170. The Seven Golden Lamp Stands
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Seven Golden Lampstands (Revelation 1:12–20)Welcome to the PRODCAST – Episode 170📖 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:In this power-packed episode of The PRODCAST, we take a torch to the opening vision of Revelation and show how it blazes with Edenic imagery, temple theology, and the sovereign priesthood of Christ. We’re not talking about a future Antichrist. We’re not speculating about the rapture. We’re going back to the beginning—to Eden, to the Tabernacle, to the Temple—and forward to the Church, the true lampstands of God, tended by Christ Himself.You’ll learn:- How the Garden of Eden was the first temple- How the Tabernacle and Temple were architectural echoes of Paradise- What the golden lampstand symbolized in Israel’s worship- Why Jesus appears as a High Priest among seven lampstands—and why that matters- How the Church has become the blazing centerpiece of God’s global planWhy Jesus warns churches that refuse to shine with His glory- What it means to be a lampstand in an age of compromise👑 No King but ChristBe sure to check out this month’s featured shirt: “No King but Christ.” It’s not about politics—it’s about the monarchy of Jesus. We don’t bend to the left or to the right. We bow to the One seated on the throne.Grab yours at: www.prodthesheep.com📜 Scripture Covered:Revelation 1:12–20 (NASB 1995)Genesis 1–3 | Exodus 25–30 | Numbers 3 & 18 | John 1:14 | Matthew 5:14–16 | Isaiah 2 | Ezekiel 47 | Malachi 1:11 | Philippians 2:15💬 Support the Show:Your prayers, likes, shares, comments, and monthly support make this show possible. Every donation helps us keep producing bold, biblically faithful content to strengthen the Church and advance the Kingdom.👉 Become a supporter at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD_3vCL8AM6U3sJIAzq9vnA/join
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- He died for our sins that would have, that would have made the angels, fiery swords cut off our heads.
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- He died for our sins. He died for our brokenness. So now there is no more danger in being in the presence of God.
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- So you see the angels who are sitting on Jesus's tomb. They say, fear not. We're not here to hurt you.
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- We're not here to harm you. They don't even have their swords drawn anymore. They're just sitting there in sparkling pajamas saying he's not here.
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- Hello everyone and welcome back to the podcast where we prod the sheep and beat the wolf.
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- This is episode 170 the seven golden lampstands. Well, hello.
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- Welcome back to the podcast. This is a show about uncovering what the
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- Bible really says about tough topics, about uncomfortable topics so that we can be a biblically informed people so that we can be obedient to God and so that we can be effective in building up his kingdom for his glory to the very ends of the earth.
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- That has been our aim. Now to that end, we have been in a little bit of a longer series on the topic of eschatology, which simply means the last things and what we've been looking at is some of the most confusing and difficult passages in the
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- Bible, helping you to see what they're actually saying, what they really truly mean in their context and why knowing about these things is going to bring you a tremendous amount of assurance, comfort and hope.
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- Now, before we jump back into the book of revelation chapter one, which is where we're going to spend our time today,
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- I want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for liking, for commenting, for sharing these episodes with your friends and with your family and with your, you know, maybe your frenemies.
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- So praise God for that. The money goes to help us do lots of things. And we really just at the end of the day want to reach more people for Christ and want to encourage more people with this exciting message that we're not going to lose down here.
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- So thank you so much for that and consider supporting us if you feel called and led to do so. One last thing before we jump in is we have a brand new t -shirt this month called the no
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- King, but Christ shirt. And I made this shirt just as a straight up thumb in the eye of every crazy liberal who put out their no
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- Kings poster in their Massachusetts yards because they're, they hate Donald Trump.
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- So I made this shirt for them to say, you know what? I'll agree with you that Donald Trump's not our
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- King, but Christ is. So I'm not a no Kings guy. I'm pointing to the King of Kings and the
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- Lord of Lords. Now I also made the shirt because there are some conservatives, maybe you call them the crazy conservatives who actually think
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- Trump should be King and that he is some kind of messianic figure or whatnot. I don't believe that either.
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- I'm a Christian, which means my loyalty and hopefully your loyalty is not to a democracy, but to a monarchy and the monarch that we bow our knee to is
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- Jesus. I don't care what the left and the right is really squabbling about. I believe that voting for Democrat is a sin.
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- I think you, you can vote for Republican, although they're squishy and often they lie to you too. So I don't,
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- I don't pay a lot of attention to the left and the right and what they're squabbling about. I pay attention to what King Jesus says.
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- I pay attention to what Christ has told us to do and he is the King of the universe.
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- He is the King over our life. He's the one who has all the authority in heaven and on earth. So if you want to check out that shirt and you want to check out the other cool things that are on the website, go to www .prodthesheep
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- .com where you will find that and hopefully many other broadcasty items, which
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- I believe is the first time that that word has ever been used ever anywhere. And it was used here today.
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- So you're here for that. So thank you so much for checking out all of that. With that, let us jump into today's episode.
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- We're going to be on the seven golden lampstands and we're going to begin that work by turning to the
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- Bible and I'm going to begin with Revelation chapter one verses 12 through 20. This is what it says.
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- Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands and in the middle of the lampstands
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- I saw one like the son of man clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash.
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- His head and his hair were like white wool like snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire.
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- His feet were like burnished bronze when it had been made to glow in the furnace and his voice was like the sound of many waters in his right hand.
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- He held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.
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- When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man and he placed his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid.
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- I am the first and the last and the living one and I was dead and behold,
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- I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades. Therefore write the things which ye have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after these things.
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- And as for the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
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- And now with that introduction, let us begin by jumping into part one, the house that faced east.
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- Now to understand the very first vision that John received in the book of Revelation, we have to go back in time to see what he's saying.
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- And by back, I don't mean back a little bit. I don't even mean back all the way to the first century. I mean something deeper and further back, further back than the
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- Herodian temple that was standing in John's day. I'm talking about past Ezra's post exilic rebuilt temple that happened after they got out of Babylon.
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- I'm talking about even going back further than the glorious house that Solomon erected in the downtown streets of Jerusalem.
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- I'm talking about going even further back than the tabernacle that was assembled at the behest of Yahweh's orders that sat at the foot of Mount Sinai.
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- I'm talking about going all the way back to where temple language actually begins.
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- And it begins all the way in the beginning back in the garden of Eden, which was the very first temple and it was planted and it was facing east.
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- Now in that sense, Eden was the first temple and maybe you're like, how could Eden be the temple?
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- How could Eden be the shadow of a sanctuary? When we think about temples, we often think about ornate architecture or we think about stone columns or towering walls or golden furniture set in the middle of a sprawling metropolis.
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- We think about big worship centers like the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London or the
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- Herodian temple in downtown Jerusalem. But biblically speaking, a temple is not first and foremost about a construction.
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- It's not about a building. It's not even about a location. A temple at the heart of it is about communion with God.
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- A temple in its most basic essence is the place on earth where God descends down from heaven in order to dwell with man.
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- It's a special place of divine presence. And by that definition, Eden is the prototype of all temples and tabernacles that come after it.
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- Because before there were Levitical priest or fancy altars or sacrifices of bulls and lambs and goats, there was
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- Eden, the place where God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Genesis three, eight place where he revealed his presence to them and invited them to enjoy intimacy and nearness with him, which means it was a temple.
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- Furthermore, the language of Genesis two confirms this. You see, when God places Adam in the garden, he commissions him to work it and to keep it.
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- Genesis two, 15. Now the two words here in Hebrew are Abad and Shamar.
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- That's the word work and keep. Those are temple words. Those aren't simply, Hey Adam, go play around in the dirt, in the garden, go garden and go till and go hoe and go rake and go, and go plant.
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- That's not what these words are talking about. These words have a, a priestly in a very, a very worshipful context because how do we know this?
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- Well, these are the exact same words that Adam was commanded that are used later to talk about the priest and how they serve in the tabernacle.
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- Do you get what I'm saying here? The same words that God told Adam in the garden of Eden to work and to keep are the same words that God commanded
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- Aaron to do as a high priest. For example, in numbers three, seven through eight, the
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- Levites are told to perform the duties Abad of the tabernacle and they are to keep it.
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- Shamar there to keep all the furnishings of the tent. That's garden language. That's work and keep same thing
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- Adam was told in the garden of Eden. Again, in numbers 18, five through six, the Levites who were described as those who serve and keep are the ones who are guarding the sanctuary.
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- That's, that's Shamar and Abad. And, and this is, this is not coincidental.
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- The same idea is present in the very tabernacle that Moses is told to, to construct.
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- Same idea is present there. God invites a people into a sacred space.
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- He feel, he fills that sacred space with his own presence, his own life giving presence that is, that is teaming with fruit like a garden.
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- And he appoints a man to work it and to keep it as a temple. Adam was the first high priest.
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- Eden was the first, Eden was the first temple, but it certainly was not the last. Furthermore, Eden was a kind of sacred habitat.
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- It was a holy habitation. And that way it is a type and shadow of what is to come because the tabernacle was not the end.
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- The temple was not the end. They're pointing to something better. Jesus, who would be the true and better temple who would tabernacle among us.
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- John one 14, that he would be the one who would bring God's presence back to earth.
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- And wherever Jesus goes, he brings life and growth and fruit. Jesus is bringing back
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- Eden when he comes to earth in his incarnation. This tells us that, that the purpose of Jesus's ministry was not just salvation.
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- He wasn't just coming to save you out of the world. He was coming to save you within the world so that we, the church and Christ as our
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- King would transfer the earth or transform the earth back into a garden space.
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- That's why I believe that when Jesus rises from the dead, Mary Magdalene sees him and she confuses him as a gardener.
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- Why does she confuse him as a gardener? Because that's exactly what he is. He came to tabernacle among us.
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- He came to set up Eden where humans wouldn't live perfectly with God again.
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- He came to eliminate the curse and over the course of church history, he has been doing that work, breaking up the fallow soil, tearing out the weeds and he will continue to do that work until he's finished.
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- So in that sense, the theology of temple, this is what we're trying to hammer at. It's not about a location.
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- It's not about a uniform. It's not about a sacrifice. It's not about a structure. It's not about blood and wine offerings and wave offerings and all of that.
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- A temple at the very heart of what it means is that it's a shared space where God and man can dwell together in joy.
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- Eden was that in perfection and every temple that followed after it was following after that original design.
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- Just like, just like an architect makes a blueprint to show you what the building is eventually going to look like.
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- Eden was God's original floor plan for what the universe was going to look like.
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- Eden was the Holy of Holies and the earth was going to eventually be made into that image through his creation and through his image bears.
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- But Eden also tells us something about God's design for the world.
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- And I've alluded to this just a second ago, but I want to really squeeze this out. Eden was never meant to be a single region among all of the various wastelands on earth.
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- You think about the Sahara desert in this beautiful flowering garden in the middle of it. Maybe that's how it started, but Eden was never meant to be the only place on earth that was a garden.
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- It was meant to be a starting point. It was meant to be a launching pad. It was meant to be the place where humans began the work and eventually they spread the work to the ends of the earth.
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- That's why God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. Why? So that they could populate the garden.
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- And when the garden was populated, they would have to extend its boundaries to give them more room. And then they'd have to do it again and again and again until the entire earth was now a part of the geography or the address or the zip code of Eden.
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- So the point of creation, the point of be fruitful and multiply, the point of fill the earth and subdue it in Genesis one 28, the point is to spread the glory of God to the ends of the earth as the water covers the sea
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- Habakkuk 2 14 so that the entire world would be a garden space, a temple dedicated to the glory of God for the good of humans so that they can live in fellowship together forever.
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- Now, now that we've seen that that's true in Eden, I want you to remember that this is the paradigm for all temple activity in the
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- Bible. Whenever God shares his presence with man, he's templing and tabernacling. And whenever God does this, whenever God sets up his presence in a temple in the
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- Bible, life comes after it. Growth comes after it. Fruit comes after it.
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- Garden imagery is surrounding it and blessings flow to men, which is why we see the temple and the tabernacle having such beautiful garden imagery.
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- And it's why we never see God templing or tabernacling in wastelands or in deserts.
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- Because in this way, garden, a garden is a kind of metaphor for what life looks like under the blessings of God.
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- If you're in relationship with God, then you're under his blessings. He is tending you like a, like a gardener.
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- He's growing you and he's procuring fruit in you. And in that way, the concept of a temple,
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- God's presence and garden imagery are all tied together and intermingled together in the
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- Bible in very interesting and very surprising ways. For instance, let's go to the tabernacle.
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- Now we talked about Eden. When God gave Moses the blueprints for the tabernacle in the book of Exodus, he was quite simply recreating
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- Eden. The tabernacle was not its own thing. It was not a new idea. It was, it was to image
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- Eden in every level so that the tabernacle, the tent of meeting that Moses calls it was actually a portable paradise.
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- It was a mobile mountain of God. It was draped in symbolism and saturated with garden imagery in almost every single section of it because it was purposely trying to remind
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- Aaron and his sons of Eden. Every detail of the tabernacle was a theological dart aimed right back at the original garden with God.
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- I mean, the structure itself testified to this. Just like Eden faced the East, the tabernacle was purposefully meant to face the
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- East. Exodus 27 13 because why it signified the direction from which man had been expelled out of the garden in their sin,
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- Genesis three 24, and it invited the priest to walk back in the same direction that Adam would have walked back if he were going back into the garden.
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- As you stepped into the outer courtyard, you would have began your symbolic journey back towards this garden paradise where you would, where you would be with God inside the holy place, stood the golden lamp stand that was, that was meticulously crafted to look like an almond tree in its fullest blossom.
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- Exodus 25 31 through 36. This, this a golden lamp stand was not just a candle
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- Abra that, that had some, some fire on it so that the priests could see. Of course it was for the function that they could see, but it wasn't just a mere torch in the middle of a darkened room.
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- It was made to resemble the tree of life. It was a tree in full bloom, full bud, full branches, full blossoms, and it was located in the exact center of the tabernacle, just like the tree of life was located in the exact center of the garden of Eden, Genesis two nine.
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- So there you have another analogy or another illusion. Another part of it that, that is, uh, that, that's pointing to eat them is that the priest was a new kind of Adam.
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- He was clothed in glory and beauty. Exodus 22 eight or 28 two, just as Adam was originally clothed in innocence, beauty, and honor.
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- His role was, as we said before, to serve Abad and to guard Shamar. These are the exact same words that were given in Adam's original commission as the garden keeper.
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- Uh, the priest was to keep the oil burning in the lamp stand, just as Adam was to cultivate the garden.
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- The priest was to ensure that no unclean thing entered the tent, just like Adam was to ensure that no unclean thing came slithering into the garden, kind of like a serpent.
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- The priest was a gardener priest. He was tending the sanctuary of God's dwelling just like Adam.
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- And what's more, the materials of the tabernacle reinforce this kind of Eden motif as well.
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- That's the tabernacle was made out of gold and Onyx and Bedellium Exodus 25, three through seven, which were the exact materials that are listed in Eden's topography and Genesis two 11 through 12.
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- The walls and the curtains of the tabernacle were decorated with palm trees and cherubim, which reminds you of a garden.
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- Exodus 26 one verse Kings six 29. The tent was wrapped in all kinds of Edenic imagery.
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- The bread of the presence that sat inside of the, of the tabernacle was a kind of symbolic meal, just as Adam and Eve had access to every tree and every fruit bearing plant in the garden, except the one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the incense altar that burned perpetually inside of the tabernacle gave a sweet smelling aroma, just like you would find if you were walking through a beautiful garden.
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- The tabernacle was not a random Jewish building with funny Jewish architecture and furniture.
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- It was a human building that was symbolizing the garden of Eden purposefully because why?
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- Because the goal of redemption is not that we would be saved out of the world.
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- The goal of redemption is that the world and us would be redeemed and restored back to its original purpose so that heaven is on a newly renovated, redeemed earth that has been transformed into the garden of Eden.
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- That's why revelation 21 and 22 puts us back into the garden with God. That's why in revelation 22 the tree of life is back because God has reestablished the garden through his son for our good and for his glory.
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- God is going to restore everything that was lost in Eden. Everyone who is, who is elect who has been lost because of their sin is going to be found because of Christ.
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- All of these things in the tabernacle were declaring that restoration is coming. All of the wood that looked like trees and all of the gold that was decorated like flowers and pomegranates and fruit, all of the curtains, all of the cherub, all of it was a perpetual reminder that the priest was walking back towards Eden.
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- He was walking out of the wilderness, out of exile, out of these barren wastelands where he was separated from God and he was walking into the garden presence of God because God was going to restore all that was broken in the tabernacle.
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- God was rebuilding Eden one tent peg at a time, one candlestick at a time, one tribe at a time, one
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- Sabbath at a time. Do you ever wonder why it's on the Sabbath that God told them to celebrate their festivals and their feast?
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- Why? Because that's when God rested in the garden was on the Sabbath.
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- That's when God, God had finished creating all of his stuff in the garden and he ruled now over the garden.
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- So in the very heart of all of this, in the heart of the tent, in the heart of the tabernacle, in behind all of the veil, you've got one final room that really shows us how this
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- Edenic imagery is, is, is working here in the, what you and I would call the holy of holies.
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- There was a curtain and on that curtain, if you were standing in the holy place, standing by the symbolic tree of life called the golden lampstand and smelling the sweet aroma from, from the incense altar.
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- If you were standing there, you would have seen a curtain and on that curtain you would have seen two cherubim with two flaming swords and the curtain would have been made of gold and purple and scarlet.
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- It would have been one of the most beautiful curtains you've ever seen. And you're, and what you would have remembered in that moment was that God placed two cherubim with flaming swords at the very gate of the garden.
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- Because when Adam sinned, God forbade him from entering back in.
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- So the priest, as he pulls back the curtain, he would have realized just how dangerous it was to enter into the presence of God.
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- He's doing what Adam couldn't do. God is telling him to go back past the cherubim, past the flaming swords, and hopefully they don't take your life.
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- And the way that that happened was they did ceremonial washings and cleansings and blood sacrifices and they had to wear a special outfit that was three layers.
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- It was almost like they were armoring up to go into the presence of God. And if they were accepted, if the cherubim let them go back, let them go into the tabernacle, then there they would offer a sacrifice upon the mercy seat and they would offer a sacrifice for the entire people of Israel.
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- Why? As a prayer that one day it wouldn't just be one man who gets to come into the dangerous, glorious, beautiful presence of God.
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- One day it would be one man who fixes it so that it's not once a year that we all get to have a sacrifice.
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- It's a once and for all sacrifice where now we all get to live in the presence of God forever and ever again.
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- So all of these themes are pointing to the fact that God is rebuilding
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- Eden through this tabernacle, through this language. And the same thing shows up in the temple.
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- God was not when Solomon built the temple. David, you'll remember at the end of his life, he gathered all of the wood and all of the gold and all of the stone and all of he gathered all of the different things that were needed for it.
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- They weren't making up a new idea with the temple. The temple is just a really fancy tabernacle now permanently located in the city of Jerusalem.
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- It was a physical, visible, multi -sensory microcosm of what the world is going to be like one day when
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- God has his way with it. The temple was decorated as a prayer that God would bring
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- Eden back, not just to Jerusalem, but to the entire world. The temple, like the tabernacle and like Eden before it, it faced
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- East in the same way that God skinned an animal on the outside of the garden so that he could cover his people who is sinful people.
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- Every single priest would skin the animal and sacrifice the animal for the covering of God's people before the priest would enter the garden and offer sacrifices for them.
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- And we could go on and on line by line, highlighting every single element of how the temple points to the garden of Eden.
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- And I just, we've already talked about a lot of them. I want to cover a couple of them really quickly before we move on.
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- In the temple, there was this great golden sea. It was, it was called a bronze laver and it had 12 ,000 gallons of water.
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- So the, the priest before he could enter into the building of the temple, which is the holy place in the
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- Holy of Holies, he had to wash his body in this 12 ,000 gallons of water.
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- And what that would have reminded him of, I think is of Noah's flood.
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- He would have said that this 12 ,000 gallons of water really for, if, if I get what
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- I'm deserving, if I get what my sins are deserving me, I should be drowned in that big bath of water.
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- If you remember water in the old Testament symbolizes chaos, it symbolizes decreation. It symbolizes this wild element that no one can control.
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- And yet it was Adam and Eve, or sorry, it was Noah and his family that floated along the top of the water and were spared.
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- Even though they were sinners, even though they didn't deserve it, they were spared by the grace of God. When all of the rest of the world was drowned here, the priest is in is sort of reenacting the
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- Noahic flood here. He gets to sit upon the top of the waters, washing himself, cleansing himself, purifying himself.
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- Wow. Really what he deserved was to be drowned in the bottom of the bronze sea.
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- So that's one element that points us back to Eden is that the priest himself before he would go in would actually wash himself so that he could be cleansed and he could be prepared to make this journey back to Eden before he goes in.
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- Now the second thing that I want to point out that is such a beautiful thing is that the panels itself inside of the temple were decorated in the most garden like way that you could ever imagine.
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- The panels were decorated with pomegranates, lilies, palm trees, gourds, flourishing flora, uh, all drawn from the, this garden imagery.
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- If the tabernacle had some of this stuff, the temple took it to another level. It looked like a golden shining garden when you walked in and the sanctuary was designed to look this way.
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- When the priest walked inside, he would have felt like he was returning into the Edenic presence of God. Now we've already talked about the table of presence, which is the bread, which pointed to the food that was in the garden.
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- We've talked about the incense that pointed to the aroma of the garden. We've talked about the candle stands that pointed to the tree of life.
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- But one of the things that we haven't talked about yet is the cherubim and what their role is in the temple.
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- Because in the temple, you had a cherubim on the curtain that, that guarded the way to the presence of God, just like the cherubim in the garden of Eden.
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- But you also had these massive statues that were from the floor all the way to the ceiling tall.
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- And they had these massive wingspans that were there. Their wings would touch each other.
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- These were giant golden cherubim made out of olive wood and soaked and dripped in pure gold that were standing there, hovering over your body.
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- As you walked into the presence, it would be like you had accidentally found your way into the throne room of God.
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- And you see these threatening angels there with weapons looking at you ready to strike you if you do something wrong.
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- So that's the second set of angels. The third set of angels were on top of the mercy seat that was also in the tabernacle before the mercy seat was, was the
- 31:05
- Ark of the Covenant. It was the box that they carried around on the golden poles. And on the top of it, the lid of it had these two angels with their wings stretched out in front of them so that their tips of their, their wings touched.
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- And it would have been another example that you were entering into a dangerous place. You're entering into the holy of holies of God's presence.
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- You're entering into the garden. And that one thing
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- I want to point out here is about the way that Hebrew amplification works. Because Isaiah says that when he was brought up to the throne room of God, he heard the angel singing, holy, holy, holy.
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- In Hebrew, if you repeat a word more than once, you're amplifying it. So like if I say, if I, if I say
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- Martha, Martha, like Jesus does, he's amplifying Martha. She's not a stranger.
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- She's not even a friend. She's a close and dear friend to Jesus. In the same way, when you repeat something three times, you're taking it not just to the superlative level, you're taking it to the cosmic level.
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- That's the highest way in Hebrew that you can amplify something. So when you say holy, holy, holy is the
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- Lord God almighty, you're saying there is no one more holy than God, that the epicenter of, of the white hot holiness of God is, is being captured there.
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- As Isaiah says, woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips and, and God purifies him there.
- 32:36
- Now the same thing is true of these angels. I want you to notice that there are six angels in all, but there's actually three sets of two.
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- So there's angels, angels, angels. There's angels. When you walk in, there's angels up against the wall.
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- There's angels on top of the mercy seat. There's this amplification that's happening. And, and you're asking yourself, well, what is the amplification?
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- Well, in Eden there were two angels who were standing guard so that you could not get in. So the priest would have seen the two angels on the curtain, seen the two angels on the wall and seen the two angels on the mercy seat.
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- And what he would have seen is that not only would Adam have to risk his life and he would have died doing it, trying to get past the two angels to go into the temple.
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- You had to get past six. You had to get past three sets of two, which is, which means that in the same way that holy, holy, holy is the highest expression of God's holiness in the
- 33:35
- Bible. These angels, angels, angels are the highest and purest expression of God's perfection and the danger of being inside of his presence.
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- And also the highest and purest expression of Edenic imagery, this side of Havalah.
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- And that brings us to the point. The point was not the building. The point was not the furniture.
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- The point was not the way that the Jews clung to their temple as if it was a magic token in the same way that they clung to their
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- Ark of the covenant. The point that all of it was pointing to was the presence of God.
- 34:19
- That's what the garden was all about. That's what the tabernacle was all about. That's what the temple was pointing to.
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- But outside of Eden in the tabernacle and in the temple, the relationship with God doesn't come easy.
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- It actually gets harder. It comes with all kinds of difficulty and danger for the one who would travel down that way.
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- The presence of God could not be trifled with east of Eden because when
- 34:46
- Adam let the serpent into the garden, he brought judgment upon the world in the same way. When the priest let defiled things into the tabernacle and into the temple, like Nadab and Abihu, judgment fell upon them.
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- See what happened when sin entered the world is it fundamentally changed the entire landscape of the earth and it changed what templing and what tabernacling would mean going forward.
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- That is until the one who came who would tear the veil and who would tear down the temple and would restore
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- Eden again by himself. And that in Revelation one is the man that John sees standing among the lamp stands.
- 35:32
- He sees Jesus. He sees the one who was gonna, he was gonna rebuild the temple in his own body.
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- He's the one who's going to be standing among the lamp stands. He's the one who's dressed like a priest, like in the same way that the priest are described as being dressed in Exodus 28.
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- Jesus is dressed like that in Revelation chapter one. What John saw in front of him was the real temple, the living breathing presence of God and the curtain hanging and the lamp stands and the pomegranates and the golden sash.
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- Every bit of it in the old Testament was pointing to him. John was seeing the temple in front of him and he was seeing
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- Jesus bring the garden back. He was seeing, he was seeing Jesus in one fell swoop as the true and better Adam, the gardener king, tending the sanctuary of God, bringing life and bringing fruit again and bringing us his people into the garden with the authority that he won on the cross.
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- Again, I said this earlier, that's why that Mary Magdalene mistaked him, mistook him as a gardener because that is what he is.
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- He's the gardening high priest. He's the one who will work and who will keep and who will till and who will tend his garden so that all of God's people will be able to live and be blessed and be nourished in the presence of God.
- 36:52
- But as great as that is, and as I'm saying that to you in revelation one, that's what we're seeing.
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- There's a lot of things that we still need to figure out so that we can really fully, truly understand this passage.
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- And that leads us to part two, the seven Turkish lampstands. Now in revelation one,
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- John sees Jesus. We've already proven that. He sees Jesus dressed up like a high priest. He sees Jesus dressed in his glory, wrapped in linen, girded with gold.
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- He sees Jesus's eyes flashing like lightning. He sees Jesus's face blazing like the sun.
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- He sees his voice rushing like the roaring waters. But here's the only problem. He doesn't see
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- Jesus in the temple, which would have been a profoundly jarring thing for John and for any other
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- Jew who heard this vision to have even considered. I want you to remember for a second that John was not a stranger to priestly ideas or priestly service or even the furniture of the tabernacle in the temple.
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- He himself was deeply entrenched into a priestly family.
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- He understood the temple life and the temple imagery. You can look at John 18, 15 through 16 as a reference for that.
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- And as a result, he knew the sacred architecture and the furniture of it all pretty well.
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- And he knew that priest did not wear their garments just anywhere.
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- John sees Jesus dressed up like a priest. He sees Jesus looking like Aaron, like a high priest here.
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- And John knew maybe better than anyone that that outfit, that those garments were reserved for the inner sanctum, for the holy place and for the holy of holies.
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- He knew that you don't wear those clothes just anywhere. To see a priest outside of the temple in full attire would have been like seeing an offensive lineman wearing full pads, strolling through the produce aisle at the local market basket or whatever grocery store you have where you're at.
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- It would have looked a little out of place to say the least. And yet that's what
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- John was seeing. He was seeing the priest in full outfit, but not in a temple.
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- And even more striking than that, John doesn't see Jesus standing beside a single lampstand. So John knew the lampstand existed in the holy place.
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- He knew that if you're a priest, you walk into the holy place, there's the lampstand. And remember, it's the one that represents the tree of life.
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- So John sees Jesus standing by the lampstand, but the lampstand's not in the temple either. And there's not just one of them because you'll remember in the temple, there was one lampstand with seven branches.
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- John sees Jesus standing with seven lampstands with seven branches.
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- This would have been a strange and bewildering aspect of John's vision because he would have thought, which one of these is the real one?
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- Why is it not in the temple? And here, John, he's not just seeing
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- Jesus among one tree. He's seeing Jesus among a kind of forest of trees, a kind of lampstand grove, if you will.
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- He would have thought about the lampstand in the holy places as being symbolic of God's presence shining out from a single and very
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- Jewish nation. But Revelation, there's seven lampstands shining, meaning that God at a minimum has sanctioned more furniture to be built for his temple.
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- And here's another curious part of it. The vision didn't happen in Jerusalem, which is crazy because the tabernacle was set up in Jerusalem.
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- The temple was set up in Jerusalem. And yet this is happening in modern day Turkey, in Asia minor, where Jesus is coming to the
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- Isle of Patmos of all places. No Jew could have ever conceived of this happening in this way.
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- A high priest dressed as a high priest standing among lampstands. He should have been in the holy place in Jerusalem.
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- Why is he standing outside of it? Why is he setting up a new temple in Asia minor?
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- Why is he dressed for service in a Gentile nation? Why is he in an orchard of lampstands?
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- What could all of this mean? Well, I think it's plain and clear that this high priest is no longer confined to the stone and gold architecture of Jerusalem.
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- He's left that old building empty. He's no longer ministering in the shadows of the holy place anymore.
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- You remember when Jesus rose from the dead or when Jesus died on the cross, what happened? The temple curtain tore in half, which means that God was rendering that old building empty.
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- The presence of God has gone out. The veil has been removed. The garden of God's presence has grown outside of the borders of the temple in Jerusalem and is now exploded out into the world.
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- You'll remember when Jesus rose from the grave, they saw two angels.
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- I think it was Mary and the women saw two angels sitting there. And you're like, what were they doing?
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- Remember the two angels that guarded the way to the presence of God in the garden?
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- Those same two angels were pictorially represented on the temple curtain veil.
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- When the temple curtain was torn, the angels were relieved of their duty. They no longer had to guard the way back to the presence of God because the danger of being in God's presence was just eliminated by Jesus on the cross.
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- He died for our sins that would have, that would have made the angels fiery swords cut off our heads.
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- He died for our sins. He died for our brokenness. So now there is no more danger in being in the presence of God.
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- So you see the angels who are sitting on Jesus's tomb. They say, fear not. We're not here to hurt you.
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- We're not here to harm you. They don't even have their swords drawn anymore. They're just sitting there in sparkling pajamas saying, he's not here.
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- His presence has gone out into the world. What does all of that mean? That means that the temple is now the, the earth is becoming the temple of God.
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- The angels are no longer guarding the way into the holy place. Why? Because the holy place has come out. The temple curtain is torn because God's presence has come out.
- 43:40
- So what we're seeing is that when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, he rendered
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- Jerusalem's temple useless. It was just an old dusty building at that point.
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- And like the true high priest here, Jesus is walking among the lampstands just like the priest would walk among the lampstand in the holy place.
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- Jesus is cultivating them. Just like the priest would cultivating them. He's working and keeping, he's avad and shamaring.
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- He's trimming them. He's kindling the flame so that his light shines all the brighter.
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- But unlike the holy place, there's no more walls. In the holy place, the light couldn't get out.
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- No one standing outside the temple could see the light. It was shut in on all four sides. And now
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- Jesus not only has seven times more light in the holy place, there was seven candles.
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- Now Jesus has 49 seven times seven, which is a symbolic number.
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- He not only is seven times more light, but he has no curtain, no veil, no acacia wood, no walls, nothing to dim the light of God.
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- Why? Because Jesus in his finished ministry is going to bring God's light and God's glory to all the nations.
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- And just for clarity's sake, I'm going to repeat myself just a second to make sure that we're, we're tracking with all of this.
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- We've seen that Jesus is the true high priest in this passage. We've seen how he's the only gardener.
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- We've seen how he's going to bring us back into God's templing presence. Again, we've seen how he's going to restore the earth and, and cultivate it and keep it.
- 45:27
- We've seen how he's, he's going to tend his people and make sure that God's light shines all over all every square inch of the earth so that this, so that the
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- Gentiles all over the earth can see the light of God through the church. And now that we've seen that, we need to know what these lampstands are.
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- What do they symbolize? What do they represent? And thankfully Jesus doesn't leave us guessing here.
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- Revelation chapter one 20 says the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
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- So in Jesus is new and better temple. He's not going to use inanimate objects any longer.
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- He's not going to use altars and candlesticks and gold and wood. I mean, you walk up to a piece of wood and you say,
- 46:10
- Hey, Mr. Wood, and it doesn't talk back to you here. Jesus has converted the wood carved gold plated candlesticks, which are inanimate objects.
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- He's converted them into a new kind of candelabra, a new kind of menorah, a menorah made out of the people of God.
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- What he's saying is that Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea are not just churches.
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- Now they are spotlights for the advancing glory of God for the light of God. They're not the lights no longer contained in a, in a darkened room in Jerusalem, but it's exploded out into the middle of the
- 46:50
- Roman empire. This means that these real active congregations in real cities with real people, real men, women, and children are now the light of God on earth.
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- Yeah, they're embattled and they're weather worn, but they are strategically placed right in the middle of the
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- Roman empire so that they can flood the world with God's glory. And speaking of this, there's seven cities, seven lampstands.
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- It's not an accident. These seven churches are not just seven random churches that any old person could have mentioned.
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- In fact, they're in order. They're on a postal route from the, from the port city of Ephesus.
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- That's the first city that a mailman would have came to and he would deliver the letter to Ephesus. And then you would go city by city all the way until you would finish your journey in Laodicea.
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- And all of these cities form a seven fold kind of prophetic constellation, a, a circuit riding journey that a mailman would, would go on in order to take a message from a
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- King to his people. That's what Jesus is doing. He's listed out these cities so that John could make sure that this message was delivered to these seven churches, which are at the center of the
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- Roman empire, at the center of the life and the culture of the Roman empire, because Jesus is going to win the world.
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- That's why he uses seven. Seven's God's perfect completed number. That's why he uses these churches in Asia minor, because God is going to win the
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- Gentile world to himself. That's why Jesus is the one who is trimming and cultivating the lampstands because he's going to make sure that the light of God never goes out.
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- I mean, for centuries Israel was called to be the light of the world. They were called to be a city on a hill, a kingdom of priests, the
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- Holy nation, a nation through whom God was going to bless the world and call them into his marvelous light.
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- Exodus 19 six Isaiah 42 six, but Israel refused.
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- She hoarded the holiness of God. She buried her lampstand under the bushel of legalism and ethnic superiority.
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- She built walls of separation instead of bridges of grace. There was, I've mentioned this before.
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- There was signs in the court of the Gentiles that if you walk past where you're supposed to walk, they'll kill you.
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- They hated the Gentiles. They hated everyone who was not themselves. They looked down their nose upon the
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- Samaritans and everyone else. And they took the light of God that was supposed to be for the nations.
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- They took the temple of God, which was supposed to be a house of prayer for the nations. And they hoarded it and they plunge those things into darkness.
- 49:38
- And in revelation one, the question is, will God's light pass away with the downfall of the temple in Jerusalem?
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- And Jesus says, no, the lampstands are not going to be extinguished.
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- Yahweh's light is not going to go out because he's going to relocate it from a temple in the center of Jerusalem into the middle of the
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- Gentile world. This tells us so much, but it almost certainly reminds us that by the time that John receives this vision, the temple in Jerusalem is dead already.
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- It's a hollowed out corpse that no longer serves its plan or its purpose. You think about a restaurant that is closed down and condemned by the city for health code violation after health code violation.
- 50:29
- And it sits empty until the day of its demolition. The Herodian temple set empty of the presence of God waiting for the day when the
- 50:40
- Romans would come and light the dynamite that would demolish it. The priesthood had been corrupted.
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- The Ark of the Covenant stolen. The veil was torn. The cherubim had vacated and the
- 50:52
- Ichabod of God had been declared over the temple. The glory had long departed.
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- But as we see in Revelation one, the fire inside the temple did not go out.
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- God told the priest in Exodus that you are to maintain that fire forever. And you're like, how are they going to maintain it forever?
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- If the temple's torn down, Jesus took the fire out of the temple and he multiplied it into seven lampstands.
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- And now he's the one who's going to keep it and tend it forever. The high priest would live and die.
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- Jesus has already died and rose. He can never die again. So what Jesus is saying is that I am going to take the light to the world because the
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- Jews refused. I am going to keep the light burning forever because they can't. I am going to be the true priest.
- 51:50
- I'm going to bring the true temple. I'm going to magnify God's light to the world so that the entire world be brought into the blazing presence of God again.
- 52:01
- And the church would be a pivotal part of that plan, which we'll see in a moment.
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- The church was not meant to flicker inconspicuously at the margins of redemptive history. And she was not meant to flame out in a blazing glory like the disbees say.
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- She was set on a major highway. She was set in the center of the Roman empire. She was set in major cities of commerce because God wants his light to invade everything.
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- This is why Jesus said in Matthew five, you are the light of the world. You're a lamp stand giving light to all the house.
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- And that house is no longer the house of Judah. It's the whole world.
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- Now these churches are the lamp stand. They're the ones who are burning with covenant fire.
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- They're the ones like Paul says in Philippians two 15 that they're going to be shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
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- These seven churches represent all of us, not just seven, but God's complete number of elect the perfect number seven, the ones who have been scattered to the ends of the earth, the ones who are in the highways and the byways, the ones who are down in Australia and the ones who are up in Greenland from everywhere, all over the world.
- 53:20
- God is bringing his glorious gospel light because Jesus is the true high priest.
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- He's the one who tends the lamp stands. He's the one who trims the wicks and make sure that the light will not go out.
- 53:33
- And that brings us to a really important question. How do we know that the light will not go out?
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- How do we know that the world isn't going to end in a kind of darkness?
- 53:45
- Well, in order to answer that question, we need to go to part three, the priestly tending of Jesus.
- 53:54
- Now in John's vision, the lamp stands are not in charge. They have no authority on their own.
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- They certainly don't keep themselves burning. They don't Kendall themselves or survive on their own religiosity.
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- Every one of them is intentionally lit and kept burning by the priest.
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- Every wick is sovereignly trimmed behind every church. There's a keeper of light.
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- And John doesn't merely see a lamp stand in his vision. He sees someone walking among them.
- 54:28
- He sees one dressed for service as a priest. The one who Hebrews seven says always lives to make intercession or as Hebrew, as Hebrews eight says, he is the minister forever in the sanctuary, which is the, which is the
- 54:42
- Lord pitched, not man. His priesthood is not passed and it's not even just present.
- 54:49
- And it's not even limited to some point in the future. Jesus is priesthood is perpetual. And the sanctuary that he ministered is in is, is not made with bricks, but it's made with bodies of all of God's elect people that were bought and paid for by the sun and indwelled by the spirit of God.
- 55:09
- Thus, Jesus is not observing his church from afar in revelation one. He's moving among her.
- 55:16
- He's promising that that every eye will see him and those who pierced him are going to weep. He's promising judgment, but he's also coming to comfort his church up close and personal.
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- He's actively mediating, tending, inspecting and evaluating his church, which is both a comfort and a terrifying proposition.
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- Just as Aaron tended the golden menorah in Exodus 30, trimming the wicks and refueling the oil and ensuring that the light never went out because God said that it was a perpetual light.
- 55:52
- It was never meant to go out. The menorahs could never stop burning. Well, in the same way,
- 55:58
- Christ now fulfills the task in a greater temple. But unlike Aaron, he doesn't enter once in the morning and once in the evening, because that's what the priest would do.
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- They would come in in the morning and the evening and they would do their work. Jesus never leaves. His priestly inspection is constant.
- 56:16
- His presence is unceasing. And that is really how the lights, the church keeps shining because Jesus is ever tending her.
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- He walks with oil in his hands. The spirit of God poured out upon his people. He walks with the knife of the word literally coming out of his mouth, cutting away the rot and the decay from the wicks of our lampstands.
- 56:38
- He walks with the breath of heaven fanning into flame, snuffing out that which no longer bearing fruit.
- 56:44
- That's why he says to the church in Ephesus in revelation two, five, if you do not repent,
- 56:50
- I will come and remove your lampstand. This isn't hyperbole.
- 56:57
- This is evidence of his priestly authority. He alone is the one who keeps the fire lit in his people.
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- He alone is the one who can snuff out any lampstands that are no longer flickering with his glory. And in this way, a lampstand remains only in the service to Jesus as long as it is burning for Jesus.
- 57:19
- And this truth really should shape our ecclesiology, which is the doctrine of the church.
- 57:26
- Because instead of viewing the church as a, as a building, that's what the Jews did.
- 57:31
- They viewed the temple as just a building where God stuff happened. Well, instead of just viewing the church as a building or even a sociological phenomenon, we ought to look at the church and see her as the sanctuary of God, a spirit indwelt temple of God at where, where that's made out of living stones that's ordered and arranged by the word of God and sacrament that's governed by ordained elders.
- 57:56
- That's a blaze with the fire of heaven is filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit. And it's called to fill the world with the light of God.
- 58:04
- And in that way, the church's worship is not entertainment. It's incense. Her mission isn't survival.
- 58:11
- It's expansion. Her essence is not cultural. It's covenantal. She is the holy place of God's new garden temple on earth.
- 58:22
- And what John is about to witness in revelation two through three is
- 58:27
- Jesus coming to inspect each and every single one of his lampstands.
- 58:33
- He's coming with fire in his eyes. He's coming with a sword in his mouth. He's coming to commend some of them. He's coming to rebuke some of them.
- 58:40
- He's coming to threaten some of them. And he's also coming to promise some of them because that's what a priest does when it's, um, when he is among the lampstands, he works, he tends, he keeps he avars and he shamars.
- 58:58
- This is what Isaiah saw all those years before that are now finally happening.
- 59:03
- In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's house will be established and all the nations will stream to it. Isaiah two two through four is what
- 59:09
- Ezekiel envisioned in the beginning, a temple that has rivers of living water flowing out of it to the nations.
- 59:17
- Ezekiel 47. This is what Malachi was thundering about in the final book of the old Testament where he said in every place, incense will be offered in my name.
- 59:26
- Malachi one 11 John sees all of it right here and right now, not waiting to the end of time.
- 59:34
- No, Jesus has brought the temple of God to the world. He's brought the incense that was that flowered and beautified the smell and the aroma of the temple.
- 59:43
- He's brought that to the world. He's brought the light of God to the world. He's brought every bit of it to the world, which means that the garden for 2000 years now has been regrowing.
- 59:56
- The temple has been expanding. The lampstands have been multiplying. The fire that sits on the lampstands, which is the, which is the very gospel of Jesus Christ has been growing and will keep growing and will not get snuffed out.
- 01:00:11
- There's not a rapture. There's not an antichrist. There's not a mark of the beast. There's not a, you know, whatever else you want to say that is going to snuff out the ministry of Jesus.
- 01:00:21
- None of it. Jesus began the church 2000 years ago that will never be snuffed out in his ministry.
- 01:00:28
- We'll never stop purifying his church, which means that the light of God will continue to emanate from the church until the very end.
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- And we know that not because we're good and not because we're bright and not because we're so smart.
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- We know that the lampstand of the church won't be snuffed out because we know the one who tends it because Jesus tends the lampstands, they will never be stamped out.
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- That is good news. If your church and its lampstand existed only because of its creativity, because of its spark, because of its intelligence, because of its whatever, none of us would have any light to shine.
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- The reason we shine for Jesus is because Jesus is the one who's tending our lampstands.
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- You and I are the light of the world. But Christ is the one who tends the light and brings the light and makes the light grow and glow hot.
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- And that leads us to part four, the nature of that light.
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- Now, if Christ is among the lampstands 2000 years ago in Revelation one, and if he walks among them as priest with oil in his hands and with a sword in his mouth, then we must ask what kind of flame is he tending?
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- Because the church is not the flame. The church is not the light. She's only the lampstand.
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- So I think it's fair to ask what kind of light is Jesus cultivating?
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- What kind of fire imperishable, if you want to go with the Tolkien reference there, as he placed upon the lampstand of the church.
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- And it's here that we have to see that the light on the lampstand is
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- Christ himself. He's the light of the world. And if the church ever forgets that, then she actually forfeits everything.
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- This is why we mentioned a moment ago that the Ephesian church in Revelation two, five is told, if you don't repent,
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- I'm going to come and remove your lampstand out of its place. He doesn't threaten to remove the fire or the light.
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- He threatens to remove the lampstand that no longer has the light of Jesus on it. And this is an important distinction, but it's also not an idle threat.
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- And he's made good on this at multiple times throughout church history. When a church stops singing and stops preaching and stops ministering for Jesus, when the lampstand is flickering with some kind of strange fire,
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- Jesus removes it not because he's cruel, but because he's holy, because he's not going to allow any crooked witnesses or strange fire to bear his name.
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- You can go back and ask Nadab and Abihu on that one. He doesn't hang his glory on a rotten beam.
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- He removes what no longer reflects him. That's an important principle that we need to remember.
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- Jesus removes what no longer reflects him. And in that sense,
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- Jesus isn't desperate to keep churches open. He doesn't think about it in the way that we think about it. We think about,
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- Oh my goodness, look at all of these churches that are closing. Christianity is, is on the decline. Jesus doesn't think like that.
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- He knows that Christianity is not on the decline because he's Christ. He's the King. He knows he's advancing.
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- He knows he's gaining back territory, but he's also committed to keeping his glory and his light forever pure.
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- And we have to tremble at what it means to be a lampstand because it means to be a church that is defined by the witness of scripture and not worship trends.
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- It means that we have been called to shine with the truth of the gospel, not to shimmer with cultural compromise.
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- It means that we've been called to hold fast to the light of Jesus in such high esteem that nothing could ever sway us from his holy beams.
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- That's what Israel was called to be a city on a hill, a lamp that gives light to the world, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
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- Unless we have some kind of superiority complex about us, we need to remember she saw
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- God part a red sea to save her. She saw God rain out 10 successive plagues upon the
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- Egyptian said she saw God right with his finger, the very law on two stone tablets.
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- She saw God stands, uh, make the sun stand still in the sky. She saw God deliver them from the
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- Nephilim and from the giants of the land. Israel over and over and over again saw
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- God do amazing things. And yet she forsook the light and she clung to an empty lampstand and she clung to that empty lampstand all the way to the bitter end.
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- You know, the lampstand was in the temple the day that the Romans set it on fire. The first lampstand was in the temple the day the
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- Babylonians set it on fire. She had all the pieces of furniture except the ark of the covenant.
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- By the time that Jesus arrived on the scene, the ark of the covenant, the ark of the covenant was long lost.
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- But the lampstands, the pomegranates, the golden, uh, in the temple, all of that was beautiful.
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- Titus, the Roman general said that this was a wonder of the ancient world. Uh, you go and you look at what
- 01:06:09
- Herod said about it. Herod was the one who sanctioned its construction. You look at what, uh,
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- Seneca said about it. You look at what, um, Vespasian says about, I mean, all throughout the ancient world, people marveled at the beauty of the
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- Jerusalem temple. And all it was was a tomb of dead men's bones.
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- Because they clung to the lampstand that God gave them instead of the light. What made the temple special was not its bricks.
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- What made the temple special wasn't its furniture. What made the temple special was that the presence of God came down from heaven and dwelled inside that place.
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- The only thing that made that building special was God. So when
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- God came in the flesh and showed up to his own temple, standing on the outside of it, and they nailed him to a cross because they loved their temple so much.
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- They loved their Jewish religion so much. They loved their sacrificial system so much. Jesus took it away because what doesn't reflect him will be removed by him.
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- They killed Jesus thinking that they had squashed the light of the world and in so doing, they were consumed in darkness.
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- But Jesus rose and Jesus built a church. In Revelation chapter one,
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- Jesus is walking among the lampstands, tending and caring for his church. But make no mistake, if ever we do what
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- Israel did and cling to the religion instead of the relationship with Jesus, we too will be so doomed.
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- What makes us special is Christ. What makes us significant is
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- Christ. That's it. Today we know that the only reason we have hope is that the tomb was not left empty.
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- That death didn't snuff out the God of life. That the grave couldn't seal his
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- Shekinah glory. We know that this light rescued us from the realm of darkness and brought us into a kingdom of marvelous light.
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- We know that he's called us to shine in a darkened world as a lampstand. We know that darkness cannot overcome his priestly work.
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- We know that the church in her doctrine and in her worship and in her fellowship and in her preaching and in her sacraments and in her mission, we are called to bring that light to the world, a world that's still asleep in the shadows.
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- And when that church burns brightly, the nations will see Jesus. And when she burns continually, the darkness will not hold.
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- But when she compromises, which
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- I think we're in a season right now coming to the end, I hope of it, Christ will remove lampstands for his glory and for the world's good.
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- The world doesn't need compromised Christians and compromised churches. The world needs Christ, not broken lampstands.
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- That's I think the point of this passage that the church needs to burn with holy fire, not with entertainment, not with stupid childish innovations, not with cultural relevance.
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- Now with Jesus, she must burn with the oil of the Holy Spirit of God, and she must have the flame of the, of the word of God and the gospel be her rallying cry.
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- She must have the incense of prayer, which sweetens the world with God's garden presence. She's got to refuse the artificial light of humanism, paganism, emotional manipulation, all of which are just strange fires on the altar of God.
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- She has got to be once again, the true lampstand, not one who cares about filling stadiums, but one who cares about shining truthfully and honestly and rightly for Jesus.
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- Again, that is why Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, you are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house.
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- Brothers and sisters, the church is not called to blend in. The church has been called to stand out, not to echo the foolishness of the world, but to expose it as Ephesians 5, 13 declares all things become visible when they're exposed by the light for everything that becomes visible is light.
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- I mean, that's why demons hate the church, right? Not because of our music style, not because you have some bandana wearing guy in skinny jeans who is really emotive and rocks his head back and gyrates his hips and all of that other nonsense and chicanery.
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- No, the demons don't care about that. They don't care about some Metro sexual fairy on stage who thinks that he's great.
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- The demons don't care about building styles and, Oh, this church looks like a temple.
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- Ooh, we better be afraid of that. The principalities and powers don't tremble over potlucks and even podcasts.
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- They hate us and they're afraid of us because we're a lampstand that elevates the light of Christ in the ancient world.
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- Maybe this is not a well known, so if it's not, I hope this is helpful in the ancient world.
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- What you would do in the dark because in those days it got really dark. They didn't have electricity like we do today.
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- They didn't have fancy light bulbs like we have today. So when the sun went down, it was dark.
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- So if they wanted to light a lamp, they would light a lamp and it would be a tiny little flame.
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- And if you've ever tried to hold a lighter, uh, you know, in a room when the power has gone out, you'll know that it doesn't cast a lot of light, but they would put it on a lamp stand and elevate it so that the light would flicker down into all corners of the room.
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- The demons hate us because we put Christ on full display.
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- They hate pulpits that declare the counsel of God and Christ glorifying sermons. They hate elders who govern with strength and integrity.
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- They hate fathers who catechize their children and women who adorn themselves with beauty and modesty.
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- The demons hate churches that love truth, that discipline, that, that discipline sin, that practice holiness, that raise the dead through gospel preaching and see resurrections happen when people profess faith in Christ.
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- They hate the fire of Jesus Christ and they hate the church that functions as a lamp, a lamp stand that will magnify it.
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- Because fire reveals how weak and decrepit their kingdom is. Fire purifies those who are broken and fire spreads.
- 01:13:22
- And that brothers and sisters leads us to our conclusion. I'm not going to give a long conclusion today, brothers and sisters.
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- I just want to point out that we are the lamp stands and that our only purpose in life is not to be creative.
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- It's not to draw glory to ourself. Our only purpose in our life is to magnify the
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- Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. That's our only purpose. When you're doing that, you're serving your purpose.
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- When you're not, you're in danger of being snuffed out. Our job is not to hide and hide the light of Jesus under a bushel.
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- Our job is not to hide our faith at our work. Our job is not to hide our faith in our family. Our job is not to hide our faith in the public square.
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- Our job is to be a lamp stand, which means that everybody who sees us sees the light of Christ.
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- Everybody who sees us sees that there's something different about us. Every conversation we have somehow finds a way towards Jesus because he is really the only thing about us that's significant.
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- Let us never lose that. Let us never white knuckle our temple, our lamp stand like the
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- Jews did because they lost it. Let us hold fast to the only thing that makes us worth anything at all.
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- And that's the fire that sets atop the lamp stand of you and I, and that's Jesus Christ.
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- So go and shine brightly for Jesus. Shine ardently for Jesus.