The Cornerstone

Introduction

Have you ever built anything? I’m sure you have. The scale probably differs greatly among us as to what we’ve built. If you’re smarter and more industrious than I am, you may have actually built real structures. You may have built an outbuilding or maybe even a house, something even bigger than that. Maybe your building is limited to like a gingerbread house or a fort made out of popsicle sticks, but we’ve all built something.

Maybe my build biggest building project of my life. I peaked at a young age. But a good friend of mine, Steve and I, built a tree house. My uncle had torn down an old barn. And my dad had an old pop-up camper. So we had a lot of building supplies. And so we went out into the woods. My friend was the preacher’s kid. And so we went out into the woods across from the church building in right behind where the outhouse for the church was. And we found four trees that formed almost a perfect square. And we built a tree house. We elevated above the ground a certain amount, and we took some of that barn lumber and we connected those four trees and we laid the floor from that old barn lumber.

And I can remember it was so old and so hard that we bent more nails than we actually got to penetrate and go through the wood. And then we used the sides of my dad’s old pop-up camper, and that became the walls of our tree house. It was a beautiful structure, if you can picture it. And we kind of had to hit a pause because we used up all of our building materials for the floor and three walls. And so we were missing a front and a roof. And we were waiting because our parents did not financially fund this project. And so we were waiting until we got some more building supplies. But we couldn’t wait.

No front and no roof. My friend’s mother, Miss Jackie, lived in the preacher’s house, and so it was within walking distance of our tree house. And she said the worst thing she could have said to two young boys who grabbed up our blankets and sleeping bags and headed out to spend the night. She said, Now, boys, I’m gonna leave the back door unlocked in case you get scared.

It was so cold on that Alabama fall evening that we almost froze to death. That shabby structure, incomplete structure, provided no relief from the cold, from the wind. But we weren’t dare gonna go back home because she said she left the door open, not if we got cold, but if we got scared. And we didn’t want to appear scared, and so we spent the night. We did not sleep, but we spent the night shivering in that shambles of a tree house. We planned poorly. We planned poorly for that spend the night adventure, and we planned poorly for that whole tree house, because to the best of my recollection, we never finished that tree house. It never got a roof. I think we got a front, finally, put to it.

So my building project was a failure. Because it didn’t have full planning and full support and full knowledge of what we were doing. But this morning I want to talk to you about a different building project, a building project that had the greatest amount of forethought and planning, and an unlimited amount of resources. Turn with me, if you will, in the book of 1 Peter, chapter 2, where Peter, one of the men who helped assemble this building, is going to talk about a building project.

But also about the rest of the stones, the components that would make up that building project. And I want us to make that the focus of our lesson this morning. Would you begin with me by just reading our text, 1 Peter 2, verses 4 through 10, where the apostle says, coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it’s also contained in the scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, he is precious.

But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the word to which they were also appointed. But you, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who were once not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. If you’re a child of God this morning, you’re a part of that spiritual house, that spiritual building. If you’re not a child of God this morning, you can be a part of that spiritual building and that spiritual structure.

1. God’s View Is the Only Thing That Matters

At the end of this lesson, we’ll be extending an invitation and singing an invitation song. And at that time, you can let it be known that you want to be a part of that building. In fact, I don’t know if a preacher’s ever told you this. You don’t have to wait till then. You can interrupt this lesson. If you want to be a part of that spiritual blessing, that spiritual house, that structure that has as Jesus Christ as its chief cornerstone, do it when you’re ready. If that’s now, now’s the time. And so let’s talk about that building, that structure that has as its cornerstone Jesus Christ Himself. The first thing that I see, the first lesson that jumps out to me from this page is that it’s God’s view of things that is the only thing that matters.

He doesn’t just talk about this spiritual house that has been built up. He doesn’t just talk about it being God’s house and God built it, and God chose the stones that make up this structure, and that he chose the chief cornerstone, but he also talks about man’s view. Man in its most broadest sense, of the world’s view of this building, this spiritual house, and even of that cornerstone. But we see underlined in this text and throughout scripture that it doesn’t matter what man’s view of this is. It doesn’t matter what man’s view of Jesus Christ is. All that matters is God’s view. Do you see that? Look in our first verse, verse 4 again of chapter 2. It says, coming to him, if we had any doubt who the hymn is, it refers back to the hymn of verse 3, the Lord, whose graciousness we have all experienced.

Coming to the Lord as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious. See that juxtaposition of man’s view and God’s view rejected by men, but chosen by God. Now he was not wholly rejected by men. He had his followers. Twelve men who would lay their lives literally on the line to preach him and him crucified. He had numerous other followers that came after him, but largely so much so that despite even the great number of 3,000 who would give themselves on that first day that the gospel was preached, largely it was a somewhat universal rejection of the world. 3,000 sounds like a big number until you compare it to how many Jews would have been present. So rejected by men, but chosen by God.

So it didn’t matter what man would say. Despite what some of our religious friends and neighbors would say, Jesus planned to establish his kingdom was not thwarted by the rejection of men. There was nothing that man could do to stop the mission and the plan of God. He built his kingdom. He built his church. He built his spiritual house, regardless of the fact that it was rejected by men. That was the preaching of the New Testament, wasn’t it? Hold your finger there in 1 Peter 2 and go back to Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. That was the sermon outline of the apostles to the Jewish audience at least. Look in Acts chapter 2 and in verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, the man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. You, this is the you that Peter would say, rejected by men, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. Pause there.

The majority of the Jewish nation cried out, crucify him, crucify him, as Steve pointed out in our Lord’s Supper observance this morning. They rejected him. The Roman world, with the Roman government as its representative, just kind of took a passive view. We don’t care. We don’t believe. What’s another life? And so they rejected him. That was man’s view. You, by lawless hands, have taken him and have crucified him. But what was God’s view? Verse 24. Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. Man’s view, he was rejected, crucified. So the sermon outline, you think preachers repeat sermons today. Peter preached the same sermon through the first half of the book of Acts.

2. Coming to Him as a Living Stone

And that sermon was, you killed him, but God raised him up. And here’s the proof. Prophecy and eyewitnesses. You killed him, God raised him up. All that mattered was God’s view of Jesus Christ. Go back to our text in 1 Peter chapter 2, and let’s connect some thoughts together. Speaking of God’s view that was demonstrated in the resurrection, he said of this living stone, 1 Peter 2 verse 4, coming to him, again, our gracious Lord, coming to him as to a living stone. Now that’s a contradiction of terms, if taken literally, isn’t it? A living stone. Stone to them as well as to us, brings to mind an inanimate object that is not living.

Buildings were built not with living objects, but with in sense, dead objects. Dead in the sense that they weren’t alive. But this is a living stone. So the first thing that pops into our mind there is there’s something different, obviously, about this stone than the stones we’re created. He’s living in at least three senses. Number one, and maybe the most prominent sense in Peter’s mind is because raised him up. You killed him. That was your view, but God raised him up. And so he’s alive. He’s not dead. You put him to death, but it was not possible that death would hold its sway over him. And so he’s alive. So he’s a living stone in the sense that he’s alive. He’s not dead. That testimony alone proves that you, as mankind in general, you were, pardon the pun, you were dead wrong about him.

Because he’s now living. Living also, well, before we do that, look in chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be, we’re still in 1 Peter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He’s the living stone because he is alive. Secondly, he’s a living stone, and we come to him as a living stone because he gives life. He doesn’t just possess life himself. He hasn’t just received the resurrection from the dead. But as Peter said there in chapter 1, verse 3, we come to him with a living hope because he has been raised.

Having been born, speaking of Christians, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides again. We’ve been born anew. We have a new life. We have eternal life. Why? Because we’ve come to the living stone. He’s alive. He is life-giving. But also, this should bring to imagery again the idea that this is a different structure. This is a different house. That old house, the temple was again, was made with non-living stones. So we’re not talking about a physical structure. We’re not talking about some geographical location, a physical structure that we can taste and see and touch and feel, but we’re talking about a spiritual, as he goes on to say, a spiritual house. It’s a living, breathing, existing, and hopefully growing spiritual house.

3. All That Matters Is God’s View of Us

And that was God’s view of Him. And I want us to take away this point this morning. And that’s all that matters is God’s view. And all that matters, Peter will go on to tell us, is God’s view of us. We’re going to read and examine the rest of this text, but let’s tie these two thoughts together. It’s God’s view of Jesus that mattered. It’s God’s view of us that matters. And since we’re talking about spiritual things, a spiritual house, a spiritual relationship, a spiritual cleansing of our sins, a spiritual fellowship, rather than what we can see and touch, that is so tangible and right before our eyes. It presents a challenge for physical beings or spiritual beings in a physical existence. It presents a challenge for us.

Because what we can see is real to us. What we can’t see is more difficult to comprehend as being real.

And people that we can see and physically experience their reaction and estimation of us can therefore become more important to us than a being, though we recognize him as greater than all other beings, a being who is unseen to us. It’s easy to make his opinion less important than the opinions of the people that I can see and get immediate feedback. And let’s just be honest. Most of us, there may be some rare weird exceptions among us. But most of us like to be accepted. We like to feel like we belong, that we’re not out of place. And we either seek to avoid those circumstances and places that make us feel out of place. That’s why I don’t go in health food stores. Because I know the guy behind the cash register saying, are you lost?

This isn’t crispy cream. And so we avoid those places, or here’s an even greater temptation, a more dangerous temptation, is that we shrink away. Are we conformed to the image of this world that would make us accepted in their view? But I want Peter’s words this morning to remind us of these two things. Number one, they were wrong about Jesus, and they’re wrong about me. If I’m a child of God, and I believe that an unseen God lives, and that he sent his son to walk upon this earth, to walk upon water, to raise the dead, to heal the sick, to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, and to die upon a cross to wash away my sins, and rose a third day and ascended back to the Father and sits on the right hand, reigning and living with God.

And the world was wrong about him. And they’re wrong about me.

But they’re wrong about me too. And the second point is that I need to somehow, and this comes into the idea of the courage and the bravery and the faith that we have and the confession that we make. I somehow need to align my mind and my spirit to where I truly, not in word only, but I truly care about what God thinks and not man. And I admit that’s a challenge. But once I can meditate upon that and grasp that in my faith, that all that matters is how God views me. And please don’t take this to its illogical extreme. But as long as God’s view of me is as God would want it to be, and I would want it to be, I don’t care what man thinks.

4. You Are a Chosen Generation

And their view of me will not stop me from being a part of that spiritual house. Let’s finish our reading. You also, verse 5, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Notice this line, spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God in Christ Jesus. Just as they rejected that living stone, but God accepted him, you come as living stones, rejected by men, but accepted by God. And so he quotes three Old Testament prophecies that speak of the rejection of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 28 in verse 6, Psalm 118 in verse 7, and Isaiah 8, he quotes in verse 8. And after saying that the world and their view, they stumble and are disobedient, he says of us.

When he said of Jesus, that he was rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, you are a chosen generation. You who have been rejected by men, our chosen generation, a royal priesthood. He, our chief cornerstone, he is our priest king. We too. Because of our relationship to him and his view of us, we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Holy means set apart and sanctified for this purpose. It is God who set you apart, his own special people. That’s God’s view of you. And remember today, and the rest of this week and the rest of your life, that’s all that matters. This is his view of you. This is his purpose of you, so that, finish verse 9 in our lesson, that you may proclaim, the new King James says, proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

That you may proclaim, some translations say his wonderful deeds. I think the best translation is that you may proclaim his excellency. It’s fall break there, so we have some Florida College students here, and we have some Florida College alumni always in our audience. And I don’t know what society you’re in at Florida College, but I have to point out here that the only society that’s mentioned in the Bible is Arte. And that’s the word used here. That you proclaim his arte, his excellency, his wonderfulness, his worthy of praisness, who called you out of darkness, who called you out of that rejected world mindset, and into his marvelous light. Who were once, verse 10 says, who were once not a people, but now are his people? Do you see?

Conclusion

That’s all that matters. And so, to borrow a phrase, let’s get our mind right about what really matters. And about whose view of us matters. I want to be a friend of God if that makes me an enemy of the whole world. Would you be a friend of God this morning? Would you be a part of this spiritual house, this chosen generation this morning? You can do that by coming to him as living stones. Though you were not a people, you can be his people. Though you had not experienced grace, you can experience that grace this morning. Would you come to him? Can we help you be a part and see God’s view of you for what it ought to be? Why not come? Right now, as together we stand and sing.