LIVING BUILDING STONES
#15 LIVING BUILDING STONES
Scripture I Peter 2:1-12 NIV Orig. 5/10/64 (10-81)
Rewr. 10-1-86
Passage: Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans 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 cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people 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, God’s special possession, 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. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Purpose: To show that we are the Living Building Stones out of which the redemptive mission of God is brought to fruition
Keywords: Mission, Church, Christ, Propitiation, Heritage, Fellowship, Tradition
Introduction
Octoberfest celebrations are underway everywhere. Most of the people who are celebrating have no idea what the original concept was. It would never occur to them that this is a harvest ritual. They are totally void of any comprehension of meaning in relation to the bounty of God in general. And the provision of Christ in particular. How many people who are caught up in the wild melee of these celebrations will see them as a time of rededication, and of new beginnings?
Werner Marx, Moravian missionary to South America, remembers his own childhood in the home of missionary parents in Tibet. He remembers dedication services for new workers where fledgling missionaries were required to place both their hands on their head and declare, “Woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel!” Their lives were fixed to the place where they were, and they were to be prepared to be used of God to build what He would build.
It is not inordinately visionary to think of ourselves in that same light. We are “living building stones” to serve the place where we are. We are not here by accident, you and I. We are here a-purpose, and the purpose is God’s.
You remember Walt Kelly’s comic strip, Pogo. The characters were animals, but the gist of the strip was human relationships. They were having trouble getting along with one another, and Pogo observed, “The trouble with us is that we are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities.” He eulogized to his fellow-denizens of the swamp, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
I. In the First Place, Living Stones are Provisional. V9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy mountain, a peculiar people; for ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Consider the analogy as it relates to building. The architect determines the style of stone. The workman rasps away any rough edges to bring the stone into symmetry. The stone has only yielded to this superior wisdom.
True Baptists have sustained a real romance with the local church. We have rightly viewed it as the proper descendant of the body of believers found in the New Testament. In the real sense, descendants also of Israel. The physical manifestation of the Kingdom of God.
But the Church in every age has faced the temptation to lose its outward vision. The aging process does indeed bring on the hypochondria of deterioration. This lends support to the discovery that two kinds of churches tend to grow: those newly started, who are able to sustain the freshness of mission, and those that “re-dream” the dream. What we must discover are new ways to minister to those outside the local church. We will not have many new people to come here. The key is finding a means to the disenfranchised ones. Consider the inner child of the past; bad childhood experience; the threat of surrendering some ingrained passion. What we need first at First Baptist Church is not new people in town, but those among us who re-dream the dream.
One of the real problems of the late 1980’s is to deal with the burden of spiraling expenditure that eats away at what we ought to do for others and for God. An editorial cartoon in NSW (10-81) is of two cave men exhausting their possessions trying to own the more powerful weapon. Dr. Leslie Weatherhead wrote: “Picture in your mind a man of say a million years ago, grabbing his club and running for his cave because his enemy was in sight. Then picture modern man in his imported suit grabbing his gas mask and running for his bomb shelter because the attack alarm has sounded. Which is civilized?”
II. Such Living Stones are Also Providential. V4: “So come to Him, our Living Stone—the stone rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God. Come and let yourselves be built, as living stones, into a spiritual temple; become a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” We are required to rethink the entire meaning of fellowship. Clarence Willis in Oakdale attended regularly but would not unite with the church because of church suppers. The problem at Corinth was with “Love Feasts.” Jude 12: “These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted, twice dead.”
But Jesus used “sup” as an analogy of faith. Revelation 3:20: “Behold I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” So we have justification for fellowship meals. But Blackie’s thesis is right, fellowship is more than eating together, whether in the same room or under the same tree.
I remember a wedding reception in New Orleans, but Christian fellowship was on few minds.
Fellowship is not merely a joint walk by equals either. What happens in too many marriages of those who seem supremely suited is that there is no spiritual unity between them. The novelty wears off, and the bond comes unraveled. Fellowship is a walk together in the dispensation of grace, God’s grace. It is to be of the same mind as God, and of his Son, Jesus.
In the sphere of worship, prayer, ministry, and administration, we have fellowship. 1 John 1:7 “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with the other.” No, we don’t have to give up church suppers or dinners. We don’t even have to hold them outside. There is even some room for parlor games, the right kind, but they must be occasions of Christian fellowship.
Vance Havner said: “The church today needs time out to tune up. We are so busy building a bigger orchestra, that we won’t stop to tune the instruments. What good is a big orchestra if two-thirds of the members never show up for practice, or else are off-key when they perform?”
III. So, These Living Stones are, Above All Else, Propitiational. V6 “Wherefore also, it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. It no longer is an extension of Judeo/Christian traditions. Upon this building stone all rests. Notice verses 7 and 8. The craftsmen are at their work. The surveyor has found the site. The architect has fitted plans to the site. The builder has begun construction. But all have discounted the capstone.
The only link to the past that matters is Christ. But our best link with Him is NOW. Don’t ask where we have been but, rather, where we are going. Do we walk together in Christ? Are we STONES for the building? Do we willingly fit into the chosen place? Is it nothing more than Pogo’s “insurmountable opportunity”? What is the church’s destiny? What is our church’s destiny?
Tonight, Sardis: “thou hast a name that thou liveth.”
In a few weeks Philadelphia: “Behold, I have set before thee an open door.”
Conclusion
Most of us have had enough of Alice in Wonderland to remember the basics of the story. Alice is at a crossroads, not sure what to do next. She encounters the Cheshire Cat. He enquires, “Where are you headed?” She responds, “I don’t know.” To which he responds what must be the feeling of our Lord for many of us as well, if you don’t know where you are going, “Then it doesn’t matter!” Which road is taken at the crossroads?
We Christians are to know where we are going, and which road leads to our destination.
Robert Frost: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by. That has made all the difference.”