Matthew Blewett - Heaven and Earth - Class 4 - Whole Worship

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   This is day four of the 2024 Ottawa Bible School. My third period teachers Brother Matthew Blewett. His general topic is Heaven and earth. Today’s topic is whole worship. Chris won’t relax until the first slide has moved on, but we’ll leave that where it is. Good morning everyone. It’s amazing to be with you here on this Thursday morning after the big volleyball day.

2. 0:23

   I remember being here 17 years ago. It must have been the heyday of the singles that long ago where they always won. I was up with the youth earlier and using spiritual patterns I’ve given them. A secret from spiritual patterns is how they can actually beat powerful married men next year. So ladies, if you are married to one of those powerful married men, expect a a bit of money coming your way next year. And I, I, I hope we’ll hear that there’s a singles victory. So it’s really great to be back together again. And we’re in part four.

3. 0:58

   We’re on the, the home stretch. And as I’ve said to you, this has been quite a difficult series for me to put together with these ideas and concepts and to try and sort of frame language and bring you along. And I, and I’m hoping that as we repeat things and, and I’m able to frame particularly this lens of heaven and earth, you’re able to stay with me on that journey and, and be able to see this repeating pattern all over the place. Like I’ve been seeing it both in scripture and in, in pragmatic ways in, in everyday living.

4. 1:29

   And one of the problems when you’re trying to do this for the first time and pack it all together and you know, you’re on the homeward stretch because you’ve only got 2 sessions left. You start to get to that stage where you’ve got to take out the the scalpel and start slicing things out and removing them, which is always very sad because you might have spent a bit of time thinking, oh, that’s something that’s so amazing.

5. 1:48

   But anyway, you wouldn’t have noticed. So we’re doing some cutting now, but we’re going to try and share what we think will help be helpful. You know, the focus that I keep wanting to get back to. Yeah, there’s there’s a theory and there’s a framework. But ultimately, as John, always I think back, yes, yeah.

6. 2:13

   As John, John always emphasises at the end of every one of his sessions, you know, we can have all of these interesting connections and ideas and frameworks, but really it has to come back to something that we can learn and take away and pragmatically put into practice. So for me, it’s this idea of, of being activated, of understanding that really when we, we understand that the pattern is heaven and earth, It’s, it’s asking us to activate ourselves in all aspects of worship and everyday living. And that’s something which has been really helpful for me because I’m trying to get this, this new way of seeing things. I don’t want to miss opportunity to see and experience heaven wherever possible.

7. 2:54

   And, and we were sort of talking a lot about that at the end of our session together yesterday. We were talking about the way in which we can be better at activating our worship symbols. We spoke about singing, we spoke about the breaking of bread. And I, I suggested three things. I suggested that we needed to be intentional. And I want to repeat that.

8. 3:16

   So what I mean by that is that, you know, as you’re participating in any symbolic practice or, or, or using something like the red and wine, that you’re thinking about the two aspects of what’s going on here through the heaven and earth lens. That you’re as as activated and sensitised to the physical and at the same time to the heavenly. And that’s what being present really requires you to do, to be in that moment, to try and have the best experience you can have in that moment.

9. 3:43

   We were just chatting earlier about singing music, and it’s another great example of something that has value in and of itself. We don’t necessarily sing a worship song because we think we’re going to be learning some lessons to put into practice later. That could be a benefit as well. But we worship because it has value in our relationship with God in and of itself.

10. 4:04

    So that’s another example of that. And then the third was this idea of being curious. You know, a part of this, the principles of patterns is that what we, we tend to do is, and it’s important we, we understand the basics of the pattern, the simple element, but, but the patterns teach us that there’s surprise on the edges.

11. 4:22

    A lot of people have come and, and, and, and, and chatted to me a bit about these fractals and they’re saying they’re starting to see fractals everywhere. That’s great, you know, so long as you don’t end up in a hypnosis trance. And the beauty is that there’s this beauty, there’s, there’s the, the overall pattern, but it’s, it’s the beauty.

12. 4:39

    It’s, and if you’re curious, you can see, Oh, it looks similar, but it’s a little bit different. And that’s what we have to be like both when we’re connecting in with nature and with our spiritual connections, our heavenly connections. You know what, what, what different thing am I am I perceiving? What different insight is there?

13. 4:56

    And that’s what it means really to, to, to, to be activated, to not end up becoming passive disciples who just go through the motions and we really become dead. We’re not alive anymore. And that’s not the place we want to be. It’s interesting and there’s a lot of terminology that we as a community no longer use, but we were talking about the way in which we can view the, the, the, the, the, the times and the places and even the objects.

14. 5:29

    We were talking about breaking of bread and, and, and, and other objects. In fact, other practices as well. I, I didn’t mention this yesterday, but you know, it’s also interesting as a community. We there, there, there are other practices that were definitely New Testament practices that we’ve just decided of no value. I’m not sure when last you practiced washing of feet in your ecclesia. I’m not sure when last you practiced anointing with oil with prayer, right.

15. 5:58

    So now looking at this through the heaven and earth lens, you can begin to see where the value may be in some of these practices that certainly continued into the into the early church. It’s interesting when we look at the Exodus record and we know that all the symbols that were put in place and we’re going to spend some time actually focusing on the Tabernacle because it’s, it’s an amazing pattern. It’s an amazing framework for us to understand worship and what I’ve termed whole worship.

16. 6:28

    How do we enter worship as activated as we can? And the Tabernacle was that it was a, it was a way that God put in place together with a whole bunch of very sensual symbols that was intended to take the worshipper through a whole experience. Love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart and soul. So when that Tabernacle was constructed, and this is the point we’d be making, you know, they were curtains made out of material, wooden beams and structure, hooks and nails that we spoke about, gold, bronze, all the elements were made by these, these Craftsman.

17. 7:05

    But you know, they remained objects. They, they, they just things because as we said, they only become symbols when they are connected to the heavenly. And so in order to, to demonstrate that idea, what did God make the priest do? He said, I want you to get some oil. You see, this is an echo back to what Jacob had done with the stone that looked like it was just another stone until he realized this was a place where heaven and earth could meet and and take that oil.

18. 7:33

    And I want you to go anoint. And it’s actually amazing when you read the the record, this is just a short verse that I’ve got here. Anoint every single part of that Tabernacle. And once you’ve anointed it, it will become holy. So what’s the principle? The principle is this something that is anointed with oil, with the spirit, with heaven, earth anointed with heaven becomes holy. And that’s a really, really amazing way for us to look at at at that word and how we think about it. So for example, we’ve mentioned there are holy things, things that we know are specifically used in our worship because they are intended to connect us with heaven. There are also holy places.

19. 8:19

    You might say, well, I don’t feel so comfortable about that, but it’s true. When we decide to to go to our church hall, it’s not holy all the time. But when we come into that hall and we decide at this point in time, we’re going to spend the next hour and a half and we’re going to dedicate that time to connecting with heaven.

20. 8:37

    Why do we always start with a prayer? I mean, it’s like one of these rituals. We do always start the meeting with the prayer. What’s going on with the prayer? Well, it’s our way of anointing that time. We’re anointing this as a holy time in which we are going to be connecting with heaven.

21. 8:53

    And the same is really true of places. So now we’re anointing that place and it can be any place that if we look at a place, a certain place, and we decide this place I want to use to dedicate to my connection with heaven, well, it becomes a holy place if we’re prepared to look at it through those eyes. And it, it can be really helpful. Now, it does require you to have open eyes and to be curious. And, you know, I think this, this story here is really a cool story.

22. 9:21

    We know it so well from, from Sunday school. But I don’t know if you’ve, you’ve looked at the detail of what goes on when Moses encounters the burning Bush. You know often, well for me at least, when you, you think about some of these amazing events that we have recorded in the Old Testament, it always feels so foreign from the way we experience our discipleship. You know, something like amazing came in front of the person and there was no ways they could but notice it. Isn’t that the way we think about it? We, we don’t think that maybe these men and women like us were very curious.

23. 9:56

    Maybe they were opening their eyes and looking for those opportunities where heaven and earth could meet. Now I want to suggest to you that’s actually what happens at the burning Bush. So if you will come with me to Exodus chapter 3, because it’s worth seeing this, you know, one of these Sunday school stories we, we know so well so that when we read it in the Bible reading, we don’t concentrate because we know where, where it’s going to end.

24. 10:18

    But look at the detail here. Moses, as we’re aware he’s he’s tending the flock, he’s got Jethro’s animals and he goes from Midian actually quite a long way away, probably looking for some fertile posture, ends up near what we know now as the Mount Sinai area in the Sinai Peninsula called Mount Horeb at that time. And he’s wandering around there.

25. 10:40

    And it’s probably similar countryside to some of the countryside without the trees that I’ve seen around in Southern California. It’s pretty barren. And I guess I’m not sure about you, but certainly where I come from, when we’ve gone walking in some of this barren countryside, sometimes we do see a bit of a fire, you know, bushes on fire.

26. 10:56

    We don’t normally stick around there. We normally like go the other way because like something terrible might happen. And and so in other words, what Moses first sees is not necessarily that out of the ordinary. So we have it recorded for us in verse 2. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the Bush.

27. 11:13

    Now, of course, because we read it like that, we think, oh, he already sees an Angel of the Lord. No, no, it didn’t work like that. That’s the way the the writer of Genesis has recorded it because he knows that’s what’s actually happened here. But look at actually what’s happened. So he looked and, behold, the Bush was burning with fire, but the Bush was not consumed. Ah, so Moses has got his eyes wide open. He’s just just not walking through life passively. He’s looking around, and he notices this Bush is on fire. And he stops for a while, and he watches it. And we know that if a Bush is on fire, depending on its size, eventually it’s going to go out because that’s the end of the Bush.

28. 11:46

    But it doesn’t go out. Now, you might think, well, you know, maybe you’re making a bit too much of that, that that isn’t what happened. But look at the detail. It follows. Then Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great site, why the Bush does not burn. So he actually has to turn away from wherever he was going, curiously go and have a look at this physical object, this bit of earth that’s being presented to him.

29. 12:13

    And he’s now going to see what what’s going on here. This is not something I’ve seen before. This is the kind of curiosity that we’re being encouraged to have. These are the kind of eyes that we’re being encouraged to have. And, and and here’s the clincher. Look at what verse four says. So when the Lord saw that, he turned aside to look.

30. 12:36

    Had some other people walk past the burning Bush and not bothered to turn aside? Had some other people walk past their burning Bush and not looked? I don’t know. But Exodus says Moses is connected to heaven because he turns aside and looks, and God caught to him from the midst of the Bush and said, Moses, Moses.

31. 13:00

    And he said, here I am. Then he said to him, do not draw near to this space. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. For everybody else, it was just a piece of soil with a normal Bush. Now we know the divine presence is in that place and therefore it’s holy ground.

32. 13:19

    And we take our shoes off so that we can touch that ground. And that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about. And I think it’s just just again, an encouragement for us, especially as we go out into the natural world here, to always be trying to see that connection that could possibly be giving us a moment to join heaven and earth and to experience the real presence of our God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

33. 13:41

    I love this. Now that you know that I love this beautiful verse from the well known poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Earth is crammed with heaven and every common Bush of fire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit around and pluck blackberries. How many trees have you not seen God’s presence in it? How many places have you just plucked blackberries and not seen heaven and earth connected?

34. 14:14

    And that’s really what we have available for us out there, the principle we established in Genesis One, that all of this natural creation is a way for us to connect to the heavenly pattern. All of these patterns that are revealing themselves to you every day are an opportunity to make that connection. You know, it’s Paul who establishes the principle, and he and he, he’s specifically talking about the resurrection. But it’s a principle that is powerful in every pragmatic application of our discipleship.

35. 14:42

    When he says at the end, however, the spiritual is not first, but the natural and after with the spiritual, really interesting because actually he’s reversing the principle of Genesis. As we said, it was first heaven and then it’s earth. But what he’s saying is from our perspective, the way in which time has revealed itself to us, we can see through the natural into the spiritual.

36. 15:02

    So there’s a sense that that this, this world out there, this pattern of creation out there, it’s calling out to, to speak to us. It’s the pattern that we can recognise. And the more we recognise the spiritual, the more we see it again in the, in the natural. And then the natural gives us further insight into the spiritual. And there’s this interaction that we’ve been talking about. And, and there’s no better example of that when you just walk out of this room and get past some of the palm trees, although they’re, they’re in an amazing, an amazing pattern on their own.

37. 15:31

    But but just look at the peak and the mountain that’s just over there and it’s the shape of almost every mountain and there it is. And is that is that just, is that just, Well, I mean, by by chance that we have a mountain that that has this principle and this idea of earth reaching towards heaven. And that all the principles we were talking about where heaven is that singular identity, purpose, mission that is amplified in earth is in the very shape of the mountain. Maybe.

38. 16:06

    But we know, we know absolutely that it’s not by chance because of all the principles we’ve looked at already and because of what we’re about to see right now, that when God designed a pattern for worship, he actually designed it on the principle of the mountain. So we’re going to now move on.

39. 16:22

    Well, not quite. We’re going to get to that in a moment. I just want to finish off with with talking about Jesus. You know, Jesus in the way that he had come to understand the natural world and the connecting of heaven and earth. He walked around a world that for him was activated. Everything he saw, the sheep and the sun and the trees and the fruit and the, and the what else have we got there and the birds and the grapes.

40. 16:52

    I did a list. I came up with over 50 different natural items that Jesus saw in a heavenly context. That’s the way he walked around the world. And this delightful little picture here is kudos to Chechi Petit. I said, here are all the things that Jesus actually saw in the world and was able to connect to heaven. Draw me a picture.

41. 17:14

    And what an abundant, delightful, bright picture he drew because that’s the world he lived in. Imagine if we could walk around that making those connections. And they’re not just metaphors and they’re not just visual aids. He could see that that tree and its meaning went all the way up to the highest spiritual meaning and connection to God, that it is good.

42. 17:37

    And he confused them as a result, often when he was walking around, you know, he would say things that confused his his disciples. You know, he would say, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And they reasoned among themselves, Is it because we have taken no bread? You know, because he was just seeing that connection. It, it, it wasn’t even something separated for him. That’s the way he viewed the world. He said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.

43. 18:02

    They said, what? How’s he going to raise up this temple that took all these years for for Herod and the guys to build? No, he was Speaking of the temple of his body. So he was at another level all the time. And so that’s why we find Jesus even engaging, speaking to the water and to the wind and to the trees and being able to to understand that they were a connection to heaven at all times.

44. 18:27

    So it’s an encouragement for us when we go out into nature, which I’m also hoping you will do a lot of that. You’re always looking for those activation opportunities, those moments for heaven and earth to connect. So that brings us then, as I said, to this topic of worship. And you know, it’s something we we talk a lot about because that’s what we tend to do. We come to worship God, we worship collectively, and we worship privately.

45. 18:56

    So what do I mean by worship? There could be many, many definitions of worship, but for the sake of this particular discussion, I want to say that worship is the time that we take out of our everyday life, whether it be in private or together in public, in community, to specifically dedicate to focusing on our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So that’s, that’s what it is.

46. 19:22

    That’s the definition of worship that’s distinguished from what we’re doing every single part of our our day. Now before someone comes and tells me this, because it’s very true, we can be meeting God and we should be looking for God in every part of our life, but we know it’s important still to set it aside times of worship. So hopefully in your personal life you’ve set routines and times where you know you can worship, whether it be a time to pray, a time to read and consider God’s word, a time to meditate, and that’s private worship. And then you also have time when you gather together with your ecclesia Sunday morning, you dedicate an hour and a half and you are there to worship.

47. 20:01

    So what’s going on when we actually come to worship? What is the purpose of worship? Well, it’s interesting because you know, when I have given some talks on on this particular topic, obviously the emphasis on maybe being more active in the use of symbols and the emphasis on the earth and the pragmatic and concrete touching, people get a bit concerned and they say, well, you know, we’ve got to be very careful.

48. 20:30

    Yeah, because one thing’s for sure, like we’re not saved by anything we do and by any physical object or symbol. And that’s a very important principle to get right straight away. So I want to, I want to get that right because I think it’s important when we think about worship, because I think the practice of worship and how we participate in worship is really important, but I don’t think it’s important to save us. So let’s deal with that.

49. 20:56

    But I’m going to go fast because I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you this. Ephesians 2, verse eight. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. I told you that 17 years ago and many people have told you that there is nothing any one of us can do that will save us.

50. 21:14

    Nothing. So that needs to be clear. And that is only through the gift of God, the grace of God provided by the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and His work and our life that’s done. We are saved. We are saved. And here’s the thing, and John alluded it to this in the Romans 6 passage. The question is, how do we respond to that? What is our response?

51. 21:42

    So it’s this idea that there is a ladder that has been laid down. It was not there before. We couldn’t move from the bottom of the mountain to the top. But the way has been opened. Your sin is no longer an impediment. You have been saved. What will you do now? Will you sit back and say, well that’s great, that’s done, I’ll move on to something else now?

52. 22:05

    Or will you say I want to rush up to the top of the mountain? I want to move forward with love in response to this gift that I’ve received. I want to develop the most beautiful and loving relationship that I can with my Father and the Lord Jesus Christ because there’s nothing in the way. The only thing that’s left in the way is myself. And I want to get up to the top of the mountain. I want to join earth and heaven as fast as I can. And I put it to you.

53. 22:37

    That is the purpose of worship. You know, we may come to worship and in, in, in the process of worship, we give thanks to God. We sing praises. We, we, we, we, we worship his name. We give all to him. We glorify him. And these are all important parts of worship. We learn lessons from the Bible in worship, but why do we do all of that?

54. 22:59

    What what? What are all of those components building towards the deepening of our relationship with our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what faith is. That’s why the word that still appears in Ephesians 2 is faith. We come to any worship session with the objective that when we leave, in some way we have deepened our relationship with the living Father and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

55. 23:29

    That is the main purpose of why we gather together. And so I think it’s quite important to understand that. And The thing is this, you know, we are, we are saved together. It’s it’s a concept that I, I, I think we’d be influenced by actually as a community, because a lot of mainstream Christianity focuses on personal salvation. Our salvation is not guaranteed to us as individuals. The salvation.

56. 23:55

    No, no, we’re saved because we belong. You know, this Galatians 3, we are at the seed of Abraham. That’s why we say, and in fact that principle patterns was throughout the whole Old Testament. You were saved because you were part of the nation of Israel. You got out of the promise, out of Egypt because you together we’re all participating in the Passover meal and you all came out together. You got through the Red Sea, you were all taken together, you came to the promised land.

57. 24:18

    You all crossed over the Jordan together. We are saved because we belong. It is a collective thing. But here’s the thing, we have to continue to belong. Jesus says this in John. Jesus said remain in me as I also remain in you. No bronze can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine.

58. 24:44

    Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. So here’s here’s here’s what’s happening. The way has been opened. Salvation is for us as a part of the Commonwealth of Israel, but we have to remain connected to Jesus. And how do we do that? We grow the deepest possible roots that we can into His root.

59. 25:09

    We bind ourselves with them as deeply as possible so that we cannot and will not be broken off, because that’s the only way. Then ultimately, there is a connection between the practice of our worship and the practice of our everyday living and salvation. Because if we don’t belong to Him, we will not be a part of those who are saved at the time of the end.

60. 25:33

    In Romans 8, where where Paul is is coming to that crescendo when he talks about the, the, the absolute strength of that connection between the Father and us through the love of Jesus Christ. He says I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heart nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

61. 26:03

    In other words, he says, you know that that that relationship you seek for that bonding with Jesus, that’s going to make sure you’re a part of his community that are saved. You don’t need to be concerned because nothing out there in that world can separate you. Not not principalities, not powers, not even death. But He does leave out one important potential, and that’s ourselves.

62. 26:32

    That’s what’s missing from Romans 8. And that’s why we are always to be focused on rushing as close as we can to Him on the motivation of love to get close to our God. And that’s what I believe worship is all about. And when we come to the framework for worship, which I believe is beautifully given to us both in pattern and also lessons of symbol in the Tabernacle, we are told in Hebrew eight, it was a copy of the divine pattern. So, so by looking at this Tabernacle, we can maybe see what are some of the practices that could help us to deepen that relationship.

63. 27:07

    Every time we come to worship together on a Sunday morning, what what kind of things might we be thinking about? What kind of process, what kind of symbols might help us in developing that relationship? When we’re privately worshipping, when we decide just to kneel on our on our knees next to our bed, What what kind of mindset, what pattern have we been taught that would be the way of worship?

64. 27:31

    Now we know that the Tabernacle was always associated with worship. Psalm 132. Let us go into his Tabernacle. Let us worship at his footstool. Jeremiah says, stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there the word. Hear the word of the Lord, all of you of Judah who end in at his gates to worship the Lord.

65. 27:49

    So let’s just take the rest of the time we have remaining to think about worship in the, the, the, the template of the Tabernacle. And I want to try and show you that there’s a beautiful little template that’s easy to remember that’s associated with worship from the Tabernacle now. Oh, before I do that, this is just a stunning verse, stunning passage to emphasize the purpose of worship.

66. 28:15

    It says but God, Ephesians 2 verse four, who is rich in mercy, right? We’ve been saved. He’s given us his grace because of his great love which he has loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Present tense. By grace you have been saved. In case you didn’t get it, look at what the response is and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

67. 28:42

    Having cleared the way we are raised to a new life. We are a new creation. What are we going to do? Does the new one who is raised just fall backwards or does he rush up to heavenly places? We’re trying to move towards the connection to heaven and that’s, that’s what I believe Ephesians 2 is beautifully summarizing. So that that idea is what is summarized in the pattern of worship that is repeated throughout the Word of God. I’m giving you 3 little tips of it, but many of you will know the same pattern is there in Revelation where John goes through the door of heaven.

68. 29:16

    But, but obviously we’ve spoken about the connection, which now represents linking heaven and earth together of Jacob’s ladder. But I want you to focus for a moment on the idea of the mountain. I’ve really suggested to you that the physical shape of the mountain is a beautiful symbol of this idea of heaven and earth and the way that they connect. But actually this played itself at, as we know when the children of Israel came through the Red Sea and God wanted to make covenant with him.

69. 29:45

    When God said, look, this is definitely happening. We are going to one day meet in the ultimate macrocosm of the plan that I put in place in Genesis one verse one. And guess where it was? It was in the same place where Moses had seen the burning Bush. And now he’s back with everyone because God saves collectively and he’s got the whole nation and and and and they are called to come together.

70. 30:10

    And before they come together, before they even got close to the mountain, Moses goes to them. And this is the first, first part of worship you need to remember. And he says, get ready, prepare. We are going to Mount Sinai to worship. So the first principle of worship in the way of worship is preparation. If you want to have an effective journey from earth to heaven, be prepared.

71. 30:36

    And I’m going to leave you to think about this in terms of your coming to a Sunday morning and how much preparation you put in and what you might do. But that’s true in that example and many, many other examples we have when we go to worship. Are we prepared? Secondly, and of course, that links to intentionality. Secondly, once they had prepared, they came, all of them to the foot of the mountain.

72. 30:59

    And I haven’t been at at Johnny’s talks, but my wife gives me some snippets and she says he spoke about that mountain being on fire like a burning Bush. And absolutely there was no doubt. Remember we said one of the etymologies of heaven is the place of fire and water. So they come and they see this mountain on fire. Because one of the reasons that’s happening is because God will start with saying we need to understand the difference between heaven and earth.

73. 31:23

    We need to get perspective here, all right? This is the infinite Creator, and we are the dust of the earth. And so they see that, they see that fire and they see that mountain and they hear the Thunder and they say, no, no, no, no, we’ll just stay here at the bottom of the mountain. And so you have the 1st all of the nation are at the bottom of the mountain.

74. 31:43

    And then what happens is God says, well, you know, I need to meet you. So why don’t you get about 70 elders and get them together and come up further. And so Moses then gets them and I’m, I’m, I’m just for the sake of time, you, you, you will, you will believe me that it says this. So the first parts in Exodus 19, if you are taking notes, verses 17 to 23.

75. 32:04

    And then the second part is in Exodus 24, nine to 11, Moses, Aaron, Naidab and Abayu and the 70 hours and they go up a bit further. And you know what? They have the most incredible vision. They, they actually see this, this, this, this sapphire stone and, and they see this, this kind of throne.

76. 32:24

    It’s very similar vision to, to the one that John sees. And they eat and they drink with God. He provides for them because that we were talking about in in John’s session hospitality. He hosts them for a meal on the slopes of Mount Sinai, but it’s not done yet. Moses then says to God then says to Moses, now you, I want you to come up to the top. And Moses goes all the way to the top of the mountain. And then God has for him the Word, the word that is now contained in the 10 commandments, which becomes a symbol of the covenant of the joining of heaven and earth. And he says, here is where we will meet. Now you don’t need me to tell you this because you are well taught in the Scripture.

77. 33:11

    That is the pattern upon which the Tabernacle was now built. They couldn’t move a mountain around, so they took the mountain and they squashed it. And that is the pattern of the Tabernacle. So outside of the Tabernacle, well, there was everybody. In fact, outside of the Tabernacle there are clean and unclean people, everybody going about doing their business. But then some people realized that they wanted to connect with heaven and what would they do?

78. 33:37

    Would they just arrive and walk into the courtyard on someday? No, they would say, I’m going to go tomorrow to the Tabernacle. I’m going to go in two or three days time. And they prepared. There were a number of things that you needed to do to prepare. You should think of abstaining from certain activities.

79. 33:53

    You should think of fasting. You should think of preparing and offering. You should wash and you should put on some different clothing. You make of that, of what you will, But you should do that. You should be intentional about the fact that tomorrow, in two days time, you’re going to try and meet God. You’re trying to move up the mountain. And so when you were ready and you had prepared, you then came into the outer court.

80. 34:17

    And what did you discover when you walked through the outer court? Well, I’ve got this most beautiful picture story that I’d written, which is part of the pot we cut out which, which tries to describe that journey because it’s a sensory journey that they went through. But anyway, you get into this courtyard and all of the people could go into the courtyard. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s the whole nation. It’s the people at the bottom of the mountain. And of course there’s fire.

81. 34:42

    You know, when you walked through the Tabernacle, it’s quite confronting. As you walked in, there was the altar of bird offering bronze and the sun would have been shining on it would have like you would have needed sunglasses. You wouldn’t have had in those days. And the fire of the, of the altar was going smoke. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s in your face. It’s, it’s this idea, first of all, that that this is the God who is to be awed.

82. 35:03

    He is the God that we praise as infinite. But in the same way we’re being taught, it’s the place of offering, it’s the place of sacrifice, it’s the place of humility, it’s the place where we empty ourselves so that we can be redeemed. And the redemption is actually happening in that out of court chart for everybody.

83. 35:26

    And then of course, once you had been through the altar of burnt offering where you have the refining of the fire, and through the Laver where you have the purification of the water, echoes, fire, water refining, both happening in the outer court, you now have the opportunity to move into the holy place. So we’ve gone from prepared to offering and humility. Second part of worship, empty yourself. Make yourself ready to receive into the holy place. What’s going on in the holy place? Well, what happened on the slopes of the mountain? Less people, less people.

84. 36:05

    And they’ve been provided for by God. He’s he’s got the lamp flickering away. He’s got the table ready. Dinner is ready. Let’s eat and drink together. Let me provide for you. It’s the place of provision. It’s the place, the next phase of worship, where we, having emptied ourselves, can receive, we can receive him in. And then finally, finally, you move from the holy place to the holy of holies, through the veil into this incredibly intimate space where meeting takes place, where this this experience that is beyond words, where the relationship is unbreakable, is forged, where heaven and earth are meeting in their strongest possible form.

85. 37:00

    And it is an ascension up the mountain is exactly what we’re having demonstrated for us so beautifully in the Tabernacle. And I know with you knowing all of your symbols and your Tabernacles, your mind should be racing off at all the way the rest of the detail of the symbols, we’re just establishing the essential central pattern. But the curiosity of all the the added extras are there as they were drawing the worshiper in.

86. 37:25

    Have you noticed something? And I think this is really important that that on this journey for worship, we know that the one lesson that’s been taught is that everybody could be in the courtyard. Less people could be in the holy place. Only the half priest could be in the holy of holies one day a year.

87. 37:42

    And we know that the first lesson of that, obviously is the fact that Jesus has opened it all. He’s opened the way. I just love the idea that the 1st, the 1st curtains open, the second curtains open and he’s torn from top to bottom, top to bottom, the bail. And that’s what Hebrew says. It says we, we brothers and sisters, have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Christ, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh.

88. 38:09

    We can just go rushing all the way in. But here’s the thing. So, so, so that’s what’s happened. We don’t have the limitations of everybody, the priests and just the the high priest. But you know, that pattern was also teaching this. Salvation is something, as I’ve said, that is collective relationship with God. Faith is individual.

89. 38:32

    Let me say that again. Salvation is something that is collective. We are saved by being a seed of Abraham, a member of the Commonwealth of Israel. Faith and relationship are personal. Our journey to the Holy of Holies ends up being you and your God, you and your Father, you and the Lord Jesus Christ.

90. 38:56

    Worship ultimately is personal. The practice of worship, the symbols that you might find useful, they’re about you and they’re about what will be useful for you to grow and develop your relationship. And that’s a very important lesson that’s been taught to us in the framework of the spaces of the Tabernacle. So there it is, I’m afraid.

91. 39:18

    It’s written from right to left. We say. Why do the Hebrews write from right to left? Well, because their worship was oriented, as we know, from east to West. Why was that? Well, we heaven and earth people, now we know the sun rising first in the east and moving through to the West, the 1st heaven and earth kissing to the latter heaven and earth kissing. And so as you go into the Tabernacle, that sun is lighting your way at your back the whole way as you move from east to West, prepare, offer, empty, refine, receive meat. You might want to think about that framework and be intentional.

92. 39:55

    When you go on a Sunday morning and you go through whatever it is your particularly at cliches routine is. And maybe you might want to look at that routine and where you got it from and see whether in fact it has this pattern, this essential pattern as it’s called, not that. Doing it right will save you. You see, we don’t have to have that discussion. Not that having any specific symbol will save you, but that it will enhance your ability to develop relationship with the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is where I think we’ll end it for today.