The Work of Priests

Intro

Last week, we spent time in 1 Peter 2.4-10 looking at our identity in Christ as living stones, and diving in to the Person of the Holy Lord and Christ, Jesus, as the Living Stone and Cornerstone of our faith.

We honed in on the fact that everything about our faith is totally hinged upon Him, and that our entire lives must be built around and dependent on Jesus!

This week, we are going to stay in the same passage, but we are going to look at part of our work as God’s people — a holy nation of royal priests.

1 Peter 2:4–10 CSB

4 As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God—5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame. 7 So honor will come to you who believe; but for the unbelieving, The stone that the builders rejected— this one has become the cornerstone, 8 and A stone to stumble over, and a rock to trip over. They stumble because they disobey the word; they were destined for this. 9 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. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Spiritual Sacrifices

Honing in on 1 Pet. 2.5

1 Peter 2:5 CSB

5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

and 1 Pet. 2.9-10

1 Peter 2:9–10 CSB

9 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. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

These two specific verses tell us something very important — each member of God’s Church is not only a living stone building His Temple, but we are also the priests within the Temple of the Holy God offering sacrifices to Him!

Letreuo — Priestly Work

The foremost duties of the priests are to sacrifice (that is to praise God) and to teach others about Him.

In the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Leviticus, we find what is commonly called the Sacrificial System.

It is thus called because, just as it sounds, it is the system of sacrifices which Israel was to offer unto the LORD God.

This system very meticulously covers what animals are to be used, how to sacrifice them, when to sacrifice them, where to sprinkle the blood of the animals, and so on.

In these sacrifices, the offerer would bring their sacrifices to the Tabernacle or Temple, if it was an animal they would kill it themselves and sometimes even skin and wash it, then it would be passed onto the Priests to sprinkle blood onto the altars and offer the sacrifice.

These sacrifices (grain, pouring, burnt, etc.) were all manners through which Israel worshipped and dwelt in fellowship with God. Each of the had different specific meanings and reasons for being offered, but at the end of the day, the common person did not get the privilege of directly offering the worship and sacrifice to God.

One of the Privileges to the Christian is that each of us now offer “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God in Christ Jesus”.

For the next few moments, I want us to look at a couple of specific spiritual sacrifices which we as God’s priests are called to offer unto Him!

Praise

As we look at our roles as priests of Almighty God, first we will see a little about praise. There are several ways whereby we offer spiritual sacrifices through Christ to the Father, but, for lack of time, we will only consider a few:

Song, Prayer, Thanksgiving

Hebrews 13:15–16 CSB

15 Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

What is the “fruit of lips that confess His name”?

This is our song, lifted to God in Christ Jesus from the contrite and honest heart.

It is the prayer offered in sincere faith and love. Rev. 5.8

Revelation 5:8 CSB

8 When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

It is the thanksgiving we give in all things, fulfilling the will of Christ in our lives

What about “doing good and sharing”?

This is our service one to another! The word is koinonia and it means fellowship or sharing — when we share our goods together (meaning we provide for the needs of the Body as we are able) it is an act of worship, a sacrifice, to God!

1 John 3:16–18 CSB

16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.

Giving Our Bodies to the Lord

Romans 12:1–8 CSB

1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. 3 For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. 4 Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, 5 in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. 6 According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; 7 if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; 8 if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.

There are two things here I believe.

Firstly, the giving of our bodies is reminiscent of the whole burnt offerings from the Levitical Systems — these sacrifices were among, if not the, most prolifically offered in the Old Covenant System.

It was not for atonement or forgiveness of sins, it was not necessarily a thank offering, it was not a sin offering, it was not a free-will offering to God.

It was a sacrifice of the finest domesticated animal available to the offerer to say that, “Just as this animal is entirely burnt and its smoke given up to God, so I want my life to be totally consumed and consecrated for God’s pleasure.”

It also is a celebration of the worshippers fellowship with God because one could only offer this if his sins were forgiven and atoned for!

What does this mean?

We give our whole lives to God as worship to Him — a sacrifice. As we are built around Christ as our Cornerstone, our whole lives are to be given unto the pleasure of our God.

How? Through service, mercy, speaking truth, giving, teaching...

These are all gifts given by the Spirit as He decides to give each one. My gifts may not be yours, and that’s the point! Many Christians very sadly nearly never give themselves to the use of their gifts because they don’t know what they are; yet, we cannot be given as a living sacrifice w/out employing what the Spirit gave us by His grace!

Inventory

Next week we will take a look at the second major function of priests — to teach!

For now, let’s look at what we have seen this morning about offering sacrifices:

Singing

Where are our hearts and minds as we sing to God?

How are we giving Him this praise during the rest of the week?

Thanksgiving

How truly thankful are we? Do we focus on our problems more than on God’s everlasting mercies?

Prayer

How consistent, how deep, are our prayer lives? Are we praising God through prayer during the week? Are we seeking to spend time just to be in His presence?

Lifestyle

How well are our lives conformed to the image of Christ? Have we given ourselves wholly to this work of God within us? Is Christ the effective and true Cornerstone of our lives?

Gifts

Are we using our grace-given gifts from the Spirit? Do we even know what they are? How are we giving ourselves to good stewardship of what we’ve been given?

As I said, there are plenty of other ways in which we offer spiritual sacrifices unto God in Christ — But for the sake of time this morning it seemed that these would have the best time spent this morning.

Family, I know you know this, but if we want to grow we have to be a sincerely discipled people here. Take inventory of yourself, and discover where among these areas you need to repent and grow in — and then let’s get about our business together praising God and living in fellowship w/ Him!