Sermon Tone Analysis

March 29, 2012

By: John Barnett

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Today we need to ponder how the Tabernacle God intricately designed and described, as well as the four Temples God's Word describes, fit into God’s great plan of the Ages.

To understand we need to remember that:

The heartbeat of God's Word is worship.

The only thing God seeks is worship.

The purpose of salvation is worshiping the God of Heaven.

So, to start with—is your heart the heart of a worshipper?

Always remind yourself that the tabernacle, which God instructed Moses to construct, covers more chapters (Exodus 25-40) that any other object in the entire Bible.

That means that the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, are powerful lessons to guide us in our pursuit of deepening our fellowship with the Lord.

As we open to Exodus 25:1-2, 8-9:

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.

3 And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze; 4 blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair; 5 ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood; 6 oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense; 7 onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.

8 And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.

9 According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it.

Like no other building, God exactly dictated His plans for this structure, because the:

*TABERNACLE SHOWS HOW TO ENTER THE PRESENCE OF GOD*

Of what possible importance could an old, dusty animal skin tent in the midst of a nomadic, wandering migration of people camping across the Sinai’s trackless desert have in this ultra modern 21st century life in which we live?

Can a tent constructed 35 dim centuries ago give any light to the dark, sin-stained path we often must tread?

Join me as we look at the tent and its meaning and find strength in Christ for our lives today.

If we were to top a hill in the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula 3,400 years ago we would first see one of the largest encampments of people ever on the planet.

There were 603,000 families who came out of Egypt.

So on a lookout spot we would see a huge encampment, because the minimum size campground to hold the Camp of Israel was at least 81 square miles just for 603,000 fighting men and their families!

All the flocks and herds would have taken more space.

That is the equivalent of a square park containing solid rows of tents from:

• VanKal on the west to

• Sprinkle on the east, from

• West D in the north to

• Center Street in the south.

That would put us today, sitting at CBC, in the middle of the Camp.

And that is where the tabernacle was originally placed, right in the center of an 81 square mile campground!

The Exodus march out of Egypt, that numbered 603,000 families or about three million people, was an amazing feat.

Most of us can’t picture huge numbers.

Here is a way to do so:

• If the three million Israelites walked in a line five people wide, they would have stretched for over 225 miles in length (that’s from here to Gaylord, MI just south of the Mackinaw Bridge).

• If they traveled at 50 people wide they would have stretched for 22 1/2 miles in length (or 2/3rds of the way from here to Battle Creek).

• Just to put our world’s population into a missions perspective; our world of 6 billion would make a line of people marching past CBC at 100 wide by 45,000 miles in length!

Walking at a normal pace it would take just short of two years for the entire line walking 24/7/365 to get past our building.

Another amazing fact about the miracle of the Exodus and Wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel: to feed three million people would take 1300 boxcars of food each day or a train 9 1/2 miles long!

*Big Camp Little Tent = Approachable God*

But today we are looking for something in that 81 square mile camp, it was called the Tabernacle.

In the center of the camp, with smoke slowly rising from the altar, and with the 12 tribes in an ordered arrangement around it around.

Looking intently we would note a long, black, unattractive tent of porpoise skins.

But when we traveled through the loud, smelling and busy camp and made it to the tabernacle we would find a much different sight.

• When we came inside, we would find ourselves surrounded by shining gold:

• Looking up to the curtained roof, we see the wings of the cherubim woven in; blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen.

• The light of the golden candlestick would softly shine and reveal all the beauty within.

So it is with Christ Himself.

The natural man, beholding Him, sees no beauty that he should desire Him.

But to those who know the Lord Jesus Christ, His beauty satisfies their souls.

The Tabernacle teaches us so much about the wonders of our Matchless God.

This is a journey into the presence of God.

We enter God's presence by way of His Tabernacle, God's tent of Meeting.

As we examine this incredible structure, we will see how every point of the God's Tabernacle points to Jesus.

The first and primary lesson we learned about the Tabernacle was where God placed it.

In the center of the Camp, with smoke slowly rising from the altar and with the 12 Tribes in an ordered arrangement around it around.

Looking intently we would note a long, black, unattractive tent of porpoise skins.

But when we traveled through the loud, smelling and busy camp and made it to the Tabernacle we would find a much different sight.

When we came inside, we would find ourselves surrounded by shining gold: looking up to the curtained roof, we see the wings of the cherubim woven in; blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen.

The light of the golden candlestick would softly shine and reveal all the beauty within.

*INTIMACY WITH THE ALMIGHTY*

Going back outside, if we were to draw a straight line from the center of the tabernacle’s gate of entrance to the mercy seat in the center of the holy of holies, we would see a picture of salvation and God's wonderful plan for us.

You go through the altar, through the laver, through the door; you pass the table of showbread on your right hand and the golden lamp stand on your left; through the altar of incense, through the veil, to the ark, covered by the mercy seat, in the holy of holies.

This is the true pilgrim's progress from the camp outside to the immediate presence of God.

Old Testament worship centered first on the tabernacle and then after 500 years, on the Temple.

Divinely designed liturgy was carried on for 1,500 nearly unbroken years in the way Moses was told by God to do it on Mt.

Sinai.

Then, from his incredibly vast inheritance, Solomon built a Temple (known as the First Temple).

In 586 BC Nebuchadnezzar took what was left of the gold and destroyed the First Temple completely.

In about 19BC King Herod the Great vastly expanded and lavishly adorned the Second Temple started by Zerrubbabel in 520BC.

This Temple became a magnet for the wealth of the Jewish people so that by AD 70 it there was so much gold, that the Roman conquerors tore apart the Temple stone by stone the scrape off and recover the wealth.

A Third Temple is the one that Jesus, Daniel, Paul, and John all saw and described a fully functioning Temple in Jerusalem during the Tribulation period.

There is also a Fourth Temple that is during the Millennium that Ezekiel describes at great length in Ezekiel 40-48.

So, all four of these very trustworthy witnesses, saw a place, a temple that is in use by Jews worshipping God in the Tribulation period; and then Ezekiel adds to this an eyewitness description of the 4th Temple built when Christ rules and reigns on Earth in the Millennium.

These 4 Temples, two yet to come should make us ask why?

Why would God commission the Old Testament Tabernacle and Temples; and why would He ever build one after the Cross in the final Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ?

The answer is that both the Tabernacle and all the Temples are incredible pictures of salvation through Christ alone.

Please turn with me to John 1:14, as we see that the purpose of God was for all to see Christ!

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The word “dwelt” in John 1:14 is literally “tented”.

Christ's incarnation is called tenting.

So in every sense, the Tabernacle was a pre-incarnational picture of God tenting among mankind.

The Tabernacle is God wanting to dwell with His people and making a way for them to seek and find Him.

THE TABERNACLE WAS GOD'S PORTRAIT

OF CHRIST “TENTING” AMONG US

Every detail of the Tabernacle, every piece of furniture, color and placement were all engineered to point to Christ.

Jesus came to reveal God the Father.

The past Tabernacle and Temple, and the future Temples of God in Jerusalem are all designed to point us to Christ.

Here is a simple sketch of Christ in the Tabernacle and Temple.

1. THE TABERNACLE IN THE CENTER OF CAMP: GOD WANTS US LIVING IN HIS PRESENCE.

2. THE BRAZEN ALTAR AS THE FIRST OBJECT THROUGH THE DOOR: GOD WANTS US COMING TO HIM (The Doctrine of Satisfaction)

3. THE LAVER OF BRASS AS THE NEXT OBJECT: GOD WANTS TO CLEANSE AWAY OUR SINS (The Doctrine of Sanctification)

4. THE GOLDEN LAMPSTAND MADE THE HOLY PLACE VISIBLE: GOD WANTS US WALKING IN HIS LIGHT

5. THE TABLE OF SHOWBREAD ON THE RIGHT: GOD WANTS US NOURISHED BY OUR SAVIOR

6.

THE ALTAR OF INCENSE AT THE DOORWAY TO THE HOLY OF HOLIES: GOD WANTS US PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT

7. THE VEIL SEPARATING THE HOLIEST OF ALL FROM EVERYTHING ELSE (which was torn): GOD WANTS US BOLDLY ENTERING HIS PRESENCE

8. THE MERCY SEAT COVERED WITH BLOOD: RESTING IN HIS SACRIFICE

9. THE ARK OF THE COVENANT: TRUSTING HIS PROMISES