Peter's 'Jacked Up Idea of What The Bible Says'

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.

Ex 19:5-6

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Pet 2:9

Author Not Known

Welcome to the Priesthood of All Believers

As many of you know, last year saw the celebration of 500 years since the Reformation and Luther’s pinning of his 95 Theses on the door at Wittenburg. One of the key tenets of that time is what came to be called the priesthood of all believers. These verses in 1 Peter 2 are key to that doctrine. Peter takes an Old Testament idea and imbues it with a new understanding and significance. He takes an OT text – Exodus 19:6 - where God says to Moses on Mt Sinai that Israel will be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” and applies it to the church of Jesus Christ scattered throughout the world. 

Peter is writing to the church scattered through the world right up to today and he calls them a royal priesthood. He is not the only one who uses this term in this way – we find in Revelation that three times God’s people are referred to as a kingdom of priests (Rev.1:6; 5:10; 20:6). Although Exodus 19 refers to all Israel as being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation we also know that within Israel there was a defined group of people who were known as priests. You had to be called or chosen and part of that calling actually was to be born within the tribe of Levi. Within the Levites it was really only the Kohanim - the descendants of Aaron - who could serve at the tabernacle and the Temple and present the sacrifices. Other Levites could sing, act as guards, help look after the Temple and do some teaching. But in terms of the sacrifices that were offered in Tabernacle and Temple that was narrowed down to the descendants of Aaron.

So when Peter says that today the church is a kingdom of priests, what does he mean and how is it different from the OT priesthood? Well the difference of course is Jesus. Jesus came to fulfil the function of the priesthood by not only offering the sacrifice but being the sacrifice. Hebrews makes it clear in various places – “we have a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God…when Christ came as high priest he came into the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood…he entered heaven itself to offer this sacrifice. Nor did he do this again and again the way the high priest enters the most holy place with blood that is not his own. No, Christ has appeared once for all to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Jesus perfectly fulfilled the offering of the blood sacrifices which was a major part of the role of the priests. When he died on the cross the great veil or curtain that was in the Temple separating off the holy place from the most holy place which only the high priest could enter was torn in two. It was a symbolic gesture by God saying: whereas before only a certain very narrow group of people had access to the throne room of God, that room is now open to all who believe in my Son - male and female, Jew and gentile, priest and laity. 

In other words, Peter is saying that the designation given to Israel through Moses in Exodus 19 is fulfilled in a deeper, fuller, more comprehensive sense because of what Jesus has done. We no longer need priests who offer blood sacrifices to cover sin; we no longer need priests who mediate between us and God; we no longer need priests who guard a Holy place. If we use the term priest anymore we use it for all the people of God, the church of Jesus Christ is now a kingdom of priests. Peter says “we are a royal priesthood chosen to declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (v.9b).” As priests we are still to declare God’s praises, or as we have it in v.4 “to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

There are three things which the priests of the OT did that we can still do, though in a different way because of what Jesus has done. They are: to offer sacrifice, to intercede on behalf of people to God and to minister God’s grace and word to people. I think all three of these still apply today. 

1. Adoration. (Up) 
The priests of the OT then and we, the priesthood now, are to offer sacrifices of praise. These sacrifices can be individual and private and they can be public and corporate. According to Romans 12 all of our lives are to be a living sacrifice – we are not to present animals and blood sacrifices - those are dead sacrifices. No, we present living ones. You will note in our passage that Peter describes us as the church of living stones; not dead inanimate stones that go into building a temple of stone or concrete. The church is living people. All of our life everywhere can be worship. However there still remains an important place for gathering with God’s people publicly for worship. If an important part of the OT priest's role was public worship how much more is it ours under the NT. And so it is important that we are engaging publicly in worship - here we hear God’s word and are ministered to and we open ourselves up more in this environment to the Holy Spirit and thus we are more able to become engaged in worship ourselves. “Through Jesus let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.” (Hebrews 13:15)

In days when the trend is against regular attendance as the gathered church I feel this is something that we need to commit to if we are to be effective in our role as priests. There are some who cannot go to church through illness and infirmity. There are some who are not ill or infirm but who treat the gathering of God’s people as a matter of indifference. How sad that is. Both in the OT and in the NT the culture was one of community not individualism. Western modern culture is very individualistic – I will worship in my way and I will worship in my own home and forget everyone else. But this is not a form of worshipping that is encouraged. Yes it can be private but it is best exercised corporately with the gathering of God’s people and this way God gets more glory. Peter reminds us that we are living stones who together are built into a spiritual house or temple. If the stones are separate and disjointed and not connected it is hard to build a house. 

2. Intercession and Exhortation (In) 
The priests then and priests now are meant to intercede for other people. The great thing is that we can enter into the throne room of God and pray for ourselves but we can also enter the throne room and pray for each other. As priests we are called to be intercessors and encouragers. In the OT the priest who were meant to know God’s word were able to minister that word to others; they were meant to explain the practical outworking of it and if necessary exercise loving rebuke from transgression of the law. This of course can be exercised by the elders and leadership of a church but it has been given to us all as the priesthood to encourage one another. Paul again in Colossians combines the two elements of adoration and exhortation:
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” (Col.3:16)
It is very hard to do all that in isolation – we need to be together to do it. So the second aspect of this royal priesthood is about caring for those around us in the church fellowship. The priestly ministry is a pastoral ministry and we are all called to care for one another. The NT has a lot of one-anothering! Here we seek to minister the Spirit of Jesus, his presence, a word of encouragement or of knowledge into another person’s life. We seek to be attentive to the presence of Jesus and what he may want us to say to the person to help them in their situation. John Piper says “There is more of God to be known and enjoyed than anyone can know in isolation…there is a presence and a power and a manifestation of the Spirit of God meant to be known in this gathering of worship that we do not know at any other time in isolation.” 

3. Proclamation. (Out) 
The final aspect of priesthood which continues is the declaring of praise outwardly. Israel then and the church now are meant to be a light to the nations. Proclamation is an important part of what we do as priests. Adoration and Exhortation leads to Proclamation. People can’t help but notice the difference that Jesus makes. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. A kingdom of priests is outward focused as well. We are called to be witnesses to the world. As priests we are able to explain God’s word to others and guide and lead people towards Jesus the light of the world. 

This is what we are called to be and do – a royal priesthood chosen to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. We move upwards in adoration, around in intercession and exhortation and out in proclamation and witness.

So, welcome to the priesthood.

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