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He Lived With Us!--1

CONNIE: You know, Lonnie, I have to confess, there have been times when I wished I could just call up God on a cell phone that He carried with Him everywhere--wouldn't it be nice to know we could dial a certain number, or go to a certain place to contact God?

LONNIE: I think I understand what you're saying--even though you know you can pray to God and get answers on a 24-7 basis, it would still be nice if there was a special place . . .

CONNIE: Well, isn't that what God promised to His people in Old Testament times?

LONNIE: You must be referring to that text in Chronicles, where God promised that He'd always be in His temple, and people could come to find Him there.

CONNIE: Yes, here it is, 2 Chronicles 7: 15 & 16:

Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. (NIV)

LONNIE: It's true, in Old Testament times, and even in Jesus' day, people always knew they could go to the tabernacle or temple to pray. But we don't have anything exactly like that on earth today.

CONNIE: But God still dwells with us.

LONNIE: Yes He does, as I'll be pointing out in my message today, "He Lived With Us!--Part 1."

CONNIE: Why do you think God had His people build a tabernacle--and later a temple--for Him to dwell in back in Bible times?

LONNIE: That's an excellent question--one that David Smith put to a leading Bible scholar, Dr. Greg King, recently. Dr. King is chairman of the religion department at Pacific Union College, and he provided some excellent answers. Let's listen.

DAVID: Now Greg this week here on the VOP we're studying the Bible history of the tabernacle. I've got to confess that in past years that if you asked me about the Old Testament and the tabernacle, number one, I'd probably yawn, and number two I would cringe I suppose. But this is an exciting topic, especially as it deals with the idea of He dwelt among us. He lived with us. Greg there in Exodus and in your teaching there at the college, what was the purpose of the tabernacle?

GREG: Well as a matter of fact David we have just been talking about that this week in my Books of Moses class, and I think that one of the most exciting verses in the Old Testament, one of the most exciting verses in all of Scripture I might say is Exodus 25:8. It is a foundational verse. What we might call a programmatic verse in dealing with the purpose of the tabernacle and it reads, "Let them make me a tabernacle," the Lord is speaking here, "so that I may dwell among them." In other words, the basic purpose, the main reason for the construction of that tabernacle was to have a visible dwelling place of God among His people.

DAVID: So that reveals the desire of God to have a presence, to be real in the lives of those folks.

GREG: Exactly, now I might add a couple of things. There are some who would wonder, Well hadn't God already been dwelling among His people. He had been there in the past hadn't He? Well yes He had. Of course we think of God leading them, and His presence with them through the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night with their journey out there in the wilderness, but if we remember the context of Exodus, David, you will recall from chapter 19 through chapter 24 of Exodus, God's presence, His glorious presence. Sometimes we use the term Shekinah, to apply to that glorious presence of God, which had been dwelling on top of Mt. Sinai.

God had condescended to meet Moses on Mt. Sinai, He had given Moses His law written on the tables of stone with God's own finger, but now the context is moving on from there to the construction of the tabernacle, and we are at a watershed moment, what we might call it where God's presence is going to move down from Mt. Sinai, and is going to move into that tabernacle and to dwell there. So in a sense, David, we might say, instead of God forcing the people to come up to Him, God is going to bring His presence down to them. What a wonderful metaphor for the incarnation that is. God condescending to meet among His people, and to dwell among His people.

DAVID: Greg, I peeked ahead, and I want you to go to, in a moment, to John 1:14, but I looked into The Message paraphrase which everybody is reading these days. Where it says "the word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood," and I think that captures the essence of what you're saying about God condescending and taking the initiative to come right down from the hill and be with His people. Move into John 1:14, and Christ and the Incarnation. Kind of take us in that direction.

GREG: Well, I'm glad you brought up that verse, cause there's a distinct thematic connection between Exodus 25, and John 1:14. I think unfortunately, David, some of the English translations of John 1:14, smooth out the verse a little too much, because they will say something like, "And the word," and of course The Word in the context of John 1 is speaking of Jesus. They say the word was made flesh, and they will use the word sometimes like He dwelt among us, or He lived among us, and while that is true, the word there is more precise than that. It says Jesus pitched His tent or He tabernacled among us. In other words, what the Old Testament tabernacle was looking forward to. When it shared this message of God's gracious condescension to meet with His people, in their midst, and you may recall in Old Testament times, the sanctuary was the central part of the camp of Israel. You had 3 tribes of Israel on each side of the tabernacle. So it was the center of the camp. That was looking forward to the time when Jesus would come, and the New Testament. The Word was made flesh, and He pitched His tent among us. Jesus in the center of His people. And I think that reminds us of where our focus as God's children should be today: on Jesus Christ.

DAVID: Sure, so the parallel with the original language is stronger than perhaps we realize.

GREG: Yes, in fact the word that is used there in John 1:14 where it says Jesus tabernacled, or he pitched His tent among us. Often times that same root is used in the Old Testament to refer to the tabernacle. So what it's basically saying is that Jesus is the tabernacle in our midst, and of course Jesus said later on in the Gospel of John, "If you have seen Me, then you have seen the Father." You see Jesus is the dwelling place of God among His people.

DAVID: Yes. Greg, in ten seconds closing here. How can Christians today recapture the sense of that presence of God? We don't have the tabernacle, but how can we recapture that same thing?

GREG: Well I think a couple of things we keep in mind David, just quickly, one, is we practice the presence of God in our lives, we communicate with Him through prayer, through Bible Study. I like the way the apostle Paul says it, "Pray without ceasing." In a sense it is true in our prayer lives that we bring God's presence into our hearts, and one more thing I might add. The tabernacle is not completed even with Jesus at the Incarnation pitching His tent among us, but in Revelation 21:3, the Bible tells us that there will come a time when God Himself will tabernacle with His people, that same word is used again, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and He will be their God. So in a sense, what Jesus gave us in the incarnation, what the Israelites experienced in the Old Testament tabernacle. All of these were a foretaste of what all of God's children will experience in Heaven as they enjoy eternity with their Lord.

DAVID: It's a great theme from Genesis to Revelation. Greg King from PUC, we sure appreciate you joining us today.

GREG: My pleasure David.

DAVID: Thanks

CONNIE: Won't that be great--to live with God forever! Let's listen now as Merrilou Luthas sings about dwelling with that Immortal, Invisible, all-wise God

"Immortal, Invisible", Merrilou Luthas, from Trust His Heart CD, Track 1

CONNIE: Well, God may be immortal and invisible, but that certainly doesn't mean that He can't be found! He tells us in Jeremiah 29:13

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

LONNIE: So He can be found.

CONNIE: Yes that's right, and if you're searching for a better knowledge of God, I'd like to recommend a book to help you. It's called Searching for a God to Love. Now our regular listeners know that we normally give away books on our program, but this one's not in that category. We need to ask for a minimum $15.00 donation if you'd like to receive it, but you'll find it's well worth the price. I'll be giving our mailing address later, but right now you can call 1-800-872-0055 to request the book. Have a credit card ready, and you can make the donation over the phone and we'll send the book right out to you. The number to call again is 1-800-872-0055.

LONNIE: God has revealed Himself in different ways in different circumstances.

CONNIE: At the time when the apostle John wrote his Gospel, Christians faced a special challenge. Where should they look for God's dwelling place on earth? Lonnie will be dealing with that question in his message today, but first, Ken Wade is joining me here in the studio for a little more background on this idea of God having a special place for us to meet Him.

Ken, a little earlier in the program I read the text from 2 Chronicles where God promised that He would always "be there" for His people. And the "there" referred to was at the temple that Solomon built back about 950 years before the birth of Jesus. Tell us, what was the status of that temple when John was writing his Gospel, and do you think that had anything to do with some of the stories about Jesus we find there?

KEN: Well, Jerusalem had gone through a lot of different circumstances in the more than a thousand years since Solomon first built a temple there.

CONNIE: And in Solomon's lifetime, didn't he have a whole bunch of other temples built nearby for all of his wives to worship in.

KEN: Well that's true, the temple he built for God was not the only temple he built, and then after Solomon's time there were other kings that came along who didn't honor God, and the temple often fell into disrepair because the people really didn't give it any attention.

LONNIE: Then of course in 586 BC the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians which prompted Daniel's poignant prayer for it's restoration found in Daniel 9.

KEN: Well that's right. People had rebelled against God, over and over again, and finally through Jeremiah, God let them know that the temple was not going to be defended anymore, and so they went into exile. When they returned from exile 70 years later, they started to build a new temple. That was completed in about 515 BC, and stood for many years thereafter. About 19 BC King Herod, the one we know as Herod the Great, decided to build a new temple, and in order to do that he trained 1000 priests to begin the work, and that work went on for 82 years, and it wasn't completed until AD 64.

LONNIE: Well then it didn't last very long did it?

KEN: Well of course not because it was in AD 70, just 6 years later that the temple was destroyed.

CONNIE: And didn't that fulfill Jesus' prophecy that not one stone would be left on top of another.

KEN: That's right, and then of course we have John's Gospel that was written after that time, and I think that's why John mentioned about Jesus tabernacling among us, and tells the story of Jesus' discussion of where to worship, with the woman at the well.

CONNIE: So Ken, so by the time John was writing his Gospel, there was a real crisis in people's minds: If God has allowed His temple to be razed to the ground, how do we make contact with Him now?

Fortunately, as usual, Jesus had provided an answer even before the question was asked, as Lonnie shares in his message, "He Lived With Us! Part 1."

SERMON LONNIE: It was a hot summer afternoon--one of those dry, dusty days that saps the strength right out of you--a day when you'd like to put up a sign saying "Gone Fishin' " and go find yourself a shady spot under the willow tree down by the creek.

A man and woman stood out in the bright sun, beside an ancient well, deeply involved in conversation. As they talked their eyes turned from time to time toward a mountain on the near horizon. The woman gestured, pointing toward the top of the mountain: "You know about the temple up there," she said. "My ancestors and relatives have always met God and worshiped there. But your people have a different temple and you think that's where God lives. So, who's to say what's right?"

That, of course, is a rather loose paraphrase of John 4:19--the Samaritan woman's question to Jesus.

It's an ironic question isn't it, when you stop to think about it. This woman has come to get her day's water supply at noon. Seemingly by chance she meets a Jewish man there who strikes up a conversation with her.

What she doesn't realize is that she is standing in the very presence of God at that very moment.

And there, in God's presence, she asks the question: Where should a person go to find God?

It's an age-old question that has challenged people throughout history. The ancient Babylonians referred to their city as "the gate of God"--implying that those who wanted to find God would have to come to Babylon.

In the Greek religion, a fissure at Delphi that emitted sulphurous fumes was considered the best place to make contact with the god Apollo, and kings, priests, and commoners flocked to the oracle there to seek advice. Perhaps you've heard the story of King Croesus {kree'-suhs}of Lydia. It's said that when he was planning a war with Persia, he consulted the Oracle of Delphi. The oracle told him that if he attacked Persia a great empire would fall. He thought the oracle meant the Persian Empire would fall. Unfortunately for Croesus, it turned out to be his own empire that was destroyed.

Only a few years before Jesus met the woman of Samaria, the Roman emperor Augustus had built a magnificent temple to Apollo at Delphi.

So the woman was asking a "hot" question--one that would have been popular on the radio and TV talk shows in her day: Where do you go to find God?

It's a question people still argue today. Is it at your church, or my church? Is the best place to meet God at Mass, or in a revival meeting down at the tent on the street corner, or is it perhaps in a Hindu temple adorned with the faces of a thousand gods?

But the great irony for the woman at the well was that she was standing at the very best place to meet God right then.

In fact, God Himself had gone out of His way to meet her there.

When you read the story it becomes clear that Jesus had come to Samaria and had stopped by the well there with one purpose in mind: To meet that woman and share the grace of God with her.

When He arrived at the well, He sent His disciples away and sat there, quietly waiting for her to come for water. And when she came down the path with her jug in hand, He offered her the water of life.

That was when she asked Him about the proper place to worship God. He answered by telling her that no temple was adequate to contain God.

A time is coming and has now come, he told her, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

(John 4:23 NIV)

God was not looking for people who would flock to the nearest temple in hopes of receiving some blessing. He was interested in meeting honest seekers wherever they might be.

That's why Jesus came to earth. At the very beginning of his Gospel, the apostle John proclaimed that God "became flesh and dwelt among us." Literally, He came down here and pitched His tent with us.

He came looking for us!

He went to Samaria looking for that one woman who, despite her wayward lifestyle, was honest in her desire to meet God.

He came down and lived on earth in human flesh, literally becoming the "tabernacle"--the dwelling place--of God with human beings.

He came looking for people who would do as ancient Israel had done and put the tabernacle right in the center of their lives. People who would recognize God in human flesh and make Him the most important thing.

God is still looking for people who will worship Jesus "in spirit and in truth." People who will allow their spirits to come into harmony with the spirit of Christ. And people who will commit themselves to worshiping Him in total honesty. No room for hypocrisy. No room for putting on a show. God wants a totally open and honest relationship with you and me.

I don't know where you are in life today, friend. I don't know where your own spiritual journey has taken you.

But I do know where God is. And I do know where you can find Him. Because He's looking for you right where you are right now.

You can find Him right now, this very minute, wherever you are, because He's willing to go out of His way to find you and to come into your heart. You may think your life has been too rough, that you've made too many mistakes. If that's the way you feel, please find a Bible and read the fourth chapter of John. The woman who met Jesus at the well was no saint.

If Jesus had waited until people were ready to receive Him, He never would have come. But He came. He brought God down to our level.

Jesus not only "dwelt" among us. He dwells with us now.

So, you see, even before the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, Jesus had provided a solution to the problem. It's through Him that we come to God today.

You can do that right now, and every day. Why not get out that Bible of yours and meet Jesus through the stories told there. And then take some time to talk to Him. He'll be there for you. Right where you are, right now.