God’s Chosen People
History of the Messiah • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Have you ever had to speak identity over your child?
Maybe your child comes home one day and says “I’m dumb.” What do you do as a parent? You’re going to do everything in your power to correct that right away! “You are not dumb, you are smart, you’re kind, and I love you very much.” I think a core part of any person’s identity is the knowledge that they are loved, and that shapes how they act, view themselves, and how they choose to respond.
Did you know that God speaks identity over us?
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Sermon series
We are God’s treasured people
As we look at Scripture today we are going to see the fulfillment of promises from God to Abraham. We will see the faithfulness of God and the unfolding of the next phase of His great rescue plan. And we will see that we are God’s treasured people now. Here’s the thing, if you want to understand the significance of being one of God’s people now, you need to know this story. So we will see how their story here directly affects our own. For we, like they, are God’s treasured people.
The question is how? The first way is…
God’s People - Set Apart
God’s People - Set Apart
Let’s pick up the story from where we left off two weeks ago. Israel had just come out of Egypt, crossing the Red Sea. In chapters 16-18, we see God provide bread from heaven and water from a rock to care for His people as they journey in the wilderness. We see how Israel - once a rabble of slaves is able to defend herself because the Lord is fighting for her. I would encourage you to read these chapters in your devotional time. This brings us to chapter 19. Let’s read vv. 1-8 together.
On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
They set out from Rephidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain,
while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel:
‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.
All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
Center yourselves in this story with me. If you’re part of Israel at this moment, in the last three months you’ve crossed the Red Sea, fought a battle, seen bread fall from heaven and water come from a rock. You’re watching this rabble of slaves form into a nation. Then you get into the wilderness, and approach this mountain called Sinai. And here, the presence of God rests at the top of the mountain, and your leader Moses goes up to meet with this God that has been doing great things over the last weeks and months.
Notice how God starts the conversation with Moses, who is representing the people:
‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
This sort of saying is about to become the backbone for the covenant God is making with the people of Israel today. It is often summed up like this:
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
This phrase answers the question “why should we follow and obey this YHWH?” Because it is He who brought you out of Egypt. It is He who cares for you. So it is He you must follow. It’s amazing that here, God doesn’t demand worship and following by Israel just because He can. He reminds them of what He has done for them.
Now notice, God says
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
Here’s the thing about covenant: it is an agreement between two parties to do or not do something for each other. Here, YHWH comes to this people He has saved and offers them a covenant to make them His treasured possession. They would be His people, and His alone.
Do you know what is amazing about this? God offers Israel relationship. He doesn’t intimidate or oppress. Instead He offers Israel a voluntary agreement. For a covenant to work, both parties had to sign off. So, if Israel would enter into the covenant willingly, they would choose to be God’s holy nation, a kingdom of priests.
And remember the promise to Abraham, 500 years before? God promised Abraham to bless him, to make him into a great nation, and to bless all the nations of the earth through him. With Abraham, we saw God restoring two out of the three problems that occurred when humanity sinned. God promised to make a people for Himself, and give them a place. Now we see this happening! God comes to Moses as the representative for Israel and says “I’m making an agreement with you. I am the God who brought you out of Egypt. Follow my statutes and keep this covenant, and you will be my treasured possession. You will be My holy people.” Holy means set apart. Israel - God’s treasured people, would be set apart for Him.
How do the people respond?
All the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
The question becomes how? How would these people be set apart for God?
Well, let us travel forward through the next few chapters. Between chapters 20-23, we see God give what will later be known as the Book of the Covenant. This included The 10 Commandments, and different laws about social issues that would govern this new nation. Between this, the latter part of exodus describing the tabernacle and priests, and various worship system laws in Leviticus is what we now know as the Mosaic Law. In short:
It was made up of three parts: the Ten Commandments, the ordinances, and the worship system, which included the priesthood, the tabernacle, the offerings, and the festivals - Gotquestions.org
So let me ask you, what was the purpose of all of these laws? Was it to achieve perfection, or to put a crushing burden on the people in some way? No! In fact, the law serves a number of purposes:
God revealed Himself through it. We see His holy character clearly on display in it.
It set apart the nation of Israel as distinct from other nations. God’s laws that governed His people were different from other nations. They were actually very fair, and treated people much better than most other nations of the time.
Shows us our sinfulness, as Rom 3 20 says:
For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
Gives a way to forgiveness through sacrifice. This of course was limited, as the people had to continually bring animals for sacrifice.
Provides a way of worship.
The law is a good thing. It set the nation of Israel apart, revealing the character of the Holy God, and allowing Israel to live in right relationship with the Holy God. It set up Israel not just as a random group of people, but now a nation ruled by God and administered by the priests and prophets and judges. To the world around them, Israel would have looked mighty different. And that was a good thing, because through them God was revealing Himself to the world.
So we come to chapter 24, and God, having laid out the covenant stipulations and having promised to give Israel the land long awaited since Abraham, says:
Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar.
Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
Moses reads all the stipulations of this covenant to the people, and they respond:
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”
Then, to seal this with the people, we read:
And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
While we don’t have time to go into it all today, notice something very amazing about this chapter: God invites the elders of the people, and Moses their representative and leader, up to Him. This is a personal God, who wants to have personal relationship with His people.
and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.
And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.
Wow! They get a limited revelation of God! And they eat and drink in His presence! This is profound. This is the solemnizing of the agreement between God and His people. They are His, and He is theirs. They are His treasured possession, and they are His people, who shall serve Him alone. Wow! This moment will pave the way for what comes next. But before we go there, let’s remember our big idea:
We are God’s treasured people
We must ask: Who are God’s people today? Remember our starting verse:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Peter writes this not to ancient Israel, but to first century Christians, and indeed all who call upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! He says, “you are God’s chosen people, His treasured possession!”
Now, post-cross the requirement to be part of God’s people is to “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead…” (Romans 10:9, ESV). This is how we are saved and made right with God! Now those who are God’s come from every people group under heaven. Everyone who accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior becomes part of God’s treasured people.
As His chosen people now, we are called to the same as Israel did: to live in right relationship with God through faith in Christ, to be vassals of His revealed truth in this would.
We must live set apart.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
Remember Hebrews 11 6
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
We must come in faith, trusting in the mercy and grace of God for salvation. We put our faith in Jesus Christ. We live as people of faith, putting away sin and instead striving for the upward call in Jesus Christ, as Paul puts it. Here’s the cool thing about journeying with Jesus: He meets us where we are at, but doesn’t leave us stuck in our muck and sin! Instead takes us on a journey of faith in Him, transforming us more and more into his likeness through the Holy Spirit, even as He took Israel on a journey and formed them into His people. Praise God!
This is the first way we see God forming His treasured people: He sets them apart, forming a nation through His covenant and law that reveals His glory to the world. So today, as God’s people every Christian must live pleasing to God. Not to try and win God’s favor, but out of love for Him! For He has saved us, and bought us back as His treasured possession.
Yet as God’s people, set apart, we also experience something profound:
God Dwells with His People
God Dwells with His People
We now turn to Ex 25, because God is not done giving Moses instruction. Prior to this, the elders of Israel has gone back down the mountain, but Moses had stayed up on the mountain with God 40 days. So we get to Ex 25, and God tells Moses to take up a collection. Why?
Ex 25:8-9
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
Think back to COVID with me, say mid 2020. How many people here were using zoom calls for a lot of the work that they did? I know during those days we were online for everything at the Bible College. We went overnight from being present with each other, hanging out, laughing together, studying, etc. to simply being alone staring at faces on a screen.
Even if zoom wasn’t your reality, it’s funny how COVID really taught us something about presence. Presence is important. When two people are romantically involved, they want to be together - they want to be in each other’s presence! That’s what makes the long distance thing so hard!
Now, did you catch what God just said to Moses? Moses, build me a sanctuary. I’m going to show you the pattern, build the tabernacle to those specs.
We CANNOT miss this significance of this! God has already brought His people out of slavery. He’s turned them into a nation, offering them a beautiful covenant. They are His treasured possession. He has done this so that He might now dwell among them, because He is a personal God who desires fellowship with His creation. He says “I’m going to dwell with you!” Wow!!
This is significant, and here’s why: Think back to Genesis 3 8
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
This moment is incredibly sad, because humanity has sinned. But did you notice, prior to our sinning humanity dwelt in the place of God, as the people of God, with God. They would stroll with Him in the cool of the day! Wow!
Yet we read at the end of Gen 3:
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Ever since then, we’ve been tracing God’s great rescue plan down through history. Here, in this moment we see something amazing happen: The people of God (Israel) looking to go into the land God gives them, and God Himself is going to live with them in their midst. Literally, the word tabernacle or Miskan in Hebrew means place of dwelling (so Richter)! How amazing this is! God is going to dwell with His people. And as they live, so will He. They dwell in tents, and so shall He. Later, when the people are firmly established in the land, King Solomon builds the Temple for God, even as the Israelites now have permanent homes.
This is amazing. God is dwelling with His people. With them, in their space. We see here such restoration of what has been lost, and foreshadowing of the greater realities of restoration to come. But notice something:
Diagram of Tabernacle
Did you notice how the Tabernacle was set up? Here’s the interesting thing: The closer we get to God’s presence in this setting, the more restricted it gets. The outer court any worshipping Israelite could come in. They needed to be ritually clean. Inside the Holy Place only clean priests could go. It was separated by a beautifully woven purple curtain. Then the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence rested on the ark of the covenant! This was accessible just once a year, and only by the high priest. It was separated by a curtain of purple with cherubim on it. This high priest wore bells at the bottom of his robe when he went in so that they could hear him moving and be assured he hadn’t been stuck down for being unclean in some way. Even the furnishing got progressively more luxurious the closer to God’s presence one went.
There is so much we could get into about this that we simply do not have time for today. So for today, see God’s heart: That He chooses to dwell with His people. Yet also notice the seriousness of sin and the desperate need we have for a Savior. While God dwelt with His people, access to His actual presence was very restricted. Once a year, one man could enter for a period of time and bring sacrificial blood. Do you see our desperate need for One to truly make the way clear again to God. How will this happen? For now, I’ll simply leave you with Gen 12 3
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Israel makes the tabernacle, it’s furnishing and coverings, and consecrates the priests. So we end the book of Exodus as followings:
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out.
But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up.
For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.
Now, remember our big idea:
Big Idea: We are God’s treasured people
Part of being God’s people is that He chooses to tabernacle, to dwell with you. Here friends, is where we must understand just how good our God is. Turn with me to Acts chapter 2 for a moment.
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Wait, what? If we’re reading this right, something different is happening here. Does God still dwell with His people? Yes. But where, in a temple? No. In a church building? No! but in each and every Jesus-follower!
How can this be???
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
Matthew writes this that when Christ died upon the cross, the curtain that separated the most holy place in the temple was torn open. People could see inside, for the first time the pathway to God was cleared. Yet how was it torn? Not bottom to top, but top to bottom. As if some giant pair of hands ripped it in two the moment Jesus declared “It is finished!”
See that’s how good our God is friends! He calls Israel out of Egypt, He fights their battles, He stays true to His promises, and He forms them into a nation! He reveals Himself to them and through them. And He says “I’m going to dwell with you.” And yet that is just a glimpse at what we know as reality today! For now, with the curtain torn in two and the way cleared, we experience God’s presence not from a distance, but living inside of us. We are filled with the presence of God, even as we wait for the day when we will see Him face to face. As God’s treasured people, we now experience Him in close personal relationship. Because God dwells with His people.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We are God’s treasured people
The big question to ask is how? How does it look to be God’s people? To understand our story we need to understand the story of Israel. And in doing so we see two main ways that God’s treasured people are different:
They are set apart. God calls them to be different then the nations around them. He invites them into this covenant agreement where He cares for them as His people, and they worship and obey Him as God. From rabble to nation, God forms His people, and sets them apart for Himself. Reveals Himself to them, and through them to the world! So today we too are set apart. Called to a life of faith and obedience, and God makes us more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.
God dwells with them. God told Israel to build Him a tabernacle - a dwelling. Here He would live - for the first time since Eden - on Earth with His people. How incredible. Yet we see the realities of sin still present, as access to His presence is very restricted. However, this is a foreshadowing of what is to come. We experience a beautiful new reality through Jesus Christ. Through Him, redeemed and forgiven, God pours out His Holy Spirit not on a church building or a temple, but on us - His people. And we wait with hope for the coming reality of dwelling with Him face to face forever in eternity.
We are God’s treasured people
That’s the identity God speaks over you. He says “you are mine. You are my treasured possession.”
Remember 1 Pe 2 9-10
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
He calls you to put your trust in Jesus Christ. You can’t earn favor with God, just like the people in Israel couldn’t buy favor from God. Instead, God rescued them, and He offers the same for us here today.
If you are here today, and you do not know what it means to put your faith in Jesus, please understand: God calls to you, offering you hope and eternal life. He offers you hope and help for right now. If you’re thinking “man, something is missing in my life” there would be a reason. You need Jesus. He wants to accept you into His treasured people, pour the Holy Spirit out on you, and transform you. He wants to give you real life! Not an easy life, but real life!
Maybe you’re here and you know what it means to be forgiven. You have accepted Christ’s love and mercy and have put your faith in Him. You are His treasured possession. He speaks new life and identity over you, and He calls you to a life set apart for Him. He pours His Spirit out upon you!
So, three things:
Do you know Jesus as Savior and Lord? Do you want to be part of God’s treasured people?
Are you living set apart? Sometimes, our world likes to creep into our lives. Is there an area where sin has crept in, and God is speaking to you about taking it out?
Do you desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit even more? Ask God to pour out His Spirit upon you, for His glory!
References
Richter, S. (2008) Epic of Eden. Intervarsity Press.
Oswalt, J. N. Exodus. In Comfort, P. W. (2008). Cornerstone Biblical Commentary (Vol 1). Tyndale House Publishers
https://www.gotquestions.org/Mosaic-Law.html)
