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Christian Basics Course Session 2: Who is the Christ?

Session 3: A Man Suffers to Forgive Sins

Intro and Recap

  1. Our last session had the title, ‘Who is the Christ?’  We saw that the Old Testament promised a king, descended from David, who will rule forever.  He’s called the Messiah.  He’s called the Christ.  We saw that those two titles mean the same thing.
  2. There was homework to read Luke 3-9 and come with questions.  So does anyone have questions from their reading?
  3. It’s at the end of Luke that we receive an outline of what the Old Testament says about the Christ.  We looked at this at the start of last session, but here is part of it again – let’s read Luke 24:46-47

46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name […]

  1. In this session we’ll focus on a key idea from the verses - the idea that the Christ had to suffer to bring forgiveness of our sins.
  2. We’ll understand this well by looking at a concept called the guilt offering.

The Guilt Offering

  1. Let’s read Leviticus 5:17-19 and Leviticus 7:1-2.  Leviticus was written about 1250 BC (see timeline above)

Leviticus 5:17 "If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD's commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible. 18 He is to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the wrong he has committed unintentionally, and he will be forgiven. 19 It is a guilt offering; he has been guilty of wrongdoing against the LORD."

  1. To understand Christianity, we need to understand the concept of sins.  So notice in verse 17 that sins are deeds which go against the LORD’s commands.  Even when we don’t know it, we are guilty when we break the commands.  It’s a thing we all do, break God’s commands, and so we all need a guilt offering.
  2. To make this guilt offering, a priest would kill a ram (a male sheep), and that action turned away God’s anger from the sinner.  So God and the sinner were reconciled.  That’s what the word atonement means.  When God and the sinner are reconciled, they are brought back into relationship, so that they are ‘at-one’.  ‘At-one-ment’ has been achieved.
  3. The next reading explains more of how the offering is made.

Leviticus 7:1 'These are the regulations for the guilt offering, which is most holy: 2 The guilt offering is to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its blood is to be sprinkled against the altar on all sides.

  1. Look at the picture of the altar, and the picture of the tabernacle, over the page. (A tabernacle is a fancy word for a tent)  Try to imagine how the guilt offering was made.

 

Prophecy: A man’s life will be a guilt offering

  1. About 500 years after God told Moses to set up these offerings, God gave Isaiah a very important promise.  The year was about 750 BC, and Isaiah predicted that a man’s life would be given as a guilt offering.  So certain is this prediction, that Isaiah writes some of it in the past tense.  Let’s read it in Isaiah 53:9-12.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. 11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

  1. So this man will die – Isaiah says he will be with the rich in his death (verse 9).  He will suffer (see verse 10).  But this suffering and death will be important in God’s sight: The LORD will make his life a guilt offering.  In this way, the man will bear the iniquities of many (verse 11).  [Iniquities are sins].
  2. Bearing sin is not something anyone wants to do.  It’s the idea of paying a penalty for what we’ve done wrong.  So when a murderer goes to prison for 20 years, they are bearing their sin for 20 years.  Now the penalty which our sin deserves is a bloody death.  And so we need someone else to die this death for us.  Because if no one else dies for our sin, we have to die for our sin ourselves.

Jesus’ life was a guilt offering

  1. Now 750 years after this prediction, Jesus died on the cross.  He was innocent of any violence, and of any deceit (a deceit is a lie), just like Isaiah 53:9 said.  So he became the guilt offering, verse 10. 
  2. Just before his death, Jesus quoted this passage in Isaiah 53 and applied it to himself.  Let’s turn to Luke 22:37, and read it there.

It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors'; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."

  1. ‘He was numbered with the transgressors’ is written there in Isaiah 53:12.  Can you see it?  So Jesus explicitly claimed to be this man, the man who was the guilt offering for many people.
  2. So now, we don’t offer rams any more.  We don’t offer more rams because Jesus was the final guilt offering.  Now it his offering of himself, and nothing else, which brings forgiveness of sins.
  3. It’s like all my sins are standing between me and God.  [Take book and hold it between you and the light.  The sins are the book.  God is the light.]  But Jesus on the cross took those sins onto himself.  [Place the book onto your other hand, allowing you to ‘see’ the light.]  Because Jesus has done that, I’m able to be friends with God.  God is no longer angry with me.  And that offer is open to everyone.  And that’s marvellous.
  4. Let’s finish by reading some of the story of Jesus’ death.  I want to read from Luke 23:8-25.  This will help us see how those Old Testament predictions were fulfilled in concrete terms.

NIV Luke 23:8 When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. 9 He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. 11 Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. 12 That day Herod and Pilate became friends-- before this they had been enemies. 13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, 14 and said to them, "You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death.

Pilate and Herod admit that Jesus had ‘done no violence’, as Isaiah 53:9 predicted

16 Therefore, I will punish him and then release him." 17  18 With one voice they cried out, "Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us!" 19 (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.) 20 Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. 21 But they kept shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" 22 For the third time he spoke to them: "Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him." 23 But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. 24 So Pilate decided to grant their demand. 25 He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

So Jesus was ‘numbered with the transgressors’, as Isaiah 53:12 predicted.

  1. The question for us again is simple:  Will Jesus’ guilt offering pay for our sins, or will we bear it ourselves?  The bible urges us to take Jesus as our guilt offering.
  2. Any questions?
  3. Today, we have two big points:  We need a guilt offering so our sins can be forgiven.  It was promised that a man would be that guilt offering.
  4. This week’s homework is to read Luke 10-19.  Come with any questions, from that section, or other parts of Luke.

 

Christian Basics Course Session 4: The Christ suffers for sins