Roll your sleeves up, before long our hands will be covered in blood.

Transcription

1 The Hope series: Jesus is the lamb of God As Jason mentioned last week, we started a series leading up to Christmas where each message is one aspect of the hope that we find in Jesus. In its simplest form, the Hope of every Christian always ends up tied to the person of Jesus. I have hope for heaven because Jesus is there, he says He s preparing a place for me. I have hope for peace on earth, because Jesus has promised to return and rule the nations. I have hope for perfect reconciliation with God because Jesus on one hand holds the throne, and in the other holds me. Jesus has multiple facets. We can think of a label on each facet of a Gem, or we might use the illustration, of a wheel with many spokes. Each one of those spokes a necessary aspect of our Messiah. This week for sure, and to a certain extent next week, we are faced with definitely the most gory concepts. Today we talk about blood. Not in fancy scientific terms of plasma, and platelets, red and white cells, no blood that is all over your hands, blood that is spewing out of an animal s jugular, that you re capturing in a wooden bowl, and splattering on an altar. Your blood is just one layer on top of another crusty layer, on top of another caked and hardened layer. Today, we look on Jesus as the culmination of the bloody sacrificial system. Before we read from our text in Leviticus 17, I d like to read a verse out of John 1:29. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This notion is pretty common to us Christians, but let s just think for a moment how this would have sounded. Before the death of Messiah, this wouldn t have been the first description you would have chosen. I might have said, behold the son of David! Picture it! John is dressed in camel skin in the desert by the Dead Sea, there are people around him and he points and says, Look, the lamb of God! What kind of a statement is that? What am I suppose to picture? A white fluffy, cuddly lamb? That s what I see on the Sunday School material. I ve made them, the little lambs out of paper plates with big ears, and glued with cotton balls. That s great, This man, is God s lamb! The modern man scratches his head he s a lamb? Imagine you haven t been brought up in the church. Am I suppose to look at Jesus and picture a fluffy lamb? I love animals, and I would love to play with a little white lamb. Is that what I see in Jesus? I typed it into google and saw tons of gorgeous little living lambs. But I couldn t help but ask the question, shouldn t the lamb be dead? Shouldn t there be blood splattered all over it s white coat? In fact I only found one picture out of all of them, where the words Lamb of God, and it s legs were hog tied, it wasn t fluffy white, it was just the normal off-white of an animal, and was laid on it s side, in a very distorted, it s life soon to be ended position. Animal sacrifice has been done for two millennia. It s so far out of our culture, our minds, it s downright repulsive to us. We don t even kill anything, food comes wrapped in cellophane. If I were to kill a lamb right here on stage everyone would freak out, I d be in the news. But today, we re going back in that world. Roll your sleeves up, before long our hands will be covered in blood. There is a universal truth that God has established to be effective across time, and we can read about it in Leviticus 17:10: For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. That is a pretty heavy verse. Maybe we should read it again slowly.

2 Let s talk through this verse. The life of anything living, human or animal, is made possible only through a constant stream of blood circulating through the body. Today we can talk about the amazing system how oxygen taken from your lungs is whisked along to the body s tissue, and that the carbon dioxide is brought back to the lungs, to be replenished with oxygen. But the ancients new from the beginning of time, that without blood, life extinguishes. As blood drains out, life drains out. Removing the blood from a living animal or human, exterminates the life. Notice that God says, I have given you the ok to drain a life, to make a repair for your souls, a reconciliation, also known as atonement for your souls I allow its blood to make your atonement. As a physical life is lost, another s spiritual life gains atonement for their soul. This verse shows us that since the beginning God has desired communion and fellowship with tainted, sinful humans, and He provided a way. If you kill this animal, in this way, and smear its blood on my altar, I will accept you and cleanse you. Very important: it had to be animal blood. God had explicit commandments that protected human life. A large quantity of sugar from my plantation doesn t work, my fine detailed jewelry box that I made doesn t work, all my money No it is a life for life! There are two key points in this message, each with some sub points. Key POINT 1: The sacrifice of an animal provided real, but temporal restoration with God They really did find forgiveness, atonement, and reconciliation with God in the OT. But it was never finished, and always needed another. Turn to Leviticus 1. In the first seven chapters of Leviticus we see the details and descriptions of 5 different kinds of sacrifices. You can check your Bible s headings: a burnt, grain, peace, sin, guilt each with different instructions and meanings. In the technicality of the system, you really needed the priests to be experts to know how to do all the fine details. Sometimes you bunt the whole carcass, sometimes you only burned pieces and the rest would be food for the priest. Sometimes you splattered the blood all over the altar, sometimes you touched just the horns, or poured the contents on the ground. You could offered different sacrifices together, or alone, depending on the need/desire of the worshiper. You could bring a lamb, a goat, a bull, or a pigeon if you were poor. In this case we are talking about a burnt offering, presented for the restoration of fellowship with God. The worshiper makes a physical trek to God s altar Read 1:1-2 The altar of God was part of the tabernacle for centuries. It was moved around, it was in Sinai, it was up in Shiloh in the days of Eli, went through nob with David, and finally came to rest in a home built by Solomon in Jerusalem the temple. The twelve tribes were scattered all over Israel, and for some it would take days to get to Jerusalem. There was no other place to sacrifice. You couldn t go to a local shrine, or make one yourself (Dt 12:11-14). The shekinah glory of God dwelt in this Temple, and you had to travel to His altar, to offer your sacrifice on His terms. This was costly in terms of time, especially since everyone was a farmer. It s easier for us to get to Atlanta, than it was for a Galilean to get to Jerusalem. The worshiper identified with the animal But you made it there, and you either brought your animal, or you purchased one. But there was a true sense of being glad you were there, because the weight of your sin had piled up and was suffocating

3 your conscience, and you were in line with all the other worshippers to make it right with God. You wanted to be there! Standing before God, the sinner identifies with the animal he brings before God. Let s READ v.4, He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. This was a very important step. It was important to lay one s hand on the animal s head, to identify that in that moment, you are transferring your debt. This was a very personal action. Sure the priest might be directing you, but only you knew how much you were loading onto that animal. All that sin that you earned, you re dumping it on that innocent animal. Imagine the scene. The animal is a herd or a flock animal. Their safety is in numbers. When wildebeest cross the river, some will get caught by the alligators, but the safety measure is everyone else. Same with a lamb or bull. Just to be alone would make it totally uncomfortable. There would be a rope around its neck and surely it s eyes would be dancing at the bloody scene all around it. What did this animal do? Nothing. That was the point, it was innocent of any human crimes, but the human s crimes were calling out to God, and tugging on his heart. The human conscience was seeking appeasement for those crimes, and God graciously allowed the transfer of guilt onto this animal. You had to touch the animal s head, and it was your guilt before God that was laid on it. The worshiper killed the animal Second, notice that the sinner killed the animal. [In the guilt offering it was the priest, after you made restitution, but in the sin and burnt offering, you killed the animal.] This is a very tactile, real experience. Your hands are on the animal, and practically, you are weighing down on it. I know from experience, you aren t just casually touching, because there is a lot of power that is suddenly about to explode. In the case of a bull here, his feet would have to be tied, for no man could control it. But with a sheep, you and one or two priests could control it. As soon as it s jugular was slit, every nerve in that animal would be sprung on edge, and it would try to kick and move, and get out of there, while the sinner held down on that animal s head as it struggled to breath, as it struggled to stay up. I have to hit these details, because those are the point. In that moment, as the heart failed, the sinner could take a deep breath. The animal slumped on the ground, and the sinner could look up and sigh, Thank you God for accepting this animal as the payment for my debt. There is a verse in the Bible, I think you know it. It says, for the wages of sin is death. The picture of that animal struggling a losing battle with life is the wages of sin. Those wages will come due. People have fought it their entire life, tried to escape it, ignore it, but if you are a sinner, your account will need to be paid. The worshiper had to offer an animal without blemish Notice that the animal had to be without blemish. It always had to be without blemish. There are two important points here: 1. Economical: you couldn t give a third string animal that was defective. You were bound to offer something that had true worth, and a true cost to you personally. A healthy bull today is worth easily 3-5k. But when your conscience is heavy before God heavy enough, we would pay the cost to be restored, and in full communion with God. 2. Symbolically: It had to deserve to live. There was no inherent reason for this animal to die. Imagine the blind sheep that is born, probably won t make it out in the fold, so the man says, good put that one aside, let s feed it and grow it just long enough to use it for a sacrifice. No, God wouldn t accept that one. It had to be healthy, had to be without blemish, so that in its

4 own right, it actually deserved to live to maturity, that it would be a loss to get rid of it. This is the best of your stock, this would make some great offspring. It deserved to live in its perfection and innocence, but because of my debt to God, it will find an untimely death. God would accept a perfect animal as atonement. The worshipper saw the animals blood on the altar Remember the scripture we read in 17:10. It was the blood on the altar that provided the reconciliation. So they gather the blood in a bowl and (Read v.5) splatter it on the altar as a symbol that the life of this animal (now stained on my hands and on the priests hands) was the reconciliation that God provided. Imagine how much blood was covering this altar. Year after year after year, sinner after sinner, it got so thick until it would crust and fall off. Imagine how much blood flowed down from the altar. We re talking rivers of blood, flowing out to the Kidron over 5 centuries. I want you to notice one key concept that emerges on our way (1:9, 13, 17; 2:9, 3:5) a pleasing aroma! As the fire burned the flesh, this was a fragrant incense that rose up to God. In the burning meat was the sweet smell of forgiveness, the refreshing new start of a blank page, the removal of past sins, erased without a trace, and the sinner was a peace with God. 4:31, And he shall be forgiven The worshipper experienced true forgiveness There has always been a means at any age for the true seeker to find forgiveness with God. It s simply this, doing what God has asked for in that given age. The OT saint found forgiveness with the blood of bulls and goats, sprinkled on the altar. But let s pause for a second and ask ourselves. How similar or how different does all of this system feel from our means of attaining forgiveness and reconciliation with God? On one hand it might feel infinitely different, but actually the only thing that is different is just the details. The system is exactly the same today, because actually that was just a shadow of the reality. That s just a type of what was to come and finalize the process. The details are strange to us, but we are reconciled to God in the same way that we just read about. But before we get to that last piece, there is one more ingredient necessary for the sinner to receive peace with God and it s not even written anywhere on the pages of Leviticus. In fact this piece is the biggest part of the equation, and it s not even written down. Come to find out it actually wasn t enough to slit an animal s throat. I can do that all day long and it accomplishes nothing. The worshipper had to bring a sacrifice and actually seek forgiveness It s all in the attitude: You couldn t just bring a goat, you had to be contrite before God. You didn t just say a prayer, your heart has to mean it and you had to believe that you were truly guilty. You were guilty. You can t find forgiveness, until you seek for it with a broken spirit. It says:

5 Isaiah 1:11, What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. What s going on? Micah 6:7, Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? It s all null and void without Psalm 51:17, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. You can do the stuff, but you can t fool God. That does not change at all across time. How many people brought their animal as a religious duty and never received forgiveness. How many people sit in church and say all the right things and there is no change. Turning God s mercy into a religious experience will result in no relationship, no reconciliation, and no forgiveness. The worshipper could only sacrifice for past sins Besides the very inconvenient fact of needing to go to Jerusalem to offer your sacrifice before the Lord, there was also another very inconvenient fact related to how much you were forgiven. Your effort and your sacrifice only covered the sins you had already committed, whether intentional or not. READ 4:27-28, If anyone sins This sounds pretty obvious, but you can t say, I want to bank up for my sins this coming week. The best you can ever be at any given time is caught up at that very moment. And the second you began your journey back home, you began to rack up the weight of the law. I m not saying that everyone always walked around in gloom, but your standing before God was always in need of another sacrifice. So here we are, we just made that long trip to Jerusalem from Galilee. I doubt we can do that more than a couple/three times a year (if that), and joy of the sacrifice, the joy of the fellowship with God, and the clean slate And immediately on the way back, the debt begins to pile up again. In the commotion of getting your gear together, your neighbor drives his donkeys through your camp and knocks everything around, the caravan takes off, you re a day late, you don t get the camp spots... and he doesn t even say anything. Your hatred for him instantly flares up again. It s the same hatred for you neighbor that so rudely plays his music at night, for that insensitive friend that always hurts your feelings. You argue with your spouse that night, she s so hard to work with, and notice that perfect woman in camp that you can t have. Offhandedly you lied about your wealth to increase your status among the guys around the fire that night. Think about it. You ve just left Jerusalem, and immediately the wages of sin start piling up on your conscience and that trip to Jerusalem starts to call your name. How do you ever get ahead? But, one time per year, there was a very interesting glimpse of what total forgiveness would look like. The worshipper could have a fresh start once a year One day of the year, Yom Kippur, the day of everyone s atonement, God provided a special sacrificial routine that would be for all the people strung out all across the nation, where everyone could start afresh. On this day, the only person officiating in all of Israel was the High Priest. He was the only one. And He had to first offer a personal sacrifice for Himself (v. 11), because he was also a sinner, before he could do anything else. Then in a ceremony that represented the sins of all the people of Israel, they gathered two goats and cast lots. One goat would be sent into the desert, away from the camp never to return. The other goat

6 would be killed as a representative of all the people. Whether a goat represents one persons sin, or all the sins of all the people, works fine if God chooses to accept it as such. READ 16:30, 33 But the day after the day of atonement is a great day of celebration and exultation. It s the spiritual New Year s day, it s a white slate and a new beginning. What is past is past! The law was great, the law was merciful, the law, done according to God s prescriptions was a sweet restoration of communion. But looking backwards Did God have something better in mind? Isa 55 Key POINT 2: The sacrifice of Jesus provides real, and final restoration with God We started off with the words of John the Baptist, behold the lamb of God! Everything we just looked at was a build up to understand that the blood that poured out of Jesus as He hung on that cross, was the true and full sacrifice for mankind. All of those shadows in the law provided anticipation, showed the need, and actually realized temporal forgiveness. But it also made us long for something that would finalize the process. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice because he is human and lived the human life 1. Whereas the Jew had to travel to Jerusalem, Jesus, came to us on earth. 2. Whereas the Jew had to identify Himself with the animal, Jesus identified Himself with us. It was important that he live the human life, and that he live for 30 years on earth, so that he could work, relax with his family, make tables for his father, earn money, experience the joy of eating food, and the disappointments that come from dealing with people. He lived a true human life, and he did it perfectly. They had to identify with the animal by touching its head, God made Jesus identify with us by having Him live our life in full. He didn t just come in and die, He came in and lived Jesus can take the Father s wrath on our behalf, only because He was innocent 3. The OT worshiper had to bring a lamb without blemish. But a cow is never worth a human. It s never a TRUE substitute. Only a human is worth a human, and only because Jesus was sinless could His life be a substitute for another. Had He lived a life with even one sin, He would be like any other human hanging on the cross, deserving of death. But as an individual, he had no personal merit for death. Because of His innocence, He deserves to live. It s only because He deserves to live, that God can accept His perfect life, in place of another sinner. Jesus paid for my sins, without me asking Him to 4. The OT saint splattered the blood on the altar from a guilty conscience. I never even asked Jesus to. He took my place voluntarily. They threw the blood, we take a sip of red juice, in both cases a reminder that the blood was spilt. Jesus provides full payment for my sin, and there is no sacrifice left to give 5. The OT worshipper could only sacrifice for past sins. He had to slay an animal after he sinned and his conscience was heavy. Jesus took the punishment for my sin before I was even born, and it covered all my sins for all time. I don t have to do anything. The only response I can bring

7 is an attitude of thankfulness. If I accept it and glory in God, the righteousness of Jesus is posted on my account. 6. One day a year there was full, nationwide cleansing. It s the day of atonement every day. 7. A woman once asked Jesus in John 4, You re a prophet, should we worship on this mountain in Samaria, or on your mountain in Jerusalem? He told the woman, a day is coming when you will worship not on this temple, or that one, but in spirit and in truth. There is no sacrifice left to be done. Worship God in your spirit, or wherever you want. Jesus provides the acceptable aroma that God demands In the moment of His sacrifice, God turned His face. Jesus cried out, Why have you abandoned me? Full punishment on the innocent, everything went dark. But when He endured the punishment, God s fury was appeased and our atonement was secured. Now my life has the label, paid by Jesus, and my works, and my efforts for Him, rise up to heaven with pleasing joy. Even though we still struggle in this body, the true believer desires to live a life before God that reflects the pleasing aroma to the Lord. Conclusion In this facet of Jesus, we see that his blood flowed so that mine would never have would never be required as a payment for my crimes against God. God said the Adam, In the day that you eat of it you will surely die. Those words have caught up to every single human being since then. The wages of sin is death. But if we embrace Jesus, if we cling to His sacrifice as our ONLY hope, we have nothing to fear. Oh death where is your sting? Hebrews 10:11-14