The Hope of a Spiritual House and Better Sacrifices

Let me tell you a story about a bad dad and God’s redemptive grace in all things…Oh and by the way, that dad is me.

The story is about our son Tim – He loved loved loved LEGOs. Couldn’t get enough of them…

[Insert Picture of Tim in Store] This picture is in Italy and yet he was immediately drawn to this part of the store. All it took was purchasing one box and when we got home, he would disappear until he had perfected that creation from the very first brick to the last…

Let’s get to the bad dad part – He had so many LEGOs, in my opinion, there was no reason to buy another box set – He could create with what he had…and he did. For example, we had watched Star Wars as a family and then Tim again would disappear – we knew what he was doing based on the sound…then a couple hours later, sometimes the next morning he would emerge from his room with an X-Wing or another ship cobbled together with the parts he had available.

Here's were bad dad took it to the next level – “Cool Ship – but not so tough” and I would break off a part of the ship…I thought I was pretty funny – Tim would not agree.

Tim would start with that foundational piece and build around and on top of it until his creation was truly amazing…but what did I do…I rejected that building block and I broke it back down.

A lot of times, we wait until the end of the sermon to give you the redeeming piece…let me start there to share some hope…

Through God’s work in my heart to grow me as a dad, helping me choose to be less cruel, Tim was also exposed to the foundational truths of Jesus Christ. As my heavenly Father placed the cornerstone that would orient my growth towards becoming a pastor…He did the same for my son. A cornerstone on which a redeemed life has been built and now my son is up in Michigan serving as a Youth and Children’s Pastor. I may have rejected my son’s work, but God our Father never gave up on us to build out from His cornerstone…

I find hope in that simple story that came out of Everyday life –

That is our theme for this year as well – Hope for Everyday Life

As we study the first letter from Peter together – we find that He is posing a question to us – Where is your hope grounded?

• If it is in improving our circumstances – we have very little control over life and its events

• If it is in others – we have even less control over them

• If it is grounded in comfort, money, your job or any created thing – those can be lost in an instant.

We need a better hope to build on – something immovable – something that can weather all of life’s storms…

After last week’s sermon – my pray has been that we would all long for the word of God like a newborn baby…because that is where God will identify for us that first brick that He will then build upon and unlike LEGOs, it will be unbreakable…

Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 2, page 181 in the back if you are using the bible in your chair….

Let’s start by reviewing briefly where we have gone so far – one of the main themes so far has been that of a rebirth – Those who are in Jesus have been

1 Peter 1:3 ...born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

We saw this concept in verses 1:14, 1:23 and even last week in 2:2 being like newborn babies…we are born into a new family – one that is eternal, focused on building up and not tearing down, one capable of bearing the hope of anyone who would receive this new birth…

Peter is echoing the teaching of Jesus we see in John 3

John 3:3 – Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Even to Nicodemus, a teacher of the Law in Israel, this picture was unexpected and confusing. He still needed to learn to change his thinking…so he asked.

John 3:4-7 – Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

We need to learn to change our thinking too…so far Peter has helped us to see several unexpected implications regarding this new birth…

One of which is the unqualified hope that we can hold based on the security found as a part of this new family in Christ.

In our passage today – Peter uses another picture to help us grasp the hope…

He changes the metaphor from born to built – Peter transitions from new-birth language to construction language….

Now that we have been born again – what does it look like to build our live on that foundation?

If it is true that I have new birth in Christ – How will that change my Hope for Everyday Life ?

Let’s turn together to 1 Peter 2 to let the Word show us these truths…

[READ 1 PETER 2:4-10]

The title for our message today is Hope of a Spiritual House and Better Sacrifices

As we begin to break down the passage – we can know a couple of things from the clarity of God’s Word.

• We know what we are to build our life off of…Jesus, the cornerstone

• We know how we are to build our live…it is a work of God through conforming ourselves to the Cornerstone – Christ.

• And now I want to also explore the why…

If you were to build a building – it would be for a reason – you would have a purpose…and God is the one building here – and His purpose is to build the church, a spiritual house and we are a part of something larger than ourselves…We are a part of God’s building project. So let’s take a look at what our role is in this project…

Based on our passage today, we will explore 3 steps to take in order to offer sacrifices acceptable to God.

The first step inviolves…

I. Recognize that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone

Peter’s original readers would have been familiar with where this picture was taking them based on their knowledge and experience with worship in the OT.

The centerpiece of the OT system of worship came in the form of a building – right at the heart of Jerusalem – the temple…and it would have stood out for all to see…notice what one of Peter’s friends, one of Jesus’s disciples said in Mark 13…

Mark 13:1-2 – As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.”

Jesus was teaching them the temporary nature of that temple – in fact the temple they were looking at had been rebuilt after it was destroyed when Israel went into exile…and it would be destroyed again just a few decades later

If we are looking for a hope that lasts - Jesus is calling us to take our eyes off the building and look to the builder – see how Jesus responds when asked for a sign…

John 2:19-21 – Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

Jesu was pointing them to a hope in the worship of the King and his indestructible kingdom – the Cornerstone that would only be torn down one – in God’s plan – for our salvation…and then one resurrected – that cornerstones would never be torn down again for all of eternity.

Similarly – Peter is constructing a temple of a new kind in our passage today

1 Peter 2:4-5 – And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

I promised we will get to the why in the building…but first let’s spend a little time on the “what” – what we are called to build our life upon…

One of my favorite Worship songs we sing here – Christ Alone - Cornerstone

I am sure you saw the “stone” imagery throughout the passage …but it is imperative to understand the meaning of the cornerstone

A. Understanding the cornerstone imagery

Christ even refers to himself as the chief cornerstone in Matthew 21 – so why was that imagery so vivid to the original listener?

To see it the same, we need to ask what is a cornerstone and what was it’s function?

According to Robert Wild –

[The] cornerstone, [was] most often the large stone placed in the foundation at the principal corner of a building, but occasionally the top or final stone of a building – Robert A. Wild, The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, 156.

Carpenter and Comfort also say…

The most significant stone in important buildings is the cornerstone. Usually it is the first stone laid at a formal ceremony. Often it is engraved with the date of the building and perhaps some other ascription, honoring a person or an event. Thus, it should come as no surprise that Jesus is called the gōnia or “cornerstone” of the church – Eugene E. Carpenter & Philip W. Comfort, Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words, 259.

If the cornerstone is not perfect, the walls, the rest of the building will not come together the way that is intended…

So the one building the building would choose the cornerstone carefully, they may even place it as part of a ceremony and engrave it with dates and names of the builders…but if it was not to their liking – that stone would be rejected

B. Rejection from men and exaltation from God were both prophesied [Kari – note the reversal of order of this sub-point and 1 Peter 2:7]

And that was the prophesied reaction and the promised response of the Father…

1 Peter 2:7 ... “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,”

Sticking with the construction illustration - Think of the scandal that this would have caused –

• The expert builders – those who had gone to the “right schools,” worked tireless hours, learned under the right teachers and gotten all the certificates for their walls – these were the experts…

• And they rejected the cornerstone – it was considered useless and if used it would be thought to produce a disaster in the waiting – think about a the condos in Florida that just simply collapsed when the foundation failed…

And this was no surprise to God the Father or his Son…Mark 8 records that

Mark 8:31–32 31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And He was stating the matter plainly...

Not only was Christ’s rejected predicted by God – it was a necessary part of God’s plan.

When the builders rejected the cornerstone, they did not simply set it aside to the scrap pile and use something different – No they determined that the very existence of the cornerstone was dangerous to them and as such it had to be destroyed so that no one could possibly use this building block – it had to be crushed – it had to be turned into useless rubble…

But they did not realize what they were doing when the High Priest said

John 11:49-50 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, ⁵⁰ nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”

Caiaphas did not even understand the meaning of his own words…

God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, the perfect building would select the cornerstone that they had rejected…because even it’s destruction by men had a purpose –

The destruction of the cornerstone, Jesus’ death on the cross was needed to pay the debt, the penalty for our sin – there is no other way…

Then raising him from death, the Father would set Him as the perfect cornerstone, the foundation upon which everything else must be built…

And look at the beauty of those words in 2:4 – He is a living stone. God does not just use Christ’s death and stop there…

We can have hope because He resurrected Christ from the dead to be a living stone, choice and precious in the sight of God.

and so what will we do in the face of that truth?

II. Go to Jesus so that he can use you in his redemptive construction plan

Think about where you fit in in this illustration…

You are a brick – one…single…brick…but are you a useful brick?

Peter is certainly more kind in his words as he describes us as a Living Stone but there is a critical point that must be made before we can claim that description for ourselves…

Before God saves us – we are dead in our transgressions – we were dejected and lifeless bricks looking to build futile structures that would crumble and be destroyed just like the temple in Jerusalem.

Paul describes us similarly in Romans 3

Romans 3:10-12a – as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless…”

Using Peter’s illustration, when God saves…two things happen.

1. We go from lifeless bricks building lifeless buildings, to living stones to be used for God’s divine purpose

1. We are invited to be a part of Jesus’s master construction project – one brick by itself – even one living stone alone, does not a building make…

Friends if you have not chosen to make Christ your cornerstone – are you rejecting him as the cornerstone and attempting to build a life that ultimately cannot satisfy? It will disappoint you and ultimately it will not stand under the test of God’s judgement.

But God made a way – He sent Jesus to be rejected so that you do not have to be rejected, he sent Jesus to be crushed in this life, so that you do not have to be crushed and He sent Jesus to die a death for sin so that you may have life in Him by believing in His name.

Peter describes Him as “choice and precious in the sight of God.” Is he choice and precious to you?

If you have questions about Christ, questions about salvation, questions about building on His foundation – please do not leave here with out setting up a time to talk with someone on our pastoral team to look at what God’s Word says about your questions…

Peter then shows us the change when we choose Christ as our cornerstone… in verse 10 that you were once “not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received merc but now you have received mercy.”

Choosing the choice and precious cornerstone changes everything…because God also chooses us to be a part of what He is building.

So for those who have gone to Christ - are you being built up as a spiritual house along with your fellow living stones?

Let’s dig in even further in this passage to see what that means…

Jesus makes you (individuals) into living stones—like him (v.5)

1 Peter 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The question then becomes: how is Jesus making us more like Him?

First…

i. In suffering and rejection by men

We’re not quite there yet, but 1 Peter 4 says…

1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;

Suffering will make us like Jesus, because Jesus Himself suffered greatly

Just as a brick is shaped in the fiery heat of a furnace, so we are forged through suffering.

• But only if we actively seek to follow our Savoir in the midst of our fiery ordeal

• If you treat it as though something strange were, in fact, happening to you, it will serve to drive you further away from the Cornerstone and His likeness

Hebrews 13:12–14 – 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

But the Christian walk is not all suffering and sadness—we also reflect our Cornerstone…

ii. In preciousness and honor from God

and Peter reminds those of us who have accepted Christ as the foundational Cornerstone of our lives that…

1 Peter 2:6 ... AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

And…

1 Peter 2:7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe...

Disappointment (or “shame”, according to the Greek) is quite a powerful word

As we’re aligning our lives to the truth of the cornerstone, the truth of who He is and the truth that He teaches… the world continues to reject Him and reject us also because we are a living stone like him – rejected simply for what you believe.

• “you believe that? And you call yourself loving…”

• Or claims that the Christian life is one of oppression and suppression. How can you align yourself with anything that won’t just allow you to be you?

The world looks at our Cornerstone and still rejects Him, and in turn rejects us – are you disappointed in what you don’t have in this world?

But God looks at the Living Stone—as well as those built off of Him—and sees it as precious, and choice…a foundation that will never disappoint

And He wants to build something even greater…

B. Jesus builds living stones into a spiritual house—the church.

The image Jesus is pointed his readers back to is the temple, the place where God’s presence was, a meeting place between God and man…

But with living stones – God is building something greater…

1 Corinthians 6:19 – Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

This new building is not made of lifeless stones, but of the living stones, the men and women Christ purchased, Christ redeemed with His blood for this purpose that He would continue to dwell with His people.

We certainly fall short as we imperfectly live out our calling as a “holy priesthood “as we are described in verse 5 but our hope lies in a time God promises to dwell with us again in perfect unity.

Revelation 21:3 – And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

I pray that this fellowship sounds sweet to your ears as it is the hope of an eternal promise – In his house there will be many rooms and he is preparing one just for you…it won’t be just you and Jesus…then or now…

So as we choose to be a part of His redemptive construction plan, then we must do so along with the other living stones in the church that others would know who we are…can I challenge you in this area with the words of Christ himself?

John 13:35 – By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

• In your home, if someone could see through the walls when the doors are closed – would they see you loving one another?

• How about in the workplace – Do you know who your fellow living stones are? Do others see how you love one another? Or does it just look like everyone else?

• How about in the Church? If you find yourself lacking ion love for your brothers and sisters, you may need to pause and ask if you are truly a disciple of Christ…

Harsh? Yes. But so is verse 8 – they stumble because they are disobedient to the word and to this doom they were also appointed.

• I would rather give a hard shove to a lone Christian towards Christ and the Church than to miss an opportunity to warn an unbeliever of the pending doom…

Align yourself to the cornerstone and He will use you in His redemptive Construction Plan…

Then our third step…

III. Live out your exalted purpose in Christ

In the final phrases of todays passage, Peter expresses several titles that should describe the Living Stones of his church showing us a

A. A Multifaceted identity in Christ –

Verse 9 provides this list:

1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION...

The first point is a rather humbling one—Christians are…

• i. A chosen race

The word “genos” in Greek, translated here as race has a far broader meaning that how use the word race today – it is much more than Black, White, Hispanic or Asian, so instead of focusing there – consider the word describing it – Chosen

We are chosen – in other words, we did not choose to be a part God’s plan, we also did not earn our way, making ourselves special do that god would choose us – when it came to the initial material in the bricks, we were all the same…and yet God chose. He elected to choose us…and it was far from being a purposeless election…

He chose us to be

ii. A royal priesthood

The spiritual house that God is building is filled with a royal priesthood – We are described as Royal in the sense that we are all heirs with Christ, heirs to the King, heirs to riches of the kingdom – because why – because He chose us…

I will get to the duties and responsibilities of the priesthood in a moment, but first let’s see the calling to be a

iii. A Holy Nation

meaning that we are to be a people set-part – We are called to be different from the world…

Because of Jesus in our lives – a Living Stone should look different from the other bricks – of which we used to be one…

We are called to be Living Stones – A nation of living stones – not scattered abroad, but gathered together TO the Holy One to be a Holy Nation.

1 Peter 1:16 ...“YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

We are not off building our own temple, we are connected with the Cornerstone as a

iv. A people for his own possession

It’s His building, with His name on the front and we would not want it any other way…

Now back to the description as a Royal Priesthood, this is a key element of our identity that has been saved because it provides the most direct application and I save this for last because I want you to walk away answering the question…

What will I change on Monday because of what I heard on Sunday?

The middle of verses 5 and 9 give us the purposes of this spiritual house

• it is not to be just a reimagined temple of the old ways

• it is not just to be a meeting place between God and man

Rather this spiritual house provides the place where we can

B. Offer acceptable spiritual sacrifices (v.5, 9)

I recently finished reading Leviticus, and one of the things that jumps out is the job description, the general duties of the Levitical priests…

I am thankful that is not my calling, because if the people of God were faithfully obeying the commandments set forth by Yahweh, we would never finish slaughtering all of the animals for the sacrifices to the Lord….

So if not this – then what is Peter pointing to when he says

1 Peter 2:5 – you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Why are we being built into a holy priesthood? It is right there…to offer up sacrifices acceptable to God…

Under Mosaic Law the temple was a place filled with blood – a reminder of our sin…

Under the New Covenant – in this spiritual house, our spiritual sacrifices also point us to blood, this time the blood of the New Covenant, shed at the cross, once and for all – a reminder of our savior.

Our sacrifice is no longer that of oxen and lambs – sacrifices that could not satisfy a holy God

Rather, Paul phrases it like this…

Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well – that the Father is seeking those who worship in spirit and truth…

• He is looking for the Living Stones of the Church, His chosen and precious one who He declared to be a royal Priesthood…

• So may I ask you – Fellow Royal Priest of the Spiritual House of God?

• What are the Spiritual Sacrifices you area offering up?

• If it is our very lives that we are giving to Him? Can we ask…

• Is my job on the alter?

• Will I truly work as unto the Lord not seeking my own way or my own good? And will I trust in His provision?

• Husbands – will you truly love your wives as Christ loves the church giving himself for her?

• Wives – Will I truly seek to be the helper that God intended me to be putting other’s needs before my own needs or desires.

• Will you commit to raising them up in the discipline and instruction or the Lord? Even when that can be hard?

However you break it down…Are you willing to place it on the alter, as a living sacrifice to the Lord? To obey His commands? To love others before yourself?

Because what is the end result of it all? Why would we choose this?

1 Peter 2:9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Because God gets all the glory – It is His House after all…

Are you choosing to live as a part of it?

If so – I pray that we too would see our Savior as choice and precious in our sight – the Living Cornerstone – and that we would give our very lives to Him for we are His, a people for god’s own possession…

Let us Pray.