Our Priesthood

Our Priesthood

Opening

Leo Tolstoy's story Two Old Men tells the tale of two men, Efim and Elisha, who decide that before they die, they must make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After months of planning, they collect what they will need and begin to walk.

After a long day on the road, they come to a village that seems deserted. No one is about, and seeing a small hut, they look in to see what has happened. They enter its darkness and smell death. As their eyes adjust, they see bodies on beds. With trepidation they come close, and see that the people are still alive, but barely.

Elisha wants to stay and help. He encourages his companion to go on, "And I will catch up with you." But as Elisha opens doors and windows, and offers them food and drink, he begins to see that their needs are more than he first imagined—and that it is not only them, but the whole village that is suffering.

He finds his friend and tells Efim that he wants to stay longer, encouraging him to make his way on to Jerusalem. "I will find you," he says.

So, one man stays in the village, helping the villagers find their way again to happiness and health, never going on to Jerusalem, eventually returning home; the other man makes his way to Jerusalem. He keeps waiting for his friend who never comes, so before long he returns home to Russia—again, walking across a continent.

At one point along the way, he comes to a village that seems strangely familiar to him. And then he realizes that it is where he left his friend—but everything seems very different now.

Men and women, older and younger, are busy at work and play; animals are healthy, and the crops are growing, and so he asks, "What has happened?" In simple innocence, the villagers explain that a man stopped along the way and gave them back their life.

We spend the first half of our life receiving life from those around us. Our parents, our teachers and mentors who prepare us for this life and strengthen us in it.

We then spend the last half of our life, giving life back to those around us. Raising our children, doing our work, and helping those along the way.

When you are young, you feel alive at the end of the day and eager to do all things. When you are older, you are tired at then end of the day for you have been busy giving of your life to do all things.

Our life will not be measured by how much life we seized as much as it will be seen by how much life we gave to those around us.

Today, I want to see how God sees you in this business of giving back the life He has given you. It is a journey worth taking.

Invocation

Message

We have enjoyed the grace of our Lord Jesus for so long that we often forget there was a principle established back when God made a nation of Israel. Since we can access Him anytime, we take for granted what was not previously granted to men.

Only the priests in Israel were qualified to make the sacrifices required from those who approached God.

Like so many things in life, we cannot appreciate what we have till we can grasp what it would be like without it. Or worse, to never have known it.

God has blessed my life so that I may know what the rest of the world endures.

Thirty years ago, I walked among the dumps of Mexico where a thousand families lived in cardboard shacks scavenged from the dump and ate from what was thrown away.

The last time I visited that ministry, the dump was gone, and people were receiving electricity for the first time in their lives.

I have worshipped in Africa with a congregation that was celebrating a Sunday where no one in their church family had died.

They were a young congregation for the simple fact that no one there lived long enough to grow old.

With your support, I have served in a school in northern Burma where I could only visit with people at night because they would be reported to the authorities for talking to foreigners.

I traveled with missionaries at night who came upon a man who fell from a truck. We stopped to give aid, but they tossed him back on the truck because there was no hospitals or clinics in that entire district. So, we prayed for him as they drove away.

There is nothing that can replace those experiences and in every one of them our Lord was as near as a prayer.

So, what would it be like for you and me if we could not speak directly with our Lord? What if everything that you wanted to say to Him had to be forwarded by someone else?

Can you imagine facing your life without His presence and the comfort of prayer?

That was how the world was prior to Jesus Christ. It wasn’t because God didn’t hear their prayers or even care about their prayers.

But God was going to change all that.

God was going to make a nation of them and that required the Law, a priest and sacrifice.

Let me explain:

Only men from the family of Aaron were permitted to serve as priests. Their function was to present sacrifices to God, to seek God’s guidance for the nation or individuals, to instruct the people in God’s Law, to serve as judges in certain cases, and to serve as guardians of Israel’s covenant.

These priests were literally mediators between God and the nation Israel.

They represented the people to God by offering sacrifices and incense, by leading worship, and praying for divine guidance.

They also were channels through which God communicated His will, and they served as living reminders that God would forgive sinning people.

The New Testament would go on to teach that every believer is a priest (1 Peter 2:9), so understanding the role of the priest has personal value for us.

Like those priests of old, each Christian acts as a priest with their direct access to God. Each of us can represent others to the Lord in prayer. And each of us can be a channel through whom God’s love and grace reach the men and women around us.

But more on that in a minute.

First, there had to be a high priest. The Old Testament high priest had one duty that set him apart from other priests. He and he alone entered the holy of holies on the annual Day of Atonement, carrying sacrificial blood which God promised would roll back the sins of His people (cf. Lev. 16).

The New Testament makes it clear that it is Jesus who is the true High Priest, who entered heaven itself with His own blood. As our High Priest, Jesus made the one sacrifice of Himself which saved all who believe with an eternal salvation (Heb. 10:10–14).

As high priest, Aaron was provided with distinctive clothing to “give him dignity and honor.” Each item Aaron wore also had significance.

The ephod was a vestlike jacket that had two stones, mounted one on each shoulder. The name of each Israelite tribe was engraved on one of these stones. Whenever Aaron entered the tabernacle, he represented all the people of God.

Today, Jesus, our High Priest, represents the church before God’s throne. The New Testament says, “we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

So, you can see that the principle of the priest never changed.

Then there was the breast piece Ex. 28:15–30. This pouch was attached to the ephod with chains of gold. Twelve precious stones were mounted on it, each with the name of a single tribe. The text says that “whenever Aaron enters the holy place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart.”

The symbolism was powerful. Here each tribe, rather than being engraved with others on a stone shoulder tab, is symbolized individually by an expensive gem. Each is worn over the heart.

Jesus does more than represent us as a group in heaven. He carries each individual in His heart. Each of us is known and loved. Each of us is precious to our Savior.

Then there was the Urim and Thummim Ex. 28:30. The breastpiece was called the “breastpiece of decision.” It contained two items called Urim and Thummim, which were used by the high priest to discern the will of God.

No one knows just how they were used. Some like to think that one represented no and the other yes, and they were drawn blindly by the high priest when inquiries were addressed to God.

All we know for sure is that God used them to communicate His will to Israel.

Today our High Priest has sent us His Holy Spirit. Like the Urim and Thummim, we do not know exactly how the Spirit guides or communicates His will to us. But we do know that, when we honestly seek God’s guidance, the Holy Spirit leads us into His will.

But that still begs the question, “How then are we priests?” We can get a little bit closer to understanding by looking at what they wore.

They wore a robe, tunic, and turban Ex. 28:21–42. The clothing was made of the finest material and beautifully worked. They only brought their best before God.

I hope that we do the same and only bring God our best, since He has given only His best.

Then there was the “Incense . . . offered every morning” Ex. 30:1–10. Aaron “must” burn fragrant incense on a golden altar within the tabernacle “every morning.” Those outside could see that the priest was making offering for them before God.

Revelation treats incense as a symbol of the prayers of God’s saints (Rev. 8:3–4). One of the things that defines us as a church and one of the most important ways we serve this community is by our prayers.

The image reminds us that daily prayer is a “must” for Christians, not only for our own spiritual benefit but because it is a vital ingredient in the worship of God. The priest cannot serve without prayer.

As a side note but still important was the “Atonement money” Ex. 30:11–16.

A half-shekel tax to be collected from each Hebrew male was used for upkeep of the tabernacle. The tax is described as an atonement, or ransom. They literally gave as if their lives depended upon it.

In the Old Testament all atonement is associated with sacrifice. This is true here as well, money for the “service of the tent of tabernacle” implies payment for the sacrificial animals that were required for daily, Sabbath, and special festival offerings.

But here was the catch, each Israelite paid the same small amount. Rich and poor had the same access to God through sacrifices offered by the priests. The act, not the amount, was what mattered.

James Dobson in his book Hide or Seek said that we must decisively reject the values of a society which dismisses the plain girl and the less intelligent man as having no worth or value.

In a society that places so much emphasis on looks, intelligence, athletic achievement, and wealth, the majority grows up with a sense of personal inferiority and even of worthlessness. A low self-worth, Dobson says, is the painful product of a society that devalues the individual.

But this is society’s view—not God’s.

The difference is reflected in God’s design of the high priest’s breastpiece I described.

God specified a different precious stone to represent each tribe in Israel. Each stone bore the name of one person, the forefather who represents the tribe. Each stone was attached with gold filigree to a pouch worn over the heart of the high priest. Each name was carried there, over his heart, and went into the very presence of the Lord.

God views each of us as an individual. Each of us is different, yet each is precious to the Lord. And each of us is close to the heart of Jesus, our true High Priest.

Most of us will be unable to leave our children great wealth or riches. But each of us does have an important gift we can give. We can give each of our children a sense of his worth, value, and a faith that reflects God’s values, not the values of our society.

But above all, that which made a priest a priest was the time that he spent in the presence of the Lord. It is the same for us.

Our spiritual value to those around us is defined by the time that we spend in the presence of the Lord.

Our busyness, preoccupations and even fatigue work against us in keeping that sacred appointment with God. An appointment we know that we should keep faithfully.

When we fail, when days pass without a time alone with Him, our spiritual life loses its consistency and I begin to see life like the rest of the world; as random events and just another day. Doing so, we fail to live. We just exist.

I have tried to make a regular practice of being alone with God. It is easier at this stage of my life, but it is not what you think.

It is not always a time of deep and insightful prayer or some serious grasp of the mysteries of God. I wish it were.

To be honest, it is full of distractions, a certain restlessness or sleepiness, often confusion and even a little boredom. It left me wondering if God even appreciated our time together given my thoughts and feelings.

But then I began watching over my grandchildren and spent time with them. A time filled with distractions, a restlessness or sleepiness, that was confusing to them and which they always said that they were bored.

Then I realized that I was just behaving like a child in those moments alone with God and the Lord looked on me like I looked upon my grandchild. I just like being with them and found their antics to be precious to me. And I loved them all the more.

Yes, you are God’s priest to this world and yes, that is a grave responsibility but to be that priest, you need to spend time alone with your Father because without realizing it, you are building a bond that you will treasure above all things.

I remember studying a Psalm that drove this home. It was written by David when he was king besieged by all sorts of problems and all he could remember were those days he spent as a shepherd and the joy he knew with God in those fields. He wanted that back.

So, he left the palace in the wee hours of the night and made his way to the temple. Those priests serving there didn’t know what to think but this was the king and so you let him. I do not believe he went into the court of the priests but certainly before the temple itself.

And there he cried out, “For God alone my soul in silence waits; from him will come my deliverance.”

David knew what made him the ‘man after the heart of God’. He wanted to be in the presence of his heavenly Father. He wanted to play at His feet, pour out his restlessness and confusion and even become a little bored.

David never said anything. He just waited in silence for the Lord to come to him again so he could feel that peace again. I will always picture David curling up on the steps of the temple in his royal robes like he used to do when he watched over his sheep.

And there before the Holy Place of God, in the middle of the night, with the priests and guards watching, he went to sleep. And he slept like he did when he was just a boy and he found his peace.

When was the last time you were alone with God? When was the last time you just leaned against Him and waited in silence? If it’s been a while, He has missed you and He is waiting. Remember, you are His priest.

I Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.