The Gospel Calls for a New Identity

Living Stones

1 Peter 2:1-17

We are each part of the body of Christ.

As those who are chosen by God and receivers of great mercy, believers have been given a new identity and all we do flows out of this new identity.

We’ve also been given a new purpose and calling to be set apart for the working and glory of God, with Christ as our foundation and example.

The church’s identity as God’s people causes them to live differently than the world.

Think about this:

No matter what highway or interstate you travel throughout the US, you will eventually come across some sort of sign indicating a marker of a major historical event in that state’s history.

These historical markers and monuments can range anywhere from colonial America to historic state capitals to the national parks that have been preserved for personal enjoyment.

It’s one thing to hear about historic sites, but it’s quite another to see and experience them.

Each monument declares the honor and significance of the people, event, or treasure each location holds.

The areas of preservation help us to see the beauty of the land untouched— by building and other things the distract from its beauty.

• What state or national parks have you been to and what impressed you most at each one?

I remember seeing the Grand Canyon of the first time!

It was breath taking!

It was amazing.

I was impressed by this massive hole in the ground.

As Christians, our lives are similar to these monuments and areas of preservation.

Unlike the lifeless physical stones which fill our national parks, we are living, breathing statues for the glory of our Savior.

We exist to declare to those around us the honor and significance of our God.

Just as people pour out much effort and care to maintain our national parks, we must also intentionally live out the purpose for which we’ve been called.

God has a great purpose for our each of our lives.

We’ve not only been saved from our sin, we’ve been saved to live out a mission.

Standing firm in the foundation of righteousness Christ provided for us and remembering our new identity and true home, we get to live out this mission.

We get to be set apart for the work of the gospel and the glory of God.

While exercise and eating right are key to staying healthy, professional football players take their workouts to another level.

They must train in speed, agility, strength, and power.

It’s not even unusual for NFL (National Football League) players to be at their team’s facility from 6 am until 7 pm.

Not only do they have these intense workouts, but they also spend hours watching film, participating in team meetings, and attending community or charity events.

These athletes live their lives differently—with strict diets, workouts, and team requirements—because of their identity as football players.

• Did any of this information surprise you? Why or why not?

Because of our identity as Christ-followers, believers should also look different from the world, especially in the way we train for our future.

We should constantly be training in righteousness through the reading of God’s Word, in order to do His work (2 Tim. 3:16).

We look different from the world because we live out of our identity as God’s people.

• What are some habits you need to break or create to look different to the rest of the world?

The church’s identity as God’s people causes them to live differently than the world.

What is the church?

Is it merely a place where Christians gather together a couple of times of week?

Or is it something more than a location?

According to the apostle Peter, the church is indeed far more than a physical building.

By use of metaphors and analogies, the apostle Peter helps us see the beauty and complexity of what God has designed in the creation of the church.

THE CHURCH AS LIVING STONES

God has provided a solid foundation for us to experience His goodness for eternity.

Through Christ’s obedient life, sinless sacrifice, and powerful resurrection, by faith we can stand firm on the foundation so abundantly provided us.

The Book of 1 Peter is filled with several foundational truths.

One of the truths Peter presented is this: we are on this earth to be stones of grateful testimony who declare the salvation of our glorious Lord to all who will hear.

The first thing Peter said was for us too aggressively and urgently fight our sinful flesh.

Yet all too often we find ourselves complacent, even comfortable, with our sinful patterns.

Instead of waking up to the shock and terror of sin’s presence, we cozy up to it and allow it to take over.

Anger, selfishness, pride, and the list goes on.

Though we have been given right-standing with God through Jesus’ sacrifice, we still have much work to do as we wait on the completion of God’s work in us.

We all have sin that clings closely to us, and Scripture continually commands us to take it down (Heb. 12:1).

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

We have a race to run.

A battle to fight.

A lifetime of learning to live out the internal realities Christ provided us.

Next, notice the main command Peter issued in the first two verses and the metaphor Peter used to make his point.

Peter encouraged the church to desire the Word in order to grow into Christian maturity.

The expectation of a true Christ follower is steady maturity, which comes primarily through a healthy diet of the Bible.

And a desire for the Bible stems from a deep need to be closer to God, because God’s Word is the primary way we can learn more about Him.

If we’ve truly tasted and experienced God’s goodness, we will naturally want more and more of Him.

Finally, did you notice what Peter proclaimed is true of every believer?

We are living stones; chosen and honored by God.

Anyone in here, ever get picked last or not picked at all for kickball or other sports?

We are a spiritual house for the presence of God who is building each of us into a holy priesthood.

All of this is through the bedrock of Christ—the Living Stone—through whom our sinful, spiritually dead hearts of stone were removed and replaced with the gift of living hearts.

And those of us who have placed our trust in Christ alone will not be put to shame—He will do what He promises.

We have a sure hope.

This does not make sense to the world— for remember the world rejected Christ— the world is offended by Jesus— The world stumbles when it comes to knowing about Jesus— They stumble because they do not obey the Word of God.

We are set up to be living stones.

Set apart from the world but still in the world to be an example for those around us--

Peter calls the church living stones and secondly the church is made up of chosen people.

THE CHURCH AS A CHOSEN PEOPLE

Peter continued his use of metaphors in the following verses:

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

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.

Peter described us in four ways.

First, we are a chosen race, or nation, a description linked to God forming a new nation through Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3).

The children of Israel were a people of common descent from Abraham, who had been chosen by God and set apart for His purposes.

In the same way, the church is a people of common descent from Jesus Christ who has given us new life and made us new creatures

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

and we have also been set apart for a purpose.

Being a chosen race also affirms that our primary identity rests in who we are in Christ, not our ethnicity, nationality, or culture.

Jesus’ intention is that we be a people completely unified in Him (John 17:20-23).

There is beauty when God’s people who are full of diversity are truly one in Christ.

Peter drew from Exodus 19:6 for the next two descriptions of the church—we are a royal priesthood and a holy nation.

Being a royal priesthood reminds us of our function to be an intercessors to the unbelieving world around us.

God formed a nation through Abraham not so they would be the sole recipients of His blessings, but so that they would be the manner through which His blessings might be shared with the world.

This is at the core of being a priest—one who intercedes on the behalf of others and brings them to God.

As a holy nation, we are a people set apart from the world, but not disengaged from it.

We are not to be holy through our lack of presence in the world, but through our different way of living in the world.

As new creatures who are guided by the Holy Spirit, our speech and conduct should be remarkably different from others around us.

Peter’s final description—a people for his possession—reminds us of whom we belong to, the price that was paid to purchase us, and the future hope we have in Christ.

Our possession came at a great cost—Jesus’ suffering and death—but that purchase price also has future implications.

Just as Christ rose from the dead, we too have been promised future resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20; Rev. 1:5).

We belong to God.

When we look back on how we became His, we are filled with gratitude.

When we look forward to what awaits us, we are filled with hope.

Peter calls the church living stones and secondly the church is made up of chosen people and secondly he see that the Church is made up of heavenly people

THE CHURCH AS A HEAVENLY PEOPLE

We’ve talked a lot about the foundational truths about who we are because of the work of Christ, and this passage adds one more key element to the conversation.

Along with our new identity, we are given a new citizenship.

This world is no longer our home.

Peter went on to address how we should live in light of our new identity:

1 Peter 2:11–17 ESV

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

One key to living out our new identity and purpose is to fully understand our new citizenship.

We cannot live out the call to be holy with one foot in the conduct of the world and another in the lifestyle of Christianity.

It is a false reality, because they are different from one another.

Each of the four preceding descriptions of the church—a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God’s possession—remind us that we are fundamentally different from the world.

We are, as Peter puts it, strangers and exiles.

This is our new identity in Christ and our changed behavior should flow from this identity.

Who we are should always be the root of our behavior.

The first way we live as strangers in the world is by avoiding sinful desires.

The idea here is that we should live in an unexpected way.

In other words, we do not give in to the sinful patterns of the culture around us.

The visible nature of this counter-cultural lifestyle is critical.

We are to live honorably so that when the world attempts to lie about us and say we are evildoers, our faithful lifestyles refute every accusation.

I worked with a guy at Sam Club who challenged my character.

I was a checkout Supervisor— as in I controlled the front of the store, the checkout lanes, customer service, and yes our little cafe.

It super fun, but like everywhere you work, there are people that are more difficult to work with.

I’m a pretty outgoing personality, and I’m overall pretty chill, but I like to work hard, and when others are not pulling their weight, I let them know that.

There was this one guy, who was not doing anything, and I asked him to please start cleaning up his area and what have you— he wasn’t doing it so I got a little more stern with him— and that was all there was— I wasn’t mean, or anything like that— come to find out he went and complained to my boss that I berated him, I was this huge jerk, and kept hounding him to clean.

So I got pulled into the office and they started telling me all of this stuff however, at the end— they said we do not believe this is your character.

We know they person does not handle being told what to do, we just want you to be aware that sometimes people are going to say things about you that are not true and if you leave any doubt in our minds we question, but this was wrong from the get go.

The world will have no choice but to admit that the slanderous charges cannot be supported; instead our good works will draw them toward God.

The second way we live differently is through our submission to authority.

We are to willfully and respectfully place ourselves under the authority God has placed over us and in doing so, once again we will silence any foolish accusation made against through our good citizenship.

The third way we live as strangers and exiles is through our honor for everyone, our love for our fellow believers, and our fear of God.

Peter seems to present these in a crescendo of importance.

It is important that we honor everyone but even more important that we love the church, and ultimately most important that we fear God.

In order to avoid confusion about our submission to governmental authority and our submission to God, Peter stepped back down and instructed us to honor leaders in government.

When God’s Word and our nation’s laws collide, the gospel wins out (Acts 4:13-22).

CHRIST CONNECTION

The early Christians faced persecution and experienced suffering for their faith in Christ.

Peter reminded them of their identity as God’s people—formed by Christ and sent out on His mission.

United to Christ—the One who suffered for us on the cross—Christians can expect God to use suffering to make us into the image of His Son.

Be living stones

Love Everyone, Love the chruch and love God

Pray

Questions:

What are some habits you need to break or create to look different to the rest of the world?

How can we better see the battle over sin as a moment-by-moment, urgent war rather than an occasional activity?

How do you best draw near to God when you are alone? With others?

Which of the three ways Peter taught us to live is most challenging for you

How does reflecting on your identity in Christ motivate and fuel you to proclaim Him to those around you?