How To Not Be a Pile of Rocks

1 Peter. I'm going to read our sermon text for

us in just a moment, but I do want to

say that the late Dr. Tim Keller preached a message

from this passage 30 years ago that has been super

helpful for me, just even in the structure of this

message and some of the ideas that And also, Jonathan

Lehman preached a message with some of these ideas just

this summer. So whether it's 30 years ago or just

this summer, I have been very helped by other men

and preachers. So if you don't like this sermon, there

are a lot of people to blame. You can blame

Keller and Lehman and myself and the Apostle Peter. So

let's read 1 Peter 2. We'll start in verse 4.

We'll jump in. 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 into 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 cornerstone chosen.

And precious and.

Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame

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 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're God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but

now you have received mercy. This is the word of

the Lord. Amen. I want to talk to you this

morning about how to not be a pile of rocks.

And I think that will become clearer what I mean

by that as we go. But to start, we'll get

into it this way. And don't raise your hand, but

I'm asking you a question. How many of you here

believe that churches... are living up to their potential. How

many of you think that we, this church or other churches,

just in general, in practical terms, are living up to

the potential that we see here in Scripture? Well, I

said don't raise your hand, but I think if, even

if I would have said go ahead and raise your hand,

there would still be no hands up. because it seems

pretty clear, the glorious pictures that are painted in the

New Testament, some of the potential that we're experiencing. And

scripture has a lot to say about this, in more

places than just this passage. In fact, you see this

regularly throughout the New Testament, and I just, I wanna say,

and I know that I have a hearty amen from

those who've encouraged me to continue to come back to

this topic, understanding this is literally life-changing. And these passages,

like this in 1 Peter, they paint a very different,

in some cases.

An opposite picture of church life.

Than the way we commonly understand church. At least how

we understand it these days. And scripture's understanding of us,

it's not only different, it's way better than.

It is glorious.

In fact, it makes sense that making scriptures understanding of us,

our understanding, like working that understanding into the fabric of

our thinking about church might actually move us towards that potential.

Maybe you're here this morning and you'd say, well, I'm

not actually a Christian, so I don't care how someone

should think about what a church is. I understand. I

totally get that. But even so, I hope that seeing

truths in this passage will cause you to realize that

Christ is offering you, yes, mercy, as I think you've heard,

but he's offering you also something that is way more communal,

more embodied, more collective than maybe you've realized. So how

are we gonna move towards this potential? by working Scripture's

understanding of us into the fabric of our thinking, and

to do that, I want to answer three questions from

this text. Three questions. They're very simple questions. I don't

even have to give them to you ahead of time.

Here's the first question. What are we? What are we?

In a word, We're a spiritual house. We're a spiritual house.

What it means to be a Christian in a church

means that, verse five, you yourselves like living stones are

being built up into a spiritual house. Well, what does

that mean? Well, first of all, it's beautiful. We're talking

about a dwelling place for God, which is more than

just saying that the Holy Spirit indwells the individual believer,

which of course is true. But throughout the New Testament,

actually the emphasis for the dwelling of God is not

in a person, Christian, again true, but the emphasis is

in his people. That he is actually forming together a house.

Made up of people. Living stones fitted together. Not individual,

but collective. Not random, coordinated. In other words, not a

pile of rocks. We're not just individual random Christians that

happen to be in the same place. We're actually being,

the word is here, fitted together. together, that is quarried

and formed, and he is setting and tapping us together

to be a thing. You have similar connotations from the

metaphors used in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, a body, right,

that he is forming a body of us made up

of individual members, made up of individual members, but together

is a collective functioning thing that is way more than

just the sum of its parts. We are a body,

not just dismembered parts, which is kind of gross. But

we kind of act often. as if we're just dismembered

from each other. I used to joke, um, when we

were a smaller church and we would, sometimes we would

gather for worship and we would just all sit as

far from each other as possible. You know, stake out

that corner and you'd sit over there and you said,

just like spread out. And I used to joke like, well,

you seem pretty dismembered. Um, I know it's a force

of habit. It makes sense to go to a movie

theater and sit as far away from the other people

as possible so you don't disturb one another in the

individualized viewing experience. But that's not what this is. We

are not a pile of rocks. We are stones being

fitted together. And each one of us will have to

work this understanding into the fabric of our thinking. And

one of the ways that we do that is by

recognizing that there are very powerful forces actually pulling you

to think the opposite of this. To actually pull you

to think in a very individualized way. For instance, number one,

our own flesh pulls us away from one another. We're

naturally very self-absorbed and self-protective. And relationships, they rub. Rub. Like,

that's the chipping and the forming and the setting and

the tapping. It's real community that can be very enjoyable

but also very irritating. Am I lying? You're just more

polite than me? No amen at irritating? It can just

cause us to say, I'll just be my own little rock.

Over here, thank you very much. I've got Jesus. What

do I need with his people? Seems comfortable. But God

is calling you to something so much more beautiful than that. Well,

not only our own flesh pulls us, but the sins

of others pull us. And by sins of others, I

mean like for real, like sometimes it's not just that

someone is irritating or we step on each other's toes

in a very normal way. I mean, somebody wrongs you

in church. which can feel shocking, you know, because we're

sitting here, we're singing these things to our God and

we're expressing our devotion to the Lord and then someone

comes along and actually sins, wrongs us, hurts us. It

happens and it seems like such a shock, but actually

if you look at the pages of the New Testament,

what you find is that that's been happening from the beginning.

And the Lord has already given us ways to deal

with it. Ways to deal with it that don't mean

going and being a rock all by yourself, but rather

to actually lean into his word and those relationships to

actually address the wrong. Actually address the wrong. Talk about

getting fitted together. Our flesh pulls us away from this building.

The sins of others pull us away. The world pulls

us away. Certainly the world is so skilled at tuning.

Our appetites towards ourselves, right?

I mean, that's been going on on television since I

was a kid, and now there's social media, now there's

an algorithm to just fixate you on the you-ness of you.

And pull all of our thoughts away from What we are.

Down into the small territories of what I am. Honestly,

contemporary church culture pulls us away from understanding what we

are according to God's word. I mean... I'm thrilled. No,

I'm not thrilled. I'm okay with the fact that we

live stream this service. I'm okay with it because I

know that there's people who have sick kids or they

get sick or they're traveling or something and they want

to keep up to speed with the preaching from this

church because they're going to be in small group later

that week and they want to talk about that. That's

a wonderful convenience and I think all things considered, it's

a good thing, but it's a dangerous thing because that

is not, that is not church. I'm okay with the

fact that, you know, we can distribute our communion in

these little hermetically sealed cups. It's very sanitary. And it's

a lot more convenient, right? You can just drop them

in the tray and pass them out. but and we

like we do it like i think it's okay i

think it's you know all together it's fine but dangerous

because obscured in there i think is the imagery of

break breaking the loaf we're all one loaf not not

the last not even to speak of drinking from one

cup which i think my wife would be like okay

that's where i'm out But that's the imagery that the

Bible gives us about what we are. And I think

that there are many ways in which contemporary church culture

just pulls our thinking away from that. We need to

realize that being members Being a member of a church

is not like being a member of a club. It's

just not a name on a roll. It's a part

of a body that literally functions with others in life

that flows. And if we think about it like that,

we will handle ourselves different in many ways. What are we?

We're a spiritual house, not a pile of rocks. We're

not just individual random Christians. We are being built up.

We are being fitted together. That's what we are. Say, okay, fine. Well,

then what do we do? That's what we are. What

do we do? I'm so glad you asked. because that's

the second question I wanted to answer from this text.

And again, it just makes sense. If we're gonna move

towards our potential that we see here, it would be

helpful to have a deep understanding of what we are

and what we do, which I would just say is

here in this text, we offer spiritual sacrifices. It says

in verse five, to be a holy priesthood to offer

spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Okay, well,

what does that mean? Well, Peter switches the metaphor here.

He switches the metaphor from being formed together as a

house and dwelling for God to a priesthood. He's saying,

in Christ, now all believers are priests. Like it says

in Revelation, John writes in Revelation chapter one, he says,

to him who loves us and has freed us from

our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom,

priests to his God and father. So who's John talking about?

He's talking about all believers as priests. Who's Peter talking about?

He's talking about all believers as priests. So now all

believers are priests in the ultimate priest, Jesus Christ. And

we offer spiritual sacrifices through the ultimate sacrifice, Christ's work.

You say, okay, all right, so I'm a priest and

I'm offering sacrifices. What's the nature of a sacrifice of

this sort? Well, first of all, it's to God. What

we do is, In offering these sacrifices, and we'll get

a little bit more nitty gritty on that, but just

from the top, it's to God. That's always the nature

of sacrifice in the Bible. It's meant to be to God.

It's not just some exercise that we go through ourselves.

It's not simply a communal thing. It is first and foremost,

it is an act of worship to God. As it

says in Hebrews 13, offer up sacrifice of praise. But also,

it's serving others. That is always connected to what the

New Testament describes as our sacrifices. Let me just come

back to that Hebrews 13 verse that I just quoted.

Offer up a sacrifice of praise to God and sacrifice.

Do not neglect to do good and to share what

you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. So

it's to God for others. To the Lord. for his

bride and I'll just say even though it probably goes

without saying not only is it to God and for

others it's Sacrificial. That is also the nature of a

sacrifice is it's sacrificial. We kind of skip that sometimes.

That's always the nature of sacrifice is that it is

in fact sacrificial, but it always leads to joy. Throughout

all of the pages of Scripture, sacrifices to God were

the path to real joy. There's no sense in us

gritting our teeth over the sacrifices we're called to when

we know on the other side of it is actual happiness.

He's not calling you away from blessing with your sacrifices.

What do these things look like? Well, it For instance,

you have in Philippians chapter four, Paul receives a financial contribution, right?

It's for serving him. And he says, I received a

fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God, right?

It was financial for him. It was financial for the

church that he was serving and it was to God.

Or Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 says, present your

Romans 12 · chapter mention Romans 12 · chapter mention

bodies as living sacrifices, right? holy and pleasing to God.

And then he goes on to say, in order to

serve the body. So in other words, we offer our bodies,

we offer our bodies to serve the body. And we

do it in all kinds of different ways, he says.

You've all been received gifts that you're to use towards

the body, whether it's leadership or teaching or exhorting or

so many other ways he goes through. So not only

are we being fitted together, Like a house. We're all active.

Not passive. We're a holy priesthood offering sacrifices. It's kind

of like the main takeaway here.

We're active.

We're not spectators. We're the priests. You say, you know,

when I come to church, Josh, you seem very active.

And that would be true. That would be true. But

it would be a huge mistake. It would be a

huge mistake to think that sort of pastors are the

players on the field. And then we attend church as

sort of like a spectator sport. And even though we

enjoy it, you know, somebody else is actually playing the game.

That is the opposite of what scripture says about us

as a church. Rather, we are all active. We are

all a holy priesthood. You're the players. The angels are

the spectators. You're in the game. I have kind of

a special role as a pastor. I'm the coach. See

the headset? But that's exactly how Ephesians speaks of these

offices in the church. That a pastor is then called

to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

You're on the field. We, not a one of us. Oh, thanks, brother.

Is that obvious? Thank you. I appreciate that. His message

is deep down in me. You say, I don't know

how to play this game. You know, get on the field.

What are you talking about?

I don't know how to play.

That's okay. You got a jersey, get on the field.

We'll figure it out as we go. I'll coach you.

That's how an I-9 sports works. How do we work

this into the fabric of our understanding? How do we

work this? Because there's so many things pulling us away

from a different, towards a different understanding of who we are,

what we are, and what we do. I think we

gotta align our understanding of what church life is, right?

Church life is a matter of being, not going. Church

life is a matter of belonging, not just attending. This

is a family meal. And Sunday's wonderful, but like Richard says,

Sunday's isn't even the best part. It's important, right? Having

family dinner together is important and it might help us

understand a few things and enjoy one another, but a

family meal is what this is. It's not a restaurant.

And in so many ways, contemporary church culture has tried

to polish the meal so that people come and they say, well,

this is a nice restaurant. I think I'll keep coming.

And then when you hand them dirty dishes, they're like, what?

But that's what we're called to. It's no surprise at

a family meal that you jump in and do part

of the cooking and do the dishes and we'll whistle

while we work and we'll enjoy ourselves. But that's what

this is. That's what the church life is. We need

to align our understanding of our gifts that God has

given us, each of us, gifts to serve God. The body,

to serve the body. It's beautiful that he has given

every single one of us in different ways and at

different times, ways to serve the body to his glory.

And when we do that, it's important. The Corinthians definitely

got this wrong. They wanted their gifts to showcase themselves, right?

They're like, I've got a gift from God. I want

everybody to see it. And Paul's like, no, no, no.

That's not what this is for. The point of what

God has given you to serve the body is so

that it can be expressed in love, not showcase. Align

our understanding of church life, align our understanding of gifts,

and again, just align our understanding of sacrifice, right? It's

for them, it's to God, and it's where joy will

be found Like, it's where joy will be found. Every

time we're called to sacrifice, yes, it is in fact sacrificial,

but God is not calling you away from blessing. He's

calling you into blessing. It's kind of like going to

the gym. Nobody ever said, man, I regret that workout.

Nobody ever says, man, I regret sacrificing for my brothers

and sisters. So how are we gonna work the Bible's

understanding of us into our thinking, into the very fabric

of our thinking? We gotta understand what we are, we're

a house. We gotta understand what we do, offer spiritual sacrifices.

And then lastly, this question. How does this work? How

does this work? What has everything to do With the cornerstone.

It says in verse four, as you come to him,

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 you

come to him. What does that mean? It means God

is making this house. That's how this works. God is

making this house. And Christ is the cornerstone. He's the

foundation of the foundation. That's what a cornerstone is. It's

the foundation of the foundation. It is the rock that

sets the line for everything else that happens on that

foundation and in that house. So he's, get this, he's

fitting these relationships between us By way of our relationship

with Christ. Well, how though?

How does that work though?

Well, the emphasis here is on this idea of believing, right? Rejecting, right? Disbelieving,

rejecting Christ. The stone or receiving, believing, coming to the cornerstone,

being aligned with. So you can see that believing is

more than just assenting to, okay, I think there was

a guy named Jesus one time or that he died

or that he rose. Actually, believing is God aligning you

with who Jesus is and what he has done he

is the aligning power of our house by faith by

believing and god is at work in our believing He's

at work in our believing, aligning us with what he

says about all kinds of things. For instance, God uses

this to align us with who he says you are.

Who he says you are. Because if Christ is the

foundation of the foundation for us and for you, then

who you are, your identity, is not, for example, your ethnicity.

It's not your ethnicity. It's not your nationality. It's not

where you come from. It doesn't erase it, right? Every tribe, tongue,

and nation will surround the throne. It doesn't erase tribe, tongue,

and nation, but there's something way more foundational underneath who

I am ethnically. There's something way more foundational that's underneath

who I am professionally. Something way more foundational underneath who

I am In regards to my political views. Or my

socioeconomic strata. That we so often mistake as our identity.

But in Christ. He. is the foundation of our foundation.

And that means that he is fitting you together with

stones that come from lots of different places and have

lots of different levels of money and have lots of

different work, may even have different political views because your

identity is in him and everything gets built around that.

God is at work in our believing, aligning you with

who you are and what God says is precious, actually.

You notice in verse 4 and 6. The repeating that

this cornerstone is chosen and precious.

Jesus is precious.

This is what God says about him. And the question is,

as you're in your believing, do you come to a

greater and greater grasp of the preciousness of Christ? As

your gentle shepherd, as your wise king, as the lover

of your soul. He is the most precious above all

things that I could imagine in my life. I've only

begun to see his preciousness for what it really is.

And his rejection that we see here, his sacrifice was

for me. That makes him even more precious. not only

in who he is, but also what he's done for

me and not only for me, but also for all

of those who would come to him. So if you're

here as someone who doesn't believe, let me just tell you,

as you hear about what God is constructing, just know

you don't earn your way into this house. You don't

merit your way into this priesthood. Christ has paid all

of the price. He is the ultimate priest and he

is the ultimate stone and he has made the ultimate sacrifice.

Just being in him admits you into this. Part of

realizing how precious Christ is is by what he's done

for me but Not only for me, not only for me,

also for all who come to him. So to realize

the preciousness of Christ is by extension to realize the

preciousness of his bride, right? You can't hold him precious

and think she's pointless. Right? Husbands, can you imagine? Somebody

invites you to someplace like, hey man, I'd love to

have you come do this thing, but just don't bring

your wife. Just leave your bride. She's like lame. Husbands,

how would you feel about that? By which I mean wives.

You can't hold Christ precious and consider his bride pointless.

God is at work in our believing, aligning you with. Lastly,

this aligning you with what God says you need. He's

aligning you with who he says you are. He's aligning

you with what he says is precious. He's also aligning

you with what he says you need. Did you notice

in verse 10? He says this, once you were not

a people, but now you are God's people. Once you

had not received mercy, now you have received mercy. And

I know that we are quite regular and prominent when

we declare the gospel truth that through Christ you receive mercy.

Praise the Lord, through Christ you receive mercy. What did

I need?

I needed mercy.

And often my fallen human heart will whisper to me,

you don't need mercy. And God's word roars back, you

need mercy more than you thought. Not only did he

win for me mercy, he made us a people. He

won for you a people. Praise the Lord by his grace.

You who were not a people have been made his people,

a people together. And our fallen human hearts say just

as loudly that we don't need mercy. We say just

as loudly, I don't need a people. And God's word

comes roaring back. You need a people just as much

as you need my mercy. Amen. He's aligning us. Who

he says we are, what he says is precious, what

he says we need. How does all this work? It's

as we come to him. Cornerstone. This is how we

move towards our potential. working this understanding into the fabric

of our thinking that we are called to be and

called to do something far more communal and far more

collective than is commonly thought. Spiritual house. Yeah, there's chipping

and forming and tapping. It's so beautiful. Spiritual sacrifices. Yes,

they're sacrifices, but it's the path to joy. and aligning

with the cornerstone, embracing that he is one for you,

mercy and a people. Does this sound like a challenging

way to think about us? Probably. But you'd have to

admit that we're far from the glorious potential we see

here when we approach these things as just individual random Christians.

We're far from this. Challenging as these thoughts may be,

we're far from this if we're just a pile of rocks.

Let's pray. Lord, we ask right now that you would

work into our understanding these things. That you would, with

these challenges, Lord, with these challenges, you would also give

us the insight and the wisdom and the energy and

the courage. So often it takes courage to live as

those who are being fitted together, to live as this

active priesthood. Lord, we ask that you would work that

in us as we come to him, the cornerstone. We

ask it in Jesus' name.