Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of man. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light.

That was the light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God.

And the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me, and of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for the wonder and beauty and marvel of this text. And we pray now that your holy spirit would indeed do wondrous things with it in our lives, transforming us and having us live out the new humanity that has been accomplished for our sake by the work of this son of yours. In his name we pray. Amen.

Please be seated.

This verse is a summation of the entire prologue and there’s a sense in which it is the truth that the entire prologue moves toward. It is a capstone as it were of the prologue of this book or the introduction to this book which is really the capstone of all that’s been accomplished here. We said before that there is anticipation built in the prologue till the final naming of the word here in the last verse Jesus Christ.

And so this last tells us that he’s the only begotten son who reveals the father to us. So at the capstone of this prologue describing what we’re going to read in the rest of this gospel and by way of implication what this new creation is, who we are as tabernacles of the living God, who the church of Jesus Christ is as the temple or tabernacle of God. Summation of all of this is the son reveals the father.

And when we see the son, we see the father and to see the father we must see the son. So my sermon today is on fathers and sons and the tremendous implications for fathers and sons that this text brings to us. That’ll be the third wave of this sermon. First we’ll do a little review, a little analysis of this text as the capstone of what’s been taught so far in the prologue. We remember the overlays of the gospel that have been presented to us.

Then we’ll look at the correlation between these last few verses we’ve studied and an incident that’s recorded in Exodus 32 through 34 which has tremendous implications I think in terms of understanding what John is writing here and also then how it applies to our lives in terms of fathers and sons. So that’s the flow of what we’ll do and we’ll begin by stating that our mission for all of this the application point for all of this to us our mission is to be patient, to be patient, to be humble, and to seek God.

And what we’ll find in Exodus 33 and 34, which is the Old Testament setup for what we read here in this prologue, at least one of them, we’ll find an impatient not humble but prideful people who did not seek God. So, we want to be patient. We want to learn to be humble and we want to devote ourselves in commitment and application of this text before us to seek God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

To get there, first we’re going to look, as I said, in verse 18, its place in the scriptures. This verse 18 is seen as parallel to verse one of the prologue. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God, and the word was God. So, we have the word and its relationship to God portrayed for us in verse one. And by the end of the prologue in chiastic fashion or in bookend fashion, we have the revelation of who this word is—it is the son.

And the person of the deity that’s being talked about as God in verse one is defined for us as the father in verse 18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father. He has declared him. So we have the identity of the word in God. And the movement of this prologue then moves that this word who was with God now becomes incarnate and reveals the father by demonstrating his sonship.

This verse is also key to verse 18 is also tied and directly related to one of the verses we’re supposed to be memorizing. John 20:31. These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. And so here we have the son of God as the subject of verse 18 correlating to verse one and also the conclusion of the gospel found in verse 31 of chapter 20.

The purpose of the entire gospel. Verse 18 is also the capstone of this prologue. I’ve given you two additional pages on your outline stapled to the front page and we’ll review those shortly or we’ll speak to them in summary fashion. If you turn to that page that talks about it’s kind of a big chart with a bunch of little print in it that correlates the gospel of John or sees it as reflection of the seven days of creation.

Now remember what we’ve said about this prologue. Now listen, now listen. We said this prologue moves through three cycles. And when I first developed that in my own exposition a month or two ago, I didn’t know this, but Heusenberg and many other commentators actually see it the same way. I think it’s right. There’s a three-fold movement to this prologue. The first movement is in that beginning section was the word and the word is with God.

The middle section tells us that and that movement of course says that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn’t overtake it. The Bible is postmillennial from beginning to end. My socks are postmillennial. What’s he talking about? His socks. Well, I have these black socks. I’m diabetic. So, I’ve got socks that have white socks on the inside and black sock on the outside sewn together so you won’t get blisters.

You see, it’ll absorb that stuff. Now, why they made the interior sock white, I do not understand. But for the purposes of the first part of the prologue. It’s a good illustration. You may have noticed, probably some of you have, and haven’t you’ve been kind, haven’t said anything to me, but my socks are starting to wear out and they wear out from the outside. So, the black sock is starting to wear, but I’m cheap.

And so, I can continue to wear these socks because I got a white one in there still and it’s not worn out. Now, what’s happening with my socks is the black sock cannot overcome the white sock. The white sock is shining through the black sock. And the longer I wear these socks, the longer my socks will be turned from black to white. You see? Now, that’s what the first part of the prologue says. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t understand it.

Yes, but the darkness doesn’t hold it down. It cannot grasp it and keep it from shining forth and driving out the darkness. And by the end of the prologue. As we saw last week, the only people that are left are those that are receiving grace upon grace. That’s the movement of history. My socks reflect the movement of history. So that first section of the prologue talked about the middle section said that there are he comes to his own, but his own didn’t receive him.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God or the power they would manifest the power of God. They had the power to manifest that they were God’s children. That’s who we are. That’s the middle section. And it gave us a two-fold part of the book, didn’t it? Chapters 1 to 12, he comes to his own and they reject him. Chapters 13-21 complete focus is his disciples who accept him and they have the power of God.

So make manifest their sonship. The last section, as we talked about last week of the prologue, says that Jesus to effect this tabernacles in our midst, and we behold his glory. So, we go from creation model at the first to this two-fold division of the book, those that receive and that don’t. And then the final cycle shows this tabernacle model. So, I think it’s completely legitimate to say that God wants us to think as we read through this gospel of several models.

He wants us to think of the creation and the recreation being affected in Christ. He wants us to think in every verse we read that there’s two paths. Are you going to believe the truth or seek to suppress it? Are you going to reject him as he comes to you or are you going to make manifest the power of the children of God? And he wants us as we read through this text to understand that he’s the new tabernacle and that all that tabernacle temple stuff in the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in Christ and then in his church and us as individuals.

And finally, what we learn in verse 18 very importantly is that another part of this model for us is father son. We’re going to talk a lot about fathers and sons as we go through the gospel because Jesus is always saying, “Hey, I’m doing whatever the father tells me to do.” And what the father wills to have done, the son is going to do it. Father and son is throughout it. And it will be today. Now, now back to your outline, that page where it talks about the seven days of creation.

Don’t need to look at it much now, but understand this is for your purpose, your use. As we go through this gospel over the next year or year and a half, however long it takes, you can meditate on that outline. You can begin to teach it to your children if you like or just think about it, see if you agree or disagree. But I think there’s a movement there set up by the whole phrase in the beginning.

And day two of the creation, there was this firmament created, waters above and waters below. Remember we talked last week that the baptismal font, you know, is a picture of the laver in the tabernacle and it’s a picture of the firmament where heavenly water is going to have to come down to the darkened earth and renew it and firmament is a picture of that. It reflects the glory of God, too. It’s it’s heaven and the Lord Jesus reflects the glory of God.

He is the firmament as it were. He’s heaven and he’s those heavenly waters that’s going to cleanse everything. On day three, the water and land are separate. The land comes away from the water and then plants start coming up. Not all plants, but bread and wine sort of plants, grain plants and fruit plants. And it’s a picture. Remember we talked about first fruits. Same thing. It’s the first fruits of all plants, but all plants have their meaning or understanding in terms of being food for man with the grain and wine plants that come up on day three or fruit plants rather.

And so we have this imagery of being sustained and nurtured on the third day. Day four, sun, moon, and stars, which we’re going to sing about next week. Sun, moon, and stars sing forth the praise of God. And so the heavenly light of Jesus is portrayed in the next section of the book where he talks about himself as the light of the world. Now, do you see now to those of you who were listening real well last week, you’ll remember that we talked about all this last week, didn’t we?

Because days 2, 3, and 4 are essentially the laver, the table of showbread, and the lampstand that we talked about last week. So verse 18 capsulizes the creation, you know, the beginning of this account, the prologue, which is a creation account, but it also capsulizes this tabernacle account. So go that page. Now, I think it’s the second page where there’s a drawing of the tabernacle and build this very quickly, but some of you I think were confused last week.

And as we go through this and as you continue to use these outlines and study them, you’ll understand better what this flow is about and how pertinent it is to our lives. And last week, we said, and I’ve given it to you in very explicit form here, that Jesus seems to take this tour of the tabernacle or the articles of furniture of the tabernacle twice. So we have the two-fold division of the book. Those his own that didn’t receive him and those that received him, the goats and the sheep.

Well, in the first section of the book, he begins as the priest would begin as he went about his work in the tabernacle. He’s got to wash first. You got to wash up, right? Before you start cooking, you wash your hands, right? Before you go to eat, you wash your hands. Before you go out in the morning, you wash at least your teeth. Hope believe you wash—you wash up.

Oh one thing I did not mention by the way just I should have mentioned this but in the creation model the word light is used seven times in the opening half of that prologue actually the entire prologue the word light is used seven times six times is a noun and the seventh time is the phrase he brings light to men as they come into the world seven-fold occurrence relating to the sevenfold pattern of the creation.

Okay? So when you get up, you wash and then you eat and then you go do your work, right? That’s what you do when you get up in the morning. And when we come to church, we confess our sins. We wash. And then we eat God’s word through the preaching of the word and through the sacrament. And as he sends us out, commissioning us to go forth as lights in the midst of the world. Right? That’s simply what we do. I mean, he calls us here first and we can add that to the liturgy, but then we have confession and we’re consecrated in relationship to that word and then we’re commissioned to go out into the world.

Well, that’s what Jesus is doing here as he portrays himself as the meaning of all of this. He recreates a new humanity to move in that kind of pattern. And he does that by teaching us in the Gospel of John the same thing. So, I have a list there and in the first portion chapter 1B John is baptizing what kind of baptizing is he doing by the way it was an old it was a washing right had to be doing a washing the Pharisees didn’t try to stop what he was doing say this is not in the Old Testament this they said why are you washing people they understood he was washing them what was the only kind of washing that you did in the Old Testament not by yourself but you had to have somebody else wash you talking about liturgical washings.

Now, you know, if you eat the wrong kind of animal, one that’s died of itself and find out you’re unclean, you got to wash your clothes. If you have relations with your wife wrong time of the month and didn’t know it, you’ve got to wash and you become clean. Most things like that, you could wash yourself. You were supposed to. But there was one thing that if you needed washing, you had to go to the priest and he had to wash you.

It was leprosy. It’s the picture of death. And the leprosy ritual shows that it’s resurrection from the dead. We’ve talked about that here before. So many images of Christ and the cleansing of the leper. It seems like John is by his baptism and washing, he’s bringing down that firmament water to recreate mankind because mankind is dead in leprosy. And so John is a picture of this heavenly water coming down.

So in that we have that and that’s the picture of Jesus going to the laver. Where would the priest go when he first got to the tabernacle. Well, like you, he’d wash up before he started doing his duty. So, he’d go to the laver. L A V E R. You know, we still have that word somewhat, the laboratory., we call it sink, I guess, is another word for it. That’s okay, too. The laver is the place of cleansing. And it’s with heavenly water.

It’s the place of revivification. We’re coming back to life. You see, with the heavenly water, we’re being cleansed of our leprosy and being declared to be alive again to God. we’re washed., so we become washed. And then the rest of the text, I’ve got indications there for you what would go on. And what you children can do is take your parents outline or if you’ve got that outline of the picture of the tabernacle and then those sections of the Gospel of John, that first section there, all those things John is baptizing., Jesus turns purification water into wine.

He cleanses the temple the way you’d cleanse a leper’s house. He’s cleansing the temple. Throws people out. First half of chapter 3, what does he do? He talks to Nicodemus. You got to be born of water and the spirit. This is in the context of John the Baptist. And then last half of chapter 3, big discussion about John the Baptist with the Jews about purification. It’s all the same motif going on there, isn’t it?

Jesus goes to the woman at the well in Samaria in John chapter 4 and there’s water there. and he’ll give her water, you know, that’ll cleanse her totally. He recleanse marriage. He does all this water stuff. Even the last half of chapter 4, he heals this nobleman’s son. And there doesn’t seem to be necessarily a water connection, but the introduction to that story says that this was in Cana where he turned water into wine.

Bringing that whole purification to water idea back into now the text of the nobleman’s son who is a dead man basically near to death. mostly dead as the nobleman’s son. Jesus brings him back to life with that purification. You see, it’s all the heavenly water that Jesus is recreating the world. He’s going to that laver and not just cleaning up, but now he’s going to revivify mankind. So, you can draw a line from all those verses there over to that laver out there in the outer court of the tabernacle.

That’s where it happened. Then in the next few chapters, what does Jesus do? Well, he goes and talks to him about he feeds the 5000 first and that enters into a big discourse about him being you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. He’s talking about is giving himself as food for the world, life for the world. And then after that, he goes to the last great day of the feast of tabernacles the in gathering, the great joyous feast in chapter 8.

And he says that he’s the water of life and drink him and out of your belly will flow rivers of living water which by which he meant the spirit. So all those things, kids, that all food and drink stuff, draw a line over to the table of showbread. That table of showbread over on the right hand side of the Holy of Holies, that was where the bread, the showbread, the face bread would sit. And that was also where they would have flagons for the wine libations.

They had to be poured out on occasion as an offering to God. And so we’ve got day three of the creation, right? We’ve got that bread and wine there. So we move from day two, the light of Christ is coming. We’ve gone to day two and the firmament is cleansed. The water above the firmament is being released to cleanse everything. And now he’s feeding the people. And then he goes on then in the next few chapters to talk about that was John chapter 6 and 7.

I said eight, I think mistakenly. Chapter 8 of John, he says he’s light. He’s the light of the world. And then he begins doing stuff about light. He takes a blind man and gives him light. He raises Lazarus from the darkened tomb to bring him forth into the light. He talks in the context that resurrection about light. Jesus is bringing light. So it’s really simple to remember the flow of the gospel of John.

He comes into the laver and washes himself, washes other people. He’s that washing revivifying water. He feeds them and then he commissions them to go out his life. But they don’t do it of course. So then he the whole process starts all over. Chapter 13, you can draw lines from chapter 13 where Jesus washes the disciples feet over to the laver. again because now we’re going back there because this is the last half of the book.

These are those that receive Christ. They’re the ones who are really washed and brought back to life. They’re the ones who are fed at the last supper. They’re the ones who are going to be light to the world. Jesus then talks about in chapter 13 he washes disciples feet. 13 he feeds them. And the next couple of chapters he talks about the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the light of that seven-fold lampstand.

The Holy Spirit is referred to four times as the comforter in Jesus’s discourse at the last supper. Three times as the spirit of truth and once directly as the Holy Spirit. So we have seven yay eight occurrences of references to the spirit who is the one Holy Spirit who shines forth in that seven-fold lampstand. That candlestick is the lampstand on that drawing and it was had seven lamps on it. And in the book of Revelation, this same author John says that these are the seven spirits of God before the throne of God.

The light of the spirit. It’s it’s only one Holy Spirit, but he moves in a sevenfold pattern as he brings light out of darkness and as he commissions his disciples to go forth his light. And then Jesus prays for his disciples. There are two altars in the tabernacle, kids. The altar you’d pray at and the altar you’d sacrifice the animal at. The altar you would offer incense at, which the scripture says is prayer.

That’s the golden altar. The golden altar is the one where the incense would be burned. The bronze altar out in the courtyard, that’s where the animals would be sacrificed. The burnt offering would be out there on the bronze altar. Jesus in chapter 17 puts incense before the father as it were by praying for his people. And then he goes into the garden He goes to the burnt altar as it were. He goes outside of the Holy of Holies to offer himself up as the living sacrifice for his people, the one who dies and comes back to life.

And then after that, we have references to the mercy seat. And you can draw a line from the mercy seat over to that holy of holies there. Jesus presents his offering before the father after he’s been crucified on the cross. The father accepts that offering and raises him from the dead. So when Mary goes to the tomb, you’ve got a picture of the Holy of Holies, angels at either end of his feet and his head, just like the cherubim sat on the mercy seat.

Jesus is the propitiation of the sins of his people. His linen garment is there. Why is it linen? Well, the priest once a year would go to the Holy of Holies and he would normally have beautiful, glorious garments, but he’d take all of those off and he would put a linen ephod on and then he would go into the Holy of Holies with the once yearly day of atonement. Only guy that could go in there. It said they’d tie a rope to him because if he is not right with God, he’s going to die in there and he’s not going to be resurrected.

He won’t come walking back out. You’ll have to pull him out with the rope. You can’t go in because God would kill you in there. So he would come back out. God would accept the sacrifice and then he’d put on his glorious garments again. The Lord Jesus Christ lays aside, you know, grasping after or assuming power and authority. He doesn’t call his angels down to kill everybody. He takes the linen garment for his crucifixion.

But in his resurrection, he leaves the linen garment behind and God clothe him with the new humanity and he brings us into the throne room of God. So all these pictures are pictures of what happens. There’s a recreation going on. The recreation moves in terms of the tabernacle model. And what does it mean to us. It means that when we get up in the morning, we should praise God that we’re alive and we should go wash ourselves.

And when we wash ourselves, we should confess sin. And we should ask God to move us and prepare us for his service. And after we wash ourselves, when we eat, we want to remember that our savior said his food was to do the will of the father in heaven. We get strength to be out go out as lights to the world, the candle of the presence of God to go will minister in the context of what God calls us to do that day.

We’re the new humanity. The old humanity is dying off. They’re going away. They’re that dark sock that’s disappearing as time goes on. And we’re to be the white bright sock that shines forth with the light of God. And we do that as we move in this same model that Jesus portrays for us in his life. He portrays for us this move of cleansing con consecration to his word and spirit in the sacraments and then commissioning to go forth into the day.

We do that here every Lord’s day and you know you try to make a lot of ritual out of it. It seems like such a neat thing and all and it is but it sets the pattern for everything we do in life. When you get up tomorrow morning when God raises you up, cleanse, consecrate as you eat, and then see yourself as commissioned to go out as a new humanity into the dark world. That’s who we are. You see this text tells us who we are as we understand its correlation to the rest of the book.

Okay, that’s phase one of this sermon. Phase two, as we’ll look at Exodus 33, I got to make sure I have the kids up to speed. You’ve drawn the lines. What kind of water did Jesus turn into wine in Cana? Purification water, kids. Water that was used in the Old Testament to purify and cleanse people. Holy water, we’d call it purifying water. But Jesus That’s a pale foreshadowing of what Jesus will do. He turns it into wine.

Glorified water. Tasty water. Water that makes you happy. That brings joy to a man’s heart. What two things that I say you should do before you start your work each day? Wash and eat. When you wash and eat in the morning, kids, then you go do your task. Think about the laver. Think about the font here. Think about the communion table. Think about the light of the presence. That’s what you do. Jesus is praying to the father for you continually praying.

He’s a he’s gone to the cross. He’s gone to the bronze altar. He’s praying for you so that you can do these things. Confessing your sin, washing every day, eating and going out as light for Jesus. That’s who you are, children. Did Jesus wash his disciples at the last supper? Yes, he did. It’s where John tells us it. John is the Gospel tells us that. Why? Because John is concerned with this tabernacle model.

He goes back to the laver of cleansing. The lampstand is a picture of whom the candlestick is a picture of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the seven spirits of God before the throne of God described in John’s book the Revelation. which is God speaking. Of course, he simply is being dictated to the spirit of God is portrayed in that lampstand. So you go out as spiritfilled people to be light to the world.

How many altars are there in the tabernacle? Two. Two altars. Gold where you pray, where the incense was burned rather, and then the other the bronze altar. Okay. Now let’s talk about Exodus 33 and 34 a little bit and that’ll set us up for the application at the end. and what I’m having your outline here is Jesus as mediator in verse 18 and Moses as mediator in Exodus 33 and 34. Now verse 18 is tied grammatically to verse 17.

There’s no separation. Verse 17, law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son is in the bosom of the father. He has declared him. In the Greek here seems like he could have put a separation here between the two verses. God could have but he seems to have written it such a way where he wants us to think of these as connected.

And I think that this whole section is connected and I think it has relevance to Exodus 33 and 34. And before we specifically get to that, we’ll repeat what we said last week. There is a commonality of subject matter between the Old Testament and New Testament mediators. Moses was the mediator, so to speak, of the Old Covenant. Jesus the better mediator of the New Covenant. But there is a commonality of basic subject matter between old and new when we read that Jesus comes to execute the father we don’t it immediately tells us that the Old Testament New Testament are not wrathful angry god of the Old Testament gentle kind Jesus of the new no one god revealed through Moses and Jesus no disjunction it’s not it’s not opposed to one another the law from Moses greater than truth from Jesus there’s a commonality of theme the great exhibition of the enduring covenant love of God in the Old Testament took place at Sinai, which we’ll look at in just a minute.

The same setting where the tabernacle became the dwelling of God’s glory. We’ll look at the first tabernacle, not the one they would build, but the first tabernacle in Exodus 33. So now the supreme exhibition of God’s love, his incarnate word, Jesus Christ, is the new tabernacle of divine glory. There’s there’s commonality of theme. Remember we said last week from Exodus 33 and 34 that when God declares his name to Moses, he says, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth.” So, you know, John isn’t saying that grace and truth weren’t revealed to Moses and as a result revealed to the people.

They were, but now all this has come in a much better way in Jesus as we’ll see. So, there’s a commonality of subject matter. Paul said the law was holy and just and good and spiritual. We don’t want to dis say that somehow the Old Testament was not about grace and truth. Was the Old Testament about grace and truth? Absolutely. Absolutely. It was the revelation of God to the people through the law and Moses.

So kids, the number 11, the Old Testament was indeed about grace and truth. So that is true. Secondly, there’s a degree of commonality of experience between the Old Testament church and the New Testament church, between Israel in the Old Testament and the church in the New. We gloried and we loved the exposition that who we are in Jesus are those who receive grace after grace, grace upon grace, grace following grace.

And we read that in the prologue last week. But didn’t Israel experience that same thing? And didn’t they actually experience it right there at Sinai? God is up. Moses is up getting the law. They get impatient. They build a golden calf. Moses comes down. God says, “Well, I’m still going to let him possess the promised land, but I won’t be with him.” Moses pleads with him. We’ll get to all this in a minute. And God says, “Okay, I’ll go with you.” Grace.

They have been given the grace of deliverance from Egypt. They have been given the grace of the giving of the law. And then in all their rejection of all that, he continues to show them grace by asserting his presence with them as they go into the land. The whole history of Israel was one of the revelation of God who is grace and truth and of a people who went from grace to grace, grace after grace after grace.

There’s a commonality of experience between Old Testament Israel and the New Testament church. We’re told in First John 1, same author, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, he did that with them. That’s the picture of grace upon grace that God gives to us. Indeed, we looked at the promises in Deuteronomy 28 that the blessings would overtake the people like an enemy would almost.

You can’t run away from blessings. We’re going to have to do something with the Fertex down to the fellowship hall here. It’s cardboard our tiles downstairs. And the flames you if a fire gets started our fellowship hall, you will not be able to run fast enough. The flame will go faster than you through that Fertex. Faster than you can run. Well, that’s the way these blessings are from God. They’ll go faster than you can run away from them.

But that’s an Old Testament promise. Now, it’s brought to fulfillment and conclusion and in an exemplified way in Christ. But there’s a commonality of grace upon grace. Old Testament, New Testament. Israel in the Old Testament experienced grace upon grace. True. Obviously true given half a moment’s worth of thought. And there’s a commonality of the narrative structure of Exodus 33 and 34 and John 1 that I want us to look at now.

So turn to Exodus 33 and we will look at this text. Remember the context of this is that Moses has gone up meet with God and he’s delayed coming down. We’re told that in chapter 32. He’s delayed. The people say, “Well, is he coming back? We don’t know. So make us a golden calf, Aaron.” So then Moses comes back and the people have engaged really in what we’re supposed to do, but an improper way. you’re supposed to worship.

You’re supposed to worship God though and not the calf. You’re supposed to rejoice, eat, drink, and be merry. But they were eating, drinking, and merry. They were exercising joy in life apart from the revealed will of God. And they were naked. So, but you know, it’s not bad to have fun and rejoice. That’s what Jesus has called us to do. So, they were doing the things you’re supposed to do. They were seeking their glory from something.

They were adorning themselves with ornaments. They had this glorious calf. They were seeking knowledge out of their own heads in terms of what to do. And they were seeking life and joy, but they did it all by not waiting for God to be with them. So that’s the setup. They moved from their deliverance into the new creation. That’s what the Exodus is. Another picture of the old creation and the coming new creation when Jesus, the greater Exodus, takes us over the greater Red Sea as it were.

So they had moved into this wonderful relationship to God. He had spent all this time and effort getting these people ready. He had given them, you know, deliverance. He had given them blessing. They had seen wonders as he delivered them from Egypt. He’d done all this work preparing them, but they turned back to darkness. So, as the light shines in the darkness in the prologue, well, here there is darkness of the people, sin, separation, and self glory.

Not seeking the glory that comes from the father, but rather the glory that comes from themself. And so that’s the setup for this. And God says an amazing thing in verse 3. He says, “You can go up and I will drive out the Canaanites in verse 2, and I’ll take your land for me with milk and honey, but I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff neck people, lest I consume thee in the way.” That’s odd.

And by the way, as we read through this text, ask yourself if you’ve read this text ever. There are people in our church who’ve never read this text. There are probably adults in this church who have never read this text. It makes it difficult to understand John chapter 1 or any part of John if you don’t know your Bible. If you haven’t at least read it a couple of times. So again, we turn to the word.

The word interprets the word and this word is going to help us to understand what’s going on in the prologue. So God says he’s going to go he’ll give them deliverance, but he won’t be with them. Well, Moses in response to this goes and he erects a tabernacle., in verse 7, Moses took the tabernacle, pitched it without the camp a far off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation.

That doesn’t seem to be the tabernacle that God is going to have constructed later on. This is a different tent of some sort, but Moses erects a tabernacle. And so, he’s showing by his representation of distance and separation from the people, he’s showing to them their status with God. God has moved away from them. He’s distant now, but God is still with Moses. So, there’s a tabernacle here that’s referenced in this text.

And then God comes to be with Moses. Whenever he would meet there, it says it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle. Verse 9, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, the Lord talked with Moses. So, we have the tabernacle, which Jesus is going to be. We have this cloudy pillar descending from God. The way that Jesus will become incarnate to work with his people.

So here we have this the descent of the pillar of God. Jesus is Yahweh in the Old Testament and Yahweh is the Lord here who speaks to Moses. This pillar of cloud is Jesus. Now he’s not incarnate. He’s taking upon himself an exterior shell or appearance to speak with Moses. This is not his incarnation. That’s come that will happen as we know when Jesus becomes incarnate in John 1. But Jesus is appearing here to Moses in a physical form that he can see.

And Jesus is revealing God to Moses here in the context of this pillar of cloud. Moses is the mediator and Jesus is going to reveal God to him so that Moses can reveal God to Israel. Jesus speaks to Moses. And this pillar is, I think, a prefigurement of the incarnation, the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of taking upon himself humanity in his incarnation and this pillar is actually going to execute the father.

You know Jesus no one has seen God at any time but the only begotten who’s in the bosom of the father he has executed him. Well what’s going to happen here is as the story goes on by the way verse 11 the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaks unto his friend. There is intimacy here between God and his mediator Moses. He speaks to Moses as unto a friend. Jesus takes on the appearance to Moses of a pillar of cloud.

You know, it’s interesting because at the mount of transfiguration, Jesus is transfigured in these dazzling white garments, this shiny cloud, glory cloud as if it were, shines forth and he’s standing upright. Of course, he’s a man and he’s kind of like a pillar of cloud again and you got Moses there and I suppose it was like old times. So there was an intimacy between the Lord and the mediator.

He speaks as to a friend. Moses seeks grace unto grace from God. This is really interesting as this story develops. What happens next? Verse 13. Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, Right. Show me now thy way that I may know thee that I might find grace in thy sight. So as Jesus comes in the pillar of cloud to talk to Moses in an intimate way to face to face to reveal himself to mankind and to proclaim forth the father to Moses.

Moses asks for what he asks for grace upon grace. The very thing the prologue tells us has been finally and fully and completely accomplished in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses seeks grace upon grace. Moses seeks God’s presence. Verse 15, he said unto him, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up then. I don’t want the promised land if the condition is you’re not with us.” See, Moses understood as Abram did that God was his exceeding great reward.

Everything else is, you know, dung. The promised land is dung compared to the riches of knowing God. So Moses asks for the presence of God to be with them, you see, and to be with his people. He doesn’t want the blessings without the blesser. And finally, Moses then sees, not finally, but then Moses sees the backside of God’s glory. And we’re familiar with this part of the text probably. God says that he, you know, Moses asked, and by the way, God consents to this.

He says, “I will go. I’ll do this thing.” And then Moses asked to see his glory. And God says, “Well, no man can see my face and live. You can’t see my glory, but I’ll pass by and put you in a cleft hand over you, you’ll see the back part of my glory, hindermost part of my glory. So Moses sees to a degree the glory of God here in this account in Exodus 33. And then the Lord comes and descends to be with him.

let’s see, this is in verse 5 of the next chapter. Verse chapter 34. This is when it happens. This is the culmination of all this. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. Now this word proclaimed means to preach forth to exposit to declare the name of the Lord. And so here what happens is the cloud descends proclaims the name of the Lord. Verse 6, the Lord passed by before him.

And this is the same basic phrase as when God passes over the children of Israel as he brought them out of Egypt. He doesn’t kill them. The Lord passes over Moses. What’s going to be the basis of that? Of course, is the work of the Savior that man isn’t killed through the presence of God. So, the Lord descends, passes by Moses, and then it says he proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth.

What we just referred to before, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions, in sin that will by no means clear the guilty. Grace and truth. Truth is guilty ones who aren’t repentant are destroyed. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children’s children of the third and fourth generation. He talks intergenerationally. He talks about fathers and sons in his revelation of himself to Moses.

He executes. He proclaims the father. And actually the way the text reads is a mistranslation. It says Yahweh double emphasis because this is the revelation of the person of Yahweh. Okay, son reflecting the father. And he then executes that appearance the the name of God to Moses. He proclaims it to him. Then that name of course is identified as grace and truth as I just said. So this is the essence of who God is.

God is declared then or proclaimed to Moses the mediator and in response to this of course Moses worships God. He bows down and he worships and God then renews the covenant in the context of this. This is all about covenant renewal. So Exodus 33 and 34 have these tremendous truths pictured for us. And there is this commonality of narrative structure that I hope you saw then between them.

goes and what happens in the context of John 1:14-18.

However, all of the above, as the outline says, is a shadow. The substance is in Christ.