1 Peter 2:1-10 “Therefore, laying
aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as
newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow
thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming
to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen
by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in
the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and
he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to
you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of
offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also
were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him
who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who
once were not a people but are now the people of God, who
had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
Last Sunday, Pastor Kyle
continued in our church’s sermon series through the Book of 1 Peter. He pointed
out that everything about the Israelite temple system and the role of the
Priests was to ensure the continual separation between that which is holy and
the rest of the world, both physically and spiritually. Their ritual system of
substitutionary animal sacrifice of purification went on as God’s means for
grace to a sinful and broken world. But
all that changed over two thousand years ago when God sent the Great High
Priest, Jesus Christ, into the world to die for our sins. When our Savior was
about die on the Cross as a permanent substitutionary sacrifice for us, He said
“Tetelestai”, Which means “It is finished”, but also translates as “Paid in full”.
You see, God did not just pay the minimum payment for our sins, like in the Old
Testament system. HE paid the whole principle due, all at once, and once and for all for Believers.
Matthew 27:51 tells
us, “Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to
bottom.” The Lord was making a clear
statement now, the Holy of Holies was not a place in the Temple any more, but
that anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ would have access to God through
Christ, the true and whole Holy of Holies.
For those of us who are long
term Christians, we are so used to this concept of our full access to God, that
it can become a little bit trite. At Pentecost, God sent His Holy Spirit to
dwell within believing men and women’s lives from that point on. The Holy of
Holies was no longer a building. It became, and has been ever since, in
Believers. We are the Temple of the living God. The Apostle Peter unpacks the
implications of the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit en every Believer’s life. Not only is the Believer the dwelling
place of God, Peter tells us that we are a royal priesthood of God.
When I think of a priest, a
quit atmosphere where a minister of God performers holy ministry for the love
of God, with a love for people. If you are a Christians today, God says that
you are a priest. On the same level, this revelation should invoke a healthy
fear in reverence and awe. The implications that all believers are priests as a
representative of God for the world is a daunting reality. We are made in God’s
image, but we all know that we are sinners; our lives are not our and holy as
God requires because we have fallen short. At the same time that being a royal
priesthood should be a little scary to us, I think that it should not be scary
to us because the fact that we are royal priests of God has been true from the
moment we became a Christian, whether we know it or not.
You see, your unbelieving
friends and family already think of you as a representative of God, so the good
news is that you are being called into the priesthood, and that priesthood is
all about a lifestyle of worship and obedience to God. When we are doing all
the things God wants us to do, the spirituality is firing on all cylinders in
our life. But, when we are not doing those things that God talks about in His
holy Word, that spiritual facet shuts off. Pastor Kyle wants you to understand
your role as a holy priest under the Great High Priest in a lacking world.
Let’s continue Pastor Kyle’s
message on the “royal priesthood” in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment