We Believe in Jesus - Lesson 4: The Priest

you [Music] you you most of us can barely imagine being invited to meet someone very famous and powerful but we all know how we might react we'd say to ourselves some introduced me what should I wear what should I do what should I say who can show me how to act when I'm there imagine that you were invited into the glorious throne room of God the one who created all things you might have a similar reaction actually one vastly stronger is there anyone to introduce me to God what should i do what should I say who can show me how to act in God's presence happily there is someone who can prepare us to meet with God who can introduce us to him and can cause God to look favorably on us so that we don't need to fear his judgement and of course this person is Jesus Christ and he is our great high priest this is the fourth lesson in our series we believe in Jesus and we have entitled it the priest in this lesson we'll explore the ways that Jesus fulfills the biblical office of priest mediating the covenant between God and His people as we've seen in Prior lessons in the Old Testament God instituted three offices through which he administered his kingdom the offices of prophet priest and King and in the final stage of God's kingdom which we commonly call the New Testament age all three of these offices find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus for this reason studying the importance and function of these offices throughout history can help us understand Jesus present administration of God's kingdom as well as the blessings and obligations of his faithful followers in this lesson we'll focus on Jesus office of priests will define a priest as a person who mediates between God and His people so that God will receive them into a special holy presence to grant them his blessing we all know that God is invisibly present everywhere all the time but at certain times in places he also manifests himself in special visible ways for example he does this in the radiant splendor of his heavenly throne room and he sometimes does this on earth too and whenever creatures come near this kind of manifestation of God we have to be properly prepared represented and led so that we can receive God's approval and blessings in the Bible this kind of preparation representation and bleeding was the job of the priests like our lesson on Jesus office of Prophet this lesson on Jesus office of priests will cover three main topics first we'll examine the Old Testament background to the priestly office second we'll explore the fulfillment of this office and the person and work of Jesus and third we'll consider the modern application of Jesus priestly work let's look first at the Old Testament background to Jesus priestly office when most Christians think about priesthood in the Old Testament their minds go immediately to Aaron in his descendants who were ordained as priests during the days of Moses as we read in Leviticus chapters 8 & 9 but it's important to recognize that even before the days of Moses there were already priests who served God in a very broad sense even before the fall into sin God ordained Adam the father of the human race to be his priest and following Adam all of humanity was originally called to be God's priests in this general sense in a more technical sense we find men like Melchizedek in Abraham's day was mentioned in Genesis chapter 14 he was both the king and priest of Salem job chapter 1 indicates the job himself acted as a priest for his family and according to Exodus chapter 3 Moses own father-in-law Jethro was God's priests in Midian eventually God established an official and exclusive priesthood in which Aaron and his descendants replaced all other forms of priesthood but all these different types of men were true priests of the lowland and each is part of the Old Testament background of Jesus priesthood we'll explore the Old Testament background of the priestly office in three ways first we'll look at the qualifications of priests second will consider their function and third we'll explore the expectations the Old Testament created for the future of the priestly ministry let's look first at the qualifications the priests had to meet in the Old Testament ancient priests had to meet a variety of qualifications but we'll mention just to that scripture emphasizes first you'll see the priests were appointed by God and second we'll highlight their obligation to be loyal to God let's begin with the fact that priests were appointed by God to serve Him in their office in the Old Testament only God could appoint a priest priests were never self appointed they couldn't be voted into office they couldn't be appointed by kings or other rulers and even the priests themselves couldn't select additional people to serve in their ranks listen to Exodus chapter 28 verse 1 where God gave this command to Moses have Aaron your brother brought to you along with his sons so they may serve me as priests the detailed instructions that follow in Exodus chapter 28 show that God's appointment was an indispensable part of Aaron's ordination as high priest and Numbers chapter 18 verses 22 and 23 goes so far as to say that if any Israelite from another tribe presumes to do the work of a priest that person would die hebrews chapter 5 verses 1 & 4 confirms this idea with these words every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to god no one takes this honor upon himself he must be called by God just as Aaron wants this same principle also applied not just to the high priest but to all priests in the Old Testament besides being appointed by God priests also had to be loyal to God in order to qualify for their office because priests often served near the special presence of God in the tabernacle in the temple they had to demonstrate special loyalty to God by worshipping and serving him alone and by carefully carrying out their duties they also had to do these things in order to ensure that God's people were loyal to God so that they would be received into his holy presence we learned from the Old Testament priests that there were very particular rules they had to follow and there was a very particular way they had to even offer the fire of the sacrifice and there was a certain way they had to investigate the animals brought to sacrifice to make sure that they were perfect that they indeed were unblemished God required that and the priests had certain garments that he had to wear and he had certain washings that he needed to go through and the book of Hebrews emphasizes that the details of all of this including the tabernacle and all the things in the tabernacle were given because they represent what he called the heavenly tabernacle where which is the very presence of God the priest therefore are representing the Lord Jesus Christ the priests are representing the kind of holiness in the kind of satisfaction that must be given to God if we are to be forgiven and so everything in the priestly Arrangements in the priestly laws is given to show us the perfection of who Christ is and that he actually would bear the sins of his people the garments that they wore in the names of the tribes written on them and the perfection of the sacrifices all of these things that show us how serious God takes this how holy he is and that when you come to the end of it there is really going to be only one way in which salvation can come if there's any compromise of that one way then we're done for and there is no satisfaction so the priestly rules are very important to establish within our minds the seriousness of God's holiness and righteousness in the singularity of the sacrifice of Christ one of the most dramatic examples of the need for priests to be holy appears in Leviticus chapter 10 verses 1 & 2 their God killed the priests made a band a by who because of their unholy offering and in 1st Samuel chapter 4 the priests hophni and Phinehas died because of their disregard for the Lord in addition to these examples scriptures like Psalm 132 verse 9 and lamentations chapter 4 verses 11 through 13 make it clear that the priests themselves had to be faithful to God if they would have any hope of preparing and leading his people into his special presence in order to receive his blessings otherwise drawing near to God would result in severe judgment having seen the qualifications for priests in the Old Testament let's look at their function will consider three aspects of the function of priests first we'll look at the leadership they provided second we'll explore the ceremonies they perform and third will consider their intercession on behalf of others let's begin with the leadership priests provided Old Testament priests provided leadership for God's people in various ways but for our purposes we'll summarize these under three headings first worship was one of the more prominent areas in which priests provided leadership worship was an important part of preparing and leading God's people into his special holy presence in Israel priests and Levites presided over all the national worship events such as the annual feasts of Israel they also conducted worship in the tabernacle and temple on a daily basis as well as special services on the weekly Sabbath and they led participants in praise and singing we find these kinds of details in places like first chronicles chapter 15 second chronicles chapter seven eight twenty nine and thirty and Nehemiah chapter twelve second priests provided special guidance in the form of civil and ritual judgments they did this primarily by applying God's law to the circumstances they faced this fact is mentioned in many places such as Exodus chapter 28 verses 29 and 30 numbers chapter 21 verse 27 Deuteronomy 21 verse 5 and ezekiel chapter 44 verse 24 for example listen to the way moses described the civil judgments priests could render in Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 8 & 9 if cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge whether bloodshed lawsuits or assaults go to the priests or Levites and to the judge who is an office at that time inquire of them and they will give you the verdict as this passage indicates legal matters were normally solved in local courts but in particularly difficult cases the people could go to priests or special judges who would render judgments [Music] in fact in Exodus chapter 18 Jethro the Midianite priest told Moses himself had organized the courts and judges of Israel Jethro's priesthood made him an authority in such matters priestly decisions and guidance also included investigating interpreting and judging matters related to health and holiness priests inspected the presence of millou and houses diagnosed diseases and declared individuals or objects clean or unclean according to God's laws these kinds of priestly duties are listed in passages like Leviticus chapters 11 through 15 these were priestly matters because personal and public health problems entered the world as part of God's curse against Adam's sin in which Adam was excluded from the special presence of God in the Garden of Eden the universal curse of death was instituted in Genesis chapter 3 verse 19 and this general judgment incorporated other judgments related to health as we see in passages like Leviticus chapter 26 verse 16 and Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 21 through 28 for this reason health issues played an important role in preparing the Israelites for approaching God for his blessings a third way priests demonstrated leadership was by teaching God's Word to the people as we read in second chronicles chapter 35 verse 3 Nehemiah chapter 8 in Malachi chapter 2 as just one example listen to the Lord's words in Malachi chapter 2 verse 7 for the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge and from his mouth men should seek instruction because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty false teaching was a result of sin in the world and violations of God's Word made people unfit to enter his special presence so the priests were given the job of teaching God's Word in order to prepare and lead his people into his special holy presence in a way that would result in his blessing having considered the leadership priests provided let's look next at the ceremonies they conducted for their people in the lives of Old Testament believers the various festivals Sabbath observances sacrificial offerings that were made they played a very important role first of all they were to remind Israel that it's life as the people of God was a gift to them for instance the Passover was meant to remind them that they were once slaves in Egypt and God and God alone is set them free but not just to remind them that they were set free because they were set free from Egypt to be taken to tsiyon I where God would establish his covenant with them so the festival life of Israel was meant to be a reminder to them that God and God alone has called them to be his people to remember the mighty works of God to save them the Sabbath's were meant to remind them of two things that the world is Yahweh's and that they didn't create themselves and they didn't free themselves from slavery in Exodus Moses says keep the Sabbath for on the Sabbath day God rests in the book of Deuteronomy Moses says keep the Sabbath because not only did God rest on the Sabbath day but on the Sabbath or remember that you were once slaves in Egypt so all of these festivals were meant to remind them of what God has done to redeem them and to remind them that they are alone the people of God because of God's gracious goodness toward them and out of that out of those practices have their lives shaped their self understanding shaped so that they would begin and continue to respond on faithfully to God in lives of obedience trust love and service in the days of Moses and later in David's day priests conducted a wide variety of ceremonies that were designed to prepare God's people to enter his special presence these ceremonies involved holy times events and objects as we see in places like Leviticus chapters 1 through 7 and 23 numbers chapters 18 and 19 first chronicles chapter 23 and second chronicles chapter 8 often these ceremonies centered around holy locations places where God's special presence would appear and his people would worship Him for example it was the priest responsibility to make sure that the tabernacle and temple areas were as beautiful and perfect as possible so that it would be appropriate for God to reside there in his special visible glory we read about this in passages like Leviticus chapter 24 verses 1 through 9 numbers chapters 3 and 4 first chronicles chapter 24 verses 25 through 32 but perhaps the most well known ceremonial feature of priestly service was the presentation of offerings offerings ranged from expression to Thanksgiving to experiences of fellowship to atonement for sin some were presented at regularly appointed intervals such as the daily morning and evening sacrifices and the annual Day of Atonement others were presented when special conditions were met like being convicted of sin and other offerings were brought according to the volition of the worshiper such as free will offerings a wide range of prescribed offerings is listed in places like Leviticus chapters one through seven in chapter 16 of all the ceremonial functions of priests one that was most prominent in Jesus own ministry was the presentation of offerings especially offerings of atonement so we'll focus most of our attention on those today we often speak of sacrifice as giving up something that is valuable to gain us something that's even more valuable what makes a gift of sacrifice is it the giving costs of something that we value and the Old Testament people didn't offer things to God because he needed them offerings allowed God's people to give something that they valued to gain what was much more valuable such as forgiveness of sins offerings allowed believers to worship God express their submissiveness to him and even conveyed their thankfulness to him for his provision of course offerings were always supposed to be an expression of faith done with proper motives God even rejected sacrifices that were not offered with a sincere heart the efficacy of offerings was always dependent upon the sincerity of the one offering the sacrifice to God atoning offerings for an important part of priestly ministry even before the extensive ritual law is given through Moses for instance in job chapter one job sacrificed animals on behalf of his children case they had carelessly sinned during the celebrations together in fact atoning offerings are as old as humanity's fall into sin when Adam and Eve first sinned God instituted offerings of atonement through which he forgave sins reconciled himself to his people this type of offering is described in places like Leviticus chapters four through six numbers chapter 15 verses 25 through 28 the general idea behind atonement is fairly straightforward because of our sin all human beings deserve to be punished so in order to avoid this just punishment worshipers offer sacrifices that receive God's punishment on their behalf theologians often refer to this as substitutionary atonement because the offering substitutes for the worshiper in the ceremony of atonement in all cases throughout the Old Testament atoning offerings were symbolic God applied forgiveness to his people by means of atoning offerings but not on the basis of the value or merit of the offering itself rather Old Testament offerings were effective only because they pointed forward to the substance and merit of the sacrifice of Jesus in the New Testament the New Testament explains that God's people were never permanently forgiven of sin on the basis of the Old Testament offerings themselves sin offerings only be delayed God's judgment and needed to be renewed over and over Christ's death on a cross was the only sacrifice that God ever accepted as full permanent payment for sins God provided the Old Testament sacrificial system as a tool through which he graciously applied the merits of Christ's death to Old Testament believers when atoning offerings were performed on behalf of faithful believers they produced at least two important results both of which relied on the future sacrifice of Christ for their effectiveness the first result we'll mention is expiation expiation refers to the effect of the offering on the worshiper it's the removal of the guilt of sin from worshippers this protects them from the wrath that God would otherwise pour out on them through expiation the punishment for the worshipers sin is laid on the substitute so that they are protected from the Lord's judgment expiation is mentioned in places where sin is spoken of is being covered or hidden such as job chapter 14 verse 17 and psalm 32 verses 1 and 5 it's also apparent in passages that speak of sin or guilt being removed such as Leviticus chapter 10 verse 17 Psalm 25 verse 18 and Isaiah chapter 6 verse 7 and we see it in passages that speak of sin being transferred to a substitute such as Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6 a second result atoning offerings produced for believers was propitiation propitiation refers to the effect the offering has on God propitiation is the satisfaction of God's justice and wrath against sin propitiation indicates that God's wrath has found a place of expression and has been satisfied because of it God is able to express kindness and love toward the worshiper without bypassing his justice propitiation is indicated by passages that speak of God's anger being satisfied or turned aside such as numbers chapter 25 verses 11 through 13 and Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 16 and 17 the Old Testament sacrificial system is a great demonstration of a whole number of truths about God but especially his mercy we think of it often in terms of the provision of the animals as substitutes for the people in order to satisfy God's displeasure his condemnation his wrath but we have to also remember that the entire motivation of this is driven by his love his mercy when we think of mercy his his pity towards us tied to even his grace where we have that which we do not deserve Leviticus 17:11 is very very important here where the sacrificial system should not be viewed as the nation of Israel sort of making up this system in order to keep God on their side no this is God taking the initiative in love so that there would be a means by which he would be able to dwell with the nation they would be able to dwell in his presence they would be his people he would be their God all of that is demonstration of His mercy of his love of his grace and all of it eventually points forward to his provision in Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of this so that in him what these sacrifices typifies now have come to reality so that we now know God and a new covenant sense we now have direct access to him through our great sacrifice our Lord Jesus Christ well the Old Testament sacrificial system indicated it in a number of ways been demonstrated God's mercy but one of the classic ways was on the day of atonement when you had your tabernacle or temple and the innermost part of that was called the holiest of all and in there you had the Ark of the Covenant with the Ten Commandments in it and the top of that box was called the mercy seat and on the Day of Atonement the high priest would take the blood of the lamb and offer the lamb at the altar outside the temple of tabernacle and then come through the veil into that holiest of all part and sprinkled the blood on the top of the box and the idea was that God would be merciful when the blood of the Lamb covered the law that was broken and of course that pointed to the fact of Jesus Christ was going to be the true Lamb whose blood would cover our heaven broken the law but notice God's mercy founded on that blood covering our heaven broken the law with this understanding of priestly leadership and ceremonies in mind we're ready to turn to the work of intercession that they performed on behalf of the people they represented we may define intercession as mediation or petitioning for favor on another's behalf an intercessor is someone who takes your side and pleads your case when you're in trouble or who tries to reconcile disputes between you and another party Old Testament priests often interceded by means of their leadership and guidance as well as through the ceremonies that God had assigned to them for instance they interceded between individuals when they settled legal disputes and between the people and God when they presented offerings for atonement but priests also performed other types of intercession one common form of intercession was petitioned for help priests often offered prayers that God would heal rescue or otherwise aid his people we find examples of this in 1st Samuel chapter 1 verse 17 the 1st chronicles chapter 16 verse 4 as just one example listen to the record of job's intercession for his children in job chapter 1 verse 5 when a period of feasting had run its course job would send and have his sons and daughters purified early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them thinking perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts as the priest over his household job interceded for his children to protect them from the consequences of their sin another common form of intercession was the pronouncement of blessing when priests blessed people they asked God to show favor to the people we see this in the way Melchizedek blessed Abraham in Genesis chapter 14 verses 19 and 20 and in the blessing that the priests were taught to pronounce on the people in numbers chapter 6 verses 22 through 27 for instance listen to this account from second chronicles chapter 30 verse 27 the priests and the Levites stood to bless the people and God heard them for their prayer reached heaven his holy dwelling place when the text says that God heard them it means that he honored to the priestly intercession by favoring the people they blessed this aspect of priestly ministry has often echoed in our day during the benedictions offered by ministers at the conclusion of gathered worship many churches even repeat the same blessing first given to Aaron in numbers chapter 6 as we've seen the functions of priests were rather varied they provided leadership conducted ceremonies and offered intercession but as varied as these activities were they were united by a constant purpose they were all designed to make God's people fit to live in his special presence in order that they might receive all the blessings of his covenant now that we've looked at the qualifications and function of priests let's turn our attention to the expectations the Old Testament created for future priestly ministries the days of the Old Testament the office of priest was dynamic and changing its specific duties and responsibilities change throughout time ELQ is ethics priesthood was not precisely the same as jobs jobs differed from Jethro's and Jethro's differed from that of Aaron and his descendants the Old Testament also pointed toward further changes that would take place in the future to understand the expectations that the Old Testament priesthood is created for the future we'll look in two directions first we'll examine the historical development of the office throughout the Old Testament and second we'll focus on some specific prophecies about the future of the priestly office let's begin with the historical development of the office of priests because there has always been a need for human beings to have access to the special holy presence of God there has always been a need for priestly functions in fact priests have always been critical to God's long-term strategy for Humanity and creation but historically the role of priests has sometimes shifted in response to the changing circumstances of God's people will consider the changing roles of priests during four different stages of history beginning with the time of creation this is the time that corresponds to God's covenant with Adam the Garden of Eden in which humanity was placed was itself a sanctuary where God walked and talked with his people in this context Adam and Eve served God in ways that resembled the service of the Aaronic priests in the tabernacle and temple for this reason we can say that the office of priests is as old as humanity itself listen to what Moses wrote in Genesis chapter 2 verse 15 the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it in this passage Moses describes the work of Adam and Eve in the garden with the Hebrew words Avadh translated work and Shamar translated take care in numbers chapter 3 verses 7m8 Moses used the same combination of words to describe the work of the Levites in the tabernacle and we see other verbal parallels in places like Genesis chapter 3 verse 8 second samuel chapter seven verse six by using the same language to describe the work of humanity in the Garden of Eden and the work of the priests in the tabernacle Moses indicated that Adam and Eve were the original priests and that places like the tabernacle and temple were intended to fulfill the same function as the Garden of Eden in fact many scholars have suggested that the furnishings and decorations of the tabernacle and temple were specifically designed to recall the Garden of Eden in all events humanity's priesthood and even consisted of ministering to God in his garden sanctuary taking care of his holy things and ensuring that the place was fit for him to inhabit moreover God commanded Adam Eve and their descendants to become a kingdom of priests expanding their work to the rest of the world as well listen to God's words to humanity in Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth and subdue it God's command to fill and subdue the earth is often called the cultural mandate because it obligates humanity to cultivate and develop the whole world in order to make it resemble the Garden of Eden from a priestly perspective humanity's job is to turn the entire world into God's sanctuary to minister to him forever and when God created human beings in His image he didn't do so for no reason at all he gave us what is often called the creation cultural mandate it's helpful to look at that not only in terms of our dominion over the earth often what we associate with the kind of rule dominga kind of role but also priest even though sin had not into the world there's pictures in Genesis 2 of Eden as a kind of temple garden sanctuary so that our role in creation was to push the borders of Eden to the furthest extent of the earth ultimately that comes in in Christ and they had new heavens and new earth at the heart of that priestly work as well is worship so that all that we do is for God's glory doing that creation mandate service and those two ideas are they're associated with priestly work as well as a kind of kingly work so our creation cultural mandate is to be stewards is to be God's creatures in relationship to him to expense expand the borders of that garden sanctuary to do show and worship devotion obedience exploring all the resources of his creation and and that of course will be picked up ultimately in the new heavens to do earth as well in the book of Genesis we learn of the cultural mandate it's a very important part of human vocation what we are in God's eyes to be about as we live out the gift of life we of course do not think in any way that the cultural mandate should trump or lead us to neglect the evangelism mandate both are from God both are legitimate both are important essentially the cultural mandate is a great gift and privilege it's essentially the God of Providence inviting his people created in His image to have delegated responsibility to care for to steward and to develop the rich potential of the created order as faithful ambassadors or delegated representatives of the providential God himself and so just as we are to be creative people in the image of a creator we are to be gracious generous and responsibly providing people in fulfilling the creation mandate the first changes to the office of priests happened at humanity's fall into sin when they ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis chapter 3 at this point Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden and had to begin presenting offerings of atonement for sin we find potential references to this practice as early as Genesis chapter 3 verse 21 where the Lord covered Adam and Eve in the skins of animals and we find more explicit reference to this practice in Genesis chapter 4 verse 4 in Abel's animal sacrifice to the Lord other references can also be found throughout this time period such as the sacrifices Noah offered after the flood in Genesis chapter 8 verse 20 the RAM Abraham sacrificed in Genesis chapter 22 verse 13 and the sacrifices Jacob offered in Genesis chapter 31 verse 54 during this time family heads tended to serve as priests over their descendants and only a few priests were called to minister more broadly than that another change that occurred at this time was the location of priestly ministry before the fall this had taken place exclusively in God's garden sanctuary in Eden but when humanity was expelled from the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3 God directed his priests to set aside other places to worship Him and to create memorial stones to mark places where he had met with them unlike the period of creation at this point in history no single location could be described as God's dwelling place on earth the next major set of changes took place in the days of Israel's exodus from their slavery in Egypt after the nation of Israel had been enslaved by the Egyptian pharaoh for over 400 years they cried out to God and he released them to a powerful display of miracles this event is described in the second book of the Bible entitled exodus during this time God narrowed his priestly call from all humanity to the nation of Israel as he said in Exodus chapter 19 verse 6 Israel was to be to him a kingdom of priests he also set aside the tribe of Levi as his special servants most of the tribes served in roles that supported the smaller number of Levites who acted as priests for the nation within the Levites only Aaron and his descendants were selected to be priests with one man at a time serving as high priests we find God's instructions regarding the new duties of the erotic priesthood throughout the Book of Leviticus as well as in some parts of the Book of Numbers God also dictated the creation of the tabernacle during this period the tabernacle was a large ornate tent that the Israelites were able to carry with them during their travels it served essentially the same function that the Garden of Eden had served at the time of creation it was God's earthly sanctuary the place where he walked and talked with his people after the fall God had met with people in various places from time to time but with the creation of the tabernacle God once again focused his worship in one location and this place of worship was to be attended and maintained by God's chosen servants the priests the instructions for the tabernacle and the record of its creation can be found in exodus chapters 25 through 40 god intended the changes in the priesthood during the exodus to be steps toward fulfilling his original plan for Humanity his plan was to use the priests of Aaron's family first to change Israel into a kingdom of priests and then through the fidelity and service of this special nation to expand his kingdom to encompass the world the final changes to the office of priests in the Old Testament occurred during Israel's monarchy when the nation of Israel had settled the promised land and was living under the rule of a king the monarchical period had a false start with Saul Israel's first king but it began in earnest with Saul successor David and his descendants when the kings of Israel reigned they were closely involved with priestly service for instance David made plans for the temple he made sure that the priestly services were performed he also organized the priestly families and assigned to specific tasks for them these developments can be found in passages such as first Chronicles chapters 15 and 16 and 23 through 28 David also assigned duties to the other Levitical families especially as gatekeepers and musicians he even offered sacrifices and pronounced blessings on the people joining with the priests from time to time as seen in 2nd Samuel chapter 6 verses 17 and 18 at one point he even exchanged his royal garb for the Levites linen effort as recorded in first chronicles chapter 15 verse 27 these developments were made and even past David's day as we see in Ezra chapter 8 verse 20 in David's Day the families allowed to serve as high priests narrowed to just to those of Aaron's descendants zadok and abiathar this information is recorded in 1st chronicles chapter 18 verse 16 after David his son Solomon reigned as king over God's kingdom and he involved himself in priestly services even more than David had Solomon presided over the building of the temple he supervised to countless sacrifices he led the people in prayer at the temple and pronounced blessings upon them as his father had these details are mentioned in first chronicles chapter 21 verse 28 second chronicles chapters 3 through 6 and first Kings chapters 1890 they are also assumed in many of the Psalms David wrote including Psalms 5:11 1827 65 66 and 68 Solomon also narrowed the high priestly line once more because Abiathar committed treason Solomon excluded him and his family from priestly service as we see in first Kings chapter 2 verses 26 27 and 35 this fulfilled the judgment passed upon the house of Eli and earlier unfaithful priests in the days of the judges recorded in 1st Samuel chapter 2 verses 27 through 36 while some specific services in the temple were reserved for priests alone the kings of Judah often followed the examples of David and Solomon by involving themselves in priestly types of service they were in effect royal priests in Solomon's Temple the period of the monarchy eventually ended when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple in 587 or 586 BC and carried the people into exile but around 515 BC during the restoration efforts after the Exile a second temple was built by the returning his railings at this time the prophet Ezekiel and Zachariah announced that God had appointed Joshua a descendent of Zadok as the high priest they also announced that Yeshua would serve alongside zerubabbel a descendant of David who would lead the restoration sadly the efforts of zerubabbel in yeshua did not continue for long in time most priests and levites turned away from God and so did most of the nation israel's worship was corrupted and God's judgment rested on the nation for hundreds of years even so during this time the people of Israel continued to look back to the days of David and Solomon the faithful among them remembered what it was like when kings and priests served God as they should and they hoped for a new day when royal and priestly duties would be performed more magnificently than ever before and God would welcome his repentant people into the blessings of his special presence now that we've considered the expectations that were created by the historical development of the priestly office we're ready to see how specific Old Testament prophecies also created expectations for future priests in this section will focus on three specific Old Testament prophecies about the office of priests the first expectation we'll consider is that there would eventually be a great high priest whose service would never end [Music] in various ways the Old Testament indicated that one day the priesthood would culminate in a single high priest who would serve forever God had appointed Aaron to be the high priest in the time of Moses but the Old Testament also looked forward to a time when his priesthood would be surpassed so Aaron's priesthood was temporary to last until the day when the great High Priest would come in fact the hope of the old testament was that both offices would be united into one office under the great high priest and messianic King perhaps the clearest statement of this idea can be found in Psalm 110 verse 4 where we read these words the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek in the context of this Psalm God promised that the Messiah's services priests would never end it would last forever Hebrews chapter 7 picks up on this idea and related directly to Jesus in his office of high priests over God's people the same chapter also indicates that Christ's permanent priesthood is implied by the fact that it corresponds to the new covenant which Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 31 in that passage Jeremiah indicated that life in the New Covenant would be perfect and wonderful and corresponding to this the author of Hebrews argued that this better covenant would require a better priesthood one that would last forever quoting Psalm 110 verse 4 the author of Hebrews put it this way in Hebrews chapter 7 verses 21 and 22 the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever because of this oath Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant in conclusion then the Old Testament specifically prophesied that in the new covenant God would appoint a great high priest whose service would never end a second expectation for the office of priest that was specifically prophesied in the Old Testament was that the great high priest would rule as king as we saw earlier humanity served as both priests and kings in the Garden of Eden and Melchizedek himself also served in both capacities and although these offices were divided later in history the Old Testament also prophesied that they would ultimately be reunited in the person of the Messiah let's look once more at Psalm 110 this time at verses 2 through 4 where the Lord made this promise about the future Messiah the Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion you will rule in the midst of your enemies the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek here God promised that the Messiah would be a descendant of David who would both rule as king and serve as priest the same idea is also in Zechariah chapter 6 verse 13 where we find this prophecy about the future Messiah he will be a priest on his throne according to the Old Testament one expectation for the office of priest was that the Messiah would reunite it with the office of King the third specifically prophesied expectation for the office of priest was that God's people themselves would become a kingdom of priests as we saw in Genesis chapter 2 verse 15 humanity began in the Garden of Eden by serving in a priestly capacity so it shouldn't be surprising that in our restoration after the fall into sin redeemed humanity would once again serve as God's priests and in fact this is specifically prophesied in places like Exodus chapter 19 verse 6 and Isaiah chapter 61 verse 6 both of these passages indicate that when the Messiah reigns is king all God's people will serve as faithful priests and be united as a single nation or kingdom of priests theologians often refer to this as the priesthood of all believers and the Apostle Peter indicated that this was already coming to pass in his own day listen to what he wrote in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 5 you also are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ as covenant reconciles the priests in the Old Testament continually reminded their people of the importance of their covenant relationship with God and given the devastation that sin had brought into the creation the priestly office was vital and necessary for the continued progress of God's kingdom and for the fulfillment of his purposes these purposes could not be fulfilled without the pivotal priestly figure of all history the Messiah that the entire Old Testament anticipated having looked at the Old Testament background to the office of priests we're ready to turn to our second main topic the fulfillment of the office of priests in Jesus we should begin by noting that the Gospels and the New Testament epistles explicitly state that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament expectations of the priestly office for instance in Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1 we read this clear affirmation of Jesus priestly ministry fix your thoughts on Jesus the high priest whom we confess and hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 puts it this way we have a great high priest jesus the son of god as our great high priest Jesus is the one that mediates between God and us so that we can be accepted into God's special holy presence he is the one that ensures that we are holy and sanctified to God so that we can live in God's presence and receive his covenant blessings will explore the fulfillment of the priestly office in Jesus by looking at the same categories we used to discuss its Old Testament background first we'll see how Jesus fulfilled the qualifications of the office second we'll look at how he performed its functions and third we'll see how we met the expectations for the office of priests let's look first at how Jesus meets the qualifications for the office of priests many people have pointed out that Jesus never served in the temple for lead liturgies he was not a descendant of Aaron so why did the New Testament writers say that Jesus performed priestly functions in ministries and how has he even qualified to hold the office of priest simply put Jesus was ultimately qualified for the office because he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament hope for a royal priest God Himself would appoint over all priestly services we look at Jesus qualifications as priests in terms of the same qualifications we highlighted in the Old Testament background of the priestly office first all know that Jesus was appointed to his priesthood by God and second we'll see that he was also loyal to God let's look first at the fact that Jesus was appointed by God Hebrews chapter 5 verses 4 through 10 explicitly says that God appointed Jesus as high priest listen to what it says no one takes this honor upon himself he must be called by God just as Aaron was so Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest but was designated by God to be high priest since God appointed him Jesus certainly met this qualification at the same time we should admit that this appointment was somewhat unusual because Jesus did not have a Levitical priest the genealogy you'll recall that in the beginning of the Old Testament God had allowed many different types of people to be priests but by the end of the Old Testament he had given the priesthood only to the descendants of Zadok even so the appointment of Jesus is not as unusual as it might first appear in the Garden of Eden Adam was assigned to rule over the earth as God's vassal king but his rule was also a priestly service designed to turn the entire world into a place that would be suitable for God's glorious presence and the offices of priests and King were also closely related in the kings of the monarchical period in much the same way Christ is a royal priest he rules as God's perfect vassal King but his rule is also a priestly service preparing us and the earth for the glorious special presence of God in this way Christ actually fulfills what Adam and the rest of his descendants failed to do listen once again to the way David spoke of the great Messiah in Psalm 110 verses 1 through 4 the Lord says to my lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet the Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion you will rule in the midst of your enemies the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek in this passage the Messiah when David called my Lord is described both with the royal imagery of his mighty scepter and rule and as a priest David's prophecy looked forward to the day when one of his descendents would rise to such imperial majesty that he would fulfill not only royal service but all priestly service as well just as Melchizedek had done this is why Hebrews chapter 7 verse 14 emphasizes the fact that Jesus is from the royal tribe of Judah and not from the priestly tribe of Levi the fact that Jesus was both a Judah I'd Kang and the great High Priest is proof that he has the long-awaited son of David the Messiah probably a lot of it goes back to Genesis 14 Melchizedek who is described both as a king and as a priest because Abraham makes sacrifices and Melchizedek receives those as a priest would but at the same time he's clearly king of Salem and so there's a lot that spins off of that in the rest of the biblical narrative where kings and priests are are one in the same sometimes it's the 110th psalm where king is referred to as the overseer of righteousness well that's that's obviously got governmental aspects connected to it but if you're overseeing righteousness you're also sharing in a priestly function because God's righteousness is is God's will for the whole world to be righteous and so as the King participates in that even if there are designated priests the king is still functioning in a in a priestly way then of course when you get to Jesus you've got these streams converging so that we refer to him as prophet priest and King it's almost well it is in the in the book of Hebrews he's the new Melchizedek he's the personification in the new covenant of what God really was about in the Old Covenant having seen that Jesus was appointed by God we're ready to look at the fact that he also met the requirement of being loyal to God as we mentioned previously priests were required to demonstrate a special measure of loyalty to God by worshipping and serving him alone and by carefully carrying out the duties that got assigned to them and one of the primary reasons for their duties was to ensure that God's people were also loyal to God both morally and ceremonially so that they could enter God's special presence without fear this was one of the main services that priests provided Jesus met these same requirements with absolute perfection he always worshiped and served God and God only and he always obeyed the father's commands and through this priestly ministry Jesus is able to prepare us to enter God's special holy presence in a general sense we could look at the full content of all four Gospels as proof of Jesus loyalty to God he followed the Commission given to him by his father he spoke only what his father gave him to say and he did only those things that he saw his father doing but there are also many particular passages in the New Testament that summarized these ideas explicitly such as Matthew chapter 26 verse 42 John chapter 5 verse 19 chapter 14 verse 31 and chapter 17 verse 4 and Hebrews chapter 7 verses 5 through 7 Jesus perfect loyalty to God is a critical aspect of his success as our great high priest only by being completely loyal to God can he make his followers perfectly holy and enable us to dwell in God's special holy presence for eternity and we find many examples of this in Scripture for instance he prayed specifically for our holiness in his high priestly prayer in John chapter 17 verse 19 and according to passages like Romans chapter 15 verse 16 in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11 God has already answered that prayer by making us holy in his sight having seen that Jesus met the qualifications for priesthood we're ready to turn to the way he fulfilled the functions of a priest will explore Jesus function as a priest by looking at the same priestly roles we identified in the Old Testament first priestly leadership over God's people second priestly ceremonies third priestly intercession let's look first at how Jesus fulfilled the function of priestly leadership although there are many aspects of Jesus leadership we could highlight we'll focus on the same three we mentioned in our survey of the Old Testament background of Jesus priestly office beginning with the leadership he offered in worship as the one who would be exalted is the great High Priest Jesus did many things to promote true and spiritual worship in the nation of Israel and among his followers for instance in Matthew chapter 21 verses 12 and 13 he drove the merchants and moneychangers from the temple because they were turning God's House of Prayer into a den of robbers but most importantly he made it possible for his people to approach God in the holy place of the heavenly temple in the Old Testament the tabernacle and later the temple were places that heaven and earth intersected there were special locations where worshipers were simultaneously present on earth and in God's heavenly Court but in the New Testament Jesus himself has taken over this function so instead of going to a special building to enter God's heavenly Court Jesus personally takes us there through him we have been accepted into God's special holy presence where we receive the blessing his fellowship listen to the way Hebrews chapter 10 verses 19 through 22 talks about this therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body and since we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith Jesus also offered priestly leadership in the form of special guidance in civil and ritual judgments for example in Matthew chapter 12 verses 1 through 8 Jesus provided priestly judgment when his disciples were accused of violating the Sabbath in mark chapter 7 verse 19 he pronounced judgments about the ritual cleanness of food and after healing the leper in matthew chapter 8 he provided the priestly declaration that the man was ceremonially clean and commanded him to take the appropriate sacrifice to the temple although Jesus commanded the man to show himself to the priests this was not for the purpose of asking them to judge his condition rather according to Matthew chapter 8 verse 4 it was to be a testimony of Jesus power and authority the third type of priestly leadership we have mentioned his teaching and Jesus performed this function as well now it's true that Israel had many different types of teachers prophets were teachers who proclaimed God's covenant and will parents taught their children rabbis and elders taught their communities priests however were particularly concerned with teaching repentance and fidelity so that God's people would be welcomed into his special presence we see an example of this in Nehemiah chapter 8 and Jesus teaching often served this priestly function too for instance in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 through 7 Jesus explained the true intention and application of God's law in order to lead those who heard him into covenant fidelity and both repentance and faithfulness were regular refrains in his teaching as we can see in passages like Matthew chapter 4 verse 17 Luke chapter 5 verse 32 and John chapter 14 verses 15 through 24 now that we've seen that Jesus filmed the priestly role of leadership let's take a look at the way he also fulfilled priestly functions with regard to ceremonies without a doubt Jesus death on the cross was the greatest ceremonial aspect of his priestly ministry Jesus himself participated in the ceremonies of Israel in fact many of them are mentioned in John's Gospel but none of these ceremonies accomplished redemption for God's people accept Jesus sacrifice in the cross without a doubt Jesus crucifixion was the greatest ceremonial aspect of his priestly ministry the law of Moses required obedience from Israel but because God knew Israel would continue to disobey God also commanded Israel to offer sacrifices to atone for these sins but as important as these sacrifices were they had to be offered repeatedly to God year after year none of them fully took away Israel sinned so Jesus came and offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin his atoning sacrifice accomplished redemption in a way that the sacrifices of Israel could never do and so Jesus fulfilled Israel's priestly expectations in his once for all sacrifice for sin well the Old Testament sacrifices anticipated a day when there would be a sacrifice that would take away sin once and for all and Jesus's role at the cross is described by the by was being both a sacrifice for sin but also himself as a priest offering that sacrifice and the sense he fulfills both of those functions he provides the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world and but Jesus also is the priest who is in a sense making that offering of himself to provide the sacrifice that will end all other sacrifices the relationship between Jesus's death and Old Testament sacrifices could be developed in a whole host of ways at the heart the Old Testament sacrifices must be placed within the Old Covenant that God gave to the nation of Israel the sacrificial system was the means by which the people sin was removed God's wrath was turned back there was a relationship between God and His people those sacrifices we say are types they're their patterns they point forward to something greater even in the Old Testament there's plenty of hints that just by the offering of an animal will never be enough to take away sin it was never intended to be ultimately in terms of that which would remove sin they were patterns of something greater but they point forward to the sacrifice of Christ in that he is the one who liked that sacrifice is our substitute he is the one who takes our place he is one who does so in a far greater way because he is human he takes on our humanity those animal sacrifices didn't yet he is also God the Son God the Son incarnate so that he now fulfills his own righteous requirements putting away our sin standing as our representative as our substitute as our priest and fulfills all of what those sacrifices pointed forward to restores us to relationship with God and brings us back to what God made us to be in the first place his people living for him serving him carrying out our role in duty as his image bearers in this world as we saw earlier the Old Testament priests were responsible for a variety of offerings including offerings for sin Thanksgiving and fellowship and in his death on the cross Jesus offered the single sacrifice that formed the meritorious basis for every sacrifice that had ever been offered throughout history every prior offering for Atonement merely foreshadowed the offering that Jesus rendered when he died on the cross this truth is taught in passages like Romans chapter 3 verse 25 chapter 8 verse 3 at first John chapter 2 verse 2 in chapter 4 verse 10 it's just one example listen to the words of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 1 through 4 the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming not the realities themselves for this reason it can never buy the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year make perfect those who draw near to worship but those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins Old Testament sacrifices benefited the worshipers not on the basis of the sacrifices themselves but in the ways they anticipated this special sacrifice that Christ would eventually render on the cross moreover the benefit they provided would never be complete until Jesus offered the one sacrifice to which all the others pointed this is why the sacrifices of the Old Testament were not able to remove sin permanently they were merely the means by which god postponed his wrath and exercised patience until the time when Jesus died on the cross in this regard Jesus was not just the substance to which all previous atoning offerings have pointed he was also the final atonement now that the fullness of atoning offerings has been realized in Jesus there is no longer any reason to offer the shadows this is why Christians do not present the atoning offerings described in the Old Testament it's not because we believe atoning sacrifices are unnecessary on the contrary we know atonement is absolutely necessary the reason we don't present offerings for atonement is that we believe Jesus singular sacrifice has completely fulfilled the need for atonement for all God's faithful people for all the time and by this one act he has secured our holiness making us able to dwell in God's special holy presence as we read in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10 we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all Jesus sacrificed assured in the new age of the kingdom of God it was the beginning of the end of the exile and judgment of God's people this one sacrifice made God's forgiveness directly accessible in every nation on earth but it also signaled the end of God's patience and forbearance toward many unbelievers as we read in Acts chapter 17 verse 30 prior to Christ's sacrifice God had been slow to bring judgment against those who were ignorant of the true but Christ's sacrifice announced the truth in a way that made ignorance far less excusable as a result God began to bring judgment against sinners with greater frequency and severity when they failed to repent the preaching of the gospel some skeptics view the death of Jesus as nothing more than the tragic end to a misguided career but for believers the death of Christ was intentional and significant and redemptive and part of how we understand the mysterious dynamics of the cross part of how we understand that is that it is a fulfillment of the type or antecedent motif of Old Testament sacrifice now once again there are many people today who are very uncomfortable about any requirement of blood it seems so primitive it seems so unacceptable to a more enlightened and civilised people I think it's important for us to realize that God is not some cosmic vampire who requires blood to assuage his needs the Old Testament sacrifice the Old Testament sacrificial system was bold brutal and embracing all of this to underscore the seriousness of the sin that it addresses the Old Testament sacrificial system was a reminder to ancient peoples that sin must be addressed in order to restore if you will the moral symmetry of God's universe and Jesus Christ comes as the fulfillment of that need in such a way that the requirements of God's justice and the moral symmetry of the universe are satisfied by an unprecedented act of self-giving love the Old Testament points to and is fulfilled in Christ right down to the details of the ancient sacrificial system having seen how Jesus fulfilled his priestly role through leadership and ceremonies we should look at how he fulfills the related priestly function of intercession earlier in this lesson we said that intercession is mediation or petitioning for favor on another's behalf this is something that characterized Jesus earthly ministry and that continues to characterize his ministry in heaven I have a friend who has asked me well if Jesus gets us to God why do we still need Jesus why don't we just dispense with him now to do now that he's gotten us to God and just pray to the Father we don't really need Jesus anymore well that misses the ongoing role of Jesus because the New Testament says that Jesus is the one mediator between God and man present tense the man Jesus and that he lives forever to intercede for us doesn't mean in the least that Jesus atoning work on the cross was insufficient in someone to be sure Jesus a toning work is once for all it's complete that nothing ever needs to be added to it again but Jesus still has an ongoing personal relational role that he plays in our lives as our advocate our mediator our representation he's our lawyer that daily continually goes before the great judge and pleads our case the great news is because of his atoning work he never loses a case he's always appealing to his perfect completed work on our behalf in his intercessory role as our great high priest and it's always successful it's always effective but it's ongoing in relational and dynamic and so Jesus based on his finished atoning work continues as our mediator and our intercessor as our great high priest one of the most explicit examples of Jesus intercessory work in the Bible it's his prayer for his disciples on the night of his arrest and trial recorded in John chapter 17 in fact this prayer is typically called his high priestly prayer in this prayer Jesus included many petitions for the Apostles and in John chapter 17 verses 20 and 21 he also prayed on behalf of those who would become his disciples through their evangelistic ministry Jesus continued his intercessory work in the action of his death on the cross where he mediated between God and humanity and the most effective way possible and now that he has ascended into heaven we're told that he continues to intercede for us in the heavenly temple by presenting his own blood on the altar and pleading before the father on our behalf as we read in Hebrews chapter 7 verses 24 and 25 because Jesus lives forever he has a permanent priesthood therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them our salvation is permanently secured because Jesus our great High Priest is perpetually interceding on our behalf asking the Father to accept the merit of the son's death in payment for every sin we commit Jesus perfectly fulfilled the function of the Old Testament priesthood provided leadership performed ceremonies including the most important ceremony of all time his sacrifice on the cross and he offered intercession for his people in fact he continues to perform these basic functions today through his church and through his high priestly work in the heavenly courts so as his followers it's our responsibility to acknowledge and to rely on Jesus as our only access to the Father and is submit to his ministry as he prepares us to enter God's special holy presence with Jesus qualifications and functions as a priest in mind let's look at how he met the Old Testament expectations for the priestly office as we saw earlier in this lesson the historical development of the priestly office created the expectation that in the future the office of priests would continue to mediate between God and His people so that the people could be accepted into God's special holy presence and we've already seen that Jesus fulfilled these expectations by performing the functions of the office of priest so in this section of our lesson we'll focus our attention on the way Jesus fulfilled specific Old Testament prophecies about the future of the priestly office our discussion will divide into three parts first we'll look at the prophecy regarding the great High Priest second we'll explore the prophecy about this great priest serving as king and third we'll look at the prophecy that God's people could become a kingdom of priests let's start by saying how Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of the great high priest in various ways sometimes explicitly the Old Testament foretold that there would be a future great high priest who would usher in the messianic age and who would in fact be the Messiah himself according to Psalm 110 this great High Priest would be of the order of Melchizedek meaning that he would not descend from Aaron he would also serve in his office forever meaning that death could not stop him from fulfilling his function and according to the author of Hebrews all these prophecies came true in Jesus Hebrews chapter 7 verses 21 and 22 quotes Psalm 110 verse 4 and comments on it this way the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind you are a priest forever because of this ode Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant the author of Hebrews said that when God swore that the Messiah would be a priest forever he rendered it certain that the future great High Priest would be the Messiah that would bring in the new covenant and according to this same passage in Hebrews Jesus is that great high priest in fact Hebrews mentions Jesus role as this prophesied great high priest at least 10 different times it also regularly refers to Jesus as Christ or Messiah and it explicitly says that he is the one who brings the New Covenant in chapters 8 9 and 12 more than any other book of the New Testament the letter to the Hebrews proves beyond any doubt that Jesus fulfills the Old Testament expectation of the great High Priest the second Old Testament expectation that Jesus fulfilled was that the great High Priest would also rule as king we've seen that from the time of Adam to the time of Abraham the offices of priest and King were often United in the same person and although they were separated in the days of Israel's monarchy the Old Testament prophesied that they would ultimately be reunited in the person of the Messiah this point was made in both Psalm 110 verses 2 through 4 and Zechariah chapter 6 verse 13 and as we've seen in this and earlier lessons when Jesus came as Messiah he took on both the office of King and the office of High Priest this is stated in passages such as mark chapter 8 verse 29 Luke chapter 23 verse 3 and Hebrews chapters 8 and 9 before Jesus came the ironic priesthood had served God's people for well over 1,000 years but their ministry had always pointed beyond itself to the coming Messiah who would be both priest and king and in fact according to Acts chapter 6 verse 7 many of the priests in Jerusalem and Israel recognized Jesus as the Messiah and became his followers since Jesus neither established an independent priesthood nor confirmed the perpetual ministry of the temple and the ironic priesthood the support he received from Israelite priests indicates that these priests understood the Old Testament teaching that when the Messiah came he would reunite the offices of high priest and King in his person and as we've seen this is exactly what Jesus did the 3rd specifically prophesied expectation that Jesus priesthood fulfilled was that the great High Priest would lead God's people to become a kingdom of priests we've already seen that Exodus chapter 19 verse 6 and as a chapter 61 verse 6 both foretell a time when God's people would become a nation or kingdom of priests they would all serve in God's holy presence by doing the work he assigned them offering sacrifices of praise and obedience and performing other priestly functions and significantly in Jesus sermon recorded in Luke chapter 4 the Lord quoted from Isaiah chapter 61 and claimed to be fulfilling it in this way Jesus implied that he himself would turn God's people into a kingdom of priests and according to other portions of the New Testament this is precisely what he did for instance in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 5 Peter referred to the church as a holy priesthood and in verse 9 he called it a royal priesthood and we find the same idea in Revelation chapter 1 verse 6 chapter 5 verse 10 in chapter 20 verse 6 as just one example listen to these words about Jesus from Revelation chapter 1 verse 6 he has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his god and father as Messiah Jesus is the great high priest who rules as king and who appoints all his followers to serve as priests in his kingdom one of the things we learn that from the Old Testament is that the key religious figures were priests we find in the New Testament that not a subset of Christians but all believers are now priests this truth is often articulated in the familiar phrase the priesthood of all believers the point being underscored there is that all Christians are called and empowered to minister to be the hands heart the legs of Jesus the body of Christ now this is a tremendously empowering truth one of the historically dramatic consequences of getting a hold of this wonderful truth is that no one need any longer to consider another human being a necessary conduit or mediator between them and God any structure that puts a middleman between you and God is fraught with opportunities for abuse and social control and bondage so this is a tremendously empowering dignifying and liberating truth and yet it's a truth that does not undermine in any way the complimentary truth that God has gifted his body with a diversity of gifts and that among those gifts one of the ones that I have come to appreciate in others who have ministered to me is the pastoral gift the pastoral gift requires a special heart it requires the heart and the skills to shepherd to guide to courage to comfort this is not to stand between anyone and their God this is not to undermine their right to interpret the Scriptures as God enlightens their own mind as they do their good work and discipline themselves for this task but it is a grace that is provided to us to help us in the journey in which every one of us is a priest and every one of these priests values of treasures pastoral care Jesus will fell out of the priestly office reminds us of something very important God's original purposes in creation have been complicated by sin but never overwhelmed by sin Jesus own arrival an exact fulfillment of the priestly requirements show his fidelity to the goodness of God's plan his consolidation of the office and its ultimate meaning shows his centrality in the advance of God's plan and as the great high priest who rules his King Jesus fulfills the original and expected aspects of priestly ministry so as his people we have great reason to honor and worship and trust Jesus and serve him loyally as his kingdom of priests so far we've explored the Old Testament background to the office of priests and its fulfillment in Jesus so at this point we're ready to consider the modern application of Jesus priesthood what implications does Jesus role as our great High Priest have for our lives today one convenient way to approach the modern application of Christ's priestly work can be found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism answer number 25 which says Christ executed the office of a priest it is once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us to God and in making continual intercession for us in this answer the Catechism summarizes Christ's priestly work in terms of his ministry to believers and it mentions at least three aspects of this work first it speaks of Christ's ministry of self-sacrifice second it says that his once for all times sacrificial ministry affected reconciliation between believers and God and third it lists his continual intercession between believers in God our consideration of the modern application of Jesus office of priests will follow the emphases of the Westminster Shorter Catechism first we'll look at Christ's sacrifice second we'll focus on his work of reconciliation third we'll consider the application of Christ's intercession let's turn first to sacrifice will examine the application of Christ's sacrifice by looking at three responses we should have to it trust in him for salvation faithful service to him and those he loves and worship start by looking at the matter of trust scripture teaches that Jesus sacrifice on the cross is the only effective basis for God's gift of salvation Christ died on the cross to save sinners to use the vocabulary we learned earlier in this lesson he propitiate God satisfying God's justice and wrath in order to expiate or take away the guilt of everyone that has faith in Him and that faith is critical in order to receive the forgiveness of sins that Christ offers we have to trust him and him alone we have to believe that he is the son of God who died for our sins and that we are forgiven only because of the sacrifice he offered for us Scripture speaks of this trust in places like John chapter 20 verse 31 norman's chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 and first john chapter 4 verses 14 through 16 followers of christ must trust that our salvation is based on Jesus sacrifice and that it's effective only because of his work no one else can save us as Peter preached in Acts chapter 4 verse 12 salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved we can't earn salvation no church or Saint can give it to us we must trust only in the merits of Christ and his sacrifice to save us when we put our trust in Jesus alone we can have confidence and joy before God Jesus faithfully did everything the father commanded and we can be assured that he will faithfully do everything he has promised to us as well as we read in Hebrews chapter 10 verses 19 through 22 we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus since we have a great priest over the house of God let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith the confidence mentioned here could also recall the trust it's the firm belief that Jesus sacrifice is sufficient to atone for our sin and that there is no way it can fail to save us one of the signs that we are saved is that we have a sense of being saved we have a sense of being part of God's family the Bible says that the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that were children of God and so true children of God do have a sense of that adoption but that doesn't mean we can't have fluctuations in the degree of certainty or assurance that we do have about our salvation we do want to be growing in that assurance but it certainly can come and go over time we need to seek to understand the gospel to preach it to ourselves every day so that we understand what Jesus has done for us when he took our place and help one another that's what we do in fellowship we help one another be more sure of our adoption of our salvation of our forgiveness that the Holy Spirit presses this home to us as we sit under the preaching of the word and we grow in our confidence in Christ and what he's done for us so the assurance of salvation every believer has comes and goes from day to day but there should be a general continual growth in it over time control eavers that their salvation absolutely and one sees examples of it in scripture I think you see in the cases of Elijah sitting underneath the juniper-tree you see David and some of his Psalms of enormous lament asking questions with regard to his relationship with God I think you see in the biography of Peter perhaps immediately after the denial episode when he goes out and and and weeps sure true believers may doubt their salvation you know our salvation is not I am saved by the amount of assurance I have sometimes in evangelical circles we tend to go in that direction we ask people to give their testimony and I have a testimony I have a Paul like conversion in that it was sudden and dramatic I can give you an hour in a minute if you press me I certainly there was one day when I I didn't believe Jesus existed nor did I care and within 24 hours I believed he was the son of God and my Savior but I am I am saved by grace through faith in the finished work and accomplishment of Christ alone and not on the amount of assurance I have there are all kinds of things that can rob you of your assurance sudden dark Providence's when the Lord takes away the woman or and that you love most in all the world and that can shake you when sometimes there are physical psychosomatic reasons some people are prone to seeing the glass half empty they are constitutionally questioners we all know the Eeyore's of the world I think I'm probably one of them that tends to ask questions of that of that nature there are factors divine factors Westminster Confession for example in the 17th century suggested that God sometimes withdraws the light of his countenance from us distancing himself in order to make us want him more that the very act of missing him grows us and ultimately affirms our faith that's never a pleasant thing to experience but parents will sometimes do that they will withdraw their hands from a child who's just beginning to walk there they're ready to catch them if they fall but you're on your own for a second and something like that God does I think with us making us yearn for him and causing us to grow as a consequence now that we've considered trust as a response to Christ's sacrifice let's turn to the service his sacrifice should inspire us to render the Bible teaches that Jesus sacrifice on our behalf should inspire us to serve Him faithfully throughout Romans chapter 6 all made it clear that because Jesus died to save us we are obligated to love and to obey Him he died to give us new life life that is free from the mastery of sin and one way we should express our thanks for the salvation is to fight against sin in our lives to refuse to submit ourselves to it again as Paul wrote in Romans chapter 6 verses 2 through 4 we died to sin how can we live in it any longer we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father we too may live a new life Jesus died in part so that we could be free from sins mastery and the only appropriate response to that sacrifice is to live in ways that please him scripture also mentions many other ways that we can serve Christ in light of his sacrifice obviously we should follow the example of Christ by being willing to suffer and even to die for his purposes in fact passages like Acts chapter 5 verse 41 in Philippians chapter 1 verse 29 indicate that it's a great honor and blessing when we suffer for the sake of Christ and the Bible also encourages us to serve Christ by sacrificing ourselves for the same people that Jesus died to say it teaches us to be patient and compassionate with each other in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32 through chapter five verse two it instructs us to give up our freedoms for the sake of those who are weaker in faith in Romans chapter 14 in 1st Corinthians chapter 8 and it even commands us to lay down our lives just as Christ did for the sake of other believers as John wrote in first John chapter 3 verse 16 this is how we know what love is Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers Jesus once for all time sacrifice of atonement on the cross was completely sufficient for its intended purpose namely taking on himself God's just punishment for sins we could never atone for ourselves let alone for another human being but we can follow Jesus example by laying down our lives for the sake of others and if we should be willing to die for them and we should also be willing to make lesser sacrifices for them parting with our time money our comfort and our possessions in order to serve them it's easy to talk about how important it is to love others and the sacrifice for them but sometimes it's hard for us to follow through with these ideas to love people well we have to sacrifice things we often hold very dear to us our time our finances our comfort you're just a few of the sacrifice is necessary to love others it's so difficult for us to value the kingdom of God and His righteousness more than our own comforts but when we don't we miss out on one important fruit we gain more in offering these sacrifices and the sacrifices themselves we gain the opportunity to worship God and the sea is rain extend in this world by the way we give of our lives for the sake of others now that we've considered trust and service as to modern applications of Christ's sacrifice let's turn our attention to worship as Christians we often find ourselves motivated to worship Jesus when we think about what he did for us on the cross his selfless sacrifice rightly inspires our hearts to praise him for the great love he showed to us and it moves us to thank him again and again for the incredible blessings of salvation that he purchased for us and Jesus sacrifice should also motivate us to worship the father and the spirit after all according to passages like John chapter 14 verse 31 Jesus sacrifice was the plan of the Father in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14 teaches us that Jesus offered his sacrifice through the power of the Holy Spirit so the father and the spirit deserved the same praise and worship that we give to Jesus and besides motivating us to worship Jesus sacrifice also serves as a model for worship listen to what Paul wrote in Romans chapter 12 verse 1 therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship this passage naturally raises two questions first how was Jesus death on the cross an act of worship and second how can we pattern our own worship after it an answer to the first question Jesus death on the cross was an act of worship because it fulfilled the Old Testament types and foreshadows set by the sacrifices in the Old Testament in the Old Testament God's worship centered around sacrifice and Hebrews chapter 9 teaches us that Jesus sacrifice was the substance to which all these Old Testament sacrifices pointed it also says that Jesus was not passively sacrificed for us rather he actively sacrificed himself he was the high priest that followed the worship regulations of the Old Covenant and presented himself to God as an act of sacrificial worship and for this reason our sacrificial acts also constitute worship but how can we pattern our worship after Jesus sacrifice what kind of sacrificial act should we offer well scripture indicates many things we can do that God counts as sacrifice as we've already seen romans chapter 12 verse 1 says that one way we imitate Christ's sacrifice is by offering our bodies to God but verse 2 goes on to explain the meaning of this we are not to conform ourselves to the behavior of the world rather we are to let our renewed minds in Christ lead us into new patterns of behavior we are to abstain from sinful uses of our bodies and to behave in new ways that honor God Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 teaches that a second way we imitate Christ's sacrifice is by living a life of love Jesus death on the cross was the ultimate act of love so when we are kind and compassionate to each other we're patterning our own lives after Christ's loving sacrifice and Philippians chapter 4 verse 18 suggests sathru way we can worship God through sacrifice by giving our money resources and time to help other believers Paul said that the Philippians gifts to him were offerings and sacrifices to God because they were costly to the Philippians and because they benefited those that God loves now of course these suggestions don't exhaust the possibilities of worshiping God through sacrifice but they're a good starting point for us as we follow in Christ's footsteps of worshiping God through loving sacrifice now that we've looked at some ways we should draw practical applications from Jesus sacrifice we're ready to see how his priestly reconciliation should impact our lives we'll look at the modern application of Jesus work of priestly reconciliation in three ways first we'll see that it brings us peace with God second we'll look at the unity of Foster's third will consider the mission it assigns to us let's look first at our peace with God when Jesus reconciles us to God he makes peace between us and God before this reconciliation our rebellion against God had made us his enemies as we read in places like Romans chapter 5 verse 10 and Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2 at that time we deserved God's justice and Raft but by reconciling us to God Jesus put an end to this enmity he quenched God's wrath it made peace between us now instead of being God's enemies we are the children he loves and faithful citizens in his kingdom and this means that we never need to fear God in the way we fear enemies we never need to think that he wants to destroy us our lives are hidden in Christ so that the same peace that exists between God the Father and God the Son also exists between us and God in this kind of peace ought to move our hearts to praise our hands to act and our minds to know more and more about our great God listen to the way Paul talked about this in Colossians chapter 1 verses 19 through 22 God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus and through him to reconcile to himself all things by making peace through his blood shed on the cross once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation yea the question of we have peace with God I mean that's very very clear why then the discipline of his children of believers I think the simple answer is because He loves us is to have peace with God means that we are brought back into relationship with him we were created to to know God to to serve Him to to love him to obey Him to know him in an intimate way and our sin cuts us off from that salvation brings us back peace reconciliation other images that convey what salvation is so that we are now in relationship with him when we sin he loves us that he doesn't let us go our own way he pulls us back he disciplines us I mean the imagery that's used in Scripture as of a parent to a child so that is my children I am not caring for them loving them if I let them do things that hurt them do things that turn away from what I've commanded them our Father in Heaven through our Lord Jesus Christ disciplines us so that we are now conformed to the image of Christ that is for our good so that if we do not experience the discipline of God that should be a concern to us discipline is not a bad thing it's a good thing and it demonstrates God's love for his children the peace we have with God should move our hearts to praise God by proclaiming and thanking him for his great kindness to it should inspire us to speak words to and about God and his character in prayer it should motivate us to meditate on the great things he has done in our lives to consider new ways that we can love and obey Him and it should give us the desire to encourage those around us by reminding them of the peace that believers already have with God and that unbelievers can also have they are reconciled to our peace with God should also move our hands to act it should make peace with other human beings we should demonstrate the blessings of God's peaceful kingdom in the form of moral and social justice and care for the needy and we should comfort and counsel those whose hearts are broken by the lack of peace and blessings in their own lives and the peace we have with God should also motivate us to know and understand more and more about our great God and Savior His Word tells us to be conformed in our minds to God's Way of thinking by thinking his thoughts after him and to rest peacefully in his sufficiency not worrying that God might abandon us to the world but remaining confident in the knowledge that he loves us and takes care of us the second way Jesus priestly ministry of reconciliation applies to our lives is in manifestations of unity among the people of God one theme that frequently appears in the New Testament is that those who love God will also love the people God loves as we read in 1st John chapter 4 verse 21 whoever loves God must also love his brother when God is reconciled to a person we should be reconciled to that person too this is why the Apostle Paul urged his readers to recognize the great gift of reconciliation they had received from God and to express it in unity with other believers in the early church he often applied this idea to the tense relationships between Jews and Gentiles in the church listen to what he said in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 13 through 16 but now in Christ Jesus you who are once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ his purpose was to create in himself one new man out of Jews and Gentiles thus making peace and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility we find a similar emphasis on unity in places like John chapter 17 verse 23 Romans chapter 15 verse 5 and Ephesians chapter 4 verses 3 through 13 the modern church is really faced with a specific issue of right relationships between Jews and Gentiles but we have many problems that are similar to this we struggle with racial ethnic and national animosities among the levers and the Jesus Ministry of reconciliation can help us pursue unity in these areas we have all been reconciled to God and to each other through our union with Christ and this unity should be expressed in our relationships in the church it should make us cherish and pursue God's goal of a unified church even though that sometimes means laying a side of things that distinguish us from each other besides peace and unity a third application we can draw from Christ's priestly ministry of reconciliation is the mission we have been assigned of fulfilling our own Ministry of reconciliation in the world Jesus ministry of priestly reconciliation is not yet complete his sacrifice purchased and guaranteed reconciliation but that reconciliation has not yet been applied to the entire world so at this stage of history Jesus has appointed the church to further his Ministry of reconciliation we are his ambassadors of reconciliation and it's our job to proclaim the gospel and reconciles sinners to God listen to how Paul described our mission in second Corinthians chapter 5 verses 18 through 20 God reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the Ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ not counting men's sins against them he has committed to us the message of reconciliation we are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God we're making his appeal through us we implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God the offer of reconciliation to God continues to be a vital Ministry of the church all told the Corinthians that God has reconciled us to himself through Christ that he is continuing to reconcile the whole world to himself and it's our responsibility as Christ's followers to proclaim this message to others so that they can also be reconciled to God through him we do this primarily by announcing the good news that through Christ's life death resurrection and ascension sinners can find peace with God now that we've looked at Jesus priestly ministry in terms of sacrifice and reconciliation we should turn to the modern application of Jesus priestly intercession will examine the modern application of Jesus priestly intercession under two headings first we'll see that it enables us to appeal to God for ourselves and second will see that Christ's intercession obligates us to advocate for other people let's look first at how it enables us to appeal to God for our own needs as we've seen Jesus intercedes for us by reminding God the Father of his sacrifice on our behalf and by asking the Father to forgive and to bless us on the basis of this sacrifice and because the father loves the son and values his sacrifice he responds positively to the sons intercession for us he hears and answers Christ's priestly petitions so that forgiveness sanctification life and all the other blessings of salvation can continually be applied to us and one implication of this is that we can approach the father every day with our needs knowing that he listens to our prayers because our great high priest is praying for us we see this in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 12 hebrews chapter 10 verse 19 in many other places it's just one example listen to Hebrews chapter four verses 14 through 16 since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold firmly to the faith we profess for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet was without sin let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need as the author of Hebrews pointed out Jesus has gone through the heavens that is he has entered the heavenly sanctuary with his own blood in order to make intercession for us and because of his intercession we can have confidence that God favors us and is inclined to give us mercy and grace when we pray to Him we can appeal the creator of all things for all of our needs whether their needs as deep as forgiveness and salvation or as calmness prayers for daily food clothing and shelter no need is so small that it falls outside the scope of Christ's intercession on our behalf no need is so great but the value of his sacrifice doesn't cover it and for this reason we should be encouraged to be bold and confident in our prayers appealing to our loving Heavenly Father for all our needs and righteous desires with this understanding of how Christ's intercession gives us the right and confidence to appeal to God for ourselves let's look at how it encourages us to advocate for others well with Jesus already interceding why would we bother to pray for other people I think the main reason is two words follow me if Jesus is interceding he says I want you to follow me and I want you to intercede as well I also believe that our prayers do have impact I also believe and I think Scripture teaches not only do they have impact but there's going to be times when you don't pray and some things don't get done because you didn't pray so do we believe in prayer yes but why it's because jesus said follow me and he prayed one of the important lessons of Christ's heavenly intercession is that we should follow his example by advocating for others in prayer our love and concern for others should motivate us to talk to God on their behalf asking him to show his mercy and love to them in whatever circumstances they're facing listen to what Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 18 pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints here Paul instructed all believers to approach God on behalf of others and of course whenever we do this our advocacy is based on Christ's sacrifice on their behalf just like Jesus own advocacy for us so when I ask myself why does Jesus pray he knows my needs he understands my needs why would he have to intercede for me there must be something in the base of intercession that his exemplify of the heart of God and that is that he bears he carries in the Lord's incarnate life in the triune life there's a bearing a love that receives the needs of humanity that's the foundation of the cross foundation of my walking with Jesus and so the Lord says to me in a command form because he wants me to understand reality but he's also offering me the chance to bear somebody else in my heart if I can say this way the answer to every person need is found in somebody else now the answer to all of our needs of course is found in the heart of Jesus but he making us in His image and calling us to be his disciples I said I want you to also bear I want you to be priests like the Israelite priests I want you to bear in your heart like Aaron I want you to bear in your heart like I did the needs of the world and so intercession is an expression of the very heart of God intercessory prayers of advocacy can apply to any aspect of life for example we're encouraged to pray for the success of Christian ministries in places like Romans chapter 15 verse 30 occasions chapter 6 verse 20 Colossians chapter 4 verse 4 first Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 25 in II Bruce chapter 13 verse 19 we're taught to pray for those in spiritual danger or sin as we see in 1st John chapter 5 verse 16 we should pray for others to receive protection from temptation following Jesus teaching in Matthew chapter 6 verse 13 and his model in Luke chapter 22 verse 32 and we should pray for their health asking God to heal injuries of both body and mind listen to these instructions from James in James chapter 5 verses 14 through 16 is anyone have you sick he should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well the Lord will raise him up if he has sinned he will be forgiven therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective James taught that when we advocate for others in the name of the Lord that is when we intercede for them by reminding the Lord they belong to Christ the Lord is inclined to receive our advocacy favorably and to grant our petitions for this reason we should take full advantage of this privilege regularly advocating for those in need I have an unshakable confidence in the sovereignty of God I have an absolute confidence that Jesus Christ right now is interceding for me and for all believers before the Father's throne I have absolute confidence that all that I need is in Christ so would it hurt anything if I didn't pray intercessory prayers for those I know are in need let me tell you no one asked that question when he or she is in need I've been in a situation of great need I've been in a situation where my life medically speaking was very much on the line I knew that the prayers of the faithful were important I knew that my brothers and sisters in Christ praying for me we're doing something that was important to my life my ultimate faith and Trust is in a sovereign God in the glorious Christ but our faithfulness to Christ requires us to do with Christ commands that means to pray for the faithful I know one reason it's important I'm a much more faithful Christian when I'm praying for those I know we're in need and of course we should also advocate on behalf of others for the matters of daily life for example just as we ask for bread for ourselves we should also advocate for others asking god to mean their daily needs too we should ask him to grant all sorts of blessings to his people including things like health provision for work and success in their relationships whenever situations in our own lives weigh on our hearts we should appeal to God to help us and in the same way we should be moved to pray for the needs of others whether those needs are big or small people often wonder about the mystery of prayer why do we need to pray if God already knows all things and if Jesus is already interceding why do we need to pray is anything missed or does it hurt anything if we don't pray and intercede for the world and for others well I think the answer to the question is yes something is hurt and here's why first of all if we don't intercede we are disobeying God for God has commanded us to pray on one level that's all we need to know we don't need to understand the mystery of how it works God has commanded us to pray and if we trust him and love him we will pray but secondly God not only has commanded us to pray but somehow in the mystery of all of this he includes the prayers of the Saints in the very intercession of Jesus I'm struck by this image in the gut in the book of the revelation in which there is this incense that burns and rises to God which I described as the prayers of the saints it's as though if we don't pray we also hurt our own relationship with God and that God wants us to be engaged with him in what he is doing in the world so he calls us into a deeper and fuller relationship with him by seeing ourselves as his co-laborers as Paul describes himself and others Col a bruise with God in this work of redemption through our intercession so our relationship with God is hurt but thirdly here's the greatest mystery of all somehow God has decided to redeem the world not by acting on it from without but the creating a power of His grace within and so as we intercede with Jesus it's not so much that we should think of ourselves as trying to convince God to do something that he doesn't want to do or try to add something to the prayers of Jesus we ought to see our intercession for the world or for others more like this we are trying to take the world or others and pull them by our prayers to the place where God wants them to be so his blessing and His grace can be poured out upon them and so yes in God's mysterious design something is lacking if we don't pray because from within his creation he has left his redeemed children to be not only those who are waiting on their final salvation but working now pulling and drawing by prayer the world and others to the place where God can save them in this lesson on Jesus the priest we've looked at the Old Testament background to Jesus office seeing that God ordained priests to prepare and lead God's people into his special holy presence in order that they would receive his blessing we've also seen how Jesus fulfilled this office in the New Testament by becoming our great high priest and we've considered some of the ways we can apply the principles of Jesus priestly ministry to our lives in the modern world Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the biblical office of priests as our great high priest he is preparing us to live in God's holy presence and to be blessed by God in astounding ways those blessings are not reserved entirely for the future your Jesus sacrifice and intercession the father is willing to give us a foretaste of our eternal life right now present world this reason followers of Christ should rejoice in Jesus priestly ministry and long for the day when we will be welcomed into the special presence of God in the new heavens and the new earth by Jesus himself we should also rely on and benefit from Christ present ministry as our great high priest who even now is interceding for us in the courts of heaven [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Thirdmill

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Keywords: Holy Spirit (Deity), For the World, Theology Matters, Richard Pratt, Gospel, Ministry, Free, Scripture, Jesus Christ (Deity), Study, theology, Jesus, Reformed, Christ, Lord, Holy, Mission, Bible, Biblical Education, seminary, Third Millennium Ministries, Salvation, Truth, Third Mill, faith, Preaching, God, Education, Christianity, priest

Id: y0eDC3fG1sI

Length: 126min 6sec (7566 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 22 2017