Movement | Where Heaven Meets Earth - Revelation 7:9-10, 21:1-5 | July 14

You are listening to Teaching from Mountainside Church in Boone,

North Carolina, where we live as real people who are a part of a real family

serving a real God in the high country.

To learn more about our church, stay connected or partner with us, visit mcboone.com.

Good morning, everybody. We're going to continue our conversation that we started

last week about what it is that we have as the mission of the church.

Last week, we started down this road talking about what it is that we have as

a mission for the church.

And we talked about the fact that we have a mission. First of all,

that's where we started as disciples of Jesus to make disciples.

That's where we began our conversation, that this idea of mission is a purposeful movement,

that it's a purposeful movement forward, that we are taking steps as the body

of Christ, as this family of God here in Boone towards this mission that we

are committing our lives to it. We are setting our hearts towards it.

And that is that this mission is to be a place where heaven meets earth by proclaiming

the universal reign of God.

Demonstrating Jesus to our communities and inviting our neighbors to join us

in becoming real people who are part of a real family and who worship the real God.

And so that's the mission, is that we want to be a place where heaven meets

earth by proclaiming the universal reign of God, demonstrating Jesus to our

communities, inviting our neighbors to join us and becoming real people who

are part of a real family and who worship the real God.

So I promised last week that we were going to begin to break that down and look

at what that means. That's what we're going to spend the next several weeks doing.

Josh is going to be teaching next week, so get excited for that. that, I'm excited.

Even if Josh is nervous, I'm excited for his nervousness.

And we're going to be, we're going to be unpacking, continuing to unpack this

mission statement the rest of the month.

So we're going to start today, getting into the actual statement.

Last week, we talked about the fact that we have a mission.

Now we know what the mission is. So we're talking about what does it mean for

us to be a place where heaven meets earth?

What does that mean? What is this crazy guy standing in front of me talking

about? I've never heard that in the Bible, right? Well, maybe you have.

You probably have if you think about it.

But we're talking about vision. We're talking about purpose.

We're talking about the future.

We're talking about the present. What is, what was, and what will be.

We're talking about the mission of God, the fact that God has a vision for the future.

That God has a vision pointing us to the future.

And so if we want to see disciples made, then we have to begin with his heart

and his vision for what he wants to do.

We have to ask the question, what do you long to do, God? Teach us what you long to do.

If God is moving in this place, in this small mountain town,

in the high country, if he's moving in North Carolina, in the country,

and across the world, what is it that you want to do, God? What are you trying to do?

What do you want from us? What is your purpose in the world?

And we don't have to guess if you're sitting around thinking,

what is God's will for my life?

If that's something that you are wrestling with, why are you guessing? You don't have to guess.

God has revealed to us what his will and purpose for our lives are.

We have the revelation of God's prophetic vision for our lives.

And it may be more general than what you're seeking.

You might want a specific answer, but God has revealed to us what he desires,

what the vision, his vision of future is, what is good and what he is leading us all towards.

And that is for heaven and earth to overlap, that God's space and our space would become one.

So in the Bible, when we talk about heaven and earth, that's ways that we talk

about God's space and our space.

Those are kind of the terms that the Bible uses. And so So, the union of heaven

and earth is essentially what the story of the Bible is all about.

How that they were once completely, fully united, and then they were driven

apart, and how God is bringing them back together once again.

That's the high-level story of the Bible. The problem is, though,

that we all have become comfortable here with our lives outside of Eden.

We've become comfortable. We don't like it in some regards. There are certain

things that we desire to change, but this is our normal experience.

This is what we're used to. And so, we don't quite understand that we can experience heaven here.

Because we think about it, we think of them separate, that we long for the future that is different.

We're looking for a future hope, a future glory that is better.

We're desiring a heaven that is separate when we think about that.

But the biblical story desires that they would overlap, that God's space and

our space would become one, that God wants to live with his people.

And the ultimate joys, the ultimate joys of a future heaven is that God is there.

That God is the prize of heaven. God is the, the prize of heaven is God's presence.

And so when we look to this future glory, the thing that makes it glorious is that God is there.

And so we need to reimagine what we think is possible.

We need to reevaluate our experiences and what we should perceive as, as normal.

We need to, reimagine what is and what should be, what has been and what can be.

We can't be limited by our experiences.

We can't be limited by our vision. We need a greater vision.

We need to step into God's vision.

And this vision that God has, that points to the future glory, and we'll get there.

It's happening here. It's happening here. It's happening right here.

It's happening right now.

God wants to live with His people. God wants to live with His people.

So He created a place for us.

So let's go ahead and open our Bibles. It says in Genesis, and I'd really love

for you to all follow along with me.

If you have your Bibles here this morning, I haven't opened them up.

Go ahead and get them out.

If you don't have your Bibles, put your devices away. You can keep your devices,

but my recommendation would be that there are Bibles at the end of each section,

because I feel like we're going to be flipping through the pages a bit.

We're going to kind of be going from front to back in a hasty manner.

So I think it'll be a really drive home and it illustrate to us this story that

God, this picture that God is painting across history and the vision he's leading

us to, if you can flip through the pages.

So we're going to be starting in Genesis chapter two, verse eight.

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.

The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground,

trees that were beautiful and produced delicious fruit in the middle of the garden.

In the middle of the garden, he placed the tree of life and the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil.

Verse 15, the Lord God placed a man in the garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.

But the Lord God warned him, you may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the

garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.

Then flip over to chapter three, if you need to flip your page.

Chapter three, verse eight. When the cool evening breezes were blowing,

the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking in the garden.

So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.

Then the Lord God called to the man, where are you?

So this is what the biblical description of Eden is all about.

It is a place where God and humanity dwelled together in perfect harmony and

unity where God's space, where heaven and earth overlapped, that God's space

invaded our space. There was no separation.

His presence filled the atmosphere. His glory covered the earth.

And he invited humans to partner with him in creating and building a world that

was beautiful and flourishing.

So, the garden even was the first place where heaven and earth were one.

They overlapped completely.

It was the first place that this happened, that God came and walked with His creation.

It says, in the cool of the day, I think it was the cool evening breezes in

the version that we're reading. The literal translation is, in the wind of the day.

So, it's almost like there is an appointed time, an appointed place where God

would come expecting to see His beloved children, where He would walk with them,

where He would be with them, where he would abide and they would dwell together.

And so, the story of Eden is not necessarily a picture of perfection,

as we might imagine. We kind of think of it that way.

It being a utopia is not really the point. That's not how it's really presented to be.

That's not the point that the Bible is trying to make, even though we kind of

try and make it fit that, right? The point is that it was good. That's the point.

And God was there. That's the main point, that it was good because God was there.

And this is God's vision of the future. This is the vision that God has.

And we see it echo throughout the scriptures.

He says, I will be with you. I am with you. He says, do not fear.

I'm right here. He says, I will be your God. You will be my people.

He says, abide in me, dwell with me, make me your home, be with me.

He says, behold, I am with you always. Even to the end of the age, I am with you.

So we hear these echoes throughout all of scripture.

But as humans, the story of Eden is as humans, we wanted to do things differently.

We wanted to go it alone and we wanted to create a world apart from him.

We looked at each other, we looked at ourselves, and we eventually,

we've lost the desire for his presence, the desire for heaven and earth to overlap.

We're kind of all like our own children in that way.

If you have children, some of you are a little bit further on in life,

maybe have experienced this more than me.

My kids still love to be with me. They love to be with dad. It doesn't really

matter what we're doing most of

the time. As long as they're doing it with daddy, they want to be with me.

And it's all I can do to keep them away, unfortunately.

But at some point in time, sort of joking, at some point in time,

perhaps, it won't be so cool to be with dad anymore.

They'll have their own lives. They'll have their own desires that they pursue

and they leave. And in those times, maybe I will probably miss them constantly

being on me. And when I mean on me, like...

They like to sit on top of your chest for some reason, and they are not light.

So maybe at some point I will miss that. And maybe that won't happen.

Certainly there are children who, well, hopefully they'll stop sitting on my

chest because that would potentially kill me as they get older.

But maybe that won't happen. Maybe they'll still find it cool to be with dad.

So that's not necessarily the deciding factor of the future,

but that's the way it goes.

That's the trend, right? As we grow up, we have our own desires,

we have our own interests, and we tend to separate from our parents a bit.

And so, we're a bit like our own children in that way, that we desire to create,

a world apart from our Father, but the desire of His presence is what our story is all about.

And God's desire, God's desire for us has never lessened.

He is always, He's still longing for that day.

And so, throughout history, He has continued to carve out these little Edens,

these little places where he would come and he would beckon us to enter in to his presence.

So let's go ahead and back to the scriptures. We're gonna turn to the book of Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

It doesn't seem like a big jump yet. We'll jump ahead quite a bit here in a little bit.

Starting in verse one, the Lord said to Moses, get going you and the people

you brought up from the land of Egypt, go up to the land I swore to give to

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites and Skip down to verse 7.

It was Moses' practice to take the tent of meeting and set it up some distance from the camp.

And everyone who wanted to make a request of the Lord would go to the tent of

meeting outside the camp.

Whenever Moses went out to the tent of meeting, all the people would get up

and stand in the entrance of their own tents.

And they would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside.

And as he went into the tent, the pillar of the cloud would come down and hover

over its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses.

So, the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, you might have heard, they're the same thing.

The tent of meeting was a place where the people of Israel could come and present

their need before the Lord in a way.

Engaging in the tent of meeting was a way of engaging with the divine.

You can sort of think of it that way, interacting with the divine.

It's a space where God dwelt on earth and he would connect with his people physically.

It's where, this is a place where heaven and earth overlapped.

So, I want to start building a context for that picture where heaven and earth are overlapping.

And actually there are two tents. So, there was the first tent of meeting,

which we just read about, that was set up outside of the camp and Moses would

go and commune with the Lord and the spirit of God would descend only when Moses

entered to commune with him.

And then when Moses returned to the camp, the spirit of God would lift.

And so he didn't dwell there permanently.

He would only come when Moses entered to talk to him.

And then the second tent, what we call the tabernacle, when it was established,

it's like the more permanent tent.

When it was established, it was placed in the middle of the camp and all of

Israel then surrounded it.

And so, like the tree of life that we just read, it was in the center of everything.

That it became the heart of the community, this tent of meeting.

That God's glorious presence would enter in, in the midst of His people.

That He would dwell in the midst of His people.

And God's presence would remain there in the tabernacle.

It wouldn't leave. God would fill the tabernacle and his presence would remain there in their midst.

And when his presence then did lift, that was a sign for the people to set out on their journey.

And when they set up camp, he would come once again, fill the tabernacle and remain there.

Let's flip over a couple of pages, chapter 40.

We're starting in verse 34. This is the picture of what we just talked about.

Then the cloud covered the tabernacle and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

This is the tent of meeting. It's the same thing, the second iteration.

Moses could no longer enter the tabernacle because the cloud had settled down

over it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Now, whenever the cloud lifted from the tabernacle, the people of Israel would

set out on their journey following it.

But if the cloud did not rise, they remained where they were until it lifted. it.

The cloud of the Lord hovered over the tabernacle during the day and at night

fire glowed inside the cloud so that the whole family of Israel could see it.

This continued throughout all their journeys.

So again, let's just review. God's glory now filled the tent of meeting permanently.

He would only lift when they were supposed to set out and when they camped,

he would return and fill the tabernacle.

God's glory in the original tent of meeting, God's glory remained reigned apart from his people.

The tent was set up outside of the camp and it only came to talk to Moses.

Once the tabernacle is established, God's glory is constantly present.

Again, he only set out for the people to continue on their journey.

It was only a sign for them to continue on their journey.

Other than that, it was in the midst of the camp.

God's desire was to be with his people in their midst, at their heart,

that God's enduring presence with his people. That's what the tabernacle is

all about, the tent of meeting.

In Hebrew, it's the ohel moed, which kind of sounds a little bad,

I guess, but moed is the important word there.

The other one is just tent. Ohed, ohed, ohed.

Moed, if I start with the right letter, it helps. Moed is the important word.

I mean, it's a beautiful word. It's a beautiful concept if we really understood

Hebrew, which I don't much of.

And it's something we can trace from creation all the way to Jesus and even

behind Jesus to a degree.

Moed, that's the word. I'm going to remember it this time. It starts with an M, not a no.

Moed. It's a beautiful picture and it can mean meeting.

So, that's why we have it here. Sort of, it can mean meeting. It's also the same word.

If we look in the Bible, we talk about all of the various festivals that the

people of Israel celebrated.

It's the same word. It means festivals in that context, but the word is moe.

And the funny thing is, is that there are other Hebrew words that mean meeting.

There are other Hebrew words that mean festival.

And so it's not really the word that you might expect to be chosen as,

as the Bible is referring to these different things, these places in these times,

times because more accurately, this word means an appointed time or an appointed place.

And these appointed times and places were holy. They were, they were holy because

they were set apart. This is when God met with his people.

So they're very, it's a very specific word to indicate the times and the places

that God met with his people.

When, when he would connect with us on our level, when, when heaven and earth

would overlap in our space.

So the tent of meeting was a physical representation of a heavenly reality.

It was the manifestation of the kingdom of God here on earth.

So to interact in the tense of meaning was to commune with, and was to enter

into the kingdom of God. That's what we're talking about here.

That the Ohelmoed was a place, it was an appointed place on earth where God

would connect with his people physically.

God would connect with his people. And this is, of course, until Jesus.

So we see this transition take place. And it's easy to kind of dismiss the tent

of meeting because the last several chapters of Exodus, it kind of seems boring

and perhaps irrelevant.

We have to wade through all of this stuff to get there. But if we trace,

if we view these things with the eyes of faith, if we trace them through the

scriptures, we see that the tent of meeting, the Ohelmoid, it points us to the

temple, the permanent thing.

They're essentially laid out the same way and intended for the same purpose.

So the tent of meeting points us to the temple and the temple then points us to Jesus.

So there is this line of faith that we see through the scriptures.

So let's go ahead and turn and talk about that now. In the New Testament,

Gospel of John, chapter one.

In the beginning, the word already existed.

The word was with God and the word was God. He existed in the beginning with God.

God created everything through him and nothing was created except through him.

The word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Let's skip down to verse 10.

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn't recognize him.

He came to his own people and even they rejected him, but to all who believed

in him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

They are reborn, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan,

but a birth that comes from God.

Verse 14, so the word became human and made his home among us.

He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness and we have seen his glory,

the glory of the father, father's one and only son.

Now down to verse 16, from his abundance, we have all received one gracious

blessing after another for the law was given through Moses, but God's unfailing

love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, but the unique one who is himself God is near to the father's heart.

He has revealed God to us.

So in the gospel of John, in the gospel of John, we hear this claim that God became human in Jesus.

And what it says is that he made his home among us, that he dwelled among us.

So here's what the really cool part about that verse is.

What John is communicating to us, what John is claiming here in his gospel is

that God in putting on flesh and becoming human, he made up,

he set a tabernacle among us.

That's what is literally being said in these verses that Jesus tabernacled among

us, that he became the tabernacle, that he became the place where heaven and earth overlap.

So that's what Jesus is claiming is that Jesus is a temple, that Jesus is now

the place where heaven and earth overlap.

Only he's not, now he's not doing it in a certain place where people have to come to him.

He's doing it out there in the middle of, in the midst of the sin and the darkness.

That heaven and earth, that God, that Jesus is creating these little pockets

of heaven and he's doing it out there.

He's doing it in the middle of the world, full of sin and death. He's bringing life.

That's what these verses are all about. That he's creating a space.

Jesus is creating a space for people to encounter God's presence,

to be with him and to dwell with him, that heaven has come to earth.

That's what John is saying. Heaven has come here. Jesus is here.

Heaven and earth are overlapping once again.

And wherever Jesus goes, he's creating these pockets of Eden as he goes.

In the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, we set our minds back there for a second.

Part of the instructions to set it up was the show bread or the bread of the presence, right?

The place that it was a physical sign, a physical reminder of God's care,

care of God's provision, of his sustenance, of his nourishment and forgiveness.

There's a physical sign of that representing that. Jesus comes along.

Jesus comes along and says, I am the bread. I am the bread.

He says, the true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

So, sir, they said, give us this bread every day. Jesus replied,

I am the bread. I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Jesus refers to himself as the source of spiritual and physical nourishment.

He refers to himself as the visible sign of God's care and provision.

He says, I am the bread of life.

Jesus refers to himself as the bread of the presence that we see in the tent of meeting.

We take this a step further. Jesus teaches his disciples to pray,

give us today our daily bread. Give us today our daily bread,

that we need the daily sustaining presence of Jesus in our lives.

We pray for that. We long for that.

In the temple, once again, there

was also a curtain. In the temple and the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting,

there was a curtain that separated the inner court area from the Holy of Holies,

the place where the Ark of the Covenant was, the place where the Mercy Seat

was, where God's presence dwelt, the Holy of Holies.

So, it created a barrier. created a barrier where the people of Israel couldn't

get to the holiness in a way, right?

And with that barrier created an understanding that experiencing God's glorious

presence was only for a holy few, created this false understanding,

or I guess it was accurate in the time, right?

But God longed for something more.

God's desire, his plan was always for something more. So when Jesus was crucified.

We see that curtain torn in two. we see the very barrier that separated Israel

from God's glory destroyed.

And the spirit of God comes and invites all people to dwell with him.

That is for all people. It's for everyone.

God's presence is available to all who abide in him and the salvation of the cross.

Jesus changes everything. He changes everything about how we understand how

God interacts and live with his people because he's fulfilling the vision that

God has to be with them in their midst.

And he's doing it in even fuller way to be experienced by all people.

Jesus isn't just talked about as the temple.

He's also talked about as the temple sacrifice. In Hebrews chapter 11 says,

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

so Christ has now became the high priest over all the good things that have come.

He has entered that greater, more perfect tabernacle in heaven,

which is not made by human hands. It is not part of the created world.

With his own blood, not the blood of goats and calves, he entered the most holy

place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.

So now Jesus isn't just seen as the God who became man and created a place for

heaven and earth to overlap, creating pockets of heaven as he goes.

Now he's seen in such a sense that Jesus's sacrifice has the power to keep on

spreading and spreading and reuniting more and more of heaven and earth.

It's no longer relegated to a person, to Jesus, but it has the power to spread more and more.

And so he told his disciples, he told his followers to long for this.

He told them, he taught them to beckon its coming.

He taught us to pray that your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it

is in heaven, in boon as it is in heaven.

He told us to long for the day when the earth would look just like heaven.

So in the book of Revelation, we get this beautiful picture of the Garden of Eden.

Only this time it's in the form of a city and it's coming to end the age of sin and suffering.

It's coming to renew, to redeem all of human history in a renewed creation.

That God's space and human space, our space would overlap completely once again.

So let's go ahead and turn to Revelation 7.

Let's read these glorious words of what will be. Verse nine.

After this, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count from every nation and tribe

and people and language standing in front of the throne and before the lamb.

They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hand.

And they were shouting with a great roar.

Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the lamb.

Real quick, skip over to chapter 21.

Last chapter, I guess chapter 22 is last chapter, but verse one,

then I saw a new heaven and a new.

Heaven like a bride, beautifully dressed for her. I think what the sea is talking

about is the separation between the old heaven and the old earth.

So we have a new heaven and a new earth, and now there is no separation,

that they are overlapping completely.

And the throne of God descends and it says, It says, I heard a loud shout from

the throne saying, look, God's home is now among his people.

He will live with them and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

All these things are gone forever.

And the one sitting on the throne said, look, I am making everything new.

So who do we see in this vision? Who do we see in this vision of God's future glory?

All peoples. We see all peoples. We see people from every nation,

every tribe, every people, every language.

A vast crowd too great to count. It's all people.

You and I aren't enough.

We are not enough to account for the depth of Jesus' sacrifice. It takes the nations.

Listen, God loves you deeply. He loves you so, so much. God loves completely.

He doesn't love in percentages or part, right?

God loves you completely. But you and I aren't enough.

We aren't enough. It's not a worthy trade if it was just us. It's for all people.

So we have to have a greater vision, a vision that extends outside of ourselves.

It extends outside of ourselves and goes to the ends of the earth.

It's for all people. It's for all nations. It reaches till the ends of the earth

until the earth looks just like heaven.

Till the earth looks just like heaven. And Habakkuk says, until all the earth

is filled with the glory of the Lord as waters fill the sea.

I think that's the second time I've used Habakkuk in two weeks.

So maybe we shouldn't forget about that book.

We know what heaven is going to look like. We know what heaven is going going

to look like. We have God's vision for the future.

We know what the end result will be.

God's desire is that we would be with him, abide with him, make him our home,

tabernacle together, if we want to borrow that word, to be together.

So what happens in the in-between? What happens in the in-between?

In 1 Corinthians, Paul challenges us. Don't you realize, he writes,

that all of you together are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you.

In the, in the between moments right now, we are the place.

We, we are becoming the place right here, right now.

We are preparing with him to create, and we are becoming that the spirit of

God has come to abide with us, to tacker tabernacle among us,

that his spirit lives within us.

And so we, as the church and individually as well, both together and individually,

we, as the church are becoming these places where heaven and earth overlap,

that we are helping to create these places in the world where people can come,

enter in, and experience God's presence.

That he has given us this vision to accomplish what he sees coming.

That we are creating, that we can experience heaven now.

Yes, not in fullness, but it can be experienced now in part.

Even as we long for the future. that God has placed eternity into our hearts. We have a longing.

We have a desire that we long for this.

We ache for it, that we as believers groan, even though that we have been given

the Holy Spirit as a foretaste of this future glory, we still long and desire

for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.

That we have this desire, we have this longing that we are waiting with eager

hope that this joyous expectation is building with every breath, right?

So we want to be a place where heaven meets earth, where heaven and earth overlap,

where that sea, that space between heaven and earth becomes thin,

where we can and those around us can experience God's presence.

We want to be a place where heaven meets earth by proclaiming the universal

reign of God, demonstrating Jesus to our communities, inviting our neighbors

to join us in becoming real people who are part of a real family and who worship the real God.

To be disciples who make disciples so that we can all stand around the throne

together and sing with everything that is within us, holy, holy,

holy is the Lord God almighty.

So we can do it together, all of us, all peoples, all nations.

That's God's will for your life.

God's will for your life is that you would give literally everything you have

to accomplish his vision.

There's another word that is spelled almost exactly to the word moed.

It's the word that shows up in the Shema and also Jesus says it in a different

language, but it's the same word when he talks about love the Lord your God

with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength.

This, this word strength, I don't know how to pronounce that word.

I think it's probably mode, probably. It's similar, but different.

But what that means is everything you have.

So when Jesus tells the rich young ruler to give up everything he has,

he's saying the same thing.

Love the Lord your God with everything, all that you have with your whole,

everything that's within you, your mind, your spirit, your heart,

and then everything else that you have, with all your strength, with all your mode,

God's will for your life is that you would literally give everything you have

to accomplish his mission, his vision for the future.

Thank you for listening to Mountainside Church's podcast. We hope you found

inspiration and encouragement in today's teaching.

To learn more about our church, stay connected or partner with us, visit mcboone.org.

Music.