BibleProject - We Are the Royal Priesthood – Priest E7

Episode Date: April 12, 2021

After Jesus’ disciples receive the Holy Spirit, they become God’s temple and the physical embodiment of Jesus on earth. This has huge implications for our understanding of what it means to be the church today and live in unity. Dive into this discussion with Tim and Jon as they unpack what it means for followers of Jesus to be the royal priesthood, now and in eternity.View full show notes from this episode →Timestamps Part one (0:00-6:56)Part two (6:56-16:13)Part three (16:13-31:55)Part four (31:55-42:35)Part five (42:35-end)Show Music “Defender (Instrumental)” by TENTS“Loving Someone You Lost” by The Field Tapes“Friends Circle” by Sitting Duck“Two For Joy” by Foxwood“Fills the Skies” by PilgrimShow produced by Dan Gummel and Cooper Peltz. Show notes by Lindsey Ponder.Powered and distributed by Simplecast.

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it in. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey everybody, this is Tim at Bible Project, and welcome to the Bible Project Podcast. This week is our last episode of exploring the theme of the Royal priesthood in the story of the Bible. Last week we pondered the story of Jesus' ascension where his body left the earthly dimension and where he goes to take up the right hand seat of God the Father and makes priestly intercession on behalf of humanity, even this very moment. But according to the writings of the Apostles in the New Testament, even though the body of Jesus has left physically in one form, it is still present here with us in another

way. If you read in Paul's Letter to the Romans, you will discover this phrase, the body of Christ with the body of Christ, with the body of Messiah. And Paul really believes the collective people of Jesus actually embody the life of Jesus right now. And to fully understand this, we need to see how Paul and also the Apostle Peter weave in language about followers of Jesus as a royal priesthood or as temples or as living sacrifices.

What do all of these images mean and how are they all connected? It's really, really amazing. So that's what we're going to explore today and even more. Of course, thanks for joining us. Here we go. Alright, let's wrap up this conversation on priesthood throughout the Bible. And so what we want to do is talk specifically about how the people who follow Jesus are now part of this idea, this theme of priests, which, quick little summary, this idea of being a priest is working in, typically, a temple is what you would think of, but it's a person who works in the temple, which is a holy place, a sacred place that represents where God, space, and human space are combined with God rules. In temples are often these images of God that represent God in some real way. And now we go all the way to the first pages of the Bible, and we see that God created

a place where he put humans, where his own presence is. So he creates like Eden as like a temple, and then calls the humans his image which are not only in a place Where heaven and earth are united, but now they are people in which God's own authority and character these things are supposed to be embodied by humanity as well and so that's the idea of being a priest and The whole story of the Bible can be thought through the lens of priest. And the whole story of the Bible can be thought through the lens of these priests who have fallen from that vocation needing their own priests now. Like an intercessor of sorts who could come and restore them back to this position of reigning and ruling with

God. And so we talk about how priests have some duties. One is worship, one is intercession, so that the people who don't have this vocation of being a priest can be reconnected to God, reestablish a relationship. And then flip it over, they also they represent God to those people. So they represent people to God and they represent God to people as those divine and human mediators. And they also are mediators of God's blessing, his personal presence and life power that brings abundance. And so we've got these priests throughout the story of the Bible who now doing this as a reflection of how this is supposed to be or all humanity we're doing.

And what all creation is destined for. Yeah, it could be the sacred space where humans all humanity is doing this. But this reflection is problematic in that it's still run by humans who have our own will and tend to rebel. And so this whole story culminates in Jesus who is both the place we're having in Earth connect and the human who his will is completely aligned with God and can truly represent God and truly intercede. He's presented as both the temple and the priest.

He's the place where God and human are one and the person in whom God and human are one. Now, the big priestly intercession, the main event, it seems like at least in my mind, is the death and resurrection, sacrificing himself, which is an idea we've seen established through this priestly theme of Abraham having to sacrifice his family legacy Moses offering to sacrifice himself David offering to sacrifice himself this idea and Isaiah of this ultimate royal priest Will also do that. There's this theme so so that makes sense of what Jesus is doing, he's being that sacrifice and the priest. But then we read in Acts 1 where he comes to the disciples and he's showing his like kind of resurrected, transformed body and teaching them about the King of God, and then after around 40 days, he is ascended into the sky,

and then we got these New Testament writers talking about these apostles writing, Paul and the author of the Hebrews, about what that means for Jesus to be ascended at the right hand of God, which is that he's there interceding on our behalf still. Yeah.

And that's an appreciably role. So Jesus in the heavenly temple, which is supposed to be united with Earth, is not yet united, which has been represented through the Tabernacle and the temple as trying to kind of get this union going again, is now represented in the person of Jesus himself in his life, and now Jesus is sitting in the heavenly temple, interceding on our behalf.

And then you said at the end of the last episode that Jesus actually is still on earth. In one sense. In a sense. Yes. That his body, although his resurrected body is seated at the right hand of God, his body is also in some way still on earth. Yes. And the New Testament authors talk about this as the body of Christ. And when they do, they often talk about it in terms of these priestly duties. Yep, or as a temple or a priesthood.

They usually boast. Yeah, that's right. Did summary. Okay. Yeah, that's right. Good summary. Okay. Yeah. That was perfect. 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc

1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc 1 tbc So let's go back to that ascension passage in Acts 1. What Jesus said right before he was highly exalted on the clouds was that I'm going to send

power from on high and y'all will be my witnesses. Then he ascends, takes his cosmic throne. The next chapter is a pentacost. And what happens in Acts chapter two is on Israel's celebration of the seventh seven. Of course. Pentacost. Oh right. Happened seven times seven days after Passover. seven times seven days after Passover.

Seven times seven days after Passover. Correct. 49 days. It's on the 50th day, which is what Pentecostamians in Greek, Pentecostamians 50. So when the day of Pentecost came, Acts chapter 2, they were all together in one place. Suddenly, there came from the skies, from the skies. Where Jesus was.

Yeah, that's where it was. So something is being sent down by Jesus. Mm-hmm. A noise like a violent rushing wind filling the house, where they were sitting. There appeared to them tongues of fire distributing themselves each resting on everyone. Wind and fire filling and coming to rest.

Come now. On the 7th 7th. On the 7th 7th. Okay. Yeah, because now we're combining, because the 7 is activating the completion of God's creative work. Yep, 7th day rest. Where the God comes and rests in creation to rule and reign. Correct.

But then this fire, the wind and fire. The wind and fire are activating what we saw in Exodus when the tabernacle is set up. Correct. Fire comes down from heaven. Yep. That's right. Does wind in that story too? Actually, the wind was on Mount Sinai.

Wow. And so it's like, what was happening on top of Mount Sinai transfers and goes in over the tent Totally, that's right. And so it all comes together in the culminating Statement verse four and they were all filled so being filled resting wind and fire There's lots of things being activated here in terms of hyperlinks to the Hebrew scriptures But for sure They are all keying into depicting this group of people as a temple, where the divine presence is taking up Presidents. And where did it come from?

The skies, where Jesus is, so God's heavenly temple Presence transfers to an earthly temple that is a group of people. Yeah, that's right. So this is Luke's narrative way of launching that theme in the book of Acts. It continues on in different ways, but this was a ground level metaphor or image that the apostles use right on throughout the New Testament. So for example, in Ephesians 2, Paul can talk about when Jews and non-Jews come together and give their allegiance to Jesus, Ephesians 2, he talks about they become God's house in verse 19, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the Hebrew prophets, the Hebrew scriptures, and the apostles. Jesus, the Messiah Jesus himself being like the foundation stone with corner stone,

in whom the whole building fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom y'all are being built together as a dwelling of God in the Spirit. It's a mouthful. Notice there's multiple metaphors overlapping here. Really? You have the house. How's the one? You have the house. The house is the temple.

It's just another way for the temple. Temple? Yep. So you got all this architectural metaphors, foundation, cornerstone, building, but notice. But then it starts growing. The building which breaks that door. All of a sudden growing and joining together. Yes, now it's like a bot.

It's like a human. It's an organism. Yeah. Temple is a human organism. He's actually going to develop this in chapter four, where he's going to talk about a new humanity, growing and all the limbs and muscles and ligaments fitting together in the body of Christ.

And you talk about the spiritual gifts and so on. That's right. Same, the temple is a human, the sacred space. Well, it's a community of humans. It's a community of humans that are collectively a new human body. They are collectively a metaphoric human body, which is also a temple. Totally. Yeah. And again, this might seem like,

man, can they keep their metaphors straight? But let's go all the way back. The sacred space and the sacred people who inhabit that space are analogies to each other. The space where God and human are one is on analogy to the people, the images of God, in whom God and humanity are one. They are different ways of exploring the same reality. Is this bring us back to that phrase then, what Jesus says, were two or three are together and they're in the midst of it? Yeah, there I am in the middle of them.

Yeah. This idea of the place we're having in Earth unite is where the people come to unite. Yeah, that's right. Those become the same thing. Yeah. So a group of people coming together as one human body are the temple overlap of heaven and earth.

Isn't that interesting? So Luke is making that point in a narrative way by activating all these hyperlinks. Paul is doing it by painting this Picasso-like portrait. No, is it a building? Is it a human? Is it one human or a bunch of humans? And of course, the answer is yes. And so very practically, the thing that you needed to go to the temple for,

now is realized in your midst, right? Uh, yeah, I mean, but it's not as if, after P Pentecost the followers of Jesus are still gathering in the temple They still find it as a meaningful place. So this isn't the birth of like the temple is bad or outmoded It's that the temple is a symbol the points to a reality Which is them and the reality was encountered in the person of Jesus and now through the spirit there the person of Jesus and now through the spirit they are seeing themselves as an earthly corporate manifestation of the heavenly Jesus' body. And so it's another simple. The first generation before the destruction of the temple, they could point to the temple

in Jerusalem as a symbol of the union of heaven and earth, and they could point to their own community. They're both symbols. Well, actually, I think I'm gonna step back from that and I'll say the apostles want us to see something more in the body of the Messiah that is his community, because they want us to see it as the actual earthly embodiment of Jesus,

which is why they so fiercely protect it. I don't have a listed here, but in 1 Corinthians 3, he starts talking about how the apostles are like these farmers that plant seed, that grows and becomes a building. Just like that. He can get, he will be tested with fire. Yeah, what he says is the apostles and leaders

of a community of Jesus will be held to a high standard when it comes to how they led and tried to grow these communities. And then he says, yeah, y'all are a temple. Anyone who ruins the temple of God, God will ruin that person. So I think they see it more as just a symbol. Well, in the same way that they would see the temple as more than a symbol. Yeah. That's true.

There was a reality happening. That's a good point. It's a great point. But I guess what I'm trying to tease out is granted, they still saw value in the temple. And as long as it was there, that's a great place to convene. But the temple's gone. Yeah, that's right. It's okay.

Or the moment that they realized the body of the Messiah wasn't just an Israel thing, but was, as Jesus said, meant to include people of all nations. Then the peace of land, or the architecture attached to that peace of land, becomes less important to people who live outside Jerusalem. And also the activities of the temple can be done now in your own home. Ah, yes. Right? Yes. Perfect. This is where the body of Christ, as a temple, sheds into or you can flip the coin over and communicate the same idea, but now describing the body of Christ as a priesthood, as a royal priesthood, doing the things that priesthood in that space. So let's look at some passages where the apostles are working that theme. 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1%, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1 %, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, Let's start at Romans 12, which we've turned to multiple times in the last year or so. But I've given this a Texan translation. Yeah, to get those y'all's in there. Yeah, totally. Let's just take in the first statement of Romans chapter 12. I'll

let you read it. Therefore, hinge word. Yep. Right. Therefore in light of Romans one through 11. I urge you all brothers and sisters. All y'all. All y'all. This is the text and translation. Oh yeah, I urge all y'all brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to present all y'all's bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Yeah. All y'all means everyone of you together. Yeah, it's plural bodies. All y'all each everyone of you together. Yeah, it's plural bodies. All y'all each have an individual body. So he's writing to the network of house churches, made up of a couple hundred bodies. So all y'all's have different bodies. But then the punch comes to present all y'all's bodies

as a living and holy sacrifice. But the word sacrifice is singular. Yeah, interesting. So there's a few things. First of all, where's this imagery coming from? Yeah, the temple. It's in the first place. Ah, but specifically, not just temple as a whole, but the sacrificial.

The sacrificial. And it's talking what priests do in temple spaces. Yes. Interceedings through sacrifice. Yeah, or giving thanks or surrendering as an act at its core because not all sacrifices that are trying to understand. Okay, it's somewhere thank you. That's right. So what is the common denominator underneath both the thank you sacrifice and an atonement sacrifice? It's surrendering. It's giving back, giving over to.

And this animal symbolizes me. I give the whole of myself over to. I give my body, give your body. And so it uses all this liturgy language. It's acceptable to God. That's from Leviticus. He calls it your, oh, interesting. Now, New American Standard has spiritual service of worship.

Mm-hmm. The word spiritual is not the word spiritual, it's the Greek word logicon, logicon. Logicon. Logicon. It means true and proper. And actually, I think that's how the new international version translates to, let me see.

Oh, true and proper, true and proper service of worship. All of y'all's bodies, so each of you have individually have a body. And all of them together are presented as one sacrifice. One unified surrender. One unified surrender. Active surrender. Active surrender. And that is how you do your priestly duty.

Yeah, that's right. Surrendering collectively surrendering yourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To God's will. Correct. Now, so the whole question is, this is the culmination of Romans 1 through 11. Mm-hmm. What does that mean?

What does Paul have in mind? Like, what counts as an act of communal sacrifice? Right? That's the question. And no, usually I think when this passage is brought up when Christian communities, people fill in what they think a sacrifice would be. And for Paul, it's all about to try, it was essentially to a non-Jew finding unity. Yeah. Is that the main thread here? Yeah, I think that and that's certainly where he's going. In other words, he's talking about specifically acts where people give up something, sacrificing something for the sake of

unity, of creating this new unified community that isn't divided along the same lines as their neighbors in Rome. And which is what he says next, don't be conformed to this world, but let your mind be renewed and transformed so that you can discern what the will of God is, is pleasing, acceptable, perfect will. What is God's will? Read Romans one through eleven. To have a unified family of people

that consists of people of all nations, they're unified by their allegiance to Jesus. And notice what he immediately starts to talk about is how... It's humility. ...that group of people can become unified. Everyone among you should not think more highly of themselves than they are. Think as to have a sound judgment as God gives each member a faith. Look, we have many members in one body, not just a singular body now.

Meaning, what's your favorite to hear? He's gonna establish a metaphor. Listen, I just said you all have your own bodies. So just like I have a lot of different parts of my own body. Yeah, we all have different members in my one, our one body. Yeah. And those members don't all have the same function. So we who are many are one body in the Messiah and individually members

of one another. So he's working the body theme in a new way here. And then he goes on to talk about spiritual gifts, which we often think is just some other category of theology, but Paul, it's all connected. Paul connected to being the priests who are surrendering themselves collectively for the sake of unity, to align themselves with God's will, which is to be a diverse but unified people who are restoring the blessings of Eden. That are the earthly body of the Messiah. The earthly body of the Messiah.

Kind of shading into our family of God's discussions. Yeah, right. But for Paul, the integrity of Jesus' reputation and mission in the earth depends on his followers seeing themselves with all their diversity and difference of theology and opinion, seeing them as one body in the Messiah that offers a unified collective sacrifice to maintain that unity, which is why he goes on, you know, prophecy, serving, teaching, exhorting, leading, and then it culminates with, let love be without hypocrisy, hate what is evil, cling to the good, be devoted to one another in Philadelphia, sibling love. So this is an amazing paragraph. This is worth a lot of meditation.

But it's all one unified stream of thought. The Royal priesthood of Jesus' followers is the earthly body of the Messiah. That's what he's saying here. Jesus is in heaven, ruling from heaven as a royal priest and as earthly body. And that's the same idea of being the image of God. I mean, it's not a different idea.

It's not a different idea. But it's a collective way of thinking about it. And it's a way to honor the fact that God is the true image. Or sorry, Jesus is the true image. Correct, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yep. That now we are, we're extending. Yeah, yeah, notice also the priests are also the sacrifice.

Yeah, I was noticing that. You all was bodies. Not only are we the temple and the priests, we're asked to be a sacrifice. Sacrifice, which again, think back to Abraham and Isaac, Moses and David, in their stories, and in this video series, their acts of self-sacrifice in these high places are the key narrative images of total self-surrender to God.

So yeah, it's like Jesus' sacrifice as the true royal priest, the true image of God. It doesn't then kind of cut us out of the equation, or it's like, okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. Now it's done. Jesus' death on the cross wasn't the last sacrifice that needed to be made. Yeah, you know, and I alluded to that kind of mystery when I, in the last episode, with Paul's little statement about how he's filling up in himself or completing in himself the suffering. Yeah.

Yeah, so yeah, and so not to be misunderstood, along with Hebrews, there is a once and for all ultimate finality to what Jesus did to reconcile God and Mani through his death. But that act evil was overcome. Yeah, and yeah, but that reconciliation was made. That's right. But that act needs to be imitated and implemented continually by all of the bodies of Jesus' followers who are collectively the body of Jesus that's continually sacrificing itself. These are very powerful ideas. I mean, this is like really bedrock concepts for conceiving of the mission and purpose of a local church, and of for every local church to consider what does it mean to act in unity with all of the other expressions of the body of the Messiah that are around me.

And Protestantism has not. Well, I think someone from Catholic perspective would say, and this is why Protestants really need to eat some humble pie. And rethink how their concept of church unity really has any integrity. I don't know. I don't have answers here. I'm just saying this is a real issue in the history of the church.

Well, it's a real issue even now. And now, of course. Yeah. And, you know, I'm coming from an American environment that's politically charged right now. Yeah, sure. And there's a very clear disunity. Along those lines. Along those lines. Yeah, within the community of Jesus. Within the community of Jesus. Yeah. And it feels in reputable. It feels like overwhelmingrobble, it feels like overwhelming. Yes, it does.

All the bodies bring one collective unified sacrifice. Like that feels like a pipe dream. Feels pretty insurmountable right now. I suppose it probably feels about as insurmountable as Abraham and Sarah thinking of how they could have a kid or write. I mean, this image of total surrender means coming to the end of your own resources and stepping out in an act of radical trust into an unknown reality, trusting that God can bring about

new creation. Yeah, I don't know. I am more, personally, I'm more in a state of lament right now. Both at the state of the church and it's lack of integrity, but also its inability to say anything prophetic to the world because of its disunity. And I think Paul knew that. That's why unity is such an important theme here anyhow. It's kind of depressing. It is depressing. I want to like be inspired when I read this and said I'm like, boy.

Well, and Paul is speaking in corporate communal terms right here, you know. So yes, individual acts of love and self-sacrifice to bridge the divides that separate parts of the church. That's a part of this, but Paul's thinking in very corporate structural language here of all y'all's bodies coming together and you're thinking in very corporate terms. Yeah, and so to do something corporately, you already need a bit of unity before you can come and sacrifice unity. Yeah, totally. Yeah, or you need to somehow find a way to create surrender.

Our current way is of thinking about what it means to be a part of the people of Jesus and dreaming up new realities that could communicate this vision to the world. But this is a part of the royal priestly calling of the body of the Messiah the earthly body of the Messiah It's this unified witness and self-surrender and I guess Paul's context here in Rome was also pretty Yeah, perilous pretty

Insurmountable in some ways. Yeah, I mean I mean, he wasn't asking for something simple here. No, you're right. You have these separate house churches divided along, yeah, an ethnic cultural boundary lines, and he's asking them to integrate it from... Lay it down. Start worshiping together, and start sharing their lives together.

Yep. When I read the New Testament, I don't feel like I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I've actually been quite serious. I basically feel like I'm hardly a Christian. Yeah, I mean, it's intense. And I know that's a part of the point is like to, it begins by recognizing that I fail in many ways to live up to the story and that there is a covering for that, you know?

But actually, a friend who put this recently, he's just like, if my Christianity becomes completely aspirational, am I really a Christian? Yeah, right. And if it's all just ideals. It's like calling yourself a runner when all you do is just think about running. Yeah, I don't know. Read about runners. Yeah, current events have really, I don't know, when all you do is just think about running,

read about runners. Yeah, current events have really, I don't know, forced me into a lot of introspection and honesty, self honesty. And I know it's a healthy place to be. I hope a year from now I can feel like I've made some. Yeah, I mean, the current events have exposed the disunity and actually I think driven a wedge deeper into a lot of it, at least from what I've seen.

And this is, this is American politics, what I'm talking about, but also the pandemic, I think has actually created this, this dividing wall. Yep, pandemic. Yeah. dividing wall. Yep, pandemic. Yeah. And then you've got all the discussion around race and justice. That's right. And that's become a massive. Yep. Just in that one, the church has, for the most part, the dominant white church in America has had a very active role in perpetuating racial segregation. Even though there are very important exceptions to that, they haven't been able to turn the tide on mainstream level. But all the bodies, they can't even agree if it's an issue. It's totally.

Yeah, totally. And so when there's not even enough unity to agree that there's something we need to surrender, then how would a unified surrendering ever take place? Yeah, I guess you're right. And I think that's true of social justice issues, but it's also true of just this really practical health stuff. Yeah. Like, does it matter that this many people are dying?

Yeah. Does it help by doing this or that? Should we do this or that? There's not even an agreement. Like those basic kind of things. Among followers of Jesus. Among followers of Jesus. Yeah, that's right.

Oh, Lord, have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. I'm going to be a little bit more careful.

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1 tbc dc 1 tbc dc 1 tbc dc 1 tbc dc 1 tbc dc 1 tbc dc 1 tbc dc So we're supposed to be the priest. Yeah, here. Let's turn to another apostle to see about the guidance that he would give.

Peter, he spent a lot of time with Jesus. And he talks in chapter 2 of his first letter. He talks about Jesus, this in chapter two of his first letter. He talks about Jesus. This is in chapter two verse four. He talks about him as a living stone that has been rejected by humans, but is choice and precious in the eyes of God. We're stepping right into the context here. The paragraphs before and after this

are all woven together, really tight. But basically he talks about Jesus as the temple. That's what he means by living stone. What he means by a stone. And he's here, he's activating stuff from the Book of Daniel and the Book of Isaiah. Anyway. So just like Jesus is a human temple, living stone, verse 5, all y'all also are living stones plural, being built up into a house of the spirit, a spiritual house, by which he doesn't

mean a non-material house, what he means is a house in dwelt by God's Spirit. That is a holy priesthood, for it's a temple, and it's a priesthood, offering up spiritual that is holy spirit empowered, sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now, he doesn't say here that the house that is the priesthood is also the sacrifice, it's more that y'all are the temple and the priesthood offering sacrifices. Does that make sense?

Where in Romans they were kind of all the same. Yeah, he doesn't turn up the volume on the priest offering themselves as a sacrifice. Here it's priest offering sacrifices in the verbal kind of the moment. And what kind of sacrifices does he have in mind here exactly? Okay, so let's hold that question. Okay.

So he's gonna go on to talk about, he riffs on the book of Isaiah, the Stone Temple theme in the book of Isaiah. And then he comes down to verse 9 and he says, but y'all are a chosen race. Strange thing to say. Especially to a community of made up of... Multi-racial community. Well, a multiracial community to call them a race. Yeah.

A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's possession, so that you may announce the excellence of the one who summoned you out of darkness and in to the marvelous light. Which is that priestly duty of worship? Yeah, one of the priestly duties. Yeah, to make noise or funnel noise up to increase the honor of God among the nations. Yeah. So all those phrases chosen race,

he's actually gotten from the book of Isaiah. He's adopted that phrase, a chosen race, from chapter 43. We don't have time. It's such a cool. Is it at 43? Yeah. The whole paragraph for 16 to 21 is really cool. Read it and then take a walk with a cup of tea? Totally. Yeah, or a cup of coffee, whatever it is you do. But basically it recalls the Exodus and then says I'm going to do a new thing, a new Exodus. But then what he talks about is using the Eden creation narrative from Genesis 2 about a desert that God fills with water and grows a garden. And then the garden is my chosen race, my chosen people.

The garden is? I give three, oh excuse me, excuse me. No, the waters grow a garden in the wilderness and they give drink to my chosen people, which is evoking the wilderness narratives after the Exodus. And these are the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. It's a new Exodus people

Who I see and out's God's praise cool and then those other three royal priesthood Holy Nation God's own possession are all taken from the first moments at Mount of Israel at Mount Sinai Exodus 19 where he calls them a kingdom of priests. Yeah among the nations And he calls them my own possession among the people in a holy nation. Yeah. So one of the sacrifices or roles that they play is praise. But what are the other things? Yeah, what are these sacrifices?

The constant. So you have to go on to read Peter. And what he continues to go on and talk about it through the letter is a community of mutual submission and honoring, lifting up others is more important than yourself. Well, this brings us right back to Romans 12. It's right back to Romans 12. Now, he's making it concrete into, for century, Asia Minor culture, for what that kind of community would look like, but it gives you, it gives you a picture.

I like this. If you go throughout the rest of the New Testament and you look up sacrifice language, you get a statement like this. Actually, this is great. In Hebrews 13, I'll let you read this. This is a great line. Hebrews 13, 15 and 16. Through Jesus, they're for let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. So there's the worship again. The fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

And do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices God has pleased. Yeah. Sharing your stuff. Doing good work. Doing tov. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Give away your stuff and serve people. Sharing and serving. Yeah. Spiritual or sacrifices. Yeah. So he names two of these in the form of praise, worship, and then surrendering what belongs to you and giving it to others. That is a sacrifice to God.

So it isn't interesting in the temple surrendering an animal to be sacrificed is giving something that's yours and giving it to God. But now it's like this re-envisioning that sacrifice, there's something underneath that. The surrender to God is actually surrendering something to somebody else. That is your surrendering to God. Interesting transformation of the image.

So Peter, he writes in a different way, but he uses similar metaphors, but it's all the same basic idea here. That is what Paul's doing. It really comes back to unity. Yeah. Unity achieved through sacrificing for one another, for the sake of then being able to continue Jesus' ministry, which is healing and restoration of all creation. That's right.

So let's go back to the roles of the priests priests worship. We've talked about that using words and poetry and art and song fruit of the lips, fruit of the lips, sacred prices that are here transformed into acts of service and sharing with people who don't have what I have and And humility at what? Humility, yes. What was what? It's called out in Romans 12. Yeah, let's also think, let's reflect on intercession as a role. So let's say, after hearing these words,

let's say you got a Priscilla who is still living in Rome and these house churches are still fractured and Paul's been arrested and executed by Nero. And how would Priscilla wake up one morning and read Paul's words about present all y'all's bodies? One of them might be that she notices that in this one house church, like there's these Gentiles who are just so angry because it's maybe a Jewish merchant and he always wants to make sure that everything's kosher, all the foods kosher.

Yeah. Yeah, on the on the Lord's day when they gather and he thinks it's stupid and he does want to go to kosher obsession. Yeah, and so Priscilla might first offer a long prayer to God on behalf of these two followers of Jesus in conflict and take up their concerns before God. But then she also might go get involved and try and mediate a compromise. This would be a royal priestly act of interceding and mediating and trying to reconcile people. I think these are the kinds of things that Paul would have in mind when he writes, all he all surrender your bodies as a unified sacrifice, or making sacrifices that are acceptable to God. I think that's where our imaginations are supposed to go. Yeah, that's helpful to make it more concrete. The big vision of this unified body feels so overwhelming, but just this simple act of, okay, I can make sacrificial

priestly. And it's a priestly thing to do. Yeah. Maybe it's just to help with one small little conflict. Yeah. But that could be my contribution. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, think of the priestly categories of representation, where are there people or circumstances in my neighborhood where I could be a representation of the generosity and love of God. And so inserting yourself into those situations and with generosity and love is a way of priestly mediation. You're representing God's purpose and concern into that situation. It's a priestly act, just like in that little imaginary scenario, Priscilla's involvement in this conflict is also a priestly act, bringing the concerns of my church community or neighborhood before God,

like Moses up on the mountain, interceding on behalf of the people. It's a very powerful set of images to allow let's soak into our imagination, to think about the daily calling of a church, community, or of an individual follower of Jesus. for kids. In the last book of the Bible, in the Revelation, there are four times in the book where John evokes that phrase, Kingdom of Priest, Royal Priest, and then in the last paragraph of the narrative vision, he brings all the images together.

So in the opening lines, he talks about how Jesus in chapter one, verse six, he loves us and has liberated us from our sins by his blood and made us into a kingdom of priests who serve his God and Father. And that little line is repeated in chapter 5. In the throne room, this is when the lamb is opening the scroll of God's purposes for history.

And there's a group of choir around him. This is all happening in the heavenly temple. And they say that you have made all these people that you purchase from every nation, a kingdom of priests who serve our God who will reign on the earth. See the image of God. Yeah, God created humanity to be his image. So the idea would always to have become a whole people who are priests. Yeah, that's right. Not just one. Not just one, not just two, not just a handful, not just a slight, but just like people from every tribe language people in Asia. Yeah. Yeah. And then when that doesn't happen and it spirals out of control and he selects Abraham and Sarah, he says, I'm going to restore the blessing through your family, but not just for you.

Yes. So that you guys can be priests, basic like in this sense, but for all the nations. Yeah, it's this idea of when Moses is at Sinai and God invites everyone up to be Kingdom of priests. Correct. It's this echoing of like this is where this is all heading a Kingdom of priests. Yeah, and then in the revelation. That's what we see. Yeah, that's right. So in the last, again, paragraph of the narrative vision in Revelation 22, this famous image, he sees coming out of the city that is the unified heaven and earth. He sees heavenly city coming down to earth. It's in chapter 21. Now he sees a river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and the throne of the Lamb because he sits at the right hand. Because Jesus sits at their hand. And the two are one. Down the middle of the great city, on each side of the river stood the tree of life. We've talked about this for. Somehow the tree life is now

singular tree. Surrounding one river. Which I guess I didn't really realize is also a street. The river is kind of also a street. Yeah, totally. What does that happen down the middle of the great street of the city? Because a river down a street would really be like a two streets surrounding a river. I think this is activating the highway motif from the book of Isaiah. Verse three no longer will there be any curse on doing Genesis three.

And the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city and his servants will serve him. There's that word, sir, it's the word work. It's the corresponding word to match what he says to Adam and Eve to work, the garden and take care for it. And here it's, his servants will serve. His workers will work.

His worshipers will worship. Oh, this is the word. Yep, it's the Greek word. Why is it served here? Because we talk about its worship and work. Oh, these are the same words. And serve. Hebrew word of odd, to work, to worship and serve.

All same. All its one Hebrew word. Yep. There will be no more night. Let's go back to Genesis 1 verse 2. The Yep, there will be no more night. Let's go back to Genesis 1 verse 2. The darkness, it will be no more night. They won't need the light of a lamp or the light of a sun. They'll just need the day one light of Genesis 1, right?

That emanates from God's own self, blessed sentence, and they will reign. The servants, the priestly servants will reign forever dark. You won't need the lamp or the sun, but doesn't mean there't no sun, huh? Oh, it's envisioning as if the whole story of the Bible is retooled just within the framework of the first day. Yeah. About the darkness containing the light and providing all the light that's necessary.

Right. Yeah. Yes, and they will reign forever and ever. Yeah, the royal priesthood. So in this last video, it's about the installation of a human as the cosmic Royal Priest. Yeah, but it can never just be about that one. It's about that one's earthly body, a unified new humanity that is recapturing their vocation as the Royal Priesthood. And then this is a moment where it all comes together again. Heaven and Earth are one and the royal priest and his priesthood are all together in the

same place. I'm thinking of our drawing. In many ways, the sacrifice theme is as much of much a theme in this video on the high place. Like Abraham, Moses, and David, all are gonna in this video series, we'll have their own high places for self-sacrifice, Jesus. And then in this video, once Jesus is exalted into the heavens, but you still have a group of people who are up on the high place. What's the high place?

Just, I don't know, my street. My home, my family. But it's just giving us an imagination. I'm to see myself as on Mount Mariah, the sacrificing myself. And needing to surrender the thing that I think I can't live without to discover the power and love of God. Yeah.

My calling as a royal priest. The unity of God's people and the will of God can be experienced to your sacrifice. Yeah. Wow. This will be really cool. So again, for this video, recalling Eden, the ideal, the roles of the priest, Jesus, in his ascension, cosmic world, priest in heaven, doing those things, his earthly body called to do those things until the reunification of heaven and earth. I think that's just creates a nice tight three movements, working through a core set of motifs. It makes sense by itself. There's some hiccups for how it fits with everything in my mind.

No, I think about that more. Okay, cool. John Collins, as always a pleasure. Yeah. To talk about the biblical theme with you. Thank you everybody for joining us on this episode, and if you've listened all the way through this series on the Royal Priesthood way to go. That's it for our conversation on this topic.

We're gonna be exploring two biblical scholars who have done important research on priesthood in the Bible and especially the figure of Melchizedek in the book of Genesis and the New Testament letter to the Hebrews. We're excited to share those with you. We're also going to do one question and response episode on this series. Today's show was produced by Dan Gummel. Our show notes are from Lindsay Ponder and our theme music is by the band Tents. Our show notes are from Lindsay Ponder and our theme music is by the band Tents. BioProject is a crowd-funded endeavor in Portland, Oregon. We are making free resources to help people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And it's free because of the generosity of people all around the world, including many of you.

Thank you so much for being part of this with us. Hi, this is Queenie Crystal in African-The UK. I first heard about Bible project when I was browsing YouTube for some Christian material. I used it to understand the overall narrative and study. My favourite thing about it is how easy it makes it for me to understand themes throughout. We believe the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus. We are a crowdfunded project by people like me. Find free videos, study notes, podcasts, classes and more at BibleProject.com you