The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-23, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 51."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

Answer

You mean the millennial sacrificial system? In the time of the millennium, you have a picture of the millennial kingdom of Christ in Ezekiel 40-48, that when we get into the millennial kingdom, after the Lord comes and establishes his kingdom, there’s going to be a sacrificial system of some kind going on in that millennial kingdom. In the light of Hebrews 9, what he means by that is since Christ is the “one offering,” who satisfied all requirements and the sacrificial system has ended, why does God bring back the sacrificial system in the millennial kingdom?

The answer to the question is simply this: the same reason we have the Lord’s Table today. We have the Lord’s Table in which we take the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we go back to that, in the picture, in the drama that’s played out in the Lord’s Table as a memorial and a testimony to that.

I believe that the sacrificial system, as designed by God and revealed through Ezekiel, will be in the millennial kingdom, for the Jews, a memorial feast with the same kind of idea as the communion is for us. They will then, every time they offer those sacrifices, be seeing the One whom God sent to be the final sacrifice. So, since their connection is to the Old Testament, God will reinstitute those as a drama, as a memorial drama, to demonstrate and dramatize that Christ is the true Lamb pictured in all those sacrifices…just like every time we have communion, some people say, “Don’t you just repeat the dying of Jesus?” Well, not really. We just continually memorialize and remember the one sacrifice. We, in the communion service, look back at it; they, at that time, will carry on the sacrifices that in the Old Testament look forward to it.

Well, I think so because I think you have the word of the prophets that the Jews are going to be bringing the Gentiles to Jerusalem, you know, ten Gentiles hanging on the robe of every Jew. They’ll be taking us to that place and I think there will be participation in those things.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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