The New Israel - 08/21/2016

WARNING PREACHY…

In Exodus 19:5-6, we learn that God chose and redeemed the Israelites in order that they would be a “Holy Priesthood” among all the peoples of the earth.  

^5” Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”  (Exodus 19:5-6)  

And in 1 Peter 2:5, Peter explains to the New Testament church that we are “A Holy Priesthood”.

⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  (1 Peter 2:5)

Just as God set the Israelites free from their 400 hundred years of Egyptian slavery, so also you and I were set free from our own slavery to the Law of Sin and Death.  Just as God used the Israelites’ faith in God through the blood of a lamb to redeem them from their slavery, so also God uses the blood of Jesus to redeem us from our own.

Church, we are much more than what we often believe about ourselves.

Somehow we’ve learned that we just come to church, join a church, get baptized and or confirmed by the church, give money to the church, and exist solely for the benefit of the church.  It is true that we are literally the physical manifestation of the spiritual body of Jesus Christ on this earth, but somewhere along the way, how the church is defined is different than what it really is.

We, as the Church, are not to be defined by our “flawless” systematic theologies, which leads to denominationalism, our grand buildings (remember the Crystal Palace?), our styles of worship (no matter how great our choir or worship leader might be), or even the charisma of the preacher’s personality.  As humans we naturally have preferences for all of these things but these things should never be what define our Church, but rather, we as the Church of Jesus, are to be defined by the Narratives of God’s Holy Word, and by the rich heritage of the Story of God.