Welcome to Day 2369 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day 2369 – OUR LIVING HOPE – BECOMING LIVING STONES 1 PETER 2:4-12 – Daily Wisdom

Putnam Church Message – 04/28/2024 Our Living Hope – Becoming Living Stones  1 Peter 2:4-12 Last week, we will investigate the Reasons for Pulling Together as Christians within a church setting and throughout our lives. This week, we will explore how we, as God’s Chosen People, are Becoming Living Stones. Today’s passage is 1 Peter 2:4-12, and I will read it from the NLT because it provides a better flow of Peter's message for us in the 21^st century. ⁴ You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor. ⁵ And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests.^[a] Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. ⁶ As the Scriptures say, “I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,^[b] chosen for great honor, and anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”^{[c] 7} Yes, you who trust him ->recognize the honor God has given him.^[d] But for those who reject him, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.”^{[e] 8} And, “He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall.”^[f] They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. ⁹ But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests,^[g] a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”^{[h] 11} Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. ¹² Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.^[i] — 2:4-8 — In the opening words of verse 4, we're faced with a statement of fact: You are coming to Christ…, and then a question: what does it mean to come to Christ? He is the One who was “rejected by people, but he was Chosen by God” (2:4). Jesus is the cornerstone in Jerusalem, chosen for great honor by God. In other translations, Jesus is referred to as a chosen and precious cornerstone.  This passage is a quote in Peter’s letter from Isaiah 28:16: Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem,^[a] a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes >need never be shaken.^[b] Peter says that salvation by faith in the Cornerstone relieves disappointment (1 Pet. 2:6), which brings precious value to the believer's life. That's good news for those who have come to the Living Stone. But for those who have failed to notice that firm Foundation, that same Stone can become the thing that trips them up. Peter strings together images from Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 8:14 when he refers to a rejected stone. He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall. (1 Pet. 2:8). Given the context of the passage in Isaiah, Peter probably had in mind his fellow Jews who were rejecting Jesus as their Messiah (Isa. 8:14). Yet this text also has application to anybody who refuses to come to Christ, who was “rejected by people" (1 Pet. 2:4). Peter refers here to Jesus Christ. And, to answer our question from earlier, “What does it mean, coming to Christ?" refers not to our initial conversion but to our drawing nearer to God through our spiritual growth in fellowship with God and others. The Greek verb “coming" (2:4) is a present participle connected to the main verb of the sentence, “And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple." (2:5). Peter declares that by drawing nearer to Christ, we are being built up. Notice that this verb is in the passive, not active, voice. That means God is the One ultimately responsible for our growth. We participate and do so obediently, voluntarily, and actively (see 1 Pet. 1:14-15, 22; 2:1-2). But we should never let it enter our minds that we are ultimately responsible for our spiritual growth. As Paul said in another context, “I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow." (1 Cor. 3:6). We play our parts in our own >and others' growth toward maturity, but God is the Master Gardener who brings about the effects by His grace. We know Christ is the living stone, a precious cornerstone, and those who reject Him are bound to trip and fall. But what about those who believe in Him? Peter uses a unique metaphor for believers. He calls them “living stones" who “God is building into his spiritual temple." (1 Pet. 2:5). Where did Peter get this illustration of the people of God as a building? Back in the events recorded in Matthew 16, Peter confessed, “You are the Messiah,^[a] the Son of the living God.” (Matt. 16:16), to which Jesus famously responded, Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’),^[f] and upon this rock I will build my church (16:18). Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah is the rock Jesus refers to. LIVING STONES IN THE BUILDING OF GOD 1 PETER 2:5-8 First-century building practices often included cutting new stones from fresh quarries to fit them perfectly in place. However, a faster and less expensive way of gathering building materials was to use stones from old or toppled buildings, chiseling them to the appropriate shape, and fitting them into new buildings. Archaeologists often unearth buildings that incorporate many stones from earlier centuries. Some of these recycled blocks may even have traces of old inscriptions, revealing the original identities of those earlier stones. The early church saw these construction practices as a great metaphor for God's work in building His church with “living stones." Whether the stones come from new quarries (Gentile believers) or old buildings (Jewish believers), they both require cutting, chiseling, and shaping to fit them into a unified and stable structure. (Blocks) Paul frequently uses this image of God building His temple. Even after the apostles, |leading pastors of the ancient church continued to use metaphors of buildings, towers, and temples in reference to the church. Ignatius, a pastor of Antioch, was martyred early in the second century for his unwavering faith in Christ; he wrote to the Ephesian church around AD 110: “You are stones of a temple, prepared beforehand for the building of God the Father, hoisted up to the heights by the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, using as a rope the Holy Spirit.” Temples were common in the ancient world, the centers of worship and meeting places for encounters with the divine. By using the temple as a metaphor for the church, with its individual stones as members, Peter emphasized the unity of the body of Christ and the supernatural presence of the Holy Spirit as believers gathered for worship and communion with God. Even today, we're in the middle of an ongoing construction project. Christ is in the process of building up His church—those dead stones that are being quarried from the pit of sin, brought to life as “living stones,” and fitted into His glorious structure. Each time someone trusts Christ as Savior, another stone is placed into that living, growing church. Please understand that becoming a stone in a building of countless stones doesn’t detract from your significance. It enhances it! You represent a vital part in the outworking of God's plan. Without you, something would be missing. The wall would be weakened. Never underestimate your essential part in the larger community of Christ. In these verses, Peter draws out another analogy. Not only are we living stones in God's spiritual house, but we are “his holy priest" called to “offer spiritual sacrifices that please God." (1 Pet. 2:5). Peter repeats this description in verse 9—“a royal priest." There's a twofold implication of our call into the new royal and holy priesthood of all believers. The first is that we have unmediated access to the throne of God. Because of our relationship with Christ—our High Priest— “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God." (Heb. 4:16). We need no animal sacrifice to cleanse us, no earthly priest to serve as a middleman, no ritual or ceremony to give us access to the door to heaven. We have direct access to God. We can pray, “Our Father." The second implication of our priesthood is that we have the privilege—and the responsibility—of serving as priests on behalf of each other. We’re admonished repeatedly in the New Testament to intercede through prayer for each other and even confess our sins to one another. James 5:16 says, Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. Not every believer is gifted to be a pastor, preacher, teacher, missionary, or evangelist. But we are all called to be full-time priests. At a minimum, we're to “offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.” (1 Pet. 2:5). But what does that look like? The book of Hebrews gives us a clear indication of what kinds of sacrifices are appropriate for New Testament believers: Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. ¹⁶ And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God. (Heb. 13:15-16) >Praising God, thanking Him, doing good, and sharing are the kinds of sacrifices that please God. All of us can serve as priests in that “holy” and “royal” order (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). -2:9-10 — Besides being living stones in God's building and priests in His temple, we are also members of a “chosen people,” citizens of a “holy nation” (God’s Kingdom) (2:9), a new people of God “God's very own possession” (2:9-10), and the benefactors of “God's mercy” (2:10). For these designations Peter borrows language and imagery from the book of Deuteronomy, drawing an analogy between the nation of Israel as a specially chosen people of the Old Testament and the church as the special people of the New Testament. (Duet 7:6-8) ⁶ For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. ⁷ “The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! ⁸ Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Just as God called the people of Israel to be a unique nation with a special purpose among the pagan kingdoms, He has called the church to be a unique witness of Jesus Christ amid a wicked world. Now, our heads might swell at the notion that we're chosen by God—unless we realize this wasn't an election for which we campaigned. It wasn't something we earned or deserved. Just as the Hebrew people were not chosen for any merit of their own (Deut. 7:7), Christians were not chosen for their superior intellect, beauty, influence, or morality. When He chose us, He made us a “holy nation.” As we learned earlier, holiness means being set apart. As a “nation" among the nations, we are called for special purposes: “As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light." (1 Pet. 2:9). As such_; we are “God’s very own possession.” Think about how much the value of something ordinary increases if it has been owned by someone extraordinary. An old dictionary becomes more valuable if it was Abraham Lincoln's dictionary. A desk suddenly becomes more expensive and interesting if Winston Churchill wrote his famous speeches hunched over its worn surface. And, yes, an ordinary person takes on a different kind of significance if they are the personal possession of God Almighty (2:10). The fact that we are not our own makes a difference in how we live and for whom we live. That's the whole point of Peter's summary in 2:11-12. Renewing our relationship with God involves remembering our position in Him and responding to Him with hope, regardless of our circumstances.   -2:11-12 – (Bulletin Insert) In light of our new, unique, “called-out" position before God, Peter instantly turns the theological |into the practical. Our position as  “temporary residents and foreigners” to the world means we should live in a way that sets us apart from the attitudes and actions of our culture. These two short verses contain at least four simple yet urgent appeals. First, God’s royal priesthood must live exemplary lives (2:11-12). For unbelievers, the world is a playground of passions. But for believers, it’s a battleground of opposition and temptation. We must shout “No!" to worldly desires. Second, God's chosen race must leave no room for slander (2:12). The most compelling defense against false accusations by unbelievers is unimpeachable integrity. Denying false charges is easy. But there must be more. We must live lives that make those charges sound ridiculous to those who know us best.