Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] You know, my grandmother was a religious Jew and that transferred directly to her cooking.
[00:00:13] Every time that we visited, she prepared a meal and we knew that it was going to deeply reflect her religious attitude. And you ask, well, how could you have known that? Well, because every meal she served was a burnt offering.
[00:00:34] You try to find some sacrificial system humor. It's not easy. It took me five minutes to come up with that. I love my grandma, but she really, may her memory be for a blessing. She was. That's a true story.
[00:00:48] She was not the best cook, but I needed something joyful about the sacrifices. We ended last week actually completely saturated with joy about the sacrifices. Right. We talked about that and Leviticus and not blood and guts and smoky sin or any of those things. We talked about connection and joy and intimacy between God and between his people. And I think regardless if you were a synagogue person or even in this particular circumstance, a church person, you probably, especially church people, I hope it was the purpose of the meeting of the message, that you would get a different perspective, a different sense of the meaning. And I think most people, even in the church, who may have nothing in common, probably agreed with what I said until the end when we started talking about the Third Temple and we start talking about sacrifices and I mentioned Ezekiel 40, 48 and all the talk there of the third temple and the idea of a third temple being constructed for many people, that is enough of a tough sell. But then you start talking about animal sacrifices occurring in the Third Temple in the millennial age while Yeshua is ruling and re on earth. And the questions begin, are you serious? You can't be serious.
[00:02:27] Jesus has returned to earth and rules from Jerusalem in a thousand year reign. How? Why?
[00:02:36] What conceivable purpose could there be for sacrifices to still happen?
[00:02:43] And this particular gentleman. An article from a student, a veterinarian, and also a Baptist pastor, educated at Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. He does a great job of putting into words the difficulty that this causes for many Christians.
[00:02:59] One is disappointed, he says, to watch scholars and shepherds confuse literal with literalistic interpretations. What does that mean? Interpreting Ezekiel as if it were a historical narrative that forces one to say that Christians will slaughter animals in Jerusalem, in the Temple after the Lord who is the Temple, the priest, and the Lamb returns to reign. It entails the idea of a new Levitical priesthood, thereby disconnecting Ezekiel from redemptive history. That does not fit. May it never be, he says.
[00:03:39] And I appreciate how well he states his feelings on that. He continues, when one allows Scripture itself to Set the pattern with attention to near and far context, intertextual connections, genre analysis. Ezekiel 40, 48 is not a problem text. He says the diagnosis is straightforward. This is about the Lord Jesus and his church in this age and in the age to come, what does not fit, it's all perfectly fitting in Christ.
[00:04:11] If one remains confused by the description of bloody sacrifices in the temple vision, this may be solved by seeing them beginning fulfillment in Christians now who offer themselves to God by suffering for their faith. There is a sacrifice of praise and a sacrifice of blood in the Christian church to which Ezekiel's vision points.
[00:04:34] Are you with me?
[00:04:36] You should be doing this.
[00:04:40] Here's the reason. In other words, Ezekiel couldn't possibly mean what he writes about this. That's a Jewish thing that happened before Jesus, that is to say sacrifices. They were all about sin and blood and wrath. And he, Jesus did away with all of them. So in Ezekiel, it's all figurative, it's all allegorical, it's really all about Jesus. He says, that's totally boring. You know why? That's just replacement theology.
[00:05:13] It's just that it's. There's nothing that's not original. But you've heard this perspective, right? Of course you have. Because listen, it's out there now. You may subscribe to it, no problem. You're allowed.
[00:05:29] We're a community that allows for conversation and even dissent and discussion. As long as we depart in peace and return as brothers and sisters. That is a very well represented school of thought among Christian thinkers. Solves a difficulty for many people about sacrifices after Jesus. They're just not.
[00:05:50] It's all allegory. Now there's another school within Christian thought that absolutely recognizes that there is a third temple with animal sacrifices.
[00:06:00] A Christian perspective. The dispensationalists, the John MacArthur's of the world who read Ezekiel 40:48, they see it. They read Jeremiah 33:15. It's actually really kind of hard to read those texts, reference them for later. Ezekiel 40, 48, all of those chapters. But read Jeremiah 33, 15, 18. It's hard to read those texts and deny that the prophets envisioned a messianic age in which there would be a temple and sacrifices.
[00:06:33] It's very hard. Isaiah 56, he says, the foreigners who join themselves to Adonai to minister him and to love the name of Adonai and to be his servants. All who keep from pray profaning Shabbat and hold fast to my covenant.
[00:06:45] These I will bring to my holy mountain, and let them rejoice in my House of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. Is that currently occurring?
[00:07:02] No, it's speaking of a future time. It's speaking of a millennial age. And he's even bringing the Gentiles into the party like this is obvious.
[00:07:13] But here, and I quote John MacArthur, among many others who hold this view, here's where the shift occurs. They recognize it, however. Sacrifices, he says, will exist, but will be no more efficacious than they were in the Old Testament times. No sacrifice before or after Christ saves the only point. They only point to him as the one true Lamb who takes away sin.
[00:07:39] Now, there's one obvious problem, that sins were efficacious before Jesus.
[00:07:46] They were. They did the thing. I mean, not sins, I'm sorry, sacrifices. Sacrifices. They accomplished something before Jesus, so we can't actually say that, okay, they were efficacious, effective for establishing connection between God and his people. They did that.
[00:08:07] But for MacArthur, the sacrifices in the Third Temple, they have a very intentional purpose, point backward to Jesus as a memorial. They happen, but they only point back to Jesus.
[00:08:22] Now, that language is important because in a sense, though the school acknowledges it, though this idea is there, that there's a temple and sacrifices, it really still is only and all about sin memorial in nature. Just as the Lord's Supper reminds us of Yeshua's death, these sacrifices are intended to point everything back to Jesus. That's the idea. And from both schools we can deduce a similar concern that they are trying to address. Christians, there is no monolithic thing. I'm just saying it. Christians traditionally wrestle with the idea of animal sacrifices continuing during the Messianic age because of their theological. Theological conviction about Jesus as the ultimate and final sacrifice. Thus, any mention notion of future sacrifices appears to contradict that and seem even more disrespectful toward Jesus.
[00:09:28] In other words, any biblical interpretation that gives the impression that sacrifice is efficacious, especially regarding sin in the millennial age during diminishes Jesus and the work of the cross. This is the problem. This is what they're trying to address. Hebrews 10 makes the case very easy when we say, you know, this one offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins. Now, you might be confused by this, and that also is okay, because it's kind of confusing. But stop and think about this for just one minute with me.
[00:10:05] Why does that have to be the case?
[00:10:09] Why does the occurrence of sacrifice in a Third Temple have in any way to diminish Jesus. Why?
[00:10:20] If we see the sacrifices properly, the Korbanot, if we see them through the proper lens, like we discussed, through the lens of invitation, joy, connection, intimacy, presence, it doesn't.
[00:10:34] It doesn't in any way, it doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be the case that this undermines the authority, the purpose, the power, the reputation, the meaning, the magnitude of Yeshua and what Yeshua did. Yeshua is present in the millennial age, but his physical presence in the Messianic age does not eliminate the ongoing beauty of created sacred spaces that honor and invite the Divine Presence.
[00:11:07] There is not actually a contradiction, and I want to just show you, talk just briefly about it. The confusion, of course, is rooted primarily in viewing sacrifice narrowly, through a very thin, myopic view, purely as a means of sin, removal of sin, and only. Only in the sense of atonement for sin. Biblical sacrifice, I spent last week telling you, and have spent many, many weeks in advance, other series telling you that it encompasses far more. Right. Its essence lies in the Hebrew word Korban.
[00:11:52] To draw near sacrifices served as the means to prepare and invite God's glorious presence into sacred space, even into our human space. And in Ezekiel we see joyous celebrations occurring in the millennial age of the Divine Presence, rather than merely penitential acts associated with sacrifice.
[00:12:17] Ezekiel 43, excuse me, provides this dramatic account of the Shekhinah coming in the glory of God, God's manifest presence entering the temple, filling it profoundly, visibly. Then the glory of God in this age moves across the land, making not simply forgiveness, but communion and connection between God. Even in the millennial age, Yeshua will reign. But the existence of sacrif as designed described in Ezekiel, is still very meaningful. And to borrow the word efficacious, the new covenant as prophesied by Jeremiah 31, speaks of the Torah being written where Balev?
[00:13:15] On the heart. On a heart.
[00:13:18] The new covenant, this internal transformation. Okay, got it. The Torah is written on our hearts.
[00:13:25] It doesn't nullify the external rituals of holiness and devotion. That's not what that means. Those are not. In contrast, sacrifices in the millennial kingdom represent a continuation of an enhancement of devotion, gratitude, worship, reverence. And they're fully aligning with a restored Torah guided world under Yeshua's direct leadership.
[00:13:53] With the Torah written on our hearts, with Messiah present to teach us Torah, comes the true understanding of sacrifice, of holy space, of the presence of God. And it certainly wouldn't require a memorial to remember our sins all the Time, in this age of celebration and presence, we would remove the prophetic.
[00:14:20] What I perceive actually, and this is my perception, with the Torah written on our hearts according to the new covenant, we would remove the prophetic critique against the sacrifices, which is you do it for the wrong reasons. Well, when the Torah is written on my heart, I know exactly why I'm doing it and I love it. And it's wonderful.
[00:14:48] The sacrificial system and all its blessings and benefits, that's part of the Torah, which is then written where again?
[00:14:57] On your heart. Now, Ezekiel 46 describes sacrifices being brought. Remember, he's speaking of what the millennial age, the Messianic age. Sacrifices are brought on Shabbat, they're brought on the new moon, they're brought for the feasts. Passover is happening with a sacrifice. Sukkot is happening with a sacrifice. And very importantly, in 4613, we once again encounter what is called the Tamid. I talked to you about it yesterday or last week. The daily offering, this morning offering, which God described as a reah nichoach, a pleasing aroma. He says in Ezekiel 46, you are to prepare a lamb of the first year without blemish for burnt offering for Adonai daily.
[00:15:44] How do we apply that to the church today?
[00:15:51] Daily also, you will prepare a grain offering morning by morning, goes into the details. Prepare the lamb, the grain offering, morning by morning for a continual burnt offering. That was the Torah's prescribed daily offering to do what we talked about it last week, to invite, to maintain the presence of God in this dedicated holy space. Now listen. Ezekiel 48, 35, the concluding verse of the entire section of 40 and 48, this block of amazing texts. In Ezekiel, the last verse 48, 35 says this regarding the presence of God. From that day on, the name of the city will be Adonai. Shema Adonai is there.
[00:16:39] Adonai is there.
[00:16:43] But I think it's Shammah. But not to be confused with Shema Adonai. Sham means there. Shammah.
[00:16:52] The name of the city will be Adonai is there. The city. Not just the temple, the city. Malbeam, who is a very just a well known rabbinic commentator, he says, look at this. This is a profound shift. In the previous eras, the temple was the focal point, right? God's presence was there. But now the entire city bears God's name, suggesting that you have this holiness and this divine intimacy. It's coming in, but it's expanding out all over the land.
[00:17:29] The Shekhinah will no longer be limited to the temple. It will spread to the entire city. And even the name of the city will testify that God is there. And there are sacrifices that are going on there that are part of that process.
[00:17:43] Sacrifice was intended to bring the presence of God. And in this age, we see it accomplishing a whole new thing, in part because Yeshua is there. What does that mean? Because things are in order.
[00:17:57] Things are finally in order.
[00:18:01] Everyone's operating. Who is part of this, is operating with him in a position of leadership and teaching. Sacrifice and divine presence now coexist permanently, not conditionally. So Adonai is there. It's not a metaphor. It's the climactic statement of the entire temple Vision in Ezekiel, the city, the people, the land are once again they're infused with tangible, enduring presence of God. The Shekhinah that was once gone in Ezekiel is now returned. Ezekiel 48:35 seals the messianic age as a time when sacrifices and God's presence coexist. They're not in tension. And that's a radical idea for many Christians. I understand. I'm not being critical of that. That's a radical idea. Yeshua's rule and our transformed hearts become a space where sacrifice can exist in celebration. There's one more interesting thing to note. 45:18 In Ezekiel again, in the first month and the first day of the month, take a young bull without blemish, purify the sanctuary.
[00:19:10] The Cohen will take some of the blood of the sin offering, put it on the doorpost of the house, upon the four corners of the ledge, the altar, the post of the gate. So you will do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance. What in the Messianic age?
[00:19:29] In 46:23, it says there was a row of masonry. Ezekiel seeing this as he's being given this vision, a row of masonry surrounding them, surrounding the four boiling places were built under the surrounding rows. He said to me, Ezekiel's guide. These are the boiling places where the ministers of the house will boil the sacrifices of the people. Sorry again. What in the Messianic age?
[00:19:56] Let me explain why this makes a temple and sacrifice not just a nice part of the story, but a necessity in the Messianic age.
[00:20:11] The Messianic age is not a period of time which is only about the glorified saints.
[00:20:20] It includes survivors of the nations, Zechariah. It includes children born during that time. It includes those who enter the kingdom still in fleshly bodies.
[00:20:34] These people still require God Given Torah based rituals for purification, for communal worship, even in the age when Yeshua is reigning as king.
[00:20:45] Is that hard to understand?
[00:20:48] It is a little bit hard to understand. I get it. Because we're talking about, well, there's resurrected people, but there's normal people. How does all this work? You ready? Important Hebrew.
[00:20:59] I don't know.
[00:21:02] I don't know how that works or what that looks like, but this is what it says.
[00:21:07] The Messianic age, these offerings are made for unintentional sins and impurity, not defiance or rebellion. That's crucial. It shows how sacrifice is a form of spiritual maintenance. It's not conditioned grace or anything like that in this particular setting. So the Messianic age, what we understand is that this is a transitional era of divine rule. It's like when you walk in. One of my favorite analogies of the idea of the Messianic age in the world to come is when you enter into the holy place in the temple. You have this thing going on, light, menorah, showbread, all this stuff. Then there's a curtain, right, David, One curtain, one curtain, two curtains, space in between.
[00:22:00] So when you come up to the first curtain, you don't just pull it back and walk into the holy of holies. There's another curtain behind that. And then when you walk in, the priest walks down in between the curtains and comes out into the holy of holies.
[00:22:17] That space between the curtains can be compared to the Messianic age.
[00:22:24] And the world to come can be compared to entering into the holy of Holies, where God's presence dwelt unconditionally. Well, one time it's coming back. That's good news. So listen, Yeshua's presence, it doesn't make the temple or sacrifice obsolete. It actually elevates them. It restores them in a beautiful and meaningful way. The temple is necessary. You ready?
[00:22:59] But not forever.
[00:23:03] And this should make all Christians who disagree with me happy. I am agreeing with you. The temple will eventually not be on earth.
[00:23:17] You find in traditional Jewish thought the idea that sacrifices will actually end.
[00:23:24] Many Christians, of course, like that Rav Cook, the first Chief Rabbi of the state of Israel. He said, with regard to sacrifices, it's correct to believe that all aspects will be restored to their place. Okay, we'll have sacrifices again. Yet drawing from the mystical texts of Judaism, the Rav envisions a distant time when all aspects of the world will be elevated. At that time, he states, humans will have no need.
[00:23:52] We won't take the lives of animals for their physical Moral or spiritual needs, humans won't need to do. Midrash Rabba on the book of Leviticus. Midrash Rabav Eikra. It says, with the exception of the thanksgiving offering, all sacrifices will be nullified in the future. My point is Judaism agrees that eventually there will not be any sacrifices. When, well, we can agree and we can draw on our own mystical literature in Messianic Judaism. Which is found where? By the guy named John who wrote the book John. And then he wrote this super weird book called Revelation. It's very mystical and it says things like this. It's actually apocalyptic literature. It's not mystical. But they. Those lines are blurry. So Revelation 21. John says, I saw no temple in her, right? We've all read this. I saw no temple in her. For its temple is Adonai Lohetzvaot and the lamb. And the city has no need for the sun or the moon to shine on it. For the glory of God lights it up and its lamp is the lamb. This verse explicitly states that in the new Jerusalem that is the world to come, there is no physical temple because God and the Lamb are immediately present. That's a difference.
[00:25:14] Revelation. The implication there no temple equals no sacrificial system. God's presence is so fully revealed that there is no mediating space. There's no ritual required.
[00:25:28] Revelation 20:2. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and the Lamb shall be in the city. His servants shall serve him. They'll see his face. His name shall be on their foreheads. Night shall be no more. People will have no need for lamplight. Adonai Elohim will shine on them. They'll shine. They'll reign forever. This implies a complete reversal of sin and impurity. There's no need for any rituals. Pure purification, mediating sacrifice. There's no longer death. There's no moral lapse. There's no impurity.
[00:25:58] The needs that sacrifices addressed, they're gone. Drawing near and connection is finally, effortlessly established.
[00:26:10] Even though sacrifice was certainly equated previously with joy. In that place, in that world to come, no eye has seen, no ear has heard what we're going to experience. A whole new world.
[00:26:29] That's where we'll be. Oh, sorry.
[00:26:38] A wondrous place for you and me and him and them.
[00:26:47] An ever dwelling presence.
[00:26:52] So that makes a good case for sacrifices in their proper, beautiful context. Past and future.
[00:26:59] What about the present?
[00:27:01] Oh my gosh. I thought that was going to be his conclusion. No, this is better. Stay tuned.
[00:27:07] Let's Come back right now to our lives. Today we're entering Passover. It's a season filled with the imagery of blood and sacrifice, right? It is in traditional Jewish homes. Pesach, we're recalling the blood of the lamb marking the doorpost. In the expanded version, in our Messianic synagogue. We're recalling the blood of the Lamb, Right? Messiah, Yeshua. Paul even uses this statement in First Corinthians. Messiah, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, he says. At first glance, this language, blood, death, sacrifice, seems to draw right back into the old familiar story.
[00:27:49] I asked you last week, if you asked most followers of Jesus, what is the primary purpose of sacrifice? They'd probably say sin. Sin, guilt, escaping God's wrath. And that big theological word, expiation, making amends, appeasing the angry God. Now, listen to me. I'm not saying that sin is not part of the picture. It is.
[00:28:13] We're not afraid to talk about it. It's not something we brush under the rug. It's part of our human existence.
[00:28:20] But after all, we've talked about sacrifices as joyful connection, intimacy, the dwelling of God's presence. I do want to see if we might be able to reframe Paul's metaphor.
[00:28:34] Don't get insulted. His metaphor about Yeshua as our Passover lamb. Because first of all, let's be honest, Yeshua is not a sacrifice.
[00:28:46] He's not. He wasn't killed in the temple, he wasn't presented by priests, he wasn't a blemish, free animal. But Paul, who deeply understood sacrifice, understood Yeshua, understood Passover, was very intelligent. He uses this metaphor deliberately. Why? Why does he use the metaphor? Because Yeshua achieved exactly what a sacrifice is meant to do.
[00:29:13] Listen carefully, don't be distracted.
[00:29:17] Bring life, intimacy, divine protection and joy. And he did that when? At the season of Passover.
[00:29:26] Think back to the first Passover. What was the real power of the Lamb's blood on the doorposts? What was its power?
[00:29:37] It provided protection from death.
[00:29:40] That's what it did. It created a holy space where God himself drew near to the people. It says in Exodus 12, the blood will be a sign for you. When I see the blood, I'll pass over you so there'll be no plague among you, to destroy you, to kill you. It wasn't just about avoiding judgment. It marked a place where God's presence was there, dwelled intimately with his people. And I want you to notice something else crucial. Exodus 12:22. He instructed them, stay indoors, stay indoors, behind this blood covering, stay inside but when morning came, what happened? The doors opened up. They stepped out of their homes directly into God's promise, his freedom from slavery, deliverance into life, ultimately into the land that he promised was going to come to them through their ancestors. There was literally life for them in that blood, not death, life. Now, what about Paul's metaphorical Passover lamb?
[00:30:46] He saw the same principle at work on a much larger scale. Yeshua's blood, symbolically applied, applies, brings life, but not just temporary rescue from physical death.
[00:31:04] Paul, who rarely if ever talks about hellfire and damnation, that's not his thing, not a lot of people's thing in the Bible anyway. He rarely talks about that, but he talks a lot about resurrection and eternal life. That's Paul's thing.
[00:31:21] That's what he saw in Yeshua's Passover story. Rescue from the ultimate eternal death, complete and lasting deliverance. That's what he saw.
[00:31:33] Just like the Israelites leaving Egypt, they're headed toward a promised land and a new life. Those who metaphor metaphorically apply Yeshua's blood. They step out of the slavery of sin and death directly into the promise of resurrection, eternal life, the kingdom, intimate connection with God himself. That's what happened on Passover. That's what happens through Yeshua. It didn't just remind us about our sin, it fulfilled the deeper purpose of sacrifice. What is that? Drawing close to God, making connection, having a way, bringing divine presence into our life. This is why Paul uses the lamb metaphor, because Passover is humanity's story in miniature. Salvation, deliverance, and a future through Yeshua, the presence of God isn't a distant or conditional. He brought God to us. That's the beauty of sacrifice and the transformational power of Yeshua, our Passover lamb. So here is the real conclusion. You ready?
[00:32:45] When we allow ourselves to rediscover, be open to sacrifice through the eyes of joy and intimacy and divine presence, we find beauty. Where many people see difficulty when we read Ezekiel, not as a problem, but as a promise, we see that the sacrifices of the Messianic age, they're not contradicting Yeshua, his work, they're celebrating it, providing space for God's presence, drawing hearts near, sustaining the holiness that he brings to earth. All those things are happening in Jerusalem, which eventually becomes Adonai Shema.
[00:33:21] And when we consider Passover and Paul's intentional metaphor of Yeshua as a Passover lamb, here's what we recognize. Not just symbolism, there's truth there. Yeshua accomplished exactly what sacrifice always aimed to achieve.
[00:33:38] Life, intimacy and divine connection, he brought God near, drew us close to him. And as they stepped out of that door, that blood marked door into the new life, we too step out. So here's the thing.
[00:33:52] This Passover let's celebrate sacrifice not just as a memory or a metaphor but as the heart of our story.
[00:34:06] That the God who draws near the people who invited to this connection and the joy will live forever in God's presence.
[00:34:18] It's a beautiful thing.
[00:34:21] Shabbat Shalom I'm Darren with Shalom Macon. If you enjoyed this teaching, I want to ask you to take the next step. Start by making sure you're subscribed to our channel. Next, make sure you hit the like button on this video so that others know it's worth their time to watch. Last, head over to our website to learn more about Shalom Macon, explore other teachings and events, and if you're so inclined, contribute to the work that we're doing to further the kingdom. Thanks for watching and connecting with Shalom Macon.
