Simon Says – Part 12
From the words of the Apostle Peter, this message focuses on the church: what we are, what we do, what we have become and why this matters.
NOTES:
Simon Says – A Study in 1st Peter
1 Peter 2:9-10
Dave Spooner – Mosaic Rockford – April 12th, 2015
Intro:
- Connect back to the Spiritual house that God is building with the cornerstone and capstone being Christ.
- Each one of us is a part of the place that the presence of God dwells. We are living stones being built into a Spiritual house
- This Spiritual house is called the “church”. The buildings we meet in we have come to call the church, but the truth is we are the building or the church – we don’t need a building to be with God.
- Peter goes on to focus on what we are, what we do, what we have become and I am going to talk about why this matters.
- It is important for us to understand these things about who we are as the church – so that with this perspective we will confidently engage the world and build God’s kingdom.
- In contrast from verse 8 where Peter writes about people who stumble over Christ because they disobey the message, he says this about us, the church.
1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 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.
What we are
- Chosen People
- This points to the sovereignty of God
- You have been selected / elected / chosen
- You did not come into the kingdom by accident
- Means that you have purpose and value – that you are loved and needed
- Royal Priesthood
- Royal – there is honor and authority
- Priesthood – there is sacredness is representing people to God and God to people
- Holy Nation
- Ultimately – are true nation is from another place – Where Jesus is the King . . .
- We are ambassadors – representing that nation to the nation we are in
- We have dual citizenship – and our loyalty needs to first be to the kingdom of heaven
- A People belonging to God
- Then if we belong to God . . .
- We are not our own . . .
- God – what do you want done with . . . time, money, location, effort . . . all I have is yours
- Ultimately all this is yours – in this way we say, to live is Christ and to die is gain . . .
- Matt 10:39 whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
- Then if we belong to God . . .
- So we are these things so that you may declare the praises of him
What we do
- Declare the Praises of him
- The emphasis is not on the declaring but on the praises
- Declaring
- in the sense of making know, publishing, making public, celebrate
- Give credit to the origin as a messenger . . . .
- The Praises
- To lift up, to raise up, the excellence of God – build his reputation
- We do this by telling stories
- We do this by intentionality of communication
- 20 years of marriage, or kids, or this church . . . .
- Of him
- This is not about how great we are but how good he is
- And it puts things in the right order . . .
- We want to say in the end . . . look what God has done . . .
- He is the initiator – and we have responded to his invitation –
- we are to be responsive and responsible
- So we are to declare the praises of him who has . . .
- To lift up, to raise up, the excellence of God – build his reputation
1 Peter 2:9b-10 NIV
declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 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.
What we have become
- From lost to found
- We were in Darkness and now we are in light
- From separated to connected
- We were not a people, but now we are the people of God
- We were alone and now we are together
- From condemned to pardoned
- We were people of wrath and now we are people of mercy
Why this matters
Why does all this matter?
- Because how you see yourself is how you will live
- You have to see yourself as you really are.
- Your destiny flows from your identity – belief flows into actions – as a person thinks, so is he –
- Because now we know what to do – what is a win – what our ultimate purpose is
- Because this will create gratefulness / humility in our hearts . . . .
- Because this will raise the value of the church . . .
Conclusion
- Call for those to join the church and for those who need prayer / prayer people
- Pray