THE PRIVILEGE OF THE CALL

1 Peter 2:4-5 “4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

As the people of God we have been richly blessed. God’s grace has been showered down upon us in abundant measure. Consequently we stand as a privileged people. And the greatest of our privileges is to serve God. Although at times it may seem a burden, the reality is that serving God is always a great privilege.

The gospel ministry has brought real blessings to humanity., the greatest of all privileges ever recieved my man. This evening am going to let you see how you have beeen so privileged by the Gospel.

In our text Peter is of a people who are coming to christ, being built as ling houses and made priest to offer acceptable sacrificess to God.

now though this may sound normal story, a little more attention onthe text reveals the mysteries of God in Christ Jesus.

Who is Peter writing to?

The apostle Peter in the early 60s of the first Christian century wrote to largely Gentile Christians living along the southern coastal area of the Black Sea, now the northern region of modern Turkey (cf. 1:1-2).

1 Peter 1:1-2 “1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 Chose according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Peter, describes them as “the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

These believing communities were made up of people that the surrounding world considered unworthy and useless not based on their faith but their placing in society. to the commuinity they were good for nothing.

However Peter’s view of them is different.

He defines them not as the world did but from God’s perspective. They were divinely chosen ‘exiles’ who lived in five different Roman provinces and God had picked them out of all the population and destined them to live lives dedicated to God under the control of the Holy Spirit. Here is a very different view from that of the world!

Graphicaly Peter describes aspiritual status they acquired through accepting the gospel to demonstrate a fundamental relities that accompanies the gospel ministry.

In verse 4, Peter begins by making parallels between this community of bilievers with Jesus, “4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight.

come to the rejected one (Christ), yet chosen and precious). Your situation was thesituation of Jesus. John 1:11 “11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”

But then Peter goes a head to observe that But God had chosen him and and made him precious. and that in same manner, by them accepting the gospel God has chosen them and now they are precious in his sight.

in other words the gospel has changed their status!

Peter notes they have indeed recieved the new status through the ministry of the word, “because you have been born againbe—not of perishable seedbf but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God…which is the gospel preached to them (1 Pe 1:23,25).

No matter how ridiculed, abused, and persecuted—no matter how poor, hungry, troubled, and distressed—no matter how great the hardship, Not matter how rejected and dejected you become in society, if you accepted the Gospel you are elevated to the status of the chosen and precious!

Although many things could be said from these verses, I want to focus on but two emphases, both of which are built around the central image used by Peter in this passage. The height of our privilege is that in the New Covenant believers have become the new temple of God on the earth.

The Jewish temple in Jerusalem was understood to be the dwelling place of God on earth, but in less than a decade after Peter dictated these words to Silas to be written down (cf. 5:12), the Jerusalem temple was gone. The Romans crushed the Jewish rebellion of the late 60s and in the process destroyed both Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD.

Jesus had predicted its fall earlier in Matt. 24:1-2

Peter saw a new spiritual reality emerging out of the redemptive work of Jesus: God was going to build a new temple.

This time it would not be made with stones and mortar. Instead, it would be composed of redeemed humanity -- both Jew and Gentile -- who would collectively become God’s dwelling place on earth.

The gospel makes you a living stone, and youare built up a piritual house (5). What a privilege!

Ephesian 2:21-22 “21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

The good new we have is that God has since shifted his attention from the mortar and bricks temple to the living temple of believers. The gospel makes you a temple and a dwelling place of God. What a privilege!

1Corinthians 3:9 “ you are God’s field, you are God’s building.”

So Peter in verse 5 admonishes, “: “like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Believers are compared to ‘living stones that are being used to build a ‘spiritual house.’ The Jerusalem temple was constructed with massive stones as the core construction material.

Some of those can still be seen today in the ‘wailing wall’ that is the remaining part of Herod’s temple that wasn’t destroyed by the Romans.

But in God’s new temple no dead stones are used. Instead the ‘stones’ being used are ‘living.’6 God is using the people redeemed by Christ to build His new temple. This radical concept from Christianity departed dramatically from Jewish understanding. God dwells in the midst of His people.

Thus as Peter declares, we are a ‘spiritual house’ in contrast to a physical building. God is actively present and at work in us as His new temple.

as tough this not enough, God makes us priests of the new temple the living temple. In the old Temple, God chose priests from the Livitical family. all other 11 tribes were spectitors in worship. But in this new temple we have all been made priests. What a privilege!

1Peter2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”

3. As it was the prerogative of the priests in the old temple to offer sacrifices, like wise believers are to “offer spiritual sacrifices” (5).

These spiritual sacrifices are the ‘good works’ (Heb. 13:16 “16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

these are sacrifices prompted by the leadership of the Holy Spirit which include the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ in Gal. 5:22-23.

blove, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, cgoodness, dfaithfulness, 23 7gentleness, self-control

This explains then how we become the light of the world; beacause we are the temple of God which was the light of the nation.

As the temple of God the peter admonishes in 1 Pe 2:1–2, “Therefore, alaying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,”

Romans 12:9 “9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.”

God took ‘living stones’ from all nations and with Christ began building Himself a new temple to inhabit in this world. Nothing attractive or meritorious was present in these stones. But under the powerful handiwork of Almighty God these living stones have become an esteemed people of God Himself. We are those living stones. We have been transformed into this beautiful temple by coming to Jesus. The Lord is working on us as we grow spiritually. The result? His temple becomes more majestic and attractive all the time, as His people grow up in Him.

The Gospel presents aunique privilege none can offer in this life

Ephesians 1:3-4 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,”