The Temple of Jesus
Lesson 4
Jesus told Moses,
“…have them make a
sanctuary for me, and I will dwell
among them. Make this
tabernacle and all its furnishings
exactly like the pattern I will show
you.” Exodus 25:8,9
Moses built a
sanctuary in the wilderness according
to the blueprints given to him by
God. Every detail was carefully
followed. The sanctuary complex
constructed in the wilderness
consisted of the following
items. (See Exodus
25-40.) See if you can identify
each item from the list in the
drawing on the next page.
- The courtyard
- A small
building with two
rooms: Holy / Most Holy
- The alter of
burnt offering
- The laver
- The alter of
incense
- The table of
showbread
- The
candlesticks
- The ark of the
covenant
The sanctuary was
built in such a manner that it could
be disassembled and carried from
place to place. Jewish history
tells that every piece of metal,
cloth, wood and stone used in the
construction of the sanctuary had a
name on it – the name of the
person responsible for carrying
it. When the bearer died, the
next of kin became responsible.
Thus, the responsibly of carrying the
sanctuary was passed down through
generations until the sanctuary was
given a permanent resting place.
The Sanctuary
Service
The sanctuary service
is a marvelous study. The
significance of how and why each
event took place is as broad and
comprehensive as God is. Most
Christians do not understand the
value and meaning of the sanctuary
service because the New Testament is
clear that the religious services
conducted in the sanctuary became
obsolete with the death of Jesus.
However, many
Christians are surprised to learn
that the religious meaning of what
took place in the sanctuary still
applies today! This will be
demonstrated later in this study.
The Wilderness
Sanctuary
Jesus gave the
sanctuary service to Israel as a
model of the plan of salvation.
They were to study into the meaning
of the sanctuary events and
understand the scope of the plan of
salvation. Through a careful study of
the sanctuary service, they were to
comprehend the love and compassion of
God. They were to be drawn into
the deepest appreciation of who God
is and what He offers to the human
family. They were to discover
the love of God as they contemplated
the price He would pay for
salvation. And most of all,
they were to share an understanding
of God’s love with the
world! As receptors of
God’s blessing, they were to be
the human agency through which the
knowledge of God would be spread
abroad.
Fundamental
point about Israel
There is some
confusion among Christians about
God’s relationship with ancient
Israel. Some believe that the
blessings given to the Jews belonged
only to the Jews and not the whole
world. While it is clear that
God dealt directly with Israel, it is
important to understand that God was
not excluding the rest of the people
living upon the earth – rather,
it was His intention to have Israel
demonstrate in practical terms what
He was like to the rest of the world
and thus bring many to know the love
of God. Thus the entire world
would be blessed through
Israel. Israel was to be an
agent for distributing God’s
blessings and truth – not the
exclusive object of His affection.
The intended
ministry of the Jews
Jesus told the Jews,
‘…I will also make you a
light for the Gentiles that you may
bring my salvation the ends of the
earth.” Isaiah 49:6 When
upon earth, Jesus again emphasized
the ministry of the Jews
saying, “You are the salt
of the earth. But if the salt
loses its saltiness, how can it be
made salty again? It is no
longer good for anything, except to
be thrown out and trampled by
men. You are the light of the
world. A city on a hill cannot
be hidden…let your light shine
before men, that they may see your
good deeds and praise your Father in
heaven.” Matthew 5:13-16
The Pharisees
recognized the responsibility of
winning converts – but the
reputation of the Jews among nations
became so bad, that no one wanted to
be a part of them! Jesus said
to them, “Woe to you, teachers
of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You travel over
land and sea to win a single convert,
and when he becomes one, you make him
twice as much a son of hell as you
are.” Matthew 23:15
The Jews and
Samaritans understood that the
promised Messiah would be a Savior
for the whole world. The
Samaritans told the women at the
well, “We no longer believe just
because of what you said: now
we have heard for ourselves, and we
know that this man really is the
Savior of the world.” John
4:42
King David recognized
that all people on earth belonged to
God. He said, “Let all the
earth fear the Lord; let all the
people of the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it came to be; he
commanded, and it stood
firm.” Psalm 33:8,9
God chooses
some poor people
To understand why God
selected Israel and give them the
rich treasures of His blessings, we
have to review some Bible history:
1. One day God looked
down upon the earth and noticed a
deplorable condition. “The
Lord saw how great man’s
wickedness on the earth had become,
and that every inclination of the
thoughts of the heart was only on
evil all the time. The Lord was
grieved that he had made man on the
earth, and his heart was filled with
pain. So the Lord said, ‘I
will wipe mankind, whom I have
created, from the face of the earth
– men and animals…But Noah
found favor in the eyes of the
Lord.” Genesis 6:5-8
2. Why did Noah find
favor in the eyes of the Lord?
“Noah did everything just as God
commanded him. The Lord then
said to Noah, ‘Go into the
ark, you and your whole family,
because I have found you righteous in
this generation.”
Genesis 6:22, 7:1
Because Noah was willing to do
everything God commanded, God
declared Noah righteous.
About 400 years after
the flood, God again looked down upon
the earth and found a descendant of
Noah that loved Him just as Noah
had. God chose Abram to be a
special representative through which
all people on earth would be
blessed. God said to Abram,
“I will make you into a great
nation and I will bless you…I
will bless those who bless you and
whoever curses you I will curse; and
all peoples on earth will be blessed
through you.” Genesis
12:2,3
One night God asked
Abram to count the stars – if he
could. Then God said, “So
shall your offspring be.”
Genesis 15:5
The Bible says that,
“Abraham believed the Lord, and
He credited it to him as
righteousness.” Genesis
15:6 It is important to realize that
both Noah and Abram were both
declared righteous because they
believed what God said, Notice what
Paul says about these two men,
“By faith Noah,
when warned about things not yet
seen, in holy fear built an ark to
save his family. By faith he
condemned the world and became heir
of the righteousness that comes by
faith. By faith Abraham, when
called to go to a place he would
later receive as his inheritance,
obeyed and went, even though he did
not know where he was going… And
so from this one man… came
descendants as numerous as the stars
in the sky and as countless as the
sand on the seashore.”
Hebrews 11:7,8,12
Timeout for a
thought question
Do you think God
promised Abraham a great number of
biological descendants or was God
promising to make Abraham the
spiritual forefather of all who would
live by faith?
Note: A spiritual
relative is someone that lives the
same way as Abraham or Noah lived,
that is by faith. Jesus said to
the Jews, “…if you were
Abraham’s children.
Then you would do the
things Abraham did.” John
8:39 Christians often use the term
“brother” or
“sister” to denote kinship
in a spiritual sense. See
Matthew 12: 46-50 for more
information on spiritual relatives.
Before answering the
question, consider this
question: Can the faith and
righteousness of an ancestor save a
descendant from eternal death?
Can the evil deeds of an ancestor
condemn a descendant to eternal
death? The answer is no.
(See Ezekiel
14:12-23) Then what spiritual
advantage comes with being a Jew?
Abram and Sarai, his
wife, thought the promise of God
referred to biological
offspring. To solve their
childless problem, Sarai suggested
that Abram sleep with Hagar, her
maidservant, and thus they would
begin a family. Hagar bore
Ishmael, and Ishmael became the
father of 12 tribes. It may
come as a surprise to learn that
Abraham is the biological father of a
great multitude currently exceeding 1
billion people: the Arabs. (For
further study read Genesis 16-21,
25:7-18.)
But the Arabs are not
the great multitude of descendants
that God promised. Neither are
the Jews that great multitude of
descendants promised to Abraham for
they only number about 15
million! Revelation 7 however,
describes the great multitude
promised to Abraham. It is the
redeemed of earth! The great
multitude promised to Abraham is
those who live by faith just as he
lived!
The Apostle Paul tried
to convince the Jews that being a
descendent of Abraham was beneficial,
after all, Israel had been especially
favored of God – BUT, he
insisted, “A man is not a Jew if
he is only one outwardly, nor is
circumcision merely outward and
physical. No, a man is a Jew if
he is one inwardly; and circumcision
is circumcision of the heart, by the
Spirit, not by the written
code.”
Romans 2:28,29
Back to
choosing poor people
About 400 years after
the call of Abram, God again looked
down to earth and choose a descendant
of Abraham. This man would
become a great leader for God.
This man was Moses. Paul
says,” Moses, when he had grown
up, refused to be known as the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter. He
chose to be mistreated along with the
people of God rather than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a short
time. He regarded disgrace for
the sake of Christ as a greater value
than the treasures of Egypt, because
he was looking ahead to his
reward.” Hebrews 11:24-26
(Notice that Paul says
Moses regarded disgrace for the sake
of “Christ.” This
again supports that Jesus is the God
of the Old Testament!)
At the end of his
life, Moses summoned the Israelites
and said, “The Lord did not set
his affection on you because you were
more numerous than other peoples, for
you were the fewest of all
peoples. But it was because the
Lord loved you and kept the oath he
swore to your forefathers that he
brought you out (of Egypt) with a
mighty hand and redeemed you from the
land of slavery, from the power of
Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore
that the Lord your God is God; he is
the faithful God, keeping his
covenant of love to a thousand
generations of those who love him and
keep his commands.”
Deuteronomy 7:7-9
Moses made it quite
clear that Israel was not going to
receive the land of Canaan from the
nations occupying the territory
because of their righteousness!
“…No, it is on account of
the wickedness of these nations that
the Lord is going to drive them out
before you. It is not because
of your righteousness or your
integrity that you are going in to
take possession of their land; but on
the account of the wickedness of
these nations, the Lord your God will
drive them out before you, to
accomplish what he swore to your
fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob…for you are a stiff-necked
people.” Deuteronomy 9:4-6
When Jesus delivered
Israel out of Egypt, He took them to
an isolated place to teach them about
His ways. There were no enemies
in the Sinai desert to torment Israel
during their early days, as a nation
for that barren desert did not
support life in any form. There
He sent water gushing from a rock and
dropped manna from heaven for forty
years. Their clothing did not
wear out neither did their
shoes.
See Deuteronomy 29:5
Because Jesus wanted
to be close to these people and teach
them about His ways of truth and
righteousness, He commanded Moses,
“…have them make a
sanctuary for me, and I will dwell
among them. Make this
tabernacle and all its furnishings
exactly like the pattern I will show
you.” Exodus
25:8,9 Consider the
condescension of God. God took
the uneducated low-life group of
“stiff-necked” slaves and
desired to transform them into a
great nation of noble and beautiful
examples of His creative power.
There was one
condition, however, Moses told them,
“If you full obey the Lord your
God and carefully follow all his
commands I give you today, the Lord
your God will set you high above all
the nations on earth… However,
if you do not obey the Lord your God
and do not carefully follow all his
commands and decrees I am giving you
today, all these curses will come
upon you and overtake you.”
Deuteronomy 28:1,2,15,16
Moses did not imply a
“legalistic” relationship
with God would bring greatness.
No, Moses pointed out many times
during his speech that Israel was to
love the Lord. He said,
“Love the Lord your God and keep
his requirements, his decrees, his
laws and his commands
always.” Deuteronomy
11:1 “Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your
strength. These commandments
that I give you today are to be upon
your hearts.” Deuteronomy
6:5,6 “Because he loved
your forefathers and chose their
descendants after them, he brought
you out of Egypt by his Presence and
his great strength…Acknowledge
and take to heart this day that the
Lord is God in heaven above and on
the earth below. There is no
other.” Deuteronomy
4:37,39
Think it through
Consider for a moment
that Jesus, the Creator of Heaven and
earth, the Holy One of Israel,
Jehovah God, The Great I AM, The
Almighty, and The God of Israel is
also the meek and lowly Jesus of
Nazareth. Many Christians are
overwhelmed to learn that the one
called “Jesus” in the New
Testament is the same God of the Old
Testament! Most Old Testament
references actually refer to Jesus
our Creator instead of the
Father! Jesus said to the Jews,
“…you diligently study the
scriptures because you think that by
them you possess eternal life.
There are the Scriptures that testify
about me…if you believed Moses,
you would believe me, for he wrote
about me.” John 5:39
Sanctuary services
To appreciate that
Jesus is the God of the Old
Testament, we must study into the
sanctuary services of the Old
Testament. The role of Jesus in
the plan of salvation is wonderfully
explained in the symbols and
ceremonies of the Old
Testament. Jesus designed that
each service teaches a special and
specific lesson about the process of
salvation that could be fulfilled at
Calvary. For this study, we
will explore the meaning of the three
most important services:
1.
The Morning and Evening Sacrifice
2.
The Sin Offering
3.
The Day of Atonement
The morning and
evening sacrifice
The morning and
evening sacrifice were conducted at
sunrise and sunset each day. A
flawless year old male lamb was
sacrificed on the Alter of Burnt
Offering. The priest conducting
the service sprinkled some of the
lamb’s blood upon the
alter. The service also
consisted of burning special incense
on the coals of the Alter of Incense
in the Holy Place.
This sacrifice became
known as the “daily” or
“continual” for it took
place every morning and
evening. It was through the
atoning merits of the
“daily” that Israel could
dwell in the very presence of God
without being destroyed! (See
Exodus 29:38-46; 30: 7,8.) In
other words, the “daily provided
corporate atonement on behalf of the
whole nation of Israel and was not
directed towards any one individual.
The Sin
Offering
From time to time,
individuals for specific sins made
offerings. This sacrifice was
conducted on the Alter of Burnt
Offering and was ultimately consumed
by fire. Here the sinner placed
his hands upon the head of his
offering and confessed his sin.
With his own hand, the sinner took
the life of the sacrificial
lamb. The priest then carried
some of the blood into the sanctuary
and deposited the blood on the horns
of the alter of incense and he also
placed incense on the burning coals
of the alter. The idea that
Jesus wanted Israel to understand was
that sin could only be transferred
from the sinner via blood.
An important
contrast
The difference between
the “daily” sacrifice and
the sin offering is
significant. The
“daily” was a corporate
offering for the nation of Israel;
the sin offering was a person or a
family.
The Day of
Atonement
Near the end of each
religious year, Israel faced a yearly
judgment day known as the Day of
Atonement.
The high priest had to
receive the approval of God before he
could officiate on behalf of
Israel. The office of high
priest did not automatically qualify
the high priest for this sacred
occasion. He had to be found
worthy of the service.
The word
“atonement” means
reconciliation, bringing together or
at-one-ment. This day always
fell on the 10th day of
the 7th month. This
day was a special Sabbath and no work
was done on this day regardless of
the day of the week it fell
upon. All Israel was required
to come before god in person on this
day to account for their deeds during
the past year. Only the high
priest officiated in the temple
services on the Day of Atonement.
Other priests that
normally served in the temple
throughout the year could not
represent Israel before God on this
day. The high priest had to go
through a very interesting process
before he could represent the nation
of Israel in the most holy
compartment of the sanctuary.
He had to be found worthy of
conducting this work before he could
officiate on behalf of Israel!
(See Leviticus 16:13)
The high priest had to
personally provide a great sacrifice
and present the blood of his
sacrifice in the most holy portion of
the sanctuary on the Day of Atonement
before he could officiate for
Israel. With trembling and
reverence, the high priest entered
the second room of the sanctuary on
this special day to stand in the very
presence of God.
The basic purpose of
this day was to cleanse the
sanctuary. All year long, the
sins the people had been transferred
to the sanctuary through the blood of
the offerings described above.
On this very special day, the
sanctuary was cleansed of all sins by
the high priest. He transferred
the sins from the sanctuary to the
scapegoat. More will be said
about this later on.
These three services
demonstrate the basic elements of the
plan of salvation. The daily
demonstrates unmerited justification
(the gift of God), the sin offering
demonstrates willful sanctification
(the response of man) and the Day of
Atonement demonstrates the final
judgment and disposition of sin (the
consummation of salvation).
These elements will be expanded in
our next two lessons. For now,
we need to look at the sanctuary
building to understand how these
things work together.
The Most Holy
Place
The back room, or most
holy compartment of the sanctuary,
contained one small piece of
furniture; the Ark of the Covenant or
testimony. Exodus 25:10-22 The
ark consisted of a small golden box
containing the tables of stone
written by Jesus (the ten
commandments).
A “mercy
seat” or special cover formed
the top of the box, and two angels
figurines facing each other stood at
both ends of the ark with the mercy
seat between them. When
The high priest
entered the most holy compartment on
the Day of Atonement, a room strictly
off limits to everyone else; he
approached the ark and sprinkled some
of the blood from his sacrifice onto
the ark and into the mercy
seat. Leviticus 16 There God
communed with the high priest
indicating His acceptance of the
sacrifice.
After presenting an
acceptable sacrifice for himself and
his family, the high priest continued
the atonement service by leaving the
Most Holy place. He went out
into the courtyard to select one of
two goats as sacrifices for the sins
of Israel. One goat was chosen
to pay the penalty for sin; the other
was left to bear the consequences of
sin. There is important
difference between “paying the
penalty” of sin and
“bearing the consequence”
of sin. One goat paid the
penalty for sin by becoming a
sacrifice for sin while the other
goat received the consequence of sin
by being taken into the wilderness to
die.
Here is a major
point. There is a vast
difference between paying the penalty
for sin and reaping the consequences
of sin. This service pointed
forward to the death of Jesus as the
sacrifice for the sins of the world
and to the death of Satan when he
receives the consequences of sin.
After sacrificing the
goat, the High Priest entered the
most holy place again to officiate on
behalf of Israel. Upon
completing the second service, the
high priest washed or cleansed the
accumulated blood off the horns of
the alter of incense that stood
before the veil in the first
compartment (or holy place). Leaving
the holy place, the priest walked out
into the courtyard to the remaining
goat and wiped his bloody hands on
the head of this animal. This
animal was known as the scapegoat or
the sin bearer. After doing
this, a very capable man took the
animal miles out into the desert to
die. Thus the sin of Israel was
removed from the sanctuary and the
sanctuary was cleansed or restored.
Picture the scene,
millions of Hebrews gathered around
the sanctuary in the middle of their
desert camp. Every voice is
hushed. Every eye is on the
sanctuary. Every ear within
range listens for the bells on the
bottom of the high priests garment
indicating the high priest is still
alive as he stands before God.
All Israel anxiously waited for the
appearing and announcement of the
high priest telling them that God has
accepted the offering and all sins
are blotted out.
Revelation includes
these
The Daily Offering,
the Sin Offering and the Day of
Atonement will have very important
significance in our study of the book
of Revelation, for Revelation’s
story includes a considerable amount
of sanctuary service!
For example, in
Revelation 8:3-5, an angel
ministering at the “alter of
incense” throws down a censer
and “seven trumpets”
follow. In Revelation 11 John
was told to measure the
“temple” of God and the
alter. In Revelation 11:19,
God’s temple in heaven is opened
and the “ark of His
covenant” is seen! These
few sentences from Revelation point
out that Revelation’s story is
intimately connected to the sanctuary
services of the Old Testament.
In fact, Paul tells us that Jesus is
directly involved in the heavenly
sanctuary. “…We do have
such a high priest, who sat down at
the right hand of the throne of the
Majesty in heaven, and who serves in
the sanctuary, the true sanctuary set
up by the Lord, not by man…(for
men) serve at a sanctuary that is a
copy and shadow of what is in
heaven. 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 you on the
mountain.”
Hebrews 8:1-5
In other words, the
sanctuary services described in the
Old Testament are actually a
“shadow” or model of what
is actually taking place in
heaven! Jesus, the High Priest
of the human race, serves in the
heavenly sanctuary which God built
while the sanctuary built by Moses
was only a teaching model based on
the one in heaven. What is
Jesus doing up there? How do
the services of the Old Testament
relate to the end of the world and
the great judgment day of the human
race?
Here’s the heart
of the problem – many Christians
today miss the entire point of the
earthy sanctuary just like the
ancient Jews did. The Jews
actually believed the sacrificial
services brought salvation when in
reality they never made salvation
possible! Paul clearly states,
“But those sacrifices are an
annual reminder of sins, because it
is impossible for the blood of bulls
and goats to take away
sins.” Hebrews 10:3,4
God told Isaiah,
“The multitude of your
sacrifices – what are they to
me?’ says the Lord. I have
more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened
animals; I have no pleasure in the
blood of bulls and lambs and
goats.’” Isaiah 1:11
A clearer
understanding
Now the plan of
salvation begins to focus. The
sacrifice of animals in the Old
Testament was only a
“teaching” model. God
gave the model to the Jews so they
might understand the price and
process of salvation. The Jews
turned the model into a perversion
– thinking (like the pagans)
that salvation came through religious
acts rather than a broken and
contrite heart.
When Jesus died on
Calvary, the model became
useless. The price had been
paid for sin
“Once for
all.” The meaning of the model
continues today for the Great Day of
Atonement is coming. A great
day of judgment! This will be
the subject of our next study.
Think it
through
Lambs are not
sacrificed in heaven for “The
Lamb of God” has been
slain. Thirty times in
Revelation, Jesus is called “The
Lamb.” The blood of bulls
and goats did not save sinners in
times past – nor can the blood
of animals pay the penalty for
sin. Just as the Father
provided the sacrificial offering for
Abraham when he was ready to offer up
his son, Isaac, He has provided a
sacrifice for the human race.
His name is Jesus.
Quiz
1. Name three
articles of furniture in the
sanctuary:
A.
B.
C.
2. What is the
difference between the daily offering
and the sin offering?
3. Why did Jesus
choose Israel as a special nation?
4. Why was
Jesus so concerned that Moses follow
the pattern concerning the temple?
Memory Verse
John 3:16 “For God so
loved the world that He gave His one
and only Son.”
Notes
