All Believers

…the Order of Melchizedek

What does a priest do?

Who the heck is Melchizedek?

Why is Jesus in the “order of Melchizedek”?

What does that mean for us?

Jesus our great high priest

drummed into me - don’t need a priest, because we have Jesus, we have direct access to God, don’t need a go-between.

It’s true, but I can’t help think that it’s missing something.

When I first began in ministry I struggled with...

got used to it, a fact of life. Still didn’t quite sit right with me.

Started to love it, the privilege of praying with and for someone, bringing their concerns before God, putting into words what they had not been able to put into words.

Liberating, for them, but also for me. There is a freedom in praying not just for yourself, but for someone else.

A glimpse of the love that God has for each and every one of us.

Hebrews 5:1–4 NIV

Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.

This applies to JEsus, but what if also applies to all of us?

Priesthood of all believers

1 Peter 2:9–10 NIV

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises 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.

One of the things that lies at the heart of our Presbyterian identity

The belief that the Holy Spirit speaks to and through God's people. There are no “special” people with exclusive access to God's guidance and will, we’re all special to God. and it's only together that we discern and act upon God's will for our lives. We take seriously the priesthood of all believers. This means that when it comes to making decisions we expect to hear God's voice from unexpected corners. It also means that we expect to see God at work in our lives – we expect miracles in ordinary things – we expect to see God's mission bubbling up from the grass roots, rather than being directed from the top, or exclusively “staff-led”.

What does that look like?

Welcomers

Encouragers

Reconcilers

Truth-tellers

Spectrum:

chaos to truth

evil to good

sin to grace

brokenness to wholeness

illness to health

Healers

Pray-ers for & Pray-ers with

All Believers

Not in this on our own, but together as the Body of Christ