The Kingdom of God is the Sanctuary
Pray for earnest desire to be reborn, regenerated.
John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Jesus is trying to show something here. What does a serpent being lifted up on a pole have to do with being born again?
Numbers 21:5-6, “And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.”
What are the children of Israel doing here? They have sinned. The bible tells us the ‘wages of sin is death’. The story tells us people started dying.
Numbers 21:7-9, “Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”
They actually were doomed to death, but the children of Israel repented, the serpent was lifted up on the pole, and those that looked were given a second chance…new life. The Hebrew on the word ‘lived’: chayay (khaw-yah’ee), a primitive root (compare H2421); to live; causatively to revive: – live, save life. Think ‘born again’. See: 2 Kings 13:21 – this man was revived.
When they looked at the serpent, their sins were forgiven which created a new lease on life. The new lease on life was based on the fact that God forgave them. Forgiveness is important in the born-again experience. What happen at the laver? You are being washed from your sins and thus being born-again. The forgiveness of God is what enables us to have a new lease on life, otherwise it is impossible for us to have a new lease on life.
Reread John 3:14-15, and what comes after this?
John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
Jesus is trying to explain something to Nicodemus. What happens is, in God giving Christ – mankind becomes forgiven. The words: forgive and gave:
The word ‘forgive’ is a verb. In Old English ‘forgiefan’ means “give, grant, allow; remit (a debt), pardon (an offense),” also “give up”. From ‘for-‘, here probably “completely”, + giefan “to give” (from PIE root *ghabh- “to give or receive”). Forgiving means to forgive completely.
The word ‘forgive’ (aphiemi, afeeaymee), from G575 and inui hiemi (to send; an intensive form of Eiui eimi (to go); to send forth, in various application: -cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go have), omit, put (send) away, remit, suffer, yield up. To give means to ‘give something completely’ to ‘yield up’…’to forsake’.
The word ‘gave’ (didomi, did-o-mee) means, a prolonged form of a primary verb (which is used as an alternate in most of the tenses); to give (used in a very wide application, properly or by implication, literally or figuratively; greatly modified by the connection): – adventure, bestow, bring forth, commit, deliver (up), give, grant, hinder, make, minister, number, offer, have power, put, receive, set, shew, smith (+ with the hand), strike (+ with the palm of the hand, suffer, take, offer, yield.
Christ was fore-given to us, so that we might be forgiven of Him.
Mark 15:35, “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
This is why Jesus was embodied as a serpent on a pole…a desolate creature, this is why the symbol was used.
Matthew 27:50, “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.”
Romans 8:32, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
The phrase ‘delivered up’:
Delivered up (paradidomi, par-ad-id’-o-mee), from G3844 and G1325; to surrender, that is, yield up, intrust, transmit: – bring forth, cast, commit, deliver (up), give (over, up), hazard, put in prison, recommend.
Christ was numbered with the transgressors according to Isaiah 53:12. How do we get the newness of life?
Galatians 1:3-4, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:”
1 Peter 2:24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
Christ took our sins on his own body and bare them on the tree. So, when we are looking at Christ on the pole…on the cross…we need to understand that there was a transaction happening as he hung on the cross. He was taking our sins from us, sins that we give to him, and in essence removing the sins from us so that we might have a second lease on life. This is beautiful and powerful.
Romans 6:4,”Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Christ took our sins, put them upon himself and took them to the grave…He buried them. He buried our sins. That is what forgiveness is, and now we are able to walk in the newness of life.
Remember Jonah, who went down into the deep?
Jonah 2:1-6, ”The Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly, 2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. 5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the dept closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.”
Micah 7:19, “He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
When we accept Him, we must have a desire to live again – to be re-born.
The bible tells us ‘by beholding we become changed’. Christ took our sins and brought them to the ground. He buried them for us. He buried our past sins and without those sins in the way we become new creatures, we are born again. Forgiveness is a transaction. God sends his Son, gives his Son; and puts them in the grave. In response, we give our new life to Him. We come to Christ realizing we have sinned and ask “LORD forgive me”.
Acts 2:38, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
The word ‘remission’:
Remission (aphesis, af’-es-is), from G863; freedom; (figuratively) pardon: – deliverance, forgiveness, liberty, remission.
Our past sins have been cut off, we’re now at liberty to live now. This is why the bible tells us in:
Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
It is the death of Christ that sets us at liberty to live. Christ’s forgiveness leads to our rebirth experience. In the Old Testament, there was a symbol or ritual that was used to signify when a leaper had been cleansed.
Leviticus 14:1-7, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest: 3 And the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look, and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper; 4 Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop: 5 And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water: 6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water: 7 And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird go into the open field”
In one context, these two birds represent two aspects of Christs’ ministry; 1) His death-resurrection-going free, 2) when the living bird was dipped in the blood of the dead bird this is a vivid portrayal of what forgiveness is. It is us being dipped in the blood of the Lamb, being washed from our sins and therefore we have been born again. We are free to go.
John 18:4-8, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? 5 They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. 6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. 7 Then asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. 8 Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way:”
Forgiveness is Jesus taking our place, burying our sins, and letting us go free. We are to pray for forgiveness power. Forgiveness power moves us to respond to Christ which leads to newness of life. When we think of the altar of sacrifice, that is all about death, but there must be a resurrection. To forgive is to go forth to death for the guilty, and to carry the guilty party’s sin into the grave of your death. This is what Jesus did for us. Forgiveness is a transaction between Christ and me. He was given for my sins, and in return I am given to Him. We need to understand that forgiveness is not complete unless it is part of a transaction. Remember when Jesus said on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Guess what, those people rejected the forgiveness of God. God can offer forgiveness all day long, but if you don’t receive it, then it is nullified. Nobody is saved against their will, you must look.
Born Again
As mention above, in the courtyard we are born as a Christian. It is not about how far we get, as much as it is about being in the process. Some might say, ‘how can you say such a thing?’ We can say this with confidence because when we look at the thief on the cross, the thief on the cross didn’t get very far. The thief was not even baptized, but he made it to the first article of furniture (altar of sacrifice). He accepted Jesus as his Savior and he died a few hours later. On the cross he was growing but he didn’t get very far. He was assured of his destination for Jesus told him so. You see, it’s not just about the destination it’s also about being in the process; however, as long as we are alive as a Christian we should be growing – we should be in the process continually. So, in the courtyard we accept Jesus and we are covered, we are cleansed, we are born again.
Baptism is a work, a response to what Jesus did for us on the cross. It is a symbol of:
- a covenant relationship, just has circumcision was,
- consecration to Christ’s service, with the Holy Spirit we are to love God with all our heart and love others as ourself AND spread the gospel to a dying world,
- Christ’s death and resurrection,
- entrance into the Church, being embraced by the family of God,
There is only one baptism and our example is Jesus. He went down in the water fully and so should we.
Scripture references: Gen. 17:1-7; Matt. 3:13-17; Acts 10:38; Mark 16:16; Acts 8:12; 16:30-34; Ps. 42:7; 69:2; 124:4-5; Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50; Eph. 4:5; Romans 6:1-11; Jn. 3:3,5; Acts 2:41, 47; 1 Cor. 12:13
Remember:
Jesus does not leave us where he finds us. This is only the beginning of our journey and throughout our life we walk with him; however long or short that may be.
*Note: The terms: tabernacle, sanctuary, tent or tent of meeting refer to the structure that Moses built according to God’s blueprint. The terms can be used interchangeably so context is important to garner whether it is the entire structure or a portion such as the first and second compartments. The word ‘sanctuary’ itself can reference the earthly as well as the heavenly. Context is critical for understanding.