Published: April 27, 2025 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 15 | Scripture: 1 Peter 2:9-10
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10 of chapter 2, but I'd like to read uh from verse one of chapter 2 again to set the the context for Peter's message to his his readers. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse one.
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Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it
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you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, and coming to him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and
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precious in the sight of God, you also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
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to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in contained in scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone,
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and he who believes in him shall not be disappointed. This precious value then is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the
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builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they who they stumble because they are disobedient to
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the word and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for
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God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. For you were once not a
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people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Let us
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pray. Our heavenly father, these uh words of of Peter taken from the Old Testament and applied to us are very high. They're
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very wonderful. They're perhaps beyond fully grasping what you have called us to. And yet you you have called us and
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you have chosen us to be your people. And so we rejoice in these things. And yet we know that you have called us to a great responsibility. Father, fill us,
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encourage us, strengthen us for the walk ahead that we may honor you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
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We've come to a section of Peter that most people take as the uh a a break between chapter 2 verse 10 and what follows in verse 11.
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I've been reading uh the trilogy on World War II that Chuck recommended and I I I I appreciated the reading uh trying to
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understand things and I was reminded as I came to this section of that speech that Winston Churchill gave after three
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years of war in Great Britain and in France and then in Egypt. in Egypt. after they had defeated but not
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annihilated unfortunately Field Marshall Raml's Panzer Africa Corps Churchill said this now this is
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not the end it is not even the beginning of the end but it is perhaps the end of the beginning well I think maybe less
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dramatically here in Peter this is the end of the beginning and yet it is an end of the beginning of the foundation that Peter
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gives his readers here because it it ties us all the way back to chapter 1 verse one where he
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addresses them as those who reside as aliens scattered throughout these various ious vicinities and he says who
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are chosen the resonant aliens who are chosen and chosen and here Peter brings from Isaiah and from Exodus and it's the only place in
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scripture where these three are put or four things are put together here in verse 9 but again he tells them you are a chosen race a chosen
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people. And it's him summarizing the believer's new birth from chapter 1 verse three. You
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have been born again, begotten again. And he's vindicating what he's saying has said in this beginning section from
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the Old Testament testament scriptures and I would say in a very audacious way because Peter summarizes the
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status, their state in the world by applying the promises is that God made to
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Israel to all believers in Jesus Christ. And he presents our high calling as the people of
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God. And again, the foundation for what he's going to move on to, starting in verse 11, to prepare us for the
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instructions about our lifestyle, how we ought to live in a world that is foreign to us in its beliefs and its practices.
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And so we must understand and I think he's summarizing that here in these two verses nine and 10 with two things
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emphasized. Our standing or status as believers and our mission and ministry as believers. If you want to think of it
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simply, he's taking us back to who are you and what are we to
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do? And I've used this phrase before and we'll probably use it again, but I think he is saying again, be what you
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are. as a beginning to more comprehensively tell us in verse 11 and following, live what you know. Live it
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out even though you are resident aliens in this in this world. He says a chosen race. Some of
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the commentators bulk at that because we we have to me there's only one race, the human race. And we've used race as a word to identify color and ethnicities
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and other things which the word does not do. You you are a chosen people. We read that in Isaiah 43. God
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says, "For I am your the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior." He He's telling us, "I am I have chosen you. I have selected you." In Exodus 19,
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which again Peter brings in, he says, "Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my commandment, then you shall be my own possession among all the
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peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." You see where Peter is drawing these, but he's he's lining
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them up in succession and trying to get us to understand this is who you are. This is what God has done for you. And in this word
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race, it really means a group of people in ethnic or national
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solidarity. Applied to scripture and to Christians, it's a we could define it as the family or your lineage of those who are born of God.
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And Peter writes uh people for God's own possession. And I believe where it is in the in the phrase, it's kind of encompassing the two phrases that come before it. A royal priesthood, a holy
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nation. God claims Israel as his people. We see that from the Old Testament scriptures, the writing of Isaiah, the the words of Moses in in Exodus. He's claiming his Israel as his people. And
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as his people, they are to be distinct from the world around them, from all the other peoples really on the earth. And this places them in a closeness to
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God in fellowship with him that their access to him is I would use the word Peter used
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their access is as priest as priestly. The 20th century Dutch scholar
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Theodoris Vzen wrote this. In Israel, the cult existed in order to maintain and purify the communion between man and God. That
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that is the first to me order of the priests is to maintain and purify the communion between a holy God and a
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people who are too called to approach him. And this royal priesthood, some take it as a as a kingdom and priesthood, but it's an
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adjective here. It's the king's priesthood. We are priests belonging to a king. Perhaps it makes us think of MelkiseDC, that one who was a king and a priest. We we are
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the king's priesthood. We owe allegiance to him and and we acknowledge his sovereign rule by serving him and by
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representing him to the world and the focus unlike some of the authors I think the focus is is not
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spiritual authority a and certainly I don't think that he's speaking of the actions of individual believers here that one of you or some of you are priests and the other are not. He is
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speaking corporately and the theme is obedience and holiness and purity. We see that in the phrase a holy nation. It it's a priesthood that's
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sanctified and set apart to show forth the honor towards the one who has called
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founded on the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, founded on as the Old Testament covenant was founded on the blood of a
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sacrifice. Ours is founded on the blood of the supreme sacrifice. In Exodus 24, we read these words, "Behold the blood of the
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covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." Well, where do we hear that echo of that? At the Lord's supper in the night
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in which Jesus was betray betrayed, he said, "This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many." So what's in view is not their moral
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status but what's in view with Peter is the high calling. You are set apart and therefore it is a calling to be holy as
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your king is holy. What a privilege. It it's a priestly privilege privilege. The priests were those who were to come
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before the Lord. And indeed indeed we are a chosen
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people. We are a chosen people. But understand we are not a choice people. Some point to the parallels here between verse 4 and chapter 2 and coming
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to him as a living stone rejected by men but choice and precious in the sight of God. That Jesus Christ was chosen and we are a chosen people using the same term.
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We are elected. He was elect of God. We are the elect of God. But let me just say that God's choosing of Christ is
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vastly different from God's choosing of us. We read in Revelation five of Jesus Christ. Worthy is the lamb who was slain
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to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. But we have nothing to boast about. Perhaps we we we should stand
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before God asking the same question um that that Ruth did of of Boaz. What did she say? This ought to be our phrase. Excuse
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me. She fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? We we are foreigners to God
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before we are chosen. We have nothing we have nothing in us that makes
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us worthy to be chosen. In fact, Paul explains in 1 Corinthians that God has chosen the
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foolish things of the world, the weak things of the world, the base things of the world, and the despised. God has chosen the things that are
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not. Well, guess what? We are among the things that are not. So why are we
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chosen? In Deuteronomy 7, God explains how he chose the people of Israel. of Israel. The Lord did not set his love on you, he says, nor choose you because you were
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more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your
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love, John, tells us, see, see how great a love the father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God. And such we are. I
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can't explain the love of God. When we love another person, it's usually because we find something attractive in them, do we not?
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their their face, their form, their talents. God looks at the unloly and yet he still loves
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us. We look for something lovely. And I cannot explain why God would love an unloly. But he says to us as of certain
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in that great book of love, Hosea, once you were not a people, you were not a thing, but now you are a thing. You are
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the people of God. He says, you had not received mercy, but now you have
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mercy. God chose the Israelites, but they sinned. They committed adultery with him essentially. They got into idolatry and they became no people. Yet God's mercy and grace was
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promised to a remnant to destroy restore them to their covenant status.
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Isaiah talks much about the returning remnant. And in chapter 61, he says, "But you will be called the priests of the Lord. You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the
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wealth of nations, and in their riches you will both." Just so Peter says to
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us, the equally no people, Gentiles, can be brought into fellowship with God just like the remnant of Israel could be brought into fellowship with God. Again, a very audacious statement
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by Peter that you will be grafted in. You will be brought into these special promises of promises of God. You you will be God's special
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possession in a way that the rest of mankind will never ever experience. And it cannot be. You were called out of darkness into
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his marvelous light. Peter says we were made to see with new eyes. The state of blindness of of death
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of lifelessness is no longer our state. Now we are in a state of his marvelous light. It's it is light. It is life. It is blessedness and
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truth. And truth. And amazingly, conversion to Christ is the fulfillment of the ancient promises in the Old
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the Old Testament. And no wonder we read in verse 10 of chapter 1 about the prophets who eagerly made search and inquiry. How can these things be these people
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coming? No coming? No wonder. Because it is a wonder that God chose us. chose us. God says,"I will have compassion on her
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who had not obtained compassion. I will say to those who were not my people, you are my are my people." And we know now that it's not limited to those who
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were Jews, those who were of Israel, those who were even of the tribe of Judah, those who claimed Abraham as
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father. But God made a reathering of the reborn through the resurrection of Jesus
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Christ. But there was for Peter's readers and there is I believe for his current readers interference from the world to this high calling. as Christians in the first century began
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to understand and perhaps articulate their new identity, their new status. They were criticized. They were
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persecuted by the pagan society. One critic of of that era of Christianity called it quote a mischievous superstition. They couldn't understand
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what they're talking about or it it just racked their sensibilities. as we get excited about what we read about ourselves in scripture. We can't
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help but talk about it. I remember as a as a very young Christian in in college. I was sitting at I just happened to sit
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at breakfast with a fellow got in a conversation. Turned out he went to the same mass, attended the same mass as my roommate did. So I said, well, you
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well, you know, got talking about his his religion, Catholicism. And I guess at the time I had been reading the scriptures and realized all who are born again in
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Christ are saints. And I told him that that conversation ended real fast. I don't think he went to that dining hall ever again because I might be
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there. But that's the things that we face, do we not? Some thought that Christians were haters of mankind. They were being antisocial because they refused to indulge in the
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practices of their neighbors. They repudiated things that people said, "Well, that's just for
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pleasure." Christians were willing to break family ties over their religion. They broke business arrangements and associations. They were willing to abandon religious rituals and
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even civic duties for the cause of their faith. They were charged with treion treason and disloyalty for serving another king as we read in Acts 17.
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The charge against these men have who have upset the world have come here also and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying that there is another
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king Jesus. And yet again the old apostle John comforts us when he says in chapter 5 for whatever is born of
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God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our
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faith. So what does Peter say? This is your status. You are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own
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possession. That's your status. But what is your is your ministry? Worship is our calling. When God's people were delivered from
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captivity, they were to declare the mighty acts of God. We didn't get that far in Isaiah 43, but at the end of that beautiful chapter, it says, "The people
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whom I have formed for myself will declare my declare my praise." You're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. for this
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reason to make known the praises or to translate it literally the fame of God. It's God's
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selfdeclaration that we proclaim, not something that we make up. The word for praise refers to the excellent character of the one worthy of praise. God's
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manifestation of his own divine power and grace and mercy. And I think in the context of
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chapter 2 and the context of this entire beginning section, it includes the praises in chapter 1 verse three.
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Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ for who God is. And now in chapter 2 verse 9 for
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what he has done. It's not just a thanksgiving for deliverance. Yes, that's a great part of it. And it's a great part of what the Israelites rejoiced over as they began to gather in
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the wilderness to worship. But it's also adoration or as we sometimes sing, all glory, law, and honor to our redeemer king.
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So we see Peter thinks of church far more than just the social club. There is a common bond, but it is a shared
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ethnicity or I think if we go back again to chapter 1 verse 19, it is a bond of blood by the precious blood of the lamb
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that was slain. Fellowship in the body of Christ. If we are truly a royal
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priesthood, fellowship is not an optional extra. Participation is required. I belong to a woodworkers
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guild and some of the men participate by working in the shop. Others participate by coming to the meeting. But you can't be an either or
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selective cafeteria plan for the believers. It is a united priesthood. We are bound in it. And we worship in both lifting up
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God's name in adoration and again going back to Peter's words in chapter 2, craving the pure milk of the word as it is taught
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and preached. We offer these spiritual sacrifices and praise as a body of believers in
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worship. The author Edmund Clowney wrote, "This function of the priesthood cannot be cannot be delegated." I don't know quite what he had in mind there. My first thought was,
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"No choir." We've had people ask, "Why don't you have a choir?" Priesthood cannot be delegated to some professionals or some select
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group and everybody else is the audience and the receiver. Worship is about more than more than receiving. I think worship what is the
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words of Jesus? It is more blessed to give than to receive. Worship is about giving. It's not about receiving.
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All of us meet must be active in the praise and adoration and listening to God's word. Clowny went on to write, quote, if
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singing and speaking forth of praises of God are viewed as preliminaries to the sermon, the meaning of worship has been lost. If that's all
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we think of, then we've lost sight of what worship really is. worshiping and glorifying God. The priesthood, what to me again, what is the primary purpose of
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the priesthood and the offering of sacrifices? That was worship. That was
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God. And so if we think of the singing and the praying as just preliminaries to the sermon, we have, as he says, lost the meaning of worship. But let me add this.
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Have you ever been in a worship service where the leader says, "Well, let us conclude our worship with this hymn before the sermon." That is also wrong. The end of singing and prayers is not
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the conclusion of worship. The worship continues in the hearing and preaching the proclamation of God and his word.
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We do receive blessings when we worship. But the first task of the priest, as I understand it, from Exodus 28, he was to to put on his garments, a
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symbol of all 12 tribes at before he entered before the Lord. He was to intercede for the brethren, for all of them, before the
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Lord, and then as a witness to the nations that God is God and there is no
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other. As Fzen wrote, the body, I think he could have used, exists in order to maintain and purify the communion between man and
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God. The Old Testament sacrifices were worship. Our spiritual sacrifices and praise are worship to glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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This is who we are. our identity. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for
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God's own God's own possession. Let us live like it. Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we do ask that you
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would strengthen us, that you would build us up as a church, that we might walk in these things, that we might, yes, have endurance from all the
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things that come upon us, but knowing that our hope is not in our identity to the world, but our identity before
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you. because it is not something that we are worthy of. It is something that you caused us to come into that you called
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us and your call was effectual and you chose us and you chose us to honor you. We ask Father that we would do this that we would truly be your church. In
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Christ's name we pray. Amen. Please rise for the
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benediction from the book of Zechariah chapter 8. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, "Behold, I am going to save my people from the land
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of the east and from the land of the west, and I will bring them back, and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem, and they will be my people,
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and I will be their God in truth and