Who’s Winning? - 1 Peter 2:6-8 Series

Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 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." 7 Now the honor is to you who believe, but to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone, 8 and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for. 9 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. 10 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.

Introduction:

A group of friends are all gathered around a big screen TV watching the big game, and you really wanted to watch it with them, but you show up late. It’s halftime. When you walk into the room, what is the first question you ask?

“Who’s winning?”

And what is the next question?

“What’s the score?”

What would you say if someone asked that about the war between good and evil in the world right now? Who’s winning? And what is the score? Imagine if you were in charge of keeping score. Somebody becomes a Christian, chalk one up for God. Some pastor embezzles money from the church, chalk one up for the devil. What if Mitt Romney is elected President this year – which side would you award that point to? When we have our big family get-togethers on the holidays we usually spend a good part of the afternoon playing games.

And somehow I always end up being the one who is tasked with keeping score, which is odd, given the fact that I am notorious for putting the points in the wrong column and messing up the score. I believe one of the main purposes of today’s passage is to teach us how to avoid putting the tally marks in the wrong column as we keep score on God vs. the Devil.

Review

We have been studying verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter, and the last two weeks we have been learning all about the identity of the Church. That is vital information for you because you are a church, and the most important activity in the world is the activity of the Church, so nothing could be more relevant. We have learned that the Church is to function as the new Temple – the headquarters for the presence of God in the world. And we are also to function as priests, offering pleasing, acceptable sacrifices to God in our worship and service.

God Always Wins

And Peter is not done. In verses 9-10 we get a whole bunch more information about what God expects the Church to be. But before we get there we have this section in verses 6, 7, and 8. And here the focus turns to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Cornerstone upon which the Church is built, and there are some very important things we need to know about that Cornerstone.

1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood…

So he interrupts his comment about us being built into a spiritual house with this remark about the cornerstone.

4 … rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him

The Difference between Man and God: Assessment of Christ

If someone asked you, “What’s the basic difference between man and God?” what would you say? Obviously there are a lot of accurate answers to that question, but the one Peter gives in today’s passage is one of the most important and fundamental, and it is one that probably none of us would think of if we were just going to mention one difference. The difference between God and man is the opposite assessments of Jesus Christ. Mankind has rejected Christ.

Rejected by Men

Take a look at verse 7.

7 … to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone

Remember last week when I was telling you about the amazing masonry that they had in ancient times – building stone structures with such amazing precision that we do not even know how they did it? Rome. Think about the guy whose job it is to inspect the cornerstone. How do you suppose a guy got that gig? That guy makes a mistake and you have got real problems. Spend 10 years cutting and transporting and lifting and setting in place 80- to 300-ton stones and after a decade of work the walls do not match up because somehow the angles on the cornerstone were off half a degree. I am guessing they did not give that job to a guy who is one year out of masonry school.