You are a Priest

1) What would change about your day if you woke up and you were dressed as a Priest and you could not take the outfit off?

2) If you could be anyone in the world who would it be and why?

3) If you could go anywhere in the world, that you currently could not go now, where would it be?

Several movies have been made with people waking up and they are not who they were. Santa Clause with Tim Allen, Freaky Friday, 13 going on 30 and even the shaggy dog, are all examples of people becoming something they were not before. The reality is this is what happens to you when you become a Christian. You become something you were not and something that God is creating you to be.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Just like any of those movies mentioned above there is an adjustment period as you get used to the person God is now creating inside of your old skin. The problem comes when we do not realize who we are and what God calls us. We need to know the new person that God has created in us because if we do not know who we are then we will not act who we are. If a grown man thinks he is a five year old then we look at them with pity because they cannot see who they really are.

1Peter 2:9-10 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you have received mercy.

Reread that first line in 1 Peter 2. Do you believe that? Do you believe God looked down and chose you? That you are royalty? That you are a Priest? A Holy Nation?

Chosen

Do you remember what it was like in recess when they picked teams? Everyone got to play but you just did not want to be picked last. As soon as you were chosen you were so relieved and happy. The same thing is true with God, He chose to love the World despite how we acted toward Him. We are accepted not based on what we have or have not done but on what Christ did for us on the cross. (Hebrews 10:10)

Royal Priesthood

Do you hear the trumpets blowing when you step into the presence of God? This is not because you earned it but because of what Christ did but the fact remains you are royalty. Does that make you think differently of yourself? What about a Priest? Do you see yourself as a Priest? The image that comes to mind is probably like the one shown above. Although that is our first image the reality is the Priest was able to go where no one else could go. A priest had access to God like no other. Once a year a Priest was chosen to go and meet with God in the Holy of Holies. God would come down and sit on the Ark of the Covenant on a place called the Mercy Seat. Peter now says that you have full access to God just like the Priest had in the Old Testament. The audience of Peters day would have been blown away by such a thought and the notion that a Holy God would meet with a unHoly people could not be fathomed. This is exactly what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. (Matthew 27:50-51)

Hebrews 10:19-22 So, friends, we can now-without hesitaion- walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place". Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The "curtain" into God's presence is his body. So let's do it- full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. (The message)

Have you ever felt that after you have sinned you could not go to God? This is one of satan's tricks. He lures you into a sin and then he accuses you before the Father. He tries to make us inactive as Christians so that others cannot come to know about Jesus Christ. Peter was reminding them that because of Jesus Christ they no longer had to be frozen in their sin but could go back to God in full assurance that they were already forgiven. Jesus took care of all the sins that you have ever committed, and will commit.(Hebrews 9:28)

So if you were to wake up in the morning and realize that you are a Priest, how would your life change? The reality is that if you are a Christian, you are a Priest, so act accordingly.