The Heart of Hebron: God’s People

In the arms of majesty we hear him speak, we hear him speak to

us as his children. So he says, you are a chosen

race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own

possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him

who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

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.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

The flower fades, grass Withers, but the Word of our Lord stands

forever. Let's pray together.

Lord, we would ask that you would bind this word tightly

into our hearts so that we would be transformed by it, shaped and

molded by your word, both in our understanding and in our

actions, and ultimately in our devotion to you.

We pray through Christ our Lord, we ask.

Amen. Please be seated.

It was somewhere, I think in middle school or maybe a little

before that, that I realized how tremendously influenced I was by

other people's opinions of me. I was very insecure, needy, kind

of a kid, like many kids, I believe at that age.

I don't know that I was uniquely that way, but I certainly shared

all those characteristics, those traits, and I was tremendously

influenced by what other people thought of me and I tried to

shape my life around their thoughts with the expectations

were with the results that you would expect.

Disaster kind of flowed upon so much of my life as I tried to

meet the expectations of people that were around me.

Part of maturity is learning to what extent and to who you can

put your trust in and whose opinion of you matters, because

people's opinion do matter at points, and some people's

absolutely doesn't matter. And maturity is learning to know

the difference. And it took me quite some time,

as it takes a lot of people to be able to discern the

difference between those two things.

Well, what about Hebron Church? What about the opinion people

have of Hebron Church? I have to tell you that this was

about 3 or 4 months ago at this point.

I had some visitors come up to me and speak and they just tell

me how absolutely warm and welcoming Hebron was.

That they felt immediately like a a family had embraced them,

that they were, they, they felt incredibly blessed by being

here, etcetera. My head just swelled.

I was so proud of all of you for interacting with them.

I just was overwhelmed with joy over that kind of opinion.

I'm not kidding you. Hours later, later that evening,

I was in a conversation with a couple that had determined that

they needed to worship someplace else because they had a hard

time breaking in. They couldn't connect with some

of the folks that were here, that they were isolated, that

they didn't feel that joy and that blessing that other people

express. So you got 2 totally different

paradigms, 2 totally different opinions on Heaven Church.

Over the past couple of months, I have been trying to put

forward what I understand is a biblical picture of our church.

What should our church be? And I put it forward both as as

what we are now to some extent and to what we need to grow to

be. So there's kind of a continuum

that kind of says, you know, we're moving towards this kind

of a picture. And at this point, my sure, my

guess is that you will have heard this if you've been

worshiping with us at any period of time.

This is kind of a statement that I think captures the biblical

witness, biblical call for Hebron Church that we are moving

towards if we have not yet attained it.

Hebron is a biblically based, Christ centered community of

disciples, A Reformed classically evangelical church

in the Presbyterian tradition, worshipping, growing and serving

Christ in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh and beyond.

That's kind of a statement that I believe.

That's my opinion on what Hebron is or Hebron should be.

Now, to what extent does that shape and mold your own

thinking? Well, again, people's opinions

influence us appropriately and sometimes inappropriately.

And my opinion of Hebron should influence you appropriately and

sometimes inappropriately. And so we have to evaluate that.

There should be, however, little evaluation to the opinion that

God himself gives. This is God's description of

Hebron Church. Hebron Church is a chosen race,

a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own

possession. That's Hebron church.

Now we know that to be the case because God's Word proclaims

that specifically to be the case.

I want you to notice a little bit here as we walk through this

description, just like what we've done before, I've tried to

hold forward the idea that the description that I gave about

Hebron is something that we are modeling ourselves upon, seeking

to be. And that means for us as a

congregation, but also for us as individuals.

And just like someone else's opinion influences us, certainly

God's opinion needs to influence us.

And So what we're going to see as we walk through this

description is not simply what Hebron is, but also what we as

individuals are to be. So as I as we look at this

verse, as we talk about this together, the idea is not simply

how is Hebron doing this, but how am I doing this?

So if you have your Bibles, if you want to open them up again

to first Peter chapter 2, first Peter is white towards the very

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

end of your Bibles, you should be able to find it.

As always, if you don't have a Bible, steal one of ours.

We have extra ones. We'll be happy to give you 1 and

have your Bible in front of you. First Peter chapter 2 beginning

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

in verse 9. And it starts with that phrase.

But, but, and it's kind of weird to jump into the middle of an

argument, but I felt like it would be best for us to do so.

But we did need to quantify or classify the fact that this

verse begins in the midst of Peter talking about who he is

talking about, those who have rejected the rock of Jesus

Christ, those who have rejected the call of Jesus Christ and

enlightened who the stumble over the rock, who are not able to

embrace the rock as their savior.

And in contrast to that, Paul, then Peter then shifts and says,

but you and he talks about who we are.

Now the you here is plural and it's emphatic, it's emphasized,

it's bolded. It's it's every Greek

expression. It was written in Greek

originally, every Greek intensity to try to emphasize

the you here. So what Peter is doing is he's

saying, look, all of you collectively as God's people,

this is who you are. And then notice the way in which

this phrase is this passage is phrased.

This passage is not phrased as a possibility or as a hope or as a

desire or as a goal to be aimed at.

This is very different than what I've been trying to articulate

when I say, look, we are a reformed body and I know that we

need to move more in that direction.

I know that we are classically evangelical, and I know we need

to move more in that direction. This is not that way.

What Peter says, what God says is this is who you are.

This is who you are. So what does he say about us?

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a people of God's own possession.

Now my guess is if you have any self reflection at all and you

look around at everybody else around this room, you sit there

and think really God's own possession, a holy nation, a

chosen race. And the answer to that is yes,

yes, that's the way God sees you.

That's the way God sees Hebron Church.

Now he's not blind to our failures.

He's not blind to our struggles. He's not blind to our our

sinfulness and our failures. What God does though is he

identifies us as who we are as a people.

And once again, he's Speaking of Hebron Church as well as every

individual participant in Hebron Church.

This is who you are collectively, this is who you

are. You are a chosen race.

Now right off the bat, we've got a, we, we bump into a cultural

issue that that's relative for us.

When we talk about race in America in the 21st century, of

course we have in mind the two 300 years or so history in which

we have been dealing with racial issues, black and white and

Asian and Native American etcetera, etcetera, that when we

think about race, we tend to think about those genetic

characteristics. That's not what the scriptures

are speaking about. When the scriptures use the term

race, particularly in this particular instance, what is in

mind is a an aggregate collection of individuals who

all show share a certain characteristic.

So you gather together certain group of people that all have a

certain characteristics that then is labeled as a race.

That's a race in the biblical language.

And so when God here is identifying Hebron Church as a

race, he's not talking about our genetic qualities or

characteristics or our skin tone or anything like that.

What he's doing is he's looking at Hebron Church and saying you

collectively share a particular characteristic.

Now what is that particular characteristic?

That is our aggregate collection, that us together, we

are chosen. We are a chosen race.

My thought is, and it's the same I'm sure for all of you that you

got up this morning at some point and you said, oh, I get to

go to church today. Or some of you said I have to go

to church today. However you want to phrase it, I

get to go to church today. I have to go to church today.

I am part of this church community.

And so I gathered together with God's people.

And my guess is overwhelmingly, most of you think of that in

terms of your choice, what you chose to do this morning.

And when we look around at some of the empty seats and our

brothers and sisters who aren't present here, we think to

ourselves, why did they choose not to be with us at this

particular adventure, etcetera. And why did I choose or or I

chose to be part of Heaven Church because they're so nice

and wonderful and the pastor so good looking or whatever, you

know, whatever it is, it prompts people to choose and God

identify specifically a totally different characteristic trait

here. You are here because you were

chosen by God to be here. You are part of this community,

part of Heaven Church, because you are chosen by God to be

here. But not only that, but the

people you're sitting next to are here because God chose them

to be here. It was not your choice.

It is not your decision, it is not your process that separates

you out as a particular race in God's eyes.

It is the fact that He has chosen us to be present in this

place and I tell you that's a vastly shape that that's a mind

shaping experience or understanding to think that you

are present here in this place, not by your own volition, but by

God himself. God is the one who has chosen,

who is determined that it is right for you to be here and God

himself has chosen for that. It is right for you to be

sitting with the people that you are and throughout the week to

be involved in the Bible studies that you are and serving the

Lord in this place and being participated, being a

participant in the Ministries of Heaven Church.

All of that is ultimately because God has ordained it to

be the case. God has determined that it is

right for you to be here and that has to dramatically shape

your attitude towards being here.

Now undoubtedly in some sense, all of us were dragged here by

something, the car, our family members, you know, an

expectation or responsibility that we have.

All of those things weigh upon us and those earthly and human

experiences certainly are true. But what God leads out with it

says, look, this is the way I see you.

I see you as a group of people that all share this character

trait that I chose you to be here, I chose you to be here.

That has to affect our attitude in which it also has to affect

the way in which we view the people around us.

Now, I'm just guessing, but you're really happy that 20% of

the people are here because they're the people that you're

friends with, they're the people that you interact with.

Then there's another 60% that you're kind of that you kind of

pass and you say nice things with etcetera, etcetera, and

that's great too. And then there's 20% of the

people that you hope you don't run into in the morning, that

that's, that's my guess is that there's 20% that you're really

happy about the 60% in the middle.

And there's 20% that you're. But the reality is that every

one of them, the people that you really enjoy, the people that

are OK and the people that you hope to avoid, all of them are

here because God has chosen it to be.

So when you minister in this place, when you're involved in

Bible studies, when you're involved in the in the

leadership of the event, when we are ministering to the kids in

this place, when we're engaged in whatever we're engaged in, we

are ultimately doing so because we are a chosen race.

You can't avoid it. God doesn't say he wants us to

be that. God says you are this, you are a

chosen race. That has to affect our

attitudes. It has to affect the way we view

one another, and it has to affect our devotion, our

passion, and our love for the Lord.

He has chosen you in this place at this time, for this purpose.

You are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood.

Royal priesthood. Now, once again, my guess is not

a whole lot of you feel like royalty.

Not a whole lot of you even appreciate the idea of a priest.

OK. If you have a Catholic

background or an Anglican background, Lutheran, or if you

read a lot of the scriptures, etcetera in the Old Testament,

you might have some perspective of what a priest is.

And so you think about the way they dress or what they do or

the way their actions in which they take.

All of that is derivative of the key characteristic of what a

priest is. What a priest does is connect

two separated parties. 2 warring parties stands in the middle as

a mediator and connect the two parties together.

Who are the parties that the priest is connecting?

God who is separated from man by their sin and man who was

terrified and separated from God by His Holiness and the priest

stands in the middle and connects the two together.

That's the rule of the Old Testament pre sets the

theoretically the role of of ongoingly the priesthood in

different community communions and that is what God intends for

Hebron Church Hebron Church listen to this.

You are a priesthood, which means every individual here has

that priesthood function, not in the collar that you wear or you

know, and, and, and probably some of you might be thinking,

well, Henry, it's easy for you to talk like that.

You're a preacher. You kind of is priestess kind of

thing. No, when God speaks this way, he

speaks to every individual in this room, every Christian in

this room, every member of the Hebron Church and says you are a

priesthood. What does that?

What's that mean? It means that our function is to

connect those who are separated from God to Him.

It is our job in life to go into the world and define those who

are separated from the Lord Jesus Christ and to connect them

together. How do we do that?

Of course, we do that through the gospel message of Jesus

Christ. We proclaim the salvation of our

Lord Jesus Christ to those who are separated from him so that

they too might experience the union, the connectedness, so

that they too might be connected to our Lord.

We are a priesthood. This church is a priesthood and

every member in it is a priesthood, and it's a royal

priesthood. Now, I have the same experience

with kings that you do, you know, historically and that kind

of stuff. I don't have much of an

experience with kings, but when we think of kings, my guess is

that most of us shift to, and there's a couple of Canadians in

the room that are thinking we have a king.

We, we shift when, when we think about kings, etcetera.

The idea is that we, we probably think primarily of the

privileges and the royal trappings and the wonders, the

glories of, of the kingship, etcetera.

And again, all that's true, but all that's derivative of the

primary role of a king. The king is responsible for his

people. If you want to see that, read

the Old Testament, the Old Testament proclamation of a

kingship. Sure, there's the wonders, the

glories of the kingship, etcetera, etcetera, But

overwhelmingly, the point of a king is that he's responsible

for his people. Responsible in what way?

We're priests, we are a royal priesthood.

It's not just that we get the opportunity to connect people

together, but we have that responsibility to connect people

with God, that that priesthood function is a royal priesthood

function. It is not just something that we

get to do. It's something that we must do

as part of our responsibility. And again, this must change our

attitude as we think of ourselves coming here to Hebron

Church. OK, I'm a member of Hebron

Church. I get to worship the Hebron, I

get to come and serve at Hebron, etcetera, etcetera.

And your attitude is driven by the fact that God sees me as a

royal priesthood. God sees me as one who comes

here with this specific intention to connect others to

the divine Savior, to have that priesthood function.

It changes our attitude. It also changes the way we look

at each other. OK, once again, you're looking

at each other and you're sitting there thinking I'm worshiping

next to these folks or I'm serving next to these folks.

I'm in Bible study with these folks, and the reality is that

they have been chosen by God to fulfill a priestly function.

What's your role? Your role is to encourage them

to have that royal prerogative, that responsibility to connect

people to Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be a

royal priesthood. It changes our attitude, it

changes the way we view one another, and it certainly shifts

and changes our devotion and our love for the Lord.

Think about this. Our Lord has intentionally

identified you as someone that he counts on to connect others

to himself, to expand his love, to expand his Kingdom, to expand

his the reach of the gospel. Of course he can do it on his

own, but He has chosen to use you as part of the priesthood, a

royal priesthood. Here at Hebron.

Not only are we a chosen race and a royal priesthood, but we

are also a holy nation. Now that should make you giggle.

God looks at you and thinks, oh, you're holy.

All right. Now most of us understand the

nation, the notion of holy as being, you know, holier than

thou. And we fear the criticism of the

world that, you know, what are Christians are walking around

say I'm holier than you are and aren't I so holy and aren't I

wonderful, etcetera, etcetera. And what we're talking about is

our moral standing, our moral quality is so much better than

the rest of the world because they're steeped in sin.

And I am part of Hebron Church, and of course we know that's

ridiculous because the moral depravity.

That exists out there, exists in here.

It exists in all of these places.

The difference between those two is that we are holy in God's

eyes. Not perfect in God's eyes, but

holy in the sense of being set apart.

We are set apart by our God. That's what holy means, being

part of Hebron Church to if God is right by looking at Hebron

Church and say you are a holy, not you should be a holy nation,

but you are a holy nation. You are set apart by the Lord

for what? For what purpose?

We are a holy nation. The nation is bound together by

its political structure. And I am not talking about

Republican or Democrat or the United States or anything.

I'm talking about the political structure that governs Heaven

Church. Not our session, not our elders,

not the pastor, but God himself. We are set apart for God

himself. That's what being a holy nation

means, that in God's eyes that we, that he has determined that

we would be set apart as his people, as a nation to proclaim

that goodness that is carried forward and being a chosen race,

a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own possession,

God's special possession. OK, well, wait before we do

that. Being a holy nation changes the

way you look at each other because you see the sin in each

other. You see the brokenness, you're

aware that it's there and you know that you're supposed to be

gracious toward them. We need to be gracious towards

them. But the way in which you see one

another, you are holy. This person has been set apart

by God in all of their brokenness, in all of their sin,

in all of their failure, They nevertheless have been set apart

by God for His purpose. You have been set apart by God

for his purpose and that changes the way in which we relate to

him, the way in which we love him, the way we are devoted to

him because he has set us apart, not made us holier than the rest

of the world, more morally godly or anything like that, but

because he has ordained that there is a particular purpose, a

goal, an intent for you. For Hebron Church, we are God's

own possession, God's own possession.

The word possession here refers to something that is near and

dear to his heart, but not just near and dear to his heart.

It's something that he values, something that he holds closely

and he that he is that that he values tremendously based upon.

Now there's two different reasons why you can value

something. You can value something because

it's a gift. Somebody gives you something

freely and it's a gift and you sit there and think, thank you

and you value it so much because you value the relationship.

So much of our lives is a gift. We get all of our lives as a

gift from the Lord, and of course we appreciate and value

it so much because the Lord Himself gives it to us.

But what the word here, possession, is that God has

worked hard for it. You are God's possession because

He has worked hard for it. And therefore He values you.

He possesses you, He protects you, He guards you.

So in the midst of being a royal priesthood, in the midst of

being a holy nation, in the midst of being a chosen race,

God possesses you, He holds you, and He values you because He has

worked so very hard for you. And of course, what's the work

that the Lord has done for you? This is nothing but Peters

casting back the imagery upon the cross of Jesus Christ.

This has to change your attitude towards why you are here and

part of this community. You are here and part of this

community because you are God's own possession, because he holds

you and cares for you that intimately and desires that

passionate from you. That has to change the way you

view one another. Why is that person here in this

church knowing their brokenness, knowing their sinfulness,

knowing that they're going to be cold to me again, they're going

to give me the cold children, they're going to forget my name

again. I always do that.

Or as something along those lines, how can, how can we?

Why is this person here? This person is here because they

are God's special possession and he has worked hard for them.

He has worked hard for them. Now, why if God looks at Hebburn

Church and he says this is Hebburn, God's chosen, chosen

race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people of God's own

possession, why? Why are we here at the end of

verse 9? If you have your scriptures, you

look at the end of verse 9. It's that great word there that

identifies that we're talking about a purpose clause so that

you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called

you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

What is the purpose of being God's own possession?

What's the purpose of being a holy nation?

What's the purpose of being a chosen race?

It is so you might proclaim the excellencies, proclaim the great

things of our God who has called you out of darkness into this

marvelous light. I think that every Christian

should have PTSD. And I I say that very aware of

the fact that we have cheapened the word PTSD.

We have cheapened that to the idea that, oh, if you have a bad

experience with somebody, you've got PTSDI hate that because the

history of the word, of course, is connected to the military

trauma, trauma of men and women who've gone through the most

horrific experiences. They come out.

That's what PTSD is. And I think Christians should

have it. You know why?

Because every believer in this room, if you like it or if you

don't, if you remember it or if you don't, every believer in

this room was pulled out of darkness and into God's

marvelous light. Most of us don't remember it.

Most of us don't want to reflect on it.

Most of us can't desire to leave it behind.

But the reality is that every one of us have been pulled out

of darkness. And I just don't mean wow,

there's just no light here. And isn't this terrible?

That darkness is the is the description of hell itself and

of what it means to live separated from Jesus Christ,

what it means to be completely uncreated in who God desires for

you to be. Darkness is a picture, is a

characterization of everything that is evil, wicked, and

hellish in this world, and God has called you out of that.

We should have PTSD. We should have that in our

memories so strongly that it so affects us.

Or is it possible that we don't have PTSD because we forget that

we've been called into marvelous light?

So many of us are so used to living in the light right now

that we know that we have forgotten that it's marvelous.

We've forgotten what God has done for us.

We have forgotten that crucial idea of being called out of

darkness and into marvelous light.

But that's happened for Hebron Church.

That's happened for every believer in this room.

We've been called out of darkness and into his marvelous

light. And we should remember.

That should impact us. That should affect us in such a

way that we proclaim His excellencies to the entire

world. Isn't that a marvelous picture?

Don't you want that? Don't you want to I, I Don't you

want to remember the hell that was before you, before Jesus

Christ, so that you can proclaim His excellencies now?

How is this possible? This sure sounds like I've been

laying this on Hebron Church, that God's saying this about

Hebron Church because I think there's no other way of looking

at this text other than saying that that's exactly what takes

place. But please don't miss verse 10.

If you have verse 10 before you, once you are not a people, but

now you are God's people. OK, that's, that's the summary

of the of the previous verse. What does it mean that you're

the chosen race? What does it mean that you're a

holy nation? What does it mean that you're a

royal priesthood? OK, Once you were not a people

there, there was there was nothing.

There was no character trait that identified you as who you

really are. There was no character trait

that identified you as somebody created in God's image and

redeemed for His purpose. But now you are.

And what's the difference? Once you had not received mercy,

but now you have received mercy. What's the difference?

The difference is not you. The difference is not me.

The difference is the cross of Jesus Christ.

What is it that causes you to be a chosen people, chosen race?

It is a cross of Jesus Christ. The mercy that you have

received. What is it that enables you to

be a royal priesthood? It is mercy.

What is it that enables you to be a holy nation?

It is mercy. Why is it that you can proclaim

His excellencies? Why is it that you have been

pulled from the darkness? Why is it that you are now

blessed by being involved in this marvelous light?

It is the mercy of Jesus Christ. It is the cross of Jesus Christ.

That is to what defines Hebron Church from beginning to end.

It must because it does in God's eyes.

Let's pray together, Gracious Lord, we pray that you would

open our hearts and our minds more and more to the reality

that we have in Jesus Christ, that we are indeed a royal

priesthood, A chosen race, a holy nation, a God's own

possession. Lord, we hear that call.

We recognize that that is how you view us.

Give us the grace, Lord, to act faithfully according to that, to

proclaim your excellencies to this world because we've been

pulled from darkness into your marvelous light.

We pray through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen, My brothers and sisters, if you could stand together with

me and let us proclaim that which we believe, what do we

believe together? All believers are united to

Jesus Christ by his spirit and faith and have fellowship with

Him in His grace, suffering, resurrection, and glory.

United to each other in love, believers are obligated to

nourish one another's mutual good, both spiritually and

physically.