Untitled Sermon

Intro

I hope all of you had a great week, the weather is warming up, we’ve got snow on the ground, the snowmobiles are out. I’ll share quickly one of the highlights of my week. I went to Tim Horton's to get a coffee over the past week, and on two of those occasions the person ahead of me paid for my coffee. So, I got free coffee twice this week! I told my students this had happened and tried to convince them that it must have been because I have a very likable appearance, but they told me that it was because my truck was so rusty that they just felt sorry for me.

But what I’m pointing at is that we live in a society that believes it is good. Most people, when asked believe they are good. And when they say that are good they mean that they do things like buy coffee for a stranger, clear their neighbours driveway, pull someone from the ditch. They mean that they may slip up from time to time, but they haven’t murdered someone and they don’t steal, generally they are good.

It’s also true that over half of Canadians believe there is some kind of afterlife, and if we put these two things together it becomes clear that most people in our society believe that they are good and that because they are good they will go to heaven.

So in that context we going to talk the morning about atonement. Which can be a challenge because we live in a world that often neglects to recognize their need for atonement.

Let’s Pray

We are going to discuss the Day of Atonement as found in Leviticus 23:26-32.

Calendar

By now you no doubt have become familiar with this calendar that we’ve been using to guide us through the Jewish holy days as laid out for us in Leviticus.

One of the reasons we’ve been using this calendar is because the timing of each of these holy days is important and with the first four we’ve made a very specific connection to the timing of this holy day in the Jewish calendar and how that lines up perfectly with the life and work on Jesus. Last week, as Pastor Daniel shared about the Festival of Trumpets, the timing of this event was a bit more vague. There is considerable debate about how this connects. Is it something that has come to pass and been fulfilled already, does it point to a future event?

The Day of Atonement is similar. There is debate about how the Day of Atonement fits together with regards to the Jewish calendar, as we see here, and events in history. Many say it points to a future event. Many point to Matthew 24 where Jesus talks about signs of the end of the age and the great tribulation.

But today we’re going to move from this calendar for a moment and look at this picture: show mosaic.

Mosaic

This is another representation of what we’ve been studying. And this is how I want you to think about our study of these holy days for a moment: All of these holy days, sacrifices, sabbaths that we’ve been examining, like a mosaic, fit together perfectly, with purpose, to create a beautiful picture. And the picture that’s being created for us is the very character of God and his plan for his creation. And if this mosaic were to be a representation of the holy days that we’ve been studying, the Day of Atonement that we’re looking at today, would be at the centre. This was the most holy day. In fact this day is so important that in later Jewish tradition the Day of Atonement would often be referred to as ‘the day’.

Leviticus 23:26-30

The importance of this day is pointed out for us in verse 30:

Leviticus 23:30 “And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people.” If the people did not take this day as a Sabbath, a day of rest, they would be ‘cut off and destroyed’.

They would be excommunicated. No other holy day points out a punishment like this so clearly.

It says in verse 27 that the people were supposed to ‘afflict themselves’.

Unlike many of the other holy days described here, the Day of Atonement was not a festival or celebration. On this day the people were supposed to ‘afflict themselves’. This meant that it was a time where the people of Israel were supposed to take time to recognize their sin, their rebellion, and defiance toward God and recognize their need for atonement.

What is Atonement?

So at the heart of this holy day is the idea of atonement. This word is used over 100 times in the Old Testament and the concept of atonement forms the heart of the Gospel message presented to us in the New Testament.

If we look at the origins of this word in English it makes it quite easy for us to understand what it means and why this word in English is used to describe what is happening here.

Atonement is simply the combination of the words: ‘at-one’. It means at-one-ment. It’s a word that develops in the 16th Century and first appears in the King James Bible. So all of you that have KJVs in your hands can stick your chests out a little more and hold up your heads a little higher.

To make something right. Atonement is to make something right. Usually in reference to a relationship.

This is atonement. At one ment. To make right.

Meal Analogy

So let me present a scenario to you that may be somewhat familiar: You make arrangements with a friend to go out for a meal together. You sit down for your meal and have a great time together but as you finish you reach down for your wallet and it’s gone. You realize that you won’t be able to cover the cost of your meal. You tell your friend, you know I forgot my wallet, I can’t pay. Your friend may respond critically: how could you forget your wallet, this is ridiculous I never forget my wallet. But most likely they’ll say, oh, that’s okay, I forgive you.

Then the server comes over and says that it’s time to pay. Your friend says, that you forget your wallet but don't worry you’ve been forgiven. The server will likely say, well that’s great but the meal still has to be paid for.

Now, your friend will likely say, no problem I’ll cover the meal. I’ll cover the debt. And that is what this idea of atonement refers to. Making right the debt that’s owed. But it’s more than that too.

Forgiveness is an act that required the absorbing of a cost. The debt can’t be overlooked. So if you’re going to forgive me, you’re going to have to act. You’ll have to cover the debt.

But atonement does more than that too. What happens if you do this over and over again. You continue to forget your wallet and require your friend to over and over cover this debt. Then you’ll start to resent your friend because he’s making it feel like he doesn't’ care about you and respect you and there’s this dirtying of the air.

So atonement not only covers this very real debt but also works to bring reconciliation to the relationship.

To make one, the Biblical sense of atonement is not only the idea of covering the debt but also the making right of a relationship.

Leviticus 16

Now I’d like you to turn to Leviticus 16. Leviticus 23 provides for us a brief glimpse into the Day of Atonement, but in chapter 16, we have an entire chapter devoted to the rituals involved in this day. And as we examine Leviticus 16 we’re going to see all of these images of Jesus in the rituals that are performed.

Leviticus 16:3–4 “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.”

Aaron, the high priest, and all the high priests after him, did not wear their glamorous priestly garments for the sacrifices required during the day of atonement. Rather, the high priest was clothed in simple linen.

Just as the high priest on the day of atonement humbles himself in reverence before God as he prepares to make his sacrifice, so too did Jesus enter into the world as the son of a carpenter. He was not born to an earthly king or noble. His origins were humble. And just as he had humble origins, so to did he go humbly to the cross.

Just as the high priest entered the tabernacle on the day of atonement so too, we get the picture of Jesus a humble high priest.

Jesus is the humble high priest.

Leviticus 16:11–14 ““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.”

After the high priest put on his humble robes and cleansed himself, he would perform the sacrifices. He would choose two goats and one bull.

He would sacrifice the bull and take its blood to bring before God.

At this time in Israel’s history they did not yet have a temple, they are in the wilderness and have a tabernacle. An behind a curtain in the tabernacle is the holy of holies - the most holy place. It was here that the ark of the covenant was kept. The lid to the ark was called the mercy sit and God’s presence resided above the mercy seat.

So the high priest would enter the holy of holies on this day, and only on this day, and he would first bring incense which would fill the room with smoke so that the high priest would be protected from the glory of God, and he would sprinkle the blood of the bull on the mercy seat. This sacrifice was for the high priest, not the nation.

Before the high priest could make the sacrifice on behalf of the nation, he had to make a sacrifice to atone for his own sins.

Jesus is the perfect high priest. We have here a point of contrast: the high priest from Leviticus onward had to always first make atonement for their sin before they could bring forward the sins of the people, but our perfect high priest, Jesus, has no need.

Hebrews 7:26–27 “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”

Leviticus 16:15–16 ““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 uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins.

Once the high priest made atonement for himself, he would take one of the two goats and sacrifice it and bring its blood before the Lord.

The idea was that God was above the mercy seat, and as He looked down upon the ark of the covenant, He saw the sin of man. Man’s sin was represented by the items in the ark. Then, the high priest sprinkled atoning blood on the mercy seat — covering over the emblems of Israel’s sin. God saw the blood cover over the sin, and atonement was made.

The goat that was sacrificed was also like Jesus, in that the goat was spotless, was from the people of Israel (Leviticus 16:5), was chosen by God (Leviticus 16:8), and the goat’s blood was taken to the Holy Place to provide atonement.

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice.

We spent some time already examining the concept of atonement. Now atonement is an English word, and the Bible wasn’t written in English…now I hope you get more out of this morning’s sermon than that, but the Bible wasn’t written in English. Leviticus was written in Hebrew. And the name the Hebrews gave this holy day is likely familiar to you - it’s Yom Kippur. Yom, meaning day, and kipper which most people translate - ‘to cover’.

That’s what is happening in this sacrifice, the high priest is covering the sins of the people with the blood of the sacrifice. This is the cover the debt that is owed due to sin.

Now you know that in our discussion of atonement I said that atonement pointed not only to the idea of a covering of a debt but also the reconciliation of a relationship.

Leviticus 16:20–22 ““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 their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.”

There was also a live goat. One goat was presented as a sacrifice and it’s blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. The other was presented alive. These are two goats, but still seen amongst the people and before God as one sacrifice. And the high priest would place his hands on the goat and transmit the sins of the people onto the goat. The goat would then be sent into the wilderness. The people’s sin would be removed.

This is the work of Jesus on the cross. On the cross he shed his blood as the sacrifice, and at the same time our sin was placed on him and he removed it.

Jesus Reconciles us to God.

Only through Jesus can we be reconciled back to God. By his shed blood and the removal of our sins, we can be made right with God.

Now I think what struck me more than anything else in my study of the Day of Atonement is found in Leviticus 16:17 “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.”

Only the high priest is involved. You should take some time this week to read all the way through chapter 16 and you’ll see very quickly that alot of work in involved in the rituals that are laid out here. There were many priests apart from the high priest that could have assisted with the sacrifices but they didn’t. In the other holy days we’ve read about in chapter 23 there were many priests involved, not here. Here the high priest laboured alone.

Only Jesus, the great high priest, has the power to remove sin. It is him alone. There is no other way to find atonement - to be made right with God.

Hebrews 10:11–14 “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

You know, Yom Kippur is still practised by many Jews today. Not in exactly the same way as described here. There is no longer a tabernacle - there in no temple, but concepts here are continued. One common element of this is a practice where a chicken is waved above the head of the person to be atoned or covered. As an atonement for sin they will grab a chicken and wave it around someone’s head.

Now, this seems pretty ridiculous to us, but I wonder what our vain attempts to cover our sins look like to God.

We do this too. I explained in the opening that most people in our society believe they are good. They believe that they can earn their way into heaven, and sometimes we as Christians believe that we have to earn our way into heaven.

The idea that we can do enough to earn God’s favour is as ridiculous as waving a chicken above your head.

I think that one of the reasons we fall into this trap is because we struggle to appreciate the weight of our sin before a holy God.

Just as we believe we’re most good, we also believe that we’re not really that guilty.

The analogy I presented before about forgetting your wallet when you go out for a meal is a pretty standard preacher analogy. It’s a little funny - lighthearted, but it isn’t the type of analogy you’d see in the Bible to present the broken relationship we have before God without Jesus.

When God’s word presents a picture of our sin before a holy God we get people like Hosea, who God called to present a picture of Israel’s sin before God. Hosea who was called to take as his wife a woman that he knew would be unfaithful. And in the book of Hosea we have this image presented to us of Hosea, who has started a family with this woman only to have her run off with another man and Hosea has to go to the market and purchase her back. And God says, this is what you’ve done to me Israel. Again and again and again and again.

And each year the people of Israel needed to fast and gather for the Day of Atonement to make right their relationship with God.

How blessed our we that the shadow that this day pointed to has come. Jesus has come and he has fulfilled the law.

Hebrews 9:11–12 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Just as the people of Israel on this day were told to ‘afflict themselves’ before the Lord, we too must ‘afflict ourselves’ that is live a life of repentance before God, but we do so with the knowledge that to all who repent and believe, Jesus has made us right before a holy God.

Remember, the Day of Atonement was a time for the people to remember their need for God.

One of our greatest challenges however, is that we live in a world that in many ways does not recognize their need to repent before a holy God.

CS Lewis, in Mere Christianity takes much time speaking to exactly this point.

In this book he refers to God as the ‘supreme terror’. Why? Because if there does exist an absolute goodness - that is God, he must hate most of what we do. If there does not exist a God, then we are hopeless. So that which we most need is that which we most hide from (we hide from him when we distract ourselves with sports and movies, seeking pleasure, financial success) We hide from him. Lewis says that God is our only possible ally and we have made ourselves his enemy.

So it is hopeless either way, without God we have no future hope. With God we are made enemies.

But God provided for us atonement. At one ment. The opportunity to be made right with him by the shed blood of Jesus. No longer do we need the blood of animals but we must repent and believe and secure the gift of salvation that Christ alone offers to us.

I read once that there are only three religions in the world, and I’ll spell out each one for you. The first religion is spelled D - O. Do. We must do this or do that. This is the religion I would argue we find in the world outside the church. If I do enough good things, I will find peace or an afterlife I find worthy. The second religion is spelled D-O-N-T, don’t. This I would argue is the false religion we often find inside the church. As long as I don't do this or I don't do that, God will be pleased enough with me that I can spend eternity with him, I’ll be okay. This is another lie. Grace can’t be earned. Thirdly, we have our faith is Jesus. The ultimate fulfilment of the atonement described by God through Moses. The humble high priest, who lived a life blameless, who shed his blood on the cross as an atonement for our sin. Just as the blood of the sacrifice covered the mercy seat in the presence of God, Jesus’s blood covers our sin before a holy god. A sacrifice that was once for all. And not only that, but we have a saviour who covered our sin with his blood and rose again. We have a living God, who freely offers to us the forgiveness of sins by his blood to all who repent and put their trust in him.

If we find in this world two different religions: The religion of DO and the religion of DON'T, we have a third option. We can follow Christ. And we spell this D-O-N-E. Done!