Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

We now have the privilege to look at the Word of God

Please take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 2

Today we are looking at verses 4-10

Peter shifts direction from spiritual duty to spiritual blessings

He’s already told them they were “chosen” (1:1) and “born again” (1:3)

In this passage, he shows us who we are in Christ

Listen to what he says in 1 Peter 2:4-10

In this passage, Peter uses imagery and metaphors to show his readers who they are now

He pulls much of this from Old Testament

He said in verse 3 they had “tasted the kindness of the Lord” by “coming to Him” in verse 4

They had come to him for salvation, while the great mass of men rejected him.

(Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: James to Jude, ed.

Robert Frew, (London: Blackie & Son, 1884–1885), 135).

The “kindness” that Peter mentions in verse 3 is from the Lord and they were shown it at salvation

But that kindness didn’t stop at salvation

They now have the privilege of coming to Him in an intimate, abiding, personal fellowship (MacArthur)

Peter uses the compound verb for “coming” (proserchomenoi) in verse 4

It has the prefix “pro” and the word erchomai for added intensity

Their coming to Him shows the movement of the entire inner person into the experience of intimate and ongoing communion with Jesus Christ (MacArthur)

The present participle refers to the voluntary, repeated, or habitual coming of believers to Christ for sustenance and fellowship.

D. Edmond Hiebert, 1 Peter, (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1997), 129.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Here is a complete description of the Christian life.

It is a continuous "coming" to Jesus.”

Peter gives his first metaphor by referring to...

Jesus as a Living Stone (v.4)

This is an allusion to Isaiah 28:16 that Peter mentions in verse 6

God refers to this stone as “a tested stone, a costly cornerstone”

Peter uses the word lithos for stone that usually means a “building stone” (MacArthur)

Sometimes it refers to a “carved precious stone” (MacArthur)

The Old Testament refers to God as “The Rock” in Deut.

32:3–4

By referring to God as “The Rock,” He is the “building stone” or “foundation” and strength of His people

In the New Testament, that “building stone” or “foundation” is Jesus Christ

He is the rock (2:8; 1 Cor.

10:4) and the stone on which the church rests

Jesus is a “living stone” not a dead one

He died on the cross but rose from the dead three days later

In John’s vision of Jesus in Revelation 1:17-18 He said,

Jesus said to the Church at Smyrna in Revelation 2:8

Revelation 2:8 (NASB95)

8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this:

He told Martha that He is “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25)

But even as the living stone, Peter says He was “rejected by men” (1 Peter 2:4)

The apostle John said in John 1:10-11

William MacDonald says, “In their stupid, selfish, amateurish blueprints for life, insignificant, shortsighted men can find no place for their Creator and Redeemer.

Just as there was no room for Him in the inn, so there is no place for Him in the plan of their lives!

William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed.

Arthur Farstad, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 2257.

Jesus’ Messianic credentials were examined by the false religious leaders and rejected

Though He was “rejected by men,” He “is choice and precious in the sight of God” (v.4)

Matthew records these words at Jesus’ baptism...

He was ultimately authenticated by God raising Him from the dead

Peter now includes his readers and launches into their spiritual blessings in Christ

He begins verse 5 with the first blessing by saying...

I.

You Are Living Stones (v.5)

They are “living stones” just as Christ is “a living stone”

Calling them “living stones” emphasizes their union with and resemblance to Christ (Sproul)

As living stones they “are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (v.5)

What are those “spiritual sacrifices” that they are offering up that are “acceptable to God?”

Charles Spurgeon asks, “Will you not pray, will you not praise, will you not love?

These are sacrifices with which God is well pleased.

Spurgeon, Charles H.. Spurgeon's Commentary On The Bible: Spurgeon's Bible Commentaries .

Kindle Edition.

Spiritual sacrifices mean God-honoring works done because of Christ under the direction of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Word of God.

(MacArthur)

Each believer is God’s building

We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NASB95)

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

Verse 6 is a quotation of Isaiah 28:16.

Jesus is “a precious cornerstone and He who believes in Him will not be disappointed” (v.6)

Peter emphasizes “this precious value” as being “for you who believe” (v.7)

But “those who disbelieve, the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone” (v.7) “and, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.”

(v.8)

D. Edmond Hiebert says, “Men cannot escape the unique stone and its determining impact.

Reactions to the stone divide mankind into two classes: the believing (vv.

6b–7a) and the unbelieving (vv.

7b–8).

D. Edmond Hiebert, 1 Peter, (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1997), 137.

Unbelievers are appointed to “doom”

The idea in verses 7-8 seems to be that of a corner-stone which projects from the building, against which they dash themselves, and by which they are made to fall.

The rejection of Jesus becomes the means of their ruin.

They refuse to build on him, and it is as if one should run against a solid projecting corner-stone of a house, that would certainly be the means of their destruction.

(Barnes)

Not only are they living stones by the second spiritual blessing is found 9...

II.

You Are a Chosen Race (v.9a)

Before he talks about their election, he begins with a contrast

He says, “But you”

This is a direct contrast to the previous verse

This is a contrast between those who believe in Jesus Christ and those who do not (Radmacher)

He says, they disbelieve but you believe

They are disobedient, but you are obedient

They were appointed to doom, but you are appointed to eternal life

As Peter writes verse 9, he uses OT concepts

“a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession”

The first is “a chosen race”

This is taken from Deuteronomy 7:6-8 which says