Sunday we’re going to jump into one of the most controversial texts in our culture today, Levitical purity laws. Non-Christians often accuse the church of picking and choosing what Levitical laws they are going to obey. In these chapters (11-15, 18-20), God lists practices that make his people unclean, like eating rabbit, and practices that are an abomination, like sex with a relative. The world’s argument goes like this, “You aren’t bound by the Levitical food laws, so you shouldn’t be bound by the Levitical sexual laws.” This is a foolish argument, easily countered with even a cursory examination, but many believers don’t know how to respond. After our study Sunday, you will be able to respond.

These chapters lay out two distinct series of laws required by those who live in God’s presence. If the nation wants to remain in his presence, they must establish a culture of holiness. Some laws are distinctions that God makes between what is clean and unclean, differentiating his people from their neighboring nations. For cleanliness laws, like touching a dead body, there is always a remedy (baptism ceremonies and sacrifices). The other set of laws govern morality and willful idolatry. For these “abominations”, like practicing sorcery or homosexuality, there is no remedy. These are capital offences that result in the death penalty.

For God’s people today, the ceremonial distinctions are removed in Christ, who is our holiness. While the requirements for a moral life (sexual expression and idolatry) remain fully intact in the New Testament, there is forgiveness and transformation available in Jesus. So come Sunday, ready to consider God’s call to holiness.

Sunday, we continue our study in Leviticus. The book lays out the requirements for God to dwell with his people inside the camp, and for the priests and people to move inside the tent of meeting (Tabernacle). We’ve considered the rituals: both the sacrifices and celebrations tell a story about God and his gracious provision of a pathway to his presence.

This week we’re going to look at the two sections that speak concerning the priests: their ordination and unique rules placed on them as mediators for the people. God explains their role, saying, “You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the LORD has spoken to them by Moses,” Lev. 10:10-11.  

When God sent Moses to speak to Pharaoh, he appointed Aaron, his older brother, to be his mouthpiece. When they came out of Egypt, God appointed Aaron and his four sons, and their descendants to be priests for the nation. Their role was to protect the holiness of God, teach the people God’s laws, and assist them in atoning for their sins. The ultimate work occurred on the Day of Atonement when the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and apply the sacrificial blood to the mercy seat of the ark of God to atone for Israel’s sin. 

The priests mediated Israel’s relationship with God, providing a pathway for them to dwell in God’s presence. But that’s not the end of the story, for we have a better priest -- a high priest -- who has atoned for our sin and intercedes for us today. If you want to prepare for worship, consider reading Hebrews 7.

Sunday, we begin a month long series through the book of Leviticus as we move toward our celebration of Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday. Watch this video to get a quick picture of the purpose and outline of the book.

The whole book orients the nation of Israel to God’s holiness and the pathway required to be reconciled to him so they can live in his presence. Hence the series title: Pathway to Presence. Each week, we will consider one of the major sections of the book (rituals, priests, purity laws, and Day of Atonement), examining the primary significance of each section and linking those requirements to the work of Christ on our behalf. The series will conclude on Easter Sunday, as we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, and the completion of his work to reconcile us to God and lead us into his presence.

This Sunday we will consider the two sections that define the rituals (cleansing and celebration) and their significance to us as believers. As we read chapters 1-7, with all the offerings that are made for cleansing or thanksgiving, consider the words of Leviticus 6:13, “Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.” The perpetual fire on the altar not only accommodates the continuous offerings being made, but emphasizes our continual need for forgiveness.

As we read chapters 23-25, with the celebrations, days of rest, and required gatherings, we see the need to continuously rehearse the biblical story of redemption, so that we don’t forget who we are in relation to God. We easily develop what Paul Tripp calls, “identity amnesia.” The annual pattern of national gatherings keeps the story of Israel’s redemption before them lest they develop “identity amnesia.”  

Our confession says concerning these ceremonial laws, “containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits, and partly, holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated, under the new testament.” (Westminster Confession, 19:3) While the Church is not obliged to these rituals, they point us to Jesus’ work on our behalf.

So watch the video, and let’s begin considering the “pathway” to God through Jesus Christ.

Sunday we’ll listen to Jesus explain his shepherding of God’s people. Because they didn’t understand the parable, Jesus draws their attention to elements that explain his significance to God’s plan for his sheep.

First, he is the gate that opens the way to life with God, now and forever. This highlights the purpose behind his coming, to give the sheep something he has with his Father. He is different from those who see people as a means to personal advantage. In this, Jesus is better because he provides for our rescue from sin and its destructive power.

Second, he calls himself the “good shepherd.” His goodness is presented in two ways: he lays down his life for the sheep and he gathers them together as one flock. In this he is different from the hired hands, the under-shepherds, who run from threats and scatter the sheep with their self-protection. In this, Jesus is better because his sacrifice unites us to God and each other.

John wants his readers to consider whether Jesus is better than their shepherds. He wants us to move toward the One who moves toward us. As you prepare for worship, consider the shepherds of your world (pastor, mentor, professor, podcasts, etc). Who are they serving? What do they offer you? What do they actually deliver?

Our text Sunday is John 10, Jesus’ great discussion concerning himself as the “Good Shepherd.” Before we immediately think “pastor” or “religious leader” for the term shepherd, we need to remember that the Old Testament also uses the term for civil leaders. Elders, who sit in the gate of a city, ruling on disputes and witnessing contracts, were considered shepherds. Kings and other political leaders are considered shepherds. Even the prophets and priests who represented God were called shepherds.

Shepherding in the region, the actual practice of animal husbandry, was used as an analogy of the leader’s role in Israel. Leaders with bad policies, personal corruption, and abusive power, oppressed the very people they were called to care for, scattering them. Justice in the courts evaporated, the poor were ignored, the foreigner was fleeced, and crime was ignored. Unrighteous leaders fostered an unrighteous society.

For generations, God had promised to send his choice Servant to shepherd his people. Now that Shepherd has come, instead of welcoming him, he is rejected and lays down his life to liberate his people.

The phrase that stands out in the text, “the sheep know” their Shepherd. They know his voice and they follow him. As you prepare for Sunday read John 10 and consider your relationship with the “Good Shepherd.”

This week we’ll go back to the beginning of John 9 and work our way through the events of the healing of the man born blind. The story displays the spiritual healing of a man born physically blind in contrast with those born seeing but spiritually blind. The healing is more than a miracle, it’s a sign for us to learn from.

As Jesus walks through the temple, during the Feast of Tabernacles, he sees a man “born blind.” Being born blind isn’t just his physical status, but part of his identity within his community. The text says, “The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, ‘Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?’” He responds to their query, “I am the man.” While this man’s identity has changed from the “man born blind” to the “the man born blind Jesus healed,” his community is resistant to the idea. After all, blind men should stay blind and beg in the streets.

These events point to the transformational nature of Jesus’ ministry. Those who think that they “see” actually retain their guilt and their identity. Those who know they are blind but turn in faith to Jesus, are granted spiritual sight, internal freedom, and gracious forgiveness. Faith in Christ brings us the revelation of God and the communion with him that frees us from ourselves and our community identity.

Join us Sunday as we consider this amazing miracle.

Sunday we will begin our study of John 9, Jesus’ healing a blind man. The blind walk in darkness as a physical reality. Here the physical reality is used to demonstrate the spiritual blindness that Jesus has been discussing with the Jewish leaders. The text uses physical blindness to teach a spiritual truth regarding faith in Jesus. The young man is fundamentally changed and nothing can assail his faith, not even being excommunicated from his religious community.

We’ll start at the end of the chapter, where Jesus says, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” The remaining Pharisees ask Jesus, “Are we also blind?” Jesus’ answer is sobering, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

As a reader, we are challenged to ask the question, “Can I see or am I blind?” If your “seeing” is faith in Jesus, then you stand in the grace and forgiveness of God. If you believe you can see without Christ, then you stand outside his grace.

As you prepare to worship, read John 9 and consider what it means to be spiritually blind.

In our text for Sunday, Jesus challenges the identity his audience has built. Fundamentally, their identity was built outside of the identity communicated to them from God. Their ancestral and religious identity blinded them to who they were as sinners in need of rescue from God. They were confident that they were Abraham’s children, while ignoring the fact that Abraham “rejoiced to see” Jesus’ descent. They were confident that God himself was their Father, while blind to the murderous intent in their hearts. So when their confidence is challenged, they accuse and diminish Jesus. This is identity defense!

Jesus warns them that the identity they defend is actually built on the lies and desires of a greater evil, the Deceiver, Satan. He is the “father of lies,” whose efforts to suppress and eradicate the truth are fueled by his evil desire for his own glory. That subtle desire for glory motivates our own identity creation within our community.

Only Jesus can rescue us from the deception of this greater evil maker. So as you prepare to worship Sunday, consider your own identity. What would it mean to have an identity change?

As we move through John 8, Jesus has a fascinating conversation with the Pharisees. They ask Jesus, “Who are you?” They question his identity because he asserts that he knows where he is from and where he is going. They are able to define their origin, “We are offspring of Abraham,” but they cannot define their future. Jesus tells them where they are going, “unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 

Why are we so locked in to our sense of self? Our family and community do so much to shape our identity that we can’t see who we are in relation to God. The Pharisees were blind to their condition, unable to see their spiritual enslavement to sin. We’re no different!

Come Sunday and consider the freedom Christ offers us.

Sunday we will move back into our study of the gospel of John. Remember that John wants you to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that you can have eternal life (Jn. 20:31). As an author, John uses the dialogue between Jesus and others to communicate the essentials of faith in God. The dialogue challenges our view of “self” and exposes our need of Jesus.

In our text, Jesus says that anyone who follows him will no longer walk in darkness. In order to move toward Jesus, a person has to understand that they are actually walking in darkness. All the philosophies of our world are only enlightened forms of darkness that turn us in toward ourselves and away from our Creator God. The Pharisees represent a view of self turned inward through religion, unable to see themselves in need of grace.

Sunday, we’ll begin to examine John’s presentation of Jesus’ offer made in the treasury of the temple, symbolic of the treasures of this world and our attempts to satisfy God through human effort. As you prepare for worship, consider your own sense of self in the world. Who are you and what do you need?