1 Peter 2:4-10 | Established

So if you have a Bible or a device, I encourage you to open to 1 Peter chapter 2, as we look together at verses 4 through 10 this morning.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

The Word of God says to us, As you, that is, the church, come to him, Jesus, who is a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 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.

For it stands in Scripture Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do, but 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.

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.

Amen.

And the Lord bless his word to us.

At nine thousand feet of elevation in the mountains of Colorado, just outside of Pueblo, stands an iron and stone castle, complete with fire-breathing dragon.

It's called Bishop Castle, named after Jim Bishop, the man who has spent most of his life building the monument.

This is how he spends his summers, is constructing this castle.

It's quite the testament to the human spirit and what one person can accomplish.

And as you really get into what has happened here, the details are quite fascinating.

At its peak, the castle is as tall as a 16-story building.

And the stone for this castle has all come from the mountainside, carefully put in place by one man.

Each stone is selected and lifted into place by mere strength or by pulleys and cables.

And most of the stones have been handled as many as six different times in order to get them in the right location.

As you can imagine, it's become a popular tourist destination.

If you haven't been there, I encourage you to go.

It's quite a neat place.

Jim Bishop is a very skilled man and has created a very unique building.

But no matter how unique and how constructive and how creative and how strong Jim Bishop is, it cannot compare with what God can do with stones.

Now I'm not referring to creation or the raising up of granite mountain peaks during Noah's flood or even the foundation stones in the New Jerusalem.

I'm talking about people.

People who in God's great mercy He has caused to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

God also puts stone upon stone.

One at a time, building a spiritual house with precious stones.

But God is not building with stones chosen off of the side of a mountain.

God is building with people.

People whom he has chosen for himself, who he is forming into a spiritual house.

Now there are two really incredible points of emphasis in this passage of Scripture.

One emphasis is what God has done in Christ.

Nothing that is spoken of here, and none of the promises and the characteristics that belong to God's people would be possible if God had not fulfilled his word and caused his one and only Son to be the cornerstone and the rock of stumbling for the world.

None of that would be possible.

We could spend all morning speaking about that.

But there is a second point of emphasis, which I think is the more prominent point, and that is the point of emphasis on the church of Jesus Christ.

In these seven verses, we find the plural you used ten times.

Over and over and over and over again, we are reminded of the great blessings given to us by God.

When God caused us to come to faith in Christ and be born again through the Word of God, we were picked off of the mountainside of our futile ways, inherited from our ancestors, and given a new life as God's own people.

And that theme in these seven verses is demonstrated to us by three different word pictures.

We see God's work of building stone upon stone.

We see God's work of transferring us from a place of dishonor to a place of honor.

And we also see God moving us from darkness into light.

So we need to notice first, then, that our life in Christ is founded in God's work of laying stone upon stone.

Notice what Peter says.

As you come to him, to Jesus, who is himself a living stone, rejected by man, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, there's an emphasis now, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house.

Now this begins with the human side of salvation, the responsibility of each and every one of us to come to faith in Christ.

And we've already seen multiple times in this book so far the divine side of salvation.

You can see that where God speaks of us as elect in chapter 1, verse 1, or chosen by his great mercy in chapter 1, verse 3.

But here, Peter is referring to our tasting and seeing that the Lord is good.

And in that tasting and seeing, we come to him through faith in Christ, through his death, burial, and resurrection to pay for our sin and rebellion against God.

When we taste and see, our response is then faith in him and following, a coming to the Christ who is pictured as a living stone.

Our faith is not in an inanimate object.

Our faith is not in a dead leader whose bones fill a tomb somewhere on this earth.

We do not worship a pet rock.

We do not follow a stone that does not hear or speak or respond.

No, we come by faith to the living stone.

But the reality is that some do not.

Some reject him.

I'm sure to the chagrin of my mother, as a kid, I would I would pick up rocks every once in a while that I thought were neat, attractive, and stick them in my pocket and take them home.

I saved them because there was something something unique in that rock that spoke to me at the time that was attractive.

But it was far more common for me to notice a rock and then bend over and pick it up, thinking that, oh yeah, that's one I want to keep.

But upon picking it up and inspecting it a little more closely, I decided, nah, that's not worth keeping.

And then I would drop it or more likely chuck it as far as I could throw it.

That's what many people do with Jesus.

They see him, they hear of him.

Perhaps even spending week after week, month after month, year after year, coming to church and listening to sermons just as you are today.

Some of them believe in his existence and even believe in some of his teachings, but when it comes down to the minute details, they look at Jesus, they pick him up, and they say, nah, it's not worth keeping as the living stone.

And so he's rejected.

And their eyes is not worth keeping.

They say that that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

But sometimes we need to have our eyes checked because we can't see very well.

You know, taste buds are very similar.

My son does not like much meat.

Uh he doesn't enjoy it.

Sadly, he enjoys McDonald's cheeseburgers.

Um his senses, his young senses, may not like the the texture of meat, or or his taste buds may not yet be in a place to appreciate the nuances of good barbecue.

But that does not mean that he believes his father's barbecue is terrible.

It may be, but it most likely means that the problem is in his mouth and mind, not in the food, not in the meat.

The problem is not in Jesus.

It's in humanity's eyes and taste buds.

And often he is rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.

Precious here is probably a better translated with the word honored.

It might be a more accurate word to use in our times today.

He is chosen and he is honored by God.

Some may taste him, but not taste his goodness.

Some may catch a glimpse of him, but not see that he has already been chosen and put in a place of magnificent and great honor.

But for those who have tasted, and who have seen that he is good, and have come to him as chosen and as precious as the honored living stone, those people are themselves like living stones, whom God takes with his own hands to fashion a spiritual house of priests.

You may not have experienced the devastation of exile or of or of great loss.

You feel as though life has generally been pretty good.

Please be careful because you are in a position of danger of not seeing the preciousness of this truth.

So for a moment, let your sin humble you so that you see and understand the lostness of your soul without Christ.

And then be humbled that you are one of but many stones the Lord has chosen for his house.

We need to know and recognize and understand that we are not overly special compared to the other stones in the house.

Now, to those of you who have lived a devastatingly hard life, filled with loss, with suffering, pain, agony, hardship, maybe even rejection and exile.

You need to know this.

When you came to Jesus, the Father began treating you like his own son.

He is the living stone.

He is the living stone, but you also are like living stones.

Do you see?

The characteristic of God the Son is transferred to those who come to Christ.

The Father now sees us as living stones, just as his son is the living stone.

The life of the Son is now in us.

And he has taken us and chosen us from the mountain of stones to be fashioned into his house.

He has lifted us out of the trash heap to give us the life of his son.

So to be a living stone is first of all to be humbled.

And then it's secondly to be awed at what God has done.

But there's even more.

In the Old Testament, in the Old Testament times, not all Israelites were priests.

It was limited to the descendants of Levi.

Only one group of people possessed the privilege of coming before God in worship and service of Him.

Everyone else had to come to the Levites to come to God.

But God had promised to make Israel a kingdom of priests, where every person possessed that privilege of serving God in a unique and wonderful way.

And now we see here that in Christ we begin to see that fulfilled.

In Jesus we find that as we come to him, each one of us is made a priest, able and privileged to offer spiritual sacrifices to him.

We need not be of the tribe of Levi, but only followers of the living stone.

But that does not happen if we do not come to him.

You see that in verse 4?

As you come to him.

We find then a principle established here that our faith is established in the living stone.

We have to come to him.

And when we through faith come to that living stone, God builds us, as it were, a stone upon stone to make a house of priests who offer sacrifices to him.

Now, how do we know that that's true?

Well, Peter says, verses 6, 7, and 8, here's how we know it's true.

Those three verses are like a big parenthetical statement where Peter goes to the Old Testament to prove this is true.

The assertion that our faith is established in the living stone is true because of what God promised about the cornerstone.

And here Peter quotes from two passages in Isaiah and one in Psalms to remind us of the promises and the hope of faith.

So we see here that life in Christ is a movement from disgrace to honor.

These three quotations help us see the work of God in taking his people from a position of disgrace to a place of honor.

For it stands in Scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

So the honor is for you who believe.

But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do.

There's some background that is good for us to know here.

Peter understands these passages from Isaiah and Psalms quite well.

In fact, the evidence is that he preached on them more than once.

He preached on them in his sermon that's recorded in Acts chapter 4.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Speaking there to the rulers of Israel, Peter said, This Jesus is the stone that you rejected, the builders.

And it has become the cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

So that gives us some clarity about what Peter writes here.

We know Peter is speaking of Jesus.

Jesus is the cornerstone God promised.

And the expectation is that people will believe in him for their salvation.

He is the honored one.

There is no other name by which we must be saved.

And to reject that, to not believe in that, is to be in a place of disgrace.

To remain in unbelief is to subject oneself to an eternity of shame and disgrace.

Anyone disobeying God's command to believe in Christ alone will stumble and fall in eternal judgment.

Justice as God has determined will happen to those who refuse to taste and see that God is good.

As the first stone laid down in a foundation, the cornerstone was the most important stone.

It set the pattern for the rest of the foundation.

It was the primary support for the building.

It was the founding support for the structure.

But those who do not believe in that living cornerstone are like builders who went out on a search for the perfect cornerstone.

So they went to this rock quarry.

And they inspected the rock in the quarry, trying to find the perfect size of rock that they could chisel out.

One without cracks, one one without deficiencies.

Perhaps they go to a quarry that already has stones cut out, and they they inspect the individual stones and they turn them over and they flip them around and they inspect them very minutely.

They come to this stone, to Christ, and they look at him and they inspect him and they handle him, but then they determine he is not fit to serve as their cornerstone.

But God has already chosen him.

God has already determined that he will be the cornerstone, causing him to be that stone.

And those who reject him end up stumbling over that stone that is put in place, stumbling on their way to an eternity of shame and disgrace for rejecting God's chosen and honored stone.

He is the ultimate chosen and honored one.

But he is treated with shame and contempt by those who reject him.

Those who come to him and reject him stumble over him, not giving him the honor that is due to him.

But for those who do see him as God's chosen one, Peter says there is honor for you who believe.

Those who reject Christ are unable to see him as the chosen and honored one who can serve as their cornerstone.

So they they disgrace the cornerstone.

They dishonor him because he is shameful in their eyes, and they end up stumbling over him.

But when we come to faith, believing, seeing, seeing Jesus with the honor with which the Father gave him, his divine honor is given to us who believe.

You see that?

Not only is he a living stone, we are living stones.

And now his honor becomes our honor.

We find a principle then that our position is established on the cornerstone.

And not just any stone, but the living stone, who is the honored cornerstone.

And that same honor that was given to the Son by the Father is now yours if you by faith have tasted and seen that he is good.

There's a third picture here to emphasize what God has done for us in Christ, and that is the movement from darkness to light.

So our life in Christ transfers us from that place of darkness to a place of light.

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.

We do not have time this morning to go into too great a detail about each of these terms, but we do need to grasp some important details.

These terms, chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for his own possession, speak of us.

But we need to notice, first of all, that they're not directly intended for us as individuals, but as a group of a collection of people who have come to faith in Christ.

Now, if you are in Christ, it is True, that you are a royal priest.

You yourself.

You as an individual are his chosen possession.

But the emphasis is put on the collective, on the we.

Together, as a group of living stones, we are being built together for a spiritual house.

These pictures are of the Lord's church.

But we must also notice that these were promises and expectations of Israel, the nation of Israel, God's people.

Consider, for example, in Isaiah 43, verse 20, God says, the wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give them water in the wilderness, rivers of desert, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people.

Isaiah 43:20

God says very specifically that the nation of Israel was his chosen people.

Now, throughout history, other groups have claimed that term as well, in fact, even using it to promote racism from time to time.

But the point of the term chosen people, chosen race, is actually the opposite of racist.

It's that God takes all kinds of people from different nationalities, different languages, different cultures, different colors, and he brings them all together into one people, and that is found in the power of the gospel.

We see the fulfillment of that in Revelation chapter 5, where it says, Worthy are you, Lord Jesus, to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and all of those are brought together into one chosen people.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

So what Israel obtained in God is now given to us in Christ.

There's more.

They anticipated that.

They believed that God was going to make them an entire kingdom of priests.

Well, listen to what God has done to those of us who are in Christ.

John, the revelator, in seeing the vision of Christ recorded in Revelation chapter 1, verse 6, that Jesus has made us a kingdom of priests to his God.

Revelation 1:6

Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6 refers to Israel as God's chosen people and his treasured possession.

Deuteronomy 7:6

We now are a people for his own possession.

Each of these was anticipated by ancient Israel.

They were experienced in some sense by the nation of Israel.

But they are all benefits of being in a relationship with the living stone.

They are the privileges of relationship with the sovereign God.

Now they say great things about our position with God, don't they?

Encouraging things.

But they speak volumes about the grace and the mercy and the power of God to people who once did not even belong to Him.

When God acts and the life of the living stone is given to you, the mercy and the grace of God moves you from a place of darkness to a place of light.

It's a common theme in Scripture.

In Acts chapter 26, verse 18, the gospel was proclaimed to open people's eyes so that they might turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God.

Acts 26:18

Being in darkness is being to the power of Satan, being in light as being the gospel of Christ.

Ephesians chapter 5, verse 8.

Ephesians 5:8

For at one time you were in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

So walk as children of the light.

God has done this.

He takes us from where we were, he picks us off of the mountainside, and he says, I'm putting you in my house.

You are one of my stones.

And so we see then in verse 10, 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.

That is a bit of a quotation from Hosea chapter 2, verse 23.

Hosea 2:23

Now the context of the passage in Hosea is idolatry.

It's God's people, Israel, walking away from him, choosing to reject the God who chose them, and instead to pursue false gods.

God's chosen people had rejected him.

They had turned away from him and become a people, God says, of no mercy, a nation whom God didn't even want to call his own people any longer.

That's why he had Hosea name one of his children, Lo Ami.

Not my people.

I don't know who you are.

But God said to his people, I'm promising a time when I will cause you to return to me.

Those who knew no mercy would now receive mercy.

Those who were once rejected would now become God's people.

And by God's magnificent grace, that promise is even greater than Hosea could ever have imagined.

Because that promise is extended not just to Israel, but to all who now will taste and see that God is good.

All to whom the Father would show his great mercy and cause to be born again would now receive the benefits of Christ being their God.

Stone upon stone, disgrace to honor, darkness to light.

The principle here is that our identity is established in God's mercy.

If you are in Christ, if you if you are a stone, a living stone, you are there because of God's mercy.

Now this was written to exiles.

It was written to those suffering and desperately seeking to hang on to Christ.

And that may be you this morning.

I I am so glad that you're here.

But if you are here this morning feeling as though you are just hanging on to Christ with your fingertips, this is for you.

Because Peter wrote this to those kinds of people.

And he said, one of the greatest encouragements, if you are seeking to hang on to Christ with everything you've got, but all you feel is the fingertips, then know who you are in Christ.

Know that he has taken you and built you into a living house in his son.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

But that may not be you.

I've not been an exile.

I've not faced much rejection.

There's always been a place for me to belong.

So that sometimes makes it difficult to feel the transcendent grace and mercy that is given to us.

So if that is you, for those of us who have that difficulty, we must come to grips and feel this instead in terms of our sin.

So come to grips with the thoughts that race through your mind that are not godly.

You know you have them.

I do too.

Bring the desires of your heart that are not righteous out in the open.

Acknowledge those habits and actions that are not holy and pleasing to God.

Now know, know and feel that God hates those, and that they bring death and shame and disgrace and rejection if you cling to them.

You have no mercy or acceptance with God if you cling to those.

But when you taste and see that the Lord is good and you believe in him, he forgives your sin in Christ, and he grants you the life of the living stone.

And he brings you into relationship with himself, stone upon stone, disgrace to honor, darkness to light.

What grace that he would save a wretch like me.

But we can't end without a final principle.

So that you may proclaim his excellencies.

It was originally spoken of Israel.

In Isaiah 43, he said of the nation of Israel, you are my people.

I formed you for myself so that you might declare my praise.

And Peter now says that truth, that that command, that expectation belongs to all living stones.

Do you want to know God's will for your life?

I know you do.

Well, it's pretty simple.

If you are a Christian, God's will for your life is for you to declare how great Christ is.

And this passage gives you solid foundation to show his greatness and to proclaim his praise.

Stone upon stone, disgrace to honor, and darkness to light.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, may we see your light.

Give us strength and grace to leave the darkness behind and to be who you've called us to be.

Thank you for the privilege that you've given us to honor you, to give praise to you.

Thank you that you have chosen us as stones off of the mountainside to be yours.

What a privilege and what an honor it is.

May we be a people who now take this with us to declare your praise.

Enable us to do that we ask in your name.

Amen.

Would you stand together as we sing a song, really a song of commitment that enables us to process taking what we've heard and leaving here with that truth.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

There are many who still walk in darkness, brothers and sisters, perhaps even stumbling over the cornerstone.

Take the light to them, so that by his grace they might be transferred from darkness to light.

Amen.

You're dismissed.