Sermon Tone Analysis

If you walk into a big library and pick up an old book on the history of civilization, after blowing the dust off and opening it up, you would find an interesting fact.

World history shows that individual civilizations have grown and progressed, or not grown and become stagnant, because of the priestly caste.

Every old piece of literature points to the importance of priests in some way.

These facts so us an interesting conclusion: Since before writing was created, humanity has had some sort of priestly system.

The religions of the world have been organized so that someone would be a mediator between the common people on their god.

All religions have priests, of some sort.

Pagan religions.

Hinduism.

Satanism.

Even Buddhism, which doesn’t have a god, has a form of priesthood.

It’s fascinating how all religions have aspects of the worship of the one true God.

The priesthood was not a manmade creation.

Our God demands a priesthood within His people.

He has always had individuals set aside for his special priestly purpose.

Why?

Well, this is what we are going to talk about today: the priesthood.

Who it was before Christ and who it is now.

1A.

What is a priesthood?

If you have joined us for Sunday School during the past 4 months, you know what priesthood is.

As we walked through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, we read a lot about the priesthood.

When God called the Israelites to be his special people, he appointed a group from within the Israelites to be set apart for his unique service.

They were of the tribe of Levi, Levites.

They were to be a holy priesthood: holy is referring to being separate.

God is holy: he is separate from the uncleanness and sin of this world.

His character demands that he is eternally separate from it.

That is why Heaven, his throne room, is so perfect.

In the same way, the priests were set apart from the uncleanness of this world to minister to God.

When their turn to serve in the temple came up, they had to go through a cleansing ritual and they had to stay in the temple during their holy times.

This holy priesthood was set apart by God for specific reasons, to do specific things for him within the community of Israel.

I will highlight 7 of them today.

1B.

Priests provided access to God

All that the Levites did can be boiled down to access.

The priests provided a way that the Israelites could have access to God.

No Israelite could approach God, except through the priests.

They could not petition God, they could not seek forgiveness, they could not praise God, except if they went through the priests.

The priests were the way of purification.

This was made abundantly clear every year on the day of Atonement when the high priest, wearing the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, walked into the Holy of Holies alone to make atonement for the people’s intentional sins throughout the year.

He was the access point for the people of Israel.

2B.

Priests provided sacrifices, representing the people

A way that the Levites provided access to God was through the sacrificial system.

The first 7 chapters of Leviticus detail extensively all the sacrifices that could be brought to God for so many different things, from thanksgiving to petitions to atonement for unintentional sins.

All those sacrifices passed through the hands of the priests.

There were pretty hefty punishments for those who tried to bring an offering apart from the priesthood.

Consider King Saul.

The Philistines were lined up to attack him and his army.

Saul’s army was scared and began to scatter.

He knew that he should wait for Samuel the priest to come and sacrifice for the army.

But, Saul wasn’t willing to wait.

He offered the sacrifices that a priest was supposed to offer.

The result: the kingship was removed from his family.

Only priests were to offer sacrifices.

They were the representatives of the people to God.

3B.

Priests provided discernment of the will of God

Also, only the priests could discern the will of God for the people.

The High Priest carried in his tunic the Urim and the Thummim which was given by God to provide guidance for decision making.

Priests also were to provide decision in law, reconciliations, and what not.

The people were to take their decisions as from God himself.

Israelites couldn’t seek God’s will for themselves.

They had to go through the priests.

4B.

Priests provided representation of God’s presence

Through all these ways, priests were representatives of the people to God.

But, priests also represented God’s presence to the people.

God had promised to be with the Israelites, but no one could see his presence.

The person who looked on God would die.

Though they couldn’t see God, the Israelites were reminded about God’s presence through the priests in many different ways.

One way was through ritual cleanliness.

The Israelites were called to live differently than the other nations, down to eating, dressing, and cleanliness, because they were set apart people who lived in the presence of God.

The priests watched over this process painstakingly, reminding the people of God’s presence.

Leviticus 13-15 explains a lot about this process.

Another way of reminder was through how they blessed the Israelites.

Ultimately, the priests reminded the Israelites about God’s presence through how the priests dressed, ate, etc. Everywhere they went people would see them and be reminded that God was in their midst.

5B.

Teaching of God’s character

Another major role of the priests was to teach God’s character to the Israelites.

The priests were not allowed to drink alcohol, because they needed their brains clear:

The Israelites, and the nations around, knew about God because of the teachings of the priests.

7B.

Leading others into a relationship

Through all of these tasks, as they provided access to God for the people, they were leading these people into a relationship with God, interceding with God for the people.

2B.

We are priests

Through Christ, we are a holy priesthood as well, everyone of us who has turned from our sin and turned to Christ.

1B.

How do we become priests?

When we turn to Christ, we turn to Him as our high priest.

The author of Hebrews details this extensively.

This great high priest performed the last necessary priestly act that paid the penalty for the sins of the world.

He brought his own blood before God to gain eternal redemption for us.

He now stands before God as the one mediator between God and man.

When we place our faith in Christ, Christ becomes our high priest.

But, the relationship doesn’t end there.

Christ brings us into his priesthood.

We are in the service with Him.

Not just pastors, missionaries, etc., but everyone who has placed their faith in Christ is in the priesthood.

A priesthood always serves in a temple.