YOU ARE AMONG HIS UNIVERSAL PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS

Sermon Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10.

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 is 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 also were appointed. But 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 once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. We pray for these catechumens, Your dear children by holy baptism. As You are the chief Cornerstone, the true Foundation on which Your Church is built, be the Cornerstone and Foundation on which their life is built, because their faith is built on You. Let their faith always be built on you so that they proclaim Your praises as Your kings and priests, who are Your own possession, for You called them out of darkness to walk in Your wonderful light. Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth. Amen.

Dear people loved by God in Christ, especially Will and Arianna: I bring you grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

On Palm Sunday, the people were not just saying their own words. They were speaking from the liturgy they knew by heart, from Psalm 118, a psalm used annually at Passover, which spoke of the Messiah, the promised Christ.

When they said, “Hosanna! that’s from verse 25, which says, “Save now, Lord” – in Hebrew, Hoshiah-nah. As they said, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” that’s verse 26. But as Jesus was riding, did He think of another verse of the psalm? – verse 22: “The Stone which the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone.” Peter quotes that verse here.

Jesus was riding into Jerusalem in order to be rejected. He said this to His disciples almost a year previously, predicting that He would “suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk 8:31). Rejected. “The Stone which the builders rejected.”

This is the vital thing on Palm Sunday, to see Jesus riding forward to die for the sins of the world, to be rejected. But before we get to His death, just two days after Jesus entered Jerusalem He told a parable, He told it to the people conspiring against Him, a story about vineyard workers killing the Master’s Son. Then He quoted this same verse to them: “The Stone which the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone,” and it says, “they perceived that He was speaking of them” (Mt 21:45). On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, they did it. “Rejected indeed by men.”

It seems like there would be a dark cloud over Jesus riding in. But even though the wrath and stripes were hard to bear, and He suffered in great agony, this verse from Psalm 118 gives a brighter picture. It’s because of two words. It doesn’t say the Stone that’s rejected “will become” something, it says it – rather, He – “has become the chief Cornerstone.”

Jesus carried this with Him as a promise. No matter if they destroy Him, as far as they know, they cannot destroy Him. These words from Psalm 118 picture Him after the struggle, after His resurrection, as if it’s already done, His defeat of sin and Satan, His rising from death, so that now when our reading from 1 Peter uses this verse, he calls Jesus the “living Stone.”

So even as He rode forward, Jesus knows that He “has become” not some stone tossed aside, but the “chief Cornerstone,” the stone on which the whole glorious structure – His Church, His eternal kingdom – is built.

So we arrive at what this all has to do with you, especially you two and your confirmation. It’s about being part of Christ’s Church, His eternal kingdom. Here Peter is painting a picture, and showing that all that you’ve learned about Jesus – how He came down from heaven, was born of a virgin, lived a holy life, then died as a sacrifice, sacrificed Himself for all your sins on the cross, and rose from the dead – was really Jesus building something, something that includes you. It’s His Church! You can picture it as a great building, He’s the “Cornerstone,” the Foundation on which it all rests, and you – yes, you, Will! And you, Arianna! – are parts of the building, important parts. It says when you “come to Him,” that is, when you believe on Him, you come “to a living Stone” – Jesus, the Life – and find that you are “also living stones” – getting your (eternal) life from Him – “being built up a spiritual house.”

He built this for everyone. He wants everyone. “Christ died for all” (2 Cor 5:14). God “desires all to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4). but you don’t get to be His “living stones” automatically. Nobody deserves it, first of all. As you know, you have sins that you commit – things God forbids – and sins of omission – the good God demands but you fail to do. The Bible says, “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezk 18:20). Can’t be a “living stone” by your doing.

He built this for everyone. He wants everyone. “Christ died for all” (2Cor 5:14). God “is not willing for any to perish” (2Pe 3:9). But you don’t get to be His “living stones” automatically. Nobody deserves it, first of all. As you learned, you have sins that you commit – things God forbids – and sins of omission – the good God commands but you fail to do. The Bible says “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezk 18:20). Can’t be a “living stone” by your doing.

Here, Peter says that it’s possible to “stumble” over Christ the Chief Cornerstone, not to benefit from His death for you, to be condemned and cast out. This is due to not repenting, not believing. Many people sadly do this. Mostly, they let other things be more important. But then they lose this! But, Peter says, quoting Isaiah, that the one “who believes in Him will by no means be put to shame,” will absolutely not be condemned or lost. This is a promise! It’s by faith that you get to be His “living stones,” to be part of this building, connected to Jesus, to get life from Him.

What Christ builds isn’t some impersonal structure. He’s building you. He’s building you up into something: it says, “a spiritual house,” that’s what you are, “a holy priesthood” (we’ll come back to that), “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

It’s something no one can see. It’s spiritual, just as in His death, Jesus was building something no one could see. Peter couldn’t see it, he thought he had to defend Jesus with a sword. The disciples locked themselves in after Jesus’ death, Thomas went off God-knows-where,and  they thought it was all over. They couldn’t see that Jesus had already built His towering structure, His glorious kingdom that can’t be shaken. They only saw it when the risen Jesus appeared to them; then, their joy couldn’t be taken from them even when they were threatened with prison and death.

This is what God wants for you, Will, and you, Arianna. He wants you to have this joy. He wants you to enjoy what He’s won for you and gives you. He gives you this encouragement. He encourages you in your faith. He gives you eyes of faith, so you don’t judge by what you see with your eyes – judging by outward results, by your own achievements or apparent failures, or judging by how others treat you or judging by what the world thinks matters or is popular – but to judge with eyes of faith, which means to listen to God’s promises and count that as true and real, more true and more real than what you experience in this world. The great things God is doing are hidden from our eyes. They are known only by faith. You are to trust not what you build and achieve, but trust what God says He builds.

This is how you look at how you go forward from Confirmation Day. “You are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

He is building you. He says you are a spiritual house, a dwelling-place for Christ. “Spiritual” also means that the Spirit – the Holy Spirit – leads and directs you by constantly giving you faith through the Word. You don’t decide to be spiritual. If you have faith, that’s what you are.

He reveals – and this is definitely His plan for you two – that you are a “holy priesthood,” which he also calls the “royal priesthood.” What does this mean? This is an Old Testament picture. Priests in the Old Testament approached God, made sacrifices, and prayed. Peter says now this is what all Christians do. You’re always in God’s presence. The way you act as the “universal priesthood of believers in Christ” is, you “proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

You do this wherever you are. It can be through words, or it can be that you just do your work faithfully, as a Christian, to the glory of God. You can be what He made you to be, do the work He made you to do. Like birds in singing, or bees in pollinating, this is proclaiming His praises too.

There’s a danger in thinking that people who have a position in the church, like myself as pastor, work in spiritual things, but outside of that you work with merely physical stuff. Nothing you do is physical but not spiritual. It’s not like you always have to be talking about Jesus or the Bible to others, though it’s wonderful if you can. It’s that who you are in Christ defines you. You aren’t being spiritual only when you worship. Being spiritual means the Spirit leads you.

Your whole self belongs to God, body and soul. Whatever you do, do it to God’s glory. Because you have the confidence that you’re always in His kingdom. You’re a “living stone,”alive forever, through faith, in Jesus – the Way, the Truth, and the Life – who has redeemed you, spirit, soul, and body, and will preserve you blameless unto the end, by His grace. Amen!