Built on the Living Stone

You can’t play ultimate frisbee as a single-man team. (offense, defense) Yes, the team is made up of individuals, but the team is fully dependent on the cooperative nature of those members. So it is with the church.

Work hard to bear that in mind as you read and study passages like these in the New Covenant, in which the focus is on the community rather than the individual, that any application for the individual travels through the path of the corporate application. In other words, this can’t be applied rightly to individuals unless it is being applied to the team, the Church.

As you come to him (you plural in Greek)...

1 Peter 2:4–8 ESV

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. 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.” 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.

PRAY

As We Draw Near to Him… THE LIVING STONE (4)

Who is the “Him” - (from verse 3 to 4) the Lord (Yahweh) and Christ are one and the same!

As you keep on coming to him...

As you continually come to Christ (first in initial faith and then in ongoing life of worship) you are being built (growing spiritually) as the corporate temple and as priests (who proclaim his excellencies).

What’s the single most important aspect of Christianity? Relationship to God.

(Steve Cole) Because I love you I’m going to tell it to you straight: If you are not consistently taking time to come to Christ in personal devotion to build your life on Him as revealed in His Word, then your priorities are wrong.

Personal devotion to Christ through the word will increase your integration with the community of believers, and faithfulness to labor among the community will increase your personal growth and devotion to Christ.

Why a Living Stone?

A metaphor helps us to understand something better through a unique expression, or challenging us to perceive with fresh eyes something we might overlook, and gives us new or renewed appreciation. And it uses other concepts that we are familiar with…

Example: This world is not a playground but a battleground. The church is not a cruise ship but a battleship.

This metaphor in our text today presents Christ as absolutely foundational to the true worship of God by calling him a stone (and the cornerstone), and yet he is a living stone.

living - Certainly this must be for Peter a reference to the resurrection, that Jesus is the risen Christ, who lives… to prove his power to accomplish the work which can save us and his power to continue that work and carry it to completion.

What this means to his people...

John 14:19 ESV

Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

stone - The image of our Lord as a stone, namely the cornerstone, elicits in us a picture in our minds of our sure foundation: He is solid and secure and immovable… and he also perfectly sets the lines for his building, the church. We take our cues from Christ in every way.

Peter also notes that this foundational living stone was rejected by men. Notice the contrast Peter draws between…

God’s Estimation of Jesus versus Man’s

Chosen & Precious (Honored) - What man in his ignorant blindness would cast aside as a useless, even repulsive rock, is actually the choice/superior stone of God that he foreordained in his perfect plan (1:20). He is precious and honored not only by his selection before the foundation of the world but also in time when God raised him and exalted him to the highest place.

V. 22 of Psalm 118 is the one Peter quotes, as Jesus himself did, that the builders (Jewish religious leaders) rejected the stone which would in fact become the chief cornerstone… The next verse in that Psalm, v. 23, explains in brevity the impact upon those who accept God’s estimation of Christ:

Psalm 118:23 ESV

This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

You must come to Christ on the terms that God has set. He is the chosen cornerstone, honored above all. If you do not see him as God has revealed him, then you miss him altogether and will in fact trip over him to your doom.

We Are Being Built Up… Like Living Stones (5-7a)

We are both the spiritual temple of His presence and the priests who offer spiritual sacrifices that please Him… through Jesus Christ.

Among the people of Israel, where did God’s presence dwell? The tabernacle or temple provided both a symbol and a literal location for the people, namely the priests, to draw near to God’s presence in worship. In the New Covenant, where does God’s presence dwell? In his people.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (3) The Living Stone and Living Stones (2:4–10)

The house is “spiritual” (pneumatikos) because it is animated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

So we are both his temple (the spiritual house in which he dwells) as well as having been made priests who are able to draw near directly to his presence because of being purified by the blood of Christ through faith in Him. And the goal of our opportunity to draw near is to worship him with spiritual sacrifice. (BTW, this is a reminder that the old temple and sacrificial system have been set aside, as Hebrews teaches. Those are no longer necessary; in fact, to go on in that system is to miss the point!)

Scriptural examples of spiritual sacrifices:

Offering our bodies as living sacrifices...

Romans 12:1 ESV

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.

This means giving God your very selves, and your whole selves. See, what comes next (in the passage) is “don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind to be able to test and approve God’s will.” And after that comes instruction to love and honor one another and work in unity to serve and proclaim Christ.

In Phil 4:18, Paul calls their generous gifts to the ministry an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

Philippians 4:18 ESV

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.

Other examples are a sacrifice of praise, and doing good and sharing:

Hebrews 13:15–16 ESV

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

In essence, then, everything you do in the Christian life should be done through Christ as a thank offering to Christ.

Distinctly Corporate

Again, do not lose the distinctly corporate flavor of all this instruction.

We are stones that live because he lives, and we are only useful as we are staying aligned with and dependent on the chief cornerstone. In order to accomplish this, we MUST be working in cooperation. That’s at least one critical point being made with this building metaphor.

I really like the statement made at this point by Wayne Grudem:

1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary 2. Abide in Christ—Together—As the New Temple of God (2:4–6)

The beauty of this new and living ‘temple made of people’ should no longer be expensive gold and precious jewels, but the imperishable beauty of holiness and faith in Christians’ lives, qualities which much more effectively reflect the glory of God (cf. 1 Pet. 3:4; 2 Cor. 3:18).

Unashamed & Honored

Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame (Paul in Rom. 10:11 also quoting from Isaiah 28:16) The context of Isaiah 28 is great for Peter’s purposes because it makes the point that those who trust in the Lord will escape judgment. Trusting in foreign alliances or in military strength would not do, only trusting in the Lord.

Not experiencing “the embarrassment of judgment but the glory of approval.” (Thomas R. Schreiner)

Honor is actually the subject of the sentence in v. 7. - Not only is it the case that those who believe see His value, but also that because of that belief they themselves will be honored.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (3) The Living Stone and Living Stones (2:4–10)

The life of Christ functions as a pattern for the Petrine Christians, for they too are despised by many, but they are chosen and honored in God’s sight, destined for vindication after suffering.

BUT NOT… Those Who Stumble in Disobedient Disbelief (7b-8)

Disbelief is the cause of disobedience, and disobedience is proof of disbelief.

The builders did what? Rejected the only true and perfect cornerstone?

They rejected the single most important stone that sets the foundation and squares the building? - How will their house stand? How will it not deviate from God’s design? It won’t.

Disbelieving, rejecting... the stone’s true value makes it to them…

Christ then becomes to them an object which makes them stumble (to their doom), a scandalous and offensive obstacle.

They set the cornerstone aside in rejection of it, and now He (Christ) becomes the very thing over which their trip to their doom. He has become to them an obstacle that to them is a scandal and at which they take offense.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (3) The Living Stone and Living Stones (2:4–10)

Their stumbling over the cornerstone is not accidental, as humans often trip unintentionally while walking. In this instance humans stumble because of rebellion, because they do not want to submit to God’s lordship.

God’s Responsibility and Ours

How he moves people’s hearts in drawing them to himself, that’s God’s work. How he moves political pieces on the world stage, raising up and tearing down nations and kings, that’s his responsibility. How all things turn out in the end for his glory and as a full display of his goodness, that’s God’s responsibility.

And yet the Bible repeatedly indicates that how we respond to God is our responsibility. Whether we trust him and obey him is on us. - The responsibility of our rejection or acceptance is always placed squarely on our shoulders. In that sense, what you do with Christ is up to you. You can reject him in disobedience to God’s revelation of him as Lord and Savior, or you can accept Jesus to be restored to God and made spiritually alive in Him.

How God’s sovereignty and human responsibility work together without contradiction is too much for our minds to fully grasp. But you can be sure that there is absolutely no contradiction or even complication in the mind of God. He knows exactly how, and why, this is the best way to bring him the most glory… through the hearts of those who respond to him in faith and live in fellowship with him by faith.

God deserves all the credit for saving us and making us his own, but he doesn’t deserve the blame for our rejection of Christ. (You may have a bit of a hard time understanding that or accepting it as so, but that doesn’t make it any less biblically true.)

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (3) The Living Stone and Living Stones (2:4–10)

People who stumble and disobey are responsible for their refusal to trust in Christ, and yet God has appointed, without himself being morally responsible for the sin of unbelievers, that they will both disobey and stumble.

We cannot allow our interpretation to be shaped by how the truth proclaimed feels to our human sensibilities. When the content and context leads to a particular understanding of the text, we sit under its authority. Rather, we must shape how we feel about God based upon the clear reasoning of truth presented in Scripture.

Application Review:

Coming to Christ on God’s Terms

Continually Drawing Near

The Foundation for Our Identity & Christian Service - Christ the Cornerstone

Related Media

Related Sermons