I. The Tent of Meeting.
A. Moses and the Two Tents.
1. In Exodus 33:7 Moses would go outside the camp and pitch a tent where he would meet with the Lord. He called this the “Tabernacle of Meeting”.
a. Tent implies a desert nomad, illustrating that we are pilgrims and sojourners in this life, that these years in the flesh are transient and often unsettled.
b. It also shows how essential it is to be tethered to heaven while we are in this life, and maintain our connection to God even in the wilderness times.
2. “For the Christian, this present life is the closest they will come to hell. For the unbeliever, it is the closest they will come to heaven.” Randy Alcorn (Pastor, Author)
a. I would add that the shortest distance between heaven & earth is in our own spirit.
3. There were two tents where God would meet with His people during this time. He would meet with Moses outside the camp and Presence rested over the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle within the camp.
a. The Tabernacle was inside the camp, the tribes encamped around it and brought sacrifice to God there.
b. Moses also had a place of personal fellowship with God outside the camp.
4. Every believer needs both in their lives, times of personal worship and times when they gather with the saints for corporate worship.
B. The Tabernacle or Tent of the Lord.
1. Today we’re going to look at the Tabernacle and its symbolism as a way to understand our great salvation in Christ and a pathway to meeting with the Lord.
2. The Tabernacle shows us that God has always desired to dwell with His people — and in Christ, we’ve become His Tent of Meeting. The fire of His presence begins with salvation, but we must tend it daily through worship, the Word, and surrender.
3. What I am going to describe today is a framework for a lifestyle of spiritual practice. We like to learn things in classes and receive diplomas, degrees, certifications and licenses, etc. but we need to have our minds renewed to see our walk as a life long spiritual practice without a degree, a certification or license. The goal is Him and the reward is Him.
4. The purpose of this practice is to meet God spirit to Spirit. To increase our spirit’s capacity to fellowship with the Lord, receive from Him and be led by the Spirit.
5. Remember, we are a ‘thin place’. Thin places are geographical locations where people sense that the distance between heaven and earth is very narrow, where ‘the veil is thin’. They postulate that this happens because saints have gone to these places to pray and seek God for generations.
6. Over the course of our lives, we develop a thin place within our own spirit by following the pathway to God in our spirit by spiritual practices like prayer, bible study, worship, meditation, etc.
C. Biblical Definitions for Tabernacle.
D. Overview of the Tabernacle.
II. Seeing ourselves in the Tabernacle.
A. Every Christian is a Tent of Meeting, a Tabernacle, a Temple.
1. In the NT, the saints are referred to as the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). Our bodies are also referred to as a ‘tent’. (2 Cor 5:4; 23 Peter 1:13&14)
a. 2 Cor 5:1&2
1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven…
b. Just as the Tent of Meeting and the Tabernacle were temporary habitations for the presence of God, our physical bodies are the temporary dwelling places of our spirits & souls.
c. We will receive a new, glorified body in the age to come.
2. The Tabernacle is symbolic of our three part being.
a. Gen 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man (adam, the body) of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (neshama, the spirit) of life; and man became a living being (nephesh, soul, self).”
b. 1 Thess 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (pneuma, psyche and soma)
c. We are made in God’s image and likeness, God is 3 in 1 and so are we.
3. Three main areas of the tabernacle, three main parts of our being.
d. The Outer Courtyard is symbolic of our body, it is open to the elements of nature.
e. The Holy Place speaks of our soul, our mind, will and emotions.
f. The Most Holy Place speaks our spirit, where we commune with God.
B. We also see Jesus in the Tabernacle.
1. The Tabernacle also declares Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
a. John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
2. The Tabernacle perfectly illustrates this scripture.
a. Outer Court: Jesus the Way, altar of sacrifice, water of washing
b. Holy Place: Jesus the Truth, the Lampstand, the Bread of Life
c. Most Holy Place: Jesus the Life, Aaron’s rod that budded, the Tree of Life
3. We see Jesus in every furnishing inside the Tabernacle.
a. The Ark: Jesus carried the Presence of God from the Wilderness into Jerusalem.
b. The Table of Shewbread: Jesus, the Bread of Life.
c. The Golden Lampstand: Jesus, the Word filled with the 7 Spirits of God.
d. The Altar of Incense: Jesus, the Great High Priest Who forever intercedes for us.
e. The Bronze Laver: Jesus, the Spring of Living Water.
f. The Bronze Alter: Jesus, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.
C. We also see the ministry of Jesus and God’s plan of salvation.
1. Plan of salvation. We can look at this two ways, from God’s point of view or man’s point
of view.
a. God’s view: Starts with the Ark of the Covenant and proceeds outward until He meets man at the Altar of Sacrifice. This declares God meeting us at the Cross.
b. Man’s view: (Opposite of God’s view). Born in sin, we begin at the cross where our sin is dealt with. From there we begin the walk to God until we experience His presence in the Spirit.
2. Unless God had purposed in His heart to provide the altar and the perfect Lamb to be
sacrificed for us, we would have no place to start in our quest to fellowship with Him.
3. Ephesian 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”
D. Christ in us, the hope of glory.
1. As we look at the diagram of the Tabernacle we should always be mindful that it speaks of the unique nature of our creation and the work of salvation in Jesus. This reminds us that Christ in us, working and sanctifying us, is the hope of the glory of God being revealed on the earth.
2. Colossians 1:26&27
26 …the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to
His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among
the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
E. From the outside in.
1. Before we move deeper into the Tent, we must first learn what happens in the Outer
Court. Because before intimacy comes cleansing. Before the Holy Place comes humility. Every journey
toward God starts with the Altar and the Laver.
III. The Outer Court: The Altar of Sacrifice.
A. The first thing we see as we enter the Tabernacle.
1. When the priests entered the Tabernacle, they had to offer a sacrifice on the Altar of Burnt offering and wash in the Bronze Laver.
a. Any Israelite who wanted to meet with God had other first approach the Altar.
b. This is the largest piece of furniture in the Tabernacle, there was no avoiding it.
c. It calls to mind that our sin must be dealt with first if we are to meet with God.
2. The Altar of Burnt Offering illustrates Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)
a. Eph 5:2 in love Jesus “gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
b. Heb 10:5 “Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.”
c. 10:14 “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”
3. No one can come to a place of fellowship with God unless they first acknowledge the Cross of Jesus.
B. The Bronze Altar, Altar of Burnt Offering, declares Jesus The Way.
1. The only way to the Father is by putting our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus as the final sacrifice to God for our sins. Faith in Jesus’s death and resurrection is where the path to God begins. His body is the way.
a. Philosophy cannot atone for our sins. Humanism, existentialism, etc. at best can only offer inspiration to try and be better people, but they are powerless to atone for our sin.
b. Science can explain the world that God created, but it cannot atone for our sin.
c. No politician every died for our sin, and if they did it would gave no effect.
d. Every other religion offers some alternate pathway to God or ‘enlightenment’, but they are false messiahs and have no power to atone for our sin. Even Buddha had a vision of Christ and taught his followers to look for Him.
e. Other religions may lead someone to Jesus, but only Jesus leads the Way to God.
2. When the Israelites came to the Altar, they offered an animal as a sacrifice for their sins. This was done in faith that God would accept the sacrificed animal on their behalf.
3. This was not random, God established this in His Word to them, through the Law that was revealed to Moses.
4. In the same way, when we come to God, we place our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus for our sin. Again, this is not random, we are taking God at His Word.
5. Romans 10:9&10
9 …that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised
Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
C. God lights the fire at Salvation, from then on we keep the flame burning.
1. When the Altar was dedicated, fire came out from the Presence of the Lord to consume the sacrifice. (Lev 9:22-24) But it was the responsibility of the priests to keep the fire burning.
a. Lev 6:13 “A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.”
2. At Pentecost, the Lord lit a fire in the church. It is now our responsibility as priests to keep the fire burning by feeding it daily.
a. Lev 6:12-13 The priests had to add wood to the fire very morning.
b. We have a responsibility to keep the fire of faith & devotion burning.
3. Luke 12:35 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning…”
4. Romans 12:11 “…not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord…”
a. Fervent: Gr. zeo ‘to boil with heat, to be hot’
b. Literally “keep your spirit boiling within you’
5. Rev 3:15&16
15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
6. Once we have placed our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, we must keep the fire
burning on the altar and offer sacrifices to God.
a. Rom 12:1 our bodies, a living sacrifice
b. Eph 5:1&2 ourselves, our whole being, as Christ offered Himself
c. Thanksgiving, praise, worship
7. The priests were to take fire from the Altar and light the Lampstand and the Altar of Incense. The glory of God in Jesus becomes the source of all fire and light, all revelation and prayer.
V. Closing: These processes were started in us by God, now carry them on.
A. The Flame.
1. When we put our faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb, God sent fire from heaven on the altar of our heart by His Holy Spirit. This assures us that we have been saved by grace through faith.
2. But now our duty as priests is to keep the flame burning on the altar of our hearts.
3. How? By sacrificing our fleshly desire for comfort and indulgence. Just as love is a choice, keeping the flame alive is a choice. To get up every morning and put wood on the fire.