06-07-09 Living Stones

Welcome back to our study of 1^st Peter.

We are going to pick up our study this morning

with the 4^th verse of the second chapter.

As we worked our way through the first chapter

we saw Peter offering us the knowledge we need

for effective living in a hostile world,

a world whose god is Satan,

operating under a world system

that wars against the truth about our God

and against all those who align themselves with that truth.

He told us about the way in which our God chose us for Himself,

called us to Himself,

and joined us with Himself forever.

He told us about the amazing future our Lord has planned for us,

and then he told us that right now, for a little while, we will be distressed by various trials.

From there Peter went on to give us 3 essential weapons

for the warfare we are called to fight.

The first was his call to us

not to return to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance.

The second was his call to us

that we fervently love one another from the heart.

And the third was his call to us

to long for the pure milk of the Word.

And then, having give us our weapons,

he moves on to a description of our relationship with our Lord,

a relationship unlike anything we would ever have anticipated.

In 1^st Peter 2:4-5 Peter says,

1PE 2:4-5 And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

OK, he begins by saying, And coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God...

Peter is drawing his imagery

from a quotation from Psalm 118:22-23 where the Psalmist says,

The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone. This is the Lord's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.

It is imagery that Jesus then used and applied to Himself

in the middle of one of His verbal battles with the religious leadership of His day.

In Matthew 21:42-44 we read,

Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes'? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it. And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust."

Now, Jesus used this stone imagery as an attack against His enemies,

but when Peter brings it up

he uses it to give the people of God

strong words of encouragement and security.

He has just finished talking with us

about the living and abiding word of God,

and then he moves us

from what our Lord has said to us

right into our Lord Himself,

describing for us what it is like

if we come to Him as He truly is.

And coming to Him as to a living stone...

Now, to appreciate what Peter is doing here

we need to look at the way he uses this word “living”

throughout this letter he’s written to us.

The first time he used this word

was in his opening remarks in verse 1:3

when Peter explodes in gratitude to our God who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope...

The next time we come across it

is in the section we just finished studying,

in which Peter talks about the living and abiding word of God.

Then, in two verses back-to-back here in the 2^nd chapter

he first describes Christ as a living stone,

and then in the next verse

he tells us that remarkably we, too, have become living stones, that are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

living hope...

living word...

living stones...

And then, in the 4^th chapter he comes back to this living thing one more time,

this time in a way that, at first glance, seems to be more consistent

with the way we normally use the word.

In 4:5 he says, ... but they shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

And if we stop reading there

we just naturally assume

that Peter is telling us God rightly stands as the ultimate judge

both of those who are living on the earth right now

and those who have already died.

But then, when we read the verse that follows

we discover that once again Peter is using this word living

in a way that is not consistent with our normal experience.

In 4:6 he goes on to say,

For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

So how did Peter go about preaching this gospel to dead people?

Did he stand up in the middle of graveyards

and bellow out the truth?

And right here is where we gain our best insight

into the difference between God’s perspective on life and death

and our perspective on life and death.

Because we are in the flesh,

born of the flesh,

and enter this world with our spirits dead to God,

we think in terms of life and death

only as it relates to our physical bodies.

For us to be alive

is to have lungs that breath

and a heart that beats.

If our physical body is alive

then we are alive.

If our physical body is dead

then we are dead.

But when God talks to us about life

He defines it on the basis of how something or someone relates to Him.

To be joined to Him,

united with Him

is to be alive - to have life.

To be severed from Him

is to be dead.

To God life and death are relationship concepts -

to be in relationship with God is to be alive,

to be separated from God is to be dead.

When Peter preached his good news to all those who were dead

he was simply preaching to all those whose spirits were separated from God,

and he did so in order that at least some of them may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

Their physical bodies,

just like our physical bodies

remain under the sentence of death.

Our body will never be joined in an eternal union with our Creator.

It will serve out its temporary purpose here on this earth,

fighting and warring against the living spirit within us,

the spirit that has been joined to God,

and then it will be removed forever,

never again to be allowed to frustrate the life of God within us.

And we will be given a new living physical body,

one that, like our spirits right now, will be joined to God in perfect harmony with Him.

To live from God’s point of view

is to be joined with Him.

Which brings us back to this living hope,

and living word,

and living stones,

and for that matter, living water (John 4:10),

and living bread (John 6:51).

Now certainly there are times throughout the Bible

when this word living is used simply to refer to someone being physically alive on this planet,

but whenever it is used in connection with our relationship with God

it is used to describe someone or something

that is joined to God Himself.

By the way,

that is at the heart of what is so significant

about that phrase eternal life.

When God talks about giving us eternal life

He’s not simply saying that we will continue to exist forever.

Everyone will continue to exist for ever.

Once God has created a human spirit

that spirit has no end.

It will never cease to be.

The question is not whether it will continue to exist or not,

the question is whether it will exist in union with God or not.

And I find it both fascinating and thrilling

that our Lord does not just tell us that He has given us life,

but that He has given us eternal life.

To give us life

is to bring us into friendship with God,

to join our spirits to His Spirit in a true love relationship.

But that isn’t where it stops.

He never ever wants us to live in the anxiety

that this union with Him is reversible,

or probationary,

or in some way dependant upon our maintaining a certain level of performance.

And so He tells us

not just that He has given us life,

but that He has given us eternal life.

1JO 2:25 This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.

More than 30 times we are told

not just that God has given us life - union with Himself,

but that He has given us eternal life - eternal union with Him.

Not just eternal existence - everyone has that,

but eternal friendship with Him.

But let me get us back to this living stones thing.

When Peter talks about a living hope,

and the living word of God,

and living stones,

and when Christ Himself talked about living water and living bread,

with each of these concepts

the “living” part of the whole thing

simply means that what is being discussed

is joined with God Himself, an extension of Himself.

The hope lives because it comes with God Himself promising us that He will fulfill it.

The Word lives

because it is inseparably united with God Himself,

the God who never forgets what He said,

and who possesses the absolute power to fulfill it.

Both the bread and the water are “living”

because they are mental images of the Spirit of God Himself,

the Spirit who alone has the ability

to fill the deepest hungers of the human spirit

and to quench the thirst of our souls.

And then we come to this living stone thing.

And here again Peter takes two impossible concepts and joins them together.

He takes Christ’s imagery of Himself as the chief corner stone,

something that is incredibly strong, solid, secure, stable,

and yet absolutely lifeless,

and he joins it with the word “living”.

And he tells us that our coming to Christ

is like our coming to a living stone.

And that is the way it is, too.

When we first reach out to our God

what many of us are seeking most

is simply some sort of solid foundation for our lives.

We want something upon which we can build our lives,

something that will remain secure

when all the rest of our world is in churning chaos.

And certainly when we find our God

we do find that strength, that stability, that security in Him.

But then we begin to discover

that what we get with Him

goes far beyond just strength and stability.

We discover that this foundation upon which we stand

is warm, and kind, and caring, and filled with compassion.

We discover that this stone has a heart filled with love for us,

and eyes that are always fixed on us,

and ears that always hear our cries.

We find that our sorrow becomes His sorrow,

and our victories become His greatest joys.

We find that this stone becomes not just our foundation

but it becomes the home our spirit has been hungering for,

not like any home we’ve ever known before,

a home in which we are loved without reservation, without limitation,

a place where we can at last be ourselves without fear.

Maybe I can say it best this way.

When we turn to our Creator and reach out to Him

we do so hoping we will find our God

and discover that we have found our friend - the best friend we will ever know.

It is so very hard for us

to believe this stone really has a heart.

It simply goes against everything we’ve ever been led to believe.

Even when we read it

we cannot hear it.

We come to a passage like that one in 1^st Corinthians 13

where Paul describes what true love really looks like.

1CO 13:4-8 Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; ...

And we’re OK seeing that as the way we should relate to others,

but what we fail to realize

is that this is God’s self-portrait

describing how He relates to us.

(1JO 4:8) ... for God is love..., and God so loved the world...(John 3:16).

God is patient toward us,

He is kind to us beyond measure,

He is not provoked when we give Him every reason to be provoked,

does not take into account a wrong suffered because our account has already been settled in full on the cross forever,

bears all things,

believes in us as no one has ever believed in us before,

hopes all things for us,

endures all things with us.

His love never fails.

And coming to Him as to a living stone...

But then Peter does something with this living stone concept

that is truly remarkable.

He takes this living stone concept

and he redirects it away from Christ

and onto us.

1PE 2:5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Just as Christ has become our living stone,

so He then calls us to become living stones

for those around us.

And, yes, I know what I’ve just said

is a risky thing to say

because we can so quickly, so easily hear it and instantly slip into our religious platitude mentality.

I might just as well say, “God wants us to love everybody”,

to which we all say “Yes! Absolutely!”,

and then we go home unchanged.

And if that’s what happens in our closing minutes together

then I have failed in my calling as your teacher.

For you see,

Peter would not have offered us this calling

unless it was something our God really can accomplish within us.

And I will share with you

what I believe to be the key ingredient in this whole thing.

I believe the critical thing

is the conscious goal we bring to each of our human contacts each day,

beginning with our marriage partner,

or with our children,

or with our work colleagues,

and every other person our Lord brings into our world.

And yes, I do know that even thinking in these terms is huge for us.

Our default setting in our human relationships,

the one we bring with us from birth,

the one that forms the center of our flesh response in every situation

is to think in terms

of how we can get from those around us

whatever we want to get.

How can we get them to meet our needs,

or do what we want,

or give us what we want,

or make our life easier,

or make us feel good.

We are all by nature users in human relationships.

And that will continue to be our flesh response as long as we remain in these bodies

because flesh is always flesh

and will respond as flesh until it dies.

But what Peter is doing here

is calling us to an approach to human relationships

that begins not with our flesh

but with the Spirit of God within us.

He’s asking us to look at the role Christ plays in our lives as our living stone

and then consciously choose to duplicate that role

in the lives of those around us.

It begins with the rock part, I think.

Solid, sure, dependable, unchanging in the right sort of way.

Do you know what that is?

It means we give up our right to be moody.

Does that sound petty...a rather insignificant issue?

Few things are more destructive

and more controlling in a home

than a moody adult in the mix.

It forces everyone else

to play off of the moody adult.

The most basic step in being for others what our Lord has called us to be

is that they can trust our responses to them,

not demanding that they conform to our unpredictable moods

but rather our providing for them solid emotional footing

in a world where such footing almost never exists.

...you also, as living stones...

And from there we choose to do what we can

to reflect for them the truth about their God.

Compassion,

kindness,

grace,

mercy,

forgiveness,

warmth and safety.

But it begins with the intentional attitude we bring to each of those relationships.

It’s our choosing the exact opposite

of all those things Peter just mentioned to us

that have the ability to rob us of our natural hunger for the word.... 1PE 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander...

And then Peter takes these choices on our part

and puts them into a context that we might at first find surprising.

He says, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

He tells us that whenever we do this,

whenever we counter those natural flesh-driven self-centered impulses

in our relationships with those around us,

we are fulfilling the holy priesthood that has been entrusted to each of us.

You know what the Old Testament priest did, don’t you?

He positioned himself between the people around him and God

and led them to Him.

He made God accessible to the people around him.

And every time we relate to those around us

the way our Lord relates to us

we do the same for them - we make Him more accessible to them.

And when we do that

Peter tells us that it is the way we offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Do you think you live a small life?

Do you think what you do and what you say and how you act each day

matters very little?

Do you know that you are in fact a holy priest of the most high God,

and every time you choose to act toward another human being

the way your God acts toward you

you are giving them access to God through your actions

and literally offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

And it matters more

and changes more

and heals more than we will ever know this side of eternity.