Living Stones and a Holy Priesthood

Introduction

Summarize Chapter 1…We are God’s chosen people , called to live obedient lives to Jesus as exiles in a land that is not our home....to be an example to others.

Now, Peter wants to show the status that Christians have as the true people of God, so that he may encourage us to live before the world with that awareness.

But to do this…Peter asks us...

FCF:

Who are we building our life on?

Why do we listen to the voices of the world and not the Lord to find our identity, belonging, and purpose?

Key Point: By building our lives on the cornerstone, Jesus Christ, we will become living stones and a holy priesthood to glorify God in the church and in the world.

1 Peter 2:4-10 “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. 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.”

Build Your Life on Jesus, the Living Stone and Cornerstone (vs. 4-8).

God has chosen us to be living stones being identified with THE living stone, Jesus Christ (vs. 4)

“You” is plural…Y’all

“As you come to him a living stone”-as you long for his word and grow up in salvation (vs 3).

“As you identify yourself with him....as you trust in him”

“As we come closer and closer to him, we grow up in all things into Him and become perfect in Jesus.” -Spurgeon

Being identified with Jesus, we share in all of his blessings.

Chosen

Living (Resurrection)-Living hope from vs. 3

Rejected by men but honored by God.

“Precious” communicates immense value…something deeply cherished and honored.

We should treasure Christ above all things just as the Father does.

Just as God delights in Christ…so also does he delight in us.

Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

We are living stones and a spiritual house, built up on Christ, the cornerstone, to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices (vs. 5)

We are now God’s temple and dwelling place through the Spirit!

The spiritual temple is the body of believers who are joined to Christ.

Ephesians 2:19-22 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Holy Priesthood

Explain what “spiritual sacrifices” are.

Not the physical sacrifices of animals anymore.

Praise and thanksgiving (Heb. 13:15-16).

Holy living (Romans 12:1; 6:12-14).

Peter is concerned about the holiness of God’s temple not only when Christians assemble for worship but also in their individual daily lives as well.

1 Samuel 15:22.

Sacrifices that are pleasing to God are a broken spirit and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).

Emphasize these sacrifices are only acceptable through Jesus.

“for” in verse 6, points to Jesus the cornerstone on which everything is built.

Quotes Isaiah 28:16.

If we trust in Christ and build our lives on him, the cornerstone, we will never be put to shame, but those who reject Christ will stumble and be destroyed (vs. 6-8)

Quotes Psalm 118:22.

Emphasize what honor and shame would mean to Peter’s readers.

Connects with Psalm 34:4-5

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.”

It’s all about what we do with Jesus...

Parable of the wicked tenets where Jesus quotes this passage: Matthew 21:44.

Acts 4:11-12 Salvation is only found in the name of Jesus.

God is sovereign over salvation…the rejection of men will not ruin God’s plans in Christ...but we are still responsible for how we respond to his word.

Parable of the two foundations from Matthew 7:24-26.

Who We are in Christ and Why? (vs 9-10)

Who we are in Christ.

Highlight the “but” in verse 8...

Show connection with Old Testament Israel from...

Exodus 19:5-6 “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 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.””

Deuteronomy 7:6 ““For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Explain these four titles and show how we find our identity, belonging, and purpose in Christ. All of these titles are rooted in the redemption that Israel had from Egypt and the redemption we have from sin.

Chosen People

We are God’s chosen people, apart of his family.

Royal Priesthood

We have full access to God as priests, we are royal because we have come under the dominion of the King of Kings.

Just as OT Israel was to mediate God’s blessing to the surrounding nations, so the NT church, as priests of God, is to spread his grace and truth to a needy world.

Holy Nation

We have been set apart by our holy God to be his set apart people and live holy lives for his glory.

People for God’s Own Possession

The apple of his eye, his prized possession, he set his love on us simply because he chose to (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).

Emphasize verse 10 from Hosea 2:23

“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.’ ””

We were once not God’s people and had no hope and had no mercy from God…but NOW we ARE God’s people and have NOW received his mercy.

Ephesians 2:12-13.

Why?

Explain our purpose and why God has saved us and made us a holy priesthood.

To praise his name in the church.

Hebrews 13:15 “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”

“Praise is more than thanksgiving. Praise not only offers the sacrifices of thanksgiving for God’s deliverance; praise adores the deliverer.”

He has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light! -Israel out Egypt connection.

To proclaim his glory to the nations through being his ambassadors.

Praise to God for his salvation will lead us to want to share his goodness with the lost.

Ephesians 3:7-10.

Response

We Must Build our lives on Jesus.

We Must Remember who we are in Christ....and live this identity out!

Living Stones

Holy Priesthood

We have been sanctified by the blood

Priests in the OT…blood on the right ear, hand, and toe.

If we never strike the worldly person as being strange, if we are never mocked or slandered by them, if there is no difference between us and them…can we say that we are children of God?

We Must Make our lives a sacrifice of praise to God to all the nations.