Here we are — been looking forward to this passage for a long time!

October 2018, Four G’s, truths about God, how they affect us.

I started that series with a quote from A.W. Tozer:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

A.W. Tozer

Looking up to use again today, counterpoint from C.S. Lewis. They were contemporaries, born and died within a year of each other. His response, from The Weight of Glory

How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important.

C.S. Lewis

I get both their points, coming at it from different angles. It’s important how you think about God, even more important what God thinks about you!

Today, look at how God thinks of us, and therefore how we’re to think of ourselves.

His opinion has to be most important. He defines reality.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Peter 2:9–10

Okay, let’s get to work in this text.

Peter is using lots of OT imagery + references to explain to NT believers how God sees them and therefore how they’re to see themselves. So let’s start there.

Exodus 19, Israelite’s delivered slavery Egypt. God calls Moses onto mountain, tells him to give this message to the people:

Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.

Exodus 19:5–6

Anyone have a little dejavu moment?

Notice the kingdom of priests part. We talked about all of us being priests last week, no special class of super-Christians.

But if a priest is to go between people and God, if everyone is a priest, who exactly are you ministering to?

All the other nations. Look at Isaiah 42:6:

“I am the Lord. I have called you
for a righteous purpose,
and I will hold you by your hand.
I will watch over you, and I will appoint you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light to the nations

Isaiah 42:6

Israel was God’s chosen people, but never an end to themselves. Beacon of light, show what it’s like when God is king. Important, we’ll come back to it.

So here’s God’s promise to descendants of Abraham, if they would listen carefully and keep His covenant. Did they listen carefully and keep the covenant? No

And yet God held up his end, as He always does. He sent His Son, the Messiah, who called Himself the Son of Man—a name that the OT uses for Israel itself.

Jesus was the true and better Israel, the fulfillment of every promise God ever made to the Jewish people.

Diving into the deep end of the theological pool this morning, but it’s been 30 minutes since you ate, so we should be good… except for Mark’s class, they always have donuts.

We could spend a few years dissecting and possibly debating the interplay between the people of Israel and the Church, now and in the future. And people have…

there are Bible-believing, Jesus-loving, godly believers who believe that Israel and the church are still distinct entities in the plan of God—dispensationalists.

And then there are Bible-believing, Jesus-worshipping, godly believers who believe that all of those promises to ethnic Israel were completed in the coming of Christ— covenantal theology.

We don’t have time to dive deep today, we’ll focus on what they’d all agree on, Romans 9:8:

That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.

Romans 9:8

So not every Israeli, every descendant of Abraham, is a child of God. Everyone agrees with that. Dispensationalists say, “Yes, temporarily”, while the covenantal crew would say, “Yes, permanently”. But they both agree that for the moment at least, the promises to God’s people in the OT apply to God’s people in the NT.

That’s what Peter’s doing here. So let’s walk through, how does God think of His people, and therefore how we think of ourselves?

A Chosen Race

Not talking about skin color—more like family line and traits. King James says “generation”. Which is what ethnic Israel was, right? Children of Abraham.

Now Peter, writing Gentile believers, “You’re part of the chosen race.”

Being part of God’s kingdom means an entirely different way of going about life. Think about it, all those who are not in Christ are spiritually dead. But those of us who have been born again into a living hope, we’re spiritually alive by His great mercy.

Now, because current climate, I’ve seen this verse used/misused lately. It’s popular to use this verse or others like it to go, “See, all Christians are the same race, so there’s no need to talk about race. If you’re talking about race, you’re just causing division.”

Using a verse about the unity of all believers to shut down honest conversation about what’s dividing us is a problem, and it’s a misuse of this verse. Yes and amen, all believers are of the chosen race, but that race doesn’t erase our different shades of skin or our different shades of sin we’ve experienced, both outside and inside the church.

Verses like this give us a framework of how to think about the body of Christ and a goal to work toward. If anything, this verse give us a good reason to humbly listen. It’s definitely not a get out of an uncomfortable conversation free card.

Why are you and I part of the chosen race, because we’re so great? Hardly.

“The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loved you…

Deuteronomy 7:7–8

So how does God think of us, and therefore how are we to think of ourselves? As a chosen race.

A Royal priesthood

We talked about the priesthood of all believers last week, that—just like His covenant with Israel now fulfilled in the Church—we are all priests. Communing with him, talking with him about others and talking with others about him.

But now we get the addition of the word royal. Our High Priest that we’re under, he’s also the King. So we’re not just a priesthood, we’re a royal priesthood.

Before he ascended to the throne, what’s the first words of the last words he said to us? “All authority has been given to me… so go make disciples.” We’re priests, who also the have the royal authority of the King behind us.

How does God see his church, and how are we to view ourselves?

A Holy Nation

Greek word “ethnos”, where we get our word ethnic/ethnicity. New kind of people.

Brand new kind of nation. The kind of nation that Israel was originally to be, but never lived up to.

This nation is a monarchy—it is a kingdom. We have a King, his name is Jesus, and He is on the throne. He calls the shots. He has the right to tell us what to do and how to think.

Sounds strange to talk about as a good thing on the weekend where America celebrates her independence from a king. But there’s a big difference between King George III and King Jesus, the first and last.

This king is good, perfect. He always has the best interest of his citizens at heart.

Everyone who is a part of this kingdom was once a slave in another kingdom, a kingdom of darkness. And the King went on a rescue mission for each one of his subjects. Each true citizen desires to obey the King because He’s proven that he would go to great lengths for them, that he would willingly lay down his life for each citizen in this holy nation.

Unlike every other nation in the world that was founded and inhabited by sinful people, this nation was founded by and inhabited by holy people.

Every other nation in history tends toward more and more sin and injustice, but this nation… it’s citizens are constantly being made more and more holy, until they reach perfection.

That sounds like a great nation to be a citizen of, doesn’t it? Where things are always trending toward perfection rather than anarchy?

When we come here on a Sunday morning and talk about King Jesus, we’re not talking in some theoretical mumbo-jumbo. Oh, yes, there will be a day when His Kingdom comes in its fullness and He will reign on this earth as King, and to that we say, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

But he came the first time announcing, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This verse is in the present tense, in 64 A.D. and 2020 A.D. It’s true this second. This holy nation exists right now, on every continent in the world, from West Africa to West Frankfort, and it is ever expanding.

So we’re to think of ourselves as God does:

  1. A chosen race
  2. A royal priesthood
  3. A holy nation

A People for His Possession

We saw that back in Exodus 19, the promise of a people for his own possession. We are his, because we have been bought with a price.

The King James there says “peculiar people”. And if you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, can I get an amen? We are most definitely a peculiar people… some more than others.

We are set apart as His people. He continues that same thought down in verse 10: “once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people”.

Even in this room today, we have people from very different backgrounds, generations, experiences… this unique group of individuals would probably not be in one room together in any other setting. Once we were not a people—scattered, our own families, jobs, lives—but now, now we have been brought together, now we are God’s people.

And then you broaden that out over the whole earth. Scattered on every continent, almost every country. There are about 6500 languages spoken in the world, and in the majority of them, there are brothers and sisters worshipping Jesus. It’s amazing and glorious to think about. Once, we were not a people. A lot of those people we’d have considered our enemies.

But now, we are God’s people. And will be forevermore.

So what are we to take away from these two verses? One statement, two parts:

We are the distinct people of God,
here to declare the praises of God.

The distinct people of God

Let’s look at that list again:

  1. A chosen race
  2. A royal priesthood
  3. A holy nation
  4. A people for his possession

Here’s the thread to see there: distinct, distinct, distinct, distinct.

  1. We are quite literally here, a different kind of human race. It’s a different way to be human, to be born again. It’s walking in light instead of darkness. We live dead to sin rather than being dead in sin.

  2. Being the children of the King makes you different. You have royal blood flowing through your spiritual veins. Also, the very notion of priesthood is that you are set apart for God’s service.

  3. Ethnicity is a huge part of how we identify ourselves. Now we’re part of a new one that is holy, set apart.

  4. We are a people who are marked by God as His own. We were not a people, but now we are God’s people.

We started by saying that identity is super important. The way that you view yourself will have vast implications on how you act.

Family, that is just as true for the Church as it is for individuals. We must see ourselves as distinct from the world, our own people/nation/kingdom, God’s people.

That’s the reason I felt so strongly that this is such an important message. It’s essential to understanding 1 Peter—why are people usually exiled? Because they’re different! A different race, a different faith, a different nationality, a different people group entirely. They act different, they think different, they talk different.

Through the rest of this chapter and over our next 3 weeks, Peter is going to build off this understanding of the Church as the distinct people of God to talk about…

  1. How we are to battle our own sinful desires and conduct ourselves as we interact with the world, even when we’re being lied about.

  2. How we are to interact with government and authority while maintaining our distinctiveness.

  3. How we are to approach our work as for the Lord, even for a boss who is a jerk.

But none of that will work, none of it makes sense, unless we internalize this reality, that I am a part of an entirely different kingdom than the kingdoms of this world. Different way of thinking, different way of approaching life, completely different priorities than the rest of the world.

When we consider how we identify ourselves, I’m sure for many of us, Christian is the first thing, and praise God if that’s the case.

But that’s different than thinking of our place in the body of Christ as essential.

These things are corporate, not individual. All of these phrases are about the collective, not a single person, aren’t they? A Race? You don’t have a race of one. A Nation? A people? An ethnicity? Those aren’t activities you do alone.

Having an understanding of our citizenship in the kingdom of God as a primary identity is absolutely essential to consistently living as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

This should be at the top of your list, not just “I’m a Christian”, but right along side it, almost enveloping your individual salvation, “I am a part of the people of God, this nation that knows no boundaries, this ever-expanding movement of Jesus’ rule and reign on the earth.”

I’m telling you, this reality will change your whole way of thinking about life.

Anyone get discouraged sometimes, maybe get a little “Elijah Syndrome”, remember the OT story when he was in a cave licking his wounds, and he says, “I’m the only one left. Everyone else is worshipping idols.” Ever been there? When you look at the state of the Church in America, ever get discouraged?

But when this an integral part of your self-identity, you say, “Wait a second! I’m part of a chosen race, a holy nation all to itself. And Jesus himself said that He would build his church and the gates of hell won’t prevail against it. Our King said said, ‘Fear not, little flock, for it’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.’ So what I’m seeing here must be part of that plan.”

And it changes the way you view the world. That’s another direction to go when you get discouraged. You say…

“Wait a second. The Church in the West is not necessarily representative of the people of God in the rest of the world. The kingdom span all nations and all time. And worldwide, the Gospel is advancing!” And that is true, by the way.

For instance, in 2005 Iran had around 40,000 ethnically Iranian believers, not counting any missionaries. Today that number is somewhere between 500,000 and a million. That’s 25x expansion of the kingdom in 15 years. Praise God!

Do you see how orienting yourself around the Kingdom changes the way you think? It corrects so many errors, including that “woe is me, all is lost.”

It changes how we worship. It’s Fourth of July Weekend. Do you know why we’re not singing My Country Tis of Thee or have Old Glory waving in the background this morning? It’s not because any of those things are bad or wrong, not at all. I almost always tear up when I hear the Star Spangled Banner played. God’s plan was for me to be born in DuQuoin, Illinois, USA, and I am grateful that it was.

But when we gather here together on Sunday morning, we’re doing so as the people of God, and we‘re dealing in much higher realities than the kingdoms of this world, eternal realities. We are here to celebrate a kingdom who’s “Shot Heard Round the World” was a Roman hammer hitting the nails on an old rugged cross, and our declaration of our independence came three days later when the stone than rolled away on Easter morning!

And now this chosen race is spread all across the world, brothers and sisters all across the globe coming together on this day to worship our risen King! Being part of the Kingdom of God doesn’t negate gratefulness to be part of this great nation. But it does supersede it.

Anyone else get discouraged when you look at the current state of affairs in the world? Oh, but then you remember,

“Wait a second, I am part of a kingdom that will never end. The US economy may be in for a long slump, but the Kingdom has never had a down quarter. And King Jesus promised that the Father knows everything I need, and if I seek first His Kingdom, he’ll supply everything I need.”

Honestly, I think the reason we could feel discouraged about the Western church, the reason it might make us feel that way, is because the church has lost its distinctiveness. There should be an otherworldliness to people who are citizens of another world.

We’ve wanted so desperately to claim as our birthright acceptance into this culture, when Scripture is abundantly clear that it’ll never happen—not without sacrificing the truth in the process.

The Church of Jesus Christ should be distinct, separate from the world—in it, but obviously not of it. Not playing by it’s rules of wielding power and influence at the expense of integrity. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood.”

It’s only by being the distinct people of God that the Church can regain its prophetic voice to speak the truth to the world.

Here to declare the praises of God.