John 19:16 “Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified, so they took Jesus and led Him away”

 Introduction
The origins of the term “scapegoat” come from Leviticus 16 and the sacrifice at the heart of the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 16:6-10 provides a summary of the offerings: bull for the high priest’s sin offering and then two goats – one for God and their sin offering and one for the picture we infer from the goat sent into the wilderness. It is interesting and noteworthy that atonement must first be made for Aaron. “No minister can lead people where he has not been. No person can speak of the forgiveness of sins whose own sins have not been forgiven…The Day of Atonement began with Aaron, not with the people.” (Of course, Christ had no such need. Compare Hebrews 5:1-3 and Hebrews 7:26-28).

 Meaning of Scapegoat
Scapegoat means one who bears blame unfairly or a person who is unfairly blamed for something that others have done – is derived from a ceremony recorded in Leviticus 16.  Since a goat was sent into the wilderness to bear the sins of the Israelites, many presume this scapegoat called azazel in Hebrew is Jesus Christ. Others say Satan wants us to view him as a scapegoat, someone unjustly blamed for sin by an unfair God. The ceremony where God personally identifies this goat delivers some of the most profound lessons we can learn about the Day of Atonement—and identifies the azazel for what he is.

 The Hebrew word for “scapegoat” here is azazel, and it means “the goat of departure” or the goat of escape. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, though, scapegoat means “one that bears the blame for others.” But notice, the original Hebrew word azazel has no implication of bearing blame; rather, the azazel is simply a goat of departure. Leviticus 16:8 says that one lot is for the Lord and the other is for the azazel – not for the Lord. The goat that the Lord’s lot fell on was to be slain, just as Jesus Christ was slain (verse 9). The azazel would not be slain, but driven alive into the wilderness (verse 10).

In Leviticus 16:20-22, the scapegoat’s role is presented in more detail. They were to “lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites – all their sins and put them on the goat’s head”. (This parallels the principle of substitutionary atonement seen throughout the sacrificial system but highlighted here for this one special day.) Then the goat was sent into the desert and verse 22 says that “the goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place”. (Interestingly, some people believe that Christ was baptized on Day of Atonement and then went to the desert.)

 Two Identical Goats
In ancient Israel, God commanded that a special ceremony take place on the Day of Atonement. In Leviticus 16:5, we read that the high priest was to take two kids of the goats as a sin offering. But first, Aaron, high priest at the time, was to offer a sin offering for himself (verse 6). Then we read about the instructions regarding these two goats: “And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat” (verses 7-8).
Goat No. 1 symbolizes forgiveness and its blood price; goat No. 2, the scapegoat, symbolizes repentance, removal of sin and guilt. Of course, in Christian theology, the ordering of the two goats is important. One last thought: we improperly apply the concept of scapegoat ironically, by blame-shifting.

 After the azazel was sent into the wilderness, both the high priest and the fit man (before he returned to the camp) had to wash themselves and their clothes (Leviticus 16:23-26).

This “fit man” represented the angel in Revelation 20:1-3 who will lay hold of the dragon and seal him in the bottomless pit when this day is fulfilled.

 The commentaries are divided as to whether the azazel is Jesus Christ or Satan the devil – but the Bible makes the answer plain. This really shouldn’t be surprising because even the high priest could not tell which goat was which; God Himself would reveal which goat represented Christ and which represented Satan only after the high priest had solemnly appealed to Him through the casting of lots. If the azazel were simply another representation of Christ, there would be no real need to distinguish between the two goats—but there is a real need, and one that we face daily. The truth is, without God’s direct intervention, even we can’t tell Satan apart from Jesus Christ! Satan would like nothing better than for us to mistake him for our Savior and High Priest.

 Today, our sins have been forgiven by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice; when the Day of Atonement is fulfilled, the original blame for these sins will be put back where it belongs: on Satan the devil, who will be completely removed from the presence of God and suffer mental torment forever as justice demands (Revelation 20:10).

 The Reason for the Scapegoat
The scapegoat is a type or figure of Christ’s atonement to save mankind in the Old Testament Sanctuary service. When our first parents sinned in Eden, they would have died at that very instance if Jesus had not provided a way out to save them. Gen 3:15 (NIV) – “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

 To be continued.

 Dcn. Mike Ben

The Success Encounter, which holds on the second Sunday of every month, has been re-fashioned to include other topics or Titles.

The title of next Sunday (13th April 2014) Success Encounter is “Tithing and First Fruits”.

Make sure you don’t miss any Success Encounter program.

The Drama Rehearsal continues this Thursday, 10th April 2014.

New Members are welcome.

The Church is organizing Sent forth for Pastor Abiodun Doherty, Pastor Ademilua and Pastor Sina Joseph.

The Church appreciates your support towards this.

Due to reasons in the mission field beyond our control, the mission trip to Abababubu announced last week could not hold.

A new date will be announced later.

You can still bring forth your gift or contribution to the mission.

Our weekly Prayer and Fasting activities continues. It holds as follows:

Mondays – Friday:  6:00pm – 7:00pm
Saturday – Sunday: 5:00pm – 6:00pm

The Mission department is embarking on a mission trip to a village called Abababubu in Ondo state.

Your contribution towards this journey will be highly appreciated. You can contribute in Prayers, Financial and Welfare materials like Food items, New Ankara Fabric, toiletries, good Shirts and Trousers, Bags of Rice, etc

You are hereby reminded of the Let’s Go a Fishing during this Easther period.
Let’s be prepared Spiritually, Financially and in physical appearance, as true service will be rewarded by God.

The venue of the Let’s Go a Fishing will be announced later.

In the part one of this message, we mentioned that there is no stagnation in life without a cause and, where there is no rain, there will be stagnation, fruitlessness, struggles and unprofitability. We also mentioned some conditions to be fulfilled in order to experience overflowing, namely: Access to Right information; Get yourself into the Ark of Safety; You must think God’s thought. Here are other conditions:

Believe GOD for your victory

Psalm 105:14-15- ‘He suffered no man to do them wrong: ye He reproved kings for their sakes; saying touch not my anointed, and do my prophet no harm.’

To attract God’s favour and backing in life is to have absolute trust in His thought concerning you. Noah believed God and did the unusual by building the ark and saved his household. (Gen.7:5-7). While the rain from heaven was acting as a destructive agent against God’s enemies (enemies of righteousness) the same rain acted as a means of divine upliftment and comfort for God’s people.

Make up your mind today if you want to overflow and the glory of God will come to your life. Where others sowed and could not reap, you will sow and reap in abundance. When men are crying over the threat of death, you shall rejoice over life and peace. When men are dying of  lack and famine, you shall look for who to distribute your excesses to.

Complete Obedience

Obedience to the words of God is very germane to overflowing. It is recorded that Abraham obeyed God completely and he became blessed and His blessing flows from generation to generation.

Fear of the Lord

Psalm 25:14-“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and He will shew them his covenant.”

Psalm 128:1-Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord that walketh in His ways. Psalm 147: 11. “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy’

The above passages confirmed how God takes pleasure in those that fear Him, Hence it is very important to adapt your life to fearing God to have a guaranteed overflowing.

Giving

Giving is an attribute of God. He gave the most precious (Son) to salvage humanity at His own expense. Prov. 11:24- “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that with holdeth more than is meet, but it tendereth to poverty.

We should give, not in the house of God alone, but to as many that we are privileged to give.

No doubt if you follow all the mentioned principles, you will experience divine overflowing.

Remain blessed.

Don. Wole Bodunde

A lot of people have asked this question “If Jesus paid the price for our sin, why do we still suffer the consequences of our sin?”

 The Scriptures state, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Christ paid the penalty for our sin. We all deserve death, which is the ultimate penalty for sin. Everyone will pay for his sin unless he comes to Christ, who has paid the price for our sin with His blood. Adam and Eve suffered consequences for their sin by being expelled from the Garden. Instead of using the word “consequences,” we should think of the word “discipline.” The writer of Hebrews says about discipline and its purpose, “And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, his children? He said, my child, don’t ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don’t be discouraged when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those He accepts as his children”.

“As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined? If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children after all. Since we respect our earthly fathers who disciplined us, should we not all the more cheerfully submit to the discipline of our heavenly Father and live forever? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always right and good for us because it means we will share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it is painful! But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in the way” (Hebrews 12:5-11)

God shows His love by correcting us and/or using discipline to bring us to where He wants us to be. What does a good father do when he sees his child straying away from the right path to go his own way? He brings him back by means of discipline. Now discipline can come in many forms, depending on the seriousness of the offense. If a child is never disciplined or never suffers the consequences for his wrong action, he will never learn what is right.

Therefore, out of love, God disciplines those who are His. If you never suffered the consequence of your sin, how would you know when you are doing right or wrong? The psalmist says, “Will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread; they wouldn’t think of praying to God” (Psalm 53:4). See also Psalm 10:11, “The wicked say to themselves, ‘God isn’t watching! He will never notice!’” If God did not bring about consequences, we would not learn from our mistakes and change our ways. God only disciplines those who are His, and He does this out of love for us, not to harm us or tear us down. It is God’s way of saying, “My child, you are going the wrong way, and it is time to turn around and do what is right.” If we are not corrected when we do wrong, then we will keep doing wrong.

God has paid the penalty for our sins so we will not have to suffer the second death, which is hell (Revelation 20:14). Because of His love for us, He disciplines us and brings us into the relationship with Him that He desires. So the next time you feel you are suffering consequences for your sin, remember it is God disciplining you out of love.

Finally, acts of disobedience to God’s laws will very often result in temporal consequences that have nothing to do with God’s discipline. For example, a murderer who comes to Christ and repents of all his sin will receive God’s forgiveness in the eternal sense, and he will enjoy full fellowship with God for eternity in heaven. However, the society in which he lives will still demand that he pay the price for his crime in a temporal sense. He may have to spend his entire life in prison or even be executed for his crime. But even in these situations, he can be greatly used of God while he waits for his ultimate redemption and eternal joy.

 Stay Blessed.

 Mike Ben