Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement
(Leviticus 23:26-32, Leviticus 16:5-34)
1. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is THE defining event of all history.
2. It completed that holy weekend when Christ died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and then victoriously rose again.
3. As we continue our series on the Feasts of Israel, focusing today on Yom Kippur, we can begin to further understand what Christ accomplished on that sacred weekend nearly 2,000 years ago.
4. Yom Kippur is the most solemn of the biblical feasts. A joke compares it to the Roman Catholic tradition of lent:
“A priest and a rabbi are discussing the pros and cons of their various religions, and inevitably the discussion turns to repentance.
The rabbi explains Yom Kippur, the solemn Day of Atonement, a day of fasting and penitence, while the priest tells him all about Lent, and its 40 days of self-denial and absolution from sins.
After the discussion ends, the rabbi goes home to tell his wife about the conversation, and they discuss the merits of Lent versus Yom Kippur.
She turns her head and laughs. The rabbi says, "What’s so funny, dear?"
Her response, "40 days of Lent - one day of Yom Kippur...so, even when it comes to sin, the goyyim (gentiles) pay retail....."
5. But the real point is this: both Lent and Yom Kippur are unnecessary, and, although some feasts will be celebrated during the Millennium, I do not believe Yom Kippur will be among them.
6. The reason both Yom Kippur, which means “Day of Atonement” and Lent are irrelevant is because Christ has once for all time atoned for the sins of mankind.
7. Atone: to cover sin by paying a PENALTY
Leviticus 5:5-6a reads, “When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned and, as a penalty for the sin he has committed, he must bring to the LORD a female lamb or goat…”
8. This atonement was not for salvation
• Not removal of sin from our souls
• to be made ritually clean:
Hebrews 10:4, “because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
MAIN IDEA: Yom Kippur foreshadows a massive and complete spiritual cleansing.
I . Yom Kippur As Originally Intended (Leviticus 23:26-32, 16:5-34)
1. Regular sacrifices for UNINTENTIONAL sins
2. Yom Kippur: for ALL sins (Lev. 16:21)
• repentance/fasting (23:32)
3. Annual entrance into the MOST HOLY place
4. Priest offered a bull for his OWN sins
5. Two GOATS for the people
• one sacrifice
• the other was the scapegoat
• the scarlet thread/temple door
• “For forty years before the destruction of the temple the thread of scarlet never turned white but it remained red.” Talmud- Mas. Rosh HaShana 31b
6. Modern Jews have NO temple
• repentance for small sins
• Yom Kippur for greater sins
• suffering for still greater
• Ones death for the greatest sins
Forty years before the Temple was destroyed the following things happened: The lot for the Yom Kippur goat ceased to be supernatural; the red cord of wool that used to change to white (as a symbol of God’s forgiveness) now remained red and did not change...the western candle in the candlestick in the sanctuary refused to burn continually while the doors of the Holy Temple would open of themselves... (Tractate Yoma 39:b).
There is another saying of the Rabbis in the same Tractate of the Talmud: Why was the first Holy Temple destroyed? Because of three things: idol worship, adultery, and murder. But in the second Temple in which time the Jewish people were occupied studying the Torah and doing good deeds and acts of charity, why was it then destroyed? The answer is: It was because of hatred without a cause to teach you, that hate without a cause is equal to these sins and that it is as serious a crime as the three great transgressions of idol worship, adultery, and murder (Yoma 9).
The Talmud does not answer the question, "Whom did we hate without a cause?" If we hated the Romans, surely there was cause for it, as they were pagans bent on destroying us physically, spiritually, and morally….. Could the quotation in the Talmud be a veiled allusion to the One who...gave His life for their salvation....
7. Since modern Jews have allegorized Yom Kippur, they have not faced the reality that they have no provision for sin….
• a kippuh (yamakuh) – covering (skull cap)
• but their sin is not “out of God’s sight”
Yom Kippur foreshadows a massive and complete spiritual cleansing.
II. Yom Kippur And the CROSS
1. Jesus death: BOTH goats
• Goat that was sacrifice
• Scapegoat/Laying on of hands
2. Jesus: both priest & SACRIFICE
Hebrews 9:14, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
Hebrews 9:22-10:1, “In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
3. Jesus death was not just an atonement (covering), but a removal….and not just from ritual uncleanness, but the removal of sin from our souls
4. How were people saved in OT times?
“I know my Redeemr lives” (Job)
5. Hebrews 11:39-41, “And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
Yom Kippur foreshadows a massive and complete spiritual cleansing.
III. Yom Kippur And END-TIME Israel (Zech. 12:9-13:1)
1. Context: EARLY Armageddon
2. Israel’s massive REPENTANCE
Zechariah 12:9-10, “On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”
3. Israel’s cleansing
"On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
4. Refers to the ONE THIRD
• Survivors of Tribulation
• Refined
Zechariah 13:8-9, “In the whole land," declares the LORD, "two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, `They are my people,’ and they will say, `The LORD is our God.’"
Romans 11:25-29, “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."
As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”
5. This cleansing is available to YOU
Zechariah 13:1
"On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”
CONCLUSION
1. A woman once wrote that at a garage sale she had spotted a handsome antique copper kettle for only $2.50. It was badly tarnished, so she asked the woman running the sale if the discoloration would come out.
She cheerfully offered to try some copper cleaner on it and disappeared with it into the house. Reappearing with the gleaming kettle, she handed it to the buyer for inspection. It was indeed a more attractive item, plus it also had a new tag attached. It read: "Like new-$10."
Interesting. When the copper kettle 1st went on sale, it’s owner practically gave it away.
But something changed its worth. What made the kettle more valuable? A simple cleansing.
When the owner took the trouble to clean away the grime/ removed the discoloration and stains it was worth 4 times as much
Almost everything IS more valuable once it has been washed & cleaned up - and so it is with us. (Jeff Strite , Sermon Central)
2. How can we be cleansed?
