Easter 5
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1 Peter 2:4-10 (NIV)
4 As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, 8 and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for. 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
What materials are buildings made out of? Often they are made out of the materials that are suitable and close by.
Eskimos made homes out of blocks of ice.
Native American Sioux made Teepees out of bison hide.
Settlers on that same prairie made homes of sod.
Nomads made tents from animal hide.
We are familiar with homes made from logs or processed lumber.
And the list goes on.
What were buildings made out of in the area where Jesus lived? Well, connecting this question to the text gives us the somewhat obvious answer. They were often made out of stone. This stone could be natural stone (such as field stone) or it could be from hewn stone. As the builders gathered the materials they had choices to make. Which stones will be used in the construction of the building. This was especially true when it came to the most important stones in the project. Some stones were accepted and others were rejected.
Peter compares this process to Jesus. He realized that the response to Jesus by people was mixed.
On the one hand, you had people who believed in him, those that followed him as his disciples, crowds who came out to hear him and be healed by him. The message of Jesus (the Gospel) also was received by people who repented and were baptized and became Christians.
On the other hand, you had people who questioned his authority, rejected his teachings, and plotted against him. The message of Jesus preached by the apostles also had those who rejected it. Peter refers to the rejection of Jesus in this way: 1 Peter 2:7–8 (NIV): 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
But the attitude God the Father has toward Jesus was always consistent. 1 Peter 2:4–6 (NIV): 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
Isaiah 42:1 (NIV): 42 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.
Matthew 12:15–18 (NIV): 15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
And we think of the statements from God the Father at Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration of how Jesus is his Son whom he loves and that we are to listen to him.
John 6:26–27 (NIV): 26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Acts 10:37–40 (NIV): 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
So we see a very strong contrast of how Jesus is perceived. But he is the same person throughout. The stone in the analogy doesn’t change and become better or worse leading to why it is accepted or rejected. It is what it is. It is the others involved that are different.
It is still the same way with how people evaluate things and people today.
One of the many things that has changed recently is something as simple as how you go shopping. I still remember being in a grocery store with my dad over 50 years ago as he was selecting a watermellon. How do you know what it is like instide. You flick your finger on your work shoe and listen to the sound. Then you flick your finger on the watermellon. If it sounds the same, you select it because it is ripe. I don’t know how scientific that was but that is what he taught me. In many cases we go to a store a select a product using certain criteria: quality, brand, expiration date, where it is manufactured, etc. We select what we want and reject what we don’t. How has this changed? (The buying process) Many more people have turned to shopping online. But you process is limited. So what do you do? You read reviews by other customers is one way. It is interesting to me that the same product can get such different reviews.
The same way with our response to people. Some public figures are praised up and down for who they are and what they do and that same person is villified by others. Personally, we have people who adore us and others that can’t stand us. And the open and public a person is, the stronger the responses are. This is certainly the case with Jesus. He was rejected by many people as had been prophesied. Isaiah 53:1–3 (NIV): Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
We were reminded of this in the middle of April on Good Friday of how Jesus was rejected. But on Easter we celebrate the pronouncement of God that Jesus is chosen by God and precious to him.
And I pray that he is precious to you. Not because you were a builder looking for that perfect stone to be the conerstone and by your own wisdom and acumen you can to the conclusion that “He is the One” but because God in his love and mercy chose you to a living stone to be built together into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
I know there are a lot of well meaning Christians who have been led to believe that they have chosen to believe in Jesus. This has been a theological point of disagreement for hundreds of years and will not be solved here in this sermon. I do want to emphasize what Peter is saying here.
He teaches us that God chose Jesus to be our Savior even though many people would reject him.
Peter himself was chosen by Jesus to be a disciple when Jesus called him from being a fisherman to becoming a fisher of men. Even though when put to the test, Peter would deny knowing Jesus three times.
Peter had been taught this important truth by Jesus. John 15:14–17 (NIV): 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Peter teaches us in our text that God has chosen Christians to be a part of his church which is described as a building made of stone: 1 Peter 2:9–10 (NIV): 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
For this reason Martin Luther teaches in the explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed. “I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ my Lord nor come to him but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and keeps me in the one true faith.”
1. Lord, 'tis not that I did choose Thee; That, I know, could never be;
For this heart would still refuse Thee Had Thy grace not chosen me.
Thou hast from the sin that stained me Washed and cleansed and set me free
And unto this end ordained me, That I ever live to Thee.
I find great comfort in this for several reasons.
First of all, I haven’t always made the best choices in my life even when I depended on the reviews of others.
The debut of the AMC-Renault Alliance (essentially a Kenosha-ized Renault 9) in 1983 so impressed the writers at Motor Trend that they gave it the Car Of The Year award that year. 17 minutes later, everyone realized that the Alliance combined the very worst aspects of French build quality and Wisconsin marketing savvy, with predictable sales results. Still, enough Alliances limped out of the showrooms that we can still see them in junkyards every so often.
Cons: Wow -- this car was the worst purchase that I've ever made. I was 'upgrading' from a Chevy Chevette -- so you know how bad that was. Lasted exactly 4 years -- made my final payment and it died -- permanently. Everything went at once, starting with the timing belt, exhaust system, engine seized up, etc, etc...Took it to several garages (the dealership had closed by then) and got the same answer -- "we don't know what's wrong with your car." It would stall out and not restart -- the worst time was at the entrance of a tunnel, on a major highway, in the fast lane, at rush hour.
Nor have I always made the best choices based on my own morality or wisdom. We may justify this by saying, “We are only human” or “We all make mistakes”, etc. But what if our salvation depended on our choice when it came to which God to worship or to worship any God at all.
Peter reassures Christians in his day and us today that our salvation does depend on choices, but those choices are the ones made by God the Father through his Son brought to us by the Holy Spirit. When we believe that our salvation depends entirely on God, we can be confident that we his people who bask in his wonderful light.
Why has God chosen us? What I mean is “What has God chosen us to do?”
1 Peter 2:9 (NIV): 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Our hymn writer did it in this way:
3. Praise the God of all creation; Praise the Father's boundless love. Praise the Lamb, our Expiation, Priest and King enthroned above. Praise the Spirit of salvation, Him by whom our spirits live. Undivided adoration To the great Jehovah give.
We too can praise our God who has chosen Jesus to be the cornerstone of his church and us to be included in that church: The Holy Christian Church: The Communion of Saints.
How we do that may have changed recently. Pastors who had limited themselves to preaching at a specific time and place have ventured forth onto the world wide web. Christians who praised God in person face to face may (and many of them are) be praising God more and more through the mail, on the phone, or through social media. This pandemic has not stopped the declaring of God’s praises but has perhaps changed how it is done.
Conclusion: When we select a product to purchase, we may choose to let others know our evaluation of it. I think you know now what I thought of that Renault Alliance. But when someone chooses us to be someone special, we let others know what we believe about them. Especially when we realize how loving and gracious they were to choose us in spite of what we are like by nature. God has chosen you to be his child through faith in Jesus Christ, praise God for his love for you. Amen.