A priest of the New Testament is a priest of the gospel. The Old Testament priests were priests of bulls and goats. They specialized in the offering of bulls and goats as sacrifices. The turn of the priesthood from the Old Testament to the New Testament happened in John the Baptist who was born a priest. He was the only son of his father who was a priest. According to the custom, he should have worn the priestly garment, eaten the priestly food, and grown up in the temple. But he went to live in the wilderness, wearing camel’s hair, and eating locusts and wild honey (Matt. 3:4). He exhorted men to repent. If any men repented, he would bury them in the River Jordan (Matt. 3:1, 6). Everything about him was wild, including his food, his clothing, his dwelling, his preaching, and his work. Notwithstanding, he was the first one to turn from the Old Testament priesthood to the New Testament priesthood. From that time on, it was no longer a matter of offering up bulls and goats for sacrifices. Rather, it has become a matter of offering up saved sinners in Christ as sacrifices. John the Baptist was the first priest of the gospel in the New Testament. All New Testament believers should be like him, going out to preach the gospel that calls for repentance, baptizing the believing ones, and offering them up in Christ to God.
First Peter says, “You yourselves also...being built up...into a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” (2:5). Romans also says that one “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” (15:16). The fact mentioned in Romans 15:16 confirms the vision seen by Peter in 1 Peter 2. Paul became a spiritual priest, a gospel priest, offering up to God spiritual sacrifices, which are the sinners saved through his preaching. Hence, every New Testament believer should be a priest, offering up the saved sinners as sacrifices. If a New Testament believer has not preached the gospel and does not lead sinners to be saved, he is a priest who fails in his function.
According to our natural concept, we think that inviting our friends, ushering, counseling, record taking, and similar activities during gospel campaigns in the past were our services and were functions of the priests. Actually, these are just works of the Levites. They were not works of the priests. Although many famous preachers can conduct gospel campaigns and save sinners, their way is contrary to God’s New Testament economy and kills the spiritual function of the believers as priests of the gospel. We see from the New Testament that the Lord continually perfected others and sent them out. First, the twelve were sent out, and then the seventy were sent out. Furthermore, they were sent “into every city and place where He Himself was about to come” (Luke 10:1). I believe that their going out was surely not for the Levitical work but for the preaching of the gospel, the saving of the sinners, and the work of the New Testament priests of the gospel.
Therefore, we have to see that the gospel meeting in Christianity today with one or two preaching, though right in goal, is wrong in means. The reason for this is that it has changed the nature of the universal gospel priesthood of the believers to that of the exclusive gospel priesthood of the few. All the believers wait until the gospel giant comes and then participate in Levitical services. After the gospel campaigns, no one preaches the gospel anymore. This is not the way to preach the gospel in the New Testament. The New Testament reveals that every saved person is a priest preaching the gospel. Hence, we conclude that there are indeed many ways to preach the gospel and that all these ways do save people. But this does not mean that every way will make each believer a New Testament priest of the gospel. This is the light and revelation we have received recently from the Lord.
If this had been the way we led the church forty years ago, and if we had established this tradition among us, the ones saved through us would have become priests of the gospel long ago. Soon after they were saved, they would have preached the gospel to lead sinners to be saved. The revelation is open to us today in order to show us that the preaching of the gospel should arrive at God’s goal and complete God’s economy. The economy of God today is for every saint to be a priest of the gospel.
Since last summer, the Lord has shown us four great visions in succession. First, the church is the Body of Christ, which is an organism that issued from the processed Triune God. It comes into being neither accidentally, nor by His creation. Second, the emphasis in the service of all the gifts is not on the works, but on their perfecting of the saints to do the works. We must perfect the saints to be able to do whatever we are able to do. Third, there is the need to help everyone to grow so that all can prophesy for the Lord. Today the Lord does not speak through one or two persons in the church. Rather He speaks through everyone. Only when every member prophesies will the church be built. Fourth, gospel preaching must be done by everyone personally through visiting others in their homes. It should not be done by calling big gospel campaigns. If there are only gospel campaigns, believers will be degraded to serve only as Levites, and only a few will then be able to serve as the exclusive priests of the gospel. The spiritual function of all the believers as priests of the gospel will be killed. These four visions are what I want to fellowship and communicate to all of you elders and co-workers at this time.
I came back here this time to do the work of perfecting. I am here to perfect you to do what I am doing. This is like the parents in a family teaching the children with the hope that they will grow up properly. This is what Paul meant when he said to the Thessalonians that he was like a nursing mother cherishing them (1 Thes. 2:7) and a father entreating them (v. 11). The result of his perfecting was to present the believers full-grown. This morning I lay this outline before you with the hope that you would take it home and fellowship much about it. You can have all the elders come together with the seeking brothers and sisters to get into these points. These are all crucial points concerning how we should meet and serve in the coming days.