What Is the Church? Part 1, The People of God

 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. 1 Peter 2:9 

1 Peter 2:9–12 – What Is the Church?  
Epiphany of the Lord (Observed)  – January 7, 2024 (am)  

We’re beginning a new eight-part series this morning that will be as uniquely preached as uniquely needed. We’ll start by saying something about the need. Church can feel like a pretty familiar concept/word/entity/institution to us. Even an unchurched person might say with seeming insight: Church is a place where people who believe similarly about God gather to pursue and practice their beliefs. The emphasis in this definition can vary between the place where these people meet to the specifics of the similarity in their beliefs about God/spirituality to the nature/rituals of the pursuit and practice of their beliefs. But in any case, these days, by and large, it can seem virtually irrelevant and entirely unimportant to most of humanity which emphasis is in view. And far too often that’s not an uninformed assessment; the people who make it have personally tried the church and found it to be irrelevant to the point of unhelpful with regard to the reasons why they were considering it in the first place. They come to the church and don’t understand what they’re seeing. And the explanations they hear aren’t stated in ways they can follow, or in words they can understand. The help they’re offered just doesn’t seem to match the need they’re feeling. And worse, the gap between their questions and the answers just seems to keep getting wider and wider these days.

Considering what the church actually is according to Scripture, what it’s called to be, not only could impressions like these not be more wrong, they couldn’t be more tragic! But this world’s misunderstanding of church can only be of secondary importance to us. The only hope of making any difference there is to keep our eye on the matter of primary importance, namely, how the church/true Christ-followers understand the church. Do we truly know what it is, and what it’s supposed to be, and how we fit into it?

We need to pause and reflect on that answer. We need to grasp why it is that, regardless of any perception, there is absolutely nothing irrelevant or unhelpful about the true church. Nor could there ever be. We need to discover what it is about the church that makes that answer true. We need to remind ourselves of how it is, and why, that Jesus could say to Peter, and to us all: Mat.16:18 … I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

If you want to put it in fancy theological terms, we need to strengthen our practical ecclesiology, our experiential understanding of the doctrine of (what Scripture teaches about) the church (ἐκκλησία), such that we not only grasp intellectually what the church is but know that to be true in real life, in the real world. Building the church is not just pretty central to all that God is doing in this world, it’s the centerpiece! He’s assembling His people, unifying a body of Christ to continue Jesus’ work in this world, populating the household of God, even erecting temple of God, the place where He lives among us. Yet at the same time He’s shepherding His people like flock of sheep. He’s building them into a pillar and buttress of the truth, upholding truth in a world that seeks to tear down truth so they can live according to their own definition of it. He’s enculturating His people as citizens of heaven here and now. He’s purifying a bride for His Son to whom He’ll be united forever. Building the church is God’s priority in this world, and we need to know that. We need to embrace it, remember it, live it, or this unique entity will always look irrelevant and unhelpful to this world.

There’s the unique need we’re addressing. But I also said this series will be uniquely preached. I can’t tell you what a joy it is to me personally to be preaching it alongside each one of our Elders. I’m nearing thirty-seven years in pastoral ministry, and this is the first time I’ve had this privilege. So, I just wanted to point it out so that you can all enjoy it along with me. And please keep us in prayer!

In our study of Romans we heard God’s call Rom.12:3 … not to think of [ourselves] more highly than [we] ought…, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. In short, our self-understanding should grow out of our identity in Christ, specifically our gifting and how that fits in with the gifting of other believers in the church, toward fulfilling His mission. That’s a pretty stunning idea, that humility would have us understanding ourselves properly according to the role we play in the family of God, the body of Christ, the church.

Today’s text puts a similarly stunning idea before us, but from a different (almost opposite) angle. It’s telling us how our relationship with Christ reveals the essence of who we are on a far deeper level than we can perceive on our own.

When we come to faith in Christ, it may or may not be a dramatic, discernibly life-altering change. Different ones of us experience the initiation of new life differently. And no one response is better than the rest; they just differ, as widely as our personalities. But, due to those very sorts of differences, it becomes important to understand exactly what does change about us when we trust Christ as Savior, so that our feelings don’t distort what’s happened to us, either ‘positively’ or negatively. And Peter does a great job of that here, of addressing this issue in people who’ve been scattered away from their homeland due to persecution. He’s come to the place where he’s affirming their core identity as the church, a people for [God’s] own possession (9), and then how that should show itself in this world, even in their current unsettled, unsettling circumstances.

We’ll encounter several descriptions along the way to our primary one today but, even before we start, notice that each image is collective, a plural unity, a group identity. Even when scattered, God’s people are one unified whole. Let’s ask this text two questions; but note that Peter actually answers both in v.9, then expands on each answer forming a hinged transition into part two of his letter.

What Is the Core Identity of the Church? – 9-10

Peter writes to his people that, by virtue of your union with Christ, 9 … you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession…. If that description appeared without context, we’d feel certain he was talking about Israel, God’s old covenant people. In fact, that would be true of most references to the God’s people in this letter. And surely Peter crafted it to sound that way, emphasizing at least some relationship between these two groups, but even more the similarity of God’s action toward each in calling them to Himself. If we hadn’t just finished a trek through Romans, I’d need to spend more time on this important point. But since we saw this connection spelled out in such detail by Paul in that letter, we’ll simply point out that Peter surely seems to agree with him.

And we’ll state in summary that just as the church that’s been scattered by persecution echoes Israel’s experience in captivity (such that Peter addressed them as elect exiles [1:1]), so here the church that’s been called by God into saving relationship with Himself echoes Israel’s experience as His chosen race (one new man [Eph.2:15]), a royal priesthood (a kingdom of priests [Exo.19:6], representing God to people and vice versa), a holy nation ([Exo.19:6] neither ethnicity nor geography, allegiance to King Jesus, the chosen and precious cornerstone [6]), and that leads us to our core description, a people for his own possession (cf. Eze.36:28).

Peter is telling his people that they belong to God. He called [them] out of their stumbling disobedience (8) and made them his own. It wasn’t always so; leaning hard into Hosea (1:6, 9, 10; 2:1, 23), Peter reminds them that they’re God’s people by an act of His sovereign mercy (10). And just as in other places where this same point is made (cf. 2Co.6:18), Isa.43 comes into view. Isa.43:20 … I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people (I do miracles for them), 21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise. Here, the purpose of the church’s honored (7) status is just as it was for Israel: 9 … that you might proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (9).

We’re called to by God to be his people so that we can proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us]. This leads us to ask…

What Is the Core Activity of the Church? – 11-12

These two verses move us into the second part of Peter’s letter. The nature of their salvation and their identity in Christ is part one, and practical instruction on living well under authority and suffering is part two. So, Peter begins by pointing out some challenges they can expect to face.

They’re exiles, sojourners (11; cf. 1:1), away from their homeland, in hostile territory. These aren’t happy words. But, as we said they’re just as true of the church as of Israel. Just as the Jews of the Dispersion were a scattered people cut off from their country but with the prospect of ultimately going back, so Christians are bound, wherever they are, to be transitory sojourners yearning for home (Kelly 41). Yet deep within their hearts also lay embedded passions, desires of a different sort that wage war with their souls in opposition to the defining morality of their true homeland. Peter challenged them not to cave in to those desires, not to forget who they are and why they’re here.

When choices were present, he pressed them to choose holiness! When temptations arise, he called them to resist. 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that you can fulfill your calling, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. As God’s chosen people, you’re able to do this! 2Pe.1:3 His divine power has granted to [you] all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called [you] to his own glory and excellence!

Being God’s people means living His presence in this world, making Him visible (1Jo.4:12), bearing kingdom fruit, expanding His reign, bringing Him glory, living and proclaiming the gospel with authenticity and passion! It means fulfilling the mission for which He called us and doing so as our unrivaled highest priority.

Conclusion

So, what’s our hope of success in this calling? Turn with me to Rev.5:8 … when [the Lamb] had taken the scroll [from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne (7)], the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the [Him], each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, being answered. 9 And they sang a new song, saying, the song of salvation, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Tribe here (9; φυλή) is chosen race (γένος); kingdom and priests (10) is a royal priesthood; nation (9) is a holy nation; people, those purchased for God (9) are a people for his own possession.

As the Lamb is introduced as worthy of worship (6ff.), along with him who was seated on the throne (1), the new song (9) of the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders (8) announces that His worthiness is due, first and foremost, to the fact that He has built [His] church (Mat.16:18), He’s ransomed people for God at the price of his own blood!

But one detail John makes explicit here that Peter left implicit: this people of God isn’t just one new holy nation. It’s one new nation made up of people from all nations!

So, in Christ it’s not just that our identity is established for all eternity in fulfillment of His promised new covenant (Eze.36:28), the work we’re called and equipped by Him to do will get done such that some from every single nation and ethnicity and language group on this planet, throughout all human history, will be present before His throne giving Him glory from the day of [His return] and on forevermore!

That’s our calling. That’s who we are, the church, the people of God. That’s our identity, and our activity, our mission. And that’s what we’re strengthening, stoking, celebrating, fellowshipping in, and urging one another to be faithful to as we gather here week by week. This is the church, the people of God!

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Resources

Arnold, Clinton E., gen. ed. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Vol. 4, Romans-Philemon. 1 Peter, by Peter Davids, 120-150. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Beale, G. K., & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. 1 Peter, by D. A. Carson, 1015-1045. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

Carson, D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. 1 Peter, by David H. Wheaton, 1369-1385. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Clendenen, E. Ray, ed. 2003. New American Commentary. Vol. 37, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, by Thomas R. Schreiner. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.

Dever, Mark. 2005. The Message of the New Testament. Ch. 21, The Message of 1 Peter, 443-457. Wheaton: Crossway.

Hubbard, David A., and Glenn W. Barker. 1988. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 49, 1 Peter, by J. Ramsay Michaels. Dallas: Word.

Kelly, J. N. D. 1969. Black’s New Testament Commentary. The Epistles of Peter and Jude. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

Longman III, Tremper, & David E. Garland, eds. 2006. Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 13, Hebrews-Revelation. 1 Peter, by J. Daryl Charles, 275-356. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene A. Nida. 1996. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. New York: United Bible Societies.

Hughes, R. Kent, ed. 2008. Preaching the Word. 1 & 2 Peter and Jude, by David R. Helm. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.

Osborne, Grant R., ed.  1991. The IVP New Testament Commentary. 1 Peter, by I. Howard Marshall. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity.

Owen, John, ed. Commentary on the First Epistle of Peter, by John Calvin. Translated by John Owen.

Stott, John, NT ed. 1994. The Bible Speaks Today. The Message of 1 Peter, by Edmund Clowney. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Zodhiates, Spiros, gen. ed. 1993. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, Revised Edition. Chattanooga: AMG.

NEXT SUNDAY: What Is the Church? Part 2, The Body of Christ, Kipp Soncek