I do not need any more reasons to come to Richmond than I have already had. The love that I have found in the hearts of you brothers and sisters over the years has been more than enough to make it a great joy and privilege for me to come and have fellowship with you. I have to say, it does add something to our trip to come and have some time with our family.
I understand from my daughter-in-law that over the last three or four weeks you have been considering together this matter of worship. Now, when I was asked to consider sharing with you brothers and sisters, I was unaware that this was something that the Lord had you considering together. So my heart was impressed that we should fellowship together this morning about this matter of priesthood.
If you would turn with me to the first epistle of Peter, chapter 2, we would like to read together the first ten verses.
Putting away therefore all wickedness, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation;
if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious:
unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious,
ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Because it is contained in Scripture,
Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious:
And he that believeth on Him shall not be put to shame.
For you therefore that believe is the preciousness: but for such as disbelieve,
The stone which the builders rejected,
The same was made the head of the corner;
and,
A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence;
for they stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light:
who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Can we join our hearts together and ask the Lord’s blessing upon us?
Father, our testimony is the testimony of the hymn writer who said, “Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I come.” Lord, our confession to You, and to all who are here, is that the only reason we are here today in Your presence is because of Your help to us. It has been by Your grace that we are here.
So we want to lift our voice and, first of all, thank You for the abundance of Your grace that You have lavished upon us in Your Son, the Lord Jesus. That has allowed us even to be here in this place today to offer worship and thanks and praise to our wonderful Lord.
Lord, since we know that it is by grace that we have come this far, we are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is only by the grace of God that we will be able to reach the end as well. Today, we have that wonderful comfort in our hearts because we know that You have provided abundant grace for our time together: grace for speaking, grace for hearing, and grace for obeying.
So, Lord, we would put ourselves this morning under that wonderful anointing that came upon the head of our Lord Jesus and has come all the way down and included every one of us here in our time together this morning. We do want to place our younger brothers and sisters, the children, and all those who work with them under this same anointing.
Lord, we are living in a very crucial hour when we need to be able to hear the voice of our God. So, Lord, we come this morning, humble our hearts before You, acknowledge how desperately we need You, and ask that You will be our Helper, that You will be our Ebenezer, and that You will help us during this time.
Lord, lay hold of our gathering. Lay hold of this hour together. Use it for the fulfilment of Your own heart’s desire, because we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
After our time together at the conference this summer, I think all of us are convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are living in the end of the end days. Living at such an hour, there are very special things that are on the heart of God.
We know that our Lord Jesus is returning for a bride who is without spot, wrinkle, blemish, or any such thing. It does not take a whole lot of examination on our part to look around and see what is called the church, and to recognise that there is a great work that needs to be done among us as the people of God.
We do not necessarily need to look beyond ourselves. We can just look at ourselves and see that there is much work that the Lord needs and desires to do among us. Our Lord is coming back for a bride who is going to welcome Him, who is fully prepared for His coming, and one who will be able to share with Him the responsibility of reigning in this universe.
So, brothers and sisters, there is much work that needs to be done in us individually, in our homes, in our assemblies, and in all the areas of our life. One of the areas that I feel the Lord’s heart is very much concerned about is this matter of every one of us functioning as priests.
This morning, I know myself: I tend to take too much time. So forgive me if I feel like I am rushing, but there are some things that I want to share from my heart. First of all, I feel it would be valuable for us, by way of review—and perhaps for some of us this may be something we have never heard before—to take something of an overview of this matter of priesthood. It will only be a matter of touching on different aspects of it.
When we begin to read in the Scriptures, we find in Genesis 14 a man who is referred to as a priest of the Most High God. His name was Melchizedek. He appears on the scene; he is here, and he is gone. Outside of Psalm 110, we do not find anything else about him in the Old Testament until we come into the New Testament and begin to read the letter to the Hebrews.
There, the writer of Hebrews has much to say to us about our great High Priest, who is according to the order of Melchizedek. The introduction of this matter of priesthood, at least in the sense of having a public representative of it, begins with this person called Melchizedek.
In Genesis 14, this man named Melchizedek was not only a priest of the Most High God, but he was also the king of Salem. Here we have set before us God’s design and God’s order for this matter of priesthood: he is to be a priest of the Most High God, but he is also to function as a king. Melchizedek functioned as the king of Salem.
This became, in a sense, God’s heart for those who would function in this matter of being priests of God.
When we come further into this matter of priesthood, we discover that when God brought the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage, in Exodus 19, God gathered all these ex-slaves to the foot of Mount Sinai. He called Moses up into the mountain and shared with Moses—and then told Moses to share with His people—what was in His heart, the real reason why God delivered them out of Egyptian bondage.
If you and I had been one of those Hebrew slaves in Egypt, our conclusion might have been that God brought us out of slavery because we were in such desperate condition. He heard the cry of our hearts, and the real reason that God brought us out was so that we could be relieved of all the problems we had in Egypt.
But God had something higher and nobler in mind in bringing these people out of Egyptian bondage. He told them through Moses, “I want the whole nation of Israel—all of those who came out of Egypt—to be a kingdom of priests.”
You can read these verses for yourself in Exodus 19:4–6.
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.
Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine:
and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
Of all the people on the face of the earth that God would choose to be His representatives, to be His priests, these Hebrew slaves in Egypt would have been the last people we might have chosen. But God chose them. He says, “I brought you to Myself as on eagles’ wings, so that you now belong to Me.” Then He says to them, “I want you to become a kingdom of priests.”
Brothers and sisters, I think it is so important that we allow the Holy Spirit to show us how all-encompassing the heart and mind of God was in reference to these Hebrew people. He wanted all twelve tribes, every one of those who came out of Egypt, to function as His priests.
We know that when we get further into Exodus, in chapter 32, something very unfortunate happened. When Moses came down and informed the people that God’s heart was for all of them to be priests, they all responded, “Whatever the Lord wants, we will agree to. We want what He wants.”
But when Moses went back up into the mountain, the people persuaded Aaron to build a golden calf. This was something they brought with them out of Egypt, and they insisted that Aaron build this golden calf for them.
As they worshipped this golden calf, they got out of control. They allowed their base nature to take over, and they began functioning in a very ungodly way—a way that would cause derision among the people around them, when they saw that God had chosen and selected them to be His priests, a holy priesthood.
God was grieved. Moses was grieved. He broke the tablets of stone, and then he set forth a judgment. The judgment was simply this: all those who would come and stand with the Lord were to come over and stand with Moses.
You remember that, out of all the twelve tribes, only one tribe responded: the tribe of Levi. They came and stood with Moses. They were instructed to go among the people and kill those who had given themselves to this kind of worship.
So what God was left with was one tribe out of twelve. He chose to use the tribe of Levi as those who would function as His priests, although His original intention was that all twelve tribes of the children of Israel would function as priests.
Now, brothers and sisters, if you will turn with me to Revelation 1, I want us to get it clear in our hearts this morning as to what our Lord Jesus has accomplished for us through His death on His cross. Let us look at the last half of Revelation 1:5.
Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
If you remember when we read those verses in 1 Peter 2, Peter talks about growing in respect to salvation. There are certain things that we need to lay aside so that we may grow in respect to salvation.
For most of us who are evangelical Christians, when we hear the word salvation, we usually understand it as having been forgiven of our sins and cleansed. We know we are going to heaven; we know we are going to escape hell. For us, that is what salvation is.
But God’s understanding of salvation is much, much larger. It includes the whole person. It includes the whole universe. The whole universe is going to be delivered; it is going to be saved from what it is presently under.
Part of our experience of salvation, which our Lord Jesus has wrought for us on the cross, is that, in addition to having our sins forgiven and becoming children of God, God has constituted you and me as priests of the Most High God. We are a kingdom of priests. We are part of that priesthood over which our Lord Jesus is presently functioning as our High Priest, according to the order of Melchizedek.
When Peter talks about growing unto salvation, it means growing beyond the childish stage of always expecting something to be done for you. It is true that when we are in the beginning stage of our Christian life, that is all we can do. We are in a totally helpless position, always needing somebody to do something for us. That is right. It is good. It is necessary.
But, brothers and sisters, there comes a time when we grow out of childhood and begin to grow into maturity, into manhood, and begin to take upon us the responsibilities that have been given to us.
In addition to having our sins forgiven, you and I, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, are constituted as priests. There are no exceptions—every one of us. Whether you are functioning in it or not does not change the fact that God, through His Son, has once again established a priesthood unto Himself. You, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, are a part of this priesthood that He has established.
It is interesting that when you go further into Revelation, in chapter 5, our Lord Jesus is seen taking His position at the right hand of the Father. John asks, “Is there anyone worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?” Notice what we read in Revelation 5:8–10.
And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth.
Here we find in Revelation 1 that the work our Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross includes you and me being constituted as priests. Then, in Revelation 5, when the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders respond to the revelation of who the Lord Jesus is, they include in their song the fact that you and I have been constituted as a priesthood to Almighty God.
Brothers and sisters, this is something I think is of utmost importance to us. I was recently meeting with some brothers and sisters in California, and one of the questions they asked was, “What do you think, in your observation, is the most important need among God’s people?”
This was my response: the greatest need that I see among us as the people of God is for every believer to begin to function as a priest according to what he has been constituted by the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We do not understand, brothers and sisters, what God is being robbed of because you and I are failing to function as priests. We do not understand what we are being robbed of individually, and what we are being robbed of as an assembly, because some of us have decided just to continue to be spectators and not participants in this matter of being priests of the Most High God.
If you will turn with me to Revelation 2:6, I think it helps us understand why our Lord Jesus makes such a strong statement to the church at Ephesus.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Our Lord Jesus is very careful in the words that He uses. You remember what He says in John’s Gospel: “I only speak the words I hear My Father speak.” We need to know what it is that so upset our Lord Jesus that He would use this language: “I also hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans.”
Very simply put, brothers and sisters, it is the blight of professionalism among God’s people. We have inherited from our forefathers a system of being the church that, in my opinion, is foreign to the heart and mind of God. There is this whole division between clergy and laity.
Even among us, brothers and sisters, we have to be very careful. Even though we do not use the words clergy and laity, the same system can find its way into our thinking and into the way we live out our lives as God’s people. Jesus says, “I hate it.”
I have asked myself why our Lord Jesus would use such strong language in reference to something like this. As far as I have been able to discover, it is the only time I hear our Lord Jesus say, “I hate” something.
Let me try to illustrate it. How many members of the body of Christ, percentage-wise, do you think are actually functioning members and participating in their priesthood? What percentage of all God’s people would you say would be a fair number? Fifty percent? Ten percent? Ten percent is very generous.
Maybe, let us just give it the benefit. Let us say five percent. Let us say five percent of all those who have had a real experience with the Lord—not those who think they are good, but those who are real Christians—are genuine functioning members in the body of Christ.
Since our Lord Jesus has chosen to use these born-again, redeemed people as His body, do you see the dilemma He is faced with? How effective could you be if only five percent of the members of your body were functioning members? What could you do?
You would be tremendously limited. As a matter of fact, you could do nothing for yourself. You would be in a helpless state where you needed someone consistently, all the time, to take care of you.
Brothers and sisters, that is the way I see it: our Lord Jesus is faced with this kind of dilemma, where there is only a very small percentage of His people who are actually functioning. They may have the truth in their head. They may be able to explain it and give you all the Scriptures that relate to it. But we are talking about those who are actually functioning as members of the body of Christ, who are participating in their being part of a priesthood.
This blight of professionalism that has come into our midst—we need to declare war on it. It seems to me there are usually two reasons why this distinction between clergy and laity comes into being.
First, there are some very ambitious people among us. They have great big egos. They have to affirm themselves; their identity is caught up in who they are and in their approval by other people. So they promote themselves among God’s people. They set themselves up on a different level above God’s people and make themselves a special class.
The other reason—and I think the main reason—why this thing of Nicolaitanism gets its hold in the church is because you and I do not take our place of responsibility. We as the people of God abdicate our place, and we cry out with the people in Saul’s day, “We want a king. We want a king. We want somebody to rule over us. We want somebody to make decisions for us.”
Even when they make decisions we do not always agree with, we still want them to make them for us. To me, this is the real issue. If all of us were being responsible under God, shouldering that place God has given us and beginning to function as priests, then there would be very little chance for this other thing of people setting themselves up to take place.
But when you and I abdicate our place as priests and do not shoulder our responsibility among God’s people, we leave a vacuum. That vacuum is usually filled by somebody who has an ego and is looking for an important place among God’s people.
In one sense, there is not a whole lot we can do about it. But in another sense, there is a lot we can do about it. The most important thing you and I can do is decide before God today that, by His grace and by the empowering work of the Holy Spirit, “I am going to be a functioning member in the body of Christ. I am going to take my priesthood seriously.”
Beginning today, if I have not already done so, I am going to learn how to function as a priest in the house of God.
I want us to look together at some of the facets of this matter of priesthood. First of all, it seems to me there is a dual focus in this matter of being priests of God. There is the primary focus and the secondary focus. Too often, the secondary becomes the primary, and the primary does not even become secondary; it gets further down the list.
I think we discover, first of all through Melchizedek and then ultimately through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, what the primary focus of the ministry of a priest ought to be and what the secondary focus of a priest ought to be.
When I was reading those verses in Genesis 14 about Melchizedek again, my heart was touched by the fact that Melchizedek blessed two people on that occasion. Do you remember who he blessed? He blessed Abram, but who else did he bless? He blessed God.
We need to see that the primary focus of the functioning of a priest is, first of all, Godward. That is our number one responsibility. It is for us to be those who minister to the heart of God. That is the main calling of a priest.
Brothers and sisters, we need to face up to it and take grace: we all fail at this point, because we do not give ourselves to ministering to Him the way we should. We need to reaffirm in our hearts this morning that our number one responsibility as priests is to minister to God Himself.
Out of that ministering to God, we find the secondary focus, which is to minister to others. We find Melchizedek ministering blessing to Abram.
We find this ultimately true in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you read the Gospel of John in particular, you find our Lord Jesus carrying out His responsibility as ministry unto God.
Let me use one example in the Gospel of John to illustrate what I am talking about. In John 5, we find our Lord Jesus coming into the scene at the pool of Bethesda. You have to allow your imagination to work here, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and begin to imagine what that scene looked like.
Here were all these broken bodies, mangled bodies, diseased bodies, paralysed bodies, lying at this pool, waiting for an angel of the Lord to come and stir the water. The first one in would get healed.
Our Lord Jesus came into this scene, spoke to one man, and said to him, “Wouldest thou be made whole?” The man explained that every time the waters were stirred, there was no one to help him get into the water. Somebody else got in before he did, and they received healing. Therefore, he missed out every time.
But the Lord said to him, “Wouldest thou be made whole?” And you remember the incident: the Lord Jesus told him, “Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.”
The point I am trying to make is this: our Lord Jesus ministered first of all to God and functioned out of obedience to His heavenly Father. If you and I had been there on that occasion—on that Sabbath afternoon—and had seen all these helpless people, and one person was healed, where would you and I have stayed? We would have stayed there the rest of the afternoon.
We would have pitched our tent right there at that pool and said, “Anybody else want to be healed?” We would have had a healing meeting there for two or three weeks.
But our Lord Jesus healed one man, turned and walked away, and healed no one else. How could He do that? Because He ministered first to God, and then to man. He did not allow Himself to be governed by human need; He was governed by the will of His heavenly Father.
Brothers and sisters, if we do not learn this lesson—if we do not learn how to minister to God first and then to man in His name—we will become so enmeshed in meeting human needs that our priesthood in its primary function will be obliterated. It will fade into the background, and we will find ourselves hopelessly involved in trying to meet all the human needs around us.
I have no way of explaining to you, because I do not understand, what God is going to do with all the human needs that we are faced with. But I think that as we learn how to function as priests who minister first to God, then out of that knowing of Him, He will begin to communicate to us how we are to be involved in ministering as priests, as His representatives, to those with whom we come in contact.
You will notice in 1 Peter 2 that this matter of primary and secondary focus is also underlined. Notice verse 5:
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
You see the primary focus: spiritual sacrifices unto God. Then, in verse 9, we read:
That ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
Again, you have the same emphasis. The primary focus is on offering spiritual sacrifices to God, and the secondary focus is proclaiming the excellencies of God into the surroundings in which we find ourselves.
There are a number of things about this matter of priesthood that I was impressed in my heart for us to fellowship about this morning. First of all, we have already mentioned that this priesthood is a universal priesthood.
That means every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of this priesthood, whether they function in it or not, whether they are aware of it or not. The fact is that God has constituted every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ as a priest in this priesthood. There are no exceptions.
You do not have to have a certain age qualification, and you do not have to be born into a certain tribe. You do have to be born again. But the moment you become a child of God and are born again, God puts you into this priesthood. There are no exceptions.
I hope that those of you who have been sitting on the sidelines, just spectating, will hear the voice of God to your heart this morning and awaken to the wonderful truth that you are a priest of the Most High God. He has constituted you as such.
Secondly, this priesthood is comprehensive. Here is where we need to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and expand our understanding.
Usually, when we think about being a priest, what hour of the week do we usually think about? Two hours for you brothers and sisters—from ten to twelve on Sunday morning. This is when most of us think, “This is when I am going to be a priest.”
As a matter of fact, some of us, when we leave the meeting, have a little hook outside the room. We take off our priestly garments, hang them up there, and for the whole rest of the week we do not even think about it. Next week, we make sure we come in the same door, pick up those priestly garments, come in, and seek to function as priests.
My brothers and sisters, this is foreign to the heart of God. It is foreign to the Word of God. We are priests twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, in everything we are engaged in—everything.
Would to God that somehow the truth of this would get down into our hearts and lay hold of us. Wherever I am, whatever circumstances I find myself in, I am there as a priest of the Most High God. I am there, first of all, as one who knows and worships God and ministers to Him. I am there as a representative of God, on God’s behalf.
It is all-inclusive. It includes everything that goes on in our lives. Let us look at a couple of verses of Scripture.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31, we read:
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
The principle is very simple, brothers and sisters: whatever you do, we are to do it to the glory of God.
Then look with me at Colossians 3:17:
And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Please, brothers and sisters, let us think for a few moments. That means everything I find myself involved in is to be under the scope of my functioning as a priest. There is nothing that is to escape my functioning as a priest. Everything that I touch, everything that I am involved in, is to be a means of expressing my priesthood as one who has been constituted a priest through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That opens up our whole life before us. If, in our understanding, we are only functioning as priests when we come here and sing songs, offer prayers, read Scripture, make our offerings, sit and listen to the ministry of the Word, or give the ministry of the Word—if that is all we see as our functioning as priests—then we are robbing God, and we ourselves are being greatly robbed.
Do we understand, dear sisters and brothers in the Lord, that in raising your children you are functioning as a priest? Fathers, in carrying out your responsibility; husbands and wives, in fulfilling yours—you are to do it as priests unto God. On our jobs, in our communities, in school, wherever we are, we are there as priests of the Most High God.
Now, I think we need to be careful here. It does not mean that everything we are naturally engaged in is God’s work. But I think that we, as priests of the Most High God, are able to touch that which we are engaged in and make it something other than merely natural and of this world.
We can lay hold of it and touch it as priests of the Most High God, to translate it and transform it into something that is of value to God. It may not be that the particular job you have is something you could categorise as God’s work, but you there as His priest can engage yourself in such a way that you transform what you are doing in relation to God’s eternal purposes.
You can transform that work into something God can use in the fulfilment of His purpose. May we throw the door wide open on our lives and realise that everything belongs to the Lord.
If there are things that you and I are engaged in that are dishonouring to God, then we need simply to slam the door on them, walk away from them, and give ourselves to those things that are honouring to Him. He is not going to take something dishonouring to Him and allow you to touch it as one of His priests, because He cannot make that holy.
But He can take those things that are honouring, which you find yourself engaged in, and touch them in such a way that they take on eternal significance. So, secondly, this matter of being priests is comprehensive: it includes everything that goes on.
Thirdly, we are to be a holy priesthood. Remember there in 1 Peter 2 that we are a holy priesthood.
We need to be very careful, brothers and sisters, that we use this word holy in the way it is supposed to be used. In one sense, we can only use this word holy to refer to that which is of God. But God, in His mercy, does a work in us and constitutes Himself in us so that He calls us holy.
Those things that are holy are those things that have been set aside, sanctified, and given over completely to God’s use. God says to His people, “Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” His desire is to bring us into a place where our character matches His character.
As priests, we are to be a holy priesthood. That means, first of all, our lives are fully set aside for Him. Again, you see how our understanding needs to be broadened, where we do not just relegate a few hours of our week and say, “God, now this belongs to You.”
As priests of the Most High God, we are to be holy. That is, we are to be wholly for the Lord—completely for the Lord. Our whole life, all that we have, all that we hope to be, and all that we possess is given over to Him.
You remember the Levites: they belonged to the Lord, and they had no inheritance except the Lord. Well, brothers and sisters, He is our inheritance. He is to be our everything.
Everything that we have, we come and make available to Him. We bring it under His control, set it aside, sanctify it, and say, “God, this is for Your use, for Your purpose.”
That means in terms of our own character as well—primarily our character. In this matter of priesthood, brothers and sisters, it seems to me that the number one issue is what is in our heart: our heart attitude toward God.
It is not as though God is in a tight place and there is nobody to work for Him and He is frustrated. That is not the issue at all. The issue is that God has chosen, in this period of time, to do His work in us and through us. He will not do it independently of us.
In a sense, it limits God, and God takes a tremendous risk. But this is what He has chosen; it is His great wisdom. In order for us to be functioning fully as His priests, a work has to be done in our character. We have to have the character of God formed in us. We must be formed into the image of His Son.
There are two sides to this. First of all, there is a negative side. As we saw in 1 Peter 2, Peter says that we are to lay aside certain things and grow up unto salvation.
If there are things going on in our lives—if we are doing things, conducting business, or allowing ourselves to get involved in certain ways that we know are absolutely against God—then we need simply to declare war, turn our back on them, throw them away, and get down to the business of really discovering the Lord Jesus in the midst of this, so that His character can be formed in us.
For God, the primary issue is who you are. He is very concerned about who you and I are as those who function as priests. He wants us to be holy people in our character and in our conduct. Being priests means that we are holy and fully set aside for the purpose of God.
Fourthly, we are to be a kingly priesthood. You will notice in 1 Peter 2:9 that it says:
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.
Brother Darby translates this as “a kingly priesthood.” If you notice in this history of the priesthood, God has put the king and the priest together in one. They are one person, but they have a dual function: they are priests, but they are also kings.
In Exodus 19, with Melchizedek in Genesis 14, in Revelation 1 and Revelation 5, and now here in 1 Peter 2, it is very clear all the way through that God wants the priesthood also to have a kingly dimension, a royal dimension.
It seems to me that what God is saying is that those of you who are called to be priests are also closely linked to the fulfilment of My purpose. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” This ought to be the heart cry of every priest: that they would see the fulfilment of the kingdom of God realised.
The will of God is linked to this matter of being priests. We notice there in Revelation 5 that it says, “They reign upon the earth.” This matter of being priests is closely linked to taking government and having responsibility in the things of God. We are a kingly priesthood as well.
Fifthly, we are a spiritual priesthood. If you will look with me at 1 Peter 2:5, notice these words:
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know how much we appreciate it, but we ought to appreciate greatly that we are living under the new covenant and not under the old covenant. Do you know what we would be doing this morning if we were under the old covenant? You would be dragging your animal, and I would be dragging my animal, up here to the meeting place to offer it.
We would have those kinds of animal sacrifices. But here we are to be offering up spiritual sacrifices because we are a spiritual household.
Now, people of God, the only way you and I can be spiritual, be a spiritual house, and offer spiritual sacrifices is if we are under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Please understand what God was doing on the day of Pentecost. He was constituting a spiritual household, a people among whom He could come and take up His rest. They were to be engaged in carrying out spiritual sacrifices.
It means that you and I need to have an ongoing experience of the fullness of the Holy Spirit if we are to function effectively as priests. Without this happening in our lives, there is no hope that you and I will function in the way that we should as priests.
I do not know what your understanding is, and I do not know what your experience has been in terms of the Holy Spirit, but I want to say to some of you this morning: there is nothing to be afraid of. You do not need to be afraid of the Holy Spirit.
You do need to be aware that there are some who claim to have experiences of the Holy Spirit that they want to perpetrate on you which may not be the Holy Spirit at all. But as far as the Holy Spirit Himself is concerned, you have nothing to be concerned about. You have nothing to be afraid of.
We can come to our Lord Jesus as our great High Priest. Just as the priests were anointed by Aaron, we can come and receive this anointing. We can receive the same anointing from our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. You have nothing to be afraid of.
But, brothers and sisters, in order for this anointing to be effective in our lives, we have to wrestle with something very important in our hearts: who is going to be Lord in our lives? The Holy Spirit is not going to anoint you and me to do our own thing.
If we come to grips with the reality of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our hearts, then we are in a safe position where we can receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then has a vessel through which He can begin to manifest the reality of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
As Ephesians 5:18 says:
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit.
When you read the book of Acts, what you discover is that those same people were being filled again and again and again with the Holy Spirit. I wonder if it would not be helpful for some of us simply to read the book of Acts from the perspective that these were men and women who began to function as priests of the Most High God.
Read the book of Acts from that perspective. Sometimes we think this matter of priesthood is something so high and above everyday life, but these people were right in the midst of everyday life, functioning as priests under the anointing work of the Holy Spirit.
It is a spiritual priesthood. Remember, for instance, Philippians 3:3:
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
That is the kind of activity we are talking about: being under the anointing and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to do things that are acceptable to God.
Finally, in terms of these aspects of our priesthood, notice again 1 Peter 2:5:
To offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
The only way, brothers and sisters, that you and I can fulfil our calling as priests of the Most High God is through Jesus Christ.
You know, our God is a perfectionist. He is very narrow-minded in this way: there is only one thing that He will accept. Do you know what it is? His Son. It is the only thing in the whole universe that is acceptable unto Him.
As priests, what we are to offer to God is Christ Himself. That is what is acceptable to Him. If you go back to the book of Leviticus and read about the various burnt offerings, at the end of each one it says that it is to be a sweet savour, or a soothing aroma, to God.
There is only one thing in the whole universe that is a soothing aroma to our God. Look with me at 2 Corinthians 2:14–15:
But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savour of His knowledge in every place.
For we are a sweet savour of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish.
What a statement. Paul can say that we are a fragrance of Christ to God. Oh, brothers and sisters, the thing that we have as priests to offer God, and that which we have as priests to offer others, is very simple. It is not complicated at all. It is none other than Christ Himself.
When we come to our Father, we come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and on the basis of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is anything in us that is pleasing and acceptable to God, it is something of Christ that is formed in us.
We need to learn how to take that which is Christ in us and, first of all, minister it to God. Then we need to learn, in the same way, how to minister this same Christ to others around us.
When we take a good, honest look at ourselves, do you know what we need more than anything else? We need more of our Lord Jesus. I do not care who we are, how long we have been Christians, or what our experience has been: there is one thing every one of us needs—more of the Son of God.
That is why, even among God’s people, the thing we are to be ministering to one another is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. What an honour. Can you imagine that? Think about it for just a moment.
I hope you do not think I am insulting us; I am not intending to. But in one sense, we are just a bunch of nobodies. Who are we? For the most part, the world does not pay any attention to us. Nobody here is the governor of the state of Virginia. Nobody is the President of the United States.
Yet God has honoured you with the greatest honour in the whole universe: that you would be a priest of the Most High God and would have the glorious privilege of ministering Christ to God and to others whom He brings into your life.
Our ministry, brothers and sisters, is to be through Christ. It is to be Christ as a soothing aroma unto God.
For the few moments we have left, let us fellowship about the practicality of our priesthood. It seems to me we can break this matter down into three categories: general, specific, and special. Please forgive the word special, because I could not think of another word.
First of all, in a general sense, there is functioning as a priesthood that is to be carried out in a general way among all the people of God. Look with me, please, at 1 Corinthians 12.
Let us read the last half of 1 Corinthians 12:24–25:
But God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that part which lacked;
that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
Here is where I think we need to begin, brothers and sisters: realising who is responsible for whom in the body of Christ. Who are you responsible for in the body of Christ? You are responsible for all of your other brothers and sisters.
We tend to think—and this is where this whole matter of professionalism gets its way into our lives—that there are certain among us who are more mature, who have been around longer, who know more. They are the ones responsible for the well-being of our brothers and sisters and to see that there is no division in the body of Christ.
But that is not what the Word of God says. That is not God’s mind. God’s mind is that you are responsible, and I am responsible, for all of the brothers and sisters, that we should have the same care one for another.
That does not mean that if you became a Christian a month ago, you have within you such a capacity of Christ that you can meet every other brother’s or sister’s need in Christ. No. But it does mean you ought to be willing.
You ought to be willing to take that portion of Christ that you have already received and give it away to that brother or sister. Then say, “Lord, I have gone as far as I can go. Maybe I need to call upon somebody else or go to those in responsibility and say, ‘Here is the situation. Can you do something about that?’”
But our hearts have to be, first of all, “I am willing to minister the Christ that I have to this brother or sister.” Oh, what a difference it would be among us, brothers and sisters. What greater spiritual health would be ours if we would just take this simple step of saying, “I, as a member of the body of Christ, am responsible for the spiritual well-being of my brothers and sisters.”
I accept that responsibility onto my shoulders. I hope I can grow and become more responsible, but the moment I am a believer, I become responsible for my brothers and sisters.
In a general sense, there are many things that go on among us as the people of God for which we are all responsible. We cannot just allow somebody else to take them up while we do not give ourselves to them as well.
For instance, this matter of loving one another: who is responsible for this? Just the more mature? No. We are all responsible.
If you take your New Testament and trace that little phrase one another through it, you will find quite a few instances, especially in Paul’s letters, where he says that we are responsible to do this to one another: love one another, serve one another, admonish one another, submit to one another.
There are many of these “one another” commands. When you look at them, you see that you are responsible and I am responsible. You cannot put this responsibility off onto somebody else. I must accept it.
Notice also in Romans 12 some other examples of this matter of being responsible in a practical way in this matter of being priests. Beginning in verse 9:
Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another;
in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing stedfastly in prayer;
communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality.
These are just some ways in which you and I can be involved in this matter of general responsibility as priests of the Most High God.
Secondly, there is the specific aspect. Go back with me to 1 Corinthians 12, this time to verse 7. Please listen carefully.
But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal.
Did you hear that? It is not just a matter of us being responsible in a general way for the well-being of God’s people. Specifically, every believer, without exception, has been granted by the Holy Spirit an enablement, an empowerment from Him.
In using that gift, you can benefit all your brothers and sisters. There are no exceptions.
Brothers and sisters, I hope some of you have some restless nights over this matter. I hope you have some sleepless nights. I am serious. God has placed within you something that the body of Christ desperately needs.
God has placed something within you that He wants to use as a way of fulfilling His work, completing His work. If you are not using that, then do you see what you are doing? You are limiting God. You are robbing God of His opportunity to do His work, because He will not do it independently of His people.
Now, if you will not do it, He will get it done. But, brothers and sisters, this is your honour and my honour: that we would give ourselves to the fulfilment and exercise of that gifting God has placed within us for the benefit of everybody, for the common good.
It is not so that you can show off how spiritual you are. This has been given to you by the mercy of God so that you can be actively engaged with God in doing the work that He is doing.
Then look with me at 1 Peter 4. Beginning with verse 7:
But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore of sound mind, and be sober unto prayer:
above all things being fervent in your love among yourselves; for love covereth a multitude of sins:
using hospitality one to another without murmuring:
according as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
We are to be stewards of the manifold grace of God. God has taken something of Himself—and this amazes me, brothers and sisters—imparted it to us, given us a portion of His very being, and said, “Now I want you to be a steward of this. I want you to use it properly.”
The outcome of the use of this will be that My purpose will be fulfilled, and you will be rewarded for it.
I have already said it a number of times this morning, but I want to say it again: brothers and sisters, this is the greatest honour that could be bestowed upon you. There is not a greater honour God could grant you than for you, as a mere mortal, to be gifted by God to function with Him in the fulfilment of His purpose.
May the Lord be merciful to us. May you take responsibility. May you ask God to show and make real to you what special manifestation of the Spirit of God has been given to you. Then, in a natural, spontaneous way, begin to exercise it and flow together with your brothers and sisters.
The other way in which this matter of priesthood can function is seen in Ephesians 4. Let us begin with verses 10–12:
He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.
And He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ.
These giftings in the body of Christ—I do not know what word to use other than special—are those whom the Lord Jesus has gifted, equipped, trained, dealt with, and placed in the body so that they can function in this way.
You can be sure, brothers and sisters, that anybody functioning in this way had to begin back there in the very beginning: setting up chairs, sweeping the building, taking care of those kinds of things. Everybody is involved in starting back there, discovering the gifting God has placed in their life, and being faithful in the discharge of that gift.
Then the Lord can use that as a way of getting them involved in this other task of equipping the saints for the work of service.
In conclusion this morning, brothers and sisters, I want to bring us back to where we started in 1 Peter 2, where Peter talks about growing in respect to salvation.
Please get it clear this morning: your salvation includes you functioning as a priest. It is not something tacked on to your salvation; it is part of your salvation. Your salvation is not complete. You are not living in the good of all that Christ has wrought for you on Calvary until you are actually functioning as a functioning member of the body of Christ and performing your responsibility as a priest of the Most High God.
The cry of the Lord’s heart to us is that we would learn how to be a responsible people, that we would learn how to take up those things God puts into our hands and into our hearts and discharge them by the anointing work of the Holy Spirit.
May we find ourselves actually engaged in doing God’s work in a natural way. Again, allow us to see it as something comprehensive, which includes everything that is going on in our lives.
Do not make your life little compartments: “This is for God; this is for me; this is for such-and-such.” Let the whole thing be for the Lord, and watch Him come in and enable you to carry out your function as priest in marvellous ways.
You can go to the Christian bookstore or someplace else and find all kinds of books on how to do things in twelve easy steps. Well, brothers and sisters, you might find some help there. But when it comes right down to it, we are all cast upon the Lord to discover for ourselves our functioning as priests.
May the Lord be merciful to us. May He speak a clear word into our hearts in this hour, so that He can return for a bride who is without spot, wrinkle, blemish, and who is actively engaged with Him in the fulfilment of God’s purpose.
You know what would thrill the heart of God greater than anything else this morning? If every one of us in this room, from our hearts, would say, “Lord, since I am a priest, I am going to learn how to be one in practicality.”
May the Lord be merciful to us. Let us pray together.
Lord, it is hard for us to really understand and perceive in our hearts what it really means to be a priest. But, Lord, it seems that Your Word is very clear: You have decided, in Your mercy and great love for us, that You would have us to be priests of Yours, both in terms of ministering to You and also as representing You in our lives here.
So, Lord, we want to come to You this morning, and we want to thank You for the blood of Jesus Christ. We thank You that it cleanses from all sin. We want to come before You and confess this morning that we have failed in the fulfilment of our responsibility as priests. We acknowledge it before You.
Now, Lord, we ask You, through the blood of Jesus, to cleanse us from that failure. Then, Holy Spirit, the living God, we come to You now and ask You to come in and do a deep work in the hearts of every one of us, Lord, so that we will be able, beginning this hour, to move in and begin to function as priests.
Lord, as we understand Your heart, this is something very precious to You: that every one of us would be functioning priests. Lord, do not allow us to make excuses. Do not allow us just to keep on going the old way that we are going.
Give us grace this morning to turn around, to repent, to come to You, and to take up our responsibility as Your priests. Lord, be merciful to us. Keep us to this matter. Teach us what we need to learn, and give us the grace that we need.
Lord, we would be those who function as Your priests. We ask it in Jesus’ name.