John’s co-worker and friend, Peter, also used this same kind of language in his first Epistle. Chapter 2 verse 5, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, AN HOLY PRIESTHOOD, TO OFFER UP SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES, ACCEPTABLE TO GOD BY JESUS CHRIST. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”
The priesthood of the believer is our theme for this evening. It is a kind of a confusing subject, so I hope that you can follow my logic better than I can tonight.
Since our family has moved, I don’t see them as much as I used to, but coming to church down the freeway, just south of the highway, before I turned off on Spokane Street, I would quite often seen some long skirted men standing next to building surrounded by idols. Post Falls has the “privilege” of being home to one of the most conservative Roman Catholic congregations in the Northwest. I don’t know if they have changed lately, but just a few years ago, they were still using Latin in their services and the observance of their idolatrous “mass.” Of course those skirted men, were not really men at all, but priests of Rome. Our little community also has a Greek Orthodox church with its priest. There are other Roman Catholic congregations and they have priests as well. Then throughout the world there are priests in hundreds of other religions.
Question: When the Bible calls us “priests” are we priests as those others which I’ve just mentioned? Absolutely not. Christians are supposed to pattern their lives, their faith and their worship after the principles of the Bible. And reading through the Bible, I don’t find anything which resembles the priests of Rome, India or Greece. But I do see two kinds of Biblical priests – Mosaic/Levitical priests and one after the order of Melchizedek. I think that we can see principles which apply to us, and which relate to our text of scripture, coming out of both Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ – our Great High Priest.
In a couple of weeks we are going to return to this in Sunday School, but please turn to Exodus 19. Verse 1 – “In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 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 a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. This scripture seems to be the original source for what Peter was saying in his letter.
The Lord clearly told the entire nation of Israel that they would be a kingdom of priests. What does that mean? Perhaps at this point, we shouldn’t take the word quite as literally as we ordinarily do. Generally speaking, a priest was someone whose life was spent serving the Lord in various, God-prescribed ways. The Levitical priests had responsibilities in the tabernacle, burning incense, trimming lamps, baking the shew bread, and keeping the place as clean as possible. They were also involved in some medical applications such as ministering to the Lepers. And they were to oversee the rite of circumcision. They were to offer the sacrifices as proscribed by God. And they were the teachers of the nation. Without considering the details, you could say that their job was “to serve the Lord” by serving others. And again without considering those details, in a sense that was supposed to be the work of ALL Israel. As Levi was one tribe out of twelve, Israel was one nation out of all the rest of the nations. As Levi was to lead the nation in the worship and service of Jehovah, the whole nation was supposed to lead the rest of the world in the worship and service of the Lord. And in a general sense, you and I, as Christians, are to carry on a similar kind of ministry.
One of the things emphasized in Exodus 19 is the fact that Israel had been the beneficiary of God’s mercy. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, how I bare you on eagles’ wings, & brought you unto myself.” “Now THEREFORE, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people… And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Notice the “now therefore” – it sounds similar to Paul’s appeal in Romans 12:1. Our salvation parallel’s Israel’s and we are suppose to be like Israel to the Lord and to the world. Ephesians 2:4 – “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” We are priests in the sense that God has been gracious towards us – with the purpose of our service for His glory.
Then of course, we are priests in the fashion that I hinted at this morning. Like Israel we have been blessed with the Passover; we have been redeemed from Egypt – delivered. We have passed under the blood of the atonement. The Lord’s sin offering has been sacrificed for us. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us from ourselves and from the effect of our sins. And now we come to those whole burnt offerings, the peace offerings and thank offerings. We are priests in the sense that now we can offer much to the Lord in thanksgiving to Him for saving us. Israel was to bring to the Lord, through their priests, their tithes and offerings, just as we are to do. When the leper was healed he was to bring offerings to the Lord. It might be argued that they were for the purpose of sanctifying and cleansing, but it could also be argued that they were for thanksgiving. And when that baby was born there were simple offerings to be presented to God, and again the same arguments could be made. For every offering that Israel was to make to God there are parallel offerings that Christians should make.
But there is one major difference – We are in a sense far more our own priests than Israel was. They had to bring their offerings, even many of their thanksgiving offerings, to the tabernacle and through the priestly tribe of Levi. But you are not required to give to the Lord through me or any other man on earth. That doesn’t mean that we can arbitrarily start our own tribe and worship according to our own whims. It doesn’t mean that we can ignore the fact that the Lord has established His church as the designated place of worship, But our church doesn’t have a single, God-appointed, or self-appointed, priest to do our sacrificing, our praying and our service on your behalf. Every saint of God is a kind of priest. We can read the Bible for ourselves and determine what the Lord is saying. In other words, the Lord can speak to us. And we can give to God as much time, property, money, or talent that we feel led of the Lord to give. No one has the right to dictate to our souls. However, we are priests under the supreme priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. And that leads me to our next point.
Rephrasing that thought, it is important to remember that Christ was BOTH the PRIEST and the SACRIFICE. When the Jews gave Jesus over to the Romans, they weren’t doing so as priests, but as traitors. And when the Romans drove those nails through the hands and feet of Saviour they certainly were not offering Him to God. No, the Lord Jesus clearly demonstrated, when the mob came for Him, that He was in control. And when He was in the midst of that mock trial, He declared that the Jews had no authority but what the Lord was temporarily granting to them. As the hymn suggests, He could have called ten-thousand angels to deliver Him from the cross. At Calvary, the Priest overseeing and authorizing the Sacrifice which fulfilled the picture painted by all those Old Testament animals, was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He was both the Sacrifice and the Priest, and this is marvelous in our eyes. Similarly, what Paul is asking of us in this verse is that we act as both priest and sacrifice. Of course, our priesthood is authorized under the greater priesthood of Christ Jesus. But there should be no one who tosses you onto the Lord’s altar, but yourself. There should be no one who slits your throat, because God wants a living sacrifice – not a dead one.
Do you remember the sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah by his father Abraham? The virtual death of Isaac was an obvious type, or picture, of the sacrifice of Christ. But it is also a type of our sacrifice as seen here in Romans. Are you going to tell me that Isaac didn’t eventually figure out what was about to happen? Are you going to tell me that young man, in his mid to late teens, couldn’t have resisted his father, who was then over a hundred years old? The offering of Isaac was a free-will offering, and he was in part a priest’s assistance in his own death. And perhaps one of the lessons in the Lord’s cutting short of that sacrifice might be that God wants living sacrifices, once the blood of the atonement has been applied.
There are false teachers who say that when Jesus was taken down from the cross – He wasn’t dead. They say that he had passed out; that the spear in his side missed all the vital organs; that Christ was in a trance, a coma, or in some sort of special unconscious state. Foolishness – He was dead; There was no breath in His lungs, and His heart had stopped beating. Although it was far more than this: Jesus gave His physical body to be crucified. It was a bodily sacrifice. And once again, this is the kind of sacrifice that the Lord is asking of us – BODILY – yet STILL LIVING. He wants your life – your heart, your mind, and those things that you use to listen to music – your ears. The Lord wants your hands, and your eyes; He wants to make your feet particularly beautiful in His sight. God wants to cover every part of your body with His special armor in order to fight His special battles. He wants your wardrobe and your jewelry, your make-up and even your diet. The Lord wants your time and your dimes; He wants you – body soul and spirit.
But of course, as it should be with every sacrifice – our sacrifice must be HOLY. The sacrifices of the Old Testament were supposed to be the best of the flock or the herd. The best of the stock were probably set aside throughout the year, reserved for future offerings. Perhaps the nation even had flocks into which the best animals were added every year so that the morning and evening sacrifices, Yom Kippur and other national sacrifices had only the very best. But they were nothing compared to the absolute perfection of the Son of God. He was impeccable; completely without sin and without any kind of blemish in the eyes of the Father. Our holy sacrifice is not supposed to be the best that we can find, it is supposed to be patterned after the Most Holy – after the Lord Jesus. I realize that we are talking about ideals and practical impossibilities, nevertheless, that is the requirement. And in Christ Jesus, as we make our self-offerings by faith and in faith, the Lord can see them as perfect.
Another requirement is ACCEPTABILITY. When Jesus died, the sky grew dark, and it appeared that the wrath of God was to be poured out. The fact is – it was. But that wrath was being dumped on a very special sacrifice and very special circumstances. Three days later at dusk, as the new day began to unfold, the Lord proved that Jesus’ sacrifice was perfectly accepted by the Father. Similarly, the sacrifice which Paul is urging here of us is to be equally accepted. But not only to God – if it isn’t acceptable to us, it’s not much of a sacrifice at all.
The last thing that Paul says here is that our sacrifice is a REASONABLE thing to ask. Even though the spiritually-dead world cannot make either head or tails out of Jesus’ death, it makes perfect sense to spiritual logic. There was no other way to provide salvation for sinners like us except through Jesus’ vicarious sacrifice. Perhaps in a different way and for different reasons, the sacrifice of the saint of God makes equal sense. In fact there are a number of ways in which this might be true, but there is certainly the obvious. If I was saved at the age of ten and I lived to be a hundred and ten, I would have lived on earth a hundred years. But I will enjoy Millennium for ten times the length of that earthly life time, and there will be a million millenniums following that in eternity. My few years on earth as a living sacrifice will be as less than a second in comparison to the blessings of eternity. It isn’t unreasonable for me to give these few earthly moments to the Saviour in light of all that I will not be able to sacrifice to Him in eternity. And isn’t it reasonable to give him a few earthly years of physical life, when He gave to me His physical death? And specifically what kind of service does the Lord ask? I can’t answer that with any great detail, because He might ask different things from each of us. But whatever it might be for any of us, none of it will be unreasonable.
You and I have been called to be priests unto God, but the only sacrifice that we are asked to make is the offering of ourselves.
“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.”