Lord’s Day Morning Sermon, January 8, 2006

Rev. Donald Van Dyken

Scripture: 1 Peter 2

Text: 1 Peter 2:4,5

There have been men in the history of the church who have made it their study to put together from Scripture all the wonderful ways our God uses to describe his Son, to present him before us in all his glory and wonder. The way God presents the many faceted wonder of Christ is often through metaphor. When you call someone a star you are using a metaphor, and actually a metaphor from the Bible, for it says Jesus is the Bright and Morning Star. He is called the Sun of Righteousness, the Rose of Sharon, the Way, the Light, the Good Shepherd. He is the Bread of Life, the Water of Life. He compares himself to a hen gathering her chicks, he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Rider on the White Horse, the Lamb of God. These are all metaphors, each bringing more vividly before us the wonder of this Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The metaphor before us this morning in our text is stone, rock. We sing, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.” Christ is our rock of refuge, our fortress, our high tower. This morning he is the stone, the Cornerstone, the elect and precious Cornerstone of our faith and life, and especially the cornerstone of the house God is building for his dwelling, for his name.

Our text begins with the words, “Coming to him as to a living stone.” And those give us the words of my theme this morning: Coming to Jesus.

First, our text tells us who he is. He is a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.

Second, our text tells us our relation to that stone, who we are. “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.”

Third, our text tells us why we are this spiritual house, this holy priesthood, and that is “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” So we see that Jesus Christ is our focus, for our text begins with him and ends with him. God brings us to Christ, builds us on Christ, anoints us as priests in Christ, and presents our holy service to God through Christ.

First then, our text tells us that our Lord Jesus is a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.

This is the Christ we come to, the stone we come to by God’s grace, every day, but especially every Lord’s Day, for we come to the house of God, and that house of God is built on that cornerstone, which, we read in verse 6, God laid down in Zion as the chief cornerstone, elect, chosen, and precious.

I wonder if we think of Sunday in that way. I wonder if we really consider that we are coming to Christ, to this living stone when we leave our homes on Sunday morning, get into the car, and ride to church. When we live during the week, do we live in the consciousness that soon again the week will be over, and as we begin a new week, another week, we will begin by coming to Jesus? Not really, do we.

What we say is this, “Hurry up, it’s time to go to church.” And that is very true. We do come to church, and its quite proper to speak that way too. But we need to ask if that’s the only way we talk and think. Think a minute. If you had a friend named Bill Jones who lived at 364 Grandview Avenue here in Sunnyside, what would you say about going there? You don’t say, “Mom, I’m going to 364 Grandview Avenue for a while.” You don’t even say, “Mom, I’m going to the Jones house.” You say, “Mom, I’m going to see Bill.” Well, we sometimes think, and I hope we speak by saying, “Let’s get ready to go to God’s house.” But who lives at God’s house? Are you just going to be in a house, to see a house, or are you going to see a person? Are you and your children actually aware that you are coming to Christ? Could you say, “Get in the car now, we’re going to see Christ?”

Coming to him, a living stone, a life giving stone, to bring worship to be sure, but certainly to be hosted by Christ, to enjoy the hospitality of Christ, to feast at his table, to enjoy his ministry, for this is the one who girds himself with a towel and washes the feet of his guests, who heals their wounds, who says, “Woman, your sins are forgiven you,” who gives new faith, new direction, new courage, and fills us with hope by his own tender and invincible presence.

Coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men. Verse 8 says that he is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Why? There are many who are willing to accept Jesus as one of the stones in their lives, as one of the important figures in their thinking. There are many who enjoy Jesus and…, Jesus and me, Jesus and my job, my comforts, my money. But Jesus is the only, and the chief cornerstone. Jesus said, “You must forsake all in order to follow me.” A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Let me briefly describe for you again the function of a cornerstone in the construction trade in the days of Peter. When the building contractor had brought together many stones cut from the quarry and they were laid out on the construction site, he would carefully examine all the stones to find the perfect one, the one he could lay down at the corner, the stone that could be used to align all the other stones in the building. The building we are talking about here is the house of God, the house that would be the home of God, not in heaven of course, but here on earth. This is the house where God would live with his people, where they could enjoy his presence forever, living in the light of glory in perfect joy.

Israel understood that God made them the builders of that house. Through Moses, through David and Solomon, through Ezra and Nehemiah, God would have his people build him a house. God promised David that someday he would have a Son who would truly build him a house, an eternal house, a perfect temple. At Christmas that Son was born, and at the very beginning of his ministry he said that he would build the temple, the house of God in three days. He was the cornerstone that came down from heaven. He himself was that elect and precious cornerstone chosen by God as the foundation, the very cornerstone of the house of God. So there he was, on that construction site, and there were the builders, the whole house of Israel. But they found this stone an offense. They rejected this stone. They said, “Away with him.” They crucified him. But they didn’t get rid of him. After his resurrection, as the apostles proclaimed this stone they cried, “You are filling Jerusalem with this man.” They could not avoid this stone, for every where they turned, whether in Antioch or in Iconium, whether in Athens or in Rome, this stone was set, and this stone for both Jew and Greek was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

But praise God, beloved, they could not remove this stone. This is the stone proclaimed, set by God through the mission work of his church, in every continent of this world, on every island, in every city. This is the elect and precious cornerstone of God that has withstood the Huns of Asia, the barbarians of Europe, the berserk Norse raiders, the humanism of the Renaissance, the rationalism of the Enlightenment, the cold death of Robespierre, the rage of Napoleon and Hitler, and still stands today.

This is the Stone to which you and your children have come this morning, and on whom God is building you. Our text says, “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood…”

At this moment then, we need to turn our eyes from the wonderful and vast work of God establishing Christ as cornerstone throughout the world, and see that he has established Christ as c
ornerstone here, in this church, in this house of God, in this place where Christ is our foundation, the living stone, and see that God himself builds us as living stones, a house for his name, a house that will be completed when Christ returns, and a house in which Christ will be physically present forever and ever, tabernacling among men, our God and Lord.

This is the wonderful work of God, taking us, those who by nature stumble over Christ, who by nature find Christ an offensive rock, and yet those who by God’s grace have been and are being broken over this stone, that we might be and continually become living stones. For this temple is the dwelling place, as the Bible tells us, of God in the Spirit. Through the Spirit of God we have life, and through the Spirit of this Cornerstone, Jesus Christ, we are being formed, fitted, chiseled, patterned after this Cornerstone.

I wonder how often we consider and live in the reality of who we are, that is, our identity is found alone in the church, this church of Jesus Christ. I wonder how often others sense in us that the church, this church, is the center point of our lives, and that everything we are and do revolves around our relationship to Jesus Christ, and that relationship is one of living stones on the living Stone, the cornerstone of the house of God, the church, this church of Jesus Christ.

A holy priesthood, for we are not only privileged to be the house of God, to be living stones in that house, but to serve in that house as priests. In every civilization in the world the priests were the privileged class. When Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh during the famine, the land of the priests had to be left alone, for they were privileged to be exempt. Priests are a class of people set apart from ordinary people, and dedicated to the special service of the house of God. Their entire life centered in the temple, serving the people, serving God.

And again, this brings up the question, Do we live who we are? Does God, do we, do others know from our lives that the center of our activities, the purpose of our lives, that the focus of our lives is the temple of God, and not just some invisible, imaginary, nebulous house, but this house, this temple, this church of Jesus Christ, these brothers and sisters sitting around you, who together with you are the temple of God?

This is our calling, this is our privilege, this is our joy, this is what David longed for when he said, “And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” This is what you have. How clear is it in your children’s minds, in the minds of those around you in the world, that this church of Jesus Christ, is, as the Psalmist would have it, your chief joy?

Finally, our text tells us why we are built as living stones on this living Cornerstone, Jesus Christ, why we are a holy priesthood, and that is to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. From him, and through him, and unto him are all things. From him is our salvation, our privilege of being made stones, of being appointed to a holy priesthood. Through him now we function, we perform our duties, we fulfill our calling, we offer sacrifices. And through him these sacrifices are acceptable, are praiseworthy, bring glory to our God and Father.

What are spiritual sacrifices? Well first of all, we need to understand that sacrifices imply cost, they involve pain and sometimes suffering. They are not easy. Sacrifice calls for self-denial. Sacrifice calls for putting others before ourselves. Sacrifice requires giving up things we may hold dear, our time, our honor, our comfort. Sacrifice means forsaking all for the sake of Christ. Sacrifice means, as Christ said, If you love me, keep my commandments. Sacrifice means obedience, not just obedience when it is convenient, but obedience, submission to Christ first, last, and always.

Sacrifice means that we do not define obedience by our own standards or the standards of this world. God is very particular about our service in the temple, our service to him and to his people. To understand God’s concern, we have only to read the minute and detailed instructions God gave his priests in the Old Testament about how they were to serve him with sacrifices in the temple. Nadab and Abihu serve as reminders that to serve God in our own way is unacceptable.

But how is it possible to serve God in such a way that he finds it acceptable? How can we be the kind of priests that he takes pleasure in? How can we perform well enough that we may hear, as the Psalmist recorded, “The Lord accept all your burnt offerings, and grant you all your petitions.” How is it possible to think during the week, as we work and play, and we eat and sleep, that these activities will bring glory to God and that he will say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We need that encouragement, don’t we? We need to have God take up our work and find it pleasing to him, honoring to him. We need to think during the week, that when we come with our lives, with the labor of our hands, with what we have done, what we have spoken, and present it to God on Sunday, when we come with offerings in our hands, that he will be pleased, that he will accept what we offer to him.

How can we believe this will be so? We need to have him assure us, to give us hope and encouragement. This he does through this chief Cornerstone, this living stone, this heavenly High Priest, for we are, so to speak, junior priests, serving under our great High Priest, and every gift, every offering, every work, every deed, even if it is so little as just a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus, will not be without reward, and what greater reward than to hear our great and holy God tell us that this is acceptable, worthy, and that he treasures it.

Let’s ask ourselves seriously, How important is it to us that our labors, our work of each week, we can bring to the house of God, and trust, pray, find it the dearest desire of our hearts that it will please him? And I must ask myself as God’s minister, should I not more seriously consider how important it is for you as God’s people to be assured, to be told that God accepts your work, that he does now, and will on that great day hold it up and through it glorify his Son before all the world?

You know, if your five-year-old son came to you, father, and asked if he could make you a bird house for your birthday, you would need to give him the plans, some wood, a saw and hammer, and nails. He wrapped it up and gave it to you. When you picked it up surely you saw that the saw cuts were crooked, that it was a little out of square, that one side was longer than the other, and that many of the nails were bent over. But would you first hold it up for criticism? Would you frown and then push it out of your sight? Of course not. You would hold it up proudly and say, “Look kids what your little brother made all by himself. Isn’t it great?” You would hang it in your tree and point it out to your neighbors.

Surely, there was room for improvement, and surely, father, you would work with your son over the years, improving his skills, correcting his mistakes. But you know that it takes encouragement, and that’s what you delight to give. Is our heavenly Father less loving, kind, patient, and encouraging with us his little children? Heaven forbid. Surely our efforts are weak, faulty, and sometimes a little crooked. But as we give these our works and words to him in love, he delights in each one of you, and encourages you by his pleasure in our works. “The Lord is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love…” (Heb. 5:10)

How then can we offer sacrifices through Jesus Christ? This brings us to the mystery of the ministry of Christ to us, Christ coming to us each Lord’s Day, by Word and Sp
irit, the totality of Christ, the fullness of Christ, Old Testament, New Testament, given to us, preached to us, delivered to us. This is the mystery of the Word of God dwelling richly in our hearts, bringing forth fruit. This is the mystery of the invisible, powerful working of the Holy Spirit, enabling us as living stones to eat and to drink of Christ, to hear, to believe, and to more and more live in obedience to his word. This is Christ in us, the hope of glory, the hope of actually, by our weak and feeble efforts, of bringing glory to God. For in that Word of God, by receiving that Word of God, we receive the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice, the altar that sanctifies every gift, the sacrifice whose fire purges every flaw, whose love adorns every gift with beauty, every work with grace. In that sacrifice of Christ, through Christ, we hear the Father say, “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

And this is the sacrifice, the living Christ, the living bread in sign and seal, the wine of joy and life that God gives you again today. Through this sacrament before us, God himself promises to strengthen our faith, that in this Beloved, we are beloved, in this sacrifice, we are sacrifices, in this living Stone, we are living stones, in this Priest, we are holy priests, serving God and his people with joy and with the pleasure of our God crowning our service. Amen.