Christ Church

1 Peter 2:1-10

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Introduction:
Besides the introduction to the book of 1 Peter, Ty has covered three important themes in the first chapter. The first was our identity as chosen by God as one of His children. The second was the fact that this includes a magnificent inheritance that is guarded for us in heaven. And, what follows from this as the necessary expectation that we live as obedient children before our God who saved us in Christ. Finally, chapter one ends on the assurance that this salvation and inheritance is not a passing fancy. It is fixed securely on the fact that we were born again by God’s incorruptible, eternal word, when we believed the gospel — and what is that Gospel? That all our sins, past, present and future we paid for in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Therefore — get rid of sin:
You’ve been born again by God, therefore as his child purify your soul by getting rid of all malice. What is malice? A simple definition is: the desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another. Proverbs warns against this. In Proverbs 24:17 it reads: Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.

You’ve been born again by God, therefore as his child purify your soul by getting rid of all deceit. What is deceit? This problem is so common that we have all sorts of synonyms for it. Let me share just a few: lying, false witness, falsehoods, shading the truth, cheating, all of which can be connected to the hypocrisy of trying to make yourself “look” better than you really are.

You’ve been born again by God, therefore as his child purify your soul by getting rid of all envy. What is envy? On the surface, it is wanting other people’s stuff. But, it would also including everything that others’ might represent in terms of popularity, looks, gifts, intelligence, relationships. Now, this seems somewhat less serious (in terms of sin) than malice and deceit, but don’t deceive yourself! Paul in Colossians 3:5 identifies covetousness (envy) with idolatry: Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

You’ve been born again by God, therefore as his child purify your soul by getting rid of all evil speaking. We don’t need a definition for evil speaking, but we may need help in identifying when we are doing this. Criticizing others, putting them down, passing on gossip comes so easily that I confess that most of the time we may not be seeing our words in this light. From Ephesians 4:29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.only speak encouraging words.”

Therefore … grow:
“as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,”

God is not just concerned about cleaning house by getting rid of stuff. We don’t want the house cleaned but empty inviting 7 spirits worse than the original to return. We want to put off and then put on. Here, the command is to desire more of the word of God. And, this expectation is built on verse 3 that asks the hypothetical question — IF you have tasted or know that God is gracious!

Cornerstone:
1 Peter 2:4-5 echoes Paul in Ephesians 2:19-22. In both the Peter and Paul passages, the message is clear. Jesus is the cornerstone, chosen by God. What is a cornerstone? What does that “picture” represent? It is the first stone laid in the building. From it every other stone is measured and aligned and fitted. Everything hangs on Him. Hear the echo in Colossians 1:15: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”

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.”

Peter is quoting from Psalm 118. Jesus too is recorded as quoting this passage in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke 20:17) when asked about his authority, and Jesus turns the question of the religious leaders on them asking about John the Baptist. Did you believe him? Jesus challenged them with this question about John and then told them a parable about the wicked vine dressers who rejected the son of the owner when he came to collect the rent. It was here that Jesus quotes Ps 118 connecting his calling and authority from the Father with their unbelief. And for Peter this is not the first time that he has used it. Peter and John testify to the truth of this Psalm when they are called before the council in Jerusalem because they continued to preach Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as the sign of Jesus identity and authority.

Outcome of Belief or Unbelief:
In 1 Peter 2:7-8, God confirms that Jesus is His chosen cornerstone and that this stone not only forms the foundation for those who believe but also stumbles those who don’t believe. This verse was an important junction in my road of understanding this doctrine. It is clear, unambiguous, direct. This all in the context of Peter telling us that God’s salvation was also planned from before the foundation of the world in Chapter 1.

God’s sovereignty messes with our desire to be in control — as it should. And, it messes with our sense of fair play. Many argue that it is simply unfair or capricious on God’s part. Or, they would add that it makes us out to be robots so don’t worry about anything as you don’t have any say in the matter. But, to go here is wrong headed. As for being fair, if God was totally fair, we would all be lost. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no not one. And, the wages of sin are death. This applies to everyone. So, in giving salvation to anyone, God is not being fair and THANK GOD that is so.

Now, having addressed those who deny Christ, what about those who believe?

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;  who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

As Ty taught from Chapter 1, Peter emphasizes the election/choosing of both Christ for His role in the salvation of the world and also our election in Christ.

Christ’s role is to be that Cornerstone, the key to everything that follows. And what follows is a reaffirmation of our identity in Christ. Like Christ, we are chosen. Like Christ, our role is given in a picture. Instead of the cornerstone or foundation, we are pictured as living stones of a temple and as the King’s priests. God’s own. And as a result we have a purpose. In chapter 1, we have the link of children of God and Holiness in imitation of our Father. Here, we are royal priests, people of God called to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness, and that sound like a straightforward mission.

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Spiritual Child Rearing 5: God as Our Father

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God’s Revelation to His Children

Like Jesus, we too can praise the Father, who is the Lord of heaven and earth.  We can praise Him first because He is Lord.  He is in control.  He is not disturbed at what has happened or is happening nor is He wondering what is next to come.  He is Lord.

Second, we can praise the Father because we are included in the moniker of “little children” if we too are recognizing God as our Father, not like the “wise” of this world, this age, who are both mocking God and those who call Jesus Christ their King, but also recklessly and many time ruthlessly seeking to control the world through political or material means.  Thankfully, they are blind and we see because this is what the Father is pleased to do.

God’s Living Example

As little children, let me remind you of the theme of these messages of God as our Father, with His character revealed through the dynamics of family relationships, looking one last time to Matthew 7:11:

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

So we come now to my 5th and final message carrying this theme of examining God as our Father.  And, if you’ve been keeping track, you will know that I’ve taken snapshots of the fathering that happens at different ages as a means of highlighting characteristics of God’s character in ‘growing’ us.

In the last message we looked at the question of submission of the will as the true test of teenagers and how God has given us as parents the responsibility to help them learn submission both by our example and by our rule in the home.  Today, I’m moving on to what we could call the age of adulthood, which we may associate with our children moving out of their teen years.  The key distinction of being an adult is understanding that responsible work is what separates them from their carefree teenage years.   As Jeremiah records in Lamentations 3:27, “It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.”

God’s Invitation

If you are honest about your sin — even those of you having been raised in godly Christian homes, then you can assure your hearts with Jesus’ promise.  “I will give you rest.”  I will give you rest.  I will cleanse you.  I will give you a new heart.  And then I will give you a call to action.

And here in Jesus’ command to us to come, he adds “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”  In mentioning my text to Ty, he remarked that it was common for an inexperienced or young ox to be yoked with a more mature and stronger ox to train the younger ox.  But before we explore the nature and purpose of the yoke, we must remember that Biblically, we don’t have an option about a yoke, only which yoke based on Romans 6:16-18.

Nature of the Yoke

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

As parents raising our children, we reach a glorious horizon when our children, the fruit of our labors, are ready and willing to take up a yoke with us — a yoke of purpose to serve side by side in our Father’s kingdom.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,  So are the children of one’s youth.  Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;  They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:3-5″

So, what is the purpose?  What is our yoke hooked to? In John 3, Jesus tells us plainly that He came not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.  And, we know that this salvation of the world was more than just a rinse and dry cycle.  Jesus describes the process in terms of growing degrees:  a small seed growing into a tree, yeast pervading through three measures of dough, a kingdom that grows but not always visibly or according to “worldly” measures of power and prestige.

And this kingdom is not about territory but about people.  Paul tells us that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.  Knees and tongues are the property of people.  Peter tells us that this kingdom is made up of stones, living stones, people, all being built up into a holy temple.

Just as the stones on the temple mount were hewn and sawn for fit, we as living stones are to undergo the same process by learning from Jesus.  His saving the world involves the fashioning of us into perfect stones that are conformed to His image.  Doing what He is doing just as He does just what the Father is saying and doing.  This is God’s purpose for us such that when we are like Jesus we will in fact be a perfect temple calling attention to God’s goodness, grace and glory for the all the world to see.

Slowing Down the Oxen

In closing, let’s just review one thing to avoid.  From Deuteronomy 22:10, we read, “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together” and its parallel verse in 1 Corinthians 6:14

We have only Christ’ yoke to take on.  And when we take this on, we are rejecting all other yokes.  Those yokes are by nature, corrupt and of the darkness.  Christ’ yoke is that of holiness, light and truth.  All other yokes must be rejected.  True wisdom “hates” wickedness.  Don’t be deceived.  When we try and hang onto things of the world, things that our consciences reject but which we still cling are choking our progress.  They are tangling the lines of the harness and tripping up our feet.  The extra weight is heavy and makes us like dead weight to the Lord Jesus as He not only pulls the cart but drags us (sometimes unwillingly) along.

Conclusion

Our children transition into adults when they take up the responsibility of working for themselves and their families. Jesus invites us to take up His yoke and learn from Him instead of shouldering this burden under the yoke of slavery to sin.  He teaches us that His yoke is easy and light as we are learning the will of His Father who sets before us salvation and true joy. Together with the Lord Jesus we are learning to be God’s children tasked with calling all of His children to join with us in this yoke.

And finally, God warns us to cast away every sin that clings and tangles looking to the Lord Jesus for your direction with every thought and move anticipating His joy at the the completion of the task.

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Spiritual Child Rearing 4: God as our Father

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The Text

“. . . who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek’ . . .” Hebrews 5:7-14

Remember that the theme in this series has been to “look” at our relationship to God as our Father through the lens of our relationship to our family. In Matthew 7:11, Jesus tells us that we can use parental examples (here) to multiply (how much more) to get to a better picture of how God relates to us. He uses relationships we can understand to leverage our ability to understand His relationship with us.

Marks of a Teenager

We are talking about a stage in life where suddenly our children have the capacity and will to either put into practice everything wrong that is beaconing them from our culture like the foolish woman of Proverbs 9:15-18. Or, they exercise their new found capacity in obedience. This is the issue.

How did Jesus Learn Obedience?

In our sermon text, Jesus prayed with such intensity that sweat formed as great drops of blood on his forehead. And we are told that He was heard because of His godly fear. Jesus prayed with complete trust in both the power and goodness of the Father — that childlikeness that I talked about in the previous message. The problem was not relationship — Jesus was the SON. The problem was not sin — Jesus was sinless. The answer was not due to an improper request or heart attitude — Jesus prayed with godly fear. The answer from the Father was given that Jesus would learn obedience through His suffering.

The Outcome of Jesus’ Obedience

The outcome of Jesus’ suffering had a number of effects: His perfection; the salvation of the world; AND the anticipated perfection of all those who follow Him! How is this? What do I mean by the anticipated perfection or obedience of those who are followers of Jesus, who are found “in Him”? Having the same mind as Christ — submitting to the Father — and suffering in the flesh result in the ceasing of sin or to say this positively — holiness (1 Peter 4:1).

Authority and Submission

The Centurion in Luke 7:6-8 was a powerful man and righteous in the sight of the Jewish elders. He was a compassionate man, seeking the welfare of his servant. Still, he humbles himself personally before Jesus and further demonstrates by his faith and words that he believed that Jesus was not only the higher authority but THE authority over the earth. And, here we have Jesus acknowledge that this is the faith of the Centurion was just the kind of faith that impresses Jesus.

Laying the Groundwork

Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. Luke 2:51-52

What Jesus “learned” in Hebrews 5 (submission to death), began with submission to parents. This is just the simple principle that if you want to be faithful in big things, you need to start being faithful in little things. Jesus was subject to his parents. This means he was under the rule of his parents in the same sense that rulers have subjects who obey them.

Conclusion

  1. Submission is not easy, because real submission is tested when we have to do something we don’t want to do. Jesus demonstrated real submission when His request that his cup be removed was denied. Paul experienced real submission when his thorn was not removed.
  2. Submission is not an option. In Romans 6, we learn that we are either slaves to sin or slave to righteousness. In any case, we are submitting to someone. It is just that one leads to death and one to life.
  3. Submission is freeing. When we submit, we are handing over the responsibility for the outcome to the other party. A wife to her husband. A young person to their parents. Jesus to the Father. Men to leaders in the church or their organization. When we take the decision into our own hands, then we carry the full responsibility.

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Spiritual Child Rearing 3: God as our Father

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The Text

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them,  and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.”  (Matt. 18:1-5)

This message is the third in a series using Matthew 7:1 as a lens to understand God as our Father.  What are three things that we have taken from this verse?

How does our sermon text in Matthew 18:1-5 rate the importance of childlikeness?  See also Mark 10:13-16.

What are the characteristics of childlikeness that are represented in Christlikeness?

Jesus was always about His Father’s business.  See Luke 2:49.  And, Jesus tells us in John 5:17-19 that the Father is always working.

What is the Father working on?  John 3:16, Psalm 2:1-3, Psalm 110:1, and Matthew 28:18-20

What are the Lord’s tools and expectations for a “child under training”?  1 John 5:1-5, 1 Timothy 3:16 and Ephesians 4:11

The Father’s expectations for us.

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Spiritual Child Rearing 2: Father in Heaven

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The Text

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7:1)

Premise

God is intent on revealing Himself to His creatures. And, in this passage in Matthew 7 and its parallel Luke 12, we are challenged to look for guidance (for metaphors) at our own parenting and then ratchet that up a thousand fold to get some glimpse as MacDonald states of the “Himalayas from our sand hills.” To help our finitude absorb some portion of the infinite, we are given our own parenting (evil as it is acknowledged) as a telescope to increase our eyesight and advance our understanding of our Father in Heaven.

The Early Years

This message examines the experience of parenting young children from both the perspective of the parents and the children to better understand the metaphor offered by Jesus. Babies/young toddlers are characterized by utter helplessness. They must be constantly tended, fed, cleaned and kept out of trouble. Even evil parents do a reasonable job nurturing feeding and caring for little ones with expectations limited to the little one eating, sleeping, thriving and growing. From the perspective of the children, they are largely ignorant of the quantity of loving care that is being showered on them. They simply connect the expression of their discomfort with the supply of good things from familiar big people that look for the most part lovingly toward them.

Nature of God’s Parenting of Us

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18 “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans 8:14-17

Our Responsibility As His Babes

God’s stated expectation of His children is to thrive through receiving the Holy Spirit (John 20:22), being filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:17-19) and not quenching the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:19). And to grow, God’s commands us to hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) and for the pure spiritual milk of His Word (1 Peter 2:1-3), the Word made flesh (John 6:35,40).

The Confirmation of His Presence

The passage in Luke adds that the source and nadir of God’s giving is the Holy Spirit. That gift is the guarantee of everything that follows. And, that gift of the Holy Spirit is manifest in our lives, in the examples daily set before us and the gifts He has given to His body, the church (Ephesians 4:11).

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