Wirksworth | 17/05/26 | The Priesthood Of All Believers | Neal Garratt

Yeah, Lord, we just thank you for Neil.

We thank you for this word that you have put on his heart this morning.

Lord, would you open our hearts, our eyes, our ears to the power of your written word, Lord Jesus?

Amen.

It'd be really good to show that video because it just opens our eyes once again to what God is doing throughout the world.

And you know, we are part of that.

We've supported Yellow Say probably 15 or 20 years, and we know Michael.

And uh what they've done out there is absolutely astounding, it really is.

Uh he just felt God tell him to go to Turkey, and so it's now not just Turkey, it's as he said, Syria, Iran, and they've seen some amazing things happen.

Uh, I'm sure that he'll share with us uh when we see him a catalyst about what God's doing, but it's just so good.

And um great for us to know that God is working in the midst of all the other stuff that's going on in the Middle East, the wars and you know, everything looking terrible.

God is doing something amazing, and uh so many uh Muslims coming to know Christ, fasting speaking people.

So great to just to see that and just expand our vision a little bit, which is always good for us, isn't it?

Okay, we when we started at Workswith, we felt we wanted to look at the basics, uh the basic doctrines of what we actually believe as a church, and that's what we're doing at the moment.

We're going through those, and week by week we're gonna look at one uh per week.

And this week we're looking at priesthood of all believers, a bit of a mouthful.

So, what I want to do is kind of just drill down into that uh priesthood of all believers, what does it actually mean, and what does it mean for us?

Um, because it a doctrine is fine, it sounds very high polluting, doesn't it?

But actually, what does it mean for me in my daily life, in my church life?

What does the fact that I am a priest in in God's eyes mean for me, for us?

So it's an amazing privilege to be called a priest of God, it's it's a huge privilege, and I want to have a look at that as well.

And what we need to do is we need to go back into the Old Testament and look at how the system was in the Old Testament, and then we can look forward to the New Testament.

So some people will say old covenant and new covenant, and that's what we're gonna look at this morning.

Uh, and Jesus right in the middle, of course.

So, God calls Israel to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Exodus 19, verse 6 is that's the first verse that we're gonna look at: kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Exodus 19:6

So priests came from the tribe of Levi, and they served as mediators between God and the people.

They offered sacrifices for the people's sins, they led worship, they taught God's law, they interceded for people, and they cared and looked after the temple.

That was their job.

We often just think of the priests uh sacrificing for people's sins, but it was much more than that.

And the ordinary Israelite could not enter the temple of God's presence.

Free access was limited and protected.

The holy place was restricted to priests, and the most holy place could only be entered by the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement.

So God's presence was protected, and the reason for that is because it this showed to the people how holy God was.

God was holy, and sin came and broke man's relationship with God.

And so God was with withdrawn from people, and as we said only that the high priest could go into God's presence once a year.

They were separated from God because of sin.

In fact, in Leviticus, and I'm so sad that uh Iris is not here because she would love it if we quote Leviticus.

Leviticus 16, verse 2, I put this in just for her.

Leviticus 16:2

Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time to the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the Ark of the Covenant, so that he may not die.

Okay, this is Aaron.

So that is God's word to Aaron.

Don't to Moses, don't tell Aaron to come because he can't come.

Okay, this was the separation.

And if you go into Leviticus 16, the next 32 verses describe what Aaron had to do to approach God.

You can read that at home later, it's riveting.

Needless to say, it's very complicated anymore.

And this system was a forerunner of the type of a coming ministry of Christ, our great high priest.

He fulfilled the law and the old covenant and brought in a new covenant for everyone.

When God tore the veil in two, he indicated that the Old Testament priesthood was no longer necessary.

Now access was granted for all into God's very presence because of Jesus' sacrifice.

Now you may say to me, Neil, that's fine, but Jesus was not from the tribe of Levi.

And only the Levites were priests.

And you're absolutely right.

Jesus came from the tribe of Judah.

Judah and David.

And if you look in Matthew chapter 1, down the uh list of all the people, there's David, and it goes right through to Jesus.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

So the Bible tells us that Jesus did not come from the tribe of Levi, he became a priest through the order of Melchizedek.

Who is Melchizedek?

Well, Melchizedek was a high priest in the Old Testament before all this started.

He was a high priest ordained by God.

And Melchizedek was a king as well.

And he went to Abraham and he prophesied and prayed over Abraham.

That's how far back this story was.

And so Jesus didn't come from the tribe of Levi, he came from the order of Melchizedek.

Now, that is a separate preach, okay?

And I'm going to do it as a separate preach because this is the priesthood of all believers, which affects us.

Jesus, as our great high priest, is the preach we're going to do about Melchizedek and how that all works.

So that's, don't think I'm stepping aside and missing a bit.

I'm not.

We're going to do it as a totally separate preach and we'll give it all we've got.

So that's why I just want to put that in there and answer that quick question for you.

Now the key moment in all of this for us is when in the temple the curtain is ripped in two.

Because the curtain signifies God's presence.

And we are outside the curtain.

In fact, as Gentiles, we're a long way outside.

We're not even in the holy place, we're not in the temple, we're not in the temple courts, we are outside the walls of the temple of the Gentiles, okay?

Jews can go in, Gentiles are outside.

That's us.

We are miles away from God's presence.

And that's a different preach, okay?

But that's the point.

We are miles away.

Now I want to read you something.

I think Andy mentioned this last week, but this is a fantastic book.

It's one of my favourite books.

It's called The Book of Mysteries, and people will know this from Matlock because I often read from it.

Jonathan Kahn is a Jew, but he's also a Christian, so he's a Messianic Jew, and uh he just knows so much about Jewish culture and the Jewish way of life.

And I want to read you a little story.

And basically it's a daily reading.

So you read one page a day, and in it there are just real nuggets of truth, which is wonderful.

And uh I just suddenly remembered last night that he'd done a uh done a page on the curtain, and I thought I'm never going to find it.

And I opened this last night, it was on the exact page, so God knows what he's doing.

And the way this is written, it's a teacher teaching a student.

Okay, that's how you kind of understand it.

This is called The Secret of Yeoma.

He took me into what was known as the chamber of books, a massive room of towering bookcases filled with volumes of mostly old or ancient looking books.

Retrieving one of those from the shelves, a large red volume, he laid it on a wooden table, opened it, and began to share.

There were in the Temple of Jerusalem two major barriers separating God from man, the holy from the unholy.

One was formed by two massive doors of gold, the doors of Hekal, the holy place.

These separated the holy place from the temple calls.

The other, deeper inside, was called the parakeet, the colossal veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies, and through which only the high priest could enter on the Day of Atonement once a year.

They were the representatives of the barrier separating each of us from God, the chasm between the sinful and the most holy.

But it's recorded in the New Testament that at the time of the Messiah's death, the parakeet, the veil of the Holy of Holies was torn in two.

What would that have signified?

Well, that the barrier between man and God was removed.

Yes, exactly.

But there was still a second barrier, the golden doors of the Hekka.

Could not that barrier have been opened as well?

Could there have been a second sign, a second witness?

Well, there was.

And one of the most powerful kind, an opposing witness.

This is the Trachate Yoma 39, he said, pointing to the open book from the writings of the rabbis, the Talmud.

It contains the most amazing thing.

The rabbis record that before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, a strange thing began to take place in the temple.

The second barrier, the golden doors of the Hekal began to open by themselves.

When I asked, when did they start doing that?

The rabbis record that it began to happen about 40 years before AD 70.

That it comes to about the year AD 30.

Yes, that's right.

Which just happens to be the same time that something else took place in Jerusalem when the rabbi Yeshua, Jesus, died as the final atonement to remove the barrier from man to God.

Has there ever happened in the history of faith where a hostile witness so powerfully testifies to such a fact?

Never.

And the fact remains that rabbis themselves bear witness concerning the removal of the second barrier, and thus that at the time of Messiah's death, that which was separating God from man, God from us was removed.

And that the way to his presence has been opened.

Just brilliant, isn't it?

Such a good illustration.

I didn't even know there was a barrier, but there was.

But they were open the same time Jesus died, which is just awesome.

And Matthew 27 says to us, Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

In that moment, Jesus becomes the perfect high priest, the perfect sacrifice, and the perfect mediator between us and God.

So the perfect high priest, Hebrews 4, chapter 4, says, Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.

The perfect mediator.

1 Timothy 2, verse 5.

1 Timothy 2:5

For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.

The perfect sacrifice.

Hebrews 10, verses 11 to 18.

Hebrews 10:11–18

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemy should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

That's us.

Okay?

For by a single offering he is perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, saying, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord.

I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.

And he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Wonderful truth.

Why did Paul write that?

Well, Paul wrote that because the Jews were uncertain about the old covenant being finished by Jesus' coming.

So what they were doing was they were still sacrificing animals to God in the belief that they were kind of double covering themselves.

So Jesus has come and he has his blood was shed, he has forgiven us, but just in case we're still going to carry on sacrifice.

And Paul's like, no, no, no, no, no.

The old order has gone, the new order has come.

No longer do you need to sacrifice anything because Jesus is the great sacrifice, his blood is what makes you clean.

And he needs the people, the Jewish people, to understand that no matter how many uh doves or goats or whatever it is they sacrifice, those actually never forgive sins.

It's only Jesus that cleanses your heart and forgives your sin.

The blood of animals atoned for people's sin.

It was an offering to God to say sorry.

Jesus comes and he changes our heart.

External, internal.

Old covenant is all external.

It's all animals being sacrificed for my sin.

Jesus now comes and he says, I'm putting my spirit inside you, just like we've read there.

This is the covenant, I will put my laws on your heart and write them on your mind.

So when we sin now, we know we've sinned.

And we need to put that right with God, and we come to God and we say, I'm so sorry, Lord.

I let you down in that circumstance.

And he comes and says, Don't worry, the blood of God avails for you.

But he's written it in our hearts and our minds, which is different from being external.

Now it's internal.

He says, I'm coming and I'm washing you by the blood of Jesus.

You know when you've sinned.

Because the Holy Spirit lives in you.

You see, that the tabernacle was in the Holy of Holies, that's where God's presence was in the tabernacle.

And the word tabernacle, he says in the New Testament, I'm coming to tabernacle in your heart.

It's exactly the same word in Hebrew.

The old tabernacle signifies God's presence.

Now I'm coming and I'm living in your heart, just as he came to Jesus, I'm tabernacling inside you.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Hallelujah.

Christ in you.

That's the difference.

Jesus lives in my heart.

He affects what I do.

And he came to Julia all those years ago and met with her, and she didn't tell me about it for ages.

But it was an amazing thing that God just came and met with her.

And so, you know, all our testimonies are important.

Somebody said the other day, oh, my testimony is really boring.

This and no testimony is boring because Jesus has come and changed everything in that moment.

And maybe you got saved over a period of years and you can't put an exact date, but it doesn't matter.

Jesus has come, and he has changed you forever because he comes and he lives inside you.

Hallelujah.

So, where does this leave us?

What does this mean?

That we're priests?

What does that mean in our daily lives?

That's what I want to look at next.

1 Peter chapter 2, verse 5 to 10 says this you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:5–10

For it stands in Scripture, behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

So the honour is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

The stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellency of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

And Paul puts Peter puts it in such a beautiful way, very similar to what Paul writes in Ephesians and Colossians, about how much God has done for us.

And that's what we want to honor God with, isn't it?

It's such an honor to be chosen by God, to serve God, his own possession.

And our response to this should be what?

Well, we've just read it.

To proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

You give your testimony, we worship.

What are we doing?

We're proclaiming his excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into light.

That's our testimony, all of us.

Once I was in darkness, once I was lost, once I was far away from God, and then God came and shone the light of his truth into my heart, and now I'm saved enough with Jesus.

Out of darkness into his marvellous light.

To proclaim that once you were not a people, but now you're God's people.

Hallelujah.

We're God's people.

Each one of us.

Not saved as a lot, not saved as I'm going to save that lot in Worksworth.

As a big lump, or I'm going to save that lot in Buxton, or I'm going to save that lot wherever.

No, no, no.

It says I come to you individually.

I'm going to save you, Neil.

I'm going to save you, Ray.

I'm going to save you, Jude.

I'm going to save you Helen.

I'm going to save you Daw.

I'm going to save you Tom.

Individually, Jesus comes and saves you.

How good is that.

I love it.

To proclaim that once you'd not receive mercy, but now you have received mercy.

And it's all because of Jesus.

You see, you cannot earn your salvation.

You cannot earn it.

It's too big.

It's too huge.

The bill that we owe to God is just so massive, it's beyond anything we can ever do for him.

And he says that is why you need to receive mercy.

In that Moment when we accept Jesus into our heart, we are receiving his grace and his mercy.

And that's what we need to do throughout our lives, isn't it?

We proclaim his goodness to us.

As we come together and we worship, no matter what week you've had, no matter what's gone on, the Holy Spirit rises within us to worship Jesus.

The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus.

Always.

And that's why we can have a really rough week and we come.

And we just sang that little beautiful little song in the prayer meeting this call.

Fix your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

And that's what we do.

We come to worship, the Holy Spirit rises within us, we fix our eyes on Jesus, and he comes and he blesses us.

He shows his mercy towards us.

John Piper says this not only are we living stones being built into a spiritual home for God's habitation, we are also a holy priesthood.

In other words, we're not merely the passive building where God dwells, we are also active participants in worship.

And not just participants, but a special kind of participants.

Priests.

All of you, priests, this is the great teaching about the priesthood of all believers.

Such a blessing.

Priest, each one of us.

The priests we draw near to God with spiritual sacrifices.

The priests brought their sacrifices into a temple in the Old Testament, but now the tabernacle is inside us.

We've already spoken about that.

We bring our worship and ourselves to God.

Living stones being built together into the church.

The altar is replaced by Jesus and his shed blood once and for all time.

And the priests of the new covenant are you and I.

All those who believe in Jesus Christ, we're encouraged to approach God confidently through Jesus' sacrifice, hearts clean because of Jesus.

Hebrews 10 says this.

And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

For he who promised is faithful.

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as it is the habit of some but encouraging one another, and all the more to see the day drawing near.

Now the thing is this one of the major things about the priesthood of all believers is access.

It gives us access into God's presence.

The Jews of the day in the Old Testament didn't have access into God's presence.

We've already seen that.

The high priest was only allowed in once a year into the Holy of Holies.

Listen, you can go into the Holy of Holies every single day of your life.

It doesn't matter where you are.

I used to tell the people in Matluck that this is true.

When I was at work and I knew I had a really difficult meeting, I used to go in the toilet downstairs and I used to sit on the toilet and I just used to pray about the meeting that was coming up.

What am I doing in that moment?

I'm accessing God the Father, I'm accessing the Holy Spirit, I'm in the Holy of Holies.

Not in a physical way, because I'm in the loop, but in a spiritual way, I'm accessing God's presence, and we can access God's presence at any moment because all those walls have come down.

And Jesus says, You have free access.

Come confidently, it says in Hebrews.

Confidently.

When my son comes home from being away, he comes in the house and he goes straight in the kitchen and he goes into the kitchen and he puts four pieces of toast into the toaster and he puts the kettle on and he makes himself tea and toast straight away.

Why?

It's his right.

He can come in, he has access.

Comes straight in to the toaster.

Always.

Listen, you have access into God's presence.

It's your right.

You can come into his presence and put four pieces of toast and make yourself a cup of tea and sit down with Jesus every single day of your life.

That's the access you have.

And it's your right.

And we don't always take it, do we?

We don't approach God confidently.

We approach him a lot of the time in fear and troubling.

And we've got no need.

God's wrath has been satisfied by Jesus' sacrifice.

It's really important that we know that.

God's wrath was satisfied by Jesus' sacrifice.

If it wasn't, we wouldn't have any access.

Because God is holy and man is sinful.

And just like Julia struggled with, I'm not a sinner.

So many people struggle with that.

But that is the fact of the matter.

We are born as sinners.

We are born with sin in our DNA, if you like.

And God has to come and change it.

This is our position in Christ.

Turning wrath into love through sacrifice.

That's what Jesus does.

Takes God's wrath and turns it into love through his sacrifice on the cross.

Hallelujah.

We are so privileged to be able to come into God's presence wherever we are, whatever time of day, whatever time of night.

I love that song.

Night and day, day and night.

You know, I worship you Jesus.

So, so good.

We have that access.

Okay.

Could preach on that for ages.

We have to slow it down.

One question that this throws up is that if we're all priests, how does that affect church leadership?

And where does that sit within church leadership?

So, the answer is yes, we still need church leadership.

The fact we're all priests is our position in Christ, not our position in church.

The two things are very different.

You are a priest before God, that is your position in Christ.

The position in church is different.

And we have leaders.

Each has their own ministry area, and together we build the church, don't we?

Ephesians 4 says he gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

To mature man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

We have leaders, we have elders in this church, leaders of Worksworth, we have leaders of Matlock, we have leaders of Buxton, we have worship leaders, we have group leaders, we have lots of different leaders.

But we're all priests in Christ's eyes.

So we totally believe in Ephesians 4 ministries, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers.

Absolutely, that's absolutely right.

But this should cause us to rejoice in our position in Christ.

What a privilege we have to come to Jesus whenever we want.

Jesus is the only way to God.

He's the only way for us to be truly alive.

He's the only way we are acceptable to God.

Our own righteousness is as filthy rags, the Bible tells us.

We are only acceptable because of Jesus' sacrifice and his righteousness.

Paul understood this and says in Romans 15, 18, I will not venture to speak of anything except what Jesus Christ has accomplished through me.

And that should be our position.

I can do nothing because Jesus did everything on the cross.

Hallelujah.

It's all because of Jesus, our great high priest, and through him we are all priests before God, our Father.

Amen.

All right.