Message 32
Scripture Reading: Lev. 9:4, 6, 22-24
In this message we will pay our attention to the issue, the result, of our priestly service. It is difficult to speak about the result of our priesthood because this issue is not something material but something spiritual, mysterious, heavenly, and divine. The issue of the New Testament priestly service is the appearing of God to us (v. 4), the appearing of God’s glory to us (vv. 6, 23b), the divine blessing (vv. 22-23), and the consuming fire (v. 24). Let us now consider each of these matters.
The appearing of God to us is related to our taking Christ as the offerings. As we confess our mistakes, failures, and wrongdoings, we spontaneously take Christ as our sin offering and trespass offering. This may lead us to take Him as our burnt offering. We may tell Him, “Lord Jesus, You are my burnt offering. I cannot be absolute for God, but You can. Now I take You, Lord, as my absoluteness for God.” This kind of prayer indicates that we desire to live Christ for God’s satisfaction. The sin offering and the burnt offering will then lead us to take Christ as the meal offering. We will offer the top portion to God as His food, and we will feed on Christ as our daily food, as our daily life supply. Furthermore, we will be brought into a sense of peace, into a tranquil situation, and enjoy Christ as our peace, rest, satisfaction, and comfort. As the issue of taking Christ as all these offerings, God’s presence will be with us. This is the appearing of God to us. We cannot see Him or touch Him in a physical way, but we have the sense that He has appeared to us. Unable to deny the sense that God has appeared to us, we will want to worship and adore Him, offering to Him our praise and thanksgiving. This is the experience of the appearing of God to us as the result of our priestly service. We should have such an experience not only early in the morning but also during the day.
We may experience God’s appearing to us in different situations. For example, we may enjoy God’s appearing while we are preaching the gospel. In our gospel preaching we may apply Christ as the offerings, and as a result we enjoy the appearing of God to us. Often we have this enjoyment in the church meetings. God may appear to us even as we are taking a walk.
Our New Testament priesthood issues in the enjoyment of God in His appearing. Usually God’s appearing will be tranquil and cause us to be silent. Sometimes God will sovereignly arrange our circumstances to match the tranquility of His appearing. At such times it seems that the entire universe is quiet and that we and God are alone. This tranquil appearing of God is the first result of our New Testament priestly service.
The second issue of the priestly service is the appearing of God’s glory to us. When we serve God in our spirit by enjoying Christ according to God’s regulations, we will enjoy God’s appearing, which is often followed by the appearing of God’s glory. God’s glory is God expressed. When God is expressed, that is glory.
When we serve God with Christ as the offerings according to God’s regulations and not according to our own choice, we will often enjoy the appearing of God’s glory. We will see God expressed in different ways. For example, when we enter the home of an unbeliever for the preaching of the gospel, we may sense God’s glory manifested in our speaking or in his expression or attitude toward us. Furthermore, we often enjoy God’s glory, His expression, in the church meetings. Perhaps a particular meeting is not very living, but then someone offers a living prayer, and the meeting is resurrected and revived. At such a time we may sense that God is expressed in glory.
In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul wrote concerning the glory of the Old Testament ministry and the glory of the New Testament ministry. “Now if the ministry of death, in letters engraved in stone, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to gaze at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was being done away, how shall not rather the ministry of the Spirit be in glory? For if the ministry of condemnation came in glory, much rather the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory” (vv. 7-9). With Moses, who had the Old Testament ministry of death and condemnation, there was a glory, a physical glory, on his face. We who have the ministry of the New Testament, of the Spirit and of righteousness, have a glory in life and in spirit.
The Christian meeting is wonderful and mysterious because it is related to God. The Lord Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst” (Matt. 18:20). We believe that the Lord is with us in every meeting, but He is present in different ways and, depending on our situation in the meetings, He causes us to have different kinds of senses regarding the meeting. For instance, on one occasion He may cause us to have a sense of deadness to indicate that our situation is wrong. On another occasion He may stir up everyone in the meeting, and all the attendants will have the sense that God is stirring them up. This kind of stirring up is altogether divine, and in it God appears to us in His glory, in His expression.
The appearing of God’s glory in the church meetings is related to our enjoyment of Christ as the offerings. If in a church of two hundred saints, sixty would enjoy Christ as the offerings all day, in the evening when they come together, the appearing of God and the very expression of God would be among them. Their coming together into the name of Christ is the expression of God. However, the situation would be the opposite if none of the saints enjoyed Christ as the offerings. Their coming together would not be the expression of God.
The atmosphere of the meetings indicates what we are with God. No one can pretend. The meeting is truly an exhibition of our Christian life, in particular, of the degree to which we enjoy Christ in our private daily life and in our family life. Our meeting is an exhibition of our actual enjoyment of Christ. If we enjoy Christ, the meeting will be an exhibition of the riches of Christ. If we do not enjoy Christ, there will not be an exhibition of the riches of Christ in the meeting. In this matter shouting and praising do not help, for the meeting is not under our control. The point here is that our experience of Christ affects the meetings; it especially affects, even determines, the atmosphere of the church meetings.
The atmosphere of the meetings is an indication of the appearing of God’s glory, and this appearing depends on the ministering of Christ as the offerings. When we minister Christ as the different offerings, we enjoy Him, and those to whom we minister also enjoy Him. This will affect the atmosphere of the meetings because it will issue in the appearing of God’s glory to us.
Leviticus 9:22 says, “Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings.” This signifies that Christ as our High Priest after His crucifixion blessed us in His resurrection (Luke 24:50).
The Lord in His resurrection is with us all the days until the consummation of the age (Matt. 28:20). The Lord’s presence with us is His blessing. As long as we have His presence, we are under His blessing. When His blessing is with us, even our mistakes become blessings. But without His presence, even if we are right in everything, there is nothing but vanity. Although our High Priest has gone into the heavens. He is still present with us, and His presence is a blessing not only in the church life but also in our family life and in our practical daily life.
The Lord’s presence as our blessing comes to us through our application of Him as all the offerings. Every day we need to apply Christ as our sin offering, burnt offering, meal offering, and peace offering. If we apply Him as these offerings, we will have His blessing, which is His presence.
John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. In what way did God give His Son to us? He gave Him to us as all the offerings. When we take the sin offering, we take an aspect of Christ. When we take the burnt offering, we take another aspect of Christ. When we take the meal offering and the peace offering, we take yet other aspects of Christ.
Our Savior is the unique sin offering. When we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, we applied Him as the sin offering without realizing it. Later, we might have been inspired to be absolute for God. Although we had not heard about the burnt offering, we prayed and offered ourselves to God. At that time, the Spirit might have shown us that we are sin, even leprous, and that we cannot be absolute for God. Then we might have prayed, “Lord Jesus, I cannot be absolute for God, but You are absolute, and You can be my absoluteness.” This is to take Christ, the Son given to us by God, as the burnt offering.
Many Christians understand John 3:16 in a very general way. How can we accept Christ as the great gift from God if we do not apply Christ as the offerings? If we would enjoy this all-inclusive person, we need to apply Him daily as our sin offering, burnt offering, meal offering, and peace offering. Then we will enjoy His presence as our blessing in every way.
“Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people” (Lev. 9:23a). This signifies that Christ as our Prince and High Priest entered into the heavens to be our kingly Priest (Acts 5:31; Heb. 4:14; 7:1) and will come out of the heavens to bless us.
Both Moses and Aaron typify Christ. Moses was the leader, the prince, and Aaron was the high priest. Today Christ is our Prince and our High Priest. When He comes to us, He comes with blessings, and His being with us is the all-inclusive blessing we need. We can enjoy this blessing only by applying Christ as the offerings. If we apply Him as the sin offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering, we will have the blessing we need.
The blessing of Aaron and Moses upon the Jews is still in effect. This blessing will continue until the entire house of Israel repents and turns to the Savior at His second coming. The principle is the same with the spiritual blessing we enjoy today. A spiritual blessing lasts much longer than we realize. I am still enjoying certain blessings which I received many years ago. A spiritual blessing, therefore, is a great matter.
The New Testament tells us to bless others and not to curse them (Luke 6:28; Rom. 12:14). Even if we are hated, persecuted, and evilly spoken of, we should bless those who persecute us and pray that the Lord will forgive them. In our feeling, no person should be under a curse.
“Then fire came out from before Jehovah and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces” (Lev. 9:24). This fire signifies that God’s holiness as a consuming fire accepts our offerings by burning. Anything that corresponds to God’s holy nature God’s holiness accepts by consuming it. But anything that does not meet the requirements of God’s holiness will be judged by God’s holiness through burning. In such a case, the fire represents the God who is the consuming fire (Heb. 12:29).
After we enjoy God’s presence, the appearing of His glory, and the Lord’s blessing, we should be prepared to receive the consuming fire. It is a spiritual law that God’s blessing is followed by the consuming fire of suffering. This fire is a sign that God has accepted what we have offered to Him in Christ and with Christ.
The same fire, which is the representative of God’s holiness, may either be a consuming fire for God’s acceptance or a judging fire. The consuming fire accepted the offering up of Stephen (Acts 7:55-59), whereas with the coming of Titus in A.D. 70 this consuming fire judged the mixture at Jerusalem.
To us today, the consuming fire may be a divine acceptance of our offering to God, or it may be God’s judgment due to our offenses. How do we know whether the consuming fire is God’s acceptance or God’s judgment? This can be discerned by our situation. If we enjoy Christ and offer Him to God, the consuming fire will be God’s acceptance. However, if we offend God’s government and a burning comes to us, this burning is God’s judgment upon us for touching His government. This is a serious matter.
