Sermon Cloud

© Eric M Schumacher – Preached May 27, 2007 at Northbrook Baptist Church , Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Last week, we examined the doctrine of the Incarnation, “the Word became flesh.” We approached it from mainly two directions: Systematic Theology and Historical Theology. We summarized what this verse teaches about the doctrine of the incarnation—that Jesus Christ is, in one person, fully God and fully man. And, we examined how this doctrine has been embraced, misunderstood and rejected in church history.

This morning, I want to approach this verse in terms of “biblical theology.” “Biblical theology” is the study of how a doctrine or theme develops as Scripture unfolds.

The Bible is one book and tells one story; a story that moves from Creation to New Creation. The Bible begins “in the beginning” with God creating the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). It speaks of a Garden designed by God in which a man and woman dwell with him. The Bible ends with a picture of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev 21:1). It speaks of a holy city designed by God, in which God dwells with his people. Everything in between has to do with the history of redemption—the movement from Creation to New Creation—and how we should respond. To the degree that we neglect to keep this story in mind while studying and teaching Scripture, we will go astray in our understanding and application.

God Dwelling with Man

The Bible is the story of God acting to redeem and to dwell with his people, revealing his glory.

When we read the beginning of Genesis, we see that the Garden of Eden was the dwelling place of God with man. In Genesis 3:8, we read, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” The Lord was present; he walked in the Garden.

Later, after Cain kills Abel, we are told in Genesis 4:16, that “Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod , east of Eden .” Note that—Cain when “away from the presence of the Lord” and he went “east of Eden .” When wicked Cain went further east, he move further from Eden , and therefore further from the “presence of the Lord.”

The crisis that enters the storyline is man’s rebellion. Adam and Eve rebel by disobeying the Word of the Lord. In response, the Lord cleanses his dwelling place by removing the sinners from his presence. We read in Genesis 3:23-24:

…the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Because of sin, God would no longer dwell with man.

If we fast forward to the end of the story, we read this remarkable sentence in Revelation 21:3:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

A day is coming when the dwelling place of God will be with man.

The question that begs to be answered is What happens between man being expelled from God’s dwelling place in Eden and God’s dwelling place being with man in the New Jerusalem to bring about that change? John tells us, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

I said last week that “the Word became flesh” is likely one of the most shocking and potentially offensive statements in all of Scripture. This week I will say that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” is one of the most exciting statements in all of Scripture. For here John is telling us that in the historical person of Jesus Christ, God dwelt with man.

The transition from man expelled from God’s presence to God dwelling with man will turn on the person and work of Jesus Christ—the Word made flesh.

God Dwells with His People

John 1:14 is not the first occasion after the Creation and before the New Creation that we read of God dwelling with man. God dwelt with man in the Old Testament. He did not dwell with everyone—not with the Assyrians or the Babylonians—but he dwelt with Israel , his redeemed people.

God dwelling with his redeemed people was central to Israel ’s history. God dwelt with his people in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple . John knew this, and he certainly wanted his readers to think in this way. I say that because of the word that is translated “dwelt.” It is a word that obviously mean “to live” or “to dwell” in a particular place. It is related the greek noun used to translate the Hebrew word for the “Tabernacle.” John wants us to understand that Jesus is the True Tabernacle. Jesus is what the Old Testament Tabernacle was pointing forward toward.

Exodus and the Residing Glory of God

We encounter the Tabernacle in the book of Exodus. If I asked you what the book of Exodus is about, how would you answer? Would you answer that it is about God dwelling with his redeemed people and revealing his glory? You should!

The book of Exodus is really a mini-picture of the whole Bible, especially a mini-picture of the big story of redemption. It begins with Israel enslaved under a cruel Pharaoh in Egypt . The Lord hears their cry and delivers them through miraculous signs and wonders. Once out of Egypt, the Lord establishes his covenant with Israel , gives them the Law and begins to lead them to the Promised Land.

That is the string of events that most of us know and associate with the book of Exodus. What we often miss is how the book of Exodus ends. Most of the second half of the book of Exodus is given to describing the instructions for the building of the Tabernacle and its completion.

The Tabernacle…

…was where God dwelt with his redeemed people. In Exodus 25:8-9, the Lord tells Moses, “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.” The Tabernacle was a tent in which the Lord would dwell in the midst of his redeemed people.

…was where God met with man and revealed his will for his people. The Lord gave instructions to Moses concerning the construction of the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat, which would be located in the

Most Holy Place

in the Tabernacle. The Lord said to Moses in Exodus 25:22:

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 .

Later, in Exodus 33, we read of the “tent of meeting,” which was a temporary tent until the Tabernacle was completed. We are told that in tent of meeting, “the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (33:11).

It was in the Tabernacle that Israel , represented by Moses, met with God. It was in the Tabernacle that the Lord told Israel , through Moses, what his commandment was for them.

…was where sacrifices were offered and atonement was made.

…where man was reconciled with God.

…was the center of Israelite worship.

It is interesting that we read that “the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” This is not language of two parties who are hostile toward one another. This is the language of two parties that are at peace. This is appropriate, for the Tabernacle was the place where man found peace with God.

God made provision for the atonement of sins through a priesthood that would offer sacrifices in the Tabernacle. In Exodus 28-29 the Lord gives instructions for the consecration of a priesthood that would serve Him on behalf of the people in the Tabernacle.

In Exodus 29:38-43, we read of the offerings of lambs that were to be made on a daily basis:

Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight…It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. There I will meet with the people of Israel , and it shall be sanctified by my glory.

It is significant that the Lord says the lambs were a “regular burnt offering…at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you…. There I will meet with the people of Israel …” In other words, the Lord met with his people at the place where the lamb was sacrificed. This tells us that the means to accomplishing God’s glory dwelling with His people is the death of the sacrificial lamb.

In Exodus 30:1-10, we read of another altar, the altar of incense. Moses was instructed to have Aaron make an annual sacrifice on it:

Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once a year. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations.

Once a year, Aaron would make an offering of atonement for the people. Atonement refers to what the sacrifice was to accomplish. The death of the animal symbolically satisfied God’s demand for death as the penalty for sins. With sin paid for, his wrath was satisfied and he could dwell with his people. Therefore, the reason that the Lord could dwell with his people was because a sacrifice was offered to atone for their sins. This happened in the Tabernacle.

Worship centered around the Tabernacle, because that was where the Lord dwelt.

…was where the glory of God was seen by the people of God.

The high point of the book of Exodus is not the burning bush or the miraculous signs or the plagues. It was not even the parting of the Red Sea . All of these things are incredibly important; they are the high-points of God’s redemption of Israel which will be recited and sung about for hundreds of years! Yet, they are not the high point of Exodus.

The climax of the book of Exodus comes in its last paragraph of the last chapter after Moses finishes the work of building the Tabernacle. In Exodus 40:34-38, we read:

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. When the cloud left, the people knew that it was time to set out. But, when it was time to stay put, whether through a cloud by day or a fire by night, the glory of the Lord could be seen in the tabernacle in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

In this event, the purpose of the Exodus was accomplished—God was dwelling with his people.

…was a picture of the future relationship between God and his purified people.

The book of Leviticus, which follows Exodus, records the instructions given to the priests and the importance of holiness in God’s people. In chapter 26, we find recorded blessings for obedience and punishment for disobedience, including this promise for when God’s people were pure in Leviticus 26:11-12:

I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

God promised that he would make his dwelling among his purified people. In fact, he promised that he would “walk among” them. That is a phrase used by the Lord only here. “Walk among” reminds us of Genesis 3, where we read of the Lord walking in the Garden. The Lord promises that such Edenic fellowship will be restored. The language of the Lord “walking among” his people almost makes us expect that he will become flesh and dwell among them.

Years later, when the Israelites reach the Promised Land and are established there. The Lord gives instructions for the building of a temple. Instead of a tent, the Lord would dwell in a house, because his people were finished traveling and had settled in the land. The Temple would be a permanent version of the Tabernacle. The Lord would dwell in the Temple in Jerusalem , just as he had dwelt in the Tabernacle in the wilderness.

1 Kings 8:10-11 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, 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.

Yet the people of Israel did not prove to be a purified people. And so, they were sent into exile and the Temple was destroyed.

Ezekiel is given a vision for a temple; a temple greater than the first one, in which the glory of God will dwell (Ezekiel 40-48).But, Ezekiel’s temple is never build.

A second temple is constructed by returned exiles; a temple smaller and less glorious than the first. And, importantly, when the Second Temple is constructed, we are never told that the Glory of the Lord dwelt in it again.

God’s people must have wondered if the Lord would ever dwell in their midst again. It was promised through the Prophets that the glory of God would dwell in the midst of his people again and dwell there forever:

Zechariah 2:10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion , for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD.

Zechariah 14:5 Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

Ezekiel 37:27-28 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel , when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.

The Incarnation

This was the great expectation of the people—for the Lord to come and dwell amongst them. And so, this is why John’s words are some of the most exciting in all of Scripture: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

God’s promise to dwell with his people is fulfilled in the Word who “became flesh and tabernacled among us.” John wants us to see that Jesus is the True Tabernacle.

Everything the Tabernacle was, Jesus is and more so.

What was the Tabernacle? The Tabernacle…

…was where God dwells with his redeemed people.

…was where God met with man and revealed his will for his people.

…was where sacrifices were offered and atonement was made.

…where man was reconciled with God.

…was the center of Israelite worship.

…was a picture of the future relationship between God and his purified people.

What then is Jesus?

Jesus Christ—the Word made flesh—is…

…the place where God dwells with his redeemed people.

When Jesus became flesh and dwelt on earth, God was dwelling with man.

…the place where God meets with man and reveals his will for his people.

In the Incarnation—the Word became flesh—we have most literal meeting of God and man. Jesus Christ—fully God and fully man—is where man meets God.

Jesus will say to his disciples in John 14:6-10:

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him….Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

…the sacrifice offered to make atonement for God’s people.

John will announce Jesus (John 1:29) saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John will write in 1 John 3:5, “You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.”

Jesus came to make it possible for God to dwell with his people by taking away their sin. He accomplished this by living a sinless life and dying on the cross for sins. Jesus is the true lamb that shed its blood to purify God’s people.

Unlike the sacrifices offered in the tabernacle—day by day and year by year—Jesus only offered himself once. His sacrifice was the true sacrifice that all the others pointed toward. His sacrifice alone can truly cleanse us from sin. Consequently, this means that Jesus is greater and more perfect than the Tabernacle. The author of Hebrews, after describing the Tabernacle and what was in it, points his reader to Christ and writes (Hebrews 9:1-12):

According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

…the place where man is reconciled with God.

Because Jesus’ sacrifice alone takes away sin, he alone is the place where man is reconciled with God.

John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

…is the center of true worship.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Temple . Since the fullness has come, these temporary institutions are done away with. What this means is that the worship of God no longer centers around a place, but a person. Jesus says to the woman at the well in John 4:21-24:

Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father….But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth…

…is the promised future and eternal relationship between God and his purified people.

Even in the New Heavens and the New Earth, there will be no Tabernacle or Temple to which we will go. Rather, this will be fulfilled by the presence of Jesus the Lamb, the Word made flesh. We read in Revelation 21:22(-27), “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”

Applications

1) Worship and imitate the humble condescension of Christ.

At the Together for the Gospel conference, Pastor Ligon Duncan preached from the Old Testament. I don’t particularly remember what passage—or even what the main point of his sermon was. What I do remember is his remark about the Tabernacle. He commented that the Tabernacle shows us something of God’s humility. When his people were dwelling in tents in the wilderness, God came down and dwelt with them, in a tent.

Our God is a condescending God. He brings himself low, to the place where his people are. When his people lived in tents, he lived in a tent. When his people lived in houses in Israel, he lived in a house (the Temple ).

The greatest display of God’s condescending mercy is the Incarnation. In the Tabernacle and the Temple , God did not gain a new nature. Yet, in the Incarnation, the Second Person of the Trinity, while remaining fully God, because fully man—and dwelt with us in the flesh.

We should worship him for this. We should stand in awe of this. We should praise him for his excellent mercy.

And, we should imitate this. Listen to Paul’s word in Philippians 2:3-8:

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

We should have the same mind in us that was in Christ Jesus. We should be humble. We should count others more significant than ourselves, looking to their interests. We should do nothing from rivalry or conceit. We should serve others, making ourselves nothing.

Jesus Christ humbled himself to dwell with his people. Are you willing to imitate him? With what sort of mind do you approach the church—the assembly of God’s people?

Is involvement in a local church something you do if that church showcases your talents (on your time table), meets the age-graded needs of all your children (so that you don’t have to), satisfies your musical inclinations (regardless of what anyone else enjoys), greets you with appropriate friendliness (not too much, but not too little), and provides the precise amount of activities for your schedule yet not demanding any of your time or involvement? And if not, you leave, mock them or complain about them?

Or, do you view dwelling with God’s people through active membership in the local church as an opportunity to display the glory of the Incarnate Word, by humbling yourself, becoming a servant unto death, to count others more significant than yourself as you look to their interests?

2) This is the goal of history and therefore should be the goal of your life.

Ten thousand years from now, when grades and degrees and jobs and promotions and possessions and bank accounts and reputations have all passed away, only one thing will matter to you, to me and to everyone else—does God dwell with us.

Humanity will be separated into two camps: those who dwell with God and those who do not.

Through Jesus Christ—his life, death and resurrection—God dwelt with man, and we can have the certainty of dwelling with God.

This is what it most important. This is the fulfillment of your greatest need. This should be what you want for your children, your spouse, your friends, your parents, your neighbors, yourself.

Whether you are graduating from high school or college, raising a family or heading into retirement—have one goal: to dwell with God forever through redemption in Jesus Christ.