Sermon on Leviticus
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 2/22/2025
©2025 by Maylan Schurch
(To watch this entire worship service, click the link just below.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP6spuz0P_w
Please open your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 1.
This past Tuesday I was in a pastors’ seminar, and I got a chance to go to a session which was led by a retired Adventist theologian and pastor John Brunt. The session he was leading was called “How to Enjoy Your Bible.”
Just before the session began, I mentioned to him that I would be preaching on Leviticus today, and once the class had begun, he mentioned that when people decide to read the Bible through, Leviticus is often where they get discouraged, and stop. Shelley mentioned to me that an author she was reading said the same thing.
If you’re following our chronological Bible reading plan this year, maybe you’ve felt the same way. I mean, Leviticus contains mostly detailed instructions to Israelite priests, telling them how to process the sacrifices according to the way God wants them done, and how to deal with leprosy and even with household mold.
I mean, that’s fine, but this is no longer 1500 BC. Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross made all the sacrifices unnecessary, and anyway, there is no temple left. It was destroyed by the Roman army in A.D. 70.
So, why Leviticus? Is it even worthwhile to spend time reading? A few months ago, in a thrift shop, I saw a thick, hardcover book called Practical Wiring. I think the book must’ve been written in the 1930s, and as I glanced through it, I decided two things: first, I have no desire at all to do electrical wiring, and second, the book is almost 100 years old and probably doesn’t have the most up-to-date information.
Beside my bed I have five or six Bibles, but when I want to read a bit of Scripture, I don’t think I’ve ever turned to Leviticus. The only stories in it are ones like when Moses consecrates his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons as priests, or Aaron’s two sons getting drunk and bringing unholy incense fire into sanctuary.
But Leviticus is a part of the Bible. (And by the way, if you didn’t tackle Leviticus this week, just pass over it and keep on with the chronological Bible plan. In your bulletin on the announcement page you’ll find little paragraph that says “Join the Plan!” That tells you what this coming week’s reading contains.)
So I decided to read through the book and find out for myself some answers to the question, “Why Leviticus?” And I found some answers. (I actually found more answers than I have time for this morning.)
For one thing, Leviticus is the word of God. It actually says it is, in the first couple of words. We call its title “Leviticus,” but that’s not what the Israelites called it. They called it Wayyikra, which means “And He called.” The “He” is God. God called for these words to be written. And once God gets Moses’ attention, He immediately starts giving instructions for the priests.
But even though this is a priestly manual, there are some important signals it gives to people living in 2025, right around 3000 years after those priests lived.
Let’s read the first four verses of the book, and I’ll tell you what I think is one reason we can find meaning in Leviticus.
Leviticus 1:1 – 4 [NKJV]: Now the LORD called to Moses, and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock. ‘If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.
To me, buried in what we’ve just read is the first answer to the question “Why Leviticus?” If you’re taking down sermon points, here comes Sermon Point One.
What does Leviticus teach me?
I can know if I am saved.
In other words, when God dictated Leviticus to Moses, and the priests and the people followed God’s directions, they could have the assurance of salvation. All those detailed Leviticus chapters which told — exactly and often repetitiously — how each sacrifice should be processed, this was so that people could very clearly understand that once their sacrifice was made, their sins were forgiven. And once a year, on the Day of Atonement (which is described in Leviticus 16) all the nation’s sins would be officially wiped out, and they could start fresh with a blank slate.
Okay, that was then. What about now? Can we be just as sure about our salvation today? We have to be careful here, because if we quickly and glibly answer “Sure, I’m saved,” and haven’t followed God’s current steps for New Testament salvation, we could be speaking presumptuously.
I still remember when I was an intern pastor in Auburn, I was at the Auburn post office, and met a Christian man from another denomination. He and I had gotten acquainted, I don’t remember how, but I knew that he was someone whose church strongly believed that Adventists were legalistic cult members.
We were talking about spiritual things there in the post office line, and he said, “I’m saved, and I know it.” Even as we stood there, I smelled cigarette smoke strongly coming from him, and saw the bulge of a rectangular cigarette pack in his shirt pocket.
Even though I didn’t say anything, I remember thinking, “If he is dishonoring his Creator by ignoring the fact that his body is the Holy Spirit’s temple, and if he’s supposed to present his body to Christ as a living sacrifice, then how can he be so sure he’s saved?”
So, what about it? Can we know we’re really saved? Let’s pause for a bit before we answer that question, and let’s dive farther into Leviticus for another answer to the question “Why Leviticus?”
Let’s go to Leviticus 4 for more details.
Leviticus 4:1 – 6: Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘If a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the LORD in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them, if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the LORD for his sin which he has sinned a young bull without blemish as a sin offering. He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD, lay his hand on the bull’s head, and kill the bull before the LORD. Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull’s blood and bring it to the tabernacle of meeting. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the LORD, in front of the veil of the sanctuary.
You see what’s happening here? A sacrifice has happened, but something else is happening too. The blood from the sacrifice is being taken into the tabernacle and sprinkled in front of the curtain of the sanctuary.
Here comes Sermon Point Two. Why Leviticus? What else is it telling us?
Leviticus tells me not only that I can know if I am saved, but it also tells me that I must bring my sin to God.
God could have simply stopped at the sacrifice idea. He could’ve said, “If you sinned, bring us a lamb in payment, or a bull, or a goat. And that’s that.” In other words, God could have made sin’s penalty a fine.
A few weeks ago, one night after dark, Shelley and I had just left southbound I-405 at Exit 4, on our way home. It was raining, and there was a truck with a large box in front of us. Because of the truck box, I couldn’t see the traffic lights. We got in line behind the truck, waiting to turn on to Maple Valley Highway.
Finally the truck lurched ahead, but really slowly, and by the time we were able to follow it into the intersection, the light had been yellow for a couple of seconds, and turned red. And then we saw the fateful lightning-blink of the traffic camera which had just taken our picture.
So I resigned myself to receiving a little notice in the mail, and sure enough, a few days later the Renton traffic people sent me an envelope, and insisted that I pay them $124. They also gave me the option of appealing the ruling. So I thought it over, and decided to follow their directions for appealing the fine, which I could do online.
Well, I didn’t hear from them for a while, so I hoped that maybe their hearts were soft enough to totally forgive me. But no, earlier this week I got another notice. Without any explanation, they had cut my fine exactly in half. So I sent them a check for $62 rather than 124. That fine means that Renton has forgiven me.
But sin can’t be taken care of with a fine. There’s more to it than that.
Instead, God makes it very clear that blood needed to be taken from the sacrifice and brought directly into His presence. It’s as though the sin is symbolized by the blood, and is brought directly to God. In other words, you didn’t simply pay a penalty for your sin and then go away and try to be a better person. (Nowadays, approaching a traffic light, I find myself not quite as casual around yellow lights as I used to be.
No, in Leviticus, some of the blood from that sacrifice symbolically transmitted your sin into God’s presence.
Over the centuries, people have come up with all kinds of ways to pacify their gods. A few hundred years later, Elijah will stand on Mount Carmel and watch as priests of the god Baal dance around their sacrificial altar, shrieking to their god, imploring him to listen to them, and even cutting themselves with knives to try to arouse his pity. Other pagan gods required even more cruel and brutal religious practices. Tribes in Central and South America offered human sacrifices to appease their gods.
But the true God did exactly the opposite. “No penance necessary,” He insists. “No fine. Just bring your sin in the form of sacrificial blood from the most perfect and blemish-free beast you can find, and give that sin to Me. I can deal with it.”
But again, how can this happen today? No animal sacrifices happen nowadays, nor should they. So how does my sin get into the presence of God, so He can deal with it? That’s where the book of Hebrews comes in. Turn for a moment to Hebrews chapter 9.
What we are going to see here is a quick synopsis of the Old Testament sanctuary, but then we’ll see how it’s replaced with a far better plan.
Hebrews 9:1 – 15: Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, 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. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Isn’t that rather breathtaking good news? Jesus is the priest humanity has needed ever since they started needing priests. In fact, Jesus is the only one could single-handedly take care of the sin problem. When He walked down the banks of the Jordan River to be baptized, His cousin John shouted, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Three and a half years later, Jesus became the only sacrifice we would ever need, when He died on the cross. Matthew 27, starting with verse 50, says, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split,”
So there on Calvary’s hill, just as Jesus died, the temple veil between the Holy and Most Holy Place was torn – not by human hands from bottom to top, but by non-human hands, from top to bottom. Jesus’ death had made those animal sacrifices no longer effective, no longer needed.
Back in the book of Hebrews, there is even more good news. Let’s start with Hebrews chapter 10, verse 11. This is truly amazing.
Hebrews 10:11 – 17: And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
To me, that is one of the Bible’s most precious promises. Because sin can fasten such a grip upon our souls. And the older you get, the more you realize how true that is.
But here we have a Savior, who created us, and who shepherded us through the Old Testament, and then came down and became one of us, to show us what God was like, and finally die for us.
And not only did His death provide the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, but He promises us that He will change our minds and hearts so that we can live more and more like how He wants us to live.
And He hopes that you and I will accept this offer to us.
How about you? Do you want to accept Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins? And do you want to ask Him to write His laws within your mind and heart? Raise your hand if that’s your desire.
I found an old hymn written by Isaac Watts, in which he tells in song the story we’ve just read in Bible print. I’m using a familiar tune, and I’m going to accompany us on the piano while we sing. As we sing, let’s thank the Lord for His kindness and generosity.
JESUS, IN THEE OUR EYES BEHOLD
Jesus, in thee our eyes behold
A thousand glories more,
Than the rich gems and polished gold
The sons of Aaron wore.
They first their own burnt offerings brought,
To purge themselves from sin;
Thy life was pure without a spot,
And all thy nature clean.
Fresh blood as constant as the day
Was on their altar spilt;
But thy one offering takes away
For ever all our guilt.
Their priesthood ran through several hands,
For mortal was their race;
Thy never changing office stands
Eternal as thy days.
Once in the circuit of a year,
With blood, but not his own,
Aaron within the veil appears
Before the golden throne:
But Christ, by his own powerful blood,
Ascends above the skies,
And in the presence of our God
Shows his own sacrifice.
Jesus, the King of glory, reigns
On Zion’s heav’nly hill;
Looks like a lamb that has been slain,
And wears his priesthood still.
He ever lives to intercede
Before his Father’s face:
Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead,
Nor doubt the Father’s grace.
— Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707-1709.