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TRANSCRIPT

Hey, welcome to The Centre podcast. We're a church based in Dural, Sydney, who loves Jesus. And so want to make him the center of our lives, community and world. We pray that you, blessed by this word and that it reveals God's love for you in a new way.

Oh, hello again, everyone. Well, week three of our preparing for Pentecost series and the last two weeks, we've kind of looked at the the image of the Holy Spirit being water. Sure. And breath. We looked at Ezekiel's prophecy to the valley of the Dry Bones. Last week we looked at Jesus conversation with Nicodemus about being born of water and the spirit being born from above.

Tonight we actually looking at, as the display shows, the Holy Spirit as fire. And what are we going to do this morning? The plan is we are to look at three moments in the Old Testament and look at the burning bush. God's presence coming down on Mount Sinai and the God's presence coming down upon the tabernacle and see how they fit into Pentecost.

And then we'll land the sermon with some tools to walk away from. So that's the plan for today. I'm very excited about this because when I get into some really nitty gritty, biblical stuff, but hopefully to be able to walk away with something practical that you can use throughout your weeks. But before we begin, we open up with a prayer.

And this is a 1100 year old prayer that the church has had. And in English, it's called prayer to the Holy Spirit. So let's begin with this one. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.

Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit. You have taught the hearts of your faithful in the same spirit. Help us to relish what is right and always rejoice in your consolation. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Now we're going to do a bit of a George Lucas. If anyone knows Star Wars George Lucas gave, you know, the later movies first, then gave the prequels.

So we're going to actually do a bit of scripture reading now. But before we get to the burning bush, we got to look at the lighter passages first and then look at the burning bush. Does that make sense? We're going to do that. We're happy with that. And so the reason for that is hopefully you'll pick up on some themes because most of us know the burning Bush story.

Yes, yes, we're pretty familiar with it. And so hopefully in reading through God coming down on Mount Sinai and his presence coming on the tabernacle, you start to go, oh, there's some themes there that remind me of the burning bush. So let's start with God's presence coming down on Mount Sinai. And that should be there on the screen, hopefully from act 19.

There we go. Now see him on the morning of the third day. There was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone! The camp trembled, and Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire.

The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Moses spoke, and the voice of God answered him. The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai, and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up, and the Lord said to him, go down and warn the people, so that they do not force their way through to say, the Lord, and many of them perish.

Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them. So because I don't like it's not a mystery novel, I'll just spell out in black and white famous fire. That's pretty obvious by in fact, even that word lightning. And it literally means fire. So clear there's fire and only Moses is allowed up the mountain cloud a little bit, like when Moses appears and, God appears to Moses from the burning bush.

Holy ground. Take off shoes. This is holy ground. Only Moses there. Okay, so that's sort of the the hints there. And the second one is with the tabernacle of the God's presence coming down the tabernacle, some extra support, it says, then the cloud cover, the tent of meeting. That's another way to describe the tabernacle. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

So now here's you say this scene here. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had set on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out. But the cloud did not lift. They did not say until the day it lifted.

So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night. Inside of all the Israelites, during all their travels. Okay, hopefully. So we got the themes that we're building up here. Idea of fire. The idea of God's presence is so holy that people are restricted. What's interesting about X is not even Moses can go in at that moment.

So I think that's some helpful kind of things to have in the back of our mind now and then let's we know we know Pentecost. Pentecost is that moment when the spirit comes, the wind blows. And what rests above the heads of the disciples. What is that? Yeah. Fire! Guys, this is really deliberate language that Luke is drawing upon in the book of acts to make us remember these moments, these powerful, powerful moments.

Now, let's be honest. Who here is frightened of storms, Stand outside a massive electrical storm. Oh, man. Maybe I'm the only one that scared. But remember that storm back in January? The kids were frightened. They couldn't sleep. That wasn't even that big of a storm. God's power and glory is so much more greater than just a little storm.

But yet Pentecost changes. It's only the glory that was there in Exodus is now in us. And what's really cool is that this idea of Pentecost, it not only riffs off the Old Testament, but there was some Jewish expectations. Now, there was a first century Jewish, writer by the name of Thilo note that should be on the screen.

And so this is really, you see almost it's like Pentecost steals what Thilo is writing about, even though follow right before Pentecost. So here's what he said. This is firelight describing God's presence coming down on the Mount, and a voice sounded forth out of the midst of the fire which had flowed from heaven, a most marvelous and awful voice, the flame being endowed with articulate speech and a language familiar to the hearers.

Doesn't that sound really, really familiar? Like Pentecost, which expressed its words with such clearness and distinctiveness that the people seemed rather to be seeing, then hearing it? What is he saying? Do you not understand? It is that fill us that at that moment when God came down on Mount Sinai, it was like there was fire coming out that fire.

And other Jewish authors would say, Torah, God's words. It's like a fire. It's like a flame. And not only that, it came out in language that everyone could understand. This is what Luke is drawing upon. These are these images of Pentecost, that God's presence that was so terrifying, that was so frightening. Now rest upon us. The flame of Torah is now within our hearts.

And as we know from Pentecost, everyone could understand each other's languages. And here's a fun little fact that you can take to your next dinner party. There were. Do you know how many disciples there were at Pentecost? Anyone had the number? There was 100 and oh, come on Murray. Yeah. No, 120, 120 disciples were there at Pentecost. Guess how many words there are?

From, when Moses is up on the mountain scribbling down the Ten Commandments, how many words in Hebrew? 120. There you go. There's a fun little fact there. So there's a little cool little facts that you can keep in your head to make you understand just how rich and deep Scripture is, right? After all that. Now let's get to the burning bush.

This classic passage of Scripture says here now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up some other thought.

I will go over and see this strange sight. Why the bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. Moses, Moses and Moses said, here I am. Do not come any closer. God said, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

They said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. At this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers. I am concerned about their suffering, so I've come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

I will skip all those nations. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, God, I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. But most said, the God who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?

And God said, I will be with you. This will be the sign that it is I who has sent you. When you've brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Most had the God. Suppose that the Israelites, God, the Israelites, and say to them, the God of your father says, send me to you.

And they ask, what is his name? Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you. I said to Moses, say the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever. The name you shall call me from generation to generation. A classic passage of Scripture setting up Yahweh's rescue plan for the Israelites. And hopefully now you're starting to see the connections. You say that that the fire that's there in the bush, the fact that Moses needs to take off his sandals, the fact to that God actually says, well, I'm going to be present with the people.

That's the whole point of him delivering us so they can go back to this mountain and worship him. All of these themes are being set up, starting there at the burning bush. As Scripture progresses, you see that God's plan God. God is a holy God, a consuming fire. The book of Hebrews tells us, but a God who wants to be present with his people, friends.

That's what Pentecost points us to. That moment where the Holy God, the Holy Spirit, now rests within us. That's why you need to have the Old Testament to fully appreciate the new, to fully appreciate what it means to be a new covenant. Believe this to be past Pentecost. People. That same spirit that purified that tree, that purified the tabernacle, that's the spirit that resides within us.

It's a remarkable, remarkable privilege that perhaps we thought a bit like, oh, yeah, cool. We kind of know it up here. But how is that transforming our lives? Are we living as people where we're allowing God's Spirit to burn within us, to purify, to set others free? Now, I wouldn't be doing my job, as I love to do, without giving us some more interesting facts.

And so the first one here is the Hebrew term for bush, which should be there on the screen there. It's what's called a homonym. So the word in Hebrew for Bush is senior. And it sounds awfully similar to Mount Sinai. And that's no accident there, because God himself said that the Mount, Mount Horeb, this is where it gets to be confusing Mount Horeb and that Sinai, actually the same Mount.

So where Moses is standing, it's holy ground. Holy ground represents God's presence. And to be in God's presence means that we have to worship. The other really interesting thing is about this sort of Sarnath Sinai kind of link is geography. I have a map now on the screen and he probably can't say it, but right down the bottom, sort of right.

Can you see the word that starts Midian round there on Mount Sinai median all the way down there? Now, you don't have to be a biblical geography expert to see what kind of Mount Sinai is all the way at the bottom here, down towards the Arabia, at the top of the map, there. Can you guess where that place is?

What's that there at the top of the map? I'm gonna call that someone. Be brave. It's the land of what? Israel. Yeah. Okay, so if Yahweh in the flaming bush and at Mount Sinai is appearing down here in Midian, is that the same place as the Promised Land? Yes or no? No. That's really, really important. Because saying that.

Yeah. Okay. Cool. God. God has set aside this land. God has set aside a temple. But ultimately, there are really important moments when God reveals himself not in a holy temple, not in a holy city, not in a holy land, but in the wilderness. That's the other thing that I've been trying to point with these three passages the Tabernacle.

The Israelites spent a lot of time wandering. You can see it there on the map. Wilderness of Egypt, just wandering around. God's presence is still with them in that tabernacle. Friends, God's presence is with us now when not in the sacred space. This is a sports hall, I can tell you throughout the week there are punch ups are happened in this room.

There are kids playing sports. There's all sorts of things that happen in this place, good and bad. This is not a sacred building, but at this moment, because we're gathered as living stones at the Holy Temple, because God's Spirit is here, this place becomes holy ground. Our bodies become holy ground.

Upon that conversation we have with Yahweh and Moses, Moses makes up lots of excuses and wise excuses as well. What am I going to say to them? And God says it in English. It says, Lord, he reveals what we call the covenant name. And he says, well, if they don't believe, you say, I am has sent you. And so what we say it is Yahweh.

That's probably the best guess. And she might have someone on this wall about a while ago about Yahweh being like breath. And so I should be up there on the screen if you're interested in how the the Hebrew looks, that's kind of the best guess of how we pronounce it Yahweh. And it means something like, I am who I am, I am who I will be.

And the idea behind the meaning of Yahweh is about God being unchangeable. It is unchangeable characteristics, hence his holiness, hence his justice and righteousness. But there's an Old Testament scholar at that guy called Martin Buber. He argues that as part of Yahweh, his divine name being revealed, but it's also about his presence, not simply just about God. God is unchangeable, as this abstract concept.

It's meant to be this relational term by revealing his name is Yahweh. I am who I am. So it's about his unchangeable nature. It's about relationship. It's about presence and you might have missed it or picked up upon it, but one of the points of the rescuing the Israelites from Egypt is that he can bring his people out, to worship them, to rescue them, to be in relationship with them.

This is what God wants for us to be in relationship. It's built into his name himself. For God to be our God and for we to be his people. And one of the things to help with the with the Tabernacle in particular. And there should be a picture there. It's probably not the best picture, but he can say in the tabernacle, I guess, to the temple by extension, later on that was furnished with a few things.

But the point of the Tabernacle was it was meant to be this. This reminder to the Israelites wherever they went, they were carrying Mount Sinai wherever they went, like God's presence was going with them as part of the furniture, you sort of got a table with the lives. They got an altar in there. You got what's called the Ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies behind that curtain there.

But you see the lamp, the menorah. Now, it's quite interesting with the menorah. It's shaped like a what? Tree, a bush. And look at the top of it, he might said, but it's meant to be a candle. And what do you put on top of candles? You put fire light. So within that you within the tabernacle itself, there's the golden menorah, a reminder, the burning bush, a constant reminder of God's holiness, of God's presence, of God's desire to be with his people.

And there's another really important tree for us to remember as a sign of God's presence, of wanting to be with his people. It's the cross. I mean, all the, English translations I described Jesus being hung or crucified upon a tree. That language is really deliberate because meant to remind us is that throughout Scripture there are these moments on countering God with trees and bushes, you know, tree of knowledge of good and evil, tree of life, that the, the, the bush that Moses God appears to Moses and within the tabernacle itself and the temple, the menorah, the reminder of that for us.

Remember the tree in which Jesus hung upon which from his side flowed the water and the blood now water and blood on fire. Images. But the water is particularly meant to symbolize the spirit coming out, flowing, and purifying us in so many ways. The fact that the spirit came down on fire upon the disciples because of that tree that Jesus Christ hung upon.

So just how did it was up there a moment ago? This is just, I guess, a bit of a summary case. You completely bamboozled. You got. I have no idea what you're talking about, Mitch. That was all just gobbledygook to me. You have no saying. So here's just a little summary. Exodus three burning bush location is a bush in the wilderness.

Their response is to remove the sandals fire. It's the fire that does not consume the bush. Therefore, Exodus 19, we're at the mountain, which is the same mountain from Exodus three. We've got trembling all in distance. Now it's a fire. Thunder, smoke. God dispense visibly. Exodus 40. We got the I like that language mobile tent in the wilderness.

And there is not the call to worship, to be obedient, to offer sacrifices. Now you got the fire in the cloud that rests upon it. And for us, the most important part. Acts two At Pentecost. God's presence is now on each and every believer that that moment disciples are filled. This proclamation, Peter gets up, gets up and preaches to everyone.

People respond as tongues, as of fire. Rest on the disciples. That's the summary of how the Old Testament, through particular the book access, points us to Pentecost.

Now let's kind of bring it back to our time and space into our daily lives. If we care, if we, God's Spirit rests upon us, if our bodies are living temples of the Holy Spirit, there's no longer this sort of sacred or, sacred space. That means holy ground can be wherever we go or be. Our commute to work here it be.

Doing something is mundane is doing the dishes, mopping the floor, hanging up, washing herbs, waiting around in a hospital room. Or are we just going for a walk in the park with your kids? You can bring holy ground wherever you go because the spirit, same spirit, appeared to Moses at Sinai, and that the tabernacle is now within us.

That's amazing that Moses had to remove his sandals. We didn't have to do that. We'd have to do that at all. But we are called to transform lifestyle. And the Apostle Paul, he mentions this idea of us being the temple of the Holy Spirit in a few places. Now, up there on the screen from twice in one Corinthians, then once from Second Corinthians.

The idea is that we are the temple. And so Paul typically talks about this in the from one Corinthians three, this idea of like sexual purity. But I think it as eyes with purity across all things. If if we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we don't own our souls. There is this requirement for us to live lives that reflect the calling that God has done for us.

That's one of the things that you can take out for this week. Remember that the spaces that you are in can become holy because God's presence is within you. But if you would like to do something perhaps a little different, here's a couple of tools that you can take away. As long as process that we don't ever really do in prayer.

But I invite you. If you feel cold this week, get a candle, light it up. Now you not worshiping that can do not worshiping that fire, but use it as a reminder. Oh yeah, the Holy Spirit came down this fire. Fire the burning bush fire at Sinai fire. The tabernacle. Be reminded of that fire, of that light, of that purity, and use that as something to spur on your prayer.

Now, the toolbox I invite you to is to find a. I use the word sacred space in inverted commas. Find a space where you can pray, and there is something very powerful doing is remove your shoes and spend time praying and reading the word that clearly all of us have our shoes on here. There are many cultures that will and other religions that take off their shoes.

This idea of their shoes carry dirt and uncleanliness. And by doing that, you're entering a space of holiness and doing that. That's a powerful act. You can do it as a parable. This by taking off the shoes. I am symbolically saying, Lord, I take away my silver. I give to you my sin, my evil, all the uncleanliness about me.

I step into you as one of your children to be your vessel. Sort of a challenge for you this week and some tools to help you in your spiritual walk. Now I'm going to invite Rachel in the band back. And while they're coming up, I close with, traditional, garlic Christian prayer. I have a little Irish in my background, so I love anything that's around the Celts and Gaelic garlic Christianity.

And this is a prayer in everyday life. First monk that you could just pray when you're just doing the everyday tasks around LA. So let's pray this prayer now together. This morning, as I kindle the fire on my head, I pray that the flame of God's love may burn in my heart, in the hearts of all I meet today.

I pray that no envy or malice, no hatred or fear may smother the flame. I pray that indifference and apathy, contempt and pride may not pour like cold water on the fire. Instead, may the spark of God's love light the love in my heart that it may burn brightly through the day. And may I warm those who are lonely, whose hearts are cold and lifeless, that they may know the comfort of God's love.

Amen.

Thanks so much for joining us. Don't forget to write and subscribe to help others discover this channel. Check out the description if you want to find out more or get in touch with us at The Centre. But in the meantime, praying for God's hand over you as you continue to step into everything Jesus has in store for your life.

Be blessed.