True Christian Community is Patterned in the Sacrificial System - Part 1
Studying the rich topic of worship, I came across an incredible picture from the first five chapters of Leviticus (Entrances to Worship). Now, these passages on the surface don’t inspire enthusiasm among most believers. However, these chapters are the basis of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. And, when taken slowly and meticulously, treasures abound for life after 2000 AD. My purpose with this article is to show how Christian Community is a crowning highlight of worship if not the apex of God’s repeated longing to dwell among His people and be their God.
I’m building this article into three sections for easier reading. But, you should know that each of these sections build on each other to demonstrate the purpose I just mentioned. If you catch these principles, they will breathe life and joy into your small group meetings, discipleship meetings, and congregational meetings.
Let’s start with this Vision Value:
Due to all of our sin, none of us should ever get along with each other or ever fulfill any good motive for why we were created. It is Jesus who both makes the way possible and joins His people together to show His delight.1
Entrances to Worship and Community - The Burnt Offering
Take a moment with me and look at the sacrificial system in brief to establish the context.
Leviticus 1 — Provides the basis of access to God. God made the way for everybody regardless of class or wealth to come to Him through the Burnt Offering2; the substitutionary offering for sin. There’s a special term in Hebrew "rason" that is used in this chapter to signify God’s good pleasure and acceptance. Leviticus starts with Good News. God made the way to be accepted through the offering. As Ross comments, "…a person new in the faith was delighted to begin worshipping with this sacrifice as a publicacknowledgment of the gractious provision of the Lord."3 There is so much more treasure that springs from this passage and the fulfillment of Christ. For now, it’s easy to see the way of salvation in this offering. ( Romans 3:25; 1 Peter 1:19; 2:22; Ephesians 5:27)
Application
Therefore, let’s apply what we see to real life. If not for God Himself making a way of acceptance to Him, our relationships, meetings, families, and dare I say - organizations would have no significance or basis. We as believers always meet for Jesus, because of Jesus, and with Jesus. Jesus is the basis of salvation and therefore Church.
Too often, we forget this supreme motive. We meet for our agendas, because of our salaries, and with our employees. This doesn’t happen solely because of pragmatism, postmodernism, or worldly marketing strategies invading the Church. It simply takes place because we lose our focus of communion which is Jesus. Therefore, we turn toward those other philosophies and techniques to fill the gap or serve as our central point of reference.
This leads us to something critically deceptive. We often assume that we have Jesus as the focus in our churches when we’re really depending on our programs, our preaching, or our wealthier givers. Many men have set up their churches where the impartation of knowledge reserved for a select few is the sum total of "ministry". This leaves too much of the clergy-laity distinction that was constructed and left behind for us by Romanism. James 1:22 also calls this deception — that people can come, sit, hear (believe), and that’s good enough.
Along with James, you must do your salvation if you really have it. I believe that all the saints in the Church need to be trained and co-commissioned to work-out their salvation; to display and demonstrate the life of Jesus to others. So, how do you do that? The first step is to think outside the box — the box of the auditorium — and to think where people live in their homes, families, workplaces, and communities. We can’t take a congregation into most job-sites — but you can send a brother or two into one who already work there.
You want the How -
JESUS –> in communion with YOU –> YOU in communion (not just classroom) with PARTNERS (one-to-one and small group) –> YOUR PARTNERS in communion with JESUS, YOU, and OTHERS at their workplace doing the same thing you demonstrated to them –> the GATES OF HELL collapsing.
A bit simplistic? Too naive for the modern world? Sounds like a guy wandering around in the desert with some other guys following?
Part 2 when the juices flow again…
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