Word of Salvation – April 2025
Fellowship Offerings
Sermon by Rev. Andrew De Vries on Leviticus 3
Scripture reading: Leviticus 3
I wonder what the highlight is for you when we gather for public worship? Perhaps it’s the time after we confess our sins, when you hear the assurance of pardon, and you enjoy the sweet sense that your burden of sin is lifted. Perhaps it’s the songs, being able to express with your own voice, your love and appreciation for Who God is and the redemption he has brought us through Jesus Christ. Perhaps it’s the sermon, digging into a text and exploring the infinite treasures of God’s word.
I suspect, that in terms of O.T. worship, the peace offering would have been the favourite part for many of O.T. tabernacle worship. Because this was a time of celebration and feasting. Some people read the O.T. and think O.T. worship was bland, and cold and lifeless. But this was not the case here. One commentator said: ‘This was a kind of religious party, where priests and worshippers enjoyed a sumptuous meal in the presence of God’ [Tremper Longman]. The peace offering a kind of religious party. It’s a celebration. And what the worshipper is celebrating, is fellowship with God.
How do you think about your relationship to God? Some people think of Him simply in terms of a sovereign to obey. Or that He’s a master to serve. Or a deity to reverence and respect. And he is those things. But he is more than that. He is also a God to be enjoyed. He is a friend with whom we can enjoy the richest and most deepest intimacy. John Piper said that ‘God is the gospel.’ God himself, knowing him and relating to him is the good news. It’s what the Westminster Catechism says – “The chief end of man is to glorify God AND enjoy him forever.” That’s what this offering is telling us. Our God is a God we are able to enjoy the deepest and sweetest of fellowship.
Before we have a look at what this offering teaches us, let’s look at the offering itself. It is a voluntary offering, it’s not mandated or commanded for you to bring this one, you did it of your own free will. There are three different types you could bring: from the herd – a cow or bull (verses 1-5) a sheep, (verses 6-11), or a goat (verses 12-16). Unlike the burnt offering in which only a male animal could be offered, here you could offer male or female.
As with all the offerings, it has to be a perfect sacrifice, no second best for God, an offering with no blemish.
The procedure for making this offering was the same no matter which animal your brought: the worshipper does the slaughtering, the priest catches the blood and pours it out upon the altar, and some parts are burnt on the altar. But it’s not until you get to chapter 7 that you see the unique thing about this offering. The unique part about it, is that the worshipper gets to share in this offering. The burnt offering – it all goes up in smoke and you go home with nothing. The grain offering – a memorial portion to the Lord, the priest gets the rest, and you go home with nothing. But with the fellowship offering, there was a part for the Lord, the breast and right thigh was given to the priest, but the rest of that animal, the majority of the animal, was for the worshipper to feast on.
Now I imagine some of the men here, are finding some appeal to this O.T. worship. You’d get to enjoy a whole lot of meat wouldn’t you? Additionally, we learn from other places in the Bible that this meal, this feast, would also include cakes of bread (Leviticus 7) and also wine (1Sam 1). So we know what this sacrifice looks like, but what does it mean?
Firstly, it teaches us that God provides what we need for fellowship with Him.
The fellowship offering starts the same way as the burnt offering. The Israelite would bring their offering to the tabernacle. They would lay their hand upon that animal, symbolically transferring their sin to the sacrifice. That animal would then be slaughtered, and the priest would apply the blood to the altar and burnt some portions upon the altar.
But the key thing to notice about this sacrifice is the order. The fellowship with God that occurs through this offering – it only happens after something very important occurs first. Did you notice in vs.5 that when part of the fellowship offering is burnt on the altar, it goes on top of the burnt offering (6:12b). This is theologically important. It’s telling us that first comes the offering that was an atonement for sin. The burnt offering where the sacrificial victim is completely consumed by the wrath of God against sin.
This points us to Jesus Christ, the sacrificial substitute for sinners. Whose life was poured out upon the cross as a sacrifice for our sin. And the point is, it’s his atoning sacrifice for sin which opens the way to fellowship with God.
So there is only one way that fellowship with God… that friendship with God… that intimacy with God can be enjoyed. It’s on the basis of Christ’s blood shed for us. That’s what Paul says: ‘Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ That’s what the peace offering says. It’s not until sin is dealt with, that we can enjoy the fullness of fellowship with God. This is teaching us the ABC’s of the gospel.
We live in a world where people run around having peace conferences and forming peace treaties and signing peace accords. And because of this we tend to develop the conviction that we can achieve peace. We bring this thinking over into the spiritual realm and conclude: we can achieve peace with God, if I’ve just been a faithful church attender… if I’ve been baptized… if I don’t do anything worthy of jail time, I can have fellowship with God. Or the person who’s a Christian begins to think that fellowship with God is maintained by them because they’ve reached a certain level of sanctification, or they’ve been faithful in using their gifts. But the peace offering couldn’t be clearer. There is only one way to peace with God. It’s through Christ’s life laid down for you on the Cross. What good news. We don’t strive to achieve peace, rather, God gives it to us.
Secondly, the peace offering reveals to us God’s disposition toward those in fellowship with Him.
Did you notice that a couple of times in this chapter the peace offering is called a ‘food offering’ (vss. 5, 11, 14, 16). This doesn’t mean that God literally eats this offering. God doesn’t need food from his worshippers. He is not dependent upon us, we are dependent upon Him. So this is symbolic action. It’s as if the altar is God’s mouth. And what you offer there is consumed by him. And what this symbolises is that a meal is taking place. The Lord God almighty, is sharing a meal with the worshipper. It’s as if you are sitting down, at a table to share a meal with the Lord.
A shared meal in the ancient world is not just about feeding the body, it’s about intimacy and friendship and enjoyment of a relationship[1]. And what meals are designed to do, is to strengthen the bonds of fellowship. We experience this in daily life. Isn’t that why so many recommend that eating together as family is such a wonderful practice. It strengthens the bonds of family relationships. It’s pretty hard to get to know one another better, when one family member is watching TV, the other is on YouTube, and the other is texting their friend about a funny video they saw. But eating together, that strengthens the bonds of fellowship. And so too with the Lord.
This is not just an ordinary meal, it is also a covenant meal. A covenant is the relationship that God establishes with us, he initiates it, and then makes promises in it, and there are mutual obligations of each covenant partner to fulfil. In the ancient world, when you entered into a covenant, you wouldn’t get the lawyers to do up the paperwork and then sign on the dotted line. Do you know what you’d do? You’d have a meal. That’s what we read in Genesis 31 with Laban and Jacob when they make a covenant of peace not to attack each other. And so too here – what the worshipper is doing, is sitting down and remembering, I’m in covenant relationship with the Lord. He’s committed himself to me, and I’ve committed myself to him. And the worshipper is delighting in this. Revelling in it. I am in covenant friendship with the Lord. I am at peace with him.
Peace for us means the absence of hostilities. It means both sides have laid aside their weapons for a moment. So peace is when the kids are all in bed and it’s quiet – but you know it’s only temporary. Peace is when the neighbours dog finally stops barking, but you know it will start again. But peace in the Bible is not like that. It is not. just the absence of hostilities, it is the presence of harmony and wholeness. The word the Bible uses for this is ‘shalom’. It means everything is in perfect harmony. That’s what the peace offering symbolises. There is perfect harmony between the believer, and his/her God.
Sometimes as Christians we can live as if God merely tolerates us. That our relationship with him is actually a distant one. That he’d much rather be off enjoying intimacy with some important Christian who’s doing great things in Africa than with us. That his anger is ready to flare up at us at any moment and then we’ll really know where we stand with God.
But what we see here in this peace offering is that the Christian enjoys a permanent state of friendship with the Lord. The Lord hasn’t simply let us get away with our crimes against him and we live in an uneasy tension. He’s accepted us and continually says to us: I love and delight in you. You are welcome any time to pull up a chair at my table and eat and drink with me. And he doesn’t just offer this to those mature or super-spiritual Christians. This is what he gives to all who put their faith in Christ.
The photographer Peter Hugo was in Rwanda on the 20th anniversary of the Genocide there. Nearly one million people were murdered by neighbours and friends because they belonged to the ethnic group known as Tutsi. The country is still working on reconciliation. Peter Hugo was taking photos of what is nearly unthinkable. There were Hutu perpetrators, posing with the Tutsi victims of their crimes. After months of counselling, an agency would bring these people together so that the Hutu could ask for forgiveness. Epiphanie Mukamasoni was photographed with Francois Tambara, one of the men responsible for the murder of her son. She said: “He came to ask me pardon. I was pleased by the way he testified to the crime, instead of keeping it in hiding, because it hurts if someone keeps hiding a crime he committed against you. Before, when I had not yet granted him pardon, he could not. come close to me. I treated him like my enemy. But now, I would rather treat him like my own child.”
And that’s what the peace offering celebrates. We were enemies of God and rebels wanting nothing to do with Him. And yet through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, we now have fellowship with God. He doesn’t’ treat us as neutrals, or acquaintances, or as his enemies. He treats us as his own children, welcome to fellowship with Him. His disposition towards us is seen in the peace offering. He sits at the table with us as his friends.
Thirdly, the peace offering shows us God’s place of honour as we fellowship with Him.
We think that an unusual portion of this offering is reserved for the Lord. Verse 16 boldly affirms, ‘all the fat is the Lord’s’. It sounds like some dieting book you might find in your Christian bookshop doesn’t it? Give your fat to the Lord, embrace the Christian diet. We have an aversion to fat don’t we? We’re constantly told that we should be drinking low fat milk, and eating lean meats.
Our society has a negative view of consuming fat. But the Bible has a positive view of fat. And deep down, don’t we all have positive view of fat? You can choose the fat free ice cream, or the 100% full cream, full fat, bad for you ice-cream, and we all know what is going to taste better. In the Bible, ‘fat’ was the term used to describe the best of something. When Pharaoh was inviting Joseph to bring his family from Egypt, he told them that he’d give the best of the land of Egypt, and that they’d enjoy the fat of the land.’ (Gen.45:18). And so in Ancient Israel, the fat is regarded as your best piece of meat. It’s your rib eye. So fat is good. It is the best of what you’ve got.
So what do we see here at this covenant meal then? We see the Lord, receiving the best portion. He gets the finest of what you have. Kids, what does Mum & Dad do when you’ve got. someone special coming for dinner. They might get out the fancy crockery and cutlery. They might cook up something extra-special. You might actually get desert. That’s how you honour them. So too the Israelites were giving the Lord the best part. And what did this teach? It teaches that in this relationship where we see the great condescension of the Creator, who stoops to have a relationship with his creatures. The creator is still worthy of all honour and praise. Intimacy is coupled with deep respect and reverence. It’s not a friendship of equals.
And so in this covenant relationship we have with the Lord, we are to honour him, and give him our best. In our worship, that’s true. We make every effort to come to worship physically and spiritually prepared so we can give the Lord our best in worship. In our giving to the Lord, we don’t just work out what’s left over from the weeks spending and give that to the Lord. No, we put him first and give to him our best as we generously give to kingdom causes.
In our time with the Lord in prayer, we’re called not to get to the end of the day and give few sentences of prayer before we go to sleep. We’re called to give the Lord our best, as we spend time with him through the day praising and thanking Him. All the fat is the Lord’s. That’s what he’s calling us to do again as we gather in worship today. To give him the best of our lives, of our obedience, of our love.
- Finally, I want us to consider God’s New Covenant meal for fellowship with Him.
What is the N.T. equivalent to the peace offering? Where do Christians express and revel in their relationship with the Lord and the fellowship they have with him? It’s in the Lord’s Supper. It is clearly a covenant meal. That’s what Jesus taught us. He said to his disciples: ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’ The Lord’s Supper is a covenant meal. It’s the N.T. equivalent of the peace offering. I just want to draw out a few practical implications of this as we close.
Firstly, one implication is on the mood in which we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. What do you think our kids would say if we asked them, what kind of mood is the church in when we ‘celebrate’ the Lord’s Supper? Would they say the mood is dour and sour? Or would they say the mood is joyful and eager as we come to the table. It should be, because at the table we are rejoicing in the fact that we now enjoy fellowship with God. We are remembering not just a past sacrifice, but a present reality, fellowship with the living God, through the Son, in the power of the Spirit[2]. Brothers and Sisters, there is to be joy and gladness when we celebrate this feast. As we lift up the cup of salvation, let us revel in the fact that we are in friendship with the Lord.
The second implication of this covenant meal is that it reminds us that we have a covenant family. Because the peace offering wasn’t just about lifting your eyes to heaven to remember your covenant Lord, it was also about considering your covenant family, other believers. The O.T. Israelite didn’t celebrate the peace offering all by themselves. It was a communal celebration.
When you ate, you didn’t have a few bites, and then you took a big doggy bag home with to share with the family. No, the offering had to be consumed within in a certain time-frame. So you would eat this with family, and friends, and even strangers. And it would cause you to recognise that they too, were members of the same covenant family as you. At peace with God just like you.
We don’t like to look around too much in church. Except when something goes wrong with the data projector and we have a quick peak up the back to see what’s going on. And it’s good that we focus on what we are here for, to fix our eyes upon the Lord and worship him. But there is a time to look around in church. And one of those times is at Lord’s Supper. Because as we look around, we’re being reminded that we belong to a family. We eat with brothers and sisters. They need me, and I need them. I’m not alone in the Christian faith. We’re being reminded that we share in the Lord together. And that needs to be reflected in our relationships not just as we share in the Lord’s Supper…but as we live our lives of faith together. It means we need to be involved in each other’s lives. We need to serve each other. We need to pray for each other. There are to be no lone ranger Christians. But only Christians who are in fellowship with the Lord, and with each other.
What’s your highlight of the worship service Brothers and Sisters. Surely, one highlight for us all, must be the Lord’s Supper. Because what are we doing here? We’re experiencing fellowship with the Lord. The tabernacle was a picture of heaven itself. So here we are, not entering the tabernacle courts to eat meat. We’re entering as it were, the most holy place of heaven, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we tread upon the holy ground of the heavenly Zion. The Lord rushes towards us – and he doesn’t wave us away and say: “Out! Out! You don’t belong here.” But like an eager Middle Eastern host, arms outstretched, and he says, “Come, my friend, come, come, come…!” He’s delighted to see us. And says: “Come and sit at the table. Come and be satisfied with the richest of foods. Come and recline with me and let us enjoy the most intimate of fellowship. Come and feast upon all the blessings that I have given you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Come and enjoy the peace that is ours.”
So let’s rejoice in the fellowship we have with God. Let’s praise him for the privilege that is ours, to be a guest at his table. And let’s enjoy and delight in the fellowship we have with the living God.
Amen.
[1] That’s why in the NT, when people are excommunicated from the church, other church members are told not to eat with them. Because the intimacy, the friendship, the relationship has been broken.
[2] Can you imagine a wedding reception. And husband and wife are seated at the head table. And all their friends and family have gotten together to celebrate the joy of their union together. And you look up, and you notice that the bride and groom have these sombre looks. Through the whole evening they have these grave and serious expressions that never change.