The Priesthood of the Believer

Part 1 The Process Begins

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

In ancient Israel God established an earthly priesthood to receive tithe, offer sacrifices, oversee the tabernacle and later both Jewish temples in Jerusalem, and stand as a bridge linking heaven and Earth, God and man.

In ancient Israel God established an earthly priesthood to receive tithe, offer sacrifices, oversee the tabernacle and later both Jewish temples in Jerusalem, and stand as a bridge linking heaven and Earth, God and man.

However, the true priesthood was transferred long before A.D. 70, and the process began when Jesus, at age thirty, stepped into the Jordan River to be baptized. John the Baptist, the cousin of Christ, was the son of a priest named Zacharias who served in the temple in Jerusalem. John was baptizing believers at the Jordan River in an area called Bethabara.

This was the same location where, fifteen hundred years earlier, Joshua had crossed the Jordan River and instructed the Hebrews to take twelve smooth stones out of the Jordan River and build a monument on the Israel side of the river as a memorial and reminder that God opened the Jordan River for them to cross. The priest also lifted twelve stones from the wilderness and placed these in the dried riverbed. That day the water from the Jordan River was rolled back all the way to a city called Adam, at least ten miles away and south toward the Dead Sea.

The area where Joshua crossed is the same area where John baptized Jesus, and it has powerful prophetic significance. When a high priest was preparing to transfer the priesthood to his son, there was a threefold procedure:

1. The high priest’s son had to submerge in water for purification (Lev. 8:6).
2. The holy oil was to be poured upon the head of the high priest’s son (Lev. 8:12).
3. The high priest had to publicly declare that this was his son (Num. 20:28).

This three-part process occurred when Christ waded into the Jordan River. Christ stepped into the same area where Joshua had crossed. Joshua’s Hebrew name was Yeshuah, and Jesus’s actual Hebrew name is Yeshuah.

In Joshua’s time, the waters of the Jordan were rolled back to the city of Adam, just as Christ’s redemptive work removed mankind’s sins all the way back to the first man, Adam. When Christ stepped into the cold waters of the Jordan, He was being recognized by John, who was the son of a Jewish priest. Christ was not being baptized for the remission of sins because He was sinless. There is a deeper meaning to this baptism. Christ was thirty years of age—the same age that a Levite entered the priesthood (Num. 4:30).

Little did Israel know that the priesthood in Jerusalem was being transferred to one man—Jesus Christ! That pattern is seen in His baptism.

1. Christ was baptized in water, symbolic of preparation for the priesthood.
2. The Spirit descended upon Him like a dove; this was the anointing (Matt. 3:16).
3. God spoke from heaven, declaring that Jesus was His son (Matt. 3:17).