If I only had a way...

Do you remember the first time Dorothy steps out of her Kansas farm house into the Land of OZ? The change from black and white to technicolor is magical. Such colors & vibrance everywhere. For a girl growing up on the open prairies of Kansas, who lived with her aunt and uncle on a small family farm with her dog Toto. This was a big change. Before she ended up in munchkin land a nasty neighbor had threatened to have her dog exterminated & Dorothy was ready to flee home. Can you imagine the change from not knowing where life was headed to having a yellow brick road laid out before you?

Our Easter Sermon Series is “Life with Purpoze” we will be seeing how our world has been brought into technicolor because of the Easter triumph of Jesus Christ as He rose from the dead so that we would have life in His name.

Dorothy, “If I only had a way back home...”

Dorothy finds herself in the Land of Oz after a twister (tornado) picks her up in her house and carries her and her little dog too.... off to Oz. Her world changes from black and white to technicolor in an instant and she now has one goal. To find her way back home. With 4 companions she heads off to the Emerald City to meet the wizard and try to persuade him to send her home.

Our Story since the beginning....

Our story beginnings, as is fitting, in the beginning. The story starts with us in a garden of peace with God and everything is good. But then Genesis chapter 3 (all the way at the beginning) We see that Adam and Eve sin, and because of their sin they are not able to be in the presence of God.

And God, seeing their fallen state, didn’t want them to eat from the tree of life and live forever because then they would be eternally separated from God. So it says....

Genesis 3:22–24 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

And from that moment there were sent out into the world and had to figure out which was to go next, to try and get back home to God...

The Temple in Jerusalem...

Well a couple 1,000 years pass and they haven’t gotten closer to God in fact they have gotten substantially farther. There sin is so corrupting that God makes a new promise for them. They will never be able to walk with God in peace because of their sin, but God still because of His love, will not abandon His creation. So he makes a promise to Moses and the tribes of Judah and gives them the Tabernacle which, when they get to the land he promised them, will become their temple. This special space will be with the people, but still cut off. Only select few will be able to enter it and offer a sacrifice to remind the people that their sin needs to be paid for.

There is a lot of detailed instruction that God gives Moses about the construction of the Temple. One key aspect is the Holy of Holies, the furthest back room where the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, rest. This is where God promises to be present (only once a year) to be with the people. And only one man can enter it once a year. It is separated off by a huge curtain...

Exodus 26:31–37 ESV

“And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place. And you shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table, and you shall put the table on the north side. “You shall make a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework. And you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia, and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall cast five bases of bronze for them.

& So every year for another 2000 years it was the custom of the people, like Dorothy to journey to the capital city Jerusalem, to go to the Temple to meet God and offer a sacrifice. To remember how we are eternally separated from God because of our sinfulness.

Can you imagine what it was like for Dorothy to finally arrive at the Emerald City, to have evaded the attacks of the wicked witch countless times, to find herself standing in front of the gate to the City only to be told to come back tomorrow? To know that your only chance for salvation is just out of reach, to feel that helpless....

Jesus, Immanuel God with Us...

Jesus is talking to a woman fetching water from a well in Samaria. (He shouldn’t have been talking to her to begin with she was an untouchable. Not only was she a samaritan, but she was an adulteress. He calls her on it then she says,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

He was speaking about His death on the cross. When he would pay the true cost of sin by dying in your stead. And as he breathed his last breath Matthew and Luke recount.

Luke 23:44–49 ESV

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.

In Jesus’ dying breath the 4,000 year old separation from God is over. Jesus has paid for all of our sins and made us righteous before God that we wouldn’t have to go looking for Him ever again. He is always right here with us. Through the whole journey. He is always ready to bring us home again.

Ruby Slippers

Do you remember how Dorothy got home. She clicked her heels three times and said, “There is no place like home.” Are you wishing you had a set of ruby slippers to escape this long sermon? They were always right there with her taking her home.