Series: 1 Peter
Sermon: “Built Upon God’s Word”
2 Peter 1:1-8
Pastor John Bright
1 Peter 2 “1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
Have you ever been working outside, gotten your clothes all dirty, then put clean clothes on top of those to go somewhere? Of course not! If we are going to put on Christ (Romans 13:12-14), we need to remember to take off the old clothes mentioned here – like “all evil speaking.” Of course, that includes gossip!
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The foundation of your house is important to making sure it continues to stand. The foundation of a skyscraper is even more important. Years ago, I read that the challenge for making buildings taller and taller was not adding floors on top – the challenge is adding to the base. Three examples:
• Wilshire Grand Center, Los Angeles: 1,100 ft. height with five basement floors and 90 ft. supports. It also has a 18-foot-thick concrete mat that set a world record for the largest concrete pour in history.
• Willis Tower, Chicago: 1,451 ft. height with three basement floors and 100 ft. supports/5 ft. mat
• One World Trade Center, NYC: 1,776 ft. height with five basement floors and 150 ft. supports. The supports had to built around exiting subway tunnels and extend 80 ft into the bedrock. https://www.groundworks.com/resources/how-far-underground-are-skyscraper-foundations/
One Pure Desire v. 1-3
“1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
Last week I closed with these questions: This morning – do you love the Word of God? Do you have a deep desire for the Word of God that is like a unquenchable thirst or a gnawing hunger? When all else fails – do you turn to the words of Scripture for relief?
The next exhortation/encouragement from Peter is connected to the one from last week in chapter one – v. 23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” The change worked through regeneration (last week – total change) results in this one pure desire – “the pure milk of the word.” The change in desires for the things of the Holy Spirit forces us to abandon the desires for things of the flesh. This has been a real struggle in my life when I get too involved in watching the TV. It takes away from time in God’s Word and prayer. Last week I read this in the book for my Watchmen Training with the Aliyah Foundation: “I believe that people who are watching television more than (reading) the Word of God are living in idolatry. God wants us to turn off our televisions and turn on the Word of God, to spend time watching His Word, that we will be washed in His Word and conformed into His image and likeness.” (Thomas David Hess, “The Watchmen: Being Prepared & Preparing the Way for Messiah” 2019 – 5th ed.) OUCH!
So many churches in our day have been captivated by church growth techniques and have made attendance the measure of success. I have got bad news for these folks – God’s measure of success is the faithfulness of obedience to His will and His way. Obedience matters to God!
John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Luke 11:28 “But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
1 John 5:2–3 “2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
1 Samuel 15:22 “But Samuel replied, "What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.” NLT
Obedience to the Word of God makes growth possible, but we need to keep the pure desire like those who have first been saved by the grace of God. That’s the foundation – God’s Word seen through the lens of the grace that made us clean and makes us free. Growing on that foundation is what makes up a local church that has a vision statement like this: “Through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the Global Methodist Church envisions multiplying disciples of Jesus Christ throughout the earth who flourish in scriptural holiness as we worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly.”
The Building on the Foundation v. 4-5
“4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Peter is making a shift here. The nature of salvation is individual. Each and every person is faced with a personal decision to accept the free gift of salvation. You, and only you, make a choice. After this, you must also make a choice about obeying God’s Word. It’s totally up to you, right?
The shift here is to the nature of the local congregation, which is corporate. When Believers come together in one place and form a congregation, they are no longer a collection of individuals – something happens we could describe as “the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.”
Peter uses the image of a building. The stones for this building are you and me. We are living stones that are made in the image of the living stone Jesus. Jesus has the greater honor of being the “chief cornerstone” v. 6. Being a part of this spiritual building, every Believer here is part of holy priesthood. Each GMC congregation is encouraged to have this desire and hope: To see the laity as the people of God and a royal priesthood, chosen and empowered for the work of God in this world in full partnership with the clergy. (par. 103.5 BODD)
This image is built upon the Old Testament priests who served as the mediator between the people of God. They made the sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people and prayed on their behalf. That would seem like an odd way to do things today. Nobody here would expect me to be the go-between for you to God. You have direct access to God – right? I found this collection of funny prayers on-line:
• Lord, I ask that you give me the superpower to eat as much pizza as I want without gaining any weight. It would truly be a miracle and make my life complete. Amen.
• Lord, I ask that you make all the calories in donuts and ice cream disappear, so I can indulge guilt-free in my favorite treats whenever I want. Amen.
• Oh mighty God, I humbly request that you make chocolate a healthy superfood, because life without chocolate is just not worth living. Amen. (there seems to be a theme here) 😊
https://www.dailyeffectiveprayer.org/funny-prayers/
I did not include all the prayers I found there, but they all pointed to a desire that comes from the flesh – like eating pizza, donuts, ice cream and chocolate. When we started today, I was talking about making our desires for the things of the Holy Spirit. That’s how we get “to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Would you agree that one of the “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” would be obedience to the Word of God? The only way I can do that is to learn what is really in the Bible. I hear all kinds of things today that are supposedly in God’s Word. I want folks to know what God is saying to us through His Word, so I use a teaching style for preaching to move through a book of the Bible. I do the same thing in Bible Study. We have a couple of those every week – in person and on Zoom. Please consider joining us on Monday night or Wednesday morning. More important – search the Scriptures every day. Get on a reading program or just start reading every day – start in one of the Gospels and keep going. Don’t wait until you feel like doing it – just get to reading. What a wonderful spiritual sacrifice it would be to have every member of our church falling in love with the Word of God!
How God Sees Us v. 6-8
“6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
“Behold, I lay in Zion
A chief cornerstone, elect, precious,
And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone,”
8 and
“A stone of stumbling
And a rock of offense.”
They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.”
One of the things I discovered in the Word of God is that it’s more important to see myself as God sees me than how others see me. God sees me as I truly am. There’s a Contemporary Christian song that came out this year that I love – “The Truth” by Megan Woods. This is the chorus:
“The truth is I am my Father's child
I make Him proud and I make Him smile
I was made in the image of a perfect King
He looks at me and wouldn't change a thing
The truth is I am truly loved
By a God who's good when I'm not good enough
I don't belong to the lies, I belong to You
And that's the truth.”
These Old Testament scriptures (Psalm 118:22 & Isaiah 8:14) point to a Messiah who would not be recognized by the people Jesus was sent to save. These folks knew God’s Word but could not see the literal incarnation of God – The Word made flesh. Can we see clearly today?
Can we recognize the work of the Holy Spirit to make us new creatures – completely changed? Are we able to see the Bible as “spiritual milk” and develop that one pure desire for time in God’s Word? Can we see the stumbling block of disobedience that keeps tripping us up? Can you look in the mirror and see a Child of God that is loved with an everlasting love? Amen.
Homework:
• Look up all the Bible verses on your teaching sheet. Where do you struggle with obedience to God’s Word?
• Please pray about the new ways we can come together as a “spiritual house.” I would love to gather folks together for prayer – Isaiah 56:7. Would you join with me?
• Scripture for November 17 – 1 Peter 2:9-12 "The World Watches Us"
