The Priesthood

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The Priesthood

• By H.H. Pope Shenouda III

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The Common Priesthood (1)

• Any believer can offer spiritual sacrifices and
  spiritual incense without actually being a
  priest this is the common or the spiritual
  priesthood
• Example 1 May my prayer be set before You like
  incense may the lifting up of my hands be like
  the evening sacrifice Psalm 1412

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The Common Priesthood (2)

• Example 2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in
  view of Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as
  living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God
  this is your spiritual act of worship Rom. 121
• Example 3 let us continually offer to God a
  sacrifice of praise the fruit of lips that
  confess His name Heb. 1315

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The Common Priesthood (3)

• Offering these kinds of sacrifice is what is
  intended in the universal priesthood of all
  believers. But this does not, in any way, prevent
  there being a priesthood specially for the
  offering of the holy sacraments, for which God
  has singled out certain individuals to serve in
  this way.
• No one takes this honor upon himself he must be
  called by God, just as Aaron was Heb. 54

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Attempts long ago that failed (1)

• The first rebellion against the specific
  priesthood was undertaken by Korah, Dathan, and
  Abiram (Numbers 16) You have gone too far! The
  whole community is holy, every one of them, and
  the Lord is with them. Why then do you set
  yourselves above the Lords assembly Numbers
  163
• The Lord said to Aaron only you and your sons
  may serve as priests in connection with every
  thing at the altar and inside the curtain. I am
  giving you the service of the priesthood as a
  gift. Any one else who comes near the sanctuary
  must be put to death Numbers 187

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Attempts long ago that failed (2)

• The second attempt when king Saul dared to raise
  the burnt offering, as it tells in the first Book
  of Samuel (.1Sam.139). The result was that the
  Lord rejected him, and the Spirit of the Lord
  departed from him and an evil spirit from the
  Lord descended upon him.
• The third incidence when king Uzziah also dared
  to hold the censer to raise the incense,
  according to 2 Chronicles 26 19 21, and as a
  result, the Lord struck him with Leprosy

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Some people might object and say, that all these
things happened in the Old Testament and that the
situation was different in the New Testament
since the priesthood of the Old Testament was
abolished and God no longer put a mediator
between himself and man!
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GOD DOES NOT CHANGE

• All Scripture is God breathed and useful for
  teaching 2 Tim. 316
• Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
  above, and comes down from the Father of lights,
  with whom there is no variation or shadow of
  turning James 117
• Do not think that I have come to abolish the law
  or the Prophets I have not come to abolish them
  but to fulfill them Matth. 517
• Is this mean that we are required to observe the
  Old Testament from the point of view of its rules
  about the observance of the Sabbath,
  circumcision, festivals, blood sacrifices,
  impurity and purification?

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The Observance of the Sabbath

• This commandment still stands, in essence, in so
  far as you should keep it as the holy day of the
  week for the Lord
• Since the Sabbath represents rest, the Lords
  only rest came when He freed man from the
  judgment of sin, and from the effects of sin and
  its consequence that is death
• The Lords rest day was Sunday, and so Sunday
  became the new Sabbath with the spiritual meaning
  of the Sabbath
• So resting on the Sabbath as a commandment of
  Gods law is still effective and setting aside a
  day especially for the Lord is still expected of
  us, as far as the essence and spirit of the
  commandment and what the Lord intended it to be
  i.e. rest

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The Commandment of Circumcision

• This cutting off or death of a small part of the
  body, symbolizes the death of the whole body in
  baptism for, We were therefore buried with Him
  through baptism Rom. 64
• So the process of death to the physical body,
  which is what is meant by circumcision, is still
  in force as a commandment, but it is to be taken
  in a spiritual sense rather than in a literal,
  and hence physical sense
• The Lord Jesus did not abolish the law, but
  rather interpreted it in a spiritual terms

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The Festivals (1)

• The festivals of the Old Testament also remains,
  but as symbols of their original situation.
• The Passover took on its full meaning in our Lord
  Jesus Christ, For Christ, our Passover lamb, has
  been sacrificed 1 Cor. 57
• The festival of the Unleavened Bread, which
  follows directly after the Passover, we still
  celebrate , but in its spiritual meaning
  Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the
  old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,
  but with bread without yeast, the bread of
  sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 58

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The Festivals (2)

• The Feast of Weeks, which was held fifty days
  after the offering of the harvest, (Lev.23), we
  still celebrate, but in the form of Pentcost, on
  the fiftieth day after the Resurrection.
• Thus the commandment to observe the festivals
  still remains, and has not been cancelled

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The Sacrifices

• The blood sacrifices symbolized the sacrifice of
  the Lord Jesus Christ. The principle of the
  sacrifices was not abolished in the New
  Testament, but in fact still stands, though we
  have now taken it in the spiritual sense instead
  of the literal one.
• Thus the altar continues to remain in
  Christianity, though not for blood sacrifices,
  but For Christ, our Passover Lamb who has been
  sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 57