Exodus 28 - The Levitical Priesthood, Religious Titles & The Clergy / Laity Distinction (Part 1)

Exodus 28 and the Levitical Priesthood

All right, let's turn to Exodus chapter 28. Exodus 28, we'll open in prayer and then listen to the video following along. Heavenly Father, we thank you for once again having the opportunity to assemble together, to look at your word, to have fellowship, to listen to wonderful music that exalts the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And Father, I pray that through your word and through your Holy Spirit, you would teach us this evening, give us something that we're going to need later on tonight, tomorrow, throughout the rest of the week.

And again, we thank you for the privilege to come together in your house this evening. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Exodus 28.

Now take Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me as priest, Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eliezer, and Iphan. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty.

So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments, to consecrate him, that he may minister to me as priest. And these are the garments which they shall make, a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban, and a sash.

So they shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and his sons, that he may minister to me as priest. They shall take the gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and the fine linen, and they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, artistically worked.

It shall have two shoulder straps joined at its two edges, and so it shall be joined together. And the intricately woven band of the ephod, which is on it, shall be of the same workmanship, made of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen.

Then you shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on one stone, and six names on the other stone, in order of their birth. With the work of an engraver and stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel.

You shall set them in settings of gold, and you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders as a memorial.

Then, you shall also make settings of gold, and you shall make two chains of pure gold, like braided cords, and fasten the braided chains to the settings. You shall make the breastplate of judgment, artistically woven according to the workmanship of the ephod.

You shall make it of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, you shall make it. It shall be doubled into a square. A span shall be its length, and a span shall be its width. And you shall put settings of stones in it, four rows of stones.

The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald. This shall be the first row. The second row shall be a turquoise, a sapphire, and a diamond. The third row, a jacent, an agate, and an amethyst.

And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold settings. And the stones shall have the names of the sons of Israel, 12 according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, each one with its own name.

They shall be according to the 12 tribes.

The Shift from the Tabernacle to the Priesthood

So over the past few weeks in chapters 25 through 27, we've been looking at the tabernacle and its furniture, but now in chapter 28, the focus is going to shift to the priesthood and the priestly garments that the priests were to wear.

And of course, the priesthood from this time forward is going to be according to Aaron and his descendants. So Aaron is going to be the high priest. The priest will be Aaron's sons. Look at verse one, the Lord says to Moses, now take Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me as priest.

Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab, Bayu, Eliezer, and Ithamar. So what is this? This is the Levitical priesthood. Sometimes people will call it the Aaronic priesthood, but that's generally, you hear that more from Mormons.

So we don't want any confusion. So let's call it what the Bible calls it. In the book of Hebrews, this is called the Levitical priesthood. But if you called it the Aaronic priesthood, obviously it's the priest came from who?

Aaron.

So Aaronic comes from Aaron. So the Bible calls this the Levitical priesthood. That's what we're reading about here. And in the Old Testament, there are two priesthood, two lines. What are they? The Levitical priesthood, and what's the other order of priests?

Levites.

There is the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. You may remember that when we went through the book of Genesis. So the priesthood of Melchizedek is now held by who? Jesus. Jesus holds that priesthood.

Of course, there are some people who think that Melchizedek and Jesus were the same person. That's another story for another day though. But the issue at hand is the Levitical priesthood. And it's very important.

Aaron is the high priest. Who are the priests under him? His children, right? His sons. Now, before we get into this study, let me emphasize that the Levitical priesthood is part of the old covenant. I know that seems obvious, but I'm going to stress that for a reason.

The Levitical priesthood starts here. It didn't exist prior. It begins here and it ends once the new covenant is fully ushered in. So Jesus ushered in. Well, let me ask you, when was the new covenant ushered in?

I know the New Testament scriptures start with the annunciation or the birth of Christ, but when did the new covenant itself actually start? Okay, Jesus's ministry.

What did he do?

Pentecost.

Say on the cross.

On the cross.

How about the veil being ripped in two?

The veil being ripped in two. You know, the last supper is when he uttered the words, this is the new covenant in my blood. So there's all these different answers and they're all good answers. Cause I don't actually think there was one moment in time that the new covenant was actually ushered in.

There was a transition from about 30 AD to about 70 AD. That is a transitionary period. During that period of about 40 years, the Levitical priesthood was phased out. The book of Hebrews was written about 68 AD and the Levitical priesthood is still mentioned cause it was still going on.

But two years later in 70 AD, when the temple was destroyed, the priesthood at that moment certainly ceased. And at that moment, the Old Testament era was over. You could make the argument it was over a little earlier than that, but at least that's when it became obvious because the sacrifices stopped.

So this transitionary period was from 30 AD to about 70 AD. That's detailed throughout the book of Acts. All right, so the reason that I emphasize those things about the Levitical priesthood is because what we're reading about here in Exodus no longer applies, all right?

What we are reading about no longer applies. It's all true. It's all still true. It just doesn't apply. What we're reading about in Exodus and then when we get to Leviticus, it doesn't apply for us today.

Now, a lot of things do apply. Sin is still sin, right? God's moral standard never changes. So when God's speaking on issues of morality in Exodus and Leviticus, that still applies, most certainly. But the Old Covenant clearly has come to an end.

So we need to rightly divide the word of God to see what applies to us and what doesn't. But all scripture is profitable for doctrine. That's why we're in Exodus. So Aaron and his sons were to be the priests.

And we read in verse one, the Lord told Moses, "'Take Aaron, your brother, "'from among the children of Israel.'". So Aaron was to be set apart for the purpose of serving the Lord as a priest. Aaron was, what's the word that's used?

He was consecrated, okay? Set apart for a specific purpose. And we're not gonna get into the clothing of the priests. We'll do that next week. But what was the purpose of the clothing? It was really to show everybody, hey, this man is holy and set apart.

It was all to communicate something. So there is, we see a clear distinction by setting Aaron apart and his sons, and the fact that they're wearing this elaborate garb, there is most certainly a distinction between the priests and the people.

Religious Titles, Clergy, and the New Testament Church

Now, is that still true today in the New Testament church? Are there this special group of priests up here and they're set apart and different from us common folk? Is that true today?

No.

Okay.

In the Roman Catholic church.

Right, okay, good. In the Roman Catholic church, the Greek Orthodox church, there are churches where, yeah, they still say that exists. As Bible-believing Christians, though, who simply go by Bible and not tradition, we do not believe that this applies.

Very good, very good.

All right.

So verse two, verses two and three, it says, and you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother. For what? For glory and beauty. For glory and beauty. So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister to me as priest.

I just want to read what Dr. John MacArthur says about that statement. He says, the garments were designed to exalt the office and function of the priesthood vividly, marking out Aaron as a special person, playing a special mediatorial role.

Obviously, when somebody's wearing something like that, it draws attention. Hey, Aaron is special. Now, was Aaron special?

Right.

So if somebody's walking around with that kind of stuff today, they're saying, hey, look at me, I'm special. Now, if God says they're special, that's great. Then they're special. But if they're just like everybody else, then that is exalt, they're exalting themselves, right?

Okay, Jim, go ahead, get your hand up.

I just, when I have a, when I did this a long time ago, the word take is exactly what you say,.

Is to set apart and also to exalt.

That's exactly what you have said. I have to do.

Okay, all right.

Let's turn to Matthew chapter 23 for a moment. This is just a thought that popped into my head. I had no intentions of saying this, but now that I think about it, if I'm behind the pulpit wearing a suit and tie, and I'm the only one in church wearing a suit and tie, then I don't know, does that make me set apart?

You know, there's a time where all the men in the church wore what the pastor wore, a suit and tie. And I am by no means trying to imply that you should, and I really think you should start doing that.

But it was just a thought that came into my head. So make of that what you.

You were consecrated, I think, at your pastorship meeting.

Yeah, yep. But I am not in an exalted class where I'm here and everybody else is down here. And we're gonna make that point that in the New Testament church, there are church offices, but there is no special anointed class of people that are over and above everybody else.

So you're in Matthew chapter 23. Okay, so continuing on with MacArthur's comment, he says, in the Old Testament priestly system for the nation of Israel, such dress maintained the priest-laity distinction.

Okay, the priest-laity distinction. We know what a priest is at this point. What's the laity or who are the laity? Right, well, remember, we're in the Old Testament. So the laity refers to the ordinary people.

Well, that's not true today because we're all in the same group. So again, I'm not the class up here and you're all the ordinary. That's not the way the New Testament church is structured. So laity simply refers to the ordinary people who are not set apart unto the priesthood as Aaron was and his son.

So in the New Testament church, let me repeat it again. We have no clergy-laity distinction. Okay, this is all Old Testament stuff. Nowhere in the New Testament are the apostles called priests. If there was still this division, you would think somewhere Peter or Paul or James or John would be referred to as a priest, but that is never the case.

Peter was not the first Pope. James and John were never addressed by father, Father James and Father John. You never see that once. In fact, Jesus takes it a step further and he says, let no man on earth be called by these titles.

Look at Matthew 23, starting in verse one, Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples saying, the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say and do not do.

I would just point out that Jesus is, in all fairness, Jesus is recognizing there is a legitimate office of authority here that some of these people held. Now they are complete hypocrites and he called them snakes and vipers as well, but their office, at least at this point, was legitimate.

They sit in Moses' seat. So the Jewish council known as the Sanhedrin, that was based on Moses in the 70 elders, and that's what Jesus is talking about.

Ordination, Pastoral Titles, and Religious Honorifics

Emil.

What's the current day significance of ordination?

Ordination.

And the fact that, you know, the three of you have been ordained as pastors.

Right.

And we do refer to you as pastor.

Right.

And I don't call Jim pastor.

Right.

Or he didn't give me, so I don't know.

Right.

Yeah, and I'm gonna get to the title as pastor. We're gonna talk about that. But we received the laying on of hands, which is in the New Testament. And that is to set a person apart. Really, it's to identify them, because we received the laying on of hands from other ministers, other pastors.

This person is set aside for the gospel ministry. But that doesn't make us a separate class. Listen, if you wanna believe that, and I know many Christians do, that's fine. I do not view it that way, however.

But we are, yeah, we are set apart for the gospel ministry, but not as priests. That's my point. We're not set apart as a special priesthood. So that's the difference.

Yes.

Yeah, I was just thinking that Moses, as you pointed out, he was like a mediator. There's nobody else like him in the Old Testament. And the only other one we have in the scriptures is Jesus, who, while you're saying what you're saying, he changed it all.

Whereas that was a man who was mediator between God and men. That was, we don't have that anymore. Yeah, it's all really unique and different back then.

Yeah, this is unique. Jim, did you have something to add?

I was just gonna make a comment. I think it was yesterday on the radio program, because I'm going to Galatians, and Paul, too, said, you know, I had to go and talk with Peter, James, and John. And the thought came to me when I was doing the preparation for this is that that was his ordination.

They had to have sat there and asked him questions, and I used your ordination, because I was a part of that, as an example, we had several area pastors come in, and I had made up several questions that they would, you know, would use to question you, and the biggest part of that was about doctrine.

And that's what Paul, I mean, that's what Paul experienced with James, Peter, and John. And, of course, they gave him the kind of fellowship, and, you know, I'm sure that they went through.

The ritual of, you know,.

The right-handed fellowship might have been the laying on of hands, so.

Yeah, yeah, so, and again, if you want to disagree on this, okay, I mean, this is something we can agree to disagree on. If you want to see me as high and exalted above everyone else, that's up to you, you know, I won't get, but hopefully you'll see why I'm making this point in a moment.

So these men that Jesus is referring to, they had a legitimate office of authority. Jesus says, obey them, do what they say, but don't do as they do, because they were hypocritical. Instead of serving and exalting the Lord, they were serving and exalting themselves, basically.

And part of that was their use of lofty religious titles. They loved the greetings in the marketplace, and to be called by men, rabbi, rabbi, and look at what Jesus says in verse eight, Matthew 23, verse eight, Jesus says, but you, speaking to his disciples, do not be called rabbi, for one is your teacher, the Christ, rabbi means teacher.

And you are what? You are all brethren. When the apostles write New Testament letters, what do they refer to other people in the church as? Their subjects, they refer to them as the brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father, verse nine, for one is your father, he who is in heaven, and do not be called teachers or masters, for one is your teacher, the Christ, but he who is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

So this distinction between clergy and laity is already starting to change at this point. Again, Jesus says, you are all brethren, you're all on the same level. And what Jesus, his point is, is that the use of religious titles, some people will debate this, but that the use of these religious titles, it was coming from a place of pride.

Some people think that Jesus is doing away with all religious titles forever. I don't agree with that. I think he's rebuking their abuse of religious titles. And what does he say? Do not call anyone on earth father.

Some of you can read my mind right now, I think. It always struck me as odd that Jesus said, call no man father, but there's certain churches that throughout history have taught their people, you must call the priest, what?

Father.

You must call him father. And of course that's ironic, because number one, they're not really priests. They're not priests. They're not of the order of Melchizedek, that's Christ. They're not Levites, so they can't be part of, what priesthood are they part of?

They're not priests. That's number one. Number two, they're not fathers, because that's against the rules. They're not allowed to have children. Of course, many of them do, just nobody knows about the illegitimate kids they have on the side.

But they're not allowed to have children. And then number three, why do they dress up investments and the hats and everything else? They're trying to mimic what they see here in the book of Exodus. So none of this really makes any sense.

It's not a legitimate priesthood. They are not even allowed to be fathers. And then Jesus said, call no man, father. So someone might respond to that, because I want to be fair and try to give the other side.

Call no man, father. Well, Paul in Romans talked about our father, Abraham.

Right?

Hey, he called Abraham our father. In 1 Corinthians 4 .15, Paul seems to refer to himself as a spiritual father to the Corinthians. Here's the difference. He wasn't using it as a religious title. You know, I'm a father to you, you know, so to speak.

But he didn't have them calling him father and addressing him that way. So it's a totally different situation. Now, now we get to what I think you were driving at of calling a New Testament minister pastor.

You know, some people call me pastor, some people don't. I mean, that's the way that goes. Have I ever told anyone, excuse me, please, you know, hey Mike, how you doing? It's pastor. You know, have I ever done that?

No, I've never done that. And I, and if I never, I never will. And if you hear me doing that, you should probably be concerned.

I think a lot of people, if they do do that, say pastor Mike, they're doing it out of respect.

Right, I mean, you're free to do either one. Now again, if there's a church and the pastor there, prefers and has said, I prefer you call, that fine. You want to disagree with that? That's fine. This isn't something I'd be willing to fight over.

I'm telling you my understanding.

Reverend.

Reverend, oh, that's another one. Yep, reverend, pastor. Yep, yep, some people are very against this. Someone mentioned my ordination. I think one of the speakers got up and said, you know, some people call, I'm not a reverend.

We're not reverends. He was really firm on that. And you know, there were people in the council who didn't quite see it that way. So this isn't anything we're looking to fight about, but I'm giving you my understanding of all of this, okay?

So yeah, what about the title of pastor? That's a title, right? Well, actually, if you want to be technical, the office is bishop. So if anything, it's weird because there are some people who'd be okay with calling me pastor, but they'd feel weird about calling me bishop maybe.

That's technically the office that I hold. It's bishop, not pastor, but, you know, this

You'd be in the category of T .D. Jakes and some of the others.

That's one thing T .D. Jakes is right about. He's not a lot of other things. That's one thing he is right about. But pastor or bishop, it describes the responsibility as an overseer, right? But what is a pastor?

A pastor is a shepherd. Bishops, pastors are called ministers, right? We're called What's a minister? It's a servant, a deacon. The Greek word diakonos literally means servant. So we are servants. We're servants of the Lord, and we are to serve others in the church.

We're not looking to exalt ourselves. Jesus wanted to make sure his men were servants because Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, right? So the New Testament, there's something different, okay?

The Old Testament, this is where there's that distinction that's not here. Okay, did I see another hand?

Yeah, but I can't

Okay, you take it back. Good thing I broke this into two parts because we still have a little ways to go. Jesus says, call no man teacher, but there is the spiritual gift of pastor teacher. So my view of this, if someone wants to call me pastor, that's fine because I am one, but if you want to call me Mike, that's fine too because that's my name, you know?

I believe the issue here that Jesus is talking about, the important issue is the abuse of religious titles. And then making unbiblical title, making up new unbiblical titles like arch bishop. You realize what that means, arch bishop?

The term arch is basically saying you're superior. These bishops are superior to everyone else. They're a super bishop. That's what it means. So it kind of sounds like they're trying to exalt them. Bishop, the word bishop is an overseer.

There's no exalting there, but arch bishop, that's trying to exalt. This is the kind of thing Jesus was speaking against. Now, again, try to give both sides. The Bible does talk about showing honor to those who labor in the word and doctrine.

Talks about being submissive to those who have the rule over you. So we need to be careful and not go too far in one extreme and too far in the other extreme. But church offices can be abused. And I think we all know they have been abused throughout history.

Priesthood of All Believers and New Testament Ministry

Okay, now what does this have to do with Exodus 28? Well, it has something to do with Exodus 28. We're getting into the subject of the priesthood. And obviously we are going to make this chapter a two-parter, but I think it's important to highlight some of these differences between Old Testament ministry with the priesthood and then New Testament ministry with bishops and deacons.

As most of you know, there are three primary offices or three great offices in the Old Testament. What are they?

Prophet. Prophet.

Priest.

And king.

Prophet, priest, and king. Are those offices in the New Testament church? No, because there's someone who already holds all three of those offices.

Who is it?

I mean, there were prophets in the pages of the New Testament for the building of the church, but Jesus holds that three-fold office, prophet, priest, and king. In the New Testament, what do we have?

We have two offices. What are they? Use the correct terms. What are the two offices in the New Testament church? Only two.

Deacon.

Deacon and?

No, bishop.

Bishop, yeah, very good. Bishop and deacon, only two offices. Say, what about the elder, right, in the book of Titus? Well, I tend to hold the position that a pastor, a bishop, overseer, elder is all the same office.

So, what is it? Philippians, Paul wrote to the bishops and the deacons. 1 Timothy chapter three, bishop and deacon. Let's not try to overcomplicate things. Two offices in the local church. So then the question becomes, well, what happened to the priesthood?

Where'd it go? Where are the priests? Where are they? You should know this from last week. Where are the priests? Okay, let's go through this. Who is a bishop?

Okay.

Who are the deacons? We have some deacons in the room. Okay, so there's some deacons. Who are the priests? Raise your hand.

Who are the priests?

Yeah, you're all priests. If you're saved, you're a priest. And then if you're a priest, you should have a ministry. Because that's the thing, I'm a priest. Well, you have a ministry and you are to serve the Lord.

So where did the priesthood go? Well, everybody, it's called the priesthood of all believers. I wrote an article for the church newsletter this past week, or I think you probably got it today. I just like to read it.

If you already read it, good job. If you didn't, you'll get it now. So I started by quoting Revelation 1, 5, and 6. Says to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us, what?

Kings and priests to his God and father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. And I wrote during the Protestant Reformation, the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers was rediscovered.

It's always been there, but it's kind of got lost. Up until that time, it was widely accepted that only a select few had the privilege to serve God as priests. The people were taught that they could not get to God except through the mediation of a Roman priest, or maybe with the Orthodox priest.

Upon reading the scriptures, however, the reformers saw that the Bible taught that every true believer was a priest, and we all have access to God through faith in Jesus Christ as our great high priest.

The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2, 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Because of Christ's death and resurrection and his ascension into heaven, where he now intercedes on our behalf as our great high priest, the scripture says we can now come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

That's Hebrews 4, 16. So today, Bible-believing Christians recognize that through Christ, we have been given access to God, and because we are priests, we have been given a ministry. What does this ministry look like?

We should share Christ with those who need him. We should pray for others and offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which the Bible says is our what?

Reasonable service.

It's reasonable, a reasonable service, Romans 12, 1 and 2. So I asked the question, how will you serve the Lord this week? Hebrews 13, 15 and 16 says, therefore by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, but do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

The Priesthood of All Believers in Christ

Okay, now let's turn back to Exodus 28, if you're not there already. Lord willing, we'll cover the priestly garments next time and what they represent, but let's just go over a few things quickly. Exodus 28, starting in verse four says, and these are the garments which they shall make, a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban and a sash.

And if you disagree with me, I say, that's fine. If you disagree with me, I think there's this distinction between the two. What if I came in dressed like this on Sunday? All of a sudden, you wouldn't think, well, I don't know about this.

Maybe I'll change my mind.

You're never forgiven.

You're never forgiven. You can buy these outfits. I mean, I've seen them on display for teaching purposes only, of course.

Christmas is coming.

Oh, I'd love that. You have the mannequin with the outfit. We could set it up and show you, but I would never wear it.

No way.

So they shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and his sons that he may minister to me as priest. So we'll cover this more in depth next time. So in conclusion, hopefully this study has helped our understanding, not only with the differences between the Old Testament ministry and the New Testament ministry, but also the purpose of setting Aaron and his sons apart.

They were consecrated unto the Lord. Their clothing was to display, it says, both glory and beauty. And that points, like all of this does, it points to Christ who inherently has glory and beauty. Aaron had to put things on to show glory and beauty.

Christ has it in and of himself. And all who trust in him by faith in the New Testament are consecrated and set apart. You are consecrated and set apart unto God. So just as in the Old Testament, the sons of Aaron were set apart as priests for the service of the Lord, in the New Testament, all who are children of God are also set apart.

The priesthood of all believers.