A SUPERIOR TABERNACLE

“A SUPERIOR TABERNACLE ”
Hebrews part 10 (9:1-10)
Rev. Grady Davidson 120411
I invite you to begin thinking with me this morning about problems of access. Have you ever been in one place, and you really needed to be somewhere else, but you couldn’t figure out a route or a pathway to get “from here to there”?
Several years ago my wife and I took a short Caribbean cruise. At least in my memory of that experience one of the most frustrating things about a cruise ship is that there never seems to be direct access from any one part of the vessel to another (even if they’re side by side, or one above the other). If you’re on the third deck and want to get to the slot machines on the fifth deck, then depending on your current position on deck three it might be easiest to walk down to second deck, cut across that level, and then catch an elevator up to the fifth deck. Everything is very compact on a cruise ship, but that doesn’t make for great access.
For that matter, how many of you have ever found yourself bewildered, wandering aimlessly at Memorial Hospital? Memorial has gone through numerous phases of remodeling and additions as its grown (which is great!), but the result is a really convoluted floor plan. Finding access from one part of the hospital to another is not Memorial Hospital’s strong suit.
How many of you have handicapped tags on your car, but you struggle to find an available handicapped parking space when you go to the grocery store? It’s a problem of accessibility, isn’t it?
Just a few examples of many problems of access we might face in life!
Our text of Hebrews 9:1-10 give us a visual image (actually, an architectural image) of the deepest, most fundamental problem that mankind faces apart from the Lord Jesus Christ –ultimately, as the problem is described in this text, it’s a problem of access. It’s telling us that even under God’s gracious provisions in the Old Covenant, that we do not have access to the One who loves us, who made us, to the only One who can satisfy the deepest longings and desires and hopes and needs of our hearts. We have a picture in these verses of God’s people being able to get fairly close to their God, and yet unable to take those final steps and draw right up into His presence. Look with me at vv. 7-9 (review). So let’s talk about it.
Under the Old Covenant (of which I spoke last week), God made specific provisions for his people to build a tabernacle (tent that served as a temple). It was a place for offering sacrifices; it was a place of worship; but most importantly, God was present in that tabernacle! (Not limited to the tabernacle, but God’s placed His presence in the Tabernacle in a unique way.) The tabernacle was like a portal linking heaven and earth. The tabernacle was a beautiful and glorious place; but it was also terrifying, because back in the most remote recesses of the tabernacle in the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept—God was there. And God’s people knew that God was holy, meaning that sin-stained men and women, girls and boys did not have access to God. If anyone foolishly dared to break through the barriers set up to separate them from God, they would most certainly die in the effort. When the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement as described in v. 7, he ventured into that holy place with a rope tied around his ankle… so that if he dropped dead in the presence of his Holy God, that the other priests could retrieve him!
I need you to picture the Tabernacle with me. On the outside there was a curtain that ran in a big rectangle like a fence around the tabernacle. Within that outer curtain there was a courtyard, and ceremonially clean worshipers could come into the courtyard, bringing their sacrifices to be offered on the huge altar of burnt offering. Past the altar there was a huge basin of water (the “sea”) in which the priests were required to wash before entering the tabernacle. In the tabernacle itself, there was a “front room” called “the Holy Place” (v. 2). That room contained a golden lamp stand which the priests had to keep burning, and a table on which they placed fresh bread every day. Passing through the curtain from the Holy Place one entered the Holy of Holies (v. 3) – containing that golden box, the Ark of the Covenant which contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Covering the Ark was the Mercy Seat, above which were the engraved images of two winged angels, turned inward facing each other – and above them was the glorious, awesome, fierce, presence of the Living God.
God’s people, under certain conditions, could enter the outer courtyard. Only the consecrated priests could enter the Holy Place. Only the High Priest, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, could enter the Holy of Holies: and even then, he could only enter with the basin of blood which he would sprinkle on the cover of the Ark (the mercy seat), for his own sins and for the sins of the people.
The tabernacle itself—the architecture—sent a message. The message was: Sinner, you may come thus far and no farther: you dare not enter the holiest place!
In Charlotte, NC, where we lived for six years, the skyline is dominated by the Bank of America corporate building: 871 feet and 60 stories tall, it’s an impressive skyscraper. One day Becky and I were uptown, pushing Hannah around in the stroller and we thought, “Let’s see if we can ride the elevator to the top of the Corporate Tower.” We entered at street level. The walls were painted in murals of Charlotte’s history of industry and commerce. In the middle of the ground floor there was a huge bank of elevators… people streaming up and down the tower like ants at a picnic table. We acted like we knew where we were going and pushed the stroller over toward an opening elevator door… when a rather powerful looking gentleman with a nice suit and an earbud intervened and showed us the way back to the street. At the BOA building, the architecture itself sent the message—ordinary folk with a couple of hundred dollars in a checking account do not get to ride these elevators to the 60th floor.
The architecture of the Tabernacle told God’s people that they did not have firsthand, immediate, personal, experiential, relational access to God. (v. 8) – As long as that first room, the Holy Place was standing, God’s people did not have access to God. There was a clear reason that even God’s covenant people under the terms of the Old Covenant couldn’t step into God’s presence (see v. 9). “The gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.”
Remember we were talking about issues of difficult access? Do you remember when you were a kid, playing outside on a wet, muddy day. Then when you got too cold and too wet you decided to go back home for hot chocolate; but as soon as your hand hit the screen door, there was your mom: “Uh uhh! You’re not coming in here looking like that, tracking mud all over my clean floors!” The architecture of the tabernacle sent God’s children a message: “Kids, God loves you, but you can’t come in here looking like that.” The sacrifices being offered day after day pointed ahead to Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of himself (that subject, next week!). But at that time, the blood of bulls and goats being offered was just a provisional measure to tie the people over until Christ would come.
Next week we’ll continue in this chapter. We’ll read about the tabernacle in heaven, the one which Christ has entered bearing his own blood, and opening access for us to see the glorious sight of our God. Please take some time this week to read through vv. 11-28 a couple of times for yourself in preparation.
But as I begin to wrap up this message, I want to take you back to a passage in the gospel of Matthew 27:50-51 (p 966). What curtain was that? It was the curtain between the holy place and the holy of holies. By his death, Christ opens the path of access to God. The barrier is gone. His blood offered once and for all in the heavenly tabernacle is sufficient to remove our sin and cleanse our conscience. Christ removes the stain, and God invites all who will approach him through Christ to come to Him. Isn’t that good news! You’ve given granted security clearance. You have access to God. (Jenna Bush on Ellen DeGeneres Show, calling W)
Yet, there’s one thing more I want you to see in God’s Word today. (Hebrews 10:19-20). The curtain of the tabernacle was itself a prophetic symbol pointing ahead to the real curtain which would be torn – the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The way to God is opened through the curtain of the torn flesh of Jesus Christ sacrificed for us on the cross!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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