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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy. This Lent we're studying the book of Leviticus, learning about how imperfect people can have a relationship with a perfect God. Now here's the teaching. 

You can stand with me and open up your Bibles to Leviticus. We are actually in chapter 8 and that is on page 8 of your journal or page 102 in the Bible. And we will be jumping around a little bit, but we're starting in 8.1. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bowl of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread, and assemble the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 

And the Lord did as Moses commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Now chapter 9, 22. Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. 

And he came down from offering the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering, and the pieces of fat on the altar. 

And when the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Now chapter 22, verse 31. So you shall keep my commandments and do them, I am the Lord. 

And you shall not profane my name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord. 

This is the word of the Lord. Well we're in week two of our Lenten series in the book of Leviticus, looking at this idea of atonement. And we probably all asked ourselves this question at some point, we've gotten it from many of you, why Leviticus? Why are we taking time during Easter to look at atonement? And so Nick Carter did a great job of kicking us off last week looking at this idea of atonement, why atonement is necessary, and the provisions made through atonement. 

But I just want to kind of hit the highlights just for context so we can, whether you were here last week or even if you were, just remind ourselves some things about the book of Leviticus as we look today at the mediators of atonement. And so if you remember, Leviticus is a user's manual, right? It's not written to us, but it is written for us. It was written so that the priests knew how to conduct sacrifices and offerings. 

And the whole book of Leviticus is written in a chiastic structure with a chiasm, which it comes from the Greek letter chi, which is X, and if you can picture the letter X, you know that it meets in the middle. So there are corresponding texts at the beginning and at the end, and as you get closer to the middle of the book, that is the climax, which is the day of atonement. And so we've also tried to help visualize this with this idea of a hike, where you kind of start at the bottom of the mountain, you reach the apex, you get a greater perspective of what's around you, and then you kind of come down the mountain. 

And so here we're kind of in that second layer, right? Chapters 8 through 10 as we're kind of ascending the mountain, and then the corresponding texts of 21 and 22, both dealing with the mediators of atonement. And so as we look that direction this morning, I'm just gonna pause and go to the Lord in prayer for us all as we open his word together. Heavenly Father, we need you every day. 

We also need you here in this moment. We ask for your spirit to make these words come alive to our hearts and minds. So may the the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, because you are our rock and our Redeemer. 

Amen. Now some doors only open if you know the right person. Let me tell you what I mean. 

When I was in middle school, we had a family friend who was doing a little bit of work for the George W. Bush campaign in 2004, and she offered our family two tickets to go see this rally at Voice of America Park in Cincinnati. So since I was homeschooled, and I had an older brother with a driver's license, he got to drop out of public school. Don't ask me why that difference existed. 

But he drove the two of us to go to this George W. Bush rally. And we get there, and we actually, after we get through security, I run into some of my friends from youth group, also homeschooled, but I noticed that their badges were a different color than mine. They had white badges, and I had a red badge. 

You want to take a guess which was better? The red badge. I don't know if that was your guess, but it was it was kind of fun to see, like, not only did we get these free tickets, but we got front row access. I mean, it was standing room only, but we got to be right at the front for this rally. 

It was a really fun time. But when you think about the situations in life, access is always mediated. Whether it's for concerts, whether it's for fancy restaurants, or flying first class, like, if you book a ticket like me in economy, and then you try and go hang out in first class on an overnight flight, they're gonna politely escort you back to your seat, right? And so access is always mediated. 

And so when we look at Leviticus, we need to remember the context where it falls in the Pentateuch. At the end of Exodus, they have completed the tent of meeting, they've completed the tabernacle, but it says that Moses was unable to go in. And then Numbers, the book after Leviticus, starts with Moses and Aaron in the tabernacle, in the tent of meeting. 

And so the the book of Leviticus is the story, it's the manual, of how God made that possible. How is it possible that God can live with his people and his people can go in to be with him? And so that's what we're looking at this morning. And just one kind of final reminder, in terms of what we've already been covering, is this idea, or this word, atonement. 

To atone, in its simplest form, just means to cover. In the sense that the altar and people and priests were covered with the blood, but also it can have this meaning, like how we use cover today. I can cover your tab, right? Like, I can pay the debt that you owe. 

And so both those things are in play in this idea of atonement. So where we're going today in chapters 8 through 10 and 21 to 22, here's what I have for us to remember. That God's holy presence requires a holy mediator. 

God's holy presence requires a holy mediator. We're going to look at how God provides that holy mediation. And so, if you have your Bibles open to Leviticus chapter 8, or you have these nice journals, you can turn there now. 

One final encouragement to pick these up. These are free. They're not just a great place to keep all your notes in one place, but as you can see, we're covering five chapters of Leviticus today. 

We only read a few verses, and so the recommended readings to read ahead are included. So you can be reading ahead, reading those chapters, and meditating on them. So by the time you get here and you get to hear the word preached, you maybe have a little more context. 

So, you know, take that with you. Grab one if you don't have one. We made these for you. 

So Exodus, or not Exodus, Leviticus chapter 8. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bowl of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread, and assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And so, what is the first way that God provides holy mediation? Well, God prepares mediators for his presence. 

God prepares mediators for his presence. And honestly, the whole chapters of chapters 8 and 9 is all centered around this consecration and ordination of Aaron, Moses's brother, and his sons, Aaron's sons, as priests for the tabernacle. And so they want to make sure that they are fit for service. 

God is setting them apart. And so throughout our study this morning, but then even just as we think through the rest of Leviticus, it's important for us to remember that there is spiritual truth communicated through symbolic action. So while if you read through and you're like thinking about why that the sacrifices, like the different parts of the sacrifice, are separated out, or why blood is placed here but not there, like these all are physical symbolic action, but it's communicating truth. 

And so that's not just for Israel for thousands of years, but it's also for us today. And so we read that Moses obeyed. Everything the Lord did, or everything the Lord commanded, he did. 

He consecrated the items in the tabernacle as well as priests. Now, when it comes to this idea of consecration, it finds its root in the word holy, or the Hebrew word kadosh. And this idea of holy, similar to our English word, it can have this dual meaning. 

In one way, it can mean this idea of moral and spiritual excellence, right? And I think when we use that word, that's often how we use it. Like God is holy, I'm not holy, just God, right? Like he is morally and spiritually excellent. But the other definition that has a very key part in the in the book of Leviticus, our passage, and even as it comes to what we're going to be studying next week and looking at clean and unclean, is this idea of being set apart.

That to be holy or consecrated is sacred, right? It's set apart, it has a special purpose, it is not anything ordinary. And so when you hear this word holy or consecrated in these verses, it's this is special, this is sacred, this has a unique special purpose, do not consider it run-of-the-mill or ordinary. And so what does it look like? Well, there's washing with water, there's special clothing for Aaron and his sons to put on, there's oil on the altar, there's oil on the holy utensils and the basin and the stand, and then there's oil that is used to anoint Aaron's head. 

And then came the offerings, together with all the details of how the sacrifices were handled, which parts were put on the altar and burned, and which parts were taken outside the camp and burned. And remember, like, this isn't just like a description, this isn't just a narrative of what happened, but this is a manual, right? This is a manual for the procedures that must be followed any time there was going to be a new high priest, right? This is what was going to be followed. So there's the clothing of the priests, it's outlined in more detail in Exodus 28 and 29, but it was designed to impress upon Israel the glory and splendor and majesty, not of the priest, but of the God that was now present with them. 

There was a golden plate, like what Leviticus calls a holy crown, that was placed on the high priest's head in the turban and it read, holy to the Lord, set apart for the Lord. Also something I read this week that was very interesting news to me, priests in their service did not wear any shoes. So Nick, if you want to preach barefoot next week, you have my permission. 

No one give him any shame over it, it's in the Bible. So Aaron and his sons, after they've been consecrated, are left to stay, they are told to stay in the tabernacle for seven days, right? They're spending time with the Lord, they're spending time in prayer, they're spending time in communion with him, but seven days, 24 hours a day, they're not to leave, right? Seven days of consecration. And at the end of it all, Aaron and his sons were presented to the Lord, similar to how offerings and sacrifices are presented. 

They were offering their lives to be of service to God. And so God set apart, right? He sanctified, set apart Aaron and his sons as custodians of holiness and as mediators. He transformed ordinary men into consecrated servants who belonged wholly to him. 

And the seven-day consecration shows that fitness for God's presence is formed through patient obedience under his Word, and it's not assumed casually, right? It's not just gonna happen overnight or just like, eh, if you just try hard enough then you'll be good enough to mediate for the people. No, like it is only through this process that God has ordained that consecration and that this atonement can be made. Well then, on day eight, as Aaron and his sons come out of the seven days of consecration, there's an ordination. 

It's a celebration, right? There's even more sacrifices that are made, even more offerings that are made to the Lord. And here we see this very unique, weird thing that Moses, in this situation, takes blood from the sin offering and he places it on Aaron's earlobe. He places it on his right thumb and on his right big toe. 

And what's that about? Seems a bit odd to us, but what the practical thing is communicating, the spiritual truth, is that this sacrifice, the animal, and the sacrificer, the priest, they're inextricably linked together because the blood was also placed on the edges, on the horns of the altar. And so they're linked together and then there's the celebration. And then the verses we heard read from chapter nine, verses 22 through 24. 

Then Aaron lifted up his hands towards the people and blessed them. And he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings and Moses and Aaron went into, catch that, went into the tent of meeting. And when they came out, they blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 

And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. So when the Lord's weighty glory, right, his havod, when it appeared there was this mingling of fear and joy on the part of Israel. 

When they had realized that the Holy God was truly dwelling among them. Now maybe as we read this now, it's really easy for us to kind of glance over the fact that it says the glory of the Lord appeared to, was it to Moses? To Aaron? No, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Moses in Exodus 33 had asked God to see his glory. 

He said, God, I want to see your glory. Let me see it. And how did God respond to him? He said, no, no man can see my face and live. 

Right? So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to cover you with my hand and the cleft of the rock and I'm going to pass before you and then you will be able to see a glimpse of my back, but you can't see my glory. Fast forward, the glory of the Lord has appeared to the entire congregation and they're not struck dead. 

And why is that possible? It's because God has made a way. It's because God is making atonement for them. He's making a path through the mediators so that he can appear to them. 

He can be with them. You know, there's something beautiful and yet dangerous about fire, right? And maybe that's why it has both captivated our entire human race since creation, as well as been responsible for some of the worst calamities in human history. And the Lord appeared to them out of the fire and the fire came out and consumed, meaning the Lord accepted this offering as pleasing. 

It consumed the offering. And also keep in mind, the people of Israel, they've been following a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day since they left Egypt. And yet, even this was something new, right? That when the fire came out and consumed the sacrifice, they were like, I'm excited the Lord is here. 

Also, that's terrifying and I don't know what to do, so I'm just gonna like fall down on my face in worship, right? This is mix of joy, elation, and pure physical fear. It also reminds me that at Mount Sinai, when Moses came down with the Ten Commandments and gave them to the people, there was thunder and lightning and it shook the mountain and it shook the people so much, like physically and mentally, that they went to Moses, they pleaded with Moses. They said, Moses, you speak to us and we will listen. 

Do not have the Lord speak to us lest we die. Like, they were so terrified of the raw power and glory of the Lord that they're like, Moses, you be our mediator, right? So they asked Moses to be, and he was until now. God is making provisions for more mediators other than just Moses. 

So when we think about our need for a holy mediator, we see that first, God prepares mediators for his presence. Second, God protects his presence through obedience. He protects his presence through obedience. 

We see this in Leviticus chapter 10. Now, if you were reading through a manual of like a 3d printer you just bought, and then in the middle of pages of it, as you're trying to figure out how these parts work together, you see a paragraph or two of the author talking about his trip to Disney World. You're kind of like, wait, what? That doesn't belong here. 

And Leviticus chapter 10 is supposed to strike us in that similar way. That this is a manual reading and then there's this narrative. And it's one of only two narrative sections in the entire book. 

The other one is from chapter 24, which Nick covered last week. Actually, I think more in Cut for Time than in the sermon. But it's supposed to disrupt the flow. 

It's supposed to draw your attention to it. And what happens in chapter 10 is a calamity. That Nadab and Abihu, two of the sons of Aaron, offer an unauthorized sacrifice and are struck dead. 

It's a calamity. And so what it reveals in this narrative is that proximity to holy things increases accountability rather than excusing disobedience. And so what are the consequences of disobedience? And in this moment, it says, at least in the ESV translation, that they offered unauthorized fire. 

Maybe your translation has something different. There's not really a universal agreement as to what exactly they did that caused them to be smitten by God. But what we do know is that they offered illegitimate sacrifices in spite of their upbringing, in spite of their experience, in spite of their training. 

And we're not sure exactly what they did that was so egregious, but what we do know is that it was a flagrant disobedience to God. So their transgression was neither accidental or inadvertent. Their motivation may have been pride or ambition or jealousy or impatience, right? Maybe they saw their dad, Aaron, offering these sacrifices and then the fire comes out and they're like, that seems like a pretty cool trick. 

I want to give that a try, right? It might have been something as simple as that. But, you know, even if it was this over-enthusiasm that led to carelessness, the point is it was not requested by God. It was not told to them by God. 

And what they did was disobedient. And so you, maybe like me, are kind of left to ask the question like, okay, but why did God smite them? Why are they just killed in that moment? Well, God was acting in accordance to his character. He was showing that good intentions and enthusiasm can never replace exact obedience. 

And there was something that, you know, it reminds me also of this story of Uzzah in 2 Samuel chapter 6, where the Ark of the Covenant was coming back to Israel and it starts to fall as the priests are carrying it. And Uzzah reaches out to try to stabilize the Ark of the Covenant so it doesn't fall and he is smitten. Dead. 

Killed. And I think we look at these stories and we're like, God, that seems a little harsh. I mean, surely that's no worse than any other sin that I've committed, but like what's going on here? And I think for the most part of my life, I've always just heard it explained and understood as like, well, that's what happens. 

Like, God is holy and don't try to get too close or that's what could happen to you. Kind of almost just like trying to strike fear. That's about the only thing, only explanation I ever got. 

But as I was studying it this week, something kind of new came to light for me that just has brought about a new appreciation, even, for what is going on. And that's this. God is passionate about living among his people and he's not going to permit anyone to prevent him from doing so. 

He does not want his dwelling place to be defiled, not even by priests, even if they had the right intentions. So God will not allow anything to keep him from being with his people, not the least of which is disobedience. And so it's actually out of his grace and mercy and desire to be with his people that causes him to say, nope, if I'm going to be here, this has to be clean. 

This has to be perfect and nothing is going to touch that because I want to be with my people. That's what's going on here. And then there's this very interesting situation in the back half of chapter 10, where now there are dead bodies in the tabernacle and Moses and Aaron can't touch them because then they would become unclean. 

And so they have to devise a plan, figure out what to do, and there's a lot of interesting things going on there. But if you want to hear about that, tune in this week to Cut for Time through the podcast because I had to cut that. But here's just kind of an idea to help you kind of visualize it because even though we might think of this as harsh, we operate in this way in a lot of different areas of life. 

If you had a friend or a family member that was going to the emergency room and needed emergency surgery, when you arrive, you're not going to walk into the emergency operating room and be like, okay, what can I do to help? Right? Like, oh, I'm really excited. I want to help. Like, yeah, maybe deep down there is a part of you that wishes you could do something, but no, you're going to trust the doctors. 

You're going to trust the surgeons. They go through meticulous processes to make sure everything is clean and sterile and that there would be no infections later, right? Like, just because you're enthusiastic doesn't mean that you have a right to be there. And so whatever it was that caused Nadab and Abihu to offer this unauthorized sacrifice, it was the end of them. 

And so God is protecting his presence through necessitating obedience. And then third, God patterns his mediators after his holiness. He patterns mediators after his own holiness. 

And we see this in chapters 21 and 22 when it comes to these descending texts. We're coming back down the mountain. Fast forward to Leviticus 21 and 22.

And so in these two chapters, we see the Lord's ongoing work in preserving the holiness of those mediators that he has already prepared. And there is a sanctification partnership here. The Lord makes his priests holy, right? He sets them apart. 

He consecrates them. Yet he also calls them to active obedience as participants in their own sanctification. So this idea of being set apart, right? It's in and through everything about the people of God, right? Israel was to be set apart from the nations. 

They were called out by God. And then within Israel, the priests were to be set apart from the rest of Israel. And then the high priest was to be set apart even from the rest of the priests. 

And so these restrictions and laws that we read about in 21 and 22 might not make a lot of sense to us because, which we'll get to in a second, we are actually, because of Jesus, all priests. We are a kingdom of priests. But for these priests, there were restrictions to protect their holiness. 

There were restrictions on mourning, right? When family members or friends died. And, you know, as showing the devotion to God must eclipse cultural conformity and personal preference. There were marriage laws that were to protect the purity and credibility of those who publicly represented God. 

They were to have unblemished bodies, like unblemished sacrifices, right? Symbolizing that perfection is required in the presence of a perfect God. And then there's also a section in the middle about laws and restrictions about what types of animals do or do not qualify for sacrifices. And what the Lord is teaching his people in this, right? The symbolic action, but the truth, the spiritual truth we get from it, what he is wishing to communicate is that what he desires is wholehearted worship. 

That's what he desires from his people. Because God graciously accepts sacrifices. And so worshipers must never cut corners or offer what costs us very little. 

So the rules are like this. Don't bring your crippled sheep. Don't bring the cow that can't reproduce or is worth less to you. 

Don't bring the old goat that you got from a stranger or a pagan traveler. Only bring God the best. And it's because that's what he deserves.

Because he is the most holy. And of course this is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. He was our great high priest. 

The uncompromising standard of priestly perfection ultimately points beyond itself to the flawless priesthood of Jesus. And so what we see here is that God's holy presence requires a holy mediator. He's made a way for that mediation to happen by preparing mediators for his presence. 

He's protecting his presence through obedience. He's patterning his mediators after his own holiness. And that leads us to the fourth and final point for this morning. 

And this is where it all comes together. That even though this sounds harsh, even though it sounds judgmental and like an angry vengeful God, no. God preserves his people through mercy. 

God preserves his people through mercy. Those verses from Leviticus chapter 22 that we read earlier at the end of the chapter, end of this section. So you shall keep my commandments and do them. 

I am the Lord and you shall not profane my holy name that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord. 

And so what we see here is this final reminder of who God is and who his people are in his relationship to them. He says I am the Lord who sanctifies you. It's this nice bookend in this whole section of 21 to 22 that where it's repeated in 21 verse 8 and 22 verse 32. 

And this whole section is kind of its own version of a miniature chiasm within the larger chiasm of Leviticus. But what is being communicated here? God is being

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