Christ Begins His Priestly Work

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the second chapter.

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph brought

Jesus up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the

Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.

And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the

Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took

Him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace according to Your word.

For my eyes have seen Your salvation that You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the

Gentiles and for the glory of Your people Israel. This is the gospel of the

Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Have you ever been asked a question and then given an answer which proves that you didn't know what you were talking about?

I've done that more times than I can number, by the way, but there's one really kind of notable one that stands out.

When I was a teenager, let me explain. My mother grew up in Wiesbaden, Germany.

So we have family members in Germany. We have friends of the family in Germany. And when

I was growing up, from time to time, those friends of the family from Germany and family members from Germany would come to the

States for the purpose of visiting us. Sounds kosher, right? Well, here's the thing.

They speak German in Germany, and all of the Germans speak English.

I speak not a word of German. But from time to time, my German family members or friends of our family would ask questions, like why do you guys say this thing or why do you say that other thing?

And one of our friends was visiting us and asked me the question, what's with this thing that you say having a leg up on somebody?

Well, not knowing the actual answer to the question, I just thought I could figure it out because I'm so smart.

And so I said, well, you've got to understand that when a dog urinates, a male dog, it lifts its leg.

And so when you have a leg up on somebody, it means that you're kind of just peeing all over them.

It was a great answer, by the way. Completely wrong, completely wrong. I later learned it had something to do with climbing a ladder, but that's a whole other story.

Now, with this in mind, the word priest, I would note it's a highly charged word.

When I was visiting Norway and lectured in Norway back in the fall, one of the fellows there came up to me and said,

Pastor Rose, bro, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I don't think of you as a pastor.

I think of you as a priest. Wait, what?

Okay, and here's the funny thing. He's right, but here's the thing.

It causes confusion because when we hear the word priest, we think of the Levitical priesthood. We think of guys who offer sacrifices and stuff like this, and if you were to ask kind of the everyday garden variety

Christian or Lutheran and ask them, why does Rome call their pastors priests and why do the

Anglicans call their pastors priests? And you'd sit there and go, because they're apostate.

They believe that they're offering sacrifices to God like the Levitical priesthood. It shows their apostasy.

And you know what? You'd be as wrong as talking about what it means to have a leg up on somebody if you said that.

The reality is this. The word priest is used in the Christian context, and watch this, in the

English language. Here's the reason why it exists. Because the

Greek word that we translate for pastor in our New Testament text is presbyteros.

They are referred to in the ancient world as the presbyters. Well, presbyteros is a

Greek word, and so when Christianity reaches English, they translated presbyteros as priest.

That's the actual historical reason. Now, am I saying that you should call me a priest? No, I think it would cause too much confusion in our context.

That's not what I'm saying at all. But when we think about Christ as priest, and that's really what's going on today.

This feast, man, I am absolutely just praising the ancient church fathers for putting this one together on the actual day when

Jesus would have been presented after his birth. It's brilliant. But the Old Testament text that they chose for us sets the stage for what the real theme is all about.

And you kind of have to put the pieces together to get how it works. So let me walk you through this.

So if you look at our Old Testament text, it says that the man Elkanah and all of his house went up to offer to Yahweh the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow.

Well, we're in the middle of a story. If you remember, Hannah was one of the wives of Elkanah.

The other wife was Penahah. Hannah couldn't get pregnant to save her life. Penahah, on the other hand,

I mean, she would just look lovingly at her husband, and she would get pregnant, and out would pop another child.

And what she did is she tormented Hannah and made her feel awful and less than worthy to even be a wife to Elkanah because she was unable to bear children.

And so in her anguish, in her suffering, from the one who was tormenting her,

I would note something here. My immediate question every time I read this text is, why didn't

Elkanah put an end to this nonsense? Huh? You'll note sometimes wives misbehave because husbands allow them.

He should have put a stop to that. Instead, he tries to console Hannah rather than stop the torment that's coming from Penahah.

Interesting. So we'll note then, she goes to the tabernacle.

They didn't have a temple back then. She goes to the tabernacle, and she pours out her heart to God, begging

God, even to the point of bargaining with God that he would grant her the ability to conceive and have a child and to remove that shame from her.

And while she's praying, she's praying in her heart. Her lips are moving. There's nothing coming out.

And Eli, the high priest, looks at her and goes, Woman, put your wine away, thinking that she's a drunken woman.

And she stands her ground. She actually gets right into Eli's face. I am not a worthless woman. I'm a woman in torment and anguish, and I'm asking

God for something here. And Eli backs down and says, Well, may God grant you what you've asked for.

And God does. That's the beauty of the story. She conceives, and not only does she conceive a child.

You'll note there's kind of a theme in Scripture, barren women burying children. This goes all the way back to Sarai, and then we got it with Hannah.

You'll note this is a big theme because I would note that the wombs of virgins are very barren.

They don't get any more barren than that. That's kind of the point. It's all pointing to Christ and his birth.

So now after the child is born, and here we have to understand something else.

In the ancient world, children nursed, they breastfed until they were about four or five.

Now in our society, you ask a woman, How long do you plan on nursing your child? Oh, maybe six weeks.

This is how people talk. No, it was unthinkable that you would nurse a child for six weeks.

You're going to nurse this child all the way up until about the age of kindergarten. So don't think that she's going to be bringing a toddler in diapers to serve in the temple.

That's not what's going on. So it says this, Love this statement on the part of Hannah because she doesn't have an eye on just this temporal world.

She also has an eye on the world to come. She knows that bringing her son into the presence of Yahweh at the tabernacle is only the beginning.

That Samuel, who is going to be the first prophet of his kind, Samuel is going to dwell in the presence of Yahweh forever.

And here's the note here. Y 'all are doing the same. Scripture says where two or more are gathered in Christ's name,

Christ is truly present. We are in the presence of Christ, in the presence of God now.

And because of what Christ has done for us, each and every one of you and me included, we also will dwell in the presence of God forever.

Now we do so by faith, trusting in the words of Christ, knowing that he doesn't lie. But there's a day coming when we will visibly see our

Christ, our Savior, our God, and we will dwell in his presence for eternity.

Beautiful statement. So Elkanah, her husband, said to her, You do what seems best to you.

Wait till you've weaned him. Only may Yahweh establish his word. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him.

And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three -year -old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine.

Bread and wine and a priest? Huh. You starting to see the connections?

It's all on purpose. God knows what he's doing. So she brought up a skin of wine, ephah of flour, bull, and she brought him to the house of Yahweh at Shiloh.

The child was young. And then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. And she said,

O my Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence praying to Yahweh. For this child

I prayed, and Yahweh has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to Yahweh as long as he lives, and he is lent to Yahweh, and he worshipped

Yahweh there. The child worshipped Yahweh there. And the text goes on to say that he even served in the tabernacle wearing a little ephah, and his mom would show up every year and have him made him a new one because he kept growing.

Kids do that. When you grow out of last year's ephah, you have to go into the next one. But note the theme here.

Here we have a child priest serving in the temple.

And this is where Samuel, at least in this part of the story, is a type and shadow of Christ, pointing us to what is going on with Christ being presented in the temple this day.

And so with that, consider, we'll kind of crack the theme open a little bit, what our epistle text says.

In Hebrews 2, the inspired author of Hebrews writes, Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and to deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

That's each and every one of us. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

And I would note, do not fear. Sit there and go, but I'm not an offspring of Abraham. Yes you are, because Galatians 3 says that those who trust in Christ are counted as the offspring of Abraham.

Y 'all are part of his family. Therefore, Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

And here you can see the inspired author of Hebrews makes it very clear that Christ is our high priest in the service of God.

He makes propitiation for the sins of the people, but it describes him as merciful and faithful.

And here's where we're going to do just a little excursus, because we can and we should. We're going to take a look at what this author of Hebrews also has to say with regard to Christ, because you're going to note that when it comes to members of the tribe of Judah, the scriptures are very clear.

In order to be a priest, you've got to be a Levite. You have to be one of the sons of Aaron. It's called the

Order of Aaron, or the Aaronic priesthood. And Jesus is not that. He's from the tribe of Judah.

And when King Uzziah tried to offer up incense, in the temple, God struck him down with leprosy.

And you'll note, no one's allowed to serve that way. So how then is Jesus our priest?

And the answer is this. Jesus is our high priest, not because he's a descendant of Aaron, because he isn't, but because God has placed him in a priesthood that you can literally describe as a priesthood of one.

And the qualifications given by God to fill this priestly office, this priestly order, are really interesting and tell us a lot and give us comfort.

So in Hebrews 7, starting at verse 11, the inspired author writes, if perfection had been attainable through the

Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise in the order of Melchizedek rather than the one named after the

Order of Aaron? And here you begin to see that what is going on here is talking about Christ in his priestly office.

Christ, in this feast, is presented in the temple. And the idea is this, that with Christ being presented in the temple, with the offering being offered that was required because he was the one who first opened up the womb, it is very appropriate for us to begin to think that Jesus now is beginning his priestly work.

And it's important to note, in doing his priestly work, this is also going to require him to live sinlessly, perfectly, and do so for us.

Because you'll note the text says that the Levitical priesthood didn't really bring perfection to anybody, but Christ is perfection, and he is something different.

And so Christ now is obeying the Mosaic laws perfectly for us in this text.

And here's what we have to understand. When it comes to obeying God's law, people think it's no big deal, it's really easy.

And people who think that way are delusional. Because there are commandments that you must obey and obey them actively.

Let me give you an example, or a few. Honor your father and mother, fourth commandment.

You must do that actively. You must obey that command actively, of your own volition. You must not murder.

That is also actively obeyed. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal.

You must not bear false witness against your neighbor. And you must not, under any circumstances, covet your neighbor's house, his manservant, his maidservant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

All of these commands must be obeyed actively. But God also commanded that this young child, the infants, be presented before the

Lord, and that a sacrifice be offered on their behalf. These infants who first opened the womb, the male ones.

How's Jesus supposed to do that? Passively. It has to be done for him.

And it's also credited to him that he has done it. And so you'll note, when we talk about the righteousness of Christ, the sinless, perfect righteousness of Christ, understand this, that at no point did

Jesus fail in obeying God's law, actively and passively. How are you all doing on the active bits?

Let alone the passive bits. This is why we confess that we have sinned against God and thought, word, deed by what we've done and by what we've even left undone.

We're basically saying we completely have messed up. So here in our text, it's very clear that the

Levitical priesthood, that the Mosaic Covenant, doesn't bring perfection. In fact, a good way to think about it is using the language that Paul uses in 2

Corinthians 3. That the Mosaic Covenant, the law, is the ministry of death.

I want you to think about this for a second. In our Epistle text, it says about Jesus that he is a high priest and that he is merciful and faithful.

Let me ask you about the high priest at the time when Jesus was crucified. Would you describe

Caiaphas as merciful? Faithful?

No. Okay. And you're going to note, he's like the high priest of the ministry of death.

Because Levitical priesthood is all about death. The sacrificing of animals, blood flowing, all of this stuff.

And I would note that Caiaphas, well, kind of fulfilled his duties perfectly.

He wasn't merciful. Can the law be merciful? Not at all.

Not at all. And so you'll note that Christ was sentenced to death. And here's the thing.

You sit there and go, but he was sentenced to death wrongly. He didn't do anything wrong. Oh, hold your horses here for a second here.

Isaiah 53 says that God has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. Jesus wasn't found guilty for any sin that he committed.

He was found guilty for yours. For mine. Since God had laid on him all of our sins, it was appropriate that he be put to death.

And that's kind of the point. Because he needed to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

And here's kind of the great mystery of Jesus' priesthood. Because you'll note that the priests of the

Levitical priesthood, they didn't offer themselves as the sacrifice. They offered up bulls and rams and sheep and pigeons and turtle doves and things like this.

But Christ, our high priest in the order of Melchizedek, offers up himself. He is our high priest and he is the sacrifice.

And it is not the Mosaic Covenant or God's law that brings perfection. It's the gospel.

It's the new covenant that does these things. And so the author of Hebrews continues.

For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.

How many priests are serving in the temple today, by the way? Zero. There's been a change in the priesthood.

There is only one high priest and that's Christ. For the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.

For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah and in connection with the tribe of Moses, with that tribe,

Moses said nothing about priests. Now this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

And here's where it comes. This is where it gets really interesting. Because Jesus is not a priest in the order of Melchizedek because he's the king of Judah.

He is. He's not in the order of Melchizedek because he's the prophet prophesied by Moses in Deuteronomy 18 when he said, a prophet like me will arise and to him you must listen.

Nope, that's not the reason. The reason why Christ is the only one who can fill this office and does fill it is by virtue of the fact that he has an indestructible life.

He's risen from the dead. You'll note that they tried to kill him and it looked like they succeeded, but on the third day

Jesus said, I'm back. Okay, just popped right out of the grave. And so death no longer has mastery over him and here the author of Hebrews exegetes for us

Psalm 110 verse four where Yahweh says of the

Messiah, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Zooming in then on God's promise that the one who would fill this priesthood would do so forever.

And there's only one who can and that's Christ himself. For on the one hand, a former commandment is then set aside because of its weakness and its uselessness.

This is why I describe the Mosaic Covenant as kaput. It's done. It's been done away with.

Nobody's keeping it. And its weakness is evident and its uselessness is evident as well.

For the law made nothing, not one thing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we now draw near to God.

And here's where we got to think about this. Christ is our priest. He's our prophet, he's our king, but he is our high priest.

And it was not without an oath for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.

But this one was made a priest with an oath. God the one being the one who swore that oath by the one who said the

Lord has sworn and he will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. And what does this then mean for us?

What's the cash value of the fact that Jesus is our high priest? Answer, everything.

Absolutely everything. Verse 22 says, this makes Jesus, and I'm gonna kind of talk like fog horn, leg horn here for a second.

This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. Guarantor, what a great word by the way.

Guarantor. I think back to the days when I would hear the word guarantee and think, maybe that guarantee may not be worth anything because I remember

Cal Worthington, this dog spot. He was a guy who sold used cars in Southern California.

He would get on television, come and buy this 1973 Gremlin. I promise it'll last for $5 ,000.

I guarantee that guarantee's not worth nothing. Get this Ford Pinto over here.

Just don't let anyone back into it because it'll blow up. Sorry.

But here's the thing. Jesus isn't like Cal Worthington or any used car salesman. Not even close.

And when Jesus says something is going to be, it's going to be. And because Jesus is our high priest, this text says he is the guarantor of a better covenant, and that's the new covenant.

And the promise of the new covenant is that God promises to remember to forget your sins.

If you stand before Christ on the day of judgment, and Christ is just blessing you and blessing you and saying, well done, good and faithful servant, and you sit there and go, yeah, but Jesus, what about all that sin that I committed?

Jesus, what are we talking about? What sin is that? There's no record of any of that here.

That's kind of the point. He's the guarantor of the better covenant. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in their office.

But Jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for him.

What a great sentence. Not only is Christ our high priest the guarantor of the covenant, but he is able to save you, and I love it when

Scripture does this, save you to the uttermost. You'll note,

God doesn't just piecemeal a little bit of love. Oh, here's a little fleck of grace over here. No, he's gonna save us to the uttermost, from the tips of your toes to the top of your head, all of your hair if you have any.

The idea here is he's saving you to the uttermost. It's to let you know that you have confidence in Jesus.

And it also says that he lives to make intercession for you.

And here we'll note that today is the feast of the purification of Mary because she was required to present herself as well.

She needed purification because she was a sinner. But it's the feast also of the presentation of our

Lord in the temple. And you'll note that Roman Catholics believe that Mary is our intercessor.

Are you having a hard time getting Jesus' attention? Are you struggling to get him to answer your prayers?

Well, the reason why is because Jesus is a little busy. Jesus is really busy right now and he's running the universe and stuff.

And if you really need something really badly, what you need to do is talk to his mother. And she'll go and have a chat with him because Jesus can't say no to his mommy.

And so they have made Mary our intercessor. Excuse me, but is that not a denial that Christ is our high priest?

Because this text clearly says that because he always lives, he lives forever, he has an indestructible life, he's a priest in the order of Melchizedek, that he lives to make intercession for us.

And this is part of the reason why Christ is going to guarantee and save us to the uttermost because Jesus isn't doing nothing and kind of sitting there in heaven going, oh,

I hope they make it. Oh, you know, and bringing his hands and clutching his pearls and all this kind of stuff.

This is nonsense, okay? When you are in your deepest and darkest and when you are struggling in the darkness of sin and wrestling and feeling like you want to despair,

Christ is interceding on your behalf saying, Father, have mercy on him or her.

He's actively interceding for you. And this is why he's the guarantor of a better covenant.

This is why he is saving you to the uttermost. It was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest.

And I love this list of describing Jesus, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sin and then for those of the people, since he did this once and for all when he offered up himself.

For the law appoints men in their weaknesses as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.

So, brothers and sisters, this, the feast of the purification of Mary and the presentation of our

Lord, this is a good time for us to ponder the great mysteries that Christ is our high priest.

And in so doing, in so doing, we can then really, really understand why the church fathers chose these texts.

Having been made like his brothers in every respect, Jesus, God, and human flesh, so that he might be a merciful and a faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is also able to help those who are being tempted, and he does so as your high priest and your mediator.

You'll note that when you are struggling with your sin and going, I don't know why God even puts up with me.

I can't seem to get my act together. Why is it that the good things

I want to do are not the things that I do, but I'm always doing the terrible things I know I shouldn't be doing, right?

Fear not. Jesus knows exactly what you've gone through. He's been there, done that, has the scars to prove it.

And he intercedes on your behalf, and he is also, like I said before, your sacrifice for the forgiveness of all of your sins.

Jesus is to be glorified in all of these texts. He is the one that we focus on, and he is the one who is mighty to save, mighty to save you as prophet, priest, and king.

Is it then not appropriate that we hear the words of Simeon when he himself saw

Christ for the first time having been presented in the temple? He lifts up his voice and he blesses

God, saying, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word.

My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the

Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel. And hearing those words, we cannot help but say,

Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

Jesus is our high priest in the order of Melchizedek, and it means and guarantees everything.

In the name of Jesus, amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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