Harry's Blog
Master’s Service
1 Peter 2
Story of the little boy who lived near a lake. Now he just loved model boats and sailing them. He spent months making a boat and it was going to be the best on the lake. Launch day came – his boat went out on the water, suddenly a gust of wind took it away and out of sight and the boy was devastated. Everyday he searched the water’s edge, no boat. Then one day as he was wandering through the town, he saw his boat in a shop window. He went in and told the shop keeper that it was his and asked for it back. But the shopkeeper said he couldn’t give it to him since he had bought it from a fisherman who had found it. “You will have to buy it back”, he said to the young boy. He returned to the shop and bought the boat. And, holding it he said : “You are twice mine now. Because I made you and I bought you back!”
God says to you: “You are twice mine now. Because I made you and I bought you back!” Through Jesus. You’ve been bought back for a purpose – v9 ‘you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His light.’
As we turn to vs 9 & 10 remember that Peter is describing the corporate body of Christ, Each expression, “a chosen people,” “royal priesthood,” “a holy nation,” “a people belonging to God,” and “the people of God” is a corporate concept. When we came to know Jesus as our Saviour we entered into what all this means.
Here we find some of the most awesome metaphors for the Church – a people that not only belong but which Peter describes as both ‘holy’ and ‘royal’. This is important to Peter he mentions it twice – v5 & v9
Peter is simply asking the Church to be both ‘holy & royal’. He is telling us what we are. We are a ‘royal priesthood’. We are right, of course, to think in that context of worship and of prayer and praise as part of our life as Christians, but it is much more than that.
One of the Queen’s chaplains was leaving Buckingham Palace one afternoon during the 2nd World War. The Queen came out with her daughters Elizabeth and Margaret. They were going off excitedly to a party- he heard her saying quietly to them, “Now . . . royal children, royal manners.”
Jesus is saying to his church conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” royal children, royal manners!
All of these terms bring to mind both the privileges of our calling and our purpose. Our calling must be the basis for our conduct see also Eph 4:1.
Verse 10a: “You once were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” You are people of mercy. Verse 10b: “. . . you had not received mercy, but now …
When God chose us, he saw us in our sin and guilt and he still loved us. We are not just chosen, but the objects of his mercy. Now, the word “mercy” means to withhold penalty, and it means to show compassion. It’s not giving what we do deserve
What is your most treasured possession – wouldn’t you do anything to protect it – so it is with God and you – did you know you are precious to him.
B. Graham said “Satan does not care how much you theorize about Christianity or how much you profess to know Christ. What he opposes vigorously is the way you live Christ — the way you become an instrument of mercy, compassion, and love through which He manifests Himself to the world. If Satan can take the heart, motive, and mercy out of Christianity, he has killed all its effectiveness. If he can succeed in getting us to talk a good case of religion but to live a poor one, he has shorn us of our power.”
Isn’t it amazing to think we are “a chosen people,” “royal priesthood,” “a holy nation,” “a people belonging to God,” and “the people of God” with the privilege comes responsibility
Let’s be about the Master’s Service
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How can we be a holy people and yet still be sinners? Is it possible to be both at the same time?
Holy Sinners?
God wouldn’t ask us to become something that was impossible for us to do!
Paul identified this problem
“I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”
Rom 6:19-22
Notice that a benefit of being made a ‘slave to God’ is that it leads to a holy life.
How can this happen? By the Holy Spirit.
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” Gal 5:16-18
How can this happen? By the word of God.
The Holy Sprit brings the word of God into our hearts. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17.
Are we holy sinners? Yes! The only way to live a holy life as a Christian is to submit to the control of the Holy Spirit in every area of our life. So, holiness is not just about sinning less, but becoming more like Him.