Longing For God's Word Series

ENGAGE/TENSION

As you’ve probably already noticed, we’re changing things up a bit this morning for some reasons that will become apparent in a bit. I’m pretty sure that some of you are really going to like what we’ll do and others of you are not going to be quite so happy. And how you respond to this morning’s worship gathering is going to reveal quite a bit about where you are in at least one important aspect of your walk with God.

What I will tell you right up front is that my message is going to be much shorter than usual. Right now some of you are already thinking “I like these changes”. But the reason for that is so that we’ll have some time to both meditate on the main principle we’re going to take from this morning’s passage and to actually put it into practice.

In order for us all to participate in that application of the message, we will all need our Bibles this morning. So please go ahead and take them out right now. If you don’t have your Bible with you, there are some in the chair backs and if we don’t have enough there, Ryan has some Bibles and if you raise your hand, he’ll bring one to you. It’s also OK if you share your Bible with someone sitting next to you.

Now if you’ll take you’re Bibles and open them to 1 Peter chapter 2, you can follow along as I read the first 12 verses of that chapter.

TRUTH

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk…

Last week I mentioned that in this section of his letter, Peter begins to give some commands that show his readers how they are to live in light of the great salvation that God has provided for them. In today’s passage, the only imperative, the only command, is the verb “long for” here in verse 2. Therefore, that is going to be the key verse this morning in developing our main idea from this passage. Keep that in mind as I finish reading this passage.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

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.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

(1 Peter 2:1-12 ESV)

Here is the main idea that I want us to take away from our passage this morning:

In order to become

who God made us to be in Christ

we must long for His Word

Don’t worry if you don’t get a chance to fill in all the blanks in your outline before I proceed since we’ll be coming back to this theme throughout the message. Before we deal with each aspect of that theme, let me just point out that Peter is addressing what He writes here to the church as a body rather than just individual believers. Although it is true that all of us need to apply this principle individually, the pronouns and verbs here are almost all plural and the descriptions of who we are in Christ are all corporate rather than individual. That is why we will be making a corporate application of this principle at the end of the message.

Let’s look first at…

Who God made us to be in Christ