Let us turn to 1 Peter 2. I will begin reading from verse 4.
Coming to Him, as unto a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious.
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Let us have a simple word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we thank You that You have called us together here tonight. It is all by grace. If it were not for Your grace, we would not be here today. You have chosen us, You have called us, and You have gathered us.
Today we sit at Your feet. We want to be like Mary, that we may hear Your words. May we who have ears hear the words that You speak to Your church.
We thank You, Lord, because You have Your purpose for this conference. May Your special purpose be accomplished here. May You gain all the glory, all shame be to the enemy, and all blessing be to Your people. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.
Brothers and sisters, the theme of the conference this year is “Spiritual House, Holy Priesthood, and Acceptable Sacrifices.”
This theme contains three important thoughts:
This theme is according to the verses that we have just read. Let us return to 1 Peter 2:4-5.
Coming to Him, as unto a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious.
Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house.
When we gather together, we are a spiritual house. This spiritual house is like the temple in the Old Testament, because the background here is the Old Testament.
When God’s temple was built, many stones were gathered together. Then there was a house. Once the temple was fully built, the priests functioned within the temple. Therefore, we see a holy priesthood.
On one hand, we are a spiritual house. On the other hand, we are a holy priesthood. In the Old Testament, the temple was built with dead stones. But when we come before the Lord, we are living stones.
Not only do we see a holy priesthood; we also see service before God. When priests serve God, they have sacrifices in their hands.
To offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament, there were priests and sacrifices. When we become priests, we offer acceptable spiritual sacrifices. On one hand, the sacrifice speaks of Christ. On the other hand, it speaks of the Christ whom we experience.
Thank the Lord, there are these three very important thoughts. My responsibility is to speak concerning the holy priesthood. Brother Kong will speak on the spiritual house, and Brother Jose will speak on acceptable sacrifices.
Although we see three thoughts and three different aspects presented by three different brothers, if we read this passage in context, we see that the Holy Spirit Himself explains these matters.
The clearest explanation is found in 1 Peter 2:9.
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
If we gather these three thoughts together, the Holy Spirit very naturally brings them into one. Why are we living stones? How are we a holy priesthood? How can we offer acceptable sacrifices? There is one basic reason.
If we sum everything up, there is only one thought: “Ye are an elect race.”
In the Old Testament, we know that the people of Israel were God’s chosen people. How did people know that Israel was chosen? When you went to Jerusalem, there was a temple. The temple showed that they were especially chosen by God.
Then you saw those who functioned within the temple: the priests offering sacrifices. This was the special characteristic of the Israelites. But these characteristics have become ours.
We are living stones, a holy priesthood, and those who offer spiritual sacrifices through Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must begin with this matter of a chosen race.
If we see how we are such a chosen race, then we can touch God’s eternal purpose.
In the universe, God has done something amazing. We know that God created the heavens and the earth. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
God created something out of nothing. Creation speaks of His might, His power, and also His wisdom. This is a very important and serious thought.
What does the phrase “a chosen race” mean? It needs to be explained by another verse. Let us turn to Ephesians 2.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
The word workmanship is a very important and special word in Greek. The English word poem comes from this Greek word. We are God’s poem—His poetic work.
But Paul uses an even weightier word. He says that we are created in Christ Jesus. The word created is the same word used of God’s original creation.
There are two words in the Bible: create and make. To create means to create something out of nothing. To make means to rearrange something already existing.
God created the forest. But when we chop down the trees and make them into a table, that process is not creation; it is making.
When Paul refers to us as God’s workmanship, as His poem, he tells us that we are created in Christ Jesus. This is not merely an adjustment or improvement of something old. It is a new creation.
Paul teaches that everyone in Christ Jesus is a new creation. We are saved by grace, and indeed we are a new creation.
But when Paul wrote Ephesians 2, he was following what he had written in chapter 1: the church is the body of Christ. The Head is in heaven, and the Body is on earth.
Yes, we are saved individually, and individually we are new creations. But when all the children of God are gathered together in one Body, Paul shows us that this is God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.
This is not merely a modification of what existed in the Old Testament. It is not that the Old Testament had a temple and therefore we have one today. This work is a complete creation, as though it had never existed before.
The church is not a conversion of Judaism into Christianity. The church is a new wineskin. You can only put new wine into a new wineskin. Christ is the new wine, and the church is the new wineskin.
It is not a matter of renewing the old wineskin. Even the early apostles sometimes thought in that way.
Do you remember the story of James? When Paul went to Jerusalem, James told him that there were myriads of believers in Jerusalem who were zealous for the law.
Our Lord had saved many people—thousands upon thousands. Yet James said that they were all zealous for the law. Is this the gospel, or is it Judaism? If it is the gospel, how could they remain zealous for the law?
It was as though people thought that Christianity was merely a branch of Judaism. But Paul saw something different, and he paid a great price to see it.
Today, many people do not know what the church is. They put the church in a lowly place. But the church is the Body of Christ. This workmanship is like a poem, and it is created in Christ Jesus.
How did Paul see this? He paid a huge price. He wrote Ephesians while he was in a Roman prison.
A few years before that, Paul had gone to Jerusalem. Many people knew of his work, but many misunderstood it. James encouraged Paul to join four men who had made a vow so that people would not speak against him.
Paul was very clear concerning the truth of the gospel. Even when Peter acted inconsistently with the gospel, Paul rebuked him. Paul knew that we are justified by faith. Everything is by grace.
It is not that once you believe, you need to add works. When we are born again, it is the work of the Holy Spirit. When we grow and mature, it is also the work of the Holy Spirit. When we are born, it is by grace; when we mature, it is also by grace.
Paul was clear concerning the gospel. Yet James asked him to compromise a little. If he compromised, there would be no cross, no persecution, and no opposition.
It seems that Paul was weak, and he listened. He went to the temple. But God could not wait. If even Paul, who was so clear concerning the gospel, became confused, Christianity would become only a branch of Judaism.
If Christianity had become a branch of Judaism, the church would have been under the umbrella of Judaism and would not have been persecuted by Rome as a distinct people.
But God intervened. When Paul was about to fall, God allowed him to be arrested. At first Paul did not understand. But in prison, like water that becomes still and clear, Paul was settled and able to see.
When Paul wrote Ephesians, the Holy Spirit brought him into the heavenly view: the church is the Body of Christ. The church is not a branch of Judaism, even though salvation is from the Jews.
The church is God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. It is brand new. As the Body of Christ, the church is a brand-new creation.
Let us come to Ephesians 2:19.
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,
being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone;
in Whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;
in Whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Now we understand the spiritual house. The spiritual house has to do with the cornerstone. We are no longer strangers and aliens, but we are God’s household.
Paul reminds the Ephesians that they were formerly Gentiles in the flesh, called uncircumcision by those called circumcision.
Remember, that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
The Ephesians were Gentiles. They were uncircumcised. They were far away. In contrast, the Israelites were near: they had the covenants, the promises, and the hope of the Messiah.
Yet Ephesians 2:13 says:
But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, who are the chosen race? We must ask: who was nearest to God? We were far away. How could we be brought near? Only by the blood of Christ.
For He is our peace, Who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition.
Here Paul speaks of two groups: those who were far away and those who were near—the Gentiles and the people of Israel. But through Jesus Christ, the two groups are made one. He broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.
Paul’s words were costly. He remembered the great riot in Jerusalem. If Roman soldiers had not rescued him, Paul would have been torn to pieces.
The Jews thought Paul had brought a Gentile into the temple. The man was Trophimus, an Ephesian.
Let us turn to Acts 21:27-29.
And when the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the multitude and laid hands on him,
crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath defiled this holy place.
For they had before seen with him in the city Trophimus the Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.
All the city was aroused. They took hold of Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and immediately shut the doors.
When Paul was in prison, he wrote to the Ephesian church. Trophimus would have understood these words deeply. Paul had been arrested because people supposed that he had brought Trophimus into the temple.
Trophimus had not entered the temple, but people thought that he had. They considered it a serious offense, and the whole city was in a riot. Paul was almost martyred.
Why could an Ephesian not enter the temple? Because he was a Gentile. He was uncircumcised. He was considered far away, excluded, and a stranger.
If we do not understand this background, we will not understand how high and clear Paul’s revelation was when he wrote Ephesians. Behind Ephesians are Paul’s tears, suffering, and a painful experience.
Trophimus travelled with Paul and went with him to Jerusalem. When the Ephesian church received Paul’s letter, they understood the background. They knew why Paul had been arrested.
Let us return to Ephesians 2:19:
So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.
To understand this, we must understand the dividing wall. The temple was built on Mount Moriah.
In the days of the Lord Jesus and Paul, Herod had enlarged the temple area. The temple square was very large. From north to south, it was approximately the length of six football fields; from east to west, approximately five football fields.
There are two words used for the temple. One refers to the temple square, and the other refers to the temple proper. When Paul speaks of believers as God’s temple, he refers to the temple proper.
Pilgrims normally entered from the south by stairways known as the Rabbi’s Steps. They passed through tunnels and came up to the temple square.
The entire outer court was called the Court of the Gentiles. Gentiles could come there because God’s house was to be a house of prayer for all nations.
The Lord met Greeks in the Court of the Gentiles. It was there that He cast out the money changers.
But after entering the Court of the Gentiles, one could not go far. There was a low stone fence, about five feet high, with a warning: Gentiles must stop there. No Gentile could cross that dividing wall.
Trophimus could come to Jerusalem and enter the Court of the Gentiles. He could pray there. He could see the temple, but he could not enter farther. The dividing wall declared that he was far away.
Paul, as an Israelite, could go farther. But Trophimus, as a Gentile, could only stand before the dividing wall. He desired to be near God, but he could not proceed because he was a Gentile.
All Israelites—men, women, young, and old—could cross the dividing wall. They could enter through the Beautiful Gate into the court commonly called the Court of Women.
The Court of Women is a misleading name. It was actually a place where all Israelites—male and female, young and old—could gather together.
When they gathered there, they could say, “We have a right at the temple. We are of God’s household.”
From the Court of Women, there were fifteen steps leading upward. During the Feast of Tabernacles, this was one of the most joyful places in Jerusalem.
They would sing the Songs of Ascents. Especially when they sang Psalm 133, they rejoiced:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
They had four great lampstands in that court. Young men climbed ladders to fill them with oil, and the light shone far away.
It was in this setting that the Lord said:
I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The whole household of Israel gathered together at the feast. It was like a family gathering at a great festival. They rejoiced before God with singing and dancing.
But if Trophimus stood outside, he could hear the rejoicing. Yet he would have to say, “I have no portion. They are God’s household. They are God’s chosen race.”
The phrase “a chosen race” is spoken in the Old Testament, particularly in Isaiah 43. Peter repeats it in 1 Peter 2:9.
After the fifteen steps, there was the Court of Israel, where only Israelite men could go. Beyond that was the court of the priests. Then the priests entered the holy place, and once a year the high priest entered the Holy of Holies with blood.
From the Court of the Gentiles inward, there were increasing restrictions. Gentiles could not cross the dividing wall. Israelites could gather in the Court of Women. Priests could serve farther in. Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies once a year.
The Israelites therefore felt that they were the most blessed people. They had come to Jerusalem, to the temple, near to God’s presence.
Among all the apostles, John was especially clear concerning the temple and the holy city. When the Lord said that He was the light of the world, John tells us that He was teaching in the treasury, located in the Court of Women.
There were thirteen offering boxes around that court. The widow cast her two mites there. Judas also threw his money there after betraying the Lord.
While the Lord was in the Court of Women, He gave a great revelation. Let us turn to John 7:37-39.
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.
But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The last and great day of the feast refers to the Feast of Tabernacles. During that feast, the people rejoiced at night when the lamps were lit. But every morning there was another significant ceremony.
Before daybreak, priests blew trumpets on the semicircular steps. They went with golden vessels to draw water from the Pool of Siloam, the only spring in Jerusalem.
The multitude followed them in procession. The priests drew water and brought it back through the Water Gate to the altar.
When the sun rose, the people turned toward the temple and prayed. They remembered how their fathers had turned their backs upon the sanctuary of the Lord and worshiped the rising sun.
They were remembering the vision in Ezekiel 8.
Then He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.
The people knew that Israel had forsaken God and that the glory of God had left the temple. God’s glory departed from the Mount of Olives and went into heaven.
Therefore, when they drew water during the feast, they had Ezekiel’s vision in their minds. They longed for God’s glory to return.
The priests poured the water at the altar, and all the people held palm branches and cried, “Hosanna! Hosanna!” The final great day was called the great day of Hosanna.
The priests went around the altar seven times. This is why, when the Lord Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people took palm branches and cried, “Hosanna!” They recognized that Jesus was the Messiah.
The water ceremony expressed their hope that the Holy Spirit would come and that God’s glory would return. After the Feast of Tabernacles, the autumn rains would come, and the farmers would begin sowing. The people saw in this a hope for spiritual blessing.
They waited for the Messiah. They waited for the glory of God to return to the temple. According to Ezekiel 47, when God’s glory returns, water will flow out from the temple and become a river of life.
That river would flow toward the east. Where there is water, there is life. The Dead Sea would become full of life; bitter water would become sweet, and trees would grow wherever the water flowed.
The Lord Jesus took this opportunity and said:
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.
The people were waiting for the Messiah. But the Messiah had already come. He was standing before them. God’s glory had returned in Christ.
John says:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us … and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.
Brothers and sisters, God’s glory has returned in Christ. But not only that: the Lord spoke to those who were of God’s household. He said that all who believed in Him would have rivers of living water flowing from within them.
The waters that Ezekiel saw flowing out of the temple now point to the believers. Paul says, “Ye are God’s temple.” When believers gather together, they are God’s household. They are no longer Gentiles, no longer strangers.
Our Lord was crucified on the cross. Not only did He solve the problem of sin; more importantly, He broke down the dividing wall.
By the precious blood of Christ, those of us who were far away can be brought near to God.
Let us return to Ephesians 2:15-16.
Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that He might create in Himself of the two one new man, so making peace;
and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
The church is the Body of Christ. How was this accomplished? Christ made two groups into one new man. The word used here is again the word create.
Myriads of years ago, God created the universe. At the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, He did another work of creation. He broke down the dividing wall and created one new man.
And He came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh:
for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.
Trophimus and Paul could now come in one Spirit to the Father. One had been far away, and one had been near; but in Christ both had access to the Father.
No longer is it only the high priest with blood who can draw near. Because of Christ’s blood, we can come directly into the presence of God.
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were God’s chosen people. But within that choice there was another choice. Of the twelve tribes, Levi was chosen for temple service. Within Levi, the house of Aaron was chosen for priesthood. Among the priests, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year.
But let us return to 1 Peter 2:9.
But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood.
Now there is no longer a choice within a choice. As members of the chosen race, all of us are priests. We are holy priests. We are royal priests.
Before, the people were happy merely to stand in the Court of Women. Yet they knew that only Levites could go farther, only the sons of Aaron could serve as priests, and only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies.
But Peter says that the cornerstone has become a stumbling block to those who rejected Him. Israel stumbled over Christ and cried, “Crucify Him!” Yet Peter says to believers, “Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood.”
As long as you are part of God’s household, you are a priest. You are a holy priest. You are a royal priest.
Through Jesus Christ, you can offer spiritual sacrifices. On one hand, we draw near to God; on the other hand, we serve Him. As to life, we draw near. As to work, we serve Him.
This is the meaning of the holy priesthood and the royal priesthood. This is what we have spoken of tonight.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we give these words back to You. If You find them useful, please use them. Remember the young people among us. May You open our eyes.
We are Your workmanship. We are like a poem, created in our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You that we have received grace. We are no longer strangers.
Through the cross, You have broken down the dividing wall. Through the blood, we can come before our Abba. We have been brought so near.
We are the happiest people. We are a royal priesthood, and we are a holy priesthood. We have become a spiritual house, and we can offer up acceptable sacrifices. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.