FBC Morning Light – February 18, 2023

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We are in Leviticus. Our reading today is in Leviticus chapter 7 and 8, and I'm going to read for you in chapter 8.

This is about Moses being told by the Lord to consecrate

Aaron and his sons, and I want you to pay attention to how much detail is involved here, because detail means that the

Lord is taking care and concern over this process of Aaron and his sons becoming priests.

Chapter 8, verse 1 says, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take Aaron and his sons with him and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull as the sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread, and gather all the congregation together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. And the congregation was gathered together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

And Moses said to the congregation, This is what the Lord commanded to be done.

Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water, and he put the tunic on him, girded him with the sash, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him, and he girded him with the intricately woven band of the ephod, and with it tied the ephod on him.

Then he put the breastplate on him, and he put the urim and thummin in the breastplate, and he put the turban on his head, also on the turban on its front he put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the

Lord had commanded Moses. This was no small deal. This was a big deal.

All of the intricacies involved in Aaron becoming the first high priest and being consecrated before the entire congregation, we're talking many, many people, likely in the neighborhood of at least a million, if not more people.

We're talking a lot of people, and this would have been a big, big deal.

This leads me to a question. With this being such a big deal, where is the

Aaronic priesthood now? Well, the

Aaronic priesthood was a part of the ceremonial law. Several weeks ago, we talked about the different parts of the law being the moral law and the ceremonial law and the civil law.

This would have been ceremonial law, and that is the part of the law that Jesus fulfilled and is now done away with, the washings and the cleansings and the

Aaronic priesthood. Well, why would the Aaronic priesthood be done away with now?

It comes down to what is the nature of a priest. The nature of a priest is to be a go -between between God and men, and that's what they were designed, that's what the

Aaronic priesthood was designed to do, was to take those offerings and take those sacrifices from the people to the

Lord so that the Lord would have a covering of blood for the sins of the people.

That, in a nutshell, is what a priest does. In the New Testament, we find that Jesus is our high priest.

There is one mediator between God and men, the man,

Christ Jesus. But there's more than that. There's also, in 1

Peter 2, we read in verse 9, this talking about believers says, "...but

you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."

We are those people who were called out of darkness into His marvelous light.

We are a royal priesthood. Remember what a priesthood is designed to do. It's designed to bring people to God, period.

That's what we are designed to do. A couple weeks ago in our

Sunday morning sermon from Pastor Bice, we learned that the

Word is designed, in the preaching of the Word, it's designed to bring people to God.

This past Sunday, we talked about the worship as witness.

It was the Word as witness, worship as witness, and that tomorrow we're going to learn about how the gospel has been taken throughout the world through missions.

We are the people of God. We are a royal priesthood.

We have been called and chosen to bring people to God.

How do we do that? It's through the sharing of the gospel. It's through the sharing of the

Word. It's through the worship of God and people seeing us worship

God. These things are things that we are now called and designed to do.

I'm hopeful that tomorrow you will be able to be with us, if not with us, with a congregation of like -minded believers, to be able to worship together, to be able to be ministered to through the

Word, that you might be able to go out into the world and share and proclaim that gospel with the confidence that this is truth.

This is what you've been called to do. Let's take a moment and pray. Heavenly Father, thank you that we are a royal priesthood, that you have called us to be your ministers in sharing that gospel to bring people to God.

Help us to be faithful to what you've called us to do, to have confidence in what you have led us to and will lead us through.

May you be glorified in us and through us this day. It's in your Son's name, Jesus we pray, amen.