“Living Stones, Flowing Fountains” (Ch. 34); "Enter In" (Ch. 35)

Created to Draw Near: Our Life as God’s Royal Priests
by Edward Welch

“Living Stones, Flowing Fountains” (Chapter 34)

Living Stones

• Stones as memorials (Gen. 28:22)
• Stones of the temple
• Christ the Living Stone
• Believers as living stones in Christ

1 Peter 2:4–5 NIV

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

“This spiritual house is the Most Holy Place where God’s holiness was most concentrated and his glory most vivid.” – Edward Welch

Ephesians 2:19–22 NIV

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

 

The New Temple

• Christ the Cornerstone
• Apostles and teachers the foundation
• Believers the stones built on the Cornerstone and foundation

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 NIV

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

 

Temple Imagery

• “Glorify” (Glory)
• “A living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1)
• “Living water” (Jn. 4:14)
• “Light of the world” (Matt. 5:14)
• “Showbread” kept close to God (Ex. 25-30)
• Prayers are “incense and aroma rising up to the Lord” (Rev. 8:3)

Living Stones to Flowing Fountains

• Stones that yield water?

Exodus 17:5–6 NIV

The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

• Water-giving stone in the Temple

Ezekiel 47:1 NIV

The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.

• Water at the Feast of Tabernacles

John 7:37–39 NIV

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

“Jesus is the stone that gives living water. As we believe in him, we are reborn of 'water and the Spirit' (John 3:5) and are remade into living temple stones that are so filled with the presence of God that we cannot contain his work in us. It seeps out and brings life to family, friends, neighbors, and the world.” - Edward Welch

"Enter In" (Chapter 35)

Ongoing Sacrifices?

• Christ’s sacrifice was the end of the OT animal sacrifices, because his was sufficient and final for our atonement.
• But we still offer sacrifices to God in the NT, sacrifices that flow out of the grace we have received.
  • Love has become the sacrifice that we bring to the Lord.
  • Our good works and generosity are a well-pleasing sacrifice to the Lord (Phil. 4:18; Heb. 13:15).
  • Obedience to God’s Word has always been preferable to ritual sacrifices (1 Sam. 15:22-23).
  • We offer our whole selves as sacrifices to the Lord.

Romans 12:1 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

 

God’s Pattern of Grace

• God acts first.
• He gives new mercies in Christ.
• God makes promises and keeps them.
• God’s faithfulness is not determined by ours.
• He always acts first and loves the most.
• Then we respond to his mercy as living sacrifices.

“This devotion to the Lord is worked out in the details of everyday life. It includes how we work together as the body of Christ, each exerting the gifts God has given without jealousy or envy, all of which can be summarized as love that is genuine, generous, humble, and persistent even when mistreated.” - Edward Welch

We Wash at the Basin

• The priests washed their hands and feet at the bronze basin before entering the Tabernacle into the Lord’s presence.
• We have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we continually wash at the basin by confessing our sins.

1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

“Paul wants us to refuse to tolerate personal ungodliness; he also wants us not to tolerate past condemnation and old regrets. So in the most resolute of ways, he heaps on us what has been accomplished in Jesus through the Spirit.” - Edward Welch

“So when you come to the basin, you are not repeatedly coming to Jesus for admittance to his house. “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10). You come because priests still sin. Though you have been set apart by God for himself, relationships can still be affected by unconfessed sin. So you confess daily, and confession enhances open and close fellowship.” - Edward Welch

We light incense, and the smoke comes before the Lord.

• In the tabernacle, the altar of incense continually offered up a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord. It represented the prayers of the priests and the people.

“In God’s house there is lots of talking. That’s what families do. When you are needy, live among needy people, and live with your generous Father, you talk all the more. We pray, he responds with words from Scripture. Silence and home simply do not go together.” - Edward Welch

Psalm 141:2 NIV

May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

“Picture bowls. Golden bowls. Our prayers are placed in these bowls, and they are offered to the Lord, along with the prayers of other saints (Rev. 5:8; 8:3).” - Edward Welch

“This glimpse of spiritual realities gives new zeal to priestly prayers. God, indeed, hears the prayers of one, solitary child who has been abandoned. He also is pleased when the bowls are full. This is why we ask other people to pray. With our more desperate prayers, we ask as many people to pray as possible, and not one prayer is inconsequential to the resulting heavenly aroma.” - Edward Welch