The Living Stone
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1 Peter 2:4-12
1 Peter 2:4-12
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,
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 Jesus Christ.
In the OT the priest’s distinctive activity was to offer sacrifices to God on behalf of His people and to communicate directly with God.
Now through Jesus Christ, every Christian has been made a priest before God.
All believers have direct access to God through Christ.
All believers must offer up “spiritual sacrifices” to God, including: living in obedience to God and nonconformity to the world, praying and praising God, and presenting our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.
All believers must declare the Word and pray for its success.
All believers may administer baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Believers constitute God’s spiritual house.
What are the spiritual sacrifices we offer to God?
Sacrificing an animal according to God’s law was important, but even in the Old Testament God made it clear that obedience from the heart was much more important.
God wants us.
We give our bodies and wills to God’s control, we offer our love to God and others, we offer praise to God.
For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,”
and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.
The church is God’s spiritual house.
Peter applied the image of the cornerstone to Christ.
The church is a spiritual house of God, with Christ as the foundation and cornerstone and each believer as a stone.
Christ is the head and each believer is a member.
When God calls you to a task, He calls many others to work with you.
Look for those people and join with them to build a beautiful house for God.
No doubt Peter often thought of Jesus’ words to him right after he confessed that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus Christ is called “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”
Some will stumble over Christ because they reject Him or refuse to believe His true identity.
He is the most important part of God’s building.
People who refuse to believe in Christ have made the greatest mistake of their lives.
They have fallen into God’s hands for judgment.
Peter contrasts what Christ means to believers with what He means to disobedient ones who do not receive Him as precious.
Jesus has become the chief cornerstone in God’s new house.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Believers are set apart from the world in order to belong completely to God.
Believers are recipients of God’s favor.
The NT traces the source of election to God’s grace.
This passage is rooted in God’s call to ancient Israel.
Deliverance through the blood of the Lamb is but the beginning.
Israel and the church will only take the Promised Land while doing battle from a foundation of righteous worship before the Lord.
We will only experience promised power for evangelism and spiritual victories as we prioritize and grow in our worship of the living God.
Kingdom people keep humbly praiseful before the King.
God wants a people who will walk with Him in prayer.
The chosen generation began with Jesus’ choice of the twelve.
We are “chosen” when we receive Christ.
We are—in the Person of our Lord—all “kings and priests to His God.”
God’s intention from the time of Abraham has been to call forth a people with a special mission.
People did not approach God directly.
A priest acted as an intermediary between God and sinful human beings.
With Christ’s victory on the cross, now we can come directly into God’s presence without fear.
When we are united with Christ as members of His body, we join in His priestly work of reconciling God and humanity.
for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The importance of our relationship with Christ transcends everything.
We have been chosen by God as His very own.
Remember that your value comes from being one of God’s children.
You have worth because of what God does.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
Our new position as God’s own possession sets us apart from the people of this world to become aliens in this world.
Our true citizenship is with Christ in heaven.
We are “sojourners and pilgrims” in this world because our real home is with God.
Heaven is where God lives.
Life in heaven operates according to God’s eternal and unshakable principles and values.
God’s presence resided in the sanctuary.
It came in a fuller manner in the person of Jesus Christ, God with us.
It spread through the entire world as the Holy Spirit came to live in every believer.
After God judges and destroys all sin, “the tabernacle of God is with men. God Himself will be with His people and be their God.”
The new earth is a physical place where Jesus will live with us.
Our loyalty should be to God’s truth.
Because we are loyal to God, we will often feel like outsiders in a world hostile to or ignorant of God.
Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
The day of visitation is any time God comes in a special act of judgment or mercy.
In this context visitation is either God’s time for a special dealing with the unsaved or it is the glorious return of Christ.
Peter’s counsel sounds like Jesus’.
Even hostile people will end up praising God.
Winsome behavior on the part of Christians could show rumors to be false and could even win some of the unsaved critics to the Lord.
Show people Christ by your life.
The day may come when those who criticize you will praise God with you.