THE RECOVERY OF THE PRIESTHOOD FOR GOD'S BUILDING
Message Eight
The Recovery of the Priesthood for God's Building
Scripture Reading:Rev.1:5-6;5:9-10; 1 Pet.2:5,9;Eph.2:21-22; 3:16-17a
I. The Lord's recovery is realized by the priesthood; actually, the Lord's re-covery is the recovery of the priesthood—Zech. 3:1-5; 6:12-13; Hag. 1:8, 12:
A. With the priesthood there has always been failure on the human side and con-tinual recovery on the divine side:
1. The Lord Jesus, the Priest, has brought us into His priesthood through His redemption—Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10.
2. The whole church should be the priesthood; however, this priesthood has been lost and replaced by the clergy-laity system—2:6, 15.
3. The recovery of the church life is the recovery of the real priesthood; we must be recovered into this priesthood, which means that we need to be brought back into the genuine fellowship with the Lord—1 Cor. 14:26; 1:9; 1John1:3.
4. The Lord's recovery is a matter of the priesthood, not a matter of a work, a movement, or of doing things for the Lord.
5. Our responsibility is not to care for any kind of work; our responsibility is simply to take care of the priesthood by learning to be possessed and occu-pied by the Lord until we are filled, saturated, and permeated with Him— Eph. 3:16-17a, 19.
B. What the Lord needs today is a group of people who are brought into His pres-ence and even into the Lord Himself until they are one with Him—Heb. 10:19; 2 Cor. 3:18; John 17:22, 24.
C. When the Lord has such a priesthood—a kingdom of priests—He will have the freedom to flow out and work out His will for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose—Exo. 19:6a; Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10; 4:11; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11; Phil. 2:13.
II. The building of God's house is related to the priesthood and depends on the priesthood—Exo. 19:6a; 25:8-9; Zech. 6:12-13; 1 Pet. 2:5:
A. The building of the church depends on whether or not the saints will bear the priesthood before God—Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10; Heb. 3:6; 6:20; 7:26; 8:1; 10:19.
B. The priesthood upholds the building of the church; without the priesthood it is impossibletobuild up thechurch.
C. If we are willing to come forward to God, fellowship with God, live before God, and allow God to flow through us, we will enjoy the riches of Christ and express the glory of Christ in a full way; in this way we will bear the testimony of the church, and the building of the church will be realized among us—11:6; 1 John 1:3; Eph. 3:8; 2:21-22.
D. In order to recover the building of God, God must first recover the priesthood— Ezra 1:1-4; 7:1-5.
III. The building of God's house as the dwelling place of God is the priest-hood; the holy priesthood is the spiritual house—Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Pet. 2:5:
A. Spiritual denotesthe capacity of thedivinelifetoloveand grow; holy, the capac-ity of the divine nature to separate and sanctify—v. 5:
1. The house of God subsists mainly by the divine life; hence, it is spiritual.
2. The priesthood subsists mainly by the divine nature; hence, it is holy.
B. The Greek word for priesthood in verses 5 and 9, hierateuma, refers not to the priestly office but to the assembly of priests, a body of priests, a priesthood.
C. The coordinated body of priests is the built-up spiritual house.
D. In verse 5 Peter uses the terms spiritual house and holy priesthood to indicate the church life:
1. It is not the spiritual life lived in an individualistic way, but the spiritual life lived in a corporate way, that can fulfill God's purpose and satisfy His desire—Eph.1:5,9,11; 3:11;Gen.1:26.
2. God wants a spiritual house for His dwelling, a priestly body, a priesthood, for His service.
IV. In our ministry as priests, we need to be one with the building and builded God to build God into man and man into God—Eph. 3:16-17a; John 14:2, 23:
A. "Building God and man in one / Is their [the priests'] work before the Lord"— Hymns, #849.
B. God's New Testament economy is for the processed and consummated Triune God to be wrought into us to become our life and our being—1 Tim. 1:4; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:16-17a; Rom. 8:9-10, 6, 11:
1. God's economy and goal according to His heart's desire are to build Himself into man and to build man into Him—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:17a.
2. God's intention in His economy is to build Himself in Christ into our being— 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:17a; John 14:20.
3. God in Christ is within us to build Himself into our being and to build us into His being—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Matt. 16:18; John 14:23; Eph. 3:17a.
C. The Christ who is built, constituted, into us is both God's house and our house; this house is a mutual abode, where God and we, we and God, are mingled to-gether as one entity—John 14:2, 23; 15:4a.
D. In every aspect of our work—preaching the gospel, feeding the believers, estab-lishing churches, perfecting the saints—the intrinsic element must be that we minister the building and builded God into others—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 3:17a:
1. If we realize that God desires to work Himself into His chosen people, then the goal of our work will be to minister the building and builded God into others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being—v. 17a.
2. We should reconsider the work we are doing for the Lord and ask how much of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has been wrought into those whom we have brought to the Lord—Gal. 4:19; Col. 1:28.
3. We need to practice one thing—to minister the processed and consummated Triune God into others so that He may build Himself into their inner man; we need to pray that the Lord will teach us to work in this way—2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor. 3:9a, 10, 12.
4. When we build the church with the processed and consummated Triune God, it is not actually we who are building; rather, God is building through us, using us as priests to dispense Himself into others—Acts 9:15.
E. As we work for God today, we should participate in God's building—the consti-tution of the divine element into the human element and of the human element into the divine element—John 14:20; 15:4a; 1 John 4:15.
F. As we endeavor to carry out the God-ordained way in the four steps of begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building, our work must be based upon the pro-cessed and consummated Triune God, who is building Himself into His chosen people and building them into Him—2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:4-6.
G. If we minister the building and builded God to others for their growth in the divine life, we are building up the Body of Christ, which will consummate the New Jerusalem—Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:15-16; Rev. 21:10.