Christ's Priestly Sacrifice

Inhaling and exhaling are two distinct elements of one complex activity called breathing — try to do one without the other and we will be at your funeral. So oblation and intercession are inseparable parts of one priestly work.

At least, it's part of the life support system. Well, then, having brought into focus that broad overview, then, of the concept of priesthood taken from men on behalf of men towards God with reference to sin, dealing with sin in terms of two distinct activities that form one complex, priestly work, sacrifice and intercession, let us now, as it were, take the magnifying glass and zero in upon the first of those two functions, that of sacrifice. That of sacrifice. That of sacrifice.

8:12 - 8:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Hold every preacher accountable to the plain language of Scripture — especially on the meaning of Christ's death.

Pastor Martin tells the congregation that if he is merely floating his own ideas about Christ's death rather than expounding Scripture, the best thing they can do is excuse themselves and leave. He is unwilling to detain anyone with mere personal opinion in matters of eternal weight.

Now, there are many texts which allude to his death as a priestly sacrifice, many more which infer that he offered a priestly sacrifice, but I want to give you three texts of Scripture which unequivocally, explicitly affirm that the death of Jesus Christ, upon Calvary's cross, was a priestly sacrificial offering. The first of those texts is found in Ephesians chapter 5. This is why you must beware of all clever little outlines of the Bible that say, well, this part's doctrinal, or as our British friends would say, doctrinal, and the other part is practical. Those two things are so interwoven i...

13:04 - 14:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If Christ is to be a priest, he must make an offering. No offering, no priest. Where there is an offering, there is a true priest.

In the Old Testament shadow the lamb could not slay itself, so a priest had to take the knife. But Christ — wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners — is both the priest who offers and the lamb offered. He fulfills what the type could only split.

Apparently it wasn't enough for God.

28:19 - 28:20 Read in full sermon

Picture it: the cry of the bleeding lamb as the knife is plunged into its breast, warm blood caught in basins, sprinkled on people and furniture, the constant stench of burning flesh — not a barbecue but God-required ritual. Pastor Martin asks why God would order such a thing.

Is Jehovah some arbitrary deity who delights to see the spattering of the blood of little Israelites' pet lambs? Well, if that father was well instructed as an Israelite, he could give his son a reason, a rationale. For the slaying of his pet lamb. And that's all I want to do.

33:02 - 33:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Is Jehovah some arbitrary deity who delights to see the spattering of the blood of little Israelite lambs?

Imagine an Israelite boy whose pet lamb is the sweetest in the flock. His father comes one day and says, 'Son, I want you to come with me — I'm taking your lamb to the tabernacle.' 'Will I have him back?' 'No, son, you'll never see him again.' What would the child make of that without the doctrine of holiness, justice, and sin?

The holiness to the Lord. So that everything the priest did is reminded it has to do with the God who is holy. What was that inner place called where the high priest went but once a year? It was called the Holy of Holies.

37:45 - 38:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Meditate on God's holiness, justice, and grace and on man's accountability, guilt, and pollution until they are as real to you as your own face.

The high priest wore a mitre engraved with 'Holiness to the Lord.' Everything he did was branded with that inscription. The very name of the inner sanctuary was 'the Holy of Holies' — God wanted His presence inseparably identified with holiness.

It was God who, as it were, walled himself in behind the veil and said, no one may come or he dies. But it's God who said, one taken from among the people may come. And not only will he live, but all on whose behalf he acts shall live also. What grace.

42:03 - 42:30 Read in full sermon

Inside the Ark of the Covenant under the mercy seat lay the two tablets of the law. Every activity of the priest within the veil had to do with that law — the standard of God's justice over which the blood was sprinkled.

For he knew that all of the concerns that he had as a sinner, guilty and polluted, were in a real sense in the hands of that priest. When he came with his son's lamb, he didn't offer it himself. No, no. He laid his hand upon it and in symbol transferred his sins to it.

45:33 - 45:53 Read in full sermon