Priests in Ordinary Places
1 Peter 2:2-10:
2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 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. 6 For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
8 and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
9 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. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Transcript
Please forgive any errors in this automatic transcript. Thank you!
There are two point three billion self-identified Christians in the world. There's about eight point three billion people on earth, which means over a quarter of Earth's population identifies as Christian. If this self-identified Christian population were a nation, it would be the largest nation on earth. It would be bigger than China. It would be bigger than India. In fact, you would need to combine those to finally surpass the number of self-identified Christians in the world. About two point three billion. But how many do you think hold a historic Christian belief? They really believe this historic faith, not a new version of it, not an opinion based version of Christianity. A true version of faith. What do you think of the two point three? Maybe one point five billion? One billion. We're looking at maybe half, two point three billion includes children. But this next number is just adults of adults who believe in a historic biblical worldview on earth. That number jumps down to sixteen million, according to the recent studies. From two point three billion self-identified Christians to sixteen million adults who believe in this historic faith. Things like the reality of the Trinity, the bodily resurrection of Jesus. There are people who claim to be Christian who, when you look at their Trinitarian theology, they don't actually understand that God is triune, that Jesus is God. Or they say they believe in Jesus, but this whole resurrection business is too much. They just can't grasp it. And so they're like, I don't think that actually happened. I think Jesus was just a good spiritual teacher. And so I claimed the title Christian. In fact, a LifeWay study says more than half of Americans say religious beliefs are a matter of personal opinion, not objective fact. And so from that, we go from two point three billion self-identified Christians down to the sixteen million biblically aligned adults. If you want these studies, let me know. I'll send them to you. Fascinating. Once we jump down there, we've gone from over the population of or just under the population of India and China combined down to less than the population of New York, India and China combined. The state of New York. That's the jump we're making. That's a massive jump from billions down to millions. And we would identify as biblically aligned Christians, especially in our denomination. We've worked pretty hard lately to make sure we are fully biblically aligned. Um, in recent years, we believe in the Bible, we believe in Jesus. But I wonder sometimes do we believe Jesus? And if so, what's the difference? What's the difference between believing in Jesus and believing Jesus? Peter here is writing to a persecuted people in Rome, encouraging them with their true identity in Jesus versus their earthly identity, which is things like slaves, things like Jews said in a derogatory way or worse, Christians. Christians nowadays, with over a quarter of the population claiming that title. It's pretty it's a pretty nice term in those days. They're like, oh, Christians, they're just walking around like little Christs, those followers of the way, which is what it used to be called. The followers of the way said with disgust at that time. And so Peter says, who are you really in this world that thinks so little of you? And for us today, where so many people identify as Christians, I think this text invites us out of the identity of worldly Christians to being one who truly believes in Jesus, which I think we're there. To those who believe in Jesus, the identity shaking vision that he has for us. So what's the difference between believing in Jesus? Believing Jesus? Is there a difference? Is it a matter of nuance? I'll let you decide that one. But I think I think there's a difference. So what is this identity that we can find in Jesus that's different than the world? Again? It's a different context. We have persecuted Christians with Peter, and from that he's elevating them, saying, This is God who God made you to be. And then on our side, we have all of the people who say they're Christians. And now I'm saying through Peter this not not so much that this is who God called you to be. It's something even more special than the billions. I love this text. It says that in verse nine, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. Let me read it. How it does not read. It does not say, for you are a special church, and some of you are called to be pastors. And, uh, God's chosen all of you. So do your best every day. You, all of you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. This was true in the season where you did not have a pastor. You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. You are chosen. This was first said back in Exodus, and at that time God was choosing the Hebrews out of all the other people, and now he's choosing us, not through our physical bloodline, but through Jesus's blood. The Israelites were chosen because of their bloodline. We are chosen because of Jesus's blood shed for us. So we are a chosen people. We're a royal priesthood. Israel was meant to be a kingdom of priests. Yes, there were priests in a more, um, technical, literal sense, the descendants of Aaron who had certain duties. Yes, there were priests who had that. But there's this idea throughout the Old Testament of we are supposed to be a royal priesthood that Israel was. And now we are we've we've we're taking that call. We're moving another step forward. We're going to come back to what that means. What does it mean to be a priest? For God right now, in our culture. Next, we are a holy nation. We're set apart. The priests in Old Testament times were set apart. They had these special duties. They had to do all these special cleansings they had to go through before they could offer sacrifices for the people. So we had the nation of Israel who was set apart. And then from those we have those who are set apart from the set apart to be priests. But there are a holy nation, all of them led by those priests back in those days. They were in the days of Moses, and shortly thereafter they were moving with a tabernacle. A lot of churches these days are doing temporary church settings, especially the. There's a lot of GMC churches who split off from our former denomination, and they're like, okay, we are going to start worshiping in a theater or a school or a park. All good things. By the way, I don't have anything negative to say about that, but part of what they have to do is they have to set up church every single Sunday. Ask me how I know. My family does every single week. They set up the sound system they set up. I think the projector's already there. They set up the microphones. They set up the altar table. They get they do communion every week. They get that set up every single week. Whew. Now imagine. I can only imagine that doing that same thing with the tabernacle moving from a tent where you have to take everything down and there's very particular order. You had to take it down, and then you're also taking down your own family tent, and then you're carrying that with you somewhere. It's not getting loaded in an SUV. They have this tabernacle that carried God's presence into all kinds of places. But now, and this is where I'm going with this. You are a tabernacle. You being a priest means that you are a tabernacle. And wherever you go, you bring God's presence. And then we have a people belonging to God, people belonging uniquely to God. A people trusting in God. God's special possessions. Another way that it's. It's translated. There's this idea of this flock here that God chose us to be his sheep, and he shepherds us, and he chose us, and he loves us and he protects us. In the more literal sense, the priests in the Old Testament were people who were chosen because of their bloodline. They were people who interceded on behalf of the people, praying to God, asking for forgiveness of sins. They were teachers of God's Word. But now we as priests, again, we're not relying on our bloodline. We are priests because of the blood of Jesus. I want to tell you a story. Maybe you've heard it before. There's a man in the eighteen hundreds who went by Charles Blondin. Charles Blondin was a tightrope walker, which, to be fair, is crazy, but it gets crazier. His thing was to walk across Niagara Falls, back and forth, back and forth, and people would be looking on. Of course, in that sense of like awe and fear and can't look away, right. Watching somebody walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope or push a wheelbarrow across Niagara Falls on a tightrope, or stop in the middle and make himself an omelet on the oven he brought with him in the middle of Niagara Falls on a tightrope. These are true stories. It sounded so absurd. I did a lot of research because I was like, this can't be true. This is a pastor story. Someone made this up. No. It's true. It's true. There's a saying that when Charles pushed that wheelbarrow across, who would get in that wheelbarrow with him? He never really asked anyone that. But he did ask one person to trust him literally, with his whole life. Literally his whole life. His manager, whose name was Harry Colcord. Rode on his back, as you can see in that picture. Piggyback style across Niagara Falls. Yeah. I don't know that I trust anyone that much. I'm not gonna lie. That's that's a lot of faith. And what I love about what he said to his manager was this and I have a bit of it quoted here. Look up Harry. You are no longer Colcord. You are Blunden. Be a part of me. Mind, body and soul. Listen to this. If I sway, sway with me. Do not attempt to do any balancing yourself. If you do, we will both go to our deaths. There's some two way trust going on here. I mean, Harry Colcord is trusting someone he's seen do this a hundred times. But Charles Blondin is trusting somebody who is not used to doing this, let alone on someone's back over Niagara Falls. He did this. I think they said he crossed Niagara Falls something like three hundred times by the time he died. And if you're like me, you're wondering how he died. You're like, how did. Okay, when you live that kind of life, you kind of wonder, how's it gonna end? It was the mid eighteen hundreds. He died from complications of diabetes. Not once. This did not take his life. The crowds believed in Blondin. They're like, that guy's cool. I'm gonna watch and maybe witness a death, which is an odd thing to do for fun. But people. People do it. But Harry, his manager, he believed Blondin. He believed he was going to get him across those falls, piggyback style. But Blondin had a job more than just believing Blondin. His job was to sway with Blondin. When the winds came through and Blondin swayed, he didn't panic and tighten up like I would have done and plummeted us to our deaths. He would. He trusted. He swayed with him because Blondin knew how to correct for the wind. He knew what to do when. When winds came. His manager probably did not. Maybe on an academic level, but not on an experiential level. That's something entirely different when we're talking about walking across Niagara Falls on a tightrope, that's something entirely different. But he trusted Blondin to sway to, to to get him across safely. And blond entrusted him to sway with him. And that, to me, is the difference between believing in someone and believing someone. You can believe that that person over there can get across the tightrope walk, and if they don't, you'll have witnessed a traumatic event. But besides that, you're going to be fine. You can believe that they can carry somebody across their back on that tightrope once again. Worst comes to worst. You're witnessing a traumatic event. That's terrible. But besides that, you're going to be fine. It is an entirely different thing, just to climb on the back of a tightrope walker and walk across Niagara Falls. I know some people who don't even like roller coasters. I love roller coasters. Let alone a tightrope walker with no safeties. The people believed in Blondin, but that manager Harry. He believed Blondin. And to me, that's what takes us from being true Christians who really believe what's in the Bible. Really believe that God is Trinity, that Jesus rose from the dead, that we're going to. We're going to go to that new heaven and new earth someday. Really believe that. And people who believe Jesus, who sway when he sways, where it's like we're walking through this life on Jesus back and we sway when he sways. I don't know about you, but like I said, if I was on that tightrope walk. But that would have that would have ended poorly for everybody because I panic. I would have panicked. It would have been bad. It would have been over. And I'm like that with Jesus, too, sometimes. Are you where you, uh, you can tell Jesus is prompting you to do something or say something. And instead of swaying with Jesus, you're like, no, I can't do that. I can't go talk to somebody at work about Jesus. I can't go just walk up to somebody and ask to pray for them. That's, that's, that's a little weird. Jesus, we don't do that in our two point three billion American Christianity or world Christianity. And that's much harder than just adhering to a belief about Jesus. Suddenly we're swaying with Jesus. And this is what takes us from being Bible believers to being priests of God, which is what we're really called to be people who intercede for others. You get this bulletin every week. You'll see all those names. Not all those names end up in the email. But they're all on there for a reason. Have you ever just prayed through these list of names? You can just say their name out loud. You can say, I'm lifting this person to you and just say their name. They intercede for others. When someone is telling you, you priest of God. Something that's going on in their life. You don't just say, I'm going to pray for you. You stop in that moment and say, can I pray for you right now? Priest of God, bless and encourage others. That benediction that I read more often than not. May the Lord bless you and keep you was a priestly benediction. When I hear that benediction, when I speak that benediction, I feel encouraged. And so I would say a priestly blessing is one that encourages others. A priest is someone who steps into brokenness. We see all these laws in the Old Testament about if you have a. The one I was reading the other day was about skin diseases and how you needed to present yourself to the priest. And there was all these rituals you had to go through. And it's easy at first to be like, that's a lot of rules, God. But one of the things that teaches us is priests were meant to step into people's brokenness. And when God heals, to declare that healing. Step into people's brokenness. Priests bear the light of God in dark places and the tabernacle and the temple. That light burned all night in the candles. And they made sure of it. They bear the light of God in dark places. And they teach the truth of God anywhere, anywhere. Here's the good news to be a priest of God, you do not have to be a pastor. Can I get an amen? Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, not everybody's called to be a pastor, but we are all called to be priests because in order to be a priest, you do not need a pulpit. You need people. And you all have people in your lives that you interact with on a daily, weekly, maybe monthly basis. You have people in your lives who God is calling you to be a priest of him to them. Think about the people in your home. In this very church, we are priests to one another. Maybe it's somebody who comes and cleans your home. Maybe you are called to be a priest. For those in your school, whether you're a student or a teacher, you're a priest to them. Maybe you're called to be a priest in your workplace or in those you encounter at the grocery store. You have people all around you, and you are meant to be a priest to them, carrying God's light to them. But in order to do that, we've got to learn to sway with Jesus. And I know we've got a hundred different identities in our lives. We're daughters or mothers or fathers were sons were we are workers. We are students. We've got a lot of identities in our lives, but this is how I want to think about it. This isn't so much adding on another task as it is defining those identities. What that can mean. You are not just a daughter. You are a priestly daughter. You're a priestly retiree. Some of many of you all have that joy. You're a priestly student. You're a priestly. What? What are those identities you have? It doesn't mean becoming something different so much as leaning into Jesus and swaying with. He sways when you feel him, prompting you to pray for someone when you feel him prompting you to offer an encouraging word, you sway when he sways. You are a priest in your ordinary, everyday settings. There might be two point three billion Christians self-identified in the world. Sixteen million who believe in the Bible. Truly. But you are one priest who can make a real impact on the people in your life. It's not so much about the numbers as it is. Who has God put in my life? Who is God calling me to be a priest for? And how might I do that in my day to day life? How? And this is a prayer, I think, asking God to show you how he wants you to serve as a priest in your life. How he wants you to sway with him. Let's pray together. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you that you you chose to do this. This thing together. This salvation thing. You didn't just come down and save us silly humans from the very beginning. You involved us. You made us stewards of your world, and now we're stewards of the gospel. Maybe you could have done it on your own, but you chose to involve us. And I thank you for making us priests. Help us remember when we don't feel special that you say we are a priest for you. Help us remember in ordinary, everyday places that we are a tabernacle. Walking around being your. Your presence, your light. Help us remember that we are more than just Christians. We are your priests in this world. Amen.