The Priesthood of All Believers

Order of Service

• Hymn — A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
• Call to Worship — Hebrews 12:18-24
• Hymn — A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (congregational singing)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q&A on faith and repentance)
• Scripture Reading — Ephesians 2:1-10
• Hymn — In Christ Alone
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation
• Sermon
• Hymn — How Firm a Foundation
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Priesthood of All Believers

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:4-10

I. The Source of the Believer's Priesthood

A. Peter quotes three Old Testament passages to establish Christ as the Cornerstone

1. Isaiah 28:16 — the chosen and precious Cornerstone in Zion
2. Psalm 118:22 — the stone the builders rejected becomes the Cornerstone
3. Isaiah 8:14 — a stone of stumbling and rock of offense

B. What is declared of Christ is declared of believers

1. Christ is a living Stone (1 Peter 2:4); we are living stones (1 Peter 2:5)
2. Christ is chosen and precious; we are a chosen race, precious in God's sight
3. The Greek word for "honor" in verse 7 shares the same root as "precious" in verse 4 — those who come to the precious Stone become precious themselves

C. Believers share in a royal priesthood through union with Christ the King-Priest

1. Christ is not a Levitical priest but a priest after the order of Melchizedek — king of Salem and priest of God Most High (Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 7)
2. United to Christ by faith, believers become royal priests — a kingdom of priests
3. There is only one mediator between God and man: the man Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5)
4. Luther: "He who is a Christian has Christ, and he who has Christ has all things that are Christ"

II. The Sacrifices of the Believer's Priesthood

A. Old Covenant Levitical priesthood provides the pattern for understanding priestly service

B. Spiritual sacrifice #1 — Singing and worship

1. Levites sang perpetually in the temple (1 Chronicles 9:33)
2. Believers teach and admonish one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16)

C. Spiritual sacrifice #2 — Surrendering earthly possessions and clinging to God as inheritance

1. Levites received no land inheritance; God was their possession
2. Believers are called exiles whose inheritance is kept in heaven (1 Peter 1; 1 Peter 2:9)
3. We hold this world loosely and use earthly goods to love the poor and serve God's people

D. Spiritual sacrifice #3 — Intercessory prayer

1. Old Covenant priests interceded for the people
2. Believers pray at all times in the Spirit with perseverance for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18)
3. Prayer is a priestly activity belonging to every believer

E. Spiritual sacrifice #4 — Proclaiming God's excellencies

1. Israel was called a kingdom of priests to spread God's redemptive grace to the nations (Exodus 19:6)
2. Believers proclaim the excellencies of him who called them out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9)

F. Luther's 1520 treatise To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation demolished the two-estate system (spiritual vs. temporal) and placed layperson and clergy on equal footing before God

1. The mundane and ordinary are sanctified by Christ; all of life is priestly service
2. Whatever you do, do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)
3. Christ was born in a manger and worked as a carpenter — he sanctifies the common and ordinary

III. The Security of the Believer's Priesthood

A. Luther's pilgrimage to Rome (1511) illustrates the failure of works-based assurance

1. Climbing the Scala Sancta on his knees, reciting prayers on each step to release a loved one from purgatory
2. Reaching the top, Luther felt not comfort but dejection, crying: "Who knows whether this is true?"
3. His nagging doubt drove him to Scripture, where he discovered assurance through the priesthood of all believers

B. Peter uses emphatic grammatical structure to reinforce the believer's secure identity in Christ

1. Three times in this passage the word "you" is placed at the front of the Greek sentence for emphasis (vv. 5, 7, 9)
2. Believers are: living stones, a holy priesthood, precious and honored, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own possession
3. 1 Peter 2:10 — "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy"

C. Peter's original audience — largely Gentile converts formerly called "filthy dogs" and given to idolatry — are now declared precious and holy in God's sight through faith union with Christ

D. The Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory undermined assurance by implying that believers could not pass immediately into God's presence at death

1. Indulgences and purgatory exploited the believer's natural sense of unworthiness
2. The priesthood of all believers answers this: God comes down to us in Christ and makes us saints not on account of our deeds but Christ's alone

E. Luther's Small Catechism (1529) — the second article captures his journey from doubt to certainty

1. "I believe that Jesus Christ… is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost creature… not with silver and gold but with his holy, precious blood"
2. Luther moved from climbing steps and asking "Who knows if this is true?" to declaring "This is most certainly true"

F. Application: What stairs are you currently climbing in search of assurance?

1. Assurance is not found in moral achievement, emotional intensity, or religious ritual
2. Assurance rests in Christ alone — the firm and precious Cornerstone on which every believer stands
3. You are chosen, precious, a holy royal priesthood in Christ — yes, even you