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
When Peter describes who we are in Christ, he is stating facts about who God causes us to be when we place our faith in Jesus alone. It is important to understand what Peter is not saying here. Notice that he doesn’t give us any commands that say that we need to earn or merit these positions. Once again, just as we have seen consistently both here in 1 Peter and in our study of Romans, that is because these are positions that we are incapable of earning or meriting based on anything we do. They are merely the result of the operation of God’s grace and mercy in our lives.
Interestingly, each of these aspects of who we are in Christ corresponds to who God made Israel to be in the Old Testament. While the church has clearly not replaced Israel, in this age in which we live right now, it is the church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles, who has the privileges and responsibilities that go along with each of these roles.
We could easily spend an entire message on each of these elements, but I’m going to be really brief in describing each one so that we can keep our focus on our main theme.
• A spiritual house (v.5)
In the Old Testament there was a physical building – first the Tabernacle and then the Temple – where sacrifices were made to God. But now, as the church, we are a spiritual building where spiritual sacrifices are made to God and are acceptable to Him because they are made through Jesus.
• A holy/royal priesthood (vv. 5, 9)
The Old Testament priests were intermediaries between God and man and God’s representatives or ambassadors here on earth.
We’re going to study their role more fully during “Connections” this morning.
Because we have been give direct access to God through faith in Jesus, we no longer need to approach God through some other man. But we are to be God’s representatives and ambassadors here on earth.
• A chosen race (v. 9)
Just as Israel was chosen by God apart from anything that merited God doing so, we have been chosen by God apart from anything we have done to earn or merit being His chosen people.
• A holy nation (v. 9)
We talked a lot about this last week. As God’s children, we have been called to live lives that are set apart, unique and distinct from those of the world around us.
• A people for his own possession (v. 9)
We belong to God because He has purchased us with the precious blood of Jesus.
These five elements describe who God has made each of us to be in Christ. That is our identity. But that doesn’t mean that we automatically fulfill those roles to the degree that God intends for us to do so. That is why in verse 5 we see that God is building us up into a spiritual house. But it is also true that we have a part to play in that process, which is why Peter encourages his readers to avoid attitudes and conduct that would both inhibit their growth and reflecting poorly on God.
When Sean Miller recruits a basketball player to come play basketball at the University of Arizona, the moment that player signs a letter of intent, he immediately becomes a U of A basketball player. That becomes his identity. But before that player is able to become a player on the court, he has to enroll in and attend his classes and go to practice and follow the instruction of his coaches among other things. Now that analogy breaks down a bit because the player does have to do enough up front to earn a scholarship, but it is a pretty good picture of what it means when we talk about becoming who we already are.
In order to become
who God made us to be in Christ
we must long for His Word
Let’s look next at what is at the very heart of our message today…
How we become those people
• By longing for His Word
Elsewhere in the Scriptures, we find commands to read God’s Word, study God’s Word, teach God’s Word, meditate on God’s Word, search God’s Word, to hide God’s Word in our hearts and to proclaim God’s Word. And we certainly should do all those things. But those are all merely outward actions that flow from the command that Peter gives us here to long for the Word of God.
The verb “to long” that Peter uses here is a compound word that means “to yearn for deeply”. So this is not merely reading the Bible out of some sense of duty. That is clear from the illustration that Peter gives us here. He commands us to long for God’s Word in the same way that a newborn baby longs for his mother’s milk.
In most cases, a mother doesn’t have to work real hard to get a baby to feed. God has built into those babies a natural craving for their mother’s milk. And when that baby gets hungry, no one has to teach him how to cry out to get his mother’s attention.
In the same way, if we are truly born again, then we ought to have that same kind of natural craving for God’s Word. No one should have to tell us to read it or badger us to do that. We should have a deep innate desire to do that.
In order to become
who God made us to be in Christ
we must long for His Word
APPLICATION
This is really a pretty simple straightforward principle so rather than belabor it by talking about it some more, we’re going to put it into practice today. For the remaining time this morning we are going to read out loud a Psalm that was written by someone who obviously longed for God’s Word in the way Peter is describing here – Psalm 119. So that seems like an appropriate passage for us to read since it reinforces the idea of longing for God’s Word.
Many of you may know that Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem that has 22 stanzas – one for each of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each of those stanzas begins with the succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet and each stanza has 8 lines, each of which begin with the same letter. So that means we are going to be reading 176 verses of Scripture out loud this morning.
INSPIRATION
As I pointed out at the beginning of the message, how you respond to what we’re going to do likely reveals a lot about how much you really long for God’s Word and consequently how well you are doing in becoming the people God has made you to be in Christ. If reading and hearing the Bible read is exciting and enjoyable for you, then I’d say there is a good chance you really long for God’s Word. On the other hand, if you find this boring, then perhaps you really need to evaluate the genuineness of your relationship with Jesus.
ACTION
So here’s how we’re going to do this. First everyone needs to open your Bibles to Psalm 119. It doesn’t matter which translation you’re using this morning. After the greeting time in just a moment the worship team will come back up to the front. Then I am going to ask for volunteers who will come up to the podium and each read one stanza of 8 verses of Psalm 119. If you would be willing to do that, you can just line up near the podium. When we run out of people to read, members of the worship team will read, but we would love to have as many people participate as possible.
We will read the first 7 stanzas – 56 verses – and then take a break to sing a song. Then we’ll read the next 7 stanzas – up to verse 112 – and sing another song. Then after we read the last 8 stanzas, we’ll take our offering. We want to give everyone who would like to participate a chance to read, but once everyone who would like to read has had a chance to do so, please feel free to come up and read another stanza.
