WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 All right, hey, we are working our way through the book of Leviticus together. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.000 And so we'll take about a half hour to do that. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.000 We'll have some question time and then we'll pray, as always. 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:16.000 So I have a few things to say tonight for prayer, especially to, so we'll get into that. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.000 There's handouts going around. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.000 So grab a handout, Flynn and Malachi with Havan. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:24.000 Should be enough for everybody tonight, I think. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.000 While these guys are walking around passing this out, I'm going to pray. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:30.000 So that's no problem at all. Let's pray. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.000 Lord, we thank You for this time and we ask now that You would give us the Holy Spirit 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:38.000 to help us understand the beauty, the greatness of Your Word. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.000 And we pray for that in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:43.000 All right. 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.000 So you'll have a handout in front of you in just a minute, if you don't yet. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.000 And try to move through this quickly. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.000 We're talking about Leviticus 8, 9, and 10 tonight. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:03.000 And if there's just a quick catch up from the last couple sessions, 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:09.000 we've basically just said that Leviticus is the heart of the Torah, right in the middle, 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.000 the third book of five, which is the middle, 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:18.000 and that in it, the day of Atonement Leviticus 16 is the heart of the heart of the Torah. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:25.000 And we'll see that tonight, actually, in advance of actually getting to Leviticus 16. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.000 And what Leviticus says is that we were all made for God's presence. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:32.000 And so Leviticus is asking the question, 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:35.000 how can the dust of the earth, human beings, 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:38.000 and people who are made of the dust and also sinners, 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.000 enter into God's presence the very thing we were made for? 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.000 So that's what Leviticus is all about. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:50.000 The temporary answer is sacrifice and the mediatorial role of the priest. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.000 So we're adding that tonight. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.000 Last time we talked about sacrifices, tonight we say the answer is not only sacrifices, 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:59.000 but also the mediatorial role of a priest. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.000 And so three things let's look at. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.000 First is what is a priest? 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:05.000 What does it mean, two-priest? 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.000 Priesting, as I've put it, on the handout. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:10.000 And then we'll ask about ordination. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:12.000 What is ordination? 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.000 And then finally, about the strange fire that shows up in chapter 10. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.000 So we'll look at each of those briefly. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:21.000 But as you can see on the handout, overwhelmingly, the first one is the main thing to look at tonight. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.000 So what's a priest? 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:25.000 Big question. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:27.000 You can have a tabernacle. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:29.000 You can have a template. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.000 You can have a Levitical system. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:34.000 You can have all the five sacrifices we talked about last time. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.000 But if you don't have a priest, none of it works. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:42.000 So right after Leviticus 1-7, which is all about the sacrifices we talked about, 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:47.000 Leviticus 8 then transfers to, now we need priests. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:51.000 So you need a priest and a sacrifice in order to enter into God's presence. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:55.000 And so in some sense, Leviticus so far is that simple. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:58.000 That you've got to have a sacrifice, you've got to have a priest. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:00.000 And so we've come to the priest section. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:03.000 Priests are mediators. They are go-betweens. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.000 Between God and people. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:07.000 That's one of the most basic ways to say it. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:11.000 And they are the ones that have to actually do the work of the sacrificial system 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:14.000 for you to enter into God's presence. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.000 In fact, more specifically, you don't enter into God's presence 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:20.000 in the Levitical system. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.000 The priest does it for you. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:28.000 The priest represents you and carries you into the presence of God. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:30.000 And so we'll see that in just a minute. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.000 So let me read chapter 9, just the first seven verses. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.000 We'll just get a flavor of each chapter. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:41.000 On the eighth day, Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:46.000 And he said to Aaron, take for yourself a bull, calf, for a sin offering 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.000 and a ram for a burn offering, both without blemish, 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:51.000 and offer them before the Lord. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:54.000 And say to the people of Israel, take a male goat for a sin offering, 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:58.000 offering a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish, 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.000 for a burn offering, and an ox and a ram for a peace offering 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.000 to sacrifice before the Lord. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:06.000 And a grain offering mixed with oil. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:08.000 For today the Lord will appear to you. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:12.000 And they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:15.000 And all the congregations were near and stood before the Lord. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.000 And Moses said, this is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.000 that the glory of the Lord may appear to you. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.000 Then Moses said to Aaron, draw near to the altar, 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.000 offer your sin offering and your burn offering, 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.000 and make atonement for yourself and for the people. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:33.000 And bring the offering of the people and make atonement for them 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 as the Lord has commanded. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.000 All right, we'll stop there. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:41.000 We looked at the instructions for all these different offerings last time. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.000 And remember we talked about the different words that they actually mean. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:47.000 We can't go through that again tonight, 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.000 but that's on the podcast if you'd like to listen back to it. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Here we see the priest are actually doing it for the first time. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.000 So it's not until you get to Leviticus 9 that the priests are preasting, 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:02.000 they're doing this work of actually offering all five of these sacrifices. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:06.000 And the text says, do it for you priest, and do it for the people. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:10.000 So you're representing, the priest is representing the people as they do it. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.000 And the key word is in verse 7, and we've mentioned it already, 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.000 but it's the word that says, now priest, 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.000 what you are doing for the people is atonement. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:25.000 And it's a word, atonement, that in Hebrew is kafar, 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:30.000 and it's got this sense of covering, clothing. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:35.000 And so in the most basic sense what the priest does is he clothes, 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.000 he covers you. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:41.000 When he does this sacrifice, he is covering your guilt, 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:47.000 and representing you by throwing a sheet over what's impure. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.000 That's what the word atonement connotes in the language underneath it. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:53.000 And he does that all on your behalf. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:57.000 You're reclothed in the sacrifice is the idea, and therefore made acceptable. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:01.000 Now to really understand what a priest is and what a priest does though, 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:03.000 that's the most basic sense of it. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:07.000 But let's take a step back and really try to dig a little deeper 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:11.000 of what a priest is, and let me see if we can get some shouting, 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:16.000 not shouting, but some response, you know, maybe shouting. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:22.000 Who is the first priest? 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:28.000 Aaron is the first ordained priest in the Levitical system after the fall. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:32.000 Maybe Moses though, that's to be debated, but before them. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:36.000 Adam, Adam is the first priest. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:41.000 So the very first time we see a priest, we see the priest is in the Garden of Eden. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:48.000 And Adam is placed in the beginning in the Garden Sanctuary, 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:52.000 and this is following the handout here. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.000 He's sat on a mountain, and we've talked about this already, 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.000 where the waters flow down from Eden, down from the Garden of God. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.000 And so I've just listed the text there. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:09.000 The first temple, Isaiah 51 verse 3, Ezekiel 28, 13 in particular, 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:16.000 and 31 verse 9, refer to Eden as a holy sanctuary, a temple, a tabernacle. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:20.000 Particularly the Garden of Eden was the first holy temple in the Bible. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.000 And what do we learn? 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:26.000 What are some things, let's see if we can get conversation going again, 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.000 what are some things you could say about the first temple? 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:34.000 When you think about a temple, and I said the Garden of Eden is the first temple, 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:39.000 what does the Garden of Eden convey in terms of what a temple is? 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:46.000 Just what's some of the first things that strikes you about saying the Garden of Eden is the first temple? 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:52.000 It's a beautiful place, okay? It's a garden, right? It's gorgeous, full of plant life. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:54.000 What else? 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:58.000 It's a place of shalom and peace, yeah. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:05.000 The presence of God, right? So in some sense, all we're saying is, what is a temple? 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:11.000 A temple is not a structure, doesn't have to be a structure that's got columns and pillars and all this. 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:17.000 A temple in the Bible is just wherever God decides to be. That's a temple. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:20.000 And the Garden of Eden is the first temple in that way. It's the presence of God. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.000 It's called home throughout Scripture. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:27.000 And in Leviticus, the tabernacle is called the house of the Lord. 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:34.000 And we've already said that when you look at the tabernacle in detail, it's full of garden imagery, right? 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:37.000 And it's full of furniture that looks like a garden. 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:43.000 And we talked last time about how, in the way Ezekiel describes the mountain of God in the beginning, 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:46.000 where the Garden of Eden is located. It describes it in three parts, remember? 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:51.000 And those three parts are the Holy of Holies, the Holy Place in the outer court, tabernacle, 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:54.000 corresponding to the mountain of God. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:00.000 The Garden of Eden is the Holy of Holies. Eden, which is separate from the Garden, is the Holy Place. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:05.000 And the mountain outside Eden is the court. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:10.000 And so that means again that what is the tabernacle reading about here? 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:21.000 It is a microcosm, a recapitulated, to put it in the proper language, form of the original mountain of God. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:26.000 Right? So this is here to mimic Eden. That is the point of the tabernacle. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.000 It's to look like Eden. It's to be like Eden. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:37.000 And that means that the priests in some sense are second Adams, small S, right? Not capital S. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:41.000 But they are like second Adams. Adam was the original priest. 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:45.000 So the temple is a home. The temple is garden-like. The temple is a palace. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:52.000 The Holy of Holies is described as a throne room with the mercy seat of God is there on the ark, right? 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:58.000 All right. And so what did Adam do? The temple, the garden is a temple. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:00.000 What did Adam do in that temple as a priest? 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:09.000 And you can see, I think, in the handout that he is given in Genesis 2.15 two verbal commands. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:17.000 And those two verbal commands in Genesis 2.15 are God set Adam apart and said, I want you to work and keep the garden. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:27.000 And then you can see in the handout that in Numbers 3, 8, and 18, those two verbs in particular in Hebrew 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:35.000 are the exact two verbs given to the priests and their commission and commandment to do their work in the tabernacle. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:46.000 So in other words, Adam is given the first priestly instruction and the priestly instruction is mimicked in the tabernacle ceremony in Leviticus. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:50.000 It's the same verbs, to work and to keep. That's how the ESV translates them. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:59.000 But what do they mean? And it's pretty well established and taken by almost everybody that those two verbs mean to work, 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:08.000 means to curate, to organize, to make beautiful, and to keep is the word for guardianship. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:12.000 So it's the verb of a watchman on a watchtower. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:20.000 And so Adam is told the first priestly task in the first temple, guard this place and keep it clean. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.000 Make it nice. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:30.000 So that's the first task that he was given, and that is exactly what priests are told to do in the Levitical system. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:43.000 What can we say about Adam's guardianship? What was he supposed to guard the first temple from? 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:49.000 Just think about Genesis 3 for a moment. What was he meant to guard it from? 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:59.000 Evil intrusion, right? The serpent is exactly as soon as God says guard it, the very next story is that now evil is in the midst of it. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:04.000 He's completely failed. He was a priest meant to guard God's holy presence. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:09.000 So the priestly task first, you can see on your outline, is guardians, priests are guardians. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:17.000 They are meant to guard and protect the one place that has been purified for God's presence, the sacred space. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:24.000 Adam was originally given that task and he completely failed, and the priests are being given that task again in the Levitical system. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:32.000 The second thing in the verb to work is that he's being told he's the housekeeper of the Garden of God, of the temple. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:39.000 That means he was literally, very literally, to work it, to organize it, to keep it clean, to garden, to be a gardener. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:45.000 And when you see most of what priests do in the Levitical system, they are just keeping the furniture clean. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:50.000 They are carrying the furniture. They are putting it in the right place. They are organizing it. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:55.000 They are pouring blood on it and then cleaning it before the day is over. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.000 The same thing that you do in your home, well, some of the same things. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:05.000 That's exactly what the priests did. They are the housekeepers of the Garden of God. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.000 And this is the exact replica of the Garden of Eden. 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:15.000 And then the third thing that if you were to summarize it all, the priestly task is as a mediator. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.000 And this is my big thesis for you today, if you will. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:26.000 And that's simply this. That being a priest is just the task of being made in God's image. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:33.000 So humanity was made in the image of God and then said in your priests, 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:40.000 work, keep clean, treat well, beautify the holy presence of God in this world. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.000 All the places God wants to be, you are there to make beautiful. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:49.000 And protect it. Protect it. That's priesting. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:52.000 It's just what it means to be made in God's image. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.000 And so Adam was the high priest in the Garden of Eden. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:01.000 And just like we see all throughout the Bible, the priesthood of all believers, right? 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:04.000 The whole nation was called the priest in Exodus. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:07.000 So there were the priests, the Levites, Aaron and his sons. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:11.000 But then God said, but all of you Israel are priests. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:14.000 Because that's just what it means to be a Mago Dei, the image of God. 00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:18.000 And that means that Adam was the high priest like Aaron would be later. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:22.000 But Eve was his helper, meaning part of the priesthood of all believers. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.000 She was there to priest with him. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:30.000 Right? And that means to keep the place clean, multiply, and protect the presence of God. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:31.000 Right? 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:35.000 Now, priesting is just image bearing. 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:41.000 When you get to Leviticus, the big difference in what comes before is that sin has come into the world. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:44.000 And Adam and Eve completely failed at that. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:52.000 And so what we just read in chapter 9 verses 1 to 7 is one shift from the Garden of Eden. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:59.000 And that's that now the mediatorial role that are given the priests in the Levitical system 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:06.000 is to represent God's people because they cannot enter because of their sin. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:13.000 And the second aspect of their new mediatorial role is that they have taken on this role of sacrifice 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:17.000 to be able to step through the symbolic East Gate. 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:23.000 Something has to die for the sake of justice in our place for the priest as our mediator 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:27.000 on our behalf to be able to enter through the East Gate of the Temple. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:31.000 Because Adam and Eve were kicked out of the East Gate of Eden. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:33.000 And to represent you. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:39.000 And so the priest will come to this in just a moment, but on his clothing, his breastplate, he had 12 stones. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:45.000 Because he's making that sacrifice for himself on your behalf for him and you. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:52.000 And then he goes in carrying you on his breastplate as a stone, the 12 tribes. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:55.000 Each person in Israel he carries into God's presence. 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:57.000 So it's mediatorial, it's representative. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:00.000 You don't actually ever enter the Holy Place. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.000 And certainly not the Holy Follies. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.000 But your mediator does that for you. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:08.000 And the mediator himself does not deserve it, not at all. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:14.000 And that's why in just a second we'll see what ordination is so necessary. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:19.000 Now, before we move to that and wrapping up this first point. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:21.000 This is all throughout the Old Testament. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:25.000 But do we have priests in the New Covenant? 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:28.000 And the answer is absolutely yes. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:33.000 Because the priesthood has always been for everybody who believes in the Lord. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.000 Always. That's never changed. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.000 If you're made in the image of God and you follow the Lord, you're a priest. 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:41.000 That's the case in the Old Testament. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.000 And that's the case in the New Testament. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:45.000 The priesthood of all believers. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:51.000 In the Old Testament after sin, an ordained priest was there to do one thing. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:58.000 And that's mediate for you by way of holy sacrifice to step into God's presence on your behalf. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:01.000 You would die, he could stay and live. 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:04.000 That's the one task that's added to priests. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:07.000 That designates an ordained priest from a non-ordained priest. 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:09.000 The priesthood of all believers. 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:14.000 And so do we have priests in the New Testament, in the New Covenant, that are ordained priests? 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.000 No. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.000 Well, there's one. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:23.000 Hebrews 10 tells us that there is only one priest. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:29.000 There is a great high priest who has stepped into the heavenly temple, the Holy of Holies, 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:33.000 with his blood in his hands before the Lord and represented you. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.000 And therefore, you don't need an ordained priest. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:39.000 Why is there no ordained priest in the New Covenant? 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:45.000 Because no human being can mediate for you in the presence of God by bearing your sin. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:47.000 That's what a priest does. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:54.000 Through the sacrifice, he bears your sin and he takes you with him into the presence of the Lord. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:58.000 Jesus did that. You don't have a priest. You don't need a priest. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:02.000 And so, priesting is something that we all do. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:08.000 It's not something that a distinguished ordained priest with a capital P does, because Jesus is doing it. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.000 Jesus has fulfilled every single role that the priest in the Levitical system did. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:15.000 And so, that's the status of the priesthood. 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:21.000 Now, that does mean to apply this a little bit, is that we are priests, all of us together tonight. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:27.000 So, I just want to ask you tonight, a little bit of application in the midst of a thick Bible study. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:31.000 Do you know yourself as a priest of God? 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:33.000 Because you are. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:40.000 And as a priest of God, you take on the same exact role that Adam and Eve had, basically. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.000 But through the lens of Christ. And what we see here is that you are now a guardian. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:47.000 So, how does the New Testament talk about it? 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:52.000 You, as a priest, exist to guard the deposit of the faith, the gospel. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:58.000 That's the language of 1 Timothy, for example. Guard the deposit of faith. That's priesting language. 00:18:58.000 --> 00:19:03.000 You guard other people in the church as a priest. 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:08.000 How do you do that? How do you guard other people in the church? Protect them as a priest. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:16.000 Somebody shout something out. You pray for them. Yeah, that's priesting. What else? 00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:21.000 You guide them. You disciple them. So, discipleship is priestly activity. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:25.000 So, whenever you guard your neighbor's heart, your friend's heart in this church, 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:30.000 you're priestly for them, in the sense of the New Covenant idea of the priesthood. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:40.000 The elders priestly when they discipline, one of the priestly activities that the church has been given is excommunication. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:47.000 When a person is unrepentant of their sin and is potentially corrupting the body of Christ, 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:51.000 they can be excommunicated. And that's a priestly activity. 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:57.000 Because it's been the under shepherd's charge to guard the flock. And that's priestly. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:04.000 Not only are we guardians, we're housekeepers, the New Testament word that Jesus uses is stewards of the household of God. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:11.000 That's priestly language. The diaconal role that all of us have together, led by the deacons, 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:18.000 is to care for the afflicted, the poor in any situation of poverty, whether that's mental poverty, psychological poverty, 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:23.000 any of it, deep grief. When you care for somebody, that's priestly. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:27.000 You have been the housekeeper of the faith in that way. 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:33.000 How so? You're stewarding the people of God. In other words, let me put it in better metaphors. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:38.000 What does it mean to be a housekeeper by caring for people in the church? 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:43.000 Well, where's the temple in the New Testament? This is why we don't need ordain and priest. Where's the temple? 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:52.000 It's people. People are the temple. You don't need an ordain priest because every single human being in the church is the temple of God. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:21:00.000 And then collectively, we are all the temple as we gather. And so, how do you keep the furniture like the priest metaphorically? 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:05.000 You care for one another. That's priestly. That's housekeeping in the household of faith. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:11.000 Lastly, mediators. We are mediators for this cosmos. That's how the New Testament puts it. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:18.000 And so, just quickly, Hebrews 13 says that we offer a sacrifice of praise. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:26.000 Do you offer sacrifices like a priest? The mediatorial role of the priest is to sacrifice on behalf of another, toward God. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:33.000 Yes, you do. So you are charged in 1 Timothy 2 to pray for the whole world. That's priestly. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:40.000 You are the mediator from the world to God, from the city to God. You pray for the city? 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:45.000 That is your mediatorial duty as a priest in God's household. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Do you pray for the city government? For everything that's going to the teachers, the schools, that is priestly. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:58.000 So that's part of our duty. So we offer the sacrifice of praise. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:04.000 Priestly is also worship. You come to worship, that's priestly. That's coming into the household of faith. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:10.000 And so I'll just leave you with Philippians 4, 18 and 1 Corinthians 6, 19. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:17.000 Just a couple of Levitical fulfillments in our lives right here. Priestly fulfillments in our lives. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:26.000 Philippians 4, 18, Paul says, I've received full pavement and more. I am well supplied having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:31.000 That's money, by the way. He's talking about real money. Real money. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:38.000 The gifts that you sent. And what does he say? How does he talk about the money that was given? 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:48.000 A fragrant offering. That word offering. Straight from Leviticus. It's incense. A sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:55.000 So what is this saying? When do you priest relative to this verse? When you give money to the ministry? 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:01.000 When you tithe in Old Testament terms and New Testament terms? When you're generous? That is priestly agency. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:08.000 That's how Paul puts it here. 1 Corinthians 6, 19. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:16.000 You are a temple. Jesus is your priest. Whom you have from God. You are not your own. 00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:18.000 So this is all priestly language that's being fulfilled. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:29.000 Alright, we'll help you quick here. The ordination of priests. Jump back a chapter with me just very quickly to 8, chapter 8 verse 33. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:34.000 I'll just highlight a couple things and leave you to look for yourself later. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:45.000 From verse 33, and you shall not go outside the entrance of the Ten of Meeting for seven days. This is the ordination of priests until the days of your ordination are completed. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:52.000 It will take seven days to ordain you as has been done today. The Lord has commanded to be done to make atonement for you. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:24:02.000 At the entrance of the Ten of Meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days performing what the Lord has charged so that you do not die for so I've been commanded. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:12.000 And Aaron and his sons did all the things the Lord commanded my Moses. And then verse 1, on the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:20.000 Alright, so the ordination process is pretty lengthy. They have to have their clothes consecrated. They have to have an oil poured upon them. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:28.000 They have to have a sacrifice, an ordination sacrifice done. And then the end of the ordination process is they have to stay outside for seven days. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:32.000 And then on the eighth day they're allowed to enter and begin the sacrificial process. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:42.000 And just quickly, if you look at all that together, if we were to do a very thorough work in chapter eight, which would be wonderful but we don't have time. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:51.000 You would see that in chapter eight everything is given in sets of seven. There are seven principal pieces of clothing. There are seven steps to ordination. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:25:04.000 There are seven days away from the tabernacle in order for the ordination to work, to count as true cleansing. All is in the seven. And then chapter nine verse one, forget about the chapters. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:15.000 They're not there in the original Bible. The next verse is, and then on the eighth day they stepped in. They were able. They were set apart. They were consecrated. Why? 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:25.000 This eighth day movement is a theme all throughout the Bible. Seven days God created the world. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:35.000 And creation so far has been pretty broken, pretty bad, full of sin. 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:50.000 And in this ordination ceremony what is being enacted is that the seven days of creation are being set behind them. And on the eighth day the new order is setting in. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.000 So the eighth day movement in the Bible is the movement of new creation. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:09.000 So if you pull up John's Gospel you will find seven sets of sevens. And the eighth moment in John's Gospel is John chapter 20 on the first day of the next week. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:20.000 And so the scholars will talk about how in John's Gospel everything Christ does is seven sevens until you get to John 20. And that's the new creation. That's the eighth day. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:30.000 And that's exactly the ordination ceremony that the priests undergo. And that means that this ordination is saying that we're re-instituting creation through the little biblical system. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:33.000 It's a new creation that's moving forward. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:42.000 So ordination is simply this. If we were to go through it a little longer, it's to be invested with the clothing of new creation. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:51.000 That's in some sense what the priestly ordination is. And so the priest wear a beautiful breastplate with stones all over it. 00:26:51.000 --> 00:27:02.000 And then you flip over to Revelation 19 and most of those stones are to the book of Revelation I say, and you find lots of those stones listed in the imagery of the new heavens and the new earth. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:14.000 And you know where you find those stones implicitly as well in the Garden of Eden, right? And they also put a crown. There's a crown placed on the priest head, a golden crown. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:27.000 Why? Because the Imago dei is the crown, the image bearer of creation. And so they're being set apart for new creation and re-imaged as if it's almost like Genesis went all over again. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:30.000 That's the point here of this ordination. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:37.000 And in the New Testament, it's quite different. We don't have any of that. We don't have in the New Covenant vestments. 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:46.000 That's why in our tradition we don't. Lots of traditions do. But that's over-realized continuity that in Christ has been fulfilled. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:58.000 You don't crown a person in the New Covenant era as a priest set apart from the people because we're all priests and we're all restored in Christ to the full image of God. 00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:09.000 So all of this has been fulfilled in Jesus. And that means in our New Covenant system we have shepherds who are set apart as just examples amongst the priesthood of all believers. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:18.000 And we don't crown them. We don't crown them. We just lay hands on them as an act of prayer. That's what the New Testament commands. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:28.000 And so you can see in all that long list, Acts 6 and 13 and 1 Timothy 4 and 2 Timothy 1 and Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 5 and every single one of those passages, 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:39.000 ordination is laid out and it said three things you can do in ordination. Fast, pray, lay hands and one fourth sometimes give the right hand to fellowship. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:47.000 It's so explicit in the New Testament. We're told exactly what to do. And we don't do this anymore because Jesus did all this for us. 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:58.000 This ordination ceremony. Lastly, chapter 10, just one verse to read in chapter 10. And that's, now, Nadav and Abaihu, the sons of Aaron, 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:11.000 each took his censor and he put fire in his censor from the offering that had just been given. And he laid fire in his incense bowl. 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:21.000 And he offered unauthorized or strange as the Hebrew word fire before the Lord. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed Nadav and Abaihu. 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:31.000 And they died. So this section on priesthood ends with that. That's the full section in the Levitical system or the Levitical Leviticus. 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:48.000 Let me ask you if you were to map out a story from creation Genesis one, two and three. And in Genesis one, you had the image of God made and you said the image of God, that's a priest. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:55.000 And that image of God is crowned and then Eve is made and the true crown of humanity is made in Eve, right? 00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:03.000 And then you were to say, now, if I were to tell you that story again in a different part of the Bible, what would you guess is the next thing that would happen? 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:14.000 Image of God, Eve, the crown of creation made like mimicking this ordination ceremony or reconstituting this ordination ceremony. What's the next thing you expect? 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:22.000 Okay, what comes after Genesis one, Genesis two, then you have what? Genesis three, you have a fall, right? 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:31.000 And what you have here is the fall story of the Levitical Tabernacle, right? That's what you have. So new creation has been reconstituted. 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:39.000 The eighth day has come. Could this be salvation? And they'd have an abahu mess it all up. 00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:46.000 Right, this is a fall story. And so we completely expect this. Now, in just 30 seconds, what is this strange fire? 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:56.000 The best guess we have is that they tried to take a censor of fire to burn incense smoke and step into the Holy of Holies, 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:02.000 where only the high priest could go once a year. So they tried to do what only the high priest can do on the day of atonement. 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:07.000 And that's the best guess. Why? Because in Leviticus 16, we'll see this two times from now. 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:16.000 When the day of atonement ritual was enacted, it preludes the day of atonement ritual in Leviticus 16 with the story of Nadab and Abahu again. 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:22.000 So it's repeated in Leviticus 16. So it must be that that's what they tried to do. They tried to go into the Holy of Holies. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:26.000 And so they were consumed by the glory and presence of God and killed. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:32.000 And that means what do we learn? We learn this, that you can't approach God any way you want to. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:37.000 You don't get free will when it comes to how you approach God. 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:41.000 The Bible, God comes and tells us what to do. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:46.000 In our worship space, you don't get to do whatever you want. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:52.000 We don't get to do the things we like and make us feel good. That's not the approach. 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:56.000 Though great worship does make us feel good, right? But that's not how it works. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:01.000 We're told what to do. God tells us. He gives us the instructions on how to approach Him. 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:05.000 And that's true in the New Covenant as well as the Old Covenant. 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:10.000 And then the last thing we'll say and we'll be finished is, well, I've already said it. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:13.000 The Biblical theology of creation and fall. That's what we have here. 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:17.000 A creation story, a new creation story and a fall story. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:22.000 So let me say this then rather. 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:28.000 When you go to Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11 and 12 to give the New Testament the last word, 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:32.000 one writer says this, 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:38.000 Nate Abinabai who showed what happens when corrupt human flesh comes face to face with God's burning holiness. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:46.000 If the Lord is to live amid His people, there must be some means of dealing with human corruption, defilement and trespass. 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:50.000 The measure will be the day of atonement. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.000 This is what Leviticus introduced at this pivotal moment. 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:59.000 The Levitical system corrupted. How could it be restored? 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:01.000 The day of atonement is the answer. 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:04.000 And you flip over to Hebrews chapter 9, verses 11 and 12 and it says, 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:11.000 In Jesus Christ, the way of the most holy place has now been opened. 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:16.000 The day of atonement has now been fulfilled in Jesus. The curtain was torn in two. 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:24.000 Alright, we're going to pray in a minute, but we've got four minutes. 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:33.000 If there are any questions or thoughts or reflections, I know that that's a big thing that may be a big question and a big group to do. 00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:38.000 But can I ask if there are any from the past few weeks or anything from Leviticus? 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:40.000 Yeah, day's spring. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:48.000 Another talking about the kind of threefold structure of the in and of the temple, the question that occurred to me, maybe you just have a thought for it, 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:55.000 that the answer, or maybe it's, is there that kind of structure in heaven that these earthly beings kind of, or heaven? 00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:07.000 Yeah, so, well, actually, I think that what we have is in the threefold structure of the mountain of God that's recapitulated or fashion symbolized in the Tabernacle, 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:14.000 is actually what you have is a symbol of the whole cosmos, the whole creaturely realm. 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:19.000 So not just heaven, which is part of the creaturely realm, but earth and that which is under the earth. 00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:22.000 And so the Bible puts that in three domains typically. 00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:30.000 The heavens, the sky and the heavens, which is both what you see above and also an invisible realm, right? 00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:37.000 And then the land, that's how the Old Testament puts it, and then that which is under, or the water. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:47.000 And so there's a threefold structure to the way a Hebraic Hebrew mind sees everything phenomenologically through the lens of their just empirical experience. 00:34:47.000 --> 00:35:00.000 And so the temple of God is both a symbol of the Edenic mountain and the whole cosmos simultaneously. 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:13.000 And so in this temple, what you have in the purification rights is a symbol that in new creation, God will purify the whole cosmos and make it His temple. 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:20.000 That's the idea, which was the very goal of Eden, the very goal of Eden if Adam and Eve would have failed. 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:23.000 So is that helpful? 00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:27.000 All right, we've got two minutes. 00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:30.000 We're down to two. We still have two full minutes. You can say a lot in two minutes. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.000 Any... 00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:39.000 No more? That's okay. 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:41.000 We do need a priest. We have a priest. 00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:44.000 Yeah, we have a priest. 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:50.000 But we have a priest whose work of sacrifice is finished. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:55.000 Right? So if we had 30 more minutes, you know, which we're not going to do, don't worry. 00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:02.000 We would talk about how the Lord's Supper is not a sacrifice. 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:08.000 The Lord's Supper is not the breaking of Christ's body all over again. 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:13.000 Hebrews 10 makes that so clear. Jesus has been sacrificed once. 00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:17.000 You don't continue to sacrifice Him in the Lord's Supper. 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:21.000 Instead, the Lord's Supper is the meal where God says, now come and eat with me. 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:24.000 The work has been done. It's a table, not an altar. 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:32.000 Right? So we need a priest. Our priest, the High Priest intercedes for us at all moments because we still sin. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:39.000 Yeah, but His blood has been poured. Right? It's done.