The “Feasts”
Series
#1
“FEAST OF ATONEMENT”
TEXT: Lev.
23:26-32; 16:3-34; Num. 29:7-11;
Ex. 30:10
INTRO: Ever wonder
why God gave such elaborate preparations for
Ever gone to a party or
celebration of some kind and had a rotten time even though every one else seemed
to have a wonderful time? Why can
this happen? How can one person
seem to enjoy themselves while another doesn't enjoy it at all? The reason probably isn't the party or
celebration; it is more likely the PRE-PARTY preparations of our attitudes and
plans.
I.E. If you don't plan to have a good time
you'll probably not have a good time! If you don't plan to be enthusiastic,
you'll probably not be enthusiastic...!
If you plan to bring items to share, you'll enjoy partaking of the items
there!
The preparations we make
mentally and materially will greatly affect the level of enjoyment we experience
when at a gathering with others. It
is this truth that makes holidays so special ... we mentally look forward to
them with excitement, and we prepare for them materially to add to the fun, thus
the mental and material preparations allow us the great joy we experience on the
day of these holidays or celebrations ... to some however, holidays are not
joyful or fun, their mental and material preparations are nil or negative, and
so their holiday fun is nil or negative for them as
well!
ILLUS: I
have a 95-year-old grandmother. No
one has heard me preach more than three times without hearing a story about my
grandmama. The saddest thing I can
probably say about you is that you'll not get a chance to meet Sweetie Pie.
She lives in New York City, and we
are lovers. I am the second born of
her 65-year-old daughter, and she makes me happy.
We talk on the phone every Sunday
night no matter where I am in the world. When I talk to her or when I see her, as
I will next week, it's not drudgery for me to enjoy her
presence.
Over these last forty-three years,
I have simply bathed in the sunlight of her presence. I don't say "Oh, I've got to go see my
grandmother." It's "I get to see
Sweetie Pie."
Until you stop coming to worship
as if you have to see God, you'll never know what the Psalmist is talking about.
He says it ought to be your delight
to come up into Papa's face and enjoy his presence. It presupposes a relationship that makes
you want to be there. He says,
"When we have the festival, when we have our Sabbath, when we have our
convocation, we ought to come with a certain gladness of heart because God is
God. -- Richard Allen Farmer, "The 'What's' and the 'Why' of
Worship," Preaching Today, Tape No. 150.
PROP.
SENT: The Bible teaches us
that a worship service begins before the worship service begins! The mental and material preparations we
make before our worship service will deeply affect the dynamics of our worship
of God together. Prepare with joy
and excitement and watch what happens when we worship our
Lord!
I. FASTING Lev. 23:27a, 28-32; 16:29,31; Num. 29:7
A. Requirement of Gathering Lev. 23:27a,28-32; 16:29,31
1. "Denial of
Self"
a. This is basic to the Christian
life!
b. In context, it was to be a day for
God, not for self.
c. Hence, "The Lord's
day" ... not "my day!"
2. Self-denial is the mark of
maturity.
a. Babies don't know the meaning of
self-denial.
b. An adult must if he is to succeed
as an adult.
c. We must not stay a "baby" Christian ... maturity came when
mom and dad taught us we can't have our own way all the time and we finally
learned to live it!
d. God will teach us this
also!
3. The selfish can never know
the joys of giving, love, peace, contentment, friendships, caring, or of
growth!
4. When we come to God we need
to know that to receive God's best we must prepare by giving up our
best!
a. It was in the "sacrifice" that life came to them! They were reminded of this each time
they made a “sacrifice” for their sins – the sacrifice was
necessary in order to have God’s life.
b. It is the denial of "my time"
that God gives me "His Time!"
c. It will cost you something to
worship God!
ILLUS: David
and Araunah's threshing floor, Araunah offered it to David but David turned it
down and said he would buy it, that he wouldn't worship God without some
cost to him! READ: 2 Sam. 24:18-25
5. Notice the frequency in the
texts of the phrase "deny yourself" in preparing for the "Feast of
Atonement."
B. Reserved
for God Lev. 16:29; 23:26-27
1. There was a certain fixed
date reserved for God [set here annually]
a. Didn't matter what the weather
was!
b. Didn't matter what household duties
needed attention.
c. Didn't matter what ball-game was
playing ... OUCH!
d. Didn't matter how hectic the past
week's schedule had been, or what next week's schedule looked
like!
2. More will be said about this
on the "FEAST
OF SABBATH"
a. This feast was anticipated
with:
(1. Awe!
(2.
Excitement!
(3. Hope!
(4. Joy and
enthusiasm!
ILLUS: The
current phrase "worship experience" merely serves to confuse us. Those who worship with the expectation
that the act ought to generate certain experiences for them will undoubtedly
have many experiences. But they
will probably not be the sorts of experiences that Christian worship offers to
those who seek only the face of God through song and prayer, preaching and
sacrament.
Liturgists can generate many
powerful experiences, but when experience is the aim, this becomes cheap theater
at best and manipulation at worst.
Both are repulsive substitutes for an encounter with the power of the
living God. -- Mark Horst in the Christian Century (Nov. 11,
1987). Christianity Today, Vol. 34,
no. 16.
b. Elaborate planning went into making
this time special, not a thoughtless “anything
goes” attitude or unplanned “whatever
happens!”
3. You must plan to
gather to worship and plan how to worship!
II. FIRE Lev. 23:27b;
16:6,11-13,24-25; Num. 29:8
A. Responsible Giving Lev. 23:27b Num. 29:8
1. It is not enough just to give
up something ... we must also give something!
a. Lev.
23:27 says "deny yourself AND present an offering by
fire!"
b. The fire means it will be "consumed" ... you can't take it
back!
c. Giving without expecting
return!
d. That's real
giving!
2. Do you give for just the joy
of giving?
ILLUS: The
late Dr. Peter Marshall once selected for use in a church service the familiar
hymn of consecration, "Take My Life and Let It Be." He requested the congregation to give
particular thought to the words:
"Take
my silver and my gold, not a mite would I
withhold."
Exacting
the practical sense of the words "not a mite would I withhold," he asked that
all who could not sing this line with literal sincerity, refrain from singing it
at all.
The
effect was a dramatic commentary on the glib, thoughtless manner in which, all
too often, we sing our hymns. Hundreds of voices, with organ
accompaniment, sang vigorously up to the designated point. Then, suddenly, there was only the sound
of the organ music. Not a single
voice ventured to so challenging a height! – Source Unknown
3. When coming to worship plan
on giving!
a. Worship and praise to
God
b. Your
time!
c. Your joy and
prayers!
d. Your tithes and
offerings!
e. Your heart and
life!
4. When you do God richly
blesses anyways!
B. Rewards
of Giving Lev. 16:11-13
1. Joy of
life
a. Note: If the high priest failed to
sprinkle this fine powder on the hot coals as an incense offering while entering
the Holy of Holies he would die once inside! Why? Because the cloud caused from the burning
incense covered the presence of God above the atonement cover, thus protecting
him from seeing the presence of God and dying … failure to do this left him
unprotected from God's being ... thus death! His giving this offering on the coals
protected him from God … and actually brought blessing! Under the Old Covenant no man could see
God and live! Remember Moses was
even covered by God’s hand when he passed by Moses on the mountain lest Moses
die by seeing the face of God uncovered, Moses only saw the back side of
God.
b. Life comes from giving
it!
ILLUS: When
men stop worshipping God, they promptly start worshipping man, with disastrous
results. -- George Orwell in the Observer (1945), Christianity
Today, Vol. 33, no. 15.
2. Thrill of communion ... the
sacrifices brought man into communion with God!
C. Renewal
by Giving Lev. 16:24-25
1. Cleansing for sins ... they
were renewed!
2. Start the year off fresh!
A clean
start!
3. Happiness enjoyed ... the
“Year of Jubilee” began with this feast.
4. Renewed the communities life
together.
ILLUS: Not
long ago, the world watched as three gray whales, icebound off Point Barrow,
Alaska, floated battered and bloody, gasping for breath at a hole in the
ice. Their only hope: somehow to be transported five miles
past the ice pack to open sea.
Rescuers began cutting a string of breathing holes about twenty yards
apart in the six-inch-thick ice.
For eight days they coaxed the
whales from one hole to the next, mile after mile. Along the way, one of the trio vanished
and was presumed dead. But finally,
with the help of Russian icebreakers, the whales Putu and Siku swam to
freedom.
In a way, worship is a string of
breathing holes the Lord provides his people. Battered and bruised in a world frozen
over with greed, selfishness, and hatred, we rise for air in church, a place to
breathe again, to be loved and encouraged, until that day when the Lord forever
shatters the ice cap. -- Craig Brian Larson, Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Leadership, Vol. 11, no. 2.
III. FREEDOM Lev.
16:7-10,20-22,30,34
A. Removal
of Guilt! Lev.
16:7-10,20-22,30
1. 2 goats: 1 slain for sins, the other became their
"scapegoat."
a. Sins are not only forgiven but
removed!
b. Thus they could even be free of
guilt feelings!
c. Their sins gone
now!
2. Can you imagine how this made
them feel?
ILLUS: There
are delights that the heart may enjoy in the awesome presence of God that cannot
find expression in language; they belong to the unutterable element in Christian
experience. Not many enjoy them
because not many know that they can. The whole concept of ineffable worship
has been lost. -- A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) -- Edythe Draper, Draper's
Book of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers,
Inc., 1992). Entry 12120.
3. Knowing this can you think of
the excitement of anticipation they felt as this feast approached and their
worship time together?
a. No wonder the Jews danced a lot,
and shouted, and sang, and had fellowship meals, and laughed! (Almost
Pentecostal!)
b. We still can
too!
B. Restored
to God Lev.
16:30
1. Clean! What a joy to be in the presence of God
clean!
ILLUS: Worship
is seeing what God is worth and giving him what he's worth. -- Tim Keller, Leadership, Vol. 15, no.
2.
2. Forgiven! Their sins held against them no
more.
3. Loved and loving! God takes joy over
them!
C. Resting
in Grace Lev.
16:31
1. Resting from
what?
a. From trying to earn
salvation!
b. From
selfishness!
c. From sin!
d. From
guilt!
e. From
failure!
2. "It is a lasting
ordinance!" Lev. 16:31
a. Grace goes on and
on.
b. What a
thrill!
3. No wonder church feels so
good! We are here to rest in His
grace, or to find it so we can rest in it! We're here to share His life, His love,
to celebrate our communion with God and each other!
4. Good preparations make
possible this wonderful experience of worship and communion with
God!
a. This is NOT about ceremony! This is not about just another worship
service like all other worship services in the past! Each time we gather together to worship
our Lord it should be filled with joy, anticipation of being together as His
people, cleansed people who are loved by God, privileged to come before the God
of the universe in wholeness!
b. Familiarity breeds contempt … so
many have learned to take for granted the worship opportunity we have; and have
learned to “sacrifice” nothing in preparing for it. Hence, nothing into it … nothing out of
it!
c. We get out of worship what we put
into it. If we learn to deny self
we will discover the God who is there rather than discovering our selfish
needs.
5. There is joy waiting for true
worshippers, are you one of them?
ILLUS: What
was our Lord thinking about as he walked along the roads of Galilee, so often
alone? What were his thoughts in
times of repose, during the journeys by boat that he liked making with his
disciples after a day's exhausting preaching? What occupied his mind among the hills
where he liked to go alone, without even the disciples? The answer, we may think, is easy: he was
thinking of men, of sinners and their salvation, and what he had to do to effect
that salvation. But, surprising as
it may seem to us, it wasn't with us that Jesus was concerned. The constant object of his meditation,
the natural orientation of his heart and mind and soul, the food that constantly
nourished him, was his Father. -- Louis Evely (1910- ) -- Edythe Draper, Draper's Book
of Quotations for the Christian World (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,
1992). Entry 12128.
CONCLUSION:
Celebrations are more
joyous when we prepare for them mentally and materially ... so is a worship
celebration! Prepare to enjoy
worshipping the Lord and prepare to be involved ... you leave rested and
refreshed spiritually if you do!