Priesthood of All Believers

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0:00 Psalm 99. And remember that this is just to reorient your heart and mind to say, these are the sorts of things I'll be thinking about. for whatever he has for me this morning. The Lord reigns, let the people tremble. He sits enthroned above the cherubim, let the earthquake. The Lord is great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name.

0:37 Holy is he. The king in his might loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. O, exalt the Lord our God. Worship at his footstool. Holy is he. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the Lord and he answered them. In the pillar of cloud he spoke to them. They kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them.

1:13 O Lord our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain. For the Lord our God is holy. O Lord make us people who acknowledge your holiness with our life and action, with our attention and adoration. Teach us what it means to worship you now, but also with our lives.

1:47 We say Holy Spirit you are welcome here today. Indeed you are the reason we have come. So love us and convict us this morning as only you can. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So last week as I mentioned we celebrated Pentecost together. In that story that Luke recounts for us of that festival of the first fruits there where everybody's gathered together and it says that

2:19 a great rushing wind came through the temple. That word imagery is so powerful to me. And we talked about that idea of the releasing of that original spirit. That life giving spirit breathed on the first ones at the beginning that raised Jesus Christ from the grave, released on his people again. That image is so powerful to me and encouraging. And it's the heart of that story of Pentecost that God did what he promised he would do.

2:53 What he had been working on doing since the beginning released again his presence, unmediated amongst his people. Very similar to the way it was amongst us in the garden. It's amongst us again because of Pentecost. And what I want to think about now is what happens after that to what end is his spirit released. What ought we to do with his spirit? And the place actually that I want to start is in Exodus chapter 19 if you want to look there with me.

3:27 Exodus is the second book in your paper copy description. There's some Bibles back there on the shelf if you need a paper copy. Exodus chapter 19. And last week we talked about how this, when the spirit of God was released again out of wherever it was stored up since the garden released again out among the people. He performed this miracle where the followers of Jesus were announcing the good news of what it means that the reign of God had come again on earth and everybody heard it in their own languages.

4:06 And that had a couple of purposes. One is so that everybody that was there could hear it all at the same time without translator. But also it was a signifier maybe of this time that existed before the Tower of Babel. We went back and looked at Genesis chapter 11 last week. That said there was a time where God realized that in order to remind humanity of the life that they were made for, he would have to move his presence closer to them than it had been.

4:41 Remember the arc of the story that God makes all of the world because he wants to. And then in the centerpiece of creation he puts humanity. Right? And they were made to be God's image bearers in the world to execute his authority over creation to love and serve one another. They were made for him to be God and them to be people, caretakers. And this works when they are in close proximity to God with the capacity to let him be God.

5:16 And at the very beginning something breaks in this relationship where humanity's fatal flaw rears its head and they are unable to believe that God has their best interest at heart and they start to make decisions that only a God makes. And they can't handle the weight of that responsibility. They are moved outside of the garden to protect an impossible eternity for them not characterized by fear, shame, but characterized by love and joy. And God begins to, now they have this separation from God that they weren't made for.

5:46 And in that space is where we see things deteriorate very quickly. We see at the life of Noah God says every desire of their heart was all evil all the time. That they spun out trying to take care of themselves, trying to satiate their own desires, trying to fix their own problems, trying to elevate their own identity, motivated by justifying their own existence, needing their own love, right?

6:19 And protecting their own future, the desires of their heart became all evil all the time. And so he says that he took Noah and decided to start over, floods the whole earth and decides to start over. And then with Noah's family when you read the story it's in like from Genesis chapter 7 to Genesis chapter 11. In four chapters several generations all of a sudden it gets to the Tower of Babel where people are like again just like only concerned about themselves. And how could they not be without a God protecting their future and providing for their current moment?

6:58 Without a God substantiating the value of their existence and animating them with love it takes all of their energy just to care for themselves. Just to protect themselves, just to justify their own existence they build a tower and say well show the world how great we are to convince ourselves that we are great at all. And God says these people left of their own devices will always and only make a mess of things.

7:29 I've got to do something different. So at the Tower of Babel he confuses them, separates them into different languages and shortly after that calls Abram and says I'm going to move closer still. I'm going to come out of the garden and bring my presence, put it down right amongst the people. And he establishes a group of people with Abram walks them out into the land of Canaan, they begin to build an identity. He moves them into Egypt to protect them from the famine by now they're known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

8:03 The world is starting to associate the God of creation and life with this group of people. And that's by design. And in Exodus chapter 19 God reveals a little bit about why he's doing that. Why he's associating the God of creation and life is associating his reputation with one nation of people. In Exodus chapter 19 look at it with me there. Moses has led them at God's direction out of Egypt through the Red Sea to Mount Sinai.

8:43 And at God's direction has walked up to Mount Sinai where the physical presence of God is hovering over the mountain. God is obviously present everywhere all the time in him we live, move and have our being and all the world is held together by him. But throughout the story of Scripture we see in lots of situations God manifests his presence physically in a different way than he is present everywhere. For specific purposes and times. At Mount Sinai with Israel gathered at the foot of the mountain having walked through the Red Sea in defeated Egypt.

9:19 Moses ascends the mountain and goes up into the presence of God. Exodus chapter 19 on the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt. On that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai and they set out from refedim and came into the wilderness of Sinai. And they had camped in the wilderness there. Israel encamped before the mountain. While Moses went up to God. The Lord called him out of the mountain saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel.

9:50 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself. The first thing is to see that in this exchange as God is laying out his relationship to Israel something happens here that always happens with the God of life. God moves first and people respond. God made the world and then humanity and God made each of you though you didn't ask him to.

10:25 And then in response to that free gift of grace you live. God went out and God Egypt or Israel from Egypt carried them on Eagle's wings though they didn't ask him to. He rescued them out of slavery, defeated the greatest military power of their day and escorted them to his presence at the mountain though they didn't ask him to. And then Paul tells us, Well we were yet sinners did Christ die for us.

10:56 Right? Well we were dead in our sins did Christ die for us rescuing us again. This is a constant characteristic of the God of creation in life the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of Christ in the church. He moves first and we respond. And it's the same in the Old Testament as in the new. God says to Moses, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel. You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on Eagle's wings and brought you to myself now therefore your response.

11:30 If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all the 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. This is a kind of charter statement for the people of God in the world. And it's important to understand clearly what he's saying because we learn about the nature of the God of creation in life the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of Christ in the church.

12:08 We learn about his character and his charter for the people of God in the world when we understand what he's saying here on Sinai clearly. He's saying you will be for me a treasured possession among all the peoples. That sounds lovely. At other places he says Israel is like a vineyard that he took the time to move the stones out of himself and build a wall around and cultivate the land so the vines grow correctly in it. He takes very good care of his people. They are a treasured possession. But look at the next clause. Why are they a treasured possession?

12:40 You shall be for me a treasured possession among all the peoples. It's translated for because the Hebrew word I think is key but don't quote me on that. It's a disjunctive. We have a lot of different disjunctive. It could be although it could be because the least determinative way to translate it would be just to say for. It could be therefore. It could be although it could be because.

13:11 It's a disjunctive that connects two clauses with ideas and its meaning is determined by the context. When you read this formative passage in the arc of all the story of scripture, I think it is fair and it's supported by not just me to read this for as because. To go a step further in translation and not just leave it as as undetermined as possible as neutral as possible and just say for the whole earth's mind say you will be a treasured possession for me because the whole earth is mine.

13:56 Because I am interested that all should come to return a life and none should perish. I call you as a treasured possession among all the world. You yourself have seen what I did. I carried you on Eagle's wings and brought you to Sinai. So now if you obey my covenants, you will be for me a treasured possession because the whole earth is mine. He says for the whole earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

14:28 These are the words you are to speak to the people of Israel. The priests are the ones who mediate or usher the holiness of God. He says you yourselves have seen what I did for you. I have been working towards this moment to identify myself with you all. And so now if you obey my covenants, you will be for me a treasured possession because the whole earth is mine.

14:59 You will be like a kingdom of priests. You will mediate my holiness out to the world. I will communicate my identity, my intent, my concern to the world through you. And it's in this context once they say, yeah, we'll do that. We'll be your treasured possession. We'll be your kingdom of priests. Then he gives what is called often the Ten Commandments but would be better translated the Ten Words.

15:36 We call them the Ten Commandments in English, though in Hebrew they're never called commands. They're always called the Devarim, the Ten Words that God spoke on Sinai. And they are future negated statements. They describe what the life as the treasured possession looks like. So they're not instructive, don't do this and do this. He says now because you are my treasured possession, your life will look like this.

16:09 You'll only have one God. You won't kill. You won't steal. You won't covet your neighbor. You won't live envious lives. Your life will make sense. You can see how the plan of God to identify himself with a group of people whose lives make sense. Who look like who recall home. When you are around Israel, you have this original sense memory of the life you were made for, a life that makes sense.

16:49 Israel, of course, could never fully live into the identity that God speaks over them at Sinai. Mostly because they just couldn't let him be God all the way. They kept bringing in other gods. They were sure they knew better. Like, yes, we know that you gave us the Promised Land and rescued us from Egypt, but we really need some crops.

17:21 So we're going to bring in Marduk, right? And we'll pray to Marduk to give us the right crops. Yes, you rescued us from Egypt and you gave us the Promised Land, but we really need some children, so we'll bring in Asheerah and Baal. And we'll begin to do some worship for those things that way. They just couldn't let the God be. Yes, we know that you protected us from foreign powers once, but when Assyria comes down on us, we would rather rely on the chariots of Egypt than on the might of our God.

17:56 It's just, we just don't trust you all the way. We can't let you be God all the way. This is how Jesus fulfills every call of Israel. Though the guilt of the world is piled on top of him, he doesn't call for some small reinforcements. Though certain death is staring down, he does not align with Pilate or Herod, though both of them would have liked it.

18:35 Though he has incarnated out of the heavens into the flesh of a child to save the world, he is content with an ignoble like a dismissed death. He doesn't march with zealots down to Rome and claim the admiration of the world. He takes the humility that God gives him.

19:07 He does not align with other gods or institutions. He does not try to solve the problem by himself. He has cast his lot with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of creation and life, and so that when he sits there at Gethsemane, he says, I'd love to not do it this way, but I have cast my lot with you. I'll go the way you say to go. Jesus does what Israel could not.

19:39 And in so doing, it changes the game completely. This strategy of priests for the world is the strategy that endures. Look with me now through to First Peter. All the way towards the back, it's kind of small if you have a paper copy. First and second Peter, there's two of them. And then like the John's jude in Revelation.

20:14 So it's quickest if you go all the way to the right and then flip back to the left a little bit. And you know, like the two kind of big leaders in that first generation of the church were really Peter and Paul. We think that Jesus brother James was the bishop of Jerusalem, and so he was significant as well, but it looks like Peter had some missionary journeys. Near as we can tell, he writes this letter from Rome. We don't really know how he ended up in Rome.

20:44 He says he's writing from Babylon, but we're pretty sure it's a figurative Babylon. Like he's saying, this is the Babylon of today, Rome, because at the time of Peter, Babylon was a really small town, and we can't figure out why he would have actually been there. And in the literature of the New Testament, Babylon is a reference to Rome, and so we're pretty sure he's in Rome. And then he went at the beginning when he says to the churches that he's writing it to, Panchus, Galatia, Capidocia, Asia, Bithini. These are not places that Paul visited on his journey, so we are pretty sure that there's a section of missionary work and churches that Peter had pastored.

21:21 And there was a tradition to write to churches that you had started to keep letters, and so Peter would be writing to the churches that he started, and Paul would be writing to the churches that he started. James would be writing to the churches in Jerusalem that he oversaw, right? John Unique writes this kind of letter, but he named specific churches that he was a part of and saw in his revelation. So this letter to Peter, we think that, or this letter from Peter, we think he's writing from Rome to an area that's kind of interesting.

21:53 There's some overlay at the beginning, he says, Peter and Apostle Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Panchus, Galatia, Capidocia, Asia, Bithini. There's some overlap here to the places that were named at the Pentecost sermon that Peter gave. And so some theologians have posited that these churches that Peter kind of bishops are ones that were their leaders, their elders were converted at Pentecost from Peter's sermon, and they maintained a relationship with him because he was the one that announced the gospel to them first.

22:28 It's pretty cool. And so he sends the letters back, and the reason he writes the letters is because they're all being persecuted there. Peter, we're pretty sure Peter died under the emperor Nero, was crucified upside down as the way that the legend goes or the tradition goes. And so he's writing to encourage people, sometimes he's called the Apostle of Hope, but the place that I wanted to look at is in 1 Peter chapter 2.

22:58 The big thing about Israel is that God did something different there, right? God, the God of creation in life is the God of the whole world, always has been. But with Israel, he takes a different strategy to be God of the world. He sets aside a certain subset of the people and moves closer to them. And he moves closer to them in the tabernacle first. The tabernacle, it says, is a mirror of the, it's a model or a microcosm of the heavenly city.

23:33 The God himself whispered the floor plan to Moses in the tent of meeting and told him exactly how to make it. And the reason it was important to make it this way is because he's bringing that manifest presence that was on Sinai. Down right into the middle of the tabernacle. And then they would have an important system, a very structured system that respects the authority and the solemnity of God of priests that enter and engage with this presence and bring it out to Israel further.

24:03 And then Israel would bring that presence out further to the God with the way that they lived according to the 10 words out to the world, right? And when you wanted to come and get present, act in presence with God to restore yourself, to be able to live the way that you were made to live, you moved through this system. If you were outside the world, you became an Israelite. They always had a way to convert. Their intention was that all the world would worship at the temple. When you see Solomon dedicate the temple, he says that.

24:33 So that Israel, to be an Israelite was a covenant relationship with God, not merely a genealogical relationship, right? It's not an ethnic identity, it's a submission to God identity. So if you were outside the world, you wanted to come towards God, you'd come through Israel first, then you'd meet with the priests and the priests would go meet with the presence of God. And when the presence of God wanted to get out to the people, he would communicate to the priests, then the priests would go to Israel and then Israel would represent him to the world in the way that they lived. They had this system that worked, right?

25:05 And then Peter picks up on this system here in his letter to the church that they're trying to figure out who they are. And he says, let's see, verse 4. Well, I'll start at the top of the chapter. So put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. In order to live well, you will need the presence of God, he says.

25:36 Verse 4. And so as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices accepted to God through Jesus Christ. And then skip down to verse 9. For 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 life.

26:17 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh and wage war against your soul, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Do you see that God has found a new way to move even closer to his people?

26:57 That what he did in the temple he realized was not close enough yet. And so Jesus culminates the call of Israel in order to finish that and launch something new. To say that the Spirit of God comes out of the temple and down dwells among you as living stones. The temple is now the people that you all, you don't have to go through the priests, you all offer spiritual sacrifices, but to what end?

27:29 Why? In order that you could live the life you were made for, in front of a world that's forgotten life altogether. Like God gives you his great spirit, like in a long trajectory of a plan to remind humanity of the greatness they were destined for.

28:00 Life characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentle and self-control. It was always yours set aside. It comes with the communion of God and Christ has accomplished that communion for you. You have the spirit that our people have been waiting for for generations. For no other reason than that you might be able to live and live well.

28:37 That they might see your good deeds and go, those people have some kind of God that has made their life make sense. Every time I sit down and consider the work of God, he worked so hard in order to let me live. I continue to think he doesn't have it figured out.

29:11 That somehow he needs me to provide for myself. That somehow I have disqualified myself from the love that he has stored up for me from before the foundations of the world. That somehow he cannot love me. That he does not care for me. That I am not significant or noticed. And then I come back to the story and I realize he has changed the relationship of God and humanity in order to set me free to live.

29:48 I hope that as we move forward through this summer that you begin to ask yourself what does it look like for me to live in light of the spirit that has been given to me? What do I do with this great spirit? How then do I live with this great spirit of God? Let's pray that God would illumine that reality for us. Hey Lord, teach us how to live well, that they may see our good deeds and glorify you.

30:19 Thank you for the gift of your spirit. We receive it gratefully this morning and look forward to the life that it gives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.