The People to Accomplish the Mission is His Body

God’s desire has always been to dwell, inspire and move among his people. Moses in Exodus 19:4-6 showed us the intent of the covenant when he told the children of Israel that: “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

It's always been God’s intent to directly commune, speak and extend his rule through his people. Worship is the central theme of the Bible starting in the book of Genesis embedded in the creation story. Man as the central figure of God’s created order was fashioned to worship with his heart being formed as a habitation of the Highest God and was to be his image bearer.

God told man in Genesis chapter 2 to cultivate and keep the garden. People from the Biblical period would have thought of Eden as a temple. After all, temples are where gods live. Eden was the abode of God, “an earthly archetype of the heavenly reality.” God told man in Genesis chapter 2 to cultivate and keep the garden. The Hebrew word for cultivate is abad, and the Hebrew word for keep is shamar. These same Hebrew words are used to describe how the priest cared for the tabernacle of Moses. The tabernacle was a precursor to the temple of Solomon.

The priests were to cultivate and keep the tabernacle. In addition, we are told that God walked in the garden during the cool of the day. God also walked in the midst of the temple. The meaning is clear. The garden was a temple for God. Like the temple, the garden was the joining together of God’s space and man’s space - the intersection of the heavenly realm and the earthly realm. Eden wasn’t a typical garden, but it was the house-temple of God. It’s why Eden is described as a well-watered garden (Gen 2:6, 8–9, 10–16; Ezek. 28:2, 13) and a holy mountain (Ezek. 28:14). There is no contradiction. An ancient reader would have embraced both descriptions. Both were common characterizations for divine dwellings.

The theme of gardens as divine dwellings is widespread in ancient Near Eastern literature. In the Old Testament, several passages describe rivers flowing from God's home in Jerusalem to revive the desert (Ezek. 47:1–12; Zech 14:8; Joel 3:18).

“The main feature of the garden of God theme is the presence of the deity. The divine council meets there, and decrees of cosmic importance are issued.” In addition, we are told that God walked in the garden during the cool of the day. God also walked in the midst of the temple. The meaning is clear. The garden was a temple for God. Like the temple, the garden was the joining together of God’s space and man’s space - the intersection of the heavenly realm and the earthly realm. Adam was a priest who walked with God, bore his image, was clothed in his glory and demonstrated servant leadership in the garden.

The book of Revelation opens with this same theme in chapter 1:5-6 when it says that Jesus, “has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” The first Adam failed, but amid his failure God made a covenant promise that through the seed of the woman a deliverer would conquer and crush the serpent's head. We see this message finding it’s culmination in the book of Revelation where it says, “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).

Under the Old Covenant, ministry was limited and confined to a select few. You had three offices under the Mosaic Law which were the prophet, priest and king and ministry was confined to those offices. Jesus as the God who created all things was wrapped in human flesh and was the fulfillment of all that was written in the Law, Psalms and Prophets (Luke 24:27). The coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost birthed the ekklēsia (church) and changed everything.

The significance of Pentecost is not that a few are granted heightened mystical experience, but that the Spirit becomes the shared possession of the entire people of God. Luke uses Joel’s prophecy to stress the universality of the Spirit’s gift, breaking down hierarchies of gender, age and social status.

Moses said in Deuteronomy 18:15 that “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.” Jesus is that prophet. Our focus is to be centered around his message and example. David as a prophet spoke of a new order coming found in a Messianic figure. In Psalms 110 he prophesied that “The Lord says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” It is the author of Hebrews who helps us understand this mysterious figure who appeared to Abraham and whom David spoke about.

The book of Hebrews shows us the magnitude of the transitional change from the Old Covenant Law administered through Moses; to the New Covenant administered through the Spirit of the ascended Christ. Hebrews was written by someone who was very familiar with the temple worship centered around the Mosaic Law. It was someone who clearly understood the purpose of the coming of Christ. If you understand the book of Hebrews then you understand that Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law establishing a new priesthood, new temple and sacrifice system founded in him as the risen king-priest.

It cannot be overstated that through the broken body and poured out blood of our risen King we have been brought into a new priesthood, the new temple of his body. We have a new sacrifice system empowered by the law of the Spirit of life found in Christ. Once you get a clear understanding of the New Covenant then you can understand that each member of the body of Christ has been given spiritual gifts.

We don’t have a Levitical Priesthood in the New Covenant, and the scriptures are absent of this clergy class distinction. I’m not saying we don’t have elders or spiritual leadership in the ekklēsia, but I am saying we have all been given gifts as a part of his body. The resurrection and ascension of Christ established a new order of worship no longer administered around the Mosaic law. It’s a new order of worship centered around the blood and body of Christ where every member has been empowered with gifts.

Hebrews 7:26-27 says we: “have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.” Hebrews 8:6 says: “Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.”

It’s important to remember that when the temple veil was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 24:51) a new way to approach God was opened and we are no longer under the Mosaic law because it was fulfilled in Christ.

Hebrews 10:19 - 22 says we: “have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” We have a New Covenant based on the death, burial, resurrection, ascension and outpouring of the Spirit of our king-priest Jesus.

On the day of Pentecost as he promised, Jesus the resurrected king-priest poured from his throne the Spirit upon his newly formed body in the earth. The resurrected Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, but he is connected to his body through his blood, water and the Spirit which I call the threefold cord of covenant (I John 5:6-8). Our lives are to be built on Christ who is not just the head, but the very foundation of this new temple. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 2:4-5 that Jesus is: “a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Jesus taught us that his organizational structure should be the direct opposite and attitude of this worldly system. Jesus said that the chain of command authority structure is not the basis of his leadership model but serving. He gave us the example to follow, which is humility and sacrificial love because we are all part of the same body. In the New Testament we are all anointed and given the Holy Spirit. Yes, just like the priests, prophets and kings were anointed in the Old Testament.

The New Testament does not teach a hierarchical model of leadership. Yes, we have spiritual leaders, but they are simply mature facilitators whose main function is to help with conflict resolution, teach sound doctrine and keep us on mission (Matthew 18; I Timothy 3).

Jesus leaves us little detail on how to build his ekklēsia so I conclude that gives us a lot of flexibility that should be done with a great amount of humility. Paul gives us clear character qualifications for leadership in I Timothy 3. We will discuss spiritual leadership in later chapters because it’s a small, but important aspect of keeping us on mission so we do need to understand the place of spiritual leaders.

The roots of our faith are found in the soil of the Hebrew scriptures, but we are under a New Covenant. Just as the prophet, priest and king were all anointed in the Old Testament as New Testament believers we are all prophetic because we all have the Spirit of truth. We are all priests because we all have been given direct access to the Spirit. We are all kings because we have all been given the power of the Spirit.