Sermon for CATM – September 30, 2007 – “Priesthood of Believers?!?” Hebrews 2:14-3:1, 4:14-15, 7:24-28; 1 Peter 2:1-10
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? I don’t mean when you’re rushing to get somewhere and you quickly glance at the mirror to make sure your face isn’t upside down. What I mean is: When you stop to look in the mirror what do you see?
If you’re like me you sometimes look for flaws. I see an endlessly receding hairline. I figure it’s got to stop somewhere, right? You might look for blemishes. You might check that you’re hair’s where it should be.
Or do you sometimes pause and look deeper into the mirror? Beyond the surface. Do you struggle to like what you see? Do you look sometimes at a person who has not done what they’d like to have done in life?
Do you see someone who has never been able to drown out the voices from the past that told you that you were inadequate. You’ll never be anything. You’re not beautiful. You’re not lovely. You’re not smart. Or you’re not normal. Or you don’t try hard enough.
Do you ever ask yourself: “Why don’t I like what I see?” or “Why is it that I don’t like what I see?”
I think we see a lot of things when we look into the mirror, a lot of things that we really believe are true, but they are not very good things. They are dark things. Discouraging things. Things that can take the wind out of us. Things from our past that somehow impact us today and impact us tomorrow. They are beliefs….about ourselves. About us.
When we look in the mirror we get a glimpse of how we see ourselves, the identity we feel is ours. What we think about our identity will always impact the way we feel about life, the courage we will find to live.
The hope we will live with. Our capacity to take risks. To embrace life in all its intended fullness.
Our passage today speaks of identity. The identity of someone who for many of us is very, very close to us. Someone we’re discovering we can never be close enough to.
Our passage today looks at Jesus. And what today’s passage reflects about Jesus is something we may not spend a whole lot of time thinking about: His priesthood.
We’re continuing our journey into the book of Hebrews, and we’ve already today got a sense of what Hebrews says about Jesus Christ, our High Priest.
Now, one of the weirder notions in the Bible is the idea of priests. I say “Weird” because for most of us, especially for those of us who don’t come from an Anglican or Catholic tradition, we don’t necessarily get the idea of priests.
The need for priests. At least that’s how it seems to me. We get the idea of “pastor” as the man or woman who preaches and serves the church. That’s closer to the idea of a modern-day priest. But what is a priest in the biblical sense? And, more importantly, why does the Bible refer to Jesus as a priest? Our high priest.
And weirder yet…the Bible says something very important in this regard about YOU, as a follower of Jesus Christ and us as a church. When somebody says I’m a “So and so”, the very least I want to do is to know what it is the person meant. So let’s spend some time today probing this, unwrapping this whole idea of a royal priesthood that we’ve heard read today.
One of the things we’re learning together as a church is that God relates to us as individuals and as a group. We hear the Word of God individually and as the Word spoken to the church, the body of believers known as the church.
For most of us there’s likely a learning curve with this, because we live in an individualistic society that has left most people isolated and lonely, having replaced real friendship and relationships for the most part with technology.
Our DVD players and our computers and the internet have become our sad substitute for knowing and being known within a community.
If we let it, the Word of God draws us deep into each other’s lives. It calls us into sacred relationships, it summons us to be social. Not for any random reason, but because the Word of God draws us in to the life of God, which is not singular but plural. God is one and triune. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This, what we know as the Godhead, exists in perfect relationship, perfect community. And it is into that divine community that we are called to actively participate as members together of His body.
So…priesthood. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is our great high priest. And then it says talks about a royal priesthood. Let’s look at each of these statements.
Jesus, Our Great High Priest
Here’s what our first passage today says about Jesus our High Priest
Heb 2: 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he (Jesus) too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
First off, there’s a reason given here why Jesus became a human being. Have you ever wondered that? Why did God choose to become a human being?
Why did He not chose to fix things and repair our damaged relationship from afar, or as a friend of mine suggested recently, could not God just snap his fingers and make everything right?
The answer has less to do with what God could do than with what He did.
Our passage today says that Jesus shared in our humanity BECAUSE WE have flesh and blood. We see here a deliberate choice to draw near to us, to manifest the life of God in a human being, the man Christ Jesus, BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT WE ARE – human beings.
He was made like us in every way - this is what we mean by the statement that Jesus was fully human - “in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people”.
Again, why did Jesus enter our world? The Message paraphrase is helpful here: “It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life.
Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed”.
Hebrews 4:15 reinforces this idea: 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.
Jesus was fully human, and yet was without sin. This suggests very strongly that although we may blame the fact that we sin on our humanness, that may, surprisingly, be a bit of a cop out. We’ll see in a few minutes how Peter begins his exhortation to us as the “Priesthood of Believers” with a distinct call to holiness. To living as fully human yet making the choice to not live in sin. Obviously we will sin. That’s our broken humanity.
But the suggestion here is that as our humanity is restored, as it is redeemed, we no longer NEED to choose to sin as a matter of habit. We will not dwell in sin.
There’s a big old difference between living on the Bridle Path, one of the ritziest neighbourhoods in Toronto and driving through it, as I did the other day on the way to somewhere else. Likewise of course there’s a big old difference between living a sinful lifestyle or practicing sin as a matter of routine, compared to tripping up on occasion.
Between dipping our hands in the fire for a second verses jumping in ‘whole hog’. Big difference there.
We’ll come back to that it a few minutes. What else does the Book of Hebrews tell us about Jesus’ priesthood?
Hebrews 7: 24 “…Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. 26 Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Jesus is our High Priest forever. There is no end of His priesthood. For two thousand years the church’s detractors have been trying to ‘end’ Jesus’ priesthood, in a sense, by attacking the church’s core beliefs.
We talked about that last week so I won’t go more into that, except to say that the Bible guarantees the permanence of Jesus’ priesthood, so, for goodness sake, the enemies of the gospel need to quit wasting their time trying to do the impossible and just get on with the business of living.
Jesus’ priesthood is unending. Because of that fact, the saving work He does in you and in me is complete…we hear in God’s Word that Jesus always lives to intercede for us.
That means that our sins up until now are dealt with through the cross. Our sins of the future are also dealt with because Jesus never stops cleansing us. He never stops pleading our case, as it were, before the Father.
Hebrews 7:26 “Such a high priest meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens”.
Jesus is the perfect priest. The ultimate High Priest who will never be replaced. Whose authority will never be usurped.
Now here’s where you come in. Normally, every high priest in Israel was elected to the post. Hebrews 5:1 says: “Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins”.
But Jesus wasn’t elected or chosen by people. He also didn’t chose Himself, exactly:
Hebrews 5:5 So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father."
6 And he says in another place, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
Jesus was appointed by the Father to serve as High Priest. That’s another good reason Jesus’ high priesthood is permanent.
But…And here’s where things get flipped over…He does actually elect His priests so serve under Him. He chooses them. But…where are they? Look around this room. Do you see any priests?
I see a room full of priests!
Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
Now what is “the heavenly calling” to the writer of Hebrews? The apostle Peter is very helpful here. Let’s go to Peter now as he explains what in the world Hebrews is talking about here.
1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," 8 and,
"A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for. 9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 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”.
People. Did you hear that?
You [hands held wide]. You and you and you and you and you and you and you. You ARE being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. You are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God”. YOU!
Pause
Now, I’ve gotta tell you. That does not compute easily. When I look in the mirror and I see a balding middle aged man with growing crows feet around my eyes. When I look in the mirror and think about the way I’ve learned to see myself. When I think about the negative messages that burned their way into my consciousness and subconsciousness when I was a kid.
When I think about my limitations and the stupid, sinful things I do sometimes…this idea about being a part of a chosen people, of being selected and grafted into God’s holy community, of belonging to a holy priesthood under the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ…that almost does violence to the other beliefs I have about myself.
To believe that means it’s pretty much impossible to give the nod to the former way I’ve thought about myself. The former way I’ve lived. I think that’s part of why Paul says in Galatians 5:24 that “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires”.
Belonging to Jesus…embracing that deep and rich and life-giving belonging to the Saviour of the world and the Lover of my soul…means that I have to deal aggressively, fatally even, with those things that characterized my other life, the one I had before Jesus Christ revealed Himself to me.
That garbage needs to die. I need to live to it no longer. Instead I need to live to Christ. Again, Peter is helpful here as he says: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed”. 1 Peter 2:24
What we believe about ourselves directly impacts how we live. If we believe we are no good, we will sink to those expectations in practice. If we believe we have nothing to offer another, we will struggle to find courage to put ourselves out there and risk for the sake of another.
If we think we’re stupid, we’ll give up trying to learn and understand more about the things that matter. We will stop trying. We will cease aspiring.
But what if…what if you and I and all of us together were to embrace what the Bible says about us…that we…as great and wonderful, or as rag tag a band of misfits as we might be…what if we embrace that we are nevertheless a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.
If we aligned ourselves, and what we believe to be true about ourselves, with what the Word of God says about us, how might that impact us?
Peter is helpful here again. To start with we would be very strongly motivated to, as Peter says: “Rid (ourselves) of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good”.
If we embrace that we are priests of God and just as importantly, that that believer sitting next to you is a priest of God, we would surely treat that person with the utmost dignity and honour. We would deal deeply with any issues between us that may cause bitterness.
We would not tolerate malice or ill will toward another in ourselves. We would never lie to avoid a problem. We would not envy another’s gifts. Instead of all that nonsense we would CRAVE the Word of God and we would CRAVE nearness to the living Christ.
We would drink in his Living Water and we would grow up. Mature. Why? Because we would know that we know that we know that the Lord is good. Christ Jesus who has won forgiveness for our sins and welcomed us as His followers and has promoted us as it were to the priesthood of believers…Christ Jesus, the Lord IS GOOD.
There is more of course, and we will look into this more deeply in the weeks to come. But for now let me suggest that the maturity that God calls us to is one where we determine in our hearts that the overwhelming truth about who we are, about our identity, is that we belong to Jesus Christ.
I challenge you to, next time you’re standing in front of the mirror and you have a moment to pause, look at yourself eye to eye and proclaim this truth: I belong to Jesus Christ. I am a part of a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God”.
That’s what matters the most about you. And as we grow in that biblical understanding of who we are in Christ, we will gather courage, we will find the fortitude, we will become the community of grace that God is calling us to be.
And we will go out into our neighbourhoods with the courage of our convictions to bring blessing and healing and to be the fragrance of the risen Christ to lost and hurting people.
I need to confess something. I’m really not trying to boost anyone’s self-esteem. I’m not sure anyone can really do that for another person, really. That’s all about choosing to receive or not receive affirmation from the body of Christ.
That’s all about attempting enough challenging things that we eventually succeed at something and then start to feel good about ourselves, gaining courage to put ourselves out there even more. Our personal self-esteem may just be out of anyone else’s control.
It is possible that what I’m saying, what the Scripture is saying to us might be looked at as primarily an ego boost. That is not what this passage is here for, and that’s not why I’m highlighting these things.
My interest, if you know me at all, is for myself and our congregation, to be aligned with reality. To grow to affirm every reality that our Saviour affirms. To say “Yes” to God far more often than we say “No” to God. To say “No” to the world and the lies we’ve believed more often than we say “Yes”.
As you and I move forward with God and embrace tighter and tighter the very Word of the living God, we will discover all kinds of shockingly positive things about the Christian life and the Christian experience that we’ll need time to wrap our brains around…to wrap our hearts around.
We will explore the deep challenges of the teachings of our Saviour. We will serve one another and we will, as our bulletin says each week, “…Seek to know and love Christ, to know and love the stranger, and to know and love each other”.
So…when you look in the mirror, what will you see? The person you used to believe you were, or will you see who Jesus Christ says you are. Jesus Christ calls you something. He calls you a name. He calls you priest. He calls us, together as a local body of believers and as a part of the church universal…He calls us His royal priesthood.
Can I ask you to please stand? Now, look around the room…at the rest of the chosen people, the royal priesthood. I hope that perhaps today for some here, the Word of God might penetrate our hearts and make us see each other and to see ourselves in a new way.
Hear the Word of the Lord as we speak this truth to one another:
1 Peter 2:9-10 “…You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 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.
Let’s pray.
God. Could this be true? That you call us chosen, royal, holy, a people who are the very possession of the Almighty and ever-living King of Glory? You call my brothers and sisters here a royal priesthood who get to serve under the mighty High Priesthood of Jesus Christ? Is what it means to be a Christian? God…we need Your help to dispose of the hopeless things we sometimes see when we look in the mirror. We need your strength and Your precious Holy Spirit to embrace vision for our lives. Would you grant us, Holy God, strength of faith and of mind and heart to say “Yes” to what YOU would have us see when we pause to look in the mirror? Together, in faith, may we come to You, kneel before the throne of the one High Priest who lives forever, and offer ourselves in holy reverence to Your grace, to Your service and to Your Kingdom that has no end. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
