LESSON THREE

1 Peter 2:4-12

The Living Stone and a Chosen People (v. 4-12)

	4As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  6For in Scripture it says:
	    “See, I lay a stone in Zion,
	          a chosen and precious cornerstone,
	     and the one who trusts in him
	          will never be put to shame.”
7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious.  But to those who do not believe,
	    “The stone the builders rejected
	          has become the capstone.”
8and,
	    “A stone that causes men to stumble
	          and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
	9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
	11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.  12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

	V. 4 As you come to him—We come to Christ for salvation for it can be found in no one else (Acts 4:12).  Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).  All men must come to Christ for salvation.  He invites all men to come to Him (Matt. 11:28, 29) and promises “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37).
	the living Stone—If there is anything that does not resemble life and vitality it is a stone.  A stone is hard, cold, immobile.  Yet Peter (whose own name meant “rock”) likens Jesus to a stone—a living one, however.  The term stone is used of Christ in prophecy (Ps. 118:22; Isa. 8:14; 28:16).  When the stone was rolled away the Living Stone came forth from the grave and is “alive forever more” (Rev. 1:18).  He ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25).  Jesus not only gave His life, He gives life (John 1:4).  
	rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—The greatest mistake a man can make is to reject Jesus Christ.  The consequences will be both eternal and horrible (John 12:48).  Yet, that is precisely what men did (and what men foolishly continue to do).  People reject Christ for a number of reasons, all invalid.
	Nonetheless, Jesus was “chosen by God” (see comments on 1:20) and is “precious to him.”  Just as I have only one son and he is the apple of my eye, so God-in a far greater sense—loved His only boy.  But He loved the world (you and me) more because “He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believed in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  Christ is the Father’s choice!
	V. 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house—A Christian should resemble Christ and so it is no wonder that Peter refers to Christians as zontes, “living” stones.  We are to be like the Living Stone (Eph. 2:19, 20; 1 Cor. 3:11).
	Have you ever seen a sign which reads, “Construction ahead.  Men at work”?  God is at work in the church.  He is building you and me into the spiritual framework of His church.  A stone by itself is useless; together they form a mighty edifice.
	to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices—Just as some mistakenly believe the church is a building, others think that only a few exceptionally holy people could ever be a priest.  Yet, just as Peter informs us that the church is a “spiritual” house, so he enlightens us as to who is a priest.  All who have come to Christ for salvation are His priests.  John praised Jesus because He “has made us to be...priests to serve his God and Father” (Rev. 1:6).
	As holy priests we offer “spiritual sacrifices,” our own bodies in the service of Christ (Rom. 12:1), our material gifts to the work of the Lord (Phil. 4:18), and the praise of our lips to His name (Heb. 13:15).
	acceptable to God through Jesus Christ—This statement lets us in on a vital truth: worship of God and service to God is acceptable to Him only when offered through Jesus Christ.  What does that do to the millions upon millions who attempt to worship God apart from Christ?  It renders all such efforts null and void.  How sad!  How tragic!  How avoidable if men will be shown that Jesus is the only way to the Father (John 14:6).
	V. 6 For in Scripture it says—Peter will quote Isaiah 28:16.  Paul does similarly in Romans 9:33.  Christ and the apostles constantly appealed to the Old Testament prophets.  The Word of God is our only appeal in matters of faith and practice
	“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone—This stone has already been identified as Christ (vs. 3, 4).  Peter, in Acts 4:11, has previously made the same connection.  This prophetic quotation reveals that God would place this priceless stone in “Zion.”  What, or where, is Zion?  It was one of the hills on which Jerusalem stood.  The term “Zion” eventually came to stand for all of Jerusalem itself (II Kings 19:21).  God, with purpose and intent, chose to build His church in Jerusalem with His own Son Jesus being the cornerstone.  For what is a building without a good cornerstone?
	and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame—The Weymouth Version says, “shall never be disappointed.”  There’s no disappointment in Jesus.  I used to play a game with my children when they were little.  I would swing them up in the air and place them on top of the refrigerator (an exciting but scary place to be when you’re just a child).  I would then stand back, reach out my arms and tell them to jump.  Their reaction was always the same—all six of them.  They would lean forward a little, give a nervous giggle and then, with eyes big as saucers, leap into my waiting arms.  I never disappointed them because they knew they could trust Daddy.  Isn’t that what this verse is saying?  Those who trust in Jesus and “long to rise in the arms of faith” will never be disappointed
	V. 7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious—Why do some Christians never miss a church service?  Always partake of the Lord’s Supper in a reverent manner?  Listen intently to each sermon, even taking notes?  Read their Bible every day?  Take time to be holy, speaking often with the Lord?  Do good to their neighbor and fellow man?  Because to them Jesus Christ means everything.  He is all the world to them, a priceless possession.
	But to those who do not believe—Unfortunately, Christ is not precious to everyone.  Even in His own day “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:11).  What a foolish and tragic mistake!  Scripture makes it abundantly clear that we must believe in Christ.  “If you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24).  There are hundreds of “excuses” given for not believing in Jesus but not a one of them is worth the paper they could be written on.
	“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone—Peter is now citing the words of Ps. 118:22.  How ironic and sad.  The ones who thought they were building God’s work rejected the very stone that was the most important one of all—Jesus Christ the capstone.
	V. 8 and, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall—The Holy Spirit has again inspired Peter to quote from Isaiah, this time Isaiah 8:14.  The picture is almost amusing, were it not so tragic.  Grown men—educated, religious men—continually tripping over a stone they themselves had discarded, having determined it to be inferior for God’s building!  Christ foretold that He would be a rock of offense to many (Matt. 21:42-44) and the apostle Paul confirmed the same truth (Rom 9:33; 1 Cor. 1:23).
	Christ is either a stepping stone or a stumbling stone, depending on what you make Him.  Faith will cause you to step on to greater things; doubt will cause you to trip and fall.
	They stumble because they disobey the message—If you catch pneumonia because you did not obey your mother’s instructions to bundle up before going out into bad weather, who is to blame?  If you continue to smoke cigarettes after your doctor has warned you that you may get lung cancer by doing so, whose fault is it when you develop the deadly disease?  The main reason why men stumbled over Jesus is because His teachings ran counter to their desires and practices.  “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
	which is also what they were destined for—How do we interpret this?  Are we to believe (as some most assuredly do) that God has foreordained certain men to be eternally lost; that there is nothing these men can do to save themselves, poor devils?  I think not.  Such would contradict the plain teaching in Scripture that God wants all men to be saved, that He doesn’t want a single soul to perish (II Peter 3:9; I Tim. 2:4).
	What, then, does this verse mean?  It must mean that anyone who is bound and determined to rebel against the teachings of Jesus Christ is going to suffer the consequences (John 12:48).  God has predestined a plan, not a man.  All who believe and obey that divine plan will be saved; any who disbelieve or disobey it will be lost (John 12:48).  God has predestined a plan, not a man.  All who believe and obey that divine plan will be saved; any who disbelieve or disobey it will be lost (John 3:36).  J.B. Phillips translates this verse as follows: “Yes, they stumble at the Word of God for in their hearts they are unwilling to obey it—which makes stumbling a foregone conclusion.”
	V. 9 But you are a chosen people—Peter now gives some titles that described God’s Old Testament people and applies them to Christians.  Israel was God’s chosen people (Deut. 7:6-8).  God chose the living Stone, Jesus (v. 4) and He chose the living stones, Christians, to be His people.
	a royal priesthood—Israel had a priesthood but the church is a priesthood.  Jesus, our high priest, has “made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (Rev. 1:6).  In the Old Testament there were sometimes conflicts between kings and priests (II Chron. 26:16-21).  Not so in Christ!  Truly, royal blood flows through our spiritual veins!
	a holy nation—There is to be a noticeable difference in the nation that serves God and those who don’t (Exod. 11:7).  This difference is called “holiness.”  We are called by God to be a separate, sanctified people.  Holiness of life is what separates us from the pagan world.
	a people belonging to God—We are not our own.  We have been bought at a great price (1 Cor. 6:20) and our lives should glorify God who purchased us with the blood of His Son (Acts 20:28).  God owns our life by right of creation...and redemption.  “Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me!”
	that you may declare the praises of him—If you’ve ever wondered about your purpose in life, wonder no more!  Here it is, plain and simple.  Your life is to be a constant declaration of praise to God for what He’s done for you.  “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Heb. 13:15)).
	who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light—Is there anything more frightening than darkness?  Is there anything more welcome than light?  And a cheery voice welcoming us into that light?  W.T. Sleeper wrote, “Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come; into thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus, I come to Thee.”  This wonderful thought is also expressed in II Corinthians 4:6 and Colossians 1:13.  
	V. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God—Even Israel, at one time, was not considered the people of God (Hosea 1:9, 10).  Gentiles were certainly not the people of God either (Eph. 2:11, 12).  But God, in His great love and mercy, took these spiritual waifs and adopted them as His own (II Cor. 6:18; Gal. 4:3-6; Eph. 1:5).  Anybody whom God has adopted is no longer a nobody but a real somebody!
	once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy—Living apart from God, we do not receive mercy.  Coming to God, as we are drawn to Him at first by curiosity, then wonder, then love for what He did for us on the cross through His Son Jesus, we receive mercy.  God delights to show mercy (Mic. 7:18).  It is only through the mercy of God that we can be saved (Titus 3:5).  In the great hymn “At Calvary” William R. Newell wrote, “Mercy there was great, and grace was free; pardon there was multiplied to me; there my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.”
	V. 11 Dear friends, I urge you—Several translations use the word “beg” here.  Peter is a man down on his knees begging his friends to refrain from sinful desires.  Are we as concerned about our Christian friends who indulge in worldly pleasures?
	as aliens and strangers in the world—The people to whom Peter was writing had been scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.  They were strangers in a pagan world and the world was strange to them just as it should be to us.  We are “in the world but not of the world” (John 17:15, 16).  When it comes to being up on the latest, we should be the latest to know.
	to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul—Sinful desires are something we will never be able to escape as long as we are in the flesh.  Jesus said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41).  But our human weakness is no excuse to indulge in sin.  To the contrary, the writer urges abstinence.  Why?  Because sinful desires war against the soul.  There is a battle raging in you between the flesh and the spirit (Rom 7:23).  If you do not realize that, the war is lost.  If you do realize it, call for the reinforcement of God’s Holy Spirit who is grater than Satan (1 John 4:4).
	V. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans—A pagan (or heathen) is someone irreligious, someone who does not recognize God.  Such was the world of Peter’s day and such is our own world.  We are surrounded by pagans wearing three-piece suits and Chanel No. 5.  A pagan is someone who does not recognize God and who give his life over to sensual, hedonistic, humanistic desires.  Such morally and spiritually bankrupt people need good examples in Christians.
	that, though they accuse you of doing wrong—How strange!  The very ones living in defiance of morality accuse decent, God-fearing, law-abiding Christian citizens of doing wrong!  The early Christian were falsely accused by pagans of conspiracy to overthrow the Roman state (because of their private assemblies), atheism (because they worshipped no visible god), cannibalism (because they ate the Lord’s Supper) and even incest (because of the “holy kiss”).  How clever and devious is Satan, “the accuser of our brethren” (Rev. 12:10).
	that they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us—A Christian should do good works, not to be seen of men (Matt. 6:1) but because we are seen of men.  Ogden Nash said, “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day.  I’d rather someone show me, than merely point the way.”  Even pagans can become burned out and disillusioned and start looking for something that really satisfies and lasts.  This is why we should let our light shine before men, so that they may see our good works and turn to God (Matt. 5:16).  
	What is the day God visits us?  The Greek word for visit (episkope) includes the idea of “inspection.”  Prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God said He would “go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me” (Gen. 18:21).  This could be a reference to God’s visit, inspection and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. (see Luke 19:44), or even the second coming of Christ and the final judgement of man.  In either case, pagans who had become Christians because of a good Christian example would find reason for rejoicing.

Study Questions

1.	In what way is Christ “the living Stone”?

2.	Why did men reject Him?

3.	What are some “spiritual sacrifices” we can offer to God?

4.	How are our spiritual sacrifices made acceptable to God?

5.	What is the significance of the cornerstone being laid in “Zion”?

6.	What makes Christ precious to some and commonplace to others?

7.	What was the great blunder committed by those who thought they were building God’s house?

8.	How was (is) Christ a stumbling stone?

9.	What is your view of those “destined” to stumble?

10.	What Old Testament terms does Peter use to describe New Testament believers?

11.	In what ways are Christians “aliens and strangers”?

12.	Why is it so important that we abstain from sinful desires?