Paradox :: Royal Priest
Clean hands and cover their mouths when they cough. :)
(FOR LEADERS) We use a three-part system for life groups. Pastoral Care: Relationship mingled with serving them. Learning Together: this is how we take the knowledge we learn together in Large group and turn it into wisdom. Using scripture and one another. Accountability: This isn’t old school accountability type stuff. This is real life stuff. Finding out how they genuinely fared over the last week.
Peasant King: (Last Week)
Ask the students how they did last week serving the peasant king.
Reiterate we can easily serve our king by keeping his commands
Celebrate any ways they have done that.
Encourage them to continue.
Royal Priest
Ask the students if they remember the question we needed to ask about being a Royal Priest.
The question is “What is required to be a Royal Priest?”
Ask the students if they remember the answer.
The answer is Immortality.
This means we are Immortal royal priests
And why do immortal royal priests exist?
Have someone read 1 Peter 2:9 for the answer and discuss.
Hebrews 10:1-19 (MSG) Read this aloud and as you do walk through the scripture and have a conversation about what is happening in these verses.
The old plan was only a hint of the good things in the new plan. Since that old “law plan” wasn’t complete in itself, it couldn’t complete those who followed it. No matter how many sacrifices were offered year after year, they never added up to a complete solution. If they had, the worshipers would have gone merrily on their way, no longer dragged down by their sins. But instead of removing awareness of sin, when those animal sacrifices were repeated over and over they actually heightened awareness and guilt. The plain fact is that bull and goat blood can’t get rid of sin. That is what is meant by this prophecy, put in the mouth of Christ:You don’t want sacrifices and offerings year after year;you’ve prepared a body for me for a sacrifice. It’s not fragrance and smoke from the altar that wet your appetite. So I said, “I’m here to do it your way, O God, the way it’s described in your Book.”
When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.
Every priest goes to work at the altar each day, offers the same old sacrifices year in, year out, and never makes a dent in the sin problem. As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it! Then he sat down right beside God and waited for his enemies to cave in. It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect people. By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done for everyone who takes part in the purifying process. The Holy Spirit confirms this:
This new plan I’m making with Israel
isn’t going to be written on paper, isn’t going to be chiseled in stone;
This time “I’m writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts.”
He concludes,
I’ll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins.
Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them.
What does it mean that the plan is written on the linings of our hearts?
Considering these passages how do we as royal priests accomplish our purpose among our family, friends, and community?
Challenge the students to come up with a simple first step towards living the life of a royal priest. With courage and confidence.
Take some time to catch up with one another.
Finish with Prayer
We will know we have hit our target if:
-Students are catalyzed to sign up for Collision weekend and know how.
-Leaders have worked with students on digesting scripture.
-Students leave with a simple step towards being a royal priest.