A Chosen Nation
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This Is Who We Are: A Chosen Nation 1 Peter 2:4-12 Cascades Fellowship CRC January 13, 2002 I found out something about preaching this weekend. A mind-numbing realization, really. The sort of thing that revolutionizes the way one carries on in the preaching profession. Are you ready for this? I found out how important words are for preaching. And all God’s people said “Well-duh!”
Let me explain a little more about
how this realization came to me, then perhaps you will experience the same epiphany. Cleophus LaRue, a Baptist African-American preacher, came to this latest worship symposium to share with the gathering of God’s diverse and multi-faceted people the elements and excitement of what he called “black preaching.” He immediately disarmed us by saying that asking a black preacher to limit himself to five minutes was nigh on to impossible – it takes five minutes for a black preacher to clear his throat! And while we were still chuckling, he launched into a minisermon on the term “church of God” as Paul used it in his greeting to the Corinthians. For five magical minutes, the whole multitude gathered in Calvin’s chapel hung on every word Cleophus spoke. “Amen,” slipped past the lips of even the stodgiest Dutch guy in the audience as Pastor LaRue exhorted us from the Word of God. And it was just that – the Word. A word. Drawing simply upon the Paul’s
audacity to call the sin-ridden, infighting, arrogant, abusive gathering of ragtag believers in Corinth the church, Cleophus spoke passionately about the nature of God’s people and our task in the world. Incredible. One word – five minutes. My heart leapt between inflamed passion and envy for the gift this man displayed. One word – five minutes! And in that five minutes he tied that one word, legitimately, to no less than four separate passages of Scripture. He explicated that one word beautifully from the Scriptures so that every person present had the same picture in their hearts concerning the church that Cleophus LaRue carried into the chapel that morning. It was a masterful sermon, short and sweet. And it was all based upon one word. Words are important for preaching. No less in our passage today than in the greeting Paul offers to the Corinthian church that Pastor LaRue spoke about to such great effect. But this morning I am not going to try and emulate the gift of Cleophus LaRue – such an effort on my part would at best would make me look pretentious and silly. I am not going to explicate for you just one word of the passage. But there is a strand of parallel nominative clauses that Peter uses in v.9 of our passage that I want us to consider. There are six words – grouped into three descriptive phrases – I would like to preach on this morning. From 1 Peter 2:9 I would like us to consider the following words: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.” To understand these words as Peter offers them, we first need to think about who offers them and from what source he draws them. We then need to think
about to whom he offers them and what they signify to these people. Finally, we will look at them in their context to discover what they say to us as the church. So, who is this man named Peter? Simon Barjona or Simon the son of Jona, brother of Andrew was a fisherman along the coast of the Sea of Galilee. One of the first disciples Jesus called, listed first in every list of the apostles. Peter, along with James and John Zebedee formed the inner circle of Christ’s closest friends upon the earth. Peter seemed to have preeminence, however, it was he who spoke for all the disciples when Jesus asked the question, “Who do you say that I am?” It was Peter who cried out “You are the Messiah!” It was Peter who, dazed by the glory of the Lord, suggested after the transfiguration that the disciples build three booths – one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus – and remain on the mountaintop to worship. It was Peter who charged forward to defend Christ, only to miss the mark, simply loping off Malchus’s ear instead of his head. It was Peter who denied the Lord three times, and then wept bitterly when he came to his senses and realized what he had done. When Mary came to tell the news that Jesus had risen, it was Peter who went into the tomb to examine the grave clothes. It was Peter who stood in the midst of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and called the nation to repentance and belief in Jesus Christ. A call 3,000 are recorded as responding to. But more importantly, at least for the purposes of our discussion this morning, Peter was a Jew. Trained in Torah, versed in the Scriptures. Aware of
and eager for the fulfillment of the Scriptures concerning the Messiah. Peter, a son of Abraham, a member of the House of Israel, a child of the covenant. A worshipper of the one true God and imprinted by the words of Moses recorded in Exodus 19:5-6 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Sound familiar? He also would be familiar with the idea of a chosen nation. For God told Israel in Deuteronomy 7:7 that he chose Israel for himself – to be their God and for them to be his people. So the terms that Peter uses here in v.9 do not come out of some theological vacuum. He did not sit down one day to right a letter to the churches and say, “Oo! Oo! I got a great way to describe the church! I know exactly what I will say!” Peter did not draw these word pictures out of his own creative efforts. He had heard them before. They had a context – one of which he would be perfectly aware as he applied them to the church. They were words that defined a particular community – the people of God. Take a moment to let that sink in. Let the thought percolate – sift through it carefully to draw out its fullest flavor. A Jew, a son of Abraham, calls the Christians he is writing to a chosen people, just as God called Israel a chosen people. A Jew calls the believers in Christ a royal priesthood, a holy nation – a people belonging to God. Words ripped right out of the Book of Moses – the story
of Exodus. The same guy whose Jewish nationalism led him to be rebuked by both God and the apostle Paul calls the church a chosen people. Imagine that. Okay, so the speaker is Peter. No surprise there. And he’s a Jew – that’s great. So what? The fact that he is a Jew colors the way he understands the words he offers to his audience – to the church, to you and me. Because of his Jewish heritage, Peter understands the way he describes the church is the way God views his covenant people – his chosen people. Folks, we are talking about nothing short of a complete paradigm shift for Peter. By virtue of using these words, Peter indicates to his audience that he recognizes that in Christ the covenant community has been redefined. Israel is no longer synonymous with the Jewish people. God’s chosen people are those in whom the testimony of Jesus Christ has found good soil in which to take root and is transforming their lives. This realization becomes even more astonishing when you realize to whom Peter is writing. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1:1-2: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Who is Peter describing here? The people Peter is describing in his introduction is known as the Diaspora – the dispersed.
It was term used to refer to the Jewish people dispersed
throughout Persia and Asia Minor after Babylon sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the original Temple. When the second Temple was built under Nehemiah and Ezra, the Jews scattered throughout this region of the world did not come flocking back into their homeland. Only a remnant of the Jewish people returned. The rest remained in exile, making pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the major feasts and holy days. That is the reason why there were so many people with different languages in Jerusalem during the time of Pentecost.
If you remember, everyone was
amazed because they heard the Gospel in their own tongue.
The people in
Jerusalem at that time were the Diaspora – the dispersed. Out of the Diaspora came the 3,000 that heard and believed the message Peter preached after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And these people went back to their homes, the seed of the Gospel firmly rooted in the soil of their hearts just bursting to produce fruit. So it is to the churches of the Diaspora that Peter is speaking – churches that have long since outgrown a solely Jewish constituency. Within their midst are Gentiles. Yet, all have been chosen by God … through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. To use such strong language pertaining to election – to God’s choosing – only illustrates all the more God’s choosing a new people, a people of faith, for himself.
Again, let me ask you to just pause for a moment and consider what is being said. A Jew is referring to a church made up of Jews and Gentiles in the same language God used to identify his people Israel. This is huge, because the words that Peter speaks go right to the core of what it means to be Israel. It means to be separated from the rest of fallen humanity for the special purpose of God. It means that we not only have an identity, but a task. What is this task? To answer, let me narrow the focus a little and speak more specifically about one of the pictures that Peter offers in our text – a royal priesthood. Now when Peter wrote the words “a royal priesthood” concerning the church, he had a particular view of what a priest was. In his mind, he would have had firmly fixed the picture of a Levitical priest who ministered in the Temple. There were two primary functions that a priest performed. The first was that he represented God to the people. In the Temple service, it was on the lips of the priest that the words of God’s Law came to life – from the mouth of the priest came Torah. And to the Jew, Torah was life. It was the food his spirit fed on and was nourished. After the sacrifice was offered on the altar, it was the priest who came out from the presence of God to deliver the words of forgiveness and restoration to the people.
People of God, priests of the Living God. You sit now in the presence of God. He is in this place. The sacrifice on behalf of the people has already been made in Jesus Christ and God has assured us that in so far as we trust and believe that Christ died for us and was raised on the third day, our sin is forgiven. We have the words of life now on our lips – we can boldly proclaim God’s forgiveness to a broken world. What will you do when you leave this place? Will you bring the good news to the people that in Christ we are forgiven? That is our task as priests. We are to go forth into all the world proclaiming the good news. We are to declare the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. The second function of the priest was to represent the people before God. When the sacrifice for sin was offered, it was the priest who took the blood of the animal into the Holy of Holies before the mercy seat of God to make intercession on behalf of the people. It was the priest who brought the blood into the dwelling place of God to sprinkle it upon the altar and to plead the people’s case before God. In many ways, it was the priest who stood in the gap between the people and the Holy One Israel. People of God, priests of the Living God, by the blood of Christ we have entered into the Holy of Holies. We stand before the altar even now, sprinkled by the blood of Christ. For whom are you making intercession? For whom are you
beseeching God to extend the marvelous grace we know in Jesus Christ? This is our task. This is who we are: a chosen nation – a nation of priests. When I began to form this sermon, I had something completely different in mind.
But that was before I realized how important words are.
A chosen
generation. A royal priest hood. A holy nation. A people belonging to God. Phrases that in the mouth of a Jew take on incredible shape and content. Words that remind us that we are chosen for a purpose, a task. To show forth the praises of him. To be priests. If you haven’t begun already, begin to carry out your priestly duties this week. Represent God to the people. Tell them about the darkness you were in and how God took you out of darkness and placed you in his marvelous light. Begin to pray, to intercede on behalf of someone you know is in need of Christ. Be an advocate for them before God.
Let me explain a little more about
how this realization came to me, then perhaps you will experience the same epiphany. Cleophus LaRue, a Baptist African-American preacher, came to this latest worship symposium to share with the gathering of God’s diverse and multi-faceted people the elements and excitement of what he called “black preaching.” He immediately disarmed us by saying that asking a black preacher to limit himself to five minutes was nigh on to impossible – it takes five minutes for a black preacher to clear his throat! And while we were still chuckling, he launched into a minisermon on the term “church of God” as Paul used it in his greeting to the Corinthians. For five magical minutes, the whole multitude gathered in Calvin’s chapel hung on every word Cleophus spoke. “Amen,” slipped past the lips of even the stodgiest Dutch guy in the audience as Pastor LaRue exhorted us from the Word of God. And it was just that – the Word. A word. Drawing simply upon the Paul’s
audacity to call the sin-ridden, infighting, arrogant, abusive gathering of ragtag believers in Corinth the church, Cleophus spoke passionately about the nature of God’s people and our task in the world. Incredible. One word – five minutes. My heart leapt between inflamed passion and envy for the gift this man displayed. One word – five minutes! And in that five minutes he tied that one word, legitimately, to no less than four separate passages of Scripture. He explicated that one word beautifully from the Scriptures so that every person present had the same picture in their hearts concerning the church that Cleophus LaRue carried into the chapel that morning. It was a masterful sermon, short and sweet. And it was all based upon one word. Words are important for preaching. No less in our passage today than in the greeting Paul offers to the Corinthian church that Pastor LaRue spoke about to such great effect. But this morning I am not going to try and emulate the gift of Cleophus LaRue – such an effort on my part would at best would make me look pretentious and silly. I am not going to explicate for you just one word of the passage. But there is a strand of parallel nominative clauses that Peter uses in v.9 of our passage that I want us to consider. There are six words – grouped into three descriptive phrases – I would like to preach on this morning. From 1 Peter 2:9 I would like us to consider the following words: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.” To understand these words as Peter offers them, we first need to think about who offers them and from what source he draws them. We then need to think
about to whom he offers them and what they signify to these people. Finally, we will look at them in their context to discover what they say to us as the church. So, who is this man named Peter? Simon Barjona or Simon the son of Jona, brother of Andrew was a fisherman along the coast of the Sea of Galilee. One of the first disciples Jesus called, listed first in every list of the apostles. Peter, along with James and John Zebedee formed the inner circle of Christ’s closest friends upon the earth. Peter seemed to have preeminence, however, it was he who spoke for all the disciples when Jesus asked the question, “Who do you say that I am?” It was Peter who cried out “You are the Messiah!” It was Peter who, dazed by the glory of the Lord, suggested after the transfiguration that the disciples build three booths – one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Jesus – and remain on the mountaintop to worship. It was Peter who charged forward to defend Christ, only to miss the mark, simply loping off Malchus’s ear instead of his head. It was Peter who denied the Lord three times, and then wept bitterly when he came to his senses and realized what he had done. When Mary came to tell the news that Jesus had risen, it was Peter who went into the tomb to examine the grave clothes. It was Peter who stood in the midst of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost and called the nation to repentance and belief in Jesus Christ. A call 3,000 are recorded as responding to. But more importantly, at least for the purposes of our discussion this morning, Peter was a Jew. Trained in Torah, versed in the Scriptures. Aware of
and eager for the fulfillment of the Scriptures concerning the Messiah. Peter, a son of Abraham, a member of the House of Israel, a child of the covenant. A worshipper of the one true God and imprinted by the words of Moses recorded in Exodus 19:5-6 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Sound familiar? He also would be familiar with the idea of a chosen nation. For God told Israel in Deuteronomy 7:7 that he chose Israel for himself – to be their God and for them to be his people. So the terms that Peter uses here in v.9 do not come out of some theological vacuum. He did not sit down one day to right a letter to the churches and say, “Oo! Oo! I got a great way to describe the church! I know exactly what I will say!” Peter did not draw these word pictures out of his own creative efforts. He had heard them before. They had a context – one of which he would be perfectly aware as he applied them to the church. They were words that defined a particular community – the people of God. Take a moment to let that sink in. Let the thought percolate – sift through it carefully to draw out its fullest flavor. A Jew, a son of Abraham, calls the Christians he is writing to a chosen people, just as God called Israel a chosen people. A Jew calls the believers in Christ a royal priesthood, a holy nation – a people belonging to God. Words ripped right out of the Book of Moses – the story
of Exodus. The same guy whose Jewish nationalism led him to be rebuked by both God and the apostle Paul calls the church a chosen people. Imagine that. Okay, so the speaker is Peter. No surprise there. And he’s a Jew – that’s great. So what? The fact that he is a Jew colors the way he understands the words he offers to his audience – to the church, to you and me. Because of his Jewish heritage, Peter understands the way he describes the church is the way God views his covenant people – his chosen people. Folks, we are talking about nothing short of a complete paradigm shift for Peter. By virtue of using these words, Peter indicates to his audience that he recognizes that in Christ the covenant community has been redefined. Israel is no longer synonymous with the Jewish people. God’s chosen people are those in whom the testimony of Jesus Christ has found good soil in which to take root and is transforming their lives. This realization becomes even more astonishing when you realize to whom Peter is writing. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1:1-2: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Who is Peter describing here? The people Peter is describing in his introduction is known as the Diaspora – the dispersed.
It was term used to refer to the Jewish people dispersed
throughout Persia and Asia Minor after Babylon sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the original Temple. When the second Temple was built under Nehemiah and Ezra, the Jews scattered throughout this region of the world did not come flocking back into their homeland. Only a remnant of the Jewish people returned. The rest remained in exile, making pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the major feasts and holy days. That is the reason why there were so many people with different languages in Jerusalem during the time of Pentecost.
If you remember, everyone was
amazed because they heard the Gospel in their own tongue.
The people in
Jerusalem at that time were the Diaspora – the dispersed. Out of the Diaspora came the 3,000 that heard and believed the message Peter preached after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And these people went back to their homes, the seed of the Gospel firmly rooted in the soil of their hearts just bursting to produce fruit. So it is to the churches of the Diaspora that Peter is speaking – churches that have long since outgrown a solely Jewish constituency. Within their midst are Gentiles. Yet, all have been chosen by God … through the sanctifying work of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. To use such strong language pertaining to election – to God’s choosing – only illustrates all the more God’s choosing a new people, a people of faith, for himself.
Again, let me ask you to just pause for a moment and consider what is being said. A Jew is referring to a church made up of Jews and Gentiles in the same language God used to identify his people Israel. This is huge, because the words that Peter speaks go right to the core of what it means to be Israel. It means to be separated from the rest of fallen humanity for the special purpose of God. It means that we not only have an identity, but a task. What is this task? To answer, let me narrow the focus a little and speak more specifically about one of the pictures that Peter offers in our text – a royal priesthood. Now when Peter wrote the words “a royal priesthood” concerning the church, he had a particular view of what a priest was. In his mind, he would have had firmly fixed the picture of a Levitical priest who ministered in the Temple. There were two primary functions that a priest performed. The first was that he represented God to the people. In the Temple service, it was on the lips of the priest that the words of God’s Law came to life – from the mouth of the priest came Torah. And to the Jew, Torah was life. It was the food his spirit fed on and was nourished. After the sacrifice was offered on the altar, it was the priest who came out from the presence of God to deliver the words of forgiveness and restoration to the people.
People of God, priests of the Living God. You sit now in the presence of God. He is in this place. The sacrifice on behalf of the people has already been made in Jesus Christ and God has assured us that in so far as we trust and believe that Christ died for us and was raised on the third day, our sin is forgiven. We have the words of life now on our lips – we can boldly proclaim God’s forgiveness to a broken world. What will you do when you leave this place? Will you bring the good news to the people that in Christ we are forgiven? That is our task as priests. We are to go forth into all the world proclaiming the good news. We are to declare the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. The second function of the priest was to represent the people before God. When the sacrifice for sin was offered, it was the priest who took the blood of the animal into the Holy of Holies before the mercy seat of God to make intercession on behalf of the people. It was the priest who brought the blood into the dwelling place of God to sprinkle it upon the altar and to plead the people’s case before God. In many ways, it was the priest who stood in the gap between the people and the Holy One Israel. People of God, priests of the Living God, by the blood of Christ we have entered into the Holy of Holies. We stand before the altar even now, sprinkled by the blood of Christ. For whom are you making intercession? For whom are you
beseeching God to extend the marvelous grace we know in Jesus Christ? This is our task. This is who we are: a chosen nation – a nation of priests. When I began to form this sermon, I had something completely different in mind.
But that was before I realized how important words are.
A chosen
generation. A royal priest hood. A holy nation. A people belonging to God. Phrases that in the mouth of a Jew take on incredible shape and content. Words that remind us that we are chosen for a purpose, a task. To show forth the praises of him. To be priests. If you haven’t begun already, begin to carry out your priestly duties this week. Represent God to the people. Tell them about the darkness you were in and how God took you out of darkness and placed you in his marvelous light. Begin to pray, to intercede on behalf of someone you know is in need of Christ. Be an advocate for them before God.
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