The Mercy of God

Dorothy Dalton

Midland SDA Church

June 29, 2013

Eph 1: 3; 6-8 Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.----to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.

When my son was young we were given a puppy and we named him Tippy. Tippy had long hair, was tan with a white chest and white tips on his feet and tail, thus the name Tippy. He was a delightful, mixed breed and remained small. He learned quickly and was a bundle of energy with a great personality. He proved to be a wonderful companion for my son and soon had won everyone’s heart. Most of the time he was very obedient and no problem. However, he was not perfect. He knew when he had been bad but that didn’t stop his misbehavior. He knew he was not to mess with the trash can or toilet paper on the roll. As long as we were in the house and he was not alone, he didn’t bother either one. But let the house be human free and every trash can and toilet paper roll was fair game. He would go sniffing around in the trash cans for some little treat or morsel, or anything new and different. If he found nothing of interest in the trash or if he was alone too long, then he would attack a toilet paper roll and shred it to pieces. He knew he was not to do these things. And when we would come home, we knew immediately that he had been busy, not just by the spilled trash cans and destroyed toilet paper but by the absence of Tippy! Where was he and where was his normal greeting? When he was called he would reluctantly appear with ears hanging low, tail between his legs, and slinking out from his hiding place. He could no more hide his guilt than a Zebra can hide its stripes.

We are like that too, aren’t we? The fact of the matter is that we can live in Our Father’s house and yet we make mistakes and find ourselves in garbage too. So what do we do when we find ourselves outside the will of our Father? What’s your response?

Maybe you are like me and have done the Tippy response. We let our ears hang and we feel guilty. We feel overwhelmed and we hide. Some of us retreat and some even retreat in anger at God and say, well He shouldn’t have standards so high, anyway. And we certainly don’t want to be with somebody we are mad at. Others get very busy. The busier you are in life the less time you have to think about your mistakes and God. Some people get busy doing good things. And maybe they think, if I do some good things for God maybe I will be closer to God. The only problem is: how many good things do you need to do? If I spend today doing good things, how about tomorrow or next week? Can you do extra on one day to make up for less hours tomorrow? How does that economy work? How do you know how much is required? What do you do when you feel far from God? That’s an important question! Because; unless my hunch is way off, each one of us, at some time, feel like we have disappointed God or have been disappointed in God. And we don’t want to talk to Him and think maybe He doesn’t want to talk to us. It is an important issue because our God is a God of proximity and nearness. God created humans to be relational people. Humans were meant to relate to God, He walked alongside them in the Garden of Eden. He wants to be close to His people. In Exodus 25: 8 NIV we read that Moses was instructed “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” This sanctuary or tabernacle was to be in the center of their encampment, so there was no partiality. And I believe He made a mighty announcement on the cross defining once and for all how He responds and how we can feel close to Him.

Now you are not going to see any words like nearness to God in the verse we are going to read but it is a power packed passage in symbolism. It has to do with Jesus on the cross and the spear of the soldier cutting the side of Christ. It is John’s gospel that provides the words for consideration, beginning in Chapter 19 verses 34 through 35 NCB One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus’ side, and at once blood and water came out. (The one who saw this happen, is the one who told us this, and whatever he says is true. And he knows that he tells the truth, and he tells it so that you might believe.) John is speaking in third person about himself. Those parenthetical comments there can basically be summarized as: this really matters! I want you to know that this really happened! I didn’t just make it up! Now, why did John do this? He didn’t make a comparable statement about the crown of thorn or the nails in the hands, but, when it came to the side and spear; in it, he said I want you to know that the one who saw this, saw it. I was there! Maybe part of the answer to the high volume on this passage is found in Hebrews chapter 10: 19-20 (NCB) So, brothers and sisters, we are completely free to enter the Most Holy Place without fear because of the blood of Jesus’ death. We can enter through a new and living way that Jesus opened for us. It leads through the curtain---Christ’s body. What are those last two words? Christ’s body! Did everyone see that? We can enter through a new and living way and that way is a curtain, and that curtain is the body of Jesus. The Hebrew writer writing some decades after the cross looks back on the cross event and says you know there is a parallel, there is symbolism in the flesh of Jesus and a curtain. And we are about to see that the curtain he is talking about is not just any curtain, but the curtain that hung in the Tabernacle in front of the Holy of Holies, also called the Most Holy Place. He draws a relations between the death of Jesus and the opening of that curtain. Matthew is the one who draws the two chronologically together in Matthew 27: 50-51 “Jesus cried out again in a loud voice and died. Then the curtain in the Temple was torn into two pieces, from the top to the bottom.

It hung between the Holy Place and the Most Holy place in the Temple. 60 feet tall, 30 feet wide and the moment that Jesus died the curtain was torn from top to bottom. Josephus wrote that the veil was four inches thick, and that horses tied to each side could not pull the veil apart. Yet. It was torn in two. Now, let’s tally these verses up for just a second. John, the apostle says, this is an important event, when the spear of the soldier cut the side of Christ: don’t miss that! The Hebrew writer says the picture of Jesus on the cross is a picture of the temple and the curtain. Our curtain is the body of Jesus? And Matthew puts the two together by saying, when Jesus died the curtain was torn.

Now, what does all that mean? That is sort of foreign language to us. We don’t have a physical curtain that we can see or walk to a temple on a Zion hill for our worship. So this language is a little bit strange. But, I believe we can understand it. Put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and get your magnifying glass, we are going on a search for some clues. The first of which is the message of the Temple Curtain. What was the message of the temple curtain? This far and no further! The curtain you will remember hung in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was the predecessor to the Temple. And the Tabernacle was the portable temple built by the children of Israel in the Wilderness. Moses you will remember, was the one who received the instructions for it. It was much like the permanent temple built by Solomon, later, in Jerusalem. They had many things in common, two of which were two curtains. You may recall that the Tabernacle and the Temple were divided into three sections.

You have the Outer Court, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. The Outer Court was the place for the worshipers to bring their sacrifice, the Holy Place was the place for the Priests to perform their ministry, and the Most Holy Place was the residence of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was the keeping place for the 10 Commandments and Aaron’s rod that had budded and a pot of manna. Resting on it were the Cherubim facing inward and at the meeting place of the Cherubim was the Mercy Seat and the dwelling place of God. Now here is the question? Who could go into the Holy of Holies? Everyone got to go into the Outer Court, only the Priests got to go into the Holy Place. But, who got to go into the Most Holy Place or Holy of Holies? Only the High Priest and then how often? Once a year at the Day of Atonement, when he would take in blood to be offered for his sins and the sins of the people.

If you grew up in the days of the Tabernacle or Temple and someone said, let’s go check out the Holy of Holies, you would shake your head and say “you are one bagel short of a dozen.” God is specific about what is acceptable worship and activities in His Temple. Which makes me wonder: how does he respond to our worship and reverence or lack thereof? The curtain, also called a vail, was to show there was a barrier between man and God showing that God could not be trifled with. The vail was to a barrier to make sure man could not carelessly and inadvertently enter into God’s awesome presence. Leviticus 10 tells of Aaron’s two sons who offered strange fire when ministering in the Holy Place and they lost their life, as a result. Leviticus 16: 2 NCB says the Lord spoke to Moses and said, “Tell your brother Aaron that there are times when he cannot go behind the curtain into the most Holy Place where the Ark is. If he goes in when I appear in a cloud over the lid on the Ark, he will die.” So, we see that the curtain in no uncertain terms declared the prohibitive announcement, “This Far and no further!” That is our first clue --- The Message of the Curtain.

The second clue is the Symbolism of the Curtain. I think you are going to like this. Remember how the Hebrew writer compared the curtain to Jesus? It was as if he was saying that Jesus is our curtain. When you go back in the Old Testament and read about the instructions of how this curtain was intended to look, you begin catching glimpses of Jesus. Let me show you what I mean. These are the instructions given to Moses regarding the appearance of the curtain. Exodus 26: 31-35 NCV “Make a curtain of fine linen and blue, purple, and red thread, and have a skilled craftsman sew designs of creatures with wings on it. Hang the curtain by gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood that are covered with gold and set them in four silver bases. Hang the curtain from the hooks in the roof and put the Ark of the Agreement containing the two stone tablets behind it. This curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.”

Can you see the images of Jesus? The fine linen reminds us of the spotless perfection of Jesus life. The golden hooks. The Gold represent Deity and suggest His dependence upon Heaven. Four silver bases representing atonement, the four posts represent the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John they are also a foreshadowing of the guardians of the throne of God presented to John in Rev 4:6; 8 “around the throne, were four living creatures…..each of the four living creatures had six wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was, and is, and is to come.”

The three colors, blue, purple and red remind us of the three dimensions of Jesus’ work. His heavenly work is blue; His earthy work is red; His Kingdom work is purple and royal. And the creatures with the wings, are they not also the angels that surrounded Jesus even at His death? You can see why the Hebrew writer could look at the curtain and look at Jesus and say that Jesus is our curtain and our curtain is Jesus. It is important for us now to pause and be reminded and informed that the purpose of the Old Testament law was to teach us these sort of things. Paul said, “The law was our teacher, it was suppose to teach us until we had faith and were acceptable to God. Now let me ask you a question? If the law was our teacher and for a thousand years or so a curtain hung in front of the Holy of Holies, what would that teach you about God? It would teach you that you had no personal access to God, Right? There was something between you and God and you could not come into the presence of the Holy of Holies. Isn’t that the messages that Moses received on Mt Sinai when God said, you cannot see my face because no one can see my face and live? Isn’t this the message of Isaiah when God said through Isaiah that your sins have caused a separation between you and your God?

There is a separation between us symbolically presented and reminding the people daily of that separation was the curtain in the temple. Now, we don’t need a curtain to tell us that there is something between us and God, do we? Down deep in our heart we have figured that out, that God is Holy and I am not. I make mistakes and what does a Holy God have to do with me? From earliest childhood we learn that if someone is perfect in sports for example and I am not then I am probably not going to be selected for the team. Or if she is good at cooking and I am not she is not going to want to eat at my house. And what if it is time for selecting the homecoming king and queen how would you rank? All those separations are just a part of life and if that happens among people we know, how much more is it going to happen with God? We don’t need the Bible or a curtain to tell us we are separated from God! And if anyone ever suggests that God is perfect and doesn’t make mistakes then it is easy to think “Well, He is not going to want to have anything to do with me.” Because I blow it every single day! You don’t have to be a theologian or go up on Mt Sinai to know that no one can look into the face of God and not feel far from God. This is the very heart of our problem. And we can relate to the question of Job in what is perhaps the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job. The ancient words of Job say, If only there were a mediator; if only there were a mediator, to bring us together.

Oh, but there is! That is the significance of the fabric of the curtain, there is a mediator and the curtain represents Jesus Christ, himself! That is why John is so urgent that we understand this. Jesus has not left us with an unapproachable God Yes, God is Holy. His holiness is not compromised. Yes, we have made mistakes, that we do not deny. But, because of Jesus we do have a mediator. Paul says in 1 Tim 2: 5 there is one God one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Is not a mediator, someone who goes in between? Is a curtain not something in between or in front of something? Didn’t the Hebrew writer say that Jesus is our curtain? And so the cutting of the flesh of Christ is the opening of the curtain, consequently we have access to God. Now, where people could never go; everyone can go, because of what Jesus did on the cross. He became a curtain and a mediator. His flesh was torn, the mediator did His work. That is why this was so important to God that he gave us a dramatic illustration of something as graphic as flesh being cut by the sharp end of a sword. Jesus was already dead, this did not have to be done. It was at best an act of mockery and cruelty. However, from God’s view point it was an act of sovereignty. It is as though He said, I don’t want anyone to miss this: and he allowed the arm of a solder to perform a harsh act. What man intends for evil, God always uses for good.

Matthew is the one who draws these two together, Matthew 27: 50-51 (NIV) and when Jesus had cried out

again, in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn into two from top to bottom.” At that moment, there was no delay. No hesitation. 60 foot curtain, about twice the height of the peak of this ceiling. A 60 foot curtain was torn in two from top all the way down to the bottom. It was as if Heavenly hands had been griping that veil just waiting for the final breath and when it occurred, then RIP! No more! No more sacrifices, because the sacrifice is sufficient. No more temples because now the dwelling place of God is within the heart of His children. Everything changed, with the tearing of the curtain. No wonder John was so urgent. No wonder God tore the curtain, because He has a message! The message of the curtain in the temple was: this far and no father. But the message of the torn curtain is: God welcomes you. God welcomes you! Were you aware that the symbolism of the torn curtain was so significant?

When He was on the cross I was on His mind. Charles McDonald

F.D. Bruner’s commentary on Matthew says, “The split vail is Mathew’s interpretation of the death of Jesus. Jesus could not die and leave his death un-interpreted. Therefore, in an immediate Devine commentary the split veil joins with the crosses death to say visually here is what the cross means.” Here is what has been done for you.” So, what does it mean for you personally? It means no more curtains. No more separation between you and God. It is your option. He is ever the gentleman and will not go where He is not invited. just as the Father of the Prodigal was waiting for His son’s return, so is our Father, God, waiting and watching for you.

Now what would you have thought, had you been a priest in the temple that day? Wouldn’t that have been something to tell the family about when you got home? In the afternoon when Jesus died, the evening sacrifices have already begun and all of a sudden there is a ripping in the fabric and suddenly you have access to the Holy of Holies! A good question could be raised at this juncture and that is: if that never happened, why didn’t the priests deny it? I mean if the word got out that this thing never happened; that it was just a legend, or a rumor. If it wasn’t true, if it had no foundation, couldn’t the priests in an uproar say, “That never happened?” But early church writing never indicates that anyone objected or tried to say this was a rumor. In fact, just the opposite! Not only did the priests not deny it, it appears that many priests were changed by it. A quick jump into Acts chapter 6: 7 tells us that “A great number of Jewish Priests believed and obeyed.” Coming to the cross we find salvation by the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins, now we can enter through the vail of the tabernacle to meet with God fulfilling all our needs. You see for these men of the temple, the torn veil, meant a new way of life. So what does it mean for us, today?

We don’t have a Temple and we don’t have a curtain in our church to keep us away from God. But, do we have a curtain? Well, I think we do. We don’t call it a curtain, but we call it a conscience. And all your life you have been taught, Let your conscience be your guide. And this morning, I want to de-bunk that theory. I want to call it to an end because there are certain things you cannot trust your conscience with, and one of them is your proximity to God. The fact of the matter is, we meddle around in some garbage sometimes and God has already dealt with our mess. Just as Tippy would hide knowing he had done something wrong we do the same. I knew Tippy, I loved him and I provided for him. Why, I even bought a license for him to show he was mine. How much more does God love you, provide for you, and He has bought you; not just a license. What love, What mercy! What more could He do? You are His child. So, I ask how much time have you lost, when you could be with God wrongly thinking it doesn’t matter if you just stay away? He has already dealt with your problems, your mess was cleaned up, covered in Jesus blood, at the cross. How much joy have you lost? How much peace have you lost? How many times have you not opened the Bible to receive His words of comfort for your heartache? How many times have you held back from coming to worship or have not sung a song of praise to God or failed to respond to the still small voice’s guidance. How many times have we come to the house of God with anger, hostility, frustration or disappointment and missed the fellowship with God because our motive has been wrong? Are you here, today, in obligation of in joy?

The tearing of the veil and the cutting of the skin; graphic as they are, they make a bold proclamation. You are welcome! God welcomes you!! He wants to be with you. Isn’t that Good News? What a price He paid for you. That’s how much He wants to spend time with you. So, next time your conscience says I don’t feel close to God I want you to say I am going to claim the authority of the cross and trust it, instead of my conscience. I am not going to trust my feelings. I am close to God, God still wants to speak to me. “I’m going to claim the victory of the cross and not listen to my conscience.”