Intro/Review

A few weeks ago when we started going through 1 Peter, we started with the question “Who are you?”
- We talked about how people find their identity in many different places:
  - E.g. nationality, race/ethnicity/ancestry, family, job/career/hobbies, political affiliation, personality traits, labels/struggles
  - While some of these might provide useful information about you, they shouldn’t be where you find your core identity if you are a follower of Jesus Christ
- In 1 Peter 1, Peter identified three important aspects of our identity in Christ
  - (1-2) Chosen by God
  - (3-9) Born into a living hope
  - (10-12) Recipients of good news

In today’s passage, Peter tells us more about our identity in Christ and what that means about how we interact with society at large
- This is addressed to believers – to those who have trusted in Jesus as their Lord & Savior
- The original recipients were believers who were being marginalized in their society
  - They were facing verbal slander, malicious talk, and false accusations
  - Their society (family, friends, neighbors, employers, countrymen) were treating them as outsiders who should be regarded with suspicion or even hatred
  - Sometimes this animosity boiled over into full-scale government persecution. Some samples of how Romans spoke/thought of Christians:

“Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and destructive superstition” – Suetonius (Roman Historian describing events around 64 AD)

“Nero falsely accused and executed with the most exquisite punishments those people called Christians, who were infamous for their abominations. The originator of the name, Christ, was executed as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius; and though repressed, this destructive superstition erupted again, not only through Judea, which was the origin of this evil, but also through the city of Rome, to which all that is horrible and shameful floods together and is celebrated.” – Tacitus (Roman Historian describing events around 64 AD)

“[Christians] who persisted [in professing their faith] I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished…the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and farms.” – Pliny the Younger (Governor of Bithynia & Pontus in a letter written around 112 AD)

Wrapped up in Peter’s descriptions of who believers are in Christ is this understanding:
- “You are outsiders in the country where you live, but that is to be expected because it is no longer your home country”
- “Through God’s grace and mercy, you are now part of something far better”

(4-8) A Spiritual House & Holy Priesthood

(4-5) The Imagery

(4) Peter draws from Old Testament imagery (which he will directly quote in vv. 6-8) to describe Jesus as the living stone rejected by the builders but chosen and valued by God

(5a) He uses the exact same imagery of living stones to refer to believers!
- Our new identity mirrors who he is (for us, it is a work in progress)
- We can expect to be treated like him by the world: rejected, dishonored, and mistreated
  - He was at various times called crazy, evil, and dangerous and was ultimately treated as a threat to peace and safety that needed to be eliminated
  - When we see in our society increasing pushback and contempt for biblical beliefs we shouldn’t react with shock, fear, and outrage because rejection by the world is a normal part of being treated like Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior
  - And no human rejection or mistreatment ultimately matters because…
- We can also expect to be treated like Jesus by God the Father:
  - Just as Jesus is chosen, honored, and treasured, so are we
  - This sounds presumptuous but we know that by God’s grace it is true…it is what Jesus prayed for us when he was here on earth (John 17:22-23)

(5b) He is uniting us and giving us all a part to play in what he is doing in this present world right now and stretching into God’s eternal kingdom
- Similar to Paul’s metaphor of the body of Christ composed of many parts (us), Peter uses the illustration of a spiritual house built of many stones/bricks (us)
- “The structure will be complete only when the scaffolding of human history comes down and the kingdom of Christ is revealed in all its glory.” – Karen H. Jobes

(5c) Peter switches his illustration, and not only are we part of the structure of God’s spiritual house, but we are his holy priests offering spiritual sacrifices
- “Holy priests” emphasizes that we are people set apart to serve him just as Aaron and his descendants in the Old Testament were set apart to be the ones conducting the worship of God
- The once and for all sacrifice for sin has already been made in the death and resurrection of Jesus, so what are our spiritual sacrifices?
  - We praise him, thanking him for who he is and for what he has done, is doing, and will do (in song, in prayer, and to others – Hebrews 13:5, v. 9 below)
  - We dedicate our lives to holy living in service to God (Romans 12:1, v. 12 below)

(6-8) The OT Basis of the “Stone Rejected by Men & Chosen by God” Imagery

(6-7a) Peter paraphrases Isaiah 28:16 as a reference to Jesus – the precious/honored cornerstone on which the whole building (God’s “spiritual house”) depends
- He is the basis of that living hope that means the believer’s future is secure and glorious and the world’s attempts to shame us ultimately mean nothing
- Trusting in Jesus allows us to share in his glory (the word translated precious and honor are practically the same in the original language)

(7b-8) Peter then quotes from Psalm 118:22 & Isaiah 8:14 to show that Jesus’ God-ordained status as cornerstone has a different effect for those who reject him
- To reject Jesus the cornerstone is to stumble into sin and judgment
  - He is the only basis for true life and right relationship with God, and those who do not believe in him are setting themselves against God’s provision of salvation
  - That message was just as offensive to the polytheistic “worship any god you want, but don’t tell me mine is false” Romans as it is to pluralistic “everyone has their own truth so don’t tell me my path to God/spirituality is wrong” Americans
- This offense and rejection were not unforeseen:
  - Imagery: The cornerstone is laid and some trip over it and go off offended (“scandalized” connotation of falling into sin) rather than building their life on it
  - The fact that some reject Jesus and slander him and his followers is a destined part of the plan that laid that cornerstone
    - Lay (v. 6) and destined/appointed (v. 8) are the same word in Greek
    - Offense at the Good News of Jesus and those who share it doesn’t mean that God has lost control or that his plan is failing
    - Offense, slander, mistreatment, or contempt cannot change who God says we are:

(9-10) Chosen People of God

Peter strings together a bunch of titles found in the Old Testament that were originally used of God’s chosen people, Israel
- This does not mean that the church has completely replaced Israel in God’s plan any more than calling Abby my daughter means she has replaced Katie as my daughter
- It means that God has graciously chosen and drawn the church into a special relationship with himself as well

A chosen race
- Being the physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is no longer a defining factor in having a right relationship with God
- No other ethnic or racial identity has bearing on a person’s status and value before God – Christians, regardless of ancestral background are a united new sort of people
  - Engaging in the identity politics that characterize our country right now is a terrible testimony and incompatible with who you are in Christ
  - Looking out for the good of “people like me” above all else is to show sinful partiality (cf. James 2:1-13)

A royal priesthood
- Again, the idea of being set apart from society in general in a role of serving God
- Royal because we serve the King of the universe!

Holy nation
- Your home country whose values, laws, and praise you place above all others is no longer the United States of America:
  - Your primary loyalty is to the kingdom of God by whom you have been set apart (made holy)
  - This isn’t to badmouth the US (next week we’ll look at our responsibilities to the country in which we live), but to remind you that being an American should not be your core identity when it comes to how you live and interact with others
- Your true countrymen and fellow-citizens come from every human nation on earth
  - You have more important values in common with a believer in China, N. Korea, Iran, or Venezuela than you do with fellow Americans who live in your neighborhood and align with the same political party but are unbelievers
  - You are part of the unconquerable church of Jesus Christ made up of people from every tribe, language, and nation
  - Don’t tie your happiness and peace of mind to how religious freedom, moral laws, or general moral tone fare in the US – you are part of a holy nation that will prevail when our King returns

God’s special possession: The earth is God’s and everything in it, but those who are in Christ have a relationship with him that is different and closer than any other

Our common cause in this world is to proclaim God’s greatness…how he has saved us
- God took us out of the darkness of sin and rebellion into his glory (Marvelous Light by Charlie Hall, Sons & Daughters by Sovereign Grace Music)
- We were part of the mass of people who had no relationship with God, but now we are part of a group in closest relationship to him
- All of this is true not because we are more worthy/better than others (if this makes you proud of yourself you’ve missed the point) but it is true because of God’s mercy on us
  - He has shown us undeserved favor and complete forgiveness purely because of his great love
  - Part of praising and proclaiming God’s greatness is pointing others to that mercy and grace…helping them become members of this chosen race, priests in this royal priesthood, and citizens of this holy country

(11-12) Sojourners & Exiles

Because of our status of belonging to God, Christians are “visiting strangers or resident aliens, those who appreciate, respect, and value their host land but nevertheless maintain their own distinct identity within it” (Karen H. Jobes)
- Following the values and commands of God’s kingdom will keep us from fully assimilating into whatever earthly society we live in
- As “foreigners,” we need to live in a way that reflects well on our home country
  - Not like this guy feeding the stereotype of ugly American
  - Not like these people feeding the stereotype of hateful Christian
- In the coming weeks Peter is going to go into what that looks like but in general…

(11) We do not give in to the desires of the old self that contradict the values, principles, and commands of God’s Word
- When we stand out from society it should be because we are seeking to be holy (not because we knee-jerk reaction oppose anything that is popular at the moment)
- We recognize that yielding to desires for what God has forbidden is ultimately self-destructive even if society as a whole regards those desires as natural and good
  - Satan doesn’t tempt you with fun-sounding sin because he’s the party king of hell who just wants you to have a good time
  - He hates you and is out to destroy your life (cf. 1 Peter 5:8, John 8:44)

(12) While our kingdom values should cause us to live differently from society in some ways, we make an effort to live in a way that is not unnecessarily offensive
- We must not put an unnecessary stumbling block in front of people by words and behavior that is not Christlike (if they are offended let it be by God’s Word, not our hypocrisy)
- We should live in a way that reflects the love of God through good deeds to such an extent that if we are accused of being evildoers/hateful/whatever it does not ring true
  - Our defense is not engaging in “fighting fire with fire” name-calling and counter-accusations but in living as Jesus lived
  - To some people this will make no difference (remember how Jesus was treated)
- God can use a Christian’s life of loving good works to draw others to himself so that they too become part of his chosen people and join the celebration when Jesus returns to establish his kingdom in all its fullness
- Much more on what this looks like in the coming weeks

Applications

Trust in Jesus and become part of all this!
- It comes with temporary difficulties (Jesus talks about counting the cost), but the love of God and eternal glory far outweighs them all
- Trusting in Jesus means asking him to forgive your sins and make you new and trusting him to do just that on the basis of his death and resurrection…honestly telling him, “if you don’t save me, I’m lost.”

Stop tying your happiness, hope, and peace of mind to politics, current events, or the state of the nation
- By all means, pray for the nation, vote you conscience, enjoy the freedoms we have, be a good American citizen in every way a Christian can (“live honorably”)
- …but remember that this is not your true home or the source of your living hope – you are part of something bigger, and something better is coming

Live like someone who belongs to God
- Rejoice and take courage in what he has done for you and will do
- Pursue holiness (yielding to the Holy Spirit rather than sinful desires)
- Share his love
  - Through good deeds and honorable living
  - Through sharing the gospel – telling others about what he has done for you and can do for them

Book recommendation: Evangelism as Exiles – Life on Mission as Strangers in Our Own Land by Elliot Clark

1 Peter 2:4-12 – Who Are You? (Part 2)