"Atonement" pt 1 - August 22, 2010

"Atonement" pt 1 - August 22, 2010

Sermon notes from Pastor Paula White

“Atonement” #1

2010

Leviticus 23:1-2 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.

V27)  Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

If it’s Important to God, it Must be Important to Me…

-Harvest Time is Threshing Time…

-God will not be satisfied until He comes into His garden & discovers the FRUIT that corresponds to the seed that HE BECAME in the earth…

‘PREPARE YE THE WAY OF THE LORD”

-There is a time & season for the proclamation of every Biblical Truth…

-Israel’s annual FEASTS constitute a beautiful type & pattern for the CHURCH…

-All of these Biblical celebrations contain deep treasures of understanding….

-They unveil the Lord’s intense desire for FELLOWSHIP with His people, as living parables…

-…& paint a prophetic picture of the Lord’s eternal redemptive purposes on the earth

-All Israel’s Worship centered around 3 FEASTS (7 events)…

-…They were occasions of great convocations, keeping Sabbath, ordinances, CONSECRATION & SANCTIFICATION..

-[Dt 16:16]..  “Three times in a year shall all the males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose…in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty

v17)  Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the lord thy God which he hath given thee”

-God designed 7 feasts (Lev 23) = His own HOLY DAYS with specific instructions given for their observance

-[Lev 19] ..  states they are ETERNAL = (i.e) = Everlasting

-The Word “Eternal” describes something that transcends the limits of time…

-When all worries about RULES, LEGALISM and BONDAGE have finally been put to rest…

-…We see that our Father designed the Biblical feasts to be OPPORTUNITES for Him to COMMUNE with His children in intimate relationship..

-We celebrate… Not in a legalistic sense (James 2:10)..  For it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep “Exactly” the feasts…

-But VITAL to Honor & Obey it’s Principles & Patterns…

-Legalism = could be described as trying to earn God’s favor by performing a set of behaviors and abstaining form others…

-It implies that we can act in strict adherence to Biblical laws, or even to Church laws, and be considered RIGHTEOUS by GOD..

-If meticulous observance could win His approval… the Pharisees would have won first prize and been the prototype for us to follow…

-But in [Mt 3:7]..  He calls them a “generation of vipers”…

-What God desires is a heart after Him in obedience…

-[Ps 51:16, 17]…  “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it:  thou delightest not in burnt offering.  V17)  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise”

-[Message]..  “Going through the motions doesn’t please you,  a flawless performance is nothing to you.  V17)  I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered.  Heart shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice”

-It’s the attitude of the heart that makes the critical difference between the lord’s acceptance of our “RIGHTEOUSNESS” & His rejection of it…

-The Lord is saying through these Feasts.. (His divine appointments)…  “Remember Me, Remember what I have done for you… Most of all, Remember my LOVE for you!...

-His calendar is a compass to direct us to the everlasting paths…

-…They lead us to remembrance of the PAST, Preparation for the Future… and NOW FULFILLMENTS…

The Fall feasts are all about “preparation” for His Bride and the full restoration of His Covenant People…

Atonement = (At-One- With God )= Yum Kippur = “Covered” or “redeemed”

i.      Central theme = redemption and repentance

-The day of Atonement speaks of sanctification, a lifestyle in which our flesh comes into alignment with our spirit…

-When God refers to His days as “Feast Days” or “Appointed Times…  There are 3 words in Hebrew used for these special days…

-Lev. 23: 2 has two Hebrew words that are vital to understand

1)       Verse 2 = Moe’d  =

1.      Feasts/Moe’d = an appointment, a fixed time or season, a cycle or year. An appointed time, set time, exact time

a.      God set an appointment with His children for a specific reason

ii.      Verse 6 = chag

1.      Feast/Chag = translated as “festival” = defined as = to move in a circle, to march in a sacred procession, to celebrate, dance, hold a solemn feast or holiday

iii.      The other Hebrew word = “mikrah”

1)  Feast / Mikrah = A holy convocation, a sacred assembly, or even a rehearsal of God’s past, present and future acts.

God clearly gave these cyclical festivals to be observed year after year after year.         (3 seasons = 7 feasts)

II.                Tabernacles Season

a.      These divine appointments (feasts) present an opportunity for God’s people to honor Him. They are His most Holy Days

i.      Feast of Trumpets =It’s a solemn wake-up call to Repentance

ii.      Atonement = The MOST HOLY day too God….Prayer, righteousness, faith through supernatural cleansing.

iii.      Feast of Tabernacles = fruit, harvest and latter rain

[ Remember the Jewish caL = Lunar (11 days shorter then ours) and all these divine appointments o the fall take place in a 15 day period in the 7^th MONTH…  the Holiest month to God

-They present to us as an opportunity for God’s people to honor Him..

-There is GREAT REWARD for those who love and celebrate these divine appointments voluntarily…

-Again, they are ETERNAL..  to be kept thru all generations

-Exodus 30:10 And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.

-We are called to be a royal priesthood (Revelation 1:6) that proclaims restoration to a Kingdom

-…and the feasts outline God’s 3 phase plan of redemption and should be to us a “holy assembly”… a rehearsal

-In celebrating them we depict  “That Redemption”:

III.             [God’s 3 Phase Plan of Redemption]

a.      Passover = personal redemption

b.      Pentecost = personal infilling of the spirit

c.       Tabernacles = full restoration of the Kingdom

-While these feasts are but a “shadow” of the glory found in God (Colossians 2:17 and Hebrews 2:10) and already are objectively “fulfilled” in Him, still they are subjectively being fulfilled in the

hearts of those being gathered.

[Zephaniah 3:18] I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.

-So, When did the Observation Fall into “disuse” Among Christians?

-After AD 325 = Roman Emperor Constantine the Great merged Christianity with Roman culture & religion…

i.      He instituted Jesus’ birth (December 25^th)

ii.      He changed the Sabbath (from Saturday to Sunday) when the Council of Laodicea forbade Christian observance the 7^th day Sabbath

iii.      Doctrine of Trinity confirmed as Orthodox Christian Belief

iv.      Church of Rome officially established

v.      And he omitted observance of “Hebrew Feasts”

1.      Why? = Because many believed he had seen God’s people so blessed as a result of observing gave them too much power, so he stopped them.

Exodus 12:14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

-Let’s take a closer examination of the “Fall Divine Appointments”

IV.             Feast of Tabernacles

a.      Trumpets = Rosh Hashanah or “head of year”

i.      This signals the start of the civil year (10 days prior to Atonement)

ii.      It is when Ezra related that the Temple altar was rebuilt and sacrificial offerings reinstated. Ezra 3:1-6

1.      Nehemiah records seeping revival at the same time as Ezra rehearsed God’s law in the ears of the people. Nehemiah 7:73 and 8:13

b.      Day of Atonement = (Hebrew) Kippur = covering or atonement

i.      Yom = day

ii.      Kippur = to cover… to pardon or condone

iii.      Atonement = (English word) =  to make amends or to reconcile.  It is where God and the sinner are brought into a relationship in which they are “at one”…

-This day a “Covering” or “Sacrifice” was made for ATONEMENT…  [to be “at-one”] or Reconciliation between God and man.

-By the sacrifices that were offered on that day… the sins of the people were covered – but only for 1 year.

-The sacrifices of the OT that day offered no permanent solution to the problem of sin… They merely provided a temporary covering…

-Leviticus Chapter 16 outlines the biblical details & instructions

1.      The Lord commanded Aaron not to come into the Holy of Holies but 1 day out of the year

2.      Aaron was to enter wearing a special garment of white linen with:

a.      The blood of sacrifice which he sprinkled

b.      Golden censer

c.       Hands full of sweet incense

i.      It was only then; Aaron could bring the offering within the veil.

3.      The high priest would then take the blood sacrifice of an innocent animal (1 year old lamb) and cover the ark of the covenant = he sprinkled its blood 7x

4.      1 goat slain and it’s blood sprinkled on the altar

5.      The other goat (scapegoat) taken to the wilderness at the hand of a man bearing the sins of the people where the priest would confess all of Israel’s sins upon the head of the living goat

6.      With the blood of the sin offering = the high priest sprinkled blood on the mercy seat

-This was all done for cleansing of “all” sins, iniquities and transgressions =  to be “reconciled”

-When John the Baptist introduced Jesus in [John 1:29], he said “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

-When Jesus came and offered himself as a sacrifice on the cross…  HE PUT AWAY SIN…  [not just covered for it]..

-[Heb 10:3-4] speaks of the sacrifices of the OT:  “In those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year”

-..”For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins”

-The CENTRAL ISSUE here is the “TAKING AWAY SINS, Not merely COVERING them”..

-[Heb 9:26] …  The writer speaks of what was accomplished by the death of Jesus, in direct contrast to OT sacrifices…

-“But now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself”…

-JESUS BECAME MY ATONEMENT!!!

-The Bible’s definition of sin is given in [Rom 3:23]…”All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

-Sin is NOT necessarily committing some terrible crime or treason…

-…IT IS FAILING to give GOD His RIGHTFUL PLACE in our LIVES, leading lives that withhold from God the GLORY that all His creatures owe Him…

-[Heb 7:27]…  “He does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins & then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself”

-The word “OFFER” = refers to what a priest did when he made a sacrifice..

-But on the Cross… JESUS offered up Himself.

-He was both the Priest & the Sacrifice…

-As Priest… He offered the sacrifice… BUT He Himself was the SACRIFICE, the victim.

-Only one Priest was good enough to make that offering…and only one offering was acceptable to God…

-[Heb 10:14]…  “By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified”

-[Heb] = “He has perfected”…  the verb “perfected” appears in the perfect tense.

-Which means = ONLY ONCE was this sacrifice to be offered, never to be repeated…

-It was a PERFECT SACRIFICE that would completely perfect all who put their faith in it…

-The Day of Atonement [as with the other feasts]… Is a day we remember what the Lord our God did for us.

-We are honoring Him in the commemorations He designed and desires…

-Our obedience brings intimate encounters with the LIVING GOD…

-These feasts are more than a ritual, or a tradition…  THEY are an ENCOUNTER with the FOUNDER of the FEASTS in our hearts and being…

-He has set a meeting place for you….Meet Him at the mercy seat on His day of Atonement

Hebrews 10:10 By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

We know Jesus offered Himself once and for All and while we are not bound to the rituals, we cannot abandon the principles

-When we consecrate ourselves there are 8 Promises as found in the book of Joel

c.       Increase

d.      Revelation

e.       Fresh Anointing

f.        God’s Power = Miracles

g.      Restoration

h.      Financial Abundance

i.        No Shame but deliverance

j.        God’s Presence

Deuteronomy 16:16-17 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.