1 Peter - Part 12 - 2:4-8
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
The Living Stone
The Living Stone
As you come to him, 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.
As you come to him, 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.
1 Peter 2:4-
Father as we approach your word this morning we pray for understanding and guidance. We pray for your Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear that we may rightly know Jesus and love Him as Lord, to your great glory Father. These things we pray in Jesus name - Amen.
Father as we approach your word this morning we pray for understanding and guidance. We pray for your Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear that we may rightly know Jesus and love Him as Lord, to your great glory Father. These things we pray in Jesus name - Amen.
Previously as we have studied this letter from Peter to Christians, Peter used a metaphorical image of us, believers, as new born infants. That image was good because it shows us the absolute necessity of us receiving from Christ, spiritual nourishment and salvation in the same way a small child receives from it’s mother milk. The child cannot survive without nourishment and so too we cannot survive spiritually without Christ. But Peter now shifts metaphors. He changes the imagery that he uses. Peter says as you, referring to believers back then and of course us as believers now. As you come to him, meaning Jesus, a living stone rejected by men. Peter describes Jesus as a living stone. A rock that is alive. That’s kind of strange right. I don’t know any stones that are alive, I have never seen a rock that can talk or stone that sing or a pebble that breathes. Why a living stone? And notice something about this - Peter doesn’t just use the stone image once, he repeats it several times.
Peter, whose own name in Greek, Petros, means stone or rock, recalls something that Jesus said while teaching - a parable, the Parable of the Tenants more specifically, which is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In the parable the owner and Master of a vineyard and all the accompanying buildings and equipment for making wine leases his property to some tenants. The master travels to another country away from his property but when the time comes to collect and he sends his servants to collect what is due him rightly, the tenants beat, kill, or stone the various servants. This happens several times until the master finally sends his own son to collect, but the tenants take and kill even him. Jesus asks his hearers at the end of this rather grim parable what will happen when the master himself comes to the vineyard? They of course respond that the master will rightly kill the wretched and murderous tenants and let out the vineyard to others who will produce good fruit in season.
Jesus responds to their answer with this
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.
Peter remembers this encounter. Peter remembers Jesus quoting but he also recalls that this isn’t the only instance of the prophets using the stone metaphor in the scriptures. Peter remembers that Isaiah also uses the image of the stone the builders rejected and stumbled upon in both and . Peter loves this image that Jesus uses of himself, in part because Rock or Stone, Petros in Greek, or Cephas in Aramaic, was what Jesus called Simon Peter. Kind of nickname of sorts and one that Peter dearly loved it seems. But he also loved this image that Jesus uses of himself because the profound truth of it. Jesus was indeed rejected by men, even though he was and is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God.
Peter says this living stone, Jesus, even though he was rejected by men, was precious and chosen of God. Precious is obvious - of course the Father loved the Son, Jesus was precious to the Father, but Jesus is also spoken of as chosen. In eternity past, in the time before time long out of mind the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were in agreement that Jesus would be the sacrifice once and for all for the sins of God’s people. He would be the one to accomplish this work, thus Jesus is the chosen one of God even though He is himself in his very nature and essence God.
And then Peter does something marvelous - he compares us as believers with Christ the Living Stone. He says you yourselves like living stones. He connects us and Christ which is beautiful because what have we just been told about Jesus the living stone? He was precious and chosen. We my dear friends who are believers in Christ Jesus are precious to God and chosen by Him. If you are one who is coming to Christ, following after Him you are precious and chosen and that should give you a tremendous sense of thankfulness and humility. Why? Because there’s nothing in you that God should pick you. There’s no redeeming quality in any of us great enough to forced God’s hand and make Him choose us. We are by nature rejected stones, broken, fractured, porous, inferior, yet we have been selected by the Master builder to be built into something wondrous to behold.
But Peter is also relating to his fellow believers in the first century and to us now that though we are precious and chosen by God we will be rejected by men, by people we know who hate Jesus, who hate God. If we follow Christ in obedience to Him, proclaiming what He says to proclaim, doing what He says to do we will be hated by people. We will be rejected. One doesn’t have to look any further than the daily newspaper to see that this isn’t merely reality of Peter’s world, it is a reality in the current global landscape as various violent Muslim sects bomb and behead our brethren. It is evident when even in so called enlightened western cultures, preachers are arrested for proclaiming the gospel publicly, like in Bristol, England where two preachers were physically accosted and removed from a mall for proclaiming the good news of Jesus to shoppers. It is evident when even in our own supposedly free country God-fearing Christian brothers and sisters who refused to glorify sinful behavior are arrested, imprisoned, their businesses shut down and their assets forcibly stolen. You want to talk about intolerance - look at how the government under pressure from supporters of the LGBT treat us. That’s what hate looks like people. And its happening just as Christ said it would, just as it has happened to so many of God’s people throughout history, just as it was happening to Peter’s listeners. We will be hated, rejected, abused, disowned, and cast out by mankind. But we are promised that we will be accepted by God.
Peter says that the Master builder, our great and glorious God, is taking us rejects who He has chosen and as we continually come to Christ He is building us into a spiritual house. The Greek word he uses here for house, oikos (ukos) is same word used often to refer to God’s house as in the Jerusalem temple. He says that we’re being made into a temple, the place where God makes His abode, where God comes near to man. That’s powerful imagery friends. We as believers are being made into a living temple. But Peter doesn’t stop there, he says that we’re not just a temple, we’re being made into a holy priesthood. We’re being made into people who worship and sacrifice and glorify our Great God. We’re being made into a holy and special people who praise God and give Him glory and honor and praise. But lest we forget, we are not doing this to ourselves or by our own power Peter reminds us the only way this happens is through Christ Jesus.
And paraphrasing from Peter says
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.”
therefore thus says the Lord God,
“Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion,
a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
If we believe, if we trust in Jesus we will not be put to shame. On the day of judgement rather than getting damnation which we rightly deserve by our words and deeds and even our thoughts we will be honored. Do you get how amazing that is? We deserve punishment, we deserve judgement, but we won’t get what we deserve. We’ll get forgiveness, we’ll get new life, we’ll get eternal communion with our maker. What a wonderful and joyful truth this is that God has chosen and saved and that in so doing we are honored far above what we deserve as miserable and rebellious little creatures. Praise God for His great compassion and tremendous mercy on us.
But Peter also adds to this great news a very stark warning for the unbelievers. He says for those of you who do not believe, this chosen and precious stone, Jesus, who you and others reject has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. This stone you denied and rejected will be the very one that you stumble and fall upon. You will be brought low by your disobedience, rebellion, and rejection of Jesus. Your hostility and hatred of Jesus will cause you to fall. That is the warning Peter gives. All will fall before Jesus as Lord, but some will kneel humbly in adoration and loving worship, while other stumbling over the truth fall before Jesus as a conquered foe.
Then Peter says something that is really important to reinforce and enlighten our theology, he says as they were destined to do.
From eternity past God has known who His people, His followers would be because He chose them. He predestined, appointed, and established who would be His people and who would rebel. This is a profoundly difficult truth of scripture because we see that and instantly want to absolve ourselves of responsibility yet scripture clearly says we are still responsible for our sin and rebellion. Many have dedicated their entire lives to studying and debating this truth of scripture but rather than struggle against it and fight it, may I suggest that even though we don’t perfectly understand it we embrace it as a profound and mysterious truth of God that stems from His eternal nature that is unbound by time or space? May I suggest that we embrace that this God who elects is exceedingly generous in His election considering the likes of whom He has chosen? Because of God’s great goodness and grace and to His great glory God has chosen some of the most vile, most evil, most selfish, most cowardly, and most depraved people in all of history to be His and drawn unto Himself for grace and forgiveness.
Think of Moses the cowardly murderer.
Think of Abraham the scaredy cat liar.
Think of Solomon the womanizing hedonist.
Think of Saul who became Paul, the Christian hunting murderer.
Think of David, the adulterous husband assassin.
These are not nice people - yet God chose them, not by their merits, but according to His great love and mercy. Rather than trying to figure out the ins and outs of predestination which is way beyond our meager minds ability to comprehend, may I suggest that we humbly embrace predestination as a goodness of God since rightly none of us should be saved and all of us should be damned?
May I suggest for believers, that as scripture commands we proclaim salvation for all who come, by God’s drawing and calling, unto Christ Jesus in repentance, confession, and faith.
And for those of you who are not believers I give you warning as Peter gave warning - do not continue to rebel and reject Jesus. Instead confess that you are a sinner and humbly come before Christ Jesus now, trusting him to save you as He promised He would. And God will be faithful to keep His word, just as He always has.
If you need to respond to that message now, then please come forward and speak with me as we stand and sing together.