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NewCity Orlando Sermons
Leviticus Is For Lovers | Leviticus 1
Senior Pastor Damein Schitter kicks off our fall series, Leviticus is For Lovers, preaching from Leviticus 1. He tackles the cultural distance and perceived obscurity head-on, revealing profound insights into God's character and His values. By slowing down and examining the priestly and sacrificial systems, Pastor Damein connects the dots from these ancient practices to the ultimate fulfillment found in Jesus Christ. He also shows how laws against murder and theft reveal the values of the lawgiver, and how offering our best to God reflects His holiness and grace.
Pastor Damein concludes by bridging Leviticus to the New Testament, drawing meaningful connections that underscore the inclusivity of worship and the completeness of atonement provided by Christ. Reflecting on Romans 12:1, he explores how offering our lives as living sacrifices is a powerful response to God's mercy. Through his message, we are prepared to deepen our love for Jesus and enrich our understanding of Scripture, recognizing God's relentless pursuit of fellowship with us.
Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damian. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando. At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Evan Peterson and I'm from the East Orlando Community Group. Got a cup? Yep, there's Matt. Okay, thanks, matt. Alright, if you would please pray with me. Heavenly Father, we wish to see Jesus. By your Spirit's power, give us eyes to see his glory. Through Christ we pray, amen.
Speaker 2:Today's scripture reading is Leviticus 1. If you are able, please remain standing. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying Speak to the people of Israel and say to them when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priest, shall put fire on the altar and arrange the wood on the fire. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or the goats, he shall bring a male without blemish and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord and Aaron's sons. The priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar and he shall cut it into pieces, with its head and its fat, and the priest shall arrange them on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. But the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water and the priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar.
Speaker 2:It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtle, doves or pigeons and the priest shall bring it to the altar and, wring off its head and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes. He shall tear its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side in the place for ashes. He shall tear it open by its wings, but shall not sever it completely, and the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. This is God's word. You may be seated.
Speaker 1:Let's go. How can you not be totally confused after that? You know one of my favorite movie quotes I don't know if it's favorite movie, but favorite movie quotes came to my mind as Evan was so helpfully reading that, and that was. I immediately regret this decision. So let's start. Let's start a little farther back, but not quite as far back as Leviticus.
Speaker 1:1967 was the year and there was an ad agency known in their state that was invited to pitch the travel promotion account of their state, and so they sent their pitch in. It was ultimately rejected and one of the partners had to go to the office to get their folder with all the documents in it. And when he met the person at the front to give him the folder, he found out that they were on the committee that chose which ad they had selected. So he asked this person well, what ad did you go with? And to his chagrin the person said I can't remember. I just remember liking the colors. And so that made him feel even worse. And so he went back when he got to the office and talked to his partner and he said if we ever get the opportunity to pitch for this ad again, we're at least going to make it memorable. So, as you can imagine, if one of the committee members couldn't remember what ad they selected, it wasn't long before they got their other opportunity. It was one year later and they had the opportunity to pitch again to the travel promotion account of their state, and so they gathered their team together.
Speaker 1:They spent a lot of time and what they asked themselves was what do people love in our state? Why would they come here? So some people identified people love the mountains in our state. Other people said people love the mountains in our state. Other people said people love the history in our state. Someone else said people love the beaches in our state. So they didn't have enough time to do focus groups or anything like that. They had to rely on themselves. They were wrestling to the ground. Well, which one is the primary reason why someone would visit our state? Is it the history? Is it the mountains? Is it the beaches? And one of the people was kind of sitting back and finally they suggested what if they love everything in the state? And we just say Virginia is for lovers, right, it doesn't matter if they love the beaches, if they love the mountains, if they love the history, if you love any of it. It's for you. So that was 1967. The very first ad that was run in Virginia that said Virginia is for lovers was in 1969, and it is still the motto for the state of Virginia. In fact, if you've ever driven in from a neighboring state, there are 300 signs as you enter in that say Virginia is for lovers. And last week I saw a person with a Florida license plate drive by me with a bumper sticker that said Virginia is for lovers. So it's still for lovers.
Speaker 1:And so you know, when we were thinking about what do we name Leviticus, we were thinking, of course, of all the reasons people love Leviticus and we thought, well, I don't know if we could call Leviticus irrelevant, or Leviticus the Bible reading plan, where Bible reading plans go to die. None of those things had a ring to it. And so then we thought, well, what is Leviticus about? And maybe we can call that the subtitle. And we thought, well, maybe is it. Do we emphasize worship? Worship of God, the holiness of God, the justice of God, the grace of God, the privilege of God's people to come into his presence. These are the things that Leviticus teaches us. So which one do we pick? Things that Leviticus teaches us. So which one do we pick? And then Ben just said well, what if we love all of those things? And how about we call it Leviticus is for lovers? Now, of course we wanted it to be memorable and hopefully you'll remember it. And look at that thing, come on, and there's something very Levitical about the fact that the anatomical heart is on there, like you can just grab it and just hold on to it and clean it off and then throw it on the altar Right. It's very helpful, it's good Instructive even.
Speaker 1:But what Leviticus teaches us is that God is a lover and he loves his people so much that he will not stop at anything to bring them back into communion with him. And there's something else the Bible teaches us about when we are in communion with God and receiving his love, that we become loving people. Have you ever heard the Bible say to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself? And maybe before that, you've heard the Bible say that we did not love him, but he loved us first. So Leviticus is for lovers. Leviticus is displaying God's love for us, that he would go as far as he needed to, to make a way for his people to dwell with him. And really, what we want to see is that the entire book of Leviticus actually orients us to life with God, and my guess is that that would surprise you If I were to tell you Leviticus is to orient you to life with God. You might be thinking well, that's interesting, given how much death is in Leviticus. Well, in fact, those two things are intimately connected the death connected to the life that God offers, and so I hope that as we walk through the book of Leviticus this fall, we will see and be able to show you how it does in fact orient us to life with God.
Speaker 1:But first, in this sermon, what I want to do is at least build a foundation in order to see what Leviticus is all about, and so what I want to do today is answer and then respond to three questions. Sorry, ask and then respond to three questions. The first question is why does Leviticus seem so irrelevant to us? The second question is what does Leviticus reveal about us? And the third question is what does Leviticus teach us about God? Okay, so first, why does Leviticus seem irrelevant to us? And I want to give at least three reasons, I think. The first reason is genre.
Speaker 1:The genre is confusing and it's almost entirely law of some type, law in a broad sense. You get like two narratives in Leviticus, and the first one is about Aaron's sons getting obliterated, and then the second narrative is about someone getting stoned for blasphemy. And that's all you get in terms of narrative in Leviticus. The rest is case law, purity law, rituals and so on. So I just know that that's a PR issue for the book of Leviticus, because no one comes home and says man, after a really hard day and a really hard season of life, I just want to cuddle up with 27 chapters of law. People don't say that. They also don't say that in their morning devotions either. If you do make it through Leviticus, numbers will almost certainly stop you, and so we got to deal with that. But Leviticus first, numbers is next fall. So the first reason is genre. The second reason is cultural distance.
Speaker 1:Leviticus is written in a way you need to know this that the Israelites would have understood when we read through some of these rituals. They're not very descriptive. In fact, in our chapter today, which we'll get to in a moment, it talks about offering a burnt offering, but it doesn't give exact instructions. And there's lots of rituals in Leviticus that don't have instructions, and commentators often will say we don't even know why this ritual is here. We don't even know how exactly this ritual was done, and the only answer to that is the reason that the author, moses, doesn't give us details is because it would have been so obvious to the Israelites. So that should tell you. There's a lot of cultural distance between us and the Israelites, which makes Leviticus challenging. Okay, but what's important is, far from being random, the rituals given to the Israelites in Leviticus is all about the Lord instructing them to understand his holiness and his desire for them to reflect his holy character to the world. Okay, so I know the genre's challenging. I know the cultural distance makes it challenging.
Speaker 1:Here's the third thing, that why I think Leviticus seems so irrelevant to us, and that's because this is the most common answer I would get. Well, it doesn't matter. It's irrelevant because Jesus has fulfilled all of this already anyway. So why would we read Leviticus? I understand this part and this is true. We say things like praise God. We don't have to do that anymore. Yes, I say amen to that. Otherwise, if we still did as a pastor, my training would have been not seminary, but I would have been trained how to be a butcher, and so that would have been something, or at least that would have been added to my seminary training, and I'm really glad about that that I'm not trained in being a butcher. If you're trained in being a butcher, more power to you. That's not what I am interested in. So I get it. I get why we would say that.
Speaker 1:But here's the reality is that when the New Testament talks about Jesus' sacrifice for us, when it interprets Jesus' sacrifice for us the way that it does, that is rooted in Leviticus. Always, the New Testament authors, their understanding of what Jesus has accomplished is directly informed by Leviticus. They study Leviticus in order to help them understand what Jesus has accomplished, and so I think, for us, what I would want to say is that when we come to Leviticus and begin to understand it a little bit more than we do, we will understand Jesus' sacrifice a little bit more than we do. We will understand Jesus' sacrifice a little bit more than we do now. I understand that, as the writer of the Hebrew says, there's a how much more with Jesus. He says how much more then will the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal spirit, offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God. And Peter, of course, does say Christ suffered once for sins, and in our assurance of pardon, we see this too in Hebrews 10. And so all of these challenges are real, but I wanna invite you, in this series, to understand that all of these challenges actually end up being opportunities for us to further discover the beauty. But I want to invite you, in this series, to understand that all of these challenges actually end up being opportunities for us to further discover the beauty and even the grace of God. How Well, let's start with the third reason.
Speaker 1:The third reason I gave was Jesus has already fulfilled all of this. That's true, I already spoke to this. That is to say that when we read the New Testament, the authors assume a knowledge of Leviticus, or at least the priest system and the sacrificial system, and so we want to at least help you understand it a bit more so that you can come to love Jesus a lot more. Okay, so that's an opportunity. Second, that was the cultural distance.
Speaker 1:Listen, what we'll need to do in this series is lean in to the strangeness of this cultural difference, and that's going to slow us down. One of the reasons I loved learning the original languages and reading the Bible in Hebrew or Greek was because it slowed me down Shocker. I'm not as good at Greek and Hebrew as I am at English, right, so part of the translation work was to slow me down, and the things that you see are truly remarkable. And so, while we're not going to read or refer much to Hebrew at all, even in the English, because of that cultural distance, we need to slow down, to participate with the author and lean in. We need to get curious and when we get confused or even frustrated, even turned off by a ritual that we read about, this is the question that I want you to ask yourself, and we'll remind you as we go. And this is the question that I want you to ask yourself, and we'll remind you as we go. And this is the question how would an Israelite have understood this text? How would an Israelite have understood this text? Okay, so hopefully, as we get better at that, leviticus will seem more relevant to us.
Speaker 1:And here's the final reason I'm going to give. It's the first reason I gave, and that is genre of law. Law is actually an amazing gift. Why? Because law will be an opportunity for us to get to know the character of God. Because all law reflects the character of the lawgiver. All law. Think about this. Why do we have laws against murder? What value does that reveal? Well, it reveals that we value human life. And so there are laws against murder. Why do we have laws against stealing, just to use one more? Because clearly we have values of personal property, and so you can't transgress those values and just take things from other people. And so because law always reflects the value of the law giver.
Speaker 1:In all of these chapters of Leviticus, we're constantly learning more about what God loves and about his character. Now we do have to do the work of cultural distance, but we will. We'll do that together. Now, where I think we'll run into lots of challenges will be in the purity laws, because the ritual laws we have some idea of, even if we minimize the strangeness we understand. As Christians, we're more comfortable talking about blood and blood covering sin. So there'll be some strange things to talk about. But when we start talking about purity and impurity, I think that will be challenging for us, but don't worry, we don't do that till next month.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, in the ancient world, what we need to understand is that animals without blemish were the most economically expensive. They were the most valuable. Now, what am I doing here? I'm about to bridge the gap into Leviticus 1. But what I'm still doing is I'm trying to show that law reveals the character or value of the lawgiver, and in Leviticus, chapter 1, we see that an animal brought in this sacrifice is to be one without blemish. What does that reveal about God? Okay, well, what does it reveal about God? Well, first we need to understand that, by requiring an animal without blemish, in his commentary on Leviticus, j Scalar points out that this animal would have been the most valuable animal, which will communicate that God deserves and requires our best, and not only our best, and we'll see this in a moment. The burnt offering was to be fully burned up. So God doesn't just require our best and not only our best, and we'll see this in a moment. The burnt offering was to be fully burned up. So God doesn't just require our best, he requires our all. But let's think about this Later on.
Speaker 1:In Malachi, there's actually an example when the Israelites think they can trick God and they keep bringing animals for the sacrificial system. But rather than an animal without blemish, they start bringing blind animals. Now what's interesting about bringing a blind animal is that if I were to bring my animal up here and make the sacrifice, all of you would have thought, oh look, he brought a sacrifice just like God required. But God would have known that the animal was blind. So in our day, let's shrink the cultural distance you think about. There are boxes in the back where people can take their offering. So what if someone had an envelope and went and put it in the offering box? You would say, oh, they went to make an offering. But what if the envelope was empty box? You would say, oh, they went to make an offering, but what if the envelope was empty? That would be like bringing a blind animal to be sacrificed.
Speaker 1:It has the outward appearance of offering something to God, an outward appearance of obedience, but the heart is off. So what God communicates in these laws is that he wants our heart. He doesn't just want the outward appearance, he wants everything. And so we see that, although Leviticus seems irrelevant to us, when we slow down we can engage the genre and we'll learn a lot about the character of God. We'll also learn a lot about our predicament, as well as what Jesus has accomplished for us in his life, death and resurrection.
Speaker 1:So next second question what does Leviticus reveal about us?
Speaker 1:Well, to understand what Leviticus reveals about us, we need to understand the place of Leviticus in the Bible, and I mean more than just saying it's the third book in the Bible. Okay, leviticus is one of the first five books called the Pentateuch, and the first five books of the Bible are the most foundational books in the Bible. Without those books we can't understand the rest of the Bible, and scholars actually point out that, believe it or not, the pentacle, the high point of the Pentateuch, is Leviticus, and the high point of Leviticus is the Day of Atonement. Now, if we were going to get really nerdy, I would have shown you the outline of the Pentateuch and you would have been able to see that. And then I would have shown you an outline of Leviticus and you would have been able to see that it's quite remarkable. So just trust me, I didn't want to lead us through three slides of outlines of all the books in the Pentateuch to show you that, but that should tell us something that the pinnacle of the Pentateuch. There's two Ps Scott I wish Ben was here too without even trying. The pinnacle of the Pentateuch is Leviticus. That should tell us something about its importance. But let's get more practical More immediately. We see that in Leviticus 1.1, leviticus is picking up in the middle of a story. You notice how, when it was being read, we were right in it. I mean, we were just right in it. How is that possible? Well, pull your Bibles out or open your app and look with me.
Speaker 1:In verse one of Leviticus, it just starts off saying the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. Let's do two things really quickly. First of all, this phrase the Lord called is a common phrase that shows up in the Pentateuch every time God's redemptive plan pivots to the next stage. Let me show you just quickly. In Genesis 3, 9, remember what happened in Genesis 3? Sin entered the world right in Genesis 3?. And when God comes in the garden trying to find Adam and Eve, this is what he says. It's the first thing he says. It says Yahweh called to Adam in the garden, says it's the first thing he says. It says Yahweh called to Adam in the garden. Then, in Exodus 3, yahweh called to Moses from within the bush. Remember, in the burning bush, god's plan takes the next step of redemption. Then, in Exodus 19, yahweh called to Moses from the mountain. What happens in the mountain? The're giving him the 10 commandments. That's the next phase of God's redemption of his people. Exodus 24, yahweh called to Moses from within the cloud. So now Moses is now at the top of the mountain receiving instruction from the Lord. And then the next time we see Yahweh calling to someone, it's here in verse one Yahweh called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting.
Speaker 1:Now let's go one more step, most immediate Bible trivia time. What book is right before Leviticus? Exodus? Very good, it was pass fail. So Leviticus was right before here.
Speaker 1:You know, when you think about Leviticus we probably think of the 10 plagues, we think of saving people from Egypt, and that's a big part of Leviticus. But there's a huge part of Leviticus, the whole second half. Do you remember what that's about? It's when we all start speeding up in our reading. It's all the instructions to build the tabernacle, and then the building of the tabernacle. And how does Exodus end? It ends with the completion of that construction. But something both surprising and terrifying happens right after it's constructed. It throws you for a loop, and so I'm actually gonna read from the end of Exodus. So if you have a Bible, you can just look to your left or you can scroll back to the end of Exodus.
Speaker 1:This is chapter 34. Everything's been building from Genesis 3 really until this moment in Exodus, chapter 34. Everything's been building to this moment, and this is what verse 34 says. Then the cloud covered. The cloud is the presence of God. The cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Amazing, just as he said he would, just as he promised. Verse 35.
Speaker 1:This is the confusing part. So what's happening here? God fulfilled his promise. After they built the tabernacle, he came to dwell with his people, but Moses can't enter. Moses was just on the mountain. Why can't he go in the tent of meeting? And so a few things to note here. One, this is the first time since before the flood that the maker in heaven and earth has a dwelling place among humanity. It's the first time since before the flood. It's a big deal. Second, the fact that not even Moses was allowed to enter the tent of meeting not only is a surprise, but it might be scary, because, after all, if the one who ascended the mountain into the cloud can't go into this place, what is this place and who can enter it? And finally, now that God has made his home among his people by moving into this, it's really a mobile palace.
Speaker 1:I want you to think about this in part as a palace where a king lives. This is God's home. He's the king, these are his people, and his palace is right in the center of their camp. The whole camp. You can look and study Bibles or look online. The whole camp is oriented to face the tabernacle, or you could call it the palace where God lives. You think about, you know, when the queen's home, the flag is up right. I've never been there. Is this right? I need some anticipation. Is the flag up or is it down? Do you not know? Thank you, I'm just trying to bring you in. I knew that the whole time. The flag is up right. So God is home and we know that because his presence is there in the palace.
Speaker 1:Now, in one sense, scholars will point out two phrases that refer to the tabernacle. Now, stay with me. This is really important. One of the phrases is they'll call it the abode or the dwelling place of God, because this is where he lives. But then there's another phrase, separate Hebrew word that they'll use, called the tent of meeting. And what's so interesting about this? As one scholar says, the journey from chapter one in Leviticus to the end of chapter Leviticus shows how the dwelling place of God, where God lives, can become the tent of meeting. In other words, in chapter one it's the dwelling place of God, but it's not yet the tent of meeting. Not even Moses can come up here. So how do we get to the place where the residents, where God's people, can come meet the king at the palace? Well, that's what Leviticus is about. How can an unholy people meet with a holy God? This is what Leviticus is going to unpack. Now this is where we can be confused.
Speaker 1:I want you to think of this illustration. Think about the sun, the sun in our solar system. It's beautiful, just so you know. There's no life on this planet without the sun. It's powerful, it gives off light, it gives off heat, but we all know that surrounding the sun, if you get too close, it will burn you up. Imagine how the Israelites feel when the equivalent of the sun just settles right in the center of their camp and the Bible calls this power and goodness and life-giving capacity holiness. And God in his holiness moves into the neighborhood, so to speak, and what we see is his pure and powerful presence. Like the sun is both good and beautiful and very dangerous all at the same time. So the book of Leviticus in large part is answering the question how can God live in the midst of a sinful people and them not be destroyed? In the book of Leviticus there are three main ways this is going to work itself out. I'm just going to name them. We'll get into them later Rituals, the priesthood and purity laws.
Speaker 1:But just so you know, don't get lost in Leviticus, everything in Leviticus is an answer to that question, which is how can a holy God live in the midst of an unholy people? Any ritual, all the things of the priesthood, all the purity laws fundamentally answer that question. It is the most important question. Now, when we see these rituals, there are two basic things that are going on. Some rituals say thank you God. Some rituals say I'm sorry, god, just think about it that way. Some rituals are meant to say thank you God. Some rituals say I'm sorry, god. Just think about it that way. Some rituals are meant to say thank you, others are meant to say I'm sorry, and God provides rituals for both of those. What I mean, everything fits under that right. Thank you God, thank you for this, thank you for that, thank you for this, and I'm sorry because of. I'm sorry because of so, while because of I'm sorry because of so.
Speaker 1:While we regard Leviticus as a burden, the Israelites looked at it as a gift, because it was life-giving instruction to rightly live in right relationship with their king and then to become like their king and then reflect their king to the surrounding world. That's what Leviticus is about. So when we think about the book revealing God's provision and that we're unable and unworthy to come into his presence, we need to lean into one more thing. Look with me in verse 4. So he's talking about this burnt offering, and we'll go back to verse 2 in a moment, in the last point. But in verse 4, the Lord tells us exactly what this burnt offering is for. He, that is to say the person bringing the offering offering, shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
Speaker 1:Now, this is a very important word in the book of Leviticus and I'll mention more about what atonement means. But fundamentally, atonement means something like both purification and forgiveness, and these two things come together because we both need purified as impure people and we need forgiven as sinful people, and the atonement accomplishes both of those things. Now, different times in Leviticus, one thing or the other will be emphasized more. Now, different times in Leviticus, one thing or the other will be emphasized more, but both are always true. Now I just want to slow down here for a moment and just apply this simply.
Speaker 1:Last week in Zakar that is the communicants class we talked about the word atonement and I gave them a way to think about remembering atonement and you've probably heard this, the word atonement. What is God accomplishing? In atonement Is he's taking us who are separated from God, and in atonement he's making us at one with him again. Atonement or at one with him. So I want you to think about that when you hear the word atonement that what God is doing is he's taking you as separated and, by a sacrifice, making you one with him again, in relationship, in fellowship. And that is the very first place that Leviticus starts the very first step in taking God's house and turning it into the place where we can meet him, the place where we can come to him, the place where we can come to him, the place where we can fellowship with him.
Speaker 1:So what I've tried to do is give you some reasons why Leviticus seems irrelevant to us. I've tried to tell you what it reveals about us and just to put it simply, it reveals that without a sacrifice, without God going first, we, as an unholy people, cannot be with him. That's what Leviticus reveals about us. So, finally, what does Leviticus teach us about God? It teaches us a lot about God. So, fundamentally, I'll start with the answer and then I'll unpack it. What does Leviticus teach us about God? It teaches us that God is committed to create the way to restored fellowship. He's committed Not only did. In Genesis 3, he said I'm not going to junk this thing. I'm coming after you, I'm gonna save you. In Leviticus, he goes and rescues his people from the most powerful nation on the face of the earth there's a showdown with Egypt. He rescues them and now he's giving them a way where he can live in their midst, because that's how it's supposed to be.
Speaker 1:He won't stop at anything, and what I wanna do is want to point out a few things that also teach us some things about God, his beauty. Look at verse 3. Notice this All of the offerings are for atonement. But verse 3, if the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. Verse 10, if his gift for a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. Verse 10, if his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, verse 14, if his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, so in law speak, this is case law. If then? So if this happens, then do this.
Speaker 1:But one of the amazing things is why, if the herd and if the flock, and if the birds, what we see is in these different possibilities, it moves from the most expensive offering to the least expensive offering. Well, why Is that? Just because you know, if it just depends on how good you feel like, hey, do I wanna bring my best or do I wanna bring something cheap? See, the reality is is that there were those with more means among the Israelite people and there were those with less means, as the Israelite people and those who were poorer, didn't have a herd to pull from. They didn't even have a flock to pull from. They had to go get a bird and bring the bird.
Speaker 1:And the reason this is so beautiful is because no one will be held back from worshiping the Lord. No one, not the rich. Worshiping the Lord no one, not the rich, not the poor, not anyone in between. The Lord calls everyone, he makes a way for everyone. The other thing we learn here is not only that God wants everyone, no matter what your means, but also the purpose of the burnt offering is actually twofold In our text. It's about atonement. That's true.
Speaker 1:The burnt offering was the most costly sacrifice, because it's the only sacrifice in the book of Leviticus where you burn the whole animal. It's just all consumed. The other sacrifices some of them the priests eat some of the food, some of the others the priests and the offer eat some of the food, but not with the burnt offering. The whole thing is burned up. It was the most costly sacrifice and in his commentary on Leviticus, j Sklar notes this that by giving the whole animal to the Lord, the offerers acknowledged that their sinfulness before a holy God was so great that only a full and costly ransom payment would suffice.
Speaker 1:And this is where it starts sounding familiar. At least it ought to start sounding familiar to us, because when the New Testament explains why the death of Jesus on the behalf of sinners, what it means is actually describing the language of the burnt offering. For example, ephesians 5, verse 2, says this walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice to God. A fragrant offering, a sacrifice to God. The Lord Jesus gave his whole self for us. He gave everything, he gave his life, he gave his body, he gave his death, he gave his suffering, he gave his righteousness, he put everything on the cross. What? As a sacrifice for us? You see, how do we understand sacrifice? How does Paul? What is Paul thinking when he writes Ephesians 5 too? He's thinking of this.
Speaker 1:Commentators say he's thinking of the whole burnt offering for us. Jesus is the ultimate burnt offering that both ransoms guilty sinners once for all, that they may be reconciled to God, and cleanses impure people. He both ransoms us and cleanses us because he's given his whole self as an offering. So that's the first purpose of a burnt offering. A burnt offering is always whole and full. Everything's burnt up, one's for atonement, the other one. I love this.
Speaker 1:The other one is to underscore like an exclamation point, prayer and praise. So if you had something to praise God for or pray to God for, you would bring an offering, a burnt offering, as an exclamation point. So let's talk just a little bit more about that. So if you had a prayer request, you may offer a whole animal, and what you would be acknowledging is your total dependence on the Lord's help. You don't just need some of the Lord's help, you have total dependence on the Lord's help. And the way that you would symbolize that is by bringing a whole animal to God in both prayer or praise. If you were praising God, recognizing that everything good you have in your life is completely a gift from the Lord, then you would respond in praise by bringing a whole gift, not holding anything back, but giving it all as an exclamation point.
Speaker 1:So does this show up in the New Testament too? It does, and I bet it might be one of your favorite verses where Paul picks up on this. In Ephesians 5 too, he picked up on Jesus giving his whole self as a fragrant offering, being taken and dying for our sins for atonement. That's the first type of burnt offering. But there's another type this prayer and praise. And this is where Paul picks up.
Speaker 1:It's Romans 12.1. It's when Paul says that we are to offer our bodies what, as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God? What is this? Well, remember where Romans 12 is, after Paul put on display all of God's mercy in saving you, what is the only response? To offer your entire self to God in praise. It's to offer your own exclamation point in business, in family, in civic life, in worship, in media consumption, in the words that come out of your mouth, media consumption, in the words that come out of your mouth, in your dreams and in your imagination, every part of you, to offer all of that as a thank you God. You go to Jesus as the burnt offering, as a I'm sorry. I trust fully in Jesus. Romans 12,. You go to God as a praise you, god, thank you for all that you've done for me in Jesus and I offer all of myself to you. This is the beauty of Leviticus, this is the beauty of the burnt offerings here in Leviticus, chapter one, where we get both atonement I'm sorry, both atonement, I'm sorry fully accomplished in Jesus, and we get the thank you, god, a life fully lived for Jesus in response.
Speaker 1:Now here's where I want to conclude. Remember, we're setting the foundation for Leviticus. I couldn't close this sermon without pointing out this, out this In Leviticus 17, 11, god says this, for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I, I myself, okay. So he says I. The Hebrew text says I, twice for emphasis. So the life of the flesh is in the blood and I, I myself, have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we can read Leviticus and think that the Israelites came up with a way to appease God so they could come. That's not what happened at all. God gives them this system for atonement. Another way to say it is atonement is not earned by the Israelites. It is granted to them as a gracious gift from the Lord, and so, as I said, god will stop at nothing to bring us back into fellowship with him.
Speaker 1:And as we explore Leviticus, as we explore how Leviticus informs our faith in Jesus, we must be reminded again that atonement is not earned, but it's received as a gift. Let's pray, father, thank you for your goodness in your word. I pray that even now, as we reflect and think about the strangeness of Leviticus that even today that you would have shown us the beauty of your law, the beauty of your word and the amazing reality that you will stop at nothing to bring us near to you. You will deal with our sin and you have in our Lord Jesus Christ. So I pray for this moment now that, as we're about to enter into reflection, that you would begin to bring to mind what you want us to reflect on, how you want us to say I'm sorry, or how you want us to say thank you, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.