The Royal Priesthood: What It Is and How It Works

By Peter Barfoot

After thirty-three years as a senior pastor and nearly fifty overseas missions, Peter Barfoot is well-qualified to write on the subject of faith. In Faith: God's Gift to the Heart, Peter explores the many and diverse aspects of the Christian faith and shares on how it brought him to and through difficult and even dangerous situations. Peter's years as a newspaper editor, magazine publisher, and author of hundreds of articles combined with his ministry experience to produce a book, which is both inspiring and informative. Accompanied by his wife, Lorraine, Peter continues to teach, write, and minister to the sick worldwide""to the glory of God and his Son Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644588895

Book preview

Your Spiritual Journey

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

The emblem of suffering and shame;

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best

For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Refrain

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

And exchange it some day for a crown.

—Words and Music:

George Bennard, 1913

What wonderful words! The Old Rugged Cross was the first hymn I sang after surrendering my life to the Lord Jesus. But while I will always be grateful for Christ’s death, I never did cling to the old rugged cross because soon after my sins were forgiven, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, an experience that brought further joy into my life.

My point is that no sooner do we think that we have arrived than God moves us on through yet another new experience. As someone has said, If you think you have arrived, you have nowhere left to go. This side of the resurrection, we are on a journey with Jesus, and as wonderful as our experiences of his love and grace are, there’s always more—much more! That is, unless we decide to quit the journey and settle for a place of our own choosing.

The Christians who became known as Pentecostals appeared at the dawn of the twentieth century but came into prominence with the rise of well-known healing ministries fifty years later. The Healing Revival (as it became known) coincided with the advent of television. Suddenly miracles of healing previously heard on radio were viewed right across the USA.

Almost two decades later, what was to become known as the Charismatic Renewal began to take place in traditional churches. That wound down in the mideighties after lasting about the same time as the Healing Revival had. Korean megachurches and third world mass evangelism followed, and as the new century dawned, megachurches sprouted up across the USA (although the numbers never matched those of megachurches in Africa and South America). With this overview in mind, let’s take a closer look at the three main groups to which most believers now belong.

The Evangelicals

Think of the names John Wesley, George Fox, Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, William Booth, and Billy Graham—names well-known to all Christians but especially dear to those called Evangelicals. The term is generic and covers scores of millions of Christians around the globe who attend a variety of Bible-believing churches.

The ministries of these evangelists, over the past few centuries, paralleled the rise to world dominance of the British Empire and the amazing growth to power of the United States of America.

Each great preacher was a man of his time: Wesley rode on horseback between churches miles apart, often preaching three times on a Sunday. Whitefield’s resonant voice so amplified his words they could be heard whole blocks away. Billy Sunday’s onstage chair-smashing was as attention-grabbing as any of today’s guitar-smashing rock musicians. Billy Graham’s powerful sermons and the hymn Just as I Am made men, women, and children aware of their need to come to Christ on the spot.

The word evangelist comes from an ancient Greek word that means messenger of good. The focus of the Evangelical is the good news of Jesus Christ and the literal kingdom to be established by him on his return to earth.

The cross of Jesus Christ is central to the preaching of the Gospel and the salvation of lost sinners. Evangelical Christians have a special love for the Gospel of John. This is not to say that they prefer it above the other gospels but that John’s Gospel lingers on the person of the Son of God and on his death for us on the cross. In this sense, it is more a portrait than a narrative. It was through the preaching of the cross that we first believed, and it was then that our spiritual journey began.

Without doubt, the most treasured verse of Evangelicals is John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

You must be born again, is the imperative that motivates the Evangelical to witness to the lost. Nicodemus, to whom these words were addressed, thought Jesus was speaking of a physical rebirth—a natural impossibility. But to be born again is to be born from above—a prerequisite for seeing the kingdom and entering into it (John 3:5–7).

Their famously intricate end-time flowcharts aside, the beliefs of Evangelicals are scripturally sound—as far as they go. I am not damning these fine Christians with faint praise but add this qualification because although salvation begins at the cross with forgiveness, it is more than a one-time event; it is the beginning of a lifelong journey. We don’t just cling to the cross and wait for the Second Coming of Christ but retain it in our hearts as an unforgettable first experience of God’s love and Christ’s sacrifice for us as we move on.

The Pentecostals

Some would say that Evangelicals move on when they receive the Pentecostal experience. Pentecostal is a name associated with those who receive the promised Spirit of God in the same way the disciples did on the Day of Pentecost (Pentecost is Greek for fifty—the number of days between the feasts of Passover and Pentecost). The power from on high that Pentecostals receive as a second experience to being born again enables them to add supernatural signs to their witness. This doesn’t sit well with Evangelicals who believe that the signs ceased at what they believe was the end of the apostolic age—the time of the close of the book of Acts.

Pentecostals honor the same great preachers as Evangelicals but add to the list the names of other great men including Charles G. Finney, Aimee Semple McPherson, Smith Wigglesworth, John G. Lake, Oral Roberts, Kathryn Kuhlman, and Reinhard Bonke.

Acts 2:4 is the verse most Pentecostals use to define themselves. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit enabled them. The usual query of Pentecostals to other Christians is, Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? (Acts 19:2).

Pentecostals acknowledge the work of the Spirit of God in convicting sinners, in drawing them to Jesus, and in witnessing to their spirit that they are born of God. However, they believe that those who have not yet received the fullness of the Holy Spirit lack the power essential for preaching the Gospel with the signs that Jesus said would accompany it.

Pentecostals know how necessary the name of Jesus is for prayer to be heard by their heavenly Father (John 16:23–24). Unlike most Evangelicals, however, they lay hands on the sick and expel demons in the authority of that name. Pentecostals see power and authority as working hand in hand. When evangelicals question them on the textual validity of Mark 16:17–19, they simply point out that in the book of Acts, the apostles did all but one of the things listed there.

The old-time shouting Pentecostal is seen a lot less these days. Many now attend nominally Pentecostal megachurches where the operation of spiritual gifts in televised meetings is not encouraged.

The Charismatics

The name Charismatic comes from the ancient Greek word charisma which means grace-gift. Charismatics began to appear in the late 1960s when God poured out his Spirit on Christians in mainline churches, and they spoke in languages unknown to them. Pentecostals were as uneasy at the idea of traditional church people receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit as Peter was when the household of Cornelius did (Acts 10:17).

Charismatics place as much importance on the necessity of the cross for salvation as Evangelicals and Pentecostals do (many of them were Evangelicals who moved on). They also teach the necessity of believers being baptized in the Holy Spirit for their ministry to be effective.

The particular focus of Charismatics is on the church as an interactive working body and the need for genuine fellowship between believers. Their verses of choice are 1 Corinthians 12:7–11 which list the gifts (plural) of the Holy Spirit as distinct from the gift (singular) of the Holy Spirit.

Charismatics point out that the word charisma is nowhere found in the original Greek of The Acts of the Apostles because that book is a narrative of how the gift of the Holy Spirit was distributed (to Jew and non-Jew alike) throughout the Roman Empire.

They also point out that in 1 Corinthians, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are the issue since the believers at Corinth had already received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Charismatics enjoy an excellent teacher as much as Pentecostals enjoy a powerful preacher and Evangelicals enjoy spiritual life conferences in the country. During what was known as the Charismatic Renewal, most traditional Christians who received the gift declined to be called Pentecostal because the name didn’t fit their traditional church culture.

For their part, Pentecostals were shocked to hear Charismatics ask God to give believers a new language rather than ask him to give them the gift of the Spirit who gives that gift. But those who were thirsty were filled regardless.

Charismatics love Paul’s epistles because they speak so often of the local church as a working body of believers with each and every member playing an important part. They cooperate well with one another and usually return to their traditional churches if the fire of their spiritual experience loses its heat. A new and credible move of the Spirit of God will likely rekindle their flame.

Where to from here?

Much has happened since the Charismatic Renewal waned. Toronto. Brownsville. Megachurches. Scores of millions won to Christ in the developing world. Christians around the globe view it all on The God Channel or YouTube and download portions to their iPods. Yet there is a great spiritual emptiness in the western church. Many attend church meetings but lack real commitment, and many others have dropped out of local church fellowship altogether.

It’s probable that a long-expected new move of the Spirit of God will restore these believers to regular church fellowship. But what they need is more likely to be found in a continuation of their spiritual journey. This has been the experience of the church since the time of the Reformation. The denominational churches, which resulted from that great event, were built on rediscovered Bible truths and practices (for example, the Lutheran Church on its founder’s revelation of justification by faith, and the Methodist Church on the holiness doctrine preached by John Wesley).

The question Is this is all there is? may be the sign of a need to move forward on a spiritual journey. If you have been forgiven, have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, and have received spiritual gifts, your next step may be to accept the role and the responsibility of a royal priest.

What Is the Royal Priesthood?

The royal priesthood is not a special group of Christians within the church as was the priestly tribe of Levi in Israel. It is the priesthood of all believers who are Jews at heart and who collectively form the Israel of God (Romans 3:28–29; Galatians 6:16).

In Old Testament times, a royal priesthood would have been inconceivable; no one could ever have imagined that the offices of king and priest would one day come together in the person of the Messiah.

Yet just such a merging of offices had been clearly portrayed by a high priest named Joshua. At God’s command, the prophet Zechariah enthroned and crowned him—an act unprecedented in the history of Israel (Zechariah 6:9–15). The merger clearly portrayed the coming ministry of Messiah Jesus, the King-Priest. Jesus would not only rise to reign over the Gentiles but would also mediate between God and man (Romans 15:12; 1 Timothy 2:5).

Christ’s heavenly coronation, foreseen by the prophet Daniel (Daniel 2:44, 7:13–14), is recorded in Acts 2:30–36. The writer of Hebrews describes Jesus as crowned with glory and honor—an appropriate metaphor for an exalted and glorified King-Priest.

The term royal priesthood describes a priesthood of royal descent, one that ministers the blessings of God with regal authority. The moral conduct of the royal priesthood should be appropriate to that of persons occupying a position of high office and privilege. Its priests should exercise power but remain humble, they should act with authority but never to excess.

The royal priesthood is entirely different from the priesthood Moses established to minister God’s Law. It functions in the manner of the priest Melchizedek who was a prophetic portrayal of Jesus Christ (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7:11).

Melchizedek was a king-priest who brought bread and wine and a blessing to Abram after he had rescued his nephew Lot from invaders, and in so doing, had recovered the goods they had stolen from the king of Sodom.

The king of Sodom offered the recovered goods to Abram, but he refused the offer. He had sworn an oath to the Lord, the Most High, the possessor of heaven and earth not to accept a thing, lest the king of Sodom claim he had made Abram rich (Genesis 14:17–23).

Melchizedek had used these same words when blessing Abram, so it would seem that the patriarch swore the oath to God after being forewarned by the king-priest of the temptation that would come.

The two offices were again joined when the Lord instructed Zechariah the prophet to enthrone and crown the priest Joshua (Zechariah 6). There is no letter Y in the Hebrew alphabet. The names Jesus and Joshua are actually Yeshua. Both leaders named Joshua in the Bible—the general who led the Israelites into the promised land and the priest who was enthroned and crowned by Zechariah— portrayed Yeshua the Messiah whom Christians know as the Lord Jesus Christ and the world less definitively as Jesus Christ.

The man who is the BRANCH was to grow out of the stump of Jesse (David’s father). Jesus, who is the Son of David, will restore the kingdom to Israel when he returns to earth (Acts 1:6).

Jesus is a high priest after the order of (that is, in the manner of) Melchizedek (Hebrews 7). Our great High Priest blesses us between victory and the temptation that follows, providing us with the bread which is his body and the wine which is his blood. This blessing and provision enables us to refuse the world’s offers and to rely instead on the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven and earth, for all our needs.

A royal priesthood is a contradiction in terms since the offices of king and priest were separate in Israel. But they were joined prophetically when King David placed the Ark of the Covenant in a tent in Jerusalem and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord (1 Samuel 6:17–18). The tent of Moses remained at Gibeon until Solomon built the temple. We are the tent of David, not the tent of Moses