1 Peter 2:5,9

- Rev. Norman Cameron
We have already seen in this letter from Peter that he wants to encourage a group of believers who have perhaps been persecuted, who certainly have been scattered from their preferred home, and who feel the need for assurance that what they have given up is worth it for the sake of the kingdom of God.

From time to time all of us as Christians need encouragement in our Christian walk, and not just that but also affirmation that we are doing the right thing in following Jesus Christ where that is increasingly a minority interest. We are living in days of increasing secularism where there is growing opposition to christian teaching and Christian standards. But if that is outside the church also we can find confusion within the church as to how we should actually follow Jesus Christ, how we should worship, how we should serve God in ways that are acceptable to him. In these verses we are looking at today we will get some affirmation and guidance. I want especially to concentrate on Peter’s description of believers as a priesthood in chapter 2. In v.5 he refers to believers as being “built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ”; and then in v.9 he describes believers as “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”.

    We will look at what a priest was in the Old testament, how Jesus changed things and how the term applies to us and reflect on what the implications of this might be for us today.

1. Old Testament Priests

 The priesthood in the Old Testament began with Aaron from the tribe of Levi in the days of Moses when God instructed the people to build Tabernacle or tent with the Ark of God in it. Aaron was from the Kohathite clan of the tribe of Levi and he and his sons were appointed as priests. The other Levites who were not direct descendants of Aaron were also involved in helping the priests. The Kohathites were the most important clan and they also guarded and carried the ark and the most special furnishings. The Gershonites were responsible for the curtains and hangings and then the Merarites looked after the wooden frames and the tent pegs. There were about 22,000 Levites in Moses’ day. The priests did not have an inheritance when they came to the promised land, the Lord was their inheritance and they lived off the offerings and animals that were brought by the people.

 The priests acted in a representative capacity for the people, they brought the sacrifices before God on behalf of the people. The priesthood became more formalised and specialised with the building of the Temple and only the High priest could enter the Holy of Holies and provide the great sacrifice for all the people on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest wore special clothes, an ephod with two onyx stones carved with the twelve names of the tribes and he also wore a breast-piece with 12 jewels representing the 12 tribes of Israel. The Aaronic priests had elaborate cleansing rituals to go through before they could serve in The Temple. (Exodus 28) The idea was that the priest had a two way role – he represented God to the people and the people before God – so the priest was a kind of mediator between two parties, between God and his people.
So the priesthood was a central element of Israel’s religion. God chose them, he set them apart for service, he anointed them and expected obedience from them. They were very privileged in that they had access to parts of the tabernacle and then the temple which ordinary people did not have. They were expected to have a closeness to God which ordinary people did not have. They encouraged the people to holy living, they sometimes acted as judges, and they issued decrees of purification after an illness or a recovery from leprosy.
The Hebrew word for priest is kohen (plural is kohanim). Literally a kohen is “someone who draws near” so in Exodus 19:6 where God says you will be to me a kingdom of priests it literally means a kingdom of those who draw near to the Father.  

2. Jesus, the greater priest

In Jesus day the priesthood was still important and they served in the Temple. However when Jesus began his ministry he suggested that something significant was going to change. Although he respected the Temple and called it a house of prayer and he cleansed it, later when he referred to the temple he spoke of it as a passing thing, it was going to be destroyed and something that was being surpassed by himself.  “I tell you that one greater than the Temple is here”  (Mt.12:6); in John 2:19 Jesus says “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days. The Jews replied it has taken 46 years to build this temple and you are going to raise it in three days. But the temple he had spoken of was his body”.  When Jesus died we also see the curtain that divided the holy place from the most holy place was cut in two (Mk.14:38) indicating an opening up of the way into heaven through what Jesus had done. Jesus also indicated in John 4 with his conversation with the Samaritan woman that things were going to change  - “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem”

 In AD 70 the Temple was destroyed and as we go into the NT we see Paul clarifying for us that followers of Jesus are now a temple to the Lord (1 Cor.6:19 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God.”) and the Spirit no longer dwells in buildings but in bodies (Stephen in Acts 7:48).   

Then in the book of Hebrews we see the writer tying together many of these ideas and we see that in Jesus we have a better temple, a better sacrifice, a better priest, a  better hope. Jesus is the mediator to beat all mediators for through him we enter into heaven. Hebrews 10 tells us that Jesus came do his Father’s will and “by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ once for all” (read Heb10:11-14, 19-25). So here we see that Jesus, our great High priest and the representative of all the nations and peoples, all colours and tribes has sacrificed human blood to cover and pay for human sin and this enables all of us to draw near to God.  Note v.22 of Heb.10 which says let us draw near to God. Heb.7:19 says that in Jesus we have a “better hope by which we draw near to God”; and in Heb.10:1 we are reminded that in Jesus we have one better than the law – in Jesus we have the reality not the shadow and through his sacrifice God “makes perfect those who draw near to worship”
So Jesus changes everything, he is the new high priest who offers perfect sacrifices and prayers on our behalf, he tears down the curtain that divides the ordinary people from the priests and God, he fulfils the laws and the special sacrifices, and he enables us to draw near to God – his followers now fulfil the prophecy given to Moses back in Exodus 19 “you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

3. Priests today?

Now let us come back to 1 Peter and bring this right up to date. Peter describes the followers of Jesus as being built “into a spiritual house or temple to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ and as a chosen people, a royal priesthood that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  (v.5,9)

As followers of Jesus we are enabled by what Jesus achieved to draw near to God, to have access to God. We do not need to bring animal sacrifices for Jesus’ sacrifice was a once for all sacrifice. We do not need someone to act on our behalf as a mediator to offer prayers or worship for us – we can do that ourselves. We do not need to wear special clothes like the High priest nor go through a series of cleansing rituals for this has been fulfilled in Christ. (Titus 2:14, 3:5 “Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us and to purify for himself a a people that are his very own….He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit”) In Christ we have been clothed with righteousness (“we have a righteousness which is through faith in Christ” Phil.3:9). All the things that God required of priests, that they be chosen, that they belong to a certain tribe, that they be purified and anointed – all these things are fulfilled in Christ as we trust in Christ the privileges that Jesus has flow into the believer so that we can address God as children coming to a heavenly Father. We no longer need a mediator beyond Jesus, and he encourages us to be priest and ministers ourselves. We no longer need a separate priestly caste, we are all priests just as in Christ we are all saints. Too many people want to go back to the Old Testament ways of doing things rather than enjoying the privileges that have been bought for us in Christ.

As the people of God we are a nation of priests. Our two chief duties are worship and witness, or to put it another way praise and prayer on the one hand and proclamation on the other. The declaring of God’s praises is something that we can do both inside and outside the church services. We are called to offer spiritual sacrifices. What are these spiritual sacrifices? The NT urges us to seven basic sacrifices which I will just mention.

- The sacrifice of our bodies (Rom.12:1 “Therefore I urge you brothers to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice”),
- our praise and worship (Heb.13:15 “Through Jesus let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips  that give thanks to his name”)
- the sacrifice of doing good (Heb.13:16  “Do not neglect doing good)
- the sacrifice of sharing (Acts 2:45 “Selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need.” )
- proclaiming the gospel (Rom.15:15-16 following Paul’s example “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God so that the gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God.”)
- sacrificial love for each other (Eph.5:2 “Be imitators of God therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”) We are called to sacrificially love each other.
- finally we are to offer the sacrifice of prayer for each other. In Rev.8  we get an insight to the importance of our prayers (Rev.8:3-4 “Another angel who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints…the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand”)

So as we begin a new year perhaps now is a good time to remind ourselves of these core truths and to encourage each one of us to be a kingdom of priests – ministering to God and to each other. Sacrifices involve commitment, discipline, effort, costliness, engagement. There is the temptation to think that Jesus has achieved it all and he has won access for us into the heavenlies and there is nothing more that we need to do. But we confuse working for our salvation with working out our salvation, we confuse earning God’s salvation with serving God as a result of, and in thanks for, our salvation.

Perhaps we have lost sight of the great sacrifice that Jesus paid to enable us to draw near. It is no light thing to draw near to the living God. For centuries only a certain small section of people could do this on behalf of the people. Today we have that immense privilege of not only being priests but being royalty – being members of the kings own household.

John Macarthur comments “One of the primary functions in the church’s mission to advance God’s kingdom is to stimulate its members to fulfil their priestly duties. That fulfilment, above any externals, is the divine measure of the church’s success”

Our vision in High Kirk is to turn members into ministers, and more than that into missionaries. This is what Peter is encouraging the people to do. Let us encourage one another to this great goal. Let us be aware of the great privileges we have and let us draw near to God and serve him in praise, in proclamation, and in offering spiritual sacrifices, for his glory and for our good.
    

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