OPEN: There are all kinds of doors in this world.
There are doors on this church building.
Doors at the entrance to the Mall.
There are garage doors, house doors, bathroom doors, closet doors.
There are wooden doors, glass doors, plastic doors and there are hollow as well as solid doors.
Some doors are massive, and some are small - but every door has one purpose:
• Close-off an entrance
• Block an opening
• Keep people out
It may not be a very strong or imposing door, but when you see one you realize - only those who have a right to enter will be allowed beyond that opening. Everyone else is a trespasser.
They don’t belong.
ILLUS: Now I have a door to my house… and not everybody gets to go thru that door. You might ask “what kind of person wouldn’t you allow in?”
Well, here’s the test: You come to my door and knock – and if I don’t let you in – it’s you!
But in reality all of you would be welcome…
Diana’s relatives, my relatives, my kids’ friends – all those can usually get in. But there’s just some folks that will never get in the door.
APPLY: Here in Exodus 27, we’re introduced to a different kind of door.
It’s the gate that barred the way into the Tabernacle of God.
(Tabernacle Court Picture #1 here)
As you’ll notice here, the Tabernacle was a tent-like structure that sat inside a large courtyard. This was the worship center for the people of Israel for the next 647 years. It was replaced – in the days of King Solomon - with a wondrous Temple.
But for 647 years, God’s people worshipped at a tent. That’s 3 times longer than our nation has been in existence.
But this wasn’t just any old tent.
This was a tent designed by God for a very specific purpose.
In Exodus 25:9 God tells Moses
“Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings EXACTLY like the pattern I will show you.”
This tent was not a human invention, it was a divine sanctuary.
It was built FOR God’s people.
But it was to be built ONLY in the way God wanted it done.
ILLUS: When we build on to our church building in the next few months, we’ll have a blueprint we’ll be operating from. But in spite of the fact that there is a blueprint… we can change a few things.
• We can add a few inches to a class room,
• Shave a foot or two off of the stage,
• We can paint the wall any color we want
• Arrange the chairs any way we wish…
• And God won’t care.
We’re building it for God but God really doesn’t care about the specifics as long as we do it to honor Him and minister to His people.
But you couldn’t do that with the Tabernacle.
Every dimension had to be precise.
Every item had to be made to spec.
And to make sure everything was done properly, God selected an general contractor named Bezalel. Exodus tells us “the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts— Exodus 35: 30-31
In other words, Bezalel was endowed by God to read the blueprints. And this man wasn’t trained by some university or tech school. He was trained by GOD so that the people would build the Tabernacle precisely the way God wanted it done.
The reason everything had to be so precise was because God was communicating heavenly truths thru this earthly tent. Hebrews 8:5 tells us
"(the Temple priests) 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.’"
There were specific messages God wanted to communicate.
There were deep spiritual truths about what it meant to live in presence of a Holy God.
So, we’re going to start this morning by trying to understand the part of the tabernacle most people could see. Look again at this picture. (I tried to use a picture that showed the tents of the Israelites encamped around tabernacle)
The 1st thing I noticed is that the tabernacle is right in the middle of the entire camp.
Three of the tribes encamped on the North side, three on the South, three on the West and three on the East. The Nation of Israel literally had God living in their midst.
In a lot of cultures, the pagan gods were displayed as living off by themselves. They lived up on a mountain top, off in a forest, or down in the depths of the sea. Their temples were usually separated from the general populace because (as far as the pagans were concerned) their gods never really wanted to spend that much time with them anyway. Most religious activities of that day involved trying to buy off their gods… keeping them from bringing disaster down on them. Their relationship with their gods had nothing to do with love… just convenience.
But with His tabernacle God is telling His people:
I want to spend time with you.
I want to live amongst you.
I want to be the center of your lives.
Even when they offered their sacrifices and offerings to God many of those offerings were then eaten by the worshippers (the whole sacrifice was rarely burned up completely). So in the offerings God was asking His people to sit down and eat with Him. It was like having a big church supper every week or so.
And that’s how it is NOW with you who are Christians.
God is NOT ONLY right here in this worship service (2 or 3 are gathered in My name, there I am) God goes farther than that. Scripture tells us that God’s Spirit is RIGHT inside each one of us who is a Christian. If you’ve believe in Jesus, repented of your sins, confessed Jesus as your Lord and Master, and been buried in the waters of Christian baptism, God has promised that His Spirit would be inside of you (Acts 2:38)
Thus, He’s spending time with you.
He’s living amongst you.
He’s RIGHT AT THE CENTER OF YOUR LIFE.
He can’t get any closer than that!!!
If you remember, that’s how it was in the beginning when God walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve. That has always been God’s ultimate goal.’
But back in the Old Testament… there was this problem.
And it was a problem that only allowed God’s people to get just so close. The problem was called sin.
One of the primary functions of the Tabernacle was to teach that reality: We sin, and our sins separate us from God.
And so, all around the Tabernacle there was this vast fenced-in area. It was a rectangular curtained area. (Show Tabernacle court again)
The two sides that were about 150 feet long, and each end was around 75 wide.
Now this fence was made of fine twined white linen and was about 8 feet tall. (I did my best to show on a nearby wall, how high that would have been).
This nearly pure white curtain stood before the eyes of the people as a sign of God’s purity in a world that’s often dark and dirty.
When I first did the numbers – I thought – 8 feet tall!
Well that makes sense! God didn’t want to have anybody looking inside the courtyard.
But then I read some respected theologians who told me something I’d never heard before:
The linen curtain “was wrought full of holes, like eyelet holes, or in the manner of network; so that though they kept persons from entering in, they might be seen through, and through them might be seen what was doing in the court” (both John Gill & Jamieson, Faucett and Brown – see note at end of sermon)
So, God WANTED them to look inside???
Why would that be?
Well, the tabernacle’s primary function was to serve as a place to offer sacrifices for sins. When someone sinned, they were required by the Law to bring an animal through the gate and to the North side of the altar. There the offerer would place his hand on the animal – symbolically transferring his sin to the sheep or goat or whatever animal it was – and he would kill the animal there. The priest would then sprinkle the blood on the 4 sides of the altar and then place the sacrifice on the altar to present to God.
All of this would have been observed by those who encamped around the courtyard, if the wall around the area of sacrifice could actually be seen through!
If this was so, God wanted all the people to see the result of their sins… the death of an innocent creature on their behalf.
Apparently, unless they understood the cost of sin they’d never understand the impact of evil on their lives.
That’s part of the reason we take of communion every Sunday. In I Corinthians – Paul wrote:
“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’” I Corinthians 11:23-23
Communion is the time for us to look back thru the curtain of time and revisit the sacrifice that had been made for our sins. It’s a time for us to see again an innocent man dying on our behalf - so that we might remember - on a weekly basis - what our sins has cost God.
It is only when we realize the significance of what God did at Calvary on our behalf that we can truly appreciate Jesus and have the kind of fellowship He wants to have with us.
Now there are churches that put communion off-to-one-side. Making a big production of the Lord’s Supper just doesn’t match with the “touch-feely” approach to worship they’d prefer. It interferes (I’m told) with the seeker-sensitive ministry they favor. But I’m here to tell you: without revisiting the sacrifice of Jesus on a regular basis – thru communion - you can have all the “touchy-feely” worship you want… but you won’t get very close to God – because it was the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that allows us to even BE in God’s presence.
The only way the people could come close to the Tabernacle in the Old Testament and have their closet relationship with God was when they brought their sin offering through the gate.
God wants us in His presence!
That’s the repeated message throughout Scripture. From the Garden of Eden thru the days of Moses & the Law, The Kings, The prophets… and finally – the coming of Jesus.
God has repeatedly cried out that
• I want to walk with His people.
• I want to spend time in their midst
• I want you to build their lives and existence around Me so that I can give you My love and blessings.
But we can only come in by His invitation.
We can only come into His presence by the offering that is made for our sins. We can’t simply come into His presence because WE simply THINK we deserve to get in the door.
CLOSE: In the book of Exodus God tells us He wanted the tabernacle so He could come and make His dwelling among His people. Later, in the Gospel of John we’re told that when Jesus came: “The Word became flesh (Jesus) and He ‘tabernacled’ amongst us.” John 1:14
Jesus came down so that God could dwell in our midst. In Jesus, we have now been allowed to come into God’s presence. But only by God’s invitation.
The door is still there…
But now – the door is Jesus.
Then Jesus said to them again, "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” John 10:9
You can’t come in any other door.
There isn’t one.
And you can’t come in any other way.
The only way is Jesus.
ILLUS: A great minister once dreamed that he had died and stood at the gate of heaven. He gave his name, only to be told that his name did not appear upon the books. At last, at his earnest entreaty, he was bidden to enter and was told he would have the privilege of appearing before the Judge of all the earth, and if he could stand His test he might abide in heaven forever.
Standing before His throne, he gave his name, and the following questions were put to him: "Have you led a righteous life?" And he said, "No."
"Have you always been kind and gentle?" Again he replied in the negative.
"Have you always been forgiving to those who have been around you?" "No, I have failed there." "Have you always been honest and just?" And he answered, "I’m afraid not."
As question after question was put to him by the Judge, his case seemed more & more hopeless. The last question was asked him, and to that, too, he was obliged to give the same negative reply.
Just when he seemed to be in despair, the brightness about the throne became brighter, and suddenly he heard a beautiful voice, the most beautiful to which his ears had ever listened. It was sweeter than a mother’s voice; it was more beautiful than all the music of heaven; it filled all the arches of the skies and thrilled the soul of this man as he stood before the Judge trembling and was about to fall.
The speaker said, "My Father, I know this man. It is true that he was weak in many ways, but he stood for Me in the world, and I take his place before Thee."
Just as the last words of the sentence were spoken, the dream was over and the man woke up; but he had his lesson, and it is a lesson for us all.
We have in ourselves no standing before God.
It must be in Christ.
He is “the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by (Him). John 14:
(* Note on the curtains of the courtyard being see-through: My two sources didn’t give a resource for their conclusion – though they are both reliable enough that there must be some Jewish rabbi who expounded on this. Regardless, the permeability {the holes} of the outside curtain makes sense from a practical perspective as well. The priests would have been doing their sacrificial ministry out in the hot sun day after day. If the outside was not permeable, it would have served as a wall against most comforting breezes as well.)
