What does First B Jackson teach about holy nation?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on holy nation starts with a firm clarification: Peter is not describing any political entity, any country on a map, or any nation-state. Brad Yates worked through this phrase from 1 Peter 2:9-10 and was direct that the holy nation Peter has in mind has no borders, no ethnicity, and no political alliances. It is made up of Christians scattered across the world who are called to be set apart within whatever context they find themselves in. Brad was equally clear that the United States does not fill this role, and neither does the modern state of Israel, noting that over half of polled adults in Israel do not identify as religiously Jewish.
Brad pressed the congregation on the practical weight of this identity. Patriotism is healthy, he said, but it must sit below our identity in Christ. A nation can set up moral guardrails but cannot legislate faith. He used Norway, where Christianity is written into national identity yet church attendance sits at roughly two percent, to make that point plain. The holy nation Peter describes is visible not through a flag or a government but through the observable difference of a people who know who they are and live accordingly.
Pastor Jonathan covered similar ground in an earlier study through 1 Peter 2:4-12, noting honestly that some of these labels land differently on twenty-first century Americans than they would have on first-century believers scattered across the Roman Empire. But the identity stands regardless of cultural comfort with it. Both teachers came back to the same underlying question: if you belong to this holy nation, does your life show it?
Taught from 1 Peter 2:9-10 · 1 John 2 · 1 Peter 2:4-12
The passage taught · 1 John 2
1 My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
2 And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
4 One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- December 3, 2023 You Are a Chosen People Brad Yates teaches First Peter 2:9-10, showing how God calls believers out of darkness into a shared identity as a chosen people, royal priesthood, and holy nation.
- December 3, 2023 You Are God's Own Possession Brad Yates opens 1 Peter 2:9-10 to show what it means to be chosen, holy, and God's own people, and why that identity calls us to proclaim Christ together.
- September 9, 2018 Do Not Monkey With the String A study of 1 Peter 2:4-12 on what it means to be living stones built on Christ the cornerstone, chosen, called, and sent to reflect God's mercy.