Leviticus 11: The Heart of the Spiritual Leader
Notes
Transcript
Main idea: Spiritual leaders must serve God from a pure, humble, and resolute heart.
Hymn 360: I can hear my Savior calling
Outline:
Introduction
Spiritual leaders must serve from a pure heart
Spiritual leaders must serve from a humble heart
Spiritual leaders must serve from a resolute heart
Conclusion
Introduction
Introduction
We’ve been studying through the book of Leviticus, and now we’re at chapters 21 and 22. And here God gives explicit commands to His priests. There priests are the spiritual leaders of the people. So these chapters focus on those specifically in church leadership, such as the pastor, elders, deacons, and ministry leaders. But it also applies to all of us here, because Jesus has made us into a royal priesthood.
So what is a priest? An Old Testament priest was a spiritual leader, someone who was in charge of the worship service. They were the ones who made sure that everything in the worship service was holy and acceptable to God. And they were also in charge of teaching God’s Word to the people. And because of their responsibilities to the public, they became the role models of the people, whether they wanted to or not.
And so God gives the requirements of the priests in these two chapters in order to show them how to fulfill their duties. There’s a lot in here, and we can’t cover everything. But we can see three general kinds of laws.
The first has to do with the priest’s purity. A priest cannot serve if he is made unclean.
The second has to do with the priest’s adequacy or suitability. A priest cannot serve if he is disabled.
The third has to do with the priest’s loyalty. A priest must be obedient to God no matter what.
And God didn’t give these laws to make the priests feel proud and elitist. These laws are there to create in the priests a sensitivity to the things of holiness and corruption. There are these people whose job it is to drink wine and tell you where is from, when it was made, what kind of grapes were used. We need to be sensitive like this to the holiness of God.
So I pray that as we come to God’s Word in these passages, we will see the how important each and every one of us is in keeping the worship service holy and acceptable to God.
Spiritual Leaders must serve from a pure heart
Spiritual Leaders must serve from a pure heart
The first thing we see in these chapters is that the priests are to avoid dead bodies, unless it’s their own parents or siblings. If the priest’s sister is married, however, he can’t attend her funeral. And he also can’t attend the funerals of his in-laws. On the other hand, the high priest can’t even take part in burying his parents (Lev. 21:10-11). And if any of the priests are made unclean, whether through eating unclean animals or leprosy or bodily discharge, they are banned from serving in the sanctuary (Lev. 22:3-9).
And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself.
What’s the reasoning behind this? The way God sees it, death is the consequence of sin. So if a priest comes into contact with a dead body, he would be unclean for seven days. And after that, he’s declared clean, but he’s still banned from entering the sanctuary for another seven days (Num. 19:11; Ezek. 44:25-27). He can’t serve God for a total of two weeks.
Now, we need to get this right. When God talks about uncleanness or impurity, He’s not talking about hygiene. He’s talking about ritual uncleanness. It’s symbolic. It’s not germs or bacteria. The outward ritual uncleanness represents or symbolizes the inward uncleanness of the heart.
I’m not saying that the outward cleanness isn’t important. But it’s important to get the order right. When we are pure on the inside, then our outward actions will also be clean. If our heart is clean, our words will be clean. That’s why the Bible always talks about having clean hands and a pure heart.
But if we focus only on the outward cleanliness, then we’re making the same mistake as the people who got Jesus crucified.
The Pharisees read Lev. 21 and thought that God was a hygiene freak. So in order to be right with God, they kept doing these ritual washings over and over. And they ended up criticizing God Himself for not washing. They see Jesus and His disciples eating, and they say, “Hey, why didn’t you wash your hands? Hey, why didn’t you do this? Hey, why didn’t you do that?”
See, our hearts turn sour when we focus on the outward actions. Why? Because outward actions are visible. And if it’s visible, we can compare ourselves with others. And worse, we can start trusting in them. That’s why the Pharisees looked down their nose on others. They were so ritually clean compared to the rest, they looked at others with contempt. And Jesus calls them out on this.
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt:
And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.
And there was another person who caught Jesus in their blast radius. But this time, she’s on Jesus’ side. I’m talking about Martha, the sister of Lazarus and Mary. If you’re not familiar, Jesus and His disciples come to Martha’s house, and Martha loses her cool because she’s the only one preparing the food while Mary’s just sitting there talking with Jesus. And so she comes over to Jesus and tells Him to tell her sister to get up and help.
But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Jesus says to Martha, “Martha, you’re trying to do too much, and you’ve left behind the most important thing.”
By the way, we love Martha. Everybody wants a Martha kind of woman. She a practical woman. But it’s not hard to tell who scores the higher marks in this story.
Martha’s the kind of woman who gets things done, but Mary’s the kind of woman who knows what Christ has done.
You can’t serve in the temple unless you’ve first washed in the Gospel. That’s the symbolism of why God banned the ritually unclean priests from serving in the tabernacle. Unless we are clean on the inside, we can’t serve God well on the outside. Unless we choose like Mary, we can never serve like Martha. “Good service with a bad spirit is bad service.”
“Ok, but things in the church still need to get done, whether I’m ready or not. And maybe it feels a lot of the time like my heart is playing catchup with my actions. I can’t help feeling bitter or lethargic or resentful.”
In that case, we need to recognize that our emotions are like fire alarms. And what happens if we’re on fire? We need to stop, drop and roll. So stop what you’re doing, drop on your knees, and roll your heart back to Calvary, to the cross where Christ won heaven for us. Roll your heart to where we found refuge from the fires of hell.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
So we need to draw near to God, in the shadow of the cross, and we need to stay there. And we need to serve from there.
In other words, the secret is to rejoice in our salvation before rejoicing in our service. That is how we can serve God with a pure heart.
Spiritual Leaders must serve from a humble heart
Spiritual Leaders must serve from a humble heart
Another law that we see in Lev. 21 is that God forbids any man with a blemish from serving as priest.
No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the Lord’s food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
Blemish here in Hebrew is mum (מוּם) and refers to a physical defect in the body. So priests back then had to be physically perfect. In the army, we call these kind of people, PES “A”. And it’s not that God looks down upon disabled people. The point is that God’s priests represent Him. And if His priests are full of blemishes, it’s a poor reflection of who God is.
Now, there’s a right way and a wrong way to apply this passage to us today. The wrong way, as we saw in the previous point, is to focus on the physical perfection. The right way is to focus on the spiritual meaning for us. This means that instead of thinking of our physical blemishes, we need to think of our spiritual blemishes. And in light of that, who is worthy to serve? Is there anyone without blemish?
John the Baptist understood this point well. Look at what he says about himself.
And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
If John the Baptist isn’t worthy to untie Jesus’ sandal straps, then we aren’t worthy to clean God’s toilets. We are all blemished with sin.
So does that mean we cannot serve? If we are so unworthy, then how can we do God’s work?
Here’s what John Calvin has to say. When he read Lev. 21, he said this: “God could bear no defect in the priests; it follows, then, that a man of angelic purity was to be expected, who should reconcile God to the world.”
So it is only in Jesus’ name that we can serve in the church. The priests could only serve if they were born into a priestly family. When we believe in Jesus, we are born again into His lineage, and we are a royal priesthood, not under Aaron, but under Jesus. And as our high priest, Jesus has taken our blemishes upon Himself.
So we can be confident, despite our weaknesses and failings, to carry out our priestly duties in Jesus’ name.
Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,
So how can we apply this to ourselves today?
First, we can have confidence to serve God in Jesus’ name.
Second, although Jesus has taken away the consequence of our blemishes, we still need to fight the good fight and work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Just as the physical blemishes of the priests reflected poorly on God, our spiritual blemishes and character flaws can become stumbling blocks for others. All of us are prone to certain failings of character. Some of us become proud easily, others are proud of their humility. Some of us are easy to anger, others are good at making people angry.
So we need to reflect on what blemishes we have, and we need to be constantly working at it. It’s not about being accepted by God. That’s already been done in Jesus name. But now, we need God more than ever. We can’t fight the good fight without grace. We need more grace in order to put our old selves to death.
David was a great king who became conceited and self-satisfied as the ruler of God’s people. And because of his attitude, he had a great scandal in which he committed adultery, murder, and theft. He came face-to-face with his spiritual blemishes, and repented. And look at how he prays to God.
Psalm 139:23–24 (ESV)
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
David knows that unless we actively search out and kill our sins, our sins will kill us.
So we should make this a regular part of our prayer life. Lord, search me. Lord, try me. Show me where I need healing, and lead me in the way everlasting.
So let this be our attitude as priests before God as we worship Him and serve Him. And I pray that He will accept our humble worship.
Spiritual leaders must serve from a resolute heart
Spiritual leaders must serve from a resolute heart
Finally, in Lev. 22 we see that God gives very specific commands to the priests on how they should handle the holy offerings. The priests are responsible for protecting the holy food from anyone who’s not supposed to eat it (Lev. 22:10-16), and they are to make sure the offerings are acceptable to God (Lev. 22:17-33).
So the priests are in charge of protecting the holiness of the offerings. To keep the holy things holy, and the common things common. And here we get a clear description from God of what this looks like.
“A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, but if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it, and anyone born in his house may eat of his food. If a priest’s daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the contribution of the holy things.
Animals blind or disabled or mutilated or having a discharge or an itch or scabs you shall not offer to the Lord or give them to the Lord as a food offering on the altar.
Any animal that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut you shall not offer to the Lord; you shall not do it within your land,
So let’s say you’re a priest, and you have two people at your dining table. One’s a foreign guest who’s got high status, the other is a slave. And on the table, you’ve got a plate of meat from the sacrificial offerings. And there’s another plate of grains and barley. Your slave takes the holy meat because he’s part of your household. But now your foreign guest is reaching for it.
Or in another case, a chief of the tribe comes to you and he wants to offer an expensive bull. Everyone’s watching. And as the priest, you need to examine the bull for blemishes, so that’s what you do. Except that you notice there’s something not quite right with its genitals. You could close one eye about it and nobody would notice, but you should probably tell him to find another bull.
As spiritual leaders, we’re going to have to disappoint some people. We’re going to have to offend some people. We’re going to be constantly tested as to whether we fear people more than we fear God. Are we more afraid to let God down, or the foreign guests at our table? The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Why? Because the wise person fears God more than men. The wise person cares more about God’s opinion than their best friend, their boss at work, their parents.
And God says that the sacrifices of His people are His holy things. What does this mean for us today? It refers to three things. The church, the worship services, and our personal devotions. These are the holy things of God.
1. We must be resolute in keeping the church holy.
1. We must be resolute in keeping the church holy.
This means that the church equipment must not be used for worldly things. If an organization wants to rent the church sanctuary for anything other than worship, we must decline. The sanctuary is holy to God and set apart for worship and prayer. The church equipment is holy to God. If someone wants to borrow the church guitar for a rock concert, we must gently and firmly decline. The instruments have been set apart for worship and worship practice and nothing else.
2. We must be resolute in keeping the worship services holy.
2. We must be resolute in keeping the worship services holy.
There’s a saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” When we become too familiar with something, we start to lose appreciation for it. Sometimes we can get complacent after so many weeks of serving in church, that we start to lose appreciation of what an amazing privilege it is to participate in God’s holy worship service.
C.S. Lewis once gave a warning, “None are so unholy as those whose hands are cauterised by holy things.” Cauterised hands are like chef’s hands. A chef’s hands have become so cauterised and calloused that even the hot pan and sputtering oil can’t hurt him. We must not have chef’s hands when it comes to the holy things of God.
3. We must be resolute in keeping ourselves holy.
3. We must be resolute in keeping ourselves holy.
The priests in the Old Testament offered to God dead sacrifices. But the New Testament tells us that now, we are the living sacrifices to God. We are God’s holy possession. This means that we need to be resolute in keeping ourselves set apart from the things of sin and death.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
And as spiritual leaders, we must keep it holy. And in order to do so, we need to remain firm. Gentle, yes, but firm. We must not compromise the holiness of God’s things for the sake of winning affection or popularity. God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s. Will God receive the offering of profane priests and unclean hands?
I pray that as spiritual leaders, we will be responsible for safeguarding the holiness of God’s offerings with a firm and resolute heart.
Conclusion
Conclusion
In the 1840s, before doctors knew about germs, a Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that if a mother gives birth at the hospital, she was twice as likely to die from fever compared to mothers who gave birth at home with midwives. Doctors didn’t wash their hands back then.
And so he suggested that those who help in childbirth wash their hands in a chlorinated lime solution. As a result, the mortality rate of mothers giving birth dropped by 90%.
As priests and spiritual leaders, we have the task of keeping the holy things holy. We have to be sensitive to the invisible holiness of God, just as doctors need to be sensitive to the invisible germs. If not, we might end up hurting the people we’re supposed to serve.
As the great Scottish pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne once said, “The greatest need of my people is my personal holiness.” I pray that we will serve God with a pure, humble, and resolute heart, and may the Lord of heaven and earth delight in our worship!