Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20110619.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Peter: Effective Christian Living In A Spiritually Hostile World
Part VII: Practicing The Sacrifices Of Praise As God's Holy Believer Priests
(1 Peter 2:4-10)
  1. Introduction
    1. The religious world has influential groups that teach a special priesthood of the elite within the groups.
    2. However, 1 Peter 2:4-10 reveals Biblical Christianity teaches the priesthood of every believer, and how each of us is to minister as a holy priest in making spiri tual offerings unto the Lord (as follows):
  2. Practicing The Sacrifices Of Praise As God's Holy Believer Priests, 1 Peter 2:4-10.
    1. We believers are to "come" to Jesus, the "Living Stone" Who was rejected in life (John 1:10-11), but Who is precious to us Christians, 1 Peter 2:4. The word "come" in the verb's tense and voice points to "a personal, habitual approach", that is, to "fellowship" with God, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 844.
    2. Though Jesus is the stone the builders rejected, we believers in Him are being built up as spiritual living stones to be a spiritual house where the Lord resides, and this house is also a spiritual priesthood that is to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 2:5.
    3. This is a remarkable statement for the Apostle Peter to make in view of the beliefs in Christendom today:
      1. The Roman Catholic Church holds that since Jesus in Matthew 16:18-19 gave Peter the keys of the kingdom to bind and loose on earth, he was to be the first pope with infallibility, and the class of priests under him in Catholicism was established, Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, 1978, p. 52.
      2. However, Peter as the alleged first pope in the context of 1 Peter1:1-2 that shows he was writing to believers in general who were scattered abroad claims his readers were "a holy priesthood" in 1 Peter 2:5, contradicting the Catholic view of a priesthood of an elite group of believers! (Ibid., p. 45)
      3. [Besides, the Church is not built on Peter in Matthew 16:18 as the Roman Catholic Church teaches; the "rock" is rather Peter's confession upon which Jesus would build His Church, cf. Matthew 16:16-17. Also, the tenses for "bind" and "loose" in Matthew 16:19 indicate heaven, not the apostles, would initiate these steps, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Matthew 16:19.]
    4. 1 Peter 2:6-9 describes this spiritual edifice, this every-believer-priesthood and its ministry (as follows):
      1. Citing Old Testament Isaiah 28:16, Peter noted that God before promised to lay in Zion a Chief Corner Stone, elect and precious, and he that believed on Him would never be put to shame, 1 Peter 2:6 NIV.
      2. To us who believe in Christ, He is precious, but to those who do not, Peter observes in citing Isaiah 8:14 that though Christ is rejected of men, He is made the capstone as Messiah, 1 Pet. 2:7, and a stone that caused men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall (to cite Psalm 118:22), 1 Peter 2:8a,b.
      3. However, in contrast to the fate of those who reject Christ, we believers are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that we might declare the praises of Him Who has called us out of darkness into His wonderful light, 1 Peter 2:9 NIV.
      4. Peter views every individual believer as a priest because he identified the royal priesthood with "a chosen people", "a holy nation" and "a people belonging to God," terms including all individuals and not just an elite class! This counters the priesthoods of Roman Catholic and Mormon groups.
      5. Peter explained that at one time, all of us believers were not the people of God, for we were outside of faith in Christ, and we once had not received God's mercy, 1 Peter 2:10a,b. This is a strong statement to Peter's Hebrew Christian readers (the word "strangers" in 1 Peter 1:1 NIV is from diaspora in the Greek Testament, a reference to scattered Hebrew believers; Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 839), for Hosea 1:10 and 2:23 uses them to refer to disciplined, sinful Israel being restored to be God's people who received His mercy by His grace, implying they as Hebrews had to trust in Christ to be included in the grouping of God's true, blessed people!
      6. However, by receiving God's mercy by faith in Christ, they were part of God's people, and that put them in the grouping of a chosen people, a royal priesthood and a holy spiritual nation, 1 Peter 2:10c, 9.
Lesson: When we trusted in Christ as Savior, we EACH became part of God's spiritual, chosen people, royal priesthood and holy nation that we might minister our PERSONAL sacrifices of praise unto Him.

Application: May we EACH rejoice in our believer-priesthood in Christ and offer our praises to Him!