It’s a little hard for us to imagine what worship was like in the Jerusalem temple in Old Testament times and during the time of Christ. The few texts in the Old Testament that give us a little information are mostly detailed instructions for the priests on how to perform animal sacrifices: which animals to sacrifice when, what to do with the blood and skin and organs, and so on. There are also lists of the important festivals, when everyone went to the temple, but none of this really gives us a good picture of what actually happened when the people gathered for worship. Imagine some future archeologist trying to reconstruct the Lake Street worship service, but all he has to work with is a church calendar and a copy of the “Instructions for Ushers” sheet that Chris Draxler puts together. That’s what it’s like if we try to picture temple worship based entirely on the descriptions in Leviticus. And it’s not enough.
Sermon Notes