1 Peter 2:1 - 10
May we just pray for a moment.
Those of you who are older in the Lord and have studied your Bible for some time, you'll know that God chose the apostle Paul to reveal many many different doctrines, or at least to open up many different doctrines of Holy Scripture. But there are two things, perhaps more than two, but two that I would remark on at this time that God did not speak so much through the apostle Paul as He did through Peter. And that has to do with the priesthood of the believer, our subject this morning, and also the fact that the foundation for the church is the Rock which is the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's interesting in the light of claims by the Roman Catholic church, these two subjects concerning a special priesthood and the church being built upon Peter, that the Lord perhaps foreseeing this chose Peter himself to speak about these two matters and to set things straight in his book. And he does so on both these issues in chapter 2. Now, as I've said, we're going to speak today about the subject of the priesthood of the believer, and there may be some young ones here today, young in the Lord, and you've never been confronted with the glorious revelation that God considers you a holy and royal priest. And so then we'll work on that and I'm going to spend most of the time on the subject of the believer- priests but we have some introductory things to cover first.
First of all, a word of DEFINITION: the word 'priest' comes from a root-word meaning 'to draw near'.And that is very instructive, just that one word - to draw near. You remember back in the Old Testament, when God came down on Mt. Sinai, and there was a great revelation of His power and presence there at that time, that the people were terrified. And in the next chapter, I believe Exodus 20, the people said to Moses, "You go and receive the word of God and bring it to us but don't let us hear this sound and see these sights because it terrifies us". And, twice in that chapter we read, "the people stood afar off." Now there's a great contrast between the Old Testament warning to 'stay far off' and the New Testament invitation to 'draw near'. The priest is one who has that access to God. He has the privilege to draw near.
Secondly, we want to think about the REQUIREMENTS OF OF A PRIEST. I think the best way to approach this would be to make a study of the book of Hebrews and see the requirements of the priesthood of our Lord Jesus, and then realizing that we are in Him to apply those things to us. Now for the sake of time I think we would just mention this and hurry on.
In chapters 5 - 8 of the book of Hebrews, we find at least four requirements that our Lord Jesus met in order to be our great High Priest.
We find. first that He is able to symathise with those in trouble.
Secondly, He partakes of our nature. He did not stay in heaven as God. He became a man and partook of our nature. He became a real man.
Thirdly, He was not self-appointed but He was called of God. That's brought out very clearly in Hebrews 5. And finally it says that He must, as a priest, have something to offer.
So, I think if you look at those four qualifications / requirements, you'll see that through the grace of God and the calling of God, we as Christians meet all of those four.
No. 3, just a brief reminder the OLD TESTAMENT PRIESTHOOD. We wouldn't have the time this morning to look up Scripture. But a great of the Old Testament, especially the book of Leviticus has to do with the Old Testament priesthood.
Before the giving of the law, in the time of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it was pretty much left to the head of the household to be the priest. In other words, to offer offerings to God. We see this in the life of Job offering offerings for his sons in case they had transgressed.
But after the giving of the law, God set aside one tribe, the tribe of Levi, and one family, the family of Aaron, and they were consecrated to the priesthood. Now, all others had to stay far off and only those in the family of Aaron could draw near. In fact we read in the Old Testament of individuals who tried to short-circuit that requirement of God, and tried to take upon themselves the prerogatives and offerings of the priesthood and they were punished. We think of Saul, we think of Uzziah, who just took the attitude. "Well, I'm as good as they are, and I can do this too." And punishment of God fell upon them.
And so the lesson here would be a very strong one, and that is that God is the One who chooses the way of approach into His presence. This is not something that man decides.
If you would just pause for a moment and apply that to our lives and our families, isn't it tragic how many in our families don't know the Lord, are mixed up on that great truth? God is the one who chooses the way into His Presence. And many who say, "You know, I have this idea that if I live a certain way, and I do this and that, God will take me into heaven." And I heard a brother just the other day make the remark, "Well God built heaven, He ought to have the say as to who gets there and how." And roughly put, I believe that's true. Scripture does require that we come to God in God's prescribed way. And we've come this morning to remember the Lord Jesus in the first meeting and that's the symbol of our acceptance of His way and a rejection and a repudiation of our own way. Isaiah says, 'all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way'. And many there are today who are saying, "Well, I'll go to heaven my way." And if they don't change that we know what is in store for them - an awful awakening that you cannot go to heaven, you cannot have peace with God your own way. So God prescribes and chooses the way of approach then, in the Old Testament - it was through one family, only one family, and only one individual, the High Priest could come into His holy presence, and only once a year.
Now that's different for us in the New Testament. We come thirdly, I guess in the outline, this will be the fourth point, we come to the NEW TESTAMENT CONCEPT OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
I'd like to talk about three things.
It would be very important for anyone who would study this subject, of course, to make a thorough study of the book of Hebrews. Practically, the whole book of Hebrews is devoted to opening out the concept of the Lord Jesus as the great High Priest.
We see Him there in different capacities, in relationship to the sanctuary (Heb. 8).He is the High Priest of the holy sanctuary, the heavenly sanctuary. In chapter 10, He is High Priest over the house of God. In chapter 2, we read of Him as in the midst of His brethren, as the leader of praise. There are practical things here, things that we don't have time to open out. But we ought to think on these things. You know, many people I'm sure as visitors who come into West Woods here might wonder and have questions why some things we do are different than in other places.
Some of the things we do, hopefully all of the things we do, are based on principles in Scripture. The Lord Jesus is called the leader of praise in the midst of His people. And we do not have a Leader of worship in our worship meeting. We don't allow any man, woman, or other, to get up in front and say, "I'll be this morning's worship leader." The Lord Jesus is clearly told to us the Leader of praise, and He is in our midst. And there isn't any living person other than Himself that would have the right to usurp that Place, and take upon himself the prerogative of the worship leader. That's the position for the Lord Jesus. And we all as equal ones, we gather around His presence with Himself in our midst.
Some have asked questions, and I don't want to get too far afield here, some have asked questions why we don't have a piano or an instrument playing in the first meeting. The same reason - we don't want anything to usurp that place that belongs to the Lord Jesus as the One who leads the praises of His People. Now, in services such as this that are meant for teaching, prayer meeting, and fellowship meetings, and other meetings, that's an entirely different matter. But when it comes to the matter of our worship to God, the Lord Jesus should have that central place and nothing should be allowed to come in and take that away from Him. And we all have to wrestle, if we're honest, with the matter of the indwelling old nature that would like to ease the Lord out of the center and stand there ourselves. And it's very important for us to remember that, as we look at the bread and the wine on the Lord's day morning, that reminds us that He has met together with us in our midst, and HE is the president, He is the Director, He is the Leader of our praise to God. And we would not allow anyone to take that place. So, the great High Priest then, the Lord Jesus, is taught and opened out to us in the Book of Hebrews and I encourage you to study that carefully.
Now, secondly, we would like to spend the most of our time this morning in consideration of the subject of the believer-priests. I'd like to share with you at least four points of note on this subject that we might just look at a few scriptures to further consider.
Now, think about those Old Testament priests. Suppose someone from the tribe of Simeon had said, "Now I don't like to be born into Simeon. It's a very small tribe and very obscure. I don't think I'd like to be in that tribe. I think that I'd to be in Levi. And not only that, I want to study for the priesthood, and some day go right into the Holiest." Do you think he would have ever been able to do it? There's no prescription at all whatsoever in the Old Testament economy for some one to swap tribe. You were born into a tribe, and that's the tribe of' your birth. And only those who were born into the tribe of Levi, and could prove that by genealogy, and were born into the family of Aaron could ever enter into the Holiest Place. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah give long lists of families and genealogies and things perhaps a bit dry for some of us as we read. Remember that those things were necessary back then. The individuals must show and prove their lineage, because they wouldn't want anyone to be in the priesthood that was disqualified not knowing the tribe they came from. So the Old Testament priests then were of necessity BORN, not made.
What about us? We didn't come into the family of God by any maneuvers of human reckoning. We have been "born-again". We're all born into the family of God. So we certainly pass that test and let's look at Revelation 1:5,6 - "And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead., and the Prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us a kingdom of priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen!" We have been washed in His blood.. And we have been, as such, born-again. One of' the blessings we receive is we enter the royal priesthood, the holy priesthood of 'the family of faith.
I mentioned last week some of the young people that we're teaching on this subject and others found it a bit striking to know that they could tell their friends that they were priests. And one fellow even, criticizing his Christian buddies, says, "Are you a priest?" ''Well," he said, "as a matter of fact I am." So I think that they're grasping these truths.
We are not only born into this, but our chief privilege as priests is access to God. Let's just go to Heb 10. You may know that the dividing the doctrinal section of Hebrews and the practical application occurs in chapter 10 between verse 18 and 19. And in verse 19 the writer commences his practical application of all the doctrinal material that has gone before and notice how he begins: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, And having a high priest over the house of God, Let us draw near ..." (10:19-22a) My! Imagine that a person (who is raised under the Old Testament economy and study in the Old Testament scriptures and knowing that once a year, Aaron or his descendants would go into the very holy presence of God) reads a letter like this in which he is declared fitted and responsible and able to draw aside, as it were, the veil, and go into the holy presence of God; and. instead of the word, "stay far off", "stay away", "God is holy and you dare not come near", he's told "draw near. Draw near."
I often think how Aaron probably went into the presence of God 30 or 40 times in his whole life, figured out on a once-a year basis. We were so minor, and yet we could come into the presence of God in prayer. We have access to Him. We could do it that many times in one day, couldn't we? Yet, how much value do we place on the privilege of access to God I wonder if you have ever really contemplated the fact that YOU, husband, wife, mother, father, young person, whoever you are, are a priest to God, and you have access to His holy presence at any time YOU desire without any human intermediary. We have one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He is the Great High Priest. We come into the presence of God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, without any other human intermediary whatsoever. So, secondly then our chief privilege would be access to God.
Some of the functions we might be involved in would be, if you want to use general terms, worship and service. Now without spending a great deal of time, I'd like to repeat something I've said in the past. I don't know how else to counter-act wrong teaching but just to say, "That is right" and keep repeating it and hope that sooner or later it sinks in to all of our hearts.
It's been in style in some places in years gone by to make statements publicly and in books that 'worship is for everyone, ministry is only for a few'. And may I say that that is false. That is wrong. And that that is positively denied by many scriptures. The Lord Jesus in Matthew 4:10 said "Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Worship and ministry are inseparable. If we attempt to worship God without serving Him, our worship is phony. And if we try to serve God without worshipping Him, we might well read what the Lord said to Martha. There is a place for our service. But first place must belong to our worship and being in His presence from time to time. So worship and service then are the birth-right of every child of' God. Now of course what is often meant by those who made that statement, what they mean and what they should say is, 'Worship is for every Christian, and PUBLIC ministry is for a few.' Perhaps not everyone would want to get up on a platform or get up and preach to large numbers. That's certainly understandable. That's true. Many have behind-the-scenes spiritual gifts, and they're just as needed and just as precious in the body of Christ as those who minister openly or publicly. But PLEASE let's remember that distinction. Let's not say, 'Worship is for everyone, ministry is only for a few'. Ministry is for every child of God. You might want to check 1 Peter 4:10 where we are commanded to use the gift that we have been given to serve or minister one to another.
Finally, the believer-priest is responsible to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. Now let's just consider the passage that we've read this morning, and beginning in 1 Pet 2:5, Peter says there, "Ye also as living stones" and by the way as you can see he is opening out this matter of the Rock, the Lord Jesus is the Rock, and we partake of His nature, and so we are living stones. He says "Ye also as living stones, are being built up into a spiritual house, an holy priesthood."
May I call your attention to the first description of the priesthood as being a holy priesthood. That is to say, our sanctification, our being set apart from sin is of great importance to God. We are being built up into an holy priesthood. And there he says, "to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." So, as believer-priests then we have the responsibility to offer up spiritual sacrifices. How can we offer those up if we don't know what they are? So we need to study them, and let's take some time now to do that.
I believe that there are no less than five spiritual sacrifices set forth in the New Testament which I may offer up to God.
Let's turn first of all to Romans 12:1,2 which gives us the spiritual sacrifice that we may offer - what one might call worship. And verses 3-8 go on to speak about spiritual gifts that have to do with ministry. How interesting that these two concepts should be joined together in this very important passage. So many quote Romans 12:1 and 2 but they have no idea what follows. We ought to notice very carefully that verse 3-8 dealing with spiritual gifts for ministry is connected with verses 1 and 2.
But I have in mind only the first two verses. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Notice that the presentation of the body of the believer is called a living sacrifice.
Some have, on the basis of this passage, told us that we should daily present ourselves to God. Now that's a good thing to do. When we wake up in the morning and have a little time of prayer, it's good to present ourselves to God for the day. However, I don't believe that that should be taught from this passage.
The word 'present' here is in a particular tense in Greek that lets us know that this is a once-for-all presentation. It'll be a good thing for a believer to seriously consider whether they wanted to present their bodies totally without reservation to God. I might say, that this should not be done lightly. Once you give something to God, He will take it. And I would not advise anyone to present themselves whole-heatedly to God without any strings attached. Take time and pray and read the word. But if you come to this place (it would be wonderful if we all did) you come to the place to present yourselves a living sacrifice to God. You ought to believe He'll take that gift and He'll use it for His glory. Now it may not mean that your life goes the way you had thought it would, and therefore we don't do this lightly. So then it's fitting that the first sacrifice that the believer has to offer is his body - a living sacrifice.
Let's turn to Hebrews 13. Here we have a number or sacrifices spelt out for us. Heb. 13:15 "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our tips giving thanks to his name."
The second sacrifice that we may offer to God as believer-priests is the sacrifice of praise. This is just a little different from just praising the Lord. Many praise the Lord in times when things go well. It's human to do that. We get a big raise, or something works out that looked like it was going to fall apart, and a great deal of time and money and effort is saved, and then we say 'Praise the Lord'. Well, that's fine.
But here we find the sacrifice of praise, and the sacrifice of praise is that which we offer up even when things perhaps are not going our way. Somebody said, "You have to die to your own self to offer the sacrifice of praise." I believe the sacrifice of' praise is especially precious to God. I wonder how much praise has gone up to God from this assembly during the past week that has been a sacrifice - has been offered because we are willing to praise God even though things aren't going the way we had originally planned. We might remember that in the corning week.
Now, lest anyone think I'm up here as an example, I have to confess that this is a real hard thing for me. I have my mind made up about the way things should go, and then they don't work out that way, the very last thing that occurs to me is to praise the Lord. I know some of my brothers and sisters in the Lord are a little bit more advanced in that concept. But I'm working on it. You may feel convicted about this too.
We can offer the sacrifice of praise to God. Now of course all praise is pleasing to God. I don't mean to have everyone be quiet unless things are going wrong. We should praise the Lord always. But it's especially meaningful when it's a sacrifice.
We find our third and our fourth kinds of sacrifice in the next verse, Heb. 13:16 "But to do good and to share (or communicate) forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."
Here we gave our deeds and our possessions - two very broad and important aspects of our on-going day-to-day life. To do good. - this is our deeds. And to communicate, and by the way the word there is "koinonia" ("fellowship") - so, fellowship. That is the communication not only of words but also of possessions or acts of kindness, whatever it is that we may offer to God and to His people in fellowship. We read this : with these things (these sacrifices) God is well-pleased.
So then we have the sacrifice of our body, the sacrifice of praise, the sacrifice of our deeds, the sacrifice of possessions and words.
And finally let's look at 1 Timothy 2:1, not specifically referred to in this passage as a sacrifice, but I think any have offered this one know that it really is. 1 Timothy 2:1 "I exhort, therefore, that first of' all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men."
Certainly intercession is a sacrifice. And many here who are prayer- warriors and who would pray for others, which is what intercession is, know what a sacrifice it can be. It means taking time. It means getting alone with God. And it means bringing our brothers and sisters and those who need the Lord before the throne of grace in prayer. Intercession - the sacrifice that is pleasing to God?.
Now these are some of the things - there are probably others, this isn't meant to be a complete list - that the believer-priests may offer to God as spiritual sacrifices. And, I think, these would be all under v. 5 - a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices.
But we also notice over in I Peter 2:9 that we are called a "royal priesthood". And here the function is a little bit different. The holy priest goes into the presence of God with that which he wishes to present. But according to verse 9, is says that you "should show forth the praises [literally, the excellencies] of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:"
So this is the testimony then of the believer-priests. We go into the presence of God in order to worship and offer. Then we go out into the world to show forth his excellencies. In the first one, we're called holy priests; and holiness is the number one absolutely essential ingredient of that worship and service.
But in verse 9, royal priests - and, of course royalty, you know, speaks of a royal family. And we're related to the King - the Lord Jesus. He is our Lord and He is the King. And we are called a royal priesthood. So as we go forth out into the world, remembering our testimony, we ought to behave in a manner that's fitting the royal family. And it's very important that people we're trying to witness to for the Lord not see us acting or speaking in a way that brings dishonor to the name of our Lord. We ought rather to act in a manner befitting the royal family.
Now I'm sure there's those in your family and at work who would have trouble believing that you are part of' a royal family. Me too? In other words, I have trouble believing that about myself sometimes. 'That's where it comes to faith; just simply believing that we are truly related to the Lord Jesus. And we have that precious responsibility. One of the things I think is so important for those in the world to see in Christians is not only the life and the words, but also a real submission to the word of God, a real submission to the person of Christ. "If you love me, keep my commandments." And not one of us can look at another one and say , "Did you hear that? Did you hear what he said?" Everyone of us has got to look at ourselves, and read that and say, "There's one area in my life where if I love Him, I have to bend my will and submit to His will."
We've been studying about the offerings and speaking about how the Lord Jesus prescribes the way of approach. And I think back to Cain, remember Cain?, who in fact said, "I'll bring what I want, when I want, the way I want, I'll do what I please." And you know, it wasn't acceptable. And Abel, going by the revelation of God, brought the lamb, and his sacrifice was accepted.
And as we gather together and break bread and remember the Lord, and do the many things that we do - readour Bibles, and have fellowship together - we're giving opportunities to bend our will and bring it into line with His will. For some of us, this may be a bit new, maybe difficult. You've never had to bend or submit your ill to someone else. So the royal Priest then has a testimony, and he is to show forth the excellencies of One who had called us out of darkness into His light.
Now just a word on the relationship between these two. Please notice the order - it's very important. We are ho1y priests, and we go in BEFORE we are competent to be royal priests and go out. What does this say? I believe it says that our worship and our service (in other words, that which we do in the presence of God) should really have priority over our testimony. Doesn't mean it's more important, it just means there's an order. Can we go out into the world on our day-to-day walk without having come from the presence of the Lord? Can we go out and expect to really show the excellencies of One that we have not ourselves spent time with in the morning?! It's very imprtant for us as Christia.ns, first to be in the Presence of the Lord, then to go out and show His excellencies.
Worship must corne before service. Worship and service must come before a glowing testimony.
Remember this moming we were here in the first meeting, a brother was reading about a. woman who carne and annointed the feet of the Lord Jesus? We remember Mary there in Bethany doing that same thing. And there was Judas, "Why this waste? This money could have been given to the poor." What was he sayin? "Why this waste in worship? A lot of service could have been done with that money!" And the Lord had to set hirn straight, and would set us straight too. There are times for all the other things in their place. So first, the holy priesthood, and then the royal priesthood.
Now, finally, we want to speak for just a moment on the temple. There's not time to go into depth here. We know from Matthew 27 that when the Lord Jesus died, the veil in the temple, the earthly temple, was torn in two from the top to the bottom. It's an act of God. That was a very symbolic act because it symbolized the opening of the way into the presence of God so that God could now say to us, 'Draw near'.
1 Corinthians 3 and 6 speak about the body of the believer, that is to say your human physical body, as a temple of the Holy Spirit. And we also know that those passages bring before us the thought, of God's assembly as His dwelling place. He dwells in the midst of His people. And we together corporately form His temple or His dwelling-place. We must be very, very careful then as Christians never to defile or destroy or desecrate or in any way harm these things which are said to be the temple of God. God is not dwelling on earth in temples made of bricks and stones. He's dwelling in my body, in your body, and He's dwelling in the midst of His people - all of us together as His saints.
Sometimes I'm a bit discouraged when I think of how much time is devoted in Christian things today to personal relationships. Seems like the tapes, and seminars, and books and sermons, and traveling speakers, and all the rest spend almost all of their time emphasizing personal relationship with God. Now I wouldn't say an unkind thing about it. I'm very very thankful for that. But we do need from time to time to be reminded that we not only have a personal relationship to God, but we also have a corporate relationship. God is very interested in the gathering of His people together. And Scripture has a great deal to say about this. And we need to go through studies that bring these things to us.
Now for our final point this morning, I would like to close by just reminding you in practical application of at least four things that we could do in response to what we've learnt this morning. Four, perhaps, practical applications of the whole matter of the priesthood of the believer. I'll just list them very quickly, and then we'll be through.
First of all we should see ourselves as God sees us as holy and royal priests. Think of that during the coming week. Begin to realize that that's not just some nice thing that's said to make us feel better, but that's a real certainty in the eyes of God. We draw near because we have access, because we are priests, because the word of God has said so. That privilege was purchased for us at great cost.
Secondly, as we study the Bible, from time to time, we should be alert to anything that would speak about the worship and the service of the priesthood. You might want to make a study of the Old Testament some time and see if there are any principles there that would apply to your worship and service, as a believer-priest.
Thirdly, of course, it would be important to meet in an assembly or in a place where these truths can be exercised. We do not hear of West Woods Bible Chapel say on one hand that we believe the practical exercise of the priesthood of the believer, and then allow no time for its expression. That's why at least one, and perhaps more of our meetings, are geared towards participation.
And then finally , of course, we should avoid unscriptural concepts such as false priesthoods. I'm appalled at those who would tell us that as believers we need them as our priest. We should simply avoid that. It's not scriptural. It won't bring us toward our goal of our relationship with the Lord. We should avoid false priesthoods, and clergy - those who would interpose between us and God. I've nothing against individuals like that, but we should not see that as necessary to have access to God. We can come directly to the Lord.
And finally, another word that creeps in from time to time - the whole matter of ritual. God wants us to be in His presence and to be led by His Holy Spirit. He's not really interested in hearing you read a prayer to Him that someone else wrote. You may feel that someone else wrote a nice prayer, and could say it better than you can say it, but how would you feel if your little child that you dearly love came up to you and read a sentence to you because they didn't feel that you'd accept them if they just talked to you? You'll feel pretty sad about that. And God loves each one of us very dearly. He wants to hear it in our own words, from our own hearts, and therefore let's not get into things that presents other people's prayers and worship to God. Let's come to Him and tell Him what's on our own hearts, and let's do so boldly - in other words with complete confidence that when He hears us approach Him and say the things that are on our hearts, reverently of course, because of Who He is, and He responds with love, and I believe His heart rejoice when we come to Him in that way.
Let's pray.