God's People: Living Stones

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

I’d invite you to turn this evening in your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter, chapter 2, verses 4 through 10. We’re going to be looking this evening at a passage of scripture that is actually very indicative of the rest of Peter’s first epistle. I’m privileged to be able to be here tonight and to be able to share God’s word with you. For those of you who have heard this message before, I’ll appreciate your patience and indulgence. This is actually a message that I had the opportunity to share with many of the students of 128 Ministry and had the privilege of teaching through the book of First Peter two school years ago.

And this is one that is memorable largely because of the pictures. I’ll be honest with you. But I think that they send a profound message and they do help to sort of galvanize our understanding of the things that Peter would like to impress upon our hearts. And in the ancient city of Machu Picchu, I can call it ancient. I think it’s 500 years. If some of you students can call your parents ancient, then I can call Machu Picchu ancient. Incan engineers constructed temples of cut stones that so precisely fit together that a knife blade cannot be wedged into the cracks. Some of these stones were massive, many, many tons in weight.

Many of you have seen pictures of Machu Picchu before, undoubtedly. And yet they were cut with such precision that no mortar was needed. Many of them still stand today. And scholars surmise that they fit these stones together with such custom accuracy by actually lowering them into place. And then where one spot was high, they would grind it down until a tight seam was created. Where it bumped against a ridge, they would go ahead and chip it away, or carve it away, or file it away, whatever crude tools they had, until a tight fit was secured. And each stone was carefully worked by the craftsmen. The result is that a large portion of the stones are still exactly where they were 500 years ago.

A large portion of the city that was constructed with crude tools and primitive means stands largely intact after more than 500 years. What I think is pretty powerful is looking at the shape of these stones and how they are custom. Now, I understand that this is probably not the picture of a wall that Peter had in mind while writing during the first century Roman Empire. They had pretty sophisticated squarely cut stones and whatnot. But this one actually well pictures what I want to drive home tonight. That is that each of these is custom, each one is unique. There are more. When a hole like that existed, they would just grind away a stone until they had one that fit perfectly.

It’s funny because I bet if you were to ask one of the artisans 500 years ago, hey, could you believe that 500 years from now, people will still be admiring your work? He would say, well, yeah, because we’re not building this thing to fall over tomorrow. They knew exactly what they were doing and how to do it. Well, I would say similarly, believers are part of something that is great. Imagine each of these stones were to represent a Christian, Or if you’re really creative, imagine seeing names emblazoned or etched on each of them, or even little faces, if that helps you. He may be strong, every Christian may be strong on his own, but each believer is carefully crafted as a work of stone fit for the building up of the church.

The sculptor is God himself, and sometimes believers grind together in the uncomfortable process of making the wall more strong, more stable. Chips flake off, rough spots are made smooth, sometimes even sparks fly. But without that grinding and the removal of the superfluous stone, the seam is compromised along with the integrity of the wall. While it is impossible that a wall may stand if one of its stones is removed, it may potentially crumble. At a minimum, the wall is dramatically weaker. And as we can all testify, the process of being fit together for the construction of the wall is, in fact, an uncomfortable one for the stone.

That was definitely the case in the lives of the recipients of Peter’s first letter, those living stones that he addressed in 1 Peter chapter 2. The passage for our evening, as I mentioned, is chapter 2 verses 4 through 10. Many scholars believe that Peter wrote this after the summer of AD 64, and that’s when Rome was burned under Nero, under the potentially observing eye of Nero, as some legends would have us believe. Believers were the objects of extreme persecution under Nero for generations to follow. And they were outcasts. They were viewed as sacrilegious on the part of Rome, because they would not bow to their polytheistic deities.

Again, some of this is believed by scholars to be the case, in fact, that Nero launched the persecution against the believers to defect the attention from himself. So that meant that the persecution that Romans were inflicting upon Christians throughout the Roman Empire was at least under with the permission if not under the full sanction of the Roman government. They were blamed for the burning of Rome. Persecution was endorsed by the political juggernaut that was the Roman Empire and scattered scattered throughout Asia Minor. If you were to look at the back of your Bibles, you could see it. Asia Minor, modern day Turkey and in there you have five Roman provinces.

Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, and the believers scattered throughout those places, those elect exiles, were the recipients of this letter. And the whole of the letter offers strategies, encouragement, and hope to the godly sufferer that will enable him to bear up under trials in order to live a vibrant, joyful, dynamic Christian life in the face of intense persecution so that those who are around them will be caused to scratch their heads and ask for a reason for the hope that is in them. Starting with chapter 1 verse 1, he calls them elect exiles, reminding them that they belong to the Father and that their home is not in this world.

From the very get-go, he launches into that, calling them elect exiles. They’ve been chosen by God. they can enjoy all the accompanying benefits with such treatment. He tells them in chapter one, verses four and five of their heavenly inheritance. They have a salvation and an inheritance that cannot be taken away because they’re not physical, but spiritual. And the one who has given the inheritance is greater than all. In fact, it’s a fantastic passage of Scripture worth your examination. Chapter one, verses four and five, when Peter falls all over himself trying to explain what it is to the point where he gives up on it and basically shares what it is not.

That’s really cool. He looks at it, I’ll read it to you. An inheritance that is imperishable, that is undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Well, I can’t tell you exactly what it is, but I can tell you what it’s not. It’s not what you’ve seen before. He reminds them that their grief under trials is but temporary and necessary in chapter chapter 1, verses 6 through 9. It’s important for us to remember that trials are only temporary by design because what happens if they last your whole lifetime? The longest that they could possibly last, they will end. And for Peter’s readers, just that simple reminder, among other things, had to be very encouraging.

Our lives are, in fact, but a teeny speck in light of eternity for eternal creatures.

He tells his readers of their salvation and how it surpasses the angels understanding and experience and chapter 1 verses 10 through 12 And I’m not gonna go through all the like this I promise you but there’s there’s just so much and what he says is man the angels Long to look into your salvation because they don’t get it Remember that the reason the angels exist is to worship God in order for them to do so rightly They have to have a an informed understanding of God and his redemptive work and so they look with tremendous curiosity on what’s going on in the church because that communicates God’s genius that is on display for those angels so they can in turn worship him rightly and your position is far superior to any angel because no angel has ever been forgiven no angel has ever been redeemed either angels have fallen or they have not Christ did one sacrifice that was appropriate for men, not angels. He did not come as an angel and die. So the angels don’t understand all that. They look at it and they say,

man, this is amazing. Look at what God is doing. And Peter would have his readers remember their salvation is glorious. So to see how he’s building case upon case upon case about your situation here and now, though it may be lousy in human terms, it’s actually not that big of a deal. He’s helping to align their perspective so that they can do more than just limp along, but instead they can thrive.

He instructs them in verse 13 of chapter 1 to set their hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Their hope is in Christ and in Him alone, and I would argue that that is a safe object for our hope. Many times we place our hope in men and men disappoint. But when we place our hope in what God has promised, it is he is guaranteed to make good on that. It is as certain as his word is true. He tells them in verses 18 to 19 that they have been ransomed by the blood of the Redeemer. The currency with which Christ purchased our salvation was his own blood. That is the currency. It’s a glorious thought that we are free then to live holy lives because we have been ransomed by Christ. And he keeps doing this after our paragraphs for this morning, this evening.

He keeps doing it in the rest of chapter 2 and so on all the way through the end of the letter. Because when their life is hard and the same is true for us, when they are deprived of earthly pleasures and joys, it’s helpful to remember whose they are and what awaits them in heaven. They needed a clear mind. They needed an accurate understanding of their purpose in the wall. And what awaited them in glory if they were to endure the grueling, shaping process? So that’s a major purpose of Peter’s letter. So with all that as sort of the context for our passage this morning, this evening, I keep saying that. I think that this fits perfectly, because this just keeps on going with these transcendent, glorious thoughts that would help to align the perspectives of suffering believers.

In 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 10 we have a sort of rambling, glorious meditation on who we are in Christ and you can almost sense the excitement coming from Peter. As we read it in just a moment, be listening for that. It’s almost as if he’s saying Do you understand what you are to these believers? Do you understand whose you are, who you belong to? Do you understand what he is? This is amazing, says Peter. Who cares about death? That’s small stuff. You’re children of the king.

The tone throughout the course of the letter is one of tremendous excitement and hope because it seems as if Peter is actually looking at their particular position as a tremendous opportunity to glorify God in unprecedented ways. And I would say that that is the case for us as well. When we experience trials, we have a new opportunity to glorify God that we don’t when things are going great. I mean, doesn’t your own prayer life reflect that, that you’re more inclined to turn to God when things are going roughly versus when we’re going through seasons of tremendous prosperity and material blessing. So remembering our position in Christ, I think is the antidote for sadness in this life.

Because more often than not, our sadness is related to trials that are unique to this world. That was the case for Peter’s readers and it’s the case for us. Also of note in this passage is Peter is returning at this point. You know, a lot of the Pauline epistles, he has like a doctrinal section and then an application section. He does in the first part of Ephesians and the back part of Ephesians. He does in the first eight chapters of Romans and then goes on to, sorry, the first like 11 chapters in chapter 12. He launches into the instructional portion. Peter’s all over the map. So he’s not like that. This is a return to some doctrine after a hiatus on some instruction that he had given at the back end of chapter one.

And I make that case because, grammatically, it’s actually hard to identify. I guess based on some of the original manuscripts, this is pretty highly debated among scholars as to whether or not his grammar here is imperative or it’s indicative. If he’s actually giving instruction to saying, do this, do this, do this, or if he’s just stating it like it is. And I think that based on the context and grammatically, you can make the case that it is indicative, that he is stating it like it is. When you think about it, that’s actually tremendously helpful. Because don’t we need a little bit of objectivity when we’re in the middle of difficult circumstances?

Because I’ve tried to offer instruction to the hurting, and it doesn’t work as well as just offering clear reminders of the facts. The New Testament seems to argue that direction. So I think that this is indicative, that he’s telling them throughout the course of this paragraph, these lessons, he has lessons that he wants for them to learn. So as you do that tonight, as we look at it, I would encourage you to examine your own place in the wall. To be thinking of your own particular role, your own obligation to the other stones, and then of course, to remember that as a part of the body of Christ, together we are part of something so much greater than we are on our own.

Remember your own custom-cut position, how the other stones depend on you. Together we are part of something greater than ourselves, and the structure of which is held together by none other than Christ Himself. Follow along with me. 1 Peter 2, verses 4-10, as I read this passage. As you come to Him, A living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God, chosen and precious? 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. 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.

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 and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. 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. 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. The next position of this passage is a bit tricky, as I mentioned before, because Peter is sort of all over the place. And it almost seems as if his excitement is carrying him away and even his thoughts are a bit disjointed. But I think throughout the course of this section where we do find our three lessons that he is desperate for his readers to learn.

Three things that he really wants them to understand. And they are very simply what Christians are, what Christians do, and what Christ is. Yeah, I said that right, what Christ is, not just who he is, but what he is. So the first lesson then is what Christians are. And I think a discussion of what we are in Christ deals, as I mentioned before, more more directly and more objectively with our position. Say for instance, somebody is a plumber or a teacher or a banker doesn’t necessarily tell you much about his personality, it may, but it does give you objective data about the person. So it is concrete, it is solid information about his position, his profession, his standing.

And even if a plumber is having a bad day, even if he’s in maybe a foul mood, he’s He’s still a plumber. That’s what He is. So similarly, though we may at times feel distant from Christ, though we may be wayward even or disobedient, or perhaps for these readers, maybe sometimes they’re succumbing to the persecution and then repenting. The fact remains that in Christ, we are custom cut, chiseled, tailored stones for the edification That is the building up of a spiritual building, the church. The master artisan, Christ himself, God himself, has shaped and fashioned us with a purpose. And when one of the tailor-made custom-cut stones is removed, it leaves a tailor-made custom-cut hole.

And thinking back to those images we looked at a few moments ago, some of them fit like puzzle pieces. And if you were to take one out, it’s possible the wall could collapse. But if nothing else, at least the integrity of the wall would be compromised. Verse 5, he says, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. So what does he say? You are living stones in the first part of verse 5, as you’ve already seen. In some of the walls that were constructed some 1,500 years after Peter wrote this, a building is only as strong as its materials. You can put together a straw house in a strategic fashion, but in the end, your house is still weak.

Perhaps for some reason why the story of the three little pigs has lasted the test of time, right? Peter is drawing on Isaiah chapter 28, verse 16. I’m sure the fine print of some of your Bible’s references, That is a cross reference. And also Psalm 118 verse 22, those are ringing in his ears. And also I would add when he is speaking to the Jews in chapter 4 of Acts verse 11, he says something similar. Believers are the stones that construct a particular people and a particular priesthood. This body of priests is a priesthood, as he describes it. Christ is the cornerstone. And the structure is significant and strong.

And what we are a part of is significant and strong. But perhaps what I like most about this illustration that Peter is using is that believers are likened to building materials, rocks, stones. Stones are completely inanimate objects. Stones heaped in a pile are of little use to anyone. But when they are worked and shaped and put in the right places, they can serve a more significant role. They are, however, at the mercy of the builder. Stones cannot shape or place themselves. Peter’s language here is clearly passive. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up. The agent is God. You are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood.

The builder is God, whose people we are. The Bible is full of illustrations like that. We even saw some this morning that point to our dependence on God, just as Jesus did, for instance, in John chapter 3. We saw that, right, when he speaks of being born again. Baby has little say in the decision-making process as to when he may be born. And a stone doesn’t get to say, hey, place me there, or in a place of prominence, or at the bottom, because I’m strong. He doesn’t get to say that. A person can no more be born again of himself than a pile of stones can spontaneously fit together like an intricate three-dimensional puzzle.

What else does Peter say that we are as Christians? A spiritual house in the second part of verse 5, He says, right there, second half verse five, being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood. It’s not a physical earthly house of bricks and mortar or clay that will inevitably crumble. So that spiritual is contrasted with the physical. All that is in this world will eventually come to destruction and be rebuilt, but not the spiritual house of which we are a part. They are a part of a spiritual house. they cannot be compared with the physical. And it is for a purpose, to be a holy priesthood. That’s the third thing.

He says that in the third part of verse five. The priesthood of Christians surpasses, by contrast, Levitical priesthood in every way. They are spiritual and the Levites were physical. The work of the Levitical priests covered sins. They did not remove them. But because of Christ’s real atonement for sins, we can have real contact with the Father through Christ. He says that here, through Christ. Every believer is a priest then as he speaks to the Father directly because of the work of Christ. And this is likely no new knowledge for these believers. I mean, they were Christians for a reason. But if you imagine for a moment that newness and novelty that’s carried with it, because it was after all a pretty new concept.

For us, it’s been around for a couple thousand years. For them, it was about 30 years old. It only been 30 years since Christ had paid that sacrifice. So that exhilarating reminder must have been encouraging to them. Verse 9 he says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Notice the striking parallels with the Old Testament, Israel. And it’s much of the same language that we hear in the Old Testament, to describe God’s people. But in every case, a believer’s position surpasses that of Israel. He also says we are a chosen race in verse 9. This surpasses Israel’s election and is it was unto an eternal inheritance because they in fact rejected the Messiah, a royal priesthood.

He said a holy priesthood now says a royal priesthood in the first part of verse 9 as well. So he takes the priesthood reference, the holy priesthood in verse 5 and steps it up a notch.

being a holy priest who we are also in fact royalty. And this is where it starts to get really mind blowing because not only are we a priest who we are also royalty. As co-heirs with Christ as children of the King of Kings, we have access to the Father directly. We who are a royal priesthood. Also, a holy nation, he says in verse 9, a holy nation. The holy ones are like God. It is His requirement that we be holy as He is. We are a nation of believers with our own identity in Him, being holy only because of Christ as well. We are a people for His own possession. God has selected us to belong to Him. God has chosen us as his own. And the thought of the sovereign creator of the universe, selecting a spiritual race of people for himself that would include us, ought to at least help us to cope with life. I mean, it ought to be mind-blowing. But when we think about these things, the idea that Peter has in view is for our problems to seem small. We are God’s possession. Do Do you get that?

He has chosen us to do what He will with us and He has chosen to give the church to the Son as a gift and we are a part of that gift. We are in verse 10, God’s people, stated differently. Verse 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. And again, we have a contrast between their station before Christ and when they’re reading the letter. This is you before, this is you now. They were without mercy, but in fact, no longer. They had no identity together, but now they do in Christ. You think about that? By itself, a stone is nothing.

But when shaped and placed in a wall, it can be part of something great. It has purpose. It has significance. It has identity as a part of something far greater than itself. And this is an appropriate time to take a step back and look at ourselves. We can miss that sometimes when we go to church. But when you think about it for a moment, what do we actually have in common? Sure, I suppose you can make the case that common seasons of life, some grandparents, some with small children, some students going to school, Some people going through similar life struggles, but couldn’t that be something you share in common with Joe Schmo at the grocery store or your buddy from work?

No, our identity and what we have in common is Christ, and we should not lose sight of that. It is important to remember that we are His people. He gives us our identity as a church body, and He’s the one who gives us ultimate obligation and responsibility to one another. If God had not placed us in the wall, then we would not have that responsibility to bear one another’s weight and burdens. We would not have that responsibility.

For the readers of Peter’s letter, they had a corporate identity that the world could not understand. And as is the case today, the world would see a Christian and wonder why. And in this case, how on earth do they maintain joy in the midst of unfair suffering? That’s God’s design for believers to behave a certain way, even in spite of, and in the face of torment or at least trials, and then in turn for the world to ask why. He references that in chapter 3 as well. He anticipates that question. If Peter’s readers then are stones in the spiritual house, if they are a holy priesthood, if they are a royal priesthood, if they are being built up as God’s people for a gift to the Son, if they’re God’s own possession, then what do they do?

That leads us to the next question. What Christians do? And that is, of course, a lesson that Peter would have his readers to learn as well, what they do. Well, to start with in verse 4, we see they come to Him. The first part of verse 4, as you come to Him. Now that can be a quickly dismissed phrase, but of course they come to Christ and in a sense what else could they possibly do? I’m not just talking about the compelling nature of Jesus Christ or even the irresistible grace that is impressed on our hearts, but the Levitical priests would have given anything. If you think about it, the Levitical priests would have given anything to have the unrestricted access to God that we enjoy every day, and that the Christians did as well in first century Asia Minor.

The access that we have to the Father, of course, through Christ. And if we are a holy priesthood, of course we will come to Him. When we talk of somebody being saved, we often hear that He comes to Christ. We may even use that language, but this isn’t necessarily a salvific reference. But instead, based on the grammar, it actually refers to somebody who repeatedly and habitually turns to Christ, who comes to Him on an ongoing and regular basis. Commentator Edmund Hebert says, the present participle coming does not refer to an individual’s initial commitment to Christ for salvation, but the voluntary, repeated, or habitual coming of believers to Christ for sustenance and for fellowship. When was the last time you went to Christ for fellowship? According to Peter, that is a natural thing for believers to do. So, it’s a participle and it is indicative. It just kind of states it as it is, meaning he’s not commanding the people to come to Christ, but rather describes what happens.

This is automatic. This is a given. He’s not saying, come to Christ, he’s saying, you come to him, blah, blah, blah. What else do they do? They offer spiritual sacrifices, the second part of verse 5 there. And Peter doesn’t go off on this any more than he does as you come to him, but it is also significant. He just slips it in, but it’s mind-blowing to think of what it says. It’s significant and it speaks really of the completed work of Christ, that we would no longer need to offer what amount to futile physical sacrifices any longer, but that rather we could offer spiritual sacrifices, which are, verse 5, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

And that is precisely what we do when we assemble in corporate worship. It is the offering of spiritual sacrifices, like much of the Christian life. In fact, he also reminds his readers that they may proclaim Christ’s excellencies as another thing that they do. They may proclaim Christ’s excellencies. Is that not what we do when we sing to him in psalm? When we speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual psalms? When we encourage one another? Verse 9, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into to his marvelous light. So speaking of God’s character, and then also speaking, of course, of what he has done to rescue fallen sinners, a race of people who had rejected him and turned their backs on him and turning them to his marvelous light.

He reminds us here of the importance of worshiping God for all he is and proclaiming loudly what he has done on our behalf. And I think the immediate context here makes it clear that we are made with a view to this kind of behavior. I mean, this is part and parcel to the Christian life. This is what we do. It is natural for a believer. It’s what we were made to do, intended to do as God’s own possession. Nobody ever looks at a well-built rock wall and praises the rocks. He may offer praise to the craftsman, the builder, for his ingenuity, his creativity, his skill. But the rocks are just rocks. As beautiful as they may be, they are just stones.

The same thing happens with the church. We are a building. As God’s people, we are constantly pointing to Him as the builder, as the one deserving the glory every bit as much as the rocks assembled perfectly point to their assembler. It is our corporate duty to proclaim His excellencies, to sing with loud voices and full hearts what He has done and who He is. The last thing that Peter would have for his readers to learn, the last lesson he would You’d have them cling to us what Christ is. Who Christ is is another lesson, and that’s fantastic. But again, for them to be reminded of this concrete evidence, no masonry pun intended.

I understand that sort of slipped in there a few times. But Christ is himself, a living stone. The second part of verse four. a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. As you’ve already discussed, the stone in the wall is in fact a person, but rather than Christ being like us, we are like him. This is an interesting picture because a person can be described as stone dead, but living stones compose this spiritual house of which Christ is second, a cornerstone. We see that in the second half of verse 6, And again in the second half of verse seven, let me just read verses six and seven.

Peter says, for it stands in scripture, and then he quotes Isaiah, chapter 28. Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. 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. A cornerstone was the start of the construction. I don’t know how familiar you are with this type of construction, but it was at the bottom of two walls. I would hold them together. It would really bear the full weight of those two walls. And without it, it’s not hard to figure out what would happen.

That stone was not in place. Those two walls would fall. But it also served another purpose, and that was to actually serve it to align the construction of the rest of the house. It was to be straight, and everything directionally was drawn from that one point, that one point of reference. Could not be a more appropriate picture for Christ’s role in the church. If you look at the body reference, he’s the head you take away. Any other part is dispensable. Remove the head. The whole thing perishes. In a wall illustration, take away the cornerstone. The whole thing collapses. Other illustrations involve the capstone of an arch.

pull that one capstone out and the weight of the wall crumbles on itself. We are then, as the body of Christ stones in a structure, and the cornerstone of that structure is Jesus. But what else is Christ? He is also a stumbling block. Verse 8, he says, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense. They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do, talking of course of the world. Where Peter’s audience needs constant reminders of their position and their inheritance in Christ because of their suffering, we need these things in order to suffer. Do you get that? If we have the right perspective, it will make the world around us very uncomfortable.

If we begin to live the same way that they were, the outcome will be similar. But because they were being faithful, they needed a clear reminder as to what awaited them in heaven and whose they were and what Christians do and what Christ is to give them encouragement to us understanding those things will also have a sanctifying effect. They’re already suffering for their identification with Christ. Practically identification with Christ will cost us almost nothing in the world. While living for Him as we should live will make the world around us, as I said, very uncomfortable because Christ is in fact a stumbling block then as He is now. We should not be surprised if the world hates our message because it hates Christ. And if the world loves us, it’s very possible that we do not have the love of Christ. If the world loves us, it’s not because we’re acting like Jesus.

It’s because we’re not. Last Peter would have his readers remember that that Christ is a Savior. Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. This is said quickly, and yet it is also very significant and a glorious truth of Christ, the cornerstone. He is our Savior. He can rescue the weak and the weary and the afflicted. And this had to be a comforting and sweet reminder for Peter’s readers. And I think as believers, we share in common with Peter’s readers the need for regular reminders of our identity and our position in Christ if we too are to bear up under trials that are part and parcel to life in this world, especially for believers.

Our persecution may be different. Our suffering may be different. And yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. or as others have said, life is hard and then you die. So you can expect it. It is absolutely inevitable that we will be made uncomfortable and that we will suffer and we will be tried and tested and shown to be either lacking or trusting in him. As inevitably as the believers were in first century Asia Minor under the oppressive thumb of Nero. Often our sadness is born out of a focus on circumstances here and now. But as I mentioned before, I think the antidote for our sadness, at least the sadness that is generated by the trials of this life, is to think about our position before God and in Christ and thinking of what awaits us in heaven. On a personal or a side note, I am thrilled to be a part of a body that includes fellow stones who love and realize the importance of their particular places in the wall.

They embrace their obligation to the other stones, and by God’s grace may we continue to grind against one another and be reshaped and refined to create a stronger structure, knowing all the while that the builder is God. Let’s pray. Father, it is humbling when we think of ourselves as being helpless stones of no, use by ourselves, but when used by you, of pretty significant utility and importance. Also, it is already the case that we are a part of something that is so much greater than we are individually ourselves. We pray that as trials come, as they inevitably will, that you would help us to align our perspectives with yours and to like Peter’s readers, remember these things regularly, and then to meditate regularly and often on your person and what awaits us in heaven.

We thank you for the opportunity to be a part of your ministry here. You’re not under any obligation to include us in that and yet you do, and that itself is humbling and it’s also very fun. Thank you and we pray that we would go with your grace tonight. We pray in your son’s name. Amen.