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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor September
8, 2002 During
the service, the congregation
built a simple altar of unhewn
stones. These stones will
become part of the new
building. Then
Noah built an altar to the
LORD and, taking some of all
the clean animals and clean
birds, he sacrificed burnt
offerings on it. The
LORD smelled the pleasing
aroma and said in his heart:
"Never again will I curse the
ground because of man, even
though every inclination of
his heart is evil from
childhood. And never again
will I destroy all living
creatures, as I have
done." In
Genesis 12:7 we find that Abram
built an altar to commemorate
God's appearance, and also His
gracious offer of a covenant
relationship: Later
Abram, or Abraham as he was
renamed, built altars in various
places where he stopped in the
Promised Land. The
practice of building altars
continued with his son Isaac. For
example in Genesis 26:23-25, we
find this account: Isaac
built an altar there and
called on the name of the
LORD. There he pitched his
tent, and there his servants
dug a well. The
practice of building altars
continued with the the other
patriarchs, and also with Moses,
to commemorate special times,
events, or encounters with
God. At
first altars were rocks piled
together, or perhaps even one
just large rock. Later,
particularly after the Exodus,
altars became a bit more
elaborate. Archeologists
have excavated several ancient
altars that give us a good idea
what they looked like. Here's a
picture of an altar found at
Megiddo, a city in the region
that's referred to as Samaria in
the New Testament. Here's
a picture of an incense altar,
also excavated at
Megiddo. Much
more important than what altars
looked like is their purpose. As
I already mentioned, they were
used to acknowledge special
events or or commemorate an
encounter with God. But the
primary purpose of an altar was
to serve as a place of sacrifice.
Often,
an animal was killed and burned
on the altar as an offering to to
the LORD. Indeed, the Hebrew word
we translate "altar" literally
means "slaughter place." Doesn't
that make you want to come to the
altar? Keep
in mind that in biblical times,
domesticated animals were the
major source of livelihood. In
other words, an animal
represented wealth. An animal was
something of value given over to
God. But
even the incense altars, such as
the one we just looked at,
represented the sacrifice of
wealth. Incense was expensive. It
was a sacrifice that cost
something. In
fact, a sacrifice by definition
is costly. Look with me at 1
Chronicles 21. Here, King David
has sinned against the LORD and
God has poured out His judgment
on the people of
Israel. David
confesses his sin, and God
instructs him to go to a
particular place and to build an
altar for a sacrifice. The place
belongs to a man named Araunah,
so King David goes to see
him. Starting
at verse 22: Araunah
said to David, "Take it! Let
my lord the king do whatever
pleases him. Look, I will give
the oxen for the burnt
offerings, the threshing
sledges for the wood, and the
wheat for the grain offering.
I will give all this."
But
King David replied to Araunah,
"No, I insist on paying the
full price. I will not take
for the LORD what is yours, or
sacrifice a burnt offering
that costs me
nothing." This
story sums up the whole idea of
sacrifice: a sacrifice must cost
us something personally. We give
up something of value. If there
is not a personal cost, it's not
really a sacrifice. We
no longer sacrifice animals as a
sin offering to God because Jesus
offered Himself as the
perfect sacrifice
for sin. Once the perfect
offering has been made, no other
sin offering is
necessary. Even
so, the altar of the church
remains a place of sacrifice --
sacrifices of a different kind.
It is here that we offer our
wealth to God, not with animals
or incense but through our tithes
and other financial
offerings. I
know of several churches that
don't pass offering plates as we
do. Instead, the people come to
the altar and actually submit
their offerings right there. That
expresses what a monetary
offering is. It's a
sacrifice. Look
at this picture of the Altar of
the Nails of the Holy Cross,
which is found in the Church of
the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem. Our
modern day sacrifices aren't just
about money, as important as that
kind of sacrifice is. Indeed, the
money is just one aspect of
another kind of sacrifice: the
sacrifice of
ourselves. The
Bible speaks about the "sacrifice
of self"
in
Romans 12:1-2: Do
not conform any longer to the
pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what
God's will is -- his good,
pleasing and perfect
will. The
Apostle Paul here is echoing the
words of Jesus found in Luke
9:23-24: Often,
we make our commitment to live
that way, and renew our
commitment to live that way, here
at the altar. Jesus,
of course, is our model here.
Jesus made the cross an altar. It
became the place of supreme
sacrifice. On the cross He
offered Himself to God as the
Lamb, the sacrifice who takes
away the sins of the
world. We
sacrifice in response to His
sacrifice. The Bible says we're
to take up our cross daily,
meaning that we live
sacrificially, giving up things
that are valuable to us, for the
sake of Jesus and His
kingdom. So
even though the appearance and
actual use of altars has changed
since the time of Noah and Abram
and David, the purpose is the
same. The altar is the place we
have designated to encounter God
in corporate worship, and a place
to offer our sacrifices to God,
including the sacrifice of
ourselves. What
does all this have to do with
building a new sanctuary? It is
this: We're not just building a
building, we're building an altar
-- a place of
sacrifice. Indeed,
the building itself requires
sacrifice. We have to give up
something of value, something
we'd like to keep -- money -- in
order to build it. Why
would we do this? What's the
goal, the purpose, in doing this?
Is it so we can be more
comfortable? Is it because you
like the preacher and we want to
do it for me? Listen
carefully. If either of those
things is what is motivating you
to give toward the construction
of this new sanctuary, then it is
not a sacrifice acceptable to
God. There
is only one valid reason for
giving -- for sacrificing -- our
time, our energy, and our money
to build a new sanctuary: We
believe God will use this
building to further the Kingdom
of God in this city and on this
planet. This is not about us, it
is not about Gateway Church or
the United Methodist
Church. What
we are doing must be about Jesus
and His Kingdom. If that isn't
true, it is not an altar to God,
it is not an acceptable
sacrifice, and we could find
something better to do with our
resources. We
must understand this. We're not
just building a building. We
building an altar, a place to
present ourselves as living
sacrifices, to serve God in the
ministry of His church. We're
building a place that we
designate as our meeting place
with God in corporate worship and
prayer. A place where we can be
saved, delivered, healed,
empowered and equipped to be the
people of God in a fallen
world. This
is not about us, our comfort, or
our image in the community. It is
about Jesus and His Kingdom. That
is what makes it holy; that is
what makes it an acceptable
sacrifice; that is what will make
this building a true altar to the
living God. We
give today toward this new
construction out of love for God,
and because we desire to see His
Kingdom come on the earth as it
is in heaven. Come now, and bring
your sacrifices to the altar, in
the name of Jesus, the One who
sacrificed His life, so that we
could have life and have it to
the full.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
Building
an altar
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
This
message was preached on
Gateway's Celebration Sunday,
September 8, 2002. On that
day, church members and
friends made pledges toward
funding construction of a new
sanctuary.
The first altar mentioned in
Scripture was built by Noah after
he left the ark. This particular
altar was to commemorate God what
God had done in preserving Noah
and his family through the flood.
We read about it in Genesis 8,
starting at verse 18:So
Noah came out, together with
his sons and his wife and his
sons' wives. All the animals
and all the creatures that
move along the ground and all
the birds -- everything that
moves on the earth -- came out
of the ark, one kind after
another.
The
LORD appeared to Abram and
said, "To your offspring I
will give this land." So he
built an altar there to the
Lord , who had appeared to
him.
From
there [Isaac] went up
to Beersheba. That night the
LORD appeared to him and said,
"I am the God of your father
Abraham. Do not be afraid, for
I am with you; I will bless
you and will increase the
number of your descendants for
the sake of my servant
Abraham."
Ancient
altars
Here's
another found in Petra, Jordan,
which is the place called Edom in
the Bible.
As
you can see, these are altars are
outside -- they're not in
buildings. Later, inside altars
were began to be built ,
primarily for burning
incense.
The
incense altar in the Temple in
Jerusalem was not of stone, but
was made of wood overlaid with
gold.
A sacrifice to
GodDavid
said to him, "Let me have the
site of your threshing floor
so I can build an altar to the
LORD, that the plague on the
people may be stopped. Sell it
to me at the full price."
Financial
sacrifices
You
can see that its very ornate,
very valuable -- the altar itself
represents sacrifice. Things of
great value had to be given up,
money had to be donated,
sacrifices had to be made, to
build this altar.
The
sacrifice of selfTherefore,
I urge you, brothers, in view
of God's mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God --
this is your spiritual act of
worship.
Then
he said to them all: "If
anyone would come after me, he
must deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his
life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will
save it."
The significance for
us
We
are building an altar to the
living God, a place to continue
experiencing His presence. A
larger place so we can invite
others and have better resources
to help them experience God by
showing them His love and
grace.
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020908a: Building an
Altar.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado