Lacking Leadership Part 1
MALACHI 1.6-14
Introduction
I’ve been listening to the Christianity Today podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.” If you’re interested in contemporary church history, I would recommend that you listen to it. If you’re unfamiliar with the story of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, let me give you a brief history. Mars Hill church started as a Bible study led by Mark Driscoll. The church started to grow and the growth of the church coincided with the advent of the Internet.
Driscoll used the Internet to build his brand and quickly became the most listened to preacher on the Internet. The problem was that Mark Driscoll was biblically unqualified to pastor and this was revealed over time. Driscoll was an abusive bully and the Elders of the church eventually removed him. The podcast details a number of stories where Mark Driscoll abused his position of authority by mistreating people in the church. The result of Driscoll’s departure was that Mars Hill church dissolved almost overnight.
Mark Driscoll isn’t the only cautionary tale we have in Protestantism of unqualified Christian leadership. Ravi Zacharias, James MacDonald, Bill Hybels, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and the list goes on and on. For several years the most watched segment in 60 Minutes history was about the fall of Jim Bakker. Western Christians too often become enamored with celebrities over against qualified men.
Of course the problem isn’t uniquely Protestant. Issues of sexual abuse have plagued the Roman Catholic Church ever since stories first broke in Boston decades ago of pedophile priests abusing young boys. But the problem of unqualified leadership isn’t merely a 21st Century problem. Church history reminds us of puritan pastors who owned slaves, of adulterous Roman priests during the time of the Reformation, even dating back to the Emperor Constantine in the 300s, who first made Christianity legal, but also wed the church to the state, making himself the head of the church.
During his ministry the Lord Jesus Christ issued his strongest rebukes to Israel’s corrupt leadership – the Sanhedrin. And 400 years before the incarnation of the Son of God Malachi rebuked the priests of God’s old covenant people for abusive leadership. Three weeks ago we began our series on the book of Malachi and two weeks ago Pastor Kevin preached Malachi 1.2-5, where YHWH rebuked Israel for not believing that God loved them. And now the second oracle in the book rebukes the leadership of Israel for their abuse of power.
This sermon is entitled, “Lacking Leadership Part 1.” Next week we will look at Malachi 2.1-9, which will be entitled, “Lacking Leadership Part 2.” The focus of these two pericopes is God’s rebuke of the old covenant priests for their abusive leadership. This week our focus will specifically be on the priests’ abuse of sacrifices. Next week our focus will be on the abuse of the priesthood in general. So let’s dig into the text now and see what the Word of God has to say to Christ Community Church this morning.
Eschewed Sacrifices
Verse 6 starts by reminding God’s people that God is personal and powerful. God calls himself Father – a son honors his father…If then I am a father, where is my honor? YHWH had been a father to Israel. He had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and created them as a nation at Mt. Sinai when he gave them the 10 Commandments. In fact, Moses told Pharaoh to let YHWH’s son go (Exod 4.23). YHWH had disciplined them like a loving father when he sent them into exile. God had loved them like a father to his son.
But Israel had not honored God. Sons know to honor their human fathers and servants know to honor their human masters, but Israel was not honoring God the Father. The word honor is the Hebrew word כָּבֵד. The word means, “be heavy, weighty, burdensome, honoured.” כָּבֵד. is translated elsewhere as “glory.” Fathers and masters deserve honor because they possess a weight of authority. God is the weightiest, most glorious, heaviest, most honored being in existence. God is the most כָּבֵד. being there is.
God deserves honor because not only is he personal but he’s also powerful. God is referred to as Father and he is also referred to as the LORD of hosts (יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֗וֹת). YHWH is not a title; it is his covenant name. “Host” is a military term; it refers to the host or the group of angelic soldiers that God commands. He is YHWH of the angel armies. Verse 14 says that YHWH is a great king. The Exodus and the Exile not only revealed God’s personal relationship with his people as he redeemed and disciplined them, but these great redemptive historical events reveal God’s power. He powerfully led Israel out of Egypt with the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. God is powerful and because that is true he deserves honor.
The priests of Israel, and the people in turn, were not honoring God because they were offering polluted offerings. Verse 8 says that they were offering blind, lame, and sick animals for their sacrifices. Verse 13 says that the priests were taking animals by violence to offer to the Lord. They were intimidating people and taking that which didn’t belong to them to offer it to God. It’s like Tony Soprano is serving as a priest here.
The leaders of God’s people were knowingly breaking the Law of God. Deuteronomy 15.21 says, if [the animals for sacrifice have] any blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to YHWH your God. In verse 8 YHWH asks the priests, would you present a subpar offering to the governor? Would he receive a less than acceptable offering? If you wouldn’t try to cheat the governor, if the governor wouldn’t accept an inferior offering, then how dare you try this on the God of the angel armies? The Lord tells them that he will not accept these polluted offerings. Verse 14 says that they will be cursed if they continue breaking the covenant.
The True Sacrifice
Why was it so important that Israel obey YHWH’s law about sacrifices? Why was it imperative that they sacrificed unblemished animals, animals that weren't lame, blind, or sick? Why was it essential that they acquired the animals by honest means and not by violence or theft? It’s because the sacrifices weren't intrinsically effective. They weren’t efficacious in and of themselves to atone for the sins of the people. God gave the sacrifices of old covenant Israel to point forward to the once and for all effective sacrifice for sin.
We read in our call to worship from Hebrews 10.1-18, which tells us that Jesus made the final sacrifice for sin. We confessed earlier in the Creed that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus lived a truly human life, yet without sin (Heb 4.15). Because Jesus never sinned he earned righteousness before God when Jesus died on the cross he initiated the great exchange. Jesus took God’s wrath for our sin, bearing the judgment that God warned of in Malachi, and that you and I deserve for our sin.
This is why it was imperative that Israel offer unblemished sacrifices. God would not accept animals that were blind, lame, or sick not because these animals could atone for sin if they were unblemished but because they pointed forward to the sinless one. Jesus Christ is the true and final unblemished Lamb of God. He never sinned. This is why the priests could not offer animals taken by violence because God freely gave of his only Son to die as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of his people.
Jesus was buried and on the third day he rose again from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection is the proof that God had accepted Jesus’ sacrifice. Now everyone who will repent of their sin and trust in Christ alone will be saved. God will forgive your sins and you will be resurrected on the last day to live forever in the new earth with King Jesus.
Jesus’ sacrifice was a once for all sacrifice. It was a point in time and space when God incarnate actually bore the wrath of God for the elect and died. Because that’s true two quick theological points: (1) the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation in the Eucharist is an affront to the gospel. Jesus Christ is not physically sacrificed every Sunday at Holy Communion. Jesus died once. Now that doesn’t mean that nothing is going on at the Eucharist. The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament where Jesus Christ is spiritually communing with his people every week.
(2) The dispensational teaching that there will be a 1,000-year period where Israel will reinstitute the sacrificial system is an affront to the gospel. Jesus has offered the once for all sacrifice for sin and God will accept no other physical sacrifices. The shadow has given way to the substance. The sign has pointed to the destination. This is why in AD 70 God destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and Jewish people have not made sacrifices since.
Notice also that twice Malachi talks about how God will be glorified among the nations. In verse 11 he says from the rising of the sun until it’s setting incense is offered to YHWH. In verse 14 it says that YHWH’s name will be feared among the nations. In part Malachi is contrasting the unworthy offerings being made at the temple with incense offerings of Jews that are still dispersed from Jerusalem. Malachi is saying that the incense offerings of the exiled Jews are better than the actual offerings of the temple Jews because they are offering incense in genuine worship.
But through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ the gospel has gone out to all of the nations. Now 2,000 years later churches all over the globe, in every tribe, tongue, and nation will burn incense in worship services over this 24 hours. People in every continent will hear the gospel preached and will take the Eucharist. The name of Jesus is feared and believed among the nations this morning. His sacrifice has created a global church that offers up a different kind of sacrifice.
A New Sacrifice
Because of the life, death, resurrection, and exultation of Jesus Christ God’s people no longer offer physical sacrifices. But when we trust in Christ the Father gives us the Holy Spirit and we become living sacrifices to God. Listen to Romans 12.1-2:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Under the New Covenant we do not offer sacrifices of dead animals, but we offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Paul says here that spiritual worship isn’t merely the songs before the sermon. No, spiritual worship is presenting your body as a living sacrifice to God. What does it look like to be a living sacrifice? Verse 2 says: not being conformed to the world, but being transformed by renewing our minds and by desiring what is good, acceptable, and perfect.
It’s important to note that not being conformed to the world has nothing to do, as 20th century fundamentalists have argued, with abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, or not having tattoos, or men having a certain hair length or facial hair. If the fundamentalists are right then I’m in trouble. What does it mean then to be distinct from the world? It means to believe the gospel, to be baptized, to take the Lord’s Supper, to marry a Christian and be faithful to your marriage, to raise children to follow Christ, to produce the fruit of the Spirit, and to practice the one another’s.
All of this is only possible if we have the Holy Spirit and the Father only gives the Holy Spirit to those who trust in Christ. Look to the sacrifice of Christ. Come behold the wondrous mystery that the Son of God was the sacrifice for unworthy sinners. When you see that, when that captivates you, when you trust the gospel of Jesus Christ, it changes you. You become a living sacrifice to God. You live for Christ and if he calls you to it, you’re willing to die for Christ. Because when you’re a living sacrifice to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil 1.21).
Conclusion
Mark Driscoll, Jim Bakker, and others were unqualified abusive leaders of God’s people. This is nothing new. The priests in the days of Malachi were abusing God’s people by offering unworthy sacrifices. But thanks be to God that Jesus Christ offered the true and final sacrifice through his death on the cross. Those who repent and believe the gospel then become living sacrifices to God. Christianity Today may be telling the story of the rise and fall of Mars Hill but the gospel tells us the story of the fall and rise of Jesus Christ as the once and for all sacrifice for the salvation of sinners.