(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)

Hey, you're listening to cut for time a podcast from Faith Church located on the north side of Indianapolis My name is Claire Kingsley and I'm Dan Bright we sir each week One of us will sit down with the person who gave Sunday's sermon to discuss their message Cut for time is a look behind the scenes of sermon preparation and they'll share with us a few things that we didn't hear from The sermon on Sunday. Thanks for listening. All right. 

Welcome back to another edition of cut for time this Dan and Nathan Yeah, we are there who I think is such an amazing Cut for time host just refuses to talk to her husband at least, you know, we we talk enough I guess and you know people have been asking for it for seven years and it hasn't happened yet. So Hey People I'm gonna keep asking. Well, yeah, so pastor Nathan is is here The sermon this past week again second week as we kind of go through this atone series of Leviticus and it is entitled the mediators of atonement and again as we kind of Think through this chiastic structure of Leviticus Which is basically a fancy word for saying The main idea of Leviticus is going to be found in the middle and then there's going to be some parallels as you go out Yeah, so we kind of looked at Leviticus 8 through 10 as well as 21 through 22 On this and so why don't you just kind of give us a recap of? What your sermon was all about? Yeah Thanks Dan for setting it up. 

And yeah, I'm not gonna go into a lot of the context of Leviticus We've been there Nick's done a great job with that So essentially where we're at is as we're looking forward to the center point of Leviticus It's the day of atonement and for that to happen for God to be able to be with his people There needs to be holiness. There needs to be a set-apart Ness that needs to be consecrated and that happens through these Mediators what we would now call as the priests of the law and so these were from the the tribe of Levi started with Aaron and his sons and so what we see in chapters 8 through 10 is their consecration for seven days a Day of ordination on day 8 that was really a celebration and then we see a narrative section of chapter 10 where two of Aaron's sons Die because they offer the wrong sacrifices and then in 21 and 22 we see more kind of just laws and guidelines about how the priests or how the mediators are Maintained to be holy and so the way we talked about or I guess the way I divided it in My sermon was that God prepares mediators for his presence God protects his presence through obedience God patterns mediators after his holiness That's chapters 21 and 22, but then throughout it all he preserves his people through mercy And so those are the four main points of what we covered on Sunday. It was maybe a little bit much But I really enjoyed being able to it was definitely a challenge when I first sat down to be like, all right I've got five chapters of Leviticus in about 25 to 30 minutes Did I stretch it to 35 maybe accidentally? But I really enjoyed being able to to figure out how to get through that and help it Land in a way that is actually still applicable to us here in 2026 when I think the the thing that both you said as well as Nick had said previous in the and the previous sermon is you know Leviticus. 

It's it's a manual for free So it's not written To us, but it's written for us. So what do you think these these chapters of Leviticus really just walk us through? What what are your thoughts on on why it was written to us the you know The people of God, you know several thousand years later and that what we can pick up and I think Jesus being that mediator But kind of kind of walk. Yeah. 

Well you hinted at it there like I think the the way that we can read these chapters in Leviticus as Christians in 2026 is that we see that God's Holy Presence Requires a holy mediator and ultimately all these stories the stories of Aaron what happened with his sons What happened or what we read in chapters 21 and 22 are ultimately? Fulfilled in Christ and point us to Christ And I didn't I mentioned briefly the the part of that in Hebrews chapter 9 But I also know that's a passage that we're coming back to on Easter Sunday So I didn't want to spoil that too much, but did kind of hint towards that But then kind of the second part of it is where the priesthood used to be specifically Levites of the tribe of Israel now with Jesus because we are atoned for by his blood We are a kingdom of priests So as the church We have the access that used to belong exclusively to just the priests And so the access to be mediators not in the same way that Jesus is is our mediator But mediators to the world around us where we are representing God to the world and that we should be Mediating on their behalf meaning we should be praying for them. We should be serving them. We should be Inviting them into the presence of the God that created them with the love that he has for them so this is not like a we are holier-than-thou type attitude, but this is a Here's what Jesus has done for me And I'd love to introduce you to the this Jesus who has done the same thing for you If you're if you're willing to accept that and I think of it as the same way like I want to tell people about like my favorite restaurant or That my favorite things are on Indianapolis if they're coming to visit like it's like oh man, you are missing out if you don't Experience this place this thing that you know that it's it's something to be excited about You know our faith and and our access to Jesus. 

Yeah. Yeah, so that's I think To read these chapters or instead of these chapters and not get to the point where we're recognizing how this is fulfilled in Jesus Would be a total mess. So I'm glad we got there on Sunday Well, and I was as I think that chapter 22 the very last verse or last verse 2 or 2 You know, I am the Lord who makes you holy You know, it's like yeah, he did that through Jesus to you know, like it just a different way of I mean he he provided that Opportunity for us as well We're just able to kind of look back towards it rather than look forward. 

Yeah, absolutely So I was a but as I was reading through that preparing for this I was thinking man That's a a really good verse for for how this all works. All right Well, let's talk about you you you hit it. I was, you know sitting in the congregation. 

I'm like, that's right I was so excited for cut for time. You had some things you cut so let's talk about those things and I think we're really gonna be landing on that the narrative section in chapter 10 where Nadab and a by who Hopefully I didn't butcher those. Yeah. 

No, that's how I would pronounce it. Yeah Our offer Unauthorized fire before the Lord and are struck dead immediately. So what's this all about? What what this is? One of the things you had to cut for time. 

Yeah. Yeah for sure there were there were plenty of things cut for time when you're covering five chapters in one sermon, but yeah, so the the very From the commentaries I read there wasn't any major consensus Over what exactly they did because it's kind of just lost to history what it was exactly there's some theories because based on Later, there's a command for Aaron to refrain from drinking wine That actually made a better buy who were drunk when they offer the sacrifice and that unauthorized fire is maybe referring to alcohol And so that's a theory out there there's a theory that they Simply were offering Sacrifice that the Lord didn't ask for that. There was no need for them to do it and they just kind of maybe Enthusiastically or overly ambitious in just how they offered it There's theories that like well, maybe like the animal they offered was not the right They offered an unclean animal or you know, the source of the fire They didn't get the fire for the for the burnt offering from the right place, right? So there's there's different theories, but ultimately And I tried to say this on Sunday, we don't really know but it also Doesn't really matter What that fire like what it means that they offered unauthorized fire because what we know is that it was disobedient You know, we don't know their heart motivation But clearly there was something going on with what they were trying to do or how they were doing it that was not just disobedient in their actions, but in their heart whether that was out of jealousy or out of Overly ambitiousness or impatience in any case what they did was disobedient despite their training despite their upbringing despite everything they'd heard from the Lord and The Lord smites them as a result of that Well, it seems like a lot of that is it seemed like Aaron was supposed to do most of it, too So I think it's interesting that those two thought they were doing it themselves Yeah and Aaron had more than just two sons as you read about in the other parts of chapter 10 that he actually had younger sons who did not participate and Kind of have to take up the mantle of replacing or doing what? Nate Abbott a by who failed to do Yeah. 

Well, what else did you have to cut for time? That's kind of an interesting night Yeah, the alcohol part of that was interesting because that is the part that Immediately follows that so thinking through that is isn't yeah and for people who who might read scripture and come to that conclusion This might be a passage that they point to I don't think it necessarily points to that But that is very interesting. It's an interesting perspective for sure. But no the the part of chapter 10 that talks about their death is really just the first few verses and then the rest of chapter 10 is actually about What goes on between Moses and Aaron as both Aaron is mourning because two of his sons were just smitten by God and then Now there's two dead bodies in the temple or in the tabernacle and what are they gonna do with it? So they get other relatives to come and remove the bodies They they kind of go through the process of making the tabernacle clean again, and then we get to this interesting situation towards the end kind of verses 12 and following down to the rest of the chapter where Not only okay, they've taken care of the dead bodies And they're kind of restored to service, but now there's this offering that's on the altar that They don't know what to do with right? It was this offering offered by Nadab and Abihu They don't know what to do with it because that was the source of their death in a sense and so Moses tells them as they did with many other offerings great offerings and things like that that Part of it what part of the job of the priest was to actually eat the portions that were given to them by God, right? They offer the offering but then God would give a portion back to them that they would then eat That's how Aaron and his sons were able to stay within the tabernacle for seven days of consecration They're offering sacrifices and they're being fed by The sacrifices they're offering and so Moses tells them. 

All right, here you go Like you need to eat the offering but then after that Aaron comes back to him and said he doesn't tell him immediately But then they just decide to burn it all right And so where they were Aaron lands on the interpretation of the law up to that point was Just to be safe. I don't want to touch that offering and I'm going to burn it and so verse 16 of chapter 10 says Moses diligently inquired about the goat of the sin offering and behold it was burned up and he was angry with Eliezer and Ithamar which were the surviving sons of Aaron Saying why have you not eaten the sin offering in the place of the sanctuary since it is a thing most holy and it's been Given to you that you may bear the iniquity of the congregation to make atonement for them before the Lord Behold its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary You certainly ought to have eaten it in the sanctuary as I commanded. So he's saying based on my interpretation of the law you should have eaten this goat and And Aaron said to Moses behold today They have offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord and yet such things as these happened to me if I had Eaten the sin offering today would the Lord have approved and when Moses heard that he approved So Aaron kind of comes back with hey in in lack of clarity or lack of distinct Instructions from the Lord on what to do with this. 

We kind of just went with what was the most cautious What was the most safe in terms of we're not gonna touch that offering? We're gonna burn it on the altar. And so when Moses kind of heard Aaron's reasoning He kind of relented like oh, okay And so, you know, it's maybe not that important of a situation, but it does it kind of is an interesting Situation where we see Moses and Aaron come to a different interpretation of what they had been giving given in the law up to this point and how they were supposed to handle these different offerings and sacrifices and so even amidst a Disagreement between brothers. Here's what you're supposed to do and Aaron from the perspective of yeah But I just lost two sons and it seemed like the safer option was to burn it. 

So that's what we did So anyway, very interesting situation You know fills out the that narrative that that's in chapter 10 But didn't really feel like I had the time to get into all that in my sermon on Sunday It's you know some of that stuff happens in the New Testament as well where You know some people say this some people say this and they kind of come to this agreement and so it's I think it's always interesting in scripture where you where you see the tension where you see the various factions, you know and through that and Seeing how they, you know compromised and you know You know remained You know fellowship together and things like that is yeah. Yeah, we see that in the New Testament Church And we also just see that in the issues of today, you know, not all evangelical Christians Not just around the world But even within the city of Indianapolis even within faith church see everything the same way eye to eye, you know And you point to those scriptures and I point to these scriptures for our conclusions but finding ways to to discuss ideas to to talk about it from the truth of scripture, but also Just being equitable with one another and being gracious with one another that's I think one of the key applications here There's also of course the the clear Analogy with Nadab and Abihu with Ananias and Sapphira with the early church where you know in some ways It was an unauthorized fire. They weren't offering sacrifices, but they were bringing an offering to You know Peter and the early church of what they had sold in Acts chapter What three three or four or something like that and then they're struck dead and their bodies have to be removed It's kind of this in the early church interesting perspective of God communicating like hey Yes You were all atoned for by my blood by the blood of Jesus, but also I am still holy and I will not be mocked Yeah, and how that changes I mean you can imagine the people in Leviticus and then obviously people in Acts it talks about you know how that oh That that people really sit up and take note of that because that's not that's not what they would have expected Yeah, and is there anything you can talk to you about you know, it's the difficult part I can imagine for Aaron himself like it scripture seems pretty clear like he's not You know supposed to act sad not to mourn like can you talk to that at all and what what that's all about Yeah, I think that was probably the thing that confused me the most about this whole this whole section Because it feels like that just feels almost heartless or it feels like God's not Sympathetic to Aaron's position of like the fact that just two of his sons died, but I think the purpose here is not to denigrate or like Downplay human relationships or like the the pain that Aaron was feeling but it was to exalt the priest's relationship with God which was even more important right that Like on once on one hand You're not supposed to mourn the way that others mourn that kind of comes out in chapter 21 Like you're not supposed to cut your hair You're not supposed to you know Shave your beard because that would be kind of these outward signs that you're in mourning And so if you're a priest like you're not gonna mourn in the same way that the pagans mourn because your role is Is more important than that right you're set apart and this whole idea of being set apart And so I think what we see in chapter 10 with Aaron kind of is a foreshadowing of what we read later in 20 chapter 21 that Yes, Aaron, you are in mourning, but I think it says there in verse end of verse 3 it says Aaron held his peace like He was sad, but like he knew he had a role and he couldn't go To he couldn't go, you know Do anything with their bodies because then he would be unclean and then he couldn't Offer the sacrifices and offerings that the high priest needs to be able to do so yes, there were different standards for priests than for the rest of the people, but it wasn't to say that You know God's this heartless God who doesn't care and hey Doesn't matter right? But I think it's akin to what Jesus says in the New Testament when you know a disciple came to him Not one of the twelve but just a disciple and said, okay, I'm gonna follow you But first let me go, you know bury my mother and father and he basically says like hey, let the dead bury their dead And it's like what Jesus what are you saying there and the point he's making is hey your priorities should be about God and Yes, there are Obviously, it's okay to mourn. 

It's okay to take care of family duties, but a Life of following Jesus is gonna look different than the rest of the world Yeah, and then the morning and all those types of things certainly looked very different back then too than it does Today simply going to a funeral and and you know, some of those right relatively, you know, you can take care of Funeral expenses over the phone and you're done. You know, it's it was yeah, right. It was a very different kind of thing then I Wanted to walk as you kind of hinted at Leviticus 21 and 22 when I just ask you one more thing kind of connected to that You know, the Bible there is very specific about What is allowed and not allowed? I mean, there's a lot of you know, but you know Any disease any deformity and a handicap like the priests can't offer? Sacrifices to that I think that certainly strikes Gonna strike a lot of people as what like why? Why was that so can you kind of talk a little bit about? That and and why why those rules and restrictions would have been made You know both for the animals, but but especially the priest Yeah, so there's actually these When he's talking about these blemishes in the physical qualities of the priests, there's 12 of them and there's also 12 Blemishes that are listed when he's talking about the sacrifices and they're not exactly the same 12 but there are some that kind of are very similar and I think the point of what God is doing through this Law or through these restrictions is he is once again showing his Holiness, he is showing that what is needed to satisfy our sin problem to be in his presence or for him to for his Presence to be able to be with us. 

It's going to require perfection and nothing short of that And so that's not to say that these priests or you know People of the tribe of Levi who had physical deformities or if they were blind or mute or you know Even like one leg is longer than the other That's not to say they were disqualified from serving God but I think if I can remember correctly, but Merely that they cannot be the high priest and that there might be certain things that that are off limits Within the temple within the tabernacle Tabernacle there are there were lots of roles lots of jobs lots of things that had to be done on daily On a daily basis for the people of God to continually bring these offerings so they are not disqualified for doing a lot of those things, but more of the the role of high priest had to be someone who Did in a sense? Fit this standard, but it didn't mean that once priests met this Perfect standard they were free to do as they liked. It's not like hey, you've got a perfect bod So now you just get to do whatever you want. No, like you're held to a higher standard as the high priest and so your leadership your and you know execution of the law and your Actions and your heart posture is going to be judged even more strictly So it might seem odd to us to be like once again We think of God is like this gracious and compassionate God, which is absolutely true but God is also perfectly holy both in the moral and spiritual sense But also in the set-apart sense that he is so set apart from us that what is required for his presence is perfection and it points to the fact that Jesus was perfect that nothing less than Jesus being perfect Was going to satisfy the wrath of God and make atonement for our sins forever Like one sin from Jesus boom doesn't that like doesn't work Jesus had to be perfect because perfection is what is required. 

So yeah, we look at this and we see oh That's doesn't make sense. But I think it's God's way of showing us that The grave need that we have and the perfection that he provided in Jesus Well, and even just to compare, you know the seven days it took plus the extra day to to get to that point and today, it's just You know a true belief in Jesus like that's I mean, it's just an incredible what a gift that we have in Jesus to be able to bring us into that relationship with God that Was I mean? Unattainable before yeah. Yeah. 

So anyway, a lot of good stuff in these chapters. It all points to Jesus, which is really cool And I'm excited as we get closer and closer to the Day of Atonement we get to Preach that a little bit more so I'm looking forward to it. Great. 

Anything else you had a cup for time anything else you want to like to bring to our attention? Nah, there's plenty already cut and if I go too much longer We'll have to have a secondary podcast of cut for cut for time, which I know we've joked about before But I just a quick like look ahead, you know next week, you know We'll be looking at clean and unclean and and so, you know Encourage everyone to be doing their reading in preparation for Sunday. And so that would be the chapter 11 in Leviticus as well as chapter 20 22 through 26 as we keep making our way, you know through this season and and getting to the to the Pinnacle of Leviticus and the Day of Atonement. Yeah. 

Yeah, it's gonna be good. Well, well thank you Nathan as well for joining us on this edition of cut for time and Well, I'm sure Claire will take over next week and but we'll be talking again soon. I'm sure yeah, we'll be back soon Good to talk to you, Dan. 

All right. Take care Thanks for listening to this week's episode of cut for time If you wish to submit questions to our pastors following Sunday's sermon You can email them to podcast at faith church Indy calm or text them in to our faith church Texting number and we'll do our best to cover them in next week's episode If this conversation blessed you in any way, we encourage you to share it with others. We'll be back again next week

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)