Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to the sermon audio from New City, Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom.
Evan Pederson: Pray with me, heavenly Father.
Evan Pederson: May your word be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.
Evan Pederson: Today's scripture is taken from sections of numbers one and two.
Evan Pederson: Please remain standing, if you are able.
Evan Pederson: The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year, after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by father's houses, according to the number of names.
Evan Pederson: Every male, head by head, from 20 years old and upward, names every male, head by head, from 20 years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war.
Evan Pederson: You and Aaron shall list them company by company, and there shall be with you a man from each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his fathers.
Evan Pederson: Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named and on the first day of the second month, they assembled the whole congregation together, who registered themselves by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from 20 years old and upward, head by head, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Evan Pederson: So he listed them in the wilderness of Sinai.
Evan Pederson: But the Levites were not listed among them by their ancestral tribe.
Evan Pederson: For the Lord spoke to Moses, saying when the tabernacle is set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up, and if any outsider comes near he shall be put to death.
Evan Pederson: But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel, and the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.
Evan Pederson: The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying the people of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers' houses.
Evan Pederson: They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.
Evan Pederson: This is God's word.
Evan Pederson: You may be seated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, good morning and welcome to Worship with New City.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My name is Benjamin, I'm a pastor here with New City and today we're jumping into the book of Numbers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Since 2019, new City has been journeying through the Torah book by book, the first five books of the Bible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We started with three years in the book of Genesis, two years in Exodus, one year in Leviticus and now Numbers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of you are looking around.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're like, hey, we need to make some more space in here and I'm saying, listen, I'm preaching Leviticus and Numbers Like I'm trying to do my best but it's not working.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, obviously, I'm saying, listen, I'm preaching Leviticus and Numbers Like I'm trying to do my best, but it's not working.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, obviously, I'm kidding.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One of the primary purposes of what are called the books of Moses is to teach us that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, every word which means a healthy church is going to have a substantive diet of Old Testament and New Testament poetry and prophecies, gospels and epistles.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We need it all because every word is breathed out by God, and so let's start the book of Numbers together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We jump into the book where Bible reading plans go to die.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I understand, but in Numbers 1.1, very first verse of this entire book, it says this the Lord spoke, the Lord spoke.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now this the Lord didn't speak to us in this book, but he spoke for us in this book.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He spoke to Moses and Israel in a specific time and place.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the Lord knew thousands of years later that we would be gathering in a place like this to take up the book of Numbers, so that we, in our time and place, could follow him in the wilderness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why the book of numbers exists, and so it's really important to be clear here Our God is a speaking God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God is loquacious, he is there and he is not silent, and so let's lean in, open our ears and listen to the book of numbers together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I have a main point, which is also my three points, which is this In the wilderness, god assembles his camp and dwells at the center.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In the wilderness, god assembles his camp and dwells at the center.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you have a Bible or a device or the worship guide, go ahead and get Numbers, chapter one, verse one, in front of you so we can look at it together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what it says of you, so we can look at it together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what it says Numbers 1.1.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, many of us are familiar with the Greek name for this book, which is Numbers, and that comes from the fact that in the first two chapters, god commands a census to number the people of Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So that's where the book of Numbers comes from.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the Hebrew name for this book is Ba Midbar, which means in the wilderness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It comes from that first, the first word in Hebrew, which is in the wilderness of Sinai, and I actually think, if I think that's way better PR for this book.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To be honest, like I think, if this book was called in the wilderness, more of us would probably take it up, because it actually does have an incredible assortment of incidences traveling through the wilderness together as the people of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the first few chapters are this census and it gets distracting for us, for many of us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So they're in the wilderness of Sinai.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's going on there?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, there's an image of what Mount Sinai probably looked like, something like this, to give you a picture of where the people of Israel have been camped for about an entire year.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now that was.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of y'all are like yeah, dude, I know that, but I didn't realize that until really digging into the book of Numbers that Israel has been posted up in the same place since Exodus 19.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It up in the same place since Exodus 19.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Exodus 19,.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The rest of Exodus, all of Leviticus and the first 10 chapters of Numbers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They've been posted up for about 11 months at the foot of Mount Sinai.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Israel has not moved.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So what have they been doing that whole time?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, this is a recap of the last few years here at New City.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what they've been doing God descends in fire on Sinai, gives the Ten Commandments, enters into covenant, eats with the elders, gives blueprints for the tabernacle.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Israel cheats on the Lord with a golden calf.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moses intercedes.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They build the tabernacle, they get a user manual called Leviticus and finally they count up the tribes and assemble them into a camp.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's where we've been for the last few years here at New City.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, with all that being said, that summarizes 51 chapters of scripture, over 11 months of Israel being stationed at the wilderness of Sinai.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But all of that was to accomplish one single cosmic changing goal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse one again, it says this the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That word in it's a little word but it's a big deal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you have a Bible you can flip back if you want to, but at the end of Exodus 40, can flip back if you want to, but at the end of Exodus 40, verse 35, it says this Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if God is in the room, moses couldn't be.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's a problem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in fact at the beginning of Leviticus, leviticus 1.1 says this the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, what does that mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means that if the Lord is inside the tent, moses cannot be.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so much for a tent of meeting.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Right, if that's the name of this place, a meeting place for God and man.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Moses can't go in there.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And if he can't go in there, what hope is there for you and me or the average Israelite?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But then we get to Numbers 1.1 and it says this the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you see what that means.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means that Leviticus was a smashing success.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What that means?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means that Leviticus was a smashing success.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means that Moses can enter in where before he could not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So that word in, like I said, it's a little word, it's a big deal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But what's going on here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, listen, you could summarize the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, by saying the Lord wants to dwell with his people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what God's after, that's his grand aim in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Lord wants to dwell with his people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The divine declaration we heard it in our words of assurance goes like this I will be your God, you will be my people, I will dwell in your midst.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what God's been about since the Garden of Eden is that he would be able to dwell with his people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, the most amazing thing is that this Emmanuel formula with these three parts I will be a God, you will be my people, I will dwell in your midst.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's repeated on the regular throughout the story of Scripture, because this is the heart of God, like maybe the most amazing thing I know about the heart of God is that God wants to be with people like you and me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what you get when you read the whole storyline of Scripture, and so God's great aim, from Genesis to Revelation, is what Exodus 25, 8 says, which is that God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Quote that I may dwell in their midst.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But to do this, in Exodus they had to build the dwelling place for God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Leviticus they had to consecrate that place as a tent of meeting, and now in Numbers they set up camp around it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's where we find ourselves in the book of Numbers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, it's not since Eden that God has made his dwelling place with man.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Say that differently.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Not until Numbers could God say I will dwell in your midst.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Numbers is a big deal in the story of scripture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is a significant moment because in the wilderness God assembles his camp and dwells at the center.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's my second point.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse two.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head, from 20 years old and upward.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All in Israel who are able to go to war.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's a significant phrase.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All in Israel who are able to go to war.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You and Aaron shall list them, company by company.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now again, I made the joke that this census is where Bible reading plans go to die.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We often read this and we think how is this relevant to my life?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does this actually mean for me?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in fact it's a good question.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like, if you were the Holy Spirit, would you waste space on your papyri to list a bunch of random people's names who, most of whom, don't show up anymore in the Bible after this?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Would you waste the space?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And yet a core conviction of a disciple of Jesus is that the Holy Spirit doesn't waste his breath.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is going on here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, verse three says that the census is of all in Israel who are able to go to war.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, in Genesis 12, god made a promise to Abram.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says I will make you a great nation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The census proves that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As they number all of these people, the census is proving God has kept his promise to Abram.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it doesn't just say that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It also says and I will give you a land.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That hasn't happened yet.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So as Israel is reading through these first chapters of Numbers, they're growing in faith as they see the faithfulness of God to Abram in Genesis 12 to make them a great nation, the very faith they need in order to go and conquer the promised land in Canaan.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the significance of this text here, and the apostle Paul goes as far as to say in 1 Corinthians 10, these things were written down for our instruction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says that about the book of Numbers in particular written down for our instruction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So you got to ask the question how is this instructive for us?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because Israel, like us, lives in the in-between.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Numbers calls that place the wilderness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They live between the already and the not yet, between Egypt and Canaan, between what has been promised and what has been realized.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the very place we find ourselves.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To be more clear about that, israel was delivered from slavery, but they've not yet been set free in their own land yet.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In a similar way, if you belong to Jesus, you've been delivered from the penalty of sin, but you've not been set free from the presence of sin yet.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And all who know their own flesh say oh, lord, have mercy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so we live in this in-between, like Israel, in the wilderness, and we long to be delivered.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus, in Luke 9, he actually spoke of his cross as his exodus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the cross of Jesus sets us free, just like the exodus from Egypt, set them free, and your redemption costs you nothing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But conquest of the promised land often costs us everything.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Often costs us everything.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Salvation is, by grace alone, zero earning, but our ultimate fulfillment and culmination requires a good bit of effort on our part.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Israel was set free from slavery in Egypt and in Exodus it says you don't have to fight for yourself, just be still, the Lord will fight for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's true for us too, because of Christ and his cross.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But then the Lord is assembling his camp, he's mustering the soldiers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because they need to make war.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They need to make war and so, like Israel, we need to make war.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We don't make war.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our enemies are not the Amalekites, the Canaanites, the Moabites.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our enemy, our enemies are the world, the flesh and the devil.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Historically, christians have taught that that Christians are living embroiled in a spiritual battle, or you're not a Christian, full stop.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jc Ryle says it like this the mark of a true Christian is inner peace and inner war.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Inner war because we know what it's like to war against that part of us that still rebels against God, that we long to put to death by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Inner war, inner peace, because we know what it's like to have our consciences set free from the guilt that our sin deserves and to live before the face of God with a sense of freedom and joy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Inner peace.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The true Christian lives with this conundrum of inner war and inner peace.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it's not just war against our flesh.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's also war, a wrestling, a struggling against what the scriptures called the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now it's important to name the world here is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's essentially a social construct made by people who are trying to define for themselves what good and evil looks like.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To say it differently, david Wells' famous definition of worldliness is that worldliness is whatever makes righteousness look strange and sin look normal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a culture of rebellion against God and it transcends any nation or culture or people group.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It is this reality that every Christian, in all times and places, has to contend with.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it's not just the flesh, it's not just the world, it's also the devil.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I wish I could spend more time on spiritual warfare, but there's really just two tactics of the evil, one Simple, on spiritual warfare.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But there's really just two tactics of the evil, one Simple, really effective.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The two tactics are this temptation and accusation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's working that move in your life all the time, tempting you to draw away from God and then accusing you for being drawn away from God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And some of us in this room have just we've come out of a week of temptation and even in this very moment you're in this room and you're hearing something to the effect of this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Isn't?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Real for you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This isn't true.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You don't have any stake in this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Brother, sister, listen, that's got a forked tongue taste to it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It smells like hell.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That voice is the voice of the one who comes to kill and steal and destroy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Say no to it in Jesus's name.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Claim the cross of Christ that sets you free from Egypt You're not a slave anymore and claim the power of Jesus to conquer the world, the flesh and the devil.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the invitation of numbers for those of us who follow Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so in our world I get it the military metaphor doesn't go well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's because of the crusades in the past and the culture wars in the present.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it's a biblical motif, so we will not jettison it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Instead, we're not going to discard it because of our culture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're going to define it based on Scripture.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in Scripture, in Ephesians 6, paul makes it really clear we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That means that your neighbor, regardless of beliefs, race, sexual orientation or political party, is not your enemy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What it means is your enemy is far more personal than that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's your very own flesh.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Your enemy is far more powerful than that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's the devil, a potent personal evil.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Your enemy is far more pervasive than that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's the world, a culture of rebellion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so listen, if you belong to Christ, he is your captain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The battle is the Lord's, and we see that actually in the very organization of the military camp.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 17 here it says this Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named, and on the first day of the second month, they assembled the whole congregation together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What would that have looked like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, here's another image that gives you some sort of a picture of what we're talking about.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what this assembly of the whole nation together, this whole congregation, would have looked like.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, notice this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some people point out the structure, that there's a foreshadowing of its cross shape.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But there's something significant about this this way in which the camp would have been organized, with the Levites at the center, with the tabernacle as the epicenter, because all of our warfare flows from our worship of the true and living God, and so if the presence of God is in the church, the church will draw the world in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If the presence of God is not in the church, the world will draw the church out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's why we need to be a presence-centered people, like the camp of Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because in the wilderness, god assembles his camp and dwells at the center.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So what does that look like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does it look like for us to resist the world, the flesh and the devil by re-centering our lives around God?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is my third and final point that God dwells at the center.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 47.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the Levites were not listed along with them by their ancestral tribe.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When the tabernacle is to set out this is verse 51, when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up, and if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Again, I said you could summarize the whole Bible by saying the Lord wants to dwell with his people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So when the Lord assembles his camp, he dwells at the center.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That was his.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But why God's ordering and organizing and patterning his people in a certain way so that Israel can host the presence of God?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is he up to here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, the commentary that I'm going to be reading through this whole series is by a guy named L Michael Morales, and he puts it really simple.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says Israel's new role is the entourage of the Shekinah.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I just want to be clear first time we're announcing this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But we're changing our name from New City to the Entourage of the Shekinah, because no, not really, but that term is fire, like literally, it's fire.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, when the Shekinah glory of God comes down, there's fire in the center of the people of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's super important.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's important because look with me at verse 53.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 53 says but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony so that there may be no wrath.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When God comes, he comes as a consuming fire, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel, and the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, here, when we draw near before the Lord, there's a danger.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a real danger, because the appearance of the glory of the Lord, also known as the Shekinah, is a devouring fire.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a devouring fire, and so, in order to move forward, I got to clear up some false notions about God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a saying that goes something like this God can't stand to be in the presence of sin, and it sounds biblical, but it's backwards.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, it's not God that can't stand to be in the presence of sin, but sin that can't stand to be in the presence of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One theologian put it like this to say that God can't stand in the presence of sin makes him out to be like the person who can't stand the presence of a spider and demands that someone else deal with it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, if you say that God can't stand to be in the presence of sin, you're giving sin leverage over God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So what's the danger here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, every human, every human, except for one notable exception, is a sinner, and so to waltz into the presence of God has an inherent danger.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For us, what bleaches to bacteria, or light is to darkness, god's holiness, is to human sinfulness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not a fire's fault that it incinerates dry leaves, it's the deadness of the leaves.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, there's a conundrum here, though, for us, because, like a sunflower chasing the sun, our gaze is drawn to the presence of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want to draw near to God, and at the same time, coming close results in destruction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A moth is drawn to the light of a flame, but the closer it gets, the greater the risk of being consumed by the fire.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So God's holiness exposes sin, and his wrath opposes sin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Sin cannot approach God and God cannot tolerate sin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you feel the double bind.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you feel the double bind that sin separates.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So you should draw near, but drawing near obliterates.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So beware, what are we going to do if the desire of God is to dwell at the center of his people, his sinful people?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, god in his mercy, puts verse 53 here but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that here's the purpose clause, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, to be the entourage of the Shekinah.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God's people always need a mediator.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To be the entourage of the Shekinah.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God's people always need a mediator there.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then Israel had Moses, aaron and the Levites.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here and now we have Jesus Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The reality is, verse 51 says and if any outsider comes near, he shall be put to death.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you were an Israelite, if you were any Israelite but a Levite, except for Levites, you could not draw near.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in fact, even if you were a Levite but not a priest, you could not get too close.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But we long for proximity to the presence of God, and God wants that too.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so if that's the case, if God made us to walk with him in the presence of God, in the cool of the garden, what is God going to do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, god sends his son, the ultimate insider, to tabernacle to dwell among us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Jesus Christ, although he is the ultimate insider, was crucified.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Hebrews 13 says he was crucified, quote outside the camp.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see the significance of that language now, because God, in the wilderness, he assembles his camp and dwells at the center, and Jesus Christ is crucified outside the camp.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Not welcome, jesus was sent out so you could be welcomed in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, what we see here is that to draw near to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You will not encounter a Levite with an Uzi.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You'll encounter a lover with welcome saying enter, come on in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so all men, women and children everywhere are called to draw near to God through the mediator, jesus Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He has come to give us his access to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I said this a moment ago.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's few things I know that are more amazing about who God is than the fact that he wants to dwell with you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He wants to be with you just as you are, right here right now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How is that possible in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, only if a true insider, jesus Christ, comes outside in order to tell us you're welcome, you're welcome to come near, draw near through me, I will give you my access to the Father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so this is the primary thing that makes Israel Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, israel was not primarily distinguished by their law, their cultural customs, their food or dress codes, their moral obedience or their social identity markers, although those things are important, it's not the primary thing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What set them apart was God's presence dwelling among them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The presence of God in the life of his people is not an optional add-on, it's the vital center of our very existence for eternity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, in light of that, new City wants to be a Christ-centered church.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I got one last slide for you that you've seen for the last three weeks.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is why Jesus is centered, because we want to be a Christ-centered church.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And if we are, I think numbers two, one and two will be true of us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look the last part of the text here as we close.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron saying the people of Israel shall camp, each by his own standard, with the banners of their father's houses.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, at New City we wanna center ourselves not on programs or personality or place, or even a people, but on the person of jesus christ dwelling in our midst.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want his nearness to be the central reality of our existence and if we have that, notice both the diversity and unity in numbers two.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Two, it says the diversity is that each one is flying the flag of their own family.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's great because they're all unified.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says in verse 2b each flag is facing the center the presence of the living God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One of the hallmarks of New City in the time I've been here, for over a decade now, has been our unity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I think it's actually maybe one of the defining marks of the presence of the Spirit of God in our midst.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I thank God for it regularly.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And that unity, if it's going to be sustained, must come from a constant recentering of our preferences and priorities on the living Christ dwelling with us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It will come.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It will happen in no other way Because New City listen in the wilderness, god is assembling us, his people, as his camp so that he might dwell at the center.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Thank you, father.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Thank you that you, that your aim, your desire is actually to be with us, that you've removed all obstacles between a sinful person and the presence of the living god, jesus christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You yourself are our very mediator.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's because we are united to you by faith that we have access into the very life of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Thank you, jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Holy Spirit, would you come be pleased to dwell in our midst, a sinful people but a sanctified people nonetheless, because we want to be an entourage of the Shekinah glory in our city, we pray for your beautiful namesake, jesus, amen.