What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead. Only one man has risen from a grave never again to taste death. Jesus Christ died, was buried, remained in the grave for 3 days, then was raised to life again.
Jesus is unique. He is the only one proven to be the Son of God because God validated His Kingship and accepted His payment for our sins all with one incredible stroke: He raised Jesus from the dead!
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with this evidence about who Jesus is:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:1-4
Because Jesus Christ is very much alive, five things are true right now that wouldn’t be true if He were just another dead religious leader like Confucius, Mohammed or Buddha.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive…Prayers are answered, We can talk to Jesus 24/7
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You can actually go to a Bible website, simple like Bible dot com and do a word search for that number or thing, and then go read about everywhere in the Bible where it comes up, check the context and check if it's true.
Hermeneutics is the study of biblical interpretation. It's the field of how we interpret the Bible. And an important principle of hermeneutics is called expositional constancy, expositional constancy.
And the idea is this, that when a Bible uses an idiom or a picture or a type, it tends to do so consistently. And here's why this is helpful. Imagine I say check it out, guys. There's a donkey cart mentioned here in the text and it's also mentioned over here in the text. So it must mean the same thing in both places.
What you would do is you would search the whole Bible for references to donkey carts and then you would see if my claim works or make sense in all of those instant. If it only works in something like two out of 11 instances, then I'm probably seeing something that isn't actually there because expositional constancy tells us that when the Bible uses idioms or illustrations, it tends to do so consistently.
Now, those are two of the hermeneutical filters that that I've used in my studies this week as I've waded through the masses of interpretations of imagery surrounding the Tabernacle to ground ourselves and in orient ourselves, I thought it would be most helpful to simply show you what the Tabernacle would have looked like.
So if you'll take a look at the second page of your outline, you're going to see a big, beautiful information, packed illustration of the Tabernacle.
And this illustration does a really good job of giving us a general sense of what everything looked like, how it was laid out and and how big it was or wasn't.
And I say that because you can see that the entire Tabernacle grounds were smaller than a quarter of an American football field, which is smaller than many of us may have thought.
Another popular misconception is that the term tabernacle refers to the tent structure. In reality, the tabernacle refers to the entire complex that you see in that illustration that is enclosed by those outer linen curtains, just as the term temple refers to the entire temple complex, including the courtyards, not just the main building. So let's jump in and begin to talk through some of the imagery that's in play when it comes to the Tabernacle. When the camp of Israel would be set up, when everyone would have their tents set up, the Tabernacle would be right in the middle of the whole camp of Israel, and it would have really stuck out because of those white linen walls, the curtains that blocked off the tabernacle from the camp of Israel.
Picture it in your mind.
All of the tents of Israel would have been made from dark animal skins and fabrics and then right in the middle of the camp would have been the tabernacle with her bright white linen walls.
Looking from the outside, there would be a shocking contrast of colors, a picture of God's righteousness, white linen among a sinful people.
All these dark animal skins, those linen walls, those curtains were to keep the people out. Now, why is that? What was the issue?
Well, all the people would have been able to see when the Tabernacle was set up was these white linen curtains, a picture of God's righteousness and the brass fittings for the poles that held up those curtains.
Now, brass was the available metal at the time and in that region that could withstand heat and contain fire.
And so because of the connotation between fire and sacrifices, brass becomes associated with judgment in the scriptures.
And so they have to deal with the issue of God's judgment on their lack of righteousness before they can approach him. That need for righteousness before approaching God is the barrier between people and God. It's why they can't approach the holy place, the holy of holies, because there's this barrier of righteousness, the problem that the people are unrighteous and God is righteous.
Therefore, the only option is to be kept out of God's presence because no man could survive judgment. By God.
Are you with me? Are you see in the picture that's emerging here?
But there was a way into the tabernacle.
There was a way for some to draw close to the presence of God, but only under very specific conditions.
The way the Tabernacle would be oriented in the camp of Israel meant that you would have to approach the tabernacle through the camp of Judah, the camp of Judah. What is the elder in Revelation five five called Jesus, as he points them out to John, he calls him the lion of the tribe of Judah.
As you made your way through the camp of Judah and approach the Tabernacle, you would find that there is only one way in, there's only one door.
Jesus said plainly, I am the door, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved. Jesus also said I'm the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the father except through me.
There's only one way to God, only one way, and it's through Jesus. Once you entered through this single gate into the Tabernacle, if you look at your illustration, you'll see that you would find yourself immediately face to face with the brazen altar where sacrifices would be offered to God by the priests for sins.
Remember, Brass speaks of what in the Bible judgment. Because we can go no further, we can draw no closer to God. Until there's a sacrifice, until we deal with the sin issue, until we deal with our unrighteousness, the fact that our sin needs to be judged in order for justice to be done, the fact that we need to be made righteous before we can approach God.
And this clearly speaks of Jesus, our Passover lamb, the sacrifice who offered himself in our place to be judged in our place, the righteous for the unrighteous.
And because Jesus has taken our place and paid for our sins, the sacrifice has been made and we can draw nearer to God. Thank you, Lord. The sacrifice is taken care of by Jesus, but now we need to be sanctified, that ongoing process of being remade into the image of Jesus becoming more and more like Jesus as we allow the Holy Spirit to shape and change us sanctification is that ongoing purifying of our lives by the Holy Spirit.
Now, how does that happen?
Well, again, if you look at your illustration as you kept moving forward, the next thing you would encounter would be the brazen lever, a massive bowl full of water that was sometimes called the brazen sea or the molten sea and was used by the priests for ceremonial cleansing and washing.
Now, when water comes up in the scripture in relation to refreshment, it's generally a picture of the Holy Spirit.
When water comes up in the scriptures in relation to cleansing or washing, it's generally a picture of the scriptures, the word of God. So the labor here that's used for washing speaks of the word of God.
Jesus told his disciples, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. And when Jesus prayed for his disciples in his great high priestly prayer, praying to his heavenly father, Jesus prayed, sanctify them by your truth.
And so they have to deal with the issue of God's judgment on their lack of righteousness before they can approach him. That need for righteousness before approaching God is the barrier between people and God. It's why they can't approach the holy place, the holy of holies, because there's this barrier of righteousness, the problem that the people are unrighteous and God is righteous.
Therefore, the only option is to be kept out of God's presence because no man could survive judgment. By God.
Are you with me? Are you see in the picture that's emerging here?
But there was a way into the tabernacle.
There was a way for some to draw close to the presence of God, but only under very specific conditions.
The way the Tabernacle would be oriented in the camp of Israel meant that you would have to approach the tabernacle through the camp of Judah, the camp of Judah. What is the elder in Revelation five five called Jesus, as he points them out to John, he calls him the lion of the tribe of Judah.
As you made your way through the camp of Judah and approach the Tabernacle, you would find that there is only one way in, there's only one door.
Jesus said plainly, I am the door, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved. Jesus also said I'm the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the father except through me.
There's only one way to God, only one way, and it's through Jesus. Once you entered through this single gate into the Tabernacle, if you look at your illustration, you'll see that you would find yourself immediately face to face with the brazen altar where sacrifices would be offered to God by the priests for sins.
Remember, Brass speaks of what in the Bible judgment. Because we can go no further, we can draw no closer to God. Until there's a sacrifice, until we deal with the sin issue, until we deal with our unrighteousness, the fact that our sin needs to be judged in order for justice to be done, the fact that we need to be made righteous before we can approach God.
And this clearly speaks of Jesus, our Passover lamb, the sacrifice who offered himself in our place to be judged in our place, the righteous for the unrighteous.
And because Jesus has taken our place and paid for our sins, the sacrifice has been made and we can draw nearer to God. Thank you, Lord. The sacrifice is taken care of by Jesus, but now we need to be sanctified, that ongoing process of being remade into the image of Jesus becoming more and more like Jesus as we allow the Holy Spirit to shape and change us sanctification is that ongoing purifying of our lives by the Holy Spirit.
Now, how does that happen?
Well, again, if you look at your illustration as you kept moving forward, the next thing you would encounter would be the brazen lever, a massive bowl full of water that was sometimes called the brazen sea or the molten sea and was used by the priests for ceremonial cleansing and washing.
Now, when water comes up in the scripture in relation to refreshment, it's generally a picture of the Holy Spirit.
When water comes up in the scriptures in relation to cleansing or washing, it's generally a picture of the scriptures, the word of God. So the labor here that's used for washing speaks of the word of God.
Jesus told his disciples, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. And when Jesus prayed for his disciples in his great high priestly prayer, praying to his heavenly father, Jesus prayed, sanctify them by your truth.
Exodus thirty eight eight gives us a very interesting insight about how this lever was made. It tells us that it was constructed from the bronze mirrors of the serving woman who assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of Meeting. Not just to avoid any potential confusion. Exodus seems to use the terms brass and bronze interchangeably. There's likely some translater issue in play, which would be devastatingly boring to fully explain.
In those days, a woman would use very pure, highly polished, flat pieces of bronze as mirrors.
The implication is that the labor once constructed would have been polished up in the same way like a mirror. So as you stepped up to the lever to wash, you would see yourself clearly in the reflective surface of the water, which had the highly reflective surface of the brass lever underneath it. That's what the word of God does, the word of God shows us who we really are. It gives us a true reflection of ourselves. But the word of God is so much better than the labor, because the labor could show you what you really looked like, who you really were apart from Christ.
That's one of the main narratives and purposes of the Old Testament to clearly show us who we are apart from Christ.
But praise God, the word also includes the New Testament and the New Covenant, which clearly shows us who we are in Christ. That's what the word of God does. That's how it sanctifies us. It shows us who we truly are apart from Christ, and then it shows us who we truly are in Christ. And how do we respond to those truths?
How do we respond to that revelation when we find the answer in the Book of Revelation? Remember how we learned a couple of weeks ago that the Tabernacle is is a copy, a shadow, a reflection of sorts of the true tabernacle in heaven?
We read about that in Hebrews nine. And wouldn't you know it, it turns out there is indeed a flavor, so to speak, a sea in heaven that we read about in Revelation four as John witnesses, the church gathered together around the throne of God in heaven. Here's what John describes.
He says, Before the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal. He goes on to say, the 24 elders fall down before him, who sits on the throne and worship him, who lives forever and ever and cast their thrones sorry, cast their crowns before the throne. They cast their crowns before the throne.
Where are these crowns being cast? Into the sea before the throne of God. The word shows us who we are truly. Who we are apart from Christ, and it also shows us who we are in Christ, and when we see both of those things clearly, who we are apart from Christ, but who we are in Christ. The only response we can have is to give God everything we have, casting it at his feet and crying out, as John heard the elders crying out, you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power.
When we do what we're doing right now, when we gather as God's people around his word and allow his word to open our eyes to see clearly. And then we respond to what the Lord shows us, we are mirroring what is going to take place in heaven when we gather around the throne of God. Now, please hear me on this, how do we know if we're truly allowing God's word to impact our lives? How do we know if we're really being watched in the world?
If it's been a while, let me encourage you to pray before you next to open the word and ask the Lord to just wash you with his word. Ask him to sanctify you. Ask him to help you see clearly.
And he'll be faithful to do it. He'll be faithful to do it. The tent of the tabernacle was known as the holy place, and if you looked at it from from almost any angle, you would have been struck by how almost. Drab, it looked it was just animal skins from the outside. Nothing really spectacular. All the amazing stuff was inside the holy place. Which brings to mind Isaiah 53, that incredible prophecy by the prophet Isaiah, which spoke of Messiah and said, among many other things, he, the Messiah would have no form or comeliness.
And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him.
Isaiah prophesied that when Messiah came, when Jesus came, there would be nothing exceptional about the external appearance of the man Jesus, nothing that would cause you to look at him as a man and say, oh, that guy's got to be really special.
He just looked like an ordinary dude. But but within him, within him. Well. Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. See, like the tabernacle, the glory of God was inside Jesus, not on the outside of Jesus, and when you entered the holy place, when you entered the Tabernacle, you would begin to see the one point two five tons of gold that was used in its construction almost everywhere that your eyes could look.
When you enter the holy place, you would walk through a gate consisting of five pillars, five being the biblical number of grace, and so you would enter through grace and grace into the holy place in Exodus.
Twenty six, twenty six through twenty eight, we learned that the frame of the holy place, the frame of the whole tent, consisted of wooden boards that were overlaid with gold and to keep them in position to keep them incongruence. They were to be five poles that ran through all of these boards.
These boards and poles were held in place by reciprocal forces. The whole thing would collapse if it was not held together by the combined strength of the boards and the poles being kept in their correct positions, working together to form a strong structure.
Perhaps you recall Ephesians to 19 through 22, which we read a few weeks ago. I'll refresh your memory.
Paul writes Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. That Verse is talking about the fact that as the church collectively we become a holy temple in the Lord, Paul is talking about the church.
And what does Paul say in Ephesians two is the purpose of the church. Don't miss this.
We're talking about the primary above everything else, purpose of the church. We're talking about the one thing that leads the church to do all the other good things that the church is called to do.
We're talking about the one thing that leads to all of those other things. Jesus said, I will build my church. Paul tells us that Jesus is doing just that he's building us together, he's fitting us together for what purpose?
To what end? For a dwelling place of God in the spirit. As we discussed a few weeks ago, God has made his people his church. His tabernacle, his temple. On the earth today, and Jesus is working through the Holy Spirit to join his people together, that he might dwell not only within us individually, but among us collectively as the church. That those who seek the presence of God on the earth today would be able to find him.
In the church. Among the people of God. The church exists first and foremost for the pleasure. Honor and glory of Jesus. The eternal destiny of the church is to be the bride of Christ. May we never lose sight of that and may we become an increasingly beautiful bride for our savior and an increasingly beautiful dwelling place for his spirit.
Now hang with me for the imagery here. Jesus is fitting us together as his people, as his church, to become a dwelling place for his spirit.
The boards in the Tabernacle speak of believers, the saints of the church, plain old wood over covered in gold.
The ordinary made into the extraordinary regular folk made into heavenly royalty by the grace of God in the house of God and those boards, remember, those believers are kept in shape and in place by five poles, five poles.
Scripture declares that Jesus gave five gifts to the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. And for what purpose? For control. No, no, no, no. To help the church stay in position by remembering her purpose, which is to be a dwelling place of God. In the spirit. If we do countless charitable deeds as a church. But we miss this, then we've missed the point. If we perfect our theology and we become experts on the scriptures, but we forget to fellowship with the Lord.
Then we're just the church in Ephesus, the church in Revelation, Chapter two that missed the point and forgot her first love.
The reason that God gives elders as gifts to the church is to make sure that the church remembers her primary focus and purpose to be a dwelling place of God and the spirit.
These boards and poles incongruence applying pressure back and forth and holding each other together to become a stronger frame than they could ever be on their own. Remind us that God has designed us to need each other in the church. It doesn't work real well if one board just goes up on his own and says, I'm just going to stand up on my own, the board is not going to stand. He's going to fall. Understand that illustration, the board that goes off on his own and says, I don't I don't need anybody else to stand, I'll stand on my own, that board is just going to fall over at the slightest breeze, at the slightest tremor.
Our local version of the House of God, the Tabernacle, that is our church needs you.
It needs you and you need the church. You really do. You make us stronger and the church makes you stronger and you make the House of God more beautiful.
And these boards were to be placed in sockets of gold.
No, because gold actually speaks of kingship, you see, these boards were to be placed in sockets of silver, the metal of redemption in the Bible, and isn't the imagery beautiful? You have these boards of gold, but they're there in silver sockets, the metal of redemption. You see, we're not heavenly royalty because we're inherently royal. We're made royal by the grace of God, because we've been redeemed.
We stand in the redemption that Jesus purchased for us before we can be joined together.
Somebody has to stand us up before you can start joining the boards together. They've got to be stood up and like these boards in sockets of silver were able to stand for only one reason.
Well, as you entered the tent of the holy place. You see on your left, the menorah or the lamp stand and on your right, the table of shortbread. But let's just talk about the lamp stand for a little bit. If you've ever seen a menorah, then you know what it looks like there's a center lamp and then two branches that come out, either side with a lamp on their ends. And then beneath that, two more branches that come out with lamps and then two more that come out for a total of seven arranged symmetrically in biblical numerology.
Six is the number of man and seven is the number of holiness or perfection. Sinful man six. Is made holy and perfect by adding one, though one to be specific.
Jesus Christ, I believe the menorah is a visual. Presentation of what Jesus said in John Chapter 15 when he said, I am the vine. And you are the branches, I'm the vine, you were the branches because think with me here as we unpack this, what was the fuel of the lamps in this lamp stand? It was oil. Oil and scripture is pretty much always a picture of what? The Holy Spirit and what is the lamb stand do in the holy place, it gave light, it brought illumination.
Jesus said, I am the light of the world.
He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. And then Jesus went on to also tell his disciples, though, you are the light of the world. When Jesus said that, do you know that they weren't they really weren't, they weren't even saved yet. They fled when Jesus was arrested a couple of years later. So how could Jesus say to them, then you are the light of the world?
Well, it's because Jesus was looking ahead to the day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter two, and Jesus knew what would happen to his people when they received the fuel of the Holy Spirit and the power to abide in him.
When that picture of the lamp stand comes together and believers are abiding in Christ as branches joined to the vine when they're full of the Holy Spirit, the few. Then the people of the church become the light of the world, just as Jesus said, if you ever feel like you're not shining as a light for the kingdom of God, there's two things you need to check. Number one, are you abiding in Christ? Are you abiding in Christ? Are you staying connected to Jesus?
Are you staying in fellowship with Jesus?
And then secondly. Do you have the fuel of the Holy Spirit? Do you have the fuel of the Holy Spirit or are you just a lamp trying to shine with no fuel at all? Are you just a branch trying to bear fruit who's not even connected to the vine? If you want to be fruitful, if you want to be a light for the kingdom of God, two things be connected to Jesus as a branch to the vine and make sure that you're operating with the fuel you need, which is being full of the oil of the Holy Spirit.
When you have those two things, you're going to shine. It's inevitable. It's inevitable. And if you're running low on fuel, listen, ask for more. What did Jesus say? He says, listen. Your father knows how to give good gifts, and so how much do you think he's going to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks for it? If you're running low, ask the Lord to just fill you again in a fresh way with his spirit.
And he will. He will. He loves to do it. You students of the Book of Revelation will recall a lamp stand that John saw in Revelation Chapter one.
You might also recall that John wrote this in that same chapter Verse is four and five, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace and peace from him, who is and who was and who is to come.
That's a reference to the father and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, huh?
Students will know that even though this sounds puzzling, seven spirits.
It's a reference to Isaiah 11 Verse is one and two, which lists seven characteristics of the Holy Spirit as a description of the singular Holy Spirit. And wouldn't you know it, those characteristics are listed beginning with one on its own The Spirit of the Lord. And then Isaiah describes three pairs just as the menorah is laid out.
Then we have verse 20 of Revelation one where Jesus himself tells John the seven lamp stands, which you saw are the seven churches.
And I share all that to simply reinforce the point that the menorah or the candlestick is is certainly a picture of the Holy Spirit among God's people, the Holy Spirit among God's people, the church.
Well, as we mentioned on your right in the holy place, you would see the table of shortbread.
And it's my belief that the picture here for the church is really our need to take Jesus in to fellowship and abide with him. And if you're not seeing it yet, there's a pattern of increasing intimacy with the Lord as you make your way from the outer edges of the tabernacle into the holy place and keep moving toward the holy of holies. There's this pattern of increasing intimacy.
In John six. We read then they said to him, to Jesus. What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God. They you believe in him, whom he sent. Therefore, they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you, what work will you do?
I mean, our fathers ate the manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. What are you going to do that's better than what God did for us in the wilderness? Better than what happened under Moses?
Then Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
Then they said to him. Lord, give us this bread always, and Jesus said to them. I am the bread of life, he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe all that my father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will.
But the will of whom? Him who sent me. This is the will of the father who sent me that of all he has given me. I should lose nothing, but I should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the sun and believes in him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day. Is your soul hungry? Is your spirit thirsty?
It's Jesus that you're craving. Whether you realize it or not, and it's only Jesus who can satisfy. And you kept moving forward in the holy place, you come to the veil. A thick curtain that separated the holy of holies from the holy place, but in front of that veil. You'd see the altar of incense, which is just what it sounds like, it was a golden altar upon which sweet smelling incense would be burned.
If you've been around the Bible for a while, then you may know that in the scriptures, incense speaks of the prayers of the Saints, the prayers of the Saints, Revelation five eight and Revelation Chapter eight. Describe the prayers of the Saints as appearing in heaven in the form of a bowl of incense.
I experienced that praying with my home group on Sunday, my experience at praying with BJ and I, experience at praying with friends.
And do you know where many of us are experiencing this, the presence of God through prayer most powerfully right now 4:00 p.m. every Sunday as BJA gathers us together around the altar of incense as the church to pray and week after week. We begin outside the holy of holies. We pray and then we find that inevitably, no matter how we felt when we started. We find that we've been somehow ushered into the presence of God and we're there or in his presence, we're in the holy of holies.
Prayers, powerful church, and if you're thirsty to experience the presence of God, you need to come and join us for that prayer 4pm because prayer moves us into the presence of God. Well, now you'd find yourself face to face with the veil, with the curtain. And if you've read the Gospels, then you know what happened to the veil in the temple when Jesus died on the cross in Matthew's Gospel, we read, then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earthquakes and the rocks were split and the graves were opened.
And many bodies of saints who had fallen asleep or raised the veil was needed in the tabernacle and then in the temple to ensure that God's presence didn't kill anybody.
Lest anybody stumble into the presence of God, not realizing that they were unrighteous. That was life with God under the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil was torn. The way to God was opened and instead of men dying. Men came to life. You see, that's life with God under the New Covenant. And what's the difference? The difference is, Jesus, the blood and body and life of Jesus was our price of admission.
Into the holy of holies, let me say that again, the blood and body and life of Jesus. Was our price of admission into the holy of holies, into the presence of God, into relationship with the father?
Don't ever think that our access to God is free. It's not free. It costs God everything. As you enter the holy of holies, you'd find yourself looking at the ark of the Covenant and it's led the Mercy Seat, both of which we discussed at length a few weeks ago. There was no last stand in the holy of holies, why? Because the glory of God. The Shekinah glory of God would illuminate the room, and this again mirrors heaven, doesn't it?
And the new Jerusalem, that revelation, 21 23 tells us about when it says the city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it. For the glory of God illuminated it, I love this line, the lamb is its light. The holy of holies had the Mercy Seat heaven has a throne of grace. There's so many other pictures we could paint from this text, but the big thing I want us to recognize is that there's this progression of increasing intimacy as we move from outside the camp through the tribe of Judah, toward the holy of holies.
If you're wondering how to move deeper in your relationship with Jesus, ask the Lord to show you where you are in this picture, in this illustration of the tabernacle.
Ask him to show you where you are and what your next step is, because it's all about moving forward to that place of real relationship, that place of real closeness with God, that place of intimacy that caused David to sing to the Lord.
The book of Hebrews is is just such a gift because it explains the connection between the Old and New Testaments, it reveals how the law pointed to Jesus.
It brings the two covenants into their rightful perspective if you want to grow greatly in your knowledge and understanding of the totality of scripture.
Let me commend to a deep study of the Book of Hebrews.
It's one of these books that unlocks the Bible as a whole.
And so I'd like us to simply just read Hebrews nine together because I think it really ties all of this together so beautifully, Hebrews nine says then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary for a tabernacle was prepared. The first part in which was the Lamb Stand the Table and the show bread, which is called the Sanctuary.
He's describing the holy place and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, or the holy of holies, which had the Golden Censer and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on all sides with gold in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Arun's rod that budded and the tablets of the Covenant. We'll talk about all that at another time.
And above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the Mercy Seat of these things. We cannot now speak in detail.
The writer of Hebrews says that because the Ark of the Covenant was lost after the first temple period back in Nebuchadnezzar day and Hebrews was written obviously in the second temple period when the ark had already been lost for six. Now, when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the second part of the tabernacle, the holy place, performing the services, but into the second part into the holy of holies. The high priest went alone once a year and not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people sins committed in ignorance.
The Holy Spirit indicating this that the way into the holiest of all, the way into the holy of holies, was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. What does that mean?
It means the first tabernacle was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience, concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of the Reformation.
Hebrews is just saying, obviously, none of those ceremonies they're doing in that first tabernacle could actually gain you forgiveness of sins. They were just to point ahead to the thing and the time and the one who really would gain forgiveness of sins. Jesus, the Messiah, Verse 8 11.
But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come.
Christ came as the fulfillment of everything the Tabernacle pointed to with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands. That is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood.
He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained the eternal redemption. So that is Jesus is the Greater Tabernacle. He's the greater high priest.
He's the greater sacrifice for if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot? That means without blemish, without sin to God, how much more shall he cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason, he is the mediator of the New Covenant by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
There must also of necessity, be the death of the testator for a testament or a will is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all, while while the testator lives. So if you write a will, the will doesn't do anything till the one who wrote the will dies.
Therefore, not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood, for when Moses had spoken every precept, every command to all the people. According to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying this is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you. Then likewise, he sprinkled with blood, both the Tabernacle and all the vessels of the.
Industry and according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood and without shedding of blood, there is no remission, there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.
Again, that all pointed a head to Jesus in his work on the cross. Therefore, it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
In other words, if it takes the blood of goats and calves and an animal sprinkled on the instruments of the temple on Earth, what does it need to take in heaven? And the answer is the blood of the perfect sinless lamb of God. Jesus Christ for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands. Christ hasn't entered the earthly temple or tabernacle, which are copies of the true. But He's entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.
Not that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another. So what Jesus did in heaven he didn't do every year over and over and over, because he then would have to suffer often since the foundation of the world.
But now he suffered once.
At the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and as it is appointed for men to die once. But after this the judgment. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. And then I love this. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from Sen.. For salvation, I just love that last verse, it says Jesus is going to come again, specifically for those who are eagerly waiting for him, but when Jesus comes for us again, he's not coming like the first time to deal with sin.
N, no, He's coming for salvation. He's coming to take us to heaven with him. Love that it just ties everything that the Tabernacle is pointing to together so beautifully.
Well, as we get ready to pray, let me just ask you. How's your relationship with the Lord doing? How are you doing? Are you close to him? Ask the Lord to show you where you are using the Tabernacle as an illustration in that increasing closeness and intimacy with him, where are you at and what's your next step right now? Remember, if you feel dry, ask for more of his spirit. He'll be faithful to give it to you.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Let me pray for us together. Father, thank you so much for your word and thank you for all the truths that the Tabernacle points to. And thank you, Lord, that that through Jesus, we're able to accept that invitation to come all the way into the holy of holies and into real closeness and fellowship with you.
And I pray for any of us who who desire that, but feel like we're not experiencing that as reality right now. I pray that you would just show us what our next step is, what the truth is that we most need to take from your word today. And Father, I asked that you would give all of us forever, we're at just a fresh filling of your Holy Spirit, Lord,
Lord, we we need your spirit to be. Who you've called us to be, so fill us a new with your spirit right now. Lord God. Father, give us insight through your spirit as we open your world to see ourselves clearly, apart from you and ourselves, clearly in Christ and father, to praise you for the difference, to praise you for the difference that Jesus has made. We love you, Lord, speak to us now by your spirit, it's in your precious name, we pray.
Amen.
Passage: Exodus 30:1-31:18...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
As God continues instructing Moses on the construction of the Tabernacle and its various aspects, we pull out several practical lessons for us as modern day believers.
Today, we're going to be studying chapters 31 and 32 of the Book of Exodus, wherein the Lord continues to give instructions concerning the tabernacle, the portable temple, so to speak, that would accompany Israel on her journey toward the promised land, the sacred place where the presence of God would dwell among his people, as we did last week.
We're going to depart from our custom of reading through the text verse by verse, and instead highlight a few things that I believe are worth taking note of.
As always, you're free and encouraged to study more deeply on your own. This week, when we reach Chapter 32, the narrative of Exodus is going to pick up again. And so at that time we'll get back into the text verse by verse.
So I have a pen and notebook or outline ready and be open to what the Lord might want to especially speak to you about in today's study.
In Chapter 30, verses one through ten, focus on the altar of incense, which we've talked about in a previous study, and then beginning In verses 11 and continuing the verse 16, we read about the ransom money. So let's read that together in Exodus Thirty will pick it up in verse someone. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord when you number them that there may be no plague among them when you number them.
This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give. Half a shekel. According to the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel is twenty.
Garras That really clear things up for us. The half shekels shall be an offering to the Lord. Every one included among those who are numbered from twenty years old and above shall give an offering to the Lord. The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel.
When you give an offering to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves, and you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel and Shell appointed for the service of the Tabernacle of meeting that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord to make atonement for yourselves.
Whenever Israel took a census, they were not to count the people. They were to do this. They were to call upon all those who considered themselves to be part of the nation of Israel, to pay a small amount of money, a single coin as an offering to the Lord.
And then the leadership of Israel would count the coins, not the people themselves.
Practically, it was a really simple way to take a census. Spiritually, there was a lot more going on.
God refer to this payment as a ransom and atonement money.
God was teaching his people that their sin had made them captives and slaves and that the only way for them to be set free was for a ransom to be paid.
And that ransom had to make atonement for their sins. It was imagery. It was symbolism, pointing ahead prophetically to Jesus, the Messiah, the one who would pay the price to make atonement for our sins and ransom us from death. For this reason, Jesus himself declared, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many, including you and me. And this is why our brother Paul tells us you are not your own.
You were what? You were bought at a price. You were ransomed, you were redeemed. There was payment, there was atonement involved.
Everybody needed to make the same payment. It didn't matter what your social status was, it didn't matter what your economic status was, it didn't matter whether you were considered a good person or a bad person. The same payment, the same ransom was required. If you want to have your sins forgiven, if you want to be put in right relationship with God, if you want to make it to heaven. The same payment has to be made for you that was made for me.
And the only payment that is acceptable. Is the blood of Jesus. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done, the same payment is needed. And the good news is that just as the ransom money was an amount available to everyone, the blood of Jesus is available to everyone to pay your ransom no matter who you are. That's why this ransom payment was a silver coin, as you might remember, in the Bible. Silver is the medal of redemption.
Our brother Peter tells us you were not redeemed with corruptible, that means perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Salvation must be purchased and our salvation was purchased by Jesus. And please understand this in the church, we love to talk about how salvation is free, but that's not entirely true. Salvation is a gift. A gift is free to the recipient. But only because it was paid for by the giver.
Let me say that again, a gift is free to the recipients, but only because it was paid for by the giver. And my goodness, what a price Jesus paid to be able to freely give us the gift of salvation. He paid the highest price, offering his blood and body as payment. When a census was called, the question being asked was, who is part of the nation of Israel, who belongs to the people of God? And the way you would indicate this was by paying the ransom money, an act that was voluntary, they didn't go door to door and collect the ransom money.
Each person would go to the tabernacle and give it.
That meant that you could really easily say what or who's going to know? If I pay the ransom money or not, who's going to know? The answer? Nobody. Except God. And that's why the Lord said those who pay the ransom money will be protected from any plagues going through the land. They didn't need Fizer or Moderna, they just had to pay the ransom money. I know that jokes are probably not going to age well, and I also know you're thinking, don't worry, Jeff, that joke didn't even work now, so just don't worry about it.
If you didn't pay the ransom money, you wouldn't be under God's protection from plagues. And somewhere right now, somebody's watching, this is thinking, is Jeff seriously about to claim that if we tithe, we won't get covid?
No, I'm not, because that would be absolute heresy and I'm sure there's a charlatan somewhere on TV teaching that, but it's heresy. That's not true.
That's not where I'm going with this. Here's the point I want to make.
There are some people today. Who call themselves Christians and they go to church regularly when there's nothing better to do, when it's not a good lake de. They're nice people. They like being around caring people and a positive community, they like most of the morals and virtues of the Bible.
And it's a dangerous place to be when your plan is based on fooling God. Because you can't. When a plague swept through Israel, did it matter if everybody else thought that you had paid the ransom money?
Did it matter? No. It only mattered if you had paid the ransom money. Because the one who could protect you from the plague wasn't your neighbor. It was got. And God would have known the truth. And here's where I'm going with this, there are a lot of believers who seem to think that they are under the blessings of God. Even while they intentionally ignore the word of God. They ignore the terms and conditions of God's promises in the Bible, for example, how many Christians love to claim the promise by Jesus that, hey, listen, Jesus said all these things shall be added under you and Matthew six.
Jesus was talking about clothing and food and all your daily needs. So I know this is all these things are going to be added under me. I don't need to worry about these things.
But they ignore the terms and conditions of that promise, what are the terms and conditions? Seek first the kingdom of God. And his righteousness. Listen to me, if you're placing your hope in God's provision, but you refuse to make him and his kingdom your priority, you are deluding yourself because you don't qualify for that promise. You don't qualify for that promise. Who is that promise for? It's for those who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
If you're not doing that, you're as delusional as the man or woman who couldn't be bothered to pay the ransom money but still expect God to protect them when the plague came to town.
Oh, Lord, I claim Isaiah 26 three. You keep him in perfect peace. Oh, thank you for your peace, Lord. What are the terms and conditions? You will keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you? If you refuse to spend time in the world. You refused to ever talk with the Lord in prayer to get your mind onto the things of God. If you refuse to trust the Lord in any meaningful way, you do not qualify for this promise.
When you read what the Bible actually says, you will find that there are terms and conditions to a lot of God's promises and blessings, even salvation is conditional. Do you realize that Jesus told us explicitly what the terms and conditions of salvation are? Then they said to him, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God that you believe in him, whom he sent to receive salvation.
You must put your faith in Jesus as God. Salvation is conditional upon placing your faith in Jesus as God. I'm telling you this because I love you and I want you to be blessed, and so I want you to understand that you cannot receive the blessings and promises of God while simultaneously refusing to walk in agreement with God. If you're trying to do that. You're deluding yourself, you're deluding yourself. In verses 17 through 21 and talks about the Bronze Laver, which we also also looked at a couple of weeks ago, and I just want to share one more quick thought to reiterate something on that.
You know, we talked a couple of weeks ago about how the Bible tells us that this bronze lever was highly reflective because it was made from the highly polished, pure bronze mirrors of the Hebrew woman.
And we talked about how brass or metal is the Medal of Judgment in the Scriptures.
And that's how we need to view ourselves through the water of the word of God. If you looked into the brass flavor without any water in it, you'd be looking straight at judgment, a judgment. And that's what happens when we begin to look upon ourselves, apart from the word of God, apart from Jesus, we we find ourselves overwhelmed by guilt and shame because of what we see, and we find ourselves depressed and discouraged by what we see. But when we look at ourselves through the water of the word in light of what the word says about us, when we look at ourselves in Christ through Christ, it's a very different picture.
It's a very different picture. The word of God reveals our identity. Do not look in the mirror to find out who you are. Don't look into the culture to find out who you are. Don't look on social media to find out who you are. Don't look at the TV, don't look at celebrities, don't look at media to find out who you are.
Look into the word. Gaze upon it, stare into it, see yourself in it, and you will find your identity. And here's the good news, even though the word of God is totally honest. It's also totally hopeful, totally hopeful.
God's word declares that he knew you before you were even born, he created you on purpose, with purpose, he loved you before the foundations of the world were laid and planned all along to lay down his life for you.
Because he desires you to be in relationship with him for eternity. You're a child of God who's loved by God. Look at yourself through the water of the word, you'll always come away blessed. In verse 22, we read of a very special anointing oil, let's read it together.
Moreover, the Lord spoke to Moses saying also take for yourself quality spices, 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet smelling cinnamon, 250 shekels, 250 shekels of sweet smelling Caixin, 500 shekels of Carsia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary and the hint of a hint of olive oil.
And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil with it. You shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the testimony, the table and all its utensils, the lamp stand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils and the flavor and its base, you shall consecrate them that they may be most holy.
Whatever touches them must be holy, and you shall anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them. That they may minister to me as priests. And you shall speak to the children of Israel saying this shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on man's flesh, nor shall you make any other like it according to its composition.
It is holy and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds that means whoever mixes any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider, she'll be cut off from his people.
That means put to death. What jumps out to me from this text immediately is the question, why would God assign the death penalty for copying the recipe of this anointing oil? I mean, I get copyright infringement is an important issue, intellectual property matters, but the death penalty seems really harsh. Or dabbling once again in biblical typology. Let's ask the question in the Bible, what is oil, especially when it's used for anointing a picture of what is oil a picture of?
And what happened? They were both struck dead by the Lord as a lesson to the early church to not lie about what you're doing in the Lord's name. I think the Lord takes this issue extremely seriously.
I would be terrified to stand before the Lord one day if I were one of those televangelists who claim to be speaking on God's behalf but are really only enriching themselves.
This is a serious warning. To some of our brothers and sisters in the wider church who attempt to fabricate. The presence of God through emotional manipulation. And create an imitation. Of the Holy Spirit. This is why BJ and I don't throw around the term gold. God told me that blank. We're both comfortable saying this is what the Lord says when we're reading it from the word but but we don't want to claim something is from God when it's just kind of a hunch or a feeling we have because it could be God or it could be all the pizza we had last night could be one of the two.
And it's a serious, serious thing to claim that something is the work of God. It's a serious thing to claim that you are speaking on God's behalf. And God does not take kindly to people using his name for their own purposes. And if you think I'm being too harsh, just listen to what Jesus said.
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Jesus says, listen. If you are manipulating people, misleading people by claiming something is my work, the work of my spirit when it's just you. Listen, you'd be better off tying a rock around your neck and throwing yourself into the ocean, then coming and standing before me. Jesus says, I'm not playing, I'm not playing, don't allow anyone to imitate my spirit for their own purposes and deal decisively with anyone who does. In verses, 34 through thirty eight, it gives detail of the incense that was to be burned in the Tabernacle in the preceding chapters, we've seen gold used over and over and over again in the construction of the Tabernacle.
In verse 23 of this chapter, we were told that murder was used in the anointing oil. And in verse 34, we were just told that frankincense was used in the incense. So you had gold, frankincense and myrrh all present in the tabernacle, the three gifts that would be famously brought by the Magida Jesus when he was a toddler. All of this points ahead to Jesus prophetically. Verse is one through 11 of Chapter Thirty one detail the men that God called and anointed as craftsmen for the Tabernacle.
You see, God anointed people not only for the spiritual tasks of the ministry, but also the practical tasks of the ministry. It was the same spirit anointing people for different purposes, not lesser purposes, just different purposes. And this is how things are in the Kingdom of God. In the family, children do not have a lesser role. They have a different role to their parents. The wife does not have a lesser role to her husband. She has a different role to her husband in the church.
The members do not have a lesser role to the elders. They have a different role to the elders. And the Bible has a lot to tell us about this. Like our brother Paul, comparing the members of the church to the members of the body, pointing out that they're all important and they all have a vital role to play.
I saw Joe Biden just a few days ago declare that there's nothing that a man can do that a woman can't do just as well or better.
You said that.
And our society is so blind to the truth that it fails to see that by refusing to recognize any of the differences between the sexes, it also ceases to celebrate any of the wonderful differences between the sexes that make men and woman unique when it comes to the sexes and indeed even ethnic groups and cultures.
The way we best value each other is by recognizing and thanking God for the praiseworthy things that make us unique, because a biblical view of diversity and equality teaches that there are good differences between us that are gifts from God for our mutual benefit.
There are contributions to the church that only men can offer. There are contributions to the church that only woman can offer, there are unique contributions to the global church that different cultures and ethnic groups bring by God's design, by God's design.
And what Satan loves to do. Is America's discontent. With our God given role, jealous of what others have. And it's a tragic irony that we ever respond to Satan's temptations in this area, especially in light of what jealousy did to him. Let me read to you from Ezekiel 28 about the angel formerly known as Lucifer. You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect beauty, you were in even the Garden of God, every precious stone was your covering the sorriest topaz and diamond barrel onyx and Jasper Sapphire turquoise, an emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbers and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers. I established you.
You were on the Holy Mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you. That's what can happen when you begin to compare yourself to others. That's what can happen when you allow jealousy and bitterness to take root in your heart.
You can be the most beautiful being in existence outside of God himself. You can have the gift to create the most beautiful music that's ever been heard. You can be given practically unlimited artistic genius. You can be given edan. You can have wisdom and be perfect in the eyes of God, and it still won't be enough.
So what's the solution? How do we avoid becoming jealous of the roles that others have? How do we avoid comparing ourselves to others? The solution is what the solution always is. To look to the cross, because there we see our savior Jesus, who laid down his life for us, who laid down his fame and glory and power for us.
And when the reality of his gift of grace grabs a hold of me. I find myself overwhelmed. That God would give me a part to play in his glorious story. I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude. That I simply get to be involved. I'm just glad to have a part, I'm just glad to have a role. I don't care what it is. That's what it means to lay down your life for Jesus, it means embracing with gratitude the role that God has given you in life.
As a man or a woman, whatever your ethnicity is, whatever the gifts God does or doesn't give you, whether he leads you into marriage or singleness and the timing he chooses for those things, the career he leads you into an on and on and on we could go. Laying down your life for Jesus means embracing the role that God has given you. And fulfilling it to the best of your ability for his glory, when I look at other people and compare myself to them and my life to them.
I'm just so glad that he wrote me into this story that's all about him and his goodness. Well, then in verse 12, God brings up the subject of the Sabbath again, which seems odd because he already addressed it in detail and brought it up in places like the Ten Commandments. So let's read Verse 8 12 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak also to the children of Israel, saying, surely my Sabbath's you shall keep for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profaned that shall surely be put to death for whoever does any work on it. That person shall be cut off from among his people put to death. Work shall be done for six days. But the seventh is the Sabbath of rest. Holy to the Lord.
Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
Are you getting the picture here? Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. Four in six days, the Lord made the heavens in the earth and on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed. Why does God reiterate the Sabbath here? I believe it's because of a natural tendency that we have, even among those who really love the Lord, I believe that God was saying, listen.
Even though you're working for me. Even though you're building the tabernacle for me, even though it's ministry onto to me, the Sabbath still applies and you still need to rest.
But Lord, the work is so important. You're so much more important than my need for rest.
God, all true, says the Lord. But I want you to rest. Because I'm not in relationship with you because of what you can do for me. I don't need you. But I love you. And I want you to stop and rest and breathe and reconnect with me relationally on the Sabbath. I don't want you to simply always be busy doing work for me.
The good works that we do for the Lord. Must never take priority over our relationship with the Lord. The church is not under the law. We've not replaced ethnic Israel, therefore we're not obligated to the ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath.
We're not obligated to celebrate it on Saturday or to do literally no work because we're not Israel. However, I personally believe that we're not exempt from the personal benefits of a Sabbath. Because we're not immune from mistaking good works for a relationship with God. And neither are we exempt from our need for rest or our need to slow down and intentionally acknowledge the Lord's goodness on a weekly basis with our families. We're not exempt from needing those things. Now, take a look at verse 17 again, because speaking of the Sabbath, the Lord says it is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.
Four in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth. And on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed.
And this theory is favored by those who hold to what's known as theistic evolution, which is the belief that evolution is real. And it was the process that was guided by God through which he created humanity, people and all living creatures in the earth and all that good stuff. I'm not going to get into the science of this issue right now, even though we really easily could. I just want to point out, because we're here in the text, that this verse creates a real problem for that view, because God doesn't say just as I made the universe in six pages and rested, your week will be six days in a day of rest.
No, God says four in six days. The Lord made the heavens in the earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. In this verse, God appears to clearly state that he made the universe. In six, 24 ish hour days. Evolution is based on the survival of the what? Survival of the fittest. Which means in the evolutionary system, there has to be death, right, because it's survival of the fittest.
The Bible says that death only entered the world through Adam because of sin. Implying that before Adam sinned, there wasn't death. Certainly not for people. In other words, the Bible teaches that God's design and desire for his creation on the Earth didn't include death, especially among people.
That means based upon logic, if you hold to theistic evolution, you believe that death came before Adam sinned and therefore you believe that the entire Bible is based upon a false premise.
I'm going to choose my words carefully and diplomatically here and just say this theistic evolution is highly problematic. And if that is your view, I would urge you to study further and realize the full implications of your belief system.
I want to point out something related to this, too, that you may not have noticed before it's found in second Peter, Chapter three. Verse is three to seven, it's on your outlines, Peter writes this, he says, Scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep? All things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
Peter says in the last days, there will be those who claim to be part of the church who will mock and scoff at the idea that Jesus is going to literally return to the Earth and they'll claim that everything is continuing and will continue to continue as it has from the beginning of creation running its process.
Here's the idea. They don't believe that God literally created the universe from nothing.
They believe it was some sort of self running process like evolution. They don't believe God was very hands on at the creation of the universe. Therefore, they scoff at the idea that God will end the universe in a very hands on manner.
And if you think I'm reading too much into Peter's words, just keep reading what he writes in the very next verse is because Peter makes the connection that I just made. He says for this they willingly forget. In other words, the reason these so-called believers scoff at the idea of Jesus's literal return to the Earth is because they choose to forget. They choose to ignore this truth. Here's what Peter says, that by the word of God. The heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water, but the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition.
They also choose to ignore the fact that God has flooded the whole earth before now. Did you catch that? Peter actually says that these people he's writing about not only failed to believe that God was hands on a creation, but they also he clearly implies don't believe in the literal Genesis flood coincidence?
I think not, because if you find someone who doesn't believe in biblical creation. I can pretty much guarantee you that they don't believe in a literal biblical genesis flood either, Peter says they're ignoring the fact that God has already made the Earth from nothing and he's already essentially destroyed it once with a flood.
And so he's able to end the earth exactly as he chooses. And then Peter goes on in Verse 8 to say, But beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. Now, you might read that in the flow of pitas context and say, well, that's a weird right turn to make. That's an odd subject change. I mean, how do you get from the second coming of Jesus and the origins of the Earth to this business about a day being a thousand years?
From the Lord's perspective, it's very simple. For six days, the Lord created the heavens and the Earth on the seventh day. What did he do? He rested. What's going to happen again in the future? On the seventh day, the Lord is going to rest. For how long? A thousand years. When is that going to happen in the millennial kingdom, the thousand years during which Jesus is going to reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem, literally on the earth and the earth will experience a Sabbath rest under the reign of King Jesus.
Now, I wouldn't build that whole theology on just the implication of Peter's writings here, and I don't Revelation 20 lays it out in greater detail for us. And passages like Isaiah 65 add even more detail about what the millennial kingdom will be like.
And you can look into those things for yourself this week if you'd like to do that.
Lastly. Let me just say, this is their. Is there any concept further from the gospel, then survival of the fittest? Is that the heart of God? It's the exact opposite of the gospel, the world says God helps those who help themselves. Survival of the fittest, and that's really just another way of saying that your God. The gospel says God helps those who cannot help themselves. The underlying precepts of evolution fly in the face of basic biblical theology and the heart of God.
And then we wrap it up with Verse 8. And when he that's God had made an end of speaking with him, that's Moses on Mount Sinai, he that's God gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God. These are, of course, the famous Ten Commandments.
And if you're confused about the order of events, because the Ten Commandments came up a while ago when the Book of Exodus already just go back and listen to the first few messages from the series where we talk about how the Book of Exodus is not always in chronological order and why that's OK. Hey, listen, I know we had a whole bunch of different, seemingly random things today, but I pray that the Lord minister to you in some way, as we were once again washed in the water of the word.
And I pray that as we go into worship now that the Lord would highlight something specific in your heart from the word today if he hasn't already done so.
So what that would you bow your head and close your eyes?
Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for your word that always knows exactly what we need.
And so, Father, I pray that you would just highlight something that you have made something stick out to each one of us who are studying this portion of scripture together right now.
Lord, I pray you just shine a light on something, apply it to our lives by the power of your spirit. But, Lord, I also think you that any time we open your word, we know that you are doing something supernatural were being built up in our most holy faith. You're renewing us. You're refreshing us. And so, Father, I pray for each of us, Lord, that right now in the name of Jesus, you would just refresh us, Lord.
You would fill us up with your spirit once again, that you would give rest to those who need it. Energy and strength to those who need it, faith and peace to those who need it, and joy to those who need it. Lord. Thank you that you love to take care of your children. Thank you. That you're a good heavenly father who loves us, Lord, and loved us long before we ever loved you. Lord, we do love you.
We love you so much. And we're so thankful for your kindness toward us. We bless you, God in your name. We pray.
Amen.
Who is the Holy Spirit and what does He do?
The Holy Spirit possesses the attributes of deity, such as omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence and eternality. He does works only God can do, such as creating, regenerating and sanctifying. He is equally associated with the other members of the Trinity.
RELIGION...JAN 2, 2021...REV. DON GRANT
The Holy Spirit gives believers the power to live like Jesus and be bold witnesses for Him. Of course, there are many ways He goes about doing this, so we’re going to look at the most common ones.
Jesus said in John 16:7 that it was to our benefit that He would go away so we would receive the Holy Spirit: “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.”
If Jesus said it is best for us that He goes away, then it must be because there is something valuable about what the Holy Spirit was coming to do. Here is one instance in Acts 1:8 that gives us strong clues: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere — in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
From this Scripture, we can gather the foundational concept of what the Holy Spirit does in the life of a Christian. He sends us out as witnesses and gives us the power to do it effectively. We’re going to find out more what the Holy Spirit does in the lives of Christians, so let’s dive in!
How does the Holy Spirit work?
There are many ways that the Holy Spirit works in the lives of Christians, but they all share one common goal: to make us more like Jesus Christ. He works in believers by renewing our minds to be like the mind of Christ. He does this by convicting us of sin and leading us to repentance.
Through repentance, He wipes out what was dirty in us and allows us to bear good fruit. As we allow Him to continue nourishing that fruit, we grow to resemble Jesus more as Galatians 5:22-23 informs us: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
The Holy Spirit also works in us through the word of God. He uses the power of Scripture to convict us and influence our way of thinking. He does this to shape us into godly people. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says that “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”
As we build a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit, He will also pull us away from things we have in our lives that don’t please Him. The point is, when He is at work in your life, it’s evident all around you.
1. The Holy Spirit makes us more like Christ
We already know the goal of the Holy Spirit’s work is to make us more like Jesus, but how does he do this? It’s a process known as sanctification. And no, it’s not as complicated as it appears!
Sanctification is the process of the Holy Spirit stripping away our sinful habits and bringing us into holiness. Think of it like peeling back an onion. There are layers. The Holy Spirit works in us by peeling away our sinful characteristics and replacing them with godly characteristics. His work in us makes us more and more like Jesus.
2. The Holy Spirit gives us power to witness
Just as Acts 1:8 mentions, the Holy Spirit empowers Christians to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. He gives us the boldness to testify of the Lord Jesus Christ in situations where we would normally be fearful or timid. 2 Timothy 1:7 encourages us: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
The power that the Holy Spirit gives us is something that reflects in the natural as well as the supernatural. He gives us power, love, and self-discipline. Power can be many things backed up by the Holy Spirit, such as boldness to preach the gospel and power to perform healing miracles. Love given by the Holy Spirit is obvious when we have the heart to love others the way Jesus would. The self-discipline that is given by the Holy Spirit allows a person to follow through on God’s will and have wisdom throughout life.
3. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth
One beautiful title that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit is “the spirit of truth.” Take John 16:13 for example: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.”
What Jesus is telling us here is that when we have the Holy Spirit in our lives, He will guide us in the direction we need to go. The Holy Spirit will not leave us in confusion but will reveal the truth to us. He illuminates the dark areas of our lives to give us a clear vision of God’s purpose for us as indicated by 1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints.”
Needless to say, the Holy Spirit is our leader and those who follow Him are His sons and daughters. Romans 8:14-16 says “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful as slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children.”
4. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin
Since the Holy Spirit is working to make us like Jesus, he convicts us of our sin. Sin is something that will always offend God and hold us back. If we have sin, which we do, He will bring those sins to our attention.
I will echo this statement: “conviction is your best friend.” If we stop feeling conviction, then we have bigger problems. As John 16:8 says, “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
The conviction also comes before the sin happens. The Holy Spirit will start to tap on your heart once temptation comes. It is our responsibility to respond to that conviction. Temptation in itself is not a sin. Jesus was tempted and did not sin. Giving in to temptation is what brings sin. The Holy Spirit will nudge your heart before you make the move. Listen to Him.
5. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s word to us
When Jesus walked on this Earth, He taught everywhere he went. Since He is not here physically, the Holy Spirit has now taken that role. He does it by revealing God’s word to us through the Bible.
The Bible itself is complete and trustworthy, but impossible to understand without the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”
The Holy Spirit teaches and reveals the meaning of Scripture to Christians the way Jesus would. John 14:26 reminds us: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
6. The Holy Spirit brings us closer to other believers
If we draw near to the Holy Spirit. He will place love in our hearts for our brothers and sisters and we will be compelled to unite. Ever heard the saying “There’s power in numbers”? The Holy Spirit knows this and looks to bring about that power in the church. We as Christians need to dedicate more time to understand the biblical scriptures about unity and apply them in our everyday lives.
Seek to know the Holy Spirit more fully
As we learned about what the Holy Spirit does in the lives of believers, my prayer is that your heart will be open to Him. Take what you have learned and share it with a friend and help them realize they need more of the Holy Spirit. We can always use more of Him. As you get to know the Holy Spirit more explore His other characteristics and learn about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Finding Faith is written by area pastors. This week’s column comes from Rev. Don Grant of Hillview Wesleyan Church, Flemington.
Chelsea Kight 26 Minute Read
Fruit of the Spirit, Filled with the Spirit, The Trinity, Walk in the Spirit
If you want to understand who God is, you need to understand all of who God is. Getting your head around the difference between God the Father and Jesus is one thing. But many struggle to grasp who the Holy Spirit is in a way they could explain clearly to someone else.
God is one God, but three persons. That’s not a simple idea to get to grips with.
When theologians speak of the three-in-oneness of God, they refer to Him as “the Trinity.” The Trinity is God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit.
Understanding who the Holy Spirit is, the place He holds within the Holy Trinity and the role He plays in individual lives is vital to anyone exploring what it means to become a Christian and anyone trying to follow Jesus.
Knowing the Holy Spirit will radically change your life because He is the way you will experience the life of God within you.
So let’s take a deep dive into this topic and see how He can transform you.
Here are some shortcuts to specific sections of content if you’re in a hurry:
Who Is the Holy Spirit?
What Does the Holy Spirit Do?
Where Is the Holy Spirit in the Bible?
Who Is the Holy Spirit?
When Christians talk about God coming to live in their hearts, it’s the Holy Spirit they are describing. The Bible describes the Spirit as the “breath” of God.
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you." And with that He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
(John 20:21-22)
So just as you need oxygen to live in your human body, if you trust in Christ, you are born again in a spiritual sense and the Holy Spirit becomes the source of new life God places within you. You no longer just relate to God as a higher power outside of yourself. God transforms you from within so that you become more like Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in the life of a believer. But this does not mean God separates Himself into three separate parts.
God is three distinct persons who somehow are one in substance. God is unique in this way, so it’s not surprising that it takes some work to come to terms with this truth.
The Bible helps us to break down the mysteries of the Holy Spirit into ideas we can grasp.
The Holy Spirit is a Person
Often, people describe the Holy Spirit as a presence or an "it." But the Holy Spirit is a person, not a thing. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit has thoughts and a will.
The Holy Spirit can be grieved and even insulted. But He can also be pleased as we rely on Him to give us the strength to live in a way that’s consistent with God’s plan for us.
Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.
(Galatians 6:8, New Living Translation)
The following verses from the Bible help us see the truth about the individual nature of the Holy Spirit:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever” (John 14:16).
“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
The Holy Spirit thinks about believers in Christ and responds to them. He knows the Father’s thoughts and communicates those thoughts to them. When you pray or read the Bible and sense God speaking to you through that, that is an example of the Holy Spirit at work in your life.
The more you let this sink in, the easier it will be to give the Holy Spirit the place of authority He deserves in your life.
The Holy Spirit is God Himself
The Holy Spirit is an equal among and a true member of what is known as “the Godhead.” That’s just another way of describing the three-in-oneness of God.
The Godhead is made up of three equal persons living in perfect unity with each other. Believing this is vital to understanding the powerful role the Spirit plays in the lives of Christians and the way God is active in the world.
The Bible verses in this section show that the Holy Spirit is God. They describe Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit interacting and existing in community with one another.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2).
“At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “‘You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased’” (Mark 1:9-12).
“God, who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us” (Acts 15:8).
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33).
The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is God. If you are a follower of Jesus, these verses prompt you to thank God for giving you His Spirit and help you see the Holy Spirit as worthy of your honor and love.
What Does the Holy Spirit Do?
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
(2 Corinthians 1:21-22)
Throughout the Bible, the Holy Spirit equips people for ministry, gives people specific insight and wisdom, teaches people how to interpret God’s Word, communicates with the Father on people’s behalf, and empowers Christians to live according to God’s design.
Here are some Bible verses about the work of the Holy Spirit:
He lives within followers of Jesus and produces lasting change in their character.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).
He teaches the truth about Jesus.
“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).
He says what the Father tells Him to say.
“When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come” (John 16:13).
He gives believers the power to share their faith.
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
He produces God’s love in human hearts.
“And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
The Holy Spirit is a promise of the great things to come for those who trust God.
“You also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession — to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).
He gives people the skills and abilities they need to share God’s love; these are sometimes called “spiritual gifts.”
“God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will” (Hebrews 2:4).
The Holy Spirit is unique and creative. The more you learn about Him, the easier it is to recognize His presence in your life.
Where Is the Holy Spirit in the Bible?
Jesus is easy to find in Scripture. In a sense, He is everywhere, but we also have four books, known as Gospels, which are biographies of His life specifically. In the book of Jeremiah and elsewhere in the Old Testament, we see early references to God as Father. This is also how Jesus often referred to Him when He was teaching.
But at first glance, it may be unclear where the Holy Spirit shows up in God’s Word. And yet the more you know what to look for, the easier it is to see Him throughout Scripture, from the very first verses until the last.
The following verses are examples of where the Holy Spirit shows up in the Bible.
You can also watch this video for an overview of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the Bible.
The Bible begins with the Holy Spirit present at the creation of the world.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2).
These are the very first verses of the Bible. The Spirit is present from the very beginning.
The Holy Spirit lived within Moses as he led the Israelites to the Promised Land.
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Gather for Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone” (Numbers 11:16-17).
As the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, Moses did not have the capacity to care for every single Israelite. God the Father came up with a plan to take the burden of leadership off of Moses and distribute it to other Israelites. The Holy Spirit bestowed on these people God’s power to fulfill the role He had for them. As the Israelite nation moved forward, the Holy Spirit continued leading God’s people.
The Holy Spirit gave King David the words to say.
“The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; His word was on my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2).
King David was arguably Israel’s most beloved king, but he also failed spectacularly. Just like all of us, David was far from perfect. During the first half of his reign, King David had a close relationship with God and obeyed Him. This verse is an example of the Holy Spirit empowering King David to effectively lead the Israelites. King David foreshadows Jesus, the coming perfect King who spoke and acted in the power of the Holy Spirit when He was on earth.
The Holy Spirit prophesied about Jesus before the Son came to earth.
“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from His roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:1-2).
This prophecy describes Jesus as the true King of Israel and says He would be full of the Holy Spirit as He lived a life full of the Father’s wisdom, clarity and knowledge.
The Old Testament was not yet finished when the book of Isaiah was written, but this prophecy shows the Holy Spirit moving history toward God coming to earth in the form of Christ.
Prophets in the Old Testament were filled with the Holy Spirit to speak on behalf of God.
“The Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me. He said: ‘Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites’” (Ezekiel 2:2-3).
“But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8).
Both Micah and Ezekiel were prophets who demonstrated powerfully what it looked like to have the Holy Spirit guiding them. They spoke what the Holy Spirit impressed upon them to speak and worked hard to persuade and motivate the Israelites to turn from sin and obey God.
John the Baptist witnessed the Spirit descending on Jesus.
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because He was before me.” I myself did not know Him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to Israel.’ And John bore witness: ‘I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him. I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit’” (John 1:29-33).
This passage brings us to the New Testament and the start of Jesus’ ministry. The Holy Spirit came down from heaven and remained on Jesus for the rest of his earthly life.
Jesus Himself was filled with the Holy Spirit in order to carry out His ministry.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18).
Jesus said these words to Israelites while they were worshipping God in a synagogue. He began his ministry by telling His friends and family that the Lord’s Spirit “is on Me” for a specific purpose. Jesus spent a lot of time talking about the Holy Spirit and wanted His disciples to understand the power of the Spirit. He even told them it was “better” for them that He leave, because then the Holy Spirit would be sent to them (John 16:7).
The first followers of Jesus were filled with God’s Spirit to take the gospel to the known world, and so are we.
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:1-4).
This verse is vital to understanding the Holy Spirit. Before this point in history, the Holy Spirit did not indwell every follower of Christ. After Jesus died, rose again and ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit came down and filled up every disciple and apostle of Christ to spread the gospel to the world. Now, whenever anyone puts their faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit immediately lives within them. God’s people get to experience the power of the Holy Spirit like Jesus did.
The Holy Spirit provides believers with the strength to live the Christian life.
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, NLT).
The daily experience of living life as a Christian requires qualities that only God can give. The fruit of the Spirit mentioned above are some of those qualities, but believers also need resilience and a continual thirst to know God more deeply. They need to be changed daily to become more like Jesus. God achieves this by coming to live within them, in the form of the Holy Spirit, and then cultivating those qualities from within.
The Spirit helps believers to hear God’s voice, understand His Word and choose obedience over self-indulgence. In our own strength, none of this would be possible.
The Bible begins and ends with the Holy Spirit.
“‘I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.’ The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:16-17).
What a beautiful verse from the end of the Bible. The Holy Spirit wants to give people living water. He wants to change their lives and make them new.
These verses are simply a snapshot of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. Without Him, the Bible does not make sense.
Why not take some time to study what it means to live a Spirit-filled life using our Holy Spirit Starter Kit?
The Holy Spirit is dynamic and knowable. The more you allow Him to guide and direct your life, the more you will become like Christ and experience the love of your Father in heaven.
You may be surprised to know that this issue comes up often, and it is the tension that some individuals call the “inequity of God.” Since I know you, let me cut to the chase regarding your primary question and your assumptions. We’ll begin with this familiar passage.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him (Matthew 7:7-11).
God does indeed answer the prayers of His children. I wholly affirm this, and I am encouraged when I hear stories like yours. With that said, you may want to adjust your wording to your friend.
He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45).
Nonmanipulative Mercy
God did not necessarily bless you because of your close relationship with Him. He may have, but you want to be careful that you do not reduce God’s blessings to a “relational proximity formula.” I think our old friend Job and a few other people from the Bible would take issue with that idea.
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil (Job 1:1).
The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them (Job 1:16).
Paul was close to God, and someone cut off his head.
Joseph was close to God, and a tribe kidnapped him.
Moses was close to God and got exiled to the desert.
Stephen was close to God, and a mob stoned him to death.
Christ was close to God, and it was the Lord’s will to crush Him (Isaiah 53:10).
God blesses people because He chooses to bless them. It is not about an individual’s ability to merit God’s good favor but always about His nonmanipulative mercy to undeserving people. By following the logic that is now troubling you, someone could ask, “Why did God regenerate you while not regenerating someone else?” Was it because you were close to Him? (Ephesians 2:1-5).
For by Grace........
That type of question may help you understand your query with more theological precision, especially if you pull your answer through an Ephesians 2:8-9 filter. The gospel implies that you are not worthy of any blessing (Romans 3:10-12; Isaiah 64:6).
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
You deserve hell, which was supposed to be your final destination, and it would have been if it were not for the intervening grace of God. Honestly, I do not know why God regenerated you or me but not other people, and we are no different from them. This unmerited kindness from the Lord should not motivate you to feel guilty, though it should humble you as you ponder His most profound mercy.
What Is Good?
It seems there might also be a misunderstanding of the word “good.” According to your premise, it is “good” to receive $2,000, and it is terrible not to receive $2,000. Paul’s understanding of “good” encompassed more possibilities than always getting what you asked for the way you asked for it. Paul saw all things—including disappointments—working together for good (Romans 8:28).
Key Idea – The good that God is working in you, whether it feels positive or not, makes you more like Jesus. If your circumstances are not conforming you to be more like Jesus, you are missing the primary purpose of what God is writing into your life (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).
The point of the Bible is to transform people into Christlikeness, not to give individuals seven habits to make them effective or provide folks their desired best life now. The point of the Bible is not about your personal “success” or happiness, as defined by the culture or your heart. If you gain personal property, acclaim, or significant monetary worth in your life but do not image God’s Son, you have missed your real purpose in life (Matthew 6:33).
Who Is Grateful?
Within your discussion with your friend, there is an unspoken implication that God is unkind, unfair, or not good. God is good regardless of what happens to you. Unfortunately, a mainstream worldview only talks about God’s goodness when there is some material or physical benefit in the balance. As Job (Job 42:5-6) and Joseph (Genesis 50:20) learned, you can find the good in personal setbacks, sins, failures, illnesses, and disappointments.
If you’re not careful, you can unwittingly communicate a skewed view of God by only trumpeting His goodness when things go the way you hoped they would (1 Peter 2:21). I know you humbly thank God for how this situation has turned out on your behalf, and I rejoice with you. However, it would be wise to expand your understanding and application of God’s goodness, especially when you do not get what you asked the Lord to provide.
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:11-13).
The most significant blessing to ever come my way, apart from salvation, went through the crucible of heart-rending, soul-crushing disappointment. A mature theology of benefits is when you can be grateful for how the Lord develops you through “all things” that He is writing into your narrative.
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Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong (Job 1:20-22).
Do you only thank God when things go your way?
How do you usually respond when you don’t get the desires of your heart?
Do you mature more by getting what you want or by personal disappointment?
Series: Exodus
Passage: Exodus 28:1-29:46...Speaker: Jeff Thompson
The Lord's instructions for the Tabernacle continue, as He gives specifications for the priesthood - illuminating for us the glorious ways in which believers are the priesthood of God on the earth today.
In our study of the Book of Exodus, we're at Chapter 28, God is in the process of giving Moses instructions on how to set up the tabernacle, the portable temple, so to speak, that will accompany Israel as she journeys through the wilderness toward the promised land. And in the two chapters we're going to look at today, God is going to give instructions for the apparel of the high priest, setting aside the Sons of Aaron for the priesthood and the daily offerings as we did last week.
I'm going to highlight a few things from the text, but we're not going to read through the text itself, verse by verse, just to keep things moving. As we mentioned last week, there's great richness in everything in the scriptures, but we have to focus on the things that are most profitable to everyone if we're going to get through the Book of Exodus in less than five years.
Well, let me ask you this, too.
Are you expecting to hear from God today?
I hope you are, if you want to hear from the Lord today, then expect him to speak to you, have your Bible open, have a pen ready, have your outline printed off, have a notebook on hand. Prepare yourself to hear from the Lord. Those who do are going to be blessed today, those who don't are also going to be blessed, just not quite as much. And I want you to be blessed as much as possible by our study in the world today.
So make sure you have an expectation that God is going to speak to you through his word as we open it up together right now. Well, let's start by taking a look at verse 30 of Chapter 28, where we come across a pair of strange and mysterious items that require a little bit of explanation. Verse 8, 30, says, And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment, the room and the Therman, and they shall be over Erens heart when he goes in before the Lord.
So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually.
So what in the world are the room and the thumma?
Well, if you look at all the places in scripture where they show up, you'll discover that the room and the room seemed to have been naturally occurring, objects like rocks or stones that were somehow used to reveal the will of God.
According to this verse, the high priests breastplate must have had a pocket of some sorts for storing the room and the thumb in basically in a little bag of some sort.
The expectation was that at critical moments in the life of the nation of Israel, the leader of the nation, the king of Israel, would seek God's will by coming to the high priest and requesting the groom anthem be used to discern the will of God.
How would that work? Well, scholars have a few different ideas. Some suggest that they could have been too flat and smooth stones that would have been cast as we might flip a pair of coins.
So you'd throw these two stones and how they landed would provide the answer to your question.
The words Jurymen Thomond literally mean lights and perfections, or together they mean the phrase perfect light and the word light is considered to refer to truth and or revelation in this context. And so there are some who suggest that they were semi-precious stones that glowed in some way to reveal God's answers to questions.
In other words, if it was just casting lots or flipping a coin, throwing stones, they would be no way for God to refuse to answer.
But the way that they worked apparently required something supernatural about the process because God refused to answer King Saul and first Samuel, 28.
And that leads me personally to suspect that they were probably too semi-precious stones that glowed in some way to reveal and answer from the Lord.
It's possible, too, that the high priest might have been involved in the process somehow. Perhaps he would prophesy in conjunction with the erm and the Thoman. We just don't know. We know that they were used for seeking God's will. We just don't know exactly how.
And if you want to see all the different research I pulled from all the different books I read about that this week, feel free to shoot me an email and I'll send that to you if you want to dig more into that yourself.
But perhaps like me, you find yourself wondering why God chose to speak through the room in the room, especially when he had the prophets.
Well, moving on, I mean, honestly, I'm really not sure, I'm just not sure I I wracked my brain. I did lots of research this week, but I couldn't find an answer that I felt was credible.
Perhaps the Lord didn't want the high priest, the king or the prophets to have too much power or for any one of them to be the single oracle of God. And so perhaps for that reason, God spoke through a combination of means.
Other than that, I'm kind of stumped.
So if you know the answer, send me an email and let me know, because for now, this one's been written down in my little notebook of things in the Bible that I don't understand yet. And by the way, that's something I would recommend that you do as well in some shape or form. Keep a notebook, a computer file or something like that where you write down questions about the Bible or Christianity that you don't have good answers for yet and write down the dates of your question or concern as well.
Pray about it.
Ask the Lord to give you an answer, share it with friends, research it, talk about it, and then you'll be able to write down the date in the future.
When God leads you to an answer, most of the time you'll be amazed at the way that the Lord will sometimes, even over years, give you answers to those questions as you bring them to him in prayer. And then when you go back and look at that computer file or that notebook and you see the date crossed off and there's a date written underneath it, when God gave you the answer, it's going to build your faith that there are good answers to most of the things that you don't understand yet in the word of God.
And that's just good for your faith.
What I do know is why we don't have another room or thulium today. It's because we don't need it. The spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit dwells in every man and woman who's given their life to Jesus, and he's available to us 24/7 as our counselor and the helper.
We have the promise from God that if we lack wisdom and we do, all we have to do is ask and he'll gladly and freely give it to us. We have the word of God available to us in black and white, and it is packed with God's truth and wisdom and guidance. We have our brothers and sisters in the church who also have the Holy Spirit inside of them, and they're available to pray with us, to pray for us, to seek the Lord with us and help us discern his will through his word.
But if we're honest, if we're honest. Our flesch would love to have something like the human thumb, wouldn't we? I mean, because our flesh is just lazy, we're way rather roll the dice or flip some coins or use a magic eight ball, then seek the Lord through prayer, meditation, Bible study, fasting and fellowship with other believers.
So why doesn't God just give us something like the room and the thoman so that we can just simplify the whole process process?
What is it? Just give us something convenient that would help remove ambiguity when it comes to hearing from the Lord.
It's because soulless mechanics do not produce relationship. Let me say that again, soulless mechanics do not produce relationship. That's why religion cannot produce a relationship. That's why rituals cannot produce a relationship and our loving, good heavenly father cares deeply about his relationship with his children. If you don't know this or if you've never heard this before, you need to know that this is true. Your heavenly father cares deeply about his relationship with you specifically. As we study God's word, pray, wait on him and seek him, we grow in our relationship with him because that's what happens when you spend time with someone, especially time with someone who's wonderful and who you like and who you love.
And as we do those things with our brothers and sisters in the church, our human relationships grow as well. And God cares deeply about that, too.
I think this concept of relationship as the priority is generally so much easier for women to understand, because, again, generally God has made woman so much more relational than men, because generally men tend to prioritize efficiency over relationship.
I've shared this illustration before. If you ask most women if they'd rather get one rose per day from their significant other for 12 days in a row, or if they would rather get 12 roses at once.
All woman will almost unanimously say, well, I'd rather get one rose a day for 12 days in a row. Why? Because they tend to prioritize relationship and in their mind, they see it as 12 points of loving contact rather than one. It's more relationship, therefore it's better.
But most men would say what one rose a day for 12 days in a row.
That's that's so inefficient. That's so inefficient. Why wouldn't you just take care of the whole bouquet of 12 at once? Why do I need to pray, wait on the Lord and get into the word and ask other people to pray with me and fast? Why all of that when we could just flip a coin? It's so inefficient. Why? Because your heavenly father cares deeply about his relationship with you, and when these instructions were given to Moses, people couldn't have a close relationship with God because their sins separated them from God.
But there's a closeness that God can now share with you because your sins have been taken care of, they've been paid for by Jesus who died in your place because that's how much God cares about his relationship with you. That's how much of a big deal relationship is to our Lord. He paid the highest price simply to give us the option of having a relationship with him. In Exodus, twenty nine, forty six, God says, and they shall know that I am the Lord, their God who brought them up out of the land of Egypt and then get this, that I may dwell among them.
I am the lord, their God. Did you catch that? Why did God bring Israel out of Egypt? Because he could not dwell among them in Egypt. Why did God save you from your sins, because he could not dwell with you while you were in your sense. God saved you so that he could dwell with you and you could dwell with him. God saved you so that you could be in relationship with him. It's not about efficiency.
So it shall be on Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts. And that shall always be on his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord.
So the high priest, Aaron, at this time was to have a gold plate on the front of his turban that read Holiness to the Lord, because that was the issue. It was what all of the clothing and rituals pointed to this issue of holiness and opening the eyes of the people of Israel to the reality that their God is holy and he desires his people to be holy to.
And I want to use this opportunity to ask you what you think of when you hear the word holiness.
What's your perception of that concept? Perhaps like many, you associate the word with uptightness, with religion and ritual and strictness, rigidity and lots of other words that are very far away from the word fun.
In reality, the word wholeness truly refers to. Wholeness, wholeness. It's about being whole, it's about being complete, it's about lacking nothing. Holiness is holiness. And mom and dad, this is what we have to let our kids know about holiness, sin isn't bad because it's forbidden. Sin is forbidden because it's bad. Sin is the opposite of holiness because sin destroys sin, wound's sin steals and sin leaves you broken.
But God's ways always lead to wholeness. They lead to life. They lead to peace. They lead to joy. Holiness is not about abstaining from everything that's fun, it's about walking in holiness. And for most of us, sadly, it takes a long time. And sometimes a lot of wasted or misdirected years before we realize that holiness in reality is the only pathway to wholeness. And when we get into Chapter 29. We're going to find references to both sin offerings and burnt offerings, and you may wonder, well, well, what's the difference, Jeff?
A sin offering was required by the law.
You can read all about it. In Leviticus eight, a burnt offering was a voluntary offering to bless the Lord.
It was the highest of the hierarchy of offerings because it was above and beyond what was required.
For those of you who are students of the word, there's something interesting here that that I just can't resist pointing out. We know from all kinds of verse is and pictures in the word that that Jesus was our Passover lamb. He was our sin offering. In Genesis 22, we have the story of God coming to Abraham and asking him to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God, and if that horrifies you, you need to know that God doesn't have him go through with it.
You also need to go to our website and listen to that message, because there's some amazing and important things and pictures being communicated through that whole event.
But what I want to point out to us is what Genesis 22 two says. Then he that's God said, take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mireia and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I shall tell you now, isn't that interesting? We know that Jesus was our sin, offering our Passover lamb, but when God had Isaac serve as a type or a picture of Jesus.
He had him as a burnt offering. Why? To make the point that Jesus was not required to lay down his life, God was not required to save us from our sins, he could have simply left us to get what we deserve and started over again somewhere else.
But God chose to love us, he loved us voluntarily in John 10, Jesus said, therefore, my father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
As you make your way through the history of the nation of Israel in the Scriptures, you're going to find that God designed their social system to ensure that the monarchy and the priesthood remained separate. In other words, God made sure that a priest did not also serve as king. Priests would end up coming from the tribe of Levi, while kings would generally come from the tribe of Judah. Presumably, this was to ensure that the worship of Yahweh was not corrupted for political gain by a politician, but also so that the priests would not be defiled by the acts of war like killing.
There are, however, a few exceptions to this rule in scripture, a few examples of someone who was both a priest and a king, mega points for you right now.
If you can think of the first example in scripture, the first example of someone who was both a priest and a king.
It's Melchizedek in Genesis 14. He was the king of Salem, but also a priest who served Abraham Communion bread and wine, and we know he was in reality, Jesus. The second example is, again, Jesus, our great high priest, who is also the king of kings who will return to reign on the earth as king.
But lastly, and who could have seen this coming, right?
We are both priests and kings in Revelation one Verse is five through six, John the Apostle is praising God at the opening of his letter and he writes to him who loved us and watched us from our sins in his own blood and has made us kings and priests to his God and father to him be glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen. That is our destiny. We're going to rule and reign with Jesus and Minister to our God and Father for all eternity.
Kings, queens and priests to the most high God. Now, we're obviously going to have to wait a little bit on the Kings and Queens part, but we don't have to wait on the priests part. We don't have to wait to minister to God and minister to people. We can do that right now.
Our brother Peter tells us you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God and had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. I want to show you seven things, seven steps that the Sons of Aaron went through as they were consecrated for the priesthood, set aside for special service to the Lord.
And I want you to see in this process how the Lord has consecrated you for ministry to him and ministry to others.
Firstly, in Exodus 2081, we read now take Aaron, your brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me as priest.
So firstly, Aaron and his sons were taken from among the people, just as we are chosen and elected by God from among the peoples of the Earth.
Romans eight twenty nine tells us whom he four knew. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
God looked into the future and saw that you would accept his invitation of salvation if it were offered to you and therefore God chose you.
He elected you to be part of his kingdom. This refers to our election. Secondly, in Exodus twenty nine four, we read Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the Tabernacle of Meeting. So Aaron and his sons were to be brought near to God first. Peter 318 tells us Christ also suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
This refers to our salvation being brought to God. Thirdly, the rest of Exodus twenty nine four reads and you shall wash them with water.