Word of Salvation – October 2018
B.C.21 – The Priestly Sacrifice of Christ
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp
Scripture Readings: Isaiah 53; Hebrews 9:11-14 & 19-28
Introd: Some of you may recall the Andres Serrano “art” exhibition at the national gallery of Victoria.
An art critic in the Sydney Morning Herald had this to say about Serrano’s work:
Undoubtedly, the most affecting works in the show are the large… photos of bodies in the morgue, some of them mutilated or partly decomposed. I found them sickening to view, not just because of the grisly subject matter, but because one cannot help wondering what the artist is trying to achieve.
Other so-called works of art in the exhibition featured a variety of body fluids.
But the work that drew the most criticism was a photo of a crucifix immersed in urine.
Church leaders in Victoria attempted to halt the exhibition through court orders.
Large groups of Christians protested outside the gallery.
Finally two attacks against the work – one with a hammer – led to the closure of the exhibition.
Now I don’t approve of the way the work was attacked.
But I also find it very hard to say, “I’m sorry they did it!”.
That kind of ‘in your face art’ is offensive to Christians.
Victoria would not have dared to allow something similar with a Muslim sacred symbol.
(Nike had to withdraw from sale a shoe with an emblem looking like the Arabic word for Allah).
But it seems that these days Christians are fair game.
Yet I can’t help but wonder: did we Christians get too defensive about that crucifix?
A little over 400 years ago our reformational ancestors were destroying crucifixes.
We didn’t want them to become idolatrous substitutes for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe what we ought have been doing in Melbourne was handing out copies of B.Conf. article 21.
And explaining to people the true meaning behind the crucifixion.
A] THE CROSS AND THE PRIESTLY WORK OF CHRIST.
1. We would then have to point out first of all the nature of the cross itself.
And there we already have a problem.
In just about any jewellers shop you can buy little crosses.
They come as earings and necklaces… decorative trinkets of silver or gold.
All sorts of people buy them for all sorts of reasons.
It’s interesting that the cross has been a popular jewellery item for many years.
Interesting, because I’ve never yet seen anyone wear a little silver guillotine.
You know – the ones used in the French Revolution to make people a head shorter.
Neither have I ever seen little silver electric chairs as ear-rings.
Nor gold necklaces braided in the form of a hangman’s noose.
But crosses…. thousands of people wear crosses.
Maybe you’re wondering why I’m talking about hangman’s nooses… electric chairs… and guillotines.
Well… it’s because the cross really belongs in the same category.
And people who buy crosses as jewellery really ought to be aware of that.
The cross is one of the most gruesome instruments of torture and execution.
Dostoevsky, the Russian writer summed it up well.
In one of his novels he has a character stopping in an art gallery.
He stands there looking at a painting of the crucifixion.
His friend comes back to him and says:
Hey, don’t you know that a man night loose his faith looking at that?
He replies – That’s just what’s happening – I’m loosing my faith!
The point is that there is something gruesome about a hangman’s noose and an electric chair.
And when we stop and think about it that’s true of the cross too.
That’s why Paul said on one occasion:
The cross is foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews.
Because it is a most cruel instrument of torture and execution.
An awesome invention for imposing a maximum of pain
And the most sinless human being ever to walk God’s earth was crucified on that.
Worse – the Lord of glory was nailed to that shocking thing.
2. But to explain the meaning of the cross we would have to go still further.
The cross is even worse than just an instrument of torture and death.
The cross of Jesus was actually an altar…. a place where a sacrifice was brought.
Many people consider an altar in itself gruesome enough.
But we are talking about an altar on which a human sacrifice was offered.
That is bizarre when you think about it… it is repulsive.
And yet the death of Jesus can only be understood when we see the cross as a sacrificial altar.
Actually there two more basic concepts behind that.
First of all there is the basic concept of PRIESTHOOD.
Priesthood is an idea that runs strongly thru the O.T.
Priests were needed as go-betweens between God and man.
They could go where the rest of the people could not go – right into the temple.
And then the High Priest could go where other priests could never go.
Into the “holy of holies” – the innermost sanctuary of the temple.
The great task of priests was to make payment for the sins of the people.
Especially the High Priest did that – once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
He would bring blood into the “holy of holies” to pay for the sins of Israel.
So the book of Hebrews (9:12) tells us that Jesus is now our Great High Priest.
He was the Priest who took blood into the holy place.
Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest.
Secondly there is the basic idea of SACRIFICE.
That idea lies behind all that O.T. language of priesthood.
Priesthood without sacrifice makes no sense.
The idea is that a sacrifice has to be made to appease God.
That’s why Hebrews (9:22) says:
Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
In the O.T. sacrifices were offered for the nation morning and night every day of the year.
On top of that daily ritual individuals brought their own sin offerings whenever they fell into sin.
So thousands of animals were slaughtered daily… all to obtain forgiveness.
And now the Bible tells us that Jesus was the great sacrifice for sin.
That all those O.T. sacrifices really only foreshadowed His perfect sacrifice.
Isaiah 53 portrays it very vividly: As a lamb led to the slaughter…!
No wonder that years later John the Baptiser would say of Jesus: See the Lamb of God!
So when Christians think of the cross they think of an instrument of torture and execution… yes!
But more – an altar with both a sacrifice and a sacrificer… both a Priest and an offering.
Heb.9:12 point out that Jesus Christ who died on that cross was both our Priest and our Sacrifice.
3. All this makes us realise the true offence of the cross.
The offence does not lie first of all in some whacky artist doing some sordid things with a crucifix.
For Christianity there has always been the scandal of the cross.
That scandal wasn’t ended when the Serrano exhibition was closed.
That scandal isn’t really removed by turning the cross into a nice jewellery item.
We can never escape this real scandal.
That at the centre of our faith stands something that smacks of pain, death and sacrificial slaughter.
Over the years many people have tried to remove the scandal.
They have rejected the language of sacrifice.
They consider it primitive… unworthy of God to call for human sacrifice.
No wonder Dostoevsky made one of the characters in a book say,
“It’s by looking at the crucifixion that men loose their faith.”
So people have tried all kinds of ways of getting around this scandalous language about the cross.
But if we do that then we will have tear many pages out of our Bibles.
All that the book of Hebrews has to say throughout chapters 5,6,7,8 and 9.
Tear them all out because they all speak the language of sacrifice.
It presents Jesus as our Great High Priest who offered Himself.
And while you’re at it tear out that telling imagery of Isaiah 53.
And the sayings of Jesus in the gospel about His life being a RANSOM for many.
Rip out the sayings of John the Baptist about the Lamb of God.
And tear out the songs in the book of Revelation about the LAMB that was slain.
The point is that the Bible and the teaching about Jesus all hinge on these truths.
That on the cross on Good Friday our great High Priest sacrificed Himself for us.
So we constantly have to face these two underlying facts:
First, that we human beings are sinful…
I don’t just mean that we are imperfect and often fail.
I mean that we were rebels and a lawbreakers – guilty before Almighty God.
Second that God is a holy God who must punish human sinfulness.
God’s justice makes that a requirement.
That’s why the language of sacrifice is needed.
If we do not take seriously both our sin and God’s justice we will never understand the cross.
Our B.Conf. dealt earlier with both these concepts and so prepared us for this language of sacrifice.
That brings us to a key problem you and I face repeatedly.
Many people today are not prepared to talk about sin as it really is.
They are happy to agree that no one is perfect…. that we all fail often.
And if we really want to call our failings, sin, fine!
But the message of the cross presupposes the seriousness of sin.
That it condemns us to death.
The other reason why people play down the language of sacrifice
Is because of their faulty understanding of God.
C.S. Lewis once said that many people have the understanding of God
that he is a kindly and benevolent, grand-fatherly figure
who in out to ensure that a good time is had by all.
When we think of God that way then the language of the cross is absurd.
Instead article 21 of our Confession speaks Biblical language.
That without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
And that’s why it included a large quote from Isaiah 53.
The cross ALWAYS confronts us with these awesome realities
A JUST God and rebellious sinners under condemnation.
Therefore it presents us with Jesus as the high Priest who is at the same time the sin-offering.
B] THE CROSS AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR US.
1. Fortunately – all this is only ONE side of the picture… the GORY side.
There is another side to it …and that’s the GLORY side.
There is also this: that this terrible thing… this instrument of death and torture… this altar of sacrifice…
is at the same time the means of our salvation.
It is the power of God for salvation for all those who believe.
That’s the glory of the cross.
But then never as though there was something magical about the cross.
And I think that this is the real mistake many people today make.
Many wear crosses for the same reason as they pick four-leaf clovers.
It may just bring them luck.
They have some vague idea about the cross as a religious symbol.
And they feel that as long as they have a cross
that may just help them stay on the good side of God.
In any case – it can’t do any harm.
People like that have never thought thru what the cross is really all about.
Even worse – they separate the symbol from the reality.
It is not the cross… but it is Jesus our High Priest who saves.
It isn’t that wooden altar in all its horror….
but it is the sacrifice who was nailed to it that brings us to God.
The language of our confession again reflects the teaching of the Word.
It tells us that Jesus poured out His precious blood.
That he did that to purge away our sins.
He suffered hell on that cross to deal with our sin.
Jesus as Priest and as Sacrifice actually accomplished something.
He didn’t just make forgiveness possible – as some evangelists claim.
But by His work He actually purged away the sins
of all whom God had chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
2. So tonight if we ask, “Why the cross?”
then the answer is that it is there that God meets our deepest need.
God doesn’t just try to touch up the symptoms of our problem a little.
He doesn’t just apply a few superficial touches here and there.
Instead He goes to the very core of our problem… our sin problem.
And that sin is forgiven.
The alienation sin causes between God and us is now overcome.
God and man are reconciled again.
Today we live in a world full of trouble… with brokenness all around us.
And the trouble is that we often try to solve things… just on the surface.
Let me just give you one example.
All across our nation there are mental hospitals and psychiatric wards.
I know that many are in there because of physical brain damage.
But there are hundreds more whose real problem is not mental illness.
Their problem is that they have no remedy for their guilt and sin.
A doctor once said to ministers visiting such an institution.
If these people would only accept the message you preach
then this place would be all but empty overnight.
I believe that there is a lot of truth in that.
The world around us tries in many ways to cater for human physical health.
Exercises… diets… health foods… to prolong our life.
The world also tries to deal with emotional problems and mental afflictions.
Psychiatrists and psychologists and all sorts of self-help groups.
But repeatedly we don’t get down to the real problem – our moral failure.
That defies solutions again and again.
It is just so true that man cannot forgive himself until he finds God’s forgiveness.
And that comes only thru a cross and thru the priestly work of Christ.
It is His sacrifice – and nothing but His sacrifice that purges away our sin.
My guilty conscience needs no other sacrifice.
That’s the message we should have been bringing to people visiting the Serrano exhibition.
3. Our Belg. Conf. therefore also mentions our proper human response.
After all it’s OK to celebrate the death of Jesus on the cross.
And it’s all very nice to study the Christ’s priestly work.
But how does it affect your life?
What sort of impact does it have?
If it means your forgiveness and an open way to God how is that going to show itself in your life?
The preaching of the cross always results in a response.
Either a response of drawing one closer to it… to glory in that cross.
Or the response of repulsing a person more and more.
What is your response?
Our confession shows the proper response to the gospel of the cross.
It concludes with a beautiful summary from the words of Paul:
“Therefore we will know nothing but Christ and Him crucified!”
We will count all things as excrement for the excellency of knowing Jesus Christ”.
Christianity no longer needs priests today.
It only knows the priesthood of all believers.
When Jesus died on that cross the veil in the temple was torn in two.
The way into the presence of God was assured… the door is now wide open again.
Because Jesus brought the one sacrifice – once – and for all time.
Because that instrument of execution is at the same time an altar where your sins were paid for.
Let us then glory… not just in the cross/crucifix… but in Christ crucified.
Amen
BC stands for Basic Christianity. What are the fundamentals of the faith?
BC also stands for Belgic Confession – a document in which the Christian church (in a time of great persecution) spelled out the basics of what she believes.
When Christianity is a mile wide and an inch deep it needs to grasp again the basics of the faith and confess them in a world where the faith is increasingly under attack.
Those who drew up the BC declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things, but that they would “offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags and their whole bodies to the fire” rather than deny the truth expressed in this confession.