Priests who need a priest

In need of a mediator

I want you to imagine someone who kind of intimidates you. Not in a bad way, that is, not a bad person who is likely to harm you in some way… rather someone who might be in a position of authority over you… it might even be someone you admire greatly and you want their approval but you’re not sure what they think of you.

Now, how do you go about communicating with this person?

Some of you, I know, are pretty bold people and you’ll probably just get over whatever intimidation you might feel and just speak to them whatever is on your mind.

But sometimes it can feel a whole lot easier if you get someone to help you.

But of course, sometimes it’s not just nice, it’s necessary.

Take a judge in a court of law. The defendent can’t just approach the judge, he needs a lawyer to speak to the judge.

If I wanted to speak to the King of England, I’d need someone who had access to the King to invite me.

You see, the reality is, you actually don’t have a right to just speak with whoever you want, whenever you want.

Some people might be arrogant enough to think they do, but they don’t. There are some people that you need an intermediary for.

When it comes to God, most of us come from a Protestant tradition where we put an emphasis on the fact that we can have direct access to God.

Now, I’m not going to disagree with that. We can have direct access to God. But… there is a bit more to the story that we need to know.

So stay with me, we’re going to get a much better picture of how we can have access to God.

The need for a priest

Well, let me state up front… you don’t deserve direct access to God.

He is God. You are human.

He is immortal. You are mortal.

He created this entire universe. You are part of that creation.

He is perfect. You are imperfect.

He is above every Prime minister, President, King, or any other kind of head of state. We are all just lowly commoners.

There is a gap, and no amount of self-congratulations will get you anywhere near God.

We need a mediator.

In other words, we need a priest.

The word priest can conjure up feelings of religiosity, and in a Baptist Church we can certainly shy away from such things.

But let’s for a moment take a step back. We will explore why we might have the reluctance to use the word priest, but we’re going right back to see where it began. So let’s go right back to the start of the bible.

Creation

If we go back to creation, we’ll find God making humanity in His own image. Now, there is actually a big discussion to be had about what it means to be in the image of God, but for the moment, let’s just say that it something that is bestowed upon humans, but no other creatures.

Consequently, Adam and Eve had the privilege of communing with God inside the Garden of Eden.

But that changed when they were kicked out of the garden when they wanted more.

Communication is now severely constrained.

God can still choose to communicate with various humans, and from time to time he does, but a barrier has formed.

Finally, we come to Moses, and God starts revealing himself to Moses in a much more direct kind of a way.

But for most of the rest of humanity, including those who were part of the nation of Israel, that is, the people chosen by God, communicating with God is still really not possible.

Leviticus

Well, this is where our series on the book of Leviticus comes in.

Actually, it comes hot on the heels of the second half of the book of Exodus. As the book of Exodus comes to a close, God has instructed his people to build what is called a tabernacle. Essentially, it’s the place where God is going to dwell, and it will be in the middle of these people.

Now, I started this series before I went away on holidays, and we explored the first seven chapters.

In these chapters, we see a number of different offerings that could be given, where God is opening a door and basically saying - I’m going to start to provide a way for you to approach me.

But there was an aspect of these first seven chapters that I didn’t really focus on much when we went through it all.

And that is, that a priest was required.

You see, I want to remind you… there is this big disconnect between us and God. I can’t just approach God with good intentions, just like me as someone who isn’t a lawyer can’t just approach a judge in a court even if I have the best of intentions.

We need someone to bridge that gap.

And you can’t just nominate someone and say - well, they’ll do.

It needs to be someone chosen by God and annointed in the right way.

This is where our passage for today comes into play.

Because it’s in chapter 8 that Moses’ brother Aaron and his sons are annointed as priests.

The ordination

It is time for the ordination, and it is going to be a big deal.

Significantly, it’s going to occur in front of the entire assembly.

This is not a private affair. This is something for all to see, because the priest is going to be the one who will create a touch point so that the people can connect with God.

They are brought forward. They’re washed. And then a special tunic is placed on them.

There’s also a whole bunch of special items to complete the outfit, each carrying a lot of significance, but we don’t have time to explore them now.

Moses then annoints them with oil, consecrating them for their very special task.

We then get a whole bunch of the offerings that the previous chapters have just described, including the sin offering and the burnt offering.

Now, one of the features of this chapter is the repeated phrase: “as the Lord commanded Moses”.

The whole thing is being done just as God commanded. It wasn’t just some fancy idea. God is preparing some very specific people for a very specific role and it was important that obedience to God is key.

So in chapter 8, we get the ordination, but as we move to chapter 9, we see that is doesn’t end there. The ordination actually lasts for 7 days, but then on the eighth day, they need to be ready to minister to the people. This is after all the reason they are being consecrated in this way.

So after all the ordination offerings, we get another series of offerings on this eighth day, including a bull calf for a sin offering and ram for a burnt offering.

And now that we have a priest, the people are able to bring their offerings.

We now have the means to come before God.

Now, I know this all sounds so foriegn to our ears. Killing animals in this way does not sit well with our modern sensibilities. But stay with me, because we’re going to see how this plays out.

The failure

Now, after reading Leviticus 8-9 it can all seem like we’re on to a really good thing here. Yes, as I just mentioned, we might struggle with our modern way of thinking, but God has provided a way for us to access God.

A connection has been restored. What was lost in the Fall, now has a key for humanity to return.

But… while Leviticus 8-9 might have an idealic feel about it, things come crashing down pretty quick when we read Leviticus 10.

In this chapter, two of Aaron’s sons who have just been consecrated come in to picture. Their names are Nadab and Abihu.

Now I noted before that one of the features of chapter 8 was that everything was done just as the Lord commanded.

Sadly, that changes in chapter 10.

Verse 1 of this chapter simply says they offered unauthorised fire before the Lord, contrary to God’s command.

We then get this dramatic event happen, which quite frankly, I feel it deserves more than a single verse, but fire comes out of the presence of the Lord and consumes these two sons, and they die before the Lord.

Those first two verses of chapter 10 probably leave you thinking - what in the world just happened?

Actually, when it says unauthorised fire was offered before the Lord, we’re not actually told what they did. The wording has been left quite vague, but in some ways, it doesn’t really matter exactly what happened. What’s important is that they’ve started doing things their own way.

This was an important role. To be a priest, that is, to be one who mediates between God and humanity, you need to recognise the significance of this. This is huge.

Now, the rest of chapter 10 shows how some level of resitution was able to be made so that this community could carry on, but it already shows how fragile the situation is going to be when mere humans hold the role of priest.

As the Old Testament continues, we’ll see a long line of priests. Actually, it’s quite interesting as we see them trace their lineage back through Aaron.

Throughout the Old Testament there are some occasions where the priests live up to the role that has been assigned for them, but unfortunately, there are lots of occasions where the priests fail miserably.

As we get into the New Testament, the priests continue to go bad - most notably when we see the High Priest condeming Jesus to die.

There is a need for something better.

Jesus the High Priest

Now this is what I absolutely love about the New Testament and Jesus. Jesus doesn’t come to abolish the Old Testament and it’s laws - rather he comes to fulfil it.

This is exactly what we see with regards to the priesthood.

Jesus doesn’t do away with the Priesthood - rather he becomes the perfect High Priest that we so desperately need.

And here is where it becomes so amazing - you see, the priest is meant to offer sacrifices on our behalf, sacrifices that are meant to be repeated time after time.

Jesus however, offered himself as a sacrifice in such a way that it was good for all time.

If you want a beautifully written explanation of this read through Hebrews 8-10.

Jesus is not abolishing the sacrificial system. He’s fulfilling it.

Today, we don’t need to sacrifice animals as we approach God, because Jesus is our sacrifice.

We can access God because of what Jesus has done for us.

Priesthood of all believers

But while we’re talking about priests, there’s another aspect of the story that I want to briefly explore, and it’s something that we touched on a bit when we recently had a series in the book of 1 Peter.

And that is, in this fulfilled system that Jesus provided for us, for anyone who becomes part of God’s kingsdom as a believer, you become part of the priesthood.

1 Peter 2:9 says: “but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood...”

I mentioned earlier that us Baptist’s shy away from the term priest. The truth is, I am a priest, but only insofar as all of us who believe are priests.

We call this the priesthood of all believers.

So, what does that mean in practice?

Well, it means you play a role in helping others connect with God. It doesn’t matter what your normal day job is, you have a role to play in the spiritual welfare of others.

You can intercede on behalf on others.

You can show mercy to others.

Perhaps if you’ve never thought of it like this, it might seem strange, but yet when we submit to Jesus as the high priest, it actually becomes a beautiful thing.

Preists need a priest

And this is actually brings me to the big idea I want to make in this message.

Priests need a priest.

Let’s back track again...

Aaron, when he was being consecrated… he needed Moses.

Moses needed a special access with God in a way that no one else ever got.

Then, as we saw when failue occurred and Nabad and Abihu offered the unauthorised fire, there was a need for someone to intercede again.

A human priest needs a priest.

When we come to the idea of all of us being priests - we still need a priest.

The reality is, we’re no better than Nadab and Abihu.

If we got what we deserved, then we would have fire coming out of the presense of the Lord and consuming us such that we died in his presence.

The only reason that doesn’t happen is because we already have a High Priest who has made atonement for our wrong doing.

Application

So what do we take away from all of this discussion?

Can I suggest, the first and most important thing we can learn from Leviticus 8-10 is that we need to take seriously the commands of God.

Obedience

Yes I know I just mentioned that we already have a high priest who has made atonement for our sins and therefore we don’t have this fire devouring us, but yet, if we’re to take seriously our role as priests, we need to be obedient to God.

Obedience is one of those things that we can quite easily convince ourselves we’ve got it down pat pretty well, that is, until we start examining our lives.

Are we loving others as we should?

Are we showing forgiveness as God showed forgiveness to us?

Are we following the call of God on our lives?

Are we being generous with what God has given us?

If we’re going to give justice to our call as priests, we need to start living holy lives.

Repent

The second application I want you to take away from this is that as priests, we need to repent and turn back to God when we get it wrong.

The reality is, we will all from time to time get things wrong.

We won’t be the priests that God has called us to be.

We’ll use our gifts in ways that honour ourselves rather than God.

You know, we can become pretty skilled at making ourselves look holy, but all the while secretly plotting at how we can see someone else fall.

Take the time to reflect on when you are doing this, and when it is revealed that you are, return back to God, repent and ask him to change you.

Turn to Jesus

And this brings me to my main point...

You may be a priest, but you need a priest. You need Jesus.

Don’t ever lose sight of what this is all about.

There is nothing in you that is deserving of God’s attention. You’re not a priest because you’ve earnt it. You’re a priest because Jesus came before us and has made this possible.

You have access to God because Jesus died for us.

This is the priest we need.

When we follow him, we have a most glorious future.

You see, I mentioned before how special it was reading Leviticus 8-9 before we got to the failure of chapter 10.

The reality is chapters 8 and 9 gave us a glimpse of what we get when we’re with Jesus.

The picture of Leviticus is a picture of relationship with God restored.

It’s a picture of fellowship being reunited. What was broken is now fixed.

There is nothing greater than being in the presence of God.

Conclusion

The priesthood as described in Leviticus might seem foreign to us living in the 21st century. But yet, what we see described in Leviticus, becomes the basis for what we see in the New Testament, where we become a royal priesthood with Jesus as our high priest.

Some of the challenges that they face in the Old Testament might continue to challenge us today, however, with Jesus in charge, we always have a way forward.

We now get to enjoy this glorious future that Jesus has provided for us.

Let me pray..