Living Stones
Text: 1 Peter 2:4–12 ESV
After reflecting on this text, I realize that the longer I am a Christian, the more I understand how important the fight to remember my identity in Christ is to my walk with the Lord. I am constantly trying to remind myself of who I am.
Maybe that sounds weird, but when I wake up in the morning, I think of my identity sometimes based on how I’m feeling — it's usually things like, I am someone who's falling short maybe in leading my family, or I’m someone who's fearful of something or nervous about it. So I wake up with an identity as a fearful person or someone who worries. Sometimes I might wake up and think, I am really good at such and such. I am God's gift to this group of people.
What I fundamentally do not do when I wake up in the morning is wake up, stretch, get out of bed, and think I'm a child of God. I'm someone who's chosen. I am a royal priest, a holy nation.
I would guess most of you today wake up or go throughout your day not thinking about these things. You think I'm a father or mother first, or I'm a football player or student or guitar player or a friend or a husband or a girlfriend. Those might be true about you. But that is not the principal reality of who you are. You are not first and foremost an employee of Micron or McDonald's or a student.
If you are in Christ, this is a quote I read this week, you are not who you were (however your sinful life of rebellion was before you were in Christ). You are not what you feel. You're not where you're tempted to fall into, you are not what your job says you are, or your status in the society, you are Christ's.
We're going to take a deep dive into 1 Peter 2:4–12, and ground ourselves and the reality of who we are. We are God’s. Here's the one sentence summary of where we're going:
We belong to God, so we now exist to glorify him.
What we are going today is first a quick review of where we’ve come in 1 Peter. We're going to take this in three segments (to no one’s surprise I’m sure). The first is we're going to see that
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We are a building and a people (4–5)
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Occupants in the building and outside it (6–10)
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Purpose of this building and people (11–12)
Before we dig into these verses, let me get us back into where we're at in 1 Peter. We've now finished chapter one, and we just began chapter two.
Peter, in the opening verse of chapter 1, has made it clear that he is writing to an audience that he calls exiles. They're exiles because they have put their faith in a living hope—in Jesus, who died and rose again and secured for them eternal promises.
Heaven is theirs. It’s not going anywhere. It's not fading. It’s secure and kept for them with the guarantee they will arrive to receive their promised heavenly inheritance. We saw that this heavenly hope fuels the kind of life, a kind of response, in which you live in obedience to the gospel.
You see then in the next section, he began to unpack what that meant. He focused his attention there on brotherly and sisterly love. When you were born again a new love was also born — a love for the church.
Then in chapter two, he begins to get specific. Remember in the first few verses — put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander. A very practical way you're going to love your brothers and sisters in Christ is to put these aside.
Now Peter is going to move into talking about what this love for your brothers and sisters in Christ looks like. Those are now your people. The church community is your home base, even as you long for your heavenly home. In fact, almost like a surgeon, he is going to peel back some layers and look and see what's in the heart. In other words, what does this kind of person look like at the identity level?
What we're going to see in verses four and five is who we are in God — we are a building and a people. Specifically, we're going to see that we are building and the people. Look at verses 4–5:
“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.” (1 Peter 2:4–5 ESV)
First, I want you to see that this house, this spiritual house, has a foundation. Second, I want you to see what the house is. And I want you to see that there's people in the house. Let's go first look at the foundation. Look at verse four again:
“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,” (1 Peter 2:4 ESV)
We're going to take a little sneak peek at a later verse. Look at verse 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.”” (1 Peter 2:6 ESV)
You see the connection between verse 4 “chosen and precious” in verse 6 “chosen precious.” Verse 6 this chosen and precious stone is called the cornerstone.
Now, I don't know much about building things. I mean, if you ask my wife, and if you asked me, I'm just not a handy guy. There is a good chance a majority of you know more about this experience than I do from reading books.
Here's the reality of a cornerstone. What you want to picture is, especially in old architecture, they would have this big stone, and it was this kind of perfect stone. They would be meticulous in how they would put in the ground because it formed the beginnings of the walls.
If they got that cornerstone in a perfect spot and built the walls with that as their guide, the walls would be perfectly straight. It's the centerpiece. It's the very foundation. Without the cornerstone, the house is cockeyed at best and falling down at worse.
In this analogy, Jesus is the cornerstone, he's the living stone. If you have any illusions about your identity being apart from Christ, you can put him to death right now. Because here's the way this is structured (here’s the beginning of verse 4):
“As you come to him, to Jesus.” (1 Peter 2:4 ESV)
When you come to him, he is the foundation. Here's what happens. Look at verse five:
“You yourselves like living stones [He is the living stone and you are like him] are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.” (1 Peter 2:5 SEV)
You need to remember who Peter is talking to. He's talking to exiles. He's talking to people who feel like they have no home. I know I've given this a similar example before, but I remember after months in Nicaragua. And you have this sense like, okay, Nicaragua is my home, this is where I live, but it's not my home. I didn’t grow up here. But I go back to the United States and think, this isn't my home, I don't live here. You are caught between two worlds. You don’t have a home.
Now, for the Scriptures to say to people who have that feeling to say you're being built into a spiritual house, that's really good news. You have a home. You have a people —which is what he says next when he says they are a holy priesthood—which we will come back to later. Look though for now at Ephesians 2:19–20
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, 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” (Ephesians 2:19–20 ESV)
So we are the house, and we're also the people. It describes us as holy priesthood which would make sense if we're a spiritual house. Notice where it's all going — to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus.
Let me go back to our main sentence: we belong to God, so now we exist to glorify God. Here's one of the ways we belong to him. We are a spiritual house because of him. We're a holy priesthood because of him.
But what is a spiritual household? Well, when we think of the house of God what do we think of? The church. Here's what I would say from this text and from others. When we're talking about the church, hear me clearly, we are talking about the people not the building.
It’s actually better not to ask, “Did you attend church?” as if it's a place you could go. But are you part of the church? Are you one of these living stones that make up the stones of the spiritual house?
I remember hearing this story of Spartans talking to people. And they would point at their land and say, “See these walls. They will never fall.” The person looked and honestly said, “No, I don’t see any walls. What are you talking about.” “Oh,” the Spartan responded, “the people are the wall.” That’s the idea. The people are the church. The people are the “walls” in this “spiritual house.”
If we were following the logic so far of 1 Peter, he's just come off of talking about loving your brothers and sister. And I still think he has this in his mind here. Meaning a main way to live out this call to offer spiritual sacrifices is to be the church. The people of God are a spiritual household. They are sharpening each other. These spiritual sacrifices go beyond this, but a principal way is that we are offering sacrifices by loving brothers and sisters in the church. Look real quick at Romans 12. We’ll start in verse 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.” (Romans 12:1 ESV)
Then it goes on, and it does have things to say about individuals — don't be conformed to this world. Pursue what is good in your life. But look where it goes after a handful of verses. Look at verse 15:
“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another.” (Romans 12:15–16 ESV)
One of the prayers I have often in the morning when we gather to pray for our Sunday service is this — that the church would come and be the church. That we would come and bear each other's burdens. That we would weep with those who are weeping. We would rejoice with those who rejoice because that's what the church does. That's what the church is.
That's number one. We're building and a people. Now we'll look at number two, we're going to take a deeper dive into these occupants in this spiritual house. We are going to see:
“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.”” (1 Peter 2:6 ESV)
Notice in verse 6, that those who believe or in this stone are not put to shame. These are the “people in the house.” Compare that now to verses 7–8:
“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.” (1 Peter 2:7–8 ESV)
Notice the divide. You see two very different people. On the one hand, there are people who come to this living stone — they believe in him, and what do they receive? Honor. Not shame. Then you have those who reject the cornerstone, who stumble over him, who disobey the word.
Actually, you see this divide in the passage that Peter’s quoting in verse 6. He is quoting Isaiah 28:16. Let’s go to Isaiah 28:15
“Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.” Then your covenant with death will be annulled,” (Isaiah 28:15–18 ESV)
Here's the picture. You got these people trusting in false securities. They think, “Oh, this is Jerusalem. She's never going to fall. We can do whatever we want. We're good.” God says, “No, I've laid a foundation. I've laid a cornerstone. All your security is false. My cornerstone that's going to be secure.”
You have this divide. You have those who are trusting in lies and false things and those who are trusting in this cornerstone. Peter then clarifies, he says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.” The reality is, in Peter’s day, we now know who the cornerstone is. It’s Jesus.
Then Peter quotes quotes Psalm 118:22:
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (Psalm 118:22 ESV)
Peter ties together Isaiah and Psalm, and he is saying, “Look, God has put a cornerstone and all these builders came along and said now we don't want that cornerstone. And guess what, God said he is overruling the buildings. He is making his Son the cornerstone as promised. And Peter has clarified if you believe in this living stone, you'll get honor. And if you don't, you will receive shame as you stumble over this rock of offense.
Let me make this clear for those who do not believe. This morning if you're someone who has not put your trust in Jesus yet. Here's what I know. I know by the fact that you don’t love Jesus that you are not putting your trust in this cornerstone. You are not a part of this spiritual house. And when the storms come and the wind blows you will not be in this firm spiritual house.
You have put your security, your foundation, your cornerstone in something though. It just isn’t this. You’ve put it in something though. And I don't know what it is, but it's there.
The first thing you want to know is that every cornerstone outside of Jesus will not stand firm. The Bible gives this picture. It's like you're building your house on sand. And the winds come, and it just blows down. Your foundation could be money. It could be your job, family, girlfriend, boyfriend, school. I don’t know.
I just want you to take a good long look at your life and find out whatever the cornerstone is. And then I want you to ask one question, could it fail? Could it fail? Not, “Is it likely to fail.” Because you might think, well, it's not very likely, the percentages are low. But that is not the question. The question is could it fail? Could you lose your job, wife, husband, money, health, etc. And I think the honest answer to that question is yes, it could. And there's one place that you can go where the answer's no, Jesus.
The Bible is promising a cornerstone that's rock solid. It's sure. It's going to actually change your life. And when life gets hard, it's not moving. You’ve got to secure shelter. And at the end of the day, when you stand before a holy God to account for your life, you've got a shelter. I will tell you right now, that exchange, whatever your foundation is, whatever your shelter is, exchanging it for Jesus as your foundation will be the greatest exchange you ever make in your life.
If that sounds compelling to you to get this foundation, all you need to do is come to him and the living stone. You need to trust him about everything else. You admit all other things are broken. You're broken. You're a sinner. And you come to him the living stone — who gives life to people dead in their sins, eyes to to blind, and a sure foundation to those living on shaky ground. I'm happy to talk more about it.
Now, interestingly, Jesus quotes this same Psalm that Peter quotes here. Here's one spot he does. This is Matthew 21, verse 40:
“When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”” (Matthew 21:40 ESV)
Remember this parable. The vineyard has tenants who are caring for it. The owner sends a guy to collect the fruit. They beat them up, kill them, etc. Then he sends his son, and they kill the son. So then Jesus asked his listeners this question in verse 40:
“When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”” (Matthew 21:40 ESV)
Here is their answer in verse 41:
“They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”” (Matthew 21:41 ESV)
Then Jesus quotes the Psalm:
“Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” (Matthew 21:42 ESV)
Now look at his conclusion in verse 43:
“Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Matthew 21:43 ESV)
The context is God had promised His kingdom to his people, Israel. But they rejected him. And God gave that promise to people who would accept him.So listen now in light of that to where Peter goes in verses 9–10:
“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.” (1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV)
You see that? Especially in verse 10. He's talking to Christians, some of them weren't Jews. They were Gentiles. And he said, “Hey, you weren't a people. Now you are. You were and are strangers and aliens in this world. But there is a place where that is not the case — the church, in community with other believers.”
You didn't have mercy. Now you have mercy. Why? Because you came to the living stone. And he's trying to get in their hearts, into their identity. You might feel like a stranger to all your neighbors who don't love Jesus, but you are a people.
Here’s a way to look at it. We just got done with graduation season. Until a student graduates high school, he is not a high school graduate. But as soon as that happens their status changes. Once you were not this, a high school graduate, now you are.
You weren't God's people. But because you came to him, you are his people. And so for those who did, those of you who have come to him, I want you to hear what you get is honor. Verse seven:
“So the honor is for you who believe” (1 Peter 2:7 ESV)
What's the honor? Here's how it's got out in verse nine. You're honored by being:
“A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession,” (1 Peter 2:9 ESV)
Once again, he is quoting from the Old Testament. This time from Exodus 19:5–6:
“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 ESV)
What Peter's saying is if you trust in Christ, those words given to Israel are yours. When you wake up in the morning, when you're eating lunch, the principle reality that belongs to you is that you belong to God. In the words of this verse:
You're a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood, you a holy nation, and people for his own possession. These words are full of beautiful imagery that starts in Genesis and carries on throughout the whole Bible.
We could probably have a whole class on them. But today we will focus just on a central piece of all those terms. To be chosen priests, to be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation of people for his own possession, running through all of that is that you are set apart to represent God.
That's what God’s people, Israel, were supposed to do. They were to be a holy nation because other nations around them were rebellious. They were to be a light in the darkness. The priesthood was to represent God to the people. That's who you are. Principally, you are God's child who represents God to the world.
Remember again the short summary sentence: We belong to God, that's who we are. And so we exist to glorify Him, which is exactly where it goes next. Look at the second half of verse 9:
“That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9 ESV)
What do royal priests do? What does a chosen race or a holy nation do? They proclaim the excellencies of God. We don’t tell God who he is. Instead, we get to know God and reflect him to the world. Here is what I mean. I read this example this week. This was a good example of how the Old Testament priests represented God and particularly his law to people:
If you drive a car, I think you probably have similar instincts. You're driving down the road, and if you notice off in the distance on the shoulder, a black car, some white on it, maybe there's a reflection that makes it look like there are lights on the top of the car. What do you do when it hits you that is probably a police officer? You instinctively slow down. Why? It's not because all of a sudden, you've got new knowledge about what the laws of the road are? It's because right there is someone who represents the law, they represent to you something that is truth.
What I'm trying to say is in this room, as Christians, when he says you're a royal priesthood, you represent to the world, our good God. We don’t need to represent the law in the same way the Old Testament priests did because Jesus fulfilled the law. But we do represent God to people in a similar way that priests did in the Old Testament. We pray that people would see us and stop and pause because they are reminded of truth.
As a believer, if you're sitting here and saying, “How do you live it out?” Here's what I want to say. When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself who you are. Because you are a royal priest. You are chosen race. You're representing this great God when you get out of bed, when you walk out the door, when you eat, shop, come home. Remind yourself of this verse. Put verse nine in your head and in your heart and in your soul.
Just briefly, we’ll hit point number three, the purpose of this building and people. I think you’ll see the connection pretty quickly to verses 9–10. Let’s look at how verse 11 first:
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11 ESV)
You're looking at how you apply this? How do you live it? You tell your soul who you are. I'm a child of God, and in your soul is going to rise up passions of the flesh. And then you are called to flee them. Why flee? Why, because it's not who you are. Flee them.
So in your life, ask yourself what in your life is not aligning with the fact that you're a child of God, a royal priesthood? When in your life is not displaying that? It could be gossip in anger. It could be spending too much money or gluttony. It could be that your identity is in your job and your paycheck. It could be 100 things. But here's why you flee them. Look at verse 12:
“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.” (1 Peter 2:12 ESV)
He ends by saying very clearly that the goal is missional. You've been identified as a royal priest and as a holy nation, so that you can walk out the door and people who aren't a part of that nation see that and see there's something there.
I want to close this way. As you go to work, as you go to the grocery store, be thinking in your mind this identity. Again, the longer I'm a Christian, the more I realize our fight for identity is so central. We need to remind ourselves of who we are. And when it comes to living this out, live it out in all those areas. But if you want a principal way that I think we live this out, it is by being the church, meaning we come together, and we care for one another, we love one another.
This moment of gathering becomes a light that is shining out into the world that doesn't do this. A group of people that aren't similar, have different backgrounds, stories, ethnicities, different burdens. They're caring for each other, and they're pushing past offense. And they're doing it over and over and over.