1 Peter series - Who Are You Really?

                                                             Who are you really?

1 Peter 2:9-10

 

  Have you ever wondered how important your identity

is? People usually identify themselves through various external values: work, sports, race, gender, age, likes and desires, grades and intelligence, bodystyle and shape, and money. Then there are those who have their identity hacked by an evil world. I have been hacked and had my identity corrupted a couple of times and have had people use my identity in China and Texas, neither of these places have I ever been. In both of these cases money was involved, I had to change bank cards and ID numbers to protect my name. 

And in today’s world, everyone is known by a set of numbers in a database that tracks everything you do, buy, schedule, visit, eat, etc.

 But God knows your true identity as well as your eternal destiny, and the apostle Peter spoke to the Church about who God identifies them as. Let’s look at the first verse of text - “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 

Peter knew the exile believers could easily forget their true identity in Christ, having their identities hacked by being among the cultures and the evil of the world. Example Daniel and the young men taken from Israel, or Joseph exiled in Egypt. All their names were changed and the captors tried to change their mindset and memory of who they really were. It was even a custom in their days of conquering countries to take the captive and disperse them throughout their country or other conquered countries. For example the Israelites taken to Assyria, the majority Israel and Judah to Babylon, the dispersion of the Israelites during the Greek and Roman empires.

 Peter knew that God had given each of the believers an everlasting name (“I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off” Isa. 56:5), for he had chosen them before the beginning of time (“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” Eph. 1:4) 

First, they were a chosen people by God. He had placed His name upon them, and changed their very nature so they could be holy and blameless in his sight because of His Son.

Second, they were a royal priesthood. They had a High Priest in Christ Jesus who sat at the right hand of God. They were to offer sacrifices of praise and the giving of themselves to the service of the High Priest. (Rom. 12:1, Heb.13:15, Heb. 4:14-16).

Third, A holy nation, When God came to Abraham, He told him He would be the father of many nations, Israel was one of those nations, and God set Israel apart (Deut.28:1 - If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.) Peter knew Jesus fulfilled the command to fully obey, and in following the commands that Christ gave the church, they were a holy nation, a people set apart for God the Son. And it is in this the exiled believers needed to remember who they were in Christ Jesus, even though they were scattered because of the persecution from unbelievers.

Fourth, they were God's special possession. Peter reminded them again that they were the temple of the Holy Spirit, God the Spirit. They were special, totally different from the world, set apart for God's special use and service. He clothed them in power and sanctified them with the blood of his Son. They were gifted with special authority, spiritual gifts, and power to serve boldly in God's service.

Application - In the church of the twenty-first century, we have seemed to have lost our identity, who we are in Christ Jesus. Like the churches of Revelation, our identity is not in our sacrificing for buildings or cathedrals rivaling the world (Rev. 2:15), it is not in our contentment of our prosperity (Rev. 3:17), or in our reputations of liveliness in our community, (Rev.3:1), or our misplaced love (Rev. 2:4), or in the culture of world who loves finery, knowledge, ethnic ascendancy. God’s word shouts out who we are, we are a chosen people. We are the children of God (Gal.3:26, 2 Cor. 2:18, Rom.8:14, and John 1:12). 1 John 3:10 states it well. “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” We are also a royal priesthood (1 Pet.2:9, Rev.1:6, 5:10, 20:6). We are called to praise Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Heb.13:15) We serve Jesus, our High Priest, by giving our lives daily in sacrificial obedience to His will and with joy, and this will please him who sits on the throne and intercedes for us.

We are called to be holy, set apart, for His use as a possession of His love ( 1 Cor. 13).  We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit.  We are a special possession, to be totally different from the world, set apart for God's special use and service. He has clothed us in power and sanctified us with the blood of his Son. We are gifted with special authority, spiritual gifts, and power to serve boldly in God's service. 

Last, Peter reminded the believers that they are not who they once were. They had lived lives conformed to the evil desires of the flesh and the world and that they had lived in ignorance. But now they are the children of God, and have received his great mercy; he has given them new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade (1 Pet. 1:3-4). Let’s look at the last verse of this lesson. “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.”

They needed to understand their identity, they are the people of God. Wherever they sojourned, Peter wanted them to remember who they were in Christ Jesus.

Application - God is merciful. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:22-23 that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

If we in the church of the twenty-first century are going to know our identity, it is only going to be by surrendering ourselves to the Holy Spirit. We are no longer identified by the old flesh and evil desires of this fallen world. We have received his great mercy; he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. (1 Pet.1:3-4) This is our identity, we are His chosen children, a royal priesthood in service to Him who sits on the throne, and we are His special possession, His Bride, called to be holy, blameless, and pure, and ready for His return to take us to His Home.

If you would like to read more lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis