Sabbath Pictures – Seeing Christ Each Day – Revealing God’s Grace & Truth

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Sabbath Pictures: Seeing Christ Each Day

Revealing God’s Grace & Truth

John 1:14-18

Seeing Christ Each Day Revealing God’s Grace & Truth (John 1:14-18):

Christ Jesus is the theme of every part of the Bible, God’s Word. Jesus often reminded His audiences that the Scriptures speak about Him. Going to the Scriptures is the way to encounter Jesus.

Have you thought about that? When we think of each book, whether Obadiah or Philippians, He is the central message of every book. When we think of any doctrine, He is the central truth of every doctrine.

POINT 1: JESUS CHRIST IS THE THEME OF EVERY BOOK & EVERY DOCTRINE
Counseling: Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor
Fear & Anxiety: Jesus is the Prince of Peace
Marriage & Family: Jesus invented it. He is the Creator
Prophecy: Jesus Christ is the Spirit of Prophecy, Revelation tells us.
Salvation: Jesus, the Bread of Life, is our salvation.

Think of any book, doctrine, or portion of God’s Word, and Jesus Christ is the theme. With that in mind, we are looking at the Biblical Doctrine of Hungering for God. Again, we see that Jesus is the theme.

HUNGERING FOR GOD THROUGH JESUS

We can only Hunger for God through Jesus.
He is the only way to God, He is the only truth about God, and He offers the only life of God possible. He said only those who hunger for Him have genuine eternal life. The components of Hungering for God are:

Prayer (and Jesus is the One in whom we pray, in His Name and character);
Fasting (Jesus is the One we long for so much it prompts us to fast); and
Resting (and Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, Owner of our time, and the One who brings us peace and rest for our souls).

Transcript

Let’s open our Bibles to the Gospel by John, Chapter 1. As you turn there, we’re looking at the central theme, the focal point, the truth of the Scriptures, which is Jesus Christ, and the fact that every day we get to open this book and see Him. This morning, Jesus Christ is central to every doctrine, to every book, to every study, to every theme that’s in this book we hold in our hands. In any doctrine you encounter, as you study it, if you don’t find that Jesus Christ is central, you’re not seeing it as a biblical doctrine. Because Jesus said in Luke 24, He pointed out to the disciples all the ways the Scriptures spoke of Him. When He spoke to His detractors in John 5, He looked at them and said, you don’t understand that? He was talking about truth from the Bible. He says the Scriptures speak of Me. So, Jesus is the target as well as the theme of every part of the Scriptures. So that’s what we’re looking at this morning: seeing Christ every day.

Now, why I said that is, look at the top line: Sabbath Pictures. To most people, some doctrines of the Bible are so obscure, they’re so difficult to understand, or they’re so sensationalized that they don’t like to study them. But did you know every biblical doctrine, whether it be the Sabbath or some doctrine of salvation or of end times, is, if you study it from the Scripture, it’s always going to come around to point to Jesus Christ?

Now, I practiced that this morning. I was in the elders’ prayer meeting. The elders gather and pray at 8:30 on Sunday mornings before the morning service. In that time, they pray for every teacher. They pray for everyone who’s going to minister to us in music, for all of those that are pouring out their lives working in our Sunday schools and nurseries, for all of you coming, and for the Lord to use the teachers and to use all the body in action to minister. So, they’re praying for that.

When they got all done, I said you’ll have to pray for me, because I said Jesus could probably come on September 28th. I said, have you been reading about the Blood Moons? All the elders were paralyzed and looked at me. I just paused for drama, and they were starting to sweat, some of them. I said, or He could come the day before, or He could come today. Ah, then they relaxed. They said, oh no, what are you saying? Some of you don’t even know what I’m talking about. Unsaved people know what I’m talking about. Almost every major newspaper around the world has front page articles about the unusual things that have been going on, the people’s superstition about the blood moon coming on the full moon on September 28th.

Last week in Bangkok. Were any of you in Bangkok? In the brightness of noon, there was a meteor, a boloid, I think that’s what they call them. It’s a large meteor that comes down and then it explodes in our atmosphere. High noon. Bright sun. A streak, then an explosion. It scared everybody to death. Immediately, everyone started thinking it was the end of the world! It’s the end of the world! Prompting our tax-funded National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, to make a rare statement that with all of America’s astronomical assets and everything we have out there, there is no asteroid close enough to Earth to destroy us on September 28th. Wasn’t it comforting that NASA was trying to alleviate the fears of all the superstitious people?

Tonight, just for you to know, what’s causing the superstition? Even in lies, there’s usually a grain of truth. What’s the grain of truth? What does the Bible say about Joel 2? It does talk about how the moon shall turn to blood. What’s it talking about in Revelation 6 through 9 and in 16 when we have this redness? The moon turns red. What is going on? Does that have anything to do with, in Joel 2, the blood moons, with the Jewish holidays? That’s what we’re looking at.

But chapter 1 of John, verse 14. Our goal is to take a doctrine of the Bible. If it’s a Biblical doctrine, Jesus Christ will be at the center of it. You will learn more about Christ and be drawn toward Him by that doctrine. If it’s not a Biblical doctrine, it will only infuse speculation and emotionalism. For example, I see advertisements for the latest movie that’s found the lost ark. Or the latest video that shows you Pharaoh’s Chariot wheels that are encrusted with whatever is at the bottom of something. Did you know we don’t need to follow the doctrine of chariots, lost chariot wheels, or where the ark is if it doesn’t lead us towards seeing Christ? What is it about chariot wheels?

Do you know what prompts my heart? The Lord Himself removed them from Pharaoh’s armies and caused their chariots to not run so that they could be drowned in the Red Sea, which was a picture of His judgment as He delivered His promised people, the chosen people of promise, into the Promised Land. So that draws me toward Christ because that means if He can take chariot wheels off Pharaoh’s army, He can do anything to protect me, and I’m invulnerable as long as I’m serving His purposes. As soon as He’s ready and has my room ready, He’ll take me home. Now, I can see Christ in anything, but make sure that any biblical doctrine that you’re studying, you study it long enough until Christ is at the center.

This morning, we’re looking at the Sabbath, and we’re looking at Sabbath pictures. God eternally established in His Word portraits of His ownership of our time. That’s what the Sabbath is about. It’s resting in the fact that my times are in His hand, my life’s breath is in His hand, and I am to give Him an offering of my time. He wants us to see Him each day, and as we see Him, biblical doctrine leads us to see Christ revealing God’s grace and truth. That’s going to be in our text this morning.

As we open to John 1, Christ Jesus is the theme of every part of the Bible. God’s Word is often told to us by Jesus Christ as He reminded his audience that God’s Word, the Scriptures, speaks about Him. Going to the Scriptures is the way we encounter Jesus Christ. Now, some people go to the mall so they can encounter their friends. They dress up on Friday nights and parade around. It used to be that way. I don’t think malls are in anymore, but it used to be. People parade around to be seen and to see people and to attract and everything else. You wanted an encounter. Now there are apps for encounters, but it used to be you walked around.

Did you know that we encounter Jesus Christ through His Word? This is the only way that you’re encountering the genuine Jesus. Satan masquerades as an angel of light, it says in 2 Corinthians. He wants to imitate Jesus Christ, and he is a very good imitator. We only can know that the one that we are communicating with is the genuine, living, and true God of the universe because it’s verified by this once and for all settled in Heaven book, He gave us. This is the encounter place. If you are involved in any Christian endeavor that is not locked, tied, anchored, connected, and built under the Word, it is not good.

I hear a lot of people saying we’re going to build our home on the Word. No, I want to be under it. I don’t want to go beyond it. A lot of churches are built on the Word. It’s in the basement or something. I’m not sure; down there somewhere, it’s out of sight. It’s not dictating, governing, or regulating anything. We encounter Jesus Christ through His Word.

Have you thought about the truth that when you think of every book of the Bible, whether it’s Obadiah or Leviticus or Philippians, all 66 books, Jesus is the central theme? Every biblical doctrine, Jesus is, if you keep digging around in that doctrine long enough, Christ comes out of it. If you have some part of the Bible that’s dry and doesn’t make any sense, ask the Lord to open your heart to understand where He is in there because He’s the central theme. The Scriptures, He said, speak of Me.

Here’s point one. For the retention of truth. I have three truths that I want you to remember this morning. Here’s point number one, okay? You know what? If you read it, and see it, and hear it, and say it, and think it, and poke people around you, you’ll probably remember it. So, we’re going to have a quiz in a moment. So, let’s read it together. Point number one. Here you go. You ready? Everyone, clear your throats. Okay, here we go. Jesus Christ is the theme of every book and every doctrine in the Scriptures I’m talking about. He’s the theme. If you really think about that, it changes it. I can read any portion of the Bible. I don’t have to stick with the Psalms and Philippians or some comfortable part. I can read any portion of Scripture and encounter Jesus Christ. He’s the theme of every doctrine. Thursday nights, we gather as elders and deacons, and for 56 months, I went through a systematic theology. In every doctrine we studied, we encountered Jesus Christ. See, that’s the blessing of this book.

Let me give you an example. There are a lot of doctrines. The doctrine of nurtured discipleship or counseling is a direct encounter with the wonderful Counselor. Did you know people come to me all the time and they have problems; they want me to solve their problems. The first thing I establish with them as soon as they sit down is that I can’t solve any of their problems, not even one. But I know someone that can solve all of them. You come to Him and find Him as your source, target, the supremacy of your life, the focal point of everything. Usually, when things are falling apart in our lives, it’s because they’re not under His control. So, let’s talk about what is falling apart and how it’s not under Christ’s control. You say, that’s heartless. You should solve their problems. No. Jesus. He said, I’m the wonderful Counselor. The doctrine of counseling is us applying the Word of God to our minds. It never is to take away the problem, it’s to see God’s purpose for it. He responds that He’s wanting.

How about this? Fear and anxiety. If we could get rid of fear and anxiety, we would take away billions of dollars of pharmaceuticals that are totally dispensed to help people through their fear and anxiety. Now, I’m not a Christian Scientist. I’m a Christian, I believe, in scientific observation, but I’m not a Christian capital-C, capital-S scientist, which is a cult. They believe that it’s in your mind, and you don’t need medicine. They’re the ones that when their child is dying of leukemia, they just say it’s a mental state, leave them alone, they’ll get better. No. The true anxiety and fear reliever is meeting the prince that brings peace.

God did not get Paul out of death row to be executed by the Romans. He stood by him and said, a crown is laid up for you. You have followed the course. The course ends at the little death block in what is now where the Vatican sits in the Circus of Nero. You’re going to be killed there, Paul. You’re going to finish the course with joy, and you’re going to get a martyr’s crown. Wow.

Did you know that most of us act like we’re never going to die and we’re never going to have a problem? When it comes, we’re surprised by either death or the problem. Jesus said, no, I want to give you peace in the midst of that so that you can radiate outward. Oh, I can’t tell you how many people I go to visit in the hospital, that I go armed with my verse in my Bible under my arm, ready to go and pray with them. Before I even get to start that, they start sharing what the Lord has taught them about being poked, tubed, and punctured and everything in the hospital. How much His closeness, the Scriptures they’d memorized, and the truth that they’d embraced is. I am so ministered to that those kind are the ones that you know have met the prince that brings peace.

Or how about marriage and family? Hey, the One that invented it is the one who wants to help. That doctrine of marriage and family, it’s not about public opinion, what this synod votes on, whether this is right or wrong. What does the Creator say? How did He design marriage? What’s His purpose? What does He want? How can I conform to what He wants? See, that’s the doctrine that Christ is central to.

Prophecy, blood moons, or anything else. Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy. All prophecy points toward Him. He is the one who is the judge. That’s what Acts 17 says. When Paul was talking to the philosophers in Athens, he said, I want you to know there’s a Creator that made of one blood all nations of the Earth, and He is the one who came and died on the cross. He is the Redeemer, and if you reject Him, you’re going to face Him as your judge. There’s prophecy. Everything else, all the sensationalism, sometimes obscures that Jesus Christ is the focal point, and we need to see that, and not search the newspapers for some gloom and doom and sign of something, but see Christ could probably come on September 28th, or on September 13th.

See, that’s how the apostles in the Early Church lived. Expecting to meet Jesus that day. Anticipating His coming today. That’s how they lived. That’s how they got so much done. They kept everything ready to meet Him at any moment. They lived like they were going to live forever and only today. Like Martin Luther, they had two dates on their calendar: today and the day they stand before Jesus Christ. Finally, salvation, of course. Jesus is the heart of salvation. He’s the bread of life. He said, if you come to Me, you never hunger.

So how did we get here? We’re looking at this doctrine of hungering for God. The biblical doctrine of hungering for God. If you understand the doctrine biblically, Christ will be at the center of it. So, what is the doctrine of hungering for God? We can only hunger for God through Jesus. There are only three types of people sitting in this room right now. Healthy, born-again ones hunger for God. Hunger for God is the evidence of salvation. Jesus said, bless for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. If we seek Him, we’ll find Him when we seek with all of our heart. We have that intense longing, hunger for Him. Hungering for God equals being saved and healthy. So that’s group number one.

In fact, let’s do a little quiz. I was introduced last week at Camp Barakel. I wasn’t here last week. I was at Camp Barakel speaking. I was introduced by my dear friend, and I was taken aback by his introduction. He got up in front of Camp Barakel, my good friend Paul Gardner, and he looked out and he said you’re about to face a fire hydrant. I thought, a fire hydrant? What is that metaphor? I thought they were doing something new at Camp Barakel, being, you know, real cutting edge with all the smoke and stuff. You know how it is up there at Barakel. It was me he was introducing. I looked at him, and he looked back at me, and he said you’re going to be confronted with a torrent of biblical truth. He said, I hope that you can, from that torrent, pull out one thing. I thought, huh, okay. No torrent. Let’s just do one thing.

Which one are you this morning? Are you hungry for God? That’s evidence of salvation. If we took your blood test and measured your hunger, we could tell how connected you are to God because those connected to God hunger and thirst after Him. David said, like in a dry and thirsty place where there’s no water, my soul longs for you.

Number two, are you muted? Do you ever see one of those YouTube videos where they’re all talking, but you don’t hear anything? You look down, and there’s a little X. It’s muted. Is your hunger muted? Do you have a blockage spiritually? You can’t remember the last time that you were so overwhelmed and felt the presence of God, experienced Him face to face, that you wish you could have sat there for the rest of the day because it was so truly, amazingly an encounter with God.

That’s what happens every time we open the Bible. We encounter God. Every time. If you’re healthy, it just feeds your soul, and you just want more. If you’re sick, you can’t remember the last time that happened. It’s muted. It’s blocked. There’s an impediment. In fact, right now, sitting here, you’ve looked at your watch four times, and you can’t believe that there’s still a half hour left. You haven’t gotten anything yet, you don’t get anything out of it, and you wish you hadn’t come. You wish you would have been sick or something, and you just feel so far from God. That’s being sick. That means you can’t remember the last verse you memorized. You can’t remember it. You can’t even remember a verse right now. It bothers you that I’m talking about that. That’s sick. That’s sick spiritually.

Jesus said that makes Him sick because He said, I bought you at a price with My own blood. I want you hungering after Me. I want you to, as you were saved, as you received the Lord, so walk in Him. We receive the Lord when we desperately cry out to Him and say, You’re my only hope. Then, many Christians become almost atheistic. They needed God to get saved and they don’t need Him anymore. They make it on their own. They don’t hunger and long and seek and find.

Then, there are just plain old dead people. You’re sitting here, rolling your eyes. You already disagree with almost everything, but you’re here anyway. You have never been turned from darkness to light. You just go whatever way you want to, and there’s no internal light, there’s no internal bread of life, there is no awareness of Christ. You’re like an article I read yesterday, where the man confessed, he said, I’m going to be dust on someone’s windowsill in 300 years. So will you. That’s a godless, atheistic, nihilistic, just hopelessness. That’s how we were born.

I just came from my office, that’s why I was late to church, with all the baby dedication people. All the couples that are dedicating their children. I was in there with them. I said, are you going to raise this little pagan that’s dead in their trespasses and sin? That’s how children come out. Even in the Christian homes, they come dead in their trespasses and sin. They are rebels, they are enemies with God. God is their enemy. He is against them until they are reconciled. Are you going to raise that little child, living Christ in a genuine way that they can’t resist knowing and loving and seeking the God of their father that they see in their dad and their mother? That they see in and hear at their mother’s hand? We are born this way. Salvation makes us go from death to life, and sin makes us muted or blocked.

So, hungering for God is a doctrine, and Jesus is central to it. What we saw in hungering for God is three components. Those three components are the three elements we’ve already studied. We’ve been doing this for a year. Prayer. Jesus is central to prayer. We pray in his name. He even told us a model that we’re supposed to pray. We’re supposed to focus on Him and surrender and yield to Him and let Him provide. Then fasting is all about Christ. Fasting is longing so much for Christ that I want to dispense with other things so I can focus more. Anything that takes away my attention on Him, I want to get rid of and jettison.

Now we’re resting. Resting is actually parallel to salvation. The Sabbath, entering into His rest, in Hebrews, is talking about salvation. It’s when I come to rest in Him. It shows up in my time. If I’m resting in Him, it’s like sleep. I need it. I need it. For people who are sleep deprived, it’s torture. It’s torturous not to need the Lord if you’re a Christian. You feel horrible. Resting, this whole concept of Sabbath, has to do with the Lord’s ownership of our time. That’s where we are. But, of course, Christ is in the center.

Now, our text. What we’re going to see is we’re looking for this word, and it’s in verse 14, and it says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt. That’s the word, at least in the New King James. The word skēnoō means tabernacled or tented. To tabernacle, to live in a tent or tent it, Jesus is God’s tent when God lived on Earth and revealed Himself. But before Jesus came, there was another tent called the Tabernacle that was part of the Sabbath observance and was the most glorious picture of Him. That’s amazingly connected right here.

John chapter 1. There in your Bibles, let’s all stand and remain standing as we read through these four verses through verse 18. Then we’ll pray, and then we’ll dive in. John 1:14. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. In verse 15, John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying this was he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me. For He was before me. Verse 16. Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

Now, look up. In Greek, you learn that this is a construction that’s like waves of the sea, just one on top of another. When you come to Christ, it’s one wave of His grace after another. Grace upon grace. That is such a beautiful thing. It’s hard to translate. We received of His fullness this endless flow of grace. Verse 17. The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Then the key verse, verse 18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father He has declared, exegeo, exegeted, exegetical. He is the one who has explained and revealed the Father. Wow.

Let’s bow for a word of prayer. Father, I pray that You would teach us this morning how to encounter You every day, how to hunger so much for You that we come to the only place we can meet You, the meeting place, which is Your Word. Whether it’s Your Word memorized and meditated on or Your Word studied or Your Word just casually read, You are waiting for us. You want us to meet with You. You want to impart to us grace upon grace. Stir our hearts to be, if we’re already hungering, to hunger more and be satisfied more. If we’re sick this morning, and I’m sure in a group this size, not only are there the hungry, there are the sick. I pray that we’d realize that no matter how many steps we’ve taken away from You, it’s just one step back, repenting, turning away from whatever it is that has distracted us, and returning to You. One step. I pray that some, even standing here, some sitting throughout this morning, will take that step back today and say, Lord, I’m sick. I’m miserable. I feel detached. I feel so far away from You. I want to come back. You want us back more than we want to be back. I pray that You would do that wondrous work. Then for anybody dead here, they’re just coming and checking it out here. I pray that they would find You’re alive, You’re powerful, and You’re here. That they would become afraid because of their sinfulness, and Your holy, righteous wrath. That they would cry out to You, Lord Jesus, because Your Word says You’re just an arm’s length away. You’re right next to every one of us. Healthy satisfies more. Sick, to heal us on the spot. Or dead, to raise us to endless life. We want to meet with You today. We pray we would encounter You in Your Word. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. Welcome to the fire hydrant. It’s starting right now. Point two. What was point one? Who is the center of everything in the Bible? That was not very resounding, okay? Ladies, they’re spiritually alert, but men, we’ve got to hear some male voices in there because this is not the public school, and I can classify you as men and women this morning. Sorry, some of you will get that later. But Jesus Christ is the theme of Scripture. Okay, what is the central message of every part of the Bible and every doctrine? Jesus. That’s good. That’s point one. So now you remember that. You’ve exerted yourself.

Here’s number two. The Tabernacle, now notice I chose these words very carefully, is God’s portrait of Christ. You know the sad thing about our generation? A lot of people put everything in the Old Testament in the past, and it’s gone. It’s over. They’re even confused about Israel. That’s a big thing, especially in Western Michigan and in Christendom in general. But when you come to the Tabernacle, they think, what on Earth would that be for? Yet Jesus just told us in John chapter 1 that He was the living, walking around, breathing Tabernacle. The dwelling place of God. The Tabernacle is God’s eternal portrait of Jesus Christ because it’s a part of His Word. In fact, this is the single most described object in the Bible. There are 52 chapters of the Bible about this tent. That’s astounding. If God writes 52 chapters about anything, it’s important to get into it and see why.

So, what is it? By the way, this is just out of a Sunday school book. Isn’t that cute? I found it. I took a picture of it and put it on there for you like we’re in Sunday school. Get the visuals. I was a youth pastor. You have to keep changing the pictures to keep their attention. Here’s a picture. The camp of Israel. There were 603,000 campsites in Israel. 603,000 families. That’s moms, dads, and kids. They had all their animals, and they had their cart, and they had their tent, and they had their food, and they had their possessions, and they had everything, all their stuff. 603,000 campsites, a normal campsite, like you’d get at any trailer park. If you have your little place and stuff for it. It was nine miles wide and nine miles long. It was 81 square miles of Israelites. Right in the center was that tent. Right hovering over the Holy of Holies was that Shekinah glory. Also, the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. That tent and everything surrounding it is forever settled in the Word of God as a portrait of Jesus Christ.

The Tabernacle, first of all, is God’s journal, photo journal, documenting salvation. It’s not an afterthought. It’s His premeditated explanation of what Jesus would do perfectly on the cross. The people living in the camp of Israel could see and smell and be visually assaulted with the wonders of God putting His wrath on His son. What an amazing thing.

The Tabernacle is the clearest portrait of Christ and His redemption to be found in any part of the Old Testament. It’s also, as I said, a massive biblical doctrine. We have 15 chapters devoted just to the actual construction of the objects. Then, we have 10 more chapters talking about what they signify. Then we have 27 solid chapters called Leviticus that talk about the Tabernacle in use. Amazing. It’s massive. God took only one verse to record the creation of everything, Genesis 1:1. Then He goes on for two chapters to record and explain His creation, Genesis 1 and 2. Then, it takes 15 chapters to explain the construction of the Tabernacle, 10 to talk about how vital it is, and 27 more to describe it in action. Wow.

But did you ever think that when Moses was commissioned with the Tabernacle, God asked him to go up into Mount Sinai? He gets up there. God thunders and clouds and smokes the top of the mountain for six days. Then, on the seventh day, Moses was sufficiently prepared for God to let him see the actual sanctuary in Heaven. Did you know there is a temple in Heaven? The one, this tent, was just a copy of that? Isn’t that astounding?

Point three, this is where we’re going to end today. In the first service, I heard someone zip their Bible. I said, did you all hear that? They’re done, and I’m not. It was a distinct zip. See? The hair is going, but the ears are not. Point three is that the Tabernacle is how God portrays spiritual reality. If you read Hebrews 8:5, let’s go to Hebrews because instead of talking about it, let’s do it. Hebrews chapter 8, so you go all the way. You’re in John. Go to the right. Hebrews chapter 8 is a long one, it has 13 chapters. If you turn, it’s big. But verse 5 says, who serve the copy and the shadow of the heavenly things. The people that were serving, that were in that tent, were just serving a copy. That means there’s a real one there. This is just a copy, a shadow. It means everything there was mirroring something else. It was a shadow. The reality was here and all those objects were just a shadow of the reality. Wow, that’s amazing. As Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the Tabernacle, for he said, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

So, what Moses got to see in Matthew 25 verses 9 and 40 was what’s in Heaven. Now, still, that’s comfortably in the past. But in a moment, we’re going to see, tonight is even about that, that all of the judgments of the Tribulation, all of the events of the end of the world, are emanating from the heavenly temple. If you don’t understand this thing, you don’t even understand what’s going on, how God is collecting all the prayers of all the saints, and He is answering them in His perfect time from the heavenly temple, the heavenly golden altar, the heavenly censers, the heavenly incense, the heavenly Throne of God that is right there in the book of Revelation, 16 times described. Wow, it’s amazing.

Keep going to chapter 9, verse 23. For it was necessary that the copies, I’m in Hebrews 9:23, the copies of those things in the heavens should be purified with these. But the heavenly things with better sacrifices in these. Verse 24, for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the truth, but into Heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. All that was going on here is only a shadow and a representation of what is going on there. But for us to understand what is going on there, God gave us something we can see and understand. This is a big topic. The Tabernacle is how God portrays spiritual reality.

Now, if you want just a quickie of it, do you know what’s so interesting? I could talk about the Tabernacle for a long time. Probably you could too. It’s 300 feet in circumference. That’s interesting. It’s 150 on each side, 75 on top and bottom. So what? 300 feet. What else was 300 feet? The Ark. The length of the Ark is 300 feet. Did you know that the Ark is a picture of God’s mercy toward us in Christ? One door. The Ark had one door. The central object, in fact, the tallest object in the Tabernacle, the brazen altar, is the tallest piece of furniture. It’s what, when you walked in the door, what you could see. That is the center. The cross of Christ. The sacrifice where Jesus became sin. Then, the cleansing. So, the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine of redemption, the doctrine of sanctification, the cleansing, the getting closer to God.

Then comes this part. It’s a two-part, two-chambered tent. This is the Holy of Holies, and this is the Holy Place. This had three objects in it, which spoke of the illumination, the feeding, and the intercession of Christ. Then this had two parts, the lid and the bottom of the Ark of the Covenant. When Paul was trying to describe salvation in Romans chapter 3, he took the word for the top of the Ark, hilasterion, that Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation. He is the mercy seat. He is the one that covers our sins with His blood and removes them so that God’s wrath will not forever be on us. So, Paul, in Romans 3, couldn’t even describe salvation without using a Tabernacle temple term from the sacrifices.

This is spiritual reality. Everyone is born outside the tent. There’s only one door to the tent. There’s only one entrance to God. There are not many. You couldn’t crawl under. You couldn’t jump over. You couldn’t be so good that you could just walk through. You had to come through the one door, and you had to come with the right attitude. You had to come bearing a substitute. An innocent substitute. You came through that door and handed it to the priest, who offered it in your place, which is what Jesus did.

Then, did you know most believers are stuck here? They’re saved, but they’re not continuously sanctified. They know they’re saved, and they’re in no man’s land. Right there. That is the life that is neglecting the sanctifying work of God, the personal sanctification and the agreement with what God wants to do. Then, this is how Christ ministers to us. Like I said, there’s so much there.

Basically, three points before we go. Jesus Christ is the theme of every doctrine. Wherever you are, if you’re in cover to cover. If you’re in it, you’re probably in the class right now. But if you’re doing it, Isaiah. Jesus Christ is the theme of every part of Isaiah. Every judgment, every doom, every gloom, every hope, everything. The Tabernacle. All the way through the Bible from the beginning, all the way through to the future, God is showing His plan in Revelation using that, that Jesus is the portrait of what the Tabernacle portrays. Finally, it shows how God illustrates reality.

Real quickly. This is an intro for tonight. God used the Tabernacle model for His plan for the future. I just want to close with this. This showed the Tabernacle in Heaven that God showed to Moses. Exodus 25:9, that’s when he’s up there waiting. Verse 40 is an afterthought that God showed him something that He modeled the Tabernacle after. That’s what it says in Hebrews 8:5.

God showed John. A tabernacle still there in Heaven. Let’s go there. Let’s conclude in Revelation 8. So go, you’re in Hebrews, keep going to the right. I love that all roads lead to Revelation, not Rome, Revelation. All roads lead to Revelation. In the Bible at least., Look what the Bible says. God shows John the Tabernacle in Heaven. In Heaven, God uses the original heavenly Temple to launch some of the biggest events of the Tribulation, starting in chapter 8, verses 3 to 5.

By the way, this is the seventh seal going into the seven trumpets. So, this is a big juncture in the future, in the book of Revelation. Look at verse 3. After the seven seals are broken in one, and the seven angels stand before God with their trumpets in two, then another angel. In verse 3, another angel, Revelation 8:3, having a golden censer.

Look up from your Bible. What is a censer? I know you know, but when you’re reading the Bible, censer? What is that? Why, that’s right out of the 52 chapters about the Old Testament Tabernacle. That was at a little brass pan that you could get coals from the altar and mix incense and make a big puff of smoke. This is immediately transporting us to connect to everything that is the reality of what God has shown us in the Tabernacle. God says that all this wrath is ignited by the altar, the great altar. What is that? It’s a picture of Christ’s death on the cross. God’s wrath is prompted by Christ’s sacrifice. Why? Because He made an offering that was sufficient for the world and offers it to everyone. Isn’t that interesting? When they reject it, He sends His wrath. That’s what’s happening. Their rejection is sending His wrath.

So, this angel comes with his golden censer. He came and stood at the altar. The altar? Altar? This is the New Testament. What is that there for? God is not aware of our artificial things. That stuff is gone and passe and unimportant. It’s still important to Him. By the way, the Tabernacle is totally tied to the Jewish people. This shows the Jewishness of the book of Revelation, as God’s chosen people of promise are now front and center in the Tribulation and the target of all the stuff going on.

He was given much incense that he should offer it. Now look at this. With the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar, which is before the throne. Whoa. Every time you and I pray, God captures everyone. They’re taken by the Holy Spirit and delivered to God the Father. The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. It’s the Holy Spirit that takes our prayers, that surrounds them, and that brings them through the work of Christ to the very feet of the Father and His throne, the Majesty on High. God collects them in bowls. He has these giant collection places.

Now, they’re talking about molecular storage. We’ve maxed out with all of Moore’s Law and the doubling every year of our electronic stuff, and silicon. We’re almost at the atomic level. Now they’ve found out that they can, at a molecular level within DNA, using that double helix, store almost an infinite amount of data. You’ll be able to take the Library of Congress in the head of a pin or less. All they’re doing is they’re just showing a little bit more reflection of the incredible immensity of the creativity of God who stores every prayer of every person that’s ever prayed to Him for all time and He keeps it right at His feet. They’re all separate, and He knows exactly what they said, which is amazing, and they’re right there. Watch what happens. By the way, that should make us pray.

You know, three weeks ago, I cleaned out 30 boxes. I had a box of every note and every cute little card my kids ever gave me, one for every year. We’ve been married almost 32 years, and I had 30, actually 31 boxes. I heard that. One of those, the collector types. I went through and got rid of 9 out of 10 of everything, I kept 10 percent of them. I was pretty proud of myself. God doesn’t get rid of anything. He collects those prayers. Those prayers offered in Jesus’ name are ever before His face. We should be praying, like Paul said, without ceasing because God is going to answer those prayers with either wait, yes, or no. The no ones are that you didn’t understand My plan, and if you wait a little longer, you will.

How does He answer them? Look what happens in verse 4. The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Verse 5, then the angel took the censer, filled with fire from the altar, and threw it to the Earth. That is God answering prayer. The prayers of the saints saying, how long, Lord? How long are You going to let them crucify, and burn, and stone, and kill, and horribly afflict My people? How long are you going to let them, the saints say. How long are you going to let Your people suffer? Lord says, just wait. Now He says, I’m not waiting anymore. It’s thrown to the Earth. It’s just an amazing sight. It comes right from this scene. There were noises, lightning, and an earthquake. God showed John this Tabernacle in Heaven.

The elements of the Old Testament Tabernacle are described 16 times as future events in Revelation, and they unfold here. It’s very important to understand. There are passages where we talk about the censer and the golden altar and the Temple and all the events that are coming.

We have three minutes to go. Let me show you what’s next. When we come back, we’re going to look at this, all those pillars and everything that are there.

But what we’re looking at are the pieces: the mercy seat, the Ark of the Covenant, the golden altar. That’s what we heard about just now in Revelation 8. The table, the showbread, the menorah, the light, which are in the Holy of Holies, in the holy place.

Then, remember it said when we read at the beginning, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. For example, the seven I am’s of Christ parallel the Tabernacle. Jesus said, I am the door, I am the light like the menorah. I’m the bread of life that will satisfy you. If you abide in Me, whatever you ask will be done. That’s the vine and us abiding in Him. He’s the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and the life, and the good shepherd. All to do with His New Covenant promises that speak of the Ark of the Covenant.

Which means He protects us from God’s wrath. He bore our sins. He intercedes. He feeds. He lights. He guards us forever because the shepherd is lying in the doorway. He said, no one can get to you without Me. You came in through Me. No one can get to you without Me. You are forever secure. You are forever walking in the light, My light. I will feed you and satisfy you. I ever lived intercede for you. I bore your sins. My blood covers, so God’s wrath will never impact you.

The Tabernacle illustrates our salvation that’s offered us in Christ. Every element represents Christ, but the first one is really neat. The gate of the Tabernacle is Christ inviting us. The altar is Him saving us. The laver is Him sanctifying us. The holy place is Him serving us. The Holy of Holies is Christ securing us. This is the neatest one. The thirty-foot wide gate is Christ saying, come to Me.

Now, back to the beginning. If you’re hungry, He says, come to Me, I’ll satisfy you even more. If you’re sick and not hungry, He says, come to Me. I will heal your sin-sick soul. No matter how many steps, how many days and weeks and months you’ve walked away from Me, it’s one step back and you’ll be right back in front of My face. I will bless you and pour out My love upon you in grace upon grace. If you are dead this morning, you don’t know Christ. He’s inviting that 30-foot wide doorway, saying, come to Me while you hear My voice.

It’s time to go. It’s 11:45, so let’s all stand. As you stand, I hope that you will hunger after God and find Christ to be the center of every part of this book that you spend any moments with this week. Let’s bow before Him. Father, I pray for those that are healthy, born-again, hungering after You, that You would fill their desire, satisfy each of us. May we hunger even more. I pray for the sick, the spiritually sick, who feel so far from You right now. They are miserable. We don’t need to say anything to them because they know it. They feel disjointed, out of place, horrible. I pray that they will decide today is the day they will say no to whatever has separated them from You and come back right now. I ask You to restore unto them the joy of their salvation and kindle anew their hunger and thirst after You. For anybody that doesn’t know you, may today be the day of salvation. Thank you for opening our hearts to Your truth. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, we pray, and all God’s people said, Amen. God bless you as you go.

NOTES

Christ Jesus is the theme of every part of the Bible, God’s Word. Jesus often reminded His audiences that the Scriptures speak about Him. Going to the Scriptures is the way to encounter Jesus.

Point 1: Jesus Christ is the theme of Every Book & Every Doctrine

Counseling: Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor

Fear & Anxiety: Jesus is the Prince of Peace

Marriage & Family: Jesus invented it, He is the Creator

Prophecy: Jesus Christ is the Spirit of Prophecy Revelation tells us.

Salvation: Jesus the Bread of Life, is our salvation.

Think of any book, any doctrine, and portion of God’s Word and Jesus Christ is the theme. With that in mind we are looking at the Biblical Doctrine of Hungering for God. Again we see that Jesus is the theme.

Hungering for God through Jesus

We can only Hunger for God through Jesus.

He is the only way to God, He is the only truth about God, and He offer the only life of God possible. He said only those who hunger for Him have genuine eternal life. The components of Hungering for God are:

Prayer (and Jesus is the One in whom we pray, in His Name and character);

Fasting (Jesus is the One we long for so much it prompts us to fast); and

Resting (and Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, Owner of our time, and the One who brings us peace and rest for our souls).

So far we have examined prayer and fasting. Now we have entered a close look at the Sabbath. Not the observance of Saturday which was given by God through Moses only to Israel. Rather we are looking at the Sabbath as a lifestyle of time stewardship that reflects God. To challenge us every time we are in the Word this morning, and to see Christ as the theme of every part of God’s Word, join me as we look at how:

Jesus Christ Tabernacled among us

Perhaps the most beloved of the Four Gospels is the Gospel by John. Perhaps the most complete picture of Jesus Christ as our Savior, the exact image of God is found here in John. As we open to John 1:14-18 we find an amazing statement about how God wants us to see Jesus. Note that word “dwelt” as in “dwelt among us” that is actually the Greek word for a tent or tabernacle. Jesus Christ tented or tabernacle among us.

This connects the Old Testament Tabernacle with the New Testament life of Jesus. Please stand as we read John 1:14-18 (NKJV):

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. ¹⁵John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’” ¹⁶And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Pray

Point 2: The Tabernacle is God’s Portrait of Christ

The Tabernacle is God’s photo journal documenting salvation. It is not an after thought, it is His premeditated explanation of what Jesus would do perfectly on the Cross. The Tabernacle is the clearest portrait of Christ and His redemption to be found in any part of the Old Testament.
The Tabernacle is a massive Biblical Doctrine While God only uses one verse to record Creation (Genesis 1:1), and two chapters (Genesis 1-2) to explain it, He takes 15 chapters (Exodus 25-40) to explain the construction of the Tabernacle and 27 more to describe it in action (Leviticus). This task was so important that God did not depend on the ingenuity of craftsmen to follow a blueprint, He actually came into them through His Spirit (Exodus 31:1-6) and guided each step of their work.

Before God sent a Person named Jesus Christ, He sent a picture called the Tabernacle.

The Tabernacle is a photo album of the most detailed explanation of salvation in the Old Testament. The Tabernacle is the ABCs of Christian Doctrine, it is a systematic Theology that Paul actually uses in Romans to explain salvation. In the Old Testament the Tabernacle is the dwelling place of God. In the New Testament the Church becomes the dwelling place of God.

Before the Cross, before Christ came, God established ceremonies to typify, shadow, and explain the Cross. The observant would clearly see that sin must be dealt with before God could be approached. Fellowship with God was only possible when the sin problem was settled. That was the message of sacrifice and the meeting place called the Tabernacle.

Now on this side of the Cross, the meaning of the death of Christ to God, and the effects of Christ’s death upon us who believe is most clearly taught in the Tabernacle. Even the New Testament has to revert to the Tabernacle to explain Christ’s work (Romans 3; Hebrews 8-9).

The Cross of Christ is God’s First Aid plan for mankind, it is not His secondary or contingency plan. Christ was slain before the foundation of the world as God’s Lamb. The Death of Christ on the Cross was the plan and purpose of God from Eternity past, it was not an after thought brought forth and an emergency solution to the sin dilemma. So when we say that Christ and His Cross are set forth in the Tabernacle it is only a reflection of the grander truth that the death of Christ on the Cross 1900 years ago is part of God’s infinite plan.

Before Golgotha, the Cross was God’s plan.

Before Calvary, Christ’s death was God’s plan. So in the Old Testament Tabernacle God planned out every part to speak of Christ’s sacrifice.

Point 3: The Tabernacle Is How God Illustrates Spiritual Reality

Only two chapters in the Bible are devoted to the creation story, whereas some fifty chapters focus on the Tabernacle (see especially Ex. 25-40). The Tabernacle is important and demands attention in our study, because it is a giant portrait of Jesus Christ. Everywhere you look in the Tabernacle you can see Him.

In seeking to interpret the Tabernacle, we must not dogmatize but humbly follow the method of the Holy Spirit as illustrated in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Referring there to the Tabernacle and the priesthood,

He speaks of the “shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5);
“the patterns of things in the heavens” (Hebrews 9:23);
“the figures of the true” (Hebrews 9:24);
“a shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1).

Thus it is clear that the Tabernacle was intended to signify spiritual realities. In other words, in the Tabernacle we see shadows, patterns, and figures of heavenly or spiritual things that are revealed in Christ.

But isn’t all that Old Testament and in the past? No, actually God is still using the original model that He showed Moses in the mountain 2500 years ago. The elements of the Tabernacle show up all the way through Revelation as God shows us the future.

God’s Plan for the Future Uses the Tabernacle Model

But there is another element.

God’s plan for the future is built around the Tabernacle.

The elements of the Old Testament Tabernacle worship, are described 16 times in the future as the events of Revelation unfold.

God Showed Moses a Tabernacle in Heaven

Think about that, the model God showed Moses to build a copy of for Earth (Heb. 8:5; Ex. 25:9,40) still exists in Heaven.

God Shows John a Tabernacle in Heaven

In Heaven God uses the Heavenly original Temple to launch some of the biggest events of the Tribulation.

Revelation 11:19 (NKJV) Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.

Revelation 8:3-5 (NKJV) Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. ⁴And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. ⁵Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.

The elements of the Old Testament Tabernacle worship, are described 16 times in the future as the events of Revelation unfold.

There is a building called a Temple in Heaven mentioned ten times: Rev. 7:15; 11:19; 14:15,17; 15:5,6,8; 16:1, 17; 21:22

There is an Ark in Heaven mentioned once in Rev. 11:19

There are Censers in Heaven mentioned two times in Rev 8:3,5

There is a Golden Incense Altar in Heaven mentioned three times: 8:3; 5; 9:13

A Tour of God’s Tabernacle

God’s Tent

Seven Parts

Seven I Am’s Reflected

Seven Ways Christ Tabernacles with us

The Tabernacle illustrates God’s Salvation offered in Christ

The Gate is Christ Inviting us John 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
The Altar of Brass is Christ Saving us. John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
The Laver is Christ Sanctifying us. Ephesians 5:26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
The Holy Place is Christ Serving us. Hebrews 4:15-16 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 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.
The Holy of Holies is Christ Securing us. Hebrews 10:19-22 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Point 1: Jesus Christ is the theme of Every Doctrine

Point 2: The Tabernacle is God’s Portrait of Christ

Point 3: The Tabernacle Is How God Illustrates Spiritual Reality

The Gate is Christ Inviting us

The Altar of Brass is Christ Saving us

The Laver is Christ Sanctifying us

The Holy Place is Christ Serving us

The Holy of Holies is Christ Securing us