“A priest? Why is that so wonderful?” you may well be thinking. Because as a priest of the living God you are privileged to live with a holy purpose and to do work that is eternal. As a priest you are able to bring people a gift that is more valuable than anything in this world - the gift of knowing God’s grace and restoration to a place in His eternal family!

Remember the story of Eden told in Genesis. Adam and Eve were made to love and know God. He came to walk with them in the Garden. He provided everything they needed or wanted. Then they disobeyed, the Bible calls their actions sin, and their relationship with the Lord was broken. No more evening walks with God.

Creation was cursed and went into rebellion. The once beautiful world became a place of thistles and thorns. Humanity was locked into a struggle with the earth to live and thrive. Death became a reality. Spiritually, human beings were left longing for God, but not able to reach Him through their own efforts! Ever since Adam, people of every generation have felt the pain of alienation from God and the struggle to live.

What is the solution? Where can we find an answer to our heart’s cry? To whom can we turn?
 

Those are questions that a priest can answer!

God has not abandoned this world and those He created to know and love Him! The Bible tells us that He planned to restore the world to Himself. How does that happen?

In the Old Testament, we learn about a system of sacrifices, offering for sin and worship that allowed people of faith to live at peace with God. Those who performed those acts of worship, who led the people through the ritual sacrifices were called priests.

Priests were men set aside by God. They did holy work to serve God on behalf of the rest of the people. The priests did the work of worship, the priests served God in the holy places on behalf of the people, they made the spiritual sacrifices. To be a priest in Israel, a man had to be born into the right family. He had to be without physical defect. And he had to be prepared to serve.

Turn with me to Leviticus 8 -

The entire chapter describes the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood. It is too detailed to read in its entirety, but let me highlight several verses for you.

READ 1-3, 6-7, 10-12, 14, 30

Hold those thoughts as we will return to them in a moment.

The Old Testament priesthood was set aside when Jesus Christ came! God appointed him to be the High Priest for all those who live in faith! In the book of Hebrews we are told, Hebrews 7:24-27

But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honor in heaven. Unlike those other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices every day. They did this for their own sins first and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus did this once for all when he offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins.

And, here’s the remarkable part - as we read in that opening passage from the Word -

             All Believers are called to serve alongside of Jesus, in a holy priesthood!

1 Peter 2:5,9   Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you’ll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God. .... you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—

Just think -      you have the opportunity to stand as the intermediary between God and your friends, your family, the people that you live with day by day!

Don’t make the common mistake of thinking that you have to be an ordained minister, or a church officer, or old, or male ... or whatever you associate with being a holy priest- to do God’s work! If you have received Christ as Lord and the Holy Spirit has come to live in you, are ready to serve!

When you once experience the joy of being the one through whom God touches somebody else, you will realize the awesomeness of being a priest.

For example,

When someone comes to me crushed by guilt, full of regret, and I am able to tell the story of the prodigal son whose father was standing ready to take him back and then to explain that God, their Father, is just waiting to forgive them and take them back. If they believe me and accept the love of God, I see them change and I rejoice!

When terrible pain and/or tragedy comes to someone’s life and I am called to stand with them, to support them, to pray with and for them; I pray - “Lord, use me. Holy Spirit flow through me.” And He does!

Believer, you can do the same kind of ministry! “But, Jerry, you are a Pastor!” Yes, I am an ordained minister, set apart to serve the Lord and His church, but that certification is to allow me to have the privilege of being employed by a church. My ordination by the General Council of the Assemblies of God confers no special spiritual status or gifting beyond that of any other Holy Spirit-filled Believer. Being ordained makes me no more value to the Lord and His work than any other person on earth!

So, how can you become a useful priest who administers God’s grace to our world?

Being a priest in God’s service is not something we can desire for ourselves. It is a high and holy calling, but it is not exclusive to male, female, educated, uneducated, rich, or poor. It is a calling offered to all those who belong to Christ Jesus. I don’t want to imply that priestly ministry is easy, without cost, or that it comes naturally to us. When we embrace that calling, we must do so with reverence, with proper awe, and with the primary desire of serving well in a way that is approved by God.

He will PREPARE US for service!

Think back to that passage from Leviticus that I read a few moments ago. Moses took elaborate steps to prepare Aaron and those from his family who joined him in the priesthood. What did he do?

∙          Aaron was washed!

We, too, must be washed before we serve. Of course, I am not just talking about taking a bath or smelling good. We need to have stain of sin washed from us. Paul makes a long list of sins and says, {1 Corinthians 6:10-11} “that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Those who want to serve acceptably need to allow the Lord Jesus Christ to take away the guilt of their sin, to wash them of the guilty stains. And, He will, if we only humbly confess and ask Him for His cleansing!

∙          Aaron was appropriately clothed!

Everything that the Aaron wore as he went into the holy place before the Lord on behalf of the people had significance. It wasn’t just decorative! His clothing represented his special status as the one who stood in God’s Presence for Israel. He was dressed to serve.

Believer, when we serve God and the world in a priestly way, we too need to be clothed. Don’t be overly literal in your understanding. This isn’t about whether you’re wearing a T-shirt or a tuxedo! This is about the way that your spirit is clothed. Are you wearing the rags of self-righteousness, desperately trying to hide your spiritual inadequacies with fig leaves, like Adam and Eve attempted to cover their shame in Garden?

The Bible says that we don’t have to stitch together some kind of suit of our own invention. God, Himself, opens the wardrobe of Heaven and gives us a robe of righteousness. Listen to what Isaiah says. Isaiah 61:10 “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.”

∙          Aaron was anointed!

Moses took oil that represented the Spirit of God and poured it on Aaron’s head! Unlike the anointing we do, the process was messy! The precious oil, which was also a sweet fragrance, ran down Aaron’s hear, into his beard, and to the fringes of his robe. The symbolism was and is powerful. God, the Spirit, was to saturate the man.

So, too, Believer, we need to invite the Spirit of God to pour over us, to flow in us and through us. It is not our strength, our charisma, our education, our skills that are the primary means of doing God’s holy work in the world. We are empowered by the Spirit. So, we need to pray and wait for His Presence to come on us. Those first Believers were told by Jesus to wait in Jerusalem. Why? Here’s what He said. {Acts 1:4-5, 8}

“Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. .... you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”

Never attempt priestly ministry solely with your own skill or in your own strength! We cannot do spiritual work with mere earthly abilities. Anointing flows from intimacy. Intimacy is built on worshipful waiting on God, humbly allowing Him to enter us and change us from the inside out!

∙          Aaron was purified.

Moses offered sacrifices asking God to give Aaron a quality of life that was remarkably and noticeably different from the people he would serve as a priest. In Israel’s history, we find that many priests who followed Aaron in the ministry, became corrupt. They served but not for godly motives. They enriched themselves at the expense of the people by misusing authority. They mixed idol worship in with the worship of the Living God. They lived openly in immorality. And they destroyed their priestly ministry and brought terrible judgment on themselves and the people they were to lift up!

Ezekiel lamented the corrupt priesthood. He said, {Ezekiel 22:25-27}

“Your priests violated my law and desecrated my holy things. They can’t tell the difference between sacred and secular. They tell people there’s no difference between right and wrong. They’re contemptuous of my holy Sabbaths, profaning me by trying to pull me down to their level.”

Believer, when we accept the calling of God into His priesthood, we must understand the need to let Him purify our lives. Does that mean that we cannot minister unless we are perfect? Of course not. If that were true, then no one could ever serve. But, we do need to remain sensitive to the Spirit. We must not tolerate habitual sin, for if we do we will bring God’s judgment down on ourselves and those we are to bring to God!

∙          Aaron was consecrated.

What does this mean? He was marked as belonging to God, separated from the common and ordinary, to be God’s own man!

Are you consecrated, Believer?

Do you realize that when you received Christ, He called you to become a marked person, separated to a holy life of priestly service?

What does that mean for the way you live? I cannot tell you that, except to say that it requires complete surrender, giving up your rights, and letting Him lead! Life, for those who have been called to priesthood, is about pleasing the Lord, about knowing and doing His will, about living in a place that brings Heaven to Earth!

___________________

Here’s the question: Are you exercising the privilege of priesthood?

There is no higher calling, no more worthy work.

Please do not think, even for a moment, that is about quitting your job, going to seminary, joining a holy order in a monastery, moving to some developing nation as a missionary, or becoming an employee of a church. God might ask you to do that, but more likely, He needs and wants you to be His priest in your current place.

As we close this worship service, invite Him to make your calling new, to prepare you for ministry this week as He washes you, clothes you, anoints you, purifies you, and consecrates you for His purposes.

Amen.

Jerry D. Scott, copyright 2008

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