 Okay gentlemen, so when we last met, we were talking about the priesthood obviously through Scripture and we had gotten up to the point of the Levites taking over from the firstborn at that stage. So that begins a new epoch of the priesthood in Exodus 32. We looked at this passage in Numbers 312, which is very explicit. I have taken the Levites instead of every firstborn because in the Passover I consecrated for my own all the firstborn in Israel. The passage says I'm paraphrasing here. So we observed that transitional point and then we spent a little bit of time talking about some of the characteristic duties of the priest. Of course the general duties of the priest are working guard. We talked about that, but then under that come some more specific things like making authoritative interpretations of the law, which is important for worship, the offering of sacrifice, which is of course central to worship, and then the mediation of the forgiveness of sins. We noted that there was even a type of the sacrament of reconciliation already in the Old Covenant. So we got up to that point and now we're in this mosaic epoch which continues through the centuries under Joshua and then under the Judges and under Saul. And then finally we get this righteous King David. What's significant about David is he's basically a charismatic. So he experiences baptism in the spirit in 1 Samuel 16 when the prophet Samuel comes to him and anoints him with oil and it says that when he was anointed, the spirit rushed on David from that day forward. Very notable phrase. David is the only figure in the Old Testament about whom this is said. David to the best of our knowledge is the only figure in the Old Testament who had the stable possession of the Holy Spirit. It rushed on him from that day forward. The Church Fathers essentially considered David as living in the New Covenant pro-leptically. That's a fancy word that means in advance. So he experienced the New Covenant advance because the essence of the New Covenant is to share in the Holy Spirit to partake of God's nature, which is his spirit. And David had that great privilege and that also equipped him for priesthood. So let's talk about David's priesthood. In 2 Samuel 5-6 we see David going up to Jerusalem, Jerusalem up until that time had been a gentile pagan enclave in the middle of Israel and had no significant role in Israelite history. David, however, conquers it. He's the first person, first Israelite, to be able to conquer and hold Jerusalem. The Benjaminites had sacked it, the Judahites had sacked it, but neither tribe had been able to hold it. But David captures it and holds it and makes it his capital. He makes it his, as it were, his federal district, because it didn't belong to any tribe prior to that time. Very similar to what we did with Washington DC. You know, District of Columbia is not part of Maryland and it's not part of Virginia. It's a federal district and just like that, the city of Jerusalem did not belong to Judah and did not belong to Benjamin. It was crown property and it was the capital city right on the Mason-Dixon line of ancient Israel because the line between Judah and Benjamin was the line between the Northerners and the Southerners. Okay, so Judah was this huge tribe that incorporated Simeon and many of most of the Levites as well and extended far to the south. And then the other 10 tribes were to the north and there was a cultural difference, difference in speech between the two. They talk about Israeli in Hebrew and Judahite Hebrew. I've got a friend who's an expert in that and can read in the Bible and tell you whether a Northerner was writing this part of the Bible or whether a Southerner was writing. I guess they spoke Hebrew with a twang. Oh, y'all come to the Lord. So, I don't know, I know what it was like. Elohim, so got that going on. And so David strategically places this capital right on the border between north and south to unite the nation. And but then where have we seen the city of Jerusalem before? Its really only significant role was back in Genesis 14 where it was the sea city of Melchizedek. So when David captures Jerusalem and becomes its king, he sits down on the seat of Melchizedek. And just like when Francis sits on the seat of Peter, he inherits or possesses Peter's authority. So when David sat on the seat of Melchizedek, he inherited this royal priesthood that went back to Melchizedek who according to Jewish tradition was Shem. That's right. And Shem got from his father Noah and Noah was a new Adam. Absolutely. So it's really the Adamic priesthood that David is becoming heir of, that he's inheriting the Adamic priesthood. And that too is a foretaste of the new covenant because the story of salvation is priesthood given, priesthood lost, priesthood regained. For most of us it's only regained in Christ, but for David this special privilege is given to experience the Holy Spirit in advance and also to inherit the priesthood, the Adamic priesthood that Christ possesses and will give to us, but David possesses it in advance. So thereafter, after 2 Samuel 5, we see David acting as a priest. David went a ministerial priest, not just a common priest, but a ministerial priest. David went and brought up the Ark of God to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the Ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling, he that is David. So he's performing the sacrifice. This is a priestly activity. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. This is liturgical dance. You too ought to dance. No, we're not going to go there. Yeah. Anyway. So I told you it was a charismatic though. All right. So dance with your Lord all the way. He was girded with a linen e-fod. Now the e-fod was like a chausible. It was a particularly priestly garment. If you ought not to wear this unless you were a priest. So he's wearing this priestly garment. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. That's very significant. Only the sons of Aaron were authorized to bless in the name of the Lord. And that's in number six. Remember that passage? We use it on January 1st, Feast of Mary, Mother of God. It's the first reading is the priestly blessing from number six. It is the authorized way that the priests are given to place the name of God upon his people. And it has the triple repetition of the divine name, the Lord bless you and keep you Lord, make his face to shine upon you, etc. Three times in that blessing, the name of the Lord is annunciated. Little digression here. Little digression. By the time you get to the first century, they were observing the command not to use the name of the Lord in vain so scrupulously that Jews would not use the name of the Lord at all. The only time the name of the Lord was actually pronounced was on the day of atonement. And then after the high priest made atonement for the whole nation, and there's this little interval where everybody's sinless because everybody's been purged and cleansed by the sacrificial blood, etc., and the Holy Holies. And he comes out while he's in a state of purity, and the people are in a state of purity, and before anybody's even had an evil thought yet. And while everybody's good, he blesses them using the formula for number six. And every time the people heard the divine name pronounced, which they never did in regular worship or daily dealings and so on. But when they heard the divine name pronounced, they would fall on the ground and prostrate. So it's like Marines doing exercises in the field out there. Hear the name, drop! Give me one! So hear the name again, drop! Give me another one! So all the people would prostrate, they'd fall on the ground, then get back up, they'd hear the name again, fall on the ground again. And a little side note here. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane in John, they come to Jesus at night, and they come and he says, who are you seeking? And they say, we're seeking Jesus of Nazareth. And what does he say? I am. And they drop unwittingly, unwillingly. But he pronounces the divine name and they fall to the ground. Probably they just stumble backward in fear because they, you know, you know, they encountered the guy that they were looking for. But nonetheless, in divine providence, they drop in the name of Jesus. And this is also why Paul says right at the name of Jesus, what? Every knee shall bow. Right. This is because now Jesus is the divine name. That's why we have this pious custom of bowing the head at the Holy Name of our Lord. Unfortunately, I'm not so great because I was raised a Protestant. I'm always embarrassed when my Protestantism shows, oh no, they're going to realize I'm a convert. This is why I don't like praying in public, you know, either. He's like, oh no, I'm going to forget my Catholic stuff and say that I can be revealed as an outsider. But that's a good custom to bow the head at the name of our Lord because his now is the name of God at which you should fall down and worship. Amen. So he blessed people. So this is now the Davidic priesthood. And we see this reflected in the Psalms. This is what Psalm 110 is talking about. The Lord, there it's the divine name, says to my Lord, that means my Lord the king, because the court minstrel is singing this to the king, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Okay, this is the court minstrel singing to David or to Solomon or to one of David's heirs. Second Samuel 818 also says David's sons were priests. They inherited this royal priesthood from their father. Most English translations render this officers, but there's no call for it at all. The Hebrew is cohanim. It's just the word for priest. Now the fact that David arrives on the scene of salvation history and is given a new priesthood is a premonition that the Levitical priesthood was not really God's plan a and that there's a need for a better priesthood than the Levitical one. And the author of Hebrews who we traditionally understand to be Saint Paul writes if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood for under it the people had received the law what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek. So the institution of the Davidic priesthood suggests there's something not completely right with Levitical priesthood and someday we're going to get something better. And you see that also reflected in the prophets particularly in Isaiah. We have these visions of a coming age when the priesthood will be opened up. You know it was constrained and reduced from the firstborn down to the tribe of Levi. But Isaiah sees it being opened up and coming to include even the Gentiles perhaps. So for example look at this Isaiah 56 3 let not the foreigner that's a Gentile who has joined himself to the Lord say the Lord will surely separate me from his people and let not the Unix say behold I am a dry tree for thus says the Lord to the Unix who keep my Sabbaths who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off. Brothers that's significant because foreigners and anyone with a physical imperfection including Unix could not enter the temple courts but look at what it says here I will give in my house and within my walls. So he's giving them access to the courts of the Lord which under the mosaic law they were forbidden and continuing and the foreigners who joined themselves to the Lord to minister to him this is the Hebrew word Shareth which is generally restricted to priestly service so that is striking foreigners doing priestly service to the Lord to love the name of the Lord and to be his servants which is another typical phrase of the sons of Aaron and the Levites they are referred as the Avde Elohim the servants of God or the Avde Adonai the servants of the Lord who serve him in his house so it also has priestly connotation everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast my covenant these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples okay under the mosaic covenant these men were excluded from the temple courts but in the future age they are going to be joyful in the temple and they will be able to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices on the altar any Gentiles in the room anybody who's pledged themselves to be a unit for the sake of the kingdom of God all right this is talking about you for I am coming to gather all nations and tongues Isaiah says on behalf of the Lord and from them I will send survivors to the nations to the coastlands far off and they shall declare my glory among the nations look at this the Lord says I'm going to gather nations to me and then I'm going to send these nations out to yet farther nations and the farther nations are going to hear about my glory and then these farther nations are going to bring all your brethren from all the nations all your brethren would be Israelites the Lord is speaking to Isaiah then they shall bring all your brethren from all the nations as an offering to the Lord to my holy mountain Jerusalem just as the Israelites bring their cereal offering to the house of the Lord okay and and then what is God going to do with all these people that are gathered now into his house and some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites says the Lord it's a little bit ambiguous who is going to be chosen for priests and Levites but arguably it's talking about these Gentiles who have come from the farther nations come back bringing Israelites with them and now from among them God will choose a new priesthood and a new Levitical order all right I think you can see where that is headed so that brings us now up to the priesthood in the New Testament Isaiah sees the priesthood being opened up to Gentiles into Unix and we enter into the New Testament and we begin with the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David well if he's the son of David and as the last verse the second Sam 8 says David's sons were priests then Jesus is a priest a priest after the order of Melchizedek and it's not long before we begin to see Jesus priesthood manifested in the gospel of Matthew and Matthew 12 3 we read about how Jesus is walking through the fields and his disciples are threshing out grain in their hands and they're challenged by the Pharisees about this and our Lord says to them have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who are with him how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who are with him but only for the priests or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and our guiltless so Jesus is saying it's okay for me and my disciples to breach the usual customs of the Sabbath day because I am a new David and David had a priesthood which he was able to share with his men and I am like the priests in the temple so Pope Benedict the 16th when writing his volumes on Jesus of Nazareth in his first volume he comes to this passage and he wants to draw out the deeper meaning of this passage to show not only to Catholics but also to Protestants who are reading his book that indeed there is a priesthood in the new covenant beginning with Jesus and then shared with the apostles and then ultimately with the successors of the apostles and Benedict the 16th knew how to make the exegetical argument from this passage himself but he knew if he made the argument himself everybody would say you're just saying that because you're the pope so being a very wise and very intelligent man Benedict the 16th allowed one of the most famous Jewish rabbis to make the argument for him so he quotes Jacob Neusner one of the most famous and certainly the most prolific American Jewish rabbi scholar of the 20th century no other Bible scholar would dispute with me that Neusner was more prolific than any other Jewish or Israeli scholar of the 20th century we used to tell a joke in in uh in um graduate school because even when I was in he's just he's passed on now bless his bless to be his memory but uh Jacob Neusner was alive when I was in graduate school and we used to tell this joke how you call up the Neusner household and you're trying to get to Jacob but Frau Neusner picks up the phone and so you say she says hello and uh and you say um hello Frau Neusner I'd like to speak with Jacob and she says well he's working on a book right now and you say okay Frau Neusner I'll come back some other time and she says no hold the phone he'll be done in a minute he published like a thousand volumes so of different stuff but he wrote a a book about uh something like a a rabbi uh converses with Jesus um I'm not quite getting the the title right but uh it was basically his exploration of why he was not himself a Christian and it it amounts to a commentary on several passages of the gospel through a Jewish perspective and so when uh Jacob Neusner Rabbi Neusner gets to Matthew 12 he explains this passage and says look it's clear he Jesus and his disciples may do on the Sabbath what they do because they stand in the place of the priests in the temple okay as a Jew he's all over that oh yeah clearly okay Jesus is claiming priestly status for himself and for his disciples and another place that we see this is in Matthew 16 18 and following remember that one of those particular duties of the priesthood that we talked about was the authoritative interpretation of the law so let's observe this in Matthew 16 18 our Lord says to Peter after his famous confession blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah now Bar Jonah is Aramaic okay and so the spoken language of our Lord bleeds through here Matthew is giving us a Greek translation of our Lord's words but the original Aramaic is there just like in Shakespeare uh when Caesar says et to Brute you know it's it's a little Latin phrase whereas the rest of the play was in English but it reminds you that you know they would have actually been speaking Latin okay so here Bar Jonah reminds you oh we're getting a Greek translation but they would have actually been speaking Aramaic and I tell you you are Peter in Aramaic this would be Kefa okay which means rock and on this rock Kefa I will build my church and the powers of death shall not prevail against it and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven now as we probably all know the keys of the kingdom are a reference to the keys that were held by the royal steward according to Isaiah 22 22 and so Jesus is establishing Peter as his royal steward even as he is the royal son of David the king but further this phrase whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven a phrase which is also used uh and applied to the apostles as a group two chapters later in Matthew 18 this is actually very specific Jewish terminology of the first century and the best commentary on this passage in my opinion is actually to be found in the classic 1906 Catholic encyclopedia I'm sorry Jewish encyclopedia which is available free online just type into a web web search line type in Jewish encyclopedia and the the public domain Jewish encyclopedia of 1906 will pop up and you can check out the article on binding and loosing because they have an article on binding and loosing in the Jewish encyclopedia of 1906 and this is what the article says the power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees Josephus says that quote they became the administrators of all public affairs who asked to loose and to bind this does not mean that as learned men they merely decided what according to the law was forbidden or allowed but that they possessed the power okay in Hawaii we would say the mana okay I grew up in Hawaii the mana had the power of tying or untying a thing by the spell of their divine authority this power and authority received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of justice okay so this is Kauffman Kohler a rabbi from New York writing in 1906 and he goes on to discuss the New Testament so rabbi Kohler says in this sense Jesus when appointing his disciples to be his successors see the Jews see apostolic succession they're all over this right our Protestant brothers can't see it but Jews can see it he used the familiar formula by these words he Jesus virtually invested them with the same authority as that which he found belonging to the scribes and Pharisees wow yeah but now here's a question for you did the Pharisees receive this authority of binding and loosing by the spell of their divine authority did they receive that from Scripture no do you find rabbis mentioned anywhere in the Old Testament no who or should say to whom was this authority to bind and loose which is to authoritatively interpret the law to whom was it given by Moses to the Levitical priests right so as I say here the scribes and the Pharisees usurped this authority from the priesthood because the priesthood was so corrupt the priesthood was in the hand of the Sadducees and it was so corrupt and the bloodline had become mixed and and inauthentic but the Essenes who had among them a true-blooded priests rejected Pharisee authority and in the Dead Sea Scrolls they insist you oh Lord appointed Levi to bind and loose not the Pharisees because in Deuteronomy 17 verse 8 we read if any case arises requiring decision between one kind of legal right and another any case which is too difficult for you so if you don't know how to interpret the law in a given situation then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God will choose and coming to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office those days who is kind of like the bailiff to enforce the decision of the Levitical priests you shall consult them and they shall declare to you the decision you shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you the man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest that man shall die so look at that the authoritative interpretation from the Levitical priest was as binding as the words of scripture themselves and therefore carried the penalty of death and that authority usurped by the Pharisees Jesus gives to Peter and to the 12 as a group which we have understood throughout the church history as Peter's successor Moto Proprio you know in his own recognizance as it were he can exercise this magisterium and an ecumenical council which represents the College of Apostles as a group okay so the priesthood and then the mediation and forgiveness of sins when he had said this this is now our Lord on the day of his resurrection he said to them receive the Holy Spirit if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven if you retain the sins of any they are retained he is now handing over to the apostles the responsibility to mediate the forgiveness of sins which previously belonged to the Levitical priests when a man is guilty he shall confess the sin he has committed to the priest is assumed there in Leviticus 5 5 and he shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord and the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed and he shall be forgiven that's how you got forgiven in the Old Testament in the New Testament now you are going to come before the apostles and confess to them and then receive their judgment and then the offering of sacrifice Luke 2219 Luke 2219 he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me now brothers you know it agrees me when I talk to Protestants who get into a discussion you know I had this two years ago there's a Catholic elderly gentleman in a parish mission that I was giving and he came up to me afterwards and says I'm I'm so sad because my son has left the Catholic church but I'd like to bring him tomorrow to the next day of the mission and maybe he'll talk with you so sure enough his son came to the parish mission the following night and I met with him afterwards and we got into talking we talked about the Eucharist I converted because of the Eucharist I converted because of Ignatius of Antioch's testimony about the Eucharist when he warned the early Christians in the year 106 stay away from anyone who refuses to confess the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ which suffered for our sins and which the Father in his goodness raised up for our salvation and when I read that I was convicted I was cut to the heart that I was the heretic that denied that Jesus was really present in the Eucharist denied that the Eucharist was the flesh which suffered and the flesh which was raised and I was the one about whom this great saint was warning the early Christians I'm the heretic that's what I felt after reading that and that upset my whole world and within 36 hours I decided to become Catholic okay but but this this young man told me well I just believe that the Eucharist was given to us by Jesus as a meal to remember him by in my heart I'm going oh no please don't give me that lame interpretation of the passage all right this is loaded terminology loaded terminology he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them by the way this is a priestly act if we read this account against the background of the Dead Sea Scrolls like Father Dave was talking about we know this act of taking the bread and blessing it was a priestly act at these Jewish ritual meals according to the Dead Sea Scrolls a priest had to officiate at these kind of meals and he had to be the one to touch the bread first and to touch the wine first in to bless it so that's a side issue but suffice it to say the apostles would have perceived Jesus as acting in a priestly role at this last Passover and then he gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me Luke's Greek here is ice tane and main on a Mason literally unto my memorial unto or as my memorial and what is a memorial on a Mason well this was the word for the memorial sacrifice which was a grain offering offered in the temple to remind God of the covenant we would say to renew the covenant but the Hebrew idiom is to remind of the covenant okay but it was a grain offering to remind God or to renew the covenant that was offered on a regular basis let me ask you a question does it make any sense at all to think of the Eucharist as a grain offering that renews the covenant yeah it does in one of its many dimensions right so as my memorial offering do this as my memorial offering this is that you know that for for Jews that were accustomed to liturgical terminology in that day in that day this again this statement is freighted with liturgical significance and then he goes on to say to the apostles you are those who have continued with my in my trials and I covenant to you as my father covenanted to me a kingdom now you say I've never heard that before dr. Berksman I'd say you're absolutely right because no English translation renders it this way okay why is that it's because the translators can't figure out what it would mean to covenant a kingdom and so usually this is translated as something as I bestow on you or I bequeath to you or I point to you or something like that but dea tithi me is the Greek word for covenant making through the whole Septuagint the whole Greek Old Testament every time you have a Hebrew phrase like Karath Barith or Hekim Barith you get dea tithi me dea theke in in Greek so this is the Greek word for covenant making and the reason why folks don't get the connection between covenant and kingdom is because they forget about the Davidic kingdom but the Davidic kingdom was the only kingdom in the Old Testament that was established on the basis of a covenant in 2 Samuel 7 psalm 89 psalm 2 psalm 132 talk about the covenant of David on which the kingdom was based and so just as Jesus as the son of David has received from the father the kingdom of David by a covenant he now extends a covenantal bond to the apostles by means of the Eucharist because the Eucharist is the new covenant that's what Jesus says okay this cup is the new covenant in my blood which means consisting of my blood so it is the Eucharistic blood and by extension the body as well that is the new covenant I would I would digress on that for about 20 minutes but I've got only 10 so I'm going to restrain myself down boy down but I would like to rant for a while on the Eucharist as the new covenant and the significance of that but but it's through through the new covenant which is the Eucharist that he is bestowing upon the shoulders of the apostles the kingdom of David which is also the kingdom of God because Jesus is 100 percent the son of David and 100 percent the son of God not 50 50 no 100 100 okay fully God and fully man amen hypostatic union so fully the kingdom of God and fully the kingdom of David and that's why it has the external form of the kingdom of David but the internal reality of the kingdom of God that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom that is the Eucharistic celebration so the greatest privilege of the apostles being in the kingdom is being able to participate in Christ's presence through the Eucharist at least in this life and then the heavenly banquet and the life to come which are really one banquet but anyway and sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel this is parallel to first Kings 4 when Solomon appointed 12 officers over the whole kingdom of Israel one officer over each tribe so the the apostles are now the royal officers of the kingdom of David but they share in David's royalty and also his priesthood so we're going to follow that into the book of Acts just an aside right now when we're looking at the apostles we're primarily thinking about the ministerial priesthood but there is the common priesthood as well the priesthood of all the baptized and there are several passages in the New Testament that talk about this priesthood that all Christians share so in Romans 12 1 I appeal to you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship uh you know essays scholarly essays have been written about this passage uh I'm not going to go into all the linguistic detail but Paul is using all of this cultic terminology here which really implies that the baptized are priests that have a priestly duty of offering sacrifice which is their very self just as Jesus's sacrifice was himself on the cross so our sacrifice of the baptismal priesthood is our self just as Adam's sacrifice was supposed to be himself but it wasn't because he sat there smoking Paul malls will the snake chatted up his wife so anyway this is your spiritual worship but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation there is Saint Peter quoting essentially from Exodus 19 five and six the promise given to Israel at Mount Sinai the promise of being a royal priesthood a promise which they never fully appropriated because of the golden calf but now that promise is given to the new Israel which is the church or better said the new kingdom of David which is the church a royal priesthood a holy nation gods own people that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness and likewise Saint John says in Revelation one six he the father uh or actually I have to look in context might be Jesus specifically in this verse here he made us into a kingdom priests to his god and father okay this is another variant rendering of Exodus 19 five and six we are the kingdom and priests now as Christians so I'm not going to talk a whole lot about ministerial priesthood because I've only got five minutes left I want to talk more about ministerial priesthood which is pertinent to most of you gentlemen seated here and so when we get into the book of Acts what we see is the apostles appointing successors for themselves even as Jesus appointed the 12th in some sense as his own successors so now the apostles appoint successors and we read in Acts 14 when they the apostles had appointed presbyters for them in every church with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed now presbyter means elder literally but these presbyters were not simply the old men of the congregation because we later find out for example that Timothy was appointed as an elder literally as an old man when he was still probably in his twenties and so Paul has to say to him don't let anybody look down on your youth okay because he was pretty young for a elder all right so but this was an office that's my point gentlemen is this did not simply come with age this was actually an office that's talking about spiritual maturity and not simply chronological age and as they went on their way through the cities they delivered to them for their observance the decisions which have been reached by the apostles and the presbyters who were at Jerusalem this is now Acts 16 it's reflecting on Acts 15 which was the council in Jerusalem that decided that the Gentiles did not need to become circumcised and then that decision was reached by the apostles alone no it again and again says in Acts the apostles and the presbyters why does St. Luke say that again and again he wants to emphasize the point that the apostles provided the presbyters on the job training and the presbyters were already exercising authority together with the apostles during the apostles own lifetime because when St. Luke is writing the book of Acts the we're nearing the end of the apostolic lifetime many of the apostles have already died Peter and Paul are about to be martyred and St. Luke is writing the book of Acts and he's trying to communicate to the early Christian community that they can be assured of the succession of authority because the presbyters who are now governing the church in the absence of the apostles already were sharing apostolic authority in the lifetime of the apostles themselves make sense okay so and St. Peter emphasizes this connection between the apostolic ministry and the ministry of the presbyters so he says in 1st Peter 5 1 so I exhort the presbyters among you as a fellow presbyter and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that has to be revealed tend the flock of God that is in your charge now tell me something if you're attending a flock what kind of person are you you're a shepherd and in Latin that's a what pastor okay so the presbyters are pastors okay that is clear clear clear implication inescapable implication of the text not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock so Peter is saying I am a presbyter I am a pastor and you are as well so follow me as I follow God that kind of concept as he exhorts them so you can see how the early Christians seeing that St. Peter identified himself as a presbyter could clearly get the implication that the other presbyters then were in some sense successors of Peter and the rest of the apostles and so we see this also in the pastoral epistles Paul writes to Titus this is why I left you in Crete that you might amend what is defective and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you see so how it's moving to a different stage now Paul appointed Timothy as a as a presbyter Timothy is now appointing other presbyters okay so we got succession going on here Titus is the extension of Paul's apostolic authority exercising his authority where and when he Paul cannot be there personally ergo his successor I also like this verse from 2nd Timothy what you have heard from me before many witnesses in trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also I have a little numbers by four phrases there see this is four generations of discipleship me that's Paul he's the first generation you that's Timothy who's his immediate disciple and then what Timothy has heard from Paul Paul tells him to entrust to faithful men those are Timothy's disciples and those faithful and will be able to teach others now teaching is didosuke and you know discipulus is a student a disciple is a student okay so this is discipleship teach others the others are then the fourth generation of discipleship you know discipleship is a is how the church is supposed to run and no one becomes a a fully alive catholic without being discipled by somebody else it has to become personal at some point okay we can have great programs we can have great books you know you can people sort of read their way into the church but you know everybody whether it's scott hon whether it's myself whether it's any other Protestant minister that you see on the journey home if it's anybody who comes in through rca there always has to eventually be someone who does at least a little bit of personal discipleship for a person to become a a faithful catholic and then there's got to be a lot more discipleship if that catholic is going to head significantly towards sainthood which how many of us are called to sainthood oh what did you say some did you say some no what did you say all of us not just all of you in holy orders but all of your congregation every what last one of us that's that's Vatican II okay that's the scriptures and Vatican II universal call to holiness but practically speaking for people to really gain the holiness or to make progress in the holiness that the second Vatican council calls for people need formation they need discipleship and it cannot happen other than in in some personal sort of way doesn't necessarily have to be strictly one-on-one but it it does ultimately have to be face-to-face and if we don't learn this lesson gentlemen God in his providence will reduce the church till it gets small enough that we can do one-on-one discipleship because that's how small our congregations are all right so but I say let's not wait till the discipline of the Lord hits so hard okay let's begin the discipleship now I truly believe the model for men in holy orders is to go out and gather some young men around yourselves and start forming them and out of those young men that you form you know you get more vocations to the priesthood and those that don't discern the priesthood you've got fine young men that you form that will make great lay members of the body of Christ etc all right so let's look at succession in the we're going to wrap this up in like two minutes the earliest of the fathers the apostolic fathers Clement of Rome probably writing in the year 80 I believe he says through the countryside in the city the apostles preach in fact Clement might be writing this before the gospel of John is published something to think about but anyway through the countryside and city the apostles preached and they appointed their earliest converts testing them by the spirit to be bishops and deacons of future believers our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop for this reason therefore they appointed those who had already been mentioned and afterwards added further provision that if they should die other approved men should succeed to their ministry okay so these the bishops and the deacons are the successors of the apostles and the apostles are priests of the new covenant by the appointment of Christ himself who gave point by point the responsibilities of the Old Testament priesthood to the apostles in Matthew 16 Matthew 18 Matthew 26 John 20 etc and so Ignatius of Antioch the the saint that pulled me kicking and screaming into the Catholic Church he said be eager to do everything in godly harmony the bishop presiding in the place of God and the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles and the deacons who are most dear to me having been entrusted with the servants of Jesus Christ you see how this language of Ignatius reflects this idea of presbyteral apostolic succession the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles now you may ask oh but we say that the Episcopacy they are the successors of the apostles and they have the fullness of holy orders yeah true I don't dispute that but what happened in the growth of the church is that the the presbyters were generally the successors of the apostolic ministry and then in every geographical locale one presbyter was chosen as the first among the many and he he the term Episcopos became reserved for that one presbyter who was the chief presbyter over the region and that's why as late as st. Augustine st. Augustine will talk about the succession of the presbyters from the apostles okay so yes the chief presbyter has the fullness but there is this general succession from the apostles for all those in holy orders so the Lord has covenanted to the apostles the kingdom I'm going to skip over this and just come to the end so brothers fathers okay you hold authority literally historically traceable back to David and then if you trust the scriptures and the Jewish tradition which I think you should back to Adam so somebody laid hands on you and other men laid hands on those men and other men laid hands on those men back to the apostles back to Jesus and Jesus was the literal physical biological descendant and heir of king David who was filled with the Holy Spirit in 1 Samuel 16 and David sat on the seat of Melchizedek who was the great shem the firstborn son of Noah who had the no wayic priesthood which is really the renewal of the addemic priesthood going back to the garden and that rests on you so that makes you some kind of relic and some of you look like relics now some of you look like you knew Adam anyway no sorry you are the extensions of the vice royal Davidic authority of your bishop you share in the Melchizedekian priesthood of David and you have been given a Davidic character on your soul by the sacrament of holy orders so that spirit of joy by which David danced before the Lord you don't have to do liturgical dance when you go down the aisle in fact I'd encourage you maybe not to but we don't call it celebrating for nothing okay every mass is the wedding feast at Cana what is the deeper meaning of the creation of 180 gallons of fine French cabriolet the deeper meaning is wine gladdens the hearts of gods and men okay wine is a symbol of gladness and in the context of the wedding at Cana it's bringing gladness to the bride because according to Deuteronomy 24 5 the first the first duty of a husband was to bring joy to his wife and so he was to be given a year off after he got married and for that first year of marriage he was to do nothing but gladden his wife it's literally what the Hebrew says it's a mitzvah in Deuteronomy 24 5 but you are the spouses of your congregations you are wed to holy mother church and when you're assigned to a particular parish that local parish is the particular manifestation of your bride and you come in as a husband on a Sunday morning to celebrate good times come on okay to to bring joy because the body of Christ suffers and the body of Christ is weary and the body of Christ gathers to to receive sustenance from her husband and which is truly Christ but you're acting in persona Christi so you're to bring joy uh and that you have that you have in you that Davidic character of joy the joy that wrote the Psalms the Psalms of Thanksgiving that's why you pray the Psalms in the liturgy of the hours because you have that Davidic character through holy orders and there's so many other things that we could say about that so but let's wrap up in prayer the name of the father and the son of the holy spirit amen