Proclaim Hope!

ME

Hope filled life is a holy life - 1 Peter 1:15

Hope filled life is a living word fueled life.

A hope filled life is a life trusting in and serving the Master Architect! -

ME

It is great to be back home, I’m thankful that Alec and Don were able to fill in for me while I attended the Freed Hardeman Lectureships in Henderson Tennessee last week.

It was a pretty strange experience to meet my instructors and classmates that I’ve had in class over the last 3 years and to finally meet them face to face. So for the whole week I was introduced as the guy that graduates in May, yet had never been on campus until this week.

So for the whole week I was introduced as the guy that graduates in May, yet had never been on campus until this week.

But I’m also thankful to be back with you this week, because as I jokingly told Shambra, the lectureship was a whole lot of sitting and listening for a guy that is used to standing and talking. To which she responded, now you know how the rest of us feel!

No the truth is that going to events like that are an incredible boost to the soul because it’s a week of being around Christians non stop. I had the pleasure of staying in a house with two other preachers, and so after a full day of lectures and classes we’d come home around 8:30 in the evening and stay up until midnight talking about preaching and the kingdom of God. Go to sleep, wake up, and do it all over again. There was no TV to watch, no distractions (other than our phones), and for a week all who were there were able to focus solely on Christ and His Kingdom.

You know what it made me think about? It made me think of how the church is described at the end of

Acts 2:42–47 ESV

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Acts 2:42

You know what it doesn’t say that the church was doing?

It doesn’t say that they were worried sick over the politics of their time.

It doesn’t say that they were arguing with one another and with their friends and neighbors about their political leaders and the vast sins of the population that surrounded them.

Instead we see a group of people caring for one another, devoting themselves to the apostles teaching, and worshipping with glad and generous hearts.

They lived as a people set apart, united in their faith and their hope in Jesus Christ.

I wish every week could be like the week I was able to have last week. But as I got back home and began to catch up on the news that I’d missed I could feel tension and anxiety building back into me.

Hope filled life is a holy life -

Hope filled life is a living word fueled life.

A hope filled life is a life trusting in and serving the Master Architect! -

You know what I mean? I had this great week away from partisan politics, ruthless division, hatred and anger, and as I plugged back in it was almost as if I could feel weight being put back onto my shoulders.

I wish I could be less distracted all the time

And I thought, why do we allow these things to have so much power over our lives?

WE

We understand the answer to that question, because the truth is that we live in a world that is constantly trying to pull our attention away from spiritual matters and onto insignificant and wordly things don’t we?

We are blessed with a few precious hours on Sundays and Wednesdays where we are surrounded by fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, where we get to elevate our minds and hearts to God together as a family, but when we leave here where do our minds go?

Do we rush out of here, plant ourselves in front of the nearest television or reach for our phones to get plugged back into the mess that the world wants us to believe is important?

I think the answer is usually YES, that is exactly what we do. Instead of going out and proclaiming Christ to the world, we intently listen to the hate-filled nonsense that the world is proclaiming, and church there is NO HOPE in what the world is proclaiming.

There is no hope in the whitehouse, there is no hope in congress, there is no hope in the senate, there is no hope in the economy, a wall, in the courts or in wars! Our hope, our joy, our everything is in Christ.

I hope

As we’ve studied through first Peter since the beginning of the year, we’ve discussed how, a

Hope filled life is a life anchored in the resurrection of Christ. 1 Peter 1:3

Hope filled life is a holy life -

Hope filled life is a living word fueled life.

A hope filled life is a life trusting in and serving the Master Architect! -

There can be no doubt that a Christian life is to be a life of hope, and this morning as we turn to we will discover who exactly should be doing the proclaiming among the people in this world.

If you’ll turn in your Bibles with me this morning we’ll be reading from

GOD

You’ll recall I hope from a couple of weeks ago from verses 4-7 that we as the church are being built up as a spiritual house off of the cornerstone of Jesus Christ.

And in verse 8, which we didn’t get to last time, Peter quotes from

“A Stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

“The stone w

and states that these people stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

And in v. 8-9 Peter contrasts his Christian audience with those who disobey the word when he says

1 Peter 2:8–10 ESV

8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 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. 10 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.

1 Peter 2:8-

We are going to look this morning at these three groups of people Peter declares believers in Christ to be, we will identify what it takes to become part of those groups, and we will learn for what reasons those groups exist.

A Chosen Race

Peter first tells them that unlike those who stumble over the cornerstone, Christians are a chosen race. Now immediately the apparently gentile readers would have understood the Jewish history at play here. Paul has mentioned how the Jewish leaders rejected the cornerstone, and therefore stumble over Him in their foolishness and now the very things that they once claimed by a birthright belongs instead to a chosen race.

The word that Peter uses here is Genos, and it’s the word from which we get our english word Genes. And of course we are familiar with how races of people pass down their genetic code, dna that provides instructions to their cells that controls how people look physically. Our genes are responsible for our skin color, our stature, our eye and hair color and at one time it was this genetic link that made Israel the chosen race through whom all nations would be blessed.

That’s why it is so important that Matthew begins with the GENEalogy of Jesus. Because it was necessary to show that Jesus was of the chosen race and fulfilled the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But Now the chosen race is not only the physical descendants of Abraham, but as Paul says in

Romans 9:8 ESV

8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

Romans 9:

But not only are we a chosen race through faith, Peter says we are also a...

Royal Priesthood

As we’ve been going through the sacrifices of the Old testament on Wednesday evenings we’ve been reminded of the incredibly important role of the Levitical priesthood in the worship of the OT.

And in the same way that priesthood offered worship to God, we to as a royal or kingly priesthood are to offer our spiritual sacrifices in worship to God.

We’ve talked a little bit a couple of weeks ago about what it means to offer these spiritual sacrifices, what it means to worship what acts that involves.

Every day of the FHU lectureships every year there is an hour dedicated to a time called “Open Forum” where people can text or email in questions for a panel of three people to answer. This year one of the questions that was asked was, is giving considered worship?

You know,

And I thought brother Ralph Gilmore did an excellent job in answering the question when he said that because worship is that which we direct toward God that our giving is worship because we are giving it to God.

Just like everything else we’ve done here this morning, our prayers have been directed toward God, our singing, our remembrance and obedience to him in taking the lords Supper, our giving, and even know in our listening to the message he has to give us from his word ought to all be directed toward God!

You know, I’ve mentioned to several people since I got back from the lectureship that I was blessed to hear some of the blessed preachers in the brotherhood, and I’ve even joked that I hope to preach like some of them when I grow up.

But I don’t want to preach like them to make a name for myself or to be considered something great, I want to be the best I can be at proclaiming His message so that people can hear and understand Who God is, what he has done for them, and what he wants from them.

Trust me, I’m not up here for me, and if I ever get to the point that it becomes more about me than about communicating God’s word it’ll be time for me to step down.

We worship God in spirit and in truth and in so doing we are a holy priesthood.

Holy Nation

And last but certainly not least, we are a Holy Nation.

Now of the three groups mentioned here in , the nation group would have been understood to be the most inclusive.

What I mean by that is that when you look at the OT, you can see those outside of the gene pool of Abraham becoming members of the nation.

All that would have to happen is that males of the household who wanted to convert to Judaism would need to be circumcised and agree to live according to the law of God.

But there was no way that they would be considered members of racial Israel and certainly no way for them to become priests.

It’s kind of like how one can become a citizen of the United States even if they were not born here if they file the appropriate paperwork, pass the mandatory tests and background checks, and become a citizen.

But to this day there is a spot on most all legal paperwork for “Nationality” and what that means is that they are wanting to know to what nation where you born.

The Jews were to be holy, set apart, for His purposes.

Deuteronomy 7:6 ESV

6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

And in the same way we collectively as christians represent a group of people set apart and owned by God for his purposes. Meaning that there is a communal part to us as the church that has a responsibility to carry out God’s will.

In fact I believe that’s what Peter is telling us with all three of these groups.

You see under the old covenant, you had the nation which was made up of the descendants of Abraham and those who submitted to circumcision, and within that group you had races, tribes from the sons of Jacob from which their genes, genealogy, commenced. And within that group you had an even more exclusive group, the priests who were from the tribe of Levi.

Peter is saying, that was then, that was back when you were not a people, back before you had recieved mercy, but now ALL CHRISTIANS BELONG TO EVERYONE OF THESE ONCE EXCLUSIVE GROUPS.

And you haven’t been included in these groups for no reason, you’ve been added to PROCLAIM THE HOPE YOU NOW HAVE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.

Now you might say, wait, there’s no mention of hope here. Sure there is! In his excellencies there is hope, and in the very fact that we’ve been added to these groups there is hope.

Paul said it this way in

Ephesians 2:11–13 ESV

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

A hope filled life is a life that proclaims the excellencies of God!

YOU

Whatever Race you belong to in the flesh pales in comparison to the race you belong to in the spirit. Therefore you represent more than your fleshly race, you represent the chosen race! God’s kingdom is not made up only those who share certain physical DNA, but is it not expected that those of us who have been born again, been born of the water and of the spirit, immersed in water and raised to walk as a new creation bear the resemblance of that spiritual race in what we say, in what we do, and in how we worship?

In the same way all Christians are kingly priests, a word which even today holds a special title among the world as men who are to be special and different from the world. The question then for you today is how are you representing that priesthood? What would be said about a priest who is found to be cheating on his spouse? What would be said about a priest who cheats on his taxes? What would be said of a priest who skips out on worship? Christians you represent more than you often realize.

And finally brothers and sisters, we are called a holy nation. Now it’s no surprise to I’m sure that we once again find ourselves in an election year, and the level of division and turmoil in our country has reached levels that I’m not sure we will ever recover from if I’m honest.

In fact it’s gotten so bad that I read this week that according to a poll taken by the University of Massachusetts discovered that 64% of a certain political party in New Hampshire would prefer a meteor to wipe out all life on Earth than to endure a second term for our sitting president.

And just so you don’t think I’m picking on one side more than the other, I saw a shirt the other day that said on it, Jesus died for you, but [insert our current president’s name here] lives for you.

There’s so many things wrong with that statement that I don’t even know where to begin. But that’s how crazy things have gotten in this earthly nation.

Tell me church, does that arena sound like one of hope to you?

Here’s my point, As Christians we are members of a Holy Nation. In fact it’s the only nation that matters. If people look at us, if they look at our speech, our internet posts, our ball-caps and t-shirts and likes on social media and they see a republican, a democrat, a libertarian, an independent, before they see a citizen belonging to the kingdom of God, should that not prove to us that our priorities are off?

WE

Are we proclaiming the hope we have in Christ more than we proclaim our politics.

Are we proclaiming the hope we have in Christ more than we proclaim our what we do for a living?

Are we proclaiming the hope we have in Christ more than anything?

Because here’s what I believe we see from the faithful christians who lived in the first century, they didn’t sit around listening to the proclaiming of the world around them looking to the world for hope.

NO, church they PROCLAIMED HOPE TO THE WORLD AROUND THEM! THEY PROCLAIMED CHRIST because they understood that without Him there is no hope.

Church what would the world look like if instead of looking to politics, or education, or the economy, or technology, or medicines for hope, we stood up and proclaimed the excellencies of God? What if the world heard more from us about hope than it did from politicians and commercials on the TV?