Leviticus 16:1-10 [NLTse]
1The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron’s two sons, who died after they entered the Lord’s presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before Him. 2The Lord said to Moses, “Warn your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses; if he does, he will die. For the Ark’s cover—the place of atonement—is there, and I Myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover.
3“When Aaron enters the sanctuary area, he must follow these instructions fully. He must bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4He must put on his linen tunic and the linen undergarments worn next to his body. He must tie the linen sash around his waist and put the linen turban on his head. These are sacred garments, so he must bathe himself in water before he puts them on. 5Aaron must take from the community of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
6“Aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family, making them right with the Lord. 7Then he must take the two male goats and present them to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle. 8He is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the Lord and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness of Azazel. 9Aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the Lord. 10The other goat, the scapegoat chosen by lot to be sent away, will be kept alive, standing before the Lord. When it is sent away to Azazel in the wilderness, the people will be purified and made right with the Lord.
A couple of significant things have happened since I was last with you here in this place: First, a majority of the 173 presbyteries across our parent denomination – the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – voted to permit unmarried, sexually-active straight and gay persons to serve in ordained leadership in the church; and, second, May 21st – so called “Judgment Day” – has come and gone.
Concerning “Judgment Day”: The Lord Jesus Himself said, “Keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.” My nine year old son, Caleb, and I were coming home from his baseball game yesterday, and we ran into several people discussing whether or not yesterday was truly going to be the end of the world. Caleb, said, “Dad, it can’t be the end of the world today. Jesus said we wouldn’t expect it and a lot of people are expecting it!” Well meaning though they may be, those who’ve been prophesying such things don’t make our Lord or His Church look good in doing so, nor do they help give credibility to all the Lord Jesus’ sure and certain promises to return for us when we least expect Him…
If you still have your Bibles open to Leviticus 16, look closely with me at verses 3 and 5. Notice in verse 3 that, as a sin offering for himself and his priestly family, the High Priest – Aaron – was required to bring and offer one young bull. In verse 5 notice that as a sin offering for all of the community of Israel Aaron was to take from them and offer two male goats. I did not do a complete tally of how many might have made up Aaron’s family at that time, but we know that two of his sons had died, leaving only two others. And if they had all been married, with five or six kids each, the whole priestly line would have been maybe thirty people, or so. As for Israel, Exodus 38:26 tells us they left Egypt with more than 600,000 men over the age of twenty. So add women and children and you’ve got two-million, or more?
So, correct me if I’m wrong, but [hands wide] a bull is being offered for the sins of the three priests and their perhaps 30 or so family members, but only [hands close] two goats are being offered for the two-million or so people of Israel? With the lowering of ordination standards going on in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in mind, I ask you, “If that’s not a reflection of the distinction the Lord God makes between leaders of His holy community and the members of His holy community, I don’t know what is!”
As we know from the success of televangelists and from the scandals of televangelists, religious leaders influence – for God or for bad – every single person the Lord brings under their leadership, and have a greater opportunity than others to impact the non-Christian community around them. So there’s a greater offering required to lead! And the sins of leaders are bigger – they affect more people and do more damage – than the same sins of those who don’t lead. And as the non-Christian world around us seeks to “lower the bar” for the integrity and character of its leaders, making leaders less responsible, holding leaders less accountable, and as our parent-denomination seems to be doing the same, across the pages of God’s holy Word we read of the Lord God setting and maintaining an incredibly high standard for those who would lead and shepherd His people.
As some of you know, my wife Amy and I were experiencing some significant struggles in our marriage there for a while. I shared about it then, and I can speak about it now, because the Bible tells you and me that if Christian couples can’t seek the Lord for, and grow past, their troubles then neither the man nor the woman is fit to lead God’s people. So addressing our troubles became Amy’s and my highest priority, we pulled out all the stops: We read books together; we saw Christian counselors singly and together; we asked forgiveness and offered forgiveness; we repented and changed our ways; and, by God’s grace, we’ve overcome much to His glory!
Many of you tell me kind and affirming things about the quality of my children’s character. Not only do I love that because I, too, am so very proud of them, but it’s important for me to know how you see my kids because they, also, are a part of God’s evaluation as to my suitability for leadership: A Christian leader must have children who respect and obey them. (That’s from 1 Timothy 3:4.) Because if a leader can’t manage their own household well, how can they take care of God’s Church, Paul writes.
Likewise, each one of you knows what I get paid: You approve my salary each year. And each one of you knows how much of that I give back to the church (or you can know, if you wanted to). So you know if I tithe, or even if I give more than the tithe… You see me at the grocery store, and can see what’s in my shopping cart. You know the cars I drive and the house I live in. You know if I have a reputation for being rude or polite towards clerks and shopkeepers, and how I treat and if I show favoritism to the great and the least-of-these among our neighbors here in Milford…
All of these types of things work together as part of the Lord God’s appraisal as to whether or not men and women should serve in the leadership of His Church. If I were to fail these assessments I would not be fit to lead. I wouldn’t receive that as judgment from our Father against me. I don’t look at it all as an unfair standard for Him to set. The Lord has not called missionaries, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, and other Christian ministry leaders to some insignificant, frivolous, inconsequential task. It is eternal work He has called us to: Eternal work that will help bring about the eternal destinies of God-only-knows-how-many human souls! It is right and fair that leaders be held to a higher standard! Not perfection. (The Word makes clear that, although God the Father sees us as perfect in Christ – praise Him! – this side of Christ’s return no one’s thoughts, words, and actions will ever be perfect.) But surely leaders should exhibit more maturity of the faith, should have overcome more sinful ways and habits, surely our lives should reflect a knowledge and an intimacy with Christ that is different – “farther along,” if you will – than many or perhaps even most of those we lead. Elders, Deacons, ministry leaders: Shouldn’t we?
Leaders: It is right that we are to offer a bull and the community to only offer goats. The non-Christian world and – with all due respect – the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are wrong in allowing leaders to bring a lesser offering. Perhaps one could argue that the non-Christian people of the world don’t know any better. But the leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) certainly do. And you can trust your Elders here at First Presbyterian to – by God’s grace – humbly yet resolutely lead us in following the Holy Spirit’s next steps for this congregation and our ongoing relationship with our parent church.
With our reading from Leviticus perhaps somewhere still in our minds or on the pages before us, hear this reading from the letter
To the Hebrews 9:11-12, 25-26 [NLTse]
11…Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. [Remember, Moses’ big brother Aaron was the first High Priest, whom we just read about in Leviticus. But Hebrews says,] …Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come.
[We just read that Aaron and the high priests of Israel entered the earthly Tabernacle with the blood of their own bull and of the peoples’ goat. But Hebrews goes on to say] [Christ] has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle [that is] in Heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With His Own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever…
25 [Leviticus tells us the Day of Atonement was a ritual to be carried out each and every year. But Hebrews writes,] [But Christ] did not enter Heaven to offer Himself again and again, like the high priest here on Earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. 26If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, He has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by His Own death as a sacrifice.
Can we praise Him? [Clapping!]