July 22, 2018 Pastor Josh Davy Grab your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Samuel 2, whatever form of a Bible you carry. Maybe it's a paper copy like mine, or maybe you've got an app on your phone. Or maybe you don't have the app but you've got a phone; just Google it. 1 Samuel 2. It would be great for you to pull this up. I want you to see it for yourself this morning. While you're turning there, I'd like to start by telling you about a couple of friends of mine who we're going to call this morning Mike and Al. Those aren't their real names, but I'm trying to protect the identity of the not so innocent, okay? So, Mike and Al. Those guys are the best of friends. You remember Forrest Gump and Jenny, they were like peas and carrots? That's kind of like Mike and Al. They're a bit of a package deal, always by each other's side, real tight. Now, Al is a pretty good guy, but he does have quite a sarcastic sense of humour. He can be a little bit crass sometimes. You know the type? Kind of rough around the edges. Yeah, that kind of guy. And so, as he goes about relating to people with his sarcasm and everything else, Mike is always there, always by his side, and what Mike is always doing is apologizing for Al's bad behaviour. So Al will say something sarcastic, and Mike will turn to him and say, "Al, you can't talk to people that way. I'm sorry, he doesn't really mean that." Or Al will be a little bit crusty, and again, Mike will be there trying to soften the edges of Al's crustiness. Or maybe Al has said something that is kind of offensive. You know those thoughts that we have in our head that didn't belong there in the first place and they sure shouldn't have come out of our mouth? They come out of Al's mouth. So then there's Mike, and he's saying, "Al!" He can't believe he said it, and he's turning to everybody else, "Please ignore the last words that just came out of the mouth of my stupid friend. He doesn't mean it." Do we have any Als here this morning? The kind of person who wants to be in a good relationship with other people. They know they need to draw near to them, but they just can't help their foolish self. Not so many hands are going up. Probably a few more elbows are being thrown, right? If you're an Al, it's really good to have a friend like Mike, isn't it? What's Mike doing? He's acting as a go between, between Al and everybody else. He's realized that Al's ways are offensive to other people and that what he is doing is bringing harm to his relationship with everybody else, and so there's Mike in the middle, this go between, trying to smooth things over, trying to help them be at one, trying to repair this broken relationship.
Page 2 Well, what if I told you that every single one of us are a whole bunch of Als and we all need a Mike? Not so much necessarily that we're all offending other people but that our offense is against God. This is what the Bible tells us. See, we have this relationship with God, but on the one hand, what God's Word tells us is that because of our sinful ways, the things that we do and the way that we act and the way that we think, we have offended God, only our offense is a whole lot worse than what Al's offense is to other people. Because it's not just that God's culture was offended or that He was a little bit overly sensitive or something like that; our offense against God is that we have offended His court. We have broken His law that He's given. Our offense against God is that He is our Creator and He gets to be our God, but we have treated Him as though He doesn't, as though we say, "No, You don't get to be my God, You don't get to be my King. I'm going to be my own God. I'm going to go my own way." And God, who is perfect in holiness, cannot tolerate sin, and He will not leave wrongs that are done unpunished. And so, we have alienated ourselves from God. By our sinful ways, we have become His enemies. So on the one hand, there's what we have done in our relationship towards God. On the other hand, there's the fact that we desperately need to be in a right relationship with God, whether we realize it or not. See, the Bible teaches us very clearly God is the giver of peace and joy and abundance, but beyond all that, even, God is the giver of life itself. So much so, the Bible says, that to have God is to have life and to not have God is to not have life. Now, think about, then, how desperate our need is to draw near to God. We need to be near him. Life and death is on the line. And for God to be offended so that we would be cast from His presence eternally would mean that we would be cast in a place that is the opposite of life. Our need is great, and that's why we all need somebody like Mike. Do you know what the Bible calls somebody like Mike who helps sinful people draw near to our holy God? The Bible's got a title for somebody who does that. Do you know what they call them? That's called a priest. A priest, a biblical priest you might be thinking about something else to do with churches nowadays. Try to put that out of your mind. A biblical priest is somebody who helps sinful people draw near to our holy God. Say that with me. A priest is someone who helps sinful people draw near to our holy God. This morning in 1 Samuel 2, we are going to be reading about a priestly family, about a high priest whose name was Eli and about his two sons. Their names are Hophni and Phinehas. What we're going to find there, actually, is that they were not very good priests. They are not a good example of how a priest should function. Now, I know we're in a sermon series called "Unlikely Heroes of the Old Testament." I missed the memo on that one somehow. I just thought it was Old Testament characters. But what we're going to find out here because these are not our heroes, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli. But what we will find out from these terrible priests is we will learn some things from God's Word about what a good priest should be, how they should function, and before we're
Page 3 done this morning, we're even going to find out that with this whole priestly thing, you and I have a role to play as well. Allow me to pray for us, if you would, and then we'll start to dig into this passage together. Father, as we come before You, I'm praying to ask for Your help. Lord, this morning, first of all, would You help me? Would You help me to teach Your Word in a way that is right and that is true? Guard me from error, I pray, Lord. But help me as well to make it plain, that we might understand who You are. God, I'm praying now for all of u that You would help us as we look at Your Word to understand better who You are and how we fit in this world, Lord, and what our place is here, that we might taste and see even this morning by Your Word Your goodness and Your glory. And, God, we pray that You'd change us by that. Don't let us leave here the same as when we came. We ask this because we love You. We ask it because we want to see You glorified, and so we ask it in the name of Your Son and our precious Saviour, in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to read 1 Samuel 2 in a minute, but before I start reading it, let me just remind you of where we're at in this historical narrative. 1 Samuel opens up with telling us about a lady whose name is Hannah. She's married to a man called Elkanah. You remember she couldn't have children? So, she prays to God and asks that she could have a child, and God hears her prayer and grants her request and gives her this baby boy, who she calls Samuel. When baby Samuel has been weaned, Hannah and Elkanah take him to the tabernacle that was the meeting place of God and man where there were sacrifices made and where the priests would serve. They take him to the tabernacle, and they dedicate him, his entire life, to the Lord's service. And then they do something almost unthinkable: They leave him there. He's probably about three years old, this little wee guy, and they leave him at the tabernacle with Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. And that's where we pick up, 1 Samuel 2 beginning at verse 11, 11 Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy [Samuel] ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest. 12 Eli's sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the LORD. 13 Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled 14 and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. 15 But even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, "Give the priest some meat to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, but only raw."
Page 4 16 If the person said to him, "Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want," the servant would answer, "No, hand it over now; if you don't, I'll take it by force." 17 This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD's sight, for they were treating the LORD's offering with contempt. 18 But Samuel was ministering before the LORD a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19 Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. 20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "May the LORD give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the LORD." Then they would go home. 21 And the LORD was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD. 22 Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 23 So he said to them, "Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. 24 No, my sons; the report I hear spreading among the LORD's people is not good. 25 If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the LORD, who will intercede for them?" His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke, for it was the LORD's will to put them to death. 26 And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with people. Remember, we're reading about these priests, and what's the job of a priest? The job of a priest is to help sinful people draw near to our holy God. How are these priests doing at living out their job? Not very good, are they? In fact, 1 Samuel 2 speaks three indictments against these priests. It tells us three different ways these priests are doing a terrible job at what God has asked them to do. Did you see them? The first one comes in verse 12. The new NIV says, "Eli's sons were scoundrels. They had no regard for the LORD." If you have one of the more literal translations, the second part of that phrase probably says, "They did not know the LORD." How many people have a translation that says that? Eli's sons did not know the Lord. How crazy is this? They don't know God. They have no regard for Him. They don't know Him, so they don't know, then, about His holiness or His justice. They don't know about His character. They don't know about what brings Him joy or what angers Him and offends Him. They're supposed to be the go between, but they don't know Him. They don't know about His goodness
Page 5 or His grace or His love. How are they supposed to help people draw near to a God that they don't even know? What makes this really desperate for them is this is the era of judges. When 1 Samuel is opening up, the era of judges is closing. It's kind of right in between the two. And what we know about the era of judges, Judges 2:10 tells us that is a generation, a whole generation, who does not know God. It says, "Then a generation grew up who did not know the Lord nor what he had done for Israel." So this is a whole group of people whose lives are a giant spiritual mess. You read Judges and it's like reading a train wreck. They're in a huge, desperate situation because they've grown so distant from God and they don't know Him, and the very ones that God has given to them, the priests, to help them draw close to God, they don't know God, either. This is a tragic case of the blind leading the blind. Again, if you have one of the more literal translations, verse 12, mine opens up, the new NIV, "They were scoundrels," it says. The old NIV translates that phrase, "They were wicked men." If you have one of the more literal translations, yours might say, "They were worthless." How many people have one that translates that, "They were worthless"? A number of people. Now, obviously Eli's sons are wicked men. We've read about it, and we'll look at it some more. They were scoundrels. But I wonder if some of God's intent in having that phrase put into His book wasn't maybe to indicate to us that when a priest is supposed to help people draw near to God but they don't even know God, they're worthless as priests. What good are they? There's a second indictment as well. Do you see it there? What we read is that they used the people rather than serve them. They used them for their own gain. It tells us that in a few different ways. Look at verses 14 to 16 with me and you'll see. It starts off telling us about this practice, [T]he priest's servant would come with a three pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled 14 and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. 15 But even before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, "Give the priest some meat to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, but only raw." 16 If the person said to him, "Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want," the servant would answer, "No, hand it over now; if you don't, I'll take it by force." Do you see that? Do you see how they're using the people rather than serving them? They have these appetites and these desires we'll get back to the three pronged fork in a minute but
Page 6 they're coming to the sacrifice and they're saying, "We want meat. Give us some food here, and if you don't give us what we want so we can fill our own bellies, we'll take it from you." The priests are acting as extortionists, threatening people by force if they don't give them what they want. Selfish, in it for their own gain, looking to satisfy their own appetites. And in fact, if we skip down to verse 22, it tells us first they're taking the meat to satisfy their own appetites they're using the people in that way and now in verse 22 what we read is they're sleeping with the women at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, so they are now satisfying their sexual appetites as well. They're supposed to be helping the people, but they're using the people. They're despicable men. And did you notice the third indictment? It's the worst of all of them, verse 17, "This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD's sight" why? "for they were treating the LORD's offering with contempt." They were treating God's sacrificial system with contempt. Now, we've got to remember what the sacrificial system is about. We have already acknowledged we have a problem with sin, and in order for our sins to be forgiven, there needs to be a sacrifice. The priest, he's supposed to try to help people draw near to God, but he can't cover over their sins himself. He's trying to help, but he doesn't get to do it; the sacrifice is the means of God's forgiveness. God had graciously provided Israel with this way, this sacrificial system, and what it would look like for them is at designated points in time, the Israelites would go to the tabernacle and they would bring their sacrifice a goat or a lamb or some pigeons and they would go there and the priest would help them make the sacrifice, slaughter the animal, do it in the way that God had commanded them to do it. And then that sacrifice, when it was done in the way that God had prescribed, would cover over their sins. They couldn't just show up any way they wanted. They couldn't come to the priest and the priest just make up anything he wanted and say, "This will fix your relationship with God. Spin around 10 times to the left and throw some dust up in the air and catch it with your mouth, you're forgiven." He couldn't do that. God had provided the way. He said, "You're to do this sacrificial system," and that gracious gift is God's way that when they practiced that the way that God had asked them to, their sins would be forgiven. Now, I hope that you'll agree with me. I know that we look at the sacrificial system sometimes and we say it's kind of confusing to us, it's kind of a bloody mess and what is that all about. Whether we understand why God chose to do it that way or not, I hope that you'll agree with me that when God provides a way for our sins to be forgiven so that we can be at one with Him, that is a gracious gift. It is something that, whether we understand it or not, we need to cherish, we need to revere, we need to say, "Thank you, Lord, for providing a way that I can be at one with You again." Do Hophni and Phinehas revere and love and cherish God's sacrifice? No, they show contempt for God's sacrifice. They're taking from it what they want to fill their own stomachs.
Page 7 Now, in the sacrificial system, the priests were supposed to be able to take an allotment of meat for themselves and their family. They gave their lives to work at the tabernacle, and this is how they would live. Some of the meat was to be set aside for them, the worker's worth of wages. But the whole practice with the three pronged fork, it seems that what this is trying to get at is to tell us that they're taking more than they had been allotted, that they're saying, "That wasn't enough. I want some extra." And what is very clear is that the fat portion of the sacrifice was to belong to God, but they're saying, "We want that, too. We're milking it for everything that we can get out of it," and they have shown contempt for God's gracious gift. Think about how desperate this whole situation is. We have these people who have grown distant from God, and we're reading about them and we're saying, "You so need to draw near to God again. This is why your lives are the way they are." And now we've got the priest who's supposed to be helping them draw near to God, and they don't know God. They use the people rather than serve them, and they show contempt for God's sacrifice. Do you see how desperate the situation is? We've got to be asking ourselves, "God, what are You going to do? How are You going to respond to this? Because this is not working, and the people need something here." And so, read on with me, picking up at verse 27. We'll see how God responds. 27 Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: 'Did I not clearly reveal myself to your ancestor's family when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? 28 I chose your ancestor out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your ancestor's family all the food offerings presented by the Israelites. 29 Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?' 30 "Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: 'I promised that members of your family would minister before me forever.' But now the LORD declares: 'Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. 31 The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your priestly house, so that no one in it will reach old age, 32 and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, no one in your family line will ever reach old age. 33 Every one of you that I do not cut off from serving at my altar I will spare only to destroy your sight and sap your strength, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life. 34 "'And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you they will both die on the same day. 35 I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before my anointed one always. 36 Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before
him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread and plead, "Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat."'" Page 8 Do you see how God's anger has burned against these wicked priests and He has brought a curse on them? He has promised that they are going to face great sadness and trouble. And in fact, if we were to read on further in 1 Samuel 4, we would find that God brings about on this family exactly what He had said was going to come their way. We would find that the Israelites went out to war against their enemies, the Philistines, and Hophni and Phinehas were with them, and foolish move they decide to bring the Ark of the Covenant, God's symbol of His presence among His people, they bring that out to war. And what happens is the Israelites are slaughtered, and Hophni and Phinehas both die and the Ark is captured. Somebody escapes, and they return to Shiloh where the tabernacle is, bringing news of how catastrophic this has all been. Eli is sitting there. It tells us he's an overweight old guy. I wonder why he's overweight he's been eating the fat of the sacrifice for a while now. And when he hears news that his sons are dead and the Ark has been captured, it tells us he fell backward off his chair, broke his neck and died. And it gets worse because Phinehas' wife was pregnant. They were expecting a son. And when she hears news of it all, she goes into early labour, and she is overcome by her labour and she dies. And while she's dying and the baby boy is born, she says, "We're going to call this boy Ichabod. That's going to be his name." Do you know what Ichabod means? "No glory." Because she says God's glory has departed from Israel. Now, I want you to catch this. Even this twisted, wicked family seems to have this sense that the reason the wheels are coming off, the reason this is a train wreck, is because God's glory has left them for their sinfulness. Even they seem to realize all this calamity, it's not that always when we face calamity it's that we've brought sin against God, but they can sense that to be in God's presence, to draw near to Him, is to have life, but for His glory to leave us is to find ourselves in utter ruin. In this dark moment when God is foretelling that all this is going to happen, I hope you caught this, verse 35: God speaks a word of hope. Did you see this? Even in this dark moment, He says, "I will raise up for myself." The people need to draw near to God. The priests have been unfaithful. God says, "I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his priestly house, and they will minister before my anointed one always." This is just amazing. God's saying, "I know the priestly office didn't work. Hophni and Phinehas and Eli, it's a mess. But I'm not going to leave my people without a priest to help them draw near to me. I am not going to leave them without hope. I'll raise one up for myself. I'll cut off Eli's family line."
Page 9 Some of you won every single Sunday School Bible trivia thing that you would do, and you're reading this and you're going, "Ah ah, I know who that is. That's Zadok, 1 Kings 2." Eli is removed it's really God's hand behind it, but Eli is removed and his family from a priestly office. Zadok and his family are put in his place. You say, "Ah, that's it," and I say if you caught that, good for you. You know your Bible well. And in some ways, Zadok does fulfill this prophecy. Others of you have been reading very carefully as we're working our way through 1 Samuel 2, and you're saying, "Wait a minute, though. I see that we've got Hophni and Phinehas, and they're growing away from favour with the people and distant from God, and they're wicked. And we've got Samuel, on the other hand, who we just keep reading this contrast back and forth. They're so wicked, but Samuel is this little boy wearing the clothes of a priest already and growing up in God's presence and serving before the Lord, and back and forth and back and forth," and you're saying, "I think that maybe Samuel is supposed to be the faithful priest." And if you caught that, I'd say that's really good, you were reading carefully. I think for most of the people as they read the Old Testament and in the Old Testament times, they would have looked at this and said Samuel was the priest of promise. He was a good and a faithful priest. In fact, more than that, if we were to read on in 1 Samuel, we'd find he was a faithful priest and he was a prophet and even served as a judge of the people, a leader over the nation. So Samuel was good as a partial fulfillment of this as well. But there is a problem. Whether we're talking about Samuel or Zadok and his family line or any other priest, there is a problem with how well they served as a priest, with how well these men did, and the problem is just exactly that: They're men. Which means just like you and I they're human, they sin, they fall short of God's glory, they will let people down. In fact, if we were just to read a couple chapters forward, 1 Samuel 8 I think it is, what we would find out is that Samuel himself didn't do a good job raising his own boys. They pursued dishonest gain. And when you get to that part of the narrative, you go, "How did you mess that up, Samuel? Didn't you see what Eli did and how it went wrong with him? How did you get this so wrong?" But that's what happens because Samuel's a man. He lets people down as well. And so here we are, saying we need a better priest. Did you notice verse 25? Eli does say something really profound here. He says, "If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the LORD, who will intercede for them?" That's a really good question, isn't it? In some ways when we read this, we ought to be saying that's the priest's job. He's the one that's supposed to be the go between. But the reason I think it's a really good question is that priest is a sinful person himself. He needs an intercessor. He can't be our perfect intercessor because he's sinning against God. He's got things that have separated him from the Lord. We need a better one. In fact, more than a better priest, we need a perfect one, one who's never sinned against God, one who does not need his own intercessor.
Page 10 And God fulfills His promise to not leave us without hope but to send a faithful priest by coming down Himself in the person of God the Son, Jesus Christ. This is how He answers our desperate need of a faithful priest. As I was studying this passage, I got thinking about how when Jesus' birth narrative is being told and His childhood years in Luke's gospel, I think Luke is trying to draw our minds back to Samuel, how he was a good priest but not quite the priest that we were waiting for or wanting, so let me see if I can show you a couple ways that Luke seems to try to draw these parallels back to Samuel. When Samuel's born, his mom, Hannah, sings a song, and it's a great song, a beautiful song, about reversal of fortune, the lowly being exalted, God being praised. When Mary is pregnant with Jesus, she sings a song. If you look at the themes of the song, you'd say, "Boy, that's so similar." It's almost like Luke wants us to be reading Mary's song and going, "I think I heard this one before. This sounds like Hannah's song," and for our minds to go back to him and say, "Oh, yeah, Samuel, he was a good priest. Not quite the one we were waiting for." Or let me see if I can show you another way. Do you see how in verse 26 we read here's this boy, Samuel, serving at the meeting place of God and man, the tabernacle, and it says, "And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with people." Do you see that? Well, the boy Jesus in Luke's gospel, Luke 1, He's serving at the temple. He's been teaching the people, and what Luke wants us to know about the boy Jesus is he says, "And Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with the people." It's like Luke's trying to let us know this is the one. This boy that's growing up whose name is Jesus, He's the one you've been waiting for, the faithful priest. Okay, so now check this out. Hophni and Phinehas, miserable priests. We already talked about that. They failed in three ways, things that a priest needs to be able to do. They don't know the Lord; a priest needs to know the Lord. They don't serve the people, they use them; a priest is to serve the people. They show contempt for God's sacrifice; a priest should revere and cherish and love God's sacrifice. So now along comes Jesus, and I probably don't need to tell you that nobody knows God like Jesus. Luke 10:22 says, "No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." So Jesus doesn't just know the Father; it's like Luke 10 is telling us He knows Him like nobody. Jesus is the only one who knows Him except Him and those who Jesus chooses to reveal the Father to. He knows Him perfectly. And the really great news is He doesn't just know Him, but John 1 tells us He came to make the Father known. John 1 says, "No one has ever seen God except Jesus, who came from the Father full of grace and truth, and who has made the Father known." So here's Jesus, and if we've got Jesus serving us as our high priest, He is making God known to us. He's serving us by saying,
Page 11 "Listen, don't go that way. That is not a way to please God. That is not in line with His character, not in line with His holiness. No, no, steer this way. This is the way to live for God's joy. This is the way to live in a way that pleases Him. This is who God is. Know Him in all of His goodness and His grace and His mercy. Know Him in His justice." Jesus is there, telling us, revealing to us, who God is. He's done so through His Word, and He continues to do so through His Spirit that He has placed in those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus. Remember now, Hophni and Phinehas, they're terrible priests because they're using the people rather than serving them, and I probably don't need to tell you that Jesus did not come here to use us but to serve us and, in fact, to serve everyone. Think about Jesus and who He is and how He shows us that. He's going around to people who are sick, oftentimes who were considered unclean in their society, and He's healing them, He's touching them. He's going to the demon possessed they were considered unclean and He's healing them, casting out demons. He's making friends with those that society had kicked to the curb, people like prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners. Jesus on the night that He's betrayed, before He goes to the cross, He gets down on His knees and He washes His disciples' feet so that He would show us the extent to which He came to serve. Mark 10:45 says Jesus think about this the Son of God, the one who created the universe, the greatest person who's ever walked the face of the earth, hands down nobody else even comes close to comparing, Jesus didn't come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Which leads us to the third thing Hophni and Phinehas failed: They showed contempt for God's sacrifice. Not Jesus. In fact, not only does Jesus honour and revere God's sacrifice, the means of our sins being forgiven, but He becomes it. That's why the Bible calls Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He goes like a lamb to the slaughter to die in our place. And He's not just any lamb; He's the spotless Lamb of God. He never sins. Remember now, verse 25 of 1 Samuel 2 was saying who's going to intercede if we sin against God for us? We need a better priest, a perfect priest, one who's never sinned against God, and that's Jesus. Not only can He intercede for us because He's never sinned against God and doesn't need a priest of His own, but by His sacrifice of His precious, perfect, spotless blood, He becomes the sacrifice that sees our sins forgiven. His blood is what covers over our very sins. Hebrews 2 says Jesus is a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God. It says that He makes atonement for the sins of the people. He's merciful. He holds back the wrath that we're due. He's faithful. He will never let us down, while people will always let us down and I will let you down. Jesus will never let us down. And He makes atonement for the sins of the people. That word "atonement," the way I always remember what that means is I chunk the word: at
Page 12 onement. He brings us to being at one with God again by His sacrifice through faith in Him and His blood. Listen to how Hebrews 10 puts it. It says, 11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest [Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins That's His laying down His life on the cross he sat down at the right hand of God... 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. By His one sacrifice and it is a precious, costly sacrifice: His very life on the cross by that one sacrifice, He's provided a way for all sins of all people of all time who place their faith in Jesus to be forgiven so that when we would stand in God's presence, our sins would be paid in full so that we can draw near to Him even now. He has, it says, made perfect those who were being made holy. There's an amazing tension there. I wish we had time to get into that a little bit today, but some of you might just ponder on that for a bit. By Jesus' sacrifice and our faith in Him, He has made perfect those who are being made holy, this says. Just get how amazing this is with me for a minute. Jesus is our Mike. He's our go between, between us and God. The Son of God is serving us. He's the one who's there. He's making God known to us. He's serving us in that way. We've talked about how He does that, through His Word and His Spirit. He's saying, "This is how to please God and this is what to avoid and this is how to draw near." He's making God known to us. And when He says, "Avoid this," and we go ahead and trip over it anyway and we say, "God, I can't believe it, I've sinned again. I'm so sorry I've sinned again," there's Jesus, sitting at God's right hand, serving by saying, "That one's been paid for. They've placed their faith in me. My blood has covered over that sin. That sin has been forgiven." And God's saying, "It's been forgiven. They can draw near to me. We can be one with one another because that person has placed their faith in Me." We need a priest like that. We need a faithful priest who will serve us in that way. I can't imagine how humbling it must have been for the disciples for Jesus to have served them, to have gotten down on His knees and washed their feet. But here's Jesus, who, if our faith is in Him, is serving us. Don't let it quite go to your head because He's serving God first, so don't get all ballooned up. But you are precious to God, and He's serving God by serving us as well.
Page 13 And there's Jesus at the right hand of the Father. I am humbled. I don't even know what to do with it that He's there on my behalf. It's like He's cleaning up my mess. He's covering over my sins, helping me draw near to God. I don't deserve it, but I need it so bad. My life depends on it, and Jesus is serving in that way. You need a priest like that, too. A faithful priest. I want you to think for a minute about how good of a priest Jesus is. This might be the best example I can think of. While He is on the cross and He is being scorned and ridiculed and mocked and punished in unthinkable ways, and while He is dying here on the cross, He considers the offenses of the people who are doing this to Him, and He turns to the Father and He says, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." He serves as a gobetween in that moment for those people. So maybe you're here this morning and you're saying, "My sins are too severe, God can't forgive me. I've grown too distant from Him," and I say I could not be more happy to tell you you could not be more wrong. There is no sin that is too severe for Jesus to pay the price and cover over it with His blood. There is no one who has drifted too far from God for Jesus to come alongside them and help them draw near to Him again. Tim Keller has famously said we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but in Jesus we find out that we're more loved than we ever dared hope. As we get set to close, I've got one more question for you. Did you know that if your faith is in Jesus so that He's serving you as your High Priest, so that He's helping you draw near to God, He's covered over your sins, if your faith is in Jesus, do you know that you've joined the priesthood as well? It's true. So you can all go out after church and buy yourself a little collar or something if you want. It's true, and we can look at a lot of different passages that tell us this. Here's one: 1 Peter 2:9. It says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession," why? "that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." God's Word is telling us that when Jesus becomes our faithful High Priest, we get a new job. Our job is to become priests as well. Our job is to become Mikes to the Als and help them draw near to God. Now, you say, "I'm nothing but an Al myself," and I say, "It's true." Me, too. I'm offending God by the way that I live. I still struggle with my sin. And yet, because Jesus is our good and faithful High Priest and He has perfected those who are being made holy, He says, "I'm giving you a job to do. You are to go out into the world, and you are to serve them like a Mike. You're to be their intercessor, their priest. You're to help sinful people draw near to our holy God." The world may or may not realize this, but they're counting on it. They are counting on being able to draw near to the giver of life and joy and peace. They're counting on it. And somewhat similar to the world of Judges, we look around our world today and say this world is in desperate need of faithful priests to help people draw near to our holy God once again. Jesus is
Page 14 coming back, and not only does the fullness of our lives depend on us drawing near to God, but when we reach that point of crossing over into eternity and we stand in God's presence, if our sin has not been forgiven, we will be cast from the giver of life Himself. We will be cast from His presence into a place that is unthinkably bad. The world is counting on us to go out as faithful priests. We read the story of 1 Samuel 2 and we say, "Hophni and Phinehas, what are you doing? These people so need to draw near to God. I can't believe how you guys are doing such a terrible job serving as priests. They need you." But it's like heaven's watching us, and we've been given this job to serve the world as faithful priests. The world's counting on us to know who God is. We can't be lazy when it comes to our study of this book, when it comes to our serving the Lord so that we might learn Him better by serving Him. We can't be lazy. We need to know who He is so we can explain that to the world around us so that they would know of His character and they would know what pleases Him and brings Him joy, they would know of His grace and they would know what to avoid. The world is counting on us self sacrificing, not being in it for ourselves but laying down our lives to help other people draw near to God, as our faithful High Priest has done. The world is counting on us cherishing and revering and lifting high the name of Jesus, who is our sacrifice so that our sins could be forgiven. And so as we close here, we're going to close in prayer, and then we're going to sing songs of praise, and let's sing them with everything we've got to Jesus, our faithful High Priest. Let's lift His name high and revere it even as we close in prayer and ask Him to empower us to be His good priests. Father, it truly is hard for me to get my head around what Jesus has done for us, that in our great and desperate need, brought on by our sin as we've alienated ourselves from you, Jesus comes as this priest that we have been longing for and waiting for, the one who helps us draw near to You, who makes You known, who comes to serve and who stands in the place to become our sacrifice. We love You. Those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, we say our lives belong to You because of that, God. Thank you for allowing us to be called Your children. And, Lord, as we sing a response of worship to You, we simultaneously pray, God, would You by Your Spirit empower us, as You have promised You would, that we might be faithful priests to the world around us. We know that we're not sufficient for the task in and of ourselves, but You are. Your power is made perfect in weakness, and, God, we need You. Allow us to go out from this place, sent into the world to help the world draw near to You. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.