Our Role: Serve God

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and had made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. Revelation 1:6

Throughout the Old Testament, priests had a special calling, they were charged with the responsibility of mediating between God and his people, ensuring proper worship, and caring for the spiritual needs of the people. Priests led the nation Israel by their role as teachers, judges, advisors and role models.

Hebrews 8:1-2 reveals that Jesus is our great high priest in whom is the fulfillment of the Old Testament priesthood, “In essence, we have just such a high priest: authoritative right alongside God, conducting worship in the one true sanctuary built by God” (the Message). As the great high priest, we understand that Jesus alone is our mediator or “go between” between us and God, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

With Jesus as our great high priest, what emerges in the New Testament is the idea that all Christ-followers can be seen as priests. Revelation 1:6 states that Christ by his blood made us, his church, “priests to his God and Father” and Revelation 5:10, “you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God.”

What is our mission as “priests to our God”?

First, it is to worship. Hebrews 13:15 reads, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Love and faithfulness to our families, hard work toward our employer, ministry at church and in our community, even the energy given to our recreation all have the potential of being worship for the Christ-follower who understands that worship is to be our everyday lifestyle. Yet there is something special, even priestly that occurs when we gather for worship corporately singing and proclaiming the greatness of our God. This is what the writer of Hebrews calls a “sacrifice of praise to our God” that results from the “fruit of (our) lips” acknowledging Christ.

Our second mission as “priests” is intercession. Christ-followers are called to pray, not only for their own needs, but also for the needs of others. This type of prayer is called intercession—God directed prayer on behalf of others. 1Timothy 2:1 instructs us, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone.”

How are you exercising your role today as a “priest to our God”? For whom are you interceding in prayer? How will you live today as an act of worship?

Read Colossians 4:2-6.