Stavanger Lectures: The Office of Pastor Lecture 1/2

I would like to thank you all for coming. We've traveled a long way to come to Norway. This is my second time in Stavanger. I taught here, was it nine years ago? Nine years ago at one of the camp meetings, or something like that.

The Priesthood of All Believers and the Warning from Jude

And so the topic that we're going to be working from today has to do with the proper understanding of the priesthood of all believers. And unfortunately, there is great misunderstanding of what the priesthood of all believers is.

And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna clear that up. But we're gonna do it over the course of two lectures, tonight and tomorrow night. And tonight we're going to be working from the idea that there is a warning in the New Testament related to something in the Old Testament.

It has to do with how God orders things within society, within the church. And so a good way to think of it is this. As an American, I struggle with understanding constitutional monarchies of our day.

As an American, the President of the United States, he can say things, he's political, he has opinions, and he does things. And then when I look at the constitutional monarchies of Europe, my question is, is what do they do?

What does the king do? If you're familiar with the Netflix series called The Crown, they give you a behind-the-scenes look of what happens with the monarchy in the United Kingdom. And the monarch gets a box every day, and they have meetings once a week with the prime minister.

But the monarch is expected to not be political, to not say, to not weigh in. That's for people to do in the parliament. But the king is not supposed to do things. And in fact, we know from European history, kings who become political, their monarchies disappear.

They evaporate. And that's what happened in Spain in the 20th century. And so my question then is this. The church itself is a kingdom. But the king of the church, Christ, is not like the constitutional monarchs of Europe.

He sets policy. He says things. He demands things. And to disobey him, there are consequences. And so what we're gonna do tonight is we're going to look at a warning in Scripture that has everything to do with a proper understanding of what it is that King Jesus has established in the church and the warning that he has given through one of the epistles of the New Testament.

So I always like to teach things in context, and so you have the ability to follow along with me. But here's what Jude writes. "'Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you "'about our common salvation, "'I found it necessary to write appealing to you "'to contend for the faith "'that was once for all delivered to the saints.'".

And so we can see here this famous verse. It's often quoted by apologists, people like me. In fact, my YouTube channel, my podcast, is called Fighting for the Faith, and it comes from this verse. And so there's a way in which we are to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

The idea then behind the once for all aspect of it is that Christianity doesn't change. The message doesn't get better. It's at its best iteration when it is first spoken. And so you'll note that the faithfulness that we are called to as Christians always hearkens us back to Christianity in its inception, in its beginnings.

It doesn't mature. It's not like my operating system on my iPhone. My iPhone gets better and better every year, and I'm happy that it does. But Christianity doesn't need improving. It's the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

And then he notes this. For certain people, they have crept in. They've gotten into the church. They are unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, and they are described here as ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality, and they deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.

So Jude continues. I want to remind you that although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And I would note that this translation, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt, this used to say that the Lord saved a people out of Egypt.

But we've found older manuscripts, older fragments of the New Testament, that testify that in the earliest copies of the epistle of Jude, it didn't say Lord, it said Jesus. And so consider the implications then, that Jesus is the Lord who saved the people out of Egypt.

But afterwards, he destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, they serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Now a little bit of a side note here.

Sometimes I get asked, why doesn't God punish those who are engaging in sins such as sodomy, and the homosexual things like this? And the answer's given here is that God doesn't need to right now, because Sodom and Gomorrah, if you would, are a foretaste of God's wrath that will come in the future.

And so they serve as an example for us. God basically says, if somebody says, well, why aren't you punishing this? God says, I will, but I already have in the past, and if you wanna know what's coming, then you look back into the Old Testament, and you see that they serve as an example of God's wrath.

So then, talking about false teachers. In like manner, these people, these false teachers, they also rely on their dreams rather than the word of God. They defile the flesh. And here's kind of our focus here.

They reject authority. Now, in the Christian church, a false teacher doesn't merely reject authority in general. They reject the authority of Christ and what he has established, and we'll talk about this.

And they blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but he said, the Lord rebuke you.

But these people, these false teachers, they blaspheme all that they do not understand. They are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively, and woe to them. Now, little bit of a note here.

So false teachers are then described as people who are like unreasoning animals. They think that what they believe instinctively is the truth, and that that's the standard that should be taught in Christ's church.

But Jude here says, woe to them. And woe is a very strong way of basically saying that they are cursed. And then he then lays out kind of three major archetypes of false teachers. And here they are. For they, these false teachers, they have walked in the way of Cain, they have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and they have perished in Korah's rebellion.

So three different types of false teacher. And if we were to consider them in order, Cain, think back to Cain and Abel. What is Jude getting at here? Well, you'll remember Cain, he had religious activity.

But we learn from the book of Hebrews that Cain did not have faith. Abel had faith, and as it says in Hebrews, without faith it's impossible to please God. So Cain is the type of false teacher who basically says, come and light the candle.

Make sure to put your money in the basket. Say the prayer, do the thing, and you will merit God's favor, God's grace, God's blessings. And that is a type of false teacher. Now the second type is the type I deal with on my video podcast very often, and that's the false prophet.

Balaam was a prophet for profit. He would be willing to curse anybody in the name of any deity if the price was the correct price. So send in your seed offering to Balaam, and he'll make sure that somebody will get cursed for you.

But we remember the story from Balaam that God put a tight leash on him and didn't allow him to curse the people of Israel because they were truly blessed. But the last one is one that relates then to the question of the priesthood of all believers.

And it has to do with the mention here of Korah's rebellion. Korah's rebellion exists today. It doesn't exist in the exact same form that it existed in the Old Testament, but it is a rebellion against the offices that God has established within his church.

It is a rebellion against the order that God has set up within his church. And as a result of it, it is not a rebellion against church, it is a rebellion against Christ. And so we're gonna spend a little bit of groundwork today taking a look at the Old Testament account of Korah's rebellion and a similar text to it as it relates to God punishing King Uzziah.

And we'll note then that this will have implications as we unpack this topic, especially when we get into what is the priesthood of all believers and what is the pastoral office and things like this. And note that Christ is the one who's established these things.

So you'll note, coming back, Cain, Balaam, Korah, three major archetypes of false teacher, and in our day, sometimes you get a little bit of mixing. Sometimes you get a little bit of Cain with Korah. Sometimes you get a little Balaam with Korah.

And sometimes you might even get all three. But the idea here is by paying attention to these archetypes from the Old Testament, we then learn that God here is warning us through Jude's epistle in the time of the New Testament to not participate in Korah's rebellion.

Korah's Rebellion Against God's Established Offices

So the question is, what does it look like? The text in question is found in Numbers chapter 16. Now, for a little bit of context's sake, it's important for us to recognize something here, is that in Numbers 16, we're not given the exact timeline as to when Korah's rebellion took place.

It's in an unspecified time. More than likely, the biblical scholars tell us that this was after God had Moses ordain Aaron and his sons into the priesthood. And if you remember it, that it was only the Levites who were permitted to be priests, and not every Levite could be a priest.

And so when we take a look at some of the details as it related to the uniform that God created for the high priest, you can see how then this might have had an annoying effect on people when they misunderstood what was happening.

So let me back up a little bit in the context. Here's what it says in Exodus chapter 28. God said, bring near to you Aaron, his brother, and his sons with him from among the people of Israel to serve me as priests.

Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, and you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful whom I have filled with the spirit of skill that they may make Aaron's garment to consecrate him for my priesthood.

These are the garments that they shall make, a breast piece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checkerwork, a turban, a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and his sons to serve me as priests.

They shall receive gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet yarns, and fine twine linen. Does this sound like an expensive uniform? That was kind of the point. But here's the thing, think about human nature for a minute.

When somebody gets to put on something this spectacular, we human beings oftentimes become jealous. And we lash out against such things because this person is getting all the attention. They are being treated like they're special, whereas me, well, no, I'm just, I'm chopped liver.

I must not be important. And so this creates problems. So here's then note that Aaron has most likely been ordained has already received this very elaborate, and expensive, and beautiful uniform that God put him into the office of high priest in.

And some of the other Levites were not happy about it. Not just any Levites, but the heads of the different clans within the tribe of Levi. They were very upset. And here's how the text reads. Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan, and Abram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, the sons of Reuben, took men, and they rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation.

So these are all the leaders of these clans. Chosen from the assembly, well-known men. This is a who's who among the Levites. They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and they said to them, you have gone too far.

Isn't that an interesting claim? And then watch what happens next. For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and Yahweh is among them. Why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of Yahweh?

This sounds like an early form of the tall poppy thing, right? They were accusing Aaron and his sons of being tall poppies. And they were accusing them of exalting themselves. But if you know your Bible, they did nothing of the sort.

They didn't exalt themselves. God placed them into the offices that God had established for the worship and for the sacrifices in God's church. And God chose the uniform. God created the office. God created the requirements for people to fill that office and also came up with limitations as to what they can do in that office and how old they can be before they had to vacate that office.

God put all of that in the Old Testament. So the charge via the question, why then do you exalt yourselves? This is slander. This is a breaking of the Eighth Commandment. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

But the question then is who? Who were these men really rebelling against? Well, when Moses heard this, he fell on his face and he said to Korah and all of his company, in the morning, Yahweh will show who is his and who is holy and will bring him near to him.

The one whom he chooses, he will bring near to him. So note, what Korah said is that everybody's holy. Why are you making yourself holier than the rest of us? But that's not what was going on. So at this point, they're behaving in an ungodly way.

The one whom God chooses, he will bring near to him. So do this, take the censers, Korah and all of his company, put fire in them and put incense on them before Yahweh tomorrow and the man whom Yahweh chooses shall be the holy one.

You have gone too far, you sons of Levi. And Moses said to Korah, here now, you sons of Levi, is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of Yahweh and to stand before the congregation to minister to them and that he has brought you near to him and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you and would you seek the priesthood also?

So note, God has already given to the Levites an office, has already given to them tasks and duties and they were seeking even more. They wanted, if you would, the high priesthood for themselves as well.

And so you'll note, they were out of their depth. They were seeking for something that God had not given to them and worse, they were claiming that Aaron had irrigated that office to himself, that he was the one who invented it, right?

Therefore, it is against Yahweh that you and all of your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him? And there's the rub. And this is exactly what Jude was talking about in his epistle about those who reject authority is that those who reject the biblical pastoral offices, of presbyter as bishop, that in doing so and equating that with the priesthood of all believers, they're not rejecting the authority of an ecclesiastical body like the Roman Catholic Church or the Lutheran Church.

They're rejecting what God has established and their complaint is actually against God. They're rejecting his authority. We continue. How does the story resolve? So Moses sent to call Dathan and Abram, the sons of Eliab, and they said, we will not come.

Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness that you must also make yourself a prince over us? There it is with that tall poppy syndrome again, right?

And wow, what a claim. And you'll note that everything in their way of thinking is backwards. When they were in slavery in Egypt, was Egypt the land flowing with milk and honey? Not even close. People would say they're gaslighting at this point.

This is how bad the lies are. And then to claim that Moses had made himself a prince over the people of Israel is even more ludicrous. Scripture says very clearly that Moses was a very, very humble man, right?

Moreover, you have not brought us into a land with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up. And Moses was very angry and said to Yahweh, do not respect their offering.

I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not harmed one of them. So Moses said to Korah, be present, you and all of your company before Yahweh, you and they and Aaron tomorrow, and let every one of you take his censer and put incense on it, and every one of you bring before Yahweh his censer, 250 censers, you also and Aaron each his censer.

So every man took a censer, put fire in them, laid incense on them, and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. Then Korah assembled all the congregation against them at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the congregation.

And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell on their faces and said, oh God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and you be angry with all the congregation?

And Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, say to the congregation, get away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him.

And he spoke to the congregation saying, depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all of their sins. So they got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents together with their wives, their sons, and their little ones. And Moses said, hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord.

If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then Yahweh has not sent me. But if Yahweh creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised Yahweh.

And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods, so that they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

And then all of Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up. And fire came out from Yahweh and consumed the 250 men offering the incense. And then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, tell Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, to take up the censers out of the blaze and scatter the fire afar and wide, for they have become holy.

And as for the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered them before Yahweh and they became holy.

Thus they shall be assigned to the people of Israel. Note, these unholy men perished, the censers remained, and the fire of God, then the fire that consumed these men made their censers holy, so they had to be consecrated properly because of it.

So Eliezer the priest took the bronze censers, which those who were burned had offered, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar to be a reminder to the people of Israel so that no outsider who is not of the descendants of Aaron should draw near to burn incense before Yahweh, lest he become like Korah and his company, as Yahweh said to him through Moses.

But on the next day, all of the congregation, they have still a lesson to learn here, all of the congregation of the people of Israel, they grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and saying, you have killed the people of Yahweh.

Man, these are thick-headed people. But aren't we all, right? And you'll note that now they're blaming Moses for what happened. I love Ambrose of Milan's comments on this passage. He noted, he thought it was very appropriate that the earth would swallow up Korah and those in the rebellion with him because their teaching, their doctrines, their ideas were of the earth rather than of God and of heaven.

And so it was very appropriate that the earth swallowed them up. And I would note, Moses didn't have anything to do with how they died. They died because God chose to have them die in this way, but yet they're blaming Moses.

So when the congregation assembled against Moses, they said, so they grumbled, saying, you have killed the people of Yahweh, and when the congregation had assembled against Moses and against Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting and behold, the cloud covered it and the glory of Yahweh appeared.

And Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, get away from the midst of this congregation so that I might consume them in a moment. God is getting ready to kill them all for their rebellion.

And they fell on their faces. And Moses said to Aaron, take your censer, put fire on it from off of the altar, lay incense on it and carry it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from Yahweh.

The plague has begun. And so what is it that saves the people? Aaron in his office. God is having Aaron in his office do the duties of the high priest and by so doing, have them be atoned for in their rebellion against God.

So Aaron took it as Moses said, ran into the midst of the assembly and behold, the plague had already begun among the people and he put on the incense and made atonement for the people and he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stopped.

Huh. Now those who died in the plague were 14 ,700 besides those who died in the affair of Korah. And Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting when the plague was stopped. So that's the Old Testament story that's referenced in Jude.

And Jude, warning us about false teachers, says that they walk in the way of Cain, they abandon themselves for the sake of gain, that's money, to Balaam's heir and they perished in Korah's rebellion. And Jude here is not referring to merely Korah in the past.

He is warning that to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints is to recognize in our day those who are participating in Korah's rebellion, who are rejecting the authority of Christ and taking for themselves authority that they do not have regardless of whether their rhetoric seems plausible or not.

I would note false teachers more than often sound very plausible. They'll say things like we don't need somebody to go and go to seminary and to study the Bible because when that person goes and comes back, they think they're better than we are.

And they're not better than we are. We believe in the priesthood of all believers. And they'll say things like this, right? But that's a failure to make a distinction. It is true that all Christians are priests but it is not true to talk about pastors as being priests.

I know that's gonna sound weird. We're gonna have to talk about that because where does the term priest come from? I always find it weird when I travel to other countries and they'll talk about pastors as being priests.

Well, there's a reason for it. And it's not what it appears on the surface. It's because of the Greek. But we'll talk more about that as we go. Now, let me show you a similar cross-reference to this.

And that is the story of King Uzziah. King Uzziah, we learn in 2 Chronicles 26, was a good king in Israel. And he started off young. But here's the thing, do members of the tribe of Judah have the right to offer sacrifices in the temple of God?

The answer is no, they don't. They do not because God has made it very clear. The only people who are permitted to offer sacrifices in the temple of God are the sons of Levi. And of the sons of Judah, that's a different tribe altogether.

And so you'll note that in the book of Hebrews when it describes Jesus as our great high priest, he is not a high priest in the order of the sons of Levi. He is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

So that is very important that you make these distinctions. So Uzziah, who is the rightly anointed King of Israel of the tribe of Judah, does not have the authority to do the priestly duties that God has reserved only for the Levites.

This also serves as an example for us. And you'll note then, today, really heavy on the law. But when we talk about the pastoral office, that's where the gospel's gonna come into play. And there's a hint at it we saw in the story of Korah, but here's how it goes in 2 Chronicles.

I'm not gonna read all of this, but I want you to get the basics. All of the people of Judah, they took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and they made him king instead of his father, Amaziah. He built Eilath and restored it to Judah.

And after the king slept with his fathers, Uzziah was 16 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jechaliah of Jerusalem, and he did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper. These are good words. And you'll note that the kings of Judah, many of them were scoundrels.

Many of them departed from the ways of God and did not follow in the ways of David at all. They followed in the ways of the pagans and those who worshiped idols. And so this sounds like a good thing, and you'll note that he was receiving instruction from Zechariah.

This is a good pedigree, right? But the story continues and ends quite differently. Quite tragically for Uzziah. When Uzziah was strong, 2 Chronicles 26, 16 tells us, he grew proud and to his destruction, for he was unfaithful to Yahweh, his God, and he entered the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.

But Azariah, the priest, went in after him with 80 priests of Yahweh who were men of valor. So you can see what's going on here. Uzziah is figuring, I love God, I worship God, why can't I offer incense to Yahweh in the temple?

Answer, because you're not of the tribe of Levi and God has made it very clear, only, only the sons of Levi are permitted to do this. So the priest Azariah, he's now put into the awkward position of having to rebuke the monarch.

And you'll note the text describes Azariah and the 80 priests who were there that day as men of valor because they had the courage to rebuke Uzziah. So they withstood King Uzziah and they said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense, you go out of the sanctuary for you have done wrong and it will bring you no honor from Yahweh Elohim.

So then Uzziah was angry. And he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. This sounds like the sons of Korah, right? And when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of Yahweh by the altar of incense.

And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests looked at him and behold, he was leprous in his forehead. And they rushed him out quickly. And he himself hurried to go out because Yahweh had struck him.

And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death. And being a leper lived in a separate house for he was excluded from the house of Yahweh. And Jotham, his son, was over the king's household governing the people of the land.

You'll note that God was merciful to Uzziah by not killing him the way he did Korah. But you'll note also, because God struck him with leprosy, he was considered unclean for the rest of his life. He was separated from the worship community of Israel as long as he was alive.

And that was his punishment for believing that he had the right to do something in an office he had not been placed in. God establishes offices within the church. God established the offices of the Old Testament and Christ has established the offices of the new.

And you'll note that stories like this are written for our instruction. They are written so that we can learn from their mistakes so that we can take these things to heart. The Apostle Paul makes this very clear in his epistles that these things were written for our instruction.

And the fact that Jude in the New Testament invokes the story of Korah is important and this is a related story. So the idea then is that King Jesus in his kingdom, in his church, has set up particular rules.

He's set up particular offices. He's the one who gets to call the shots, not me, not you, not anybody else. And we as Christians dare not reject Christ's authority. To do so, we have bad examples in the scripture of Korah and of Uzziah, of men who've rejected this authority of God and have done so to their own demise.

And so we need to keep that in mind. And you'll note that we've all, in many ways, sinned against God. And so you'll note that when these things come at us and we sit there and we go, oh, I have done wrong by thinking this way, that's a good way to think.

Of course you have. I've done that, you've done that. And so what do we do then as Christians? First, we repent. We cry out to God to have mercy on us. We pray daily as Christ has taught us to pray, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And then we hear the words of the gospel that Christ has died even for these sins and he offers us his forgiveness, his pardon, his peace, his grace, all as a gift because of what he's won for us on the cross.

And so then what is called for in the question of what is the priesthood of all believers? This is a careful look at scripture. What then is it that Christ has established within the church to build up the body of Christ, to strengthen the faith of the saints, to care for them, to watch over their souls, that Christ has established particular things.

And you're gonna note then that this doesn't make pastors or presbyters better than us because only Christians are priests. All Christians are priests, the scriptures teach. But not everybody is called to be an overseer or a shepherd or a presbyter or a bishop.

Those are things that are established by Christ for the purpose of equipping and caring for the priests. But that being the case, only certain people are qualified to do so. And so we must pay attention to the details of scripture as to how that lays out.

And so I think a good place to then start here is with the text then that relates to the concept of the priesthood of all believers. In 1 Peter 2, the apostle Peter writes, but you, y 'all, all of you, Christians, you are a chosen race, genos, and a royal priesthood.

You are a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So when you look at this statement in its context, there's so much more that Peter is saying than merely that we are all priests. He's pointing out to the fact that we have been called out of darkness.

And being called out of darkness, out of Satan's dominion, we have been brought in then as a chosen race, as chosen ethnos. And this is where it's important that we recognize what Paul writes in this regard.

And that is that everybody who is in Christ, who has the same faith as Abraham, whether they be Norwegian or Americans or Swedes or Germans or they're from sub-Saharan Africa, everybody who has the same faith as Abraham is counted as Abraham's children.

And if somebody is a genetic descendant of Abraham, but they do not have Abraham's faith, God does not reckon them as children of Abraham. In Galatians, they are reckoned as children of Hagar, children of the slave woman.

So that being the case, you'll note then that all of us, we have been grafted into Israel. We do not replace Israel. We are all grafted in, as Paul says in the book of Romans. And so that is how we are then a chosen ethnos, a chosen nation.

And together then, all Christians comprise what is called the royal priesthood. We are all priests. And then you'll note then that every Christian, as a priest, is called to proclaim the excellencies of Christ, the one who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

This is not reserved only for those who hold the pastoral office. All Christians share the good news. All Christians can tell their neighbors of the love of Christ. All Christians are called to proclaim Christ's excellencies and to tell their neighbors of the good things that Christ has done for them, and to call them to repentance that they may have faith as well.

But that does not mean that all Christians have the right given by Christ to then deliver a sermon when the church gathers together. And if you just take this passage by itself and say, well, we're all priests, that misses the rest of the story.

A good way to think about it is this, is that in the United States, and I'm sure here in Norway and other countries as well, there is a growing number of church bodies that are ordaining women to the pastoral office.

And the issue here is one of what does the scripture say? Are women qualified to be in the pastoral office or not? And they will quote a passage from the book of Galatians that says, well, in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek.