The revelation of the priests begins in the Old Testament. The entire Bible deals with the service rendered by God’s people to Him. God’s intention is that all His people would serve Him as priests. For this reason, in the Old Testament, God ordained that His elect, the Israelites, would all be priests so that they could be a kingdom of priests (Exo. 19:6). Later, however, the children of Israel failed when they committed a great sin by worshipping the golden calf; consequently, they lost their priesthood. Thus, God had no alternative but to choose the house of Aaron as priests to bear the responsibility of the priesthood, and the Levites as the ones to serve with them.
At the beginning of the New Testament, we first see John the Baptist, who may be considered the last of the Old Testament priests. He was born into a priestly family, and his father, Zachariah, was not only a priest but also the leading priest of a priestly order. John was the only begotten son given to his father by God through the work of grace. After he grew up, he should have, according to the regulations, dwelt in the temple, eaten the priestly food, worn the priestly garments, and carried out the priestly work of offering bulls and goats as sacrifices. But he completely abandoned all these things and went into the wilderness, a place that was far away from the religious regulations and the background of civilization. He lived in the wilderness, ate locusts and wild honey, and wore a garment of camel’s hair. Furthermore, it seems that the work he did was also something “wild”; he preached, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:1-4), and then he put the repenting and confessing ones into the water.
What John the Baptist did indicates a basic turn and change from the service of God in the Old Testament to that of the New Testament. In the Old Testament there was a system for the service of God, including the great, holy temple with its magnificence and splendor, the perfect, sacrificial regulations, and the dignified, orderly priesthood. At the end of the Old Testament, by gaining John, the only son of Zachariah, who was a leading priest, God repudiated the Old Testament service and initiated a new beginning. John rejected being a priest of the Old Testament, and he turned and became the first priest of the gospel in the New Testament. The priests in the Old Testament offered bulls and goats as the primary sacrifices, which were physical, but the New Testament priests offer sinners, who have repented by believing the gospel, as spiritual sacrifices. In God’s eyes, every repenting and believing sinner is a spiritual sacrifice offered to God.
In his Epistle, Peter said that we, the New Testament believers, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God (1 Pet. 2:5). Becoming a New Testament priest who offers up spiritual sacrifices to God is the result of preaching the gospel. Hence, Peter went on to say that we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, so that we may tell out the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (v. 9). This is to announce the salvation of God through the gospel that people may be saved to become spiritual sacrifices offered to God.
When the Lord Jesus came out to minister after John, He did the same as John did, preaching the gospel of God everywhere and saving sinners to offer as sacrifices to God. He did not only do this Himself, but He also sent out His disciples to do the same thing. After the church appeared on the earth on the day of Pentecost, the disciples did this even more. Among them, there was an apostle who can be considered as a pattern in this matter, Paul the evangelist. He went all over the Gentile world to preach the gospel and save sinners, bringing them back to God. In Roman 15:16 he told us that, as a priest of the gospel of God, he offered to God as sacrifices the Gentile sinners saved through him. This was the beginning of the work of Paul as a priest of the gospel. After this, he nourished them that they might grow in life and present themselves as living sacrifices to God. This is what we see in Romans 12:1, which is the second step of the work of a priest of the gospel. However, Paul did not stop here. In Colossians 1:28 he said that he admonished every man and taught every man in all wisdom that he might present every man full-grown in Christ. This is also the perfecting of the saints, which he spoke of in Ephesians 4:12. The saved believers not only grow in life, but they are also perfected in every way in Christ unto maturity that they may directly do the work of the building up of the Body of Christ. This is the third step of the work of the apostle Paul as a priest of the gospel. Not only so, but in 1 Corinthians 14 he encouraged those who served God to desire earnestly that they may prophesy. To prophesy is to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, and to speak the Lord into people for the purpose of ministering and dispensing Christ into them that they may be nourished and built up. This is the fourth step, which is also the highest step, of the work of a priest of the gospel.
The work of the priests of the gospel begins with the preaching of the gospel to save sinners and continues on with bringing them to grow in life, perfecting them, and enabling them to speak for the Lord. It is only when we arrive at the final stage that we can say that the work is complete. At this stage, all the saints can do what the gifted ones, such as the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, do for the building up of the Body of Christ. This is the proper service of the New Testament believers. When the believers serve in this way, they serve as the New Testament priests of the gospel. Hence, the work of the priests of the gospel is very extensive, from leading people to salvation to nourishing and perfecting them until they are able to prophesy for the Lord that others may receive the life supply and the dispensing of Christ. As a result, every one of the saints can build up the Body of Christ. At the same time, the New Testament priests are a priesthood, in which all believers should and can participate. In 1 Corinthians 14:31 Paul says, “You can all prophesy one by one.” If a saved one has become a New Testament believer but still cannot prophesy, this shows that he has not been completely perfected in the work of the New Testament priests of the gospel and that he still has a lack. Since we are New Testament believers, we need to be perfected to such an extent that we can prophesy for the Lord to release the riches of Christ and minister Christ to others for the building up of the Body of Christ.
What we have spoken here is a great matter that we have seen in the last four to five years. This clearly tells us that every New Testament believer must take the responsibility to do the specialized work of the priests of the gospel. For this reason, dear brothers and sisters, my main burden here is to show you that, since you love and seek the Lord, you must do the first step of the work of a priest of the gospel. Instead of others doing it for you, you need to carry it out personally by preaching the gospel to save sinners and offer them to God as sacrifices. This is also what the Lord Jesus said in John 15; as the branches of Him who is the vine, we must bear fruit to glorify the Father. Since we are branches, we must bear fruit. No branch can bear fruit for other branches. Fruit-bearing is not something that others can help us with by doing it for us. Today, as the priests of the gospel, we cannot be substituted; we ourselves, personally, need to preach the gospel and lead people to salvation. For this reason, in the church, those who are gifted in gospel preaching not only should go forth to preach the gospel but also should spend time to perfect other saints that they also may be able to preach the gospel as the gifted ones do. Every one of us must learn how to preach the gospel to save sinners, bearing fruit of the gospel as sacrifices to be offered to God. I believe that if we all are willing to receive this light, there will be no lack in the Lord’s recovery in the matter of preaching the gospel to save sinners. Furthermore, the number of believers among us will increase considerably. May the Lord grant us His visitation in this matter.
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