Sermon Tone Analysis

There are many wonderful provisions of salvation:

Grace, Sealing, Redemption, Mediation, Born again, Reconciled, Forgiven, Justified

There is a word that encompasses the whole realm of words mentioned above.

This word is one of the most important expressions of salvation in the Bible.

Atonement

This word was coined by William Tyndale in the early 1500s.

Compound word: at-one-ment.

The key OT word for atonement (kaphar).

Literally means “to cover.”

It carries the broader meaning of “wiping away” or “canceling.”

In the KJB, this Hebrew word is translated atone, disannul, forgive, merciful, pacify, pardon, purge, put off, cleanse, pardon, and reconcile.

The key NT word for atonement (hiloskomai)

Twice as a verb

It is used in Luke 18:13 where the penitent sinner asks God to be merciful.

“…be merciful...”

“...to make reconciliation for...”

This word means to propitiate, to atone, or to reconcile.

Four times as a noun.

“propitiation”

“propitiation”

“propitiation”

“mercyseat”

Jesus is our mercy seat.

And there was only one day in the OT Laws that the people interacted with the Mercy Seat.

Day of Atonement

Day of Atonement: Leviticus 23:26-32; 16:1-34

Read Leviticus 16:34.

The lesson of Atonement:

We can be at-one with God because His wrath for our sin was poured out on a substitute.

The sequence of the High Priest’s work on the Day of Atonement | Lev 16

The Day of Atonement was the only day that someone was permitted to enter into the very presence of God at the Mercy Seat.

TRANSITION: Let me describe the process that the High Priest had to go through on the rare occasions that he would have opportunity to enter the Most Holy Place.

1.

The High Priest would prepare for the Day of Atonement in humility.

| Lev 16:4

Animals.

The priest would select five, flawless animals for the Day of Atonement.

A bull for himself for a sin offering

A ram for himself for a burnt offering

Two goats for a sin offering for the people

A ram for a burnt offering for the people

Clothing.

He would enter the Holy Place

take off his elegant High Priestly attire,

wash himself thoroughly, and

put on the white linen clothing of the ordinary priest.

Someone observed...

When the High Priest spoke to the people for God, he wore the splendid robes.

When the High Priest spoke to God for the people, he wore the plain garments.

Tidball suggests that when the high priest spoke to the people for God he wore the splendid robes of the office; but when he spoke to God for the people, he came with no authority.8

The lavish clothes made him look like a ruler, like someone with authority; but now in the presence of God he was stripped of all honor (Wenham, 230).

This may very well be the point of the change of apparel.

Jesus did this.

Jesus laid aside His royal garments and “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”

Next, the High Priest did something that Jesus never needed to do...

2. The High Priest would purge his own sin.

| Lev 16:6, 11-14

The High Priest would have to take care of his own sin.

The priest would sacrifice a bull for his own sins and for the sins of his family.

He would take the blood of the bull with him into the Holy Place

He would gather coals from the Altar of Incense in a censer.

(The cloud was to so fill the air that the Priest could not see the Mercy Seat.)

He would enter the Most Holy Place through the veil.

He would allow the smoke of the censor to fill the air.

He would sprinkle the blood of the bull on the Mercy Seat.

He would sprinkle the blood of the bull before the Ark seven times.

3. The High Priest would purge the sin of the people.

| Lev 16:5, 7-10, 15-22

Then the priest would take two goats and cast lots for which one should belong to the LORD and which one should belong to the people.

Leviticus 16:7-10

The LORD’s goat.

| Lev 16:15-20

The priest would kill the LORD’s goat and

return to the Most Holy Place with the goat’s blood and

sprinkle it on and before the Mercy Seat for the sins of the people.

Mercy Seat = Place of Propitiation.

Central to this section and the ceremony to follow is the nature of the place of God’s presence.

Inside the holy of holies was the ark of the covenant; and on the ark was a covering or lid commonly referred to as the mercy seat (Luther’s Gnadenstuhl).

The item was a solid gold slab measuring 44″ by 26″ with statues of angels on either end, their wings touching in the middle.

The Hebrew word kappōret (“place of propitiation”; related to kipper) is translated in the Septuagint with hilastērion (the -ērion ending signifying “place of …”).

Wycliffe transliterated the term propitiatory from the Latin term, which was a translation of hilastērion.

It referred to the place in the holy of holies where the blood sacrifice was made effectual, where God was present with his people, and from where he revealed himself to them (Exod.

25:22).

Here’s how Wycliffe translated it in one of the earliest English translations in Exodus 25:22...

Fro thens Y shal comaunde, and speke to thee vpon the propiciatorye, ‛that is, ande fro the myddil of the two cherubynsf, that shulen be vpon the arke of witnessyng, alle thingis that I shal comaunde bi thee to the sones of Yrael

Wycliffe called the Mercy Seat the Propitiatory.

The sequence of events continued...

As he was leaving the Tabernacle, he would

(1) sprinkle the blood on each of the items in the Holy Place and finally

(2) in the courtyard (Tabernacle of the Congregation) where he would place blood on the horns of the Brazen Altar.

Conclusion.

That was what happened to the Lord’s goat.

I was overflowed with praise to God when I realized this week that...

it was always the sacrifice that belonged to the LORD that was slain in my place.

The wrath of God was poured out on the goat.

The blood was applied.

The people’s goat.

| Lev 16:21-22

The people’s goat was most often called the scapegoat.

William Tyndale invented the word atonement.

Another term he coined relative to our study is the word scapegoat.

| 16:9-10

The idea of the Hebrew word Azazel is “the goat has gone away.”