Focal Point

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Jesus said, "I am the way, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life, and no one comes to the Father except through the high priestly work of Christ, through me. You got to come on my coat tails. You got to hide in the shadow of the high priest. I will give you my righteousness, I will take sin out of the way, you can live behind the curtain where everything's the way it ought to be." My future depends on his past.

Dave Druey: Welcome to Focal Point with author and Pastor Mike Fabarez. I'm Dave Druey. You know it's true, what Christ has done in the past has real significance in our present and future.

So today, Pastor Mike helps us look over our shoulder to see what God ordained in the past can give us a greater appreciation for the blessings we enjoy now. We're in a series called *When God Makes a Promise*. And today, we're in the Old Testament looking at his pledge and his historical assurances.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Leviticus 16, verse number one. You know something about the ancient tabernacle and ultimately it turned into Solomon's Temple. And that is that it had outer courts and inner courts. And then there was the building and the sanctuary, the set apart building. And then within that, there was one room. And that was called the Holy of Holies.

It's that inner room. And in the inner room, there was nothing but the primary object, was the box, the box of the promise, the Ark of the Covenant. The sanctuary was a special place where God's presence was somehow visibly present. It was tangibly focused and it was like, "This is God's special place." And if you're going to come in to meet with God, you can't do it whenever you want to.

He says, "Don't just come whenever you want into the most holy place behind the curtain." The curtain was what separated it. No drywall, no timber. It was a curtain that separated the Holy of Holies in front of the atonement cover on the ark. Or else, if you do, if you just come in any day you want, you're going to die because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. This is my focalized presence here on earth. Don't come in there whenever you want.

This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area. And as we'll see in the rest of this text, there's a certain day of the year called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. He is to come into the sanctuary area with a young bull and that bull is for sin offering, that is he's going to be killed there. And the ram is going to be burnt up as a burnt offering.

He is to put on, not only is he to bring those sacrifices, he's to put on the sacred linen tunic and special underwear. Look at this, verse four, special linen undergarments next to the body. He's got to tie that with a linen sash around him and he's got to put on a linen turban. These are the sacred garments. What's sacred mean? Holy, special, set apart garments.

From the Israelite community, he's supposed to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for burnt offering. Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement. There's our word, the covering, to somehow take care of sin here. Then he's supposed to roll some dice, cast the lot, if you will, for the two goats. One for Yahweh and the other for the scapegoat. Here's where we get the concept of the scapegoat. What do you do with that?

Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to Yahweh and sacrifice it for a sin offering. That is for the whole nation of Israel. Verse 10: "But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord and he is to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat."

Now all you got to do is look at this from a New Testament perspective. Even from an Old Testament perspective and you scratch your head a lot, but you get the idea. If you're going to approach God, you can't do it however you want. You can't do it whenever you want. It's a special place. It's behind a veil, behind a curtain. And if you're going to go in there, there's lots of prep you got to do.

You got to clean up, you got to put on this holy garment, this uniform. Then you got to kill a lot of animals to show that there's a problem with sin that deserves some kind of punishment. Then you got to take two goats and one of them you got to kill for the sins of the nation and the other one you got to release into the wilderness and off he goes. He's the scapegoat and it's as though the sins of the people are taken away.

If you boil it down just again through the lens of the New Testament theology, if you're going to approach a holy God, you got to somehow remove the sin and you've got to be clothed in what is righteous and holy. See, New Testament carries that theme out, doesn't it? Sin needs to be taken away and we need to be clothed in righteousness.

That's why in the New Testament, Paul loved to say things like this: "We need to be clothed in Christ. We need to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ." And we need to have our sin somehow atoned for by the sacrifice not of an animal or the blood of bulls and goats, but of Jesus himself.

Everything between Leviticus chapter 16, or I guess we could go back to Genesis 3, all the way to the end of the book, the end of Revelation, is a story of God's redemptive work and how he, not only through history and the sacrificial system but most importantly in Christ, fixes the problem. Jot this down: number one, we must realize that my future depends on his past. Something that already happened in history.

Put my house on the market yesterday for sale, moving closer to the church, Lord willing. Put our house on the market, I had a guy that drove by about six, seven months ago and he said, "If you ever want to sell your house, you call me." Got his phone number and I had it and I kept that thing right where I keep my sunglasses in my car. It's been up there for months.

So I call this guy. "Hey, you said you might want to buy my house when I'm ready to sell it. I just put it up. Let's talk. You want to buy it?" The guy talked to me for 40 minutes about the house, where he want to buy, about the neighborhood, the kids, the yard, the cul-de-sac, three bedrooms... Oh, he went on and on and on. And literally I'm there saying, "Do you want to buy it or not?" Oh, he was jabbering all about the house.

But when it came down to it and we said, "Fine, you want it? Let's go. Put money on the table, write a check, get us going." "Well, I might buy it as an investment and I might..." Buy it! At the end of the day, he said, "Well, I don't know, I have to think about it."

Here's the thing. And you know how this is. People say... my dad used to say, "Put your money where your mouth is." I'm tired of hearing about it. Until you're ready to write a check, put something on the table. When you put something on a table, it's called a down payment, then we take you seriously. In real estate, I know it's all complicated, you got the escrow and all that, but the bottom line is we want to see something.

If you're serious, don't just talk about it, do something. Here's the great thing about us. We're looking to get behind the curtain and live in a place where everything's the way it ought to be. We can look back that God didn't just make a promise, "Hey yeah, I'm going to buy your house." No, Jesus came on the scene and already paid for it.

As a matter of fact, he used an accounting term on the cross and he cried out on the cross, "*Tetelestai*." What does that mean? You know it. "Paid in full." Paid in full. Done. Paid for. The atonement has been paid for. Therefore, everyone now has all the credits necessary to live behind the curtain.

I'm not going to... as a matter of fact, I'm going to wait to increase a gathering so we're not going to do it now, but the living behind the curtain has already been paid for. Paid in full. He didn't just write a down payment for our future home, he paid for it in full. That's why Peter said it's guaranteed, it's been paid for by the blood of Christ himself. It is reserved in heaven for us. It's paid for. You didn't just give him a credit card number where they put a little down payment on it, it's been paid for. He bought the hotel, it's just waiting for us.

The bottom line is we better study that whole ministry thing of Christ. We better look at the historicity of Christ. We better figure out what this is all about because my future hangs on what he says he did. So I need to understand it.

Now in light of the biggest picture of scripture from Leviticus 16 to Revelation 21, let's read a few words of Christ that you and I memorized as kids and let's see it in the bigger possible sense and you might see the Day of Atonement slip right into this. Let's turn to John chapter 14. Some very familiar words that most of us learned as little kids if you grew up in church or Sunday school.

But see if you can't see the big picture here. The point of Jesus going to the cross, which by the way is the discussion he's beginning here. The second half of the book of John, he's describing what's going to happen as he goes to the cross. He's preparing to go to the cross and he's talking about him going there.

Now that whole ministry of his life is going to lead up to this week and he's about to go there. And here's what he says about it: John chapter 14. Do you remember these verses? Verse number one: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me." Can you see that? I don't want you to be down, I don't want you to be driven and tossed. I want you to be solid, confident, and firm about your future, about yourselves and where you stand with me.

"Trust in God, trust in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, many dwelling places. Lots of place for people to be." I know that little inner sanctum in the temple and in the tabernacle, it was pretty small and it looked like it just had room for one. But you know, where God really lives, there's a lot of place for people to live. In my Father's house, there's many dwelling places where things are the way they ought to be. In the presence of the Holy God, the dwelling place of God, there's a lot of space there. There's a lot of room for people there.

If it weren't so, I would have told you. It was just me and the Father and the Holy Spirit, I would have told you that's all there was room for. "I am going there," look at this, "behind the veil, to prepare a place for you." He's going there to prepare this place. "And if I go and prepare a place for you," behind the veil, "I will come back," here's the great hope as the forerunner, "and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am."

Where's that? Behind the veil, in the presence of God, and live with God. Where is Christ right now? Living in the presence of God. Where are we going to be? One day we hope to be in Revelation 21, living where the dwelling place of God is among men and everything that's wrong is made right.

He says, "I'm going there to make that place for you. I am going to prepare that way for you." How's that work? The high priestly work of Christ. What is that? For him to give himself as the sacrifice and then take his righteousness and clothe us in that. He becomes the scapegoat, if you will, and he takes sin out of the way and he clothes us in his meritorious righteousness. And I say meritorious not because we earn it, but because it is now credited to us. He earned it and now gives it to us.

And then he says, "You know what? I'm going to come back and pull you right into the living room of God behind the curtain." Man, that's a picture of Yom Kippur right there. He says, "You know the way to the place where I am going." What way would that be? The sacrifice of his life. He taught all about it. "I'm going to go, they're going to be betrayed, delivered up to the hands of evil men, and I'm going to be killed and crucified, and on the third day I'm going to rise again."

And he's saying, "You know that." And Thomas goes, "Don't remember, Lord. We don't know where you're going, we don't know what you're talking about, we don't know anything." That's what he says in verse five. "How can we know the way? We don't know."

And Jesus said, "I am the way. I'm the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father except through the high priestly work of Christ, through me. You got to come on my coat tails. You got to hide in the shadow of the high priest. I will give you my righteousness, I will take sin out of the way, you can live behind the curtain where everything's the way it ought to be."

The way that he was providing was his life. My future depends on his past. We ought to become experts in the ministry and life of Christ. What did he do? What did he claim to do? What was this all about? And the more we learn it, the more it becomes... here's the imagery: the anchor of our soul.

I know that we picture that because we have them on our SUVs, the little *ichthus*. That's like the universal Christian symbol. But do you know that the first universal Christian symbol was not a fish? It was an anchor. As a matter of fact, the earliest first-century tombs and headstones that they have in a cemetery they've uncovered, archaeologists have uncovered, called Saint Priscilla. In that place, the earliest first-century markings that showed that people were Christians when they died: anchor. From this text right here.

As a matter of fact, if you've ever been to Rome, been down in the catacombs? Some people can't handle it, they're claustrophobic, but I went down there, looked around. If you go through the catacombs of Rome where the church, the persecuted church, had to live underground, people would die, they would bury them in there. You know what they have all over the walls? You'll see all kinds of things, including ships and anchors. Lots of anchors because of this text.

As a matter of fact, there is a cemetery that they uncovered that dates between the first and third century that has 70 head markers they've uncovered, and all of those 70 head markers have an anchor on them to show that these people were Christians. Anchor. What's the point? Our whole concern ought to be how sure are we about what's going to happen after we die? How sure are we about that?

And the Bible says it's the ministry of Christ like an anchor going in behind the veil. Christ has gone in there. Man, that's our only hope. Therefore, you ought to be an expert in the life of Christ. We ought to be studying it, we ought to be richly diving into the ministry and life of Christ all the time.

My future depends on his past. And if I got his past all messed up, or it's just a flannelgraph story, or it's just a funny principle to live by and just keeps me out of trouble, then I got no hope for the future. But if his life was what he claims it to be here in John 14, then you know what? Then I do have hope.

That's why, jot this reference down if you want to, but in the end of Matthew 27, this is the chapter of the crucifixion. Do you remember this? It says when Jesus lifted up his voice, he cried out with a loud voice and gave up his spirit, there was something interesting that happened not far away inside the city gates, actually around on the temple mount inside the temple.

You know what happened? Weird statement we pass over sometimes. It says the curtain of the temple was torn in two when Jesus cried out and gave up his spirit. What's that mean? Yom Kippur. The way and entrance into the Holy of Holies has been accomplished and paid for, not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by the life of Christ himself.

My future depends on his past. As we look back on the historical work of Christ, our assurance beyond just a promise, it's a real tangible life. God has provided some tangible assurances that if we trust in him and ride in on his coat tails, we'll get to live behind the veil. Let's look at a few of those at Hebrews chapter 6 and let's think through this.

The metaphor is rich. It's like an anchor that goes into the temple, into the Holy of Holies, and there I'm confident that I'll get to live behind the veil because he went before us and like John 14, where he is, one day he's going to come back and take me where he is and I get to live behind the veil too, out of a world of sin. He's entered in there on our behalf, he's become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

Now the difference between Christ and the high priest of Leviticus 16 and every generation thereafter was that Christ, according to the book of Hebrews as we'll see, was sinless. He could walk in not on the symbolic sacrifice of an animal, he was perfect and holy. He walks in on his own merit because he is God.

And he there, if you still have John 14 open, this is best place to illustrate it, he there says, "I can accomplish redemption because I can step in beyond the veil." Jot this down and then we'll ask some questions. What we need to do is ask some questions about this. Let's just logically make sense of this behind the veil ministry of Christ. Number two: ask questions like... letter A: did Jesus really have access to the Father?

If I'm going to follow on the coat tails of Christ into a place where I get to live in the dwelling of God, where he's going to do something to me that's going to make me worthy and adequate to live there, and I get to live in a place where things are the way they're supposed to be, I need to make sure that he's got access there. Because most people come on the scene and talk about a holy God and he's holy other and transcendent. I need someone if I'm going to ride on his merit into the Holy of Holies, I need someone who is holy.

So I got to figure this out. Does he really have affinity and access and oneness with the Father? Still in John 14, look at the next verse. He just said he's the way, the truth, and the life, right? Take a look at this, verse seven. Jesus goes on and he says, "If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well." Just look at that statement. "If you really knew me, you'd know my Father." Why is that?

He says, "From now on, you do know him and you've seen him." Now Philip is really confused, his head is spinning around and he says, "Lord, show us the Father and that'll be enough for us." And Jesus said, "Don't you know me, Philip? Don't you know who? Don't you know me even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father."

How can you say "show us the Father"? "Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?" Do you see that? He is claiming to live ontologically behind the veil. He is the one behind the veil. He says, "And if you know me as the high priest, the incarnate God himself, I can take you in behind the veil." Man, "if you've seen me, you've seen the Father."

"The words I say to you," middle of verse 10, he says, "are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or," now here's what I want to capture, "or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves." That's an important phrase. "Or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."

Now you want to have a hope that you get to live behind the veil where everything's the way it's supposed to be? Then you're going to have to trust that somehow Jesus has the right to be there and can bring you in. And he says, "Philip, don't you know that I and the Father are one? Don't you know that by now?" And I'm thinking that's a huge claim. That's why the Pharisees want to pick up stones to throw at him.

But he says this: "Even if you don't believe what I'm saying, can't you believe it based on the evidence of what I'm doing?" Now this is big topic, all we can do is scratch the surface right now. We have preached on this before and thankfully on the back there's some references for you, you can go a little deeper.

But remember this about the Bible. From the very beginning, God has been presented to us from the very first verse as the creator who creates things out of nothing. Okay? That's how powerful he is. "In the beginning," what's Genesis 1:1 say? "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." He speaks it and there it goes. Out of the word of his mouth, he speaks worlds into existence. Nothing's there and he goes *poof* and there it goes.

Jesus comes on the scene unlike anybody else and starts to from the very beginning show people that "I can create something out of nothing." Think this through. He takes water and turns it into wine. That was pretty impressive. It's not just changing the color, this now is wine. As a matter of fact, when they were tasting it, they said, "Well, who kept the best stuff back? This is good!"

And then he goes to sick people. And he doesn't heal migraine headaches. He doesn't heal hidden tumors. He heals in a way that shows without any kind of dispute for those that watched it that he is creating things that weren't there. Guys with their eyes sunken back in their head, eyeballs that are completely unusable, and he steps up and blind men see.

People that can't walk, and you know what they look like. My daughter is paralyzed from the knees down. You know this. She has no calf muscle here, it's completely atrophied. She can't move her foot like that. But Jesus comes on the scene and a guy who's been crippled from birth and he says, "Rise up and walk," and they stand up and places where there was no muscle tissue... boom... ripe, strong muscle tissue.

Guy with the withered hand. Think about that. You seen people, it's just two bones between elbow and wrist and then God heals them instantly. This isn't the kind of thing that goes on on the stages today where people are seeing things and, "Well, I feel better now." It's not about that. It's about people that are dead. Lazarus. "And he stinketh, Lord." Remember the verse, right? Oh, "Lazarus, come forth." And out comes the dead guy.

Dead people living. People that can't walk stand up with strong muscles in their legs. People with sunken-in eye sockets now see with nice glossy eyes. Arms that have no form and now they're healed. Jesus was proving time after time, "I am the creator of heaven and earth. If you don't believe that I and the Father are one just because of what I say, at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves."

This ain't happening down the street. I know they go for different things to see stuff happen, but it ain't that. It'd be on the front page of the Register. He is creating things out of nothing with an appearance in history of age that it never had. That's what God does. He creates Adam and Eve and five minutes later, they're looking like 20, 30-year-old people. They're only five minutes old. That's what Jesus kept doing.

The miraculous that Jesus did was incredibly telling because he was trying to say something about who he was. "If you don't believe that I and the Father are one just because of what I say, at least believe because of what I'm doing. I'm doing the God work here. Believe me. You want to know if I got access behind the veil and I can go and prepare a place for you in my Father's house and I've been there and if it weren't so I would have told you because I've lived back there until I came to earth? Believe me because of the miracles. I'm doing the God miracles here."

If we want our confidence sure, we better look at the historical record and think through this concept of the miraculous and the claims of Christ and what he's done because he's hanging his qualifications on the miracles that he did.

Dave Druey: You're listening to Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez in a series called *When God Makes a Promise*. Now if you missed any part of this study, I'd encourage you to subscribe to our podcast and get these daily programs downloaded automatically to your phone or computer. You can also go to our website at focalpointradio.org or for even more mobile content, download the free Focal Point app to any smart device.

And before we wrap up today, we'd love to put a remarkable resource into your hands. This month we're offering a book called *The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament* by Edmund Clowney. It's a rich and rewarding read that traces the thread of Christ through the pages of the Old Testament, showing how the whole of scripture points to him.

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Staterooms are filling up, so secure yours now online at focalpointradio.org. Well that's all for today. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the conclusion of the mini-series *When God Makes a Promise*. That's Tuesday on Focal Point with Pastor Mike Fabarez.

Pastor Mike Fabarez: Pastor Mike here. Every wish you could corner your pastor and challenge him with your toughest questions about the Bible, about faith? Well, now you can. Send me your questions. Head on over to focalpointradio.org and click on "Ask Pastor Mike" or send me a note on facebook.com/pastormike or twitter.com/pastormike. I can't wait to hear from you.

Today's program was produced and sponsored by Focal Point Ministries.