1 Peter 2:4-10
First Christian Church, Owensville, IN
May 17, 2020
Below is only a skeleton outline of main points, Scriptures and quotations of the message presented via Facebook Live on May 17, 2020.
(Abbreviations for Bible translations that may be quoted: ESV = English Standard Version; NLT = New Living Translation; CSB = Christian Standard Bible; GW = God’s Word; Amplified Bible = AMP; KJV = King James Version; New King James Version = NKJV; The Message = MSG; KNT = Kingdom New Testament)
• We hear a lot about identity these days: identity politics, gender identity, etc. The government requires us to have a SSN & card; the state requires a picture ID such as a driver’s license. Companies require employee IDs.
• None of these really get to the heart of who we are at the core of our being.
• Followers of Jesus Christ are called Christians. Acts 11:26b: And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. (ESV) (disciples & Christians)
• If we are Christians, we know what our primary identity is: 1 John 3:1a: See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! (NLT)
• In today’s passage, Peter further identifies who Christians are as God’s children.
2:4-10: Focuses on our identity as God’s own people.
1:3-13: Focuses on our eternal hope.
• Peter uses these two foundational truths as motivations for obedience and loving service. Everything God calls us to do in 1 Peter flows out of the hope of our eternal salvation and our identity as God’s children.
1 Peter 2:4-10: 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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. 6 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.”
7 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,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
9 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. 10 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. (ESV)
Christ is identified as a living, chosen, precious cornerstone over whom those who reject and disobey Him stumble (vv. 4, 6, 8; Peter’s imagery is drawn from the Messianic passages of Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 8:14; 28:16).
• V. 4: …a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious…
• V. 6 …cornerstone chosen and precious…
• In ancient times the cornerstone was the anchor of a building’s foundation.
• Jesus is the foundation of our faith, and also of the church in which believers are living stones.
• V. 8: …“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
Christians are identified in many ways (vv. 5, 9, 10):
5 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.
• Living stones (v. 5)
• Spiritual house/temple (v. 5)
• “Each time someone trusts Christ, another stone is quarried out of the pit of sin and cemented by grace into the building. It may look to us that the church on earth is a pile of rubble and ruins, but God sees the total structure as it grows.” –Warren Wiersbe, Be Hopeful, p. 48
• Ephesians 2:20-22: 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. (NLT)
• Hebrews 3:6b: And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ. (NLT)
• Holy priesthood (v. 5)
• Every Christian is a priest within a priesthood. Each of us has direct access to God the Father through Christ the Son who is also High Priest and by way of the Holy Spirit!
• “The priest represents God to the people, but he also takes the people’s concerns to God. Is there someone around you who desperately needs the intercession of one of God’s priests? Perhaps someone will only come to know God by seeing Him in your life.” –Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God Day by Day, p. 21
• Whenever you intercede by prayer for someone, you are serving as a priest.
• When you teach someone truths of God by word, example and deed, you are functioning as a priest!
9 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. 10 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.
• Chosen race (v. 9)
• Regardless of our skin color, ethnicity, earthly heritage, etc.
• Royal priesthood (v. 9)
• “It is the responsibility of a priest to work within a priesthood. Scripture does not promote the practice of individual priests, each with a separate ministry. Rather, priests function together (Lev. 9:1). An unbiblical sense of individualism can isolate you from functioning within God’s royal priesthood as he intended.” –Henry Blackaby, Experiencing God Day by Day
• Holy nation (v. 9)
• God’s own possession (9)
• 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (ESV)
• God’s people (vv. 9, 10)
10 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.
• Merciful God took us from being lost nobodies made in His image to saved and sanctified somebodies made in His image (v. 10).
• No wonder, Peter writes in v. 7: So the honor is for you who believe…
• V. 10, NLT: “Once you had no identity as a people;
now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”
• Think about it, brothers and sisters. Regardless if you have been raised or treated to believe you are no one, if you have been born again, you are not nobody! You are God’s children, a holy, royal priest among priests, a stone among stones that make up God’s temple, a member of the chosen race and a citizen of God’s holy nation, a person among God’s people, a recipient of God’s saving mercy!
• So think about this:
• If you got laid off, put on furlough or lost your job, your identity did not change!
• When we could not assemble together in person on the Lord’s Day, our identity and purposes did not change!
• Our identity as Gods house is not determined by whether or not our place or places of assembly is within this church building.
• You were given instructions on how to have church at home by yourself, with your family, you were qualified to do that!
• “There are a variety of offices in the community of faith…but throughout the church, the primary emphasis is on the people. All the offices/jobs are servant positions for assisting and encouraging men and women to be the people of God and not merely a crowd of religious consumers.” –Eugene Peterson, Faith that Matters, Feb 28, p. 61.
• Remember: With the titles come the tasks. With the labels come the labors. With the positions come the purposes.
Peter identifies two purposes of God’s people:
v. 5…to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
• We are to offer God the Father in the name of Christ acceptable, spiritual sacrifices (v. 5) such as:
• Self: Romans 12:1: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (ESV)
• Jesus offered His entire earthly life to His Father.
• We are to do the same.
• Faithfulness: Philippians 2:17: But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. (NLT)
• Financial/material gifts: Philippians 4:18: I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. (ESV)
• Praise: Hebrews 13:15: Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. (NLT)
• Making new disciples: Romans 15:16b: I serve as a priest by spreading the Good News of God. I do this in order that I might bring the nations to God as an acceptable offering, made holy by the Holy Spirit. (GW)
• Wearing a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic can be a spiritual offering when worn in Christ’s name out of love for someone else.
I appreciate it when others wear a mask around me if they are going to be within 6 ft of me. (I have responsibilities too, not just as a preacher, but as a husband, son, father, grandfather, neighbor, etc.
• We are to proclaim God’s praises (v. 9)
V9: …that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• GW: You were chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• CSB:… so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
• One of the praises to proclaim is what He has done for you through His Son!
• NLT: As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
• Colossians 1:12b-14: He [God the Father] has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. (NLT)
• “All of us who come to Christ move from purposelessness to privilege, from hopelessness to honor. Once we were outside of God’s saving mercy. Even when we didn’t realize it, we were wallowing in darkness and despair. But in Christ, things have changed. We’ve become new creations. Now we are ‘living stones’ God uses us to build a holy house where he will dwell…We’re no longer adrift, unanchored unstable. Jesus is the living stone on which we build our lives…Jesus is the foundation and the cornerstone of our faith…he is our great high priest, and we are ‘a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’.” —David Faust, Faith Under Fire, pp. 53-54.
v. 4: As you come to him…again, write down your answers to these questions:
• What does God want me to accept and cherish from today’s passage?
• What does God want me to put into practice or obey from today’s passage?
• With whom does God want me to share this passage or His story?
*The title of this sermon was inspired by the title of a section of a chapter of David Faust’s book Faith Under Fire, pp. 53.