Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20071010.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Leviticus: Fellowship With A Holy God
Part I: Acceptable Relationship With A Holy God, Leviticus 1:1-7:38
C. The Peace Offering: The Need To Apply Christ's Atonement For Fellowship With God
(Leviticus 3:1-17)
  1. Introduction
    1. Fulfilling, intimate spiritual fellowship with God is an experience that too many believers sadly miss: numerous books have been written about this lack, books like Calm My Anxious Heart by Linda Dillow or In Every Pew Sits A Broken Heart by Ruth Graham or Nancy Leigh Demoss' Lies Women Believe.
    2. However, if the believer relates to God in fully applying the atonement of Christ to his life, there flows fulfilling spiritual intimacy with God in our everyday life and service (as follows):
  2. The Peace Offering: The Need To Apply Christ's Atonement For Fellowship With God, Lev. 3:1-17.
    1. We learned in a previous lesson that after God's presence had filled the newly-erected tabernacle in Exodus 40:34-38, in great contrast to God's having presented Himself with staggering harshness in perfect righteousness on Mount Sinai, He gently spoke from the tabernacle to Moses on how Israel could enjoy fellowship with Him, Leviticus 1:1-2.
    2. That fellowship with a holy God required not only a wholehearted commitment by the worshipper unto the Lord as seen in the burnt offering (Leviticus 1:1-17), and not only the need to donate one's whole earthly life to God for His will and glory as seen in the grain offering (Leviticus, 2:1-16), but also the need to relate to God in properly applying Christ's atonement as seen in the Leviticus 3:1-17 peace offering:
      1. The peace offering consisted of the sacrifice of a male or female ox (Lev. 3:1-5), lamb (Lev. 3:6-11) or goat (Lev. 3:12-16a) depending most probably on which of these animals the offerer could afford.
      2. The animal had to be without blemish, typifying the sinlessness of Christ, the Lamb of God Who was slain for us as our perfectly sinless and thus adequate Substitute, Leviticus 3:1b, 6b; 2 Corinthians 5:21.
      3. Significantly, the offerer was to lay his hand on the head of the animal to be slain, and then kill it, and this typifies our identification with Christ in His substitutionary atonement for us, Lev. 3:2a, 8a, 13a.
      4. The animal's blood was sprinkled about the altar, highlighting the animal's death, Lev. 3:2b, 8b, 13b.
      5. Then, the "fat in the abdominal cavity, the kidneys, the caul (membrane) on the liver, and the fat tail in the case of the lamb, were placed on the altar of burnt offering and burned," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to Leviticus 3:3-5. (cf. Leviticus 3:4-5, 9-11, 14-15)
      6. All during Israel's history, all the fat was to be burned on the altar as God's portion, Leviticus 3:14b-17.
      7. This statute takes on great significance in view of the revelation of Leviticus 7:15 where we learn that "The peace offering (lit. a sacrifice of concord or happiness) was the only offering in which the offerer shared by eating a portion of the sacrifice (7:15)." (Ibid., ftn. to Lev. 3:1) In this way, God figuratively "ate" the fat on the altar while the offerer ate the meat in fellowship with each another!
      8. In view of what such a meal meant in the Ancient Near East, this fellowship meal signified fulfillment:
        1. The host (God) was to protect His guest (offerer) from foes, Zon. Pic. Ency. of Bib., v. Four, p. 144.
        2. The host (God) was to honor His guest (offerer) in anointing him with oil at the meal, Ibid.
        3. Then, host (God) and the guest (offerer) would then warmly enjoy each other's company.
      9. Thus, one must trust in Christ as Savior from sin to have Christ's atonement applied to his account just to become a child of God, John 3:16. Then, he must confess his sins done in his Christian life to God for cleansing (1 John 1:9) and heed Scripture (1 John 1:7) to experience fulfilling fellowship with God.
Lesson: The peace offering teaches us that to enjoy fulfilling fellowship with God, our sin must be fully handled both positionally (salvation) and experientially as believers in cleansing (confession) and obedience (submission) to the Word of God, 1 John 2:3-4 with John 14:21-23.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ as Savior to become a child of God and to be equipped to fellowship with Him. (2) Then, as believer, may we (a) confess our post-salvation sins that block fellowship with God and (b) heed His Word to enjoy His fulfilling fellowship in life! (3) If we do not have fulfilling fellowship with God, we fail in one of these steps, and must adjust accordingly!