Los Alamos Church of Christ
The
Lost Symbols of Christianity
Most everyone has heard of Dan Brown. He is the guy who wrote… "The Da Vinci Code", which made all the fuss about Jesus and Mary Madeline. In the historicity scale his book was… poor , but it was an exciting adventure. His latest book is "The Lost Symbol". I just started. I'm sure it is a thriller about some kind of cool esoteric symbol that was lost which changes everything. I don't know if I will like the book, but I like Dan Brow's title, so much so, that I am going to steal it this morning. This morning we look at… The Lost Symbols of Christianity. Today sermon is going to be a thriller with suspense and action and somebody dies and we have to figure how who-done-it and what happened, well sort of. Excited?
Over the last two weeks we have been studying the symbols of Christianity. We have seen how important symbols are to us, as well as to the early Christians. We have seen how difficult it is to change the symbols we cherish; but symbols were changed.
-The Sabbath day symbol of "God Resting" was changed to "the First day of the week"; the new creation!
-The Cross was changed from a symbol of fear, torture and brutality to a necklace of hope!
-The Fish became an early symbol of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world; a fish?
-The Passover was morphed by Jesus into his body and blood of the new covenant; the Lord's Supper.
-Baptism became the coolest symbol ever it stands for the resurrection of Jesus.
Each of these symbols point to a single, significant event that changed everything… The Resurrection of Christ. But what is just as exciting, are the symbols that were lost in Christianity and what they point to! We have seen why these new symbols were cherished, but why were a whole set of symbols lost? "It's a conspiracy." Let's look at "The Four Lost Symbols of Christianity".
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1) The Lost Symbol of Animal
Sacrifice.
This is weird and fascinating. In and around where Christianity was born, everyone offered animal sacrifices. The Jews, on the very day Jesus, himself, was sacrificed, killed 1,000's and 1,000's real lambs for the Passover feast. Listen as I read a little section from JewishRoots.net where it describes what it would have been like.
"As people arrived at the Temple Mount with their year old lambs, they awaited the opening of the temple courtyard doors. The priests then permitted the people to enter the courtyard and divided the crowd into three groups. As the first group entered, the gates were closed behind them and the rams horn was sounded. The stones of the altar and the ramp leading to the altar, as well as the Temple sanctuary itself, had been whitewashed with plaster just for this occasion. The sight of the sparkling clean Temple must have been magnificent."
"The people then killed their animals, and a priest caught the blood of the sacrifice in a basin. Other priests were standing in two lines. Those in one line carried silver basins, and those in the second line carried gold basins. As the first priest passed the blood filled basin to the next priest in line, he received an empty basin in return. This exchange continued on down the line until the last priest tossed the blood on the altar. All of the priests involved in this procedure wore scarlet robes so, in the event of an accidental spill, the blood on their clothing would not be noticed."
"After the sacrifice, the animals were taken by their owners and hung on hooks in the walls and pillars. If all the hooks were in use, men held staves between their shoulders, and the carcasses were hung from staves. The lambs were then flayed and taken home to be roasted. As the Passover lambs were slain, the Levite's sang for each incoming group a collection of Hallal psalms."
"Each lamb was slaughtered in the name of the mitzvah - commandment - attaching lofty spiritual import to the act. The slaughtering was done in shifts, within the confines of the Temple Courtyard. Between shifts, the priests completely washed down the Courtyard, maintaining the cleanliness and the dignity appropriate to the Holy Temple."
Doesn't that sound spectacular? The Passover holiday was the highest among the Jews and the animal sacrifice was the high point of that high point. Why would the early Christians, who were all Jews, drop this spectacular symbol? Why was the animal sacrifice symbol lost?
It wasn't only the Jews. As Christianity spread around the world, every where it went there were sacrificed animals. How did you worship the pagan gods? Animal sacrifice. The Greeks, the Romans, the Persians and most others offered animal sacrifice. It was what it meant to be religious; you sacrificed animals! So, why did Christianity lose this prevalent and impressive symbol? "I suspect it was a conspiracy."
2)
The Lost Temple Symbol (sounds like an Indiana Jones movie)
Once again, we have in most of the religions, surrounding early Christianity, magnificent temples. The temple was the center of most religions. The Jewish Temple, in the days of early Christianity, was spectacular. Herod's Temple was one of the larger construction projects of the first century. Herod was interested in perpetuating his name for all eternity through building projects, and his construction program was extensive. He had magnificent palaces in Masada, Caesarea and Tiberias. Herod also built temples for various pagan gods to serve the gentile populations. But his masterpiece was the Temple of Jerusalem. The old temple was 500 years old, despite frequent renovation, most notably by the Maccabees in the century before, was still run down and relatively small. In 20 BC, Herod announced that the old temple would be torn down and replaced with something truly magnificent. Remember what the disciples told Jesus?
Luke 21:5-6 Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, "As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down."
The temple was the center of the Jewish religion. It was the place where God met man. It was the place where the realm of heaven intersected with the realm of man. It was where God lived. The Jewish Temple was there most magnificent symbol of all. It was not only religious, it was what brought focus and purpose and connection to the Jewish world.
The same can be said of the pagan religions. Temples to all the gods were the center of where you worshipped and where you met the gods. I can hardly overstate the importance of Temples to the ancient world? Yet, early Christianity had no temples. Even still we don't have temples. I guess you could argue that cathedral's and church buildings crept back into the Christianity. But it is not the same, and not what pure Christianity is all about. Why did the early church not build a temple? "Was it a conspiracy?"
3) The Lost Symbol of the
Land
This is all little bit more subtle. The Jews, of the first century, thought of the Land of Promise as a special symbol of God's blessing on them. From the days of Abraham, the Land was this special symbol that connected the Jews to their God. It was the place where God blessed them and gave them their existence. It was the home of God's true people.
Genesis 15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--
Ezekiel
47:13-15 This is what
the Sovereign LORD says: "These are the boundaries by which you are to divide
the land for an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel, with two portions
for Joseph. You are to divide it
equally among them. Because I swore with uplifted hand to give it to your
forefathers, this land will become your inheritance. "This is to be the boundary of the
land…"
Throughout the history of Judaism there has always been a focus on the land as the heart of what it meant to be a child of God. Jerusalem was the heart of the Land. The Holy of Holies in the Temple was the epicenter of Judaism. It spread in concentric circles to the Temple to Jerusalem then to the whole land of Promise. It was YHWH's turf and something to fight for and preserve.
Yet, in the early church, there is hardly any mention of land. The early Christians just dropped this whole symbol. You are hard pressed even to find a mention of the Land in the New Testament. Why? Why did they lose the land symbol? "What kind of conspiracy gives up the land?"
4) The Lost Symbol of Racial
Identity
This may be the biggest mystery of all. Why did Christianity lose its racial distinction and self-superiority? One of the functions of religion is to make you feel more important than any other group. Once again the Jews of Jesus' day, were diligent about who was and who wasn't Jewish. The Jews were surrounded by the pagan Romans and Greeks and Syrians and everyone else, in order to maintain their ethnic separation; they relied upon, being kosher and circumcision and Sabbath day restrictions. This symbol allowed them to be able to say they were different, and separate and better than the rest of the world. What did it mean to be Jewish? It meant following Torah laws. That was the essence of their racial identity.
I suspect all the ethnic groups of the 1st century world thought themselves better than all the rest. They all would have had things they did to point to their special ethnicity. Certainly, the Romans thought they were the mightiest and the Greeks the smartest and on and on and on. Most religions focus on themselves and how they were better than all the rest. Yet, Christianity dropped all that and focused on every single person as precious to God.
Why did Christianity just quit thinking about racial purity? Why did they look at everyone as made in the image of God? Why did Christianity transcend ethnic and racial barriers to teach everyone about Jesus? Where did the symbol of Racial Identity go?
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Mystery Solved
Anyone want to guess the solution to this mystery in two words? Why did Christianity give up all of these symbols which were so important to all the other religions around them? I'll give you a clue. It is the 9th Reason I believe in… "The Resurrection". The Resurrection of Jesus changed all the symbols and caused "The Lost Symbols of Christianity" to be lost.
Animal sacrifice: We no longer need animals to appease God because Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. In his resurrection he became the once and always sacrifice!
Hebrews
10:11-14 Day after
day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he
offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of
God. Since that time he waits
for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one he has made perfect forever those who are being
made holy.
We no
longer need animals. We are made
perfect by the sacrifice of the one who now sits on the throne! Christianity lost the symbol of animal
sacrifice because of the resurrection!
He now sits in heaven making us perfect! Why bother with
animals?
The Temple: What did Jesus say about the temple?
John 2:13-22 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me." Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Through the resurrection of the body of Jesus, we no longer need a stone-upon-stone temple. Through his resurrected body we are formed into a living Temple!
1 Corinthians 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
We lost the symbol of stone-upon-stone temples because we are the Temple which Jesus raised in three days!
The Land: We no longer cherish the actual land of Israel because we have new Promised Land where we join the resurrected Jesus for eternity.
2 Peter 3:10-13 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we are going to be resurrected to a new home of the righteous!
Ethnic Superiority: Listen to how the whole view of people has changed.
2 Corinthians 5:14-20 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Because of the resurrection all who faith in Christ, regardless of their ethnicity, are reconciled to God!
Galatians 3:26-28 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Wow, isn't that wonderful! Those who have been baptized into Christ are one in Christ; there is no ethnic, gender or social status differentiation!
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Where did all the symbols go? Why were they lost? It was a conspiracy. God conspired with his Son to die upon a cross and three days later be raised to change everything. All the lost symbols of Christianity lost their meaning in the resurrection of Jesus. "I told you it was a conspiracy!"
Isn't this an amazing confirmation of the Resurrection? The lost symbols of Christianity all point to the reality of the resurrection. Without the resurrection we, most likely, would still be offering animals in a stone-upon-stone temple in a promised land because we thought we were ethnically superior. These lost symbols confirm the resurrection of Jesus. How else to you explain the lost symbols? Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" may be a better action-thriller, but this sermon is the 9th reason why I believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ!
