06-28-09 A Royal Priesthood Pt. 2

1PE 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.

We have been chewing on these two verses from 1^st Peter chapter 2 for several weeks now

and I want us to spend several more weeks with this passage before we move one.

We spent most of last week

looking at the passage as a whole,

seeing the amazing dignity with which our God speaks to us

and approaches us as His children.

The things He says about us

and the terms and concepts He uses to describe us

are not what most of us would expect.

I think the best that most of us would have expected

is for our God to say something along the lines of,

“You, my child, have great potential,

and if you stay close to Me,

and follow My lead,

and trust My voice,

and stay in My Word,

that potential can be fulfilled.”

We would expect Him to talk with us

about what we might be able to become

if certain conditions are fulfilled.

Many, many years ago,

back in my high school days

I came across a Peanuts cartoon

in which Charlie Brown was sitting on the curb

with this look of deep agony on his face,

and in the little balloon above his head were the words,

“There is no greater burden than a great potential.”

That cartoon stayed pinned to my bedroom wall for several years.

We think telling someone they have great potential

is some sort of wonderful words of affirmation and encouragement.

They are not.

What they are

is the proclamation that the jury is still out on them,

and the verdict on their worth is still in question.

They are on probation in life,

and true affirmation and validation will only be given

if they ultimately produce to a certain predetermined level.

And the worst of it is

that even that predetermined level is hidden from them.

How will they ever know

if they have achieved their FULL potential?

If they score in the top 10% of those taking the test,

perhaps they should have scored in the top 5%,

or perhaps they should have been the best of all.

If they had the best time on the race in the whole school,

perhaps they should have had the best time in the whole state.

If they generate a $100,000.00 a year income,

maybe their true potential is ten times that.

But that isn’t what our God does to us, ever.

He never tries to prod us on to greater achievement

by telling us what we might be if we try harder.

He never tells us who we could be,

He tells us who we really are.

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.

But you are a chosen race...

You know what a race is, of course.

It’s a distinct, unique people group

who all trace their linage,

their genetic heritage,

and their identity back to a common ancestor.

There’s the Jewish race,

and the German race,

and the Greeks and the Italians, etc.

A race is a unique family of people who are all offsprings of a common ancestor.

And Peter tells us

that through Christ

we have all become members of a unique chosen race of people.

And what he’s saying

is not figurative, you know.

It’s literal.

Through Christ

we have all become members of the family of God Himself.

He is now our Father,

and we are His offspring - literally and eternally sons and daughters of God Himself.

Do you remember what Peter just said to us 10 verses earlier?

Listen to this!

1PE 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.

Literally born into the family of God,

bearing within our spirits

the imprint of our Father...

Earlier this month

I made an unexpected trip to Southern California

because my sister called and told me that my mom’s health was failing fast

and she wasn’t expected to live out the week.

While I was there with her in my sister’s home

a Filipino lady who works with the Hospice organization

came to the home to help care for my mom’s physical needs.

English was certainly a second language for her,

and from a purely physical perspective

my sister and I shared no racial, cultural, or ethnic heritage with her whatsoever.

And yet...

as soon as we greeted her at the door and talked with her briefly

she seemed to respond to us as if she knew us.

She went up to mom’s room

and took care of my mom’s needs,

and then came down stairs and we started talking.

Within a few minutes she’d received the confirmation she was looking for and said,

“I knew it! I knew you were Christians!”

And then she shared with us a little of her own remarkable personal history with her Lord,

a history that brought her through a life-threatening brain surgery

and into a career in which she works with those who are in the final days of life

with the hope that she can introduce some of them to their Savior.

Now how did she know?

What was it she saw in my sister and me when she came in?

She didn’t know I was a Pastor

or that my brother-in-law was a Pastor.

She didn’t ask where we went to church.

She didn’t ask us about our doctrinal beliefs

or systematic theology.

What she sensed was something altogether different -

it was our shared membership in a chosen race,

the imprint of our single Father,

an imprint that could not be masked

by our physical appearance, or different cultural backgrounds, or physical racial heritage.

Certainly there are things we can do

to obscure our divine linage if we choose to.

Fierce loyalty to some specific religious or denominational heritage,

a loyalty that isolates us from our fellow Christians,

or a lifestyle that’s inconsistent with our true identity

can make our membership in this chosen race very difficult to see.

But if we know what to look for

and if we’re looking for it

the family imprint is unmistakable.

We are members of a chosen race.

And I want to tell you something fascinating

about the word chosen used by Peter in this passage.

It is used to describe something that is carefully selected, favorite.

It is used a total of 11 times in the New Testament,

and every time it’s used

the one who is doing the choosing is God Himself.

It’s used in that fascinating statement in Matthew 22:14 where our Lord says, "For many are called, but few are chosen."

It’s used once, in Luke 23:35, to describe Christ Himself, the Chosen One of God.

And all the other times it’s used

to describe God’s careful selection - His choosing US.

We’ve already seen this word once in our study of 1^st Peter,

in the first two verses where Peter told us that we have been ...chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father...

In other words, He knew exactly what He was getting into

when He called us to Himself,

and He was in every way well pleased with the choice.

Welcome to the incomprehensible mind and heart of our Creator.

Then Peter goes on to a second point of our true identity,

something he’s already referred to just a few verses earlier.

But you are...a royal priesthood...

And of all the pieces of truth he shares with us in these two verses,

I think perhaps this is my favorite.

Twice in this short letter

Peter talks with us about our role as priests on this earth.

We’ve seen the first reference already,

just a few verses earlier where Peter said,

1PE 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.

Only one other New Testament writer

talks with us about the priesthood of all Christians.

In his opening words of the Revelation

John sends grace... 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. (REV 1:5-6)

I do love that so much.

I love the majesty with which John speaks of our Lord - the ruler of the kings of the earth.

And even more

I love the things he says about Jesus

when he talks about the way He relates to us.

He loves us...

He released us from our sins by His blood...

He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father...

Do you know who you are?

Do you know what you’re doing here?

Do you realize that God has equipped us for a unique and critical role on this earth,

the role of standing between our fellow man and our God?

There’s such a powerful progression in what John says in that passage in Revelation.

It all begins with this Jesus loving us,

a love so real,

so powerful

that it motivated Him to release us from our sins by His own blood.

And once that was completed

we became priests to His God and Father,

standing between a lost world and a Holy God.

And just what exactly does that mean?

What does it mean to be a member of the royal priesthood of God?

Are we suppose to dress up in funny looking robes and hats

and wave smoking incense canisters around

and say weird things like “bless you my child”?

What is it that qualifies us to serve as a priest of God on this earth?

The role of a priest

is to serve as a bridge, a mediator between man and God.

To do that two things are necessary -

we must understand and have access to both.

The priest must understand

both the people he’s bringing to God

and the God he’s bringing them to.

The book of Hebrews is our New Testament jewel

when it comes to understanding how the Old Testament system of worship

relates to us as Christians today.

The book was written

to show us why God put that system into place

and how it pointed to the person of Jesus Christ,

revealing to us how that entire system was fulfilled through Christ.

In the Opening verses of Hebrews chapter 5

the author talks with us about qualifications for a priest in the Old Testament.

And just so we keep this clear,

let me remind you that prior to Christ’s arrival

God’s communication with His creation

rested upon two distinctly different individuals within the Jewish society - the prophet and the priest.

The qualifications for a prophet were never revealed to us

because the choice of the prophet was a sovereign act of God.

It wasn’t handed down from father to son,

it wasn’t a position a person applied for

on the basis of certain academic qualifications.

In fact, it wasn’t a position any sane person would ever seek out

because the prophet usually spent his life being hated by those he was trying to reach

and had his life ended through being martyred.

Oh, and even though God gave no list of qualifications for the position

he gave clear, specific tests to help distinguish between true and false prophets.

The tests were not complicated, really.

Anyone claiming to be a true prophet of God

had to make several clear, short-term, verifiable prophecies.

And if they were not 100% right, the people would know this prophet was not of God

and they were to be executed.

But not so with the priests.

The Prophets spoke to the people for God,

but the priest spoke to God for the people.

And Hebrews chapter 5 explains what the priest’s chief qualification was.

HEB 5:1-2, 4 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, ...he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness;... And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

You know what that says, don’t you?

It says the chief qualification for being a priest of God

is that you’re not qualified.

Or maybe I should put it this way -

the thing that qualifies a priest to serve as a priest

is that they are exactly like the people they’re reaching out to.

This passage tells us

that there are two major qualifications

for all true priest of God.

They must be beset with weakness,

and they must be called by God.

The first qualification, that of being beset with weakness, is a no-brainer.

All we have to do is to be honest,

something that, unfortunately, is sometimes most difficult within the world of religion.

There is so much posturing,

so much facade-building,

so much concern about external image

in so much of the church world.

I understand why it’s there, of course.

Some of it is there to gain social status and prestige.

Much of it is there

simply for social survival.

But let me tell you this as clearly and honestly as I know how -

the one thing that gives us true access to the hearts and lives of those around us

and qualifies us to reach out to them

is that we’ve either been where they are now

or we know we would be apart from the grace of God in our lives.

We’re broken just like they’re broken,

and we’re not bringing them “answers”,

we’re simply doing what we can

to make it easier for them to find the One who has the answers they so desperately need.

What that means, of course,

is that we’re honest and free from facade.

The more we have the courage to be real,

the more effective we will be in our role as priests.

Where we have seen our God heal us or free us,

let others see both where we were and where He’s brought us.

And where we still struggle,

or hurt,

or fear,

or doubt,

let them see that as well.

Just a few days before my mom’s death

she gave me one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received.

I mentioned a few weeks ago

that, for much of my life,

I was a significant disappointment to my parents.

For a number of reasons

when dad and mom entered their adult years

creating and maintaining what they believed to be the “correct” social facade

was extremely important to both of them.

It was a facade based on how you dressed,

and where you lived,

and what kind of car you drove,

and generally how you looked to those around you.

They tried very hard

to educate me in this value system

and equip me for success by their standards.

Sport Coats, and slacks, and suits, and ties were frequent “gifts”,

and the question that was imbedded in my thinking from earliest childhood was,

“What would people think?!”

To say that I failed to meet their expectations is an understatement.

Not only did I not successfully create the external image they were hoping for,

I totally rejected that part of their entire value system.

I simply couldn’t do it.

It wasn’t who I was inside,

and it certainly wasn’t what I saw my God doing through me.

I love working with young people,

but have you ever tried building a friendship with a Jr. or Sr. High School student while wearing a suit and tie?

But during the last few years of my mom’s life

she changed dramatically as a result of a very special healing work

that God’s Spirit was doing within her,

a work that deeply impacted her understanding of me - who my God designed me to be

and the work He’d given me to do.

And when my sister told her I was coming down to see her

on what turned out to be the last day she was able to communicate verbally before her death,

when she heard I was coming she said, “Oh good! He’s so real!”

It made me think

I must have been doing something right.

You see, that’s the first big step in this whole business of being a priest of God -

given the fact that we are beset with weaknesses,

we need to have the courage to be real.

It is what gives us access to the lives of those around us.

And then, the other thing we need

is to know the God we serve, the One who appointed us as His priests.

We need to know His love,

to know His forgiveness,

to know His kindness,

to know He takes each of us just as we are, right where we are.

We’re not selling religion, you know,

we’re not putting on a show,

we’re not trying to get people to go to church or clean up their lives.

We’re just loving them, and being real,

and then when our Lord gives us the opportunity,

pointing them toward our King.

But you are ...a royal priesthood...

and the only qualifications are that you’re beset by weaknesses,

and that you have a growing friendship

with the One who turns your weaknesses into strength.