Good Friday Service - Our Day of Atonement

Leviticus 16.

If you're using the pew Bible, you'll find that on page 99.

As we often mention, if you're visiting tonight and you don't have a copy of God's word for yourself, then please take the one there in the pew, take it home and read it.

We'd love to have that be our gift for you.

This evening I'm going to be reading the first 19 verses of Leviticus, chapter 16.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

This is what God's word says.

This is what God's word says.

The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron's sons when they approached the presence of the Lord and died.

The Lord said to Moses tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat on the ark, or else he will die because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

Aaron is to enter the most holy place in this way, with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

He is to wear a holy linen tunic and linen undergarments are to be on his body.

He has to tie a linen sash around him and wrap his head with linen turban.

These are holy garments.

He must bathe his body with water.

Before he wears them, he has to take from the Israelite community two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

Aaron will present the bull for his sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household.

Next he will take the two goats and place them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

After Aaron casts lots for the two goats one lot for the Lord and the other for an uninhabitable place he is to present the goat chosen by lot for the Lord and sacrifice it as a sin offering.

But the goat chosen by lot for an uninhabitable place is to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement with it by sending it into the wilderness for an uninhabitable place.

When Aaron presents the bull for his sin offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he will slaughter the bull for his sin offering moment for himself and his household.

He will slaughter the bull for his sin offering.

Then he is to take a fire pan full of blazing coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground, fragrant incense and bring them inside the curtain.

He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord so that the cloud of incense covers the mercy seat that is over the testimony, or else he will die.

He is to take some of the bull's blood and sprinkle it with his finger against the east side of the mercy seat.

Then he will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger before the mercy seat seven times.

When he slaughters the male goat for the people's sin offering and brings its blood inside the curtain, he will do the same with its blood as he did with the bull's blood.

He is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it he will make atonement for the most holy place in this way, for all the sins because of the Israelites' impurities and rebellious acts.

He will do the same for the tent of meeting that remains among them because it is surrounded by their impurities.

No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the most holy place until he leaves.

After he has made atonement for himself, his household and the whole assembly of Israel, then he will go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it.

He has to take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it on the horns on all the sides of the altar.

Let's look to the Lord, father.

We thank you that we have, in Jesus Christ, a great high priest, and you have spoken to us through your son.

We thank you that you appointed him to be heir over all things.

Through him Also, you made the world, and the world and everything in it finds the kinds of impurities we read about in this passage.

The kinds of impurities we read about in this passage.

Lord, give our hearts a sense of desire to understand and conviction to see our need.

Tonight we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Good Friday is about an event that took place in the Roman world some 2,000 years ago.

In the Roman world some 2,000 years ago.

The passage I just read here in Leviticus.

This is about a ritual that began in the life of Israel some 3,500 years ago.

What do either of those two events have to do with us?

Today?

We don't do the rituals I just read about here.

There's no sacred tent of meeting, there's no bloody sacrifices, there's no purification rituals.

In this same way, there's no mercy seat.

God wants us to learn from Israel's history.

When we understand Israel's day of atonement, we'll be better able to understand Jesus and the sacrifice that he offered on the cross, and we'll be better equipped to recognize our own need for atonement.

Because, friends, that's what we all need.

We need atonement.

Atonement because, friends, that's what we all need.

We need atonement.

We're going to look at Israel's day of atonement with three key words tonight.

We're going to look at the place, the process and then the prophecy.

So those three ideas where did the day of atonement take place?

What was the place?

And then the process what did God prescribe to happen on this day of atonement take place?

What was the place?

And in the process, what did God prescribe to happen on this day of atonement?

And then, how does it look forward to what Christ accomplished?

First, the place.

Many writers mention that this day of atonement here in Leviticus 16, is at the heart of Israel's life as a nation.

It's even at the heart of the first five books of the Bible, right there in the very center.

And where did it take place?

Well, we read again in verse 16, he will make atonement for the most holy place in this way, for all their sins, because of the Israelites, impurities and rebellious acts, for all their sins, because of the Israelites, impurities and rebellious acts.

He will do the same for the tent of meeting that remains among them.

Verse 16 mentions two places it mentions the tent of meeting and it mentions the holy place.

Let's try to get the picture in our minds.

Israel's come out of Egypt, they've entered into a covenant with God at Mount Sinai.

God's given them many instructions, including instructions given here, and as they traveled through the wilderness they would have to stop and set up camp and of course there'd be individual tents for families.

But the Levites, the group of priests, were in charge of setting up this sacred area right in the middle of their encampment, and the tent of meeting was a large canvas structure there in that sacred area.

Okay, who would meet in the tent of meeting?

No one.

Are you confused?

No one would meet in the tent of meeting.

Look at verse 17.

No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the most holy place until he leaves after he's made atonement for himself, his household and the whole assembly of Israel.

The he here is Aaron, who is the high priest at the time.

He's going to be future high priest, but no one else can go in, only Aaron.

This is not like a parent-teacher conference where all the families come in and he tells them how little Benny is doing in his classes.

It's not that at all, it's just Aaron.

The high priest goes in alone.

The other place mentioned here is the most holy place.

So if you have this large tent of meeting in the sacred area, the tent of meeting, made of canvas curtains, is also divided up by other large curtains, and the room that's center, most within the tent of meeting, is called the most holy place.

How could a place be called the most holy place?

Only if the most holy God is there, the God who is holy, holy, holy.

Verse number two the Lord said to Moses tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat on the ark, or else he will die because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

The holy place in the ark of the covenant, with the mercy seat, was God's throne room.

That was his symbolic dwelling place.

So there was a meeting.

The high priest was meeting with God.

This isn't just ritual for ritual's sake.

This is about meeting with God.

Now, before we press on and look at the process.

As we think about the place, this is not the first point in history when God has had a sacred meeting place with his people.

In the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, god wanted to commune with his people, and we don't see all the details here in Leviticus 16, but as you look at other parts of scripture, there are some very fascinating parallels between the garden of Eden and this tabernacle complex.

Adam and Eve were commanded to work and keep the garden.

Adam and Eve were commanded to work and keep the garden.

Those two exact Hebrew words are used of the priests who are told to work and keep this sacred tabernacle area.

Those canvas curtains, the walls that were in the tent of meeting.

They were embroidered with cherubim.

And above God's throne, above the mercy seat of the ark, there were two carved cherubim.

If you remember, back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve are expelled after they rebel against God, two cherubim are placed to guard the entrance to that sacred garden.

So Israel's day of atonement wasn't just about atonement for Israel.

It's a reminder of the separation from God that all humans experience ever since the Garden of Eden.

Israel needed atonement and we need atonement.

Second, the process.

God gives a number of instructions about what was to happen on this date.

Its process is entirely regulated by God.

Even the high priest, even Aaron himself.

He's not allowed to just rush into the holy place and offer a sacrifice however he wants.

There's a warning right away in verse number one.

The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron's sons, and then it tells us how they died.

They tried to offer incense to the Lord, they tried to approach the Lord in their own way and the Lord judged them because he hadn't given them those commands.

You can see as well in verse number two if that warning about the sons who died wasn't enough.

Verse number two says the Lord said to Moses tell your brother Aaron that he may not come in whenever he wants to the most holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat on the ark.

Or else he will die because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat on the ark, or else he will die Because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

Anyone who's going to seek atonement must seek atonement in God's way.

As we read through this passage, the process might have sounded a little bit elaborate passage.

The process might have sounded a little bit elaborate, but there's some repeated ideas and themes here.

Purification, you might have noticed, is very important.

So in verse number four, the high priest has to put on holy garments, garments devoted to the priestly task.

He has to bathe his body in water before he goes in and then, when he makes the offering, the words blood and atonement come up repeatedly.

In verse 14, a bull and a goat are slaughtered and he sprinkles animal's blood on the side of the mercy seat.

Now, why is that done?

When we think about purifying things, the washing with water, we very much understand.

But how does smearing blood on something purify it?

You would think that would make it more difficult to clean up, more dirty, more polluted.

Well, we have an answer in verse number 11.

When Aaron presents the bull for his sin offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he will slaughter the bull for his sin offering.

The blood purifies, because the blood is what provides atonement or covering over for sin.

You can see it again in verses 15 and 16.

He slaughters the male goat for the people's sin offering and brings the blood inside the curtain.

He will do the same with its blood as he did with the bull's blood, he's to sprinkle it against the mercy seat in front of it.

He will make atonement for the most holy place in this way, for all their sins, because of the Israelites, impurities and rebellious acts.

So sin is covered over with this blood.

Sin is so serious it demands death.

The wages of sin is death.

Death and the blood is something God accepts as temporary payment.

The animal dies.

There's a temporary covering over Now.

This was an event in Israel's life, but I say again, it was indicating a greater need, a need that the whole world needed.

I said earlier that this whole area was constructed like a miniature Garden of Eden and even in the process you see some of these clues of God's greater purposes.

So in verses 14 and verse 19, they sprinkle the blood seven times.

The very first time in scripture we read something happening seven times.

God made the world in seven days and it was all very good.

But now it's all polluted and defiled because of Adam and Eve's sin, your sin and my sin.

And then I know this is a small detail, but verse number 14 says when the high priest enters, he first has to purify the east side of the mercy seat.

Why would that matter?

Well, have in your mind in the most holy place here's the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat and the carved cherubim.

And he has to purify the east side when he comes in.

The entrance for the whole sacred complex is also on the east side.

So he comes in, he has to cleanse himself, bathe himself proper clothes, offer sacrifices and he's progressing in.

Then when he comes in the most holy place, the very first approach to the seat of God, he's got to sprinkle blood to purify that.

So he's traveling from west back to or I'm sorry, I'm getting confused, I'm not turning around here.

He's traveling from the east, going back in west.

Earlier I said when Adam and Eve get expelled from the Garden of Eden.

Earlier I said when Adam and Eve get expelled from the Garden of Eden, they get expelled east of Eden and two cherubim are placed there.

It's as if the high priest is retracing the steps of Adam and Eve out from exile back into the holy presence where God is.

This atonement for Israel was instruction for all humanity.

And that leads to the final key word for tonight.

We looked at the place, process prophecy.

The verses I read don't sound like a prophecy and the way that we think of a prophecy.

And the word of the Lord came to Moses.

70 years are decreed, and then Israel will.

It's not like that at all.

It's just describing a ritual.

It's a law, right?

Well, yes, it is a law, but it's also a picture prophecy.

God directs Israel's high priest each year to act out a dramatic picture.

This holy place was the theater of atonement Not theater in the sense of entertainment, but a dramatic rendering of what was needed.

And it was repeated year after year after year.

Israel's day of atonement wasn't a complete return to Eden.

Only the high priest gets to go in, not all of the Israelites, and they have to do it every single year.

When is this going to end?

When are the animals going to stop getting slaughtered?

When is people's sin going to be atoned for once and for all?

That's what makes Good Friday so good.

Jesus Christ came as the fulfillment of that picture prophecy.

He didn't have to offer a sacrifice for himself, he didn't have to purify or cleanse himself, because he was holy, harmless and undefiled.

He came as the great and final high priest.

He came as the perfect and pure lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He came as the very tent of meeting with God, he said he came to tabernacle among his people.

God, he said he came to tabernacle among his people.

He didn't die for that nation alone, but to gather into one people all of the children of God scattered abroad.

The reason we don't have to sacrifice lambs or goats is because Christ has done it all.

He's taken the judgment that was deserved.

He's taken the death that stood in place ever since the very beginning.

God, the Father, poured out his wrath on his son once and for all, that we might have life.

And that brings us all the way back to the question we started with.

The question we started with have we learned from Israel's history?

Have we learned what we need?

Just as Adam and Eve needed, just as all humans need, we need atonement.

And have you accepted Christ's sacrifice of atonement?

There's no other way to be united to God.

If we try to come in our own way, with our own ideas, with our own good works, god won't accept those.

But there's grace.

We don't have to provide our own works.

God has offered up Christ that we receive and believe and trust and turn, and that's all there is left.

So, friends, if you have not received that atoning work of Christ.

Come and receive him tonight, find that the threat of judgment gives way to everlasting mercy.

This is what our Lord has done for us.

This is what we remember and celebrate with these communion elements.

Remember and celebrate with these communion elements.

Not my works, nothing in my hands I bring.

Simply to the cross I cling.

Let's pray, oh Lord.

These are solemn truths and yet, at the same time, such joyful truths.

Joyful truths for those of us who know by experience, by the testimony of your word, that our sins are forgiven on account of Christ, that our sins are forgiven for his namesake, that, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we don't have to fear evil.

You have given us all things in Christ, the son.

So, lord, give us obligations of praise and thanks, give us the heart to be able to match and measure the grace and mercy that we've received.

That we'd never make light of our sins, but that we would indeed make much of our sins, but that we would indeed make much of your son.

This day and every day, we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.