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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

David Shin

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: Back to the Father’s House

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: It’s All About Jesus

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior: Justified in the Courtyard

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Sanctified in the Holy Place

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Glorified in the Most Holy Place

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Burnt Offering

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Cleansed at the Laver

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Fed at the Table

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Altar of Incense

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: The Lampstand

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: The Law in the Ark

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Sabbath and Sanctuary

Our topic today is the candlesticks, the lampstand, or known as the menorah.

And this was given to Moses in a blueprint form when he went to Mount Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments.

It was made out of pure gold, and it was to be a replica of an olive tree.

There's 1 central stem and then alongside that central stem there are 6 branches and at the top there was this almond-shaped bowl that held olive oil.

There was a wick that went in that bowl, and it was the responsibility of the priest to tend to the lamps morning and evening.

They were to trim the lamps, and they were to make sure that the lamps were filled with oil every single day.

There were no windows in the holy place of the sanctuary.

So if you were to walk into the holy place, The priest was the only 1 that was allowed to go in there, but the priest would go in there and the only illumination, the only light in the holy place was from the menorah.

This is 1 of the most theologically rich and complex articles of furniture in the sanctuary.

In the book of Revelation, you see 7 lamps of fire that are burning before the throne, which represent the 7 churches.

Ultimately, this points forward to Christ.

And you can see the different articles of furniture there.

Today we're gonna be focusing on the candlesticks.

And it illuminated the entire room there.

This is a bird's eye view of the sanctuary.

Some theological implications of the light.

Jesus himself proclaimed, I am the light of the world and you follow along Along in your study guide.

It's Inside your bulletin You can take notes if you wish.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is the light.

And this is not talking about physical illumination, although it's interesting because in the book of Revelation, the Bible indicates we have no need of the sun because the Lamb gives the light.

Now, I don't understand exactly what all that means, but there's a physical presence.

There's light that emanates from Jesus, but in this sense we're talking about spiritual light versus spiritual darkness.

I never had quite a sense of light and darkness until I came to Alaska.

You know, it's actually warmer here than Michigan, at least in Anchorage.

And the first 2 winters weren't as bad, but last winter, I'm just going to be vulnerable, it was tough.

This winter was hard, and right around February, I was complaining to the Lord.

You brought me up to this dark state and I'm just like, whoa, it's me.

You know, the sun comes up so late and goes down so early and I'm like, that's not even sunrise.

It's just like barely kissing the horizon.

And it's amazing what a couple months does.

Because I'm like, wow, I feel like alive.

I might have been just clinically a little bit depressed.

I'm not sure but I was just like oh I feel I feel amazing.

1 thing I've also noticed in this state is the wonderful people that are here.

But there's also just like every other place there's spiritual darkness that is here.

Spiritual darkness in Anchorage, spiritual darkness in the remote places in Alaska.

There's things that happen here that break the heart of God.

Jesus came into my heart and it's like I came out of darkness into light.

He is the source of light and when we come in contact with Jesus there is illumination that takes place.

The Bible tells us and this is ecclesiology having to do with the church.

Jesus said not only is he the light of the world, Jesus said in Matthew 5, verse 14, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, you are the light of the world.

God's people, God's church, is to be the light of the world.

We are God's representatives to bring people out of darkness into His marvelous light.

So there's a dual application here when we look at the menorah in the holy place of the sanctuary, it not only refers to Jesus, ultimately, first and foremost, but it also refers to us, as his church.

In other words, the dissemination of light and truth has not just been given to angels, but to men.

What a privilege and a responsibility that we have.

Few other things that are in the sanctuary.

The sanctuary, the lampstands had these bowls on top of the menorah, 7 bowls and they were filled with oil and it was the priest's responsibility to fill them with oil, with olive oil.

And in the Bible, the oil represents the Holy Spirit.

Luke chapter 4, verse 18, and Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6, the filling of these lamps with oil is what made them able to burn and able to give off the light that was necessary for the second compartment of the sanctuary.

And we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, amen?

Then we have the priest, the priest that symbolizes Jesus.

The priest represented Jesus, our high priest in heaven.

Hebrews chapter 8, verse 1 through 3, and the priest is the 1 that filled the lamps with the oil.

Jesus is the 1 that fills us with the Holy Spirit in order for us to give off light.

Now there's a few practical applications that we can draw from this.

1 of them is this word tamid in the Hebrew and it is used repeatedly in the Old Testament to refer to the sanctuary service and tamid means continually or daily and the priest was to tend to the bread to keep it continually before the Lord.

There was never a time in which the bread was not present there in the sanctuary.

It was to be there continually before the Lord.

And here the same word, tamid, is used again.

The priest was to tend to the lamps daily to keep the lamps burning continually.

Same word, referring to this article of furniture.

There was never a time in which the lights went out.

It was to be continually burning before the Lord.

Last but not least, the priest was to tend to the incense to keep it continually burning before God.

So these 3 articles of furniture had a common characteristic.

They all use the Hebrew word tamid explicitly stating that there was never a time in which the lights went out, The bread was never to be there and the incense was never to burn.

It was to be a continuation of these 3 activities by the priest.

And as we noted in an earlier presentation, the bread, in application to our own Christian journey and our own Christian experience, can refer to feeding on the Word of God.

Bible study, devotional life, studying the Word is to be a continual thing in our Christian experience.

Just like you can't eat for the whole year, you have to eat every day.

You don't just eat a whole bunch on Sabbath and starve the whole week and then eat on Sabbath again.

Then you have prayer, the incense, representing the prayers of God's people that were to ascend.

And this is something that is to be continual.

As we noted last Sabbath, Prayer is the breath of the soul, the secret of spiritual power, the metaphor of breathing being an example of what is our dependence upon prayer for spiritual life.

And then We have the candlestick, witnessing, sharing the love of Christ with others, and we have in our study guide the word, prayer, and our witness for Jesus is to be continually part of our Christian experience.

We can never come to the place where we say we must stop any of these activities because it shows our dependency upon Christ.

I worked in South Central Los Angeles, I mentioned in a previous presentation, as a Bible worker.

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Series

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: The Lampstand

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Fall Week of Prayer 2012

The Good Soldier

54m

WYC 2009 Plenary Sessions

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Hebrews 11- Faith

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We Believe

We Believe - Who is God? Part 2

1h

How to Thrive Spiritually During COVID-19 Isolation

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When God is Silent

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We Can’t Help but Tell

52m

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How to Rejoice in the Midst of Trials

38m

Abounding with Thanksgiving

35m

Righteousness by Faith

Wounded in the House of His Friends

1h 8m

Plenary

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40m

Is Fundamentalism a Threat?

56m

Sound Doctrine