Good morning, Ref Church. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Amen? Open your Bibles with me to John chapter 1. Our text this morning will be in John 1 verses 14 through 18. We will get to it. First, let me ask the children. If you're a child, listen to this question. From what direction does the sun rise? Who knows? In the east. The sun rises in the east. That's right. The entrance to Eden was from the east. Upon the elevated heights of a mountain, While you have your Bible open to John chapter one, go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter one and two. And as you're turning there, pray with me. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, your word made flesh. who reveals to us our God, his way of salvation, his plan, and his purpose for the world. God, we thank you for him, for sending him for our sakes. This morning, Lord, is to be preached, God, and pray that you would move us to worship him, to understand him more in the depths of our understanding, to be moved to deeper worship. Give us Christ, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The entrance of Eden was from the east, the direction of the sunrise, and it was situated upon a hill. It was elevated. It was upon a mountain, and as you enter it, you would smell the most delightful abundance of scents. In fact, all of your senses would be alive with delight. Everything that you smelt and looked at and heard and tasted and touched in the garden, in the life that's teeming there in the garden, you would be mesmerized by the size of the fruit in the garden, the gourds and the melons growing effortlessly out of the fertile ground. The complicated and beautiful patterns on the large, open flowers would mesmerize you, as well as the soft, deep green of the padded lilies therein. And the tall, fruitful palm trees would dazzle your mind. The rich colors of the pomegranates would seem only to enhance their already heavenly taste. You are in Eden you would see the animals you would see that they are subject to you and then The rushing sound of a river would capture your attention You would hear it in the distance, and then you would search for it and You would follow the sound over the crest of the next hill with the thick, cushioned grass under your bare feet. And then you see it, a river flowing down out of Eden to water the garden. A river flowing down to water the garden. And as you approach the clearest, bluest water that you have ever seen, you kneel down with no pain in your knees or your back, mind you. and you drink to perfect satisfaction. And as you look up, you not only see the beauty of the plants and the animals, but you see the wealth of the place, the precious stones that are kept there, so much gold perfectly reflecting off of the surrounding hills, the warm rays of the gentle sun, and your eyes glimmer in their glow. And as you walk, soaking in the glorious glow of the place, a divine friend takes your hand and walks with you. He leads you deeper into the midst of the garden to the most glorious site yet. Your jaw drops with amazement as you approach the tree of life, shining with brilliant colors, so bright that the area around it seems to be dimmed in light of its own brightness. Like a lamp stand. He says to you, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. You stand now in Eden, the temple garden. Notice that the Lord builds this place. He is the divine architect. He was intimately involved in every detail, and when he has finished his work, he rests. He rests after having subdued the chaos of the unformed world. He's taken dominion over it. He's filled it with life. He sees that it is good, and he rests. Notice also that he rests dwelling among his creation, walking with them in the cool of the day. Eden is a sanctuary wherein man meets with his creator. Notice finally something very important in Genesis chapter 2 verse 15. See that the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. There are three significant words that I need to call your attention to in this verse. The first word to look at is the word put. The Lord God put the man in the garden. Now, the word that is usually used for put, in terms of placement, is not the word that is used here. Instead, the word that is used here is typically translated as rest. This word occurs in Genesis, or Exodus, chapter 20, verse 11. The Lord says, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. God built this sanctuary for rest, and just as God rested, so he rests Adam in the garden. Adam is reflecting the sovereign rest of God in Eden. But it isn't a rest that is inactive. It isn't a duty-less rest. Adam has responsibility. Which brings us to the other two important words in Genesis 2.15. Adam is put in the garden to do what? To cultivate it and to keep it. And there are other significant places we're coming to where those words are translated as serve and guard. And in this context, here in Genesis 2.15, they cannot refer to agriculture alone. Adam is given the command to increase the garden's fruitfulness and to keep watch over it, guarding it from contaminants and from enemies. So here you are, put in the garden of God, and from the hill you look out and you see that the land beyond the garden is unkept and chaotic, in need of subduing, in need of cultivation. And you realize that you are resting in what is only the first phase of God's plan, the first phase of this sanctuary, of what it is intended to become. God's design for this temple garden is that through the dominion of Adam, who serves as priest and king, its boundaries would be extended over the face of the entire earth. He had work to do by subduing the chaos of it. So just as God did his work of creation, so Adam is to do in his work of cultivation. You see the task at hand as you stand there in the garden and you are you've probably had the familiar feeling of being excited to get to work. As you stroll in the cool of the day, your divine friend places his hand on your shoulder as you approach a certain tree. And he commands, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. From the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. An intruder shows up. He speaks deceptively and twists God's word. As priest of the temple garden, it was Adam's duty to guard it, to keep it, to keep watch over it. He should have slaughtered that snake. But the man and the woman sin against God. And what is the result? Adam and Eve. are cast out of the garden because Adam did not keep the garden and guard it from the invasion of that which is unclean. He has become unclean himself and can no longer dwell there in the presence of the Lord. Because he did not keep the garden, he must be kept from the garden. He is excommunicated and cast out and behold, God places cherubim at the entrance facing east and a sword turning every which way to guard the way to the tree of life. What will become of the sanctuary? Is its purpose for global expansion lost? Well, we may deduce from the narrative of the creation and fall and the aftermath with Adam and Eve. that they were sent east of Eden, which is the direction of the entrance that has become their exit. It is mentioned in Genesis 4.16 that Cain settles east of Eden, so that the biblical author is establishing a contrast in our minds between living east of Eden, outside, which is marked by sin, and living in Eden, in the presence of God, where no sin dwells. This is a disaster. Yet hope remains because every morning the sun would rise in the east and Adam and Eve would remember the sanctuary. They would long for it again, longing to see its glory once more. Longing for his presence. among them, and looking forward to the day when God would somehow, by His grace, restore fellowship between Himself and mankind. Nehemiah Cox is a co-editor of Our Confession, the 1689 London Confession, and he writes something that's very important for us. He writes that the greater light of the New Testament does in no way diminish the usefulness of the Old. Rather, it obliges us all the more to a humble and diligent use of it. And then, listen to this. He says, this is because the mystery of the Gospel cannot be thoroughly apprehended by us without some understanding of the economy of the Old Testament. That is, until we get the Old Testament, We don't really get it. That's what he's saying. This is how the Lord Jesus himself understood the scriptures, that he held this view of revelation as progressing towards and culminating in Christ, is shown to be held by Christ himself, that this is how he understood the scriptures in John chapter 5. Jesus issues a sharp rebuke to the religious leaders who are missing it. They are missing him. And in John 5, 45, he says, Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Moses wrote about me. Richard Barcellas is a professor who teaches at the seminary that Reformation Church is partnered with, Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. you can actually access courses through our app if you didn't know that. Go ahead and take advantage of that if you can. He offers the important clarification that the messianic function of the Old Testament, that it is a witness to Jesus, is true apart from Jesus' own self-witness to it. here in John chapter 5. In other words, the Old Testament was a messianic document on its own. It doesn't become messianic at the incarnation and suddenly become reinterpreted to receive new meaning to now be all about Christ. It has always been about Christ. In fact, between quotations and allusions contained in the Gospel of John, there are at least 81 references to the Old Testament. And that's just the allusions in John itself, and not the numerous Old Testament passages that the allusions allude to. When I say allusions, I mean a more subtle reference than a direct quotation. So it's not a direct quote from the Old Testament, but it is a clear allusion to the Old Testament. G.K. Beale, he comments that the Old Testament allusions found in John's gospel create a web of intertextuality that grounds the theology of the fourth gospel profoundly in the Hebrew scriptures, particularly with regard to the person and teaching of Jesus. As John concludes his prologue, he wants you to see Jesus. Say all that to say this, John wants you to see Jesus as he has seen Jesus. Not with your own two eyes like John has seen him, but to see in him that he is full of grace and truth. That's what John wants you to see. So let's read our text now in John. John 1, 14-18, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about him and cried out, saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. For of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. Now the key to understanding this text is not a mystical download of revelation, but knowing the Old Testament Scriptures, because everything that John says here is firmly rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. You see, we have the same problem as the Jews that Jesus rebuked in John chapter 5. We have the same problem, but for different reasons. They knew the scriptures, but they did not believe them. They missed him of whom they spoke. Our case is that we may miss him of whom the scriptures speak, not because we don't believe the scriptures, but because we don't know the scriptures as we ought. And this limits our worship. But because we may know the incarnate word, Through the written word, we too may receive of his fullness and grace upon grace. And with that in mind, I want to call your attention to verse 14 to a particular word. John has chosen a theologically pregnant term to describe our Lord's incarnation, that he became a man. And that is the word dwelt. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. It means to live temporarily. as in a tent. The word may be translated tabernacled. The word became flesh and tabernacled among us. John has described him as the light. We've heard in previous sermons, not a light, but the true light. And this morning, we are going to join hands and walk through the hallway of history that is illumined by lesser lights. And Lord willing, the true light will be even brighter as a result, and we will worship him. We may not realize it, but John is telling a story of grace. to the mind of an Israelite or a God-fearing Gentile, John's words undoubtedly bring their mind back to the story of God dwelling among his people. Today I want to tell you that story, and I want you to realize that you are in this story, and we want to see how the Bible understands itself through the progress of revelation, this unfolding story of God dwelling among his people until its full realization in Christ. Story begins at the beginning. That is how far back the Hebrew mind would travel when he reads John's prologue. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Indeed, his mind would be pulled back to the garden. And that's where we left off. Adam and Eve cast out of the presence of God. But his mercy is new every morning. And hope rises with the sun. This hope is picked up again and carried on as we flash forward in the history of Israel to God's dealings with the patriarchs. So we progress in the story that John is telling from Eden now to sacrificial sites, or as I prefer to call them, mini temples. Mini temples. We arrive at the call of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. Turn there to Genesis 12, because there are a few fascinating things to observe from this text. Abraham, he found grace with the Lord. And the Lord tells him the same thing he told Adam. There in commission form, now in promise form, that in him all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. The Lord's repetition of his commission to Adam signifies in the reader's mind that God has not forfeited his original intention for creation. He is carrying on the work. There are five elements in this passage which occur in connection to the repeated Adamic commission, what God said to Adam originally, that will be echoed in the story later. So we have the commission to Abraham in verses one through three, but look at verses seven and eight. Five elements. First, the Lord appeared to Abraham. Second, Abraham pitched his tent, or tabernacle, Third, look at verse 8. He proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel. He pitches his tent on a mountain. Where was Eden located? On a mountain. Fourth, Abraham builds an altar and worships God. Now calling on the name of the Lord there is, as it is mentioned in this verse, probably involves more than prayer, and probably at this point involves sacrifice, sacrificial offering, which are introduced because of what? Because of sin, that's right. And so fifthly, note the place, Bethel, or Bethel, When a combination of these elements are repeated throughout the unfolding story, they are often so in connection with Bethel, which means the house of God. What is happening here? The altars that are built are many temples. They are echoes of paradise where God met with his people. and walked among them. God meets with the patriarch. He restates the commission. The patriarch builds an altar. He pitches his tent. The tabernacle and the temple are foreshadowed in these sacrificial sites. If we flash forward to Genesis 22, we arrive at the account of Abraham and Isaac. God tells Abraham to take his son, his only son, whom he loves, and to sacrifice him on an altar. He is to build an altar and upon it he is to slaughter his son. And this of course is a prefiguring of the sacrificial death of Christ as the Lord provides a ram as a substitute for Isaac. But notice where God tells Abraham to go. Verse 2. He tells him to go up to the mountain which will be known as Mount Moriah. Where was Eden located? On a mountain. Where was the first altar that Abraham built located? It was on a mountain. Where is Abraham building this altar, this sacrificial site, this temporary mini temple? On a mountain. We will see this mountain again. Each of these altars are echoes of what was lost. The presence of God among men in the paradise that was Eden. And they are promises of what is to come. And what's interesting is that during the early periods of Israel's history, during the time of the patriarchs, as the Lord appeared, not only to Abraham, but to Isaac and to Jacob, they built altars. And as they do, we see the same combination of these five elements. The Lord appears to patriarch Abraham, and he pitches his tent between Bethel and Ai. In Genesis 26, in fact, turn there and focus on verse 23 and 25. We have another combination of those five elements. The Lord appears to Isaac, that's verse 24, but pay attention to verse 23. Where did Isaac go? To Beersheba. And how did he get there? He went up, he went up to Beersheba. God thirdly gives the same commission that he gave to Adam and to Abraham. Fourth, Isaac builds an altar and worships God. Fifth, he pitches his tent, his temporary dwelling. It's the same case with Jacob. And what we find at the end of the patriarchal period is that the land promised to the people who are in bondage in Egypt is already dotted with many temples. already dotted with places of worship, already dotted with the promises of God that He will dwell among His people once again. These temporary sacrificial sites are pointing forward to a more permanent establishment of a place in which God and man may meet together in perfect fellowship and walk together. A more glorious sanctuary is still to come. Well, God raises up a deliverer for His people. He leads them out of Egypt. He leads them up out of Egypt. Exodus 33 verse 1. How did God, by Moses, bring them out of the land of Egypt? He brought them up out of the land of Egypt. He tells them to go to the land dotted with many temples, which is What way? What way is that? Verse 3 of Exodus 33. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But before they get there, the people's unbelief sentences them to wander for a generation in the wilderness. Sin, again, an obstacle to God's original intention for the creation. But God makes provision for the people. And upon their deliverance from Egypt, He establishes them as a nation. And He makes a covenant with the nation. And their blessing is promised for obedience and curses for disobedience. These curses become important to us. Among the long list of curses included for disobedience is the reversal of the promises given to Adam and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Verse 63 and 64 of Deuteronomy 28 reads, It shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you and to multiply, you notice the language, be fruitful and multiply. So the Lord that will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you, and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you nor your fathers have known. These curses speak of exile and temple destruction. Moses went up the mountain, went up to meet with God and receive instructions for how to order the nation, including its place of worship, the tabernacle. In fact, there are chapters and chapters, chapters upon chapters, dedicated to the construction of the tabernacle. And if you are a human being like me, and you got your New Year's resolution Bible reading plan going, and you get to the space of the detailed construction of the tabernacle, and the furniture that exists therein, and the duties of the priests, and their garments, et cetera, you have likely been tempted to skim over those sections of your Bible. But even just the fact that so much space is given that the tabernacle's construction ought to clue you in to its importance. When the first century believer reads John 1, 14 through 18, there is no doubt that his mind would have snapped back to the second half of Exodus. And so there you are, standing on the edge of the construction site. a young Israelite. It's become your habit to walk by that way each day on your way home and to gaze upon the progress of the wise and skillful men that the Lord has gifted to build His house. You feel the anticipation building in your gut each day as you watch the progress and you try to imagine what it would be like to worship in this place. And as you and your family meditate on the instructions that were given to Moses that night, you're back at home now, it's family worship time, you're meditating on the words of Moses, you realize that creation language is being used. Your mind is illuminated so as to realize that just as Moses pinned the creation narrative and structured it around a series of seven sayings, God said, God said, God said, So the account of the construction of the tabernacle is structured by a series of seven sayings of God. The Lord said, the Lord said, the Lord said. God is sending forth his word to build the tabernacle in a similar way by which he sent forth his word to build the universe. As you're sitting there in the living room during family worship and it hits you, you whisper under your breath in amazement, God is rebuilding the world. While later you're at the construction site again, all the pieces are finished, it's all being put together, and you see that the tabernacle has three parts, three sections. You've heard your elders talking, discussing the scriptures. They would agree with one contemporary scholar who offers this insight into what is going on in the Jewish mind when he beholds the tabernacle. The three parts of Israel's temple represented the three parts of the cosmos. The outer court symbolized the visible earth, both land and sea, the place where humans lived. The holy place primarily represented the heights of the earth or the visible heavens. And the holy of holies, the most holy place, stood for the invisible heavenly dimension of the cosmos where God dwelt. You also note that the entrance of the tabernacle is facing east. They begin to understand that the tabernacle is designed as a microcosm, a scaled down version of the cosmos. And then suddenly, the cloud moves in. covering the tent of meeting. And you and all the nation hold your breath and finally the glory of the Lord fills the temple. As it's recorded in Exodus 40. The Lord God builds a sanctuary in which to rest. And the glory fills the tabernacle so much that Moses cannot even enter it. The message is clear. God will keep his word. The original design for the cosmos that the whole world will become his dwelling place is being continued. And the term that is most used to denote the tabernacle is the word for dwelling. He dwelt among them. But there is a glaring, jarring difference between this mini cosmos and the original sanctuary. The glory of the Lord is hidden Through the cloud, it cannot be seen. Moses couldn't enter it. He couldn't see the glory. Even the high priest, when they would serve in the temple and enter into the most holy place once a year, could not see his glory because they carried with them incense that created a cloud so thick that it obscured their vision and saved their lives. The Lord's presence is dwelling among his people, and yet they are still separated from him. They could approach, but only by way of sacrifice, and they couldn't get too close. But even still, the tabernacle, which is called the tent of meeting, was not only patterned after the original creation, but it is a lesser light, illuminating the way forward to a new creation. With the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant, Within the Holy of Holies, you would find the Ark of the Covenant where God's presence dwells. Cherubim are fixed on either side with their wings spread, guarding it as it were which should call your mind back to Eden and the cherubim stationed there to guard the way to the Tree of Life. And with all of the detailed construction involved in the building of the tabernacle, the space above the ark was empty. There's no image there because there is no image that could accurately depict our God. You see, the ark is meant to resemble a throne, a footstool by which God's presence resting there serves as a link between heaven and earth. And what's more, I mentioned earlier the curses for disobedience in God's covenant with Israel that allude to future exile and temple destruction, a decreation, if you will, if the temple is a microcosm of the cosmos. But among the blessings for obedience, the Lord says in Leviticus 26, 11, and 12, moreover, I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people. I will walk among you. It causes us to look back and wonder at the temple garden where an Adam walked with God. And it points us forward in hope that in spite of our disobedience, God, by his grace, would one day walk among his people again. The glory of the tabernacle, as glorious as it was, was only a lesser light. A few years ago, I stood in this pulpit and I preached. from 1st Samuel chapter 4. I entitled that sermon, The Pains of Departed Glory. And so we flash forward again in this story that John is telling to 1st Samuel chapter 4. The people are spiritually sick. The priests serving in the tabernacle at Shiloh are corrupt. So twisted up are the people at this point that they decide to use the Ark of the Covenant, which is in the Holy of Holies, use it as a good luck charm in battle against the Philistines. And so these sinful men place their hands upon this ark and wrench it out of the sacred resting place and take it into battle with them, thinking surely God is among us, only to be slaughtered by the Philistines. The ark is stolen because the glory had departed from Israel. And 1 Samuel 4 really serves as the beginning of a transition period of Israel becoming a monarchy, appointing a king. And we'll have preached, having preached through 1st and 2nd Samuel in 1st Kings. Now we are familiar with the story of the ark's return and the conflict between Saul and David and David assuming the throne and you may know where I'm going. David's intention to build a house for the Lord. Turn with me to 2nd Samuel chapter 7. 2nd Samuel chapter 7 ought to be somewhat fresh in our minds still as we have examined the monarchy. And I want you to note the language of verse one. Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, see now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in tent curtains. What is happening is that God has rejected Saul and chosen David. God has rejected Shiloh and chosen Jerusalem to be his dwelling. This is the climax of the nation's history. This building of the temple. This is what all of the altars and the tabernacle were foreshadowing. David's son is going to build the temple. Do you remember those five elements that we found in combination with God's dealings with the patriarchs? If you missed them the first two times, here they are again. In 1 Chronicles chapter 21, David makes preparations for the temple on a mountain, and the Lord appears to him, and David builds an altar and calls upon the name of the Lord, and he calls the place the house of the Lord. But now instead of pitching his tent, he has built a house, and his son will build the temple. Its construction takes seven years, and the glory of the temple seems only to increase alongside the wisdom of the king. And as each year passes by you, young Israelite, wait expectantly for its completion. Turn now to 1 Kings 8, verse 10-11. 1 Kings 8, verse 10-11, the temple is complete and this is the occasion. It happened that when the priest came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. And once again, the Lord has built a sanctuary for his resting place to dwell among men again on a mountain, the very same mountain where Abraham built an altar, Mount Moriah. But this is no tent. This structure is solid. It's not going anywhere. You can't fold this up and carry it with you. Surely this will be the temple. This will be the one. from which life will flow to the nations, healing to the nations, light to the ends of the earth. Surely this will be the one that will accomplish the purposes of God's global expansion of his sanctuary as a resting place for him and his people. Well, once again, the glory of God is obstructed by the cloud. It cannot be seen. But as you observe the details of the temple's construction, you've waited so long, you're finally walking in the outer courts, you walk about it, you see that it is patterned after the tabernacle. Your eyes sparkle as they reflect the gold, which is everywhere and as you take a closer look you see the wood carved gourds and melons and the inlaid large open flowers and you follow them along the walls until you discover massive pillars and upon them are inlaid hundreds of rich juicy looking pomegranates into the structure and you look up and you see the deep soft green of the lilies and you see how the courtyard has become a source of water like a river resting on the backs of cattle facing out to the four corners of the earth. And as you travel deeper into the temple, you would see that it is illuminated on either side by ten golden lampstands, configured like trees with blossoms. And what you realize is that Eden, that temple garden, has become the model for all subsequent temples, with one golden lamp stand just in front of the veil, the Holy of Holies, which resembles, represents the tree of life. You also note that the wisdom of David's son has brought a super abundance of wealth to the land. 1 Chronicles 9, verse 27, the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem. And not only that, but now the nations are flocking to Jerusalem. One of the purposes of the temple, one of the functions, you have to understand, was to reveal Yahweh to the nations. to come and receive the word of the Lord. They are coming to hear the instruction of His law. The temple explains Him. And what is being portrayed by the biblical author here is a kind of return to the state of paradise that was Eden. As Eden was a temple garden, Jerusalem has become a temple city. And the priests who serve in the temple were charged with the duty to guard the temple from unclean things entering it. The same words used to describe the priest duties in the temple are the words used to describe Adam's charge in the garden to cultivate it and keep it. It's almost as if Solomon is acting as a second Adam. Almost. Even Solomon recognizes that this glorious house is ultimately insufficient for the dwelling of the divine presence. In his dedication prayer in 1 Kings 8, 27, he says, but will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven in the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house which I have built. In other words, we're going to need a bigger house. And Lord, you're going to have to build it. This is the very height of redemptive history so far. Solomon's apostasy marks the beginning of the steady spiritual decline of the nation. For their disobedience, the covenant curse looms ominously over the nation as the Lord sends forth his word in the mouth of his prophets in preparation for judgment. The prophets announced the covenant curses and in time, this de-creation event takes place. In the most devastating way, the temple is destroyed and the people are taken captive in Babylon. And yet, hope persists because God has promised. While in captivity, the prophets speak about a return to the land, far more glorious than their former condition. They speak about a remnant of God's people being preserved, about the Lord raising up another deliverer, and the zeal for the Lord's house will consume him. The temple was destroyed, but Jeremiah prophesies of a glorious return and a rebuilding of the temple. Ezekiel prophesies of a latter-day temple. Hope remains. God will keep his word. In Ezekiel 40, this temple will be located on a mountain, and its entrance will be facing east. Zechariah 14, 20 and 21. In that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, holy to the Lord, And the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like the bowls before the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of hosts. And all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day. And what Zechariah is speaking about is a renewed holiness that radiates from the temple outward to the entire land, outward to the ends of the earth. not just the vessels in the temple are holy to the Lord. You notice what he says, every cooking pot in Jerusalem will be holy to the Lord. He is describing a new Jerusalem. When the exiles come back and rebuild the temple, something's missing. I mean, first of all, the temple Ezekiel talked about had a river flowing out of it towards the east. There's no river here. What's more, Though the temple was rebuilt, the glory of the Lord which filled the tabernacle, which filled the temple, it did not fill this second temple. It is empty. The second temple is quite disappointing. It cannot be the glorious renewal of which the prophets spoke. The people of Israel have made no true spiritual return to the Lord, even though they have returned to their own land. They are still exiles at heart. They have not returned to the Lord. The testimony of the latter prophets is that these people are marked by ungodly priorities, a complex of social sins, unfaithfulness, irreverence, distorted teaching, divorce, hypocrisy, immorality, and much more. They're a mess. This is not the holiness about which Zechariah spoke. The last of the prophets, Malachi, who, speaking to a people returned from exile, is still calling them to return to the Lord. And he tells them to get ready for the coming day of the Lord, saying, Behold, I am going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. God sends his word in the mouth of the prophets and then he is silent for 400 years until he sends forth his word again. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him, this messenger coming to clear the way, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me. For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. The faith of the believing Israelite for the last 4,000 years has been looking forward to this moment. These lesser lights have pointed the way forward to the Son. God sends forth His Word in the person of Jesus to accomplish all His will and to return to Him victorious. Now as you look at this text, it might seem as if verses 14 and 18 contradict each other. John says that he has seen the glory of the Word made flesh, who he has made very clear is God. But then he says in verse 18 that no one has seen God at any time. And of course not. God is spirit. The space above the ark had no image. No one has seen God. The glory that John refers to here in verse 14 cannot therefore be Jesus' physical appearance. If that is what he meant, then we might have a physical description of him, but we do not. The glory that he is talking about is the glory of his person, the glory of his mission, the glory of his function as the new link between heaven and earth, the glory of the fullness of deity dwelling in him in bodily form. The divine friend is walking among men once again. His presence is among his people. He has pitched his tent. He is not like Adam. He is not a son like Adam. He is begotten, not made. And he succeeds at every point in which Adam failed to cultivate and to keep the temple of his God, zeal for the Lord's house. indeed consumed him. The temple served as a lesser light of the revelation of the Father, but Jesus is the true temple. Like the temples of old, he functions as the point at which man meets with God and learns from him. When people come to Jesus, they hear the word of God and are instructed in his law. The temple explains him, and the temple is Jesus. In verse 15 it becomes clear that the messenger about whom Malachi spoke is John the Baptist, the first witness to the true light in John's gospel. And John testifies to his pre-incarnation existence. He comes before me because he existed before me. Now John the author states a parallel thought in verse 17. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. The law is good, but it consisted merely of lesser lights, lesser degrees of revelation unfolding throughout the pages of history and the mention of grace and truth here. Harkens us back to Exodus 34, verse six, where Moses is receiving instructions for the tabernacle while the people are worshiping a golden calf. And the most impressive sight, the most impressive revelation of the glory of God is recorded at this point. Moses intercedes on behalf of the people. He pleads with the Lord. He says, if your presence will not go with us, then do not send us up from here. And then he says, please, show me your glory. Show me your glory. And the Lord said, no man can see my face and live. And so he shows him his back and he proclaims the name of the Lord as he passes by. The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in, here's the allusion contained in this text, abounding in loving kindness and truth. Grace and truth are revealed through Jesus Christ. realized through Jesus Christ. Moses is to Christ as a candle is to the sun and the repeated failures of Adam and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David and the people of Israel Do not thwart God's plans for the realization of grace and truth through the temple son who embodies these things. What Moses saw was only a glimpse of what John has seen and of what he wants us to see today. And so the heart of our text is found in verse 16, for of his fullness, we have all received in grace upon grace. Just as the glory of the Lord filled the temple, so the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus in bodily form. And just as the glory-filled tabernacle was meant to function as the source of spiritual light to the nations and healing for them, so of his fullness do we receive the abundance of grace from him. We receive a continuous supply of grace, it is grace upon grace, it flows out from Him in whom the divine presence dwells like the clearest, bluest river you have ever seen. And in coming to Him, you kneel down and drink to perfect satisfaction. And what this grand story is teaching us is that, alas, we cannot go up We cannot ascend the hill of the Lord. And so he has come to us. He has come down. But there is another mysterious plot twist in this unfolding story. He has come down in the incarnation and the faith, the 4,000-year-old faith of the believing Israelite has looked forward to this moment. We might understand how devastated then the disciples were. at Jesus's death, this temple will be destroyed as well. So the question that has been asked implicitly throughout the history of Israel, how will God accomplish his purpose of making the whole world a sanctuary for his resting place, must be asked one last time. In John 2.19 Jesus cleanses the temple and then he says to those who question him, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. John the author clues us in, tells us that he was speaking of the temple of his body. so that just as his earthly body was the temple of God, by extension, those who believe in him comprise his spiritual body and also become the temple of God. That's you and I, friends. After his resurrection, where does he go? Jesus goes up, he goes up. He doesn't leave us, however, without anything to look forward to. Hear this from Revelation 21 and 22. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain. and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, and its leaves were for the healing of the nations. And they will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it, and no unclean thing shall enter there. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold! The tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God will be among them, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death, there will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain. The first things have passed away. And he who sits on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. And he said, write these words, for they are faithful and true. The microcosm of the temple has become the macrocosm of the temple city enveloping the entire world. This was the plan of the divine friend who took your hand there in Eden. This was his plan from the beginning. If you're here this morning and you have been under the weight of your sin thinking, how can I go to God? How can I go up? Fear not. He has come to you. He's come down as the temple to explain the father and as the temple to facilitate. The once for all sacrifice of himself for your sin. and to bring you back to God. So, beloved, in light of Christ, and from the abundant grace received of His fullness, and in anticipation of the glory of the temple city that knew Jerusalem, a thing far more glorious than Solomon's day, radiating holiness to the ends of the earth, let us sing the song of David. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. And understand this, that every time you make the journey to this place, to church, you are telling a story. You are telling this story. And you are preparing to go up and to enter eternal rest in the new Jerusalem from the east. You pray with me? Father in heaven, we thank you that you have sent your son to dwell among men, to die for them, and to bring them up. Amen.