KINGS AND PRIESTS

Rev.1:5-7 – To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— and He made us into a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.

John starts off in his first chapter with a glimpse into the glorious future of those he has purchased with His blood. He has taken the least of these – criminals, prostitutes, and drunks – He then turns them into the unthinkable, kings and priests. We will actually reign with Christ during His millennial reign, the least likely to succeed in life, we will rule with Him on this earth. During this present age we are seen as priests of God. Priests have two functions in this life. The first is to serve as a minister to the Lord, we are to offer up praises of thanksgiving and worship to honor His name. Our second job as priests is to represent the Lord to the lost. We are to usher people into His glorious presence so that they too can join us in our royal ministry. Here is how Albert Barnes describes this.

“The quotation in both places is from Exod. 19:6: “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests.” This idea is expressed here by saying that Christ had made us in fact kings and priests; that is, Christians are exalted to the dignity, and are invested with the office, implied in these words. The word kings, as applied to them, refers to the exalted rank and dignity which they will have; to the fact that they, in common with their Savior, will reign triumphant over all enemies; and that, having gained a victory over sin and death and hell, they may be represented as reigning together. The word priests refers to the fact that they are engaged in the holy service of God, or that they offer to him acceptable worship.”

This will be our permanent position, kings and priests, having been purchased by His precious blood. John himself knew what it was to be taken from poverty and obscurity to royalty. After all John was a simple fisherman in Capernaum until he heard the words, “Follow Me and I will make you a fisher of men”. Now, along with John, we have all become a royal priesthood.