Scripture Reading: John 14:2-3; 2:16
Chapters 14, 15, and 16 of the Gospel of John are a message given by the Lord Jesus during His last night on earth. Knowing that He would be put to death the next day, during the evening He gave this message to His disciples. The message in these chapters may be considered the deepest revelation in the New Testament. After giving this message, the Lord Jesus offered the prayer to the Father recorded in chapter 17. Hence, chapter 17 may be considered the concluding prayer of the message in chapters 14 through 16. Later, we will see the content of this message.
I would remind you that the title of this book is The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John. Many Christians do not realize that the writings of John, especially his Gospel, are the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings in the Old Testament. Some may find this difficult to understand. After much deep study, we have come to realize the fact that the tabernacle and the offerings in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the writings of John.
We need to see the significance of the tabernacle and all the offerings. The tabernacle is God’s dwelling place on earth among His people. This is a great matter. The tabernacle as God’s dwelling place among His people on earth is actually the center and reality of the entire universe. We may say that the universe, which is composed of the heavens, the earth, and billions of items, is a huge container. What does the universe contain? Of course, the universe contains God. However, God wants His redeemed people to be His dwelling place in the universe. The universe contains God’s people, and God’s people are His dwelling place. Therefore, God’s dwelling place is the center and reality of the universe.
Suppose in this universe there was no such thing as a collective people, that is, there was no such thing as those who are God’s chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people. If this were the situation, there would be no dwelling place of God in the universe. Without God’s people as His dwelling place, the universe would be empty and vain, without a center and without reality. Therefore, we need to see that the center and reality of the universe is God’s dwelling place among His people.
The tabernacle as God’s dwelling place is actually a mutual dwelling place, a mutual abode. This abode is God’s dwelling and also the dwelling of God’s serving ones. Eventually, God dwells in His people, and His people dwell in Him. This means there is a mutual dwelling in a mutual dwelling place. Such a wonderful dwelling place is the center and reality of the entire universe.
This wonderful dwelling place is not only the center and reality of the universe; it is also the center and reality of the Bible. What is the center and reality of the Old Testament? It is the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place. What is the center and reality of the New Testament? It is God’s house, God’s habitation. The whole Bible is a history of God’s dwelling place. This matter is crucial.
Another crucial matter concerns what is revealed in the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John reveals the Triune God dispensing Himself into His people and thereby making them His dwelling place. Eventually, God’s dwelling place also becomes the dwelling place of God’s people. Hence, it is a mutual dwelling place or mutual abode. John 15:4 says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” This can also be translated, “Dwell in Me and I in you.” In this verse we see the mutual dwelling. Since there is a mutual dwelling, there must certainly be a mutual abode. This mutual abode is the center and reality of the Gospel of John.
The Gospel of John is an abstract of the entire Bible. Whereas the Gospel of John is an abstract of the Bible, the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings is an extract of this Gospel. Because the Bible is so long, we need an abstract of it in order to see a sketch of the whole. Then we need an extract of this abstract to see its essence. In these chapters our concern is with the extract of each chapter.
As we have previously pointed out, 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. Wine, for example, may be regarded as an extract, or the spirit, of grapes. Whenever you extract the essence of a particular substance, you get the spirit of that substance. The extracts of certain substances are sometimes used as medicine. We may say that the twenty-one chapters of the Gospel of John are a certain substance, and in these chapters we are concerned with the extract of this substance. Likewise, this extract may cheer us, or, like medicine, it may heal us.
We have pointed out that the content and reality of the universe is God’s people as His dwelling place. The universe may be compared to a shell, and God’s people as His dwelling place, to the content of this shell. Today God is building His people together to become His dwelling place. This dwelling place is the tabernacle. According to the picture in the Old Testament, God’s serving ones, the priests, dwelt in the tabernacle; that is, they dwelt in God’s dwelling place. Hence, the tabernacle is a mutual dwelling place, a dwelling place for both God and man. This dwelling place is the center and reality of the universe and also the center and reality of the Bible.
We have pointed out that the Gospel of John is an abstract of the entire Bible. In this book we have the fulfillment of the tabernacle and all the offerings. We have the tabernacle in the first chapter of John: “In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (vv. 1, 14). This is a literal translation of the Greek. However, some versions are not literal in rendering verse 14 and use the word dwelt instead of tabernacled. But writing this Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John selected the word tabernacled to indicate that Jesus, the very God incarnate, was a tabernacle. While the Lord Jesus was in the flesh dwelling among men, He was tabernacling among them. Therefore, John 1:14 indicates that Christ is the real tabernacle. First, He was God’s dwelling place, and now He has also become our dwelling place. This means that He is the mutual dwelling place of God and of God’s chosen people.
In the Old Testament we have the type of the tabernacle, but in the Gospel of John we have the fulfillment of the type. The type of the tabernacle in Exodus was a shadow or model; it was not the real tabernacle. The real tabernacle, the fulfillment of the type, is in the Gospel of John. God incarnate is this real tabernacle. As God in the flesh, Jesus is the real tabernacle in which God dwells and in which we also may dwell. By this we see that the fulfillment of the type of the tabernacle is in the Gospel of John.
In chapter 1 of the Gospel of John we have not only the tabernacle but also the Lamb of God: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29). What is the Lamb of God? Here in John 1 the Lamb of God is the aggregate of all the offerings, the totality of the offerings. In typology the offerings were in a number of categories: the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering. In addition, there were the wave offering, the heave offering, the freewill offerings, and also the drink offering. But the basic offerings were the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering. All these offerings are represented in John 1 by the Lamb of God. Therefore, in chapter 1 of John we have the tabernacle and the aggregate of all the offerings.
To say that in John 1 we have the tabernacle and the offerings means that in this chapter we have the tabernacle and the altar that is in front of the tabernacle. Of course, the word altar cannot be found in this chapter. Nevertheless, here we have the fact of the altar. Verse 29 tells us to behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Where did the Lamb of God take away our sin? He did this on the cross, and the cross is the altar. Hence, in John 1 we have the tabernacle and the cross, the altar.
The altar is for the entry into the tabernacle. Apart from the offerings, we do not have a way to enter into the tabernacle. The Lamb of God is the way for us to enter into the real tabernacle.
Not many Christians have seen that the tabernacle and the offerings are fulfilled in the Gospel of John. However, in the last century certain ones among the Brethren teachers saw this. Approximately sixty years ago, when I was under the teaching of the Brethren, I was told that in the Gospel of John we can find the tabernacle and all the offerings. The Brethren teaching, however, did not place much emphasis on the Spirit and life. Their teaching presented the picture of the tabernacle and the altar in John as the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings in the Old Testament, but it did not reveal the Spirit and life in this picture.
Two crucial matters in the Gospel of John are life and the Spirit. John is a book on eternal life, and eternal life is related to the Spirit. Without eternal life and the Spirit, we can have only a picture of the tabernacle and the offerings but not the reality and practicality of the tabernacle and the offerings.
Recently, we gave a series of messages entitled “The Central View of the Divine Dispensing,” included in The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity. Those messages were concerned with God’s dispensing. God’s dispensing is altogether a matter of eternal life and the Spirit. Furthermore, this dispensing is for the purpose of fulfilling the tabernacle and all the offerings. When we have the adequate dispensing of God into us as life, we eventually become the tabernacle; and when we become the tabernacle, we enjoy Christ in a practical way as all the offerings. Thus, we have the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings.
Perhaps you are wondering where in the Gospel of John we can find the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering. We have the sin offering in chapter 3, a chapter that describes the case of Nicodemus. Verse 14 says, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” This verse speaks of Christ as the sin offering to deal with indwelling sin, that is, to deal with our serpentine nature.
In chapter 4, which describes the case of an immoral Samaritan woman, we have the trespass offering. Nicodemus’s problem was the serpentine nature, but the Samaritan woman’s problem was her trespasses, for she had had five husbands and was living with someone who was not her husband. She needed Christ as her trespass offering.
In chapter 7 we see that Christ is absolute for God’s glory and also absolute to do God’s will. This is Christ as the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction.
We find the meal offering in chapter 6, a chapter that speaks of the bread of life. Here the bread of life is the meal offering.
Finally, in chapter 12 we see Christ as the peace offering. In a house in Bethany the Lord Jesus and some of the believers were feasting. Together they were enjoying the peace offering. Therefore, in chapters 3, 4, 7, 6, and 12 we see Christ as the fulfillment of the five basic offerings in the Old Testament.
Along with the altar and all the offerings, we need the laver. As we have pointed out, the laver is a place for washing. Chapter 13 of the Gospel of John gives us the laver for foot-washing.
After the laver we have the tabernacle. The laver is in chapter 13, and the tabernacle is in chapters 14 through 16. In these chapters we have the tabernacle with the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Then in chapter 17 we have the incense altar, for in this chapter we have Christ’s intercessory prayer. If we put all these matters together, we will see that in the Gospel of John we have a full picture of the tabernacle.
