|
Life
Lessons From Leviticus?
A Sermon
by Jim Hammond from Leviticus 1
For
More In This Series
Opening Illustration: You may or may not see the parable in the children’s
picture book we are about to look at together.
Just in case you don’t see a parable, I’ll explain after we
look at it. Look at the
Sesame Street picture book, “A visit to the Hospital”.
Summarize as follows.
Picture
1:
Uh oh! It looks like Grover is sick.
Picture
2: The Dr. needs to see what’s wrong with
Grover.
Picture
3: The
Doctor explains that he needs to have a little operation.
Grover doesn’t want that, he wants to stay home with Mommy! The Dr. reassures
that his Mommy can stay with him at the hospital.
The Dr. suggests taking a tour of the hospital with some of his
friends.
Picture
4: Grover
asks the nurse why the hospital smells funny.
The nurse explains that the hospital has to be kept very clean
and he smells disinfectant.
Picture
5: While
visiting one of the hospital rooms, Grover pushed a nurses call button
and a nurse came in.
Picture
6:
Here one of the children shows off her hospital bracelet and
talks about the ice cream she got to eat.
Burt and Ernie think that’s pretty neat.
Picture
7: Grover
likes the x-ray machine that takes pictures of people’s bones.
Picture
8: Burt
and Ernie want to know why this Dr. is wearing pajamas.
Picture
9: The
hospital decides to give the whole tour a chance to try out the special
clothing for operations. The
Dr. explains that the clothes and masks, and hats and gloves are
designed to keep from passing any germs.
Picture
10: Everybody
thanked Nurse Spinner for such a good tour.
Picture
11: “Mommy,”
whispered Grover, “I think the best thing about the hospital is
getting well!”
This was a picture book explaining to a
child what the child needs to know before he goes into the hospital.
Leviticus is also a picture book.
It is a picture book that explains to God’s children something
that would have been difficult to understand without the tour experience
and picture book explanation in advance.
We should not be surprised that God took the same kind of care
with us that we take with children. Early in God’s redemptive plan he began the explanations,
the pictures, the tours, and the experiences that would allow his
children to make sense of what was coming.
Focus: In the Old Covenant God gave very specific
instructions on how to remove the defilement that separates us from a
Holy God. These Old
Covenant instructions anticipated the New Covenant realities that were
fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Leviticus—the third book of the Bible is called
this because much of the instruction is specific to the Levites. The priestly duties and temple duties were given to one tribe
of Israel—the Levites. The
priestly duties were given to one subset from this tribe, the sons of
Aaron. Only the descendents of Aaron became priests.
Leviticus is the instruction manual for the Old Testament people
on how they were to worship God. It
is the very specific laws and stipulations of the Old Covenant agreement
on how the people in that covenant were to worship.
In Exodus, very specific instructions were given on
how to build the Tabernacle, the center of worship for the Old Covenant
people of God. A couple of
years ago, we studied together how the Tabernacle actually is an earthly
picture of spiritual realities. It
was a foreshadowing “type” for the reality of God’s entire
redemptive plan through Jesus.
Now here in Leviticus we read the instructions on
how to carry out the service and worship God required of the Old
Covenant community.
In Genesis we learn how humanity was ruined.
In Exodus we learned how humanity was redeemed by a
covenant making God.
In Leviticus we learn how an unholy humanity, can
come before a holy God and worship.
Although the specifics are ancient and for another
time and age, for the Old Covenant agreement, and not for the New
Covenant peoples, the life lessons learned from Leviticus are timeless. It is those timeless life lessons that we will glean from
this book. While many joke
about bogging down in Leviticus when they decide to read through the
Bible from cover to cover, I’m hoping after this series you will never
bog down there again. It is
rich with helpful life lessons.
Life Lessons from
Leviticus:
Lesson # 1: We Hear God
speak from his chosen tabernacle (1:1)
1The
LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He
said,…
Leviticus is God speaking to us through the
Tabernacle and its meaning.
There are basically three Temple systems in the
Bible. The first temple
system started with the Tabernacle, the transportable house for God’s
manifest presence to dwell with his people.
What is the Temple/Tabernacle?
It is the place where God’s presence is made manifest.
God condescended to dwell in the midst of the nation of Israel,
with whom he made a covenant. We
call this the Old Covenant. The
Old Testament is the book of the writings associated with this covenant,
explaining the details of the covenant, and the covenant people.
The second Temple was Jesus Christ himself.
John 1:1 says,
John
1:1 (NIV) 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
If you skip down to verse 14 you find,
John
1:14 (NIV) 14The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling [this
phrase “made his dwelling” is one word, the verb
form of ske4ne4,
the word for tent, tabernacle, or dwelling] among us. [The Word became flesh and tabernacled among
us.] We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came
from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus later made the direct connection between the
Temple and his body.
John
2:19-20 (NIV) 19Jesus
answered them, “Destroy
this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” 20The Jews replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this
temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?”
The third Temple in the Bible is the Church, the
Body of Christ on earth while Jesus sits at the right hand of the
Father. The Church is not
the building, but the people are the church, the Temple of God.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NIV) 16Don’t
you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for
God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
God still speaks to people and draws
people through his chosen tabernacle.
Today he calls people through his church, the Body of Christ, the
people who are in covenant with Him.
Lesson # 2: God is Perfect
and We are Not (1:2)
God is perfect and we are
not, and something has to make up the difference for us to have a
relationship with a holy God. God
is holy, and we are not. The
concepts of sacrifice are built on this concept, that God is perfect and
we are not. Sin has come
between us and a perfect God. You
want to get close to God but something gets in the way--Sin.
Today, some people like to
believe that there isn’t such a thing as a perfect God. Someone might say something like “I don’t believe in that
sin stuff. I don’t
believe there’s a perfect God. I
just believe in my own human potential.
There is enough positive energy in me to do what ever I need to
do.” THAT’S DRIVEL!
Just ask a person who says
this, “Have you ever thought you should or should not do something?”
If they have then they do acknowledge that there is a correct and
an incorrect thing to do. This is the concept of right and wrong. People who do not believe in sin do not believe in an
absolute. Yet, if you
believe in any should or should not, right or wrong, you believe what
the bible says. There is a
wrong. The Bible calls that wrong, sin.
God gave everyone whether they believe in him or not, the sense
of should and should not; he built it into our psyche, our very being.
Furthermore, I do not believe anybody has been able to live up to
his or her own sense of “should” with the one exception of Jesus
himself, the only sinless person there was.
People then squirm when
they don’t agree with Christianity’s claims.
They might say something like, “You Christians are so Black and
White and judgmental. You
guys make such outlandish and exclusive claims.
There can’t be just one standard of truth.
Other cultures have their own standards for right and wrong.
Just because they are different than yours, how dare you claim
they are wrong. You
Christians are just being judgmental.”
Have you ever read or heard someone talk like that?
Here’s what you say.
“So, was the Holocaust
okay then?” If they say it was not okay, then you say, “How dare you
be so judgmental with your standards of right and wrong!”
Everybody deep down
acknowledges that there is right and there is wrong.
Lesson # 3: God decides
and directs how we are to come to Him (1:3)
Do this only as directed!
God prescribed specifics had to be followed before an offering
was acceptable (1:3)
Do it yourself religion, or practice has always
been unacceptable. God
insists on being God.
The Old Testament Pictures of Redemption
were so often associated with sacrifice, blood, and death. But before I show you some examples, let me plant the
question in your head: Why?
Why is the OT filled with pictures of redemption associated with
sacrifice, blood, and death? The
simple answer is they are all pictures about his ultimate redemptive
plan.
Here are some examples:
Adam and Eve
Genesis
3:21 (NIV) 21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and
clothed them.
Cain and Able
Genesis 4:2-5 (NIV) 2Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In
the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an
offering to the LORD. 4But
Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The
LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but on Cain and his offering he did not
look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Moses and the Passover
Exodus
12:22-23 (NIV) 22Take
a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of
the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you
shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23When the
LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the
blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that
doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and
strike you down.
And now here in the Levitical Law.
How does God direct his New Covenant people to come
to him today? If you have
come to believe in him, he directs us to enter into covenant with him
through the covenant ceremony of baptism.
He also directs us now through the New Testament to keep the
practice of coming to him regularly through the covenant renewal
ceremony of communion. Both of these derive their value, and power through the
death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
Lesson # 4: An acceptable
Sacrifice is Costly, But available to each of us (1:2-3, 14)
Few could afford to sacrifice a bull.
More could afford a sheep or a goat.
Most everyone could afford a dove or a young pigeon.
It was inconceivable for the upright to consider entering God’s
presence without making a costly sacrifice.
Consider David’s Words:
2 Samuel
24:24 (NIV) 24But
the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I
will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me
nothing.” So David bought
the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for
them.
Without Defect
If you had a three legged
lamb, with one ear, and one eye hanging out, that answers to the name
“Lucky”, he’s not qualified as an offering to the Lord (maybe he
really is a “Lucky” lamb). If
you tried to offer a defective, or wounded, or maimed lamb, that has no
marketable value, or far below market value, what does that say about
how you feel about the Lord?
God says, “I’m only
satisfied with your very best.”
God is Holy, and he
insists that his people learn how to keep themselves holy.
What are burnt offerings? The Israelites probably saw them as offerings to God that
cost them a lot, from which they came away with nothing physical or
natural to show for it. The
whole offering was burnt. It
was a sacrifice. We can
say…I don’t do sacrifices, but the world’s a better place because
of the sacrifices that have been made.
In fact, I’m a better person because of the sacrifices that
were made, and only because of the sacrifice made for me, can I look at
those things that are hard. Those
things I feel like saying, “I don’t do…” and do them, as a
sacrifice of praise that is pleasing and acceptable in God’s sight.
What is it you wouldn’t normally do, but for the
Love of God, you might do as a fragrant offering to Christ, who gave
himself for you?
Here’s what Dirck Willems did.
Blessing a Persecutor
The year was 1569.
Facing arrest as an Anabaptist, Dirck Willems was running; he was
fleeing for his life. What’s
an Anabaptist? Anabaptists
were the courageous Christians who came to believe that baptism was for
believers. They got the
name because they were rebaptized as adults.
Anabaptists believed that baptism apart from faith was
meaningless. For their
commitment to this belief they were branded as heretics and by 1535 an
estimated 50,000 of them were killed for their faith.
This of course was at a time when there was no separation of
church and state. The guilt
of their crime was nothing more than discrediting the practice of infant
baptism.[i]
It was in such a climate that Dirck Willems found
himself running across a frozen lake.
He was running from a pursuer hot on his trail to arrest him.
His pursuer broke through the ice.
Willems gave up his chance to escape by turning to save his
persecutor. Though his
pursuer wanted to release him, he was held by the authorities under his
contract to catch them. The
captured Willems was imprisoned, and then burned at the stake in 1569.
Why did Dirck do it? No mere common decency could have motivated Willems’ action
that day by the frozen stream. He knew the risk in this act of
compassion. Many others would have interpreted this unfortunate turn of
events as designed by God to aid his escape. But in that moment of
decision he acted from something deep within him that transcended
self-interest or fear. He acted from the love he had for Christ.
He knew his Lord’s words, “Love your enemies.”
He also knew the words. [ii]
Mark
8:35-37 (NIV) 35For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for
a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or
what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
Anabaptists were committed to nonviolence,
believer’s baptism, a rejection of all swearing and oath taking, and
separation from the evils of the world.
I’m amazed by the commitment of people of faith that I read
about. This forms a stark contrast with today’s popular brand of
Christianity that stands for so very little.
I’m not sure there is enough evidence in many lives to convict
them of their Christianity today, their values are so closely related to
the values of the world.
I’ll finish today by asking the following
question and giving its simplest answer.
The question:
What does a burnt offering represent for the worshipper? Here’s the answer: Total
Commitment!
As we learn from Leviticus, let us offer ourselves
to God again, and rededicate ourselves to holiness, worshiping God in
private confession, public service, and group celebration.
Study Assignment:
READ first few chapters of Leviticus and Study Hebrews 10 before
next Sunday.
Action Assignment:
Do SOMETHING you wouldn’t normally do, but for
the Love of God DO IT as a fragrant offering to Christ who gave himself
for you.
[i] Clyde Manschreck, A
History of Christianity in the World p. 209.
[ii] Adapted from "The
Radical Reformation: The Anabaptists," Christian History,
no. 5.
|
