welcome back to nematology in this lecture we're going to continue studying the economic trinity particularly in the function of the holy spirit throughout the history of redemption now so far we've learned that the holy spirit had this beautiful creational role both at the beginning of time in creation and then in the establishment of adam as god's imager and in the incarnation of christ as god's renewed perfect imager and in the establishment and creation of the church the last lecture we saw how this similar pattern played out with the prophetic role that adam played and failed at the prophetic role jesus played and succeeded at and the prophetic role of the church in the world to image forth god's word and his will now we're going to switch gears and look at the priestly role that adam played that christ played and that the church must play and how the holy spirit works in each of those entities such that they might fulfill their function to image god forth in a priestly way so the big goal of this lecture is to show you how the holy spirit inspires and animates the priestly vocation of the church now in order to do that we have to start with adam and we'll move to christ so let's start with adam now adam's priestly duties are connected to their setting now remember in the last lecture and in other lectures you will have heard of thinking about eden not as merely like a garden but as a garden temple or temple sanctuary that holy place in which god dwelt and humans dwelt in perfect harmony now in genesis 2 adam is given some jobs a job kind of offensively to expand the borders of the garden and defensively to protect its holiness and its purity and to guard and to keep it we'll come back to that language so his priestly duties have to be considered in relationship to their setting in this case the edenic garden temple and then we're going to look at his vocation in relation to that setting and then the judgment that god uh god pronounced in regards to his failure and how the holy spirit's involved in all of that now the first priest that is adam was placed in god's garden temple and he was made holy and unique by god's presence both within the temple and within adam i want you to hear that what made this place holy and unique isn't that it was a garden or really that adam was there it's that it was a garden where adam was that was dwelt among by god and how adam was indwelt by god's spirit breath that same spirit breath gave adam life and continued to empower that life in his priestly vocation of tending and guarding and keeping the garden sanctuary in its holy and good state now george smeaton a theologian a few centuries back wrote the doctrine that man was originally though mutably replenished with the spirit may be termed the deep fundamental thought of the scripture doctrine of man hear that the doctrine the idea that man was originally though mutably replenished with the spirit may be termed in his thought a deep the deep fundamental thought of the scripture doctrine of man so here's a guy this isn't just me this is a guy centuries ago a great theologian seeing what made adam unique and what made that place unique with regards to its priestliness was the presence of god both within adam and within the garden few have explored the pneumatic connections of adam and the garden more than a gentleman named meredith klein now i have to warn you some of his language can be a little bit fluid but i think this is an important quote and i'll just read it to you no special revelation was needed to inform adam that he had cultic obligations to perform that is that he was commissioned to a priestly office the theophanic glory spirit on the mountain of god okay theophanic refers to god's embodied presence in the world the theophanic glory spirit on the mountain of god which constituted eden as a sanctuary would give a visible focus to man's priestly experience of the divine presence and a local external orientation for his cultic ministry hence in man's primal priestly vision of the glory spirit he saw the alpha paradigm and omega talos of his existence as the image of god as i mentioned his language can be kind of floored let me tell you what he's saying what he's saying is that the spirit was with adam was what gave him his alpha and omega of his existence and helped him understand his primal priestly duty so it was the spirit who gave focus for adam's duties and klein kind of weaves this together but it was god's glorious presence the presence of god by his spirit that marked this and it was adam's failing in his priestly duties that adam was judged and confronted by the spirit remember in the previous lecture we talked about how god his presence doesn't need to be thought of as merely a disembodied presence but it's pretty clear in the genesis narrative that god is putting hands in his in the dirt that the spirit of god is around so in this just imagine this glorious presence of god that is both beautiful and terrifying is now turned toward judgment in adam who reverses his priestly duties of worshiping and keeping the garden sanctuary to now working the ground and being kept from god's presence in the temple think about that his duty started out his priestly duties were a garden to keep to work this garden sanctuary to keep it holy to keep it pure to keep it fruitful and to keep it on mission because he turned now the very ground he was told to watch over uh would be what he had to work in it would fight him and he'd be kept from god's presence now that's just a brief overview of what the spirit might have been doing in adam with regard to his priestly duties now the question is well what did the spirit do in jesus christ so that jesus christ could fulfill the priestly calling that adam failed in well the spirit enabled and empowered jesus priestly duties in a few ways first since jesus himself became the new eschatological temple holy and pure the holy spirit worked in him with regard to him being and then establishing that temple in the world second the spirit's role in jesus work as our perfect high priest we're going to look at that and then we're going to look at jesus role in the mediation the mediatorial role that he plays one good way to think about a priest is someone is a go-between so when he goes between god and man and someone who represents humans to god and represents god to humans now adam's job was to mediate god's presence into the world as a great priest he failed christ comes in to mediate humans to god to represent humans to god as the perfect man and then to represent god to humans as the perfect high priest let's explore this first let's look at how the spirit in christ as this eschatological temple worked out now jesus himself becomes the the temple the new garden sanctuary and he says as much in john 2 19 remember uh he declared his own body to be the temple remember tear down this temple and i'll build it up three years that was really um it was really controversial that he said such things but john's prologue actually hints at this further it sets the reader up to see jesus as the spirit-filled temple remember in john 1 14 we read this and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we've seen his glory glorious of the only son from the father full of grace and truth well there are a few connections in the text there that hint a priestly spiritual role the first is the word dwelt now that word is the word tabernacle so what it literally says is that jesus the word became flesh and tabernacled among us now if you know anything about the old testament the word tabernacle should be setting off all kinds of alarm bells because that is a hyperlink back to exodus and the way god's presence was with his people in the tabernacle in the tenth while they were in the wilderness and so in his becoming flesh he's templing he's tabernacling with his people and by being filled with the spirit remember john says he's the one who baptized them in the spirit and with fire so the spirit-filled temple is now coming and he is also as not just the spirit-filled temple but as the great high priest is mediating god's presence into the world now he told his troubled disciples that when he would depart he would send another a paraclete to help them until the close of time now what's crazy about this is that he meant what he said that even though he was the temple presence of god by his sacrifice as the great high priest he meant to make them the people the temple by filling them with the spirit which makes sense of the line i'm going to go but it's better for you because i'm going to send the helper even the spirit to come and be with you so we see that jesus couldn't have been the great high priest or the temple without the presence of the spirit because what mark's temples is the presence of god in the spirit so if the spirit is indwelling christ as this tabernacle glory presence of god then his priestly ministry would include acting as a new temple as a living presence of god by the spirit so in the realm of the spirit jesus was acting both as priest and temple and he was doing so not merely symbolically but in reality through the working of the spirit so if jesus is now the new temple what is his duty priestly wise with regard to that temple he has a vocation not unlike what adam was created to do and as we'll see he fulfilled that vocation not simply because he was jesus but because he was the perfect spirit-filled god-man jesus christ so in addition to christ being the new eschatological temple he's also functioned as the greater high priest and so remember how we talked about adam had like defensive and offensive duties as the guardian of the of the esc of the original temple garden well christ too has um defensive and offensive priestly duties let's look at those um christ's defensive work included like keeping the temple of his body free from sin you know clearly demonstrated that when he uh beat satan in the desert um and in the desert the temptation came to jesus as it had to adam but unlike adam jesus filled with the holy spirit at his baptism and led by the holy spirit into the place of confrontation did not allow his body to be defiled and he thinned off the tempter and set about his ministry in the power of the spirit not only that he defended the holiness of his temple body um in by like going to the jerusalem temple too you remember in the um the synoptic gospels that's the next thing jesus um well i'm sorry in the gospel john that's the next thing yes he comes and kind of wrecks shop in the temple and he purifies and he said my house is meant to be a house of prayer for many nations and he says destroy this temple and in three days i'll raise it up again so jesus is cleansing the temple called it his father's house and violently affirmed its sanctity so as the great high priest he was the only one with the authority to do so so that this place that was meant to represent god's presence on the earth and be filled with god's presence now might be stewarded properly by the first and greatest high priest jesus christ benjamin glad kind of comments on this he says jesus is not only concerned with the temple but the entire created order since jesus i'm sorry since the temple in jerusalem symbolizes the cosmos it may not be a stretch to view jesus actions in the temple as indicated indicative of his larger cosmic agenda the eradication of evil so defensively he's kicking evil out he's defending the holiness of the temple but priest jesus is also going on spiritual offense by expanding the borders of god's presence making the places he dwelt clean by virtue of the presence of god the presence of the living priest temple now this included making people clean this included forgiving sin all of which the powerful which he was given by the holy spirit these are specifically priestly functions only priests could tell people that if they were clean and only priests could pronounce the forgiveness of sin as a priest jesus faithfully carried out his duties to make a pure and holy people out of a defiled one to purify his temple body and to advance the presence of god beyond the borders of his own body temple and he did so not merely as jesus but by the power and presence of the holy spirit you can see this in matthew 9 verses 1-8 matthew 26 verses 26 to 28 the power was supplied by the holy spirit the third way we can see jesus priestly ministry and how the holy spirit was working in him such that he could accomplish it was in his mediatorial work uh as the spirit-filled new adam priest jesus said about his business sanctify and a sanctifying work drove him to become both the mediator of a new covenant between god and his people and the sacrifice that made forgiveness and purification possible so think about this he's the great high priest who goes between and doesn't sacrifice some other animal but stands between both as the priest representing god to people and people to god and as the sacrifice himself which makes the reconnection possible so this mediatorial work this included inter-accessory prayer and sacrifice and atonement his eternal priesthood at the right hand of the father and his covenant mediation and as we're going to see all of this was done by the holy spirit christ promises that through his prayer the holy spirit would be sent to them in john 14 6 and so it stands to reason that in praying for them he is making good on his promise to mediate for them and to intercede for them christ interceded for his people on earth by promising the holy spirit and then when attention is turned to christ's heavenly intercession for us the scriptures have more to say a hodge points this out he says christ is a royal priest which you can see from zechariah 6 13. from the same throne as king he dispenses his spirit to all the objects of his care while as priest he intercedes for them the spirit acts for him taking only of his things they both act with one consent christ as principle and the spirit as his agent and that's what i want you to see it's the spirit who is actively working in jesus such that he could fulfill his priestly functions but it gets even clearer when we look at his work as sacrifice as atonement the author of hebrews says something really crazy that's nowhere else talked about in the new testament he says this how much more will the blood of christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to god purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living god that means according to the author of hebrews jesus offered himself not merely as a sacrifice by himself but as a sacrifice through the eternal spirit martin emerick noted once we acknowledge that through the eternal spirit is a reference to the spirit of god it's it is difficult to deny our texts conveying this some notion of a divine empowerment for christ's critical self-sacrifice so here's what hebrews is saying think about this it was the holy spirit enabling christ in his darkest and worst moments to stand and be the sacrifice for our sins whoa that's some amazing stuff the spirit empowered and sustained christ in his moment of sacrifice a.w pink connected jesus holiness uh to this moment he says he was subject to the spirit in going out into the wilderness so the spirit led him a willing victim to the cross i never thought about that before i did some of this research that it was the holy spirit who not only empowered jesus to do all the cool stuff but enabled him to suffer well well don't hear that a lot in a lot of pentecostal charismatic churches finally the spirit helped him be the eternal high priest um christ priesthood did not end at calvary it did not terminate upon the cross the lord swore and will not change his mind you are a priest forever in the order of melchizedek so from the spirit who raised christ to the dead and the spirit who raised christ from the dead we see he is in fact the agent by whom christ's ongoing eternal priesthood is made possible the heidelberg catechism even hints at this idea uh when it explained christ as the anointed high priest is anointed by the spirit as our only high priest who by one sacrifice of his body has redeemed us and ever lives to make intercession for us with the father lastly we can see the spirit working in christ as he mediates the new covenant a covenant of grace luke explains that it is the spirit the spirit is the gift of the covenant of grace in acts 2 38. the author of hebrews concurs declaring that the covenant that jesus mediates brings to fulfillment the promise of god's spiritual presence with his people from jeremiah one commentator named david mckay writes this having fulfilled all that he undertook in the covenant of redemption the son receives from the father the gift of the spirit who will bring sinners into the covenant of grace the spirit may thus be termed a covenantal gift jesus gives the spirit as a covenantal gift wow this is some amazing stuff so if it is in fact the spirit who enables and empowers adam who failed and jesus who succeeded at being the priest and to represent god into the world and mediate god's presence what does the spirit do in the church with our priestly duties well first what are the priestly duties well let's think about them in the same terms if the the church has duties with regard to its setting the church is now the living temple by the holy spirit and those duties can't function can't happen without the presence and power of the holy spirit so let's think about this an important metaphor for the church is that of a living temple a priestly status given to the church by the spirit in ephesians paul writes in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for god by whom by the spirit yet earlier in the same passage he says that our access to god in the one spirit or rather that our access to god is in the one spirit indicating a connection between the work of the spirit and the nature of the church as a living temple so the church is both the holy temple in the lord meaning as always in the new testament when otherwise not stated the lord jesus and a dwelling place of god by the spirit so we are now what jesus was except more than one person don't miss this crazy sounding claim that the bible is making that the church together we are where the holy spirit now lives no longer an intent in the middle east no longer even in the body of jesus alone but now in the living body of christ his church this has to impact the way we think about church it has to impact the way we think about holiness the way we think about ministry benjamin glad goes back to say the glory of god that is found in its fullness in jesus will through the spirit inhabit his followers pentecost should be seen as the beginning of a new epoch in the history of redemption god creates this end-time people of god in his image and fills them with his spirit just like he did with adam and with israel so we've got we've become the priestly temple by the spirit and we have duties by the spirit um this metaphor of the priestly living temple makes sense of the church's priestly duties like public worship and holiness and prayer and intercession and care and all the other priestly responsibilities that we have toward the world and toward each other these are not just responsibilities my friends these are to be carried out by and in the power of the holy spirit to the honor of jesus according to the will of the father so the church is to carry these out by the spirit how does that work well defensively the priest has to guard the purity and holiness of the temple and offensively the priest is to expand the borders of god's presence the location of god on the earth so the church is to be a holy people by the spirit made holy by the holy spirit this is the logic behind behind all of paul's admonitions to the corinthians saying don't you know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit within you whom you have from god you are not your own you were bought with a price to glorify god in your body this is why bodily holiness matters not just because god has rules but because you are where the spirit lives and it makes no more sense for you to go commit sexual immorality than it would to set up an image of dagon in the middle of the temple in jerusalem both are wrong why because that's where god lives you now are where god lives the spirit's presence within an individual christian becomes not merely the basis for her holiness therefore but also the foundation for her struggle to maintain holiness also it is the holy spirit who enables us to come and sanctify the places and spaces in which we go and remain pure and undefiled the holy spirit is the one who both makes the living temple of the church holy and enables the church to maintain holiness allowing paul to say what agreement has the temple of god with idols for we are the temple of the living god okay so what have we said we've said that the holy spirit inspires and animates the priestly vocation of the church and i've tried to show you that by showing you how the holy spirit worked in adam to help him be the first high priest in christ as he recuperated what adam lost as our true and great high priest and in the church in our priestly duties of intercession of holiness and of expanding the kingdom of god and representing to god of representing god two people on the earth and that's a little bit about what the holy spirit does in order for the church to maintain and execute her priestly vocation [Music] you