In this piece, we are going to be looking at “The High Priesthood of Christ”, and we're going to start from the Book of Revelations; That's where our major text will be taken from. Revelation chapter 1 verse 12 to 20. There's something that John-the-beloved saw that is very striking about Christ, that we need to see. It says;
“Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with men, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clotted with a garment, down to the feet, and gilded about the chest with a golden band; His head and hair where white like a wool as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire, His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. Verse 16 says; He had in his right hand, seven stars, out of his mouth to went a sharp to edge, what, and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and He laid is right hand on me saying to me, Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last, I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hades and of death, write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches. And the seven lampstands, which you saw are the seven churches.”
May the Lord bless the reading of His Word in Jesus name. Amen. We are looking at the high Priesthood of Christ. Why is the Priesthood of Christ important for us?
Number one, the Bible recorded in that same Revelation Chapter One, it says; “He has made us onto our God, King and priest.” To what end as He made us Kings and priest? It is so that we will reign on the earth. Meaning that every one that becomes a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ has a destiny of Priesthood. If you are a follower of Jesus, the Bible says that if a servant be perfect, he will be just like his master. So, if you are following Christ, there is a destiny that is assured that you will have and that destiny is that you will become a priest because, He is a priest. He said as I am so are you. Who is He? That is one of the things we want to look at. Who is He? He is a priest. And He's not just anyhow Praise; Jesus is the high priest. The reason we went to Revelation and started from there is that we want to look at what John saw. Remember the John we are talking about is the same John that sits in the bosom of Jesus.
This is John that had seen Jesus when He was walking physically on the earth for three and a half years, but there was something distinct about this writing. He said, ‘When I turned and I saw’, he started describing the personality that he saw, he started describing the Christ that he saw. And you will realize from his reaction, that it was not the same Christ he used to see. Because, if it was the same Christ you used to see, why should he want to fall down as though dead? There was something striking. This was the glorified Christ. He now began to explain to us the dimension of the Christ that he saw, and the dimension of the Christ that he saw is important for us to look at so that we can understand what our destiny looks like in Christ Jesus. You have been following Christ Jesus, what shall you have? What are the things you will have as a priest? Because we started from there, that following Christ Jesus as a master means that as His disciple, you will become like Him, you will become a priest.
And what kind of Priesthood is the Priesthood of Christ? Is it the Priesthood of Aaron? Or the Priesthood according to the order of Jethro, or Eli or Levi? What kind of Priesthood is the Priesthood of Christ? What will we look like when we follow Him? We will still come back to Revelation, I want to take us to Hebrews chapter four, so that we understand the kind of Priesthood of Christ. Hebrews chapter four, we will read from verse 14, to 16. “Seeing then that we have; see the description; we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. But was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefor come boldly.”
I want us to note verse 16; “Let us therefore come boldly.” But where is our confidence coming from? It’s coming from verse fourteen; “Seeing then that we have a great High priest.” As a priest, what are we supposed to do? That is what verse 16 is saying to us. “Let us therefore come boldly, to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So, as disciples of Christ, following the great high priest, we have a destiny that is similar, or the same as His own, that's Priesthood. So, what are we supposed to be doing with our Priesthood? We are supposed to come to a throne. Another word we can use, for that throne is the altar of grace. The throne of grace is the altar of grace. Let us come boldly to the altar of grace. What are we doing at the altar of grace? I want us to see Romans chapter 12. When we come boldly, what do we come to do? Romans chapter 12 And verse 1, “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present.”
So, when we come to the throne of grace, the altar of grace, as priests, we present our bodies, a living sacrifice. How has it become a responsibility for us to present our bodies a living sacrifice? The great high priest presented Himself to God as a sacrifice, a living sacrifice. So, there is nothing God is asking us to do that Christ has not pioneered. As the great high priest, He pioneered sacrifice. If you go back to the book of Revelation, and you read through, I think particularly chapter 4 and 5 the Bible describes the Lamb of God, it said, He is in the midst of the throne of God, as though slain– a living sacrifice. As the great high priest, Jesus has pioneered sacrifice. He has actually shown us what to do. And that's why as disciples, this must be our theme. And that's why Apostle Paul was saying that, “Looking onto Jesus, the author, and the finisher of our faith.” Another way we can put it is; looking unto the master, the author, and the finisher of our apprenticeship. Everything that Christ would have us do, following Him. He has done as an example.
That's why when Jesus was saying to us, “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, He said, I will do what? I will give you rest. Take My yoke.” So, if anybody had ministered to you or have preached to you that coming to Christ is a yokeless and a burdenless journey, It's a lie from the pit of hell. Jesus Himself said, Take my yoke upon you. He said My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. But He has a yoke and He has a burden. And that's why Apostle Paul explained to us the nature of the yoke because to yoke means that you are not you are not yoking with another believer. You are yoking with Christ. In this journey, it’s not myself and another brother that are yoking, I'm yoked with Christ. What does it mean to yoke? It means that, as Christ is moving, I am moving, As Christ is eating, I am eating as Christ is sitting, I'm sitting. My activity or my life is in tandem with Christ. That's why Apostle Paul said, In Him I live– I'm yoked, in Him I move– I'm yoked, in Him, I have my being.
So, because we are yoked together with Christ, our experiences are the same. No wonder Apostle Paul said, that I've been crucified with Christ; “with” nevertheless I live, the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So, we are yoked with Christ. This Romans chapter 12 is explaining to us the nature of Priesthood. What do we do as priest? It said; ‘By mercies of God that you present your bodies’ the same way Christ presented His body as a living sacrifice. He said that I may know Him, the power of His Resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed even to His death. Apostle Paul understood the yoking that Christ was referring to. He understood that even though the yoke is easy, there is a yoke. Even though the burden is light, there is a burden to bear. So as disciples of Jesus, one of the important burdens we bear is Priesthood with Christ. That's why the Bible says, We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, not just for the good things, even in his suffering, he said, ‘that I may be conformed’; Because we are yoked.
“By the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” So, when we come boldly to the throne of grace, to the altar of grace, we obtain mercy as those that have presented themselves as living sacrifice. And we receive grace from that alter. When priest in the Old Testament enter into the holy of holies to offer to God, there were several kinds of sacrifices they usually take. But when the priest go in there is an expectation, the people are in the courts expecting the priest. Why are they expecting the priest? The priest has gone to bear a burden. It was so serious a burden that in the Old Testament, they would tie a rope around the ankle of the priest, just in case when he is offering and he is not offering correctly, or he did something in the presence of God that he's not supposed to do. If God strikes him dead, then you'll be able to at least recover his body. It was that fierce, but not so in Christ. That's why that Hebrews Chapter 4 is very important. It said, ‘We have such a high priest’, I want us to go back to the Hebrews chapter four. Christ is the great high priest, and He is touched. He does allow us to go on our own. He doesn’t abandon us; it says seeing that we have such a great high priest. There is a Priest over the priests.
So, we are not alone. He says, ‘Since we have a great high priest who has passed through, who has torched the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. let us all first our confession. For we do not have the eye priest who cannot’. When Aaron will go into the presence of God, there was no Jesus to sympathize with his weakness. But now as disciples of Jesus Christ, we have Jesus sympathizing with our weakness, saying to the Father, and that's why the Bible says, We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, I can't just come as I am and enter into the presence of God, I come as Omolara in Christ, clothed with the righteousness of God, because if I come as Omolara, I come as a bundle of weakness. But when I come in Christ, I come in the strength of the Lord. I appear, wholly and acceptable. Remember Romans chapter 12, verse 1, see the words; living sacrifice. What makes us holy and acceptable is not what you do, it’s not what I do. It’s what Christ has done that makes us holy and acceptable. So, the Priesthood of Christ makes our Priesthood in Christ of great relevance.
We can now have results to show. We are no longer afraid. We are no longer victims of our own weaknesses in the flesh. We're no longer victims of our limitation in the flesh. That's why the Bible makes us to understand that when we come into Christ, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will quicken our mortal bodies. Because, inherent in our mortal bodies is weakness and limitation. But there is one that have passed through the heavens who has made it, who has sympathized with our weakness, that these people can never please God on their own. Imagine, in a whole generation, it was only Enoch, that walked with God. To the point where God was pleased. In another generation, it was only Noah. Now check our generation without Christ. How many people can walk before God and be perfect? None. That is why the beauty of the Priesthood of Christ is what we must celebrate, it’s what we must receive, it’s what we must come into consciousness of.
So, he said, this is our confession. He said “He sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we yet without sin. Let us therefore in this confidence, come to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Would Jesus just appear for us once and abandon us? No! In Genesis chapter 14, so that we will see where Jesus sourced his Priesthood from. Genesis chapter 14, because I want us to see the description of the high Priesthood of Christ, so that we understand what it means to us. “Then Melchizedek king of Salem, brought out bread and wine, He was the priest of God most high, and he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abraham of God, Most High, possessor of heaven and Earth, and Blessed be God Most High. Who, has delivered your enemies into your hand. and he gave a tithe of all.”
Now see what it says, “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread.” And the Bible says in Hebrews, chapter five that; Jesus has been made priest, according to the order of Melchizedek. I want us to read it. Hebrews chapter five, verse 8 to 10, It says; “Though He was a son, yet He learned obedience by the things He suffered, and having been perfected. He became the author of eternal salvation to all obey Him, called by God.” Jesus was called by God as I priest. It was not just something that jumped on Him. He was called by God as a high priest, according to the order of Melchizedek. What was the order of Melchizedek mean? According to the order, of Melchizedek that was called the king of Salem that bestowed blessing on Abraham.
So, what does the high Priesthood of Christ mean to us? It means that under the Priesthood of Christ, our blessing is commanded. When the disciples followed Christ Jesus, the Bible says at a point, they came to Jesus and they said to Him, we have forsaken all and followed you, what shall we have? What is the future of this discipleship? To what end are we following? And Jesus said to them; for as many, as have abandoned father; remember what we are talking about here, understand the Spirit of this message. The disciples were men and women because they were not just the 12 disciples Jesus was referring to. So, He said, any one of you including all those that were following Him that have abandoned father, mother, brother, sister, land, He mentioned so many criteria, anything that you have abandoned for my sake, because when you are abandoning them what you were simply doing was yoking with Christ.
They came to Jesus, and they said, Jesus, your mother, and your brothers are looking for you. And Jesus looked at them, he said; Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? He said, it is those that hear these sayings of mine and do them. And in following Jesus, these disciples also abandoned mother, father, brothers and sisters, and are yoked with Him. And He said, the destiny that I have; Because Jesus was made bold to say, Father, glorify Me with the same glory that I had with you. Was He saying it because He’s the Son of God? No! He was saying it because of what He knew He had done. So, when you follow Christ correctly, you can lay hold of the things that you have in Christ. The Bible says, God has blessed us with all things that pertain to life and to godliness. He said, there is an inheritance. If you go to Ephesians chapter 3, it says, there is an inheritance for the saints. Who are the saints? Those that are being called out, those that have abandoned all and decide to yoke their lives with Christ. He said there is an inheritance. So, are we conscious of this as we are walking with Christ, as we are following Christ? Are we conscious of this Priesthood? Are we conscious of this lineage that we are connected to? Are we conscious of this, genealogy that birthed us? And there is a how. For example, you cannot say I am a priest after the order of Christ, and you are not doing what Christ is doing. You are not seeing what Christ is doing, and you are not doing it, and you want to lay hold on the eternal inheritance that is in Christ.
Jesus said to His disciple, as long as you are fulfilled these criteria, He said, you will have blessings, inheritances on this earth, and even in eternity. And he made them understand. He said to them, See, you will judge the 12 tribes of Israel. It is part of the inheritances that you will have. So, when we are talking about the inheritances that we will have, it’s not just something that jumps on people. It's not something you will you will sit down and benefit from the inheritances of Christ, it is that you are joked with Christ. As you are seeing him do, you are doing. Jesus said, as I see My Father do, I do, as I hear Him say, I see. That is why Jesus could lay hold on what was the fathers? How do we lay hold on what is Christ’s? That means we must see what Christ is doing and do it. That's how the Priesthood works.
So, He was qualified for the Priesthood. From verse 8, it says; “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” Though you are a disciple loved by Jesus, you must still follow Jesus and be yoked with Him. Take on the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light. The yoke is easy and the burden is light but you need to take it up. So, The Scripture says; “Called by God according to the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have more to say, and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.” So, the much they had to say about Melchizedek was what we saw in Revelation chapter one. So, let's go back there. Apostle Paul was saying to them, there's much I have to say to you about this order of Melchizedek. But you are dull of hearing. So, what happens when Christ was revealed? And the man that was seeing this vision, was discerning enough to notice that this is not the Christ, that I sat in His bosom, there is something different about Him? I want us to see it.
Verse 12 says; “Then I turned Man to see the voice that spoke with me. And he said, I haven't turned I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, one like the Son of Man, Jesus.” In our new Dimension Bible school were taught on Jesus the revelation of Christ as the Son of man, very important. It said, one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment down, if you go back to how God commanded the priests to dress, you will see that there is a great similitude between this description of Christ and the commandments of God, concerning Priesthood. So, he was saying the high priest–Christ, the revelation that made John want to fall to the ground as though dead, was that he was seeing the glory of the great high priest. He said; “He was clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girded about the chest with a golden band, he said His head and hair were white like wool.” You can just imagine it's not just His head, his hair were white like wool as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire. The Bible says no man can see me and live. But wat about the priest that has eyes as flame of fire.
Meaning, its only in Christ Jesus that you can see God and live. Because He has the eyes of the flame of fire. “His feet were like fine brass as if refined in a furnace.” You will see the reason why Jesus is comfortably seated at the right hand of the Father. He has been decorated for it. To approach the Father is not hard for Jesus, he has been appointed and called for it. It said; “His feet like refined in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters.” He had in His right hand seven stars. Now I want us to also notice this. When priests have things in their hands, they are items of sacrifice. What Jesus had in his hand, was not something He had for a show, He had for a purpose. He said; “In His right hand, seven stars. Out of His mouth, went a sharp two-edged sword.” That's the word of God. The Bible says the Word of God is as sharp as a two-edged sword ‘dividing’.
So, this is to show us that this priest is also the word. And he said, “His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.” And he said when I saw Him, when I saw the glory of the priest, the great high priest, he said, ‘I fell at His feet as dead’. There was nothing familiar about Him. There was a fearful presence, there was an awesome presence. He said, I fell. What will make a human being to fall and the person is not sick. That means there is a shock of some sorts. It might be a joyful shock, Or a sorrowful shock but there a shock. John was shocked at the Christ He saw but this is our Christ, He is the high priest. And see what Jesus said to him. “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.” Every priest has tenure, from Aaron, to Levi to all them, they had a time space. If you go back and read Hebrews, I think chapter four, chapter five, about Melchizedek, it says he has no beginning and he has no end.
So, when the Bible is talking about Jesus in the order of Melchizedek, His Priesthood has no beginning and it has no end. He is forever priest. So, you and I cannot come out of Priesthood following Christ. We cannot retire from Priesthood following Christ. Just like you cannot retire from kingship. Because he is always a priest. He said, “I'm the first and the last, I am He who lives I was dead, and behold; I am alive.” Meaning I'm still the same king of Salem that Abraham saw. That’s when He was confronting the Pharisees, He said, before Abraham was, I am. Abraham met me in his journey. Christ Jesus was the king of Salem. He said, “I am alive forevermore.” Now why did leave this message? He said “I am the one who lives. I was dead. And behold. I'm alive forevermore. Amen. I have the keys of hades and of death. And he said right the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this, he said the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands.”
What did He call the seven stars? They are the angels of the seven churches. And that is why Christ will forever be the head of the church. Because the only person that offers sacrifice on behalf of the church is Christ.
The Bible was describing the oil, it said it flows from the head of Aaron down to his skirt. It is a similitude of what happens between Christ and the church. The oil symbolizes grace, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it flows from Him down to the church. That is why when we were reading that Hebrews chapter four, it said, when we come to the throne of grace, what do we do? We come to obtain mercy and find grace. Because there is something that must flow from Christ to us. It is grace. And that's understanding the Priesthood of Christ is understanding how grace flows to us. The grace flows to the church through the Priesthood of Christ. Bible says; He forever makes intercession for us. He didn’t stop. And He has not stopped, He forever makes intercession for us.
Can we key into that? As disciples of Jesus, what is the grace that is flowing from the head of Christ that has not touched you yet? What is it in the life of Christ, that is evident, that has not touched you yet? Maybe it's because you have not keyed into the Priesthood of Christ. Maybe it's because you have not decided to yoke yourself with Him. Maybe because you are yet to understand that until you look onto Him. Bible says God gives grace to the humble. That humility is a posture. It’s not just about saying I am humble, it’s a posture. The skirt of Aaron is positioned strategically. If the oil does not find you at the location, it can’t flow to you. And that's why we must understand that there is a posture to take. As we connect to the Priesthood of Christ. There is a posture to take to benefit from all that is Christ. I want us to look at our lives. What is it in Christ that has not touched us yet? Can we go to Him?
Jesus, my high priest, Jesus, my intercessor, Jesus, my advocate. I come to you in humility, and I ask that your grace be sufficient for me. I don't know the area where you are lacking grace, where the supply of grace is not enough. Where the supply of grace has not reached. That woman that had 12 years issue of blood said to herself, I am going to take a posture, she said my posture will be this; that's what she said. If I can but touch the helm of His garment, that was her posture. Another man had a posture, he said, see my servant is sick, he said, Jesus don't come to my house. I'm not even worthy of you coming to my house, but if you can speak one word, one word is enough. If you can speak one word, I know. What do you know about Christ that you want to experience? What do you know that is possible in Christ that have become difficult in your life? Can we reach out to the high priest?
