Quick show of hands in here. Growing up, how, how many of you ever played with Legos growing up? OK. All right, all right. Uh, uh, more than the first hour. OK, so I don't know what that means statistically here, but, uh, but I'm tracking with you, OK. So I did as well. Uh, have you ever been to Legoland in California? It's a theme park where they have roller coasters. Uh, to clarify, the roller coasters themselves, thankfully are not made out of Legos. I would not trust that. Um, but the theme park has Legos everywhere. I was curious and so I looked it up. We actually had, uh, in Legoland, California, there's over 60 million pieces, 60 million pieces. And along with the rides and the food and all the stuff that you find at theme parks, they have these incredible buildouts everywhere, uh, in the park. And so there's this place called Miniland USA and it's right next to a Star Wars section. That's my personal favorite, the Star Wars section. And, and they have in there. They have these incredible like replicas of cities. You can see landscapes and cityscapes of New York City, of Las Vegas, of San Francisco. Uh, in fact, it got me thinking and so, uh, also on the 12th, we're going to reveal Mission Grove, Lagos. So check it out. Here's our staff. Actually, some of the Legos, you can directly tell who they are. I love it, I love it. Over there. So, uh, not actually selling Mission Grove Legos, that was a joke, but OK. Unless it's gonna work, then we can figure this out, you know what I mean? Uh. So here's, here's why I share all this. As much as I love Legos, I never once thought, I never once thought when I was walking through Legoland, wow, look, there is New York City, right? I never thought, oh man, it's, it's actually Las Vegas. It's actually San Francisco. Like I never thought they were the actual places. They were replicas or buildings of a bigger reality, OK? Why do I share that? Well, I share that because today we're gonna take a look at the tabernacle. Now there's like Really chapters 25 to 31, and then they actually repeat it throughout the remainder of Exodus. They talk about this gathering place for God's people before the presence of God. And if we're being honest, when you read it, it can, it can feel like you're reading the building manual of a, of a Lego belt, right? It's like this many cubits, this many lengths, this color, fabric, this, you know, measurement, these materials, these colors, these class, these loops, these lamp stands, like, and it's very detailed instruction. And when I used to read that, I was like, OK, get to the good stuff, you know what I mean? Because if you think about it beforehand, it's like the splitting of the Red Sea, the giving of the 10 Commandments, taking on Pharaoh's army, and then it's like, this many cubits by this many cubits, by this many cubits. And then, and you're like, oh God, they're like, come on, what what's going on here? But here's the deal, OK? Is that the tabernacle represented how to get to God. And, and God, what we find is God actually cares about the details. He really does, right? And God tells us in there that It's a way to worship him. And what we're gonna see. Is that this building, it wasn't even a building, it was a tent because it was mobile, they're in the wilderness. Everything in the tent. was pointing to the coming of Jesus. So if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. What the tabernacle required. Jesus fulfilled. What the tabernacle required, Jesus fulfilled. Now, the word tabernacle literally means like a tent or a dwelling place. And some of you might be thinking, OK, John, this is supposed to be Palm Sunday, or you're used to coming into church and you talk about Jesus riding a donkey and, and people shouting Hosanna, and, and coming in. It's the beginning of Holy Week. What, why are we talking about the tabernacle 1500 years before? Well, my prayer and hope is that you're gonna see all the connections, and that what you're gonna see here is that what God laid out in Exodus was actually The instruction manual, uh, manual and material pointing to the coming of Jesus. And there's so many connections. It's incredible. I, I love studying it and I know it's a little, today it's gonna be a little heady, if you will, cause you're walking through instructions. It's an instruction manual, but we're gonna try to keep it relevant to understand that really, the story of Exodus is also our story and the story of Exodus is actually a 1500 year setup for the Easter story, right? It's pretty cool. And so don't take my word for it though, cause God said these words in Exodus 25:8. He said, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. And so you have about 3 million Israelites, split up into 12 tribes. They, they, whenever they were walking and they would settle somewhere for a long time, they would have an like an encampment in the form of a circle. And so each tribe kind of camped out in like a slice of a pie, if you will. And in the middle, they built what is seen as the tent of meeting or the tabernacle. That then this tabernacle, this meeting place for God, would ultimately give them the framework that then David would give instructions, and then Solomon would actually build the temple of God. And when the people of God would worship in the temple of God, then ultimately, they would get overthrown by the Syrians and the Babylonians, and then that temple gets destroyed. And so then there's a guy named Nehemiah who would lead people back, and they would rebuild the the wall and rebuild, and they would try to rebuild this temple, but it wasn't as cool and as grand as when Solomon built it. And so all these things would set up to where then that fast forward to the time of Jesus, there is a temple. In which the Jews would still practice and follow these experiences laid out by the instructions found in Exodus, and Jesus would walk into the scene and what you'll see is by the end of this, that Jesus comes in and says, oh, that whole thing was about me. OK. And uh it's right from the get-go, and this is so cool, like, we're gonna jump right into it. OK, John chapter 1 verse 1, or John chapter 1 verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now we read this verse last week, talking about the glory of God, where Moses asked to see the glory of God. And how we see that Jesus is the glory of God manifested to where we can actually experience him, that the description of God's glory is that Jesus was full of both grace and truth. John 11 says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So when it says in here in this verse, it says, and the Word became flesh, right? Jesus took on human form, but I want you to see this word dwell. The word dwell in this verse literally means to set up a tent or in other translations to tabernacle. So when Jesus comes onto the scene in John 1:14 says, and Jesus or the Word became flesh and tabernacle among us. In other words, Jesus came down to dwell amongst his people. And so we have this incredible picture. And then the writer in Hebrews, who's writing to a Jewish audience, references all the stuff that we're gonna study today. And in Hebrews chapter 8, verses 5 and 6 says this, referring to the Israelites, and they serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. In other words, it is a physical Representation of a greater spiritual reality, right? That's why we're saying it's kinda like a Lego set. Now, uh, you're saying, OK, the temple of God, the tamara is much more holy that it is, but understand the writer himself of Hebrews says it is a copy, it is simply a shadow of what is in heaven. Now, it's important because if you're replicating heaven, you wanna get the details correct. So, so this is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle, see to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain. But in fact, the ministry of Jesus has received as superior to theirs, as the covenant which he is the mediator of is superior to the old covenant one or the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises. So today, as believers, we have something better than the tabernacle, because we have Jesus, who is the better mediator of the better covenant enacted on better promises. And so all of this was setting up saying the tabernacle, the place of worship, was all meant to point you to Jesus. It was all meant to point you to Jesus. Well, what is this tabernacle that we're talking about? Well, because they're so specific in details, we actually have a pretty good understanding of what it looked like, because, and if you're in the trades, uh, you're gonna love today because God values craftsmanship. God values. values excellence. God values details. And so if you're in building, if you are in electrical, if you're in plumbing, if you're an artist, if you're a craftsman, if you're whatever it is, understand that God cares about excellence and details and specifics. And so we have a picture of what the tabernacle back in Moses' time looked like. And so here you're gonna see a picture on the outside. Um, it said actually the heat on the outside, actually, it messes with our projector on this side. If you ever wondered why. It's in the winter, we're fine and then it starts to heat up and then the projector starts going, even the projector doesn't like Arizona heat. OK. Anyway. We're working on it, but it's, it's Arizona, so that's what happens. OK, so you have a picture of the tabernacle. It is 100 by 50 cubits. A cubit is 18 inches, so a foot and a half. So it's about 150 ft by 75 ft. Think of it this way, it's like half a football field. So it's 50 yards by 25 yards. So it's a good size space. The fence is about 7.5 ft high. Then the tent on the inner side of it, so the greater tabernacle, the, the tent of median in there, was 30 by 10 cubits, so 45 ft by 15 ft. And so we see here that God really cares about the details, and then he cares how we worship Him. And so he wants to dwell amongst his people. So inside the tent, we have this image. It's just kind of a depiction of what it looks like. And so uh we can't go over every detail, but I wanna highlight a few things in here. You have a golden lampstand. Then you have a table of the bread of presence in there. Then you have an altar that they burned incense to, that was described as the holy place. There is a veil or a curtain that separated the holy place from the holy of holies, that inside the holy of holies dwelt the Ark of the Covenant. And so the Ark of the Covenant, if you've, uh, maybe you're not churchy, maybe the only time you think of Ark of the Covenant is if you watch Indiana Jones. Some of you are actually whispering as soon as I said that, those are my kind of people. Um, you play with Legos and you watch Indiana Jones. Come on, let's go. Um, and some of you think less of your pastor. I'm sorry. Uh, there are other churches and, uh, Don't actually leave. That was a joke. Um. So in Indiana Jones, there was the Ark of the Covenant, right? And people die and there's this whole spiritual force and they try to mysticalize it. But in the Old Testament, what actually happened was it, it inhabited the presence of God. And so inside the Ark of the Covenant, there was the 10 Commandments, there was manna, and then there was Aaron's, uh, his brothers, the high priest's staff inside of that. And if you touch the Ark of the Covenant of the presence of God, because God is holy and God is perfect, you would die. There's actually some examples of that in the Old Testament. And so there was a veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies, and there was the Ark of the Covenant, and we'll go through. And so you have this picture. It was how God dwelt with his people. It was how God wanted his people to worship Him, and there are so many pictures that then set up really the foundation of The Jewish faith, but actually, all of those things were pointing to a greater spiritual reality in Jesus. And so we don't have time to go through all of the connections, but what we're gonna do over the next 20 minutes is that we're gonna take a look at 7 ways the tabernacle points to Jesus. So here are 7 ways the tabernacle points to Jesus. There's way more than that, but we only have a service. And so we're gonna start with 7 ways, big picture, and you're gonna see hopefully at the end, why when Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, really brings with him a spiritual. Redemption and revolution. OK, first thing, the gate. Oh, I know everyone's favorite thing, super exciting, a gate, right? Um, so here we go. Exodus chapter 27, verse 16 says, in the gate of the court, there shall be a screen of 20 cubits long of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. It shall have 4 pillars and with them 4 bases. Now why is this interesting? Well, you have the colors, first of all. In here, we have the colors of blue, uh, we have purple and scarlet. So blue tends to represent uh heavenly in, in, in reference to God. Then purple represents royalty, and then scarlet represents sacrifice. So we're already right out of the gate. See ready the gate, gate, OK. There is a gate that is marked with heavenly royal sacrificial colors, and there is one entrance into the tabernacle. OK, there was one way in. Right? It was visible, it was known, it was in the middle of the people, but there's only one way to get into the tabernacle. Jesus then, in his earthly ministries, says these words in John chapter 10 verse 9. He says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and I will go in and out and find pasture. So you have the gate of the tabernacle, one way in from heaven, royal, sacrificial. Jesus comes onto the scene and says, I am the gate. I am the door. I am the only way. It's exclusive as it can be, but the invitation is as inclusive as it can be. You don't have to earn it. In fact, you can't earn it. You don't have to be from a certain background, you don't have to have so much money, you don't have to be a certain color, male, female, adult, child. It doesn't matter who comes, there is one entrance. There is one way. Jesus also says, I am the way, the truth and the life. So in this here, he says, I am the gate, I am the door. So this place of worship, how people access God through the gate. Jesus comes in and says, I am the gate. What do you see when you cross the gate? Well, right when you cross the gate, you walk into the, the tented or not the tented area, but the outside area. Next, you see this bronze altar. The bronze altar is described here in Exodus 27:1 to 4. Now, these go into greater detail, by the way, I'm just highlighting specific verses so you can kind of see what I'm talking about and to know I'm not making stuff up. All right? And I'm for real, test everything I say, right? If I'm not speaking scripture, go somewhere else. But otherwise, study for yourself. I'd like, I'm telling you, it, it is eye-opening and life changing, OK? So just highlighting a few of these verses. Exodus 27:1-4. You shall make the altar of acacia wood, 5 cubits long and 5 cubits broad. The altar shall be square and its height shall be 3 cubits. And you shall make horns for it on its four corners. Its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans, and you shall make all the utensils of bronze. You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make 4 bronze rings at its four corners. Now, why all the intensity about bronze? Well, bronze really was a symbol or connection to the judgment of God. Right? And in the Old Testament, the priests would regularly come and give sacrifices on behalf of the people, right? You would enter into the tabernacle, the priest would, and they would offer sacrifice there on this altar. OK? And so you have in here, and then the horns really symbolize safety. There's actually a story in the Old Testament where a guy is about to be judged and he sprints in and he grabs hold of the horn. And uh and he's like, like you've ever played hide and seek and like, or you're playing tag and there's like a safe zone? Like, no, no, no, safe, I'm safe, right? This guy literally did that and the camera like ran and grabbed the horn and represents safety and refuge. But in this case, you have to understand when you enter his gates, the first thing you understand to worship God is sacrifice is required. Why? Because we are sinners, we are broken, and sin separates us from a perfect holy God. Jesus in the New Testament is the sacrifice. It says these in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 10 to 12. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, the key word here, well, Jesus, but also once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. So the tabernacle has a gate that is heavenly, that is royal, that is sacrificial. Jesus says, I am the gate. Then they come to an altar in which there are sacrifices given, and Jesus comes in and says, I am the sacrifice once and for all. And once and for all. Then we see the third picture we have then is then there's a cleansing basin. There's a cleansing basin. OK? Exodus chapter 30 verses 17 and 18, says the Lord said to Moses, you shall make also a basin of bronze, and with its stands of bronze for washing. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it. OK? Cleansing is important. Right? And parents of young kids who then become middle schoolers understand this well. Right? Like there's a point when you're little where bath time is like the best thing in the world. And then you reach a certain point, and I don't know what age this is for kids, but then where bath time becomes the worst thing in the world. You know what I'm talking about? For parents in the room, they're like, OK, I need you to take a shower. Oh. No. Like, like, I don't need to shower. You're like, yes, you do. I remember one of my boys when they were little, um, they, I said, OK, you gotta go shower, bud, you gotta go shower. Like we just played flag football for hours, like, you stank, like, you know what I mean? Like, you got the smell of hustle and I love it, but you can't stay that way, you know what I mean? And so, went in and, and it, no water turns on. I hear Some ax spray, walks out. OK, I'm done. And I'm like The water in it, no, no, I showered. The towel's dry. No, no, I showered. You're dry. No, I showered. No, now you just mixed football and ax and it just somehow made it worse, so you know what I mean? Like parents are with me, resonate, OK. Like, you need to clean yourself up, right? In reality, we all need to clean ourselves up. So the priests, before they could enter the tent, the holy place, they had to cleanse themselves. Now, the problem with that is that we cannot cleanse ourselves, can we? To, uh, I wanna reference a very deep theological show, um, The Office. Um, If I lost you at Lagos, and they're like, you're already gone, so I'm like, we're just going down that path. Uh, no, so, uh, this hilarious show Office, Mike, the character in the show one time, Michael Scott, like they're in financial trouble in one of the episodes. And so he just stands up in front of the room and goes, bankruptcy. I declare bankruptcy. You like he thought that's how declaring bankruptcy worked. And as crazy as that is, I think sometimes we do that spiritually, right? We just think, oh God, yeah, I messed up. Like you can't just declare it, like it doesn't cleanse you. You cannot cleanse yourself. But the beauty is Jesus can. It says in 1 John chapter 1, verses 7 to 9, it says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus' Son, what cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive, deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, right? He washes us clean. And sometimes in church world, we think that the justice of God is opposed to the grace of God. That the justice of God is opposed to the forgiveness of God. But the reality is, it's the justice of God. It's the fact that he is holy, he is perfect. He is righteous, that gives him the authority and the ability to declare us cleansed, right? So it's his justice that gives us the ability uh for him to forgive our sins. That's why the Jews actually in the story of Jesus got so mad because Jesus will go around and say, OK, your sins are forgiven. Whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't declare that. You don't have the authority. That's the same as someone declaring bankruptcy. You, you, you don't have any authority to do that. I said, yeah, I do, I'm God. And to show you that I'm God, hey, lame person, get up and walk, blind person, I'm gonna, you can see. And so all those miracles were pointing to his divinity, which then showed that he had the power to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's the beauty of it. Right? You're tracking with me? The tabernacle, the place of worship, the place where God wants to dwell with you, with us, has a gate. Jesus says, I am the gate. Then there's an altar that requires sacrifice. Jesus says, I am the once and for all sacrifice. Then there is a cleansing basin that the priests themselves had to cleanse themselves in, and Jesus, no, I will cleanse you. You see, the high priest would actually enter in the holy of holies once a year, and if the priests tried to enter into the holy place and they were not right with God, God would strike them dead. Now the problem is, how do you, this is kind of weirdly graphic, but just go with me. We're going from Legos to death. Here we go. Um, If the priest is the only one that can go in. But if the priest is not holy, God strikes him dead. Then how do you get the body? Of the priest, if the one holy guy is not holy, he's gone. So what they would actually do, um, tradition tells us is that they would tie a rope to the foot of the priest with bells. And so if they didn't hear movement after a while, they would like tug the rope. Cause if it didn't go well, like they just like that's crazy. But God is so perfect, God is so holy, that the only way you can come before Him is to be cleansed. And Jesus says, I am the gate. I am the sacrifice. I am the one who cleanses you. That now all we have to do is confess. We repent, we turn, we, we make it unhidden. We bring it before him, and he says, I will cleanse you. Now let's work our way into the tent here, the, the, the tabernacle tent itself. OK, number 4, we have the golden lampstand. This is found in Exodus chapter 25 verse 31 and 32. So you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. A lampstand shall be made of hammered work. It's base, it's stem, it's cups. Its calyxes and its flowers shall be from one piece with it. And how cool is that, right? If you're a craftsman, right? If there is beauty, there is like incredibleness, like, and for those, can we agree that like the furniture from 50 years ago is so much better built than today? Right? You know what I mean? Like, like God didn't say, hey, go get your lampstand from IKEA. You know what I mean? Like this is one solid piece and and don't get me wrong, I love IKEA, but in this case, you know, I need, I need it perfect. I need it one piece of gold that is molded within that. It says, and there shall be 6 branches going out of its sides. 3 branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and 3 branches of the lampstand out of the other side. And so continue on, and we don't have time to go into all of what the lampstand itself means, but check this out. The lampstand was the only source of light in the tent. There were no windows in the tent. Right? So when you walked in, the only source of light came from this lampstand. So what does Jesus say? Jesus, in John chapter 8, verse 12 says, and Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. That the only true source of light is Jesus Christ Himself. Such a cool picture. So you walk in and on one side, you see the lamp. On the other side, you actually have a table. And what is this table? It's a table for bread, known as a table of presents. It's described, again, I'm just reading a couple of verses. You can read further instructions uh in Exodus, but let me just give you two verses. Exodus 25:23 and then verse 30. It says that you shall make a table of acacia wood. 2 cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, a cubit half its height. And then verse 3, it says, and you shall set the bread of presents on the table before me regularly. Now, in this case, there were 12 loaves representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And again, we think about all that Jesus does around the table and with bread, right? Let me set the stage here. Don't, don't go to it just yet in John chapter 6, but during the time of Passover, right? We talked about that before, the time of Passover, which is now the setup for communion, that Jesus was speaking to a large crowd. And, and it was getting late, and the disciples said, hey, Jesus, we should send these people home to eat. He says, will you give them something to eat? They said, well, how are we supposed to feed, there's 5000 men. When you include women and children, that's about 20,000 people. That's the entire Phoenix stadium. Of people. And what do they do? They find a little boy with some bread and some fish. Jesus takes the bread, breaks it, or blesses it, and they pass it out. And not only do they feed the 5000 men, they feed all the women and children, there's about 20,000 people. Then there's enough for 12 baskets of leftovers. And then what does Jesus say right after that? He stands up, says in John 6:35, he says, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, but whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Again, 1500 years before Jesus, you have the tabernacle, the dwelling place. of God amongst his people, a way to access Him, a way to worship. You have the gate that is heavenly, that is royal, that is sacrificial. Jesus says, I'm the gate. You have the bronze altar, which is God's judgment and routine sacrifice on behalf of the people. Jesus says, I am the sacrifice. Then you have the cleansing basin that The people the priest had to wash before they would enter. Jesus says, if you confess your sins, I will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. You walk into the tent and on one side you have a golden lampstand. Jesus says, I am the light. On the other side, you have a table for bread. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Then there's an altar in which people burned incense. In the New Testament that really gets described, even in the Psalms too, that the incense represents the prayers of the people. But for our case, we wanna go then to the next thing here, which is the veil. So there's the holy place, and then there's what's called the holy of holies. And the veil is described this in Exodus chapter 26, verse 31 and 33. It says, you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet. You see that again? Heavenly, royal, sacrificial yarns and fine twined linen, and it shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. And you shall hang it on 4 pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold on 4 posts of silver, and you shall hang the veil from the clasp and bring the ark of the testimony in where within the veil, and the veil shall separate you for the holy place from the most holy. Now in this tent, you're probably looking about 15 ft high, but when they would build the temple, it would go even greater. So now we're talking about 40 ft high, to when the temple where the Jews would worship in Jesus' day, was there, and there was a veil separating the presence of God from his people. OK. What happened the very moment Jesus died on the cross? It tells us right here in Matthew 27:50 and 51, and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. In other words, the moment Jesus died, what happens? Verse 51, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Notice how, by the way, from bottom to top. No, from top to bottom, meaning it could only have come from God, and the earth shook and the rocks were split. Why is that important? Because for 1500 years, there was a veil between man and God. And when Jesus died on the cross, he removed the veil, giving us direct access to him. I, I, look, as a pastor, OK, I'm here as a shepherd. To serve, to bless, to preach, to love. But you do not need me to go to God. Because of Jesus, you have direct access to him. I will pray for you. I will point, right? But I, I, I am just a in reality, I'm a lamb as well. Right? I, I'm a beggar leading other beggars to the food. Right, I'm a blind man who got to see like, hey, this way to Jesus, this guy can heal you. Like, this is so important because in religion, so many of religion thinks you need somebody else to go to God, where God breaks, tears the veil and says, now you can come directly to me. That's why Jesus is the better mediator of a better covenant based on better promises. That there is no longer this divide. Now your sin separates you. But Jesus is the one. That gives you access to God directly. Last thing here, and this is so cool, this is a great one. So you go into the inner, uh, the Holy of Holies, and there's the Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God. On the top of the Ark of the Covenant, there's this thing called the mercy seat, and it's described here in Exodus 25. I'm just gonna read verses 17 and 18, verse 21 and 22. It says you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. 2 cubits.5 shall be its length and 1 cubit.5 its breadth. And you shall make 2 cherubim of gold. Think of those little angels, right? Um, of hammered work shall you make them on the two ends of the mercy seat. And that and you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark, you shall put the testimony that I give you. Therefore, I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel. So check this out. OK. In the Holy of Holies, Ark of the Covenant, the high priest, once a year on Yom Kippur, would come in and would sprinkle blood from a sacrificial lamb on top of the mercy seat, so that when God looks down, he doesn't see the law that literally was physically in the Ark of the Covenant, but would look down through His mercy, see the covering of the sacrifice of the of the lamb. OK. Now, check this out. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 5. And above where the cherubim of glory, we're overshadowing the mercy seat. So they're describing this in the New Testament, describing what happened in the Old Testament. Now that word mercy seat is used one other time in the New Testament. Do you know where it's used? It's not where you would think. Track with me here. Romans chapter 3, verse 23 to 25. It says, for all of sin and falls short of the glory of God. It's a common verse in Christianity, for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. So that's you, that's me, that's all of us, we've all missed the mark. OK, verse 24, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, OK? Redemption comes through Jesus. God. Verse 25, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Here's what I want you to notice. That word propitiation, which means payment, literally is the word for mercy seat. It's the, it's the same word. So the saying, all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, but are justified and redeemed through Jesus Christ, whom God put forward as the mercy seat by his blood received by faith. You see what the tabernacle required, Jesus fulfilled. Walk through this with me for a minute. The place where God dwells amongst his people, the gate, heavenly, royal, sacrificial. Jesus says, I am the gate. You walk in, you have the altar that is bronzed with judgment. Jesus says, I am the sacrifice above all sacrifices. Then there's a cleansing basin in which the priests had to cleanse themselves before they could enter his presence. He says, No, I'm the one who cleanses you. When you go in, You have the lamp stand. He says, I am the light of the world. On the other side, you have the bread table. He says, no, I am the bread of life, that when there's separation between the holy place and the holy of holies, Jesus tears the veil, and that when you look at the very presence of God, that Jesus Christ dies on the cross, which is why we celebrate Easter, that the sacrificial blood of the Lamb over top of the law, so that when God looks down on your life, he doesn't see your sin. He sees his sacrifice. Amen. It's all about Jesus. The reason we're talking about the exodus in the presence of God and the tabernacle is because it was all pointing to him. He cares about the details. He cares about the specifics. He cares about it because they're supposed to lead you to him. That now because his death on the cross, that we have direct access to Him, that we can worship Him freely and forgiven and loved and known that he wants to know you. So don't take worship lightly, don't take your forgiveness lightly, but understand that God wants to tabernacle with you, that God wants to dwell in your midst, to have relationship, and that's what changes it. So today marks the beginning of Holy Week, Palm Sunday. And my challenge to you this week is this. Is that don't just acknowledge God this Easter. OK, yeah, Easter service, church, check the box, wear something nice, get a photo. Buy it Lily, call it a day. Right. I'm not saying don't do those things. Yeah, go for it. I'm just saying. Don't simply acknowledge God this Easter. Instead, let him move into your life. Because the story of God is that word became flesh. To dwell among us, to reveal His glory full of grace and truth. Cause if you allow that, I'm telling you, your life will be changed forever. This is what it means to worship him. This is why we worship. It's how we worship. And most importantly, this is who we worship. Will you pray with me. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for who you are and what you've done. God, thank you for the story of the details and the beauty and the excellence and the craftsmanship of the tabernacle, but all of that. God, what's the point as to your story? You are the gate, you are the sacrifice. You cleanse us, you are the light of the world, you are the bread of life. You have torn the veil, and that you are our mercy seat. That because of your sacrifice, We can have direct access and relationship with you. We love you, God, and it's in your son's name we pray. Amen.