HoHum:
In Wheat That Springeth Green, author J.F. Powers has one of his characters say, “This is a big old ship. She creaks, she rocks, she rolls, and at times she makes you want to throw up. But she gets where she’s going. Always has, always will, until the end of time. With or without you.” This is a good description of the church.
1 Peter 2:9-10: Read Scripture again but emphasis on a holy nation, a people belonging to God,
Thesis: The church is a holy nation and the people of God.
For instances:
I. The church is a holy nation
The churched and the unchurched, or the church and the not church.
The church isn’t perfect but it’s the way God has chosen to get his people from here (this world) to there (heaven).
Is this not a contradiction of terms: a churchless Christian? A free agent disciple?
The church is a group of people who are different from and distinct from everyone else on earth. The church is separated from the rest of fallen mankind and they make up the new creation as it exists in the midst of the old creation.
Many people equate “church” with “organized religion” and they reject both because of the negatives they see, perceive or have experienced in the past. However, the Biblical concept of the church is a far cry from “organized religion.” The word “church” in the Greek literally means “the called out ones.” It refers to a group of people, who, by the grace of God, have been called out of sin and the world into a relationship with the living Christ. This includes all Christians.
2. In the OT
This concept of a holy nation was literally applied to the nation of Israel when God called them out of Egypt and they entered into a special covenant relationship with God.
Exodus 19:6: you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation
The word holy here has to do with separation. This is what God was doing with Israel at Sinai by making them holy: he was separating them from every other nation on earth and putting them in a category by themselves.
Even before this God had separated people and made them holy from the rest of mankind. Noah and his family. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At Sinai God formalized this separation. Because of this unique relationship with God, Israel was distinguished from all other people upon the face of the earth. Leviticus 20:26: You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.
3. In the NT
The church is a holy nation but not in the sense that Israel was, a nation occupying a specific geographical area. The church also does not have a roll of citizens by physical birth.
The church is a spiritual nation; its citizens coexisting in this world side by side with non-citizens and being different and set apart by their lifestyle rather than their location.
OT Israel sought purity through geographical separation, the church seeks separation through purity. Yes, there are times we must separate ourselves from unholy influences like friends or places where we are lead into temptation, but we cannot leave this world.
We are in the world but not of the world. Jesus said in his prayer in John 17:15-18: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
E. Christians do not differ from other people in where they live, or how they talk, or in their lifestyle. They do not live in private cities, or speak a special language, or follow a peculiar way of life. They live where they happen to live, in Greek or foreign cities, they follow local custom in clothing and food and daily life, yet their citizenship is of a remarkable kind. They live in their own homelands, but as resident foreigners. They share everything as citizens, and put up with everything as foreigners. (Letter to Diognetus, author unknown, second century)
E. Jim Book- My fear today is that many churches are dying because the average person in their pews have no idea what it means to be “set apart” from the defilements of this world. The church is many areas is so worldly minded, it is difficult to see any real separation from the world. We dress as provocatively as the world. Our entertainment is as debauched as the world, and we are as preoccupied with the same secular trinkets as is the world.
The Church is the people of God
In the OT
In the beginning God created the human race in his own image in order to have personal fellowship with them in a relationship of intimate love and communion, Adam and Eve
This purpose was interrupted by sin, which places a barrier between God and man. Isaiah 59:2: But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
God wanted a relationship with people like originally intended in the Garden so he made a step in that direction when he called Abraham out of Haran in Genesis 12. Later he made another major step when he called the Israelite nation out of Egyptian bondage. He made this promise to Israel in Exodus 6:7: I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.
Even in the OT God was looking ahead to the time when the church would be his people in the most intimate of senses in Jeremiah 31:31-34: “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
In the NT this is applied directly to the church in Hebrews 8.
In 1 Peter 2:9 the church is called God’s own possession or property. It is true that we are slaves of God but it more properly suggests the image of a family or household. We occupy neither the slave quarters nor the guest room; we belong to God’s own family.
1 Peter 2:10: 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. The well known preacher, W.A. Criswell, went on a tour of the Soviet Union during the days of the Cold War. He wanted to visit a particular church in a major Russian city. He was given permission but he had to be accompanied by a Communist official. His visit was not announced but somehow word got out that a famous American preacher was coming that morning. The saints had gathered, awaiting his arrival before starting the service of worship. As Criswell and a lady communist official walked toward the crowd, she began to speak. She derided the believers gathered at the end of the street. She caustically defamed the Christians gathered to greet the preacher from America. Criswell had at first been silent as she continually berated the Christians; however, he at last spoke. “Don’t say that. These are my people; these are the people of God. Though you speak ill of them and though they have nothing in this world, they are destined to inherit Heaven, and they shall reign with Christ. Do not speak ill of them.”
Some supposed Christians refuse to be identified with any church. Are we the people of God or not? Of whom can we say, “These are my people.” If no one then we are not part of the bride of Christ.
All of this is but a prelude to the more intimate fellowship of heaven. Revelation 21:3: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Those who are part of this family have some major responsibilities while on earth:
Christians must display the distinguishing mark of a family, which is love.
1) John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
2) Yes, we are to love everyone; but beyond this we must exhibit family love, brotherly love, toward one another. Romans 12:10: Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
3) The bottom line is that we as God’s family must have feelings toward one another that are different from our feelings toward unbelievers.
Christians can only have fellowship with other members of the household.
We cannot have fellowship- intimate, sharing relationships- with unbelievers. 2 Corinthians 6:14-15: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers... What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
Fellowship involves a sharing of something in common, but believers and unbelievers at the deepest level have nothing in common.
This does not mean that Christians must break off all associations with unbelievers- far from it! It does mean, though, that such associations must have the character of redemptive friendship rather than intimate, family fellowship. True fellowship only takes place within the family of God’s people.
Conclusion and invitation:
How can we live holy, pure and separated lives? By making church a top priority
How can we experience true fellowship in the church? By making church a top priority
Just come on Sunday morning for the preaching, miss out on opportunities to have an oasis away from the world, miss out on opportunities to have true fellowship with family of God.
Sunday school, Sunday night and Wednesday night.
