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7-17-2022 Weekly Messages

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Leviticus 2:1-16

Sermon Title: Christ died by burning his body like meat

     We can get to know the Lord well through the words of the Old Testament. When most people preach the gospel of Christ, they only say, “Jesus, without sin, died for us.” .

       In other words, we must know what kind of our sins, and how Jesus died because of our sins.  At this time, we can know what kind of grace of Jesus Christ is given unto us.

      Leviticus 2, which is given to us today, is about the “Meat Offering”. It is translated i as “Fire Offering” in the Revised version of bible  because it is said to be burned.

      First, let’s listen to Leviticus 2:

“And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon:

2 And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD:

3 And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.

4 And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

5 And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.

6 Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering..” (Leviticus 2:1-6)

” And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in the fryingpan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.

8 And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the LORD: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar.

9 And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar: it is an offerin g made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.” (Leviticus 2:7-9).

” No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.

12 As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour.

13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

14 And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.

15 And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering.

16 And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto the LORD.” (Leviticus 2: 11-16)

         Apostle Paul said, “Let no one judge you by food or drink, or as to holy days or new moons or sabbaths. These are shadows of things to come, but the body is Christ’s.”  (Colossians 2:16-17).

        In other words, everything that appeared in the Law, including today’s “Meat Offering” was said to be  shadow. But the body of those shadows is said to be Christ. His words testified that all things that appeared in the law were no longer obligatory because of the death and resurrection of Christ. But more importantly, because everything revealed in the Law has to do with the body of Jesus Christ, in order to know Him, we must understand who Jesus Christ is and his grace given us through the Law.

       Jesus said, “Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” He was referring to the fact that he was the sacrificial lamb offered to be slaughtered and eaten.

Now,  we need to know that the Lord offered Himself as a sacrifice of Meat Offering.

        Through the Meat Offering, we should know important facts about the Lord Jesus Christ.

        The first thing is that the Lord is like “fine flour.” The flour does not contain any coarse stones or impurities. Even if we  knead it, it doesn’t clump as we make it. This shows the character of the Lord. He is a person who is full of grace with only  love, without any mixture of anything.

Like him, we too must lead a life of faith without spots and blemishes, like fine flour. However, people put human thoughts into faith as fine and pure as fine flour and turned it into a religion.

        Second, the one like fine flour was burned with fire. “Fire” means trial, suffering, and refinement. Just as Christ said that He will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, we who have believed in the Lord must also overcome all the trials of fire and have the same victory as the Lord. Apostle Peter testified of the fiery trials of the saints:

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

13 But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” (1 Peter 4:12-13).

       Third, it is frankincense used in Meat Offering. The fragrance of the Lord is a pure and holy fragrance. Apostle Paul said that to those who are saved there is the fragrance of Christ unto life, and to those who do not believe there is the fragrance of death (2 Corinthians 2:15-16).

        Fourth, there is no yeast in Meat Offering. The Lord told us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. He was speaking of their wrong teachings. “Leaven” symbolizes sin. There is only the truth in the unleavened Lord.  Apostle Paul testified,

“God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar;.” (Romans 3:4).

       The fifth is “honey”. He said that neither leaven nor honey could be burned. Honey is a natural sugar. It is sweet in a person’s mouth. However, spiritual honey and God’s grace have nothing to do with physical sweetness. When the Lord walked with his disciples, he never joked, chatted and chuckled. The only thing that rejoices once is that when the seventy disciples returned from evangelism, he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost. It is said that the Lord wept, but there is no mention that He laughed.  Apostle Paul said, “The natural man does not know the spiritual things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14). There is spiritual honey in the Bible, but there is no worldly fun. David said that the word of the Lord is sweeter than honey and a honeycomb. It means that eating the Word is spiritually sweeter than eating honey in its natural state physically.

       The sixth is “oil”. God told the Meat Offering to be mixed with oil. He then told to pour oil. Oil symbolizes the Holy Ghost. When the Lord came into the world, he was conceived by the Holy Ghost. The conception of the Virgin Mary in the New Testament speaks of being conceived by the Holy Ghost in her virgin body as pure as fine flour. When Jesus came up from the Jordan River, He was filled with the Holy Ghost.

        The seventh is “the oven” and “the pan”. The oven is hot on the inside, and the pan is hot on the outside. There are two types of suffering that the Lord suffered: “suffering like a oven” and “suffering like a pan”.  We should think about how burned the Lord  before and after his crucifixion:

“Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.

28 And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.

29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

30 And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.

31 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.” (Matthew 27:27-31).

        When meat is grilled on an pan, the meat shrinks and becomes warped. How painful must the Lord be when he suffers like that? If the oven is an inward suffering, the  pan speaks of the Lord’s outward suffering. The body of the Lord is torn and shrunk. When Matthew saw the suffering of the Lord, he testified:

“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

47 Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.

48 And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. 49 The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

50 Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” (Matt 27:45-50).

        Finally, “salt”. Salt is to prevent rot. Salt prevents the action of leaven. The strength of the truth that breaks us is as severe as salt. God’s word is like salt  when people with an unclean stomach hear it, they vomit like loach. Conversely, salt is like a seasoning for those who have realized the truth. Salt has two functions: to keep it from rotting and to make it tasteful.

         By studying Christ Jesus, who appeared in the Old Testament, we can live a life of deep appreciation and appreciation of the grace the Lord has given unto us.

Amen! Hallelujah!