Worship & the Reclamation of the World | Sermon 07/28/2024

Worship as the Purpose of Creation

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Let's pray.

God, thank you so much for allowing us to be here today, for taking sinners like ourselves, Lord, people who practice idolatry, who practice false worship from the heart, people that were children of wrath, Lord, whose father was the devil, people who don't deserve to actually worship you, God, but instead, we actually deserve judgment and wrath, sinners like us, you took us, Lord, and you saved our souls out of the goodness of your heart.

Grace and mercy were extended to us through your son, Jesus Christ, on the cross for our sins. Lord, not only have you saved us, but you put your spirit within us, like you stayed in Ezekiel, you have caused us to observe your statutes.

You have revealed yourself to us in our hearts so that we can know you, that we can love your word, that we can walk in the newness of life, that we can truly know what it means to be a human. We could not worship you without you, God.

You did not leave us alone. You didn't leave Adam alone in the garden. You revealed yourself to him, and you told him what you expected of him. God, you revealed yourself to us today as broken people, and you tell us what you expect of us.

Lord, please get me out of the way today as we go through your word. Please let your word ring and shine true, God. It is such a beautiful truth. And help us, Lord, to live in how we were created to live, that we can love you and love our neighbor.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

So before man ever was, the God of the universe began his grand act of creation by the word of his power. Time and space found its point and origin held together by the will of God. Then with an ancient sentence as old as time itself, God spoke, let there be light.

From this magnificent command, photons bunched together and shot into existence. Thus day and night were born from the creator king. With his mighty hands binding the chains of Pleiades, he determined the ordinances of the heavens.

It was then when the morning stars sang together as the Lord sunk the base of the earth and laid in its cornerstones. The God of glory then shifted his voice as he walked into the recesses of the great deep and the sea was shut in with stone doors.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory, sang the six-winged seraphim as the eternal one clothed the earth in grass while making the clouds a garment for the earth.

In direct creation, the sovereign king made no mistake. He brought forth the behemoth from the clay and the beasts of the earth to wander in his forests, to play in the mountains of his hands. He made the birds of the air to swim through the heavens, all of which sing praises to the immortal God.

And in the darkness of the great deep, the Loggoths formed the Leviathan and there it swells, swaying to the currents brought forth from the darkness, declaring praises to the king. In this divine act of providence, creation worshiped its creator.

From the invisible to the visible, they all acted in right relation according to the duty that God had given them. Day and night, sun, moon, stars, the beasts of the air, the beasts of the field, and even the fish of the sea, the earth, through the works of God, was good.

Yet the works of God were still unfinished. Surging at the sound of his voice, the clay of the earth formed together, soaring into the heavens, creating a holy mountain in which El Shaddai planted the pinnacle of his creation.

It was here where he made a garden. He intertwined it with rivers, made it lush with trees. He layered it with gold, onyx, rubies, and gemstones of beautiful color and variety,.

And then he put man in it.

This was paradise, Eden, and in the Septuagint, that translates to paradise. This garden in Eden was the temple on earth where God dwelled with man in the cool of the garden. It was here where God made man upright, right?

In Ecclesiastes 7 .29. And this man, Adam, was a direct creation of God. He had no earthly mother or father. And again, he was not left to his own devices. We are told in Psalm 8, three through six, and this is why we read it earlier.

This is what it says.

When I look at your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you care for him. Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. In reference, we understand at first, Adam was given that dominion and rule, but we find the fulfillment of that Psalm in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the dominion that he has given us through the church is much more greater than Adam could have ever imagined.

Let's continue.

Revelation, Idolatry, and the Fall

We know that God favored man. He was mindful of him. He did not leave him without direction. God revealed himself to Adam. This man was unlike all the beasts in the field, unlike all creation in the heavens.

This man was to be the priest of God for all of creation, the priest of Eden, to take dominion over the works of God's hands. This is worship. That is the definition of worship. It is our being delighting in response to who God is, and the source of true worship begins and finds its source and is surrounded by God revealing himself to us.

What are we told in Romans chapter one, right? Romans chapter one, if you wanna go there, go ahead, turn to Romans one. We're gonna start in verse 18. Here's the reality, right, with Adam. Even with us, God must reveal himself to us.

Here's what it says, starting in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever, amen.

So why did we read that? Well, hear me clearly, without God's special direct revelation through his word, the incarnation of Christ and regeneration, the fallen man will have misplaced worship. Well, what does that have to do with Adam?

Adam was made upright. Did you notice though that God made Adam and didn't just leave him alone? He told him what he expected of him. He revealed himself to him. He taught Adam how to worship him. But our misplaced worship is fallen creatures.

Instead of worshiping the creator, we worship the creation in some way. I don't wanna get ahead of myself right now in the sermon, but there are ramifications for false worship.

And if we think about it,.

We can think of the 10 commandments. What is the very first commandment, right? Thou shall have no other gods before me. Why does God tell us that first? Because idolatry is the very root of our sin, being fallen human beings.

True worship again begins with God's revelation, God revealing to us. Now let's digress and go back to the Garden of Eden. Adam was made upright, but he was not left to his own devices. The Logos, the pre-incarnate Christ was the one who revealed to Adam what he expected of him.

How do we know that? John 1, 18. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is in the father's side, he has made him known. That was the pre-incarnate Christ who spoke to Adam in the garden. And why was this necessary, right?

Why did God have to reveal himself to Adam? Well, if you've been in our reach groups the last few weeks, we've been going over a book called The Holiness of God by R .C. Sproul. And we must understand that God is holy.

And what does that mean? He is separate from us. He is not like his creation. Remember what I was talking about earlier between one-ism and two-ism. He is separate from us. In his being, he is the eternal God.

What we can comprehend about him is dependent upon his revelation of his being to us. What we know about God has to be revealed to us because he is so unlike us and so much greater than us. By our own faculties, we cannot understand who he is unless he literally, literally reveals himself to us.

He is that holy. What we know about him comes from him to us. The source of our knowledge of him again comes from him. Ultimately, since we were created by him, the source of our knowledge about who we are, how we operate in God's world is also revealed to us by God.

This is exactly what God did for Adam. He told Adam what he expected of him and what he created Adam to do. Understand this, please. What Adam was to do was to worship God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Remember the springboard verse earlier on this sermon from worship, 1 Corinthians 10, 31? Whatever you eat, drink, whatever you do, you do all to the glory of God. This was expected of Adam and faithfully communicated to Adam in the sanctuary of Eden.

And this is crucial to understanding worship, guys.

Why?

Because we were created to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We were created to worship God in all that we do, unendingly, unendingly. And then we were expected to reflect that worship to all of creation.

Jesus himself restates this in the Gospels. Mark 12, 29 through 31. Let me read this to you guys. This is Jesus reiterating what he was telling Adam in the garden. The greatest commandments. He says, the most important is this.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And then in verse 31, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these. And then what are we told in John 14, 15? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Worshiping God in all of our being is not limited to these four walls here in the church.

It's not limited just to a Sunday affair. It is reminiscent of the garden command to obey God, to pursue him and to acknowledge him in all of our ways. He will make our path straight, to tend the garden and to keep it.

Listen, God created the earth and within the earth, he selected an area and that was Eden. Within Eden, he selected a garden. It was in this garden where God would walk. And this was a sanctuary, a holy place, paradise, an intermediary between heaven and earth.

And again, humanity was to be the priests of this sanctuary to worship God from it. Now, what Jesus revealed is no different than what was expected of Adam in the beginning. And where do we find this communicated to Adam.

In the beginning?

That's probably the question you might be asking yourself. Andrew, you didn't even tell me where that was communicated. Well, I believe it's in Genesis 2, 8 and also in Genesis 2, 15. Says this in Genesis 2, 15.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. These are commands. And if we love God, we obey his commands. If we love him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, what ought Adam to do?

Work the garden and keep the garden. It's the very same thing. God is so consistent. But let's hold on for a second and let's focus on the word put. In verse 2, 15 and verse 2, 8. What we find here in English doesn't actually communicate the importance of the word being used here.

Here we find that God assigned Adam to a certain position in the garden. It's not trying to communicate that he just put him in the garden like willy-nilly. No, what we find is that he placed him in the garden with the authority to work it and keep it in the presence of God.

The same language for put or placed is used in Exodus and Deuteronomy with the objects that are put or placed in the presence of God within the tabernacle and later the temple, right? Objects of worship.

And what is Adam to do? Work and keep in the garden in the presence of God. Put, placed with authority to keep Eden. The reality of Adam, our first father, was that he was to minister to and to protect the garden sanctuary of God.

Why is this important? What does this have to do with worship? Because Adam's duty was to worship God in that. He was created to worship God in this way with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength and to reflect this image of God to all of mankind.

Worship to God is predicated on our heart's position before God and living according to how he created us to be.

That's the reality.

Human beings were created to worship in all that we do. Worship is what we are to do in everything. That's why Paul reiterates that time and time again in the New Testament and why Jesus is always hitting on it.

But we're fallen, right? Here again, the words of Jesus, Mark 12, 29 through 31. I'm gonna repeat it. The most important is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Revelation of God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

The second he said in this, in verse 31, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. And remember, John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep my commands.

Adam, as that priest of God, placed in the garden with authority to have dominion over all of God's creation. If he loved God with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength, he would work the garden, keep the garden in the sanctuary of God, and that was worship.

That's what he was created to do. That's what we are created to do. But we are fallen human beings. Creation was created to worship God. The stars worship by shining in the night, being fixated in the heavens.

The beasts worship by playing in the fields. The plants worship by growing in the sun. The clouds worship by giving shade and raining upon the earth. The ant worships by knowing his ways and his duty under heaven.

Man worships by doing what he was created to do, revealed to him by God under heaven. All creation is under the obligation to act according to its created nature and purpose. This, my friends, is worship.

Yet we all understand what happened in the garden, Ecclesiastes 7, 29, right? But we have sought out many schemes. We were made upright, but we seek out many schemes. The temple in which Adam and Eve were to worship God, in the presence of God, by their actions, by their disobedience, they desecrated the sanctuary, they desecrated the holy place.

And all of creation suffered the ramifications of Adam's disobedience. This, my friends, was the beginning of idolatry and sin, where now God could be worshiped, but only at a distance, only at a distance, all predicated by his revelation to man from grace and to grace, pointing to the Messiah.

The reality is, is that we were separated from God in our sin, right? We need to be reconciled. If we're not reconciled, what does that mean? We're at war with God. But even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So even from the old covenant, we have God, in his grace, because of the coming of Messiah, revealing himself to people so that they could what? Worship him, worship him. Ecclesiastes 7 .29, see this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

In that, Adam and Eve were removed from paradise and cherubim, which is actually plural, interestingly enough, were placed with a flaming sword in the east of the sanctuary's entrance so that they could never return to paradise where the tree of life dwelled on earth.

Typically, when I thought of the cherubim guarding this place by the tree of life, I always pictured one with the flaming sword, but it's a plural, so it's possible that there were many cherubim surrounding this area.

Imagine that, that'd be absolutely terrifying, absolutely terrifying. But the reality is, is now, after this, we have a severed relationship with God. Man, apart from God, cannot worship God without reconciliation and mediation.

This right here is part of the Old Testament. Hear me clearly, hear me clearly. When we as humans are acting in a way in which we are not to act, we are in fact committing acts of false worship. Any act of defiance against God and his character is enough to sever us from the tree of life.

Thus, we are from birth, since we are descendants of Adam, in our flesh, and in and of ourselves, we do not have access to the tree of life or paradise. We then enter into the desert of earth, a physical representation of our separation from God, where the beast devours, kills, and destroys.

That's where we're at. The earth then produces thorns and thistles for our keeping and tending. We're still expected to keep and tend it, by the way. And it is not, and it is actually purely in vain, purely in vain.

Furthermore, man condemns one another and produces not fruits of the spirit, but that of idolatry and wickedness, and that's man left to his own devices, apart from the revelation and grace of God. What does Colossians 3, 5 through 6 tell us?

And if you guys have listened to me preach before, you know I always love to go to Colossians. It's one of my favorite sections of scripture. You can turn there now. Colossians 3, verses 5 through 6. God's word states here, it says, Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

On the account of these, the wrath of God is coming. All of these horrible acts are repercussions of idolatry. All of that sin noted there, it's all idolatry. All of it is against the character of God in which we are expected to emulate to all of mankind.

The root of that sin is idolatry. From Adam's disobedience, our fallen nature is enslaved to sin, to false worship. Where we did what? We exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped the creation instead of the creator.

That's our problem. We cannot worship God apart from the grace of God. The first example we see of idolatry and worshiping at a distance is with Cain and Abel in the Bible. We all know the story, hopefully, that Cain killed Abel because Cain was jealous that his offering to God was not acceptable to the Lord, whereas his brother Abel's offering was acceptable.

What are we told in Hebrews 11, four? Hebrews 11, four states this. By faith, Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts, and through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

Cain's offering was not acceptable, for it was not by faith or trust in God, and when God rebukes Cain, we find that the evil desire and covetousness were already in the heart of Cain, and it gave birth to murder.

That's what James tells us, right? Starts in the heart. Cain, as a child of wrath, devoid of faith and trust in God, mimics the father of lies and murders his brother. But understand that in the garden, what Adam did in his nature, keeping and tending the garden, was worship to God.

That was an acceptable offering, but now, in the story of redemption, we see that actual offerings have to be presented before Yahweh. They're not just in the garden with him, there's worshiping at a distance.

Bring the offering to him. The second example we find is with Noah's ark and the destruction of the world by flood. Genesis chapter six, five through eight, states this. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man, whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and the birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. What is man that you are mindful of him, right? Here, God chose a people for himself out of grace, and what did he do for Noah? He revealed to Noah how to build the ark.

Without the grace and revelation of God, Noah would not have lived the flood. That's the reality. He saved a remnant of his people.

Why?

Because the righteous one, Jesus Christ, would inevitably come to save his people from their sins. If it wasn't for Jesus, Noah would be destroyed. What is the point that I'm trying to make? Worship was only made possible through revelation from God.

Noah, apart from God, could not worship him. The world, apart from God, was destroyed for their idolatry. This is what we're told. We read earlier Romans 1 .18 to 25, but now listen to Romans 1 .24 through 32.

If you want, you can turn there with me. These are the consequences of our idolatry. This is what we deserve because of our idolatry. Starting in verse 24 in Romans chapter one. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever, amen.

For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

The judgment of God is for him to not reveal himself to them but instead to hand them over to their delusion and to exhume his wrath on the fruits of their false worship. Remember, first in Romans one, they didn't worship the creator, they were worshiping the creation.

And what comes from that? They didn't exhibit fruits of the spirit, they didn't exhibit what it means to be a human, how to treat one another, they exhibited sin. 24 different things that God lists out here for us.

Let me tell you guys them again, it's insane. Impurity, dishonor, unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slander, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, just like Cain, heartless, ruthless, giving hearty approval to those who do wickedness, though they know not to do it.

Those are 24 different condemnations on the heart that does not worship God. But again, what does Romans one say? It says that all of creation tells you that there is a God, but they suppress the truth and unrighteousness and they worship the creation instead of the creator.

So God hands them over, God hands them over. This is the heart of the individual who cannot love God or love their neighbor, why? Because God did not take their heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh.

This is a poisoned well that brings poisonous water to the world in which the world suffers at the hand of idolatry. Do you see how every single one of those sins affects your neighbor? When you act as an idol, a false God, and exhibit its characteristics, you will damage the world.

That's the reality.

We're not Gnostics as Christians. There's a reason why God created the world, right? The meek shall inherit the earth. We were created to worship God. Humanity cannot be void of worship. The question we should ask ourselves is what are we worshiping?

What are we worshiping? There's nobody in reality that's an atheist. It's impossible. They worship something, whether they know it or not. There's something that they worship. Understand that God destroyed the world in Noah's time because of this exact type of wickedness that condemned in Romans chapter one.

Without God and his mercy, we are left to our own wickedness because no longer does God dwell in the cool of the garden in the midst of the sanctuary in Eden with us, but the relationship between God and man has been severed.

Again, it's in need of reconciliation. After the garden, we worship God at a distance in ways that he revealed to us out of his mercy. Here's some more examples. Abraham, chosen by God, worshiped God by faith, made a covenant with him through his belief in the seed to come, that all nations would be blessed.

Who is that seed? Well, we're told by Paul in Galatians that that is Jesus Christ. But the reality is is that Abraham worshiped God at a distance. He was looking forward to what was going to come. In shadows and in types, he worshiped God by what was revealed to him through the circumcision of the flesh and the offering of his son Isaac on the altar.

Understand, Abraham was a sinner. The worship that he gave to God was not sinless, but he was declared righteous by faith and his imperfect worship was still acceptable in the eye of God through grace and the one who was to come, Jesus Christ.

But again, he would not be able to worship God unless what? God called Abraham. God first revealed himself to Abraham. Let's now fast forward to the Hebrew people and we find some awesome ways in which God shows that he is to be worshiped, not just by an individual, but by a nation, but at a distance according to his standards.

Think back to Mount Sinai, after the Israelites crossed through, I guess they're not Israelites at that time, as the Hebrews after they crossed through the Red Sea. Moses went up to the mountain on Mount Sinai, but what happened?

The people remained below. God says, don't even touch the mountain lest you die. You can see me at a distance. You can see Moses up on the top of the mountain. There's an intermediary there, this prophet, who was to bring the word to the people, but the people, if you touch the mountain, you will die.

Here's more. The dimensions of the tabernacle were direct revelation given from God to Moses and God even gave one individual, which is pretty cool, a distinct ability to create the tabernacle, and all that was in it.

And this was to be a shadow of God's dwelling place in heaven. Hebrews 8 .5 tells us that. It says, 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.

Think about it. The tabernacle was to be set apart a holy sanctuary of God, a miniature Eden, a miniature Eden, where he would do what? Where he would walk with his people just like the garden in Eden and unlike how he appeared to Abraham, unlike how he appeared to Abraham.

We are Baptists. We believe in distinct covenant theology. Listen to this, Leviticus 26, verse 11 through 13, states this, I will make my dwelling among you and my soul shall not abhor you and I will walk among you and will be your God and you shall be my people.

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that you should not be their slaves and I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. Understand that though this is worshiping God at a distance, the fact that God made his place among sinful men is a miracle and a mercy from God.

What did God do in Eden, right? He walked with Adam in the cool of the garden. He did not walk again with his people until they erected the tabernacle. He would appear to them in different types and in different ways, of course, in Theophanies and Christophanies, appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ, but here he's doing something unique and distinct that's going to point to something even greater in the future.

God was rich in his mercy and was reminding the Hebrews about the Garden of Eden and the sanctuary that was once in the world. Interestingly enough, even about Eden, it's believed that it was on top of a mountain.

You can go read Ezekiel 28 later when you get home, but there's some pretty cool things here, illustrations to give from the Garden of Eden and how the tabernacle was constructed in terms of the parallels.

So think about this. There's three rings in Eden. We have outside of Eden, Eden itself, the Garden of Eden, and in that, we find that the most holy section of it is where God dwelled in the sanctuary, but the tabernacle reflected that in another way.

The courtyard was outside of the holy place, then inside the courtyard was the holy place, and inside that was the most holy place where God dwelt. So the tabernacle is in direct relation to the reference of the Garden in Eden and the holy place where God dwelt, right?

In the Hebrews, they would have known this because what? Not only do they have the words of Moses that he's writing down, but also we have their oral tradition, of course, that they would have been taught the God of Abraham.

Reminds them of Eden.

The earth around Eden was the courtyard. The holy place was Eden. The most holy is where God would dwell at the top of the mountain. So understand that the author of Hebrews shows us that we find that the Garden of Eden itself was a shadow of the heavenly dwelling place of God, even Eden itself, and also that the tabernacle is also a shadow of the heavenly place of God's dwelling, but also a reference to the Hebrews of the Garden of Eden.

So God, in order to dwell with these sinners, wanted to be worshiped in a specific way, and this is the way he determined to foreshadow the dwelling, the place he will eventually make in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, right?

And then eventually inside us as redeemed people by the fleshly tabernacle of Christ. Here are some more brilliant parallels between Eden and the worship of God at a distance in the Old Testament with the Hebrews.

Let's start with Adam real quick. Adam was a priest of God to commune with God in the sanctuary of Eden. He was the archetypical Levite, the archetypical Levite priest. The Levites were the set-aside class to represent the people before God in the holy and most holy place of their tabernacle.

The high priest also wore beautiful garments with beautiful colors, golden jewels. The high priest would have a golden crown with the words right there in the front would say, holy to the Lord. He would have golden shoulder pads with an onyx stone in each shoulder.

Each stone would be engraved with six of the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. A golden breastplate is what they had with 12 stones each inscribed with a name of a tribe of Israel, with all types of stones, the same stones that are found in the Garden of Eden, reference to Ezekiel 28, read it later.

It's pretty cool.

Understand that the beauty of what God was communicating in their tabernacle, in the priestly system, and even the sacrificial system, is that God was beginning the reclamation of worship, pointing to the ultimate fulfillment of the tabernacle, as John tells us this in John 1, 14 through 18.

So even the tabernacle itself wasn't the pinnacle of worship, okay? Listen to this. John 1, 14 through 18. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, the only God who was at the Father's side, he has made him known. What we see here, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, the word dwelt means to dwell in, to live, to shelter.

This verb is also, can be translated into tabernacle. So the word tabernacled among us, quite beautiful. The tabernacle, and then even the temple later in Israel, were a shadow of the dwelling place of God, but in the fullness, it's presented to us in the Gospels, we understand that the fullness of the tabernacle and the temple was the person of Jesus Christ.