Some memberships come with privileges...
joke - 3 guys wanted to get in a watch the athletes that have gathered for the Olympics in Atlanta, but they couldn't get past the gate. Then, a guy with boxing gloves showed up. "Robertson -- boxing" Well, of course! All they had to do was pretend to belong with the athletes and they could get in. 1st guy found a long pole…"Wilson -- pole vaulting." 2nd guy found a smooth round rock…"Miller -- shot put." 3rd guy came up, all wound up with barbed wire, scratched bleeding…"Zustiak -- fencing."
Membership has its privileges!
OT priests had a pretty good setup. Being a priest came with a number of privileges:
• didn't get to own any land - didn't need it. Didn’t need to work a field or a vineyard - everything was provided for them
• Ate the showbread from inside the temple, and the meat from sacrifices.
• They had the privilege of handling the sacred things like the incense and anointing oil
• Their work uniform was provided – and it was a really nice one
• Never had to go to fight in the army
That's better than "clergy" parking! All of it, just because they happened to be born into the tribe of Levi. Being a priest was a pretty good deal – a lot of work and responsibility, but a pretty good deal!
Then Jesus came along and said (Mt 12:6), "One greater than the temple is here...!" Something better than the priesthood through Aaron and the tribe of Levi; than the OT law; than the sacrificing of bulls, goats, sheep and birds. Something better has happened, and that's what this passage is about.
*I Peter 2:4-10
There’s been a change -- something better has happened that forever changes our status, whether we happen to be born a Levitical priest or not.
The membership I want to speak of is being a member of the Body of Christ – not membership in a local church – that’s very minor by comparison. Instead I want us this morning to consider how belonging to God’s Family is something better than the OT covenant, better than organized religion, and better than what the majority of people around us are settling for.
I. A Better Temple
-When Israel first escaped Egypt, they had a 40 year tent-revival meeting in the desert! God had them build the Tabernacle - a mobile place of worship that could be taken down and set up wherever the Lord told them to move. 40 years in the desert, Israel's worship centered about that tent. It wasn't until they entered the Promised Land that Solomon built the new national center of Judaism in Jerusalem - the temple. 30,000 men prepared materials for the building. (I Kings 6). It took 7 years to complete it. Over 190 tons of gold, 375 tons of silver were collected for the temple work before it even began. It needed to be the best Solomon could make it. This was to be God's house.
-Imagine it - you could go visit the place where God was. God said, "I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there." That's where you went to worship, to give back to God, to sacrifice, to learn, to make vows, to experience His presence. The entire religious life of the Jew centered around that building.
-But something better has come. That temple was destroyed and rebuilt twice. Jesus said, "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." There's a new center of our relationship with God. There's a new place of worship, a new location where God has placed His name, His heart, and His eyes. v5 - "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house..." The temple has changed!
-That new location is the body of every believer! "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the HS, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" (I Co 6) Worship of God isn't limited to a building. Instead, God has chosen for His HS to dwell in the heart of every one of His people.
-Ill – Sometimes when someone takes over a business they’ll hang a sign outside: "Under New Management." That's what happens when Christ takes over a life. It's literally "under new management."
Imagine what good news this was to people scattered all over the Roman world in the 1st century. Many of these people, like most of us, had never been to Jerusalem, never seen the temple. And now they're told that they're part of something better than the temple -- bigger.
-It's even greater news for us! Every Christian is a part of this different, better temple from God -- a living stone. I don't have to be somewhere to worship God, and the time for worship doesn't stop just because I change locations! There’s been a change, and God is now in a better temple.
II. A Better Way of Approaching God (v4 - "....as you come to Him...")
-Ill - Imagine for a moment that every contact you have with your children or grandchildren is through a 3rd party. The child has a birthday. You want to give him a present, you have to go through someone else. You want to know how he responded to the gift, you have to ask someone else. He wants to tell you he loves you, that message has to come through someone else. You know about him. You know he’s there, but when it comes to actually being with him and speaking with him, there’s always someone as an in-between.
-The OT way of approaching God was like that. It took a 3rd party. Not just anyone could traipse on in to the Holy Place or offer a sacrifice. That was the job of the priests. In fact, only the high priest could enter into the center of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and he did that on only one day of the year on behalf of the whole nation!
-Priests were mediators. Part of their job was to approach God on behalf of the people. If someone sinned, it was the priest's job to offer a guilt offering for them. If someone was declared ceremonially unclean, it was up to the priest to pronounce when they were considered clean again. If you wanted to approach God, you went through the priest. They were mediators.
-but now, there's a better way to approach God!
-I Tim 2:5 "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"
-Eph 3:12 - "In Him, and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence."
-Heb 4:16 - "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."
-Rather than being down on people we know who are in the Catholic church, why not share this bit of good news from God's word with them? Why not tell them that we've been given a privilege to approach God's throne directly, not through a human? that we have a High Priest before God through Whom we approach God with confidence? that there's a better way to approach God today? That, in fact, we have been given the privilege of an intimate and personal relationship with Him?
"You are... to be a holy priesthood (v5)...(v9) you are a royal priesthood..." That's a wonderful message to all Christians - one we need to understand and speak about! -There's a better way to approach God.
III. A Better Status
Eph 1:11 lit. says, "He made us a heritage..."
God gives the person who accepts him a new status.
-Saints or Aints. That's it! But that's good, because all the saints are saints. There's no special class of Christians called "saints" mentioned in the Bible. The word simply means holy ones. And if you're in Christ, that's what you are - one of His holy ones. So, welcome to the priesthood! Welcome to sainthood!
-Over the centuries, the Church developed a hierarchical system of leaders that have come to be known as “clergy.” Everyone else gets called “laity.” And in those churches structured that way, you are either a “clergy” or “laity.” Laity, by the way, means “the people.” I guess a lay person is a “people person.” I guess that also means that anyone who’s a clergyman is a non-people person!
We need to escape the clergy/laity setup! Joe Ellis says we have -- but we've done away with the wrong part! We've reduced everyone to a "lay" person when we ought to be thinking of every believer as "clergy."
*vv9-10...
-No longer does the priesthood descend from Aaron, but all Christians are part of a priesthood.
-No longer are just the physical descendants of Abraham God's people, we are His chosen race.
-The nation blessed by God is no longer just Israel, but we are all His holy nation.
-No longer just Jews, all can be God's chosen people, and are those who have received His mercy.
-Once we were outcasts, we were nobodies (in fact we still are! Look at v1!) but now we are His people. And Peter applies this to all Christians! Rather than assuming that people we call "ministers" today have taken the place of OT priests, we need to realize that it's the whole Church today – you and me – that has taken the place of OT priests!
-We recognize every member of this congregation is called to serve the Lord in some way - that is, to be a minister. When we encourage people to become a member of VHCC, we’re inviting you to work! We’re inviting you to fulfill your role as a gifted believer and priest of God who is called to serve Him – this is a place to help that happen. Membership has its privileges, and it has its responsibilities.
When you’re a part of God’s family, you’re a minister called to serve in some special way. (A better temple, better way of approaching God, better status)
Applications: -Membership has its privileges. Along with all of the privileges of priesthood the OT priests had duties - many which apply to us as priests today...
1. Sacrifices - No one but priests ever were to offer sacrifices in Israel. But now, as a holy priesthood, all Christians have the duty to make spiritual sacrifices. Spiritual sacrifices?
-our bodies - (Ro 12:1) "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."
-money - (Phil 4:18) Paul said, concerning the gifts of money they sent him, "...They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God."
-praise & good deeds - (Heb 13:15-16) "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise -- the fruit of lips that confess His name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."
-part of being a priest in these last days means offering up those kinds of sacrifices to the Father.
2. Keeping worship alive
-The OT priests were responsible for the upkeep of the temple worship. When they neglected their duties in the temple, the result was a nation of people who failed to worship God.
-Get the analogy? Who's responsible for worship when we gather together on Sundays? Not Jeremi Carnes! He's only one person. We all are. We're all responsible to see that God is fittingly worshipped by ourselves, and not only on Sundays, but through the whole week as well. It's up to us, fellow priests of God, to make sure that God is worshiped in our homes, on our way to work, at school, and on the streets of Joplin. It's up to all of us to keep worship of the Father.
3. Interceding for men before God
-the work of the priests was representative. They were to represent God to the people, and to represent the people before God. Once each year, the high priest would lay his hands on the head of a goat and confess over it the sins of the nation, then it would be released into the desert. Every day it was the priests' job to intercede for the people before God - to offer the sacrifices brought for their sins and uncleanness.
-And now, with the priesthood conferred on ourselves, what should we do? We have a High Priest Who offered the final sacrifice, Himself on the cross. There's no longer a need for someone human to offer a sacrifice on our behalf. That's been done.
-But there's still a need for the people of God to be pleading on the behalf of lost people before God. There's still a need for people who are concerned and convinced enough about the lostness of others that they commit some serious and sincere time before the Father, pleading for the opportunity to reach them, pleading for their souls to be saved before it's too late. We need to do some interceding for men before God.
-We need to take this priesthood thing seriously.
I've been a dead weight many years around the church's neck;
I've let the others carry me and always pay the check.
I've had my name upon the rolls for years and years gone by;
I've criticized and grumbled too, nothing could satisfy.
I've been a dead weight long enough upon the church's back;
Beginning now, I'm going to take a wholly different track.
I'm going to pray and pay and work and carry loads instead;
And not have others carry me like people do the dead.
-This idea that every Christian is a priest tells us that every Christian is involved in the duties of priesthood! Where have we gotten the idea that the Church's work of carrying out the Great Commission is limited to a few people who have degrees from a Bible college or who serve with titles in the Church? Not from Scripture!
Where in the Bible have we gotten the idea that only certain "official" people should baptize, serve the Lord’s Supper, call on the sick or shut-in, encourage the struggling, pray with people?
Conclusion:
-Hear this message from the HS through Peter this morning: Something much greater than the Old Covenant is here! A much greater priesthood is here. And for every one of you who are in Christ this morning, something much better than your former state is here:
"Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
-for those of you who are outside of Christ this morning, there's good news! You have the opportunity right now to become a living stone in the house of God; to become one of the people of God; to receive mercy.
