Building Blocks In God's Holy House

God has given us a real blessing in this church building. In many ways, it’s a hub for congregational life. It serves as a centre of our worship, our learning and study, and it’s a place for our communion together. It’s a good gift of God to us.

Yet how does the Bible speak about our places of worship, like this one? It doesn’t actually call them ‘churches.’ It doesn’t call them ‘houses of God.’ Reading the New Testament, there’s little interest in where Christians gathered. They would meet at a river. They’d assemble in a lecture hall. They’d find someone who had a big house and go there. It didn’t matter, because ‘the house of God’ isn’t made of bricks and mortar. That’s because we—you and I and everyone here—are a holy house for God!

To grasp what a miracle that is, we should go back to the Old Testament. Then the Israelites worshiped at one central place. God was pleased to show his presence at the tabernacle or temple. He even called it his “dwelling-place.” That was God’s house, where the people met for prayer and sacrifice and instruction in the law.

But something fundamental has changed. Christ ended the services at the temple. And God no longer makes his dwelling in one place, but in the hearts of all who are washed with Jesus’s blood. So believers are called ‘temples’ in the New Testament, temples of the Lord. And this is why Peter calls us a “spiritual house.” We don’t drive to the house of God on Sunday morning—we are the house of God, every day!

This is a glorious truth, one with implications. It means that we, as a house, need to be built together on our firm foundation. It means that we as believers need to be a centre of holy worship and communion. It means that we must be holy because the holy Lord has made his home in our midst. I preach God’s Word from 1 Peter 2:4-8,

God is building us into a spiritual house. We are:

1) established on the one Cornerstone

2) made up of many stones

3) called to temple service

1) We are established on the one cornerstone: Peter is going to talk about buildings. He’ll tell us about how believers form the dwelling of God on earth, a temple that is being put together, stone by stone. And Peter begins in the right way. He starts with the foundation. Because without a good foundation, everything else is worthless—even our good fellowship and best works. The basis for the church needs to be in place.

And it is! For Peter begins, “Coming to him as to a living stone…” (v 4). Believers are coming to Christ, every day! And as we seek out our Saviour more and more, as we strive to be built up in him, as we look to him for strength—coming to Jesus, He’ll never disappoint. Because He is “the living stone.”

Scripture often pictures our God as a Rock. This image speaks of God’s faithfulness, his trustworthiness. God isn’t a being who will change with time, a God who crumbles under pressure. We can count on our Rock, year in and year out, even hour by hour.

We don’t usually think of rocks as being very exciting. They might be dependable, but for the most part, the rocks in your garden just sit there. Yet notice how Peter puts it: our Saviour is the living Stone. That is to say, our Rock is personal, He is full of life, and He even gives life to those who go to him.

For this living Stone is the very cornerstone of God’s house. Isaiah spoke of him already centuries ago in Isaiah 28. And now Peter quotes the prophet, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious” (v 6).

You’ve probably learned before that the cornerstone is vital to any house that is made of stone. The mason will carefully build up the walls, by fitting each stone together according to its size and shape. But he has to start this work somewhere. And he does so by using a specially chosen stone as the very first, for the first corner. It’s an important decision. This stone needs to be well-shaped, and solid, and of just the right size. That’s because on this single rock, the builder will build all the rest. On this single rock, the entire house will depend.

Christ is our chosen and precious stone! He’s the one God always wanted as the basis of his temple, his people. He was even set aside for this task, Peter tells us in chapter 1, “before the foundation of the world” (1:20). He is the living Stone, one who gives new life to sinners.