Sermon Cloud

January 27, 2008

1 Peter 2:1-10 (Part 3-Family)

Today we are going to talk about the third part of our vision: We are a gospel-centered missional family. We’ve been looking in 1 Peter 2:1-10 and this is our third and final week on this. Now singles and students don’t feel like we are leaving you out on on this one. We’ve know that plenty of singles feel like second class citizens in almost every social circle…maybe especially churches. No, we feel like family is the best way to describe how we can interact with each other because of Jesus. Families are sort of stuck with each other, committed to one another.

“Kids, think about your role at home. You love, care about, and know your family, right? Same thing here. You need to get to know people both older and younger than yourself. Talk and listen to big people, play with babies, and encourage everyone with proclaiming those excellencies of God. Also, in a family there is respect for your parents. God organized the church family in the same way. Respect and obedience toward the pastor, teachers, and leaders at church are necessary and important here, too. And last there are chores. Just like folding laundry and making your bed serve and help out your mom there are very practical things to do at church to help out that kids can do, too! Like helping make snacks to take to the small group party this week, or helping Roman pass out kids’ bulletins and worship cards!” (Heather Weaver)

Community is another word that we use interchangeably, but most of you don’t know your neighbors much at all so we thought family was a better image that captures what we are going for. And we have 4 traits that of describe us:

1. Honesty.

2. Family Worship.

3. Simple/Cheap.

4. Cross-Cultural Ministry/Social Justice.

You’ll hear more about those as time goes on, but at least you can get a feel for our unique personality. Those sound great, but I almost feel like the quest for community has been elusive for me and most people that I know. Its tough in a me-centered culture! So what’s the key? How do we have community with people? And what’s unique about Christian community? What are the biggest roadblocks to being a family together? And how do we live it out? We’ll try to move towards answering these questions.

We should come to God as a baby craving milk. But how should we come? Pick up in verse 4: As you come to him, who is a living stone (4) and a cornerstone (7) of a spiritual house of all believers (who are priests) (5) that has become a stone that many people trip over (8). Today we’ll see how Jesus makes us a family of priests and our quest for spiritual milk (maturity) is a community project.

Being a missional family is a result of the Gospel (The Family Business)

Last week we identified what that business was: declaring Jesus’ excellence. This week we are going to figure out why it’s a family business. To get there we need to explore the images of these living stones (temple) and priests.

1. Temple- The OT temple was a huge restoration of what had been lost in Eden. It was a mediated, limited place where God and man could reunite. Priests had to mediate God’s presence with people and blood had to be there or the sinfulness of these people would not work with this holy, just God. Jesus clearly identified Himself as the temple incarnate. We’ll see in John that the Word of God “tabernacled” with men. This passage identifies Jesus as the living stone which is certainly because of His resurrection. What a profound truth! Jesus is God and He dwelt among people.

Think about why we are called living stones. We are called living stones because we are identified with Jesus! We are united to Jesus and His resurrection (which is especially in view here) by faith. Likewise, we individually are declared temples (1 Cor 6:19) says, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?) and together make a temple (this passage). This is because we carry the Holy Spirit with us. This is why Jesus could say that God is with us when we gather to pray in Jesus name…we form a corporate presence of God. We are a family because of Jesus.

2. Priest- But you might ask, how can God just hang out with sinful humanity and not kill them all? It’s actually a big question. He had to be simultaneously sacrifice, priest, and temple. He would bring the once-for-all sacrifice for all who would believe and would wipe out the judgment coming for their sin and would give them His obedience.

And now we are declared priests. Jesus intercedes for His people, but now we are given the priestly task of mediating His greatness to the nations. So we are priests, and like we talked about last week, we now perform our priestly duty of declaring His excellence to Him and the nations (9). This is our family business! We focused on this last week, but for now just note that this business is a family one, not a sole proprietorship. We are in this together. The facts that we are a temple together and we form a priestly family show us two different images that communicate that idea.

He was rejected by men, but chosen and precious. We are chosen (9) and precious in Jesus! We now are counted righteous in respect to law obedience, die to sin with Him, and spiritually made alive. And that’s what we have now. At the end of all things, all of our sinful rebellious inclinations will be removed and our bodies will be made new in the final resurrection and will not be put to shame. And we, as a priestly family, walk in this grace right now. The gospel makes us a people!

This answers the question: “Why are we a family?” Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection becomes the one real unifying factor that makes us a family of priests. Jesus will cause us to be attracted to each other or repelled if we despise Him.

Making it personal

We are a covenantal community that operates like an extended family. We care for one another, forgive one another, and don’t bail because of Jesus and the fact that He cares for us, forgives us, and doesn’t bail on us. Jesus draws us together! This is a massive idea because it corrects us where we are tempted isolate ourselves spiritually. We don’t want people in our business, right? On top of this, we tend to baptize things that are anti-family! For example, it’s tempting to feel like a church has great community when everyone you hang with has the same interests, hobbies, life stage. Is this really Christian community? Isn’t this something that all people experience and are drawn towards in any social gathering?

Some people feel like being a family is exactly the same as attending a small group or Sunday school. You’ll figure out that while they are probably our best chance at being a family it doesn’t automatically make it happen. Maybe our motto at Redeemer groups is: “So you’re saying there’s a chance!” Let’s avoid anti-family tendencies. Instead, Jesus and His death and resurrection are the reason we can be family and He promises to unify us through Himself. The funny thing is that I think almost every Christian at least wishes they had deeper, more meaningful connections with other believers even if we are currently isolating themselves for any number of reasons. I know I do. Here are some of the reasons its tough for me.

1. Pace of life. We both have challenging jobs and have a son and all of the sports and school things that go with him. Sometimes, life moves at such a fast pace that I can look at a crowded evening schedule and want to scream! Many times I don’t feel like I’ve got the energy to be with established friends, much less make new ones. Been there?

2. How about this one: Someone like me says, “Because of Jesus, you guys need to love one another!” So you do and then you look up and you don’t actually know any non-believers. And you become an elite unit of Bible people, but distort the gospel because it’s not finding outlet in the family business. I have to actively fight against this because of what I do for a living and because it is so much easier this way.

3. Sin and pride. My wife shared at our Redeemer group that it is a real struggle for her to come to our group consistently. Some of it was the thing I mentioned. The other part is that deep down she (ok, me too) often feels like she would be fine with a John Piper sermon and some worship CD’s and maybe some friends that she can turn to if things went really wrong. Maybe for you it’s another speaker or Christian books or your counselor or whatever. Ever been there? Consider the pride of what we are saying! “I am fine on my own. I don’t need you. I am self-sufficient. And you should be fine without me. On that note, what’s wrong with you anyway?” Let’s repent of this and call it what it is. This is sinful and prideful. And many other sinners need to join Amy and me in acknowledging this suicidal tendency in us.

Let’s be transformed by the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. As we see our unworthiness and Christ’s provision and abiding presence in us, we’ll be much more likely to value one another rightly and to carry out our family business as priests of declaring His excellencies to Him and the nations. He’s so valuable that we should sing of it and go to the Lord’s table now and He’s so valuable that we should love those around us and He’s so valuable that we should love our neighbor and include them in our world. After all, communion is not just “me and God”; it’s “us and God”, right? Let’s be a family of priests that declare His excellence right now to each other and to those outside the family.