John 19:16-17 (Jesus Our Sin Offering)

The Curse Motif of Scripture and Covenant Blessings and Curses

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. Over the last couple weeks. We have been in one of the darker themes in biblical theology, which is the curse motif of Scripture.

We've been talking about what does it mean to be under the curse of God? And these are Aspects of Covenant theology where if you obey God you get his blessings poured out on you. If you disobey God and his covenant Statutes then you do not you get the curses.

And while I know we would rather be talking about Happier topics or at least I believe that we would rather be talking about happier topics like the mercy of God that Jesus Triumphed over the death upon the cross.

That light has come into the world that we've been made sons and daughters of that great kingdom. We must enter into these things because John 19 enters into these things. John 19 really has been about the thick cloud of covenantal fury of God settling down upon this hill of.

Calvary.

In week 1 which was verses 1 through 5 of John 19, we saw how Jesus himself Will bear the curses for his people. Curses that you and I deserve for covenant disloyalty unfaithfulness for breaking the commands of God.

We deserve what happened to Christ and yet Because of his grace and love we received mercy. In the second week we talked about how the Jews of the first century preferred instead of being represented by a mediator they preferred to stand and drink and Have the covenant curses poured out on them and we talked about this from Deuteronomy 26 and from our 28 and from Leviticus 26 how these Specific promises of judgment were going to come upon a people who rejected their God and there's no greater rejection of God Than putting him on the cross when he shows up.

That is what happened in the first century to those particular Jews. Now last week we talked about who the prognosticators of covenant curses are. Who the people who provoke? Covenant curses all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

We saw that the serpent was the one who who? Tempted and led Adam and Eve astray and then we saw how that serpent was making war with the people of God and we called Last week's sermon one of the deep weird sermons as we looked at Nephilim Giants.

We looked at Goliath and Golgotha and if you remember Golgotha is the place of the skull because that's where Goliath's head was ultimately displayed. Jesus Came defeating a greater giant than Goliath a greater giant than Og a greater giant than the Nephilim.

He came and he defeated Satan sin and death on his hill. Putting away the great enemies that accosted us since the very beginning. Now today after we've talked so far about the who and the why and the what of covenant cursing today We're going to talk about how how does Jesus heal us?

How does Jesus take away our sins? How does Jesus purify us atone us? How does Jesus forgive us? How does Jesus? Propitiate us which is a real nice biblical word. How does he do these things today? We're gonna talk about the how and we're gonna look at the exact same verses that we did last week.

Which is.

Very I'm very common for us to do last week. We looked at it from the angle of Jesus defeating our enemies this week. We're gonna look at it how Jesus heals us. And we're gonna see That Jesus is going back into the Old Testament.

He's fulfilling Something that's there that was always a type in a shadow that was pointing to him today. We're gonna look at how Jesus is The sin offering from Leviticus chapter 4 how he is the animal treated as such That was sacrificed his blood poured out his body buried outside the city in a clean place.

Just like Leviticus 4 says he is our sin offering. The way that God atoned for sin in the Old Testament was the sin offering. The way that God atones for sin once and for all Is Jesus Christ? That's what we're going to look at today, and we're gonna read a lot of text.

I Want to start with Leviticus 4. I want to read that to you just so you can hear what the sin offering is. Then we'll read John 19 then we'll pray then we'll jump in so let us get started as I read. Turn with me.

You can turn with me to both. You can turn with me to one or the other or you can just Listen as I read it to you. Leviticus chapter 4. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the sons of Israel saying if a person sins unintentionally in any of these things which the Lord has commanded not to be done and commits any of them if The anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people let him offer to the Lord a bull Without defect as a sin offering for the sin.

He has committed. He shall bring the bull to the doorway of the tent of meeting before the Lord and he shall lay his hand on The head of the bull and slay the bull before the Lord. Then the anointed priest is to take some of the blood of the bull and Bring it to the tent of meeting and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times.

Before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. The priest shall also put some of the blood of the horns of the altar a Fragrant incense which is before the Lord in the tent of meeting and all of the blood of the bull He shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering which is in the doorway of the tent of meeting.

He shall remove from it all of the fat of the bull of the sin offering. The fat that covers the entrails and all of the fat which is on the entrails the two kidneys with the fat that is on them Which is on the loins and the lobe of the liver which he shall remove with the kidneys just as it is removed from the ox of the sacrifice of the peace offering and The priest is to offer them up in smoke on the altar of burnt offering.

But the hide of the bull and all of its flesh with its head and its legs and its entrails and its refuse that is All the rest of the bull he is to bring out of the city to a clean place outside the camp where the ashes are Poured out and burn it on wood with fire where the ashes are poured out.

It shall be burned now the whole congregation of Israel if they commit error and The matter escapes the notice of the symbol the assembly and they commit any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be Done and they become guilty when the sin which they have committed becomes known.

And then the assembly shall offer a bull of the herd for a sin offering and Bring it before the tent of meeting. Then the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before The Lord and the bull shall be slain before the Lord.

Then the anointed priest is to bring some of the blood of the bull to the tent of meeting. Priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil and he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar which is before the Lord in the tents of meeting and All of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar the burnt offering which is at the doorway the tent of meeting and He shall remove all of its fat from it and offer it up in smoke on the altar.

And he shall also do with the bull just as he did with the bull of the sin offering. Thus he shall do with it. So the priest shall make atonement for them and they will be forgiven. Then he is to bring out the bull to a place outside the camp and burn it as if Burn it as he burned the first bull.

It is the sin offering for the assembly. When a leader sins unintentionally does any one of the things which the Lord his God has commanded not to be done and he becomes guilty if His sin which he has committed is made known to him.

He shall bring for his offering a goat a male without defect. He shall lay his hands on the head of the male goat and slay it in the place where he slays the burnt offering before The Lord it is a sin offering.

Then the priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on The horns of the altar burnt offering and and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering all of its fat.

He shall offer up in smoke on the altar as in the case of the fat of the sacrifices of peace. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin and he will be forgiven. Now if any one of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done and becomes guilty if His sin which he has committed is made known to him.

Then he shall bring for his offering a goat a female without defect for his sin which he has committed he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and Slay the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering.

The priest shall take some of its blood with its finger and put it on the horns of the burnt offering and all the rest Of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar. When he shall remove all of its fat just as the fat was removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings and the priest shall offer It up in smoke on the altar for a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Thus the priest shall make atonement for him and he will be forgiven. But if he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering he shall bring it a female without defect. He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slay it for a sin offering in the place where they slay the burnt offering the priest is to take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the Altar of burnt offering and all of the rest of its blood.

He shall pour out at the base of the altar. Then he shall remove all of its fat just as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of the peace offering. And the priest shall offer them up in smoke on the altar on the offerings by fire to the Lord.

Thus the priest shall make atonement for him in regard to his sin, which he has committed and he will be forgiven. Now there's a lot of repetition in this passage that you will notice there's laying of the hands on every single one of these animals.

There's the pouring out of blood. There's the taking them outside the camp and burying them in a clean place. These things will become important as we go. But just for context, let us read John 19 16 through 7 once more as we continue.

So he then handed him over to them to be crucified and They took Jesus therefore and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the skull which is called in Hebrew Golgotha, let us pray Lord, thank you so much for all of your scriptures.

Lord. Thank you that the word is living and breathing. It's active and it's and it's faithful in all the things that it reports Lord. We thank you for books like Leviticus.

Which.

Give us images of the horrific nature of sin that it would cause so much bloodshed and Devastation to happen upon these innocent animals. So that your people could be made clean and Lord. We thank you that all of these things are but types and shadows pointing to the greater sacrifice.

That happened in Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that as we discuss these things today that your scriptures would come alive and The Lord we would see these things. For what you have revealed them to be it's in Christ's name.

We pray. Amen. Now Leviticus is called the graveyard of the Bible reading plan. Many people start out in January with their aspirations high. I'm gonna read the Bible in one year and around mid-february.

If they make it to mid-february their dreams come crashing down like the Hindenburg. Because Leviticus is very foreign to our modern Context. I wanted to read the whole chapter not just because of the four repetitions that happen in there but I wanted to acquaint us to how bloody the sacrifices are and what it.

How all of it is is there? Pointing forward to something greater which is what I want us to go through today now John 19 tells us exactly what this day was this day was a day of preparation. That's the context for where we're at.

John 19 14. If you versus late or earlier says now it was the day of preparation. Now, what does that mean? The day of preparation is the day where they would prepare the sacrifices you remember in this particular passage.

The Sun has just come up the Pharisees and the Sadducees have brought Jesus under the cloak of the morning sky.

To.

Pilot and they were so concerned that they were gonna become defiled by coming into pilots court that they stood at a distance because it Was the Passover and the high priest did not want to be defiled by that dirty pagan pilot.

While they're murdering Jesus they were there on the outside of that courtyard causing a ruckus like a BLM riot in the summer of 2020 or 2021. They were forcing pilot into a decisive action. They were saying if you don't put this man to death and you are no friend of Caesar.

They're brokering this unholy deal there on the morning on the same morning that they're going to be preparing the sacrifices.

The day of preparation.

You see instead of focusing on what they should have been focused on They were focused on preparing to bludgeon and murder Christ. Ironic, isn't it? That on the day of preparation they were preparing the true Lamb of God to be sacrificed for us as Ugly and unholy as their motivations were.

God is getting glory in Their actions accomplishing his will and his plan. In God amazing that he can use our sinfulness and our brokenness to accomplish his good pleasure. This was the day of preparation the day that the lambs were to be slain.

And if you remember at that particular time, there was a lot of industry involved in this. The priest had set up this really lucrative system where they had the only lambs that were clean and you had to come to them to buy your lambs, especially if you were traveling.

So they set this up in the temple, which God didn't find all too. Wonderful to say the least when he braided his own whip and chased them out.

Earlier.

Now it was the high holy Sabbath on top of all of this and the priest were Preparing to sacrifice the lambs on this day. The streets were filled with pilgrims who had brought their unblemished unvarnished spotless lambs.

And they were going to be bringing them to the priest and the priest was going to be Sacrificing these lambs on behalf of these families so that these families could be forgiven of their sin. This is Passover season.

So the blood of the lamb was was symbolic of the time when God passed over the people of Israel who were living in Egypt and the angel of death did not come in and destroy them. So this day they're focused on painting the blood over the doorpost of all of their homes and Sacrificing these lambs in the high holy feast of Passover so that the angel of death would not visit them.

And again. The irony here is incredibly thick because soon.

These Jews.

Would murder Christ and Unlike in the Exodus account this lamb would not protect them from destruction. Because they would not be hidden in the blood of the lamb. They would be the ones whose the blood of the lamb would be on their hands as far as guilt.

But the blood of the lamb would not be painted on the doorpost of their heart. Forgiving and cleansing them. All of this was happening on this day and you've got in the middle of this the priest who were unwittingly participating in it.

You've got the priest who thought that they were putting to death a blasphemer and yet they were putting to death the sin offering Of Leviticus for the true Passover the true sin offering. The timing of this was not Accidental.

The timing of it was entirely intentional. Jesus being slayed as the lambs are being slayed in Jerusalem. Jesus is picking up on incredible Old Testament imagery here. Now what we see is step by step in this scene.

Jesus is gonna fulfill Leviticus 4. He's gonna fulfill every aspect of Leviticus 4 first. He was handed over. John 1916 says so he handed him over. The first step of the sin offering is that if you sinned and you realized it and And you became guilty of it.

You said you know what? I didn't realize this but I did X or I did Y and you realize that you were guilty. You would take a lamb out of your flock take a ram take a goat out of your flock and you would bring it to The priest and you would hand it over.

I don't think it is accidental here that John is saying in John 1916 that Jesus was handed over. That's the language of the Old Testament. That's the language of the sin offering. You can't have a sin offering if it's not handed over.

So Jesus was handed over. Now what I find absolutely Fascinating about this passage is that Jesus is not only becoming the sin offering. It's who's offering him. Let me put it this way. For a thousand years the Jews had done this offering.

They had sacrificed millions of these goats and rams. The high priest had done it when he sent. The leaders had done it when they sent. The common people had done it when they Sent it was a common thing and yet there's something entirely uncommon about this scene.

I Know of no other time in the Bible and there may be one I just don't know of it where a Lamb is handed to the priest not by a Jew. Not by a Jewish family. Not by a penitent God fearer. Not by someone who has been proselytized and is almost a Jew.

This is being handed to the priest by pilot a Roman centurion who's handing Jesus to the priest. He's the one handing over Jesus the sin offering. You think about the complexity of that. The Old Testament.

It was the Jewish family that handed over the sin offering for their sins. Now you have pilot hand and over Jesus.

Why?

Because the sin offering that Jesus was accomplishing was for more than just the Jews. It was for every Nation every tribe every people here. You have a Gentile who is representing you and I. Giving Jesus over to the high priest offering up a sin offering on behalf of the Gentiles.

That's what you have here, which is astonishing and in that I don't know if pilot ever repented. I don't know if pilot ever became a Christian. But pilot is offering up a sin offering on behalf of the Gentiles.

Jesus would become the sin offering that covers us. He wasn't offered by a Jew. He was offered by a man of the world. Because Jesus and his death burial and resurrection was going to cleanse the sins of the world.

And that astounding Pilots the one that handed him over. This is important. Romans 4 24 says he who was delivered over because of our Transgressions and was raised because of our justification. That's why pilot was the one who handed Jesus over because you and I are hidden in that.

We're like pilot and that we're that we're Gentiles and that we're sinners and in that pilot represents us Romans. Or sorry. Galatians 2 20 tells us why Jesus was handed over that he was willing to be handed over.

It says the life which I now now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up. So not only was Jesus handed over by pilot. He willingly gave himself up. God willingly gave Jesus up in Romans 8 32.

He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over handed him over same word. That's in John 19. Hebrews 9 28 says that Christ having been offered up handed over once and for all. For the sins of many the sins that you and I committed have been washed clean by the handing over of Christ.

What a beautiful thing. No one Who calls upon the name of Christ, it doesn't matter if you're male or female or Jew or Greek slave or free. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved because Jesus was handed over.

That's the first aspect of a sin offering is that it had to be handed over and Jesus was the second aspect is that they Laid hands upon him. Now, why do they lay hands upon him if they're handing him over that sounds like they're saying the same thing twice.

That's not what's being said when they hand the lamb or the ram or the goat over they would ceremonially put their hands on that animals head and in that ceremonial moment, they would speak over the lamb the sins of the family and then Symbolically those sins would be transferred to that animal.

If I were a father in that time period I am a father in this time period but if I were a father in that time period I would grab the lamb and I would say my family sin be upon you and God according to Leviticus 4.

Would honor it my family sin my family's rebellion our Wretchedness would be transferred to the innocent and its innocence would be transferred to us. That is the drama of imputation. That is happening in this passage and when it says that they laid hands on Jesus.

They took Jesus John 1917. I Think ceremonially what you have here is that the sins of the Gentiles who would come to faith in Christ and the sins? Of the Jews who would come to faith in Christ are being transferred to him.

In.

The same way that the father would speak the sins of the family over the animal. The father is speaking the sins of his people over Christ. Who has been treated like an animal shamelessly? So that we could walk away free.

They laid hands on him. He was not a victim in this. By the way, it's important that we recognize this. He willingly laid his life down. John 10 17 through 18 says it for this reason. The father loves me because I lay my life Down because I will willingly have your sins spoken over me.

Putting me down. So that's the second aspect of this. That he who was without sin was made to be sin on our behalf. 2nd Corinthians 5 21. The third aspect of the sin offering is that he died outside the city.

This is not an incidental fact. This is not an accidental feature. Jesus was crucified at the top of the hill in at Golgotha outside of the city gates. Why. Because the Jews in their pride and in their sin said we don't want to defile the city because today is the holy day.

Today's the Passover. So we're gonna sacrifice him. We're gonna kill him. We're gonna murder him outside of the city gates. They're doing what Leviticus says. Leviticus says that the sin offering had to be sacrificed outside the city and guess what after it was sacrificed.

It would be buried in a clean place. Do you think that it's an accident that Jesus was sacrificed outside of the city and in his death? He was buried in a tomb that had never been used. He could have been.

Jesus couldn't even Micromanage this detail. Many of the prophecies of Jesus. Jesus would have been dead when they happened. So he couldn't micromanage their fulfillment. When Jesus died his people his disciples Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus the hidden little disciple who came in John 3 who was too afraid to.

Have Jesus and his relationship be known publicly. They gathered his body and they put him in a clean tomb and they had no idea what they were doing. But in that moment they were doing the will of God because if Jesus were not put in a tomb that was clean.

He would not be this the sin offering of Leviticus 4. He was murdered outside the city and he was buried in a tomb that was clean. Making him the sin offering that would wash away our sin. It's astounding.

The fourth thing Involved in the sin offering is that the animal would bear the people's sin. They would bear it. They would have to walk from the place of choosing to the place of slaughter. What is Jesus doing?

In Pilate's hall. He's walking from the place where he was chosen as the spotless lamb. Remember Pilate says I find no guilt in him. Pilate examined him and said he's the spotless one. I find no guilt in him and Then Jesus was marched from the place of choosing to the place of slaughter.

So that he could bear the people's sins. The lamb would have borne the people's sins through death. Jesus bore the people's sin through death and he carried his own cross. To do it, which was kind of like carrying the murder weapon that was going to be used on you.

It's like carrying the revolver that someone was going to turn on you. That's what Jesus did as he walked up the hill. You'll remember scenes of the Old Testament like with Isaac when Isaac carried the wood up to Mount Moriah.

Which is exactly where Jesus is dying. Except for an Isaac situation God provided a ram in Jesus's situation. He was the ram. He was the sin offering. Isaiah 54 4 says surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

All our sin being poured out on him. Do you know at this time period the Jews considered this act of death the cross a wretched curse? And that is what it was. The curse that we deserve being poured out on Jesus the curse of a man hanging on a wooden pole in Deuteronomy 21 22 through 23.

It says if a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death you shall hang him on a tree. 1 ,500 years before Jesus died you have even right here the foreshadowing of his death. His corpse shall not hang all night on the tree.

But you shall surely bury him on the same day for he who is hanged as a cursed of God. So that you do not defile your land, which the Lord gives you as an inheritance. The Jews pulled Jesus down off the cross so that they would not be defiled in their Passover.

The common punishment for a criminal like this is they would be thrown in the valley of. In one of the valleys down below the city and they would be set on fire and trash heaps. There was a valley called Gehenna where criminals would be burned and set on fire.

Yet this Jesus Was buried in a clean place after he took our curse fulfilling every aspect of this Leviticus 4 passage. Galatians 3 13 says it rightly. Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law becoming a curse for us.

For his written cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree first. Peter 2 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by his wounds we have been healed.

Every aspect of Leviticus 4 is coming true in Christ. They chose him they put their hands on him. They brought him to the place of slaughter and he bore our punishment the last step involved in the.

Offering.

Was that the blood was to be poured out? For the animal you remember in Leviticus 4 as we were reading that the priest is to sprinkle the blood Seven times and then the rest of the blood is to be poured out at the base of the altar.

This is a critical aspect of this Sacrifice and There's one detail by the way in the Leviticus narrative that could be easily missed. It's to be done before the veil of the tent of meeting. Now John doesn't tell us this detail.

But Jesus when his blood is being poured out on the cross as the sin offering outside the city what happens to the veil? It's torn in two. Every other sacrifice. Millions of them were done before the veil and nothing happened because they weren't the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, but on this sacrifice.

When that blood was spilled when that precious redemption happened the temple veil tore into the Holy of Holies came out to meet us. Because Christ had performed the final sacrifice his blood was poured out.

So that redemption would happen for all of us. Hebrews 922 says it without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. And then he goes on to say but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come he entered Through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands.

That is to say not of this creation and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood brothers and sisters. The very simple and very beautiful truth That this passage is teaching us is that you and I?

Were in need of a sin offering every single one of us have broken God's command this morning and That sin offering that God gave to us was so much better than the blood of bulls and goats. That sin offering was Jesus Christ the true and perfect lamb.

Who has forgiven us? Not just of the sins we've forgotten like in Leviticus 4 not just of the sins we remembered of all of them past present and future. I say this often, but I want to remind us again as we close.

There's no sin too grievous. For the Lord God to forgive because he sacrificed Jesus Christ. There's no identity that you've made and that you've owned. That's too sticky or too powerful for the Lord Jesus to redeem we say awful things about ourself, don't we?

I'm this I'm now I'm a loser. I'm blah blah blah. Christ Jesus on the cross forgave all your sins. He died for all your spoiled identities all your broken promises and dreams. And he has restored you back to God so that now instead of the wrath of God.

You my friends if you're in Christ, you get the pleasure of God. You get the smiling face of God. I Remember listening to a pastor one time say when you close your eyes and you think about God what do you see.