Scripture Reading: John 1:1-2, 14, 29, 32, 36, 42, 51
This is the first of a series of messages on the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings in the writings of John. In giving these messages I take it for granted that you have read through all the messages in the Life-study of John. If you have not read those messages, I would encourage you to read them. Otherwise, certain matters that we will cover here may be puzzling to you.
These messages also assume some knowledge of the book of Exodus. Do you know what was the goal of the exodus of God’s people from Egypt? The goal was that the Lord would have a dwelling place on earth with a serving priesthood. Actually, the dwelling place and the priesthood are one. First Peter 2:5 says that we are “being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood.” This verse indicates that the spiritual house and the priesthood are one. Therefore, the priesthood is the building, and the building is the priesthood. In the typology in the book of Exodus we have two matters — the tabernacle and the priesthood. But in the New Testament fulfillment of these types, the building and the priesthood are one. The building is God’s spiritual house, and it is also a group of priests, a body of serving ones. Today, on the one hand, we are God’s dwelling place; on the other hand, we are a priesthood serving God. It is God’s goal to have this dwelling place, this priesthood. If we understand this, we will be prepared to see the fulfillment of the types of the tabernacle, the priesthood, and the offerings in the writings of John.
As we proceed chapter by chapter through the Gospel of John, our concern will be with what we may call the extract of each chapter. We will not study the chapters verse by verse. What is the extract of chapter 1 of John? An extract may be understood as a liquid extracted from a plant or other organic matter and that contains its essence in concentrated form. A synonym for extract is spirit, which is the essence of a substance extracted in liquid form, especially by distillation. Wine, for example, may be regarded as an extract, or spirit, of grapes. Whenever you extract the essence of a particular substance, you get the spirit of that substance. It is not our purpose in this book to repeat the Life-study of John. Our purpose is to see what is the extract, the spirit, of each chapter. In this chapter we will consider the extract of John 1.
Many teachers and expositors say that the first eighteen verses of John 1 are a prologue, an introduction, to the entire Gospel. This understanding is correct. However, after further study of this Gospel, we have come to realize that all of chapter 1 is an introduction or prologue to the Gospel of John. Often the introduction to a book is actually an extract of the book, for it usually gives the reader a brief outline of the book as a whole. Such an outline is the extract of the book. In chapter 1 of the Gospel of John we have an extract of the substance of the following twenty chapters.
The extract of John 1 includes six matters: the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb of God, the dove, the stone, and the house of God. John 1:51 says, “He said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” This refers to Jacob’s dream of a ladder with angels ascending and descending on it. Jacob called the name of the place where he had that dream Bethel, which means “the house of God.” In the first chapter of John we see the Word (v. 1), the tabernacle (v. 14), the Lamb of God (v. 29), the dove, which is a symbol of the Spirit (v. 32), the stone (v. 42), and the building, the house of God, Bethel (v. 51). The first of these six items, the Word, is found in verse 1, and the last, the house of God, Bethel, in verse 51. In between we have the tabernacle, the Lamb of God, the dove, and the stone. In verse 51 we see the ladder that joins heaven to earth and earth to heaven. This is the house of God, Bethel. These six matters are the extract of John 1.
You may have read this chapter through many times without seeing this extract. If some were asked what chapter 1 of John talks about, they may say, according to their experience, that this chapter tells us that all those who have received Christ have been given the authority to become children of God, those who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (vv. 12-13). This, of course, is a wonderful matter. Others may say that John 1 reveals that the Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God. However, not many readers of the Gospel of John have seen as a whole the six matters of the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, the stone, and the house. We need to be deeply impressed that the extract of John 1 includes these six matters.
John 1:1 and 2 say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” By itself verse 1 does not indicate definitely that the Word was with God from the beginning. If we only had this verse, some might think that the Word was in the beginning, but doubt that the Word was with God from the beginning. They might think that the Word was with God only after a certain time. This concept concerning the Word was the source of a serious heresy in John’s time. Certain heretics taught that the Logos, the Word, was not eternal. These heretics claimed that the Word was made by God and that the Word was not self-existing. In order to refute this heresy, John added verse 2: “He was in the beginning with God.” In the beginning, that is, from eternity past, the Word was with God.
It is not the case, as supposed by some, that Christ was not with God and was not God from eternity past, and that at a certain time Christ became God and was with God. Christ’s deity is eternal and absolute. From eternity past to eternity future, He is with God, and He is God.
John’s concept is that the Logos, the Word (no doubt, this refers to the Lord Jesus), was not made, was not created. On the contrary, the Word is self-existing, without beginning or ending, because He is God. Therefore, in these two verses we have a strong argument against heretical teachings concerning the person of Christ and a strong inoculation against such heresies.
All of John’s writings are concerned with mysteries. His Gospel, his Epistles, and his Revelation are full of mysteries. The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are called synoptic Gospels. The word synoptic means “having the same point of view.” Matthew, Mark, and Luke all share the same point of view. If you read through these three Gospels, you will see that the narratives in them are very much the same. But after these three Gospels comes another Gospel with another point of view. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all speak of the Lord Jesus as a man. In Matthew we see that the Lord Jesus is the King; in Mark, that He is a servant; and in Luke, that He is a man. Since a king and a servant are men, all three of these Gospels speak of Christ in His humanity, one as the King, one as the Servant of God, and one as the proper man. But the Gospel of John is concerned with Christ in His divinity.
The humanity of Christ is not a mystery. However, the divinity of Christ surely is a mystery. With respect to His humanity, Jesus of Nazareth was not mysterious. Like all human beings, He had to sleep, eat, and drink. He even wept as others do. But within Him there was the divine nature. This is a mystery.
People knew the Lord Jesus in His humanity. They could say that they knew His brothers and sisters and His mother and that He was the son of a carpenter. Regarding all this, it seemed that there was nothing mysterious. But the divinity within the Lord Jesus was a great mystery. Sometimes even His disciples wondered who He was. For example, after He had rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm, the disciples marveled and said, “What kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matt. 8:27).
In His deity, Christ is God, the eternal Logos, the self-existing One, the One without beginning. The name of Jesus refers to the Lord after His incarnation. Therefore, we cannot say, “In the beginning was Jesus.” It was the Logos, not Jesus, who was with God in the beginning. Jesus was born as a man according to the record in chapter 2 of Luke. He was then taken to Egypt and eventually lived in Nazareth. But as we have pointed out, within this Jesus there was a great mystery, the mystery of His divinity. It truly is a mystery that the man Jesus is God. The Gospel of John is concerned with the mystery of the Lord’s divine person.
Christ is mysterious not only in His deity but also in His divine work. Therefore, the Gospel of John speaks of the mysteries of Christ’s person and work. Concerning the mystery of Christ’s divine work, John 19:34 says, “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.” Here we see that two substances came out of the Lord’s pierced side: blood and water. Blood is for redemption, dealing with sin (1:29; Heb. 9:22) for the purchase of the church (Acts 20:28). Water is for imparting life, dealing with death (John 3:14-15) for the producing of the church (12:24; Eph. 5:29-31). The Lord’s death is, on the negative side, to take away our sins, and, on the positive side, to impart life into us. Hence, it has two aspects: the redemptive aspect and the life-imparting aspect. The redemptive aspect is for the life-imparting aspect. The record of the three other Gospels is only for the redemptive aspect of the Lord’s death, but John’s record is not only for the redemptive aspect but also for the life-imparting aspect. In Matthew 27:45, 51; Mark 15:33, 38 and Luke 23:44-45, darkness, a symbol of sin, appeared, and the veil of the temple, which separated man from God, was split in two. Those are signs regarding the Lord’s redemptive death. The Lord’s redemptive death is also depicted by the words spoken by the Lord on the cross in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them,” and in Matthew 27:46, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (because He bore our sin at that time). But the flowing water in John 19:34 is a sign regarding the Lord’s life-imparting death. This death that imparts life releases the Lord’s divine life from within Him for the producing of the church, composed of all His believers into whom His divine life is imparted. This life-imparting death of the Lord is signified by the death of the one grain of wheat falling into the ground for the bringing forth of many grains (12:24). Hence, it is also the life-propagating, life-multiplying death, the generating and reproducing death.
If we do not see the mystery of Christ’s redemptive work, we will not know the significance of the blood and water flowing out from His side. The flowing of the blood and water is mysterious. Blood is for redeeming, but water is for life-imparting. This is mysterious because life-imparting is a mysterious matter. As we have pointed out, the Lord’s death on the cross was likened to a grain of wheat falling into the earth to die in order to bring forth many grains. This aspect of Christ’s death is also a mystery.
Another mysterious aspect of the Lord’s death is referred to in John 3:14 and 15: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life.” This is the fulfillment of the type of the bronze serpent lifted up on a pole by Moses (Num. 21:4-9). When the children of Israel sinned against God, they were bitten by serpents. God told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on their behalf for God’s judgment so that by looking upon that bronze serpent all might live. That was the type. In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus applied this type to Himself. As the fulfillment of the type of the bronze serpent lifted up on a pole, the Lord was lifted up on the cross to deal with Satan, the old serpent. This is certainly a mystery.
Of course, the incarnation is a great mystery. Christ’s deity is a mystery, and His becoming flesh is also a mystery. How could the very God become flesh? This is mysterious.
All the Gospels record miracles done by the Lord Jesus, and in Matthew, Mark, and Luke they are called miracles. However, the miracles in the Gospel of John are not called miracles; the Greek word is translated signs. For example, in Cana of Galilee the Lord changed water into wine. This was a miracle. But John 2:11 says, “This beginning of signs Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed into Him.” A sign signifies something invisible. It is a symbol that points to a mystery. All the miracles in the Gospel of John, being signs, signify certain invisible mysteries. Every sign in this Gospel is a symbol of a mystery. Therefore, the Gospel of John is a book of mysteries.
As a book of mysteries, the Gospel of John is the story of God. It is not merely the story of a man named Jesus. It was the very God who lived in this man who performed these miracles, these signs. Therefore, we may say that the Gospel of John is the story of God in the man Jesus. This God does many signs. Whatever He does is a mystery. We may know all the miracles recorded in this Gospel, but we may not have seen that these all are signs of mysteries. I point this out because we need to realize that the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings is altogether a mysterious matter.
We have seen that the Gospel of John, along with his Epistles and Revelation, is a book of mysteries. This Gospel speaks of the mystery of Christ’s divine person and work. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Here we see three mysteries. The Word is a mystery, the flesh is a mystery, and even the tabernacle is a mystery. The Word, the Logos, is a mystery to us. In eternity Christ was the Logos, and in time this Logos became flesh. According to John 1:14, this flesh is a tabernacle. All this is a mystery that is beyond our ability to comprehend fully.
Sometimes we say, according to the Bible, that we are the dwelling place of God. This means that we are God’s sanctuary. In the Lord’s recovery we would never refer to our meeting hall as a sanctuary. But we definitely have a sanctuary in the church life, for we, the believers in Christ, are God’s sanctuary. No, we do not have a so-called sanctuary built of wood, steel, and stone. Instead, we have a sanctuary built of the living members of Christ. Unbelievers are not able to understand this. If we tell them that we, the living members of Christ, are God’s sanctuary, they would say, “What are you talking about? I don’t understand how you people can be a sanctuary.” The reason unbelievers cannot understand how we can be God’s sanctuary is that this is a mystery.
Let us go on from the mysteries of the Word and the tabernacle to the Lamb of God. According to John 1:29, John the Baptist said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John, of course, did not see a lamb; he saw the man Jesus walking. But he declared that this One is the Lamb of God. This also is a mystery.
In John 1:1 we first have God and the Logos, the Word. Then in John 1:14 we have the tabernacle. In the Life-study of Exodus we studied the tabernacle in great detail. The tabernacle in Exodus is a type of God’s dwelling place. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was God, and this Word, which is God, became flesh. This flesh is the tabernacle. Hallelujah, we have God! We have the tabernacle!
Once we have the tabernacle, the next crucial matter is to behold the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God represents all the offerings, for this Lamb is the leading offering. Therefore, in John 1 we have God, we have God’s dwelling place, the tabernacle, and we have all the offerings.
The tabernacle signifies that it is possible to enter into God, or we may say that God is enterable. This is clearly indicated by the fact that the tabernacle, which signifies God incarnate, has an entrance. Therefore, the tabernacle with its entrance indicates that God Himself is enterable. But how can we enter into God as the tabernacle? According to the typology in the Old Testament, we enter the tabernacle by means of the offerings. In the Old Testament the offerings were the means by which the children of Israel could enter the tabernacle. Without the offerings, no one was allowed to come into the tabernacle. This indicates that apart from the offerings required by God, no one can enter into Him. This is the reason that after the tabernacle in John 1:14 we have the Lamb of God in 1:29 as the unique representative of all the offerings.
John 1:29 says that the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. This means that Christ as the Lamb of God takes away sin from the human race. The phrase of the world in this verse actually means from mankind. Through Satan sin entered into man. Satan injected sin, his poisonous nature, into the human race, but the Lamb of God has come to take away this sin from the world, from mankind. Therefore, through this unique offering it is possible for fallen human beings to enter into God.
Following the Lamb, we have the dove, which symbolizes the Spirit. First, the Word, the Logos, became the tabernacle. Then the very One who is the tabernacle also became the offerings represented by the Lamb. Now we must go on to see that the One who is the tabernacle and the offerings has become the life-giving Spirit signified by the dove. First Corinthians 15:45b says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” This life-giving Spirit is the dove in John 1:32.
In the Life-study of Exodus we have seen that after the tabernacle and the offerings we have the ointment. The ointment in Exodus 30 typifies the life-giving Spirit. Hence, both the ointment and the dove symbolize the Spirit.
It is important to understand why the ointment is recorded after the tabernacle and the offerings and why the dove is mentioned after the tabernacle and the Lamb. The reason for this sequence is that first we need the incarnation, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. It was through resurrection that Christ became the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is symbolized by the dove and by the anointing oil. This should help us to understand why the dove, a sign of the Spirit, must come after the tabernacle and the Lamb, the unique offering.
The symbols in the Bible are very meaningful. This is true in particular of the Lamb and the dove in John 1. A lamb is something on earth, and a dove soars in the heavens. Christ as the Lamb was a man walking on earth. But when He became the life-giving Spirit, He became the Spirit in the heavens, signified by the dove.
Thus far in John 1 we have seen four aspects of one wonderful person. In eternity past Christ was the Logos, the Word. Then in time He became the tabernacle and also the offerings. After becoming all the offerings, He became the life-giving Spirit, the dove from heaven. I am pointing out the mysteries of the Logos, the tabernacle, the Lamb, and the dove in John 1. These are not ordinary words; they are signs. The Logos, the Word, is a sign. Likewise, the tabernacle, the Lamb, and the dove all are signs.
As a sign, what does the Word, the Logos, signify? The Logos signifies God explained, defined, and expressed. The Logos, therefore, is a sign giving us a full picture of God.
As a sign, what does the tabernacle signify? The tabernacle signifies that the eternal God, after taking the step of incarnation, became one with man, who is in the flesh, and through a process of mingling became His own dwelling place. This is the significance of the tabernacle as a sign. The tabernacle signifies that through incarnation God became a man, mingled Himself with humanity, and became His own dwelling place. How mysterious this is! Because of matters like this in the Gospel of John, it is not easy to understand it.
Now we need to go on to ask what the Lamb signifies. The Lamb signifies that the incarnate God who has become His own dwelling place has also become all the offerings to take away sin from the world so that God’s chosen people may enter into Him.
What is the significance of the dove? The dove signifies that the One who became the tabernacle and who is all the offerings has become a life-giving Spirit to impart God into all those who accept the offerings in order to enter into God. This means that the life-giving Spirit imparts the divine person, the Divine Being, into the believers to be their life. How wonderful! Praise the Lord for the significance of the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, and the dove!
What is the issue of the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, and the dove? The issue, the result, is the stone. This is the reason the Lord Jesus looked at Simon Peter and said, “You are Simon, the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (which translated means a stone)” (v. 42, lit.). Everyone who takes the offerings and enters into God, having the divine life imparted into him, eventually becomes a stone. First, the life-giving Spirit regenerates the believers and imparts the divine life into them. Then He gradually transforms them one by one from clay into stone. In God’s creation we all are clay. But in God’s new creation we, the believers in Christ, will be transformed into stones for the building up of God’s dwelling place, Bethel. Therefore, the final issue of the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, and the stone is the house of God.
When the eternal God became flesh, He became the tabernacle. At the same time, He became the offerings to take care of the problem of sin. He has also become the life-giving Spirit to impart Himself into His believers to be their life. As a result, the believers are regenerated and gradually transformed into stones for the building up of the house of God.
In chapter 1 of John we see the tabernacle toward the beginning and the house of God at the very end. In between the tabernacle and the house of God, we have the redeeming Lamb to accomplish redemption through the offerings, and the life-giving Spirit to impart life into the believers to regenerate them and transform them into stones. Then these stones will be built up into the house of God.
Is this not the fulfillment of the tabernacle and all the offerings? Certainly here in the writings of John we have the fulfillment of the types of the tabernacle and the offerings in the Old Testament. All these matters are very mysterious. By the Lord’s mercy, these mysteries, conveyed in the signs of the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, the stone, and the house of God, have become clear and visible to us.
I hope that after reading this chapter you will be able to tell others how the tabernacle and the offerings have their fulfillment in the Gospel of John. Regarding this matter, we should not speak according to our imagination or natural intelligence. We should speak according to what is revealed in the Gospel of John. In John 1 we first have God defined, explained, and expressed by the Word. The Word is the definition of God. Hence, the Word is the defined God. This defined God, the Logos, became the tabernacle. This means that the type of the tabernacle in the Old Testament was fulfilled by the defined God coming to mingle Himself with man in the flesh. Let us be impressed that the defined God becoming incarnate to mingle Himself with humanity is the fulfillment of the type of the tabernacle. In simple words, we may say that the tabernacle has been fulfilled by the defined God in His incarnation.
A number of songs and hymns have been written on the birth of Christ. One well-known hymn, written by Charles Wesley, opens with the words, “Hark! the herald angels sing, / ‘Glory to the new-born King.’” Like so many others, this hymn is a praise concerning the birth of Jesus mainly according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. But where can you find a hymn that is a praise concerning Christ’s incarnation and birth written according to the revelation in the Gospel of John? It is easier to write hymns according to what is written in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, because these Gospels are not so mysterious. But because the incarnation of the defined God as presented in John is very mysterious, it is difficult to write a hymn on this subject. Nevertheless, I would encourage some of the saints to try to compose a hymn on the incarnation of the defined God.
In traditional Christian teachings the matter of the incarnation of the defined God to become the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place, has been neglected. The reason for this neglect is that a matter such as this is mysterious. How we thank the Lord that, in His mercy, He has revealed this mystery to us!
Today we have the reality of the tabernacle and the reality of all the offerings by means of which we may enter into the incarnated God. Many Christians have not seen how this dear One, the One who became the tabernacle and who is all the offerings, has also become the dove, the life-giving Spirit. But in John 1 we see a dove on a Lamb, the heavenly dove upon a Lamb on earth. This Lamb of God is all the offerings. This dove is the life-giving Spirit who has regenerated us, who is now transforming us into stones, and who is also building us up into the house of God. This house is the Bethel that brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven. This is the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings.
Chapter 1 of John is the introduction to the entire Gospel of John. The remaining twenty chapters are filled with details showing how this One is the tabernacle and how He is the sin offering, the trespass offering, the meal offering, the burnt offering, and, eventually, the peace offering. In particular, in chapter 14 we see how this One becomes the life-giving Spirit. First, as the Lamb of God, Christ is all the offerings. Then according to what is revealed in chapter 14, through death and resurrection He becomes the life-giving Spirit.
In John 14:16 and 17 the Lord Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” The very “He” who is the Spirit of reality in verse 17 becomes the very “I” who is the Lord Himself in verse 18. This means that after His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit of reality. First Corinthians 15:45 confirms this. In dealing with the matter of resurrection, this verse says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.”
Therefore, when the Spirit of reality comes to be in us, the Lord Himself comes to dwell in us, for He has become the life-giving Spirit. Now, through the life-imparting and transforming work of the Spirit, all those who believe in Christ can be transformed from Simons to Peters and thereby become stones to be built up into the house of God, God’s dwelling place on earth.
As we consider the following twenty chapters in the Gospel of John, we will see the details concerning the six items that form the extract of chapter 1: the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb of God, the dove, the stone, and the house of God.
