This is the Gate of Heaven

I'd like to begin today by reading from Genesis chapter 28, verse 10 and following. Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Herod. He came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set.

Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your descendants. And your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth.

And you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And by you and your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done the things which I have spoken of to you.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God.

This is the gate of heaven. So Jacob rose early in the morning and he took the stone which had been his pillow under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel.

This was the turning point in Jacob's life. This was his first encounter with God. And it was from this point on that Jacob began to change from Jacob the supplanter, the cheat, into Israel, the man who strives with God.

Jacob called the name of the place Bethel, Beth El, Beth Elohim, house of God. And it was here at Bethel, sleeping with his stone for his pillow, that Jacob learned the three basic lessons of the kingdom of God that absolutely must get through to our hearts if it's going to make any sense to us at all or ever be real in our lives. One, Jacob learned that he was living his life under a holy eye.

How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.

It was like a window through which he now sees the holy. This is his first vision of the living God. The second lesson Jacob learned that night was that God is with him, that he's not alone.

Now he's on this journey because he's scared to death his brother Esau is going to kill him. So now he has set out all by himself and he's lonely and he's frightened and he's homesick. But now he sees that he's not alone, that God is in fact right there with him.

The third lesson Jacob learns is that he has a purpose on this earth beyond himself, that this land on which he's been sleeping is to be given to him and to his children and children's children, his descendants, and that in a mysterious way all the families of the earth are to be blessed through him and through them. So Jacob rose early in the morning and he took the stone which he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it and called the name of the place Bethel, Beth Elohim, house of God. Every man or a woman or child whoever comes into the kingdom of God in fact starts at Bethel begins by learning these three lessons with Jacob.

One, that you are living your life under the eye of a holy God. He's not just your buddy. He's not out to get you and throw you into hell but he watches, observes, remembers, and to that eye each of us has to answer.

That this God is with you. This awesome and wonderful God is right there with you to help and to bless. And three, that you are on this earth for a purpose beyond satisfying your own needs.

You are on this earth to fulfill a purpose beyond yourself. Since the birth, life, death, resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Since he poured out his spirit upon the assembled believers on the day of Pentecost, Bethel, the house of God, the gate of heaven on this earth, the place where people meet God, where they encounter the holy, is where these followers of Jesus are in fact functioning as his body.

It's the house of God. It's the gate of heaven when the believers are functioning as his body. And wherever this is the case, on earth today this miracle reoccurs.

You could say that today in a mystery, in places beyond our comprehension, a thousand Jacobs are stumbling into a thousand Bethels and meeting God. But the thing we need to get clear, very, very clear in our minds, is that we have been ordained to be one of these Bethels. That we have been gathered together, located in this spot on earth, just as that was a spot on earth, to be a meeting place with God for the wandering Jacobs, the travelers who come our way.

The only reason we're on this earth, and the only reason we've been gathered together and brought here, that we come here, go forth from here, gather again, go forth again, is so that these Jacobs, male and female, who are wandering the earth and looking for something, can stumble into our midst and learn these three lessons. That they are living their life under a holy eye, that God is with them, and it's time now for them to give themselves to a purpose beyond themselves. That's why we're here.

Otherwise, we might as well have been raptured and taken to heaven. We're here to be a Bethel. Now the pattern, or the model, that we have in the New Testament for this Bethel begins not with a temple, not with a synagogue, but with a private home.

An ordinary private home where two sisters and a brother are living. And this home is a wonderful Bethel. We run across it at the end, first of all, of the tenth chapter of Luke, and we find that this home doesn't have any spotlights on it, no heavenly music hovering above it.

This is an ordinary private home with all the problems of any private home. But the thing that makes it a Bethel is that Jesus is totally welcomed into this, and he's received into this home as a friend. And he's especially received into this home with high, high honor.

Reading from Luke chapter 10, starting at verse 38. Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at Jesus' feet and listened to his teaching.

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went to him and she said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. There's a private home. Typical.

But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things. One thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion which shall not be taken away from her.

Now both Martha and Mary want to make Jesus welcome. Martha does it by feeding him. That's a wonderful thing.

That's a good thing she's doing here. Mary does it by sitting at his feet, drinking in every word, listening. And this is a better thing.

Better. Bethel began for Jacob when Jacob listened carefully to every word God spoke to him that night. That's what made it Bethel for him.

He's listening, carefully listening. And Bethel began in this house, really, when Mary sits at Jesus' feet, listens, listens, drinks in every word, takes it in. For 10 months, the word of the Lord to this flock has been, be still and listen.

Draw near and listen. And this means more than listen to the sermons. It means listen for my voice as it's coming forth from whatever the mouthpiece.

Listen as I speak in a thousand different ways to you. Never in our history has the word been coming more clearly, as far as I'm concerned, than in the last 10 months. And it's been coming through many a mouth and through many a life.

And the Lord is saying to us, listen, draw near and listen. Don't lose what I'm trying to show you and tell you by bustling around in that kitchen, whatever your kitchen happens to be. Don't lose what I'm trying to get across to you by fussing over your... Don't lose what I'm trying to say to you by chasing all over the place, serving your God on your terms.

Don't lose what I'm trying to say to you by fuming over Mary, sitting at my feet, listening like you should be. Settle down, draw near, quiet down, simplify, and listen. Even if it means dropping 90% of the things you think you have to do, because nothing will happen and nothing will work until you get the message that I'm giving you, says the Lord to all of us corporately and individually.

We read a little farther on in the New Testament and we come across this Bethel again. Some time has elapsed, Jesus' ministry is nearing its close, His ministry in flesh and blood, but this Bethel is brighter than ever. And so in John chapter 12, verse 1 we read, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, that's the town, Bethany meaning house of poverty, southwest Detroit.

Came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper. Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those at table with him.

Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. Now, this time Lazarus, who has been raised from the dead by Jesus, is sitting at the table and he's listening. Martha, bless her heart, right on going, serving.

God bless her, but Mary, this Mary who has been sitting at Jesus' feet drinking in and drinking in, is now ready to pour out. And so she takes a pound of nard, pure nard, worth a year's wages, and lavishes the whole thing on those feet of Jesus, where she's been sitting and listening. See, she's doing the same thing Jacob did.

Jacob took this stone which had been his pillow, makes it a pillar, and puts oil on top of it, anoints the stone, makes the commitment in that passage that from now on, 10% of everything that comes my way goes back to you as a sign that everything I have is yours. He's pouring this oil on the stone as a sign of an offering of himself up to God. Mary does the same thing.

She takes this very, very expensive treasure that she has, and it's been kept there perhaps in the family for a long time, who knows, but it's hers. And she takes the whole thing and she anoints his feet. And this is a sign in the same way that she's giving herself to Jesus, just turning herself abandoning herself to him.

And as she does this, the house is filled with the fragrance of the ointment, and the fragrance of the ointment is a symbol of the presence of God. Now it's Bethel for sure. And anybody who walks into that house with any sense at all, any integrity at all, can smell.

Now for us, this assembly is Bethel. This is the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.

God has brought us together from many places and backgrounds and made us one in his Son, broken down the wall of partition. And if we haven't gone through the hole he made in that and made us one, so that lonely, troubled, frightened, Jacob's male and female can come among us and find God. Perhaps you can sense I'm here today.

So that fussing, fuming, fretting, anxious, worried, Martha's, male and female, Martha's here too. And so that Lazarus can get up out of his tomb and live. This is the house of God, Bethel, the gate of heaven.

And for this to be such a thing, only two things on our part. We drink in, that's what Jacob did. Jacob drank in and he poured out.

He drank in the words that the Lord gave him in his vision. Then immediately he begins to pour himself out, starting with the oil. Drank in, poured out.

She drinks in these words that Jesus speaks and she takes them as treasure. Other people are walking through the house and fussing and fuming and they don't even know they're missing priceless treasure that could change their lives. But here's this woman and then he's pouring it out.

Pours out the ointment, the nard, anoints his feet, wipes them with her hair, fills the house with the fragrance. And that's all we have to do, drink in and pour out. First, we need to drink in.

God help us to do what Jacob did, to do what Mary did, and to listen, listen carefully. Nothing, nothing is more important in any of our lives than to hear what the Lord is trying to tell us. To receive the word the Lord is giving us, we need to settle down, simplify, listen, concentrate.

We need to ask ourselves, am I in fact listening to what he is saying to me, really listening? Or am I distracted, so distracted by my own anger, or my own vanity, or my own fears, or my own greed, or my own insistence that I'm right? Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled about many things. And here's this woman trying to do her best in a way, but it wasn't her best. She says it's her best.

Here she is running around the kitchen, anxious and troubled about many, troubled about many things. That's what he's saying to us. One thing is needful.

Get the word I'm giving to you. Drop everything, let them starve, give them peanut butter sandwiches, doesn't make any difference. Take in this word, listen.

One thing is needful. Mary's chosen that good part. It's not going to be taken from her.

And if you choose the word that I'm giving you, it won't be taken from you either. It'll never be ripped off. And then, then we need to pour out.

We need to take the oil like Jacob did and pour it on the rock. We need to take the best that we have, the pure nard that Mary has, and put it on his feet. We need to offer up our bodies as a living sacrifice, present to him the very best that we have.

We need to ask ourselves, am I giving him? Am I willing? Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these fish? Oh, you know that I love you. Gold refined by fire. Zeal, a pure heart, a whole heart offered up to him.

When we take the pure nard, the treasure, the best that we have, and we break that open and we start anointing the feet of the Lord with that, this house is filled with the fragrance of the ointment, draws the Jacobs so that they can find God, brings the Martha's from all over the place so they can find peace. That fragrance raises Lazarus from the dead. This, the gate of heaven, if we will sit at those and then anoint those feet.

Let's take some silence. Let the spirit speak to us.