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:

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

and

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 that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.—1 Peter 2:4–12

Introduction

February recap: Four sermons on 25 x ’25: reaching unengaged, planting churches, strengthening the core, and now this week, strengthening the core particularly while focusing on the Holy Spirit.

Bethlehem’s pastors went to a conference last year looking at Holy Spirit. This year, we’re going to the MLK50 conference, where we’ll explore intersections of race and belief, and especially wrestle with how American evangelicalism has reinforced racism and segregation. As part of that emphasis, today we’re talking about the nature of the church as one people consisting of every ethnicity and culture, and what our mission together is.

At the outset of the church’s mission at Pentecost (where we were last week with Pastor Aaron), we find that God is calling out a people from among not just the Jews, but from among the peoples, the nations. And he’s doing something with them. What is God doing as the gospel spreads into the nations, among ethnicities? In this sermon, I hope to sketch a few things in Acts briefly, and then look at how Peter interprets those events in 1 Peter 2.

My prayer is that 1) you will get a sense of the magnitude of what God is doing by the Spirit in bringing nations together into a new people, where those with different skin colors and cultures are unified, not pushed into uniformity, for the glory of God. And 2) that you will be filled with the Spirit for boldness to press farther in living out and speaking out the gospel where you live, and especially to those who aren’t like you.

Four questions to answer from the text today: 

1) Who Are We? – Together as a Temple

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.—2 Peter 2:4–5 

1. Temple imagery
2. Priesthood imagery
3. Sacrificial imagery

God’s presence is among us because the Spirit has ceased to be localized in a physical building, and now the Spirit is poured out on all believers so that we together are the temple of the living God by the Spirit.

2) Where Are We Going? – Honor or Shame

For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
      a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and 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 a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.—1 Peter 2:6–8

1. Belief leading to honor
2. Unbelief leading to shame

3) Why Do We Exist? – A People on Mission for the Peoples

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.—2 Peter 2:9–10

1. Made into a chosen nation of priests
2. To proclaim his excellencies

In Acts and Peter’s unpacking of it we see the new exodus of God’s people coming out of spiritual wilderness and coming into God’s presence … and his presence going with them into the surrounding nations and bringing them into this new temple that God is building from all peoples and cultures. 

4) What Should We Do? – Be Prepared to Proclaim

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 that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.—2 Peter 2:11–12

1. Abstain from evil (v. 11)
2. Do good (v. 12)

What’s the result? Those who do not yet know God will have cause to glorify him on the day that Jesus returns, the “day of visitation”… because they’ve been reached by the faithful witness of bold, Spirit-filled believers. We’re called to both embody and then speak the good news. This is the big mission that God’s people are called into.

Conclusion

Imagine with me … a new heavens and a new earth. A new Minneapolis. A new world stripped away from sin, where this temple that isn’t a building exists. That building that we’re building over there? Gone, obliterated by the coming of the Son of God. What does it look like now? 

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.—Revelation 21:22–26

Closing Call

• Perhaps you’ve harbored resentment or distrust toward others who are not like you, especially ethnically or cross-culturally. Or maybe you just don’t ever spend time with people that aren’t like you. We want to pray for you, that God would fill you by the Spirit for the sake of increasing unity in your heart with other believers.
• Perhaps you need boldness, to be filled with the Spirit for the sake of proclaiming the excellencies of God, for the sake of proclaiming the gospel, to those around you ... and especially to those who aren’t like you. We want to pray for that filling.