CHRIST AS APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST
[p. 439] CHRIST AS APOSTLE AND HIGH PRIEST
Hebrews 3: 1 - 6; Luke 10: 38 - 42; Luke 11: 1 - 15
One is struck with the priestly skill with which the letter to the Hebrews is written. It is not written in an official way, although undoubtedly the author is Paul; nor is it written with the authority of an apostle, but the skill of a priest is easily discerned in it. In the passage I have read this is seen in the form of the address. “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling;” and in speaking to you, dear brethren, one would desire to follow such an example, for while we carry on Levitical work, we are always to be governed by the priestly spirit, that is, the spirit of divine intelligence and holiness. Levitical work if not carried on in that spirit is very likely to be profane. If we think of Moses, great servant though he was, and accredited in this passage with general faithfulness — faithful in all God’s house — yet there was this blemish, alas! that he addressed the people of God as rebels. That was not a priestly touch.
The apostle, or the writer here, sets before us the opposite of that; he addresses those to whom he wrote as holy brethren; and he further adds, “partakers of the heavenly calling”, he took account of them in that way, as I said, in priestly intelligence and holiness. He would not admit of any profane suggestion; the saints are holy brethren, and partakers of the heavenly calling. He lifts them up from the platform of the flesh; hence if these thoughts are received in our souls, they produce a right appreciation of what is said. I desire to speak to you in that light; for it is important, not only that I should speak holily and intelligently, but that you also should be both intelligent and holy, for the [p. 440] things of God — the operations of the Spirit of God — are in relation to what is holy.
The thought I have is to call attention to Christ, as this passage does, as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. The word is ‘confession’, not ‘profession;’ it is what we confess rather than what we profess; and we have a confession. The ‘we’ and the ‘us’ of this epistle are the ‘we’ and the ‘us’ of mutuality. The speaker places himself alongside his hearers and shares as one of them; he magnifies what they have got, and then takes his part in it mutually. One would love to bring out in its true bearing what our confession is, but I do not intend to attempt this, but merely to suggest a thought as to it.
What the apostle desired was that they might consider the Apostle; the Apostle of our confession. Much has come to us that we enjoy without thinking of the Vessel through whom it has come. Abroad in Christendom the light of Christianity is to some extent appreciated, but there is little thought of the One through whom it has come. So the point here is to “consider the Apostle” — consider Him — and in thinking of Christ in this way we have to look into the gospels. The gospels, according to the point of view in each, present Christ to us in this light.
You recall that when Aaron was to be anointed and consecrated and his sons with him, they were brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; Leviticus 8. It is a lovely scene typically; Moses is the active servant, and Aaron is the passive one; and the tabernacle is there. Now, the tabernacle represented the divine thoughts. In this letter to the Hebrews it is said to be a figurative representation of things in the heavens — a very vast thought that.
Now when Christ came from heaven He began to unfold the things, so that it was no longer a figurative
[p. 441] representation of them, but the plain unfolding of them in His ministry. The gospels are not records of so many scattered narratives or events, the are divine thoughts methodically unfolded, and which hang together; as Luke says to Theophilus, “It has seemed good to me also, accurately acquainted from the origin with all things, to write to thee with method, most excellent Theophilus” (Luke 1: 3). So that by him, at least, we have the methodical unfolding, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, of the ministry of Christ, an unfolding which is all one piece, and understood spiritually in relation to the other inspired gospel narratives.
Thus we have things in the heavens set before us in a spiritual way, so that it is said in this letter that the Lord came in connection with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, that is not of this creation, He came in connection with a great spiritual system that He unfolded in His ministry. Hence, dear brethren, the importance of paying attention to the Apostle — considering Him — and giving earnest heed to the things spoken. Then in the type the high priest was brought to the door of the tabernacle; that is to say, Christ Himself has taken up a place in resurrection as Priest in relation to all that He unfolded as the Apostle.
I turn now to the passages I read in Luke. In entering into Martha’s house, it is evident that the Lord had a certain liberty there, for He spoke in it, but you can understand that as the Lord in thought turned to Martha, who was cumbered about much serving, although she was a hospitable woman apparently and had received Him into her house (and He would not be slow to value that), yet there would be nothing there to draw out the wonderful secrets that He had in His heart to disclose.
Mary, on the other hand, was all rapt attention; she discerned what a fountain of light was there,
[p. 442] she had sat down at the feet of Jesus and was listening to His word; she was sitting, mark you; it was not an occasional stop to listen to what the Lord might have been saying; she sat down, there was deliberation in her attitude. There was at least one heart open, ready to receive all that He said. Here was the great Apostle of our confession.
In Simon’s house, as you recall, He also spoke, and that in grace too, but He only spoke as occasion required it, but He was not free there; Simon’s was not the environment for the unfolding of things in the heavens; a house full of religious pride and superciliousness is no house in which to open up the things of heaven. Think of what is in heaven, dear brethren — all the Father’s thoughts and the infinite holiness and brightness and glory of that place! How could you bring that into a house such as Simon’s? It is wholly incongruous. Nevertheless, the Lord would speak in Simon’s house, and He did; He rebuked Simon and He justified the sinner. He will do that, but the unfolding of the heavenly things required a suitable environment, as I said; and so, although Martha was not ready, Mary was; she was attentive, and hers was the privileged part of listening to His word. Whatever He said was of interest to her. Let us not think that any part of the tabernacle — the great spiritual tabernacle — is of minor importance. Every peg is indispensable although made of wood; every item of the great spiritual system unfolded and set up by the great Apostle of our confession is essential; and you want to hear every word, we must not miss anything. So Mary represents one who considers and listens to the Apostle of our confession, and I have no doubt that the next chapter sets before us the Priest.
The Apostle is the one who speaks from God; the Priest is the one who speaks to God. So in the [p. 443] next passage we are told that He was praying in a certain place, it does not say in Martha’s house. The place is not the point, but the thing — what He was doing; He was praying. After the unfolding of the great tabernacle system in His word the Lord is then seen in relation to all that in prayer as a Priest. In order to be in the spiritual order of things that we are called to we have to consider Christ; we have to consider Him as the Apostle, and in considering Him and hearing Him we get the idea of the tabernacle, but we are to consider Him too as the Priest, and the opening of chapter 11 sets before us the Lord praying. Elsewhere we get records of the identical things that the Lord asked for in prayer. One feels that one is on peculiarly holy ground in approaching such a chapter as John 17; we are, as it were, admitted to hear the actual breathings of Christ to His Father. I do not think that that chapter is set before us as a model for us; it is the Son speaking to the Father. His pre-eminence must be fully admitted in our souls in approaching that chapter, it is peculiarly holy, every breathing of it is holy; the soul is impressed with the peculiar holiness of the scene.
But Luke is also characterised by holiness in the priestly way in which he gives his narrative; he has in mind to bring in the priestly family. You will recall how he begins with a priest — Zacharias — and Elizabeth the daughter of a priest, and how in recording the birth of our Lord, His nativity, and His boyhood, he throws out, so to say, a priestly atmosphere, so that the natural mind should be rebuked in looking at the subject. And so, throughout, he has in view that the saints should become a company of priests. Hence, when you come to the end of his narrative you have the disciples led out as far as to Bethany by the Lord — it is a beautiful and most touching scene — and having arrived there [p. 444] He lifts up His hands and blesses them — that was a priestly act — and having blessed them, He went up in their view, and disappeared as a Priest; and, dear brethren, one might add to that, we have Him in heaven in that service.
There is an anti-priest who has access there too — one who accuses the brethren day and night. But the Lord is there as Priest; He is there to uphold us, and not only us, but to uphold the whole system that He unfolded in His ministry; and it is upheld. Let us not think, for one moment, that there is any failure from that point of view; He is there, “Minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8: 2). The Lord has pitched it, and He is there as a Minister of it, and the ministry is being carried on perfectly; were it not so we should not be here as we are. There is a great spiritual system that no effort of the enemy can touch — it subsists in Christ. He is the great Priest; the disciples get a view of Him thus as He lifted up His hands and was carried into heaven — they got a view of Him going in, and He remains there, and is supporting the whole system that He unfolded in His ministry.
But now they are left on earth, that is how Luke’s gospel ends. The disciples, it says, “returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God” (Luke 24: 52, 53).
Now when you come to the beginning of the Acts, the same men are seen, not in the temple, but in the upper room, “where were staying both Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew”. The room where they were staying was in keeping with their confession. A huge building, such as the temple, was not in keeping with their confession. It is true that the temple was recognised for a while in a provisional way; but there was the great spiritual temple in [p. 445] connection with which they were to serve, and that is developed in Paul’s ministry. Peter, too, says, “Yourselves ... are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2: 5). So that we see the disciples according to Luke, qualified priests set here in relation to what the Lord had opened up and set up through His ministry — the great thoughts of God unfolded and set up in a systematised way, so that now what you come to is that those who are spiritually set together form the temple. The thoughts of God are there, and the priests serve in relation to that. One would love to make clear what the exercise, what the function of the saint is, in relation to the great spiritual system that is set up, how we are a “holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices”. Peter is not speaking of what you might give of material things; these also may be sacrificed, and “with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13: 16), but he is speaking of spiritual sacrifices.
Well now, the passage in Luke shows us how the disciples, having seen the Lord exercise, as I may say, His priestly function, desired to be taught to do the same. It says that one of His disciples, having seen Him pray, said, “Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples”. And the Lord immediately answered, “When ye pray, say, Father thy name be hallowed” — that is the first principle of priestly service. Now, dear brethren, do we pray? The first thought in this prayer which the Lord taught His disciples is “Thy name be hallowed;” that is, I am thinking for God. A priest always thinks for God. I do not begin with my own needs; the priest thinks for God. So, in the Lord’s wonderful prayer to which I have alluded, He says, “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it” (John 17: 4). He came in relation to God, and to carry out the will of God;
[p. 446] and above all, in making God known and finishing His work, to have here a sanctified place, a holy place, a place in which God could dwell. What a wonderful thought He had, dear brethren! He would set up here in His people that in which God could dwell. But how dwell? By the Holy Spirit. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. If God is to be in our hearts, He dwells there in holy love.
The Lord Jesus was declared to be the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness. You see how holiness marks Him from the outset. On the cross He says, “And thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22: 3). And so in resurrection He declares the Father’s name. Hence the next thing is: “In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee” (verse 22). If the One who inhabited the praises of Israel was holy, how much more so in inhabiting the praises of the saints. The divine habitation must be in holiness, so that the prayer here, simple though it is, begins, “Thy name be hallowed”.
But I do not proceed to details, only to show how you have in the Lord’s further word a “Friend”, and a “Father”. We can pray to a Friend and we can pray to a Father. I need not enlarge on who the Friend is. We have got a Friend in heaven. We have One there who has befriended us in death and who befriends us in life, and we can pray to Him. The passage enlarges on the importance of importunity; but that does not in the least suggest that there is any disposition on the part of our Friend to withhold what we pray for; the point is to ‘ask’, to ‘seek’, and to ‘knock’. Let us not be at any spiritual disadvantage! There are no difficulties that can arise in our spiritual history that cannot be met. But the Lord would have us so to value what He can do for us, that we are urgent about it; you must have the thing, so you keep on asking; and you get it. Then, He says, “Shall a son ask bread and the father shall give him a stone? or also a fish, and instead of a fish shall give him a serpent? or if also he shall ask an egg, shall give him a scorpion?” No father does that. And so He says, “how much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit”. Then let us pray; let us draw near to God. He has become our Father. We think of His name; let it be hallowed! And what will He not give us? Even, as the Lord says, the Holy Spirit, the greatest possible gift. The Lord unfolded to His disciples the great advantage of prayer, and we learn to pray aright, intelligently and effectively, from Christ; He teaches us how to pray; and He shows that in praying we may get the greatest possible gift. He “has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?” (Romans 8: 32). But the point is that we get things for asking. God gives us all things, according to Romans 8; having given Christ, He gives all things freely from His own side; but the point here is what you get for asking, and asking according to the pattern of Christ — the true Priest.
May God bless His word to us!