Sanctuary notes from Day 3 of our “Sanctuary Series,” dated 10-19-11. The title of this sermon is “Consumed at the Altar.” We encourage everyone to check out this sermon on our website, as I am sure there are things that I might have missed or misunderstood! Study for yourself J Here it is! J
Exodus 27: 1-8 (English standard) says “1“You shall make thealtar of acacia wood, five cubitslong and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits. 2And you shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, andyou shall overlay it with bronze. 3You shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and fire pans. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. 4You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. 5And you shall set it under the ledge of the altar so that the net extends halfway down the altar.6And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. 7And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. 8You shall make it hollow, with boards. As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.”
- Pastor Kelly began by stating that anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows you didn’t just wake up one day and decided you would marry someone the same day you saw them. Before you get hooked up, you are usually drawn to a person. Some of us are drawn by a certain type of physical attribute. We are drawn to different things, perhaps due to our upbringing; our experience; what we have seen. Some are drawn to those like their father, or mother, or close friend. We are drawn to someone by something. Relationships may fall apart because the “Drawing” stops. As humans, we constantly need to be drawn/pulled. We constantly need to be drawn to one another.
- What is it that draws us to Jesus?! According to Isaiah 53: ‘we esteemed him not.’ They were looking for him to be more majestic, more godly, but when they looked at Him, He looked just like us! What is it that makes us say “I want to give that a shot” to God. Some say it is love… but someone can’t just walk up to you and say “I love you” and you are drawn to them. We don’t COME to Christ, we are drawn to Christ… there is nobody seeking God, no one has understanding, we have all, like sheep, turned ashtray. One thing that draws us to Jesus is His sacrifice. In the sacrifice it doesn’t make a lot of sense how somebody would give up everything before people even asked to have him give it up. It speaks to a God who says “I will take everything you deserved and you will take everything I deserve.” While we were yet sinners, Christ gave himself to die for us.
- When people come face to face with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, they have a hard time resisting. That’s why the first thing you see when you walk into the sanctuary, in the outer court is the altar of sacrifice. Everything that revolves around the Christian community and what we stand for is the idea of sacrifice, someone giving up something for someone else. Our religion is founded on “Sacrifice”
- You are surrounded by sacrifice because when you walked in to the sanctuary, it didn’t smell the best since dead animals were there, as well as their blood. When you first walked in, you knew that it was something about ‘sacrifice.’ There was no room for the attention to be on anything else but sacrifice in the outer court. All they were doing was pointing to an act that Jesus Christ one day would do. It wasn’t a time to play games once stepping into the outer court, it was all about sacrifice. “One of the strongest and greatest virtues we can have as Christians is the ability to sacrifice… not of our lives, but how much on a daily basis do we sacrifice for others.
Three Sections of the Sanctuary:
- Outer Court: everything that takes place here symbolizes Christ’s ministry on planet earth. As you move, you see ‘that’s the work that Christ will continue.’ It is expedient that I go, because I am already going to complete the work on earth, but my work isn’t done, I still have work to do… the work has to do with YOU. I can know that right now God is working JUST for me! While I am up there, my goal is to figure out how to get Sasha Sterling up here. He has different ways, what gives us joy is that God is always working out my salvation. He is trying to figure out how to save me! He never sleeps nor slumbers but night and day he is trying to figure out how to get us down there, up there!
- Holy Place
- Most Holy Place
Dr. Roy Gain talked about “rituals” and stated “the sanctuary was a controlled environment that made interaction possible in-spite of the separation between God and human beings…. in the Israelite sanctuary, God came as close to His people as possible. First a ritual is a system of activity, such a system could involve slaughtering an animal, putting its blood on the side of the altar and burning its flesh…. A ritual is a special kind of activities systems in which the activities included and the order in which they are performed are fixed. They must be done in the way God has specified for example Leviticus 1 makes it clear that it had to be a certain kind of animal, etc.” Anyone who tells you God is not particular does not know God!
- God says we have to connect and I need you to see some things… you will see it if you perform a ritual in this particular way and manner. The reason it has power is because of the meaning attached to the ritual…you remove the meaning, the ritual means nothing.
- The devil gets us caught up in a lot of rituals in the church and in our lives, and some of us are so concerned with the ritual than the God of the ritual. For some, coming to church is a ritual we do every Saturday morning. We get so caught up with going through the motions….
- Hebrews is about the author trying to get people off the ritual and back on Christ. There are a lot of us, who go through all the rituals that at one time were good and had powerful meaning, but we are so caught up in them, that it has lost its meaning. It’s about the God of the worship and not just the worship.
The Altar: It’s Make-up
- Exodus 27:1 says “You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubitslong and five cubits broad. The altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits.”
ACACIA WOOD: Acacia was an extremely bridle, easily broken piece of wood. While the altar was made of acacia wood, it represented humanity (the acacia wood did) so as big and bad as you think you are, God may want us to understand that we are easily broken (some folks even know which ones of our buttons to push). The devil gets us with the idea that he has convinced us that we are not easily broken. We think we can handle it, we think we can be ok. We think youwe can be in a particular situation and not fall…. Sometimes the devil builds up our false sense of security and then eventually we come tumbling down because we are easily broken. As a result of sin, we are like acacia wood, hollow, easily cracked…. We must admit that about ourselves!!!
- Altar, while it was made with acacia wood, God told them to overlay it with something that wasn’t easily broken. While what is on the inside may be easily broken, the outside is not…. If you can cover yourself with something that isn’t easily broken, you wont be broken. If you want to crack the acacia wood you must first get through the bronze. On our own, we can be broken but when we are covered with the Blood of Jesus, we are tough to crack! Not because of us but because of who is covering us… therefore, that’s why every morning we have to ask God to cover us…because If I am not covered, I will break. I will crack under the pressures of this world.
- ‘This alter which represents me, will be made of acacia, not only representing your humanity, but mine.. when I was walking on this earth, I could have been easily broken too.’
- Exodus 27:1 shows Sacrifice, as well as justice and mercy. Notice that it is the same height as the mercy seat… showing us that God, in sacrifice, executed justice. We were also saved not just due to justice, but also from mercy. How can you have justice AND mercy? In the act of justice, it was an act of mercy because it wasn’t YOUR throat that was being cut!
Things God Required when they came to the altar
- That they were there (they were giving all of themselves to God)
- That what they brought was their best. (the priest had to bring a more expensive offering).
God wants all of you, even the bad parts. He excels at taking care of the bad. He covers and cleanses it! Amen!
Prayer: Thanks for the alter of sacrifice, where we can go and find justice and mercy, all in one… a place where our mess is taken care of by you. We get the credit for living the perfect life although we, ourselves are not perfect. It’s an amazing exchange that takes place… and all of that, all reflecting you dying on the cross, crying out “it is finished; “the penalty for sin has been paid… I have taken care of it all and you all will be ok. We need to start living what took place at the altar. We must first present every part of ourselves. We like to hold on to things because we think we can work it better. Not even an angel can do it, that’s why you had to come yourself. We are presenting ourselves to you tonight, thanks for taking us, covering us and making us more like you.
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Be blessed, and a blessing
Xoxo,
Views from the Pews
