Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Well, my name is Dean Anon and I'm the discipleship pastor here. If I haven't met you yet, I'd like to meet you. I'll be right down here afterwards. Well, the old series we just finished on the offerings where these first five chapters and plus a little bit more into six and so on. But these were the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, the peace offerings, sin offering, guilt offering. All of these we had just talked about in our, our little miniseries that we started in Leviticus so far. And the Lord spoke to Moses. It says over and over and, and this is the law, and these were the laws concerning offerings and sacrifices. And that's where we were these last five weeks. Another way to think about it's, these are symbolic meals. The with a holy host, you know, the one who forgives sins, the one who creates this, uh, not just this idea, but this reality of fellowship with him who offers peace and who offers shalom to us?
Speaker 1 00:01:06 And that's these first five, uh, weeks, the first five chapters, especially where it was focused on the person bringing sacrifices to the Lord, to the worshiper. Remember, the worshiper had just been freed out of slavery, right? In Egypt, and here they are now at the area of Sinai. But in chapter six and seven, we won't talk much about that today, but in chapter six and seven, we see the same sacrifices again. Uh, but the point of view is different. It's a different angle this time. It's not more about the person brings it, it's more about the priests. So in six and seven, it's the chapters there. In Leviticus, it's more about the priests and instructions and what part of the sacrifices belong to them and so on. It's about Aarons, uh, Aaron and his sons, the priests, and they get their instructions. And so we're leaving that now we're moving to our new series in Leviticus.
Speaker 1 00:01:58 The next three chapters on priests, that's what it is. Priests chapters eight through 10. And so today it's the consecration process. We'll talk about that with that is today. Then it's after that. It's gonna be the power of God's presence, the danger of unholy worship, the third week, in the fourth week in a four week series, the responsibility of God's leaders. This is our new series in Leviticus. And so we'll spend most of our time in the beginning part of chapter eight, about the first 12 verses going up further a little bit in chapter eight. But consecration, this is important, means this to render holy or to set apart, that's consecration, to set apart, to render what is holy. In other words, it's taking our service and worship for a higher purpose to be set apart for that, that's consecration. So the point is, we, we want forgiveness.
Speaker 1 00:02:48 We want fellowship with God. Those things can happen. But if only two things are true, one is sacrifice, and that is blood sacrifice to atone for sins. But the other is this and is priest for mediation between God and man. And I'm gonna say something that sounds a little odd to start right now, at the beginning in this introduction, I'm gonna say this, this is true even today, but thank God that that Jesus Christ himself has been the once and final and forever sacrifice. And he is the mediator priest between God and man all in one. So thank God today that Jesus Christ is both the sacrifice and the priest all in one. Hebrews chapter three, I'm gonna read this, he Hebrews three, one through three. This is talking about Jesus in Moses. Moses obviously is the big player here in the book of Leviticus.
Speaker 1 00:03:40 Consider Jesus Hebrew three verse one says, consider Jesus the apostle and the high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him, who appointed him just as Moses was also faithful in all God's house for Jesus, has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. All right? So when I was studying Leviticus eight and on, three things came to mind. Three words. These are my words, drama, excitement, and beauty. And you might think, wait, we're in Leviticus, right? No drama, excitement, and beauty. You might think of drama as as maybe there's books you like to read, the big books, books like, um, Jane A and Pride and Prejudice, or The Great Gatsby or Grapes of Wrath, war and Peace. Or maybe you like series on, uh, Netflix or whatever it is you like for drama. But, but this is drama. What we're in today, it's huge drama.
Speaker 1 00:04:32 And I'll, I'll show you what I'm talking about in a minute, was certainly the Lord. Let's start here. The Lord is speaking directly to Moses, he says, and the Lord spoke to Moses over and over again. This is a Leviticus is one of these biographies really, of Moses, if you will. And in chapter eight, we turn more to narrative, more from law type instruction type writing to narrative for sure. But what's dramatic is we're on the cusp of something really big. And if we just read through Leviticus quickly, we may might miss this. We're in Moses' life and we're in a great event, probably one of the greatest event you could argue, a huge achievement. And here's what it is. It's the consecration of Aaron and his sons into the priesthood. And that's chapter eight. Because in Exodus, we were left hanging in Exodus. We have all this drama and all this excitement.
Speaker 1 00:05:28 And what happened were an exodus if, if we won't go there now, but if you're back in Exodus chapter 25 through 31, you'll see that um, Moses was given instructions to make the tabernacle and he did that, given instructions to make the furniture of the, of the tabernacle. And he did that and to make these priestly garments that's back in Exodus. And he made these priestly garments, and so he did that great. But the consecration of the priests have not happened. And so we leave Exodus with no consecrated priests or priests that are set apart, ready to do the sacrifices. No priests dedicated to the holy worship on behalf of the people. So that leaves people coming out of Exodus wondering this, will Aaron, who's supposed to be this high priest, dedicated to the Lord, consecrated to the Lord, will he the same one by the way, who designed the golden calf and led people astray into worship, not worshiping holy God, Yahweh, but instead worshiping a golden calf, will he be allowed to be consecrated, to be the high priest or not?
Speaker 1 00:06:36 So chapter eight, verse one, if you haven't opened yet, you can open there or maybe turn on your Bible. What you're gonna see at the beginning here is Moses, um, God is speaking directly to Moses and he says to Moses, God does bring three things. Bring Aaron and his sons, bring all the materials needed for the consecration, and then get all the people ready and bring them to the tabernacle. Here it is. Verse one says this, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take Aaron and his son's with him and the garments and the anointing oil and the bull of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread and assembled the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting verse four. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
Speaker 1 00:07:21 And Moses said to the congregation, this is the thing that the Lord has commanded to be done. So now is the time we're up to that point. Finally, they need these priests. The instructions have been given. But if you look at verse three and verse three says this, assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting. This is public. This is important. It's, it's easy to read by this quickly. But in verse three, verse four and verse five, congregation is mentioned and mentioned and mentioned, and it's mentioned because this is an amazing ceremony. Something that people have been waiting for a sacred moment that is precious. So all the people of God gather together. And again, it's Aaron back in verse two. He was talking about Aaron and his sons. These are the priests, the they're of the tribe of Levi and Lee, um, Aaron, you might know is the older brother of Moses.
Speaker 1 00:08:08 So God chose this Levite tribe to be his priest, to bear the responsibility of bringing the holiness of God to the people so they would know God is holy. But the nation of Israel had forfeited the right to be what's called the kingdom of priests because they worship the golden cath. So God chose the Levites. Verse two a moment ago, we'll, we'll put it back up there. Verse two says this, the garments and the anointing, well, these are the materials by the way. These are the materials that Moses is gonna need to consecrate. The priests talks about garments and the anointing oil. I'll get back to that later. But it also says the bull of sin offering and the rams and so on. And remember when it talks about these, these are imperfect people, right? The priests, I mean, you do realize the priests are imperfect, right?
Speaker 1 00:09:00 They're sinners too. So I'm gonna go for a minute just up to verses 14 and 30. You don't have to turn there, but I'm gonna talk about that for a minute and then come back to where we are. But when we jump ahead, the bulls, the rams, these things that are needed, Moses, who's kind of the, the focal point here? Moses is the mediator of the covenant, and he has been for a long time. So now God is choosing him to do, the sacrifices are to perform the sacrifices, these blood sacrifices on behalf of the priests. Why? Because the priests need atonement for their sin, for their covering. They need the sacrifice. God calls his imperfect priests to ministry. I'm gonna put up a slide in a minute. And in this, in this public ceremony, remember I'm gonna keep going back to this is public. This is an inauguration ceremony in front all the people. And it's almost sort of like God is saying this, something like this. God might be saying, these are my priests. You know them, you grew up with them, they're not perfect and they're sinners and their sin must be atoned for. And so all the people are seeing this
Speaker 1 00:10:16 As we move up to Leviticus eight 14. I'm gonna talk about that for a minute. Verse 18 through 30, I just wanna talk about those three sacrifices. The bulls, the rams I mentioned that was in verse uh, two, I think it was the sin offering for the priest. Moses' is performing sacrifices on behalf of the priest. Their sin, debt must be paid. That's a sin offering. Then there's the burnt offering. That's where every part of the animal is burnt up. Why? It's called it's full dedication. All in the priests are all in the third one, the peace offering. This is the last thing, the second ram that it talks about in verse 23, we see Moses sacrifice this second ram, and then he took some blood.
Speaker 1 00:11:01 I'm gonna read verse 23. This is Leviticus 8 23. And this is Moses. Moses killed it that ram and Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear. And then he took some of that same blood on the thumb. He put it on Aaron's right thumb and uh, of the right thumb. And then on the big toe of his right foot, Aaron's right ear lobe, his right thumb, his big toe. In his right foot. Moses put this rams blood. Why? Well, I think most scholars point towards this, and it seems to make a lot of sense to me that the right ear lobe, because the priests of God are always to listen to the voice of the Lord, the hand or the right thumb. Why? Because the priests are always to do the work of God
Speaker 1 00:11:52 And the right foot, the right big toe, because priests are always to walk in the way of the Lord. He chose the right side. That's kind of like the chosen side in the Old Testament. Sorry, lefties. I don't know why. It just, that's the thing. Um, God's workers must hear, must do, and must walk in the way of the Lord. Always. There's no difference. Believers must hear do and walk by the spirits leading. Now, up in verse 33 and 35, a few more things are happening before I jump back to where we were before. Verse 33, I'll read it for you, says this, this is in Leviticus eight. Now this is, uh, talking to the priests, okay? And you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, okay, but wait, it says for seven days. And then God says, until the days of your ordination are completed for it will take seven days to ordain you. Now, some of you can't, right? And you have a tent, okay? Don't worry, this was a lot bigger than that. But can you imagine seven days?
Speaker 1 00:12:58 Verse 35 says that if they go outside during any of those seven days, and by the way, for the seven days, they're, they're continually doing these sacrifices, these blood sacrifices. All of this is happening in full view of all the people because they're there, they're still watching. They're being reminded as they come back to the entrance at 10 time meeting that these people are priests, our leaders, but their sin needs to be atoned for too. And at verse 35, during that seven day period, if they were to go outside the tent time meeting, they would die.
Speaker 1 00:13:29 This isn't a retreat, this isn't a golf outing. This isn't something for the boys and Aaron and his friends to just get out and do. No, I assume that God is getting their attention during these seven days that the pride factor in some of these men must just be draining out in front of their friends after time. Full view of the public. God is sanctifying his priests. There's an author that writes this, says, leaders need to be called by God. And like Aaron and his sons must go through the process of sanctification unless all selfish motives egocentricity are removed, such people are unlikely to be used as God's instruments. So God chooses these priests, he purifies them to his holy ministry. But something else strikes me, and it's back in verse two. It's just about Aaron. Frankly, it's not the point of this passage, but it just strikes me, remember that the question I said earlier, the, the question I brought up, will, will Aaron, the designer of the golden calf, be allowed to be consecrated or not?
Speaker 1 00:14:33 Well, the answer is yes, we're seeing that that's in this chapter because Aaron has repented and God's great mercy. And in his great mercy, Aaron was forgiven. To me, that just stands out. Aaron betrayed God. Aaron's a sinner. Everybody knew it. And if God has forgiven him, I think of people like King David, uh, king David murderer, adulterer, but God chose him. I think of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul killed the early CRI Christians before he became a believer. God chose him. The apostle Peter three times after following Jesus for years, three times, denied him, betrayed him. I think of Mary Magdalene, who's a demon possessed woman who Christ used greatly in his ministry. And it was the first to see the resurrected Jesus Christ. And then, uh, God chose me. Sinner who stands before you, saved by Jesus and he chose you. If you know Jesus is savior, he chose you too.
Speaker 1 00:15:38 God has this habit, it seems, at least according to what we have recorded in the word of God. He has this, uh, habit to choose the least likely people at times He does that. It's a pattern. It's a pattern of scripture. So, so whenever you're going through it, whatever it is, God is never through with you. You fill into the through it, whatever the it is, it might be some sin in your life. You're turning to God, you're trusting in Him, you're repenting, but you're going through it. God is still sanctifying you. He's using you as he sanctifies you. He wants you to know he's not through with you. Maybe it's a circumstance, something that happened last year, the year before, maybe three, four years back, and you went through it, a circumstance, maybe not a sin, but you went through it. God is not through with you at all.
Speaker 1 00:16:29 He sanctifies us. He purifies us, and he uses us for his ministry and for his glory. A big idea today I have is this, believers like you and me we're saved, right? He calls us, he saves us. And then certainly there's a sanctification process, but he sets us apart for ministry, always, always, always. Verses six through nine. So still Leviticus eight, going back to the beginning part here, six and nine. Again, when you look at verse, uh, or after he is called these priests to be the first thing publicly, you're seeing back, back in verse six, before the sacrifice has even happened. <laugh>, something kind of funny, makes me laugh a little. He washes them in front of everybody. Now we have to understand kind of what's that? What's that? It's about Verse six says, and Moses brought Aaron and his sons and wash them with water.
Speaker 1 00:17:21 Remember, this is publicly, you know, water's often used symbolically in the Bible for starting over or cleansing or purifying something new. You know, everyone is here watching this ritual, this symbolic purification before everybody's restoring these sinners and putting them into this office. Remember, no one before now has been qualified to be in the priestly order, no one. But now the consecration begins verses seven through nine. We'll talk about that. The Aaron's priests are closing. When you get to verses seven through nine, we're gonna put him on the screen. What you're gonna see is really more about Aaron. Here. You're gonna see his priest, Lee Garbs and what he's wearing. And the Old Testament being set apart for, um, God's work was so important that there was a dress code, a uniform, if you will. You know, the, if the, if the priest were to approach the tent of meeting or go into the tent of meeting or to approach the altar not being appropriately dressed as we're about to see in a moment, not just the priests, but the high priests too.
Speaker 1 00:18:27 They would die full com compliance, full compliance all the time. You know, major league baseball players, right? They have uniforms they have to wear, right? Sometimes you're not always sure some of 'em have buttoned down to here, I swear on the eight gold chains. I'm not sure what that's about. But it seems like some, some of them, not all, some like to maybe pull a little bit of attention to themselves, maybe with what they wear or choose to individualize their dress. But this is not the way it is intended. This is not what it's about. When it comes to God's priest, what they wear their uniform. They could never deviate in any way from a God prescribed perfection all the time. These are his servants, his priests, and his high priest set apart to point to a holy, beautiful God. Verse seven says this, Leviticus says, seven says, and this is Moses literally dressing Aaron the high priest, and he put the coat on him and tied the sash around his waist and clothed him with the robe and put on the eod on him and tied, we're gonna have a picture of this in a minute, and tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod around him, binding it to him with the band.
Speaker 1 00:19:34 And he placed the breast piece on him. And in the breast piece he put in the IR and the tum and he set the, on his head and on the turbine in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown as the Lord commanded him. And this is described a lot in Exodus 28. So if you're looking for something to read today, it's kind of cool. Exodus, very cool, 28 through about chapters 39, all this is there. I'll spend a few minutes talking about this dress and what he's wearing or the clothes. It's not just these, uh, duties that's being performed here. Um, it is something set apart and sacred for God. Now, when you talk about the priests, the normal common priests had one set of clothing, but the high priest, and that's really what I'm talking about here, has special things like the od, the turb, uh, the crown, the robe, the breast piece.
Speaker 1 00:20:21 But all these had a point to show the utter holiness of God, dazzling as God is in every way, not to represent the beauty of the high priest in any way, but God and his beauty. There's that word, beauty. Remember, drama, excitement, beauty, all of it, not the individual, but pointing to God in every way. The high priest and the priesthood was holy unto God. That's what the Bible says is holy unto God. The high priests, the priests and the tabernacle. The tabernacle itself was wholly unto God. And did you know that in the garments we're about to talk about the fabric that was used? The material that was used is the same kind of material that was used in the tabernacle, in the curtain, and in the veil, both set apart unto the Lord as holy symbolic Exodus 26, 1 says this, talking about this fabric that was used in both these places in the holy place and on the holy priest themselves, fine twined linen, Exodus 26 1 and blue and purple and scarlet yarns.
Speaker 1 00:21:25 All right, let's put a, let's put a picture up there. Uh, this is an artist rendition, obviously. Um, they didn't have Polaroids then apparently the, the coat, the coat's, the first thing that's the white thing underneath. And you can see it on the arms too, and down below the white, that's the coat, the embroidered coat. But the next thing over that was blue. It's the robe. If you're going up from the bottom, you'll see that robe there. It's blue and it had golden bells on it. And pomegranates are what looked like pomegranates. Some scholars would say in Exodus 28, 33. That's what I'm gonna read from on its hem. This is talking about the robe, that blue thing you see there. It's underneath something called the E five, but that blue thing on its hem, you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns around its hem with bells of gold between them.
Speaker 1 00:22:08 Imagine the beautiful colors and the sound even as the priest moves and takes care of his holy duties, even in the holy place. And the sound of the bell's moving meant the priest was still alive. He was doing in the holy place, God's work and pleasing the Lord. That's the robe. And the robe was wearing un under the eod, which looks like that vest sort of thing. Multicolored eod, beautiful multicolored vests specific to the high priest. This was, this is what Aaron would've worn, more colors, more beauty. Exodus 28 6 says this about that eod, and they make, again, this was made back in the time of Exodus, but now is a consecration time, and they shall make that eod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and a fine twined skillfully worked. That's the ephod, same colors, same fabric as the inner Tabernacles curtains. Now the best breast piece itself, which is next, is very important. It's sometimes called the breast piece of judgment. Sometimes it's called the breast piece of decision. And there's something like a pouch probably that's about nine to 10 inches square like this. And at 12 gemstones in it, the rum and the humum, excuse me,
Speaker 1 00:23:40 I get choked up <laugh>. And each stone, these 12 stones, the irman, these stones are the names of all the 12 tribes of Israel and the breast. Peace of judgment symbolize these things. Unity of the Israelites symbolize the people's dependence on the ministry of the high priests. And third, God's love for his people seeing Exodus 28, 29, I'm just gonna read it for you. So Aaron shall wear the names of the sons of Israel, the 12 tribes and all these gemstones in the breast piece of judgment on his heart. And hear this when he goes into the holy place to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. That's beautiful. The fourth thing, if we just go back to the, um, to the slide on the breastfeed judgment, the fourth thing up there was God's channel of his will to the people in Leviticus eight, verse eight.
Speaker 1 00:24:42 It said this, you might remember this, and he placed the breast piece on him, and in the breast piece, he put the iim in the thme. Remember that? And it, it mentioned these, these gemstones, Irma meaning, meaning, lights and, and humma meaning, um, perfections somehow. And I don't think if, if you know more, please come tell me. As long as it's based in scripture, I'll listen. I don't, I don't think that we know exactly how this worked, but somehow God used these gems to show or to reveal his decisions to the high priest, east Exodus 28 30, we have it on the screen says this, Exodus 28 30. And in the breast piece of judgment, you shall put the IRM and the tum and they shall be on Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the Lord.
Speaker 1 00:25:36 Regularly, nobody really knows how this worked. I know I read some scholars said maybe certain things lit up. I don't know. <laugh> people are so creative sometimes. Maybe that's right. Maybe that's in scripture. I just never saw it. You know, later in the Old Testament in numbers chapter 27, you have, Joshua has just taken over from Moses and Joshua receives answers from the Lord by means of the I through Azar, the high priest. So it happened, just not sure how it all happened. And that's the breast piece. But there's one more thing. This last holy garment that we're talk that's talked about at least here in chapter eight, and that's the turban and the holy plate or the crown, the headdress of the high priest on that crown was engraved these words, holy to the Lord or holy to Yahweh. Uh, Exodus 28 36 says this, I'll read a couple verses here. You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave it like the engraving of a signet holy to the Lord. And you shall fasten it on the turbine by the cord of blue. It shall be on the front of the turbine. It shall be on Aaron's forehead. Why? Well, it seems to be a constant reminder right here in front all the time to always approach God in holiness. What a beautiful sight. Can you imagine? I mean, if that thing up there on the screen is anywhere near close, how beautiful that must have been.
Speaker 1 00:27:07 These are the qualities needed. The dress, which represents symbolically the qualities of the high priest like the tabernacle, symbolized what is beautiful, what is right, what is good, what is perfect and holy. The high priest did his duties in that uniform, if you will. But today that job's over because it's finished. Because everything you see up there on the screen and everything the tabernacle represented, all the sacrifice stuff we talked about last five weeks, all perfectly pointed and perfectly foreshadowed Jesus Christ as the final high priest forever. The once and for all sacrifice, the atonement on the cross, true holiness, true perfection. I know if you like, uh, the book of Hebrews, maybe you've read it a few times and then you'll remember this one. Hebrews chapter four, verse 14 says this, this is talking about Jesus Hebrews in the, in the New Testament. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.
Speaker 1 00:28:10 Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. This is why we're under the new covenant. We're not under the old covenant of the blood of bowls and rams, but under the blood and covered and forgiven by Jesus Christ. So in our passage today, you know, here's where we are so far, he's, he's dressed right, the high priest, Aaron, he's dressed. It's time for the anointing oil reading. Verses 10 and 11 says this. Then Moses took the anointing oil again. Moses again, this is very Moses focused here. Remember, he's the mediator of the covenant passing on the high priest to, to Aaron. Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it and consecrated them. And he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all its utensils and the basin and its stand to consecrate them.
Speaker 1 00:29:08 Then Moses turns from those things, the tabernacle to Aaron, and here's what he does. And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him. And Moses brought Aaron's sons and clothed them with coats and tied sashes around their waist and bound caps on them as the Lord commanded Moses. And so what'd he do? He sprinkled, right? You saw he sprinkled some oil on the tabernacle seven times, seven being this symbolic, uh, covenant number it seems in the Old Testament. But instead of sprinkling the oil on Aaron, what did he do? He poured it over its head. How messy. I'm sorry. That's messy. Have you ever, have you ever gotten olive oil on you? Literally, I mean this is, this is poured. So we know from other places that uh, uh, there's talk about, you know, dripping on the beard and different things.
Speaker 1 00:29:58 I could see this perhaps, and I would assume going on the, the ephod making, I, maybe it's a holy mess. I don't know, but it just, it just seems, it seems messy to me. I can imagine Aaron coming home and his wife Elh Elisha Elba saying, no, I ain't doing that. Um, you, you, you can watch. I, I mean they didn't have the, uh, what's that blue dish dishwashing, Dawn dishwashing spray, you know what I'm saying? Cuts grease. Great. And it's, I think it's pretty clear, at least in my mind, that the Mount Sinai dry cleaners was closed because they're all there, right? They're as many people as could be. They're there at the tent of meeting, I think is probably was messy, but that's not the point. He did pour it. But that's not the point. What's the point? I think the point is in Leviticus eight with this anointing oil, we're gonna see at least a couple things come out to us.
Speaker 1 00:30:46 Number one is that God is showing everyone that the tabernacle, that the priesthood and the priests are consecrated unto him. They are his, they are holy and they're set apart. Second, when this anointing oil is poured out and poured on, it seems to be indicating the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in Aaron's life. In Aaron's life to get more cars, more money, more prosperity, no no to be set apart for the service of the Lord. So he's being empowered here by the spirit of God for the service of the Lord. We see that with some Old Testament kings. They'd be anointed with oil and they would receive power from the spirit of God to do God's work. This is the consecration, this is the rendering. What is holy to God. The holy place and the holy priests being empowered with the spirit of God. Our big idea again today was this, that believers, that means you and me are saved and were set apart for ministry.
Speaker 1 00:31:51 Now that's, you're talking Old Testament, new Testament talking old covenant, new covenant. Still true today. He sets his people apart. And I'm gonna go into a little more detail on this as I move to the so whats, what can we do with this today? Let's first believe this, believe in the great high priest, the anointed one. Jesus, the writer of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus is now the great high priest. He is it. But you also know that Jesus is also the great anointed one. He's called anointed one. That's really what Messiah the Hebrew word means. It means anointed or the anointed one. That is Jesus. He is the great anointed one. So he perfectly fulfills everything that is needed. He is the prophet, he is the priest, he is the king. By prophet I mean that he's the prophet because he is the very word of God.
Speaker 1 00:32:41 What he speaks is true and right and perfect. And everything from his mouth is perfect revelation. He is the word of God. So he's the prophet, he's the priest cuz he did the priestly act of atonement once and for all. He hung on the cross his blood, he died. That's the sacrifice. He did the priestly duty. He's the priest, he's the king because he is a resurrected king. God has given him all authority on heaven and earth. Scripture says so. He is the king. You know, it's kind of like one stop shopping. Who has been to Woodfield Mall? You know what I'm talking about? Anybody? I don't say how many we got. We had less last than people in the nine o'clock. Don't get out much. You guys get out more. Um, how about the, what's that one called in Minnesota, the Great American Mall?
Speaker 1 00:33:23 Thank you. Who's been to that one? Anybody been to that one? Oh, we're doing pretty good. Okay, anyways, how about Costco? Walmart, it's okay. Walmart's great. Take all of those, shove them into one and that's all in one, one. Stop shopping, multiply that by a million, maybe a billion. And you can begin where I'm going with this. Jesus Christ has it all. It's all in him. Everything you need is there in Jesus Christ, prophet, priest, king, all of it. And if you know him as savior, that's my point right now, believe in him. But have confidence today. I mean, walk outta here with more confidence knowing that you can be equipped simply because you are his child. He is the great anointed one. He is the great high priest. But if you don't know him as savior yet, if you've never taken the time to say God, I'm a sinner before you.
Speaker 1 00:34:19 I believe in Jesus Christ. Maybe the spirit of God is prompting you to be, please not under my compulsion, but if the spirit of God is talking to you, ask Jesus to forgive your sins. Believe he's the godman who hung on the cross, died for your sins, and rose again three days. And the Bible says you will be saved. My only question is why wait, because, and I don't say that to be snarky. I'm just saying why wait? Because literally no one else is qualified. No one can deliver you. But Jesus Christ, only him, he's qualified the anointed. One second. So what His believers are to live out their priestly calling. You saw this before Marina read it for us. I'll just read the first verse of it. This is the apostle Peter. He says this in the New Testament, first Peter chapter two, verse nine.
Speaker 1 00:35:11 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may do what? So what should the believer priest do? Proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. I love that He's saying, Christians, you are priests. You are priests. You have a calling. In other words, you have a mission. In other words, you have duties, in other words, something to do. You know this proclaim word means this. And I really like this definition to make known. This is what it means in the sense it's used in scripture to make known openly with wide distribution. I love that. Proclaim is to make no known openly. We're to open, be open with people, tell as many people as we can, as widely distributed as we can. What the excellencies here means, the the uh, qualifications, the the quality of Jesus, what he has done in his mercy. And what did that do? Brings people from darkness to light. It's the gospel, the proclaiming as loudly, well maybe with gentleness, <laugh> as widely as we can. We distribute the truth. We proclaim his excellencies all the time. But we ask sometimes, wait, how do I do that? How is that possible? Here's how we do that, because that's your conversion.
Speaker 1 00:36:33 You were given the Holy Spirit. You weren't given a part of the Holy Spirit. And you never need to take time and go down this rabbit trail of trying to get more filling and more, uh, anointing of the spirit of God. You have the Holy Spirit of God in you. Just walk in obedience. Scripture says, walk in obedience, walk in obedience, and you'll understand what it means to be filled with the spirit of God. Then you have been consecrated this one anointing. You have at the time of your conversion, you were given the Holy Spirit in full. You are anointed in that way. You are consecrated in that way permanently. You are a believer, priest.
