This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Good evening. It's good to be with you all this morning. If you would, turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. Got a couple handouts being passed around.

If you need one, just raise your hand. They'll grab one of those and bring it to you. Ephesians chapter two, we'll begin in verse 19 and through 22 in just a moment. This morning, though, as many of us know by now, hopefully, you know, we're going through a yearly theme being built on the foundation built based off of Ephesians chapter two. And until the years in, we're...

What we're talking about really is the idea of the holy temple and the church, Paul's metaphor that concludes chapter two. And here we'll read the kind of highlighted here, kind of language that refers to Paul's temple imagery when Paul says, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. And we're talking this year about being built on a foundation. And this third of the year, again, it's based on the temple, the holy temple, the church.

And our theme really hit this whole year has been centered around that central idea, the temple. But we've yet to really discuss in detail its significance for the Israelites in the past, but also for the early church as well. What we wanna really ask this morning as we're kind of going through our study is how would Paul's temple symbolism shape our thinking of the identity and the mission of the church. That's what we really wanna pursue this morning. But to understand Paul's image fully, well, we have to go back to the beginning.

We have to understand his worldview, a worldview that's been shaped by the Old Testament and Israel's collective past. Only then can we really understand Israel... Can we understand Ephesians and our identity as Christ Church? And so our lesson really today is gonna be considering the universal church and our larger purpose as God's new humanity, the ones who've been redeemed in Christ. We're gonna be talking about the dwelling place of God this morning.

First, how the tabernacle itself, kind of the origin of the temple, the... Kind of before the temple was set in Jerusalem, how it served as a model for Israel. Next, we're gonna talk about how the tabernacle was conceived as a model of the world itself, that it was representative of God's cosmic temple of heaven and earth. And then we're gonna come back to Ephesians chapter one and chapter two at the end of our lesson to show how Paul's model of God's purpose or how the tabernacle was a model of God's purpose for the world. And so the sheer purpose, hopefully, we'll see by the end of our lesson today, the sheer purpose of both the tabernacle and the church is that they both served as God's dwelling place.

But both of them ultimately point to the ultimate purpose of God for all things. And he is redeeming his creation from bondage to corruption so he may dwell with redeemed humanity in his holy temple. You know, we came out to Exodus, very beginning in Exodus chapter 24 through the end of the book. The tabernacle text where we kind of... Where the idea of the temple is really birthed in the tabernacle, it's really difficult to read, to be honest.

It... The last 14 chapters of Exodus are really hard. So our familiarity of our our understanding of the significance of the temple and what it should mean for us as a church, it can... You know, it's not excusable, but it is understandable why we aren't as familiar with its significance because its origin, where it comes from, is is hard for us to read. After the redemption story of Israel for...

In the Exodus all the way to Sinai, I mean, all these amazing powerful scenes we read about from the Red Sea, all the 10 plagues and things, the feeding of the manna in the wilderness. Once you get to chapter 25, even after... Even maybe a little bit before chapter 20 when the lock codes start, things really start to kinda stall out when you read the book of Exodus. These chapters are mostly filled with detailed descriptions of the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the consecration of the priesthood. But even though it's really dry reading maybe for us, we understand that it's incredibly important.

Over 30% of the book, 13 of the 40 chapters covers this material. Furthermore, the instructions and the construction of the tabernacle are restated twice in chapter 25 through 31, and then after the golden calf and the renewal of the covenant in chapters 35 through 40. And so the space and the repetition that are given to the tabernacle in the book of Exodus, it causes us to pay attention. We need to understand that this is very important to God, and it needs to be important to us. We need to understand that the purpose of the Exodus, it wasn't merely redemption.

There was more that God was trying to accomplish. He was the excess was ultimately about God's presence. The tabernacle, the dwelling of God, that was always the goal of redemption. This goal is staying in Exodus 29 and verse 44 through 46 where God says, I will consecrate the tent of meeting in the altar. Aaron also and his sons, I will consecrate to serve me as priest.

I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God. He says, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. Some translations say, so that I might dwell among them for I am the lord their god. So it makes sense when we come to the very end of the book of the Exodus, the very last few words that the narrative ends in this way, in Exodus 40 verse 34 through 38. When it says, for the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the clouds settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud is not taken up, then they did not set out to the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day and fire was in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their generations. You know, God's dwelling, his tabernacle, it was the goal of the exodus, but it also... It served as ongoing proof of Israel's unique covenantal relationship and their proximity to the God of all creation.

Once the covenant was confirmed between God and Israel, the sanctuary really kinda became the focus of the book of Exodus. In Exodus chapter 24, if you wanna turn over there in verse nine through 11, Moses finds himself with Aaron and Nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders, and they go up and they ascend Mount Sinai to ratify the covenant, and they eat a meal together. That's what you do in the ancient world to kind of bring a covenant to an end, to tie everything, all the loose ends up. But in this meal, it wasn't just any type of meal. It wasn't some mountain top picnic, but this was a heavenly encounter.

In verse nine in chapter 24, it says, then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the 70 of the elders went up, and they saw the god of Israel. It was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven of clearness, and he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank. On Mount Sinai, Moses and his companions, they're given an audience with the very king of heaven. They're given a glimpse into the heavenly realms.

But Moses, he goes farther than the rest of his companions. He enters the cloud of God's presence, and he stays there for forty days and forty nights, and he receives a heavenly pattern. Look in chapter 25 and verse eight through nine. In the tabernacle directions, what we're able to see is what Moses himself saw. We get a glimpse into heaven ourselves similar to what we talked about in Lord's Supper in Hebrews chapter nine, the true heavenly tabernacle.

Exodus chapter 25 verse eight nine says, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all its furniture, so you shall make it. He says again in chapter 26 and verse 30, he says, you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on a mountain. You know, this is why the tabernacle is the high point of the book of Exodus. This is why this is where all roads in Exodus lead to the tabernacle.

Because through the tabernacle, we get access, we get sight into the heavenly realms. Afterwards, Moses, he's meant to construct a model of what he's seeing. He must bring heaven down to Earth. He's gotta create a space that allows Israel on behalf of the priesthood to enter into the heavenly places through the tabernacle. Tabernacle was the place where heaven and earth truly became one.

This is really clear in the design of the tabernacle. Even though these are hard to read, there's little glimmers in here that are really interesting when you read. The tabernacle was skillfully crafted to give Israel and their priests a journey into the heavenly realm. Were anybody else visual learners? I'm a visual person.

I need a visual myself. This is very much a visual for the people of Israel as they went into these heavenly realms. There's cherubim there that are located on the ark that are over the mercy seat. The ark, of course, being described as the throne of God throughout the Old Testament. There's cherubim that are woven into very temple curtains.

They are woven into the veil of the holy and the most holy place. There are spiritual beings that are meant to be seen as you're entering in deeper and deeper into the tabernacle. There's graded holiness, things in the outer court of bronze. You go further in, they're silver. They become gold in the most holy places.

It's meant to signal to you that where you're going is more and more intense. It's more and more precious the farther you go in. And then you get to the veil. There's the altar of incense representing the smoke that was atop Mount Sinai when God descended. All these things when you read these these laws are meant to show that the tabernacle gave Israel this visual trip into the heavenly places.

And the deeper you go, the more you experience the heavenly things. It was a journey ultimately towards the presence of God. And then entering the most holy place, a high priest with those 12 stones on his his garb, he carried symbolically Israel with him into the heavenly realms. But all these things, this tent... It wasn't play acting.

This wasn't just signs and symbols, but this was real. God actually dwelled there is the end of books of... The end... Books of Us. That's new.

Exodus. The end of Exodus, it shows God actually dwelled there. God made his home with the people of Israel. You know, we see the tabernacle through Christian eyes. We tend to notice a lot of the barriers, maybe the distance to God that have now been overcome through Christ.

But for Israel, the tabernacle really was a powerful testament for them of God's faithfulness and his immediate presence among them. A lot of times we maybe think of the book of Exodus as kind of this journey to God, but, really, it's a story about God drawing Israel to himself. God, he's brought Israel to Mount Sinai, but he doesn't just end there. He wants it to continue. He wants it to be intensified.

And this is exactly where the tabernacle itself comes in. It's the conclusion of... Yeah. It becomes a conclusion of God's downward descent among his people. You think about the structure of Mount Sinai alongside the tabernacle, and they resemble each other.

The tabernacle being kind of a horizontal of Mount Sinai in of itself with both of them having an altar there at the outside of the court, the foot of the mountain. Moses and his company are able to go up the mountain apart of the way, but only Moses is able to enter into the glory cloud where he receives the 10 commandments. If you know the tabernacle, it's the same way. You know, the priesthood are able to enter all of them, but only Aaron, the high priest, can go into the holy of holies where the 10 commandments are resting before the presence of God under the ark of the covenant, clouded by that same cloud of smoke that was atop Mount Sinai. It's meant to be a continuation of what Israel was experiencing on Mount Sinai.

You know, before the covenant, when Israel first comes to Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 19, the Mount Sinai, it's wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended it upon it in fire. But in chapter 24, once all the stipulations, the oath, the meal, the ratification, the covenant is complete, we see the glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai. This downward descent keeps going. But once the covenant is fully ratified in chapter 24 and then broken because of the golden calf, it may may ride again. Once the instructions of the tabernacle are followed, the construction is complete.

Well, god's presence atop the... At Sinai, it descends down into the midst of the people. And so the tabernacle really becomes a mobile Sinai experience. Again, the book ends in chapter 40 and verse 34, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. God was no longer far from all of the people way atop a mountain, but now he's their next door neighbor.

God's presence and his holy abode, they were brought down to reside among Israel. You know, as profound and maybe perplexing as that type of idea is, the tent in of itself, it was it was not an end in and of itself, but it was a means to an end. It was a foretaste of a greater purpose when God promised in Numbers fourteen twenty one that the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. And as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 11 verse nine that there will come a day when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. See, the greater reality, it was that the tabernacle modeled God's purpose for the world.

The tabernacle was a model of the world. This idea becomes really clear when we start to look a little bit more closely at the instructions and the actual construction of the tabernacle itself. What we realize is that to talk about the tabernacle is to talk about creation. That the language of the tabernacle is the language of creation. The tabernacle was a model.

It was a representation of God's created world. The connection between the tabernacle and creation, what what we see the parallels in several repeated allusions to the seven days of creation and its instructions on one half, but then in God's creative actions from Genesis chapter one and two and its later construction in the second half. You think about the instructions, Moses through chapter 21 through chapter 31. Again, this may be dry reading if you're reading that, but what you notice is that a new section begins every single time with this statement. It says, and the Lord said the Lord said to Moses.

Seven times we get that statement, and it goes into a new kind of iteration of different elements and aspects of the tabernacle construction. Very similar to Solomon when he dedicates the temple, he gives seven petitions, seven benedictions in the temple dedication ceremony. What's really interesting is the very last two. The very last two of these speeches relate to day six and day seven of creation. Then day six, the artisans are described.

Two men, Bezalel and Acholiab, two men we need to get acquainted with a little bit more in the Old Testament. They're given skill. They're given wisdom is the word there, and they're given the spirit of God. God gives them the ability to be his representatives who create and mold this tabernacle. They are his image bearers, if you will.

They are kind of like humanity. They are working as representatives in God's stead. And then what do we get on the seventh speech? What? A repetition of the Sabbath law has already been talked about in chapter 20 in the 10 commandments.

Recalling the final day of creation when God rested in divine repose. So we see some already connections... Or already see some connections in the first half in these instructions that are really powerful, and I encourage you to go read these by yourself and look for them in your own study. We see even more. We go to the construction on the other half of the directions.

We see first that the temple itself, the tabernacle, it was meant to be erected on the New Year, on day one, that this was Israel's new beginning. They're new... They were becoming a new creation with God's presence descending down among them. We see that Moses himself, like Bezalel and Aholiab, he resembles God. He steps into God's role as he constructs the tabernacle after these two men have designed it.

And what you see is really interesting in the Hebrew. It's like copy and paste it. The exact same word, the same form, and everything. What God does in Genesis one and two, Moses now does when he erects the tabernacle. He makes the tabernacle.

He sees it. He finishes it. He blesses it, and he sanctifies it just as God did in creation. And then lastly, we see the very end. You'll notice this if you read chapter three nine and forty that there's a sevenfold repetition that that as the Lord commanded Moses, he did such and such a thing.

All these different things, these sevenfold repetitions, these allusions to Genesis chapter one and two, they're meant to tell us something really important about the purpose and the significance of the tabernacle. What what this weird tent thing represented, it had meaning. It wasn't just a mystery. We're to understand that it was conceived as a model of the world. And there's several other parallels.

I got two behind me on the screen. They kinda talk about the tabernacle and the sanctuary, the temple, and these sort of terms. That that this correspondence between creation and temple would strengthen when you realize that later biblical writers, they talk about these two things with kind of a double directionality that that one refers to the other. On the one hand, you see temple... The sanctuary described at Shiloh as creation, that it's built.

He says, he built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever. But sometimes creation itself is talked about as a big temple that God dwells in. When God says heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All of these things, when we put them together, what do we what do we make of this? What are we what are we supposed to understand about the temple tabernacle and its relationship to creation?

Well, we understand that not only was it conceived as a model for the world, but also revealed God's plan for the world, that God desires to dwell amongst redeemed humanity. You know, we conceptualize the tabernacle, the sanctuary of God in this way as a model for the world. Well, I understand the tabernacle and the temple's purpose, it ought to expand. It's not just some brick and mortar building, not just some tent in the wilderness. Now we read the end of Exodus concerning the descent of God's glory into the tabernacle, and we see that more is going on here than we originally might have thought.

The God is giving us insight into his intentions for the world. The tabernacle, it was heaven on earth as we said. It was god's home, but it was a preview of more. There was more to come. This was just a little a little nugget of what god was doing.

It was a preview of his ultimate purpose. That God desires to redeem sinful humanity and to bring them into divine communion with himself. So we shouldn't be surprised when we get to the end of scripture in Revelation chapter 21 in our canon. When John, he speaks of the end of all things, and what does he use to talk about it? He uses the tabernacle in the temple.

He talks about the tabernacle language. He uses it to describe the consummation of God's will and purpose. When he says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven, and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, the place of the temple, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. John, he saw the new Jerusalem, the side of the temple, the place that Israel understood to be the very center of the world. He saw that place coming down out of heaven, a new distinct different kind of Jerusalem that would come down into a new heaven and a new earth.

This in of itself is an illusion to Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah chapter 65, which we don't have time to get into. There's more temple imagery we could track down. But what we wanna note here is that next, he hears a voice from the throne, and he announces that God's dwelling place is with man. This is, again, another allusion to the tabernacle in Leviticus twenty six and eleven through 12 when God says, I will make my dwelling among them, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

John sees here God's downward descent, like the descent into the tabernacle. He sees God's downward descent coming to expel those former things. All of those things that cause sorrow, that cause death, mourning, crying, and pain. So once again, tabernacle in the temple, it show us the end, shows us where all things are headed, that God will redeem sinful humanity, and he will dwell in their midst. He will rid creation of its corruption.

He will make all things new. What does this have to do with us as the church in particular? That's a lot of background. It's interesting. There's some intricate connections, Preston.

Alright. Let's wrap it up and go to Cane's for lunch. Right? What does this have to do for us as the church? Well, tabernacle, it showed Israel what God intended for creation, but there was always a question about how God was going to accomplish this kind of foretaste of what he was giving them.

How was God gonna redeem humanity specifically? How is he gonna unite heaven and earth? How is he gonna dwell with his people forever? With hindsight, you know, as Christians, we have twenty twenty vision. But in Ephesians, as we've been studying all year, that mystery is is something that was hidden for ages, but now has been revealed to us through Christ.

Paul says in Ephesians chapter one in verse eight through 10, he talks about how god's rescue mission for humanity in the world through Jesus Christ has come about. He says that in Christ, heaven... All things in heaven on earth will be reconciled and united under his headship. In all wisdom and insight, God has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ. It's a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.

Paul says, you wanna see behind the curtain? You wanna know what's really going on, what God is really up to? Let me tell you. You've come to know the secret. You've come to know the mystery.

It's been revealed in Jesus. But Paul, he goes even further than that. It's just not some far away removed. You know? That's an interesting thought.

That's cool. I got some insider knowledge, but that doesn't really have effect on me. Paul goes further. He points out that God's plans to unite all things through Christ, it's already begun. It's not far off in the future.

He says that his redemptive work is already visible in the life of the church. You know, Paul, he says this forthcoming union, it's seen in just the church's inherent identity and who we've been made through Jesus, that we are a new humanity that was made up of formerly separated Jews and Gentiles that have now become one in Christ. But, of course, there's more than just that fact. Paul tells the Christians who we are as the church with these various you are statements in our theme text. Paul says, in Christ, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit.

But, of course, Paul reveals with that identity, it comes a mission. It comes a purpose. That God's redemption always leads to some greater reality and purpose. Paul speaks to himself when he... And the consequence of his ministry for the church when he says that he's been tasked to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.

So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus, our lord. Why does the temple have significance for us? Why does the tabernacle have significance? Well, because it's who we are.

It's our identity, Paul tells us. We are the temple because God chooses to dwell with us. And, therefore, with that dwelling, we have a responsibility to participate in God's mission to unite all things in Christ to reveal God's hidden purposes for the world to see. We as a church, we're the new humanity. We are being prepared for God's new world, and we're meant to model, though imperfectly, what God's new creation will be like.

And when we fulfill our mission, when we do what we're we're been created to do in Christ Jesus, well, the world takes notice. The world, they see that that break... In breaking of God's new world in their midst. When they see worry and fear being overcome through worship and faith. They see that new world breaking in when poverty and hunger are overcome by compassion and generosity.

The new world they see when when anger and division are now being overcome by patience and peace. When exclusion and alienation begin being overcome by inclusion and hospitality, when sexual immorality is overcome by purity, chastity, and respect for others, When wrongdoing and sin are overcome through repentance and forgiveness. When injustice is overcome by justice, slander and bitterness are overcome by kindness and love. Broken relationships are overcome by reconciliation. And the list goes on and on and on and on.

I like Mike said it, I think, really well in his sermon. He says, you know, we see our world being torn apart by ungodliness. Don't you see that? Isn't it exhausting? We see our world and the destruction that we cause to one another each and every day, even in small...

Some... Something as small as within our home or something on a grand, you know, international scope. But despite all of those things that are happening that are adding to the brokenness, the corruption, the terror of our world, in our everyday acts of faithfulness to God, the world is seeing that new creation being brought into being. Through us, the world sees how things ought to be, how God intended them to be, and how God will make them. The world shouldn't have to enter the temple to see what God is doing.

It should be already seen. The... God's will should already be seen... Excuse me. Let me reset again.

God's will should be able to be seen being done on earth as is in heaven through us, through his people. So we started asking that question. How how should Paul's temple imagery... How should symbolism shape our thinking of the church, its identity, and its mission? Well, it tells us, first of all, who we are.

It tells us our identity. Again, you are this temple. We are God's dwelling place, and God's presence is really what defines us as his people. And second, it tells us what we're to do. We're to make God's purposes visible.

God didn't just save us as we... We're talking about our back class this morning to sit back on our haunches, to rest on our laurels, but he saved us for a purpose that we might be holy and blameless before him and for... Before the world. You see the unity, the holiness, the reconciliation, the generosity, the love that God intends for his new world, it should already be appearing in us now.

That's why we exist together. If God just wanted to save us individually and that'd be it, why do we even need to meet in the first place every single week? Why do we need to identify with one another? See, the tabernacle, it was a model of God's purposes for the world, but the church is now a model of that purpose for the world. You know, we can spend a lot of time, I think, fixating on a tabernacle.

It's instructions and whatnot. We can still fail to see what God is showing us through it. The tabernacle, it wasn't merely just a collection of instructions, though though those were incredibly important. This is a holy place that need to be treated as such. But at the end of the day, the tabernacle was about the presence of God.

It was about God's desire to dwell with his redeemed people, and it pointed us to Christ and his church and through them towards God's ultimate purpose for creation. So now the temple this morning, I want you to understand through our our... Rest of our couple months of this year, the temple isn't just something we study intellectually and think, oh, that's interesting, but it's who we are and it's what we do. We are the temple. We are God's dwelling place.

And when the world looks at God's people, the church, we should get a glimpse of what God's new creation will look like. The tabernacle was a model of God's purpose for the world. But now by the spirit, the church is called to be that purpose for the world. We join in that purpose this morning. Will you turn your back on the corruption and the decay that characterizes our world so often, that breaks our hearts, that causes those tears, that God will one day wipe away from our eyes, that that causes death, that causes sorrow.

We turn away from those things and see the mystery that we're trying to show you this morning, that God has set forth his plan to unite all things in heaven on earth through Jesus, the Christ in motion. That that plan is set forth, and we are a visible manifestation of that. I hope we are. I hope we're living in a way that people can see in us God's unifying purposes. We want you to join in that.

And if you want to be a part of that mission, to have this identity we all share, we can only have that through Jesus Christ. He is the cornerstone. He is the foundation upon which we are built as God's chosen people, his new humanity. And we want you to come to know our savior. We want you to come and place your faith in him that he is Lord in Christ to confess your sins.

We want you to repent of that old life, to come follow, take that first step in the waters of baptism behind me to have your sins forgiven, but also be resurrected to a new life, a new life that's anticipating the resurrection from the dead that we also hope for that will come when our Lord returns one day. And he will. He will come to judge the living of the dead, and we want you to be prepared living a life in light of this mission that we've received from our our father and his son. If that's your desire this morning, we wanna help you if you'll come now as we stand and as we sing.