A Kingdom of Priests

God did not save his people simply for their own sake. In this sermon, we consider how the Lord calls his Church to be a royal priesthood, proclaiming the good news of Christ to a world in need of hope, while relying not on our own strength but on the grace and faithfulness of God. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

I said that one for years and never realized this was in Psalms. 1914 if you look before it. Today most of y'all know that I don't preach very often, so bear with me, okay? Um I want to talk about basically the thread that I can see that ran all the way through these properties for the day. Is this too loud? Because it's way too loud for me. Okay? Not too loud. Okay, all right. It's not often that I see such a clear thread in the propers for a given day. Okay? But today, basically, we are God's people. We are stewards of that gospel and ambassadors of God to the world. It seems like an odd little thread, but you'll bear with me. I hope I can pull this together. I want to look at the what, the why, the when, the where, the how, and not very specifically, and sometimes I won't even mention those words, but sometimes I will. And try to bring us to an understanding of what it is we're called to do as Christians in this world, faithful Christians. Let's start with Exodus. Moses, the people of Israel, they're only a couple months, three months into their journeys through the wilderness. They're in the region of Sinai. Moses goes up, God tells Moses to tell the people, I delivered you from Egypt as on eagle's wings. I brought you, the people of Israel, out to be my people, my treasured possessions, and you shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. I don't know about y'all, but before I became a priest, that would have scared the poo out of me. Honestly. Have a whole kingdom of priests. Well, I don't think any of us can stand it. But honestly, in this one, I actually did a little research. And uh the priests of the Old Testament, what were they? The Levites. They had very specific jobs about the temple and carrying the ark and things like that. But this kingdom of priests of which God told Moses to tell the people, that didn't mean everybody was to become one of those sacramentalist priests at the temple. What it meant was that they were to become an envoy, if you will. One who took the knowledge of God to the world. That being the world that didn't know him. You know, there was what? One religion that was monotheistic. It was the Jews. All the rest of them had many gods, none of who were alive, most of them, all of which were dead. And they never lived. And so hear God's calling them. Be aware of who I am and be willing to take that message to the people that you will encounter through your journeys. Okay. So as a holy nation, that's probably more frightening than being a priest. They were to actually model for that world, that pagan world, the righteousness, the justice, the truth of that one living God who had drawn them out of Egypt, who had saved them from that slavery. They were to be wholly devoted to serving that God and not living by the standards of the world that they were going to face. You know, these pagans that had their many gods, they all worshiped them for strange things, and they did strange things, and they had strange sacrifices that weren't for any sort of atonement, but just for begging that God to do what they wanted that God to do. Our God wasn't that way. Our God wanted us to do for him because of his love for us. So that was an interesting twist in that one. Now, one of the uh in the prayer book, if you've got it there, you can turn if you want to, it's real short, and I'm gonna read it to you. But page 159, one of the off-door sentences comes from 1 Peter 2.9. If anybody's looking, I'll wait. If not, I'll just read it. Okay. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, for his own possession. That you may proclaim the excellency of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, his light, that being his grace, his mercy, his faithfulness. Now, absolutely, does that reflect the Old Testament? Yes. But it's in a New Testament context. Okay, this is 1 Peter's Peter's first letter after Jesus has died, after the resurrection. The gospel is known at this point. Okay, we're not in the Old Testament looking, kind of hoping what the gospel is going to be. Peter actually knows what it is, and he can look back and say, this is what you are. Like it or not, this is what you are. And somewhere, and I can't remember, Sam might be able to tell me where the first this is once we get done, but Jesus said, God does not desire the sacrifice of blood, but the sacrifice of the heart. And that's not a real good rendition, but close. Christ made that sacrifice, the last sacrifice. The sacrifice that was for our redemption, our atonement, our at one-ment with God. In other words, what Christ did on that cross took those sins that kept us away from God. The breaking of the covenant that we did so completely and regularly in the Old Testament and wiped that away. Okay? We did not do it. We didn't have anything to do with it, other than being the sinners that God still loved. And so Jesus asked us to give ourselves, our spiritual selves. Not as a justification, not as a justification by works, not as a justification by any sort of merit. He just wants us to love him back. Can you imagine the love? I think uh somebody referred to it, would you die for a good man? Not likely. And I wonder if the righteous that he spoke of that you would not die for might have been a Pharisee. They were the ones who called themselves righteous, okay? Jesus did the death, he did the atonement, he led the innocent blood of the perfect Lamb. He was the only one who came into this world and never sinned. He didn't know God anything. But we owned him everything. Jesus willingly, lovingly, went and hung on that cross. So what exactly is it we're supposed to find and to be so grateful for? But the grace of God, the mercy of God, and the faithfulness of God. The three, I won't say the only three, but three perfect aspects of God. What is grace? Grace is God's gifts of what we do not deserve. Ever gotten one of those? I think we all have. Mercy. That's when God doesn't give what we deserve. I promise you, we've all gotten that one because of his son. Right? Okay. And his faithfulness. Go back to the Old Testament. God made the covenant with Abraham. Abraham was asleep. The only person who could come back on that covenant was if God failed it. And he wasn't going to do that. And he never did it. And that's where we find God's faithfulness. And it came forward to the New Testament and lived the life of Jesus Christ. And our redemption became through his sacrifice, his loving, willing sacrifice on the cross. And the movement again, kind of trying to get through these four readings. Even in the Psalm today, it's an interesting one. Shows up in morning prayer on a regular basis at certain times of the year. Anybody read morning prayer reasonably often? Okay. Fair enough. It's real simple, it's only four verses. What are the very first four first words of? Somebody, I don't have it open in front of me. Somebody say. Did you know that? That's the first title of the psalm are the first couple of words in Latin. So, anyway. I'm gonna pose that we actually hear echoes, not absolutes, but echoes of the how, the why, the where, and the what. Okay, of being part of that kingdom of priests, that holy nation, that royal priesthood, and the priesthood of all believers. Now that one I don't think is actually in scripture, but it's a natural kind of what are we talking about? But all believers do make up that priesthood. That priesthood whose job is to take our knowledge, our love, our willingness to serve God out into that world that doesn't know him. So, the how be joyful in the Lord, serve the Lord with gladness, with joy. Sing praises in his presence. I don't know about y'all, but I went to, if you've ever been around somebody like that, wow, you can't not smile, you can't not be happy. It just oozes out. I went to King one time. I'm not bragging on that, just a fact. And I expected to see a terribly poor, run-down place. It was poor, but only money-wise. The hearts of the people that I worshiped with, the Anglicans that were there. I'll tell you more, but I'm gonna cry if I do. So amazing. Absolutely amazing. Why? Verse 2. Because he is God. He made us, he made us. We didn't make us. And yeah, there are those people in the world who, I made myself. No, I'm sorry, you didn't. God did. And that's one of the wonderful things about it. And he gave us a purpose in that. To be his people, to be the sheep of his pasture. He created it all. The world is in our pasture, and he's our leader there. But sheep are the innocent, the truly innocent. And in the where. It says, go into his gates. Where are God's gates? I think some of his gates are into places like this, but not exclusively to anything else. Where people are. Where God's people are. Those are his gates with thanksgiving. And into his courts. Where were the courts at the temple? On the outside. Okay? So when we go back out that door, we're going with God's praise. Because that's what he's asking us to do. And the what? What is it we say about God? We speak of his graciousness, his grace, of his merciful, his ever-merciful nature, and also his ever-faithful nature. I won't speed up. I'm gonna be the long way. Okay. So that song, that stuff's hidden in there. I've read that psalm, I couldn't tell you how many, probably thousands of times because of morning prayer. And never really saw it as a this is what you're supposed to go do. Not just sitting here and say in the morning while you're trying to wake up. Okay. Alright. On to Paul's letters to the Romans. Paul assures us that we have been justified by faith, not our own merit. And I'm gonna say that enough times that y'all are gonna get tired of hearing it today. It's not on our accord that we get anywhere with God. It's because of what Jesus did and our faith in that. So we are to be at peace with God. We need to rejoice in the hope that comes in the glory of God. Paul goes on to say that we should rejoice not only in hope, but even in suffering. Now that one's one of those that just kind of sticks. I don't like the sound of that. Not the human side of me anyway. But there is something about suffering. There is something wonderful about suffering. And I'm gonna quote him if I can find it, real quick. Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame. Now, those four little phrases we can go on for weeks with that. We don't have time. So it produces hope. And in that hope, it's a little more visceral than just the hope of the faith, if that makes any sense. It doesn't lead us to shame, it fills our hearts with what? The joy, the love that comes through the end, the living with us of the Holy Spirit. Wasn't that many weeks ago? Four, yeah, four weeks ago we celebrated Pentecost when God sent the Holy Spirit back. We even say it in our creed. Holy Spirit. How does it go? Sent by the Father and the Son. Now we get into conflict with the Orthodox, the other side of the world by the Son there, but that's nearer there. God sent the Holy Spirit. He's here to live in us, with us, to guide us, to comfort us, to strengthen us. All those words are tied up in that word comforter that he was to be. And when Christ died for us, we became dead to sin. That's a wonderful thing. That we can now live in him, justified by his blood, not by our own merits, our own acts of good. We will be saved from the wrath of God, justified, reconciled, all through those works of Christ Himself. Okay? We even said that in our college this morning. We don't ask to do good. We ask God to show us how to do good and to strengthen us to be there. Alright, real quick, we need to get through the gospel reading. Jesus, he's going around all these little towns, these big cities, and what is he doing? He's proclaiming that kingdom, he's healing people, the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament of the Messiah. He had compassion on the people. They were harassed, they were helpless. They were making more rules, more difficult rules, every chance they got, making their life very difficult. And very they felt beat down. And Jesus had compassion on that. And so he came to the good news. Alright, he names the apostles. We can definitely talk about apostles forever, so let's not start that one. There were 12 of them at that point. And then he sends them out. He tells them, you go do these things I've been doing. He gives them the power to do that. Remember, the Holy Spirit hasn't come yet. So and he says to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Now what does that one mean? Actually, look that one up also. The harvest. It would be those many, many people out there in the world who don't know Christ, maybe. Or just a little. They're eager, they're spiritually hungry, they're ready to receive the gospel message. But the shortage is who is there to teach them? Who is there to guide them? And that's what Christ did with those first twelve apostles. He sent them out. I was gonna come back to this lady, but I won't do it right now. He sent them only to the people of Israel. Total flat out, don't go to the pagans, don't go to the Gentiles. And I was like, why in the world would he do that? A couple of things hit my mind. Maybe it was truly a teaching mission, teaching them how to do mission work. Right? And also, because Jesus hadn't died yet, because Jesus hasn't risen yet, the gospel is incomplete. We've got his side of the story, but we don't know how it ends. These guys can't go out and say, Christ died for your sins. He's risen so that you can be resurrected in the end. So they don't have the full story. So he sends them to the people who might, they could, maybe they should, know the prophecies of the Old Testament and what that says for the Messiah and where he's going to be, and how the gospel is going to unfold. But it hadn't happened yet. So all that said and done, there is one more place in Matthew's gospel where Christ has died, and Christ has risen. And where is that? But at the very end. In the Great Commission. Anybody know what the Great Commission is? Jesus tells the eleven disciples, we lost one along the way, right? Yeah, okay. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. That's everybody. But no longer is it just to the people of Israel, but it's to everybody. Baptizing them. Go to baptizing them. I say go and baptize them. He goes. Baptize them. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Wait a minute. Matthews, we still haven't heard about the Holy Well, we didn't say we hadn't heard about him, but he hadn't come yet. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always. To the end of the age. And now that one, always with us to the end of the age. To me, that's where. Don't let me get too far ahead, see, okay? The Trinity. Jesus knows he's about to send. He and the Father are going to send the Spirit. And so God will always be with us. Always there to live in our hearts if we will but open it and let them live there. Accept their guidance. Accept their love. Okay? One last thing I would ask of you today. Turn it into page 25 of this book. It's a little bit longer than I'd like to close a sermon with, but I would like you all to pray it with me. It's called the General of Thanksgiving. Everybody got one of those books? Anyone missing a book? All right. Anyone not there yet? The Lord be with you. Let us pray. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all for the measurable love and the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And we pray that give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with faithfully thankful hearts we may show forth your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, and give to you with the Holy Spirit the honor and glory of God of all us. Amen. Amen. Now if you will extend and form our faith in the words of the nicer.