What a great day for the kingdom of God it must have been when that first sermon was preached by Peter! The door into the kingdom of heaven was opened to the world. That first sermon led to the salvation of about 3000 souls.

Let’s put ourselves into the shoes of the people hearing this first sermon preached about Jesus Christ.
Some of these people were probably there on the day when Jesus was before Pilate being judged. Some may have even been part of the crowd that was yelling, “Crucify Him, crucify Him (Luke 23:21).” Their hearts must have been deeply pierced by the words of Peter when he, by the Spirit, said to them that they were guilty of putting to death the Son of God, the promised Messiah in whom they had been so anxiously awaiting (Acts 2:23, 36). We probably could not begin to understand the sorrow that was in their hearts for their wickedness in turning over the Son of God to the Gentiles to have Him crucified.

I don’t know what your response would be to the words of Peter, but the question that I would ask, begging for an answer, would be, “What must I do to be forgiven?”

This is exactly how the people responded to Peter and the other Apostles. We see the peoples’ response to the word of God in Acts 2:37: “When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: “Brothers, what must we do?” I’m sure that they, just as any of us, couldn’t wait for the answer to this question! What would the answer be? What would they need to do to be forgiven of their sin against God?

Did Peter answer by giving some of these answers you commonly hear today:

• “You don’t have to do a thing. Jesus did it all on the cross just 50 days ago for you!”
• “Just say this prayer with me and Jesus will come into your heart.” How about,
• “It seems like you already believe what I’ve said, so you are already saved!”

 
No, he didn’t say any of these things, because these were not what the Lord told him to say to the people on how they could receive forgiveness. So how did Peter answer this great question? Peter, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).”

Peter tells them that if they wanted to be forgiven of their sins each of them needed to as believers “repent and be baptized” for the remission of those sins. These were the things they needed to do! We see that there were about 3000 people who did just that! Acts 2:41 says, “those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” When these people received the word of God, they obeyed it by being baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. It should not surprise us that Peter would give this answer to the people because Jesus Himself gave this instruction in the great commission. Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16).” It is interesting that there are so many who claim to be Christians today who would not have responded gladly to the command of Peter in the passage. They would accuse Peter of teaching “works salvation”. But Peter is not teaching this at all. The Spirit was using the words Peter was preaching, convicting people to come to faith, repentance, and baptism so that God would save them and forgive them. Those who were convicted and brought to faith and repentance by the Spirit would also be convicted to be baptized for the reason which Peter told them to, in order to receive remission of their sins. This conviction and obedience to the command of Peter was the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of the people to earn their salvation.

“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” is the answer to the great question, “What shall we do?”

Have you been told to do something different than what was instructed to the people in Acts 2? Have you been told that you do not need to do anything to be saved, or that you just needed to say a prayer? That’s not what Peter (and the other Apostles), inspired by the Holy Spirit, said to do! 

Some respond to what has been written here by trying to retranslate what Peter says in Acts 2:38. What is argued is that the Greek word “eis”, which is translated in EVERY major translation in this verse, can also be translated as ‘because of’. So they say that Peter is instead saying, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ [because of] the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” There are a few problems with this retranslation of the verse:

1. Every major modern translation translates it “for”, showing that one must repent and be baptized in order to receive forgiveness. Why reject the translation that hundreds of Greek scholars for over 500 years have given. Do they not have more experience with the Greek than you and I? When someone must retranslate a passage to get it to fit their belief system, the problem is usually not with the passage, but the belief system. One must read their presuppositions into the text to translate it differently.
2. When ‘eis’ is translated ‘because of’, one is forced not only to say that baptism is ‘because of’ the remission of sins that was previously done, but also that repentance comes because remission of sins already happened prior. Most who prefer to retranslate the passage believe that both repentance and faith are necessary conditions to receive forgiveness, but in retranslating the passage, they shoot themselves in the foot and deny that repentance is necessary also, bringing themselves into contradiction with Jesus (Luke 13:3).

 
Acts 2:38 means what it says. It means what it has been translated by hundreds of Greek scholars for hundreds of years to say. The only reason to believe otherwise is because one is bringing a presupposition to the text which contradicts the text as it is written in our translations.

The people that obeyed the gospel on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 were added by the Lord to the church and were set free from the bondage of sin. Will you gladly receive the word of God just as they did, by repenting of your sins and by being baptized for the forgiveness of your sins?

Infant baptism is objectionable for several reasons.

First, infant baptism is an unauthorized change in God’s pattern for baptism. God tells us whom to baptize. He tells the conditions people must meet in order to be baptized, but babies do not fit. To baptize babies is to act by human authority without divine authority. All things that we do as God’s people must be done by the authority of Christ (Col 3:17). How can we presume to do something in Jesus name and say it is approved by Him when He does NOT command it or say it is pleasing to Him? We cannot! Below I have provided two reasons that infant baptism is contrary to the pattern given by God:

• We do not see one example of babies getting baptized in the New Testament. It is assumed into passages where we are told that whole households were baptized, but there is no evidence in the passages that babies were included. This is only an assertion without any other scriptural evidence.
• Also, we are told in scripture that there are prerequisites to baptism. One must hear the gospel (John 6:44-45; Romans 10:14-17) believe (Mark 16:16), confess Christ (Romans 10:9-10), and repent (Acts 2:38) before baptism. The one who does not do these things has not been baptized Biblically. There is no Biblical precedent to change the order of these conditions for salvation. Man has no such authority to do so. The one who is not baptized based on what the Bible teaches has not received forgiveness of sins. Jesus says we must believe AND be baptized to be saved, and Peter says we must repent and be baptized to receive remission of sins (Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38).
• Infant baptism is almost always done by sprinkling or pouring, not by immersion. The Bible says that baptism is a burial (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12). A person must go down into the water and come up out of it (Acts 8:38,39; Mark 1:9,10). Bible baptism requires much water (John 3:23). Also, the Greek word for baptism means “to dip, plunge, or immerse.” When baptism is commanded in the Bible by Jesus and His Apostles, they are commanding immersion, because this is what the word means! Infant baptism does not fit God’s pattern on any of these points. The evidence clearly shows that Bible baptism is an immersion, not a sprinkling or pouring.

 
Second, infant baptism leads people to believe they are saved and part of God’s covenant community when they are not. God requires people to be baptized for the remission of sins when they are old enough to make their own decision about the matter. But many people have been baptized as babies. Then, when they are old enough to be responsible for their conduct and to make the decision to be baptized, they refuse because they believe they have already done so. But their infant baptism was not Scriptural. So the person goes through his whole life never having been Scripturally baptized, and therefore he never has received forgiveness of his sins! The false doctrine of infant baptism leads people to suppress the truth and to think that they have been forgiven by God when they have not been Scripturally.

Third, baptism is meant to forgive sins that are committed, but a baby has not yet committed sins. Since baptism must be done for the purpose of receiving forgiveness of sins, a baby could Scripturally be baptized only if he/she was guilty of sins and needed forgiveness. But is a baby guilty of sin? The answer is ‘no’. Sin is defined in scripture as transgressing the law of God (1 John 3:4, James 1:14-15) and it is the sin that we commit that separates us from God (Romans 3:23, Isa 59:1-2). A baby is not guilty of sin, so they do not have a need to be baptized. ‘Sin’ must be redefined (contrary to scripture) to make a baby a candidate for baptism.
 
What should a person do if his baptism was not done the way the Bible teaches? He should realize that he simply has not yet obeyed God, and he needs to obey God by being baptized according to the Bible (see Acts 19:1-6).

A very dear brother of mine showed me an approach that he uses to show people the truth about what one must do to be saved and what Jesus actually says about baptism. He looks at the five common views of different churches/religious groups of Mark 16:16. Here are those five views:
​
1.  He who believes and is baptized “will not” be saved. Those who hold this view are the religious systems of atheism, Judaism, Muslims, and other religious groups who believe Christianity is false.

2.  He who “does not believe” and “is not baptized” will be saved. This would be a belief held by Universalists who believe that God will eventually save everyone regardless of their beliefs and practices.

3.  He who “does not believe” and “is baptized” will be saved. This is believed by those who baptize infants and believe that these infants receive some kind of forgiveness, such as Roman Catholics and Lutherans.

4.  He who believes and “is not baptized” will be saved. This is believed by the majority of protestant denominations and many protestant “non-denominational” churches.
When we compare these first for popular views of baptism to what Jesus actually says in Mark 16:16, we see that all four of them fall short of what the Son of God actually says.

Jesus says:

5. “He who believes and is baptized will be saved…” (Mark 16:16). This view takes the words of Jesus at face value. This is the only view of the five that quotes the passage “as-is.”

The other four views of Mark 16:16 bring the very truth of the words of Jesus into question, denying what Jesus actually said. For instance, view number three, which is held by Catholics, denies the need for faith which Jesus does give as a condition of receiving salvation.

The fourth view denies the need for baptism by trying to make the second part of the verse (” …but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”) contradict the first part of the verse. They say that “Jesus didn’t say ‘whoever doesn’t get baptized will be condemned.'” But this treatment of the verse does contradict the first part of the verse where Jesus plainly states that both belief and baptism are conditions to receive salvation. Let me use an illustration to prove this point. I believe the words of Jesus would be on par with saying, “He that eats and digests his food will live, but he who does not eat will die.” What we see in this statement is that the natural thing which happens to the person that eats is that they will digest their food and live, and it is the case if they do not eat they will die. But nowhere in this statement does it say “whomever does not digest their food will die.” So does this mean that I don’t have to digest my food to live? Of course not. But the person who uses the second part of Mark 16:16 to negate the first would have to say ‘yes’ to be consistent. There is a reason why Jesus did not say, “‘whoever doesn’t get baptized will be condemned.” It is assumed that the natural thing that the person with faith will do is get baptized, and thus receive the salvation promised in the passage by faith at baptism. There is no need to negate baptism in the second part of the passage because those who “do not believe” will not get baptized, just as it is the case that there is no reason in our illustration to say “whomever does not digest their food will die,” because those who do not eat their food will not have food to digest. Do you see the point?

The third view rejects the instruction of Jesus that those who are baptized must believe. Once again, Jesus says that belief + baptism = saved. Those who believe one does not have to believe (infants) have created a manmade tradition that contradicts this passage. Also, most forms of infant "baptism" also contradict the command given to be baptized because the word itself means to be immersed, not sprinkled. In the greek, Jesus is saying here, "He who believes and is immersed will be saved..." 

Which of the five views do you believe? Did Jesus speak the truth when He said “He who believes and is baptized will be saved”?

One of my favorite passages of scripture to share with someone that I am talking to about how to obey the gospel is Ephesians 2:1-10:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world…But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:1-2; 4-10).
​
This passage shows us the gospel message and it’s response clearly. We were dead in our transgressions before coming to Christ, and it is through Christ we can be saved. This salvation comes by the grace of God through faith when God makes us alive together with Christ and raises us up together with Him. Most churches and professed Christians will agree with this. But the question that gets many different, contradictory answers is this: “When is it that God saves us by grace through faith? When is it that God raises believers (those who have faith) up together with Christ and makes us alive together with Him?” There is only one verse in the New Testament that answers this question: Colossians 2:12-14. Let’s compare Ephesians 2 and Colossians 2, two sections of scripture that Paul wrote at about the same time:

Colossians 2:12-14 clearly answers the question “when does God raise us up with Christ into new life and make us alive together with Him?” The parallels between the two passages are undeniable. The answer to our question is: When we by faith are baptized. There is not another answer that the Bible gives to this question. At this point we are made alive together with Christ and forgiven of all of our transgressions by God (v13). This happens, not because we are working to try to earn our salvation, but because we have “faith in the working of God” (v12). Salvation is of the Lord. We receive it by faith. If you want to receive the spiritual circumcision of Christ and have your sins “cut away” from you by God, then you must in faith be buried with Christ (immersed) in baptism. At this point in time, we are saved by the grace of God through faith. God is doing all the work. We merely accept His gift by submitting ourselves with a believing, repentant heart to baptism.
​
Just as in the Old Testament, it is not just going through the motions that saves us. They couldn’t just kill animals without knowing why to be forgiven. They also couldn’t just believe in sacrifice and not act. They needed to perform their sacrifices in faith, and when they did so, they received God’s gift of forgiveness. The same is true in the New Testament with Christ’s sacrifice. We cannot mentally believe in the sacrifice of Christ and not act. We must trust that God will keep His promise, that when we are baptized, He will cut away our sins with the spiritual circumcision of Christ. God tells us how His grace is accepted by faith, and to receive it, the repentant heart that has been convicted by the Holy Spirit will be baptized for the remission of their sins and to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

I have studied the issue of baptism with many people over the years. There is one thing that ends up happening most of the time that makes it impossible for people to accept the view that I hold on baptism, and as I am discussing this issue with many people, I see this error many times. The error is this: Even though we may be discussing the subject of water baptism, the majority of the time, the person I am debating instead wants to change the subject from baptism to the subjects of faith and grace.

You may be asking why this is a problem? Here is the main reason: we are trying to find God's will about baptism, not faith and grace. What so often happens in these discussions is that the person I am talking to finds it impossible to accept what the passages say about baptism (or even retranslate the passages) because they are looking at all of the passages through the lens of their "faith alone" beliefs. This is a dangerous way to study scripture! (This approach is also logically fallacious. The ‘red herring fallacy’ is committed in this instance.)

Whenever you want to learn what the Bible teaches on the subject of the Lord's Supper, do we look at all of the verses on other subjects? Whenever you want to learn what the Bible teaches on the subject of repentance, should we look at the verses dealing with confessing Christ? No, instead, if we want to know what God's word teaches on a certain subject, we study what the Bible says on that specific subject! If we want to know what repentance is, we need to first discuss all of the passages that talk about repentance. If we want to discuss or debate the subject of faith, we need to examine all of the passages that talk about faith. And if we want to discuss the topic of baptism, we need to deal with the specific passage that mention or allude to water baptism.

Only after we do this, then we should try to harmonize what the Bible teaches about faith and grace and baptism. We should not allow the passages on one subject to lead us to retranslate the passages on another subject to mean the opposite of what they currently say in all of our translations unless we have first studied those passages and made sure that there is no possible way to harmonize them. We do this with any other supposed contradiction in scripture, why not do it on this subject also? Why assume that if scripture says baptism is the point our sins are remitted that this contradicts the idea of being saved by grace through faith?

At times, when we study the Bible, we are way too quick to assume that the Bible cannot mean what it says on some subjects. In my opinion, this is commonly the case regarding the subject of water baptism. When the passages are taken at face value, they do exalt God's work in baptism way above what the majority evangelical Christians believe about the issue. 

​This passage of scripture is hotly debated in the religious world. You have the Roman Catholics saying that this passage teaches that Peter would be the first great leader (Pope) to the Roman Catholic Church. Others respond by saying that the “rock” that Jesus will build His church on is not Peter, but the truth that Peter spoke in His great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mat 16:16). They believe it is only the truth of Jesus’ kingship that the church is built upon. So which is it? I believe neither gives us a full picture of what the context shows and that the truth is in the middle of the two positions. Often when we approach this passage, I believe we tend to over-react to what we believe is false teaching. I do agree that the passage is not saying that Peter was not the first “Pope” of a hierarchal organization/church. This text cannot be used to substantiate this claim because 1.) this passage is not talking about a physical head of an earthly organization (which became the Roman Catholic church hundreds of years later); and 2.) the rest of scripture does not show that Peter was the supreme bishop over all of Christ’s church & its bishops. The rest of the New Testament shows this was not the case. The only way, I believe, to come to the conclusion that the Roman Catholic church comes to is to read into the text their preconceived bias.
 
Also, this passage is not merely showing us that Peter’s confession is what the church is built upon. It shows us so much more than this. It DOES talk about Peter being given special authority from God, and we tend to completely ignore this fact as we respond to false teaching. Peter is told by Jesus, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Jesus is giving Peter a special level of authority here. He is telling him that he would be given the keys to kingdom, which shows us that PETER would be the one to open the gates to the kingdom (with the “keys”) so men can enter. This is what ends up happening in the book of Acts. Peter, in Acts 2, uses the authority given to Him by Jesus, preaches the Gospel (the keys) to the Jews, and in Acts 10 He does the same with the Gentiles (Cornelius and His household). Peter opened up the door for all nations to enter the kingdom. It was the teachings that Peter gave (revealed to him by the Spirit); words that came from his mouth, which would begin the building of the church‘s “foundation.” Jesus chose Peter to be the one to do this.
 
So as we consider what Jesus is saying in Matthew 16, it is possible that Jesus is saying that Peter is “the rock” that Jesus would use to open the gates of the kingdom of heaven and to teach the people of God as an Apostle of Jesus. Jesus would build the great foundation of His church upon Peter’s inspired preaching. But this does not necessarily mean that Peter himself is the great first leader/pope of the church. Jesus is still the head of the church (Colossians 1:18) and is its builder and owner (Matthew 16:18-19), and Peter was only one man of many who Jesus used to build the foundation of the church. Peter may have started building the foundation, but he was not the only one who built upon it. In Ephesians 2:19-21, Paul says, "you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” This passage shows that all of the Apostles and prophets of Jesus are the foundation (the “rock”/authority) the church is built upon. They all gave us inspired teaching that Jesus used to build His church. They gave us the teaching that we must build our lives upon (Matthew 7:24-25). This passage says that these men are the ones the church is built upon, and Jesus is the cornerstone that gives every stone its direction. I do believe the teaching of all of these men (given by Jesus) is inferred in these passages, but it does show us the special place that these men had in God’s plan to build His church. Let’s not ignore this fact as we respond to false teaching about Peter and his contemporaries.

Below is a series of eight videos that I made awhile back on the issue of same-sex "marriage" and the sin of homosexuality. Hopefully you find them helpful as you interact with people in the world who hold some false views about these subjects.

The first act of worship that we will examine is the music that we offer to the Lord. Our music is an example of a spiritual sacrifice that we give to God. It, like the sacrifices given by the priests, are a fulfillment of the system of OT worship.  Just as we are the temple, the priests, the sacrifices, and the sacrifice givers, we are also the “Levitical singers” of the temple who offer up sacrifices of praise to God.

“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name…with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:15-16

We are in a giving our offering or sacrifice of “fruits” to God as we sing and give thanks to Him. In regard to what we do when we gather together with our fellow priests and saints, our singing not only is a sacrifice and offering to God, it has the purpose of admonishing and teaching each other as we offer it to the Lord. Paul says in Colossians 3:16:

“Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

The picture we are given here is that those who have the word of Christ dwelling in them will have it come out from within us as teaching and admonishing. This is the natural thing that will happen. As we sing to the Lord, we need to learn and be challenged by the things that we are hearing one another sing. The same point is made in a parallel passage in Ephesians 5:18-19:

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19  speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord”

Our singing goes two directions, horizontally to one another and vertically to the Lord to be offered at His throne. We sing to God along with His heavenly host. Paul also says that we make melody in our hearts to the Lord as we sing and speak to one another. The melody doesn’t necessarily come from our mouth, although we do use our mouths to teach and admonish while we sing. But the melody is to the Lord from and with our hearts. It comes from within us and goes to the Lord. Thankfully, He doesn’t talk about the melody coming from our vocal chords. I know at times there is not much melody to be heard there. At times my singing doesn’t sound good to my ear (and probably others), but it is a sweet sound to the ear of the Lord as our hearts make melody with thankfulness to Him.

One other point I would like to make from this passage that I hinted to earlier: I believe this passage is also showing us that we are not just the fulfillment of the shadow of the temple singers, but also of the instruments that some of the Levites used during their temple ceremonies. Our instrument is within us. It is our heart. The melody that we offer to the Lord comes from our within us. The phrase “make melody with your hearts” does literally mean that we are “plucking the strings of our hearts.” This is where the music/melody comes from when we sing to the Lord. Instead of using the Old Covenant instruments that were meant to be a shadow of what was to come in Christ, we “in spirit” worship God by giving Him thanksgiving and praise from the heart. This is our “sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” Under the New Covenant, this is the kind of worship that our God and King is pleased with, and this is the kind of music that He specifically commands that He be worshipped with.

This is why bringing a mechanical instrument, such as a guitar or piano, etc. into New Testament worship just does not fit. The melody that is offered to the Lord is to come from within us, not from instruments that we use that are outside of us that are more for our ears and emotional stimulation. The Lord says to sing and make melody with our hearts. He does not give His approval in the New Testament for any other instrument.

I agree with John Calvin when he said, “Musical instruments in celebrating the praise of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, the restoration of the other shadows of the law.” Either all of the worship in the Old Covenant is fulfilled under the New Covenant, or none of it is. If you want to bring in other instruments other than the heart, why not bring incense to accompany our prayers? Or lighting candles during the offering? How about we all come to worship wearing the garments that God gives the priests under the Old Covenant? We could go on and on here. Those who want to introduce the mechanical instrument into worship really are picking and choosing “buffet style” what they want to do in worship from a covenant that we are not under instead of looking at the New Testament and asking, “what does God tell us that He wants for His church?” And many times, those who want to use instruments do it because it is what they prefer in worship, and they go to Old Testament passages to justify what they want to do. This is always the wrong way to approach scripture. 

I would ask this question to those who want to bring the “shadow” of the instrument from the worship under the Old Covenant: why? Why introduce a mechanical instrument into the worship of the New Covenant, especially when He does not show His approval of it in the New Testament? We cannot know it is pleasing to Him unless He tells us it is. To do so would be presumptuous. Unfortunately, the answers we receive to these questions are often, “It is because I like it more than just singing,” or “this is the way we have always done it,” or “this is what is common in our culture today.”  Once again, these lines of reasoning place us and our culture on the throne as the authority to decide what God wants in worship instead of allowing Him as King to tell us what is pleasing to Him for New Covenant worship.

"And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5  you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6  For this is contained in Scripture: “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 7  This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,” 8  and, “A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. 9  But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10  for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY" (1 Peter 2:4-10).

Peter tells us that we as Christians are a Royal Priesthood under our Great King and High Priest. He tells us a lot about the worship and work of priests under the New Covenant, especially about the nature of our work and worship.
There are two points I would like to explore in this article:

1. We are a spiritual kingdom and priesthood
2. We give spiritual sacrifices and offerings in our worship and service

These points are the foundation that we need to begin with when considering the work and worship that we are to be involved in as God’s people. During this lesson, we are going to look at how we as a Priesthood are the fulfillment of the Old Testament Priesthood and system of worship.

WE ARE A SPIRITUAL KINGDOM AND PRIESTHOOD

We are the Spiritual Israel, the descendants of Abraham. We are a spiritual kingdom of Priests:

• “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5)
  
• “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6  and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.” (Revelation 1:5-6)

Though we are in the world, we are not a kingdom that is of this world. Many teach that Jesus is going to establish a physical Kingdom, but this is not what scripture teaches. He also tells us that His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).  He reigns now has our King and High Priest now. We are told by Paul that our citizenship is in Heaven. This world is not our home. We are united with Christ in the spiritual realm. We are in a spiritual relationship with Him. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that when we became Christians, we were raised up with Christ and “seated” with Him “in the heavenly places”. There is a lot in there that is beyond my comprehension. I don’t know how all that works, but let it suffice to say that we are reigning alongside Christ right now, being Royal Priests to our God in Heaven in the spiritual realm.

WE ARE A SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE

All work and worship within the kingdom begins with full self-sacrifice to God. This is foreshadowed in the Old Testament with the burnt offering. This sacrifice was brought to the temple by the one offering it. It was killed and then it was prepared by the Levitical priest to be taken to the altar where  it was fully consumed on the altar as a sacrifice to God.

As New Testament Priest, Jesus gives us the prime example of what it means to give yourself as a burnt offering to God. He fully consumed Himself with doing the will of God, even to the point of His death on the cross, where He completely emptied Himself of life itself as an offering to God on our behalf. Paul uses burnt offering terminology when He talks about the offering that Jesus gave to God for us in Ephesians 5:2:

“and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”

Paul teaches us that we need to follow in Jesus’ steps in giving ourselves to God as a sacrifice in Romans 12:1.

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.“

Unlike the Levitical burnt offering and our Lord’s offering for us, we are called living sacrifices in this passage. We put our lives fully on the altar to be sacrificed to God for His worship and work. We are “fully consumed” in His work and service. If we want our worship and work to be pleasing to God, this is where we must begin. It begins with us giving our whole being to the Lord.

WE GIVE SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES IN OUR WORSHIP AND SERVICE TO GOD

After we give ourselves to be totally consumed on the altar for God, we then from our hearts offer to God sacrifices that are pleasing to Him, sacrifices that are referred to as a “a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God” (Philippians 4:18).

Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2 that we offer to God spiritual sacrifices. They are not physical sacrifices like the ones offered in the Old Testament. Jesus in John 4 tells us that the true worshipers under the New Covenant would worship God as He is, in spirit. Even though we may do things in this realm for God, our service and worship to Him is spiritual in nature. This may mean a couple things for our service and worship to God:

• First, our sacrifices come from within the worshiper. They come from our hearts; from our innermost being. Our wills, our intellects, and our emotions are active in our sacrifices. This is seen in Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19. We are told in these passages that our worship is done “with the heart” or that it comes “from the heart.” It is the source of our worship.
  
• Second, our sacrifices, although they at times include physical things in this world, are in a sense “not of this world” just as we and the Kingdom are not of this world. Our sacrifices are being offered before the throne of God in the heavenly places where we reign as a kingdom of priests to God.

In later articles, we will study each component of our service and worship as priests more in depth to show how each of the sacrifices that we offer to God are done in spirit and in truth.

​Whenever we are deciding whether we should do something, the common question that we ask ourselves is, “Does the Bible say that it is wrong?” Or, when we ask another brother or sister about a certain behavior that they are approving of or are involved in, they may answer by saying, “Show me in the Bible where it’s wrong! Show me where it’s condemned!” We get into discussions and debates asking questions, such as, “Is it wrong to gamble? Is it wrong to smoke? Is it wrong to have one alcoholic beverage? Is it wrong to dance or go to the prom? Is it wrong to be involved with politics or not to vote? Is it wrong to skip our Bible studies or the 9am Sunday sermon?” While the question, “Is it wrong?” certainly has its place, we need to consider the fact that there are other questions which need to be asked as well. There are more questions that need to be asked than just, “Is it against the rules?”
 
Christian living is about walking by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7), walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26), and walking in the light (1 John 1:7). These passages show that we are called to a higher standard, and we have to ask more mature questions than just, “Is it wrong? or, “Is it lawful?” or, “Is it against the rules?” Paul shows this when he was interacting with the same kind of responses from the Corinthians. Since the law of Moses was done away with and they were now under the grace of Christ, they would say things like, “All things are lawful.” Paul responds by showing that even if things are permitted (or not explicitly condemned), this does not mean one should do them. Paul responded by saying, “But not all things are helpful” and, “Not all things build up” (1 Cor. 10:23). Paul shows them (and us) that there are other questions that need asked before engaging in a certain behavior. These questions would include (but are not limited to):

• Is it wise? – What does the book of proverbs say about this behavior? What do mature and wise believers you know think about it?
• Is it helpful and edifying to others? – (see 1 Cor. 10:23-30; Rom. 14-15) May this action lead someone to stumble in their faith? Does it help someone grow or mature?
• Is it loving? – (see 1 Cor. 13) Does this behavior show that I am devoted to showing love, especially towards those who are weaker in the faith or more restrictive than I am? Does it show that I am concerned for their soul?
• Is it God-glorifying? – (see 1 Cor. 10:31-33; Gal. 5:16-26) Does this action display the fruit of the Spirit that glorifies God or does it display a work of the flesh? Is it similar to the works of the flesh?
• Does it reflect purity and holiness? – (see 1 Thess. 4:1-8; Eph. 5:7-21) God desires His people grow in holiness. Does this action show I am working to mature and to be more like Jesus?
• Does God show that this behavior pleases Him? (see 2 Cor. 5:9-10) The only way we know a certain behavior is pleasing to God is if He tells us in His word. If we have made it our aim to please Him, will we do that which is “questionable” or presumptuous? Would we do things that may not be pleasing just because we want to do them?

 
We have to get better at asking questions like these. We must understand that just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should do it. There are many things we can do, but fewer things we should do. We have to start asking, “What is the likely outcome of this course of action?” and then only proceed if people will be helped, God will be glorified, and purity and holiness will be reflected.
 
But even when these questions are asked, this does not mean we will all come to the same conclusion about all of these behaviors. In this case, I believe there are at least three principles we must keep in mind:

1. We must not condemn people based on our own reasoning when there is not a scripture condemning a practice (Romans 14:1-12).
2. It is not “judging” to encourage people to act with wisdom and love and in a God-glorifying way as scripture teaches.
3. Be willing to always discuss these kind of issues with reasonableness and gentleness. Don’t be afraid to share your opinion, but as you do so, be ready to show that something IS pleasing to God, helpful to others, loving, and God-glorifying. Don’t just air your opinion and give no justification from scripture for it.

 
Many subjects are a matter of wisdom and discernment. We need to in these areas work to distinguish between good and evil, using God’s word to do so (Hebrews 5:13). We need to have our minds renewed so that we can “discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). We see in Romans 12:2 a different kind of thinking. Instead of thinking, “is this wrong,” we need to ask, “is this behavior good, acceptable, and perfect?” Let’s help each other to be wise. Let’s help each other ask better questions. And let’s learn to love each other even when we arrive at different conclusions.