Now We Are God's People

RECAP LAST WEEK

1 Peter 1:1 NIV

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,

1 Peter 22-2:10

1 Peter 1:22–2:10 NIV

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you. 1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

As I was studying for this week’s message, I found myself thinking quite a bit about the three words that Dr. Daniels uses in chapter 2 of his book. Separation, Filling, and Blessing. These are themes that as we think about how God interacts with his creation, namely us humans, that emerge over and over again.

God created us unique. We are different than all other living creatures that God created. We have an intellect that is superior, however, we are also the only part of God’s creation created in His image and His likeness. In our original state (before sin messed things up), we were a reflection of God himself. In fact, God was so set on providing a way for us to be restored to himself and to reflect his image again, that he sent Jesus to the cross to provide a path of redemption for us.

However, our story does not end when we get saved. It is vital that we are in relationship with Jesus, but that is not supposed to be the end of our spiritual stories. In fact, our stories are really part of God’s overall story, and as followers of Jesus, we need to understand that.

Let’s take a look at this idea that our stories really are part of a larger overall story. In Joshua 24, Joshua is about to lead the people into the Promised Land. He gives them one more sermon recounting the story of the Exodus: “God led your ancestors through the sea, but God brought you to the other side” (paraphrase). He plays with the pronouns, narrating children and grandchildren into a story that is their ancestors’ story to remind them that their ancestors’ story is their story. The people respond with understanding: For “he is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (v. 16, CEB, emphasis added).

So a question for us to consider is this: when we read Scripture, are we pulling out two or three principles or are we trying to figure out how we narrate ourselves into the story? We want to narrate ourselves into the story of exile, even though we know exile is not a perfect metaphor. As we talked last week, we haven’t gone anywhere. (In the biblical exile, Nebuchadnezzar takes the people into captivity.) Unlike the people of Judah who were forced into exile, we as Christians still have a lot of influence on today’s culture - even if it doesn’t seem we do.

We know there are people in our world who really are marginalized and living in present-day exile. This is happening in many parts of the world and we need to realize that this metaphor of exile is very real for many of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We risk responding to the story of exile, the loss of something, by fighting desperately to make sure we don’t lose it. We are seeing this play out in many ways right before our eyes. Many Christians today are putting their hope in other things, whether it is one political party or another, or maybe it is a particular leader, or maybe it is our safety and security, or maybe it is one of any number of things.

Narrating ourselves into the story of exile helps us to read the prophets anew by putting on different glasses, looking at things through a different set of lenses.

Babylonian exile: Nebuchadnezzar is not just an oppressor and an idolater but also someone God sends to re-form his people.

First-century Rome: Dispersion of the people and destruction of the temple are not just tragedies but good news. (First Peter was written to the “exiles of the Dispersion” [1:1, NRSV] or the “exiles scattered” [v. 1, NIV] either right before or right after the destruction of Jerusalem.)

Walter Brueggemann writes in this book The Land: Place as Gift, Promise and Challenge in Biblical Faith, “Exile is the way to new life in new land. One can scarcely imagine a more radical, less likely understanding of history. In covenantal categories, embrace of curse is the root to blessing. In New Testament categories, embrace of death is the way to life. . . . Jeremiah announces the central scandal of the Bible, that radical loss and discontinuity do happen and are the source of real newness. So he holds what surely must have been a minority view, that the exiles are the real heirs. And conversely those who cling to the land are the ultimate exiles” (Walter Brueggemann, The Land: Place as Gift, Promise, and Challenge in Biblical Faith [Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002], 115, emphasis added).

When we narrate ourselves into the story of exile, God helps us get over our “we” confusion. First Peter uses metaphors to narrate the people into the story of exile. Let’s spend a few minutes navigating these metaphors and thinking about the idea that these building metaphors are to describe the kind of people that believers are to come.

Let’s look at versus 5 & 6. We see both a “spiritual temple” and “living stones” mentioned, but notice that there is a cornerstone - Jesus Christ, the one that we can trust in all things (2:5-6, CEB) —we are now the place where heaven and earth intersect and from which the glory of God radiates out into the world. There is something else I want us to notice in these verses. There is an incredible metaphor here for us to catch. Notice that we are mentioned as living stones - but not just as a single stone, but that we are built together into a spiritual house. This again points to the necessity and the expectation that believers are together as a corporate body in unity - connected together, the place where God is found. We are built together as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. This points not to the office of priest, but that we are all to function as priests - this points us not only to our salvation, but also to our obedience to God. We are to live a life of holiness - a life being set apart for God himself.

Let’s jump to verse 9. A “chosen race” (v. 9, CEB)—we are an entirely new “ethnos” made up of all kinds of cultures and ethnicities, but our unity in the body of Christ supersedes those old identities. We love to put people into categories - whether it is race, or social class, or economic class, or something else. Race is one that comes up quite a bit in our culture today. We hear lots of talk about immigration in the US. The conversation, no matter which side you are on, always seems to focus on how we should think about race from one perspective or another. But it is clear in 1 Peter, that when we are made new in Christ, we become part of another family, another race, another people. This group is only defined by our relationship with Jesus Christ. We are a people of all colors, all nationalities, all political beliefs, and any other signifier you can imagine. Praise Jesus!

Verse 9 presents a fourfold description of the people of God:

A chosen people - this represents a family or race based on a common origin, in this case God through the sacrifice of his son Jesus - a people set apart by the theme of new birth

A “royal priesthood” (v. 9, CEB)—we are priests to one another and priests to the world, representing God to the world and also representing the world back to God. We are all priests - we all enjoy a unique closenses to God if we have accepted his free gift of grace, as we perform our service in His honor in behalf of others. In other words, we grow deeper and our relationship grows closer when we serve him in obedience. Notice the difference from a “holy priesthood” to now a “royal priesthood?” This is because of who it is we serve, God himself. Our function derives from Christ’s kingship and a priestly one derived from his priesthood.

A “holy nation” (v. 9, CEB)—we are first and foremost God’s people and citizens of his kingdom. Holy is to be set apart. As followers of Jesus we are set apart for God in all we do - how we conduct ourselves and how we serve others in obedience to him.

A people belonging to God - as believers we belong to God - we are set apart for His purposes - we are claimed as his special possession.

When we narrate ourselves into exile, we find good news: “Once [we] weren’t a people, but now [we] are God’s people. Once [we] hadn’t received mercy, but now [we] have received mercy” (1 Pet. 2:10, CEB). This status should bring us joy and we should be humbled by it. We are only this special people because of God’s mercy revealed through Christ. We cannot do it on our own.

So the question I have for us to day is this - are we willing to live into the uniqueness that we are called to live into as followers of Jesus? As God’s people? We are to live embodying this holy alternative to the world and culture around us. We are to live in ways that show Christ to lost and broken people. We are to live into this uniqueness being filled with God’s healing presence in order to be sent out and serve others through that healing presence. We cannot serve others if we are not filled to overflowing ourselves.

Are we willing to truly live into this uniqueness as citizens of the Kingdom of God above everything else? Above our political affiliations? Even if it is messy? Even if it is difficult? Even if it isn’t safe?

We are God’s people - We are to live as the chosen people, the royal priesthood, the holy nation and a people belonging to God. Are we? Do we really reflect Christ in our day to day lives?

As we sing this last song, I invite you to pray and ask God if we are truly living into this holy alternative to the culture around us as God’s people - the unified body of Christ - in a world where we can so easily feel like resident aliens as followers of Jesus.

Let’s sing - Who You Say I Am - let’s reflect on our identity as followers of Jesus and children of the one true God as we sing this morning.

Pray