Revelation 1:5-6 “To him who loves us, and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father–to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.”

Are you proud to be an American? Maybe you take exception to some decision or other our leaders make from time to time, but for the most part we like being part of this nation. I once spent part of a day with a visiting pastor from China. We were comparing our two countries. One difference he pointed out: “You Americans love your country.” We are proud to belong to the most powerful nation on earth, the nation strives to stand for what is good in this world, which provides its citizens with the highest standard of living, that expends its resources to try to bring freedom and a better life to others. There is a sense of privilege that goes along with being a citizen of the United States.

The citizenship Jesus has given us in his kingdom is a far higher one. He makes us all royalty. Even now you are a “blue blood,” a part of the nobility of heaven. The Apostle Peter echoes these same words in his first letter when he calls us a “royal priesthood.” Now everything serves you, because God promises that in all things he works for your good.

Do you like to trace your family tree to know who you are? By faith you are now part of a royal family that can trace its roots through Adam and Abraham, David and Daniel, Peter and Paul, and especially our dear brother Jesus. That’s your lineage, your heritage, your ancestry by faith. Jesus has ennobled you and me by making us part of his kingdom.

In that kingdom we all serve God as his priests. That is a privilege because it means we have direct access to God. Sometimes people come to me as pastor, and they want me to pray for them because they believe I have some kind of “in” with God. They suspect that I have God’s ear in a way that others do not.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to pray for you. But pastors have no special access to God. John doesn’t say that Jesus made a few of us priests. He made a whole kingdom full of priests. Every one of you enjoys this direct, individual, personal relationship with God. When you come to God he’s not going to say, “Who sent you? What are you doing here?” He welcomes you as one of the priests whom Jesus has called and ordained by faith.

This is also a privilege because God has entrusted his sacrifices into our hands. They aren’t bloody. We don’t sacrifice animals. Jesus made the sacrifice for sin once for all. But God has entrusted us all with sacrifices of praise. We offer our bodies as living sacrifices when we use them to serve. We share our faith with others. We let our hands and feet become God’s tools for loving those he has placed in our path. This sacrifice of praise continues as long as his kingdom: “to him be power and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”