God’s Spiritual House (Made For Praise)

1 Peter 2:4-10 God’s Spiritual House (Made For Praise) Introduction: The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with this question: What is the chief end of man? (or what is man’s purpose?). It answers: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Here in this next section Peter is really beginning to show us the end purpose for which we have been recreated in Christ Jesus: To fulfill the purpose for which God originally created us- To glorify Him.. As I thought about this next section I felt that this is a good time to really step back and look at the big picture. Peter is talking about “A Living Stone”, “living stones”, “a spiritual house”, “a holy priesthood”, “spiritual sacrifices”, “a rejected stone”, “a chosen and precious stone”, “a cornerstone”, “race”, “nations”...where does all this come from? All that to say, there is some need for clarification. I think it always helps to go back to the beginning... The Bible teaches that God created the world to be his good kingdom, and that he created Man and Woman (The Human Race) to rule this kingdom and to glorify him. Mankind was a priest to God and to creation. He represented God to the creation and he represented the creation to God. Shortly thereafter God’s enemy, the Devil, usurped the place of man, and has from that time ruled over the world. God not willing that his kingdom and his people would be destroyed and lost forever made a promise that he would restore what was lost. God promised through Eve’s offspring to redeem all mankind (Gen. 3:15). God called Abram, in order to call a kingdom of priests to reach all the world. Israel (the descendants of Abraham) failed in this task. Therefore, God appointed a new people of faith, through the work of Jesus Christ to reach the world. - The Church 1. The Church: The New Temple and the New Israel a. “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.” i. Throughout this letter Peter uses terms, titles, and language for the Church that was historically used for Israel. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession”. He is quoting from Exodus 19:5-6 which says, “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.” -Exodus 19:5-6 ii. But Peter is speaking to a non-Jewish congregation. Therefore, it is clear, that Peter sees the Church as the new people, or the true people of God and the true temple of God. All this had been foretold in Scripture and was brought about by Jesus Christ - The Living Stone. 1. In calling Jesus, the “Living Stone”, Peter is most likely referring to His great confession in Matthew 16:13-18 – Christ says “upon this rock (the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God) I will build My church.” 2. Peter also Goes on to quote from Isaiah 28, which we just read, that refers to Christ as “A Stone, a cornerstone”. 3. The cornerstone is at the corner of the building; it is part of the foundation. a. The cornerstone (or foundation stone) concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. iii. Christ came as God’s true priest to establish God’s true temple, yet he was rejected by his own people (the Jewish nation), his ultimate rejection was seen in his crucifixion. Although Christ was rejected by men, he is God’s chosen one to establish this new temple. His being God’s choice and his preciousness is demonstrated in God raising him from the dead. 1. Now those who come to him (or believe on him) are like living stones being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 2. Therefore we who were not a people, (a quote taken from the book of Hosea), have become THE people of God. We who had not received mercy have now received mercy. a. The OT Temple anticipated the true temple (the church) where God dwells in the midst of his people, and was also predicted by the scripture. i. God spoke this to David when David thought to build a temple for God, "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son." -2 Samuel 7:12 ii. In Acts 15 The Jewish Apostles and church council meet and this passage is quoted in light of what God is doing in saving the Gentiles- “Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.” -Acts 15:14-18 1. The Jewish Apostles recognized that God’s Church was a spiritual temple made up of both Jew and Gentile - in order that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord. 2. “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.”Ephesians 2:20-22 3. The New temple of God is a living community. We need to get rid of this individualistic identity as Christians. Even Peter sees himself as an Elder of the church, just one of the living stones that is a part of the new temple of God. 4. As the people of God we have a corporate identity, and with that corporate identity comes a corporate responsibility. 2. The Purpose of the Church. a. To be a holy priesthood who offer spiritual sacrifices. b. Peter changes his metaphor now from us being the temple of God to being his kingdom of holy priests. Again this was language that God used in addressing the nation of Israel. Not only did the nation have the levitical priesthood to approach God in sacrifice and worship but the nations corporate identity was a kingdom of priest. God made Israel his people to show his glory through them, that they would be a nation that testified of His holiness, mercy, truth, and love to the surrounding nations. Sadly the nation of Israel failed again and again to live up to their calling. i. Through the work of Jesus Christ the priestly ministry has been passed on to the Church- the new temple and new nation of priest’s. c. As priest’s we have one main responsibility - Worship. i. Worship remains the central calling, not only of the Christian but of the Christian Church. This worship is twofold. It is both sacrifice and praise. 1. Worship through offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. a. The ancient levitical priesthood not only brought sin offerings before the Lord but also peace offerings, and offerings of praise and thanksgiving. Since Christ has removed our sin by his once for all offering of himself, believers now approach God with offerings of thanks and praise, but we do not approach an altar, there is no physical temple or altar for God’s people. We worship God in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24) b. What are the spiritual sacrifices that Believers offer to God? i. Bodies 1. In Romans 12:1 Paul says that we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. That means that everything you do with your body is to be done as an act of worship to God. Whether you eat or drink or hammer nails or drive a car or make a meal or program a computer or read a book or shoot a basketball or mend a shirt—whatever you do with your body, do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Then it is your spiritual service of worship. ii. Praise and Thanks 1. It might include singing or speaking words of praise as in Hebrews 13:15, "Continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name." So the spiritual sacrifices are the praises and thanks of God's people alone and in group worship. iii. Acts of Love 1. Or it might include acts of love like giving and sharing. For example, in Philippians 4:18 Paul receives gifts of support from the Philippian church and says, "I received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God." And in Hebrews 13:16 it says, "Do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." iv. What We Do From, Through, and For Christ 1. What then are spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ? They are the deeds you do, the words you speak, the songs you sing—when you do them spiritually. That is, when you do them in reliance on the power of the Spirit, according to the will of the Spirit, and for a manifestation of the Spirit—which is a manifestation of Christ. 2. Worship by proclaiming the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. a. Believers have been given Israel’s world-wide evangelistic assignment. i. Paul describes his ministry to the Gentiles as a priestly service - “because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God”- Romans 15:6 b. To view the priesthood as meaning that we have direct access to God through Christ is true, but this is not the purpose of the metaphor. A priest stands between a needy people and a holy God. He advocates not his own position, but the needs of the people. The NT affirms the priesthood of believers as they bring a lost world to faith in Christ. c. We proclaim to the world what Christ has done for our souls! i. “We declare before the nations the works and the name of the Lord. Our praise to God bears witness to the world. The heart of evangelism is doxological.” - Edmund Clowney ii. The text explicitly says that God chose us and made us his new people for the purpose of telling people about his excellencies, specifically, about how wonderful it is to be brought from darkness to light. Or to put it another way, we have been chosen in order to declare how precious Jesus is to us. -John Piper 1. Our power to make that declaration will increase in direct proportion to how precious Jesus really is to us. 2. We are called to tell the world why Jesus is precious; why God is excellent! Conclusion: I think now we begin to see why Peter, right before this section, talks about loving one another fervently and avoiding those things that will tear apart our community, we must strive for our high calling and purpose as the church: To be the Temple of the living God offering spiritual sacrifices and proclaiming the excellencies of God to a lost world!