3/16/08 – Expect More: God Created a Perfect Tabernacle – Palm Sunday
The tabernacle in the OT was more than a big tent where people came and sang. It was a killing place. Animals died there all day long, every day. The blood flowed. Sheep and cows were butchered by the Levites while the meat was cooked in great pots. It was not a pretty place. It was not a quiet place. It was not a sweet smelling place. It was a place of death. In Jesus day the only difference was that the tabernacle of Moses was replaced by the temple built in Jerusalem.
When Jesus entered into the city of Jerusalem on that day we remember as Palm Sunday he traveled the narrow streets, covered with cloaks and palm fronds laid down by the people, on the way to set up the true tabernacle. Jesus’ tabernacle was made – not of fabric, animal skins, brass, gold and silver. His new tabernacle was in the heavenly places where God dwells. It is in this perfect tabernacle that the perfect sacrifice was made – for you and for me – once and for all time.
This Palm Sunday we celebrate the beginning of the establishment of a new and perfect covenant created in a new and perfect tabernacle between God and all of his beloved children.
Palm Sunday
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
Hebrews 7:22
We’ve all gone shopping for a better deal on our telephone service, cell phone contract, or maybe our television service. The process can be a bit daunting trying to compare features, costs, and differences between plans.
Well, here we see the author presenting the case for a better contract – with Jesus as the deciding factor.
So what is it that makes this new covenant so much better than the old one? I mean why would you want to follow Jesus rather than something more comfortable and what you are used to?
We’ve already covered some of this but now the author is summing it up for us in a clear and powerful presentation.
It’s really very simple; with Jesus we have a better priest, serving in a better tabernacle promising a great many better promises.
Let’s take a look first at who it is we are dealing with. Jesus is a better priest.
Jesus is the Permanent Priest
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Hebrews 7:23-25
This is one contract really has a lifetime guarantee and you can count on it because the author of the contract rose from the dead.
Answer me this: Just how good is the guarantee on a product that you buy when the builder goes out of business the day after the item is delivered by FedEx to you home?
Answer: Not very good. When the product dies – you are done. That’s it.
This product is warranted buy the maker who is going to live forever – now there is a guarantee you can trust.
Jesus is the Pure Priest
26 Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
Hebrews 7:26
A priest is someone who mediates – or speaks on our behalf. He is our advocate, our attorney, and our friend. We need someone who can speak for us who is untainted and is not discredited by sin.
We’ve just heard this week of the governor of New York, who has been a prosecutor for the people fighting corruption and immorality for years, is now admitting that he has been corrupt and immoral in his life.
Do you want a man like this to defend you before the judge? Or do you think you might need an advocate that is unsullied by corruption and immorality?
Jesus is the Perfect Priest
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Hebrews 7:27-28
This present darkness – Frank Peretti talks about the black stain on a man’s heart and how it’s imp
Sin is sticky and corrosive. Sin is like a black grease that you keep having to wipe off but just keeps coming back. It’s like a horrible little booger that no matter how much and how hard you flick your fingers you can’t get off your hands.
We need someone who is clean and free from the awful smear of sin to offer up sacrifices for our sins.
The True Tabernacle is where Jesus serves as High Priest
The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.
Hebrews 8:1-2
Moses set up the first tabernacle
David collected the materials and Solomon built the first temple
Ezra built the second temple
It was desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes who offered a pig on the altar.
It was cleansed and rededicated by Judas Maccabaeus
It was repaired and beautified by Herod the Great, taking some 46 years to complete.
But Jesus built the third and real sanctuary of God.
The True Tabernacle is where the Ultimate Sacrifice was Given
3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law.
Hebrews 8:3-4
Moses tabernacle was made so that men could approach and come into God’s presence. It required sacrifice so the first thing you saw when you entered the outer gate was the altar where animals were killed and burned as an offering to God.
Then you needed to be cleansed so there was a laver filled with water so you could be washed and made clean.
Then you entered into the Holy Place where you walked in the light of the golden lamp stand, brought bread and wine to the table of showbread, and offered prayers at the altar of incense.
It was in the Holy of Holies that where the shikinah Glory of God dwelt that you entered to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant for the atonement of sins.
Well that was the old tabernacle. Jesus came to be the priest – not for the old tabernacle but for the new and true tabernacle. One not make with hands but the one in the heavenly realms.
The True Tabernacle is where God Really Dwells
5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Hebrews 8:5
Moses set up the first tabernacle – and he did it very carefully
It was built, under Moses supervision, in accordance with detailed instructions from God. This is why there is such an emphasis on phrases like according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain Ex 25.40 and repeated in Heb 8:5.
Right down to the last tent peg, the divine design had to be followed. It had to be like that if God were to dwell there and illustrate the important realities which were known only to Him.
All of this was done so as to prepare the way for a better covenant with better promises…
The New Covenant has Better Promises
6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. 7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.
Hebrews 8:6-8
The New Covenant has Better Promises
8 But God found fault with the people and said: “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
Hebrews 8:6-8
As a priest Jesus offered a better ministry. As priest he serves in a better tabernacle and he brings us a covenant with better promises.
The first covenant was broken by the people of who were party to the covenant with God. It was a covenant that was based on the law of God – which is a perfect law. Unfortunately, we are an imperfect people. The law doesn’t make us perfect (we learned that last week) the law simply reveals the flaws in us.
The old covenant will never save us – it condemns us. We desperately need a better deal! In Jesus, we get that better deal. So what makes it better?
A Promise that is Forever
9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
Hebrews 8:9
The old covenant ended in dissolution and divorce.
8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. 9 Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. - Jeremiah 3:8-9
This is one of the reasons God hates divorce. He doesn’t hate the people who have been divorced but he hates the effects of divorce for, you see, He understands the pain of broken relationships.
The new and better covenant is a forever covenant. It’s built on faith in Jesus instead of compliance to the law and that changes the foundation of the relationship. It changes from a conditional relationship built on compliance to the law to an unconditional love built on the love of Jesus.
A Promise of Mind and Heart
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Hebrews 8:10
The old covenant was chiseled into stone and was a cold as the granite they were made with. The new covenant is carved with Roman nails into the heart of the son of God. The old was built up duty, obligation, and fear. The new is built on love and it’s natural response of gratitude and thanksgiving.
It’s the difference between having to and wanting to. Answer me this: do you want your children to obey you because they are afraid of you or because they love you and want to please you?
In Iraq the biggest part of the war going on today is the battle for the hearts and minds of the people. This is the new covenant – it is not based on law but on love, faith, and hope.
A Personal Promise
11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
Hebrews 8:11
Not of nations and tribes. A covenant of people – one at a time.
It’s not based on your mother or your father, your son or your daughter, your husband or your wife – it’s between you and your God. This is a relationship of God to man and man to God.
We are working hard to develop goals for our ministries here at MCC. Each of our five areas of Ministry have a fundamental objective for the people who come to Meridian Christian Church as part of our vision for Helping People Find The Way Home:
• Welcoming Ministries: From Guest -> Partner
• Worshiping Ministries: From Spectator -> Worshiper
• Growing Ministries: From Seeker -> Maturing Believer
• Serving Ministries: From Consumer -> Contributor
• Evangelism Ministries: From Transformed People -> Witness
This is about what you do – as an individual person. Your decision, your growth as a believer. You must repent. You must turn away from your sins and turn to Jesus in faith. You must determine to follow him. You must make the decision to seal your covenant with baptism and you must decide to live for him as you die to yourself.
No one can do it for you. It cannot be done by proxy, by substitution, or representation. This is between you and God – period.
A Promise of Forgiveness
12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Hebrews 8:12
In “A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World”, Ron Lee Davis
retells the true story of a priest in the Philippines, a
much-loved man of God who carried the burden of a secret
sin he had committed many years before. He had repented
but still had no peace, no sense of God’s forgiveness.
In his parish was a woman who deeply loved God and who
claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ and he
with her. The priest, however, was skeptical. To test her he
said, “The next time you speak with Christ, I want you to ask
him what sin your priest committed while he was in
seminary.” The woman agreed.
A few days later the priest asked, “Well, did Christ visit you in your dreams?”
“Yes, he did”. she replied “And did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?”
“Yes.” “Well, what did he say?” “He said, I don’t remember”
Your sins are forgotten. Isn’t that an amazing and wonderful thought!
We Worship God in the Perfect Tabernacle because of Jesus
You call me Master and Obey me not.
You call me Light and See me not.
You call me Way and Walk me not.
You call me Life and Desire me not.
You call me Wise and Follow me not.
You call me Fair and Love me not.
You call me Rich and Ask me not.
You call me Eternal and Seek me not.
You call me Gracious and Trust me not.
If I condemn you, Blame me not.
Written anonymously on the walls of a medieval castle
This is the day we remember the people who said on Sunday they loved Jesus and then on Friday cried for his crucifixion.
The only way we can enter into this better covenant is by Jesus.
Determine – again or for the first time – to follow him selflessly in faith today. The great High Priest and King, Jesus ministers for you in the true and perfect tabernacle to gain for you a better covenant with better promises… who could want for anything more?
