8-24-25 Enjoying Leviticus
Christ in the Bible • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Good morning everyone. I want to thank you for the opportunity to share with you today.
We are going to start off today with a bit of a relational exercise.
I want everyone to turn to a neighbor and ask these three questions.
1. What is your FULL Name?
2. Where did you Grow Up?
3. What is your favorite book of the Bible?
1. What is your FULL Name?
2. Where did you Grow Up?
3. What is your favorite book of the Bible?
So, for example, my name is David Charles Prantner. I grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota. And my favorite book of the Bible is a cross between Genesis and the Gospel of John.
So, turn to a neighbor, maybe someone you don’t know so well, and I’ll give you a minute and then I’ll quiz a few of you.
PICK ON A FEW PEOPLE
Good, getting to know people is a very important part of sharing the gospel, because if you know someone, then trust is built. When you know a person and they know you a bond is built. And often times, what is important to you begins to appeal to them.
Many of us have what we would call a best friend. Someone who we know very well and know us very well. And if you watch someone in their life close enough, you will learn, very quickly, who their best friend is.
Let’s go to Moses. This is not going to be hard, I hope for any of you. In all the wilderness, who did Moses talk to the most, spend the most time with, talk about the most. Who was Moses’ best friend?
That’s right, God.
And where can we find some of their best hangout sessions?
That’s right Leviticus.
After the Ten Commandments are revealed in Exodus 20 we very quickly get into the building of the tabernacle. Which seems to be God’s concession to wanting to be directly in their midst, but they are too afraid, so God allowed the people to put him in a tent.
So, the tabernacle is the place to go to worship and Leviticus is the manual to tell us how to worship.
The first seven chapters of Leviticus show us 5 different ways the people of Israel could choose to worship. And as is my main purpose in these studies, we will see haw Jesus fulfilled and is in all these modes of worship. We’ll go through 2 of them today and the other 3 next time I have the privilage to share.
Let’s take a look.
The first type of offering is called the Burnt Offering. Let’s open to Leviticus 1 and see what it entails. Because of the sheer volume of text we are covering today, each method we’ll read the basics, but I’ll describe them and their points in detail.
2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. 3 “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. 4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
This offering is the biggest one on the list today and here’s why. It’s all for God. Many other sacrifices a portion is reserved to be eaten, but not this one. This one get’s completely burnt up.
We also learn it must be unblemished. As we are in ranching territory many are well aware that when it comes to cattle the ones that have defects will sell or breed for a lower price than one that has no defects. And here, it would be a sacrifice to take your best bull and give it up.
So the owner would take his very nice bull to the priests and present his unblessed bull and say something to the effect, “This is my very best bull, I am very pleased with him and I give him to the Lord.”
Only a perfect sacrifice would do. So, the priests would examine the bull and if it was perfect, they would burn up the whole animal, and verse 17 says it was a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Someone read for us Matthew 3:17
17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
These words were said right after Jesus’ baptism and at the beginning of his ministry. And what is more perfect than God himself.
Another criteria for this offering is that it must be voluntary. As with all these offerings, they are a response to God’s salvation, not a way to earn it. While the sacrificial system did distort it over the years, the original intent was always: God has saved me, now I will thank him.
To illustrate how this works I have an except from a book by Max Lucado called, In the Eye of the Storm
Exalting Jesus in Leviticus A Gospel Invitation (Leviticus 1:1–17)
Every Friday afternoon for years, an older man made his way down to a pier on a beach in Florida. Every Friday afternoon he went through the same ritual. At about sunset, he carried a bucket of shrimp to the beach. The shrimp were not for him or for the fish; they were for the seagulls. When the gulls saw him on the pier with his bucket, they would come to him one by one until they surrounded him while screeching, begging, and flapping their wings. He would take the shrimp out of the bucket and throw a few at a time to the hungry birds. Then he would make his way home. Why did he go through that ritual every Friday afternoon? That man was Eddie Rickenbacker, an Air Force captain in World War II. He and seven other men were flying a B-17 across the Pacific to deliver a message to Gen. Douglas MacArthur when the crew became lost, the fuel ran out, and the plane went down. Miraculously, they all made it out of the plane alive and on to a life raft. On that raft, day after day, they fought the sun and the sharks, and when their rations ran out they fought hunger. On the eighth day they had no food and no water. That afternoon they had a devotional time, prayed together for a miracle, and then tried to rest. Rickenbacker was dozing with his hat over his eyes, and something landed on his head. It was a sea gull. He knew that if he could catch it, that sea gull meant their survival. Amazingly he did catch it, the eight men shared the meat, and they used the intestines for fish bait. Rickenbacker knew God had rescued them with that sea gull, and he never forgot that miracle. Every Friday afternoon until he died, he would observe the same ritual; he would go down to that pier with a bucket full of shrimp and feed the gulls as a way of saying, “Thank You, God, for saving my life” (Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm, 221–26).
Much like Eddie, who voluntarily gave of his time as a way to thank God for saving his life, Jesus too, voluntarily stepped forward and said
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
And what do we do?
A seagull’s life was given to save Eddie and his crew. So, Eddie gave a portion of his life to feed other seagull’s. Jesus gave his life on the cross to save us from our sins.
So how do we respond?
Romans 12:1
1 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.
What does that mean?
When we are clothed in Jesus’ perfection, we are seen as acceptable to God and our worship is to show it to others. Show Jesus.
Because the Burnt Offering showed Jesus is wholly devoted to God in his death, so we too can be wholly devoted to God in our lives.
Next we have the Grain Offering
Here are the basics: Lev 2:1-3
1 “When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it 2 and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense, and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 3 But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the Lord’s food offerings.
The grain offering is similar to the burnt offering in a few respects. It had to be perfect. The finest flour with no yeast in it. Though salt was added in.
In reflection to Jesus we see these things said about Him
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
He is like the finest flour, not a single flaw.
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
While yeast certainly makes bread bigger and arguable tastier, it also changes it from it’s finest form and there. When Christ died for us, we who know him are purified. The sin’s we carried were forgiven. The yeast, which is something that is 100% impossible to remove from a loaf of bread, has been removed from us and we are, in God’s eyes that fine flour.
Though while there was no yeast to the grain offering there were some things added.
One was salt. According to Leviticus 2:13 there was to be salt in the grain offering. Salt was way more important to people of Moses’ time than it is to us. We use it to bring out flavor, they did too, but they also used to keep things pure and right. THis is an illustration on how we should act in the world as followers of Jesus:
6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
we could say seasoned with purity or seasoned with Jesus.
The other ingredient I noticed in the grain offering was Frankincense. This in not a normal additive to any food product. In fact, eating Frankincense could cause major abdominal pain and should only be consumed in VERY small quantities and for specific purposes.
It does, however, smell good.
2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Only a portion was offered up to God, the rest was for the priests. The grain offering was meant to nourish. It illustrates that Christ’s life was God’s bread. And while the burnt offering illustrates Christ’s death. The grain offering illustrates a pleasing life. One we too can illustrate in our lives as followers of Jesus.
The burnt offering showing us how to live as a living sacrifice wholly in his death. And the grain offering showing us how to live as he lived, like fine flour, full of grace.
Today’s message is a little shorter than my normal. I had debated with doing all 5 sacrifices, but I wanted to give you a little time to look into Leviticus for yourself. If you haven’t checked out RightNow Media yet, there is a link on the Standing Stone Facebook page and a reminder, it’s ALL free and you can share it with with anyone. I have placed some resources on Leviticus for you to take a look at.
I know this text is often called the Book of the Bible where new years resolutions die. It’s not a straight story, it’s often hard to follow with our western mindset, but, if we put in a little effort, I think we will find out that it’s a book about who God is and what he wants.
If we read the Book of Leviticus with that in mind I think by the time we get through it some might look at us and say, that person’s best friend is Jesus.
