SERMON PASSAGE: Leviticus 10 REVIEW THE SERMON 1. Read the prep verses (Ecclesiastes 5: 1-2; 1 Peter 4:17) and the sermon’s Bible passage to recall the content. 2. Briefly review the sermon outline: a. Introduction i. “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us…Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.” – AW Tozer ii. God’s glory is our highest priority (Leviticus 10:3). iii. His glory: sum of all His attributes, that He is infinitely great, strikingly beautiful, and absolutely perfect in all that He is and in all that He does. b. We demonstrate our reverence towards God and His glory being the highest priority by being submissive to His authority i. Obedience to God’s command ii. ““Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of God as Judge. Speak to them of God as a Father, a friend, a helper, one who loves us despite all our weakness and folly and sin, and their faces light up; you are on their wavelength at once. But speak to them of God as Judge, and they frown and shake their heads. Their minds recoil from such an idea. They find it repellent and unworthy.” – JI Packer iii. Exodus 19:5-6 iv. We are to worship and serve God His way, we are in no position to edit, revise, or ignore God’s Word. v. NT parallels to Leviticus 10: Acts 5, 1 Corinthians 11 c. We demonstrate our reverence towards God and His glory being the highest priority by stewarding faithfully our responsibility as His representatives i. Leviticus 10:3, Isaiah 48:11, Exodus 20:5 ii. As followers of Christ, we are priests and we have been set apart for service to Him and we have been given the awesome privilege and responsibility to represent Him faithfully. iii. Luke 12:48, 1 Peter 4:17 d. We demonstrate our reverence towards God and His glory being the highest priority by worshipping Him with reverence and awe i. Because Christ accomplished what no man before and or what man after could every do. ii. He became an acceptable sacrifice to atone for our sins (past, present, future), granting us a relationship with God as our Father. iii. We can worship our Father with boldness, as long as we do so with reverence and awe. DIGGING DEEPER 1. Levitical priesthood The tribe of Levi was one of the tribes of Israel, descended from Levi, Jacob’s third-born son (Genesis 29:34). God set aside the tribe of Levi for priestly service. The specific role of priest would fall to only one family in the tribe of Levi, namely Aaron’s. Aaron’s descendants served as the priests in Israel, ministering in the tabernacle and, later, the temple, primarily as mediators between man and God. The Levites who were not priests were given various duties in the caretaking of the tabernacle and its furnishings (read Numbers 3-4). Other than the family of Aaron, there were only three other family lines in the tribe of Levi: • The K_____________ites, who maintained the furniture, vessels, and veil of the tabernacle; • The G_____________ites, who maintained the coverings, hangings, and doors of the tabernacle; and 2 • The M_____________ites, who maintained the supports of the tabernacle, including the planks, bars, and cords. In Exodus 28:1-2, 29:4-9, God commanded that Aaron and his sons (Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar) and their descendants would serve as priests. After the tabernacle is constructed according to God’s plans outlined in Exodus, Aaron and his sons are consecrated in Leviticus 8. In Leviticus 9 we start out with 5 priests. By the second verse of Leviticus 10, we only have 3 priests left. Israel lost 40% of the priests in probably less than 24 hours! God made a statute in Exodus 29:9. What was the statute? __________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Read Numbers 3:4. Did Nadab or Abihu have sons? _________________________________ So, by Leviticus 10:3, only three priests remain (Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar) for God to carry out the priesthood as He agreed in Exodus 29:9. God is faithful to carry out His Word. All the priests and high priests come from the lines of Eleazar and Ithamar. The Levitical priesthood continued throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament. Some priests followed God and some did not. Fun fact: Approximately 4-5% of today’s Jews are Levites. Let’s look at a few New Testament priests. According to Luke 1:5, what parents were both from the Levitical priesthood? __________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Isn’t it interesting that John the Baptist was rightly from the Levitical priesthood, but was never recognized as such from Jewish religious leaders in office? He served as a prophet (and I would submit also as a true priest) pointing people to the true and eternal sacrifice of Jesus as our offering of atonement. Who were the two high priests who served during Jesus’ lifetime and were involved with His trials and death (Luke 3:2, Mathew 26:3, John 18:13-24)? • A______________ • C______________ 3 Who were the two high priests were involved in the persecution of the early church and appeared at the trial of Peter and John (Acts 4:1-22)? • A______________ • C______________ According to 1 Peter 2:5-9, who now serves as priests offering spiritual sacrifices? ________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Who serves as our high priest now (Hebrews 4:14-16, 1 Timothy 2:5)? __________________ 2. Jealous God Pastor Eric briefly touched on the jealously of God and that it is a different use of the word “jealous” than we normally use. Read and reflect on Exodus 20:5, 34:14 and Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9, 6:15. These forms of jealously (godly jealously) are different than that mentioned as a sin in Galatians 5:20 and 2 Corinthians 12:20. Jealously, like anger, can have a positive or negative nuance.1 Let’s look at the two uses of jealously: • Sinful or Selfish jealously: Being envious of someone who has something we do not have. This is a sin because it means one does not have a heart of grateful contentment and does not believe God has provided. Jealousy is a sin when it is a desire for something that does not belong to us. • Godly jealously: Jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to him. It is being jealous for something that God declares to belong to you is good and appropriate. o Example2: If a husband sees another man flirting with his wife, he is right to be jealous, for only he has the right to flirt with his wife. This type of jealousy is not sinful. Rather, it is entirely appropriate. 1 Envy, on the other hand, is always viewed as negative in the Bible. 2 https://www.gotquestions.org/jealous-God.html 4 Worship, praise, honor, and adoration belong only to God, for only He is truly worthy of it. Therefore, God is rightly jealous when we worship, praise, honor, or give adoration to idols, other persons, or other things. God is not jealous because we have something He wants or needs; rather, He is jealous when we give to another something that rightly belongs to Him. His jealousy, therefore, is His zealous protectiveness of all that belongs to Him – Himself, His name, His glory, His people (us!), and His sole right to receive worship and ultimate obedience. Read and reflect on 2 Corinthians 11:1-6. Which definition of jealously is Paul using? ________________________________________________________________________ Paul saw the Corinthian believers slipping in their devotion to Christ, and, as a loving husband would jealously guard his wife’s affections, so Paul jealously guards the hearts of his spiritual children. One can easily discern the difference between godly jealously and sinful/selfish jealously when the desired outcome is identified: • Who is the beneficiary of sinful jealously? _______________________________ • Who is the recipient of godly jealously? _________________________________ Thus, With selfish, sinful jealousy, we are the beneficiaries of our covetous thoughts. We are the recipients of imagined admiration, wealth, or blessing. But with godly jealousy God is the recipient of our desire. We are jealous for the will of God in a situation. We are jealous for Him to be glorified. Godly jealousy wakes us up at night to intercede for a lost loved one. Godly jealousy motivates us to confront a sinning brother or sister when we don’t want to, in order to save them from the enemy…Godly jealousy is love in action (1 Corinthians 13:4–7).3 Spurgeon likewise reflected on the difference in the desired outcomes by stating, “Let it be remembered, then, that jealousy, like anger, is not evil in itself, or it could never be ascribed to God; His jealousy is always a pure and holy flame.”4 3 https://www.gotquestions.org/godly-jealousy.html 4 CH Spurgeon, sermon delivered March 29, 1863 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, A Jealous God 5 Spurgeon brings us back to Deuteronomy 4:24 – “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” God will not share His glory with another, and rightly so. May we worship Him with reverence and awe. PRAYER 1. We are no longer under the Levitical priesthood or the Law and no longer have to make continual animal sacrifices for our sins. Praise God for Jesus’ atonement for your sins and that He serves as your High Priest for eternity.