The Goat Has Left The Building

and now you are in for is a hard to describe gift Rob Bell I think in the last couple weeks has become a very special friend of Willow Creek Community Church and of me as well and just has been gifted by God in very unique very creative ways to open scriptures up in a way that is you know profoundly deep and life-changing and off-the-wall and unforgettable and we are so grateful aren't we that he has become kind of our friend so would you give a huge welcome to rock out ah so we're friends are we okay or we are we sisters and brothers from different mothers I want to invite you to turn to the Book of Leviticus chapter 16 and I'm serious tonight I want to walk you through chapter 16 of Leviticus I know for many of you you haven't memorized but please humor the rest of us and follow along in the text we're going to celebrate communion partway through the teaching so I want to walk through some pictures some images a little bit because 16 gives us and then we'll celebrate communion and then then I'll continue teaching and kind of hopefully bring together some loose strands Leviticus 16 love I took us 16 now if you're new to the Scriptures I want to walk you through a picture now the Bible's the Bible rose in an Eastern culture we live in a Western culture and Eastern culture thinks in terms of pictures and images and metaphors our culture tends to think of lists and propositions we tend to think of definitions and so we take great pride or we place great value on technical precise words and lists and ways of describing things in an Eastern culture which is the world of the Bible they think in pictures so abstract principles abstract theological ideas aren't always just listed out in very careful ways and outlines and kind of logically they're often we're just given things to do or visuals to ponder Leviticus 16 the heading on your chapter should say the Day of Atonement now in the life of Jesus the feast calendar of the Jewish scripture the Hebrew Scripture was central to the life of a Torah observant Jew there were seven feasts beginning with Passover going all the way through to the fall feast of the Tabernacles and the feasts were built around the festival the harvest season and so there were these seven appointed times when God had said I will meet with you in very special ways and so to understand the world of Jesus is to understand the seven festival days all that went with them the Feast of Tabernacles is actually a week at least and to understand that there was this rythm of celebration and partying to the life of God's people to be in Jesus day to be a follower of God was to know how in the actual Hebrew word here is part a so the day of atonement fits within a larger and I wish we had time tonight to walk through the whole feast thing by the way the word McCraw which is a Hebrew word for festivals and convocations can also be translated rehearsals so the festivals could also be seen as rehearsals for something to come now the day of atonement came ten days from the new year the new year was called Rosh Hashanah let me hear you say Rosh Hashanah it's a first date it happens roughly the end of September there would be the blowing of the shofar which we think was a trumpet ram's horn the Jewish New Year would begin with Rosh Hashanah a new start the blowing of the trumpet was God's Way of getting his at the attention of his people and this would inaugurate what is called the ten Days of Awe you began the new year by wiping a slate clean the blowing of the trumpet would get your attention ten days of deep soul-searching ten days of examining yourself 10 days sometimes 10 days of fasting in anticipation of the day of atonement if you're taking notes the word atonement means to cover over so atonement is to have your sins covered over so you would begin the year by looking deep in your bones looking for ways in which you've fallen short of God and then you would enter the tenth day which was called Day of Atonement also called Yom Kippur let me say Yom Kippur this holy moment the day of atonement was central to the life of what it meant to be a person of the text David Tolin verse 1 the Lord spoke to Moses Yahweh spoke to Moshe after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the Lord Lord said to Moses tell your brother Aaron Aaron as the high priest not to come whenever he chooses into the most holy place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark or else he will die because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover God says when you come into my presence do it this way don't do it the way it's been done this is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering the day of atonement centered around the actions of the high priest now I want to show you what the high priest would have looked like because the high priest would be going on behalf of you into the presence of God to seek forgiveness on behalf of the sins of the community so on the day of atonement when the high priest would enter in his full vestments that had been designed down to the last detail he is going to act on your behalf he is going to go into the presence of God on your you the community's behalf now there is n there is endless stuff going on with the high priest now if this dude is going into God's presence on behalf of you you want him to have his junk in order would you agree okay you don't want him to be messing around the night before out like knocking a few back well hey it's gonna be a long day tomorrow okay are we all clear on this notice what it says verse 4 he is to put on the sacred linen tunic with linen undergarments next to his body he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban these are the sacred garments so he must bathe himself with water goes through a mikvah which is a washing before he puts them on for the Israelite community is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering notice 6 Aaron is to offer the bowl for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household so the ceremony begins by the high priest going through his own sacrifices for himself and his household so that he will be purified before he acts on your behalf makes sense ok now there's 'unless tradition about the lengths I mean this is your this is your chance to be made pure as a community before God until next year so this moment is unbelievably serious there are legends about the lengths to which they would go to make sure that the high priest was clean spiritually and clean ceremonially there's tradition that says that at certain points a man would be assigned to keep the high priest awake all night the night before in case he had any sort of nocturnal issues your enemy like this how do you say these things other than just take you to a verse I guess I don't that's right here because if he was defiled in any way if he had any ceremonial uncleanness involving anything right down to the body fluids and he is not pure and unable to enter into the presence there is even tradition that says that there they had a wife waiting in the wings in case his died so that they can immediately marry him so he would have no stain of death whatsoever on himself and you can go another things fascinating about is the vestments the outfit which were designed in detail Authority and specifications given in the end of Exodus during the Roman occupation the Romans were so intent on letting you know that your neck was under their boot in Jesus day they the Romans were so set on you knowing that they ruled the land and they were the gods of the land that the vestments were kept in the Roman Praetorian the Roman military garrison and every time the Jews had a sacred feast they had to go to a man named Pilate and asked for permission to bring out the vestments for their ceremony just so the Jews would be reminded on their most holy days that they were subjected to the Romans that's how deeply the Roman oppression went now there are twelve stones on the breast piece each of the stones represents one of the twelve tribes of Israel so symbolic the number picks remember images number metaphors on her pictures the high priest symbolically carries upon himself the people of God now let me show you a picture of an artist rendering of the tabernacle this is an irony of what it would have looked like the tabernacle the instructions given in Exodus 20:5 you can see you'd enter at the bottom you see the altar past the altars what's call a mikvah where the priest would was ceremonially wash with water so they would be clean and they would enter into what's called the tent of meeting which had an outer room and an inner room the inner room was called the Holy of Holies there were several articles on the outer room there was the showbread and there was a lampstand by the way jesus said I am the light of the world there was a table with bread jesus said I am the bread of life if you study what was in the tent some things start to pop out maybe the tent is a picture of some buddy now the 12 tribes camped around the tent of meeting three on one side three on another three on another three another so they were surrounded by twelve encampments of tribes there's some fascinating ancient sources that talk about the fact that when God lives in the heavens God dwells in the heavens he's surrounded in the heavens by the stars by the constellations and so there was a belief in the ancient world you can find ancient sources that spoke that the ancients divided the stars into what are called twelve different groupings they're called signs and that each of those signs had a specific symbol or representation sometimes in the ancient sources they're called the 12 signs of the zodiac remind you of anything and that when God lives in the heavens he's surrounded by the twelve groupings of stars the 12 signs of the zodiac and so when he comes and dwells on earth he's surrounded by twelve groupings you can find ancient sources that give each of the tribes a specific symbol or picture and guess what those symbols and pictures correspond to maybe just a suggestion perhaps a horoscope is something that was originally good and through our fallenness and brokenness it's become corrupt and perverted into something else just a huh or my congregation and all people said whoa now here's why I say that and you can study those ancient sources and you can speculate all you want I'm just saying you could find out that is that there is something about the tabernacle that was reflective of the heavens there's something about the tabernacle that blurred the lines between earth and the heavens let me show you Herod's temple this was rebuilt several years before Jesus was born Herod built this temple with roughly 2.3 million stones 18,000 people worked on it over an easily 40 50 year period one historian says those great clusters those gold you can see at the top of the Holy of Holies the highest part there there were Glade great solid gold grape clusters the size of a human being up there one estimate says that the temple area at the time of a festival could handle two hundred and ten thousand worshipers so the day of atonement when you gather with the people of God who are committed to the texts who are coming together to be purified as a community you could have been gathering with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of other believers by the way many of the songs they say like Sonny's in the Psalms you'll say you'll read that it says a psalm of ascent what that means is this is a song that you would sing as you partied as you climbed the hill to the temple by the way when the disciples these young kids from the Galilee come into the temple area see the size of the people on this model what do they say rabbi look at the size of these stones you imagine going in there Jesus is teaching in there can you imagine the violence that would happen if a rabbi came in there and started knocking over tables and driving animals out it would've been the most chaotic unbelievable sight now there's so much more going on here let me show you an ancient letter written by a man who witnessed the temple in operation this is a letter from artists it was an occasion of great amazement to us when we saw Elias our high priest engaged in his ministry and all the glorious vestments including the wearing of the garment with precious stones upon it in which he is vested they're the priests appearance makes one awestruck and dumbfounded a man would think he had come out of this world into another I emphatically assert that every man who comes near the spectacle of what I have described will experience astonishment and amazement beyond words his very being transformed by the hallowed arrangement on every single detail there was something about the high priest the temple the arrangement the ritual that when you saw it it transported you somewhere else notice this from the historian Josephus first century Jewish historian if one reflects on the construction of the tabernacle and looks at the vestments of the priest and the vessels which we use for the sacred ministry he will discover that every one of these objects is intended to recall and represent the universe so there's something huge going on in Leviticus 16 this isn't just a guy in the sacred linen undergarments there's something else going on here something involving a blurring of the lines between another realm and this realm between heaven and earth between the dwelling place of God and the dwelling place of he and so God says I want the temple clean I want the tabernacle clean I want the high priest clean and in a moment we're going to talk about God saying I want my people clean we serve a God who wants to hang out with us but to hang out with us we got to be clean to experience the fullness of his presence correct we serve a God who wants to dwell in the midst of his people he says about the tabernacle build it so I can dwell in you God is looking for a people he can hang out with he's looking for a people he can Tabernacle in the midst of he wants to dwell in a group of people he wants to be present in them has anything in thousands of years changed has anything changed okay now we got that all the way what's next oh yes look at the Bible verse seven then we got him cleared then he is to take the two votes and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting he is to cast lots for the two goats one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering now there are two goats in issues of sin there is the covering over of sin atonement there is the covering over sin but then there is the removal of sin it's one thing to have your sins covered over it's another thing to have your sins removed there are two goes one gets well I mean if your they get sent out or you get cruise you know sacrifice so both goats kind of get the short end of the stick but the one is offered on the altar verse 10 but the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat now what we need is a live goat I want to show you the process they would go through the process they would go through with what's called the scapegoat now the word for goat is the word Azazel let me show you what this word scapegoat how it's spelled then I want to show you how it's generally translated a goat would be beautiful right now if I had a goat I could show you what they do if I had a live goat I could show you the way that they would place their hands on the go there was a specific ritual you can find in the text and you can find references to it in the Hebrew Scriptures and then you can find it in history now now uh this Oz's L the word Oz's L there's all sorts of discussion about what Oz's L means some say it has some connection with the demonic some say it has a connection with removal but the general idea behind the goat is the goat is going to carry the sins of the people out into the wilderness your sins on the day of atonement are going to be placed on the goat number it's God is the god of pictures he's like I know how you are wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait this isn't like fuzzy Barney time okay okay you're about to put all your junk on this go and I don't want you giving a name and getting all cuddly with it okay okay I face in there for a minute get rid of the cuteness now remember the Day of Atonement is a communal affair we in Western culture tend to think individually most of our presentations of the gospel I don't mean to slam them in any way most of our presentations of the teachings of Jesus are and the death of Jesus on the cross are you can believe in Jesus you can invite him into your heart you can be forgiven of your sins and you can go to heaven most of our presentations of salvation are individualistic it's not that this is foreign to an Eastern mind it's just strange they always would think of things communally the scriptures are written in an Eastern culture which thinks of not just you getting out of hell and into heaven or you being reading but you being joined to a people and so on the day of atonement one of the central themes was the idea of communal atonement the idea of communal sin and being purged of the things that we are guilty of as a community now the idea of communal sins is simply in many ways for into our culture we think of what I'm guilty of period but the Scriptures call us and confront us with the notion of communal sin and so as you came on the day of atonement and you were going to place the sins of the community on the goat your sins you would also be thinking through in what ways have we as a community fallen short of the beauty and glory of God I mean perhaps in America today one suggestion perhaps there are environmental sins God in trusting us with the care and the stewarding and the managing of the physical creation is there a chance that at times we ought to think through our we guilty of communal sins against this environment that might be a suggestion for an idea to us nevertheless central - the day of atonement now notice the ritual involving the scapegoat skip ahead to verse 20 when Aaron was finished making atonement for the most holy place the tent of meeting and the altar he shall bring forward the live goat he is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites all their sins and put them on the goats head he shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task now generally the man appointed for the task was a Gentile why would that be if you're a Jew and you're leading a goat around in the desert and you've got the sins of every one of your fellow Jews that's not a goat you want to be anywhere near correct this is one loaded goat so seriously I took this they literally they literally believed that God was capable of removing their sins can you imagine a new people who believed something like that are we preaching yet okay we're getting there we're gone somewhere they actually believe that when the gold left their sins left with it this is at the core of what it means to live the redeemed life that God intends for you is when that goat leaves the sins go with it which means it carries the sins not you is there anything tonight you are carrying around I mean let's just be brutally honest is there anything tonight that you are carrying around are there any sins is there any junk any garbage is there anything you have been carrying around and tonight God says I didn't create you to carry that crap around I want you to be free we know that things you know have you been cheated on or betrayed or abused and you have been carrying it around that wrong and you have held it against that person and it is eating you alive and you have all sorts of rationalizations I don't have to forgive what they did to me is unforgivable bla bla bla bla bla maybe tonight God is simply saying set that person free yeah I mean oh they're crying czar there's things committed years ago you've never told anybody about and to this day if you're really honest you feel on the inside stained because there's this thing back there maybe it's something nobody knows about you have an addiction right now involving the internet that no one knows about but you in a room the size statistically the answer would be yeah is there anything tonight you are carrying around that you could place in some sort of symbolic way on that goat and say god I am NOT going to carry this around any more the day of atonement is about intense introspection and asking very difficult questions about the state of your soul but when that goat leaves the day of atonement is about release and freedom or help tracking what's what's going on here do we understand what the day of atonement was like did we understand how seriously you took the purity of the high priest do you understand that when the text says that the high priest would go and he would lay his hands on the goat he would confess at this moment he was placing your jug on the goat you would physically see a picture of the kind of thing God wanted you to do as he stood over it and prayed there's all sorts of speculation about what he prayed there's a prayer and you could look up later in Daniel for Oh God awesome God we have rebelled against you there are all sorts of discussions about what exactly went on what's interesting about Leviticus is we have sketches of what went on but then there all sorts of holes what prayers did they say how long did he place his hands on the goat exactly how long does the man have planning for the task there was a here was he there it's difficult to know a lot of times what exactly they went through but the text says he placed his hand on the goat and at that moment your sin was being transferred to the ah-ha zel now there is a fascinating Jewish tradition you can't find it in the scripture or maybe you can involving a red cord at this point in the ceremony you can find a reference to it I believe is one the Talmud and I know there's one in the Mishnah which are ancient Jewish commentary sources they say that at this point after the high priest laid his hands on the goat a red cord would be placed on the head of the goat and the red cord would be placed on the head of the goat as a symbol of the guilt and sin of the people remember pictures images metaphors and so this red cord symbolic of the blood of the people the blood that you deserve to have shed was not going to be shed and the blood would be shed by the sacrificial goat and then your sins and your guilt would be carried into the wilderness by this goat the tradition then says that the scarlet cord would be placed a later tradition says on a gate on the way into the temple earlier provision says that the scarlet cord was then placed on the altar where everybody could see it anybody anybody in the inner sanctuary could see it and the tradition says that over the course of the next year the red cord would mysteriously miraculously turn white now you can't find a mention of the red cord miraculously turning white and or any instruction about it in the Bible unless you happen to be reading Isaiah one though your sins are like scarlet they shall be white as snow what is Isaiah is he just pulling this idea out of the sky you say you know what it's like no one can explain it explain that to me the red turns white no one knows it just happens it's like God's like big giant display of see I no longer am holding your sins against you now this is where things get good turn with me to book of John chapter 19 I wanted to suggest a few things from John 19 and see if you can make any of these connections John chapter 19 this is one of the last sections where we're told about the end of Jesus life John 16 gives a few details and we'll just Oh it's called Midrash we'll just take a look at these texts and ask questions about whether or not the ideas the Midrash is simply can say this this is a way the Jews that put Scripture we see something in scripture we see something the text so we begin asking questions where else do I find this in the text is there a chance that this is a picture of something else or is the chance that something else is a picture of this remember like two weeks ago I talked about turning the JEM the Jews believe this text is like a gem and you tilt it and the light refracts a little differently and a little differently and each angle and each way you tilt it produces a new insight and new beauty that you hadn't seen before then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head now a crown of thorns on your head and if it would appear stew skin assuming it was sharp would produce a ring around the top of your head that would be what color yeah and you have Jesus in front of Pilate now don't look ahead don't look ahead if I were to say to you when Pilate remember oz oz l oz oz L would be translated to take away if I were to say to you when Pilate says to the crowd what shall I do with Jesus you would say well the crowd shouted notice verse 14 it was a day of preparation for Passover week about the sixth hour here is your king Pilate said to the Jews but they shouted take him away ah za zel but they shouted take him away take him away and then the text says they shouted crucify him jesus is our ah za Zell and I get an amen Jesus took our sins upon him now when I talk about the man appointed for the task was he a Jew or a Gentile Gentile you don't you're June you don't even hear that go the Romans who led Jesus outside the city Jews or Gentiles and then the Azazel is led out side the city by Gentiles jesus is our za so is there anything tonight as we get ready for communion that you need to place in some sort of ceremonial symbolic way upon the one true scapegoat Jesus I don't know what you're carrying around tonight but to live the fullness of life that Jesus our Azazel intends for us is to give Jesus and to place it upon him on the cross and say Jesus I understand that when you were led outside by the man appointed for the task and when you were nailed to the cross you carry my stuff and then this goat is going to leave and my understanding is the redeemed life in Jesus is that while I live with the consequences of my sins I live with the awareness that I have been forgiven and so the man appointed for the task would take the goat out and as he left it would be the incredibly solemn moment as you literally as the community watched your sins be taken out there's several different sources that speak of what happened to the goat earlier apparently the goat would be led way out the wilderness and then they would make sure it was led far enough out and it would wander around in the wilderness it's not like you like want to wake up three days later to have it your backyard not good okay not going to be a good year later sources the mission note I keep referring to says that later on they would take it in the mana point for the task would shove it off of a cliff as a way of saying god we understand this we just want to you know kind of put like a little period of in the sentence make sure this deal is done and as the community you would then celebrate now remember you and hundreds of thousands of other people who know how to partay have now been cleansed the goat has left and so you are all there and this is one of the high moments of the year for the next few days or I mean you would whoop it up so we're going to celebrate communion right now and then I want to finish the teaching with my own version of technical language here looping it so let's pray and then John will come and we'll celebrate communion then I'll continue teaching dear God we have this picture kind of itched in the forefront of our minds and hearts right now and as we spend some moments reflecting as we try and enter the spirit of this text as we think through what it means to look deep inside ourselves in anticipation of the cleansing that's coming we anticipate great faiths I thought I asked for my brothers and sisters who I'm going to come into these doors tonight carrying some heavy loads I pray for paying betrayal all of the horrible things that we end up carrying around I pray that in these moments we would ask very difficult provocative disturbing questions of ourselves but what does it mean to place that stuff on the azazel jesus i pray that you would send your spirit among us in unique ways to make us deeply uncomfortable god I want you to show each of us we want you to pose where we we may have not been living in the fullness the joy that you intend for us and as we think through our sins and our rebellion bring things to mind so that we can walk out of these doors in a few moments lighter we can walk out of these doors transform and knowing you in in new ways and in Jesus name all the disciples said okay this is the point where we party now the next time somebody reminds you of your past perhaps you ought to respond I don't see a go around here the next time the devil wants to somehow get at wherever you've been your past your addictions the ways that you fall the ways that you stumble maybe you've had significant relationships fall apart maybe you have the big Scarlet D on your chest maybe you have things you have issues from way back that have never been resolved it just kind of honey maybe the next time the devil wants to say to you and remind you that you're not good enough the next time Satan or anybody else wants to somehow bring you back into shame and guilt you ought to just say the goat has left the building hebrews chapter 9 verse 1 now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary a tabernacle was set up which we've seen by the way notice the end of verse 5 but we cannot discuss these things in detail now the writer will talk later ok verse 6 when everything are going to range like this the priest entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry but only the high priest entered the inner room and that only once a year which was the day of what atonement and never without blood which he offered for himself before the sins that people had committed in ignorance the Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing this is an illustration that it goes on verse 11 when the Christ when Christ came as high priest do you find yourself reading this text a little differently now by the way this should be starting to all sorts of give a dashboard all sorts of lights should be blinking right now like wow this shapes the way that we read the text he went through a greater and more perfect Tabernacle that is not man-made that is to say not a part of this creation do you see that blurring between the tabernacle on earth being a reflection of something else do we see that how he says this High Priest didn't go into a tent on earth he went into some tabernacle somewhere else in Revelation 4 and 5 John is given a glimpse of heaven he says it was Lord's Day Anna's in the spirit and I entered into this that I saw at the right hand o throne and in Revelation 4 and 5 the Apostle John gives a vision of what he sees in heaven now take Exodus 25 and all of the Articles that it lists are in the temple and then in another column make a list of all the things John sees when he goes to heaven in the right column and then ask yourself are the things in Revelation giant blown up versions of what's in Exodus 20 five is it like God has this house and he says I want you to build me a crib okay and so when he says build me the tabernacle he gives us small versions of apparently something that exists on a massive scale somewhere else although what's fascinating is Exodus 20:5 and on says that in the middle of the Holy Holies is an arc of an a covenant and inside the Ark of the Covenant is the Ten Commandments but if you study revelation four and five hopefully your small group right now is like yes yes let's do it okay hopefully you'll see in Revelation 4 and 5 that there are is no Ark of the Covenant in Revelation 4 and 5 and there is no Ten Commandments so it's just going to be crazy because I can match things up I can't match this up and then Jeremiah I will write my law on their hearts apparently in heaven living as God created me to live just comes naturally yeah I felt good did it where was I oh yeah okay now Hebrews gives all sorts of insight into this Tabernacle verse 24 for Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one he entered into heaven itself now to appear for us in God's presence so this idea of Jesus somehow being a high priest I mean obviously is just staggering idea but he goes on verse 11 chapter 10 day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but when the priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool because by one sacrifice he has made what where does your text say perfect for ever those who are being made holy I want to present a couple ideas they're a bit hard to swallow when they first introduced to you but hang with me oftentimes I will hear Christians followers of Jesus redeemed children of God refer to themselves as sinners and just a sinner I don't know if from the text you can get off calling yourself a sinner it's not that we don't sin when James says so beautifully we all stumble in many ways and your friends are yeah I know someone who does that a lot we all stumble so as a read II child of God bought and paid with the blood of Jesus I sin I have things I struggle with I have habitual thing I sin on a regular basis but I do not know from the Scriptures if I can call myself and fundamentally identify myself as a sinner I don't know if you can justify it from the Scriptures the scriptures say if somebody's in Christ they're a new creation Colossians 3 they've been made alive Jesus says they've crossed from death to life the writer Paul refers to communities he says to all the saints throughout Asia the Scriptures keep insisting that when you say yes to Jesus and you enter into the life that he intends for you that something in your identity fundamentally shifted it changed you aren't who you were this to me is profound this is profound this text says that when God looks at me he sees Jesus perfect forever the text says that when God looks at you he sees Saint reborn renewed reconciled power washed by Jesus this is profound let's be honest this is profound because many let's just get this out in the open many Christian theologies are driven by shame and guilt many Christians theologies are you're not this you're not this you're not this you don't live up to this and you're reminded of all the things you aren't the scripture is a God who keeps reminding me of all the things he says I am maybe if we knew more who we are doing the right thing would come more naturally I need to be the Bible is like God going the got but the Bible is like God going it's true what is your problem it's the Riv not yet released but it's coming it's the Scriptures are like God going why is it so hard for you to believe that this is who I see you to be and a lot of theologies are driven by shame they're driven by all the things you aren't and my understanding is to live the fullness of life in Jesus is to live with the reality the it doesn't mean that we don't live with the consequences of our actions the scriptures are full of teachings that simply say when you sin you need to live with the consequences this is not somehow that we live in this fairy land where we can wrong people and then well hey you know I'm not guilty I mean I'm a new person so no we live with the reality of our sins period that's what means to be a redeemed person is to own up the way they live but to me to be a follower of Jesus is to think of myself fundamentally in these terms the goat has left the building I have a friend who's not a believer and we spend quite a bit of time together and we have fascinating conversations and he recently said you know he said to me Christianity the message that you have is absolutely beautiful he says but I have met more people who the way they present it is so ugly the beauty of the Day of Atonement is that you repentance to Shuba is not it's so energizing to be honest about my condition if I know where I stand with God that examining my heart is naturally going to lead to joy God I don't have to carry this junk around this seems to be what you keep insisting on you keep insisting that this is true that I am a new creation this raises all sorts of questions because this is Leviticus 16 we looked at find our primary text was with Atticus 16 this raises questions like what's in Leviticus 17 and what's in Leviticus 18 and what about 15 and how can I understand the healing ministry of Jesus without understanding the central theme Leviticus 12 through 15 and when the Apostle Paul speaks to Timothy and says women will be saved in childbirth what is that what is he talking about unless as I have something to do with the goddess Artemis and her cult which had its Vatican its headquarters in the city of Ephesus and Timothy was from Ephesus so if I knew more about the goddess Artemis and what she claimed about childbirth maybe then what Paul says the Timothy would come to light a little more and when Jesus speaks of buying and leasing what is he talking about a word it means to bind and loose in the first century in that effect what it means to be a leader in a church and in Leviticus 11 Jerry Springer would blush why is Leviticus arranged with eleven but then there's a section of 12 15 and then you arrive at the day atonement why is it go in that order and why in Genesis 1:1 does it say that the world was wild and waste and then God entered into it and brought out of it what we know of is the world today what was here before what's in the first couple words of Genesis 1 was there something here before that and obviously God created it because he's God but what was it and what do the rabbi's say about that and how does that affect the way Jesus speaks about the creation of the world specifically 2nd Peter chapter 3 what else is in the text what else is in here the rabbi's in Jesus day when they would read a passage that they didn't yet would celebrate when they would read it and say I have no idea what this is talking about they would rejoice I bless you God because at some point in the future I'm going to get it and you are merely prolonging the blessing for me our culture we read it we think it's bad in the world of Jesus we read it and we say wow God you're even bigger than I first thought you were what else is in here the gem that you keep turning is this a pool that the deeper you dive the deeper it gets I can't wait to preach forever why wouldn't I what am I gonna get done talking about the truth of God I'm gonna give the shot down here tell you that right now we're gonna get done discovering truth about God when somebody says well I don't know the Bible this isn't exciting I'm like what do you smoke it okay now I give you a couple others okay check this out oh man oh man you're gonna I don't know what you're going to need after you hear this but okay the red cord the red cord would mysteriously turn white in the year after the day of atonement I might have happened right in the day or the following couple days or the next year it would be this reminder that hung either on the edge of the altar and apparently later in the gate it would be this reminder of forgiveness okay are we all tracking the red turns to white as a way of God it's like a picture the reminder of what happened okay look at your redeem the Mishnah a Jewish source from the first century not a Christian source a Jewish source collected and written and recorded by rabbis who rejected Jesus as the Messiah okay we all track in the Mishnah records that from the year from the for the 40 years before the destruction of the temple the cord stayed red the temple was destroyed by the Roman general Titus in the year 70 which means that some time around Common Era 30 the cord stopped turning white sometime around the year 30 the Jewish rabbis who rejected Jesus record for us not Christians Jews who reject Jesus say sometime around year 30 the sacrificial system became in effective oh my goodness okay look at Hebrews once more a couple more things verse 13 verse 12 but when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins he sat down at the right hand of God in the right hand of God if you've ever been like you've ever had your standard bible study discussion about where is this how can God have a right hand right hand as a euphemism it's an idiom for power okay so don't try to figure out is there like a big chair and a little chair and how can he sit next himself and all that so it's right hand of God means power okay hopefully we cleared up you know half of seminary for you or that how many of you for the past hour and 20 whatever minutes have been an agony could we just let the guy sit down you're dying and you're sitting how many have you been like can't he just take can he just sit down and be done now you understand Leviticus now you understand the sacrificial system can we just have one sacrifice for all hi are we preaching you understand the text now do you understand when Hebrews says our fathers longed to look into these things the day of atonement we're all here for the day of atonement we're going to be back here next year because you're going to walk out this door and probably I don't know cuss it someone in the parking lot who knows I mean let's be honest let's be honest we're going to walk bite back out and we're going to continue to be human would you agree so we're going to be right back here next year going through all the same rituals to be deep into the text is to begin to feel what our forefathers felt can we just sit down in a moment this priest is going to sit down because our priest sat down are we tracking now I have been to more sporting events where grown men played boys games as the points and people in the aisles would jump up and down and celebrate stuff that means nothing I have I know your city back when you had a basketball team you knew how to celebrate I'm just a prophet speaking truth apparently have a voice in the wilderness at this moment but nevertheless I have been to see my favorite punk bands and I have stood for hours on my chair or in the mosh pit jumping up and down celebrating and singing I have seen people at political rallies chant and cheer for hours and hours I live in a culture that celebrates that jumps up and down that shouts that sings that cheers and cheers stuff that in the grand scope of things is next to meaningless now in a moment this high priest is going to sit down because the work is done and when he does we are going to partay now do not give me any of this lame hallelujah okay the praise police will command we'll cuff you okay I want to see a celebration worthy of the simple fact that this high priest sat down I want to see the kind of celebration that will give me a foretaste of heaven I want to see the kind of celebration that reflects a redeemed community celebrating the fact that they are free I want to see grown men who don't know each other hugging okay I want to see people out of their chairs out of the aisles on their chairs whatever it looks like I want to see a celebration worthy of the priest who entered in to the tabernacle not made by hands and sat down are we getting ready hold on now if you're here and you're wondering what this is this is practice for forever okay now you are here tonight and you came in these doors loaded down by things I beg you to think through the claims that Jesus makes about you the claims that he makes about your life the gospel when it was first heard people say hey that's good news we were created by a God who keeps whispering year after year after year and sometimes he yells it's true it's true okay it's true right I guess I warmed up this is going to be Bupers okay you to good you know I for me in his head do you know Hey thank you very No No see with us Oh you say and now for a word of benediction and then will be dismissed yeah if you weren't charismatic you are now and now my brothers and sisters of the Willow Creek community may you be reminded that the goat has left may you be the kind of person who instead of trying to conquer this mystery celebrates it may you be the kind of person who lives with a fullness knowing that when God looks at you he sees somebody redeemed he sees somebody beautiful and one text he says you are his poem you're his artwork and may you be reminded that this high priest our Azazel at this moment according to the text is seated because of the work is

Channel: John Zylka

Views: 35,287

Keywords: Rob Bell, Easter, Willow Creek Community Church, The Day of Atonement, The Goat Has Left The Building, Leviticus 16

Id: bc5ILYSteSs

Length: 68min 37sec (4117 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 05 2014