Hebrews 2: 16-18; 4: 14-16; 6;17-20; 10: 19-25

THE PRIESTLY SERVICE OF CHRIST

W.McK. We might consider the priestly service of Christ to the saints in the epistle to the Hebrews. These passages provide encouragement for us and would have a strengthening effect in us as we take account of that service. That the Lord acted in a priestly way when He was here, even though He was not officially a priest, is clear from the gospels: His prayers and His priestly activities in feeding the multitude, and other events, would show that the Lord's priestly service really began in the days of His flesh. He will certainly act in a priestly way in the world to come because He will sit a Priest upon His throne, but His priestly service then will be of a different character because it will not be a question exactly of meeting need. The world to come will be largely free of need; God will introduce men in flesh and blood into eternal life conditions in an earthly sense and priesthood will have a different character; it will be largely a question of sustaining the earthly service of God in Israel and among the nations. But these passages in Hebrews refer especially to the Lord's priestly service currently, so it is instructive to consider how He is presented in each of the passages we have read.

In chapter 2 He is spoken of as a "merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God"; in chapter 4 He is “the great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God"; in chapter 6 He is spoken of as having entered in as the Forerunner, but as "a high priest according to the order of Melchisedec"; and in chapter 10 He is spoken of as "a great priest over the house of God". If we think of the bearing of these presentations of Christ on ourselves currently, in chapter 2 it is that He might help those that are being tempted, ourselves. In chapter 4 He is serving us as High Priest so that we should hold fast and have boldness to approach the throne of grace. In chapter 6 it is to lift our view from the earth to heaven because He has entered in within the veil as the Forerunner for us. If He is the Forerunner, there must be others coming after Him and those others include ourselves. The main point in the Lord's priestly service in Hebrews is not to sustain us in the wilderness, but rather to bring us into the purpose of God. In chapter 10 it bears on our approach in the house of God. The house of God is what we have part in at the present time by faith and in the Spirit's power. What marks us is that we approach, which would have in view priestly service on our part as under the hand of the great Priest over the house of God. This leads not only to holding fast but also to our being able to stimulate one another. The apostle says, "provoking to love and good works", and then encouraging one another to assemble together. A vital feature of the house of God is that we assemble.

L.McF. I am sure what you are saying is of great importance. I thought that on our side entering into this thought of the priesthood necessitates the gift of the Holy Spirit. Is that right?

W.McK. Yes. We could not be priests without the gift of the Spirit. What passes for priesthood and priestly service in Christendom is anything but that, because it involves the denial of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The whole clerical system from which brethren withdrew at the beginning of the recovery of the truth showed that they seized the import of what you are saying. If God was to be served in a priestly way it had to be by persons who had faith and in whom the Spirit was free.

L.McF. So the Lord came into manhood; as it says, "Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like to his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God". That brings in the necessity of the incarnation and the Lord's service here amongst His own.

W.McK. As becoming Man, He became subject to all that affects us as believers save sin. But He came into a condition which meant that He could suffer. He also could become weary; we read that very thing, 'weary with the way He had come' (John 4: 6). So when we feel weary and think that it would be more comfortable to stay at home and relax, we think of the One who never thought of Himself and who would strengthen us that we might be filling out our priestly part in the house of God. His priestly service here relates to those that are called His brethren. The Lord in becoming Man in all things was made like to His brethren. He was not made like to man in a general sense; the world is full of persons who are suffering because of their lawlessness, their violence, and their corruption. The Lord did not become Man to take on conditions like that. He came as entering into the conditions that affect those that have faith and have the Spirit. It says, "his brethren" and, as you read, "in things relating to God". The Lord's priestly service is not in things relating to the world or to the flesh or to self-will; it is in things relating to God.

A.S.H. I was thinking of the scripture where His relatives came to see Him and He looking around in a circuit said, These are my brethren, those who do the will of God (see Mark 3: 34).

W.McK. That fits in, because the Lord was not occupied with those who were His brethren naturally. Often we are detained a good deal from making spiritual progress by those that are related to us naturally but not spiritually. The Lord was thinking of those who were morally His brethren because they were doing the will of God. The teaching of Romans would underlie what is spoken of here. These persons who are called His brethren would be the product of the teaching of Romans, and the Lord has great sympathy with them because He knows that the whole scene is adverse to us. It even uses the word, "in that himself has suffered, being tempted". You remember that Matthew of the three synoptic gospels records that when the Lord was in the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, he says specifically, "And the tempter coming up to him said", Matt 4: 3. The tempter is especially against assemblyminded persons and I think that is why Matthew uses that title; Mark and Luke do not, "And the tempter coming up". And so the Lord would say to us individually or householdly, when the tempter comes up I know what that means and it is going to involve suffering for you to withstand him.

A.S.H. That was our subject on Thursday night; we were reading in Matthew that very chapter.

W.McK. Well, say some more about it.

A.S.H. I cannot add to it but what you are saying is timely. As it is brought forward it means that the Spirit is working and that things are coming together under God's timing.

W.McK. So the Lord has been that way, 'being tempted'. We know that it was morally impossible that He could yield to any temptation of the tempter and Matthew 4 shows that He did not. In fact Luke says, "And the devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him for a time", Luke 4: 13. The devil has a range of temptations and He will try those out on us, and what he will try out on young immature brethren is not what he will try out on older brethren who have been longer in the testimony. But the great point is that the Lord has been through the whole range of temptations and He is able to strengthen us, or, as it says, He is able to help those that are being tempted.

L.McF. I was thinking how in Genesis 3 the fruit from the forbidden tree was used to allure the woman, the man too; they both fell on account of yielding. But in the Lord's history we have One who could not yield, as you said.

W.McK. In Genesis 3 Satan did not exactly contradict what God had said, but he said, has God indeed said (v 1). He would get our minds working on natural lines about being regulated by the truth and by the present word of God. When that kind of crisis arises with any one of us, the Lord would draw near to help us so that we do not succumb to the temptation.

K.N.P. The Lord Himself drew on the word of God. Would that link with "things relating to God"? If we are concerned about the things relating to God, it would help us, do you think, in temptation to rely on the word of God to see us through?

W.McK. It would. And the word of God in its current bearing. Because the Lord said twice, It is written, and then He said, It is said. That would be what the Spirit is saying currently.

C.F.D. When the thought of the priest was originally brought in in the wisdom of God, it had in mind the sustaining of the people under difficult circumstances. I wondered whether the idea is seen in Moses and Aaron - Moses more what is apostolic and authoritative, but with Aaron, priesthood, which would have in mind the maintenance of things for God under difficult circumstances.

W.McK. Exactly. The wilderness was a very difficult place. Moses alludes to it as a great and terrible wilderness (Deut. 8: 15). It is a place where faith is tested to the utmost and where the flesh is fully exposed. In such surroundings and circumstances we need the priestly service of Christ to carry us through livingly in relation to serving God.

C.F.D. I wondered if the thought of serving God was like a terminus in view of which, in the service of the Lord in the wilderness setting of things - difficult circumstances, maintaining us there - holding us there, sustaining us in the will of God, He is preserving vessels having in view the service of God itself, in which, again, we have the priestly support of Christ.

W.McK. That is the point in Hebrews. While we are here in the wilderness, yet in relation to the true tabernacle (which we have in chapter 8) we are to be maintained in the service of God. Chapter 13 exhorts us to go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, and then rendering the fruit, or the calves, of our lips (Hos 14: 2), as though the service of God is to be enriched by persons who accept the limitations which the will of God requires, but who find that they are being richly supplied by the High Priest that we have.

K.N.P. Do you have something further in mind in "merciful and faithful high priest"?

W.McK. Feelings enter into this. It would run along, I think, with the expression in Corinthians that God will not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able to bear (1 Cor 10: 13). That is merciful. In Samson's history it says a young lion roared against him (Judg 14: 5). It was not a fullgrown lion - there was a certain mercy in that - so at that early point in his history he was able to deal with that attack of the devil. The Lord as a merciful High Priest limits what He allows to come against us so that we are not overpowered. But then He is faithful, He is faithful to God and to the rights of God, and we must keep that in our minds.

K.N.P. It is not licence, there is no degrading in what is for God in the way in which things are approached, but mercy would relate to how much He allows against us. I was thinking about Job; certain limitations were put upon Satan in regard to his dealings with Job. Would that link with your thought?

W.McK. Yes it would, that there are limitations because the Lord is taking into account our spiritual stature and our spiritual strength. He said to Peter, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not (Luke 22: 32). The Lord was merciful and faithful in that connection.

G.A. The beginning of John's gospel speaks about the children of God - "He came to his own and his own received him not; but as many a received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name· who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh's will, nor of man's will, but of God", John 1: 12,13. I was thinking of children of God; how does that fit in with what we have been saying about the Priest?

W.McK. That would link with what is said here about the seed of Abraham, "he takes hold of the seed of Abraham”; these are persons who are born of God, persons who have faith and they are therefore the seed of Abraham. But you can see that taking hold of the seed of Abraham by the hand involves sympathy and nearness. John 1 presents what we are as born of God, we derive our moral being from God, the Spirit using the word of God to bring that about, but then we are of the seed of Abraham, we are of the line of faith and the Lord is taking hold of us by the hand, which would involve sympathy.

L.D.P. In 2 Samuel 22, David says, "In my distress I called upon Jehovah, and I cried to my God; and he heard my voice out of his temple," v 7. I was thinking of that in relation to what we are saying here as to a merciful and faithful High Priest, and David relating his cry to the temple. Would there be something in that?

W.McK. There would be, because in chapter 10 where we read, we have the house of God mentioned, which would include the temple. Therefore, David's cry, which was heard, relates to the sphere where God is. God has a habitation here in the Spirit and the persons who are functioning in that area can be assured that their cries will be heard.

C.F.D. It is interesting to note that when the children of Israel came out of Egypt God in His mercy led them by a route in which they were not exposed to the most difficult enemies. It was a protective move from God's side and most likely the children of Israel had no sense of what was happening, and yet it was really the priestly hand of God guiding them in a way that they would be able for, so they were not tempted above what they were able for.

W.McK. It is helpful to see that. He led them not by the way of Philistines. They would not have been equal to that because the Philistines being dealt with is a long way on in Israel's history. It comes after Moses has established the whole tabernacle system, after all the prophetic service of Samuel and the service of the judges and then David. It is under David that the Philistine is dealt with because there is spiritual maturity in the saints to deal with what the Philistine represents. Therefore it is in Ephesians that you get spiritual warfare in the heavenlies; you do not get that in Romans. God knows that the young believer has all he can do to contend with the flesh in himself, that is largely Romans. That is the enemy, Amalek, that we learn to overcome by the Spirit according to Romans. But Ephesians is the Philistine and there we come to what is collective, that in our localities we are shutting out the natural mind of man which would intrude into the things of God apart from the Spirit. Would you say that?

C.F.D. Yes. I think giving us that picture helps, because the warfare against the Philistine was very extended and it was at the latter time that David could look and see all his enemies, including the Philistines, overcome, overpowered. I was wondering whether in our own histories we should be sensitive as to when we might need the priestly service of Christ? In my own working things out I do not know that I speak to the Lord in that particular way, and yet I am sure that what we are seeking from the Lord in the way of support is of priestly character.

W.McK. As long as we are down here in flesh and blood in the testimony, there is no moment when we do not need the priestly service of Christ. Even when are serving God on Lord's day morning following the Supper, we still need the priestly service of Christ, otherwise our minds are going to wander. There is never a moment at which we do not need the priestly service of Christ to keep us focused on what the Lord has before Him.

C.F.D. So when Moses is on the mount with Aaron and Hur. The war with Amalek, the flesh, is vitally important; it says there that the warfare with Amalek - with the flesh - will go on from generation to generation (Exod 17: 16). It is something with which we have to constantly come into combat, is it not?

W.McK. It is. And to be very simple about it, take the Lord at twelve years of age and what is He speaking about? He says, My Father's business. When you reach the age of twelve and fourteen and older there should come into your soul some feelings about your Father's business, your heavenly Father. The Lord is the model in that regard. You never find it recorded in the gospels that the Lord was out playing in the streets with other children. I am not saying that our children should not play with other children, I am not bringing in some legal thought, but I am trying to stimulate our interest in the model that Christ set before us, because He went through this whole line of things in order to help us at every stage of our Christian life.

A.S.H. I was thinking about the Lord going down to Nazareth and being subject to His natural parents. Does that shed light on what you are saying? It is not only that He said as to the will of His Father, wist ye not that I ought to be occupied in my Father's business? (Luke 2: 49) - that was at the early age of twelve - but then He went down with His natural parents and was subject to them. Is there anything to that?

W.McK. Surely. Showing that the Lord as Priest would help our children to take on subjection to their parents. The world is full of insubject children, and I suppose any child, boy or girl, who loves Christ would say, well, I am not going to add to the number and would ask the Lord to help him or her to be marked by subjection, not by insubjection. Christianity is very simple and practical.

G.D.P. Our High Priest is able to help those that are being tempted. You were saying it is not official, but it is a moral order of things and the Lord is able to do it. Is that right?

W.McK. Yes. So in chapter 4, He is called a great High Priest and He has passed through the heavens. He is at the point of absolute supremacy under God. Jesus the Son of God; the Son of God means that He is on God's side and He has power, power to strengthen us. And so the exhortation is, "let us hold fast the confession"; the Son of God can give us power to hold fast. The tendency in every aspect of the world is to be loose, but to hold fast requires power and the Son of God has power, He can empower us.

D.McF. Would Stephen have a sense of this? He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

W.McK. He would. Undoubtedly in that time of extremity when his physical life was being destroyed, he proved the power of the Son of God as the great High Priest and he saw the heavens opened and he saw Jesus. By faith that is the view we have. No doubt it was literal with Stephen, with us it is by faith. So we have this word that we have a High Priest able to sympathize with our infirmities - not here with our sins or our self-will but our infirmities. The Lord knows what our measure is and the exhortation is, "Let us approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace". We are in the time of grace, grace is on the throne. Whatever we need help about, grace is available.

L.McF. The reference to Stephen I thought was good. It says he knelt down and prayed, I am thinking of the priestly touch in the man in his sufferings.

W.McK. How like his Master he was! We might say that short as his life and service were, nobody shines more brightly in the spirit of Christ in the New Testament than Stephen.

A.S.H. "Let us approach therefore with boldness", would that bring in the prayer meeting?

W.McK. I think so. If we are going to approach in the prayer meeting we would have to be there, would we not? We approach God individually, we approach Him householdly, but the "us" here would mean that the apostle is thinking about what we do collectively, "let us approach". Well, to do that, to put it simply, we have to be there.

L.McF. At the outset they persevered in the breaking of bread and prayers, as if it was one thing (Acts 2: 42). So that we want to persevere, do you think?

W.McK. We do; the Son of God would give us power to persevere and to endure. We come together for an hour to pray, but think of the Lord: He spent the night in prayer to God (Luke 6: 12). Do you think He was not tired after healing persons all day and feeding multitudes and walking in the hot sun? Recently I looked up out of interest to see how far it was from Judea to where the Lord was going when He had to go through Samaria. To get to Galilee was about 32 miles. No wonder He was weary with the way He had come. But He had time for that woman and see what a wonderful result there was. And the Lord would value our overcoming and spending an hour together to take up assembly interests, to be here in things relating to God.

Chapter 6 is to remind us that our place is really heaven, because it says of Jesus that He has entered into that within the veil; that is where He is, but He is there as Forerunner for us. Part of the Lord's priestly service is to remind us that heaven is our place. We sing that, do we not, 'Yon heaven is our home' (hymn 7). The Lord's priestly service is to maintain spiritual interest on our part about our heavenly home and to lift us above the tendency that marks us all naturally to earthly-mindedness. Is that all right to say?

L.McF. Yes, that is helpful. "As forerunner for us, become for ever a high priest according to the order of Melchisedec." Say something about the Melchisedec priesthood, please.

W.McK. Is that not another feature of the glory of Christ as Priest? It is not a priesthood that terminates by death but He is Priest in the power of an indissoluble life, that is it is life out of death. His priesthood involves eternal life. His service to us is that we might enjoy eternal life more and more, especially as we are together when we are free of ordinary, legitimate matters. What eternal life is in the heavenly sense in which it belongs to the assembly should be our portion.

L.McF. So that what came out there in Aaron's rod, how it blossomed and bloomed would illustrate what you are saying, and what was in the mind of God, no doubt, was typically seen in Aaron.

W.McK. So his rod brought out the power of life out of death, did it not, and how quickly it showed itself? The staves were laid up overnight before Jehovah and overnight you have the full result in Aaron's rod, ripened almonds, showing, as we are affected by the priestly service of Christ, how quickly what is mature may develop in us.

K.N.P. Is there something in the fact that it is "Jesus is entered as forerunner"? In chapter 4 it is "Jesus the Son of God".

W.McK. It would seem to emphasise His personality and personal attractiveness, the name Jesus alluding to that. It is His personal name.

K.N.P. I wondered that. Suffer little children to come to me and I will bless them. It is attractive, is it not? Sometimes, specially in Christendom, the priest is not someone to whom people would go normally, but Jesus the great High Priest is One that is attractive to us, is He not?

W.McK. Exactly. So taking little children in His arms He blessed them, and I think the note in Mark says He blessed them abundantly (Mark 10: 16). It is what the Lord as Priest has in mind for our children; whatever their ages are, He wants to bless them abundantly. That involves they are to come into fellowship and they are to have part in the service of the house of God, but they are to have the enjoyment of eternal life. The real answer for our younger brethren and our children to what they surrender in the world is that they enjoy eternal life.

K.N.P. I was thinking about that in relation to Melchisedec, "neither beginning of days nor end of life"; there is something there that goes on for ever, but there is something that can be enjoyed today by us in the power of the Spirit? Maybe you can help us as to how we can help one another to enjoy that. We speak about it, but how do we help one another to enjoy it?

W.McK. I think essentially by manifesting our love to one another. Psalm 133 shows that where Jehovah commanded the blessing was where brethren were dwelling together in unity, and the anointing oil was flowing down in its benign influence on the whole position. So in a locality, yours or ours or Plainfield, where the brethren are unified in affection for Christ and where the Spirit is known as dignifying them - because the oil flowed down, it is not a static rigid order of things - it points to the activity of life and life finds its expression in love. The way we help one another is alluded to in chapter 10, provoking one another to love and good works. It might seem like a strange word to use, provoking one another to love, but I suppose it means that we are insistent, we persist in it. Somebody who provokes you keeps at something. The idea is that we are persistent, we are insistent on promoting love among ourselves. That is what makes way for the enjoyment of eternal life.

L.McF. In that context it says "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together". I think we need to take account of that point; that is the sphere in which the blessing is flowing down as the saints are assembled. Is that right?

W.McK. Exactly. And so when the saints are assembled, we want to be there. David said, One thing have I desired, and what he desired was to dwell in the house of Jehovah and to behold His beauty in His temple (Ps 27: 4). Well, we would like to encourage one another or provoke one another in love to get on to that line.

L.D.P. In 1 Samuel it says that "her adversary", that is Peninnah, "provoked her much" (chap 1: 6). Sometimes what is against us can provoke us to enter into the enjoyment of what God has in mind for us.

W.McK. No doubt Hannah found that very testing. Peninnah had children, Hannah did not, and Peninnah became an adversary and provoked her. But Hannah's recourse was to God and her feelings entered into it. When Eli misunderstood her, she said "I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit". Well, we do not want to provoke one another to cause sorrowful spirits, but we want to provoke to love, which means that we are together without fear of one another and we are not in a critical spirit and there is liberty and what there is for God can be brought out freely.

C.F.D. Therefore the idea of provoking each other to good works would be that you set the thing on yourself. We want to encourage each other along these lines on which you are speaking. Well, let me be one who locally sets the thing on. That would not only be the principle of leadership, but it would be showing that I have in my heart affection for the house of God. You spoke about David - I think we need affection for the local assembly, so that in effect we are marrying the local assembly, we are married to it.

W.McK. I think it is important to see that. The local assembly becomes precious to you and you are going to sacrifice yourself to build it up and enrich it and to strengthen the saints as seeking to go on not only in the recognition of the rights of God but also in the privilege of serving God.

G.D.P. In the sixth chapter you have that verse "strong encouragement"; that is from God's side. Now in our chapter, it is encouraging one another. Do you not think that is helpful, the matter of encouragement? You have been speaking about things we have to surrender or forego, but there is encouragement for us, do you not think?

W.McK. There is. So I suppose ultimately we learn everything from God, but from Christ. So God gives us a strong encouragement. I am sure that anybody who loves the local assembly would greatly desire to be able to strongly encourage his local brethren in regard of these matters. We learn from Christ how to do that.

G.D.P. We had 'entering into that which is within the veil'. How do we go about entering into the holy of holies?

W.McK. The holy of holies is really the presence of God in Christ, or, if we say it another way, it is Christ in the presence of God. When you enter in there, what you see is Christ. You are in a realm that is entirely of God. That is accessible to us by faith and by the Spirit. And we need not have any hesitation in entering in, the word is "by the blood of Jesus". Nothing is going to come up in the way of a question as we enter in.

A.S.H. It says that Jesus was made a mercy-seat for us through faith in His blood.

W.McK. In Romans 3 it says, "God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood," v 25. He is that, God has set Him forth to show what His disposition is to all men, that He is exercising His rights in mercy and the evidence of it is that Christ is risen and glorified, and God is setting Him forth as the One in whom His thoughts for men are expressed.

C.F.D. In the old dispensation Aaron was the only one who had access to the holy of holies. Does that not point up the wonderful day in which we live, that collectively we have access, but then individually we have access at any time into the holy of holies, into the presence of God; that way has been made open to us. It seems to me that this is all part of the encouragement which would stimulate our hearts to be together collectively as much as we possibly can.

W.McK. I would think so. The more we are accustomed to going in individually the more we shall want to be together to go in collectively. When Moses went in to speak to God it says, "he heard the voice speaking to him from off the mercy-seat", Num 7: 89. Later, of David it says, he went in and sat before Jehovah (2 Sam 7: 18). It was typically the liberty of sonship in the holiest ad he was occupied with Christ and with God. And that is what the holiest is, you go in in the liberty of sonship because that underlies our priesthood and you are occupied with Christ and with God in Christ. It is a wonderful contemplation.

C.F.D. Do you see the priesthood of Christ going through into eternity?

W.McK. I think His mediatorial service will go through, but, as you know, priesthood contemplates what is unholy and adverse, and in the new creation realm of the eternal day there will not be anything like that. So we shall not need a merciful and faithful high priest in eternity, nor shall we need an advocate with the Father, because it will be bright and blessed scenes where sin can never come, as J.N.D. says (Hymn 64). But we will need the mediatorial service of Christ and the Spirit eternally because God remains God and we remain men. Do you think so?

C.F.D. Yes, I do. And the principle of administration will go through in Christ but it will be the administration of love, everything sustained on that level. In regard to the place divine Persons have taken, do we see that our glorified bodies will gain be the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit will indwell the glorified body?

W.McK. Exactly. The Spirit will be the life of the glorified body. In the flesh and blood body the blood is the life, but in the body of glory the Spirit will be the life. That is a wonderful thought that the Sp1nt Is known as life now on account of righteousness but He will be life and power in our bodies of glory eternally for the unalloyed enjoyment of the presence of Christ and of God.

 

NEW YORK

29 April 1995

 

Key to initials

G.Ashby, New York; C.F.Dadd, Plainfield; AS.Hinkson, New York; D.McFarlane, New York; L.McFarlane, New York; W.McKillop, Ormond Beach; G.D.Pfingst, Plainfield; K.N.Pye, New York; L.D.Phillips, New York