%20copy.jpg)
NewCity Orlando Sermons
NewCity Orlando is a gospel-centered church pursuing personal transformation, authentic community and cultural renewal. Our mission is whole-life gospel transformation for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. Subscribe here to listen to our weekly sermons.
NewCity Orlando Sermons
Leviticus Is For Lovers | Leviticus 16
Pastor of Formation & Mission Benjamin Kandt continues our fall series, Leviticus Is For Lovers, preaching on the themes of atonement and holiness from the ritual in Leviticus 16. He explores the high priest’s critical role in bridging the gap between God and His people, and the crucial symbolism of the scapegoat carrying away the sins of Israel. Here, we see how drawing near to God requires confrontation with our own ambivalence, guilt, and shame. Together, we can reflect on God's persistent love and His desire to dwell among us despite our shortcomings.
Leviticus 16 finds its ultimate fulfillment in the transformative power of Christ, as depicted in Hebrews. There, we can see how Jesus embodies the temple, priest, and sacrifice, removing traditional religious barriers. Pastor Ben concludes with practical advice on honoring the Day of Atonement through fasting and resting, and encourage us to embrace bold confidence in approach to God, not through personal merit, but through the grace offered by Christ.
Amen. Indeed, please remain standing, if you're able, for this morning's scripture reading, which is from various sections of Leviticus 16. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses tell Aaron, your brother, not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die, for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way, aaron shall come into the holy place with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist and wear the linen turban. These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on, and he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting and Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats one lot for the Lord and the other for the lot of Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.
Speaker 1:Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself and he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil and put the incense on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony, so that he does not die. And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat, on the east side and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins, and so he shall do for the tent of meeting which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness. No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar all around, and he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the people of Israel. And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins, and he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all the iniquities on itself to a remote area and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.
Speaker 1:I just wanna make sure that I have the same passage. I just keep going. I'm like one of those people that just reads the teleprompter. And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you and you shall afflict yourselves. It is a statute forever, and this shall be a statute forever for you that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins. And Aaron did as the Lord commanded Moses. This is God's word. Please be seated.
Speaker 2:Thank you, damien. So I grew up in the church in a way, and by that I mean, you know, I grew up with a church-going family. But among the various reasons why we would gather for worship, one of them was told to me that it was because I got a discount on our private school tuition. And so I like to joke that I grew up with a discount Christianity and that persisted from birth all the way until I was 19 years old when my sister invited me to a conference a crew conference in the Great Lakes region, and I went up, and when I was there I was hanging out with the Michigan State crew and they were all going to a breakout session that I had no idea what it was about, but now I know it was a session on the holiness of God. Now, if you knew anything about my lifestyle at that point, my discount Christianity wasn't really working. I was living a lifestyle that in every way did not really align with the holiness of God. So I don't recommend going to a breakout session on that topic. And so while I'm in this breakout session, I'm physiologically feeling a heightened sense of awareness that if God is holy as this person was describing, then I am not. Another way to say that is that, if this is true, there's a gap between God and me. And then a moment happened that I can only explain to be the work of the Holy Spirit, where the person in the room that was leading the session said hey, there's probably 150 people in this room right now and I can almost guarantee all of you would say that you are a Christian. But I can also almost guarantee, I can almost promise you, that somebody in this room thinks they know God, but they don't and they're standing at odds with a holy God. And in that moment it was like that movie scene where all the lights go dim in the room and the spotlight's just on me and I think, how did they know? How did he know I'm here?
Speaker 2:And I left that breakout session in literal fear and trembling. My body was actually shaking. I was so unsettled by this reality that I grew up with this cultural Christianity that led me to think I was okay, but really it was just a complacency. That was not okay. And so I went to my sister who invited me to this conference, and I, through tears, poured out all of my sins before her told her all the double life I'd been living, told her all the ways in which I was in trouble, and she just very gently, kindly, said well, ben, that's the reason why Jesus died. And in that moment, because of my awareness of the gap between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of my own life, in that moment the old news became good news in a fresh way. And so I would name 2009 as the day it was actually Jan 1, 2009, as the day where I became born again, a new creation, a disciple of Jesus Name the metaphor you want to use.
Speaker 2:And so for the last 15 years, my life has been trying, stumbling, failing, succeeding, all the things that you all know to follow Jesus. But in that moment I had no idea what that looked like. And so I went from my sister's hotel room to back to my hotel room and talked to my friend, steve Ning, and I said Steve, you're not going to believe what just happened. And Steve was kind of in on the whole thing so he could believe what just happened. I said Steve, what do I do now? And he quoted to me James 4, 8. Then draw near to God and God will draw near to you. And I didn't know what that meant entirely, but I claimed it as the banner over my life.
Speaker 2:And so for 15 plus years now life, my Christian life, could be characterized as attempting, striving, pressing in to draw near to God, expecting, anticipating, knowing that God is drawing near to me. Now, something you have to understand is I went to that conference with zero desire to know God. To draw near to God, that was not on my, that was not on my interests list. To draw near to God, that was not on my, that was not on my interests list. But we have this theology that actually says that it takes God to know God we call that revelation and it takes God to love God we call that regeneration. What happened in that moment even though I responded by saying I need to draw near to God because God will draw near to me is that God went first. He was drawing, wooing, beckoning me towards himself and all that happened was a response to say yes. Now, why do I tell you that? Well, because you could summarize the entire Christian life under that one phrase drawing near to God.
Speaker 2:The whole of our existence as Christians is simply this movement, this drawing near to God. The whole of our existence as Christians is simply this movement, this drawing near to God, what attachment theory calls proximity-seeking behavior. You want to be near the one whom you love, and that is all of our lives. But if you're anything like me, you wrestle with ambivalence at times. There's things that hinder you from drawing near to God. Maybe the top of that list is guilt, shame and fear of drawing near. Those things get in the way. And so if you in any way are like me, where at some times your heart says I love you but I leave you, I want you but I don't need you, if you do that move, that kind of ambivalent dynamic in your relationship with God, then this text this morning is for you.
Speaker 2:Leviticus 16 is all about drawing near to God, and so if you have a Bible or a device, go ahead and get it out in front of you, because we're going to look at this passage verse by verse together. Now there's this principle in what's called hermeneutics, that's just the study of how you read a text. In hermeneutics there's a principle which says you don't know what a text means until you know how it means. Another way to say that is is that the Bible has rich and brilliant artistry in how it's designed and how it was written. So Leviticus 16, as you'll see on this graph behind me, leviticus 16 is really the centerpiece of the whole book of Leviticus. We are at the high point, the pinnacle. It's all building towards this and it all flows from this. This is a really big deal chapter in the book of Leviticus, but not only in the book of Leviticus, because you have to understand that Leviticus is actually the centerpiece of what's called the Torah, the first five books of the Bible Genesis, exodus, leviticus and then Numbers, deuteronomy. This book is the centerpiece of the Torah and the Torah is the foundation of the whole Bible. That's all a way of me saying you don't know what a text means until you know how it means. And how this text means is to bring to your attention that this is a really big deal.
Speaker 2:What we're about to read, according to the authors of scripture, leviticus 16 is centered. It's central. If you've been with us at New City every fall, we've been preaching through Genesis Exodus For the last five. It took us five years to get to Leviticus, to get to this text, the center of the Torah. And so what have we learned over the last five years? Well, we've learned a lot, but I can just summarize it like this the story of scripture is about a good God who, like the sun, is the source of all light and life. We've learned that thus far, but people have turned away from that God, into darkness and death.
Speaker 2:And God walks into the room and asks where are you? Where'd you go? You turned away, and it's important to note that God doesn't hide from us. In fact, he seeks us out. It's we who hide from God to avoid our exposure. It's a theme that comes over and over and over again, and so the Bible is not a collection of stories about man's search for God. Instead, the Bible is one unified story about God's search for man. Where are you, he asks repeatedly all the way up until today. Where are you?
Speaker 2:You see, because in scripture, the core of our problem is this separation from God. Separation from God is both the cause and the fruit of sin. It's this, as Isaiah 53, 6 puts it. We have turned everyone to our own way, and so what that results in is this separation from God, and that separation is the opposite of drawing near, is it not? Let me put it like this Since God is the source of life, separation equals death. God is to us what a body is to an arm, what a tree is to a branch, what a mother is to a child. Cut off, the arm dies, the branch dies, the child dies. Separation from God means death for humanity. So how can we draw near? If that's our problem, how can we draw near? Hopefully by now you've got Leviticus 16 in front of you.
Speaker 2:I want to look at this drama of drawing near under four points the setting, the rising action, the climax and the resolution. Simple, straightforward. First, the setting. How can we draw near? Look with me at Leviticus 6, 16, verse 1. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died.
Speaker 2:Now this initial verse just draws our attention back to Leviticus 10, this story where the two sons of Aaron, they kind of waltzed into the presence of God, almost like the story of Icarus in Greek mythology where Icarus was warned do not fly too close to the sun or you will be destroyed. Nadab and Abihu just waltz into the presence of God and they were incinerated. In the moment Now that matters because these instructions in our text today for the day of atonement. They were given to Aaron, those two sons' dad. They were given to Aaron because he's the high priest, but he's also a grieving father. That's relevant because I want you to feel the existential tone of this text.
Speaker 2:Aaron, I believe, has a sense of fear and trembling. There is a sense of his imminent doom. Is it's right there if he makes one misstep? He watched his own sons devoured. He watched his own sons devoured, consumed for, waltzing in, drunk with strange fire. Look at the text again with me. Verse two says this and the Lord said to Moses tell Aaron, your brother, not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. This is really high stakes, for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. You see, drawing near to the Lord is actually dangerous because, according to Exodus 24 and Exodus 40, the Lord came in the appearance of the glory of the Lord came in as fire, a consuming, devouring fire.
Speaker 2:But let me clear up some false notions about God here for a moment. This is important. People will say God can't stand to be in the presence of sin. That's backward, it's actually not biblical. The reality is it's not God that can't stand to be in the presence of sin, but sin that can't stand to be in the presence of God. That might seem just semantics. It's a really big deal. This is why Because if you say that God can't stand to be in the presence of sin, it's kind of like that person that we all know who if they see a spider, they run and go get somebody else to deal with it because they just can't tolerate being in the presence of that spider. Right, if God is like that, then sin has leverage over God. It's not the way it works. In fact, it's not God that can't stand to be in the presence of sin, but sin that can't stand to be in the presence of God.
Speaker 2:So where's the danger? Well, what bleach is to bacteria? What light is to darkness? God's holiness is to human sinfulness. You don't blame the bleach for killing the bacteria. It's what it does. Similarly, it's not fire's fault that it incinerates dry leaves, it's the deadness of the leaves. And so, like vampires that can't waltz out into the light, sinners can't come into the holy brilliance of God without being burned.
Speaker 2:I figured that one would work, because it's Halloween, right? So I say that to say here's our conundrum. I hope you can hear this. This is where our ambivalence comes from. We were made for the life and light of God, but like a moth that is drawn to a flame. But like a moth that is drawn to a flame, it dare not get too close, otherwise it might get burned. And so we feel this. What do we do? It's God's holiness. It exposes our sin and God's wrath that opposes our sin. So how can we draw near?
Speaker 2:Well, god makes a way. Verse three look with me. But in this way. Do you hear that? In this way, aaron shall come into the holy place with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering? This is the way, this is the means of approach right here. Sin says to God in the words of Frank Sinatra, I did it my way. To which God replies in the words of the Backstreet Boys I want it that way. Right, that's a big deal. Verse 3 says but in this way, aaron shall come into the holy place. And so when God says it's in this way, we have to understand that this could not possibly mean that all paths lead to God. It couldn't be that way. Well, that's just your way. This is my way. That's just your truth. This is my truth. What about God's way? What about God's truth?
Speaker 2:In a cultural moment where we rightly value the voices of the marginalized, I think God's perspective is the least heard, his voice is the least recognized. The text here says in this way you can come to me and no other. But you have to hear this God wants closeness, but that closeness has to be on God's terms, not for his sake, for our sake. One cannot simply walk into the presence of God in their own sinfulness and uncleanness and think that it's not going to cause any problems for them. And so three times in our text, god warns of the danger of death verse 1, verse 2, and verse 13,. But it's important to note, god's desire is to dwell in the midst of his sinful people. That's why he has all these instructions for this place called the tent of meeting Also could be called the rendezvous point. I mean hear the language. The tent of meeting. It's a place that's meant to be, the place where God and man can meet together. And so when I talk about the setting of this text, it's important to note that verse 2 says this and the Lord said to Moses tell your brother not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil. You've got to know something about this tent of meeting of this text is. You know?
Speaker 2:I can remember when I was a kid in a restaurant and you know you'd sit in maybe the guest area, the waiting room or whatever, and then you'd get walked back into the restaurant and there'd be like tables and whatnot and I remember watching the waiters go in and out through these magical swinging doors that swung both ways into this brilliant light room and I always wondered what was back there, what was going on. It was so curious to me. And then I worked for a restaurant and the mystique was lost. I mean, it just wasn't what I thought it was.
Speaker 2:But in a similar way, there's these sections and segments to the tent of meeting. There's the outer courts, where all of Israel could go. Any Israelite could be in the outer courts, and in the outer courts is where the altar was, where the sacrifices were made. And then there was a next level, the holy place, and in the holy place only the priests could go. And the holy place was important, but it was separated from what was called the most holy place, or the holy of holies, by a four-inch thick curtain, a veil, and the only person that could go in there was the high priest, and only once a year. Okay, this is important because it's going to make sense a little bit later.
Speaker 2:And so this is the setting, because in the most holy place or the holy of holies is where God's localized presence was among his people. In verse two it says quote in the cloud, upon the mercy seat. I love that the throne of God in the midst of his people is called the mercy seat, and so God's desire is to dwell among his sinful people. If you look at verse 16, the end of it, it says and so he shall do to the tent of meeting which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. You have to get this. It's God's desire to be with his people, but it's his people's sinfulness that makes it a problem for them to draw near to God. And so God's way is, god's desire is to create a way for us to warm ourselves in his presence without being burned. What is this way? Well, I'm not going to have time to walk through verses 4 through 11 or 20 through 28, but I'm going to summarize it for you, but you really should go read it on your own. There's lots of blood, as you can imagine, and goat demons and it gets wild and it's totally worth the read. But here's the summary.
Speaker 2:God's way, god's plan, his means of approach, requires a person and a process in this place, this tent of meeting. So I want to look at the person first. The person is the high priest. Now I heard on a podcast one time this dad was saying that he told all of his he had three sons. I believe he told all three of his sons to learn a trade, preferably a dangerous one, because people are more likely to pay you to do it for them. Then and I think he gave the example of being an electrician or something like that. And I think there's something significant here Aaron's calling to be the high priest any high priest from then on had a calling with both high risk and high reward. They got to be the only person who went into the manifest presence of God once a year. But you better believe that their hearts were pounding out of their chests as they walked past that veil, wondering if they had followed the prescriptions properly.
Speaker 2:And so on the day of atonement, the priest had to wash in water. That was the first thing they did. They had to go and wash their body with water. In verse four it says that, and the reason why this was is to show symbolically the need for cleansing. But throughout the chapter it's really clear that water is not enough, because the stain of sin is deeper. In other words, the priest and you and I need a more effective detergent to get rid of the stain of sin, and so there will be blood. That's why it's such a big deal. In the next chapter, leviticus 17, 11, it says the life of every creature is its blood. It is the blood that makes atonement. Blood is significant because it is the life of the animal, or the priest, or the people of Israel, priest, or the people of Israel.
Speaker 2:And so the second thing he must do is he has to change his clothes from his ornate, glorious priestly garb into a simple, humble linen. Why? Well, because I believe when the priest is ministering among people, the priest exemplifies God in all of his glory with this really elaborate and ornate decor that he wears. But when anyone goes into the presence of God, they are not a big deal. He is humbled in the presence of God. He wears simple white linen as he goes into the presence of God. He is a humble servant of this king enthroned on the mercy seat.
Speaker 2:The third thing he has to do is he has to offer a bull for his own sin and the sin of his household. He has to kill this animal, and the reason why is because this high priest is a sinner himself. So, even though he has to minister on behalf of the people, he has to deal with his own uncleanness first, his own sinfulness, before he can go do the thing that God has called him to do. All right. So the first thing is there's a person. The second thing is there's a process in this place, the tent of meeting. So the process is it's sacrifice.
Speaker 2:Look at verse 7 with me. Leviticus 16, 7 says this then he shall take the two goats that he collected from the people and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Now seven through 10 describes these two different goats that are presented before the Lord. One is for the Lord and one is for Azazel. And you gotta ask the question why two goats? Couldn't one have done the trick?
Speaker 2:Well, the reason for two is because they symbolize our problem. We face a double, a kind of a twin problem, and that is the problem of both guilt and shame, and both need a remedy for us. Now again, if you're like me, we all have chapters in our biography that we'd rather leave out, and those chapters often make us feel a sense of guilt, which is the fear of punishment, and shame, which is the fear of rejection. Now, it's important that you don't mishear me. Feeling bad is not the problem. Being bad is the problem. It's real guilt and shame that results in the emotions of guilt and shame. So dealing with the emotions is important, but it's the tip of the iceberg. Feeling bad is not the problem. Being bad is the problem. There's got to be a deeper remedy. That's why there's two goats, and so goat one.
Speaker 2:Goat one is for the Lord, slaughtered, and it's slaughtered as a sin, offering to make atonement, and its blood is sprinkled over the mercy seat in order to remove the guilt of the people. Goat two is for Ezezel. There's a lot of debate about what that means, but I'm just going to take the position that it is some version, some symbolic representation of the evil, one that lives out in the wilderness. You remember Jesus, where he was tempted, who he was tempted by. And so verse 21 says it like this Aaron that's the priest Aaron shall lay both hands, both of his hands, on the head of the live goat. This is the goat for Ezezel, because when he lays his hands on the head of the live goat, this is the goat for Ezezel, because when he lays his hands on the head, it's signifying the transference of the sins of the people onto that goat. So it goes on and he will confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins, and he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness. This goat is like a ritual garbage truck that takes all of the trash of the people, their sins and uncleannesses and iniquities and transgressions, and it basically sends it out. The goat goes out into the wilderness, back to the evil one, from where all of their sin and uncleannesses came, and dumps it there.
Speaker 2:This is where we get the notion of a scapegoat. It comes from this text right here, which has had a significant influence on our culture in a lot of ways. The idea of a scapegoat comes from Leviticus 16, putting the sins on another and then sending that other out into the wilderness in order to create a separation of their uncleannesses, of their transgressions, from the people as it goes off. In fact, it was somebody's job to lead that goat out into the wilderness, I think, to avoid the awkwardness of if it came wandering back into the camp. There's even tradition, jewish tradition, that says that their job was to lead that goat out until nobody could see it anymore and then make sure that they took it and threw it off a cliff so it could not come back. That would be awkward. It would be kind of a weird symbolic day, right? You'd be like uh-oh, this isn't good for us.
Speaker 2:And so I don't want to drive a wedge between these two goats, because in verse 5, it says that they're described as a sin offering One, sin offering two goats. Why? Because your problem is your sin, which results in both guilt and shame. So you need two things. You need what theologians called propitiation, dealing with the judgment your sin deserves, and expiation, dealing with the pollution that your sin causes. One deals with the guilt, the other one deals with the shame. God has a solution for his people, a way for them to draw near by dealing with the problems that get in the way.
Speaker 2:Now, third, the climax. How can atonement be achieved? Look with me at verse 12. And he, that is, the priest, shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord and take two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small, and he shall bring it inside the veil. Again, we're reminded of the high risk, high reward of what's happening here.
Speaker 2:The most intense moment, the climactic moment in this chapter is when the high priest enters into the holy of holies with incense and blood, where he, as the text says here, goes inside the veil in drawing near to God. This act is central to this chapter, to this book and to the first five books of the bible, the foundation of our holy scriptures. What's happening in this moment is a, it's a climactic moment in the hebrew bible. So how do we come inside the veil? One word, atonement. The word or the verb atone appears 16 times in Leviticus 16. That's easy to remember, right? 16 times this is repeated.
Speaker 2:Why do we need atonement? Well, verse 16 puts it like this Quote because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. How many sins are left out of all their sins. None God has a provision for all their sins on the day of atonement. So in this moment, what happens is Aaron, unlike his sons, met with the Lord. He actually met with the Lord.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine what that moment would have been like when he goes behind the veil and he probably takes that first step in and takes a deep breath, realizing the next breath he breathes will be the very presence of God. And he wonders will my heart explode, will I be incinerated in this moment? I can't imagine the level of fear and trembling in that moment and then the exhilaration of being in the presence of the true and living God. This is why Psalm 2 uses the phrase to rejoice with trembling. If you don't know the experience of rejoicing with trembling, you've never ridden a motorcycle over 100 miles an hour. If you don't know the experience of rejoicing with trembling, you've never joined Peter dropping on an overhead high wave. If you don't know the experience of rejoicing with trembling, you've never had a first kiss. We know that the peak experience of being a human being have this combination of rejoicing with trembling. That's I, what the high priest is feeling when he walks inside the veil. It's what we long for. It's what we were made for for awe, for transcendence, for beauty and glory, to draw near to the one for whom we were made. And unlike Aaron's sons, he survived. He made it.
Speaker 2:However, the book of Hebrews stresses that Leviticus 16 is actually an anticlimax. What's happening here really in some ways misses the point, for three reasons at least. There's more, but the first one is because the high priest was a sinner. For three reasons at least there's more, but the first one is is because the high priest was a sinner. He still had to atone for his own sins. The second is because of the impotence of animal sacrifices, which is why the high priest had to repeat this ritual every single year, ongoingly, as verse 34 says, quote forever. The third is because the people could only draw near to God through a representative. The people could actually not come into the presence of God themselves, and only the high priest, and only once per year. You see, the problem of the old covenant was its failure to create access for the people of God to come into the presence of God. Arguably, that's what the book of Hebrews is written for.
Speaker 2:The book of Hebrews points to Jesus as the new and better way to draw near to God. You see, the New Testament reveals Jesus as the better priest the better tabernacle tent of meeting, the better sacrifice I love. There's so much here in so little time, so bear with me. Jesus is the great high priest who goes into the presence of God and hangs on a cross naked. Now, all of our holy imagery of Jesus hanging on the cross that the church has made for thousands of years. They never show him naked, for probably good reason. But he is naked. Why? Because he bears our shame exposed naked on that cross. But then when you read the resurrection narratives, he's buried in what? Simple, humble linen. And actually, when they walk in to see the empty tomb, jesus makes his bed, he folds the linen and puts it there. And if you notice, pay close attention. A close reading of the text is always worthwhile. You see, there's two angels sitting over the bed where he was laid in that tomb. Why? They look like the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, with linen folded on either side. The mercy seat with linen folded on either side. Jesus is the great high priest, but Jesus himself is actually the new and better tabernacle.
Speaker 2:Now, when he breathed his last, mark 15 says the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Why does it matter? I said it's a four-inch thick veil. Why does it matter that it was torn from top to bottom? Why does it matter? I said it's a four inch thick veil. Why does it matter that it was torn from top to bottom? The Holy Spirit doesn't waste his breath. He put that in there for a reason. Why? Because he wanted to show that this was the work of God. God is tearing the veil from heaven to earth. If we tore the veil from earth to heaven, we would experience judgment. But God can tear the veil from heaven to earth and mean that now, because of the new and better way of Jesus, we have access into the presence of a holy God, even as a sinful people. Jesus is the better tabernacle, but Jesus is the new and better sacrifice, the one who is able to bear our guilt and remove our shame.
Speaker 2:I quoted Isaiah 53 at the beginning. Let me finish that verse. Isaiah 53, six says this all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Do you hear the language of Aaron laying his hands on the goat, confessing the sins of Israel. God himself lays our sins on Jesus on the cross, to bear them away from us. And so Jesus was separated from God so that we could draw near without fear. Jesus was sent out carrying our shame so we could draw near, without blame, jesus himself.
Speaker 2:In the great hymn, the Rock of Ages, it says this quote be of sin, the double cure. Save from wrath, that's propitiation, and make us pure, that's expiation. That's what we need. That's what Jesus was. Listen, jesus wants nearness with you more than he wants his very own life. What else could the cross mean? Why else would he pour out his most precious blood, except to bring you near? That's the goal, that's what he's after, because God wants to dwell in the midst of his sinful people. And so Jesus himself is the great high priest, the new and better way, the sacrifice. He is the holy temple.
Speaker 2:And so, in light of this, how should we then live? Look with me at verses 29 through 31. 29 says this and it shall be a statute to you forever, that in the seventh month, on the 10th day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. Now, this is the center of these verses, right here. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. Verse 31, it is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you and you shall afflict yourselves. It is a statute forever. How are the people of Israel to respond to the day of atonement? They're supposed to practice the common rhythm. Now, I'm only half kidding. If you look closely at the text, verses 29 and 31, afflict yourselves, quote unquote in Isaiah 58, makes a really clear means to fast. In Isaiah 58, makes a really clear means to fast. And if you look at verses 29 and 31, do no work. Take a Sabbath of solemn rest. They're to rest. They're to fast and rest. That's how they're supposed to keep this ritual, this ceremony every year. Fast and rest. That's what they're supposed to do. Now, there's a wisdom in this for us. I actually think this is a brilliant remedy for two types of people in this room this morning here. Remedy for two types of people in this room this morning. Here's the two types of people.
Speaker 2:Fasting is for those of you who are complacent in drawing near to God. Why? Because fasting restores our hunger for God. We ache for him. We realize that we were made for more to draw near to God. But resting is for those of us who strive too much in our drawing near to God. Resting is this ritual reminder that you are not God, that he makes a way, not you. In fact, our own catechism defines faith in Jesus Christ like this. It says faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we quote receive and rest upon Jesus Christ alone, as he's offered to us in the gospel. So, wherever you are, some of you are complacent and there's a call to draw near. Others of you are striving a little bit too much and there's a call to rest in your drawing near. Regardless of where you are, faith in Jesus Christ is receiving and resting upon him alone, as he's offered to us in the gospel. Let me close with a story In a sermon by Dick Lucas, who was a preacher in center of London.
Speaker 2:He tells this story about an imaginary conversation between a first century Christian and their pagan Roman neighbor. This is how this conversation goes. The neighbor says to the Christian I hear you're religious. Where is your temple or your holy place? The Christian replies we don't have a temple. Jesus is our temple. No temple. But where do your priests work and do their rituals? We don't have priests to mediate the presence of God, replies the Christian. Jesus is our priest. No priests. But where do you offer your sacrifices to acquire the favor of your God? We don't need a sacrifice. Jesus is our sacrifice, to which the pagan neighbor, befuddled at this point, asks what kind of religion is this? It is no kind of religion at all.
Speaker 2:Let's pray. Holy Spirit, you are the one who invites us to draw near. You are the one who invites us to draw near. You are the one who gives us access, through Jesus, to the Father. I pray now that you would stir up our hearts to move towards you, not away from you, to have confidence in Christ. That gives us boldness and access before God, our Father. Would we lay hold of that boldness and access, not because of our own worthiness, but because of our mediator and the merit of Jesus Christ, our high priest, our temple, our sacrifice. It's for his beautiful name we pray, amen, thank you.