Please look up and study the following texts before reading the lesson.

• Visual Illustration: The Gate
  • Ex.27:16; 38:18,19
• Type of Christ: Jesus is the Way
  • Mt.7:13,14; Lk.13:24-30; Ac.4:10-12; 10:13
• Applied to the believer: Enter in for Salvation
• a. Repent
  • Mk.1:15; Ac.2:38; 3:19; 17:30; 20:21
• b. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ
  • Ac.16:31; 10:43; 13:39; Jn.3:16
• c. Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ
  • Ac.2:21; Rom.10:13
• d. Receive
  • Jn.1:12
• Believer's responsibility: Confess Jesus before men
  • Rom.10:9,10

THE GATE
   The Gate of the Outer was a large curtain, made of fine linen, colored in blue, purple, red and white. The curtain was supported by wooden pillars that were based in brass sockets, with silver capitals, just like the other pillars of the Outer Court curtain. The door curtain was fastened to the pillars with gold hooks.
Each of the colors has a significance:

• Blue indicates obedience: "Obedience to the eternal truths of heaven. Children of Israel were to attach blue borders to their, hems to their clothing as a reminder to obedient. Numbers 15:37-40
• Red signifies blood: Revelation 19:13 Jesus gave His blood for us. Scarlet represents sacrifice, even unto death.
• Purple signifies kingship: By combining blue and red we get purple. (Obedience & scarifice) "Behold your King" (Zechariah 9:9), pointing to Matthew's gospel, where Jesus, the descendant of King David (Matthew 1:1), declares after rising from the dead: "All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Me" (Matthew 28:18).
• White signifies purity and a right humanity: "Behold the man" (Zechariah 6:12), pointing to Luke's gospel, where Pilate says of Jesus "Behold, I have found not one fault in this man" (Luke 23:4,14).

   These four colors are woven together to become the complete Gate, just as the four gospels combine to give a complete picture of Jesus. Jesus Christ is pure and righteous, kingly and godly, and this is how He as a man can be our ransom, the Door for us to enter into God's presence in the Tabernacle. Jesus said "I am the Door; if any man enters through Me he shall be saved" (John 10:9) and "I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to [God] the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).    This claim by Jesus is unique and exclusive, but just look at Jesus' life and His conduct: He was surrounded by all kinds of people with all sorts of histories and conditions and motives, yet Simon Peter (one of His closest disciples) could later say of Him "He did no sin, neither was there any deceit found in His mouth" (I Peter 2:22). Peter had seen Jesus in all sorts of situations with all manner of people (from religious leaders to the lowest prostitutes, publicans and tax collectors), yet he wrote "we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of that One's majesty" (II Peter 1:16).
   Spend time to look at the Door. Read the gospel accounts of Jesus and discover for yourself His character, His compassion, His diligence, His teaching, His power. If you are not sure where to begin, you could start with Mark's gospel. I did.
   The Door of the Outer Court is the only way in, inviting and attractive. The Door speaks of both the compassion and the kingliness of Jesus, His nature as both God and a genuine man, Son of God and son of man, woven together as a beautiful tapestry of "the appearing to man of the kindness and love of our Saviour God" (Titus 3:4). Jesus said "I am the Door; if any man enters through Me he shall be saved" (John 10:9).
   Do take a good look at the Door; then enter in through the Door. Once you are inside the Tabernacle, you will discover so much about what Jesus meant by "be saved" and how this can come about in your experience, beginning at the Burnt Offering Altar and the Laver.