Priesthood of all believers
Notes
Transcript
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
What dose Jesus mean by “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these”, He’s speaking of how everyone in Christ’s kingdom Has the holy spirit dwelling in them and therefor has the ability to receive gifts of the holy spirit.
Now you might be asking what do you mean gifts from the holy spirit?
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are spiritual endowments given to Christians for service and edification within the church.
The bible is full of stories of people receiving gifts from the holy spirit and then doing some amazing things.
How about Noah? Here’s a Godly man who one day at the ripe old age of 500 gets orders from head quarters that he needs to build a boat.
Now Noah had not only never built a boat before but had probably never seen one before. Now he needs to build a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. In a place that never saw rain.
He recieved the all the gifts from the holy spirit he needed to not only complete the task of building the ark but the ability to maintain everything else the he had to do living the substance lives that they were living.
Have you ever taken the opportunity to study the Tabernacle that the Israelites built during the exodus? This place was amazing.
It had an outside dimension of 180 by 90 ft the sides were 8 ft tall. The inner portion that housed the ark was incredibly ornate. Exodus 25 talks about the offerings that will be used, gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems
It goes on to talk about the ark and how it was to be constructed.
Have them make an ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. 11 Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. 12 Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. 13 Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it. 15 The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. 16 Then put in the ark the tablets of the covenant law, which I will give you.
It goes on to instruct exactly how to construct the panels that make up the tent, hoe many poles to use to hold it up, How many lamp stands and how they should look. it goes on and on in great detail.
Now I can see it in some of you. Your thinking ya that's pretty interesting, but you just don’t have the WoW factor that I have for it. Well it’s because I’ve held that back.
The WoW factor of this story for me isn’t the fact that they were able to construct such a ornate and beautiful place out in the desert.
It was the fact that former slaves did it. Slaves that knew absolutely nothing about woodworking, metal working or upholstery, Let alone the Master skill level that would have been required to perform these skills as instructed.
They had just left a life in which the only thing they did all day was make bricks. Knowing how to make bricks was one skill set that had nothing to do with the task God had given them.
The only way everything was able to be made to God’s exact specifications is because along with the instructions given to Moses, He sent the holy spirit gift the one’s in need the ability's to complete the tasks at hand.
The absolutely amazing thing is God’s still doing it today. But today , Today we have the new and greatly improved version compared to what the Israelites had. You see They recieved their gifts from God via the Holy spirit but their instruction was relayed to them from Moses. They were not able to communicate with God directly, But today we can. When we give our lives to Christ. When we kill the old us and are born again we get a direct line to God
John 14:13–14 “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
Did you hear that? When it comes to glorifying God We can ask our lord anything and it will be done.
Why? Why would God give us this incredible access?
That brings us back to 1 Peter 2:9-11
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
You see no longer do you need to be a Israelites to be a member of Gods kingdom. Throw Christ we all have access. A child of Christ is one of the chosen people they are a member of the royal priesthood. They are duty bound to “declare the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
We have access to these gifts because we need these gifts. Every Day all of Gods chosen are under attack. You see Once you declare Christ is your Lord and savior. You are saying you are now one of his possessions. That he is now in charge of you.
And as soon as you've made that commitment the devil says “we’ll see”. And that snake sets out to do everything he and his army of demons can do to get you to stop taking your orders from head quarters.
Just look around. You won’t have to look very far to see the devil’s handy work.
There is almost 25,000 murders every year just in the U.S.
We’ve got an epidemic of sex slavery.
Just in the U.S. over a million of Gods creations are killed before they ever make it out of their mothers.
Ray Charles could see Satin is making great headway in the battle of good and evil.
And friends if you only hear one part of this message hear this.
One of satin’s greatest victories is getting a believer to think things like. “compared to everyone else I’m very good” or “I’m not out there committing any of these crimes. I sit back in my own little world and mind mine”
Even something as simple as “I don’t read my bible because I don’t like to read”
When you take a stance anywhere similar to that. Satin has gotten you to disengage. Your mouth may still be saying Christ is my Lord but your actions are saying different.
And friends hear this God asks you to bring very little to the table. He asks for your devotion and you’r faith.
Everything else he will give you as a gift.
Take it from a 49 year old who was diagnosed with a severe case of dyslexia in the 3rd grade and has the attention span of a 13 year old. I desired to know Gods word. I was able to finish his book in 13 months. only because he gave me the gifts I need to grow closer to him, to glorify him.
Friends through Jesus Christ God has made you a member of his royal priesthood. He has given you the ability to receive amazingly powerful gifts to use to glorify his kingdom spread the good news of his son Jesus Christ who was crucified dead and buried. Three days later he rose from the dead. He now sits at the right hand of the father. He did this to pay for our sins. To give us the gift of everlasting life.
Join me from this day forward. Take advantage of being able to receive gifts from god. Don’t let satin keep you on the sidelines.
Will you pray with me?
Dear heavenly father we thank you for you’r son Jesus Christ. We thank you for our friends and families. We pray for guidance. for the ability to discern how you need us to serve you.we ask for the holy spirit to instill in us the gifts we need to fight this spiritual war. The gifts we need to spread the word of Jesus Christ. and to glorify your kingdom. We pray for you to stamp out the complacency we have in our hearts and fill us with the resolve we need to battle darkness. We pray this because you are our Lord. You are our savior. And Gods children said Amen.
