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Introduction
Will you please open your Bible and turn with me to ?
I have entitled this message “The Church’s Identity and Call” as we are going to be considering verses 4-10 of .
As you have your Bible opened, please read along with me as I read .
Read .
Pray.
A couple of months ago I was listening to a podcast where the host of this podcast made a very compelling point, at least to me, about one key trait that can be missing in a person and be ultimately detrimental to them.
That trait was self-awareness.
Have you ever met someone who lacks self-awareness?
It may be that they think very highly of their skills in a particular area and completely overestimate their ability, which sadly leads them to failure and shame or blame-shifting.
Or perhaps you know someone that lacks self-awareness in social settings so they’re always saying or doing the wrong thing that is rather humiliating.
Interestingly enough, the person who lacks self-awareness is never the one embarrassed, proving how unaware they really are!
The host of this podcast pointed out how detrimental this lack of self-awareness can be to us.
The stories that he shared, mainly from a negative perspective, convinced me that self-awareness is an important characteristic in a person.
Having heard that podcast and, more importantly, having studied this passage, I believe that a lack of self-awareness does not merely affect us socially or occupationally either, I believe it affects us spiritually.
And I think this is exactly what wants to help us see.
God wants you and I to be self-aware people.
He wants you and I to know our identity and call as Christians so that we can live faithfully in this fallen world.
A lack of self-awareness will hinder us from living faithfully in this fallen world.
As we have seen from this letter already, Christians living in the world find themselves in a precarious position.
We are living among societies that are at war with the God we call Father.
We live among people that despise the Savior we call brother.
We are mocked, persecuted, and ostracized.
Admittedly, it often seems as if we live at a disadvantage in this world.
So, what will keep us pressing forward?
What will sustain our faithfulness to God as we live in the world that opposes him?
Peter tells us in these verses that knowing our identity as God’s people will sustain us as exiles and empower our service to God.
More than we need practical measures for dealing with the hostility around us, what we need is a firm grasp on our identity as God’s people.
What has God done for us?
Who has he made us to be?
And then what is he calling us to do? Knowing your identity as belonging to God will sustain you as an exile and empower your service to Him.
Knowing your true identity as a Christian will give you courage.
It will help you endure.
This morning, we are being helped by God to know who we really are as his people, so take note of what God has made you to be so that you can live faithfully in this sinful, broken, and hostile world.
This passage educates us about identity by putting before us a very clear contrast.
On the one hand we see those who believe, that is, those who have received God’s mercy in Christ and have become his people.
They are people who have believed the gospel: that Jesus Christ is the only righteous one and that in order for us to be accepted by God as righteous, we need Christ’s.
In love, through his death and resurrection, purchased our righteousness.
This is what God’s people believe!
In contrast, on the other hand, we see in verse 7 that there are those who do not believe.
They have rejected Jesus Christ and instead look to another savior, whether that savior be science, another god, or themselves.
This contrast in clear in this passage.
But Peter’s point through this contrast is not to point out the differences between the two, but to give us - the church - a glorious vision of what God has made us to be.
What we see is that God has given us a glorious identity and an incredible purpose.
God Has Given Us a Glorious Identity and an Incredible Purpose
What God has made you to be can be described in many ways, but one of the best descriptions is “glorious.”
Yes, us.
We who find ourselves stumbling over sin, at times unmotivated to devote ourselves to God, suffering and weak - we have a glorious identity.
Earlier Peter told us that the salvation we received is something that angels long to look into, and I believe that this passage helps us understand why.
What God has done for us is simply glorious.
So what has he done?
Well first, he has made us into his own dwelling place.
He has made us his temple.
God has made us into his own dwelling place.
Look at verses 4-5 again
In order to understand our identity, we need to first understand Jesus’ identity.
After all, Christians are people that have been united to Jesus Christ.
This reality, being united to Jesus Christ, is the most important thing about us.
In order to understand our identity we must first understand his!
And so, Peter begins Jesus.
Jesus, Peter tells us, is a living stone.
This metaphor that Peter is using in reference to Christ actually comes from the Old Testament.
Specifically, Peter is thinking about :
Peter uses this verse here because Jesus himself said, in the parable of the tenants, that this verse was speaking about him.
Peter learned that from Jesus.
What’s more, Peter knew that Jesus is not just a stone but that he is a living stone.
He is a stone that, though rejected by men and ultimately put to death on the cross, came to life again through the resurrection.
Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has become the cornerstone.
Peter puts all of this together in Acts 4:
The one that we are united to, that we are mocked for, the one that has set us outside the acceptance of society is a living stone, chose and precious.
Though rejected by men, he was chosen by God as his Son to be the redeemer of his people.
He is precious in God’s eyes - the only eyes that matter.
He is God’s beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased.
And he is the only one by which men must be saved.
Peter gives more assurance to our hope in Christ in verse 6:
Peter is quoting from Isaiah 28.
Hear what Isaiah says:
Hear what Isaiah says:
Isaiah
The context of Isaiah is that Ephraim has disobeyed and failed to believe the Lord, which in turn results in his judgment against them.
Yet, not everyone will experience this judgment.
Those who do trust in the Lord will escape.
So Isaiah is encouraging them to not put their trust in anything other than the Lord.
This cornerstone is precious and it is a sure foundation.
Because this living and precious cornerstone is none other than Jesus Christ.
Jesus is a living stone.
Jesus is the stone that has been laid in Zion.
The cornerstone, the foundational stone upon which all other stones of the building are measures and aligned.
Without the right cornerstone put in place perfectly, all else will go awry.
This is our Lord.
Therefore, as he says in verse 6, “whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Whatever our world does and whatever direction it goes, however difficult things may become for Christians, you will never be put to shame.
Not before God.
Not when it matters most - on the judgment day.
So, this is who we are united to!
And united to him, we too are living stones.
Look again at verse 5:
Though we, like Jesus, may find ourselves at odds with the world that opposes Christ, we also, like Jesus, are living stones.
And we are being made into God’s dwelling place.
Peter says that we are being built up as a spiritual house.
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