MPC 7th January 2007.January 7 - Ex 28:1-12; Heb 4:14-5:10 "Summer Studies 2: A Biblical Theology of Priesthood"
Garnet Swann MPC 7th January 2007.
The other day I was at a hospital visiting someone. I guess it was the bible in my hand that gave it away - because the nurse who was in the room picked up fairly quickly that I was from church. Even before I got to say anything she made a comment in jest, but it was an interesting comment. She said - "Here comes the priest to save his soul."
It was an interesting comment. "Here comes the priest to save his soul". Now in the 10 seconds I had at that moment - I tried to scramble together a gracious and helpful response. Not sure how I went. But it raises the issue for us this morning. It's actually the topic for today's Summer Series talk. And that is, what do you think of this concept of priests?
We don't use the term 'priests' here at MPC. Phil and I have terms like pastor or minister. In fact in all of the Presbyterian denomination, the term of 'priest' isn't used. Roman Catholics of course have priests. You could ask, why is there a difference? Is it just a tradition or personal preference thing or is something else going on?
Well, in our summer series - right through January - we're looking at how to apply the Old Testament. Each Sunday morning we're looking at a different Old Testament theme. A big theme in the Old Testament is priests. And the fact that priests are mentioned lots in the Old Testament - yet in our church where we want to take the bible seriously, we don't have priests in our church - that's intriguing, isn't it?
Well, before we go any further, let's do a bit of a review. Something that Phil introduced last week - when it comes to looking at the Old Testament, a very important question is "When are we on the timeline?"
What the question is saying is, whenever you read the Old Testament you need to be aware where any particular part fits into the big-picture story.
On the screen - you can see a timeline with some of the events of the bible. It's not just a series of disconnected moments - it's all part of one big-picture story.
And look - I'm going to steal my punch-line by stating it at the start: the wrong way of applying the Old Testament is to apply everything directly to us and forget the big picture story.
As an example, it might work like this. There's the timeline again. In this example, we're at the time of God giving the law to Israel.
And there's the command - 'You shall not steal.' And you think that's easy, you drill straight down to us and say, 'Fine, we should not steal'. But then you get a command like 'Do not eat prawns'. It's there in the Old Testament. And for anyone who enjoyed a bowl of them like me at Christmas - you feel very nervous at this point. You wonder, Oh no! Does it means no more delicious seafood for me?
But the point worth really get a grip on is this - we need to apply all of it - in the light of the big picture story. What this means is that whether it's something that sounds easy like 'do not steal' or something a bit trickier like 'don't eat prawns'. All of it - we need to keep the big picture story in view.
And as the diagram shows on the screen, where the big picture is heading is towards Jesus. Jesus affects how we apply those commands. Jesus affects everything in the Old Testament. Rather than drilling straight down to us. We need to see all those things in the light of Jesus.
But with this whole principle of 'When are we on the timeline' when we apply the Old Testament - let's have a look at this bible theme of 'priesthood'.
And when we look at priesthood in the Old Testament - there are two particular moments on the timeline that we should focus on.
The first big moment when the priesthood is talked about is when the law is given to Israel and as part of that, instructions are given for the priests. We read before from Exodus.
And few things we learn about the priests here.
We learn that the priests had to dress pretty smartly. Even in the snippet we read you can tell there's so much written about their clothes. The priest must where a robe, and a ephod which was a skirt thing, a turban and a sash, a breastplate. There's all this instruction about the sort of thread to be used and bits to be inlayed with gold and various precious stones. If you're impressed when Phil or I wear a tie - well, that's nothing, is it?
Actually all the focus on clothing for the priests seems to be about holiness. God is holy and perfect. And for those priests in a clothing-outward way - they must be holy and perfect as well. All the precise detail about clothing is because God can't be taken lightly. We didn't read it before, but we're even told that the priest has to wear the right special underwear. They've got holy underwear. That's H.O.L.Y underwear.
Well, the priest isn't just about the clothes. He also has a job And we learn that the high priest has the job of making sacrifice for the sins of Israel. And what he's doing in those sacrifices is that he's in some way bearing the guilt of the nation and dealing with God's judgment. And there are all sorts of detail about the sort of sacrifices that the priests must make - sacrifices for every day of the year, and other sacrifices for just special days in the year. But it's like the priest stands in the middle, stands between the perfect, holy God who cannot tolerate evil and can bring his righteous judgment, and the people of Israel who are sinful. The priest in some way is the middle man who make possible the relationship between God and man - by bringing sacrifice and dealing with sin.
We also learn that this high priest - is that special man - who can go into the very centre of the temple. It's in that inner chamber - the most Holy Place where the Holy God symbolically dwells. Only the high priest - and only once a year, represents all of Israel can go in and in a sense meet with God there, and again perform sacrifice there.
The last thing that we should realise is that the priest has a role of teaching. And there's a verse up on the screen. See if the high priest can enter the inner place and speak with God there - then the high priest has a job of representing God and speaking back to the people. The high priest is to teach the people how to live.
Well, there's the picture of the priesthood we get from those first instructions given to Moses. But let's keep moving. We shouldn't drill down and apply things directly to us from the Old Testament - there's a big picture story to keep in mind.
What we see next as we go along on the timeline is the failure of the priests. We're actually given hints of it all along in the history of Israel, but when we get to the book of Jeremiah, it just gets really clear. See, Jeremiah is a priest. And he's commanded by God to do something shocking - and that is stand outside the precious temple - and condemn the priests.
See, imagine if John Howard one day stood outside parliament house and spoke to condemn democracy and the meeting of parliament. What Jeremiah is doing is something shocking like that.
But Jeremiah is called to do this. Because the priests along with everyone else - have gone off to worship the gods of the nations around them. You know, the priests who should teach the people the right way of living, but they've turned out to be just like everyone else.
And as just one example, Jeremiah - standing there in front of the temple - with the priests walking back and forth can say:
At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground. Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the LORD Almighty.
And this is exactly what happens. The people fail God. Worse still, the priests fail God. The priests should be standing in the middle and allowing relationship between the holy God and the nation of Israel. But they've totally turned away from God themselves. And their sacrifices are worthless.
And so the nation is banished. They're exiled away - and suffer God's punishment.
Well, that's the Old Testament big picture view of priests. But as we saw before - we can't let it stop there. Can't drill down to us yet. The timeline continues on. And it continues to Jesus. What impact does Jesus have on this idea of priesthood?
Lots. Jesus totally changes the way we think of priests today. In fact when you get to the New Testament - there's no mention of a class of priests in the Christian church at all. No priests. Why is that?
Why? Well, Firstly because Jesus himself is our great high priest.
We see this right through the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. We read some of Hebrews before. But the writer of this book is at pains to show that Jesus our High Priest is so much better than any of those priests of Israel.
He's the better high priest - because he offered his own body as the sacrifice to bring salvation. (5:8-9)
He's the better high priest - because each of those priests eventually died - but Jesus is eternal and always stands as the middle man between us and God making relationship possible. (7:23-25)
He's the better high priest - because he didn't enter some inner room in a temple - he's entered heaven and sits at his Father's right hand. (8:1-2)
What this all means - is that we can with confidence approach God - knowing that Jesus has done it all for us. We have our great middle man. Jesus always stands in the middle and opens the way for us. As it says in Hebrews chapter 4:
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.
The difference between the priests of Israel and Jesus our high priest is like the difference between some club where every now and then the door opens up to give you a glimpse of what it's like on the inside - to then those doors being smashed wide open to let everyone in.
Because of Jesus there's no longer any rite that has to be performed to deal with our sin.
Because of Jesus, there's no person who has the power to open or shut access to God. The door is opened wide.
Because of Jesus - we can approach God with confidence.
I said before there's no mention in the New Testament of a special class of priests in the church. It's because Jesus is our high priest. But there's another reason as well. And that is - we're all priests.
There's no one amongst who gets the privilege of entering the holy room once a year. We can all come to God all the time and all Christian people have this relationship with him.
It says this in the letter of 1 Peter 2:6:
You also… are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.
The theological, traditional phrase for this is, 'the priesthood of all believers'. And for all Christian men and women, all Christian boys and girls. That's what we are - we are priests. None of us have special spiritual status. None of us are more on the inside with God than others. Remember - because of Jesus, the doors have been busted wide upon. We all have access to God. So we're all priests.
And good news is - no turbans, no holy underwear required.
You know, the thing about the priests in the Old Testament was that because they had special access to God - their job was to teach the people God's special law. It was the priest's role to give knowledge of the Lord to others.
But because we're all priests, that's changed. You know, back with Jeremiah - he spoke that word of condemnation. But he also spoke of a better day when everything would be different. And what Jeremiah says is quoted in Hebrews. It says
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
We don't need some human priest who has the special inside knowledge of God. We have Jesus. And all Christian people have the Spirit. Through Christ we all have knowledge of God and know salvation. We're all priests with God.
I hope you can see - we need to be careful how we apply the bible. We can't go straight from what the Old Testament says, to us. Jesus changes things. Jesus totally changes how we view priesthood.
But you know, this idea - that Jesus is our high priest and all Christians together are priests - is something that's been hard fought for in our past.
There was a German Roman Catholic monk. His name was Martin Luther. He was reading the bible one day and being convicted of what the bible says - it really led him to make a split with the Roman Catholic church. Presbyterianism fits within the stream of Protestantism of which Martin Luther helped bring about. He says,
For all Christians really and truly belong to the religious class, and there is no difference among them except in so far as they do different work… All have spiritual status, and all are truly priests, bishops, and popes.
And that is true. We're all priests. No one of us is better than the other. Next year the Pope is coming to Australia. Well, we should all get a Popemobile each. None of us has a high spiritual status than the other.
But you know what - this idea that Jesus is our high priest and that we're all priests together - even though it's something in the bible and is taught, seems to be something that can easily be lost. Even if it's not explicit, just in subtle ways - we can drift back in the direction of priests.
This drift can come from all sort of directions. Can come from the style of music you play. Sometimes people can say things like - while we play this song - let's enter into the presence of God. That sounds priestly to me.
But it can also come from the direction of church leaders. Even in churches where we don't have priests. It's just that they can come across as priests. You know, the robes, the high pulpits above everyone. Ministers with their funny voice and religious way of speaking. It can look and sound so… otherworldly and priestly. But we need to be aware of this. See we need to keep remembering - church leaders aren't extra spiritual. There's no church leader who has any more access to God than you do. No church leader has special ability to draw you closer to God. No church leader can open up or bar the way to God. Jesus has done it all for us.
And in our own church here at MPC - church leadership. Teaching the bible, doesn't equate to priesthood. When the Lord's Supper is administered or Phil or I baptize someone - there's no magic going on. It's not because we're priests. There are different roles - but there's no rank. We all together can have confidence and draw near to God because of Jesus.
Let's together as a church - rejoice in what we have.
In the Old Testament - they had priests - and what amazing clothes they wore. Sorry about the simple shirt this morning. And the high priest once a year could walk into that holy room at the centre of the temple. Looks so impressive.
Perhaps our get together looks a bit plain in comparison. But we have so much more. We have no particular priest amongst us. But we have Jesus our High Priest - who sacrificed himself and is now at the right hand of the heavenly Father. And we are priests together. People with knowledge of God. People with the Spirit. People who can approach our Father with full confidence.