Go Tell it On the Mountain

The entirety of scripture is about being redeemed back into the presence of God…. Ephraim Judah.

-       In the garden, God made man in His image.  He then walked with them His creation and in that intimacy, creation was as God had intended.  Genesis 1:26

-       We failed God by not providing and protecting that intimacy.  By not protecting that intimacy we immediately knew shame and fear. Genesis chapters 2-3

-        This is no different when we fail to protect our marriages, friendships, churches, children.  The intimacy is broken and then we fear for our relationships and feel shame in our interactions with those people.  The church reflects our current void of intimacy with one another and God.

-       Shame and guilt have become the cornerstone of many religious gatherings.  It is easy to manipulate someone into moving or following if you can convince them that they should feel shame and guilt for their thoughts or actions.  It’s also extremely easy for us to completely turn from teachings about shame and guilt out of fear that people won’t man up. 

-       If you study the ministry of Messiah you see that he rarely uses shame and guilt as means to teach or lead those he is speaking to.  He uses hope, freedom, and positive parables to encourage people to make a good choice in how they will choose to deal with circumstances and people.  To repent and chose the path of life.  Matthew 5-7

-       Abraham as Ephraim mentioned last week one of the forefathers of our faith.  He also spoke and walked in intimacy with God.  Genesis 17

-       Moses spoke and walked in intimacy with God.  What made Moses anointed?  God.  We see in the Torah Portion Jethro that the Israelites were coming to Moses asking for interpretations on how to keep certain commandments and Jethro gave Moses the counsel, you need to go ask God.  You need God to interpret the meaning of the law and then go give the counsel to the people.  The law was given as guidance but the lawgiver was the intimacy and life of the law.  Not Moses, but God.

-       Then God instructed the Israelites to build the Tabernacle so God could dwell in intimacy with his people.  The Tabernacle was an earthly dwelling for God and his commandments on this earth.  The presence of God dwelling in intimacy with his people.  Exodus 25-27

-       Fast forward to the First Temple.  Solomon resurrected the Temple as outlined in 1 Kings.  A place for the ark of the covenant and the presence of God to dwell in the midst of his people in intimacy.  A place where his name could be placed and be told to the world.

-       The Babylonians destroyed the Temple and since that time the ark of the covenant has not been seen.

-       Then a modest second Temple was built by the Israelites as outlined in Haggai.  It was then renovated and expanded by Herod in 516 BCE and this Temple stood until after the death and resurrection of Yeshua.

-       The Tabernacle, the Temple’s, the Staff of Moses in the wilderness, are all symbols of our faith.  They were used by God for him to show his people that He was and is still very much with them and working for their good.  The symbols should never replace and were never intended to replace this important fact.  God wants to dwell in intimacy with His people but we constantly want signs, symbols, and mediators between God and man.

-       This past month millions of people around the world are singing the song “Go Tell it Mountain that Jesus Christ is born.”  As they celebrate the birth of the Messiah I want to look at what God went to tell on a mountain.

-       Matthew 27

-       Judas confesses his sin of betraying Yeshua

-       The money that bought the blood of Yeshua was used to buy a field that would be the final resting spot for foreigners in Israel. 

-       It is told that Judas was also buried in this field.

-       Jesus Barabbas or Jesus the Christ. The choice was between two Yeshua’s.  A Yeshua who was of this world or Yeshua who was of God.  Early biblical scholar Origen and other commentators

-       Pilate washed his hands of the guilt and the Jews and Temple leadership state the blood of Messiah will be on them and their children.  This passage has been used by many over the years to justify an anti-Semitic approach to the Jewish people.  This is sad because if they continue reading the Bible they would see that Jesus on the cross removes the curse that many Pastors have claimed exists today by asking him Father to forgive them for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34

-       And upon his death, the Temple veil was torn.  Separating the outer court and the inner court.  The veil that had the cosmos on it.  This was a foreshadowing of the Temple and its leadership’s destruction in 70ad.

-       Jesus is greater than the temple as outlined in Matthew 12:6 was God dwelling with a man during the time of the second Temple.  The ark wasn’t in the Temple.  On the mountain, he was lifted up above the Temple to the East.  If you were standing in the Temple looking up to the East there was God in the flesh being crucified at the hands of the very ones he came to save. 

-       The fulfillment of the promise of why the second Temple would be greater than the first as recorded in Haggai.  Why cause the presence of God walked in the Temple in the perfection of Yeshua and granted peace, through the prince of peace.  The maintenance and rituals of the second Temple became a ritual.  The purpose of why was lost.  They were trusting the motions more than the result. 

-       Jesus’s death ushered in the beginning of the destruction of the second Temple in 70 AD and ushered in the Third Temple as outlined in 1 Corinthians 6:9.  Our bodies are the Temple and God dwells in us if we have received him.

Today many of us are walking around like the second temple during the crucifixion of the Messiah.  Void of the dwelling of God.  We go through the motions we keep the Feasts, we keep the commandments but we are void of the presence of God.  We are so focused on the systems and symbols we have put in place in our life that we are missing the very presence of what God is doing in our midst.  We have placed ourselves back into the bondage that Messiah came to break us free from.  To walk in the Freedom of the covenants God made with us through Joy and Peace.

We are standing outside the eastern gate looking back at the Temple and the earthly things completely missing that right behind us on a mountain top, right now if we would just turn and look up towards heaven from where our God reigns on His throne we would see the one who God granted all authority of everything in this world.  Every person, every Temple, every bird, everything.   

The Third Temple is here, it’s in this room.  Does your walk reflect the Father’s love that dwells in your heart? 

God instructed the Israelites to build the Tabernacle, the Temples.  But they would be nothing without the presence of God in them.  Isn’t this just like Ephraim shared last week?  God created each and every-one of you, but we are nothing without the presence of God in us. 

Hebrew 12:18

Jesus literally went to tell it on a mountain.  That God desires to dwell in intimacy with a man and there is no one and nothing that will ever stop Him.       

If you believe that your Temple is like that standing below the Mount of Olives while Yeshua hung on the tree.  A temple that lacked the intimacy God is calling you to right now.  God can destroy your Temple right now and rebuild it with His presence.