Stained By The Blood

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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all right it's hilarious watching

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Eric and Dwayne. Eric is in the middle of a hot summer in Australia and North Dakota and Minnesota at least these parts shut down because of all the blowing snow we have a ground blizzard going on which is always so fun and yeah

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Eric Eric come up here this time of year and I'm sure Dwayne can take you ice fishing oh man all right let me turn that back on there we go hang on a second here let's see here there we go all right let's pray and we will get into our lesson today we pray speak

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O Lord your servant listens let your word to me be near newborn life and spirit give me let each promise still my fears death's dread power it's inward strife against your words of life so fill me

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Lord with love's strong fervor so that I might cling to you forever in the name of Jesus amen all right so I should throw this open here since we're kind of a blended sir you know a blended group is that one of the things we do at a manual is we open it up for comments or questions related to things in current events you know before we dive into the

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Sunday school lesson proper so I feel like since we have folks from a manual joining us today

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I should offer that up as you know if anyone wanted to you know make a comment along those lines and if I don't see any then we'll dive into the the text itself we've been at Kongsvinger working our way through the book of Leviticus and we are up to Leviticus chapter 8

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Leviticus chapter 8 and last week we did a little excursion because over and again we net we note that in the

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Old Testament we're dealing with types and we're dealing with shadows we're dealing with concepts that point to their ultimate fulfillment which are found in Christ in the in the

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New Testament they are the realities are in the new the types and shadows are in the old and so we noted then that the priestly vestments the priestly vestments of the

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Levitical priesthood are a type and shadow of our vestments since since Scripture is very clear that as as Christians we are a kingdom of priests and so our vestments then are the good works that we put on love for neighbor and things like that so these are our priestly vestments that's

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I think it's a good way to to look at that so then we're will continue then in Leviticus 8 as we consider then the the ordination service and sacrifices of the

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Levitical priesthood so Moses brought the bowl of the sin offering and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bowl of the sin offering they're they're imparting their what if you imputing their sin to the sin sacrifice if you would and then

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Moses killed it Moses took the blood with his finger put it on the horns of the altar around it purified the altar poured out the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it to make atonement for it and he took all the fat that was on the entrails and the long lobe of the silver and the of the liver silver of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat and Moses burned them on the altar but the bull and its skin and its flesh and its dung he burned up with fire outside the camp as Yahweh commanded

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Moses so then he presented the ram of the burnt offering Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the head of the ram and he killed it and Moses threw the blood against the sides of the altar he cut the ram into pieces and Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat and he washed the entrails and the legs with water and Moses burned the whole ram on the altar it was a burnt offering with a pleasing aroma a food offering for Yahweh as Yahweh commanded

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Moses and then he presented the other ram and the ram the ram of ordination so again we talked about an ordination service they're being properly installed into their office

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Moses as prophet is installing them into their proper office and then we recognize then especially as Lutherans that in order for somebody to be a pastor the the qualifications are what we call a

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Rete Vucatus that's kind of the it's a the Latin phrase but you have to be rightly called rightly installed rightly ordained that's the idea so the presented the other ram the ram of ordination and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram and he killed it

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Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot okay and so a little bit of a note here and you know when we talked about this we talked about the blood that's on Christ's head his hands and his feet that's a good way to look at it but you could also then consider then the person being ordained in this sense that the blood you know you through their ears they hear the

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Word of God through their hands they do their good works and they're in the feet then you can talk about the you know the beautiful feet of those who bring the good news who you know of the gospel and things like that so you can talk in those terms if you want to connect him to things so then he presented

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Aaron's sons and Moses put some of the blood on the lobes of the right ears and on the thumbs of the right hands and on the big toes of the right feet and Moses threw the blood against the sides of the altar and then he took the fat and the fat tail and all the fat that was on the entrails and the long lobe of the liver the two kidneys with their fat and the right thigh and just thinking man this is a lot of blood and and literally guts that go along with these sin sacrifices that's really the point this is a messy bloody gory affair you know and that's the point is that this is the consequence of our sin sin is not a small thing atoning for sin is a bloody gory messy affair so and then out of the basket of unleavened bread that was before the

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Lord he took one unleavened loaf one loaf of bread with oil one wafer place them on the pieces of fat and on the right thigh and he put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons and waved them as a wave offering before the

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Lord now a little bit of a note here in the book of Numbers middle portion of the book of Numbers God adds another command regarding all sin offerings that are offered once the children of Israel make they arrive in the promised land and every single sin offering every single peace offering every single free will offering you they are required to be offered with bread and wine a grain offering and a wine offering a drink offering are required for all offerings and so here we see the unleavened bread kind of making its appearance as a grain offering but once you get into the book of Numbers and this is why when you pay attention to all of this one of the things we've been making a point of is that just a single read of a small portion of the book of Leviticus isn't going to give you all of the theology and requirements necessary to understand how the sacrifices worked

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God builds off of them and it requires that you read his entire book all of the commands consider the implications in the cross references and and I think you know that's you know funny enough this is one of the ways in which you learn how to cross reference other portions of Scripture God if you're gonna if you're gonna follow all of the requirements of the

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Mosaic covenants sacrificial system you're not gonna get them in just one handy place you've got to read the whole thing go back and reread it make sure that you've got all of the relevant portions working together and and then you can see that let me see if I could find that really quick by the way

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I wonder if I had it still open that's Deuteronomy okay hang on a second here

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I may be able to find it from there's that looks like right numbers let me see here

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I'm kind of hoping I can hunt this down very quick numbers let me try that yeah let me show you this okay so yep this is the chapter here we go yep here it is numbers chapter 15 so watch this cross -reference okay so Yahweh spoke to Moses saying speak to the people of Israel say to them when you come into the land you are to inhabit which

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I am giving to you and you offer to Yahweh from the herd or from the flock a food offering or a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a free will offering or at your appointed feast to make a pleasing aroma to the

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Lord so basically all of the different offerings okay then he who brings his offering shall offer to Yahweh a grain offering of a tenth of an ephah fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hint of oil and you shall offer with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice a quarter of a hint of wine for a drink offering for each lamb no joke every single offering is to be brought you to bring with it a grain offering and a wine offering bread and wine yeah bread and wine are part then of the sacrifices and you sit there and go what's that all about it's making it

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I would just say God is trying to make this painfully clear this has everything to do with what will be the fulfillment if you were of the the hard part you know this is type and shadow in the

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Old Testament fulfillment is going to be in the new and so here you have with the scent with all these sacrifices bread and wine you know grain and wine and you know you sit there and go well when we have the

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Lord's Supper bread and wine you see the connection is is unmistakable when it's just fascinating so you have to consider numbers 15 as a big cross -reference to all that we've been reading in the book of Leviticus so so where's the bread and wine and referenced in numbers it's the grain offering and the wine offering that's required in numbers 15 for all sacrifices

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Bruce so you're gonna note then that you know God adds you know an additional requirement and that additional requirement is is that there are then you know you got bread you got grain and wine now as part of all of the sacrifices of the

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Mosaic Covenant once they get into the land that the Lord their God has given them so fascinating now you're gonna why why then wouldn't

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God not require that while they're in the wilderness answer God's feeding the manna from heaven so things will change once they're able to actually grow crops you know sir they're not farmers during their wilderness wanderings that they are literally wanderers and they're miraculously being fed manna but once they get into the promised land the requirement will be that with all of the sacrifices then will be a grain offering and a drink offering of wine and so it's all part of it all right coming back then to Leviticus 8 all right so we've been talking about the gorgeous

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Moses took them from their hands burned them on the altar with the burnt offering so these are their ordination offerings this was an ordination offering with a pleasing aroma a food offering to Yahweh Moses took the breast waved it for a wave offering before Yahweh it was

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Moses's portion of the ram or of ordination as Yahweh has commanded Moses sin

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Moses took some of the anointing oil and of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments and also on his sons and his son's garments now a little bit of a note here remember this anointing oil anything that touches it is holy and so now you have the mixing together of oil and the blood of the sacrifice and then that gets sprinkled onto the garments of Aaron and his sons now let me see if I could find this real quick here oh what did

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I do with it I had this out just I'm losing my mind all right so there's a there's a spray

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I just bought a bottle of something and the name of the product product is called wine away all right no no it's now you can't use it on your grandchildren or your children when they're whining you spray it on them and they go away that's not what

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I'm talking about but wine away is you it's a formula for when you give communion and and you're using a chalice and and so when you have a chalice you have a you usually have a white cloth that goes with it where you you wipe or what you know you wipe each time somebody uses a chalice but then what happens is is you get that what happens is you get wine onto this white under this white handkerchief and the question is how do you get it out answer wine away right now my wife will tell you that you know there's certain stains that you know if they get into certain colors they're pretty tough to get out and so you'll note then that this is does something very fascinating to the ephods and the in the vestments of the

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Levitical priesthood and that is is that the blood of the the the ordination sacrifices for their sins gets mixed with oil and blood and then it's actually sprinkled on to the garments that they are going to wear which of course they don't have modern -day laundry they don't have wine away they don't have any of these things so the question is that I have is would this end up making it so that their ephods always kind of have like a permanent blood stains on them you know it's kind of a fascinating thing yeah as a visual reminder this was the blood that was that was shed so that your sins could be forgiven and placed into your office and it's kind of a fascinating thing so he consecrated

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Aaron and his garments they're now holy his sons and his son's garments with him blood and or and anointing oil together so Moses said to Aaron and his sons boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of ordination of of ordination offerings as I commanded saying

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Aaron and his sons shall eat it so again we note then the sin sacrifices get consumed hmm

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I know of another sin sacrifice that gets consumed the body and blood of Christ right so in what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn up with fire and you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days until the days of your ordination are completed for it will take seven days to ordain you it's a long time it's a long time so you're gonna note then they they get sequestered so they cannot leave for seven days they're sequestered during their ordination time it's gonna take seven days to do this you're sequestered in the tent of meeting and as has been done today

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Yahweh has commanded to be done to make atonement for you at the entrance of the tent of meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days performing what

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Yahweh has charged so that you do not die for so I have commanded and Aaron and his sons did all these things that Yahweh commanded by Moses could you imagine if like modern -day pastoral ordination services took seven days and required the pastor to like live inside the church for seven days and seven nights that's kind of what we're talking about here oh and if the pastor left before the seven days were over left the church went outside or something that God would kill him you know

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I'm glad ordination services in our day are not quite this involved and do not involve the threat of death if you don't follow all of the statutes right so Leviticus 9 so on the eighth day

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Moses called Aaron so this is day 8 okay pay attention to the numbers here six days

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God created the heavens and the earth seventh day he rested eighth day is the day of the resurrection eighth day is like symbolically you know type and shadow picture of the new creation and so you note here that after eight on the eighth day now these guys are ready to take over and to do their work

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Moses has installed them ordained them all of these sacrifices have been sacrificed oil and blood has been mixed it's been sprinkled onto their garments and again

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I you just have to wonder does that stay on there forever you know it's it's tough to get these kinds of stains out so on the eighth day

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Moses called Aaron and his sons in the elders of Israel and he said to Aaron take for yourself a bowl calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering both without blemish and offer them before Yahweh so Moses was doing all the work now

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Leviticus 9 they have been properly ordained installed into the office and now they are ready to begin to do their work so 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 a peace offering to sacrifice before Yahweh and a grain offering mixed with oil for today

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Yahweh will appear to you and so they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting and all the congregation grew near and stood before Yahweh and Moses said this is the thing that Yahweh commanded you to do that the glory of Yahweh may appear to you so then

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Moses said to Aaron draw near to the altar offer your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and for the people and bring the offering to of the people and make atonement for them as Yahweh has commanded so Aaron drew near to the altar killed the calf of the sin offering so it's not

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Moses doing it anymore now it's Aaron and the sin offering which was for himself and the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him he dipped his finger in the blood put it on the horns of the altar poured out the blood at the base of the altar but the fat and the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver from the sin offering he burned on the altar as Yahweh commanded

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Moses the flesh and the skin he burned up with fire outside the camp and then he killed the burnt offering and Aaron's sons handed him the blood and he threw it against the sides of the altar and they handed the burnt offering to him piece by piece and the head and he burned them on the altar and he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar many presented the people's offering and took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people and killed it and offered it as a sin offering like the first one any presented the burnt offering it offered it according to the rule and he presented the grain offering took a handful of it burned it on the altar besides the burnt offering of the morning and then he killed the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of the peace offerings for the people.

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And Aaron's sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar. But the fat pieces of the ox and of the ram and the fat tail and that which covers the entrails and the kidney and the long lobe of the liver, they put the fat, the pieces on the breasts.

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He burned the fat pieces on the altar. But the breasts and the right thigh, Aaron waved for a wave offering before Yahweh as Moses commanded.

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And Aaron lifted up his hands towards the people, and he blessed them. And he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offering.

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

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And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Now, a little bit of a note. We saw the glory of the

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Lord appearing with the completion and the consecration of the tabernacle, the tent of meeting.

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And here now with the Levitical priests, the first ones being put into office, we see the glory of the

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Lord appearing to all the people. And a little bit of a note here. And this is something we need to pay attention to, is that the glory of the

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Lord does not appear every single day at the tabernacle. The glory of the Lord does not appear every single time a

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Levitical priest is ordained and installed into his office.

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The glory of the Lord did not continue to appear day after day after day after Solomon's temple was built.

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So you're gonna note, there's a little bit of a pattern here that I think is worth noting then. The glory of the

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Lord shows up at the tabernacle at his consecration. Glory of the Lord shows up at the consecration of Solomon's temple.

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The glory of the Lord shows up with the ordination of the first Levitical priest. And here's the fun part.

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The glory of the Lord in a very real way shows up when Jesus is baptized and Jesus receives the

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Holy Spirit and hears from God the Father, you are my beloved Son in whom

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I am well pleased. Now we, in our baptisms, are united with Christ in his death and his resurrection.

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We, in our baptisms, receive the Holy Spirit. And because we're united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, we go from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light.

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We go from being dead in trespasses and sins and children of the devil to being the adopted children of God.

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And so you'll note then that we can say with each Christian baptism moving forward that that same thing happens.

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The Father says to us, because of Christ's merits, you are my beloved

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Son, you are my beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased. And the Holy Spirit descends and remains on you in the same way it descended and remained on Christ.

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Not visibly, we know these things by faith. And so you'll note then that there's a pattern that when the first thing occurs, if you would, that reality is the same, but it's not necessary for God to redo the fireworks.

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Does that make sense? And so I'm with that group of people that sit there and go, what was with the fact that Jesus was baptized, right?

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He had no sin and he's baptized by John the Baptist. Multiple things going on there, but in this particular context,

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I'm with the scholars who say that Jesus' baptism is really the first Christian baptism, first one.

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And so because the same elements that happen to us that we are promised in our baptism are the things that show up with the baptism of Christ.

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And that is the voice of God saying, you are my beloved son, and the

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Holy Spirit descending and remaining on us. So we receive the Holy Spirit in our water baptism because scripture says that.

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So that's kind of the idea. So you can see kind of this first time ever stuff when

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God shows up in ways that he doesn't show up other times, the reality remains the same.

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So in the ancient world, when they would copy manuscripts, this is the days before the

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Gutenberg press and typesetting and things like that. So when you would copy a text, you would have a manuscript which was called an exemplar, and you'd then copy from the exemplar.

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So this is an example of kind of like an exemplar event that the rest follow.

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So that's kind of the idea. All right, sort of smelly, okay.

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Okay. All right, coming back then. So the fire came out from before the

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Lord consumed the burnt offering, the pieces of fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and they fell on their faces.

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So here the glory of the Lord shows up with the ordination, fire comes out from before, consumes the burnt offering, and everyone goes, ah, and they fall on their face.

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All right, and God doesn't do that from then on out, but still the reality is the same, okay.

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Now, this next section of scripture, very important. I'm watching my time here, make sure

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I have enough time to do this justice. I think I can do this in the amount of time that's left. Leviticus chapter 10.

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This is the unauthorized fire or strange fire portion of the book of Leviticus.

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And here's the idea. We sinners presume that we can worship

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God any old way we want to. This is a presumption on our part and it is flat out false.

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It is so wrong, it's not even funny. And so you're gonna note here that we're gonna read an account where two of the sons of Aaron are going to act presumptuously, but their motivation is good.

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They're not desiring it. They don't wanna do something evil. They wanna do something good, but they are basically not following what

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God has said. He has prescribed the divine service of the

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Mosaic covenant. And there are specific ways in which it is to be done, certain offerings that are to be offered and adding to it is not permitted or taken away.

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Not permitted. And so you have to think of it in those terms. Leviticus 10 one,

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Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it.

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And they offered unauthorized fire before the

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Lord, which he had not commanded them. And he said, what's wrong with that?

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It's an offering to the Lord. It's a praise and thanksgiving thing. They were acting according, they were all of this stuff, they were feeling holy and all this kind of, and they were off, this was worship.

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And so fire came out from before Yahweh and consume them and they died before Yahweh. Yikes, yikes.

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So Moses said to Aaron, this is what Yahweh has said. Among those who are near me,

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I will be sanctified. And before all the people, I will be glorified.

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And Aaron held his peace. And so you're going to note then that the answer that the Lord gives, his words tell us the issue.

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God dictates worship of him. We do not dictate it.

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And by Nadab and Abihu doing what they did, the emphasis was on Nadab and Abihu, not on the

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Lord. That's the issue. And so you'll note here by acting presumptuously, they were drawing attention and glory to themselves rather than to God.

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I will be sanctified and before all the people, I will be glorified,

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God said. Nadab and Abihu by their unauthorized offering, unauthorized fire, they were the ones being glorified, not

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God. You see it? So by going above and beyond and offering to God something he hasn't asked for, it wasn't received as anything by God.

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Instead, it was rebuked and punished by death by God because what it did is it put the focus and the glory on the worshiper rather than God.

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God will be worshiped in the way he has said he will be worshiped. And when you reverse things around and the focus becomes on the worshiper,

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God isn't glorified, the worshiper is glorified and that's what Nadab and Abihu did and God had none of that, had none of it.

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And which is one of the reasons why I think in this particular place, you could probably take a look at some evangelical practices.

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Now, when I was an evangelical and when I was in the charismatic movement, one of the things

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I can honestly say is that there were certain practices that really drew a lot of attention on particular people.

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And so let me explain. So if you've never been to that type of worship service, everybody stands up for a really long worship set and it's really tough to call it congregational singing because the band oftentimes is so loud, you can't really participate.

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But while everyone's standing up, what ends up happening is that some people, they put their hands in the air, okay?

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And this is their sacrifice of praise kind of thing. But what happens is that you look around and go, well, if their hands are up in the air, do

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I have to put my hands up in the air? And then if they're putting their hands up in the air, some people have their hands like way up high and so they're praising like this and then other people, they're praising with their hands way up high and they're swaying and all this kind of stuff.

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And you're thinking, well, that person's really, really holy over there. And if I really wanna look like I'm holy, maybe

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I need to get my hands a little higher and stuff. And so, and I'm not joking, when

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I was in these churches, I was really self -conscious as to how high do I put my hands, at what point, so that other people would know that I'm really, really with the spirit today.

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And the problem here is that all of that, the focus is on me and it creates some kind of weird competition where I want everybody to know

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I'm as holy as that guy over there or that lady over there. But there were some people who were just really good at it.

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I mean, on cue, their hands would go up, their eyes would close and they would do this and they kind of get lost in the moment.

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And it's like, man, I gotta figure out how to get lost in the moment and look, it was nuts.

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And the issue is, is that that practice, all of the focus is on the worshiper, not on the

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Lord. And I can say via confession of my own sin, my participation in this and what

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I would do was never based upon, I'm gonna raise my hands up high because I want, you know, cause

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I'm worshiping God. I was gonna raise my hands up high so that I can compete with the Joneses in this holiness competition.

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And that's not at all, not at all glorifying to God. Again, there's a whole lot of glory going around, but it ain't on God.

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So that's, you know, I would say that's kind of an example of what's going on here. So God punishes them because he says before all the people,

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I will be glorified and by Nadab and Abihu offering strange fire, you know, something that God has not authorized, the emphasis was on them, not on God.

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The glory was on them, not on God and God was having none of it and he cut them down.

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But now we've got a problem and now we got a problem because as part of Aaron's service as the high priest, he's not allowed to leave the tent of meeting yet.

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He's not done with all of his duties and his two oldest sons are now dead.

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They are crispy critters and he cannot come into the presence of their corpses, otherwise he's gonna become unclean.

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And so this is a tough passage in the sense because if somebody had told me,

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Chris, your children just died, I mean, I would go into emergency mode and no one would fault me for saying,

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I'm gonna need some time off work, it's gonna be a while before I preach again. Yeah, no.

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So in this particular case, when it comes to Levitical priesthood and the law, office trumps even the death of your own children and this is kind of fascinating how this then pays out.

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So Aaron, he held his peace is what it says here. So then Moses called Mishael, El Zaphon, the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron and said to them, come near, carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp.

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And so they came near, carried them in their coats out of the camp. And as Moses has said, and Moses said to Aaron and Eliezer and Ithamar, his sons, do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, no mourning.

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You do not get to do anything to yourself on your body or whatever to exemplify that you're in mourning because you're in your duties right now and that trumps everything.

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So don't let the hair of your heads hang loose, do not tear your clothes lest you die because you're wearing these holy ephods and the wrath come upon all of the congregation, but let your brothers and the whole house of Israel bewail the burning that Yahweh has kindled and do not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting lest you die for the anointing oil of the

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Lord is upon you. And so they did according to the word of Moses. Yikes, okay.

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Very, very serious stuff going on here. So Yahweh spoke to Aaron saying, drink no wine or strong drink.

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You are your sons with you. When you go into the tent of meeting lest you die, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

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You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that Yahweh has spoken to them by Moses.

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So now here, this is gonna get interesting. And this is kind of the first point where we're gonna see this showing up is that God now very shortly in the chapters ahead is going to give particular commandments, especially we're gonna get into the commandments regarding clean and unclean foods, clean and unclean animals and things of this nature.

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And God is using clean and unclean animals and foods and stuff like that as an object lesson to learn how to make a distinction between what is common and what is holy.

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And these are important distinctions. And so he's gonna start to make that distinction.

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But he says, you're gonna teach the people then this. So then Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his surviving sons, take the grain offering that is left of Yahweh's food offerings.

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Eat it unleavened beside the altar for it is most holy. You shall eat it in a holy place because it is your due and your son's due from Yahweh's food offerings for so I commanded.

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But the breast that is waived, the thigh that is contributed, you shall eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters.

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So you find a clean place for this. And then your family gets to participate. So they get to, this is how the priests are fed from their work.

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And in a similar way then, we recognize that scripture teaches that those who preach the gospel are to make their living from the gospel.

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In the same way that the children of Israel, the Levites, they earn their living through their

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Levitical work. Our cross reference then is going to be First Corinthians nine on this.

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And this then forms the basis for how we understand financial contributions and giving in the

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New Covenant. And I'm gonna note that in the New Covenant, tithing, a strict 10 % tithe is not the command.

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It's actually something different. And so the Mosaic Covenant command to tithe is not what we're obligated to.

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If you would like to tithe, you have that freedom, but that's not how the obligation works. And I always like working through this portion to kind of demonstrate that like the

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Levitical priests, they earn their living from the priesthood. Pastors and preachers of the gospel earn their living from the preaching of the gospel.

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This is most certainly true. And the commandment that Paul goes to is not regarding the tithe.

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I always love this particular command that he goes to, but by way of review, if it's been a while since you've seen or heard this, worth reviewing.

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1 Corinthians 9, Paul says, am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen

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Jesus our Lord? The answer is, yeah, you have. Are you not my workmanship in the

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Lord? Talking to the church in Corinth, yes, they are. So if to others, I am not an apostle, at least I am for you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the

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Lord. So this is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have a right to eat and to drink?

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Yeah, actually you do. Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife as do the other apostles and the brothers of the

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Lord and Cephas? I always like to point this out. Note here, awkward moment. First Pope, Peter had a wife.

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So, you know, just, I always like to get that dig in just because we

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Lutherans have to do that from time to time. It's part of our heritage. So, all right.

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So, or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working from a living? So you'll note

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Paul, he worked as a tent maker. He served on his own dime. So who serves as a soldier at his own expense?

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I don't know any soldiers that do that. Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? I know no farmer who does that or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk.

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I don't know anybody who does that either. That's kind of the point. So do I say these things on human authority?

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And then watch what he says. Does not the Torah say the same thing? For it is written in the law of Moses.

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Are you ready? And he doesn't go to the tithe. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.

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Love it. Okay. If you haven't heard me say it, I always like to say this. Pastors are the beasts of burden in the congregation.

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And I love the fact that where he goes to is he's likening pastors to oxes, which by the way, visually is part of our vestments because let me, in fact, let me grab this real quick.

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The pastor stole, right? What is this? This is a visual yoke.

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It's to visualize that I've been yoked into the pastoral office.

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It's a visual representation of a yoke. So pastors are the oxes of a congregation.

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That's the idea. And so, yeah, they should be. So when it comes to financial support of a pastor, the governing verse then from the old covenant that Paul pulls into the new is not tithing.

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It's don't muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, which is taken from Deuteronomy 25, verse four.

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Okay. So let's then see what he means by this. So is it for oxen that God is concerned?

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Does he not speak certainly for our sake? It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher should thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.

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So if we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

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If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

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So nevertheless, we have not made use of this right. So Paul says, we've chosen not to make use of this right, which is, he can do that, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of the

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Lord. So do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?

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So you can see this is a direct cross -reference then to what we're reading here in Leviticus regarding the fact that the priests, they receive their food, their sustenance for themselves and their families, their wives and their daughters and their children and their sons, okay?

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They receive that from their service in the Levitical priesthood. So then in the same way, the

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Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel, the end.

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Now, notice it does not say that pastors should be jetting around the world in private jets, okay?

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Or that they should have, you know, the Bentleys and Aston Martins and Rolexes and nonsense like that, that has nothing to do with making a living, that's totally out of order, that's nonsense, okay?

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So the idea then is that the Lord has commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel, full stop.

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So then how much are we to give? Answer, as much as is necessary for your pastor to make a living from the gospel, the end, right?

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10%, 5%, 20%, that's between you and God, as long as your pastor is able to pay his bills and get braces and dental work done for his kids and put them through college and make sure he has some ability to retire, that's the idea, this is the

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Lord's will, you guys work that out. So, you know, just remember your oxes need to be eaten, they need to feed, you know, they need to eat.

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So have mercy on your ox pastor, got it? Yeah, we are beasts of burden, so that's the idea.

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So there's our cross -reference there. All right, coming back then, let's see here.

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All right, where was I? All right, so you, okay, so Leviticus 10, 14, the breast that is waved, the thigh that is contributed, you shall eat in a clean place, you, your sons, and your daughters with you.

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They are given for you as your due and your son's due from the sacrifices, the peace offerings of the people of Israel.

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So the thigh that is contributed, the breast that is waved, they shall bring with the food offerings of the fat pieces to waive for a waive offering before Yahweh and it shall be yours and your son's with you as a due forever as Yahweh has commanded.

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Now, they digitally inquired about the goat, the sin offering, now, yeah, let's go ahead and finish this chapter out.

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So Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering and behold, it was burned up and he was very angry with Eliezer and Ithamar, the surviving sons of Aaron, saying, why have you not eaten the sin offering?

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Now, this is the next part of this. So you're gonna note, this is an important little theological thing. Ithamar and Eliezer didn't do their duty properly and so one of their burnt offerings, they toasted that critter and let the whole thing be consumed and they didn't eat it and as a result of it, they were chastised by Moses.

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Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary since it is a thing most holy and has been given to you that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation to make atonement for them before the

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Lord? Consider the implications ends in regarding the Lord's supper, again, that's the type and shadow.

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We consume our sin offering in our sanctuaries and this is the will of the

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Lord for us to do and you know, we are in the kingdom of priests, we're all priests and so it is required for us as our priesthood to consume the sacrifice of our sin offering.

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You see how it's kind of all works, which comes then and screams the bodily presence of Christ in with under the bread and wine given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins, the body and blood of Christ given and shed for us.

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So behold, its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary, you certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary as I commanded and Aaron said to Moses, behold, today they have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before Yahweh and such things as these have happened to me.

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If I had eaten the sin offering today, would Yahweh had approved? And so Moses heard that and then he approved.

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So they were chastised but the reason they didn't do it is due to the fact that they were in mourning over their brothers in that particular case.

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But Moses made it very clear, you're supposed to be doing this and they should be doing it. So, all right, that's where we are going to end today.

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Let me see if there's any questions here. I don't see any coming in or being typed.

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So, all right, no other questions. All right, so those of you in Minnesota and out in the plains, enjoy your ground blizzards today and drive safe if you have to leave your house, if not, stay indoors and do your pajama thing.

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So, did you have a question, Lane? Did you have something you wanted to say? Or are you just looking? Okay, hang on,

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I would have to turn your microphone on. Hang on a second here. Right, yeah, and you'll note then that covering up those who are placed into the church's offices goes all the way back to the

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Levitical priesthood. And what it ends up doing, and I always like to point this out, is that our vestments de -emphasize the human, the man, and emphasize the office.

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And so, this is one of the reasons why I'm a huge believer in the practice of pastors wearing uniforms and wearing vestments, because everything we say or do ends up confessing something.

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And so, you'll note I wear the black shirt and the collar. The collar itself has a little slave shackle around my neck, so if you ever forget what my role is in the congregation,

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I'm the congregation's slave. And then, so the black then is representative of my sin.

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And then the aub that I'll wear, that's white, which is, that's covering me up, and that's really beautifully symbolic of me being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, not having a righteousness of my own.

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And then coming back to the stole, the stole is a visible yoke, it's a visible representation that I'm a beast of burden for the congregation, so that when these things, when they're properly taught, then make it impossible for a pastor to exalt himself in ways that he ought not.

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The whole purpose of that is to de -emphasize it, and then by following these, really, these are anchored in scriptural established practices, then what happens is when

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I eventually take another call, or die, or whatever, the next fellow coming in, visually, he looks exactly the same as me.

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And so I think there at Emanuel it's been wonderful because I've only been,

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I've been serving there for less than a year, and you guys provide me with the stole, so the stoles

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I wear are the same stoles that the pastors before me have worn. And so visually, my voice is different, and obviously

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I'm a lot uglier than your other pastors, but that's okay. The idea here is that I'm covered up, and visually it looks the same, and I'm preaching the same doctrine, and the same word, so that there's this continuity then from pastor to pastor to pastor, rather than the emphasis being on him, the emphasis is on the office, and the duties of the office, so that things keep trucking down the line without interruptions and stuff.

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Yeah, exactly. And so we're giving out of what God has given to us. And so, and then under the curse, we have to work, but God wants us to work in such a way that we're providing for our family, and then we have some leftover for those in need, as well as for the service of, so that pastors can earn their living from the preaching of the gospel.

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We are poor and needy as well, so. All right, now Bruce, I'm gonna mute everybody here again.

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Bruce types, he says, isn't it good that the Puritan reform thinking is wrong, that America is not the new

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Israel? I'm so glad about that. USA flambe really quick.

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Yeah, no, we're not Israel. You know, we're America, and we do not have some special covenant with God like Israel has.

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Just always fascinating to me when people take the imagery of Israel and somehow apply it to America.

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No, we are Israel talking about we who are in Christ, we who believe and trust in Jesus.

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So we, the church, we be Israel, not America, not so much.

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So, you know, far from it, yeah, yeah. All right, with all the sin we allow and the sin and still offer praise.

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Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, I know. And so we have to keep praying for our nation and speaking

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God's law to those, you know, who are within our nation that, you know, like abortion, straight up murder of the unborn.

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We've been committing genocide since, you know, Roe v. Wade. We've killed so many of our own.

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I mean, we make the Nazis look like schoolchildren. Yeah, but the reason why it's not offensive is because it's done in these nice little clean clinics.

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You know, it doesn't matter if it's done in a clean clinic or in a concentration camp, it's still murder. And the numbers, we're guilty of the blood that we have on our hands.

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I mean, we have no right to judge the Nazis at this point. That's how evil we've been. So, yeah, that's a different story altogether.

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All right, all that being said and done, we will end there.

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Peace to you, brothers and sisters. Enjoy the rest of your Lord's Day. All right, peace.