A Precious Possession and a Proclaiming People
Zach Fulginiti, Speaker
1 Peter 2:4-12 | July 20, 2025 - Sunday Morning,
Our text this morning is 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4-12. Turn with me there in your copy of God’s Word. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 4-12.
“As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and the rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable, so when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
This is the Word of the Lord. Let’s pray together.
Father, we come now to your Word, and we ask that you would help us to see. Give us the light to see and to savor and to trust and obey your Word. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well for all my life I have fancied myself, I can’t say that others have done the same, but I have fancied myself as being someone who has slightly above athletic ability. Nothing special, maybe in the 51st percentile of all human beings. Now the older I get that delusion is slowly disappearing, but growing up there was a time where I could throw a ball and it didn’t hurt, I could catch a ball, shoot a ball, dribble a ball well enough so that I wasn’t the last one on the playground picked, but there is one athletic quality that has always alluded me. For the life of me I cannot kick a ball. I’m very proud to say that this limitation has not really hindered me in life. I put on a brave face everyday and simply try to avoid situations that require me to kick a ball. But as you may imagine there was no way to avoid the school kickball games. I don’t know if they still do this, but they used to just have two kids who said, ya know what, we’re gonna be captains and we’re gonna choose you and it’s gonna be just, ya know, selection of the finest and the fittest right there. They would just anoint themselves captain and start picking kids. And early on, ya know, 2nd, 3rd grade maybe I would get picked in the middle, but as I got older everyone realized this kid can’t kick a ball and it would be humiliating. I would be picked in the latter portions of the schoolyard draft, and I distinctly remember one time it coming down to me and one other kid. Would I be picked last? Oh, the shame and embarrassment and rejection, it was just intolerable.
Whether it’s the kickball field or some other part of life, rejection is something that we all have to deal with at some time or another. Something that the men and women that Peter was writing to were dealing with a lot. In our opening sermon on the series Blair Smith pointed it out by highlighting what Peter wrote in chapter 1 verses 6 and 7. “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.” They were experiencing rejection. Elsewhere we see Peter highlight this in chapter 2:18 where he talks about the people suffering unjustly. Chapter 3:16 talks about God’s people being slandered and put to shame, and here in our passage Peter brings out this rejection once more, but here in our text he does something else, he says “I want you to know exactly what God is doing with your rejection. I want you to know what I’m doing with your rejection here on earth.” So, Peter wants us to know four things from these verses. Four things that God is doing with our rejection.
First, God is always doing something with our rejection, we just need to know that. Second, even as the world rejects us Peter wants us to know that God’s people are a special people. Third, despite this rejection God’s people have a distinct purpose. And fourth, in the face of rejection God’s people are to live differently. God is always doing something with our rejection. God’s people are a special people; God’s people have a distinct purpose and in the face of rejection God’s people are to live differently.
Let’s look at that first one. Think the first thing that Peter wants us to know is that God is always doing something with our rejection. We’ve looked at a brief survey of the trials Peter mentioned in this letter, but here in our passage we need to see that Peter underscores this rejection that they are experienced by reminding us that this was a rejection that Jesus himself faced. Their rejection was not unique because of their faith, rather it was an essential component of it. It was a very essential way of identifying with their Lord and savior. In verse 4 of our text Jesus is this living stone rejected by men. Peter quotes from Isaiah 26 that Christ was the stone that the builders rejected. I do not know when the last time you faced complete and utter rejection, maybe it was on the kickball field, but it truly is devastating when you think about it. Imagine a child rejected by his mother and father, unwanted. Maybe imagine a bride or a groom left unexpectedly at the altar. Imagine being let go from a job. Imagine being the subject of the prejudice of others just because of how you look. These are painful experiences, ones that I hope that we never have to go through, but though all of us at some level have experienced some type of rejection, my guess is that very few of us, though maybe some of us, have experienced the type of rejection that the brothers and sisters that Peter was writing to were undergoing. So, Peter knew they needed comfort, they needed reassurance, they needed to know that God had not left them, and their faith wasn’t in vain, and they weren’t alone. And so, Peter reminds them that before they were rejected, their savior was rejected. And His rejection was by his very own people that was foretold thousands of years prior.
Friends we can hardly imagine the level of rejection that the Lord Jesus experienced. Rejected by the very men and women that he had created. Rejected by those that He had come to save. The God of the universe, the sustainer of all life, the infinite immortal God rejected by mere men. You and I cannot fathom that level of rejection and yet that is exactly what Jesus Christ went through. And yet despite that rejection, psalm 118 tells us that he was still the cornerstone of our faith, chosen and precious in the site of God, and just like their savior was, so too were these dear saints that Peter is writing to. They were also seen as precious before God. So too are you if you are undergoing the trials and tribulations and rejection for your faith, so too are you precious before God. Peter wants us to know that God is always doing something with our rejection and in this case, he highlights for us that God is building up these rejected people into a spiritual house. These precious stones that have been rejected by others have been chosen by God to become something so much greater than themselves. They’re being built up into a house, to a royal priesthood so that they might offer spiritual sacrifices to God. Peter uses rich Old Testament language here so it’s not hard to see the connection between the spiritual house that is being built up and the Old Testament temple. You might remember back to 2 Samuel 7. What is the temple of God called; it’s called the house of God. Peter clearly in this passage identifies the church as God’s new temple. I don’t know if you’ve come across building sites at all. I’m always fascinated by them, just walk by and stare and, oh, they’re building there, I wonder what it’s going to be like, I wonder what it’s going to look like, and how they’re using that.
I don’t know if you’ve ever walked in a house that’s being built, I don’t think you’re supposed to do it, but I like to do it. They’re often a mess. You have no idea how all the pieces are going to fit initially, if they’re just laid out there. You have no idea maybe what’s being built by just looking at the pieces laid out. My family and I we live in a small neighborhood, less than 20 homes, all the homes were built about at the same time and we moved in a little bit before everyone else so there were other houses being built so I did what I like to do, I like to walk through them and see what it’s going to be like, and okay here’s the kitchen, here’s that. So, I used to walk through just when they were studs to imagine what the houses were going to look like when it was all done. It is very difficult. Even in our house when we knew exactly what the layout was going to look like I’d walk through and wonder, what is this doing here and what’s that doing over there. How are all the pieces going to fit? Friends, it looked like everything was mismatched, disorganized, and it’s not a stretch to say that it looked like there were pieces that were discarded or even rejected all around. But while I didn’t know exactly what was going on, the builder knew exactly where everything would go, how everything would fit, and how the house would look. You see in the builder’s mind there were no rejected pieces there. They all had a purpose, they all fit together for something so much bigger, and that’s the Church of Christ, that’s the body that we are a part of. God’s people may have been discarded, rejected pieces by the world around us, but the grand master builder has a plan for this spiritual house. The church has become God’s people and God’s place in the world, and so today no matter what trial you find yourself in, or in the future what trial you may come across, Peter reminds us that we are not alone. We’re being built up with other Christians in the world and throughout all of history into a great spiritual house and in this house, this is where God’s presence is. So again, we can know no matter what we’re going through, that God is always with us. When you are a part of God’s house you are a part of God’s family. Behold I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. Friends, do we believe in Him today? If you do, there is no reason for shame because you are a part of God’s house, you’re a part of God’s family. Peter wants us to know that God is always doing something with our rejection.
Second. The second thing that Peter wants us to see is that God’s people are a special people. Look at verse 9. ‘’But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.” What incredible language to describe you and me. I often don’t feel that way, I don’t feel this special, this set aside, but what incredibly lofty language used to describe these beaten down saints, rejected by men, but chosen by God, seen as lowly and unworthy to those around them, but the royal priesthood to God, a people discarded by their community, but holy and set apart to God, a people for His own possession. If you could look with me back at Exodus 19, we read it earlier in the service. But Peter uses language taken almost directly from this passage. Think back with me, what is happening in Exodus 19. It’s the constitution of a new nation. God having rescued His people from the bondage of slavery and He brings them out in the wilderness and he says this to them in verse 5 and 6, “Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine and you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Peter says the same thing in his epistle. He says we’re a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and people for His own possession. It’s all right there in Exodus 19. A treasured possession. How can you not love that language that God calls you His treasured possession, He calls us His treasured possession.
From the very beginning God tells His people you will be my very treasured possession among all people. Now we have a lot of children in this room. I wonder how many of them have their own treasured possession. Kids, this is for you. How many of you have a very special stuffed animal you sleep with every single night? Parents you don’t need to raise your hand, a few of you, okay I see a few over there. I bet some of you have a very special blanket, something you hold onto every single night, something that you can’t go to bed unless you have that very special treasured possession. You and I know exactly what it is to have a treasured possession. A child’s special blanket, a priceless baseball card collection, maybe a family heirloom that has been passed down from generation to generation to generation. These are things that matter a great deal to us, that we take great pride in and we take great care of. Friends this is what God says about you, about me, this is what He says about us. He says you are my treasured possession; you are someone who matters a great deal to me, that I take great pride in and that I am going to take great care of. You know, the remarkable thing is that God still says those things about us. You think about the children who maybe have that special blanket or special stuffed animal. Eventually, children don’t listen to this, eventually they may lose interest in it, like you and I adults have done, at least I hope we have. We lose interest, we grow up, we move on to other things don’t we, but not God. From the time the nation of Israel was constituted in Exodus to the birth of the early church in 1 Peter, to our day today God has always seen you and I as His treasured possession. He has never lost interest in us; He’s never moved on to other things.
It is important for us to note the identity here is a collective identity. There are not singular nouns being used here, but you all are a chosen race, not a chosen individual, you are a holy what, a holy nation, not a holy person. You are a people, plural, for His own possession not an individual. There is a collective identity that Peter emphasizes here that we should not miss and do these trues apply to individuals, certainly they do, but those individuals belong to something much greater than themselves and that’s the Church of Christ. So, let’s connect that imagery to the imagery of the spiritual house used in verse 5. Let’s make that connection. There are no houses made from single stones. A single stone is just a rock, maybe it’s just a pebble on the side of a road but put together that collection can become so much more. God never intended the Christian life to be lived alone. He created you for this community, the church, this spiritual family. If we could press that illustration just a bit further, stones built into a house, the stones are connected to one another, are we connected to people in this church, do we have relationships with them, do you know others, are you known by others? You think about this illustration, there’s an adhesive used to keep the stones together from falling out of place and so there’s a mutual dependence that the stones have so Christians hold each other up, we are meant to strengthen and support one another. Should one stone be removed the structure is weakened or compromised. A single stone can easily be moved, but when they are interconnected there is increasing strength to the entire structure. Isolated stones are vulnerable stones. And think about again how these stones are being built up into something, they’re not just there, it’s not just a pile of rocks, they’re being built up into something to a building, into a house, a house is a place where one can dwell, can live, the spiritual house where God dwells with us. A single stone is not a temple. Friends, God’s people are a special people to Him, but those people are not meant to be isolated. So, I think it would be good for us to consider, are we a part of this body, this church, this spiritual house interconnected and dependent on one another, built up as a place that God can dwell or in a moment of honestly would we say we’re more like that loose pebble, that single stone out there needing no one. God’s people are a special people, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession which leads us to the third thing Peter wants us to know. That God’s people, the special people have a very specific purpose.
Look back at verse 9. All these wonderful things about who we are, a chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, people for His own possession, we are all that for a purpose. See that, that, you, you’re all these things that you, there’s a purpose that comes with this incredible collective identity. All this is driving forward to a point of application, a point of purpose. We’re not just blessed by this wonderful identity for no reason and what is that purpose, what is the that you, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him. See that. There’s a purpose in our special collective identify that we proclaim the excellencies of Him. Our great identity is that we make much of our great God. When we proclaim we seek to make known. Peter wants us to know that our great collective identify is who we are so that we might make known God to the world around us, and it’s our purpose and our privilege to tell the world about our great God, and it’s both of those things. It’s our purpose. I think we do need to see that, that you and I were created and we were chosen so that we might make much of God in both word and deed. It is our purpose to do so. You were created for that reason, but it’s also our privilege. It’s our privilege because God has done what, He has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.
I mentioned our little neighborhood before, but that little neighborhood always loses power, it’s absolutely remarkable. When there is a storm and there are power outages and you’ve checked the little Duke Energy map and its got the little green bubbles, I can guarantee you our house does not have power. Ten out of ten times, it’s remarkable, it’s like they built the neighborhood and said, you know what, put all the lightening here and take all of the stuff out, it’s crazy. A couple weeks ago Amy and I had one of those bad storms and Amy and I are out to dinner and we’re coming back to a just dark neighborhood and it’s just so eerie isn’t it, and you drive any place and there’s no light, there’s none, especially in places that you expect to see light. All the lights are out in the neighborhood and it’s just so dark and we just take light for granted, we take streetlights for granted, we take lamps for granted, darkness is an eerie thing. So, we are driving up to our house and again it’s a small neighborhood, but we see the one house on the hill and, ugh, they have a generator and there is light beaming out from every just nook and cranny of their home. It’s like they were probably being conservative, but it looked as if they had every light on in the house and every gaming system, and every TV and they were cooking, and doing all kinds of things and we are sitting in the darkness. Now they live on the hill, they were literally the light on the hill for all to see in the neighborhood. What we wouldn’t have given to be the light that night.
Friends, if you are a Christian here this morning you have been called out of darkness, you have been called out of the pit, out of the power outage, out of the unknown, out of what is scary and eerie, and you’ve been called into the light where we can see, were we are safe, where we do not need to be afraid and it is our privilege to be that light on the hill and welcome people in. My neighbors, they’re kind people, I’m exaggerating a bit, they would have gladly welcomed us in, so this is no slight on them, but just imagine that you are in your neighborhood, the power is out, and you are the only one with lifesaving power and light. It is your privilege to welcome your neighbors in, to say come be a part of our home where there’s light here. That is a privilege that we get to do. It is a purpose, it is our purpose, we were created for that, but what a joy to say come into our home, come into the light with us, come out of the darkness, come into our home where there’s light, where you can see, where the master builder is here where He cherishes and treasures us. Now we know that is easier said than done. We know that there are those who have come to love the darkness, who prefer the darkness and so our invitations into the light are rejected and it can be difficult to know how to do this sometimes. Sometimes we think about the call to proclaim the excellencies of Him as something so much higher and loftier than what we are able to do. I need to go to seminary, I need to be a world-renowned scholar or theologian or apologist and those are wonderful things, but what does Peter highlight for us here, what does he say that we can do. He says we proclaim the excellencies of Him who called who, of you. He says talk about what God has done in your life. He proclaimed the excellencies yes, but the excellencies of Him who called you out. You can share with people how you were called out of darkness into light. When we don’t know what to share, we can always share about what God has done in our lives. These are good things, but you don’t need to know the latest apologetics, you don’t need to be able to refute every argument, you can always share about what God has done in your life with someone. You can share about how Jesus has saved you. You can always share your testimony with someone. I think that’s what Peter is talking about here. Peter wants us to know that God’s people have a purpose, that we are a proclaiming people, and we do proclaim all the excellencies of Him, but we can also share what He has done in our lives with the people around Him. Once you are not a people, but now you are God’s people and once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. We can share about that. At one point I was not someone who had God’s mercy, but now I do. We can share that.
Finally, our last two verses show us that God’s people are to live differently or distinct lives. Peter even highlights this in how he addresses them. He talks about them as sojourners, as exiles, people who are other than everyone else around them, people without a home here on earth, people who are different. He says abstain from the passions of the flesh, keep your conduct honorable so that when they see your good deeds they will give glory to God. Christians if you are one of those who possess the light, who lives in the light, you are not to live like the darkness around you, you’re just not. Christians aren’t to live like everyone else around them. Pastor Tom brought this out for us in the call to live holy or set apart lives last week in chapter 1 and the connection from holiness to the verses that we see in chapter 2 verses 9 and 10 make sense. Our purpose is to proclaim the excellencies of Him, to give God glory and we don’t just do that by word, not just in what we say, but also in what we do and how we live. Back in verse 5 Peter tells us that we’re being built up into a spiritual house, that we’re to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifice and that’s honestly a bit odd for us. We don’t have priests, we no longer offer sacrifices as God’s people as they were prescribed to do in the Old Testament so we can say what’s Peter talking about here, what kind of sacrifices is he referring to, and it is true that we no longer offer burnt sacrifices, but friends that does not mean that we no longer offer any sacrifices to God. In fact, the sacrifices we offer are of so much more value and significance and worth. They are so much more costly than a bull or a ram or a lamb or a goat. For what we offer friends, is none other than our very lives. Your sacrifice and my sacrifices are everything we are and everything we have, and every potential future outcome, all of our dreams, all of our desires. People of God, these are our sacrifices today. There is nothing that is off limits. There is nothing that God can’t require of us, nothing that cannot be laid on the altar.
We read Romans 12:1 and 2 earlier where Paul tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Present yourselves as a living sacrifice. Paul in more explicit terms than what Peter is saying here says, your whole life is now an offering to God because you are all those amazing and wonderful things you get to tell people about the excellencies of Him and your whole life is to be offered to Him. So, we abstain from the passions of the flesh because we are now part of a holy priesthood, a set apart nation. We keep our conduct among the gentiles honorable because we are a chosen race and a precious possession. So, people of God, stones in God’s spiritual house have you considered your life as a living sacrifice to God, that which is to be offered back up to Him. Have you considered that those who speak against you today may still be watching your life and one day give God glory for the good deeds that you offer. Friends our careers are to be sacrificial offerings. Not just with the income we receive, but in how we steward the gifts that God has given us, how we conduct our business and treat our clients and refuse underhanded practices because the way that we work may just reflect one day to someone else and they may say, I am tired of living in the dark and I want to live in the light with you and your God.
Our possessions are to be a sacrifice and so we must ask how we are using our homes and our resources and our second homes and our wealth and offering them up as a sacrifice pleasing to God. Are we willing and able to put those gifts back on the altar and say God, you’ve given me all this to begin with so take it back, I give it to you as an offering. Are we able to respond like Abraham and offer up that which is most precious and most dear back to God as God told Abraham to take His son, His only son, the son whom He loved and offer it back to Him. These living sacrifices, whatever they may be in your life or my life, these living sacrifices that God requires are so much more costly than any ram. Brothers and sisters what we need to know is that there is nothing off limits for God to require of us. There is no limit to what God may require you to offer as a spiritual sacrifice acceptable for Him. So, it’s good for us to take inventory of our lives and ask, what is that thing that I just would struggle so much to put on the altar and give back to God. Is it my career because I’m just not willing to give up the success and prestige that I’ve achieved, I’m not willing to give that back to God. Is it my family? I just can’t budge on my families safety or their security. I just can’t imagine offering my children’s future or their education, God I just can’t lay that on the table, standard of living that we can’t offer up to God. Is it the social circles we run in, is it what others think of us? Friends, we all have these things, myself included, we all have these things that just feel like I cannot give that back up to God so I think it’s good for us to take inventory of where we may be susceptible.
I have a friend who is fond of saying, if you name it, you can tame it. Now not name it, claim it, he doesn’t say that. He says, if you name it, you can tame it, meaning if you’re able to articulate the areas of susceptibility and weakness and sin in your life then you have the possibility of help and growth. If we name our sin, we have a better chance of killing our sin. If we’re aware of our susceptibilities, then we can do something about it. We can pray, we can get accountability, we can take measures to avoid our sin. Can you name the areas of your life that you think would be most difficult to offer back up to God as a sacrifice. That’s a hard question, it’s a hard question for me, it must have been a hard question for Peter. And I was thinking what might Peter’s great struggle have been, what might have been most difficult for Peter to offer back up to God, but you have to imaging somewhere that his betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ was in the back of his mind. For three times Peter denied the Lord Jesus in His greatest hour of need. When identification with Jesus and sacrifice were needed most, the author of this letter failed. Maybe he spent all of his life quietly wondering if people around him viewed him in light of his greatest spiritual failure. Maybe he didn’t show it publicly, but maybe privately his shame and his rejection of the Lord was always hovering over him. I don’t know for sure; that’s speculation. I know it would be for me if I were in his shoes and so it should not be lost on us and it is Peter who is exhorting us here, for he is the one who openly rejected the Lord, he was the one who was too ashamed of Him, but the one that Peter rejected never rejected Peter himself. The one that Peter was ashamed of was never ashamed of Peter, though in spite of Peter’s failure he can still write, not just of our great identity in Christ, but of his too, for Peter in light of his amazing failure was still chosen and precious in the sight of God. Peter is a part of the spiritual house that’s being built up. Peter is a part of the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, Peter is a part of the people that are God’s own possessions. Maybe that’s why Peter references Isaiah 28, “For whoever believes in Him, no matter what’s going on, they will not be put to shame.” Those words had to mean something a little extra for Peter. So easy for us to live in this world thinking of the shame we might encounter for Christ and Peter knew that better than most. But Peter also knew his Bible and he knew that for all of those who are in Christ, who believe in Him, and who are ready to be living sacrifices for Him, they will not be put to shame. So, Christ Covenant Church, what a tremendous blessing it is to be a Christian, to be a part of what Peter is describing in verse 9, there is nothing better in the entire world than belonging to Jesus. The world may reject you; the world may shame you, but we should not fear for what does Jesus say, “I have overcome the world.” The spiritual house that we are being built up into, Jesus says I will come, and I will dwell with you there. It’s in that great hope that we pray. Amen.
Father, we thank you so much for these wonderful truths. We are not deserving of the immense spiritual blessings that you have bestowed upon us. A royal priesthood, a chosen people, a holy nation, a people for your own possession. Father, we stand back, and we thank you for cherishing us, for allowing us to be precious in your sight, we don’t deserve that, so we give you, Lord Jesus, all praise and glory. We thank you for the opportunity to worship here this morning. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
