The Scapegoat - Lev 16

Oh happy day, oh what fun it is to ride In a one-horse open sleigh, Oh happy day, oh what fun it is to ride In a one-horse open sleigh, When Jesus washed my sins away, He did smile, He too did wash my sins away, Rejoicing every day, Oh happy, happy day. If I depart, it's only blissful sentiment, Though ever troubled or lonely heart, We dream of every good thing. Oh happy day, oh happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away, He taught me how to walk and pray, And we rejoice in every day.

Oh happy day, oh happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away. Oh happy day, oh happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away, Rejoicing every day. Oh happy day, oh happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away.

We're going to hear from Nigel now. I was rather reassured to hear from him earlier that he used to be a diver, so that should come in handy anyway. Nigel, do come here and place a vote.

They're nearly all on your side, so this obviously isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, but we're looking forward to hearing your story. Thanks. As a child, church was part of my life, both at home and at school.

I became an altar boy and sang with a choir alternate Sundays. Bell ringing was also part of my early church career, which was pretty good as we used to go on bell ringers outings all over the country to various churches. Through all this period, I felt something missing in my life.

I felt a gap spiritually which I couldn't put my finger on. However, in my teens, to my parents' displeasure, I put on my rebellious hat and found other things to do on a Sunday. Church, needless to say, wasn't amongst them.

I joined the Royal Navy at 15 and departed from my Christian beliefs for quite some time. My forces instructed me on how to kill my fellow man. Something conflicted with my understandings of the scriptures.

I guess my love for music was one thing which kept me on the path of what I thought then was being a Christian. Peter, who was on board ship with me, was very active in the Salvation Army. We had many musical evenings, listening and playing.

I admired Peter because he was a soft, gentle man who was often ridiculed for his beliefs. He never hid anything about his commitment to the Lord. Rather, he lived it.

Looking back now, I can see he was a committed Christian. I also joined a group on board ship, which is a bit laughable because I was a keyboard player with no keyboard. The ship's padre heard of my dilemma and a deal was struck that if I played on Sundays on the quarter deck for services, I could use the organ for the group.

Not only did this benefit the band, it also meant I had quiet time in the chapel. This time in solitude was very special to me on a hustling and busting aircraft carrier, quite unique to find. Something changed in me here.

I tried to pray a few times, but I found it very difficult. What should I say? Supposing someone might come in? I'd never be able to hold my head up again. However, after coming out of the forces, I tried a few things in the musical world and eventually moved back home.

I needed to get closer to my dad as I felt we were distancing ourselves from one another. The best way of doing this, I thought, was joining the Freemasons. Dad was very active in this organization and was in the highest office in his lodge.

This is the first time I bought myself a Bible, and although only limited its scriptures to Solomon, I did enjoy the readings and the lodge. At this time I started my own business. All these times were very dark times for me spiritually.

My business and money came first. I devoted all my time to it and had no quality of life. Personal possessions and the power game became very important.

However, after six and a half years, this came to an abrupt halt, and my company folded during the recession. I lost my home and most everything, and my parents died within a fortnight of each other while all this was going on. At the hospital, I was befriended by a Christian lady, who later I found out was a lay preacher.

She seemed to understand my problems, and she asked if we could pray together. I said I just didn't know how. Then she asked me if she would pray for me, and I didn't object to this.

I just thought it was a nice gesture and didn't think any more about it. After moving and doing some consultancy work, I was invited to the tab at Christmas 94. Having work commitments every weekend, I found it very difficult to make any commitment to the Lord, and being in secure employment was more important to me.

This employment came to an end, and at the first weekend I'd had off for a long time, I was invited to a men's breakfast. Bishop Frank Retief of St. James' Church, Kenilworth, South Africa, was guest, and I later understood it was a celebration of Pastor Tony's 25th year at the tab. I liked what I heard, and Frank Retief's message was so relevant for me at that time, and hearing on how he built up his church after that terrible massacre touched me.

There was I with the easiest job in the world to find Lord Jesus, and people in South Africa were being killed for their belief in him. I wanted to hear more. This was a powerful God that I'd been searching for.

25th of June, 95, second time at the tab. What a day that was. Messages and prayers were so relevant to me, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

So many words of the Lord touched my heart that day. I looked around to see if anyone else was getting the warm glow that I was feeling. It just seemed as though all the messages were directed at me, and that my heart was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The main message was that the Lord had been waiting for me. It wasn't too late to receive him into my life. All he needed was an acknowledgement from me that he was my saviour and a plea to be forgiven for my sins.

After reflecting on what I heard this weekend, enjoyed, been a part of, believed, trusted, and received the Holy Spirit, I felt my search in life has only just begun. I have a thirst for the truth, and although knowledge has always been with me, messages got distorted by confusion within me, politics of the establishment and not a full commitment. Something reached me this weekend, a powerful thing, a holy thing which is something I've been searching for, and in my naivety, bang, there it was all the time.

Just the explanations different and the messages became clear. So much has changed in my attitude within me since then. The first thing, I was ashamed that I'd not read the Bible.

Secondly, respecting my fellow man. One of my favourite sayings in business was that I didn't suffer fools gladly. Now I've been told by reading the Bible that if I can't love and accept my fellow man how he is, how can I accept and love the Lord? For all men are in his image.

The Bible shows me so much the love Jesus has for his children and that it's never too late to turn to Christ. He's there waiting, all we have to do is reach out. I know that I can give a commitment to Christ now and I thank the Lord for hanging on in there for me, guiding me, teaching me, holding me and loving me.

Thanks. Let's pray for Nigel now, shall we? Lord, we do want to thank you for what you have done for Nigel in his life. Thank you for all the experiences you've given to him and all the things that led up to his coming to know you.

And we want to thank you as a church family here for giving him to us and his friendship and fellowship we enjoy with him. We thank you for his joy in the Lord Jesus. We pray that this will go on increasing from strength to strength.

And Father, we pray for this special day that you will meet him in a new and special way by your Holy Spirit through these waters of baptism now. Father, thank you for all that you have in the future for him. Continue to be his God and his guide, we pray, right the way through the rest of his life that he will know that great satisfaction of walking in your will.

Filling with your Spirit, Father, we pray. And we want to thank you that what you've done for Nigel you can do for each one of us here. Father, thank you that you come into the lives of ordinary people and you transform, you revolutionize those lives with your own miracle of love.

And Father, we pray that that indeed will be the experience of everyone in this building tonight. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

Let's turn to a very unusual passage of Scripture that is unusual in as much as it's not one that one would generally opt to read. Maybe on a Sunday evening. But it's a very relevant passage because it speaks about the problem of sin, how it was dealt with in some fashion in the Old Testament era, and how that in turn helps us in the Christian era to grasp even more what our Lord Jesus has done for us.

Leviticus chapter 16, and I'll pick up from verse 6. Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering, to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat.

Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by Lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. Verse 20.

When Aaron had finished making atonement for the most holy place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites, all their sins, and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task.

The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place, and the man shall release it in the desert. Let's just look at those last few verses for a moment and also on the screen. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all their sins and put them on the goat's head.

He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place, and the man shall release it in the desert. Still focusing on that theme for a moment, let's slip over into the New Testament.

Those of you who've got a Bible handy, just switch to Hebrews and chapter 13, because here is reference made to Jesus Christ, and it's a most interesting reference indeed. Hebrews 13 and verse 12. It says of our Lord Jesus, And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. Well, here we have it in the independent paper I sync to occasionally when I can't get the Guardian. Built in Spain, owned by a Norwegian, registered in Cyprus, managed from Glasgow, chartered by the French, crewed by Russians, flying a Liberian flag, carrying an American cargo, and pouring oil onto the Welsh coast.

But who takes the blame? A story was told of a West Indian on one occasion who was upping court for stealing. And this West Indian was rather put out by the fact that the judge didn't really understand his psychology. And he said in his West Indian way of speaking, It may have been these hands that stole.

It may have been these feet that walked into the elderly lady's house. It may have been this stomach that benefited by the food that I also stole. But my heart and my head, and what really makes me, me? Well, sir, that certainly wouldn't engage in such activity.

And the judge said, I'm quite convinced. And so he said, that kind heart and that kind conscience, I'm going to let go free. But that body which went into that house, I will punish that.

Virginia Bottomley is a name known to some of you. She is in trouble. A doctor, a consultant, headlined Dr. Doolittle in the Mirror just last week, successfully brought a court action against the paper and made some criticisms about the former Minister of Health.

He had been accused of dilly-dallying, of not being available when a man who was desperately ill needed his medical services. And he said the paper got hold of the wrong end of the stick. And basically what happened was this.

Mrs. Bottomley and her colleagues were making him the scapegoat. What does the word scapegoat mean? Well, we have an expression that's almost the same in terms of what it conveys in our colloquial English. We talk about someone carrying the can, someone who is accused of being the culprit, whereas actually that was not the case.

What I want to speak to you about this evening is Jesus Christ, the scapegoat. Now, back in Old Testament times, as you will have gathered if you listened to that reading carefully, they had a problem. You see, in the Old Testament there were two types of sins.

One were the sins that people committed that were sort of ceremonial. They didn't really appreciate that they were doing wrong. Maybe they turned up to the temple and offered a sacrifice that wasn't acceptable.

Now, these sins could be forgiven. The priest could use his authority, and on behalf of the person who had fouled things up, he could come before the Lord and make an apology. But one of the great problems was not these ceremonial sins, these unintentional sins, but rather those that were deliberate.

And when you scour the first four or five books of the Old Testament, you discover that there was no provision made for these sins to be forgiven whatsoever. That's what makes the problem of the Old Testament Jew so severe. Now, when you move into the New Testament, you find something completely different.

What you discover is that Jesus comes along as the Messiah, and eventually He takes upon Himself the consequences of your sin and my sin. Listen to a translation of a prophetic scripture. The translation is in the Old Testament, but it's a modern version that I'm giving you.

The ailments He bore were ours. Ours were the sufferings He carried. There we were thinking Him plagued and smitten by God and punished, but on the cross it was for our sins He was pierced, and for our misdeeds He was broken.

On Him fell the chastisement of our healing, and through His wounds have we become whole. Let's go back to Aaron, shall we, and the problem that he had, and indeed the problem shared by thousands of Old Testament Hebrews. Here were these sins that they'd done that were wrong.

I mean, people are exactly the same today as they were then. History teaches us that history teaches us nothing, which is one way of saying that the mistakes of yesteryear are repeated in every generation. So, there was this rather strange practice, which Aaron was able to engage in on behalf of the Hebrews, and it occurred in the lunar month of either October or September on the tenth of the month.

It was known as the Day of Atonement. And what happened was this. A bull was sacrificed before the Lord, but perhaps more strangely, two goats were brought in by the priests to Aaron, and these goats would be identical, identical in size, identical in shape, and as far as any animal can be perfect, these goats would be perfect.

The congregation would be behind the goats. The goats would be facing inwards towards the temple, and then Aaron would go to a sort of canister, in which were two lots, two pieces of metal. One piece of metal was marked for Jehovah, and the other was marked for the scapegoat, and as Aaron took these two pieces of metal, these two lots, he would put one on the head of one goat, and the other on the head of the other goat, and the goat, which was identified as being for the Lord, would have a red piece of ribbon tied around his neck.

The other goat would have a similar piece of ribbon, but that would be tied around one of his horns, and then Aaron would do something which was very, very significant. Not only did he kill the goat that was to be for Yahweh, they would cut the jugular, which was the kindest way of dispatching an animal's life until the invention of the bullet. And for the other goat, he would take his hands, and he would place his hands on the goat, and all the congregation of the Israelites would bow down and worship Jehovah.

And as the hands of the high priest representing the people were laid on the goat, Aaron would then read a prayer, a prayer which actually became a sort of absolution. O Lord, the house of Israel, thy people, have trespassed, rebelled, and sinned before thee. I beseech thee, O Lord, forgive now their trespasses and sins, which thy people have committed, as it is written in the law of Moses, thy servant saying that in the day there shall be an atonement, in that day there shall be an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be cleaned from all our sins before the Lord.

And the people, as I say, were bowed to the ground, clinging on to every word of Aaron, because he was asking for the forgiveness, not just for ceremonial sins, but deliberate ways in which all the Hebrews had disobeyed the Lord. And then something quite dramatic happened. That goat, known as the scapegoat, was led from the temple area out through the eastern gate down towards the Kedron Valley and across the brook, up the Mount of Olives, and then away towards the wilderness.

Now, it was a holy day, a Sabbath day, and you could only walk a certain distance on the Sabbath day. And to get the goat from the temple to the wilderness required ten people working in rote. One man would take the goat so far, and then he would have some water, he would have refreshment, and the goat would be taken the second lap by another man, and then the third lap, and then the fourth lap, and then the fifth lap, and then the sixth, and then the seventh, and then the eighth, and then the ninth, until the goat was in the wilderness of Judea.

And the man who did the leading was often not an Israelite, but a very trusted Gentile. And as a result of this tradition that grew up, they ensured that the goat was actually moved to the wilderness as quickly as possible. Nobody broke the Mosaic law.

And when the goat was left in the wilderness to wander around with other wild goats, at the moment of departure, the red ribbon would be moved from his horn, and the last person who had met the final man bringing the goat on that little collection of ten people would lift up a flag, and he'd wave the flag so that at the ninth point they would realize what had happened, and they would wave the flag so that at the eighth point they would know what would happen. And so it went all the way back, a sort of semaphore, and eventually was picked up in the temple. The scapegoat had taken the sins of Israel into the wilderness, and as a result, sin was dealt with, and the Hebrews could continue to enjoy fellowship with one another, and the priests continue their ministry of beseeching the Lord to bless the nation of Israel from that time on and forever.

Now, let's just do a little recap. Here is this goat. There are 180 references to goats in the Old and New Testament.

That piece of information is not exactly too stunning, but here is something that perhaps is a little bit more fascinating, and that is it's not too easy to distinguish between a goat or a sheep, is it? I once remember flying over Turkana, that's the northern part of Kenya on into the southern reaches of Sudan, and the little aircraft just dropped lower and lower, and I could see the Turkana tribesmen and flocks of sheep, but actually they weren't sheep. They were goats. If you see goats and sheep intermingled, and you're just a little distance away, it's very difficult to work out the distinguishing characteristics of the goat and the sheep.

Now, in the Old Testament, very often we single out the sheep because, well, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. You move into the New Testament, our Lord Jesus declares Himself to be the good shepherd who gives His life for the sheep. But in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, reference also is made to goats, and very often you will discover that the function of a goat and the function of the sheep religiously were the same.

When the Israelites were released from Egypt, they were told to daub either the blood of a sheep or the blood of a goat on the doorposts of their house, so that when the angel of death passed over, their household would remain safe. When our Lord Jesus is on earth, He speaks about the last day, and He talks about men and women in terms of sheep and goats, and He says, well, they'll continue together until the final judgment when the sheep will be separated on the one hand and the goats on the left. And our Lord makes that demarcation between the sheep and the goats in terms of those who will be saved and those who will not be saved.

But now let's try to just come back evangelistically to the main point that I wanted to emphasize this evening. You see, you need someone to deal with the problem of your sin. And our Lord Jesus is not only described in the Old and New Testament as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He's also the scapegoat. I checked on my thesaurus for other words which are equivalent to scapegoat. Do you know what a thesaurus is? Remember the story of one student in London, and she was moving lodgings, and she was talking to her new landlady.

And the landlady says, well, what are you bringing? And she says, well, I've got my violin, and I've got some of my instruments, some of my bits and pieces. She was a chemist. She was studying chemistry.

I'm going to bring those, and I've got my books, and I'm also going to bring my thesaurus. And the landlady said, I told you, dogs are not allowed in our place. The thesaurus gives you optional renderings of a particular word.

And it says of scapegoats that another word is a dummy, an idiot, or things like that. But actually, I disagree. A scapegoat, the way that it's used classically, is someone who for no real reason finds himself accused of something for what he is not responsible.

But Jesus, when He came into the world, He offered Himself on the cross of Calvary as the scapegoat. He was prepared to take upon Himself the responsibility for your sins. And there are three things that you learn about the scapegoat in the Old Testament that also apply to our Lord Jesus.

And the first is this. The scapegoat is perfect. Remember what I said? Both of those two goats were more or less the same.

One of the things that was prohibited in the Old Testament sacrificial system was bringing a diseased or a deformed animal to the Lord. You couldn't even have a deformed priest. He wasn't allowed to minister to the people.

Why? Because God is so good, God is so holy, God is so righteous. Nothing that is imperfect is to come before His presence. And the goats which were brought on the day of Pentecost were perfect goats.

And our Lord Jesus, on one occasion when He's on earth, He challenges people who don't like Him, who have no sympathy with His ministry at all. He says, which one of you convicts me of sin? Can you say one thing that I have done which falls foul of the law of God, of the law of Moses? And no one picked up the towel because it was recognized eventually by the enemies of Jesus as well as by the friends of Jesus that His life was flawless. When Jesus is about to be put to death on the cross, Pontius Pilate's wife sends a message to her husband.

She's obviously very concerned that there will be some breach of Roman justice and she says of Jesus, have nothing to do with that good man. He is perfect. He is flawless.

Jesus, our scapegoat. But secondly, the scapegoat, as far as Jesus is concerned, is willing. And now that, of course, does not apply to the animals literally in Old Testament sacrificial system.

No more than it applies to animals today, which animal volunteers to die, which animal volunteers to become food on your plate. Mercifully, they don't know much about it. But the fact of the matter is that as far as Jesus is concerned, when you see Him prefigured as the scapegoat, He knows.

He knew from the very moment that He became mature as a young man that He must be about His Father's business. He knew that when He took upon Himself the responsibilities of ministry, He would finish up on a cross. He went willingly.

He wasn't compelled to go. It was part of His wish to comply with the demands of His Father that someone should come into our world who would be able to take upon Himself the consequences of the wrong that you have done and the wrong that I have done. The scapegoat is perfect.

The scapegoat is willing. But more importantly, the scapegoat is acceptable. When our Lord Jesus died, at the final moment, it wasn't that His life was wrenched from Him, for no one had that power over Jesus.

Rather, our Savior surrendered His Spirit to His Father, and at that moment, the atonement for your sin and my sin had been made. And on the third day, inevitably, Jesus was brought back from the grave. It was bound to happen because death had no hold on Him whatsoever.

The scapegoat was acceptable, accepted by God. What Jesus paid on the cross of Calvary equals not only your sin, but the accumulated sin of all believing mankind. Here is that Old Testament goat.

He finds himself in the wilderness. And the final man who has done the last lap gets his colleague to raise the flag. And by semaphore, as I've indicated, it is taken back, the message to the temple.

The goat has gone into the wilderness. Provision has been made for the forgiveness of the sins of the Hebrews. And when our Lord Jesus was raised from the den, it was the flag flying high, indicating that He is indeed the Captain of our salvation.

He is the representative man. He is the scapegoat, not a dummy. He wasn't conned into it.

Neither was He compelled. This was His role. For Jesus is for you.

Jesus is for sinners. Jesus is the sinner's friend. And this is what you learn this evening, and it's wonderful.

Jesus Christ, God's scapegoat, is the perfect being. Jesus Christ, God's scapegoat for us, was willing to offer His life on the cross. And what is more, Jesus Christ, as a scapegoat, paid a price that was acceptable.

To do what He claimed to do. To minister to the sick souls of people like yourself. Now I ask you this as I come to my concluding comments.

Do you have Him as your scapegoat? The most important question is, have you placed your hands onto the head, so to speak, of Jesus Christ? Aaron believed that the sins of Israel were mysteriously transmitted to this goat. And as the goat made his way to the wilderness, he took sin out of the camp of Israel. When Jesus died on the cross, He died outside Jerusalem.

Outside the camp. When He died, did He take your sin? You say, how do I know? By, in effect, putting your hands upon the scapegoat. And saying, Lord Jesus, I need you.

Not a dummy. Not someone who has conned. But someone who worked deliberately on my behalf.

Lord, with faltering hands, trembling hands, I place them on you. Take the transfusion of all my sin into yourself. And may the death that you died on the cross of Calvary be the purchase price for my redemption.

That's what you heard in the testimony this evening. That's what you would have heard from Brother Tim had he given you his testimony. Three or four other hundred people here tonight were saying this.

Our sins that were laid heavily on us were transferred onto the head of the divine scapegoat. And He took them away into the wilderness and dealt with them. And they'll never trouble us again.

We will never be brought to book for them because we have Jesus, our scapegoat. Let's pray. Father, we come to you.

Every intelligent, sensitive person here reckons that there are things that they have done for which they are ashamed. Sometimes we try and pass our folly off. We try to suggest it was as a result of our parents, of some genetic problem that we had.

Result of our environment, result of pressures placed upon us by the world into which we have been born. But we know that in our hearts of hearts, we are responsible for our actions. We stand guilty before you.

And ours is the predicament of the Old Testament Hebrews. How do we approach your holy God with such an enormity of sin for which we are responsible? But we praise you that you direct us to our Lord Jesus. We thank you that He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

And the sin that was ours has been directed to Him. We thank you for the old rugged cross. We thank you that there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.

He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. So Lord Jesus, do your work. Remove sins from penitent people this evening.

Take them away into the wilderness from which they will never be recovered. Take them away, never to be recalled by your Father. Take them away and fill us with your Spirit.

And help us to realize the greatness of your love. Undeserved love directed towards people like ourselves. Hear us.

Thank you for this evening. Thank you for precious moments. Make what we have learned this evening live on in our memories.

And may our wills respond to all that you want us to do as a result of what we have seen and heard. Amen.