01 A Sacrificial Savior Series

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you felt completely out of place? Maybe you’ve walked into an event and you were way underdressed, sat in a meeting where everyone else seemed to know what was going on, but you were clueless, or visited a culture where everything felt foreign. It’s that unsettling realization that you don’t belong—that you aren’t prepared to be where you are.

Now, imagine standing at the foot of Mount Sinai with the people of Israel. Just months ago, they had been slaves in Egypt. God had miraculously delivered them, split the Red Sea before them, and brought them into a covenant relationship with Himself. He had given them His Law and declared them His people. But there was a problem. Even though they had been rescued, they were still sinful. Their rebellion had already been on full display—turning to a golden calf while Moses was on the mountain, grumbling against God’s provision. They may have left Egypt, but Egypt had not yet left them.

And yet, God had come near. His presence descended on the tabernacle, the place where He would dwell among them. But at the end of Exodus, there’s this striking moment: Moses, the leader of Israel, cannot even enter the tent of meeting because of God’s holiness. And that leaves us with a question—one that isn’t just for Israel, but for all of us: How can sinful people dwell with a holy God?

That’s the question that Leviticus answers. If we’re honest, Leviticus is a book that many of us struggle to read. It’s full of sacrifices, purity laws, and rituals that can seem foreign. In fact, if you’ve ever started a Bible reading plan in January, you probably hit Leviticus around February ... and that’s where a lot of those plans come to die.

But at its core, this book is about something we desperately need to understand: God is holy, and we are not. And if we are ever to live in His presence, something has to be done about our sin.

The book of Leviticus is God’s answer to that dilemma. Through the sacrificial system, the role of the priests, and the call to holiness, God made a way for His people to be near Him. And yet, as we’ll see, every sacrifice, every offering, and every act of purification was ultimately pointing forward to something greater. Because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. They were just a shadow; a picture of the perfect sacrifice to come.

And that’s where we’re going today. We’re beginning this series in Leviticus by looking at the sacrificial system and how it reveals The Price, The Picture, and The Perfection—the cost of our sin, the foreshadowing of redemption, and the ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Because in the end, Leviticus isn’t just about Israel. It’s about us. And here’s the core truth for us today: Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, securing redemption once and for all.

Leviticus opens with a problem that we cannot ignore—our sin separates us from God. The very first words of the book, "Then the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting …" (Leviticus 1:1), highlight the distance between sinful humanity and a holy God. God is inside the tent, but Moses, Israel’s leader, is on the outside. Something must be done if God's people are to dwell in His presence.

And so, immediately, God establishes the sacrificial system—a system that confronts Israel, and us, with the weight of sin. This is where Leviticus begins, not with pleasantries or suggestions, but with the unavoidable reality that sin has a cost. If sinful people are to approach a holy God, something—or rather, someone—must bear that cost.

That brings us to our first truth for today:

I. The Price of Our Sin (Leviticus 1:1-4; Hebrews 10:1-4)

Let’s begin in Leviticus 1:1-4:

Then the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of animals from the herd or the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf.’”

Now, let’s turn to the New Testament, to Hebrews 10:1-4:

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.