This morning is the beginning of a 4 part sermon series on the sanctuary, and the covenant. Before we get started this morning, let us begin with a word of prayer. Dear Lord, thank you for your love and guidance. Thank you for your care and inspiration. Thank you for working in our hearts and lives. Thank you for making us promises, and especially the promise of the Holy Spirit. I ask now that you would cover our lives and be in our hearts and mind through the power of the Spirit. Let Him live in us and do a work bringing us to conviction. Thank you Lord, Amen.
This morning our topic is going to be focused on the beginning and foundation for the sanctuary or tabernacle of the Old Testament. We are going to be exploring the covenant of the Old Testament and the covenant of the New Testament. Believe it or not, this study has much to do with communion. Since we have communion coming up very soon, I thought it would make sense to increase our knowledge and understanding of this sacrament. In fact it is important for us to be partaking of this experience correctly according to Paul. In 1 Corinthians 11:27 Paul writes, “So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.” Paul was writing for a specific instance in which people were stuffing themselves with the Lord’s Supper; but he was also covering his bases in case another problem was to arise. It is pretty clear that there are big consequences if we are taking in communion inappropriately. That is why there is significance to understanding what we are doing in the best way possible.
So, let us begin our study.
What is communion? It is essential to answer this question at the beginning and the end so that we can see if we have grown. To some of us, it may be eating a small piece of bread and drinking out of a little cup. It may be the awkward thing we do when we wash each other’s feet. This has always been a tough thing for me to do, because I feel like it is a useless act. Everyone, for the most part, has clean feet when they come to church, so I don’t really feel like I am accomplishing anything when I wash someone’s feet. They don’t even pass out soap to use! Of course, when you understand it in the light of symbolism it takes on more significance. The same is true with the bread and wine that we drink. If the disciples looked at Jesus and said, “This isn’t your body or your blood,” they would be correct. They would have missed the symbolic point, but they would have been correct. So, we shouldn’t approach the topic bringing our culture into it, but rather, we should understand it and bring the symbolic significance out of it.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 19:5. We are going to pick up the story of the children of Israel after they have crossed the Red Sea, and set up camp at the base of Mt. Sinai. Moses has set up 12 pillars at the bottom of the mountain that the people should not pass. They have gathered at the foot of the mountain to overhear as God speaks to Moses. Notice what it says in verse 9 before we read verse 5 and 6, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord.” Moses is playing a messenger boy roll. He is bringing the words of the people to God, and the words of God to the people, even though they can hear each other. Another important note is that the Lord has come down in a thick cloud, but we will talk more about that later. For now let’s pick up at verse 5, “Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” What does this sound like? When you look at these verses and highlight the words “if” and “then” there may be some clues as to what is happening here. This is a verbal contract. This is what people do before they sit down and sign papers. The two groups represented here, God and Israel, are declaring the terms of a contract they intend to sign together. God says that their part is to obey his commandments, and as a result he will make them special. The special that God is making them is a priestly special; it is the right to share with the world the message that God will give them, and that is about the coming Messiah. God is going to make them a priestly nation giving them a tabernacle, and ordinances, and rituals that are all going to be representing God and His plan to reconnect with humanity. The people answer God in verse 8, “…All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.”
God then tells the people to prepare for the signing of the contract in verses 10 and 22, “And the Lord said unto Moses, God unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes… And let the priests also, which come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.” This preparation requires a physical washing with water. What is interesting is the people and the priests are required to wash their clothes, but later there is given another example of priests are supposed to wash. It is possible that the priests are required to wash in that same way as early as at the base of Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19. Exodus 29:4 says, “And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water.” Leviticus 8:6 says, “And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.” There is this conclusion that can be inferred from the text that priests were not to wash themselves, but rather be washed by another priest. If we take seriously the call that God has given us to be priests today throughout the New Testament then this has serious implications on us today. If we believe in the priesthood of all believers, and we see 1 Peter 2 as more than a great illustration then we are being called to participate in this work of helping to wash each other. But what does that mean under our current circumstances? Are we supposed to be washing each other’s entire bodies like the Old Testament?
In order to get a better grasp of the significance of this experience in our lives we need to turn to Hebrews 9:13: “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.” We all understand that in times before Christ the sacrifices and rituals of the tabernacle represented what Christ would do in the future. When Christ came he began the work of atonement, and then instead of just outward cleansing, there was inward cleansing as well. Look at the next verse after 13, verse 14 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!” There is this concept that the physical symbol or type of the Old Testament found and is finding its spiritual fulfillment in the New Testament. The things they did at the base of Sinai and in the Tabernacle are still things happening, but they are no longer cleansing just outwardly, they are cleansing inwardly too. Look at Hebrews 10:16,21,22, “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds…and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” There is this idea that seems like things that once happened where everyone could see are now happening inside of us.
So, has the outward illustration of these events become completely unnecessary? Are we just going through a bunch of useless motions that are awkward and meaningless? No! Let’s find the antitype of this Old Testament idea of washing before we as priests approach God in John 13:4-17, “so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. “
So clearly the physical act was commanded to be continued. In Hebrews we see that Jesus as our high priest is washing us with “pure water” inwardly and spiritually cleansing us from the sin we have. Then we find in John at the foundation of communion, the act of physically washing each other’s feet, just like the priests would do in the Old Testament to prepare themselves to meet God. We are going to find out in the next sermon how deeply the priesthood goes, and how it has a broader application in the time after Christ’s death. For now it becomes clear that the step of washing each other’s feet has great significance. In fact it may have so much cleansing significance that if we don’t participate in that crucial step then we may not be prepared to partake of the bread and the wine. We could be missing a crucial blessing if we are not participating in the entire cleansing process.
But really, how significant could foot washing be? God isn’t really going to pass me up for not washing someone’s feet, right? I can’t really answer that question positively, but I can show you the type and the antitypical command of Paul. In Exodus 19 we read about how God wanted them to wash in case God were to “break forth upon them.” I think now is the time that we understand this “cloud” in which God was traveling. Let’s read Exodus 19:16-18, “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.” This sounds like God showed up on the mountain in a cloud of smoke. It seems that the cloud that God uses to conceal His presence is a cloud of smoke. This makes sense to think of one of the main characteristics of God is incredible consuming glorious fire. Think of some familiar stories: God shows up to Moses in a burning bush, fire comes from heaven and consumes Abel’s and Elijah’s sacrifice, Elijah is taken to heaven in a burning or fiery chariot, God led Israel by a cloud by day and a fire by night, fire came down and started the alter of incense and then filled the temple, God showed up on Mt. Sinai in a fire covered by a cloud of smoke, Jesus is seen with burning feet and eyes in Revelation, and finally God is referred to in the Bible as a consuming fire in Hebrews 12:29.
So if God is a consuming fire, what does that mean? Is God really fire? That almost seems like I’m putting God in a single elemental box if I limit God to a ball of fire. I can only speculate using the evidence, but I would say that God is God, and to some it appears that he is fire. That fire could be just a result of an incredible amount of light, or it could be that it is truly fire. What does this fire consume? Isaiah 59 verses one and two seem to imply that God has separated himself from us because of our sins. This also can be seen possibly in the destruction of Sodom, as well as in the story of Nadab and Abihu. Another practice of the Old Testament sanctuary along with washing the priests to prepare to meet God was to carry a censer with fire from the Altar of Burnt Offering that God had started with incense on the fire. Nadab and Abihu, acting as priest, brought fire from another source into God’s Tabernacle. This was sin, and as a result the Bible says in Leviticus 10:2, “And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” Now, here we can list a couple of facts: Nadab and Abihu were priests. They were performing the role of priest which includes working with a representation of the body and blood of Jesus. They brought sin into the sanctuary not for the purpose of cleansing. A judgment was executed upon them right there. When you compare that with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:27 about taking care in performing the Eucharist, there seems to be a great significance in cleansing each other even if it is just in the spiritual symbolism.
What happens next in our story back in Exodus? Well, to review, we have a verbal contractual agreement between God and Israel about becoming a priestly nation. The nation cleanses with water in preparation to meet God. In Exodus 20 we find the next step of the process when God declares the 10 commandments out loud for all to hear. Of course this scares the people so they tell Moses that they can’t handle God being that close and loud. They ask Moses to go up the mountain and then just come tell them what he says. So Moses does that, and brings them the words of the Lord with the 10 commandments in verbal form to which the people again agree. Later there were stone tablets that had this law written on them and placed inside the tabernacle at the foundation of God’s throne. They were kept in the Ark of the Covenant below the Shekinah Glory which was God himself. This gives new meaning to the Ark of the Covenant, because we see it is the container of the basis of the contract God made with Israel. Now, is there a place in the New Testament where we find this happening? Is there somewhere that Christ gives his disciples a law or commandments? Turn with me to John 13:34, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” Here at the same last supper that Jesus washed his disciples feet, cleansing them, like the priests of old, he gives them a commandment to follow. This is why God said, “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” The basis of the covenant we are making with God through communion is His law of love being written in our hearts and minds, then being expressed toward humanity. We are agreeing to participate in God’s plan of bringing the world back to being at one with Him and His law of love.
Following this agreement, Moses and some of the young men of Israel performed some of the most significant functions in our model of the Old Testament type representing communion, or The Lords Supper. They offered two sacrifices mentioned in Exodus 24:5, “burnt offerings…and…peace offerings”. These offerings have different significance. The burnt offering was performed every morning and evening, and it completely consumed the flesh and made atonement for sin. This offering given in this instance, Exodus 24, was a special burnt offering that made atonement for the sin of the entire camp of Israel, while at the same time there was a covenant being created with God. The peace offering was an offering that was brought by the freewill of whoever brought it. If it was for all of Israel, then it was given by the freewill of all Israel. What is interesting is frequently there was offered the fat of the peace offering with the burnt offering. So at the same time that forgiveness of sin was happening, God and man were communing together in peace. This was a process where atonement and communion were being created and recreated on a continual basis. Another interesting note is that God, the priest, and the one who brought the offering would all partake of the peace offering as they communed. This is an incredible illustration of what happened both at Sinai and at The Last Supper. Exodus 24:5 tells us of the young men offering the burnt and peace offerings, then the elders and Moses go up on the mountain into the “cloud,” and the Bible says they see God and eat a meal with Him! Let’s read Exodus 24:9-11, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.”
I sure haven’t read many places in the Bible where it says that man saw God! That is crazy! So, the question of course is, can we find the antitype in the New Testament? Of course we immediately think of The Lord’s Supper when Jesus, God in the flesh, ate with the elders of the upcoming Christian church. Jesus took bread and broke it saying exactly what the representation of the Old Testament sacrifices represented. Our text in 1 Corinthians 11 tells us that Jesus said, “Take, eat: this is my body broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.” This gift represented the forgiveness of the sins of those who ate, and the communion of peace that they were sharing with God. This was each parties signature on the covenant they were agreeing to keep.
Before we conclude though, there is one glaring memento to cover: the blood/wine. In Exodus we find that Moses performed an important action with the blood, “Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.(Exodus 24:8)” Here the wording seems to almost direct us to 1 Corinthians and back to The Last Supper where Christ says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” But then, what is the significance of the blood?
I was working at camp this past summer working with an interim windsurfing instructor who was in need of some good venting. It was my job to be the staff’s pastor, so I happened to be the ear he was bending. He was telling me that it was unfair how he was being treated. He was expected to teach windsurfing to kids the week before but he didn’t know how to windsurf himself. He wanted to spend some time learning from the windsurfing instructor before he left so that he could learn, then practice, and finally teach the kids. The waterfront director would not agree. The director said that it would be better for him to learn from experience. The interim instructor was telling me how it went terribly because he didn’t even know what the parts of the contraption were called, let alone how to work them. Now he was being reprimanded by the waterfront director.
This is the same concept here at work with the blood of the sanctuary of old, and the one of new. It is only by Christ “showing us the father” that we have begun to see an example. Jesus lived a perfect life that we as His followers are trying to shape our lives by learning from and mirroring. In a very real sense, we are learning from the instructor, practicing, and then teaching others. The blood was sprinkled on the people as a covering and a representation of the life of Christ. Leviticus 17:11 says, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” It would be nice to say that only one of the aspects of the sanctuary made atonement. It might be easier to nail down what each aspect did in the process of atonement. It isn’t quite that easy because they frequently all have many overlapping functions. In this case, it says that the blood makes atonement, but so do many other things in the sanctuary. What is the function of the blood in the atonement process? Well, it says here that it is representing the life of the creature. Let’s look at Hebrews 10:19,22, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Here we see that Christ has made a way to enter to the Most Holy Place by His blood which represents His life. So it is through Christ’s life that we have a way to God, because it is Christ’s life that God sees represented in those who have taken in Christ! At first verse 22 seems to be speaking about our hearts being sprinkled with water, but actually it speaking of blood. In the Old Testament Sanctuary the priests would sprinkle the blood of some of the sacrifices of the sin offering inside the sanctuary before God’s throne on the horns of the altar of incense, and before the veil separating us from God. In our story in Exodus the blood is sprinkled on the people. If we apply that to our understanding of Hebrews, we find Christ sprinkling His beautiful life in our temple bodies cleansing our guilty conscience. As we view more of Christ we become convicted of sin that we, along side of our High Priest Christ, rid of our temples. This also fills the dual purpose of covering us with His perfect life so that we can approach the throne of God!
Doesn’t this enlighten communion quite a bit? When we look at communion now, we can realize all the elements that are happening. God signed a covenant about announcing the coming Messiah and keeping the law with the nation of Israel. Then God signed a covenant about announcing the come and coming Messiah, and writing the law of God on our hearts and minds with the elders of the Christian church at The Last Supper. God was consistent, going carefully through the same steps he had gone through at the base of Sinai. Now we are a part of the priesthood of all believers going through the same steps as the disciples with Jesus. We wash to cleanse ourselves before we meet with God. We sit down to eat with Him part of His sacrifice. We partake of the representations of His broken body and His blood for the forgiveness of our sins and the cleansing of our consciences. By eating this meal with Jesus we are agreeing to his law of love, which is being written on our hearts and minds. Then we go out forgiven and cleansed to tell the world of the Messiah that came and is coming back!
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