5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Introduction
I heard about a young preacher one time who was interviewing for his first church. He had never pastored a church before and the pastor search committee had invited him to come for an interview. As he was being questioned by the committee, the chairman asked, “Son, do you know the Bible?” He replied, “Yes sir, I really know the Bible.” The chairman said, “What part of the Bible do you know the best?” He said, “Well, I know the New Testament the best.” “Well,” said the chairman, “Why don’t you just tell us something about the New Testament. For instance, why don’t you tell the committee the story of the prodigal son?”
He said, “Alright. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. He went down to Jericho by night and fell upon stony ground and the thorns choked him half to death. The next morning Solomon and his wife, Gomorrah, came by and carried him down to the ark of Moses to take care of it. But as he was going through the eastern gate to the ark he caught his hair in a tree limb and he hung there 40 days and 40 nights. Afterward he was hungry and the ravens came and fed him. The next day the three wise men came and carried him down to the boat dock and he caught a ship to Nineveh. When he got there he found Delilah sitting on a wall. He said to the men with her, ‘Chuck her down, boys.’ And they said, ‘How many times shall we chuck her down—seven times?’ And he said, ‘Nay, but 70 times seven.’ And they chucked her down 490 times and she burst asunder in their midst and they picked up 12 baskets of fragments. Now, the question is, in the resurrection, whose wife is she going to be?” When he was finished the chairman of the committee said, “Fellows, I think we ought to call him. He is awfully young, but he really knows his Bible.”
There are a lot of people who don’t know nearly as much about the Bible as they think. And one area of in which we are most ignorant is the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer. Now don’t let the word doctrine frighten you. It merely means “teaching.” Above all, do not let the word doctrine turn you off. It certainly is not a cold or abstract or irrelevant theological idea. To the contrary, this doctrine pulsates with life. It is front and center in the Bible. It was one of the major “discoveries” of the Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin. And it stands as the centerpiece of our Baptist faith today.
Listen to the scriptures as they speak of this important truth. Peter declares that we are “an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” And “Ye re a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” And John, in the Revelation declares that he has “made us kings and priests unto God” (Revelation 1:6).
What is a priest? A priest is someone who relates to and acts for God. The priest is a man who himself has access to God and whose task it is to bring others to God. In the ancient world this access to God was the privilege of the few, the professional priest, and in particular the high priest. He alone could enter into the Holy of Holies and into the nearer presence of God. When a Jewish worshiper entered the Temple he would pass through the court of the Gentiles, and the court of the women, and the court, of the Israelites, but there he had to stop. Into the court of the priest he could not go, no nearer the Holy of Holies could he come.
Now it is to be noted that in the vision of the great day to come Isaiah said, “Ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord” (Isaiah 61:6). In that day every one of the people would be a priest and everyone would have access to God. That is what these scriptures mean.
Today because of what Jesus Christ did, the access to the presence of God is not now confined to priests in the narrowest sense of the term, but it is open to every man. Every man is a priest. There is a priesthood of all believers. Through Jesus Christ the new and living way, access to God is the privilege of every Christian, however simple and unlettered he may be. The Bible declares, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). And because of the mediatorial work of Christ Jesus, each one of you can “come boldly unto the throne of grace” so that you “may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Because of him there is for us a new and living way to the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-22).
When Jesus died, “The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51). That meant theological revolution! That meant that the Jewish priest who had exclusive rights to the Holy of Holies was out of work. The holy presence of God was now available to all believers. That ripped curtain was not torn from bottom to top as though torn by man. It was torn from top to bottom as though God reached down and tore it signaling that all believers now had equal “access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:18). The New Testament clearly teaches that every born-again believer is appointed a priest. And we have direct access to God through the mediation of Christ without the necessity of an earthly priest. Each person is his own priest and we have access to God directly for ourselves.
Pastors are to give leadership but they are not priests in the official sense of the term. The word priest is never once applied to a minister, a pastor, an elder, or a bishop in the New Testament. Though priestly function is exercised, they have no power as intercessors that does not belong to every believer. In no sense does the church have an official priesthood in the New Testament. We have been brought into a spiritual relationship with God through Christ, the great high priest. No human priest can mediate divine blessings from God to men. Whenever he assumes to stand between the human soul he is assuming a priestly function whether he be in a clerical collar or a preacher’s coat.
The Bible teaches that all believers are priests—and I do mean all. We have direct access to God. You can relate to and act for God. What do we mean by “The Priesthood of the Believer?” This means that you have a right to choose Christ for yourself. No one else can choose for you. No one else can stop you from choosing. You must chose him all by yourself.
Joshua stood before Israel years ago and said, “Choose you this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). Jesus reduced the entire matter to two words: “follow me” (Mark 1:17). The choice is yours.
Fulton Sheen, the late Roman Catholic bishop, once proposed that since America had a Statue of Liberty on the East Coast, the country should establish a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.
It was said that during the years of his presidency Harry Truman kept on his desk a sign that stated, “The buck stops here.” It consistently reminded him that he was ultimately responsible for all decisions involving national government. The Bible teaches that in a similar manner the final responsibility for your relationship to God rests upon your shoulders alone. There is no one else who can make that decision for you.
I’ve noticed that some people who stand up so vigorously for their rights fall down so miserably on their responsibilities. In relationship to God you must chose for yourself. There is no such thing as proxy religion. Stand-ins won’t work. Spectator religion is out. The responsibility goes with the privileges. I urge you to take responsibility for your own life. Again, it means that power and privilege are not concentrated in the hands of an elite few. It demands responsible actions by all of us. There are no second-class citizens in the kingdom of God.
Milton Cunningham tells that when he was in Africa, he was seated at a banquet table with the Litunga of Barotseland and members of his family. The Litunga was one of the paramount royal chiefs of Africa. His kingdom was in the western providence of Zambia. Milton says, ”I was seated next to a young African lady about 20 years old who was a member of the Litunga family. I said to her, ‘Tell me, where are you in the possibility of ascendency to the throne to be the queen?’ I’ll never forget her answer. It was classic. She turned around and said, ‘Oh, I’m just an ordinary princess.’” Have you ever met an ordinary princess? There are no ordinary princess. All princesses are special. By the same token, there are no ordinary Christians. We are all special. We are all royalty. God has made us “kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10).
And finally, it means that Christianity is essentially a lay movement. We do not have to knuckle under to autocratic professionals. Pope Pius X in 1906 expressed the antithesis of this in an address called “Vehementer Nos”: “As for the masses, they have no other right than that of letting themselves be led, and of following their pastors as a docile flock.” As priests, we protest against authoritarianism of any kind and of all kinds.
McDonald’s restaurants had an advertisement in which they declared, “We do it all for you.” Not so in the church! The clergy and the professional church staff are not there to “do it all for you.” They could not if they wanted to because there are not enough of them. Even if they wanted to, they should not. They would be arrogating to themselves what is your proper role as a priest.
But, you say, doesn’t everyone believe this? The answer is an emphatic no. Dr. Mary Gray, a physician and member of my congregation, was serving as a medical missionary in Zimbabwe, East Africa. She returned home and said to me, “The people in Africa where I serve all believe that God created the heavens and the earth, but they do not believe they can approach him.” This is not unusual. The idea of a priesthood springs out of the deepest need of the human soul. Men feel universally that they have offended the power to whom they are responsible and to whom they must give an account. But they do not feel that they can approach him. The priesthood connects them with the unapproachable God. Moreover, many Christian groups believe that men pass through hierarchy and mediators as a pathway to God. They do not believe that all men have an immediate access to God through prayer, confession, and interpretation of scripture.
1. We must approach God for ourselves.
You are individually responsible to God. You have direct access to him. And you must approach him for yourself. You don’t go through anyone’s switchboard to get to God.
This means in part that you must interpret scripture for yourself. Walter Shurden tells of an incident someone related to him about a Southern Baptist pastor invited by a pulpit committee to meet with the deacons of the church for a preliminary conversation. After the usual light chitchat they got down to business.
One of the deacons, a delightful wholesale grocer, looked at the candidate and said, “Sir, what one question do you want most to get answered from us?” Almost immediately the prospective pastor shot back, “I want to know if you have a free and open pulpit. Do I have the freedom to say from this pulpit what I honestly think God wants me to say?”
The deacon who asked the question responded, “Yes,” he said slowly and deliberately, “we have a free pulpit.” Then he added, “But we also have a free pew.” Hurrah for him!
Paul set the pattern for us when he said of the Bereans, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11).
This is why Baptists have never had a creed. The Bible is our creed. We believe on the whole book and that by reading it for ourselves we find God’s message to us. This does not mean that you can believe anything and still be a Baptist. This doctrine in no way gives license to misinterpret, explain away, or extrapolate elements of the supernatural from the Bible. We have no right to twist or to pick and choose parts of the Bible. But by using good principles of interpretation and relying on the Holy Spirit we have a right to interpret scripture for ourselves.
You say, doesn’t everybody believe this? No, emphatically not! In a Roman Catholic catechism book I read recently, a question was asked, “Is it possible to misunderstand the Bible?” The answer was given, “Yes, even the Bible itself says so.” Then the question, “How can you get the true meaning of the Bible?” And the answer, “You get it only from God’s official, the Roman Catholic Church.”
It is heresy to believe that the power of God or the truth of God must flow through anyone before it gets to you. God’s word does not come to you through me or any man. I do not forgive your sins. You do not pray through me. And I do not interpret the word of God for you or reveal God’s will to you. Our forefathers died to keep that alive and we must defend it also.
2. You must offer sacrifices for yourself.
Peter declares that as holy priest we are “to offer up spiritual sacrifices” acceptable to God by Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5). Every Christian is a priest, not offering a sacrifice for sins—since that has been done once and for all—but offering his person, his praise, and his possessions to God.
What are the sacrifices we are to make? First, we are to offer our person to him. Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies [your entire selves] a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).
We are to lay our lives upon the altar in commitment and dedication to the Lord. We are to say to God, “Here are my hands, my eyes, my lips, my ears, my entire self. I give it all to you.”
What God desires most of all is the love of our hearts and the service of our lives. That is the perfect Christian sacrifice that every believer is to make.
We can also make an offering of praise and thanksgiving. The writer of Hebrews says, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15).
In the Old Testament there were two kinds of sacrifices—the peace offerings or thank offerings and the burnt offerings or the sin offerings. The thank offerings were acts of homage in which the people acknowledged their heavenly king. They were signs of a happy relationship between them. The sin offerings were an acknowledgement of wrong on the part of the people, showing a covenant broken that could only be cemented by repentance, confession, and the symbolic offering of the life of the sinner.
The ancient people sometimes argued that a thank offering was more acceptable to God than a sin offering, for when a man offered a sin offering he was trying to get something out of God—forgiveness for his sins—while a thank offering was the unconditional offering of the grateful heart. The sacrifice of gratitude is a sacrifice that all can and are bound to bring.
When the Christian makes an offering of worship the worship of God’s house becomes not a burden and a weariness, but a joy and a privilege. It is not something that is endured, but something that is brought to God.
Finally, we can bring the offering of our possessions. Again the writer of Hebrews says, “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:16). The word communicate means to distribute or to share. So the Christian can offer as a sacrifice to God deeds of kindness to and of sharing with his fellow men. Charity is a sacrifice. After all, Jesus himself said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). The best of all sacrifices to bring to God is the gift of help to one of his children who is in need.
3. As priests, we are to share the Gospel with the world.
The Latin word for priest is “pontifex,” which means a bridge builder. As believing priests we are to bring God and men together. Martin Luther was right when he said that it is our responsibility to “reach up in faith” but also to “reach out in love.” We are a priest before God, and a priest to our neighbor.
We must realize that we will never win our world to Christ at 11 o’clock on Sunday morning. We can’t be content to sit around and sing, “Just as I am” to one another. John Wesley was right when he said, “A man must have friends or make friends; for no one ever went to heaven alone.” Every Christian this side of heaven ought to be concerned about every lost man this side of hell.
I close by reminding you that it’s the priesthood of the “believers.” That’s clear enough, isn’t it? We are believers in the proposition that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the final and ultimate revelation of God. We are believers that the “Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us … full of grace and truth” (John 1:1). We are believers “that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
Believers! That Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We are believer-priests: What a privilege! And what a resp