Sermon Notes for Second Sunday after Pentecost - Priestly People: The Church, Worship, and Heavenly Liturgy

The Church and Worship: Priestly People and Divine Service
1 Peter 2:1-10; Hebrews 12:28-29; Malachi 1; John 2:10ff
Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 14, 2009

All that we have now said about the Kingdom, the Ascension, Pentecost, and the Church comes together today as ponder the mystery of Christian worship. Let us recall that the Church exists only because of God’s grace. The Greek word for Church is ekkelsia – the called out. But who has called and how? God is the One who chooses and calls, not according to our works but according to his mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10). God does this through the Gospel proclaimed and the sacraments served. God is the Evangelist and Shepherd and Liturgist! Baptism is God’s work in and for us to which we are called to return in repentance every day; Preaching is not just instruction, but God’s living voice creating new life; the Supper is not only our reaffirmation that we are his and one another’s, but God’s renewal of his covenant oath to be our God now and forever. This means that our worship is not first of all our work, but His work. Redeemed by grace, constituted as a people by grace, preserved by grace, we ascend by grace to the throne of Grace and there ‘taste and see that the Lord is good.’ “Called Out”, we are also “Called Up!”

Peter writes that we are living stones being built into a spiritual house that is home to a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices to God through the mediating work of Jesus Christ. This is fully in harmony with Paul’s words that we have already noted concerning the Church as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. If we dismiss this Temple-Spiritual House-Priesthood-Sacrifice language we will impoverish our understanding of worship and all of life. While our whole existence is an offering of worship unto God (Romans 12:2; Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6), making all we are and experience an offering unto God, we will consider today our common calling to enter heaven’s throne room itself as one man, with one voice, and there meet with our Covenant God.

I. The Spiritual House – 1 Peter 2:5
A. Founded on Christ himself – 1 Peter 2:6-8
1. Out of the Rubble a New House Rises (Isaiah 28)
· “Tear down this House and in three days I will rebuild it” – John 2
2. Foundation Laid by Sacrifice on the Cross
· Great Hallel – Psalm 118
· Cross-shaped worship – v.8; always life-giving, always offensive (Isaiah 8)
B. Joined by Grace through Faith – 1 Peter 2:6-7

II. The Spiritual Priesthood – 1 Peter 2:5
A. Israel’s Mission and Calling Renewed – Exodus 19
B. The New Covenant does not destroy the Old, but rather buries and resurrects it in glory: the Priesthood is expanded.
· Sprinkled with blood, water, and oil (in , we are now all of us priests, all of us participants together – no spectators! – in the worship of God.
· “Leitourgeia” (Liturgy) – the shared action of people (Games, Plays, etc.); in the Bible, the work of the Priests; used in the New Testament of our shared worship before God – Acts 13:2
· Congregational Covenant Renewal demands liturgy: “Return to the Lord your God, O Israel, for you have stumbled…take words with you and return to the Lord…” – Hosea 14:1-2

III. The Spiritual Sacrifices – 1 Peter 2:5
A. The Sacrifice Imperative: no worship in the Bible apart from sacrifice (Genesis 22 onwards)
B. The Sacrifice Pattern
1. Contribution
2. Consecration
3. Communion
· Thus there is gain not loss in Biblical sacrifice
· Abraham and Melchizedek
C. The Sacrificial Word: Latreia
1. Our Bodies
2. Our Tithes and Offerings
3. Our Thanks and Praise
· Through Christ (The sacrifice), in the Spirit (The Comforter)
· With Reverence and Awe (Hebrews 12)
· Public Worship is not for personal ecstasy but for congregational covenant renewal
D. But all of these come back to us as food, served to us by God himself. Food? Yes.
· Word: Calling, Absolution, Transformation through Truth, Benediction
· Sacrament: Bread and Wine, through the Spirit receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

So, since it is God with whom we meet, what kind of offerings should we bring?
And since it is God speaking, and God serving us at His Table, and Christ offering himself to us as the food of our soul, who is it really that is doing all the serving? Right: it is the Triune God. That is why this worship, this leitourgeia – this liturgy – is called Divine Service. We come to the Temple, not to give, but to offer only what we have been given, and by this to find our hungry hearts fed, our dark minds renewed, our souls healed and renewed for the mission ahead. Worship flows from grace, is filled with grace, and makes us celebrants of grace. It is God’s service to us, not simply ours to him. Here he meets with us; here he speaks with us; here he feeds us; here he transforms us; here, he becomes the delight of our soul.