The Privilege the assembly bestows — David Petterson

I invite you to turn with me, please, to Hebrews 10, Hebrews chapter 10, and verse 19. We're going to speak for a few moments about the privilege that the assembly bestows, the privilege the assembly bestows.

New Testament Priesthood and the Lord’s Supper

Two subjects in particular we'll look at are the subject of New Testament priesthood, that's as opposed to the Old Testament priesthood, New Testament priesthood, and the privilege of carrying out the Lord's Supper.

So first Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Now chapter 13, Hebrews 13, verse 15, Hebrews 13 and 15, by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, but to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

Now turn please to Romans chapter 12, Romans 12, verse 1, Romans 12 and 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

First Peter chapter 2, we are next to the last reading, first Peter 2, verse 2 and 5, first Peter 2 and 5, ye also, as lively or living stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Verse 9, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Now finally, we are going to look at the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, 1 Corinthians 11 and beginning at verse 20, 1 Corinthians 11 and 20, when ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper, in other words, you think you are carrying out the Lord's Supper, but what you are doing is not the Lord's Supper.

For in eating, verse 21, for in eating every one taketh before his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God and shame them that have not?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he breaketh and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament, the new covenant in my blood.

This do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto condemnation, or unto judgment, and the rest will I set in order when I come.".

Now there are quite a few subjects that could be included in this session under this heading of the privilege that the assembly bestows, but I want to focus on two in particular that are truly incredible privileges, and that is New Testament priesthood and the carrying out of the Lord's Supper.

First, what does the New Testament say about priesthood when you compare it with the Old? I want you to think about the subjects of New Testament priesthood, and then the sacrifices that are offered in New Testament priesthood, and then we'll have to say a word about how in history we have strayed from these principles of New Testament priesthood.

The Subjects of New Testament Priesthood

So first, the subjects of priesthood. Who are they? Who are the priests? In Old Testament times, there were very few. There were just a family of priests. How different in the New Covenant. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 5 we read, one of the versions I think reads like this, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.

And what does a priesthood do? To offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Peter will say in verse 9, he says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

He doesn't single out a particular group among his readers. He does not say there's an elite class among you that are the priests now. Just like they were thinking maybe in the Old Testament. No, no, no.

He just spoke of them as newborn babes. That they should desire the sincere milk of the word that they might grow. And yet to these whom he speaks about as newborn babes, he tells them, you are a holy priesthood.

All believers in the Lord Jesus are priests. Everyone. What a contrast to Old Testament priesthood. Initially, God called all of Israel. I think that was the implication from Exodus 19. That God called all of Israel to be a kingdom of priests.

In fact, Peter grabs that exact text, Exodus 19 and 6, and he uses it now to describe us. You are a holy generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are a special treasure, a people for God's possession.

The same three things that he said about Israel, now he says about us. Well, what happened in the Old Testament that not everybody ended up being a priest? Because of their disobedience. That's what happened.

The golden calf. The idolatry. God chose the tribe of Levi because of the stand that they took among the other tribes. And he said, they are the people that I'm going to choose to be priests. And there was one family among that tribe in particular, Aaron's family, that would have the function of priesthood.

So it was so limited then. Old Testament priesthood, very limited. Not now. Every believer in the Lord Jesus is a priest. In fact, Hebrews 10 reinforces this truth. Verse 19, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

Again, he doesn't say, no, there are some among you that have the privilege of drawing near and having boldness to enter into the holiest. No, no, no. Remember, he's talking to people that were thinking about going back to Judaism.

And he talks about their immaturity and that they couldn't bear spiritual meat, but that they needed just milk, the basic elements. And yet he tells these people, they're Hebrews, saved Hebrews. He says, you have the privilege of entering into the holiest, not just the holy place, the most holy place.

And he says, you do it by the blood of Jesus. He says, let us draw near. Again, no special elite class that he's addressing. Every one of us has the privilege of entering into the most holy place. How limited that was in the Old Testament.

How many people went into the most holy place where God was in the Old Testament? It wasn't just one tribe and it wasn't just one family, it was just one man. It was just the high priest, one man, who went in on the Day of Atonement.

This was the big day on Israel's calendar, Yom Kippur. We're going to meet with God. And as our representative, the high priest will go in and he will meet, he will actually go into where God's presence is behind the veil.

And that was the best that that system could produce, was to get one man, one day out of the year, for maybe a few minutes, into the holy place. That was it. I'm glad it's so different now, isn't it? Every one of you that's a believer in the Lord Jesus can enter at any time into the holy place by the blood of Jesus.

Thank God for that privilege. It's a shame that we don't enter it more often, isn't it? We have the privilege of doing what none of them had the privilege of doing. And at any time, we can enter in by the blood of Jesus and meet with God.

Well, priesthood is not a gift. Priesthood is not a gift. We looked at the gift passages, and we find evangelists, and we find teachers, and we find pastors, givers. By the way, I'll just clarify something.

I hope I wasn't misunderstood before. Every believer in the Lord Jesus is a priest. Every believer in the Lord Jesus has a gift, whether you're in the assembly or you aren't. But God has designed that gifts are to be used for the blessing in a local church.

And every believer has the great privilege of priesthood, of entering in to God's presence. We never find priests in the gifts list because all of us are. All of us are priests. So the subjects of New Testament priesthood, all of us, all that are believers in the Lord Jesus.

Spiritual Sacrifices Offered by Believers

Now, if we're priests, well, what do we do? What do priests do? I want you to think about the sacrifices in New Testament priesthood. Peter says, you are a holy priesthood. Then he adds, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

So we have the privilege of bringing sacrifices. That's what priests did, right? They offered their sacrifices upon the altar. Sometimes they were for somebody else. They were representing them. And they were offering them up to God.

You know, there's some great things that we can offer as sacrifices to God as priests. We read them. We love Romans 12. It's challenging though, isn't it? Paul says to the believers, there he says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.

It's a sacrifice God will accept. What is it? It's a sacrifice of persons. He wants you. He wants you to be a sacrifice. He doesn't want now dead animals on an altar. I don't know that that's ever what God was really after.

He doesn't want dead animals on an altar. He wants living sacrifices. What does that mean, that we're to present ourselves as a living sacrifice? I remember hearing preaching a number of years ago and somebody getting up and saying that he offered himself to the Lord and he said, from here on out, I'm yours.

I don't know if that's essentially what this is getting at, although it has to start somewhere, right? You got to start somewhere by offering yourself up to the Lord to be used for him. But a living sacrifice is someone that is constantly living one act at a time, sacrificially, for other people and for God's glory.

Just constantly giving of yourself for others and for God's work and for God's purposes, for God's glory. That may be very basic, and yet I think it is what he has in mind. We're priests. What does God want?

He wants you. He wants you to sacrifice yourself for other people and for him. Those two things are tied together. The sacrifice of persons. Then we read about Hebrews 13. We read about the sacrifice of praise.

He says, By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. Continually. Not when you come together, but continually. Then he refers to it as the fruit of our lips. The fruit of our lips.

Giving thanks unto his name. I don't think he's speaking about a particular meeting of the local assembly, but he's speaking about our life at all times. Now in what sense can this be considered sacrificial?

A sacrifice of praise. In order for my life to be a continual occupation or habit, it means that I have to be spending time focusing on him and not just me. I have to be focused on what God is doing. Praise is acknowledging the works of God.

What God is doing. It means we have to be paying attention. It means we have to be thinking about God and his works and his ways and what he is doing instead of being focused on me. That's pretty hard, isn't it?

To not be thinking about me all the time. Here's a good sacrifice. Sacrifice of praise. Be thinking about the Lord and his goodness and his ways and his works and offer sacrifice. I wonder outside of assembly meetings, just during the course of your day, how often do you just stop and offer up a sacrifice of praise?

God, I see what you're doing here. You thank God for what he's doing in this person's life or in that person's life or in giving you the opportunity to share the gospel with someone or just seeing how God is working among his people or even working outside of his people and just giving God praise for what he is doing.

He says, let us offer the sacrifice of praise. We read about the sacrifice of possessions in Hebrews 13. He says, don't neglect to do good and to share what you have. I think he's talking about financial need.

For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Now earlier in the chapter, I think he gives an example of what that might be. The writer speaks about being hospitable to strangers, taking them in and providing for them.

It's going to cost them something in order to do that. There are many other things that we could add to that, but ours is the privilege in giving to offer up a sacrifice to God that he considers to be well pleasing.

You're a priest. You can give yourself. You can give praise. You can give your possessions. I'll add one more here. I think we can support this from scripture. I think there's the sacrifice of prayers.

In Revelation 5, John describes incense that's arising to God's throne. It must be coming from a censer that's going up to God's throne. The incense is called the prayers of saints. I think you could support that there's the sacrifice of prayers on behalf of other people.

In what sense are prayers sacrificial? Well, those of you that pray know exactly how that's sacrificial. Praying for someone else is about the most selfless thing that you could ever do, especially when it's private, especially when it's private.

Just praying alone with no one else around for other people. Lindsay was talking about people that have left the assembly and meetings that are getting smaller. Certainly, certainly the assembly prayer meeting can be small.

Ever wonder why? Ever wonder why the prayer meeting is small? I have people come to me and they say, oh, our prayer meeting. They pray for the same things. He prays for ten minutes and this and that and the other.

You know what is one of the essential ingredients? One of the things that makes up a prayer meeting, if you boil it all down, you know what it is? We meet together and we sit and you sit and think about someone other than yourself for at least thirty minutes.

You say, well, I'd like to have you think of it in that term, in those terms. I have people say it's boring. Boring. If you care for God's people and you care for other people in the assembly, prayer meeting will not be boring at all.

You'll be delighted to hear other people praying for the same people you're praying for and you'll be delighted that their burden is also your burden. You might even hear that they're praying for you.

I don't know if you've had that experience before in the assembly and people are praying for you. They think about me. They care about me. It's an incredible, it's a very encouraging thing that sometimes are, you know, I used to, the things you think of when you're younger and then you get a little bit older.

Somebody might get up and, oh, they prayed for ten minutes. You know what that tells me? That tells me that they could actually think about that many people to pray for. And instead of being critical that brother so and so took too long, and that's a possibility, you maybe ought to give him credit that he knows and thinks more of God's people than maybe I do.

The assembly prayer meeting, we have the privilege of offering sacrifices of our prayers. Now, in many ways, all of these things can be done whether a person is in the assembly or not. We're all priests.

But God intended that priesthood be functioning in the local assembly. That everybody is a priest. That everybody can function. That everybody has their audible part to play. Every brother can have an audible part to play.

The Historical Drift from the Priesthood of All Believers

So I want you to think about how history has strayed away. We can show from history there's been a straying from New Testament priesthood. One of the major issues that sparked the Reformation was this very subject.

It was what Martin Luther began to believe, and then what Martin Luther began to talk about, and then what Martin Luther began to write about. And here's what he wrote. He said, all Christians are altogether priests.

And let it be anathema to assert that there is any other priest than he who is Christian, for it will be asserted without the word of God on no authority but the sayings of men or the antiquity of custom or the multitude of those that think so.

Do you think he got in trouble? Yeah, you might say so. In the letter of Christ to the church at Pergamum, Jesus spoke about the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. In fact, it's in two of the churches, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.

Nico means, well, it's on some of your shoes, maybe not here right now, but you might wear Nikes and we're told it means victory, or it can even mean ruler. Nicolaitans, the common people. A ruler over the common people is what we're told Nicolaitans means.

And then Jesus says, there's some among you, you hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Already in the early church period, there would come in this division between the clergy and the laity.

Listen, you can prove it not just by John's revelation in about 80, 90, or 95, and these letters to the seven churches. You just look at early church history and you find that that's the case. It's supported.

That there was the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, a division of clergy and laity. As the New Testament writings are coming to a close, Jesus says, I hate it. I don't want it. It's not the intention. In fact, the word clergy that we use today can actually be traced back to the Greek word kleros, which means inheritance or heritage.

And interestingly, the word kleros in 1 Peter 5 says that we're all God's kleros. We're all God's clergy, if you want to put it that way. We're all God's heritage. So they're not to be a separated special class of believers.

Look at what has happened in church history. Or maybe you could call it Christian history, and maybe you wouldn't even say Christian history, but just in history. Look at what's happened. And more than once too.

At the beginning, suddenly we had the bishops, and eventually we'll have the reverends, and we will have the right reverends, and we will have the most reverends, and we will have even the very right reverends.

I don't know if there's a very right most reverend. Perhaps there is. I'm not sure. And then we'll have the fathers, and then there'll be the cardinals, and then we'll ultimately have his holiness. What happened?

And then the Reformation took place, and it all ended. So no, it didn't. Even among Protestants, the same kind of thing began to develop. And now we have senior pastors, and we have denominational conventions that have presidents, and that have vice presidents, and people are accountable to this group, and people are accountable to another group, and the whole works.

And we still have the clergy itself with their different clothing. And we have the robes, and we have the capes, and we have the hats, and we have the staffs, and we have the collars. And sometimes we make jokes about it.

I was joking with Lindsey's son yesterday. He was asking me for advice on something. I said, I didn't have my collar on until tomorrow. We make jokes about these sorts of things. But it's really, it's sad.

It's totally sad. And then there's seminaries that are founded in order to produce these men with these positions. And if you have not gone to one of these seminaries, then you are not then qualified to be a teacher in our church.

What has happened? We've strayed from New Testament priesthood. God says every one of you are priests. We're all priests. And suddenly there's a division between laity and clergy. I hate it! Can we preserve that in the assembly?

Certainly not what God intended. One man doing all the public speaking, while the laos, the laity sits and listens. You know, we can prove that that wasn't the case from the beginning. Just read 1 Corinthians.

Read 1 Corinthians 14. And Paul will say, he says, how is it then brethren? How is it then brethren? When you come together, every one of you has a psalm. Every one of you has a doctrine. Every one of you has a tongue.

Every one of you has a revelation. Every one of you has an interpretation. He says, let all things be done unto edifying. Now he doesn't say every one of you cannot have something to say. Only one of you is fitted for the audible speaking in the assembly.

He says, let it be by two or the most three. Clear implication is the audible involvement of all in the company, because all are priests. I think they might have had a little bit of a problem too with the women jumping in.

And he's going to say something about that later on in chapter 14. But let us hold fast to the priesthood of all believers. It can function if we follow what the New Testament says on how to gather. It can function.

And when we stray, we see that it loses, it loses its place as God intended it to have. It's our high honor, our great privilege to enter into God's presence, to serve in God's presence, and to offer sacrifices that are well-pleasing to God, the priesthood of all believers.

The Lord’s Supper as a New Testament Ordinance

Now I'm just going to take the rest of the time, and there isn't very much to say something about another tremendous privilege for New Testament believers. It's the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper. It's called the breaking of bread, an axe.

And I think that just stresses its simplicity. Breaking bread. Very simple. It's called the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11, and I think that stresses its seriousness because of what they were doing.

They were abusing it. It's the Lord's Supper. It's the breaking of bread. There are seven references to the Lord's Supper in the New Testament. You have the three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where it was instituted, and then you have four more.

Two in Acts, two in 1 Corinthians. Acts 2 and 42, Acts 20 and 7, the chapter we read together, part of it, 1 Corinthians 11, and then a few verses in the previous chapter, 1 Corinthians 10. It was clearly observed, when you look at Acts 20, on the first day of the week.

First day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. Paul was there for longer than just a day or two, but he stayed for that period of time so that he might be able to be with them on the first day of the week, so that they could break bread.

So we have Acts 20 and 7 that implies that that was the practice, Acts, of breaking bread on the first day of the week. Listen, just study church history, and you'll learn that that's what they did. The writings of the early church fathers.

The writing called the Didache, which just means teaching. It's probably a document from the late first century, maybe about the time when John finished up Revelation. There's a document called the Didache.

It was the teachings of the apostles. You know what it says? Here's what it says. Assemble on the Lord's day and break bread and offer the Eucharist, but first make confession of your faults so that your sacrifice may be a pure one.

So that was what their beliefs were. We don't put it on par with scripture, but it tells us what they believed. It tells us what they practiced. Barnabas, a different Barnabas than in the book of the Acts, in about AD 100, he wrote about the disciples met on the first day of the week.

Ignatius did it in the early part of the second century. Justin Martyr in the middle part of the second century. Iranius in the latter part of the second. All of these men speak about the day when believers met together and carried out the Lord's Supper was the first day of the week.

Remembering Christ in the Breaking of Bread

So now you would know why you do it here. What's the purpose of the Lord's Supper? Why do we do this? Because if we know what its purpose is, then it will help us to know what to do when we carry it out.

I think you'll look in vain to find a manual. That's another thing that happens. You end up having church manuals and service manuals of what you're supposed to say and when you're supposed to say and when you're supposed to kneel and when you're supposed to stand.

There's no manual in the New Testament that says in a breaking of bread meeting the following hour must run according to this schedule. You won't even find it. But if we know what the purpose of it is, maybe that will give us a little help as to how to carry it out.

And what's the purpose of the Lord's Supper? When Paul is writing he said that he received this of the Lord. And what did the Lord say to him? This do in remembrance of me. He wants us to remember him in the breaking of the bread.

So what do we do? We're not told what to remember. He doesn't say remember this and remember that and remember that. But we are told to remember him. And so we can, and this happens when we carry out the Lord's Supper, there will be men that will get up and they will refer to the Lord's birth and they'll refer to the incarnation, they'll refer to his miracles, they'll refer to his teachings, they'll refer to his love for sinners and they'll refer to his suffering and his death and his cross work and his resurrection and his ascension.

All of those are totally fine because we're told to remember him. That's the subject. The subject is him. But you do have to wonder, what did they do at those breaking of bread meetings? And did they even divide the meetings up the way we do?

I don't know. It's kind of hard to know. I think maybe the fact that many of them were slaves, they met on the first day of the week and they did all the teaching and preaching and breaking of bread, they probably did it all on the same day.

But we do learn some of the things they did when they gathered together from 1 Corinthians 14. Paul says, he talks about those that are praying with the spirit. So people were audibly praying. Have a prayer meeting.

He speaks about those that are singing with the spirit. It's okay to sing. It's okay to sing at the breaking of bread. He speaks about blessing with the spirit. What does that mean? I think the word bless just means to speak good of someone or to speak well of someone.

Who do you think they were speaking well of in Corinth? I think they were speaking well of their Savior. They were blessing with the spirit. And so I think we find scripture to support the way that we're gathering together to carry out the Lord's Supper.

Now they may have been doing that not just during the Lord's Supper, but some of these other meetings. But we're told that the purpose is to remember him. Now, I wouldn't be too hard on anybody because I hope I would do this myself.

If somebody at the Lord's Supper would get up and thank God for saving them. I've heard people come down pretty hard on brethren, especially younger men. They didn't really speak about Christ and they didn't speak about his glories.

As if that's something less. When Jesus instituted the feast, remember what he said when he instituted the Lord's Supper? He said, this is my body which is broken for you. This is my blood which is shed, Luke's Gospel says, shed for you.

I hope we don't lose that personal element when we do come to carry out the Lord's Supper. That we do acknowledge what God has done for us. That God has saved us. That Christ has died for us. Certainly there ought to be that personal element in the worship.

If there's not a personal element in worship, I don't know what it is. It might be intellectual and it might be well put together. God sees a heart that's touched and that's broken when we consider what Christ has done for us.

I think God is well pleased. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and he will not despise them. So, if somebody gets up and thanks God for saving their soul, I'll tell you what, I remember some of those prayers.

I remember some of that worship. Do you? There's a lot that I've forgotten, but those are the ones that maybe I remember more than anything. A brother getting up thanking God for his son that he would ever send him to save a sinner like me and sit back down.

And your heart is warm and your heart is touched and you can't wait to join in and say amen. The purpose is to remember him, but to remember also what he's done for us. We remember his person, we discern his body.

He speaks about not discerning his body, but to discern his body, it just means that there's thought involved. There's exercise of heart and mind that's involved when we look at the emblems and we take our part.

We ought to never then come mechanically and sit down at the Lord's Supper, but there's thought involved as to what the body and what the bread and the wine signify. We discern his body, we remember his person.

Obviously one of the things we do is we proclaim his death, right? Paul says for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the Lord's death until he come. The word show forth is the word preach.

It's the word for preach. We proclaim the Lord's death at the Lord's Supper. We're preaching his death. Lindsay reminded us there's only two New Testament ordinances. It's baptism and it's the Lord's Supper.

You know what? Both of them preach the Lord's death. In baptism we proclaim he died, he was buried, and he rose again. At the Lord's Supper we proclaim his death. Who are we proclaiming it to? Why do we need to proclaim it?

One thing, we're proclaiming it to ourselves and that's good. When you proclaim the gospel, when you preach the gospel and I'm sitting here listening to you, I like it. I'm blessed by it. We proclaim the Lord's death at the breaking of bread.

We proclaim it to ourselves. We would proclaim it to those that are looking on. There's a man back home. He said he was not in assembly fellowship. He was not a believer. He was sitting over here on the side.

He said a man got up and began to worship. He said, Lord, we're nothing but sinners saved by grace. He said, if that man's a sinner, surely I'm a sinner. He was convicted. That's what led to his conversion.

He's sitting at the Lord's Supper because we're proclaiming the Lord's death. It wouldn't be surprising that people could be saved sitting at the Lord's Supper because no gospel like this feast. We sometimes say, no gospel like this feast and how nothing can preach the gospel so clear as the gathering to break bread and to take the cup.

Well, we proclaim his death. We discern his body. We remember his person. One of the things we would do, we obviously are expressing our unity because Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 10, for we being many are one bread and one body.

We are all partakers of that one bread. We are all partakers of the one bread so that when we're breaking bread together, we're saying essentially we are one in Christ. We are one with Christ and we are one with each other and we are a body.