Show Notes
Exodus 25:1-9, 35:4-29
Pastor Stephen Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Your great power is seen in the Exodus, in how you cared for your people, bringing them safely through the Red Sea, carrying them for 40 years in the wilderness, feeding them, giving them water to drink from the rock, sustaining them, so that for 40 years their clothing and their sandals did not wear out.
[00:00:24] But, O Lord, even as we acknowledge the greatness of your salvation and that we ourselves have experienced it, we must acknowledge too, that too often we are like the Israelites. Our hearts still grumble and complain against you. We doubt you, and our hearts pursue all sorts of evil, sinful desires.
[00:00:51] So we come confessing our sin, its extent, its greatness, and we humble ourselves before you, seeking the forgiveness that you promised us in Christ.
[00:01:03] For, O Lord, were you not to forgive us and we to be at peace with you, should we, like Israel, hear you speak as your word is read and proclaimed, we would be like Israel, in terror of your voice.
[00:01:22] So we ask, O God, that you would seal to our hearts your loving forgiveness, that we would know that you speak not to terrify us, your people, but you speak that we might be comforted in Christ Jesus, that feeding upon him by faith we might be built up and strengthened, that we might see him and your love for us in him, and that we might respond with joy and with joyful service.
[00:01:50] Bless us by your word and spirit. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:01:55] I'm going to ask you to be seated a little bit of a longer reading this evening.
[00:02:00] We're going to read first from Exodus 25, the first nine verses, and then we'll turn over to Exodus chapter 35 and read a section there.
[00:02:13] So turning first to Exodus 25, Last week we rehearsed or recounted where we've gone in our Old Testament sermons starting back in late August.
[00:02:31] And we were sort of like a plane on a taxiway making our way to the Runway. And I think in the last two sermons, we on the covenant that God makes with sinners in Christ Jesus. And we recounted the promises of the covenant and then how we receive those promises by faith in Christ Jesus.
[00:02:51] We're now in a place where hopefully we can take off.
[00:02:55] We're headed down the Runway, ready to take off, hopefully.
[00:02:59] What I want to do with you over the next few months is to look at the time tabernacle, the instructions for building the tabernacle, and the events surrounding the building of the tabernacle. So we're going to begin looking at the tabernacle together, and we'll hear more about it in the sermon. But very briefly, connecting all of it for you the tabernacle is the great picture or sign that God is giving his people the sign of the covenant that he has made with them.
[00:03:36] You remember the promises of the covenant, or that God is going to save his people, and then the promise of possession, possessing the land of Canaan and eternal inheritance, where in that land God would dwell with his people, they would be his possession, and he would be theirs. And the tabernacle was the great sign of that, as God would dwell in the midst of his people and his people could draw near to him and meet with him and have fellowship with him, so that the covenant of grace and the sign of it that he gave his people the tabernacle go together hand in hand. So that's why there's the logic, the reasoning for why we've made the pathway that we have approaching the tabernacle here through the doctrine of the covenant of grace. So we're going to read together now God's word from Exodus chapter 25. Beginning in verse one, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him. You shall take the contribution for me, and this is the contribution that you shall receive from them.
[00:04:51] Gold, silver and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twisted linen, goat's hair, tanned rams skins, goat skins, acacia wood oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
[00:05:18] And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst.
[00:05:26] Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all its furniture, so you shall make it.
[00:05:34] Then turning over to Exodus 35. So there in 25, God gave the instructions for taking up a contribution to build the tabernacle.
[00:05:43] Here we find the command to the people to do it, and then they're actually doing it. Exodus 30:5. Beginning in verse four, Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, this is the thing that the Lord has take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution. Gold, silver and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goat's hair, tanned ram skins and goatskins, acacia wood oil for the light spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense and onyx stones and stones for setting and for the ephod and for the breastpiece. Let every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded the tabernacle and its tent and its covering, its hooks and its frames, its bars, its pillars and its bases, the ark with its poles, the mercy seat and the veil of the screen, the table with its poles and all its utensils and the bread of the presence, the lampstand and also for the light with its utensils and its lamps and the oil for the light and the altar of incense with its poles and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the door.
[00:07:06] At the door of the tabernacle, the altar, a burnt offering with its grating of bronze, its poles and all its utensils, the basin and its stand, the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court, the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court and their cords, the finely worked garments were ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons for their service as priests.
[00:07:42] Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments.
[00:08:01] So they came, both men and women, all who were of a willing heart, brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects. Every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord, and everyone who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns, or fine linen or goat's hair, or tanned ram skins or goatskins brought them.
[00:08:26] Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution.
[00:08:33] And everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it.
[00:08:41] And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.
[00:08:52] All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill, spun the goat's hair and the leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephid and for the breastpiece and spices and oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, all the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord. And if you later want to look at it, you can see that in chapter 36, the people brought more than enough for the building of the tabernacle.
[00:09:30] And God had, I'm sorry, Moses had to tell the people, it's enough, stop bringing it. So an abundance was indeed supplied by God's people in response to God's command.
[00:09:45] Well, you all are no doubt familiar, especially perhaps this time of year, with fundraising campaigns where people go around asking you to give.
[00:09:54] Maybe they ask you to give towards a political campaign. Maybe you've gotten calls or cards in the mail or you've seen the signs.
[00:10:04] Maybe you're familiar with capital campaigns, giving, fundraising campaigns. When there's a desire to, perhaps a Christian school, to build a new classroom building, or hopefully someday soon in our congregation, we'll do such a fundraising campaign to raise funds to build or to purchase a church, building our own home where we can worship together.
[00:10:31] All such fundraising campaigns have motives, don't they? They give you reasons for why you ought to give.
[00:10:40] If it's a political campaign, maybe there are promises, if you donate to me, I'll address this problem or that problem. Maybe they use fear tactics. If you don't elect me and give to my campaign, the other guy's going to get in and he's going to cause all sorts of trouble.
[00:10:58] With school building, perhaps the motives are a little clearer.
[00:11:03] Maybe you want to give as a grandparent to your children's Christian school because you want to see them have space and a good place, nice place for them to be educated, right? And of course, we all know that we very much enjoy having a place like this that's comfortable for us to gather and worship the Lord and have Sunday school and other fellowship activities together. And someday we would like such a place that that is our own, that we can do with it as we wish and use it whenever we need it.
[00:11:36] There's a need for funds for people to give. And of course, there's motives too, right? Reasons why people are called and encouraged to give.
[00:11:46] This morning we're going to look at the theme, very simply, mainly from chapter 25 here, of how God calls his people to. To give for the building of the tabernacle.
[00:12:00] We'll look first at how the people give the materials, the giving of the materials.
[00:12:04] Secondly, we'll look at the giving heart that God calls them to have, the giving heart.
[00:12:10] And then thirdly, and finally, we will look at the giving Savior, God himself who gives.
[00:12:19] So the giving or this fundraising campaign for the building of the tabernacle of begins with the materials.
[00:12:27] God tells the people that they are to give materials, all sorts of things, gold, silver, precious Stones, metals, wood, goat skins, animal skins as well as yarn for weaving all sorts of things, for making hangings for the tabernacle, making the clothing for the priests, even the oils that are needed for anointing, for burning in the lamps. Every single detail, God is specifying exactly the right building materials that they are to supply.
[00:13:02] Briefly, the context here is that God has brought his people out of Egypt.
[00:13:09] He drowned Pharaoh and Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. They're all dead. God has brought his people out of the realm of death and bondage in Egypt, bondage and slavery, not just to Pharaoh, but ultimately to the kingdom of darkness. He's brought them out of that realm of death and bondage to Himself, to meet with him and to make a covenant with him, that they would be his people, he would be their God. He's brought them into his kingdom, to the realm of life.
[00:13:40] And as he made that covenant with his people, he gave them certain promises that we looked at, most importantly, the promise of salvation. And then the promise, we called it the promise of possession. That God would possess his people, they would be his, and then his people would possess God, that they would have one another, that God would be with his people, his presence would be with his people, not just at Sinai, but that he would go into the land of Canaan, and that he would be with his people forever. All of this picturing for us the great promises of the covenant of grace that God makes with us in Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Savior. That he would save us from our sins and from slavery to sin. That he would grant us eternal life, which is to be in the presence of God forever, to fellowship with him, to know him and to be known by Him.
[00:14:34] The great symbol of this gracious covenant, saving covenant that God makes with his people is this tent, this tabernacle that he tells his people to make. You see it there in verse 8 and 9.
[00:14:52] And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst, exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all its furniture, so you shall make it so. He tells his people that they are to make a tent that he's going to come and dwell in, so that even as they all live in tents here in the wilderness, he will live among them, symbolized by this tent, which will be his tent, where they will come to meet with him and worship Him. So it's the sign of the covenant, of his covenant, covenant presence with his people.
[00:15:29] He condescends to live with them and be with them. And they with Him.
[00:15:37] God would have his people give the building materials for such a tent and then craft it, make it, build it.
[00:15:48] As they then erected this tent, they would continually have a symbol, a sign in their midst that God was present with them.
[00:16:00] That's the wonderful, marvelous thing that God calls His people to participate in here then, that they would build such a tent, such a symbol and sign of his presence.
[00:16:14] God then, of course, as we've just read and recounted, calls them to give all of the building materials that are needed for this tent.
[00:16:22] Not just the tent, but the furniture in the tent. There's a table that the showbread is to be placed on. There's an altar for burning incense.
[00:16:29] There's a lamp stand that provides light. In that tent or home.
[00:16:36] You might think of it as the home or the palace of God where He dwells.
[00:16:41] This is his furniture. Just like you have furniture in your living room and in your dining room.
[00:16:47] This is the furniture of God's home. And then all of the other things that are needed for the worship of God. God's people are called to give freely and then to build under Moses instructions.
[00:17:01] Now, there is here, maybe, perhaps immediately, what you might. You may have even heard this, a sort of application, an easy to see, perhaps application that we can draw as New Testament Christians.
[00:17:15] You probably heard something like this. With passages like this.
[00:17:20] God calls us then as believers to give and to serve.
[00:17:27] We hear New Testament verses quoted frequently. Freely you have received, freely give.
[00:17:35] And after all, we all know that it's the gifts of God's people that pay the rent, so that we can rent this wonderful worship space that pay my salary, so that you can hear the word of God preached. And it's your service as you do all sorts of things at various times during the week and on Sunday morning that makes everything happen. So that we can gather for worship together on the Lord's day.
[00:17:58] So I can turn this sermon into a sermon for why you should give to the building fund, right?
[00:18:05] Probably heard that sermon before somewhere.
[00:18:08] If you look at the commentaries on this passage, that's kind of where it ends up heading.
[00:18:16] Is that what you want me to preach?
[00:18:18] You satisfied with that interpretation and application of these verses?
[00:18:25] I hope not.
[00:18:26] This is God's home, His palace that he's calling his people to build, to erect, symbolizing his presence in their midst, a symbol of his gracious covenant with them to forever be their God and that they would forever be his people.
[00:18:51] Ultimately a symbol of the communion and union that they would have with him in eternal Life.
[00:19:01] That's a lot bigger than giving to the building fund. It may include that. I'm not going to say it doesn't. In some ways I think it does. It's an appropriate application.
[00:19:11] But we can say a lot more, and we need to say a lot more.
[00:19:18] Such an application also raises a problem. It doesn't mean we shouldn't make that application. That we ought to give and to serve as God called Israel to do in the Old Testament. We should.
[00:19:31] But I think it raises a. It ought to raise a problem for us in our minds.
[00:19:36] If we can give and serve and build a tent or a building that if we build that tent or building, God will then, as a result of our work, come and dwell in our midst and be with us and allow us to be in his presence.
[00:19:57] Then does that mean that my gifts and my service somehow bring God closer to me?
[00:20:08] That would be a problem, wouldn't it?
[00:20:12] He tells them to build a tent so that he can dwell among them.
[00:20:19] If all we do is say that therefore God's people should give and serve in the church, which they should, I think it tends to leave you wondering, is my service and my giving and my doing on Sunday, does that bring God closer to me?
[00:20:35] The answer here is a firm no.
[00:20:38] But we've got to figure out why.
[00:20:41] Now, if you've read the story of the Bible, you know that man cannot draw near to God on his own.
[00:20:49] Man tried to do that by building the Tower of Babel. Let's build a tower whose top will reach into heaven.
[00:20:57] Man can't do that. We can't build a tent that as a result of our works is going to bring God down to us. No, that is not what is going on here.
[00:21:08] How do we argue against that area?
[00:21:11] How do we dissuade ourselves of such foolishness?
[00:21:17] Let's just start with this.
[00:21:19] All of the list of the things that the Israelites bring, gold, silver, animal skins, clothing, spices, oil, all of it comes to the Israelites because God gave it to them.
[00:21:36] It comes at the very base. We can start by saying God in His providence, provided these riches, a wealth of treasures for his people, just like he does for all of us. If we have anything in this life, it's because God in His providence gave it to us.
[00:21:57] And we know that you cannot give something to God and obligate him by doing so.
[00:22:06] Why? Because everything you have comes from Him.
[00:22:11] So there is no way, no way to understand this as what we might say, a works righteousness. I do something that brings God closer To me. And me to Him. Our doctrine of providence eliminates that. But we can say more.
[00:22:27] The treasures that the Israelites pour forth when their hearts are moved here bring and pile up before God so that they might then build the tabernacle from it.
[00:22:38] These treasures are the plunder that they took with them when they left Egypt. Now you remember the story.
[00:22:47] The very last plague.
[00:22:50] God was going to come and wipe out all of the firstborn Egyptians. And he told his people to kill the Passover lamb, to paint the blood on the doorpost. And then God's destroying angel would come destroy the Egyptians and. But he wouldn't harm his people.
[00:23:06] And then they were to eat the whole lamb and leave nothing. Right. And then they were to get up and flee in the middle of the night. Right.
[00:23:15] But before they did that, God told them, go to your Egyptian neighbors and ask them for gold and for treasures.
[00:23:24] And God moved the hearts of the Egyptians to load up the Israelites with all, all manner of gold and silver and precious stones and all sorts of treasures.
[00:23:36] In other words, when God sent His people out of Egypt, even as he judged and punished the Egyptians and their gods, he plundered the Egyptians. It was God's plunder which he gave to his people. He fought for his people. These were the spoils of his his war that he shared with his people.
[00:24:00] Now he calls them to give a small portion of that back so that they might build a house for Him.
[00:24:09] God gave this to his people graciously as a part of his saving them. This is not something that they do to earn a place before God. That is not what is happening here.
[00:24:22] We find something similar in the New Testament.
[00:24:26] How is it that Christians are able to give and to serve in the church?
[00:24:32] It is the work of Jesus our Savior, dying on the cross, rising from the dead, and then pouring out His Spirit on His body. His church.
[00:24:44] He fills his church with the treasures of heaven with the down payment of the Holy Spirit poured out from heaven.
[00:24:55] So we read in Ephesians 2:23, that the church, his body is filled with the fullness of him who fills all.
[00:25:05] The reason that you, dear Christian, have anything and are able to do anything in his church is because Jesus fills you with His Spirit.
[00:25:16] And so being filled by him, you are able to give and to serve in his church so freely you have received the treasures of heaven in Christ.
[00:25:28] Yes, freely give and serve by his grace.
[00:25:34] So much for the materials that the Israelites were called to give.
[00:25:39] Second, we want to look at the giving heart that God calls His People to.
[00:25:44] He says that they are to give only if their heart has been moved. You find it in chapter 25, verse 2. Speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him. You shall receive the contribution for me. It is only those whose hearts are moved to generosity and a desire to give. Give for the building of the tabernacle. Only they, Moses, is to receive offerings from. This isn't a tax. It isn't something that's levied on every family. Give X amount or something like that with threats.
[00:26:17] This is a freewill offering.
[00:26:21] You see it, Maybe you remember hearing it as we read through chapter 35, verse 5 says that it's those who are of a generous heart that are to give.
[00:26:30] Verse 21.
[00:26:32] Everyone whose heart stirs him is to give. All the women, verse 26. All the women whose hearts stirred them wove yarn and garments.
[00:26:44] Every man whose heart moved him, verse 29 gave for the building of the tabernacle.
[00:26:53] It's only those whose hearts were moved to give that gave.
[00:26:58] In fact, if you read this carefully, you realize that there are some, probably many, Israelites whose hearts were not moved and who did not give.
[00:27:10] In other words, it isn't all of the Israelites who gave, only those whose hearts were moved to generosity stirred to give that gave.
[00:27:20] This begins to help us yet a little bit further with that original problem.
[00:27:25] The heart has to be moved in such a way that God would even receive such a gift.
[00:27:33] What moved their hearts?
[00:27:37] There is again a fairly plausible answer. It's reasonable. It's good.
[00:27:46] These are a people who have just seen God's almighty power in, experienced his kindness and mercy to them in the Exodus.
[00:27:58] You remember in Exodus 6, the people heard the promises of the Gospel, heard them through Moses and Aaron, but they didn't get it.
[00:28:10] They didn't accept and believe.
[00:28:14] Was only as they experienced the full salvation of God coming through the Exodus, being brought through the Red Sea, that some of them begin to get it, to believe the truth of the Gospel.
[00:28:30] So we might say this, and I think we're right to say this, that these people whose hearts are moved are responding to God's saving grace in the Exodus, that God would come and deliver them out of bondage, fill their pockets and their knapsacks with all sorts of Egyptian treasures so that they might go forth as a kingdom of priests. So royal priesthood. They have purple garments, they have gold, they have silver, they have precious stones.
[00:29:05] They went from being slaves to being children of the king, loaded down with treasures.
[00:29:15] Certainly this begins to look like a New Testament reason for giving, doesn't it?
[00:29:20] We're told that we're to give because though Christ was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. That in him we might become rich, rich with the treasures of the kingdom of heaven.
[00:29:34] So Paul says, again, freely you have received freely give.
[00:29:39] In other words, give in thanksgiving, give in response to a heart moved, moved with all that God has done for you in Christ Jesus.
[00:29:51] This certainly fits the broader context of Exodus, but I think there's an even deeper motive, something deeper in the narrower context here of Exodus 24 through 35, something more precise even, that is motivating God's people to give freely to the building of the tabernacle. And it's directly connected with the building of the tabernacle.
[00:30:21] What I want to argue with you here is that their giving is an expression of their faith in their hearts.
[00:30:29] God has given at least some of his people.
[00:30:32] Remember back in Exodus 6, they didn't believe. Yet we've come to a point now where some of them give freely, generously, because they want to see this tabernacle built, because now they've come to believe God's covenant promise.
[00:30:49] Here's the context for you.
[00:30:51] God brought his people out of Egypt. He brings them up to Sinai, and then at Sinai, he makes the covenant with Him. They that he would be their God and they would be his people.
[00:31:01] Exodus 25 is, when that covenant is ratified, it's confirmed.
[00:31:06] It's like when you have a contract and you sign the contract, and the contract is now confirmed and executed. In legal terms, the covenant that God made with his people was, you might say, executed, confirmed, and they moved on it. Now, this is completely in chapter 24.
[00:31:28] Now God is their God, and they are his people.
[00:31:34] And so when we come to the very next chapter, the first thing God does is he commands them to give for the building of the tabernacle. He commands them to give in order that they might build the tabernacle, the tent which is the sign of his gracious covenant presence with them.
[00:31:57] You see, the tabernacle and the covenant that had just been made are directly connected.
[00:32:06] But if you go forward just a few chapters from chapter 24, you skim through those, what you will see is that God gives more and more instructions and commandments through Moses up on Sinai for all of the other details of the tabernacle being made and its furniture and so on.
[00:32:25] And then you hit this problem in Exodus 32, the story, it's been unfolding Wonderfully, God is going to be with his people. Here's the tent that's going to symbolize that so that God's people can come and meet with him. And then we have a problem.
[00:32:43] God's people down at the base of Mount Sinai, while Moses is up there receiving all this wonderful revelation about the tabernacle. They're down there and they begin. They get bored, antsy.
[00:32:55] And then they ask for Aaron to build the golden calf. And maybe you remember the story. And they begin worshiping this idol instead of the living and true God, whose glory cloud is up there on Mount Sinai. And Moses is in the middle of it. They said, we're going to worship this idol instead.
[00:33:13] And so that wonderful covenant that they made with him, they've immediately broken.
[00:33:19] But in Exodus 33 and 34, Moses, as the mediator of the covenant of grace is a picture of Christ pleads with God on behalf of the people, that he would forgive their sins, that he would not destroy them, and that he would renew his covenant with presence with them.
[00:33:40] And that's exactly what happens. God promises at the end of chapter 34, by the end of it, God has promised that he will go up with his people, that his presence will reside with his people. He'll go up with them into the land of Canaan, and He won't forsake them because of their sins.
[00:34:02] So they immediate context of God's people being moved with his wonderful generous outpouring of their hearts to give for the building of the tabernacle is that they have just heard God renew His covenant with them, that he will overlook their sins. He will not discard them and destroy them as he ought to have done, but instead he will be merciful with them. He will dwell among his people.
[00:34:29] What you have are people who have come to believe, come to faith in God's covenant promises. They are giving because they trust that God will dwell among them. You see what moves them to give.
[00:34:44] It's not just having seen God's salvation that's marvelous. That's a reason to give. But they are giving as an outworking of faith in the covenant promises of God, his promise that he will dwell with his people and be with them forever.
[00:35:02] So what's the further, deeper application than here?
[00:35:09] Give yourself to God in faith.
[00:35:13] I'm not talking here now about money and about things that you do offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God in Christ Jesus, his son. God has given himself to you in Christ fully and wholly and completely.
[00:35:33] And nothing can take him away from you. He has bound himself to you in the blood of his Son.
[00:35:41] Respond by giving yourself to him wholly and completely, entrusting yourself to Him. Not just a few trinkets, not just a little bit of money. But I belong to you, Lord Jesus. I trust in you. And I give myself wholly to you because you have given yourself wholly to me.
[00:36:06] We have a giving Savior.
[00:36:10] Israel's gifts and the building of the tabernacle were not about earning away to God.
[00:36:19] It was not as though if they built the right tabernacle, God would be among them.
[00:36:23] No, we see that they built the tabernacle because God promised to be among them.
[00:36:31] But there's a problem or a deficiency. You might say the tabernacle was good for while it lasted.
[00:36:42] But that was a tent made with human hands.
[00:36:47] We read in chapter 25, verse 9 that it was made after the pattern on the mountain.
[00:36:55] They, through their gifts and service, were building a copy of something that God had shown Moses on the mountain.
[00:37:06] They built a tent and the things in the tent, but all of it was just a copy.
[00:37:13] It's like the real light is shining and then there's a shadow cast on the wall.
[00:37:20] They were building the shadow.
[00:37:24] They weren't building the real thing. They were building a picture of the real thing.
[00:37:31] For everyone knows that the God who made heaven and earth cannot live in tents or in buildings here on earth. He's bigger than everything, right?
[00:37:45] Hence our sermon on the infinite character of God.
[00:37:50] Paul says in Acts 17, God does not dwell in temples made with human hands. Solomon, after he builds that glorious temple, what does he say in his prayer to God?
[00:38:04] He says, heaven and highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built with my hands.
[00:38:16] Their hands built a copy.
[00:38:20] They did not build the true dwelling place of God.
[00:38:25] God's real home. His real living room, you might say his. His throne room.
[00:38:31] They did not build that.
[00:38:33] They built a picture and a copy of it.
[00:38:37] Their hands and gifts could not bring them into the presence of God because they could not bring themselves and you and I cannot bring ourselves into the heavenly dwelling place of God.
[00:38:50] We can't get there by our hands or our gifts.
[00:38:56] We couldn't get there anyway. Ever as creatures, God had to mercifully and graciously make a way that we might be drawn up into his presence.
[00:39:10] What did they do?
[00:39:12] They built in faith. They gave in faith, trusting that as they built this copy in this picture, that God would keep his promise to bring them into his everlasting dwelling place.
[00:39:28] That's what's really going on here, they have trusted that God will bring them into his heavenly city.
[00:39:36] That's what they sought. That's what they longed for.
[00:39:41] They trusted that God would provide a way there.
[00:39:45] What Adam lost in the garden when he ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil wasn't just the garden.
[00:39:52] He lost the way into God's eternal presence and eternal life.
[00:39:58] God says, I'm going to give that to you. Trust in me. And so they built this with their own hands in faith, trusting that God would provide the real thing by his grace and mercy.
[00:40:12] And if you're following, you probably know the ending.
[00:40:16] Jesus is the way.
[00:40:19] John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He tabernacled among us. There is a dwelling place of God on earth in the human nature of Christ, as the Son of God became the God man and came among us. And we're told that we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
[00:40:46] Yes, the tabernacle is about Jesus and the dwelling place that he would provide, that by his flesh he would make a way for us to enter the eternal dwelling of God.
[00:41:03] So Jesus says, I'm going away. He tells the disciples, where are you going? I'm going to my Father's house to prepare a place for you that you can be there with me forever.
[00:41:20] Thomas says, well, how do we get there? We don't know the way. Jesus says, you know the way because I am the way and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father but through me.
[00:41:37] And as I go to prepare a place for you, I'm doing that as I go through the cross, in my dying and in my rising, I make the way for you to enter into the presence of God, into His living room, his throne room, where you can be his children gathered around his feet, your Heavenly Father, where you can be his royal priesthood, reigning with him, worshipping him, be his friends, fellowshipping with him, the way to God's house, the way to the place where eternal life is the way to the place where delights and riches flow forth like a river of life from the throne of God.
[00:42:23] That way is not a tabernacle made with human hands.
[00:42:29] It's the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed for you on the cross.
[00:42:36] He brings you not a tent that's temporary destroyed and long gone. He brings you into God's presence itself.
[00:42:46] So turn to him, Come to know Jesus, who is the way and the truth and the life. For if you trust in him, he will bring you into the Father's presence. Let's pray.
[00:42:59] Our glorious God.
[00:43:02] Your Majesty must have been something to see as your cloud came down upon the top of Mount Sinai as Moses went up and there you showed him a glimpse of your glorious throne room that he might build its copy.
[00:43:23] But, O Lord our God, we rejoice that Jesus our Savior, sits on that throne.
[00:43:30] And because he has been received in our nature as the God man into your presence. We know that all whom he unites to himself, even now by faith, are seated with him.
[00:43:47] O Lord our God, we ask that you would give us the eyes of faith that we might give ourselves to you fully, trusting you that you will bring us through this wilderness and bring us into our promised land. Yes, even bringing us across the River Jordan, trusting that you will bring us through death, raising our bodies again, making them glorious, that we might behold you face to face in them one day. O Lord our God. This is our hope. This is our joy. It is this in which we glory Jesus Christ our Savior, in his name, Amen.
