A Holy Priesthood
Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10
Introduction
I watched a show where scientists tried to make a smaller model of the great pyramids to learn how the ancients had accomplished the feat. They measured and cut the giant stone which would serve as the guide and cornerstone, as they levered the other stones on top it became clear that their original calculations were wrong and their pyramid would remain fatally flawed.
In the ancient world precise stone work was crucial to any major building project, it is this metaphor that Peter uses to communicate to us our collective identity in Christ. He speaks of us not only as "living stones" used to build a spiritual temple but also as a Holy Priesthood serving in that same temple which is the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Proposition: Each of you who has put your trust in Him for salvation is a living stone placed on the foundation of Christ, and taking your primary identity from Him.
Interrogative: But if we are to understand who we are in Christ as Peter explains it in this passage we need to know what it means to be "living stones" and a "holy priesthood."
Transition: As we look at this passage today rather than taking it apart verse by verse or even looking at each metaphor in turn, I’d like to look at several themes that run throughout the passage each of them relating to our identity as a People of God. The first thing I’d like you to notice is that we are a people who have been...
1.Chosen
This is a theme that echoes back to us from the first time that we looked at First Peter. If you recall we made a special point of the fact that we were selected by God--not that we sought him but that He sought us. That point is made again in our text today as Peter repeatedly refers to us as a "chosen people." But remember now that we as a people take our identity from our King. We as chosen ONES are identified by the chosen ONE. And it is that ONE that our text refers to first...
4. As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him
6. For in Scripture it says:" See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
Christ is the Chosen One, chosen from the beginning of time, chosen as both the fulfillment and the beginning of God’s plan. He is the Cornerstone and we are all built upon Him
ILLUSTRATION: The tower of Pisa had a problem with it’s foundation, it was a source of shame for its builders, but the Scripture says we who are built into Christ’s house will never be put to shame.
Not everyone recognizes Him as the perfect foundation, some chose to reject Him and build on their own foundation or to look for another, but those who choose to yield their lives to Him are themselves Chosen...
9. But you are a chosen people,
This is terminology straight out of the Old Testament. Israel is God’s chosen people. But Peter here is writing to a predominately if not completely gentile church. What is he saying? He is saying that Because of Christ the true foundation all we who are part of His temple are the remnant of Israel, we are spiritual Israel. The People of God through the saving work of Jesus Christ, the chosen one.
Secondly, as the people of God we are...
2. Changed
God doesn’t just choose us and say "eh, they’ll be good enough." As the ultimate stonemason of living stones he makes us right, we are changed to be what is needed for the construction of His Holy temple...
9-10. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Notice the focus here, "you are a holy people" holy because the blood of Christ cleanses us from sin, Yes, but holy also because by His spirit we live holy lives.
Those of you who are astute recognize that this is the point of last week’s sermon, Peter, under the Spirit’s inspiration, urges us to holiness because it is in fact part of our identity: who we are in Christ. We are changed, by the blood of Christ.
Once we had no collective identity--we were not a people--now we have the identity of Christ--we are the people of God, Once we were lost in sin, now we have received His mercy--not only in the fact that our sins are paid for but mercy in the fact that we are set free from sin’s bondage in our day to day lives.
We have been Chosen, and we have been changed. Next we will look at the collectiveness of our identity. As the people of God we are...
3. Connected
Throughout this passage it is collective identities that are emphasized
In verse five Peter says that we are stones being built into a spiritual house--this is a collective identity. You don’t look at a cathedral and say, my that’s a lovely brick, no it is the connectedness of the stones that makes their identity as a spiritual house.
In verse 9 we are referred to as a "nation" and as a priesthood. Verse 10 emphasizes the point that one of the ways we are changed is that we are given a collective identity. Before we were not a people, now we ARE A PEOPLE.
This collective identity extends in the passage to those who do not build their lives on Christ. These are those who rejected him "the stone that the builders rejected" This seems to be not individuals who reject him but the rejection of national Israel--who ironically were previously the "chosen people of God." Certainly this doesn’t mean that the Jews cannot or are not saved, Peter Himself as well as all of the authors of the New Testament is Jewish. This is simply an echo of what John writes in the introduction to His Gospel:
John 1:11-12 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
To those who reject Him because He is not what they expected He becomes a stumbling stone. And then there is that troubling phrase "which is also what they were destined for." Remember first of all this is a collective identity, so, I believe, we are not talking about God rejecting certain individuals by forcing them to disobey and stumble. Secondly remember that they stumble because of their choice to be disobedient, to not yield to Christ. The point is that just because men may reject the cornerstone, God’s temple plans are not affected, in fact God Knew all along who the bricks in His temple would and would not be.
C.S. Lewis once wrote that ultimately we are all servants of God, but there is a great difference in serving like Judas and serving like John.
Forgive that little sidetrack but I don’t think it’s fair to just leave a difficult verse hanging. And I know that there are those who would interpret it differently, and some of them might even make it to heaven. But that’s the best I can do with it.
But back to Our collective identity. As living stones God cuts each of us to fit into place in His temple. You may not like having your hindquarters chiseled off so that you fit in with your neighbors, but it’s part of God’s blueprint because in the church our identity is connected.
Finally as the Chosen, Changed Connected people of God we have been...
4. Charged
We’re not just here for a group hug. We have been given a charge... There’s a job for us as priests of the most High God.
ILLUSTRATION. Here in the chapel we put out an advertisement that we needed to hire a "Part-time Priest." Tongue-in-cheek I told my Catholic colleague I didn’t even know there was such a thing.
Serving the lord is a full time job. We have been charged in verse 5 to "Offer Spiritual Sacrifices." Exactly what are those sacrifices? Certainly no longer the blood of Bulls and Goats, The Sacrifice of Christ Himself is the all sufficient sacrifice. We are instead offering Sacrifices of Praise, look at verse 9
"that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light"
How do we declare his praises? Certainly lifting up our hearts and voices in worship is a part of it but, it would be a mistake to stop with that.
The passage says more literally that we should "show forth his praises." Our calling is to praise him with our testimony wherever we go. At school, on the Job, in the neighborhood, the words of our mouths should declare his praises. We should let those around us know how our lives are better because of Jesus. Furthermore our lives should SHOW how we have been changed by Him. My boss, my neighbor, my family should know what it looks like when someone has been shown mercy.
And an important piece of that is that we should celebrate in a very public way our collective identity our connectedness.
Let me tell you something, the world is hurting for relationships, if we want to make life in Christ look appealing to the lost we should highlight the fact that salvation means being born into the best family in the world:
"I’m so glad that I have my sisters at Protestant Women Of the Chapel, who I can call when I have an emergency baby-sitting situation"
"I don’t know how I’d keep balance in my life either if it weren’t for my men’s study group"
"I know how you feel, when my wife and I first arrived we felt so out of place, but then we started going to a home fellowship group and we were instantly connected with a real family."
Arguing theology may never win a convert, but showing forth his praises by showing what it means to be a part of God’s chosen people almost certainly will.
We are charged with showing his praises.
Conclusion
Chosen
Changed
Connected
Charged
