The Apostle Peter wrote the letter we call 1 Peter while persecution against Christians was simmering in and around ancient Rome. He wanted his readers to be prepared for hard things to come, and he sought to prepare them by reminding them of their identity as the chosen people of God, living as exiles in a world of suffering.
We continue our series in 1 Peter looking at 1 Peter 2:9-10.
Three Questions:
- What is my identity?
- How did I get this identity?
- Why did I get this identity?
“And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’, and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” Hosea 2:23b
Communion Reflection Questions:
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 1 Corinthians 11:27-28
Examine yourself: What sinful thought, word, or deed do you need now to confess to the Lord? What have you done, or left undone, that you need now to confess to Him?
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- Good morning, life church. I'm glad you're with us this morning. If we don't know one another, my name is James Sharp. I'm one of the elders here. And it's my joy to open God's word with you. We're going to be in first Peter chapter two, as Randy mentioned. Today, we're looking at first Peter two versus nine and 10. That's possibly the most famous and most loved passage in the entire book of first Peter. I think we'll see that that is true for good reason. I'm eager to jump in with you. And so I think you'll be helped if you have that. In front of you, if you turn there and wait for me for just a couple of minutes. First Peter two, nine and 10. The past week was a little bit of an unusual one in the Sharp House. Kristen and I were home alone for almost the entire week. Monday through Saturday lunch. All four of our kids were away at student life camp. They had a wonderful time. I think all of our students did. We really hope to share a little bit more about that with you in the weeks ahead. But for Kristen and me, the week amounted to kind of a weird preview of what having an empty nest might look like. We cooked some nice meals together. We went on a lot of walks together. We tackled some spring cleaning projects together. We enjoyed a lot of peace and quiet together. I left the week concluding that if any of you were willing to put up with my four kids for an entire week, that I would just gladly send them your way. I don't really even care. No background check required, right? We'll just send them to you. I'm kidding. We did enjoy the time our kids were away and we were glad when they came back. But really the only thing or only one who disrupted the peace and quiet of our week was our six-year-old golden doodle, his name is Tink. Years ago when Tink came into our family, I was a very reluctant dog owner, right? I was opposed to the idea from the beginning, really I had committed, like four kids is enough. We don't eat any more chaos. But then Tink was offered to us. And in a moment of weakness, I agreed, we said yes. And now he's here as a part of our family. And I just have to tell you, I'm all in, right? We are so glad that he's around. I can't imagine this season of my family's life without this dumb dog that's in our family. But one of the benefits of having a dog, there are many, but one of the benefits of having a dog is the fact that he helps me realize that I'm not one. Right, see there are times when my doodle seems not that different from me, from perfectly honest. He is intelligent. He has a good sense of what's going on around him in his environment. He can anticipate what I'm going to do and what I therefore want him to do, right? Like he's learned to identify like the little routine that I go through before I leave the house. And he puts himself in his kennel whenever he sees me going through that routine. Or he knows the few things that we do when we're closing down the house at night and he goes to his bed as we're going through that routine as well, right? Like he's just kind of picked up on these things. My dog possesses a measure of empathy. Sometimes I think he's more empathetic than I am, frankly. Right, like he feels what you are feeling. And so if you're sad, he's going to relate to that. If you're anxious, he's definitely going to relate to that. And if I'm angry, right, like he powers in fear because he senses like how I'm feeling. I think that's kind of remarkable. He feels anxiety himself, right? Like he's learned, well, he hates the sight of suitcases, right? I mentioned the fact that like all four kids left for the week, that meant they packed the days before. And so there were suitcases everywhere the days before and Tinky's learned when he sees those things, that means some things about to change and he doesn't like it. And he gets anxious about these things. And then like people, my dog really wants to belong. And so we've noticed that like you can put food in his bowl at 5 p.m. But unless the family sits down to eat at that time, he's going to leave the food in his bowl. It's when the family sits down to eat that then he will go over and eat as well because it's like he wants to identify with us when we eat. He wants to belong to us even though we're eating different things in different places. And so there are all these times when I look at my dog. And I think this dog and I, we have a lot in common. But that thought only lasts for a blink of an eye before I recall all of the things that he can't do. Tinky does not think or reason or judge the way that I think and reason and judge. He does not ponder eternal things. He does not cry out to or pray to the God of the universe. And he does not wonder about life's deepest and most meaningful questions. Questions like, who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from? What is my purpose? Now Tinky is very confident in his own identity. And he does not wonder about that at all. He is content with who the Lord has made him to be. And there is no searching or aching in his heart for anything more. Humans are very unlike that. Unlike dogs, according to Romans 1, every person on the face of the planet has a sense of the existence of God. Where we have a sense of the invisible attributes of God. If we intellectually deny that God exists that requires us on a certain level to lie to ourselves. Because the Bible says that we know that God is there. We're made in his image. And therefore, there's an imprint of him upon our hearts. Ecclesiastes says that God has written eternity upon the hearts of man. And so we wonder about eternal things. We long for eternal things. And we wrestle with deep, meaningful questions about why we are here and who we are and what our purpose is and where we have come from. One of the things that we'll see in 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10 this morning is that God is incredibly kind. Because he has not left us to guess about who we are or why we are here. Nor has he even left us on some kind of life quest where we have to discover who we are or why we are here. Who we are and why we are here. These are things that God in his kindness has revealed to us. And so this morning as we study God's word together, I pray that we will be given eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to believe. The answers to life's deepest, most significant, most meaningful questions. Let's read our passage, 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10. Peter writes this. He says, "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. 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." Church, this is God's word for us this morning. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Father, we ask you to give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to believe. That we might understand and apply your word truly, and that we might build our lives upon the sure and certain and unchanging foundation of your word. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week, in 1 Peter 2, 4 through 8, we considered the idea that the world is divided into two groups of people. There's one group, a group of people who, in response to the word of God and the good news of the gospel, have built their lives on Christ the cornerstone. Then there's another group to use the language of 1 Peter. Rather than building their lives on Christ the cornerstone, they have stumbled over Christ. Christ has been to them a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. They disobey because they do not believe the word as they were destined to do, Peter says in 1 Peter 2, verse 8. And so he's laid before us, the very heavy and real idea that there are some who are perishing because of their disobedience to the word. Then he comes to verse 9, and we see that verse 9 begins with the word butts. He says, but you, and now he shifts to begin to describe the characteristics of those whose lives are built on Christ the cornerstone. And his first agenda is to really press home our identity as people whose lives are built on Christ. And so he's answering the question, who am I? Really, in this passage, he answers three questions. Number one, who am I? Number two, how did I become who I am? How did I get here? And then number three, why am I here? What is my purpose? And so we have who and then how and then finally why. We're just gonna answer those three questions from this passage this morning. Here's the first one, who am I? Peter, he tells us four things about our identity if in faith our lives are built on Christ the cornerstone. First he says, in verse nine, that you are a chosen race. Now earlier in chapter two, people, Peter, he talked about the fact that Jesus was chosen by God and precious to him, but now he extends that same privilege to you and to me and says, we too are chosen by God. We're a chosen race if our lives are built on Christ, the cornerstone. Now some of the greatest crimes and horrors of human history have occurred because the people of one race or one ethnic group have believed that they were the chosen race, but the kind of race that Peter's describing here, what has nothing to do with ethnicity? It has nothing to do with the color of your eyes or hair or skin. In fact, the kind of race that Peter's describing here, it will include people of every eye color and every hair color and every skin color. It will include people of every tribe and tongue and language and culture and background. This chosen race that Peter describes, it's a spiritual race. It's a race that's not defined by color or culture, but by creed. This spiritual race is defined by the one in whom members of this race believe. I pray that this reality would shape the way that we view and treat all people, especially people, of colors and cultures that are not our own. Christians can and should view people from every race as present or potential members of the chosen race of Jesus Christ. We can and should view all people with a view toward the day when people from every tribe and tongue and nation will surround the throne of heaven to worship Jesus for eternity as his chosen race. The second thing that Peter says about our identity, he calls Christians a royal priesthood. Now in the Old Testament, priests were only men and they were even narrower than that, only the men descended from one family, the descendants of Aaron, Moses' brother. No one else could do priestly work in ancient Israel. So all women were excluded and even most of the men of the nation of Israel were excluded. These people couldn't offer offerings, they couldn't sacrifice sacrifices. They couldn't lead God's people and worship in his holy temple. Only the descendants, the male descendants of Aaron could do that, but in the New Testament, every believer is a priest. We are all part of God's royal priesthood, Peter teaches us. Regardless of our gender, regardless of our family line, regardless of our spiritual giftedness, regardless of the depth of our biblical knowledge or spiritual maturity, every one of us, we are free to serve God with our lives. We're free to bring offerings and praises and worship to God at any time. We are free to hear from God through his word at any time and we can all and should all serve God with our lives because we are all, every one of us, royal priests if we are in Christ. In the New Testament, spiritual service and worship, those things are not reserved for the spiritual elites among us, if that's even a thing. Every Christian is a royal priest. Every Christian has a ministry job to do in Christ's royal kingdom. But that doesn't mean that we can and should try to do that ministry work alone. I think it's important for us to recognize that every piece of this identity that Peter's laying before us here, this is a collective or a corporate identity. You all, he's saying, are a chosen race. You all are a royal priesthood. And so it's especially at this point of the priesthood that we should recognize that in Peter's vision, we belong together and need one another, right? No Christian should conclude, because I am a royal priest, I can be out on my own, doing my own thing, following Jesus of my own will and accord. No, we should conclude I need the priesthood of all believers pouring into me even as I pour into them, right? According to our passage last week, we're all bricks in the holy temple of Jesus Christ, being built together to make spiritual sacrifices to him. And now Peter clarifies our role in that temple. We're priests. And so every one of us were given gifts by God that were to use in priestly service for his glory and for the good of one another. I hope you'll consider that today. All right, God has given you spiritual gifts that are unique to you, that he intends for you to use in spiritual service of him and his people. When he's given you the unique ability to do priestly work and the people of God need your priestly work. Without your priestly work, there's something missing in us. And at the same time without our priestly work in your life, you are failing to receive the benefit of the diverse gifts that God has given all of his people to accomplish offering spiritual offerings, making spiritual sacrifices. We need each other, we belong to each other because we're royal priests. Thirdly, Peter calls Christians a holy nation in verse nine, a holy nation. Now it's common, especially here in the American South, to hear Christians talk about this idea of taking America back for God. You might have seen that on a billboard. You've probably seen that on a social media post. Perhaps you've even said that on a social media post. And I think I hear where that sentiment is coming from. I mean, there is some truth to the idea that our nation was founded according to Christian convictions and principles to some degree and that we have wandered from those Christian convictions and principles to some degree. And so I think people who think this and say this, like they mean well and that there's a good intention or desire behind those statements. They would have come back to their Christian commitments and principles that the nation was founded upon. I think we can all support that idea. But we should be clear and careful when we talk about these things. Because according to the Bible, there is one and only one holy nation. And it is not a political nation of this world. It is a spiritual nation. It's the church of Jesus Christ comprised of Christians from every tribe and tongue and nation. And the reason it's important for us to recognize that is because as Christians, our highest allegiance should be to the holy nation of Jesus Christ and not any earthly political nation. Furthermore, this should push us to recognize the wonderful truth that this world is not our home. And the reason that's a wonderful truth is because it explains to us why we feel so homeless here, why we feel so restless here, why we can at times feel so lost here. I'm incredibly helped by this particular piece of the identity that God has given me, church. I hope you can be helped by it as well. There are times when I find in my heart longings that cannot be satisfied here. There are times when I find in my heart a sense of restlessness and even a sense of discomfort. And the place that God has planted me in the nation in which I am a citizen. There are times when I look around and I think like I don't see anybody that lines up perfectly with who I long to be. There are times when I look around and I think these things of this world, they just can't satisfy me. There are longings there that I can't fulfill. And I remember the fact that I'm a citizen of a holy nation and you are too, if you are in Christ. Therefore, we should never expect our earthly home or any earthly kingdom to satisfy our hearts. Right home for us is a city whose architect and builder is God, which means we will never feel or should never feel at home here. And anything that makes us feel discomfortable, uncomfortable with our earthly home. That's ultimately a kindness from the Lord. It's reminding us that we are citizens of a holy nation more than we are citizens of any earthly kingdom. Our hearts should be restless here because this world is not our home if we are members of this holy nation. The last thing that Peter says about who we are, he tells us that we're a people for God's own possession. What Peter's saying is the most significant thing about who we are is who's we are. We belong to God. We have been purchased out of slavery into freedom and relationship with him by the blood of Jesus. And the most significant and truest thing about you and me if we are in Christ is that we're his. And so I just thought about this this week. Like the image that kept coming to mind for us now this kind of scenario several years in the past. But remembering times when like we would invite family friends over to our house and they would have children, we have children. And so our hope would be that like those children could play together so that the adults could have some conversation and much of the time things worked out well. But every once in a while there would be like some conflict they came up. And I can picture it still, like one of my children struggling to share his favorite beloved precious toy with someone else. And so that someone else is holding his favorite thing and he looks at that favorite thing and this little bit of jealousy wells up in his heart and he says, "Hey, that's mine." And he wrenches it back from his new friend claiming possession of this prized item. Now without the selfishness, without the sin, without the fallenness, without the brokenness, that is in a real way how our heavenly father views us if we are in Christ. He looks at us. He thinks this is my precious possession. These people, this church, they are mine and he clings to them. It's one of the key components of who we are if we're in Christ. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. This is our identity. And what a gift it is from the Lord that he reveals these things to us. Because if you look at the world today, you know, it seems like virtually everyone is on a quest to find or establish their identity. I think virtually every bit of the culture war is about this. And like every thing that's running through the world that we can't make sense of, right, all of it, like boils down to people striving to define or identify their identity for themselves, right? Picking up something and saying, this is who I am. This is the flag that I'm gonna waive or the banner that I'm going to fly that identifies to you and to myself who I really am. But what the Bible gives us, the Bible reveals our identity to us. We don't have to go searching for it. We don't have to go on a quest to find it. And we simply need to hear with ears that are opened by the Spirit of God, who God has declared us to be for a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. That is who we most truly are if we're in Christ. Now, the second question, how did we get here, right? How did we get this identity? Peter answers that question in verse 10. And so I'm gonna skip just for a minute, the back part of verse nine, I'll come back to it. In verse 10, Peter tells us how we became who we are. Listen to what he says. He says, "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." And so there is a simple answer to this question. How did we get this identity? Well, we received it through and because of the mercy of God. Now, that's the simple answer. But there's something more in this verse that's beneath the surface that we might miss on the first reading of this passage or even the tenth reading of this passage. And that's the fact that Peter is very deliberately echoing here, the language of the prophet, Hosea. And I say we might miss that because my assumption is that most of us did not do our devotions in Hosea this morning before we came. Hosea is one of those little tiny books wedged in the middle of the Old Testament. And most of us don't have a real great understanding of what's going on in that little tiny book wedged in the middle of the Old Testament. Hosea is one of the Old Testament prophets. Specifically, he was a prophet to the people of Israel while they were in the midst of idolatry and sin. And the unique thing about Hosea's ministry is that God called Hosea not just to declare his word, but to display his word with his life. And so there was a sense in which Hosea was living a parable to communicate the word of God to the people of Israel. So for example, God commanded Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer who was a prostitute. And Hosea's marriage to this woman who by vocation would be consistently unfaithful to Hosea, right? Hosea's marriage to Gomer was to be a living picture to the people of Israel. This is what you are like. When you go after other gods, when you worship other gods, when you bow down to idols, that's like being married to an unfaithful woman. Hosea's marriage to Gomer was to picture that or to portray that to the people of Israel. But the living parable didn't stop there because God gave to Hosea and Gomer sons. One of those sons was named in Hebrew. His name was Lohruhama, which means no mercy. And then his other son in Hebrew, he was named Lo Ami, which means not my people. And so the names of Hosea's sons, no mercy and not my people, they too were like a message to faithless Israel. When the Israelites saw these little boys running around playing, they were to think, this is who God says we are. This is our identity. Where God is going to show us no mercy. And he's going to call us not my people. That's what the people were to conclude. But then God called Hosea to remind the people of the fact that he's faithful to his covenant, even despite their unfaithfulness. He called Hosea to preach good news. The good news that the God of Israel was faithful and gracious and merciful to Israel, even though they persisted in sin against him. Here's what that message sounded like. This is from Hosea chapter two. God said, and I will have mercy on Lohruhama, no mercy. And I will say to Lohrama, not my people, you are my people. And he shall say, you are my God. Why do I mention all this? Well, it's because Peter's saying that these same things are true of us too. He's saying that we are just like unfaithful Israel. We've worshipped false gods. We've loved lesser lights. We've chased worthless things. We too, of our own accord, would be called no mercy and not my people, but now God has shown his mercy to us. And he's welcomed us into his people. That's our new identity. What Peter wants to hammer home for us is the fact that this identity is received and not achieved. It is not and never could be an identity that we build for ourselves or make for ourselves. It is an identity that could only come out of the gracious and merciful hearts of our God. It's an identity that he's given to us, not an identity that we've had defined or accomplished for ourselves. And it's worth leaning on this church because so many of us, even many of us who have been following Jesus for years, like we still live like we can or should add to our identity before God. We still believe deep in our hearts that we have the opportunity or even responsibility to add to or earn more affection and favor from the heart of our Heavenly Father. We still live like we have something to do in order to be God's chosen people and royal priesthood and holy nation and special possession. We still live like this identity is earned rather than it received. Here's how you can diagnose this in your own heart. This is how you can look for this tendency in your own heart. And just ask yourself as you sit here. As God thinks about me right now, what is the look on his face? Ready if you can pull back the veil and see through the clouds of heaven to the face of God himself? Like as you come to God's mind, what is his response? Many of us, like we assume that the look on God's face is the look of disappointment or frustration or anger. We think that God looks at us and he thinks, I can't believe you're still struggling with this. I can't believe you're still dealing with that. Man, haven't you figured out how to deal with this or that or this or that? We assume that the God is just disappointed or indifferent or that he puts up with us because he has to, not because he wants to. And if that's what you believe, God's reaction to you is, then I think that is a sign that you're trying to earn or achieve your identity in God's eyes rather than receiving it. Whatever causes you to think that God is angry with you or disappointed in you or whatever, is that something that you are suddenly looking to for your identity? I could also be true for you, by the way, if you think you're doing awesome. If you think that God looks upon you and says, yeah, this guy's got it going on. Like if you think that he looks upon you with a face of pride or satisfaction or approval, that you think the reason for that pride or satisfaction or approval is something that you are doing, then that is also the source of your identity. Do you think that God approves of you because of the way you're raising your children? Do you think he approves of you because of your faithfulness in ministry or your consistency in reading the Bible? Do you think he approves of you because of your church involvement or your financial generosity? Do you think he approves of you because of the moral code that you live your life by? These are all good things that can honor the Lord, but none of them, not one of them, is the reason why God approves of you or approves of me. The reason why God approves of you and me, if we are in Christ, is because of his mercy. And there is no other reason. There is no other basis for our identity. On our own, we were low ruhama, no mercy. On our own, we were low hami, not my people. But now we have received mercy. Now we are his people, all of that. This is a gracious gift from God. So we talked about who we are, talked about how we got here, then finally, briefly. What is our purpose now? Why did we receive this identity? That's what Peter describes at the universe nine. But he said you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. And he says that, which tells us purpose. Right, here's why we have received that identity. That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Church, this is the great ambition of your life in mine. This is the reason you were created, the reason I was created. It's the highest privilege and the greatest task that we can embrace in life. It does not matter what your occupation is. If you're a homemaker or a missionary sent to the ends of the earth, if you're a student or a laborer on a factory floor, if you're an entry level assistant or a chief executive, this is the aim of your life. It does not matter what stage of life you are in. If you're eight years old or 80 years old, if you're approaching adulthood and independence or retirement in your golden years, if you have kids at home or kids in college or if you've never been able to have kids, this is your aim in life, our holy ambition. We are called by God to declare and to display his worth. We are called by God to proclaim to the world with our words and with our lives how excellent he is. We're called to proclaim to the world with our words and with our lives the good news that he's called us from darkness to light, that there's a received identity that can put to rest all of this wrestling for and searching for and trying to discover your identity in life. Whatever we do and everything that we do, it ought to be bent towards this single great aim, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. In short, we are called to worship the God who has given us this great identity by his great mercy. We're called to join our lives with the worship that is already in progress around the throne of heaven and we're called to use our lives to forsake the worship of other gods, false gods and to worship the one true God. This is why we are who we are. This is why we are who's we are. We're to proclaim the excellencies of him who's shown us mercy and numbered us among his people. How might you live your life today and every day to proclaim the excellencies of our God? Let's pray together.
