The Day Of Atonement Yom Kippur Series

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