Leviticus 14:1-20 – The cross means… Cleansing

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Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone. The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

And he said to him, I will give you all their authority and splendour. It's been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours. Jesus answered, it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here, for it is written he will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered, it is said, do not put the Lord your God to the test. When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thank you, Anne. We're going to continue now with another song. Jesus Paid It All Talking about how the price that Christ paid for us. Please stand as you're able.

I hear the Saviour say Thy strength indeed is small Child of weakness, watch and pray Find in me thine all in all Jesus paid it all O to him I owe Sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow Lord, now how indeed I find Thy power and Thine alone can change the leper sparks and melt the heart of stone Jesus paid it all O to him I owe Sin had left a crimson dain he washed it white as snow for nothing could have I whereby thy grace to claim I wash my garments Wipes in the blood of Calvary's land Jesus paid it all O to him I owe Sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow and when before the throne I stand and incomplete Jesus died My soul to save my lips shall still repeat Jesus paid it all oh, to him I owe Sin had left in Christ's day He washed it white as snow For Jesus paid it all oh, to him I owe Sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow.

Anne's going to bring the liturgical reading to us now. And Then Ben is going to talk to us on page 115 in the church Bibles. Leviticus, chapter 14, verses 1 to 20.

The Lord said to Moses, these are the regulations for any diseased person at the time of their ceremonial cleansing. When they are brought to the priest, the priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease, the priest shall order that two live clean birds, some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop, be brought for the person to be cleansed. Then the priest shall order that one of the birds be killed over fresh water in a clay pot. He is then to take the live bird and dip it together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn, and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water seven times.

He shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease and then pronounce them clean. After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields. The person to be cleansed must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair, and bathe with water. Then they will be ceremonially clean. After this, they may come into the camp, but they must stay outside their tent for seven days.

On the seventh day, they must shave off all their hair. They must shave their head, their beard, their eyebrows, and the rest of their hair. They must wash their clothes and bathe themselves with water, and they will be clean. On the eighth day, they must bring two male lambs and one ewe lamb, a year old, each without defect, along with 3/10 of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering and one log of oil. The priest who pronounces them clean shall present both the one to be cleansed and their offerings before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of Meeting.

Then the priest is to take one of the male lambs and offer it as a guilt offering along with the log of oil. He shall wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. He is to slaughter the lamb in the sanctuary area where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest. It is most holy.

The priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot. The priest shall then take some of the log of oil, pour it in the palm of his own left hand, dip his right finger into the oil in his palm and with his finger sprinkle some of it before the Lord seven times. The priest is to put some of the oil remaining in his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed. Cleansed on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot. On top of the blood of the guilt offering the rest of the oil in his palm, the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed and make atonement for them before the Lord.

Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from their uncleanness. After that the priest shall slaughter the burnt offering and offer it on the altar together with the grain offering and make atonement for them and they will be clean.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Thank you so much Anne. Please do keep your bibles open. That will be helpful for me and for you.

Page 115, 1175 Leviticus and we've been seeing, haven't we? We started on Wednesday looking at the book of Leviticus written to God's people as they are on their way to the promised land. They are camping all around God's centre tent at the middle called the tabernacle that we looked at a little while ago. If you haven't had a chance to listen to Wednesdays sermon, it will be really helpful for you to do so as we go through the series. So do have a listen back.

20 minutes. My wife says it was short for me, so there you go. Hopefully that's recommendation enough. I'm going to pray and then we're going to think about infectious skin diseases. And I think the Lord has a lot to say to us about infectious skin diseases or cleansing from them today.

Heavenly Father, thank you. That these things were written to them, but they were written for us. Thank you. That your word, every word of it, is breathed out by you. And therefore you have things to tell us even in bits of your word that sometimes we raise an eyebrow at.

So please, I pray, draw us to Jesus today. Redefine our life by Him. Show us the forgiveness that we have in Him. Set us free by him and help us to live for Him. Amen.

Fantastic. I don't know if you've ever been on a camping trip where there has been an outbreak of an infection, a DMV bug or something like that. Let me tell you, it's not fun. Lots of people in close proximity, not great, not great facilities. A bug Travels very quickly.

It's not good. And so when God's people are on this very long camping trip on their way to the promised land, God rightly puts in place things that are going to help to protect them from infection. We're going to see that as we look through probably chapter 13 a bit and chapter 14. And yet we saw, didn't we, that if we want to understand what goes on at the cross of Good Friday, the place where we will see that in crystal 4k clarity is in the work of Leviticus. And so what we see here is both practical things, but practical things that are going to lead us to and show us the cross of Jesus.

And these things are some of them. So chapter 13. I found a new life verse, by the way. Chapter 13, verse 40. This is a great life verse for me and for Johnny Evans.

Steve Giles will like this one as well. A man who has lost his hair and is bald is clean. Dave, Great. Yes, that's right. We could put it above our bed.

We'll get it tattooed on your arm. A man who's lost his hair and is bald is clean. That's wonderful news. Now, I'm being funny at this point, or trying to be, but here's the thing. Like back then, that verse would have been wonderful because were you to be unclean through skin disease, there would be a quarantine that would be applied to you.

Look at chapter 13 and verse 46. As long as they have the disease, they remain unclean. They must live alone, they must live outside the camp. So there's this quarantining that is happening, which isn't a punishment, but it is not a great place to be because you are living apart from others. Perhaps we feel this a little bit with the remembrance of what happened with COVID but also apart from the camp and what was at the heart of the camp, the tabernacle.

This was a life that was apart, cut off from the people, cut off from God.

It was a terrible place. So if balding doesn't put you there, that's a good thing. But what does? Look with me. Chapter 13.

It's got all sorts of kind of Hebrew medical words that are very difficult to translate, but there is a repeated phrase in among, amongst the hair and the colour and all of the rest of it. Just look with me very quickly. Chapter 13, verse 3. The priest is to examine the sore on the skin. If the hair on the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep or verse, it's all over and Now I can't see it.

Well, let's just jump down to verse 20 because it's the other one that I've got highlighted. Verse 20. The priest is to examine it if it appears to be more than scale deep. Verse 25, if the priest is to examine the spot, the hair on it has turned white and it appears to be more than what, skin deep. In fact, as you read through that chapter, it's almost repeated.

You see, the issue is when something is more than skin deep. In other words, the thing that defiles isn't what is happening on the outside in Leviticus. The thing that defiles is when stuff that is on the inside comes out. Incidentally, that's why if you read Leviticus, and I really do recommend have a read through it, that's why whenever you find kind of bodily fluids coming out of people, whether that's blood or semen or other stuff, it makes somebody unclean. It's the inside that's coming out.

Now, the idea isn't to stigmatise those who are on their period or those who have recently ejaculated for whatever reason. It's not to stigmatise them, but it's to say that there is something that is on the inside of us that when it comes out, makes us unclean. I know somebody who talked about that and we looked at it, didn't we? And Book of Mark, his name's Jesus, you probably know him. And he said, didn't he, it's not what goes into a person that defiles them, but from inside, from a person's heart come sexual immorality, adulterousness, greed, lewd strife, anger, all of those things.

In other words, what Jesus says is the problem is not what we look like on the outside. If you come to Jesus, he is not going to say, hey, do you know what? Just sort out the external. You know, come along to church and just be a little bit of a better person. You know, just be a little bit kinder, a little bit nicer.

That will sort. No, no, no, no, no, no. The Christian message is not sort yourself out on the outside. It is. We need sorting out on the inside.

You know this, don't you? I know this. Why is it that you can have a great lovely day and then out of nowhere bubbles up that selfishness and you think, I've received so much and yet I'm suddenly being selfish? Or you're having a great day and then the lustful thought just pops into your mind. It kind of bubbles out of you or that angry word just bubbles out of you.

We kind of know there's something wrong with us on the inside. Why is it the people who I love the most are the people who I hurt the most? It bubbles out. What we need is something that's going to sort our inside out. As you go through chapter 13, it focuses down on leprosy.

Now, that may or may not be what we currently today describe as leprosy. It's a particular skin disease, but it's a skin disease that's a great picture of sin because on the outside it just looks like some pale patches. But on the inside, what's happening is that the nerves are dying off. Feeling is dying. People are dying, as it were, from the inside out.

At first, almost imperceptibly, but it gets worse and worse. And that's why, coming back to chapter 13, verse 45, anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, unclean, unclean. They're matching with their clothing what's happening inside. They're wearing the clothes of death, of mourning, because these poor, poor people are in a place of dying from the inside out.

Incidentally, that's how Miriam's described by Aaron when she gets this skin disease, as one who is a living dead. And it's a picture of ourselves. It's a picture of our sinful hearts. We might look great on the outside, but we are dying on the inside. And therefore we are separated from God and we're separated from those around us.

And yet, amazingly, from time to time, God would come and he would do what no doctor could do, and one of these people would be healed. And then what happens? And this is why I love Leviticus. It shows in visceral ways the truth of what has happened spiritually. Chapter 14.

Let's see what happens. Okay, so verse three of chapter 14, the priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. This formerly leprous person meets a priest outside the camp. Why? Well, because they live outside the camp.

But more than that, because somebody has come from the place of the camp, from the tabernacle outside. Think of Hebrews. This is what Jesus doesn't. He doesn't. Does.

Doesn't he? He comes from the place of heaven to us. He meets us outside the camp and then look what the leper does. The answer's nothing. Look what the leper does or doesn't do in these verses.

So the priest then orders that you get two birds and some other bits and bobs. And one bird is sacrificed. And what's going on here is you've got this one bird, these two birds that are very similar, and one of them is sacrificed over a pot and the pot of fresh water collects to the blood of the dead bird and then the living bird is taken and baptised in the blood of the dead bird.

That bird is held there and you see as a leper, this bird has been sacrificed before me. Here is another bird that's been dipped into that blood. What's going to happen to him? Is he going to be killed? Is he going to be put in a cage?

Is he going to be kept outside the camp? No. What happens is the blood is also splattered onto the leper or the former leper. So it's as if to say, look, you, you're a bit like this bird. This bird's been dipped in, you've been sprinkled, you both have the same blood.

And what am I going to do with this live bird? I'm going to set them free. Set them free? Why? Because we have a saviour who has come from the very throne room of God.

He has come outside the camp. We have seen, as he is portrayed, crucified before us as Christians, we are baptised into him, we're united with him, and so his freedom becomes ours. It's a picture pointing forward through the centuries, but it doesn't stop there. It goes on.

But before we go on, sorry, I get excited. There's so much here I want to laugh through. That leper has done nothing, have they? They've been healed. Not by their strength, that happened to them.

They've met a priest. Not because they've gone into the camp now the priests come out, they've seen the bird has died, they've been splattered by it, they've seen the birds flown away. They've done nothing. And that's important because if the leper looks like me with my leprous heart, the sin that bubbles out of me, if I have been cleansed by Jesus, I have done nothing. You have contributed nothing to your salvation.

And that's important because.

Because you can't mess it up. It can't be taken from you. Nobody can pick you up on a technicality and say, well, they didn't do this.

You could come to church this morning having had the most terrible morning. This could be the first time you've opened your Bible in weeks, months, years. It could be the very first time you've opened your Bible and If you believe and trust in Jesus, you are as right before him, as free as that bird. It doesn't depend on you. Stop beating yourself up.

Stop moving yourself away from God, pretending that you're far from him, because you're just not quite as good as the person sat next to you. It's got nothing to do with you. This has been applied to you by Jesus. I should move on, otherwise we're going to end up in a very long sermon. But this has been applied to you.

Let's move on and see what then happens. Right, so then what happens? The person shaves off all of their hair and they wash and they wait for seven days. Why? Well, we've got the practical side of it.

Throughout chapter 13, we see a kind of quarantine period. There's a bit of a sort of seeing if things re emerge. But there's a spiritual side of this as well. Because that means that when they're coming back into society, they come in verse 10, on the eighth day. That is repeated verse 23.

On the eighth day. Why on the eighth day? What's going on there? Seven days is a week, that's obvious. So the eighth day must therefore be the first day of the next week.

Right? It's the start of a new thing. It's why Israelite baby boys are circumcised on the eighth day. Something new is beginning. Something new is happening.

But you know what? Something else happened, didn't it, on the eighth day. Early in the morning of the first day of the week. Are ringing any bells? The women went to the tomb.

It's resurrection. So here you've got this cleansed leper, washing, shaving all of their hair, entering back into society like a newborn child on the first day of the new week. This is resurrection. This is new life that is being figured.

And we see a whole bunch of sacrifices. Remember Wednesday, what we saw about the sacrifices? They are windows into the work of the cross. And so what happens is that in comes this newly, newly birthed leper, as it were. And the whole work of the cross is applied to their life.

The guilt offering, the sin offering, the seed offering, all anointed and sacrificed. And then of course, there's the fellowship offering as well. Can you imagine being that leper? Just imagine this for a moment. You've lived outside the camp.

You've been in torn clothes. You've been seen as a living dead. You've not been able to approach God for years of your life, just waiting for death.

And you're able to take that bit of meat and eat it with the Lord, not just with his people, but with the Lord. He's invited you right in. Come eat this fellowship offering once more. Can you imagine how good that first meal with the Lord would have been for that leper?

Crazy cool. It's awesome. But then there's this weird thing, right? Like you sort of see it with the. With the earlobe.

Anyone else sort of read that bit and go, what? What? Sorry, Sorry, What? So we see the blood of the offering and then some oil later, verse 14. Take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear and on the thumb of the hand and on the big toe of the right foot, then does so with oil as well.

What's going on here? Well, we've seen that the leper has done nothing to bring them to this point, but what's happening is the priest says, this sacrifice and this oil, which normally represents the spirit, as we saw on Wednesday, I'm going to put that on the extremities of your body. Your ear, the kind of part of your body that interacts with others. Your thumb, the part of your body that does stuff, moves stuff, writes stuff, helps out with stuff. Your feet, the part of your body that goes places.

In other words, this sacrifice now redefines who you are, what you say, what you think, or your interaction with others, what you do, where you go. This redefines everything as you're reborn into the Israelite community now the blood of the sacrifice changes everything. Imagine being that. That leper and waking up as part of the community and going, oh, wow, I'm back. And then perhaps worrying, oh, can I really stay here?

Can I stay? What would their mind go back to? It would go back to that dove. Wouldn't. Would go back to thinking, I've seen.

And I kind of recoil back because it wasn't very nice. But I saw that dove torn apart. I felt the blood splattered on me. And it would be both that moment of, that's horrible, and thank the Lord for that incredible animal, because I can now be back with my people, back with the Lord because of it. It's this visceral moment both of horror at sin and brokenness and at delight in God's grace.

Of course, it redefined everything, didn't it? My friends, we're going to come to the table in a few minutes time. It's always that strange thing, horror at my sin that put my Saviour Jesus on the cross and at the same time delights that my Saviour would give himself for me. One who is so unclean, who is beyond hope.

So let that redefine you. Don't try and earn your way back to it. We've gone past that. But let it redefine you. Let your interactions with others be defined through the lens of the cross.

I've received grace. Am I going to show it? I'm one who has received pardon and forgiveness and been brought near. I'm one who's honoured and loved by the King. How's that going to affect the way that I speak this week or the way that I listen to people?

How might it affect how I use my hands this week? How might it affect how I. How I help others? If I'm redefining my whole life around that moment of Jesus on the cross, how does that actually affect when I feel tired and that bubble of laziness pops up, I think, should I just stay here or should I help out? How might it affect where you go this week?

Might it mean that you say, do you know, I am going to pray for my. I am going to get out and pray a walk or I am going to go and help that person. We are not doing it to look good on the outside. Forget all of that. But we are doing it because our whole life has been redefined.

Do you know, there are lots of things in this life and with this I'll bring us to a close. There are lots of things in this life that say, I want to be your identity. Find your identity in being that mother who is so great with her kids. Find your identity in being that person who is so good at work, who her colleagues always think has got it all together. Find your identity in being a medic or a lawyer.

Find your identity in being sporty cool. Find your identity in being whatever you like. This word sells it again and again and again. The blood and the spirit that has anointed your head and your hands and your feet says no. Find your identity in being one who is brought near to God through the precious sacrifice of his Son.

Find your identity not in anything of yourself, save the value that the Lord Jesus places on you because of his work, his completed work on the cross.

So in a few moments I'll say, come to this table.

Come to this table. And there we see once more Jesus broken for us. Not in a physical broken bird in front of us, but in wine outpoured and in bread given. Let that moment both remind you of your sin, remind you of your freedom and redefine your life. Let me pray.

Heavenly Father, we cannot stand before you in our own righteousness. We don't have it. We know we're broken on the inside. No matter how hard we try and look nice on the outside, we know we can't do it. Thank you that Jesus came outside the camp.

Thank you that he met us. He did for us what no one could do. Healed us, cleansed us. Gave us new birth, new life into his community. Invited us to his table.

Father, would we not take that lightly? But would it redefine our very existence? Amen.

Thank you, Ben.