| THE LESSONS OF SACRIFICE
They named her “Ba-Ba”—not a particularly creative name for a lamb, but it was appropriate. I don’t know why the kids took to her like they did. Other lambs were born that spring. Why did they adopt “Ba-Ba” to be their pet. Perhaps it was because she was the whitest of the lambs born that year. She was, in fact, unblemished. And that’s ultimately where the problem arose. I recognized my sin. And now a sin offering had to be made. And what must I bring to the temple? What must I offer so my sin might be forgiven? A goat or a lamb—and not just any lamb, it had to be an unblemished lamb. The screams and pleadings of my children rang in my ears as I loaded “Ba-Ba” onto the cart. Their cries echoed in my mind all the way to Jerusalem. As I approached the temple a rancid smell stung my nostrils. It was the heavy stench of burning flesh. My stomach churned as I waited for my turn. When the priest motioned me forward a wave of nausea swept over me. Dragging “Ba-Ba” behind me we stood before the priest. Firmly, I pressed my hands on the little lamb’s head. In that moment I transferred my guilt to her. In the eyes of God my sin became the lamb’s sin. The priest seemed impatient for me to get on with it. Struggling hard not to vomit I pulled the beloved lamb’s head back and quickly slit its throat. A deep gurgling sound bubbled from the lambs throat. It lay dead and twitching on the ground before me. Like he’d done thousands of times before the priest dipped his finger in the fresh blood and wiped it on the horns of the altar. Almost mechanically he poured the rest of the blood at the altar’s base. Skillfully, he butchered the lamb carving out its fat and burning it the altar. He waved me away and motioned for the next worshiper to step forward. I walked away knowing a great mercy had been done for me. What I did not know was how I could make my children understand why it is that something precious must die for someone sinful like me to live. What do we learn from Old Testament sacrifice? What was God trying to teach us when He ordered His people to butcher animals in His temple? What truths do we discover at the bloody altar of sacrifice? Until we answer those questions we’re not ready to share the Lord’s Supper together today. Until we understand the meaning of Old Testament sacrifice, we cannot fully comprehend the sacrifice of Christ. So why were believing Israelites required to go to Jerusalem and slit the throat of an animal before their sins could be forgiven. What point was God trying to make? Clearly, God was telling them, and us, that when we sin, there’s a price to pay. The sacrifices of the Old Testament graphically demonstrate that no man, no woman, no child can have a relationship with God unless the penalty for their sin is paid. Sinful man cannot approach a Holy God unless judgment is executed against every one of our evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds. In short, the bloody sacrifices of the Old Testament remind us how serious sin is. The problem is we don’t usually take sin seriously. Oh, we take some sin seriously. We take murder seriously. Most of us take homosexuality or abortion seriously. Sometimes we even take adultery seriously. Mostly, the sins we take seriously are the sins everybody else is guilty of. That’s where God isn’t like us. He takes all sin seriously. He takes the sin that we don’t even call sin seriously. And that gets real personal for you and for me. God takes your sin personally. All those little shortcomings and so-called mistakes we make in our lives are still sin in God’s eyes. And the price for every sin must be paid. You who have sex outside of marriage, do you really think you’re getting away with it? God sees, and the price will be paid. You who break your marriage vows, the price will be paid. When we swear and curse people on the highways or at work, we’re also cursing God in whose image they are made. It’s sin and the price must be paid. You who say you’ve been forgiven by God but now refuse to forgive others, do you think it’s not sin? Do you think there’s no price to pay for your bitterness? Do you think God won’t punish your lack of mercy? We’ve got so much, but we always want more. It’s coveting and it’s wicked and the price must be paid. Everything you have comes from God. God gives it, and you keep it for yourself. We spend the money we have and even money we don’t have and seldom do we stop to ask God to show us His will. Why? Because, when it comes to the money God puts in our hands, we don’t want to know His will. Do we think its not sin? Do we think there’s no price to pay? I could go on and talk about pride and arrogance and lust and gossip. I could remind us about how self-centered and selfish we are. Then maybe we’d forget about trying to be good enough for God. Maybe we’d forget our fantasies of self-righteousness. You are wicked to the core and so am I. And there’s a price to pay. There is a penalty that must be executed. So what is the price that must be paid for our sin? The sacrifices of the Old Testament tell us that the price that must be paid for sin is death. That is why blood must be spilled at the altar. The prophet Ezekiel warns us, The soul who sins is the one who will die… In Romans 6:23 Paul reminds us that the wages of sin is death. Well, so far, the Old Testament law of sacrifice isn’t real encouraging. The lessons it has taught us up to this point are frightening lessons for us. First, Old Testament sacrifice tells us that there is a price to be paid for sin and that price is death. If the lessons of Old Testament sacrifice stopped here we would have no hope. Because we are all sinners we would all die. Because we have all rebelled against God we would all be condemned to hell forever. But in the slaughter of an innocent animal we find our hope. It is in the slit throat and the spilled blood of a lamb that we discover the promise of God’s mercy. In Old Testament sacrifice we learn that God provides a substitute to pay our price and suffer our punishment. He offers us a scapegoat to die in our place. Look with me at Leviticus 4:32-35. Listen to this description of the sin offering God commanded the Israelites to make. Beginning in verse 32 God says, If he brings a lamb as his sin offering, he is to bring a female without defect. He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it for a sin offering at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered. Then the priest shall 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 pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the Lord by fire. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven. Do you see what’s happening there? The Bible clearly says that the wages of sin is death. But during the sin offering of the Old Testament, notice who dies. Is the penalty for sin paid by the person bringing the sacrifice? No, the penalty is paid by the animal that person brings to sacrifice. When a worshiper brought a lamb or a goat as sin offering notice what he did. He put his hand on the head of the animal. But why did he do that? By placing his hand on the head of the lamb the worshiper’s sin was symbolically transferred to that lamb. Only then, when the lamb had become sin, was its throat slit. Only then was its blood spilled out on the ground to pay the penalty for sins it never committed. Do you think you’d recognize the seriousness of your sin if you had to slit the throat of a lamb or a goat every time you needed forgiveness? On the other hand, would you appreciate God’s mercy knowing that if He hadn’t given you the opportunity to slit the lamb’s throat, your throat would be slit instead? You see, both the seriousness of sin and the mercy of God are seen in the Old Testament sacrifice. When we hear the “sin offering” described for us in Leviticus we understand that the price for sin must be paid. The price is death. But, by His mercy, God permits another to die in our place. So what does all this have to do with the Lord’s Supper we share together today? Everything. In the Lord’s Supper we remember that Jesus is our perfect Lamb of God. On the cross, Jesus did what the Old Testament sacrifices of lambs and goats can never do. Look with me at the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews 10:11-14 we are told why you and I don’t have to sacrifice lambs and goats like they did those days before Jesus came. Speaking of the Old Testament practice of sacrifice Hebrews 10:11-14 says, Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. It is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross that we remember when we take the bread and the cup today. It is His death on the cross that forever takes away your sin. The cross reminds us that the price for our sin must be paid. The cross tells us that the price of our sin is death. And the cross is that place where our substitute became sin for us. And having become our sin, He forever paid your penalty and mine once for all. You are a hopeless sinner. You deserve to die. In fact, you will die an unending death called hell if you do not accept the death Jesus died on the cross as being your death. By faith you must put your hands on the head of God's Lamb and transfer your sins to Him. You need to believe the Bible when it says, He who had no sin became sin for us… By faith you need to believe that only the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross brings forgiveness. Jesus is the only Lamb who takes away sin forever. His blood was spilled for you. He died so you can live. And, having paid the full price for your sin, Jesus rose on the third day so He can share His life with you. If you have never believed in Christ and asked Him to save you from your sin, you need to do it today. If you haven’t put your trust in Christ—and if you will not do it today—you are in danger of judgment and hell and you have no share in the bread and the cup we take today. As we spend the next few minutes in silence you need to examine your heart. If you’ve never really trusted in the risen Christ who was slain for you can do that right now where you sit. Admit that you are a sinner. Then, being willing to turn from your sin, ask Christ into your life. Believe that He paid the penalty for all your sin when He died on the cross. He will forgive you. He will change you. Only Jesus is Savior because only Jesus died for your sin. Reject Jesus and you reject God’s forgiveness. Reject Jesus and you reject eternal life. Go To Main Page |