Honouring God with Gifts

Beethoven’s piano

In Bonn, Germany, there is a muesum that houses the piano that Beethoven composed many of his great compositions on.

A story is told of a young musician who was visiting the muesum about a hundred years or so ago.

She sees this piano - and she really wants to play it.

Now, as I understand the story, she was from a rich family, and even though the piano was strictly off limits to the public, but with a little bit of money exchanging hands… well, let’s just say the rules were bent for her.

So she jumps on the piano, and starts playing Moonlight Sonata.

She later turns to the attendent, and she asked - ‘I supose all the great pianists who visit here want to play Beethoven’s piano?’

The attendent then told the young musician - well actually, a few years back, the great Ignacy Jan Paderewski visited.

Who’s Paderewski, you ask?

Well, apparently he became Prime Minister of Poland back in the early1900’s, but he was most famous for his piano playing. He travelled the world giving concerts throughout the world. He would have been quite the household name some century or so ago.

Because of his fame, he was invited to play Beethoven’s piano in the muesum.

But he just stood there looking at it for some 15 minutes. Emotions welled up in him as he stood there looking at it.

Eventually he said - I can’t. I’m not worthy to touch the piano that Beethoven himself played.

It’s interesting to observe the difference between the young musician and the world famous pianist.

Paderewski recognised the significance. He treated the situation with the dignity that it deserved.

Contrast that with the young musician. She knew it was Beethoven’s piano. To her, it was something cool. It was exciting. Something she could use.

How would you react coming in the presence of something so significant?

The truth is, we do come before something significant - in fact, something so significant that Beethoven’s piano may as well be this piano here.

You see, as believers, we get to experience the presence of God.

It’s pretty cool to think that the creator of this universe allows us to have a personal relationship with him.

There’s a song from a Christian band from a few decades back that went: “My best friend’s the creator of the universe”.

It was a fun song.

I mean, how amazing is it that we get to have such a close relationship with God!

Now, this morning, I’m not about to deny the truth to this claim.

You can (and hopefully do), have a close personal relationship with God. You can talk to him like you’re having a conversation with him.

But, there is another side to this, and it is important that we recognise it.

You see, God is holy. He is above all. He is not like us. We are not like him.

When we stand before God, we do not do so as equals. There is something truly amazing that we even have this priviledge.

And yet we do.

And so, here’s the question I want to explore this morning - how is our approach to God affected by our understanding of his holiness?

How do we avoid our close connection with God not taking away from reverance that he deserves?

Context

But first let’s try to orient ourselves in this book.

Now, the reality is, Leviticus is one of those books we tend to avoid. I suspect you probably haven’t heard too many sermons from it.

When we get to it to read, we tend to find it a hard slog to get through because it all sounds so foreign and not relevant. When we get to the laws, we get even further confused because some laws we think we should be keeping are found in the same chapter that contains laws that seem completely irrelevant to us. And so we tend to just leave this book and move on to the books that seem a bit more relevant.

Throughout this series, however, I’m going to be making the argument that though it’s going to describe some aspects that we no longer do, such as animal sacrifices - it’s actually a book we’re going to find very important.

Now, it’s also important to realise that the book of Leviticus isn’t some book in isolation. It’s actually a book that fits within a wider story line.

So, let’s start at the beginning.

Genesis opens with an account of creation, which is closely followed by what we call the fall, where humanity is loses it’s close fellowship with God. Things spiral out of control, but God has a plan. Through Abraham, he establishes a nation, and by the end of Genesis they find themselves numbering 70 people but are now living in Egypt.

We then come to the book of Exodus, where through miraculous circumstances, they are brought out of Egypt and God starts giving them a national identity, largely through the law handed down through Moses.

We now have a nation wandering through the wilderness, but here’s one of the most remarkable things - God chooses to dwell with them. Yes we believe that God is omnipresent (that is, he is everywhere), but there is a manifestation of his presence in this new community.

And so, towards the end of the book of Exodus, we get what feels to us a really long and detailed explanation of this tent that is to be set up in the middle of this new community.

I call it a tent, but actually, it’s a movable temple. It’s called the tabernacle.

And the intricate details about it… while it might seem like a hard slog to read… is actually because God is so different from us in status, that it’s important everything is done in the right way.

Well, by the end of the book of Exodus, the tabernacle is finally set up, and in the final few verses, we’re told that the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle.

Now, if you’ve got your bible and you look at the end of the last chapter in Exodus, you’ll see in verse 35, just after we’re told the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, that: “Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

This is the great Moses we’re talking about. If anyone could have access to this tabernacle, surely it’s going to be him - but even Moses can’t enter. The holiness of God is just too much.

Now, interestingly, the very first word in the book of Leviticus is actually the word “and”. It doesn’t get translated as that in our English, because, well… you’re not meant to even start a sentence in English with the word “and”, let alone the first word in a whole book.

But it shows how the book of Leviticus is meant to be read with the direct background of what has just happened.

You see, we’ve got the glory filling the tabernacle… and then, as Leviticus opens, it says - and the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting”.

This then is essentially the whole basis of this book. It’s God, calling from the tabernacle and saying… I want you to interact with me, but I’m going to show you the appropriate way to do this.

Offerings

Okay, well what I’m going to do, is we’re first going to just explore what it is that God tells these Israelites remembering that this is for a specific group of people at a specific point in time.

After we’ve explored what it meant for the people at that time, we’ll then do the tricky task of trying to figure out what it means for us. But in the meantime, don’t get worried, I’m not about to suggest we start sacrificing animals!

Well, we’ve got three chapters, and I’m going to go pretty quickly through them. Each chapter has a slightly different, although similar function.

But one thing that is common to all of these, are that they are all free-will offerings. There are going to be other times when we find certain sacrifices need to be made at certain times, or for specific sacrifices after some sort of wrong has occured. But in these three chapters, that’s not what were picturing here. These are sacrifices that people make freely as a response to an awesome God. That is important to recognise as we go through them.

Burnt Offerings

In the first chapter, we come to what we call a burnt offering - and this is not to be confused with what happened at our house recently when the biscuits were left in the oven for a bit too long and they came out a very dark brown.

No, this is when an animal is sacrificed for God.

Now, if you read through this first chapter, it’s almost as if we’re given a premium, standard and budget option.

The premium option comes first, and this is a bull.

The standard option is a sheep or a goat.

And the budget option is a dove or pidgeon.

The reason the options are given is because it is to be accessible to everyone. If you are wealthy with a lot of resources, you go the bull. If you’re poor without much to offer, you can get access to a dove or pidgeon without too much hassle.

Now, I’m not going to go through all the details of how the sacrifice was to take place - you can read that for yourself, but I do want to highlight that the animal to be sacrificed is to be without defect - this is not about getting rid of the animals that are not up to scratch. When we give, we give our best.

But there’s another aspect I want to briefly consider. You see, in verse 4, when talking about the sacrifice of the bull, it talks about atonement. Now, we’re going to look at this concept of atonement in a lot more detail next week when we look at what is called the sin offering. In short, however, atonement deals with the sin problem, something that needs to happen if we are to approach God.

So while what we see in therse first three chapters are not specifically aimed at sin, they do however cleanse us in a way that is necessary for us.

Grain Offering

In the second chapter, we come to a different type of sacrifice, one that doesn’t involve the sacrifice of animals. This is called the “grain offering”.

I’m going to go quickly over this one, so I’ll just make a few remarks about it.

First, note that the offering is to be of the finest flour. Finest flour in this sense is actually abouthow well it has been milled. This is not just about getting a few head of grain from the harvest and saying- there you go… hard work needed to go into it before it’s presented to God.

Seoncd observation… the grain is mixed with oil and incense. This is because when you burn grain - it actually doesn’t smell very nice. The oil and incense however make it a pleasing aroma.

Third observation… the offering must be without yeast. Now, it’s not entirely clear why no yeast, but the ban does only apply when burning it.

Fellowship offering

But in the interest of time, let’s jump to the third chapter. We now come back to meat offering, but there’s a different function with this one.

In the NIV it’s called a fellowship offering. You might see in other translations it’s called a peace offering.

Now, if you just read chapter 3, you’ll be forgiven for thinking there’s actually not much difference between the burnt offering of chapter 1, and the fellowship offering here.

That’s partly because there is some pre-assumed knowledge here, which is not particularly helpful when we try reading it some 3500 years later.

Thankfully, however, if we flip forward to chapter 7, they go back over the various offerings, and we’re told a bit more detail. You see, while the fatty segments are burnt and effectively given to God, the rest is shared, and in fact, it all needs to be eaten on the same day.

It would seem that it gets it’s name of a fellowship offering, because it is an offering to God that brings everyone together.

Back in January this year, when we took a team from this church up to PNG, in some way we did something similar when they killed a pig and brought the community together. It was a thanksgiving to God, but also a special community moment. And yes, I am very much aware that the Jews would never have used a pig, as they were considered unclean animals.

Application

Well, I could spend a lot longer exploring some of the in’s and out’s of these three chapters, but we’ve got to come to the point now of what this means for us today.

So these three chapters are essentially saying, if you want to approach God, then there is an appropriate way to do it. It recognises that there is a giant chasm between us and God, but yet God can still be accessible.

But we live in a very different time. We live in a time when Jesus came to earth… God, in the form of a human… so that we can have a closer relationship with him. The sacrificial system has been abolished. Well, it been abolished in the sense of what we see here in Leviticus.

But, there is another kind of sacrifice that we are to do.

Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily.

Romans 12:1

Paul, however, in some ways expands this idea when he says in Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

We do make a sacrifice - but it’s not of animals - it’s of ourselves.

You see, while its true that we have a free gift whereby we’ve been made right before God without any works on our behalf, yet there is an appropriate response to this which requires effort on our behalf.

So what I want to do for the remainder of this message, is to take this idea of Paul where he calls us to be a living sacrifice, but to think of it through the lens of Leviticus 1-3.

Voluntary

Now, if we’re looking through the lens of Leviticus 1-3, then if you go back to one of the earlier comments I made - these are actually voluntary offerings that people can choose to make.

Well, in a sense, we’re not talking about something you need to do for salvation. Salvation is by faith and faith alone. But if you want to be drawing close to God… if you want to treat the one who has saved you in a way that he deserves… well, perhaps you need to think a bit more about how you act.

Accessible regardless of our means

One of the other things I mentioned with regards to the burnt offerings is that there were different options depending on the means of the person giving the offering.

Well, when we start to think about what we can offer God in our context, I want this to be a reminder that you have the means to honour God with what you already have.

You’ve got skills and resources that you can offer - you just need to start thinking what this is going to look like.

The best of us

Well, we need to start getting a bit more practical now.

What is it exactly that we can offer?

Well, in some ways it’s anything and everything. It’s offering your time to things that honour God, whether that be in service to others or the church, or whatever.

It might be using skills you have, whether that be music, maintenance, administration, or whatever.

It’s giving of your resources, whether that be money or things you have in your possession that might be of use to the church or others.

But here’s the thing we learn from Leviticus 1-3, whatever it is that you offer, it is to be the best of you.

So often we put so much energy into things that serve ourselves, and what little energy we have left, we give to others.

Now, let me just be clear in case I get misunderstood… I’m not talking against having a good work ethic in a job that’s not explicitly Christian. Sometimes the job we have is going to make us tired. I’m also not talking against working hard for our family, even when that leaves us tired.

But we do need to think - am I honouring God with my time. If you’re busy in the workplace, perhaps you could be asking, am I being honouring to God in the way I interact with my colleagues.

If you busy with family commitments, again, am I honouring God and teaching my family about Jesus?

And sometimes, we do need to have the honest question, is what I’m doing in life the best use of my time and resources? There’s not always an easy answer to that question, but it is worth asking it.

Brings us together

Now, there is more we could draw from these chapters in Leviticus when we consider what our living sacrifice looks like today, but I want to draw just one more thing from chapter 3 when it looked at the fellowship offering.

One of the things we see in the fellowship offering, is not only are you giving something that is pleasing to God, you are also drawing people together in community.

Showing love for God and showing love for those around us should not be two separate things, but they should be things that go together.

When we give to those in need, we are honouring God.

When we make a meal for those who are going through a tough time, we’re honouring God.

When we inviting people over for a meal, we honour God.

I love the name of fellowship offering because it implies it is both for God and to bring people together.

Conclusion

When we look at what the Israelites were asked to do, it was not easy.

If we want to honour God, we also need to recognise our task is not easy. We do need effort.

But we need to recognise just how holy and amazing our God is. When we recognise his greatness, we’ll recognise the effort is worth it.

Let me pray...