HoHum:
Clinker bricks are bricks that didn’t make it. For some reason or another, they come out of the kiln misshapen or deformed. There is a church building in New York State that is intentionally built of clinker bricks. Apparently, the congregation wanted to send a message, so they build the building of imperfect, rejected bricks. The message is that we are all clinker bricks, we are sinners, we are imperfect people, but through Christ we are living stones in his church.
WBTU:
A Christian Is... A Living Stone. Today’s main Scripture is from 1 Peter 2:4-5.
Thesis: Let’s talk about the builder, the work that has been done and the work that is being done
For instances:
The builder
“For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” Hebrews 3:4
God is the builder of the universe. “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Hebrews 1:10, NIV.
After the flood, God became the builder of the nation of Israel. God had the children of Israel build the tabernacle, set up the Levitical priesthood, and outlined acceptable sacrifices in the tabernacle to Him.
The work that has been done
OT
Expanding on the tabernacle, King Solomon built a temple for God, a more permanent structure. Evidently God was pleased with this because we read about this during the dedication ceremony. “Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.” 2 Chronicles 5:13, 14. This temple lasted around 400 years when the Babylonians destroyed it in 587 BC.
A second temple was built under the direction of a man named Zerubbabel and lasted for 500 years. Some years later, King Herod built a third temple, a magnificent structure twice the size of the original temple. It took 44 years to build this temple but it only lasted for 90 years because it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
NT- Thank goodness that the temple of God is no longer a building made up of stones and mortar. Rather it is a spiritual house made up of people who are “living stones.” The Apostle Paul speaks of this spiritual temple several times in his letters. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17, NIV. God’s Spirit is not contained in a physical building. Rather God’s Spirit lives in His church and in the heart of each person who is a “living stone.”
Living Stones
Stones are lifeless, inanimate objects. Stone are about as dead as anything can be. We are different. We are “living stones.” Moving, breathing, life filled human beings. Created in the image of God. Possessing the breath of life given us by our Creator.
Some Native Americans believe God loves stones and that He created the earth from one large boulder. According to their native lore God also used a block of stone to create mankind. Their version of creation pictures the Creator working hard chipping pieces of this boulder until he was so pleased with what he created that he stooped down and breathed into it his own Spirit. Now this is not the picture that the Bible paints of creation. But this does illustrate for us that we are not lifeless rocks but created to be “living stones.”
The life Peter talks about here is more than the life given to every person at birth. Talking about the life given us at the “new birth” (1 Peter 1:3). Christians are twice born people who have been regenerated by the washing of baptism.
True, some Christians resemble dead stones. There is no life, no vitality, no energy coming from them. However, this is not God’s plan for our lives. Jesus, who is “The Living Stone,” wants to make us fully alive. He desires for us to become people who are active and vibrant- people who are passionate about life and excited about the hope we have been given.
What makes us “living stones” is Jesus Christ, “The Living Stone.” Without Jesus in our lives we would be just dead, inert, immobile, unmoving, lifeless rocks.
Built into a spiritual house
Notice that Peter speaks about us as “living stones” (plural) rather than as “a living stone” (singular). See the difference? One stone by itself is useless. Put many them together and what do we have? Some kind of structure.
The truth here is God does not plan for us to be “Lone Ranger Christians.” His plan is for Christians to be connected in a community called “the church.”
We should subscribe to the Southerner’s version of the Gospel. There’s no such thing as a singular pronoun in the South. They don’t say you. They say y’all. Even if they’re talking to one person. “Y’all think Wal-Mart’s still open?” “Y’all going to the pig roast tonight?” “Hey, y’all want some sweet tea?” So in Southern theology, there’s no such thing as an individual. Everyone is a stone built into a spiritual house; everyone is an individual in the midst of a community.
But they don’t use the word community in the south; they just use the plural of “y’all,” which is “all y’all.” So what Peter is really saying is “Come to Jesus Christ, the living stone, and because y’all are living stones, all y’all will be built into a spiritual house.”
We can accomplish so much more for God by being part of His temple, the church, than by being a single stone. God wants us to be a people who worship together, who study God’s Word together, who work together to serve those who are in need and who labor together to share in God’s plan to make disciples of all nations.
Interesting that the stones used to build the original temple are referred to as “quality stones” (1 Kings 5:17). King Solomon spared no expense in purchasing them. Makes us think of the fact that God spared no expense to buy us from our former way of life. “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:18, 19, NIV.
The work that is being done
A fascinating thing about the construction of Solomon’s temple is that all the stones were perfectly cut before they were put into the temple. “In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.” 1 Kings 6:7, NIV. There is a major difference between the “living stones” of today and the stones used to construct the original temple in Jerusalem. We are still a rough pice of rock when we become part of God’s temple.
All our lives God works on us, chiseling away those parts of our life that hinder us from fitting into His eternal temple. Our Christian life is a work in progress. Jesus Christ is changing us from a useless stone to a useful one. Before Michelangelo created the masterpiece we know simply as “David,” Agostino d’ Antonio had worked diligently but unsuccessfully on a large piece of marble. He gave up his effort and said, “I can do nothing with it.” Some others tried after him but failed. This piece of marble was laid in a rubbish heap for 40 years. Out strolling one day Michelangelo saw the stone and believed that it had great possibilities. We know what happened. From that seemingly worthless stone was carved one of the world’s masterpieces of sculpture- David. For Michelangelo, the job of the sculptor was to free the forms that were already inside the stone. He believed every stone had a sculpture within it, and the work of sculpting was simply a matter of chipping away all that was not a part of the statue.
When Jesus looks at us, He sees not a rough piece of rock but He sees inside of us the potential to be a beautiful dressed stone useful in his temple. As the Master Sculptor He is able to chip away all that is not a part of what He wants us to be. This work of transformation is accomplished only by the One referred to as “The Living Stone.” F. B. Meyer says, “Stones touch the Stone and become jewels.” Stones useful in building God’s house.
Conclusion and invitation:
A man named David lived in the early 1800’s and studied to be a preacher. When he gave his first sermon, he stood only to say that he had forgotten all he had prepared to say. Following the advice of a friend, he became a doctor. He was so determined to serve Christ, he became a medical missionary to Africa. He cured the sick, taught sanitation techniques, established schools, explored and mapped many areas, preached at every opportunity, and began many churches. He survived many illness and lost his wife to a jungle fever. He refused to leave Africa when many wanted him to come home, saying, “I have so much work to do!” There is Africa, he died of old age. The natives who had grown to love him began the longest funeral procession in history across 600 miles to the western coast where they would send his body back to his homeland in England. Before they began this journey, they removed his heart and buried it in the African soil because they knew that is where it belonged. Britain’s national cartoonist, Mr. Punch, did not draw a cartoon the day of his funeral. Instead he wrote these words in tribute: “Let marble crumble, this is Living Stone.” We have probably heard of him, David Livingstone.
When the last stone is put into place, then the end will come. “In him (Christ Jesus) the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.” Ephesians 2:21, NIV.
