The Tabernacle | A Sermon on Hebrews 9:1-14

Introduction
The blog is the second in a series about Holy Ground, to better appreciate dwelling in the holy presence of God leading up to a rededicate our church as Holy Ground on August 25^th.  Today, one word is the focus of everything we will talk about:  Tabernacle.  

In Exodus, God told Moses to go to Pharoah and tell him to let God's people go.  The Israelites were slaves in Egypt.  However, God delivered them through a series of ten plagues that brought Pharaoh to his knees.  So God led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness toward the Promised Land.  God appeared as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  And God instructed Moses to build a Tabernacle--a big tent complex, worship center--to serve as God's dwelling on earth.  Whenever the pillar of smoke/fire moved, the Israelites moved.  Whenever the pillar stopped, the Israelites erected the Tabernacle and God's presence would enter and rest inside it.

A passage from the New Testament describes the ancient Tabernacle, connects it to Christ, and explains it's significance for us today.

Hebrews 9:1-14
¹ That first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth. ² There were two rooms in that Tabernacle. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place. ³ Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place. ⁴ In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant. ⁵ Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement. But we cannot explain these things in detail now.

⁶ When these things were all in place, the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious duties. ⁷ But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. ⁸ By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use.

⁹ This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. ¹⁰ For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established.

¹¹ So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. ¹² With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

¹³ Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. ¹⁴ Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Symbols of the Tabernacle
Hebrews describes how the Tabernacle looked (see also the image to the left).  It was a tent designed to be put up, used, taken back down, and moved to a new locations where God led the Israelites.  Whenever the pillar of smoke/fire representing the presence of God stopped, the Israelites stopped.  They erected the Tabernacle and God's glory enter it and made it Holy Ground.  The tent was just physical material, however beautiful and elaborate.  It was God's presence that made it holy.

The Tabernacle had an outer courtyard where priests and Levites would receive ritually pure worshippers who were making a sacrifice.  No one else could enter.  Sacrifices were placed on the Brazen Altar in the courtyard.  There was also a laver for washing.  (With all the sloughtered sacrifices, they certainly needed a large pool for washing.)  Inside the tabernacle were two room--the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place--where only priests could enter.  

The Holy Place was where the priests would perform the daily rituals of lighting the Golden Lampstand, which represented the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden.  They would also make a daily bread offering on the Table of Showbread.  

The second room, the Most Holy Place, was off limits to everyone.  It house the Ark of the Covenant.  The only person who could enter the ost Holy Place (also called the Holy of Holies), was the High Priest.  And he could only enter once a year on the Day of Atonement.  On that day, the High Priest would enter to sprinkle blood on the Ark, first to atone for his own sins, the again to atone for the community's sins.  

The High Priest enter the Most Holy Place with fear and trembling.  It was highly dangerous to be in the holy presence of God.  He wore a robe with bells on the fringe and a rope tied around his ankle.  As long as the other priests could hear the bells jingling while he was in the Most Holy Place, they knew he was still alive and moving.  But if the bells stopped, they could pull the priest out by the rope tied around his ankle.  Now how would you feel going into such a dangerous situation?

The Ark of the Covenant was thought to be God's Throne (or footstool) on earth.  It was where the presence of God rested when the pillar of smoke/fire came entered the Tabernacle.  Two golden cherubim--spiritual beings (like angels)-- sat atop the Ark, symbolically guarding God’s throne.  The first time we see cherubim in the Bible is when God stationed two cherubim at the gate of the Garden of Eden after God exiled Adam and Eve for their sin.  Again, we see the echo's of the Garden of Eden story.

A curtain (or veil) separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.  It was a barrier to keep people from stumbling into God’s presence. Why? It's not to protect God and it's not because God is angry and wants to hurt people.  It's because sinful people cannot survive the holy presence of a perfect God.  Our God is an all consuming fire; His glory would consume our sin and us with it.

“Why Does This Matter?”
Hebrews 9:9 tells us what all this has to do with Christians today.  It says, “This is an illustration pointing to the present time…”  The Old Testament system illustrates how God ultimately saves us through Jesus Christ.

In fact, we see the word ""Tabernacle" in a very familiar verse we often read at Christmastime.  John 1:14 - "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."  The word translated as Dwelling is the Greek word Skenoo, which means to Tabernacle.  Jesus, the Son of God, "tabernacled" among us.  Just as God’s glory dwelled in the Tabernacle in the OT, God’s glory dwelled in Jesus among us on Earth—God in the flesh.  But there’s more.

A Perfect Tabernacle in Heaven
Hebrews 9:11 – “So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world.”

This  description of the Old Testament Tabernacle is a picture of a glorious, heavenly dwelling of God.  And Jesus entered that Tabernacle as our High Priest and offered His own life to atone for us.  Hebrews 9:12, “With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.”

How did Jesus do this?  Jesus died on the cross for our sins.  He shed His blood for us.  The physical things we see on earth are a reflection of the spiritual things happening in the Heavenly realm.  Always remember, we only see things from a earthly perspective.  But, what we see is quite often an echo of the spiritual work of God in the spiritual realm.

Your Sin & God’s Forgiveness
Your sin – your mistakes and your disobedience – separates you from God.  It corrupts your life, messes everything up, and even distorts the world around us.  It is why world is out of whack.  It is why there is disease, disorder, hate, suffering, and death.  Not just your sin, but the sin of the whole world.  But your sin is a big part of the problem.
The world we live in is broke.  We are broke.  I’m broke.  Your broke.  But Jesus came to fix it.  

The Old Testament Tabernacle illustrates how Jesus fixies it all.  He serves as our High Priest to intercede for us to God.  Jesus lays down His own life as the sacrifice for our sins.  He is the Lamb of God.  His blood washes away our sins forever.  When we decide to turn away from our sin, we accept the free gift of God’s grace through Jesus Christ.  God saves us! 

What Happens When God Saves Us?
When God saves us, first of all, our sins are completely washed away. We become holy as God is holy.

Second, there is no longer anything to separate us from God.  We don't have to be like the High Priest in the Old Testament who feared they would dies in God's presence.  No, Hebrews 4:16 says we can "boldly to the throne of grace" because there is no longer any in us.  Christ already atoned for it.

Third, God sends His Holy Spirit to “Tabernacle” inside us.  Just as God's Holy Spirit enterend the Old Testament Tabernacle, and just as God' Holy Spirit descended on Jesus when He was baptized in the Jordan River, God's Holy Spirit comes to reside inside us as His New Testament Tabernacle.  Do you remember the story of Pentecost from Acts chapter 2?  Jesus told His followers to wait in Jerusalem until He sent the Holy Spirit.  So they were all meeting in the Upper Room when the Holy Spirit came during the Feast of Pentecost.  There was the sound of a mighty rushing wind.  And then what appeared as tongues (or pillars) of fire rested atop each believers head!  Do you see the Old Testament image of the Tabernacle being fulfilled?  We are the New Tabernacle!

Fourth, God sees Jesus in us.  We don't have to be afraid.  God no longer sees our sins and mistakes.  He see Jesus in us.  And God says to us what He said to His son at Jesus' baptism:  "Behold, this is my beloved Son!"  If you repent of your sin and follow Jesus as your Savior and Lord, God sees Jesus in you.  That is why when Jesus was crucified, it specifically says the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51)--from the top, meaning it was torn by God and not by human hands.

Fifth, God sends us on a mission.  Tabernacles are meant to be on the move!  They were portable houses of God.  We too are meant to be active and mobile.  Jesus said, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey all my commands."  (See Mathew 28:19-20)

Finally, God begins to actually heal us.  It's not just a visual trick that God sees no sin in us.  When His Holy Spirit comes to live in you, the Spirit gets to work cleaning you up from the inside out.  God's holiness starts to take over your life.  His glory starts to shine forth in you.  How glorius!

Invitation
I want to invite you to respond to what God has said to you in this message today.  If you've never done so, why don't you choose to follow Jesus today.  He will save you.  He will liberate you from sin and death and grant you eternal life.  Humble yourself and come to Him today through Jesus Christ.  Pray and ask God to forgive your sins.  Commit to follow Jesus as Lord.  Then you will receive the Holy Spirit and start to serve as God's Tabernacle on earth.

Have you been baptized?  Perhaps God is calling you to be baptized.  Talk to me or to your pastor, and we can perform this powerful and important sacrament for you to be baptized, in obedience to Jesus command and as a way to receive the grace of God in your life.

There may be some reading this who feel God is calling you to ministry.  Right now, the harvest is plentiful.  There are many churches who need pastors, children's ministers, music leaders, youth leaders, volunteers of all sorts.  God is calling many to serve, but they are afraid.  Is God calling you?  Why don't you answer?  Answer the call today.  Talk to your pastor about it; or talk to me.

Perhaps there are some among you who need to join a church.  Christians need to be part of a faith community.  If you are not already a member of a church, find one to join today.  If you are in my area and looking, I invite you to join my church.  You will be loved and you will find a place to serve.  Talk to me.

Standing on Holy Ground | A Sermon on 1 Kings 8:27-30

Introduction
Today, we begin a new series about the Holy Temple.  But don’t think this is just a series of lectures about some ancient ruins of a long, lost temple.  What the Bible says about the Temple is highly relevant to your life today.  The New Testament teaches that Christians are the “Temple of God”, that each one of us is a “living stone” in God’s spiritual temple.  I want us to understand the full ramifications of what this means for how we are to live every day.  So for the next 4 weeks, we will explore the Biblical concept of Holy Ground.  And we will end on August 25^th a special rededication service for our “Holy Ground” here at Pleasant Grove Methodist Church.

Our Scripture today is 1 Kings 8:27-30.  This passage is part of King Solomon’s prayer when he dedicated the first Temple he built in Jerusalem in 957 BC.  Solomon asks an important question.

1 Kings 8:27-30
²⁷ “But will God really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built! ²⁸ Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today. ²⁹ May you watch over this Temple night and day, this place where you have said, ‘My name will be there.’ May you always hear the prayers I make toward this place. ³⁰ May you hear the humble and earnest requests from me and your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where you live, and when you hear, forgive.

Will God really live on earth?
In his prayer, King Solomon asks a wise question:  Will God really live on earth?  For thousands of years, human beings across the globe have worshiped in sacred places.  There is archaeological evidence of sacred rituals in caves as far back as 100,000 years.  The oldest evidence of a temple is Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey that dates back to approximately 9600 BC—that’s 11,000 years ago.  Obviously, people have always felt the need to worship God in special places—whether natural or manmade.

Christians believe God is omnipresent – meaning God is everywhere.  If I go to church, God is there.  But God is also with me when I go on my morning walk.  And God is with me when I lay down to sleep.  And God is with me when I go on vacation.  Psalm 139:7 – “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!”  If we believe in an almighty, all-powerful God, we also understand God can be everywhere.  So why go to the trouble to build and worship God in a temple, or a church, or even in special place we deem “Holy Ground”?

People sense a deep need to worship a Higher Power.  Christians call this higher power God.  But we also inherently seem to understand, something troubles and separates us from God.  Isaiah 52:2 reveals, “It’s your sins that have cut you off from God.”  Sin separates us from God who is Holy and Sinless.  This was not always so.  Originally, God dwelled in perfect Holy Communion with humanity.

Heaven and Earth and Holy Ground
In the beginning, God made heaven where God and His angels dwell, and God created earth where animals and humans live.  Then God made the Garden of Eden where God and humanity abide together in perfect harmony.  

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve sinned and broke their relationship with God through disobedience.  Their sin separated them from God.  And all creation suffered from this “great fall” that corrupted everything.  Romans 8:20 says, “all creation was subjected to God’s curse.”

It’s not so much that God can’t be around us because we’re filled with so much disgusting sin
(as guilt and shame ridden people often think of it).  God has always loved us unconditionally and desired a relationship with us aven after we sinned.  The problem is:  we cannot abide the holy presence of God.  Hebrews 12:29 says, “Our God is a consuming fire.”  God’s holiness is like a beautiful light emanating from a brilliant and holy fire.  Our sin is an impurity that would burn up in the presence of God’s absolute holiness; we could not survive it.  So God’s act of separating from us is actually an act of merciful grace.  

Yet God has never stopped loving us.  And God always wants to be with us.  And God started working from the very first moment we sinned to save and reconcile with us, but it’s a very difficult and expensive to rescue us.  It’s a plan thousands years in the making and cost the death of God’s very own Son—Jesus Christ.  And so, from the very beginning, God has made special places to be in His holy presence.

Holy Ground
In Genesis, we see God is primarily working through individuals and individual families.  Therefore, worship is primarily done by individuals or their families and private altars.  In Genesis 6, God told Noah to build an Ark to save his family and a remnant of the animals from a great flood.  Afterward, Noah built the first altar mentioned in the Bible.  As God painted a rainbow across the sky, Noah worshipped God on holy ground.  

In Genesis 12, God appeared to Abraham and blessed Him at Shechem, promising to make His descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.  So Abram built an alter and worshipped God and they cut a covenant together.

In Genesis 22, we find the disturbing story where God tells Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, the miraculous child of promise on holy Mount Moriah.  Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain as Abraham mournfully seeks to obey God in this terrible request.  It is hard to understand, but  this story foreshadows God's plan of salvation for humanity.  Mount Moriah is the same hill as Mount Calvary.  God cries out and tells Abraham not to sacrifice his son.  God provides a ram to take Isaac's place.  2,000 years later, Jesus--the Son of God--carries the wooden cross up Mount Calvary and is crucified upon it to atone for the sins of the world.

In Genesis 28, we find Isaac's son Jacob sleeping on another piece of holy ground in a place he names Bethel, which means “House of God”, because there he dreamed he saw a ladder upon which angels where ascending and descending from heaven to earth.

In Exodus, God broadens His focus from individuals/families to a whole nation—the Israelites.  In Exodus 3, God appears to Moses in a burning bush and tells him to take off his sandles because he is standing on holy ground.  God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh in Egypt and let God's people (the Israelites) go free from slavery.  

Then in Exodus 20, Moses climbs up holy Mount Sanai where God gives him the 10 Commandments and the Law for His people.  This is how God's holy people are to live.  God's people became a nation.  They were slaves, but God rescued them from Egypt.  

As the Israelites wander through the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land, they dwelled in tents Since His people lived in tents, the Holy, omnipotent God who dwells in the glory of heaven humbled Himself and came down and lived in a tent alongside His people.

The Tabernacle

In Exodus 25, God gives instructions to build a Tabernacle, Israel’s first worship center.  That's how bad God wants to be with us, despite our stubborn, sinful, rebellious nature.  For 440 years, the Israelites worship the Holy and Living God, Yahweh, in the Tabernacle, an elaborate tent complex designed to mimic the Garden of Eden, the intersection of Heaven and Earth.  Here are some of the ways the Tabernacle was designed to mirror the Garden of Eden:

• The Menorah Lampstand in the Tabernacle looks like the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.
• There are pomegranates embroidered on the priestly garments to represent the fruit of the garden.
• There are cherubim guarding the Holy Place in the Tabernacle that houses the Ark of the Covenant (the footstool of God); these represent the cherubim guarding the entrance to the Garden of Eden.
• The holy presence of God is with His people in the Tabernacle as He was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

The purpose of the Tabernacle was to make space for holy ground where people could once again dwell in the presence of God.  And all the elaborate rituals of the Old Testament Law where meant to make it possible for sinful humanity to come into the presence of their holy God as much as possible.  

The Israelites worshiped God in the Tabernacle for 440 years until they settled down in Israel.  And finally, after most Israelites were dwelling in houses and not tents and the king of Israel lived in a palace, God finally told King Solomon to build a Temple--a permanent structure, not a tent.  The pattern for the Temple was much the same as the Tabernacle—mimicking God's original plan to dwell with people in the Garden of Eden.

Then and Now
Despite God being beyond physical containment, He chose to make His presence known to the Israelites in the Tabernacle and then the Temple.  These worship centers served as the focal points for prayer, worship, and the experience of God's presence.  The temple was a physical reminder of God's covenant with Israel and His promise to dwell among His people.  The temple was a place to seek God's mercy and forgiveness and healing. 

Of course, God is not confined to a specific building, no matter how sacred and glorious it was.  God is still everywhere.  But the ancient temple in Jerusalem was the communal place where the ancient people of God (Israel) gathered to worship together.

Together
And that's a key word for us to take away today:  together.  God’s people are meant to worship God together.  Of course, we can and should worship God every day in our own personal ways and in our own personal spaces.  However, our worship is always incomplete if we do not join together with other believers as a community.

Conclusion
There is much to unpack as we examine the history and purpose of the Temple.  I'm going to share more over the next few weeks.  I hope you will stay tuned as we examine a number of important ideas and themes connected to the Temple.  Stay tuned!