WEBVTT 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:01.600 Hello, friends. 00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:02.879 This is Pastor Creighton. 00:00:02.959 --> 00:00:06.160 Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:13.359 At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:18.800 You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca. 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:26.559 The second lesson is taken from 1 Peter, starting in the first second chapter, the first verse. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:32.079 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:38.880 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:42.159 If indeed you have tasted that, the Lord is good. 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:58.399 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. 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:08.719 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. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:19.680 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 of rock of offense. 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:24.079 They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:36.640 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. 00:01:36.879 --> 00:01:40.480 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:45.040 Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:53.680 Beloved, I urge you, as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. 00:01:54.719 --> 00:02:04.719 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. 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:06.079 The word of the Lord. 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:56.639 We believe that if we need, if we want to know the grace of the Father, the goodness and mercy of the Father, we have only to go to you. 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:00.560 So we pray, Lord, would you meet us by the power of your Holy Spirit? 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:05.919 Would you draw us nearer to yourself through your word at your table? 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:12.400 Would we know how good you are, your greatness, your mercy, the work of your word in our lives? 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:14.560 Sanctify this word to us, Lord. 00:03:14.719 --> 00:03:16.879 We pray in your precious name. 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:17.680 Amen. 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:19.840 Please be seated. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:34.800 Well, years ago when I was a uh ministry intern, I worked with a uh, I guess one one rung up from intern, but not quite a pastor yet. 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:35.840 What would you call that? 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:37.039 Intern plus? 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:38.080 I don't know. 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:40.159 I guess we're calling it a curate. 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:41.280 No, that's not true. 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:44.719 Um but uh a super intern. 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:46.240 I like that, the mega intern. 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:55.680 So um so anyway, so here I am, kind of the junior most of the intern team, and um and and I'm working, I'm sharing an office with with this fellow. 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:56.960 I'll I'll call him Kay. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:03.199 And Kay is just one of the most sort of serene, godly men that I've I've I've ever met. 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:07.280 You know, you just meet those people who just kind of exude that piece of Christ, right? 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:10.800 And Kay was one of those people, so I really enjoyed talking to him. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.599 He made a real impression on me when I was when I was younger. 00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:19.360 And we're talking in the office one day, and just off-handedly, I forget what we were talking about, but he goes, Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:21.839 You know, I remember that when I was in prison. 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:24.319 And I kind of go, Pardon me? 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.079 Like, that's what? 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:32.560 And uh, you know, and and that led to you know, his sharing a story that I didn't know, his larger story. 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:40.480 Before he was the the K that I know, he was uh he was he was in prison for gang violence. 00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:50.639 Like this is a guy who went around committing acts of violence on the street, and he says, my life was just absolutely going into the drain. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:53.920 Like, in every way conceivable. 00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:56.639 And he's and so I said, like, what happened? 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:02.160 He goes, Well, I I go to jail, and that's where I met Jesus, and everything else followed. 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:16.800 You know, we do meet those people from time to time who seem to encounter the power of Christ, the power of the word, in such a way that you see it change their whole life. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:24.560 I mean, this man is not the man he was, and so too is the power of the word at work in our own lives. 00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:33.439 You know, maybe we didn't get saved from a life of gang violence, but the word is at work in our hearts just like it was at work in his heart. 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:39.759 So here we are in 1 Peter chapter 1, pardon me, 1 Peter chapter 2. 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:41.759 We've been going through 1 Peter. 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:43.680 We're kind of backtracking a little bit. 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:53.519 Last week we had a uh reading that pertained especially to Good Shepherd Sunday, so we get to sort of fill in the blanks between uh where we were and where we are. 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:58.879 So here we are, we're in 1 Peter chapter 2 for the first uh couple of verses here. 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:01.279 So, what have we been learning from 1 Peter? 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:20.720 1 Peter wants his readers to know that we have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, that we're not just talking about wishful thinking, that we're talking about real, solid hope based on the fact that Jesus, who was crucified, who was dead, is now alive, and that's the hope of our own eternal life. 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:23.120 That's the hope of our own resurrection. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:28.560 We've got we've got solid ground to have actual, real hope. 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:34.319 And then Peter goes on to exhort us set your hope on Jesus Christ. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:42.399 Set your hope on his day of revelation when he comes again to make all things new, to raise us up to eternal life. 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:47.600 Conduct yourself with a reverent fear and a real love towards one another. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:55.040 It's this hope that should change the actions and the course of our whole life because we're we're set on this hope. 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:57.120 We're set on this living hope. 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:05.839 Love one another earnestly, Peter says, chapter 1, verse 22, because you are born again by the word of God. 00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:12.240 Peter describes this word as an eternal word, an unchanging word, a powerful word. 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:17.839 The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:25.680 The fact is we've been we've been born again through the power of this word, this living and abiding word, which Peter calls it. 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:30.160 This, and this word, Peter says, is the good news that was preached to you. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:33.439 We are talking about the hope of the gospel here. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:38.079 A life-changing hope, a living and abiding hope. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:42.240 So, where does that leave us? 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:51.040 The question we might want to ask is: what is the living and abiding Word of God doing in our lives in real time? 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:56.720 Is this just a sort of hope that is kind of far off, pie in the sky type of stuff? 00:07:56.879 --> 00:07:59.040 One day we'll get there, and that'll be nice. 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:01.040 I don't think Peter thinks that. 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:06.800 He wants us to know that the word is active in our lives, in our hearts presently. 00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:14.959 And to do that, Peter says, Peter wants us to see three things about how God's word is at work in our lives. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:24.720 By God's word, Peter wants us to know in chapter two, we are we are grown up, we are built up, and we are called up. 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:28.160 What's the living and abiding word doing in real time? 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:33.039 By God's word, we are grown up, built up, and called up. 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:34.639 Up and up and up. 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:40.639 So here we are, the word of God at work in us and upon us. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:45.200 This is just as true for us, new song, as it was for Peter's first audience. 00:08:45.440 --> 00:09:02.320 If we want to recognize the word of God at work amongst us, in our own hearts individually, and as a uh a shared life of this congregation, then we have to look for how the word is at work growing us up, building us up, and calling us up. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:04.639 By God's word we are grown up. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:08.000 Let's look at uh 1 Peter chapter 2. 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:10.799 Let's look at the first three verses here. 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:15.039 Pull out your Bible or your order of service and have a look at me here. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:16.559 Look with me here. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.120 Don't I mean you can look at me, I guess, but anyway. 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:26.720 So put away all malice, Peter writes, and all deceit and all hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:38.960 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. 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:43.279 Long for pure spiritual milk, Peter says. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:51.440 Paul uses the phrase something similar to spiritual milk in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, more as an indictment against the Corinthians. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:56.159 Like I want to give you, you know, real meat to eat, but instead I had to just kind of give you milk. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:58.480 That's that's not the same thing that Peter's doing here. 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:01.519 In fact, Peter's saying you should long for this milk. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:12.080 We don't long for meat at the expense of milk, I guess, but what Peter's saying is this is the most fundamental, foundational, most essential nourishment for your soul. 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:14.240 Long for this kind of milk. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:20.080 Just like an infant longs for the milk of its mother, you you should long for this kind of nourishment. 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:21.919 So, what is this kind of nourishment? 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:24.240 What's the spiritual milk that Peter's talking about? 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:26.000 This is what's really interesting for me. 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:30.960 The Greek word here is uh the Greek word that's related to the word word. 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:38.000 It's uh uh logos, it's related to logos, which is a very familiar word to those of us who tracked through the Gospel of John. 00:10:38.159 --> 00:10:42.480 In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:53.279 That's the word logos, and it shows up here as an adjective to describe the sort of spiritual milk, the logos milk that we're supposed to long for. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:11:01.039 And if we know that the logos, the word of God made flesh is Jesus, then in a way Peter's saying, long for Jesus juice. 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:07.279 And I know that's a weird way to phrase it, but that's the way I've been phrasing it in my head all week, and I can't think of a better one. 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:22.879 It's like long for the most essential nourishment you can that will build you up in the spiritual life, and there is no more essential nourishment than Jesus Himself, giving himself for us, abiding and living in us. 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:28.559 That by this milk you may grow up into salvation is what Peter says. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.360 There's a purpose for this sort of nourishment. 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:34.320 It's to grow up, it's to be made stronger. 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:36.720 And it's an interesting turn of phrase, isn't it? 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:39.440 That by it you may grow up into salvation. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:42.480 We might want to say, well, Peter, I thought I was saved. 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:45.759 In what sense am I growing up into salvation? 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:48.000 Was I saved or will I be saved? 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:52.000 And again, I think Peter would say, Well, yeah, yes, you are. 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:54.879 In one sense, we are saved. 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:58.080 In a sense that we talk about justification. 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:04.399 You know, by the uh by faith in God we have uh being justified. 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:06.320 Pardon me, Romans 5, 1. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:07.440 Someone get it. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:09.600 I'm blanking. 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:18.000 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:18.799 Beautiful. 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:20.799 We have peace with God. 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:21.919 Past tense. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:27.360 That's secured, and now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:28.960 So we can count on that fact. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:32.000 We are saved, and we are being saved. 00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:40.320 It's a present tense verb, and this is what Paul talks about in Philippians chapter 2 when he tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:50.080 We are saved and we are being saved at the same time, justified and sanctified, this ongoing process of being conformed to God's character and holiness. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:55.360 Both of these things are like two rails on the track moving the train of salvation forward, right? 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:57.039 And we need to hold on to both. 00:12:57.200 --> 00:12:57.919 Does that make sense? 00:12:58.080 --> 00:12:59.440 We're tracking with that. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:00.320 Okay. 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:07.360 Back in the 90s, there was this uh ad campaign for Gatorade, you probably remember it. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:09.440 And it went something like, Is it in you? 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:17.360 And it would show all these athletic feats and incredible things that Michael Jordan's doing, and they'd be sweating this weird, like fluorescent, glowing sweat. 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:25.759 And the idea is that Gatorade makes the difference between sort of, you know, I don't know, your average performance and your exceptional performance. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:31.679 It's like, absorb this, and you're going to do greater things than you ever could imagine doing. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:38.000 Maybe I just didn't drink enough Gatorade to perform those sorts of things when I was younger, but but here we are. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:45.440 The question Peter might want to ask us is this kind of spiritual milk we're talking about, is it in you? 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:47.519 Is it at work in you? 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:56.000 Can you see evidence and fruit of this justifying, sanctifying work of God at work in our own hearts and our own lives? 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:02.399 See, it's by the word that we are saved, it's by the word we're being saved. 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:06.240 And so Peter tells us to long for this sort of milk. 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:09.039 It should be something that our hearts are drawn towards. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:16.480 It should be something that we we crave more of because we recognize just how significant this is. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:24.559 I mean, these ads for Gatorade are silly, but they're meant to make athletes crave for this sort of stuff when they need it the most. 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:27.919 Do we crave spiritual milk when we need it the most? 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:33.039 Do we crave to grow up into the salvation that Peter's describing here? 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:40.000 Set your hope fully on the grace of God which will be revealed to you in the day of Jesus Christ. 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:43.039 So, how do we long for this sort of milk? 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:48.799 I think Peter would have us set our focus on the day of Christ's revelation. 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:50.720 He's talked about that in chapter one. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:55.840 That day where Christ returns in glory to establish his kingdom forever. 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:59.120 Talk about being too heavenly minded that we're no earthly good. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:00.799 I think the opposite is true. 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:08.240 We have our minds set on the end of the story, our reunion and our full union with the living and abiding Jesus. 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:12.960 That presently we can't help but long for Christ right now. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:17.840 We won't long for Christ in the present if we're not longing for him ultimately. 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:19.440 Does that make sense? 00:15:19.840 --> 00:15:29.600 If we keep our eyes set on what Peter tells us to set our hope on, then we can't help but long to be nourished by Jesus in the present. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:32.240 And Jesus does nourish us. 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.720 This word for spiritual is the word word. 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:38.480 And it's true that the word points us right here to Scripture. 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:45.919 I mean, we have four Scripture readings per service to say that this word that God gives us matters. 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:47.360 It nourishes us. 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:54.960 We're not just doing it to do it, we're doing it because this is the word of life for us who are being called to his salvation. 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.120 So we draw near to it. 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:04.559 I think the word we go to, we go to in scripture and we encounter God's saving promises, illumined by the Holy Spirit. 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:08.559 But I think Peter's understanding of word is even bigger than just the Bible itself. 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:12.879 Bear in mind that the New Testament hasn't been written at this point, he's writing it himself. 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:15.200 I think Peter has that. 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:20.320 What he has in mind is the essential message of what Christ has accomplished on the cross. 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:22.480 He has paid the penalty for our sin. 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:29.519 We are fully justified in him, and now we have a living hope for our own eternal life, our own resurrection in him. 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:40.240 Whatever it is that seals and signs that message to our hearts, that for us is the living and abiding word, the word at work in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:44.399 So, friends, we come to the Word, but we come to the table for this same sort of thing. 00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:48.240 If we think we make a big deal of the Word, we also make a big deal at the table, don't we? 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:49.919 We come to it week after week. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:54.799 And we come to it because this is for us our spiritual nourishment. 00:16:54.960 --> 00:17:01.279 This is the sign and seal of Christ's promise, of God's promise in Christ for us. 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:05.039 We're not just reading about promises and wondering if they apply to us. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:08.640 We come to the table and hear, this is my body broken for you. 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:11.119 This is my bloodshed for you. 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:15.920 This is the sign and seal of God's word at work in our lives. 00:17:16.079 --> 00:17:23.200 So we long for spiritual nourishment, and that should bring us both to Scripture, and it should bring us to his table. 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:26.640 This is where God has chosen to nourish us. 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:28.559 Okay, we're tracking here. 00:17:28.799 --> 00:17:33.440 The words at work in our lives, growing us, building us up into maturity. 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:36.480 The words also at work building us up. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:38.559 By the word, we are built up. 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:41.200 Let's look at verses four and five to begin with. 00:17:41.359 --> 00:18:01.200 As you, that's plural, 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. 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:07.839 Okay, so here we have a living stone identified, and we know that that's Jesus. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:16.880 But what's interesting is Peter goes on to say that you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house. 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:22.240 It's like we're being held together by the cornerstone that Peter identifies here, right? 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:28.079 Paul says something similar in Ephesians chapter 2. 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:31.119 Here's what's interesting about this word stone. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:38.160 Peter's pulling on something that a root that goes pretty deep, and at first reading we might not catch it. 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:44.640 Peter's also writing to an audience that's very, very familiar with the Old Testament scriptures written in Hebrew, right? 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:50.720 So this word for stone, in English, like in Hebrew, is very similar to the word uh sun. 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:51.839 Right? 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:55.680 There's a couple of letters difference in English as it is in Hebrew. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:58.400 So immediately folks are thinking two things. 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:07.359 They're thinking, okay, well, the stones, we're talking about a living temple, we can envision the stones that build up the temple in Jerusalem, God's meeting place with his people there. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:20.880 But this word stone starts to get associated over time with this Davidic promise that God is going to, he is going to bring forward an offspring, a son of David, who will reign on the throne forever and ever. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:25.119 So this word stone starts to become something very, very important for God's people. 00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:33.279 It represents where God meets with his people, and it represents the fulfillment of God's promise to reign in the midst of his people. 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:34.240 You're tracking? 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:35.519 You following me? 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:38.960 That's a big deal when Peter talks about being stones. 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:42.880 He's not just pulling an image out of nowhere. 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:50.960 He's talking about what it means to be caught up in the reality of God's presence among us and God's reign amongst us. 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:56.000 All of this, Peter understands, is fulfilled in Jesus. 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:01.279 Remember, Jesus points at the temple and he says, Destroy this temple and I'll raise it up in three days. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:06.000 And the narrator interjects to say what he was really talking about was the temple of his body. 00:20:06.240 --> 00:20:13.839 Well, now for us new covenant believers, we don't go to a location to experience God's presence amongst his people to see that made manifest. 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:15.359 No, we go to a person. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:17.200 That person is Jesus. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:23.039 But not only is Jesus the temple, but he draws us up as if we're stones building up this temple together. 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:26.079 When we gather as a church body, it matters. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:34.960 Because we each of us are a stone that builds up this local temple, this local manifestation of God's presence, of his word at work amongst us. 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:37.279 We need to represent that to one another. 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:42.000 We need to represent that together in a way that we can't represent it on our own. 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:42.960 See what I mean? 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:53.839 We're being built up as living stones, all pointing towards the one who's fulfilled all of God's promises, Jesus, the living stone. 00:20:54.799 --> 00:21:00.799 But all this comes with something of a warning in verses six to eight. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:07.680 If Jesus is holding everything together, then it's very costly indeed to reject that living stone. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:16.960 It stands in Scripture, Peter says, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:29.599 He says, So the honor is for you who believe, church, 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. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:35.440 They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:43.119 So if the living stone, the cornerstone, holds the whole structure together, it's disastrous to reject that stone. 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:50.000 To see it as an optional extra, let's put it that way. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:57.680 You know, when we were moving back from uh Texas to Ottawa, uh we hitched our car to our U Haul. 00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:01.759 It was the first time hitching the car to Anything for me, so I was terribly nervous. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:06.079 I'm just an anxious person generally, but especially around moves, right? 00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:07.279 I get I get nervous. 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:14.319 So here we are, kind of hitching our uh our Toyota Camry to the U-Haul truck that we're driving. 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:18.160 And I remember watching the U-Haul guys, give me a hand, you know. 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:20.240 We we sort of drive the front wheels up. 00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:20.960 What do you call that? 00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:22.000 The trolley or whatever? 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:25.839 The dolly after so we we drive that up, and then he takes this huge chain, right? 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:28.720 And what he starts doing is just wrapping it around the frame of the car. 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:31.279 And I know nothing about cars. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:40.079 But I'm looking at this chain and I'm looking at the size of the U-Haul, and I'm thinking about the the speed at which we're gonna travel, and I'm thinking this thing's gonna tear our car apart. 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:42.880 Like it's gonna rip the frame right off, surely, right? 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:47.039 So I'm asking this guy, pestering this guy, with all these questions, like, are you really sure this is safe? 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:49.519 And he's looking at me like, what is your problem? 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:52.319 Like, he's done this a million times, right? 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:57.200 The idea is if this frame is solid, then this thing cannot come apart. 00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:01.279 And I have so underestimated how solid this frame was. 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:06.799 But if we pull the frame out of the car, maybe it's just like a, it might look just as pristine. 00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:11.200 Our camera did not look pristine, but maybe the car looks fine from the outside. 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:13.920 We can envision a car that's been glued together, maybe. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:16.799 But the second you take it on the road, that thing's gonna fall apart. 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:21.440 The second you try and fulfill the purpose for which the car is made, it all comes apart. 00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:23.039 This is what Peter's saying. 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:24.480 There's no middle ground here. 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:33.200 Either Jesus is the living stone on which everything else is built and it all holds together, or you pull that frame out and the whole thing seems to fall apart. 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:36.240 So the question is, who is Jesus for us? 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:39.119 As individuals, as a congregation? 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:42.960 Is he sort of a nice thing that we do on Sundays? 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:47.200 Or is he the frame that binds our whole life together? 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:55.759 That's why Jesus, or pardon me, that's why Peter says to the congregation, he says, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men. 00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:01.119 It's like Peter's assuming that that's what we're doing on an ongoing basis, because by the way, that's the verb here. 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:02.880 It's not a one-and-done sort of thing. 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:05.680 Yeah, yeah, I came to Jesus at summer camp when I was ten. 00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:11.359 No, as you come to him is an ongoing imperative. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:17.920 It's something Christians do regularly, daily, engaging in a personal relationship with Jesus. 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:20.480 It's a real conversion of sorts. 00:24:20.640 --> 00:24:23.440 Conversion is not a one-and-done sort of deal. 00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:27.519 There might be a remarkable conversion, like my friend Kay. 00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:30.319 It happened, and now my life is different. 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:35.759 But that doesn't mean that we don't convert our hearts back to Christ every time we come to him, right? 00:24:36.160 --> 00:24:41.279 There's this story, it might be apocryphal, but it portrays the point anyway. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:55.920 Uh, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this great German pastor in the early part of the last century, he comes, travels to America, and he's getting interviewed by all sorts of American evangelicals with you know just just very different like ways of thinking. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:24:58.160 Just Germans have a different way of thinking, right? 00:24:58.319 --> 00:25:01.279 And so here they are trying to make sense of one another. 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:07.920 And there is a strong emphasis for American evangelicals, and rightly so, on conversion. 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:22.400 But the question being asked, so he he gets in front of this press conference or whatever it was, and one of the prominent American evangelical thinkers of the time gets up to ask him a question, but the question's a little disingenuous. 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:26.799 He asks Bonhoeffer, um, When were you converted? 00:25:27.279 --> 00:25:28.799 And that's a fair question. 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:31.279 Maybe we ask that question, like, can you tell me your story? 00:25:31.359 --> 00:25:35.440 But Bonhoeffer sort of gets the sense that there's more going on in this question. 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:37.519 The question's really, are you one of us? 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:41.039 Have you experienced conversion like we've experienced conversion? 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:44.319 And so Bonhoeffer, you know, he's German, but he's thoughtful, right? 00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:46.240 Well, he's German, so he's thoughtful. 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:52.960 But um so he takes a moment and he says, so so the question is, when were you converted? 00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:54.720 And he says, Well, I hope every day. 00:25:56.240 --> 00:25:56.720 Right? 00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:58.559 I hope that story's true. 00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:01.279 Even if it's not, it portrays the point, doesn't it? 00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:12.319 We're converted every day whenever we come to him on an ongoing basis because we need to be nourished by Jesus, to grow up in him, to be built up in him. 00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:33.440 If we're not coming to him regularly and engaging our hearts in that personal relationship, giving all of the wayward desires and chaos and cross currents of our hearts back over to him in trust and in adoration, then how can we expect him to be the one who holds our whole life together? 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:35.279 But the opposite's also true. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:39.519 If we keep coming to him, we will find Jesus holds our life together. 00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:49.440 It doesn't mean it's an easy thing, it doesn't mean we'll get everything we always wanted, but we will know the peace of Christ, even in the midst of the storm, that holds it all together. 00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:52.960 Don't mean to labor the point, but I think we see it here, right? 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:58.079 The word at work in our lives and our hearts is growing us up, it is building us up. 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:01.759 And finally, Peter wants us to understand it calls us up. 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:05.279 Let's look at verses 9 and 10. 00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:20.960 You, Peter says, to the church, 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. 00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:24.960 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. 00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:30.480 Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:33.599 We are called up. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:39.359 One of my least favorite uh memories of grade school, I think we could I I'll get a lot of sympathy on this one. 00:27:39.440 --> 00:27:43.680 So one of my least favorite memories is recess, and we're playing kickball or we're playing whatever it is. 00:27:43.759 --> 00:27:44.400 And what do you do? 00:27:44.559 --> 00:27:47.359 Two team captains, who are always the same team captains. 00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:49.279 Why are they always the same team captains? 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:51.680 Anyway, but they get up and they're gonna choose their team. 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:55.519 So you line up and they start calling one after one, one after the other, right? 00:27:55.680 --> 00:28:01.200 And of course, my experience, because I've got two left feet, was generally I wasn't called first, let's put it that way. 00:28:01.440 --> 00:28:06.559 You might be surprised given my Olympian frame, but I wasn't really an athlete back in the day. 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:12.559 And so we know the sinking feeling it is to sort of be passed over, isn't it? 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:15.519 To to be overlooked. 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:24.000 The remarkable thing, what's happening here is that Jesus is calling us to himself as his prized possession. 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:33.599 Not like being called out in sports because we're the very best and we have the most to offer the team, but by God's overwhelming grace, he desires us for himself. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:40.880 Wherever we are, whatever our story is, wherever we're coming from, God desires you for himself. 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:42.960 So he's calling you up. 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:51.119 This is who Jesus is, calling us from darkness, from dispossession, from being without mercy into his marvelous light. 00:28:51.359 --> 00:29:01.839 And now we're made this chosen race, this uh his own possession, this wonderful identity we've received as his prized possession in Christ. 00:29:02.079 --> 00:29:04.240 This is who we are, church. 00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:06.960 We are his prized possession. 00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:17.039 And Peter's quoting here from Exodus 19 to say that the church is fulfilling this promise that God has made to his people Israel. 00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:21.759 We are the inheritors of a great promise. 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:23.440 We have a living hope. 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:29.680 We are a new people who've received mercy, who've received an identity all in Christ. 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:41.759 Jews and Gentiles alike, sinners and saints alike, we are all being called to him because he loves us, because he lavishes his grace upon us. 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:52.480 And because this makes us who we are, his treasured people, we're called to action that, to live that out. 00:29:52.720 --> 00:30:00.400 Verse 11 I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. 00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:12.480 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, Peter says, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation, on the day of Christ's return. 00:30:12.720 --> 00:30:28.480 In other words, if you are if you belong to God in Christ, you have been called to him, and you have said yes, and your heart is converted on that day-to-day basis, you belong to him, and in some way that means you don't belong to the world. 00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:30.640 There's a discontinuity there. 00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:40.880 He's calling you to himself, yes, for the sake of the world, but there is a sense in which we belong uniquely to Jesus, and everything else follows that. 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:46.559 That's the most foundational thing that can be true of our identity in Christ. 00:30:46.799 --> 00:30:49.279 And so we are sojourners and exiles. 00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:55.440 To some degree, we will not find this world as it exists now our home completely. 00:30:55.599 --> 00:31:00.799 We long for that day when Christ will return and the kingdom will be fully realized. 00:31:01.039 --> 00:31:16.559 But for now, in the tossing and turning of this present life, we abstain from the passions of the flesh, these sinful desires, the things we desire more than God and Christ Himself, that bring us spiritual harm. 00:31:17.119 --> 00:31:24.000 We set them aside in trust, and we long for the true nourishment that comes only from Christ. 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:26.960 So, saints, this is who we are. 00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:28.960 This is the word at work in us. 00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:37.680 As individuals in our hearts, as a as a congregation, we are being grown up by the power of the word, nourished through Christ. 00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:43.680 We are being built up, held together, as it were, by Christ, our living cornerstone. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:50.640 And we are being called up, given this identity as his prized possession, his people to bless the world. 00:31:50.720 --> 00:31:56.240 A new song, we've been given this unique sliver of the world and called to bless it. 00:31:56.400 --> 00:31:58.720 This sliver we call Port Perry. 00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:03.279 This is true for us, just like it was true for my friend Kay. 00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:06.960 He encounters Christ and the rest of his life changes. 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:10.240 Doesn't mean he doesn't have his struggles, he certainly does. 00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:13.200 But Jesus has made all the difference. 00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:17.440 He has grown him up, built him up, and called him up. 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:22.079 And now he serves as this pastor, proclaiming Jesus to others. 00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:24.400 We don't have to be pastors to do that. 00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:33.519 But we're called into his marvelous light to shine that light outwards to a world that would otherwise be without mercy, otherwise be without darkness. 00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:35.680 So here we are, saints. 00:32:36.559 --> 00:32:49.039 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. 00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:50.000 Amen. 00:32:51.599 --> 00:32:53.200 Thank you for listening today. 00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:58.880 We worship a generous God who calls us to follow him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially. 00:32:59.039 --> 00:33:05.519 Newsong Church's mission and ministry is one hundred percent funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us. 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:13.279 If you'd like to offer a gift towards Newsong's ministry, please visit Newsongportperry.ca slash giving for more information on how to do that. 00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:16.559 May God bless you and keep you today and every day.