Foreigners in a Foreign Land
God Builds His Church, the Temple of God
1 Peter 2:4-10
David Taylor
We are finishing the first of three mini series in 1 Peter, “Foreigners in a Foreign Land” (1.1-2.10) where we have been looking at what Peter writes to Christians suffering persecution. When finished, we will begin the second mini series, “Living on Mission in a Foreign Land” (2.11-4.11). Today's message is “God Builds His Church, The True Temple of God.”
Big Idea – God is establishing a spiritual house, with the people of God, those who put their faith in Christ.
We have seen in chapter one Peter encouraging those suffering by emphasizing that salvation is the work of God – God set his affection on them in eternity past, God caused them to be born again, and God is keeping them through their suffering. Now in chapter two he begins describe God's people as those being shaped by God's word and how the church is the new people of God.
Overview of passage: Peter describes those who long for the goodness of God come to Christ, the living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious to God. By faith in Christ we become living stones, who God using to establish a spiritual house, a new temple not built by hands but by God's Spirit with priests who offer spiritual sacrifices which are only acceptable to God because the work of Christ on our behalf.
Those who Long for Him Come to Jesus
Last week we saw that Peter commands us to get desire for the word. The bad news is that generating this desire is impossible; the good news is that what God commands, God provides. So we ask God for strong desires for the word and trust that he will give it. Now Peter describes people who desire the word as those who come to him. Those who long for the goodness of God in the word of God will come to him for spiritual resources. We come to him because he is precious. He is precious because through him we come to know God and experience the presence of God, and not his wrath. Without Christ everything is unacceptable, dark, and wrath. We come to him because he is alive and gives life to those who look to him for spiritual resources for life. We come to him because his word softens callous hearts and supplies grace to needy hearts.
We are Shaped into Living Stones
We are living stones because we are connected to Jesus, the living stone, by faith. By faith we partake of his life and his divine moral nature. Coming to him, having regular contact with Jesus, makes us fit to be shaped into stones to build a spiritual house.
We are Built into a Spiritual House
Christ builds his church. He builds individual Christ followers into a spiritual temple. It is spiritual because it is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit animates every aspect of it. Peter moves from speaking about individuals, living stones, to speaking about the corporate church, the spiritual house. As stones we are organically related to each other and are necessary parts of the spiritual house God is building. Peter is writing about the church because the church is central to God's purposes. He did not want them to be so distracted with life that they neglected God's spiritual house. Are you neglecting God's spiritual house?
We are Built Through Jesus Christ.
We are a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable through Jesus Christ. All that we do in this life is only acceptable through the gospel. Under the Old Covenant, there was a special class of people, priests, who mediated on behalf of Gods people, but with the coming of Jesus, all of God's people are priests who play a role in God's spiritual house. There is no special category of priest that mediates between God and us.
We are built as God's People
For Peter to call Gentiles priests offering spiritual sacrifices was a shocking statement to his readers. Let me give you a very brief history lesson to help you see why it was so shocking. Biblical history is called redemptive history, which describes the study of God's acts of redemption from creation to consummation. Listen carefully to my train of thought because it may be foreign to many of you. The tent of meeting went with Israel wherever they traveled. It was the place where Israel heard God's voice, experienced God's presence, where they met with God, and where provision was made for the forgiveness of sins. Then in the tenth century B.C. Solomon built this magnificent temple. When it was consecrated, God's presence and glory was so intense that the priest could not stand. This temple was at the center of life for Israel as God's people. It was the place where God showed up, where God spoke to his people, where provision for the forgiveness of sins was made. So you can begin to see why his readers would be jolted with Peter's words. But what does it mean?
Well, with the coming of Jesus, the temple and the Old Covenant became obsolete. John tells us, that Jesus 'became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.' The Old Covenant was characterized by promise, pointing Israel to Christ; the Old Covenant was a shadow of things to come, fulfilled in Christ. Everything the temple represented for God's people was fulfilled in Christ. In Jesus, you hear God's voice, you experience God's presence, you meet with God, and you receive the forgiveness of sins. Jesus was the ultimate and necessary sacrifice for his people; he is even called the true temple.
Then when Jesus ascended to the Father, God's glory now dwells through God's new people, the church. So for instance when Paul warns false teachers he does so because the church is God's temple and the motive for holy living is again because we are God's temple. Jesus even passed judgement on the temple. Peter is saying that God in history is building a new house, a new temple, where his glory can be seen. So to call Jesus the cornerstone and us priests was shocking because it meant that God has rejected Israel as his people. That is why Christians are called sons of Abraham by faith, not ethnicity; the church is called the Israel of God; the true circumcision, etc. That is what Peter means by saying we are honored and will never be put to shame. The clear, plain meaning is that the church is the fulfillment of the people of God. Israel is not longer the people of God; the people of God is the church, made up of Jews and Gentiles who come to faith in Christ. The people of God are defined by their relationship to Christ.
We are Built Despite Rejection
Verse 8 is a hard text. Many pastors ignore verses like this because they are controversial and hard to swallow. Others do exegetical gymnastics to cloud or soften the plain meaning of the text. To those who reject Christ, he becomes a stone of stumbling and rock of offense because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. The stone is unavoidable. It is like a boulder that blocks Pioneer Avenue. You have to deal with it – you can try to go over it or go around it or try to remove it but you cannot avoid it. Those who disobey the gospel, stumble over Christ. A Jew stumbled because he could not accept a crucified Messiah; anyone crucified was considered cursed by God. So Christ, the living stone, chosen and precious in the sight of God, becomes the means by which they fall and face God's judgment. Their stumbling is their own fault, for they are tripped up because they refuse to obey the gospel. Yet they stumble because they disobey the gospel as they were destined to do. There are two truths in Scripture that seem to be at odds in our minds but are not – God's sovereignty and human responsibility. God is supreme and sovereign – he has ordained, purposed, for all things to happen, including evil, yet does not sin in doing so. Secondly humans make real choices and are responsible for those choices.
