Sermon Cloud

 

TEXT

1 Peter 2:4-12, 21-25: "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 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. 6 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.' 7 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,' 8 and ‘A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.' They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 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. 10 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. 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 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."

 

21 "For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls."

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Happy Anniversary Kaleo!!!!! It's been four years since we began an evening gathering with about 9 people our second week, and not many more in the following weeks. There is much to boast in Christ about as He has continued to be exalted and glorified in spite of our efforts. God has proven time and again that He is faithful and has shown us the great and humbling beauty of His sovereign hand.

 

Instead of simply talking about what's been accomplished and what we're thankful for (which is quite necessary and healthy) I wanted to take some time to talk about what we believe God called us to four years ago, and how He's clarified and refined our vision over these last couple of years as we better know Him, better know ourselves as the church, and better understand the mission to which He's called us here in San Diego and the world.

 

As we look at this stunning passage in 1 Peter, I pray that we walk away with a clearer understanding and appreciation for the Church, the role that this Church is to play in the world, and how this role and mission can be accomplished with the Gospel. I hope that this passage teaches us about the tension that we're to maintain between our church and the world around us, and the power to maintain this tension. These are lofty points, so I pray we can by God's grace accomplish what we're setting out for this morning.

 

STUDY

God's People-The Church

Before we can talk about what place our church and the Church has in this world, we need to talk about what the Church is. Let's look at verse 5 and what it teaches us.

 

Verse 5a: "you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house"

 

You, living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house! The word that is used for "spiritual house" (Gk- oikos) is the word for temple of the Holy Spirit.

 

This is remarkable. The Shekhinah glory of God comes and dwells in His temple as He makes His presence known. God Himself comes in glory into His temple. This passage is saying that God's glory comes and dwells in His church and we are living stones in this temple. So as we've come to the Living Stone, Jesus, we become living stones and God's presence comes down and inhabits His people.

 

Only one time, in 1 Cor. 6, does the Bible refer to us as individuals when referring to our being the temple. Every other mention of the temple as God's people is in reference to the collective body of the church. We are stones, not stone, being built together. This is present tense. We are being built up as a spiritual house. This is a present progressive usage of "being built up." It is something happening, not something that merely happened. As more and more stones are laid in their place, we are continuing to be built up into this incredible temple were God is present and will continue to make His presence known and felt.

 

Bricks in a wall have stones above them and below them (unless of course they are the top brick or the bottom brick), and each of these bricks are dependent upon one another for their structural integrity. If a brick below shakes, everything shakes. If a brick comes out, the brick above collapse. The point is that you don't build a structure with missing bricks. You don't expect a wall to maintain its strength and durability, you could even say its purpose, if you have missing bricks.

 

Yet what we find this morning and in most of Western culture is that we're supposed to just go to church and get the teaching, maybe attend a home fellowship, and go to a BBQ here and there, and nothing more. Is this what is being described in this passage?

 

Ask yourself: are you so connected, so built in to this spiritual house that you are in people's lives and people are in your life? Are you dependent upon others and are others dependent upon you in this spiritual house? If you were a missing brick would things collapse because you are so imbedded into this structure that you are depended upon for its structural integrity? Are you related to other believers in this way? To be interdependent means that you make decisions together and are dependent on others to help you. You share private struggles and emotions together. You share your financial blessings and woes together. You share meals, homes and lives together. Do you share the blessings that God had given you with others in this spiritual house? By the way, I know this sounds absolutely nuts. If you are a visitor or not a Christian, we're not talking about a Branch Davidian compound here. We're talking about what God intended for His people when He called them out of exile and slavery into His family as sons and daughters of their Father, doing life together for His glory and our joy and growth.

 

This is a strange way of putting this verse because it seems to suggest that in order to get more of what would inhabit this "spiritual house" you must see yourself as not just a lone island, but a stone that has been chosen and placed within God's temple where He's dwelling and showing off His glory.

 

If you want to sense the power of the Holy Spirit and see God at work before your eyes, you need to be interlocked into this house. As you are built together, you sense more of God's glory, more of God's presence, and more of His love as He uses others to bring His love and protection to you. This is not about you and your quiet time. It is not about some odd Lone Ranger Christianity where you and Jesus are in a great buddy-cop movie together. This is about you being pulled out of isolation and into a family. You were orphaned and alone and to be part of God's family means that you are no longer an orphan and no longer without a family to care for you and for you to care for. One of the great tragedies of being an orphan is not only that you miss out on much of the sibling love that you receive, but on the sibling love that you get to give. To not have love relationships where you can care for others is damaging to our humanity. Sin separates and isolates, grace joins and unites together.

 

I'll ask a dangerous question: how do you expect God to be at work in your life if you are not in an interdependent relationship with others who know Him and are reflecting His love and grace?

 

C.S. Lewis puts it like this in his book Four Loves as he discusses a group of friends with whom he was extremely close when his friend, Charles, died:

 

"In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself, I am not large enough to call any person completely into activity. I want other lights of my own to show all the facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never see Ronald's reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, far from having him all to myself now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald."

 

Do you see what he's saying? He's saying that he has less of Ronald because there was something within Ronald that only Charles could bring out.

 

"In this, friendship exhibits a glorious nearness by resemblance to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed, which no man can number, increase the fruition which each has of God for every soul in heaven seeing Him in her own way communicates the unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision are crying out Holy, Holy, Holy, to one another."

 

What C.S. Lewis teaches us is that it takes a multitude to know an individual. You can't know an individual the way a group can know an individual. Only a group brings out the whole spectrum of that person.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that you are not going to know God in a profound and significant way unless you are in community with others. You'll only know a little piece of God by yourself. And what is also important, is that that part that you do see, you're holding back from others in a way. You have a specific reflection that you give off of God and it is unique to you as others know you and see how God has worked in your life. Since your life is different than theirs, you are showing them something of God that they may not quite understand or see. They need what you have, and you need what they have.

 

81% of Americans think that you can have a flourishing Christian life totally absent of God's community, the Church. This is based upon a view of God that is a figment of our imagination and not based upon Scripture. The real God inhabits His people collectively so that even our gifts are given to us to use within the context of our community. The Shekhinah glory comes down and shows off as we're being built together into a spiritual house.

 

The church is intensely communal, or at least that is what a biblical church should be. Since this is the case, all communities, Christian or not, are going to face the challenge of dealing with those outside their community. How do you treat and/or deal with people outside of your community? This leads us to the next point.

 

In this chapter of 1 Peter, Peter is showing us that there is a deep tension that must be held between the Church and the world.

 

God's World-Those Outside the Church

If you trace history and read sociologists and anthropologists you'll find that the church has tended to relate to those around it in two different ways.

 

Those two ways are the sectarian church and the syncretistic church. You might call them the fundamentalists and the mainline liberal.

 

The sectarian/fundamentalist group sees themselves as separatists that are removed from those around them and they view society as themselves and the rest of the world as outsiders. This group has high walls when it comes to beliefs and in order to access this group you must agree to their propositions and believe and adopt each of these views to be welcomed. They refer to the world as "them."

 

The syncretistic/mainline liberal churches see society and the world as "us." This group has almost no doctrinal commitments, other than to be welcoming to everyone (which is its main doctrine). They believe that if you live in the city, you don't have to believe anything, you can just come no matter what you believe.

 

These two groups seem as different as the Pharisees and Samaritans. But both of these groups share in the same struggle for power and both struggle to avoid suffering.

 

The sectarian group gets its power by vilifying the world and thinking of itself in terms of opposition to society. This will attract supporters to this ministry because they see themselves as fighting against the world and gathering resources for the battle. Power comes from their resistance of "them." It keeps the people in line by telling them how different they are. They send out fundraising letters for their cause and typically raise great amounts of money as they articulate themselves as being the last ones fighting for truth.

 

The syncretistic group gets its power joining in with the cultural elites. They want to be accepted by those in power so they can have power. They push for big endowments and large buildings in the middle of the city.

 

Both avoid suffering:

 

The sectarian group avoids it by avoiding those who would bring them suffering (the bad people) and by attacking.

 

The syncretistic group avoids suffering by giving in to everyone so they don't suffer for a truth they hold.

 

But the Bible shows us an entirely different way. We are to be neither sectarian nor syncretistic, neither fundamentalist/legalistic nor mainline liberal.

 

We're told in verse 11 and 12:

 

Verses 11-12 "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 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."

 

This is an amazing passage with incredible balance and tension.

 

First we're shown in verse 11 that we are aliens and strangers, sojourners and exiles. We are called foreigners! Yet Peter is talking to Greeks in Greek cities, Romans in Roman cities. These are people that are of the same race as everyone around them, and whose families have lived where they live for generations, but Peter is telling them that when they become Christians they become foreigners. No matter who you are, you become an alien.

 

An early Pagan writer even called Christians their own "genus," or in other words, they were their own species. Why would he say that? He said it because Christians didn't keep their Christianity private. It shaped their culture publicly and they created a counter culture which had entirely different values than the culture at large. Rodney Stark and other anthropologists tell us that there were 10 main differences between the church and the world:

 

• 1- They refused to attend blood thirsty entertainment. They wouldn't go to gladiatorial events because they believed it defiled humans who were created in the image of God. This made them appear to be anti-social. Tertullian and Augustine both write about these events in a negative light.
• 2- They did not serve in the military to support Caesar's wars of conquest, which made them appear weak.
• 3- They were against abortion and infanticide. In this culture, both were considered acceptable. To throw your baby out on the dung heap if you didn't want it was not taboo.
• 4- They empowered women by showing their value and dignity in places of learning and service which had previously been exclusively for men. Christians held women in high regard and treasured them rather than viewing them as just a step above expendable children and servants.
• 5- They were against sex outside of marriage. This fidelity was considered odd and against culture. Sex was viewed as nothing more than a desire like eating or sleeping. Christians held a high view of the bed and kept it pure and would not engage in sex outside of marriage.
• 6- They were against homosexual relationships. This was odd in a time when same sex practice was not frowned upon.
• 7- They were exceptionally generous with their resources. They shared what they had with one another and welcomed others in with a hospitality that was unparalleled.
• 8- They were radically for the poor. In a time when the poor and downtrodden were viewed as getting what they deserved, they were aggressively committed to loving and serving people in the margins of society.
• 9- They mixed races and social classes in ways that were unseen in their gatherings, and for it they were considered scandalous.
• 10- They believed only Christ was the way to salvation. This was in a time when everyone had a god and could believe something entirely different and it was totally acceptable to be polytheists and pluralistic. Christians dared claim that Jesus was the only way and refused to bend to other gods.

 

No one had ever seen a group of people that held to these practices at the same time. They were aliens; they weren't like the Greeks or Romans. What if there was a group of people today that held to the same values? How would we label them?

 

How would you classify a group that: 1-Refused bloodthirsty sports, 2-Refused militarism, 4-Empowered women, 9-Mixed races and classes, and 10-Were radically for the poor? You'd call them liberal wouldn't you?

 

How about if they: 3-Were against abortion, 5-Forbid sex outside of marriage, 6-Forbid same-sex practice, and 10-Insisted that Jesus was the only way for salvation? You'd call them fundamentalists wouldn't you?

 

You know that this means? We're still aliens if we hold to such values simultaneously. We don't fit into the relativistic landscape of our time, nor rugged individualism or traditional hierarchical legalism. We simply don't fit into current categories. We don't fit conservative, we don't fit liberal. We've always been aliens.

 

Whenever Christians pick up the values of the Gospel and begin living them out in their city, they're considered aliens. But, at the same time, they're resident aliens.

 

Let's look at another early description of Christians in the 1^st and 2^nd century:

 

Twenty to thirty years after the Apostle John died, there was a letter written to explain what was going on in the spread of the Church. It was a description of the church that was immensely attractive and gives us a glimpse as to how the Church grew so rapidly and caused many to be curious about Christ. It is called:

The Epistle to Diognetus, c. AD 130

"For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.

"They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet suffer all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their babies. They share their table with all, but not their bed with all. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their exemplary lives. They love all men and yet are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good yet are punished as evildoers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. To sum it all up in one word-what the soul is to the body, that are Christians in the world."

How about the view of the church? Let's look at an early description from Tertullian in 197 AD.

From the Apology of Tertullian, AD 197

"We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This strong exertion God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation. We assemble to read our sacred writings... and with the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more steadfast; and no less by inculcations of God's precepts we confirm good habits. In the same place also exhortations are made, rebukes and sacred censures are administered. For with a great gravity is the work of judging carried on among us, as befits those who feel assured that they are in the sight of God; and you have the most notable example of judgment to come when anyone has sinned so grievously as to require his severance from us in prayer, in the congregation and in all sacred intercourse. The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. These gifts are...not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines or banished to the islands or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred. See, they say about us, how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves would sooner kill."

These descriptions are simply astounding. What sparkling lives they lived that had a gravity which attracted others in a culture that did not hold these same values.

 

Back to Peter, we're told that we are sojourners and exiles, or aliens and strangers. In other words, we're resident aliens. We're not passing through only as foreigners or tourists. We live where we live as residents, but we're aliens in that our ultimate citizenship is in the City of God and not the City of Man. This comes out in verse 12. We're taught were not to assimilate or attack. We're not to be syncretists or sectarians.

 

Verse 12 "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."

 

This is what Jesus taught us when He told us that in Matthew 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

 

This idea of "good works" doesn't just mean moral behavior, it means doing good, serving in an attitude of gratitude and love. This is precisely what Peter is calling us to.

 

If you assimilate you don't suffer, and if you attack and withdraw you don't suffer from the messiness of life in service. You become irrelevant on one hand and just an irritant on the other.

 

What if you are entirely different? What if you don't assimilate, but still come close and serve and love your neighbor as you give yourself away to your city, your state, and your country? The response will be just what we're told.

 

We'll be both rejected and accepted. There will be an odd interest that both repulses and yet attracts at the same time. We will be vilified; we will be misunderstood. Our culture has no other options since it doesn't have a category in which to put us. Yet, there will be overlap in that they will recognize us and be thankful for us.

 

The sectarians don't suffer because of their detachment, the syncretists don't suffer because they aren't saying anything controversial, but since we're to engage and bring light, we're going to suffer. This is the point of 1^st Peter: you're going to suffer and be misunderstood so be gentle and gracious. Expect it and don't freak out.

 

Every culture has common grace. God has created these cultures with men and women that are made in His image and though that image is marred by sin, they still posses some wisdom, some love, some of the values that allow their city and country to operate. When we come in contact with people in this radical way that is not against but for, and yet does not adopt but oppose their values, we will be recognized as something different.

 

This is a huge vision and goal for Kaleo and in many ways we are doing these things but are still so very far off. The next question we should ask is how are we going to do this?

God's Gospel-The power to do it

Let's look at verse 4 again: "As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious"

 

What does it mean to come to Him and consider Him precious?

 

What we're being told in verses 4 and 5 is that we need to admit that we are already building and come to Him, find Him precious, and join Him in what He's doing.

 

1- You have to admit you already have a cornerstone. In verses 6-7 we're told, "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.' 7 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'"

 

This shows us that God is laying a stone, but everyone else is building with their own agenda and their own cornerstone. Who are the builders? We are all builders. Everyone is trying to build a life and we are using a foundation or cornerstone to do it. If you're not building on Jesus, you're building on something.

 

You can find out what your cornerstone or foundation is by tracing your thoughts when the chips are down to that thing that will save you or pull you out. When things are wrong what do you say to yourself that makes you feel better? Do you say, "I'm a good parent?" Do you say, "I'm a moral or good person" do you say, "I'm successful and have success?" "I'm attractive," "I'm smart," "I'm well liked?"

 

How do you defend yourself? That is your cornerstone. When professional athletes retire, they often slip into depression and fall apart because their cornerstone is taken away and they have nothing to prop them up. When this shakes, their life shakes.

 

Often we move from one cornerstone to another. We're even told this in much counseling today. If someone is sexually promiscuous and is used by men because acceptance by men is their cornerstone, pop counseling will tell you to get a job and work a career and be an independent woman. What is this telling you to do? Find another foundation other than Jesus to build your life upon. But here's the problem: if you fell apart when men rejected you and so you moved your cornerstone to career, what happens when your work isn't going well? Your whole life will shake.

 

If you build your life upon any other cornerstone you will be shaken. But if you build your life upon the chief cornerstone, Jesus, you'll never be put to shame (v. 6).

You have to recognize you already have a cornerstone and it will fail you unless it's Christ and to have Christ as your cornerstone doesn't just mean that you acknowledge that He's important, but that He actually becomes precious to you.

 

It's not enough to assent with your head; He must become precious to you. What does this mean?

 

What if I were your doctor and I told you that you were incredibly ill and you were going to die within six months but that we have a cure for you that will save you? You would want it and do all you can to acquire it. Even if I said that the cure is incredibly expensive and you may have to sell your home, your car, your jewelry, your home theater system to afford it, you would still get it. You would see that your house, car, and stuff is of no value if you're dead. All other things in your life that you thought were so important all of the sudden become expendable to you in comparison to your life. "What profits a man if he gains the whole world, but loses His own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).

 

Your life causes all things to be viewed as totally expendable because of how precious your life is. Now you begin to realize that Jesus is precious to you. Everything else must be expendable to you except for Jesus, then you will begin to sense His becoming your chief cornerstone and truly precious.

 

Come to Him as the rejected One who was rejected. He was rejected by some of His family, at the cross He was rejected by His own friends, and He was rejected by His own Father as He breathed His last breaths in agony and suffering, cut off from God and rejected by those He loved.

 

He becomes the ultimate alien. He doesn't cave in to the pressure and change, and he doesn't attack and destroy, instead He lays down His life on His own accord and no man takes it from Him. Why? Why was He rejected and why did He take the rejection? One reason was because of His Father's glory, and another, which should grip our hearts and warm them to praise, is that we are precious to Him. When we begin to see that we are precious to Him, He then becomes precious to us.