Rev. David Holwick M COMMUNION
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 5, 1992
Leviticus 11:41-47
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I. The meaning of cleanness.
A. How many are clean this morning?
1) Some of the children may have started clean this morning,
but have already fallen.
2) Some adults are also unclean.
a) Not outwardly, but in their soul.
b) What should be done about it?
B. Cleanness is a critical principle in OT religion.
1) Laws on cleanness of animals, houses, and people.
a) Leviticus 11 to 15 focuses entirely on it.
2) Not hygienic but symbolized holiness for Jews.
a) Unclean objects are variously associated with death,
disfigurement, and abnormality.
b) Jews were to focus on what promoted life, wholeness,
and normalcy.
c) Holiness was given a physical expression in every
encounter with the animal kingdom and at every meal.
3) In time, the moral element was lost and the laws were seen
as an end in themselves.
a) If your hands were properly cleaned, you could worship.
b) Even if your heart was filthy.
C. As we prepare for communion, are we clean this morning?
II. Laws on cleanness had a dividing effect on people.
A. God's holiness demanded they live differently. 20:24-26
1) The pagans in Canaan had been horrible. (Sodom)
2) Eating clean foods distinguished the Jews from them.
B. The moral emphasis was soon lost, but not the dividing line.
1) Lepers were shunned with a threefold punishment. Lev 13:45f
a) Had to cover themselves.
b) Had to cry out, "Unclean, unclean!"
c) Had to live outside the regular community.
1> "Ben Hur" and aversion to leprous mother and sister.
2) Gentiles were untouchable - literally.
a) Jews couldn't go inside their houses.
III. Modern societies are not much different.
A. AIDS movie on TV.
1) Lover has sex with victim, then scrubs himself.
2) Most sufferers face discrimination at work and rejection
from friends.
B. Racism.
1) As a child in Georgia I drank from segregated water fountains.
IV. What Jesus thinks of uncleanness.
A. He was severely criticized for his views.
1) His disciples ate with hands that were not (ceremonially)
clean.
2) He associated with unclean people.
a) Lepers, whom he healed. Luke 17:14
b) Sinners and outcasts, like prostitutes. Matt 9:10
c) Samaritans, even one that was a woman. John 4:9
3) The religious leaders went into a tizzy.
B. People can definitely be unclean. Mark 7:18-23
1) But not due to outward circumstances like food, illness,
social position (or lack of it).
2) Uncleanness due to inner sin, which finds outward expression.
V. The task of the Church is to declare God's cleansing power.
A. Peter's vision: no group of people is unclean. Acts 10
1) The unclean foods reminded Peter of the dividing lines. 10:14f
2) But God removed them, and opened the Gentiles like Cornelius
to salvation. Acts 10:34f
B. The Church should be a focus of cleansing today.
1) The OT food laws are replaced by "love laws." Rom 14:15-20
2) No one is beyond God's grace.
a) Even those with AIDS.
b) Or those who reject our beliefs.
3) Cleansing is not just for other people.
a) We should see changed lives among us.
b) Maybe God needs to begin with YOU.
VI. Cleaning us up is no easy task.
A. We can relate to this in human terms.
Country comedian Jerry Clower once told about a lady he knew
out in the boondocks.
She lived near a construction site, and workers were putting a
tar roof on the building near her house.
This woman had sixteen children--or "young'uns" as Jerry would
call them.
One day she lost one of her children.
She got to hunting him and discovered he had fallen into a
50-gallon drum of black roofing tar at the construction site.
She reached down, hauled him up, took a look at him and shoved
him back down in that drum of tar.
She said,
"Boy, it'd be a lot easier to have another one
than to clean you up."
God must feel that way about some of us sometimes.
It would be easier to have another one than to clean us up.
But He does clean us up.
He gives us what we need to make a new start.
#1647
B. Jesus' death on the cross cleanses us from all sin.
1) Big sins as well as little, for all eternity.
2) Even the guilt of sin can be removed. Hebrews 9:14
3) We are cleansed, so we can serve. Hebrews 10:22-24
*************************** Study Notes **********************
I. The basic meaning of cleanness is purity.
A. Pure gold used on ark was called "clean." Exod 25:11,24
B. Most things in their natural state are clean.
C. People as well as buildings can be unclean.
II. What causes uncleanness of people.
A. Contact with corpses.
B. Disease (leprosy).
C. Sin.
III. Not hygienic but symbolic of distinctiveness of Jews.
A. They are to be morally and spiritually different from
the pagans.
B. Food laws, etc., emphasized the dividing line.
IV. In time, the moral element was lost and the laws were seen
as an end in themselves.
A. The "dividing line" with other people was rigidly upheld.
B. If your hands were properly cleaned, you could worship
God, even if your heart was filthy.
V. Purpose of clean/unclean laws.
A. Not hygiene.
B. Christians saw that God was no longer dividing people between
chosen Jews and rejected Gentiles. (Cornelius)
VI. "Unclean, unclean!"
VII. Took a while for his attitude to sink in.
A. Early Church still considered non-Jews to be unclean.
1) Peter had to have a vision from God.
a) "Don't call unclean what I don't call unclean."
2) Even then, it took time. He swayed back and forth,
hypocritically. (Galatians)
B. Food and ethnic groups no longer cause uncleanness.
1) Only sin does.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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