Leviticus: God’s Glory and Orienting Our Lives

Ha hey, happy Masters Sunday.

Y'all excited?

I woke up early this morning and it's still dark out, and you know, most pastors wake up and open their Bibles and I turned on live from the Masters.

I gotta get caught up to know what's gonna happen today.

Uh well, today we are back in the book of Leviticus.

Uh we started studying it in January.

We took a break for Lent.

Last week, Matt jumped us back into it in Leviticus 8, where we saw Aaron uh becoming the high priest, and so that's where we're gonna jump back in today.

What in the world does an Old Testament, strange, seemingly unrelatable, ritualistic book have to do with our lives?

Well, let's review just a bit.

Leviticus is structured a very particular way to tell us something.

Chapters 1 through 16 take us somewhere, and then chapters 17 through 27 take us somewhere else.

You can see the structure of it up on the screens.

Chapters 1 through 7, which we spent in January and February, we learned about the five sacrifices, this sacrifice, that sacrifice, the different sacrifices.

We learned all about that.

And then last week we began the priesthood.

We'll be in that this week and next week.

And then we go to instructions for purity, 11 through 15.

Everything is taking us to the Day of Atonement, the middle of the book, the climax.

And this is why this book is so Jesus-y.

It helps us understand Hebrews in the New Testament, and Hebrews is like the commentary on Leviticus.

Um, they all fit together.

All this Bible fits together.

Out of that climax, the Day of Atonement, the Code for Purity, how we should live, back to priesthood, back to ritual.

Let's jump in Leviticus 9, verse 1 through 7.

Leviticus 9:1–7

On the eighth day, Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, and he said to Aaron, Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.

So we studied all these different offerings or sacrifices in that chapters one through seven, both without blemish, and offered them before the Lord, and say to the people of Israel, Take a male goat for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, again another offering that we already studied, to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering, there's the other offering, mixed with oil for today, the Lord will appear to you.

Verse 5.

And they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting.

So sometimes that tent of meeting is called the tabernacle.

And all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord, and Moses said, This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.

Then Moses said to Aaron, draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people, and bring the offering of the people and make atonement for them as the Lord has commanded you.

See, this was Aaron's job as the high priest to make these sacrifices.

Point number one is this God's heart, God's heart is to know you and to be known by you.

This is the mission that God is on that we read, getting played out in the scriptures.

So here in chapter 9, Aaron is now ready as the high priest to begin his ministry in this tabernacle, this tent of meeting that's in the center of God's people.

He's residing, God is right, residing with his people to make himself known.

In the Old Testament, we're seeing it step by step, and we see it fulfilled in Jesus.

Two weeks ago, for the first time ever, more people watched the women's college basketball championship game than the men's women, right?

Amen.

Amen, women.

All because of one woman.

Do you know who she is?

Caitlin Clark.

Iowa's Caitlin Clark.

All because of this woman.

This woman, she is the all-time leading scorer in all of college basketball history.

And she launches three-pointers.

Like at any point, anywhere on the court.

It is absurd where she will shoot from.

It is just, it's it's just it's kind of breathtaking.

Like you think there's no way she's gonna shoot, and then she shoots.

You're like, oh my gosh.

She sells out every stadium she plays in.

She's sponsored by Nike and State Farm and Gatorade.

This past year has been known as the Caitlin Clark Effect.

This is how much power she has.

Well, she lost the big game, she lost the championship game.

But what was clear during the game was very clear from the announcers.

They talked about her like the whole time.

Like she played the whole game.

Everybody in the stadium is aware where she is.

The announcers are always aware where she is.

If you're watching, you're just watching her.

Like everything is about her.

Everyone else orients themselves around her.

Right?

Her glory, her power is known.

So this just begins to get an idea of this tent of meeting.

God, creator of the world, this is an image of the tent of meeting, what it would look like.

God created the world, fullness of power, beauty, holiness, decides to reside with his people.

And everything would have oriented around him.

Because he is the powerful one.

His presence changes everything else.

Now, back in verse 2, this is the only place in Scripture where a bull calf is specified as a sin offering, which means nothing to us.

Who cares, right?

That's what you think.

Who cares?

But to Aaron, this would have meant everything.

Because back in Exodus 32, Aaron was part of being unfaithful to God.

The people's rebellion from God.

God's people have been saved.

God saved them out of Egypt.

They're in the desert.

God's providing for his people in amazing, miraculous ways.

And then the leader, Moses, he goes up on the mountain to experience God and be with God.

And Moses says, Hey, just be faithful while I'm gone.

Just hold it together.

You can hold it together.

And of course, they can't.

They don't hold it together.

Then Aaron is part of that.

And they take a bunch of gold and they form an idol, a physical idol, a golden calf.

Because they didn't want to wait.

They didn't want to trust God.

They wanted to do something themselves.

And God says to Aaron, take that animal.

Right?

So this is God's way of saying everything, even your biggest, most known, the thing that's on replay, the mistake that's on replay in your mind.

Like even that sin is provided for.

And forgiven.

God's saying to us, I already know everything about you.

I know about that big one.

And that is forgiven.

Do you see how personal this God is?

And forgiving.

In Leviticus 9, verses 7 through 21, Aaron as the high priest, he goes into the Ten of Meeting to the altar and he makes all these sacrifices.

Leviticus 9:7–21

He follows the exact processes that chapters 1 through 7 give us and that we study.

And then Aaron comes out to the people, and in verse 22 through 24, here's what happens.

Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them.

And he came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, the peace offerings.

Then Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out, they blessed the people.

And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.

And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar.

And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

So point number two is this our lives should orient around God as He is our ultimate treasure.

Verse 6, Moses says, Hey, the Lord will appear to you.

God's people had not experienced anything like that yet.

In Exodus 19, Moses experienced God up on the mountain, but the people experienced God as thunder and lightning and a thick cloud.

And now Moses is saying, No, you're going to experience him very personally.

This was a holy God with an unclean, imperfect people.

And Moses says, Hey, he'll appear to you.

It would have been like last week, the eclipse.

The eclipse.

And somebody's saying, just look at it.

You can look at it.

Go on outside.

Take a good long look.

You'll be fine.

Right?

No, no, no.

None of us did that.

We all walk outside and we're like this.

Like, do you do you have any glasses?

You know, you put on those weird glasses, you're like, oh, okay, that's great.

Okay, it's like, all right, I'll go back inside now.

That's what I did.

Took about 30 seconds.

Some of y'all went on trips.

I just went to the parking lot for 30 seconds.

Weird glasses.

But if somebody said, like, oh no, you can look at it, look at it.

Like, take a good long glass.

Like, no, that would have been filled with maybe like a little excitement.

Like, oh, I'm gonna look at it like I'm gonna look at it without glasses.

No, because we're not enough, right?

Like, we're not enough to look at it.

And that's the point here of what these people would feel like.

They would have been filled with joy and like reverence and fear and excitement.

That them is not enough could be in relationship with God.

And then in verse 23, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.

This actually happened.

The word glory is the word kabod, meaning honor, splendor, and abundance.

Glory is something of weight, meaning it has supreme value.

Something so worthy it changes everything else.

It's the royal merchant treasure on the Netflix show Outer Banks.

If you're under 30, you know what I'm talking about.

John B.

and JJ and Key and Sarah and Pope.

I can't even talk about Rafe and Ward because they're so horrible.

A$400 million gold treasure.

It's a show about teenagers making horrible life decisions.

You can just, you can show the actually you can show the show to your teenager and say, do nothing like this, and you will have a successful life.

And everybody in the show, everybody in the show will do anything for the treasure.

Anything.

Their entire lives orient around the treasure.

This is the power of glory, something that has so much worth and so much weight that it lures you, it attracts you, and it holds you.

It's enough to hold you.

So a growth in grace question for us is what do you give worth to and orient your life around?

That's not to say list it out and shame on you.

That's to say maybe perhaps in the grace of God repent, but also more grace on you that you might treasure what can actually hold you.

Does it or they have the weight, the glory to properly hold and fulfill you?

Or do you feel you're tossing about?

Does the treasure of your heart have the weight to hold you?

To save you?

To forgive you?

Can the treasure of your heart love you when you're not performing?

Can the treasure of your heart love you when you are unfaithful?

Can the treasure of your heart be with you when you're suffering?

Can it give you a purpose that's bigger than yourself?

And 1 Corinthians, when Paul's urging us away from illusions of fulfillment, he finally summarizes by saying, 1 Corinthians 10 31, so whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Like he is treasure, he is worth and value and weight is enough for our lives to orient around him.

Leviticus 9 24.

And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar.

And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Point number three is this by God's grace we experience him as consuming and accepting of us.

Through his grace.

And every other neighboring tribe, fire signaled the arrival of God, a God.

But this God of Israel was different because this God resides with them right at the center of their camp to bless them.

And in verse 24, the fire consumes, fully consumes the sacrifice as a way to say, by grace I accept you.

Fire's a constant biblical image throughout the scriptures.

And for those who have reason to fear God, fire is like hiking in a dry forest.

You'd be filled with fear.

But to those who receive the love of God, the provision of a sacrifice outside of yourself, Jesus for us, fire becomes something altogether different, doesn't it?

God becomes like an all-consuming fire, but like a fire on a in a safe fireplace that warms us.

And see, beloved, that's the truth that we have in this God that through Jesus, fire speaks of God's warmth and our welcome and his blessing over us.

In verse 22, we read that Aaron raised his hands and spoke a blessing over the people.

And point number four is this the ultimate blessing is God's free, loving, and transformative presence with us.

There's no greater blessing that we're gonna stumble into in life.

There's no income level, there's no status that all of a sudden is gonna be greater than this.

In February, this video went viral of a little girl, little elementary school girl, who comes into school and her principal and her have the same birthday.

This is the morning of their birthday.

This is what happens.

Right?

She won't remember any gifts.

She won't remember what her spelling grade test was.

She'll remember him.

She will remember him for the rest of her life.

See, we think we want more and more gifts, or we think we need more and more gifts, or more answers.

Or if you're like me, control freaks, more control.

Anyone say, yep, answer me, more control would be nice.

But in God's presence, everything else finds its proper place.

In Leviticus, we learn that God resided in the center of his people.

The New Testament expands this idea of presence, grounds it of Christ inside of us.

Listen to Colossians.

Paul writes this Colossians 1, 19 and 20, for in him, in Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Seven verses later, verse 27, to them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of his glory, of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

What does this mean for you?

Well, it means in Jesus we experience the fullness of God's weight and treasure.

There's no more glory than Jesus.

Meaning Christ is enough to hold us and he is worthy of our lives.

In Jesus, we have all the acceptance with God that we will ever need.

Meaning Christ is our acceptance.

So spiritual anxiety and fear can begin to fade and begin to heal.

And in Jesus, we have our loving God who resides with us.

He's not separate, he's not for special people, he's not just for the priest.

This God resides in you.

Christ is for you and with you.

As a middle school kid, I went to Burt Marion Methodist Church and we had a youth group on Sunday night, and at five o'clock you could show up and we would play touch football.

That's why I showed up.

I loved that touch football game as a little pump sixth grade kid.

And after that, we would we had a little snack supper.

It serves like a hot dog and chips or something.

And then we went into a room and Barbara would teach us a lesson.

And I don't remember any of these lessons.

I don't remember anything that Barbara said.

I really, really loved the football part of the whole evening.

But at the end of the youth group lesson, she had all of us stand up and you stood on the prim of the room and you held each other's hands, and you recited this thing.

I didn't know what it was.

This kind of like mantra, just felt like a churchy mantra to me, is all it felt like.

I had no idea what it was or where it was from or anything like that, but you said it every single week, so it just kind of got in you like over time.

Like, well, what I've learned now is this is the blessing of Aaron.

The Aaronic blessing was what it's called from the book of Numbers.

Now, in verse 22 here in Leviticus 9, Aaron blesses the people.

So perhaps, maybe it's this ironic blessing.

It could be something else, but Aaron blesses the people as a way to release and remind people of God's covenant care of them.

So I want to close the sermon by praying this blessing, this ironic blessing over you from Numbers 6, 24 through 26.

And you can either read on the screens, you can bow your head, you can open your hands however you want to receive this.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Heavenly Father, thank you that Jesus is the fulfillment of all of this ritual and religion.

And he is enough for all the forgiveness that we need to be accepted with you.

Thank you that Jesus is enough for us.

And that you are not separate, you are not distant, but that you actually reside in us, Christ in us, hope of glory.

Would we repent all the more of all the treasures of our hearts that are worthless, hold no weight, and let us down?

Put grace on us.

And would there be more grace on us to treasure you all the more?

Holy Spirit, would you increase our trust in you?

That we would treasure Jesus in greater ways.

And that our lives would orient around you.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.