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2. Our focus this morning will be on verses four and five. But I would like to read 1 through
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10. So we set the context. Peter context. Peter writes, "Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and evil and all slander, like newborn
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babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, and coming to him
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as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God. You also as living stones are being
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built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in
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scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him shall not be disappointed.
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This precious value then is for you who believe. But for those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone, and a
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stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they stumbled because they were disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
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But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has
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called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now
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you have received mercy. Let us pray. Our heavenly father, we do again ask that you would open our ears to hear,
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that you would grant us that grace to be able to hear your word, that by your Holy Spirit, you may impart it to us in our very souls. and by it you
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would renew our minds that we might know what is good and acceptable and perfect to you as a living sacrifice. We ask
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that you would do these things, Lord. We ask build your church for your glory and honor. We pray. Amen.
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We've talked about in the weeks past, particularly in the beginning of Peter's letter, about the Christians identity. How do we define
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ourselves? And here in this section of Peter chapter 2, uh this section from four to 10 forms the
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last of what I call Peter's sandwich. He is talking about the identity of his God's people in verses
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3-2 under the heading that God is to be blessed and praised for his work of salvation in Christ and helping us to understand who we are in
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Christ. And in the meat of that sandwich, verses 13- 21 of chapter 1, the future inheritance is our motivation
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for holiness and godliness. And then the second piece of bread for the
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sandwich verses 22 of chapter 1 through 10 of chapter 2. What we have is theology joined to the
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ethics that we have been begotten through the living and abiding word of God. Verse 22 through 25. the exhortation that we are being we are
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putting off the destructive vices that we might grow up in respect to salvation. The first part of chapter
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two and now we see in this section the nature and character of the people of God. So identity was in view from the
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very beginning. But clearly now in this section in chapter 2 that identity has been added to or what is being added to
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identity I should say is community. We community. We understand Peter helping us to answer
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the question who is my God? He is the holy one who called you, the father who
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impartially. Whom do I trust? That God who has given us the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers have been begotten a new through the precious blood and the resurrection of Jesus
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Christ. We have a new relationship to God, a new inheritance, a new hope that would result in deliverance on the day of
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God's judgment. But now I think he's answering, what is this community that I have been born into? Whom do I identify
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with? How do we go together? believers are being built up, he says in verse 5, as a spiritual house for a holy
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priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. It's a new relationship to
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God. But now helping us understand it's a new a new relationship to God and his people as a
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community. A new community in terms of redemptive history. A new community in terms of dealing with those
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outside that community. And Peter has already told us in chapter 1:es 10-2 that the Old
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Testament prophets serve us as as Christians serve Christians at to whom they said to whom the grace of God has come and they long to look into these
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things. And now Peter is taking what they have written and he's either alluding to these passages or directly quoting uh passages from Psalm
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118, from Exodus 19, from Isaiah chapters 8 and 29 and 43 and hopefully recognize as we read in the end of
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chapter or verse 10 from the those beautiful words from the book of Hosea. Isaiah. But Peter's use of the Old
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Testament is not, as one writer said, not simply rhetorical ornamentation. He's not just bringing in
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passages of scripture to show I see I know the Old Testament and I can kind of connect these things. Peter sees in these that they are
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telling foretelling a new reality that that now is a new reality because of Christ's resurrection. He sees a new relationship between Christ and his
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people. And again, as we'll see in the coming look at the following verses, he also sees a
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divide. a divide between Christ and those who reject
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Christ. And if there is a link between what we have read in verses 1 through3 in Peter's mind perhaps it is Psalm 34 from which we get the phrase in
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verse three. if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. He says, "Oh, taste and see the goodness and kindness of the Lord." But also in that psalm we
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read these words, "I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to him and were radiant and their faces will never be
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ashamed." If we are to taste the kindness of the Lord, we are also to seek the Lord. And so he begins verse
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him and what does he mean? But I think these verses four and five to come to Christ is to come into the community of
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believers. Peter describes Jesus here as a living stone, the living stone. And there are some who believe that it was a
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tradition before the New Testament to think of the Messiah as that
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stone. the title that he gives to Jesus here and I don't think it can be anything other than Jesus Christ and coming to him as a living
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stone is at once a title for Christ that christoologgical ecclesiastical and
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ecclesiastical and sotiological what I mean by that it is about Christ he is the living stone But he is speaking also of his church as
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Peter says as living stones. And I believe that he is also speaking of the future of all people because he deals with one's
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response to that living stone. Coming to him or rejecting him. It is one's destiny that is at
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stake. The living stone, Christ. And I'm getting ahead of myself, but he describes him from Psalm 118 as the
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of builders. And there is the picture of two different buildings. if I could. The cornerstone was the first
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stone that was laid in a building and it was carefully researched. And so the picture we get is of the builders looking at the stones
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that were brought for the building of this building, this house is the word that Peter uses. And they were trying to find the perfect stone, the one that was
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square and flat and could serve as the cornerstone, the corner of the house, and everything would be built upon it.
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And the builder searched carefully and selected the perfect stone that everything would square upon it that it would guarantee a proper
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alignment for the building and ensuring that the building's structural integrity was met and the orientation was perfect.
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All the other stones are set in relation to this to this one. Therefore, it was highly valued and precious. And obviously, Peter is using
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these the these the words not only in a practical fashion for us to visualize a building, but the cornerstone
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represents strength. represents strength. It represents It represents reliability and yes I believe it
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truth. And yet what we see in Peter writes and coming to him as to a living stone rejected by men.
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Men looked at this perfect stone, looked at the one that was presented to them as the perfect cornerstone, and they discarded it and
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moved it off the scene as scene as unworthy to be the cornerstone for the house of
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God. The very words are a paradox, are they not? they not? a living stone. But it is true here. Not just because Christ was a
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living person, but because Christ is alive from the dead, a death that was brought about, as Peter explains in his sermons in Acts 2
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and Acts 4, a death that was brought about by the builders that rejected
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him. And here is the true irony. the glorious irony of the gospel. As Edmund Clowney writes, quote, "In their rejection of him, the builders, in spite of
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themselves, serve to put God's stone in place." See, they thought they were discarding him as unworthy. And yet, what does Peter tell us? rejected by men
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but choice and precious in the sight of God. That's our living stone. That's our savior. That is our Christ. And so we
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have this picture, this figure of the the building or again as I say the the house that Peter describes here. And when we be we come to this
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living stone, we become living stones built into a spiritual house. It must be
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spiritual because as Steven in his last sermon in Acts chapter 7 spoke, the most high does not dwell in houses made by
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human hands. The house was built by God. The house is spiritual. Spiritual because it is animated and it is indwelt by the Holy
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Spirit. And so this this passage indicates and in the words of one writer a a series of
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basic polarities. He uses the word honor and shame, the words choice and rejected, the words belief and
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disbelief. And in this context as living stones, the reality is we will meet these same polarities that Christ met. living stones will
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suffer not in spite of being chosen but because we are chosen. We are those resident aliens. We
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look and see that the living stone, the Lord Jesus Christ was rejected by men as not being worthy. We as believers, the living stones will be rejected by some
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men as not being worthy, as being despised, a as being
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worthless, and just as Peter says, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God.
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We may be rejected by men but we are choice and precious in the sight of God. And what is implied here is that the believer's nature
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derives from Christ's nature. The living stone, living stone, living stones, a source of understanding our
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situation as resident aliens, but aliens, but also an also an assurance of assurance of victory. As he had victory over
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suffering and death, so will we. We may be despised and rejected, but we are chosen and honored
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in the sight of God. There are some truly beautiful pictures in the
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scriptures of our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. We can think of Paul in Ephesians 5 where it is spoken of him as the bridegroom presenting to himself his
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bride in all her glory. And we read in Revelation about the marriage supper of the lamb where we we gather to that sumptuous feast as with Christ and his
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church. We read in John about the good shepherd, the good shepherd who who knows his sheep and his sheep know his voice. And perhaps borrowing from the psalmist where we see the picture of the
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good shepherd with the the lamb that he's carrying and he also cares for the youth that have little ones.
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chapter 9 where we see the open veil that Jesus has opened with his blood. We have confidence to enter the holy place because of the blood of our high
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priest. And so as we we look at that diadem uh that diamond of the the beauty of Christ and his church, the scriptures
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kind of turn it. We see the bridegroom and the bride. We we see the the good shepherd and his sheep. We we see the open veil and our high priest inviting
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us to come in. And I would encourage you to add to that gallery what Peter says here, the living stone. And alongside
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being built with him are living stones. And notice that it says being built as a spiritual house offering up
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spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God. We we stand with the living stone, our elder brother. We we're not alone. We're
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in community with him. Per perhaps what I my vision was Hebrews chapter 12. As we stand in that line, as he is the anchor, the head of the
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corner, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, everything is aligned with him. Everything is plum with
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him. And that's why he can say it's acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The church is God's new temple. It is God's
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house. The physical temple pointed toward this new temple. The old temple is now
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"You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood." But what does he mean?
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you, I think is how we would read it. You as living stones, as a spiritual house, are being built up. It it's not an imperative that many of the
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expositors uh read it, build yourselves up. And it's not speaking of building up the building. What are what is the purpose
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of such a building? Such a building is to serve as a holy priesthood. So he says you are being built up for the purpose of being a holy
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priesthood. God is building the church. He is putting the stones in place where he wants them and where we go in which wall and where how we face
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Jesus. And he's not saying that your individual priests. He it's corporate. The church is a corporate holy priesthood. The Lord's he
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priesthood. He builds the church. We are the holy
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priesthood. And for what purpose is this holy priesthood? It's to offer spiritual sacrifices. Spiritual sacrifices. Again, those offered in virtue of the work of
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the Holy Spirit. That is everything that is pleasing to God. Everything reflecting our transformation
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by the Holy Spirit. I think he would have in mind here. Some believe from what is written below that we are simply evangelists in this world. But I think
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it is everything that is offered in daily devotion and obedience to God as worship. But again in the context of our
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identity and the we are in the community it is everything offered in the social conduct as practical ministry to the needs of others around us.
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But you may be asking, how can God accept what we bring as an acceptable sacrifice? Our sacrifices are
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flawed. All our deeds, the scripture says, are as filthy rags. But Peter tells us here to offer up spiritual sacrifices
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acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. He will forgive our flaws and our weaknesses and he will
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perfect our sacrifices. But what do these spiritual sacrifices look like? Well, obviously the animal sacrifices
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are no longer acceptable. Perhaps we look to Asaf in Psalm 50, offer to God, he says, a sacrifice of thanksgiving. or in the
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following psalm in that re uh repenting psalm of David Psalm 51 he writes the sacrifices of God
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are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart he will not will not despise or in Romans
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12 Paul says by the mercies of God present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice except acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this
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world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what it the will of God is and that which is good and acceptable and
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perfect. It is a work in progress. It is a work that will continue until that great day.
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But I think in this image of the church as the living temple we have at least uh two of what I call completions of prophecy perhaps
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their fulfillment. One is the fulfillment of Jesus own claim. remember they came to him and they they asked they asked Jesus about his work and what he's
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doing and comparing it to the temple Herod's temple and what did he say? Destroy this temple and in three
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days I will raise it up. I believe that it was fulfilled when God rose Christ raised Christ from the dead. But also I think the
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restoration is in view here of God's glorious presence among his people. From the very beginning the temple was a place where God's presence
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would dwell and now that has been fulfilled. But in this context, I
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context, I believe of our identity in the community of Christ as living stones built into a spiritual house with
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the living stone. It does mean there can be, as one writer put it, no freelance Christians, no lone rangers
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allowed. Because accepting the redeemer, coming to the living stone means accepting those whom Christ
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has redeemed. And no one has the right to consider themselves too busy, too good, or too self-sufficient to bother
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with the community of believers. We are set apart by God to live among the nations, but with his people.
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As Karen Jobes writes in her commentary, the significance and purpose of the individual Christian cannot be realized apart from the community with
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For as Peter says, "You also as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through
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Jesus Christ." Let us pray. Our father, we thank you for the words of Peter. Thank you for his
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realizing not only the individual things that you have done for us, the the work of redeeming us, of
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forgiving us, of drawing us, but also that you have put us in a family. The new relationship we have with you includes that new relationship we have
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with your with your people. Father, let us not forget and let us live in accord with these things that you may be glorified and your
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church may honor you. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Please Amen. Please rise for the benediction.
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which is a benediction but also I believe an exhortation from the writer to the to the Hebrews. He writes through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of
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praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name and do not neglect doing good and sharing. For with
