You probably won’t find too many churches following the liturgy in Leviticus. From a distance, it reads like a manual for some cult secretly meeting in a cave out in the woods somewhere. There’s lots of blood, guts, and animal skin. And yet, we cannot read this book from a distance. It has everything to do with life in your computer cubicle this morning and your bed time prayers for your children tonight.

This week our Equipped Wednesday Community Bible Study starts back up with the book of Leviticus. I’ll be posting the audio of our study here with some thoughts and reflections from time to time.

Here are some initial thoughts about the importance of studying Leviticus.

• Leviticus is in the Bible.

Leviticus is included in God’s Word that 2 Timothy 3:16-17 declares is, “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. ” If it’s in the Bible, at some point, we have to deal with what God is trying to teach us about Himself and our lives from Leviticus.

• Leviticus is about Holiness.

Too often, we hear the word holiness and only think about the way we dress or the movies we watch. Some of us begin to think about all the Bible studies we have completed. All of this is involved in being holy, but it’s not all that’s involved.

Holiness is much more about God than us. The message of holiness in Leviticus is all about the authority of God to set us apart to Himself. The command rings throughout the book, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” And yet, the command is mixed with promise for the believer in Christ. For the One with the authority to demand it also has the authority to make it happen.

Dr. Allen Ross says this about Holiness in Leviticus:

“Holiness is its goal. Holiness is its character: the Lord is holy; His sanctuary is holy; its vessels are holy; the garments of the priests are holy; the sacrifices are most holy to the Lord; and all who approach him whose name is “Holy” – whether the priests who minister or the people who worship must themselves be holy. It is as if throughout Israel’s holy place was the earthly echo of that seraphic song in the courts above that never ceases to proclaim “holy, holy, holy.”

• Leviticus is about Jesus.

We read the book of Hebrews or Romans and realize very quickly that the scenery in Leviticus laid the theological foundation for what Jesus’ death on the cross provided for us before God. Jesus Himself taught His disciples about Leviticus and the rest of the Old Testament that, “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44) We cannot read Leviticus without hearing His Galilean accent leading us to His cross and resurrection.

We must also realize for us to be totally set apart to God the way in which He intends there has be the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. We are only holy when we are found in Him. Ultimately, this holiness is accomplished by the authority of Jesus to set us apart to Himself by calling us away from our own kingdom to follow Him and join His eternal kingdom.

•  It is anchored by the belief that there is something vitally unique and important about the preaching of the Word in the context of God’s people. This will hopefully lift up that time of preaching in my mind and heart to the place it should be.
•  It will allow me to meditate more fully on a single text each week and ask the Holy Spirit to deeply affect me with those truths.
• It will focus my mind and my heart in a single direction for a sustained period of time.
• It will aid my Scripture memory, allowing me to choose a single key verse from the weekly passage to continue to practice each day.

For anyone attending Ashland who may want to use this plan in 2012,  I wanted to post the next sermon series that will take us through Easter. As you can see, it moves through the book of Mark. You may want to read a chapter in Mark each day or narrow it down to the specific passage that we will be preaching.

 Jesus Changes Everything Expository Sermons from the Gospel of Mark

Jesus Changes . . .

• Our Direction Mark 1:14-20          (January 8)
• Eternity Mark 2:1-12                     (January 15)
• Relationships Mark 2:13-17        (January 22)
• Religion Mark 3:1-6                     (January 29)
• Our Family Mark 3:20-35            (February 5)
• Perception Mark 4:35-41           (February 12)
• Success Mark 6:14-29                (February 19)
• Hearts Mark 6:14-29                   (February 26)
• Power Mark 8:31-38                     (March 4)
• Hope Mark 9:14-29                      (March 11)
• Greatness Mark 10:35-45             (March 18)
• Our Fears Mark 14:66-72             (March 25)
• Suffering Mark 15:21-39               (April 1)
• Death Mark 16:1-8 8                     (Easter)

Second only to God’s grace to me in Christ, He was bringing into the world the greatest gift I have ever received. In Winter Garden, Florida, Rachel Danae Hoffmann was born. Danae is the most vivid example of the love and sacrifice of Jesus in my life.

As Charles Spurgeon once said of his wife, Susannah:

I have been thinking over my strange history, and musing on eternal love’s great river-head from which such streams of mercy have flowed to me. . . . Think of the love which gave me that dear lady for a wife, and made her such a wife; to me, the ideal wife, and, as I believe, without exaggeration or love-flourishing, the precise form in which God would make a woman for such a man as I am, if He designed her to be the greatest of all earthly blessings to him; and in some sense a spiritual blessing, too, for in that also am I richly profited by you, though you would not believe it. I will leave this ‘good matter’ ere the paper is covered; but not till I have sent you as many kisses as there are waves on the sea.

Happy Birthday Danae! You are the greatest of all earthly blessings to me!

“it’s like saying that the party that uses candles must be the true one because they’re shaped so much like sticks of gospel dynamite. The gospel was meant to explode with saving power the lives of politicians and social activists, not help them decorate their social agenda.” (John Piper Bloodlines pp84-85)

Stranger: Which one is yours?
Me: The one right there. Haskins #44.
Stranger (looking at me to make sure I am white): Which one?
Me: The black kid right there.
Stranger: Oh really?

Awkward silence ensues

Ever since we brought Isaac and Jonah home from Ethiopia, this sort of interaction has been common for my wife around their sporting events.  Parents trying to match each player up with their appropriate family, begin to realize the colors don’t exactly coordinate with all the kids on the team.

To break the silence we usually say something like, “I can’t believe you didn’t notice the family resemblance?”  And in no way do we begrudge these moments. We have actually become very thankful for the opportunities they provide to talk about adoption and the gospel.

Much of our kid’s sports activities have centered around baseball. Right now, we have 4 boys playing in 4 different leagues, all at the same park. One benefit to spending so much time at the same ballpark is that everyone knows our family. They have also come to know that the Haskins’ kids come in all kinds of shapes, shades, and sizes.  And yet, there is one thing they all share in common. On the diamond, they all wear #44.

When my oldest son Titus began playing t-ball, we decided he would wear #44. We are big Atlanta Braves fans.  And while Chipper Jones will always be our favorite Brave, we thought the history that Hank Aaron represented was important for our family to remember and champion.

I do not agree with everything Aaron has ever said or done. However, I do respect the price he paid to play in the Majors. Jackie Robinson was responsible for breaking the color barrier in baseball.  But for men like Aaron, who began his career by playing primarily in the South, there were still many horrible obstacles to endure. I wanted my kids to know this about the ‘real’ HR king and appreciate it.

To begin with the #44 was just a unique tool to teach our kids about racism.  Honestly, for me, it was more about Braves folklore than anything else. However, now seeing this number underneath my last name on my son’s jerseys causes me to reflect more on my own story than anyone else’s.

I remember standing in line at the post office with the first gift I would ever give my two new sons, who were still in an orphanage in Ethiopia.  As I prepared to send two Atlanta Braves hats to them, I realized one day these boys would also wear #44.  I began to daydream about two little boys, once orphaned in Africa, running onto a little league diamond with my last name across their backs.  I began to tear up right there in the post office thinking about how amazing this would be to see.

As much as I hate to admit it, racism was a part of life in the small rural town in Tennessee where I was raised. Compared to the violence of the 50s and 60s it could have been considered a quiet racism.  But it’s underlying wickedness was just as loud as the Tennessee orange we wore every Saturday to cheer on our beloved Vols!

The residue of such awful days gone by could still be heard in words used around our dinner tables and in our churches on Sunday. In these private and still very segregated settings, words were spoken and jokes were told that would have started riots in our desegregated lunchrooms on Monday. My stomach still turns to think about the sort of racist hypocrisy that even I was guilty of behind the closed doors of my home and church.

That’s why the first time I actually saw all four of my sons, two white and two black, standing with my last name and #44 across their backs this number was more than just neat baseball history for me.  For me, it represented a redemptive moment for my whole family.  It represented a transformation that I have seen even among members of my extended family as they all have embraced my two newest sons.

Haskins #44 constantly calls my attention to these kind of stories that I thank God my family is experiencing.  Haskins #44 also reminds me that if the Father is ever asked, “Which one is yours?”  He will not be ashamed to say, “That one right there. Haskins the former racist!”

There’s no shortage of such scandalous footage on Fox News and ESPN these days.

Whether it’s someone I know, or someone I only even vaguely know of, seeing another person hit rock bottom after spiraling down in patterns of hidden wickedness always shakes me up.

On some level the unveiling of such secret information about others hits a certain nerve within all of us. Not because we are all guilty of the same things. Or that we are all hiding sins that must have the same level of consequences. But, on the most basic level these stories scare us because no matter how scandalous the information may be we all have evidence we are hiding.

We all constantly feel the weight of having things beyond the surface of our lives that we believe could destroy us if leaked into the wrong hands. Maybe not destroy us in the sense that we deserve to be imprisoned, fired from our jobs, or that would cause our spouse to move out. But, information that we personally believe would kill the image we work hard to create and keep before others.

It could be as seemingly insignificant as the tone we use with our wife and kids when no one else is around. Or the small exaggerations we use concerning the character of others that we are convinced really aren’t that big of a deal. For some of us, it’s the way we act and the things we murmur under our breath while watching our favorite sports teams play. Or maybe it’s a nagging bitterness we still harbor toward a co-worker for a comment they made nearly two months ago.

This sort of information about ourselves would not require church discipline if handled correctly before the Lord. And yet, we are committed to keeping these allegations private. This is the kind of evidence we would never tweet about or copy and paste into our Facebook status.

The Christmas story reminds us that the solution to our public and private scandals is found in embracing another scandal. The Bible tells the story of the scandal that not only exposes us for who we really are but also transforms our public and behind the scenes guilt.

This scandal begins with a peasant girl from Bethlehem who in secret finds out that she is pregnant. Her side of the story was not hidden immorality before marriage but the hidden work of the Spirit of God in her womb.

We are so accustom to this story we forget how scandalous it is. We like to think that we would have accepted Mary on the spot as the mother of the Messiah. But, I feel sure I would have stood alongside the folks in the local assembly boycotting any baby showers in our fellowship hall. If I had been Joseph’s accountability partner, I know the sort of wisdom I would have spoken into his life. It would not have included following through with the marriage.

The twist to this story is that the scandal Joseph and Mary find themselves in is not one they had been trying to cover up. They found themselves in the middle of a story their people had been waiting to come to light since the beginning of time.

It wasn’t their scandal but they embraced it!

This story finds it’s climax in the most scandalous event in all of human history. The ‘scandal free’ Son of God embraces all the evidence that can be found against us. He makes it His own on the cross. There before the cosmos as the sinner we work to hide from the world He declares, “All the allegations are true!” On the cross our sin is exposed as what it really is, an offense against God Himself. The price of our all offenses, public and private, are displayed as the Son of God screams to His Father, “Why me?”

At His crucifixion, our scandals are leaked as His blood is poured out. The allegations become evidence that can only be dealt with by His public humiliation and death in our place. He does what only He can do. What His name says He will do. Save us from our sins!

When we confess our sins, the cross frees us from all our scandals, even those that may not require public repentance and restoration and even those that might. No matter how scandalous our sins may be the Christmas story is a greater scandal. The only hope any of us have is not by avoiding scandal but by faith trading our own for His.

Maybe what we need is another scandal for Christmas!

Like it or not kid’s are selfish. This is one reason why I’m committed to my kids having to participate in things that force them to come to terms with the reality that the universe doesn’t revolve around them. Playing sports has been this central activity for our family. Walking our boys through the process of learning controlled aggression, teamwork, and failure through competition is something for which my wife and I are abundantly thankful for as parents. This is why I’m disheartened by the practice of not keeping score for fear of harming children’s self-esteem. This trend jeopardizes the basic benefits of competition.

Check this article by Dr. David Prince writes “Why Every Kid Should Be A Winner And A Loser”

Here he argues for keeping score in youth sport from a biblical perspective.

I’m glad Tim Tebow is having success winning these days. But it’s really is hard for me to watch. Not because I am a Tennessee fan who had to endure his ‘just winning’ antics while he was in Gainesville for four years. I just really don’t think ‘Tebow Time’ will last very long in the NFL.

Explaining to my sons that I don’t believe Tim Tebow will be a long-term NFL quarterback has been quite humorous. For one, in their minds it sounds like a joke. They watch the games, see the highlights, and look at me as if I have lost my mind. Like everyone else seems to be doing they respond, “But Dad! He’s Tim Tebow!”

It’s also difficult because I love the way this guy talks and plays. And he does both! He’s a Christian who always talks about Jesus. But even more, he is a Christian who always plays like Jesus.

You see I don’t think Jesus would win the ‘Christ-like award’ that we often hand out in our christianized sports world. We usually think to give those type of awards to the kids who are meek, quite, and who couldn’t get one of the more athletic awards.

Jesus would be a tenacious athlete. I’m sure He would often finish games bloodied and bruised (along with his opponents), leaving every ounce on the field. I speculate that He would play football much like Tim Tebow (except with a better throwing motion and more accuracy).

Tebow’s response to former Denver QB Jake Plummer, who basically confessed he was tired of hearing about Tebow’s Christianity, has made it difficult to think about a future NFL without him under a center.

Plummer’s Comments

“Tebow, regardless of whether I wish he’d just shut up after a game and go hug his teammates, I think he’s a winner and I respect that about him,” said Plummer. “I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I’ll like him a little better. I don’t hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every single time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff.

“Like you know, I understand dude where you’re coming from … but he is a baller. He knows how to win and when your teammates believe in you that you can do good things and that’s what they are doing. They are winning. That’s fun to see.”

Tebow’s response:

“If you’re married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife ‘I love her’ the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity?

“And that’s how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is the most important thing in my life. So any time I get an opportunity to tell him that I love him or given an opportunity to shout him out on national TV, I’m gonna take that opportunity. And so I look at it as a relationship that I have with him that I want to give him the honor and glory anytime I have the opportunity. And then right after I give him the honor and glory, I always try to give my teammates the honor and glory.

“And that’s how it works because Christ comes first in my life, and then my family, and then my teammates. I respect Jake’s opinion, and I really appreciate his compliment of calling me a winner. But I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to give the Lord some praise, he is due for it.”

Just because I critique his throwing motion and point out how long he holds the ball (which seems to be years compared to an Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady) doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate this man.

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. – ephesians 3:8-10

On Sunday Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church in Kentucky voted to deny the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it has nothing to do with their doctrinal statements about eternal security. It has to do with their decision to deny interracial couples membership and participation in their congregation.

In Ephesians 3:10, Paul declares that diversity in the body declares the triumph of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This 9-6 vote on Sunday declares the opposite for this church. It proclaims the triumph of the forces of darkness who delight in such racism.

This is not just backwood’s tradition. Its a satanic denial of the gospel. Its a rejection of Jesus Christ whose glory is made know through the acceptance of people from every, tribe, tongue, and nation into his family and delights in their participation in His worship services.

Here is the proposal

“That the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church does not condone interracial marriage. Parties of such marriages will not be received as members, nor will they they be used in worship services and other church functions, with the exception being funerals. All are welcome to our public worship services. This recommendation is not intended to judge the salvation of anyone, but is intended to promote greater unity among the church body and the community we serve.” Submitted to the church business committee November 9, 2011 for their consideration by Melvin Thompson, member, Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church.

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

1Timothy 1:12-17

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