Participants: Pr. Shawn Boonstra
Series Code: TPR
Program Code: TPR000002
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01:08 Good evening once again, and I want to welcome all of you
01:10 who have gathered here in studio audience 01:12 in Simi Valley, California, to hear Pastor Shawn Boonstra 01:17 of the internationally acclaimed "It is Written" TV program, 01:21 present the second in a series called "The Presence". 01:25 Tonight, he's going to be talking about the mysteries 01:27 of the ancients. 01:29 You know, the things that we can find in Scripture, 01:31 and the things that Pastor Boonstra is going to share 01:33 tonight, make the mystery novels that you can see 01:36 on the New York Times Best Seller List seem like kids play. 01:40 The word of God is full of all kinds of wonderful things 01:42 that intrigue our minds, but God intends 01:46 for us to understand those mysteries and Pastor Boonstra 01:49 is going to lay out an explanation of many of these 01:53 mysteries of the ancients. For those of you who are watching 01:56 by TV tonight, and those who may be watching 01:58 by a DVD, we just went to welcome you and thank you 02:01 for participating with us in "The Presence". 02:04 Now for our studio audience here in Southern California, 02:06 would you please welcome Pastor Shawn Boonstra. 02:16 Good evening. 02:20 Welcome back to "The Presence". 02:22 I'm glad that you're here for our second meeting. 02:26 Our subject tonight is, as Dan just told you: 02:29 "Mysteries of the Ancients", now before we begin, 02:33 because my presentation will be based on the word of God 02:36 I invite you to bow your heads with me in a word of prayer. 02:40 Father in heaven, we believe in our hearts 02:43 that the book that we're about to open is not like 02:46 the other books that we can find in a book shop. 02:49 This is Your voice, this is Your will for the human race, 02:53 this is Your good news for us tonight. 02:56 We ask that you would open our hearts and minds most of all, 02:59 so that we can see You and hear You leading in our lives, 03:03 for we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. 03:07 When the Da Vinci Code hit book stores a couple of years ago, 03:11 and then hit movie theaters a few months back, 03:14 a lot of people got upset, why? 03:17 Because Dan Brown dared to suggest that everything we know 03:22 about Jesus of Nazareth over the last 2000 years 03:25 has been absolutely wrong. Dan Brown tells us in his book, 03:30 for example, that: 03:36 And that today there are people who can claim that they are 03:39 direct ancestors of Jesus Christ. 03:42 Furthermore, Dan Brown told us that: 03:59 You can see why Christians started to get a little upset 04:01 with this book. Then Dan Brown said that 04:08 Ones other than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, 04:11 he said that there were many other gospels that have been 04:14 hidden so that nobody would find out the truth. 04:17 Why did Christians get mad? They got mad because 04:20 if what Dan Brown is saying is remotely true, 04:24 it pulls the rug out from underneath the Christian 04:26 religion, and it would lead to the conclusion, eventually, 04:29 that the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, 04:32 as portrayed in the Bible, didn't happen at all. 04:36 Now, where did Dan Brown get his evidence for his 04:40 so called theory? He found it in a group 04:43 of writings known as the "Gnostic Gospels". 04:46 The Gnostics were an ancient sect of people 04:49 who had very strange beliefs, and they wrote a series of books 04:53 about 100 years after the New Testament had been written. 04:58 These books were discovered in the deserts of Egypt 05:00 at Nag Hammad in the 1970s, and they've discovered 05:05 that these Gnostics had a set of beliefs quite different 05:08 from that of the Christianity found between the pages 05:12 of the Bible. 05:13 The Gnostics, for example, believed that only a certain 05:17 group of people are going get to go to heaven 05:19 based on how intelligent they are. 05:22 Only the smart get to get into the kingdom of heaven 05:25 and your admittance into the kingdom of heaven 05:28 is completely reliant on how enlightened you are. 05:32 The Gnostics also believed that creation is a great big 05:35 botch job, some inferior God known as the Demiurge, 05:40 who wasn't supposed to be creating anything 05:43 made the world that we see around us 05:45 and it wasn't supposed to happen at all, 05:47 and the reason Jesus came, the Gnostics said, 05:50 was to tell everybody what had happened way back when, 05:53 and give them the keys of enlightenment to wake up 05:56 their minds. 05:58 Now, Dan Brown says that is original Christianity 06:01 and it's been hidden from us for centuries and centuries. 06:04 He says it's based on the Gnostic Gospels, 06:07 which he claims are much older, earlier, and more reliable 06:11 manuscripts than the Bible we have today. 06:15 He says: 06:22 Now, historically speaking, we know that what Dan Brown says 06:27 is, frankly, a bunch of baloney, and we know it's a bunch 06:30 of baloney because secular historians are running 06:34 as fast as they can away from Dan Brown, even secular, 06:37 atheistic historians are embarrassed by what he's saying. 06:41 They know there's not a stitch of truth to the book 06:45 "The Da Vinci Code". 06:47 That having been said, let me ask you a question: 06:51 is it true that there is a hidden history? 06:54 Yes it is. There is something that nobody 06:57 talks about much any more. 06:59 There is something that not many people are showing us these days 07:05 There are, in ancient history, much more ancient secrets 07:10 than those found in the Gnostics Gospels in the Nag Hammadi 07:13 region of Egypt. The ancient secrets 07:17 that date so much earlier than the Gnostics 07:20 actually reveal a very startling picture of Christianity. 07:25 Before I show that to you, let me review very quickly 07:28 what we looked in our last meeting when we studied 07:32 the Ark of the Covenant. 07:33 Very quickly, let's go through what we've already seen. 07:36 At our last meeting we discovered: 07:49 Except for the lid, which was pure gold, and what 07:51 was the name of the lid? Mercy seat. 07:53 It was the mercy seat, absolutely right. 07:56 We discovered that: 08:07 We also discovered that: 08:13 Moses was shown a pattern of what to build, God said: 08:16 "I want you to make an ark, and I want it to look like this... " 08:21 As we studied that pattern we discovered Moses built the Ark 08:25 after a model of God's throne in heaven. 08:28 It was actually a scaled down model of God's throne 08:32 in the heavenly sanctuary. 08:34 We also discovered: 08:41 And that told us something about what God is like. 08:45 God, it tells us, is both a law abiding, fair and just God, 08:50 who always holds people accountable for what 08:52 they've done, that's why His 10 Commandment 08:55 moral law is inside His throne, but it also tells us 08:59 because His law is covered with the mercy seat 09:02 that God is, in addition to being just, completely merciful, 09:07 and even though we have broken His moral law, 09:09 He provides a way for us 09:11 back into the kingdom of heaven, back into His presence. 09:15 Now, tonight there is more to it then we studied last night. 09:20 I want to show you something tonight that apparently, 09:23 Dan Brown and The Da Vinci Code has missed all together. 09:28 It's the ancient camp of Israel. 09:31 The Ark of the Covenant was located right in the heart 09:34 of the camp, at the very center. 09:36 The tribes, 12 of them, camped around the Sanctuary, 09:40 and inside this tent, inside this tabernacle, 09:44 in the back compartment, the Most Holy Place, 09:47 was the Ark of the Covenant. It was the very focal point 09:51 of the Israelite camp, it was the hub around which 09:54 everything else happened. The presence of God 09:57 above the Ark of the Covenant was the very center 10:00 of the Israelite nation. The presence of God 10:04 was so intimately close to the nation of Israel 10:08 that the Bible describes God's presence among them in very 10:11 unusual terms found in the book of Leviticus 26. 10:15 Listen to what God says beginning in verse 11. 10:19 He says: 10:26 We know that everybody has sinned, we've been cut off 10:28 from God's presence by our sins, but God says: 10:32 "I don't abhor you, I don't hate you," 10:34 "I don't want to push you away. " God says: "I'll put" 10:36 "my tabernacle among you. I will walk among you" 10:41 "and be your God, and you shall be my people. " 10:44 God's presence was so intimately close to Israel that the Bible 10:48 actually describes God as walking among His people. 10:54 We know that God didn't literally walk up and down 10:56 between the tents of Israel because His presence 10:59 would have killed every sinner He walked past, 11:02 yet He chooses to describe Himself as walking among 11:05 His people, He is that intimate with us. 11:08 He desires so much not to be behind the veil, 11:11 not to be inside the tabernacle, but outside with you and I. 11:16 Even though we've rebelled against God, 11:18 turned our backs on Him, walked away from Him, 11:20 He says: "I don't want to be inside here" - He does that 11:23 for our protection, He says: "I don't want to be inside" 11:26 "this tabernacle, I want to be out there walking among you. " 11:30 Now, let me ask you a question: which member of the Godhead 11:37 was there with the nation of Israel? 11:39 In Christianity we know there is God the Father, God the Son, 11:42 and God the Holy Spirit. Who is it that travels 11:45 with Israel in the cloud, and takes up residence inside 11:48 the Most Holy Place, and is right there, desiring to walk 11:52 up and down the lanes between the tents and be with His people 11:55 who is it? 11:56 Well, oh, that's a good guess, you said the answer, 11:58 but let me prove it to you from the Bible. 12:00 Would you like to see the proof? Yes. 12:03 This side would love to see some proof, this side doesn't care 12:05 if I prove it or not; would you like to see proof, yes or no? 12:09 Yes! Alright, here we go. 12:12 Just before Israel enters into the Promised Land, 12:15 a mysterious being appears to Joshua, the leader 12:18 of the Israelites, a fascinating passage in Joshua 5. 12:22 The Bible says: 13:05 Now who is this that appears to Joshua? 13:08 Think about this, it can't be an angel because as you saw 13:12 a moment ago, when Joshua sees Him he bows down and worships. 13:16 If it had been an angel he would have been told to get up 13:19 off His knees, how do I know? The book of Revelation, 13:22 many of you have seen it in Revelation 19:10 when John 13:26 bows down to an angel, the angel's horrified. 13:29 He says: "John, get up off your knees, you're not supposed" 13:31 "to do this, I'm a created being like you. " 13:34 Angels do not accept worship. This being that Joshua sees 13:38 does accept worship. The next thing that happens 13:41 is He tells Joshua "take off your shoes, you're standing" 13:46 "on holy ground. " Now that rings a bell 13:49 for a lot of people because there's another story 13:52 that happens before Israel leaves Egypt. 13:55 This happens at the end of their journey as they're coming 13:57 to the Promise Land, but before they begin their journey, 14:01 Moses sees, in the wilderness, a burning bush. 14:06 You're all good Bible students. Here's what happens 14:08 at the burning bush, Exodus 3:5: 14:32 So who's in the burning bush? Who is it? 14:34 God. Moses then asks Him 14:37 "Who are you?" If you read the same chapter, 14:40 Exodus 3:14, God answers and said: "I am that I am". 14:45 God describes Himself as "I am", He just exists, 14:50 no beginning in time, no end in time, He is the great I am, 14:54 the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 14:57 Now, hundreds of years go by and Jesus comes to earth 15:01 and He's walking among His people and He says 15:03 something interesting to the leaders of Israel, 15:05 and He says it in the Gospel according to John, 15:09 John 8:58, 15:24 Why would anybody want to throw a stone at Jesus? 15:27 Because He just said "I am", He just told them "I'm the one" 15:32 "who was in the burning bush that Moses met. " 15:35 "I'm the one who traveled with the Israelites" 15:37 "through the wilderness. I am the God that appeared" 15:40 "to Israel in the past. " As a matter of fact, 15:43 I believe it's in 1 Corinthians 10:4, 15:45 Paul says it was Christ who followed the Israelites 15:50 through the desert. They wanted to stone Jesus 15:53 because they thought He was committing blasphemy, 15:55 He had just declared Himself to be the living God, 15:59 the Creator of heaven and earth. Jesus said: "I am God", 16:04 and He said that in a statement that predates all 16:07 the Gnostic Gospels by at least 100 years. 16:10 And the incident in the desert with Moses, 16:13 and the incident in the desert with Joshua 16:15 happened hundreds and hundreds of years before there was ever 16:19 a Gnostic on the earth. The church did not make up 16:22 the fact that Jesus was God, Jesus told the world 16:25 that He was God when He came. 16:29 And we know that He was the one who followed Israel 16:32 through the desert. The presence with Israel 16:36 is Jesus Christ, before He was ever born as a human being. 16:41 So apparently, Dan Brown missed something. 16:45 The most ancient documents, the documents found 16:49 in the Old Testament describe Jesus Christ 16:53 as the very presence of God. But there's more, 16:58 there's a bigger picture. We've already seen 17:01 that the Ark is a model of God's throne in heaven. 17:04 We have seen that it shows us God's desire 17:06 to be with His people. He places His presence 17:09 right in the middle of the camp of Israel, 17:12 but them it also shows us God's plan to take the Israelites 17:17 and bring them inside the temple into His presence. 17:21 It shows us God's plan to remove the veil, so that He can be 17:24 with His people with no barrier in between. 17:28 Let's take a look at the Old Testament Tabernacle, 17:31 the place where they kept the Ark in the Most Holy Place. 17:36 The tabernacle had 2 rooms, the Holy Place, this bigger 17:39 room here, and the Most Holy Place, this room furthest in. 17:43 It was all set in a courtyard, and out in the courtyard 17:46 were a number of articles of furniture, 17:48 there were also a number of articles of furniture 17:50 in the Holy Place, this first room, and then the Ark 17:54 of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place. 17:57 Now remember, as Moses built this, and Israelites built this, 18:01 they were building it according to a blueprint 18:04 that had been shown to them by God Himself. 18:07 The blueprint for this earthly tabernacle was a tabernacle, 18:11 a temple, up in the courts of heaven. 18:14 We studied that yesterday. This whole thing is a copy 18:18 of something that exists in heaven. 18:21 As you study it you also discover that absolutely 18:24 everything here says something very important about who God is 18:29 and who the historical person of Jesus Christ was. 18:33 So, tonight, let's take a tour through the Old Testament 18:37 sanctuary, looking at its various components to see 18:40 what it is that we can learn about the character of God 18:45 and the historical person of Jesus Christ. 18:49 The first thing you encounter out in the courtyard 18:52 of the tabernacle. This is a fence they set up 18:55 and they built the tabernacle inside that fence. 18:58 That whole area is the courtyard, 19:00 and on a daily basis sinner would take little animals, 19:03 notably lambs, they would bring them 19:06 into the courtyard, and a sinner would put his hands on the head 19:09 of a lamb, and the original language tells us 19:12 he not only put his hands on that lamb, he leaned on it 19:15 with all his weight and as he did, he confessed his sins. 19:20 Then the sinner had to take a knife 19:24 and cut the throat of that little lamb and put it to death. 19:28 Why? Because the Bible tells us 19:30 that the wages of sin is death. Why is it death? 19:34 Well, God is the creator, He made all life and He keeps 19:37 all life alive. In rebellion we cut ourselves 19:41 off from God, and the natural consequences of cutting yourself 19:44 off from God is death. It's like unplugging a fan. 19:48 When you unplug the fan and remove it from the source 19:50 of life, it will go out, be gone. 19:55 Romans 6:23 says "The wages of sin is death", 19:57 the Israelites had to take the life of those little lambs. 20:00 Here's an important question: did that little lamb 20:04 actually forgive the sinner, yes or no? 20:07 Absolutely not, a lamb can't do that for you, 20:09 that lamb represents something, that lamb points to something, 20:13 what does it represent? Don't say it yet, 20:17 I know you know the answer. What does the lamb represent? 20:21 There's a remarkable story in the Old Testament about Abraham, 20:24 maybe you remember. God comes to Abraham 20:28 and He says: "Abraham, I want you to take your son" 20:32 "and head for the mountains of 20:35 Moriah and sacrifice Him there. " 20:37 Abraham doesn't get it, he thinks: "What in the world?" 20:40 "Why would God ask me to do that", and yet, the Bible says 20:42 in faith he takes his son and he heads for the mountains 20:46 of Moriah. In faith he says "even if I slay him," 20:50 "God could raise my son from the dead, I'm going to trust Him" 20:53 "no matter what happens". They head for the mountains 20:55 of Moriah, which incidentally is the very place 20:58 that Jesus, hundreds of years later was actually crucified 21:02 at the mountains of Moriah, that's where Calvary is found. 21:07 As they go to the mountains of Moriah, Isaac is looking around 21:10 thinking "Dad, what are we going to do, we're going to have" 21:13 "a sacrifice, I see everything here: the wood and the fire," 21:16 "but there's something notably missing. " 21:19 Genesis 22: 21:36 Abraham's answer is that God will provide the lamb. 21:40 Now, here's something really interesting: this passage 21:44 is the first time a lamb is mentioned anywhere in the Bible. 21:47 You have to go through 22 chapters of the Bible 21:49 before you find any mention of a lamb at all. 21:52 This is the first mention of a lamb. 21:54 Now, a good rule of Bible study is that any time 21:57 the Bible mentions something for the first time, 22:00 it sets the stage for your understanding of it 22:03 for the rest of the Bible. This is the first time 22:05 a lamb is mentioned anywhere in the Bible, and the question 22:09 is asked: "Where is the lamb? God will provide. " 22:12 Now, this is the first time a lamb is mentioned 22:14 in the Old Testament, there's a first time a lamb 22:17 is mentioned in the New Testament and that also tends 22:19 to be very important. In fact, the first time a lamb 22:22 is mentioned in the New Testament, it answers 22:25 Isaac's question: "where is the lamb?" 22:27 It happens as John the Baptist in John 1 sees Jesus coming, 22:33 and he cries out, the Bible says in John 1:29: 22:45 There is no question whatsoever that the lamb in the sanctuary 22:49 service represents Jesus Christ, He is the Lamb of God 22:54 and He takes the sinner's place. 22:56 Your sin is put on Jesus, and that's why Jesus 23:02 appears as a lamb in the book of Revelation. 23:05 Revelation 5:6: 23:16 Here's a scene in heaven, it's God's throne 23:19 and there's a slain lamb in front of it. 23:21 This points back to the sanctuary, you have the Ark 23:23 of the Covenant hiding inside the Tabernacle, 23:26 symbolizing God's throne, and out in the courtyard a lamb 23:29 is sacrificed and it represents Jesus Christ. 23:33 Thousands of years before Jesus is born, the ancients knew 23:38 that a lamb of God would come and die for their sins. 23:42 Thousands of years in advance we had an accurate picture 23:44 of who Jesus would be, and modern critics can say 23:48 all they want that Jesus didn't really die and rise from 23:51 the dead, but the ancients knew it 1000 years before 23:54 it ever happened, God showed them in the lamb 23:57 of the sanctuary. In fact, the Bible calls Jesus 24:02 in Revelation 13:8: 24:11 What does that mean? That tells us that God 24:14 was ready for our sins the very moment He created us. 24:18 Think about this: God made you with the choice 24:22 to turn against Him, why? Why would God make you 24:26 with the choice to turn against Him? 24:28 It's because He wanted a relationship with 24:29 the human race, He wanted us to love Him in return 24:32 for Him loving us, and He wanted us to do that 24:35 of our own free will. You can't love somebody 24:38 unless you have the choice not to love them, right? 24:42 I have, I hope... we've been married about... I forgot, 24:49 About 13 years, 24:52 and I come home at the end of the night 24:55 and I get home and I'm excited because at the end of the day 24:58 my wife is still there, and do you know what makes it exciting? 25:02 She's there of her own free will. 25:05 I didn't have to chain her to the wall to keep her there, 25:08 I don't have to chain her to the stove, or the vacuum cleaner, 25:10 or the washing machine, she stays there and does all those 25:13 things for me out of her own free will. 25:15 What does that tell me? She must love me because there's 25:18 no other reason she would ever stay, right? 25:20 God gave us the freedom of choice, otherwise we couldn't 25:23 love Him of our own free will, and we made a provision, 25:26 should we rebel, Jesus and the Father come together 25:29 and say: "We're going to provide a solution even before" 25:31 "that happens". Jesus is called the lamb slain 25:35 from the foundation of the world, already before creation 25:38 Dan Brown was wrong. 25:41 Amen? Amen. 25:43 God made us with a choice, He was ready in case we sin, 25:45 Dan Brown says Jesus was some ancient mystic who spent 25:48 all His time philosophizing and teaching nice lessons, 25:52 but the most ancient documents tell us in advance 25:54 that Jesus came to die for our sins, you can't argue 25:59 with something that predicted it in advance. 26:02 Now, let's move through the sanctuary. 26:05 The little lamb was sacrificed, and then the lamb 26:07 was taken to the altar of sacrifice where it was offered. 26:11 Now, why was the little lamb giving its life? 26:15 It's because it was reminder of just how serious 26:18 our sins are. When you saw that little lamb 26:20 die and being offered in the flames of the altar 26:23 you couldn't say to yourself: "Oh, sin's not that bad. " 26:27 You couldn't make excuses for yourself, every little sin 26:30 led to death, you saw first hand just how serious sin was. 26:34 You couldn't say: "Oh, all I did was take one little stapler" 26:37 "from the office", or "all I did was steal a few paper clips" 26:41 "from my pencil tray at work. " You couldn't say it wasn't 26:45 serious because every sin led to death, the wages of sin 26:49 is death. The altar of burnt offering 26:51 points to somebody, and you know who it is. 26:54 The book of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 9:26: 27:06 And when did Jesus sacrifice Himself? 27:09 It was on the cross of Calvary. The cross was more than just 27:12 an instrument of torture, the cross was the altar 27:17 for heaven's sanctuary. That's why the altar 27:20 in the old sanctuary was outside the temple. 27:23 It was outside the sanctuary itself because the cross 27:27 was not in heaven, it was down here on earth. 27:29 It happened down here on the earth, we are living 27:32 in the courtyard of heaven's sanctuary, and Jesus, 27:35 on the cross, becomes the lamb on the altar. 27:38 Now, as we move along, next to the altar is a big 27:43 water basin known as the laver. This is a place 27:48 where the priests had to wash themselves before they could go 27:50 inside the sanctuary, and why did they have to wash 27:53 themselves before they went inside the sanctuary? 27:56 Because just like you and I, they were sinners. 28:00 The Bible tells us about this in 1 Corinthians 6:9. 28:04 The priests had to wash themselves before they could go 28:06 in the sanctuary because you and I need to be washed 28:09 before we can go to heaven. 1 Corinthians 6:9: 28:19 As we are, we can't step into the presence of God, 28:23 so Jesus does something for us, you find in this very same 28:26 passage a little later on. Paul writes: 28:37 Jesus not only dies for you, He also washes you. 28:41 He not only pays the penalty for your sins, 28:43 He cleans you up and gives you a new life and send you 28:47 on your way to heaven as clean as a whistle. 28:51 That's the laver, let's take a look at who was washing 28:54 himself in the laver: it's the priest, 28:58 and the priest, before he could go inside, had to wash himself 29:01 in the laver and then he went inside the tabernacle 29:04 carrying the blood of the sacrifice. 29:07 Who is the priest a symbol of, who is it? 29:10 Jesus. 29:12 You're right, so you can say it more boldly. 29:14 Jesus. It's Jesus. 29:17 This is easy, the Bible tells us exactly who the priest 29:19 symbolizes, and the high priest in particular. 29:21 Hebrews 4: 29:47 Jesus is not only the sacrifice, He's the priest 29:51 who carries the blood into the sanctuary, but Jesus carries 29:54 His own blood into heaven's sanctuary, and presents it 29:58 before the throne of God. 30:01 The Bible says as He goes there He invites you to come in 30:03 with Him, you, because you have been cleaned by His sacrifice 30:06 and washed, are invited to go through the drapes, 30:09 into the temple, right into the presence of God, 30:12 and furthermore, it says that He understands your life, 30:15 and He's the only one that can really help you. 30:18 If you struggle with loneliness, Jesus understands that; 30:22 if you struggle with abuse, He was abused; 30:24 if you struggle with pain, He suffered pain; 30:26 if you struggle with temptation, Jesus even underwent temptation, 30:30 and He did it all without sin, and now in heaven's sanctuary 30:33 He says to you: "come on, come to the throne of grace" 30:36 "and I'll help you. I'll get you the help you need. " 30:40 What help is that? The Bible tells us in 1 John 2:1 30:52 "Propitiation" - there's a big word, do you know 30:56 what that word is in the original language? 30:58 "Hilasterion", it's the very same word that we translate 31:03 "mercy seat". Jesus said: "I am not only" 31:07 "the priest, I am not only the 31:10 sacrifice, I am the mercy seat. " 31:12 "I am the one that covers the law of God that you have broken" 31:15 "and My sacrifice pays for your sin. " 31:20 Here's a good question a lot of people ask: 31:22 if Jesus has to go in and talk to God about your sins 31:26 and present His blood, does that mean that God is trying 31:29 to destroy everybody, God the Father, and God the Son 31:32 runs in there and run interference so God doesn't 31:35 wipe out the whole human race? Is this a struggle between 31:38 God the Father, and God the Son: God the Father trying 31:41 to destroy, Jesus Christ trying to save us, is that 31:43 what the Bible is saying? Absolutely not. Good students. 31:47 This is one of the most misunderstood concepts 31:49 in the entire Bible, and the best known verse in the Bible 31:52 answer the question, it says: 31:59 God the Father and God the Son made plan before you 32:03 were created, that should you sin, Jesus would give His life 32:07 for you. Now, let's go inside 32:09 the earthly sanctuary, we're going to have to move quickly, 32:12 but I want to show this to you, I don't want to miss 32:14 any of it. As you went inside the sanctuary 32:16 to your left was a golden lamp stand with 7 branches, 32:19 and 7 oil lamps on top. It is the only source of light 32:23 inside that sanctuary. What does it represent? 32:27 This is easy. The rule of bible interpretation 32:30 is to let the Bible interpret itself, and Jesus says something 32:34 very interesting in John 8:12: 32:48 Jesus, the light of the world, John says earlier that Jesus 32:51 was the light that came into the world. 32:53 We had lived in sin and ignorance and darkness so long 32:56 that when Jesus came, God in the flesh, it was like a breath 33:00 of fresh air, and we could actually see clearly 33:02 for the first time in a long time, Jesus: the lamp stand 33:07 inside the sanctuary. Now, that was on your left 33:11 as you walked into the sanctuary. 33:13 On your right was a table of bread, known as the table 33:17 of show bread, or in some places in the Bible, 33:20 the table of the presence, what does this table represent? 33:25 It had 12 loaves of bread, one for each of the tribes 33:28 of Israel, what does it represent? 33:30 Well, we don't have to guess because Jesus tells us 33:33 point blank what it represents. John 6:51, Jesus said: 33:45 Jesus said "I'm the bread". Do you see what He's saying? 33:48 Bread is an essential substance, almost every culture 33:51 on the face of this planet has bread of some sort, 33:54 whether it's tortillas, or pita, or sourdough bread, 33:57 almost every culture has bread. 34:00 Jesus says: "I am not a garnish on the plate of spirituality," 34:05 "I am the substance of your meal. " 34:07 Bread is so essential, it's become a big part 34:09 of our English language. 34:11 The word "companion", it comes from Latin words 34:14 "con" and "panis", it means "those who share bread together" 34:18 We call somebody who earns the money in the house: 34:20 "the bread winner", and even back in the last century, 34:24 slang for money, we called it "bread". 34:27 It's so essential, this is something you can't 34:29 live without. Jesus is telling people: 34:31 "I am not a side plate, I am not a side order," 34:35 "I am the essence of the meal, you can't live without Me," 34:38 "nobody gets into the kingdom of heaven without Me," 34:41 "you can't survive on your own. You need Me. " 34:45 "I am the bread of life, you eat this and you will live for ever. 34:49 It all points to Jesus: the sacrifice, the priest, 34:53 that altar, the laver, the lamp stand, the table 34:56 of the show bread, and then up against the drape, 34:59 at the back of the first compartment, 35:01 on the left the lamp, on the right the bread, 35:04 and at the back of the room against the drape that hides 35:06 the Ark of the Covenant is the altar of incense. 35:09 What does it represent? 35:11 Again, the Bible explains it very clearly, Psalm 141:2: 35:20 You'll notice in the story of Zacharias, in the book of Luke, 35:22 chapter 1, the father to John the Baptist, it was Zacharias' 35:27 job to go inside and burn incense, and the Bible says 35:30 in Luke 1 that as he burned the incense the people 35:32 were outside the temple praying. 35:35 Incense represents prayer. The book of Revelation says 35:38 in Revelation 8:3, this is now in heaven's sanctuary: 35:56 The priest offers a special blend of incense, 35:59 he burns it, the smoke goes up, over the veil, 36:02 into the Most Holy Place to the throne of God. 36:05 It's our prayers. Why? 36:08 Even our prayers are contaminated by sin. 36:10 Do you know what it's like when we pray? 36:13 The first things out of our mouth are 36:14 "Dear Lord, I need this... and I need this... " 36:16 "and this, and this, and that, and when I have all that" 36:19 "I'm still going to need this, this, this and that. " 36:22 Our prayers are contaminated by sin and selfishness, 36:25 but in sincerity as we pray, Jesus, the Bible teaches, 36:29 mixes our prayers with His righteousness. 36:31 He adds sweet smelling incense, so that as our prayers rise 36:33 before the throne of God, He doesn't see a thing 36:36 wrong with them at all. The altar of incense represents 36:42 Jesus mingling His prayers with ours. 36:44 He cares that deeply about you. 36:47 In the Most Holy Place, as you go into the very back 36:50 behind the veil, is the Ark of the Covenant. 36:54 It's here that Jesus presents His shed blood for you. 36:57 In the book of Revelation 1 more time, the Bible says: 37:22 Why not? For all have sinned 37:25 and come short of the glory of God the Bible tells us. 37:28 Nobody could do it. 37:47 Jesus takes you from outside, through the Holy Place, 37:52 into the Most Holy Place and because He gave His life 37:55 for you, because He shed His blood for you, 37:57 you now have the right to step right into the presence of God. 38:02 The cross tells us, the sanctuary tells us, 38:05 we don't have to go it alone. 38:09 The sinless Son of God, His blood covers your sins 38:14 and He moves you back into the presence of God. 38:19 And knowing that, what reason would anybody have 38:22 not to accept His forgiveness? The only reason we have 38:26 is because we just don't believe that it could be true. 38:28 Billy, 5 years old, got a slingshot from grandma 38:32 and grandpa, he was so excited, he went out back 38:35 and started to shoot at stuff. 38:37 And he discovered after a couple of minutes that he wasn't 38:39 a very good shot, he missed everything he shot at. 38:42 He missed the windows, thanks goodness, 38:44 he missed the fence, he missed his sister, he missed 38:46 everything, so he was disgusted and came home with his slingshot 38:49 in his pocket kicking the dirt, and on the way home, 38:53 out of the corner of his eye he sees grandma's prize duck. 38:58 And he thinks to himself: "1 more time. " 39:01 Loads a stone, pulls it back, let's it fly 39:05 and the stone hits the duck and the duck drops dead. 39:09 He's horrified, so he grabs the duck, he runs 39:11 to the wood pile, shoves it in the wood, covers it up 39:14 and thinks "that's it, nobody saw my sin. " 39:17 And he turns around and there's his sister, Sally. 39:19 She saw the whole thing, 39:23 and she didn't say a word, she just went inside quietly. 39:27 Billy followed inside expecting the worst and sat through dinner 39:30 expecting her to tattle, and she didn't. 39:33 At the end of dinner grandma said: "Sally, I would like" 39:36 "very much for you to help me clean up the dishes today. " 39:39 And Sally said: "Grandma, I would love to do that," 39:42 "except 1 little thing, Billy was just telling me" 39:44 "how much he wanted to do the dishes, weren't you Billy?" 39:47 "No!" 39:50 "Yes, remember the duck. " 39:52 Billy: "Yeah, grandma, I think I do want to do the dishes. " 39:56 The next day at dinner again, 39:58 "Sally, now it's your turn to do the dishes. " 40:00 "Uh-uh grandma, I don't want to do the dishes," 40:03 "Billy was telling me he wants to do them from now on," 40:05 - "didn't you Billy?" - "I said no!" 40:06 - "Remember the duck!" 40:09 And this went on day after day, week after week, 40:12 month after month, until little Billy couldn't take it anymore. 40:15 He walked into the kitchen one day and said: 40:17 "Grandma! I got to talk to you. " 40:23 "Grandma a few weeks ago I had my sling shot," 40:26 "I put the rock in the slingshot and I fired it," 40:28 "and it hit your duck, and the duck is dead," 40:30 "I'm so sorry. " 40:34 Grandma bent down, gave him one of those hugs 40:37 only your grandma can give you. She said: "That's okay Billy. " 40:42 "I saw the whole thing happen through the kitchen window. " 40:47 "And because I love you, I forgive you. " 40:51 "The only thing I'm wondering is why in the world" 40:54 "did you let your sister make a slave out of you that long?" 41:00 Jesus said: "why don't you come with me inside the sanctuary?" 41:03 "My blood covers it all, I saw the whole thing," 41:06 "I saw everything you did, I gave my life for you before I" 41:09 "even created the world, I made that decision. " 41:11 "My life belongs to you" said Jesus, 41:13 what keeps you from coming? He saw it all, 41:17 He's just wondering how long you're going to let the devil 41:19 make a slave out of you when He's opened the way 41:21 right into the presence of God. 41:54 Do you have your lesson? #2 "Mysteries of the Ancients. " 41:58 We want you to take that out, we're going to be going through 42:03 these questions and answers. 42:06 Question 1, as we're talking about the mysteries 42:09 of the ancients, just to review: 42:17 Hebrews 8:2-5, this is a review question? 42:44 Here's your answer: 42:57 Question 2: 43:14 Now we have 4 texts we're going to look at quickly. 43:17 The first is Isaiah 53:5-7: 43:52 An incredible prophecy, let's go to Revelation 5:6: 44:11 I also want to look at 2 Corinthians 5:21: 44:24 Can you say praise the Lord for that? 44:26 Okay, our next text is 1 Peter 18,19: 45:02 Question 3: 45:24 Haggai 2:7-9: 45:49 The answer to this question: The "desire of all nations", 45:54 that's Jesus Christ, who is yet to come, 46:09 The Shekinah glory gives way to the very presence 46:13 of Jesus in that temple. 46:39 God didn't want to just be in that little cubicle 46:43 over the mercy seat, He wanted to be with us, 46:45 expressed in the person of Jesus Christ, 46:50 Question 5: 46:59 We'll look in John 1:1-5 and John 8:12: 47:38 So what is the answer to #5? 47:44 Those 7 candle sticks represent Jesus Christ, 47:47 the light of the world. 47:48 Question #6- 48:06 John 14:8-10: 48:35 And in John 17:25-26: 48:53 What special message did Jesus shed light on while He was here? 49:08 I don't know about you, but I would like to be able to stand 49:11 in the presence of God, wouldn't you? 49:15 I know that as I am right now, I can't do that 49:18 unless the blood of Jesus Christ transforms me. 49:21 I am looking forward to that final day when I get to stand 49:25 in His presence. Question 7: 49:40 We're going to look at a couple of passage of Scripture. 49:42 One in John 6 and one in 1 Corinthians: 49:53 Have you ever been hungry? 49:56 Have you ever been so thirsty you could hardly wait 50:00 for a drink? He says that what He does 50:03 for you will be more powerful than your hunger 50:07 and your thirst, it will satisfy you much more. 50:10 John 6:51: 50:24 Isn't that an awesome, awesome thing? 50:26 You see, this ancient secret of the sanctuary 50:31 translates out to where we can actually see Jesus 50:35 in all of that. We can see God's big plan 50:39 for salvation. So what's the answer 50:40 to this one? 50:45 That's what the bread represents, the body of Christ 50:48 broken for you and me. Okay, our next question: 50:58 Revelation 8:3-4: 51:17 So what is this smoke rising from the altar of burnt incense 51:22 representing? 51:29 Have you ever prayed and wondered if your prayer 51:31 actually got beyond the ceiling of your house? 51:36 Here we see the prayers of God's people 51:40 being presented and represented as incense coming up 51:45 into the hand of an angel, and being presented before God. 51:48 I sure like that idea of having my prayers being presented 51:52 before God in this way. Isn't it also fascinating 51:55 that while He's showing what Jesus does, Jesus, symbolic 51:59 of so many things in the sanctuary, He also doesn't 52:02 forget to leave us out. He's letting us see where our prayers 52:06 play into this. Okay, our next question: 52:13 Hebrews 8:1-2 52:19 Notice, we're not getting down to the main point, 52:21 this is the main point: 52:45 #10 in your lesson: 52:58 We're going to be looking at several passages 53:00 very quickly, I want to look at Revelation 1:12 53:10 So what are we seeing there in Revelation 1:12? 53:14 The next on, Revelation 4:5, 53:31 So what do we find in this one? 53:33 In Revelation 5:6: 53:53 So what do we find in this passage?. 53:57 Revelation 8:3-4: 54:25 Notice where the prayers go to, right before the throne of God. 54:31 Revelation 11:19: 54:46 What does he see in heaven's temple? 54:56 So we see again, the continuity between what we've seen 54:59 here on this earth, and what there is in heaven. 55:02 Revelation 14:15: 55:35 So what do we see mentioned here? 55:41 Notice how the continuity continues to work all the way 55:44 through there. 55:46 Come down to our last question for tonight: 56:02 Type had met antitype, it was all fulfilled in Jesus Christ 56:06 at that very moment. 56:16 Whenever you stop and think about this, I want you to look 56:20 at Hebrews 4:14-16 because this is where it all 56:24 comes together. The writer of this passage 56:27 in Scripture is making an appeal right to our hearts: 56:40 What does it mean to hold fast our confession? 56:44 Cling to it, hang on to with everything you've got. 56:53 Aren't you glad for that? Our High Priest has lived 56:57 on this earth, He knows what it's like to live on this earth. 57:08 What do you think that means, to come boldly? 57:13 That means to come even though you know you don't have 57:16 a right to be there, except for His invitation. 57:21 To come based on His invitation, to come and cling to it, 57:25 and hang on to it like it's the only thing of value 57:28 in the entire universe. 57:38 Praise God for that promise, because that is a promise, 57:43 to come boldly, if you come boldly, He will give us help 57:46 in time of need. I don't know about you, 57:49 but I find myself in need on a regular basis, 57:54 and I praise God that I can come boldly, and that He has promised 57:57 to help me in that need. If you'd like to invite 58:01 Jesus to help you with your need where ever you are right now, 58:04 I'd like to invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray. 58:09 Heavenly Father, we want to thank You that You've invited 58:12 us to come boldly to Your throne of grace, 58:16 that we may find help in time of need. 58:19 I want to thank you, Lord, that the secrets of the ancient 58:22 prophecies of Scripture all point us to Jesus Christ, 58:27 and what He is doing for us now, and what He wants to do 58:31 in every single heart, to invite Him in. 58:34 Just now, Lord, I want to give everyone listening to this 58:37 prayer an opportunity to make a decision to listen to Your voice 58:42 and come boldly to the throne of grace. 58:45 Just where You are right now, I invite you to say: 58:48 "Lord, I come boldly, you know my need, take me, I'm yours. " 58:55 I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17