In this series, we’ve been exploring God’s use of a “Tabernacle” (literally a “Tent”) to teach us what it looks like to encounter the Living God. The fact that God would even bother pitching a tent says a lot about God itself. For instance, God is relational, he is personal, he wants to be known. A top selling Christian book is “Experiencing God” by Henry Blackaby. The Tabernacle is God’s answer to the question. YES! God wants to be experienced. He wants to be encountered.
In the fullness of time God would dwell, “Tabernacle or Pitch a Tent” among us in the person of Jesus Christ. John 1:14 says plainly, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory…” John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.” In the present age, God has taken an even more drastic measure to enable Himself to be known. He didn’t just dwell “among us” in His Son Jesus; He now dwells “within us” by His Holy Spirit. In John 14:15-17 Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.”
Billions of people have experienced God, not just externally (i.e. God is over us, and above us), but internally (i.e. God is with us, and indeed in us) by his Spirit, and by faith. The internal witness of the Holy Spirit, tabernacling within us, dwelling within us, abiding with us as we abide in Him, is the deepest most real experience of God known to humankind this side of glory.
Now I don’t mean to leap too far ahead—in the Bible we go from a portable wood-framed tabernacle, to a bricks and mortar Temple in Jerusalem, to Jesus as the human tabernacle of Living God, to the Church as God’s present spiritual tabernacle, to the heaven as God’s permanent dwelling or tabernacle.
But it was first in Moses portable wood-framed tabernacle that you would encounter God in the OUTER COURTS. Drawn by rumors or God’s greatness, by the aroma of God’s goodness, you’d come acknowledging his existence, you’d come with thanksgiving and praise. And as you were drawn to God, you’d secondly encounter God through the BRAZEN ALTAR. You would have gasped at the spectacle of blood, shed, and poured out on that altar. And you would soon realize that by the great mercy of God, that instead of it being your blood on that altar, yes atoning for your sin,… that God provided the blood of a lamb… and ultimately the blood of His One and Only Son, Jesus… to atone for your sin. His blood for your blood, his life for your life.
In the Garden of Eden, it was the shedding of the blood of an innocent animal, by which God first covered the sin of Adam and Eve. Outside the Garden of Eden, it was the shedding of the blood of an innocent animal, by which Abel’s worship proved more acceptable to God. On the mountain, it was Abraham’s “willingness” to sacrifice the precious blood of His One and Only Son Isaac, that demonstrated his true faith. But of course, God provided a ram that Abraham’s son be spared. In every instance of Old Testament worship, God used blood to remind people, of the true cost of sin, and the true cost of redemption. This is why blood is a central feature in every worship venue from the Garden of Eden all the way to the throne of God, in Heaven, even in the New Heaven and Earth.
Friends listen closely and “well” to the testimony of Scripture:
• Revelation 5:9 (ESV), “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. . .”
• Revelation 5:12 (ESV), “[They were] saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
• Revelation 13:8 (ESV), “and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”
• Isaiah 53:7 (ESV), “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
• John 1:29 (ESV), the testimony of John Baptist, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:31 (ESV), “and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
• 1 Peter 1:18-22 (CSB), “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
We don’t draw a single millimeter closer to God by any other way than by the blood of God’s atoning sacrifice, the blood of God’s choice Lamb, the blood of his One and Only Son Jesus Christ. Only by way of the spectacle of the cross, his blood sprinkled upon your faith, do you draw ever nearer to God.
I will warn you that not only is “the blood of the Lamb” offensive… and not only does it show the true cost or penalty of sin… and not only does it show the true and full extent of God’s mercy (he shed his own innocent blood instead of ours--that of the guilty party)… but the cross of Christ, the blood of the Lamb, is the first thing liberal or progressive Christianity jettisons from their worship. The modern church tolerates not the offensive suggestion that the cost of sin could be ours nor anyone’s lifeblood. The modern church tolerates not the “foolishness” of the cross. Instead of being washed by the blood of the lamb, like Pilate, the modern church tries to wash its hands of any need for it. Beware indeed.
After the Brazen Altar, you would have next approached something called the LAVER. The Laver was the place where Moses, or the Priest, would wash themselves with water before drawing any closer to God. The Laver was a large basin of water… and get this… it had mirrors in the bottom of the basin. Now whatever could be the purpose of this basin of water?
When you came to the LAVER, you would peer deep into a basin of water, you would peer in the deepest, darkest, most dirty recesses of your heart, and you’d be forced to face the profound extent of the corruption of your heart… you’d be forced to face the profound extent to which you need to be forgiven and cleansed… and you would joyfully, gladly, without hesitation, without any pretense nor concern… allow yourself to be cleansed and sins washed away!
I’ve noticed that there are two symbols that make the modern worshipper bristle. The first offensive symbol is that of the blood of the lamb, the cross. But the second symbol is that of washing, of baptism. The modern worshipper, and many of you, have all but dismissed, and bypassed any need of baptism. Like Peter, who brazenly looked in the face of Jesus and declared, “Lord, you shall never wash my feet” … you proudly and arrogantly dismissed your need to be washed. Perhaps like Peter, perhaps like the people of Israel in that first Tabernacle, it’s not the mercy of God you don’t understand… but it’s personal application you miss. What did the Lord say to Peter? John 13:8, “You will never wash my feet,” Peter said. Jesus replied, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”
To understand the proper place of washing, which points directly to Christian baptism, we need to go back to something God told Moses in Exodus 29:42-46 about what MUST HAPPEN in the Tabernacle: “There I will {meet you and speak to you. . .}” “43 I will also meet with the Israelites there, and that place will be consecrated by my glory. 44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 And they will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”
Once God, by his mercy, purchases your soul, by way of the high cost of the blood of his one and only Son… God seeks, and asks that you consecrate your life to him, and to him alone. To consecrate is to set apart, to devote oneself, to pledge one’s heart-mind-body-soul, to forever be God’s possession. The LAVER was the place where one would come to wash and consecrate himself, once and for all. But here is the deal. In washing, as in baptism, one always consecrated himself or herself in eye view of the Brazen Altar and the Mercy of God. In other words, the Brazen Altar and the atoning Blood of Christ was the basis of one’s salvation… but the washing or consecration or baptism was one’s personal embrace of that mercy!
So, in the gospels, when John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” how did people respond to his announcements of salvation? He baptized people in the Jordan! Thousands of people by the way! And whatever for? In view of God’s mercy, the lamb had come, people were consecrating their lives, head to toe, being baptized in water. It’s the Peter principle. Lord, don’t just wash my feet, wash and cleanse and baptize ALL OF ME! John 13:9, “Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.”
Meanwhile the gospels record an interesting detail about baptism. I wonder how many of you who have rejected baptism have ever considered Luke 7:29-30, “(And when all the people, including the tax collectors, heard this, they acknowledged God’s way of righteousness, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism. 30 But since the Pharisees and experts in the law had not been baptized by him, they rejected the plan of God for themselves.)”
I wonder how many of you have rejected baptism have ever considered Romans 12:1? “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship!” Praise be to God, we come to Him by way of Christ’s blood, but instead of offering us an altar to literally die upon and pay for our own sins… God offers us a LAVER, a baptism, by which we can be made clean, our sin forgiven and washed away. Romans 6:1-4, “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.”
You know some of you say, “I will not be baptized, it’s a work, I’m not saved by works but by faith.” “Being washed” or “Being consecrated” is not a work. Neither baptism nor consecration is something you do to yourself. In Exodus 29 it’s God who is doing the consecrating! Under the old covenant God was consecrating his Tabernacle, the Tent of meeting. He was consecrating the priest through washing. In the New Covenant God is consecrating your body as a Tabernacle or dwelling of his Holy Spirit. The reason people get baptized, and then receive the Holy Spirit, is because God never dwells in any Tabernacle until it is first consecrated and dedicated! Thus, the Spirit descends bodily upon Jesus at his baptism.
In Acts 2:37, having been confronted with the mercy of God, and knowledge that they’d just crucified the Lamb of God, and being pierced to the heart, the crowds asked the Apostles, “Brothers what shall we do?”
In Acts 2:38-41, “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” 41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.”
Peter didn’t say, “here is God’s mercy, now go save yourselves”. He said, “here is God’s mercy now BE saved…. Repent and BE baptized… Repent and BE consecrated… In view of God’s mercy repent and offer yourselves as living sacrifices… Let God, in baptism, consecrate the temple of your body that you may receive God’s Spirit and He might take up residence in your holy temple!
Romans 6:6-11, the Apostle Paul continuing to explain baptism, “6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Peter, in 1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit”. Then he talks about Noah, and how Noah and his family—8 people in all, were saved through water in the flood. What was the purpose of the flood waters? The flood waters purged the earth of corruption. The flood waters literally washed the sin and the sinners away. But Noah preached, and his family understood, righteousness. Noah didn’t have to die for his own sins, he could be saved through washing of water.
And what does Peter say? 1 Peter 3:21-22 (the NIV is most clear) “and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”
In baptism, God is not asking you to save yourself. He’s inviting you, in view of God’s mercy, to consecrate yourself, to now pledge or give your life to him, to accept his washing, forgiveness and indwelling Holy Spirit. We don’t bypass the LAVER or Baptism anymore than we’d bypass the Altar and Cross. No, at the brazen altar and laver we allow God to more profoundly consecrate our lives that we might live for him. Romans 6:11-14, “you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.”