REV. LYNN’S BLOG

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Whenever a group is defined, that group will have certain things which bind them together and make them a group, whilst at the same time separating them from others who may have some superficial similarities but are not part of the same group. Thus the priests of the Lord in the Old Testament formed a priesthood, but that priesthood excluded those who were priests of the false gods of the surrounding nations.

Over the next few messages we are going to look at some of the things that define the Royal Priesthood which is the Church. The first of these is the sacrifice.

Every priesthood has a sacrifice, and in fact sacrifice is one of the chief reasons why priesthood exists. The priests of false religions, both in the days of the Old Testament and even through to modern times, offer many sacrifices, some of them very strange and even bizarre, in an attempt to appease the gods they serve. These sacrifices of false religions have not been prescribed by God, but are the attempt of man to come to their understanding of God, and reflect a “racial memory” going right back to the Garden of Eden, that man must bring something when he approaches the deity.

As we saw in last week’s message, when God created Adam and Eve they had free access to Him, and were supposed to represent Him to the rest of the material creation. When they chose to step out from God’s rule, however, and become “gods” unto themselves instead of “priests” unto God, they lost that access. They were driven from the garden, and a huge angel with a flamings sword was stationed at the entrance to bar their return.

Before that happened, however, God did something rather wonderful. Stripped of the glory of God which had covered them in their innocence, Adam and Eve had realized that they were naked. Now God took one of the animals He had created – an innocent victim – and killed it, using its hide to make a covering for His rebellious children which was more effective than their own flimsy efforts to string together leaves. From the outset He had told them that disobedience would lead to death. What they now saw was the death of another, a sacrifice, to provide a covering for their sin. So the memory was born in the heart of mankind, that only the shedding of blood can bring the forgiveness of sins.

The principle was passed on to their children, and we see Abel bringing an acceptable blood sacrifice, whilst the rebellious and self-righteous Cain considered his vegetables to be good enough. God, however, was not pleased with the fruit of self-righteousness, and rejected Cain’s offering, with the result that his true nature came to the fore.

From that time on, man always approached God with sacrifices. When the Law was set in place through Moses, God went into great detail about what sacrifices the people were to bring, when they were to bring them, and how they were to be offered. Always, there was the principle of the necessity of the shedding of blood for the covering of sins. The priesthood of the Old Testament was bound together by the sacrificial system. They existed to offer the sacrifices. Rivers of blood flowed from the altar of the Temple, and all to one purpose: to drive home to the people that sin is deadly, and that sinners can only approach a holy God through shed blood.

Yet all of it was only temporary. Hebrews tells us clearly that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb 10:4Heb 10:4
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4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

WP-Bible plugin). The sacrifices of the Old Testament priests, even though they were prescribed by God, could only ever provide a temporary “cover” for sins, whilst pointing to the One whose blood would not only cover, but would pay the price of sin and remove it for all time.

That One, of course, was the Lord Jesus Christ. When He shed the only sinless human blood that had ever been shed, He offered the one sacrifice which was really able to take away sin. Not only that, but because it was effective, it only had to be offered once. There are some who think that Jesus’ sacrifice must be “offered” every day, but to believe this is to totally misunderstand the effectiveness of calvary. That which achieves its purpose only has to be done once. When we partake of the Communion, we are not re-offering Christ’s sacrifice, but reminding ourselves of what He has done for us.

This means that for the New Testament priesthood, that “Royal Priesthood” which the Church is rather than has, the whole concept of sacrifice is changed. The sacrifice which binds this priesthood together is not one that we bring to God, but one that He brings to us. He has done what we could not do: He (the Son) has offered and effective sacrifice and He (the Father) has accepted it. There is no further sacrifice we can bring to Him. His sacrifice has given us access to the Throne. His sacrifice has made us priests.

Now our role as priests is not to bring the sacrifices of the people to God, but to bring the sacrifice of God to the people. There is a world of people out there who don’t know that the perfect sacrifice has been offered on their behalf. They are still trying to bring their own sacrifices. Some are still vainly trying to cover themselves with the fig leaves of their own effort, or self righteously bringing whatever they consider to be suitable to God. Others have grasped the principle of costly sacrifice, but think that it is they who must pay the cost, and try by flagellation or self mutilation or asceticism. They need God’s Royal Priesthood to come to them, pointing them to the sacrifice that God has made for them, and offering them the life and forgiveness that it has bought.

This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
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5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
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9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,

WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
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9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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Some time ago I wrote this series about the Royal Priesthood. I thought I should post it here over the next few weeks.

 Recently I had an internet dialogue with an elderly lady who is looking at converting into the Roman Catholic Church. One of the points that she kept coming back to was that of the priesthood, and the fact that she saw the RC priesthood as the only legitimate one. So, I thought it would be good to look at priesthood and what it means for us as New Testament believers.

Firstly, we need to understand that there is a difference between priesthood and ministry. The word “ministry” simply means service, and can legitimately be applied to any area of service within the Body of Christ. “Priesthood” is a particular kind of service. Primarily, priesthood is about two things: access and representation. Wherever a priesthood exists, it means that only the priests have access to God. Because the general population does not have that access, the priests must represent God to the people, and the people to God.

Secondly, we need to understand God’s purposes for priesthood. To do this we need to go right back to the creation of the world. God created the whole material realm, then finally He created mankind in the “image and likeness” of God. The rest of the material creation did not have direct access to God, but man did. Man was created to be like God, so that he would represent God to the material creation. He was to tend and nurture it, just as God would, releasing the life of God into the world around him. The creation should have been able to look at mankind and see what God was like.

Instead of taking up this high calling, however, man listened to the devil’s lie that he could become a god for himself, not needing any input or control from the God of the universe. Instead of representing God to the creation, he handed control of creation over to the devil, who was only interested in representing himself.

God, however, had not given up on His purposes to be truly represented in the world. Eventually He picked a man, Abraham, through whom the whole world would be blessed (Gen 12:3Gen 12:3
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3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. In you will all of the families of the earth be blessed.”

WP-Bible plugin). Ultimately, this refers to the coming of the Messiah, but it also speaks of the raising up of a people who would faithfully represent God to the nations.

Over four hundred years later, after He brought the descendants of Abraham out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses, God said to them, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:5-6Exodus 19:5-6
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5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; ⁶ and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”

WP-Bible plugin). God’s intention for Israel was that they would have access to Him, and that they would represent Him to the world. He wanted a nation of people at whom the world could look and say, “Now we know what God is really like. We have seen it in His people.” At the same time, Israel was to represent the world before God, making intercession and calling forth His mercy and grace. Notice that the intention was not for there to be a separate, exclusive priesthood which did these things, but that the whole nation would be “a kingdom of priests”.

Like our first parents, however, Israel rejected God’s offer of a face-to-face relationship out of which they would minister to the world. Instead, they were happy to pass the responsibility to Moses. “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” (Exodus 20:18-19Exodus 20:18-19
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18 All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. ¹⁹ They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”

WP-Bible plugin.) Afraid of what a face-to-face relationship might cost, they chose to let someone else represent them. The result was the establishment of the priesthood, an exclusive group with sole access to the presence of God, and then only under carefully limited circumstances, who would from then on represent God to the people and the people to God.

This was never God’s intended purpose. So He waited. Waited until the Son came and by His death tore open the veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. Once again the ordinary believers were to be given free access to God’s presence. They could now “approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Heb 4:16Heb 4:16
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16 Let us therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and may find grace for help in time of need.

WP-Bible plugin). They did not need anyone else to represent them because Christ was their High Priest and the “one mediator between God and men” 1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
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5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

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Once again God made that wonderful statement, “you are a royal priesthood” (I Peter 2:9). He repeats it in slightly different form in Revelation 1:6Revelation 1:6
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6 and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

WP-Bible plugin and 5:10. As was His original intention for Israel, His intention for the Church was not that it HAVE a priesthood, but that it BE a priesthood. God has given us free access to His throne. We can come before Him any time we want. We don’t have to bring the blood of bulls and goats, because the blood of Jesus has been shed once and for all. In fact, the Holy Spirit, who is God, dwells within every born again believer, and wants to communicate with us on a regular basis. More than that, God intends that we should represent Him to the world around us. The world should be able to look at us and say, “Ah, now we know what God is like!” God also intends that we represent the people to Him. There are probably many people you know who do not know God. For many of those, you may be the only Christian they know. Do you lift them regularly before the throne of Grace? Do you represent them and their needs, particularly their need of salvation, faithfully before God?

Unfortunately there are many Christians who still want to have a priesthood rather than being a priesthood. They want someone else to pray for them (I am not talking about asking someone to stand in agreement, which is legitimate, but about asking someone else to take the responsibility of taking their needs before the Father). They want someone else to prophesy over them, or to hear the word of God on their behalf. They want to go to church on Sunday and be spoon fed. And in it all, they are missing God’s call to priesthood – a call that applies not to an exclusive group within the Church, but to the whole Body of Christ.

This blog is © copyright Lynn Fowler.

There is one God, and one mediator between God and people, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:51 Timothy 2:5
English: World English Bible - WEB
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

WP-Bible plugin)in Whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9Colossians 2:9
English: World English Bible - WEB
9 For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,

WP-Bible plugin)and Whom God the Father has exalted to the highest place, giving Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11Philippians 2:9-11
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9 Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name; ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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