Dennis Tuuri

The last three weeks, 96, 97, and 98, which are Psalms of Advent. 98 is the great joy that breaks out in the world with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately is what is being pictured. And what a joyous time of year. It was wonderful to hear the instruments this morning. That was so delightful. I didn’t know that was coming. It cheered my heart. The Christmas tree is bowing to the congregation, as it should, I suppose.

Today’s sermon text is found in the book of Leviticus of all places to look for an Advent sermon. We continue going through the Ten Commandments and we’re on commandment number three, the third word. Leviticus 19. And to put it in context, I’m going to read actually verses 5 to 10 is our text, but I’m going to read beginning at verse one. Leviticus 19:1-10. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

And let me say that Leviticus 19 is the heart of the Pentateuch. I’ll explain that more later, but it’s a particularly significant chapter in the design of the first five books of the Bible. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father and keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God. And if you offer a sacrifice of a peace offering to the Lord, you shall offer it of your own free will. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the next day, and if any remains unto the third day, it shall be burned in the fire. And if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination. It shall not be accepted. Therefore, everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity because he has profaned the hallowed offering of the Lord. And that person shall be cut off from his people. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest, and you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you that you are the Lord our God. That we carry your name in this world. Help us now to understand the significance of that, the danger of not carrying it correctly or with emptiness and enable us Lord God by your Holy Spirit to understand this text and to be transformed by it so that we are worthy name carriers of the Lord Jesus Christ as we go into this world. In Jesus’ name we ask it. And for the sake of his kingdom, not ours. Amen.

Please be seated.

Food is what this text is about. Verses 5 to 10. Food is a very dangerous thing. Now, it’s of the essence of who we are. I love that t-shirt that some wives buy for their husbands. It says, “I’m hungry.” Adam is made hungry. He’s given the whole world for food. Food’s a great thing. Food’s to be delighted in at this time of year. We have rejoicing food together. We have feasts in our homes in various places and localities. Food is good, very good. But food is very, very dangerous. Adam ate improperly. And because of that, all of humanity fell into its sinful, fallen condition. Food was the reason.

When we get around to reading in Moses’ sermon, Deuteronomy 14, when we got to that third word or third commandment section of his sermon two weeks ago, what did he talk about in terms of bearing a full witness in the power of the spirit of God? He talked about food. He regulated our food. Here in Leviticus chapter 19, I believe the same thing is true. I believe this section verses 5 to 10 are comments on the third word. And once more they’re about food.

Food’s a great thing. Food is a dangerous thing. Romans 14 tells us astonishingly that our food can kill people, destroy them. That’s what it says. Romans 14 says in verse 15, “Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.” Wow. We can eat in such a way as to destroy other people and their faith. And there’s a particular context of that in Romans 14, but I think the same thing is true generally. And that’s why we have so much instruction in the Bible about food. That’s why it’s so significant in terms of these sections of the Old Testament on the third word, our restoration to true humanity then as lifegivers is linked to food.

And here when we come together on the Lord’s day to be assured of the gospel of Christ and to be matured, we go up to the holy hill so that we can go down to the city and transform it with what we’ve learned on the hill. And at this hill, what do we do? We come together primarily, well, at least essentially at the climax of our service together to have food, to have a meal together, a meal regulated by God in a very particular way. And that food that we eat of here is of course linked to the peace offering that we read about in Leviticus 19.

Food is essential and food is a topical subject for us this week. I didn’t plan it this way, but the providence of God, we had a little problem with food the last couple of weeks around here. That’s okay. You know, it’s interesting if you read the texts and we will look at some of them in a few minutes about the agape in the New Testament. It’s usually problems that are mentioned. I don’t know a positive text about the agape really. I mean, it describes it going on, good to have food together in a feast, but it’s certainly not of the essence of the Lord’s day. It’s good as a thing we can do, but it also is going to be fraught with difficulties. Don’t be surprised by that. Don’t get all shaken up about it. It’s just the way it works. And we’ll look at some of those texts here in a couple of minutes.

So food is important. Food can be a great blessing. It’s what we’re commanded to do as a church at the conclusion of our worship service. And it’s also what we’re warned about in terms of not doing improperly.

This is a great time of year to be talking about food too. And this is the original reason why I thought this was such a good time for this third word sermon is that, you know, it’s a time of year when our hearts go out to those less fortunate. At least it should. A lot of times it doesn’t these days, but Christmas has traditionally been seen in Christian countries as a time of giving grace to other people. We rejoice, we’re eating good, and we extend that grace to others.

Now, not in America, but in England, Canada, a number of other countries around the world, they have a ceremony or a holiday rather called Boxing Day. And you know, it’s interesting. I’ve used this illustration too much, I know, but in the movie Dune, these first class navigators pull up and they say, “Well, we’ve been to planet X and we’ve seen many machines, which is dangerous because the machines could do bad things.” But planet X—and you find out in the book that they had lost the knowledge that it was a Roman numeral. It’s really planet number nine. But they call it X.

Well, that’s the way we are. We sort of have these things around us and we sort of lose the significance. Our kids grow up unless we tell them about the Salvation Army bell ringers dressed like Santa Claus, they’re not going to get it. And most people today don’t get Santa Claus. It’s like to them. And when I was at Costco a couple weeks ago buying stuff for St. Nicholas Day. And a woman said, “Why do you want so many of these?” “Oh, it’s St. Nicholas Day.” “Well, who’s St. Nicholas?” “Well, he’s the basis for Santa Claus.” “You mean Santa Claus is real?” I said, “Yeah, real guy. Bishop of Lyra.” She said, “I’m going to be conflicted all day.”

Well, Boxing Day is like that. Nobody knows what it is anymore. In Canada—I was just up there last weekend at the Langley Church. And Boxing Day in Canada is the day after Christmas. It’s December 26th. It’s St. Stephen’s Day. St. Stephen the first martyr. And that’s when it is. It’s been a legal holiday in England for a couple hundred years, 150, 200 years. It’s the day after Christmas and it’s their Black Friday because they don’t have the same Thanksgiving thing we do. So it’s their day to go out and shop till they drop and to get up early in the morning and queue up. Although, they made sure I knew that the Canadians didn’t trample each other. They’re much more—they’re better than us that way. They don’t rush into the store at once.

But that’s what they do. And it’s the day that they go out and buy stuff that they didn’t get for Christmas, right? So it’s the day you get what you really want and get it at a real good discounted price.

Well, Boxing Day originally—the word boxing—now it became associated with sports. And so some people think it’s about boxing. It’s not. It’s from an English holiday. They would box up what was left over from the feast or portions of the feast they had the day before. They would box up, you know, clothing or stuff and give it to the poor, to servants, to the lower class. So Boxing Day was this reminder that you’ve been given grace on Christmas. Now, extend that grace to others.

That’s what our text in Leviticus is all about, right? Peace offering. God extends grace to us and it’s grace in the context of food. And if we’re truly bearing the name of Christ in fullness and not with emptiness, then we’re extending that grace. What we’ve received, we pass on. And so we move from receiving the grace of God and the peace offering to extending that grace to other people by letting them glean in the context of our field or vineyard.

And of course, field and vineyard—here we have it. So every Lord’s day we have this reminder of this portion of Leviticus 19 and the third word. We receive grace in terms of field and vineyard and we’re to extend that grace to those around us.

So food—dangerous food is what this is about. Wearing God’s name is eating and feasting correctly, not incorrectly. And this is what we live out today in the context of coming together.

Now as I said, Leviticus 19 is the heart of the Pentateuch and the way that works is you got five books and we’ve talked about this before but you can sort of see Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus is first, second, third word and Numbers—there should have gone into the land and conquered enthronement didn’t work out so we have a fifth book. But five books and the center of the Pentateuch then, if you think of it that way, is Leviticus and Leviticus is laid out in pretty much in five sections and the very center I think of Leviticus is chapter 19. Well actually it’s section 7, chapters 17 to 26 chapters. But the center of that section, if we took time to look at the structure of Leviticus and the structure of those chapters is Leviticus 19. It’s the beating heart of the Pentateuch right here.

And what it is—and I’ve mentioned this a number of times, hopefully you know this by now—but it’s a list of 70 commandments that are sort of a commentary on the 10 words. Now, it’s not laid out like Moses’ sermon going right through the 10 words or ten commandments. It’s a little trickier than that. But that’s what it does. And so at the heart of the Pentateuch, a saved people, a people that have been extended grace by God and brought into relationship with him and restored relationship with each other are people who have a way to live. And here at the beginning of Leviticus 19 are people who have a way to eat together properly.

By the way, the center of Leviticus 19, I believe, at the very center of it are the commandments to love your neighbor as yourself, which most people think is a New Testament deal, but in actuality, the beating heart of the Pentateuch in the center of the whole five books is these couple of verses about loving your neighbor as yourself.

Well, so it’s significant. It’s why we keep coming back to Leviticus 19 as we go through the 10 words. It’s a place that we can look at that helps us to understand what’s going on.

So Leviticus 19. Now, it’s interesting too—and I didn’t notice it until my studies this week actually. I’ve studied Leviticus 19, written Sunday school curriculum for it, but I didn’t notice till this week. It, I think, tracks the first three commandments at least in Leviticus 19. It tracks the first three words. After that, it doesn’t. But let me explain that.

Leviticus 19—and I’ve handed you out a handout many times. Those of you who’ve been there regularly should have it. You know, it has repeated—as we heard today—”I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God. I’m the Lord your God.” Different names for God are repeated and they structure the entire chapter for us. It produces a way to look at the structure. Where are the breaks? Where’s the pericope? The section identifiers. Where are the brackets, the beginning and end of sections? Well, it’s really easy in Leviticus 19 because the name of God is what kind of does that for us.

Now, more significantly, it’s not just a literary device. But again, the third book of Leviticus—the third book of Pentateuch—Leviticus is about carrying the name of God correctly. That’s what it’s about. It’s really a third word kind of book. And here at the center of that, we have the name of God that we’re to be carrying over and over again.

The header of the text itself says, “Be holy because I’m holy. I’m the Lord. You’re holy.” So you carry my name. Be holy because I’m holy. And then he repeats his name over and over again. And so it’s a repeated reminder to us to carry the name of God not with emptiness, not in vanity, but to carry that name with a full witness of the spirit which brings life. Leviticus is a book of life. And when Jesus Christ comes, life flows out as far as the curse is found.

And in the very beginning here, if you look at Leviticus 19, hopefully your Bibles are open, just look at it here for a couple of minutes and we’ll see where these breaks are.

You know the Lord speaks to Moses—separate speech. So that’s how it’s identified and he—the header statement is “Be holy for I the Lord your God I’m holy.” Okay. Then he says every one of you shall reverence his parents, keep my Sabbath. I am the Lord your God. Then he says don’t turn to idols. Make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God. And then he talks about the peace offering and tithing, or gleanings rather. I am the Lord your God.

So three repetitions giving us the first three sections of Leviticus 19. And what are they? The first section is about authority. The second section is about mediation. And the third section is about life. Life flowing out to other people because we’re carrying the name of God correctly.

So you know, the first three commandments do that, right? No other gods. Not no other gods, no gods before me. And here in Leviticus 19, as it opens with the responsibility to reverence your parents, children. It starts with a commandment to reverence your parents. Reverence them, right? It actually tells us about another power, another god in your life. The word God in the Old Testament is a powerful one, a ruler. Judges are called gods. And here the first thing that it tells us right out of the shoot is don’t think you’re having no other gods by dissing your parents in the name of God. That’s just the reverse.

Now, you can’t put your parents above God clearly. But this authority that God has given you in terms of your parents is the way to have no other gods except those that God has established under his jurisdiction. And that’s pointed out by the addition of the Sabbaths, your time controlled by God. So it’s a vertical relationship that’s being described in the first commandment.

The second commandment is a horizontal relationship. It’s about the sun primarily. We’re not to worship him by visual images rather that would replace his written word. That’s remember our discussion of it. And here what does it say in the second slot? It says don’t have idols. Don’t have mediation between you and God in some way other than how he’s established it. Which will be the Lord Jesus Christ—horizontally our brother who takes upon himself humanity. Right?

So we got the vertical relationship, we got the horizontal relationship with the Father and the Son. And the third section then, verses 5 to 10, is about food just like Moses’ third word sermon was about food. And I think that it really fits quite well within an exposition of the third word.

So we have—we’re correctly related to God through the Father and the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then we engage with other people as lifegiving representatives of that God in a way that is full of witness of the Holy Spirit, that’s not empty or devoid of image bearing.

So I think these first three commandments actually track the first three words of the ten commandments—first three commandments—and that’s very helpful to us.

Okay. Now the text itself in these verses, in 5 to 10. You offer a sacrifice of peace offering as Flynn A. talked to us about several weeks ago. Voluntary offering in terms of sequence we know from Leviticus 9:22. It culminates the whole thing, but it wasn’t part of the daily sacrifices. The ascension offering was, but when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings, you shall offer it of your own free will. And then you have to eat it.

Remember the cool thing about the peace offering is it’s the only drawing near meal that you get to have part of it as well. Some sacrifices only God ate on the altar. Some God and the priest both get a portion of the peace offering. God, the priest, and you and your family all get to eat of it. And this tells us that is regulated. There’s regulations for what we do here at the Lord’s Supper. There’s regulations for the peace offering that kind of remind us of manna, right?

Because on the third day, it’s no good anymore. And manna, if you try to hold it over, if you tried to store up grace for the future instead of grace for today, God said, “No good. You got to be dependent upon me every day.” And the peace offering you get to eat for a couple of days, but the third day, you can actually be excommunicated for eating it improperly. So here you got a sacrificial meal that God has commanded you to do.

Why not be able to do it on the third day? Isn’t that pious and good and reverent? Gee, I want to think about God on the third day in this special way too. And God says, “No.” See, we tend to get carried away by our own piety. And God says, “No, no, no. Piety is defined by how I want you to deal with things.” And in terms of your feasting, that stops in terms of the peace offering after the second day.

So you know, so the idea is that if you have a peace offering, you have some right there with God at the tabernacle or temple. Then you take it home and you eat off of it. You know, there’s been times in the medieval church history when for communion, they would have big loaves of bread and everybody would have a little bread then and then they’d give you a loaf or half a loaf or a chunk to eat throughout the week with your family. And it’s sort of related to this. You see, we don’t think that’s what should happen today, but that’s the idea. But the idea is that it’s highly regulated by God. It’s grace. The peace offering is something else dying so that you can rejoice and feast. Right? Jesus dies as our substitute. And the gospel is that we get to feast because he’s paid the price for our sins. And more than that, peace just isn’t the absence of sin. Peace isn’t the absence of conflict. Peace is the presence of the blessedness, the life of the Holy Spirit.

So Jesus and his offering brings us relationship with God, rejoicing relationship with God and with one another. It brings us Christmas. It brings us good food together that we eat in our families and a church and get-togethers. That’s very appropriate because when Jesus comes, feasting breaks out in every direction. You see, fasting’s over, feasting happens.

Now, next week we’ll say that when Jesus comes, when the spirit comes, music breaks out as well as we just recited in Psalm 98.

So this gracious meal is the beginning of our life. And the beginning of our life is a meal. Just like the end of our life in the garden in Adam was a meal done improperly, the beginning of life is a meal regulated by God. You see, and if part of that regulation calls us to look beyond that to what we’ll do in our work a day lives as well, when we have this set in an agrarian culture, we’re not to, you know, make every last use. We’re not to be greedy in our harvest of our grain crops or our grape crops. We’re to allow other people, the poor, specifically the stranger who doesn’t have land to glean.

And so we receive grace. We’re extenders of grace. And grace is seen in the context of food—things that people eat, things that we eat, things that they can eat. And this is, you know, we’ve talked about this before. Don’t want to belabor it anymore, but gleaning is the essential way that poor people are taken care of in the Old Testament.

Again, this is Christmas stuff. I mentioned the Salvation Army Santas with the bells. Well, the Salvation Army was essentially urban gleaning. It said you had stuff that you could sell maybe at a garage sale or you could, you know, do other things with, but give good stuff to the Salvation Army, right? And like Boxing Day, give that stuff to them. They’ll employ poor people and they’ll also make that stuff available to people. They’ll feed people with the food you give them. They’ll clothe them, etc.

So the Salvation Army was an attempt in an urban setting to apply the basic truths of the laws of gleaning. And that’s why Saint Nick is out there ringing them bells this week. So when your kids see him ringing the bells, you know, and talk to him about St. Nicholas that he was a guy who had a lot of money and inherited stuff and he gave to the poor and the Salvation Army wants us to take the excess that we have and give to the poor and remember the poor in the context of our feasting.

Just like Leviticus 19 tells us that if we’ve received grace and life from God, to obey the third commandment is to extend life and grace to others. And the great symbolic way that’s accomplished is through food.

Food—great thing. We’re supposed to let other people eat. Eating is a good deal and it’s the way properly eating. Feasting is very, very good.

Again, most of you probably know these texts, but Nehemiah 8, what does it tell us? You know, they’re kind of like depressed, things aren’t as great as they thought they would be when they get back into the land. But when they have the day of convocation and worshiping God, we read in Nehemiah 8:10, then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. This day is holy to the Lord our God. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

The joy of the Lord is your strength. And that’s set specifically in the context of troubled times. But even in the midst of troubled times, on the day of convocation, they were supposed to feast. Feasting is good. They were supposed to eat the fat, drink the sweet. Put that in the pipe and smoke it for these people that think the best way to eat is stuff that isn’t fat and sweet. Now, you can eat too much fat. You can eat too much sweet. Proverbs talk about that. But it’s a good thing to feast on the fat and sweet of the land. And this tells us that and to send portions to those for whom nothing was prepared.

Verse 12 says, “All the people went their way to eat and drink to send portions and rejoice greatly because they understood the words that were delivered to them.”

So they do this. They rejoice greatly.

The only legitimate winter festival of the Old Testament is not one of the feasts originally ordained by God. It was a feast that happened as a result of the attempt on the part of the nations in which they were kept captive to destroy the Jews. Book of Esther, the feast is Purim was not originally established by God, but in Esther chapter 9, the feast of Purim is established because God delivers his people and defeats the enemies of God’s people. And the way to celebrate—of course, that’s what the coming of Jesus is, right? In the winter that we celebrate, at least symbolically in the winter, Jesus comes to deliver us from our enemies, defeat those enemies on the cross, give us resurrection, victory, and life.

So it’s the same thing. Purim is really the Old Testament wintertime festival that is the prefigurement to our winter festival of Christmas. At least what we try to do with our Christmases.

So they’re delivered by God. And we read in verse 18 of Esther 9, why don’t you turn there? Esther 9. Let’s look at this together.

Esther 9:18. Feasting is good. And here they have it. Feast of Purim. “But the Jews who were at Shushan assembled together on the 13th day as well as on the 14th. And on the 15th of the month, they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness. Therefore, the Jews of the villages who dwelt in the unwalled towns celebrated the 14th day of the month of Adar with gladness and feasting as a holiday and for sending presents to one another.”

Sounds like Christmas. Christmas is the coming of Jesus to give us definitive victory to defeat real enemies and to cause us to rejoice, to feast together, and to send presents to each other.

And then a little bit further down in verse 21, they’re supposed to celebrate this yearly. So this proclamation goes out that once a year they’re to do this. “All the days of which the Jews had rest from their enemies.” That’s what it’s about.

Verse 22, “As the month which was turned as the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them and from mourning to a holiday, but they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending presents to one another and gifts to the poor.”

Nehemiah, feasting is good, but you remember the people that don’t have anything prepared. You remember the poor. Esther, feasting is great. It’s what we do at Christmas, but in our feasting, send presents to each other but also send good food and presents to the poor.

And so feasting is good but when the scriptures mention it several times here—our feasting as it’s required in Leviticus 19 is to be with an eye to extending the grace that God has given to us. The third word is carrying God’s lifegiving deal. Feasting is good.

1 Corinthians 5:8 reminds us that feasting is not ultimately defined by the sort of food we eat. You may not have the sweet or the fat. And what are we told in the Bible? 1 Corinthians 5:8, “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Food ultimately is not the end goal. It’s a picture of other things, and we’re supposed to feast with sincerity and truth.

Proverbs 17:1 says, “Better is a dry morsel with quietness in a house full of feasting with strife.” Worse is a house with no feasting and strife. But in this case, again, feasting isn’t the food ultimately. Yeah, it’s a great picture of what God has done for us. It’s a great thing for us to do. But hey, we got to get the priorities right. And this is what the discussion about our agape has been the last couple of weeks.

Somehow the priorities got—you know, a lot of the things that we do, you know, they just need to be weeded occasionally, right? We’ve got great gardens. The agape is a great garden, but kind of weeds sometime grow up and it just becomes a jungle. If you let a garden go, it just becomes a jungle. Too much of a good thing is not a good thing anymore. And so, you know, kind of, you know, we ended up practically. I don’t think anybody in their minds did, but practically we ended up kind of some people weren’t in worship getting these big feasts ready. Some people were working their fingers to the bone to enter into this feasting day and it was just incredible amount of work.

So he said well you know if we can’t get the priority right the priorities are worship and rest and then in the context of that fellowship food right if we can’t—right we don’t need the we just have a dry morsel at our Christmas feast that’s okay when there’s joy as opposed to strife with feasting. So we say well let’s just get this thing right and now you know attention’s being made by the officers of the church to do it in a way that will restore the priorities.

And you know, don’t feel bad about this. This is what happens. This is what happens in all of our lives. Great people with good intentions, we just all end up sort of neglecting certain things, neglecting them. Weeds start to grow. We just got to pull them.

And the same thing happens—we’ll see in a couple of minutes with the agape in the New Testament.

Proverbs 15 says, “All the days of the afflicted are evil, but he who is of a merry heart has a continual feast.” He doesn’t need the food. You got a merry heart, you have a continual feast. It’s a good thing.

And then verse 16, “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure with trouble. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted calf with hatred.”

You know, somehow when little jams happen about the agape or feast at our homes or whatever it is, bad attitudes can surface too. And we got to remind ourselves of these verses. Hey, better, you know, to keep the love going if we need to just drop stuff, right? Stuff is great. Hopefully, we can do it well. But, you know, if at the end of the day sometimes you just need to, you know, drop things for the sake of love and reminding yourselves what the priorities are again.

You know that those of you guys have been married very long, you know that you get married, God prospers you, you get stuff, but then you sort of have lost the. Christine and I some of our best times when we were first married going to garage sales getting stuff we needed and God showing us things and getting the stuff for cheap. It was so fun. It’s just not the same ordering it on Amazon, you know. So, you know, it’s priorities again.

And so, the Proverbs remind us that feasting ultimately is not about the food we eat. Indeed, we have warnings against food.

Isaiah 5, song of the vineyard that I alluded to at the wedding yesterday. Great feast there, by the way. That’s a time of feasting. Isaiah 5 says, “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may follow intoxicating drink who continue until night and wine inflames them. The harp and the strings, the tambourine and flute and wine are in their hearts, but they do not regard the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of his hands. Therefore, my people have gone into captivity.”

Now, there’s nothing wrong with wine, nothing wrong with music. It was great to hear the music this morning. Nothing wrong with feasting. But when we do that and ignore, you know, the work of God that he’s established for us and we don’t take that food and regulate it in a way that’s honoring and pleasing to him. Remembering his hands and his operation of his work in our midst—when you know the food then becomes the same thing that it did to Adam. Now it becomes the cause for the death of Israel and the death of Judah. They’re going into captivity because they feasted improperly.

Big warnings throughout the Bible on feasting improperly. I mean there’s almost nothing more to life than just eating. And you got to eat right or eat poorly and you have blessing or you don’t have blessing in terms of how you handle how you feast. Feasting improperly is warned against over and over again.

The peace offering itself—I mean, what better food, what more holy food, what more pious food could we have than the peace offering? And yet, if we handle it improperly, at least at that stage in covenant history, it became a source of their excommunication. They’re being cut off from the very people of God to eat that peace offering on the third day.

So God says the height and the depth, the great blessings and the great curse are tied into feasting. Feasting is improper feasting is warned against. It’s warned against here in our text and it’s warned against a lot of other places.

1 Timothy 4:7, “Reject profane and old wives’ fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things.”

So, you know, body’s great. We’re not gnostics, but remember burn. You know, if you focus on the body and you focus on the eating instead of on the godly disciplines, you got it all messed up. You got to re-examine, retrench, back out, and do things better.

Philippians 3 warns of those people whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly. May we never be a people that only think in terms of our stomachs. God says if you know that’s—that’s feasting improperly and you really have to watch it. “Whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven.”

So we eat, but we recognize we eat in a heavenly banquet. And if we become too earthly minded in seeing feasting apart from what it signifies, God warns us greatly against that.

Hebrews 13, verses 6 to 10 says, “Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines for it’s good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.”

This is really interesting because it’s—I’m sure it’s talking about Jews and they actually thought the kosher food they were eating would give them grace and strengthen their hearts. In other words, it wasn’t so much an absence, not eating unclean things. It was thinking that food itself, the food itself would strengthen their hearts, make their hearts stiff is the word here in the Greek and the writer of the epistle of the sermon to the Hebrews says, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, food’s a great thing, but you can’t make the heart strong through food. It has to be through grace.”

And so, our eating must be done in the context of reminding ourselves and exhibiting grace to others in the context of food.

The first—you know, 1 Corinthians just before the establishment in 1 Corinthians of the institution of the Lord’s supper. The words that a lot of times are read at the Lord’s supper. Just before that, he talks to them about how their eating has been improper and how you know they kind of are putting too much of an emphasis upon food.

And in the actual instruction about the Lord’s supper, he tells them, look, you have this agape going on and in the context of that, you have the Lord’s supper, but you’re not eating God’s supper anymore. You’re eating judgment to yourself. If that’s the case, he says, if you’re hungry, you want a full the full meal deal, go on home. You got homes you can go eat in. If you can’t handle the agape, I think this is what Paul is saying. This is the great place we turn to see the agape and its relationship to the supper. But it’s a corrective text to people that wanted the agape so bad and the goodness of food that they really were sinning against community at that table. And Paul says, “Hey, if that’s the case, we’ll kill the agape” as Paul says.

So, you know, we have to be sure that’s our mindset, right? If necessary, if we’re abusing something really badly, right? Some of you guys, you know, some people smoke cigars. Kids start smoking some cigarettes. Okay, I’m not sure that’s a sin. But if the cigarette has you, as Elder Wilson says, instead of you having the cigarette, if it’s become something you need and require, you need to get away from it. You need to fast from that thing. You need to put it away for a good long time till you get control over the thing again.

And that’s what Paul’s telling the Corinthians here. You know, looks like you guys just got to get rid of that agape in the short term and get back just to a simple Lord’s supper. Now, I don’t know what they did and I don’t know what the follow-up instructions were. Maybe they just then took that strong wording from Paul and said, “Yeah, you’re right. We’re going to do the agape right now.” I hope so.

And so Paul talks about that.

Additionally, we don’t—you know, I could look at Jude—is one of the few places with Corinthians that the agape seems to be referenced and here it’s referenced directly in terms of the love feast. But again it’s not a verse saying your love feasts are great deals.

Let’s see if I can find this. Oh yeah. So what Jude is warning the church about—people that are breaking into the table and they rail against authorities. They speak evil. They’re kind of contentious people. And he tells them in verse 12 of Jude, “These are spots in your love feast. While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.”

You see, boy, when we go to the tables, when we go to the agape after church, boy, let’s be careful. Let’s not be spots in the love feast. So, again, the love feast is a place that receives correction from Jude, the book of Jude and God through the book of Jude.

And another place where the agape is specifically referenced is 2 Peter. And again, it’s the same thing. These people, these bad people are spots and blemishes carousing in their own deception when they feast with you. And it could be the love feast. We don’t know. But again, feasting is a dangerous time. It can be real danger. Feasting is good, but feasting is warned against improper feasting over and over and over.

Now, the same thing is true of helping the poor. Helping the poor, the second half of Leviticus 19:5-10, helping the poor is good. In fact, our Savior in the Gospel of Matthew says basically from one perspective when you know, not St. Peter, but the Lord Jesus and you knock on the pearly gates and he’s going to let you in or not, the question is what do you do about the poor? I mean, that’s what he says.

People will come to me in that day, the day of the final judgment and he’ll say, “Well, you know, you gave me food or you gave me drink. Come on in.” And they say, “When do we give you when you gave it to the poor?” And he tells other people, “Well, you didn’t give me food or drink.” Well, hey, we brought great food to the agape. We really had a good old time with you there and with the other people. Well, what’d you do about the poor?

He says, “You did maybe you regulated your feast, your peace offering.” Okay. But did you do that gleaning thing at the end? Did you remember to give food to the poor, drink to the poor as well.

Now, I know in our day and age, thank God, that this message has permeated Christianity for 2,000 years, and we have a lot less poor, particularly in Christian countries, there virtually are no people anymore who are starving and losing weight as a result, who just aren’t doing it for some strange reason. There’s a lot more Christians ready to feed people than there are hungry people out there.

Now, still, we don’t want to then just dump it off and say we have to focus on third world. I hope that in this new year, we’re going to have some concerts here on Friday evenings that will have various bands playing from Portland, not Christian, but independent bands. And it’ll be a fundraiser. People can bring food to us. And what we want to do with that food is funnel it toward single moms in our area, right? Because widows and poor generally, but single moms are sort of like the widows and the orphans that the Bible tells us particularly to be conscious of in our feasting and bring them into that. So they got sustenance, substance sort of stuff going on, but we want to bring them joyful food as well.

And so I think that single moms is really should be the focus. The poor generally in most Christian countries are taken care of because people apply these verses. But we still have single moms who are living with real difficulties.

And so Jesus says the final evaluation of your life, there will be a justification according to works. Did you live out the power of the spirit? It as evidence that you really were my disciple. And the evidence for that is whether you did the second half of Leviticus 19:5-10, whether you had concern and care for the poor. Did you do Boxing Day? Did you make use of whatever devices are out there at Christmas time to share your feast even with those who can’t feast? Single moms particularly is what I’m thinking of here.

So, taking care of the poor is really good. And in fact, it is of the essence of being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what Jesus says in Matthew 25. So in that verse at least in that section it’s the essence but again there in and of itself just like feasting it’s not necessarily commendable.

You can give money to the poor and does you no good. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, “If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and I give my body to be burned but I don’t have love it profits me nothing.”

If I’m not doing this living out the patience and kindness, the goodness of God—right? Which is what love is, the character of God. If I’m not carrying the name of Christ, the essence of who Christ is in my helping the poor, it doesn’t do any good. It’s not some device that good works apart from the merits of Jesus Christ.

So even here, feasting is good. We can abuse it. Helping the poor is good, but in and of itself, it does you no good apart from a motivation to [word unclear—likely “obey”] God’s word in the context of your life.

So, you know, feasting, helping the poor, getting grace at the beginning of the day, ending grace, ending and dispersing grace to others as we move into the week. This is what this particular time of year with Boxing Day, St. Stephen’s Day, etc.—Boxing Day was on St. Stephen’s Day and St. Stephen’s Day is December 26th. He was the first martyr and this association somehow was made with this attempt to help the poor on the day after Christmas.

So hopefully at some point this in your Christmas celebration, either before or after or in between, you’ll think about that. How can I help some single mom in my area of influence? How can I help some people who really could be brought to a fuller sense of joy? Part of that’s the Christmas feast here.

Actually, one of the reasons why we said, “Let’s give it the good old college try again next week. We have to will kill it, but let’s see if we can do it again. One reason is because some people that’s the best food they get all year. And as our church continues to grow and bring in people whose income levels are quite low, particularly at this time of year, it is a good thing to remind them on the Lord’s day of feasting and to share the goodness of what we have to give with them as well.

There’s a great Christmas song that sort of ties this all together. St. Stephen’s Day and Boxing Day. And it’s “Good King Wenceslas.” This was based on an actual duke I believe in Czech in that area of Europe from the 9th century I believe. And you know he was a civil ruler but the legend has it that he was out walking around in winter on St. Stephen’s Day in the evening I think and cold and he’s and him and his valet, his servant see a poor man gathering sticks that he could find in the snow and so Wenceslas says to his servant—well actually it’s Vladislav was the Czech name, Vladislav but became Wenceslas—so Vladislav tells his servant, “Who is that guy?” “Oh that guy lives you know where the forest meets the mountain and poor guy and everything.” And Wenceslas says, “Well let’s get some food let’s get some good fuel for him and we’ll go to his house and bring him joy and cheer on St. Stephen’s day which will become eventually Boxing day.”

So this is what it happens. And they’re tregging through the deep snow. Some of you came through ice. So they’re going through deep snow on the way to this guy’s house. And the servant wants them to turn back. It’s too cold. The snow’s too deep. We won’t be able to get through. And Wenceslas says, “No, no, no, no. Look, I’m going to walk ahead of you. I’ll lead the way. And in my footsteps, they will radiate heat, and if you just follow my footsteps, you’ll be with me, and we’ll get to the guy’s house and bring him cheer and joy.”

And so the servant says, “Okay.” And then the miracle happens. Wherever Wenceslas treads, there’s heat. And so this miracle happens so that he can be enabled to feed the poor and to help this particular man.

And so the song “Good King Wenceslas”—that’s what it’s about. And if you hear it, you know, if you’re like me, you’re most of us, it’s like the planet X, right? Wenceslas—all we can remember is the first couple lines of the song and we don’t remember the whole point of the song. And but the point of the song is to encourage us to fulfill, because God has brought us to the rejoicing feast of the Lord’s table, He wants us to bear witness of the king who led us to walk in the steps of the greater King Wenceslas. And indeed in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ, the spirit of life and warmth, that’s where we’ll find the spirit is following the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ would lead us into bringing the poor into rejoicing feasting as well this time of year the way we do.

I’m going to do something a little weird. You know I don’t know maybe it’s I’m getting old and so you can do stuff a little weird and people are a little more patient with you we don’t have the music but I do have lyrics could I get some of you young men to pass these lyrics out and let’s conclude we won’t do this as the offering we’ll do the normal offering song in a moment but let’s conclude the sermon by singing this wonderful Christmas song that’s a reminder to us of the text.

If anybody knows this song, you can come up and play it, too. Otherwise, we’re going to have to sing it a cappella, which is okay, too. You know, I thought of this because some young person was here maybe yesterday plunking out the notes for it on the piano and it brought the song to mind and I said, “Oh boy, that’s perfect for the sermon.” So, thank you, whoever you were.

No brave soul to jump the music. That’s okay. This will be our carol to one another. Christmas caroling. Did they get them up in the balcony? Everybody got them? No, not quite. Okay, somebody yell out when we’re ready.

Okay. Let’s stand.

Now comes the point of I could lead you into error blessing. Good King Wenceslas looked out on the feast of Steven. When the snow lay round about deep and crisp and even brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel, when a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel. Hither page and stand by me if thou notest it telling yonder peasant who is he where and what his dwelling? “Sire, he lives a good league hence underneath the mountain right against the forest fence by St. Agnes fountain.” “Bring me flesh and bring me wine bring me pine logs hither. Thou and I will see him dine when we bear them thither.” Page and monarch forth they went forth they went together through the wild wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather. “Sire the night is darker now and the wind blows stronger fails my heart. I know not how I can go no longer.” “Hunger. Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly. Thou shalt find the winter’s rage. Freeze thy blood less coldly.” In his master’s steps he trod where the snow lay dented. Heat was in the very sad which the saint had printed. Therefore Christian men be sure wealth or rank possessing He who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing.

Let’s pray. Lord God, help us to walk in the footsteps of the master by the power of the Holy Spirit. Help us to obey joyfully the third commandment this season in our feasting and in our giving as well. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

May be seated.