Holy Priesthood

We are returning to our study of 1 Peter. Peter wrote this letter to encourage believers. The people he was writing to were like us in many ways. They were scattered in the world. They were facing trials of many kinds. Often, people think of the trials Peter wrote about as Persecution for their faith in Jesus. That is but one of the trials they faced. They faced trials in their place of work, trials in the marriages, trials in their personal relationships, trials with-in themselves regarding sin. They were just like us. They were facing REAL life in this fallen world.

This book is written to encourage believers who are facing REAL Life. I am excited to be getting back to this study today.

The Big Idea Today is: The Holy Priesthood.

The last section we looked at was . One of the things we pointed out while looking at that section was that God gave us the new birth, we were born again, by the seed of the Word of God. Just like a seed has all that is needed for a plant to sprout and grow, so the Word of God has all we need to sprout and grow as Christians. So, if the Word of God has all we need, we should crave it, like a baby craves its mother’s milk.

How are we doing with that? Are we craving pure spiritual milk?

The next section, , begins...

How are you doing today? Struggling? Struggling in marriage? Struggling in other relationships? Struggling with sin? Struggling in general? Not finding hope, peace or joy? How is your time feeding on the Word? I mean feeding, not just browsing… Are you taking time to look at the promises, the blessings God has promised you in regard to your situation? Have you fed on the commands, the direction God has given you regarding your life situation? If not, start feeding. If you are, keep feeding. Find the nourishment. Find the satisfaction that only comes from feeding on the Word. Find the truth of the promise that whoever is going to Christ will never thirst!

The next section, , begins...

1 Peter 2:4 NIV

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—

1 Peter 2:4assumes that we are going to Him. It assumes that we are taking time in His word and in prayer. It begins

Notice the beginning clause,

“As you come to him,...”

This phrase ties it back to verse 3, and assumes that we are going to Him. “As you come,” may be better translated, “As you are coming,” It is an ongoing, coming to Him. It is not, Oh, I came to Him a few days ago. It is continual.

How do we come to Him? Through the Word of God and Prayer. It assumes that we are taking time to feed on pure spiritual milk. It assumes that we are reading, studying the Bible and in coming to Him in prayer.

Often, when I find myself struggling with situations or people in life, I have to do a check… Have I gotten so busy that I have neglected feeding on the Word of God? I find a real correlation between how I am doing in life, and the amount of feeding I get from the Word of God.

However, Peter moves on from this coming to Jesus to have our hunger and thirst satisfied. He is now speaking of another purpose, another result of our coming to Him.

1 Peter 2:4–5 NIV

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

What is happening as we are coming to him?

“You are being built into a spiritual house...”

As we are coming to Him, we are being built into a spiritual house.

Note: Peter uses an analogy that Christ Himself used when speaking of Himself—a stone.

Jesus also referred to a prophecy in Isaiah about a rock with the builders rejected becoming the chief cornerstone. Peter refers to that in this context as well.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Stone upon which the church would be built, in .

Jesus also referred to a prophecy in about being a stone upon which many will stumble.

Finally, Jesus referred to about a rock with the builders rejected becoming the chief cornerstone.

Peter refers to Jesus as the living stone — living because He rose again from the dead — upon which we as living stones — we are not dead, but alive in Him! — are being built into a spiritual house, or a dwelling in which God resides.

Paul referred to this as well in , and . In each passage, it is clear that the focus is not on the individual being the house of God, but rather the group of people being the house of God.

I picture it this way.

Rock wall - one stone is Jesus. From him the other rocks are positioned and put into place. One rock does not a wall make. One rock, does not a house make. No, it takes all the rocks. What if one rock doesn’t want to participate. What if it tries to remove itself… what happens? What if one rock decides it wants to be in a different position? What happens? The rocks around that rock are affected.

As we are coming to Jesus, we are being built into a spiritual house in which God dwells. Yes, He indwells us individually. However, it is in a very special way that He dwells in us corporately. He never meant for us to be alone. Remember Adam? What God made the first man Adam, God saw that Adam was alone, and it was not good. The only part of the creation account that was not good.

God is building us into a spiritual house. This is an ongoing work in progress. As He works in us individually, shaping, and perfecting us, He is working in us collectively to make us fit together, to be a unified house in which He makes Himself known in a special way! Wow! That makes being together as a church special! This is why we need each member to be here when we gather. yes there are times we are away. However, that is not to be the norm. The norm is being together because we need each stone. Remember the rock wall when I tried to take out a stone? The other stones were affected! When you or I skip out, the whole church is truly affected.

Let’s see the blessing and joy of coming together so that God will continue to work on us and fit us together into His special dwelling place.

What are we to do in this special dwelling?

1 Peter 2:5 NIV

you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

“To be a holy priesthood...”

This is like what they had from the time of Moses on in Israel. There was a priesthood. There was never just one priest. There was a priesthood. Yes, there was one that was greater in role than the others, the High Priest, but there were many priests that carried out the ministries in the temple, including making the sacrifices to God.

Now, just like that priesthood, we have a High Priest, Jesus. onward speaks of Jesus being our High Priest who has made the sacrifice to purify all of us, once for all through his one death on the cross.

This concept of us being a priesthood is so important, Peter mentions it twice in this context. , and .

1 Peter 2:9 NIV

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Now, we are purified to be priests. What do we do as priests?

“Declare His Praises!”

Now, we are purified to be priests. What do we do as priests?

Well, in this context, it is obvious that we are declaring His praises! Hebrews also discusses this.

Hebrews 13:15–16 NIV

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Sacrifices - Hebrews 13:15-16

Declaring His praises for taking us who were not a special people, and not knowing mercy to be His chosen people, His special possession having received mercy is what we need to do! But do not read the singular you here. This is plural. This is something we need to do together! God is building us together to be a royal priesthood that will TOGETHER praise Him!

What else are we to do as priests?

Hebrew 13 also mentions...

“Do Good and Share with Others”

Doing good to others, sharing with them according to their need is a way to serve as priests, and make sacrifices that are honoring to God.

It is important to do this for everyone, but as Paul says...

Galatians 6:10 NIV

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

We need to especially do this within this building in which God dwells. Not this building we are sitting in, but this building God is making out of you and me! We need to do good and share with the living stones around us in this building. We need to do life together, and encourage one another, sharing God’s Hope, God’s Peace, God’s comfort, God’s strength with one another.

I like the way Paul really tried to spell out what this looks like in .

1 Thessalonians 5:14–18 NIV

And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-18

Here in this church body. Here in this group of living stones that God is building together we have people are are idle and disruptive. We have people who are weak. We have people who are disheartened. We have people who have been wronged. We have people who need help in so many ways. How will we help them?

Prayer is good. But you can not warn someone just by praying. You need to be with them, and talking with them. You cannot help someone from a distance. You need to be with them. You cannot give the same encouragement from a distance as you can up close and personal. You cannot rejoice, pray and give thanks in all circumstances unless you are in the life, and privy to those circumstances.

In order to fulfill our role as priests and do good and share with one another, we need to be together. We need to be together and talking. We need to be together and sharing life. It is only when we are together doing those things that we can fulfill our roles as priests to one another.

God is building us into a holy dwelling place for Himself.

This building is His temple. In this building, made up of us together, He is making us a holy, royal priesthood.

As a holy, royal priesthood, we are to:

1. Declare His praises!

2. Do good to, and share with one another. We are to minister to one another.

Ministering to One Another. That is the goal of all I tried to communicate last year. As we looked at Real Change, we saw how God wants to transform us into the image of Christ, to make us holy.

Then, we saw that REAL change takes place as we share REAL life together. We need to Love, Know, Speak and Do in each other’s lives.

As we are together, we need to seek REAL peace.

Putting all of that together is what this passage is all about. This passage is about being a REAL church.

REAL church is REAL people sharing REAL Life and applying REAL truth.

My desire is for us to be a REAL church. Not a congregation. A congregation is by definition a group of people just getting together.

My desire for us is to be a REAL church of REAL priests as God intends us to be!

My desire is for us to faithfully gather together as a REAL church, fulfilling our role as REAL priests

Declaring His praises

Doing Good and Sharing together - REAL life and REAL truth

I am so thankful for Micah, and the worship teams that help us fulfill that first role as priests. We do declare His praises each week.

Where I would like to see us growing is in that second part — Doing good and sharing together.

This is something that the elders and I have been discussing for some time.

How can we be a REAL church? How can we foster people sharing REAL life, and encouraging one another with REAL truth?

For a season, this church had small groups. That seemed to fall away before I came a few years ago. There are some groups still, but not many. People are busy, and we understand that.

So, how can we foster this being together to share REAL life and encourage one another with REAL truth?

One of the things I love about this church family, is that often people will stick around after church to talk. Of course, that depends on the week, and the plans after church, understandably.

As we look at what takes place naturally, we want to foster that. We want to encourage that kind of interaction.

So, what do we do to incorporate that into the program each week? How do we make our form, our program, actually meet what the function needs to be?

One idea we have is to go back to how things were done here years ago. Before, the church service was first, and Sunday School followed.

The idea we have is this, if we put church first, and it the program was designed for people to stay after church to talk and share REAL life, and encourage each other with REAL truth, wouldn’t that help us to be fulfilling our second part of being priests?

That is the concept. One which we have considered trying out over the summer. Considered trying. Not decided to try. AND try, not change forever.

What might this look like? 9:30 Worship, 10:45 Interaction, 11:00 Sunday School or Interaction

I would really ask you to pray about this. I would also like to hear your thoughts on this. I am planning to be here at the church on Wednesday May 10th, and Wednesday May 17th to talk and pray with whoever would like to come out.

What is the goal?

The goal is to do what God is doing…

Making us into His Spiritual House

Making us to be His Holy, Royal Priests

Declaring His Praises

Doing Good and Sharing

He inhabits the praise of His people. He in in their midst when they gather to pray. He is with us when we are together restoring and encouraging one another. Both the passage in Hebrews, and the passage in 1 Thessalonians conclude with God at work in us to sanctify us completely.

The question is, will we fulfill that role to be the holy priests He is making us to be.

Do not pull yourself out. That hurts us all.

Do not try to be in a different place. That also hurts us all.

Let’s learn to be in the place God designed us to be. Let’s declare His praises, and minister to one another!

Homework

quotes . Read . David is reflecting on how the Lord delivered him from Abimelech. How has the Lord answered you in the past? How has He delivered you before? Which verses in this Psalm speak to you today? Why? How do they minister to you?

Read , , and . Each of these is referring to us being built into a house in which God dwells. Notice the plural in each of these passages. How important is it to be a part of the local church based upon these verses?

Read , and . What are spiritual sacrifices? Describe how you plan to offer of each of these sacrifices this week.

Read . Pay close to attention to what we were, and what we are now. Pay attention to the word Peter keeps using through this letter, chosen. Read 1 Peter and ask, why is it so important that we are elect, chosen by God? What hope does that give you, knowing you are chosen, elected by God? Knowing this, and knowing how He has shown you mercy, are you ready to praise Him? Listen to a song of praise, and sing along to worship Him! Tell someone how being chosen and shown mercy, and being make a royal priest, God’s special possession makes you feel. Telling others is also a sacrifice of praise - . Be sure to come to church to join in with the priests to declare His praise together!

Read . Look around the church body. Who is idle and disruptive? Who is disheartened? Who is weak? Who is doing wrong? Who needs help to rejoice, to pray and to give thanks? How will you do each of these things mentioned in this week?

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