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Food for Thought: Living Stones

And like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house ...I Peter 2:5

Dr. Mark Ruppert

I Peter 2: 4-10  

As a young child my parents bought me Lincoln Logs. Maybe they thought I’d grow up to be an engineer or contractor or designer? Boy, did they ever get that wrong. How many of you remember Lincoln Logs or ever played with Lincoln Logs? I’m not sure which was more fun, the actual building or the destroying and tearing down of what I had built.

Speaking of building and tearing down: The Berlin Wall was

I can only try and imagine the emotions of those who lived through the building of the Berlin Wall and were there at the tearing down of that same wall and the fall of Communism.

You know God has called us to a life of building, not destroying; of creating, not tearing down.

When you read the first two chapters of I Peter you find Peter telling the believer to get rid of the evil in our lives and to grow up in our salvation. And then he goes on to tell us how to do just this. Just two Sundays ago we read where he used the analogy of a baby who craves for milk. Now Peter uses an analogy that is found many times in the New Testament to bring home the point of personal growth in a person’s spiritual life, or the building up of the Body of Christ, which is the church. And the analogy used is that of building a house.

We must remember that Peter is writing primarily to Jewish Christians who have been forced to scatter throughout Asia Minor all because of the persecution they were under as a result of their faith in Jesus Christ. So this analogy of Peter’s is even more specific than just building a house, it is the building of God’s house- the temple.

King Solomon built the original temple in Jerusalem in between 1,000 and 900 BC. And this temple was built under the first covenant of God with the Jewish people.

But under the New Covenant, God Himself is building the spiritual house or temple. And this spiritual temple requires a very specific kind of building material. The material that God is using is living stones, the very lives of those people who have become spiritually alive through their faith in Jesus Christ. And this building, which God is building, must begin with Jesus Christ, for He and He alone is the chief cornerstone.

What Peter does in our passage is put forth the very nature and function of the church. And so I’d like us to look at the 4 aspects of the church that he describes.

First, he tells us in vs. 4 that the builders rejected The STONE. What or who is Peter referring to?

Well, if you have your Bibles with you turn to Matthew21:33-42

(p. 24) where Jesus shares one of the most revealing parables, the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. Read along with me beginning at verse 33, “’Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him; threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures [and now Jesus is quoting Psalm 118:22-23]: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes?” What did Jesus mean by telling this parable? Only that the nation of Israel again and again had turned a deaf ear and refused to listen to the prophets that God had raised up and they persecuted them. And now this refusal came to a climax when they refused to recognize Jesus as the Son of God and He was crucified. But just as the Psalmist says in Psalm 118 and as Jesus quoted, “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.” And the stone that was rejected by the builders, by the people was Jesus Himself.

Second, Peter tells us in vs. 5 about the NATURE of the Church. Verse 5 tells us that the Christian is compared to a living stone and if you take the analogy further the Church is compared to a living edifice into which the Christian is built. And so if you have one Christian here and another there and another there they need to come together as community in order for the church to be built. And when you think about it the individual Christian finds his or her true purpose and place only when they are built into that edifice called the Church. But it takes each of us being built together, coming together for a common purpose of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with a hurting world for the Church to become a reality. It was C. E. B. Cranfield who once wrote: “The free-lance Christian, who would be a Christian but is too superior to belong to the visible Church upon earth in one of its forms, is simply a contradiction in terms.”

There is a famous story from ancient Sparta where a Spartan king went on and on about the walls of Sparta to visiting royalty.

The visiting ruler looked around and could not see any walls. He said to the king of Sparta , “Where are these walls about which you boast so much?” The king pointed at his magnificent troops and said, “These are the walls of Sparta , every man a brick.” And so taking the story of the King of Sparta and the brick, so it is with the individual Christian. Like the brick, if the individual lies by itself, it is useless. And yet when it is lined up and tied to another brick and another and another does it eventually form into a structure, a building. So it is with the Christian, he or she must be built into the fabric, known as the Church for their destiny to be realized, and they cannot do it alone.

And before I get to point three let me just highlight the last part of verse 8, which tells us that He, Jesus, is a stone who makes people stumble. Friends, whether we like to admit it or not people not only reject Jesus and the Gospel but they stumble over Him. As a matter of fact the Gospel can be down right offensive to some people.

It’s like this, to every person Jesus will either be the chief cornerstone, in other words the very Lord of his or her life or Jesus will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. There is no neutrality with Jesus and to ignore Him is to reject Him. Did you notice after 9/11 it was fashionable to talk in general terms about God in the public arena but did you notice that when the conversation turned to Jesus it became terribly uncomfortable. A few years ago I was asked to say the blessing before the meal at a soccer banquet that my daughter and family were attending. When I prayed I closed by saying something like this, “And I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.” Do you know I was not nor have not been asked to say the blessing again. Why, because I called, no one else, I called on the name of Jesus. At the table that our daughter was sitting one of the girls that attends a Christian Church questioned Rebecca why I prayed that way. And it was a Jewish girl who came to my defense and said to the other girl, “Why shouldn’t he pray that way? And besides, don’t you go to a Christian church?” Friends, the light of the world, Jesus Christ has come into the darkness, and the darkness continues to resist.

Third, Peter tells us in vs. 9 of the GLORY of the Church. What did God do for us? Look at the end of verse 9 for it tells us that God “called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Isn’t it great that we, as believers, do not have to grope around in the darkness anymore? And besides that, we read in verse 10 that God has made those who were not a people into the people of God. The Christian has moved from insignificance to significance. The greatness of the believer is not in him or herself but in what God has chosen us to do for God in this world. For we have a purpose, we have been created in the image of God and He calls us to be salt and light in a dark world. No Christian can be ordinary because we are a child of God with a purpose.

And fourth and finally, Peter tells us in verse 9 of the FUNCTION of the Church. Look at what Peter says about Christians. He calls us a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people. Now if these aren’t powerful words, if these aren’t words of affirmation I don’t know what is.

Think about it, we are a chosen race. We have been chosen for privilege where we can have an intimate, personal fellowship with God. We are also a royal priesthood where we have the privilege and responsibility to offer our work, our worship and ourselves to God. And we a people for God to possess for we Peter says we are God’s own people. You and I may be very ordinary people but because we are God’s we have new value all because we belong to God.

And when all of this is said and done, let me ask you what is our purpose? Verse 9 tells us very plain and clear that we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, [in order to do what?] in order that you [and I] may proclaim the might acts of [God].” That is our mission that is our calling.

You and I have been given a wonderful opportunity to come together as living stones whom God desires to shape and mold together into a spiritual house, which is His Church. May our prayer, may our desire, may our goal be exactly what Peter suggests, to let ourselves be built into a spiritual house that is worshiping, serving, witnessing to the mighty acts of God. Amen.

Key Points 

Introduction: Lincoln Logs; building and tearing down

August, 1961 the building of the Berlin Wall

November, 1989 the tearing down of the Berlin Wall

Peter ‘s analogy and the building of a house

Building God’s house- the temple

The New Covenant where God is building the spiritual house or temple

Peter puts forth 4 aspects of the church

First, he tells us in vs. 4 that the builder rejected The ______

Matthew 21:33-42

Second, Peter tells us in vs. 5 about the ______ of the Church  

Verse 8- Jesus is a stone that makes people stumble

Third, Peter tells us in vs. 9 of the _______ of the Church  

And fourth, Peter tells us in vs. 9 of the ______of the Church  

Conclusion: May our prayer, may our desire, may our goal be to let ourselves be built into a spiritual house that is worshiping, serving, witnessing to the mighty acts of God.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)