Tabernacled Among Us: The Altar

Notes:

Marshall McLuhen: The Medium is the Message

The Altar’s Mobility

What it’s made of:

Acacia Wood: Hardwood. Beautiful grain. Umbrella shape. Deep roots

4.5 feet by 7.5 feet

4 Horns:

Psalm 22:1–3 “1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. 3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”

All four corners point to the fact that Salvation is found through here...

What it’s purpose is?

Obvious: Sacrifice!

Grill!

Exodus 29:10–13“Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger,

Blood=Salvation

and the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar.” :

Mobility: Exodus 27:6–8 “And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. And the poles shall be put through the rings, so that the poles are on the two sides of the altar when it is carried. 8 You shall make it hollow, with boards. As it has been shown you on the mountain, so shall it be made.”

Tabernacle Altar:

Loops and Poles: Meant to take it with them

We are now those living sacrifices

The Altar’s Permanency

Firm and Clear: You don’t need to look for it. It’s there.

30x30x15: Much larger.

Can’t

Solid, stately, and steady

Steady, firm, stately. Perfect. It’s set in place.

Impressive.

Every Israelite knew the path to God, you had to first walk past the Altar

Medium is the Message:

We’ve arrived?

Religious Establishment

Church Plant picture versus Crystal Cathedral

Shadow and Obsolete

Hebrews 8:5 “They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.””

Hebrews 8:13 “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

Hebrews 10:1 “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.”

Shadows can’t do much?

The Cross’s Permanency

If Israel had a symbol of their faith, it would be an altar…

For Christians, we look to the Cross…

Continue through some verses

Hebrews 8:2: We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

Hebrews 9:25–26 “…The high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

Hebrews 9:11–12 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Hebrews 9:24 “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.”

Christ himself was the Sacrifice

His blood became the ticket to make atonement:

Difficult to Translate/understand:

“he entered once for all into the holy places...” “Christ has entered heaven itself...”

Power of Christ’s Ascension

When Jesus rose, he now appears in the “presence of God on our behalf!”

Cross became the Christian Altar: Blood shed...

Fundamental Problem of Humanity:

Separation from God.

What’s the golden ticket? What did the priests need to walk past in order to go into the Holy of Holies… It was sacrifice!!

And for us, Jesus, his shed blood was the ticket to God’s Presence once and for all and forever.

As Divine Blood: It shed with POWER and PERFECTION so the effects of it lasts forever. No more sacrifice on repeat.

As Human Blood: It appeased, assuaged God’s wrath against us.

So when you see the cross, you see sacrifice: You see the Altar of the Lamb of God…

High Priest:

Heb 9:24: Jesus now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.”

You see the Passover Lamb

You see the Scapegoat who got lost in the Dessert

You the Lion of Judah with a Crown of Thorns.

Nearer, Still Nearer:

Nearer, still nearer— nothing I bring, naught as an off'ring to Jesus, my King– only my sinful, now contrite heart; grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart, grant me the cleansing Thy blood doth impart.

Cross:

Firm and Clear: You don’t need to look for it. It’s there.

Steady, firm, stately. Perfect. It’s set in place.

Impressive.

If the final, last, a completed altar was a Cross, than that should really influence our theology!

The Church’s Understanding of the Altar:

Catholics: Altar

Easter Orthodox: Can’t even see the Altar: Shrouded in Mystery

Debate among many other Protestants:

Reformed: We do not call this an altar

We do not have altar calls…

We do not have an Altar… We have a table: Stressing that we commune around the TABLE.

We have a Table, not an altar.

Medium is the Message:

Table is about family

Hospitality

Communion

Togetherness

We don’t reenact the Sacrifice…

The Church’s Mobility

Because we have Jesus continually interceding for us, we have access to the Father all the time!

No more sacrifice needed! The “Once-and-for-all-ness” is a Big deal for the author of Hebrews, and should be for us as well...

THE CROSS’S “Once-and-for-all-ness” delates dead sacrifices of the Old Testament, but NOT living sacrifices of the New.

Just because Cross is the Altar, and Christ DEATH is once and for all, that doesn’t mean that we still can’t offer sacrifices!

The Point of Hebrews is that we don’t need to offer any bloody sacrifices, or sacrifices that lead to physical death.

BUT, the POINT remains that we are still called to be sacrifices!!

Romans 12:1–2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Through the mercy of God… Mercy, because we deserved the sacrifice Jesus gave on our behalf!

But because God is merciful to us, we are able to be living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.

The Sacrificial System is a live and well because it’s alive and in Christ!

And so, here’s the connection:

WE ARE LIVING SACRIFICES:

Dead Sacrifices versus Living Sacrifices

Bring a Sweat aroma

Dead carcasses versus Living Humans

Mobility in the Wilderness versus Mobility around the World

Advent: Preparing our hearts means presenting our bodies as Living Sacrifices?

“He’s so hot right now...”

Burning=Holiness

Be Transformed=Chared by the Spirit