True North | Week 6 | Pat McCalla

The big idea

The God who is too great to even describe, who needs no one and nothing, still wants to be close to us. From the garden, to the tabernacle in the wilderness, to Jesus becoming flesh, to the Holy Spirit living in believers, Scripture shows one continuous story of God moving toward us so He can dwell with us.

Point 1 of 7

Pastor Pat sets the scene at Mount Sinai with the mountain shaking and the Shekinah glory on display, then points out that Moses brought back not just the Ten Commandments but detailed instructions to build a tabernacle. God told Moses to place it in the very center of the camp so all one and a half million Israelites could look and see where their God dwelled.

Point 2 of 7

Pastor Pat walks through the parts of the tabernacle — the menorah, the table of showbread, the altar of incense, and the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant — and explains that Jesus fulfilled the blood offering once for all. He then unpacks the word mishkan itself, showing that its real meaning is about relationship and presence, not architecture.

Point 3 of 7

Pastor Pat notes that John is the only New Testament writer to use this word, translating it so his Jewish readers would connect Jesus to the wilderness tabernacle. In John 1:14, Jesus made His home, or mishkan, with humanity by compressing Himself into a human being.

Point 4 of 7

Pastor Pat retells Genesis 3, where God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden as a normal evening rhythm, and after their sin still called out, Where are you? He argues this wasn't God being uninformed but God pointing out that they were the ones who moved away.

Point 5 of 7

Pastor Pat walks through John 14, showing that as a limited human Jesus could only be present in one place at a time, but the Spirit would never leave believers and would move from being with them to being in them. This, he says, is God wanting to be closer to us than even physical presence would allow.

Point 6 of 7

Pastor Pat reads Revelation 21:3, showing that John used the word mishkan again to describe the future when God's home will be permanently among His people. He frames this as the bookend to Eden and the tabernacle, showing the whole Bible tells one story of God moving toward us.

Point 7 of 7

Pastor Pat highlights that God gave specific instructions for each tribe's camp position, with Judah — the tribe Jesus would come from — stationed at the entrance facing east. He connects this to Jesus calling Himself the door and the way, arguing none of these details were accidental.

Take it into your week

Pastor Pat frames the whole message around Jesus' question echoing from the garden: Where are you?