Parkdale Grace Fellowship Sunday AM, May 27, 2018 The Tabernacle of Witness Because of Adam s sin, mankind has been separated from God and, as far as we can tell, before the time of Moses in human history only a select few individuals had known God in a very personal way. Only men like Enoch and Abraham. It was different for believers then than it is now for us living in the New Testament age, because Christ has removed our sin, and because the Spirit of God now lives within our hearts, we can experience a level of close fellowship with God that was not possible in the Old Testament. We can sense His presence living in us, and we can experience the power of His Spirit working in our lives to give us victory over sin. We can experience our lives being made more and more godly as we mature because of the indwelling life of Christ. We who are born again followers of Christ have an identity that no one in the Old Testament had. They by nature were always sinners, we by nature are righteous saints. They by nature were always separated from God; we by nature are made one with God s Spirit; they prayed to a God who was always outside of them distant from them; they sought to live up to the standards of a God whom they could never be like. We can experience the joy of seeing His life developing inside of us, causing us to become more and more like Him; causing us to begin thinking like Him, caring like Him, and acting like Him. But this level of intimacy and spiritual growth was not possible for anyone in the Old Testament. Because of their sin God forgave their sin when they put their faith in Him, but they could never receive a new nature they were always sinners by nature, and therefore God could not live in the hearts of the people not until Jesus Christ would come and take away their sin, and put to death their sinful nature, and give them a new spirit a new life. So in the meantime He provided a building, actually a tent, called a tabernacle, that would be set up in the middle of the Israelites camp, to serve as a dwelling place for God, so that God could live close to His people and have a greater level of fellowship with them. God had never done this before for any group of people. But now, at this point in history, when God led the people of Israel out of Egypt, for the first time God chose to make Himself known to an entire nation of people God is initiating a restoration of fellowship with man. But there were still pretty strict boundaries between God and His people.
2 Exodus 24:1-2, Now [God] said to Moses, Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. 2 And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him. God desires to restore fellowship with mankind, but there is a big problem: All of mankind has been separated from God by sin. God is sinless, absolutely pure; He cannot allow sinful people to come into His direct presence or they would be destroyed by His glory like germs are destroyed when they come into contact with fire. So God places all kinds of restrictions and limitations against these people coming near to presence of God s glory but He is making a way for a greater level of connection with Him than ever before. He is establishing a priestly system. God s presence is at the top of Mt. Sinai. The majority of the people stay at the bottom of Mt. Sinai, a group of priests and elders can come a little closer, but still had to worship from afar. Only one person Moses, who is functioning as the High Priest only he can come close to God. Exodus 25:1, 2, 8, Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering... 8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. They are to build a portable sanctuary because God wanted to be more closely connected to His people and He wanted to dwell among them. Therefore He provided the Tabernacle, a place that would provide the people a way to have a certain measure of close fellowship with God. He took the initiative in reaching out to us. God wanted to dwell among His people His desire was for fellowship. He longs for us, and He always has, because He loves us. This Tabernacle was also known as the Tabernacle of Witness (Acts 7:44), because it was a tangible demonstration of the love of God and the grace of God among a sinful people. Exodus 29:45-46 expresses God s purpose in His dealings with Israel, and His purpose is still the same for us today. Except today He doesn t merely dwell among us but He now lives in us. I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.
3 God gave the people a blueprint for how to build the tabernacle, and He gave very specific and detailed instructions on how they were to use the tabernacle to relate to God. God s insistence on the people following His blueprint exactly as He gave them was to demonstrate God s unquestionable authority and holiness. These precise instructions emphasized that people could only come to God on God s terms, and not on their own terms. Any deviation from His pattern would result in death. Likewise today, we cannot find God in our own way. There is only one way to have relationship with God and that is through Jesus Christ. Each component of the tabernacle is part of an intricate visual aid designed to illustrate how people could have relationship with God. And every aspect of the tabernacle points us to Jesus. Jesus is the reality, the tabernacle was His shadow. The tabernacle is a prophetic projection of Jesus. (Introduction to the Tabernacle, Good Seed, p.. 3) To begin with, the Tabernacle and its courtyard were surrounded by a 7 foot tall fence. All the Israelites lived in tents, so God was going to come and live among them in a tent also. But only God s tent had a tall fence around it which kept the people at a distance from the presence of God. It was a constant reminder that because of our sin we are separated from God. There was only one gateway in the fence only one way to gain access to the presence of God. That one gate was symbolic of Jesus Christ. John 14:6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. When you entered that one gateway the first thing you would encounter inside the tabernacle courtyard was a large bronze altar upon which the animal sacrifices would be burned. This demonstrated to the Israelites that the first step for sinful mankind in approaching a holy God was to admit that we are sinners. The Israelite had to bring an animal sacrifice with him when he came to the tabernacle and he had to offer that animal on the altar, which demonstrated that he needed a sinless substitute to die in his place to pay the penalty for our sin. Likewise, before anyone can approach God today, the first thing we need to do is to admit we are a helpless sinner and look to the substitute sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for our sins. The altar and the cross were both places of death where a sacrifice was made to pay the penalty for our sin.
4 And like a lamb was offered on the altar, the Lamb of God was offered as a sacrifice on the cross. Jesus was God s provision of a perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. Jesus was sinless, just as the sacrificial lamb was without blemish. Jesus was raised up on the cross, just like the animal sacrifice was raised up on the altar. Jesus was killed and His blood spilled out on the ground at the foot of the cross just like the lamb was killed and its blood was poured out on the ground at the foot of the altar. And just as the guilt of the man presenting the sacrifice was transferred to the animal when he laid his hands upon its head, our guilt is transferred to Jesus when we put our trust in His death as our substitute on the cross. In the O.T. there was absolutely no direct access to God available to anyone. In the O.T. it was an extremely difficult process to approach God and you could not come near by yourself. The average layperson could only come as close as the outer alter and there they had to stop and give their sacrifice to a priest. They could proceed no closer. The priest had to go to God on their behalf as a mediator between God and man, the ordinary person could go no closer than the altar. The priests could go beyond the altar, but their next stop had to be to wash themselves clean at a large bronze bowl called a laver. Exodus 30:17-21 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base also of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. And you shall put water in it, for Aaron and his sons [they were the priests] shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it. When they go into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the LORD, they shall wash with water, lest they die. So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die The location of the laver was significant. It was located after the altar but before the holy place. The laver was symbolic of what the Bible calls sanctification. Sanctification means to be made holy. Sanctification delivers me from the polluting effect of living in a sinful world. The altar represents the crossing of the Red Sea it delivers the people from Egypt from Satan and the world.
5 The laver represents cleansing the people from the influence of Satan and the world so that they begin acting like their God. This is a process called Sanctification. After washing their hands and feet at the laver the priests could then enter through another doorway into the Holy Place, which was the first room in the tent of the tabernacle. In the Holy Place there were three pieces of furniture that all represented the ministry of Jesus Christ toward His people: on the left side of the room was the lamp stand, known as the menorah. On the right side of the room was a table with 12 loaves of bread, known as the table of showbread. And directly straight ahead, standing in front of the veil was the golden altar of incense. The lampstand provided light to the Holy Place and was symbolic of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. The second piece of furniture in the Holy Place on the right hand, directly across from the lampstand, was the Table of Showbread with bread sitting on it. Bread on a golden table is symbolic of a fellowship meal in the presence of God. How does this point to Jesus? Look at John 6:35 And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. Let us now look at the third piece of furniture in the Holy Place of the tabernacle, the golden altar of incense. This small altar sat in front of the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Every morning and again every evening the priests would put fresh incense on the altar and the incense would smolder and burn continuously day and night as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. The incense was symbolic of prayer and intercession constantly going up to God on behalf of mankind. Romans 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He [Jesus] is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Deep inside, at the very heart of the tabernacle, there was an inner room called the Most Holy Place.
6 But the only way to enter that inner room the Most Holy Place, was to pass through the Holy Place which represented Jesus Christ, the light of the world, and the bread of life, Who always lives to make intercession for us. There was a heavy curtain which separated the Most Holy Place from the Holy Place. This curtain was called the veil. It was the final layer of separation between the presence of God and sinful man, shielding man from the consuming glory of the Most Holy God. No ordinary person could ever enter that Most Holy Place because to enter that room was to enter into the very presence of God. Only the high priest could ever enter the Most Holy Place and he could come in only on one day each year, on the Day of Atonement. When the high priest came in to the Most Holy Place on that one day of the year he also had to carry with him the blood of a special sacrifice to make a covering for sin. The high priest who could take the blood sacrifice into the presence of God and offer it on behalf of us, represented Jesus Christ who is our high priest, who took His own blood and offered it before the Father on our behalf. Hebrews 9:11-12, But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. And look at what happened to the inner veil when Jesus died on the cross, Mark 15:37-38 And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This was God s sign that Jesus sacrifice on our behalf was accepted. The tearing open of the veil that separated us from God showed that Jesus blood which was offered to God for our sin, had been successful in removing that final barrier that separated us from God by cleansing us of all our sin and making us righteous before God. Hebrews 4:16, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Today there is no man-made tabernacle that separates us from God the followers of God are now the tabernacle of God the Tabernacle of Witness. He lives in us among sinful people in the world. We no longer have to offer animal sacrifices to deal with our sin Jesus was the final sacrifice that forever takes away our sin. We no longer depend on priests approach God on our behalf we can boldly enter ourselves into the most intimate of relationships with God, who is now our Father, and talk to Him ourselves all because of Jesus Christ.
7 Copyright 2018 by Parkdale Grace Fellowship Permission: You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.