Sword in the Fire

Before posting the notes on Acts 2, I decided to place our lesson on Pentecost from last year first. This provides much of the background material to understand some of the significance of what is happening in Acts 2. As the name Pentecost indicates (pentekoste), this second of the great Jewish national festivals was observed on the 50th day, or 7 weeks, from the Paschal Feast, and therefore in the Old Testament it was called "the feast of weeks." It is but once mentioned in the historical books of the Old Testament (2Ch 8:12,13), from which reference it is plain, however, that the people of Israel, in Solomon’s day, were perfectly familiar with it: "offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles." The requirements of the three great festivals were then well understood at this time,...

Sin Offering : Lev. 4 Unlike the previous offerings we have discussed there are various degrees within this sacrifice. The material offered was determined by the nature of the offense and the rank of the individual for unintentional sins. Different offerings were made depending on whether the sacrifice was for a priest, a leader, a common person, or even the congregation as a whole. A young bullock was offered for a sin of the whole congregation (Lev. 4:13), for a sin of the high priest (Lev. 4:3), for the high priest on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:3), and for the consecration of priests and Levites to their offices (Exo. 29:10,14,35; Num. 8:8). A she-goat was offered for a sin by one of the common people (Lev. 4:28,32; 5:6). This offering could be combined with others such as a whole burnt offering or peace offering, but if the sin offering was needed it had to be the first offered. Sin had to be dealt with before anything else. No doubt this was designed to make the people awa...

Thoughts on Sacrifice and Sacraments/Mysteries: One of the things that I have mentioned is that all the sacrifices represent ultimately the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Everything in Scripture points to the cross. The OT was preparation for the Cross, and the NT explains the Cross. We have talked about how we enter the sacrifice of Christ through the Eucharist. However, this is the basis for all sacraments or mysteries. All sacramental acts are us participating in the Cross or the Sacrifice of Christ. Eg, Baptism, Confession, Marriage, etc. Not just the standard Sacraments but all sacramental activities such as prayer, veneration of icons, almsgiving, fasting. Grain or Drink Offering: Lev. 2 - usually accompanied other sacrifices (peace or burnt) - 1. fine flour (priest would take and mix with oil, incense and salt and place on top of whatever other sacrifice was being offered) 2. baked cakes (flat bread mixed with oil, salt, & incense) 3. boiled as a dumpling (w/ salt, oil, ...

The Major Sacrifices of the OT: Whole Burnt Offering Grain Offering (also the Drink Offering) Peace Offering Sin Offering Trespass Offering A couple words on sacrifice: The sacrifice of Christ on the cross is multi-dimensional. There is not one image that can fully display all that happened. Because of this there were multiple sacrifices given in the OT in order to picture the content of the sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is the ultimate expression of Christ's self-emptying love. The extent of this love demonstrates for man the life of the Trinity ("if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father"). Just as the tabernacle is a picture of what is happening in heaven. We also have a sacrifice for us that is going on for us in heaven eternally. Jesus is eternally offering His perfect sacrifice to the Father on our behalf. The Greek for offering is “anaphora”. In the Liturgy we are joining into the one eternal sacrifice that Christ made to the Father on the cross...

The previous entry discussed the Tabernacle up to the Holy of Holies. The next piece will discuss the Altar of Incense and the Holy of Holies. Altar of Incense : This is considered part of the Holy of Holies even though technically not in there. For example, in the NT we see Zachariah (John the Baptist’s father) at the altar of incense making the daily offering. This is where God spoke to him through an angel about the birth of John. What were the people doing while he was offering the incense? Praying. - 3ft high - was gold and just like the bronze altar it had four horns on the four corners - the priest were to burn incense every morning and evening - the incense was made of 4 spices and was considered holy and the people could not use the formula for anything else. Lev 10:1; Num 16ff - symbol of the prayers and praises of the people of God - Ps. 141 - “let my prayer arise as incense before Thee, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.” - Mal 1:1; Rev. 8:...

The Tabernacle: Intro: The tabernacle was a mobile place of worship that God instructed Moses to build for the people of Israel. The word tabernacle means tent of meeting. This is the place where the people met with God. (Ex. 29:45-46) "They will know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of Egypt." The important piece to remember is Moses was instructed to build something reflective of the heavenly worship of God. It was a physical earthly representation of the worship of God in heaven. Today we have the same concern for worship. Just because much of the contents of the tabernacle/temple were fulfilled in Christ, it does not negate the pattern mirroring heavenly images. We do not create our own structure or plan for worship but continue to join in eternal worship in heaven. Orthodox churches are still today modeled after the OT temple, and continue to reflect "heavenly worship". Rev 11:19 Jesus is the tent of meeting, and is where we mee...

For the next 7-8 weeks we will be studying through Leviticus. Actually it will a study of the OT Liturgical system, so we will include portions of Exodus and many NT passages such as Hebrews. As a way of introduction let me review the 4 major ways that the Church Fathers read the OT (as well as all of Scripture). -Ultimately we understand the OT through the person of Jesus. The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is a good paradigm for this. Two disciples unknowingly met Jesus along the road, and Jesus it is said went through Moses and the prophets and revealed Himself (but they did not recognize Him until the breaking of bread). 4 Senses of Scripture -compiled by John Cassian (360-435) 1. Literal Sense: this is just the plain, historical sense. 2. Typological/Allegorical: The is similar to the foreshadowing that one sees in liturgy. However, in Scripture a real historical event becomes a type or shadow of what is to be fulfilled in Christ. The beauty of this that a histor...

It's been a little while since my last blog. In class, we just started the book of Ephesians. So this week, I will post our Introductory lesson as well as the lesson on Chapter 1. In the meantime I wanted to share a link to some excellent Orthodox sermons. The sermons are given by Fr. Jon Braun at St. Anthony's Orthodox Church in San Diego. Fr. Jon was part of the Campus Crusade group that came into the Orthodox church in the late eighties. He is a great communicator and excellent teacher. The link will give you several of his current sermons as well as an eight week series he did on the book of Leviticus. His series on Leviticus is particularly good. He goes through the various sacrifices and rituals of OT worship and shows how they are fulfilled in the person of Christ. He also calls it a Eucharistic primer, and shows how our the Divine Liturgy is a fulfillment of those sacrifices. Here's the link: Orthodox Sermons