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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

David Shin

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: Back to the Father’s House

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: It’s All About Jesus

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: Justified in the Courtyard

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Sanctified in the Holy Place

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Glorified in the Most Holy Place

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Burnt Offering

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Cleansed at the Laver

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Fed at the Table

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Altar of Incense

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: The Lampstand

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: The Law in the Ark

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Sabbath and Sanctuary

Father in heaven, we thank you for this new Sabbath and this opportunity that we have to come apart from the cares of this life and to worship you in spirit and in truth.

Father, As we pause for a few moments in your presence today, we pray that you would speak to us.

May you take the words of Scripture and apply them to our hearts.

We need the Holy Spirit this morning, and we Thank you for the gift that you've promised to those that ask.

For we ask these things in the precious name of Jesus.

On the screen, I have a drawing of Henry Martin.

He was a Cambridge scholar that lived in the late 1700s and into the 1800s.

He was a genius and they say that his physical appearance was quite appalling.

He had warts covering his face and his hands.

And at public events like cricket games, he would many times be on the outskirts just watching from a distance because of his appearance.

There was a young lady by the name of Lydia that fell in love with Henry Martin because of the mind that he had and the gentleman that he was.

And 1 day Henry Martin was sitting in a church service and he heard a missionary tell of India and of the needs that were there.

And Henry Martin says that a fire burned in his heart for India to be a missionary and so he ran to Lydia and told Lydia about the burden for India that he had and he said, let's get married and go to India.

And Lydia said, there's 1 place in the world I never want to go, and that's India.

She said, well, I'm sorry, that's the way I feel.

And so Henry Martin went back to his room and he was in turmoil.

And finally he realized it wasn't between Lydia and India, it was between Lydia and God.

So he decided that he would go to India and while he's making the preparations, 1 of his professors at Cambridge told him, Henry, you have a brilliant mind, you have a brilliant career ahead of you, don't throw it away.

And Henry said, which world are you speaking of, sir?

So Henry went to India and when he arrived there, 1 of the quotes that he said was, Lord, let me burn out for God.

He was dragged across the desert in chains when he went to Persia, and he died at the age of 31.

Many people would say, what a waste of a life, but before he died, he translated the Bible into 3 different languages, Persian, Hindustani, and 1 other language.

And when we hear stories like Henry Martin, There's a certain part of me that just marvels at the dedication and the sacrifice of individuals that gave everything in their service for the Lord Jesus.

And sitting in my comfortable home here in Anchorage, Alaska, it's quite a challenge sometimes when I think of the disparity between Christianity today and Christianity in the first century or even in the 17th or 18th century.

It was entitled, or it is entitled, The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch, an evangelical.

He does a fascinating assessment of what first century Christianity was like and does a painful assessment of where Christianity is today.

And This is a quotation from Alan Hirsch, an evangelical scholar.

He said, I came to the conclusion that there must be something about middle class culture that seems to run contrary to authentic gospel values.

And this is not to make a statement about middle class people per se.

I myself am from a very middle class family.

But rather to isolate some of the values and assumptions that seem to come along as part of the deal.

We need to be especially aware of cultural values that we take for granted because we cannot easily see them.

I noted earlier that much of what goes by the name middle class involves a preoccupation with safety and security, developed mostly in pursuit of what seems to be best for our children.

This focus is understandable as long as it does not become obsessive, but when these impulses of middle-class culture fuse with consumerism, as they most often do, we can add the obsession with comfort and convenience to the list.

This is not a good mix, at least as far as the Lordship of Jesus, discipleship, the gospel, and missional movements are concerned.

This was challenging for me to read because I come from a middle class family and it is the middle class that has built America and There's nothing wrong with being middle class, but what he's simply saying is that there are certain things that we imbibe being in a certain culture, in American culture, being middle class, that we are not always conscious of.

And sometimes we can confuse these values as being central to Christianity.

And he brings up these 3 elements of consumerism, comfort, and convenience.

Now, there's nothing wrong inherently with comfort and convenience.

But sometimes, following Jesus can make us uncomfortable.

It can cause us inconvenience, inconvenient death and discomfort.

And we are living in a time and a culture where Christianity has fused so much with the culture around us that it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish between what is Christian and what is culture.

I look at this statement by Jesus in Luke 14, verse 33.

This is a radical statement from Jesus in the first century.

He says, in the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

This is a radical statement and it is challenging because you look at all of the disciples, they gave up everything to follow Jesus.

Matthew left a lucrative career And you remember what Jesus said to the rich young ruler, he said, go and sell everything that you have and then follow me.

So you can see that Christianity in the first century is required radical dedication, radical commitment.

And this is not to say that we are to go out right now and sell everything, but what I believe the Bible is calling us to be and to do is to hold on to our possessions and our livelihoods lightly.

And that they not be central to our existence.

And if the Lord does call us to radical sacrifice, to give these things up, that we be willing to follow Jesus wherever He may lead.

And I've had a personal reflection about how consumerism has affected me as a pastor.

I shared a few sermons ago, and it seems like there's always a new camera coming out that makes mine look dull and less megapixels and doesn't have the same ISO.

And you're always longing for the newest thing and the latest gadget, and you get into this consumerism rut.

And the realization sinks over me that Christianity and consumerism are very far apart from 1 another.

They are antithetical to the gospel message.

So how do we process this concept of radical commitment found in the gospels?

We're in our series on the sanctuary and today we're focusing on the brazen altar.

It's the first article of furniture that you come to in the sanctuary.

There were different sacrifices that were on the brazen altar.

You had the sin offering, you had the trespass offering, but there was 1 sacrifice that went back all the way to Genesis.

It's the most prevalent sacrifice in Scripture in the Old Testament, and it is the burnt offering.

The burnt offering was quite different than the other offerings.

The other offerings, many times the priests or the person bringing the offering would get a portion of that offering.

It was to be a part of what the priest received and a part of their food allotment in some of the different offerings.

The burnt offering, you took the animal and you consumed the entire animal on the altar.

The person bringing the offering did not get any of it either.

And if you have your study guides, you can follow along.

This is the first sacrifice that's recorded in Leviticus chapter 1.

And you know, when you try to read the Bible through, you get through Genesis very good, you get through Exodus usually, and then when you get to Leviticus, you're like, this is challenging, all these sacrifices, well, what all do they mean?

And this is the first sacrifice that is described in Leviticus 1.

And let's read it in Leviticus 1, verse 8 and 9.

Then the priest, Aaron's son, shall lay the parts, the parts of the animal that has been killed, the parts of the head, the fat, in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar, but he shall wash its entrails and legs with water, and the priest shall burn, how much of it?

All on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord." So this animal is to be placed on the altar, it's to be washed, and all of it is to be burned on the altar.

Now from a certain standpoint you think to yourself, like, what a waste.

I mean, you mean no 1 gets to eat any of it?

The entire altar is, the entire animal is placed on the altar and it's just burned up.

And notice the response that God has to this offering.

In other words, to God, this is like, it's pleasing.

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Series

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Burnt Offering

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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