WHO ARE WE CHURCH?

Passport: who we are matters. Birth Certificate.(story of this)

Who are we church? The world is asking that question right now. Is the church just another political party? Is the church just another social group? Is Christianity just another philosophical idea?

The answer to all of those is no. Do Christians engage in politics, yes, do we help our communities, yes, do we have philosophical truths to share with the world. Yes. But that is not WHO WE ARE. Some of the things we do, but not WHO WE ARE.

1 Peter 2:9: “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.”

Peter is talking to a group of people who have been misplaced all over the Roman Empire. They were lost, confused, many of them had been forced to leave their homes, and because of all of this, they struggle to remember who they were. Peter explains how the cultures around them don’t obey the Gospel, and they stumble over the preaching of the cross, BUT THEN he reminds them of who they ARE!

But you are a CHOSEN RACE

God’s election. This word in the Greek means “to elect” to choose. If you think about when someone marries someone, they choose this person for themselves. And the Bible reminds us church family, the church, God’s people is the result of God’s choosing. God has chosen a people for Himself. When you look at the Bible, God’s election and God’s love are so closely interlinked, so that in the divine, lavish love of God, He has chosen to form a people for Himself.

RACE: right now how much do people talk about race? Race is usually meant to divide, to separate, or to draw into different social classes. But here Peter says that God has formed a new race. It is not based upon skin color, upon ethnicity, or about socio economic class, but it is based upon faith in Jesus. He is speaking to these displaced Christians and reminding them that they belong to a body, to a people, to a new race.

Story of multicultural men and women worshipping together, because God is forming a new people for Himself. CityLight different ethnicities here, but worshipping together as one BODY.

ROYAL PRIESTHOOD:

priests did: served and represented God

priests do now: now every beleiver has access to God, through Jesus Christ. We don’t need another mediator. There is only one mediator. There are other religions where you have to go find the holy man to pray for you, or find the priest to make an offering on your behalf, but here church family, through the Gospel we all have this access to our Father, we stand beofre Him and serve Him. But we also represent Him to the people around us.

God has called you to be an ambassador to the people around you. Maybe a story of not doing this well?

Holy NATION:

God’s kingdom supercedes all other kingdoms and nations. Our greatest loyalty should not be to the nation we have our passport with, but God’s kingdom. And God’s kingdom supercedes all our nations, not by squeezing them out, but by bringing them altogether through His saving grace. So that as Revelation says, every tribe, every nation, every tongue will be represented in God’s kingdom.

A people for His possession: we exist for Him.

A Living Hope: A Commentary on 1 and 2 Peter The Living Stone and the New Israel (2:1–10)

In a Philadelphia museum you can see a pair of glasses that belonged to Thomas Edison.

A Living Hope: A Commentary on 1 and 2 Peter The Living Stone and the New Israel (2:1–10)

Their worth derives from ownership

You are His possession. God is not our possession, but we are His. As we look at the tragedy in Afghanistan and we pray and intercede for our brothers and sisters there, what the Bible tells us today is that the Christians in Afghanistan do NOT BELONG to the Taliban. They do not BELONG to any government, but they ARE God’s POSSESSION, NO ONE can snatch them out of His hand.

Isaiah 43:1 CSB

Now this is what the Lord says— the one who created you, Jacob, and the one who formed you, Israel— “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine.

Proclaiming the praises of God: everything we do. Jesus’ name would be unignorable here in the streets of Linkou, in Taiwan, ect.

Out of darkness: the church is not perfect people who Jesus makes better. Please if you think the Gospel is just Jesus making you better, you are mistaken. The Gospel is not about Jesus making a good person better, it is about bringing a dead person back tp life. All of us were stuck in bondage in darkness. We did not see clearly, we did not think clearly, we did not believe rightly. But then Jesus, much like He did to Lazarus, called out your name, my name, and called us to rise into new life and walk into His marvelous light. Some people accuse Christianity of a step or dive into ignorance and blindness, but actually quite the opposite. It is only, as C.S. Lewis said, when we see things through the Son, do we see things rightly. ““I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.””God is calling some of you right now.

God’s people, God’s possession, and we exists for God’s purposes.

The church is who SHE IS because God is who HE IS.