Ash Wednesday, 2015 – “The
Lamb: A Faithful Offering” – Genesis 4:1-5
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
In the Name of Christ the Crucified +
Our Lenten theme this year is “Behold the Lamb of God” –
those words of John we sing every communion service. But John wasn’t just making up a cute term,
he wasn’t spinning out something new.
No, this idea, this theme of the Savior being the Lamb of God was old,
as old as the Scriptures, as old as mankind, indeed, laid out before the
foundations of the world. And so this
Lent, we will get to look at various times in the Old Testament that we began
to behold the Lamb of God, and tonight we will start at the beginning. Our text is going to really center around
Cain and Abel’s various sacrifices, but I want to start just a touch before
that – Genesis 3:21 – immediately after the fall: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his
wife garments of skins and clothed them.” I want you to think on this for just a few
moments. The fall has just
happened. God has confronted Adam and
Eve – he’s warned Satan that he will be crushed, he’s told Adam and Eve the
consequences of their sin. Pain in
childbirth. Friction between husband and
wife. Toil and labor, and then finally, a
return to the dust. And immediately
after God says this… God clothes Adam and Eve.
Remember, they were hiding in the garden because they knew that they
were naked. Being naked, seeing their
nakedness, was the sign, the emblem, the proof of their sin. The reminder of the fact that they deserved
every thing that God said was coming to them.
And while they are still standing there with shame and fear and regret –
God clothes them.
But did you note how God clothed them? He didn’t whip up a nice cotton, he didn’t
summon forth a spiffy polyester blend.
“Garments of skin.” God kills an
animal, and with the death of that animal, He makes clothes for Adam and Eve,
He covers their shame. This is lesson number
1 for sacrifice, for worship, for how things are going to be now between man
and God. The response for sin will be
sacrifice made by God, a sacrifice that will cover and clothe and eventually,
remove man’s sin and shame. But right
away – this is how it works. Sacrifice
to cover sin, to let us go about our day to day life until the Promised One
comes and defeats Satan and Sin and Death for good.
And now we move into Genesis 4, to Adam and Eve’s children
engaging in Sacrifice. “In
the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the
ground, [4] and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their
fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, [5] but for
Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face
fell.” Often I will hear people
try to make excuses for Cain. Well, why
should he have known that his sacrifice wouldn’t have been deemed good? Because God had already taught mankind what
Sacrifice was to look like – indeed, Sacrifice was a holy thing, because not
only did it cover our sin, but it echoed and mirrored what God had done for
Adam and Eve after the fall; it sounded forth and proclaimed what God would do
when He would send Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world. And what does Cain do? He just doesn’t care. He goes through the motions – here, take
something, take this, it ought to be good enough. Sort of lackadaisical. Do you see what Cain with his sacrifice is
declaring? His indifference to his
sacrifice proclaims his indifference to God – indifference to what God had done
and what God would do in sending the Messiah.
And Cain knew better – to sacrifice, to worship, all this is to confess
the faith in God, to confess that God is faithful and just to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. To confess the sure
and certain hopes of the Messiah, forgiveness, resurrection of the body, the
life of the world to come. Meh – here,
have some of the low quality stuff, have some of the lousy produce that we have
to suffer with because *Your* world doesn’t work right anymore God and I have
to work by the sweat of my brow. Of
course God will have no regard for Cain’s disdainful sacrifice.
Not so with Abel.
Abel makes a sacrifice in faith that confesses his faith. He doesn’t just bring something. The firstborn, that’s what Abel brings. The fat portions – that’s the Hebrew way of
saying the best of the best. He doesn’t
break out the cheapest stew meat on sale, he breaks out the Grade A Prime. Why?
Because that is what His Heavenly Father would give in sending Christ
Jesus. This lamb that Abel sacrificed
was a confession of faith, it was Abel declaring that God would indeed be
merciful to Abel by giving His own Son, His most precious, His best for our
sake. And this becomes the issue, this
is what all the sacrifices, the offerings, the ways in which the tabernacle and
temple were decorated and endowed pointed to.
It’s not that God was greedy or needed sacrifice, it wasn’t a matter of
trying to placate Him. Abel wasn’t
buttering up God - but rather his offering confessed his faith. Likewise, the care of the tabernacle and
temple was a confession of faith – The Ark of the Covenant was covered in gold,
and why? You don’t put tinfoil on the Ark because the Mercy
Seat of God ain’t a tinfoil chair. You
don’t give God junk, because the Messiah whom God gives to us, Christ Jesus,
isn’t junk. Our actions, our approach to
worship and reverence ought to declare and reflect who God is and what He has
done.
This holds through even into the New Testament. There is a great example of this in Acts 5
that is informative for us. “But a
man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, [2] and
with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and
brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. [3] But Peter
said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit
and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? [4] While it
remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not
at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?
You have not lied to men but to God." It’s not that God *needed* the money. No, there was freedom – God had given Ananias
and Sapphira that land, they were the stewards of it, they could use it as they
saw fit. Sell it or keep it – they were
free. Give part to the Church or give
all – they were free. But the problem
comes in when they claim to give it all (like others were doing), but only give
a part. Is that how God treats us – Did
you really mean to declare that God doesn’t really fulfill His Word, that the
Lamb of God doesn’t really take away all the sins of the world but just a
part? And they both end up dying. Rather than pointing to the glory of God,
they were indifferent.
It holds true even to this day. I love the lintel beams around our door there
in the back – fantastic wood. When they
built this church, it didn’t have to be like that, the ceiling didn’t have to
be this high – it could have been done on the cheap… but instead it was a
confession of faith that this place was to be set apart to declare the riches
of God’s grace and mercy in Christ Jesus, and you don’t cut corners there. And it still holds true. When we were still doing the after school
program here, I’d every once in a while bring the kids in here for opening
devotion – and the ones who hadn’t been here before – their eyes would get
big. The building confesses the
faith. In fact, Pastor Nehrenz from down
in Norman – the other week when I talked to him, when he had done Larry
Gilchrist’s burial, he got driven by here, driven by Trinity, and he saw from
the outside the stained glass, and he wants to come up one of these days just
to look around, to see inside these churches, to see the confession of the
greatness of God and His mercy that they make.
This is precisely what is going on with Cain and Abel and
their sacrifices. While Cain really
could care less, Abel is declaring what God would do for Him and for all
mankind – that is what Abel’s sacrifice, what His worship does. It points to Christ Jesus and no where
else. And now here we are tonight. And all that we do here in this place, from
the beginning to the end, from the opening address to the ashes to the hymns to
the readings to the sermon (hopefully) to the Supper to the benediction – all
of this is a confession of our faith that God Himself gives us full and rich
salvation in Christ Jesus; that God holds nothing back and that He has covered
all our guilt and shame and sin in Christ.
And let’s be honest – the world tries to run us down and make us forget
God’s great love for us in Christ Jesus.
Satan tempts us away from this.
Our own sinful flesh wars against us.
Which is why we are gathered here in repentance tonight, gathered in
repentance whenever there is service here, and we receive from God his mercy
and declare the riches of what Christ Jesus, the very Lamb of God, has done for
us. Because of Christ and His death upon
the Cross, God is well pleased with you, God has great regard for You, for
Christ Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and with
His Sacrifice for you, God is well pleased.
Amen. In the Name of Christ the
Crucified +
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