July 10, 2011
Last year, I was blessed with the opportunity to work at a large, nondenominational American church in Littleton. I say that my time there was a blessing because I experienced three particular events that have since changed my theology, the way I live my Christian life, the views I have on church, and what is most important to a church and to a Christian. One of these life-changing experiences came when the church was preparing for a sermon series in the book of Song of Solomon.
Sometimes things happen in your life and your entire Christian worldview shakes -- during these preparations, two things happened that shook my Christian worldview:
First, as the staff, including the senior pastors, gathered to discuss titles and design themes for the sermon series, I recommended that the focus be placed on how Song of Solomon relates to the rest of the Bible and that Jesus' love for His church should be the center. But they all disagreed and said, like many large churches in America today, that the book had nothing to do with Jesus -- they said that this portion of the Bible and of God's Word has nothing to do with Jesus Christ, who is fully God. Instead, they made the series entirely about marriage, dating, sex, and purity -- I even remember two messages in the series where the senior pastor taught thousands of people that the book of Song of Solomon teaches us how to build a better marriage and how to pursue healthy dating. I remember I once tried counting how many times the pastor mentioned Jesus Christ at all and during one sermon, I literally counted zero. That week, I approached my supervisor who was also a pastor there and made mention that I disliked how the sermon had nothing to do with Jesus but that healthy marriages can be achieved by good old fashion hard work (especially from the man). Instead of preaching that all people, men and women, are always, whether single, married, elderly, or young, sinful by nature and are prone to walk away from the Lord instead of towards Him and thus need grace to continue in the Lord, they taught that you can have your best life and best marriage now -- you just need to work hard at it and follow the steps the pastor gives you.
But what really sent me over the edge and ultimately led me to confidently quit was the second thing this church endorsed: they invested a large sum of money in designing the stage, in the main sanctuary, after the movie Moulin Rouge which is a movie about a brothel. They even wanted to bring a bed on to the stage but they couldn't fit it -- and all of this for the sake of relating and appealing to their audience.
Let me ask you a few question about this before we proceed -- and as most of you are fairly old in your faith, you really need to think about these things:
Is the center of Scripture, God's Word, you or is it Jesus? Well, Jesus says in Luke that all Scripture concerns Himself and yet, do you find yourself reading the Bible and immediately wondering, "What does this say about me? How does this benefit me?" Because if God's Word is truly about God, written by God, I would assume that the logically proper response to reading anything in the Bible needs to be "What does this say about God? How does this glorify God?" Is the center of church, God's house, you or is it Jesus? Well, Paul teaches us that the church is the body of Christ where Christ is the head and all parts of the body operate for His sake and His glory. But how many churches do you see and how many people at church do you see who think that this place is about how a fallen, sinful, wretched, and stupid-sheep-like person who doesn’t know anything about anything (especially when it comes to what is good for the soul) behave and have expectations like this place is and was designed for them?
What I am asking here today as we enter our text in Deuteronomy is this: What does God ask of you through your faith in Jesus Christ?
Many of you are getting to the place where your understanding of Scripture and of God and of Jesus Christ right now and right here will follow you for a very, very long time and can potentially root themselves so deep in your brain that no one can convince you otherwise. So today, if you have any doubt, even for a moment, that Scripture is not about you and that church is not about you then you need today's Word with all seriousness. I say this because if you feel like going to a church that endorses these kinds of things is okay and if you feel like reading the Bible like this church does (and like many churches do) is okay then you have unfortunately been taught something wrong -- it is as plain as that: it is wrong to do church like that and it is wrong to handle Scripture like that because that is what Scripture has said and says.
So, let's see how Scripture teaches us this as we look at three things from our text:
- Levitical Calling
- Levitical Duties
- Levitical Importance
In verse 1, Moses mentions the tribe of Levi. If this is confusing, what Moses is referring to are the generations of people that came from the twelve sons of Jacob, who after wrestling with the Son of Man, was renamed Israel. These twelve sons had children of their own and they eventually made up what is known as the twelve tribes of Israel.
Of these twelve tribes, however, the Levites are special -- Moses tells us here that the Levites, unlike all of Israel, are exclusively chosen by God to live off offerings made to God. They are all essentially to live, not by personal works like the other tribes are called to do, but by the gracious offerings of God.
Not only so but verse 3 tells us that they are chosen to be priests -- the entire tribe of Levi is chosen and ordained to be a priesthood. Now, if Levites are chosen to be priests, then they must have some special duties, which leads us to our second point of the day.
Levitical Duties
As verse 3 introduces, God chooses the Levites to become a priesthood and to carry out a series of very important duties for the entire country of Israel:
First, it isn't mentioned here but in Deut. 10, God ordains the Levites to take care and protect the Ark of the Covenant and to be in charge of the Tabernacle (and later, the Temple), keeping it in order and carrying it whenever Israel was on the move.
In fact, only Levites were allowed on the Tabernacle and Temple premises and the only person allowed to enter into the Tabernacle to make sin offerings on behalf of all Israel was the high-priest, a Levite.
Second, as verse 5 explains, they are to minister in the Lord's name -- this could mean many things from settling disputes to teaching people about God to helping the community in general. There is a story in Nehemiah when all of Israel returns from exile and the Levites go around and essentially evangelize and hold small Bible studies, teaching people about God's Word and what God has done for them and what He promises to do in the future.
Third, as we see in verses 6-8, all the Levites are to share all things with other Levites. Think about this: they are expected to sell their own possessions and belongings to support and encourage one another. In many ways, they are to treat one another as family, like brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers.
Fourth, they are to be, as verses 9-13 reveal, set apart and unlike the culture around them -- they are to protect and preserve the sanctity of God's holiness and be what He has commanded them to be instead of being like the world they live in or the place they reside or the time they reside.
Levitical Importance
So, why is all of this important? The answer lies in the book of Hebrews and in 1 Peter 2:9-17...
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.
Understanding the Levitical Calling and the Levitical Duties is crucial for you and I today because two reasons:
First, Hebrews tells us that the last high-priest died on a cross some 2,000 years ago -- Jesus Christ, the ultimate high priest, made the ultimate sin offering for all of God's people: Himself.
And secondly, as a result of what Jesus has done on the cross as the ultimate high priest, Peter tells us that those who believe in Him by faith are now priests as well -- you and I, here today, are now the new Levites. And since we are the new and last Levites, we have some special characteristics and special duties:
First, just as the Levites were graciously called and chosen by God, purely out of grace, to live off of the offerings of God, so too, the church was called and chosen by God, purely out of His amazing grace, to live off of the ultimate offering to God: His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
Here, today, if you are at all convicted by doubt or uncertainty in your salvation, God beckons you today to take a look at what He has done in the cross and God invites you to become a Levite, a royal priesthood, chosen by grace to live in and through and for His ultimate offering, Jesus Christ.
For those of you who have made that confession and truly desire to live that out every day, you have to remember that you are now part of a priesthood. Here are two definitions of what that means, following the pattern of the Levites in our text: Just as the Levites were in charge of the Ark of the Covenant and maintaining the Tabernacle and the Temple, it is your job and my job to keep the house of the Lord holy and to be set apart from culture, not like it.
Granted this building is just a structure, we need to remember that it is a structure given to the Lord and thus, what takes place here ought not be the same things that take place out there -- Moulin Rouge and concepts of brothels need to stay out there, they ought not come here. Secular songs and music that is irreverent of the Lord does not belong here, it belongs out there -- again, if you don't like this idea, you're forgetting that Christ died to make you a royal priesthood, not a freelance spirit that has the freedom to do whatever he or she wants. Instead, Christ died so that you would do what He wants because you could not do that before. Therefore, as Christians, we need to preserve and protect the house of the Lord.
This means doing your best to show up on time: Yes, it is irreverent of the house of the Lord to show up late simply because you were being lazy. Levites would not show up late to the Temple because they slept in -- they'd curse themselves if they ever did.
This means making a commitment to serving this house -- no one can serve two masters, as Jesus said. In other words, the way church operates and is defined in the Bible is not so lenient that you could go to several different churches. You can choose which church to attend but you must commit to that church because you desire to preserve and protect the house of the Lord and not use it and abuse it however you'd like.
This means keeping the house of the Lord in order and clean: if you do something here like clean something or take out the trash, do it because you love to honor the Lord and honor His house. Also, just as the Levites ministered to those in the community and shared what they had with one another, you and I are called to do the same as a royal priesthood in Jesus' name.
The first community you need to serve and honor is your family community. If you are a born-again Christian and you truly confess Him to be your Lord and Savior, you need to serve your family and treat your family better than you treat your friends and honor your family better than you honor your friends -- especially if members in your family are not Christians.
The second community you need to serve and honor is your church community. You are here at this church, with these people, because God desires for you to use what you learn here in Scriptures on them. We are here not to be best friends or best pals but we are here to be Christians to one another. If you haven't already caught it, there is another place other than Deut. where the people of God share their belongings and treat one another like family -- it's in Acts at the beginning of the new church and it should be here, in our church.
And the third community you need to serve and honor is your greater community. That could be school, your city, your workplace -- anything that is outside the community of your family and your church. Some of you truly don't care and it makes no sense to me but people genuinely need and hunger for the Gospel message, correctly understood and interpreted, and you can offer that to them.
In the movie The Lion King, the main character, Simba, goes through an identity crisis: his father the king is killed and instead of taking his place as king, he runs away until the end of the movie where he realizes who he truly is and that all his shenanigans weren't his true nature. His true nature was kingly. So at the end, Simba returns home and defeats his uncle to take his right place as king.
Many of us are still running away from the true identity we posses in Christ -- whether you identify with your role as a Son of God, or as a heir with Christ, or as a royal priesthood, the ends are the same: you are chosen and called to be unlike this world and unlike the sinful and selfish tendencies of your own self.
Instead, you are called to be like Christ, the high priest, and own up to your identity as a Levite and royal priesthood, chosen and called to protect and preserve God's house and the holiness of God while serving and loving the communities around you. Because that is the nature of Christ: He has gone to a cross to preserve the holiness of God and He has gone to a cross to serve those around Him -- and He bids you to do the same, by faith, in His name alone.