Everyone Has a Role
By Dean Collins
If you have ever been involved in a church plant, then you are probably familiar with the setup crew or pack-out crew. These special people work each week to unload chairs, sound and lighting equipment, children’s area furniture, and everything else needed for the service. Then, after the Sunday service, they pack it all away and repeat the process every week. These wonderful servants make it possible for others to worship each week.
Up until the time when David, and especially Solomon, established Jerusalem as the site of the permanent Temple, the Levites were the setup and pack-out crew every time the tabernacle was relocated. Their service had a lot to do with logistics and not just worship. In Chronicles, we see a shift in the roles of the Levites because many of the logistical pieces were solved when Solomon built the Temple.
In 1 Chronicles 23, we find the roles of the Levites who were thirty years old and older. These 38,000 men were designated for specific roles in Temple service. Their work is outlined in the subsequent chapters of Chronicles. These roles included administrators, musicians, gatekeepers, and those who served in various administrative and judicial capacities. The Levites represented only a small percentage of the population of Israel during the time of David and Solomon.
Fast-forward to the book of Acts and Paul’s epistles, where we see a dramatic shift in how ministry takes place in Christ’s new kingdom and in the church. In both Romans and 1 Corinthians, we learn that we are all members of the body of Christ and are to use our various gifts to build up the church and do the work of discipleship. In the New Testament, the work of ministry is no longer relegated to a select few. As Peter points out in 1 Peter 2, we all have a ministry role in the church.
“You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Look at the words that describe followers of Jesus today compared to what we see in Chronicles and in the Temple worship of the Old Testament. Once there was a Temple. Now we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Once there was a physical structure; now we are a spiritual house. Once there was a priesthood made up of a specific group of people. Now, through Christ, all believers are part of a royal priesthood.
And what about our role? Peter says that we are to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. And as we do that, we will make significant strides toward doing the thing Jesus told us to do at his ascension:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
And we don’t have to guess about how to do this work or assume that we have to do it alone or in our own strength. When we go, we have this promise from Jesus: “I will be with you always.”
Father, help us to better see and understand the work you have called us to do. Give us hearts to embrace who we are in Christ and how we are to be his hands and feet in the world today. All for your glory, Lord. Amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
1 Chronicles 23:1–6, 25–32; 1 Peter 2:5, 9 ESV
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