ON BEING BUILT
INTO A HOLY HOUSE:
THE ROCK AND THE
ROLE
Remembrance Day is next Tuesday – so here’s a story about
service: One Sunday morning the pastor noticed little Alex was staring up at
the large plaque that hung in the foyer of the church. The plaque was covered
with names, and small American flags were mounted on either side of it.
The
seven-year-old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor
walked up, stood beside the boy, and said quietly, "Good morning
Alex."
"Good
morning pastor," replied the young man, still focused on the plaque.
"Pastor McGhee, what is this?"
"Well,
son, it’s a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the
service."
Soberly,
they stood together, staring at the large plaque. Little Alex’s voice was
barely audible when he asked, "Which service, the 9:00 or the 11:00?"
Dying in
service for others is one thing, but dying in a worship service is just tragic.
I normally just hope the congregation will stay awake.
The
Apostle Peter has described for us the great mercy of God in giving us new
birth into a living hope. God has gifted us with salvation through Jesus
Christ. Salvation, however, is not the end of God’s work in us. It is, in fact,
only the beginning. As Abe described last week, we are nurtured by the Word of
God to grow in maturity and spiritual health. But that is not the end-goal of
the work either. No, now Peter reveals the purpose of God’s great mercy in our
lives.
One
verse in our text today explains this succinctly: We are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,
offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Our end-goal
is service to the King; our purpose in being saved is not merely for
salvation’s sake, it is to be a people who minister to God. Consider the Rock
and Role of this passage together with me.
1. The Rock: A house where God dwells
Changing metaphors drastically from the nursing mother
image to stones, Peter continues his call to holy living. Jesus is called “the
living stone,” “the cornerstone,” and a “stumbling stone.” Each “stone” teaches
us something about ourselves.
a) Jesus is the
Living Stone – Peter writes, “As you
come to him, the living stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious
to him…” (4). In the OT, God is often called a rock and a fortress,
impenetrable and the best place to seek refuge. Jesus is also referred to as a
rock in various places in Scripture, most notably by Paul in 1 Cor. 10:4 where
he calls Jesus the spiritual rock. In Daniel, Daniel has a vision of a rock
that rolls down a hill and destroys a statue (ch. 2). That rock is Jesus. So it
is not odd for Peter to speak of Jesus as a living stone, though we do not
think of stones as alive.
The most
important feature of this “stone” metaphor is that it is “rejected by men but
chosen by God.” This is what would have resonated most with the people Peter
wrote to in Asia Minor. They were experiencing rejection for following Jesus as
God. What’s one more God in a culture of many gods? It would have been odd for
someone to believe in just one God, but so what? The problem was that these
strange people believed that there was no other God but Jesus. As such, they
would have been seen as a threat to the whole structure of Roman society. They
lived in a polytheistic culture; we live in a pluralistic one, where believing
in the Son of God makes you stick out as intolerant and belligerent.
Faith in
the living stone makes you a living stone yourself. “…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual
house…” (5a). Peter could have used the generic word “building” here, but
he uses “house.” The importance of this is that we immediately get the image of
the temple. We are being built into a temple, a place where God dwells, where
the Rock is central. We are being built into the house of Rock.
b) Jesus is the
Cornerstone – Rejected by men but chosen by God…this describes Jesus, and
it describes those who follow Jesus. He is precious to God; we are precious to
God.
Peter
repeats the “stone” metaphor and how precious it is to God. He quotes Isaiah
28:16 which prophesied Jesus’ key part in this temple, “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone…”
(6). Jesus is the cornerstone. The main purpose of a cornerstone is to control
the design of the building or house. It is visible, unlike a foundation. It is
the straightest, most perfect stone, geometrically and aesthetically. All the
stones in the house need to line up and match this stone.
As
living stones in God’s house, we need to match Jesus. We also need to
acknowledge that a stone or brick on its own is quite pointless. “WE” are being
built into a holy house for God. Without this unifying image, we are just a
bunch of stones lying around on the ground without an obvious purpose. We are together God’s house as living stones.
W.
Barclay tells a story that conveys a similar concept about a Spartan king boasting
to a visitor about the walls of Sparta. As the visitor looked around, he could
see no walled city and asked, “Where are the renowned walls of Sparta?” The
Spartan king pointed to his army and replied, “These are the walls of Sparta,
every man a brick.”
We are a
house, not a fortress wall. Yet the idea remains that each of us is a living
stone, playing a role in the integrity and well-being of the whole. God’s house
is spiritual in the sense that it is made up by the lives of those who come to
Christ.
c) Jesus is the
stumbling stone – That is the key: “coming
to Christ.” That’s how Peter began this passage, “As you come to him…” (4a)
and then says, “Now to you who believe,
this stone is precious…” (7a). This is how we became living stones. Twice,
God is shown to prize Jesus as precious. Those who believe in Jesus see him as
precious too; Jesus is considered of great worth to us which is why we
“worth-ship” him.
But to
those who do not believe in him he is a stone that makes them stumble. In other
words, human destiny is determined by our attitude towards Christ. If we took
to heart what the gospels say about Jesus, we too would find that Jesus is not
an easy man to follow. He preaches forgiveness where we live in a culture of
revenge. He preaches sacrifice where we live in a society of indulgence and
pleasure. But what really gets people in our world is the exclusive claim of
Jesus, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can come to
the Father but through him. It is his exclusivity as well as his challenge to
discipleship that makes people stumble.
If you
were building a house, would you not use the material that best accomplished
your dream design? Would you use any old wood just because you didn’t want to
leave any pieces out? Would you use sandstone for the fireplace even though
granite is better? God is building a house using specific material because it
is a house that reflects who he is – Holy. So the prerequisite for being a part
of that house is coming to Jesus and finding him precious.
2. The Role: A People who serve the Lord
A really stark contrast is made by Peter now as he turns
from those who stumble over Jesus to describing you and me, the people who
accept and love Jesus. It is unmistakable that there is a difference. He
writes, “But you are a chosen people, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare
the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not
received mercy, but now you have received mercy,” (9-10).
a) Belonging to
God – In some ways these designations are all synonyms of the same thing.
On the other hand, they each speak to the role we play in God’s house. Not only
are we God’s house as living stones, we are also the priesthood in the dwelling
of God.
These
descriptors are noticeably Jewish. Yahweh called Israel out of the nations to
be his special people saying, “Now if you
obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my
treasured possession,” (Ex 19:5). That is a pretty special appointment. And
all throughout the OT God speaks of Israel in this manner.
So does
this mean that Peter has transferred the privilege of being God’s people from
Israel to the church? Is Peter suggesting that the NT believers are the new
Israel? Some people think that the church has replaced Israel. Some believe
that Israel will still play a part in God’s plan. Others feel that the church
has not supplanted or replaced Israel as the people of God but now the people
of God form one single community (OT saints and NT saints) coming from many
nations – not just the one. Paul argued that Christ’s “… purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus
making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the
cross…” (Eph 2:15b-16a).
We
belong to God through the cross of Christ. We are tasked then with keeping the
unity of his people through the bond of peace.
b) Offering
sacrifices to God – Not only are we God’s people but we are all his
priests. This is the basis of our belief that we are a priesthood of believers.
That means that, unlike the RC, you do not need a human mediator to come to
God. You don’t need a priest-confessor or a pope to stand between you and God.
You are a priest and you can go directly to Jesus.
It also
means that as priests we have a responsibility to offer sacrifices to God.
Unlike the priests of the OT who offered up bloody hunks of meat to God in the
fire, Christ was the final blood sacrifice for all time. So then, what do we
sacrifice to God? The NT makes a few references to sacrifices that God is
pleased with:
Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your
bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – which is your spiritual
worship.”
Hebrews 12:15-16 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of
praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good
and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a
life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant
offering and sacrifice to God.”
Revelation 8:3-4 the prayers of the
saints…
What is
sacrifice to God? Our bodies (our whole life)…our praise…good deeds…sharing
with others…loving others…our prayers. Sacrifice implies a costly and sometimes
painful act that blesses God’s name and is ultimately a joyful experience.
c) Receiving the
mercy of God – Why would we do this? Why in our pursuit of Christ would we
give up so much? Peter reminds us again of the mercy of God, “…once you had not received mercy, but now
you have received mercy,” (10b).
A subtle
and undetectable connection is made in this phrase to the story of Hosea. God
commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute as an example of how God felt about
Israel. Hosea married the woman but she kept running off and sleeping with
other men and having their children. Hosea would go off and find her again and
again, bringing her and her children home with him.
Conventional
wisdom would be to divorce the adulterous woman and kick her and her children
to the curb. What did Hosea owe her? Nothing. But he committed himself to
loving her and showing her mercy. If grace is getting what you don’t deserve,
mercy is NOT getting what you do deserve. God made a lesson of this marriage
saying, “I will show my love to the one I
called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are
my people’ and they will say, ‘You are my God’” (Hos 2:23).
We were
once without mercy from God, now God has shown us mercy. The House of God then,
is a house of mercy where people who don’t deserve it, find God’s love. That is
our role as priests in the House of Rock.
We are
being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. What is acceptable to God?
Mick
Mooney wrote a tongue-in-cheek story about what it means to be like Jesus.
Once upon a time, a mother made her son a wristband. On
it was written: WWJD? This, of course stood for: "What Would Jesus
Do?" She instructed her son to look at the wristband before making
decisions on how to live his Christian life.
A week
later she was shocked to see that her son had become friends with prostitutes,
was hanging out with 'sinners' -- even buying people who were already drunk yet
another round of beers!
Worse
still, he had walked into their church the previous Sunday and tore down the
book store, overturned the tables and threw the cash register through the
window, he then made a whip and chased the pastor out of the building,
declaring he was turning God's house into a den of thieves.
Most
shocking was what happened when his mother went to picket the local abortion
clinic. To her embarrassment, her son was also there, but he was standing with
the women who just had an abortion, and yelled at the protesters: "You who
are without sin, throw the first stone!"
The
mother was very distressed, but fortunately she found a solution to this
terrible problem. She made another wristband, this time it read: WWAPD? This,
she explained to her son, stood for: "What Would A Pharisee Do?" She
took the oldWWJD? wristband and burned it.
Since
her son has been wearing the new wristband, looking at it to help him make his
decisions, he has become a dedicated tither, a public prayer warrior, an active
condemner of 'sinners,' a passionate defender of the Old Covenant law, and has
a great reputation as a godly young man amongst other religious people.
A holy
house is not a house of perfect people; a holy house is a house of mercy, of
sacrifice, of love at all costs, where Christ is followed and God is glorified.
AMEN?
