Baptist Men's Day

The Altar of Incense Exodus 30:1-10 INTRODUCTION: I grew up in Moncks Corner, which as most of you know is very much like Walterboro in a lot of ways. I didn’t realize what a sheltered life I had lived until I moved into my dormitory my freshman year at Carolina and began to experience campus life. My values had been ingrained in me by my small circle of family, faith, and friendships. My experiences had been limited to those offered by a typical small southern town culture. And my senses were surprisingly shocked by the new sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feel of life on a large university campus. I could give you so many examples of this real culture shock, but let me share this one: I remember the first time a strange, new odor permeated our second floor hallway. (And I’m not talking about the distinct odor of 40 freshmen who weren’t particular about personal hygiene!) It was a pleasant odor, but it was completely foreign to me. You want to know what it was? It was the smell of burning incense. I later learned that this was a part of the drug culture, so needless to say, my educational experience at Carolina encompassed more than my political science major! While burning incense and the drug culture were certainly new to me and to college campuses in the late 1960’s, burning incense has been around for thousands of years as our text for this morning will show. We have been looking at the subject of worship in a series called Building Altars, which has been about building a life of worship, and this morning we’re going to be looking at: THE ALTAR OF INCENSE: Now it’s important for us to note that the Altar of Incense and the altars we’ll be looking at in the next few weeks are different than the altars we have looked at so far. And here’s how: The altars that were built by Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses were temporary altars built in response to a personal encounter with God or in response to a mighty act of God. But the altars going forward are perpetual altars that the Hebrew people were told to build by God according to the Law God gave Moses on Mt. Sinai. These altars were to become a part of the corporate worship of God’s people that were associated with the Tabernacle first and then the Temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem. Let’s keep in mind that an important part of the journey of the Hebrew people from Egypt to the Promised Land was God forming them into his peculiar people, his Chosen People, a people who would serve him and worship him as the One, True God. And so he made a covenant with them by giving them the Law, and the centerpiece of the Law was the Decalogue – The Ten Commandments – And the first four commands are these: (1) You shall have no other gods before me. (2) You shall not make for yourselves any idol. (3) You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. (4) Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. And so later in the Law, the Lord gives Moses the particulars of the Tabernacle – the Tent of Meeting – the duties of the priests, the different holy days, the kinds of sacrifices, and the various altars. So with this Covenant God made with his Chosen People, worship was no longer just a spontaneous, individual response to God, it became a corporate responsibility – a shared experience. So God gave Moses instructions to build two altars: The Bronze Altar, which we’ll look at next week and The Golden Altar, which is also known as The Altar of Incense. Let’s look at the text. READ EXODUS 30:1-10 (NLT). Let’s look at several interesting things about this altar: • First, notice its construction. Picture this in your mind: It was 18 inches square and about 36 inches high. It was made of acacia wood, which was a high quality, hard wood that was strong and durable. Then it was overlaid with gold. That’s why its called the golden altar obviously, which says something about its value, not monetary terms, but in terms of worship. • Next, notice its sacredness. We see this in the two rings on either side through which poles were used to transport it. Why? Because it was too sacred to touch with human hands, just like the Ark, you might remember. • Then, notice its placement. It was placed in front of the curtain that was the entrance into the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant that represented the very presence of God, where God had said, “I will meet with you,” which is the very essence of worship, isn’t it? God and man meeting together, and the Altar of Incense is a very significant aspect of this. • Also, notice it’s daily use. Aaron, the High Priest, was to go into the Tabernacle and burn incense twice a day – the morning when he went in to put out the lamps, and at evening time when he lit the lamps, so that incense burned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. • Finally, notice its purity. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest was to purify the Altar of Incense with the blood of the atoning sacrifice to cleanse it of the sins of the people along with everything else in the Tabernacle or Temple as a way of keeping their worship pure and holy in the sight of God, but more importantly, keeping themselves pure and holy in the sight of God. So the burning of incense was a significant aspect of their corporate worship and daily relationship with the Lord. But, we have questions: How was it important? What purpose did it serve? It had to be more than ambiance. It had to be more than a mood setter. And how does this altar relate us? And the answer is this: The sweet smelling fragrance of he constantly burning incense that rose from the Golden Altar and filled the Tabernacle and covered the Ark represented the prayers of the people. So, listen: Prayer and worship are intertwined in man’s relationship with the Living God. Praying people are people of worship, and worshiping people are people of prayer. Look at some Scripture with me: • In Psalm 141, David cries out to God: “O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help! Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering.” (Psalm 141:1-2 NLT) • In Luke’s Gospel, when a priest named Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, is chosen to go into the Temple to burn the evening incense, Luke tells us, “While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.” (Luke 1:10 NLT) I don’t know about you, but it strikes me that at this pivotal moment in time, when the events of the Lord’s coming are beginning to unfold, the people are gathered to worship and are they’re praying. And it just reminds us that when God’s people are worshiping and seeking God in prayer, God moves in powerful ways. • Another powerful passage is found in the book of Revelation that portrays the events of the end times, including the suffering of the saints and many to the point of being killed because of their testimonies for the Lord Jesus. This is what John saw in his vision of heaven: READ REVELATION 8:3-5 NLT. This was a powerful message to the people of John’s day and to the people throughout history and certainly today – that our prayer do reach heaven and in his own perfect time God is going to act. He’s going to fulfill his promise to judge the living and the dead and deliver the saints to an Everlasting Kingdom where “He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.[a] He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (Revelation 21:3-4 NLT) The purpose of John’s vision is the purpose of the Altar of Incense, which is the power of the persevering, the persistent, and the pleasing prayers of God’s people as they worship him in spirit and truth. Now consider with me: WHAT LESSONS WE MIGHT LEARN AT THIS GOLDEN ALTAR: • Lesson One: God expects his people to pray. That seems like a no-brainer to most of us because most of us do pray, right? But do we actually live up to and live out this expectation? Aren’t we guilty of making prayer a convenience more so than a conviction? Aren’t we guilty of making prayer a last resort rather than a lifestyle? Aren’t we guilty of making prayer a footnote in our corporate worship rather than the act and attitude that takes us into the very presence of God? Praying people worship, and worshiping people pray! • Lesson Two: The right kind of prayer pleases God. But understand this: Not everything we call prayer is prayer, and not every prayer pleases God. But prayers from the heart, prayers offered in faith, and prayers humility and surrender are the kind of prayers that please God. On the other hand, empty, self-serving, self-righteous, and un-repentant prayers stir God’s righteous anger against us. If we think God hears or receives all our prayers, we’re terribly mistaken. Listen to what the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah: “When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.” (Isaiah 1:15 NLT) And I think about the story Jesus told in Luke 18 about the two men who went up to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and one was a despised tax collector. Remember how that went? • Lesson Three: Prayer ought to be an unbroken act and spiritual attitude of a life of worship, service, and fellowship with God. We see this in the Altar of Incense in which incense burned on the Golden Altar day and night without ceasing. It’s what Paul meant when he said, “Never stop praying!” (I Thessalonians 5:17 NLT) He doesn’t mean, and God doesn’t expect, that we spend every waking moment on our knees in prayer. What he’s saying, and I think this is what God expects, that as the people of God in whom the Spirit of God dwells, that we live continuously in a conscious awareness of God’s presence and the unbroken communion and oneness we have with the Lord Jesus Christ and with one another. This is how we develop a life of worship, and this is how we’ll realize our VISION of Rekindling the Fire of God’s Presence and our MISSION as Torchbearers of the Gospel. RESPONSE: I said a few weeks ago that I have a feeling that so often we come to worship and do what we call worship, but after the benediction, after the last Amen and everybody leaves, God looks at the Altar and there’s nothing there. It’s empty. The altar is a place of sacrifice. It’s where we give to God the offerings of our lives, and that includes our prayers. Somehow, brothers and sisters, we’ve got to reclaim the Golden Altar in our worship and realize anew the value and priority and connection between how we worship and how we pray. Praying people worship, and worshiping people pray. What’s God saying to you this morning and how will you respond?