Priestly activity

I'd like to read some scriptures with you in the Gospel of Luke. We'll start in chapter 1. I'm glad to be here again. I'm glad I didn't wear my pink suit.

I think I know who that young man was, and I think I know where he is. He's in Babylon. Hootland and Sinker.

I don't mean literal Babylon. Luke chapter 1, verse 5. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abii, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments of the Lord, commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

And they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. Verse 19, and the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God, and I'm sent to speak unto thee and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, I shall be dumb, speechless, and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because I believe it's not my words which shall be fulfilled in their season.

Chapter 3 and verse 2. Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. Now, just for sake of time, go to chapter 24. And verse 13, and behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three square furlongs.

And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they continued together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Now, I know you're familiar with these scriptures.

Verse 26, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now, toward the end of the chapter, verse 49, and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

Now, that's all we need to read. And we know that God will bless the reading of his word. I want to look at the gospel of Luke.

I think we've been reminded quite a bit about it this afternoon. It's the gospel of the priest. And it begins with the priest that we have read of named Zacharias.

And Zacharias was a priest that went in to fulfill his course in the temple and would offer incense, and he would come out again and bless the people. But he couldn't bless the people because he was stricken dumb. He couldn't speak.

It seemed he couldn't hear either. Then when we come to the end of the gospel, we have the Lord Jesus as the priest that could bless his people. He's taken up into heaven, and what's he doing? He's blessing those that are there in his presence.

So this is the gospel of the priest. I don't want to say too much and get too involved right away. But we read in Chapter 1 of Zacharias, and I'm going to call him the passing priest.

He was a priest that couldn't bless the people, and his wife was barren. And really, that was a condition of Israel at that time. Israel was a place that was barren as far as God was concerned.

And the priest couldn't bless the people, and he had no son. And I'm sure Elizabeth and Zacharias, they were just longing to have a son. And they thought it would be wonderful to have a son that would continue in the priesthood, and would just love to see him in priestly garments and fulfilling his course like I'm doing today.

But God had other plans. And instead of this man being a priest, it's amazing because his ministry was in the desert. The priest should have been in the sanctuary, but he was in the desert.

And what was he doing? He was going to introduce the real priest. He was a forerunner of the Lord, the one who could bless God's people, Israel. It must have been a shock in a way for them.

He wasn't in priestly garments, but there he was in clothing suitable to the desert. So here he is, and he's telling them, there's one coming after me. And you all know the lovely stories about John the Baptist.

What a tremendous character he was. He didn't claim to be a great. The Lord said there wasn't a greater prophet than he, but he didn't claim to be a great prophet.

He said, I'm only a voice. Didn't even claim really to be a person. He said, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord. So he came to introduce the real priest. The priest that could bless his people.

Not just the nation of Israel, but he could bless all. So we have the passing priest. And then in chapter three we read about the one in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey.

Didn't seem to be a great diet, but it was palatable. Sometimes you have to eat things that we wouldn't choose. If you ever go to Japan, you'll be eating raw fish.

And I figured if they could eat it, I could eat it. So there are lots of things. He wasn't in king's palaces.

He was a man that was taking a stand for God. We've heard of those already in the fiery furnace. And here's a man that took a stand for God.

And then, of course, he baptized the Lord Jesus. The priest needed to be anointed. So here's the Lord Jesus Christ.

The spirit of God descended upon him like a dove. And he was anointed for the work that was given him to do. So we have the prophet priest introducing the Lord.

And then we have, I call it the participation of the priest. And what I mean by that is sometimes you have to stretch things to get a lot of peas. You know, we sometimes use a pea shooter.

But I meant that he participated in flesh and blood. That's why we have a genealogy. It didn't take time to read it, but the genealogy, and look, and there's one in Matthew, and they're different.

One likely the genealogy through Joseph, his legal father, and the other one through Mary. But be that as it were, I just point out that the one in Matthew starts at a source and it comes down. And it comes from son of David, son of Abraham, and it comes right down to the Lord Jesus.

The one in Luke is different. It starts with the Lord Jesus and backs up. And it reminds us of the time, reminds me, anyhow, of the time when the ark went into the River Jordan.

And some of the waters flowed on down. In the Gospel of Matthew, some backed up. And it's amazing.

It's not really amazing, but maybe amazing naturally that it backed up to a little place called Adam. And then the Gospel of Luke, the Lord Jesus, unlike any other person, he needed a genealogy to prove he was a real man, the son of Adam who was the son of God. So this is the one that was being introduced and the one that came among us.

Now, I could have read in Chapter 4 about the preaching priest. That's good. You know, every preacher is a priest.

And one of the main things I think about that is that we have to spend time in the Lord's presence before we can come out to the people. So that's very important if you're engaged in preaching or trying to give a little word in your assembly. And I hope your exercise to do that, if you have any ability at all.

But we need to spend time in the Lord's presence. That's where power comes from. And we need to, as we've been reminded, some of these things are maybe summing up what we have heard.

We need to be taught. And we need to get into the word of God. We can't preach if we don't have something to tell.

We need to get into the scriptures. We need to be exact. We don't need to be clever, but we need to be clear in our preaching, whether it's in ministry or in gospel.

We need to just be very clear. And simple words are what God uses. But, you know, I was thinking when our brother was speaking, I'm not sure if he mentioned this or not, but he won't mind me mentioning it because I know he believes it.

Doctrine is very important. It's all important. But, you know, a person could have all be exact in all their doctrines and be as cold as an iceberg.

We need to have the warmth. And our brother agrees, and we all do, because we've been talking about love. And if we really love the Lord, if we're saved and we love the Lord, we'll want to be baptized.

I wanted to be baptized. I didn't know very much about it, but I know a little more now, but I wanted to be obedient to the Lord. So it's good to have that love, and we'll see that that's what we're coming to here.

If the preaching priest came to release the captive and so on, no wonder John the Baptist himself wondered, is this the one that should come or do we look for another? If he's the one that's coming to release the captive, why am I here in prison? And the Lord sent his disciples back. Tell them what you see and what you hear. And the Lord was using scriptures from the prophecy of Isaiah.

He knew where to start. He had familiarity with the book. He knew where to start, and he knew where to come in, where to finish, where to start, and where to conclude his reading.

John thought he should be reading scriptures from Isaiah that would be judgment against the nation. But the Lord is a priest. He's coming in grace, and he's coming to bless the nation.

And he said, these days, these scriptures are fulfilled in your ear, and he rolled up the book. We all know if he had continued reading, he would have been saying not only to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, but the day of vengeance of our God. But thank the Lord that hadn't come yet.

And we're all very thankful that we ever heard the glad tidings and we trusted Christ as our Savior. Now, we not only have the preaching of the priest in the gospel here, but we have the pity of the priest. You remember the man that was coming from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he fell among thieves.

He was robbed, half dead, and a priest came down. I don't know if the man was well enough to maybe see who he was. He would know by his garments.

But anyhow, the priest went by on the other side because the priesthood in Israel couldn't really help him. They'd gotten so far away from God. Then a Levite comes.

He goes over and looks at him at least. Maybe they thought, we don't want to be defiled by the dead. But, you know, the Lord would draw near to anyone, even if they had leprosy.

He could touch them and be undefiled. But then a Samaritan came, and he was the one that was his neighbor. He fulfilled the law and loved his neighbor as himself and poured in oil and wine and took him to the inn.

I'm sure it was back up the road, not toward Jericho. But the Lord had compassion upon him. He had pity on him.

And the wonderful thing, he had pity on each one of us as well. We were on the downward pathway, getting farther and farther away from God. And here's a man, and I know one time over in the old country, there were a lot of priests over there, you know, not just in the assemblies but in one of the big denominations.

And somebody asked a little boy in a Sunday school lesson, why did the priest not go over to help him? He said, because he was robbed already. Well, anyhow, we're not out to rob people. We're out to help people.

And the Lord drew near to help this man while he could do nothing. Now, when we come to the gospel later in chapter 23, our brother has been bringing us to these lovely scriptures that he brought before us so well. And, you know, you have the priest at Calvary.

What's he doing there? As we've been reminded, he's thinking of others. There were those that saw him. It must have been a pitiful sight to see a man bearing a cross and to know he was going to be nailed so cruelly to a rough Roman cross.

And they were weeping. And he said, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. He had them in view.

He's always there for the benefit of others. That's the priest. And this is the gospel of the peace offering where there's something for the priest that offered and for the offerer and for his family and all that were clean could come into the blessings of Christ and here of the cross.

And then, of course, you know as well, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. The Lord wasn't thinking of himself. And the awful pain and anguish at this time, he's thinking of others.

And he looked upon them and it's as though he kept on saying, Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. And then remember our brother has brought before us today, thou shalt be with me in paradise.

What a wonderful change took place for that dear man. And it takes place for anyone that was in the presence of the Lord when they die. We mourn them and we shed tears.

But we're so glad that they've been taken. And they're now with the Lord, absent from the body, present with the Lord. And I don't know how this man, he saw, maybe he saw others being crucified, but he never saw one like this man.

But God must have revealed it to him that this man is going to rise again and he's going to have a kingdom. And he said, you're going to be with me. And he wasn't with him in the kingdom just because he died, but he was with him in the kingdom because the Lord died.

No one could die, I believe, in his presence. So he died. But then we come to the next chapter of the resurrection.

It starts with the resurrection to be our great high priest. The Lord must be raised. He must be a priest in the power of an endless life.

So he's raised from the dead. And he goes on the way to Emmaus. And you see these two people, there's a resurrection, there's a road, and there's a room, and there's a rejoicing.

But it starts off with the resurrection and the Lord's walking with these two on the way to Emmaus. And the Lord drew near to them and he asked questions. Good to ask questions to find out what's in a person's heart.

And the Lord asked questions and he said, Why do you look so miserable? What's wrong? And they said to him, Are thou the only person in Jerusalem that doesn't know what happened? And, you know, really he was the only one that knew what happened. They didn't understand what had taken place. And the Lord, he said, Don't be foolish.

Don't be foolish ones. But he said, spoke to them. And it must have been a wonderful message he gave them from the prophets and from Moses and the prophets and Psalms as well and from all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

What do you suppose he was talking to them about? Well, I think it would be about Calvary and how the Old Testament predicted that he would be going to Calvary and that he must need suffering. They hoped him to suffer. So he's touching their hearts and willing them back to himself.

And that's what the priest does. And he draws near and he trims, the priest trimmed the lamp. And they said, Truly, our heart burned within us as he talked with us in the way.

And I would relate that to the burning of the lamp. I may have extinguished the lamp and said, What's the matter? Did you not remember what I told you but not the Lord? So compassionate. Could have said a lot of things to them, but he trimmed the lamp.

Why did he trim the lamp? Of their testimony, so it would burn all the more brightly. And he brought before them all the reasons why he had to suffer before he would enter into his glory. Suffering comes first, and it's the same with us.

We're all heading for heaven. None of us know who will be the next one to go. It may not be the oldest one.

It doesn't always work that way. It could be, but not always. Are you ready to go? I'll tell you, these people, they enjoy this presence so much.

He doesn't impose himself on anyone. He made as though he would go further, and they constrained him to stay with him. Must have been wonderful.

I don't know if it was a man or a woman. People like to argue about things that aren't all that important. I think it maybe was a woman.

At least they lived in the same house. And I notice they're not used as witnesses in 1 Corinthians 15. But be that as it may, they wanted him to stay.

Isn't it wonderful to have the Lord with us? He's with us as individuals. Oh, you say, but it said he ceased to be seen of them. Well, really it says here he vanished out of their sight.

I think a better way to look at it is he vanished, ceased to be seen of them. He was still there. They couldn't see him.

We can't see him, but he's still with us. And if we realized that and kept it in mind, I tell you, it would probably change our lives to think that we're not walking. Walk is our manner of life, but there's one that walks with us.

Perfect one. And he draws out our heart and love onto him. And then what about the room? Well, the Lord is with us in the room.

He's in the midst of his gathered people. I wonder, do we realize that? I was thinking a little bit about speaking about Joseph, or not Joseph, Jacob and his dream and how he said, this is a house of God. And do you know what it says? It said he awoke out of his sleep and he said, God is in this place.

I would never want to be hard on God's people, but sometimes I wonder, are we not sleeping? Sometimes we go to a meeting and someone gives thanks for the loaf, and then there's a big, long pause. There are pauses of spirituality. There are pauses of poverty.

And I shouldn't be like this, but I feel like shouting out now, does anybody know what comes next? It's like we're all in the dark. We didn't know what was coming. Go exercise to the breaking of bread.

What a wonderful thing it is. And if we were like these people that learn so much about his sufferings, Isaiah, what's in 53 to us now and the Levitical offerings, that's why we need to get into the word of God. It warms our hearts so that we can offer the fruit of our lips, even praise unto his name.

And how does the gospel end? He led them to Jerusalem? No. He led them as far as to Bethany. That's the place where he loved to be, the place of priesthood.

I've often thought, you know, maybe you have too, but you have the priesthood, the consecration, they had the blood on their ear and a big thumb of their right hand, a big toe of their right foot. And I thought I could link that to Bethany. There was one there that shattered his feet in the air.

That would be the blood in the ear. We love to hear him speaking. He speaks through his word.

Martha was covered with much serving. You think she would have been if she realized she had the blood on her finger? She was doing it out of love for this wonderful person. What about Lazarus? I just noticed recently he never said a word.

Maybe if you're in a house with two women, it would be like that. I'm not sure, but he never said a word, but I think I know why. Because he would represent a man with a blood on his foot.

Raised to walk in newness of life. That's our testimony, not just what we say. It's what we are.

We're luminaries. Our brother was reading there in Philippians. Reflecting the light of the Lord Jesus.

That's what comes first, and then holding forth the word of life. We need to speak it out as well. But the Lord has taken up, and what's he doing? He's blessing his people.

Occupied with them. Could have been occupied more with the glory that he had before the foundation of the world. And if you want to go into the book of the Acts, as you know, written by the same man.

Look, you'll find him going up into heaven. They said, when are you going to restore the kingdom? No, no. It's not that we don't study about the kingdom.

That's okay. But he's lifted up. And their eyes are lifted up to heaven.

That's what he's saying. You're a heavenly people. Be occupied with the things of heaven, because I'm coming again.

And while he's coming to reign, he's coming to receive his own unto himself. So may the Lord encourage our hearts and give us a greater appreciation for this wonderful person who is our great high priest.