Living Stone, living stones

Sermon delivered by Pastor Finn Sun, May 10, 2020 EASTER 5 SERIES: “Living With Hope” Text: 1 Peter 2:4-10 “Living Hope From the Living Stone”

Last week we saw how the apostles, well, the apostles are dying, and the church is being persecuted. Peter writes to believers who might be dismayed by that fact and as a result of that trouble maybe fall from, their faith in Christ. And so Peter writes to them and says, “Remain strong in your faith in Jesus. You can trust in him through every change and trouble and storm in life. He loves and will deliver you. You know that because, (1 Pet.2:24,25) “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’  For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

What a comfort for these persecuted Christians—and really for all of us! Jesus is the Overseer of your soul! He’s looking out for you . He sees it all. It’s like the hymnist says, “Knows my needs and well provides me, loves me every day the same, even calls me by my name!” And so we are confident even in the face of danger and persecution. Christ who loved us and gave himself for us will never leave us or forsake us. Last week Peter also taught that Jesus our Savior also left us an example, that we should follow in his footsteps, and will live our faith, submitting to our heavenly Father’s will, even if that means suffering for doing good.

Welcome again to our Easter sermon series, “Living With Hope.” Today Peter uses the picture of a “Living Stone” for Jesus and “living stones” for us. It’s a word picture that’s meant to get us thinking about the two most important questions in life: Who is God and who am I? If you think that’s too philosophical and not practical enough, give it a chance. The answers you get this morning may not surprise you, but I guarantee they will delight you.

Peter says, (vv.4-5) “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

When we think of a rock or a stone we think of something solid, something hard and permanent, something that makes for a solid foundation. Jesus once said it would be foolish to build your house on a foundation sand because sand is a shifting foundation. A flood or storm surge from a Hurricane could wash it away. You want to built your house on the rock, Jesus said, which was another way of saying, you want to build your life on me (THE ROCK)…someone permanent, someone who’s strong, unchanging and stable.

The idea of living stone isn’t quite as easy to connect to our idea of what a rock is, unless of course, that Rock is Christ. Just think of our Verse of the Day today and how part of it’s the same every week in the Easter season. Every Sunday we say, “Alleluia. Alleluia. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia.” That’s what our Easter faith is founded upon. That’s what lies under everything we talk about in this Easter season. That he lives—Jesus lives--who once was dead, and that because he lives we too shall live!

As we come to him, Peter says, as we are brought to faith in Jesus, the living Stone, we are like living stones, Peter says, that are being built into a spiritual house, with Jesus as the cornerstone of your faith and life. The cornerstone of a building is that stone from which the foundation of a building is laid out. It is the first stone laid of the foundation and it is the stone that gives direction to the building—north, east, south, west—the cornerstone is that which everything else is anchored. That’s you, Peter says, as you build your life in connection with, and in line with Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone. Your life is anchored in him; there’s a permanence to your life, stability, and direction as you base your faith on him and his Word, and make everything in your life point in the direction Christ and his holy Word.

That Living Stone, Jesus stood in the midst of the Temple at Jerusalem—that magnificent building and he said he would tear down that temple and build it up again in three days. The people challenged him on that saying it took years for their forefathers to build that temple and YOU, Jesus of Nazareth, are going to rebuild it in three days?! But they did not understand that the temple he talking about was his body.

Jesus could speak that way about his body and that temple made of stone because of how closely related those two things were. All the animal sacrifices of the temple were supposed to teach people about how the Messiah would come to bear their own sins in his body, and pay the price for them. They would sin and then they would bring an animal sacrifice to the temple for their sin. The priest would confess the sins of the people over that animal, laying his hand upon the animal’s head to symbolize the transference of guilt from that person to the sacrifice. It served the same purpose for them that the confession and absolution does for us in our worship. When we come to worship and we confess our sins, what are we really saying? Isn’t what the hymnist says, “I lay my sins on Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God; He bears them all and frees us from the accursed load. I bring my guilt to Jesus to wash my crimson stains. While in his blood most precious till not a spot remains.”

Everything that’s said and done here is meant to point us to Christ, just as the Temple at Jerusalem did. As glorious as that temple was, however, it was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans as a judgment from God for rejecting and killing his Son. To them, Peter says, Jesus was, (v.8) “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.”

By rejecting God’s chosen one, the Living Stone, they were put to shame. He says this what they were destined to do. That means that God foreknew in eternity that the Jews would reject his Son. He planned for a way to use their evil to bring about our salvation—God didn’t cause their sin and unbelief—they did that all on their own—we sin, too—and if we keep headed in a direction away from him, our sin will destroy us, too. And we will meet a similar destiny that the unbelieving Jews met.

Jesus doesn’t want that for anyone. He wants us to stay close to him and look to him for salvation. You heard his words in the Gospel Lesson today. His disciples were scared when Jesus spoke of his ascension and said he was going away and that first he was going to die and rise again. That was too much for them to hear at once, and so Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” Jesus could speak to them and tell them these things and they could believe them with certainty because of who Jesus was. God said, (v.6) “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” Your life will not end in shame and judgment.

(v.7) “To you who believe, this stone is precious,” Peter says, and...

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Think of what we prayed in the Prayer of the Day: O God, you form the minds of your faithful people into a single will. Make us love what you command and desire what you promise, that among the many changes of this world, our hearts may ever yearn for the lasting joys of heaven;

(v.7) “To you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.”

Those who reject Christ will stumble; they won’t endure. But you by contrast, Peter says, are…we are Christ’s own people who are built on that sure foundation.

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As Peter used this metaphor of living stones, it must have brought a smile to his face. No doubt it reminded him of the nickname Jesus gave him once. It was one of the first times Jesus met Peter that He gave him the nicname “Rock.” Peter’s given name was Simon. “From now on,” Jesus said, “you’re Peter.” In the Greek it’s “Petros” (meaning “rock”). Peter knew though, that most of the time his words and actions weren’t very rock-like. He wavered often in his faith; he was slow to understood the true nature of Jesus’ saving work. But when Jesus spoke about building His church on the “rock” He wasn’t talking about Peter, the man, but rather the rock-solid message that Peter and the Twelve would proclaim.

As we come to Jesus, the “living Stone” He gives us some new nic names, too. (2:9) “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

“You,” Jesus says, are my “chosen people.” Remember being picked for teams in school? God so loved not only the world; he loved you. He sought you. He brought you to faith. He wanted you. You are chosen. (v.10a) “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.” “Remember who you were,” Peter would say, & then remember who you are. (v.10b) “Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

You are a “royal preisthood.” In the OT priests served the people in the temple, offering sacrifices, first for themselves and then for the sins of the people. Still today, the sacrifices continue; but not in Jerusalem. Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” For Jesus’ sake God accepts our humble pleas for forgiveness. The sacrifices continue in the thankofferings we give to God—the best of our skills and abilities, our time, money and energy, and everything else. Paul wrote to the Romans saying, “Offer your bodies as living sacrifices.”

Peter says you are a “holy nation.” Faith in Jesus brings us God’s holiness. In thanks we strive to honor His name by holy living. “Hallowed be thy name,” we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. God is holy all by Himself. We can’t make Him holy, but we can reflect who He is and what He’s made of us by the way that we live. Are you doing that? (v.12) “Live such good lives among the pagans,” Peter says, “that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Doesn’t that sum up well what we strive for as God’s holy Christian church on earth? Like living stones we are built together into something wonderful. We don’t just go to church; we are the Church. We don’t just support missions, we are God’s people on a mission to bring a living hope to a dying world. We don’t just come to God’s house; we are His house—God dwells in us by faith—we’re like moving temples out in the world by which God would bring lost souls out of darkness into His wonderful light, that they too, might declare His praises.

Amen.