lw3-99

AUGUST, 2000

The Tabernacle
By Pastor Pete Norris

The Hebrew word for tabernacle is “ohelmoedh.” It means “a tent of meetings.” The Greek translation for tabernacle is “a place where humanity meets divinity and the presence of God comes.”

Genesis 3:7-8 – “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.”

In the beginning God created man to worship Him. God is a Spirit. He is omnipotent. He must have a tabernacle for anything to manifest. He took His spirit and created man. When man and God come together, a place of worship is created. God was looking for a sanctuary to dwell in (Adam). After sin touched Adam, God could no longer fellowship with the purity and deity that had been in Adam because Adam had separated himself from God. God’s deity cannot meet with sin and darkness. The intimate fellowship between Adam and God had been adulterated. An adulterous affair had taken place in the garden. More than eating forbidden fruit had happened in the garden. Lucifer came into the garden and Eve became intimate with him. The temple of God was no longer pure but had been made unclean by the serpent. When sin touches deity, deity must move. When deity touches sin, sin must move.

God had to sacrifice animals and put the blood skins around Adam and Eve as a temporary “fix” to the situation. God intended for Himself to be the reproducer and not man.

There was no rest for 2500 years because the presence of God had left man. There had to be a tabernacle for God to dwell in. He needed a body to dwell in where deity and humanity could come together.

Because of Adam’s sin in the garden, we were born into sin automatically. Adam and Eve had Cain, who was a murderer. The separation from God is the penalty for disobedience.

When we are dealing with sin, we are dealing with separation from God. “Sins” are the act of… “Sin” is a state or condition. Sin brings about death. We can be physically alive but spiritually dead. Adam was spiritually dead after his sin. Ephesians 2:1 tells us we have been made alive. We were once spiritually dead but after our confession, we were resurrected from our sinful nature into the divine nature of God. We were separated from the state of sin but not from the acts of sin.

There is no expiring -- with or without Jesus. Luke 16:19-31 tells us how both Lazarus and the rich man died. Lazarus was in Abraham’s bosom in paradise. The rich man was in torment. We have eternal life (heaven) or eternal death (hell).

We are all descendents from Adam. There is a curse on all mankind. Jesus is our redeemer from that curse. We were born into a sinful nature.

Through 42 generations, until Jesus came, there was no hope. Jesus is our deliverance. Eternal life fused man back to God. The blood of goats, rams, etc. would not suffice. The law brings condemnation and kills but the Spirit gives life. It brings man back into a place where the deity of God can touch humanity and we can be in an intimate fellowship with God.

We were sinners headed for hell, but have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus.

People need to make themselves tabernacles for God and allow Him to come into them. We must worship God an commune together with Him. The deity of God needs to overtake humanity. God is too holy to live in sin and we are too sinful to live in God. Salvation has made us whole from the state of sin.

Exodus 5:1-3

When God told Moses to go get His people, Moses first said that he could not go. Later, Moses and Aaron went in to the city to see Pharaoh. When they entered into the city, they could see huge, graven images. The Egyptians were pagan worshippers. Moses and Aaron had to walk past gods that could be seen with the eyes and go inside and show Pharaoh a God that could not be seen. This encounter with Pharaoh happened after Moses saw the burning bush.

Pharaoh did not want to let the people go, but he would have to eventually. The children of Israel were in Egypt for 430 years. God was building up something during these 430 years. God is trying to build something in us.

Exodus 25:1-9

God is looking for a sanctuary to dwell in. God gave the law that condemned the people and the tabernacle that restored them. He had to sustain man.

John 1:1-14

God was man enough to die on a cross and He was God enough to create the tree that produced the cross. God was man enough to be nursed by His mother’s breast milk and He was God enough to create the milk in the beginning. Nothing was created that was not made by God. Jesus came from a woman but He also created the woman. Jesus came in the Spirit but He also created the flesh that He wrapped Himself in -- 100% humanity and 100% God.

John came to prepare the way for Jesus. Some of us are saved but do not really know Jesus. Jesus (the Word) became flesh. He became a tabernacle and came to release man from sin. Jesus became flesh by His own actions. Jesus knew who He was and what He had created. Jesus gave up His own life. You cannot kill someone who created Himself. The veil was symbolic of the natural (physical) world. Christ was symbolic of the spiritual world. Humanity must submit to God’s deity.

Hebrews 2:14 & 17 – “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had power of death, that is, the devil;

For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.”

Jesus took part of human nature. In the Hebrew “took on him” is “epilanbano,” which means “to lay hold of or assume.”

In the beginning, God said “let Us create man.” This is speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus was here in the beginning.

In Colossians 2:9-10, we are told that the fullness of Christ is in us and we are complete in Him.

God is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him out (Hebrews 11:6). We lack nothing in Christ. The disciples were sent out without anything but lacked nothing.

In I Timothy 3:16, we are told that God was manifested in the flesh. He sent Himself (in the form of Jesus) to the earth. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one.

Colossians 1:15 – “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature?”

The firstborn was Jesus.

Hebrews 1:3 – “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

God is a person because He has a personality. Jesus was an image of God and we are an image of God, also.

Titus 2:13 – “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Hope is “absolute expectancy” and blessed means “empowered to prosper.” God and Jesus will come together for the church.

Romans 9:5 – “Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over God blessed forever. Amen.”

God is over all things. He is all over us, also. We are images of God.

I John 5:20 – “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”

We will be clothed with eternal life as we walk into it.

When deity touches humanity, humanity must die because deity is all life. Death will be swallowed up in life because life is bigger than death. Jesus delivered us from death and into life.

We have become tabernacles (dwelling places) for God, Jesus and Holy Spirit. The more of deity we become, the less of humanity we become. We will not be called away unless we have been consumed by purity. Jesus is returning for a glorious church without sin.

Let us ask ourselves; Are we tabernacles (dwelling places) for God?