Bill Johnson - A Nation of Priests - Part 1
God extended himself to all of humanity and there was rejection after rejection after rejection. We see the flood as a result of the rejection, God isolating one family with Noah, raising up a new kind of people, perhaps, people that might come from a man who knew what faith was like. We see the Tower of Babel where there was such unity in opposition to God that it brought confusion to languages and separated them in that way. And yet, God extended himself, year after year, century after century, to all the peoples of the earth. And, finally, there came a moment where the Lord decided to raise up one nation to illustrate upon that one nation what he intended for and so, in Genesis 12, we have this call of God to Abraham, or Abram, at that time, before the "Ah," the breath of God was added to his name, Abram.
And it's in verse 1, if you have it open: if you don't, go ahead and open quickly. Genesis should be easy to find. Unless you have just the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs. Then, you'll have to take this one by faith. Genesis 12:1: "Now the Lord had said to Abram: 'get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation: I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you'".
Now, how many of you sense a whole lot of blessing going on here in God's design? He actually designed a nation to be blessed, to be a blessing. That was the nature of their purpose, their design. They were designed, if you can imagine any product that has specific designs, specific role to play. Israel, as a nation, was designed to carry blessing and to distribute blessing. That was in their DNA. So, verse 2, again: "'I will make you a great nation: I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And I will curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed'".
And so, we have this summons of God for Abram to leave his home country and to he didn't know where he was going. Kris puts this really well. Abraham didn't know where he was going. He just knew where he couldn't stay. And, sometimes, that's the place that we're in. We don't know where we're headed: we just know we can't stay where we are any longer. And so, God puts this holy dissatisfaction in us. A lot of people wait for a complete road map so that they understand what he's doing. It's never about where you're going: it's about the journey. God values the journey above the destination. Because it's in the journey where relationship is developed. The ability to hear, the heart to respond, all of that is shaped in the journey.
And so, Abram leaves, but he leaves with part of his family and that wasn't part of and so, we see there was a time where lot had to choose one direction: Abraham chose the other direction. It's interesting to me, then, Peter, the Bible calls, we know that Abraham was a man called righteous because of his so, here's Abraham. And his nephew lot is, also, in Peter, called a righteous man. So, here's two righteous men. And yet, one suffered greatly and Abraham went into great blessing. Lot suffered greatly because the scripture says he was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. He allowed the surroundings to influence him instead of his faith affecting the surroundings. He became one who became a victim of the setting he was in, instead of being an influence in the setting he was in.
Probably the best way to illustrate this or... one of the best ways would be in the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A thermometer reads the temperature: a thermostat changes the temperature. And so, there are many prophetic ministries that do well at reading the temperature, tell you the condition of the world, but do nothing to change the condition of the world. So, what the Lord's summoning us to do is to follow on a journey to make a difference in life, in this world. And, so, we have Abraham and lot. And, finally, they part ways. And when they do, Abraham comes into his place of destiny. When he comes into his place of destiny, it had more to do with his family line than it did, I don't wanna say God didn't have in mind a location, because he obviously did. But he had promised Abraham a son. And his son would be called Isaac. And Isaac means laughter.
And, Isaac is a tremendous illustration of life, of grace in God. The Bible says that those who are descendants of Abraham are not the children of promise, but the ones who are from Isaac. What's the difference? Abraham refers to a season in a period of time, where Isaac refers to the promise of God. And everyone who, by faith, embraces the promise of salvation comes into permanent jubilee, which is laughter, which is joy, which is liberty, which is freedom. It's nature of life in the Kingdom of God.
So, to live without joy is to actually live in opposition to your design. You can do it but you have to work at it. You can succeed at being joyless, but you have to make deliberate steps because it's not your nature. Your nature is actually one of joy because you've been freed. We've been freed from our past and our nature's been changed. We've been summoned into a destiny that is beyond our comprehension, but it is one that actually shapes world history. So, we have God extending himself to all the peoples of the world, all the nations of there's not one that turned to him. So, he takes this one man named Abram and he says: out of you, I'm gonna raise up a nation unto myself. We know that Israel had its issues, too. But, here, he raises up one nation. Why? It wasn't, I don't believe, it wasn't because Israel was different or more special or more gifted.
In fact, the scripture says it was because they were the least. And that's not an indictment of the nation of Israel. Actually, that's about all of us. He chose us not because of our giftedness. He chose us because we were the least. And, when he chooses the least, his greatness becomes very obvious. You know, people will look at what happens in your life and in my life and go, "Well, it's obviously that's grace, 'cause they're not that good". And that's really what we want. We want him to go so far above and beyond anything we could work up on our own. So, extends himself to the nations of the world. They reject him. He takes one nation, raises them up so that he can illustrate something that will, by implication, invite all the other nations to the same cabinet. And we see that through promise and time, and I'll show you in a moment. Then, he comes to the nation of Israel.
And in Exodus, chapter 19, if you'll turn there, real quick, you gotta go fast, because, I'm going fast. So, go fast. That should be easy to find 'cause it's right after Genesis. Verse 4: as read, "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles' wings, brought you to myself. Therefore, if you will, indeed, obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests in a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel".
So, what did God do? Extended his love to all the nations. They rejected, so he raised up one to illustrate his love to summons the rest to their purpose. He pours himself to this entire nation, 12 tribes. They don't respond to the priestly call. How do we know that? In chapter 20, he says in verse 18, says the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes. The people saw, they trembled, they stood at a distance. They said to Moses: "You speak to us and we will hear. Don't let God speak to us".
The most important virtue, or trait, or calling of a priest of the Lord is to hear his voice. It's not the raising of the hands, as vital as that is. It's not the singing of songs, as important as that is. It's not the dance, or kneeling, or lying prostrate before the Lord. It's none of those things. It's the ability to have a relationship where he speaks and we respond. So, when Israel as a nation, came to Moses, who, in the previous chapter, just announced to them, "You shall be priests unto the Lord", he just said that to what? All 12 tribes. And the very next chapter, they see the thunderings, the lightnings of God, and they say: "Moses, you talk to 'em. And you tell us what he said. And we'll do whatever he says".
What happened there? It's just an opinion of mine, an idea. I think it was in that moment they actually chose law, 'cause law is preset boundaries. "Show me what I need to do to please him". They weren't interested in the relationship where there was the voice and there was the tenderhearted response. So, Israel as a nation, 12 tribes, rejected the opportunity for priesthood ministry. So, what did God do? He raised up a tribe called Levi, raised them up to illustrate on the one tribe what he intended for all 12 tribes. Is anybody following me, so far? All the nations, they reject. He raises up one. Why? To illustrate. It's like a drawing board to illustrate something. I wanna illustrate to you what my heart is for all people.
And then, he goes to that nation, Israel, to the 12 tribes. He throws out this prophetic word. They are summoned as a nation for priestly ministry. Priestly ministry isn't backwards collars. In the Old Testament, it's not just the sacrificing of animals. It's the actual entrance by people into the manifest presence of God to John 4 says that he looks for worshipers. He does not say he looks for worship. He does not need our encouragement. He's not insecure. He's not hoping that public relations is going well on planet earth and a little concerned, so he wants to get his ego built up. It's not that at all. He's not looking for worship: he's looking for worshipers. Psalms 115 tells us why.
In Psalms 115, it says those who make idols, idols who cannot see become blind themselves. Those who make idols who cannot hear lose their own ability to hear. Because we always become like whatever we worship. And since there's nothing greater that God could want for us than for us to be like him, he longs for us to become because it's in the manifest presence of his glory we actually experience the greatest transformation. Certain amount of change takes place just through the discipline. And the application of the word I believe in very strongly. It's a very important part of life. But the greatest transformations that I've watched through the years and that you can witness in scripture is the moments that you take Saul, as an example, who became the apostle Paul. He's riding on his donkey, gets knocked off. He spends a certain amount of time, we don't know how long, perhaps an hour or so, but in that glory.
But he was so radically changed from that moment of divine encounter that he became the most sacrificial apostolic leader probably in all of history, certainly in his he just became the sacrificial offering unto the Lord. What happened? He had an encounter in the glory, in the manifest presence of the Lord. And so, in the worship experience that we have, it goes beyond, you know, it's possible, let's say that we just had this huge party. And a very wealthy, benevolent, very generous person here in Redding invited us all over. And he's got this huge home and a huge yard. And, there's wonderful music playing. There's the best food you've ever seen in the world.
And, we've got so many things going on. All the people that you love the most are there. And, we just go from one huddle to another huddle to another huddle. And, here, the host of this party is sitting over here. And every once in a while, we catch his attention and wave, or say thanks, but we continue with all the people. That's what we do often in worship is we love being at the party, with the people of God, but don't often actually engage with the one who threw the party. And worship actually is the the word "Worship," actually, in the New Testament comes from the word "Kiss". It talks about a very personal encounter with the one. With the one.
And I love the corporate expression, because it's so powerful and there's exponential increase every time we gather together. But it still is about the one. And when you get thousands who care about the one, you have a release of glory that is just really tough to measure. It's, I can only point to a few times in my life where it became so overwhelming that we just lost track of time. I remember one Sunday morning, here, a number of year, quite a few years ago, now. Brian, my son, was up here leading worship. And he hit one chord, literally, one chord. I think he might have gone to the second chord. But he hit a chord, went to the second chord, and, all of a sudden this presence just came into the room and we didn't get to a song for 40 minutes.
It was this overwhelming sense of presence, while the glory came into the room. And he had the intelligence to try to not make something happen. He was just moving with what it was just stunning. We all just stood here absolutely rocked by the fact God had actually came. I mean, he's here. You don't even have to use faith to see it. It's awesome. He just made himself obviously. And, it just became one of those very, very profound encounter-type days. But what happens? In those moments, things become transformed. So, Israel was raised up as a model to illustrate God's love for everyone. Here's Israel. He raises up a tribe of Levi to illustrate on them what he intended for the entire nation.
I want you to go to Ephesians Ephesians, chapter 2 and verse 11. In verse 7, he announces that the Revelation of the exceeding greatness of God's grace, that Revelation has started to be released. And there's a theme here. Let me just tell you in advance. There's a theme in the book of Ephesians called "The mystery of Christ". The mystery of Christ, something that Paul says has been hidden for ages past: no one has been allowed to see it. There's an interesting phrase in scripture. I'm sorry, I forgot the word. But it basically means you couldn't find it if you looked for it. And there are things about God's nature that, no matter how hard you look, you'll never find it.
They can't be discovered: they can only be revealed. They can't be discovered: they can only be revealed, which basically takes, it doesn't remove the hunger, but it adds an element of humility. I'm not going to discover I am hungry and desperate for God, knowing that what I want I cannot get, unless he gives it to me. I can't read enough books, I can't memorize enough scripture, I can't do enough good works in the study of the things of the Lord to find what I want to see. It will only come if he speaks and that is the nature of the priestly ministry. Remember that, all right? So, we have, now, in Ephesians 2, in verse 11, he says we are gentiles in the flesh.
Verse 12: as read, "At that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope without God in the world. But, now, in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus". Here's what I want you to see: God extending himself to all nations, they reject, so now he this is a moment where God is saying: all right, we're going back to the "All nations". Now, I don't believe in replacement theology. Replacement theology is where you believe that the church has become Israel and God no longer cares about natural Israel. I think he can love both at the same time.
So, we'll just go, "Yay, God, for however you choose to do this". But I'm happy for what he's doing for us gentiles. And for those of you that are Jews, thanks for welcoming us into your family. All right. I got that out of the way. I just want you to understand this process. That's all I want you to do tonight. Verse 14: "He himself is our peace". Oh, I like that. Peace is not an abstract presence, it's not an in the world, peace is always the absence of something. It's the absence of noise, absence of conflict, absence of war. In the kingdom, peace is a person. It can exist in the middle of war, in the middle of conflict, in the middle of noise. His peace is not defined or dependent on its surroundings. Instead, it becomes the thermostat that starts to define the surroundings.
Remember, the difference between lot and Abraham is lot became impacted by his surroundings: Abraham as read, "He himself is our peace. He has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation". Okay, he's talking about Israel and the gentiles. And the scripture says the Lord took the wall that separated the two. The distance between gentiles and Jews, was farther than anyone could possibly imagine. And there was a wall that thick. And Jesus put that wall in his own flesh and he allowed that wall to be destroyed.
Verse 15. He "Abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace". All right? What I want you to see, I don't know that the lesson is gonna change anybody's life. But, hopefully, you will see the momentum that has gone on for centuries upon centuries upon centuries, all aiming for this particular day. It's my personal belief that all the prophets looked into the hour that we lived in and spoke into this day. They all had a hunger for, an anticipation for what we get to experience, what we get to see, what we get to taste.
The scripture says that the kings of olde and the prophets of olde longed to look into the day that you and I get to live in. They longed, they saw at a distance, but they could not taste for themselves. Why do I mention that? Because the enemy works hard to distract us with problems from the divine moment we're in. So, we begin to think in terms of the size of the challenge instead of the size of our destiny, the size of the problem instead of the size of God. The size of the impossibilities in front of us instead of the impossible working nature of God that flows through us to be the thermostat that alters environment.