Entering Into Gods Presence

April 15, 2009
Entering Into Gods Presence

Entering into Gods presence in the Old Testament was not an easy thing. Once a year every year the high priests would enter the temple to make atonement for our sins. They would have to go through a long series of sacrifices and burnt offerings which are written in Lev 16. Then they would be able to enter into the Holy place, but only one man, the high priest was allowed to enter the most Holy place. Even the high priest, who had spent weeks preparing himself for this meeting with Gods manifested presence wasn’t for sure that God would accept him or his sacrifice. See God is such a Holy and Righteous God that if an unholy man or an unforgiven man entered His presence that man would instantly die. So the priests would tie a rope around the high priests ankle with a bell tied to it. If they hear the bell ring a certain way they would know that God didn’t accept him or his sacrifice and they would pull out the dead high priest and elect another to enter in. Once the high priest and his sacrifice was accepted then the priests would exit the Holy place and let the people know God had forgiven their sins for that year and the people would all rejoice and praise Him standing outside of their tents. This type of forgiveness from God by one man entering His presence once a year offering Him a sacrifice for his sins and the peoples sins went on for 1500 years until a man named Jesus came on the scene.

We are going to jump past Jesus’ life tonight and get right into His crucifixion and death for times sake. In Matt. 26 Jesus is being judged by the high priest and in verses 63-65 it says “but Jesus remained silent.” The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: tell us if you are the Christ the son of God. “Yes it is as you say,” Jesus replied “ But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priests tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy!”


The thing that I want you to remember out of this scripture is the high priest tearing his clothes at Gods son. Now let’s jump ahead to Matt. 27:45-54. “From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” – Which means “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” When some of them standing there heard this, they said “He is calling to Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest says, “Now leave Him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save Him.” And when Jesus cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.

The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs and after Jesus resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened they were terrified and exclaimed, “Surely He was the Son of God.” See, when Jesus died God tore the temple curtain from top to bottom. It was 60 feet wide and 30 feet tall. This curtain was at least four inches thick of woven or braided linen and required about 300 priests to open it every year. Knowing these facts about the curtain and that it was torn from the top to the bottom proves that it was torn in two God reaching out to us through His son rather than man reaching to God by any other means. Here’ the best part of all of this! Remember in the past only the high priest could enter into Gods presence once a year to give him the sacrifice for our sins. And even though this year the high priest tore his clothes at Gods Son and spit in his face, God still loved him and us and gave his son to be our perfect and only sacrifice. In doing this God tore the temple curtain and said to him and all of us that all you need to do is believe in My Son and you can enter my presence at anytime and anywhere.

Wow. What a gift of unfailing love. We tore our garments at Him and His Son and spit in His face and He still loved us enough to tear up His Son for us and tear down the temple curtain to be with us. This is what the Apostle Paul was talking about in Romans 5:8 when he said “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us. After Jesus was resurrected many holy people who had died crawled out of their graves and went into the holy city and were seen by many.

Did you know that out of all the religions in the world that Christianity is the only one that has ever had anyone resurrected from the dead along with its followers. Then when the centurion and all those around him saw all of this they were terrified and knew “Wow, we killed the wrong man. This surely was the Son of God.” So because of Jesus and what He has done for us, by dying on the cross in our place. He has purchased for us the right to be in His and the Fathers presence at anytime and in any place. Even though He has done this for us it is useless to us unless we utilize this great gift and inheritance. In Matt. 6:5-6, Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

I saw a deal on the Discovery Channel once that really made me think about these verses and about being alone with God in His presence. It was a show that was talking about scuba divers and how they risk their very lives out in the depths of the ocean to fix oil wells. They talked about a machine that they use after the divers come out of the water called a decompression chamber. It is a compartment that literally saves their lives. The show shared that under water pressure is directly proportional to the increase in water depth. The deeper we go, the greater the atmospheric pressure. The greater the pressure the more likely that the changing interplay of gases will begin to come into play. Increasing pressure correlates to increased absorption of nitrogen. The deeper you go, the more nitrogen enters your system. And too much nitrogen in your body for and extended period of time can lead to a lot of very bad things, including possible death. Divers combat this phenomenon by taking care to ascend slowly and also by making decompression stops along the way. This ensures that as our bodies acclimate to the decreasing pressure, the nitrogen bubbles do not become too large to exit our system and are safely expelled through proper breathing. However, some situations such as extremely choppy waters, predatory sharks, and grave injuries would prevent a slow ascension and decompression stops. This is where the decompression chamber comes in. Once out of the water, it is the only way a diver can safely change the atmospheric pressure around him, allowing him to normalize the levels of certain gases in his system.

This can potentially save his life from a lethal case of nitrogen narcosis as well as vast ray of other pressure related diseases such as oxygen toxicity, and decompression sickness. If the decompression chamber can save the life of a diver by him simply entering into it what do you think God can do for us when we enter into His presence alone through His Son. See, as Christians its important for us to make decompression stops along our journey as well. The blood of Jesus is what acclimates us so that we can enter into Gods presence. Through Jesus, no sin is too large to be washed away. All you have to do is confess it to him. See, it’s the choppy waters of society that we live in today that pressures us and causes some of us to lose our focus on Christ which places us right in the mouth of the predatory shark, Satan. This shark can cause grave injuries in our lives through the guilt, shame, and remorse of unrepented sins which leads to death. That’s why it is so important to have one on one time with God through the decompression chamber of His Son Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can truly save us from the pressures of life. When was the last time you stepped into Gods decompression chamber? Just the two of you, where you could totally hear His voice and know that he was talking directly to you and no one else. If its been a while, find a place while we play this song and enter in with Him. If you’re here tonight and have not entered into Gods presence by believing in His Son. Would you step out in faith tonight and ask Him to come in to your life, forgive your sins, and be your Lord?

Thanks again for worshiping with God and us tonight. Go and enter into His presence with prayer and thanksgiving.

Rebels for Christ!

What does it mean to be a rebel? Do any of you know some rebels? If so who are they? What do you think would happen if they were rebels for Christ instead of the world or themselves? I can’t talk about rebels and not mention a teenager in the Old Testament named Josiah. Josiah lived in one of the darkest and most ungodly times ever in his day. He lived during a time where God’s people were so mixed up in sin and evil that they were doing worse things than the people that God had them kill.

They were committing adultery and all kinds of idolatry and prostitution and had no remorse or regard for God anymore. Fortunately Josiah was not all alone because he also had the help of the prophet Jeremiah. Josiah became king over Judah when he was only 8 years old and began to serve God at the age of 16. By the age of 20 he was so bold that he went out with the anger of God and tore down all the alters of false god’s and the Asherah poles. He smashed the carved idols and images and cut down the incense alters. He even burned the bones of the false priests on there own alters.

At the age of 26 he began to have the men repair and restore the temple of God. It was then that they found the Book of the Law of the Lord. When it was read to Josiah he tore his robes in disgust of his people’s disobedience to it because of their fathers not teaching them. So he gathered all the people of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the Lord and read the Book of the Law for all to hear and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord for all to obey it. Then they began to serve God again and celebrated the Passover as well. Wow what a rebel!

I believe God is looking for more Josiah’s today to step up and make a difference. That’s right you can all be rebels for Christ. Rebels make good leaders because they don’t follow others. Instead they lead the way. Rebels are not mediocre or lukewarm as the bible would put it. They are either hot or cold. If a rebel is cold and far from God it won’t take long before his followers realize that he’s going the wrong way and leave him. Then he may begin to follow them to see why they left and what they found that could be better. Once he sees the truth then he will propel himself back to the front lines and begin to lead again.

That is why Jesus is not so concerned about the hot or cold, but warns about the lukewarm. As believers we want God’s purifying fire to keep us hot so that we stay on the right path and don’t become lukewarm or neutral. As rebels for Christ we can make a difference in the world we live in. But we must do it in love and through obedience to God. In John 13:34 Jesus commands us to love one another and by that he says that all men will know that we are his disciples or (followers.)

So it’s through our obedience to him that others will know whose team were on and not by religious rituals or practices. In 1st Samuel 15:22, 23 Samuel replied to Saul and said does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. What if you are the type of person that gets angry often or easily? Is there any love in anger? As a matter of fact there is it’s called righteous anger. Righteous anger comes from God’s Holy Spirit living in us and when we are surrendered to his will we cannot help but wage war with the sinful things that enslave God’s people from his love and truth.

In John 14:6 Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one gets to the father except through me. That is the boldest statement ever made. Now can you tell me that Jesus Was not a rebel! Of coarse not because he was. One time Jesus was so angered in the temple courts that he rebelled against the Jewish people who were selling animals for a sacrifice at a ridiculous price for personal gain. He took a whip and chased the animals out of the courts and then overturned the moneychangers table and scattered their money all over the ground. Think about that for a second because if they still wanted their money they would have to get on their knees before the lord to get it. 1st Timothy 6:7 says for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

See Jesus was a rebel because he followed God and not men unless the men were following God, but most of the time Jesus was leading others to follow God as he did. He never gave into the world or any of its temptations. Instead he kept his eyes on the father and led the flock. He never turned to the right or to the left. Even when satan himself tempted Jesus he stood his ground and said it is written! That’s right he used his fathers words to put satan in his rightful place.

See Jesus knew the authority God had given men back in Genesis 1:26, 27 when he told them to rule over the whole earth and all the things in it because he was with him in the beginning. As a matter of fact Jesus was both man and God. Which made him the only rebel of his kind to ever live, and it was because of this Rebel and his rebellion to sin that we all have life today and will have it eternally if we follow him. He is the author and finisher of our faith the bible says and he will complete in us what he started as long as we remain submissive and obedient to him. So being a rebel can be an awesome thing!