Title: Sacrifice and Ordination
Contents
Bible: Leviticus 1:1-9 Sermon: Offering and laying on of hands
The laying on of hands is a ‘blessing that comes down from above’. It has two meanings: removing the curse of the earth and giving the blessing of heaven. An important element of the five great sacrifices in Leviticus is the act of laying hands on the sacrifice.
1. The location the Lord spoke of The tent of meeting
The Ten Commandments that Jehovah gave to Moses, who fasted for 40 days and nights and purged himself in a place where he was warned that he would die if he took even one step from Mount Sinai, where fire and flames and smoke erupted, contained the will of God the Lawgiver. God's flaming eyes are like X-Ray rays, and if a sin like dust is found, it will be condemned by the law. However, the words of the Lord who came down from Mount Sinai and called Moses from the tent of meeting are the words of Leviticus. For sinners who cannot be justified by the law, God has provided a safety device called the tabernacle of meeting, and the words spoken there are the words of Leviticus. Leviticus is the Gospel of the Old Testament. God did not meet sinners by law, but spoke in the tent of meeting to meet them by grace.
2. Order of offering offerings to Jehovah
Of the 27 chapters in the book of Leviticus, more than half of the ordinances related to sacrifice (worship) were recorded in 16 chapters. The worship life of the early church members was 'under the apostles' teaching, they devoted themselves to fellowship, to breaking bread, and to prayer'. They ate food with ... (Acts 2:42,46) 'Every day they were in the temple or at home, and they did not cease teaching and preaching that Jesus was the Christ' (Acts 5:42). 'Gorban' means 'voluntarily giving to God'. Israel came out of Egypt to become a worshiping community. I realized that the purpose of settlement in the land of Canaan is worship, and the purpose of living as a pilgrim in the wilderness is to train the worshiping community centering on the tent of meeting.
The burnt offering of the 5th sacrifice represents the Calvary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who offered Himself without blemish to God. The meal offering was pleasing to the Father through the blameless life of Christ. The fellowship offering is the propitiation offering through which Jesus Christ reconciled us to God.
The old saying of 家和萬事成 means “everything goes well when the family is harmonious”.
Although the modern church has offered a lot of worship and prayer for all things through the faith of ups and downs, worship for reconciliation does not feel its value, and a significant part of the ‘reconciliation offering’, the third sacrifice among the five major sacrifices, has disappeared.
The sin offering is the atoning death of Jesus Christ, who Himself paid the penalty for our sins. The trespass offering is the trespass offering of Jesus Christ who took on our sins. In the era of agricultural society and livestock farming, livestock in one's house is a list of property, but if you commit a crime and kill the livestock as a sacrifice, your property is lost.
The laying on of hands must force the head of the beast to kneel down, and then kill the beast by slaughtering it with one's own hands. To grab the horns of a cow, sheep, or goat and press the head down to kneel, you have to press it with all your suckling force. And you must kill the beast with your own hands. This means that the penalty for sin is death (future), and the penalty for sin is sacrifice (damage). If you don't kill the beast, you die. If you do not lay hands on the beast, it has nothing to do with you. If we do not lay hands on Jesus Christ by faith, we will die. Worship is the act of laying hands on the head of the Lord, the Lamb of God.