Tomorrow we are focusing on one of the most EXCITING descriptions of WHO and WHAT you ARE in the Lord Jesus Christ!

God’s Word says:

1. You are a chosen race.

2. A royal priesthood.

3. A holy nation.

4. His own possession.

I will of course make this quite personal to you as we get into your identity in the Lord Jesus. It is an invigorating, inspirational, and powerful identity!

A long time ago — before I was a pastor — someone told me that the highest office, the most important position was to be a pastor. Through my training and study, however, I realized that that was incorrect. The highest position, the brightest status is what YOU ARE. You the chosen one, you are a royal priest, you are holy, and you are God’s jewel…all through Jesus. You can’t top this. The pastor is just a fellow priest who has been called to serve what has been given to all the priests. Yes, the Scriptures speak of honoring leaders, etc., but this does not cancel your highest status.

With this new identity, comes a new activity…it is simple and basic, but it is also powerful and miraculous…and it is an activity that belongs to YOU. We will also get into this.

So Jesus has risen!

So what?

Well, for one thing it means that you who have been baptized into Him and who believe in Him have a new identity and a new priority for living…that’s what!

Come to church! Invite a friend! Receive the Lord’s Supper for forgiveness and renewal; come and receive the Word and be equipped; come and rejoice!

Reminders:

8:15 set up

9:30 worship

11:00 Sunday School and Bible Study

12:00 parish council

12-3 high school youth (we go to the Geislers at 2 pm)

3:00 confirmation

Let us rejoice!

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow’s sermon:

“Out of Darkness”

(1^st Peter 2:9)

Pastor Espinosa

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

We have had the very short, but very powerful letter of 1^st Peter in front of us as of late:

 

Two Sundays ago — March 4^th — we were reminded that now that Christ is risen we see the bigger picture: heaven is our home and in the meantime we are exiles passing through and so we conduct ourselves with a holy fear so that we hold on to faith in our Living Lord instead of going along with a world that wants to tear itself away from the Lord. (1^st Peter 1:17)

 

Last Sunday — March 11^th — we considered how the Resurrected Lord equips us to cope with unjust suffering along the way and the endurance which not only demonstrates that the Living Lord Jesus is with us (you are able “to go on” because Jesus is holding you up!), but that same endurance also acts as a witness to others in the world. (1^st Peter 2:19-20)  When you keep serving and forgiving and loving, people start to wonder: “where does such a life come from?” You know the answer!

 

Today — March 18^th — we receive a fantastic testimony about your true identities now that the Savior has conquered death and about what it is our lives are now all about. 1^st Peter 2:9 will be our focus and it is powerful description of the new life we have in the One who is risen!

 

Here is the text:

 

1^st Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

 

We need this Word from the Lord. The reason Peter is writing this letter to the scattered Christians throughout the Roman Empire is because they are going through all kinds of struggles. Keep in mind that elsewhere in the Bible Rome is called “Babylon” referring to it being steeped in false religion and phenomenal immorality (cf. Romans 14:8). We are in the same boat today…we are immersed in false teaching and we live in a world that has lost its moral compass. All of these are incredibly dangerous spiritual threats to us and our families. So the Christians back in Peter’s time were “the easy and constant targets of ridicule and persecution.” (Concordia Journal, Jan. 2002, Vol 28, Num 1, 110). And because this situation is the same today, we really need this message from God through First Peter!

One of the examples of the phenomenal confusion – a form of getting you to question your faith — that is out there is represented by a recent (April 17, 2014) TIME article “In Praise of Darkness” by Barbara Brown Taylor. Interestingly while Ms. Taylor is criticizing many Christian churches for not dealing with the darkness that affects us all, she – at the same time – lumps all Christian churches together. She points out that through the dark times in life we often grow the most; the darkness is an important part of life. That much is true. But she goes on to criticize those Christian traditions who insist on this superficial – what she calls – “solar spirituality” that insists that with true faith everything is great and LIGHT all the time, but once we encounter darkness, the Church doesn’t know what to do with this! She goes so far as to write, “Christianity has never had anything nice to say about darkness.”

 

She actually makes a valid point about some churches today. But we aren’t one of them. Our tradition acknowledges that the fact of the matter is that we are in a battle! And there are many times that the true Christian enters into dark times, times of suffering, times of feeling discouraged, times of spiritual uncertainly, times when God just feels hidden (we Lutherans appreciate the aspect of God called Deus Absconditus or the Hidden God). Furthermore, we fully acknowledge that in these dark times, God is working to bless us! More importantly, however, Ms. Taylor makes a false argument: that because darkness can sometimes be used for good, that it is always good. No it isn’t. Sometimes, it’s really bad. When darkness is spiritual confusion and unbelief, then that darkness can lead people to condemnation and life in eternity without God (this is how the word “darkness” is used in 1^st Peter).

 

This is an example of the world generating road blocks against your faith. These are little attacks that you get from sources like books, magazines, television, friends – esp. those who don’t know Christ – and needless to say the greatest source of in-your-face images and words is now before us in smart phones, i-pads and laptops. How much of this helps your faith? How much of this draws you closer to Christ? What words and images are bombarding your eyes, your ears and your mind? Is it dark or is it light?

 

There is old saying, “garbage in, garbage out.” But if what you receive is good, then good things flow from you. If you receive darkness, darkness comes out; but if you receive light, light comes out. If you receive Christ, Christ comes out!

 

So God is concerned about our darkness to the extent that when Jesus rose from the dead, He changed believers in the True God in who and what they are.

 

To encourage you and to strengthen you as you go through life, being harassed, being attacked, being tempted to sin, etc., the Lord proclaims the truth of your new identity in Christ at 1^st Peter 2:9 (I am here giving abbreviations of the four points):

 

1. You are chosen.
2. You are a royal priest.
3. You are holy.
4. You are a jewel.

 

And with this phenomenal new identity (verse 9), comes also a new priority in what you DO (also verse 9): “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

In Jesus’ Love,

Pastor Espinosa