INTRODUCTION
Do you remember playing that “What do these things have in common?” game when you were younger? You’d have to look at a group of pictures or a list of words and determine what the common denominator was. For example, if I say: “Black, Brown, and Grizzly…What do these three have in common?” They’re all bears. You get the point.
Let’s try another one: A Calendar. A Palm Tree. A Singles Bar…What do these three things have in common? Dates! A calendar has dates on it. Dates grow on a type of palm tree. And people go to a singles bar looking for dates.
Let’s try another one: A massage. A mint. Glasses. Scented candles. Headphones. Answer: All of these items affect one of the five senses.
What about this: Tiger Woods and the Boston Red Sox. What do they have in common? Cheating!
And one more: (Show Toy Story pictures)…They are all toys, yes. What else? They are all from Toy Story, yes. What else? They all belong to Andy!
Not too long ago, our 3-year old Olivia and 2-year-old Elizabeth were in a Toy Story obsession…watching each Toy Story movie, one right after the other, over and over again. Well, I began to notice a theme that weaves throughout each movie. And that is, identity.
You know the story: The cowboy, Woody, confronts the space ranger, Buzz Lightyear, with the fact that he is only an action figure and not really a space hero. Then Buzz attempts to fly, trying to prove that he is, in fact, a space ranger. He leaps off a railing and suffers a big fall. Grief-stricken and disillusioned, Buzz hangs his head in resignation. Then Woody encourages Buzz with the timely message that he belongs to Andy. This is a most important reminder for Buzz!
See, anytime Woody or Buzz or any of the other toys forget who they are, depression and hardship always seem to follow. But when they remember they are Andy’s much-loved toys–his prized possession—they flourish!
So, let me ask you this: as you look around this room, what do you see?
People younger than you?
Older than you?
Skinnier than you?
People of different race?
People of different political affiliation?
People of different economic status?
What about when you look in the mirror? What do you see?
Do you see an insecure and hurting person?
Do you see someone exhausted from marital conflict?
Do you see a liar?
An adulterer?
A sinner?
Or do you see a friend of Jesus?
Do you look in the mirror and see someone who can never be separated from the love of God?
Do you look in the mirror and see–no longer a sinner–but a saint who has been redeemed by Jesus and adopted by God?
See, these are all questions of “identity.” And the Bible has a lot to say about our identity. Once you put your trust in the Lord Jesus and follow Him, there are a lot of things that become true of you; of who you are.
As a follower of Jesus, you are God’s child.
You are Christ’s friend;
you are justified;
you are redeemed and forgiven;
you are complete in Christ;
you are forever free from condemnation;
you are God’s workmanship;
you are His co-worker;
you are God’s prized possession!
This last one is the aspect of our new identity that we’re going to focus on today: We are God’s prized possession!
We’re going to be looking at 1 Peter 2:4-10, which reveals to us several realities of being chosen by God as his prized possession.
BACKGROUND
So a little bit of background first. 1st Peter is a letter written by the apostle Peter. Everyone remembers Peter. What we remember most about him is his denial of Jesus. Mention the name Peter, and even those who don’t know much about the Bible seem to be able to recall a rooster and a guy named Peter who swore he didn’t know who Jesus was. That same Peter—the one person everybody figured was all washed up—actually became one of the pillars of the early church.
About thirty years after witnessing the Resurrected Jesus, Peter finds himself in Rome writing this letter to a group of Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor, which would be modern day Turkey. These were Christians who were, for the most part, very poor. They felt like they were the least of society. They were looked down upon. And their persecution was on the rise.
So, 1st Peter is a letter of hope in the midst of suffering and persecution. Peter writes to strengthen and encourage his readers in the very face of their problems—he wants to remind them who they are as children of God.
It’s against this backdrop that we’ll look at today’s passage. A backdrop of uncertainty. A backdrop of hopelessness. Of insecurity and discouragement. It’s against this backdrop where God, through Peter, reminds these first century Christians and us 21st century Christians that we are God’s prized possession.
Again, we’ll look at several realities—or aspects—of this truth; of our being God’s prized possession. The first reality is simply this:
I. God has placed us in a new community.
As his prized possession, God removed us from the realm of death and darkness, and He placed us in a new, life-filled community, what we call “the church.” And Peter has two things to say about this new community. (1A) First is that it is a community built upon Jesus.
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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.
Notice that Jesus is referred to here as a “living stone,” reminding us that Jesus is the living One, raised from the dead, who gives new life to those who believe in Him. Those who reject Jesus and His offer of salvation are like dead stones. But, for those of us who know Jesus personally, He has given His life to us, and we, therefore, become living stones. We are living stones founded upon the Living Stone.
So, what Peter is saying, “As we, believers, come and worship Jesus, we need to remember that Jesus, the living stone, was rejected by men. But in the sight of His Father, He is chosen and precious. In the same way, all of us Christ-followers are like living stones, being built up as a new community, a spiritual house.”
Then Peter goes on in verses 6 through 8:
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.”
7 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,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
Now, there’s a lot going on here. But realize that Peter is weaving together two strands of Old Testament prophecy, Isaiah 28 and Psalm 118, to paint the picture of Jesus, the precious cornerstone, who many reject. See, the cornerstone was the most important stone of any building. It was the focal point of a building, it’s what established the design of the building, and the structure of the building itself is supported by the cornerstone.
The point Peter is making is that, from beginning to end, the church—this new community—is built on Jesus Christ. He alone is the foundational cornerstone on which the church is built. To the person who has faith, Jesus is the “chosen and precious” cornerstone, as Peter says.
But of course, not everyone accepts Him. To those who don’t believe in Jesus, he isn’t their cornerstone, he’s an offensive stumbling stone, as Peter says in verse 8: “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” The image, here, which Peter borrows from the prophet Isaiah, is of a person walking so intently in pursuit of a specific goal that the person stumbles and falls over a rock lying right in the path. In other words, all those who refuse to worship Jesus, stumble over Jesus.
But, for those of us who do set our lives upon Him, we become part of this new community! This new community that is built upon Jesus. And another thing Peter says about this new community is that (1B) it is a community made up of priests.
Let’s look back at verse 5 again:
You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.
When Peter talks about a “spiritual house” meant to be “for holy priesthood,” he was thinking about the Temple. The Temple was central in Jewish society because it was the worship center of Hebrew culture. In its most basic sense, the temple was a physical and earthly place that God chose to make His presence known. It was a place for worship and a tangible reminder of God’s presence and blessing.
And when Peter wrote this, the Temple in Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed. So, he’s thinking of the magnificent white marble, and gold, and precious stones that went into that beautiful structure. And he’s thinking about those who have the highest positions of service within the temple. Who would that be? The priests, right. Thousands of years ago, it was the priests who served God in the temple. Being a priest was a big deal! You couldn’t just go to seminary and get hired as a priest.
In order to be a priest, you had to be born into a special family among the nation of Israel. And a priest’s primary role was to mediate between the people and God—to go to God on behalf of the people and to go to the people on behalf of God. Not only that, being a priest included entry into the special courts and holy places of the temple—places forbidden of others. So, understand that being a priest was a privilege beyond comparison.
So, what Peter’s saying is that—as beautiful and magnificent the Temple is—now, those of us who comprise this new community are even more beautiful and splendid than the temple, because we are God’s new temple—His new “spiritual house.” And beyond that, we are also the priesthood that serves God in this new temple. This is huge!
Have you ever thought of yourself as being part of a priesthood? Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought, “Well, aren’t you one handsome priest?”
Many of us come from Catholic backgrounds, and even for those who don’t, we live in a heavily catholicized region. So, when we hear the word “priest,” we immediately think of an old dude wearing a white collar. And we certainly wouldn’t think of ourselves as “priests.”
But, that’s what we are! We are a holy priesthood! And, as a result of being priests, we have direct access to God. We don't have to pray through anyone else. We don’t have to experience God through anyone else. And we don’t receive forgiveness from anyone else. You and I have direct access to God, made available by Jesus, whom the Scripture calls our “Great High Priest.”
We are God’s prized possession. The first reality of being chosen by God as his prized possession is that he placed us in a new community. And the second reality is that God has given us a new identity.
II. God has given us a new identity.
Peter lays out several aspects of this new identity in verses 9 and 10:
9 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. 10 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.
What a beautiful description this is of how special we really are to God. As children of God, first…
1. We are chosen.
This idea of us being a “chosen race” refers to God choosing us to be his special people. By our spiritual birth, we have been born into a new race of people, people whose Lord and Savior is Jesus Christ. But it’s God who sought us out. Peter says, “you are a chosen race.” In other words, “you’re accepted by God.” He chose you! He called you by name!
It’s like those days in middle school phys. ed. when it came time for the captains to choose teams. If it was kickball, or dodgeball, or baseball, I didn’t mind, because I usually got picked quick. But soccer? I hated it. Too much running! And I wasn’t good at it. So, the captains would begin choosing their team: usually a combination of the best athletes and the most popular kids. As more and more kids went to their sides, I’d stand there in line, feeling like a loser, just hoping that I’d hear my name uttered by one of the captains, praying that I’m not the last one. Because the last person is never actually chosen, he just ends up on one of the teams by default. And, if it was soccer, I likely ended up on a team by default.
But what God does is radically different! He stands there as the captain and, even though it’s the sport or activity we stink at and even though we’re the worst athletes and the least popular kids, God looks us in the eyes and says, “I choose you!”
We need to understand how transforming this is! If you are someone who has trusted in Jesus to be your Savior from sin and your Leader for life, you are acceptable to God. Get that! See, so many of us spend our entire lives trying to earn acceptance. We seek it from our parents, our peers, and our partners. Our desire to be accepted influences us in so many ways: The kind of clothes we wear, the kind of car we drive, the kind of house we buy, the college we attend, the person we date or marry, even the career we choose.
Acceptance is absolutely fundamental to humans. And until you realize that God accepts you, in Christ, you will be running around restless and anxious, seeking acceptance in anything and everything but in the God who has already accepted you!
“But yeah, Ken, easy for you to say. You’re a pastor. Of course God accepts you!” Guess what? It’s not what you do that causes God to accept you. It’s what Jesus did on your behalf! You can never do anything in and of yourself to somehow earn God’s acceptance, because your acceptance is based upon something outside of you. It’s based solely upon the salvation that Jesus secured for you with his death and resurrection! God looks you in the eyes and says, “I choose you!” Not only are we a chosen race, Peter also says that we are a “royal priesthood.”
2. We are royals.
Remember, Peter already called us a “holy priesthood.” But now, he twists it a little bit different so as to say, “Not only are you a holy priesthood, but because of who your King is, you are a royal priesthood!” In other words, “we are royals”!
Back in 2009, The Washington Post ran a story about a secretary in Washington DC, by the name of Peggielene Bartels. Peggie was born in a small city in the African country of Ghana, called Otuam, but she came to the US many years ago. Well, in early 2008, she received a phone call that awoke her at 4am. It was a relative from Ghana. And the news she received was unbelievable.
The 90-year-old king of Otuam had just died. After the elaborate selection process the town elders use to determine who will inherit the throne, it was decided that Peggie is the royal successor. The article said this: “[Peggie] endured three months of sleepless nights as she weighed whether to take the throne. She asked herself, ‘Why me?’ The turning point occurred one morning as she drove to work... A voice inside her said: ‘You can't escape it. It's yours.’” So she accepted the royal post.
The article concludes: “When she steps off an airplane in Ghana …she will be royalty…”
Have you ever thought of yourself as royalty? Yet that is exactly what we are! We are royal because we have been born again into the royal line of King Jesus. You are royalty—you are a prince or princess in the greatest Kingdom—the only kingdom that will never pass away!
This doesn’t mean your surroundings or your circumstances are going to change; but it should change everything about you. You are different. You are among unrecognized royalty. When you gather here for worship on Sunday mornings, you are a royal amongst other royalty.
You can trace your lineage back to a great King, and you have it on the best authority that one day you will reign alongside him. We are a chosen nation and we are a royal priesthood. Then, Peter gives us another aspect of our new identity: We are holy.
3. We are holy.
To be “holy” means to be “set apart.” So, to say that we are a “holy nation” is to say that we, as Christ-followers, are part of an other-worldly kingdom that belongs to God. We are set apart from the world and dedicated to Him. We belong to Him in a way that other people do not. And, because we belong to a holy God, we should reflect that holiness.
There’s a book out called, unChristian, written by researcher David Kinnaman. In the book, he highlights a number of troubling statistics from an extensive study of those born between 1965 and 2002. One of these stats revealed how people outside the church view those within the church:
He writes, “Of the non-Christians surveyed, 84 percent said they personally know at least one committed Christian. Yet just 15 percent thought the lifestyles of those Christ-followers were significantly different from the norm.”
Let me ask you: As you look at your life, is “holy” a word you would use to describe your lifestyle? Is “holy” a word others would use to describe you?
God sees us as a holy nation. He sees you as holy. God transformed you and placed you in your neighborhood, your family, your school, and your job, to impact the culture, and to be a light in the darkness. So, while we live on this earth and live in this nation, we need to remember that we live as those who follow the King of our true country. We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and, next, Peter tells us that we are “a people for” God’s “own possession. To put it another way: we are valuable!
4. We are valuable.
On April 14th, 1912, the Titanic crashed into an iceberg in the mid-Atlantic and sank four hours later. There’s a story of one woman on the Titanic who had already found her place in a lifeboat. She suddenly thought of something and asked if she could go back to her room. She was given only a few minutes to do so. So, she got out and ran across the deck that was already at a dangerous angle. She ran through the gambling room that had money piled ankle deep on the floor. She ignored it all. She came to her room and ran inside to a shelf above her bed. There, her jewelry box sat. In it were all of her diamond rings and bracelets and necklaces. But she shoved the box aside and it crashed to the floor. Behind that box, sitting on the shelf, were three small oranges. So, she grabbed them and ran back to the lifeboat and climbed on board. She preferred the oranges to the diamonds because they were of so much more value.
You see, as a believer in Jesus, you have been rescued into his lifeboat of salvation. Like the woman going back for the oranges, Jesus went to the cross for you. Why? Because you are valuable to him. You cannot begin to comprehend the incredible worth you are to Jesus. In the value system of our culture, you may seem like nothing more than an orange in comparison to a diamond. But to Jesus, you are the most precious treasure in all the world.
The Scriptures say, "You have been bought and paid for by Christ, so you belong to him." (1 Cor. 7:23). See, no higher price could have been paid for you, than the price paid at the Cross. Jesus gave his life for you and Jesus didn't die for junk. We are chosen, we are royals, we are holy, and we are valuable.
And, Peter reveals one more aspect of our new identity, in verse 10. He says, “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.” In other words, “you are forgiven!” We are forgiven!
5. We are forgiven.
If you have been born again by trusting in Jesus for your salvation, then you were forgiven. You passed from spiritual death to spiritual life, and you became one of God’s children. This message of God’s forgiveness is one that you need to let soak in. God no longer views you as a rebellious sinner in need of mercy. He looks at you and sees a righteous saint whom He has already forgiven.
It’s unreal how many Christians walk around in shame and guilt over past failures and sins. We have this tendency to take God’s complete and perfect forgiveness and filter it through the incomplete and imperfect lens of our experiences. But when we do that, we miss out on the joy and freedom that comes from understanding how loved and precious to God we truly are.
When God says that we are “His people” and that we “have received mercy,” He is saying that, “Our sins have been wiped out. Gone. Erased. Our past has been purged.”
See, God doesn't rub your sins in. He doesn't rehearse your sin, like we do when we’re offended. Your sins have been paid for by Jesus, on the Cross. So instead of walking around with guilt and shame and sadness, rejoice in the fact you belong to a God who loves you and forgave you.
Let me illustrate it this way: If you spend a few hours around my family, you would quickly realize that our 3-year-old Olivia is very sensitive and very emotional. There have been a handful of times when this scene plays out: She disobeys me, realizes that she was wrong, then says to me, “I’m sorry, Dada.” I get down on her level, embrace her, look her in the eyes and say, “Livie, I forgive you and I love you so much!” Then, she gets teary-eyed, begins to cry, and runs away to hide her face in the couch, because she still feels guilty and ashamed. If only she knew how much that breaks my heart. To see her hide in shame after I forgave her, crushes me, because she refuses to embrace my forgiveness.
So how much more do we break the heart of God when we refuse to embrace the truth that, in Christ, He has totally and entirely forgiven us?
We are God’s prized possession! He has placed us in a new community. He has given us a new identity. And He has assigned to us a new purpose.
III. God has assigned to us a new purpose.
Let’s look at verse 9 one more time:
9 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.
Or, as another translation says, it’s “to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”
There was a national survey from last year which showed that young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 believe that having a clear purpose in life is a big part of being an adult. The problem, however, is that most young adults don't feel like they've found that sense of purpose. According to the survey, only 43% of young adults said they have a clear picture of what they want in life, and only 30% know why they are here.
See, there are people who go their entire lifetimes searching for meaning. But followers of Jesus never need to question their purpose. God has assigned to us a new purpose of making known to others what He has done in our lives. Each one of us should be a walking display of His power, and grace, and mercy.
God has placed you in a new community. He has given you a new identity. And God has assigned to you a new purpose of proclaiming His wonderful work in and through your life. You are God’s prized possession! We are God’s prized possession
We never need to question who we are. We never need to worry about being accepted. We never need to fear rejection. And we never need to fear what others think about us, because who God says we are is infinitely more important than what others say or think of us.
CONCLUSION
There’s a Christian author and blogger named Jesse Rice. One of his blog posts is titled, “An Open Letter To My Imaginary Audience.” I want to read this letter to you. Here’s what he wrote:
Dear Fear-Of-What-Others-Think:
I am sick of you, and it's time we broke up. I know we've broken up and gotten back together many times, but seriously…this is it. We're breaking up.
I'm tired of overthinking my status updates on Facebook, trying to sound more clever, funny, and important. I'm sick of feeling anxious about what I say or do in public, especially around people I don't know that well, all in the hope that they'll like me, accept me, praise me…
Because of you, I go through my day with a cloud of shame hanging over my head, and I never stop acting. The spotlight's always on, and I'm center stage, and I'd better keep dancing, posturing, mugging, or else the spotlight will move, and I'll dissolve into a little, meaningless puddle on the ground, just like that witch in The Wizard of Oz. I can never live up to the expectations of my…audience, the one...whose collective voice is louder than any other voice in the universe.
And all of this is especially evil because if I really stop and think about it, and let things go quiet and listen patiently for the voice of the God who made me and the Savior who died for me, in his eyes, it turns out I'm actually—profoundly—precious, lovable, worthy, [and] valuable… When I find my true identity in Christ, then you turn back into the tiny, yapping little dog that you are.
So eat it, Fear-Of-What-Others-Think. You and I are done. And no, I'm not interested in "talking it through." I'm running, jumping, laughing you out of my life, once and for all. Or at least, that's what I really, really want, God help me.
