Jesus,the Living stone, is rejected by man but is chosen and precious in the sight of God. A sermon on 1 Peter 2:4 by Rev. Colin Pretorius.
Surfer’s Paradise: when we hear those two words, we tend to think of holidays, sandy beaches and schoolies, don’t we. But Surfers is also home to the tallest skyscraper in the Southern hemisphere. Until 2011 the Q1 Tower was the tallest residential building in the world. The world tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, may dwarf it now, but it nevertheless remains an awesome sight. It stands head and shoulders above the other buildings on the coast. But as impressive as its exterior or its reaching up into the sky might be, there is actually something else that is more impressive – something that can’t be seen, and it is something without which the awesome sight would not have existed. It is something that was last seen in about 2002, when Q1 was being built – its foundation. Before the building could be built, 26 huge pilings – each 2 metres in diameter – had to be driven 40m deep into the ground, to provide the necessary stability for the building. If those pilings were not there, the beautiful sight that we behold today, would just not have been there. Without that strong foundation, the building could not rise up into the air. It is the most important part of the structure.
And this is the image that the apostle Peter is working with in our text today as well. He’s speaking of the foundation of the church – not the church building, mind you, but of the church of Christ in this world. He might be writing to the scattered believers of the ancient world, but he is speaking of the strong foundation of the church across all ages – and that foundation is none other than Jesus Christ. Christ is the foundation – Peter pictures Him as the Living Stone who was rejected by men but beloved by the Father. He goes on in the last section of our text to speak about how God’s people are also living stones being built up in a spiritual house, but this morning we’re just going to focus on what the text tells us about Jesus. So we’re focusing on verse 4, which tells us that Jesus is a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious.