Royal Priests - 1 Peter 2:1-12

Read 1 Peter 2:1-12

Have you ever received an award, gift, or a position you didn’t feel like you deserved? How did you feel when you got it? 

In High School I was a multi-sport athlete. I played soccer, basketball, volleyball, and baseball at some point. My sporting career didn’t work out the way I had hoped it would. Knee surgery ended soccer and basketball early for me. Volleyball was one that I was excelling at, but the coach quit and the team was canceled, so I went to play baseball. My senior year I made varsity, but I didn’t play much that season. I like to say that I played “left out” because my coach left me out of every game. 

I won’t go into all the details, but I was disappointed and thought I should have received more play time. When it came to the sports banquet, I didn’t want to go because it wasn’t much of season for me. However, Coach called my name and awarded me a Varsity Letter for the season. I was surprised because I didn’t get the play time or accomplishments to earn a letter, but coach said it was because of my hard work, diligence, perseverance, and commitment to the team. 

It is nice getting recognized and rewarded when you deserve it. It is humbling to receive an award you don’t deserve. 

Last week we learned that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and the perfect priest, through whom we have received forgiveness of sins, reconciled to the Father, and called to be a royal priesthood unto God. 

Our sins separated us from God, but the sacrifice of Christ has provided a way for us to be reunited with God through faith in what Jesus has done for us. When we receive the free gift that Jesus provides, we are awarded with a high calling to be a royal priest unto God.  

1 Peter 2:9–10

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. (ESV)

In order to get an understanding of the significance of what Peter is saying, it would be good to read the book of Hosea. I will give a brief summary, but you really should read it. 

God called his prophet Hosea to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him as an object lesson of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Hosea’s struggles with Gomer as she conceives a child that is not Hosea’s kid, and God tells him to name his child, Lo-ruhama, “No Mercy.” Gomer later has another son, whom God tells Hosea to name him Lo-ammi, “Not my people”.

In these names we get the heart wrenching reality of the pain of Gomer’s sin and the effect it had on his family. This is a story so difficult that nobody would have blamed Hosea from walking away from it. Yet, it is a story of God’s mercy on display and Hosea remained faithful, buying back his wife. 

Hosea 2:20–23

“I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens...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.’” 

God promises to change the name, change the narrative, to change everything. No Mercy, will receive mercy. Not My People will become his people. Being conceived in sin and living in unfaithfulness is not big enough to stop the redemptive hand of God from buying back his people, and that is what he did in Jesus Christ.

This is what Peter is referring to in verse 10. God has called us out of darkness, out of the brokenness of the wilderness of wayward unfaithfulness without an identity. He calls us to be his people, to receive his mercy, and then to receive a new position of a royal priesthood.  

Watch Video:

If we model this off of an understanding of what we saw in the OT priesthood, we are called to be priests in three ways: Singing, Sacrificing, and Interceding. 

Singing is a way of expressing worship through poems and songs. Music is powerful and helps us to bridge heaven and earth. What we sing and listen to is an opportunity for us to express our priesthood to those around us. 

I think we can also include our language as an expression of this aspect of being a priest. The words we use, the stories we tell, the tweets we send, the images we post, and so on, are all important aspects of our expression of worship. What do you think is appropriate for a holy priest to say? You are a holy priest in Christ, so should you be saying, singing, or tweeting the words you use?

We are to use our words to build others up and point them to Jesus. Your words have power, make sure you are using them as a royal priest should.

Sacrificing is not about slaughtering animals today, rather it is about surrender, obedience, and caring for others. 

Romans 12:1–2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. What is easier, to die for someone or to live for someone? Last week we talked about how hard it would be to die for someone, and very few people would actually be willing to give their life for someone. However difficult it may be to resolve to die in a moment for someone, getting up each day and being faithful in serving someone is tremendously difficult. 

You don’t agree? When did you choose to follow Christ? When was the last time you sinned? So at what point did you step off the altar and decide you could do whatever you wanted, even if God doesn’t agree? Why? Because it is extremely difficult to live faithfully every second of every day. 

But that is the call God has on us as royal priests. Read Romans 12:9-21 and Hebrews 13:1-6 as descriptions of what it means to live a sacrificial life. 

Hebrews 13:15–16

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

And thirdly, we are intercessors for others. This means we are willing to offer up blessings and prayers for others. We advocate for their needs and care for them. We imitate Jesus in this world. When people imitate Jesus the royal priest, they become a new humanity, living in a way that reunites Heaven and Earth (from the video).

When we realize that we were far off from God and underserving of his grace and mercy, yet he called us home through the finished work of Jesus Christ, we will be overwhelmed by his love for us. Keeping that in mind, when we realize that God has called us to be his royal priests and the high calling that is for us, we should be filled with humility and honor. We won’t be able to help but declare the excellencies of him who has called us his children.