Keep The Priest's Office

I. EXORDIUM:

Are you preserving your gift?

Yes. Romans 12:1

Romans 12:1

I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show that JESUS has given the priesthood to all believers and we need to preserve it by offering our bodies as living sacrifice.

IV. TEXT:

Numbers 18:7

Therefore you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything of the altar [of burnt offering and the altar of incense] and [of the Holy of Holies] within the veil, and you shall serve. I give you your priesthood as a service of gift. And the stranger [anyone other than Moses or your sons, Aaron] who comes near shall be put to death.

V. THESIS:

Praise, worship and thank You very much LORD JESUS for You are my High Priest and Apostle and You have consecrated and set me apart for GOD.

Hebrews 3:1

SO THEN, brethren, consecrated and set apart for God, who share in the heavenly calling, [thoughtfully and attentively] consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest Whom we confessed [as ours when we embraced the Christian faith].

VI. TITLE:

Keep the priest's office

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Name : derived from the numberings of Israel

B. Author: Moses (commonly accepted)

C. Date written: 1446 - 1410 B.C.

D. Purpose: To relate the discipline of the wilderness generation, delivered from Egypt, and its purging, in order to prepare its children for a victorious entrance into The Promised Land.—Thompson Chain - Bible Book Outlines

E. To whom written: children of Israel

F. Main Theme: Unbelief bars the entrance to abundant life, Hebrews 3:7-19 — Thompson Chain - Bible Book Outlines

G. Key word: wilderness

H. Key verses: Numbers 14:20-23 (Amplified Bible)

14:20 And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to your word.

14:21 But truly as I live and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,

14:22 Because all those men who have seen My glory and My [miraculous] signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tested and proved Me these ten times and have not heeded My voice,

14:23 Surely they shall not see the land which I swore to give to their fathers; nor shall any who provoked (spurned, despised) Me see it.

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Preserve your priesthood

"Therefore you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything of the altar [of burnt offering and the altar of incense] and [of the Holy of Holies] within the veil, and you shall serve."

Hebrews 9:3-6

But [inside] beyond the second curtain or veil, [there stood another] tabernacle [division] known as the Holy of Holies.

It had the golden altar of incense and the ark (chest) of the covenant, covered over with wrought gold. This [ark] contained a golden jar which held the manna and the rod of Aaron that sprouted and the [two stone] slabs of the covenant [bearing the Ten Commandments].

Above [the ark] and overshadowing the mercy seat were the representations of the cherubim [winged creatures which were the symbols] of glory. We cannot now go into detail about these things.

These arrangements having thus been made, the priests enter [habitually] into the outer division of the tabernacle in performance of their ritual acts of worship.

Hebrews 7:11

Now if perfection (a perfect fellowship between God and the worshiper) had been attainable by the Levitical priesthood—for under it the people were given the Law—why was it further necessary that there should arise another and different kind of Priest, one after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one appointed after the order and rank of Aaron?

3 Dispensations of priesthood:

1. Levitical priesthood

Hebrews 7:8

Furthermore, here [in the Levitical priesthood] tithes are received by men who are subject to death; while there [in the case of Melchizedek], they are received by one of whom it is testified that he lives [perpetually].

2. Melchizedek Priesthood

Hebrews 7:11

Now if perfection (a perfect fellowship between God and the worshiper) had been attainable by the Levitical priesthood—for under it the people were given the Law—why was it further necessary that there should arise another and different kind of Priest, one after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one appointed after the order and rank of Aaron?

Psalms 110:4

The Lord has sworn and will not revoke or change it: You are a priest forever, after the manner and order of Melchizedek.

3. CHRIST's Eternal Priesthood

1 Peter 2:5