in many ways. We are under the new covenant and Christ is administrating it now. And under that administration there are some changes. And one of them is, what is the outward sign of the covenant? Where did you and I sign on the dotted line that said, I now agree to this covenant? It had been pretty easy. Obviously at the eighth day of this little boy, the whole family got around. It was a big celebration. The kid didn't think it was. Maybe that's why God doesn't remember certain things, you know? He doesn't think this is a great celebration. He can't forget why everybody else is laughing and singing and drinking wine. You know, this is a torture chamber, right?

What is it?

Let's go to Colossians 2.

Colossians 2.

Colossians 2.

So I put all these pieces, snap shots together, and it leads us to this.

Speaking to a church, once again, predominantly Gentile, a church in which he's explaining to them who Jesus Christ really is, that he came from heaven. He wasn't just a man.

And in that context of explaining who Christ is, he says this, in him, speaking of Christ, you were also circumcised.

Oh, remember? The new covenant requires circumcision. You were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of sins, of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.

And that's not the end of the sentence, okay? What is the circumcision of Christ? What's the outward sign of what has happened inwardly?

Buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith and the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

We died with Christ when we went under the water, and we went through a type of resurrection when we came out.

And at that point, you were forgiven of your sins, which we just read about, where Paul talks to those who were uncircumcised, but they're circumcised in the heart. And you're brought out, and what happens? Hands are laid on you, and you receive God's Spirit. Your heart now is literally uncircumcised. You are now a participant in the new covenant.

We have to take the outward sign.

People will say, well, I just believe. I've asked God to forgive me. Why isn't that enough? You're telling me I have to earn my salvation by being baptized. I've had that discussion. No, I'm not. I'm telling you this is what the Almighty God, this is what Jesus Christ, as the administer of the new covenant, He tells us, this is how this covenant works, and this is how you become outwardly, you know, you receive the sign. This is how you agree. I'm signing on the dotted line. It is when you're baptized.

They say, well, you know, baptism can't save me. Only God given me His Spirit can save me. That's true. And baptism can't give you the Holy Spirit. I've laid hands on lots of people in my lifetime, and I've never given anybody the Holy Spirit. I've seen people receive God's Spirit. That's not the point, is it? The point is, He requires an outward sign that says, yes, I'm signing on the dotted line. He requires it.

If we really are repentant, we want it. Please, let me sign the document.

Please, let me be part of the covenant.

And this is why people ask at the Passover, why we don't let people that aren't baptized or people whose baptism we may not recognize. That seems cruel. Well, I was baptized at a Pentecostal church, and I think I've had the Holy Spirit my whole life. Because I got baptized at 12.

When I say, I'm sorry, you can't take the Passover, it's like, boy, you're a mean person. Did you really repent? Did you have hands laid on you for the Holy Spirit? Were you immersed? And did you understand that you're running into a covenant with God? Well, no. Well, then, no. I can't let you take the Passover. It would be detrimental to you. It would be actually harmful, spiritually, for you to take the Passover. Because God told them, if you're not circumcised, you can't take the Passover. That was under the Abrahamic covenant, it was under the Sinai covenant, and it's under the New Covenant. Except this time it's circumcised into the heart. If you're not circumcised, you can't. See how they're tied together? The idea that they all just sort of cancel out on each other makes no sense. Just different administration. You don't have to come and say, yes, I was circumcised in eight days so you can take the Passover. That's not the question. Are you circumcised in the heart? Yes. I did the outward expression. That's why this is made with individuals. That's why it doesn't come through a family, and it doesn't come through a nation. The New Covenant isn't made, you know, well, the head of the household is part of the covenant. Everybody else is no matter what. Every generation, generation after generation, part of the house, that's not what it says. That's not the way this is. This is made with every person. That's why women are baptized. This is made specifically with every person, person to person, by God. To understand salvation history, we have to have some understanding of the Abrahamic Sinai and New Covenant and how they relate to each other. Under the Abrahamic Covenant, God administer His covenant to a family. Under the Sinai Covenant, to a nation. Under the New Covenant, through Jesus Christ. And the group of called out ones called the Church. In a couple of weeks, we're going to gather to partake of the symbols given by Jesus Christ. Take this bread. Take this one. It's my body. It's my blood. And remember it's of me. And He said, this is the New Covenant. And this is what God has called you to. And that is why, as I said at the beginning, it is truly the most important Christian ceremony of the whole year.