LABOR DAY WEEKEND CONFERENCE September 2-5, 2016 GENERAL SUBJECT: THE PRACTICE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT PRIESTHOOD IN THE CHURCH LIFE Message One The Living of the New Testament Priests Scripture Reading: Exo. 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; Heb. 10:5-10; John 6:57, 63; Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14; Psa. 90:1; John 15:5; 14:23 I. The New Testament teaches us clearly that all the believers are priests Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6: 1 A. In the New Testament, we see in 1 Peter 2 that you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired for a possession 1 Pet. 2:9. 2 B. Revelation chapter one also says clearly that [Jesus Christ] loves us and has loosed us from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father Rev. 1:5-6. C. We who are saved and are cleansed by the precious blood of the Lord are separated by God specifically to be His priests. D. The Old Testament priesthood is a shadow of the New Testament priesthood, and the New Testament priesthood is the reality of the Old Testament priesthood; just as a photograph of a person is a picture of that person, so the Old Testament priesthood is a picture of the New Testament priesthood. II. We need to see what a priest is in the New Testament: 3 A. A priest is a person who lives solely for God s interests and serves Him Rom. 14:7-8; 2 Cor. 5:15. B. A priest is one who receives God, who is filled, saturated, and permeated with God, and who has God flowing out of him so that he might be a living expression of God 1 Pet. 2:5, 9. C. A priest is a person who contacts God in the mingling with God and one who is absolutely and thoroughly mingled with God 1 Cor. 6:17; John 14:20. D. A priest is a person who ministers to the Lord Acts 13:1-4a. III. Christ is the food of the priests John 6:57, 63; Jer. 15:16: 4 A. The living of the priests is Christ; they not only handle Christ, but they also eat of Him; they must experience Him in a very inward and subjective way: 1. The priests do not eat ordinary food; instead, they have a priestly diet and eat priestly food; their food, as typified by the offerings, is Christ. 5 2. The priests were constituted of the food they ate, for we always become what we eat. B. The different offerings typify the different aspects of Christ to us; the priests were destined to live by these offerings, for they ate what they offered, and they ate it properly in a regulated way: 1. For example, the whole trespass offering was to be eaten by the priests; this means that when we minister Christ as the Savior to a lost person, not only will the person be saved, but we will also be fed with Christ while we are ministering Him in this way; by doing this we enjoy Christ within John 4:34. 2. This is also true with the sin offering, the peace offering, and the meal offering; the more we handle Christ and minister Him to others, the more we feed upon Him. C. The bread of the presence on the table typifies Christ as the life supply of God s priests, enabling them not only to live but to serve God; this bread indicates that God s people should no longer live by themselves but by Christ as their life supply 6:57; Exo. 25:30, note 1:
1. At the table of the bread of the Presence we feed on Christ to enjoy Him and to taste Him; we do not simply eat Him we assimilate Him. 2. To assimilate Christ takes some time; five or ten minutes for morning revival is not sufficient; according to our experience, we need at least thirty minutes. 3. We must stay, at the table of the bread of the Presence to be nourished and filled so that we might be full of the life supply. IV. Christ is the clothing of the priests Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14: A. Although we have been baptized into Christ and are already in Christ (6:3; Gal. 3:27), we must still put Him on; to put on Christ is to live by Christ (2:20) and to live out Christ (Phil. 1:21), thus magnifying Christ (v. 20). B. In typology garments signify expression (cf. Isa. 64:6; Rev. 19:8); the priestly garments signify the serving priests expression of Christ; according to the Bible, no one was clothed more beautifully than the priests. C. The priestly garments, being mainly for glory and for beauty, signify the expression of Christ s divine glory and human beauty Exo. 28:2: 1. Glory is related to Christ s divinity, His divine attributes (John 1:14; Heb. 1:3), and beauty, to Christ s humanity, His human virtues. 2. Christ s divinity, typified by the gold of the priestly garments, is for glory, and His humanity, typified by the blue, purple, and scarlet strands and the fine linen (Exo. 28:5), is for beauty. 3. A life that expresses Christ with the divine glory and human beauty sanctifies and qualifies us to be the priesthood Phil. 1:20; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Gal. 6:17; cf. Acts 6:15. V. Christ is the dwelling of the priests Psa. 90:1; 91:1; 27:4; John 15:5; 14:23: A. The garments of the priests were composed of the same material as the tabernacle: 1. The curtains, the veil, and the screen at the entrance of the tabernacle were made with blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen, and the priestly garments contained these materials as well Exo. 26:1, 5-6, 31, 36; 28:8. 2. The tabernacle had many items made of gold, and the priestly garments were made with gold thread and gold settings for the precious stones vv. 6, 11, 13,20; 39:3. 3. Thus, in principle, the materials of the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, were worn by the priests; this simply means that what the priests wore was their abiding place; their clothing was their housing cf. 2 Cor. 5:1-4. 4. In the Old Testament the priests clothing was the same as the tabernacle, and in the New Testament both Christ and the church as the tabernacle, the house of God (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:15-16), are the place where the priests dwell. 5. The new man is the Body of Christ, and to put on the new man means to put on Christ as the Body, which is to be clothed with the Body; in other words, we must wear the Body; the Body is our clothing and our covering Eph. 4:22-24; 2:15-16. B. In the New Testament God s spiritual house, His dwelling place, the church, is the built-up priests; when we are filled with Christ and express Him, we become the church in reality; then we, together with God, have a place to rest, to dwell, and to abide Psa. 132:8, 13-18; Isa. 66:1-2. C. Every moment we must be found enjoying Christ so that an expression of Him may emanate from within us; Christ expressed from within us all is the church, the holy priesthood as God s spiritual house, the mutual dwelling place of God and man Psa. 90:1; 91:1; John 15:5; 14:23; Eph. 3:16-17; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:3, 22.
Excerpts from the Ministry: When we came into the Lord s recovery, from the beginning we saw clearly that God s intention is for all His people to fulfill the duty of the priesthood. In the Old Testament, God saved the children of Israel out of Egypt, saying, I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself... and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation (Exo. 19:4, 6). God s desire was for the nation of Israel to be a kingdom of priests in which every individual was a priest. Unfortunately, due to their rebellion and failure, most of the Israelites lost the priesthood. Originally, God ordained that the whole nation of Israel were to be priests. Later, only the house of Aaron became the priests. Those of the tribe of Levi were made only helpers to the priests in miscellaneous affairs. Because of this, in the Old Testament there was a separation between the clergy; which were the priests, and the ordinary people. In the New Testament, we see in 1 Peter 2 that you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession (v. 9). Revelation chapter one also says clearly that [He] loves us and has loosed us from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father (vv. 5-6). We who are saved and are cleansed by the precious blood of the Lord are separated by God specifically to be His priests. For this reason, in the New Testament, God reiterated His intention to make every one of His children a member of the priesthood. Unfortunately, the failure of God s people in the Old Testament was repeated by His people in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel lost the priesthood due to their failure. As a result, God had to change His way of making the whole nation the priests to one of making the house of Aaron the priests. In the New Testament age, the separation between the clergy and the laity has gradually become a custom and a tradition. This is something man-made and is not pleasing to God. (The New Testament Priests of the Gospel, Chapter 1, pp. 8-9) THE LIVING OF THE PRIESTS We must continue to examine the relationship between Christ and the priesthood by seeing the living of the priests. As far as their living is concerned, the priests need to eat so that they might be strengthened, nourished, and filled within, and they need to be clothed so that they might be covered without. Food and clothing are the two main items of the living of the priests. Of course, besides food and clothing, there is the matter of their dwelling, which will be covered in the next chapter. CHRIST AS THE FOOD OF THE PRIESTS Now we see that the living of the priests is also Christ. They not only handle Christ, but they also eat of Him. They must experience Him in a very inward and subjective way. They handle Christ not only as the merchandise for others but also as the food for themselves. The different offerings typify the different aspects of Christ to us. The priests were destined to live by these offerings, for they ate what they offered, and they ate it properly in a regulated way. At certain times, they ate certain offerings at a certain place. If we had the time, we would see where we should enjoy the various riches of Christ. It is very interesting and even marvelous. In all my travels to so many places, I have noticed that Christians eat in different ways. Yet, how many of them know how to eat Christ? Christians today are very careless about Christ, and many real Christians do not even relate the word enjoyment to Christ. They know how to believe in Christ, follow Christ, know Christ, worship Christ, and preach Christ, but they have never heard about enjoying Christ by feeding upon Him. In 1958 I ministered in a certain city that we should eat Christ. Following the message, a young man told me, Brother, your message is good, but you use a wild word. How can you say that we should eat the Lord Jesus? I replied, If my word is wild, then the Lord s word is also wild. He says in John 6:57, He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. We must eat Him. He also said, I am the bread of life (v. 35). Bread is to be eaten.
The Bread of the Presence Although we cannot cover all the offerings, let us illustrate what the bread of the Presence means to us. The bread of the Presence is one of the foods for the priests, and we have seen that it signifies Christ as our life and life supply. To handle Christ as the bread of the Presence and to minister Him to others, we must first enjoy and feed on Him as the bread of the Presence. This means that we must experience Christ as the inner life and the life supply by feeding on Him. Not many Christians know how to feed on Christ. We must learn to feed on Him, to take Him in, and to enjoy Him as our spiritual food. When we minister Christ to others, we also feed ourselves with Him. While we are feeding others, we are fed. Every time I minister, the first one to be fed is myself. After the ministry I am satisfied. I am satisfied by my ministering of Christ to others. The Trespass Offering Another example is the trespass offering. The whole trespass offering was to be eaten by the priests. This means that when we minister Christ as the Savior to a lost person, not only will the person be saved, but we will also be fed with Christ while we are ministering Him in this way. By doing this we enjoy Christ within. While we are ministering Christ to others, regardless in what aspect, we are fed and we enjoy Him. Some brothers have told me, Brother Lee, we cannot stop preaching the gospel. If we do not minister Christ to the sinners, we are hungry. Their spiritual food was the very Christ whom they ministered to others as the trespass offering. If we are lazy and do not go out to reach others, we are hungry within. But when we go out to minister Christ to others as the trespass offering, we are satisfied. After we return home, we have the sense that we are really full. This is the way to eat Christ. We handle Christ as the trespass offering for others. When Christ as the trespass offering becomes the Savior to others, He becomes the food to us. What is our food? It must be Christ, not a Christ in doctrine or teaching, but Christ in our ministry. Christ ministered to others as the trespass offering will be their Savior and our food. This is also true with the sin offering, the peace offering, and the meal offering. I cannot elaborate on all the items, but the principle is clear. The more we handle Christ and minister Him to others, the more we feed upon Him. We cannot minister an objective Christ, but One who is so subjective to us. He as our merchandise is also our food, for we must eat what we sell. The more I speak about Christ, the more I am satisfied. If this is not true, then I am a false minister. The more I talk with you about Christ and present Christ to you, the more I feed on Christ. While I am ministering Him, I am feeding on Him. He is so subjective to me. I am not selling Christ by my thinking mind, but by my enjoying spirit. He is my food. Nothing is so subjective to us as food. The food we eat becomes our very being after a short period of time. We must experience Christ in such a subjective way. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol. 1 The Priesthood, Chapter 9, pp. 495-498) EXPRESSION THROUGH ENJOYMENT We have seen that the first item of the living of the priests is to feast on Christ. This means to take Christ in. Day by day we have at least three meals in which we do nothing but take in food. Whatever we take into us by our eating eventually becomes a part of us. In the past we have taken in much chicken, eggs, meat, potatoes, and many other things. Where are the chickens now? Where are the eggs? We are now both the chickens and the eggs. That is, our physical being has become a composite of all the things we have ever eaten. The living of the priesthood is primarily to take in Christ. If we are to realize the priesthood, we must know how to take Christ in day by day. Then whatever we eat of Him will become our very constituent.
Second, we have seen that the Christ whom we have taken in becomes our manifestation. This is our clothing. The food we take in is the inner supply, and the clothing we wear is the outer expression of what we have taken in. If we feed on Christ all day, eventually He will be expressed from within us. The more we eat of Him, the more He will be expressed, and this expression is the clothing. As we enjoy Christ daily, we will express Him. What we enjoy is Christ taken within, and what we express is Christ manifested without. This manifestation is the heavenly, spiritual clothing. The clothing of the priest is mainly composed of five different elements: gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. The expression of Christ through us is manifested in these five ways. First of all, Christ should be manifested through us as the gold, which represents the divine nature. We must give others the impression that we have in us something better than humanity. This is the gold, the divine life, the nature of God Himself expressed through us. The expression of Christ in our daily living must have these elements. Others will realize that we are not only human beings, but that we have something higher, something which no human words can express. This spiritual gold that is in us is not our natural behavior but something divine, something of the nature of God. Next, our expression of Christ must also have the fine linen, which signifies the pure righteousness of Christ. We must be so pure, so righteous, and so just. If Christ is in us and we enjoy Him as our life, we will be so honest, so righteous, and so pure. All human beings, even the most moral ones, are not so pure or so just. But the priesthood is a real expression of honesty, justice, and righteousness. The priesthood must also express the blue, which signifies heavenliness. We are living on the earth, but we are not earthly persons; we are heavenly persons. We are persons of the heavens and even persons in the heavens. Does our living have the expression of the heavenly blue? There must also be the expression of the purple. In ancient history purple was the royal color. All those in a royal family, especially the king, wore purple clothing. Thus, purple signifies royalty and kingly dignity. In our expression of Christ, we must have this kingly dignity. We should not be so mean or common. Sometimes when we deal with others, we lose our dignity. But if we live by Christ, we will have the spiritual, divine dignity expressed through us. Then there is the scarlet. After I had been with Brother Watchman Nee for quite a long time, I noticed that whenever we prayed together, he would always utter some deep words about applying the blood of the Lord Jesus. Even at the meeting of the Lord s table, he uttered many deep words to apply the blood. I always had the sense of the scarlet when I was around him. Whenever he prayed, he always applied the blood of the Lord Jesus. Why? Because he knew redemption. We can never come to the Lord without applying the blood. Not one of the priests could get into the Holy Place without the blood. Regardless of whether we sense that we are sinful or not, we are still sinful, for we are still in the old nature, and we are still walking on this dirty earth. In many ways, consciously and unconsciously, we have been defiled and therefore need to apply the blood. We must always be showing others that we cannot live without the scarlet color, meaning that we cannot live without the Lord s redeeming blood. In our expression of Christ we must give others the impression that we always have the realization that we are sinful, defiled, and dirty. We always need the cleansing of the blood and must give others the sense that we live by the blood. We can never enjoy Christ as our life without applying the blood to cleanse us and to cover us. In the expression of Christ we must have the divine nature, the purity and righteousness, the heavenliness, the kingly dignity, and the redemption. These are the items in the expression of Christ. If we express Him, we will express Him as all these items. If we are ones who are feasting on Christ and enjoying Him day by day, spontaneously we will give others the impression of the divine nature, the purity, the heavenliness, the kingship, and the
redemption of Christ. When others contact us or pray with us, they will sense that we are full of the divine nature. They will sense in us the righteousness and the heavenliness. The more they talk with us, the more they will feel that they are in the heavens. Our presence will simply become the heavens to them. When we are filled with Christ, we will express the heavenliness of Christ. Finally, others will also sense in us His kingship and redemption. This garment of the priest is the glorious expression of Christ. BUILDING THROUGH EXPRESSION It is very interesting to notice that the garments of the priests are composed of the same materials as the tabernacle. Their garments were made of gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet; the tabernacle was also made with gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. This simply means that what the priests wore was their abiding place. Their clothing was their housing. The church is just the expression of Christ from within so many saints. Christ expressed from within us all is the church. If we do not have this expression of Christ, we do not have the church. In a sense we may rightly say that we are the church, but the real church life is the expression of Christ. So the clothing of the priests was their housing and their dwelling place. Their clothing was the same as the tabernacle, and the tabernacle was the place where they dwelt. We must realize that the priests today are God s dwelling place, which was typified by the tabernacle. First Peter 2:5 says, You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood. We have pointed out previously that the word priesthood here means a body of priests. It does not mean the office of the priests. Priesthood in Hebrews 7:11 means the office of the priests, but here in 1 Peter 2:5, it means the body of priests. The holy priesthood is a spiritual house, a corporate body of priests. When we are filled and saturated with Christ, expressing Him in an accurate and full way, we will become God s dwelling place. We will become the tabernacle according to type. The tabernacle could never be separated from the priests. Where there are the priests, there is always the tabernacle, and where there is the tabernacle, there are always the priests. The priests go with the tabernacle, and the tabernacle goes with the priests. The New Testament tells us clearly that the priests are the spiritual house the tabernacle. How do we consider ourselves? Do we consider ourselves to be a proper dwelling place of God a spiritual house? As we have mentioned, the tabernacle is an expression of gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. If we say that we are God s dwelling place, God s tabernacle, do we express the gold? Do we have the purity? Do we express the blue, the purple, and the scarlet? If not, then what do we express? Is it something natural? Is it something of the flesh? If we express something natural, something of the flesh, we are not a suitable tabernacle of God. We must only have the expression of gold, pure linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. Then we are qualified to be God s spiritual house the tabernacle. When we express Christ in such an adequate way, we have put on the new man. That is, we have put on the church; we are clothed with the Body of Christ. (The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol. 1, The Priesthood, Chapter 10, pp. 504-508) References and Further Reading: 1. The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 19, No. 6, Message 2, The Definition of a Priest and Message 3, Christ as the Food, Clothing, and Dwelling of the Priests 2. The Priesthood, Chapter 1, 9, and 10
Message Two The Building of the New Testament Priests Scripture Reading: Exo. 25:8; 27:20-28:2, 15-30; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Eph. 4:16 I. Life and building are the basic and central revelation of the Bible: 6 A. Life is the Triune God embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit dispensing Himself into us for our enjoyment, and building is the church, the Body of Christ, God s spiritual house, as the enlargement and expansion of God for the corporate expression of God Gen. 2:8-9, 22; Matt. 16:18; Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:16. B. The Lord s recovery is the recovery of life and building for us to be built up to be the church as the house of God and the Body of Christ 2:21-22; Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 12:12, 27; Col. 3:4, 15; 2:19. C. The central vision of the Bible the building of the house of God can be considered the highlight of the Bible and also the essence extracted from the Bible Exo. 25:8; 40:17-35; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15; Rev. 21:2-3. II. In the sequence of the divine record in Exodus, the priesthood follows the tabernacle Exo. 27:20 28:2: 7 A. Exodus 27:20-21 reveals that immediately after the tabernacle came into existence, there was the need of the priesthood for the lighting of the lamps; this indicates that, spiritually speaking, the priesthood and the tabernacle are one entity. B. In typology the priesthood and the tabernacle as one entity signify the church composed of God s redeemed people as a spiritual house and a priesthood 25:8; 28:1. C. Through the pictures in the book of Exodus, God reveals that His redeemed people are both the tabernacle and the priesthood; with the fulfillment of the types in the New Testament, the tabernacle and the priesthood are put together 1 Pet. 2:5. III. The fact that the tabernacle is mentioned before the priesthood in Exodus emphasizes the need of the believers to be built up to be God s dwelling place so that they may serve Him as a corporate, coordinated priesthood Exo. 25:8; 26:1-30; 27:20 28:2: 8 A. The priesthood is a body of priests who are built together to live and serve as one entity 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10. B. Apart from the building it is impossible to have the priesthood Exo. 25:8; 28:1-2: 1. The priests are not individualistic believers but a corporate body; the priesthood is composed of priests who have been built together Rom. 12:5, 7. 2. The service of the priesthood is a body service in coordination; this corporate service is what the Lord is seeking today Exo. 19:6; Rev. 1:6. 3. Without the building the priesthood will collapse; we cannot have the priesthood without the building. C. The priestly service is a work of being built up and of building 1 Pet. 2:5, 9: 9 1. One aspect of our work is to be built up, and another aspect is to build Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Cor. 3:10-11; 14:26. 2. We are building by being built up; this is to genuinely serve God as priests. 3. To serve God as priests is to build the dwelling place of God, which is also to be built up. 4. We cannot separate the priestly service from the building; we are proper priests carrying out the genuine building work only when we are built up. 5. Being built up into a spiritual house is the basic condition for service; we cannot serve if we are not built up Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Pet. 2:5. 6. When we are built up into a priesthood, we can have work that is acceptable to God v. 9.
D. Since the priesthood equals the house, and the house depends on the building, the priesthood also requires the building up of the saints vv. 5, 9: 1. The sequence of house and priesthood in 1 Peter 2:5 is based upon the sequence in Exodus. 2. Because of the need for building up, the church must be the house of God before it can be the priesthood Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9. 3. Building involves coordination; only when we are built into and coordinated into the building do we have the ground to serve the Lord. 4. Our unique need is to be built up Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:16: 10 a. If we want to be protected, we need to be built into God s building; our protection is not our spirituality it is God s building Matt. 16:18. b. The shortcomings in the lives of even the most spiritual Christians are due to the lack of building up Eph. 4:16. E. After receiving Christ as the seed of life (1 Pet. 1:23), we need to grow that we may experience Him as the stone living in us (2:2-4); thus He will make us also living stones, transformed with His stone nature so that we may be built together with others a spiritual house (v. 5) upon Him as both the foundation and the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16): 11 1. We need more experience of Christ as the milk and the stone; in the morning we should drink Christ as milk from the Word. 2. Then during the day, the process of transformation should take place within us. 3. In the evening we should come to the church meetings and fellowship with the saints; this is building. 4. Here we see that in the morning Christ is milk, and in the evening He becomes the stone; during the day the milk does a transforming work within us to produce a stone. IV. The breastplate is the central and ultimate point of the priesthood: 12 A. The breastplate being borne upon Aaron s heart for a memorial before Jehovah signifies the entire church as one built-up entity being borne upon Christ s loving heart for a memorial, a pleasing remembrance, before God Exo. 28:29. 13 B. The twelve precious stones on the breastplate, on which the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were engraved, signify all the redeemed and transformed people of God built together to become one entity vv. 17-21: 14 1. The twelve precious stones set in gold (vv. 17-20) symbolize the saints as transformed precious stones built together in the divine nature of Christ to become one entity, the church as Christ s Body (1 Cor. 3:10-12a; Eph. 1:22-23). 2. As components of the church, the believers, who were created from dust (Gen. 2:7), must be transformed in their human nature by and with the divine nature through the working of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:3, 18) to become precious stones for God s eternal building (Matt. 16:18; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:18-21); the Christian life is a life of transformation daily God is seeking to transform us (Rom. 12:2-3; 2 Cor. 4:16). V. God s unique goal is the building; we all need to see that the goal of the Lord s recovery is to recover Christ as life and everything to us so that we may be transformed and built up, when we are built up together; God will have the building; this building is the priesthood Col. 3:4; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.
Excerpts from the Ministry: THE TABERNACLE AND THE PRIESTHOOD The last two verses of chapter twenty-seven speak of the lighting of the lamps in the tabernacle. These verses give us the reason that these two sections of Exodus are put together. Here is the reason: we cannot have the tabernacle without the priesthood, and neither can we have the priesthood without the tabernacle. The last two verses of chapter twenty-seven indicate that immediately after the tabernacle came into existence, there was the need of the priesthood for the lighting of the lamps. This indicates that, spiritually speaking, the priesthood and the tabernacle are one entity. In the typology of these chapters, God reveals that His redeemed people are both the tabernacle and the priesthood. The tabernacle is a dwelling place. But how can such a dwelling place be a living people? With the fulfillment of these types in the New Testament, the tabernacle and the priesthood are put together. First Peter 2:5 says that we are built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. In this verse, according to the grammar, the spiritual house and the holy priesthood are in apposition. This means that these terms refer to the same thing. Therefore, the spiritual house is the holy priesthood. In English the word priesthood refers to two things. First, it denotes a body of priests, a group of priests who work and serve together. Second, the word priesthood denotes the priestly service, the work or ministry done by the priests. Many readers of the Bible emphasize the second meaning of this word. Whenever you read 1 Peter 2:5 in the past, what did you understand by the word priesthood used in this verse? The Greek language has two different words to denote the priesthood as a body of priests and the priesthood as a priestly service. In 1 Peter 2:5 the priesthood is not the service of the priests; rather, it is a group of priests who live, serve, and work together. The priesthood here is not a service; it is a body of priests built together to live and serve as one entity. This priesthood is the spiritual house. Hence, the body of priests is also a house. In like manner, the saints who are built together are a spiritual house. This spiritual house is a collective people. My point here is that the house and the priesthood are one entity. The church today is first the house of God. We the believers are being built together into a spiritual house. This spiritual house is a serving body, a serving unit, a serving people. The biblical term for this unit is the priesthood. A LIVING HOUSE We are not a lifeless house. On the contrary, we are a house full of life. Although I appreciate the meeting hall in Anaheim very much, it cannot be compared to God s spiritual house on one point: it is not living. The meeting hall is lifeless. The acoustics are excellent, and the stairways are very adequate. But in this building there is no life. As God s spiritual house, the church certainly is not lifeless. However, for generations Christians have not realized that the church must be something living. Some even speak of a material building such as a chapel or cathedral as a church. The church is not a lifeless entity. Rather, the church is a constitution of Christ with His redeemed people. This means that the church is living. Therefore, we should never refer to a material building as a church. A chapel, a cathedral, or a meeting hall is not a church. We all must be delivered from tradition and never speak of the meeting place as the church. The church is a house built with life, filled with life, and constituted of life. If the church as the house of God were not constituted of life and built with life, how could it be the priesthood? It would be impossible for a lifeless house to be the priesthood. The priesthood is a group of people who are full of life. On the one hand, we, the believers, are a spiritual house; on the other hand, we are a priesthood, a body of priests. The house and the priesthood are one. To use a new term, the house is the -hood. The spiritual house is the priesthood, and the priesthood is the spiritual house.
THE NEED FOR THE BUILDING If we are not a spiritual house, we cannot be the priesthood. Likewise, if we are not the priesthood, we cannot be a spiritual house. But if we are the dwelling place of God, the tabernacle, then surely we are a body of priests. In like manner, if we are not a body of priests, then we are not God s dwelling place. In order to have a house, materials of different kinds must be built together. If the materials are simply piled up on the building site, it would be impossible to have a house. We would only have a heap of materials. These materials may be arranged in a very nice way to show forth their excellence. Nevertheless, there would not be a house. A house comes into existence only when the materials are built together. Suppose when we were building the meeting hall in Anaheim, we did nothing more than pile up all the materials. We may have appreciated the beauty of certain materials, but we would not have a meeting hall, a building in which to meet. In the case of both a house and a meeting hall, there is the need for the materials to be built together. The principle is the same with the priesthood. Since the priesthood equals the house, and the house depends on the building up of the materials, the priesthood also requires the building up of the saints. When I was with the Brethren, I heard a number of messages on the priesthood. The Brethren strongly oppose the clergy-laity system and declare that all believers are priests, that they are neither the clergy nor the laity. The Brethren put a strong emphasis on what is called the universal priesthood. According to this concept, the priesthood is universal because every believer is a priest. But although Brethren teachers emphasize this matter, I never heard a message saying that all the priests need to be built up together in order to have the priesthood, the body of serving priests. Some of their teachers emphasize 1 Peter 2:5 and 9. I heard several messages on these verses, and I was helped by these messages. However, there was no emphasis on the fact that the priesthood is a building. We know that the priesthood requires the building up of the believers because the priesthood is a spiritual house. We need to remember that in 1 Peter 2:5 the spiritual house and the priesthood are in apposition. In the matter of the spiritual house we can clearly understand the need for building. But with the priesthood the need for the building up is not apparent. We all are the materials for God s spiritual house. But have we been built up together to be God s house? Do you have the assurance and the peace to say that you are part of God s house? Are the believers in your locality built up together as a spiritual house? Deep within, you may not have the assurance that you have truly been built into the local expression of the Body of Christ. You may not have the peace to say that you have actually been built into God s house. In 1 Peter 2:5 Peter writes in a way to charge us and encourage us to be built into a spiritual house. As we have emphasized, this spiritual house is a holy priesthood. You may wonder why in this verse the house is mentioned first and then the priesthood. This sequence is based upon that in the book of Exodus, where we first have the tabernacle and then the priesthood. The priesthood must come after the tabernacle, the house. Why must the spiritual house also come first? Why must the church first be God s dwelling place and then the priesthood? The answer is found in our need to be built up together. Because of the need of the building up, the church must be the house of God before it can be the priesthood. As the materials for God s building, we have been chosen, predestinated, called, saved, forgiven, justified, reconciled, and regenerated. Although we are such materials, we must still ask ourselves if we have been built up with others into God s house. Today there is much teaching among Christians about being spiritual, powerful, or victorious. More than forty years ago, I read books about how to be victorious, how to be powerful, and how to be sanctified. Today there may not be as many how-to books as there were years ago. Many Christians have learned that the methods taught in these howto books do not work. The emphasis in the Bible is not on how to be holy or how to be spiritual. Instead, the emphasis is on God s building.
The materials that have been built into the meeting hall in Anaheim are stable and strong. But suppose instead of being built in, these materials had been left to lie on the ground for years. By now would they not be unclean and unattractive? To be sure, those materials would be in a pitiful condition. Had they been left scattered on the ground, they would certainly have become damaged. But because they have been built up together, these materials have been preserved, protected, and made stable. Do you want to be protected in your Christian life? Do you want to be stable, preserved, and sanctified? If this is your desire, then you need to be built into God s house. We have pointed out that without the building up of the saints, there cannot be the priesthood. There would be the priests, but there would not be the -hood. In the church in Anaheim we may have many priests. But if these priests have not been built up together, we do not have the -hood. The -hood depends upon the priests being built up together. First we must have the building. Then this building will be the priesthood. SERVING IN COORDINATION The priests in the Old Testament did not serve in an isolated, individualistic way. On the contrary, they served together in coordination. Their service was not individualistic. Even when a priest did something by himself, what he did was in the priesthood, in the priestly body. His personal service was in the coordination of that group of serving priests. This coordination can be illustrated by what happens in my body when I use my hand to pick up a book. Yes, it is the hand which grasps the book. But the hand does not act separately or individualistically; it functions as part of my body. The principle is the same with speaking. Although my mouth speaks, it does not speak apart from the body. The mouth speaks in the coordination of the body. I use the function of the hand and the mouth to illustrate the fact that the priests serve together; they do not serve in an individualistic way. They are a coordinated unit, a body, a -hood. For this reason, they live together, serve together, and work together. If we read the book of Leviticus carefully, we shall see that the priests also ate together. They were corporate even in their eating. This indicates that they lived in a corporate way. This corporate living of the priests, however, is not the same as that practiced in so-called communes today. We should not confuse a commune with the corporate living of the priests in the priesthood. TWO ASPECTS OF THE CHURCH When we are built up together, we become the church in the aspect of God s dwelling place. Then we automatically are the church in the second aspect, the aspect of the priesthood. We are a corporate people serving God as priests. Such priests do not serve individualistically; they serve corporately. This is the reason in the New Testament the church is described by terms such as house, priesthood, and Body. We, the church, are the Body of Christ. In this Body there are many members, but none of the members acts individualistically. In the typology in the book of Exodus, God uses two matters to portray the function of the church. First, the church functions as God s dwelling place. Without the church, God would be homeless. He would be like a person wandering in the wilderness, a person without a home. But with the church God has a home, and He is now in His home. Therefore, the church functions as God s home, His dwelling place. Another function of the church is to serve God. As we afford God a dwelling place, we also serve Him. God s dwelling place is a group of serving priests. This twofold function of the church, that of the dwelling place and the priesthood, is typified by the tabernacle and the priesthood in the book of Exodus. We all need to see that the church has a twofold function, the function to house God and the function to serve Him. (Life-Study of Exodus, pp. 1325-1331) THE LIVING STONE FOR GOD S BUILDING In verse 4 Peter goes on to speak of Christ as a living stone: To whom coming, a living stone, having been rejected by men, but with God chosen, held in honor. The Greek word rendered coming can also be translated approaching, drawing near, coming forward.
A living stone is one that not only possesses life, but also grows in life. This is Christ for God s building. Here Peter changes his metaphor from the seed of the vegetable life (1:23-24) to the stone of minerals. The seed is for life-planting; the stone is for building (2:5). Peter s thought has gone on from life-planting to God s building. As life to us, Christ is the seed. For God s building, He is the stone. After receiving Him as the seed of life, we need to grow that we may experience Him as the stone living in us. Thus He will make us also living stones, transformed with His stone nature so that we [137] may be built together with others a spiritual house upon Him as both the foundation and the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16).In verse 4 Peter makes a leap from the milk of the word to the living stone. There does not seem to be a bridge or any other kind of connection between the milk and the stone. First, Peter indicates that the Lord is the milk and the word for nourishment. Then he goes on to speak of Him as the living stone. EXPERIENCING CHRIST AS THE MILK AND THE STONE According to verse 4, we need to come to Christ as the living stone. But what is the way to come to Him? We come to the Lord by drinking the milk of the word. Have you ever realized that when you are drinking milk from the word, that is your coming to the Lord? What is the milk in the word? That milk is the Lord Himself. Therefore, when we drink the milk, we come to the Lord. Do you have some other way of coming to the food you eat? What is your way of coming to the food? Do you not come to it by eating it? We all come to the food by eating it. The same is true with respect to coming to Christ as the living stone. In verse 4 the word coming is equal to drinking. Therefore, when we drink the milk, we come to the Lord. We have pointed out that Peter seems to leap from the milk-christ to the stone-christ. This implies that the milk becomes the stone. How can this be? With us, this is impossible, but it is not impossible with the Lord, because He is all-inclusive. As the all-inclusive One, Christ is milk, and He is also the stone. We are not able to exhaust all the aspects of Christ. He is the milk, He is the bread, and now we see that He is the stone. According to 2:6-8, Christ is not only the stone for building, but also the stone for stumbling and grinding. Even as the stone Christ is all-inclusive: He can build us, or He can cause us to stumble, and even grind us. We need more experience of Christ as the milk and the stone. In the morning we should drink Christ as milk from the Word. Then during the day the process of transformation should take place within us. In the evening we should come to the church meetings and fellowship with the saints. This is building. Here we see that in the morning Christ is milk, and in the evening He becomes the stone. During the day the milk does a transforming work within us to produce a stone. (Life-study of 1 Peter, Message 16, pp. 136-139) References and Further Reading: 1. The Ministry of the Word, Vol. 20, No. 6, Message 5, The Priesthood and the Tabernacle 2. Life-Study of Exodus, Chapter 116 3. Life-study of 1 Peter, Message 16, 18 4. The Blueprint and Ground for the Building Up of the Church, Chapter 2
Message Three The Serving of the New Testament Priests Scripture Reading: Lev. 1:2-9; 2:1-2; 3:1-5; 4:3-4; 5:5-6; 24:5-8; Exo. 27:20-21; 30:7-8; 28:29-30; Rom. 1:9; Gen. 14:18-20; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9 I. In the Old Testament, the service of the priests consisted of putting forth the showbread, lighting the lamps, burning the incense, and offering the sacrifices: 15 A. Arranging the showbread Lev. 24:5-8: 16 1. The table of the bread of the Presence signifies Christ as the food, the nourishing feast, for the believers as God s priests Exo. 25:23-30. 17 2. The bread of the presence was also called the bread of arrangement v. 30; 1 Chron. 9:32: a. When the bread was arranged in a certain way, there was a display of the bread Lev. 24:5-8. b. When we experience Christ as the life supply within us, we will be able to display the Christ whom we have experienced before God as the life supply to God and man 2 Cor. 4:5; Gal. 3:1. c. As New Testament priests, we should learn how to display Christ as the bread of the Presence to all of God s worshippers, helping the believers by showing them how to enter into the Holy Place to experience and enjoy Christ as their life supply 1 Pet. 2:5, 9. B. Lighting the lamps Exo. 27:20-21: 18 1. In typology, lighting the lamps in the sanctuary of God signifies the proper way for us to meet as Christians: 19 a. The tabernacle as the Tent of Meeting, the place where God met with His people and spoke to them (Lev. 1:1), typifies the meetings of the church. b. In typology, lighting the lamps points to the proper way to meet as the church; the proper way to meet is to light the lamps, that is, to give off light Luke 11:33. c. Everything we do in the meetings praying, singing, praising, and prophesying should cause the holy light to ascend. 2. The light in the Holy Place is neither a natural light nor an artificial light it is a divine light, a holy light, the real light, which is God Himself John 1:9; 1 John 1:5; Rev. 21:23-24a: a. Today s Christians are divided by many kinds of natural and artificial light Isa. 50:10-11; 2 Cor. 11:14. b. For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to live and walk under the unique and genuine light, the light of our redeeming and shining God Rev. 21:23; 1 John 1:5, 7; Eph. 5:8-9. c. The purpose of the gathering of the believers is to have the sanctuary of God with the lighting of the lamps by qualified priests so that we may see the different aspects of Christ, signified by the items of furniture in the Holy Place, and also see the way leading into the Holy of Holies, into the depths of Christ within God Exo. 25:23, 31; 30:1. d. Certain elements must be involved whenever we experience the genuine lighting of the lamps in the church meetings the embodiment of the Triune God (the lampstand), the divine nature (gold), the uplifted humanity of Christ (the wick), and the Spirit of Christ (the oil) Col. 2:9; 2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:9. C. Burning the incense Exo. 30:7-8: 1. The main commission of the priesthood is to burn the incense; the burning of the incense is the central matter of everything in the tabernacle, God s dwelling place. 2. Burning the incense typifies praying Psa. 141:2; Luke 1:10-11; Rev. 5:8; 8:3-4:
a. Burning the incense signifies our praying in and with the resurrected and ascended Christ. b. This kind of prayer, which is actually Christ, is our ascending to God through Christ and with Christ; such is a sweet-smelling fragrance to God. c. The smoke of the incense indicates that the incense is burned and ascends to God with the prayers of the saints; this implies that the prayers of the saints become effective and are acceptable to God v. 3. d. The prayer offered in Christ and with Christ as the incense governs God s dispensing of grace and motivates the execution of the divine administration. 3. Priests are people of incense; their work is mainly to burn the incense: a. A priest is a person who burns the incense inwardly to contact the Lord Exo. 30:7-8. b. We need to learn how to burn the incense in a fine way to offer a sweet savor to God. c. When we pray in the way of expressing Christ, it is not only we who are praying but also Christ who is praying within us; we and Christ become one by praying, and our prayer to God is sweet incense ascending to Him Psa. 141:2. D. Offering the sacrifices Lev. 1:2-9; 2:1-2; 3:1-5; 4:3-4; 5:5-6: 20 1. In the Old Testament, the most important duty of the priests was the offering of the sacrifices. 2. The spiritual sacrifices that the believers offer in the New Testament age according to God s economy are: (1) Christ as the reality of all the sacrifices of the Old testament types, such as the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering (Lev. 1-5); (2) the sinners saved by our gospel preaching, offered as members of Christ (Rom. 15:16), and (3) our body, our praises, and the things that we do for God (Rom. 12:1; Heb. 13:15-16; Phil. 4:18). 21 II. In the New Testament serving God is actually the same thing as worshipping God; you cannot serve God without worshipping Him Matt. 4:10; Rom. 1:9: 22 A. The Greek word rendered serve in Romans 1:9 means serve in worship ; Paul considered his preaching of the gospel a service in which he worshipped God. 23 B. The worship of God is our service to God, and this worship includes all positive matters between us and God, such as contacting God, praying to God, looking unto God, waiting on God, having fellowship with God, and working for God Matt. 6:9; John 4:23-24; Phil. 4:6, 20. C. As priests, we must serve God and worship Him in our spirit and by His Spirit John 4:24; Rom. 1:9; Phil. 3:3. 24 III. On the one hand, the service of the priests is to bring man to God, and on the other hand, it is to bring God to man Exo. 28:29-30; Gen. 14:18-20: 25 A. The more the priests serve whether by offering the sacrifices, arranging the bread of the Presence, lighting the lamps, or burning the incense the more they bring people into the presence and fellowship of God; then they bring something of God to the people, either a message, an instruction, or some item of God to minister to the people. 26 B. On the one hand, in the Lord s recovery today we are holy priests, going to God to represent God s people and bring their needs to Him; on the other hand, we are royal priests, coming from God to the people to represent God and minister God to them 1 Pet. 2:5, 9: 27 1. The holy priests offer something to God for the sake of the people, and the royal priests declare the things of God to people. 2. We are the holy priests and the kingly priests, going and coming in two directions.