5. Selected for a Glorious Purpose
Notes
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We saw over the past couple of sermons that Peter spent some time reinforcing with his hearers just who they are in relation to one another in the Church. In today’s passage, Peter describes the church, not in terms of who they are to one another, but who they are in relation to God. The relationship we have with one another can only occur and be properly understood when we understand our relationship with God.
Peter has already pointed out that the OT prophets had foreseen the days they were currently experiencing. Now Peter will dive deep into those prophecies to describe just who and what they are in relation to God as His people.
Peter presents Jesus Christ as the foundation of God’s redemptive work. (Jobes)
1. The Church: the New Temple of God (4-8)
1. The Church: the New Temple of God (4-8)
a.The Living Stone and the living stones (2:4–5)
a.The Living Stone and the living stones (2:4–5)
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
5 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.
Christ is corner stone, the stone used to guide the builders in the construction of the building. He was rejected, but is a living stone.
When Peter describes those who come to Jesus Christ as “living stones,” he is implying that our nature derives from the nature of the resurrected Christ.
In light of this, we must understand our situation and circumstances by all that Christ has experienced, most important, by Christ’s victory over suffering and death.
The Christian community is portrayed as a temple, implying that now it—not a literal stone building—is the place of God’s earthly dwelling by the Holy Spirit, a place of true worship and of acceptable sacrifice.
The image of living stones being built into a spiritual house whose cornerstone is Christ also speaks of the unity, significance, and purpose of all believers, concepts essential for Christian self-understanding. The primary attribute of a temple in first-century thought was its holiness.
Just as God’s presence sanctified the temple of Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit lives in each believer and corporately together as the Church. By His presence, we are made holy, set-apart from the world and set-apart unto God. What, or rather, Who makes us One is God’s gracious presence by His Spirit, of Christ Himself Who is our chief cornerstone.
We need to understand that the Church is not primarily a social organization but the new temple where the transformed lives of believers are offered as sacrifice to the glory of God.
Even if Peter’s readers find themselves alienated from their society and suffering a loss of status, Peter assures them that they have become part of a much grander and everlasting community. It is by the values and convictions of this new community that they must now understand themselves, not as self-centered individuals, but as each taking his or her place in the spiritual house. Each living stone has a role to play for the integrity and well-being of the whole. God’s true house is “spiritual” in the sense that it is constituted by the lives of those who come to Christ.
If you belong to Christ, then you also belong to his church—not just the local church but also the universal church, made up of all God’s people from all over the world and through all the centuries. Jesus, the living stone, is building his living stones into a house where God dwells by his Spirit.
This means that we need each other. We cannot live the Christian life on our own. We are meant to be an active, engaged part of a local church, not just showing up every now and again but fully involved and committed to God’s people in that place.
b.The Stone placed in Zion (2:6)
b.The Stone placed in Zion (2:6)
6 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.”
But because of their faith in Christ, Peter’s readers are experiencing rejection by unbelievers that results in various trials and hardships. Peter explains that their misfortunes are not a sign that God is rejecting them but are the very opposite: the various ways they are being rejected correspond to the rejection the Living Cornerstone has experienced and confirm their election as living stones in God’s building program. With God’s promise through Isaiah, Peter reassures them that the one who trusts in Christ, the chosen cornerstone, will never be put to shame.
c.Jesus—honored cornerstone or stone of stumbling? (2:7–8)
c.Jesus—honored cornerstone or stone of stumbling? (2:7–8)
7 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,”
8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
In the first-century Roman society of Asia Minor, did conversion to Christ lower one’s social status? By all accounts, it brought dishonor or shame to oneself and one’s family. Apparently Peter’s readers were receiving
a barrage of verbal abuse designed to demean, discredit, and shame the believers as social and moral deviants endangering the common good. This procedure of public shaming was employed as a means of social control with the aim of pressuring the minority community to conform to conventional values and standards of conduct. (J. H. Elliott 2000: 117)
Such sustained social pressure resulted in undeserved suffering that could lead some to despair and eventually even to renounce the Christian faith. And so Peter reminds his readers of Isaiah’s promise that whoever trusts in the Cornerstone placed in Zion will, in fact, never be shamed, and thereby reverses the basis of honor and shame in their self-understanding.
Those who trust in the Living Cornerstone that God has placed in Zion will never be put to shame, but those who reject Christ will suffer shameful judgment by God himself, the one who ultimately arbitrates true honor and shame.
Therefore, despite the shameful treatment they receive from society, Peter encourages his readers that they, not their accusers, are the ones who receive the true honor by believing in Christ. (Jobes)
Peter explains the unbelief of non-Christians as something that was anticipated in the Old Testament, something that should not be surprising. (Marshall)
2. A New Identity (9-10)
2. A New Identity (9-10)
9 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.
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.
Peter now turns his thought back to his readers who have believed in Christ. “But you,” he says to his readers, are not among those who have been appointed to stumble because you have obeyed the word. (Jobes)
20 The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,
21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.
6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
a.You are a chosen race (2:9a)
a.You are a chosen race (2:9a)
In a sense each of these phrases is simply unpacking what it means to be chosen by God—the overarching theme set out at 1:1. To be chosen by God whilst others are not (2:8) means that believers belong to God (a people for His possession). They have been set apart and marked out as different within the world through their beliefs and behaviour (holy nation), and have a specific purpose: to offer sacrifices (royal priesthood).
b.You are a royal priesthood (2:9b)
b.You are a royal priesthood (2:9b)
Christians together form a holy and royal priesthood. It is not that some of them are in some sort of special priestly category whilst others are ordinary believers. Instead all Christians are a priesthood with particular responsibilities in view which will be explored later.
c.You are a holy nation (2:9c)
c.You are a holy nation (2:9c)
Separated from the World
d.You are a people for God’s special possession (2:9d)
d.You are a people for God’s special possession (2:9d)
Separated unto God
e.You are a people who have received God’s mercy (2:10)
e.You are a people who have received God’s mercy (2:10)
Peter’s final description of his readers in 2:10 alludes to Hos. 2:23
23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”
implying that Peter’s readers are, amazingly, a fulfillment of that ancient prophecy: “You were once not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
In Hos. 2 the Lord speaks of a time when his royal priesthood and holy nation would be restored after the people’s outrageous failure to keep the covenant with him, which had constituted them as his royal priesthood and holy nation. In running after other gods and indulging in pagan practices, Israel had broken covenant with the Lord God.
The nation was no longer his special possession in that it had forsaken its role as a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Consequently, God no longer had a people who were functioning as his special possession. Because his people acted like the pagans of the surrounding nations, they were to be sent into exile, scattered among them.
But God spoke through the prophet Hosea, promising a future restoration, a time when by unmerited love and mercy God would again constitute a people for his special possession, who would declare the mighty act of God that brought them into existence. “I will show mercy to the unloved, and I will say to those who are not my people, ‘You are my people,’ and they will say, ‘You are the Lord my God’ ”
Peter’s final statement about the identity of his Christian readers implies that their conversion to Christ is the fulfillment of that promised restoration. Amazingly, God’s love and mercy to His chosen race was no longer limited to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Isaiah and Hosea had spoken of a reconstitution of God’s exiled people, traditionally interpreted to mean the regathering of Judah and Israel from their far-flung places of exile.
But Peter addresses his Christian readers as people of the Diaspora (1 Pet. 1:1) and sends greeting from those in “Babylon,” the symbolic capital of exile (5:13). God’s regathered royal priesthood and holy nation—his newly chosen race, according to Peter—would be those who had been reborn as the children, not of Abraham, but of God the Father himself through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Church declares by its existence, by its worship, by the daily lives of its members the mighty deed of Christ’s resurrection, which reveals the praiseworthy character of God.
3. Applications
3. Applications
a. God has turned us into a worshiping community
a. God has turned us into a worshiping community
In this grand account of what it means to be a Christian Peter says at the beginning and again at the end that God’s purpose in choosing us, in redeeming us through Christ, in granting us the new birth, and in calling us to faith in him is that we might worship God. (Rayburn, Saved)
Homo sapiens = Thinking man
Homo adorans = Worshiping man
R.C. Sproul used to teach that man is homo sapiens, that is, thinking man. But he is also homo adorans, worshiping man.
We were made to praise God. Praise “…is the most perfect and complete expression of love.” (Rayburn, Saved) Praise is love. Do we love to praise God? If we know of His love for us, love for Him is the natural outflow. Luke 6:45
45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Worship is the greatest purpose of the Christian life, because love looms so large in the Christian life, both the receiving of love and the giving of it in return, love for God, love for wife or husband, love for children or parents, love for brothers and sisters in Christ, even love for one’s enemies.
We were saved by love and saved to love. Love is the great purpose of our redemption: that we might love God and enjoy his love, that we might live in love. To say that God saved us to praise him is to say that he saved us to love him – it is as simple as that. The love we offer to God we offer precisely because we actually love him.
For if this is what God has saved us for, obviously it is what we ought to be giving ourselves to, devoting ourselves to, making of supreme importance in our lives. But we struggle to do this, don’t we? Every Christian does to some degree and most of us to a great degree. The struggles of life and life’s pleasures alike press in upon our attention and draw it away from God and his greatness and goodness.
So, the question is, do you, do I, do we, devote ourselves to this? Or do we get so caught up in the other stuff of life, consumed by them? Why?
Now, every faithful Christian here this morning knows the truth of what I say. It is the very nature of our sin to put ourselves before the Lord, to praise ourselves above him.
So, what to do?
A Scottish missionary and later professor of Hebrew in the 1800s, John Duncan, said,
“As long as I am thinking of Christ, I am happy.” - John Duncan
Do you think of Christ? Focus upon Him. Do you take time daily to reflect on Who He is and what He has done for you? That will warm your heart to praise. Focus on Him before you come to corporate worship by reading about Him in His Word, of thinking and speaking in your family of Him, of singing praises of Him. Turn your eyes upon Jesus!
The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace!
For you see, when God looms before us, when Christ and redemption and heaven fill our hearts, when we are moved and stirred by the wonder of these things, everything else takes its proper place in our lives. Things that otherwise loom too large, grow small and take their rightful place at the feet of these gigantic and eternal things, the things for which we give glory to God.
b. The True Jesus Is Divisive
b. The True Jesus Is Divisive
To this day, Jesus continues to be a stumbling block for some and offensive to others (1 Peter 2:8). They reject him or reshape him to fit in with their own story of how this world is and who they believe they are. It has always been so. And so although Jesus is the chosen and precious one of God (v 8), he who was rejected by the very people he came to save. No matter—the rejected one “has become the cornerstone”(v 7).
There is Jesus, laid as the cornerstone of the new temple, and everyone will have to deal with him. Those who come to Jesus by faith will be vindicated and honored (y 6-7), while those who reject him will be put to shame at the final judgment (v 7-8).
Jesus did not come to bring peace; he came to divide humanity between those who believe and those who disbelieve—between those who are built onto him, and those who stumble over him. He said:
“| have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother- in-law ... Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:35-37)
Jesus is an offensive, divisive figure who demands total allegiance. He is the cornerstone, or he is nothing. He is not willing to be just one brick in our own building—he calls us to be built into his. And to everyone who hears that, it is either the most wonderful news or the most offensive.
One of the great challenges the church faces today in our culture is the pressure to be relevant in order to reach a skeptical culture, but how do you do that with such a divisive figure as the Jesus of the Scriptures?
Peter encourages us to be respectful and winsome as we have opportunity to share the reason for our hope with unbelievers (1 Peter 3:15).
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
But we must also understand that at root, the Biblical Jesus is offensive. To acknowledge Him means to submit to Him, and stubborn, rebellious, spiritually dead hearts want nothing of the true Jesus.
And because he's offensive, we need to be prepared to be rejected. It doesn't matter how kind or gracious we are; it doesn't matter how winsome огcharming we are. This does not give us the license to be obnoxious,rude, or arrogant.
Our behavior should never offend; but the truth about Jesus often will. So, let's be respectful and winsome, but let's also realize that as long as we embrace the Jesus of the Bible and everything he has commanded, people will be offended. If no one is ever offended by our Jesus, then we need to ask ourselves: Which Jesus do we have?(Sanchez)
c. What of You?
c. What of You?
Today, a Rock has been placed in your path. Will your life be built with Him as the core, the centre, of your being, or will you reject Him as the Cornerstone and wind up being crushed by Him?
Rejection of Christ is not an amoral decision, like whether one drives a Holden or a Hyundai; to reject Christ is an instance of sin. This is a message that our religiously pluralistic society today finds just as offensive as did first-century polytheistic society. To reject Christ is to stumble and sin.
One either trusts in the Living Cornerstone or rejects him.
Christ is laid across your path. One cannot simply step over Jesus to go on about one’s daily routine and pass him by to build a future. Whoever encounters him is inescapably changed through the encounter: Either one sees and becomes “a living stone,” or one stumbles as a blind person over Christ and comes to ruin, falling short, i.e., of one’s Creator and Redeemer and thereby of one’s destiny. What of you this day?
Works Cited or Consulted
Barnett, Paul. 1 Peter: Living Hope. South Sydney: Aquila Press, 2006.
Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.
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Carson, D. A., and Kathleen B. Nielson, eds. Resurrection Life in a World of Suffering: 1 Peter. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.
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Marshall, I. Howard. 1 Peter. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1991.
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Sanchez, Juan R. 1 Peter For You. London: The Good Book Company, 2016.
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