God's Nation Formed: Tabernacle

Preached by Jaren Singh on 9/8/24

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast. Thank you so much for listening. We're startup church. We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together. And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect, be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more. You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that. We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today. You guys, uh, you know, you think about what it looked like for us coming to church this morning. Um, you know, I don't know what your, what your Sundays generally look like. Um, hours in the sing household are generally, uh, relatively chaotic. Um, we got, uh, obviously a four and a two year old and, uh, you know, I'll get to church either. We'll set up at night, but a lot of times it's been in the morning. We'll come set up and it's like, wake up as early as you possibly can to get to church as early as you possibly can and set up. And you know, I'm, you know, to my, uh, you know, at different points, I'll like try to set up that I'm going to get out of the house before the girls wake up. A lot of times it doesn't happen. And so then I'm, you know, you're, you're running around and you're doing all of these things. Uh, maybe, you know, on the way to church, there's something that happens or there's, there's something and you don't have this full breakfast or you're trying to get your kids out the door. And one of them forgets to brush their teeth and hopefully it's not you, but you guys understand that this is a, this is a lot of times when we think of church, you know, there's all of this attached to it. Um, now consider for a little bit what it would have been like to worship in the wilderness. And this is, this tabernacle is this connection where like God's spirit can, can dwell with his people. The, the word tabernacle as, as we can, we can understand it to be a temporary dwelling. And so if you, as you hear the word tabernacle, again, it's a, it's a word that's like pretty churchy and it's like kind of what does that mean? And it sounds, it just sounds Jewish, you know, and, and, but just understand it to be a temporary dwelling. And, um, whatever, uh, you know, whatever the, the worship would have been, you think about for us what, what the smell is when I know I was talking to somebody and we're like, man, when we walk in and I smell the, uh, the church coffee, like I know what I'm getting into it. I know what I know what to expect. Like I've, I've done this before for them. Perhaps they would walk in and they would smell, uh, or they would see a lot of these different colors that were intentional. Perhaps they would smell, uh, you know, the, the, the animal being sacrificed. And there would be like, okay, this, I know what's going on and I know what, what worship is going to be like. Um, it's, it's tough for us and we're going to make, we're going to make a little bit of a jump. We're not going to talk super in depth about, uh, the tabernacle and all of the, uh, everything surrounding it as far as, uh, the specific regulations and guidelines. And that stuff is, that stuff is for a different time is what I would say, um, or for a different time for us to study. If you've listened to the podcast this week, it goes in pretty great depth and in more depth than I'm even, uh, that I, that I can even share here. Um, so we're in John one though, because I, I think what's incredible is if we understand, uh, tabernacle to be a temporary dwelling, then work with me here. Isn't that what God did when, when he came on this, this earth? Uh, and that's what we're going to, we're going to look at that, that Jesus, uh, was in heaven, this perfect place and decided to, to come down on this earth and to dwell with us. Um, we're going to read John one and I'm going to start in verse one. It says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made without him. Nothing was made that has been made in him was life. And that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through him all might, sorry, excuse me. So that through him all might believe he himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or the husband's will, but born of God. Verse 14 says, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son who came from the father, full of grace and truth. In John 1 verse 14, what that word means where it says he made his dwelling, that word is tabernacle. Like he made, God came on this earth, he made the earth and then it says that he went and he dwelled with us. You think about, you know, God and he's been setting up the opportunity to come into this earth from the very beginning. It says in John 1, 1, right, it says he was with God in the beginning and then he made everything. You think about what we've been looking at throughout this whole year and really it's setting itself up for Jesus coming on the scene. I don't know if you guys are ready for it. I love the Old Testament. I'm really ready to, you know, coming into 2025, I'm really excited about digging into the New Testament, looking at Jesus and we're doing that this morning and so I feel pretty excited about that. I'm like, yeah, we're going to dig in. But you think about from creation itself to this plan for redemption from sin and a way to get back into the garden from the calling of Abraham, the exodus from Egypt, what we're looking at right now, this formation of the nation of Israel and even the stuff that we're going to cover later, all of that was pointing to Jesus and for God to be able to have this lasting dwelling with you and I. You know, all of the materials for the tabernacle then, they look different than Jesus deciding to tabernacle with us. You know, the materials then, again, you guys read about, I think that it's somewhere in the realm of like $40 million of what it would perhaps cost to have built all of this stuff. There would be, as they transported it, certainly thousands of people with some responsibility in carrying, you know, for all of us who have moved and have called on other Christians to help us move, I would imagine that they would have probably spent a great deal more care in the move of this stuff. You know, like this is how we're going to, and again, that's not even me throwing shade. It was something that came to my mind that I was like, we do that too when we help people move. It's just that it's not that big of a deal. It's not $40 million worth of stuff and it's not the way that we worship God. It's like, it's my buddy's couch. Like, I'm going to try as hard as I can but, you know, pizza's not going to get it done. And if the ones that are not laughing, you're like, oh, I don't know what he's talking about. You'll know one day. You'll get it. You'll get it. And then it's going to come full circle because then when that family who moved gets rid of that couch, they're going to get rid of it by saying, hey, guy's house, you guys need another couch. And what you're going to say is, yeah, we need a couch. Man, I wish I would have taken better care of that couch when I was moving it because now it's broken in my house. Again, this is what I've gone through. Perhaps you never will, maybe. I don't know. The materials were even more elaborate though.$40 million worth of materials, they're even more elaborate as God comes and dwells with us right now. We're like, he had to use his own spirit, he used the flesh and blood of Jesus, he used the hill of Golgotha, and then he showed it by this empty tomb. These are the materials that were used that cost way more than the $40 million or maybe even potentially more than it did in that day. You think about us, though, that we're also a part of this amazing story for Jesus to tabernacle and to dwell because he didn't just dwell for a limited amount of time. What it says is he dwelled for some time, then he died, then he rose from the dead, and now he's living amongst us and with us. Consider for a moment what circumstances made your heart be open to Jesus in the first place. Who did God send? How did he work in a perfect way to dwell with you and to show you his plan for salvation? There's a really cool quote, it's from N.T. Wright, and he writes it in this book, Simply Christian. He talks a little bit about this journey of what it might look like, what it looks like, and he gives this connection because certainly some of us were living a crazy life and then God came on the scene and we totally changed. Others were living a life that was kind of churchy and pretty good and then we became Christians and then we became really devout followers. He compares it basically to waking up at night. When you wake up, generally it's from two different ways. One, either there's this peaceful awakening where you wake up and maybe you're a little bit groggy and you make your coffee and you're kind of going through the motions and you're sleepwalking but you're getting stuff done and then over time you drink some coffee and then you kind of fully wake up after a series of minutes or hours. There's another kind of waking up where your alarm goes off and you just go crazy and I've been in both. Usually what happens is my alarm will go off, I'll snooze my alarm and then I'll snooze my alarm and then I'll think I snoozed my alarm but I'll actually turn off my alarm. Then you wake up 45 minutes later and you're like, I'm already late. Then that type of wake up is like, I'm alert right away. You know what I'm saying? God works in our life in a little bit of a similar way. This is the argument that N.T. Wright makes. He says that some of us wake up and the way that we go from asleep to fully awake is gradual and it's not so sudden and it's not extremely obvious. When did you fully wake up? I don't know. A little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit there. When I think about that, I actually really think about Richard as somebody who comes to mind right away. For those who know or those who don't, Richard's going to become fully awake in Christ after church this afternoon. Richard's going to get baptized. Richard started coming out over two years ago and there was something, there was a little bit. He was already kind of awake, sleepwalking a bit and looking for a church and there was some spirituality. But then this process of going from asleep to awake took a few years and some down stuff, some up stuff, some really I'm ready and some I'm not ready. That's the beauty. God is able to do all of that. He's that powerful that there's not one way that it happens. For others among us, it was quite sudden. When we were living this pagan life, God comes on the scene and it's just like the alarm going off where you're like, I've got to change everything and give up everything and follow him. However it happens, we celebrate and we worship God and it's the same thing. It's the same thing going from asleep to awake. I don't think on the final day we're going to care about, you know, at 5 p.m. I'm not going to care how I woke up. I'm just going to be grateful that I'm awake. You know what I'm saying? I think on the final day when we're talking to Jesus, it doesn't really matter when we, in some ways, it doesn't matter when we woke up, it doesn't matter how we woke up. We're just grateful that we did, amen? We'll move on here. We'll connect a little bit. So on the topic of, we're going to stay in John for most of the lesson and there's some strong connections like this Feast of the Tabernacle. We're not going to read super in-depth. Again, you can look to Leviticus 23 and you'll be able to find a little bit of the organization of how the Jewish people did it and how it was directed by God. Jesus is now, he's at this feast though, this feast that was practiced for years and years and years. He's at this feast and it says in verse 1, after this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He didn't want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish festival of tabernacles was near, Jesus' brother said to him, leave Galilee and go to Judea so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world for even his own brothers did not believe in him. Therefore, Jesus told him, my time is not yet here. For you, any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I'm not going to go to this festival because my time has not yet fully come. After he said this, he stayed in Galilee. However, his brothers, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. Now, at the festival, the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, where is he? Pause here. On the surface, this is the festival of this feast of tabernacles. What's the connection? Well, we're going to make sense of it again. You can read in Leviticus 23 to make even more sense of it. Jesus is like, I'm not coming right away. I'm not going to be there. At this time, you have to understand, obviously, he's always connecting to his father. And he realizes, if I go at this exact time, they're going to kill me. They're going to try to, and this is not the perfect time for me to go. His family wants him to go. They're even kind of, they're messing with him a little bit. Like, hey, if you want to be this public figure, like, come on, man. This makes the most sense for us. Jesus is saying, though, I'm not going to go in public with my family. You think about what kind of energy. You know, we can only surmise. It'll be great if there's going to be a time when we can just kind of see everything played out in heaven. I don't know. This is going to be one of those times where you're like, man, how would it have been to be at this feast? And you're, there's like, I have to assume there's some like talking here and there. Is he going to be here? Is he going to be here? He's gathered this following now. There's something. He's done these miracles. He's fed people. But he's kind of on the outside looking in. But he says he's going to change the world. How is it going to happen? Is he going to be here? There's probably this energy that's building. And they don't see him. And he's like, he's not there. And there's maybe some discouragement or there's some confusion perhaps. But Jesus does show up. And it says in John 7, 14, not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews were amazed and asked, how did this man get such learning without having been taught? Jesus answered, my teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent me is a man of truth. There is nothing false about him. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me? So Jesus goes in secret. He's not with his family. And then he goes up and he speaks these truths. And the people are amazed. And the energy, again, that's building. And Jesus says something that we should hold fast to. It says anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. This is the hope that I have for people as I'm on campus. As you guys are at your workplaces or whatever you're doing. Somebody says I'm not a Christian, but I'm willing to follow. I'm willing to see. Sincerely, I'm sitting down, we're studying the Bible with people who have all different types of faith and understanding. And I'm like, you don't have to be a Christian tomorrow. You don't even have to fully believe in it right now. But are you willing to do what the Bible says? If you're willing to do what the Bible says, Jesus is clear. You're going to find out if it's from God or not. You're not going to wonder if it's from God. You're not going to think, ah, this is the same teaching that I can get in Hinduism or Buddhism or Islam or even Judaism. I can get the same teaching just about anywhere. We all kind of believe the same thing. The Bible says, no, no, no, you're not going to think that. There's not one, there's not, oh, it's subjective. No, he says, if you follow what the Bible teaches, you're going to find out if it's from God or not. As you go about your day, as you interact in a way, this is perhaps an aside and not even a part of the lesson, but I think it's important to bring up, as you go about your day, understand that. We don't have to convince people tomorrow. If someone's willing to follow what the Bible teaches, they're going to find out, is it from God or is it just made up? Jesus, there's these few days. There's a lesson that was preached, I think it was sometime in the middle of the summer or early summer by Joel Nagel, and he talked a lot about these festivals. It might be a good lesson for you to refer to. You can follow us on Spotify as well. If you're like, I don't know, I don't want to watch the Facebook video, that's fine. You can follow us on Spotify and you can look up that lesson right on Spotify. But he talks about what this festival might have looked like. But there's a few days, everyone's staying in booths, they're eating under the stars. Jesus comes in the middle of the festival and he begins to teach. Then he's almost arrested and then he appears again at the festival. It's John 7 now. It says the Pharisees heard the crowds whispering, verse 32, whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. Jesus said, I'm with you for only a short time and then I'm going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we can't find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What do they mean when he said, you will look for me, but you will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the spirit and those who believed in him were, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified. So pause here. So Jesus, he appears in the middle of the festival. So first he didn't appear at all. Then he appears in the middle of the festival. Then he disappears. And then he reappears on the last day, this great day. It would seem to be pretty random that Jesus would say, hey, if you're thirsty, just come, and I'll give you this drink. Like why share it now? What's the relevance or significance? What we have to understand, though, and this communicates in Leviticus, is on the last day there was this big water ceremony that would take place. And so Jesus is in the middle of this amazing, this water ceremony that's going on. He's saying, no, no, no. If you guys want real living water, like I'm going to give that to you. I'm here to provide that for you. And so we think, man, Jesus was hiding behind stuff. No, but he's like, no, no, no. On the last and greatest day when everyone's going to listen, I'm going to make as bold of a claim as I've made up until this point that whatever you guys are doing here, I'm bigger and I'm better than that, and I'm going to provide that that's going to last for all time. The Pharisees, understandably at this point, want to kill him. It says Jesus is coming to dwell with those who are thirsty. I don't know where you are this morning, but I hope that you're thirsty. I said I don't know where you are this morning. Perhaps you came to church because you always come to church. Maybe you came to church and it's your first time coming to church in a while. Maybe you're kind of somewhere in between. But wherever you're at, I hope that you are still thirsty for Jesus. It doesn't matter if you've been coming for 20 years, 30 years, or this is your first time. If you are going to make it on the final day, you've got to be thirsty for Jesus. It can't be something that you feel like, I'm thirsty sometimes, or I've got it pretty well figured out, but once in a while I need to just grab a few drops of water. No, if we did that with any kind of regular water, we'd be in trouble. You know what I mean? We're thirsty because we always need a drink. You can last just a few days without water. Are you still thirsty for Jesus like you were when you first met him? Then there's this connection that we'll make. John makes all over in his gospel with water and living in the Spirit. Water and the Holy Spirit, and similar perhaps to water, it's water and wind. There's kind of the two things that he pushes together being like what it looks like to live with the Holy Spirit or live in step with the Spirit. Water, as the Spirit might say, it pours itself out. It gives itself to others. If we're going to be those who are living in the Spirit, then we have to be willing to go and help other people. We have to be willing to pour ourselves out for other people and then be filled up again. Water is something else. It's fluid, literally. It's malleable. It can be moved a little bit. We need to be those who are pretty flexible as well. I don't know how, again, perhaps you already are like, this is not a lesson for me. That's okay. Perhaps you're very flexible. That's okay too. In our understanding of and our growth with God, we need to be flexible. Certainly we need to hold fast to many truths about Jesus and God and the Scriptures, yes. But in the way that we worship, I think we need to grow in our flexibility. I don't mean growing our flexibility of who we worship, but perhaps how we worship and what feels comfortable to worship and what does that mean and what does that look like? Maybe worship God in a different spot. Where do you spend time with God? Do you go to nature or are you just at your house? Do you hunker down or are you out? We need to be willing to do both and to figure out what works. What kind of music do you listen to as you worship and celebrate God? I've just started in the last year listening to Christian rap music. Excuse me. In general, Christian rap music, I've found it to be really corny, really played out. I've started to listen to it, and it's just become a part of what I listen to in the morning. I was setting up, and I'm listening to Christian rap. Okay, but I'm worshiping God. I'm like, man, that's amazing what these guys are doing. And if you would have told me even two years ago, that's who you're going to be, I'm like, that's a churchy person that I just can't see myself being. But we've got to be fluid, you know what I'm saying? Maybe it's not Christian rap music. Maybe it's Christian folk music. I don't know what it is. Perhaps it's not music at all. I don't know either. Irish music? We're a little bit away from the Irish thing. That's a little bit further down. That's the 2030 gerund. Yeah, right, I hope you don't remember that. Sudden alarm. In 2030, you're going to be like a senior in college, and you're like, what was this? Okay, I don't know. I don't know. If you guys have a Bible, you can go to Revelation 21. You know the idea of God or the reality of God dwelling with us? It shows itself again in the last writing of John. And it's really powerful how the Bible, it weaves everything together. When Revelation 21 says in verse 1, I don't think I got scripture for that. Nope. It says in verse 1, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people. And God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. You know, in the Greek, what it says, it says, Look, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will tabernacle with them. I trust that there is going to be a time when God dwells with us in the way that we can dwell with one another, and he will talk to us face to face. Just go one chapter over. In Revelation 22, in verse 17, it says, 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. This tabernacle, this feast of tabernacle was celebrated and organized thousands of years ago. Then Jesus came on the scene and gave it even a greater meaning, saying that this water that you guys celebrate on the final day, I can give you that living water. And then there's going to come a time when, just like it says in here, the one who is thirsty is going to come and receive the water that's going to last forever, and is going to satiate them forever. We can go over to Hebrews 10. We're going to prepare our hearts to take communion. We understand in this lesson, what are you going to take, or what are you going to pull from it? A few things to consider is, are you still thirsty? Do you still really want to walk with Jesus? Or is it just something that you do because you should do it, or you're used to doing it? But are you still thirsty? Jesus says, I'm going to give you everything you need. I'm ready to provide you with this. So then we need to come to him then, and thirst for him. Are you living a life that is, that is one that looks like water, and your comfortability with being put in tough situations or uncomfortable situations, your comfortability with being poured out, trusting that God is going to fill my cup back up? Like, are you still moving like water? There should be a joy that we're walking with if we are people who have been fully awake. Like, we're interacting then. That means a few things. If we are the fully awake people, then we're interacting with a lot of people who are sleepwalking, or a lot of people who are kind of groggy, trying to figure out and piecemeal their way. And we're dealing with, certainly some people who are awake, and we're dealing with a number of people who are just knocked out, dead asleep. They're kind of just going through the motions. We have the opportunity to be an alarm. We have the opportunity to be working to hear coffee, or to be a nice song, or whatever it is to get them from kind of awake to fully awake. Like, we have the opportunity to be that. And if we just operate like we're an alarm, then we're going to turn a lot of people off. The people that are groggy are going to be like, I was already getting awake, but now I'm not going to be awake with you anymore. But sometimes we've got to be an alarm. But if we're just this smooth song, then we might find that the people stay asleep, as has happened with me, and probably you as well. Like, that's why I have to wake up to hype Christian rap is the Spotify playlist. I've got to wake up to something that gets me moving, instead of just this smooth song that ends up in my dreams. Let's be both of those for people, amen? This is Hebrews 10. We're going to prepare to take communion. I'm going to share the Scripture and talk for a moment, and then Josh is going to pray for us. It says in Hebrews 10, in verse 8, or rather, we'll start in verse 1. It says, Hebrews 10, The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, Here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, my God. First he said, Sacrifices and burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them. Though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, Here I am. I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first to establish the second and by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. And since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. This is the sacrifice that we are celebrating and we are remembering this morning. As we take the cup that represents the blood he shed and the bread that represents his body, we're doing it in remembrance of Jesus that he gives us the opportunity to no longer have to sacrifice in the same way but to trust that he sacrificed once for all so that we may be made clean, amen? I'm just gonna pray. Let us pray for communion. Dear God, just thank you for your word. Thank you for your son. God, we need the living water in our lives every day. Just thinking of, you know, I can't wait for a day for a new heaven and a new earth but right now we live in the old and we need to have communion. We need to have these times of remembrance to remember that we need the living water, that we need to have these times of tabernacle, this serious reflection to understand that we are sinful. We are broken without you, God. There's a reason that one had to come down to be the permanent sacrifice. It was because of our sins. So let us take this time, reflect, reflect on our lives but also just reflect on how grateful we are for that permanent sacrifice, that permanent tabernacle that was made true through your son, Jesus. In this I pray, amen. Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected. Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on. In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.