18.2 The Tabernacle as the Church
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Hebrews 10:19-22 gives us a view of the Church as both the journey and the destination. The first part of the house of God is the journey, the fullness of God in His House is the destination – HOME wherever we might go.
Now, the writer of Hebrews distinguishes specifically between the “old” tabernacle, and the real house of God it represents. In the old tabernacle, although many could enter into the outer court, few (only selected priests) could enter the Holy Place and one, the high priest, could enter the Holiest, and that only once a year. In the “new” tabernacle, everyone may freely enter the Holiest itself with all boldness, yet few ever have.
The Way Set Before Us. Few have ever entered fully into the Holy of Holies in church history because the church has never operated as the Church. The Church has, under Catholicism, put itself out as the way into salvation, yet the Veil is presented as our own physical death and the Holy of Holies as being dead “in heaven.”
What would Church be like if we walked together in the way set before us by Jesus and by the writer of Hebrews?
Picture the tabernacle, but always transferring everything in the model into the present dispensation of all entering boldly. The gate, door, and veil, the three “rooms,” the seven pieces of furniture, these things are all fixed and immovable, as the doors, rooms, and furniture of a house.
The Flow. Then consider the FLOW, the movement of people, first under each of the curtains, then through each room, stepping around each piece of furniture as its qualities are apprehended. Yet always moving on to the next as each furnishing completes its work, all the way into the Holy of Holies where there is more action than anywhere else.
You see, much of Hebrews 12 is an explanation of some of the wondrous things inside of God that we are to “approach,” that is, to connect with inside the Holiest. More than that, Hebrews 12:3-11 positions this journey through the tabernacle in terms of the education of a child. The word, paideia, is education in its entirety. Discipline is certainly an important part, but instruction, training, and exercise far more so. – I use all five terms in these verses.
An Educational Curriculum. This is interesting. The King James uses the word “chastisement” every time paideia occurs in Hebrews 12. In that time of educational history, it was assumed that the only way to get learning into a boy’s head was to beat it in. Then, the New King James uses the word “discipline.” Yes, discipline is an important part of classroom management, but if discipline is all there is, very little learning will be taking place.
The word “paideia” is a neutral word meaning, simply, education and training.
But let’s tie this term into the topic of this lesson. Just as a student goes from class to class, in an educational curriculum, so believers go through the elements of the tabernacle. And our subject matter is – KNOWING God! A topic that includes everything. More than that, the word, curriculum, is the Latin word for the race track, and thus “the race set before us” is clearly this educational journey through the Tabernacle.
Facilitators of Movement. Now picture the tabernacle in its entirety, with two states happening at the same time. First are the fixed points that are the absolute truths of Christ. And second is the constant movement of many people through all parts of the tabernacle.
Yet we have left one thing out of our picture – the priests. The priests have one purpose only in our picture of the “new” tabernacle. They are there as enablers of each person as they pass through – Flow through – every truth of Christ. Yet in the new, every single member IS a priest, that is, every single member is given the joy of helping others to know the reality and meaning of every part of Christ.
All Are Priests. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5). Peter is really mixing metaphors here, neither is he presenting the whole picture given us by Hebrews. Each one of us are priests of God, and priests are there, not to offer “for” the people, but to help each one in their own offering and walk through the tabernacle. And that is the ever-increasing knowledge of God – from glory to glory. So let’s look at each part of the Tabernacle as we know it now and the role of the priests, a role shared by all, at each point.
The Pattern of Flow. And as we consider these things, we are thinking in terms of the pattern of the Flow through the rooms, including all of the points in that pattern. Let’s list the points again.
1. Plan the flow outdoors as well as indoors. 2. Make the front door the center and the primary link. 3. Plan short movement of heavy things. 4. Create a gradient from public to private. 5. Move around without disrupting activity. 6. Pause between spaces. 7. Put staircase landings in the center of the rooms they serve. 8. Give circulation spaces distinct identities. 9. Fill circulation spaces with unique displays.
You know, as an educator, I can also see these things as the role of a teacher in education. Every one of these points is applicable to good instructional practice.
The Outer Court – Primary School. First there are those who, standing in the gate, teach those outside to enter into the outer court. The gospel calls these “teachers” evangelists.
The new believer is then taken straight to the sacrifice of Jesus, that is the shortest distance for the heaviest loads, and every good pastor knows the importance of helping all new believers unload all the burdens of their former sins. Then, straight into the Bible, typically the gospels of Mark and John, and the washing away of those habits and practices that work against learning Christ. In our present study, we are concerned with the movement and with that “ministry” whose task is to assist in that movement.
Operations of Ministry and Learning. Let’s apply two points; I enjoy the thought of these in designing a house – “move around without disrupting activity” and “pause between spaces.” I can envision the principal of a school, walking by the classrooms, listening to the hubbub of each without disturbing anyone, yet with a heart that includes and prays over all that is taking place in each room.
And, you know, as I think about any good, Bible-believing church, I see that all these operations of ministry and learning, the flow from gate to sacrifice to washing, operate well as God intends. Yet most churches then keep all students confined to the first through third grades, no one is taken on to fourth grade.
Spiral Learning. A primary principle of good education is called spiral learning. Spiral learning means that you teach any topic first at a general and simple level, and then come back around as the child gets older and teach the same topic again, only at deeper levels of application.
In most churches, believers in Jesus never progress beyond third grade, that is, repentance from dead works and learning the Bible, never “going on to completion” as the writer of Hebrews stated. They go through these primary grades over and over. The reason is, very simply, that, since the Holiest is defined as being dead in heaven, the Holy Place, then, is not considered necessary for entering the Holiest. Death is the teacher that takes us into the next classroom.
Same Time, Same Place. But, let’s continue as a healthy and living Church, in which all the grade levels from first grade to fourth year of college are happening simultaneously.
And, of truth, that is exactly the school at Blueberry Christian Community where I received my bachelor’s degree. All sixteen grade levels were happening in the same building all at the same time. There were no isolated rooms (except for a small gym and the science room) in this one building, only an upstairs and downstairs, with dividers separating the classrooms, and a low hubbub of all levels of learning taking place at the same time.
Yet in our picture of the Church, Jesus is always the Teacher, alive inside each one, and ministry is only the facilitator of movement from one knowing of Jesus to the next.
The Holy Place – Junior High. And so, passing into fourth grade, we have what should be the prophetic ministry in the church, those who lead God’s people through the Door into full immersion in the Spirit, teaching each one to know and to call forth Christ in them as a living Spirit of Power.
Now, we don’t rush people through the Holy Place. Every one of the twenty classrooms in the House of God are meant to be enjoyed and absorbed, so that each believer in Jesus can continue on in strength and understanding. But the rule says, “make the front door the center and primary link.” This is after the outer court, the rooms “outside.” The Door is the entrance into Holy Spirit immersion first, and then the face of God as the Church second.
Activity in the Spirit. That means that the pivot and central places in this curriculum are first immersion into Christ as a Spirit of Power and second, being, as the Church together, the face of Christ to all. That is certainly something to think about.
Grades five, six, and seven, then, inside the Holy Place, should be times of great bustling activity, though without the noise and dirt of infancy in the outer court. And so I have seen in churches who actively live in the things of Pentecost. The communities of the fellowship of which I was once a part operated at this level. Yet no one was allowed ever to complete grade eight, that is, to pass through the veil into present union with Christ.
Placing the “Ministry.” And so, the “most important” teachers in the Church are those anointed by God to take the hand of each learner of Christ and to guide them through the Veil, calling their own flesh the very flesh of Christ, and into living in the Holiest as the Ark of the Covenant, that is, full and dynamic union with Christ. In God’s school, those teachers/priests are called “apostolic ministry.” You see that each of the three passages, Gate, Door, and Veil, correspond with the ministries of evangelist, prophet, and apostle. Whereas the shepherds and teachers are those ministries that are in each classroom of the pieces of furniture, teaching God’s people to know Christ as bread and light, etc.
Shepherds and Teachers. In actuality, we could say that teachers are the teachers, and that the shepherds, that is the “elders” or “pastors” serve the role of guiding the learner of Christ from one “classroom” to the next, ensuring that a progression of learning experiences is taking place. Yet there are shepherds and teachers in the Holiest as well, teaching God’s people regarding the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat going in, and then, turning around, the Mercy Seat and the Ark going out.
Those four classrooms are high school. Passing out through the Veil into the Church of Christ is the first year of college. Then the “completion” of Christ among us together is the bachelor’s degree, going forth, then into graduate school, culminating in the doctoral degree, the resurrection of our bodies.
A Living Body. That is one picture in which God frames our passage from being born again to being incorruptible and immortal. But there is a far more vital picture of this same passage, and that is the development of the child in the womb.
In each of these places of learning, we are looking at a living body, something alive, and filled with dynamic power and living energy. And every one of these places of ministry, from the evangelist at the gate to the astounding ministry of the resurrection, are meant by God to be living, Spirit ministries, alive in the power and anointing of the Spirit. ALL connections in the Church ARE the Spirit of God. Christ as a connecting Spirit of power.
Christ Formed in Us. Now that we have this picture of the life of the Church reasonably complete, let’s bring in the dynamics of Hebrews 10:19-22.
First, ALL learning is confined entirely to that which is taking place between Jesus alive in each and each believer in Jesus. Jesus is the Door, not the priest – and so on. Even the teachers inside each classroom are only facilitators of the learning taking place inside the union of Jesus and each one of us, Christ being formed in us. And a pastor’s only job is to ensure that there is a good flow of movement from one classroom of Christ to the next.
This is exactly the picture intended by the writer of Hebrews.
The Protector. You see, first, the cross is the protector of all learning, ensuring that movement and growth inside the House of God takes place along the vertical and horizontal axis lines, utterly free from the entanglement of “falling short of God.” “Falling short of God,” “consciousness of sins,” is the operation of failing grades in each classroom. Failing grades do not contribute to learning, ever. Failing grades serve only to ensure a complete disconnect from the learning process.
This is exactly what Paul meant. When I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. (1 Corinthians 2:1-3).
Every Step INSIDE the Way. Paul meant that the cross stood as their protector from Paul as a ministry in God’s house, that Paul would not get big ideas about his role in the church. This is the topic of the entire next lesson, “A Gift, Not an Office.” I hope to drive the cross all through the concept of ministry. Christ, not I.
The cross is always protecting God’s people from the ministry. So then, death is at work in us [ministry], but life is at work in you [learners of Christ] (2 Corinthians 4:12). The newly sacrificed and the living way, consecrated by Blood is speaking of the entire curriculum pathway from first grade to the doctoral degree.
The Holiest – High School. You see, the critical turning years are the four years of high school, learning everything in the Holiest of All. We saw, in Symmorphy IV: Covenant, that what we are now calling “college” and “graduate school” are simply extensions of the Holiest back out over all things. For wherever the Ark of the Covenant rests, that place is the Holiest of All.
So, here’s what we are saying. This pattern of home called “The Flow through rooms” is referring specifically to these words – to enter into the Holiest in the blood of Jesus consecrating for us a newly sacrificed as well as a living way through the veil, that is, through His flesh.
Classroom Equipment. In other words, it is Jesus carrying each one of us all the way through inside Himself in all that He is.
But then, look at what is given to each individual learner inside the school of Christ, their “equipment,” their list of “classroom supplies.” 1. The Boldness of Freedom to enter each next classroom in God. 2. Jesus as the Connector between each one and God and among all learners together. 3. A consciousness cleansed from all thought of falling short, all imagining of “failure.” 4. Everything of life on this earth washed completely clean.
These things already belong to each student, Christ as them; none of them are “dispensed” by any gift of ministry.
College and Graduate School. Then, in this model, we are placing the reality of living life together as the Church, that is our coming out from the Holiest as Christ to one another inside of life together, as the four years of college. College is where serous learning takes place. Everything prior to college is primarily preparation for life together as the Church.
Then, consider the vague outline we gained from Covenant, which we are now calling “graduate school,” that of being the face of God to all who call themselves Christians first. Then, passing through the Church teaching all the real meaning of the Sacrifice and the living Word, we graduate from God’s entire curriculum declared to be Full Covenant Sons by the resurrection of our bodies.
Each Community of Christ. Now, picture all this learning taking place inside your local Community of Christ, around 75 people living life together as the Church. Yet the concept of the “school” gives us the framework only. For this “school” is entirely alive, a living being learning, becoming, Christ revealed.
Every member of the community is a learner and every member of the community is a “priest,” a facilitator in learning Christ. Yet some are given gifts to teach Christ in one way and others in another way, yet ALL possess the capacity to KNOW God, a curriculum of learning forever.
The Turtle Wins the Race. In Bridge II, I expressed my cynicism against “it’s the journey, not the arrival.” And that is absolutely true until we enter the Holiest to learn all that God is in us and until we enter into Church as God means Church to be.
Nonetheless, “graduating” from the Holiest means that we are now “turtles,” carrying our HOME with us wherever we go. We never leave HOME again. And it is the turtle that wins the race! For where the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat upon it might go, there is God in us and we in God, His revelation, God seen and known.