A QUANTUM SHIFT…
BACK TO A NATION
OF PRIESTS!
ACTS 11: 1 - 19
PETER HAS TO EXPLAIN HIMSELF!
• V1 pre computers; pre-Instant Messaging; pre-FaceBook! All
of Judea heard!
• V2 & 3 Peter was criticized from other Christians – “You ate
with them!”
• V4-17 Peter told them the whole story (had 6 others confirm)
• God said, “don’t call anything impure that I made clean!”
• As I (Peter) spoke, the Holy Spirit came and they spoke in tongues
like us!”
• V17 Peter: “So if God gave them the same gift He gave
us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think
that I could stand in God’s way?”
• V19 Those who criticized Peter said, “So then even to the
Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life!”
How odd that the Jewish Christians did not
remember that even the Jewish practiced
accepting other races to convert to become
Jewish converts…
SEE GOD’S INTENTIONS IN EXODUS 19
• V1 Stated 3 months after the crossing of the Red Sea
• V4 “You yourselves have seen what I did in Egypt, and how I carried
you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself…
• V5 Now if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of all
nations you (Israel) will be My treasured possession, although the
whole earth is Mine…
• V6 You (Israel) will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation!”
Israel’s failure is recorded in II Chronicles 36:14
“…all the leaders of the priests and people became more
and more unfaithful following all the detestable practices of
the nations (around them) and defiling the temple of the
Lord.”
• But because Jesus Christ, God’s Son, came, bled, died on the
cross to pay for our sins, rose again, and is coming back
again…
• I Peter 2: 9 says, “But you (the believer in Jesus) are a
chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s
chosen possession (Ex 19), that you may declare the praises
of Him Who called you out of darkness and into His
marvelous (phenomenal) light!”
• It was God’s promise to Abraham – Gen 12
• The Jewish Nation was to be the world’s priests – Ex 19
• Israel become unfaithful – II Chronicles 36:14
• Then Jesus came and re-established the priestly nation
through those who believe and live obedient to Him.
•You are His royal priests to your families, to those
you work with, to those who you live around…
•You are to live a life that reflects Jesus as your
Savior – He brought you out of sin/darkness and
now you have His light and life in you!
•You are His priests! – the Challenge!