We are a Living House
1 Peter 2.4-10 – We are a Living House!
1. Founded on the Cornerstone of Christ
2. Built to be a Holy Priesthood
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.
“And I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down!”
This quote is one that most of us can probably recognize right away as the threat of the wolf in the fable, “The Three Little Pigs.” You of course remember the familiar story. The wolf threatens to blow down the house of the pig that is made of straw, and he does so successfully. He then threatens to blow down the house of the pig made of sticks, and he is able to do it without any problem. But when he comes to the house of the pig that is made of bricks, the wolf is unable to blow it down because of its strength, and the little pig remains safe inside.
The Christians who were the first recipients of this letter from Peter were living among those who were doing their best to huff and puff and blow their spiritual house down through persecution. And as well as for us, it is often the goal of many in our world today, to huff and puff and blow down our house, to get us to doubt and to question our faith.
Peter wrote to strengthen and encourage all Christians when faced with pressure and persecution. Peter reminds us that we are a living house. We are a living house founded on the cornerstone of Christ. And we are a living house built to be a holy priesthood.
The Jews of the mid-first century had a problem. There was a new “religion” that claimed that the Messiah they were anticipating, had already come and gone. This Messiah according to these followers of “the Way” as it came to be known, was a carpenter’s son from Nazareth. During his lifetime, this man, whose name was Jesus, had been rejected by the Jews. They were successful in putting him to death, having him crucified for blasphemy because he had made the audacious claim to be the Son of God. Problem solved. Or so they thought. Three days after they had put him to death, his followers claimed that he had risen from the dead. Forty days after that, they were claiming he had left this earth and now is living in heaven. And ten days following that, they began to preach openly that this Jesus was the living Son of God, the Messiah who all must put their faith in to be saved. The movement they thought they had squelched with the death of this carpenter was now just beginning to gain momentum. Their numbers were growing daily. Something needed to be done. So the pressures and persecutions of the followers of “the Way” began. The Jews who were protected under Roman law to practice their religion freely were able to turn their fellow non-Jewish subjects of the Roman State against the Christians. Organized persecutions were maybe just beginning at this time under Emperor Nero and there was already a history of individual Christians being stoned, tortured and burned alive. This is not to say that these are the types of persecutions that these Christians Peter is writing to are facing at the moment, but they were most definitely being persecuted verbally and in the form of threats, insults and unjust accusations.
In the face of their persecutors, Peter calls this Jesus they were following a stone. And he is 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. The Jews had picked up this stone, for 3 years examined it carefully, and then just discarded it as worthless. They then stumbled on this same stone threw aside, having rejected Jesus not accepting his message. And the result of their stumbling over this stone? Paul wrote to Timothy that God wants all men to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth, but the words of Jesus are truth as well: whoever does not believe will be condemned. And by their pressure, they were attempting to make these young Christians stumble over that same stone by making them doubt their faith. By their persecution they were trying to get them to trip on this rock by giving up on their faith, which would result in dire, eternal consequences.
In the same way, dear friends, are we not also pressured and persecuted by society around us? Now Christians in our country are not getting tortured, being stoned or burned alive. But I bet it would be safe to say that each one of us has suffered some form of persecution in our life for being a follower of Christ.
The world around us will try to get us to stumble on that stone and doubt our faith and what the Bible says. “Do you really believe that one man could die for the sins of the entire world?” “How can you believe that water can wash away sin?” “Do you really think that a God created this world?” “How can you say that there is only one true religion?” “Who are you to tell me that your religion is the right one and all others are wrong?”
Others may try to get us to fall on that stone and claim that the beliefs of our church are old fashioned and that we are “close-minded.” They’ll try to convince us that our views on such things as the sanctity of marriage, the role of men and women, homosexuality and abortion are just not up with the times.
Dear Christians, we live in a country that is becoming more and more anti-Christian, and in a world that is becoming more and more accepting of anything that promotes “peace” and “love”, unless of course if it’s Christianity. It may not be all-out persecution, but there is intense pressure around us to make ourselves question our faith and make us doubt if what we believe is the right thing, if there is anything to believe in at all. If we give into the pressures around us and just throw that stone aside as worthless, our end is the same as those who have led us to fall.
In the face of the pressures that mount against us to be ashamed of our God and his Word, the encouragement of Peter in our text for today is just as important and just as meaningful for us today as it was for those Christians nearly two thousand years ago.
Peter begins by reminding us who the object of our faith is, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him. This stone, the one that the world around us just tosses aside and then stumbles on, is the precious stone of God. The Father had chosen this stone from the beginning of time to save his creation from its suffering in sin and its inevitable destination of eternal death. This living Stone is the one who came to this earth to live a life of perfection. Jesus’ entire 33 years of life on this earth went untarnished without a single evil thought, not one sinful word, not one action for him to repent for. Since not a single one of us could say this of even the last 33 minutes of our lives, Jesus lived this life perfectly in our place to present himself to God as our perfect substitute. He then was the perfect sacrifice that God required for sin, a sacrifice without blemish or defect. He paid the price for our sin with his own blood on that cross. It is noteworthy that Peter calls this stone a living stone. Jesus showed his power over death and his victory over Satan by rising again and giving hope and strength to all who put their trust in him.
Since Christ has completed his work for us, God has made this living stone the cornerstone of a house that he is building. This house is the church, built upon the cornerstone of Christ and what he has accomplished. And just as this living cornerstone was specially chosen by God, so each one of us is a stone who has been hand-selected by God and is priceless to him. God has taken us, like a stone, inherently lifeless by nature, and by Christ’s resurrection he has made us alive. He has made us his living stones! God has made the effort to stoop over, pick us up, and brush the dirt off of us. He has polished each stone to perfection so it matches that cornerstone, just as we have been washed clean of sin by Jesus’ blood and given the robe of righteousness to wear as his dear child. He uses us to build for himself the house, and he takes us and cements us into the walls of that building. Being cemented securely into that building, we are his possession, bought with the price of the blood of His own Son, and nothing can change that. Well-known words of Paul may come to mind that add to this comfort very fittingly: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The cement that holds us in that wall is the unfailing love of God. What comfort to those being battered by the attempts of those around us to blow down our house.
Peter gives further reassurance to remain firm in the face of persecution. He uses the words of Isaiah to bring this comfort, the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. As the world around us tries its best to make us stumble along with it and to make us feel ashamed, we know that in trusting in the Lord he will not let us stumble and that we have no reason to be ashamed of who we are or what we believe in! The pressures of this world are no match for the blessings and promises we have from our God. God’s grace has saved us and continues to sustain us when we are faced with persecution. Christ’s victory over sin is our victory over sin and we have confidence that nothing in this life can take away what He has given us by His wondrous love. The Holy Spirit is with us for strength and guidance, and he will never leave us. He is with us when we face pressure to be ashamed for what we believe and he gives us the prayers to pray for strength and the words to say for a clear confession of our faith.
This living house founded on the cornerstone of Christ is built for the strength and defense against the pressures of the world around us. But this living house has an active function as well. This living house has been built for service, to be a holy priesthood for God.
The priests of the Old Testament were specially chosen by God to serve in his temple. Their entire life was committed to serving the Lord. They were responsible for offering sacrifices for their sins and the sins of the people. They were to be a reminder to the people that all of God’s people are on this earth to serve God and each other.
This section of Scripture we have before us is known as the teaching of the universal priesthood of all believers. It reveals God’s will to us, that each one of us is a royal priest in service to God. Peter writes that we are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The blood sacrifices of the Old Testament are no longer necessary; the blood of Christ has fulfilled all God’s sacrificial requirements for sin. But now every one of us who has been saved by the blood of Christ has been called to offer spiritual sacrifices. The spiritual sacrifices we offer are acceptable to God through what Jesus Christ has done. Despite the fact that our sinful nature prevents us from offering to God anything perfect, we are considered holy by God through Christ, and all of our spiritual sacrifices we offer in faith are seen as righteous in God’s sight.
Our refrigerator at home is covered in pictures that our two year old and three and a half year old children have drawn or colored. Do they color within the lines? No. Can you make out that that drawing is a dog? No. We probably don’t have a Rembrandt or Van Gogh in the making living under our roof. But it doesn’t matter. As parents we overlook the inadequacies and mistakes of their pictures. We proudly accept them as masterpieces because they did their best and they were especially made for us out of their love. Though never perfect, all of our spiritual sacrifices that give praise to God and show our love for him are accepted by him through Christ.
And Peter tells us what our spiritual sacrifices to God include. Peter writes that each one of us is a priest of the Lord for the purpose of declaring the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. The original word in the Greek text for “praises” can also be translated “excellencies” or “goodness.” So the praises of God are everything he has done for us and continues to do for us. As his priests, every one of us has been called by God to declare these excellencies to each other as we gather together and we encourage each other and build each other up in the faith. And all of us in the universal priesthood, not just our called ministers, are called to declare these praises to those still walking in darkness, who do not yet know the marvelous light of God, that they may come to know him who has made us his.
But as his priests, we not only declare the praises of God with our words, we declare them with the way in which we live our lives as well. Paul wrote to the Romans, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Everything we use our bodies for is to be to the praise and glory of God. In the life of a Christian, there is no separation between sacred and secular. We are not just a living stone when we are gathered together with other living stones in the physical house of the Lord. Our entire life is one of priestly activity, offering spiritual sacrifices to God wherever we are and whoever we are with.
We have been built as a living house to be a holy priesthood for our God, to offer him sacrifices of praise and to declare his goodness to those around us. The world that has rejected the living stone will continue to try to blow us down. But our living house is founded on an impenetrable foundation. So let the world huff and puff. We are built on the cornerstone of Christ. And we have his promise that this house will endure until he returns to take us to his heavenly house. Amen.