Living Stones

Living Stones

1Pe 2:2-9

It’s been said that in order for people to be happy, or to find fulfillment in life, there are three things that are necessary: First, they need something to believe. Second, they need someone to love. And third, they need something worthwhile to do. Now, I believe this. There needs to be more to life than just being or existing. We do need something to believe in. Something more than just cold, hard facts because that doesn’t stretch our minds or our spirits. It doesn’t fulfill our souls. We need something to believe in, something to have faith in.

And we also need someone to love and to love us in return, because life is lonely when there’s no extra special someone to share it with. And then, we must have something to do that’s beyond us, something that is worthwhile and far more than just drawing breath each day or bringing in a salary. There is much more to life than such mundane things. It’s those things that challenge us, that stretch us, that make us better and more fulfilled people.

In 1 Peter, I believe that we will find something that meets all three of those needs. We’ll find something to believe, something to love, and something that is very worthwhile to do. What we find in our passage today is that Jesus meets all those requirements. So if you will turn in your Bibles to 1Peter, chapter 2, or you can just follow along on the screen. But let’s look at verses 2-9…

1Pe 2:2-9 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, (3) if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (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. (6) Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHIEF CORNERSTONE, ELECT, PRECIOUS, AND HE WHO BELIEVES ON HIM WILL BY NO MEANS BE PUT TO SHAME." (7) Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED HAS BECOME THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE," (8) and "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. (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;

Now, I find it interesting that Peter makes reference to the church and building stones and such. I have no doubt that in his mind, when he wrote this, he was thinking of something the Lord said to him several years earlier. Mat 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

Now many believe that the Lord is saying that He will build His church on Peter, but I don’t think so. When the Lord said this, Peter had just made his great confession that he believed Jesus was the Messiah. So, I believe it was that same faith that Peter had, that confession he made that Jesus was referring to, and this can be supported by the fact that Jesus called Peter “petros” which is a small rock, or a piece of a rock, while the rock that Jesus said He’d build His church on is “petra” which is a huge and massive rock, a boulder.

Two different types of rock, a small pebble and a huge boulder. Peter himself was the small pebble but the faith he displayed in that confession was the boulder that the church is built upon. The Church isn’t built on Peter because Peter died and is gone, but the Church continues because it is built on the faith He displayed when he confessed Mat 16:16 …"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." After all, as the Bible teaches Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone should boast.

But I’m sure that Peter still had what the Lord told him in mind when he wrote this epistle, and in it he talks about the Church and how it was built, and how it functions. He declares that Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church (which is something for us to believe in), and then he moves on to the construction of the Church and how it’s built of living stones (which is something for us to love), and then finally he speaks of the character of the Church, that we are a holy nation, a royal priesthood who offer spiritual sacrifices to the Lord (which lastly, take care of our need to have something to do).