Latest / Gil I Am / What is The Temple Veil? Part 1 #jesus #temple

Transcript

What is The Temple Veil? Part 1 #jesus #temple · Gil I Am

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: For today. We're here in Mark chapter fifteen, Mark chapter fifteen.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I'm going to read verses thirty three to verse thirty nine,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Mark fifteen, Verse thirty three. This is speaking about when
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Jesus was hanging on the cross, when he was being crucified,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: And it says, now when the sixth hour had come,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: loud voice, saying, eloi, eloi la masabachthani, which is translated
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: my God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Some
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: of those who stood by when they heard that, said, look,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: he is calling Elijah. Then someone ran and filled a
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: sponge full of sour wine, put it on a read,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: and offered it to him to drink, saying, let him alone,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: let us see if Elijah will come to take him down.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: his last And then notice this verse thirty eight. Then
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the veil of the temple, or the curtain of the temple,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: was torn into from top to bottom. So when the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: centurion who stood opposite him saw that, he cried out
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: like this and breathed his last He said, truly, this
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: man was the son of God. I want to emphasize
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: again with you verse thirty eight. Then the veil or
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the curtain of the temple was torn into from top
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: to bottom. We're going to talk about the significance of
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that today, but let's first have a word of prayer. Father,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: thank you that you have given us your word. We
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: thank you that you have not only instructed us, but
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: you have inspired us through your word to remind us
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: that there is a future home and a future hope
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: in Jesus. And we think a pat today. We think
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: about how she knows this better than any of us
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: right now, and we pray that we would look forward
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: to our eternal reward and that you will use this
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: time and your word to strengthen our hearts. We're grateful,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: We're thankful for your love and your grace in Jesus' name,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: and everybody said amen. From nineteen sixty one until nineteen
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: eighty nine, there was a wall in Berlin, Germany that
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: divided East Germany from West Germany, and it came to
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: physically symbolize even something more than just the wall there
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: in Berlin. It came to actually physically symbolize the quote
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the Iron Curtain that separated Western Europe from the Eastern
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Bloc nations, and that Iron Curtain was in place during
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: the time of what we referred to historically as the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Cold War. The Cold War was when there was tension
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: between the United States and the Soviet Union, and then
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine there were a series of small
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: revolutions people who realized that the Iron Curtain and the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Wall of Berlin symbolized a restriction on liberties, and so
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: revolutions started primarily in Poland and then in Hungary in
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine. But those revolutions were actually precipitated by
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: an event in nineteen eighty seven, a couple of years earlier,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: when then President Ronald Reagan made a speech in West
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Berlin in front of the wall in nineteen eighty seven,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: during which he made that famous statement, mister Gorbachev teared
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: down this wall. All right, you remember that if you're
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: old enough. But you got Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: in one week, just remember that. Well, he was giving
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: a challenge to the Soviet leader at the time to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: end his totalitarian control in the region, and three years
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: after Reagan gave that speech, the wall in fact was demolished.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: It did come down. Someone who was in Germany at
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the time actually was a part of chipping down that
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: wall and gave me a piece of it, brought it
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: back to me in nineteen ninety when they demolished that
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: wall that separated East Berlin from West Berlin. And when
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: that wall came down, there was a new sense of freedom,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: especially for people who lived on the eastern side of
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: that wall. Now, long before the Berlin Wall, there was
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a wall that separated man from God. It wasn't made
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: of concrete or barbed wire. It was a woven curtain,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a fabric wall that stood that was hung in the
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Temple of Jerusalem. And unlike the Berlin Wall, which was
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a wall of hostility, this wall, this curtain that hung
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: in the Temple of the Lord, was a wall of
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: holiness because it separated a holy God from unholy humanity.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: And no one was ever permitted to cross that wall,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: to go behind that curtain except the high Priest, and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: then only once a year on the day of Atonement
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: or in Hebrews called Yom Kippur, when he would go
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: behind the curtain to make sacrifice to sprinkle the blood
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: on the mercy seat for the atonement of himself and
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: for the nation of Israel. And so there was that
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: dividing wall. But on the day that Jesus was crucified,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: that wall, that curtain came down, coinciding with the exact
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: moment of the crucifixion of Christ, which is what we
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: just read in our opening verses here, coinciding with the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: exact moment that Jesus died on the cross. The Bible
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: says that the curtain which hung in the temple to
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: separate God from man was suddenly torn from top to bottom,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: and when that happened, it signified a new freedom for mankind. Now,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: this isn't often overlooked part of the story surrounding the
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: crucifixion of Jesus, because this event gets one verse. I mean,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Matthew gives it one verse two. But what we just
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: read here out of verse thirty eight, then the veil
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: or the curtain of the temple was torn into from
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: top to bottom. And it's easy to kind of overlook
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: that one sentence, that one verse, almost like it's a
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: minor detail, because it only appears in that one place
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: here in the Gospel of Mark, you know, and people
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: can begin to think, oh, yeah, yeah, okay, I remember
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: something around the crucifixion of Jesus, you know, in addition
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: to how he was you know, hunging across and nailed there,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: and he was whipped and flogged all of this and
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: then he rose again. Oh that's right. There was a
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: curtain that was torn in the temple. But don't overlook it,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: because even though it only gets one verse, it has
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: great significance for us today. It's one of the most
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: liberating verses in all of the Bible. So let me
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: first give a little background on the curtain itself, what
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: it means, and then we're going to talk about I'm
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: gonna give you three points as to the significance behind
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: why God tore that curtain. First thing I want to
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: show you is basically a model of the Temple in
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem that once stood there. Now, this is actually a
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: small model, the picture of a small model that is
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem to give us an understanding of what it
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: once looked like. It was destroyed in seventy eight D
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and it's never been rebuilt. The reason it was never
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: rebuilt is because since the Romans destroyed it in seventy
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: a d that Jewish people never had control of the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Temple Mount area in order to rebuild it now, even
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: though in nineteen sixty seven, during the sixty seven War,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: the Israelis captured the entirety of the city of Jerusalem.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: In an effort to try to bring peace. At the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: end of the sixty seven war, then Minister of Defense
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Musha Diane negotiated with the Muslims that they could maintain
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: administrative rights of the Temple Mount area there in Jerusalem.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: It was a decision that later would be regrettable by
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the Israelis, but one that they live with even today.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: And thus the Israelis cannot build a temple of the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Temple Mount because the Muslims have administrative control of it
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: even to this day, even though the Israelis controlled the
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: city itself of Jerusalem. So it's never been rebuilt. But
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: when it was there during Jesus Day, this is what
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: it would have looked like. This is the courtyard area
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: around it, and let me give you a cross section
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: view of it so we can go inside the temple.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: This is an artist rendering, of course, and when you
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: look at the inside of the temple, there were two chambers.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: The first chamber that the priests would come to was
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: a chamber in Hebrew called hak Kadesh. Hak Kadesh means
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the holy place. It was a holy place. They entered
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: that immediate chamber, it was a sanctuary that was holy.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: It was called the Holy Place. But then there was
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a second chamber further into the temple, and that was
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: called the Kodesh haakulashin which translates the most Holy Place,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: or some Bible translations say the holy of holies. And
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: it was there that God's presence dwelt. What separated the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: most Holy Place from the Holy Place was this curtain
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: that we're talking about today. These two chambers were separated
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: by this curtain or this veil. Now, according to the
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Jewish Townhood, which is the written commentary, and the Mishnah,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: which is the oral commentary, Jewish tradition says that this
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: curtain was sixty feet in length from top to bottom,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: sixty feet, that it was thirty feet across, and that
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: it was woven with such thick material that the thickness
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: of it was the breadth of a man's hand, which
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: is roughly nine to ten inches from the tip of
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: a man's thumb to the tip of his pinky, roughly
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: nine to ten inches. That's how thick this curtain was.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: And Jewish tradition says it took three hundred priests to
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: hang it and to manipulate it. That's how heavy it was. Okay,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: the Bible actually tells us, in addition in describing this curtain,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: that it was woven of fine linen of blue, purple
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: and scarlet red, and that it was adorned with images
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: of cherubim, which are angels, that were woven right into
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the fabric of this curtain. And again, this curtain separated
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: common man from a holy God. And it was only
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: lifted once a year, so that the high priest could
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: go behind it on the day of Yam Kupor. This
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: is what the Bible says. In Hebrews nine Versus six
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and seven. It says, now, when these things had been
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: of the tabernacle performing the services. Well, the first part
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: is the holy place, but into the second part, the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: most holy place. The high priest went alone once a year,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: not without blood, which he offered for himself and for
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the people's sins. When the High Priest would go behind
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the curtain once a year on yan Kapur. He would
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: first go with the blood of a bull that had
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: been sacrificed, and he would sprinkle the ark of the
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Covenant to make a tomet first for his own sins. Now,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the Ark of the Covenant was a wooden box made
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of acacia wood that was overlaid with gold. It was
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: about three feet by three feet by four feet, and
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: it had a lid of gold, pure gold, called the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Mercy seat. It had two angels carved out of gold
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: also that were on top of this lid, this mercy seat.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: And the Bible says that God would dwell between the cherubim,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: so God's glory, his manifest presence would come there within
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: this most holy place, this chamber, the Holy of Holies,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: And it was there that this high priest would go
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: once a year, first with the blood of a bull
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: for his own sins, to make atonement. He would sprinkle
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the ark of the Covenant, this sacred vessel that was
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: there on the interior of this chamber. Then he would
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: go in with the blood of a goat to make
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: atonement for the sins of all the people of Israel,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: it was the national day of Atonement, and he would
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: sprinkle again the mercy seat of the lid of the
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Ark of the Covenant, and in this way he would
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: make atonement for himself and for the people. And tradition
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: says that the high priest would fasten bells to the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: hem of his garment so that he could be heard
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: moving around by the other priest or the other side
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: of the curtain. And they would also tie around his
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: ankle a rope so that when he went on the
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: other side of the curtain, should he die and they
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: didn't hear the sound of the bells anymore, or God
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: killed him, they'd be able to drag his body out
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: by pulling the rope. All of this paints a picture
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: of reverence for the holiness of God. That God is holy,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: that he was separated from mankind, that man, by virtue
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: of the high priest, could only go into his presence
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: once a year to make atonement for the sins of
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: himself and the sins of the people. That all of
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: this paints this picture of reverence for the holiness of God.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: That God was generally inaccessible, unapproachable except once a year
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: by this high priest on the day of yam kipor yes,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: of course, prophets priests. People could pray to God, they
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: could seek God, they could even hear from God, but
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: they could not approach God. God was a distant God.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: He was not accessible. He could only approach God through
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: a priest and through the sacrifice of animals. But all
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: that changed the day that Jesus died. Here's an interior
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: view of the temple with the curtain. There in the distance.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Behind the curtain is the most holy place, the holy
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: of holies, and the Bible says that the day that
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Jesus died, we read it there in verse thirty eight,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: that the curtain tore from the top to the bottom.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Now that's an important detail. It did not tear from
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the bottom to the top. It tore from the top
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: to the bottom. Why does that matter, Because if it
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: tore from the bottom to the top, that would be
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: an indication that man did it. That the priests somehow
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: got together and decided we're gonna rip this curtain, even
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: though it would have been impossible. It's ten inches thick, okay, woven,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: But let's just say that if they could, if it
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: tore from the bottom to the top. That would be
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: an indication that man did it, people on the ground level,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: pulling and ripping it until it ripped towards the top.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: The fact that the Bible says they're in verse thirty
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: eight it ripped from the top down as an important
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: detail because it indicates to us Man did not tear
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: this curtain. God did. God tore this curtain from the
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: top to the bottom. Because he was indicating something. And
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: what he was indicating to us was that simultaneous with
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the yet of Jesus, God was saying to us, now
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I want you all to have access to me through
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the sacrifice of my son Jesus. The God who was
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: once distant, the God it was once unapproachable, the God
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: who was once inaccessible, is now approachable, accessible and near.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: This is what God was communicating to us through this
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: torn curtain, and it was a statement of freedom. Freedom.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: We were free to come into His presence boldly. We
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: are free to access him directly. We are free to
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: have our sins forgiven completely. And there are three reasons
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I want to share with you why the tearing of
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the Temple curtain is so significant for us today. So
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: for those of you taking notes, three reasons why God
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: tore a curtain. Number one, it abolished the innercessory role
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: of the priesthood. It abolished the innercessory role of the priesthood.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Please understand, for centuries this good separating a holy God
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: from common man. It was a barrier that separated God
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: from man for centuries. It stood there in the temple
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and before that in the tabernacle, and God was making
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a clear statement, you don't approach me, you don't come
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: near to me. I'm only gonna let one person do
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: it once a year, and he better not come in
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: without blood. That was the whole statement of why this
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: curtain was in place. It was a barrier between God
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and man. No one could freely approach God except through
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the priest. And when God tore the curtain, he was
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: saying to us, in effect, using the words of a
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Texans y'all come now, all right, That's what God was
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: saying when he tore this curtain. He was saying, y'all
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: come now here. It's wide open now for you.