Temple | Exodus 25:1-9

April 26 - Living the Story - 

Jerell Carper continues our series through the Story of God by tracing the theme of the tabernacle and temple through the Bible. God's desires to dwell with his people on earth, and this is evident in Eden, the tabernacle, temple, Jesus, the church, and the new creation. 

/// Fourth Sunday of Eastertide /// 

The Story of God: Part 10

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

With your soul. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Contentment is great gain. We bring nothing into this world and we take nothing out of it. May we who call Jesus Lord devote ourselves to resisting greed, which plunges the human heart into ruin and pierces it with many griefs. Give us the grace to practice generosity with free hearts, fixing our hope on you and not the uncertainty of wealth. Willing to share all that we have in laying up for ourselves a treasure that will not be paid, but will shine in the age to come. All right, prayers of the people.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Please join me for prayers of the people. A compassionate God. In a time when we hear daily of more war and more violent conflict, of failing ceasefires, energy crises, and unimaginable human suffering, it can be easy to wonder how you could be able to care about each little individual problem we face. But your word tells us that not even a little sparrow is forgotten by you, that you have numbered even the very hairs on our heads. In that spirit, we pray for the people who are suffering across the Middle East, Sudan, Ukraine, Haiti, and other places not mentioned. For children who have lost parents or been made into soldiers, parents who have lost children, families displaced from homes, and people afraid and hungry and going without. We pray for our world leaders today that you'd fill them with wisdom and humility and an awareness of the weight of holding many lives in their hands. Bless diplomatic efforts that may bring peace. We ask these things, believing that you care for the individual, and somehow our prayers for them matter. God, you told us to cast our anxieties on you because you care for us. In a time in our own country when political tensions are high, when we struggle to dialogue with those who lean in a different political direction, would you empower us with the ability to hear and see each other without dehumanizing one another because of a difference of belief? In times of violent conflict, not only between countries but between neighbors, give us wisdom and caution in how we use your name to justify our actions against each other. We lift up our nation's current election cycle and pray for protection from corruption and wisdom as people vote. As prices rise and families struggle even more to provide for the cost of daily living, we pray that you'd inspire your followers to look out for neighbors around us and empower us to show your love through tangible acts of care. God, you loved us first in spite of our messy state. Show our community where we can be sharers of your hope and agents of reconciliation in dark places around us. Enable us to be people who look not only inward but outward to our community and neighbors, and lead us towards people of peace in our community who may need a spiritual home. Bless any in our community who may be sick or hurting in ways known and unknown. Comfort any who are lonely and encourage any who are doubting. Thank you that this community continues to be a place where questions may be asked and discussed. Thank you that in a world of billions of people, you know each one of us and care for us in ways we can't imagine. May we be inspired by that love to care for the community around us. In your name, amen. Now let's take a moment of stillness to bring our personal needs before God. Adapted from 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 7. We give all praise to God, the Father of our risen Lord Jesus, and because of his abundant mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And with that hope, we have an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Through faith, embolden us by your power that we may remain strong through many trials and bring you praise, glory, and honor when Jesus is revealed to the whole world. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Please stand as we read from God's word. The Lord said to Moses, Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen, goat hair, ramskins dyed red, and another type of durable leather, acacia wood, olive oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrance incense, and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and the breast piece. Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Alright, while I adjust this stand, I have a question for you guys. I want you to turn to your neighbors, okay? And talk about it. The question is this in the house you grew up in, was the type of hospitality practiced what I call fine China hospitality, where the guests were served and you brought out the nice dishes and everything was perfectly clean and like the toilet was spotless. Or was it let yourself in hospitality, which is like just come over whenever, find the bread in the pantry, the toilet's messy, make yourself a home, talk amongst yourselves. That's enough. Okay. I know my wife was. Raise your hand if you were a make yourself at home type hospitality. All right. Um is there really is there an East Coast, West Coast correlation there? I mean I'm in the East Coast, and it was definitely the China. So all right. We hey, welcome. Anyone's legs tired other than Daniel? Oh man, we're sending it today. What a beautiful day. Um, what a great city we have. All right, if you're uh for your first time, I'm Jurell. I'm one of the people here and I'm preaching today. So we are working our way through what we call the story of God. It's nine movements uh through the whole Bible and then practices that correlate to those movements. We are people of this story, and we are part of this story, and so we respond to God's actions with kind of these faithful disciplines that shape us into the type of people that live this story in our local neighborhoods and homes. So today we are talking about temple. So if you want to throw up that first, um actually, yeah, let's just start there. We'll get going. Um, if you've missed uh the last few sermons, I'll catch you up to speed. You ready? All right. In the beginning, God created a very good world. He brought order out of chaos and fullness out of void, and he created humanity as reflections and representatives of his creativity and character. Uh, humans, we talked about, have a royal status and a sacred calling. Nice. They work as restful residents, expanding the fruitfulness of the garden and cultivating God's abundance and domain throughout the ends of the earth. But in order to do this, humanity needed to trust in God's character and capacity. So to rule as God's representatives, we would need his wisdom, not our own. But like us today, what happened? We did not trust God, but as my daughter says, we trusted the sneaky snake, and we ruled on our own terms. And this fractured four key relationships our relationship with God, with ourselves, with one another, and with all of creation. And that left us outside the garden in the wilderness in the world that the humans made. But God chases after humanity. He refuses to give up on his original blueprint. This is plan A for creation. And so last week, two weeks ago, we talked about a covenant. Um, he initiates a loyal family partnership with this one man named Abram and his extended family that ultimately becomes a nation who are meant to be people who receive God's blessing and then pour out God's blessing to the surrounding world. God gives them a land of abundance, and they have time and time again the chance to replay the Eden story where they trust God and live as an oasis of Eden in a world of rebellion. And today we're gonna continue that story with this snazzy word named called temple. And here's our big takeaway. I'm just gonna give you my big idea off the bat. So, you note takers, here you go. God wants to dwell with humanity on earth. God wants to dwell with humanity on earth. This was true of the original blueprint. This is true of his posture throughout the story, and this is true of the conclusion of how the story ends. Um, surprise, God actually does the plan that he wants. So let's take a look at this theme. Here on the screen, the next slide. Well, that's cool, but that's not the slide. All right, here's the slide. Here on this screen is an artistic rendering. Uh, thanks, ESV Study Bible. Pretty good art in there, actually, of something in the Bible that's called a tabernacle. So if you've ever tried to read the Bible from the beginning, you'll get to through Genesis, that's cool. You get to Exodus, and then there are these chapter after chapter of these instructions about how to build this tent. And actually it repeats because there's the instructions and then it just replays everything as they actually do it. And this is where you're asking yourself, what am I doing reading this silly book? Um, but it is extensive details of how to build this thing called a tabernacle. It's pretty impressive. So out in the middle of the wilderness, there's this blue, red, purple, and gold tent. Um, it smells of incense, it smells of nice smoky meat. It's like being at the Zimmerley's house. Um, it's got a rectangular courtyard of 150 to 75 by 75 feet. That's followed by this place called the Holy Place, and then the most holy place, or the holy of holies, or um what we called when I was working at the gym, and there was this inner closet. We call it the inner sanctum, which is another name for that. You're supposed to laugh. Um, so it's strikingly rich. There's embroidery, it's got acacia wood, which chance knows what that is. It's beautiful wood, it's overlaid in gold. Um, and there are these creatures called cherubim, which guard um the holy of holies. This whole structure faces east, um, and it's progressively holier places. There's a courtyard with bronze, and then the next place is more um wood covered in gold, and then it gets to real gold, and so there's kind of this progression. And inside there's this wooden box called the Ark of the Covenant, which hold the two stone tablets of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, and a few other things like a jar of manna and such. This tabernacle is in the middle of the camp. There are three tribes of the north, three tribes of the south, three tribes of the east, three tribes of the west. It's glowing in the desert, it's bright. It's the first burning man. Um, and this is God's design. So you can go to Burning Man and God's never mind. Okay. So why would God tell his people to do this? I mean, this this is a lot of resources, right? These are valuable things. They looted the Egyptians, but still, like, this is nice stuff. And it takes a lot of energy and resources to build this thing and move this thing around. So why are we doing this? Well, here's our first clue. If we look at Exodus 25, 8 to 9, which is the end of our scripture reading today, here's what it's here's what God tells his people before they begin to build it. He says, Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabern, make this tabernacle and all of its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. So there's three words here I want to highlight. Sanctuary, which is like a sanctified place, a holy place, some type of sacred, sacred space. And then there's this word dwell, that God wants to dwell among them, like settle down or abide or inhabit. Just like come into the camp. And then this word tabernacle just means a dwelling place, like a tent. So, in other words, God is saying, make a space that's set apart for me, that's sacred, so that I can dwell and live among you. Do it the way I will show you. And so what we have here, this is God's tent. This is a house for God. The tabernacle is where God dwells with his covenant partners out in the wilderness. In the holiday cult classic, National Lampoons Christmas vacation. Yeah. Clark Griswold sets out to create the perfect Christmas. A lot goes wrong, one of which is cousin Eddie coming in with his brightly colored RV, setting up camp in the driveway, with lots of bright lights, dumping his RV waste into the street sewer. And there's this, you know, this moment where Clark looks out the window, pulls back the curtain, and sees cousin Eddie there, and it's just bright lights, blue and purple RV. It's like, oh no, this is not good. Um well, God is not like cousin Eddie. It's way cooler than cousin Eddie, but it's the same idea. The Israelites are surrounded in their tent, they're looking out, they pull back the thing, and there is God's bright colored tent. It's at the center of camp, it's gold, it's bright, and it's shiny. And so here's the point: not only does God take this people and say, I want to be a covenant partner with you, he doesn't want to just do that from a distance. He wants to dwell among them. He wants to dwell with his people. And this theme, this tabernacle eventually under Solomon, becomes a permanent structure called a temple. It's set up a very similar way. We just um had a new temple built in our city very recently. Right over there, you can almost see it, is Temple Beth. Um, and so we have a few, a few temples here. We know kind of what that's like. But it's God's dwelling place on earth. And this is one of the most central themes of the whole Bible, that the creator of the of the cosmos wants to dwell with and be with humanity on earth. It might sound simple, but I I could imagine you being in church and reading your Bible for a long time and and never kind of putting that together. That fundamentally from beginning, middle, and end, God actually wants to be in his creation with his people. And so this temple has a similar layout, you can see um it's nice and shiny, it's got a similar layout design. It sits up on this mountain, Mount Moriah, and it is the house, the dwelling place of the Lord. Here's what it says in 1 Kings 6. God saying to Solomon, As for this temple that you are building, if you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, keep all my commands by walking in them, I will fulfill my promise to you, which I made with your father David, I will dwell among the Israelites and not abandon my people, Israel. Again, God will dwell among them. But if if we're reading our Bible closely, which we're trying to, um, this actually shouldn't surprise us. In fact, this should sound very familiar. This should sound like the very beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2. I have a comparison chart. Comparisons between the garden and the tabernacle and temple. They're both kind of inaugurated in this seven-day setup. Um, they both they both face east, and they are the entrance is guarded by these weird things called cherubim. Um, the garden is filled with plants and fruits and trees. Uh, the tabernacle and temple are filled with decorations, lots of pomegranates and flowers. The menorah is like a tree. Um, Adam and Eve work and keep the garden, is where we kind of got our theology of like Adam and Eve as priests in the garden. The priests work and keep the same series of Hebrew words. There's golden onyx in both, and the garden is kind of pictured up on a mountain with rivers flowing out, as well as the temple is up on a mountain. So if we are reading the Bible, we're meditating on it, we're hearing it orally, read in community, light bulbs should start going off. Oh, this tabernacle isn't just a tent for God to live in. This is a this is an Eden space in the wilderness. Um, one of my favorite uh Old Testament theologians and scholars of the last decade or so is a guy named John Walton. Um, he's got a lot of good resources out there. Here's what he says. On the seventh day, we finally discover, this is talking about um Eden. We finally discover that God has been working to achieve rest. This seventh day is not a theological appendix to the creation account, just to bring closure now that the main event of creating people has been reported. Rather, it intimates the purpose of creation and the whole cosmos. And here this is the catch. God does not set up the cosmos so that only people will have a place. He also sets up the cosmos to serve as his temple, in which he will find rest in the order and equilibrium that he has established. God creates the garden not just for us to dwell in, but for him to dwell in with us. And Walton, along with many others, recognized that the garden fits this pattern. It's not a new invention, it's actually been his plan A all along. And so I ran out of time today because I was doing a few other things. But I wanted to, last week I went and picked wildflowers down by uh the Willamette by my house and just set them here on the table. Um, because the longer I think about this, the more I'm convicted that I think spaces where sacred spaces where the church gathers, I think we should have plants. Like I think it should look less like the Industrial Revolution, less like a performing arts theater where there's no natural light. It's just a dark stage with like the blue stage lights. Um, one of the reasons that I wanted to pick camus is because we have these big windows and you look out and you can see trees and even these weird kind of circle things, like they're cool. I think these are like abstract canvas flowers on the wall. I don't Know um of sorts. Um, but I would actually, I don't know, maybe it maybe it's a thing we do, but if you're coming to church, bring some flowers and stick them on this table. Um, if we didn't have limited storage, trust me, there would be a whole wall of plants behind me. I I think that somehow we have separated nature from our Christian worship experience. And when I the more I read about Eden and the temple and its imagery, I I don't think we should do that. I think that when we gather in sacred church space, we should be reminded that this is an Eden-like gathering space. It's a space of garden and beauty. And so this is the best we got. We got Canis Ridge Elementary, we got some kids on a bright green playground. Um, but you are invited at any point to pick up some wildflowers on your way and set them on this table and make it beautiful. So, okay, so right, God is dwelling every time. Every time. God is dwelling with his people in this tabernacle, in this temple in Eden, but we actually have a big problem. We have a big problem. God isn't one of us, right? God isn't Uncle Eddie. Um, he's a divine presence. And in the story after Eden, anytime Moses or anyone encounters God's presence, it's not to be messed with, right? They're blinded, they're overpowered. It's like the sun, right? We're glad it's there, but it should stay 93 million miles, light years, space years away. And unless you're in Mrs. Frizzle's magic school bus, like you don't want to get too close to this thing. If we get too close, something about it, God's presence and holiness overpowers us. There's this tension in the temple where God is dwelling among us, but there are layers of sacred space and there's like a fear and a reverence. Um, and so back to that original question I talked, you uh you shared with one another about China hospitality or just let yourself in hospitality, I think that's a question. How do we approach God? Is it like a he got to find China and we have to follow the rules and kind of be afraid and dress up nice and be very reverent? Or do we just like march into God's house like he wants us to be there? And I think there's this tension in the temple where maybe we see a little bit of both. So the question is how can this righteous God dwell in a corrupt earth ruled by unrighteous people? And if God's one day going to remove evil from the world, and we know that that evil resides in us, then how can we stand a chance of actually being with God in his new creation? So for heaven and earth to meet, there needs to be some type of mediation. And this takes two forms in the story of the Bible. One is called sacrifices, and the other are these people called priests. Sacrifices and priests. We don't have time to cover all this in full. I'll send you guys some resources that you can dig in more. But if the people of God listen to God and they follow this Torah instruction and they follow these animal sacrifices that He instructs, um, God allows the death of those animals to cover or atone for the death that would otherwise be experienced by humans coming into close contact with God. And the nature of these sacrifices allows people to see and taste and smell just the devastating consequences of the harm that we cause one another. Um, and we think sometimes you can think about God's instruction of someone saying, like, man, Christians have all these things they're not supposed to do. Um, but if you think about like some of the evil that's in the world, like you're on the news, you're looking things that people do to each other, situations that happen, we know how dark and just evil people and the world can be. Um and these, if if we take sin seriously, these sacrifices are meant for God's people to not only see what this damaged relationship costs, but also to experience the relief of forgiveness. Like you can be forgiven in the temple sacrifice sacrificial system. And so when God's people offer these sacrifices, God makes this kind of clean space that's free from death and corruption. It's a space where God and humans can be together. And so there's kind of dual nature of sacrifices. First, there's just the forgiveness of our sins, but there's also the purification of the space. And this is most symbolized in this once-a-year ceremony called the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur. And it's an elaborate ceremony, but key to this ceremony is two goats, and it's oversimplified. But the first goat is the forgiveness goat, and this goat is simply killed as a substitution for our for Israel's guilt and sin. We kind of understand that. And what's interesting is that the second goat, what happens is the priest puts his hands on that goat and symbolically transfers the pollution of sin, not just the guilt, but the environment of sin. The pollution and the injustice and the impurity onto this goat, and then this goat is sent out into the wilderness, outside the camp, into Israel's garbage dump, and he kind of carries the pollution outside the camp. It's like a toxic waste dump truck where Israel's not just guilt, but also like the environment of corruption is put on this goat and it's sent outside the camp to die in the garbage dump. And this is the one day a year where the priest can enter that inner cube, the Holy of Holies, in the temple. Substitutionary atonement. It's one facet of the whole gospel, but I think it can get emphasized so much that it almost becomes, it can become the gospel. And we need that goat. We need the substitutionary, forgiving goat. Um, but we also need the other goat. We need our the consequences of sin to be dealt with, the environment and the pollution to be dealt with. Because if God is going to destroy the earth and zap us to heaven, then all we really need is the first goat. But if God's going to restore earth and dwell with his people in a cosmic temple, then we need both goats. We're two goat, two goat kind of people. And I think this is a really solid starting point for a biblical theology of justice, which we'll get to in two weeks. And there's this point in the story where Israel is doing all these sacrifices and kind of playing the game, and God says to them, These sacrifices are meaningless. They have become pointless. Why? Because Israel is neglecting to care for the orphan and the widow and the poor among them. It's like you're doing these sacrifices not just for your own forgiveness, but for the purity of your space. But then you go and you mistreat the orphan and the foreigner and the widow and the poor. These sacrifices mean nothing to you. May it not be for us, citizens. But the sacrifices aren't the only mediator between God's space and our space. Um, there are these guys called priests that do all these sacrifices. They're basically butchers, you know. Priests are like burning man butchers. I have a picture of one here. Um if that makes you uncomfortable, we can change the slide. But this is priest chance the priest, um, which is his rapper name. And that is a pig that they raised on their farm, whatever you call it, farm. It's the best way to eat bacon. So, anyways, you can change it because Lauren and I got in an argument if we should even show that picture. Um, but we have a priest among us. They are mediators between God's space and our space. But as the story unfolds with these temples, this temple, these priests, these sacrifices, God's desire to dwell with his covenant people, for spaces to be mediated, for sins to be forgiven, for God's people to walk in covenant faithfulness. Um, what we find over and over again is that God's people fail their end of the bargain. Eventually in 586 BC, the Empire of Babylon comes, overtakes Israel, exiles them away, sacks the temple. Um they come back 70 years later in the Persian Empire and like Ezra and Nehemiah books, kind of halfway rebuild it, and they're looking at this thing like this is nothing like the good old days. There's kind of this, ah, this is the temple, you know, and then there's like 400 years of silence, and we get to Jesus, right? And so there's this period where just um the the Israelite people are spread out, the whole sacrificial system is in shambles, the temple isn't what it was, people aren't being faithful. So, like, what's happening? Is God still gonna dwell with his people on earth? We don't know. And then this man, Jesus, shows up. And in John says this about Jesus. He is the word, became flesh, and made his dwelling among us. That when the temple is kind of on the rocks, God himself comes in the person of Jesus and dwells among us, and maybe the most the true, not maybe the most true sense of him dwelling. Jesus sets up his tent, he moves into our camp. He's the one atoning sacrifice, the forgiveness of sins, and he deals with evil. He is the victory over evil. And then Jesus ascends, and then you're like, Well, God went back. So, where is God's presence on earth now? And there's this interesting thing that happens in Acts 2 when the church is gathered in Jerusalem. Let me just read this to you, Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost came, which is coming for us in the church calendar, they were all together in one space, and suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came in heaven and uh 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 one of them, and they were filled with God's spirit and began to speak in other languages as the spirit enabled them. Like, okay, what's up with that? Well, every time the temple and the tabernacle were kind of dedicated, what descends is 2 Chronicles 7, let's read this. When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Fire comes down, glory fills. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory filled it. When the Israelites saw the fire coming down, the glory of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces on the ground, they worshiped and gave thanks, saying, He is good, his covenant faithfulness endures forever, his Hesed love. Where does God's spirit dwell now? Where is the presence of God now? In you. You good looking Eugene, are little mini temples, your little tabernacles. Here's here's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3. Do you not know that you are God's temple? God's Spirit dwells in you, dwells in you. 1 Corinthians 6, you your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you. 2 Corinthians 6, we are the temple of the living God. Ephesians 2, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 1 Peter 2, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, 1 Peter 2, which is the exact words of the Mosaic Covenant in Exodus 19. A chosen race, royal priesthood. You are also priests. You're not just, you know, temples, you're also priests. You're mediators. You are mediating God's presence to your neighbors, to your family, to your enemies, to the world. God's spirit, God is present on earth in those who are one in Christ. God's Holy Spirit has descended into you. And the encouragement for us is to look back at this story and see how the Israelites just failed at this time and time again and know that we still have a chance to trust. We still have a chance to be faithful. Like we can live in a way, not like cheesy, not guilt, you know. How do we live in a way where Eugene can experience God's presence through us? Uh Sky Gitani, who does some podcast stuff with Phil Visher, who is like the voice of Veggie Tales, like probably every character in Veggitales. If you grew up in a Christian home, you know. Um he has this book called With. Um, With. Reimagining the way you relate to God. He gives us four postures that are wrong about how we might relate to God. The first, he calls life under God, which is kind of like this cause and effect. So if if we obey, God blesses us, if we disobey, God punishes us. It's kind of like a type of karma relationship with God. It's like, don't live, don't live like that. There's life over God, um, where we rely on these principles and formulas and control rather than actually depending on God. Uh, there's life from God, which I think could be a lot of the ways maybe we learned Christianity, is a consumer-oriented approach. So God is valued mainly for what he gives us. He's like a vending machine, he provides blessing or help or personal fulfillment. It's how can I receive the benefits from God? Or life for God, which I'm up here saying, This is me. Okay. This is my this is my dark side. Um, it's where our meaning is found in serving and accomplishing things for God. Um, it sounds noble, but it can lead to burnout or identity rooted in performance. We're just performing for God. Okay. So he says, All right, don't do those things. Here's here's what you should do: life with God. It's a relationship of communion and trust and presence, where the prize is God Himself. The prize is simply being with God next week. Brianna is going to come preach on our practice of communion or abiding in Christ. And so the idea is God wants to dwell with us and abide in us. So those, as those who are in Christ, what how what do we actually do? What do we what do we schedule in our lives to actually practice the presence of God? How do we do what John says and abide in the true vine? Um I think some prayer walks or something. So, all right. Today we have surveyed the theme of the temple in the story of God. So I want you to remember this if you remember nothing else. God has always wanted to dwell with humanity on earth. The story of the Bible is a story about heaven and earth. It's about God's space and our space. And in God's good original blueprint, these spaces overlapped, but they were fractured apart. And the story of the Bible is God's continual pursuit to be with his people, to reunite these spaces. And you and I are in this story. We are, if we trust God, we are living temples, we are walking tabernacles, we are the presence of God on earth. And our response is to lean into the presence of God, to dwell with God who wants to dwell with us, to abide in Christ who is in us, to participate in the life and love of the Father, Son, and Spirit. We'll get to this at the end of the story, but here's how here's how the story of the Bible ends. Revelation 21, 1 to 3. John's having some weird, like apocalyptic mushroom type visions. All right. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. The sea was no more. Remember, sea is bad. Okay. I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down. Okay. The city, the holy city comes down from heaven, 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. The Holy of Holies is a perfect cube in its dimensions. And as you read the end of Revelation, what you will find is that the city of God is a perfect cube. It's the Holy of Holies descending back onto earth and like reclaiming the whole cosmos as God's divine temple space. Here's what G.K. Beale says the temple was a small-scale model and symbolic reminder to Israel that God's glorious presence would eventually fill the whole cosmos. Citizens, the prize of salvation is God Himself. Not escaping earth to float around the clouds, but a renewed earth that is saturated with the presence of God. And so right now, today, we can all be saved and experience that salvation. We can dwell with God on earth through our union with Christ and our participation in God's spirit. So tonight, as we go on, may you and I be people who dwell with God because He wants to dwell with us. Let's pray. God, your Bible can be big and confusing and kind of um molassesy sometimes, but when we can zoom out and see how these themes trace, it is so encouraging. I am blown away that you would want to dwell with us on earth. May we be people who aren't too busy and distracted, who aren't trying to serve you or earn something from you or receive benefits from you. May we just be people who can abide in you and dwell with you and practice communion with you in your name. Amen. Um, as we sing our response song, I invite you to the table, which a lot of evangelicals call communion, which is um this word participation, koinonia in the life of Christ. So if if you are, if you have trusted in Christ, you are one in Christ, you are unified to Christ. And this meal is a is a participation in the ongoing presence of Christ. And so come and receive uh the presence of Christ at the table. Take it away, Caris. I then put height on the job screen.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

Oh, you guys can stand. God sent his son. And feel the price enjoy, but greater still the calmer shows. This child can face uncertain days because he lives. Because he lives. I can face tomorrow because he lives. All fear is gone. Because I know he owns the future. And life is worth the living just because he lives. And then one day I'll cross the river, I'll fight life's war with him. And then as death gives way to victory, I'll see the lights of glory, and I'll know he lives. Because he lives. I can face tomorrow because he lives. All fear is gone. Because I know he was the future. And life is worth the living just because he lives. Because he lives. I can face tomorrow because he lives. All fear is gone because I know he holds the future, and life is worth the living just because.