SET APART / 1 PETER

Part 3 – A Royal Priesthood

1 Peter 2:1-3 (NIV) Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Hebrews 5:13-14 (NIV) Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Spiritual fuels spiritual .

 

1 Peter 2:4-5 (NIV) As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

 

God isn’t just , He’s .

Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV) Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

1 Peter 2:9 (NIV) But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession…

The Identity of a Royal Priesthood

1. You have .

Matthew 27:51 (NIV) At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split.

1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV) For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV) Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

2. You are called to .

Exodus 30:30 (NIV) Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (NIV) Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

1 Corinthians 12:7 (NIV) Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

3. You are a .

Exodus 28:12 (NIV) And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance.

Malachi 2:7 (NIV) For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth.

2 Corinthians 5:20 (NIV) We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

4. You are called to .

Hebrews 10:11-12 (NIV) Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

Romans 12:1 (NIV) Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

5. You are chosen to .

1 Peter 2:9 (NIV) …that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

1 Peter 2:10 (NIV) 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.

Revelation 1:6 (NLT) He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father…

Don’t just ; be the .