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Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:5-6; Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Eph. 3:2; 1 Cor. 9:16-17; Eph. 3:8; John 15:16; Psa. 119:147-148; Rom. 8:37; Eph. 5:18b; 2 Tim. 4:2a; John 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; Eph. 4:11-12; Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Thes. 2:11
In this chapter we will see the New Testament priestly service ordained by God.
The New Testament service ordained by God in the Scriptures indicates that all New Testament believers are priests to serve God (Rev. 1:5-6). The priests are those who serve God. Everyone who serves God, anywhere and at any time, must be a priest whose special profession is to serve full time before God. Although he serves full time, he still labors for his livelihood, working with his own hands to minister to his own needs. Paul was the top and best serving one of God in the New Testament. He also held the job of tentmaking, laboring and working with his own hands. He not only ministered to his own needs but also took care of the needs of his co-workers. Therefore, on the one hand, we serve God exclusively, and on the other hand, we have a way to make a living. We should not allow others to worry about us because of our serving the Lord.
Almost everywhere in the entire New Testament, God speaks concerning how to be priests of the gospel of God, how to serve God. Paul called the New Testament priests the priests of the gospel (Rom. 15:16). They are priests, yet they are gospel preachers, priests who specialize in the gospel. In the Old Testament the priests specialized in taking care of the sacrifices. By this we can see that the priests of the gospel, mentioned in Romans 15:16, are those who specialize in taking care of the gospel. In Greek, the phrase a priest of the gospel has a further meaning; it denotes not only a priest of the gospel but a laboring priest of the gospel. In other words, the New Testament priests of the gospel should be laboring priests of the gospel—not priests who are content or at leisure but priests diligently striving and laboring. They are priests who diligently labor in the gospel of God. Paul was such a priest of the gospel of God, and we too should be such.
According to the New Testament, there are at least seven aspects related to being priests of the gospel of God. First, these priests are built up into God’s holy priesthood. The priests of the gospel of God do not serve alone or individually; they are built up into a priesthood. We know that today any kind of successful work in human society must be a work that is carried out by an organized group. It is difficult for individuals to have a great success; the achieving of a great success depends on the effort of an organized group. The priests in the Old Testament did not serve individually; they carried out their duty group by group. They all belonged to the house of Aaron; they were sons of Aaron formed into a body of priests. Luke 1 tells us that when Zachariah the priest went to serve God, he served in the priestly body according to the order of his course. When we preach the gospel in the church today, we also should realize that the whole church constitutes a priesthood of the gospel.
In Greek, one word is used for priestly duties or priestly work and another for priestly body or priesthood, but in English the two words are treated as one. Therefore, in reading the English Bible, it is often difficult to tell what the particular word denotes. What is referred to both in 1 Peter 2:5 and 9 is the priesthood, not the priestly duties. Today in the church we, the priests of the gospel, should be built up together to serve in coordination as a body of priests. Do not consider this a small thing. If we preach the gospel without any building up but in a very individualistic way, our gospel will never be powerful or effective. For the preaching of the gospel to be both powerful and effective, we must be built up together and coordinated together.
In church history it is difficult to find one Christian body that has not been divided. It is not easy for us to be coordinated and built up in the church, for although we have been regenerated in our spirit, we often do not speak or walk in our spirit. If we want the church of the Lord to be blessed, first we must learn the lesson of coordination. We should learn to be upright and not crooked, to obey the Lord, and to be built up with others into a holy priesthood.
Second, the priesthood of the gospel should tell out the virtues (such as love, grace, and forgiveness) of the One who has saved us out of darkness into His marvelous light (v. 9). To tell out His virtues is to tell out what He is in His attributes. Our telling out to people in this way is our preaching of the gospel. To be the priests of the gospel of God is to tell out the virtues of what He is, to tell out how He has saved us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Third, the priests of the gospel of God should carry out the stewardship of the grace of God in God’s economy (Eph. 3:2; 1 Cor. 9:16-17). As the New Testament priests of the gospel, we have a stewardship, and our stewardship is the economy of God. Every time we go out to preach the gospel, we are carrying out our stewardship in God’s economy to dispense Christ’s salvation and life to others.
Fourth, the priests of the gospel should minister to others the unsearchable riches of Christ as the grace of God. This is to dispense Christ to people.
Fifth, after we dispense Christ to others, there will be a result. Others will receive and believe in the Lord, and we will baptize them into the Triune God. Thus, the sinners whom we save become the spiritual sacrifices that we can offer up to God for His acceptance, and they also become members of Christ to constitute the Body of Christ (1 Pet. 2:5; Rom. 15:16b). After a sinner is saved and baptized through us, he becomes a lamb of the Lord to be offered as a sacrifice to God, and he also becomes a member of the Body of Christ to constitute the Body of Christ.
As priests, we must offer sacrifices. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament are types of Christ. Therefore, what the Old Testament priests offered are types of Christ; we may say that they offered Christ in type. But what the New Testament priests offer is Christ Himself, because the sinners whom we save are members of the Body of Christ, and they thereby constitute the Body of Christ. Therefore, in God’s eyes what we, the New Testament priests of the gospel, offer is Christ. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices that were offered are types of the individual Christ, whereas in the New Testament what is offered is the reality of the corporate Christ. Therefore, what we offer is more and higher than what was offered in the Old Testament. Whenever we gain one person by preaching the gospel, we should rejoicingly offer him on the altar as a sacrifice to God and as a member of Christ’s Body. When all the members are added together, they constitute the Body of Christ. Therefore, what we offer is the corporate Christ.
Sixth, we have been chosen and appointed by God to bear remaining fruit (John 15:16). It is not difficult to bear fruit, but to bear remaining fruit requires effort. At the time of fruit-bearing, a farmer must be busier than in ordinary times. For example, he must prevent the birds from coming to eat the fruit. In like manner, to bring forth children is easy, but to nurture them is difficult. According to my observation, the number of baptized ones among us is not small; there are many baptized ones everywhere. However, at the end of the year, when we take a count, not many remain. The reason is that after people are baptized, there is a lack of care, and there is not much nourishing. For this reason, after people are saved, we need to spend time to nourish them and to care for them. If we do this, after half a year or a year, they will be solidly in the church.
In order that we may be the New Testament priests of the gospel, we must have a living that matches our priesthood. To be a certain kind of people, we must have a certain kind of living. To be the priests of the gospel, we must have the living of the priests of the gospel. First, we need to be revived every morning. Psalm 119:147 says, “I anticipated the dawn and cried out; / I hoped in Your words.” Morning is the beginning of a day; in the morning everything is fresh. If we desire to enjoy the Lord’s fresh supply, like the psalmist, we need to rise early to call on the Lord and to look to His word—to eat, drink, and enjoy Him through His word. You do not need to spend too much time or read too many verses; two or three verses a day are sufficient. At the same time, do not skip in your reading. Rather, read book by book. The best way is to start with the books that are easy. Books such as the Gospel of John, Romans, Galatians, and Philippians are very good material for morning revival. Read two or three verses every morning. Then, on Saturday go back to review the verses for the previous five days, and try to put your impressions and feelings together and arrange them so that they become the contents of your prophesying in the Lord’s Day meeting.
As the priests of the gospel of God, we need not only to be revived every morning but also to overcome every day. Romans 8:37 says, “In all these things we more than conquer through Him who loved us.” Although Paul encountered many problems in his experience, he could always give thanks to God because he had found the secret. In his living he adopted an overcoming attitude with an overcoming standing. We also should be like this in our living. Regardless of what happens, we should have an overcoming faith, take an overcoming attitude, and stand on the position of the Lord’s victory to boast to our environment.
To be revived every morning and to overcome every day has become our motto in all the churches around the globe today. As priests of the gospel, we must have this kind of living. Not only so, we need to be filled with the Spirit every moment (Eph. 5:18b) and to speak Christ everywhere (2 Tim. 4:2a). This truly is the most beautiful and best living in the world.
What we spoke previously concerns the preaching of the gospel to save sinners, which is also what we call begetting. This is the first step. The second step is nourishing. After the begetting, there is the need of nourishing. We all know the story in John 21. The disciples were not able to catch any fish the entire night. Then the Lord came to perform a miracle, enabling them to catch a net full of fish, and He also prepared breakfast for them. After breakfast, the Lord said to Peter, “Do you love Me more than these?” Peter said, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” The Lord said, “Feed My lambs” (v. 15). Of the four Gospels, the first three—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—charge us at the end to preach the gospel; only the Gospel of John charges us to feed the Lord’s lambs. Chapter 15 says that we should bear remaining fruit, and chapter 21 says that we need to feed the lambs. Every one of us should not only preach the gospel to save sinners but also should have two or three lambs in our hands.
The best way to feed the lambs is through the home meetings in the new believers’ homes. To ask the new believers to come to our homes is not as good as our going to their homes. This kind of feeding will enable the new believers to remain. When we take care of and nourish the new believers, we should be like a nursing mother cherishing her own children (1 Thes. 2:7), not only feeding them but also caring intimately for them that they may be comforted and encouraged and may feel happy. This can be accomplished through the help of praying together, singing hymns, and reading the Word.
The third step is to perfect the saints, that is, to teach them (Eph. 4:11-12), which is usually carried out through the group meetings. If we lead people to salvation and feed them as lambs, we may bring them together to form a group meeting. The group meeting is not a religious service; it is the manifestation of the Christian living. It does not have a set way. Rather, it is free and informal. While we are on the way to the meeting, we should call on the Lord’s name and sing hymns. No one knows when the meeting begins. There are no regulations, and there is no one who takes the lead. Everyone simply lives together, and spontaneously there is fellowship, intercession, knowing the need of one another, and care for one another. Furthermore, this kind of group meeting is not a Bible study with someone teaching and presiding over the meeting. Rather, it is a meeting for everyone to share and testify, to ask questions if they so desire, and to answer according to each one’s own knowledge and experience. Through this, everyone will receive the teaching and the help in truth and in life.
This kind of group meeting is the Christians’ “own” assembling as mentioned in Hebrews 10, which is for considering one another, inciting one another to love and good works, and exhorting one another (vv. 24-25). Therefore, we need to bring the new believers who are under our nourishing to attend this kind of group meeting. Besides the mutual fellowship, intercession, care, shepherding, and testifying, the main thing in the group meetings is to teach one another that all may be perfected. For this reason we need to exhort and console the believers and to testify to them as a father to his own children (1 Thes. 2:11).
The final step is to prophesy for God, which we will cover in the next chapter.
The words I have presented before you are all according to the Scriptures. Therefore, this is the New Testament service ordained by God. I hope that you will bring this word to the Lord to pray much and to look to Him. May the Lord have mercy on us.
