I Will Meet With You Series

There is a very famous place I had never heard of before this last month. It’s St. Peter's Church Hall in Liverpool, England. On the inside, it looks like a typical church gym except for the ornate wood cathedral ceiling and missing basketball hoops.

Several years ago, St. Peter's was having a church social with a local music group performing. During a break in the music, Paul, a 15-year-old guest, played songs on the guitar and piano, impressing the teen band leader, John. A few weeks later, John Lennon invited Paul McCartney to join the Quarrymen, later known as The Beatles. That first meeting took place on July 6, 1957. And as they say, “The rest is history.”

The Liverpool Museum noted, “That meeting didn't just change the lives of John and Paul, it was the spark that lit the creative (fuse) on a cultural revolution that would reverberate around the world” (Christopher Muther, "A New Hampshire Beatles Fan Bought George Harrison's Childhood Home,” The Boston Sunday Globe, 9-4-22) pp. N1, N6; www.PreachingToday.com).

My dear friends, God invites you to a meeting that will literally change your world. Do you want to meet Him? Do you want to encounter the Almighty God, the Sovereign Lord over all? Then I invite you to turn with me to Exodus 25, Exodus 25, where God tells His people how to get ready to meet Him.

Exodus 25:1-9 The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it (ESV).

According to Hebrews 8:5, the “pattern of the tabernacle” reflected “heavenly things” in the place where God dwells. Here, God makes it clear that He wants to dwell in the midst of His people, literally, to pitch His tent with them. He lives in Heaven, to be sure, but He also wants to live on earth among those who welcome Him into their lives.

That’s remarkable, especially when you understand that in Bible days, a king lived apart from his people. Even today, kings live in palaces far away from the common people.

One Bible commentator notes that in a suzerain-vassal relationship in Bible days, the suzerain would customarily live far from the vassal, collecting [taxes] from the vassal for his own enjoyment. The best a vassal nation could hope for was that their suzerain would provide security and predictable [taxes] rather than sporadic, devastating raids. The Lord, however, was talking to Moses about residing among the Israelites as his own people (Coover-Cox, CSB Study Bible: Notes).

That’s great news! God wants to dwell with you. He wants to live with you.

The Apostle John uses the same language when He talks about Jesus in John 1. There, he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and DWELT among us” (John 1:1, 14)—Literally, He pitched His tent among us just like God did among the Israelites.

In Ephesians 3, the Apostle Paul prays “that Christ may DWELL in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17).

And in Revelation, John writes, “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the DWELLING place of God is with man. He will DWELL with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God’” (Revelation 21:3).

From Exodus to Revelation, God desires to DWELL with His people. He wants to live with you!

British pastor, Matthew Hosier, writes about a missionary friend who moved to a Muslim majority nation:

When they first moved to the Middle East, they heard that on festival days everyone dresses in their best clothes and goes to visit their relatives and neighbors to celebrate. So, for their first Eid festival they carefully cleaned their apartment, dressed up in their best clothes, got some sweets and chocolates, which are traditional to hand out to visitors, and waited in their house. But no one came to visit.

Another missionary explained what they did wrong: “On festival days, the small visit the big, and the big give out presents.” For example, everyone in a family visits their eldest brother, or their parents, or grandparents. When they arrive, they would kiss the hand of the older person to show respect and honor. The host would then care for their guests by feeding them, serving them, and giving them gifts like good quality chocolate, money, or other presents. As newly arrived foreigners without social standing or relatives, naturally no-one came to visit them. They were considered “small” by the culture, so they are the ones who needed to do the visiting.