CWA- Epistle Lesson - Easter 5 - - Kieth Bernard Kuschel
I Peter 2:4-10
(4) As you come to him, the living Stonerejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him {5} you 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. {6} For 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." {7} Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone," {8} and, "A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the messagewhich is also what they were destined for. {9} But 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. {10} Once 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.
IA1 In the ancient middle East there weren’t a lot of wooded areas. So, what were most houses made of? Mud brick or baked clay. What were the houses of the wealthy and the big buildings made of? Cut and quarried stone.
2 How do you know Peter is not talking about a physical stone house in the text? The first stone mentioned is called a {4}living stone. How did the living Stone get to be in its present position? God chose Him{4} to be the Living Stone. Who is Peter talking about? Jesus, true God from eternity, who has Life in Himself, who became human so He might take His position as the most important stone in the spiritual house.
3 This living Stone is precious{4} to God. Why? Sons are always precious to Fathers. But this Son was valuable enough to carry out God’s plan to be the payment for the sins of the world. Valuable enough to provide forgiveness for the world. Valuable enough to offer eternal life to the world.
4 What is the function of this living Stone? He is the {6}cornerstone or capstone. The cornerstone was the first stone placed on the foundation. The rest of the building rested on the foundation through the cornerstone. The vertical and horizontal lines of the building were run off the faces of the cornerstone. Thus the cornerstone provided support and guidance for the rest of the building.
B1 Who are the rest of the stones in this spiritual building? The people to whom he was writing. We are the {5} living stones being built into a spiritual house. Who makes us into the living stones in this spiritual house? God does. When do we become living stones built into a spiritual house? When He brings us to trust that Jesus lived and died and rose to give us forgiveness, holiness and eternal life.
2 Why can we be called living stones? Because Jesus, who has life as an innate characteristic of Himself, has given us two kinds of life. When He set up the ability of humans to reproduce, He gave us physical life. Because He lived and died and rose for us, He gives us forgiveness of sins, His holiness and eternal life. We are physically and eternally living stones.
3 Peter further says, {6}“the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” When the Holy Spirit leads us to lean our whole spiritual weight on Jesus in the same way that the building leaned on the foundation through the cornerstone, the building will not collapse. Jesus won’t let us down. When the floods of sin, and the
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tornadoes of unbelief come smashing into us, our strength provided for us by our attachment to the cornerstone won’t fail, because the cornerstone is solid and unfailing. We won’t ever be embarrassed spiritually for trusting in Jesus our Cornerstone.
C1 Does everybody have this lofty opinion of Jesus? No. {4}He is rejected by men. If you would take a survey of the people in your life, what percentage of them would think Jesus is the God-man who lived and died and rose to provide all of us with forgiveness, holiness and eternal life? Not a very big percentage. Does that mean Jesus isn’t the Savior? No. He isn’t Savior because a majority voted Him into the job. He is our Savior because God put Him into the job.
2 Do all the spiritual leaders in our world have this lofty opinion of Jesus? No. {7}The builders have rejected Him, wrote Peter. The people who are in charge of building the spiritual house. If the message is: Allah is God and Mohammed is his prophet and, oh by the way, so is Jesus, they are not building on the Rock. If the message is: you can talk to John, Paul and Mary and they can get you to Jesus, they are not building on the Rock. If the message is: you’ll keep getting more chances to get intimate with god even if you don’t succeed in your present life, they are not building on the Rock.
3 What happens when we don’t build on the Rock? Then Jesus is {8}"A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the message.” All human beings on our own are self oriented and non-spiritual. All human beings on our own react to Jesus with comments like: “What do you mean I have to trust in Jesus to be right with God. I am good enough on my own for God to be happy with me.” So, on our own we disobey God’s message to trust in Jesus but instead stumble over Jesus and fall away from the Lord rather than being united with
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Him. Lord, thank You for loving me so much, even though I don’t deserve it, that I haven’t stumbled and fallen over You, but You have made me a stone in Your spiritual house, built on a Rock.
IIA1 What does Peter call us living stones in verse 9? Chosen people. God picked us out to be living stones. Why? Because He loves us. Not because we are better at being spiritual than other human beings. We aren’t. Not because we are better at being godly than other human beings. We aren’t. Just because He loves us in spite of who we are and what we are like on our own. He chose us . That’s a good thing.
2 He calls us people belonging to God.{9} Why do we belong to Him? Because He created humans and gave humans the ability to reproduce. So He is responsible for our existence. But we belong to Him for another reason. He bought us. Jesus’ blood bought us back from the guilt of our sins. Jesus’ death bought us back from the punishment we deserve because of our sins. Jesus’ suffering hell when He said, “My God, why have you forsaken me,” bought us back from hell. Jesus’ holy life, lived as our Substitute bought us back from our lack of holiness. Jesus’ resurrection bought us back from an eternal existence apart from God. We belong to God. That is a good thing.
3 Peter calls us a holy nation.{9} Sinless in God’s sight. Why? Sins washed away in the blood of Christ. Covered with the holiness Jesus lived in our place. Acceptable to God. Able to belong to Him. Able to be in His family, His nation, His people. Able to be living stones in His house. We are holy in His sight. That is a good thing.
4 He calls us a royal priesthood.{9} We are kings. We are not controlled by anything. We are in control of everything because we
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are connected to Jesus who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. With His power active in our lives, our greed, our instant messaging, our sexuality, our anger, etc can’t control us. We are kings. That’s a good thing. We are priests. We have direct access to God. We can stand in God’s presence. That’s a good thing.
B1 In the Old Testament scheme of things, priests had two very specific functions. They were the mediators. In the worship activity they were the leaders. They took the prayers of the people to God. They declared God’s forgiving love in the Messiah to the people. Thus they led the people to see the relationship they had with God because of the Messiah and led them to praise Him for it.
2 They were also the sacrificers. They killed the animals for the daily sacrifices. Those sacrifices indicated the ongoing relationship which existed between God and His people because of the coming Messiah. They killed the animals which were part of the meals eaten as an expression of the family relationship which existed between God and His people. They killed the animals and offered those substitutionary lives to the Lord as a picture of the life of the Lamb of God the Messiah whose life would pay for the sins of the world.
C1 Who was the perfect fulfillment of the function of the priests? Jesus. He can take all our requests directly to God because He is God the Son, second member of the Holy Trinity. He brought through His preaching and brings through His Word the message that our Savior God gives us the gift of forgiveness, holiness and eternal life. That leads us to praise the Lord.
2 Jesus sacrificed Himself for our sins. He suffered our punishment. He made it possible for God to forgive our sins. Because Jesus perfectly completed all the work carried out by the Old Testament priests, God doesn’t assign those functions to a special class of people any more. 5
D1 That is why Peter says to all of us: You are a royal priesthood. Why? {9}That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. We are to share with people God’s forgiving love. We are to share with people that Jesus gives forgiveness, holiness, and eternal life because He lived and died and rose for all of us. We are to take people’s spiritual needs to God. We are to give God’s solution for their spiritual needs to the people around us. We are priests. That’s a good thing.
2 We are to be sacrificers. We give ourselves back to God to thank Him for what He has done for us. We dedicate our mouths to speak to others about the sacrifice of Jesus and to teach people in our family and in our congregation about Jesus. We designate 10% of our income to sharing the sacrifice of Jesus with others. We use our time to help people who are distressed physically or spiritually to thank Jesus for solving our distresses. We are priests. That’s a good thing.
3 Our sacrifices are {5}acceptable to God. Jesus’ blood washes away the selfishness attached. Jesus’ holiness is attached. That makes the sacrifice and the sacrificers, us, holy to God. They are spiritual sacrifices because they are an outgrowth of our relationship with God. We are living stones, being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. That’s a good thing.
We are priests, placed in God’s house to offer spiritual sacrifices. There is no special class of
people to do that. It’s up to us.
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