Alliance Christian Church
August 17 2025

      • 2 Corinthians 9:7GS-NETBIBLE

      • Romans 6:3–6NETBIBLE2ED

  • He Won't (Firm Foundation)
  • Step By Step
  • Stepping in the Light

      • 1 Peter 2:4–10NETBIBLE2ED

  • Living Stones

    Introduction
    1 Peter 2:4–10 “So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in scripture, “Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.” So you who believe see his value, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip over. 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 of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
    1 Peter 2:4-10 is the foundational statement of the entire letter.
    It’s a short passage, it’s a beautifully simple statement.
    I could probably preach a sermon on this passage in 2 minutes:
    In fact, a 2 minute version of this sermon would go something like this:
    Jesus Christ should be the cornerstone of your life, and everything that you do should revolve around him.
    You should treat Jesus christ as the foundation you build your entire life on.
    And in all things you should live your lives as holy people built upon the example of Christ.
    ——
    And yet, as we’re working through the letter that peter writes to the scattered churches, we ought to recognize that this passage anchors everything that peter is trying to tell them.
    If we zoom out a little bit and look at the entire letter as a whole, the book of 1st peter makes 3 main points to the scattered churches.
    Chapter 1, peter tells the scattered church to live holy lives.
    In chapter 2, verses 11 and following he describes how the scattered church should associate with the world around them.
    and in chapters 3 through 5 he encourages the scattered church as they are being persecuted in exile.
    And all three of those major points that peter makes to the churches hinges on chapter 2 verses 4-10
    and this idea that Jesus is a living stone… He’s the stone that the builders rejected, he’s the stone that is chosen and precious in the sight of God.
    Roadmap
    And the big idea that we want to wrestle with today:
    The living Stone Jesus is either going to be a good thing for you or a bad thing for you. depending on your faith.
    Jesus Christ, peter describes him as the living stone. And depending on your faith, that’s either going to be great news or terrible news.
    And it’s up to you, which one it’s going to be.
    Is he going to be the corner stone or the stumbling stone?
    If you have faith, Jesus Christ is the Corner stone.
    I want to read our passage one more time.
    1 Peter 2:4–6 NET 2nd ed.
    So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it says in scripture, “Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.”
    Right away peter sets up this contrast, where he describes Jesus as a stone
    And on the one hand he was rejected by people.
    The image you’re supposed to imagine here, is if you’re a builder, and you’re building a temple or a palace using natural materials.
    You might go down to the quarry, and be inspecting the stones available to you.
    Because you have to think, it’s not like today. Today if you want to build a building you order concrete, you order lumber, you order bricks. and everything is perfectly cut to the exact size that you need it.
    But if you’re back in the first century, you’re kind of at the mercy of whatever is at the quarry.
    And you have to be able to select the perfect stone. you have to imagine how it’s going to split when you cut it, and whether or not the base is going to be solid when you place it.
    and as you go through you’re giving directions, saying, yep, that one, that one, not that one, leave that one there.
    And after you’ve gone through and rejected the stones that you deem to be worthless, God comes along and says this one. right here. the one you rejected, this is the most valuable stone in the entire quarry.
    And peter then goes and backs up his claim with scripture from the book of isaiah that says
    1 Peter 2:6 “For it says in scripture, “Look, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.””
    Here’s what you need to know about Cornerstones:
    Point
    Statement
    The corner stone—so if you’re picturing a building, it’s the base layer stone that is placed at one of the corners—the cornerstone was always the first stone to be laid.
    Explanation
    Before you did anything. Before you laid out the stones for the walls, or the floor, or the other 3 corners, you always placed the cornerstone first.
    [expand]
    Application
    If Jesus Christ is our cornerstone, we need to understand that Jesus comes first in everything we do in faith.
    If you’ve been around here for more than a few weeks, you’ve probably noticed we like to go deep when we read scripture.
    We like to dive in to the historical context, and the major themes, and the big picture story of the bible.
    If you were here on Tuesday night in our study on the book of romans, you know this, we’re going deep.
    We were looking at the meaning of greek words, and big fancy bible ideas like Justification and righteousness, and looking at what the different roman emperors were doing in the first century, and what ancient historians were saying, and using that to triangulate the context of scripture.
    I like to describe it as like drinking from the fire hose.
    And the reason we do that is because I’ve gotten to know quite a few of you over the years and I get this sense that there is a hunger for knowledge of scripture.
    You all are just craving wanting to go deeper and deeper in God’s word.
    But...
    and I think this is an extremely important point.
    If you don’t know jesus, none of the rest of that matters.
    If you don’t have a relationship with Christ the King, then it doesn’t matter how many greek words you learn, how much history you study, how much knowledge you have about the old testament and the covenants and the biblical narrative.
    Because Jesus Christ has to be the first stone you place in faith.
    There’s a reason why I tell people who are brand new christians, or maybe they aren’t even Christians yet, and they’re wanting to read the bible, and don’t know where to start.
    There’s a reason why I’ll tell them, Read the book of Matthew first.
    Or John. or Luke, or mark.
    Transition
    Jesus Christ as Cornerstone means Jesus comes first in faith.
    Point
    Statement
    Second thing you need to know about cornerstones.
    The cornerstone was the stone that every other part of the building was measured from.
    It was a reference point.
    If anybody has survey markers on their property, they undertand this idea of reference points by which everything is measured.
    It’s an unchanging reference point. and everything you do, everything you measure is based off of that point.
    That’s how the cornerstone functioned.
    If you wanted to know where the other walls went, you measured off of the cornerstone. if you wanted to know where to put the windows, it was measured in reference to the cornerstone.
    Illustration
    If you ever get a chance to go down to south western colorado, at the border of colorado, utah, arizona, and new mexico is what’s called the four corners monument
    It’s where those four states meet in one place. it’s the only place in the entire us where four states touch in one spot.
    and you can drive out there, it’s in the middle of the desert, you have to drive on to the ute indian reservation to get there.
    And they have gift shops and you can buy native american jewelry and all sorts of fun stuff.
    And there’s a monument on the ground where you can go stand in four states at the same time. it’s pretty cool. Everybody should go at least once.
    But what’s fascinating is the fact that when they placed the monument, back in the 1800’s they sent surveyers out to go and place the monument at exactly 37 degrees lattitude, and 107 degres longitude.
    and they were off.
    Because it’s the 1800’s and they’re using old technology, and they’re out in the middle of the desert.
    and we found out later that the monument was placed about 2.5 miles west of where it’s supposed to be.
    But once the stone has been placed, once the survey marker has been placed declaring this is the border, this is the state boundary. they don’t move it.
    They re-defined the borders to match the stone.
    Application
    Jesus Christ is our cornerstone. he is our survey marker.
    every thing we do, every decision we make, every single component in our life needs to be measured off of Jesus as our reference point.
    You want to know how a christian should live, how they should act
    If we’re talking about what the scattered church should loook like in the world.
    I know it’s cliche.
    But the little bracelets in the 90’s and 2000;s
    WWJD
    Those little bracelets were popular because they summed up the entirety of how christians ought to live in 4 little letters
    WWJD what would Jesus do.
    We don’t bend Jesus to match our expectations.
    The politicians in washington could have moved the survey marker. they could have said, no, we expected the border to be at 37 degrees lattituede and 107 longitude
    But the stone was in the ground already.
    You don’t move the stone to match your expectations
    You change your expectations to match the stone
    When Jesus tells us things that challenge us. When he tells us things that convict us. We don’t get to reframe who we think jesus ought to be.
    Because he’s the cornerstone.
    He’s the first stone placed in our faith, he’s the stone we measure everything by.
    Transition
    And our final point about cornerstones, here
    Point
    Statement
    The cornerstone was the stone every other stone was built around
    Explanation
    1 Peter 2:5 NET 2nd ed.
    you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
    The Christian Church lives and dies by Christ.
    The day we stop putting Jesus Christ as the center piece, the thing that everything else rests upon is the day we ought to just close our doors.
    It’s that simple.
    And as we’ve talked about before, for the past several weeks, Peter is writing to the scattered church
    they’re scattered in asia minor, they’re suffering persecution.
    They’re alienated from the rest of the world
    They’re desperately seeking an identity .
    Because when you don’t fit in, when people don’t accept you, it’s a perfectly normal thing for someone to want to have an identity.
    And peter’s saying here, you are the church, you are built around Christ
    Jesus Christ is your identity.
    He’s the one that the church is built around.
    Jesus, for those who have faith, he’s the cornerstone.
    He’s the first stone in faith, he’s the one we measure everything by, and he’s the one that the church is built around.
    —-
    Here’s the other side of that coin.
    Peter says
    1 Peter 2:7–10 NET 2nd ed.
    So you who believe see his value, but for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and a stumbling-stone and a rock to trip over. 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 of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You once were not a people, but now you are God’s people. You were shown no mercy, but now you have received mercy.
    For those who don’t have faith, who don’t give their trust and allegience and faith to Jesus. He stops being a cornerstone, and starts becoming a “stumbling stone”
    you kind of have to keep up with peter because he’s shifting his rock metaphors
    I guess for a guy who’s name literally means “rock” he would be the one to know all of the best rock metaphors to describe JEsus
    But a stumbling stone is, exactly what it sounds like, it’s a rock that you trip over.
    You have to imagine the roads in the first century are made with stones.
    If you’ve ever tried to install pavers or stepping stones, or anything like that.
    If you don’t get it set in there just right. If you don’t make sure it’s set, water and all sorts of other stuff can get down under the stone, and it will work its way up.
    And it just sticks up there in the middle of your garden and you trip over it every single time you go over it.
    And peter makes the point that Jesus, for those who have faith, he’s like that stone that causes you to trip and fall.
    And maybe you’re thinking to yourself, how is that even possible. Like jesus said some pretty amazing things, I know people who don’t even believe in Jesus but they will tell you that they like his teachings.
    how could Jesus possibly be a stumbling stone to those who don’t have faith.
    -And I think there’s a common misconception, when people imagine Jesus. When they paint a picture of Jesus in their mind, they just assume that Jesus was always just friendly, and nice, and polite, and never hurt anyone’s feelings.
    Sort of a milk-toast ned flanders super kind and polite, doesn’t step on anyones toes, nice guy.
    And when people say things like that, I’m always like, you haven’t actually sat and read what jesus said, have you? from cover to cover, matthew mark, luke and john, I’m guessing you haven’t actually really read this.
    I hate to break it to you, jesus wasn’t safe. he didn’t always say polite things.
    We want the version of Jesus who says blessed are the poor in spirit. Come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
    That’s the nice Jesus.
    But the same Jesus said things like, anyone who causes little ones to sin ought to have a milstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea.
    Things like “on that day many will come to me and say Lord Lord and I will say to them, I never knew you, get away from me evil doer”
    Jesus was the one who told the Pharisees they were like “white-washed tombs” pure and white on the inside, but dead and rotten on the inside.
    These are not poilte things.
    And if we find ourselves on the receiving end of them, it can trip us up.
    Most importantly, jesus says things like “The only way to the father is through the son.”
    In other words, your choices for entering the kingdom of heaven are exactly. Through Jesus. There is no other way.
    There’s none of this, “oh, as long as you’re trying to live a good life” There’s none of this “Well, you know all religions ultimately just say the same thing, they all get to god eventually”
    No, he says if you’re not in Christ, you’re not in the kingdom. Full stop.
    You get to be cast out to great wailing and gnashing of teeth.
    Conclusion
    Conclusion, Jesus doesn’t change, he’s the rock, we bend our will to his. etc.
    pray

      • 1 Peter 2:4–6NETBIBLE2ED

      • 1 Peter 2:5NETBIBLE2ED

      • 1 Peter 2:7–10NETBIBLE2ED

  • When I See the Blood
  • Gratitude
  • God Is Good All The Time
Alliance Christian Church
churchinalliance@gmail.com
9707657196
https://www.alliancechristian.church
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