Matlock | 22/03/26 | Kings And Priests | Phil Hardy

Matlock

Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/354059/episodes/18886632-matlock-22-03-26-kings-and-priests-phil-hardy.mp3

Phil continued our series looking at the book of Revelation, focusing on Revelation 5.

Transcript

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Should now be on. I don't know if somebody's trying to say something to me, but we left a dinosaur on the electron. Is that a reference to me, the preacher, this morning? Okay, we are in uh Revelation. And we're in Revelation chapter five still. And so if Maria, if you could put the first slide up, great, thank you. And this is where we are looking at kings and priests. And it's interesting this particular bit starts with a song. And we've been given the song before we get to heaven. We've been given the words. Now we haven't got the melody, but we have got the words to the song. So we can learn them now and we can put them into practice maybe to our own melody. And maybe there's been a number of songs written with these words in them, not necessarily in this order, not particularly just like this, but there's lots of songs that have been written like this. But there you are, if you go to the next slide if you would. Thank you. A song of the redeemed kingdom. Oh, okay. It's on that screen. I can see it. Quite sure why that's not worked. But anyway, let's go. I'll go on to the next slide then. So let's go to the verse, shall we? So verse um nine and ten says, And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open the seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. It's interesting that in this scene, John sees us. He sees you everyone that is redeemed, everyone that's already been called and chosen, uh, is actually John seeing you in the crowd. There's this huge, intense crowd, and he's seeing you there already. He's got this vision of the future, he's got this where we're gathered together in this huge crowd singing these words. Now, I don't know if you've ever sung these words yourself in your own private time, your own worship time, but they're good words, aren't they? And it will be what we sing to Jesus. Worthy are you to take the scroll and open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation, and you made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Isn't that just a wonderful, wonderful few words? Just sums up Jesus, all that he's done for us, and we can be in that crowd. If you don't yet know Jesus, you're not yet in that crowd, but you can be. You can know him, you can come and uh he wants to uh lavish you with love and grace, bring you to himself and include you in this great company of people from every tribe, tongue nation and people group. God wants to do that, but the significant bit for us is not only do we get to be there, not only have we arrived and we're part of this great huge crowd, this amazing um choir that's gonna sing in heaven. I've never been part of a choir, I've never been included in choir because I can't sing really, but I'm gonna get to be in a choir in heaven, and my voice is gonna be amazing when I get there. It's gonna be the best it's ever been. Which isn't too difficult from where it is now, to be honest. Uh but it's gonna be amazing, and we're all gonna have angelic voices, every one of us in one huge sound to heaven. But beyond that, even more than that, we have this royal appointment. We have a royal appointment which actually is given to us now. It's not something we have to wait till we get to heaven for, it's actually already being given to us. He has made us unto God kings and priests to reign on the earth. That is now, not just in the future, but we have a we have a responsibility, we have a um an ordinance, is that right, to do it now, to to reign now on the earth, to reign in life as we are now. We have been redeemed by his blood that we can reign here and in life. We go up to uh slide four. So salvation is not just about merely escaping judgment, it's not just about kind of getting into heaven by the skin of our teeth or by our fingernails scraping in. It's never been about that. But actually, it's so much more that God's given to us. It's that he's recruited us into being kings and priests. We were being raised up to be something far more than we could ever be on our own. Far more than we ever were before we knew Jesus. He's raised us up for that and ransomed to do the things of the kingdom. You see, we were never just saved, but actually we were given the keys of the kingdom. We've been given things to do in the kingdom that we can be ministers of the kingdom. So in the Old Testament, the priest did everything for the people, and Jesus, our great high priest, did everything for us to make us priests though. That by him, because of him, we can do the things of the kingdom, we can heal the sick, we can set captives free, we can bring people to faith in Jesus Christ, we can share the good news of the gospel, we can do all these things, and we can break strongholds, we can tell demons to flee, we can do all this because we've been given those priestly duties by royal appointment, not a casual thing, not just by chance, but actually we're appointed, and uh Peter particularly picks this up. So, what does it mean for us to be kings and priests? If you can click to the next slide, please. We have been given authority, authority over sin, authority over sickness, authority over demons. We've been given the authority of the kingdom. What was given to Jesus, what he modeled, what he demonstrated, is now passed to us to do and to exercise that same authority. And we're to be stewards of that and to use what God has given us, the keys of the kingdom, wisely, to bring it to advance his kingdom in all the earth. We're called to do that wherever we are, wherever God's put us, whatever circumstance we are in, God has given us what we need to bring others into that knowledge and that experience and have an encounter with Jesus, and have an encounter with his love, as we've been singing about this morning. It's great that actually we're not just getting by in life, are we anymore? We actually have purpose. Maybe for some of us we didn't have a lot of purpose, but then God got hold of us, he gave us a purpose, and maybe we thought we'd got purpose, but actually we've been given a greater purpose in God to display his kingdom. Part of his kingdom, demonstrate his authority. So when we pray for the sake, we use the authority of the name of Jesus. We use the authority that's been given us, and we say, in the name of Jesus, we command this sickness to go, because we've been given that level of authority as priests and kings. We've been given the ability and the freedom to speak that out and not and to say, and not just in words, but actually to see action take place. So it's great when you, I know I encourage it for me to firstly when I pray for somebody and they get healed. It's really good. They're pleased and I'm pleased. And even last year when I was in India and this lady came and got was deaf and said, you know, would you pray? And I prayed. And I have to say, I don't know that I prayed with great authority. I don't know that I prayed with great faith, particularly. A number of people being prayed for, and you kind of see a line of people and you're kind of wanting to get on with it because you know you're gonna be there for another hour. So you kind of, because that's just India, they all every you say, even when you offer prayer for specific things, everybody just comes forward for prayer. And then when they get there, they pray for my family, pray for my kids that they do well at school and all this kind of stuff. Uh, but this lady said, Would you pray? I prayed then, and then kind of you move on to the next person, and you kind of move on. And it wasn't until actually a week later, the following Sunday, and I was not there, I was uh elsewhere, and I get a message to say that she testified that she had been completely healed. And you think, and I don't, I have to say, it kind of challenged me a bit of thinking, well, did I actually pray with faith, really, and kind of conviction that she was gonna get healed? Did I really pray with authority? But I've been given that authority. God's given us that authority. We can pray in the name of Jesus and see people healed because we've been given authority over sickness. Just as Jesus had it, so have we been given it. And therefore we do that. And the first part is to be priests, and we are to minister to God. We are those that can minister to Him and in our praise, our wishes we've been doing this morning, but actually to minister to one another as well, to encourage and to build up and to strengthen the people of God. We've been given this to do as well to one another. Now, not everybody will stand at the front there and preach. And these times I wish I hadn't I didn't as well, but this is what God's given me to do. Because we've been given places, but we can do it on a one-to-one, can't we? We can share, we can encourage, we can strengthen, build up one another. We've been given this duty, this responsibility, this freedom and this privilege of being kings and priests in the kingdom of God. Working together. Ephesians 2, 6 says, God has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We're not, it's not an earthly thing anymore. It's heavenly. We're seated now, we're not physically seated, are we? We're kind of here on earth that we're kind of our feet rooted to the ground. But spiritually, we are seated in heavenly places. Spiritually, we've been given that place of authority with Christ. Because of Christ and what he's done for us. So it doesn't mean that we rule or do things in the same way the world does, we do it in the way that Jesus did. We follow Jesus' model, we do the things of the kingdom like Jesus did them. And he commissioned, if you remember, he commissioned 12 disciples to go, gave them the Holy Spirit and said, Go and pray for the sick and cast out demons, declare the kingdom of God is here. And then he chose 72 of the random people and said exactly the same. Go and do this, go and minister the kingdom. And I kind of count myself in the kind of 72 extended. And actually, we've all been given that same thing to do. Go and minister the kingdom of God, to bring worship and praise to him and to minister the kingdom to others is what it's about. Slide six, if you would please. Peter says this. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. This is our new identity. We have a whole new identity in God, and this is it. It's summed up here that we're a royal priesthood, a chosen race. And I used to hate sports events at school when they picked teams, because I never got chosen, because I was rubbish at anything with a ball, particularly. I was just rubbish at, so I was kind of you just well, you know, you ended up being on the team that was last to choose, kind of thing, because they had no choice then. They just got you, and that was generally how it was, because I wasn't very good then. Now these other things I was good at, so I did get chosen for the swimming team, because I could swim, I could do swimming, but I couldn't do anything with a ball. Seems to have kind of jumped to generation because my son does stuff with always been good with a ball with a ball sport of any kind, but not me, jumped me completely, missed me, pass me by, but I could swim. So I got on the swimming team, and I was chosen for that, chosen to do swimming garlas and things like that because it was something I could do, but I didn't have any qualification before God, none whatsoever. There's no reason for him to choose me. As I was not, I'd had nothing to bring, nothing to offer God, but he still chose me. He still chose me to be part of his kingdom. He picked me out purposely, he looked down through history when he's on the cross, giving up his life for us. He's looking down through history and he saw me and he saw you. And he chose us to be in Christ Jesus. He chose us to be part of his kingdom. I get to be chosen by God. The best person who could choose me ever is God. Best person who ever choose you is God Himself. Specifically hand-picked to be part of His kingdom. And He made us be a royal priesthood. We've been royally appointed through Jesus Christ, we've been robed with a robe of righteousness. That's our royal robe. It's a robe of righteousness that he puts on us because we've been made clean, we've been made whole, we've been made right with God. And even though we're still not aware of our sin and our shortcomings and our failures sometimes, it does not change our position in Christ. It does not change it, it doesn't come and take the cloak off us again, it's on us permanently. We have been clothed in righteousness and we stand right before God because of Jesus, because it's his robe of righteousness put on us, and we stand clean before him, and we carry that all the time. And we might feel like we soil it up sometimes, but it's always bright and shiny because of Jesus and because of the blood of the Lamb. And no matter what you do, you can't spoil the robe of righteousness because it's his righteousness, not yours anyway. It's all his. Now that is not a license to go and spoil it. Please don't hear that. We're to live right and we're to live holy, and that's the next bit, really, is we are called to be a holy nation. Right before us, separate, to separate ourselves away from sin, to separate ourselves away from the things of this world, the passions of this world, to have our passions and desires met all met in Jesus. That's what we've been called to. That's what it's to be holy, to be separated out. That's what it means to be holy, is to be separate. Separated for him, to serve him, to bless him, to bring glory and honor to his name. And so we're to be live right before God. And so because of his righteousness, it's not a grace is not a license for sin. But actually, grace it says teaches us to say no to ungodliness. Actually, we can live in a place where actually we have the power to say no to sin. We have the power over sin. It doesn't have power over us anymore. We've been given power over sin to say no to sin, no to unrighteousness, no to things that are not right and are not right in the kingdom of God. We can say no to because we've been given authority to do it. We've been given the power to do it because we've been made right with God, a holy nation belonging to God, and a people of his very own, a special people. Now, of course, we know back in history he chose Israel, who were the least, the smallest nation of all the nations of the world, they were the least of them, and God chose the least. Isn't that true for each one of us? He chose the least and brought us into the kingdom, and now because of Jesus, not only it wasn't it's no longer just Israel, it's all of us, Gentiles, too. We get included, and we're part of this special people, this whole congregation, this huge crowd from every tribe, tongue, and nation before the throne of God that uh John has in this revelation. He sees us, and of course, he wouldn't recognize us, would he? He wouldn't recognize our face, he wouldn't say, Oh, I know that's Johnny, he's from the Pedistry. I know, I kind of recognize him, he wouldn't know that, but it would be a mass, just a sea of so many people just before the throne of God, lifting up their voice in praise and worship and adoration, and it's all about Jesus, no one else, it's not about us, but we get the privilege of the invite to the greatest wedding feast, the greatest celebration, the greatest opening of scrolls that there'll ever be in history. We've got an invite to it, and not only do we get an invite, we get transport there as well. Sending not he's not sending the limo, but we're just gonna be gone like that and gonna be with him. It's great, isn't it? It's exciting. Great. Glad somebody else is. But Paul goes on, uh Peter goes on, sorry, in this safety, go to the next slide, if you would, please, Maria. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct amongst the Gentiles honourable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day of visitation. So I looked at what was what is a sojourner? What is that person? What are they? And of course, the dictionary says like someone who is resides temporally in a place, acting as a visitor, a guest, a transient rather than a permanent resident. The term often implies short-term stay or traveller, sometimes with a connotation of spiritual or literal wondering. And we are just here temporary. I mean, three score and ten is kind of the biblical model. I'm kind of well on my way to that. Kind of in the 10-bit now. It's a bit worrying when you get into the 10-bit. Um, but we have a season here, don't we? We have a season of life that we're going to be here for, and then glory. But while we're here, while we're here, what uh Peter is encouraging us is to live right, to keep our conduct honorable, and not allow ourselves to be influenced by the things of this world, by the temptation of this world, by the uh the stuff that goes on here that would take us away from bringing glory and honour to God and living right before him. We're part of a new covenant. Of course, in the old covenant, a priest had to make atonement for all their sin of the people, and he had to carry all that and go into the scarily, go into the holy of holies and there have a string around his ankle just in case he didn't make it out alive. They drag him out because of the sin and the power and the presence of God. But Jesus took all that on our behalf, and now under the new covenant, we get the choice. You see, living right before God is not automatic when you become a Christian, it's still a choice. Still having to make right choices, still having to make good decisions, still having to pray about things. I've just had a new car and I like cars, so I've had a lot of cars. I'm kind of into the kind of seventies, sixties, seventies number of cars I've had over them since I've been driving. And I've owned a number of all at one time as well. So it's not that I kind of swap every two minutes, but uh I've had a few at one time as well or another. And when I start, I I kind of one of the things that I just do to unwind and do is I watch car programs or I watch I look for at cars for sale and stuff. So then when I say to Sally that I'm seeing a car alike, oh yeah, here we go again. This time I was really challenged. Well, have you prayed about it? It's like, well, no, I haven't actually. I didn't say that to Sally at the time. I kind of no, I haven't prayed about this, I just kind of like a new car, so I'm going for one. Kind of that's my thought. I'm just having a like a new car and have a new car. And I really felt actually, no, actually, this is quite a big decision. And actually, what does God say about it? And I was really challenged, and so I prayed about it, and I talked to Neil about it, who also likes cars, of course. And uh so we had a chat about it as well, and but in there I felt peace. I felt God say, Yeah, you can have a new car, it's okay to have a new car. And I realized actually many times I've done that, and it's just been what I've wanted, not what God wants, not what God's kind of confirming or affirming. And sometimes we can just live our lives like how we get on, we do stuff, we make choices, we make decisions, but we haven't involved God at all in the conversation. Just haven't. We've just done our thing. And God in his grace has so often it's worked out okay, it's been okay, because God's gracious. Occasionally I bought a car and I think, why on earth did I buy that? And it's not lasted five minutes. I swapped it again. But because I probably went ahead, and I know I went ahead actually, not just probably, I know I went ahead and did it out of my own desire, because I want a new car, I want to try something different. I like trying different cars, I want to try something another one. And actually, this time it was different for me, and having prayed about it for a week as I went and bought it, but I felt okay about it must be because I felt God's saying, Yeah, you can do this, it's okay, you can have that. And I think do we apply those principles into our life to honour God? If He's Lord and Savior, then should He not have a say in how we manage our lives and what we do? Question Yes, no? Should we? I think we should, and I I don't always do it. I put my hands up, I'm guilty of just doing my thing sometimes and not including God in my conversation, in my thought life, and even in my conversation with Sally sometimes, I'm not including God in that conversation, and actually, if he's Lord and Savior, if he's Lord of my life, he needs to be included in the conversation, and we need to do that actually because that's living honorably before him. So, under the new covenant, go to slide eight, if you would, please, Maria. This new covenant means we've got direct access to the one-time sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We've got direct access. We don't have to go through a priest, we don't have to go through anybody else. We've got access to Jesus, we've got access to the fullness of what He's done for us in our lives. Forgiveness of sin, washed clean, made right with God, clothing righteousness. It's all done. We've got direct access. We fulfill the uh part of the symbolism of what it is, old sacrifice from presenting as presenting our lives as living sacrifice to God. That's what we're called to do. In light of all that God's done for us, it's only fitting. It's the reasonable act of worship, it says Romans, about giving our lives, living our lives as worship to God. It's only what's reasonable in light of everything He's done is we live as a living sacrifice to him. We can pray directly, we have direct access to God the Father through Jesus, who's also interceding for us. We can talk to God. So I love it when Zara comes up, so he says, I have this conversation with God. Because that's just how God intends it to be. It's a conversation, it's an interaction, it's an intimacy, it's a relationship with him. We are the temple, he lives in us. The temple is not this, what we gather to in on a Sunday, the temple is here in our hearts, in our lives, the temple of the Holy Spirit. God living in us, living inside of us, living out through us is life. You see, actually, we can't change from the outside in. We can only change from the inside out. Real change comes from the inside. Yeah, we may be things we can do on the outside, but it's never long-lasting. It's only God that can change us on the inside out. Change our attitudes, our thoughts, and out of that changes our behavior as God works in us. And God said, I will write my laws on your hearts. God has put them on our hearts. We don't need the law anymore because all the law does is actually show us where we fall. It shows where we've fallen, it shows how far we've fallen from grace, but actually, God writes on our hearts in such a way by grace that we've been saved through faith. And we can choose to live right because of grace, not because of law, not because of obeying rules and regulations, but because of the love of God that has overwhelmed our hearts and our lives, made us right with God, that we can choose then to live right before Him. God's done all this, so it's not that we suddenly get this when we get to glory, we've got all this now. Actually, but when we get there, when we get to glory, when we get to heaven, it's the fulfillment of everything we've experienced here on earth. It all comes in this great crescendo at the end of we are. This is it. This is it. So when we come, we'll be talking about reigning on the earth in Revelation for a thousand years with God, with Him, with Jesus. We're going to reign on the earth. We will do that, but we also have that ability to, in some degree, now, as I preached a few weeks ago, it's the now and not yet. We have the now bit, but yet there's more to come that will only be fulfilled when we're in glory, when we achieve it. And we enter the fullness and completeness of our identity and our ministry and our royal appointment when we're in glory. That's when it's all fully realized. It all comes together. But for the moment, our worth is not defined by our perfection, but by his ransom. Our worth is defined by Jesus and all that he's done. Our community, incompatible with sorry, I'm on I'm on slide nine. Sorry, Maria. I jumped ahead with that second, sorry. Our community, incompatible with Dision, bound by ultimate diversity, but we are as one, people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. That's one thing I love about going overseas to other countries. I've had the privilege to do that to minister, is that you get to meet others that you're going to see in glory that you might not necessarily get to see on earth. But we're all going to be together there in heaven, all as one, one voice, one heart. It's going to be an amazing time when hearing. I mean, I I don't know if you're at last, some of those that were at last catalyst festival, the African band did worship that night. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait to get to heaven for some African worship. That's going to be amazing. It was so good. And um, you know, that's gonna be great to see all that, but you know, it's bringing the things of their nation into glory to worship Jesus. We're gonna experience every culture on the face of the earth all in one go. That's gonna be mind-blowing. Just every culture that's in heaven, it's gonna be amazing. And our purpose is not a passive waiting. We're not just here to wait for eternity, we're not just here to wait and long for the rapture to happen. We've got things to do right now, we've got work to do, we've got been given things by God to fulfill us right now while on the earth. Gifts being given. I mean, there's five different lists of gifts in the New Testament, of things for the children of God to do. And if you're not doing any of those yet, I encourage you, seek that out. How can I serve? What is my gift? What can I do? How can I serve the purpose of God in preparation for what's to come in eternity? Because this is all just a practice ground for what's to come. We just get to practice the stuff here, and then we go to heaven to do it for real. Active priestly presence on the earth, that's who we are. To one another and to those that don't yet know Jesus. That's what we are to be. So, my question here at the end is, in conclusion, is how are we to live now? How should we live in these days? How should we be living? Because that's what's to come, but we can live in not some of that right now and earth in the fullness of our true identity to exercise the authority it carries as priests and kings to God. Let's stand together. What hinders you from fully living as a priest and a king now here on the earth? What hinders you? What is it? Is there anything that hinders you from fulfilling what God has called and made you to be? Because when God calls us, when he chooses, he does it with purpose and intent. It's not just a random thing. He has plans and purposes, and we we see that from Jeremiah says, you know, I know the plans I have for you to prosper you. Hope and a future. And God has that for every single one he calls. It's a hope and a future, a purpose, a plan to be worked out. Our responsibility is to find what that is, but sometimes things hinder us. Sometimes we don't feel worthy of it, sometimes we don't feel like we've got any gifts, sometimes we don't feel like actually there's others doing that already. I don't need to do that. There's lots of different things that can hinder us from just doing what's before us. Because that's where it starts, is well, do what's before you. Do what's God put in front of you, do that. Start there, and God will increase it and take it on. So I just felt the Holy Spirit just prompt me to ask that question: is there anything that would hinder you from doing what God's called you to do and to be what God's called you to be? And only you can answer that. But I'm gonna ask the Holy Spirit to come and help us right now as we finish. Thank you, Holy Spirit. We love your work amongst us. We love what you do. And I pray now, Holy Spirit, would you come and would you just challenge our hearts, Lord? Where there may be things in our hearts that are a hindrance that are hindering us from doing what we're called to do, hindering us from being what we're called to be. Lord, I pray right now, Holy Spirit, for each one of us, if there's anything in the way, anything there, Lord, would you come and bring revelation to our hearts right now, Holy Spirit? Would you show us, Lord, we want to be, we want to be a people here, Lord, who exercise the things of the kingdom, that does the kingdom stuff, that gets to get involved with advancing your kingdom and see people saved, added, healed, delivered, and growing in God. Lord, and I pray, Holy Spirit, whatever part we could play in that, Lord, would you help us to see what's right in front of us to do? Lord, I pray, would you come and stir our hearts and highlight to us any area that we need just to look at in our own lives, I pray, for your glory. So, Holy Spirit, would you come now? Would you just touch our hearts? Would you speak to us? Lord, I pray from all that I've said, what is of you, would you take it and would you apply it to hearts right now? Lord, I pray, Lord, it won't be just uh going home and saying, Well, that was that was a nice service this morning, but Lord, I pray now, Holy Spirit, will you do your work in the hearts of your people for your glory? I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Bang on half past. If you've got children and children working, please get your children and uh tear and cough for everybody else.