The Priesthood of Believers: The Gospel Mission of God's People

Intro: During the Reformation, a great doctrine was re-discovered, that of the priesthood of all believers. It states that through Jesus Christ all believers become a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices to God. This stands over and against the idea that there men and women are divided into two different classes, the spiritual who were priests and the temporal who were lay persons. In IS 61, God says of the people of God indiscriminately, “you shall be named the priest of the Lord…” Much like 1 Peter 2, which says that God is building up His church to be a “holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacs to God.” It is this main point that I will focus on this morning.

Idea: Through JC, believers become a holy priesthood, therefore let us offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. IS actually uses two other terms to describe the people of God, which especially lead us to Christ, the great High Priest.

1. Citizens of a city
2. Shepherds of the sheep
3. Priests of the Lord
   a. Consecrated to belong to the Lord
   b. Consecrated to have the glorious a mission - responsibility and opportunity to take the Gentiles by the hand as it were and lead them to Christ. Paul has a sense of this as he carried out his ministry, that he was bringing people to be consecrated to serve the Lord.
   Rom 15.16, “…to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”