Multiply - God's Presence On Earth

Pastor Derek Wheeler

Multiply • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

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Backtrack

Let’s backtrack a bit, back to the beginning of Scripture.

Like Star Wars

What was the point of God creating man and woman again?

To have a relationship. He created man and woman to live in HIs presence

Mankind was to experience peace, there was nothing to worry about

Mankind was able to experience the truest joy and happiness, found in God.

Adam and Eve were able to live in the peace of God like we can’t even imagine.

But as you already know, things broke.

But here’s the truth, since that sin in the garden, nothing has been, and nothing will ever be more important for humanity than regaining the presence of God.

Now, of course, God is omnipresent, so He is everywhere, but we are blinded to His presence because of our sin. We can’t really experience Him how we were meant to.

Now, moving forward to what we talked about last week, let’s then back track just slightly.

What’d we talk about last week? - Sacrificial system and the day of atonement

The sacrifices that the Israelites would bring daily, and the day of atonement each year would happen where?

The Tabernacle

The tabernacle was this very large, very extravagant tent

What was the point of the tabernacle, does anybody know?

The point was to create a place where God could reside on earth, in spite of the sinfulness of man.

If you would turn to & 26, that is where you would find the instructions given to Moses in regards to what the tabernacle, as well as the items within it were to be made like.

The tabernacle was portable, so when they were to move, God would ascend from the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud or fire, they would take everything up, and they would follow it until God stopped, and then they’d set up camp again.

And at the center of the tabernacle, was what?

The ark of the covenant - In God tells Moses, “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”

If we would read through 25 and 26, we’d quickly find that God was very, very detailed in how it should be designed, the laws surrounding it, the ceremonies involved (which we spoke a little bit about with the day of atonement last week).

But, wrapped up in all of that, what was the whole point of everything?

God was giving Himself to the people of Israel. He was restoring that presence that mankind had been missing, albeit in a way that was still affected by sin, but God was giving Himself.

And it wasn’t because mankind, it wasn’t because the Israelites had done anything to deserve it, but because God chose to act.

The Temple

And so, this is how the Israelites moved around until God gave them the land of Canaan, the land that He had promised to Abraham.

And if we fast forward quite a ways in the story, we come to King David

Now David reigned, and God overall was very pleased with Him and David has a desire to build a temple for God, to replace the tabernacle.

See, in , David’s looking around and he’s got a house. Not just any house. Like an MTV Cribs style house. David is quite well off

Bathroom maybe had two water basins!

multi horse stable

But he looks around and his desire is for God to be honored this way

But God says no, and tells him that his son will build a temple for God, which you can read about in

And when he finishes, oh, just seven years later, God came and filled the temple. , “ 10 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.”

And Solomon dedicates the temple to God and prays to Him and pleas with God to be gracious and dwell with Israel.

- And God himself responds to Solomon, and says, Yes, I will reside with Israel, BUT.....

God tells Solomon this, He would only remain in their presence as long as their lives acknowledge His presence.

Meaning.....follow Me or I’ll leave.

You guys can probably guess what happens can’t you?

& 11 talk about the day that the glory of the Lord leaving the temple, as the people of Israel are found in exile for rejecting God.

And again, God’s presence was gone, that glimpse that they had was gone.

He had dwelt with them, they had turned their back on God, and He had up and left

God Became Flesh

Which is problematic right? Think about it, if mankind’s greatest problem was not being able to dwell in the presence of God, this is tragic news that He had left.

Once again, however, Jesus fills the problems that the OT raises for us.

Turn to with me, a familiar passage, can anybody quote any of it?

Look at verse 14 with me, “ 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We know the Word to be referring to Jesus

He became flesh and dwelt among us

Now, let’s talk about this word dwelt for a minute. This word dwelt literally means in the Greek, to set up a tent, or to live in a tent.

And that Greek word John used is a word that comes from the Hebrew (OT) word for .

Do you see what John is saying here? He’s saying that God had returned, the tabernacle, if you will, had returned, except this time God was residing in the person of Jesus Christ!!

And the difference this time around is that God’s presence among people has been solved.

Not only that, but Jesus then also modeled for us what it looks like for a person to dwell with God and what it means for humanity to embody the presence of God.

That’s why we are to act like Christ.

And that’s why we get to be like Christ, because of the work that He did on the cross for us.

1 Corinthians even goes on to tell us that we are “a temple of the Holy Spirit”.

Do you see the shift. No longer are we bound to experiencing God through a distant view like the tabernacle, as glorious as that was.

But now we have God residing in us, if we know Him.

We get to live in the presence of God!

Which should lead us to the question in our lives of, what did we do today to honor God who is residing in us. Who was with us through every period of classes, through every conversation we had, through every thought that we had?

Jesus made a way for us to be in constant communion with God, to be in the presence of God.