God’s People: 1 Peter 2:9-10
Back in August 2017 I took a couple of days off from my sales job at Sanderson Ford in Glendale, Ariz., and went to Flagstaff for the 50th reunion of the class of 1967 from Flagstaff High School.
One of the first things they did was give us a list with 40 names on it of people who had passed away. I started to look through the list. Near the bottom was the name Mike Willingham.
My memory was dragged back to mid1967. Mike was a buddy of mine. I was working in a service station on Highway 66, while Mike was working in an underwear factory in town, so I dubbed him Willy Underwear.
We decided to rent a little house in town and move out of our parent’s homes and be roommates. Why? So, we could party at will! Our living room had a massive pyramid of Budweiser cans to adorn it. We lived there for about a month.
I worked 10 and 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in the service station and needed to sleep upon occasion. One night Willy was partying while I was trying to sleep. He kept waking me up to introduce me to people.
Finally, I grabbed my clothes and my toiletries and tossed them in my car and went back to my parents’ house. The door was unlocked, so I walked in.
My dad was working for a contracting company overseas in Viet Nam, but mom was watching the Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. I told her I was moving back in so I could sleep. She told me to move right back into my room. I did and went to sleep.
I left and came back! All Christians have left and then come back!
1 Peter 2:9-10, “(9) But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (10) Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (NIV)
The first word in the text is “but,” “but” in Greek is the word for “and,” there for the purpose of referring to what had just been said.
1 Peter 2:7, “But to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, the stone the builders have rejected has become the capstone,”
The stone that was rejected was Jesus as Messiah, the only way to get back to God.
It’s important to see those who now believe had been among those who didn’t believe. They left home but came back and the door was open for them like it was for me when I left home and came back.
Notice in verse 10 once they were not a people, but now they’re the people of God. Once they had not received mercy, but now they have received mercy.
We left and were not God’s people, but we have come back and now are God’s people. Verse 9 has five realities that are ours as God’s people who came back into a new birth.
First, God’s people are a chosen people.
About 1,407 years before Christ came Deuteronomy 7:6 was written. It says, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” (NIV)
God’s deep and abiding desire was always to have a people His own possession, a chosen people. 3429 years ago, God made it clear He had chosen a people for His possession, a chosen people, the people of Israel.
Ephesians 1:4 puts it this way, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (NIV) In the Old Testament His people were the people of Israel, today those people are His New Covenant people the people of God today.
His old covenant people were established as His by a birth into a race and nation called Israel, but today that’s a shadow of the reality that’s in His new creation through a new birth!
Today, we’re chosen by grace, meaning Jesus paid for our sin on the cross and we can trust him and come back to Him, and the door is always open to us. Then we become a chosen people.
We’re all like they were. Why? Because we all left and came back, like I left and came back home. We came back in faith and the door was open extending us mercy based on what Jesus paid for us at the cross.
Now that we have come back home to the Lord and are on the receiving end of His mercy, we claim 1 Peter 1:23A, “For you have been born again.” (NIV)
We have all left and come back to an open door by faith and we have been extended mercy and the door was open and our room was ready for us. In short, we have become the people of God through a new birth.
Second, God’s people are a royal priesthood.
1445 or so years before Christ this was God’s will for His chosen people. Exodus 19:6, “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” (NIV)
God’s will and call was always that His people be a kingdom of priests.
The Apostle John spoke to the church in Revelation 1:5B-6, “(5B) to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood. (6) and has made us a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father — to him by glory and power forever and ever! Amen.” (NIV)
At the beginning of God’s people, God’s will was His people be a kingdom of priests and at the end His will is His people be a Kingdom of priests to serve God.
God’s people are all priests and are all a part of a royal priesthood.
What’s the function of a priest? He connects people to God and goes directly to God to do that. Much of the Christian community thinks they have to go to a priest to get to God. Wrong! You’re a priest and have direct access to God!
Hebrews 4:16 says it this way, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (NIV)
Who approaches the throne of grace? The people the book of Hebrews is directed to. That’s Christians, all Christians. We go directly to the throne of grace, that’s directly into God’s presence as a priest who approaches God directly.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 gives us another function of a priest, (18) All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: (19) that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.” (NIV)
The royal priesthood is responsible for the ministry of reconciliation, that’s seeing people come to Christ to be restored to a relationship with God through the good news of the gospel.
Third, God’s people are a holy nation.
To be holy is to be separate for God’s possession and His will. Christ paid for our sin on the cross and cleanses and forgives all of the sin, making us holy before Him.
When you come back to Him through that open door, He makes you holy and you become part of that holy nation.
Fourth, God’s people belong to Him.
Romans 3:24 puts it like this, “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” (NIV)
Notice that redemption came by Jesus Christ. That means we were lost, and Jesus paid the price at the cross to buy us back as God’s possession. He redeemed us and we’re His.
Fifth, God’s people declare His praises.
We declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. Jesus called us out of darkness into His light by dying in our place, paying for our sin on the cross and being raised from the dead to give us life that would never end and get us off this planet alive.
When I went through the door at my parents’ house in 1967 and came home, I was welcomed with open arms. When God’s child comes back, he’s welcomed to the Lord with open arms.
When I came back home in 1967, I could eat my meals there at no cost. I could have my laundry done there with no effort and at no cost. I could sleep in my old bedroom without paying any rent. I could use the bathroom to bath and didn’t even have to buy my own soap or shampoo.
I was welcomed back as my family’s people. Just part of the family. When you come back through God’s open door you gain all the privileges of His people with no cost to you.
You’re God’s chosen people, royal priesthood, His Holy nation, you belong to Him, and you’re there as part of His family to declare His praises.
Just come back, walk through the door and enjoy the benefits of being God’s people!