Chapel 8/6

1 Peter 2

Good Morning, I’m blah blah blah

Today, I’ll start chapel with some questions

How many here were good in school? Who liked school?

What was your favorite class? I was a math and science guy in high school, I didn’t go to college, but probably would have studied something with math, like accounting

I wasn’t a fan of history then, I love it now, learning about the past, especially World War II

I did not like English

How many here were good in English class??

Who knows the difference between a simile and a metaphor?

Simile-a figure of speech where two unlike things are compared using the words like or as.

With a simile your directed to contemplate the example given and to draw out the implication on what it’s being compared to.

Like saying someone runs like a deer if they are nimble and fast, or is cool like a cucumber if under pressure, or is as dumb as a box of rocks, self explanatory. Or He’s as big as a mountain. Those are simile’s

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase denoting one kind of object or action is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them

Using the above, that dude is a box or rocks, or he’s got ice in his veins when performing well under pressure, he’s a mountain of a man

They are pictures given to us to suggest a similarity

When used they draw you into the story, they engage our imagination

Also, biblically, they point backwards to the original usage of the literal thing that is being compared

What does it mean?

What was it saying then or describing then, or the significance of it then????

Those are the questions

We good?

Listen for them in todays passage from 1 Peter chapter 2, starting in verse 2 and going to verse 10

New Living Translation Chapter 2

2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

Living Stones for God’s House

4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.

5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say,

“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,

chosen for great honor,

and anyone who trusts in him

will never be disgraced.”

7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has now become the cornerstone.”

8 And,

“He is the stone that makes people stumble,

the rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.

9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

10 “Once you had no identity as a people;

now you are God’s people.

Once you received no mercy;

now you have received God’s mercy.”

Like Newborn babies, thats simile, crave and cry out for the nourishment that will make you grow, but you must cry out to the source, the giver of it and then receive it. Cry out for it all the more once you’ve experienced it

What are you crying out for? Spiritual milk, thats metaphor, again what is breast milk to a newborn?? Life, their source of nourishment, satisfaction, the only thing they desire

So what is Peter saying?

How about the next one?

Christ is the living cornerstone of God’s temple? that’s metaphor again. So what does that mean? The cornerstone was the chief stone upon which the whole building was built. No building could stand unless it had a good cornerstone

We are living stones, metaphor, building into a spiritual temple. Each stone builds and rests with and upon the rest. Together they form something great, like a building, a temple

But

What is a Spiritual Temple, Peter is Jewish so let’s think O.T?? The Temple

What is the purpose of a temple? To meet w/ God, it’s where God is, and we go there to meet with Him.

The temple was also to be a place where non-Jews could come to watch and learn about Israel’s God, hopefully they were attracted to it by what they saw and heard

So, let’s think back to the first place where God and man could meet together?? Do you know where it was or what it was called? I’ll give you a hint, it was a garden

Eden was a Temple of sorts, a place where man and God could meet, God’s presence would come to man, and mankind were caretakers of it.

What happened after man sinned? banishment, kicked out of God’s temple

Fast forward, to when Israel was in the wilderness, post Egypt, pre Promised Land, God gave them another Temple, a movable one called the Tabernacle

God with man, man meets with God, His presence in a cloud would come to man, in the tent of meeting, or the tabernacle, which again is a movable temple

Israel is in the land, Solomon builds a temple, a real building of stones stacked upon stones,

God’s presence as a cloud came down, into the temple, and man would come in to meet with Him.

The new official permanent meeting place.

But Israel sins greatly time and again, and the cloud departs from the temple, Gods presence leaves

But another vessel of God’s presence came to man, another movable one, another tabernacle, Jesus

New Living Translation Chapter 1

14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

The word for made his home among us is the word for tabernacle, Jesus tabernacled with us, He was the presence of God embodied in a man, Jesus

As the story continues, He’s ultimately rejected, sounds familiar, God in Eden, God in Israel, God in Jesus

He dies, resurrects, and ascends, but His presence comes to be with man once again, how? His Spirit

Where does His Spirit go? Into believers, they, we are the new tabernacle

Peter writes being built up into a Spiritual house (v 4), together we make up the Church, the body of Christ, etc.

These metaphors to communicate to us that together, not alone, but together we embody the presence of God

So, where does a believer need to go now to meet with God? Nowhere, His Spirit, His presence is within us

It’s good to go to “Church” the building, to be w other believers, to corporately worship, and hear a message etc.

But to sit with His presence, to hear from Him, to ask Him questions, we don’t have to go anywhere.

Maybe a quiet place, a designated place, but we can meet with God 24/7 wherever we want

In this passage Peter informs us of another role we play in metaphor.

We are also a holy priesthood, holy means a separated unto God servant for His purposes person

Again that was to be Adam and Eve in Eden, the Israelites and the literal priests, and now it’s Jesus followers

I know we still have literal priests and I’m not taking away from them

But believers are to function as go between God and Man as well, I’ll explain

What else would happen at the temple in the O.T.? Sacrifices offered for forgiveness, worship, etc.

Who would offer the sacrifices on the people’s behalf? The priests, they would take the animals and with people participation, they would kill, pour blood, etc, do all that was necessary for the sacrifice to be good and acceptable by God

They were helping the people come to God and be made right with God

They were also communicating forgiveness from God to the people

Acting as a go between, a mediator between man and God and God and man

Well Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, no other animal sacrifice has ever needed to be made.

Forgiveness is available to all.

What does this now say about us as a believer??

This is a role we are to play, to be this mediator first through prayer. Praying for those we know, who don’t know Jesus yet.

Our life is to be a sacrifice like Jesus layed down for others, lived for Jesus and put on display for these same people, so they see something in us and want to know our God

We are to talk to people about Jesus, who He really is and what He’s done for us.

Some will be ready to hear and believe, but others might not be.

Peter wrote

New Living Translation Chapter 2

I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,

chosen for great honor,

and anyone who trusts in him

will never be disgraced.”

He continues

New Living Translation Chapter 2

7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him,

“The stone that the builders rejected

has now become the cornerstone.”

8 And,

“He is the stone that makes people stumble,

the rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble and fall because they refuse to see the cornerstone for who He is, Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord

Peter writes this last part in metaphor to us who believe and are ready to serve Him and live out what He calls us to do

New Living Translation Chapter 2

9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

Let me pray