Lesson 37 - The Church: Her Service and Stewardship

     In the church age, Christian spiritual service is connected with the priesthood of every believer (Rom. 12:1; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 1:6). A priest offers worship to God and service to others. In the OT—before the Mosaic Law—few priests are mentioned. Melchizedek functioned as the king/priest of Salem (Gen. 14:18-20; cf. Heb. 7:1), and Reuel/Jethro (Moses’ father-in-law) as the priest of Midian (Ex. 2:16-21; 3:1). Job served as the priest over his household, offering sacrifices for the sins of his family (Job. 1:5). Most people worshipped and served God as non-priests. Men such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob built temporary stone altars and worshipped God directly (Gen. 8:20-21; Gen. 12:7; 13:18; 26:24-25; 35:1-7). Before the Mosaic Law, it appears that sacrifice and worship was personal, simple, did not require special attire, and was not tied to a specific geographic location or facility.

     After Israel was delivered from the bondage of Egypt, God established the Hebrews as a theocratic nation among the Gentile nations of the world. God originally intended the whole nation to be a kingdom of priests, saying, “and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6). However, because of the sin of worshipping the golden calf (Ex. 32:1-35), God took that privilege from the nation and gave it solely to the tribe of Levi (Num. 3:6-10). God required that Levitical priests could not have any physical defects (Lev. 21:17-23), and restricted the age of service to twenty-five to fifty (Num. 8:24-25). The Levitical priests were originally tied to the tabernacle for their service (and later to the temple), and special clothing was required both for the priests and the high priest. Throughout the years of their priestly service they were required to be holy in their behavior (Ex. 19:6), teach God’s Law to others (Lev. 10:11; Deut. 33:10), preserve the tabernacle and temple (Num. 18:1-4), perform official duties in the Holy of Holies once a year (Ex. 30:6-10; Lev. 16), receive the tithes (Num. 18:21, 26; cf. Heb. 7:5), and offer sacrifices for sin to God (Lev. chapters 4, 9, 16).

     The death of Christ on the cross fulfilled the Mosaic Law and ended the OT animal sacrificial system and the Levitical priesthood (John 1:17; Rom. 6:14; 8:3-4; 10:4; 2 Cor. 3:1-13; Heb. 8:13; 10:1-14). Now, in the church age, every Christian is a priest to God (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6), and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19). The functions of the Christian priesthood include giving our body for service to the Lord (Rom. 12:1-2), the sacrifice of praise for worship (Heb. 13:15), doing good works and sharing our material resources with others (Heb. 13:16; cf. Phil. 4:18), sacrificing our personal life for the benefit of others (Phil. 2:17; cf. Phil. 1:21-26; 2:3-4), the walk of sacrificial love (Eph. 5:1-2; cf. 1 Pet. 1:22), confessing our sin to God for restoration of fellowship (1 John 1:6-9), and being filled with, and walking by means of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:16, 25).

     The practice of the Christian priesthood begins when the believer surrenders his own body as a “living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). Unlike the OT sacrifices which surrendered their life once, the Christian life is a moment by moment, continual surrender to God. Rather than offer the sacrifice of animals, the Christian is called to offer spiritual sacrifices. Spiritual sacrifice involves Christian service within the body of Christ as we exercise our spiritual gifts to meet the needs of other believers. This is love set in motion for the benefit of others. It is taking what God has given to us, spiritually or materially, and giving it freely, with an open hand, for others to be blessed. This is in accord with biblical teaching and the life of Christ (Phil. 2:3-8; cf. Mark 10:45; John 10:10).