1 Peter 2:9–10
HOOK
[[ The crazy driver with the Jesus Fish / A terrible Witness ]]
BOOK
(1 Peter 2:9–10, NKJV) 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 marvellous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
[Prayer for whole-life submission to God]
LOOK
Background on 1 Peter
Last time I was up here I shared that Ephesians was most likely not just written to the church at Ephesus—at least not exclusively. But rather it was a circular letter, meaning that it was circulated around the churches in Asia Minor. So it is with 1 Peter. This was also a circular letter passed around to multiple churches. So it doesn’t deal with specific issues in a specific church, but instead deals with broader issues affecting multiple churches.
In this case, Roman Emperor Nero blamed the Christians for a great fire that swept through Rome — though historian Tacitus put forward a theory that Nero himself started the fire. Either way Nero needed a scapegoat to lay the blame on and the Christians had the least political and social power —because they didn’t want either— so they were chosen. And Nero was an absolutely brutal leader. The story goes that Nero would put Christians on a pike — alive. Then cover them in pitch — still alive. Then light them on fire — alive or not — to serve as torches in his otherwise magnificent gardens.
And against THAT macabre backdrop Peter writes to Christians to pursue holy living and evangelism!
Peter encourages Christians then — and, by extension, Christians now — to heed the words of Leviticus 19. Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy! And Peter argues that as we continue to pursue that holiness we will be built up to become more and more like Jesus. Some, Peter warns, will choose to ignore the message, but those who don’t? That’s what our passage today is about. So let’s take a look.
We get four attributes and one goal.
Four Attributes
BUT — you have chosen to not merely hear and ignore, in one ear and out the other, but to hear and apply. To listen. To take heed of the truth, the promise, and the warning of the Gospel then you can count yourself a Christian. And if you are a Christian, then you now possess these four attributes as well.
YOU — Also worth noting that while each of these attributes is written in the singular, the whole passage is being addressed to YOU, plural. So we should not read these as individual things only, but note that they are communal, we were never meant to be an island, but always called to live in community!
A CHOSEN GENERATION — The word “chosen” means called-out, set- aside, or drafted. Lest you think I’m making a Calvinist claim about God calling specific people while passing over others, I am not. Let’s back up a couple verses and read 1 Peter 2:6–8:
(1 Peter 2:6–8, NKJV) 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.” 7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who [b]are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
So God can send you a draft letter, but it is your prerogative to see that draft notice and flee to… Canada? HOWEVER, if you do not flee, if step forward when you are called out, this is what you are all TO. The word “generation” is a fascinating word! It means “people”, “group”, “family”, or even “race”! Do you see what this is not? It is not a club. It’s not a group or a cohort or a posse. It’s not even a nation! It’s a family. A people. A race. There’s a blood connection. A genetic connection. We’re connected by more than our mutual love of Star Trek, or the fact that we were drafted to the same baseball team, or employed by the same company. We are a family.
When I ventured into my teen years, my friends quickly overtook my family as the most important people in my life. And one day while I was busy dismissing my younger brother to go out, my mother got right up in my face — as my mother was want to do if the mood struck her — and said something I will never forget as long as I live. She said, “Friends may come and go, but your family is ALWAYS your family.”
And that’s true, isn’t it? Friends may come and go. I can think of only one really good friend who I’ve had for more than 5 years. My wife is another story. She has two friend who our kids call “Aunt / Uncle”. But family just hits different. Those relationships run DEEP and when something breaks them, the scars last forever. I say all that to say this: we as a church are meant to be a family. The family of God. Adopted sons and daughters. Washed in the blood of Jesus and so sharing in His inheritance. United in the Spirit as one body! One body. One blood! I feel like I need to break out in a Bob Marley song right now! But I won’t because I don’t want to spend too long harping
on this since I spoke at length a couple weeks ago about unity, but I also can’t ignore it. So let’s quickly revisit Ephesians 4:
(Ephesians 4:1–6, NKJV) I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
In the same measure that I am called to not offend you, you are called to not BE offended! In the same measure that I am called to be loving, you are called to be forgiving! In the same measure that I am called to care about the health and welfare of my relationship with you, so are you called to care about the health and welfare of your relationship with me!
How can we be the people of God if we can’t even love one another? Can I get an amen?
A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD — Note that the word here is not meant to convey our royal-ness, but rather the royal-ness of Him who we serve as priests. We, as priests, serve the kingdom of God. We serve His royal kingdom and so we are a royal priesthood. So yeah… the term “royal” is describing our relationship, not our status. Our status is priests. And what does that mean? What is a priest in service of the King?
Great question! Glad you asked!
1. To petition God on behalf of yourself and others
2. To counsel our brothers and sisters
3. To offer sacrifices of our praise, resources, and self 4. To serve as ambassadors of the Gospel
And we will take a look at each of these, but first, of course, we need to acknowledge that all of these are possible because of the work of Jesus on the cross. Because when he died the 6-inch curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was ripped completely in two from top to bottom and suddenly we ALL had direct access to God. No longer did we require an intermediary to go before God, we can boldy approach the throne of grace any time we want.
BUT, as Spider-Man taught us, with great power comes? (Great responsibility) So let’s go back and take a look at those responsibilities….
No. 1 Petitioning God — our priesthood means an active prayer life. James writes:
(James 5:16, NKJV) 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
If you aren’t praying, or aren’t praying much, you aren’t taking your job seriously enough! I’m sorry if that hurts, but it’s not meant to be discouraging! It’s meant to be galvanizing! Rise to the challenge. So if it does hurt, I hope it hurts so good!
No. 2 Counselling — Now, I don’t mean clinical counselling. I’m talking about advising, encouraging, and admonishing. Paul tells us in Romans:
(Romans 15:14, NKJV) Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
We have been equipped for this task of sharpening our brothers and sisters, and as I said last week, this is not merely a task we are CAPABLE of, but one that we should EXPECT of our friends and one our friends should EXPECT from us! And we should not just rely on one person. Remember when I said that these attributes are communal? So should our advice be! We want to seek the counsel of as many Godly people as possible! When I was looking at this job, I talked to as many Godly men and women as would listen to me! The book of Proverbs advises us:
(Proverbs 11:14, NKJV) Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
No. 3 Sacrificing — Praise, Resources, and Self Praise
(Hebrews 13:15, NKJV) Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
A sacrifice of praise! Are you catching that? A sacrifice of praise. Sa-ri-fice. The fruit of our lips is a sacrifice to God. Sacrifices implies some kind of loss or pain or struggle or cost. Let’s turn to Job Chapter 1:
(Job 1:13–21, NKJV) 13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; 14 and a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Praise is not always easy, but it is what we are called to do. Worship is part of our priestly duty!
Resources
(Hebrews 13:16, NKJV) But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
And we see that it is not enough to praise God with our mouth. We must also praise Him with our actions. Are we using the gifts that He has given us to bless others? And don’t miss that this as well is a sacrifice! I remember as a young intern watching my pastor come out of the back room with a box full of who-knows-what and he declared in frustration to no one in particular, “I don’t want it! No one can use it! I know! I’ll give it to the church!”
That’s no sacrifice! Sacrifice is picking up the phone when you’re tired and just want to watch the game. Sacrifice is giving someone your basement suite rent-free when it’s worth more than $1K/month. Sacrifice is giving up something YOU wanted for yourself. Speaking of yourself, that is ALSO something we are called to sacrifice as royal priests.
Self
(Romans 12:1, NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Now, I’m actually going to leave this verse largely unexplored because Pastor Brady is preaching on this next week. But I do want to put this nugget in your ear: I wonder if it might be easier to DIE for God than to LIVE for Him. Making one big, bold statement seems less taxing than making good, Godly decisions day in and day out over the 80-plus-year grind we call life!
No. 4 Ambassador-ing — Yes! We are called to be ambassador’s for Jesus. Again I will appeal to the apostle Paul:
(2 Corinthians 5:18–19, NKJV) 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Jesus has done the WORK of reconciliation, but we are tasked with the ministry of reconciliation; the ministry of the WORD of reconciliation. We have no role in the process, that is entirely the work of Jesus. Instead ours is an awareness campaign. We are heralds. Messengers. Newsies trying to share the Gospel with whoever will listen. Friends, this world is a sinking ship. Every passenger is going to die. We need to tell people where the lifeboat is. We have to! We can’t honestly think we have the love of Jesus in us if we are content to watch people go to hell.
Let me be clear. I don’t think you need to know the Bible front-to-back. I don’t think you need to have every answer to every question. I don’t think you need to have a slick Gospel presentation. I don’t even think you need to have a COMPLETE Gospel presentation. If you do, awesome! If you don’t? Invite people to church. Invite them to your Refresh Group. Invite them to Taste and See or Men’s Breakfast! There’s power in even small steps of faith!
How can we be the People of God if we are not willing to do what He has called us to do?
A HOLY NATION — The word “holy” means “dedicated” or “dedicated to God” and obviously the word “nation” is a national or ethic identity. So we see that our first nationality is citizens of Heaven. And we can show what it means to be good citizens of Heaven by being good citizens on earth. We should honour and pray for our earthly leaders in all things, unless they have asked us to violate our faith. We’ve had some bad times, to be sure, but so far I have not heard of any Christians being piked, pitched, and used as torches by the Canadian government for any reason, let alone their faith.
Besides, how can we be the People of God if we lose our joy in the face of every and any obstacle that crosses our path?
Let’s take a look at our final attribute:
HIS OWN SPECIAL PEOPLE — This means people destined for a special purpose. These are the people of God. The people who revere and worship Him. People who are totally sold out for God. People who are all-in. Every part of our lives is laid down in submission to Christ. EVERY. PART. Remember the “Jesus Fish Guy” in our pockets? I’m not sure every part of his life was submitted… but we’ll get to that in just a minute.
And so the picture of who the People of God are is complete. We are people united as family (a chosen generation), united as co-labourers (a royal priesthood), united as compatriots (a holy nation), and united in purpose (His own special people).
Kelly asked me what verse I was preaching out of and I told her it was 1 Peter 2:9–10 which I then recited to her. She replied, “Oh, isn’t that from Exodus?” I replied that I was pretty sure it was Deuteronomy. Turns out we were both right!
(Exodus 19:5–6, NKJV) Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”
(Deuteronomy 10:15, NKJV) For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
And this shows how we — the gentiles — were included in the promise of God to Israel under the leadership of Moses! We have access to ALL the promises of God! But Peter takes it a step farther. Since the ties that bind are no longer physical blood and geographical nationhood, but now spiritual attributes, there is now limitless room for the family of God to grow! And so Peter gives us our goal as we continue on through verse 9. Because all of these attributes are driving us towards this singular goal.
One Goal
THAT — we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people THAT. Or “in order that”. This “that” is the inflection point for the rest of the letter. Peter tells us what our calling is and then spends the next couple chapters talking through how to live that out. So what’s the calling? What is the “that”?
THAT YOU MAY PROCLAIM THE PRAISES OF HIM — the word “proclaim” means “announce”, “declare”, or “demonstrate”. We might think of it as “show and tell”. Okay, so what are we to “show and tell”? His praises, obviously! That’s what it says, right? Right? Well, yes, but some people think this is like an internal worship thing. Like something we would do privately or in a church service.
Lord You are good and Your mercy endureth forever! And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s NOT what Peter is talking about! That’s not show and tell, that literally preaching to the choir! He’s talking about telling OUTSIDERS about the praiseWORTHY things He has done! The Psalmist tells us:
(Psalm 78:1, NKJV) Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day.
And Peter doesn’t leave that up to the imagination! He tells us what praise and glory our mouths should be filled with!!
Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; —
Satan, Sin, Death, Demons, the Grave, and Hell Satan’s not in charge
Every good and perfect gift is inaccessible
Who once were not a people but are now the people of God, —
You were nobody!
Like the atheists say; life and purpose are what you make of them! Then those purposes die with you!
Who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. —
Living without mercy. What does that mean? This life is a glimpse, through a mirror darkly.
It will all be mercilessly taken away when we die.
TOOK
Did you catch it? Out of the darkness and into the light? Formerly not people of God but now people of God? Without mercy, now given mercy? This is the Gospel! We are to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel. There is a famous quote that is often mis-attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, but the fact is that we don’t really know where it came from, but it says,
Preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.
Now, to really preach the Gospel words ARE necessary, but the WAY we
live is part of our witness. Let’s pull [[Jesus fish guy]] back out of our pockets because our lives say something about the Gospel. Our marriages or singleness say something about the Gospel. Our work ethic says something about the Gospel. The way we drive says something about the Gospel.
I’m going to throw a couple names at you…
Jimmy Swaggart, an immensely popular Pentecostal televangelist in the 70s and 80s who claimed Satan’s agents are everywhere, including feminists, Democrats, and rock musicians. In 1988 it came to light that he was cheating on his wife with a New Orleans prostitute.
Jim Bakker was another, perhaps more popular televangelist of the 1980s. But it all came crashing dow in 1987, when Bakker’s secretary publicly accused the televangelist of raping and drugging her. Oh, and he was also charged with accounting fraud and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
More recently, Bob Coy in Florida — whose church had 25,000 members — admitted in 2014 to having multiple affairs and resigned in disgrace. But it got worse in 2017 when Coy was publicly accused of molesting a four-year- old child. So far as I could determine that investigation is still ongoing.
These guys said all the pretty words, but their lives were a lie!
So then it call come to this: what does it mean to be the “people of God”?
1. It means that we are a family — a chosen generation — and as such we MUST seek to be united as a family!
2. It means that we are co-labourers — a royal priesthood — and as such we MUST invest time in the work of the Gospel!
3. It means that we are compatriots — a holy nation — as as such we MUST protect our spiritual nation from the influences and attacks of the world while still seeking to bring in as many refugees out of that world as possible.
4. It means that we are united in purpose — his own special people — as as such we are to be sold out for Jesus. What does that mean? It means you are a hotel and every room is booked by Jesus. SOLD OUT. No more space available. It’s not like 99 rooms are Jesus, but just one is for hookers and blow!
Please stand with me, and let’s pray together:
Father, we come before You as a chosen generation, united in purpose and sold out for You in every area of our lives. As a family, we seek to be united, embracing the bond of love and unity that You have called us to. Help us to support one another, to build each other up, and to live in harmony as Your children.
We acknowledge that we are co-laborers in Your Kingdom, a royal priesthood dedicated to the work of the Gospel. Grant us the passion and commitment to invest our time and energy in spreading Your Word, serving others, and fulfilling the Great Commission. Let our actions reflect our dedication to Your service.
As compatriots in a holy nation, we recognize the importance of protecting our spiritual community from the influences and attacks of the world. Strengthen us to stand firm in our faith, guarding our hearts and minds while reaching out to bring in those seeking refuge from the world’s brokenness. May our lives be a beacon of hope, drawing others to Your saving grace.
We are Your special people, and we desire to be completely sold out for Jesus. Let every part of our lives be fully surrendered to You, with no room for anything that dishonors Your name. May we be wholly devoted, holding nothing back, so that You may reign supreme in our hearts and lives.
Empower us to live out this calling with unwavering faith and dedication. Fill us with Your Spirit, guiding us in every step we take. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.