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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

The Day of Atonement

Dee Casper

01 God’s Love Forgives

So we're starting a little bit later this evening, so I wanna get you out of your decent hours.

So let's pray and we'll begin this evening's message is entitled God's Love Forgives.

Sweet Jesus, I thank you for seeing something in us that we really struggle to see in ourselves.

And I pray as we reflect upon what biblical forgiveness looks like and how you engage with us and how you want us to respond to your goodness, I pray that you would guide us, that you'd speak truth into our hearts and into our minds, and that you would set us free from the things that are holding us back, the negative views that we have of ourselves and of your view of us.

This is our plea tonight, Lord, and we ask this now in Jesus' name.

So we're sharing this evening, tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon, and the topic over the course of this whole weekend is going to be centered around the topic of the Day of Atonement.

In some form or fashion, we will touch that topic in each 1 of the messages, but we're also gonna be looking at the topic of mental health and our view of God and of God's view of us because I think that many people are scared to death when it comes to this topic and they need not be.

I did not plan it this way, but literally Yom Kippur was like Wednesday, like the Day of Atonement was literally like this week, which is really interesting.

I didn't have any of that in mind, but clearly somebody who knows a calendar better than I did, did.

The New Testament with 1 minor exception uses 2 primary words for the topic of forgiveness, haritza mai and aphiamai.

Okay, there are 2 different words here, they're largely used, we'll define those and work through them here in our next text.

So in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 13, here's the first 1, Haritzamay, says, And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven.

And we'll look at a couple definitions of this.

We're just nerding out at the beginning because the way these terms are defined are super important for what we're gonna talk about.

So I'm not normally a big dictionary guy, but this is helpful for this situation.

So it says, haritzama, the most common meaning peculiar to the New Testament is to pardon or to graciously remit a person's sin.

The Strong's Greek Dictionary defines it this way, as a verb it means to bestow a favor how?

Unconditionally and is used of the act of forgiveness whether divine or human.

So what's implied by this term, haritamai, is the idea of unconditional favor or pardon.

Again, we're looking at the 2 phases of forgiveness.

We as Seventh-day Adventists believe in a two-phase forgiveness, or a two-phase atonement, I should say, and I wanna kinda flesh that out in some of the language in the New Testament, because I think it's super, super helpful, because some of us kind of assume that we have to do things to get God to then do things, right, so like the process of inertia begins with us doing something and then God doing something and so I want to kind of clarify how this process works.

So Jesus takes the condemnation that we deserve and he pardons us and he has a posture or a disposition of forgiveness towards us.

I think this is super important to see because if you look at some of these texts, it's very interesting.

These are just some examples of God showing his posture of forgiveness towards humanity before humanity even makes a move.

So God covering Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 before they're really willing to deal with what they've done, right?

Adam's blaming Eve, Eve's blaming the serpent, everybody's blaming anybody, but no one's really taking responsibility.

We see Moses numerous times in the Old Testament where God says, look, I'm gonna wipe these people out and then I'm gonna make a people out of you.

And he pleads with the people for their forgiveness.

He does, but are the people asking for that?

Don't misunderstand me, just keep listening.

It's gonna make a whole lot of sense once I finish some of these initial points, because I'm not going where you may think I'm going.

So in Matthew chapter 9, there's this guy who's a paralytic, and Jesus, before healing the man, says, son, your sins are forgiven you.

But did the paralytic ask for forgiveness of his sins?

No, he was brought there to be healed of a physical infirmity, but Jesus, again, has a posture of forgiveness towards this man before this man makes any moves.

Jesus praying, Father, forgive them in Matthew chapter 27.

Now, are the people who are around the cross all repenting and asking for forgiveness at this stage?

Jesus forgiving Peter before he confesses in John 21.

We see Stephen, who's a type of Christ, praying that God would forgive the people who were stoning him.

We see that God was in Christ, according to 2 Corinthians 5, 19, reconciling the world, not imputing their trespasses to them.

And the point that I'm trying to make, and I hope that you'll see this evening, is that God is looking for reasons to have you in the kingdom.

He's not looking for reasons to exclude you, right?

He's looking for reasons to get you in the kingdom.

And when you see this, that he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

So it wasn't like Jesus came and tried to convince the Father to love us, God commissioned Jesus to go, and that's in Romans 5, verse 8, that God showed his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.

And this is amazing because, again, we can have these really unhealthy views of God the Father.

We can kind of roll with Jesus because we saw what he did for us, but the Father, we just think, ah.

We really project our own disappointment in ourselves upon God.

That we think that God looks at us in the way that we look at us, that I'm a loser, that I'm a mess, I can't get anything right, I'm a waste of his time, why does he bother with me?

It's really easy for us to do that, but that's not how God actually feels about you.

And it's important that we speak into that space this evening.

So God, and so Jesus didn't come to convince the Father to love you.

Romans 5, 8 tells us that it's because God already loved you and before you got anything right, that he sent Jesus.

Okay, so when this word is used, haritza mai, as forgiveness in the New Testament, apart from that text in Colossians 2, 13, it's always used within the context of forgiving individuals without any mention of them confessing first.

Right, this is 1 of those principles of forgiveness where, you know, it's not the, okay, well, if this person shows some form of remorse, then I'll be willing to forgive them.

Well, that's not how this process works, right?

The process works in you finding your healing, your freedom, your closure by you processing that whether they respond or not because this is something that you need to work through as far as an interpersonal forgiveness.

And so this idea of offering that unconditionally, I'm choosing to release this pain, this frustration, this bitterness that I'm feeling towards this individual, whether they respond or not, whether they repent or not, I'm making that choice because I think that's the best thing that I need to do.

So we forgive because we love, and it's impossible to love a sinner without forgiveness.

Ellen White makes this amazing statement in Manuscript Releases, Volume 19, page 349.

She says, Christ tells us that we must forgive the erring, even 70 times 7.

And then she says, and how infinitely greater is the love of God than is our love.

So if we were told about this principle of not waiting until someone does something to show forgiveness, do you think God is even better at this principle than we are?

Okay, now this, that's just the first phase of forgiveness though, God having a posture of forgiveness to humanity and towards humanity even before humanity recognizing all of what's going on.

And us encountering that undeserved, unmerited pardon of God is what leads to that second phase of forgiveness that we see in Romans 2 and verse 4, that the goodness of God leads us to repentance, right?

So when we encounter the overwhelming, undeserved goodness of God towards us, when we know we don't deserve that, it does something to us.

God shows you an amazing amount of grace in a situation that you know that you don't deserve it and it leads you to like genuine biblical repentance?

So Jesus is teaching on the shore, and he says, hey, can I borrow your boat?

He says, sure, so he gets in the boat, uses it like a natural amphitheater, the waters kind of project Jesus' voice to the shore, and then when he's done, Jesus says, hey, cast your net on the other side of the boat and you'll catch some fish.

And he's like, bro, I've been fishing all night.

And I do this for a living, like that's cute, you know, you do carpentry, that's nice, but like, I fish for a living and I caught nothing all night.

Yeah, he ends up having so much fish that James and John bring their boat over, they fill both boats, and both boats begin to sink, right?

And he's shown this overwhelming amount of grace, and he doesn't know what to do with it.

03 When You Don’t Understand

It's not my last meeting today, but it's our last meeting together.

I'm going to be addressing the topic of Daniel chapter 8, 9, and 10.

Don't worry, this is not going to be a three-hour Bible study, but I want to address some kind of big-picture issue, I think, that lies some practical lessons from Daniel chapter 8, 9, and 10.

The topic of waiting and not understanding why God has us in these holding patterns.

What's God doing when it seems like nothing's happening, and what's he gonna do to strengthen us?

If you're in 1 of those seasons or have ever been in 1 of those seasons, certainly 1 will come if you haven't experienced 1, and When that's the case, hopefully these principles will be half the blessing to you they've been to me in my own journey.

So I'd like to pray and then we'll start our presentation for this afternoon.

Sweet Jesus, thank you that you have been good to us, that you've been faithful to us and what we've studied so far, and we pray as we have 1 last study together that your hand of blessing would be with us and give us practical lessons we pray.

So the book of Daniel contains prophecies that are very important for us to know and understand.

In fact, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 24, regarding the book of Daniel, let him who reads understand, right?

But it's not just a book of important prophecies, it's also filled with many practical stories that teach us how to live in the light of these prophecies.

Maybe you've kind of wondered about the land of Daniel.

It's kind of interesting, there's like these amazing prophecies, but there's like these like stories you can make felt, you know, little boards out of and talk about Daniel and the Lion's Den or, you know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the Fiery Furnace and all this stuff.

And kind of why do we have both components here?

Well, the basic premise is you have these prophecies in the book of Daniel, but then you have the stories in the book of Daniel that teach you how to live in the midst of those important prophecies.

So for instance, the prophecy of Daniel chapter 3 and the 3 Hebrew worthies thrown into the fire, right?

This idea that there's gonna be a clarion call to worship and those who don't toe the line, those who don't agree will suffer penalties for this and so forth.

So anyway, there's practical lessons through these stories that are contained in the book of Daniel on top of the prophecies.

And so I'd like to look at some of those important parts of Daniel's life that I believe are very relevant to you and I today.

So in Daniel chapter 8, Daniel's in Babylon as a captive and he's seen God work for him while he's still there, which is an encouragement in a discouraging situation, right?

You're in captivity, that's not an easy thing, but God is still working for him and helping him.

But some things happen here in Daniel 8 that really unsettles him.

If you're not familiar with this chapter, This is the chapter of the ram and the he-goat.

So you got Daniel 7, you've got the 4 beasts.

Daniel 8, you've got the ram and the he-goat.

Basically speaking of Medo-Persia and what will eventually become Greece because Babylon's already ruling at this stage.

And so you get to this time, and he sees the he-goat that has the 4 horns, and then those are kind of broken off, a single horn emerges as a little horn, was 1 horn, breaks off, turns into 4, and there's a little horn that kind of comes up through that process, and it's wreaking havoc, right?

The people of God are being trampled underfoot, the saints are being persecuted, and it's deeply troubling to Daniel because he's an Israelite, right?

Like, these are my peeps, like, these are my people.

And it's very, very troubling, and it doesn't make matters better that while he's troubled by this vision, it's so bad that 1 of the angels in the vision asks another angel, so, how long is that gonna go on?

Like, you're already stressed, and then 1 of the other angels points out just how bad this is, like man how long is that gonna go on?

And then the answer that's given is under 2, 300 days or evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

And then a more detailed interpretation of the vision is given as far as the 1260 and some of that stuff, but there's not really much given about the 2300 days portion.

I don't know what it means, what I'm basically told is that it's true.

Now in Daniel's context, the people of God were already under attack, right?

Jerusalem has been sacked, they're taken captive, and certainly Daniel can be tempted to wonder, is this talking about right now or later?

He doesn't fully understand what's going on.

The angel will later tell him that the primary part of that vision, as far as the persecution of the saints, will be for the time of the end, 1798, in that general timeline.

But the vision concerning the 2300 days, which is a different Hebrew word altogether, is still confusing him, he doesn't understand it, and it's still weighing heavily upon him even at the close of this chapter.

But yeah, it's very challenging to him because imagine being Daniel.

You've been told that you're gonna be in captivity for 70 years.

It's nearing the close of those 70 years, and then you're given a vision that's gonna be 2, 300 days, or 2, 300 years, until the sanctuary is cleansed.

Well, what sanctuary do you think he would be thinking about of the 3 that we talked about this morning.

Do you think he's thinking like William Miller was, the heavenly sanctuary?

You don't really know how to answer this question it seems.

If you're Daniel, in Daniel chapter 8, what temple do you think it is or what sanctuary do you think it is that's gonna be cleansed in his mind?

Right, so that means that like, wait a minute, we're not going home after 70 years?

Are you starting to see why Daniel's so distressed?

He doesn't understand what's being said here.

Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought it was 70 years.

Have you ever been in situations where, I mean, you're in med school, for goodness sakes, many of you, where you just budget your emotional bandwidth?

I just need to make it through Friday, finals week, or I just need to make it until Sabbath.

And when something happens that you weren't planning on, the immediate fear and thought is, I didn't budget for this.

I had budgeted my emotional energy to make it this long and then something happens.

Your weekend off gets taken away and added a week later and you're just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I didn't budget for this, I don't know if I can handle that.

I thought it was 70 years, now it seems like God's implying there's 2, 300 more years on top of this?

So we get to verses 15 to 18, actually 17 and 18 largely.

I'm gonna highlight some of this just in summary just for the sake of brevity.

That is not my fruit of the Spirit by the way And it's not listed in Galatians 5, so you can't give me a hard time about that.

So he came near where I stood, meeting the angel, and he came when I was afraid, and I fell on my face, and he said to me, understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end.

That's the first vision about the oppression of the saints.

Verse 18, now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground.

So this revelation of seemingly more hard time being tacked on to the nation of Israel's sentence is so overwhelming to Daniel that physically he collapses.

It's so intense to him, he literally collapses and he has no strength left.

But the angel touched me and stood me upright.

And I love this, we'll see this continuing throughout the chapters that we're gonna look at today, that God is so merciful, right?

That even when we get overwhelmed by the bad news we receive in life, when God's doing things that we don't understand and we're tired of suffering and waiting and so forth, that in those moments, God's willing to send help from heaven to touch us and strengthen us, amen?

So Daniel chapter 9, we've got the context from Daniel 8 of what he's going through in Daniel 9.

Daniel 9 takes place 15 years after Daniel 8.

It's so bad the dude collapses in Daniel 8, and he's still wrestling with uncertainty for another 15 years, and he doesn't really get all the answers then even.

02 The Cleansing of the Sanctuary

So let's pray and then we'll begin this morning's message entitled The Cleansing of the Sanctuary.

Sweet Jesus, I thank you that you long to bless us today more than we have the courage to ask.

But I do pray as Moses prayed that you would show us your glory this morning, that you would speak to us, that you would minister to us, and that you would help us to see an important and, I believe, under-addressed and overlooked aspect of what you're seeking to do in the cleansing of the sanctuary.

Speak to us, O God, I pray, and I ask this in Jesus' name.

All right, so I will be addressing the cleansing of the sanctuary, but maybe from a different angle than you would expect, or that is generally addressed, and it's not to negate that other aspect of it, I just wanna kind of address an under-addressed aspect of it and ironically, I don't know if you're aware of this, I didn't plan this, but clearly God must have, all 3 messages we're talking about this weekend are applying to the topic of the investigative judgment in some form or fashion, or the Day of Atonement, Daniel 8 through 10, as far as some of the different aspects of what we'll see.

It's largely alluded to in Daniel 8, but anyway, we're addressing that throughout the whole course this weekend.

But if you weren't aware of this, Yom Kippur was actually this week.

I did not plan that, but it totally happened, so I guess this is a perfect time to be discussing this particular topic.

So there are primarily 3 types of sanctuaries or temples referred to in Scripture.

The first is the 1 that was built on earth.

We see that in Exodus chapter 25, let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.

And chapter 25 kind of fleshes out how it was built and what that process looked like.

And we also see it in 2 Chronicles 3 whenever Solomon builds the more permanent structure.

And then we see it in Ezra and Nehemiah's day when a temple's rebuilt then as well.

Now, the most important location of the sanctuary was the most holy place where God's presence was found above the Ark of the Covenant.

So the Ark served basically as God's throne on earth.

So his law and his presence were found in the most holy place, or the most important location of the sanctuary.

Now, we actually see this again in the heavenly sanctuary.

This is alluded to in Revelation chapter 11.

John the Revelator is given a vision of the throne room in heaven and he sees the Ark of the Covenant there.

And you know the law is inside of this Ark.

So God's presence and God's law are also in the most focal point in the heavenly sanctuary.

We'll look at those texts here in just a moment.

So the throne is where 1 governs and where they administer their laws, so God's presence and law are found in the most important location of the heavenly temple, just like what we saw on earth.

Now this important connection between these 2 temples, the earthly temple and the heavenly temple, is pointed out in Exodus 25 in Hebrews chapters 8, 9, and 10.

So we'll look at some of these texts now.

Exodus chapter 25 beginning of verse 9, according to all that I show you God says, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it, " and it's skipping down to verse 40, and, "'See to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.'" So the sanctuary that Moses was to build on earth was patterned after something else, is what's being alluded to here.

Hebrews chapter 8 begins to tell us what that looks like.

Now this is the main point of the things that we are saying.

We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man." Okay, so this was a pattern of something that was designed in heaven, which the Lord erected and not man.

For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, Therefore it was necessary that this 1 also have something to offer." Picking up in verse 4, "'For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and the shadow of heavenly things.'" So the author of Hebrews is super clear that the sanctuary on earth was a copy or shadow of heavenly realities.

"'As Moses was divinely instructed when he was to make the tabernacle, for he said, see that you make all things according to the patterns shown you on the mountain.

So the Bible and the author of Hebrews are making this connection for us, that the earthly sanctuary is built after the true sanctuary in heaven.

So this isn't an Adventist idea, this is a fully biblical 1, right, which is an important note.

It's not something that we cooked up to just kind of get over the great disappointment of 1844.

But Christ came as the high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, same language of chapter 8, that is, not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption." Okay, so again using the same language and he's borrowing language from Leviticus 16 that we'll look at in a moment.

Now we talked about this last night the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice for all of humanity, right?

Whether we understand or appreciate it, we addressed that last night.

But skipping down to verse 23 of Hebrews chapter 9, therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices in these.

It's a consistent theme throughout Hebrews, the supremacy of Jesus, better, better, better, better.

So for Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

So Jesus represents that perfect high priest on our behalf and what we see in the earthly tabernacle is kind of getting a peephole view of what's really happening in heaven on our behalf.

Go to chapter 10 now Hebrews, beginning of verse 1.

For the law having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with these same sacrifices which they continually year by year make those who approach perfect.

The author is using very interesting language here that kind of implies the laboriousness of these sacrifices and services, that it didn't really seal the deal, right?

It was a picture of what was to come, but it wasn't the thing.

And so continually, year by year, for then would they not have ceased to be offered?

If these things actually got the job done, you wouldn't have to do it year, year, year, year, year, like that.

So, for the worshippers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins, but in those sacrifices, there's a remember of sins every year, reminder of sins every year.

Verse 4, for it's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

Okay, they couldn't do the job, but they were pointing to what could.

And then in verse 10 of Hebrews 10, it says, by that will we've been sanctified through the offering of Jesus Christ once for all.

Series

The Day of Atonement

02 The Cleansing of the Sanctuary

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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