The Lord’s Supper fellowship is not your typical potluck. The Lord’s Supper is only for born-again followers of Christ. Please spend the week reflecting on Christ’s work in your life and your relationship with Christ. If you have a conflict with a brother or sister in Christ, if you have unconfessed sin, if you have areas of your life where you are openly living in rebellion to the authority of Christ—please repent. If you cannot resolve or get things right, please abstain from participating until you get them right. This will be a very special night where we, the body of Christ, reflect upon the promises found in the New Covenant inaugurated by Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Look at Acts 2. In verse 36, Peter addresses his audience, celebrating Pentecost in Jerusalem as the “House of Israel.” Then, he tells the House of Israel about the Christ, the cross, the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Then, in verse 39, Peter says, “The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off.” Peter articulates the promises of the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Ezekiel 36:27 and applies them to the House of Israel, which was gathered in front of him.
On the night of His death, Christ inaugurated the New Covenant, and now Peter lets his audience know that the promises are available to them; the Jews in front of him, their children, and those far off—namely the Gentiles. We are not waiting for the New Covenant to be established with Israel in the future. No, that happened 2,000 years ago at Pentecost when those who received His word were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to the Church. When those 3,000 Jews were added to the Church, they were no longer under the Old Covenant. They were no longer obligated to keep the Law of Moses. Their circumcision was a circumcision of the heart. Their Passover lamb was the Lamb of God. Their law was the Law of Christ, and they were sealed with the Holy Spirit and promised unconditionally eternal life.
In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul gives us a lengthy and detailed passage about the Lord’s Supper. He writes, “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” Paul understood that Christ’s death was the death that established the New Covenant. It is not a future event. We are not waiting for its inauguration—we are celebrating the present realities of the New Covenant.
Then, in 2 Corinthians 3:6, Paul describes believers in Christ as ministers or servants of the New Covenant. That’s us. We are the ministers of the New Covenant. At Pentecost, by faith in Christ, Jews were moved out from under the bondage to the letter of the Law of Moses to the Spirit of Christ under the New, Better, and Eternal Covenant. Remember, the promise was to “you, your children, and those who are far off” (Acts 2:39). It started with the House of Israel, the men of Judea, and moved to Gentiles one convert at a time.
In Romans 2:28-29, Paul introduces his reader to an “inward Jew” whose circumcision is a matter of the heart. In Al Mohler’s Grace and Truth Study Bible, he writes, “The true member of God’s covenant people is the one who has experienced the new covenant blessing promised in the OT: a new heart and the gift of the Spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26-27, found on p. 1581). Sunday, February 23, we will celebrate the New Covenant together as God’s New Covenant people. Join us if you understand and believe you are in a New Covenant relationship with Yahweh, the Christ, and the Spirit of God.
