Rev 20:6, Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. 
	We continue this morning with the various passages in scripture that are connected to our current text. We are using scripture to explain scripture. This is especially important when our human understanding and comprehension seem to be so swayed by vast and varied interpretations. We must always count on the Holy Spirit to open His heart of wisdom and understanding into us in life. We are simply seeking after Him to reveal what He has for us as His people and to set aside any preconceptions and ideas that are not utterly in line with His truth. That is why we should always look to His Word to explain His Word, because He will never contradict Himself. He will always open and refresh us as we seek Him with all our hearts and minds and beings.
	In this light, we see the priesthood of the saints declared at the very beginning of this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Rev 1:4-6, John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 
	We are made to be priests to God in Jesus Christ. This means that we are made to be servants unto the Lord. We have no earthly inheritance, much as the priests of Aaron, the Levites, had no parcel in the division of the Promised Land. Rather, in Christ, we have our everything. He is our portion forever and ever. All that constitutes our lives is inseparable from Him. 
That is part of the explanation of this reigning with Christ that is proclaimed. It is because He reigns, that we are considered in that same light. We are seen with Him sharing in His glory and ruling by His guidance and under His absolute dominion. We do not have any power of our own, but simply and fully proclaim His place and His honor and His dominion and His authority in the lives which we are called to live. 
John continues to present this priesthood and the reigning of the saints with Christ in Rev 5:9+10. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." 
This presents the truth that we are only in this highlighted position of service and authority because of the work of Jesus Christ. He is the One Who has established this relationship for and with us by His death and resurrection. He purchased everyone who will believe upon Him as the risen Son of God. 
	This is a vital truth right at the outset of our discussion because, true to the depravity of human nature, many people have perverted the holiness and the blessing of this reality. It has been taken to promote the superiority of the Christian over all other humanity. This is done with no realization that it is not us, as humanity, who are superior in any fashion. 
It is not our place to subject other human beings to intense scrutiny and judgment because they do not measure up to some vague notion in our minds as to what is involved in our reign with Christ. We are not the ones to tell God what to do and how to do it, neither are we capable to fashion some kind of earthly kingdom after our wants and our desires for power.
	Everything and every one is subject to Jesus Christ. In Him, Alone, and by Him, Alone, do we have any standing or placement before God. Yes, we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, but not because we are so special in any manner of ourselves. It is because God chose us, from before the foundation of the earth was laid to be sanctified unto Himself in and by His Only Begotten Son. It is strictly by the work of God that we are who we are in Him. Nothing of ourselves. No merit that we have earned. No special privileges through our human bloodlines. It is all set in Jesus, Our Lord, Our Redeemer, Our Savior, and Our life.
	Our calling as priests was ever in the heart of God as we read in Ex 19:4-6. 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel." 
He directed this promise to the Children of Israel as a prophesy of what He would establish in Jesus Christ. The guarantee of being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation finds it compete attainment and fulfillment in the person of the Only Begotten Son of God. History is filled with the accounts of how mankind tried to set up that kingdom through the display of human power and deceit and cunning and bloody warfare. At no time, in no manner could humanity ever accomplish such an impossible task. It took the very Omnipotence and Omniscience and Omnipresence of God to make it happen and that He did in the giving of His Son on the Cross. Such perfect power and authority and holiness could never be the purview of sinful man. Only the most Blessed and Holy Son of God was capable of this eternal kingship and He is Whom we are to serve with all our hearts and with all our minds and with all our beings.
	The Psalmist saw the result of the work of God’s Anointed One as we read in Ps 45:15+16, They will be led forth with gladness and rejoicing; They will enter into the King's palace. In place of your fathers will be your sons; You shall make them princes in all the earth. In Christ, we are led forth with gladness and rejoicing. All the power and might of God rests in the One to Whom we offer our complete allegiance and homage. In Him, we are made to be His priests of holiness and blessing throughout the entire realm of creation. We have no personal vendettas or programs or agendas to publish. We only serve Christ in whatever capacity He so gives us to do. Even the power of obedience rests completely in Him, through His faith and His guiding Holy Spirit. 
	The Prophet Isaiah saw the Lord, High and lifted up, surrounded by His priests in Isa 66:21-23. "I will also take some of them for priests and for Levites," says the Lord. "For just as the new heavens and the new earth Which I make will endure before Me," declares the Lord, "So your offspring and your name will endure. "And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from sabbath to sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me," says the Lord. 
All mankind will bow before the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and in our obeisance, He will be blessed. The key factor in every aspect of this consideration is that we only want to bless and honor Him. There is no avenue for self-promotion or self-adulation. We are not seeking any power unto ourselves and our kind. We are truly after but one thing, the glory of God to be evidenced throughout His creation for all of eternity. Whatever aspect He gives us in this, we gladly and humbly and willingly accept as a privilege and a tribute of devoted and dedicated service. We love Him with all our hearts and seek only His grandeur and splendor and exaltation. 
	This is a hard truth to accept in our humanity. Of ourselves, we are looking for the attention and the acclamation and the distinction and the notice. We want to be somebody, even if only a little somebody in the grand scheme of things. But that is not our call in Christ Jesus. We are called to the service of sacrifice. 
Think of what the Old Testament priests were wholly under obligation to perform in their service before God. They dealt with His intense scrutiny and preparation in order to enter into the temple to offer before God those sacrifices of the unblemished animals, year after year after year. They were not able to just go into the temple without cleansing themselves thoroughly. To do so was to be struck dead in the very presence of God’s Glory. Theirs was a life which meant continual cleansing of all things connected to the office of their calling. They had to be on constant and incessant alert as to their every action. 
	Such is true, in every sense in the lives that we are called to live on this earth. The Apostle Peter brings this to mind in 1 Peter 2:5. you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. It is God Who has cleansed us in the blood of His Son. Because of His perfect work, we are to be on constant alert as to the manner in which we live forth our lives on this earth. We no longer are our own. We belong to God. That is to be utterly reflected in our being a living sacrifice unto God. The sacrifices that we offer up are our very lives as we show forth the glory of Jesus Christ in a day-to-day walk with Him. 
	As Peter continues in 1 Peter 2:9+10, But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 
This is the course of the life of service into which we have been called. It is God Who called us out of darkness in to light. It is God Who made us His own peculiar people. It is God Who gave us mercy. And it is unto God that our lives reflect His Glory and His Honor and His Adoration. This is our rightful service of sacrifice. We are called to proclaim His excellencies so that others in this realm will see the truth of the life of Jesus Christ to His grandeur and splendor. 
	Again, this is all through the life that Christ now lives in us. We are not under a burden of forced servitude. We are not slaves in the sense that humanity portrays it. Yes, we are slaves to Christ, but it is a slavery of love. We do all that He asks because we do not want to disappoint Him. We so love Him that we utterly yearn that every aspect of our lives will show forth reverence unto Him and be a living tribute to Him. 
Yes, we are compelled into His service, compelled from within as the Love of God so saturates our hearts and minds. We must do all that He bids us to do in order to have every avenue of love return unto Him. We are not under guilt or some misguided sense of ethical pressure. We are under Love and that love must find every means of expression in the lives that we live forth on this earth.
	In this we are encouraged by the Apostle Paul as to the fact that even when we blow it, even when we are not as faithful as we desire to be, we find our comfort and solace in His life at work in us. 2 Tim 2:11-13, It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself. 
He cannot deny Himself. Our surety is in the fact that we are now joined to Him and are made to be His Body. As we have our life in Him, so do we have our desire, our glory, our love, our blessing, our holiness, our righteousness, our justification, our citizenship, our priesthood, and our sainthood in Jesus Christ, Alone! In Him, we have no doubt, no wavering, no disappointment, and no fear!
	What is necessary in us is to be so lost in the great love of God in Jesus Christ that He is our every thought, our every source of wisdom, and our every breath of life. When we see adversity and pain and suffering, we are to be continually directed to the One in Whom all that conscious distress will dissipate. We keep our attention firmly alert to and focused upon Jesus and consider Him in every situation. 
As we are surely brought into the presence of those in need, we stand in the truth that the circumstances and the dilemmas, no matter how impossible to our human perspective, are not too great for God. He is after the personal and living relationship with man in and through His Son, and it is upon Jesus that we maintain our heart. Heb 3:1, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. As we represent His interests and His Kingship and His service of love on this earth, so do we answer the call that is put forth into our hearts as the saints and priests of the Only Living and true God, Creator of the Universe. 
	We answer every lie, every accusation, every trial, every temptation, every horrible situation, every intense drama, every enemy’s dart of anger, frustration, deception, and malice with the fact that we serve God, Alone, now and forever! We are this very day members of the family of God and we choose to serve Him only! Rom 8:15-18, For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 
	This is our testimony in the blessing and the holiness of being the priests of the Lord of lords and the King of kings, Jesus Christ. We willingly serve and honor Him as His priests, living sacrifices of His Love, now and forevermore! So be it! 
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 34:1-4. I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears. Amen.