* I was asked to write a short segment for the June edition of our monthly church bulletin. Coming up on June 22nd I will be teaching on praise & worship then we will have an extended evening of corporate praise & worship, so I was hoping to use the article as a preface for my sermon. As it turns out, I may have dug into something new entirely, & I am now planning to write a series of blog articles on our identity as defined by the Bible. They will hopefully be weekly installments released every Wednesday. I would like to invite you to follow along as I journey to discover the deeper meanings of our identities in Jesus Christ.
In our culture we seek to be identified by obscurities. We strive to be our own person & control who or what defines us, but the trouble is we have lost sight of our true identity by not wanting to be identifiable. Webster’s dictionary defines identity as: “sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of a thing: oneness; distinguishing character or personality of an individual: individuality”. By this definition, it is safe to conclude that our identity not only speaks to our uniqueness, but also to our unity. For example, my name is Michelle Perdue & I am a Christian—the first of course speaking of my individuality & the second to my heritage & oneness as a follower of Christ. As devoted followers of Christ, it is important that we seek out how the Bible identifies us in order to effectively function in our identity in Christ & not lose sight of who we are.
“You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. . . 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 into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:5,9
In the Old Testament, priests could only be male descendents of the house of Levi. We are now under a new covenant of Grace through Jesus Christ & all of us as Christians are called to be priests. I am a priest. You are a priest. Now that we have been identified as priests, it is important that we study out our “job description”. Our responsibilities as priests can be found in Deuteronomy 10:8: to carry the Ark of the Covenant, to minister to the Lord, & to bless the people in His name.
Our first duty is to carry the Ark of the Covenant—or to carry the presence of the Lord. We have the responsibility of carrying His presence with us, because our bodies are vessels (1 Corinthians 3:16) in which the Holy Spirit dwells—which means that we have the opportunity to allow people to encounter the presence of God every place we go. We are called to create “meeting places” between God & man. As we learn to identify with this, we should also consider how we interact with people as carriers of the Lord’s presence.
Our second duty is to minister to the Lord. Ministering to God means that we are here for His glory, His desires, His pleasure, His will, His entertainment, to serve & honor Him. It is not our role to be consumers of worship or to receive from worship, but to minister to God in worship. Our worship is full obedience & submission to God. The posture of our bodies should express & reflect the posture of our hearts toward God.
Our final duty as priests is to bless His people. A common Levitical blessing goes like this: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you & be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you & give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26) The purpose of this blessing is not for the desires of the people; instead the purpose is to call out everything they need for their futures—preparing their destiny.
Let us make a commitment, today, to come together as a unified family & discover the ways that Jesus Christ identifies us & learn to function in our identity to bring glory to His Name & draw people toward our glorious, loving Saviour.
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