The priesthood that God ordained for everyone is one in which all the saved ones are priests. Moreover, the foremost offering in the New Testament is the offering of the saved sinners to God. This is the first function of the priests of the New Testament.
For this reason, after the coming of the New Testament age, God revealed to the last priest of the Old Testament, John the Baptist, that he was not to offer up bulls and goats anymore. Instead, he should offer up sinners in Christ. After this, the Lord Jesus came. He was also a real priest. He continued to bring sinners to salvation. The Lord Jesus also sent out disciples to preach the gospel. First, He sent out the twelve (Luke 6:12-16). Then He sent out seventy (Luke 10:1-24). After His resurrection the Lord said to the disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:18b, 19). The Lord sent us to all the nations to preach the gospel to every man, baptizing them into Himself, and offering them up as sacrifices to God. In the Epistles Paul also said that he “should be a minister of Christ Jesus to the nations, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, that the offering of the nations might be acceptable, having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:16). Paul was a priest of the gospel of God. He offered up the saved Gentiles as offerings to God.
We still may have natural concepts. We may think that since Brother Paul was the number one apostle, he was surely capable of preaching the gospel. But since we are neither an apostle nor a prophet, we cannot preach the gospel. To preach the gospel we have to invite a gospel giant to come to us and have him speak to everyone. This is very unscriptural and does not match the nature of God’s ordained way in the New Testament. God ordains in the New Testament that every one of the believers should preach the gospel.
However, the church has become fallen. As a result, the organic function of many believers is killed. All have become incapable of preaching the gospel. Only a few have become capable in preaching the gospel and serving as a priest. The result is a clerical system. Most believers are laymen who come only for the worship services, sitting in the pews without functioning at all. This kills the arrangement and ordination of God. For the past two thousand years many Christians have become incapable of serving God. Some may not understand this. They may think that they are still serving God. Every week they still go to the meeting hall to sweep the floor, vacuum the carpets, clean the windows, arrange the chairs, and serve as ushers. All these are but the work of the Levites. They are not the services of the New Testament gospel priests.
From 1984 we have seen the need to change the system. However, during the last four years we have not rid ourselves completely of the poison of Christianity. It is not easy to be delivered from any kind of old tradition or system. For example, as far back as a hundred years ago the founding father of the modern Chinese Republic, Mr. Sun Yat-sen, proposed that the Chinese government turn from imperialistic rule to democracy. Today Taiwan only has a little dawning of such a system. To have a democracy is not easy. Take as another example our dress. Sixty years ago few Chinese dared to wear Western suits. They even dared not to speak English after they had learned it. But today sixty years later in Taiwan most mothers are so keen to have their children learn English. Everywhere we find people wearing Western suits. The reason for this is that the age has changed, and the tide has turned. In commerce and trade Taiwan has improved and advanced tremendously. If we do not turn, we will be left behind.
We have to see that the same thing is true in the service of the church. We cannot change the truth of the Bible. But how to preach and teach the truth requires much studying and improvement. We can see from the Bible that the gospel meetings with one speaking and all the rest listening is not scriptural and is not according to God’s ordination. The Lord sent the seventy disciples to peoples’ houses and told them that “into whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace shall rest upon it; but if not, it shall return upon you” (Luke 10:5-6). The Lord never charged the disciples to call a big meeting. Rather, He sent them out.
Hence, every brother and sister has to go from door to door visiting people. Today we are in God’s New Testament economy. We are all priests and should all offer sacrifices. The first sacrifice we should offer to God is the sinner. If we do not offer up sinners we are not functioning priests. In the future we will have to give an account before the Lord. The Lord’s way is not for a few qualified and gifted ones to preach the gospel. He wants every saved person to go and preach the gospel. As long as you can talk, you can preach the gospel. First Corinthians 14:31 says, “For you can all prophesy one by one.” The Bible says that we can all speak. For this reason we all have to go and speak the gospel to others, thus fulfilling our duty as priests of the gospel.
After we have led sinners to be saved and have offered them up as offerings, Paul tells us in Romans 12:1, “I beg you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, which is your most reasonable service.” Paul begged the sinners to present their bodies and offer themselves willingly as sacrifices to God. This is another step that we have to lead others to take.
In Colossians 1:28 Paul said, “Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man full-grown in Christ.” To be presented full-grown is similar to being picked as ripe fruit in an orchard during harvest time. This whole process of growth is included in the home meetings, the group meetings, and the district meetings. In the end, through these different meetings we will be perfected step by step until we can finally be presented to God full-grown.
Today we have to see that we are all New Testament priests. Everyone needs to preach the gospel. Everyone has to attend the home meetings and group meetings. Everyone must prophesy. When we prophesy, we have to exercise our spirit. There must be not only the revelation and the light; there must be the inspiration also. In this way Christ will be spoken into others. Only when all these things are put into practice can the universal priesthood be realized.