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Well, sometimes when we study the Bible, we, we have we have a couple of different ways that we can approach this. And last week, a good example of how we studied Scripture together is we got very detailed and involved, particularly with what each word of the text suggested to us. You learned some crazy grammar last week. You guys are walking out still wondering this week what is indicative? Can I ever remember right? Talked about the indicative last week and it was good for us. It’s great to just examine closely on what God’s Word says, because God tells us that every word will come to pass, that every word is inspired of him. And so God intends for every word that exists within our Bible to be there. In addition to that, sometimes we while we study the detail of Scripture, we look right into the heart of what God’s communicating. Sometimes it’s healthy for us as well, just to take a step back and explore the landscape to get an overarching, broader picture of what God’s communicating to us. That way, when we go and study in detail, we can see him more clearly through his overarching picture to us. And this morning, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Last week we studied in detail, and today we’re going to take a step back. And we’re just going to explore the horizon and look at the landscape and the topic that we’re going to be addressing this morning and we’re going to make it relevant to us is the Tabernacle.
You wonder how in the world we’re going to make the tabernacle relevant to us, because the Tabernacle we don’t we’ve never been there to worship. Israel doesn’t even have it anymore. It was destroyed. And so what does that mean? And what even is the tabernacle? If if you’re familiar with Jewish terminology on their structures in which they build there, there are a few different terms that use. You’ve maybe heard the word tabernacle or the word temple or the word synagogue. All were places at some point in history in which Jewish people would go to attend to worship. In fact, they still worship today, not in the tabernacle or temple, but in the synagogues. What are those? Well, synagogue, just for clarity’s sake, a synagogue is what we would refer to today as Christians, as church. They they kind of go with the basis that synagogues began somewhere between 500, 4 to 500 years before Jesus was on the earth. It was supposedly or thought to have been established by Ezra, who wrote the book of Ezra in your Bible. And Ezra was an individual who noticed that Israel had a temple in which they would go to worship in Jerusalem, but because not everyone existed around the city of Jerusalem, it was difficult for some people to get there to worship. And so he thought to himself, let’s establish these buildings outside of Jerusalem that people can gather and learn about the Lord together, and let’s call them synagogues, okay? And today, even today, Jewish Jewish people still worship in synagogues.
The temple and the tabernacle are actually the same thing. The tabernacle was a structure in which God gave to Moses to build in the desert. When the nation of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, God gave directions to the nation of Israel to build the tabernacle. When once Israel established themselves in the land of Israel, God made that tabernacle the mobile place of worship, a permanent structure in the city of Jerusalem, and they began to call it the temple. And today we’re going to study the tabernacle rather than the temple. And the reason is, is because the tabernacle is a is a basic structure to what the temple represented. The structure of the temple remained the same as the tabernacle, but it was simplified. It was easier to look at and see the basic elements for which God had created. And when God built the tabernacle, and he allowed them then to take the tabernacle and turn into a permanent structure referred to as the temple, it’s important to remember that Israel only ever had one. They had one temple in which they would gather to worship the Lord. It was located in Jerusalem. Jesus promises that one day in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 40, he will come back.
He will rule in the Millennial Kingdom at this temple. If you don’t know what the Millennial Kingdom is, Google that. If you want to structure, if you want to study the Tabernacle, which Jesus will rule and reign from, Ezekiel chapter 40 is the place to look. But in the future, there is only ever one temple in which Jesus or God calls his people to worship him. So here’s the important question this morning why study the tabernacle? God really begins to answer for that. Answer that for us. We’re going to spend a lot of time in the Old Testament today, a little bit in the New Testament. But he begins to define for Israel after he goes through the book of Exodus. And he tells them in the latter half of the book of Exodus, starting in chapter 25, this is what I want you to build. And we read the entire story of the temple all the way to the end of Exodus. Like half of your Exodus book is about the temple. And then you get into the book of Leviticus, and he and he outlines the worship ceremonies which take place in the temple and how it’s supposed to be conducted. And he gets to verse 20, chapter 26, excuse me. And he explains to the people his purpose for building the temple. And he says this, I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you.
I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enable you to walk with heads held high. Why study the tabernacle? God’s initial answer he says to us in verse 11 and 12, he just wants to put his dwelling place among them. God’s desire is to be made known. And God in the story, we understand that he’s telling us that he just helped the Israelites escape from Egypt. And if you’ve ever heard the stories of Moses write, let my people go. He goes before the Pharaoh, and Pharaoh says, uh, no. And and so God brings plagues upon the nation of, of Egypt and the plagues as you begin to study them. You see, he brought ten upon the nation of Egypt. And every plague that God brought upon the nation of Egypt directly correlated against a God that they worshiped. There was a god related to every plague that said to the nation of Egypt, you think you’re powerful. You think your God is powerful. Me, supreme God of everything. The only God will show you and demonstrate to you that these gods are nothing. These are idols in comparison to me. And God crushed their idols with the plagues that he brought up on the nation of Egypt.
And God is saying to the nation of Israel, listen, I’m calling you out as a people, and I want to represent myself to this world through you. I desire to be made known. As a matter of fact, when the nation of Egypt wandered in the wilderness after they escaped from Egypt, they were disobedient to God. And the Bible tells us they wandered from Egypt to Israel. They spent 40 years just walking around, and God told them the way that they were to know where to go was this cloud of of God. This representation of God would guide and direct them. It says in the Bible that it was a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day in Exodus chapter 40. God’s presence was there and the people followed it. God saw that his presence before this nation and before this world was so significant that even when you get to the Book of Numbers, the Book of Numbers opens up talking about the temple every five books, first five books of the Bible minus Genesis. It just speaks amply about about the temple and in numbers, chapter two. In chapter three, it describes the nation of Israel, how they were to sleep exactly around this temple as it directed them through the wilderness. When it finally stopped and the people knew where they were to stop, and to seek God’s face and to see his presence through this tabernacle in which they worshipped.
They also had a design in which God had given to them to sleep around, literally suggesting to the nation and all nations around them that God was the center of their lives. God desired to be made known. And can I say, although we don’t worship in a tabernacle and temple, I’ll explain why in a little bit. But cultures have traditionally we just need a place to connect with God biblically. The temple was a big deal to Israel. As a matter of fact, when you read the books of the Old Testament, you can determine the health of Israel by the way it speaks about their attendance at the temple, how their worship was taking place, how their offerings before the Lord was taking place, the way that they were giving themselves to them. If Israel was in the temple, they were living a healthy life. The temple was significant to the health of Israel, and a place of worship has been significant to the health of cultures everywhere throughout history. When you study the early church, it tells us in the New Testament, right after the time of Christ, after Jesus was killed, the church went under tremendous persecution. Any time the church was under persecution, they didn’t typically have a building to go worship. It’s like putting a target on your back. But the moment the persecution died, the church would gather together, place a central place within their community for the people to gather and worship the Lord.
It was if they were stating to their to their legacy and to to families and to community. If you want to know the biblical God, if you want to understand this God as he has revealed himself to you, we’ve created this place that he may be known in your life. I said this morning in Matthew chapter 18 and verse 20, it tells us where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name. There I am in their midst. You know, I always have quoted that verse as a believer, but there was one point in particular in my life I went to study it. And, you know, I began to notice about this verse. Interesting thing about it is it’s talking about church discipline of all things. There’s a brother in Christ who’s sending these people don’t want him to send. They’re gathering together to figure out how to encourage them. And in the midst of discipline or encouraging this believer to get out of a life of sin, Jesus is saying, if 2 or 3 of you just get together, for that, I am present in your midst. How important and significant it is for us as a culture to have a place that communicates to our community. This is where you come to learn about God. How important it is just for us to think about knowing.
Just around the corner, we have a building waiting for us that’s standing as a pillar into our community to demonstrate the love of Jesus. The tabernacle was designed to reveal God. In addition to that, God tells us the tabernacle was designed so that people could find their identity. He says in verse 12, I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my what? People. You think about where Israel is at this particular point. They had just lost everything. Yes, they were slaves, but their identity was wrapped in that. And now they’re walking out of the land of Egypt. They had rules. They had government, they had officials. They had a way that a system worked. And now they’re thinking, now what do we do? Or now where do we find our identity? Or who are we as people? And God says, I’ll help you define that because I’ve revealed myself to you. This is what I want to demonstrate. You are my people. Your identity is wrapped in me. You’ve gone from slave to freedom. You’ve gone from lost to found. You’ve gone from aimlessness to direction. And you will be my people. I love what it says at the end of this passage. I broke the bars of your yoke. And I enable you to walk with your heads held high. When you find God, when you seek his face, and you understand that he has revealed himself to you, and he has called you his own, he gives you the opportunity to find direction in your life and to walk with your head held high.
No longer is it aimless, but it’s purposeful. The people wanted to know this God, and I love the way it tells us in Exodus 36. This wasn’t. It’s like a no brainer for them. We brought you out of Egypt. You’re no longer slaves. You’ve seen me slaughter these gods that people have complained or said that are just so powerful. And the nation of Israel is thinking themselves. And yes, we want to know you. Anything that can get us out of slavery, anything that can get us into a land that that’s just beautiful, any, any way, God, that you just want to communicate to us, to reveal yourself and your beauty to us. God, let it happen. What will it take? Bible tells us in Exodus 36 and said to Moses, God said to Moses, the people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done. God begins to describe in 25 every thing that they need to bring to build this temple. And now God’s telling Moses and the people have now done enough. And then Moses gave an order, and they sent this word throughout the camp. No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary, for the tabernacle.
Tell them to stop. It’s the first time in history a minister has ever said the people stop giving, right? But it’s a beautiful picture of an understanding of what a building represents to people who desire to know God and what it communicates to a community, what it communicates to the children of the next generation. And I know that we don’t worship in temples and tabernacles, and I know, I know, buildings aren’t the big deal. The people are the big deal. But there is something important about just establishing a place that communicates that we love our God. Amen. And I thought about just the comparison this week to this tabernacle and to us as a church, what it represents to build the first freestanding, mainstream Christian church in northern Utah County, the legacy that communicates for us and what it says about our heart’s desire with God and the people around this country who have just given to us as a church family to see this happen. What it says even to your young children, if they as they grow up older and they realize what’s taking place here, that God is moving in us to see this happen. I got to tell you this week. Um. If you guys weren’t here last week, we we signed the documents to put this building under contract. We’re supposed to close on it November 2nd, but I went to the city this week because we’re still going to be short.
We’ll build this building out. We’re still going to be a little bit financial short. There’s going to be some ongoing construction until we get this place established, but we’ve got enough to get in and see us be able to worship there. And the city was going to hold these particular funds against us as a church family. And I’ve just seen God do this all along that we’ve pursued this building. But I go into the city and they tell me that they’re going to hold a bond against us for tens of thousands of dollars until we get this building built, which means it ties up money from us to be able to build the building while they’re holding our money. And so I started talking to them about about that to see if we can get into this place sooner, what the bonds were going to be. And they just they just said to me, we messed up on your paperwork and we can’t hold any financial bond against you. Awesome. All right. So so I went in with a monkey on my back, and I just left it there. I don’t know what it did to the office, but but but there’s I continue to stress out about the the idea of taking something like this on. And every time there’s a stress, it just seems like the Lord just lifts it.
Amen. Amen. Like, for instance, we wanted to build this building. We had this desire to see this happen for our community. We knew how important it was, and we just just told a few people about our desire, a few churches, and then the next week they come back and tell us, yeah, we’re going to give 100,000. Well, who does that? Who is your uncle? Give me. Let me. I’ll talk to him directly from now on. I don’t know why I got off track on that, but. But the important part is. Just having a place of worship and the people to understand how significant this cause is. I mean, when you grab hold of God in your life and you see his importance and that he he shapes your identity in him, and he gives you an opportunity to hold your head up high, that is something that you sacrifice for. That is something that you never let go of. That is something that you discover your identity in, and it’s something that you just drive your life toward. God, why did you make me? And as you reveal yourself to me and you help me understand my the purpose of my existence. God, what can we do to get your name proclaimed in this place? The nation of Israel tells us, gave from their hearts, and blessed the Lord so much that he was literally told to Moses, just tell him to stop giving I.
This is more than enough. And when you study the structure of the Tabernacle, I’ll show you in just a minute. And the temple, this place was gold plated. And these people gave silver, gold, bronze. And it was decorated. It was amazing. So much so, God told him to stop. We. God reveals himself in the tabernacle. God shows us our identity. He showed Israel their identity through this place of worship. And in showing them his identity. What we discover in Scripture as you read the Bible is that even to the New Testament, Jesus himself was still gathering at the temple with the early church in the 12 disciples. Excuse me. They were to gather together. It was still a significant place to worship. And when you read your Bible, you see illustrations of the tabernacle and temple throughout all of Scripture. And unless you have a a picture of what really happened around this tabernacle, it becomes difficult sometimes to understand what Scripture is talking about. As a matter of fact, when you study the first five books, Exodus, the whole second half of Exodus starting from chapter 25 is about the temple. Leviticus, when you open it up, it’s all about the temple ceremonies and worships. The first seven chapters are the sacrifices that took place there. Numbers. Deuteronomy. It starts with the temple. You get into Israel being captured and coming back to to their land. And it’s all about building the temple we studied a year ago, the book of Nehemiah and Ezra and their their desire to see the temple rebuilt in Jerusalem.
Even King David I meditated on this psalm this week as a beautiful psalm. It’s Psalm 84, he says, my soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. He’s talking about the inner courts with the altar of sacrifice. Was he? He just wanted to be there. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. David is literally saying, the lowest position you think exists in this temple. Just to get in that place to worship, I will take the lowest of seeds to just seek God’s face in his courts. I thought about David related to this psalm this week. If you if you know anything about King David, King David was the second King of Israel. He was the one who was promised through his lineage the Messiah would come. But King David was told that he couldn’t build the temple, that he had to continue to worship in the tabernacle. King David wanted a temple so bad in Jerusalem to worship, but yet he continued to worship in the tabernacle. He even began to gather all the necessary materials that his son Solomon, who would become the next king, would need to build the temple just to get it in preparation, even though God told him he wasn’t the one to build it.
His desire was just to see that permanent structure for the nation of Israel to communicate to all nations. This is where God’s presence is. And just to hold the lowest position, to gather in the house of God and seek his face. God, may that be my position. Kind of makes us and provokes us to think about our own desire to come on Sunday morning and worship God. Is it better just one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere? God, is it so good to me that I would desire to take the lowest position to serve your church, to have the opportunity with this family to worship your name? Day. Excuse me? Paul even says in in the book of Romans, I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, illustrating of the sacrifices in the temple. At the end of his life, Paul said, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering. The time of my departure has come. The understanding and the beauty of the temple and the Tabernacle illustrates itself throughout all of Scripture, and an understanding of what took place here paints a beautiful picture in our mind of what God talks about in His Word.
Let’s say the third is this though the tabernacle reveals to us who God is, it gives us our identity or helped Israel shape their identity in God. But the biggest point of the Tabernacle was that it was designed to direct us to worship Jesus. Do you know the word tabernacle literally means dwelling place? It’s God’s dwelling place. When you turn to the book of John, John opens up his story in a beautiful way, knowing he’s talking about Old Testament saints. Jews. He starts this book of John drawing illustrations from the Tabernacle. It says this in John chapter one and verse one. In the beginning was the word, the words talking about Jesus here. And the word was with God, and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth. And watch John saying to us in this passage of Scripture, where the word dwelt in verse 14 literally means tabernacle. It’s saying to us, this Old Testament people understood the significance of the tabernacle and the lives of the Jewish people. It’s saying to us about Jesus. And now Jesus, who is God, has come and he’s tabernacled with us. The purpose of the tabernacle was to direct us into worship of Jesus. The only intentions of the tabernacle and every element that existed in their worship was focused on Jesus, the Messiah who would come.
In fact, it tells us in John 219, Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. In Mark 14, some people quoted Jesus talking about this when they were putting him on trial, and they literally go on to say, Jesus said that he will rebuild it in three days and he’s going to do it without human hands. How do you do that? Because Jesus, we understand as Jesus came and died, he’s referring to himself in three days, his resurrection. He rebuilds this temple. The building is no longer important. Jesus is the intentions of the temple Jesus. And so it says in John four and verse 19, you know the story of Jesus going to the well and he discusses, eternal life, really with this woman. And she says to him, sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet. That’s a major understatement. And the guy says in verse 20, our ancestors worshiped, excuse me, she says, our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. The Samaritans, this lady was a Samaritan. They weren’t accepted by the Jewish people because they weren’t. They built a place of worship. So she says, our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem. And Jesus says, woman, believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You Samaritans. Just to clarify which temple is right, Jesus says, you Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. At a time is coming when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks. Jesus is saying to this lady, listen, lady, you’re concerned about what temple or what place you’re going to worship. And I just want you to know, um, salvation is here, and it’s me. Amen. And you’re to worship in spirit and truth. And it’s not about a building, and you’re obsessed about a building, but it’s about connecting to me. You know, the funny thing about this story is this lady goes on and says, you know, I called you a prophet, but there’s there’s a messiah coming who’s going to tell us these things? And he says to her, that’s me. The story goes on. The lady ran to the village. She gathered everyone and brought them all out. And rather than going to the temple, they went and met Jesus and they worshipped him. The Messiah had brought salvation, and he’s pointing out to the lady, the significance about where you worship is an important. What’s important is that you connect to me, be concerned with our salvation and everything that God required. The nation of Israel to build in this tabernacle and or temple was intended to be fulfilled in Christ.
It’s important to get a biblical picture of the tabernacle. Just because someone might build any religious building and call it of God doesn’t make it of God. God was very specific to the nation of Israel, to the exact structure he wanted this place built. He he told them exactly where to put the elements, exactly how the elements should look, exactly the shape of the elements in which should be possessed in this tabernacle, and exactly the way he expected them to worship in this building, because it was important for him, for the people to understand and seeing illustrated through these ceremonies of religious practice who he was and what he was going to do through Jesus. Matter of fact, it tells us in Exodus 25 he describes it. He says, the Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. It was a freewill offering. If they desire to know me, then they’re going to give to that cause. And if they give to that cause, then you’re going to be able to have this building, which I can reveal myself. So he says in verse three, these are the offerings you are to receive from them gold and silver and bronze. This was a big offering blue, purple, scarlet yarn and fine linen, goat hair, ram skin dyed red and another type of durable leather.
Acacia wood, olive oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece. Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I showed you. God didn’t mess around. Matter of fact, it tells us early on that there were a few guys, a couple priests that went into this building, and they decided they would just make an offering to God, contrary to the way that God desired. And the Bible tells us that God immediately killed them. God takes his teaching of himself before his religious leaders, especially when the temple was just built seriously, and he wanted them to structure it exactly as he shared with them. You can kind of see that illustration to give an idea in our mind what this tabernacle or temple looked like. The courtyard, which is the fenced in area on the outside, was about 75ft wide by 150ft long. The poles that held this outer court together, the bottom of it was bronze, and the top of every pillar was silver. Every hook that held on the material which went around the tabernacle was also made of silver. The beams itself were made of acacia wood.
Moses was described to God or told by God to build it exactly how he desired, because God desires to be worshiped truthfully. And when you walked into this courtyard area, there was only one entrance, which was on the eastern side of the temple. And when you walked into this courtyard area, the first thing that everyone saw and the thing that would captivate your mind was the altar of burnt offerings, sometimes called the Brazen offer. But the altar of burnt offerings literally means in the Greek. The altar of Holocaust. And people would walk into this place in which God desires to reveal himself in. The first thing that they would see was death. Blood would literally pour around the altar. Animals lives were being taken. The intentions of the altar being at the very front of the building. Could you imagine just walking into this building with your young child and just the smell of death in the air? This God who desires to be made known in the first message he gives to us as people is death and sacrifice. And I just said to us, the purpose of this temple, every structure of this temple, its intentions are to point us to who? Jesus. God’s message at that altar was very clear to the people, or it should have been clear to the people, I should say. Bible tells us that God is a holy God, and God is a just God.
Means this that God’s going to judge every sin. There is no sin that God will not uncover. And judge tells us in Romans 118, for the wrath of God is against all ungodliness. And Romans 323 all have sinned. And Romans 623 the wages of sin is what. You walk into the temple, and the first thing that you recognize is there is a just and holy God, and things are dying because the wages of sin is death. And the picture of these animals were to reflect and awaken within Israel. What’s going to happen to them because of sin? Bible tells us in Hebrews 922, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Meaning there is a price to pay. And the Bible talks about without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins because it tells us in Leviticus 17, life is in the blood. And so when an animal loses its blood, or when an individual loses its blood, it is dying. And it’s an illustration of our not just physical death, but also spiritual death thanks to sin. And the first message that God creates to Israel as he’s revealed himself, is that there is a problem here. Wasn’t difficult to see. Anytime you see an animal dying, bells go off. There is a problem here, right? I got this cat lady who lives next to me. And? And when we first moved into our house, she had, I think she had, like, 20 cats.
But thanks to cars and diseases, like six of them died on my lawn. Right. And a few of them we caught in the middle of death. And and being there at that moment, easily to register in my head. This is not right. There is a problem here. Sin reminds us about how horrible death is. And then when you get to the New Testament because the temple reflects Jesus. John the Baptist immediately sees Jesus walking on the Jordan River. It tells us along the Jordan River river in John chapter one and verse 29, and he says about Jesus as the crowds are gathered together, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Think about in Isaiah 53 it says, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. The sacrifice of sin and death was a picture for us. The wage that we would pay because of sin, or the wage that Jesus would pay for us. God is a just God. And can I tell you this morning we when we read about death in the sacrifice of these animals, sometimes we think it’s how horrible is that? I think God wanted us to paint. I think God desired to paint that picture for us. And seeing the sacrifice of these animals, how horrible is death? For us to begin to question what is wrong with our relationship with God? But can I tell you this morning, if you find yourself in God’s grace rather than under his justice, it is a glorious thing to think about a God who will bring justice upon this earth.
As an individual, we we experience sin and death and sickness and disease and things that are just done wrong to other people by people. And there’s war and there’s famine and it’s just horrendous. And we just want rescued from all of it. And to think about a God who promises to bring justice upon all of that to those who find themselves in Christ, it is incredibly freeing to think about a God who wants to bring that glory for us. Amen. If we can get on the right side of justice. God promises to punish every sin. The question that we ask ourselves is, do you want to pay for it? Or would you let Jesus pay for it? By his wounds we are healed. This place was a place of reverence before a holy God. The Bible tells us in the first six chapters of Leviticus there were five offerings that the nation of Israel would even bring before this God to connect with him in relationship, thankful for a messiah who would eventually do it. It’s the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, all illustrative of our relationship with Jesus and how it’s broken through sin, but thankful it can be reconciled through a sacrifice.
We worship through sacrifice that provides fellowship and forgiveness. You know this nation of Israel, when they gathered together to worship at the temple, they didn’t go to the temple because they were worthy people. They went to the temple because they were unworthy. They went to the temple to make sacrifice for sins, to experience that reconciliation with a God who desired to make himself known to them. The temple is important to us. And you see, I haven’t even talked about the back room yet. But this this back place, this giant tent you see in the rear end is called the Holy, the Holy Place. Excuse me. This room was literally 15ft wide by 45ft long. And yes, I pulled out the tape measure today or excuse me this week, and it’s almost the size of our room that we’re in right now. If we put a marker in the middle of our sound booth to this wall, that’s the distance of the length of the Holy place. And if we stopped with this wall that’s shorter than the rest of the wall. The smaller wall back in the back, that’s the width of the Holy place. You know the interesting thing about the Holy Place, this was the pinnacle and the focus point of the nation of Israel for that for which they worshipped, everyone would go into this, this courtyard, they would offer sacrifices.
But very few people got to go in the holy place. Could you imagine building a building to worship the Lord, and then all of us gathering together just to stop in the parking lot and just praise God’s name every morning. Every Sunday morning, we’re in the we’re pull up our cars and we just stand in the parking lot and we worship. And one guy walks in to the Holy place and does his thing, comes out and gives us a message for the day. That would be weird, right? But that’s exactly what Israel saw in this tabernacle. Did you think? Wait a minute, God, we just gave all this gold, all this silver, all this bronze. We built this building. And you’re telling me we can’t go in? Yeah. And if you do go in, I’ll strike you dead. What? What is going on here? Bible tells us into the holy place. That’s where the priest went to conduct specific ceremonies before God. Nation of Israel itself couldn’t go before the holy place, because the sacrifice for which would ultimately forgive their sins hadn’t come yet. And so if they would go into this building, they would go in as unholy people before a holy God. And perhaps, maybe even the more interesting thing about this building that if you if you get into the latter part of the building, the back half of this building into the Holy place, there was a separate room.
This was a two room building. And in the back of this room there was this place called the Holy of Holies. It was a 15 by 15 room. I don’t know how far that is, but picture that, right? And inside of that, there was this element called the Ark of the covenant in which a priest would offer a sacrifice on behalf of the nation of Israel. And the interesting thing about this room is that all the people of Israel and all the people, all the priests that existed, only one person, the high priest, could go into this room, and he could only go into this room one time a year. It was called the day of Yom Kippur. Israel would sacrifice two goats. One they would call the scapegoat. They would place their hand upon it, place their sins upon them, and send them into the wilderness as if their sin were fleeing. The other goat would lose his life. They would take the blood of this goat, and the high priest would go one time a year. Hopefully he didn’t have sin in his life because he would be struck dead immediately, but he would go behind this curtain and the description is he would he would have smoke veiling his presence. So even in the Holy of Holies, he couldn’t see the beauty of God as Shekinah glory, the cloud by day by day, and the fire by night that hovered over this place.
Smoke kept it masked. He would come before this mercy seat, and he would offer sacrifices for the nation of Israel once a year. The picture for Israel is that God is a holy God. And God desired to reveal himself to the people. But there is something seriously wrong with their relationship with him and its sin. These goats in the nation of Israel symbolically represented what Jesus would ultimately do, because the purpose of the Tabernacle was to point to Jesus. Last passage we’ll look at this morning comes in Hebrews chapter ten. It says this about the sacrifices. If you’re wondering how Old Testament saints, the Jewish people, were saved or born again or became believers in Christ, it wasn’t because of the sacrifices that happened in the temple. It was about a promise of a future Messiah and placing their hope in that. And it says Hebrews ten. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sin. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. They were just a picture of what Jesus would do. Day after day. Every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again. He offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. When this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
It’s talking about Jesus. And since that time, he awaits for his enemies to become his footstools. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The interesting thing about the nation of Israel before they got out of the land of Egypt. The final plague that hit the nation of Egypt was the death of the firstborn. A picture of Jesus. And God told the nation of Israel, if you don’t want to see your firstborn sacrificed under this plague, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take a lamb. I want you to shed its blood, and I want you to apply its blood over the doorpost of your home. And when the death angel comes to the nation of Egypt, if he sees the blood of the lamb over your doorpost, he will pass by. That message still rings true for us today. The Bible tells us some pointing to man wants to die, and after that comes your judgment. The wages of sin is death. The death angel will pass by your life. And the promise is to those who have applied. The blood of the lamb will be spared. You will be saved. Jesus is our hope. God used the temple to reflect his beauty to all of us. He revealed to us how to worship him through the elements that took place there.
He made the slaves free. He gave Israel an identity and he shaped them in him. Because God is always interested in your worship, because God is always interested in the way that you connect to him through Jesus. You know, as a church, the thing I love about God is he really he. He shapes my identity in him. And I want to learn how to be a better husband in God’s word does that. And I want to learn how to be better with money. And God’s Word will teach me that. And I want to learn how to better love people. And God’s Word will teach me that. He’ll teach me how to fix my life up. And it will. It can look great. It may not always run perfectly, but. But God can just really show me those resources I need to do those things. But you know, the Bible says what profit is a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. And the biggest message about the temple is not that God can fix your life here on earth. The biggest message about the temple, if we fail to miss it this morning is, is that there is something seriously wrong about our relationship with him? And if we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. It’s everything about Jesus. I felt I felt kind of bad at the end of this this week and I thought, man, we always give us something practical to hold on to something about our lives we can work on and change, and something we can do as a church family.
And who cares just for a day? Who cares? This is about Jesus. That’s what this church is about. It’s about Jesus. And if we can understand the picture that God created here and everything that Christ has done and the sacrifice he has made for us, the best thing that we can walk out with this morning is to understand how a holy God operates for us as people, and we just stand thankful that he’s given us his grace and mercy. God, thank you for Jesus. We consider the death of those animals and God. As much as you hate death, we hate seeing it as well. But God awaken within us a desire to just seek you in your holiness, to understand your hatred for sin and the need that we have as holy people, just to come before Jesus and cling to him. You know, Hebrews says to us, it has nothing to do with their sacrifices, nothing to do with our sacrifices. It’s everything to do with Jesus’s sacrifice. It’s all about him. I love the way Isaiah nine six says it. I’ll just end with this verse. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And he shall be called wonderful Counselor, all mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. God, thank you for that peace.