INTRODUCTION
As you’ll remember from last time, God institutes a series of 7 feasts (or festivals) in Leviticus 23 that the people of Israel were to faithfully observe every year.
Each of those observances have great significance in Jewish faith and practice… but like many things in the OT, each of the 7 feasts also prophetically point to Jesus…
There are the 4 Spring Festivals… which have already been fulfilled by Jesus during His first coming…
… The Feast of Passover was fulfilled by Jesus’ sacrificial death as our Passover Lamb
… The Feast of Unleavened Bread was fulfilled by His burial
… The Feast of Firstfruits was fulfilled by His resurrection
… The Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost) was fulfilled by the coming of the Holy Spirit
Then there is a 4-month break after those Spring Feasts are concluded until the Fall Feast season begins… a large gap of time which represents the “Church Age” in which we are living right now.
During this time God is bringing salvation to the Gentiles… to US!
Then, in the time that the Lord alone has determined, the final 3 feasts… the 3 Fall Feasts… commence.
And just as the 4 Spring Feasts were perfectly and completely fulfilled by Jesus in every detail during His first coming…
… I’m anticipating that Jesus will also perfectly and completely fulfill each of the details of the 3 Fall Feasts in His second coming!
We looked at the first of the Fall Feasts last time… the Feast of Trumpets (or Rosh Hashanah)… and we made a case for how this feast is likely to be fulfilled with the Rapture of the Church.
We also learned that the Feast of Trumpets started a ten-day period known as the Days of Awe … and during the Days of Awe (which I believe correspond with the 7-year tribulation period) … the people are given one last chance to repent and turn their hearts to God before their eternal fate would be sealed at the end of that time… on the Day of Atonement… which is the feast we’ll examine more closely this morning.
The Days of Awe this year came to their conclusion this past Wednesday… on the Day of Atonement… or also known as Yom Kippur.
If you were in our adult Bible study Wednesday, we dove into a lot of OT detail related to this most sacred and solemn day in the entire Jewish calendar…
but my goal this morning is to show you how the Day of Atonement is all about Jesus Jesus Jesus… and to give us some insight into how Yom Kippur points toward His second coming…
So please turn with me in your Bibles to Leviticus 23, where we’re going to start reading in verse 26… Once you’ve found your place, please stand with me as we honor the reading of God’s Word…
Leviticus 23:26–32 CSB
26 The Lord again spoke to Moses:
27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly and practice self-denial; you are to present a food offering to the Lord.
28 On this particular day you are not to do any work, for it is a Day of Atonement to make atonement for yourselves before the Lord your God.
29 If any person does not practice self-denial on this particular day, he is to be cut off from his people.
30 I will destroy among his people anyone who does any work on this same day.
31 You are not to do any work. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live.
32 It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practice self-denial. You are to observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening.”
[PRAY]
WHEN IS A FEAST NOT A FEAST?
Probably the first thing to note about this particular “feast” is that it’s not really a feast… it’s a FAST…
This is such a serious and solemn and sacred day… On this day, the High Priest must follow the Lord’s instructions PRECISELY… or else he dies… Typically, the high priest would seclude himself during the week leading up to the Day of Atonement to prepare himself for what he was about to do… Reviewing every move, every action, every word that he was to observe… Preparing his heart and mind through prayer and repentance… keeping himself away from the temptations of the world and the flesh.
On this day… on Yom Kippur… the Day of Atonement… the sins of the people must be atoned for… but what does the word “atonement” actually mean? Why was atonement necessary?
To make atonement is to cover over iniquity… atonement results in forgiveness and the removal of sin… in cleansing from impurity… in taking something that God considers to be “unclean” and making it “clean”… to consecrate (or devote or set apart) for the worship or service of God.
This has always been the key problem ever since the first sin of Adam and Eve in the garden… How can a holy and perfect and righteous God have fellowship with a sinful, impure, and rebellious person such as me? such as each one of us?
… How can we have forgiveness of sin instead of receiving the penalty and outpouring of wrath that we so rightly deserve?
… How can we be made clean or cleansed from our impurity before Him?
… How can we possibly ever become a useful and beautiful instrument of worship and service, consecrated to the Lord, while we continue to struggle with sin and our sin nature?
The answer to all these questions is … “Atonement”
ATONEMENT
Leviticus chapter 16 provides a detailed explanation for how to observe the Day of Atonement…
Look with me at Leviticus 16:1-2 ...
1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence of the Lord and died.
2 The Lord said to Moses, “Tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat on the ark or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.”
First, a little background… God provided very detailed, explicit instructions to Moses on how to construct the tabernacle and how to construct all the components and tools of worship used in the tabernacle…
Hebrews 8:5 ... “5 These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle. For God said, Be careful that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.”
… and all of it points to Jesus!
From the gate… and the curtain covering the gate
… to the brazen altar with the fire that must never be extinguished… God’s judgment being satisfied by the blood of the sacrifice
… to the brazen laver where there is cleansing by the water
… through the next veil into the Holy Place where we see the Light of Christ in the golden candlestick
… our fellowship with our Father represented by the table of showbread… a fellowship only made possible through Jesus Christ
… to the altar of incense burning night and day with the intercessory prayers of Jesus and the Holy Spirit praying for us since we know not how to pray as we ought…
… to the final veil which was torn in two from top to bottom when Jesus died… the veil which separates the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place (or the Holy of Holies)
… to the ark of testimony (or ark of the covenant)… made of acacia wood covered inside and out with pure gold… symbolizing Jesus who is 100% human and 100% God… containing the tablets of the law and an omer of manna… all pointing to Jesus… with the ark covered with a lid known as the “mercy seat”… or “atonement cover”
… THIS is where the blood would cover or atone for the sins of the people… THIS is where the perfect blood of Jesus once and forevermore covered and atoned for the sins of the world… THIS is where the High Priest must go… but ONLY on the Day of Atonement!
! To enter this place and to be in God’s presence, YOU HAD TO DO IT GOD'S WAY... OR DIE !
Ten days after the Feast of Trumpets, the High Priest would follow God’s rules on how to make atonement for the people on the Day of Atonement…
It’s difficult to put into words how important and how sacred and solemn this day is…
Jump ahead to Leviticus 16:29 “29 This is to be a permanent statute for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month you are to practice self-denial and do no work, both the native and the alien who resides among you.”
Other translations use the phrase “afflict yourselves”… For the people, this is a day of fasting, absolutely no work… this is a yearly Sabbath where the people were to deny themselves, humble themselves before the Lord, and pray that the Lord would accept their atoning sacrifice and have mercy upon them for another year.
The first thing the High Priest must do is bathe and then dress in a simple linen tunic and undergarments… with a linen sash tied around himself and a linen turban covering his head… in verse 4, God says, “These are holy garments”.
He then is to bring a young bull, a ram, and 2 goats to the tabernacle.
Before the High Priest can atone for the sins of people, he must first receive atonement for himself and his family… so he presents the bull as a sin offering before the Lord and slaughters it…
He’s going to come back to the dead bull in a few minutes, but first, he must take burning coals from the altar and 2 handfuls of finely ground incense… He then goes beyond the outer court and into the Holy Place (which is lit only by the light from the golden candlestick)… and he carefully passes beyond the altar of incense and through the veil into the Holy of Holies.
He places the censer full of burning coals just inside the veil… the soft glow from the coals being the only light… and then he places the incense on the burning coals, which completely fills the Holy of Holies with a cloud of fragrant smoke.
Verse 13 says, Leviticus 16:13 “13 He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, so that the cloud of incense covers the mercy seat that is over the testimony, or else he will die.”
As long as he survives his initial entry behind the veil, the High Priest will then go back out to the bull that was slaughtered, and collect some of its blood and return again to the Holy of Holies…
Leviticus 16:14 “14 He is to take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger against the east side of the mercy seat; then he will sprinkle some of the blood with his finger before the mercy seat seven times.”
He must be very careful not to touch or brush up against the ark of the covenant or physically touch the mercy seat… or he will die.
Once he sprinkles the blood of the bull as instructed, his personal sins and those of his family are now atoned for and he is now consecrated to perform the remainder of the ceremony on behalf of the people…
But in Hebrews 7:26-28, we see a much better High Priest…
Hebrews 7:26–28 (CSB)
26 For this is the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
27 He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for those of the people. He did this once for all time when he offered himself.
28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.
The High Priest then goes back to the outer court and takes the 2 goats and places them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting (or the tent containing the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies)… He then casts lots to choose 1 goat “for the Lord” which will then be sacrificed.
He then takes the blood of that goat and brings it inside the veil into the Holy of Holies and sprinkles the blood the same as he did with the bull’s blood… He then sprinkles blood on the tent of meeting and on the horns of the altar… making atonement or consecrating / cleansing those from the impurities of the people… “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for sin” (Heb 9:22).
And then something amazing happens with the 2nd goat…
Let’s read in Leviticus 16:20-22...
20 “When he has finished making atonement for the most holy place, the tent of meeting, and the altar, he is to present the live male goat.
21 Aaron will lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the Israelites’ iniquities and rebellious acts—all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the man appointed for the task.
22 The goat will carry all their iniquities into a desolate land, and the man will release it there.”
The sins of the people were placed upon what was called the “SCAPEGOAT”… That goat was then taken outside the camp and taken deep into the uninhabitable places of the wilderness and abandoned… signifying how God has removed their sins and cast their sins as far as the east is from the west and remembered no more.
Like the people of Israel, our sins were also placed upon the “scapegoat”… on the Person of Jesus Christ when His shed blood covered or atoned for our sins… “He who knew no sin became sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21)
… and since Jesus became sin for us… He too was abandoned… carrying upon Himself the wrath of God on our behalf…
Matthew 27:46 CSB
46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
I encourage you to read Leviticus 16 and then Hebrews chapters 8 and 9 which deal with how Jesus fulfilled the Day of Atonement at His first coming.
These passages reveal that the tabernacle (and later the temple) and the various sacrifices made on the Day of Atonement were merely meant to be a picture of how Jesus would more perfectly provide a way for our sins to be covered and for us to be reconciled to God.
Because of Jesus, we no longer need the blood of bulls and goats every year to cover our sin and make us righteous in the sight of God… Jesus’ death on the cross made atonement for our sins once and for all!
FULFILLMENT IN JESUS' SECOND COMING
So how will the Day of Atonement be fulfilled during Jesus’ second coming if He’s already fulfilled so many of the details of the Day of Atonement in His first coming?
When Jesus returns, He’s coming back to finish what He has started!
Hebrews 9:27–28 CSB
27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—
28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
There is one last element of the Day of Atonement that I need to point out… In Leviticus 25, the Lord gives instruction that every 7th year would be a Sabbath year to the Lord where the land would remain fallow… and then in Leviticus 25:8-10, God says...
8 “You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to forty-nine.
9 Then you are to sound a ram’s horn loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement.
10 You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan.
The shofar was used on the Day of Atonement to announce the YEAR OF JUBILEE, when all slaves were freed, debts forgiven, and lands returned to the original owners… Everything gets set back to the way it was in the beginning.
The problem is that everyone has lost track over the centuries of when exactly the Jubilee years actually fall… There are plenty of hearty debates and lots of opinions, but nobody really knows for sure anymore… As a result, the Jewish people now blow the shofar every year at the end of the Day of Atonement just in case that year happens to be a Jubilee year…
In rabbinical teaching, the Day of Atonement is considered to be the day on which God’s individual judgment on each person is sealed once and for all. The Yom Kippur services end with a ceremony which pictures the closing of the gates of heaven. That part of the service ends with a final blast of the shofar, which indicates that the opportunity for repentance has ended and that each person’s judgment has been sealed.
Zechariah 12:10 CSB
10 “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the house of David and the residents of Jerusalem, and they will look at me whom they pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly for him as one weeps for a firstborn.
Matthew 24:30 CSB
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the peoples of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Revelation 1:7 CSB
7 Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. So it is to be. Amen.
CONCLUSION
There is a day coming… at the conclusion of the Day of Atonement… and the trumpet or shofar will sound… and it will be the Year of Jubilee… and those of us who are already IN CHRIST… our salvation will be completed when Jesus returns… this time as a conquering King!
… and when the shofar sounds for real, this time it really will mean that the opportunity for repentance has ENDED and each person’s judgment has been SEALED… and there will be great mourning!
Revelation 19:7–21 CSB
7 Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself.
8 She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure. For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, “Write: Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb!” He also said to me, “These words of God are true.”
10 Then I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold firmly to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse. Its rider is called Faithful and True, and with justice he judges and makes war.
12 His eyes were like a fiery flame, and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself.
13 He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
14 The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses, wearing pure white linen.
15 A sharp sword came from his mouth, so that he might strike the nations with it. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will also trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty.
16 And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he called out in a loud voice, saying to all the birds flying high overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,
18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of military commanders, the flesh of the mighty, the flesh of horses and of their riders, and the flesh of everyone, both free and slave, small and great.”
19 Then I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and against his army.
20 But the beast was taken prisoner, and along with it the false prophet, who had performed the signs in its presence. He deceived those who accepted the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image with these signs. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
21 The rest were killed with the sword that came from the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds ate their fill of their flesh.
Jesus is coming again! Revelation 22:20 “20 He who testifies about these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
Sinner, will it be your decision to remain in your sins and reject the atoning work of Jesus Christ? or will you take this time… right now… to repent and turn your heart toward God… to seek Him and His forgiveness today while He can still be found?
Jesus Himself has these words for you in Revelation 22:12-14 “12 “Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to repay each person according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. 14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.”
and then verse 17 says, Revelation 22:17 “17 Both the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let anyone who hears, say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life freely.”
I didn’t give you the title of this sermon until the very end… the title this morning is “May Your Name Be Written”...
I pray that Your Name Be Written in the Book of Life before the final trumpet sounds!
[time of invitation and response]
[PRAY]
