REV. LYNN’S BLOG

In the Old Testament, the priest was to wear specific garments to identify himself and the role he was to fulfill. Likewise, we of the New Covenant priesthood have special garments we are to wear in our priestly service.

The first of these is the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10Isaiah 61:10
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10 I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

). This is not something which we have ourselves, but something which God provides for us through Christ. Jesus told the parable of the ruler who had invited all his friends and neighbours to a feast. When it was ready, he called them, but each of them had some excuse for not coming. So the ruler sent his servants out into the highways and byways to bring in anyone they could find. After they had done so, there was a man in the feast who was not appropriately dressed. The ruler was angry, and ordered that this man be thrown out.

For many years I thought this parable was very harsh. After all, the poor fellow had been pulled in from the street or field where he was working, he did not have time to go home and get cleaned up for the party. However, when I learned about the culture of the Middle East in the first century I understood that this is in fact a very clear picture of our relationship with God. It was quite normal to issue an invitation with no specific date or time, then when everything was ready to simply call those invited to come. This meant that they would be coming straight from their work, and would arrived dressed in their work clothes. Therefore it was the responsibility of the host to provide a “festive garment”, which would cover their own dirty clothes. The only way anybody could be found at a celebration without a festive garment was if that person had refused the garment offered and insisted on remaining in his dirty work wear. To do this would be a terrible insult to the host, and ample reason for the offender to be thrown out on his ear.

In the same way, God calls us while we are dirty – not from work, but from sin. He provides for us the righteousness of Jesus, to cover our own unrighteousness. The only way we can be found without His righteousness is if we have insisted in standing in our own self-righteousness, which is in fact filthy sin. To do that is to refuse God’s grace, and to lose our place in the Kingdom.

Not only in our personal salvation, but especially in our priestly service, it is important for us to remember that we stand only by God’s grace. His choosing of us was not because of anything in us, but purely because of His grace.

The Old Testament priest wore an ephod and a breastplate. The ephod contained the Urim and Thumim, stones which were used to determine the will of God in any matter, and the breastplate was set with twelve stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel, which were to be worn over the heart of the priest. Both of these speak of the prophetic nature of the New Covenant priesthood. Even those who are not called to the prophetic office, even those who do not move in the prophetic gifts, have the Spirit of God living within and are therefore able to hear the voice of God and know His will. Likewise, even those who are not intercessors are to carry the people on their hearts before the Lord.

The Old Testament priest also wore a turban, with a gold plate at the front inscribed “holy to the Lord”. In modern language, this was like a sign saying “For God’s use only!” As New Covenant priests we are set aside for God’s service. Whether we are called to “full time” ministry or not, our first commitment is to the work of the Lord. That work may be carried out in front of a congregation, or it may be carried out in an office or factory or on a farm, or in any number of other situations in which people live and work. We may be a “minister”, or we may be a cook or an accountant or a labourer or a sailor – no matter what function we carry out, we are first and foremost a priest of the living God, set apart for His service in whatever form it may take.

Finally, the garments of the Old Testament priests were to be made of linen, so that the priests did not sweat. As New Covenant priests, we must learn not to strive and struggle in our own strength, but to rest in Jesus and be yoked together with Him. Our own efforts will never minister to anybody, and may in fact be a hindrance to those we would seek to help.

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,

)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,

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)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
English: World English Bible - WEB
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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Today we are looking at the second thing which a priesthood has in common, and that is their place of service.

When the Old Testament priesthood was first formed under Moses, the place of service was the Tabernacle, the tent which accompanied the Israelites in their travels. At the centre of the Tabernacle was the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was placed, and where God “dwelt” in the midst of His people. The entire service of the priesthood was carried out within the confines of the Tabernacle, in the place of God’s presence.

When the Temple was built under Solomon, it had the same basic layout as the Tabernacle: the outer court, which was open to the people, the Holy Place, where only the priests could go, and the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, and which could be entered only by the High Priest, and then only once a year and with special restrictions. God chose to manifest His presence, the Shekinah, in the Temple. Again, the whole of the priestly service was carried out within the Temple. God made it very clear that He would not accept sacrifices which were offered anywhere other than at the Temple in Jerusalem.

After the death of Solomon, God divided the nation, giving the northern half to Jeroboam. (1 Kings

11:31) He accompanied this with an awesome promise: “as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you.” (1 Kings 11:381 Kings 11:38
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38 It shall be, if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my eyes, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.

) Jeroboam’s kingship was guaranteed by God, as long as Jeroboam obeyed God. That obedience included the priesthood serving God in the Temple at Jerusalem.

However, Jeroboam obviously did not believe God’s promise. He decided that if the people continued to go to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship, they would return to serving Rehoboam, the King of Judah, and that his own life could be in danger as a result. To counteract this possibility he established new worship centres at Dan and Bethel, made golden calves as the “gods” who reigned from them, and set up a priesthood of his own choosing for their worship. (1 Kings 12:25-331 Kings 12:25-33
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25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and lived therein; and he went out from there, and built Penuel. ²⁶ Jeroboam said in his heart, Now will the kingdom return to the house of David: ²⁷ if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then will the heart of this people turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah. ²⁸ Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. ²⁹ He set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. ³⁰ This thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan. ³¹ He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. ³² Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; so did he in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. ³³ He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense.

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Notice that Jeroboam’s idolatry began with his refusal to accept the Temple at Jerusalem as the only legitimate place of service to God.

So how does all this relate to us as the New Testament priesthood? Firstly, we know that for us the place of service is not physical. We have a bad habit of referring to buildings as “churches”, but the building is not the church, it is merely the place where the church meets. The word refers to us both corporately and individually as God’s Temple. However, the principle which carries through from the Old Testament is that the Temple was the place of God’s presence. Just as the whole of the Old Testament priests’ service was carried out in the place of God’s presence, so our service as New Testament priests can only be carried out in the place of His presence.

The minute we try to move out from God’s presence to carry out our service to Him, we fall into the error of Jeroboam. If we will not serve God in the place of His choosing, then it is not God we are serving but a god of our own creation. Moving out of God’s presence inevitably and invariably leads to idolatry.

In the Temple the Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant. The covenant is the absolutely binding relationship between the Lord and us. When we move away from His presence, we move away from that relationship, and all the strength and benefits that that relationship brings.

The Ark of the Covenant contained the tablets of the Law, which spoke of God’s righteousness. As New Covenant priests we don’t have an external law written on tablets of stone. Rather, God has given us His righteousness and written His law on our hearts by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. If we move away from the place of His presence, we move away from His righteousness. Without His righteousness, we are left to stand in our own righteousness, which is no righteousness at all.

The Ark also contained the pot of Manna, speaking of God’s provision. God’s provision, both spiritual and material, cannot be separated from His person. Much as some would try, it is not possible to take the gift without the giver. Thus, when we separate ourselves from the place of God’s presence, we are also separating ourselves from the place of His provision.

Finally the Ark held Aaron’s rod that budded, speaking of God’s power. The only way to move in God’s power is to be connected to the power supply. When we remove ourselves from the place of His presence, we remove ourselves from that supply.

When we look at the two distinctives of priesthood, it is obvious that they can only be exercised in the presence of God. Firstly, priesthood is about access to God. It should be obvious that we only have access to God by coming to Him, yet so many try to access Him by reading about Him or listening to sermons about Him, or through the prayers of others. Don’t get me wrong. Books are great (I’m a writer, I have to say that!). Sermons are great (I’m a preacher, I have to say that too!). Intercession is great (and yes, I’m an intercessor so I have to say that too!). But all those things can only give you a second hand relationship with God. A priest has access. To have access, you have to personally enter into His presence.

Secondly, priesthood is about representation – representing God to the world, and the world to God. Again, it should be obvious that this can only be done from the presence of God. It is not enough for us to take the God whom we know only on a second hand basis and try to present Him to a desperately needy world on a third hand basis. Nor can we hope to bring the needs of that world before God unless we actually personally come before Him.

In the Old Testament there was no legitimate place of priestly service other than the Tabernacle and later the Temple. In the New Covenant there is no possible place of priestly service other than the place of God’s presence. Are you serving in and from His presence, or are you trying to serve somewhere else?

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,

)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,

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)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
English: World English Bible - WEB
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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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.

). 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
English: World English Bible - WEB
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

)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,

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)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
English: World English Bible - WEB
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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