“PORTRAIT OF THE CHURCH”
1 PETER 2:4-10
OPEN
On the wall near the main entrance to The Alamo in San Antonio, TX is a portrait with the following inscription: James Butler Bonham – no picture of him exists. This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle. It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.
When we look at First Christian Church, Martinsville, IL as we get ready for the year 2010, how much can we say it resembles the 1st century church? Our congregation belongs to a movement that began in the early 1800’s called the Restoration Movement. One of the steps taken to restore the church was to do away with denominational names. Those who identified themselves with this movement took down any denominational name and adopted a New Testament name such as Christian church or church of Christ.
The fact that the sign on the outside of this building announces us to the community as First Christian Church tells other that we claim to be part of that movement. How are we doing?
In this morning’s message, we’re going to look at a few “word pictures” painted by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit through the work of the Apostle Peter. 1 Pet. 2:4-10 – “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men 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. For in Scripture it says: ‘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.’ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,’ and, ‘A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’ They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 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. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
There are three word pictures that I want us to focus on this morning. Let’s seriously look at how we compare to the portrait of the church painted here in this passage and talk about some things we need to do to look like the portrait of the church Peter paints in this passage.
A SPIRITUAL HOUSE
1 Pet. 2:5 – “…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.”
What do you immediately think about when I say the word “church”? I’m sure that many of us automatically picture some sort of building. It could be made of brick, wood, stone, or even metal but most of us automatically see the picture of some sort of building in our mind’s eye.
However, the Bible is very clear that God cannot be contained in a physical building made by the hands of human beings. When Solomon dedicated the first Temple to the one and only true God, he said in 1 Kings 8:27 – “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” Stephen was on trial before the Jewish ruling council for preaching Jesus and in Acts 7:48 he said, “…the Most High does not live in houses made by men.” The apostle Paul, preaching in Athens said in Acts 17:24 – “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and doest not live in temples built by hands.”
The church is not a physical building but a spiritual building. Peter calls us “living stones” that gets built into a “spiritual house”. Now, Peter uses some interesting language in this section of our passage this morning. In fact, he uses contradictory language. He uses what is termed in the study of literature as a “paradox.” A “paradox” is something that seems contradictory or even absurd but is true. Examples would be “jumbo shrimp” or “military intelligence”. It’s also known as an oxymoron which comes from the Greek words meaning “sharp/dull”.
What is the paradox that Peter uses here? He calls those of us who have come to know Christ as Lord and Savior “living stones”. We usually use the term “stone” with the word “dead”. We refer so something as being
“stone-cold dead.”
But what Peter is pointing out to us is that when we come to the Living Stone – Jesus Christ, we too become living stones. You see, it’s only in Christ that something that is “dead” can become “alive”.
Jesus has the qualities of a massive stone: He is a fixed foundation; a fortress; solid; steadfast; strong; massive; immovable.” Yet, He is also alive with warmth and vitality. He is alive because He rose from the dead. And because He is alive, He is the giver of Life! The Bible tells us that it is in Him that we receive life!
The church is a spiritual building made up of living stones. The foundation and cornerstone for this spiritual building is Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. 3:11 – “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Peter quotes an Old Testament prophecy in our passage today. Is. 28:16 – “So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure
foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.’”
We become “living stones’ when Christ transforms us from being lifeless stones to living stones. When we become living stones, we become vital and integral parts of God’s spiritual house. Wiersbe says, “In the Old Testament, God had a temple for His people. In the New Testament, God has His people for a temple.”
Every one of us is a living stone that is used to build God’s spiritual house. And if we are all one spiritual house, then there should be no division between us. Sadly, those who claim Jesus Christ have divided themselves along denominational, racial, and economic lines. They have used things like music, translations of Scripture, and even the colors of carpet and paint to find put divisions between themselves and other Christians.
God’s Holy Spirit, through the pen of Peter, reminds us that we should not be divided but untied. We are to all be of one household – one spiritual house. Peter wrote this letter to congregations in five different provinces of the Roman Empire. Yet, he stressed the unity of those of the same household – the household of God!
Darryl Dash said that we need to recapture this vision of everyone’s importance as a building block in God’s spiritual house. He says that recapturing this picture of the church “would transform our view of life in the local church.”
Listen to how he describes this transformation: Every Bible study class would be a quarry for living stones. Every meeting would not become not just a review of money and statistics, but a planning meeting for building the temple! Every children’s worker could say, “I have around me living stones to chip, shape, round, and smooth until each of them fits his little place forever in the wall of God’s living temple.” Every worship service would become a time of drama and suspense in which we wait and see what “God is doing to add living stones to His temple.
But more than anything else, this image could revolutionize our giving to the cause of Christ. The lowest view of giving sees it as an unwilling extraction of money to maintain a human institution. It is scarcely better to give oout of a drudge-like sense of obligation to support the ministry, the building maintenance, and the parking facilities of the church. What if every believer saw every gift as a gift to the temple that God is building? What if we all realized that every contribution we make is to the living temple of God on earth?
My friend Darrel Land put it this way: The Christian life is a life together. You need the people around you and more importantly they need you. Peter says we are a part of s spiritual building or house. It takes a lot of bricks to build a house and it takes a lot of people to make a church. Here’s the thing about these bricks; each brick is significant. Each brick has a role to play. If you have one brick in the wall of your house and that brick becomes damaged and it causes that brick to break up, it impacts the entire structure. It hurts the appearance. It endangers the stability of the wall because water can seep in and freeze and break up the rest of the structure. It can be costly to repair because it’s not performing its function. If that brick were out in a field alone, it wouldn’t matter. But a brick that’s part of the house has greater significance than itself. You see whether we always agree with each other or not all Christians belong to each other as stones in God building.
If you are a member of this church you have a ministry to perform for the strengthening of the building. You have a significant role in the effectiveness of the overall structure. It may be setting up chairs, singing on stage, planting flowers, working in the nursery, preparing communion, teaching a class. But every Christian is called to perform some function in the church. Every Christian is called to minister. Someone said, “You got into the ministry when you got out of the baptistery.” When Christian people band together, the church can be a significant influence and make a difference.
A HOLY PRIESTHOOD
In 1 Pet. 2:5 & 9, Peter says that we are also called to be a holy and royal priesthood. In the Old Testament, God’s people had a priesthood; but in the New Testament, God’s people are a priesthood.”
Somewhere along the line in church history, we again established a “clergy/laity” system. “Clergy” refers to professional paid ministers. “Laity” refers to people of the congregation.
But the Bible clearly teaches that there is no distinction in the church. Everybody is “clergy”. Everyone is a priest. Does that mean that you can park in the “clergy parking” spots at the hospital parking lots or garages? Well, I’ll just let you take that up with the security guard on duty.
Priests existed in the Old Testament for two reasons. The first reason was that they were to serve as teachers of the Scriptures. Mal. 2:7 – “For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction— for he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty.”
The second reason was that they were to offer sacrifices. It was the job of the priests to offer sacrifices to God for the people; to act as mediator between God and human beings. For those who were outside of fellowship with God, they were offer sacrifices to restore them back to the Lord. For those in fellowship with God, they were to offer sacrifices to express thanksgiving, praise, love, and devotion.
So, how do we operate as priests today? How are we to serve as Christian priests? First of all, we no longer need animal sacrifices to put us in fellowship with God. Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins and now serves as Mediator and High Priest for us. 1 Tim. 2:5-6a – “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time…” Heb. 10:19-22 – “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
Although animal sacrifices are no longer part of God’s system, we as Christian are called as holy and royal priests to offer up “spiritual sacrifices” and that these sacrifices need to be “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” What are these “spiritual sacrifices” we are called to offer up to the Lord?
The first sacrifice is our bodies. Rom. 12:1 – “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” The second sacrifice is our praise. Heb. 13:15 – “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Another sacrifice is doing good and sharing with others. Heb. 13:16 – “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Ps. 51:16-7 tells us about the sacrifices of a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart: “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” In 1 Sam. 15:22, the prophet Samuel talks about the sacrifice of obedience, “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voce of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
A HOLY NATION
Not only are we a holy priesthood, we’re also a holy nation. The word translated as “holy” from the original language means “cleansed” and “consecrated”. It was a term that was used to refer to something that was set aside so as to be devoted to only one purpose. When something was “holy”, it could not be used for any other function than its designated purpose.
The items for usage in the Temple of God could not be utilized for any other purpose. When we give our lives to Christ, He cleanses us and sets us apart for only one purpose – to be used in service for Him.
The word translated as “nation” in the original language literally referred to a “race” of people. The term is ethnos and we get our word ethnic from it. It literally means “of the same habit”. We are of the same “ethnic
background because when we are Christians, we are all of the same royal blood.
How does Peter describe the behavior of “consecrated” people who “share the same habits?” We behave as a “chosen people”. Moses reminded the Old Testament of God how they got chosen by God in Deut. 7:7-8 – “The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” Jesus said in Jn. 15:16 – “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” The apostle Paul writes in 2 Thess. 2:13 – “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.”
The word translated as “chosen” from the original language means “to elect or select”. Isn‘t it amazing for us to be of the “chosen”, we have to choose or select to have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Eph. 1:3-5 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every
spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in
his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his
pleasure and will.” God’s chosen people are those who have chosen His Son whom He gave as a sacrifice for our sins! God decided before creation that His chosen ones would be those who would choose His Son.
We are called to behave as people belonging to God. The KJV uses the term “a peculiar people”. Not peculiar as in “strange” but “peculiar” as in the “habits of a certain group.” The root word in the original language means to “acquire, preserve, obtain, purchase.” It’s a term that refers to sole ownership. Before we are saved, we belong to Satan and the world. Eph. 2:1-2 – “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” But when we come to the Living Stone, we belong to Christ. 1 Cor. 6:19-20 – “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
Peter tells us that we are now possessions of Christ. 1 Pet. 2:10– “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” He follows statement with this one. 1 Pet. 2:11 – “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” We are not citizens of earth. We are citizens of heaven and should so live as to live a life that no longer glorifies us but glorifies God.
CLOSE
How do we at the Martinsville First Christian Church look compared to the portrait that Peter paints in our passage? Do we resemble it or do we have a ways to go?
Picasso was the Spanish cubist artist who sketched, sculpted, and painted his way into prominence in the early twentieth century. On the rare occasion, he painted live portraits. One such instance was his painting of Gertrude Stein, one of America’s foremost authors of a bygone era.
Stein was born in Oakland, California. She was educated at Radcliffe College and also studied at John Hopkins University. For most of her life she lived in Paris and there she would write. To many, Gertrude’s prose was unintelligible. To the elite, her words were sublime. “A rose is a rose is a rose.” Or, “When they are alone, they want to be with others, and when they are with others, they want to be alone. After all human beings are like that.”
My attention however is not so much focused on Gertrude Stein or upon her words or her life’s story, but on that encounter she had with the great artist, Pablo Picasso. During the winter of 1905-1906, Gertrude Stein sat for the exceptional portrait to be painted by the master. Ninety times she sat before the canvas. Ninety times, Picasso grew frustrated. Finally, in frustration Picasso said, “I can’t see you any longer when I look at you.” So he packed up his brushes, paints, and canvasses and returned home to Spain. There, he would continue working on the portrait of Gertrude Stein.
By spring, it was largely finished. In the fall, the painting was unveiled. Onlookers were surprised. Gertrude Stein was a young woman when the master painted her. Yet, the face staring from the canvas was that of a wizened woman wearing a thoughtful, earnest face. Eventually a lone voice courageously remarked to Picasso that Gertrude didn’t look like her portrait. Picasso replied simply, “She will one day.”
Indeed, as time passed Gertrude became the image of Picasso’s portrait. Any artist can paint what is. Good artists can paint what once was. But, only masters can paint what shall be.
