“Priesthood Face-off”
EPISODE 244
Trust in the Better Priesthood
We're stoked to have our friend Allen Greeley back for our "Summer Surfin' Spectacular"! This week, he tackles a biblical puzzle in "The Priesthood Face-off." If Old Testament priests and kings came from different tribes, how could Jesus be both? Who was the mysterious priest-king Melchizedek, and why was he considered greater than Abraham? And what happens when the flawed, law-breaking priesthood comes face-to-face with Jesus at his own trial? Grab your board and join us for a deep-dive into God's plan for his ultimate priest-king!
Takeaways
The Big Idea: From its first pages, the Bible builds a case that the flawed human priesthood would one day be replaced by a perfect Priest-King.
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Ryan: we are stoked to have Allen with us again here.
Allen: So am I, guys. I'm not sure I know what stoked is, but I think it means to be excited.
Introduction
Bryan: All right. Well, hello everyone and welcome back to the seven sermon summer surfing spectacular here. Ryan, I haven't really been saying hello when we had another guest, but hi Ryan.
It's good to see you.
Ryan: Hi. Hi. I liked how you started the last one tying in with the surfing series by saying you were stoked to have Allen with us, a little surfing term, and we are stoked to have Allen with us again here.
Allen: So am I, guys. I'm not sure I know what stoked is, but I think it means to be excited.
Ryan: Yeah, I think so.
Bryan: Yeah, that's what that's what people said a while back. I'm sure that's not lingua franca today, but neither is lingua franca. So let's move on here. We have a really cool episode here. We're continuing this series that Allen's been doing by the way, I guess we didn't introduce Allen, but we can do that again in case anyone hasn't caught his previous episode.
We had in this spectacular we've been doing Allen is from Plainfield, Indiana used to be from Phoenix, Arizona. He's a trader now and has moved away from me back to Ryan where Ryan used to live here and was a trader and moved away from from me to Indiana. So
Ryan: There's no baggage or, you know, hard feelings sitting there or
Allen: Maybe Bryan is the traitor for not
Ryan: Ah, yeah. He's been invited many times. Come and join us. Join the
Bryan: an amazing podcast the Plainfield Ponderings podcast. You should check it out. We will have links to it in the show notes, but he has been in the middle of a wonderful series on his show finding Jesus in the Old Testament. It is something we love to do on the podcast. And one of the things that we just got done talking about in our square one series that we did last season was this idea of the priesthood and how important it is to see ourselves as priests as the Lord's hands and feet as as his ministers out in this world.
And so today on the episode, we're going to pull in one of Allen's lessons from that series, finding Jesus in the Old Testament, and we're going to talk about this priesthood face off. And this is I think Allen you did. This was a second of a series that you were doing talking about priests, right?
Allen: yeah. So, I did a first one about really just tracing the story of the ephod. These two lessons actually came about because my brother texted me. He had been listening to the podcast and be walking through this series, and he just texted me and said, "Hey, man, I'm really getting a lot out of this. Are you ever going to talk about David and the ephod?"
And I was reading the text and I was like, "David and the ephod? What's he talking about?" So, I started doing a deep dive, reading a ton of articles, scholarly journals, and I started recognizing that something was there . But then just thinking about all of the prophetic passages about Jesus being priest and king and how that all goes together. This second one is what'll be available for everybody to listen to, and I hope it's great for
Ryan: yeah, You say—if I were to summarize this sermon in five words, it's a statement you say that priests and kings go together. And you know, it seems surprising because, you know, the line of Aaron and the line of David seem to separate the two in the Old Testament in our minds. But I think you make the case really well, and I think that's a theme that we can keep unpacking.
And so we'll talk about that some more afterwards. But I think with that, We can dive in and listen to your exploration of these themes, priests and
Bryan: All right. So here it is without further ado.
Sermon 4: "The Priesthood Face-off"
Bryan: The Priesthood Face Off by Allen Greely.
Allen: Ponder with me some more themes about Christ in the Old Testament, specifically the theme of the priest-king in the Old Testament. I'm going to begin reading in Genesis 14, beginning in verse 14 through verse 20. This is the meeting between Melchizedek, the priest-king, and Abram, after he came back and saved Lot and his family.
Verse 14 of Genesis 14, "When Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men born in his house," 318 of them, "and went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.
Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsmen Lot with his possessions and the women and the people. After his return from the defeat of Keteleimar and the kings that were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram at the Valley of Sheba," that is, the king's valley, "and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine."
He was priest of God Most High. "And he blessed him and said, 'Blessed be Abram by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.' And Abram gave him a tenth of everything." Thank you for tuning in again. This is a continuation of the last lesson in this series about seeing Jesus in the Old Testament.
We spent a decent amount of time talking about the history of the linen ephod. That was a sleeveless garment of the priest. Remember, there was a blue robe of the ephod, they cut a hole in the middle of the blue robe, and that was draped over the head of the priest. And then they hemmed that hole so that it wouldn't tear.
That is stated in Exodus 28 verse 32, the hemming in that hole where the head would go, so that it would not tear. But in Leviticus 21 verse 10, this is a passage we did not read in the last episode, "The priest who is chief among his brothers shall not tear his clothes." So it says the priest is not to tear his clothes.
Number one, it was designed not to tear because of that hemming in the hole where the head would go, but Leviticus goes one step further and says he's not to tear them. So pretty simple. On top of that blue robe was the outer ephod, if you will. The outer ephod was made of literal gold, blue, purple, and scarlet yarn.
Attached to this outer piece was the breastplate of the priest, and that was where the urim and the thummim would be kept. This was a very costly, very time-consuming garment to make. What we did in the last lesson was trace some of the history around linen ephods. We saw Gideon made an ephod from the spoil that they had collected, and that ephod became an idol to even Gideon and his family.
Later in the book of Judges, Judges 17 and 18, we read about an Israelite named Micah who created a religion in his own house and created his own priesthood, but then he ended up hiring a Levite priest, paid him a little bit of a salary, and they made an ephod to give that homemade religion some legitimacy.
The tribe of Dan found out about Micah's religion and how he had his own priest and his own ephod, and they end up stealing away the priest, and the priest grabs the ephod, and he gladly is going to go with the tribe of Dan. And curiously, while the priesthood and ephods are being misused, the text kept telling us this refrain.
There was no king in Israel, and the reason I say that that's curious is because the text is talking about priests and ephods being misused. You might think the text would say, "Hey, there was no real priest in the land in these days." The context doesn't have anything to do with a king, but what I challenged you with was that perhaps it is a foreshadowing.
Perhaps the text is not just saying we need a king to force people to do what's right, but that we need a priest king. And along those lines, God doesn't want us to be forced to do what is right. God wants people to do right from their hearts. You can obey a law because it's written on stone. You can obey a law because it's written on a tablet for all the wrong reasons.
But to have a law written on someone's heart that they want to obey, that's a totally different story, which is why the prophet Jeremiah contrasted the old law that was written on tablets of stone with the new law that was coming that would be written on people's hearts. Obeying a law just because it's a law does you no good.
That will not transform a person, but obeying God's law because you believe, because you trust, because you love Him, that is transformative. But just to obey a text because it's written down or say, "Hey, we need a king to enforce these laws," that's wrong thinking, because God wasn't ever looking for people to just obey because it was written down or to be forced by a king.
So back to my point, when the text says there was no king in Israel, there was no king in Israel, there was no king in Israel, if we think that that's just talking about a king needing to enforce priesthood laws, enforce the law of Moses, no, there's got to be something deeper. And as I mentioned a moment ago, my challenge was, could this be a foreshadowing that we need a priest king?
And then later in the Bible, King David comes along who wants to do God's will, he's a man after God's own heart, but he does something even more curious than the judge's passages. He puts on a lineny font, which we're all thinking probably in our minds, "Oh no, that's not what's supposed to happen," unless there is some foreshadowing going on here that we need a priest king, and he even performs some acts that are very priestly in nature.
And then that king who put on a lineny font, King David writes a psalm about a priest king, Psalm 110, which is about the king at God's right hand who also becomes a priest forever. Wow, fascinating stuff. But some of you may have been thinking, "Allen, I appreciate your work and all, but I'm not so sure that those passages are foreshadowing.
I appreciate your thoughts, I appreciate you challenging us, but I think it's a little bit of a stretch." Well, in case someone was thinking that, let me ask, why would it be a stretch? Because the very first priest in the Bible is a king. That is one of the significant reasons that Melchizedek is such a big deal.
Did you remember this? Embarrassingly, I did not know this for the longest time, or perhaps I forgot, so don't be embarrassed if it hasn't dawned on you yet, but did you know that Genesis 14 is the very first time the word "priest" comes up in the Bible? Think about this. The very first priest in the Bible that we can read about is a king.
It's right there in Genesis 14, verse 18. It says, "Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, he was priest of the Most High God." That's the first time. The very first priest mentioned in the Bible is a king. I remember being taught as a youngster that Melchizedek was a priest and a king, because Hebrews mentions that very clearly.
What I did not remember hearing was that this was the very first priest in all the Word of God, and what I'm saying is, on the opening pages of the Bible, we create this mental shelf space that priests and kings do go together. I realize when the Law of Moses comes around, it separates them by tribe.
Priests are Levites, kings from the line of Judah, and any time we think about priests after that point, generally our minds go to the Levitical priesthood. But before that, before that point, we don't have a conflict at all. There is no tribal conflict here between Levi and Judah. We don't even have priests at all in Genesis--or we don't have tribes at all, excuse me, in Genesis 14.
My point is, we are at least introduced to the fact that it is possible. We have this mental shelf space indicating that it's possible. And not only that, but we realize very quickly, if we're reading the story carefully, the king-priest Melchizedek is greater than Abraham in every way possible. Here's at least four ways that Melchizedek is better than Abraham.
Number one, he's a king. Abraham's not. Abraham's not a king. Number two, he's a priest. Abraham's not. He's never called a priest, not once in Scripture. Number three, Melchizedek blesses Abraham. Abraham does not bless Melchizedek. When the book of Hebrews brings this up in chapter 7, verse 7, Hebrews says, "It is undisputed that the superior blesses the inferior."
It is the superior Melchizedek blessing the inferior Abraham, not the other way around. And then fourthly, Abraham pays him a tithe. You know, whenever I read this story, I giggle a little bit, because Abraham won't take a dime from the king of Sodom, probably because they were already depraved. God will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their great wickedness in Genesis 19, but we already know from the previous chapter, in chapter 13 of Genesis, it says that Sodom was already full of depravity.
So Abraham probably won't take a dime from Sodom because he knows how depraved they are, but then Abram takes 10% of Sodom's stuff--that's the spoils that he had reclaimed from Keteleimar and his buddies--he takes the spoils from Sodom, and he gives it to Melchizedek. This makes me giggle a little bit.
But what does that indicate? How amazing Melchizedek is in the mind of Abraham. You can almost see Abraham bowing down. I realize the text doesn't specify this, but I'm just using my imagination. You can almost see Abraham bowing down before this priest king, and he's receiving a blessing from him and offering him 10% of everything.
A king, better. A priest, better. Melchizedek does the blessing, better. Melchizedek receives a tenth, better. Better, better, better, better. Now let's bring this together with Psalm 110. So when David says that the king at God's right hand is going to be a priest forever, he then says, "According to the order of Melchizedek."
Now I want you to think like a Jew. Think like an Israelite. When the text says the king at God's right hand is going to be a priest, just like Melchizedek, what would an Israelite have thought? "That would be better! That would be a better priesthood!" Which is why the book of Hebrews spends so much time talking about Melchizedek being better than Abraham, because by extension what that means is that the Melchizedekian priesthood is better than the Levitical priesthood.
Any priest like Melchizedek is better than the tribe of Levi. Now tuck that in the back of your mind, because Jesus is going to be standing in front of the Levitical priesthood at his trial, and you're going to see quick, fast, and in a hurry who's better. Whose priesthood is better? But before we end up in the New Testament, let's make a pit stop in the prophets.
Let's go to Zechariah 6. Let's make a pit stop here in Zechariah, because Zechariah is going to give us a prophecy about a priest-king too. So beginning in chapter 6, verse 11, this is Zechariah 6, verse 11, it says, "Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown." Who normally wears crowns? Kings. "And set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak."
The who? The high priest. Now stop right there for a moment. Let's go slow and kind of get the word picture in our heads. You have a crown being made, and the crown being put on the head of the high priest. Now normally crowns represent kings, but in this sign act, a priest, a high priest, is being crowned like a king.
Verse 12 now, "And say to him, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Behold, the man whose name is the branch, for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.'" Stop right there. Let's go slow. God says, "Here's what the crowning of Joshua the high priest represents." God is going to make this prophecy very clear.
One is coming who is called the branch. The one coming named the branch will build the temple of the Lord. Now, I have a homework assignment for you. Look up the word "branch" in the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Now I'll give you the answer to the homework assignment. Here's what you'll find. The branch in Isaiah and Jeremiah always refers to a king from the line of David.
You say, "Okay, Allen, the kings were always supposed to come from the line of David. They're called the branch. What's the big deal?" But remember, who's being crowned here? The priest. Now read the next verse. This is verse 13, Zechariah 6. "It is he, the branch, who shall build the temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne."
Okay, now note the last part of verse 13. "And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them both." In other words, there'll be no conflict between the two offices. Now, did you hear that? A priest will be on the throne of the branch. The branch in Isaiah and Jeremiah, it's always talking about the king from the line of David.
But here, a priest is going to be reigning on the throne of the branch. David comes from the line of Judah, but the priests come from the tribe of Levi. I don't understand, Allen, how a priest could be on the branch's throne when the branch descends from David, unless--listen to me--unless we're talking about a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Unless we're talking about that type of priest reigning on David's throne. Now, nothing I've said here, nothing that Zechariah says here, should surprise any of us because of what we've studied over the last couple of weeks. The first priest in the Bible was a king. We got the foreshadowing in Judges that we need a king priest.
We got the foreshadowing in David who wore a linen ephod. We need a king priest. And then we've got the psalm that talks about the king at God's right hand that will be a priest. So nothing Zechariah says is different from what we have seen. The reason I bring this to your attention is to illustrate just how much this is in the scriptures.
Did you know that the Jews had three divisions of the scriptures? So in our Old Testament, we have 39 books. We call that the Old Testament. The Jews divided all 39 of those books into three groups--the Torah, the prophets, and the writings. You may have heard of the acronym TANAK--T, Torah, N, Nevim, K, Ketuvim.
TANAK--K, T, N, K. Torah, prophets, and writings. All 39 of our books in the Old Testament fit into those three categories. Now why do I bring that to your attention? Here's what's fascinating. In all three sections of the Jewish scriptures, the priest-king is brought up. The Torah brings it up in Melchizedek, priest-king.
The Psalms bring it up in the writings, the priest at God's right hand, priest forever, just like Melchizedek. And then the third section, which is the prophets, Zechariah mentions the branch in the line of David. It is going to be a priest. Now you can't make this stuff up. If you haven't obeyed the gospel--and I realize most people who listen to this probably have--but if you are out there and you get a hold of this episode and you're unsure of believing Jesus is who the Bible says he is, I just appeal to your intellect.
I want to appeal to your emotions. I want to appeal to every part of a human being. But right now, I appeal to your intelligence. Contrary to what atheists and skeptics want you to think, Christianity and Bible study are a thinking man's game. They are a thinking woman's game. When I say "game," I'm just using a metaphor.
I'm not trying to diminish Bible study to some light-hearted activity. My point is, God could have written the Bible where it required very little thinking. He didn't. God could have written the Bible as a bunch of laws that were spelled out in the minutest of details. He did not. God had the Scripture written so that it required your brain.
And if you haven't obeyed the gospel and given your life to Christ in baptism, being buried with him in baptism, I'm appealing to your brain, your intellect. You cannot make this stuff up. Over thousands of years, written by different authors at different times, you cannot have all of these themes come together so beautifully without the unseen hand of God being in it all.
One of the reasons why I love deeper Bible study isn't because I think it's just fun. I do think it's fun. I'm having a blast. I use it in a roundabout way as an evidence that the Bible is the Word of God. So again, especially you young people out there, please, don't let people tell you that Christians are a bunch of dummies and you got to throw your brain away to believe, "No, no, no, that's garbage."
That is coming from people who do not know how deep, how vast, how magnificent the Scripture truly is. Now, let's end the lesson with the contrast of the Melchizedekian priesthood of Jesus and the Levitical priesthood staring each other in the face, quite literally. Go to Matthew 26. Matthew chapter 26.
Jesus has been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane where He was praying. He allowed this to happen, of course, and even told His disciples to stand down when they wanted to fight. He knew that He was going to His death, but before He dies, they've got to come up with something to kind of pin on Him.
That's a capital crime. Not easy to do when you're dealing with a man that's never sinned. Try pinning a capital crime on someone that's never sinned. Not easy. Beginning in Matthew 26, verse 57. Verse 57, Matthew 26. "Then those who had seized Jesus led Him to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered.
And Peter was following at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end." Verse 59. "Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put Him to death." Did you hear what the text keeps repeating and repeating and repeating?
Who's involved here? In all three verses that I read to you, the priests are mentioned. They led Him to Caiaphas, the high priest. Then it mentions Peter was standing in the courtyard of who? The high priest. And then the last verse that I read says the chief priests and the council were seeking false testimony.
So high priest, high priest, chief priest. The Scripture wants us to see the Levitical priesthood are very crucial in this trial. They are dirtier than dirt. Sounds like the judge's story that we read last week, when the Scripture kept telling us there was no king in Israel. There was no king in Israel.
There was no king in Israel. We challenged ourselves to think, "Maybe we need a priest king here." And they have this most unlikely character in front of them, a man who has confounded them at every turn, a man that doesn't look like a priest, much less a priest that's better than the Levitical priesthood.
And he certainly doesn't look like a king either. Verse 60 through 62 now. "But they found no evidence. Though many false witnesses had come forward, at last two came forward and said, 'This man said, "I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days." And the high priest stood up and said, "Have you no answer to make?
What is this that these men testify against you?" So two men came forward and said, "Sir, sir, sir, we've got something against him. We'd love to pin something on him. This man said that he was able to destroy the temple and in three days rebuild it, and of course, that's not what Jesus said." Earlier in his ministry, Jesus told them, "Tear down this temple," pointing to himself.
"Tear down this temple, and in three days he'd raise it up." But he was speaking about the temple of his body. Chapter 2 tells us that. Jesus was telling them, "You tear down my body, this temple," which they're about to do, "and in three days he'd raise up the temple of his body." Jesus never said that he was going to tear down the physical temple and that he'd rebuild the physical temple, but the high priest, with all of his fancy linen ephods on, he wants an answer.
"What is this they're saying about you?" Verse 63. But Jesus remained silent, and the high priest pressed him, "I adjure you by the living God. Tell us whether you're the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said, "You have said so, but I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Jesus is referring back to Daniel 7, which we've talked about on this podcast. In fact, I mentioned it on the very last episode. We were thinking about confessing our sins to one another, and the John 9 scene where Jesus asked the man that had been born blind, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" Every time the Bible talks about the Son of Man, it's referring to Daniel 7.
The Son of Man that ascends to the Father. The Son of Man ascends to the Father with the clouds of heaven and is given power and authority and dominion and a kingdom, and Jesus is essentially telling Caiaphas, "You are going to see all of this come to pass. You're going to see the Son of Man get his kingdom and his power and his authority and his dominion.
You'll see it within your lifetime, Caiaphas." And you know what Caiaphas does? Verse 65. "The high priest tore his robes and said, 'He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy.'" What did he tear? He tore his ephod. The blue robe that shouldn't be torn, the fancy ephod on top of that with the gold, blue, purple, scarlet yarn.
Robes, plural. He tore his robes. Isn't
this so ironic? In claiming blasphemy, Caiaphas is actually breaking the law himself. He's not supposed to tear these garments. In a weird way, what we're seeing is, whose priesthood is better? Who's the real lawbreaker? Who's the real blasphemer? Who's the better priest? The one that they couldn't pin anything on?
The sinless one whom they couldn't pin anything on, so they had to come up with a bunch of lies? Or the blasphemous, law-breaking, Levitical priest that Jesus is surrounded by? Isn't the irony just so thick? The priesthood was misused and abused in the time of the judges. Remember? The priesthood was garbage in the time of the judges, and the people were misusing it, misusing the ephods, and judges kept saying there was no king in Israel.
And you might even expect Matthew, at this point, to say, "There was no king in Israel."
As the ephod is being misused by Caiaphas, and as the Levitical priesthood is just as garbage as it ever was, you might expect Matthew to say, "There was no king in Israel, but there's about to be." But not before the cross, not before the resurrection, not before his eternal life, but after. After the cross, his resurrection, and his eternal life, we'd have a king, a priest king, and then we'd have everything we need.
Discussing the Sermon
Bryan: All right. So that was great. one of our favorite preachers and we talked about that the last time we had him with us. So Allen's amazing. We love having him on and especially this series just really scratches a lot of itches in terms of making connections that are all throughout the scriptures really, but right here this idea of Jesus being the priest king and why that would have been important in the Old Testament.
It's unlocking a lot of new insights. What Allen while you were going through this was the main thing that really latched on to you and made you have to preach this
Allen: Just the expectation that those do go together. So, right before the lesson.
came on the podcast, Ryan mentioned that they do go together, and just expecting that from a Jewish mind would be a different way of thinking about Jesus. And so, just opening my mind to the evidence of the fact that, "Hey, they don't just go together.
This should be our expectation of what the Messiah is going to be like." So, just reading these passages from the expectation standpoint really stands as quite a powerful evidence to me.
Ryan: your point that the first use of priest is a king back here in Genesis 14, I think, was a great way to really hammer this home. Melchizedek is such a fascinating figure. then the way Hebrews plays with the idea and,the appearance in the Psalms in maybe the most important or one of the most important Messianic Psalms that gets quoted over and over again in Psalm 110.
I think it's really interesting watching this theme develop. And I was thinking how you could make the argument that going even earlier than Genesis 14, the word "priest" isn't used, but that if you really ponder, as you like to say, Genesis 1 and 2, you see hints that humans were created to be priest-kings.
We're made to, in Genesis 1 at the end there, rule and subdue the earth as God's image-bearers. But we're also there in the garden, in the presence of God, serving before him, fellowshipping with him, and then going forward from there, we are made to be his image-bearers, his representatives. We're made to worship before him, to serve before him, all things that the priests are made to do.
So it's interesting to think of the idea that Jesus is the great fulfillment of this as the great priest, the great king, the great human, the great Israelite, the great everything. But he is the Son of Man who is representative of all of us and what we were all meant to
Allen: Yeah, I love that thought. I haven't preached that yet, where I'm preaching now and teaching now, but that thought of seeing that hint in Adam and Eve, I love that. I love how we should think about ourselves in that way. And kingly language, reigning language that comes up in Revelation, priestly languages all over about tying us as Christians to priests.
I didn't share it only because it was a lesson about Christ, but as we talked after the show was over the last time I was with you guys, a lot of these themes that we see in Christ do show up in ourselves as Christians. And even the reigning talk and priestly language, it's all there. So, we're not just seeing shadows of the Messiah in the old, we're really seeing shadows of his church and what our goal as his people are.
Bryan: yeah, it's interesting when you start thinking about this idea of us being priests and us following our king and how does that hit home for you like and change the day-to-day way you think about your life?
Because when we really start to think about our lives in that way of like being a priest, how is that modifying your thought processes, your behavior, the things that you're deciding to do in like a real tangible way?
Allen: it's a great question, man, a really applicable question that you just asked. But if I were to think about it more, every conversation that I have at the gym or over coffee or in my home with my kids, ultimately priest's job is to bring someone to the Lord, to kind of stand as this in between them and the Lord and kind of moving them closer to the Lord.
So, if I thought about it more and should, every conversation becomes, how can I move this conversation into something spiritual? How can I move this person into something that'll bring them closer to the Lord? That's what priesthood is all about, and that's what being a Christian is all about.
Bryan: And it's interesting to think about the role that humans have been called to since, you know, the beginning, right? To act on the Lord's behalf and for the Lord in the community in which they live and like the Jews as they came out of Egypt, like that was their job. They were all called to be a kingdom of priests.
And so, you know, while we sort of view them today as like a segregated society in which they were, you know, obviously told to be holy and separate from the rest of the world. I think God always wanted them to be lights like he like Jesus would call us to become later. So it's not like a new command or a new discussion that Jesus is bringing on the scene.
I think it's something that God has always wanted. And yeah, like you say for me, I do not think about that enough for sure.
Allen: You just hit on something that just came up in an email correspondence with me and some other believers. We were thinking about Israel, supposedly, supposed to be a kingdom of priests, just like you mentioned, and just how they held the nations, the Gentiles at arm's length. They separated themselves so much so they couldn't even do their job.
And we were thinking about just how much the church sometimes does that. We hold unbelievers at arm's length to the point where couldn't help them if we wanted to. So, there's got to be this bAllence of not letting worldliness and ungodliness influence us, but bringing them in, letting them into our lives to the point where we can influence them.
Otherwise, we're going to be like Israel, where we're just kind of keeping everybody at arm's length. And sometimes I see that so much in the church, and it may be why we're not converting as many as we probably could or should. Just a thought
Ryan: The idea of election, of being chosen as a people, people get theologically all twisted up on that, and the idea of holiness are both about purpose. They're about God chooses somebody not to save them, God chooses them for a purpose. I mean, you could say he even chose--we're going to talk next time about Judas.
He knew. He knew who he was, didn't take away his free will, but he chooses us for a purpose. And as a holy nation, Israel and now us are meant to be separate so that we can call others into that separateness. And that's always been a helpful--like I see in my head a circle, and if you don't have the line on that circle really firmly drawn, if that just blurs out, then there is nothing to call people into.
There's no distinction. But if we draw the line clearly, we're being different than the world, but we are among the world, loving the world, reaching out to the world, serving the world, not pulling away from the world. We're not separate in our life. We're separate in our lifestyle, and so we're constantly calling people into the goodness of God.
I think that's a really great
Allen: Yeah, just to tie to the end of the lesson, as he's standing before Caiaphas and whatnot. So, the greatest priest, the high priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, is calling people and being this ultimate priest by laying himself down. And if We view our priesthood as anything other than that with the world, we probably need to recalibrate how we think about the priesthood.
We need to be sacrificing ourselves, laying ourselves down in other sacrificial ways to help bring people... I know I can't die for anyone. I wouldn't do any good. I'm a sinner. But I can lay myself down in sacrificial ways. And so, just using that analogy of our high priesthood, laying himself down, and then us doing that with the world, powerful
Ryan: It just makes me think of a little bit later, Stephen reenacting in a way that same kind of a priesthood moment where here he is seeing the face of Christ up above him and saying, "Forgive them," and being--here they are wanting to stone him because he's speaking against the temple as they think of it, and he is the temple, and he is embodying Christ and the church and the goodness and glory and light of the world.
I'm so glad you brought up the ending because that was my favorite part of the whole sermon was your line that the old priesthood and the new priesthood are brought face to face literally. And what a moment--it just creates such a clear moment of this is the transition that's about to happen. This is why the old is fading away.
It cannot stay forever. That is just something to get us to Christ.
Allen: Yeah, it's such a beautiful moment. It's such a heart-wrenching moment to hear Jesus accused of blasphemy, and then to have the Levitical priest basically blaspheme as he tears his garment. But wow, I'm so blessed to have taught it, and thank you guys for using it.
Bryan: thank you to your brother this big question that brought this lesson out. So
Allen: I needed to give him credit there.
Bryan: Yeah, for sure. All right. So this has been our sort of middle lesson in our seven sermons, Summer Surf and Spectacular here on the episode and really excited to get into
Allen: You're going to keep getting better at that,
Bryan: I will maybe one of these
Ryan: Allen was part of naming that, by the way. Give him some credit
Allen: I don't want to be tested. I don't want to be tested.
Bryan: All right. And so thanks, Allen, for being on the show. We will have a link in our show notes here for Allen's podcast for the work he's doing there on the Plainfield Ponderings podcast. You should go check it out. Just alliteration all over the place until our next conversation. May the Lord bless you and keep you.
Ryan: Shalom.