Direction From The Altar

Intro

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When we hear an invitation to the altar, how do we think about and define an altar?

Growing up in church, I saw the altar as a physical part of the platform.

Picture from Grove

There was a reverence for it. You wouldn’t just go up to it and set your stuff down. It was sacred. It was where the elements for communion were. Thats where the Word stayed.

But was this really what the altar is?

We’ll talk about today how we gain direction from the altar. This is my point and it’ll be shorter. That we gain direction.

To gain direction from the altar may be a confusing term if you grew up like me. Or maybe you have no idea what an altar is.

Whether you grew up with altars in your church or not, the definition and purpose and application to our life will probably surprise you.

The altar is not something that only Christians and the Jews practiced. It was a platform where people would make offerings to their gods.

Theres different types of altars

Altars picture

The verb used in conjunction with the altar is “to slaughter.” In Aramaic and Hebrew it refers to the ritual and sacrificing animals to God as a covering for sin.

There was a use for altars in the OT and when Jesus died for us, this changed. Altars didn’t go away in the NT, but we’ll see what it means for us today.

To understand God’s desire for us to apply this to our lives, we need to understand the background here.

OT - Altars

God gives instructions to the Israelites on the altar.

Exodus 20:24–26 NASB95

‘You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. ‘If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. ‘And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’

This is the place where God wanted them to establish a reminder of Him and what He’s done.

If they do this according to His instruction, He will come meet them and bless them.

God wants them to use what He’s made - the natural stones. That it shouldn’t be set up with cut stones used with tools.

Steps were common to the altars of the other cultures. But God doesn’t want His altar to be like theirs. To add steps would also expose the flesh of those walking up.

This might be practically true, but also setting up this remembrance of God, He wants His name to be seen, not the flesh.

So the idea here is sacrifice to God, yes. But also to remember Him and exalt Him and worship Him.

Do we know that theres a difference in saying words and action. The words could be empty but the action builds something.

Its not just saying the words, but its building something where the action is sacrifice - “to slaughter.”

Today, we act like posting something about our faith, sharing it publicly, getting a tattoo, or wearing cool Christian swag is on the same level.

Think about this - When God answers ours prayers, what do we do?

When we remember what Jesus did for us, what do we do?

Maybe - Stop and think about it

Maybe you’re like me and sometimes its easy to just … forget.

God’s done so many things in my life - but some days you wake up and doubt His power, His name…

God did a lot of things for His people and we see their response repeated.

Noah built an altar after the flood

Genesis 8:20 “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.”

Abraham built an altar not in response to something God had already done as much as he had the faith to do it BEFORE - based on a promise

Genesis 12:7–8 “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. Then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.”

Genesis 22:9 “Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.”

Jacob built an altar

Genesis 33:20 “Then he erected there an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.”

Genesis 35:7 “He built an altar there, and called the place El-bethel, because there God had revealed Himself to him when he fled from his brother.”

Moses built an altar

Exodus 17:15 “Moses built an altar and named it The Lord is My Banner;”

Exodus 24:4 “Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Then he arose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Gideon built an altar

Judges 6:24 “Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it The Lord is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.”

To altars in the OT remind us of the way they needed to pay for their sin - by providing a sacrifice. They would remember God by providing the proper sacrifice and when He would do anything in their lives, they’d remember Him by setting up an altar for an offering.

There are many reasons. But we know that its not something we see today? What changed? Is this irrelevant? How are we to receive direction?

NT - Altars

The altar has always and still emphasizes the need for forgiveness we have for our wrong doings.

A sacrifice was required to atone or make up for the wrong in our lives.

The altar that was used to physically sacrifice animals with is not gone as in canceled. This is how they came to God in worship.

Because worship is about sacrifice. Did you know that? You can’t worship Him without sacrifice?

Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

Jesus provided the blood sacrifice - now we are to present (not animals) but our bodies as a living sacrifice. Its not our physical flesh that dyes, though in a sense our flesh does… its our sin.

You think its hard to worship now? What about back before Christ when there literally had to be blood spilled?

To this day, a sacrifice is required for our sin, but Jesus’ death covered it.

It simply can not be canceled, but it was fulfilled.

The innocence; the lack of sinful wrongdoing; from the One who owed no sacrifice was given.

Does that mean we don’t need an altar?

In modern worship, theres no physical altar to sacrifice animals before God because Jesus was the final sacrifice.

But there needs to be an altar of worship, where its like the burnt offerings. Like sweet incense that is like our praise and worship going up to heaven.

New American Standard Bible (1995) Chapter 4

23 “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The true worshippers? Those who have truly sacrificed.

Does this mean you need to sing louder? Raise your hands higher? God does love a joyful noise.

No, this is about bringing your sin to the altar and every time God brings you through something, setting up an altar to remember what He’s done, how He’s provided, how He’s still providing.

Instead of just simply trying to “get it right,” bring your messed up life and give it to God!

True worship comes from a place of dependency on God.

Application to Life

Setting up your altar

When God moves in your life, theres a response that warrants setting up an altar for the Lord.

Doesn’t always feel like it? Well Christ already did something that warrants it - His sacrifice.

Setting up the altar in your life means that you’re saying “God, when you move I’ll remember you. Not with words, but with action.”

“I will worship and give it all to you.”

What are you bringing to the altar?

Revelation 11:1 “Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, “Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it.”

There is a measure that is made for our worship at the altar.

Back then, there was blood and ash and it wasn’t pretty.

We have the blood of the lamb. But the offerings we give to God are like burnt offerings.

What is left at our altar? Is there ash from the past that God has brought you through. That when you look back, you see a pile of ash and remember the sacrifice that Christ made for you?

If you lay your shame at the altar, its like our mourning turned to dancing, it turns into praise, like smoke raising up to heaven.

Turn your hardship into worship.

What goes up to heaven is our praises and worship. What comes down is blessing. God meets us at the altar and the things that we struggle with fall away.

Exodus says that “wherever you cause my name to be remember, I will bless you.” It also says that our flesh is not to be exposed. Because God will take those things and keep them. Over and over again.

You might think “I can’t stop struggling. This is constant.”

Thats okay - when the measure of our altar is taken, it will be seen the amount of struggle, shame, hardship we brought and though it might seem like too much now, God will be glorified every time you bring it to Him.

But thats the things right - bring it to HIM?!

Are you bringing it to the right altar?

Acts 17:22–33 NASB95

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” So Paul went out of their midst.

When the Israelites set up their altars, it wasn’t just them who had altars.

If we convince ourselves that there is a better option. That there is another place to go. We will be in that place of an unknown God.

But our God knows us and not only that, He directs us.

How is the altar directing you?

The altar requires an offering.

This isn’t a Christian principal I’m telling you either. This is something that human beings desire. Something you can offer to make up for your wrong doings.

1 Corinthians 9:11–14 “If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.”

What is our share from the altar?

Direction. Life. Truth.

Something that we all fundamentally want.

Something you don’t accidentally get is direction, life, and truth from God.

But if you don’t allow the altar to direct you, you might accidentally set it up in the wrong place, for the wrong reasons, to a wrong diety.

Conclusion

The altar was established for sacrifice but Christ was the ultimate sacrifice.

We allow the altar to direct us and guide us through our living sacrifice, praise and worship.

As the praises go up, the blessings will come down and God will take our brokenness and meet us with grace and mercy.